faith when it is known to be Gods will and word 38. And Mary said Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word 38. Amen Let thy word come to pass They are the expression of Maries faith and hope 38. And the angel departed from her 39. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill countrey with hast into a city of Judea 40. And entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth 38 39 40. The Angels words made her go see how it was with Elizabeth 41. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the holy Ghost 42. And she spake out with a loud voice and said Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb 43. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me 44. For lo assoon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears the babe leaped in my womb for joy 45. And blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. 41 42 43 44 45. The Holy-Ghost filled her to speak out these word prophetically c. 46. And Mary said My soul doth magnifie the Lord 47. And my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour 48. For he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed 46 47 48. Mary also filled with the Spirit speaks these words of praise to God My Soul c. 48. He hath raised me highest who was one of the lowest 49. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name 50. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation 49 50. Mercy to all that fear God and their posterity is the great name or notification of the most Holy God to man 51. He hath shewed strength with his arm he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts 52. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree 53. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away 51 52 33. He hath shewed that it is he that is Almighty by scattering the proud in their own vain imaginations And by casting down the high and exalting the low And by satisfying the needy and bringing the prosperous to distress 54. He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy 55. As he spake to our fathers and to Abraham and to his seed for ever 54 55. The promises which he made to Abraham and his seed he is now performing in their proper sense for the saving of all the believing seed The mercy which promised it is now performing it 56. And Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house 56. Note It was many months between Maries espousal to Joseph and their marriage 57. Now Elizabeths full time came that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son 58. And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her and they rejoyced with her 57 58. In giving a son to one so old 59. And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father 60. And his mother answered and said Not so but he shall be called John 61. And they said unto her There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name 62. And they made signs to his father how he would have him called 63. And he asked for a writing table and wrote saying His name is John and they marvelled all 59 60 61 62. Note They would have the name keep the memorial of Ancestors 63. By signs 64. And his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loosed and he spake and praised God 65. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were noised abroad thoroughout all the hill-countrey of Judea 66. And all they that had heard them laid them up in their hearts saying What manner of Child shall this be And the hand of the Lord was with him 64 65 66. It raised in all the Countrey great expectations what this Child would prove And God did extraordinarily bless him 67. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvatition for us in the house of his servant David 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began 71. That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us 67 68 69 70 71. Spake by inspiration Note Christ was prophecyed of from the beginning of the World after Adams Fall N. Tho Gods Spirit in him understood just what manner of Saviour Christ would be and what sort of deliverance from enemies he would bring by the destruction of the Jews and calling the Gentiles we know not that Zachary Elizabeth and Mary understood this while they thus prophecyed 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant 73. The oath which he sware to our father Abraham 74. That he would grant unto us that we being delivered our of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear 75. In holyness and righteousness before him all the days of our life 72 73 74 75. That the Messiah delivering us from all our enemies spiritual and corporal we may serve him in safety not terrified by them Note Holiness and Righteousness are the sum of Gods acceptable service Note The chief benefit of deliverance from cruel enemies is that we freely and peaceably serve God 76. And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways 77. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins 76 77. Thou shalt be a Prophet of God to go before Christ to prepare men to receive him by calling them to repentance proclaiming that a Saviour is come to save his people by pardoning their sins 78. Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us 79. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace 78 79. The tender mercy of God having given us from Heaven the sum of heavenly Light to visit us 79. even to them that lived in the darkness of sin and misery and to guide us into the way of life and happiness 80. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the desarts till the day of
his shewing unto Israel 80. And John with his increase of age and strength shewed great strength of the Spirit of God in him and he dwelt in the wilderness or say some in the hill Countrey of Judaea bred up in a life of holiness and mortification till the time that he sett upon his publick ministry of preaching the Kingdom of the Messiah and repentance and baptizing CHAP. II. 1. ANd it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed 2. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria 3. And all went to be taxed every one into his own city 1 2 3. Augustus decreed that all the Empire called the Roman world should be enrolled in their several Families and Cities That he might know the state of his Empire and how to tax them 4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David 5. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife being great with child 4 5. She was now marryed though called espoused 6. And so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered 7. And she brought forth her first-born Son and wrapped him in swadling cloths and laid them in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn 6 7. Note It should be rather in the stables than in the manger Had Joseph been a rich man its like he would have found better room 8. And there were in the same countrey shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night 8. Some one part of the night and some another by turns as is most likely 9. And lo the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid 10. And the angel said unto them Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign unto you ye shall find the babe wrapped in swadling cloths lying a manger 9 10. Glory is Light Christs birth is cause of universal joy 12. stable 13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men 13 14. Note Angels are the heavenly host Note Gods praise and Glory is the end of all his works Note Angels rejoiced at Christs birth and for mans redemption 14. In Christ the Redeemer God will be glorified in Heaven Peace will be made on Earth by this great Reconciler and Gods Love or Benevolence will be towards men Or Glory be to God in the Heavens through the Redeemer and Reconciliation or Peace on Earth to men that are the objects of Gods good will Q. Is it necessary or lawful to keep a day as holy in remembrance of Christs birth Ans 1. If any should appoint a weekly day for it it would be an usurping of the same power that hath already separated a weekly day for it it would be an usurping of the same power that hath already separateh a weekly day for commemorating the work of Redemption though specially for Christs Resurrection And it would seem an accusing Christs Law of insufficiency 2. And if any should make a yearly days observation necessary to the universal Church 1. They would usurp a power not given to any to make Laws for all the Church 2. And they would accuse Christs Law as imperfect But if particular Christians Churches or Countries voluntarily agree to celebrate yearly the memorial of Christs birth it is but what almost all the Churches on earth do and have done at least 1300 years And iâ—â—â—lawful to keep a yearly day of remembrance for aâ—y 〈◊〉 deliverance or mercy to the Church even in an Apâ—â—â—le But if any Christian think that it is an unlawful addition to the institution of the Lords day which Goâ— set a part for our commemorating the whole work of Redemption such shâ—uld not be forced to keep it against their Consciences but must avoid affronting them that do 15. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said one to another Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us 16. And they came with hast and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger 17. And when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child 18. And all they that heard it wondred at those things which were told them by the shephards 19. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart 20 And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them 15 16 17 18. In a Stable 19. Regarded themâ— as tending to what was promised her 20. Angel are not first sent to Princes but to poor Shephards who must preach Christ 21. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child his name was called Jesus who was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb 21. Jesus is a Saviour He was circumcised as bound to keep the Law of Moses not as a seal of pardon of sin to him 22. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 22. To the Priest as in Numb 3.12.46 23. As it is written in the law of the Lord Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord 24. And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord A pair of turtle doves or two young pidgeons 23 24. See Levit. 12.6.8 25 And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the holy Ghost was upon him 26. And it was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ 25. Note The Messiah was much expected at that time Note It is Just and Devout men that God specially favoureth by exâ—raordinary gifts of his Spirit 27. And he came by the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law 28. Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word 30. For mine eyes have seen thy
Flesh and not to hate it so must Men do by their Wives as Christ doth by the Church 30. For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones 30. And as Eve was said to be to Adam Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone so by allusion we may say of the Church and Christ in a spiritual sense 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh 31. And as it was then said A man shall leave c. so must Believers leave all for Christ as Christ laid down his Life for them and they shall be made as one 32. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church 32. This that is said of Adam and Eve and of Marriage did mystically prefigure the Marriage of Jesus Christ and the Church and of this it is that I now speak 33. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband 33. But though I have turned my Speech to Christ and the Church I repeat my Counsel Let every Man love his Wife with such an entire constant and forbearing Love as he loveth himself and let the Wife see that she live in loving Subjection and Reverence to her Husband CHAP. VI. 1. CHildren obey your parents in the Lord for this is right 1. Let Children be obedient to their Parents under God in obedience to him for he hath commanded it 2. Honour thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise 2. Saying Honour thy Father and Mother And though general Promises be intimated in the First and Second Commandment this is the first Commandment that hath annexed the Promise of the Land which God was then leading the Israelites to as it is said 3. That it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth 3. That thou mayst live long and prosper in the Promised Land of Canaan which intimateth also to us Christian Gentiles a Promise of more Prosperity on Earth than disobedient Children shall have and an earthly Curse to the disobedient Note That accordingly Gods Curse on Earth doth usually follow Children that dishonour and wrong their Parents and rebell against them and usually even Earthly Blessings are given to those that honour and obey Parents under God 4. And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 4. And let Parents remember that Childrens corrupt Nature and Weakness are liable to such Passions as may pervert them and therefore let not your sowr and provoking Government and Carriage tempt them hereto beyond their strength but govern them with Fatherly Love and bring them up to the Knowledge and Obedience of the Lord by wise and diligent Teaching Example Admonition and Discipline 5. Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ 5. And let not Servants think that Christianity freeth them from Service or from Obedience Diligence or Reverence to their Masters though they be Unbelievers but give them all due Obedience and reverent Submission and this in conscience and sincerity as part of your Obedience to Christ who doth command it and will reward you 6. Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart 6. Not deceitfully when your Masters see and know what you do meerly to please Men but as the true Servants of Christ with heartiness and in secret things as well as open doing Service to Men in obedience to the Will of God and to please him 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men 7. I repeat it because it greatly concerneth you that you do all your Service faithfully and willingly without grudging and that not as a bare Service to Man but as a part of your Service to the Lord himself which he hath prescribed and will accept 8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free 8. Be sure of this That your lowest and hardest Service being your Duty is a good Work and such Works of Fidelity in the lowest Bond-servants are accepted of God as well as the more honoured Service of the Greatest 9. And ye masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatning knowing that your master also is in heaven neither is there respect of persons with him 9. And you that are Masters see that you be as careful of your Part to your Servants as you would have them be of their Duty to you and rule them not tyrannically by insulting and passionate Menaces and Reproaches Knowing that Christ in Heaven is equally the Lord of them and you and will not be partial to you for your Wealth or Superiority but will equally do Justice unto all 10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might 10. To conclude Behave your selves in the discharge of all your Duties and resistance of all the Temptations of your Warfare as resolved valiant Christians strong in the Faith and Love of Christ by his powerful assisting Grace 11. Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil 11. And with skill and care put on and use the Grace and Helps which God vouchsafeth you which are to a Christian like compleat Armour to a Soldier that you may be able to stand fast against all the Stratagems and Plots of the Devil who seeketh to overthrow you 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places 14. For the great Conflict which Christians are engaged in is not meerly against Men but against Devils who by Gods Ordination and the Success of their Temptations are Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Persons and Ways of Darkness Ignorance and Unbelief in the World and are spiritual Wâ—ckedness above us in the Air. 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand 13. Therefore neglect no part of the Armour afforded you by God but use it all that in the time of Temptation you may be able to resist and conquer the Assaults of Men and Devils and when they have done their worst and you have withstood them you may stand fast in Faith and Holiness and Hope 14. Stand therefore having your loyns girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace 14 15. Stand therefore to your Obligations to Faith and
Educate your Children and to keep them from tempting Company and snares To cry out of dumb or unfaithful Ministers while you are worse at home your selves is but self-condemnation Are Mâ—nâ—stâ—rs more obliged to care for your Childrens Souls by Nature or by Vow and Covenant than you are Can they do that for whole Parishes which you will not do for for one Houshold or your own Children The first Charge and part is yours If Families treacherously neglect their part and then look that all should be done at the Church you may as wisely send Boys to the Universities before they are taught to Read or Write in lower Schools If there be any hope of the amendment of a Wicked Miserable distracted World it must be mostly done by Family-Religion and the Christian Education of youth Godliness is profitable to all things but the Curse of God is in the house of the wicked And the ungodly betrayers of Souls of themselves Children and Servants will very quickly be Summoned to a terrible account Especially those that should as Rulers be Exemplary to the vulgar and are ashamed to own serious Family-Religion as if all beyond some formal Hypocrisie and lip labour were a dishonour to their houses or a needless thing These helps which I offer them that need it is that when they Read the New Testament daily in their Houses they may not read all the Paraphrase to their Families but such particulars of Exposition and Doctrinal Notes as they find most suitable to their case And I think it will not be unuseful to the Younger and Weaker sort of Ministers and the Poor ones that cannot buy larger Commentaries And if Rich Men will give their Tenants and Neighbours such Books as are suitable to the instruction of Families and the People will diligently use them it may do much to keep up saving Knowledge and Practice where the publick Ministry faileth most The God of Mercy Teach Foolish Men to have Mercy on their Families and themselves The Farewel Ne vacua sit pagina TIme and Work end Blest Souls are gone before Consumed Lights may serve to kindle more The dead can speak God can his Lamps restore The Winds that blow them out will quickly cease Hâ—gh Pride rough Passion God can soon appease TRUTH LOVE and CONCORD raise with great increase The WISE PURE PEACEABLE for this hee 'l chuse PROUD-WOLDLINGS RAGING-FOOLS he will refuse And Snuffers not Extinguishers will use Yet Satan will not cease Tares will be sown RULERS and GUIDES hee 'l strive to make his own By STORMS and SCANDALS some will be o'rethrown Diotrephes must Rule Judas be Rich The Ignorant will err young Ears will itch The blind will lead the blind into the Ditch Lord convert Saul Check Jewish rage And Sects which sad Church-Wars do wage Let LIGHT and LOVE PROUD WRATH asswage But those blest Souls who dwell with thee Better things see And better be Than Adam or the Golden Age. ERRATA Reader I cannot gather all the Errata These few I note for thy correction INtrod p. 1. l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. c. 19. v. 19. Par. for ninth r. tenth and for If r. self Luk. for c. 7. r. 4. Joh. c. 5. v. 5. Par. foâ—â—8 r. 50. c. 6. v. 38. Par. l. 11. r. that the l. 12. for or r. of v. 40. Par. l. 1. r. one wâ—â—â— by c. 17. v. 5. Par. l. 12. add The Divine nature uniting c. v. 9. Par. l. 12. put out of c. 18. v. 1. r. the bâ—ook c. 1â— v. 34. Par. put out since Act. 8. v. 22. Par. r. Prayer of a c. 17. contents r. contemn Rom. 13. Annot. l. 3â— for â—haâ— shall r. 10 c. 47. r. noâ—isie 1. Tim. c. 6. Annot. l. 5. r. bad bin better l. 7. for answering r. 〈◊〉 Rev. c. 19. v. 10. Par. l. 6. put out we v. 17. Par. l. 6. r. is the ib. for fable is r. fables l. 10. for â—r of Advertisem p. 1. l. 27. r. purposed p. 3. l. ult for in r. is p. 5. l. 35. for her's r. her p. 6. l. 24. r. say p. 9. l. 41. r. Terret l. 42. â— let him p. 13. l. 35. r. Infelicity The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ THO it be not known when or by whom all the Books of the New Testament were gathered and made up into one nor when or by whom this Title was set before them and tho for a time some Churches received not the Epistle to the Hebrews nor that of James the 2 of Peter the 2. and 3. of John that of Jude or the Revelation Yet it hath never the less satisfactory evidence of its Truth for this uncertainty and delay I. For As long as we know it is all the word of the Spirit of God it satisfieth our Faith whether all be bound up in one Book or in many And John the Apostle living long after all the rest it is more than probable that none were received in his time but by his approbation and consent and even in the daies of the Apostles they gave Testimony to the Writings of one another so Peter doth of Pauls and Jude transcribeth much of 2 Peter 2. telling us that even inspired Apostles disdained not to use and repeat each others Writings without any guilt of vain repetition or being plagiaries II. And that the few books doubted of by some were commonly afterwards received tends more to the confirming than the shaking of our belief of their Authority certainty after doubt is the most confirmed certainty It must needs be some time before all the Churches to whom the several Epistles were written could produce and Communicate them by convincing proof to all the rest And yet we must know that the Epistles to particular Churches were sent to them as to members of the Church Universal and they were obliged to communicate them to others so that we must not take them as private Letters III. Whoever first gave this title to the whole Book The New Testament or Covenant c. it 's of no great moment to know It was The New Testament before it was so entitled as one Volume But the Church hath by continual owning this Title shewed that they have received all these Books as Gods word and the whole New Testament and that no more are to be received as such The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which Grotius in his preface hath spoken at large signifieth indeed Gods statute Law concerning Mans Duty and Salvation or Gods constituted and proposed terms of Life And tho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more strictly signifie usually a Mutual Covenant this doth but imply the consent of Man to the Law or terms of God It is the same thing that is called a Law and a Covenant in several respects As God enacts it and promulgated it before mans Consent it is a Law and a conditional deed of Gift and Testament and an offered Covenant in several respects
as one having authority and not as the Scribes 28 29. The hearers admired his Doctrine for he spake not as the Scribes and ordinary Teachers but as by Prophetick authority and the Majestick power of the Spirit CHAP. VIII 1. WHen he was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him 2. And behold there came a Leper and worshipped him saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 1 2. N. 1. A Leprosie is so long and so visible a disease as that there could be no fraud in the cure 2. The belief of Christs power shewed that he believed him to be sent of God and therefore was an acceptable faith tho he doubted of Christs will 3. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him saying I will be thou clean And immediately his leprosie was cleansed 3. Note Christ shewed both Power and Will to cure him miraculously that believed his power 4. And Jesus saith to him See thou tell no man but go thy way shew thy self to the Priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony to them 4. Do not thy self divulge this cure but go shew the Priest that thou art cleansed and let him enquire if he will how it was done perform thou thy Offering according to the Law and let it stand as a testimony of me whether they will use it or not N. 1. Christ would have his miracles divulged but by degrees and so himself made known not all at first but in due season when it would do more good than hurt not to encourage men against him before the time but when his greatest works all done might set together make a compleat evidence 2. Tho the high Priest was no due successor of Aarons line but yearly brought in by Heathen powers to him that purchased the place and the office much corrupted yet Christ bids the Leper do his duty according to the Law to such as had possession 5. And when Jesus was entred into Capernaum there came a Centurion beseeching him 6. And saying Lord my servant lyeth at home sick of the Passie grievously tormented 7. And Jesus saith to him I will come and heal him 5 6 7. N. This Captain of an hundred Soldiers shewed his Faith by asking and Christ presently promiseth a cure 8. The Centurion answered and said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed 9. For I am a man under authority having soldiers under me and I say to this man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my servant Do this and he doth it 8 9. The Captain said c. And if my Soldiers and Servants obey my words its easie with thee to command deliverance 10. When Jesus heard it he marvelled and said to them that followed Verily I say to you I have not found so great faith no not in Israel 10. At this Christ expressed admiration by way of praise saying I have not found so great faith in any Israelites that waited for the Messiah as in this Roman Captain 11. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven 12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 11. I tell you that many of the Gentiles shall be converted and from East and West shall be gathered into the Church and into the Heavenly Kindom to Abraham Isaac and Jacob whose faithful though not natural children they are reputed when the Jews that are the natural seed and thought that the promise had been only theirs shall be cast out from Heavenly felicity into outer darkness and utmost misery where shall be crying and weeping and gnashing of teeth as men do with cold or with rage 13. And Jesus said to the Centurion Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done to thee and his servant was healed the very same hour 13. And Jesus gave him presently the reward of his faith promising and performing the cure of his servant 14. And when Jesus came into Peters house he saw his wives mother laid and sick of a fever 15. And he touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and ministred to them 14. Note the speed of the cure she presently went about her business and served them 16. When the even was come they brought to him many that were possessed with devils and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick 16. Note 1. The Scripture doth not separate Diseases and Devils so much as they that think there is no Devil in a disease that hath natural causes For Devils are often Gods executioners even when there are natural causes of the disease and do add many extraordinary symptomes by their own operation 2. Christ healed Bodies to win Souls by such gifts as all are capable of valuing and to shew his mercy to Body and Soul 17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet saying Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses 17. And as in Isa 53. he is said to take our Infirmities by suffering for our sins the words may also be verified in another sense even of his compassion and his cure of mens diseases 18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him he gave commandment to depart unto the other side 19. and a certain Scribe came and said to him Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest 20. And Jesus saith to him the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head 18 19 20. N. That when Christ saw a man desirous to follow him either for worldly ends and with a mind not loosed from worldly interest he trieth him and turneth him off by undeceiving him 21. And another of his disciples faith to him Lord suffer me first to go and bury my father 22. But Jesus said to him Follow me and let the dead bury their dead 21 22. Another whom Christ saw better resolved and qualified he would not permit so much as to go home to bury his Father but using a proverbial speech saith Let the dead bury their dead that is If thou be devoted to me follow me and my service for this is now thy greatest business to which burying thy Father must not be preferred Others that are not engaged as thou art may bury thy Father If they would not it were better he were unburied than thou should desert or neglect me and my service 23 24. And when he was entred into a ship his disciples followed him And behold there arose a great tempest in the sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves but he was asleep 25. And his disciples came unto him and awoke him saying Lord save
can afford O how many do that daily indeed which they durst not do by an express bargain with the Devil 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then he shall reward every man according to his work 27. Believe it I shall come at last in Judgment in Divine Glory attended by Angels and then I will reward those that were faithful to me or perfidious and all men according to their works therefore whatever you suffer now propare for the judgment of that day 28. Verily I say to you There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom 28. And I tell you least you think this my coming in Glory to judgment incredible that some here shall live to see a visible representation of that my glorious appearing Note That this is meant of his transfiguration the addition of it in the several Evangelists sheweth Nor is Dr. H. his reason against it from the former verse of any force it being not the same coming that is here spoken of but its representation CHAP. XVII 1. ANd after six days Jesus taketh Peter and James and John his brother and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart 2. And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun and his rayment was white as the light 1 2. And as Christ had promised them a glimpse of his Kingly Glory so within six days he performed it to Peter James and John whom he selected for peculiar favours in a high mountain he was transfigured into a glorious appearance his face shining like the Sun and his raiment like light Note Christ would have this help of sense to confirm their Faith Of this transfiguration I have written at large in a Book called My Dying Thoughts 3. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him 3. Note 1. Moses whose body was buried and Elias whose body was but changed appeared alike 2. The chief Legislator and chief Prophet appeared to shew that the Law and the Prophets did but lead to Christ 3. Did not the departed Saints live after death they could not appear in Glory 4. They talked with Christ of his sufferings at Jerusalem 5. Either Christ told the three Disciples who they were or their own appearance shewed it 6. How much better company is above than here 4. Then answered Peter and said to Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias 4. Note 1. We are apt to desire more of Heaven on earth than God will allow But not so apt to desire to go by death to that glory where it is Fain we would have it come down to us 2. A glimpse of glory is enough to rap a Soul into extasie 3. We know not what we say when we talk of felicity in Tabernacles on earth 4. A glimpse of glory will make us out of love with worldly company and vanity How loth then would the Souls in Heaven be to come down 5. While he yet spake behold a bright cloud over-shadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him 5. Note 1. Heavenly inhabitants must not stay on earth nor Heavenly visions and raptures be here long or frequent 2. God again owned his Son by a voice from heaven as perfectly Righteous and as pleasing him by mans redemption and reconciling us to him and teaching the doctrine which is pleasing to him 6. And when the disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were sore afraid 6. Note The voice of God even when he speaketh mercy is enough to humble and prostrate man 7. And Jesus came and touched them and said Arise and be not afraid 7. N. It is Christ that must raise our troubled and humbled Souls from our dejectedness and fear 8. And when they had lift up their eyes they saw no man save Jesus only 8. Note Christ will stay with us when Moses and Elias will not nor are earthly comforts durable 9. And as they came down from the mountain Jesus charged them saying Tell the vision to no man till the Son of man be risen again from the dead 9. The reason is before mentioned After the resurrection was the fittest season 10. And his disciples asked him saying Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come 10. Why say the Jewish Doctors that Elias must come before the Messiah if this was he that we saw 11. And Jesus answered and said to them Elias truly shall first come and restore all things But I say to you that Elias is come already and they knew him not but have done to him whatsoever they listed likewise also shâ—â—l the Son of man suffer of them 13. Then 〈◊〉 disciples understood that he spake to the 〈◊〉 John the Baptist 11. c. It is 〈◊〉 that is said out of Mal. that Elias must come but it was John that was meant under the name of Eâ—ias 〈◊〉 â—â—ey knew not but killed him while they looked for him and so they will do by me 14. And when they were come to the muâ—◠〈◊〉 there came to him a certain man knâ—â—â—â—g down to him and saying 15. Lord have â—ercy on my son for he is lunatick and sore vexed for oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water 16. And I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him 14. N. By Lunatick is meant one that had the Epilepsie or some such disease upon the change of the Moon A real disease of which yet the Devil was the executioner and further joyned with it extraordinarily 17. Then Jesus answered and said O faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you bring him hither to me 17. It is long of your own unbelief and perverseness that they could not cure him how long shall I work miracles among you before you will believe will you drive me from among you by your unbelief to go to others N. This seemeth plainly spoken to the man of himself and such others and not as some say to the disciples 18. And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour 19. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said Why could not we cast him out 20. And Jesus said to them Because of your unbelief 18 c. Your unbelief as well as the mans was that which hindred you you are all therein to be blamed 20. For verily I say to you If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say to this mountain Remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you 20. For if you have the least
say ought to you ye shall say The Lord hath need of them and straitway he will send them 4. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass 1. c. Note Christs way of Travaile was as poor mens on Foot And it was the rich sort of persons that road on Asses they being there bigger than ours and onely Men of great State or War that rode on Horses And Christ knowing that the People would at his Entrance into Jerusalem applaud him with Hosanna as the Messiah and King of the Jews resolved to own their Testimony so far as to ride in in some State 2. Tho both the Ass and Colt be loosed and brought it was the Colt onely that Christ rode on 6. And the Disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them 7. And brought the ass and the colt and put on them their cloathes and they set him thereon 8. And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way 9. And he multitude that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest 6.7.8.9 N. This was the common peoples Proâ—laiming him King and the Messiah spreading Garments â—nd Boughs being their Solemnization and Mosanna their Acclamation a Word which signifieth Save now and was used with that sort of Pomp. Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord signified Blessed be the Messiah and King whom we have long looked for and God hath now sent To which in Luke is added Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest That is Let the Heavenly Prosperity and Glory come down upon this Kingdom and his Kingdom tend to Heavenly Peace or Prosperity and Glory to God and Man with God 10. And when he was come into Jerusalem all the City was moved saying Who is this 11. And the multitude said This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee 10.11 The Citizens all came to see who it was that came in so applauded And the people that accompanied him in told them It is Jesus the famous Prophet whose Miracles you have heard of 12. And Jesus went into the Temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Money changers and the seats of them that sold Doves 13. And said to them It is written My house shall be called a house of prayer but ye have made it a den of Thieves 12.13 In this State he went on to the Temple and as one in Power he cast out them that had turned the Temple into a Market-place to furnish men with Sacrifices and over-threw the Tables of them that like Goldsmiths or Bankers Exchanged Money for advantage Alledging Isa 56.7 My House c. Ye have made a Market-place of it where the Covetous Defraud Men for gain 14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he healed them 14 He wrought out his Miracles openly in the Temple as he had done in the Country 15. And when the Chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying in the Temple and saying Hosanna to the Son of David they were sore displeased 16. And said to him Hearest thou what these say 15.16 The Rulers that knew they were under the Roman Power and saw that Jesus was not like to deliver them from it were greatly displeased when they heard the inferiour Multitude and Youths crying him up as the King Messiah and said Hearest thou what these say of thee wilt thou suffer them to raise a Sedition for thee and expose us all to the Romans Wrath. 16. And Jesus saith to them yea Have ye never read Out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise 16. Yea As it is Written Psal 8.2 c. N. The Septuagint which Matthew useth differs from the Hebrew but not in sence 17. And he left them and went out of the city unto Bethany and he lodged there 18. Now in the morning as he turned into the City he hungred 19. And when he saw a figtree in the way he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves onely and said to it Let no more fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever And presently the figtree withered away 20. And when the Disciples saw it they marvelled saying How soon is the Figtree withered away 17.18.19.20 N. It began then to die but it was the next day that the Disciples saw it and wondred 21. Jesus answered and said to them Verily I say to you If ye have faith and doubt not ye shall not onely do this which is done to the figtree but also if ye shall say to this mountain Be thou removed and be thou cast into the Sea it shall be done 22. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive 21.22 Nothing shall be too hard which God hath promised and ye by Faith and Prayer are fit to receive 23. And when he was come into the Temple the chief Priests and the Elders of the People came to him as he was teaching and said By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority 23. The Chief Priests and Elders Examined him to shew his authority 24.25 And Jesus said to them I also will ask you one thing which if you tell me Iâ— likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things The baptism of John whence was it from heaven or of men And they reasoned with themselves saying If we shall say from heaven he will say to us Why did ye not then believe him 26. But if we shall say of men We fear the People for all hold John as a Prophet 24.25.26 They perceived the advantage Christ would have by their Answer Either Johns Testimony or the power of the Multitude who reverenced Prophets sent from God and would have stoned them Luke 20.6 27. And they answered Jesus and said We cannot tell And Jesus said to them Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things 27. If you will not answer my Question neither will I answer yours 28. But what think you A certain man had two Sons and he came to the first and said Son go and work to day in my Vineyard 29. He answered and said I will not but afterward he repented and went 30. And he came to the second and said likewise and he answered and said I go Sir and went not 31. Whether of them two did the will of his father 28. c. That you may see that your highest profession of Holiness and Knowledge while you disobey God doth leave you worse than the Publicans and
vulgar whom you villifie I will tell you a Parable c. 32. They say to him The first Jesus saith to them Verily I say to you that the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you 32. For John came to you in the way of Righteousness and ye believed him not But the Publicans and the Harlots believed him And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward that ye might believe him 32. These despised Sinners Believed John and repented which you with all your Knowledge did not nor yet do and so are further from the Kingdom of God than they having no obedient religion but Words and Ceremonies 33. Hear another Parable There was a certain housholder who planted a Vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a town and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country 33. Note God did what was necessary to have made the Jews a happy Church as to means prepared By digging a Wine-press is meant hollowing a Trough to bruise the Grapes in and building a Tower is a Lodge or Dwelling for the Workmen 34. And when the time of the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it 34. God required the Fruit of all his Teachings and Mercies to the Jews 35. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another 36. And he sent other servants more then the first and they did to them likewise 35.36 They Persecuted and Murdered the Prophets Age after Age and yet seemed to honour Prophets 37. But last of all he sent unto them his Son saying They will reverence my Son 37. N. This doth not mean that God thought so and was Mistaken But speaking after the manner of Men tells them what he might requite in reason of them 38. But when the husbandmen saw the Son they said among themselves This is the Heir Come let us kill him and let us seize on the inheritance 39. And they caught him and cast him out of the Vineyard and slew him 38.39 Note This meaneth not that the Jews reckon him to be the Son of God but might and should have known it 40. When the Lord therefore of the Vineyard cometh what will he do to those husband-men 41. They say to him He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vineyard to other Husband-men who shall render him the fruits in their season 40.41 Thus God will destroy the Murderous Jews and call the Gentiles N. Luke reciteth these words as Christs and that the Pharisees said God forbid It 's like they consented to it till they heard it applyed to themselves and then said God forbid 42. Jesus saith to them Did you never read in the Scriptures The stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the Corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes 42. Note Tho this was spoken Psal 118. immediately of David it ultimately meant Christ who should be the Foundation and Head of the Church when the Jews had Crucifyed him 43. Therefore I say to you The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof 43. I tell you this doleful Truth you that boasted of your peculiarity and hopes of the Kingdom of the Messiah shall be deprived of it for your Sin and it shall be given to the Gentiles who will better entertain it and obey it and be thankful for it 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken But on whosoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder 44. Bare Unbelief of such as stumble at the Cross or turn away from Christ through offence and Temptation will undoe all that continue in it But those that prove Malignant Enemies and fight against Christ he will be as a Stone too heavy for him that taketh it up to cast away which will fall upon them to their greater Destruction 45.46 And when the chief Priests and Pharisees had heard his Parable they perceived he spake of them But when they sought to lay hands on him they fear'd the multitude because they took him for a prophet 45.46 N. 1. Personal close reproofs and denunciation of Gods Judgments enrageth hardned Sinners 2. The Jews that applauded Christ thought it no Sedition to defend a Prophet against their High Priest and Rulers who for fear of them durst not openly take Christ CHAP. XXII 1. ANd Jesus answered and spake again to them by Parables and said 2. The Kingdom of heaven is like to a certain king who made a marriage for his son 3. And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come 1 2 3. The calling of men into the Church is like a Kings inviting Guests to his Sons Marriage feast that would not come 4. Again he sent forth other servants saying Tell them who were bidden Behold I have prepared my dinner my oxen and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the marriage 4. Christs Ministers are oft to invite men and importune them to come in and to tell them that Christ and his merits are sufficient for them and all is ready and done on his part preparatory to their belief reception and consent they shall not perish for want of a sufficient Sacrifice 5. But they made light of it and went their way one to his farm and another to his merchandize 6. And the remnant took his servants and intreated them shamefully and slew them 5 6. Note As did the Jews so do many others make light of Christ and all his offers of Grace and Glory and mind more their Farms and Merchandize their worldly interest and prosperity And others more wicked than they do persecute those that would convert and save them O odious unthankfulness thus to requite the greatest offers of Christ and his servants 7. But when the king heard thereof he was wroth and sent forth his armies and destroyed those murtherers and burnt up their city 7. Note So did God send the Romans to destroy the Jews and burn Jerusalem and hath often plagued persecutors and the day of revenge will come 8. Then said he to his servants The wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy 9. Go ye therefore into the high-ways and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage 8 9. All was ready on Christs part but the Jews unworthily rejected him Go call all the Gentiles that will come 10. So those servants went out into the high-ways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests 10. So the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles of all sorts and high and low came in to the Church 11. And when the king came in to see his guests he saw there a
they brought the colt to Jesus and cast their garments on him and he sat upon â—im 8. And many spread their garments in the way and others cut down branches of the trees and strawed them in the way 9. And they that went before and they that â—ollowed cryed saying Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 10. Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest 7. We receive with all joyful Applause the Messiah â—hat is come from God Blessed be He and blessed be his Kingdom Let the Heavens applaud and bless it 11. And Jesus entred into Jerusalem and â—nto the temple and when he had looked â—ound about upon all things and now the â—ventide was come he went out unto Bethaâ—y with the twelve 12. And on the morrow when they were come from Bethany he was hungry 13. And seeing a figtree afar off having leaves he came if haply he might find any thing thereon and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for the time of figs was not yet 11. c. N. It s not likely that Christ was ignorant that Figgs hit not that year and that this Tree was fruitless But by this Miracle he shewed The Destruction of Fruitless Jews and Hypocrites 3. It s like he lay out of Door at Bethany as he used to do by night in the Garden where he was taken because he would not burden poor mens Houses with all his followers Else sure he would not have come away hungry 14. And Jesus answered and said unto it No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever And his disciples heard it 14. Note 1. This Phrase of answering to a fig-tree must be expounded by the use of the word in those times when to answer signified but to say 2. The Curse hurteth not the Tree but to instruct Men. 15. And they come to Jerusalem dâ— Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves 16. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple 15. N. He Shewed that he had the authority of a King tho he would not set up a temporal Kingdom 16. Christ now seemed to be more ceremonious than the Pharisees But he was made under the Law and would not abrogate our little till all were fulfilled by him He was to keep it to save men from it 3. He yet teacheth us to Reverence the place of solemn worship for the worship sake 17. And he taught saying unto them Is it not written My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves 17. The Temple was dedicated for Holy worship for Jews and Proselites of all Nations but these use Merchandize here and rob men by deceit Quest May places now be temples dedicated to Holy worship Answ No doubt of it but that the reverence of Gods name and worship not only alloweth but requireth us when we can to separate comely places to Holy worship from common use And why they may not be called Temples I know not 18. And the Scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people were astonished aâ— his doâ—trine 18. Tho one would think Christs zeal for the Temple should have pleased them that crved it up as their Glory and accused Christ and Stephen and Paul for dishonouring it yet because Câ—rist did it as he did by the peoples countenance they feared the wrath of the Romans lest they would take it for Sedition and so they should suffer by it 19. And when even was come he went out of the city 19. Lest they should surprize him in the Night as they did at last 20. And in the morning as they paâ—sed by they saw the fig-tree dried up from the oot 21. And Peter calling to remâ—mbrance saith unto him Master bâ—hold the fig-tree which thou cursed â—t is withered away 22. And Jesus answering saith unto them Have faith in God 23. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith 24. Therefore I say unto you What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye recieve them and ye shall have them 23. No difficulty shall hinder you from obtaining what God hath promised and is fit to be done if you firmly trust his Love and promise 25. And when ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses 25. And forgiving and Charity is necessary to success as well as Believing Believing supposeth other requisites 26. But if you do not forgive neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you your trespass 26. Note This sheweth that the promise of granting believers Prayers meaneth caeteris paribus other requisites being answerable 27. And they come again to Jerusalem and as he was walking in the temple there come to him the chief priests and the Scribes and the elders 28. And say to him By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority to do these things 27. Note They judged truly that they were not to be done without authority But knew not his authority from God 29. And Jesus answered and said to them I will also ask of you one question and answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things 30. The baptism of John was it from heaven or of men answer me 30. Note Had they confest John to be of God he would have produced his testimony Had they denyed it they had gainsayed themselves and the peoples voice For the generality of them were baptized by John in hope that their Messiah and his Kingdome and their deliverance were at hand 31. And they reasoned with themselves saying if we shall say From heaven he will say Why then did ye not believe him 32. But if we shall say Of men they feared the people for all men counted John that he was a prophet indeed 33. And they answered and said unto Jesus We cannot tell And Jesus answering saith unto them Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things 31. N. It was well that they considered what might be said against them which now most Christians do not in their disputes 2. These Persecutors and the Romans had some Charity and consideration in that they were restrained by the fear of the People and did not accuse and fine them as for Routs Ryots and Seditions 3. They that deny necessary premises are not to be disputed with CHAP. XII
air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head 57 58. I have no entertainment for any but self-denying persons that can forsake all for me 59. And he said unto another Follow me but he said Lord suffer me first to go and bury my father 60. Jesus said unto him Let the dead bury their dead but go thou and preach the kingdom of God 59 60. The work of my Gospel and God's Kingdom must be preferred before the burying of a Father Note Christ fitteth his Answer to the disposition of those he spake to He knew that this man was fitter to be put on and the former to be stopt 61. And another also said Lord I will follow thee but let me first go and bid them fare-well that are at home at my house 62. And Jesus said unto him No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God 61 62. If thou wilt be my Minister thou must be like a man plowing who looketh still before him on the Furrow and not behind him The Kingdom of God must be first sought and all things that would hinder the true service of it must be put behind and denied and forsaken Not that it dissolveth Relation-duties but puts all behind the works and interest of God and forsaketh that which is against it CHAP. X. AFter these things the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come 2. Therefore said he unto them The harvest truly is great but the labourers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest 1 2. As he had chosen twelve with respect to the twelve Tribes so he chose seventy according to the number of the great Council it 's like 70 being put for 72 as an ancient Copy hath it By which it appeareth he settled a disparity in his Ministers 2. Note Priests now are many but Labourers few What men are they that hate and silence the faithfulest Labourers suspecting that they are not for their interest 3. Go your ways behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves 4. Carry neither purse nor scrip nor shoes and salute to man by the way 3 4. I send you on such work in which you shall suffer from wicked men as I must do Let not the care of provision nor any matters of inferiour concern as humane respects are stop you in your work and undertaken Ministry not that all Civility is forbidden 5. And into whatsoever house ye enter first say Peace be to this house 6. And if the son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you again 5 6. For the necessary capacity of the Receiver is implied as a condition of the Effect The same Benediction is effectual to a capable Receiver and uneffectual to another as is also the Sacrament 7. And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give for the labourer is worthy of his hire Go not from house to house 8. And into whatsoever city ye enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you 7 8. Maintenance is your due for your work 9. And heal the sick that are therein and say unto them the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you 9. This was the Gospel that they were to preach 10. But into whatsoever city ye enter they receive ye not go your ways out into the streets of the same and say 11. Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us we do wipe off against you notwithstanding be ye sure of this that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you 10 11. See Mat. 10.14 12. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city 12. At the Judgment There will be some punished in hell more tolerably than others 13. Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you they had a great while ago repented sitting in sackcloth and ashes 13. The same means which prevaileth not with some would have converted others that now perish 14. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sydon at the day of Judgment then for you 15. And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shall be thrust down into hell 14 15. The loss of the greatest means and mercy prepareth for the heaviest Judgment 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 16. So far as you do my works I will take what is done to you as done to my self 17. And the seventy returned again with joy saying Lord even the devils are subject unto us through thy Name 18. And he said unto them I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven 17 18. Satan shall be cast down from much of his Tyranny over Mankind by me and my Gospel 19. Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you 19. Note The Kingdom of Christ is set up against the Devil and his Kingdom and not against Kings as such 2. It seems Serpents are used as Satan's Instruments to hurt man 20. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven 20. Even wicked men may cast out Devils but it 's greater matter of joy to be Saints that shall be sayed 21. In that hour Jesus rejoyced in spirit and said I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 21. That thou hast revealed the heavenly Wisdom to those that are despised as unlearned in the World rather than to men counted wise and learned for their humane wit and knowledge See Matth 11.25 22. All things are delivered to me of my Father and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him 22. Christ is made the Lord of all and he is perfectly known by none but God And there is no true knowledge of God the Father but by the teaching of Christ 23. And he turned him unto his disciples and said privately Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see 23. See Matth. 13.17 24. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them 24. Such as David Solomon Isaiah c.
above all the Galileans because they suffered such things 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 2 3. Note We must not judge them the greatest sinners that suffer most here The Judge on the bâ—nch may do more wrong than the thief whom he hangeth And famous conquerors than robbers The day is coming that must set all right These Jews after suffered much more 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloe fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem 5. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 4. Note Worse did befall the other Jews 6. He spake also this parable A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none 7. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground 8. And he answering said unto him Lord let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it 9. And if it bear fruit well and if not then after that thou shalt cut it down 6 7 8 9 Christ had three years preach't to the obstinate Jews 10. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath 11. And behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up her self 10 11. Satan was the executioner of her disease 12. And when Jesus saw her he called her to him and said unto her Woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity 13. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God 12 13. By Divine Power 14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day and said unto the people There are six daies in which men ought to work in them therefore come and be healed and not on the sabbath-day 15. The Lord then answered him and said Thou hypocrite doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering 16. And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day 14 15 16. Note It is the part of Hypocrites to set up Ceremony and Circumstances against Moral Duties or necessary good Works to Body or Soul 17. And when he had said these things all his adversaries were ashamed and all the people rejoyced for all the glorious things that were done by him 17. His Reason and hâ—s Miracle convinced the common people of the shameful 〈…〉 that 〈◊〉 18. Then said he unto what is the kingdom of God like and whereunto shall I resemble it 19. It is like a grain of mustard-seed which a man took and cast into his garden and it grew and waxed a great tree and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it 20. And again he said Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God 21. It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened 18 19 20 21. Note Though Christ's Flock was little at first the Kingdoms of the World were after to become his Kingdom and Nations to be discipled and baptized 22. And he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem 23. Then said one unto him Lord are there few that be saved And he said unto them 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able 22 23 24. Instead of enquiring How many do thou labour to be one And know that the Gate is strait A life of Faith and Holiness must cost men sufferings in the flesh therefore do not lazily wish and seek but strive and spare no pains or cost For many that seek erroneously or slothfully and as Hypocrites give God but the second place shall never be saved 25. When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door crying Lord Lord open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence you are 26. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets 27. But he shall say I tell you I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity 25 26 27. All would be saved and cry for mercy when it is too late therefore strive without delay And then all pretences of familiarity with Christ or Clergy or Church-Priviledges will save no unsanctified man 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out 28. It will increase your torment to see those that never saw and heard what you have done to be in Heaven and you thrust out to Hell for your unbelief and wickedness 29. And they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God 30. And behold there are last which are first and there are first which shall be last 29 30. The faithful shall be received from all parts of the Earth And some that shall be born and called long hence shall be more excellent persons and have a more glorious Crown than many that are called now and when you Jews are rejected who were a Church before them 31. The same day there came certain of the Pharisees saying unto him Get thee out depart hence for Herod will kill thee 32. And he said unto them Go ye and tell that fox Behold I cast out Devils and I do cures to day and to morrrow and the third day I shall be perfected 31 32. Note He liken's Herod to a Fox for subtilty and cruelty This Example of Christ will not justifie any contumelious Language against Kings though they that are called to it may plainly and humbly tell them of their sin and danger regarding their due honour And Historians may truly describe them when they are dead 33. Nevertheless I must walk to day and to morrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem 33. Whatever Herod do I shall do my work and finish it and shall not suffer by Herod in Galilee which is his Jurisdiction but at Jerusalem the place of killing Prophets 34. O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings and ye would
long time 10. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard but the husbandmen beat him and sent him away empty 11. And again he sent another servant and they beat him also and entreated him shamefully and sent him away empty 12. And again he sent the third and they wounded him also and cast him out 13. Then said the lord of the vineyard What shall I do I will send my beloved son it may be they will reverence him when they see him 14. But when the husbandmen saw him they reasoned among themselves saying This is the heir come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours 15. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them 16. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen and shall give the vineyard to others And when they heard it they said God forbid 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. The Vineyard is the Land of Israel the Husbandmen are the Israelites the Owner is God the Messengers are the Prophets the Son is Christ c. See Matth. 21. 17. And he beheld them and said What is this then that is written The stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner 18. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder 17 18. Whoever sins against Christ by unbelief will perish in his sin But they that strive against him by malignity and opposition will fall under his victorious Judgement which will make them the most miserable 19. And the chief priests and the Scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him and they feared the people for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them 19. Note That which is said against their sin enrageth the impenitent be it never so true and needful to their conviction 20. And they watched him and sent forth spies which would fain themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governour 20. Blood-thirsty Hypocrites would ensnare him to get some word for which they might accuse him to the Romans Governour as Treason against Caesar Note How like in all Ages are the nature and ways of wicked men Thus was Naboth used by Jezabel c. 21. And they asked him saying Master we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly neither acceptest thou the person of any but teachest the way of God truly 22. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cesar or no 23. But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them Why tempt ye me 24. Shew me a penny whose image and superscription hath it They answered and said Cesars 25. And he said unto them Render therefore unto Cesar the things which be Cesars and unto God the things which be Gods 26. And they could not take hold of his words before the people and they marvelled at his answer and held their peace 21 22 23 24 25 26. Note There is poison in the seeming kindness of cruel Hypocrites they flatter that they may hurt Note It is lawful to put off bloody ensnarers with doubtâ—â—l Answers 27. Then came to him certain of the Sadduces which deny that there is any resurrection and they asked him 28. Saying Master Moses wrote unto us If any mans brother die having a wife and he die without children that his brother should take his wife and raise up feed to his brother 29. There were therefore seven brethren and the first took a wife and died without children 30. And the second took her to wife and he died childless 31. And the third took her and in like manner the seven also And they left no children and died 32. Last of all the woman died also 33. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she for seven had her to wife 27 â—8 29 30 31 32 33. Carnal men from their own Errour do foolishly cavil against the Truth which they understand not 34. And Jesus answering said unto them The children of this world marry and are given in marriage 35. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage 36. Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the Resurrection 34 35 36. Note Worthiness of that World is such a qualification as is required in God's Promise Note The Blessed shall be like the Angels and with them and be immortal Note By the Resurrection here is meant the next Life even to separated Souls and not only the Resurrection of the Body O why do we not long for such a change 37. Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob 38. For he is not a God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him 37 38. See Matth. 22. He is the Lord and Owner of the Dead and Living But to be Their God signifieth more even to be their Governour and Protector and their End and Portion and their All. 39. Then certain of the Scribes answering said Master thou hast well said 40. And after that they durst not ask him any question at all 39 40. Tâ—â—y were out of hope of entrapping him by their Quesâ—â—â—ns 41. And he said unto them How say they that Christ is Davids Son 42. And David himself saith in the book of psalms The LORD said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand 43. Till I make thine enemies thy footstool 44. David therefore calleth him Lord how is he then his Son 41 42 43 44. See Matth. 22. 45. Then in the audience of all the people he said to his disciples 46. Beware of the Scribes who desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts 47. Who devour widows houses and for a shew make long prayers The same shall receive greater damnation 45 46 47. Note The Character of formal Hypocrites â—â— to be worldly cruel unjust proud â—nd to be devout in a ceremonious Religion and â—â—p labour to quiet their Conscience and keep their reputation N. Tho' no doubt but some Hypocrites can use long prayers extempore it is most likely that the Scribes and Pharisees was a Form or Liturgy CHAP. XXI 1. ANd he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury 2. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites 3. And he said of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more then they all 4. For all these have of their abundance
positive penalty on Christs soul called here The Pains of Death But most think otherwise 25. For David speaketh concerning him I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved 26. Therefore did my heart rejoyce and my tongues was glad moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope 27. Because thou wilt not leave my Soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption Note Though David spake this partly of himself the Holy Ghost spake it by him of Christ that God would not leave him in the state of Death nor suffer his body to be corrupted 28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance 29. Men and brethren let me freely speak unto you of the Patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his Sepulchre is with us unto this day 30. Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loyns according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne 31. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his Soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption 30. Quest How is Christ said to sit on Davids Throne which was of a visible Earthly Kingdom Answ It is that which was principally meant in the promise to David And the eminent and highest Reign containeth the lower under its power 2. The Article of Christs descent into Hell is so largely handled by many that I will not here interpose any more of it than to say that I take it to be best expounded by A. Bishop Vsher in his Answer to the Jesuits challenge And this Text speaking first of David and ultimately of Christ seemeth to mâ—an no other Hell for Christ but what David meant of â—â—â—self which is Hades the State of separated Souls as such 32. This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses 33. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear 32. We being all Witnesses of his Resurrection and Ascension he being in Glory in the fulness of his Power and having promised thus to send down the Holy Ghost hath performed his promise as ye see and hear 1. To prove by this Miracle the truth of his Power to convince Unbelievers 2. And to enable us to Teach the Gospel to the People of divers Languages in the World Note The Apostles were credible Witnesses of fact 2. The Holy Ghost is the infalible evidence that Christians mission and power is of God 34. For David is not ascended into the Heavens but he saith himself The LORD said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand 35. Until I make thy foes thy footstool 34. David went not up to Heaven bodily as Jesus did but only his Soul but he Prophesied of Christs Ascension and Glory 36. Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have Crucified both Lord and Christ 36. All of you therefore believe these Divine attestations and know asuredly that this Jesus whom you Crucified is in Glory exalted by God to be the Lord King and Saviour 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles Men and brethren what shall we do 37. These words accompanied with so great Evidence and the work of the Spirit now poured out they could not resist but their hearts convinced were prickt or wounded with grief and fear to find that they had Crucified the Messiah whom they expected And they cryed out is there yet no hope or remedy If there be what shall we do 38. Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost 38. There is yet hope and remedy Repent of this and all your sins and give up your selves by Faith to Christ in the Baptismal Covenant and your sins shall be remitted and this Holy Ghost which you now admire shall also be given unto you 39. For the promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call 39. For the Messiah with his Grace of Remission and the Spirit is promised and is offered to you that are Jews and your whole Nation and Children in the first place and shall be yours yet if you accept the offer And not to you only but to as many as God shall call of the Gentiles in the remotest parts of the World For Christ is now to be the Universal King and Saviour of all Nations and Persons that accept him 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort saying Save your selves from this untoward generation 40. And with many more Exhortations he perswaded them to believe and repent and not to imitate the unbelieving persecuting hardned part of the Jews lest they perish with them 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls 41. Then they that believed and gladly consented to be Christians were baptized And that day about three thousand were converted to Christianity 1. These Jews were before instructed in much of the Law and Prophets and therefore their Baptism was not delayed so long as the following Churches delayed the baptizing of the Gentile Catechumens 2. Yet though all were converted that day it is not certain that all were Baptized that day 3. None were Baptized that did not profess to believe the Essentials of the Baptismal Covenant that Jesus is the Christ sent of God to reconcile us to him and give us remission of sin and his Spirit and everlasting Salvation and profest not willing consent to the Covenant 42. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers 42. And being thus Convinced Converted and Sacramentally bound and devoted to Christ they continued united in Communion with the Apostles in learning their Doctrine and in brotherly Communication and Love and in Celebration of the Lords Supper and in conjunct Prayer The Apostles conducting the Society in all this 43. And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles 43. The wonder amazed all men and the Miracles wrought by the Apostles increased mens conviction 44. And all that believed were together and had all things common 45. And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need 44. The greatness of the thing raised them above the World and the Holy Ghost filled them with such Love as made
therefore will not be subject to Humane Government but resisteth True Authority resisteth a needful Ordinance of God and deserveth Punishment from God and Man 3. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same 3. For as God is the Ordainer of Government in general so he hath specified their Office as to the universally necessary part and bound them as his Officers to see to the Execution of his Universal Laws as the King binds Justices to execute his Laws And therefore their Office and Authority received from God is not to be Persecutors or a Terror to Good Works but to punish the Evil For God giveth no Authority against himself or his Laws If therefore thou fear this Power given of God do that which is good and it will further thy Encouragement and Praise Even Heathens by seeing to the Execution of the Law of Nature will promote Natural Virtue and suppress and punish Vice 4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain For he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil 4. And let not bad Mens abuse of Government make thee think evil of the Office For they are but God's Servants or Officers not authorised to destroy and to do mischief but to do good even to see to the Execution of God's Laws by their own and to take care of the Common Welfare But if thou do evil fear them for God hath not entrusted them with the Sword in vain much less for mischief For they are God's Officers Revengers of Sin to execute God's Wrath and Man 's on Sinners And so to resist them is to resist the Officers of God and to honour and obey them is to honour and obey God that hath authorised them 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake 5. Wherefore you ought to be subject even when you may not obey not onely for fear of Punishment from Man but in Conscience of your Duty to God who ordaineth them 6. For for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods ministers attending continually upon this very thing 6. Therefore honourable Maintenance and Tribute is their due For they are God's Servants whose very Oâ—â—â—ce and daily Care and Labour is to do his Service for the Common Good 7. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour 7. I am not perswading you to own Usurpation or to give Men that which is not their due not yet do I determine among several Claimers which is the Supreme But that you give all their proper due Tribute Custom Fear and Honour to every one to whom they are due And let not Covetousness or Disobedience hinder you 8. Owe no man any thing but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law 8. Discharge your Debts and give all Men the due which you owe them else you are unjust and rob them Only Love we shall still owe to one another and shall thus owe it even while we pay it And to pay this Debt of sincere Love is to fulfil all the Law to Man 9. For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet And if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 9. For all our Duty to Man is virtually comprehended in Loving them as our selves For a Man will not wrong the Life the Estate the Marriage right the Honour of himself nor falsely accuse or prosecute himself or covet from himself or those that he loveth as himself Bring Men once to this unfeigned Love and Hurtfulness Covetousness Fraud False Accusation Persecution and all Injustice will cease 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the law 10. As we are not apt to hurt our selves so true Love would not hurt others in their Lives Liberties Estates or Good Names much less study to destroy them Therefore Love is the virtual fulfilling of all our Duty to them 11. And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed 11. And we should increase in this careful discharge of our Duty of Love and Justice though in the State of Infidelity we lived in such Sins For by this time we should be better acquainted with our Duties and awaked to all conscionable performance of them we being neerer our Reward and Salvation than when we were first converted to the Faith and God expecteth now more from us 12. The night is far spent the day is at hand Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness let us put on the armour of light 12. We are now got further from our former State of Darkness We are now come to the Day-light of Illuminating Grace and under the Increase thereof The Church is growing to a more Honourable State by its Increase Let us therefore more resolvedly cast off all the Works of Heathenish Darkness and as Christ's Soldiers put on our Sacred Armour and use it as in the Day-light of Grace 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying 13. Seeing we are in the Light let us walk modestly and decently as becometh our Condition not as the Heathens in rioting and drunkenness not in lasciviousness and uncleanness and fleshly lusts not in proud selfish or covetous strife and envy 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil lusts thereof 14. But let Christ his Spirit and Love his Doctrine and Example his Interest and Kingdom take you up and be to you as the Cloathing which you daily wear And do not as Carnal Men whose fleshly Pleasure and Prosperity is their choice and best that live to the said fleshly Pleasure and make provision to satisfie the Carnal Will and Lust in stead of preferring the Heavenly Treasure ANNOTATIONS Qu. I. WHat is meant here by Powers Ans Not meer Strength but Authority or Right to Govern It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Usurpers Strength may be resisted but Rightful Power or Authority may not Qu. II. Doth St. Paul determine here either of the Species or Individually who it is that hath the Highest Power Ans Not at all In those Ages and long after sometime the Senate claimed the Supremacy wholly and sometime a part of it sometime they pretended to make
do with your bodies what you list God is your absolute Owner not only by the right of Creation and Preservation but by that of Redemption â—y the price of the Blood and Merits of Christ Therefore you rob and wrong him though you cannot hurt him if you alienate his own and glorifie not that God whose you wholly are by the faithful Love and Service of Soul and Body which are his And to be thus his is your Honour Safety and Felicity CHAP. VII 1. NOw concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me It is good for a man not to touch a woman 1. As to the Question about Marriage of which you wrote I say That if a Man have no kind of intrinsick or extrinsick Reason to make it best for him it is for a Man 's own ease and quietness in the World to live single and safest to avoid Temptations to keep at sufficient distance from Women especially to avoid all tempting and immodest Touches or Familiarity 2. Nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband 2. But the State of Man on Earth is such that Mâ—n cannot always do that which is most for their own quietness and ease Some have so strong Lust that Marriage is necessary to them to avoid Fornication And to those that need it it is Gods Ordinance for the Propagation of Mankind on Earth 3. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband 3. And let Husband and Wife perform to each other all the Duties of Marriage which they promised 4. The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife 4. By the Marriage-Covenant you have given each other power of your Bodies for regular Congress 5. Defraud you not one the other except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency 5. To deny this to each other is Injury and Fraud except when you are called to Humbling Fasting and Prayer and then you should consent to that sort of Abstinence but after use due Matrimonial Conversation lest your forbearance give Satan advantage to tempt you 6. But I speak this by permission and not of commandment 6. But mistake me not as if I hereby imposed Marriage on all Men as their Duty though allowed when necessary or gave this my Counsel as a Law 7. For I would that all men were even as I my self but every man hath his proper gift of God one after this manner and another after that 7. For I could wish that all Men for their own advantage had the Gift of Continence as well as I have But God who will have the World yet continued hath not given it to all but some have one measure and sort of Gâ—ft and some another 8. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows It is good for them if they abide even as I. 8. It is most for their own ease and liberty and quiet if they can to abide single as I do 9. But if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn 9. But if they cannot let them use Marriage as Gods appointed Remedy for such which is better than sinful Lust 10. And unto the married I command yet not I but the Lord Let not the wife depart from her husband 10. But though it be no Sin to marry it is a Sin to depart when married Herein I â—ay God Command upon you and offer it not to your Choice as a thing indifferent 11. But and if she depart let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife 11. But to marry upon departure is a double Sin If any intollerable Abuse or Passion provoke her to depart let her remain unmarried and be reconciled to her Husband And so let not the Husband put away his Wife 12. But to the rest speak I not the Lord If any brother hath a wife that believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away 13. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not and if he please to dwell with her let her not leave him 12 13. But as to the Case of Separation from an Infidel which some may think necessary by the Israelites Case in Ezra c. I bring you not this as a flat Command of Christ but as my best Advice Though you may let an Infidel go and may live without him that will not stay with you but is the Deserter in enmity to your Religion yet I think it best for you to do your best first to make such willing to continue and though it be to your great trouble to live with such yet if they be willing to stay be not you the Deserters no not for a time nor omit due means to make them willing though some such will be tyrannical and malicious Adversaries 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy 14. For though the Case in Ezra may make you doubt how it was with the Israelites yet to Christians under the Law of Grace your abode with an Infidel doth not make your Conjugal Stare or Converse or Family to be unholy The State and Interest of a Believer maketh your Relation and Cohabitation holy as separated to God for holy use which the Believer can improve as all things else are sanctified to him for the Service of God Else your Children would be like those of the Infidels unclean as not in the Covenant and Church of God but now they are holy and numbred with his Peculiar People For the Christian devoteth to God himself and all that is in his power and dispose which is accepted according to the Capacity and Use of that which is devoted and this he doth by Gods Command and therefore with his Acceptance as the Seed of the Faithful always were 15. But if the unbelieving depart let him depart A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases but God hath called us to peace 15. But to resolve your Doubt I say If the Unbeliever depart and will not be persuaded to stay you are not bound to follow them whither ever they go Marriage was made for mutual help and you are not bound in such Cases to be enslaved by a Sinners Implacability and Desertion But yet omit nothing that tendeth to a peaceable Cohabitation for God hath called us all to Peace 16. For what knowest thou O wife whether thou shalt save thy husband oâ— how knowest thou O man whether thou shalt save thy wife 16. And as the Relation and Marriage-Converse is sanctified to the
Believer so you know not but by loving and peaceable Behaviour the Unbeliever may be converted and saved 17. But as God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk and so ordain I in all churches 17. But let none on pretense of Christianity desert the Relation that God hath set him in but do his Duty in the Place that God hath distributed and called him to And this Order I appoint to all the Churches 18. Is any man called being circumcised let him not become uncircumcised is any called in uncircumcision let him not become circumcised 18. Think not that Christianity requireth any needless Changes to Circumcision or Uncircumcision as to the external Ceremony It is a Change from Sin to God which it requireth 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God 19. To be one that was or that was not circumcised is no part of the Christian Religion but to keep those Commandments which God hath given us either in the Law of Nature or by Jesus Christ Do Gods Work and make it not more than it is 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called 20. Pretend not Religion for breaking away from the State of Relation that the Gospel found you in without a just Discharge or cause of Change 21. Art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather 21. If thou wast a Servant when thou wast converted be contented with thy Condition for it 's not contrary to thy Deliverance by Christ But if thou maist be set free from a Servile Life on lawful Terms it 's rather to be chosen For it is not all change of Relation or outward State that I forbid 22. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man likewise also he that is called being free is Christs servant 22. A Christian Servant hath that sort of Freedom which Christ hath purchased He is freed from Guilt and the Curse and the Slavery of Sin and Satan And the Freest and Greatest that is a Christian is devoted absolutely to the Service of Christ 23. Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men 23. And if you are free make not your selves needlesly the Servants of Men especially or Infidels nor serve any Man before Christ or against him For he hath bought you to be his Servants 24. Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God 24. To conclude Serve God in the Calling that Grace found you in till he remove you 25. Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 25. As to your Question about Virginity God hath made no Universal Law for it or against it and I pretend not to give you any such But it being a Case to be variously resolved according to Persons various Conditions I shall give you faithfully my Judgment how to decide it severally for your selves 26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress I say that it is good for a man so to be 26. Christians being now under Persecution and Distress no doubt but it is much more for their ease and quiet to be single than to have a Wife or Husband and Children to care for in Poverty or in Flight 27. Art thou bound unto a wife seek not to be loosed Art thou loosed from a wife seek not a wife 27. If thou be bound to seek to be loosed is a Sin But if thou art loosed that thou seek not to be bound without necessity is my Advice 28. But and if thou marry thou hast not sinned and if a virgin marry she hath not sinned nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh but I spare you 28. But to marry as such is no Sin Though it be a Sin to do it when there is clear Reason against it But such must reckon upon Trouble in the Flesh But though I sorewarn you to prevent your Trouble I would not by urgency be your Snare 29. But this I say brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not 31. And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away 29 30 31. But this none should forget that this Life is so short and the End of all so near and sure that there is little difference between having a Wife or no Wife weeping or not weeping rejoicing or not rejoicing possessing and not possessing And therefore you should have Wives and weep and rejoice and possess and use this World as if you did it not with such an Indifferency through the sense of greater things as that you may not be overmuch affected with the getting or enjoying or loss of any transitory thing For all these things are in continual change and the Fashion of them passeth away 32. But I would have you without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord 32. Carefulness about the World is so bad a thing that I would have you escape it if you can The unmarried hath less Worldly Care to divert him from caring how to please God and to do good to others and secure his Soul 33. But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world how he may please his wife 33. But he that is married hath made himself so much more Duty Temptation and Trouble as must needs increase those Cares which will much divert his Thoughts and Cares from the pleasing of God Particularly the Care of pleasing his Wife will take him up because there is in all Persons much unsuitableness and difference of Judgment Temper and Inclinations and in the weaker Sex usually much Passion and Impatience and difficulty in bearing that which crosseth their Wills so that the wisest Man can hardly please some with all his Skill and Kindness and Diligence without violating his Duty to God 34. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and spirit but she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her Husband 34. And the difference is great also on the Womens part whose Weakness usually can less bear Difficulties Troubles and Temptations The unmarried is free from abundance of Troubles and Temptations which would turn away her Care from the things of God and so she is more free to keep close to God and to keep both spiritual and corporal Sanctity But she that is
married must needs care for wordly things for Children and Family and specially to please her Husband who possibly may be unsuitable and tyrannical and hardly pleased without displeasing God And to live in mutual displeasure how sad and tempting a Condition will that be Christ told Martha how had a choice it was to be cumbred about many things though lawful in comparison of chusing a free Attendance on the Better part 35. And this I speak for your own profit not that I may cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction 35. If any of â—ou think that I wrong you by debarring you from the Comforts of Marriage let such know that I speak but comparatively and for your profit tell you that many ignorantly rush upon it without consideration and so miscarry by unexpected Troubles I forbid not Marriage nor make a Law for you to ensnare you but I would have you prudently to prefer the Condition which is best for your selves in which you may serve God without distracting Cares 36. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin if she pass the flower of her age and need so require let him do what he will he sinneth not let them marry 36. But in these things about which there is no Common Law Men should themselves best judge what is suitable convenient and best for themselves If therefore you find that your Daughters have need and that it will be inconvenient to them to pass the Flower of their Age let them marry it is no sin in it self nor to such as so need it 37. Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin doth well 38. So then he that giveth her in marriage doth well but he that giveth her not in marriage doth better 37 38. But yet he that being urged by no necessity of his own or of his Daughter hath fixed his Resolution to preserve the Freedom of a Single Life not by Vows which bind those whose Condition God may alter and so make Laws and Snares to themselves but by well-grounded Reason submitting to God that can change their State this Man taketh the way to his Daughters greatest Peace and Advantage So then he that giveth her in Marriage doth that which is in it self good and no sin But he that giveth her not in Marriage doth that which is better for her if she have no necessity 39. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth but if her Husband be dead she is at liberty to be married to whom she will onely in the Lord. 39. God's Law and Mans bind the Wife to her Husband during his Life But if her Husband be dead she may marry another if nothing in her Condition forbid it but it must be to a Believer that is fit for her 40. But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment and I think also that I have the spirit of God 40. But as I am giving you no Common Law against Marriage or for it but directing you how every one may discern what is best for themselves my Judgment is That ordinarily where there is no necessity a Single Life is more for the Persons peace and quietness and freedom from Hindrances in serving God and therefore better for them ANNOTATIONS DIvers Errours have risen from the misunderstanding of some Passages in this Chapter 1. Of them that make Paul to speak at uncertainty without the Spirit of God when they read by permission and not by commandment and I and not the Lord When as he only disclaimeth the giving them a Law in stead of particular Direction II. The Errour of them that hence gather That God hath given us in Scripture his Counsels which are no Commands and make not Duty nor is it Sin to violate them but a Work of Supererrogation to do them Whereas the Apostle only distinguisheth of a proper Universal Law and a consequential Obligation from other General Laws A Common Law is the Rule of Societies If such a Law had commanded or Forbidden Marriage it would be a Duty or a Sin to all But yet God's Law bindeth all to chuse that which most tendeth to their own Good and the escape of Evil and to break this Law is Sin to him that doth it though the same thing he lawful to another e. g. To marry against Parents Consent to an unmeet Person without Necessity and oblige ones self to instruct and maintain a Family when one is unable for it and many such Cases may make it a great Sin to marry A Common Law and a Personal Obligation resulting from another General Law much differ III. The Errour of them that say By Holiness of Children ver 14. is meant either Legitimation only or meer Baptism and not an Interest according to their Capacity in the Covenant of Peculiarity I have so far confuted in my Treatise of Infant Baptism that here I pass it by IV. One excellent Divine hath hence taken occasion to speak so much against changing any Trade or Calling as affrighteth some from Lawful Changes which do more good than hurt V. From ver 37. many unjustly commend absolute Vows of Celibate which is to make a Law to God that he shall not bring them into Necessity by any Change and to make Snares and self-binding Laws for themselves as if they were their own Rulers when God hath made them Work enough and for ought they know may bring them under a necessity to marry VI. On the other side by a blind opposition to this Extreme thousands rashly run into Marriage without considering the Difficulties Cares Sufferings Troubles and Temptations that attend it And being surprised unprepared live accordingly in worldly Cares Impatience and Discontent CHAP. VIII 1. NOw as touching things offered unto idols we know that we all have knowledge Knowledge pusseth up but charity edifieth 1. As to your Case about things offered to Idols they that to defend their licentious Practice herein pretend to know more of their Liberty than we do must understand that we have Knowledge as well as they and Knowledge without Charity is not an Excellency to be boasted of it doth but puff Men up with Pride and Self-conceitedness but Charity is necessary to true Edification 2. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 2. And this Conceitedness of their great Knowledge and Wisdom proveth that they know nothing at all as they ought If they knew themselves or Man they would know the weakness of Mans Understanding and how little they know If they knew God or any of his Works they would know their Incomprehensibleness Indeed though we know somewhat of God and his Works and Word we have no adequate knowledge of any
use convincing Evidence in Explication and Application they all convince him and shew him his Condition 25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth 25. And this searching convincing Light will make them join with you in the reverent Worship of God and make them report that God is in your Church a a holy Assembly 26. How is it then brethren when ye come together every one of you hath a psalm hath a doctrine hath a tongue hath a revelation hath an interpretation Let all things be done to edifying 26. Therefore let all your Gâ—fts whether of Psalmody or Doctrine or Languages or Revelation or Interpretation be used to Edification which is the true End of Church-Assemblies And the End is your Directory in the use of all undetermined Accidents of the Means 27. If any man speak in an unknown tongue let it be by two or at the most by three and that by course and let one interpret 27. If you will use your Guift of Languages let it be done by no more than two or three one after another and let some interpret it to the Unlearned in the Church 28. But if there be no interpreter let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God 28. That which only God and your selves understand let none but God and your selves hear and speak not that in the Church which they cannot understand 29. Let the prophets speak two or three and let the other judge 29. And the Prophets also must do all to Edification and therefore must speak no more than may edisie the Church which is but two or three at an Assembly the rest judging 30. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace 30. If God immediately inspire another then to speak let the first give way to him by silence 31. For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted 31. For all that are Prophets or are then prophetically inspired may prophesie in order that all in the Church may learn and be exhorted and comforted 32. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets 32. And whereas Men may pretend to be inspired of God and that to speak just at that time when it is not so as their own Understanding must judge of the edifying Season and Order so the Prophets that are Hearers having the Spirit of God are fit Judges whether it be that Spirit or a Delusion and Passion of their own that Order may be kept in the Assemblies at least as to the time 33. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all churches of the saints 33. For pretended Inspirations and Mandates are not to be believed against Gods common Law to all the Churches which have a surer notification than a single Man can give us Bâ—t Gods common Law is against Confusion and for Peace and Order and therefore it is certain that Confusion is not of Divine Inspiration 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law 34. And it is one of the Rules of Order That Women be no Publick Teachers or Speakers in the Church God permitteth it not who hath commanded them Subjection by the Law 35. And if they will learn any thing let them ask their Husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church 35. Not but that they should learn but it must be with modesty asking their Husbands if they have such as are able to teach them as they ought else they have other private Helps It 's a shame to the Church and her for a Woman there to speak except in common singing Psalms or other Common Acts. 36. What came the word of God out from you or came it unto you only 36. I ask them that contradict this Did Gods Word come out from you or from intrusted Apostles Or did it come to you only that you contradict the Churches 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. 38. But if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant 37 38. If any be indeed a Prophet or Inspired and not pretendedly only he will confess that these Canons or Decisions are Gods own Commandments and not my Device But if Men will be obstinate in their Ignorance let them look to it 39. Wherefore brethren covet to prophesie and forbid not to speak with tongues 39. Prophecy for the Churches Edifying is to be coveted and Languages there not forbidden 40. Let all things be done decently and in order 40. That Sacred things be all done decently and not with uncomely negligence and orderly and not in confusion or as every Mans Fancy leads him this is a General Law of God according to which undetermined Modes and Circumstances must be regulated and done ANNOTATIONS I. IT 's a Doubt oft put How it could be that Gods Spirit should inspire Men with Tongues or Prophecy and yet not tell them when and how to use them But it 's not to be thought that he that was before without the Habit had the actual Use of them then suddenly inspired but that as the Learned so the Inspired had the habitual Knowledge of Tongues before they assembled and so for the actual Use and Time were to exercise their own Discretion II. The Description of the Church here oft named as meeting in one Place with their Officers and Guides tells us that then a Church of this Rank was not a Diocess of many hundred Assemblies which had all but one Bishop their Constitutive Head but that it was a Company associated for Personal Communion that usually met in one Place though Necessity might make them meet in many and tho some General Guides might take care of many such Churches III. The greater number of Prophets and Teachers c. that were here in one Assembly whose Exercises the Apostle was put to restrain doth fully confute Dr. Hammond's oft-repeated Opinion That in Scripture-times there is no Proof that there were any more Presbyters to one Church than one who was a Bishop and had Deacons under him and that for want of capable Persons But his Opinion inferreth That then a Church was no greater than could meet in one Place For one Bishop could not be at once in many And if no Subject-Presbyters were made in Scripture-times it must be proved by what just Power they were after made even a sort of Pastors never made by the Apostles IV. The Arguments of the Apostle against the uninterrupted Use of Tongues not understood in the Church are so many cogent plain and vehement that I will
whether the Soul take not with it some of the Igneous Spirits by which it here operated as such a Body as Seminal Vertue in Inferior things is lodged in them and whether at the Resurrection God use that Composition of Igneous Matter or Ethereal and Spiritual Form for the aggregation of so much more such Matter as shall be needful to make up the Glorious Spiritual Incorruptible Body But all this and how much of the Flesh we lived in God will raise is to us unknown VIII Ver. 50. That Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God is grosly perverted by them that say That it 's only Sinful Flesh that is meant or them that say That Flesh and Blood shall enter but incorruptible It is proper formal Flesh and Blood that the Apostle mentioneth Flesh is the Blood and other nutritive Juyce coagulated into that Fibrous Substance so called and is the Matter of Food digested and assimilated unto this It is made of Earth Water and Air and so is Blood Define them and nothing that is in Heaven will agree with that Definition If such Earth shall be placed in Heaven it will cease by transmutation to be Earth To call a Spiritual Incorruptible Glorious Body Earth and Water or Flesh and Blood and place these with the Blessed Spirits is but to equivocate and not to use the Words univocally The two General Councils Nice second and Constance before it differing in other things agree That Christs true Body is in Heaven but that there it is not Flesh and Blood And yet the Papists feign that he hath still real Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament Doubtless by a Spiritual Body is meant one that is so near the Nature of a Spirit as is fittest for spiritual and glorious Work which made many of the Fathers say That it will be an Ethereal or Igneous or Luminous Body But Gods Knowledge must be implicitly rested in when we have no explicit Knowledge CHAP. XVI 1. NOw concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia even so do ye 1. I come next to your Order for Collections for the poor Christians in the present Famine at Jerusalem In which I would have you as most convenient to observe this Order which I gave to the Churches of Galatia 2. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come 2. The Lords-day being separated for sacred Works of which holy Charity is a great part let every one willingly lay by as devoted to God for this Service according to the proportion of his Increase that I may find it ready and not stay when I come for your Collections 3. And when I come whomsoever you shall approve by your Letters them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem 3. And then that you may be satisfied of the faithful delivery you shall chuse the Messenger your selves 4. And if it be meet that I go also they shall go with me 4. And if I find cause to go my self your own Trustees shall go with me 5. Now I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia for I do pass through Macedonia 6. And it may be that I will abide yea and winter with you that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go 7. For I will not see you now by the way but I trust to tarry a while with you if the Lord permit 5 6 7. Note That a wise Fore-contrivance of our own Course of Labour is lawful but onely with submission to Gods Will. 8 9. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost For a great door and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries 8 9. Hope of great Success and the opposition of many Adversaries persuade me to stay at Ephesus Note That great Success of the Gospel oft consisteth with many Adversaries 10. Now if Timotheus come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do 10. See that Timothy when he cometh be not discouraged by distrust or abuse for he is my faithful Helper in the same Work of the Lord in which I serve him 11. Let no man therefore despise him but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me for I look for him with the brethren 11. Despise him not but give credit to his Message and respectfully conduct him at his return to us 12. As touching our brother Apollos I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren but his will was not at all to come at this time but he will come when he shall have convenient time 12. Note That Paul left him to his choice and did not suspend or silence him for disobeying an Apostle 13. Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong 13. Finally Your Case is so weighty and Trial so great as require your constant watch your resolved steadfastness in the Faith a Manlike Strength Endeavour and Defence 14. Let all your things be done with charity 14. The sum and chiefest Rule that I give you is Do all that you do in Love or Endearedness to one another and this will cast out Selfishness Pride Envy and Division and keep you from rash censuring separating despising or abusing one another 15 16. I beseech you brethren ye know the house of Stephanas that it is the first-fruits of Achaia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints That ye submit your selves unto such and to every one that helpeth with us and laboureth 15 16. The House of Stephanas being the first converted in Achaia and addicted to further Christians with their Estates and Labour and he being now my Fellow-labourer submit your selves to him and to all such 17. I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied 18. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours therefore acknowledge ye them that are such 17 18. For they have performed such respectful Offices as you were wanting in Therefore let such be respected by you 19. The churches of Asia salute you Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house 20. All the brethren greet you Greet ye one another with an holy kiss 21. The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand 19 20 21. The Christians of their Family or the Assembly that used to meet there for Church Communion 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 22. Those that love the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and Hope will stick to him and confess him in Temptation and Sufferings And if any Man love him not let him as accursed be delivered to Satan and cut off from God 23 24. The grace of our Lord
your Faith will be the increase of my Advantage and of my Comfort and Reward whoever helpeth you it being the Fruit and Increase of the Seed which I sowed 16. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand 16. I hope by your Increase to have the better opportunity to carry the Gospel beyond you to the Regions that have not yet received it and not to boast as entring on other Mens Labours 7. But he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. 17. But let us all take heed that we glory not in our selves but purely in God and for God that we do his Work and promote his Kingdom and Honour in the World 18. For not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 18. Self-commendation is no just Praise but a detection and shame of Pride and Folly But it 's Gods Approbation and Praise which is our real Honour CHAP. XI 1. WOuld to God you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me 2. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ 1 2. I would you could bear a little with that which is like to foolish Boasting Yea you must bear with me because it is from a godly Jealousie of Love to you for Christs sake to whom I did espouse you as chaste and peculiar to him 3. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 3. But I fear lest by the Craft and fair Pretenses of them that tell you of a more sublime Degree of Knowledge as the Serpent by subtilty beguiled Eve by telling her that they should be as God knowing Good and Evil so your Minds should be corrupted while you think that they are edified by forsaking that Christian Simplicity and Purity which is the true Wisdom Note 1. That fair Promises and Beginnings may end in soul Corruptions 2. Forsaking Christian Simplicity is the Corruption of Minds and Churches That is 1. Turning from the simple Doctrine of the Creed and things necessary and sure to vain Curiosities and uncertain Assertions and Contentions on pretense of Orthodoxness or of higher Knowledge 2. From the simplicity of Worship to ludicrous Humane Ceremonies and Formalities 3. From the Simplicity of Discipline to Tyranny and Domination and ensnaring unnecessary Canons and Customs imposed on the Churches 4. From the Simplicity of Christian Love and Conversation to segregate Sects and to Partiality and self-seeking wordly Crast 3. Pretended extraordinary Knowledge is one of Satans Methods to corrupt the Church 4. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another Spirit which ye have not received or another gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him 4. It is one Christ one Spirit and one Gospel that we have preached and you received If your new pretended Teachers have another Christ and Spirit and Gospel to preach and can give better Proof of what they say than I have done for the Christ Spirit and Gospel which I have preached let them shew it and let them be born with and received 5. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles 6. But though I be rude in speech yet not in knowledge but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things 5 6. I suppose that I have no way come short of those that are the most eminent Apostles If my Speech be as mean and rude as they object so is not my Knowledge which is the thing that they pretend to excel in But sure I need not tell you of this who have had the Proof of it in my Ministry to your selves 7. Have I committed an offence in abasing my self that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely 7. Is it my offence that forbearing the ostentation of Learning called Wisdom I have preached the Gospel of the Cross according to your capacity and that without putting you to Charge by taking any Maintenance from you 8 9. I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you service And when I was present with you and wanted I was chargeable to no man for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied and in all things I have kept my self from being burdensom unto you and so will I keep my self 8 9. I did that which had been partiality and robbing had there not been just cause c. Note That 1. One Church ought to contribute to the furtherance of the Gospel to others 2. This is a close Reproof of the Corinthians whom Paul saw so covetouâ— or suspicious of him that if he had made himself beholden to them he had crossed the Ends of his Ministry 10. As the truth of Christ is in me no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia 10. And that you may not think I am covetous or like to burden you I solemnly protest that I will not in Achaia give away this Advantage of serving you freely knowing what occasion some among you would else take to reproach my Ministry Note If it was so meritorious in Paul to serve them freely what a sort of People are they among us that reproach that Ministry that would in stead of burdening them give even their own Estates to the Poor as well as their Labours 11 12 Wherefore because I love you not God knoweth But what I do that I will do that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion that wherein they glory they may be found even as we 11 12. This is not God knoweth because I love you not but because I know how some Men watch for an occasion to accuse us which I will cut off from them that they may not have an advantage to boast on this account Note That it 's very like these Accusers of Paul were some rich Men that complied with the Times for Interest and took no Pay of the Churches but deceived them freely and reproached Paul has a poor indigent Fellow that preached for Bread 13. For such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ 13. For these false Apostles are deceitful Workers pretending that they are Christs Apostles and acting as if they were such indeed Note It 's no wonder then if there be swarms of false Ministers pretending to be the true Ministers of Christ 14. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light 14. And no marvel when Satan doth but teach them to do as he doth who counterfeiteth an Angel of Light and bringeth in Errour and Sin by bold pretending that it is Light
and extraordinary Knowledge and Vertue 15. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 15. Therefore it is not an incredible thing that Men should be really the Devils Ministers animated and taught by him to do his Work against the Interest of Christ and Truth and Godliness and yet pretend to go beyond Christs own Apostles in preaching Righteousness Wisdom and Godliness Note That the Pretenses of Truth Orthodoxness Righteousness Free Grace Unity Peace c are no sufficient Evidences of true Ministers The Devils Ministers may pretend them all and may cry down Christs Ministers as Carnal Hereticks Legal Schismaticks c. 16. I say again let no man think me a fool if otherwise yet as a fool receive me that I may boast my self a little 16. Take it not for Folly to vindicate my Ministry But if you do yet hear me try and judge Note That Paul meaneth that Boasting is the usual mark of a Fool but it is no Folly when the Interest of God and Souls require it It was seemingly not really his Folly 17. That which I speak I speak it not after the Lord but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting 17. That which I speak of my self I speak not as I do the Gospel by Inspiration and I confess that materially it hath the appearance of Folly in ostentation 18 19 20. Seing that many glory after the flesh I will glory also For ye suffer fools gladly seeing ye your selves are wise For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face 18 19 20. You can easily bear with a Fool because you are wise your selves So bear with me while I do that necessarily which they do vainly You can bear with greater Provocations even with them that would captivate you to Errour and the Law and would make a Prey of you and make themselves your Lords and Masters and abuse you 21. I speak as concerning reproach as though we had been weak howbeit whereinsoever any is bold I speak foolishly I am bold also 21. I speak of them that reproach me of contemptible Weakness Though I confess that Boasting usually signifieth Folly I will say that I have as much as they to boast of Note That Paul is so cautelous lest any by his Example should be tempted by proud Boasting that materially he calls it Folly though formally it was not so in him 22 23. Are they Hebrews so am I are they Israelites so am I are they the seed of Abraham so am I Are they ministers of Christ I speak as fool I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft 22 23. They boast that they are Hebrews Israelites Abraham's Seed and Ministers of Christ And am not I so too Yea though my Words be like those of a Fool I say that I have laboured and suffered more for Christ by Stripes Prisons and daily dying than they have done 24. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep 24 25 Scourged by the Jews to the utmost seveâ—ity beaten by the Romans stoned by the Rabble thrice shipwrack'd a Night and a Day in some darksom dangerous Passage at Sea or a Dungeon so called as some think 26 27. In journing often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by mine own countrymen in perils by the heathen in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness 26 27 Note That the Sufferings which deter Carnal Men from Religion by Shame and Fear are the Honour of Believers 28. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches 28. Besides the things that are without my Body even the Case of all the Churches which are my daily Care 29. Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not 29. Every Mans Weakness and Sufferings are to me as my own The danger of the Tempted and Scandalised is my pain and care for their preservation 30. If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities 30. If you will put me to boast it shall be of that which worldly Men will turn to my reproach not of any Preeminence but of my Sufferings 31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not 32. In Damascus the governour under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garison desirous to apprehend me 33. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands 1. Note That through all this Chapter Paul calls his Boasting Folly not formally and really but materially and seemingly because it's Fools that boast unnecessarily when the false Apostles made it his Duty 2. Note That it was no small Quarrel of Brethren like that of Barnabas which put him upon all this Apology which else would not have savoured of Humility But it was the Intrusion and envious Accusation of such Jewish Heretical false Apostles as he calleth the Ministers of Satan who endeavoured to subvert the Gospel and by disgracing him to frustrate all his Labours and destroy the Church It 's like to be those called Nicolatians Rev. 2. 3. CHAP. XII IT is not expedient for me doubtless to glory I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 1. I know that boasting is unseemly for an humble Minister of Christ but seeing it is put upon me I proceed to a higher Matter even Visions and Revelations from God 2. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven 3. And I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth 4. How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter 2 3 4. I knew a Man that was acted by the Spirit of Christ above himself who above fourteen years ago whether Bodily or onely by mental Extasie and Rapture I know not God knoweth was caught up to that Place of Glory called the Third Heavens and caught up there into Paradise a Place of Joys and heard that which neither can nor must be uttered being unsuitable to the Ears of Mortals and proper to Possessors 5. Of such an one will I glory
you have brought all your Churches into danger of defection 10. I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be 10. I trust God will keep the Churches from revolting but those Persons whoever they be that by Seduction trouble and endanger you shall not escape Gods Judgment and our just Rebukes and Censures 11. And I brethren if I yet preach circumcision why do I yet suffer persecution then is the offence of the cross ceased 11. And as for me what need I suffer much if I could conform to the Judaism which these Men would imposâ— And then how are we still bound to take up the Cross and suffer with and for Christ These Conditions imposed by Christ on those that will reign with him are then ceased and the Church is no more a persecuted Society Note That the Jews who took themselves to be not onely Gods peculiar but his only People and thought all others contemptible and profane were yet far greater Persecuters than the Heathens and that as in zeal for God and his Law And so are the Worldly Papal Tyrannical Clergy at this day who appropriate the Name of the Church to themselves 12. I would they were even cut off which trouble you 12. The hurt that these Men do who would unsettle and pervert you is so great that I would they were even cut off from the Church if upon personal Admonition they repent not and so left to Gods Judgment who oft maketh Satan his Executioner on such Mens Bodies 13. For brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another 13. Christ hath called you to a State of Freedom from Mosaical Rites and from the Curse Use it therefore thankfully but yet abuse it not to any Sin to despise the weak that yet scruple the forsaking of those Rites or to serve any Carnal Lust or Interest as if you had liberty to sin 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 14. You are still under a Law but it is the Law of Love which in the Duties which you owe to Man is fulfilled if you do but love your Neighbours as your selves supposing that you love your selves with a well-guided Love 15. But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another 15. But if Selfishness and Faction conquer Brotherly Love and set you on hurting one another you will stir up those whom you hurt to Self-defence and Revenge and make your selves so many Enemies that you will be consumed each of other Note How sottish or malignant are they that preach down Love and Gentleness and preach to stir up Men to Wrath Hatred and Hurtfulness that they consider not this and lay it not to heart with fear 16. This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh 16. If you say That without the Law there will be no restraint of fleshly Sins I say Walk in the Spirit of Christ that is by his Spiritual Law and his Spirits sanctifying Inclinations and then you will overcome your fleshly Lusts without the Carnal Rites and Corporal Penalties of that Law 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would 17. For the Flesh and Spirit are more contrary than the Flesh and Moses's Political and Ritual Law It is the Spirit that the Flesh lusteth against and it is the Spirit that is contrarily inclined and must overcome it These contrary Inclinations keep you in such imperfection that you cannot be as good and blameless as you would be and therefore Grace must pardon you 18. But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law 18. But if the sanctifying Spirit of Christ be it that ruleth you then as you are above the childish Rites so you so far are above the need of terrifying Penalties for Love will be your powerful Principle 19 20. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies 21. Envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God 19 20 21. Perhaps you 'll say How shall we know Sin but by the Law To which I say That they being Works of the Flesh against true Reason and the Spirit of God the very Light of Nature and Christs Spirit and Spiritual Word doth make them manifest such as Adultery Fornication c. of which I have told you and yet tell you that such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith 23. Meekness temperance against such there is no law 22 23. But the Fruits of the Spirit of Christ in all true Christians them that are not under the Law of Moses are Love to God and Men Joy in the hope of Salvation and in doing good Peace with Conscience and as much as in us lieth with Men Patience under Sufferings and Wrongs Kindness and Gentleness doing all the good we can Trustiness and trusting God Meekness and tameness of Disposition Temperance and Chastity c. The Spirit of God giveth us a Love to all these so that such need not penal Terrour to force them to it nor doth the Law condemn any of these 24. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts 24. And all true Christians whom Christ will own have by his Spirit crucified the Flesh with its inordinate Affections and Lusts in conformity to the crucified Body of their Lord though he had no Sin And this is more effectual against Sin than all the Curses of Moses's Law 25. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit 25. If the Spirit be the Principle of our New Life let us do the Works of it 26. Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another 26. If you be Spiritual shew it by avoiding vain-glorious Boasting of your own Knowledge and Goodness and provoking others by proud Contempt or contentious Opposition See Jam. 3. CHAP. VI. 1. BRethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted 1. If any of you be surprised in Faultiness contrary to the bent of his Heart and Life you that are indeed spiritual and free your selves shew it by that Meekness which is the Fruit of the Spirit in
restoring him by Repentance and use not rough Severity and Contempt considering how uncertain you are what Temptation may dâ— upon your selves 2. Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ 2 Let other Mens Burdens Hurts and Dangers be to you as if they were your own help each other to deliverance and ease and not add to the Load that is upon them And by this you shall fulsul the Law of Christ which is the Law of Love 3. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself 3. Alas Man is a poor nothing unable of himself to stand in trial and the self-confident who roughly handle the Faulty or contemn them and so think themselves to be something do but deceive themselves as the Event will manifest 4. But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another 4. The way of Wisdom is not to lift up your selves as Wise and Good by sharp censuring the Faults of others but closely to try and prove your selves and your own doings that so your own Consciences may speak comfort to you and not to seek Honour by insulting over the Weak that others may exalt you 5. For every man shall bear his own burden 5. For it is not other Mens Goodness or Sins for which Men shall be rewarded or punished but their own And therefore they are most concerned to judge themselves 6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things 6. And to your Teachers it is the Hearers Duty to maintain them and communicate according to your own Ability for their Provision and Supply 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap 7. Let not Men deceive themselves by a barren Profession for God will not be deceived All Men shall reap as they sowe and be judged according to their Works 8. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting 8. They that seek first Provision for their own Flesh do live but for a Body that will rot in the Grave and where then is the Fruit of their Life besides the Ruine of their Soul But they that in obedience to the Spirit do live a spiritual Life for spiritual Felicity shall receive everlasting Life as their Reward 9. And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not 9. And let not us be tired with length of Labour or delay of the Reward Harvest cometh not as soon as we have sown When Gods due season is come we shall certainly reap the blessed Fruit if fainting make us not come short of it 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith 10. Let us therefore according to our several Abilities do all the good to all Men that we can but especially to Christians who are the Houshold or Church of Christ 11 12. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised onely lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ 11 12. You see how large a Letter your own Danger hath drawn me to write They that would draw you to conformity to the Jews are a Carnal sort of Men that will keep their Wordly Reputation and Safety and because they cannot suffer Persecution from the Jews themselves they would draw you to this Conformity with them that you may seem to justifie them in their Sin and pretend that all others are ignorant of Christian Liberty 13. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh 13. For they keep not the Law themselves but would keep up their Reputation by getting you on their side to strengthen their Interest and make you their Defence 14. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world 14. But my Glorying shall not be in worldly Prosperity and freedom from Sufferings but in following a Crucified Christ in Cross-bearing by whom the World to me is a dead contemned thing as Christ on the Cross seemed to the Men of the World and my Esteem and Love of the World are crucified and dead in me so that I can spare its Ease and Honours 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature 15. For in the Judgment of Christ the Christianity which is accepted to Salvation is neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision though Judaizing Circumcision be now contrary to Grace but it is a New Creature by the Spirit regenerated to God 16. And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God 16. And the Peace and Mercy of God will be on all them that walk as New Creatures by the guidance of his Spirit placing acceptable Religion in this and not in Circumcision or Uncircumcision This Benediction I pronounce on them that are the true Israel of God and will so be accepted by him however judged of by Man 17. From henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus 17. Let not those that profess themselves Christians any more trouble me by their Emulations and Calumnies and by seducing the Churches For I carry with me the Marks of my Faithfulness to Christ even the Sufferings which I undergo for him which are a better Evidence of his Acceptance than avoiding Persecution is to my Accusers that would seduce you 18. Brethren the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit Amen 18. My Benediction and Prayer for you is That the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with your Spirit to guide justifie and sanctifie you which will save you when Judaism and trusting to the Works of the Law will fail you Amen The Epistle of PAUL the Apostle to the EPHESIANS CHAP. I. 1. PAul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus 2. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 1 2. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ called and sent by his Appearance and Voice to preach his Gospel to which God had chosen me to the Saints and faithful Christians at Ephesus my Benediction and Prayer is That they may have Grace and Peace Holiness and Consolation from God our Father and Christ our Saviour 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
these are the Sins for which Gods Wrath cometh on the Unbelievers and therefore will do so on all the Disobedient that live in them Therefore be not you Partakers in the Sin if you would not partake also of the Punishment 8. For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light 8. For you were in darkness formerly your selves but Christ hath brought you into the light of saving Knowledge Live then as in the Light according to the Gospel and Spirit of Christ and do that of which you need not be ashamed 9 10. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 9 10. For Christ ruleth all true Christians by his Spirit of Illumination and Sanctification and the Fruits of that Spirit and Light are Goodness Love and Kindness Righteousness Truth and Faithfulness trying and chusing what is pleasing to the Lord. 11. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them 11. Communicate not with these Heathens and Hereticks Works of Darkness and fleshly Lusts but rather do your best to save Men from them by reproof 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret 12. For their secret Filthiness which cannot bear the Light is such as Modesty is loth to name 13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light 13. But all things when the Light discovereth them are manifest and if approvable need not fear it for the Doctrine and Spirit of Christ are a manifesting Light 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light 14. Which is the sense of Isa 60.1 which calleth the People that slept in Darkness to awake that the Lord may shine upon them which Christ now doth to true Believers 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise 16. Redeeming the time because the days are evil 15 16. See then that you live not carelesly but with watchfulness and accurate circumspection not as Fools that see not or mind not their danger but as Wise Men that look on every side and are careful to avoid all sorts of Evil And therefore take hold of the present Opportunity and use well the Light of the Gospel while you have it for the World is round about you full of Snares and Dangers which without wise Circumspection cannot be avoided 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is 17. Wherefore let not Ignorance and Folly prepare you for Deceit but labour to be well acquainted with the Will of God concerning your Duty 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit 19. Speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord 18 19. And do not like Heathens and sensual Libertines think that the exhileration of excess of Wine which causeth Sottishness and Lust is either lawful or suitable to Devotion but be you exhilerated by the Spirit of God whose Grace you must excite and exercise by Psalms and Hymns of Praise to God and Spiritual Songs which you must use in holy manner to the Lord with the inward Melody of the Heart Note 1. That Paul here leaveth it to Christian Wisdom whether we shall use David's Psalms for others more fitted to Gospel Times and Worship 2. That hence it is evident that it is lawful to use some Forms of Worship invented and imposed by Man For Hymns and Songs cannot be used without Invention And the Church or many cannot join in them unless some one lead and impose them on the rest It would be mad Work for a Congregation to sing extemporate Songs and every one a several one of his own And if Prayer and Praise in Metre may be invented and imposed the same Reasons will hold as to Prose when Uniformity is needful as in Baptism c. 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 20. Chearfully thanking God continually on all occasions for all his Mercies which are found in all things that he doth offering this to the Father in the Name of Christ Note That Psalms and Thanksgiving to God through Christ must be the most constant Part of Christian Worship 21. Submitting your selves one to another in the fear of God 21. And let Gods Command move you to be yielding and submissive and not stout and staff towards one another but especially to your Superiours but so as to fear and obey God before Men. 22 23. Wives submit your selves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Saviour of the body 22 23. Let Wives shew their Subjection to Christ by submitting to their Husbands as by his Command For the Husband is under Christ the Head or Ruler of the Wife to govern her in Love and protect her as Christ is the Supreme Head and Ruler of the Church and the Saviour of it as his Body 24. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing 24. Therefore as the Church is in all things to be subject to Christ so must the Wives be to their Husbands in all things belonging to that Relation under Christ 25. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word 25 26. Husbands imitate Christ in loving your Wives as Christ did his Church for which in a special sense he gave himself by death that he might sanctifie it to God and cleanse it from Sin by washing away their Guilt and Filth signified and sealed in Baptism and by the Promises and Preaching of his Word 27. That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish 27. That he may prepare it for the great Marriage-day and then present it to himself cleansed and beautified without Sin Guilt or Blemish but perfect in Holiness and glorious 28. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself 28. As Eve was taken out of Adam so the Union between Husband and Wâ—fe is so near that Men should love their Wives in a sort as their own Bodies and to love a Wife should be as the loving of our selves 29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church 29. And as Nature causeth all Men to love nourish and cherish their own
Holiness 1. See that the firm Belief of the Truth of the Gospel against all Deceivers be to you as a Military Girdle about your Loins 2. And that universal sincere Obedience to God and Uprightness of Life towards all Men joined to your Pardon through the Merits of Christ may be to you as a Breast-plate is to Soldiers in Fight that no Adversary may have Matter of just Accusation against you 3. And that the Gospel of Christ which speaketh Peace to the World and to your selves may so dwell in your Hearts to make you Men of Peace and in your Mouths to invite others to Peace with God and one another that it may be to you as those Shoes were to Soldiers which they put on when they went to War to keep their Feet from hurt and danger 16. Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked 16. Above all see that you firmly believe and trust to the Word and Promises of God which will be to you as a Shield or Target to a Soldier by which he is preserved from all the Darts or Shot that is made against him And though Satans Darts be fiery Persecution and fierce Temptations this will defend you and frustrate all 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God 17. And trust fully in Christ as your Saviour for Salvation and this will as an Helmet or Head-piece to a Soldier defend your chiefest Part from danger And skilfully use the Word of God indited and sealed by his Spirit which will serve you for Defence and Conquest by the help of the same Spirit as a Sword doth to a Soldier 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints 18. And because you must do all in dependence on God see that you be constant in all sorts or parts of Prayer for your selves and others even such Prayer as Gods Spirit directeth you to by his Word and exciteth you to by his Grace And for that end keep your Minds by watchfulness in a serious praying temper and be not cold or weary but hold on and forget not to pray for all holy Persons and holy things Note That 1. They that scorn praying in or by the Spirit scorn the Work of the Spirit in all acceptable Prayer to God 2. They that forbid Prayer forbid that which God commandeth and his Spirit in us as an Intercessor performeth 3. When God commandeth all Prayer and Supplication we must obey him though any Men would confine us to the Fetters of their narrow defective Words and Books 4. They that hate revile excommunicate unjustly and persecute those Saints whom God commandeth us to love and pray for fight under Satan against Christ 19. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel 19. And let me have a special part in your Prayers that I may be freed from silencing Imprisonments and Restraints and may have Liberty and Ability boldly to make known the Mystery of Mans Salvation by Christ 20. For which I am an ambassadour in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak 20. For I am in Bonds by Men though Christs Ambassador even for preaching to Men this Gospel of Salvation But pray for me that whatever it cost me I may do my Duty and speak though forbidden as I ought to speak Note That as God worketh by Men so doth the Devil And therefore it is no wonder that Paul was in Bonds for preaching Salvation and that Men make Laws against Praying and Preaching and if the Devil call it Sedition For really Praying and Preaching do more to destroy his Kingdom and save Souls than Arms can do 21. But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do Tychicus a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things 21. And that you may know how all things go with me Tychicus will tell you whom you may trust 22. Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts 22. I have sent him that he may represent things truly to you and help to keep you from discouragement or undue trouble for my Sufferings 23. Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ 23. I conclude with this Benediction and Prayer for you That God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will give maintain and increase in you all that confirmed Faith which may fill you with Love and keep you in Peace and Welfare 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen 24. And let the Grace Favour and Blessing of God be still with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ with sincere incorruptible confirmed Love Amen The Epistle of PAUL the Apostle to the PHILIPPIANS CHAP. I. 1. PAul and Timotheus the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons 2. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 1 2. I Paul and Timothy now with me send greeting with this Epistle to all the Saints or Christians which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons there wishing to them Grace and Peace which are all Blessings in sum from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Note 1. That Dr. Hammond affirming That Paul meant here all the Bishops and Deacons in Macedonia or a whole Province doth this without any cogent Proof as he saith the like of Corinth Ephesus c. though it may be granted that consequently they to whom these Epistles were written were to communicate them to as many as they could 2. That he contradicteth himself in saying there was but one Bishop in a City when elsewhere he saith there was one of the Jews Church and another of the Gentiles 3. That Paul saith it was the Saints which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons to wit which were at Philippi with them But sure all that were in a Province so great were not at Philippi And his Conclusion That every Church in Scripture-times had but One Bishop with Deacons his Servants there being then no middle Order in use and that in all the New Testament the Words Bishop and Presbyter signified onely such as we now call Bishops 1. Is contrary to the Descriptions of the Churches of Jerusalem Antioch Corinth c. where in one Assembly there were so many Prophets sit for the Publick Ministry that they needed regulating restraint in Ministring 2. But thus he must maintain That de facto no Church had then more than one Presbyter and so no B ishop more than one sixed
thus press toward the End of our Faith in Love And then if through imperfection of Knowledge you come short and differ in other things while you wait on God in Humility Love and Peace God will in time make you know what yet is wanting to you 16. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing 16. But let all that have attained soundness in these necessary Essentials of Christianity still live according to these Gospel-Truths which we all acknowledge and in Love and Concord practise and promote these things in which we are agreed Note How directly Paul condemneth both Church-Tyrants and Sectaries the former silencing reviling and persecuting and the other reproachfully censuring and separating from those that agree in all here instanced for not consenting to needless Trifles of the Clergies imposition or to the Errours of superstitious ignorant Men. 17. Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample 17. God that hath sent me to teach you hath herein also made me an Ensample to you I beseech you therefore herein follow me in humble striving towards Perfection uniting in sincere Christianity and bearing in other things with each other till God teach you the rest 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ 19. Whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things 18 19. For many of whom I have oft told you and now mention them with Tears for their own fakes and the Churches do so live as that while they are called Christians they are such Enemies to the bearing of the Cross in following a Crucified Christ that they will suffer nothing for their Faith For taking up Christianity notionally in their Brains without the Life and Power on their Hearts the World was never overcome or their Lust mortified by it so that their Belly or fleshly Lust is the God which they most love and obey and while they glory that they know more of Christian Liberty than we do and so may lawfully please fleshly Lusts it is their Shame and Bruâ—tishness which they glory in and therefore Destruction will be their end 20. For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 20 21. But our City freedom Relation Treasure Converse and Business is in Heaven among the Heavenly Society in the Jerusalem above From thence by Faith and joyful Hope we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus who is our Head and Intercessour there and who will not onely receive our Souls at death but will also change these vile Bodies which being made of the low dissoluble Elements are a clog to our Souls and must corrupt like the Flesh of Bruits and will make them like his own now-glorious Body spiritual incorruptible and glorious and this he can and will do how unlikely soever it appears to us by the exercise of his Omnipotency by which he can conquer all Difficulties and Enemies for the accomplishing of the Work of the Salvation of his Church Note 1. That the great difference between miserable Hypocrites and sound Christians is that the former set most by Flesh and Earth and the latter by the Hopes of Heaven to which they subject all worldly Interest and on which and for which they live and labour most as Worldlings do for a Worldly Welfare 2. That a false sensual worldly unmortified Heart betrayeth Hypocrites into worldly sensual Opinions and Heresies and they easily believe all to be lawful which maketh for their fleshly worldly Interests and Lusts because their false Hearts would have it to be lawful CHAP. IV. 1. THerefore my brethren dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved 1. Note That the most amiable Christians have need of Warning and earnest Exhortation against Backsliding by Temptation and Deceivers 2. I beseech Euodias and beseech Syntiche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. 2. Note It 's like he heard of Contention between these two which he beseecheth them to cease 3. And I intreat thee also true yokefellow help those women which laboured with me in the gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow labourers whose names are in the book of life 3. And I intreat thee my true Fellow-labourer it 's like he meaneth Epaphroditus but uncertain take care of those Women that furthered our Work by entertaining us and suffering for the Faith with Clement and other Helpers who are of the number of those that God will own 4. Rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say Rejoyce 4. Rejoice in the Interest you have in the Lord his Grace and Protection and Promise of Glory Yea I again urge it on you Always rejoice Note 1. That Christians even in a state of opposition from the World have always greater cause of rejoicing in God than of sorrow for the World Though if they wilfully sin it may interrupt their Joy by making them unfit for it as Wounds and Sickness do the Body 2. That holy Joy in the Lord is that Flower of Religion which all Christians should desire and chiefly labour to attain 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand 5. Let all Men see that you put the best sense on all that befals you from God and Man and that you take nothing by impatience or uncharitableness at the worst but can suffer Injuries For God is with you and the day of his delivering you is near 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God 6. Let no Want or Danger disturb your Mind with anxious distrustful Cares but in every Case go and open it to God in Prayer for your selves and others with Thanksgiving for what you have received as beseemeth those who truly trust in God 7. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus 7. And by this Lenity of Mind and Trust in God by Prayer the Peace which you shall have in Gods Love to you in your own Souls and in Concord with the Church which is of inestimable value above much notional Knowledge shall as a Garrison keep your Affections from disturbance and your Judgments from Errour through the Grace of Christ 8. Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there
the Tenders of Free Mercy and Salvation to Jews and Gentiles nor keep his Elect and Faithful Flock from that Heavenly Glory where Angels and Saints shall be One Blessed Society united in Love to God and each other 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled 21. And you who were not onely as all others originally guilty as the Seed of Adam but also of the Race and Society of Gentiles by your wicked Works estranged from God and out of the way of his saving Grace and Enemies to it and him yet now hath he reconciled by Christ and taken you for his Children 22. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight 22. By giving up his Body of Flesh to death as a Propitiatory Sacrifice and by justifying and sanctifying you to present you holy and blameless and justified at last before him 23. If ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I Paul am made a minister 23. I say you shall be thus perfected at last if you prove sound confirmed Christians continuing in the Faith grounded and setled and by no Temptation be ever turned from the Hope which Christ hath given you in his Gospel which by Christs Commission we preach to all Men in this lower World which is already happily begun the Church being no more confined to Jews but gathered out of all the Earth to which Work Christ hath Commissioned me who am labouring therein Note That how true soever it be that sound Believers shall be finally justified in Judgment and glorified the Promise giveth them Right to it but on Condition of Perseverance and God useth Conditional Promises to engage us rationally to our Duty and as a Means to accomplish his Absolute Decrees 24. Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the church 24. And I rejoyce that God honoureth me to suffer for his Church in so excellent a Work For it is by the Cross or Suffering that God will bring the Church to Glory And as Christ hath perfectly done his own part as the onely Propitiating Sacrifice so I with the rest of his Members must undergo and make up the rest even for the same Churches sake for which he died though not as a Mediator to reconcile God and Man as he was 25. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfil the word of God 25. Of which Church I am made a Servant by Gods appointment and commission given me for you as well as for others that I may fully divulge the Word of God 26. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints 26. The great Mystery of Redemption God manifested in the Flesh as the Head and Saviour of the Church which though not wholly yet comparatively hath been hid from Jews under dark Types as well as more from Gentiles by greater Darkness in all fore-going Ages But now is plainlier made known to Gods Saints 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory 27. To whom God of his good Pleasure would specially make known the Riches and Glory of this Mystery of Calling the whole World of Gentiles The Sum of it is Christ among you and in you purchasing giving and assuring to you the Heavenly Glory for which he hath commanded you joyfully to hope Christ the Way Glory the End 28. Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus 28. To preach this Christ is the Work of our Office warning and teaching every Man as we have opportunity neglecting none of any Rank in all the saving Wisdom of the Gospel that we may present as many as possible perfect to Salvation 29. Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily 29. In this Labour I am employed in which with diligence I strive according to the Grace of him that called me which wrought in me or worketh by me in Power confirming my Ministry by Miracles and Success as well as qualifying me for it CHAP. II. 1. FOr I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh 1. Conflict by Prayer and Care and Study to do them good Note Good Men long for the Good of them whom they never saw 2. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ 2. That they may grow up to a State of Joy by holy Union and Communion in Love and to be yet richer and happier in the full and assured understanding and acknowledgment of the Mystery of God's Love and of Christs Grace in the Promises Prefigurations and Performance of our Redemption 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge 3. Though it be not discerned by carnal Men who search more after other Knowledge in the World the depth excellency and benefit of all true Wisdom and Knowledge are comprised in the Knowledge of God manifested in Christ This is the true Philosophy in comparison of which all other is Vanity and Folly 4. And this I say lest any man should beguile you with enticing words 4. I tell you this lest any delude you by the specious ostentation of any other sort of Knowledge called Philosophy or Oracular or Enthusiastical or Pharisaical Tradition as if it were somewhat more excellent than the Knowledge of Christ 5. For though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ 5. For though I see you not I am in the Spirit as if I was present with you affected with Joy to hear of your Order and stedfastness of Faith but yet I know where your danger lieth 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him 6. Let it then be your care to hold fast and practise the Gospel of Christ as you have already received him and his Word and turn not to any other way 7. Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving 7. As growing downwards in the Roots is necessary to Trees for stedfastness and
it is supposed that we are wronged else there is no need of forgiving 2. True Christians are known by this Spiritual Nature as well as by Religious Exercises 14. And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness 14. But as the most necessary and excellent of all put on true endeared Love to others as your selves for the sake of God who must be most loved For as this is the highest Grace which Christs Spirit worketh in us so it is that Bond which by uniting Believers to Christ and each other tendeth to the perfect compagination growth and welfare of the Church and every Member of it 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful 15. And let that Peace which God both giveth you within and calleth you to exercise by dwelling in your Hearts bear rule in your lives towards all Men as being of the same Body And live in continual thankfulness to God 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 16. Let the word of God so possess your Souls that you may by it have plenteous Holy Wisdom to instruct and admonish one another and Holy Affections that those who have the gift of composing Holy Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs for themselves and others use may do it wisely and all of you use them with Holy Joy in singing to the Lord. 17. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him 17. And let all that you offer to God in word or deed in worship or obedience be done in the name of the Lord Jesus trusting for acceptance to his Mediation and offer your daily Thanksgiving to God the Father by him our High Priest in the Heavens 18 19 20 21 22 23. Wives submit your selves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them Children obey your parents in all things for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye-service as men-pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men 24. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. See all this before Paraphrased Eph. 5 6. 25. But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons 25. But if Masters or Servants do wrong to the other though they may escape the punishment of Man God who respecteth no Mans Person will judge and punish them CHAP. IV. 1. MAster 's give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven 1. Let not your power over your Servants embolden you to abuse oppress or wrong them but give them all wages and usage which Justice and Equity require for you have a Master in Heaven who will judge you as you are and do 2. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving 2. Be constant in Prayer and not cursory or cold and watch in it against your corruptions and temptations joyning thanksgiving with your requests 3. Withal praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds 3. Praying for us Ministers of Christ that God would give us freedom from Mens restraints and our own infirmities that we may with enlargedness and boldness preach the Gospel for which I suffer 4. That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak 4. That I may open and apply it as the Work and the Souls of Men require 5. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time 5. Use the wisdom toward them that are without the Church which is needful to keep you from receiving hurt by them or in doing good to them 6. Let your speech be alway with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man 6. Let all your speech be the exercise of God's Grace in your Hearts not rotten filthy or vain but wise and savoury that you may speak pertinently and fruitfully to every Man especially in the necessary defence of the truth against Gainsayers and resolving of the doubtful 7. All my state shall Tychichus declare unto you who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord 7. Tâ—chicus a faithful Brother fully shall acquaint you with my Concernments 8 9. Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts With Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you They shall make known unto you all things which are done here 10. Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you and Marcus sisters son to Barnabas touching whom ye received commandments if he come unto you receive him 11. And Jesus which is called Justus who are of the circumcision These onely are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God which have been a comfort unto me 8 9 10 11. These are all that have helpt me here at Rome in my suffering and have much comforted me 12. Epaphras who is one of you a servant of Christ saluteth you always labouring fervently for you in prayers that ye may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God 13. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis 12 13. Note 1. That Prayer should be a Work of fervent labouring 2. That Ministers-should long for the Peoples increase in Grace and universal Obedience more than to promote their own Interest with them 14 15. Luke the beloved Physician and Demas greet you Salute the brethren which are in â—aodicea and Nymphas and the church which is in his house 〈…〉 15. Which use to meet there And when this epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea 16. Note 1. It was the Duty of the Churches to communicate the Epistles written to them by the Apostles 2. What Epistle that written to Laodicea was it concerneth us not to know It 's vain to think that Paul and other Apostles wrote no more Epistles than be in the Bible or that God is bound to bring down all that they wrote to us 17. And say to Archippus Take heed to the ministery which thou hast received in the Lord that thou
be trusted with the Ministry but Men Faithful and able to teach others 3. It is the same Doctrine which was delivered by the Apostles which must be committed to Ministers to teach the People 4. While the Scriptures were yet unwritten or unfinished the words which Men heard from the Apostles were to be their Rule of Doctrine 3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 3. Note The Life of a Minister or Bishop is not a Life of Ease and Idleness and Safeness and Dominion and fulness but like a Souldiers a Life of Hardship hard Labour hard usage by the World Hard Sufferings requiring Resolution Fortitude and Patience 4. No man that warreth intangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier 4. A Bishop or Minister must be like a Souldier who maketh it his whole Business and doth not joyn any other Trade of Life that would take up any of his time 5. And if a man also strive for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully 5. And in the Games in which Men strive for Masteries for a Prize as Running Wrestling Fencing Fighting it is not every one that striveth that hath the Crown or Prize but onely he that winneth it by getting the better And so must a Minister of Christ strive for the Crown of Life by putting forth all his care and strength 6. The husbandmen that laboureth must be first partaker of his fruits 6. The Husbandman must labour Plow Sow c. before he reap and gather the Fruit. Note God will reward no Pastors but the Laborours tho' Men may advance the Proud and Idle 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things 7. Note They that will have Gods Word and good Council blest by God to their Understanding must consider of it even of its meaning truth and use 8. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead 8. If thou deeply consider and remember that Christ was raised from the Dead as it will infer the truth of all the rest of the Gospel to thee so it will be to thee a powerful example of Patience and Hope in all thy Sufferings for Christ 8 9. According to my Gospel Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound 8 9. This Resurrection of Christ is it which I Preach for which I suffer as reputed a Malefactor and that even to Imprisonment and Bonds but Godâ— Word still prospereth and is not bound Note So blind and Devilish is Malignant Enmity to Truth and Godliness that Christs best Servants are reputed and used as Malefactors and Rogues even for the best of their Duty to God and that which is most profitable to the World 10. Therefore I endure all things for the elects sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory 10. And I think not any Suffering too dear for the sake of Gods Elect though the rest of the World reject the Gospel that it may but further the Salvation of them by the Grace of Christ to bring them to Eternal Glory 11. It is a faithful saying For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him 12. If we suffer we shall also reign with him 11 12. Believe this as a Gospel Maxim if we be dead to the World for him as he died for us we shall live in glory with him And it we suffer for and with him we shall follow him also in Exaltation unto Glory 12 13. If we deny him he also wil deny us If we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 12 13. If for fear of suffering we deny him he will disown us and deny us his Salvation And if we be unfaithful and forsake him and our own Salvation yet he will be true of his Word and will not deny and forsake his own Cause but make good his threatnings against them that forsake his Mercies 14. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers 14. Note Bishops and Ministers have great need to call Men to the serious study of fundamental practical truths from vain diverting kinds of study 2. Such are the Disputes and Contentions about Words or Grammatical Criticisms and Barren Speculations in Arts and Sciences which profit not by their due subserviency to Saving Truths but subvert Men by diverting their Thoughts Love and Labour 15. Study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth 15. Study not for applause and to humour sick-brains but to please God and do all as approved to him with such skill and care and diligence as beseemeth a good Workman that need not be ashamed of his Work and disgrace not the Work by an ignorant bungling confused handling but take great care rightly to order methodize and distribute the word of Truth Note That tho curious unprofitable trifling with Words be sinful yet the more accurate ordering methodizing or distributing Truth setting each in its proper place and giving every hearer his due part is the part of a skilful Teacher 16. But shun profane and vain bablings for they will increase unto more ungodliness 17. And their word will eat as doth a canker 16. But avoid profane and vain Clamors and Bablings of Heathen Philosophers or Hereticks who set up a course of Ostentation of their Wit by unprofitable Disputes for the Fruit will be but the Increase of ungodliness And Vain Proud Wits are so liable to the Infection that their words will eat like a Gangren 17 18. Of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus who concerning the truth have erred saying That the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some 17 18. Note It is not certain on what account they said the Resurrectâ—on was past 1. Whether as the Familists and Quakers by pretending that it is but an inward Resurrection from sin that is meant Or 2. As Pythagoreans saying That it 's but the Transition of Souls into other Bodies which is done here and no more to be expected I incline most to this last It is that which Paul Disputeth against 1 Cor. 15. that is here meant And the Doctrine of Transmigration was then so common and the Hereticks had so much from the Pythagorean Philosophers that it 's most likely to be this 19. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 19. But whoever falls away God's Foundation on which we build our Hope is sure and hath a Seal as it were with this double Inscription on one side The Lord knoweth them that are his for he
hath Decreed their Salvation and will not lose them and he hath marked them out by his Spirit and written on them Holiness to the Lord And therefore on the other side is written Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity For Gods Decree conjoyneth the End and Means and he Decreeth none to Salvation that are not at once Decreed to Sanctification As his Covenant on his part promiseth us Life so our Covenant to him obligeth us to Holiness 20. But in a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and earth and some to honour and some to dishonour 20. But it is not to be wondered at if in Gods House which is his Church-visible or the Professors of Christianity there be Errours and Scandals and some Backslide For it 's usual in great Mens Houses to have some Wooden and Earthen Vessels for low and base usage as well as Silver and Gold for the Table c. 21. If a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work 21. All that by Gods Grace do purge themselves from Heresie and Iniquity are Vessels of Honour sanctified and meet to serve and honour God and disposed to all good Works 22. Flee also youthful lusts but follow righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart 22. Note 1. That the Flesh and its Lusts especially in Youth are such dangerous Enemies to our Holiness and Salvation that we have greet need to be warned to avoid those Lusts and consequently all that cherisheth them Fulness Idleness loose Company c. 2. Righteousness Faith Charity and Peace are the Sum of a Holy Life 3. Charity and Peace must extend to all that call on the Lord out of a pure Heart though not in our Forms or Ceremonies 23. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes 23. But whereas the more ignorant and unsound Professors are apt to turn Practical Godliness into Self-conceited Ignorant Controversie and Disputes avoid this ill Practice as knowing that such wranglings do but but breed strifes 24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 26. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will 24 25 26. But God's Servants especially Bishops and Teachers must not provoke Dâ—ssenters by striving Debates but be gentle to all Men even the Erroneous apt to teach them and patient with them in Errour Instructing them in Meeekness and in a gentle sort even when they oppose the Truth and thus to wait in the right use of Gods means to see whether God will convince them and turn them by Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth and that by consideration of what you teach them they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Devil who captivateth them alive to do his Will Note 1. If Men will not hear gentle teaching much less will they yield to provoking Disputes 2. Yet Disputes like defensive Wars are oft necessary to the defense of the Truth and Church tho it be not the way to win the Opponent 3. Till sinners by consideration can be brought to be Agents in recovering themselves no Teaching or Disputing is like to recover them 4 Fire and Water are not more contrary than this word of God and the way of Romish Prelates who Hereticate Imprison Silence Ruine and Murder True Christians for conforming to all their Superstitious Canons and Ceremonies and not swearing obedience to their usurped Domination CHAP. III. 1. THis know also that in the last days perillous times shall come 1. Before the End the times will grow yet harder more difficult and dangerous 2 3. For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good 4. Traitours heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away 2 3 4 5. The sins which will abound are these 1. They will be enslaved by selfishness and little care for any but themselves 2. Lovers of Money and Covetous 3. Open boasters and Vain glorious 4. Proud 5. Blasphemers and râ—â—â—oachful 6. Disobedient to their own Parents 7. Unthankful 8. Without Holiness Profane 9. Having no true friendly love no not Natural 10. Men that will not live in Peace but are unreconcilable 11. Devils or false accusers of others especially of the best 12. Distempered Ilconditioned Incontinent 13. Fierce and Cruel 14. Having no love to Goodness or Good Men. 15. Betrayers of others or Treacherous 16. Rash Precipitate Heady Men 17. High-minded puft up with selfconceit instead of Solid Knowledge 18. Lovers of Pleasure Sensual and Fantastical as Carnal Men more than lovers of God 19. Having an Image or form of Godliness a shew and outside in Words Gestures Liturgies Ceremonies and Professions 20. But the Power of it for Sanctification mortifying the Flesh and overcoming the World and living above they Savour not but deny and do oppose From this sort of Men turn away and have no communion with them Note If the Apostle had written thus in these latter ages of the Church Guilt would have made many accuse him as Describing and Defaming them and their Church Rulers 6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts 7. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 6.7 This Evil Spirit is already gone forth and these Mischiefs are begun and will increase for such are they that thrust themselves into Houses and there by deceit lead captive silly women who being under a heep of their own sins and acted and led by divers lusts or ill desires come to the Christian Assemblies and are still learning but grow not in sound Religion nor come to any sound knowledge of the truth and so are very capable Receptive Objects for any such deceivers to draw away Note That all the said twenty foresaid Vices which cleave to creeping Hereticks while they are low do work with greater power and confidence in them when they get into Domination 8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 8. And as the Egyptian Magicians withstoud Moses to keep Pharoah from believing him and that by Magick so do these resist the True Preachers of the Gospel by their Magick and Arts now and by the Sword and
to lay down your lives rather than wilfully to sin 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him 5. Have ye forgotten the Lord's gentle words as of a Father to his Children My Son c. Prov. 3.11 6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth 7. If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not 8. But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons 6 7 8. Note 1. Chastisement is one sort of punishment distinguished from destructive punishment in that it is not only for a warning to others but also for the amendment of the Offender No man correcteth another but for a fault and that maketh it punishment 2. It is not any derogation from the perfection of Christâ—s Satisfaction that we are punished for he never intended to make us lawless or that our sins should not be punished at all His Law of Grace hath penalties annexed A Father hath fatherly justice and punishment for his Children and Christ is not a King without such Justice 3. Even the Sufferings of Martyrs are of a mixt naâ—ure partly for sin even Adam's and their own God not on Earth taking off all the first curse but making a Medicine of it for good and partly for the tryal and reward of Faith 4. Pardon of sin is not perfect in this life else no chastising penalty would remain 9. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live 9. We reverently submitted to the Correction of our Parents whose Authority was less and they were liable to do it amiss And shall we not much more submit to God who is the Infinite Spirit and Father of Spirits as well as of our flesh and is of infallible Wisdom and never doth amiss and will fit our Spirits by suffering for a better Life 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness 10. For they chastened us as fallible and passionate men as they thought good though sometimes in causeless anger but God doth all in Wisdom and Mercy for our good to make us more holy which is to be more happy as liker to himself 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby 11. Indeed Suffering as such is grievous as a hurt to Nature and a Fruit of Sin to be chastised It is not to be expected that Pain should be pleasant but it is the Fruit of it which is good which is Peaceable Rigâ—teousness making us more righteous and holy which is Peace to the Soul as Health is to the Body This is the Fruit when we have been tryed and exercised by it 12. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees 13. And make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed 12 13. Therefore seeing Nature is weak and young unsettled Christians are apt to discouragement and fear and fainting labour to strengthen and encourage your selves and one anotheâ— and avoid tempting Seducers and keep under the â—elps in publick and private which God hath appointed for you and avoid all Scandals which may turn the Weak out of the way who already go but lamely in it but rather labour to heal such weakness 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 14. Let Peace with all men as much as in you lyeth be not only your desire but your study care and diligent pursuit and holiness and purity of heart and life without which none are capable of the blessed sight of God's pleased Face either here by faith or hereafter in glorious fruition Mat. 5.8 15. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled 15. Make it your diligent care that none of you fail of sound believing obeying and enjoying that Grace which is offered you by Christ in the Gospel and you have professed to accept lest any ill and dangerous Doctrine or fleshly Lust or Practice spring up among you and cast you into trouble and danger and the Churches be defiled by them while the Weak and Unstedfast are carried away and catch the Infection 16. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright 16. Lest Seducers and fleshly Lust draw any to Fornication or any be so prophane and set so light by Christ and Grace and Glory as to lose them all for the base things of the World and to prefer Wealth and sensual delights before them Like Esau that set so light by his Birthright as to sell it for one Dish of Meat Note What a base price all ungodly men do set on Christ and their own Salvation What hath the Fornicator the Drunkard the Glutton the Worldling the Ambitious Proud and Oppressors for all but the base portion of a Beast 17. For ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears 17. For the Text tells you that after when he would fain have had that Blessing of Primogeniture which he sold and sought it of Isaac with tears Isaac rejected him and would not retract what he had said of Jacob. Note This intimateth a warning of the danger of the contempt of Grace lest God withdraw the Offers or leave men to the power of Temptation as deserted But 1. It determineth not any thing about the damnation of Esau 2. Nor that he truly repented of his sin against God but only of his loss of the priviledge of the elder Brother and yet could not be forgiven but that this loss could not be recalled 3. Nor that any one that truly repenteth and is converted shall not be forgiven For the contrary is a great part of the Doctrine of the Gospel 18. For ye are not come into the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest 19. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more 18 19. For ye are not in the Infant and Wilderness-state of Israel when they must hear from God out of a Mountain on Earth which was touchable but must not be touched and which terrified them with
as Hereticks reproach you with your weakness but mercifully vouchsafeth to teach the humble Note 1. Prayer is a great and necessary means to get true Wisdom But as for outward things so for Wisdom we must not only pray but labour and use God's other helps Study without Prayer maketh but ungodly talkers whose dreaming knowledge will but condemn them And Prayer without Study and learning of the wise is but a self-deceiving idle tempting of God 6. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed 7. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 6 7. But see that your Belief of God's Power and Goodness and the truth of his Promises to faithful Supplicants be firm and sound for if you doubt and waver in this you will but be tost about like a wave of the Sea When you cannot trust God every temptation and difficulty will overthrow both your hope and your innocency And such have no promise that God will hear them it is but presumption to expect it Note That the Faith here mentioned is not an assurance of our own sincerity and that God will give us what we ask as being surely fit to receive it But it is a resolute cleaving to the Christian Verity and a sound belief that God is most able and faithful in performing all his Promises and will give all the good which we ask and are meet to receive Distrusting our selves is not distrusting God 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways 8. A man whose mind and heart hangs doubtful and unresolved between God and the World Christ and Infidelity Heaven and Earth Holiness and Sin is fickle and still untrusty 9 10. Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted But the rich in that he is made low 9 10. You must not judge of your felicity by your outward things but take that for best which God as a Father provideth for you If he advance you gladly and thankfully acknowledge it if he take you down and deprive you of riches be not only patient but thankful that God will chuse for you according to his wisdom who knoweth better what you are fit for and what is fit for you than you can know 10 11. Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways 10 11. For riches are too inconsiderable things to make any great just alteration on our minds They are transitory and so is man like the flower whose sweetness you may use for a moment but it fadeth presently before the heat of the scorching Sun 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him 12. It is the tryed Christian that is the blessed man who after suffering and temptation holds fast his integrity God will give him that Crown of Life which he hath promised to all that sincerely love him 13. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man 13. But as to the seducing sort of temptation which is not to try our constancy but to draw men to sin and ruine let no man charge that on God as his doing for as God cannot be tempted to sin nor possibly love it so he tempteth no man to it much less forceth them to it or unresistibly by determining premotion makes them sin 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 15. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death 14 15. But the course of temptation sin and death is this First fleshly appetite lust and phantasie by strongly inclining men to their carnal objects and interests prevail with their Judgments either to take part with these lusts or not to oppose them and so by these lusts Satan the greater tempter doth his work which he could not do without them And when these lusts or carnal affections have bribed the understanding to be erroneous or remiss and have drawn the will to a sinful yielding or consent this sin conceived by lust in the heart doth bring sorth the fruits of a sinful practice in the life and then God's Justice punisheth it with death when it hath resisted and driven away his offered grace 16 17. Do not err my beloved brethren Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning 16 17. Be not deceived about the causes of good and evil sin and death are from our selves but every good and perfecting gift is of God's free grace and donation even from above from the Father of Lights who as the Sun is the same in its nature and action though Earth and Clouds oft interposing make it seem to us as varying by its rising and setting and turning away its light into shadows when the change is not in it so God is unchangeable and our changes and shadows are not from any mutability or shadowy alteration in him but from our selves 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures 18. It was of his own good will and grace that he hath regenerated us by the true word of the Gospel and not of any desert of ours and hath made us as the first-fruits sanctified to him so that all good is of God and all evil of our selves and the Devil 19. Wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath 19. Therefore watch over your selves if you would be safe and particularly observe these three Rules 1. Be swift to hear as humble Learners while proud men are forward to be Teachers before they were ever profitable Learners 2. Be slow to speak and not as proud men full of words because full of self-conceit readier to teach than to learn telling what they think they know while the humble are learning to know more and when in multitude of words there is seldom innocency but the rash and talkative say that which must be repented of 3. Be slow to wrath 20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God 20. For a wrathful mind is very unfit for that righteousness which God requireth in and of us It puts the mind out of a composed holy frame and unfits it for communion with God It blindeth and perverteth the Judgment and destroyeth holy love and peace A wrathful man scarce loveth his neighbour
Moses which you profess to own do bid you love your Neighbour as your self and forbid such uncharitable censures so that by condemning your Brethren you condemn the Law And this is not to keep either Moses's Law or Christ's but to set your selves above both by making your selves Reproving Judges of them 12. There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy who art thou that judgest another 12. Christ and none else saith Dr. H. hath Authority to give Laws to us There is but one Law-giver who hath the absolute and final power of life and death eternal Salvation and Damnation Who art thou that darest arrogate this Judgment Or what power hast thou to judge or anathematize another any further than truly to tell men whom Christ will judge and cast away 13. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain 14. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away 13 14. You are too much set on wordly prosperity and you plot for gain as if you were secured of long abode on Earth and you lay your designs with presumptuous confidence where and how long you will dwell trade and gain when as your Life on Earth is a meer uncertain fugitive vapour quickly gone 15. For that ye ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that 16. But now ye rejoyce in your boastings all such rejoycing is evil 15 16. Whereas ye should remember the uncertainty and shortness of your lives and design and do all in submissive dependance on the will of God But you fetch your comfort from wordly things by your own vain presumption of long Life and hope of worldly prosperity all such presumptuous carnal comforts are evil 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 17. And the brevity of Mans Life and the vanity of worldly gain are things so notorious and undeniable to all men especially to Christians that to let these vanities loosen you from Christ and your obedience is utterly unexcuseable CHAP. V. 1. GO to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you 1. But as to thoâ—e that will yet cleave to the World and take no warning let me tell you to your sorrow that dreadful miseries are coming upon you the fore sighâ— of which shouhld make you weep and howl instead of your deceitful joy 2. Your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten 3. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last days 2 3. What are these vanities which you have so inordinately affected Your beloved riches are not only corruptible but corrupted by you to your own sin and hurt your rich cloathing is a moth-eaten vanity The gold and silver which you have treasured up is cankered and rusty and the guilt signified by that rust shall condemn you and corrode your Consciences as fire At great cost and labour you have treasured up riches but it is in effect to be a prey to your Enemies in the day of your Destruction and a witness in God's day of Judgment against your selves to your own confusion 4. Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of sabbaoth or hosts 4. You Jews are addicted to Covetousness and by that to Injury and Oppression and you deny poor labourers their wages and defraud them and God heareth their cries and will revenge them on you 5. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter 5. Your Riches have been provision for your sensuality You have by them made provision for the lusts of the flesh and lived in pleasure revelling and luxury and lasciviousness and have fed and cherished the flesh and its delights as in a continual feast 6. Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you 6. Your Riches have lift you up into power which you have abused to condemn and kill innocent men who have not resisted you but endured all Note 1. Some think that the Jewish Christians are here meant to whom James wrote but sure they were not so degenerate 2. Some think it was the Gnostick Hereticks 3. I think it much more probable that by an Apostrophe he speaks to the Rich Infidels to introduce his Exhortation to the Christians to Patience 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain 8. Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh 7 8. But as for you persecuted Christians bear all this patiently without discouragement tiredness or wavering in your Faith For the time is short and the coming of Christ for your deliverance is not far off If in your Husbandry or Tillage you look not to reap as soon as you have sowed but wait for the Harvest and Fruit and for the Showers that must ripen it should you not more patiently wait for greater things when the time will quickly come 9. Grudge not one against another brethren lest ye be condemned behold the Judge standeth before the door 9. Make not too great a matter of your wrongs nor quarrel among your selves as the Jewish Zealots mentioned by Josiphus did lest while you condemn one another all condemn themselves and biting and devouring one another you be devoured one of another Stay but a little and the Judge who is at hand will avenge you of your Enemies and end all your quarrels which ignorance and pride have made and kept up among your selves 10. Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience 10. You justly honour the Prophets who have spoken as sent from God Remember how they were used and how they suffered and let them be your Example and imitate them in Patience 11. Behold we count them happy which endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy 11. It is part of our Faith to believe that they are happy who patiently suffer for Righteousness sake You have heard of Job's patience and of the end which God intended and accomplished which tells us that God is full of pity and mercy to us when he afflicteth us 12.
But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest ye fall into condemnation 12. And I must specially exhort you to avoid customary needless swearing by Heaven or Earth or any oath but let Yea and Nay serve you and be true of your word that you be not drawn into a just suspicion of falshood or condemned for prophaning the name of God Note 1. That this is so far from forbidding necessary oaths for ending strife that it is but to confirm them by preserving the due reverence of them 2. The true nature of an oath is by our speech to pawn the reputation of some certain or great thing for the averring of a doubted lesser thing and not only as is commonly held an appeal to God or other Judge As to swear by the Fire by the Temple by my Faith or Truth by the Life of Pharaoh by the Heavens c. is as much as to say If this be not true then the Fire burneth not the Temple is not holy I am a Lyar Pharaoh is no King as sure as Heaven is Heaven c. so the Lord liveth is This is as true as that God liveth 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing psalms 13. In your affliction have present recourse to God by prayer in Faith and Hope and when you are chearful and merry turn it to God's praise and thanksgiving for his mercies in singing holy Songs to God Note That it is not only David's Psalms that they are tyed to but such as are by men fitted to their proper cases which confuteth them that condemn all humane Forms of composed words in God's Service 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord 15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him 14 15. When any of you is sick let him send for the Bishops of Pastors of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with Oil in the name of the Lord as a sign and means which he hath appointed for miraculous Cures And if it be the Prayer of Faith and he be a person capable and fit for that deliverance it shall recover him from his Sickness and God shall raise him and if his Sickness be a corrective punishment for any sin that he hath committed God will forgive him and take off that penalty if he repent Note 1. That this implieth that each Church had divers Elders And whereas Dr. H. thinks it meaneth one single Bishop who the Ancients say visited all the sick you may see then how great their Diocesses were Should all the sick men in London or in many Counties send for the Bishop he would come but to a few of them at least forty or eighty Miles off But it will be said He may do it by others And why not give Orders and Sacraments by others as Lay-men now use the Keys And if the work be proper to Bishops those others then are made Bishops if not others may do it 2. Anointing being healthful to dry bodies in those hot Countries was used by Christ's appointment for miraculous Cures and never made a Duty or Sacrament to continue when Miracles cease 3. Sicknesses are usually corrective punishments for sin and to forgive the sin as to that penalty is to remit the punishment and heal the sick 4. The promise of pardon and recovery presupposeth the person penitent and fit for that deliverance 16. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 16. Therefore Penitently confess your faults to one another especially to the Elders that visit you and pray one for another for this is the likely way of your recovery The effectual fervent instant Prayer of a Righteous Man is of great force or prevalence Note 1. An impenitent man is unfit for Pardon and therefore for deliverance from punishment and he that doth not penitently confess and bewail his sin cannot be judged a true Penitent and therefore cannot be prayed for with that Faith and Hope as we may do for the Penitent 2. This is not to be a customary thing or only to a Priest but it 's a duty both in Sickness and Health wherever the expression of Repentance to others is a duty By which alas we know how rare true Repentance is when even professors of Zeal in Religion are sharp in censuring and blaming others and except a very few humble Souls if they be never so justly blamed or reproved do swell against the reprover with pride and indignation as if he were their Enemy And they that separate from the Churches for want of Discipline are earnest for it for others but cannot bear it on themselves nor so much as endure a confutation of their errors but take him to speak against Godliness who speaketh against their mistakes and faults and two many like the Prophane will turn again and all to rend him 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months 18. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit 17 18. Think not that Prayer is a vain or uneffectual thing though we be frail and faulty men Elias was but a man liable both to sufferings and to a troubled mind in them as we are yet on his earnest Prayer it rained not on an Idolatrous Persecuting Country for three years and a half and at his Prayer it rained again and the Land was fruitful 19 20. Brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins 19 20. I beseech you Brethren be neither negligent or dispairing to the cure of men in error nor yet impatient with those that would detect your Errors and convince you and bring you to Repentance as proud impenitent Persons are But know that as all men alas are too prone to error if any man err from the truth through ignorance or a corrupted will and one convert him he that converteth a sinner from his error in mind or life doth not only do that which tendeth to save his life from Gods punishing stroak but also shall save his Soul from everlasting death and procure the Pardon of his manifold sin not only so far that the Church but God himself shall receive him into a reconciled state Note 1. That error and sin are the
c. Seeing you love life and would live in peace and quietness the likeliest means to attain this is 1. To keep your Tongues from speaking evil of any man and from all other evil 2. And from falshood deceit and dissimulation for it is mens own unbridled Tongues which bring most of their troubles on them and false words that hide faults at last detected expose men more 3. Avoid all real evil and then your Righteousness will appear through the Vâ—il of malicious slanders and falshood will be detected and not long hide your Innocency 4. And do all the good you can to all men as well as your immediate Duty to God And Nature having a love to such as do us good and a reverence of God such good works and well doing will powerfully justifie you in the Consciences of most men 5. And stand not contentiously on your right but whatever men are or do seek peace with all and be not soon weary but follow after it still in hope 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers but the face of the Lord it against them that do evil 12. And this is not meer policy to please men but whatever they be it is God that your lives and peace depend on and he that commandeth this is pleased with it and his Eyes watch over you for good to save you from unreasonable men and he heareth their prayers in all distress while evil speakers and doers God himself is more against than men 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good 13. If your Zeal in Religion be a Zeal of good works to set your selves earnestly as to obey God so to do good to all men he must be a very impious and diabolical man that will for this sett against you It is the likeliest way to your quietness 14. But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled 14. But I confess such blinded unreasonable malignant Slaves and Executioners Satan hath that will persecute you even for Righteousness sake But this is the way to and prognostick of your reward and happiness And therefore let not mens threats rage or cruelty terrifie or trouble you seeing you shall be unspeakably gainers by it 15. But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear 15. But let God always be in your hearts with the highest respect obedience and honour and be still furnished with those Reasons of your Faith and Hope that you may be ready to profess them and to give a good account of them to any that demandeth it and this with meekness and due reverence to Superiors and not with passionate upbraiding them or with disdain 16. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ 16. Keeping your Consciences clear from guilt that they may justifie you when men accuse you and whereas men slander you as bad men and seditious and unpeaceable your good conversation according to Christ's Law and Example may shame their false accusations a better defence than bare words and disputing with them 17. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil doing 17. For if God will have you suffer it 's far better that it be for well doing than for ill doing Better for you though worse for your Persecutors For now the body only suffereth while the soul is free which else would suffer far worse than persecution 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 18. For Christ himself had greater sufferings in the body than we but he suffered not in the conscience of any guilt of his own but was just and suffered for the unjust to reconcile and bring us to God 18 19 20. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water 18 19 20. Being put to death indeed as to the flesh but made alive as to the Spirit or by the Spirit in which or by which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which heretofore in the days of Noah were refractory and hardned in sin and disobedience while the long suffering of God endured them and waited for their Repentance while the Ark was making and preparing and Noah preaching to them yet so impenitent were they to the last that only eight were saved by the Ark. Note It 's no wonder that Expositors of this Text differ Some think that by the Spirit should rather be in the Spirit or as to it put in direct distinction from the Body and that it 's an Argument for the immortality of the Soul by quickned being meant only that his Soul was alive while his Body was dead and that in that Soul he went then and preach't to imprisoned sinners that were drowned in the Flood say some to shew them his Triumph and what Salvation they lost and say they This is it that is called his Descending to Hell say others to offer them mercy once again say others to bring some penitents from their long imprisonment But others think that by Spirit is meant the Power of God or the Divine Nature of Christ or the Holy Ghost not Christ's Soul again enâ—â—ing into his Body and that the preaching meant was by Christ's Spirit in Noah before the Flood and not after his Death To name other Expositions or the Reasons given for each would but perplex the Reader unless I were able so clearly to assert one of the Expositions as to confute all the rest They that think Christ's Soul and Godhead preacht to Spirits while his Body lay in the Grave suppose that those Spirits knew it whom it concerned But if it had been necessary for us to know not only Christ's preaching to our selves but to them he would surely have more clearly fold it us 21. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 21. And that Salvation from the Deluge by the Ark prefigureth our Salvation in the Church from God's wrath by Baptism and that through the power of Christ's Resurrection to which we begin our Conformity when we are raised to Holiness by his Spirit as we rise out of the Water in Baptism But by Baptism I mean
which the superior World hath no real similitude but by fiction 6. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind 6. Note Before the Tabernacle and the Temple there was a great broad Vessel of Water called a Sea for the Priests to wash in Exod. 20.18 1 Kings 7.23 signifying the Purity required in the Worshippers of God being as Crystal tells us that no spots or Hypocrisie is unseen to God Though some make this to signifie the multitude of Worshippers The four Beasts some say resemble the four Staâ—dards and Camps of Israel in the Wilderness or as others the four Evangelists But it is like to mean the Executioners by Providence and Miracles of Christ's Will and Power full of Eyes as knowing all the Affairs of the Sons of Men about which they are employed called Living creatures for their executive power 7. And the first beast was like a lion and the second beast like a calf and the third beast had a face as a man and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle 7. Note As these four agree with the Apparition in Ezekiel 1.10 in the main notwithstanding some small difference so it is observable which D. Hammond noteth from Aben Ezra that these were the Escutcheons on the four Ensigns or Standards of the Camp of Israel a Lion for the Camp of Judah a Man for the Camp of Reuben an Oxe for the Camp of Ephraim and an Eagle for the Camp of Dan And an Oxe and Calf are oft used for the same And these four are noted to be the chief in their several kinds the Lion among wild Beasts the Oxe among the tame and serviceable a Man among all Animals and an Eagle among Birds To conjecture what God would signifie by them to Israel must needs be uncertain I know nothing liker than an intimation of Duty and Prophecy that Israel should be victorious over their Enemies and valiant as a Lion wise and in Dominion as Man and should have a fertile and plenteous Land signified by the Oxe and be Seraphick and Divine in the holy Worship of God signified by the Eagle that mounteth Heaven-ward in her strength And it 's like such blessings are hereby signified to be conferred on the Church some fix the signification on Angels some on Ministers And less probable are their 's that think Peteâ— John Paul and Barnabas are meant or they that apply it to the four Evangelists or four Patriarchs 8. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come 8. Note The Beasts resembling the Standard-bearer in the Camp are likest to signifie both the Angels in Heaven who glorifie God's Attributes and serve him in the performance of his Promises to the Church and also the Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists and Pastors who do their part herein on Earth See Isa 6.2 of their wings 2. Holy holy holy may relate to the Trinity but certainly signifieth that the Holiness of God is that for which he is loved and praised by Angels and Saints His Holiness is his Perfection and Transcendency above all creatures being the end of all to whom they are to be devoted and consequently his perfect contrariety to all evil 3. The celebrating of the Praises of the most Holy God is the uncessant work of heavenly Spirits and most of the work of Ministers and Church-Assemblies on Earth 9. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth for ever and ever 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created 9 10 11. Note With the chief Angels concur all the heavenly Hâ—st in magnifying the Holy Eternal God as shining forth in the glory of all his works by him and for him by his efficient Will and for his complacential Will fulfilled they being all created preserved and ordered And this heavenly work is to be imitated by the Churches on Earth whose Pastors leading the People must concur in the Praises of the most Holy Everliving God And those Churches that are dry and scant in these Praises of God how well soever the Word be there preached are defective and unlike their Pattern These passages are best expounded in the three first Petitions of the Lord's Prayer Let thy Name be hallowed Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Neither Heaven nor Earth must be left out in the Exposition CHAP. V. 1. ANd I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals 1. I saw a Roll called a Book in his hand who sate on the Throne written on both sides but the Roll was sealed up with seven Seals Note The Roll contained God's Decrees as they were to be fulfilled according to this Prophecy And it 's like they were seven Rolls together making one Book 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof 2. Note Every Angel or Man is not worthy or meet to be the Expositor and Messenger of God's Mysteries to Man 3. And no man in heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon 3. It was a work and trust too high for any meer creature in all the World None of them was worthy 4. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book neither to look thereon 4. I lamented that the creatures should be found so unworthy and God's Mysteries be kept unknown 5. And one of the elders saith unto me Weep not behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof 5. One of the Elders that were at the Throne comforted me and told me that Christ who is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Son of David and Root of Jesse was found worthy by the Dignity of his Person and his Merits by Man's Redemption to open to the Church all the Mysteries of God which it was meet for Man to know and to loose the Seals 6. And I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven
For in one hour so great riches is come to nought 14 15 16 17. Rome's Pride and Sensuality found all the Countries money for all sorts of commodities whose Market ceaseth by her destruction 17. And every ship master and all the company in ships and sailers and as many as trade by sea stood afar off 18. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning saying What city is like unto this great city 19. And they cast dust on their heads and cried weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness for in one hour is she desolate 17 18 19. The Fall of the Pagan Power and Religion being the Political Life of the City is thus represented in Vision to John under the shew of the burning of the City-buildings as our Eyes saw London burning three days 1666. Septemb. 2 3 and 4th Or say others The Fall of Rome Papal was thus represented But others say that Rome Papal shall be thus really burnt and destroyed 20. Rejoice over her thou heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets for God hath avenged you on her 20. It was this same Roman Idolatrous Power which murdered the Holy Apostles and many Prophets that are now in Heaven And they shall rejoice in the vindictive justice of God And so shall the Church on earth Not as it is revenge on private enemies but as it is Gods publick deliverance of his Church and vindication of his truth and Cause and Glory 21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great milstone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all 21. The Pagan Empire was never again restored for Julian did but begin to attempt it and was kill'd before he could so much as lay any foundations for it Yea Rome was never more the seat of the Empire much less of the Pagan Empire For Constantine did but as it were take up his quarters there for a short time and remove the seat to Constantinople And his Successours in the West had but the lesser part of the Empire and were sometimes at Rome and somtime at Millan and sometimes at Ravenna and after in France and Germany 22. And the voice of harpers and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee and the sound of a milstone shall be heard no more at all in thee 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee for thy merchants were the great men of the earth for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived 22 23. Thus as by the Emblem of a City totally ruined and deserted was the Fall of Pagan Rome represented to John And that you may know that it was not the burning and desertion of the material buildings that is meant he now tells you that by the merchants he meant the Nations that consented to and upheld her Idolatry and power 24. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth 24. God dealt thus severely with her because she had not only been the murderer of Apostles Prophets and the primitive Christians at Rome and abroad in all her Dominions in upholding her Idols but as Jerusalem had by imitating former persecutors justified them and so suffereth for all The considering of Dan. 7.11 Jer. 51.63 25.10 Ezek. 17.13 Ezek. 27.12 13. Will help to expound all this Others say It is Papal Rome and how the blood of Apostles and Prophets was found in her they tell us from Matth. 23.35 And how the blood of Saints will be found in her is easily proved CHAP. XIX 1. ANd after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying Halleluiah salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God 1. The Saints in Heaven and the Christians on earth gave Praise to God and glorified him for this great work 2. For true and righteous are his judgments for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand 3. And again they said Allelujah and her smoke rose up for ever and ever 2 3. They glorified God for holy and amiable justiceâ— and destroying the Mother of Idolatry and nest of Luxury and cruelty God will have great Glory by destroying the persecutors and wicked and in delivering his Saints and in the Freedom of the Gospel 4. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne saying Amen Allelujah 4. And the consenting Praises of the Church especially of Christian Jews was represented to me under the ost-mentioned similitude of the Temple-Worship where the Twelve Tribes were doubly represented by twelve Oxen and twelve Lions and four Cherubims were about the Mercy-Seat Jews and Gentile Christians praise God for the Fall of Babylon 5. And a voice came out of the throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great 5. And God himself and his Ministers called to all his Church to joyn in these his Praises 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth 7. Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready 8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of Saints 6 7 8. And the raising of the Catholick Church in numbers and extent and power to the visible Glory of Christ was represented to me by the Voice as of a great multitude c. saying Praise the Lord for his Kingdom is coming in Power and his Church shall be promoted by the Rulers of the Earth and the Kingdoms of the World shall be visibly the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ And Christ and his Church will appear to the World in Honour and Joy as Marriages use to be celebrated And the Catholick Church shall be clothed with the notes of Honour and Purity or Righteousness or shall publickly worship him in his instituted Ordinances 9. And he saith unto me Write Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb And he saith unto me These are the true sayings of God 9. Happy are they that shall see the fall of Babylon and the Deliverance and Advancement of the Christian Church and shall
and the last e're long To understand and believe this Prophecy will be comfortable But to keep the Precepts of it avoid the Sins threatned believe the Promise of my Victories and Coming and wait in Patience is needful to all 8. And I John saw these things and heard them And when I had heard and seen I fell down to worshp before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things 8. Note All faulty Worship of Angels is not Idolatry nor maketh a Church Idolatrous It was not Divine Worship which John gave the Angel If really he wrote most of this Book against Popish Idolatry as many think he would never be twice guilty of worse than their praying to Angels and Saints themselves whom he condemned For they worship them noâ— as Gods though amiss John thought Venerâ—tion was the Angels due 9. Then saith he unto me See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book worship God 9. See before cap. 19.10 God is jealous of any thing too like Idolatry Note Are Angels our fellow-servants love them then and be thankful to God for their Love and Help and rejoyce in this privileage and think it not unlikely that you should live with them for ever O what a people should we be then in holiness 10. And he saith unto me Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand 10. The most of it is to be performed ere long in the ruine of the Pagan persecuting Empire 11. He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still 12. And behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be 11 12. I come quickly to fulfil and execute this Prophecy and then I will take and judge men as I find them there shall be no more place for preparation as it was with the wise and foolish Virgins Matth. 25. when the midnight cry was The Bridegroom cometh as I find you I will use you 13. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending the first and the last 13. I am God eâ—â—rnal the first cause and ultimate end of all things able to fulfil my Will and Word 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city 14. Blessed are they that do what Christ requireth to Salvation in his Law of Grace or purifie their heart and life that they may by his free gift have right to enter into the New Jerusalem and live with Christ for ever 15. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie 15. For all filthy cruel persecuting Idolatrous persons and Lyars and deceitful Teâ—chers and Hypocrites though called Christians are shut out of the holy City as Dogs are turned out of the house 16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testifie unto you these things in the churches I am the root and the off-spring of David and the bright and morning Star 16. I Jesus have sent my Angel to tell these things to John that he may tell them to the Churches of Asia and by them to others the matter much concerning those Churches then alive Take these as my own Words who am the Messiah prophesied of as the Root and Son of David and am the Light of the World sent to teach men the way of life 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say come And let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely 17. And seeing Church-deliverance now and the Glory of the New Jerusalem at last are the effects of my coming as my Spirit teacheth men to desire my coming and my Church and Chosen do desire it so let all desire it that wouâ—d partake of that felicity For all shall have it by my free gift who do but bâ—lievingly desire it For I will shut out none but final obstinate refusers 18. For I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book 18 19. If any wilfully corrupt this Prophecy in words or sense to draw men from believing it to the belief of their own corrupt Additions God will add to them his Plagues and deprive them of any part of the blessings here foretold and shut them out of this holy City of God Note It 's dangerous then to make bold Cabalistical Fanatick Expositions of this Book and to call our own conceits the sense of the Revelation And it 's dangerous groundlesly to expect more Prophecies of God's usage of his Church or to add to any of his Word or dimâ—nish from it and father any of our Errours on Christ and on his Spirit which hath here finished that Book which must be the universal Churches Rule of Life 20. He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus 20. Jesus who is the Author of this Revelation surely promiseth that he will come quickly by degrees to perform all his word and chargeth you not to question it through unbelief or to saiâ—t by doubting as if he did fall by his delay And let us all with Faith hope and desire prepare and earnestly pray for his coming Even so come Lord Jesus 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen 21. I conclude all with this best Request to God for you and Benediction to you that the Grace of our Lord Jesus which is our preparation for Glory and our earnest pledge and foretast of it may be with you to prepare you and Seal you up as the certain Heirs of that Blessed Sâ—ate and save you from all sin and Temptation and Enemies that would deprive you of it Amen An Advertisement READERS I Here give you notice which I desire you not to forget in the reading of this Paraphrase that it is but some General Notes and not a proper Exposition of the Revelations which I offer you And that I here confess to you that very much of it I understand not And if this offend any that say I should have better studied it I only say 1. That you suffer fools gladly seeing your selves are wise 2. That I am far below Dionysius Alexandrinus and most of the Ancient Fathers even Augustine himself who professed that they
well stricken in years 8. And it came to pass that while he executed the priests office before God in the order of his course 9. According to the custom of the priests office his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense 7 8 9 10. Note The Priest went into the sanctuary to offer and the people that while prayed without the Sanctuary not without the Temple In imitation of which our Temples usually are built in three parts The Chancel for the Clergy the body of the Church for the Laity and all below the Font for the Catechumens and suspended who are no communicants as the outward Court was for Gentiles 11. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense 12. And when Zacharias saw him he was troubled and fear fell upon him 13. But the angel said unto him Fear not Zacharias for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shall call his name John 14. And thou shall have joy and gladness and many shall rejoyce at his birth 11 12 13 14. He was born to an austere life and and to martyrdom yet his birth was joyful though to such a painful life and death for the Churches service 15. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb 15. Note 1. The best men and most useful are greatest in Gods sight 2. Extraordinary denying the flesh agreeth well with the extraordinary gift of the Spirit 3. Infants may have the Holy-Ghost before it appeareth 16. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn the Lord their God 6. Note To turn many by repentance to God was the effect of the Holy-Ghost and of Johns extraordinary worth and work 17. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 17. He shall be possessed with such fulness of Spirit and Power to prepare the way for Christ as Elias had as is propheci'd in Mal. 4.6 Note By turning the hearts of the Fathers to the Children some think is meant turning the tyrannical oppression of Rulers to fatherly love and lenity to inferiours But Dr. H. more probably translateth it with the Children That is he shall turn Fathers and Children old and young Others say it is but to turn mens minds to the Love of one another and those that disobey God to the true wisdom of just men who obey and trust him 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel Whereby shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years 19. And the angel answering said unto him I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee and to shew thee these glad tidings 20. And behold thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak untill the day that these things shall be performed because thou believest not my words which shall be fulfilled in their season 18 19 20. I am one of the many Angels that stand before God and am sent to tell thee this And to reprove thy unbelief And to convince thee for a sign thou shalt be dumb c. 21. And the people waited for Zacharias and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple 22. And when he came out he could not speak unto them and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckned unto them and remained speechless 21 22. Sanctuary 22. Some Revelation 23. And it came to pass that assoon as the days of his ministration were accomplished he departed to his own house 23. That Ceremonious service might be done by a dumb man but so cannot the Gospel Ministration 24. And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid her self five months saying 25. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men 24 25. She retired from Peoples observation and discourse saying the Lord hath shewed me mercy in taking away my reproach 26. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth 27. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the the virgins name was Mary 26 27. Not married but betrothed 28. And the angel came in unto her and said Hail thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women 28. Rejoice for thou art highly favoured of the Lord who maketh thee blessed above all women 29. And when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be 30. And the angel said unto her Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God 31. And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus 32. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David 29 30 31 32. She understood it not That Glorious Kingdom meant in the promise to Davids seed of which his Kingdom was but a type 33. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end 33. His Kingdom over the Faithful Israel of God begun in grace shall be Everlasting in Glory 34. Then said Mary unto the angel How shall this be seeing I know not a man 35. And the angel answered and said unto her The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God 34 35. This shall be done without Man by the Holy Ghost and the overshaddowing power of God and therefore he shall be properly called the Son of God N. 1. Though this give us the most known reason why Christ is called the Son of God in Scripture it is not said to be the only reason excluding his eternal Generation 2. Yet Christ oft calleth himself the Son of Man which signifieth no more but that he was truly a Man and born of a woman 36. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth she hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth moneth with her who was called barren 37. For with God nothing shall be unpossible 36 37. Note 1. Though Elizabeth was of the Tribe of Aaron and Mary of the Tribe of Judah they were a kin by Elizabeths Mother marrying a Levite 2. Nothing should seem difficult to
I say unto you Whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God 8. Own me sincerely in the time of Tryal and I will own you before Angels where are your greatest concerns 9. But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God 9. Without true Repentance 10. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven 10. To speak against me as a man is pardonable But when I shall send the Spirit of Miracles and Holiness to be my Witness in the World they that will not be convinced by this Spirit but blasphemously say It is the power and work of the Devils do sin against the last and great means of Conviction and being uncured are unpardoned 11. And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall say 12. For the holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say 11 12. Let not the fear of your unready speech discourage you but trust the Spirit of God to help you 13. And one of the company said unto him Master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me 14. And he said unto him Man who made me a judge or a divider over you 13 14. N. Whether the man would have had Christ taken on him an Authoritative Decision or only a free Arbitration is uncertain which ever it was Christ refuseth it A work of worldly Rule he disclaimed And he would not be so imprudent as to offend men by an Arbitration without need 15. And he said unto them Take heed and beware of covetousness for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth 15. Take heed of being too desirous of wealth or plenty For neither life nor the comfort of life depends on plenty but on the holy and obedient use of what you have and on the blessing and love of God 16. And he spake a parable unto them saying The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully 17. And he thought within himself saying What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits 18. And he said This will I do I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods 19. And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry 20. But God said unto him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided 16 17 18 19 20. Note The damning folly of wicked men is 1. In over-loving the pleasure of the flesh to eat and drink and be merry and live at ease 2. To over-love Riches and Plenty as provision for this fleshly pleasure 3. To flatter themselves with the conceit of long life and to forget the shortness of time and their latter end 4. To neglect a due dependence on God for all things 5. To neglect the due care of the Soul and preparation for another World and to set less by Heaven than Earth such are the most miserable fools 21. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God 21. Such is every one whose chief care and labour is to have plenteous provision for his own Body and is not rich in Grace nor useth his riches to please God in good works 22. And he said unto his disciples Therefore I say unto you Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat neither for the body what ye shall put on 23. The life is more then meat and the body is more then raiment 22 23. Note Luke brings in things spoken at several times on several occasions for the matters sake See Matth. 6. Trust him for the less who hath freely given you the greater 24. Consider the ravens for they neither sow nor reap which neither have storehouse nor barn and God feedeth them How much more are ye better then the fowls 25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit 26. If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least why take ye thought for the rest 27. Consider the lilies how they grow they toil not they spin not and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these 28. If then God so cloth the grass which is to day in the field and to morrow is cast into the oven how much more will he cloth you O ye of little faith 24 25 26 27 28. Note All this is against distrustful care and trouble and not diligent labour in a Calling or prudent care to do our work and avoid evil See Mat. 6. 29. And seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink neither be ye of doubtful mind 30. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after and your father knoweth that ye have need of these things 29 30. Be not anxious or troubled Note 1. The faithful must live quite above the life of worldlings 2. It should quiet a Child of God that his Father knoweth all his wants 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you 31. Seek first c. 32. Fear not little flock for it is youâ— Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom 32. Note 1. Christ's Flock was then little and will be so comparatively on Earth but not in Heaven 2. They shall have a Kingdom 3. By the gift of God's good pleasure 4. They that shall have the Kingdom of Heaven should be above distrustful fear on Earth 33. Sell that ye have and give alms provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth 33. See Matth. 6.19 20. The wisdom of Faith is to do all we can in this World in preâ—aration for another and at any rate to make sure of Salvation 34. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also 34. Either by Desire if you are uncertain to obtain it or by Delight if you have Assurance or strong hope or in full Joy when you possess it Note A man's Treasure is that which he believeth will make him most happy and loveth and seeketh it accordingly A dreadful Word to wordly men whose hearts are not on Heaven 35. Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning 36. And ye your selves like unto men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately 35 36. Live in a constant prepared waiting for
my coming for your change and let not your preparation be to mâ—â—e aâ— last 37. Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them 37. Christ will do more for them than if he were a Servant to them 38. And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants See Matth. 24.45 39. And this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken thorow 40. Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not 39 40. Every one would be awaked just at the time if they foreknew the hour But God will conceal it that ye may be always ready 41. Then Peter said unto him Lord speakest thou this parable unto us or even to all 42. And the Lord said Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season 43. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing 44. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath 41 42 43 44. I speak it to all so far as they are Gods Stewards of their several trusts But especially of those that are ruling Stewards over the Churches appointed to give the Children their due food in season All such shall be rewarded 45. But and if that servant say in his heart My lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken 46. The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbeleivers 45 46. Note This dreadful threatning is also a prophecy of a worldly persecuting sort that should arise under pretence of ruling and feeding the houshold of Christ both Civil and Ecclesiastical 47. And that servant which knew his lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes 47. The sins against knowledge are greater far than those of ignorance Note There are degrees of pain in Hell Note And wicked Clergy men and Teachers will have the greatest Torment 48. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more 48. Some in hell have few stripes comparatively Note Great gifts must be used with great diligence and great power and trust and charges are rather to be feared than ambitiously sought Little do the Great Conquerors of the World or those that strive for Church-preferments believe and consider what Duty or deep Damnation they so much labour for 49. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightned till it be accomplishment 49 50. I come to do that work that will set the World on fire and occasion persecution And it is already begun And I am to lead the way in suffering and to go through these flames my self And I am as in pain till it be accomplished 51. Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you Nay but rather division 52. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided three against two and two against three 53. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the Father the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother the mother in law against the daughter in law and the daughter in law against her mother in law 51 52 53. Some think that the Coming of the Messiah will settle an universal peace but they are mistaken I come to conquer Satans Kingdom and save Souls from sin which will not be without a conflict I come to divide men from sin and Satan who possessed them in peace And the Soldiers of Satan will pursue those that by grace escape natural kindred will not reconcile them 54. And he said also to the people When ye see a cloud rise out of the west straitway ye say there cometh a shower and so it is 55. And when ye see the south wind blow ye say There will be heat and it cometh to pass 56. Ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the skie and of the earth but how is it that ye do not discern this time 54 55 56. You have by experience learned to foretel the weather by the winds and why learn you not by the signs in your own hearts and lives to foresee what is like to befall you even the destruction that is at hand 57. Yea and why even of your selves judge ye not what is right 57. Yea why do you not gather it from the nature of duty and sin and of the Justice of God 58. When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him lest he hale thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and the officer cast thee into prison 59. I tell thee Thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite 58 59. Carry it towards God as thou wouldst do to one that hath a just action against thee at Law Thou shouldst make thy peace with him by all means before the Magistrate take the cause in hand and judge thee to prison till thou have paid all the debt and deliver thee to the jaylor to that end So make thy peace with God by Christ by timely and true repentance and faith before judgment pass on thee the irrevocable sentence Note 1. This was spoken by Christ on another accusation and Luke sets various things together like Solomans Proverbs unless it were spoken twice by Christ Note 2. Timely repentance must prevent too late wishes and utter destruction Note 3. They err that hence gather that men in hell shall at last come out by paying the very last mite The sense of similitudes must not be extended beyond the designed end of him that speaketh upon any pretence of the strict sense of the words CHAP. XIII 1. THere were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices 1. Some Pilate had killed for stirring up the People against the Romans Government 2. And Jesus answering said unto them Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
Fruit and as the House must be built up when the Foundation is laid so must you now be more and more rooted and built up and stablished in the same Faith which you were taught at first and must abound with joyful Thanks to God in the increased Knowledge Love and Practise of that in stead of hearkning to Novelties or Errours 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosphy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ 8. The danger which I advise you to beware is lest any by pretending that the Heathen Philosophy is a higher sort of Wisdom and Learning more methodical accurate extensive than the Gospel of Christ should deceive you and draw you from the true Wisdom of Christianity or Hereticks draw you by Philosophical Pretences to their Heresies and they should set up the Tradition Books or Opinions of any Sect of Philosophers against the Heavenly Doctrine of Christ Note That as Moses's Law was very useful in subordination to the Covenant of Grace and to Christ but pernicious to them that set it in opposition to Christ or in separation from him so is true Philosophy which is the Knowledge of the knowable part of Gods Works useful in subordination to Christ But the Heathen Sect of Philosophers were the most dangerous Adversaries to Christianity by deriding its Simplicity and pretending to far greater Learning and despising Christians as ignorant and credulous and using against them their Logical Art and Sophistry and the Reputation of all their Sciences 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily 9. For as the Divine Nature it self hath united it self to and so dwelleth in his Humane Nature so in the Person Doctrine and Works of Christ Incarnate God hath treasured up and by that In-dwelling placed the fullest Manifestation of himself to Mankind that ever he will give them in this Life on Earth 10. And ye are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and power 10. You need not seek after Wisdom in the Oracles or Knowledge of Demons or Angels for in Christ you have compleat Wisdom if you truly receive him and learn of him who is not onely above all Philosophers and Rabbies but above the highest Angels or Celestial Powers and is the chief Revealer of God to Man 11. In whom also ye are circumcised by the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ 11. Nor need you go to Judaism for Circumcision For you have the true saving Circumcision in Christ even that of the Heart made without Plands by the Spirit of Christ cutting off and casting away the Body of Sin or Fleshly Lusts 12. Buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead 12. And it 's more than a Circumcision of your Lusts that you have in Christ they are dead and buried with him For so your Baptism signifieth in which you are put under the Water to signifie and profess that your Old Man or Fleshly Lust is dead and buried with him and you rise thence to signifie and profess that you risâ— to Newness of Life and Heavenly Hopes through the Belief of Gods Works that raised Christ from the dead 13. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses 13. And you that were as dead in the Guilt and Power of your Sins your Hearts and Lusts as your Flesh being uncircumcised hath God made spiritually alive as Christ was quickned and raised and hath absolved you by pardon of all Sin from the Obligation to Everlasting Death which you had contracted 14. Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross 14. Cancelling the Legal Imposition of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies even to us Jews which might have been produced against us Breakers of the Law to our condemnation and as it were nailed it to his Cross while by dying he disabled it So that you need not think that Judaizing is necessary to your Salvation 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it 15. And when his Crucifiers triumphed over him on the Cross as if they had utterly overcome him it was but his Conquest and Spoils of all Principalities and Powers of Devils or Men that were Adversaries to his Grace and Kingdom and his open Ostentation of his Victory and Triumph over them in that his Crucifixion 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new-moon or of the sabbath days 6. Seeing then that Christ hath abrogated the Mosaical Law none ought to censure you as Sinners for not keeping the Ceremonies of the Law about Meat or Drink or in the Point of Festivals called Holydays or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days 17. Which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ 17. For these were but Shadows of the things to come even Christ and Christianity which are the Substance shadowed Note That Sabbaths are abolished with the rest of Moses's Law As to the Lords-days consider these things distinctly 1. That all Moses's Law as such bound onely the Jews to whom it was promulgate and is now abolished even saith Paul that written in Stone 2. That all the Law of Christ in Nature and Revelation still bindeth us 3. That the Word Sabbath in Scripture properly signifieth a Day of Ceremonial Rest in which the Bodily Rest was a Duty directly in it self as Sacrificing and other Ceremonies were 4. That the Lords-day is never called a Sabbath in Scripture however some mistake a Text or two 5. That the Lords-day is separated by Divine Appointment to the holy Commemoration of Christs Resurrection and our Redemption especially in Sacred Assemblies for Church-worship 6. That it is of greater dignity than the Sabbaths were as being for more substantial spiritual excellent Work 7. That on it Rest is not a Ceremonial Due as it was on Sabbaths for it self but onely a subordinate Duty that Soul and Body even of Servants may be vacant and free for Spiritual Worship and no Breach of Rest is now a Sin but 1. That which hindreth this Spiritual Work 2. Or is scandalous encouraging others to Sin 8. That therefore the Seventh-day Sabbath is abolished 1. Because Moses's Law is abolished 2. And all proper Sabbaths are abolished 9. That yet with the ancient Churches we may well call the Lords day the Sâ—bbath when it tendeth not to Errour But onely by allusion or metaphorically as they then called the Table an Altar the Minsters Priests and the Sacrament and Alms and Thankâ—giving Sacrifices This
is the full Truth as I have proved in a set Treatise 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind 18. Let no Man beguile you of the Reward of Christianity by pretending greater self humbling than God commandeth by worshipping Angels intruding into and pretending to know the things which he never saw nor God revealed to him vainly puffed up by the Imaginations of his fleshly Mind and building on his deluded Conjectures and Self-conceits 19. And not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God 19. By which they depart from their due Dependence on Christ the Head whose Office it is to be the sole immediate Mediator between God and Man and the Lawgiver to the Church who hath given us sufficient notice what Worship God accepteth It is from him the Head of Life and Government that the Body even the Church receiveth its Nourishment and holy Increase by the Blessing of God it being by Joynts and Ligaments of Faith Love and Ministry and Communion for Concord conjoined and made a meet Receiver 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances 21. Touch not taste not handle not 22. Which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men 20 21 22. If then you be dead to the Rudiments of all other Masters and Customs in the World of Jews or Heathens in conformity to your Crucified Lord why as though yet you were not separated from the World to Christ are you subject to such Ordinances which Christ never made you but hath abolished as Touch not taste not meddle not with such and such Meats as unclean and the like which were all temporary things and consist in transient unprofitable Actions having no Reward of God as being but the Products of the Commands and Doctrines of unauthorised Men. 23. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh 23. Which are the things for which as deceitful Shews tho Heretical and Heathen Seducers pretend to be wiser Men than the Apostles and Christians and to be more pious Men and so would draw you to their Errours as being stricter in Voluntary Worship and greater Humility and neglecting of the Body on pretense of being more for the Soul and not as sensual Men do setting up and pampering the Flesh Note The Description of Paul and Church Historians notifie to us that these Hereticks made up a Religion of three Parts 1. Of the Name and some Parts of Christianity to keep in with the Christians 2. Of many Jewish Rites to keep fair with the Jews 3. But the main Substance which they boasted of was Pythagorean Heathenism in which they pretended great knowledge of Spirits Demons and invisible things their Orders Powers Offices Durations c. which God never revealed but the deluded Imaginations of themselves and the said Pythagorean and Platonick Philosophers taught them In many of which Superstitions of Will-worship Angel-worship Laws of Penance on the Flesh while the vain Mind usurpeth Christs Legislative Power too many of the carnal corrupt Church do imitate them to this day CHAP. III. IF ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God 1. If then you be true Christians risen with Christ as you profess to the hope of a Celestial Glory and to a Holy Life shew it by seeking the things which are above where Christ who you trust in is as your Head over all in glory 2. Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth 2. Let the Heavenly things and not the things on Earth have your strongest affections your Love your Desire your Hope your Joy your Care your very Hearts 3. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory 3 4. For ye are dead to the World and sin and the root of your Spiritual Life is not in your selves but both your Objective Life which is your Happiness and the Root of all your Spiritual Life are out of sight with Christ in God It is by him that you live and it is with him and on him that you must live in Glory for ever 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry 6. For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience 5 6. Therefore tho your Lusts are as it were the very Members of your corrupt fleshly Nature kill them all even Fornication Uncleanness Inordinate Affections of Love or delight all evil lustings or desires and Covetousness which loveth the Creature above God and which is Idolaters sin For it is for these things that the Unbeliving Rebellious World is under the wrath of God 7. In the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them 7. These sins were formerly your own practices when you were Heathens among them 8. But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth 9. Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds 8 9. But now you must not only cast off all these filthy sins but also all that is contrary to Love and Peace all sinful wrath and malice and evil speaking and rybaldry and lying For all these are the Members and Deeds of the Old Man or state which you have renounced 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him 10. And you have by Conversion become New Men renewed in Saving Knowledge unto the Image of that God and Saviour who is the maker of this New Creature 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all 11. Where the Interest and Union that we have all in One Christ who is all in all doth swallow up all the little differences of Greeks and Jew c. And so must lo in our Communion 12. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering 12. Let these therefore be your very Habit and Nature and Practice as becometh Gods chosen holy and beloved ones Bowels of Mercy Kindness c. 13. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye 13. Note 1. That