upholds all things by the word of his power And they cannot Heb. 1. 3. subsist a moment without Him In Him we live and move and have our Acts 17. 28. being In Whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind He giveth a being to all His Job 12. 10. promises In Him all the promises are 2 Cor. 1. 20. yea and in Him Amen All the creatures out of this inexhausted fountain have all the good which they have For we are not sufficient as of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but all our sufficiency is of God Rom. 11. 36. Of Him through Him and by Him are all things therefore to Him be glory for ever Amen And now what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord Deut. 10. 12 13. thy God to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul to keep the Commandment of the Lord and His statutes for thy good continually Loe this is My God I have waited for Him and He will save me this is the Lord I have waited for Him Isai 25. 9. I will rejoyce and be glad in His Salvation He shall guide me here with His Psal 73. 24. Counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory Now blessed be the Lord My God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous Psal 72. 18 19. things and blessed be His glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory Amen and Amen EXERCITATION THE SECOND Of Sacraments in general which are the Seals of the Covenant Q. VVHat is a Sacrament A. A Sacrament is an Ordinance of God wherein by giving and receiving of outward Elements according to His Will the promises of the Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ being represented exhibited and applyed unto us are farther signed and sealed betwixt God and Man Sacraments are seals annexed to the Rom. 4. 11. Covenant of Grace to instruct assure 1 Cor. 11. 23. and possess us of our part in Christ and His benefits and to bind us to all thankful Gal. 3. 27. obedience to God in Him that we Rom. 6. 4. should walk in newness of life God alone is the Author of a Sacrament because He alone can bestow those Graces which are sealed therein There be two only Sacraments in the New Testament 1. Baptism 2. The Supper of the Lord. Baptism is a Sacrament of our entrance into the Covenant of Grace the Lords Supper is a Sacrament of our continuance therein The other five Sacraments of the Papists as Matrimony Orders Extreme Unction Penance and Confirmation do want an outward sign and institution by Christ and so be no seals of saving Grace I could severally and distinctly prove those five to be no Sacraments but then I should be too prolix The word Sacrament is not used in all the New Testament it is here taken for a Divine Mysteric propounded and represented by outward signs and figures or symbols This signification in the word Sacrament is fitly answered and is borrowed by the Latin Ecclesiastical Writers from Military businesses in which the Oath that Soldiers took and were obliged by to their General was called a Sacrament This may aptly and sitly be so used here for in our Baptism by our Sureties until we come of age to perform it our selves we oblige and bind our selves by a solemn vow to our great Captain and General the Lord Jesus Christ to fight under His banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue His faithful Soldiers and Servants to our lives end These were the words used by every Roman Soldier in his Oath Obtemperaturus sum facturus quioquid mandabitur ab imperatoribus juxta vires And these were termed milites per Sacramentum The word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mysterie or a hidden secret belonging to holy things known but to few and not to be communicated but to those that are initiated or let into the Church From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacris initior or instituor doctrinâ quae ad res sacras pertinet I am instructed in the Doctrine concerning holy things But the word Mysterie is of larger acceptation than Sacrament A Sacrament is called a Mysterie because it signifieth secret things and such things as are unknown to those who have not been taught out of the Word of God concerning the signification and use of them and because there one thing is seen and another thing is meant The lawful use of the Sacraments is not the observation of the external Rite but to have faith to reserve the Rite it self to that end to which it was ordained by God For to the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace no other promise is annexed or added but the promise of Grace which hath always the condition of faith with it either expressed or implyed Faith is the instrument medium or hand by which the things signified and offered by God are received both in the Word and also in the Sacraments Christ Himself by His Spirit doth make the things promised present to our faith and so faith receiveth them In the right use of the Sacrament the giving and receiving the sign and thing signified is joyned and goes together The giving and receiving of the sign is bodily by the hand of the Minister and receiver but the giving and receiving of the thing signified is spiritual through true faith in the receiver and by the hand of Christ Himself giving it A Sacrament in proper speech comprehends the whole action as well the sign as the thing signified But by a Synechdoche it is taken only for the sign the outward visible sign of the inward invisible and spiritual Grace The outward and earthly matter of the Sacrament is the visible sign or element The inward and heavenly matter of the Sacrament is the things signified Christ with all His benefits The external form consisteth in the lawful administration and participation of the Sacrament according to the command of God The inward form is in the Analogy proportion or union of the sign and the thing signified which is a spiritual relation whereby the things signified are really communicated to them who rightly receive and use the signs The Sacraments are signs in a fourfold respect 1 Signifying 2 Exhibiting 3 Applying 4 Sealing 1. The outward signs in the Sacrament do signifie or represent the body and blood of Christ 2. Together with the sign the thing signified is exhibited and given yet not in the sign or element but in the sacramental action the Minister giving the sign or element but our Lord Jesus Christ gives the thing signified 3. The thing signified in the Word of the Gospel generally promised to all true believers is applyed to every believing Soul the outward sign or element being
we are certified 1. By the analogy or proportion between the sign and the thing signified 2. By the promise which is added to the sign The analogy chiefly proposeth two things to us 1. The Sacrifice of Christ 2. Our Communion with him Because the bread is not only broken but also is given to us to eat Or more clearly thus The Lord's Supper is the second Sacrament of the New Testament wherein by the outward elements of Bread and Wine sanctified and exhibited by the Minister and rightly received by the Communicants assurance is given to those that are ingraâ—sed into Christ of their continuance in Him and receiving nourishment from Him unto eternal life In the same sense it is also called the Lord's Table thou dost therefore come to the banquet of Christ to be His guest as often as thou dost eat and drink of this Supper The Lord's Supper came in stead of the Passeover or Paschal Lamb not because He appointed it a Supper unto us but because He ordained it in room of the Passeover For in the same night wherein He was 1 Cor. 11. 23. betrayed immediately after He had eaten the Passeover with His Disciples He did both Himself with them celebrate Mat 26. 26. this Holy Sacrament and withal gave charge for continuance of the same in the Church until His second 1 Cor. 11. 20 coming The parts of the Lord's Supper are two 1. The earthly matter or the outward signs 2. The action requisite for the use of the outward sign The outward sign or earthly matter is again twofold 1. The Bread 2. The Wine 1. The Bread of the Lord is Christ's body given to death for us so Christ said This is my body which is given for you 2. The Cup of the Lord is that New Covenant through His blood which was shed for us By a Synechdoche the Cup is put for the Wine contained in the Cup. Then by a Sacramental Metonymie because neither the Cup nor the Wine in the Cup is substantially that very new Covenant which was confirmed by Christ's blood shed for us but it is the Sacrament of that Covenant and that in a double respect 1. Because it is an outward sign calling to our remembrance and as it were representing before our eyes that New Covenant or Testament established by the blood of Christ 2. Because it is a seal of our faith sealing up the certainty of that Covenant and the continuance of it with us So the Wine is a Sacrament of the blood of Christ not contained in the veins but shed out of His body upon the Cross or as it was shed for the forgiveness of sins So our Saviour said This Mat. 26. 28. is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Also here by Bread and Wine is noted out unto us that we do perfectly and wholly find in Christ not meat alone but drink also that is not only one cause or part of Salvation and eternal life but whatsoever wholly is requisite or necessary thereunto Q. What are the ends of the Lord's Supper A. 1. To confirm our faith and to be a most sure testification of our union and communion with Christ For Christ by these signs testifies to us that He by His body and blood doth as truly nourish us to eternal life as truly as we receive these signs out of the hand of the Minister And this testification is directed to every particular person that with true faith receives these signs or symbols And we so receive these elements out of the hand of the Minister as if Jesus Christ Himself did reach it forth with His own hand unto us 2. That it may be a publick profession of our faith and a solemn thanksgiving with an obliging our selves to perpetual thankfulness and a celebration of this so great a benefit And these are included in Christ's words This do in remembrance Luk. 22. 19. of Me. This commemoration is chiefly faith in the heart joyned with a publick confession and thanksgiving 3. That it may be a publick distinction or discerning mark between the true Church of Christ and all other Nations and Sects whatsoever For the Lord instituted this for His Disciples and not for others 4. That it might be a bond of Love between all those who lawfully take it to become Members of one body under one Head the Lord Jesus Christ We being many are one bread and one body 1 Cor. 10. 7. for we are all partakers of that one bread Now the Members of the same body do mutually love each other 5. That it may be a bond of the publick meetings of the Church for the institution of this Sacrament is that it be done in the publick Assembly or Congregation Thence are those words When ye come together into one place And 1 Cor. 11. 20 33. when ye come together to eat c. Or more briefly thus The ends of the Lord's Supper are 1. To be a remembrance of Christ's Sacrifice performed on the Cross 2. To be a sign of the Covenant of Grace established by the blood of Christ 3. To be a Sacrament of the nourishing continuance and preservation of them in the Church which once by Baptism have been ingraffed into the Church of Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ by this Sacrament doth teach us by the communion of His body and blood that our Souls are nourished in hope of eternal life By the Bread Christ represent His body to us and by the Wine his blood to shew unto us that as there is in Bread a nourishing faculty to feed and strengthen our bodies for this present life So His body hath a nourishing and quickening power with it spiritually to nourish our souls In like manner also as Wine exhilarates and cheers the heart of him that drinks it refresheth his spirits and maketh the whole body the more strong Even so Christs blood doth strengthen our hearts and fill them with joy and gladness We do truly by faith feed on the body and blood of Christ when we are pâ—rswaded that we shall be saved by His obedience righteousness and satisfaction to His Father on our behalf as the Father imputeth it unto us Therefore we must necessarily have an interest in Christ for we can never be partakers of His good benefits unless first He had given Himself unto us By this Sacrament our communion with Christ is confirmed and sealed The Lord's Supper refers us to the death of Christ that we may so communicate of His virtue for upon the Cross that His own and perpetual Sacrifice was offered for our redemption He redeemed us by His blood and He made atonement for us by the blood of his Cross So we do not as the Papists say offer up the body of Christ to the Father for Christ Himself alone is worthy of that honour who was both Priest and Sacrifice and who offered up Himself He remains a Priest
we may and should remember yet God would have a solemn standing Ordinance in His Church for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Lord's Supper This must be our actual exercise at the time of our eating and drinking at this Holy Table to shew forth the Lord's death The death of Christ then must fill our eyes ears lips and thoughts If any of us could see Christ dying that sight would take us up Here we come as near to see Him dying as can be represented unto us Here Christ is Crucified before our eyes Thus much Gal. 3. 1. for the second part which is a Christian heedfulness in the act of receiving Now of the third and last part a thankful close and shutting up this our duty in this Ordinance 1. By joyful thanksgiving with Prayers 2. Meditation how we are bettered what increase we find of our faith in Christ love to God and all His Saints what strength and power we have gotten against sin lust and corruption what new obedience we shew forth in our lives and what increase and confiâ—ming we find of all other sanctifying and saving Graces in us to help us to lead new lives and to run the ways of all God's Commandments with more strength and alacrity than formerly This do in remembrance of me This is a solemn Memorial instituted by Christ Himself Great Deliverances or Mercies have solemn commemorations Such was the Passeover and the Feast of Purim c. among the Jews Christ did not ordain it for His Nativity Circumcision Ascension c. though all these were for us and our Redemption but in remembrance of His death hereby we shew the Lord's death Because our sins are done away by His death therein in His death was made the Sacrifice of atonement Redemption and Reconciliation was made thereby the Covenant confirmed the justice of God satisfied and everlasting life procured c. 1. Let us make this thankful remembrance to and within our selves what fruit and benefit we receive from Christ and the torments and pains He endured for us both in His blessed body and soul nay His Soul-pains were the sole or chief of all His pains Do not these deserve a thankful remembrance 2. We make this remembrance to others to all the world by our solemn profession of Christ and His death to which we stick for remission of sins and acceptation with God 3. We make this remembrance to God that Christ by His death hath satisfied God's justice and hath made peace through the blood of His Cross Who shall therefore lay any thing to the Col. 1. 20. charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed for us c. Rom. 8. 34. I close up with the Allegory of the Paschal Lamb and Christ how the type and anti-type or the thing signified fitly answer and agree in these thirteen things 1. It must be a lamb of the flock so Christ was true man Joh. 1. 14. 2. A Lamb without blemish so Christ was without sin 3. To be killed and roasted with fire to shew the bitter death and passion of Christ 4. A bone of it must not be broken so Christ had not a bone broken Joh. 19. 36. 5. It must be in the evening so Christ suffered in the end of the world Heb. 1. 2. and 9. 26. 6. The posts were to be sprinkled with the blood so Christ's blood is sprinkled on our Consciences and His satisfaction is imputed to us Rom. 3. Isai 53. 6. 7. Seeing the blood the destroying Angel passed over and they were preserved from death so Christ by his blood frees us from everlasting death 8. The Lamb was to be eaten and in every family so Christ by faith is to be applyed by every believer 9. The Lamb was to be roasted whole his head legs appurtenances so whole Christ is to be received and wholly according to all the articles of our faith 2 Tim. 3. 7. 10. Without leaven that is without hypocrisie 11. It must be eaten with bitter herbs with true repentance and bitter grief for sin which caused that bitter passion of Christ He that will be Christ's Disciple must take up the Cross 12. It must be eaten hastily and with their staves in their hands after the fashion of strangers to shew that we are Pilgrims here and travailing to our heavenly countrey have need of such a Viaticum in the way 13. Only Circumcised to eat thereof So only the regenerate feed on Christ by faith and Christ is profitable only unto them Some Sentences 1. Our Union and Communion with Christ doth not mingle the persons nor unite the substances but it consociates our affections and confederates our wills 2. This is to eat that bread and drink that cup to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in thee And hereby it follows that he that abides not in Christ nor Christ in him doth not spiritually eat of this bread and drink of this cup although carnally and visibly he eateth of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ 3. To believe in Christ is to eat that bread of life He that believeth in Christ feedeth upon Him and is invisibly fatted by Him because he is invisibly regenerated 4. Believers only eat the bread the Lord wicked men who are against Christ in their practises may eat the bread of the Lord. 5. All Glory to God and Salvation to Men is placed in the death and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ EXERCITATION THE FOURTH Ecclesiastes 12. 13. Fear God The whole Verse runs thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man THe meaning is thus as if King Solomon had said the whole subject of this Book of Ecclesiastes is summarily comprehended in this point that man should lead his life in the fear of God and in holy obedience unto Him So that after this life he may enjoy everlasting blessedness and happiness in Him Now the fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment the scope and meaning of the first Commandment is thus that Jehovah one in Substance and three in Persons the Creator and Governour of all things and the Redeemer of His people is to be entertained for the only true God in all the powers of our soul And that the inward Mat. 22. 37. Prov. 23. 26. Deut. 5. 29. Prov. 4. 23. Mat. 12. 35. and spiritual worship of the heart wherein God especially delighteth and which is the ground of the outward worship may be given to Him and none other and that sincerely without hypocrisie as in His sight who searcheth Jer. 17. 10. and knoweth the heart For this word before Me or before My face noteth that inward entertainment and worship whereof God alone doth take notice And thereby God sheweth that He condemneth as well the corrupt thoughts of mans heart concerning His Majesty as the wicked practise of
baptized into His death Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it thâ—â— He might sanctifie and cleanse it by the Eph. 5. 25 26. washing of water through the word The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 1 Joh. 1. 7. all sin As the filthiness of the body is washed away with water so we are purged from our sins by the blood and spirit of Christ Ye are washed ye are sanctified 1 Cor. 6. 11. ye are justified in the Name of the Lorâ— Jesus and by the Spirit of our God That inward washing is made or done both by the blood and by the spirit of Christ 1. Washing through the blood oâ— Christ is Justification So we have it Acts 22. 16 Arise and be baptized calling on the name of the Lord. 2. Washing through the spirit is regeneration when we are by the Holy Spirit regenerated or born again to a new life 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thus far of the action of the Minister now to speak of the action of him or her baptized Every faithful person that is baptized receiveth the outward Baptism of water that there may be signified and sealed up unto him that he is assuredly washed from his sins by the blood and spirit of Christ as surely as his body is sprinkled or washed with water Then will I Ezek. 36. 25. sprinkle said the Lord clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesses and from all your Idols I will cleanse you To be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ signifieth to be made partakers of the Covenant of Grace namely to be reconciled to God justified regenerated adopted to be the Son or Child of God and to be endowed with the freedom of the Sons of God All are washed with water but believers only by the blood and spirit of Christ Therefore not all that are baptized receive remission of sins and regeneration but the believers only For without a man have his name in the Covenant the seal set to it confirms nothing unto him To the receiving of the Sacrament as very worthily it is in our Liturgy there must be adjoyned thanksgiving which is presently performed by every person that is baptized if he be adult or of years of discretion or by the witnesses in his stead if he be an infant who when he comes to years of discretion all his life long ought to be thankful unto God for this benefit Q. What are the ends of Baptism A. Especially these four 1. To be a seal to us of our receiving into the Covenant of Grace and fellowship with Christ and His Church 2. By the outward washing to represent and confirm to us the inward cleansing of our Souls which standeth in justification and regeneration Eph. 5. 26. So in this sence Baptism as it is 1 Pet. 3. 21. is said to save us because it sealeth unto us eternal salvation 3. To mind us of repentance and reforming our lives for we are baptized with water unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. 4. To be sealed to the certain hope of resurrection and of an eternal blessed life In Baptism Original sin is washed and taken away especially as concerning the guilt that is to say the fault and the punishment there remaining notwithstanding the vitiation and the sickness namely wicked lusts and inclination to evil and that to this end that we might all our life long fight against sin and the Devil who is the Author of sin But the Papists say that by Baptism rightly administred not only the guiltiness but also the corruption of Original sin is so washed away as that it is not afterward properly accounted a sin But we contrarily distinguish thus of sin sin in regard of the guiltiness or obnoxiousness to the wrath of God and also in regard of the punishment together by one act is taken away in Baptism But in regard of that error and corruption of Nature it is not at the first wholly taken away but successively and by little and little or by degrees it is extinguished even as our renovation or renewing by the Holy Ghost is by little and little begun increased and carried on in us And this we evince by these four reasons 1. Else St. Paul would not so greatly bewail his Original sin if after Baptism it ceased to be a sin when-as he cryed out O miserable man that I am who shall Rom. 7. 23 24. deliver me from the body of this deathâ— I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members 2. Original sin is called a sin exceeding or out of measure sinful and a sin that hangeth fast on or easily encompasseth Rom. 7. 13. us about Heb. 12. 1. 3. Concupiscence is the root of actual sin and therefore after Baptism it must needs properly be a sin 4. Unless that concupiscence were a sin where would or could be that vehement and hot combate between the flesh and the spirit for the flesh lusteth against Gal. 5. 17. the spirit and the spirit against the â—lesh and these are contrary the one to the other Q. Why was Christ baptized what could Baptism signifie or seal unto Him He had no sin to wash away A. â— That He might fulfil all righteousness that is for us and on our behalf Mat. 3. 15. 2. That He might in His own person commend and confirm Baptism against all those who so debase and decry it 3. That He might sanctifie our Baptism in Himself 4. That by Baptism we might know Him to have entered into His office and the execution of it Q. How doth Baptism belong to Infants and how are they capable of performing the conditions required A. I have perused the learned Exercitations of Mr. John Tombes B. D. formerly a Cotemporary with me in Magdalen-Hall who is the best and most learned of that opinion and perswasion who hath many arguments against Infant Baptism which require a large volume particularly to answer I shall therefore only lay down some argument to assert the laudable use of the Churches Infant-Baptism which do fully convince and satisfie me and I suppose by God's blessing on serious meditation and consideration may satisfie those which will not wilfully close their eyes against the truth Arguments 1. Because Infants are comprehended in the Covenant of the Grace of God and therefore both the faith of the Parents themselves and also of the Church 1 Cor. 7. 14. is confirmed by this sign that God will be the God and Saviour as of the faithful Parents so of their seed and children which promise of His He at His good Rom. 8. 29 30. Tit. 3. 5. time performeth in His elect 2. Because to them belongeth also the promise of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ 3. Because they belong to the Church of God 4. Because they are redeemed by the blood of
name of the thing signified by a Sacramental Metonymie is given to the sign So the words of Christ must be understood Sacramentally the Bread is called the body of Christ because it is the sign of the body of Christ and the Cup or the Wine in the Cup is called the blood of Christ because it is the sign of the blood of Christ And the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the sign of the New Testament So the true sence and meaning of Christ's words This is my body which is given for you is thus This Bread which is broken by Me and given to you is a sign of My body which is given to death for you and is a certain sign of your conjunction and union with Me so that he that believeth and eateth this bread he doth truly feed on My body But according to that impious fiction of the Popish transubstantiation many absurdities follow As 1. Christ brake bread not His body therefore the bread is not really the body of Christ 2. The body of Christ is given for us and not bread therefore bread is not really the body of Christ 3. Christ did not say under these species is My body or My body is contained under these species therefore Papists pervert Christ's words and keep not to the institution 4. Christ said not of bread let this be made My body but this is My body 5. Notwithstanding their transubstantiation the bread is neither annihilated nor changed into the substance of a body but remaineth bread still 6. In every Sacrament there are two things the sign and the thing signified but transubstantiation taketh away the sign namely Bread and Wine therefore it doth wholly overthrow the Sacrament 7. Transubstantiation takes away the analogy between the sign and the thing signified But no more of this I will only add four Reasons against the carnal or corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament Reason 1 If the bread were turned into Christ's body then there would be two Christs one that giveth and one that is given for our Saviour gave the bread c. Reason 2 If the bread be the very body of Christ there would then be no more sign of the thing signified and so no Rom. 4. 11. Sacrament Reason 3 Then the wicked receiver might eat and drink Christs body and blood as well as the true believer Reason 4 The Minister cannot give the inward Grace but the outward elements only in the administration of the Sacrament There is another gross error also of Consubstantiation Consubstantiation is a coexistency of two substances in the same place or the presence of the body and blood of Christ not under the species of Bread and Wine but under the very Bread and Wine Luther was of this opinion that it remained bread still but under in or with the bread is the body of Christ And this is the common tenent and opinion of those who this day are called Lutherans Against this these few reasons may suffice 1. The whole action of the Lord's Supper is done in remembrance of Christ what need have we of that if Christ's body were really present either under with or in the elements 2. Christ's body is in Heaven and the Heavens must receive Him until the times of restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. 3. This is an essential property of every magnitude and therefore of Christ's body also to be in one place and circumscribed or encompassed of one place 4. If Christ's body were eaten corporally then the wicked as well as the Godly partake of the flesh of Christ but to eat His flesh is to believe in Him and to have eternal life 5. It is absurd to think that Christ sitting with His disciples did with His own hands take His own body and give it wholly to every one of His Disciples This is the Sacrament not of the living or of the glorious body of Christ but of His suffering and crucified body So Christ said This is My body which is given for you it is the Sacrament of Christ's body delivered unto death for us And that these two ways 1. It is a visible sign bringing to our remembrance or representing to us the body of Christ that as with our bodily eyes we see the bread of the Lord so with the eyes of our Soul we may see Christ's body crucified for us 2. It is a seal sealing to our faith that Christ's body was certainly delivered to death for us and is become the bread of life unto us We must not therefore seek Christ's body in the earthly element but by faith lift up our hearts to Heaven whither Christ ascended and where He is So in our Liturgy at the celebration of this Supper we are admonished to lift up our hearts Now let us come to speak of the outward actions both of the Minister and also of the Receivers 1. The actions of the Minister are these four 1. To take the Bread and Wine into his hands and to separate it from ordinary Bread and Wine Which is to signifie to us that God in His eternal decree separated Christ to be our Mediator and that He was set apart for this office Him hath God the Father sealed 2. To bless and consecrate the Bread and Wine by the Word and Prayer Which signifies to us that God in His due time sent Christ into the world and sanctified Him furnishing Him with all gifts needful for a Mediator 3. To break the Bread and pour out the Wine Which signifies the passions and sufferings of Christ with all the torments which He endured both in soul and body for our sins 4. To give and distribute the Bread and Wine to the receivers which signifies that God gave Christ and that Christ gave Himself to us and that whole Christ and all His merits are freely offered to all sorts of receivers And that God hath given Christ to the faithful receivers to feed their souls unto eternal life Joh. 3. 14 15. Joh. 6. 50 51. 2. Next we come to the Sacramental actions of the receivers and they are these two 1. To take the Bread and Wine offered by the Minister every one into his or her hand This signifies his taking and laying hold of Christ freely offered from God the Father by the hand of faith Joh. 1. 12. Or the receiving of Christ with all His benefits into his soul by faith They and they only have benefit by Christ crucified which thus apply Christ to themselves by a true and lively faith To as many as thus receive Him to them gives He power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on His name 2. To eat the Bread and drink the Wine receiving them into the body and digesting them And this signifies our uniting to Christ and enjoying of 1 Cor. 11. 26. Him or our application of Christ by faith that the feeling of our true union and communion with Christ may be increased We
except the Father draw him That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us ward who 〈…〉 eve according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead c. Here is the exceeding greatness of Gods power and the working of His mighty power which is expressed as much in the conversion of a sinner and in working saving Faith in his heart as it was manifested in raising Christ from the dead O the great power Eph. 2. 4. 56. riches inmercy and greatness of the love of God to poor sinners And to me in especial Where-with He hath loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Furthermore the principal efficient cause of Faith is God the impulsive cause is His free grace by which we are elected and called the instrumental cause whereby Faith is given to us in those of ripeness of age is ordinarily the word of God Faith cometh by hearing and Rom. 10. 17. hearing by the word of God And yet not the preaching of the word alone but as it is joyned with the efficacy of the Holy Spirit For the Lord opened Acts 16. 14. the heart of Lydia that she attended to those things spoken by Paul Thâ—â—â—â—tter of our Faith which is as the obâ—ect largely is the Word of God properly the free promises of the Gospel founded upon Jesus Christ The righteousness of God Rom. 3. 22. verse 25. which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Rom. 10. 9. through Faith in His blood If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved So then justifying Faith consists in these two things 1. In having a mind to know Christ 2. In having a will to rest upon Him Whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him as the only Rock of Salvation that man truly believes to justification Thus far of the description of Faith the several kinds of Faith and the causes of it that we may know the nature of true justifying saving Faith Such a Faith as our Saviour here requires Oh! this precious Faith of what 2 Pet. 1. 1. absolute necessity is it Necessary to everlasting Salvation We are kept by 1 Pet. 1. â— the power of God through Faith unto salvation Believe on the Lord Jesus Acts 16. 32. Christ and thou shalt be saved Which was the answer the jaylor had of Paul when he asked What he must do to be saved Without Faith it is impossible Heb. 11. 6. verse 2. to please God by Faith the elders obtained a good report Faith causes us to apprehend those deep mysteries of salvation which by the eye of Sense we can never fathom as Trinity in Unity the Incarnation of the Son of God c. The Word is unprofitable to us if it be not mixt with Faith In the Sacrament Heb. 4. 2. we receive no more than we do believe hast thou no Faith thou reapest no fruit or benefit or comfort If thou prayest thou must pray in Faith nothing Jam. 1. 5 7. wavering else do not think to receive any thing of the Lord. Whatsoever Mark 11. 24. things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them So we see that Faith is of absolute necessity in all our spiritual duties Worship and Services Pray we therefore with the disciples Lord increase Lord strengthen our Faith Luk. 17. 5. Acts 15. 9. Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. Faith it purifies the heart Aman is justified by Faith We are justified before God only by Faith in Christ i. e. by Christs righteousness imputed to us by God and received and laid hold on by us with a lively Faith As Faith justifies it also quickeneth The righteousness of God Rom. 1. 17. is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith Faith is the means of obtaining and professing a spiritual life From faith to saith that is to say more and more according as Faith increases and grows stronger so it doeth more and more enjoy the benefit of this righteousness of Christ imputed Labour therefore to be strong in faith Abraham being strong in faith gave Rom. 4. 20. glory to God The stronger in Faith the more glory mayest thou bring to God They which be of faith are blessed Gal. 3. 9. with faithful Abraham Our faith must be a working faith Faith worketh by Gal. 5. 6. love It shews it self by the fruits of a new-life which are comprehended under the love of God and our neighbour 1 Thess 1. 3. We read of the work of faith our faith must not be a dead and idle faith but a lively and working faith shewing it self by its fruits and effects Jaâ—m 2. 18. verse 20. Shew me thy faith by thy works faith without works is dead There can be no justifying and saving faith separate from good works for he who truly doth good works hath a lively faith which is the root and spring of them and good works are proper perpetual and inseparable from a true and lively faith So we must reconcile those two places of Scripture which seem contrary to each other in Jam. 2. 24. Ye see then that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely and Rom. 3. 28 We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law the meaning is thus We are justified before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ but our good works which are the true fruits of saving lively faith declare us to be just before men Let us therefore be fruitful in every good Câ—â—â— 1. 10. Coll. 2. 7. 2 Thess 1. 3. Heb. 10. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Jude 20. Rom. 3. 22. Rev. 14. 12. work and be stablished in the faith let our faith grow exceedingly that we may have that full assurance of faith This faith as it is a precious faith as we said before so it is a most holy faith It is called the faith of God Rom. 3. and the faith of Jesus Christ where the object is put for the subject And in our spiritual armour above all we are Eph. 6. 16. bid to take the shield of faith whereby we shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the Devil Now a shield is an instrument of War made for defence to award and keep off the blows of an enemy such a shield is faith to bear off and beat back the sierce temptations of Satan whom we must resist being sted fast in the faith 1 Pet. 5. 9.
reference to the Soul our duty is to arm our selves against the fear of death as not thinking on the paâ—gs of death which Christ hath sweetned and sanctified to all His but upon that blessed estate that is enjoyed after death And look upon death not as it is seâ— forth in the Law so it is a curse but as it is set forth in the Gospel so it is an entrance into Heaven consider also what God hath promised to the death of the Rev. 14. 13. righteous Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them As we die in the Lord both our Bodies and Souls are really joyned to Christ as it is expressed in the Covenant of Grace and though death make a separation of soul and body yet neither of them are sever'd from Christ our mystical union and conjunction with Christ our Head endures for ever c. God as He Isa 43. 2. is present with us in our sickness so especially will He be with us at our Death when the holy Angels are especially also present with us ready to carry the soul into heaven 2. In reference to the body our duty is To seek to preserve life to recover health as by Diet Physick that is such lawful means and worthy instruments called thereunto and this God requires of us to do 3. Concerning our Neighbour our duty is Reconciliation where any difference is forgiving all men and desiring to be forgiven by them serting our Families in order making our Will which indeed much rather should be in the time of our best health 1 Kings 2. 2. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Gen. 18 19. charging those of our Family to learn believe and obey the true Religion c. Thus let us strive to honour God dying as well as living Now Secondly of the second part 2dly bâ—haviâ—â— Death which is a right behaviour and disposition in Death which is a religious and holy behaviour especially towards God when we are nearer the agonie and pangs of death This religious behaviour contains Three especial duties 1. To Dye in or by Faith relying on Gods special love and mercy iâ— Christ As the Israelites stung with the Num. 21. 8 9. fiery Serpents looked to the brazen Serpent and were cured So we when we find death to draw near and his fiery sting to sting and pierce our hearts then let us fix the eye of a true and lively Faith upon Jesus Christ the true brazen Serpent lifted up and crucifi'd upon the Cross for our sins and for mine in particular and so by death we shall Joh. 3. 14 15 never perish but have everlasting life 2dly To dye in obedience to God As we must live in obedience to God's Cammandments so must we dye be ready willing to go out of the world whensoever God calls us and that withour murmuring or repining Imitating our blessed Saviour who said Father not my will but Thy will be Mat. 26. 39. done 3dly The last duty is To resign and render up our Souls into the hands of God as the most faithful keeper So did our Saviour in the very pangs of death when the dissolution of soul Luk. 23. 46. and body drew on He said Father into Thy hands I commit My Spirit and so gave up the Ghost So Stephen when he Acts 7. 59. was ston'd to death said Lord Jesus receive my spirit And so being dead Joh. 11. 11. Acts 7. 60. 1 Thes 4. 13. sob 7. 21. we are said to sleep which is by a Synechdoche part for the whole For the body only lyes in the earth Now I shall sleep in the dust that is my body only Let us then not fear death Christ hath taken away the sting of it from all true believers He hath sweetned it unto us and made it only a passage to our Fathers house And I saw the dead small and great stand before God that is all without exception shall personally appear before God and come to Judgment of what degree rank estate or condition soever whether Emperours Kings Princes or Beggars then there will be no distinction of persons we must all nakedly appear before this Tribunal we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ That every 2 Cor. 5. 10. one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Observe the placing of the words small and great the small are put before the great to shew that there will be then no distinction of persons as I said before but all must promiscuously appear before God Then the high and great wicked ones who here through the pride of their countenance will not seek after God God was not in Psal 10. 4. all their thoughts except to swear by His Name or to curse God dam me but rather they think on their father Joh. 8. 44. Psal 2. 3. Jer. 5. 5. the Devil whose works they do and drink healths to him and wish the Devil take them so running on in the practice of all wickedness that no cords or bonds will hold them They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds All Laws both Divine and Humane they trample under foot But then when the holy Angels shall most powerfully gather together from all quarters of the Earth and Sea all men and set them before the Judg even Jesus Christ from whose faâ—e the heaven Rev. 20. 11. 6. 14 15. 16. and the earth do â—ly away c. denoting the terror and Majesty of the Judg Himself when there shall be such a conclusion of all things Then those high ruffing Gallants will strive to hide themselves in Caves and Rocks of the mountains and cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that setteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vain for there is no hiding-place but all must appear and Heb. 4. 13. that before Him before whom all things are naked and open and so must be judged according to their works Which brings us to the Second Head that is Judgment I need not prove that there shall be 2. Judgment a Judgment although there are several reasons for it besides the dictates of our own Consciences it is an Article of our Faith And many places both in the Old and also in the New-Testament confirm it For brevity sake I will only cite the Texts and leave them to be read out of the Bible Read Dan. 7. 9 10. Jude 14. 15. Christ's Sermon in Matthew 24 25 Chapters Acts 17. 31. and 1 Thes 4. 16. Heb. â— 27. Now next to speak what this last Judgment is In the end of the world Christ the What is this Judgment Judg shall descend from Heaven in the Clouds in the Glory and Majesty of His Father with His holy Angels and all men shall
complaint for want of glory nor of envying others that have more Christ after the day of Judgment shall remain King for ever for He shall not so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. that He shall cease to reign But that He may represent to His Father that His Kingdom is compleat and shall remain so for ever The meaning of those words is thus when Christ as Mediator hath been established King of the whole World but especially of His Church to gather together govern and bring unto His Father all His Elect and to destroy His enemies shall have brought His work to an end and so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father that as verse 28. God may be all in all that is the Father with the Son and Holy Ghost in Unity of Essence and Glory shall begin to reign immediately over His Church in a manner altogether new namely by Himself without any outward means without the work of Angels or Men Ecclesiastical or Political Orders as it is in this world and likewise without any adversaries or oppositions filling all His with His light love life and glory Which indeed will not a whit disannul Christs Kingdom but only change the meaner form thereof into a more sublime majestical glorious and most perfect form That God may be all in all that is that God the whole blessed Trinity may immediately and absolutely work fully in all the Elect who shall then be perfectly united unto God and that He may Possess Govern and Rule them for ever Now to speak a little where these glorious mansions are in Heaven Philosophers speak of ten Heavens but we shall wave that and speak according to Scripture-phrase and so there are three Heavens 3 Heavens The first is all that whole space from the earth to the sphere of the Moon where the birds flie therefore they are called the folws of Heaven and whence Mat. 6. 26. the rain hail and snow thunder and lightning wind and other Meteors do descend So God opened the Windows Gen. 7. 11. Deut. 28. 12. of Heaven and poured down rain upon the earth The second Heaven is and consists of all those visible Orbs where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole expansion is called the Firmament Gen. 1. 14. 15. Gen. 1. 8. and God called the firmament Heaven and in this God hath placed the Sun Moon and other Stars which are called in Scripture the Stars of Heaven Num. 3. 16. The third Heaven is that where God is said especially to dwell whither Christ ascended whither St. Paul in a 2 Cor. 12. 2. rapture was caught up into this third Heaven and where all the blessed ones shall be for ever This is the Heaven whereof we now speak Objection But some may ask Where the Soul is when it goeth out of the body and in what condition the Soul lives being separate from the body until the day of Judgment The Papists feign a Purgatory that Solution they may be purged from their sins which is contrary to the Scripture For the Scripture teacheth us that not the sire of Purgatory after this life of which there is no mention made in Scripture but the blood of Christ laid hold on and applied by a lively faith while we are here in this life doth cleanse our souls from all sin And 1 John 1. 7. that the souls of the faithful after death are not thrust into a place of torment but that they are gathered unto Christ into Abrahams bosome The meaning Luk. 16. 23. of into Abrahams bosome is thus it is the gesture of a good Father towards his little and tender Children to cherish them in his bosome The souls of the faithful presently after their departure out of the body are carry'd by the Angels up into heaven into the communion of all true believers of whom Abraham was the Titular Father and therefore called the Father of the faithful Rom. 4. 16 I say That presently after death the soul appears before God to Judgment Eccl. 12. 7. either to be gathered into the Mansions of the blessed or to be cast into Hell into the state of the damned from whence there is no redemption and then truly are tormented in those infernal flames but yet are reserved for greater torments against the last Day when soul and body shall be joyned together again And for this the Scripture is very clear So our Saviour said Father into Thy hands I commit my Spirit Luk. 23. 46. Stephen at his death kneeled down and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7. 59. Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 8 Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Therefore not in Purgatory So the faithful are desirous and willing to be absent from the body that they may be present with the Lord. And this is the last Article of Faith as the Crown of all I believe the life everlasting or that there is an everlasting life which holds out these three things 1. I believe that after this life there shall be another life in which all the true members of the Church shall be glorifi'd and shall praise God for ever and ever 2. I believe that I am a member of this Church and so shall be a partaker of everlasting life 3. That in this life I have by Faith the beginning of everlasting life For Christ said He that believeth in Me Joh. 3. 36. hath everlasting life So this profit and comfort hence redoundeth unto me that in and through Christ I am justifi'd before God and am an heir of everlasting life Q. Shall we know each other and our Relations in heaven A. Mark the saying of the Apostle Henceforth know we no man after the 2 Cor. 5. 16. flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceâ—orth know we Him no more that is not with an affection meerly humane civil and natural but wholly with a Divine and spiritual affection befitting the state of glory Having premised this I answer in this Syllogism We shall enjoy in heaven every good thing and comfortable gift which may any way increase or add to our joy and happiness But meeting in heaven with our old dear Christian friends knowing of them and enjoying them never to part more either with them or all other the glorious Inhabitants in those heavenly Mansions will ravish us with sweetest delight Therefore we shall know one another in heaven nay our minds being abundantly enlightned with all wisdom and knowledg we shall be able to know not only those holy persons of our former relation or acquaintance but also such as we never knew before in the flesh even all the faithful which ever were are or shall be We shall be able then to say This was Abraham Isaac or Jacob Samuel David c. This was my Father Mother this was my child c. This was he
could not be induced to Print it But he writes Religious books doth as one said Retia salutis expandere spread the nets of Salvation to catch souls in and the good works of Rev. 14. 13. such will last as long as their Books live and follow them also after death I cannot Momo satisfacere as the Proverb is satisfie one who will do nothing himself but carp and cavil at every thing another doth whether deservedly or undeservedly Neither care I much for a detracting Zoilus whom I answer with the Poet Pexatus pulchrè rides mea Zoile trita Sunt haec trita quidem Zoile sed mea sunt Leaving these following Exercitations and Meditations to your most serious Meditation and your Meditations to Gods especial blessing and setting it home upon your hearts by His Holy Spirit that God in all things may be glorified and the salvation of Souls furthered against that great and notable day of the Lord Jesus to whom I commend you and remain Your Friend and Servant Sam. Thomsonn Esse tibi tantâ cautus brevitate videris Hei mihi quà m multis sic quoque longus eris Martial ad librum THE CONTENTS Exercitation I. OF the Covenant and our Covenant interest in God upon these words Ezek. 16. 8 I entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest Mine Where is discussed 1. What a Covenant is The difference between a Law Covenant and Testament The Covenant of God with man twofold 1. Of Works 2. Of Grace What the Covenant of Works was it was confirmed by a double Sacrament proving that God dealt with man in a Covenant way How God can be said to Covenant with man Why God deals with man in a Covenant way rather than in a meer supream absolute way Gods great mercy therein Of the Covenant of Grace Four Reasons why all depends upon faith The sum of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of grace divided into the old and new first and second The Covenant of grace is one in substance proved by two arguments Three things wherein the old and new Covenant agree Fight things wherein they differ Inferences thereupon The happiness of all those that are in Covenant with God and the miseries of those who are not Exhortations comforts and admonitions to those that are in Covenant with God God hath confirmed his Covenant four ways to us How to know if we are in Covenant with God The blessings ensuing thereon A farther description of Gods Covenanting with us A short Paraphrase on Jehovah God in the Old Testament revealed himself by ten names The Conclusion Exercitation II. 1. Of Sacraments in general There first what a Sacrament is How many Sacraments there are Of the word Sacrament whence borrowed and how used A Sacrament is a mysterie and why so Of the outward signs The external and internal form The Sacraments are signs in a fourfold respect Three thrings required in a Sacrament The ends of Sacraments are three Our want and need of Sacraments c. 2. Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular Of the word Baptism Word Baptism used six ways A fourfold Baptism Baptism represents unto us two things The right use of baptism What baptism is How baptism came in place of circumcision Four ways To be baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the S. S. implies three things Two parts of baptism The action of the Minister is twofold the inward baptism is done 1. By the Blood 2. by the Holy Spirit of Christ The ends of baptism are four In baptism Original sin is taken away c. Why was Christ baptized answered in four things How baptism belongs to Infants Infant-baptism asserted by nine Arguments Answer to an Oâ—jection That we have no rule or example for â—aptizing of Infants What warraâ—â— we have for sprinkling answered in â—our things How circumcision and baptism do agree answered in three things Wherein they differ answered in six things Four Aphorisms about baptism Exercitation III. Of the Lords Supper the second Sacrament of the New Testament It hath six appellations What the Lords Supper is A short Paraphrase upon the definition of the Lords Supper The signs and the things signified The analogy and proportion between them How the cup of the Lord is the new Covenant in two respects What are the ends of the Lords Supper answered at large in five respects and more especially in three respects How and wherein bread and wine represent Christs body and blood By this Sacrament our Communion with Christ is sealed and confirmed Two abuses of the Papists 1. Offering up Christs body c. 2. Denying the Cup to the Laity What it is to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ This signifies four things This our eating c. is our Communion with Christ That place 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 explained The Bread and Wine are the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ About Transubstantiation Seven Arguments against it and four Reasonâ— against it What Consubstantiation is Five Reasons against it This is a Sacrament not of Christs living or glorified body but his crucified body and that two ways The outward actions of the Minister are four What each signifie The outward actions of the receiver are two what they signifie Q. Who are to be admitted to be partakers of this Sacrament Answered in three particulars Three things to be performed of every worthy communicant 1. Preparation before the right manner of it and several things wherein it consists 2. Heedfulness in the duty of receiving consists in four things 3. A thankful close consisting in two things What it is to do this in remembrance of Christ in three things The allegory between Christ and the Paschal Lamb explained in thirteen particulars Some sentences about the Supper Exercitation IV. Fear God Eccles 12. 13 The whole verse is thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment The scope and meaning of the first Commandment Seven virtues or parts of obedience due to the first Commandment Descriptions of the fear of God Fear due to God Twofold fear of God as 1. Servile 2. Filial both described Three things wherein servile and filial fear differ Some things oppose the fear of God in excess and some in defect Nine acceptations or significations of fear in Scripture What the fear of God is which is here required Many Encouragements out of Scripture to fear God Several Encomiums or Praises of the fear of God all wholly also out of the Scripture Exhortation to the fear of God Q. What fear Saints may have in the service of God answered in two things Differences between the fear of the Godly and the fear of the wicked God requires the reverence both of a Father and also of a Master An answer to that place in 1 Joh. 4.
men in Adam as believers are in Christ which is by a foenant or Covenant agreement Q. How can God be said to Covenant or enter into promise with man A. It is of Gods great condescension so to do in regard of His Soveraignty over man And yet to give and to promise to give are acts of His dominion and liberality and so no ways repugnant to the great and glorious Majesty of God But it is to confirm us in our hope and confidence in Him and in our obedience unto Him Q. Why doth God deal with man in a Covenant way rather than in a meer supreme and absolute way A. 1. To sweeten and endear Himself unto us So that Adam could not but have thankful and loving thoughts of God that would thus far condescend unto him 2. To incite and encourage Adam the more to obedience and that to a willing and free obedience When our first Parents had broken this Covenant and were fallen God out of His infinite pity mercy and compassion to mankind made with them another Covenant a Covenant of Grace And because man was an ill-keeper when he had his salvation in his own hands he soon by Sin lost it and himself thereby Therefore our gracious God would not have our Salvation any longer in our own keeping but made this His Covenant with man in the hands of a Mediatour even the Lord Jesus Christ who Mal. 3. 1. is therefore called the Angel of the Covenant who will be sure to preserve and keep us by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. And herein Gods unspeakable mercy to manking appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but â—itus 3. 4 5 6 7. according to His mercy He hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by His Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Yea before God pronounced the Curse or Sentence of Judgment after Adam's fall He graciously shewed a way and a surer way of salvation in and through Christ the Mediator when He said the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head As this Covenant was first Preached by God to Adam the Lord shewed him his Sin and the curse due for Sin and then sets an enmity between him and the serpent they must fight it out whereof the issue will be thus A certain seed of the woman shall utterly overthrow Sathan even breaking the head of that Serpent but the Serpent shall only bruise His heel which signified light and temporary afflictions both in the Head and also in the members of Christ the head By virtue of which promise the Church continued until Abraham's time and then the Covenant is renewed In Gen. 22. 18. thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed The condition required of Abraham was to believe so Abraham believed in Gen. 15. 6. God and He counted it to him for righteousness Not that this was Abraham's righteousness before God but that habit that grace of faith chiefly looking to the Messiah promised that believing disposition whereby he was able to believe that promise this was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness Rom. 4. 2 3. which brings us to speak of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is a mutual agreement between God and men whereby God confirms unto men that He will be favourable unto them forgiving them their Sins and giving unto them new righteousness His Holy Spirit and everlasting life by and through His Son our Mediator And men oblige themselves unto God to receive so great benefits by lively faith and to yield to God all true obedience This mutual agreement between God and man is confirmed by outward signs and seals which we call Sacraments Sacraments are holy signs testifying God's good-will toward us and our gratitude and duty towards God This Covenant could not be made without a Mediator for we could never make satisfaction nor return into favour with God by and of our selves Neither could God admit us for His justice sake without sufficient satisfaction which we could never make For we were enemies to God and so there was no way open for us to come unto God but by that new and living way namely the blood of Christ So then this Reconciliation Heb. 10. 20. could never be made but by the satisfaction and death of the Mediator That on which all the promises now initially hang is nothing but believing Who so now believeth in God shall be put within the Covenant And there are these four reasons why all depends upon faith First Because true faith is never alone but draws with it all other Graces he that believes in God hath a good opinion of God and loves God and he that loveth God must needs be full of good works Jam. 2. 17 18. Secondly Only faith makes the promises sure unto us otherwise Christ and the Covenant of Grace had been spared Thirdly The Covenant consists of promises nothing but faith can answer this Covenant which is not a Commandment but a Promise Commandments are answered by obedience but Promises are answered by faith Fourthly It is by faith because God would have it go by free Grace and not of debt God dealeth with us as with Sons and not as with Servants He pays Rom. 3. 27. Rom. 11. us not wages but gives us an inheritance So all boasting is excluded The sum of the Covenant of Grace is this That God will be our God and give us everlasting life in Christ Jesus if we receive Him by faith being freely Joh. 1. 12. Jer. 31. 33. Acts 16. 30 31 by His Father offered unto us where hence will follow new obedience whereby the faithful walk worthy of the Grace received and this is also by the Grace of God This God's eternal love and free Grace towards us is the highest link of our salvation both in order of time nature and causality Whom He predestinated Rom. 8. 29 30. those also He called and whom He called those He justified and whom He justified those also He glorified God loved us when we were Sinners enemies to Him and that by wicked works If our wicked works could not Col. 1. 21. prevent the love of God to us why should we think they can nullify or destroy it if the mass guilt and greatness of Adam's Sin in which all men were equally sharers could not interrupt or frustrate God's counsel of loving us when we were His enemies why should any other Sins over-turn the stability of the same love and counsel when we are become His Sons and have a Spirit given us to bewail and lament our Sins It was God's promise flowing from this everlasting love that caused Him to make an everlasting Covenant with us that He would not turn away from us
Baptism are the Sacrament of our reception and entrance into the Church Q. Wherein do Circumcision and Baptism differ A. 1. In the Rite or Ceremony which is not the same in Baptism as in Circumcision for in Baptism is only a washing but in Circumcision a cutting off the foreakin of the flesh 2. In the circumstance of the sex or age Circumcision belonged only to Males and at eight days old Baptism belongs to both sexes Male and Female and presently after they are born 3. In the manner of signifying Circumcision on God's part promised Grace through the Messiah to come but Baptism through Christ already come And on their part they being Circumcised were received into Grace by believing on the Messiah to come but we through faith in Him already come 4. In the particular promise Circumcision had also the promise of corporal blessings as of the land of Canaan c. But Baptism hath no such special promise of any temporal benefit 5. In the manner of obliging Circumcision on their part obliged them to the keeping of the whole Law Ceremonial Judicial and Moral but Baptism obligeth us only to the keeping of the Moral Law that is to faith and repentance 6. In the objects and duration Circumcision was commanded to the posterity of Abraham only and the Proselytes and was to endure but till the coming of Christ Baptism is instituted for all Nations that will come into the society of the Church and to endure to the end of the world To close up all with these few heads Aphorisms about Baptism 1. Baptism avails though administred by a contemptible person as much as if it were administred by an Apostle for if Baptism were in the merit or worth of the Minister then it did not belong unto Christ 2. The power of baptizing the Lord hath reserved to Himself it is Christ alone that baptizes with the Holy Ghost the applying of the outward Element Christ hath committed to His Ministers lawfully called and deputed 3. Baptism is the same as He is by whose power and authority it is administred Not as He is by whom it is performed 4. Every true believer in Baptism is made a King and a Priest and Prophet Rev. 1. 5. Christ washes us from our sins in His own blood and so makes us Kings and Priests unto God and His Father So St. Crysostome When as Christ hath washed us from our sins in the laver of Baptism by His blood He makes us Kings and Priests unto God Baptism as we have seen is a high Ordinance of God and a means whereby He hath appointed to communicate Christ and His benefits to our Souls and therefore not to be neglected or slightly esteemed but used with all reverence and thankful devotion when it may be had Yet where God denyeth it either in regard of the shortness of the Infants life or by any other unavoidable necessity there comes no danger from the want of Sacraments but only from the contempt of them The right use of Baptism is when inwardly in thy heart thou feelest some motion to sin through thy lusts then meditate on that solemn vow thou madest to God in thy Baptism And if by infirmity thou fallest once or oftner into some sin still have recourse to Baptism that thy Soul may be encouraged therehence For although Baptism be but once administred yet that once testifieth that all mans sins past present or to come are washed away 1 Pet. 3. 21. Eph. 5. 25 26 27. And never rest before thou hast a feeling of that renewing power signified in Baptism namely the power of Christ's death Mortifying sin and the virtue of His resurrection in the renewing of the Spirit EXERCITATION THE THIRD Of the Lords Supper the second Sacrament of the New Testament IT hath several appellations it is called 1. The Lord's Supper or Caena Domini from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communis caena vocatur à communione vescentium For seorsim prandebant prisci Romani sed cum amicis caenabant About Supper-time the Jews were to eat the Paschal Lamb which circumstance of time the Church hath changed according to the liberty in these things she hath It is called the Lord's Supper because our Lord Jesus Christ sitting at His last Supper ordained it instead of the Passeover 2. It is called the Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 10. 21. 3. A convention of the Church 1 Cor. 11. 20 33 When ye meet together in one place c. And When ye come together to eat 4. The Eucharist because of the usual Thanksgiving 5. A Sacrifice so it was called by the ancient Fathers non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut meritorium not a propitiatory or meritorious Sacrifice as the Papists would have it but an Eucharistical Sacrifice because it is a solemn commemoration and celebration of the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ 6. At length it was called Missa from the offerings sent by the rich to the relief of the Poor or from a dismission of the Congregation after the publick Ordinances But we retaining the appellation or name delivered in Scripture call it the Supper of the Lord. There are many detestable and abominable differences between the Lord's Supper and the Popish Mass which I think not fit here to recite as not at all for edification I define the Lords Supper thus The instituted and commanded distribution of Bread and Wine by Christ Himself in which Christ is certainly promised to me and all true believers Or thus The Lord's Supper is the distributing and taking of Bread and Wine commanded by Christ to all true believers that He might testifie by these tokens that He gave His body to death for us and shed His blood and that He gave us these to eat and drink to assure us that He will dwell in us and nourish and quicken us to eternal life First He assures and seals that He gave His body for us upon the Cross and that His blood was as truly shed for us as we see with our eyes the bread to be broken for us and the cup to be given to us Next that He by that His body Crucified and by that His blood poured out will as certainly nourish our Souls to eternal life as surely as our bodies are fed by Bread and Wine taken from the hand of the Minister which are reached forth unto us as seals and pledges of the body and blood of Christ The Rites or Signs here are the Bread broken and eaten the Wine distributed and taken or the breaking and distributing of the Bread the distributing and drinking of the Wine The things signified are the body of Christ Crucified and the blood of Christ poured out the eating and drinking of them signifie our union with Christ by faith whereby we being made partakers of Him and all His benefits from Him as branches from a Vine do suck and draw eternal life or nourishment to eternal life Of this our union and communion with Christ
for ever And when He said take and eat He commanded Heb. 5. 6. us not to offer up His body but only to feed on it So also another abuse of the Papists is to deny the Cup to the people whereas Christ in His institution said Drink ye all of this It is a high Sacrilegious impiety thus expresly to go against Christ's institution in His own words It is by faith alone we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ And yet we say not that the body of Christ is included in the Bread and His blood included in the Cup but if we will enjoy the truth and reality of the Sacrament we must have our hearts lifted up heaven-wards and look upwards where Christ is in the glory of His Father and from whence He shall come to be our Judge for he that seeks Him corporally in these corruptible elements manifestly errs So for me to eat the body of Christ crucified for me and to drink His blood shed for me is not only firmly to believe the whole passion and death of Christ and by it to obtain remission of Joh. 6. 35. to 54. sins and everlasting life but also by His Spirit which dwelleth in me to be more and more united to His blessed body as Christ there said He that eateth My Joh. 6. 56. â—lesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him So that although Christ is in Heaven and we on Earth yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone Eph. 5. 30. 3. 16 17. 4. 15 16. Joh. 6. 57. Even as all the members of the body are quickened and directed by one soul so are we by one and the self same S-pirit So then our eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ which is not corporally but spiritually done signifies four things 1. Our believing of the passion and death of Christ 2. Our receiving remission of sins and everlasting life by faith in Him 3. Our union with Christ by His Holy Spirit which dwelleth both in Christ and us 4. The benefit of quickening by the same Holy Spirit So to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that we through the merits of Christ are received by God into grace and favour and by the same faith we receive remission of sins and are reconciled unto God and that the Son of God that Word which was made flesh who hath Joh. 1. 14. united to Himself our humane nature which He personally took doth dwell in us and hath joyned us to Himself and His assumed humane nature by pouring upon us His Holy Spirit by which He regenerates us and restores light in us righteousness and eternal life the same which shineth in His assumed humane nature Or more briefly thus to eat the body of Christ is 1. To believe in Him 2. By faith to receive remission of sins 3. To be united unto Christ 4. To be made partaker of the life of Christ or to be conformable to Christ by His Holy Spirit which worketh the same things both in Christ and in us This our eating is our communion with Christ which the Scripture teacheth and which in this Sacrament we do profess namely our spiritual union with Christ such as is of the members with the head and of the branches with the vine This eating of His flesh Christ teacheth in John 6. and confirmeth it by these outward signs in the Lord's Supper For in the Lord's Supper as we do eat the Bread and drink the Wine even so there as surely Christ gives to all true believers His body to eat and His blood to drink This is clearly manifested to us in the words of institution Mat. 26. 26 27 28. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. And this promise is repeated by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread To explain this briefly It is called the cup of blessing or of giving thanks because it is received to this end that we should give thanks to Christ for His death and passion for us or that we should use it so as to put us in mind of Christ's benefits towards us and for these to give Him thanks Communion of the blood of Christ Communion is a participation of a common thing the Communion of the body and blood of Christ is by faith to be made partakers of Christ and all His benefits the same Spirit being in us which is in Christ and working the same thing in us which he doth in Christ It is a spiritual communion which believers have with Christ as members with the head and as branches with the vine For the Bread and Wine are the Communion that is the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ This Communion as the Apostle there said consisteth in this that we being many are one body This makes against the corporal eating of the Papists in this Sacrament for our communion with Christ is only by faith and by the Holy Ghost Christ is the common head His benefits are common and communicated to all His members Hence also it follows that the members are common among themselves whence should flow mutual love and amity The Papists to uphold their Transubstantiation do say that we must take the words litterally and so immediately after the words of consecration at the last syllable of the last word that the Bread is transubstantiated or changed into the very body of Christ and the Wine into His blood But this is a Sacramental speech of Christ This is my body As St. Austin to that general rule about Sacramental actions adds this instance of eating the body of Christ This is a certain way said he of finding out whether such a phrase or speech be proper or figurative that whatsoever in Divine Word or holy Scriptures cannot be done by honest and good manners nor be properly referred to the truth of our faith we must know it to be a figurative speech And shortly after instances in that place Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man Joh. 6. 53. and drink His blood ye have no life in you Doth our Saviour here command such a nefarious act to have the Jews fall upon Him kill and â—ley Him to eat His flesh and drink His blood No it is a figurative speech there Christ commands them to communicate with the passion and sufferings of the Lord and most sweetly to lay it up in remembrance that for us His body and flesh was crucified and wounded So also this is a figurative speech when our Saviour speaks of the Bread This is my body and of the Cup This is my blood This Cup is the New Testament in My blood where the
God He â—ob 38. 41. feedeth the young ravens when they cry unto Him If God feed the beasts and birds surely He will not suffer the soul Prov. 10. 3. Psal 37. 10. Isai 33. 16. of His people to famish In the days of fumine they shall be satisfied Bread shall be given them their waters shall be sure And as for rayment If God cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more cloath us Mat. 6. 30 31 32. Therefore take we no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithall shall we be cloathed for our heavenly father knoweth we have need of all these things Be we diligent and industrious in our places ever using lawful means that is our part for to do But the care of provision and maintenance is God's part which we must leave to Him Who hath promised to bless our lawful and honest endeavours subservient to His holy will and command 2. As for maintenance and provision so also my Expectation from God is that as I have committed all my ways to Him and trust in Him so He will bring them Psal 37. 5. Josh 5. 9. Rom. 8. 28. all to pass for the best That he will rowl away my reproach and cause all things to work together for my good He will plead my cause and execute judgment for me He will bring me forth Micah 7. 9. to the light and I shall behold His righteousness My Redeemer is strong Jer. 50. 34. the Lord of hosts is his name He shall Isai 51. 22. throughly plead my cause for He hath stiled Himself the God that pleadeth the cause of His people The Lord God of recompences will surely requite Jer. 51. 56. My expectation is higher than these temporal things as heroically and Christianly Luther once said Lord I have sworn and am resolved that I will not be put off with these lower things or to esteem them my portion c. 2dly But my expectation is higher my expectation from God is chiefly for spiritual and everlasting mercies That Acts 26. 18. as He hath opened mine eyes and turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God so that I Ephes 5. 8 1â— may walk as a child of light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Having respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119. 8. not allowing my sell in any onâ— known sin Denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously Godlily in this present word To grow Tit. 2. 12 2 Pet. 3. 18. Joh. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Eph. 3. 19. in Grace and in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus that of His fulness I may receive and Grace for Grace that so may make my calling and election sure being filled with the fulness of God that he will grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with all might by his Spirit in the inneâ— man that Christ may dwell in my hearâ— by faith c. that as he who hath begun 16. 17. a good work in me will also finish Phill. 1. 6. Heb. 12. 2. it For he is the author and finisher of my faith Who is able to build me up â— Acts 20. 32. and that He will settle strengthen and stablish me in every good word and work to do His will working in mâ— 1 Pet. 5. 10. Heb. 13. 21 that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ That I Phill. 1. 10 11. may approve those things which are excellent being sincere and without offence filled with the fruits of righteousness c. Pressing toward the mark Phill. 3. 11 14. for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead that is to such a measure of Grace and Holiness as I shall have 2 Tim. 3. 17. at the resurrection of the dead that I may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work And for my outward conversation that it may be as it becometh the Gospel Phill. 1. 27. Tit. 2. 3 10. of Christ as becometh holiness that I may adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things so that the Word of Verse 5. God may not be blasphemed nor the way 2 Pet. 2. 2. Jam. 1. 27. of truth evil spoken of through my default and that I may keep my self unspotted of the world walking so as 1 Joh. 2. 6. Christ walked while He was here upon the earth That after I have served my generation by the will of God and shall fall asleep and be gathered to my fathers Acts 13. 36. 2 Tim. 4. 7. and see corruption after I have fought a good fight here finished my course Heb. 12. 28. and kept the faith I may receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that 1 Pet. 1. 4. jude 1. fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me and to which I am preserved in Christ Jesus This is my hope this is my expectation for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to 2 Tim. 1. 12. keep that which I have committed to Him even the keeping of my soul and the crown of everlasting life against that day The Lord is the portion of my soul I am 3. 24 Prov. 23. 18. therefore will I wait for Him and my expectation shall not be cut off For they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary Isai 40. 31. they shall walk and not saint Now the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient 2 Thess 3. 5. waiting for Christ Be not weary in well-doing continue Addition 2 Thess 3. 13. to wait upon God Take heed of impatiency of spirit like Joram that wicked King of Israel in that dreadful man-devouring famine of Samaria who 2 King 6. 33. though he acknowledged this evil is from the Lord yet impatiently and wickedly added wherefore should I wait on the Lord any longer He was convinced of the hand of God in His judgments upon Him so rationally he should have concluded therefore will I wait upon Him and seek to Him for relief Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque feret the same hand that wounds the same hand must bring the cure It had been more rationally inferred this evil is from the Lord therefore upon Him will I wait to Him will I address my self for deliverance But he concludes as in the Hebrew it is Mah Ochil â—adonai Quid expectabo Dominum wherefore should I wait on the Lord why should I fast and pray or carry my self patiently as the Chaldee hath
it or as in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid deprecabor why shall I pray against it any longer Remember the case of Israel when they were even at their Journeys end near upon the borders of the promised land because of their murmuring and impatiency hear their terrible doom from the Lord As truly as I live saith the Lord as ye have spoken in mine ears Numb 14. 28 to 36. so will I do to you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshuah the son of Nun. But your little ones which ye said should be a prey them will I bring but as for you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredomes until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness After the number of the days in which ye searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities even forty years and ye shall know my breach of promise I the Lord have spoken it I will surely do it c. in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall dye Take heed of fretting against the Lord and of impatiency of spirit lest the same or the like judgment befall thee But say with David as here My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him EXERCITATION THE SIXTH Mark 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel HEre our Saviour sets down the way that lost man must take to come to God whom doth our blessed Lord invite to come unto Him those that labour and are heavy-laden Repentance Mat. 11. 28. and Faith are the way whereby we come unto God Christ is primarily the way for no man cometh to the Father but by Joh. 14. 6. Him He is the immediate way but these are the ways in and through Him which He hath prescribed 1. To speak of Repentance We must know our sins feel the weight of them be truly sensible of them and that we are no way able to help our selves else we will never come to Christ and never seek out for a Saviour for the whole have no need of a Mat. 9. 11. Physician but they that be sick while we think our selves whole and healthy we are well enough but it is the sin-sick Soul that sees his want and need of this great Physician the Lord Jesus So Desinition then Repentance is a hearty grief for my sins even because thereby I have broken God's holy Laws and offended such a gracious Father which works in me a hatred and loathing of sin and of my self for sin with a resolution to lead a new life Now there is a legal Division repentance which is a grief of mind through the sence of God's wrath threatned against sin without any true hatred of sin There is also secondly an Evangelical repentance which is a through change of a sinner in mind will and actions from evil to good The former of these was in Ahab who put on sack-cloth and went softly c. 1. Kings 21. 26. when he heard the evil threatned against him and his house and this may be in wicked men through fear of punishment and of hell not for their sins against God so upon the next temptation they run into sin again But Evangelical repentance which is because we have broken God's Laws and offended so gracious a Majesty this it makes us more watchful over our ways more desirous and careful to please God more Eph. 5. 15. Gen. 17. 1. Psal 16. 8. 2 Cor. 7. 10 11. fearful to offend Him more circumspect in our walking before Him setting Him before our eyes Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto life not to be repented of whereas legal repentance which is common to wicked men worketh death or is the fore-runner of death whose grief is from an apprehension of their miseries or some wounding of their Consciences for their sins without faith or amendment or conversion unto God whereby all their repentance is in them an entrance or a way to a death But behold the good effects of a serious Evangelical repentance The self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what sorrow it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge I know that some do take the former part of this sentence meerly in a literal sence Wordly sorrow causeth death that is sorrow or grief for outward crosses and losses causeth such anguish of mind so affecting the body that brings sicknesses diseases and death at last We see then that true repentance is an inward and hearty sorrow for sin especially that we have offended so gracious a God and so loving a Father together with a setled purpose of heart and a careful endeavour to leave and Psal 119. 112. forsake all our sins and to live a Christian life according to all Gods Commandments So the parts of repentance are 1. A The parts of true repentance are â—our confession of sin 2. a Bewailing what we have confessed 3. Lifting our selves up with confidence in Gods mercies and Christs merits 4. With a firm purpose of abstaining from sin and obeying Gods Commandments Let us a little farther consider these 1. An humble Confession I acknowledged my sins unto thée and mine iniquities Psal 32. 5 have I not hidden I said I will confess mine iniquities unto the Lord. 2. A bewailing Dan. 9. 6. 8. Ezra 9. 6. of what we have confessed We are ashamed and blush to lift up our faâ—es to thee O our God for our iniquities are increased over our heads c. Psal 38. 18. I will be sorry for my sins 3. A lifting up of our selves in confidence of Gods mercies through Christs merits There Psal 130. 3. is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared In the multitude of thy mercies I come unto thee with the Lord there Psal 5. â— Psal 130. 7. is mercy and with Him there is plenteous redemption And through Christs merits Christ dyed for the ungodly To Rom. 5 6. this end Christ both dyed and rose Rom. 14. 9. and revived that He might be Lord both of dead and living Christ dyed for our 1 Cor. 15. 3. 1 John 2 2. Heb. 7. 25. sins according to the Scriptures He is the Propitiation for our sins And He is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by Him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Fourth part of repentance is a stedfast resolution of forsaking sin and of obeying Gods holy Commandments I hate every false way whoso confesseth Psal 101. 3. Prov.
28. 13. Psal 119. 8. and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandments So we must be broken from our sins Psal 119. 101. 104. and for our sins not only to leave and abhor some sins but every way of wickedness utterly to abhor To hate Rom. 12. 9. Psal 19. 12. Psal 18. 23. every false way and to refrain our feet from every evil way abhor that which is evil even secret sins and beloved sinners to keep our selves from our iniquity That beloved sin which we have long used and is even natural and customary to us and that sin which doeth Heb. 12. 1. so easily beset us which may be as dear to us as the right hand or the right eye yet to pluck out these sins Matt. 5. 29 30. and cut them off and cast them from us And not only to hate sin but to abhor Job 42. 6 Ezek. 6. 9. 20. 43. our selves for it and loath our selves in our own sight for all those evils we have committed This this is true repentance which unless we have and attain unto we shall never be saved Deut. 9. 7. Psal 27. 7. It is not enough to repent once we must remember our former sins the sins of our youth yea our original sin for we were shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us Eccles 7. 20. Prov. 24. 16. Daily let us renew our repentance as we sin every day A just man falleth seven times and riseth up again that is many times a certain number for an uncertain Even as a candle newly blowen out and yet smoaking is kindled and revived by a little breath So a Soul is delivered from ordinary dangers and streights by a timely viz. a dayly repentance A member out of joint must be set as soon as may be else a callous substance may grow in the Cavity and hinder the placing of it in again So unless we renew our repentance daily a callous hardness may grow on our hearts and hinder our renewing again by repentance Thus far of the first step of our recovery out of a natural condition into a state of Life and Salvation for God will bring us as by the gates of Hell unto Heaven first He will bring us low before He will raise us up A child is about four weeks in the dark cell of the womb and thence it comes out through difficulties and pains which makes it cry when it comes into the World Even so a child of God is held sometimes in the dark to make him see his misery in a natural lost condition and then with pain and grief through the mortification of sin He comes into newness of life to be born again by the Word and Spirit and so is made the child of God Except a John 3. 5. man be regenerate and thus born again He cannot enter into the kingdom of God Now the second step is And believe the Gospel So we see that repentance and Faith are the ordinary means our blessed Saviour here prescribeth to Salvation The word Faith hath five acceptations in Scripture 1. Faith is taken by a metonymie of the adjunct for the subject for the doctrine of Faith or the Gospel which we do believe Holding Faith and a 1 Tim. 1. 19. good conscience which some having put away concerning Faith have made Shipwrack Holding the mysterie of Faith 1 Tim. 3. 9. 1 Tim. 4. 1. Jude 5. Jam. 2. 19. in a pure conscience 2. Faith is taken for historical or dogmatical Faith Thou believest there is one God thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble This Faith which is common both to the reprobate and elect consists in a bare assent 3. There is a temporary Faith which is the knowledg and joyful assent of the mind yielded to Gods promises for a time till afflictions come He that Mat. 13. 20 21. receiveth the seed into stony places is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself dureth but for a while for when tribulations or persecutions come because of the word by and by he is offended 4. There is a Faith of miracles which is a certain perswasion of some strange effects and works to be done by the power of God If I have Faith so that I could remove mountains If you 1 Cor. 13. 2. Mat. 17. 20. have Faith ye should say to this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossiâ—le to you This Faith was granted but for a certain time and was given to reprobates also as appears by the example of Judas Iâ—oariot to whom the gift of working miracles was given as well as to the rest of the Apostles 5. But there is a saving Faith which we define thus A virtue by which adhering to Gods faithfulness we rest upon Him that we may obtain what He hath promised to us Or it is a firm and constant apprehension of Christ and all His merits as they are promised and offered in the Word and Sacraments Or once more it is the gift of God by which an elect man applies to himself all the free promises of Christ made known in the Gospel and so he most sweetly resteth upon them The just shall live by Faith this is the Rom. 1. 17. Faith of Gods elect which is proper to the elect and which none can have but the elect and chosen of God As Titus 1. 1 2. Acts 13. 48. many as were ordained to eternal life believed The general object of true saving Faith is the whole Truth of Goâ— revealed but the special object of Faith as it justifies is the promise of remission of sins by the Lord Jesus So theâ— God when he gives this Faith 1. Hâ— enlightneth the understanding to see thâ— truth and preciousness of the rich offerâ— of Grace in the Lord Jesus The lighâ— shineth in darkness now we have received John 1. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 11 12. 14. the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God 2. God enables the will to embrace these rich offers of grace and to stretch out all the desires of the Soul after them and to rest and build everlasting comfort upon them The things of God as they are 1 Cor. 1. 18. 2. 14. foolishness to mans natural judgment so they are enmity to his natural will And therefore when God gives Faith He gives a new light to the understanding and new motions and inclinations to the heart As the Covenant of grace is I will give them a new heart Ezek. 36. 26. It must be a mighty power to turn the heart of man upside down and cause him to pitch all the desires of his Soul on a supernatural object No man John 6. 44. Eph. â— 19 20. can come to me
Faith fills the heart full of spiritual joy and therefore these two are joyned together believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And so 1 Pet 1. 8. 2 Pet. 1. 6 10. a believer strives to add to his faith vertue c. to grow and increase more and more never to give over reaching forth and pressing toward the mark if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection Phill. 3. 11. of the dead to attain to such a measure of Grace and Holiness as I shall have at the resurrection of the dead when I shall receive the end of my faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. even the salvation of my soul where faith shall for ever be swallowed up with fruition EXERCITATION THE SEVENTH Psal 93. 5. Holiness becometh Thine house O Lord for ever HOliness in the Septuagint is rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanctimonia from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanctus which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some say is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 veneratio ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 veneror colo Then it implies that holy persons are true worshippers of God 2. Others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a privative particle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terra quasi extra terram vel sine â—erra then it denotes that Saints must not be glewed to the earth but trample all earthly things under their feet 3. Others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duco because the Godly are led in the ways of God So said the Apostle As many as Rom. 8. 14. are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God Holiness is the end of our election for God chose us in Christ before the Eph. 1. 4. foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love This Holiness makes the Church and people of God and every particular Servant of His to excel all the world besides For Saints and holy persons are excellent persons they are more excellent Psal 16. 3. Prov. 12. 2â— than their neighbour This comely and becoming this excellent dress of holiness makes us like the most holy God Therefore He commands us be ye holy as I am holy and be ye holy for 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. I the Lord your God am holy If we would shew our selves God's Children and call Him Father let us be followers Eph. 5. 1. of God as dear children endeavouring to come near His nature by Holiness and Sanctimony of life Yea God is Holiness it self in the abstract Once have I Psal 89. 35. sworn by My holiness c. that is by my Self who am holiness it self Holiness applyed unto God is that Holiness of God what it is Divine uncreated essence which being it self most holy and undesiled loveth every thing which is so and loatheth and hateth every thing which is not so The men of Bethshemesh after they had so pryed into the Ark experimentally said Who can stand before this holy Lord 1 Sam. 6. 20. God Holiness applyed unto men signifies Holiness of men what it is that created quality of pureness wherein the Saints resemble God being pure severed in part from the mixture of sin as God is holy and pure Here we are unperfectly pure and clean and unpolluted separate from sin and corruption but such we shall be most perfectly in heaven So the nearer that any come to God in holiness the more they are like unto God best liked and beloved of Him Therefore this should breed in our hearts a love of holiness and a hatred of whatsoever is contrary unto it it should kill in us all evil thoughts and opinions of God that may rise in our hearts seeing in Him who is holiness it self there can be no iniquity No evil shall dwell with Him He hateth all Psal 5. 5. those that are workers of iniquity He cannot endure to behold iniquity in the sons of men but with indignation He Habb 1. 13. is of purer eyes to behold evil Holiness is a real change of a man Definition of Holiness from the filthiness of sin into the purity of the image of God To put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the Ephes 4. 22 23 24. deceitful lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Christ is the sum of the whole Scriptures therefore necessarily He who is the new man must be the rule of holiness Holiness is a conformity unto Christ if we consider the nature of it when we are reindued with that image of God after which we were at first created We were predestinated to be conformed Rom. 8. 29. to the image of His Son that is to be conformed to Christ in His nature which is Holiness in His end which is blessedness and in the way thereunto which is by sufferings So our holiness must bear a proportion to Christ's holiness for conformity cannot be without proportion 1. Our holiness must have the same principle and seed with Christ's holiness namely His Spirit 2. It must be conformable to Christ's holiness in the ends of it as the glory of God and the good of the Church Rom. 11. 36. 3. Our holiness must be proportionable to Christ's holiness in regard of the parts of it it must be universal to have respect to all Gods Commandments and that with the whole man both Soul and Body So the Apostle prays for the Psal 119. 8. 1 Thess 5. 23. Thessalonians And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 4. In the manner of working and there 1. It must be done with self-denyal So said our Saviour If any Mat. 16. 24. man will follow Me let him deny himself c. 2. It must be done in obedience to God so Christ said In the volume Heb. 10. 5. of thy book it is written of Me to do Thy will O God Lo I come to do thy 7. 9. will O God 3. It must have growth and proficiency with it therefore we are bid to grow in Grace and in the 2 Pet. 3. 18. knowledge of our Lord Jesus A plant while it hath life in it will grow so a Child c. Even so we while we have the life of true Grace in us will strive to grow and make proficiency in the ways of holiness Sanctification is a real change both of our quality and dispositions Of Lyons Isai 11. 6. we become Lambs though we were fierce cruel hard-hearted c. formerly Sanctification makes us gentle meek easie to be intreated peaceable â—am 3. 17. full of mercy and good fruits c. Briefly it is a change of the whole man and
these ungodly Swearers shall and that for ever for the Lord hath said He will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain God will have us to fear and reverence His glorious and fearful name the Deut. 28. 58. Psal 99. 3. Lord our God Let men praise His great and terrible name for it is holy The Jews heretofore were and yet still are so superstitious erring too much on the right hand that they mention not the Name of God but by a circumloquution and so had divers phrases to express God by as Caiaphas said to Christ Art thou the Son of the Blessed Mark 14. 61. would not say of God or of the Lord. But these on the contrary cannot speak six words without an oath and think it a Gentile quality and a gracing to their speeches to swear by the great and dreadful name of God I must not say they are Atheists although I really Tit. 1. 15 16. believe them so to be their mind and conscience is desiled They profess that they know God but in their works they deny Him being abominable disobedient unto every good work reprobate Like as they abhor not evil and abhor Psal 36. 4 10 3. Zech. 11. 8. to walk in God's ways even so the Lord will abhor them Their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched Isai 66. 24. and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh Although they think as their brethren of old those wicked rebellious Jews that they have made a Covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with Hell that when the Isai 28. 15. over-flowing scourge shall pass through that it shall not come unto them But the Lord telleth them your covenant 18. with death shall be disanulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through then ye shall be trodden down by it Some may think me too invective or â—atyrical against these prophane Sweaâ—ers let such know that these are the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever They are God's Mal. 1. 4. â—nemies that take His name in vain Psal 139. 20. which should cause grief of heart and detestation of spirit to all those that love and fear the Lord. So the following words of David are Do not I hate Verses 21 22. them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies We have not a prophetical spirit as David had to know certainly God's enemies although by their fruits they may be known we Mat. â— 20. may and must hate their vices and wickednesses and leave them to the righteous judgment of God continuing to mourn for these abominations which do make the Land to mourn and not ceasing to pray for them If peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. God will give them repentance unto life and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will to do his will Never was a child more like his father than they are like their father the Devil whose works they Joh. 8. 44. do By cursing and swearing whoredom Hos 4. 4. and adultery they break out for usually these abominable sins with others the like do go together they that make no conscience of one sin neither will they of another And when once the Devil hath gotten sound footing in such or such persons he drives them on without resistance They break all bonds asunder and cast all cords from them no bounds will hold them neither Psal 2. 3. Luk. 18. 4. the Laws of God nor man for they fear neither nor the checks of their own Consciences But like fed horses Jer. â— 8. neigh after their neighbours wise therefore God will cast them into a bed but it shall be a siery one into great tribulations Rev. 8. 22. except they repent of their deeds for whore-mongers and adulterers Heb. 13. 4. God will judge though they may escape the judgment of men yet God will assuredly judge them and will render to every one according to his 2 Cor. 5. 10 works Although while they are here they make the Land to mourn and the earth to groan under them to bear such wicked wretches God will come and Rom. 8. 2â— put a difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So Eccles 9. 2. we leave these Swearers who have attained to the highest form in the Devil's School By all these things we are taught how grievously they do sin who swear so rashly and easily oaths flowing from them as water out of a conduit in their ordinary speeches and discourses whose mouths are full of cursings and bitterness Rom. 3. 14. Job 15. 5. whose mouths utter their iniquities their own mouth condemns them Verse 6. and their own lips testifie against them they in the mean time not thinking that thereby they do expose the glory and the name of God to scorn and so do urge and provoke God to shew and inflict the severity of His judgments and vengeance upon them for the Lord will not suffer those to go unpunished who thus take His name in vain The Son of Syrach said Accustom not Ecclesiasticus 23. 9 10 11 thy mouth to swearing neither use thy self to the naming of the holy one For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blew-mark so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house If he shall offend his sin shall be upon him and if he acknowledge not his sin he maketh a double offence and if he swear in vain he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of calamities There is none that frequently swears but sometimes he forswears or perjureth himself like-as he who useth his mouth to multitude of words sometimes must needs speak unfit things Therefore said the wise man In the multitude of words Prov. 10. 19. there wanteth not sin But some will think to say O Lord O God O Jesus c. in their common talk or in a wondering way good God! good Lord is no sin Know assuredly that such foolish admirations and taking of God's Holy name lightly into our mouths on every slight occasion is utterly condemned in the third Commandment So the Reverend Archbishop Vsher and many other reverend and learned Divines do firmly conclude There is also a superstitious and idolatrous oath to swear by an idol or by Gods Creatures as by the Mass our Zeph. 1. 5. Lady c. by bread fish salt fire Amos 8. 14. light and many such-like fond trashes Whereas God never made or appointed His creatures for such uses Others will plight
Aegypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts 45. â—3 I have sworn by My self said the Lord that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear out of which place the Apostle quoteth that memorable place That at the name of Jesus Phill. 2. 10 11. every knee should bow c. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and many other places If by swearing the whole worship of God is meant then certainly they that addict themselves to customary rash as well as false swearing want both Religion and Conscience Q. Is it lawful for Christians to swear or take an oath I mean when they are lawfully called thereunto A. It is lawful for us to swear by the name of God when the Magistrate commands it or urgent necessity requires it and that for these four Reasons 1. That the glory of God may be manifested for the truth and the clearing of the truth brings glory to God 2. That we may thereby provide for the safety of others 3. Because by the Scripture it is evident that we may take a lawful oath Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and Deut. 6. 13. serve Him and swear by His name 4. We have the examples of former Saints for doing of it Objection But the Anabaptists and others urge that although it was lawful for the fathers under the Old Testament yet not for us under the New Testament who are bid not to swear at all Mat. 5. 34. Jam. 5. 12. I answer 1. Christ came not to dissolve Solution the Law but to fulfil it that is Mat. 5. 17. the Moral Law to which an oath belongs for an oath is of the Law of nature and of the Moral Law which is not abrogated by the coming of Christ and therefore is not taken away by Christ 2. Because it concerns the honour of God and love to our neighbour 3. Because we have laudable examples of oaths taken even in the New Testament Christ Himself very often used the form of an oath to confirm His Doctrine by Verily verily I say unto Mat. 5. 18. Joh. 3. 5. 11 c. you c. And the Apostle Paul he saith God is my witness whom I serve in my spirit c. And 2 Cor. 1. 23. where is Rom. 1. 9. the just form of an oath and whence we took our definition of an oath I call 2 Cor. 1. 23. God to record or witness upon my soul c. where he invokes the witness of God to preserve and keep him in swearing that which is right and to punish him if he doth lye Athanasius made a solemn oath to purge himself when he was accused to the Emperor An oath is therefore ordained of God that it should be a bond of truth among men and a testimony that God is the authour and defender of truth So the Apostle saith I speak the truth in Christ Rom. 9. 1. I lye not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost And so in another place God is my record how greatly Phill. 1. 8. I love you c. and in many other places So the Angel lifted up his hand to Rev. 10. 5 6. heaven and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever c. 4. The Moral worship of God is perpetual a lawful oath is Moral worship because it is an invocation of God therefore it is perpetual 5. The Prophets describing the worship of God in the times of the New Testament call an oath by the name of God He that sweareth in the earth Isai 65. 16. shall swear by the God of truth And so in other places 6. From the end of an oath which is the confirming of faith and truth and for the deciding of strifes and controversies both in Church and Common-wealth So an oath is profitable lawful and necessary And by all these reasons and arguments we see clearly that whereas our Saviour said Swear not at all c. and Mat. 5. 34. Saint James Above all things swear Jam. 5. 12. not c. that only rash false and unnecessary oaths are there forbidden Q. By whom must we swear A. By the name of the true God alone for these reasons 1. For as God alone is to be feared and worshipped so He alone is to be Deut. 10. 20. sworn by 2. God expresly forbiddeth us to swear by any other name Make no Exod. 23. 13. mention of the name of other Gods 3. The Lord will have the worship of invocation to be given to none other but to Himself O thou that hearest Prayers Psal to Thee alone shall all flesh come Now an oath is an invocation of God 4. An oath attributeth to him by whom we swear knowledge of the heart omniscience omnipresence c. which are proper only to God alone 5. To Him by whom we swear is deferred the execution of punishment and omnipotency by which He defendeth the truth and punisheth those that swear vainly or wickedly and are perjured But God alone is Almighty and He that executeth vengeance and therefore said our Saviour Fear Him who can cast both soul and body into Mat. 10. 28. hell Q. About what things may we take an oath A. Those only are lawful oaths which are not contrariant to the Word of God and which are taken about things true certainly known lawful in our own power to perform weighty matters necessary profitable and worthy things And oaths taken about any things contrary to either of these are unlawful as of false things and not certainly known unlawful not in our power c. Q. Whether all oaths are to be kept A. An oath rightly taken about lawful things true certain weighty and in our power are necessarily to be kept But oaths about unlawful things whether through error or through weakness and against Conscience such oaths are not to be kept but we are to be humbled for them For he that keeps an unlawful oath twice sinneth as 1. By swearing evilly 2. By observing that which he hath wickedly sworn Q. Whether extorted or enforced oaths are to be kept A. They are to be kept if they contain nothing unlawful and if they have those conditions formerly set down as true known lawful c. although those oaths be unprofitable and hurtful to our selves But if any oaths be extorted or drawn from us through fear and weakness and against conscience they do not oblige but are to be retracted For what is wicked to be done is wicked also to be sworn and we must not add sin to sin But extorted oaths if they be not wicked and impious about lawful things and things in our own power although difficult and hurtful to us yet are to be observed For that which is lawful to do is lawful to swear and that which is lawful to swear is lawful to
day is altered The Jews did and do observe Saturday because upon that day God rested from the work of Creation which now is changed into the first day of the week A. This was done not by humane but by Divine authority which appears by the practice of Christ and the Apostles Joâ— 20. 19. 26. 20. 7. which should be a sufficient rule to us especially because the Apostles have added a Commandment thereunto And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. there is no other reason but in regard of the Lord Christ's special institution Rev. 1. 10. why it should be called the Lords-day as the Lords Prayer because of His making and the Lords Supper is so also 1 Cor. 11 2â— called because it was of Christ's immediate institution therefore there is no special mention made of it in the New Testament because there was no question made at all of this change in the Apostles time it was so commonly known and another reason which I imagine why it is not mentioned in the New Testament not to deter the Jews from coming into the Church for we read in several places of the Acts of the Apostles how much and how far they Acts 15. 29. 21. 24. condescended to the Jews to win them to Christ So this day is specially dedicated to the Lords service for otherwise all the dayes of the week are the Lords dayes and he is to be served and worshipped in them but on this day wholly and more especially For Christ alone could change the sabbath day who is the Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12. 8. Athanasiuâ— plainly saith that Christ himself did change the day There are many more arguments for the change of the Sabbath which we read of but I spare prolixity As God rested from the works of Creation then he sanctified and blessed the seventh day on which He rested so it was meet that our Lord Jesus Christ having finished the work of our Redemption on the Cross when He said It is finished and Joh. 19. 30. bowed His head and gave up the ghost and rested in the grave and was declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1. 4. by His resurrection from the dead this same day in which Christ rested from His labour and the work of our redemption which was greater than the work of Creation this day did He sanctifie unto Himself This day as Christ sanctified by His resurrection so by twice Joh. â—â— 19. â—â— Acts 2 â— â— appearing to His Apostles on the same day and by sending the Holy Ghost upon them on the same day which day Acts 20. â— 1 Cor. 16. â— Apoâ— â— â—â— the Apostles observed and the Churches also But in the words at first read God said that the Sabbath was a sign between Him and the Children of Israel therefore some say it is a type or a ceremony or a representation of something to come We have proved it not to be a ceremony but we may well and will also grant it to be a type or representation of our heavenly rest that perpetual Sabbath Heb. 4. 3. 9. of rest we shall keep there But sign signifies here as much as a document so Christ said By this shall Joh. 13. 35. all men know that ye are My Disciples if ye love one another In the observation of the Lords Day there is a common and publick profession made of that Communion which is between God and us So then every solemn profession is a sign of that thing of which it is a profession so also the Sabbath is called a Sign in that common reason But some will say this Sabbath was enjoyned only to the Children of Israel what is that to us This belongs also to the spiritual Israel and not only to the bodily which Rom. 9. â— were of that lineage by corporal generation The Jews alone were Israel 1 Cor. 10. 18. after the flesh but we also after the spirit for the believing Gentiles are called the Israel of God Gal. 6. 1â— The word Remember is prefixed to this fourth Commandment to shew that although all the Commandments are needful diligently to be observed and remembred yet this more especially The word Remember is to put us in mind 1. Of our natural forgetfulness of this Commandment 2. Of the excellency and worth of it 3. To prepare our selves for the due keeping of it For we are naturally most negligent in it suffering our selves to be with-drawn by our worldly businesses from the Lords Service upon the Lords day and therefore such a special warning is needful to be added And as to keep it holy when it is come so also to prepare our selves for it and put our hearts our selves in a ready Sabbath-days posture and to dispose our worldly businesses so that if possible we may have no avocation lett or hinderance on the Lords day To speak a little more of the words read at first in Exodus 31. 13 c. for this word Verily the Septuagint render it see to it or look unto it that ye keep My Sabbath then we have the reasons annexed 1. It is a sign between Me and you of which word Sign we have spoken already 2. That ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you as ye expect a Sabbath-blessing or for Me to instamp My image of holiness upon you see that ye keep holy My Sabbath Observe here also the frequent iterated injunctions ye shall keep it holy therefore 3. It is fenced with such dreadful Comminations Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death And whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people And again he shall surely be put to death and more such expressions here are So then it is not at every man's liberty if he will observe the Sabbath or no. God as He is faithful in His promises of mercy so also in His threatnings of vengeance Although Sabbath-prophaners may escape punishment here God will assuredly without great repentance make them suffer for ever hereafter for slighting neglecting and breaking of His Covenant of the Sabbath For the breaking of the Sabbath is a violation of the whole Worship of God Wo therefore to those prophane ungodly Sabbath-breakers who are also usually addicted to Oaths Cursings and Blasphemies to Whoredom Drunkenness and other notorious abominations for one such hainous sin never goes alone whose judgment lingreth 2 Pet. 2. 3. not and their damnation slumbreth not Wo also to those who idle away the Sabbath spending it in worldly discourses gadding gazing idleness and such-like as if the negative part of keeping the Sabbath thou shalt do no manner of work were enough never looking to the positive part to keep it holy to spend the whole day in God's Service to His glory and for their own spiritual edification and advantage They that will not sanctifie God's rest here shall never enter
an anxious and solicitous care of which before we spake which distracteth the mind that it cannot wholly be intent to God's Service as is required And this doth partly arise from covetousness and partly from diffidence and distrust in God's Promises and Providence as before we said So we must regulate our desires of these outward things in subserviency to God's Will His Glory and our own Salvation and to desire heavenly things in the first place before and above all earthly things Spiritual things we may pray for absolutely and there let us open our mouthes wide be large in our desires for them and God will fill us Blessed are they that hunger and thirst Psal 81. 10. Mat. 5. 6. after righteousness for they shall be satisfied God takes it well at our hands when we ask heavenly things in the first place then He will give us earthly things as an advantage So God did to Solomon because he asked not riches or honour or the necks of his enemies but because he asked Wisdom therefore said the Lord Wisdom and knowledg is granted unto thee and I will give thee 2 Chron. 1. 10 11 12. also riches and wealth and honour such as none ever had before thee c. Take we heed yet that we seek not earthly things inordinately or over-earnestly Gen. 30. 1. as Rachel said Give me children or else I dye Nor to seek them by sinful or unlawful means to the hazard of our souls and everlasting Salvation A Christian can be set in no estate or condition wherein the abundant care of God is not seen over him and commonly in the greatest straights He sheweth the greatest care of us As water runs strongest in the narrowest passages so when we walk in darkness and have Isa 50. 10. no light when we seek water and there is none and our tongue faileth for thirst Isa 41. 17. then is Gods fittest time to help us and then is our most needful time to stay our selves upon Him God many times takes our extremity for His opportunity to do us good In the mount will the Gen. 22. 14. Lord be seen Many will say they trust in God aye but most commonly it is when their Coffers and Barns are full then it is an easie thing for them to say they depend upon God But the tryal of a Christians Faith is if God doth strip him naked and bare of worldly comforts and enjoyments deprives him of humane helps yet then to rest on the Name of Isa 50. 10. the Lord and to stay himself upon his God then to live by Faith upon the promises as the Apostle Habakkuk Hâ—b 3. 17. 18. said although the Figg-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord is my strength c. Here is the tryal of Faith and of a holy dependance upon God if God bring us into such or the like streights and we never let go our hope and confidence in God but still trust in Him like Job who said though He kill me Job 13. 19. yet will I trust in Him then we glorifie God by believing and greatly engage Him so that He will doubtless appear for our help succour and relieve us for Psal 44. 26. His mercy and truths sake For He that said Call upon Me in Psal 50. 15. the day of trouble I will hear thee and give the cause to glorifie Mee None that wait upon God shall be ashamed Rom. 10. 11. We shall never be ashamed of our faith and hope and confidence in Him For that engageth God to succour help and supply us because we have trusted in Psal 33. 21. His holy Name Blessed are all they that thus wait and hope and trust in God as in regard of Spiritual and Everlasting Isa 30. 18. blessings especially so also in regard of these Temporal and outward supplies This is a great argument we have to prevail with God in prayer that in Christ we call Him Father as God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by Eternal Generation so in and through Christ He is our God and Father also by Grace and Adoption Therefore said our Saviour I ascend to my Father John 20. 17. and your Father to my God and your God We present our selves before God as His own Children and Servants we make mention of no other Lord or Name over us but His alone we are called Isa 63. 8 19. by His Name and therefore He cannot deny us those things which are good for us These outward things are necessary for us in a Three-fold respect 1. In respect of Nature to the sustaining of Nature as food and rayment Having food and rayment let us therewith 1 Tim. 6. 8. be content It was Jacob's desire and wish if God will be with me and Gen. 28. 20 21. keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on so that I come again to my Fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God c. 2. Necessary in regard of Persons when we have sufficient for our selves and those that belong unto us He that 1 Tim. 5. 8. provideth not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an infidel If I have not wherewithal I cannot provide for them 3. Necessary in respect of State when we have that which is sufficient to maintain us in that rank place and calling wherein God hath set us These things we may lawfully desire and beg of God Contrary to these are 1. A voluntary affectation of poverty as in the Popish begging Fryers commending that for a vertue and a degree of perfection which the Spirit of God hath taught us to pray against give me Prov. 30. 8. neither poverty nor riches c. 2. The immoderate affectation of riches and honour and that in a greater measure than is needful for us If we have more than is needful or necessary we are apt to be proud therewith to have our hearts lifted up with pride and so to fall into the condemnation of the Devil For riches are a snare and are 1 Tim. 6 9. ver 17. apt to drown men in destruction and perdition they are also uncertain they soon flee away as an Eagle towards heaven Prov. 23. 5. and yet they are to us as a stone or a piece of Lead ty'd to a Bird hindering our soaring upwards in heart and affection towards heaven they are desiling also for we cannot tell a sum of money but it will foul our singers but worst they are apt to deâ—ile our hearts and
air to meet the Lord But the Reprobate together with the Devil and his Angels shall with great horror and confusion be drawn into the presence of Christ then Rev. 6. 15. the Books shall be opened whereby we understand partly the Omniscience of God or His knowing of all things and partly the conscience of every man and woman And another book shall be opened which is the book of life Which is to shew that the salvation of the godly is not from their works buâ— from the eternal Grace of God whereby they are written in the book of life The wicked shall have their unbelief and wickedness so laid before their eyes by the testimony of their own consciences that they shall not be able to contradict or deny any thing at all I will reprove thee saith God and Psal â—0 21. Mat. 12. 3â— set thy wickedness before thy face The Act of Judgment shall be performed two ways 1. By examination 2. By pronouncing Sentence 1. By examination and that â— By 1. Examination the Law of God which hath been revealed unto men whether it be the Law of Nature only which is the remainder of the Law written in the hearts of our First Parents and conveyed by the Power of God unto all men to leave them without excuse for the Rom. 1. 20. invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse Or whether by the Law of God we understand that written word of God vouchsafed unto the Church in the Scriptures first of the Old and after of the New Testament as the rule of faith and life For as many as have sinned without Rom. 2. 12. Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law 2. This examination shall be by the evidence of every mans conscience bringing all his works to light whether they be good or evil his conscience bearing witness with him or against him together with the testimony of such who either by their doctrine company or example have either approved or condemned him Which Mat. 12. 27 41 42. shew the work of the law written in their Rom. 2. 15. hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another But there shall be a great difference in the examination of the elect and examination of the reprobates For 1. The elect shall not have their sins remembred Christ having satisfied for them All their transgressions that Ezek. 18. 22. they have committed they shall not be mentioned unto them Their transgressions are forgiven and their sins are covered Psal 32. 1. But their good works shall be remembred I was hungry and ye fed me c. their good works do follow Rev. 14. 13. them 2. Because they be in Christ therefore they and their works shall not undergo the strict Tryal of the law simply in its self but as the obedience thereof doth prove them to be true partakers of the grace of the Gospel Thus we have seen the first Act of judgment which is by Examination Now of the second Act which is by the 2. Pronouncing of sentence pronouncing of sentence The sentence shall be pronounced by the Judg Himself our Lord Jesus Christ according to the evidence and verdict of conscience touching works who shall adjudg the Elect unto the blessing of the Kingdom of God His Father And the Reprobates with the Devil and his Angels unto the curse of everlasting Fire So then men shall be adjudged to salvation or damnation for their works sake 1. The wicked shall be condemned for the merit of their works because being perfectly evil they deserve the wages of damnation For the wages of Rom. 6. 23. sin is death 2. The Godly shall be pronounced just because their works though imperfect do prove their faith whereby they lay hold on Christ and His meritorious righteousness to be a true Faith As Jam. 2. 18. Gal. 5. 6. working by love in all parts of obedience This last Judgment is administred by Christ as a King for the power of judging is a part of the Royal Function 1. In respect of the faithful this Judgment is from Grace and is a Function of the Kingdom of Grace essential to Christ as our Mediator 2. But in respect of the wicked From His Power and Dominion granted to Him by the Father Hence it is as I said before the sins of the Godly shall not come into Judgment for in this life by the Sentence of Justification they are taken away and coverd And this last Judgment shall be a confirming and manifestation of the same Sentence Therefore it is not consentaneous or meet that they should then be brought to light again Christ shall judg the world not according Isa 11. 3. to the sight of the eyes or hearing of the ears But He is the knower and searcher of all hearts who can discern the Hypocrites from the truly Godly and He will do no wrong to any The judg of all the earth will do Gen. 18. 25. right He will not acquit the wicked nor condemn the just He will manifest the secrets of all hearts and render to every one according to his works then shall the upright have praise of God Q Why must this last judgment be A. 1. Because of God's decree He hath decreed it and said it shall be 2. That God may obtain the end of creation of man God made all men for His glory if wicked men would not glorifie Him here He will judiciarily be glorified upon them in their everlasting confusion God shall be praised and glorified by His Elect to all eternity 3. That God may shew His perfect goodness and mercy to His Elect who were so excruciated troubled and afflicted here in this world that they may 2 Thess 1. 8. have rest 4. For His perfect Justice and Truths sake that He may shew His Justice in punishing the ungodly who do flourish in this world where they have all Luk. 16. 25. the good that ever they shall have Therefore it must be according to God's Justice and Truth in His Promises that the righteous shall have recompence in everlasting life both in body and soul Q. But it is said The Saints shall 1 Cor. 6. 2. judg the world And the Apostles shall sit upon thrones judging the twelve Luk. 22. 30. tribes of Israel A. I answer Christ alone in His humane nature shall appear judg and pronounce the sentence on all and execute it yet not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost God is invisible For this judgment is the work of the whole individual Trinity but according to the visible act promulgation and execution of the sentence so it is the judgment of Christ For Christ being
visibly seen of all shall pass sentence and execute it on all But the Saints are said to judg the world because they shall applaud approve and wholly subscribe to the righteous sentence of Christ Let us always live in expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus with Oyl in our lampâ— Grace in our hearts and so prâ—pared for it praying Come Rev. 22. 20 Luk. 12. 43. Lord Jesus come quickly Blessed it that servant whom his Master when He cometh shall â—ind so doing He shall say unto him Well done good and faithful Mat. 25. 21. servant enter into thy Masters joy But as for the wicked and ungodly they 2 Thess 1. 9. shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power Which brings us to the third head we mentioned at first which is Hell Having spoken to the first two 3 Hell Death and Judgment come we now to the execution of the sentence of Judgment which shall presently follow the sentence given the wicked shall go Mat. 25. 46. away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Whosoever is not found written in the book of Rev. 2. 15. life shall be cast into the lake of fire This place of the damned in Scripture is called by divers names 1. Hell as Mat. 5. 23. 2. A furnace of fire where shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42. 3. A place of torment Luk. 16. 28. 4. A prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. 5. A bottomless pit Rev. 9. 1. 6. A lake of fire Rev. 20. 15. 7. A lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Revel 21. 8. The place where Hell is we ought not to be too inquisitive to know sith it is not manifested in the Scripture But the extreme horrour and dreadfulness of the place is described unto us that we may use all the means which God hath prescribed in His word that we may never come there The word Hell in Scripture hath several acceptations 1. It is taken for the place appointed for the torments of the reprobates after thâ—â— â—ife So Luk. 16. 23 And being in hell in torments 2. For most deep and deadly sorrows Psal 18. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about 3. For Satan the Prince of Hell with the whole army of wicked Spirits Mat. 16. 18 The gates of hell shall no prevail against c A Metonymie signifying all the power and policy and strongest assaults of the wicked for heretofore they had their seats of Judicature in the gates of the City where the Elders the wisest and all the Sages met and these gates of the City were and still are the strength of the City 4. Hell is taken for the grave and the estate of the dead therein So we have it Psal 16. 10 Thou shalt not leave Acts 2. 31. my soul in Hell c. 5. For the belly of the whale wherein Jonah was shut up as in a grave Jonah 2. 2 Out of the belly of Hell cryed I c. By Hell-fire is signified the whole extream pain of the damned in Hell where 1. They are separated from the presence and glory of God 2. They are punished with eternal confusion and most bitter reproaches because all their secret wickednesses and sins are revealed 2 Thess 1. 9. Mat. 23. 41. 3. They have fellowship with the Devil and his Angels 4. They are wholly in body and soul tormented with an incredible horrour and exceeding great anguish through the sense and feeling of Gods wraâ—â— Isa 66. 24. to be poured out upon them for ever Hereupon is the punishment of the damned called hell sire a worm never dying but always gnawing on the Conscience weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth and utter darkness and such like By Hell-fire is not meant any bodily flame but these are Metaphors and resemblances for the weakness of our earthly and dull capacity that we may a little apprehend it and have a glimpse of it that so we may use our utmost endeavours to avoid it For as no tongue of Men or Angels can rightly set forth the joys of Heaven so no tongue can express the torments of Hell But these expressions of Hell c. signifie the seizing of the fearful and terrible wrath of the Almighty both on body and soul and all the powers and faculties parts and members thereof for ever For howsoever the body be subject to burning with bodily fire yet the soul being spiritual cannot burn and therefore Hell-fire is not a material fire A material fire yieldeth light but here is nothing but blackness of darkness for ever Hell-fire is a most grievous torment fitly resembled by fire which to our apprehension is the most direful and dreadful thing And torments by fire are of all others the most fearful and terrible Reasons Reasons for it 1. The quarrel with sinners is Gods own the controversie His own the injuries and indignities have been done to Himself and His own Son the challenges have been sent to Himself and His blessed Spirit And therefore no marvel if He take the matter into His own hands sith He hath been so provoked to revenge it by His own immediate Power 2. Revenge is His Royalty and peculiar Prerogative To Him belongeth Deut. 32. 35. 41. Heb. 10. 30 31. Jam. 2. 13. Rev. 14. 10. vengeance and recompence Thence the Apostle infers It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and that for these reasons 1. It shall be Judgment without Mercy there shall be a cup of pure wrath poured out upon them without mixture c. that is not a drop of sweetness and ease but all is poyson and bitterness there shall not be afforded â—â— drop of water to a Lake of fire a minute of ease to Eternity of torment 2. It shall be in fury without compassion that is in vengeance without any pity 3. It shall be in revenge and recompence in reward and proportion and a full and everlasting detestation For as the wicked did here hate God and set their hearts and courses against Him and His Laws in their eternity in all that time they lived and sinned here and so would have done if they had lived never so much longer So God will hate wicked men and set His face and fury against them in His eternity also and punish them there with everlasting destruction 3. The torments of wicked Angels whence can they come There is no creature strong enough to lay upon them a sufficient recompence of pain and punishment for their sins against Gods Majesty And for the disputes of School-men about corporal fire in Hell the degrees of it c. they are but the niceties of men ignorant of the terrour of the Lord Heb. 22. 29. who is Himself a consuming fire The Devils acknowledged Christ their tormentor when He did but rebuke them which wrang out from them Mat. 8. 29.
that hideous cry Art thou come to torment us before the time This terrible fire these hideous torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels all wicked Mat. 25. 41. men must enter into and remain in and and that for ever Oh that dreadful word Eternity never never to have end The damned might think themselves some ways mitigated to endure these horrible pains and extremest horrors more millions of years than there be sands on the Sea-shore or stars in the firmament c. they would still comfort themselves with thinking that their misery will once have an end But alas this amazing word Never will rend their heart in pieces with much rage and hideous roaring and give still new-life to those insufferable pains and sorrows which infinitely exceed all expression or imagination There are in Hell both Corporal and Spiritual plagues and torments The punishment of loss and the punishment of sense 1. The pain of loss the privation of Gods glorious presence and eternal separation from those everlasting joys happiness and blessedness in Heaven which is a most unutterable and inexpressible torment 2. The pain of sense the extremity exquisiteness and perpetuity thereof no tongue can possibly express or heart of man conceive It doth not only exceed with an incomparable disproportion all possibility of patience and resistance but also even ability to bear it And yet notwithstanding it must of necessity be born so long as God is God They shall weep to see how that weeping it self can nothing prevail yea in weeping they shall weep more tears than there is water in the Sea for the water of the Sea is finite but the weeping of the reprobates shall be infinite Their Consciences shall ever sting them like an Adder when they think how God used all means for their Salvation how Christ wooed them by His Ministers to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20. offering them freely remission of sins and the Kingdom of Heaven if they would but believe and repent and how easily they might have obtained mercy in those dayes and yet they suffered the Devil and the World and their unruly lusts to lull them asleep and keep them still in impenitency and unbelief and how the day of mercy and grace is now past and will never dawn again Oh that men and women would timely and seriously think hereupon that they may never come into this place of torment to lye as it were in fire and brimstone kept in the highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of God and that for ever Where they shall have nothing about them but darkness and horror wailing and wringing of hands desparate yellings and gnashing of teeth Their old companions in sin and vanity cursing them with much rage and bitterness wicked Devils insulting over them with Hellish cruelty and scorn the never-dying worm of conscience feeding upon their Soul and flesh for ever and ever the smoak of their Rev. 14. 11. torments ascending also to all eternity This is the estate of the reprobates in Hell this is the second death the general perfect fulness of all cursedness and misery 4. Come we to the last head mentioned 4 Heaven Heaven When Christ by His Almighty power and Ministry of His Angels hath cast the Devils and all the reprobates into hell the righteous Psal 58. 10. shall rejoyce to see the vengeance and glorifie God in the confusion of His enemies and have cause then to say Verily there is a reward for the righteous verse 11. verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth Then the elect shall be by Christ carried up into Heaven and put in possession of His glorious Kingdom where they shall be unspeakably and everlastingly blessed and glorious in 1 Cor. 13. 10 12. Body and Soul Being freed from all imperfections and infirmities yea from such graces as imply imperfection as Faith Hope Repentance c. and endued with perfect Wisdom and Holiness possessed with all those rivers of pleasures Psal 16. 11. Rev. 3. 21. 2 Tim. 4. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Psal 17. 16. 1 Thess 4. 17. Heb. 12. 22. which are at Gods right hand seated as Princes in thrones of Majesty Crowned with crowns of glory possessing the new-heaven and new-earth wherein dwelleth righteousness beholding and being filled with the fruition and enjoyment of the glorious presence of God and of the Lamb Jesus Christ in the company of innumerable Angels and holy Saints c. The efficient cause of this eternal blessed life generally is the whole Trinity But especially the Lord Jesus Christ who by His merits hath obtained it for us and by His effectual Power gives it unto us Hence He is called the eternal Father or rather the Father Isa 9. 6. of Eternity And the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. And He also calls Himself metonimically I am the life John 14. 6. This eternal happiness shall be clearly seen by our freedom from all evil both of sin and suffering and by the variety greatness and eternity of all joys and happiness God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there shall be Rev. 21. 4. no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The variety of those Heavenly joys may farther appear and be seen in these following particulars 1. In the glorification of the whole man both Body and Soul 2. In the pleasantness and sweetness of those Heavenly mansions 3. In the blessed Society of the Angels and Saints 4. But above all in our communion with God To insist briefly upon these The variety of Heavenly joys appear 1. In the glorification of our whole man 1. Our bodies shall be endued with impassibility that is never capable to suffer more with nimbleness and agility with subtility and clearness shining as the light and as the Dan. 12. 3. brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever and fashioned like to Christs glorious body 2. Our Phil. 3. 21. Souls shall be far more perfect then shall we have understanding without error light without darkness wisdom without ignorance reason without obscurity memory without forgetfulness c. 2. The pleasantness and sweetness of these Heavenly mansions was shadowed by the temple of Solomon and the New-Jerusalem Glorious things are spoken Revel 20. 10 to 27. Psal 87. 3. of thee O thou city of God 3. The blessed Society of Saints and Angels we shall not only have a communion Mat 22. 30. Luk. 28. 36. with them but we shall be as Angels 4. The communion we shall have with God shall be such as we shall see Him without end love Him for ever and praise Him without weariness In Psal 16. 11. whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right-hand are pleasures for evermore God so of His gracious good will distributeth glory that none shall have cause of
that occasioned my conversion who taught me c. And this may clearly be gathered out of Scripture 1. For if Adam before the fall had that measure of Illumination That he knew Eve and from whence she came Gen. 2. 23. at the first sight much more we who then shall be filled with the Holy Ghost and with wisdom shall know each other and all the Saints whom we never saw before in the flesh Now we see as through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 12 but then face to face now we know in part but then shall we know even as also we are known 2. If Peter James and John who accompanied Christ in His Transfiguration had then a tast and glimps of glorification and were able thereby to know Moses and Elias whom they had never seen who lived many hundred of years before neither could they know their visage by statues or pictures which was a thing utterly forbidden to the Jews but by the alone grace and favour of God which put into their hearts this immediate light of wisdom and knowledg How much more shall we being fully enlightned and perfectly glorified in heaven know exactly all the blessed ones though never acquainted with them here upon the earth 3. Samuel being inspired by God â— Sam. 9. 17. knew Saul whom he had never seen before 4. John Baptist in his Mother Elizabeth's womb leap'd for joy to Luk. 1. 41. hear the voice of the blessed Virgin the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ If the minds of these were so enlightned with the beams of the Spirit and did so shall not we much more know each other in heaven when all clouds and mists of darkness shall be wholly taken away and we shall be fully illuminated and glorified 5. Christ tells the Jews That they Luk. 13. 28. shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets c. in the kingdom of heaven therefore they must know them 6. And it is clearly gathered out of the Parable in Luke 16. 23 24 25 that the Saints do know the Saints in the Kingdom of heaven and the Reprobates in torments do know each other In this knowledg each of other the heap of reward encreaseth For as the Elect do more and more rejoyce when they see those whom they have loved on earth to rejoyce with them so the wicked in Hell when they see whom they dearly loved in this world to be tormented with them not only their own punishment but the punishment of those whom they so much loved in this life adds unto their misery Where-hence we conclude that the glorified Saints then plentifully endu'd with all knowledg and supernaturally enlightned by the Holy Ghost shall know each other and those Saints also whom they never knew in the flesh There all men shall be known of every several man of what Nation Country or stock soever he came and every several man shall be known of all We shall know the spiritual substances offices orders and excellencies of the holy Angels And the nature immortality operations and originals of our own souls yea and all things knowable But above all we shall be beatifically enlightned with a clear and glorious sight of God Himself which Divines call the Beatifical Vision which alone makes us blessed and happy for evermore Beholding the inexpressible glory of God issuing from His glorious Face whereby we shall be wonderfully taken with His Beauty and our souls inwardly ravished with the things that we shall behold with a delight of them and nothing shall be able to make our joys either to faint or to fail Immediately after that Christ hath crowned all the Elect with crowns of glory then every one taking the crown from his head shall lay it down at the feet of Christ prostrating themselves and with one heart and voice in a heavenly harmony shall say Praise and honour glory and power be unto Thee O blessed Lamb who settest upon the Throne Who hast Redeemed us to God by Thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and Rev. 4. 10. 5. 9. people and nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests to reign with Thee in thy Kingdom for evermore O now let us look and long for this blessed estate and this heavenly City whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. This was it which St. Paul longed for to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. which was best of all Every one would desire this blessed estate Therefore live the life of Grace here else thou 2 Cor. 4. 17 shalt never live the life of Glory hereafter Grace is glory begun and glory is grace consummate Without holiness Heb. 12. 14 none shall see God Into that holy place no unclean thing shall enter Rev. 21. 27. Therefore let us now strive to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit endeavoring to perfect holiness in the fear of God In Rome heretofore they must first pass through the Temple of Vertue before they came to the Temple of Honour This honour have all Gods Saints Psal 149. 9. Josh 23 14. And as not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord promised concerning His Israel So we shall have cause then Psal 37. 24. to say As the Lord hath guided us by His counsel now He hath received us into His glory Therefore blessed be the Psal 72. 18 19 Lord God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous things And blessed be His glorious Name for ever and let the whole world be filled with His glory Amen and Amen Lo this is our God we have waited Isa 25. 9. for Him and He hath saved us this is the Lord we have waited for Him He hath brought us to His glory we will rejoyce and be glad in this His eternal salvation Amen FINIS