wicked may be put to death for their most vnreasonable disobedience her commandements for number being but ten and so not burdenable to the memorie for vnderstanding plaine written in the hart of euery man for equitie not contradictable for the Law craueth nothing of man but that which by the holinesse of his nature receiued by Creation hee was able to performe neither doth the law command any thing profitable to God vvho gaue it but vnto man who receiued it And for holinesse euery precept of the law when God proclaymed it on mount Sinai was assisted with a thousand of his Saints as witnesses of the holinesse therof all these circumstances doe aggrauate the waight of that iudgement which the law shall giue out against the transgressors thereof Then from the Law iudgement shall proceede to Conscience and Conscience shall witnesse against them of their transgressions against euery precept of the law wherein they shall be so cleerely conuinced that their perticular sinnes with the circumstances thereof time and place though now they haue cast them behind their backs shall then be set in order before them and so iustly euery manner of way shall iudgement goe out against them Eliphaz spoke it falslie to Iob thy owne mouth and not I condemnes thee but most iustly shall the ruler of the world lay it vpon the wicked out of thy owne mouth I iudge thee O thou euill and vnfaithfull seruant the voyce of thine own conscience and no other shall condemne thee And as this condemnation will bee most righteous so shall it bee also most fearefull not onely in regard of the manner of the Lords proceeding in that last iudgement but chieflie in regard of that irrevocable sentence of damnation which shall be executed without delay The Law was giuen with Thunders and Lightnings and a thicke cloud vpon the mount with an exceeding loude sound of the Trumpet so that all the people were afraide yea so terrible was the sight that Moses said I feare and quake The lawes of mighty Monarches are executed with greater terror then they are proclaymed what then shall we looke for when the God of glory shall appeare to iudge the world according to his law the Heauens shall passe away with a noyse the Elements shall melt with heate the Earth with the workes which are therein shall be burnt vp the Archangell shall blow a Trumpet at the voyce whereof the dead shall rise If Moses the seruant of the Lord quaked to heare the first Trumpet how shall the wicked condemned in their owne conscience tremble and quake to heare the second Then shall the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mightie men hide themselues in the Dennes and among the rockes of the Mountaines for what strength is there in man who is but stubble to stand before a consuming fire and or euer their doome bee giuen out they shall crye Mountaines and Rockes fall vpon vs and hide vs from the presence of him that sitteth on the Throne but when they shall heare that fearefull sentence depart from me yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Diuell and his Angels O how shall the terrour thereof confound their spirits and presse them downe to the bottome of hell O fearefull sentence depart from me what shall the creature doe when the Creator in his wrath commaunds it to depart and by his power banishes it from his presence O man wilt thou consider in time vvho shall receiue thee when God casts thee out from his face or who shall pittie and bee able to comfort thee when God shal persecute thee with his wrath assure thy selfe euery creature shall refuse her comfort to thee if a drop of colde water might bee a reliefe vnto thee thou shalt not get it Happie therefore are they vvho in time resolues themselues vvith Peter Lord whether away shall wee goe from thee thou hast the wordes of eternall life For they who doe now goe a whoring from the LORD wandring after lying vanities shall in that day receiue this for a recompence of their errour goe to the Gods whom yee haue serued Your whole life was but a turning backe from mee now therefore depart from mee and whether into fire and what fire euerlasting fire and with whom with the Diuell and his Angels thou hast forsaken mee thou hast followed them goe thy way with them a companion of their torment O fearefull sentence quae cum it a sint bene nobiscum ageretur si iam nunc sic nos paeniteret super malis nostris quomodo tunc sine vllo remedio paenitebit It were good therefore sayes Augustine if novv all men could so repent of their sinnes as it is certaine in that day they shall repent without any remedie for then the wicked vvill shed teares aboundantly but they shall bee fruitlesse And if yet all this cannot waken thee to goe to the Lord Iesus vpon the feete of faith and repentance that in him thou mayest bee deliuered from this fearefull damnation yet remember that seeing this iudgement is supreame and the last from which will bee no recalling most foolish art thou if in time thou doe not foresee and prouide how thou mayest stand in it Now if thy conscience condemne thee thou may get if thou seeke absolution in Christ but in that day if the Lord condemne thee thou shalt neuer be absolued the day before the Trumpet sound mercy shall bee preached to the penitent and beleeuers by the Gospell but from the time that once the sentence is giuen out there shall neuer bee more offering of mercy the doore shall be closed though the wicked cry for mercy and vvith Esau seeke the blessing vvith many teares yet shall they neuer finde it Of all this novv it is euident vvhat an excellent benefit wee haue by Iesus Christ in that vve are deliuered from this threefold condemnation For first being iustified by faith vve haue peace vvith God in our consciences that holy spirit of adoption testifying vnto vs that our sinnes are forgiuen vs whereof arises in our heart an vnspeakable and glorious ioy which ioy notwithstanding cannot be full nor perfect vntill the former sentence of our absolution be also pronounced in the other two iudgements that in the houre of death wee heare that ioyfull sentence Come to mee thou with the Apostle the terrour of that day but surely when the Lord shall set vs on mount Sion among those thousands which follow the Lambe and we shall see the smoake of the damned ascending continually when we shall stand at the right hand of the Lord Iesus and shall heare that fearefull sentence pronounced on the wicked and see the speedie and terrible execution thereof the earth opening incontinent to swallow them then shall we perfectly know how greatly the Lord hath magnified his mercies towards vs in
Iesus onely therefore blessed are they who are in Christ Hee that heares my wordes and belieues in him that sent me hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life And lastly we may obserue here what a powerfull Sauiour wee haue when to the iudgement of man he was weakest then did hee the greatest worke that euer was done in the world he was powerfull in working of miracles in his life but more powerfull in his death for then hee darkened the Sunne hee shooke the earth hee made the rockes to cleaue he rent the vaile of the temple a sunder and caused the dead to rise Mortuum Caesarem quis metuat sed morte Christi quid efficacius if Caesar bee once dead who will feare Christ euen when hee is dead is terrible to his enimies nothing can be more effectuall then his death By it he did a greater worke than was the creation of the world by it he brought in new heauens and a new earth by suffering death he destroyed him who had the power of death when hee was condemned of man hee condemned sinne that it should not condemne man passus est vt infirmus operatus vt fortis â—e suffered as a weake man but wrought as a strong one Sicut serpens mortuus c. As that Serpent without life erected by Moses in the wildernesse ouercame the liuing Serpents that stung Israell so the Lord Iesus by suffering death hath slaine that serpent that liuing in vs had slung vs vnto death Hic vides mortem morte peremptam maledictum maledicto extinctum per quae Diabolus iam antea valebat per ea ipsa tyrannidem ipsius esse destructam here thou seest saith Chrisostome death slaine by death and the tyrannie of Sathan destroyed by these same meanes by which before most of all he preuailed O wonderfull worke surely the weaknesse of God is stronger then man hee is that stronge One indeed stronger then Samson When the Philistines thought they had him sure within the portes of Azzah hee arose at midnight and tooke the doores of the gates of the Cittie and the two posts and carried them away with the bars thereof on his shoulders vp to the top of the mountaine which is before Hebron but our mightie Conquerour and deliuerer the Lord Iesus hath in a more excellent manner magnified his power for being closed in the graue clasped in the bands of death and a stone rolled to the mouth of the graue the Sepulcher sealed and guarded with souldiers he rose againe the third day before the rising of the Sunne he carried like a victor the bars and posts of death away as vpon his shoulders and vpon the mount of Oliues hee ascended on high leading captiuitie captiue Like as therefore wee receiued before great comfort through the consideration of Christs incomprehensible loue toward vs so is it now confirmed by the meditation of his power Let Sathan boast like Rabsache that the Lord is not able to deliuer Ierusalem out of his hands hee is but a blasphemous Lyar the Lord will rebuke him and will shortly tread Sathan vnder our feet it is the curse of the wicked hee shall be oppressed and there shall bee none to deliuer him but blessed bee the Lord who hath prouided a strong deliuerer for vs who certainly shall set vs free from our enimies and destroy all the oppressours of our soules Glory therefore be vnto him for euer Verse 4. That the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in vs who walke not after the Flesh but after the Spirit THe Apostle hauing taught vs in the former verse how the Lord Iesus hath freed vs from the condemning power of sinne doth now let vs see how we are freed also from the commanding power of sinne for hee sets downe this to bee the first and neerest end of Christs death in respect of vs the renouation of our nature and conformitie thereof with God his holy law which hee expresses more cleerely in another place when he saith that Christ gaue himselfe to the death for his Church that hee might sanctifie it and make it to himselfe a glorious Church not hauing spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should bee holy and without blame This is the end which Christ hath proposed vnto himselfe and whereof hee cannot bee frustrate as hee hath begunne it so he shall finish it he shall conforme vs to the law the righteousnesse thereof shall be fulfilled in vs there shall not bee left in our nature so much as a sinfull motion or desire but hee shall at the last present vs pure and without blame to his Father This righteousnesse of the law I vnderstand to be that perfect obedience to the Commaundements thereof which the law requires flowing from the perfect loue of God and our neighbour and it is fulfilled in vs two manner of wayes first by application or imputation of Christs righteousnesse vnto vs he is our head and we his members and are so vnited with him that now we are not to be taken as sundry but as one bodie with him By vertue of the which communion it comes to passe that that which is ours is his and that which is his is ours so that in our head we haue fulfilled the law satisfied Gods iustice for our sinnes Secondly it will be fulfilled in vs by our perfect sanctification though now wee haue but begunne obedience and in part the Lord Iesus at the last shall bring it in vs to perfection The Iesuites of Rhemes in their marginall notes on this Verse collects a note which the word here rendreth not vnto them Wee see say they that the Law which is Gods commandements may be kept that the keeping therof 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 sinne is euident 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 neyther out of this place nor any other place of holy Scripture Damnatum est pecatum non extinctum Sinne is condemned sayeth Caietane one of their owne but not extinguished And hereunto beside infinite testimonies of holy Scripture 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 familie I am whole and needes not a Phisition but
from vs that we should so doe Away with this wisedome of the flesh which is inimitie with God Perceiue againe how the spirit of God in such sort describes the nature of man vnrenued by Grace that no good is left in it out of vvhich the Semipelagians of our time may draw their vvorkes of preparation or merits of congruitie for vvhere as in the Soule of man there are but two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will the spirit of God so describes his Vnderstanding that not onely hee saith the naturall man vnderstands not the things that are of God but as if that were not suffâ—cient to expresse mans miserable estate hee addeth neither indeed can he vnderstand them because they are spiritually discerned And againe his will hee so describeth it that it is not subiect vnto the Law of God and he addeth this neyther indeed can it bee what more can be said to abase the naturall pride of man he hath such a mind as neither vnderstands nor can vnderstand the things of God he hath such a will as neyther is subiect nor can be subiect to the Law of God This is the iudgement of gods spirit concerning the corruption of our nature vvee set it against the vaine opinion of all those vvho to magnifie the arme of flesh and the merits of man dreames of a good in our nature without grace which cannot be found in it Neyther let any man inferring more of the Apostles speach then himselfe concludes think it impossible that our rebellious vvill should be made obedient the Apostle takes not away this hope from man onely he denyes that nature is able to doe it Nature without grace may increase the inimitie but cannot make reconciliation but that vvhich is impossible to man is possible to God The nature of beasts birds and creeping things hath beene tamed by the nature of man saith Saint Iames but the tongue of man though the smallest member in the body yet so vnâ—uly an euill that no man is able to tame it Wee cannot change one haire of our head to make that vvhite vvhich is blacke far lesse can we change our hearts to make them holy vvhich are vncleane What then shall wee be out of all hope that vvhich vve are not able to doe shall vvee thinke it shall neuer bee done Let vs not so conclude though no man can tame the nature of man the Lord can Paul who vvas a rauening Wolfe in the Euening the Lord made a peaceable Lambe in the Morning Naturalists haue written that the bloud of the Goat causeth the hard Adamant to breake but the holy Scripture hath more surely taught that the bloud of Iesus hath vertue to turne a stony heart into a soft where it pleases the Lord of stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham There is nothing colder than ice yet sayth Augustine it is melted and made warme by the help of fire A thornie ground sayth Cyrill being vvell manured becomes fertile and the Lord sayth the Psalmist turneth a barren wildernes into a fruitfull land hee rayses the dead he makes the blind to see and the lame to vvalke he causes the Eagle to renue his youth shall we then close his hands and thinke it impossible for him to make the sinner conceiued and borne in sinne to cast the olde slough of nature and become a new creature And this haue I marked to keepe vs from that presumptuous iudging as to conclude any mans reprobation because of his present rebellion thou knowest not vvhat is in the counsell of God though in regard of his conuersation for the present hee be a stranger from the life of God And againe for our selues that vve may magnifie the mercie of the Lord our God vvho hath done that vnto vs by grace vvhich nature could neuer haue done that is hath made our rebellious harts subiect vnto his holy law and vve are sure hee vvill also performe that good worke which hee hath begunne in vs. The word which the Apostle vseth here to expresse mans naturall rebellion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth such a rebellion of mans corrupt nature as is not subiect according to order we are not to thinke that any rebell vvere he neuer so stubborne can exempt himselfe from subiection doe vvhat he can he bides vnder the Lords dominion but a naturall man saith the Apostle giueth not orderly subiection vnto God Ieroboam shooke off the yoke of his lawfull Lord and Rehoboam vvas not able to controll him But let man repine as he vvill can hee cast off the yoke of the Lord No no if man refuse to declare his subiection by an humble submission of his spirit to the Lords obedience the Lord for all that shall not lose his superioritie but shall declare his power vpon man by controlling him he shal bruise coutrary to Gods most holy will Woe be to him that striueth with his maker If the will of God be not done by vs assuredly it shall bee done vpon vs de his qui faciunt quae non vult facit ipse quae vult the Lord saith Augustine in a meruailous manner doth his will on them who doe that which hee will not and therefore woe shall bee vnto all which are opposit to God his most holy will Quid tam paenale quam semper velle quod nunquam erit semper nolle quod nunquam non erit what greater punishment can there be then this euermore to desire that vvhich neuer shall be alway to dislike that which foreuer shal be a wicked man shall neuer obtaine that vvhich hee desires but shall suffer for euer that vvhich he dislikes For remedy of this rebellion our Sauiour hath taught vs daily to pray thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen so we pray and the Lord giue vs grace that vve may practise it that in euery action of our life denying our selues vve make looke to our heauenly Father enquire for his will and follow it saying vvith our blessed Sauiour not my will O Lord but thine be done Verse 8. So then they that are after the flesh cannot please God HEre the Apostle concludes the miserable estate of them who walke after the flesh affirming that doe what they vvill they cannot please God To be in the flesh sometime is taken in a good part for it is all one with this to liue in the body but here it is taken in an euill part for to bee in the flesh and to be in Christ are opposit one to another so that to be in the flesh is to be in the state of nature vnregenerate a stranger from the grace of Christ and the phrase is very significant for it imports an vniuersall thraldome of mans nature vnto the lusts of the flesh That speach of the Apostle to Simon Magus I see that thou art altogether in the gall of bitternesse signifies much more
and foresee their end for eyther that shall be fulfilled in them which Mâ—rdecay said to Ester who knowes if for this thou art come to the kingdome that by thee deliuerance may come to Gods people or else that which Moses in Gods name said to Pharaoh the oppressour of the Church in her adolescencie I haue set thee vp to declare my power because thou exaltest thy selfe against my people May wee not behold here how vnsure their standing is and how certaine their fall who when they are highest abuse their power most to hold the people of God lowest what else are they but obiects whom the Lord hath raised vp to declare his power and iustice vpon them If wee shall mark the course of the Lords proceeding euer since the beginning of the world wee shall finde a blessing following them whom he hath made instruments of good vnto his Church and that such againe haue not wanted their owne recompense of wrath who haue continued instruments of her trouble When the Lord concluded to bring his Church from Canaan to soiourne in Egypt hee sent such a famine in Canaan as compelled them to forsake it but made plentie in Egypt by the hand of Ioseph whom the Lord had sent before as a prouisor for his Church and by whom Pharaoh was made fauourable to Iacob but when the time came that the Lord was to translate his Church from Egypt to Canaan then hee altered Pharaohs countenance and raised vp a new King who knew not Ioseph hee turned the Egyptians hearts away from Israell so that they vexed Israell and made them to serue by crueltie Thus when the Lord will bring them to Egypt hee maketh Pharaoh fauourable which also brings a blessing vpon Pharaoh and his people but when the Lord vvill haue them to goe out of Egipt hee maketh another Pharaoh an enimie vnto them whereby both they are made willing to forsake Egypt and Pharaoh prepares the way for a fearefull iudgement on himselfe and his people Againe when the sinnes of Israell came to that ripenes that their time was come and their day drew neere the Lord stirred vp the King of Babell as the rod of his wrath and staffe of his indignation He sent him to the dissembling nation and gaue him a charge against the people of his wrath to take the spayle and the pray and to tread them vnder feete like mire in the streets and to this effect that the Lord might be auenged of the sinnes of Israell he subdued all the kingdomes round about them vnder the King of Babell that no stoppe nor impediment should be in the way to hold back the rodde of Ashur from Israell But yet againe when the Lord had accomplished all his worke vpon Israell and the time of mercy was come and the seauentie yeares of captiuitie expired then the Lord visited the proud heart of the King of Ashur and for his Churches sake he altered againe the gouernement of the whole earth translating the Empyre to the Medes and Persians that so Cyrus the Lords annoynted might performe to his people the promised deliuerance All which should learne vs in the greatest changes and alterations that fall out in the world to rest assured that the Lord will worke for the good of his Church though the earth should be moued and the mountaines fall into the middest of the sea yea though the waters thereof rage and be troubled yet there is a riuer whose streames shall make glad the cittie of our God in the middest of it yea if they who should be the nourishng Fathers of the Church forsake her and become her enimies they shall assuredly perish but comfort and deliuerance shall appeare vnto Gods people out of another place The Lord for a while may put the brydle of bondage in the Philistims hand to humble Israell for their sinnes but it shall be taken from them at length his Church shall with ioy draw water out of the Well of saluation and prayse the Lord saying though thou wert angry with mee thy wrath is turned away and thou comfortest mee yea Sion shall cry out and shout for ioy for great is the holy One of Israell in the middest of her And therefore in our lowest humiliations let vs answere our enimies Reioyce not against me O mine enimie though I fall I shall rise when I shall sit in darkenesse the Lord is a light vnto mee I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I haue sinned against him vntill hee plead my cause and execute iudgement for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall see his righteousnesse then hee that is mine enimie shall looke vpon it and shame shall couer him who said to mee where is the Lord thy God now shall hee be trodden vnder as the mire in the streets yea so let all thine enimies perish O Lord. For the best This good or best is no other thing but that precious saluation prepared to be shewed in the last time reserued in the heauens for vs and whereunto wee are reserued by the power of God through Faith Of this it is euident that our best is not yet wrought it is onely in the vvorking and therefore vvee are not to looke for it in this life There is a great difference in this betweene the Godly and the wicked the one enioyes their best in this life the other not so but looketh for it If if should be demaunded when a wicked man is at his best I would answere his best is euill enough but then is bee at his best when hee comes first into the world for then his sinnes are fewest his iudgement easiest it had beene good for him that the knees had not preuented him but that hee had dyed in the birth For as a riuer which is smallest at the beginning increases as it proceedes by the accession of other waters vnto it so the wicked the longer he liueth waxeth worse and worse deceiuing and being deceiued proceeding from euill to worse till at length hee be swallowed vp in that lake that burnes with fire and brimstone And this the Apostle expresseth most significantly when hee compaâ—es the wicked man vnto one gathering a treasure wherein hee heapeth vp wrath vnto himselfe against the day of wrath for euen as the worldling who euery day casteth a piece of money into his treasure in few yeares multiplyes such a summe that hee himselfe is not able to keepe in minde the particulars thereof but when hee breaketh vp his boxe hee finds in it sundry sorts of coyne which were quite out of his remembrance Euen so it is and worse with thee O impenitent man who not onely euery day but euery houre and moment of the day doest multiply thy transgressions and defile thy conscience by hoording vp into it some dead worke or other to what a reckoning thinkest thou shall thy sinnes amount in the end though thou doest
forget them as thou committest them yet the Apostle tels thee that thou hast laid them vp in a treasurie Yea not onely hast thou laid vp in store thy sinnes but with euery sinne hast gathered a portion of wrath proportionable to thy sinne which thou shalt know in that day wherein the Lord shall breake vp thy treasure and open the booke of thy conscience and set thy sinnes in order before thee then shall thine owne wickednesse correct thee and thy turning backe shall reproue thee then shalt thou know and behâ—ld that it is an euill thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Thou shalt be astonished to see such a multitude of witnesses standing vp against thee those sins which thou hast cast behind thy backe thou shalt see them set in the light of the countenance of God woe then shall be vnto thee for the Lord then shall turne thine owne wayes vpon thiâ—e head the Lord shall giue thee to drincke of that cuppe which thou hast filled with thine owne hand when thou shalt haue accomplished the measure of thine iniquitie and hee shall double his stripes vpon thee according to the number of thy transgressions But as for the children of God if yee doe aske when they are at the best I answere praysed be God our worst is gone our good is begunne our best is at hand As our Sauiour said to his kinsmen so may wee say to the worldlings your time is alway but my time is not yet come We were at the worst immediately before our conuersion for our whole life till then was a walking with the children of disobedience in the broad way that leads to perdition then we were at the worst when we had proceeded furthest in the way of vnrighteousnesse for then we were furthest from God Our best began in the day of our recalling wherein the Lord by his word and holy spirit called vpon vs and made vs change our course turning our backes vpon Sathan and our faces toward the Lord and so caused vs to part company with the children of disobedience that where they went on in their sinnes to iudgement we came home with the penitent forlorne vnto our fathers familie That was a a happy day of diuision betweene vs and our sinnes in that day with Israell we entred into the borders of Canaan to Gilgall there were we circumsised and the shame of Egipt taken from vs euen our sinne which is our shame indeede and which wee brought vvith vs euen from our mothers wombe The Lord graunt that we may keepe it in thankfull remembrance and that we may count it a double shame to returne againe to the bondage of Egipt to serue any more that Prince of darknesse in bricke and clay that is to haue fellowship with the vnfruitfull workes of darknâ—sse but that like the redeemed of the Lord wee may walke from strength to strength till we appeare before the face of our God in Sion Alway this difference of estates betweene the godly and wicked should learne vs patience let vs not seeke that in the earth which our gratious father in his most wise dispensation hath reserued for vs in heauen Let vs not be like the foolish Iewes who loued the place of their banishment in Babell better than their home Now our life is hid with God in Christ and we know not yet what we shall be but we know when hee shall appeare we shall be like him the Lord shall carrie vs by his mercy and bring vs by his strength into his holy habitation hee shall plant vs in the mountaine of his inheritance euen the place which he hath prepared and sanctuary which he hath established then euerlasting ioy shall be vpon our head and sorrow and mourning shall flye from vs for euer And now till the Lord haue accomplished his worke in vs let vs not faint because the wicked floorish how euer they prosper they are to bee pittied more than enuied let them eate and drinke and be merry sure it is they will neuer see a better life then that which presently they enioy they haue receiued their consolation in this life and haue gotten their portion in this present world Surely no tongue can expresse their miserie and yet as Samuel mourned for Saul when God reiected him and Ieremie wept in secret for the pride of his people that would not repent of their sinnes how can wee but take vp a bitter lamentation for many of you whom in this time of grace wee see to be strangers from grace wee wish from our harts ye were not like the kinsemen of Lot they thought hee had but mocked when hee told them of an iminent iudgement and therefore for no request would goe out of Sodome but tarryed till the fire of the Lords indignation did consume them but that rather as Sarah followed Abraham from Caldee to Canaan so yee would take vs by the hand and goe with vs from hell to heauen but alas the lusts of the flesh hold you captiue or then the loue of the world doth bewitch you but all of them in the end shall deceiue you for all the labour vnder the Sunne is but vanitie and vexation of Spirit when you haue finished your taske you shall be lesse content than you were at the beginning you shall be as one wakened out of a dreame who in his sleepe thought hee was possessor of great riches but vvhen hee awaketh behold hee hath nothing or not vnlike that rich man who said in his securitie Now my Soule thou hast much goods for many yeares and euen vpon the next day redacted to such extreame necessitie with that other who dispised Lazarus that he had not so much as a drop of cold vvater to coole his tongue withall then shall you lament and say We haue wearied our selues in the way of iniquitie and it did not profit vs. Alas how shall I learne you to be wise Is not this a pittifull blindnesse the Lord vvhen hee created man made him Lord aboue all his creatures and now vnthankfull man sets euery creature in his heart aboue the Lord. O fearefull ingratitude Doe you so reward the Lord O foolish people and vnwise There is nothing which yee conceit to be good but when yee vvant it you are carefull to seeke it vvhen you haue it you are carefull to keepe it onely you are carelesse of the Lord Iesus though hee be that incomparable iewell vvhich bringeth light in darkenesse life in death comfort in trouble and mercy against all iudgement ye should set him as a signet on your heart as an ornament on your head and put him on as that glorious attire vvhich gets you place to stand before God But vvhat paines doe ye take to seeke him vvhat assurance haue yee that yee are in him or vvhat mourning doe yee make for that yee doe not possesse him can you say in truth that the
our workes but according to his purpose grace Surely except the Lord had reserued mercy for vs we 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 whereof 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 own 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 mindefull 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 glory for euer Now as for the calling we are to know that the calling of God is twofold outward and inward Hee speakes not here of the outward calling of which our Sauiour saith many are called but few are chosen but he speakes of the inward calling which is the first intimation and declaration of our election For the decree of our election is alwaies hid and secret vnto vs till the Lord by calling reueile it and make it knowne vnto vs that we are of the number of those whom he hath appointed to life As in his secret counsell hee made a distinction of the elect and reprobate so by his calling heâ— beginnes the execution of this decree seperating the one from the other in this life in manners and conditions who are to be seperated in the life to come for euer in estate and place He that will take a right view of all mankinde shall find them standing as it were in three circles they onely being happy who are within the third In the outmost circle are all those on whom the Lard hath not vouchsafed so much as an outward calling by his Gospell and here standeth the greatest part of the world In the middle circle which is much narrower stand they who are pertakers of an outward calling by the Word and Sacraments In the third circle which yet is of smaller compasse than the other two stand they who are inwardly and effectually called these are Christs little flocke the communion of Saints the few chosen the Lords third part so to speake with Zachary the other two parts shall be cut off and dye but the third will the Lord fine as siluer and gold the Lord will say of them this is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God It is a great steppe indeed that wee are brought from the first circle into the second but it is not sufficient to saluation yea rather they who stand in the second circle hearing the voyce of God calling them to repentance and yet harden their hearts and will not follow him may looke for a more fearefull condemnation then they who are in the outmost rancke of all Double stripes are for him who knoweth his Maisters will and doth it not Sodome and Gomorrha shall be in an easier estate than they Content not therefore your selues that yee are brought within the compasse of the visible Church that yee haue beene baptised in the name of Iesus and haue communicated at his holy Table Not euery one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into his kingdome except yee finde also his inward and effectuall calling that the arme of his grace hath drawne you within the compasse of the third circle and hath set you downe among those whom he hath chosen to be his owne peculiar people And againe that the calling of God is according to his purpose yeelds vnto vs this comfort that seeing his calling is extended toward vs we may be sure that from euerlasting hee hath had toward vs a purpose of loue Certainely hee had not sent his Gospell among vs were it not that he hath here a number belonging to the election of his Grace hee hath lighted a candle among vs and set it in an eminent candlesticke to assure vs that hee is seeking here some peeces of money which were lost and hee will not rest till hee finde them When the Apostle Paul should haue gone to Bythinia the Lord commaunded him to goe to Macedonia what the purpose of God was the euent declared namely that it was to conuert Lidia and the Iaylour Who may not see here Gods meruailous mercy towards his owne that for the conuersion of a few will haue his Gospell to be preached to a whole kingdome which doth yet more clearely appeare in that when hee commaunded his Apostle Paul to tarry at Corinthus hee gaue this reason because saith hee I haue much people here shewing vnto vs that the greater haruest hee hath the longer doth hee continue his Labourers among a people This is the very work of God which hee is working in the middest of you and for which hee continueth among you the preaching of his glorious Gospell it is because toward many of you hee hath a purpose of loue some hath he called already whom hee will haue confirmed others not yet inwardly called hee will conuert by the Gospell before hee remoue it Let euery man looke to himselfe whether hee haue part in that grace which comes by the Gospell or no for woe will be to him that shall be found in darknesse after that the light hath shined vnto him Good were it yet for vs all if wee could more deepely consider this that the Gospell of the Lord Iesus is come among vs not by accident nor by the meanes of men but by the purpose of God that in these dayes wee heare that voyce which many of our Fathers heard not that in some places of the world this Gospell is preached and not in others that it is continued with vs notwithstanding of the manifold machinations of the Children of darknesse to subuert it yea that by such and such persons the Gospell hath beene preached vnto vs if vvee did consider that all these fall out according to Gods determinate purpose it would waken in vs a more reuerent hearing of the word of Grace and a greater care to take heede to the smallest occasion of grace when it is offered but all the contempt thereof which now is among men floweth from this that they doe not looke vnto the hand of God sending out such a message to them by such persons at such a time in such a place as hee in his eternall purpose hath concluded with himselfe But as Samuell before hee knew the Lord thought the voyce of God to be but the voyce of Eli and therefore went againe to his rest so the great multitude of them who heare it not as the word of God but as the word of men esteeming that it commeth by
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 willed 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 vnto vs by walking in a good conscience before the Lord and then we shall not care what man or Angell say to the contrary against it they are but posterior creatures and what intrest can they haue to gaine say that which God hath done before that they were Happy are they who 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 we are taught here by the holy Apostle that all men are not foreknowne all are not predestinated to life otherwise there were not an election there is onely a certaine and definit number which 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 pertakers of saluation Many saith out Sauiour shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of God he saith not all the children of the East shall come but many shall come This should waken 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 that kingdome the more we should about to be of that number We see 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 whom they belong riches and honour are in greater account among men because few attaine vnto them and if we were as wise in spirituall things that grace of Christ which brings saluation would be more pretious 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 his Sonne The Apostle 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 he vseth not here the word of Predestination generally but restraines it to Predestination vnto life as also that we cannot step from election to glory but by a conformitie with Christ which is most necessary 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 whereunto we are ordayned yet neither of them can comfort vs vnlesse we be sure that our life is a proceeding from election to glorification by the right meanes The first and neerest end of election in regard of man is his sanctification for the Lord hath chosen vs that wee 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 still 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 word their hearts are prophane yet 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 shall neuer come where Christ is to liue with him that walkes not after Christ in newnesse of life This conformitie with the Lord Iesus whereunto wee 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 with 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 we 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 our nature are threefold first his personall workes of Redemption as that he was borne of the Virgin that he suffered the cursed death of the Crosse for the expiation of our sinnes that hee rose the third day for our iustification that hee 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 like Thirdly his workes of godlinesse and sanctification as that he was subiect to his parents louing to his brethren painefull in his calling perseuering in prayer To practise to follow him in his personall workes of Redemption is blasphemie or in his workes of Miracles is impossibilitie but to follow him in the workes of a godly life is true pietie In the first Papists are blasphemous that on good Fryday makes a play to the people by counterfaiting the sufferings of Christ. In the second Papists are ridiculous that practise to counterfaite him in his fortie dayes fasting as if that might ordinarily be done of men which once Iesus did for a Miracle In the third let all those who are truely religious striue to follow him as Children looking to their coppy learne to mend their letters so let vs by looking daily to our example learne to amend our liues Imitation in the first two Iesus did neuer require onely hee craues that wee should follow him in the third there is his voyce Learne of me that I am lowly and meeke he did not bid thee saith Augustine learne at him how to make the world or how to raise the dead but how to be lowly and meeke for this cause did our blessed Sauiour wash his Disciples feete that hee might giue vs an example how one of vs should serue another as I haue loued you saide Iesus so loue yee one another yea in that vpon the Crosse hee prayed for his enimies hee hath also taught vs how to practise that precept Pray for them who persecute you In patience likewise hee is proposed
thee sinne committed by thy selfe no no when he beginneth to smite thee hee shall neuer lift vp his hand from thee but double his stripes vpon thee and there shall be no end of thy sorrow As the ioyes prepared for the godly so the paines prepared for the wicked are such as the eye neuer saw the tongue cannot vtter nor the heart conceiue That place of the damned is the great deepe the Ocean of all the iudgements of God all his temporall plagues are but like little riâ—ers and strands running into it If therefore the beautie of Sion doth not allure vs let the terrour of Sinai afray vs. The Lord proclaimed his Law in a fearefull manner vpon mount Sinai but in a more terrible manner will hee execute it if Moses who was so familiar with the Lord trembled when hee heard it proclaimed what horrible feare shall ouer-take the wicked when they shall see it executed vpon themselues Let therefore the children of wisedome hearken in time to the ioyfull tidings of peace which are daily proclaimed on mount Sion let vs drinke of the still and peaceable waters of Siloh which flow from it let vs embrace that mercy which Iesus by the merit of his death hath conquered vnto vs that so wee may be saued from the wrath which is to come His owne Sonne Iesus Christ is called Gods owne Son both in respect of his diuine and humane natures for as hee is God he was begotten of the Father by so vnspeakable a generation that as Esay saith none are able to declare it and as hee is man hee is the Sonne of God conceiued by the holy Ghost made man indeed but not after the manner of other men but of this see Verse 3. But gaue him for vs all This is very often alleadged in holy Scriptures as an argument of the great loue of God toward vs that he gaue his sonne to death for vs and so it is indeed for it is not by any corruptible thing as Gold and siluer that he hath redeemed vs but by the precious blood of his owne Sonne the Lambe vndefiled and without spot There is no man will giue much for that whereof he esteemes but little we measure the price of a thing according to the worth of it in our iudgement euen so of the greatnesse of that gift which our God hath giuen for vs wee may estimate the greatnesse of his affection toward vs. Pretious indeed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints who to redeeme vs from death spared not to giue his dearest sonne vnto the death It was the Lords reasoning to Abraham now I perceiue thou louest mee because for my sake thou hast not spared thine onely sonne and haue we not much more cause to turne ouer the same reasoning to the Lord now Lord we perceiue thou louest vs because for our sake thou hast not spared thine onely one sonne The Lord shed abroad in our hearts more aboundantly the sense of that inestimable loue that we may be carefull to requite the kindnesse of the Lord putting his holy will before all things in our affection and endeauouring in holy loue to serue him who hath saued vs. Shall hee not with him giue vs all things also Wee are to vnderstand all things that are needfull for vs And here it is necessary that we put a difference betweene our right and our possession The children of God haue the right and propertie of all Gods good creatures for Christ their Lord is the heire of all and hath made them with himselfe fellow heires All things are yours saith the Apostle and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods But as for the possession of them the Lord giues it or with-holds it according as hee sees may be for the good of his children We know our father Abraham had the right of Canaan when he had not the possession of it and are not therefore to thinke it strange that the Lord giues not alwayes possession of that to his Children whereof they haue the right But as for the wicked they haue possession without a right and therefore shall be punished as theeues and robbers and violent vsurpers of Gods creatures whereunto Iesus Christ who is the heyre of all hath neuer giuen them a right Secondly wee marke here that the giuing and dispensation of earthly things is from God if wee could remember this it would moderate our care and make vs in our callings first to seeke the Lords blessing loath any manner of way to take the things of this world vnlesse we see they be giuen vs out of the hand of God For we are to know that Sathan who is a counterfaiter of God doth also arrogate to himself though falsely to be the giuer of things hee that durst say to the sonne of God all the kingdomes of the earth are mine I will giue them to thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me will hee stand in awe to speake it vnto sinnefull man No indeed it is his daily tentation by which he circumuents many intangling their hearts with the loue of worldly gaine that to obtaine it they care not to lye to steale to sweare to oppresse to deceiue one another which in effect is to fall downe before Sathan and worship him Thus Sathan rules in the kingdome of Babell like a spirituall Nabuchadnezar presenting to his subiects his great image of gold accompanied with all sorts of musicall instruments that is worldly pleasures vvealth and prosperitie which bewitch the simple and makes them fall downe and worship yeelding themselues seruants to Mammon But happy are those children who refuse so to do and can stand vp vvith their father Abraham lifting vp his hand to heauen can say I will not haue so much as the latchet of a shoe from the king of Sodome I will haue nothing by any crooked or indirect meanes out of the hand of Sathan or any of his instruments the buddes of Balak shall not hire me to doe euill neither the wages of iniquitie nor the reward of Sodome for doing good shall euer cleaue to my hands I will looke for my portion from the Lord. Againe seeing God is the giuer of all things let vs learne with the Apostle in whatsoeuer state we are to be content remembring that euery mans portion of vvorldly things is measured vnto him from the Lord. We see that a steward in a familie ministers not alike vnto all that are in it the aged and the young the seruant and the Lord receiues not a like portion yet no man gainsayes it and shall vve not reuerence the Lords dispensation who is the great steward of his familie in heauen and earth shall vve murmure against him if he giue Beniamin a double portion and bestow vpon some of his children these worldly things in greater aboundance than he doth vpon others farre be it from vs for he dispenses these
destroyed But that the greatnesse of this benefite which we haue by Iesus Christ may the better appeare let vs see what a condemnation this is from which we are deliuered In the Scriptures there is ascribed to man a iudging by which he absolueth or condemneth there is also ascribed to God a iudging by which he absolueth or condemneth As to mans condemnation we are not exempted from it Daniel condemned for a Rebell Ioseph condemned for an Adulterer Iob condemned of his friends for an Hypocrit our Sauiour condemned for an Enimie to Caesar his Disciples condemned and iudged worthy of stripes stand as so many examples to confirme vs that vve faint not when vve are condemned of men yea vvith the Apostle vve must learne to passe little from mans iudgement and striue in a good conscience to be approued of God for sure the Lord vvill not peruert iudgement it is farre from the Iudge of all the world to doe vnrighteously hee vvill at the last plead the cause of his Seruants and bring their righteousnesse to light This condemnation then from which vvee are deliuered is the sentence of God the righteous Iudge by which finding man guiltie of sinne for sinne hee adâ—â—dgeth him vnto eternall damnation from this all they who are in Christ are deliuered Hee that beleeueth in him who sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life In this condemnation the Lord proceedes at three sundry dyats against the wicked First hee condemneth them in the Court of Conscience Next in the day of their particular iudgement Thirdly in the day of generall Iudgement First I say the Lord holdeth a Iustice Court against the vvicked in his owne Conscience For the Lord iudgeth the righteous and him that contemneth God euery day After sinne committed by him there ariseth in his Conscience accusing thoughtes and there is a sentence vvithin him giuen out against him The Apostle speakes it of Heretikes one sort of vvicked men and it is true in them all they sinne being damned of their owne selues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by themselues Iudgement is giuen out against themselues which sentence albeit euery vvicked man doe not marke the voyce of their disordered affections sometime being so loud that they heare not the condemnatoâ—ie voyce of their Conscience so clearely as it is pronounced yet doe they heare as much as makes them inexcusable and breedes in them a certaine feare and terrour which is but a fore-runner of a more fearefull iudgement to come vvhich howsoeuer in time of their securitie they labour to smoother and quench by externall delights yet at the length affection shall bee silenced and Conscience shall pronounce sentence against them vvith so shâ—ill a voyce that their deafest eare shall heare it This I haue marked that vve may learne not to esteeme lightly the Iudgement of our Conscience but that so oft as vvee are condemned by it vvee may make our refuge to the throne of Grace to seeke mercy For if Conscience condemne vs God is greater then the Conscience and will much more condemne vs Ascendat itaque homo tribunal mentis suae si 〈◊〉 illud meminerit quod oportet eum ante tribunal Christi exhiberi Let therefore a man saith Augustine goe vp to the tribunall of his owne mind in time if he feare it let him remember that he must be presented before a greater tribunall The second dyat of iudgement which the Lord keepes against the wicked is in the houre of death wherein the Lord doth not onely repeat their former sentence of condemnation and that in a more fearefull and iudiciall manner but proceeds also to execution adiudging their bodies vntill the day of last iudgement to the prison of the graue to vnderly that curse pronounced on man for his Apostasie and condemning their spirits to be banished from the presence of God and cast into vtter darknesse Let not therefore the wicked man nourish himselfe in sinne with a vaine conceit of the delay of iudgement wherefore wilt thou put farre from thee the euill day what suppose the day of generall iudgement were not to come for many yeeres is not the day of thy perticular iudgement at hand vnto which thou shalt be drawne sodainely and perforce in the midst of thy deceiuing imaginations thou shalt bee taken away in an houre wherein thou thought not to dye more miserable than that rich glutton who hauing stored his head with false conclusions dreaming of many dayes to come when he had not one was that same day taken away to iudgement And this shall moue vs the more if we doe remember that such as we are in the day of death such shall we bee found in the day of iudgement In quo enim quemque invenerit suns nouissimus dies in hoc eum comprehendet mundi nouissimus dies quia qualis in die ifto quisque moritur talis in die illo iudicabitur and euery man in the last day shall be iudged to bee such as hee is when hee dyeth It would waken vs all more carefully to thinke vpon our end that so we might prepare our selues for this second dyat of iudgement But the third day of iudgement shall be most fearefull when all the wicked being gathered together in one shall bee condemned in that high and supreame court of iustice which the Lord shall hold vpon all that euer tooke life then shall the full measure of the wrath of God bee powred vppon all those who are not in Christ Iesus both in soule and body they shall bee punished with euerlasting perdition This iudgement shall bee most equitable for when that Ancient of dayes shal sit downe vpon his white throne before whose face heauen and earth shall flee away and when the Sea and the Earth hath rendred vp their dead then the bookes shall bee opened according to which hee shall proceed vnto iudgement And the bookes are two the booke of the law which sheweth to a man what the should doe and the booke of Conscience which sheweth him what hee hath done by those shall the wicked man bee iudged and hee shall not bee able to make exception against any of them against the booke of the law hee shall bee able to speake nothing for the Commandements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether And as to the booke of conscience thou canst not denye it the Lord shall not iudge thee by an other mans conscience but by thine owne that booke thou hast had it alway in thine owne keeping who then could falsifie it neither is any thing written in it of things thou hast done but that which thine owne hand hath written how then canst thou make any exception against it Thus the bookes being opened the iudgement shall proceed in this manner The Law shall pleade for transgression of her precepts requiring that the
sinne For answere let vs marke that the Apostle saith not wee are fully freed from sinne in this life but we are freed from the law of sin that is both from the commaunding and condemning power thereof Sinne doth not now raigne in our mortall bodyes as before neither hath it power any more to detaine vs vnder death But as for the temptations of sinne there is no sort of men more troubled with them then they whom God hath begunne to deliuer from the Law of sinne for Sathan being impatient of his losse seekes daily to recouer his formeâ— dominion From the time that once the Gibeonits made peace for themselues with Ioshua all the rest of the Kings of Canaan made warre against them and so soone as we enter into a couenant with the Lord Iesus Sathan shall not faile the more fiercely to assault vs seeking to recouer his old possession yet if as the Gibeonits did we send speedilie messengers to Ioshua to shew him how wee are troubled for his sake hee shall not with-draw his helping hand from vs. Our deliuerance from sinne is begunne now but not perfected but we know that our God is faithfull by whom we are called hee shall also confirme vs to the end Euen hee who hath begunne this good worke in vs will performe it vntill the day of Christ. As the Angell who deliuered Peter out of prison appeared to him with a shining light in the darke prison smote him vpon his side and wakened him out of his sleepe made his chaines to fall from him and caused him to arise and follow him went still before him to lead him in the way through all impediments and departed not from him till hee had entred him within the Cittie of Ierusalem so the spirit of our Lord Iesus who hath once come downe vpon vs in this prison and hath lightned our darknesse wakened vs out of our dead securitie and loosed the chaines of our sinnes wherewith wee were bond shall abide continually with vs gouerning vs with his light and truth till hee haue entred vs within the portes of heauenly Ierusalem Blessed be the Lord where before wee were the captiues of sinne now the course of the battell is changed sin is become our captiue through Christ it remaineth in vs not as a commaunder but as a captiâ—e of the Lord Iesus it is true the boltes of sinne are yet vpon our hands and feet to admonish vs of our former miserable thraldome we draw as yet the chaines of sinne after vs which makes vs indeed goe forward the more slowlie but are not able to detaine vs in that bondage wherein wee lay before And as concerning our deliuerance from death wee are to know that death is two-fold the first and second the first is a separation of the soule from the body the second is a separation of them both from the Lord Mors prima pellit animam nelentem de corpore mors secunda detinet animaÌ„ nâ—lentem in corpore The first death expels the soule against the will out of the body the second death compels the soule against the will to abide in the body for vnto the greater augmentation of their paine as they were companions of sin so shall they be compelled to abide companions of punishment This second death hath three degrees the first is when the soule by sinne is separated from the Lord the second is when the body by the power of that curse due to sinne is turned into dust and the soule is sent to hell the third is when both soule and body being ioyned together againe in the resurrection shall be banished from the presence of the Lord and cast into vtter darknesse And it is called the second death because it is executed vpon the wicked after their first death otherwise the first death that euer came in the world was the first degree of the second death Mors animâ— prâ—cessit anima deserente Deum mors corporis sequutâ— est anima deserente corpus deâ—eruit Deum voleâ—s animâ— coacta est deserere corpus nolens the death of the soule went before the soule departing from God and the death of the body followed the soule departing from the bodie the soule departed from God willing and therefore is compelled vnwillingly to depart out of the body Now from both these deâ—â—hs wee are deliuered by the Lord Iesus for our soules being freed from sinne are reconciled with God and so exempted from that wrath which is to come For albeit the deere children of God bee sometime exercised with inward terrours of conscience which in their owne nature are forerunners of these paynes prepared for the wicked and are as the smoake of that fiâ—e which afterward shall torment them yet vnto the godlie their nature is changed they are sent vnto them not to seperate them from the Lord but to draw their harâ—s neereâ— vnto him and to worke in them a greater conformitie with Christ. And as for the first death wee are so deliuered from it that albeit in the owne nature it bee the Centre of all miseries and a fearefull effect of Gods curse on man for sinne Yet to the godly the nature thereof is also changed so that now it is not the death of the man but the death of sinne in the man mors est sepultura vitiorum death saith Ambrose is the buâ—iall of all vices As the worme which is bred in the tree saith Chrisostome doth at last consume it so death which is brought out by sinne doth at the length consume and destroy sinne in the children of God Finally death is the progresse and accomplishment of the full moâ—tification of all our earthly members wherein that filthie â—luxe of sinne is dryed vp at an instant It is a voluntarie sacrificing of the whole man soule and body to the Lord the greatest and highest seruice wee can doe to him in the earth for where in the course of our life wee are continualâ—y fighting against our inordinate Iustes and affections to bring them in subiection to Christ by death as it were with one stroke they are all smitten and slaine and the soule is offered vp to God in a sacrifice of full and perfect obedience Verse 3. For that that was impossible to the Law in as much as it was weake because of the flesh God sending his owne Sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh and that for sinne condâ—mned sinne in the flesh THE Apostle hauing set downe in the first Verse a Proposition of Comfort belonging to them who are in Christ and confirmed it in the second he proceedeth now to the explication of the Confirmation Declaring how it is that Christ hath freed vs from the law of sinne and first he shewes how Christ hath freed vs from the condemning power of sinne in this verse namely that hee taking vpon him our nature and therewithall the burden of our
many times when it doth not appeare and these desertions which endure for a while are but meanes to effectuate a neerer communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. hee turneth away from thee saith Chrysostome for a short while that he may haue thee for euer with himselfe Now it remaines that wee consider of these benefits wee haue by the dwelling of Christs Spirit in vs and of the duties which we owe againe vnto him The benefites are many and great Si enim tanta sit vis animae in massa terrae sustinenda mouendâ— impellenda quanta erit vis Dei in anima quae natura agilis est mouenda for if the soule be of such force to giue life and motion to this body which is but a masse of earth what shall the spirit of God doe vnto our soule which naturally is agill the wonderfull benefits that the body receiues by the dwelling of the soule in it may leade vs some way to consider of those great benefits which are brought vnto the soule by the dwelling of the spirit of God in vs. But of many we will shortly touch these two onely the first is that where this holy spirit comes to dwel he repaires the lodging man by nature being like vnto a ruinous pallace is restored by the grace of Christ. This reparation of man is sometimes called a new creation sometimes regeneration and it extends both to soule and body as to the soule the Lord strikes vp nevv lights in the miâ—do restores life to the heart communicates holinesse to the affections so that where before the soule was a habitation for vncleane spirits lying vnder the curse of Babel the Iim and Zijm dwelling in it the Ostriches lodging the Satires dauncing the Dragons crying within her pallaces that is defiled with all sorts of vile and vncleane affections the Lord Iesus hath sanctified it to be a holy habitation vnto himselfe And as to the reparation of our bodies it consists partly in making all the members thereof weapons of righteousnesse in this life and partly in deliuerance of them from mortalitie and corruptibilitie which shall be done in the day of resurrection which for the same cause is called by our Sauiour the day of regeneration for then shall hee change our mortall bodies and make them like vnto his owne glorious body thus by his dwelling in vs haue we the reparation both of our soules and bodies The other benefit we enioy by his dwelling in vs is the benefit of Prouision where hee comes to dwell hee is not burdenable after the manner of earthly Kings but his reward is vvith him for he hath not chosen vs to be his habitation for any neede hee hath of vs sed vt haberet in quem collocaret sua beneficia but that he might haue some on whom to bestow his benefits non indiget nostro ministerio vt domini seruorum sed sequimur ipsum vt homines lumen sâ—quuntur nihil ipsi praestantes sed beneficium a lumine accâ—pientes he hath no need of our seruice as other Lords haue neede of their seruants but we follow him as men follow the light giuing nothing to it but receiuing a benefit from it It falles commonly out that where men of meane estate receiue to lodge those that are more honourable they disease themselues to ease their guests but if thou receiue this rich spirit of the Lord to lodge non angustaberis sed dilataberis thou shalt not be straited but shalt be enlarged sayth Augustine hee knew the comfort hee reaped by this presence of God and therefore could speake the better thereofvnto others quando hic non eras angustias patiebar nunc implesti cellam meam non meam exclusisti sed angustiam meam when thou Lord dwelst not in me much anguish of minde oppressed mee now thou hast filled the cellers of my hart thou hast not excluded mee but excluded that anguish which troubled mee In a word the benefits wee receiue by him doe not onely concerne this life but are stretched out also to eternall life Dauid comprises all in a short summe the Lord is a light and defence hee will giue grace and glory and no good thing shall be withholden from them that loâ—e him The greater benefits we haue by the dwelling of Christ in vs the more are we obliged in our dutie to him O how should that house be kept in order wherein the King of glory is resident what daily circumspection ought to bee vsed that nothing be done to offend him not without cause are these watch-words giuen vs grieue not the spirit quench not the spirit There are none in a familie but they discerne the voyce of the master thereof and followes it they goe out and in at his commandement if he say vnto one Goe he goeth if to another Come he commeth if the Lord be our master let vs heare euery morning his voyce and inquire what his will is we should doe with a promise to reâ—igne the gouernment of our hearts vnto him for it is certaine he will not dwell where he rules not as he will admit no vncleane thing within his holy habitation so will he not dwell with the vncircumciâ—ed in hart the Lord will not take a wicked man by the hand noâ— haue fellowship vvith the throne of iniquitie If holy men when they see brothels abhorre them and goes by them how much more shall wee thinke that the most holy Lord will despise and passe by their soules which are polluted rather like to the filthie stewes of Sodome than the holy sanctuary of Sion for the Lord to dwell in And if hereby the weake conscience be cast downe reasoning within the selfe alas how can my beloued dwel with me who am so polluted and defiled remember that the more thou art displeased vvith thy selfe the more thy Lord is pleased with thee for thy daily pollutions hee hath appointed daily washings in that fountaine which he hath opened to the house of Dauid for sin and for vncleannesse Sweepe out thy sinnes euery day by the besome of holy anger and reuenge and vvater the house of thy hart with the teares of contrition quoniam sine aliquo vulnere esse non possumus medelis spiritualibus vulnera nostra curemuâ— seeing wee cannot be without some wounds of Conscience let vs daily goe to the next remedie that vvith spirituall medicines wee may cure them chastising our selues euery morning and examining our selues vpon our bed in the euening And againe seeing wee are made the Temples of the holy Ghost there should be within vs continuall sacrifices offered vnto God of prayer and praysing together with a daily slaughter of our beastly affections Among the Israelites Princes vvere knowen by the multitude of their sacrifices vvhich they offered vnto God but now they who sacrifice most of their vncleaâ—e affâ—ctions are most approued
it in the graue longest from rottennesse and corruption and how when themselues are gone to preserue their names in immortall remembrance with the posteritie thus by the very instinct of nature are men carried away with a desire of eternitie but herein are they foolish that they seek it the wrong way they lay out their siluer but not for bread they spend their labour and are not satisfied immortalitie and life is to bee sought there where the word of the Lord directs vs let the Spirit of Christ dwell in thee and thou shalt liue otherwise though thou wert the greatest Monarch in the world though all thy meate were soueraigne medicines though thy body were laid in graue with as great externall pompe as worldly glory can afford to any creature and thy flesh were embalmed with the costliest oyntments these are but miserable comforts perishing preseruatiues thou shalt lye downe in dishonour and shalt be raised in greater dishonor to euerlasting shame and endlesse confusion Now as wee haue these three degrees of eternall life by the Spirit dwelling in vs so are wee to marke the order by vvhich hee proceedes in communicating them vnto vs first hee restores life to the soule and secondly he shall restore life vnto the body saith the Apostle where the one is done bee assured the other shall bee done the one is the proper end of his first comming therefore his Heraulds cryed before him Behold the Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world In his second comming shall bee the redemption of our bodyes when hee shall appeare hee shall change our vile bodies and make them like to his owne glorious bodie Let this reforme the preposterous care of men art thou desirous that thy body should liue be first carefull that life be communicated to the soule for surely the redemption of thy body shall not follow vnlesse the restitution of thy soule goe before Oportet cor nostrum conformari humilitati cordis Christi priusquam corpus conformetur glorioso corpori eius our heart must first bee conformed to the humilitie of Christs heart before that our body be configurated to his glorious body this is the first resurrection blessed are they that are pertakers of it for vpon such the second death shall haue no power But it is out of doubt qui non resurgit in anima resurget in corpore ad poenam hee that riseth not now in his soule from his sinnes shall rise hereafter in his body to iudgement But now leauing the condition to come to the comfort he that raysed vp Christ from the dead saith the Apostle shall also quicken your mortall bodies What necessitie is there here that he who raysed Christ shall raise vs yes indeed the necessitie is great the head and the members of the misticall body cannot be sundred seeing the head is raysed from the dead no member can be left vnder death the Lord workes in euery member according to that same mightie power by which hee wrought in the head his resurrection necessarily imports ours seeing hee arose not as a priuate man but as the head of all his members full of power to draw the body after him and to communicate that same life to euery member which he hath declared in himselfe Christ in risen from the dead and is made the first fruits of them that sleepe the first fruit is â—isen the after fruit shall in like manner follow Vexit in coelum carnem nostram tanquam arhabonem pignus totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae the Lord Iesus hath carryed our flesh into heauen as an earnest and pledge of the whole summe which afterward is to be brought thether hee 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 hee hath carryed 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 we see that our Lord was once among the dead but now is risen from them let vs not then be afraid when God shall call vs to lye down among the dead also shal the seruant be ashamed of his Masters condition or will the patient refuse to drink that potion which 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 wee looke to follow him in his resurrection in his ascension to be amongst those hundred fortie and foure thousand in mount Sion who hauing his fathers name written in their foreheads follow the Lambe wheresoeuer hee goeth singing that new song which none can sing but they whom hee hath bought from the earth When those women came to seeke the Lord Iesus in the 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 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 foramen transiuit Christus vt latum praeberet ingressum sequentibus membris Our Lord is gone through the narrow passage of death that he 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 and 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 nor the power of nature but by 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 wee 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 that when God promised him a sonne in his old age he was not weake in the faith hee considered not his owne body which was dead neither the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe but was strengthned in the faith and gaue glory to God being fully assured that he who
had promised was also able to doe it so should we sanctifie the Lord God in our harts Of these figures shadowing the resurrection many more are to bee found in holy scripture As for examples in euery age of the world the Lord hath raised some from the dead to be witnesses of the resurrection of the rest Before the flood hee carryed vp Henoch aliue into heaâ—en and hee saw no death vnder the law Elias was transported in a fierie chariot and in the last age of the world not onely hath our Lord blessed for euer risen from thâ— lead 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 bee 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 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 we are not to neglect them for the Apostle himselfe brings arguments from them to confirme the resurrection Hee 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 dye it is sowen in the earth bare corne and God raises 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 magis te reparabit propter 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 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 Cyrill 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 Martyr of a little drop of mans seede which as Iob saith is powred out like 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 fidem faceret were it not that daily sight and experience confirmeth 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 Cyrill wee will search out our beginning and consider what vvee vvere this day hundred yeare wee shall finde that vvee vvere 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 or longer or shorter as it pleaseth him to restore thee againe and raise thee from the dead qui potuit id quod non erat producere vt aliquid esset id quod â—am est cum ceciderit restituere non poterit he that could bring out that which was not and make it to be something shall wee 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 difficult worke in thy iudgement for vnto the Lord euery thing that he will is a like 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 bee which was before the one thou honourable manner in this life seeing they are to bee raysed vp as vessels of honour and glory in the life to come Againe when the Apostle saith that the Lord shall raise vp our mortall bodyes wee are to know that so hee calleth them in respect of that which they are now not in respect of that which they shall bee then For in the resurrection the Apostle teacheth vs in another place that our bodies shall bee raised immortall honourable glorious spirituall and impassionable First I say the body shal be raised immortal not subiect any more to death nor diseases nor standing in neede of these ordinary helps of meat drinke and sleepe by which our naturall life is preserued Secondly our body shall bee raised honourable now it is layd downe in dishonour for there is no flesh were it neuer so beautifull or beloued of man but after death it becommeth loathsome to the beholder so that euen Abraham shall desire that the dead body of his beloued Sarah may be buryed out of his sight but in the resurrection they shall be raised more honourable then euer they were they shall bee redeemed from all their infirmities euery blemish in the body that now makes it vnpleasant shall bee made beautifull in the resurrection and euery defectiue member thereof shall be restored to integritie Membri detruncatio vel obtusio nonne mors membri est si vniuersalis mors resurrectione rescinditur quanto magis portionalis for the perishing of the member is no other thing but the death of the member if the benefit of resurrection cut off the vniuersall death of the body shall it not also take away the portionall death of a member in the body if the whole man shall bee changed to glory shall hee not much more bee restored to health Out of all doubt the bodyes of Gods Children shall be raised perfect comely and euery way honourable hoc est enim credere resurrectionem integram credere Thirdly the body shall be raised a glorious body When hee shall appeare hee shall change our vile bodyes and make them like to his glorious body They who conuert many to righteousnesse shall shine like the stars in the firmament yea the iust saith our Sauiour shall shine like the Sun in the firmament A shadow of this glory we haue in Christs transfiguration on mount Tabor his face shined as the
these Aâ—heists haue receiued for doing seruice to God which they neuer did the more feareful plagues stripes from God shall be doubled vpon them Againe wee marke here that there is a double debt lying vpon vs the debt of sinne and the debt of obedience wee are freede 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 seek Gods discharge Lord forgiue vs our debts and indeed as euery day wee contract some debt so it is great wisedome by daily repentance to sue the discharge of it for they who neglect to do it their debt multiples vpon 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 wherin 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 wee must in all humilitie craue Grace of God that wee 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 how then can wee 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 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 wee all whatsoeuer wee giue vnto the Lord wee haue it of his owne hand Secondly the Lord our God is so gracious that hee is content to accept part of payment at our hand till wee bee able to doe better if our faith bee but like the graine of Mustard seede yet if it bee true the Lord will not despise it though our repentance be not perfect and absolute though our prayers bee weake 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 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 vnto himselfe but here the more wee pay the richer wee are the doing of one good worke of seruice vnto the Lord makes vs both more willing and able to doe an other the talents of spirituall Graces being of that nature that the more they are vsed the more they are encreased and these should worke in vs a delight to pay that debt which wee owe vnto the Lord. Last of all wee marke vpon this word that the good wee doe is debt and not merit When one of your seruants saith Iesus hath done that which hee is commaunded will one of you giue him thanks because hee hath done that which was commaunded him I beleeue not hee applyeth the Parable to his Disciples and in them to vs all so likewise when you haue done all those things which are commaunded you say that yee are vnprofitable Seruants Our Sauiour commaunds vs plainely to doe well but as plainely forbids all presumptuous conceit of our merit when vvee haue done well To speake against good works is impietie and to presume of the merits of our best works it Antichristian pride No man led by the Spirit of Iesus did euer vse this word of merit it is the proud speech of the spirit of Antichrist search the Scripture and ye shal see that none of all those who spake by diuine inspiration did euer vse it yea the Godly Fathers who haue liued in darke and corrupt times haue alway abhorred it If a man could liue saith Macarius from the dayes of Adam to the end of the world and fight neuer so strongly against Sathan yet were hee not able to deserue so great a glory as is prepared for vs how much lesse then are we able to promerit it that is his owne word who so short a space are militant here vpon earth Praetendat alter meritum sustinere se dicat aestus dieâ— ieiunare his in Sabbatho mihi adhaerere Deo bonum est let another man saith Bernard pretend merit let him boast that hee suffers the heat of the day and that he fasts â—wise in the Sabboth it is good for me to draw neere the Lord and put my hope in him Meritum enâ—m meum miseratio Domini non sum plane meriti inops quamdiu ille miserationum non fuerit for my merit is Gods mercy I shall not altogether want merits as long as he wants not compassion And againe sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita this is sufficient merit to know that merits are not sufficient this he makes more cleare in that Sermon of his de quadruplici debito wherein hee declares how man is so many wayes debter to the Lord that hee cannot doe that which hee ought why then shall any man say that hee hath done enough cum nec millissimâ—â— imo nec minimae parti debitorum suorum valeat respondere seeing he is not able to answer the thousand part no not the least part of that debt which hee oweth vnto God To liue Wee haue heard that wee are debters now haue wee to see wherein wee are debt-bound Wee owe to the Lord not onely these things which are ours but as sayeth Paul to Philemon we owe him our selues also Euery mans life must declare who it is whom hee acknowledgeth for a Superiour and vnto whom hee submitteth himselfe a debter Shew me saith Saint Iames thy Faith by thy workes shew mee saith Malachie thy Father by thy Sonly reuerence toward him let me know thy master by thy obedience and the attendance thou giuest him As Caesars money is discerned by his image and superscription so the Christian is knowne by his conuersation hee vvalkes after the Spirit and by his deedes more then by his words hee disclaimeth the gouernement of the flesh But surely as Chrisostome complained of bastard professors in his time so may wee in our time of many to whom wee are ambassadours in Christs name we haue more then cause to feare we haue bestowed labour vpon you in vaine for I pray you vvhat part of your liues giues sentence for you and proues that ye are
punishment serues to let vs see if we looke to them how horrible this death is which here is threatned against them vvho liue after the flesh As for the place it is called the winepresse of the wrath of God the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Tophet prepared of old deepe and large the breath of the Lord like a riuer of brimstone doth kindle it It is that great deepe which the damned spirits themselues abhorre they know it to be the place appointed for their torment all that they craue was onely that the Lord vvould not send them thether to be tormented before the time It it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a place wherein is no light to see therefore Iude called it blacknesse of darknesse and our Sauiour called it vtter darknesse there is in it a burning fire but without light a gnawing worme without rest Saint Peter calles it a prison and our Sauiour calles it Gehenna for the horrible scrieches of them who are brunt in it and the vile and stinking filthinesse vvherewith it is replenished And as for the vniuersalitie of their paine It is certaine that as euery thing in them sinned so euery thing in them shall be punished No power of their soule no member of their body shall bee free from that wrath Surely it should astonish man to consider this for if now any one of Gods ordinary plagues inflicted vpon any one member of the body be so insufferable hovv intollerable vvill that paine be he vvho novv is payned vvith the tooth ach takes some comfort when he sees another tormented vvith the collicke and hee also if hee see another burnt vp with Anthonies fire beares his owne crosse the more patiently because he sees a greater laid vpon another No man in this life suffereth all things one cryeth with the Shunamites sonne for excessiue dolour alas my head my head another with Antiochus my belly the third with Asa my feete my feete but what are all these comparable to that paine vvherein head and belly and feete yea the whole man shall be racked vpon the torments of Gods wrath and that not vvith one plague onely but with manifold for as all the waters of the earth runne into the great Ocean so all the plagues of God shall concurre and meete together in hell for punishment of the damned But yet the eternitie of that paine doth still increase the horrour thereof their shall be no end of their punishment their fire shall neuer bee quenched their worme shall neuer dye they shall seeke death as a benefite and shall not finde it The fire of Sodome vvas ended in a day the deluge of water that drowned the originall world lasted but a yeere the famine that plagued Aegipt lasted but seauen yeeres the captiuitie of Israell was ended in seauenty yeeres but this wrath of God vpon the damned shall endure for euer and euer Thus wee see what a horrible death the Apostle threatneth here vvhile hee sayth if yee liue after the flesh yee shall dye The Lord giue vs wise and vnderstanding hearts that we may ponder it according to the waight therof and it may be to vs a liuely voyce of God to prouoke vs to flee from that fearefull wrath vvhich is to come But if yee mortifie c. Here followes the other member of the argument taken from the great vantage wee receiue by mortifying the lusts of the body if wee doe so wee shall liue Here also we haue first to consider that albeit the Apostle affirmed before verse 9. that these godly Romanes were not in the flesh yet now he exhorts them to a further mortification of the lusts of the flesh which were superfluous if there vvere nothing in them that needed to be mortified then we see clearely vvhich we may also feele in our selues that so long as we liue in the bodie there is euer some remanent life of sinne vvhich vvee haue neede to mortifie and put out In this battell we must fight without intermission till we haue gotten the victory for vvho can say that he hath in such sort cut away his superfluities that there remaynes nothing in him which hath need of reforming beleeue me when they are cut off they spring when they are chased away they returne when they are once quenched they kindle againe except thou dissemble thou shalt alway finde within thy selfe something that hath need to be subdued There is nothing harder sayth Cyrill than the Rocke yet in the seames and clifts thereof the noysome weede fasteneth her roote and springes out and albeit there be no man in the vvorld stronger than a Christian yet is hee oftentimes buffeted by Sathan and sinne which hath fastened their roote in him sends out her inordinate motions and affections against vvhich hee hath neede to fight continually But here it is inquired how doth the Apostle require this of them that they should mortifie their lusts lyeth it in the power of man to doe it To this I answere first that as man gaue life to sinne so is hee bound to put out the life thereof vpon no lesse paine than condemnation and therefore iustly is it required of him Secondly these same good workes vvhich the Lord vvorkes in vs hee is content to asscribe them to vs and calles them ours Of our selues vve must say with the Apostle we are not sufficient of our selues to thinke so much as a good thought our sufficiencie is of God and it is hee who worketh in vs both the vvill and the deed so hee workes in vs that he makes vs through his grace vvilling vvorkers vvith him through him that strengthens vs vve are able to doe all things and therefore the praise of all the good wee can doe should be ascribed vnto God When Dauid had offered to God aboundance of siluer and gold and other mettels vvhich hee had prepared for the house of God hee concludes in the humilitie of his heart What am I O Lord and what is my people that wee should be able to offer willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine owne hand haue wee giuen thee But much more vvhen vve doe any worke of sanctification for the building of our selues vp into a spirituall Temple to the Lord our God we may say O Lord all the good wee can doe is of thee and of thine owne hand wee haue giuen backe vnto thee for except thou Lord hadst giuen vnto vs grace vve should neuer haue giuen to thee obedience Let therefore the presumptuous conceit of Merit yet againe be farre from vs seeing the good which vve doe is debt and is done also by the spirit of the Lord in vs let vs reserue the glory thereof vnto him Quare dona mea non merita tua quia si ego quarerem merita tua non venires ad dona mea seeke my gifts saith Augustine
brought vpon them To make this yet more cleare wee are to know that there are three obiects of Sathans malice The first is God and his glory the second is man and his saluation the third is the creature made for Gods glory and mans good The principall obiect of Sathans malice is God and his glory he hates the Lord vvith a deadly and irreconcilable hatred so that if it lay in his power he would vndoe that most high and holy maiestie but because rage as he will he cannot impaire his sacred Maiestie he turnes him to the secondarie obiect which is man and troubles him by all meanes not so much for mans owne cause as for the Lords whose glory he seekes to deface that shines in man And if here also he cannot preuaile by reason that the Lord hath made a hedge round about man he turnes him to the third obiect of his malice which is the creature against which he is so insatiable that if he can be licensed to doe no more yet doth he esteeme it some pleasure to him to get leaue to enter into Swine that he may destroy them and this hee doth not that hee accounts a beast his pray for all the beasts of the earth cannot satisfie this roaring Lyon but that destroying the creature he may driue man to impatience and prouoke him to blaspheme the Lord as by these same meanes he made the Gadarens murmure against Iesus Christ and put him out of their land and this hath beene the course of Sathan euer since the beginning But blessed be the Lord our God who ouer-shootes Sathan and all his intentions that same man whom Sathan wounded hath the Lord restored and shall set his image more glorious in him than it was before and those creatures which Sathan defaced for the hatred he carryeth to Gods glory and mans good the Lord shall restore againe the glory of God encreaseth as it is impugned euery new declaration of Sathans malice shall end in a new declaration of Gods glory neyther is that enimie able to giue a wound to any of Gods children but the Lord shall make it whole and shall at the length confound Sathan by his owne meanes And here because it is commonly demaunded vnto what vse can these creatures serue in that day seeing wee shall haue no neede of the Sunne nor of other naturall meanes whereby now our life is preserued To this I answere that if the Lord will haue these workes of his hands to continue and stand as euerlasting monuments of his goodnesse and witnesses in their kinde of his glory who is it that can contradict it It is enough for vs that wee know they shall be deliuered and transchanged into a more glorious estate but for what vse wee shall best know in that day when we shall see it in the meane time reuerencing the Lords dispensation let vs rather endeauour to be pertakers of that glory than curiously to moue thorny and vnprofitable questions concerning it Now as for the manner of their deliuerance Seeing the Apostle saith that the heauens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes therein shall be burnt vp with fire and seeing the Psalmist saith that they shall perish how is it that here the Apostle saith they shall be deliuered This doubt shall easily be loosed if Scripture be made interpreter of Scripture The Psalmist in that same place expones the word of perishing by the word of changing what this changing shall be the Apostle here makes it manifest while he cals it the deliuering of them from one estate into another so that wee are not to thinke that they shall perish as concerning their substance but as concerning those qualities of vanitie seruitude and impotencie whereunto they haue beene subiected by the fall of man As siluer and gold is changed by the fire the drosse perisheth but the substance remayneth so shall these creatures be changed in that day for which cause also they are called new heauens and new earth And out of this wee may perceiue the necessitie of that exhortation giuen vnto vs by the holy Apostle Seeing therfore that all these things must be dissolued what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conuersation and godlinesse seeing the simplest seruant who shall haue any place in that kingdome must be changed and receiue a new liuerie how much more ought wee our selues to be changed who are the sonnes and heyres of that kingdome let vs not deceiue our selues no vncleane thing can enter into that heauenly Ierusalem without sanctification wee cannot see the Lord vnlesse wee be purged from our drosse and puâ—ified and fined by the spirit of the Lord wee shall not dwell in those new heauens wherein dwels righteousnesse Verse 22. For wee know that euery creature groneth with vs also and trauaileth in paine together vnto thâ—s present THe Apostle in this Verse concludes this purpurpose with some amplification thereof for hee ascribes to the creature a groning with vs and a trauailing together in paine whereby he doth yet more expresse the vehemencie of their desire for as he that goeth vnder an heauie burthen grones and longs to be eased thereof or as the woman which trauailes with childe hath a most earnest desire to be deliuered thereof so the creature wearie of this seruitude longs to bee eased This groning of the creature is not to be neglected seeing in holy Scripture wee finde that sometime God complaines to his creatures vpon the sinne of man and somtime the creatures complaines to God miserable is man if hee doe not complaine vpon himselfe In the first of Esay there the Lord complaines to his creatures vpon man Heare O Heauens hearken O Earth I haue nourished and brought vp Children but they haue rebelled against me c. and here againe the creature is brought in groning and complaining to God vpon man The first bloud that euer the earth receiued into her bosome sent vp vnto God a crying voyce for vengeance and the Lord heard it and now the earth meruailes in her kinde that hauing receiued so much bloud of the Saints of God into her bosome the Lord should delay to require it shee wonders againe that the hand of the Lord stablisheth her and makes her beare vp such a number of wicked men as are a burthen to her considering that once he caused her to open and swallow vp Corah Dathan and Abiram and hath many a time since shaken her foundations and destroyed by earth-quake notable cities making the houses of the inhabitants therof their buriall place the burden of sinne being now wonderfully encreased shee meruailes that the Lord causeth her to beare it and for this cause she cryes and grones vnto the Lord and this complaining of the creature wee are not to neglect it as I said for seeing they sigh and grone for the vanitie vnder
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 sanctification because it is but in a beginning No but I will so hunger and thirst for more grace that I will still giue thankes for the grace I haue receiued for here vve 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 vvhich is giuen 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 vvhich in this life is communicated to the best and they thinke their sinnes are well inough couered by this that all men are sinners as if there were no difference betweene sinne tyrannizing in the wicked and captiued in the 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 vvhom 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 nevv and holy creatures And this conuinces carnall professors of a lye vvho say they haue receiued the first fruites of the Spirit notwithstanding that their vvorks be wicked and vncleane they may rather if they would tell the truth say as those who being demaunded vvhether they had receiued the holy Ghost or no answered we know not vvhether there be an holy Ghost or no so may they instead of bragging of the first fruits of the Spirit say in truth we knovv not vvhat yee call the first fruits of the Spirit And thirdly out of this description vve may gather that albeit we haue no more but the first fruits of the Spirit yet are they sufficient to assure vs that hereafter vve shall enioy the whole Masse In two respects it is customable to men to giue an earnest penny in buying and selling either when the summe is greater than 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 principall 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 tarâ—y with patience till the haruest come wherein he 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 delayed yet for our comfort the earnest and first fruits are presently deliuered vnto vs the Lord so dealing with vs as he delt with Israell 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 was borne betweene two vpon a tree together with the figges and pomegranats and other fruits of that land for no other end but that Israell 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 would also put them in possession of the whole according 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 we may taste them such as peace of Conscience and ioy of the Spirit that by proofe of the small beginnings we may knovv vvhat excellent comfort is laid vp in store for vs. We sigh in our selues Here followes now the two effects of the Spirit which he vvorkes 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 hee sayth they sigh within themselues to teach vs that it is not an hipocriticall and counterfait but an inward and godly sorrow vvhich 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 griefe of hart 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 which is not in the Spirit True religion striues rather to be approued of God than seene of men one sigh proceeding from the heart 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 Spirit of God first teacheth vs to figh and mourne for our present misery before he comfort vs with a constant hope of deliuerance If now we mourne not wee 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 mourner was Dauid who protests that in the night he watered his couch with teares and in the day mingled his cuppe therewith Iob in like manner my sighing said he comes before my eating The Saints of God are not ashamed to professe that of themselues which 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 shall weep the end of their ioy shall be endles mourning and gnashing of teeth they shall shed teares abundantly with Esau but shall finde no place for mercy Let vs therefore goe to the house of mourning with the Godly rather than to the banquetting houses of the wicked reioycing in their sinfull pleasures At one time Simon the Pharise gaue our Sauiour a dinner
and stand before mee in this house where my name is called vpon before your eyes behold euen I see it and will for this cause cast you out of my sight But here seeing it is for Saints onely that the Spirit requests what shall then become of mee may the weake Christian say who am the chiefe of all sinners To this I answere that in vs who are militant here vpon earth both of these are true wee are sinners and we are Saiâ—ts but in sundry respects If we say we haue no sinne wee lye and the â—ruth of God is not in vs. And if our aduersary say that there is nothing in vs but sinne hee is also a lyer That therefore we may know how these are to be reconciled let vs consider that the Euangelist Saint Iohn saith hee that is borne of God sinneth not and in the same Epistle speaking also of men that are regenerate and borne of God he saith if wee say we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues The Apostle Saint Paul speaking of himselfe in one and the selfe same place affirmes that he did the euill which he would not and yet incontinent hee protests that it was not hee but sinne dwelling in him The resolution of this doubt will arise by considering that in the Christian man are two men the new man and the old the one the workmanship of God the other the workmanship of Sathan the one but young little weake in respect of the other like little Dauid compared to the Gyant Goliah Yet the new man who is weakest hath this vantage that he is daily growing whereas the other is daily decaying the life of the new man waxeth stronger and stronger the life of the old man weaker and weaker the one tending to perfection the other wearing to a finall destruction Now the Lord in iudging of the Christian lookes not to the remanents of sinne in him which are daily decaying but to the new workmanship of his owne grace in him which is daily growing according to it he esteemes iudges and speakes of the Christian from it hee giues vs these names as to call vs Saints righteous c. not counting with vs what wee haue beene neither yet weighing vs by the corruption of sinnefull nature which remaines in vs but according to the new grace which in our regeneration hee hath created in vs He sees no iniquitie in Israell and it is his praise to passe by the transgressions of his heritage But the Christian by the contrary in iudging of himselfe he lookes most commonly to that whereunto the Lord lookes least his sinnes are euer before him the old man is continually in his sight as a strong and mightie Gyant whose force hee feares whose tyrannie makes him to tremble and by whom hee finds himselfe detayned vnder miserable thraldome farre against his will and therefore all his care is how to subdue this tyrannie how to quench his life and shake off his dominion in this warfare hee sighes complaines and cryes vnto God with the holy Apostle O miserable man who shall deliuer me from this body of sinne But because so long as this old man hath a life hee neuer rests to send out sinnefull motions and actions which doe greatly greiue the child of God therefore is it that hee esteemes himselfe a miserable creature yea and the chiefe of all sinners Thus yee see how it is that God accounts his children Saints and they account themselues Sinners Where againe Saint Iohn saith that hee who is borne of God sinnes not and yet that hee who saith he hath no sinne is a lyer both of these is true He that is borne of God that is the new man sinneth not for sure it is that all the sins which are committed by man are either done without the knowledge of the new man his vnderstanding being as yet so weake that he doth not know euery sinne to be sinne or then if he knowes them to be sinnes they are done without his consent or approbation yea they are done sore against his will so that the new man in the sinnes which are done in the body is a patient not an agent So that as an honest man captiued by violence and against his will compelled to behold wicked and abhominable deedes which he would not so much as looke to if hee were free so is the new man detayned in the body as a captiue and compelled to looke vnto that which he loues not that is to the sinnefull motions vnruly lusts and affections of his corrupt nature whereunto he consents not but protests against them and for their sake becomes weary of soiourning in the body so that Ioseph was not more weary of his prison nor Ieremie of his dungeon nor Daniel of the company of Lyons nor Dauid more weary of his dwelling in the tents of Kedar than is the new man weary of his abiding in the bodie Hee is like Lot in Sodome whose righteous soule was vext day by day by hearing and seeing the vnclean conuersation of the Sodomites hee is like Israel in Aegipt kept in most vile slauerie by the tyrannie of Pharaoh sighing and crying he is like the godly Iewes holden in captiuitie in Babell many things they saw there done to the dishonour of God which they no way approued and many things they would haue done that they had no libertie to doe So this new man perceiues many sinnefull motions and actions brought in vpon him by a superiour power which are a griefe vnto him and vexation of his spirit And this is the greatest comfort of the new man that whatsoeuer good he doth hee doth it with ioy and on the contrary euill that is done in the body it is a griefe to him to see it yea he protests against it O Lâ—rd this is not I but sin that dwels in me thou knowst I like it not I allow it not I wish from my heart there were not done in mee any thing that might offend thee Onely happy and thrice happie is the man who with the holy Apostle is able to say so Thus yee see in what sense the Godly are sayd by the Euangelist in one place not to sinne and in another not to be without sinne The Lord worke this holy disposition in vs that the life of sinne may daily be weakned in vs. According to God Wee haue last of all to marke here that those petitions which flow from the Spirit are according to Gods will and therefore as concerning temporall things because wee know not absolutely what is the will of God whether health or sicknesse riches or pouertie be most expedient for vs wee are to pray with a condition if it be his willâ— but as for those things which are directly against his will it is a great mockery if it be done with knowledge or otherwise a grose impietie to seeke them from him It is written of Vitellius
their workes vnto this one end the good of those who loue him where euer they be in regard of place what euer in regard of persons yea howsoeuer disagreeing among themselues yet are they so ruled by the prouident power of the supreame gouernour our heauenly Father that all of them workes together vnto the good of them that loue him For albeit the Lord rested the seauenth day from the workes of creation so that hee made no new kinde of creature after that day yet did hee not rest from the workes of prouidence or gubernation whereof our Sauiour saith my Father workes hitherto and I worke When man hath finished a vvorke hee resignes it to another to be gouerned as the Wright vvhen he hath builded a ship giues it ouer to the Marriner to rule it neither is man able to preserue the vvorke of his hands neither yet knowes hee what shall be the end thereof It is not so with the Lord as by the worke of creation hee brought them out so by his prouident administration hee preserues them and rules euen the smallest creatures directing them vnto such ends as he hath ordained them for in the counsell of his vvill How euer some Ethnicks haue beene so blinde as to thinke that God did neglect the smaller things vpon earth scilicet is superis labor est and Epicures also whose false conceptions of the diuine prouidence are rehearsed by Eliphaz How should God know how should hee iudge through the darke cloud the cloudes hide him that he cannot see and hee walkes in the circle of heauen yet it is certaine hee rules not a part onely but all hee is not as they thought of him a God onely aboue the Moone No though he dwell on high yet he abases himselfe to behold the things that are on earth hee is not onely a God in the mountaines as the Syrians deemed but a God in the vallies also There is nothing so great nothing so small but it falles vnder his prouidence yea hee numbers our hayres and keepes them not one of them can fall to the ground without his prouidence Si sic custodiuntur superflua tua in quanta securitate est anima tua if hee so keepe thy superfluities how much more will hee keepe thy soule Let it therefore content vs in the most confused estate of things we can see fall out in the world that the Lord hath said All things shall worke for the best vnto vs. Let vs not question with Marie how can this be nor doubt with Sarah how can I conceiue nor with Moses where shall flesh be gotten for all this multitude but let vs sayth Augustine consider the author and such doubts shall cease As he hath manifested his power and wisedome in the tempering of this world making Elements of so contrary qualities agree together in one most pleasant harmonie so doth it appeare much more in gouerning all the contrary courses of men to the good of his own children One notable example whereof wee will set downe for all Iacob sends Ioseph to Dothan to visit his brethren his brethren casts him into the pit Reuben releeues him the Midianites buyes him and sels him to Potiphar his Mistresse accuses him his Maister condemnes him the Butler after long forgetfulnesse recommends him Pharaoh exaltes him O vvhat instruments are here how many hands about this one poore man of God neuer a one of them looking to that end which God had proposed vnto him yet the Lord contrary to their intention makes them all vvorke together for Iosephs aduancement in Aegipt But now to the particulars There is nothing in the world which workes not for our weale all the vvorkes of God all the stratagems of Sathan all the imaginations of men are for the good of Gods children yea out of the most poysonable things such as sinne and death doth the Lord draw wholesome and medicinable preseruatiues vnto them vvho loue him All the wayes of the Lord saith Dauid are mery and truth marke vvhat hee sayth and make not thou an exception vvhere God hath made none All none excepted therefore be thou strengthened in the Faith and giue glory vnto God resoluing with patient Iob albeit the Lord would slay me yet will I trust in him Sometime the Lord seemes to walke in the way of anger against his children which hath moued many of them to poure out the like of these pittifull complaints the arrowes of the almightie are vpon me said Iob the venime whereof doth drincke vp my spirit and the terrours of God fight against me thou settest me vp as a marke against thee and makes me a burthen to my selfe Thy indignation lyes vpon me said Dauid yea from my youth I haue suffered thy terrours doubting of my life For felicitie I haue had bitter griefe said Ezekiah for the Lord like a Lyon brake all my bones so that I did chatter like a Swallow and mourne like a Doue I am troubled on euery side said the Apostle hauing fightings without and terrours within Yet in all this dealing the Lord hath a secret way of mercy in the which he walkes for the comfort of his children it is but to draw vs vnto him that he shewes himselfe to be angry with vs aduersatur tibi deus ad tempus vt te secum habeat in perpetuum the Lord is an aduersarie to thee for a while that hee may for euer reconcile thee to himselfe And this albeâ—t for the present we cannot perceiue and can see no other but that the Lord hath taken vs for his enimies yet in the end we shall be compelled to acknowledge and confesse with Dauid it was good for mee O Lord that euer thou correctedst me for the Lord is mernailous in his saints O the deepenesse of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God how vnsearchable are his iudgements and his wayes past finding out His glory is great when he vvorks by meanes his glory appeares greater when hee vvorkes without meanes but then his glory shines most brightly when he workes by contraries It was a great worke that hee opened the eyes of the blinde man but greater that hee did it by application of spittle and clay meanes meeter to put out the eyes of a seeing man than to restore sight to a blinde man So hee wrought in the first creation causing light to shine out of darknesse so also in the worke of redemption for by cursed death he brought happy life by the crosse he conquered the crowne and through shame hee went to glory And this same order the Lord still keepeth in the worke of our second creation which is our regeneration hee casts downe that hee may raise vp hee kils and hee makes aliue hee accuseth his children for sinne that so hee may chase them to seeke remission of sinness hee troubleth their consciences that so hee may pacifie
tenth part of your thoughts or words haue been bestowed vpon him No no it is the shame of many that they haue taken more paynes to keepe a signet on their hand than euer they did to keepe Iesus in their hart they wander after vanitie and follow lyes they forsake the fountaine of liuing waters Oh consider this yee that forget God least hee teare you in peeces and there be none to deliuer you The last lesson vve obserue in this part of the Verse is this as all things workes for the best to them who loue the Lord so all things workes for the vvorst vnto the vvicked there is nothing so cleane which they defile not nothing so excellent vvhich they abuse not Make Saul a King and Balaam a Prophet and Iudas an Apostle their preferment shall be their destruction if they be in prosperitie they contemne God and their prosperitie becomes their ruine if they be in aduersitie they blaspheme him and like raging waues of the sea cast out their owne dirt to their shame yea what speake I of these things euen their table shall be asâ—are vnto them Iesus Christ is a rocke of offence vnto them the Gospell the sauour of death vnto them and their prayer is turned into sinne and what more excellent things then these As a foule stomacke turnes most healthfull food into corruption so their polluted conscience turnes iudgement into gall and the fruit of righteousnesse into wormewood And all this should prouoke vs to a holy care to become good our selues or else there is nothing were it neuer so good can be profitable to vs. To them that loue God We haue heard the Apostles last argument of comfort which is that the Lord so ruleth all things by his prouidence that those things which seemes to be against his children are made to worke together for the aduancement of their good Deus enim adeo bonus est vt nihil mali esse sineret nisi etiam adeo esset potens vt ex quolibet malo possit elicere bonum for God is so good that hee would suffer no euill to be were it not he is also so powerfull that of euery euill hee is able to draw out good Now wee proceede to the persons to whom this comfort belongs who are first described to be such as loue God secondly as are called according to his purpose Here are three things conioyned together euery one depending on another First the purpose of God vvhich is no other thing but his eternall and immutable decree concerning our saluation Secondly our calling flowing from this purpose Thirdly a loue of God wrought in our hearts by this effectuall calling These three are so inseperably conioyned together that from the lowest of these we may goe vp to the highest of that vnâ—ayned loue of God which is in thee thou mayest know that he loued thee and in his vnchangeable purpose hath ordayned thee to life This is the greatest comfort that can be giuen to men vpon earth to let them see that or euer the Lord laide the foundations of the earth he first laid the foundation of thy saluation in his owne immutable purpose which being secret in it selfe and obscured from vs is now manifested vnto vs by our effectuall calling But of this we will speake more God willing hereafter The loue of God then is set downe here as a principall effect and token of our calling As the Lord calles none effectually but those whom hee hath elected so none caâ— loue him but those who are effectually called by him yea thou thy selfe who now loues the Lord before thy calling louedst him nod thy heart went a whooring from God and thou preferredst euery Creature before him and for the smallest pleasure of sinne thou caredst not to offend him It is thought among the multitude a common thing and an easie to loue the Lord and euery man abhorres in word to be counted such a monster as hath not the loue of God but they are farre deceiued for man till he be called by grace cannot loue the Lord herein is loue not that we loued God but that hee loued vs. If now we doe know him and know him so that we loue him it is because we were first knowne of him and so knowne that we were beloued of him not that there is any equalitie betweene these loues or that we are able to match the Lord in affection non enim pari vbertate fluunt hi duo amores for these two loues flowes not in a like plentie as the running of a little strand is nothing in comparison of the great Ocean so is our loue to God as nothing if it be compared with his incomprehensible loue toward vs yet is it most certaine amor Dei amorem animae parit it is Gods loue to vs which begets in the soule a loue to God Nemo itaque se amari diffidat qui iam amat let no man therefore who loues God distrust that he is beloued It is very comfortable that among all the pen-men of the holy Ghost none doe speake more of loue than Iohn euen hee who vvas Christs beloued Disciple whom hee loued aboue the rest for it doth teach vs that whosoeuer is greatly beloued of God shall also become a carefull practiser of loue toward others That therefore we may know the heart of God toward vs it shall not be needfull that we enter into his secret counsell but let vs goe and enter into our owne hearts and there we shall finde resolution albeit the Lord send not now to you that are men an Angell to witnesse as hee did to Daniel that he was a man greatly beloued of God or to testifie to you that are women that which he did to Mary that shee was freely beloued of the Lord yet so many of you as vpon knowledge in sinceritie can say with Peter Lord thou knowest that I loue thee haue here a testimonie no lesse certaine to wit his owne Oracle in his word to make you sure that yee are beloued of him And that the comfort may be the more sure vnto vs seeing loue is the principall token of our calling wee will speake a little of Loue that so we may know whether wee be endued with this most excellent grace of the spirit or no. Naturally the affection of Loue iâ— man is so inordinate that not vnproperly Nazianzen called it dulcem tyrannum a sweet tyrannie that by deceitfull allurements compels the whole man to follow it and it is not onely in it selfe distemperated but altogether set vpon wrong obiects our loue being so set vpon the creature that we neglect the Creator a fearefull ingratitude that where in the beginning the Lord set vp man as Prince and ruler ouer all his creatures putting all the workes of his hands in subiection vnder him that man should meet the Lord with such vnthankfulnesse as to set in his affection euery creature
the meanes of men and not according to the determinate purpose of God it is no meruaile if still they returne to their old sinnes and remaine disobedient to the heauenly vocation And further out of the ground laid already that the calling of God is according to his purpose we are taught that the least intermission of Gods calling should be vnto vs a great matter of our humiliation seeing the Lord calleth men to be Preachers and hath them in his hand as starres holding them out sometime to one part of the world and sometime to another that hee may communicate light to them who are sitting in darknesse the remouing of them from a people is a fearefull token of the Lords departure and translating of his kingdome The Husbandman calles not his Labourers out of the field in the middest of the day vnlesse the haruest be done and if the Lord remoue his Seruants from a people it is because his purpose is finished for the ground is sure that his calling is according to his purpose but the Lord forbid that the tearme of the ending of this calling should euer come in our dayes And to the ende that wee haste it not vpon our selues wee are to know that as the Gospell comes not to a Land by mans procurement so no power of man is able to remoue it The Lord who set the Sunne in the Firmament and gouernes it in such sort that it giues light to one part of the world when another is in darknesse and no malice of the euill doer is able to obscure it howeuer hee hates it hath also set his Gospell in the firmament of his Church to giue light to Goshen while as Egypt is in darknesse and all the courses of politikes though they were filled vvith Achitophels wisedome are not able to stay it onely our owne vnthankfulnesse and abuse of the time of Grace is to be feared if therefore wee loue the light let vs cast away the vvorkes of darkenesse and walke in the light while as yet wee haue it let vs welcome those messengers of peace that come to vs in the name of the Lord endeuouring by all holy meanes to transferre this Kingdome of God to our Children after vs that they also may see the beautie of the Lord which vvee haue seene to their euerlasting saluation Verse 29. For those whom hee knew before hee also predestinated to be made like vnto the image of his Sonne that he might be the first borne among many brethren THe whole Booke of God is full of heauenly consolation euery parcell thereof hath in it the words of eternall life but this place of Scripture wherein now wee are trauailing may be called aboue the rest a treasure of comfort for here the Apostle leadeth vp the Christian to the register of God and lets him see his owne name written in the booke of life his saluation established in Gods immutable decree exhibited now by Gods effectuall calling to be performed and perfected to him by his endlesse glorification So that in all the booke of God there is not so cleare and certaine a sight of saluation giuen to the Christian as in this place It comforted Stephen when he was in the vally of death that he saw the heauens opened and the Lord Iesus standing at the right hand of his Father and it should no lesse comfort vs in all our tribulations that the Apostle here lets vs see the third heauens opened vnto vs to make knowne vnto vs the will of God concerning our saluation This comfort the Apostle brake vp shortly as we heard in the end of the last verse and now more largely explanes it in these two verses in the which hee sets downe in order the causes of our saluation and lets vs see how our present effectuall calling is so inseperably knit with our election glorification by the hand of God that no power in earth nor in hell is able to sunder them whereof the certaintie of his former comfort appeares cleerely that of necessitie all things must worke together for the best vnto them that loue God euen to them that are called according to his purpose Which shall yet be more manifested if wee consider how that this golden Chaine of our saluation reaches so to speake it from eternitie to eternitie the beginning of it albeit without beginning is our Election the end of it albeit without end is our Glorification And these two ends of the chaine the Lord keepes them sure and secret in his owne hand but the two middle linckes thereof to wit our Calling and Iustification the Lord lets them downe from heauen to the earth that wee for our comfort might gripe and apprehend them and being sure of the two middle linekes we might also be sure of the two ends because the Lord hath knit them inseperably together Thou then who wouldst be comforted with the assurance of thy saluation make it first knowne to thy owne conscience by breaking off the former course of thy sinnes and by well doing for the time to come that God hath called thee and iustified thee Gripe sure as it were with the one hand the lincke of Calling and with the other the linck of Iustification fasten both thy hands vpon the middle linckes of this Chaine that by them thou mayst be pulled out of this dungeon and raised vp to heauen to see that thou art one of them who was elected before time after time shall be glorified To make this yet more plaine we are to know that this mortall life of ours is a short interiected point of time betweene two eternities so to call it in the which some in feare and trembling working out their saluation passes from Gods eternall election to endlesse glorification others againe in wantonnes and carelesse securitie drincke in iniquitie with greedinesse and so steps from the decree of reprobation that most iustly they procure their owne condemnation So that euery man hath to consider of his euerlasting weale or woe by his present disposition in this life Oh that we had sanctified memories alwayes to remember this so long as we are here if of weakenesse wee fall wee may rise againe and if in one day we haue not learned well to repent we haue leaue of the Lords patience to learne it better another day but he who in the day of his transmigration steps the wrong step will neuer get leaue to amend it where the tree fals it shall lye there the wicked who die in their sinnes step downeward to the deepe pit and gulfe out of the which there is no redemption Let vs therefore be well aduised before we leape let vs fasten the one foote vpon the border of that Canaan before we go out of the body let vs make sure that wee shall be receiued into those euerlasting habitations This shall be done if we make our whole life a proceeding from election to
them whom Godly Constantine properly called Tineas Sorices palatij subtile peruerters of the good inclination of Princes in manners and Religion where they can preuaile or yet to the disordered affections of his owne heart which if they be not restrained doe quickly turne the glory of a man into shame What did it profit Cham that hee was the Sonne of Noah the Monarch of the world and Patriarch of the Church in his time or that hee was the Heyre of the third part of the world vitia siquidem voluntatis vicerunt priuelegia naturae his owne vndantoned will bursting out in contempt of his Father brought vpon him that curse and shamefull name A Seruant of Seruants which was neuer taken from him Seeing God as saith the Apostle is the glory of man what honour can make that man glorious who caryes not the Image of God consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse but especially a King whom the very Ethnicks called Animata Dei imago in terris should carefully keepe that Image which keeps his glory Naturally facilius alijs quam nobis imperamus but in very deed he shall neuer be a skilfull Ruler of others who is not first taught of God to rule himselfe decet eum qui alijs praefectus est interiora sua decenter adornare The best remedie against both these euils is to embrace that wholesome counsell giuen by God to the Gouernors of his people Let not the booke of the Law depart from thee but meditate in it day and night that thou maist do according to all that is written therein turne not away from it to the right hand nor to the left so shalt thou make thy way prosperous and shalt haue good successe Beware of those Lucifugae haters of the light because it discouers the darknesse of their errours Qui cum a Scripturis redarguuntur in accusationem Scripturarum se conuertunt As the wise men following the Starre were at length led by it to Christ so if according to Peters counsell yee take heed to the light that shineth in darkenesse not onely shall the day star arise in your heart but that cleare shining Sunne of Righteousnesse so named by Malachie euer rising and neuer going downe shall illuminate you with his brightnesse And herewithall take to you the domestique example of your Royall Father who stands before you as a paterne of pietie viuum omnis virtutis examplar it shall be no small proofe of your progresse in vertue and greatest praise among your godly Subiects that yee be a follower of him And so praying Almightie God that your happie deeds may exceed all that great hope which is conceiued of you I humbly take my leaue Your Graces humble Seruant and daily Oratour William Cowper Minister at Perth THE GLORIFICATION of a Christian. HERE FOLLOWES BY WAY OF CONclusion the third part of the Chapter contayning the Christians triumph against all sorts of Enimies Verse 31. What shall we then say to these things If God be on our side who can be against vs NOW followes the conclusion of the whole Chapter wherein the Apostle breaking off the course of his former speach gathers vp all that he hath spoken into a short summe he began at the first and lowest benefite which God in Christ hath bestowed vpon vs to wit deliuerance from condemnation this is indeede the least of his mercies yet so great that if we had receiued no more we are neuer able to yeeld vnto the Lord that praise which is due for it Yet as I said it is but little in respect of that which God hath done vnto vs and therefore the Apostle beginning at it ascends continually â—ll he comes to the last and highest which is our estate of glorification and so hauing tunne so high in the enumeration of Gods mercies towards vs that he can go no higher he bursts out into an exclamation as if he did say more cannot be spoken further comfort cannot be giuen but contents himselfe to make a briefe recapitulation of all that hee had said wherein first he triumphs generally verse 31. 32 thereafter perticularly and that first against sinne Who shall accuse who shall condemne verse 33. 34. Secondly against affliction who shall seperate vs from the loue of God outward and visible enimies cannot doe it by no sort of trouble verse 35. 36. 37. Inward and inuisible enimies are not able to doe it verse 38. 39. Thus like a valiant man stablished on Christ in his owne name and in the name of the rest of Gods children hee proclaimes a deâ—iance to all his enimies visible and inuisible whatsoeuer The generall triumph contayned in these two verses consists in these two In the first he glories that nothing can be against the Christian to hurt him the reason is because God is with him In the second he glories that the Christian can want nothing that is needfull for him the reason is seeing the Lord hath giuen vnto vs his owne sonne which is the greatest gift that can be giuen he will not let vs want any of his inferiour gifts If God be on our side His meaning is if God be with vs electing calling and iustifying vs that he may glorifie vs as hath beene said then we may be sure that nothing can be against vs. This I marke because worldlings iudge of Gods presence with men by the wrong rules to wit as Abimelech and philoc iudged of Abraham we see say they that God is with thee because thou prosperest in all that thou doest That which they iudged was true for GOD was present with Abraham indeed but the rule by which they so iudged was not sure for if this rule were sure how often might the wicked be iudged to be blessed who prosper in all they put their hand vnto the rich glutâ—on might be thought more happy than poore Lazarus but the presence wherof the Apostle speaks is not to be tryed by grace which grace flowing from thy effectuall calling is a surer argument to proue that God is with thee then if he should giue thee as he did Esau the fatnesse of the earth for thy portion and multiply vpon thee in neuer so great aboundance the things of this world And that we should not be deceiued to iudge otherwise our blessed Sauiour hath forewarned vs both by his word and example how that great troubles outward and inward are to follow them which follow him In the world sayth he yee shall haue trouble in me yee shall haue peace So soone as our Sauiour was borne Herod raged against him seeking his life to warne vs saith Chrisostome that so soone as wee are borne Christians wee should looke for trouble Iacob gat no sooner the blessing but incontinent Esau persecutes him Sosthenes before he was a Christian was a ruler of a Synagogue but after that he imbraced the Faith of Christ they depriued him of his office and scourged him Paul
to Ioseph when she pulled the garment from him There are three notable things for which we striue and which the world is neuer able to take from vs the loue of God which he hath borne to vs the grace of God which hee hath communicated to vs in our calling the glory of God and eternall life which hereafter doth abide vs no power of man nor Angell is able to depriue vs of these things An example whereof we haue in that notable warriour of God Patient Iob whom the Lord set vp as an obiect of all Sathans buffets and against whom hee was permitted to vse all the strategems of the spirituall warfare that possibly hee could hee crossed him not onely in his goods in his children and in his owne body but also in his minde by his wife hee tempted him to blasphemie by his friends to diffidence yet by none of these could hee ouercome him In his outward troubles his resolution was the Lord hath giuen the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord for euer in his inward terrours his resolution was Albeit the Lord would slay me yet would I trust in him so impossible is it for Sathan by any tentation whatsoeuer to seperate from the loue of God his Children chosen called and iustified To cleare this let vs yet know that God is many manner of wayes present with his children in trouble first hee is with them by preuenting the danger so that hee will not suffer the intended euill of the enimie 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 again 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 hee suffers his children to end their mortall liues in trouble and yet is with them strengthening 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 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 hee 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 him out of the mouth of the Lyon Nero 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 Gospell which hee 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 wee striue to wit grace and glory they may be vnto vs as the 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 that the Christian can want 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 he will denie him any secondary 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 ye shall not 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 not simply that hee gaue his Sonne for vs but that hee spared not to giue him O wonderfull loue the Naturall and onely Sonne of God is not spared that the adoptiue sonnes may be spared for our sins being imputed to him by the ordinance of God his Father and voluntarily accepted by himselfe so the punishment of our sinnes and chasticement 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 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 who 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 partly for a warning to the wicked it is our great comfort that the saluation which Iesus hath purchased vnto vs hee hath obtained it with a full satisfaction of his Fathers Iustice so that now wee that are in him are not any more to feare it The great Iudge of all the world will not doe vnrighteously to require that againe from vs which our Christ whom hee himselfe hath giuen vnto vs hath payed for vs. And as for the wicked who 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 wrath due to our sinnes caused Iesus to sweat bloud and to say that his soule was heauy vnto the very death O how shall the burden of this wrath presse downe the wicked it is euen a horrour to think of it their faces shall be confused without and their spirits oppressed within with tribulation and anguish hee that spared not in his owne Sonne sinne imputed vnto him will hee spare in
Lord in the world to come As this is the comfort of Gods chosen so doth it point vnto vs the contrary miserable estate of the reprobate for there is nothing in heauen and earth which shall not stand vp against them to accuse them the Lord himselfe shall come neere them as a swift witnesse against them O miserable are they to whom the Lord is a Partie a Iudge and a Witnesse as our Sauiour said to the Iewes Moses and all the seruants of God shall be witnesses against them yea the dust of the feete of those who brought the glad tidings of peace shall witnesse against them the stones of the field said Ioshua the heauens and earth said Moses their moth-eaten garments said S. Iames yea they themselues said our Sauiour shall witnesse against themselues woe be vnto them they must be presented to iudgement but shall haue none eyther in heauen or earth to speake for them nothing without them nothing within them which shall not be a witnesse against them when they are iudged they shall be condemned and their owne conscience shall say righteous is the Lord and iust are his iudgements It is God that Iustifies Of this ye may see cleerely that Iustification as the Apostle vseth it here is a iudicial terme for he oppones it to accusation and condemnation but leauing that because wee marked it before in the poynt of Iustification we will adde this more that the Apostle brings not the reason of his comfort from his owne innocencie but from Gods mercy he saith not there is nothing in me worthy to be accused or to be condemned but his comfort is that whateuer it be God hath pardoned it This is it that breedes vnquietnesse and perturbation in many weake consciences they seeke within themselues that which should commend them to God as if they could not be saued vnlesse they were perfect this commeth of Sathans singular subtiltie who labours to creep in betweene vs and our warrant as if our owne innocencie were the warrant of our saluation and not Gods mercy nor Christs merit It is true it becomes vs for our greater comfort to nourish within our selues the tokens of Grace but to conclude that because they are weake therefore wee cannot be saued it is Sathans sophistrie with which wee should not suffer our soules to be abused Verse 34. Who shall condemne it is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen againe who is also at the right hand of God and maketh request also for vs. THe Apostle insists in his perticular triumph against sinne and hee demaunds now who shall condemne it may be as wee heard there be some bold to accuse but is there any saith the Apostle that hath power to condemne none at all and that hee proues from the death resurrection exaltation and intercession of Christ for as all these were done for vs so doe euery one of them render vnto vs the sweete fruit of consolation Of the comfort arising from Christs death we haue spoken before The next is his resurrection we haue comfort saith the Apostle in his death but much more comfort in his resurrection therefore saith the Apostle It is Christ who is dead or rather who is risen againe for if wee looke to Iesus dying albeit in death hee shewed himselfe a powerfull Sauiour yet in his death his glory was greatly obscured vnder the couering of mortalitie which againe in his resurrection was more clearely manifested for hee was declared mightily to be the sonne of God by his resurrection and hath made vs sure of the remission of our sinnes for hee had not come out of the prison of the graue if hee had not payed the vttermost farthing of our debt If Christ saith the Apostle be not yet risen then are we yet in our sinnes thanks be to God we may turne it to our comfort Iesus is already risen therefore wee are not in our sinnes As for his exaltation the Apostle saith hee sits at the right hand of God to speake properly the Lord who is a Spirit hath neyther right hand nor left but by these borrowed speaches 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 effectum non per naturam And this may rebuke that bolde 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 commaundement 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 in such a similitude as hee appeared vnto Daniell and no otherway 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 bee vsed as warrants to breake his ordinary and eternall Commaundements neyther doth it any more excuse them than that deed of the Lord whereby he caused the Israelits to take from the Egiptians 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 of the Apostle stands true they shall not rubbe 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 he remaines the same why then doe they paint him vnder the similitude of a worne creature weakned 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 speak not one word to defend that grosse Idolatry whereby they turne the glory of the inuisible God into the image of a corruptible man It had ben good for them they had beene as dumbe in the defence of the rest of their abhominations as they are in this This speach therefore to sit at the right hand of God is a borrowed speach 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 will import that high honour and dignitie whereunto Christ
in this that Christians are without a Crosse yea rather he shewes it is the lot of Gods children to be exercised with all sorts of crosses but herein hee reioyces that no crosse can seperate vs from the loue of God In this quarrell the Apostle prouokes all enimies whatsoeuer corporall or spirituall present or to come and against them all he takes vp the triumph in his owne name and in the name of all the children of God Neuerthelesse in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs. By the loue of Christ we are to vnderstand here that loue wherwith God in Christ hath loued vs for so he expounds it himselfe through him that loued vs. It is true also that the sense of our loue to God once shed abroad in our harts by the holy ghost can neuer fully nor finally be taken from vs I say fully and finally because of those inward tentations wherewith Gods children are so exercised that the sense of that loue in them is greatly diminished but in all those spirituall desertions oppressions Faith ouercomes at length and lets vs see the face of God our mercifull father shining toward vs in Christ we may be cast downe but we cannot perish if Peter be ready to sincke Iesus Christ shall succour him But as I said by the Loue of God I vnderstand that loue which hee hath borne toward vs from this most constant loue it comes to passe that wee who are weake and silly creatures cannot be ouercome notwithstanding the multitude of mightie enimies that are against vs. If our saluation were in our owne custodie and wee stoode by our owne strength the smallest tentation would ouercome vs our feet are ready to slide and then our feeble hands le ts goe that hold of mercy which once wee had gotten but howsoeuer we loose our hold the Lord holds it fast for vs wee may change but hee remaines the same because the Lord hath loued vs and whom once he loueth he loueth to the ende therefore is it that it cannot be but well with vs hee loued vs before wee were yea before the world was made If we search the beginning of Gods Loue towards vs wee may runne vp in our thought to the beginning of the world but cannot attaine to the beginning of this Loue before the mountaines were made and thou hadst formed the world euen from euerlasting to euerlasting thou art our God Likewise we are taught here that the end vvhich Sathan proposeth to himselfe in all tentations is to seperate vs from the loue of God vvhich notwithstanding he shall neuer effectuate There is a couenant knit vp betweene God and man the band whereof is Iesus Christ this Couenant Sathan doth what he can to dissolue it by alluring vs to sinne and accusing vs to God on Gods part he cannot preuaile on our part he assaults continually but in vaine also because the Lord vvho hath made a couenant with vs keepes vs also vvith him so that though vvee be tempted vve cannot be ouercome This is euident in Iobs tentations it was neyther the affliction of his body the losse of his children nor goods which Sathan craued so much as to empty his heart of the loue of God and make him to blaspheme If vve remembred this it vvould make vs endeauour to possesse our soules in patience in all our troubles for so oft as those things vvhich vve loue are seperate from vs Sathans end is to seperate vs from our God vvhom vve should loue aboue all things And in very deed this is a proper mark of the Children of God that hovveuer their outvvard estate change their heart is neuer changed from the loue of God they are Godly in prosperitie but more Godly in aduersitie the more they are troubled the neerer they draw vnto the Lord as fire in not quenched with wind but made greater so the loue of God waxeth stronger in the hearts of Gods children by tribulation whereas the wicked not rooted in Iesus Christ are like vnto chaffe and the dust of the earth carryed away with euery winde there is no pleasure so small nor profite so vaine which they preferre not before God Now before the Apostle subioynes the answere he maketh an enumeration of some perticular crosses and demaunds if they will doe it these crosses do eyther concerne our bodies our goods our dwellings or our mindes for we are not to thinke here that the Apostle beates the ayre triumphing against such enimies as we haue not No we haue both crosses of body and of minde which wee must prepare our selues to suffer so vsing all the helpes of this our mortall life as being content for the loue of God to want them for this is the tryall of true religion we must not looke to our houses as Nabuchadnezer did to his pallace of Babell as a place of his glory but remember that which Micah said to the Iewes This is not the place of your rest and whatsoeuer thing else wee vse for maintenance of this mortall life let vs so vse them as if we vsed them not that wee be not found when it comes to the tryall louers of them more then louers of God Blessed is the man who loues nothing otherwise but in God Nam solus is nihil charum amittit cui omnia chara sunt in eo qui non amittitur Againe perceiue here in this enumeration a gradation of seauen steppes by which the Apostle ascends It is a great thing to be in trouble but to be troubled and in anguish also is yet greater and for him that is in anguish to be banished in banishment to sustaine hunger and nakednesse and with these to be in continuall perill and last of all to dye by the sword euery one of these last is greater then the former yet all of them saith the Apostle are not able to seperate vs from the loue of Christ. Our warning is here that when we see vnto how many crosses Christians are subiect and how few of them God hath laid vpon vs wee should acknowledge the Lords fatherly indulgence toward vs who regarding our weakenesse hath hitherto dealt tenderly with vs. And againe it should prepare vs for greater afflictions so long as wee haue not resisted to the bloud nor laide downe our liues for Iesus we should remember that greater battailes than any which as yet we haue foughten are before vs wherein we must fight if it please the Lord to enter vs into them Shall tribulation Now hee commeth to the perticular enumeration The first is tribulation the vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vvhich the Apostle vseth signifieth a pressing out from the effect vvhich it vvorketh in the godly to vvit that it presseth out and maketh manifest that grace of God which before vvas latent in them like as in the vvicked it presseth out their vile and filthy
corruption which before vvas secret for the afflictions of the godly and of the vvicked differs in nature and in effects the vvicked in suffering communicateth vvith the curse of Adam cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life but the Godly in their suffering communicates with the Crosse of Christ. They differ also in effects for the godly man being pressed by trouble brings out the fruite of praise and thanksgiuing vvith patience Sicut aromata odorem non nisi cum accenduntur expandunt As sweet spices spreads not abroad their smell till they be burnt or beaten or as a graine of mustard seede not stamped seemes to be soft vvhere otherwise being brayed it renders out a strong sauour so the children of God who otherwise seeme to be weake and void of spirituall strength when they are beaten by affliction sends out a sweete smelling sauour of rich and manifold graces And therefore I call affliction the wine-presse of God the great Husband-man by which hee so presses the berryes of the fruitfull trees of his owne vine-yard that out of their iuyce hee may glorifie himselfe and comfort others but the wicked are like vnto a vile stinking puddle which the more it is stirred the worse it smelleth for when they are troubled they send out blasphemie rayling murmuring and in their impatiencie foome out their owne shame The second is Anguish The word he vseth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth straitnesse of place wherein a man is so pinched that hee is not 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 which ofttimes they thēselues can see no passage that which Dauid said to Ionathan A◠the Lord liueth there is but one steppe betweene me and death so fareth it many a time with the Children of God but the Lord commeth in with vnlooked for deliuerance in their most desperate distresse which not onely relieueth them for the present but doth confirme them for the time to come Wee receiued saith 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 deliuered vs from so great a death and doth deliuer vs in whom we trust that he will yet deliuer vs. The third is Persecution The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth 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 Lord hath alwayes 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 Domitian into Pathmos found also the Lord reueiling himselfe 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 the acts of their Comforter they know that in their owne house they are strangers as Abraham was 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 Modestus the Deputie of the Emperour with banishment Nihil inquit horum quae dixisti timeo I feare none of these things whereof thou hast spoken nihil possidens ab exilij metu liber sum vnam hominū cognoscens esse patriam Paradisum Omnem autem terram commune aspicimus naturae exilium possessing nothing I am free from the feare of banishment knowing that Paradise is the onely country 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 plagues of God but lesse than his other ordinary plagues of the sword pestilence therfore the Lord who best knows the waight of his owne rods accounts three dayes of pestilence three moneths of the sword and three yeeres of famine equiualent Many wayes hath the Lord by which hee bringeth famine vpon a people for sometime he maketh the Heauen aboue as brasse and the earth beneath as yron so that albeit men labour and sow yet they receiue no encrease sometime againe he giues in dew season the first and latter raine so that the earth renders abundance but the Lord by blasting-winds or by the Caterpiller Canker-worme and Grasse-hopper doth consume them who commeth out as exacters and officers sent from God to poind men in their goods because with them they would not honour the Lord which I marke by the way that those vnnaturall men who 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 as Basil calleth them Mercatores humanarum calumnitatum making their priuate gain 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 is a curse and plague of God to the godly is changed the Lord who made the bitter waters of Marah sweet and turned a biting serpent into a florishing 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 therefore Sathan who picks out the time and place of tentations as may be most for his vantage tempted our blessed Sauiour when hee began to waxe hungry It is a rare grace in want to praise the Lord and trust in his fatherly prouidence Salomon neuer felt it yet hee knew it was a rare tentation therefore hee praied 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 seperate them from the loue of God for either in their greatest necessities the Lord meruailously prouides for them or then strengthens them with patience and inward comfort to sustaine it For sometime the earth hath beene as iron but
the heauens hath ministred food to Gods people as in that barren wildernesse wherein Israell soiourned the earth yeelded no fruit but the heauens rayned downe Manna and Quailes and sometime 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 yee know not of and so no famine can seperate them from the loue of God Nakednesse This is also a great tentation partly for the shame and partly for the decay of naturall life which followes it Before the Iewes crucified Christ they striped him naked of his garments Basile makes mention of fortie Martyres who being striped naked were put foorth in the night to be pined with cold and afterward burnt with fire in the day Of these it is euident that nakednesse is one of those tentations whereby Sathan seekes to trouble our faith and patience but he who hath put on the Lord Iesus for a garment neither shame nor losse of naturall life procured by nakednesse can seperate him from the Loue of God Where we may perceiue how different the dispositions of the Christian and the worldling are The men of this world esteemes nakednesse their shame and places a great part of their glory in gorgeous garments and no meruaile quia dâ— proprio non habent decorem necesse est vt aliunde mendicent for hauing no glory of their owne they must borrow glory from others From the Beasts of the earth they borrow skins wool from the Fowles of heauen they borrow feathers from the Wormes they borrow silk from the Earth siluer gold from the Waters pearles and of these doth man make vp his begged glory whose glory in the beginning was to be clad in the image of God but what is it decor qui cum veste induitur cum veste deponitur vestis est non vestiti that beautie which is put on and put off with the garment is not the beautie of the person but of the garment Yet are these but licitae quodammodo insaniae if they be compared with the madnesse of others who alter by artifice the shape and colour of the countenance which God hath giuen them Manus deo inferunt cum illud quod formauit reformare conantur for they put hands as it were into God while they prease to reforme that which God hath formed Nescientes quia opus dei est omne quod nascitur diabeli quod mutatur I know they excuse their fact with the couerings of comelinesse and necessitie but praetextu tegendae turpitudinis in maiorem turpitudinem incidunt for worldlings are neuer so naked as when they are best apparelled As for men truely godly they will thinke shame of wickednes but not of nakednesse improbum vocarite pudeat non pauperem aut ignobilem blinde Egiptians may account sheepe keepers abhomination but true Israelits will thinke shame to be prophane but no shame to be poore those godly ones in the wildernesse clad with sheepes skins and goates skins were more honourable in the eyes of God than Herod in his royall robe of shining siluer glancing the more brightly by the shining of the Sun vpon it if we will credit Iosephus But what of all this our vnwillingnesse to want superstuitie of apparell argues that we are euill prepared to endure nakednesse for Christs sake Againe we learne here that seeing nakednesse is one of those crosses whereby the Lord tryes the faith and patience of his children and that then it is time for vs to endure a crosse when God layes it vpon vs it cannot be good religion to impone it to our selues where God layes it not vpon vs. It is a hard thing to keepe mediocritie not to be either too remisse in religion or too superstitious Wil-worship what euer shew of godlines it hath in the eyes of men is but abhominable idolatry in the eyes of God and we are not to place true religion in those things which he hath not required the false Prophets ware a rough garment but it was to deceiue the Priests of Baal spared not to lance their owne flesh but it is reiected by God as blinde zeale to walke bare footed or weare a garment of haire without linnen or wooll next the skinne to carry on our head a Franciscanes hood and at last to be buried in it If these things haue in them such holinesse as they pretend is it not a meruaile their holy Father the Pope is not careful to make himselfe more holy by changing his triple Crowne with a Franciscanes hood or that his Cardinals are so inconsiderate as to redeeme by so excessiue prices a Cardinals hat the haire garment being better cheape and much more meritorious of eternall life Perills The life of a Christian is full of perils euery place vnto him is a palaestra in the sea in the land in the citie in the wildernesse goe where he will hee shall encounter with perils These are so many probations of our Faith and Patience of Gods truth and prouidence Our preseruation depends on our protector euen the Watch-man of Israell who neither slumbers nor sleepes As a Father hath compassion on his children so hath the Lord on them who feare him and wee know that a naturall father doth neuer looke more pittifully vpon his childe than when hee sees him in greatest danger and shall we expect lesse kindnesse from our heauenly Father The men of this world when they send out their seruants in commission goes not with them themselues knowes not their danger and are not able to preserue them but the Lord our God when he sends out his seruants foresees the perill goes with them to preserue them Feare not for when thou passest through the water I will be with thee and through the flouds that they doe not ouerflow thee The more perils we fall into the more experience haue wee of Gods louing preseruing vs for the which wee may say perils may well make vs grow in the sense of the loue of God but cannot seperate vs from him Sword This is the last and by it the Apostle expresses any kinde of violent death for vnto these also the seruants of God and his best beloued Children haue beene subiect euer from the beginning The Apostle gloryes that no kind of death can seperate vs from Christ yea as he saith in another place it conioynes vs more neerely vnto him as Nebuchadnezzans fire loosed the bonds of the three children but hurt not their bodyes so death inflicted by man may loose our bodily bonds but cannot
from the loue of God And hereof wee are warned that all our battailes are neyther present nor past some of them are to come let vs not waxe secure because of our fore-past victories When Israell came out of Egipt one nation followed them to pursue them but when theyâ—passed Iordan seauen nations came against them sure it is our hindmost battaile will be the heauiest and our last tentation greatest the horrour of hell the rottennesse of the graue the conscience of sinnes past the dolours of present death all standing vp at one time to impugne our faith but shall not be able to seperate vs from that loue of God wherein stands our life Againe wee are taught here that Christians are sure of perseuerance nothing to come can seperate vs from the loue of God this is proued first from the nature of GOD who is faithfull and will confirme vs vnto the end perfecting that which hee hath begunne in vs secondly from the nature of the seede whereof wee are begotten againe for it is immortall thirdly from the nature of that life which by that seed is communicated to vs it is the life of Christ which is not now any more subiect vnto death Neyther height nor depth By these I vnderstand Sathan hath two manner of wayes by which he wrestles against men some he mounts on the chariot of presumption others hee castâ— downe into the deepe of desperation by prosperitie hee puffes vp many to make their fall the more shamefull those tentations which he vsed against our blessed Sauiour doe wee think that hee will spare them against other men hee set him vp vpon the pinnacle of the temple of purpose if he could to haue throwne him downe and againe tooke him vp to the top of an high mountaine where making a shew to him of worldly kingdomes hee promised to giue them if hee would fall downe and worship him and albeit with these tentations hee did not preuaile against our blessed Sauiour yet how many in this world are daily bewitched with them that without any refusall they fall down and worship him But as Simon Magus while he assayed to flye from the top of the capitall vp into heauen was throwne downe to his destruction so shall the prosperitiâ— of those men bee their ruine and their high estate as a pinnacle whereupon they shall not continue Happy is the man whose heart is not exalted against God by any preferment that can come to him vpon the face of the earth for hee who rising in dignitie riseth also in pride against the Lord is raised vp as Pharaoh was that God may declare his power in casting him downe Nor depth The other sort of Sathans tentations tend vnto desperation whom hee seeth hee cannot puffe vp hee doth what hee can to cast downe by feares perturbations vvrong conceptions but our comfort is both by the Apostles testimonie and our owne experience wee may be cast downe but wee cannot perish Nor any other creature Now in the ende the Apostle doth draw his speach to the height his confidence is so great that not being content with the enumeration of aduersaries which hee hath made hee defieth yet all other whatsoeuer if any other be for hee speaketh this by way of supposition if there be yet any other creature than those whom I haue named I am sure be what they will they cannot seperate vs from the loue of Christ. Heâ—e in the last roome wee doe obserue the surety of a Christian aboue all other men in the world onely the Christian is sure his estate shall neuer be changed Worldlings may thinke with Babell in her prosperitie I shall neuer be moued and with the rich Glutton promise to themselues many yeeres to come but they shall be deceiued none of them shall continue in that slate wherein presently they stand the Lord shall driue them from their station as it were with wheeles and shall roll them like a ball as hee threatned to Shebna Pharaoh his pompe shall perish in the redde sea Nebuchadnezzar shall be changed from a Monarch of men vnto a companion of Beasts Manasses from the Pallace shall goe to the Prison and all the men of the world shall goe from the house to the graue their beautie and royall pompe shall consume as a Moth onely the Christian shall stand for euer in that happy vnion and fellowship with GOD this is the state of the Christian this is his life this is his glory and from it nothing present nor to come shall euer be able to transchange him Euerlasting praise therefore be to the Lord our God through Iesus Christ. Amen FINIS Act. 9. 15. Gen. 9. 27. Rom. 15. 19 2. Cor. 12. Philip. 3. 8. 1. Cor. 2. 9. Psal. 20. 1. Psal. 21. 1. Psal. 56 4. Psal. 18. 43 Gen. 49. 23. Gen. 49. 25. Psal. 21. 3. Psal. 18. 50 Gen. 12. 1 Psal. 68. 20 Reuel 9. 11. Numb 23. 8 Iob. 1. 10. 2. Kin. 18. Esa 37. 29. 2. Chr. 16. 9 Esa. 8. 12. Psal. 69. 9. Psal. 21. 7. Some books of holy Scripture meeter for vs then others are August de temp ser. 49. Why among the Epistles this to the Romanes is first Ierom. epist. ad Paulin. Two parts of this Chapter the first containes comfort against sinne The second comfortagainst the crosse This order of the Apostle is manifest out of his owne conclusion Rom. 8. 31. vers 33. 34. ver 35. Cant. 2. 4. Cant. 5. 1. Subdiuision of the first part Proposition Coherence of this Chapter with the former The Apostles former lamentation turned into a triumph Math. 17. 2. Psal. 50. 21. The life of a Christian is a mixed webbe wrought of trouble and comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 3. Bernard Psal. 125. 3. Hose 6. 2 Chrisost. in Mat. hom Papist wrongfully collect here that there is sin on or damnable act in them who are in Christ. Aquinas Caietane on this place Cypriain orat dom Reasons why the Lord suffers sin to remaine in the iustified man For the exercise of our Faith Aug. in Ioan. tract 41. 2. Tim. 2. 5. For our instruction that we may know what benefite we haue by Christ. Bernard For the greater glory of God and Sathans greater confusion Iosh. 10. 23. Rom. 16. 20 Ciril catech 8. 1 Cor. 15. 25 How Sathan is daily confounded in the godly Christians are not exempted from the condemnatory sentence of men But from the condemnatory sentence of God Iohn 5. 24. Three sundry dyats the Lord keepes against the wicked in the processe of their condemnation The first is kept against them in the iustice court of their owne Conscience Psal. 50. 5. â— Ioh. 3. 20 Aug. hom 50 The second is kept against them in the houre of death Aug. epist. ad Hesych The third dyat shall bee kept against them in the day of generall iudgement Dan. 12. 6. Reuel 10. 8. This iudgment shall proceede by