benefite hee receiues of vs for nothing can accresse by the meanes of any creature to that most high and al-sufficient maiestie Sâ—d vt haberit in quem sua benefiâ—ia collâ—caret but that hee might haue some vpon whom to bestow his benefits for the declaration of the glorie of his rich mercie Yet both the Adoptions agrees in this that they flow The naturall giues to the Adopted the priuiledges of a sonne from the pleasure and good will of him vvho is the adoptant and that they giue to him who is adopted the priuiledges of a Sonne which by nature he hath not but where the naturall adoptant cannot change the nature of that man whom hee hath adopted to be his Sonne no more then Moses qui Aethiopissam duxit sed non potuit Aethiopissae mutare colorem who married an Aethiopian vvoman but could not change the Aethiopians colour but the Lord our God were wee neuer so blacke if hee marry vs hee shall make vs beautifull if by the grace of Adoption he make But the spirituall giues also the new nature and conditions of a Sonne vs his sonnes by the grace of Regeneration hee shall also make vs new creatures all the sonnes of GOD are made partakers of the Diuine nature Take heede therefore vnto your liues and conuersations for if ye goe on to spend the remanent of your dayes after the inordinate lusts of the flesh and walke on in gluttonie and drunkennesse in chambering and wantonnes in adulterie in strife and enuy in couctousnesse and such other workes of vncleannesse wherein many among you doe yet continue wee must say vnto you that ye haue not God for your Father but ye are of your father the Diuell because ye doe his workes except wee see in you the Image and superscription of God and that ye haue engrauen in your conuersation as Aaron Exod. 28. 36. had vpon his frontlet Holinesse to the Lord we cannot blesse you in the name of the Lord nor acknowledge you for such as are his by Adoption And of this againe wee marke that the sonnes of God The Sonnes of God after their receiuing the Spirit of Adoption know that God is their Father know most certainely that God is become their heauenly Father for in this they are taught of God by his owne spirit to acknowledge him and call vpon him with boldnesse as vpon their Father It is therefore a vile errour which that most comfortlesse religion of the Papists renders to them who seeke comfort in it that no man in this life can know whether he be beloued or hated of God nor can haue any certaine knowledge of his owne saluation except it be by extraordinarie reuelation we improued it at length in the ninth verse It is true naturall children may be ignorant of their earthly Father and puft vp with a vaine conceit that they are descended of a more noble parentage then indeed they are as the â—latterers of Alexander would haue him to thinke that hee was the Sonne of Iupiter and not of Phillip but being wounded in a battell hee was taught by experience that hee was the mortall Sonne of a mortall Father and therefore smyling vpon his â—latterers hee said vnto them this bloud seemeth to mee not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not like the strong bloud of GOD but the bloud of man But as for the Children of God they can not be deceiued of their generation they know that God is their Father and with greater homelinesse and more freedome of spirit yea and surer knowledge they call God their Father then any son in the world is able to call on his earthly Father Whereby we cry The Apostle here doth teach vs that it No prayer to God without the spirit of God is by the spirit of Adoption wee pray vnto God without that Spirit men may speake of God but without him they cannot speake vnto God Prayer is a proper action of the sons of God The Apostle describing them who are Saints by calling saith they are sanctified by Christ and call vpon the name of the Lord Iesus hee ioynes these two together to tell vs that they who are not called by God and sanctified in Christ cannot call vpon him as for prophane men it is certain they cannot pray though they repeat that prayer Our father which art in heauen what else doe they but multiply lyes as they multiply words Onely the spirit of Adoption teacheth the Children of How the godly sometime are transported in Prayer 2 King 2. God to pray Prayer is vnto them like that firie Chariot in the which Eliah was caried from earth to heauen by it they are transported to haue their conuersation with God and speake to him in so familiar a manner that they know not those things which are beside them neyther see they those things which are before them being in the body they are caried out of the body they present to the Lord sighs which cannot be expressed and vtters to the Lord such words as they themselues are not able to repeat againe and that all this proceedes from the operation of the Spirit who bends vp their affections and teacheth them to pray is euident by this that when this holy Spirit intermits or relents his working in them they become senselesse and heauy harted more readie to sleepe with Peter Iames and Iohn than to watch Mat. 26. 38. and pray with Iesus yea suppose it were in the very houre of tentation Wee cry c. The Apostle you see reckons himselfe among The godly should cry together not one against an other others who cryes by this Spirit of Adoption though the children of God be many yet seeing they all are led by one spirit they should all cry for one thing vnto God the assemblies of the Church militant on earth should resemble as neere as they can the glorious assemblies of the Church triumphant in heauen many are they who followes the Lambe their voyce is like vnto the voyce of many waters yet they all sing but one song so should there be among vs that are Christians but one voyce specially when we meete in the publike assemblies of the Church though wee were Vnion of desires in prayer commended neuer so many yet our affections and desires should concur in one and all of vs send vp one voyce to the Lord. Wee see that in nature coniunction of things which are of one kinde makes them much stronger many flames of fire vnited in one are not easily quenched many springs of water if they meet together in one make the stronger riuer but being deuided are the more easily ouercome Saint Iames Iames 5. 16. saith the prayer of one righteous man auailes much if it be powred out in faith what then shall we thinke of the prayers of many Oh what a blessing might wee looke for if vvee could ioyne in
put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality 2 Resurrection confirmed by types figures such as The same is in like manner shadowed in holy Scripture by sundry types and figures among which in Tertulian his iudgement the restitution of Ionas out of the Whales belly is one albeit the belly of the Whale was more able to haue altered and changed the body of Ionas by reason of the Ionas body great heat that is therein then the belly of the earth could haue beene by reason of her colde yet is hee restored the third day as liuely as he was receiued The same he thinkes of that vision of dry bones shewed to Ezechiel which at Ezekiels bones Chap. 38. once â—t the word of the Lord was knit together with sinews and couered vvith flesh and skinne this was not onely a prediction of the deliuerance of Israell out of Babell but also a typical confirmation of the resurrection of our bodies Non enim figura de ossiâ—us potuisset componi nisi id ipsum essibuâ— Tertull. de resur carnis 〈…〉 rum essâ—t for that figure of the bones could not haue beene made if the truth figured thereby were not also to be accomplished vpon such bones Parabola de nullo non conuenit vvhat parable or similitude can be brought from a thing which is not We shall not reade in all the booke of God that any parable hath beene borrowed from that thing which neuer was nor neuer will be Of this sort also is the flourishing of Aarons rodde in the iudgement of Cyril Aarons rodde Numb 17. which being before a dry and withered sticke incontinent by the word of the Lord flourished hee that restored to Aarons rodde that kinde of vegitatiue life which it had before will much more raise Aaron himselfe from the dead Of these figures shadowing the resurrection many more are to be found in holy Scripture As for examples in euery age of the world the Lord Examples of the Resurrection Gen. 5. hath raised some from the dead to be witnesses of the resurrection of the rest Before the floud hee carried vp Henoch aliue intâ— heauen and hee saw no death vnder the law Elias was transported in a fierie chariot and in the last age 2 Kings 2. of the world not onely hath our Lord blessed for euer risen from the dead and ascended into heauen as the first fruits of them which rise from the dead but also by his power hee raised Lazarus out of the graue euen after that stinking rottennesse had entred into his flesh and vpon the Crosse when hee seemed to be most weake hee shewed himselfe most strong hee caused by his power many that were dead to come out of their graues and to enter into the Citie Yea his seruant Peter by the power of the Lord Iesus raised the damsell Dorcas from death and in the name of the Lord Iesus Act. 9. 40. Acts. 3. made him that was lame of his feete to arise and walke when we see such power in the seruant of Christ working in his name shall we not reserue the praise of a greater power to himselfe And lastly as for the practises of God in nature wee are 3 Gods working both in our selues and the creature confirmes the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. not to neglect them for the Apostle himselfe brings arguments from them to confirme the resurrection He first propones the question of the Atheist how are the dead raised vp and with what body come they forth and then subioynes the answere O foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die it is sowen in the earth bare corne and God raiseth it with another body at his pleasure seeing thou beholdest this daily working of God in nature why wilt not thou beleeue that the Lord is able to doe the like vnto thy selfe Qui illa reparat quae tibi sunt necessaria quanto mâ—gâ—s te reparabit propter Ang. de verb. Apost ser 34. quem illa reparare dignatus est Seeing the Lord for thy sake repaires those things which are necessary to maintaine thy life will he not much more restore thy selfe and raise thee vp from death vnto eternall life And to insist in these same confirmations which we may A two-fold meditation to coÌ„firme the resurrection haue from the working of God in nature both in our selues and in other creatures if eyther with Iustin Martyr wee consider of how small a beginning or then with Cyril how of nothing God hath made vp man we shall see how iustly the Apostle calleth them fooles who deny the resurrection of our bodyes The Lord saith Iustin Maâ—tyr of a little drop of mans seede which as Iob saith is powred out like 1 How of a litle drop god made vs that which now wee are water buildeth vp daily this excellent workmanship of mans body who would beleeue that of so small a beginning and without forme so well a proportionate body in all the members thereof could be brought forth nisi aspectus sidem faceret were it not that daily sight and experience confirmeth Iust Mart. apol 2. ad Senat. Rom. it why then shall it be thought a thing impossible to the Lord to reedifie the same body after that by death it hath beene dissolued into dust and ashes And againe if with 2 How God hath made vs of nothing to be that which now wee are Cyrill wee will s 〈…〉 out our beginning and consider what wee were this day hundred yeare wee shall finde that wee were not seeing the Lord of nothing hath brought out so pleasant and beautifull a creature as thou art this day shalt thou thinke it impossible to him an hundred yeares after this oâ— longer or shorter as it pleaseth him to restore thee againe and raise thee from the dead qui potuit id quod non Ciril cate 4 erat producere vt aliquid esse id quod iam est cum â—eciderit restituere non poterit he that could bring out that which was not and make it to be something shall we thinke that he cannot raise vp againe that which now is after that it hath fallen Which of these two I pray thee is the greatest and most It is easier to restore one that hath been then to make one that neuer was difficult worke in thy iudgement for vnto the Lord euery thing that hee will is alike easie whether to make one who neuer was or to restore againe one who hath beene Doubtlesse to make a man in our iudgement is a greater thing then to raise him In the worke of creation the Lord made that to bee which was not in the worke of resurrection the Lord shall make that to be which was before the one thou beleeuest because thou seest it dayly done the other thou doubtest of because it is to be done but cease to doubt any more and of that which God hath
one to call vpon God but now alas where one with a contrite hart cryes to God for mercie how many by continuance in sinne cryes to him for iudgement what maruell then the arme of the Lord be shortned toward vs and he doe not help vs As they who resolue to lift any heauie burthen ioyne As many hands lift a burthen importable to one so their hands together vnder it and so by mutuall strength makes that easie to many which were impossible to one so when we are assembled together to lift from off our heads by vnfayned repentance that burthen of the wrath of God which our sinnes hath brought vpon vs if there be among vs no deceiuers but that euery man in the sinceritie of his heart ioyne his earnest supplication with the prayers of his brethren what a blessing may wee looke for Take heede therfore how you behaue your selues in the holy assemblies of the armes of God how you cry with your brethren if yee be deceiuers yee shall not be partakers of that blessing which shall come vpon them vvho worship him in spirit and truth where they shall goe home to their houses iustified and reioycing through the testimony of the spirit that their sinnes are forgiuen them ye shall go out as Cham went out of the Arke more prophane than yee came in with the curse of God vpon you because yee set not your hearts to seeke his blessing Neither is this vnion of our desires onely to be obserued Not in publike prayers onely but in priuate also is vnion in Prayer commended in our publike prayers but in our priuate also so our Sauiour taught vs to pray as remembring others with our selues Ouâ— Father and not my father onely to tell vs that in the armes of our affections wee should present our brethren to God with our selues We greatly offend the Lord when wee haue finished our prayers so soone as wee haue powred out some few petitions for our selues as if Gods glorie vvere to be aduanced in no other but in vs alonely If Abraham prayed for Sodome because he knew that Lot was in it shall we not pray for Ierusalem wherein are so many of his sonnes and daughters his Lots indeede and chosen inheritance Wee are now all in Christ made Priests to our God and Reu. 5. 2. 6. therefore as Aaron when hee went in before the Lord carried with him on his breast in twelue precious stones the names of the twelue tribes of Israel so are wee in our prayers to God to present in our hearts with our selues the rest of our brethren This is for them who forgets the fellowship vvhereunto They are bastard children who pray for themselues and not for Ierusalems peace they are called vvhile they professe themselues to be the daughters of Ierusalem and yet neglect to pray for her peace they declare themselues to be but bastard children Yet their negligence is tolerable in regard of the malice of others who make a iest with their mouthes at the diuisions of Reuben and with the prophane Edomite reioyces at the desolation of Israel they encrease with their speech the disease of the paralitique body of this Church but labours not to binde it vp by their prayers with cursed Cham they make a sport of the nakednesse of their father if they can see it but couers it not with blessed Sem therefore shall his blessing be far from them Wee cry Prayer is called a crying not in regard of the Praier why it is called a crying loudnesse of the outward voyce but earnestnesse of the inward affection It is true that in publike prayers hee who is the mouth of the rest should speake so that others may follow him and know vvherein they should say Amen neither is it vnlawfull in priuate Prayer circumstances of time and place permitting it yea rather the voice rightly and sincerely vsed is profitable to waken the affections to hold vp thy hands vvith Moses to lift vp thine eyes toward Exod. 17. Acts 7. Psal 108. Iudg. 5. God with Stephen to aduance thy voyce vvith Dauid if with these also thou ioyne thine heart as did Deborah this is to make a sweet and pleasant harmonie vnto the Lord. Yet none of these the last accepted is absolutely necessarie Vse of the tongue not absolutely necessary in prayer Exod. 14. 15. 1 Sam. 1. 12. 13. in Prayer Moses his tongue was silent at the red Sea for any thing we read yet his affection and desire vvas a loud crying voyce vnto God Anna in the Temple powred out her hart vnto God suppose Eli heard not her voice The Lord needes not the tongue to be an interpreter betweene him and the hearts of his Children he that heareth without eares can interpret the prayers of his own children vvithout their tongue Some prayes vvith their lips onely these are accursed deceiuers For the Lord knows the first conception of prayer in the heart Luke 1. let vs leaue that to hipocrites some praies both with heart and mouth and these doe vvell to glorifie God vvith both because hee hath redeemed them both others haue their tongues silenced and can speake no more then Zacharie when hee vvas stricken with dumbnesse yet are the desires of their hearts strong cryes in the eares of the Lord of hoasts hee that knew Ieremy and Iohn the Baptist in the wombe and saw Nathaniel vnder the figge-tree doth also know the prayers of his children conceiued in their hearts though they should neuer be brought forth by speach of the mouth and this for their comfort who through extremitie of sicknesse or otherwise are not able to vse their tongues in prayer to God Farther wee learne here that the Parent which begets The Parents of Prayer Prayer is the Spirit of Adoption the mother that conceiues it is the humble and contrite heart for no proud vncleane and hard heart can pray vnto God the wings whereby it The wings whereby praier ascends ascends are feruencie and an heauenly disposition feruency is noted in the word of Crying for as in crying there is an earnestnes of the powers of the body to send out the voice so in prayer should there be an earnestnesse of the powers of our soule to send vp our desires As incense without fire makes no smell and therefore the Lord commanded it to be sacrificed with fire in the Law so prayer without feruency sends vp no sweet smell vnto the Lord. Our heauenly disposition required in prayer is collected out of this that hee to whom wee speake is our Father in Heauen if our mindes be earthly we can haue no communing with him that is in heauen wee must therefore ascend in our affection enter within the vaile if wee would speake familiarly with our Father Prayer this manner of way sent vp and presented to our aduocate and intercessor the Lord Iesus out of the hand of Faith cannot but returne a fauourable answere if
confidence on GOD and here the creature is brought in teaching vs to become weary of our present seruitude of sinne and to long for our promised deliuerance This is that miserable estate whereunto man is brought How farre man by apostacie hath degenerated from his originall glory by his apostacie from God In the beginning man was made Lord and gouernour of all the creatures in one day he called them all before him and gaue them names according to their kindes as one who knew them better in their nature and vertue then they did themselues and they all by comming at his call to his Court acknowledged him vnder God their superiour and Lord this was a part of mans glory in the beginning but now falling away from God hee hath also so farre degenerated from his owne kind that he is become inferiour to the beasts as Balaam Asse was wiser then his maister so the creatures in their kind reprooue the foolishnes of man who was their Lord. Waiteth The word import a continuall act of expectation The waiting of the creature may make man ashamed that waites not for that glorie their expectation expecteth this earnest vvaiting of the creature may make vs ashamed of our blockish dulnes that haue not our mindes and hearts set continually vpon that day of our redemption notwithstanding that exhortation belongs vnto vs that wee should looke for that day and hast vnto it As the creatures were not made for themselues 1 Pet. 3. but for vs so they shal not be restored for themselues but for vs for the greater augmentation of our Glory and if they who shall haue but the second roome long for that day how should we long for it for whom that glory chiefly is prepared When the sonnes of God shall be reuealed The sonnes of The sonnes of God now are not reuealed God are now said not to be reuealed in two respects first because their persons are not reuealed secondly because the glory and dignity is not yet reuealed As for the persons In regard of their persons which now are not knowne of elect men it is true the Lord knoweth who are his and makes themselues also after their effectuall calling to know that they are his his Spirit bearing testimonie vnto their spirits that they are the sonnes of God he giues vnto them that new Name vvhich none knowes but they vvho haue it but now they are not so reuealed that they are knowne of the world For this cause the world knowes you not because Ioh. 15. 20. 22. it knowes not him The good wheate of the Lord is now so couered with chaffe and his excellent pearles are locked vp in earthen vessels the vessel is seene and contemned for the basenesse thereof the pearle is not seene and therefore not esteemed according to the excellencie thereof beside this there are many of the sonnes of God not yet come into the world and many already gone out of it whom vvee know not but in that generall assembly all the Saints of GOD shall be gathered together into one at the right hand of the Lord Iesus and shall be clearely manifested that the wicked their enemies shall know them and be confounded to behold them And of this ariseth a warning to vs all that none of vs This learnes vs not to despise other men because we know not what they are in Gods election despise another but that euen those who for the present are euill and contrary minded wee waite vpon them patiently proouing if at any time God vvill giue them repentance that they may come out of the snare of the Diuell The sons of God are not yet reuealed he that presently is an enemie in regard of his rebellious conuersation what knowest thou whether in the counsell of GOD hee be one of Gods chosen children or not and if hee be so thou maist be sure that ere hee dye the Lord shall conuert him if not of a persecuter to make him a Preacher as hee did Paul yet at least a Professour of that same truth which thou hast embraced Secondly not onely are the persons of Gods sonnes vnknowne but their glory also now is obscured and their life In regard of their glorie which now is obscured Col 3. 3. is hid with Christ they are accounted the off-scowrings of the earth and intreated in the world as if they were the onely men to whom shame and ignominie did appertaine yea their glory is not knowne vnto themselues euen those who haue receiued the new Name and the testimonie of the Spirit recording to them that they are the Sonnes of God when they looke to their contemptible bodies and abundant corruption in their soules they seeme vnto themselues to be nothing lesse than the sonnes of God I marke it that wee The sonnes of God shold not iudge of themselues by their present state may learne to beware of Sathans pollicie whereby he carrieth vs to iudge of our selues by our present estate which cannot but breed in vs horrible feare and doubtings To this craft let vs oppone that comfort of the Apostle dearely beloued 1 Iohn 3. now are we the Sonnes of God yet doth it not appeare what we shall be it is but the beginnings and not the perfection of grace and glory which we haue in this life by the beginnings let vs know that we are the sonnes of God and where we finde no perfection let vs not be discouraged remembring this is the time wherein the glory of the sonnes of God is not yet reuealed We are here againe further to consider that vvhere the Comfortable that where the Lord cals the rest of his works his creatures he calleth vs his sonnes Lord giues vnto the rest of his workes the name of a creature hee vouchsafes vpon vs the names of sonnes shewing vs that albeit in regard of creation we are his creatures and come vnder that same name with the rest of his works yet now in regard of his grace communicated vnto vs wee are much more than that which wee were by creation and in that respect more esteemed of by him then all the rest of his workes beside As a Father counteth much more of his sonne whom hee hath begotten than he doth of all other things he hath whatsoeuer so the Lord our God esteemes more pretious vnto him one of these his excellent ones whom he hath begotten in his beloued Sonne the Lord Iesus than he doth of all others besides For their sakes hee reprooues Kings hee alters the course of nature and turneth vp-side downe the state of things in the world yea he shall declare at length that they are his onely treasure from the time that once he gets them all gathered vnto him the administration of this world as now it is shall cease and take an end Oh that we could stirre vp our hearts to a thankfulnesse Our duty againe craues that in our heart wee
HEAVEN OPENED VVHEREIN THE COVNSAILE OF GOD CONCERNING mans Saluation is yet more cleerely manifested so that they that haue eyes may come and see the Christian possessed and crowned in his heauenly Kingdome Which is the greatest and last benefit we haue by Christ Iesus our Lord. Come and see First written and now newly amended and enlarged by Mr. William Cowper Minister of Gods word LONDON Printed by Thomas Snodham for Thomas Archer and are to be sould at his shop in Popes-head Pallace 1611. TO THE MOST SACRED CHRISTIAN TRVELY CATHOLIKE AND mightie Prince JAMES King of Great Britaine France and Ireland defender of the Faith c. SIR The Apostle S. Paule that Act. 9. 15. chosen vessell of God and his ambassadour sent forth into the world to bring in the house of Iapheth into the tents of Sem Gen. 9. 27. hauing in his peregrination vndertaken for preaching from Ierusalem vnto Illyricu seene Rom. 15. 19. the most pleasant parts of the world and in an extasie transported from earth into the third heauen seene also 2 Cor. 12. the pleasures of Paradise as one who knew both not by naked speculation but experience giues out his iudgement of both that the most excellent things of this world Philip. 3. 8. were but dung in respect of the Lord Iesus and that whatsoeuer pleasure on earth may delight the eye or eare 1 Cor. â— 9. of man is by infinite degrees inferiour to those which God hath prepared for his children and therefore passing by both the pleasures of life and terrors of death he fixed his eyes stedfastly vpon that prize of the high calling of Philip. 3. 14. God forgetting all other things he became carefull onely of this one so to runne and fulfill his course with ioy that Act. 20. 24. he might obtaine that crowne This as hee had learned 1. Cor. 9. 25. like a good disciple in the schoole of Christ so like a faithfull Doctor doth he here deliuer it vnto others letting vs see that the onely comfort of a Christian on earth consists in this to know that his name is written in heauen in the booke of life which as in this treatise he confirmeth vnto vs by the inseparable commixion of the lincks of the golden chaine of saluation specially of our calling with our election and glorification so he endeuors to draw the hearts of all the children of God toward it as that maine and onely point wherein true peace and ioy is to be found and without which all other comforts in the world yea Luke 20. 20 though it were superioritie ouer all the Angels of darkenesse in hell and all the bodies of men on earth shall be Iob. 16. 2. found in the end but miserable comforters I may truly say what I haue found in experience that this the Apostles most comfortable treatise to such as can Come and see shall not onely be as the top of Pisgah Deut. 34 to Moses out of which hee saw the promised Canaan but that also the man effectually called shall heare in it the testimony of the heauenly oracle speyking to his heart as cleerely as the Angel did vnto Daniel that hee is a Dan. 9. 13. man beloued of God elected an heire of grace and glory And therefore hauing resolued to make common for the vse of others those comfortable meditations which it pleased God out of this excellent treatise to communicate vnto me I was also after long haesitation emboldned to present them to your Maiestie not as of minde to bring by them any good vnto your Highnesse but begging to them from your sacred name fauourable protection For I humbly acknowledge that from so base a minde as mine is nothing can proceede worthy so great a Maiestie as God hath made you not so much in regard of those famous Kingdomes ouer which your Highnesse stretches out your Scepter as of those gifts of gouernment by which ye rule Your Highnesse hauing receiued from God cum Diademate diuinum oleum cum Sceptro oculum Kingly authoritie with Christian wisedome sacred Maiestie with singular meekenesse being so euident in your Highnesse that by them the worst sort of your Maiesties subiects haue been wonderfully conuinced the better sort confirmed to feare you as their King to loue you as their Father A conquest aboue which no greater can be Cum amari coli diligi maius sit imperio And this is it which hath ouercome in me all contrarie feares arising of the conscience of my weaknesse that when yâ—ur Highnesse great wisedome shall perceiue in these labours my great infirmities yet your Maiestie of your rare meeknesse will fauourably censure them Euen the starres which are obscured in presence of the sunne are profitable in his absence to giue light to the earth and howsoeuer any light that is in these discourses shall vnder your Highnesse eye be indeede but darkenesse yet if with your Highnesse fauor they be allowed to giue such glimmering light as they haue vnto others it shal be no small comfort vnto me and my greatest thankefulnesse shal be declared in my dayly prayers vnto the Lord God for your Maiestie that the name of Iacobs God may defend you from all euill and the Lord may send you help out of his Sanctuarie in all your need according as hee hath done Psal 20. 1. O King beloued of God hated of none but for Gods sake Psal 21. 1. keepe still your heart in the loue of God and his truth Reioyce in the strength of your God and feare not Psal 56. 4. what flesh can doe vnto you Is it not the Lord who Psal 18. 43. set your Highnesse on the throne to be a feeder of his people Israel Is it not the Lord who hath deliuered your Maiestie from the contentions of the people and secret snares of your cursed enimies though the Archers Gen. 49. 23. grieued you hated you and shot at you were not the hands of your armes strengthened by the hands of the Gen. 49. 25. mightie God of Iacob Is it not the almightie who hath blessed your Maiesty with heauenly blessings from aboue with blessings of the depth that lyes beneath with blessings Psal 21. 3. of the breast and wombe Sir let his liberall blessings wherewith the Lord your God hath preuented you be so many obligations binding Psal 18. 50 your Highnesse to honour the Lord who hath honoured Gen. 12. 1. you Let his fore past manifold deliuerances be as so many confirmations that if your Maiestie rest in him and Psal 68. 20. not in man he will still be a buckler vnto you Let Abaddon the King of the Locusts that Romish vsurper rage Reuel 9. 11. Vnto the Lord belongs the issues of death Can Balaam curse where God hath blessed yea can Sathan Numb 23. 8. hurt the man who is hedged by the Lord Let the Iob. 1. 10. Ambassadours
water our couch with teares in the night and call vpon the Lord without ceasing in the day continually vntill we find that we are translated from darknesse to light taken out of nature and planted in Christ and that first sentence of absolution be pronounced to our conscience by the spirit of adoption goe thy way thy sinnes are for giuen thee For the Math. 9. 2. Apostle vseth here this limitation of the comfort to certaine persons thereby to declare that it appertaines not vnto the remnant of the world When the originall world was As none were saued without the Arke the family of Lot and house of Rahab Gen. 7. 33. Gen. 19. 16. Iosh 2. ouerwhelmed with waters none were saued but such as were in the Arke when Sodome was burnt with fire none were saued but those of the family of Lot when Iericho was destroyed none were preserued but such as were in the Family of Rahab all these are figures shadowing vnto vs that when the Lord shall come to cut downe the wicked with the sword or hooke of his iustice to cast them for euer into the wine-presse of his wrath saluation shall belong onely to those who are of the houshold of faith euen that whole family whereof God in Iesus Christ is the Father which number is indeede exceeding small if they be compared with the remnant and great multitude of the world therefore let not their euill example deceiue vs but remembring the kingdome of heauen suffers violence let vs cast away these Mat. 11. 12. Heb. 12. 2. burdens and impediments specially this sinne which hangeth so fast on that wee may enter in time into the Arke of GOD and Familie of Rahab that so wee may be saued Wee haue here then first to obserue a certaine distinction A threefold distinction of mankinde of mankinde whereof some are in Christ these are vessels of honour reserued to mercy others out of Christ and these are vessels of dishonour ordained vnto wrath This 1 Made in God his eternall counsaile distinction is first made in God his secret counsell electing some and leauing others according to the good pleasure of his will and this is onely knowne vnto himselfe It begins 2 Made in this life by effectual calling of those who are chosen Reuel 3. 12. first to be manifest when the Lord by effectuall calling seperates his Elect from the children of wrath and disobedience and then it is knowne but properly and truly of those onely who are effectually called for that new name which the Lord giueth none knowes but they who haue receiued it By the iudgement of charity confirmed by the seene effects of grace in another thou maist conclude that hee is called but by assurance of Faith thou maist onely be certaine of thine owne particular saluation But this distinction 3 Shall be made most manifest in the day of generall iudgement shall be most clearely manifested in the last day when the Lord shall gather all the children of his good will together at the right hand of Iesus Christ then shall hee declare vnto all the world who they are that are his the wicked shall see the righteous and be vexed with horrible feare when they shall see that such as they had in derision haue their portion among the Saints Let it not therefore be sufficient vnto vs that out of the generall masse of mankind we are gathered to the fellowship of the Church visible but let vs examine how we are in the barne sloore of the Lord Iesus whether as chaffe or corne for a day of winnowing will assuredly come wherein the Lord shall gather his good corne into his garner and the chaffe shall be cast out into vnquenchable fire It is againe to be marked that the Apostle hauing found If wee seeke comfort of deliuerance from the wrath to come we must goe out of our selues and seeke it in Christ in himselfe matter of death which he humbly confessed in the end of the last Chapter doth now goe out of himselfe and rest in Iesus Christ before hee can finde any comfort through deliuerance from death teaching vs that if wee seeke comfort wee must goe out of our selues and seeke it in Christ Surely a great cause of these manifold doubtings feares and vnquietnesse of mind wherewith the godly are often troubled is that they seeke in themselues grounds and warrants of their saluation as though the Lord could not saue them vnlesse there be in them such a disposition as in euery point should be This is one of Sathans subtile stratagems to draw thee from Christ and make thee to rest vpon thy selfe if once he obtaine this at thy hands thou suffer that Serpent to creepe in between thee and thy surety and diuert thy heart from reposing stedfastly vpon Christ that not content to seeke supplement of thy wants in him thou seeke perfection in thy selfe it shall be an easie thing vnto thy aduersarie to disquiet thee and shake thee too and fro like a reede shaken with the winde with distrustfull cogitations I confesse indeede it is most needfull vnto saluation that Yet wee must finde in our selues infallible markes of Saluation thou finde in thy selfe the infallible signes and tokens of thy effectual calling and ingrafting into Christ but to think that because thou findest them not in perfection or findest beside them a remanent sinfull corruption of thy nature that therefore thou canst not be saued is as much as to thinke thou canst not be saued vnlesse thou be thine owne Sauiour Learne therefore from the holy Apostle that how euer in thy selfe thou be worthie to dye yet giue this glory to Iesus Christ that he is thy Sauiour be strong in him keepe thy consideration and confidence vpon him If Sathan charge thee with thy sinnes flye thou to Christs merits if hee obiect to thee thine euill actions remember thou Christs innocent sufferings and for euery thing wherwith he can charge thee goe thou to Iesus thy aduocate to be answerable for thee So did Bernard who in the houre A notable cōfort arising of Christs twofold right to the kingdome of his death being presented as hee thought before the Lords tribunall and sharply accused by his aduersarie for his sinnes he goes out of himselfe and runnes to Christ I graunt indeede sayes he that as thou obiectest vnto me I am vnworthie and by no deedes of mine can I merit eternall life yet I know the Lord Iesus hath a double right to the kingdome of heauen one by heritage and another by conquest the first is sufficient for himselfe the second for me ex cuius dono iure illud mihi vendicans non confundor Bernard And indeede except it had beene to giue it to poore penitent and beleeuing sinners what needed our blessed Sauiour to haue conquered that kingdome which was his owne before by heritage Thus are we onely sure when we cast the anchor of our
moderate discipline the stronger waxes the man of God Happy were wee if our care were continuall to strengthen the one by all spirituall exercises that wee might daily weaken the other For the greatest perfection whereunto we can attaine in Our best estate in this life is sighting this life is to fight against these lusts of the Flesh which fight against our soules Our life saith Iob in the earth is a warfare Bellum est non triumphus it is a battaile not a triumph saith Augustine though after many particular victories August de temp ser 45. the Lord put that voyce of triumph many times in our mouthes thanks be to God who alway makes vs to triumph 2. Cor. 2. 14. in Christ Iesus yet let vs remember that incontinent we must fight againe so long as we are in this mortall body wherein the Flesh lusts against the Spirit we cannot be free from carnall and euill desires if thou dissemble not thou shalt alway finde within thy selfe some thing which hath neede to be resisted for our sinfull superfluities saith Bernard Bernard are such putata repullâ—â—ant effugata redeunt reaccenduntur extincta that being cut off they spring out againe chased away they returne againe being quenched they are kindled againe Velis nolis intra sines tuos habitabit Iebusaeus will thou nill thou the Iebusite shall dwell within thy borders Subiugari potest exterminari non potest he may be subdued but cannot be rooted out And this againe doe we mark for the comfort of weake Christs members militant triumphant are not to bee tryed by one rule consciences it is Sathans subtiltie whereby commonly hee disquiets many that because carnall corruption is in them he would therefore beare them in hand that they are none of Christs In this he playes the deceiuer he tries vs by the wrong rule when he tryes vs by the rule of perfect sanctification this is the square which ought to be laid to Christs members triumphant in heauen and not to those who are militant here vpon earth Sinne remayning in me will not proue that therefore I am not in Christ otherwise Christ should haue no members vpon earth but grace working that new disposition which nature could neuer effect proues vndoubtedly that we are in Christ Iesus Let this therefore be our comfort that albeit there be in There is fleshly corruption in the Christian militant but he followes it not vs a fleshly corruption yet thanks be to God we walke not after it that is we follow not willingly the direction commandement thereof It is true and alas we finde it by experience the regenerate man may be led captiue for a time to the law of sinne hee may be pulled persorce out of the way of Gods commandements wherein hee delights to walke and compelled to doe those things which he would not yet euen at that same time hee disclaymes the gouernment of the flesh mourning and lamenting within himselfe that he should be drawne from the obedience of his owne Lord and gouernour the spirit of Iesus And indeede it is worthy to be marked that what euer Any seruice the Christian giues to sinne is throwne out by oppression like that which Israel gaue to Pharaoh seruice the regenerate man giues vnto sinne it is like the seruice that Israel gaue to Pharaoh in Egypt throwne out by oppression and therefore compelled them to sigh and crie vnto God but the seruice which the regenerate man giues to the Lord is voluntarie done as vnto his most lawfull superiour with gladnesse ioy and contentment of minde Happie is that man who can make this reply to his spirituall aduersarie when he is challenged of his sinnes It is true O enemie that I haue done many things by thy entisement yet herein I reioyce that whatsoeuer seruice I haue done to thee it is now through the grace of God the matter of my griefe but the weake seruice I haue giuen vnto God is the matter of my ioy Moreouer in this Metaphor of walking we are taught That our life is called a walking teaches vs foure things that as the walking of the body is a mouing from one place to another so the Christian life is a continuall mouing of the heart from one thing to another that is from sinne to 1 The life of a Christian is a remouing from euill to good Isai 1. 16. 17. Luke 16. 13. 2. Tim. 2. 19. sanctification departing from our selues that we may draw neere vnto God both these are comprised by Esay Cease to doe euill learne to doe good Our progresse in this iourney is not made pedibus sed affectibus by motion of our feete but of our affections but the beginning thereof is a departing from euill No man can serue two Maisters hee who will draw neere to the Lord and call vpon his name must depart from iniquitie Sicut in gradibus c. in the going Basi in Psa 1. vp of a staire saith Basil the first step raiseth a man from the earth then he goes vp by degrees till he come where hee would be so is it in our owne conuersion principium perfectionis ad Deum est discessus a malo the beginning of our iourney to God is a departure from euill This I mark Many bastard Christians haue neuer yet risen from euil farre lesse remoued to good for the wakening of those vpon whom the Lord Iesus hath called but they haue not yet with Lazarus risen out of the graue nor with Mathew forsaken their receit of custome yea haue not so much as with the man sick of the palsie risen out of their bed of securitie far lesse haue begun with Dauid to runne the way of the Lords Commandements they haue not learned to forsake euill much lesse to follow that which is good the Lord hath called vpon them but they haue not gone one foote from their olde sinnes bene ambulant pedibus sed malc moribus their feete are straight but their manners are exceeding crooked they make no progresse forward toward the Lord of Sion they delight to abide still in Babell and Egypt working without rest But dieth in the same state wherein they were borne but their labour is vnprofitable Ambulant in circuitu they walke as in a circle the centre whereof is Sathan the circumference sundry sorts of sinnes beyond which they walk not from one of these the wicked walkes about to another in such sort that incontinent they returne to the same they wearie themselues in the way of iniquity but are still in the same place at their going out of the world wherein they came into it that is as they were borne in sinne so they die in sinne their miserable life not being a walking in the way of Godlinesse but a wallowing in one and the selfe same puddle of sinne But leauing them let vs marke for our instruction in this 2 So long as wee
notes on this The Iesuites collect here that the Law is fulfilled in this life Verse collects a note which the word here rendreth not vnto them We see say they that the Law which is Gods commandements may be kept that the keeping thereof is iustice and that in Christian men that is fulfilled by Christs grace which by the force of the Law could neuer be fulfilled that the law may be fulfilled and also shall be fulfilled by the grace of Christ who hath deliuered vs from the Law of sin is euident This place proueth no such thing out of the Apostles words we confesse it and are comforted in it this is an end which Christ hath proposed vnto himselfe that he may make vs perfectly answerable to that holinesse which the Law requireth and in his owne good time he shall bring it to passe but that the Law is fulfilled of men in this life cannot be proued neither out of this place nor any other place of holy Scripture Damnatum est peccatum non extinctum Sinne is condemned saith Caietane Caietane one of their owne but not extinguished And hereunto beside infinite testimonies of holy Scripture That the law is not fulfilled in vs nor by vs in this life is proued Amb. de paeniten lib. 1. cap. 6. agreeth also the suffrages of pure antiquitie Non dicit familia tua sana sum medicum non requiro sed sana me Domine sanabor It is not saith Ambrose the voyce of thy family I am whole and needes not a Phisition but heale me O Lord and I shall be healed Tu audes Nouatiane mundum te dicere qui etsi operibus mundus esses hoc solo verbo iâ—mundus fieres Ambrose spake it to the Nouatian Heretiques of his time and it may be sitly turned ouer to the Iesuites of our time Darest thou O Iesuit call thy selfe Ierem. 17. cleane and holy Albeit thou wert cleane in regard of thy works this one word were enough to make thee vncleane With him also agrees Augustine Sunt quidam inflati vtres Aug. de verb. Apost ser 29. spiritu elationis pleni non magnitudine ingentes sed superbiae morbo tumentes vt audeant dicere inueniri homines absque pâ—ccato There are some saith hee like vnto vessels blowne vp with winde filled with a hautie spirit not solidly great but swelled with the sicknesse of pride who dare be bolde to say that men are found in earth without sinne Of such as these hee demaunds in that same place Interrogo te O Ibidem homo sancte iuste sine macula oratio ista dimitte nobis debita nostra fidelium est an catechumenorum certe regeneratorum est immo filiorum nam si non est filiorum qua fronte dicitur Pater noster quies in coelis vbi ergo estis O iusti sancti in quibus peccata non sunt I demand of thee O man thou who A question for Papistâ— art iust and holy this prayer Forgiue vs our sinnes whether is it a prayer to be said by Catechists onely or to be said also of such as are beleeuers and conuerted Christians surely it is the prayer of men regenerated yea it is the prayer of the Sonnes of God for they call God their Father in heauen where then are ye O ye iust and holy ones in whom are no sinnes If the regenerate and sonnes of God haue need to craue remission of sinnes what are ye who say ye haue no sinne If we say we haue no sinne we lie and the truth is not 1. Ioh. 1. 9. in vs and our blessed Sauiour to let vs see how farre we are from doing that which we should doe saith When yee haue Luke 17. 10. done all that yee can doe yet say yee are vnprofitable Seruants Where because they haue a silly subterfuge that albeit wee were neuer so righteous yet for humilities sake we should say we are vnprofitable I answere them as Augustine answered the same obiection in his time propter humilitatem Aug. de verb. Apost ser 29. ergo mentiris then for humilities sake thou lyest but it is certaine Christ neuer taught man to lye for humility this is but a forged falshood of their owne And to ioyne the third witnesse with the former two Bernard who liued in a very corrupt time yet retained this truth Quis melior Propheta de quo dixit Deus inueni virum Ber. in annuÌ„ Mariae secundum cor meum tamen ipse necesse habuit dicere Deo Ne intres in iudicium cum seruo tuo who is better then the Prophet Dauid of whom the Lord said I haue found a man after mine owne heart yet had he neede to say Lord enter not into iudgement with thy Seruant And againe Sufficit Ber. in Cant. Serm. 23. mihi ad omnem iustitiam solum habere propitium cui soli peccaui non peccare Dei iustitia est hominis iustitia indulgentia Dei It sufficeth me for all righteousnes to haue him onely mercifull to me whom I haue only offended to be without sinne is the righteousnesse of God mans righteousnesse is Gods indulgence pardoning his sinne we conclude therefore with him Vaegenerationi huic miserae cui sufficere videtur Ber. ser cont vitiuÌ„ ingrati sua insufficientia immo inopia tanta quis enim ad perfectionem illam quam Scripturae tradunt vel aspirare videtur woe to this miserable generation to whom their owne insufficiencie seems sufficient for who is it that hath so much as aspired to that perfection which the holy Scripture commaunds vs But to maintaine their errour they enforce these places Places of scripture wherein godly men are called Saints and righteous makes not for their errour of perfect obseruance of the Law of holy Scripture wherein mention is made of innocencie iustice and perfection in the Godly whereupon they simply inferre that the Law is fulfilled Their paralogismes shall easily be discouered if we keepe Augustines rule when the perfection of any man is mentioned we must consider wherein for a man may be righteous in comparison of others so Noah was a righteous man in comparison of that generation wherein hee liued yet was hee not without sinne A man may be also so called in comparison of himselfe the Lord iudging a man according to that where vnto the greater part of his disposition is inclined for the Lord doth repute and account his Children not after the remanents of the old man but according to the new workmanship of his grace in them whereof it commeth to passe that albeit in a great part they be sinfull yet the Lord giueth vnto them the names of Saints and righteous men Againe in handling of the Apostles words Philippians 3. In what sense Godly men are called perfect in holy Scripture let vs as many as are perfect be thus minded hee moues the question seeing the Apostle
is not his Where first wee may learne that the word of God The word of God should so be handled that it be applyed ought so to be handled and receiued that it should be applied to the comfort of those who are the sonnes of consolation and to the conuiction of others the Apostle doth now ye see apply his former doctrine letting them to whom he writes see the comfort and admonition which out of it riseth vnto them so ought we alway to handle and heare the word of God as considering what is our part and interest in it for this word is written for vs and doth so neerely concerne vs that as Moses saith It is our life it giueth sentence eyther with or against euerie man that heares it being to the one the sauour of life to the other the sauour of death When Iohn the Baptist preached that word of iudgement Now the axe is laid to the roote of the tree euery tree Math. 3. 10. that bringeth not out good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire his hearers so receiued it as a word which touched them neerely and therefore both People Publicanes and Souldiours came to him and asked What shall wee doe Luk. 3. 10. 12. 14 then So the Iewes in like manner asked Peter being pricked in their hearts at the hearing of his Sermon What shall Act. 2. 37. we doe then the same was the voyce of the Iaylor to Paul and Silas and it should be the voyce of euery man as oft as Act. 16. 30. he heares the word of God condemning his sinnes What shall I doe then that I may be saued As meat brought to the table cannot nourish vnlesse it be applyed to the mouth and from thence sent downe into the stomacke so the word of God cannot profit vs vnlesse we so heare it vt traijciatur in viscera quaedam animae nostrae transeat in affectiones Bernard nostras that it be sent into the bowels of our soule and enter into our affections If in this manner thou receiue the word of God out of doubt thou shalt be saued by it but in this is the faile that most part of men heare the word of God as they would heare an Indian storie or some other such discourse as did not concerne them whereof it comes that at this day after long planting and watering there is so small a spirituall growth in grace and godlinesse among vs. Now for the words yee are not in the flesh but in the spirit How the Apostle giues iudgement of others that are spirituall that is as yee heard it before expounded ye are not carnall men but spirituall Here it is to be enquired seeing no man knowes the things of a man but the spirit of a man how could the Apostle know that these Romanes were spirituall Was not Eli deceiued in iudging of Anna she sought 1. Sam. 1. the Lord in the affliction of her spirit and he iudged that she had beene a wicked woman and may not godly men be deceiued on the other extremitie to thinke well of them who are euill indeed I answere the Apostle doth here write vnto a Church and a publique fellowship or company of men seperate from the remanent of the world by the heauenly vocation called to be Saints and therefore might vndoubtedly write vnto them as vnto Saints spirituall men it being alway most sure that where the Lord gathers by his word a Church hee hath alway in the middest thereof a number that belong to the election of grace But to proceed further and to see how farre we may goe A threefold iudgement first of our selues by faith secondly by fruits thirdly by reuelation in iudging of a priuate man we must know that first there is a iudgement of faith secondly a iudgement of fruits thirdly a iudgement of extraordinarie reuelation By the first we can onely iudge our selues know our owne saluation according to that of the Apostle proue your selues if yee be in the faith know yee not your owne selues how that Christ is in you except yee be reprobates By the iudgement of 2 Cor. 13. 5. fruits we may also proceed and iudge of others according to that rule of our blessed Sauiour Yee shall know them by their fruits no man gathers grapes of thornes or figges of thistles Euery good tree bringeth forth good fruit and a corrupt tree Math. 7. 16. bringeth forth euil fruit These first two are common to euery Christian the iudgement of fruits being helped by the iudgement of Charitie Concerning the third Simon Peter knew by extraordinarie reuelation that Simon Magus was Acts. 8. a reprobate a childe of perdition by it the Apostle Paul knew that the same vnfained faith dwelt in Timothie which 1. Tim. 1. 5. dwelt before in his grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice and by it Iohn the Euangelist knew that the Lady 2. Iohn 1. 1. to whom he wrote was an elect Lady but as for vs wee are not to presume the election or reprobation of any man by such extraordinarie reuelation Againe wee haue to marke for our comfort how the Comfort that the Lord cals them spirituall in whom remained carnall corruption Apostle calles them spirituall men in whom notwithstanding remained fleshly corruption The iudgement of the Lord and Sathan are contrarie there is in you saith the deceiuer to the weake Christian fleshly corruption therefore yee are carnall there is in you saith the Lord through my grace a spirituall disposition therefore yee are spirituall Sathan is so euill that his eye sees nothing in the Christian but that which is euill the Lord is so good that hee sees no transgression in Israell hee iudges not his children by The Lord esteemes of his children according to his new grace in them not after their corruption the remanents of their olde corruption but by the beginnings of his renuing grace in vs. One dram of the grace of Christ in the soule of a Christian makes him more precious in the eyes of God than that any remanent corruption in him can make him odious therefore is it that the Lord giues vnto them the names of his beloued his seruants his 1. Ioh. 3. 9. 1. Ioh. 1. 8. Sonnes his Saints who are so onely in part and by a beginning Both these are true he that is borne of God sinneth not and againe if we say we haue no sinne wee deceiue our selues Augustine Illud ex primitijs noui hominis istis ex reliquijs veteris the one we haue of the first fruits of the new man the other of the remanents of the old man Let vs therefore be so continually displeased with our inhabitant corruption that wee dispaire not nor be discouraged neither let vs so complaine of our sins that we become false witnesses against the grace of God which is in vs. If there were nothing in
vs but that we haue by nature our estate were most miserable but seeing beside nature there is in vs a new workmanship of grace from the which the Lord accounts vs new spirituall men we haue thanks be to God matter of comfort As Sathan is a lyer in denying the name of spirituall men Papists will haue none called spirituall men but their Cleargie to men regenerate so his supposts aduersaries of the truth of Christ are lying deceiuers and vniust robbers when they restraine this name to such as are of their Cleargie which here the Apostle makes competent to euery man in whom the spirit of Christ dwelleth Spiritualâ—m non facit vestis locus Ferus â—fficium opus sed Spiritus it is neither garment sayes one of their owne nor place nor office nor externall worke that makes a man spirituall but the holy Spirit dwelling in him Because the Spirit of God dwels in you Hee subioynes The spirit of God where he dwels works wher he works he workes not in vaine therefore they cannot but be spiritual in whom he dwels here the confirmation of his former comfort he hath said vnto them yee are not in the flesh he proues it the Spirit of God dwels in you therefore yee are not in the flesh nor carnall but spirituall The necessity of the consequence depends vpon this middest that the spirit of God where he dwels is not idle but works where he works he works not in vaine but effectuates that which he intends he transformes them in whom he dwels into the similitude of his owne Image he is compared to fire that giues light euen to them who are farre of and heate to them who are neere hand but transchangeth those things into the nature of fire which are cast into it with so meruailous a vertue that yron which is colde by nature being put into the fire becomes hot and burning so doth that holy Spirit illuminate euery one who comes into the world but he changeth all those in whom he dwelleth he transformeth them into his owne similitude and endueth them with an holy and heauenly disposition then his argument is sure the Spirit of God dwelleth in you therefore yee are not carnall but spirituall In the end of the last Chapter the Apostle said that Strange that two guests of so contrary natures as sinne and the holy spirit should dwell in one man Rom. 7. 17. The soule of man regenerate compared to the house of Abraham sinne dwelleth in the man regenerate it is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me and here he sayes that the spirit of God dwelleth in the man regenerate this is strange that two guests of so contrary natures should both at one time haue their dwelling in man I compare the soule of man regenerate to the house of Abraham wherein there was both a free woman Sarah and a bond woman Hagar with their children Ismael the sonne of the bond woman borne after the flesh is older and stronger then Isaac the sonne of the free woman borne after the spirit that is according to the promise hee disdaines little Isaac as weaker and persecutes him yet the comfort of Isaac is that though Ismaell dwell in the house of Abraham for a while hee shall not remaine the sonne of the bond woman shall be cast out and shall not inherit the promise with the sonne of the free woman such a house is the soule of a Christian there dwelleth in it at one time both old nature and new grace with their children the olde man at the first being older and stronger than the new man doth persecute him and seekes by all meanes to oppresse him but at the last he shall be cast out This Metaphor of dwelling doth also yeeld vnto vs exceeding Meruailous that the inhabiter is larger than the habitation great comfort in all other habitations the lodging is larger than the inhabiter but this is meruailous that the lodging here is so little and the inhabiter so great that infinite maiestie whom the heauen of heauens cannot contain who hath the heauen for his throne and the earth for his footestoole hath chosen for his dwelling and place of rest the soule of him that is poore contrite and trembles at his word A wonderfull mercy that the highest maiestie should so farre dimit the selfe as that passing by all his other creatures hee should make choyse of man to be his pleasant sanctuarie From this it is euident that this dwelling doth designe The speâ—iall glory of a Christian is that God dwels in him some speciall presence of God with his own children which he shewes not vnto others it is true he is present in euery place bounded within no place he containes all things vncontayned of any where he dwelleth not as a Father there hee sits as a Iudge and is a terrour which manner of way the damned are continually vexed with his presence but in the Christian he dwels as a maister in his owne family as a Father with his children quickning ruling and preseruing them and prouiding for them Worldings may match Worldlings may exceede him in worldly gifts but cannot match him in this the Christian in externall gifts but cannot compare with him in this internall glory though without hee be but an earthen vessell yet hath he within an heauenly treasure for he is the habitation of God in whom the Lord dwels by his spirit It was Beniamin his glory that the Lord should dwell betweene his shoulders and the glory of Ierusalem Deut. 33. 12. that there the Lord dwelt betweene the Cherubins but most of all the glory of a Christian that the Lord dwelleth betweene the secrets of his soule let worldlings reioyce in their outward priuiledges and in their presumptuous minds leape like the mighty mountaines esteeming themselues high as mount Basan yet this is the glory of a Christian that God delights to dwell in him Let vs therfore make much of them who feare the Lord They should be honoured in whom Christ dwels Dan. 6. though in regard of their outward estate they were neuer so base we should not be ashamed to doe them honour for his sake who dwelleth in them Darius preferred Daniel because the spirit was excellent in him and Pharaoh honoured Gen. 41. 42. Ioseph because the Spirit of God was in him yea the Angels are content to be Seruants and Ministers to them who feare the Lord they honoured Shepheards for Christs sake with their presence which they did not vnto King Herod for all his glory and shall not wee delight in Gods excellent ones vpon earth surely he shall dwell in the Tabernacle of God in Psal 15. whose eyes a vile person is contemned but hee honoureth them who feare the Lord. Hereby we know that wee are translated from death to life because we loue the brethren Not onely doth this Metaphor of dwelling import a familiar The Metaphor
Tertul. de resur carnâ—â— Lord Iesus hath carryed our flesh into heauen as an earnest and pâ—edge of the vvhole summe vvhich afterward is to be brought thither he hath not thought it inough to giue his spirit vnto vs here on earth as the earnest of our inheritance but to put vs out of all doubt he hath carried vp our flesh into heauen and possest it in the kingdome in the name of all his members Who raysed vp Iesus from the dead Then vve see that our Seeing our Lord was among the dead let vs not feare when God cals vs to lye down among them also Lord was once among the dead but now is risen from them let vs not then be afraid vvhen God shall call vs to lye down among the dead also shall the seruant be ashamed of his Masters condition or vvill the patient refuse to drink that potion vvhich the Phisition hath tasted before him No we must follow our Lord through the miseries of this life through the dolours of death through the horrours of the graue if vve looke to follow him in his resurrection in his ascension to be amongst those hundred fortie and foure thousand in mount Sion vvho hauing his fathers name vvritten in their foreheads follow the Lambe whersoeuer he goâ—th Reuel 7 singing that new song vvhich none can sing but they whom he hath bought from the earth When those women came to seeke the Lord Iesus in the What comfort Christs resurrection giues vs against death Sepulchre all the feare they had conceiued concerning Christs death the Angels remoues it by sending them to meditate on the resurrection why seeke yee him that liueth among the dead hee is not here but hee is risen Wee are not Mat. 28. 5. 6 yet laid downe among the dead but or euer we goe to the graue we haue this comfort that the Lord by his power shall raise vs out of it where the head growes through the members will follow Per angustum passionis foramâ—n transiuit Christus vt latum praeberet ingrâ—ssum sequentibus membris Our Lord is gone through the narrow passage of death that hee might make it the wider and easier to all his members who are to follow him We see by experience the body of a man drownes not though it be vnder the water as long as the head is borne aboue many of the members of Christ are here in this valley of death tost too fro in this sea of tribulation with continuall tentations yet our comfort is we cannot perish for our head is aboue and a great part of the body liuing and raigning with him in glory there is life in him to draw forth out of these miseries all his members and hee shall doe it by that same power by which he raised himselfe from the dead For we are taught here that our resurrection is a worke not to be done by man not the power of nature but by Resurrection is a work of God and nâ—â— of man the power of God we are not therefore to hearken to the deceitfull motions of our infidelitie which calles in doubt this article of our Faith we must not consider the imbecillitie and weaknesse of nature neither measure heauenly and supernaturall things with the narrow span of naturall reason but as it is Abrahams praise the father of the faithfull Rom. 4. 19. that when God promised him a sonne in his old age hee was not weake in faith hee considered not his owne body which was dead neither the deadnesse of Saraahs wombe but was strengthned in the faith and gaue glory to God being fully assured that hee who had promised was also able to doe it so should we sanctifie the Lord God in our harts looking to the word and promise of the euerliuing God to Cyr. cate 18. whom those things are possible which are impossible vnto vs for the Lord saith the Prophet hath the whole earth in Isay 40. 12. his fist and it is more easie to him to discerne one pickle of dust from another then it is to any man hauing his hand full of sundry seedes to open his hand and gather euery kind thereof into one by themselues seperate and distinct from the rest When thou hearest sayth Augustine that the dead shall be raised suppose it be a great thing yet count it no incredible thing but consider who it is that takes in hand to doe it ille suscitabit te qui creauit te the Lord who created Aug. ser 64 thee he it is that shall raise thee And for our further confirmation let vs consider how Resurrection confirmed by Scripture by types by practises of God in nature the spirit of God hath taught this article of our resurrection in sundry places of holy scripture hath shadowed it by types and figures hath cleared it by examples and last of all by the practise and working of God in nature As for Scripture both Prophets and Apostles as it were with one 1 Our resurrection is confirmed by Scripture Dan. 12. 13. Hos 13. 14. 15. mouths breathes out this veritie They that sleepe in the dust saith Daniel shall awake some to euerlasting life and some to euerlasting shame and perpetuall contempt I will redeeme thee saith the Lord by Hosea from the power of the graue I wil deliuer thee from death O death I will be thy death O graue I will be thy destrustiom Patient Iob in his greatest extremitie Iob. 19. 25. gaue out this notable confession of his faith I am sure that my redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see mine eyes shall behold and none other for mee though my reynes are consumed within me And if we come to the new Testament most cleare is that testimonie of the Lord Iesus The houre shall Iohn 5 28. come in the which all that are in the graue shall heare his voyce and they shall come forth that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation The Apostles in like manner beare witnesse to their Master If in this life onely wee had hope in Christ of all men we were most miserable but now is Iesus 1 Cor. 15. 19. 20. 21. 22. risen from the dead and was mâ—â—â— the first fruits of them that slept For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all lye so in Christ all are made aliue And againe Behold I shew you a secret we shal Ibid. 51. 52. 53. not all sleepe but we shall alâ— be changed In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet shal blow and the dead shall be raised vp incorruptible and we shal be changed For this corruptible must
Christs seruants but also Secondly Sworn seruants we are sworne for baptisme as on the part of God it is a seale of the couenant of grace to confirme that promise of remission of sinnes which God hath made to vs in the blood of Iesus Christ so on our part it is a solemne resignation of our selues and our seruice to the Lord wherein we giue vp our names to be enrolled among his souldiers seruants swearing binding and oblieging our selues to renounce the seruice of the Diuell the World and the Flesh and this oath of resignation we haue renued so oft as wee haue communicated at his holy Table Whereof it is euident that they who haue giuen their names to Christ and yet liue licentiously walking after the flesh are for-sworne Apostates guiltie of persidie and of foule apostafie and desertion from Iesus Christ And thirdly not onely are wee bought and sworne but Thirdly wee haue receiued wages before hand for seruice to be done we haue receiued wages and payment in hand which should make vs ashamed if we haue so much as common honestie to refuse seruice to the Lord whose wages we haue receiued already It may be saide to euery one of vs which Malachie in the name of the Lord spake to the Leuites of his time who among you shuts the dore of the temple or kindles a fire vpon Mal. 1. 10. my altar in vaine who among vs can stand vp and say that hee hath done seruice to the Lord for nought Consider it when ye will for euery peece of seruice ye haue done to the Lord ye haue receiued wages more then ten times who hath called aright on his name hath not been heard who hath giuen thankes for benefits receiued hath not found Gods benefits doubled vpon him who hath giuen almes in the name of the Lord and not found increase I speake not now of rewards which God hath promised vs I speake onely of that we haue receiued already the least of Gods mercies shewed vpon vs already doth farre exceede all that seruice that we poore wretches haue done vnto him as therfore we are content to receiue the Lords pay let vs neuer refuse to giue the seruice of our bodies and spirits vnto him But alas is not this the common sinne of this generation But many receiue that from the true God which they returne not to him but sacrifice to Idols Hos 2. 8. to receiue good things out of the hand of God and with them to sacrifice vnto other Gods to vvhom they owe no seruice at all A horrible sacriledge a vile idolatry for this the Lord complaines of the Iewes they haue receiued my gold and my siluer and made vp Baal to themselues and the same complaint stands against the prophane men of this age The couetous man as riches encrease doth hee not set his heart vpon them though with his tongue hee denie it doth hee not say within himselfe that which Iob protested hee would neuer say to the wedge of Gold thou art my confidence The glutton when he hath receiued from God abundance of Wheat Oyle and Wine though he know the commandement be not filled with wine wherein is excesse but be Eph. 5. 18. filled with the Spirit yet how oft takes hee in superfluous drinke and spares not for loue of it to grieue the Spirit sacrificing to his belly as vnto God those things which bindes him to doe seruice vnto the Lord thus neither are the benefits of God returned to doe honour vnto him from whom they come but sacriligiously also abused to the making vp of Baal or some other Idoll abhominable to God for which it is most certaine that the moe wages these Atheists haue receiued for doing seruice to God which they neuer did the more fearefull plagues and stripes from God shall be doubled vpon them Againe we marke here that there is a double debt lying A double debt lying vpon vs the one the debt of sinne which we must seeke to be forgiuen the other the debt of obedience which we must seeke to performe vpon vs the debt of sinne and the debt of obedience vvee are freed of the one by a humble seeking and crauing of the remission thereof through Iesus Christ for the debt of sinne the Lord Iesus hath taught vs daily to seeke Gods discharge Lord forgiue vs our debts and indeede as euery day we contract some debt so it is great vvisedome by daily repentance to sue the discharge of it for they who neglect to do it their debt multiplies vpō them it stands vncancelled in the register of God written as it were with a pen of iron and the poynt of a Diamond and they shall at length be cast into that prison for non-payment wherein will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for euer But as for the debt of obedience whereof the Apostle here speakes wee cannot with a good conscience desire the Lord to discharge it nor exempt vs from it but we must in all humility craue Grace of God that we being enriched by him who of our selues are poore may be able in some measure to pay and performe it Where if the weake Children of GOD obiect and say A three-fold comfort for the godly for the debt of obedience how then can vve but drowne in this debt seeing no day of our life wee can pay to the Lord that debt of obedience which we owe vnto him To this there is giuen a three-fold comfort first the Lord dealeth with vs as a louing liberall 1 The Lord to whom we owe it giues vs wherewith to pay it man dealeth with his debter who knowing that he hath nothing of his owne wherewith to pay him and not willing to put him to shame stops priuately into his hand that which publikely againe he may giue vnto him so the Lord conuaies secret grace into the hearts of his children whereby they are in some measure able to serue him but as Dauid protested so may we all whatsoeuer wee giue vnto the 1 Chron. 29. 14. Lord wee haue it of his owne hand Secondly the Lord 2 He accepts for a time part of payment our God is so gracious that hee is content to accept part of payment at our hand till wee be able to doe better if our faith be but like the graine of Mustard-seede yet if it be true the Lord will not despise it though our repentance be not perfect and absolute though our prayers be vveake though wee cannot doe the good that wee would yet the good that wee doe is accepted at his hands through Iesus Christ And thirdly wee haue this comfort that the more 3 The more wee pay of this debt the more wee are able to pay wee pay of this debt of obedience the more wee are able to pay In other debts it is not so for if the more be payed out by him that is indebted the lesse remaines behinde
vexation of his soule to heare and â—â—e the vnrighteous deedes of the wicked which were wont to be vnto him the matter of his sport and laughter Therefore doth he wish and so should we that we might Death to sinne takes not life away but restores it alwayes die this kinde of death foelix mâ—rs quae alienum facit hominem ab hoc saeculâ— certainly it is a happy death which alienates and turnes away the heart of man from the loue of this world Bona mors quippe vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius for it is a good kinde of death which doth not take life away but changes it into a better But alas how farre are we from this spirituall disposition doth not the angry countenance of one in worldly authority terrifie vs the disdainfull words of men doe they not put vs out of the state of patience if the world flatter vs are we not puft vp if shee frowne vpon vs are wee not cast downe and this our great vveaknesse proceedes onely from the strength of sinne in vs this lets vs see vvhat cause we haue to be humbled considering that hauing liued long in this time of grace yet haue we profited little in the mortification of our sinfull lusts and affections Againe out of this same vvord of Mortification vvee learne that the vvorke of our Sanctification is a vvorke of difficultie not accomplished without labour paine and dolour Sanctification is a worke of difficulty for it is a birth a death a circumcision c. for it receiues these three names as to be called Mortification Regeneration and Circumcision As no birth no death no cutting off the flesh can be without dolour and sorrow so the conuersion of a sinner is not wrought without inward paine and sorrow The Infant that hath laid but nine Moneths in the wombe of the mother is not deliuered without great paine suppose she conceiued it with pleasure and shalt thou thinke to part with sinne which in thee was conceiued with thee and which since so often thou hast nourished with pleasure and not to proue the dolours of the New-birth No assuredly In the worke of mans conuersion there is the contrite spirit the humbled heart the mourning weede the melting eye the pale countenance the voyce of lamentation let not such as feele them if they finde therewith a sundring of their affections from their old sinnes be troubled for these are but the dolours of their new birth and for others who know not these inward humiliations and wrestlings of the Children of God they haue iust cause to suspect themselues that they haue not so much as the beginnings of Mortification Regeneration and spirituall Circumcision By the Spirit Nature will not destroy our sinfull lusts The knife by which beastly lusts are slaine to be sacrificed they are mortified by the Spirit of Christ and therefore wee are to nourish entertaine this Spirit by the meanes before prescribed As those Beasts which were sacrificed to God vnder the Law were first slaine by the knife of the Leuite and then offered to God vpon the Altar so the Lord Iesus must mortifie our affections by the power of his word and Spirit before they can be presented acceptable sacrifices to Mac. hom 1. the Lord our God Yee shall liue As I spake of death which is threatned so Temporall life is not the recompense of righteousnesse and why 1 Cor. 15. 19. speake I of life here promised this temporall life cannot be the recompense of righteousnesse for it is common both to the Godly and the wicked If in this life onely we had hope of all men wee were the most miserable but the life here promised is eternall life the beginning vvhereof presently we enioy by the Spirit of our Lord who hath quickned vs so that vvee may say now I liue yet not I but Christ Iesus Gal. 2. 20. liueth in mee the accomplishment thereof vve looke for hereafter Thus hath the Apostle set before vs both life and death he hath shewed vs the way how we may eschew the one and attaine to the other the Lord graunt that according to his counsell vvee may make choyse of the best Verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sonnes of God IN this Verse the Apostle subioynes a confirmation He proues the lâ—st part of his preceding argument of his preceding argument in the last part thereof hee hath said If yee mortifie the deedes of the body by the Spirit yee shall liue now hee proues it They who mortifie the deedes of the body by the Spirit or they who are led by the Spirit of God for these phrases are equiualent are the Sonnes of God therefore they must liue the necessitie of the consequence is euident of that which followeth the Sonnes of God are the Heyres of God heyres annexed with Iesus Christ and the heritage whereunto they are borne is eternall life therefore of necessitie they must liue Here first wee haue to consider what action and operation The operation of the Spirit is eyther vniuersall extending to all his creatures of the spirit this is which distinguisheth the Sonnes of God from other men The operations of the Spirit are diuers hee hath an vniuersall operation by which he workes in all his creatures conseruing leading and directing them to his owne determined ends for in him euery thing that is hath the being liuing and mouing as euery creature is made by God so is it ruled and led by the Spirit according to his appointment Hee hath againe a more speciall operation in man and this is also diuers for first all skilfull and cunning working Or speciall and this is manifold of Artificers is a certaine operation of the Spirit therefore is it that Bezaâ—eel is said to be filled with the Spirit of God Exod. 31. and these cunning men to vvhom the Lord directs Moses Cunning working of Artificers is of him Exod. 28. 2. Gifts of gouernment are of him for the making of Aarons holy garments glorious and beautifull are said there to be filled of the Lord by the Spirit of wisedome but this is not his operation vvhereby the sonnes of God are discerned Secondly all gifts of gouernement are of the operation of this Spirit in this sense it is said that the Spirit of the Lord came vpon Saul vvhen of a common man God made him a kingly man meete for gouernment and so also God tooke off the Spirit vvhich was vpon Moses and communicated it to the seauentie Elders Thirdly prophecying and preaching is an operation Prophecying and preaching are also of him Numb 24. 1. 1 Cor. 12. of the Spirit therefore saith Moses of Balaam when he prophecyed that the Spirit of God came vpon him and the Apostle teacheth vs that there are diuersities of gifts but one and the same Lord diuersitie of administrations but the same Spirit diuersitie of
ordered as was the life of We ought to follow our guide as Israel did the Lord in the wildernes Israel in the wildernesse the Lord vvent before them by day in a cloud by night in a pillar of fire when the cloud remoued they remoued what way so euer it vvent they followed vvhere the cloud stood they camped thus the Lord led them by two and fortie stations fortie yeeres in the wildernesse though Canaan vvas not farre from them yet they entred not into it till the Lord directed them The Lord hath in like manner praysed be his name for it brought vs out of the land of our bondage he might if he had pleased long ere now haue entred vs into our Canaan but it pleaseth him for a time to exercise vs and to haue vs vvalking vp and downe this Wildernesse Let vs possesse our hearts with patience and reuerence the Lords dispensation in the meane time take heed that the Lord goe before vs that his word shine vnto vs as a lanthorne to our feet and that his holy spirit be our guide to lead vs in this righteousnesse then shall we be sure of a happy end of our iourney when we liue not as vve list but vnder the gouernment of the holy Spirit vvhen our rising and lying downe our resting and remouing and all the actions of our liues are gouerned by his direction As many as are led by the spirit If all were led with the All that professe Christ are not led by his spirit spirit of God the Apostle would not vse this distinction so many and no more are the sonnes of God as are led by the spirit of God The name and dignitie of the sonnes of God doth not belong to all men who are the Lords by creation nay not to all those who are his by profession As in the Arke of Noah there was a cursed Cham and a blessed Sem as in the schoole of Christ a traiterous Iudas and a beloued Iohn so are there many in this mixed fellowship of the visible Church who by outward profession pretends the stiles and priuiledges of the sonnes of God but are not of the Israel of God belongs not to the adoption Thinke it not therefore sufficient that yee are gathered to the fellowship of the visible Church but consider what place yee doe possesse in it I wish from my heart that none among vs all vvere in this barne-floore of Christ like vnto chaffe for it will be cast out and burnt with vnquenchable fire but that wee may all be found to be that good Wheat vvhich shall Math. 3. 12. bâ— gathered into the Lords garner it is indeede a great benefit that vvee are brought to the fellowship of the visible church which is so to cal it the outâ—ermost chamber of the house of God but onely blessed are they who are led by the spirit farther in to that secret chamber where God shewes his familiar presence and vnto which none are admitted but they who are of the communion of Saints And as for them who are not led by this spirit of grace What spirit leads the wicked Esay 29. 10. Hos 4. 10. it is certaine they are miscarried by another Spirit Concerning their minde the spirit of slumber couers their eyes that they cannot see and concerning their hart it is misruled by the spirit of fornication which causes them to erre and goe a whooring from God thus are they led not as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought to the Lord in a peaceable manner whereof I haue spoken but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 driuen violently and carried away from the Lord ouerhaled with the furie of their affections snared of the Diuell and taken of him at his will Acts 7. 51. Esay 63. Ezech. 13. 3. resisting the holy Ghost yea vexing the holy spirit of the Lord. O miserable and vnhappy condition fearefull is the vvoe that lyes vpon those who follow their owne spirit let vs therefore take heed to our selues our wayes vvill declare vvhat spirit is our gouernour What made Caleb and Ioshua trust in the Lord and rest on his word vvhen all Israel murmured against him prouoked him to anger and compelled him to sweare that they should neuer enter into his rest what made them constant in so great a desertion the Lord declares it himselfe but there was another spirit in Numb 14. 24. my seruant Caleb saith the Lord. Certainely they who are led by the spirit of the Lord will wait vpon him and follow him albeit all the vvorld should forsake him but as for those who wanders from the Lord in the way of iniquitie their deeds makes it manifest they are led by the spirit of errour Last of all we learne here that all the sonnes of God are All the sonnes of God are partakers of his spirit pertakers of his spirit there is but one song among all those thousands triumphant in heauen that followes the Lambe and there is but one spirit in all these militant vpon earth that followes the Lord. Earthly fathers were they neuer so wise and holy doe not alway beget wise and holy children regenerate Adam hath wicked Caine for his eldest sonne faithfull Abraham hath faithlesse Ismael godly Isaac brings out prophane Esau religious Ezekiah begets idolatrous Manasses but the Lord our God whom so euer he begets he communicates vnto them his owne spirit and transformes them into his owne Image and therefore they are conuinced to be shamelesse lyers who in their deedes shew forth the image of Sathan and yet glories in vvord that they are the Children of God they are bastards and not the sonnes of God for it cannot be that the Lord should beget children to any other image but vnto his owne Verse 15. For yee haue not receiued the Spirit of bondage to feare againe but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father THe Apostle to strengthen this former argument A three-fold operation of the Spirit in the Sons of God sets downe a short description in this and the subsequent verse of a threefold operation which the spirit maketh in them whom he leadeth for first he is vnto them a spirit of bondage working feare secondly hee is a Spirit of Adoption working loue through the sense of Gods mercie for he not onely makes them whom he leades the Sonnes of God but intimates vnto their spirits Gods loue towards them which otherwise was vnknowne vnto them and thirdly hee is a Spirit of intercession making vs to goe with boldnes to the throne of grace and call vpon God as vpon our Father Of the which the first part of his argument is made cleare that they vvho are led by the spirit of GOD are the Sonnes of God yea by the testimonie of the Spirit they themselues know that it is so and therefore in most homely and humble manner acknowledge him for their Father This the Apostle propones in such a manner that he
not at the first as in the very time of Prayer Daniel receiued his answere yea at the beginning of his supplication Dau. 9. 22. 23. as the Angell Gabriel informed him the commandement came forth to answere him yet shall not the Lord faile in his owne good time to fulfill the desires of them who feare him Manifold examples of holy Scripture lets vs see that Efficacie of Prayer euery petition returns with profit Gen. 18. Prayer this way powred out vnto God is most effectuall At fiue sundry petitions did not Abraham bring the Lord from fiftie to ten euery petition returnes to Abraham some vantage faine would Abraham had Sodome preserued for Lots cause at his first request hee got this answere that the Lord would spare it for fiftie righteous mens sake if they might be found in it but at the last from fiftie hee brings him to ten as long as Abraham prayed the Lord answered and for euery petition hee yeelded something to Abraham and most comfortable it is that the Lord ceases not from answering till Abraham ceased from asking any more Acts 10. When Peter prayed vpon the house top he fel into a trance and saw a heauenly vision when Iesus prayed vpon Mount Mat. 17. Tabor he was transfigured and if at any time the children of GOD be transformed from an earthly disposition to a heauenly they finde in their owne experience that it is in the time of prayer Sathan for this cause is a most troublesome enemy to the Sathan an enemie to the Word and Prayer exercises of the word and of prayer because the one is the mother the other is the nurse of all the graces of God in vs eyther he makes them lightly to esteeme the exercise of prayer or then doth what hee can to interrupt them in it as that Pithonisse interrupted Paul while hee was going to Acts 16. 16. pray so hath that aduersarie a thousand wiles whereby eyther before prayer he seekes to diuert them to some other businesse or in the action to trouble them and diuide the powers of the soule by vncomely and prophane motions If Iehoshua stand before the Lord Sathan shall stand at his Zach. 3. 1. Gen. 15. right hand to resist him Vnlesse therefore with Abraham we driue away the rauening birds from our sacrifice vnles with the Israelites wee stand on Ierusalems wall with a weapon ready in our hand to repell the aduersarie as oft as he comes to stay the worke of God it is impossible that our hearts can continue in feruent prayer to God Yet the restlesse opposition of the aduersarie should not make vs to breake off this exercise of prayer but the more we finde Sathan angry at our prayers the more should wee be prouoked to pray if he felt not himselfe hurt and his kingdome weakened by our prayers he would not so busily trouble vs in prayer yee see hee troubles vs not in such exercises as troubles not him speake as long as you will of vvorldly affaires refresh the body with eating and drinking exercise the body in playing in these and such like hee interrupts vs not because they offend him not but if vvee goe by prayer to vvound the head of the serpent then vvill he doe vvhat he can to sting vs. And herewithall let vs remember that any other practise Other exercises of religion may at a time be omitted with an excuse but the neglect of Prayer is vnexcusable of religion men may omit it and be excusable but the neglect of prayer cannot be excused It may be at a time thou hast not giuen almes to the needy because thou hadst it not it may be thou hast not come to heare the vvord because thou hast beene diseased but as for the neglect of prayer wherewith wilt thou excuse it labouring with thy hands in thy vocation needs not to hinder the lifting vp of thy hart vnto God if thine heart be good euery time euery place is conuenient for prayer with Ieremy thou maist pray in the Ieremiâ— 36. Daniel 6. Gen. 24. Luke 6. 14. prison with Daniel in the denne vvith Ionas in the Whales belly vvith Dauid in the bed vvith Isaac in the fields with Iesus on the mountaine for thou thy selfe art the temple of the liuing God the sanctuarie vvherein hee will be worshipped and shouldst alway carry about vvith thee and within thee that golden Alter whereupon incense should be euery morning and euening sacrificed vnto the Lord thy God so that if thou doe not pray it is because thou vvilt not Abba Father c. But vvhat is this that the spirit teacheth It is a strong Prayer if by the Spirit thou canst call God thy father vs to cry the Apostle saith that he teacheth vs to cry vpon God as vpon our Father Is this inough in prayer to call vpon GOD thy Father yea if thou canst so call him from this spirit of Adoption for all Gods children are not indued with a like grace of prayer it is effectuall inough to draw downe vpon thee all those blessings vvhich the Lord communicates to his sonnes his name shall be sanctified in thee his kingdome shall be aduanced in thee he shal teach thee to doe his vvill thou shalt not want thy daily bread he shall forgiue thee thy sinnes and preserue thee that thou fall not into tentations all comfort rests vnder this name of a father if thou canst so call him in saith the riches of his mercies are thine As the heauens are aboue the earth so are his thoughts What comfort we haue in this that we may call God our father aboue ours if then earthly fathers carrie so kindely an affection toward their children vvhat louing affection may vvee thinke is there in our heauenly Father toward vs Shall I cause others to beare saith the Lord and remaine barren my selfe shall the Lord communicate to men the name and heart of a Father and fill them with compassion toward their children and shall hee himselfe to vvhom the name of a Father most properly belongs vvant the heart and compassion of a Father toward his children let it be farre from vs so to thinke Seeing the Lord will haue such tender mercy in vs that are mortal creatures that not onely seauen times but seauentie times seauen times vvee forgiue our brother in the day vvhat readinesse to forgiue the sins of his children must there be in himselfe and seeing our Sauiour in the Gospell points out so great a commiseration Luke 15. in that earthly Father toward his prodigall Sonne that when he saw him a farre off comming homeward hee ranne and met him and sell vpon his face and kissed him vvhat louing kindnes may vve looke for at the hands of our heauenly father if we doe repent of our wandrings and resolue wâ—th our selues to returne vnto him Againe wee see here that the holy Spirit teacheth vs to Prayer to creatures
one wherfore he is not ashamed to call them brethren O wonderfull comfort the Father cryes from heauen this is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him the Sonne againe speaking to vs on earth saith I goe vp to your Father and my Father Iob. 20. 17. hee that is my Father is also your Father therefore goe yee vnto him and call vpon him as your Father O qualis ille dominus qui omnes sâ—ruos suos facit amicos suos quod multo maius est fratres suos O what a sweet Lord is he who makes all his seruants his friends and which is much more his brethren Surely the yoake of Christ is easie and Math. 11. 30. his burthen is light we are called to be annexed partakers with him of all the good that is in him The Lord therefore more and more confirme vs that despising all the subtill offers of Sathan whereby hee would steale vs away from the loue of Christ and delighting in that high dignity whereunto we are called our hearts may cleaue to the Lord for euer without seperation HEAVEN OPENED WHEREIN THE COVNSAILE OF GOD CONCERNING MANS SALVATION IS FVRTHER MANIfested so that the Christian effectually called may heare himselfe after the Crosse ordayned to the Crowne and read his owne Name written in the booke of Life Being the second benefit we haue by our Lord Iesus Christ Come and see Written by Mr. William Cowper Minister of Gods word at Perth LONDON Printed by Thomas Snodham for Iohn Budge and are to be sould at the great South dore of Paules 1611. TO THE MOST Gracious Excellent and mightie Princesse Anne Queene of great Britaine France and Ireland c. MADAME As God in the first creation of one made two so in the first institution of marriage did he againe vnite those same two into one that the woman ioyned in marriage with her husband might not onely reuerence him as the rocke from whence she was taken but much more loue and honour him as her head vnder whom she liues If they had not agreed in one to diuide themselues from God no diuision had euer fallen out among themselues But that which God made very good Sathan working vpon the mutability of their will turned into euill so that the woman in stead of an helper became a tempter of the man to sinne and the man in stead of a defender became a dilater of the woman to God for sinne But the Lord Iesus who came into the world to destroy the workes of the Diuell as he hath reconciled man and woman with God so hath he reunited them among themselues adding this to all the former bands of their vnion that now they should liue together as heires of the grace of life In this most happy vnion of both your Maiesties with God and among your selues consists your mutuall strength and comfort the welfare of your Highnesse royall children the terrour of your enemies and common benefit of all your Maiesties well affected subiects A good so much the more carefully to be kept because Sathan out of all doubt spitefully doth enuie it as being the very fountaine out of which doth flow that great and common good both of your royall posterity and loyall people the aspect of your Highnesse fauourable countenances looking in loue one of you to another and both of your maiesties in coniunct compassion to your people sweeter than the influence of the vndiuided Pleiades bringing to Church common-wealth vnder your happy raigne a flourishing spring of innumerable blessings We doe therefore blesse the Lord who hath confirmed your royall hearts and set it in the for most of your godly cares how to keepe and encrease this holy and happy band of loue which keepeth you both For the continuance whereof as after my weake measure I stand vp a daily supplicant vnto the Lord among others your Highnesse loyall subiects so doe I humbly craue that your Highnesse impute it not to me for presumption that I haue conioyned your maiesties in the participation of this small propine of the first fruits of my labours whom I doe wish for euer to be conioyned in the communion of all good present and to come but that rather according to your Highnesse wonted fauour and clemencie toward me your maiestie would graciously accept it as a testimonie of my earnest and vnsained affection toward your Highnesse name and honour in this life and euerlasting welfare in the life to come Your Maiesties most humble Subiect and daily Oratour WILLIAM COVVPER Minister at Perth HEAVEN OPENED THE SECOND PART OF THE CHAPTER CONTAYNING Comforts against the CROSSE Verse 17. If so be wee suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him THE mortification of a Christian The mortification of a Christian consists in two things whereunto the spirit of GOD so frequently exhorts vs consists in these two first in a subduing by a holy Discipline our inordinate lustes vvhich naturally rebell against the law of God secondly in a patient bearing of the Crosse of Iesus In the first part of the Chapter the Apostle hath exhorted vs vnto the one and now in the second by many arguments hee strengthens vs against the other vnlesse wee make some profit in the first point of mortification it is certaine we shall neuer proceed to the second For the life of one affection is farre lesse than the life of the whole man if for Christs sake we will not Hee will not quit his life that will not quit his affection for Iesus Christ Ezech. 22. 14. put out the life of one sinfull affection what hope is there that for his sake we will lay downe our owne life beside that a dissolute life weakneth the strength of the soule makes it â—eeble in the day of affliction so that the heart cannot endure nor the hands be strong in that day wherein the Lord shall haue to doe with thee It is a customable policie of Sathan first to corrupt men and make them dissolute in prosperity that afterward hee may the more easily breake them by aduersity When Iustin Martyr behâ—ld the patient suffering of the Christians notwithstanding that hee was not as yet conuerted himselfe he gathered thereof that they could not be men giuen to pleasures for it is most certaine that men ouer-ruled by their affections are either in trouble feeble and effeminate or wickedly delperate hauing in them no spirituall strength to sustaine it And for the connexion of these words with the former The connexion of these words with the former the Apostle slides in here cunningly from the first part of his Treatise into the second and that by way of answering an obiection for it might haue beene said vnto him ye haue called vs the Sonnes of God and the heires of God but how can that be our present estate and condition being so hard and our life so full of troubles To this he answeres it is very
all the pleasures of the wicked ends in paine At that banquet in Cana the Lord Iesus brought in the finest vvine hindmost Iohn but Sathan doth with his miserable banquetters as the gouerners of that feast speakes he presents his best first and after when they haue well drunken brings in that which is worse in the entry hee presents the deceitfull pleasures of sinne but dolefull and lamentable is their end for what better portion can he giue vnto them than is prepared for himselfe he is reserued to blacknesse of darknesse tribulation and anguish of Spirit terrour and horrible wrath shame and endlesse confusion is prepared for him and all those who are portioners with him Thirdly wee marke here Gods wonderfull dispensation That Gods dearest seruants haue bin hardly entreatâ—dâ—n this life yee may see in the Patriarcks in his working in that he entreates those men most hardly in this life who are most deerely beloued of him euen his sonnes and his excellentones If yee goe vp to Abel yee shal seâ— the first sincere worshipper of God mercilesly murthered by his brother Cain come downe to Abraham named by the Apostle the Father of the Faithfull and yee shal see albeit the Lord blessed him yet he wanted not some to curse him Moses albeit he was faithfull in all the house of God and receiued this praise that such a Prophet rose not before him yet how often was his soule vexed with the vniust murmurings of his people against him If yee looke to the Prophets our Sauiour sets downe a compendious description Prophets of their sufferings in that rebuke of the Iewes whom of the Prophets haue not your fathers killed and againe when he cals Ierusalem a Citie which killeth the Prophets and stoneth them who are sent vnto her And as for the Apostles like as they were the witnesses And in the martirdome of the Apostles of Christ by preaching so also by suffering It is recorded by many that Peter was beheaded by Nero at Rome and that his brother Andrew was crucified with his head downeward by Aâ—geas in Patris where hee hung for the space of three dayes conuerting many to the faith of Iesus Saint Luke testifies that Iames was beheaded by Herode and Iohn was banished by Domitian into the I le Pathmos Phillip borne in Bethsaida is bound to the Crosse and stoned to death in Hierapolis Bartholomew among the Indians hath his skinne pulled off and so martired by Astiages Thomas after long preaching to the Medes Persians and Bactrians is at length thrust through with a speare because he refused to worship the Sunne and so strengthned in the faith dyed for the Lord Iesus whose resurrection he could not beleeue till he put his fingers into the holes of his side which was pierced with the speare for him Simon the Cananite was slaine vnder Traian both because hee was a Preacher of Iesus Christ and accused to be one of the linage of Dauid Matthias that was chosen by lot in the roome of Iudas is stoned to death by the Iewes Matthew the Euangelist beheaded in Egypt and Marke drawne through the streets of Alexandria til he dyed Luke was hanged on the branch of an Oliue tree and Paul beheaded by Nero. Of all these first we learne that we are not to take afflictions Sufferings are no testimonies of Gods anger as testimonies of Gods anger against vs seeing we see that by them the Lord hath exercised his best beloued seruants euer from the beginning wherefore shall wee thinke strange concerning the fiery tryall if the Lord should send 1 Pet. 4. 12. it among vs to proue vs as if some strange thing were come vnto vs seeing affliction now is vita trita a trodden path by all the godly that haue gone before vs and therefore let vs not refuse the chastising of the Almighty Secondly let vs not feare least by affliction the light of Other Kingdomes are weakned with trouble but the kingdome of Christ encreaseth by it the Gospell should be extinguished It is not with the kingdome of Christ as with other kingdomes they are weakned and worne at the length by trouble but it encreaseth and flourisheth by it Where other trees wither in Winter the Palme continueth greene other bushes are burnt with fire but the bush wherein Iehouah appeares is not consumed thereby other barkes are ouerturned by the vehement invndation of waters but the Arke of the Lord thereby is exalted Neyther is the Lord a prodigall vvaster of the liues of his Children but a wise and prouident bestower of them then only when he sees that their death may be more profitable to his glory their comfort and edification of his Church then their life can be Therefore said Tertullian that the bloud of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church and after him Cyprian marked it quo plus sanguinis effusum Cip. de dupli martyr est eo magis fidelium effloruit multitudo that the more Christian bloud was shed the more the multitude of beleeuers flourished so that the Romane Empyre was not so much enlarged in the space of two hundred and forty yeares by the violent shedding of the bloud of others as vvas the Church of Christ by patient suffering the shedding of her owne bloud that fruitfull Vine which hath sprung out from that blessed stock Iesus Christ the more it was cut by the bloudy knife of cruell persecuters the more hath it flourished Againe wee haue here this comfort that the sufferings The wicked haue crosses but not Christs Crosse of the godly are sufferings with Christ There is no man in the world who wants his owne crosse euen they who haue their fattest portions in earth haue it not without many sorrowes by vertue of that curse in the sweat of thy brow Gâ—n 3. 19. Barn apol ad Abbat Gâ—un â—halt thou eate bread till thou returne to the earth and herein they are but miserable vae portantibus Crucem non sequentibus Christum woe is vnto them who beare the crosse and follow not Christ comfortlesse fruitlesse and endlesse will their sufferings be But as for the Godly they are sufferers with Christ they suffer not alone if Ioseph goe to the prison the Lord shall goe with him if the three Children goe to the fire the fourth like the sonne of God shall goe with them God the Father protests that in all the troubles of The three persons of the Trinitie are said to suffer with the Godly his Children he was troubled and that he hath such a tender feeling of their afflictions that he who toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye and the Lord Iesus the sonne of God when his Saints at Damascus were persecuted cryed from heauen to the persecuter Saul Saul why persecutest Acts 9. 4. thou me And as concerning the holy Ghost the Apostle testifies Blessed are yee if yee be ratled vpon for the name of 1
Pet. 4. 14. Iesus for the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you which on their part is euill spoken of but on your part is glorified Thus we see quam magnos habeamus commilitones how great and Cir. catec 16 strong fellow-warriours wee haue to assist the Lord being so present with vs non vt seruos suos spectet tantum sed vt Cip. lib. 2. Epist. 6. ipse luctetur in nobis that he doth not onely behold his seruants in their conflicts but hee himselfe also doth wrestle in them Wherefor our further comfort if any man be desirous to Three things required to make our sufferings sufferings with Christ know whether if his sufferings be sufferings with Christ or not let him consider these three things first how Iesus receiued the Crosse as a cuppe giuen to him out of his Fathers hand neither looking to Iudas that betrayed him nor to the Iewes that pursued him Secondly hee receiued it not grudgingly nor impatiently but with an humble submission of his will to the will of his Father Thirdly hee suffered for this end that he might abolish sin and destroy him who had the power of death If these three concurre in thy sufferings thou mayest be sure they are suffrings with Christ first if passing by the instrument of thy trouble thou looke to the hand of God tempering and giuing it vnto thee secondly if thou receiue it with a humble submission of thy spirit to him who is the Father of Spirits and thirdly if it worke in thee a mortification of thy sinfull lusts and affections And of this wee haue to make our vse in all our afflictions Comfort against inward Afflictions inward or outward and first concerning inward afflictions if at any time it please the Lord to exercise vs with fearefull agonies of Conscience let vs looke vnto GOD who kils and makes aliue who casts downe and raises vp let vs for a while beare his indignation he abides but a moment in his anger if wee finde that by them wee are more humbled wakened out of securitie and stirred vp more feruently to pray and that the life of sinne is weakened in vs let vs be out of all doubt that these inward troubles are sufferings with Christ whose soule for our sinnes was heauie vnto the death and his body did sweat blood through the vehement anguish of his spirit And as for outward sufferings Comfort against outward Afflictions which wee suffer either in name Ambrose they are either such as concernes our Name our goods or our persons As for those which concerne our name it is a singular pollicy of Sathan to beare downe the children of God in the estimation of others vt qui conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis rumoribus sordidentur that they who are glorious in the light of their owne conscience may be made filthy by the false reports of others and so made vnprofitable to doe others the good that they would but let vs in such tentations learne from Dauid to looke vnto God and not to Shimei vsing the vndeserued contumelies of men as profitable meanes to worke in vs that inward humiliation which our manifold sinnes though not against man yet against God requireth of vs so shall we suffer with him who being the innocent Lambe of God sustayned neuerthelesse great contradiction of sinners reproched to be one possessed with a Dâ—â—ell notwithstanding that hâ—e was the very sonne of God filled in his manhood with the holy Ghost And as concerning the losse of worldly goods who euer Or in our goods be the instrument learne thou to take it as a cup out of the hand of thy heauenly Father after the example of Iâ—b who passing by the Sabeans the Caldeans looked to the hand â—â— God the Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken saith Iob. 1. 21. he blessed be the name of the Lord. It is not for lack of loue that the mother withdrawes from the Childe the vse of the pap but that she may acquaint him with stronger meat and if the Lord take from vs these transitorie things it is not because we are not beloued of him but that we may set our hearts vpon those things which are more waighty and permanent which if we doe then are our sufferings sufferings with him who being rich became poore that in all things we might be made rich in him And the same are we to doe in those troubles which wee Or in our persons Heb. 12. 9. sustaine in our bodies for if as the Apostle saith we haue had Fathers of our bodies who haue corrected vs and wee haue giuen them reuerence should we not much rather be in subiection to the father of Spirits that we might liue and if wee can yeeld our bodies to Phisitions to be cut or burnt at their pleasure how much more should we submit them to the Lord in all humble contentment to be chastised as hee will seeing he protests himselfe he doth it not but for our singular profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse We shal raigne with Christ. Worldlings wrestles for their In trouble it is expedient to looke vnto the end thereof corruptible crowne as vncertaine whether they shal obtaine it or no but it is not so with the Christian wee runne not as vncertaine we are sure that if we suffer with Christ we shall also raigne with him though for the present no trouble be sweet yet is the end thereof most comfortable and we are by the eyes of faith to looke vnto it least our present manifold tentations driue vs vnto impatience for as he that going through a strong running riuer is in danger to fall and drowne by reason of the dissinesse of his braine vnlesse hee sixe his eyes vpon the bancke so shall we be ready to saint in affliction vnlesse we looke to the comfortable end thereof If we shall looke to Lazarus vpon the dunghill and Ioseph in the prison what can we iudge them to be but miserable men but if we consider their end we shall see the one in Abrahams bosome and the other raigning in great glorie vnder Pharaoh in Egipt then shall we say verely there is fruit for the righteous and we shall finde it true which here the Apostle saith that if we suffer with Christ wee shall also raigne with him Verse 18. For I count that the afflictions of this present time are not worthie of the glory to be reuealed THe Apostle here subioynes an amplification of Amplification of the first principall argument his first argument wee shall not onely saith he raigne with Christ but raigne in such a glorie as doth so farre surmount all our present sufferings that if they be weighed together in a balance the one shall be found but light in regard of the other For I count The word the Apostle vseth here imports He that tasted both of present sufferings and of glory
God the more they are pressed the more the liquor of grace distilleth from them and the sweeter fragrant sauour of life to the edification and strengthening of all their brethren But let their persecuters know that how euer this triall But woe to the instruments of their troublâ—s of the faith of the godly shall be found vnto their honour and praise at the appearing of the Lord Iesus the fruit which they shall reape of their labour is tolde them by the Apostle it is a righteous thing with God to render vengeance to them who troubles you for euery cup of trouble which the wicked fill vnto vs they fill with their owne hands another cup of wrath vnto themselues which how euer for a while they set by them yet as the Lord liueth they shall be compelled in the end to drinke them out thus we see why our troubles commonly are called pressings The other name is sufferings and so they are called in respect of the Godly who beare them like the Lambs of Iesus patiently and meekely without grudging or murmuring Where we are still to be admonished that the sufferings Euery suffering renders not glory which end in glory are those that are sufferings with Christ many are ambitious of suffering and takes vp the crosse before they be called vnto it like those Circumcelliones in the dayes of Cyprian but certainly glory growes not out of euerie suffering we must not suffer as contentious men or vaine glorious that God will blesse an humble flying in trouble rather than a presumptuous standing we may see in Peter if we compare him with the rest of the Disciples for he fell more fearefully than the other It is neither for vs to decline the Crosse of our Maister for so we shall be found not to be his Disciples neither yet in the heate and pride of flesh vndertake to beare it least we be found presumptuous and God punish vs. It is properly marked by Cyprian that the first Martyres slaine for Christ were Infants teaching all that are to come after what manner of men the Martyres of Iesus should be namely such as in regard of the cause for which they suffer are innocents and in regard of their affection are meeke and simple Of this present time In the originall it is of the time The time of our trouble short called an houre or a day Psal 125. which is now Hereby the Apostle will teach vs that our afflictions are but short and endures but a while the rodde of the wicked shall not lye for euer vpon the backe of the righteous the time of our trouble in holy Scripture is called sometime a day of tryall and sometimes an houre of tentation As our Sauiour said to the three Disciples Can yee not Math. 26. 40. watch with me one houre so may he say to vs all as oft as we faint vnder trouble Can ye not suffer with me one houre It was the comfort that Athanasius gaue to the Church in his time that Iulian should be but Nubeculo cito transitura a stormie little cloud that would quickly passe by and it is certainly true both of our troubles and of all the instruments thereof let vs wait a while on our God with patience and we shall see them no more This shortnesse of our afflictions depends vpon the breuitie How our life is but the life of a moment and vanitie of our life which in the estimation of Gods spirit is so short and vaine a thing that he vouchsafes not the name of life vpon it without some restriction Indeed it bewitcheth vs so that in our false imagination we conceit there is more soliditie continuance in one yeere that is before vs then in tenne that are past by vs the time which is past is gone away like a thought and that which is to come wee thinke it longer then indeede by experience we shall finde it But the spirit of God who best knowes it giues vnto it the name of life as I said with a restriction he cals it a momentanie life it is but a moment wherein we liue if we iudge aright we haue no more for as for the moments which are past they are dead to thee and thou to them and as for the moments which are to come they are vncertaine and thou canst not be said to liue in them so that no more is left to thee wherein thou canst truely say I liue but a moment and this also must shortly goe away and giue place to another that so by succession of moments one vnto another thy silly life may be prorogued for a while But this shall yet better appeare if we consider those similitudes Sacred similitudes by which the holy Ghost shadowes the vanitie of our present life Iob. 7. 6. Iob. 9. by which the spirit of God describes the vanitie of this our mortall life Patient Iob compares the life of man vnto the Weauers shuttle which scarce is in at the one end of the web when it is out at the other and hee that lookes vnto it can hardly perceiue it Hee compares it also to the winde that quickly flyeth by vs and to the cloud which speedily vanishes to a Post that runnes diligently and rests not till he come to his end to an hungry Eagle in the ayre who seeing her pray a farre off flyeth speedily vpon it to a flower that flourishes at once but withers in continent and Iob. 14. last of all to a ship sayling in the sea before the winde which for the present is seene but within short space appeares no more yea doth not leaue behinde her any footstep or token that any such thing was there and as it is with them who saile in her that how euer they change their action yet goe they on in their course toward their wished Hauen so is it with vs doe what we will whether we eate or wee sleepe wee are hasting alway toward our ends The Psalmist againe compares our life to a spanne or hand breadth to the grasse Psal 90. which groweth vp in the morning and is cut downe in the euening to a sleepe which slips away before wee can know what we were doing in it to a dreame which of all things is most sickle and vaine to a thought which is not well begun when it is ended and last of all to a declyning shadow as is the shadow of the Sunne in the setting which a man shall see on the top of a mountaine lesse and lesse vanishing till it be no more The Apostle S. Paul compares our life to a race and S. Iames compares it to a smoke or vapour Thus we see how little the spirit of God esteemes of that The pleasures of this life are worme-eaten whereof all the sonnes of Adam accounts so much Our sinne hath shortened our dayes and made them miserable the pleasures of this life are worme-eaten and the glory of flesh is but
to confirme them that the sight of the other should not confound them Somtime againe the Lord in the middest of trouble giues his children such comfort as deuoures all their present sorrowes to Peter in the prison there appeared an Angel and a light shining round about him and Iacob banished from his Fathers house sees a more comfortable vision at Bethel than any that euer hee had seene at home but albeit the Lord deales not alway with all his children as hee did with these yet are they all sure of this comfort glory shall be the end of their sufferings To be reuealed The Apostle calleth it a glory to be reuealed Our glory is prepared but not reuealed hee telleth vs in another place that it is prepared already yea it was prepared before the foundation of the world but it is not yet reuealed beatitudo illa comparari hic Aug. de Sanctâ—s ser 46. potest possideri non potest that felicitie may be obtayned here but cannot be possessed here Ne itaque quaeras in via quod tibi seruator in patria seeke not therefore that in the vvay which is kept for thee till thou come to thy countrey let vs possesse our Soules in patience waiting for that which in this life is neyther reuealed nor can be possessed Moses besought the Lord to shew him his glory and he receiued Exod 33. 18. this answere No man can see it and liue and vvhen that glory filled the Tabernacle it is said that Moses could Exod. 40. 38. Moriamur vt viuamus not enter into it Seeing it is so that our wretched nature can not abide that glory and we cannot liue and see the Lord let vs prepare our selues with ioy and contentment to dye that we may see him And in the meane time by that glory which God hath Yet by the glory reuealed we may iudge of that glory which is not reuealed Aug. de temp ser 9. 9. reuealed in his workes let vs iudge of that which is not reuealed if these workes of God vvhich wee see be so beautifull what shall wee thinke of those we see not out of all doubt among all the workes of God those which are inuisible are most excellent as the body of man is a beautifull vvork manship but not comparable to the soule This glory I count it the highest degree of eternall life the first is Righteousnesse the second Peace the third Ioy the fourth is Glory Righteousnesse breeds Peace and Peace breedes Ioy and our Ioy shall be crowned with glorie if the doing of the workes of righteousnesse bring such comfort to the minde as the godly finde in experience how shall our comfort abound when we receiue the reward of righteousnesse Ber. in Cant. Ser. 47. God is good to them who seek him much more vnto theÌ„ who finde him which is Glory Si sic bonus es quaerentibus te qualis es assequentibus if thou Lord be so good to them who seeke thee vvhat shalt thou be to them vvho finde thee vve may be assured that these first fruits of the Spirit and the earnest of our heauenly inheritance wherin now stands our greatest comfort shall appeare as nothing vvhen that masse of glory shall be taken vp and communicated vnto vs. As the light of the Sunne when it ariseth obscures the light of the Moone and Starres so that glorie when it shall be reuealed shall obscure those our ioyes which now we esteeme to be greatest Adeo enim pulchra est facies illa vt illa visa Aug. de temp ser 49. nihil aliud possit delectare for so pleasant is that face of God that they vvho once see it can be delighted vvith no other thing The Queene of the South heard very much of Salomâ—ns wisedome and of the glorie of his Kingdome but as she confesseth herselfe the halfe of his glory vvas not told We shall see much more in heauen than we can heare of it her and so shal we one day not onely say with the Psalmist As we haue heard so haue we seene in the Cittie of our God but shall be compelled to acknowledge that the glory prepared for vs by innumerable degrees excels all that euer we heard of it Semper enim maiora tribuit Deus quam promittit Basil hexam for the Lord our God giues alwayes greater things than he promiseth And yet albeit we cannot speake of it as wee should let Meditation of the Glory to come recommended to vs. vs meditate vpon it as vvee may where the Apostle is silent vvho can speake when hee was rauished to the third heauens hee heard such vvords as hee could not vtter and againe the eye neuer saw the eare neuer heard those things which God hath prepared for them who loue him facilâ—â—s inuenimus quid ibi non sit quam quid sit it is more easie to Aug. de verb. dom ser 64. tell what that life is not than to tell what it is yet certainly the Lord would neuer vse it as an argument to comfort vs in trouble were it not that it is his will that wee exercise our mindes in the consideration thereof When the Lord first promised to giue Abraham the land of Canaan for inheritance hee commanded him to rise and walke through the land to view the length and the breadth thereof albeit he was not to put him in a present possession thereof yet the Lord vvill haue him to view it that the sight of that which GOD had promised might sustaine and comfort him till the day of possession came so vvee though vve be not presently to be entered into possession of our heauenly Canaan yet seeing the Lord hath so commanded vs let vs now and then goe with Moses to the toppe of Pisgah and view it that is let vs separate our soules from the earth and ascend by prayer and spirituall meditation and delight our selues with some sight of that land as it shall please the Lord to giue it vnto vs. There are foure principall names by vvhich the holy Our estate in heauen expressed vnder foure most comfortable names Spirit in Scripture expresses that felicitie of the Saints of God in heauen first it is called a life and such a life as is eternall secondly it is called a glory and such a glory as is a crowne of glory and that of infinite vvaight thirdly it is called a kingdome and such a kingdome as cannot be shaken Heb. 12. 28. fourthly it is called an inheritance and such an inheritance as is immortall vndefiled and that fades not away Tell O man what is it thine heart vvould haue Is there any thing thou louest better than life is there any better life then a life of glory is there any greater glory than a kingdome of glory is there any surer kingdome than that which is thine by the right of an immortall and permanent inheritance and yet these are the excellent
vvould also put them in possession of the vvhole accordâ—ing to his promise euen so the Lord Iesus who hath gone before vs to our heauenly Canaan not to view it onely but to take possession thereof in our name hath sent downe vnto vs some of the first fruites thereof that wee may taste them such as peace of Conscience and ioy of the Spirit that by proofe of the small beginnings wee may know what excellent comfort is laid vp in store for vs. Wee sigh in our selues Here followes now the two effects Two effects which the Spirit workes in the godly first a sense of their miserie for which they sigh of the Spirit which he workes in them vvho haue receiued it The first is a sense of their present misery which causes them to sigh vnto God for deliuerance and he saith they sigh within themselues to teach vs that it is not an hipocriticall and counterfait but an inward and godly sorrow which the Spirit workes in the children of God Which I doe not so speake as if I did condemne those sighes which breake forth without for sometime the grieâ—e of heart is so aboundant in the godly that not onely it breakes out in sighing and mourning but in strong crying to GOD also but to restraine the hipocrisie of others who make a faire shew of that in the flesh vvhich is not in the Spirit True religion striues rather to be approued of God than seene of men one sigh proceeding from the hart is a louder crying in the eares of the Lord of hosts and more forcible to moue him than the noise of all the shooting Priests of Baal when they are gathered together into one We are therefore more deepely to consider this that the Sighing and mourning goe before comfort Spirit of God first teacheth vs to sigh and mourne for our present misery before he comfort vs with a constant hope of deliuerance If now we mourne not we shall not reioyce hereafter it is onely mourners whom God hath marked in the fore-head to saue from the wrath to come such a continuall Psal 6. 6. mourner vvas Dauid who protests that in the night he watered his couch vvith teares and in the day mingled his cup therewith and Iob in like manner my sighing said he Iob. 3. 24. comes before my eating The Saints of God are not ashamed to professe that of themselues vvhich the mockers of this age esteeme a womanly affection there is nothing to be found among them but eating drinking singing and a contracting of one sin after another with carnall reioycing but woe be vnto them that now laugh for assuredly they Luke 6. 25. Mat. 5. 4. Gen. 27. 38. shall weep the end of their ioy shall be endles mourning and gnashing of teeth they shall shed teares aboundantly with Esau but shall finde no place for mercy Let vs therefore goe to the house of mourning with the Maries teares pleased Christ better than the Pharisies delicates Luke 7. 38. verse 44. godly rather than to the banquetting houses of the wicked reioycing in their sinfull pleasures At one time Simon the Pharisee gaue our Sauiour a dinner and Mary vvho had beene a sinner brought him the sacrifice of a contrite hart and the Lord esteemed more of her teares than of the Pharisies delicates No banquet pleaseth the Lord Iesus so vvell as a banquet of teares poured from a truely penitent heart Psal The Lord is said to gather the teares of his children and keepe them in a bottle thereby to tell vs that they are pretious in his sight for hee is not like fooles who gather into their treasures things which are vaine and needelesse But alas how shall hee gather that vvhich wee haue not scattered vvhere are our teares the vvitnesses of our vnfained humiliation before God The hardnes of heart hath ouergrowne The deplorable hardnes of hâ—rt in this age that cannot mourne Gen. 4. 22. this age that albeit there be more then cause yet there is no mourning The sonnes of Cain learned without a teacher to worke in brasse and iron and the wit of man can make the hardest mettall soft to receiue an impression but cannot get their owne stonie heart made soft yea the children of God finde in experience how hard a thing it is Numb 20. 11. to get a melting heart The rocke rendred water to Moses at the third stroke but alas many strokes vvill our hearts take before they send out the sweet teares of repentance this I marke that knowing our naturall hardnesse vve may learne without intermission to fight against it For herein is our case so much the more pittifull that hauing Seeing we haue so many causes of mourning without vs the troublesome estate of Gods Church Nehe. 1. 4. more than matter enough of mourning yet vve doe not mourne without vs should not the troublesome estate of the Church of God be a matter of our griefe though our priuate estate were neuer so peacâ—able Godly Nehemiah being placed in the honourable seruice of King Artashashte the Monarch of the world was not so much comforted with his owne good estate as grieued at the desolation of Ierusalem Decay of Religion and increase of Idolatrie 1 King 29. 4. made Eliah weary of his life the Arke of God captiued and the glory departed from Israel draue all comfort 1 Sam. 4. 19. Aâ—â— 6. 6. out of the heart of the wife of Phinces these and many moe may â—each vs that the affliction of Ioseph should be matter of our sorrow The causes of mourning within vs are partly our sinnes Causes of mourning within vs our manifold sinnes partly our manifold tentations As our sinnes are contracted with pleasure so are they dissolued with godly sorrow It is the best medicine which is most contrarie to the nature of the disease our sinne is a sicknes wherein there is a carnall delight to doe that which is forbidden and it is best cured by repentance wherein there is a spirituall displeasure and sorrowing for the euil which we haue done this mourning for sinne lasts in the godly so long as they liue in the body Rom 7. 24. yea those same sinnes which God hath forgiuen and put out of their affection are stil in their remembrance for their humiliation so that with godly Ezechia they recount all 2 King 20. 23. their dayes and their former sinnes in the bitternes of their heart so long as sinne remained in their affection it was the matter of their ioy but now being by grace remoued out of the affection it becomes the matter of their sorrow And our manifold tentations The other cause of our mourning is our manifold tentations for this vvorld is no other thing but a stormy Sea wherein so many contrary windes of tribulation blowes vpon vs that we can hardly tell which of them we haue most cause to feare On euery side Sathan besetâ— vs
Mark 9. 7. pleaseâ— heare him the Sonne againe to vvhom the Father hath sent you he saith feare not little flocke it is my Fathers Luke 12. 32. will to giue you a kingdome not for your worthinesse but for the good pleasure of his owne will O what a strong consolation and fortresse of our Hope haue wee heere the Father commands vs to heare his Sonne the sonne assures vs that it is his Fathers vvill to giue vs a kingdome therefore will vve casting away faithlesse feare possesse our soules in patience looking by a constant hope for performance of that kingdome vvhich he hath promised vs. The second warrant of our hope is the Oath of God The second warrant of our hope is the oath of God surely the vvord of GOD in it selfe is as true when it is spoken as when it is sworne but for the strengthening of our vveake faith it hath pleased the Lord to ioyne his oath with his word being willing to shew vnto the heyres of promise Heb. 6. 18. more aboundantly the stabilitie of his counsell hath bound himselfe by an oath that by two immutable things wherein it is impossible that God should lye wee might haue strong consolation vvho haue our refuge to hold fast the hope vvhich is set before vs. The third vvarrant of our hope is the legacâ—e and testament The third warrant of our hope is the legacy of Christ of Christ in the vvhich he doth not onely by prayer recommend vs to Gods eternal mercy but more particularly he assures vs that he is gone to prepare a place for vs and that he will come againe to receiue vs vnto himselfe that where he is there also we may be And further speaking vnto his Father he saith Father I will that those whom thou hast giuen mee be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast giuen me Shall we thinke that the Father will disannul the testament of his Sonne O how comfortable is it to compare these two the Father saith vnto the Sonne Aske of me what thou wilt and I will giue it thee the Sonne againe asketh of the Father that they who are his may be where he is shall wee not then rest in hope assured to be glorified vvith him The fourth pillar of our hope is the bloud of Iesus The fourth is the bloud of the Lord Iesus Christ shed for vs by vvhich he hath subscribed and sealed all the promises of GOD to be yea and Amen A testament saith the Apostle is ratified by the death of a testator and the Lord Iesus by his death hath confirmed the testament that bloud vvhich hee hath poured out as the price of our redemption cryes continually vnto God for vs vntill the redemption of our soules and bodies be perfected The fift warrant of our hope is the pledge of the Spirit The fift is the pledge of the Spirit giuen vs on earth vvhich the Lord Iesus according to his promise hath sent downe into our hearts By him saith the Apostle wee are sealed against the day of redemption hee is an earnest giuen vs from him who is faithfull and true and therefore may vve assuredly looke to receiue the principal summe Praesentia gratiae attestatur foelicitatem promissae gloriae sine dubio sequuturam the presence of grace now testifyeth vnto vs that the felicitie of the promised Glory shall certainely follow And the last warrant is the pledge of our nature which The sixt is the pledge of our nature taken vp into heauen the Lord Iesus hath carryed from earth vnto heauen and hath placed at the right hand of his Father and therein hath taken possession for vs and in our name therefore the Apostle saith that hee hath entred into heauen as our fore-runner calling him so in regard of vs who through him are also to enter in after him these are the sixe pillars and strong confirmations of our hope vvhich in all troubles sustaine it vnder a certaine expectation of that redemption of the possession which is to come But hope that is seene is not hope The Apostle to confirme A short description of the Nature of Hope his reason subioynes a short description of the nature of hope that it is of things vvhich are to come and not yet seene for that which is present and a man seeth he cannot be said to hope for it yea then shall hope cease vvhen wee shall enioy that which we hope for Spes tunc non erit quando August erit res In the first of these words Hope is put for the thing Hoped in the second for the vertue of Hope it selfe and thus much of Hope Verse 25. But if wee hope for that which we see not wee doe with patience abide for it THe Apostle here concludes not onely this his The conclusion of his first principall argument of comfort against the crosse last purpose vvherein he hath taught vs that the very nature of hope leades vs to looke for some better thing which is to come but also he concludes his first principall argument of comfort making this to be the end of all that it becomes vs with patience to abide our promised deliuerance And albeit for memories sake wee haue reduced all that hee hath spoken into one principall argument yet may wee see how vnder this one many particular reasons are heaped vp together tending all to this one conclusion that we should abide it with patience First wee haue heard that the nature of Sixe seuerall reasons of comfort lurking vnder this one our sufferings are so changed that they are now made sufferings with Christ Secondly that the end of them is to be glorified with Christ Thirdly that the glory to come doth farre exceede in waight and eternitie our present sufferings Fourthly that the creatures haue a feruent desire of the reuelation of that glory Fiftly that they also vvho haue receiued the first fruites of the Spirit are wearie of their present misery and wait for the redemption to come And last that in all our troubles we are saued and sustained with the hope of that vvhich is to come and not vvith a present possession of that which we would haue In all these respects it becomes vs not onely to be of good comfort for the present but also patiently to looke for a better The Apostle brings in his conclusion vpon his last argument but we are to consider that it hath an eye vnto all that goes before and that euery one of those reasons aforesaid serueth to strengthen this conclusion that if wee hope for that which is to come then will we with patience abide for it We haue first to marke a difference betweene the Christian The worldlings comfort is in things that are seene the Christians not so and the Worldling the Worldling hath his affection on things which are seene hee cannot mount aboue them hee hath receiued his consolation
the crafty enemie can very well change his tentations vpon thee if he be repulsed at any one part whereat he was wont to enter hee vvill goe about and seeke vantage at another and therefore seeing our enemie is restlesse and the matter he vvorkes vpon is our manifold infirmities let vs walke circumspectly and pray continually standing with the whole compleat armour of God vpon vs that we may resist him Where for our encouragement let vs marke that albeit Comfort our standing in tentations past prooues wee haue been supported by a stronger than hee is that impugnes vs. our infirmities be many and our enemie strong yet in all our conflicts we are not alone but haue an helper who sustaynes vs. And this thou mayest finde in thine owne experience if thou wilt consider with me whereof comes this that so many yeares thou hast endured the battaile against principalities and powers Is it not of the Lord whose secret help hath sustayned thee how oft hast thou beene compassed with fearefull tentations standing like Israell in the red sea with mountaines of waters about thee threatning to ouerwhelme thee how many times hast thou receiued within thy selfe the sentence of death and beene so farre cast downe that thou hast thought with Dauid there hath been nothing for thee but death and reiection from the fauour of God how oft hast thou looked to be swallowed vp of thy enemie and giuen vnto him as a pray and yet hath the Lord beyond thy expectation deliuered thee from so manifold deaths Mayst thou not feele that the powers of hell are not able to quench that sparke of light and life which God hath created in thee No no assuredly if it had beene in the power of Sathan to haue put it out it should haue beene done long or now but blessed be the Lord it is hee who keepes our soules in life and whose secret grace continually sustaines vs. The greatnesse of this comfort shall yet appeare the better How the holy Spirit beares with vs and ouer-against vs euery burthen laid vpon vs. if we consider the word here vsed by the Apostle which signifies that hee lifts with vs and before vs in the burthen We see by daily custome that the burthen which is too heauie for one is made easie by the help of an other two ioyning hand in hand lift vp that which one is not able to doe and the burthen of Affliction which to our Nature is intollerable by the help of the Spirit becomes portable and easie for he lifts not onely ouer-against vs but least our part of the burthen should ouer-match vs hee lifts also with vs which the double composition of the word imports herein then is our comfort that the Lord our God is not like vnto other Lords and Maisters of the world if he send vs forth to doe any worke in his name he goes with vs himselfe to assist vs what good he commands vs to doe he helps vs to doe it and whatsoeuer crosse he layes vpon vs he strengthens vs to beare it being as I said euer present with vs not as a spectator onely but as an actor For we know not The Apostle this way hauing generally Our infirmities proceed from the want of Prayer set downe his second principall argument of comfort proceedes to a particular explication thereof wherein first he lets vs see that our infirmities proceed of the want of a spirituall disposition to prayer and secondly that the way by which the Spirit helpeth our infirmities is by the grace of prayer Prayer then is here recommended vnto vs as a soueraigne remedie against all our infirmities In our heauiest tentations vvee get comfort as soone as vvee get grace to pray Ascendit precatio discendit Dei miseratio vvhen Augustine Prayer goes vp the mercy of God commeth downe deijcitur Ambrose de fuga saeculi cap. 7. Wee recouer our strength by Prayer Satan cum tu ascenderis Sathan is cast downe when thou dost ascend by Prayer At the Lords Command the blinde sees the paralitique walkes the dumbe speakes the deafe heares shee that was sicke of the Feuer riseth and ministers then comes these commaundements out when thy Prayer preuailes with the Lord light comes to resolue our doubts comfort to mitigate our trouble strength to sustaine our weaknesse blessed is the man to whom the Lord keepeth open this doore of refuge that hee may say in his greatest distresse with Iehoshaphat O Lord wee know not what to doe 2 Chron. 20. 12. neyther is there strength in vs against this people but our eyes are towards thee for hee may be sure of comfort in time of neede Againe wee learne here that it is not so easie a thing to It is not an â—asie thing to pray pray as commonly men professe it is thought of many that it is an easie thing to pray therefore they begin it and goe through it as if it were a worke of no difficultie but alas if wee knew our owne naturall inabilitie and how rare a grace the grace of Prayer is we should not so vainely professe in our words that wee can pray as earnestly beseech him with the Disciples that he would teach vs to pray As that Eunuch professed that hee could not vnderstand without Acts. 8. 31. a guide so may we that we cannot pray without a guide it is easie to speake of God but not so easie to speake vnto God hee that will speake to God saith Ambrose must speake to him in his owne language that is in the language of his Spirit Prayer is not a communing of the tongue with God but Prayer is a communing of the soule with God of the soule with God and of such a soule onely as is taught by the holy Spirit how to pray it is true the Lord vnderstands the thoughts of euery mans heart but the language acceptable to God are those motions of the heart which are raised by his owne Spirit and he that wants this Spirit can not speake vnto God in Gods language Let this serue to reforme the corrupt iudgement of many who thinking themselues able enough to pray passe ouer their dayes without the grace of Prayer a fearefull punishment of carnall presumption This naturall inabilitie to pray consists in these sometime Our natural inabilitie to pray is eyther in our corrupt vnderstanding by which we seek things vnlawfull the fault is in our vnderstanding fallimur putantes prodesse quae poscimus cum non prosint wee are deceiued thinking those things to be profitable for vs which are not so the Iewes not content to be fed with Manna according to the Lords dispensation will haue flesh which the Lord giues them but in his anger and their posterity not content with the Lords gouernement will haue a King like other nations which the Lord gaue them but in his wrath Of this sort are they who send out in stead of lawfull prayers
not preuent him Let vs therefore vse our libertie well and see wee neglect not to begin in time our acquaintance with the Lord by frequent speaking vnto him if so be we looke hereafter for euer to remaine with him Verse 28. Also we know that all things worke together for the best to them who loue God euen to them who are called according to his purpose NOw followeth the Apostles third and last principall The third principall argument of comfort is from the prouidence of God working all things to the good of his owne argument of comfort taken from the prouidence of God which so ouer-ruleth all things that fall out in the world that he causeth them to worke together and that for the best vnto those who loue him and among the rest our afflictions are so farre from being preiudiciall to our saluation that by the prouidence of God which is the daily executer of his purpose working all things according to the counsell of his wil they become meanes helping vs forward to that end namely conformitie with Christ whereunto God hath appointed vs. The comfort is summarily set downe in these words All things worke together for the best to them who loue God the confirmation thereof is broken vp in these words euen to them who are called according to his purpose and the explication is subioyned in the two subsequent Verses Also That is beside all the comfort which I haue giuen Manifold blessings of God are vpon the Godly Psal 34. 19. you before I giue you yet this further not one but manifold are the comforts which the Lord hath discouered for his children in holy Scriptures Many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord deliuers him out of them all that is for euery trouble the Lord hath a seueral deliuerance Euery 1 Cor. 10. 13. tentation saith the Apostle hath the owne issue euery horne that riseth against vs to push vs hath an hammer attending Zach. 1. 21. vpon it to represse it saith the Prophet Esau mourned on Isaac albeit he was prophane yet hee cryed pittifully Hast thou but one blessing me Father but we with the holy Apostle may blesse our heauenly Father who doth so comfort vs in all our tribulations that as the sufferings of Christ abound in vs so our consolations abound through Christ The store-house of his consolations can neuer be emptied The Lord our God hath not dealt niggardly nor sparingly If the first fruits of our comfort be so sweet what shall the full masse be with vs but a good measure of consolation pressed downe and running ouer hath he giuen vs in our bosome his holy name be praised therfore And yet how little is all this which now we receiue in comparison of those inestimable ioyes prepared for vs the like whereof the eye neuer saw the eare neuer heard the heart did neuer vnderstand Surely the greatest measure of comfort we haue in this life is but the earnest penny of that principall which shal be giuen vs hereafter if the first fruits of heauenly Canaan be so delectable how shall the full masse thereof abundantly content vs when we shall behold the face of our God in righteousnesse and shall be filled with his image and with that fulnesse of ioy which is in his presence and those pleasures which are at his right hand for euermore We know If yee ponder the Apostles words yee shall None but a Christian can know the mysteries of the Gospell 1 Cor 9. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 2. 5. 6. finde that by an Emphasis bee restraines this knowledge to the Children of God excluding worldlings and naturalists from it The spirituall man discerneth all things but hee himselfe is iudged of no man A naturall man cannot vnderstand the things that are of God The Gospell is wisedome indeed but wisedome in a mistâ—rie and wisedome among them that are perfect Euery article of our Faith and point of Christian doctrine euery priuiledge of a Christian is a mysterie no meruaile therfore that the Gospel be foolishnes to the naturall man who perisheth the excellent things of Christianitie can be knowne of none but those who possesse them the Pearles which none know but they who haue them value or rather vanitie of earthly Iewels hath beene better knowne of some who neuer had them than of others who haue enioyed them but the Iewels of Gods Children such as Peace Righteousnesse and ioy in the holy Ghost can be knowne of none but of him who doth possesse them the new Name none can know but hee vvho hath it neyther can any man know the sweetnesse of hid Manna vnlesse he taste it If you goe and speake to a Worldling of inward peace Worldlings speake of them like birds counterfaiting the voyce of man and spirituall ioy or of the priuiledges of a Christian yee shall seeme to him a Barbarian or one that speakes a strange language which he doth not vnderstand or if he himselfe speake of them as hee hath learned by hearing or reading yet shall he speake like a Bird vttering voyces which he vnderstandeth not As the brute beast knowes not the excellencie of mans life and therefore doth delight it selfe with Hay and Prouender seeking no better because it knoweth no better so the naturall man knoweth not the excellencie of a Christian and therefore doth disdaine him and esteeme him a foole a mad man and the off-scowring of the world he takes the doung of the earth in his armes for his inheritance if he can obtaine the portion of Esau that the fatnesse of the earth may be his dwelling place if his wheat and his oyle abound to him hee careth for no more hee knoweth not what it is to haue his soule made glad with the light of the countenance of God This is your miserable condition O yee wretched Worldlings yee are cursed with Worldlings cursed with the curse of the Serpent the curse of the Serpent yee creepe as it were vpon your bellies and yee lick the dust of the earth all the dayes of your life yee haue not an eye to looke vp vnto heauen nor an heart to seeke those things which are aboue Most fearefull is your estate we warne you of it but it is the Lord who must deliuer you from it This resolute knowledge is the mother of spirituall courage constancie and patience for why shall he feare in the euill day yea though the earth should be remoued and the Sure knowledge of Christian comfort is the mother of patience Reuel 4. mountaines fall into the middest of the sea who sees the Lord sitting on his throne and the glassie sea of the world before him gouerning all the waltrings changes and euents of things therein to the good of them who loue him Oh that we had profited so much in the schoole of Christ all our dayes that without doubting or making any exception we could beleeue this which here
the worke of our second creation vvhich is our regeneration hee casts downe that hee may raise vp hee kils and hee makes aliue he accuseth his children for sinne that so hee may chase them to seeke remission of sinnes hee troubleth their consciences that so hee may pacifie them And in a word the meanes vvhich hee vseth are contrary to the vvorke it selfe vvhich he intends to performe in his Children Hee sent a fearefull darknesse on Abraham euen then vvhen hee vvas to communicate vnto him most ioyfull light he vvrestled vvith Iacob and shooke him too and fro euen then when he came to blesse him hee strooke the Apostle Paul with blindnesse at that same time vvhen hee came to open his eyes hee frownes for a while vpon his beloued as Ioseph did vpon his brethren but in the end with louing affection shall hee embrace them he may seeme angry at thy prayers as he put backe the petitions of that vvoman of Canaan but at length he will graunt a fauourable answere vnto them Let vs not therfore murmure against the Lord by whatsoeuer meanes it please him to vvorke It is enough we know that all the wayes of God euen when he deales most hardly vvith his children are mercie and tends to the good of those who loue him And as for Sathans stratagems it is also out of doubt that Sathans stratagems are directed to the good of the godly they worke for the best to them vvho loue the Lord not according to his purpose indeede but by the Lords operation who directeth all Sathans assaults to another end then hee intended and trappeth him continually in his owne snare If vnder the Serpents shape hee deceiued Adam vnder the Serpents name shall the Lord curse him and all those vveapons whereby hee seeketh to destroy the worke of Gods grace in vs doth the Lord turne to destroy the workmanship of Sathan in vs I meane that whole bastard generation of peruerse affections what Sathan hath begotten vpon our mutable nature by a most vnhappie and Ambr. lib. 1. de poeni ca. 13 vnlawfull copulation De veneno eius fit spirituale antidotum of this poyson the Lord maketh a spirituall preseruatiue Sathans accusations for sinnes past are vnto the godly presâ—ruatiues against sinne to come The experience of all the Saints of God proues this that Sathan by his restlesse tentations doth destroy himselfe which is most euident both in his tentations for sinne committed tending to desperation as also in his tentations vnto sinne tending to presumption Euery accusation of the conscience for sinne past is vnto the Godly man a preseruatiue to keepe him from sinne in time to come he reasoning with himselfe after this manner If mine enemie doe so disquiet my minde with inward terrour for those sinnes which foolishly I did by his entisement why shall I hearken to him any more and so encrease the matter of my trouble for what fruit haue I of all those sinnes which I did by his instigation but terrour and shame and shall I looke that this forbidden tree can render vnto me any better fruit hereafter O what a faithlesse traytor is Sathan hee entiseth man vnto sinne and when he hath done it hee is the first accuser and troubler of man for sinne When hee comes first vnto vs he is a tempter when we haue finished his worke which is sinne he is an accuser of vs vnto the Iudge and when hee returneth he returneth a troubler and tormenter of vs for those same sinnes which he counselled vs to doe Stop thine care therefore O my soule from the voyce of this deceitfull enchanter His tentations againe vnto sinne are vnto the Godly And his tentations to sinne chases them to the throne of grace man prouocations that spurre him forward vnto the throne of grace for while as wee finde his restlesse malice pursuing in vs that little sparke of spirituall life vvhereby the Lord hath quickned vs and our owne weakenesse and iâ— abilitie to resist him then are we forced with Israell in Egypt to sigh for the thraldome and to cry vvith Ieâ—oshaplâ—â— O Chron. 20. 13. Lord our God we know not wâ—at to doe but our â—â—es are toward thee And who feeleth not this that the grace of feruent prayer wherein otherwise wee saint our heart being more ready to fall downe than the hands of Mâ—ses vnlesse they be supported is greaâ—ly intended in the Children of God by the buffets of Sathan as is manifest in the holy Apostle Magna certe potestas quae imperat Diabolo vt se ipse destruat Ambr. ibid. a great power of God this is certainly which commandeth Sathan to destroy himselfe Se enim destruit cum hominem quem tentando supplantare studet ex infirmo fortiorem efficit for then doth hee destroy himselfe when the man whom hee seeketh to ouerthrow by his tentation of a weake man is made stronger by those same mâ—â—nes Thus the Lord our God ouershootes Sathan in his owne bow and cuts off the head of Goliah with his owne sword his holy name be praised therefore Now as concerning outward afflictions it is true that as As the Philistims vnderstood not Sampsons riddle how sweet came out of the sowre so cannot worldlings that comfort is in the crosse Iudg. 14. 14. Rom. 5. 3. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Heb. 12. 11. the Philistims could not vnderstand Sampsons riddle how sweet came out of the sowre and meat out of the eater so cannot Worldlings vnderstand that tribulation bringeth out patience and that our light and momentanie afflictions cause vnto vs a farre more excellent and eternall waight of glory but the Children of God haue learned by experience that albeit no visitation be sweet for the present yet afterward it brings the quiet fruit of righteousnesse vnto them who are thereby exercised and that there is more solide ioy in suffering rebuke with Christ than in all the pleasures of sinne which endure but a season As Moses the typycall Mediator of the olde Testament made by his prayer the bitter vvaters of Marah become sweet so Iesus the true Mediator by his passion hath mittigated to his children the bitternesse of the crosse yea hath made it profitable vnto them The prodigall sonne concluded not to returne home to Afflictions profitable to the children of God his Father till he was brought low by affliction Hagar was proud in the house of Abraham but humble in the vvildernesse Ionas sleepeth in the ship but watcheth and prayeth in the Whales belly Manasses liued in Ierusalem as a Libertine but bound in chaines in Babell hee turneth his heart vnto the Lord his God Corporall diseases forced manie in the Gospell to come to Christ where others enioying bodily health would not acknowledge him The earth vvhich is not tilled and broken vp beares nothing but thornes and bryers the Vines waxe wilde in time vnlesse they be pruned and cut so would our wilde hearts ouergrow with the
noysome weedes of vnruly affections if the Lord by sanctified trouble did not continually manure them It is good therefore said Ieremie for a man to beare the Lam. 3. 27. Psal 119. 71. Ioh. 15. 2. yoke in his youth and Dauid confesses it was good for him that he was afflicted yea our Sauiour saith euery branch that beares fruit my heauenly Father purges it that it may bring forth more fruit No worke can be made of gold and siluer without fire The wicked putrifie and rots in their prosperitie stones are not meet for pallace worke vnlesse they be pollished and squared by hammering no more is it possible that we can be vessels of honor in the house of our God except first we be fined and melted in the fire of affliction neyther can we be as liuing stones to be placed in the wall of heauenly Ierusalem except the hand of God first beat from vs our proud lumps by the hammer of affliction As standing waters putrifie and rot so the wicked feares not God because Psal 55. Iere. 48. 11. they haue no changes and Moab keepes his sent because hee was not powred from vessell to vessell but hath beene at rest euer since his youth And therefore O Lord rather than that we should keepe the sent of our olde naturall corruption and liue in a carelesse securitie without the feare of thine holy name and so become sit-fasts in our sinnes no rather O Lord change thou vs from estate to estate waken vs with the touch of thine hand purge vs with thy fire and chastise vs with thy rods alway Lord with this protestation that thou keepe towards vs that promise made to the sonnes of Dauid I will visit them with my rods if they sinne against mee 2 Sam. 7. 14. 15. but my mercy will I neuer take from them So be it O Lord euen So be it The same comfort haue we also against death that now Death workes also the good of Gods children in Iesus Christ it is not a punishment of our sinnes but a full accomplishment of the mortification of our sinne both in soule and body for by it both the fountaine and the fluxe of sinne are dryed vp all the conduits of sinne are stopped and the weapons of vnrighteousnesse broken And though our bodies seeme to be consumed and turned into nothing yet are they but sowen like graynes of Wheat in the field and husbandry of the Lord which must dye before they be quickned but in the day of Christ shal spring vp againe most glorious And as for our soules they are by death releeued out of this house of seruitude that they may returne vnto him who gaue them therefore haue I compared death to the red sea wherein Pharaoh and his Aegiptians were drowned Death compared to the red Sea Egiptians drowne in it and sancke like a stone to the bottome but the Israelites of God went through to their promised Câ—â—â—an so shall death be vnto you O miserable Infidels whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded that no more then blinded Aegiptians can yee see the light of God shining in Goshen which is his Church though yee be in it to you I say your death shall be the very centre of all your miseries a sea of the vengeance of GOD vvherein yee shall be drowned and shall sincke with your sinnes heauier than a mislone about the neck of your soules to presse you downe to the lowest hell But as for you who are the Israelites of God ye shal walke But the Israelites of God shall goe through it through the valley of death and not neede to be afraid because the Lord is with you his staffe and his rod shal comfort you albeit the guiltinesse of sore-passed sinnes yet remayning in the memory the terrour of hell and horrour of the graue stand vp on euery side like mountaines threatning to ouerwhelme you yet shall yee goe safely through to the land of your inheritance where with Moses and Miriam and all the children of God euen the congregation of the first borne yee shall sing prayses ioyfully to the God of your How the enemies of Gods childreÌ„ against their will procures their good Gen 50. 20. saluation Now in the last roome concerning the imaginations of men against vs wee shall haue cause to say of them in the end as Ioseph said to his brethren yee did it vnto me for euill but the Lord turned it to good The whole history of Gods booke is a cloud of manifold witnesses concurring together to confirme his truth therefore among many wee will be content with one When Dauid was going forward in battaile against Israell with Acish King of Gath vnder whom 1 Sam 29. he soiourned a while in the time of his banishment the remanent Princes of the Philistims commanded him to goe backe and this they did for the worst to disgrace him because they distrusted him but the Lord turned it vnto him for the best for if he had come forward he had beene guiltie of the blood of Israell specially of Saul the Lords annointed who was slaine in that battell from this the prouident mercy of God doth in such sort deliuer him that no offence is done by Dauid to Saul or his people because Dauid came not against them neither yet could the Philistims blame him because he went back by their owne command So a notable benefit Dauid did receiue by that same deed wherein his enemies thought they had done him a notable shame And where otherwise it pleaseth the Lord to suffer wicked Death of the body to a Christian is but as the renting of Iosephs garment from him men to lay hand on the bodies of his children yet all they are able to doe is but like the renting of Iosephs garment from him As he doth sustaine small losse whose garment is cut if his body be preserued so the Christian when his bodie is wounded vnto the death yet hath hee lost nothing which he striues to keepe for he knowes it is but a corruptible garment which would decay in itselfe albeit there were no man to rent it Non sunt itaque timenda spiritui quae fiunt in Chrisostome carne quae extra nos est quasi vestamentum let not therefore our soule be afraid for those things which are done to our bodies for it is without vs as a garment that doth but couer vs. Thus haue we seene how that there is nothing so euill in it selfe which by the prouident working of God is not turned to the good of his children Whereof arises yet vnto vs this further comfort that seeing it is the priuiledge of euery one who loues the Lord it must much more be the priuiledge of the whole Church that promise made to the Father of the faithfull I will blesse Since to euery Christian all things worke for the best much more are we to thinke that this is the
they sit downe to their banquetting tables to refresh them or lyes downe in their beds to rest them The Apostle who suffered all sorts of affliction for the Gospell giues this for a reason that the loue of Iesus constrayned him Thus much concerning the effects of holy loue by which wee are to make sure our calling and consequently our election for our euerlasting comfort Euen to them that are called according to his purpose Hitherto the Apostle hath summarily set downe his third principall A confirmatiō of his third and last argument of comfort argument of comfort and now in the end of this verse he shortly breakes vp the confirmation thereof which is this they who loue God are called according to his purpose therfore all things must worke for the best vnto them The necessitie of this reason shall appeare if wee consider that the Lord cannot be frustrated of his end Those whom the Lord in his immutable purpose hath ordayned to glory and whom according to that purpose he hath called in time how can it be but all things must worke vnto their good for the vvorking prouidence of God vvhich is the executer of his purpose doth so ouer-rule all incidents which fall out in the world and doth so gouerne all secondary and inferiour causes that of necessitie they are directed to that end whereunto the supreame cause of all to wit the purpose and vvill of God hath ordayned them This is shortly set downe in these vvords and more largely explaned in the two verses following It is the last reason of comfort and the highest for now the Apostle leades vs out of our selues and sets vs vpon that rocke vvhich is higher than vve hee carries vs by the hand as it vvere out of the earth vp into heauen and lets vs see how our saluation is so grounded in Gods eternall purpose that no accident in the vvorld can change it Wee haue here then three things euery one of them depending Comfort that the ground of our saluation is in God the tokens thereof in our selues vpon another the loue of God flowing from the calling of God and the calling of God comming from the purpose of God vnto vvhich the Apostle here drawes vs that we casting our anchor with the vaile and resting in the Lords immutable purpose may haue comfort in all our present tentations It is most expedient for the godly to marke this that our manifolde changes doe not interrupt our peace let vs consider that the Lord hath in such sort dispensed our saluation that the ground thereof is laid in his owne immutable purpose but the markes and tokens thereof are placed in vs after our calling the markes and tokens are changeable like as wee our selues in vvhom they are are changeable but the ground holdes fast being laid in that vnchangeable God in whom falles no shadow of alteration Esay 46. Ioh. 10. 2 Tim. 2. I am God and am not changed My sheepe none can take out of my hand The counsell of the Lord shall stand and his foundation remaines sure It is true that the tokens of election cannot be sully taken away from any that is effectually called nay not in the greatest desertion yet haue they in vs their owne intention and remission And this should comfort vs against our daily vicissitudes and changes when wee feele that our Faith doth saint our life languishes our hope houers and vvee are like to sincke in the tentation vvith Peter and our feeble hands fall downe with Moses yet let vs not dispaire no change in vs can alter Gods vnchangeable purpose he who hath begun the worke in vs will also perfect it Because I am not changed saith Mal. 3. 6. the Lord therefore is it that yee O sonnes of Iacob are not consumed This purpose of God is called otherwise the will of God Our calling conuersion flowes from Gods purpose therefore all the praise of it belongs to the Lord. and the good pleasure of his Will In that the Apostle saith our calling is according to his purpose it teacheth vs to ascribe the whole praise of our saluation to the good pleasure of his will and not to our owne foreseene merits That poyson of pride vvhich Sathan poured into our first Parents and by vvhich they aspyred to be equall with God doth yet breake forth in their posterity the corrupt heart of man euer ayming at this to seeke vnto himselfe either in part or in whole the power and praise of his owne saluation This is to start vp into the roome of God and to vsurpe that glory which belongs to the Lord and he will not giue to any other than the which no greater sacriledge can be committed against the Lord. O man content thee with that which the Lord offers thee and let that alone vvhich hee reserues vnto himselfe My peace saith the Lord I giue to you my glory I will not giue to any other The first Preachers of the Gospell were Angels they proclaymed glory and peace but glory they gaue to God which is on high and peace they cryed to the children of his good will which are vpon earth It is enough that peace and saluation is giuen to be thine but as for the glory of saluation let it remain to the Lord. Hee is for this called the Father of mercie because mercie For this cause he is called the Father of Mercie and not of Iudgement 2 Tim. 1. 9. bred in his owne bosome Hee hath found many causes vvithout himselfe mouing him to execute iustice but a cause mouing him to shew mercie hee neuer found but the good pleasure of his will therefore the Apostle saith the Lord hath called vs with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his purpose and grace Surely except the Lord had reserued mercy for vs wee had beene like to Sodome and Gomorrha but it pleased him of his owne good will of the same lumpe of clay to make vs vessels of honour vvhereof hee made others vessels of dishonour And who is able sufficiently to ponder so great a benefit and therefore howsoeuer the blinded Pharisee sacrifice to his owne net and make his mouth to kisse his hand as if his owne hand had done it yet let the redeemed of the Lord praise the Lord let them cry out with a louder voyce than Dauid did O Lord what are wee that thou art so mindfull of vs Not vnto vs O Lord not vnto vs but to thy name giue the glory for thy louing kindnesse and thy truth for our saluation comes from God that sits vpon the throne and from the Lambe To thee O Lord be praise and honour and glorie for euer Now as for the calling wee are to know that the calling Our calling is twofold and the inward calling is a declaration of our election of God is twofold outward and inward He speakes not here of the outward calling of which our Sauiour
glorification and that through calling and iustification which two haue inseperably following them the sanctification and renouation of the whole man The Lord make vs wise in time that vvee may consider the course of our life and thinke of the end whereunto it leades vs for as Moses protested to Israell so doe I vnto you I haue laid this Deut. 30. 15. day life and death before you the Lord giue you grace to make choise of the best In these causes of our saluation linked together in this Prescience and Predestination how they are here distinguished Chaine we haue first to looke vnto Gods decree consisting in his foreknowledge and predestination secondly to the execution thereof which is made by his Calling Iustification and Glorification The decree hath in it these two acts or preordinances so to call them Prescience and Predestination which this manner of way are to be distinguished by foreknowledge the Lord sets before him the whole number of mankinde whom of the good pleasure of his owne will hee purposed to saue so that the first preordinance is this these are they vvhom I vvill saue by predestination againe he concluded to saue them by such and such meanes so that the second preordinance of the decree is this those whom I haue decreed to saue I will saue this manner of way so that prescience lookes to the person to be saued predestination to the meanes whereby they are to be saued Where we must consider that this decree of God is thus distinguished by the Apostle in these two words for our capacitie who being but mortall creatures endued with reason conceiues vnderstands and discernes one thing after another and cannot doe otherwise but it is not so vvith the Lord our God who being himselfe a most perfect vnderstanding by one act without priority or posteriority knowes conceiues and discernes all things Wee come first now to speake of Gods foreknowledge Prescience improperly ascribed vnto God the properties of God are either absolute as namely that he is a Spirit simple and infinite or else such as haue a relation to the creature And of this sort is foreknowledge which improperly is ascribed vnto God for properly there 〈◊〉 â—ore nor after in God nothing past nothing to come but foreknowledge is ascribed to God in respect of the creature because hee knew vs before that wee were This foreknowledge Pr 〈…〉 nce two manner of wayes considered generally and specially is two wayes considered first generally as it is extended to all his creatures and so it is compared to a common booke of register vvherein the Lord hath vvritten all things which were afterward to be and of this speakes the Psalmist My bones saith hee are not hid from thee though Psal 139. 15. I was made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see mee when I was without forme for in thy booke were all things written which in continuance of time were fashioned though they were not before Of it also speakes the Apostle All things are manifest in his sight with whom wee Heb. 4. 13. haue to doe This manner of way foreknowledge is Gods vniuersall eye by which with one looke hee knoweth all his creatures within and without their nature their shape their actions their beginnings their endes but foreknowledge this manner of way considered is not a lincke of this Chaine it being certaine that there is not one of these lincks more patent nor largely extended than another as ye shall afterward heare Foreknowledge then in this Chaine of Saluation is specially In this Chaine it is specially considered as it lookes to the Elect onely Iohn 13. 18. Mat. 7. 23. considered as it is conioyned cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the loue and liking of God as it is all one with Election extended to none but vnto the children of his good will this way it is affirmed of the godly the Lord knoweth who are his but denyed of the wicked depart from me yee workers of iniquitie I know you not that is albeit I know your persons yea your most secret actions yet your selues I know not so that I loue you and this way foreknowledge specially considered is called the booke of life wherein the Lord hath written the names of those whom hee hath ordayned to life Predestination is also two manner of wayes considered Predestination is also two wayes considered first as it is generally extended to all his creatures for as he knew them all before they were so hee appointed them by middes into their owne end other artificers when they haue made a worke know not what will be the end of it he that buildeth an house knowes not how long it will stand whether fire shall consume it or the winde ouer-turne it or the earth-quake vndermine it but the Lord as hee hath made his creatures so hath he appointed them to an end which hee knoweth himselfe but here Predestination is specially considered and is no larger than Election respecting the Elect onely whom he hath ordayned vnto life by his owne middes for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here not onely signifieth to ordaine to an end but also to appoint all the limits borders and middes within and by which thou art to come to that end Where before wee come to the doctrine of instruction Fore-seene me rits falsely collected out of this place we will shortly encounter vvith our aduersaries vvho read these words in this manner that the Lord predestinated those whom hee fore-knew to be conformed to the image of his Sonne that so they may establish here out their errour of fore-seene merits It were sufficient to bring against them the best learned of their owne side some wherof read these words no otherwise then vvee doe as the Iesuits of Rhemes others plainely impugne that reading and the errour of foreseene merits founded vpon it for so Caietane writeth vpon this place Ad confutandum dogma illorum This errour is improued by their own men as Caietane qui primum salutis nostrae locum tribuunt diuinae praescientiae futurorum qui praescientiam meritorum ponunt rationem definitionis diuinae ad confutandum inquit haec primum nostrae salutis locum tribuit diuino proposito dicendo ijs qui secundum propositum vocati sunt To confute saith hee the doctrine of those vvho giue the first place of saluation to Gods foreknowledge of mans merits vvhich he was to doe and so puts his prescience as a reason and cause of his predestination to confute these I say he giues the first place of saluation to the purpose of God while hee saith to them that and Aquinas are called according to his purpose Aquinas in like manner writing vpon this same place saith Ponere quod aliquod meritum ex parte nostra praesupponatur cuius praescientia sit ratio praedestinationis nihil est aliud quam ponere gratiam dari
ex meritis nostris quod principium bonorum operum est ex nobis consummatio ex Deo To affirme that any merit vpon our part must be presupposed the prescience whereof was the cause of predestination is no other thing but to affirme that grace were giuen of our merits and that the beginning of good workes were of our selues and the consummation thereof were of God therefore saith hee the words are to be read this way more conueniently whom he fore-knew them he also predestinated to be made like vnto the image of his Sonne vt ista conformitas non sit ratio praedestinationis sed effectus that so this conformitie be not a cause of predestination but an effect But beside these this errour is conuinced by manifold Sanctification is an effect of predestination and therefore not a cause of it Ephes 1. 4. proofes of holy Scripture the Apostle saith hee hath chosen vs in Christ therefore not in our selues he saith againe that wee should be holy and without blam hee saith not he chose vs because he foresaw that wee would be holy so hee sets downe sanctification as an effect of Predestination Now it is certaine that one effect of Predestination may well be the cause of an other posterior effect as the preaching of the word is a cause of faith and faith is a certaine cause of iustification but no effect of Predestination can be cause of it Againe he saith The Lord hath saued vs and called vs with 2 Tim. 1. 9. an holy calling not according to our workes here yee see that in our calling our workes and Gods purpose are manifestly opponed so that the putting of the one is the remouing of the other thus neyther in our Election before time nor in our calling in time hath the Lord regarded our workes or foreseene rectitude of our will but the good pleasure of his owne will And I pray you what other thing could the Lord foresee The calling of God finds euery man in an euill estate Esay 48. 8. in vs than that vvhich hee foresaw in the Israelites I knew that thou art obstinate and thy neck an iron sinew and thy browe brasse I knew that thou wouldest grieuously transgresse therefore I called thee a transgressor from the wombe yet for my Names sake will I deferre my wrath and for my praise will I refraine it from thee that I cut thee not off yea in so many places of holy Scripture doth the Lord plead the cause of his owne glory that it cannot be but a most fearefull sacriledge against so cleare a light for a man eyther in part or in whole to make his own merits a cause of saluation When the Lord called Abraham hee found him an Idolater when hee called Paul hee found him a persecuter when he called Matthew hee found him a Publican when hee called Mary he found her possessed with Diuels all that euer receiued grace stand vp as so many witnesses of his glory Not vnto vs O Lord not vnto vs but to thy name be Psal 115. 1. the praise And to these obiections which the braine of man hath Obiections of men against Gods predestination answered brought out against this truth of God to cleare themselues and charge the Lord with vnrighteousnes they are all sufficiently answered by the Apostle that the Lord by reason of his absolute authoritie ouer all his creatures hath power of the same lumpe to make one vessell of honour for to Rom. 9. 10. shew the glory of his mercy and an other vessell of dishonour to shew the glory of his iustice seeing this power is not denyed to the potter ouer his clay how dare man speak against it in the Lord ouer his creature O man who art thou that pleadect with God Woe be to him that striueth with his Maker If I dispute with thee O Lord thou art righteous how euer I iudge of thy counsell and of the manner of thy working thou art asway righteous Si non vis errare if thou Aug. in Ioan. tract 26. wilt not erre saith Augustine iudge not the Lord why one is saued the Apostle tels you I haue mercy on whom I will haue mercy Misericordia eius misericordiae causa why another Aug. Epist 59. ad Paulin is reiected Causa potest esse occulta iniusta esse non potest the cause may be secret but cannot be vniust qui infactis Dei rationem non videt infirmitatem suam considerans cur Gregor in Iob cap. 9. non videt rationem videat hee that seeth not a reason of the Lords doing let him looke to his own infirmitie and he shall see a reason why hee seeth it not The Lord hath hid euen from most wicked men the purpose of their owne reprobation till it come to the execution and then shall they receiue an answere from their owne consciences to stop their mouthes which now they will not receiue from man Euery one of the damned shall be compelled to acknowledge that the iudgement executed vpon them is righteous But now to returne to the doctrine wee haue first to obserue Predestination takes not away the second causes and meanes of saluation out of the signification of the vvord which I marked before that the Lords determinate counsell and predestination takes not away the nature properties nor necessities of secondarie causes and meanes of saluation but rather establishes them for those whom God hath appointed to saluation he hath also appointed to those meanes which may bring them vnto it It is therefore a blasphemie which is frequent in the mouthes of carnall professors if I be elected howsoeuer I liue I shall be saued and if otherwise I be a reprobate liue as I will I cannot mend it this is no other thing but Sathans diuinitie if thou be the Sonne of God Sathans diuinitie teacheth Atheists to despise the means of saluation cast thy selfe downe from the Temple thou shalt not dash thy foote against a stone as if the sonnes of God were licensed to despise the second and ordinarie meanes and not rather bound to vse them but in very deed as it is against the nature of fire to be cold so is it impossible that the elect man effectually called can reason after this manner yea the more he heares of election the more hee endeauours to make it sure by vvell doing knowing that no man can attaine to the end of our Faith which is the saluation of our soule but by the lawfull and ordinarie meanes Both temporall and spirituall blessings the Lord wil haue God giues his blessing by meanes therefore they shuld not neglect the meanes who seeke the blessing Hos 2. 21. vs to seeke them by the lawfull and ordinarie meanes the Cornes cannot serue Israel except the earth beare them the earth cannot beare them except the heauens giue raine the heauens can giue no raine except the Lord command them Therefore vvhen the
Lord promises a blessing In that day saith the Lord I will heare the heauens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oyle and they shall heare Israell And that he keepes the same order in bestowing spiritual blessings we are taught by the Apostle vvhen hee saith that before vve be saued we Rom. 10. 13. must call on the name of the Lord before vve call on his name we must beleeue before we beleeue we must heare before we heare there must be preaching whereof it is euident that they who neglect and contemne the ordinary meanes of saluation do giue out a very hard sentence against themselues which is that if they so continue they doe not appertaine vnto election And againe for our further comfort wee haue here to Comfort our election before time cannot be disanulled by any creature made in time marke the certaintie and soliditie of our saluation it is neither to day nor yesterday that the Lord concluded to be mercifull vnto vs our election beganne not with our selues before the mountaines were made before the earth and the world were formed euen from euerlasting to euerlasting the Lord is our God What creature then is able to disanull that which God hath vvilled before that euer a creature was onely let vs labour that as our election is sure in it selfe so we may make it sure in vs by walking in a good conscience before the Lord and then vve shall not care what man or Angell say to the contrarie against it they are but posterior creatures and what intrest can they haue to gainesay that vvhich GOD hath done before that they vvere Happy are they vvho are rooted grounded and builded vpon this rocke no stormy waue of the Sea shall ouerturne them no rage of tentation nor power of the gates of hell shall preuaile against them Lastly vve are taught here by the holy Apostle that all Sauing grace is communicated to few therefore should be the more esteemed men are not foreknowne all are not predestinated to life otherwise there vvere not an election there is onely a certaine and definit number vvhich belong to the election of Grace a fulnesse both of Iewes and Gentiles a number not knowne to vs but knowne to the Lord not one more nor one lesse shall be partakers of saluation Many saith our Sauiour shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of Mat. 8. 11. God hee saith not all the children of the East shall come but many shall come This should vvaken in vs a holy care so long as the calling of God continues among vs to take heed to our selues striuing to thrust in at the doore of the kingdome of heauen for it suffers violence and the violent take it the fewer there be to be receiued into the kingdome the more we should labour to be of that number Wee see So it is in nature that rarest things are most regarded that in nature things that are common were they neuer so excellent are not esteemed the Sunne because common to all is regarded of few though it be a very excellent and profitable creature but parcels of the earth possessed by men in propertie are much more remembred and regarded by those to vvhom they belong riches and honor are in greater account among men because few attaine vnto them and if vvee vvere as wise in spirituall things that grace of Christ vvhich brings saluation would be more precious and deere vnto vs because it is communicated to few The Lord giue vs grace to consider rightly of it in time To be made like to the image of the Sonne The Apostle Predestination is vnto glory by a conformitie with Christ in our present life insists not in the rest of the linckes of the Chaine hauing touched them he leaues them onely he insists in this lincke of Predestination teaching vs that hee vseth not here the vvord of Predestination generally but restraines it to Predestination vnto life as also that vvee cannot step from election to glory but by a conformitie vvith Christ vvhich is most necessarie for vs to marke for albeit there be great comfort in the consideration of Gods immutable purpose ordayning man to life as also in the consideration of that glory vvhereunto we are ordayned yet neither of them can comfort vs vnlesse vvee be sure that our life is proceeding from election to glorification by the right meanes The first and neerest end of election in regard of man Ephes 1. 4. As Christ is the life so is he the way neither can wee come to life but by the way Ioh. 14. 6. is his sanctification for the Lord hath chosen vs that vvee should be holy the second and furthest end is mans glorification The same Lord Iesus who said I am the life said in like manner I am the way and the veritie if thou wouldst be at life lye not stil in thy sinnes but rise and walke in the way and if thou knowest not the way learne it from him who is veritie Let not presumption which slayes the wicked ouertake thee they passe ouer the matter of their saluation with a wanton vvord their hearts are prophane yea they boast with their tongues that they are sure to be saued but this is a vaine reioycing for he that walkes not in the way how is it possible that he can come to the end assuredly he shal neuer come where Christ is to liue with him that vvalkes not after Christ in newnesse of life This conformitie vvith the Lord Iesus vvhereunto wee Conformitie with Christ wherein it stands are predestinated is partly in this life partly in the life to come Our conformitie in the life to come shall stand in liuing and raigning vvith Christ which is our glorification whereof he speakes hereafter Our conformitie in this life stands in liuing and suffering with Christ and of this hee speakes here to liue godly after the rule of Christ to suffer patiently after the similitude of Christ are the two parts of our present conformitie with him The Lord Iesus is giuen vs of the Father both to be a Sauiour and an example vnlesse wee make him an example to follow him in our doing and suffering he shall not be vnto vs a Sauiour Here we are to marke that the workes done by Christ in Workes done by Christ are threefold 1. personall workes of Redemption 2. Miracles 3. workes of a godly life our nature are threefold first his personall workes of Redemption as that he vvas borne of the Virgin that he suffered the cursed death of the Crosse for the expâ—ation of our sinnes that he rose the third day for our iustification that he ascended triumphantly into heauen leading captiuitie captiue Secondly his workes of miracles as that hee fasted forty dayes gaue sight to the blinde life to the dead and such
Sathans buffets and against whom hee vvas permitted to vse all the stratagems of the spirituall warfare that possibly he could hee crossed him not onely in his goods in his children and in his owne bodie but also in his minde by his wife he tempted him to blasphemie by his friends to diffidence yet by none of these could he ouercom him In his outward troubles his resolution was the Lord hath Iob 1. 21. giuen the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord for euer in his inward terrours his resolution was Albeit Ioh 13. 15. the Lord would slay mee yet would I trust in him so impossible it is for Sathan by any tentation whatsoeuer to separate from the loue of God his Children chosen called and iustified The Lord is present with present with his children to keepe them sometime from trouble sometime introuble To cleare this let vs yet know that God is many manner of wayes present vvith his children in trouble first hee is with them by preuenting the danger so that hee will not suffer the intended euill of the enemie to come neere them so he brought Senacherib to see Ierusalem without but suffered him not to shoot so much as a dart against it within Somtime againe the Lord enters his children into the trouble as Daniel into the Den Ioseph into the prison the three children into the fire but deliuers them in such sort that both his glory and their comfort is greater than if they had not beene in trouble at all Sometime he suffers his children to ende their mortall liues in trouble and yet is with them strengthning them by his glorious might to all patience and long suffering filling them with such a sense of his loue that in death they rest vnder the assurance of life This also is declared by example The practise of this see in the examples of Eliah and Paul when Iezabel vowed to haue the life of Eliah yee shall see that the Lord is with him sometime to hide him that albeit Achab and Iezabel seeke him they cannot finde him sometime God lets Achabs captaines see where hee is but consumes with fire them that came proudly to take him Sometime he presents him to Achab and Iezabel but bridleth the tyrants that they haue no power to stirre him The Apostle Paul in like manner being sent prisoner to Rome the Lord assisted him in such sort that hee deliuered 2 Tlm. 4. 17. him out of the mouth of the Lyon Vero and yet the second time suffered him to fall by the sword of the same tyrant shall wee thinke that the Lord was not with the Apostle to assist him the second time as well as the first let it be farre from vs. The Lord was with him indeed to make his death a seale and confirmation of that Gospel which he had preached in his life The comfort then remaines that howeuer GOD worke with his children in trouble no aduersarie is able to take from vs that for which we striue to wit grace and glory they may be vnto vs as sharpe rasers of God to cut away our superfluities but shall neuer be able to bereaue vs of the end of our Faith which is the euerlasting saluation of our soules Verse 32. Who spared not his owne Sonne but gaue him for vs all vnto death how shall he not with him giue vnto vs all things also NOw followeth the second part of the Apostles generall triumph wherein hee gloryeth The second part of his generall triumph the Christian can want nothing that is needfull for him that the Christian can vvant nothing needfull for him for seeing the Lord hath giuen vnto him the greatest and most excellent gift to wit his owne Sonne is it possible that hee will deny him any secondarie or inferior gifts needfull for him Sathan who is a lyer from the beginning accused the Lord of two things first of an vntruth albeit the Lord hath said it yet yee shall nâ—t dye secondly of Enuy. In the first Sathan is proued false and the Lord is found true for are they not dead to whom the Lord said yee shall dye In the second Sathan is found a calumniator for what good tree will the Lord refuse to his owne who hath giuen vnto them this excellent tree of life which brings with it vnto them all things needfull for them To amplifie this great loue of God the Apostle saith The great loue which GOD hath shewed in giuing his Son for vs. not simply that hee gaue his Sonne for vs but that he spared not to giue him O vvonderfull loue â— the Naturall and onely Sonne of God is not spared that the adoptiue sonnes may be spared for our sinnes being imputed to him by the ordinance of God his Father and voluntarily accepted by himselfe so the punishment of our sinnes and chastisement Esa 53. 5. of our peace was laid vpon him that by his stripes wee might be healed The bitter cuppe due to vs was propined to him for the which albeit hee prayed to his Father that if it were his will this cuppe might passe by him yet the Father Mat. 26. 39. spared him not but held it to his head till hee dranke out the vttermost dregs thereof So straite is the Iustice of God that sinne being imputed to the Sonne of God vvho had no sinne of his owne is pursued to the vttermost The greatest example of Iustice that euer the Lord declared in the world the drowning of the originall world the burning of Sodome the plaguing of Egypt were terrible proofes of the straitnesse of diuine Iustice but nothing comparable to this Which I marke partly for a comfort to the Godly and Comfort for the Godly that the iustice of God shall not â—ay cannot strike vpon them partly for a warning to the wicked it is our great comfort that the saluation which Iesus hath purchased vnto vs hee hath obtayned it vvith a full satisfaction of his Fathers Iustice so that now vve that are in him are not any more to feare it The great Iudge of all the vvorld will not doe vnrighteously to require that againe from vs vvhich our Christ vvhom he himselfe hath giuen vnto vs hath payed for vs. Miserable are the wicked who in their owne persons beare the punishment of their sinnes And as for the vvicked vvho are not in Christ how miserable will their state and condition be for they must beare the punishment of their owne sinnes in their owne persons If the burden of that vvrath due to our sinnes caused Iesus to sweat bloud and to say that his soule was heauie vnto Mat. 26. 38. the very death O how shall the burden of this wrath presse downe the vvicked it is euen a horrour to thinke of it their faces shall be confused vvithout and spirits oppressed vvithin vvith tribulation and anguish hee that spared not in his owne Sonne sinne imputed vnto him vvill hee
to our comfort Iesus is already risen therefore we are not in our sinnes As for his exaltation the Apostle saith hee sits at the Of Christs exaltation at the right hand of God right hand of God to speake properly the Lord who is a Spirit hath neyther right hand nor left but by these borrowed speeches the Lord who dwelleth in light inaccessible to whom wee cannot ascend by our selues that wee should know him descends vnto vs and speakes of his vnspeakeable Maiestie vnto vs in such manner as wee are best able to conceiue it so that when eyes and eares and hands are ascribed to the Lord wee are to thinke these hee hath per Papists blasphemous who set out the maiestie of God in the similitude of a corruptible man Deut. 4. 15. effectum non per naturam And this may rebuke that bould blasphemie of the Papists who presume to paint the incomprehensible Maiestie of God vnder the similitude of an aged and worne creature expresly contrary to Gods commandement In that day saith the Lord that I spake vnto thee out of the mountaine thou heardest a voyce but saw no Image beware therefore thou make none and in many places is the same presumption condemned by the Prophets Where if they excuse themselues that they paint the Lord Their fact not warranted by any appairtion of the diuine maiestie in the shape of man in such a similitude as hee appeared vnto Daniel and no other-way I answere first this is false for sometime which is horrible to speake they paint him in the shape of an humane body hauing three heads but albeit it were true which they say yet doth it not excuse them for the Lords extraordinary facts are not to be vsed as vvarrants to breake his ordinary and eternall Commaundements neyther doth it any more excuse them than that deed of the Lord whereby hee caused the Israelites to take from the Egyptians their siluer gold and Iewels which they neuer rendred can excuse them that doe borrow steale and robbe from others but neuer restore But howeuer they excuse themselues as long as the word They are conuinced by the Apostle of Idolatry Heb. 1. 11. of the Apostle stands true they shall not rubb off them the blot of idolatry they turne the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man The Maiestie of God is eternall the heauens waxe olde but hee remaines the same why then do they paint him vnder the similitude of a worne creature weakened by the length of dayes The Iesuites of Rhemes conuinced of darknesse are ashamed of the light that shines in this place of Scripture and passe by it without an answer they excuse the making of the Image of Christ and of his Saints but speake not one word to defend the grosse Idolatry wherby they turne the glory of the inuisible God into the image of a corruptible man It had beene good for them they had beene as dumbe in the defence of the rest of their abhominations as they are in this This speech therefore to sit at the right hand of God The sitting of Christ at Gods right hand imports his high honour and dignity 1 King 2. 19. is a borrowed speech the Metaphor being taken from Kings who vse to set on their right hand those whom they honour most as Salomon did his mother Bathsheba and so the phrase vvill import that high honour and dignitie whereunto Christ Iesus as man is exalted being crowned with glory both aboue Angels and man This right hand of God whereat Christ sits is expounded Errour of Vbiquitaries improued by other places of Scripture to be the high and heauenly places which serueth to improue that paralogisme of the Vbiquitaries who will haue Christs naturall bodie to be in euery place because the right hand of GOD is in euery place It is true indeed Christ sits at thâ— right hand of Heb 1. 3. Ephes 1. 20. God but so that he sits in the high and heauenly places The right hand of GOD that is the power and glorie of GOD stretches throughout the whole world but wee are plainly taught that the place of the residence of Christ Iesus the man is in the heauenly places and not in earthly places in the high places to which he is ascended and not in the low places in which wee soiourne for the heauens most contayne Acts 3. 21. him vntill the day of refreshment come And makes request also for vs. Christ our Lord hath entred Christ makes request for vs in heauen into heauen not to enioy for himselfe a blessed life only but to appeare in the presence of God for vs. As the high Priest when he entred into the most holy place had grauen in stones vpon his breast the names of the twelue tribes of Israel so the Lord Iesus presents to his father the names of all his elect that by the merit of his death he may procure mercy vnto them Here againe wee are taught that Iesus Christ is described No Mediator of intercession but Iesus Christ to vs in holy Scripture as our mediator of intercession and that there is no other beside him recommended vnto vs. In al the old testament no prayer is made to Henoch Moses nor Eliah who ended their dayes not after the common course of men no prayer to Abraham albeit hee was the Father of the faithfull yea no prayer to Cherubin nor Seraphin though now the Apostate Church of Rome haue made as many aduocates for vs in heauen as there are Saints departed and hath framed particular prayers vnto them and which is more ridiculous hath parted among them the patrocinie of sundry sorts of sicknesse and diseases It is true indeed that the Saints which are departed haue Saints departed haue their owne desires which they craue to be fulfilled but knowes not our necessities not as yet all their desires fulfilled and shall not be perfected without vs wherefore also it is that they long for the full gathering together of the Saints and for the restitution of their bodies and for the last day of iudgement but that they know the particular troubles of Gods children our greatest troubles being inward tentations and wrestlings of conscience neither knowne to man nor Angell but only to God who is the searcher of the heart or that we can in faith vse them as mediators vnto God for vs wee iustly deny it Where if they take them vnto their common refuge that ther is but one mediator of redemption but many mediators of intercession to this wee answere that in the same place wherin the Apostle saith there is one mediatour betweene God 1 Tim. 2. 5. and man the subiect whereof he entreats is Prayer so that euen in prayer he will haue vs to acknowledge no mediator of intercession but Iesus Christ And beside this Augustine doth so desine a mediator of A Mediator of intercession as he
able to turne him Now from the body it is translated to the minde to expresse the straitnesse of the afflictions of the children of God out of vvhich oft-times they themselues can see no passage that which Dauid said to Ionathan As the Lord liueth there is 1 Sam. 20. 3. but one step betweene me and death so sareth it many a time with the Children of God but the Lord commeth in vvith vnlooked for deliuerance in their most desperate distresse vvhich not onely relieueth them for the present but doth confirme them for the time to come Wee receiued saith 2 Cor. 1 9. 10. the Apostle the sentence of death in our selues because wee should not trust in our selues but in God who raiseth the dead who dâ—liuered vs from so great a death and doth deliuer vs in whom we trust that he will deliuer vs. The third is Persecution The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth 3 They are persecuted chased from place to place that sort of affliction by which the Children of God are persecuted and chased from one place to another the world hath neuer thought them worthy of a roome among them and therefore haue they beene forced to liue in caues and dennes and wildernesses but our comfort is that the God most familiar with his children when they are banished by men Lord hath alwaies shewed himselfe most familiar with his Children when the world hath been most hard vnto them Iacob is banished from his fathers house by the crueltie of Esau and his heauenly Father receiued him into his house comforting him by such a familiar reuelation of his presence as hee neuer had felt before so long as hee dwelt at home and Iohn being banished by Dâ—mitian into Pathmos found also the Lord reuealing himself vnto him more familiarly than he had done before What part of the world is there wherein tyrants can banish the Children of GOD from accesse to their Comforter they know that in their owne house they are strangers as Abraham vvas in Canaan the Land of his inheritance and therefore can be the better content as strangers to liue in any other part of the world Basil being threatned by Modestâ—s the Deputie of the Emperour with banishment Nihil inquiâ— horum quae Nazian de vita Basil dixisti timeo I feare none of these things whereof thou hast spoken nihil pâ—ssâ—â—ens ab exilij mâ—tu liber sum vnum hominuÌ„ cognoscens esse patriam Paradisum Omnem autem terram commune â—spicimus naturae exilium possessing nothing I am free from the feare of banishment knowing that Paradise is the onely countrey of men and the whole earth is a common place of banishment to vs all The fourth is Famine which of it own nature is one of the 4 Famine is one of Gods ordinary plagues and with it also the godly are tryed plagues of God but lesse than his other ordinary plagues of the sword pestilence therfore the Lord who best knowes the waight of his owne rods accounts three dayes of pestilence three months of the sword and three yeeres of famine equiualent Many wayes hath the Lord by which he bringeth famine vpon a people for sometime he maketh Leuit. 26. 19. the heauen aboue as brasse and the earth beneath as yron so that albeit men labour and sow yet they receiue no encrease Deu. 11. 14. sometime againe he giues in due season the first and latter raine so that the earth renders abundance but the Lord by blasting-windes or by the Cater-piller Canker-worme and Grasse-hopper doth consume them who commeth out as exacters and officers sent from God to poind Miserable are they whose gaine is to â—ncrease Famine they are Caterpillers in the Land Basil ser 1. in Auar men in their goods because with them they would not honour the Lord which I marke by the way that those vnnaturall men vvho doe what they can to encrease famine in the Land may know they are but Caterpillers scourges and roddes of the wrath of God or aâ— Basil calleth them Mâ—rcatores humanarum calumnitatem making their priuat gaine a common calamitie and vsing that as a benefite to themselues which God hath threatned as a plague to the people assuredly vnlesse they repent the Lord shall cast them at length into the fire as the roddes of his wrath But we are to know that famine which in the owne nature The Lord who changed the serpent into a flourishing rod hath changed cursed famine into a blessed crosse to his children is a curse and plague of God to the godly is changed the Lord who made the bitter waters of Mâ—rah sweet and turned a biting serpent into a flourishing rod hath changed the nature of all those euils which sinne hath brought vpon vs now they worke for our good and are become like Waspes wanting stings profitable to waken vs and exercise our faith but not able to seperate vs from the loue of God Among those famine is a great tentation Nature being impatient of the want of necessaries and therfore Sathan who picks out the time and place of tentations as may be most for his vantage tempted our blessed Sauiour when he began to vvaxe hungry It is a rare grace in want to praise the Mat. 4 3. Lord and trust in his fatherly prouidence Salomon neuer felt it yet hee knew it was a rare tentation therefore he Prou. 30. 8. prayed that the Lord would neither giue him pouertie nor riches least the one make him full and cause him deny God and the other should cause him to steale and take the name of God in vaine yet no extremitie of this tentation can separate them from the loue of God for eyther in their greatest necessities the Lord marueilously prouides for them or then strengthens them vvith patience and inward comfort to sustaine it For sometime the earth hath been as iron but the heauens How the Lord prouides in famine for his children hath ministred food to Gods people as in that barren wildernesse vvherein Israel soiourned the earth yeelded no fruit but the heauens rained downe Manna and Quailes and sometimes the heauens haue beene as brasse yet in the earth hath the Lord prouided nourishment as he did by the Rauens and the Widdow of Sarepta for Eliah and if otherwise it please the Lord by famine to inflict death vpon his children then he strengthens their spirits with the bread of life and comforts their hearts with hid Manna so that they can say to Worldlings as our Sauiour said to his Disciples I haue bread to eate that ye know not of and so no famine can Ioh. 4. 32. separate them from the loue of God Nakednesse This is also a great tentation partly for the 5 Christians tryed also with Nakednesse shame and partly for the decay of naturall life which followes it Before the Iewes crucified Christ they stripped him naked of his garments Basil makes
presse thee downe to hell and confound thee for euer the creature that groned with the godly shall be restored with them and thou shalt not be restored O how shalt thou be cast downe when the earth whereupon thou treadest shall be deliuered into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God and shall as a seruant stand in the day of restitution but thou as a rebell shalt be cast into vtter darknesse and shall not be so much as partaker of the deliuerance of the creature But we also who haue receiued the first fruits of the Spirit A description of the godly In this description of the godly let vs consider these three things First that whatsoeuer grace we haue we receiued it Secondly that grace we haue receiued is not full but in part for we haue onely receiued the first fruits of the Spirit And thirdly that the first fruits which wee haue are sufficient pledges to vs of the plenitude and fulnesse which afterward we shall receiue The first of these learnes vs humilitie what hast thou O Learning vs humilitie thankfulnesse and diligence in Prayer man which thou hast not receiued The Lord dispenses grace to euery one according to his pleasure and we are but vessels filled and emptied as hee will Secondly it learnes vs thankfulnesse vvhatsoeuer Grace wee haue receiued wee should returne both the praise and the vse of it to him who gaue it as the waters by secret conduits come from the Sea returne againe openly into it through the troughes so that all men may see the returning albeit they saw not the comming so that Grace which the Lord by his Spirit secretly conuayes to the godly doth againe publikely returne vnto him by prayse and well doing And thirdly it doth teach vs diligence in prayer if we desire encrease of Grace we should seeke it from him of whom we haue the beginning and vse all the meanes such as hearing reading praying keeping of a good conscience by which Grace may grow and be entertayned in vs. The next thing we obserue is that in this life we receiue No plenitude but first fruits of the Spirit haue we now not the plenitude and fulnesse of Grace but onely the first fruits thereof The vse of this is first to comfort the children of God who are oftentimes discouraged with the sense and feeling of their owne wants It is one of Sathans stratagems to try those by the rule of perfection who are yet but in the state of proficients and we had neede to beware of it Shall I Therefore are we not to think that wee haue no grace because we haue but beginnings giue that vantage to the aduersary as to thinke I haue no faith because it is weake or I haue no loue because it is little or no satisfaction because it is but in a beginning No but I will so hunger and thirst for more grace that I will still giue thanks for the grace I haue receiued for here wee haue no fulnesse our greatest measure is as the first fruits in respect of that which is to come On the other side because euery comfort which is giuen This comfort vainly abused by prophane men to the godly is turned by prophane contemners and mockers into an occasion and nourishment of sinne they are to know this comfort belongs not vnto them It is a common thing to them to excuse the want of all Grace O it is but a small grace which in this life is communicated to the best and they think their sinnes are wel enough couered by this that all men are sinners as if there were no difference betweene sinne tyrannizing in the vvicked and captiued in the godly or as if beginnings of Grace in the regenerate did not seperate them in regard of conuersation from the vnregenerate who are void of all Grace Let them therefore know that the Spirit of God whom the godly receiue is not onely called the first fruits the earnest and the witnesse of God but also the seale and signet of the liuing God As a seale leaues in the waxe that similitude and impression of the forme which is in it selfe so the Spirit of God communicates his owne image to all those whom he seales against the day of redemption hee makes them new and holy creatures And this conuinces carnall professors of a lye vvho say they haue receiued the first fruits of the Spirit notwithstanding that their works be wicked and vncleane they may rather if they vvould tell the truth say as those who being demaunded whether they had receiued the holy Ghost or no answered we know not whether there be an holy Ghost or no so may they instead of bragging of the first fruits of the Spirit say in truth wee know not what yee call the first fruits of the Spirit And thirdly out of this description we may gather that Why the Lord giues vs not in this life the principall as well as the earnest albeit we haue no more but the first fruits of the Spirit yet are they sufficient to assure vs that hereafter we shall enioy the whole Masse In two respects it is customable to men to giue an earnest penny in buying and selling eyther when the summe is greater then they are able to pay for the present or when the thing bought is of that nature that it cannot presently be deliuered but betweene the Lord and vs there is no buying nor selling he giues freely vnto vs both the earnest and the principal but first the one and then the other not that the Lord is vnable to pay presently all that he hath promised but because the principall is of that nature that it cannot be receiued till we be prepared for it As the husbandman must sow and tarry vvith patience till the haruest come wherein hee may sheare as the warriour must fight before he obtaine the victory and the wrestler receiues not his crowne till hee haue ouercome neither doth he that runnes in a race obtaine the prise till he haue finished it so must the Christian in all these be exercised before that the Lord possesse him in the promised kingdome of his Sonne Christ Iesus And though payment of the principall for a time be What comfort wee haue now in the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit delayed yet for our comfort the earnest and first fruits are presently deliuered vnto vs the Lord so dealing with vs as he dealt with Israel in the Wildernesse when he caused the twelue spies to bring with them from the riuer of Eschol a branch of the Vine tree so full of the clusters of grapes that it vvas borne betweene two vpon a tree together with the figges and pomegranats and other fruits of that land for no other end but that Israel tasting of the first fruits of Canaan might be prouoked to a more earnest desire thereof as also to assure them that the Lord who had giuen them the beginnings