in at the straight gate that we may finde our selves among the little flocke and joyne with those few that live well And the rather because many will seeke to enter in and shall not be able because it is too late Luke 13.23 like the foolish Virgins who when the Bride-groome had shut rhe doores desired to have them opened but the Lord answered Verily I say unto you I know you not Matth. 25 12. It must be our study to be in this little number We commonly and for the most part sit still as a secure and sencelesse people No easie matter to come to Heaven as though it were the easiest matter in the world to step to Heaven or as if all the world should be saved If multitudes were not of this minde they would not spend all their dayes in vanity in pleasures and pastimes in chambering and wantonnesse in playing in gaming and rioting in eating and drinking in surfeting and drunkennesse and idlenesse which was the life of the Sodomites Ezek. 16.49 as if they were borne to no other end or as if they should continue here for ever or as if this were their vocation and calling or as if there were no other Heaven or as if this were the way to the Kingdome which is the beaten path to Hell or as if divers passing this way were not now already in torments It is commonly thought of these that Heaven is as easily gotten and obtained as for a man to open his mouth and breathe and receive in the common aire their loose practice discovereth their opinion to be no other What then I beseech you is become of the Words and warning of Christ is his counsell and wisedome any way disprooved what is now become of the narrow way where is the straight gate that we have given us in charge to search after is the way now growne at last to be wide and broad when there are a few onely that tread in it Doubtlesse either it is so or else these men glory in themselves that they are wiser then He who is Wisdome it selfe and that they have found a neerer cut and shorter passage to Heaven then He ever knew or commended to men But if he be the wisedome of the Father 1 Cor. 10.30 Col. 2.3 and have all the treasures of wisedome dwelling in him certainely these men are stark fooles and wholly ignorant of the right Way that leadeth to salvation Facilis dâ—scensus Averni at superare gradum superasque evadere ad auras hic labor hoc opus est Aeneid lib. 6. It is an easie matter to goe to Hell we are all by nature in the way unto it and we have many helpes and guides that offer themselves to take us by the hand and to conduct us â—â—d to accompany us thither It is the hardest matter that can bee in the world to come to Heaven All excellent things are hard the more excellent the harder but nothing more excellent then a Kingdome It is a difficult matter and very uneasie to climbe up to the top of an high mountaine or a steepe rocke it requireth puffing and blowing and labouring and striving and struggling and sweating contrariwise it is an easie matter to runne downe an hill without any staying and stopping without any hinderance or interruption or intermission So is it the easiest matter in the world to throw our selves downe and to plunge our selves headlong into the pit of Hell as it was to throw ones selfe downe from the pinnacle of the Temple but to get up to the holy Hill of God and to attaine to the Kingdome of Heaven this is a labour this is a worke indeed this cannot be done without taking up of the Crosse without denying of our selves without mortifying of the old man Hebr. 12 1. without laying aside the sinne that doth so easily beset us without using violence to shake off the hinderances that stand in the way so that I may say with the Apostles If the righteous scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare 1 Pet. 4.18 Little Flocke Another observation from this limiting and restraining title that the flocke is little is that it is so called because it is little regarded in the world Now observe in this place that the Scripture speaketh of things sometimes as they are in themselves and in their owne nature Tolet. in Luc. 9. pag. 788. and sometimes according to the account and estimation of men A lively example of them both we have 1 Cor. 1. concerning the preaching of the Word For when the Apostle speaketh of it as it is by the ordinance of God 1 Cor. 1.24 23 2â— 25 18 2â— he calleth it the power of God and the wisedome of God Verse 24. but when hee speaketh of it as it is in the corrupt account of the sinfull world he calleth it a stumbling blocke and foolishnesse Verse 23. and the foolishnesse of preaching Verse 21. the foolishnesse of God and the weakenesse of God Verse 25. What then is the publishing of the Gospell in it selfe either a stumbling blocke or foolishnesse or weaknesse No in no wise being mighty to throw downe all strong holds but thus the men of this world account and judge of it Rom. 1.16 To whom then is it the power of God To them that are called Verse 24. to them that beleeve Rom. 1.16 And to whom is it foolishnesse To them that perish 1 Cor. 1.18 So touching the flocke of God in the estimation of God it is great but in the estimation of the world it is as little Thus the faithfull are called by Christ our Saviour Matth. 10.42 18.6 The little ones that beleeve in him Matth. 10.42 18.6 But howsoever they be tendered of God and highly in his favour yet they finde hard entertainment at the hands of the prophane men of the world Doct. 5 This teacheth that the faithfull are hated contemned and little regarded of wicked men Howsoever Zach. 2.8 they that touch them touch the apple of his eye yet the ungodly account basely and vilely of them as if they were the scumme and filth of the world or unworthy to live or to breathe among men or to tread upon the earth Psal 22.6 Thus the Prophet David complaineth concerning himselfe Psal 22. I am as a worme and a wonder among many a reproach of men and despised of the people Thus also speaketh the Prophet Esay Chap. 8. Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signes and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth in mount Sion So the Prophet Zachary complaineth speaking of the Priests and Levites that were earnest to lay open the sinnes of the people before God Zach. 3.8 Thou and thy fellowes are men wondred at or they are accounted as monsters among men Thus Christ speaketh Ioh. 16.2 They shall put you out of
reconciled I Answer Answ the Scripture speaketh of God two wayes sometimes properly and sometimes unproperly properly it agreeth not to God because in him is no change nor shadow of turning unproperly it may by the figure Anthropopatheja which is an attributing or ascribing unto God the parts properties passions and affections of men the more lively to represent the things spoken off before our eyes So then it is a borrowed speech from men in God it is a change of his worke not of his will as Gen. Gen. 6.6 6. it repented God that he had made man that is he purposed to destroy man whom before he had made From hence we learne where true faith is to apprehend and beleeve the truth and certainty of Gods threatnings Doct. there is a feare of judgements to come Faithworketh a feare of Gods judgments Faith worketh feare and feare often worketh faith This we see in these Ninevites they beleeved God and proclaimed a fast and therefore they feared the dreadfull sentence published and pronounced against them This appeareth in the commendation of the faith of Noah Heb 11.7 Heb. 11.7 He being endued with a justifying and saving faith is also touched with feare and reverence at the consideration of Gods judgements to come So it was with Iehoshaphat he beleeved the Prophets 2 Chro. 20.3 and therefore he feared and set his heart to seeke the Lord 2 Cor. 20. See the further practise of this in Hezekiah Ier. Ier. 26.18.19 26. Micah the Morashite prophesied and spake to all the people of Iudah Thus saith the Lord of hostes Zion shall be plowed like a field and Ierusalem shall become heapes did Hezekiah the king of Iudah and all Iudah put him to death did he not feare the Lord and besought the Lord and the Lord repented him of the evill which he had pronounced against them 2 King 22.19 The like we see in Iosiah 2 King 22. when he heard the plagues and curses that should come upon Ierusalem his heart was tender he trembled himselfe before God and when he heard the wordes against that place he rent his cloathes and wept before him The reasons are evident First God hath coupled both these together Reas 1 and therfore whosoever beleeveth his threatnings cannot but feare the evils threatned He that apprehendeth the wrath of a Prince to be as the roaring of a Lyon cannot but tremble it cannot but worke in him feare Amos. 3. Amos. 3.6 Can a trumpet be blowne in the Citty and the people not be afraid Secondly faith maketh things unseene to be seene Heb. 11.1 Heb. 11 1.1â— For it is the evidence of things me sinneâ—s Moses by faith saw him that is invisible vers 27. and Noah â—aw the worlds destruction as present though it 〈◊〉 an hundred and twenty yeares before it came and 〈◊〉 it But it may be objected Object the faithfull is not afraid of any euill â—idings for his heart is fixed and beleeveth in the Lord Psal 112.7 and therefore faith expelleth all feare I answer the words of the Psalme teach the contrary Answ Blessed is the man that feareth God and therefore to clâ—â—re this seeming-contradiction we must observe a two-fold feare as also care a distrustfull feare and an awefull or reverent feare The distrustfull feare argueth want of faith in God the awefull feare maketh us seeke to God and to fly to his mercy But where the true faith is it expelleth and driveth out distrust Psal 133.18 147.11 and therefore the Prophet ioyneth these two together Psal 133 The eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him that trust in his mercy and 147.11 the Lord delighteth in them that feare him that hope in his mercy Behold the true cause Vse 1 why there is so little feare of God in the world and of his judgments though imminent and ready to fall nay present and already fallen We never had more cause to feare generall judgments in regard of the generall corruptions and floods of wickednesse that overflow in all places yet never more security never lesse feare And what is the cause because there is so little faith Math. 24.37 as Christ our Saviour sheweth that iniquity should abound in the last dayes and men mind nothing else but their profits and pleasures as they did when the flood came and swept them all away at once disobedience to the word proceeding from infidelity was the cause of that cause 1 Thess 5. For when they shall say peace peace suddaine destruction shall come upon them as paines upon a woman in travaile and they shall not escape These shall make a mocke of the last judgment and never feare it untill they feele it These may be sent to schoole to Ahab to Iudas the sonne of perdition nay to the Devils themselues for they have not so much faith as Ahab had 1 King 21.27 not so much as Iudas had Luk. 18.8 Math. 27.3.5 not so much as the Devils Iam. 2.19 who beleeve and tremble where as the ungodly beleeve not and therefore tremble not but they would if they beleeved onely so much as the Devils do How then can prophaine persons escape the torments of Hell who come farre short of these that are already in hell and how fearefull an estate is it to be condemned of such as be condemned themselues Secondly see the difference betweene Gods children and carnall or worldly men these are quite contrary the one to the other as light and darknesse and as farre distant as heaven and hell Hic ubiopus est none verentur illic ubt nihil opus est the verentur Terent Andr. act 4. seen 1. When Gods judgements are threatned and men warned to take heed and looke to themselues they do feare least of all who have most cause and whom they most neerely concerne and they on the other side most of all whom they concerne We see this in the old world evidently and expresly for whom did the threatning of the drowning and destruction therof most neerly touch and concerne Doubtlesse the disobedient world of the ungodly But they feared least nay nothing at all they ranne on in their worldly and wicked courses till the flood came and swept them away Whom did the threatning least of all concerne as being in least danger to be drowned Surely Noah and his family for whom the Arke was prepeared but they feared most of all Nay Gods children oftentimes feare for the wicked Psal 119.53.136.158 when they feare not for themselues as Psal 119.53.136.158 as they pray for them when they pray not for themselues and desire their conuersion when they minde nothing lesse The Prophet was greeved for them when they were not greeved for themselues 2 Cor. 12.21 So it is said by the Apostle God will humble me among you and I shall bewaile many which have sinned and have not repented of the sinnes committed the more sorry he was for
drinke but to cease from sinne as the Prophet speaketh August super Iohan. Esay 58.6 Chrysost suâ— per Math. Hee that sinneth and yet withall fasteth saith Chrisostome doth not fast to the glory of God but spareth his owne substance onely This is handled at large in these Treatises wherein is noted what the true exercise of fasting is what are the outward and inward parts thereof the one answering to the other together with the severall abuses of the counterfeit fastings True it is the Church of Rome complaine against us and accuse us as enemies to fasting even as the Pharisees sometimes condemned the Disciples of Christ Math. 9.14 whom he excuseth and defendeth but were we worthy of this reproch and reproofe yet are they the unfittest to upbraid us with it who beside the bare name and naked title of fasting have nothing remaining of the true nature and right practise thereof but the end they ayme at is to set up their owne merits and to puffe up them selves with pride as it was with the blind Pharisees their predecessors whom in this and in sundry other points they follow These things thus laid open J presume to offer to your Worship whose good affection to our Tribe so much scorned and scoffed at in the world and carefull frequenting the exercises of religion many wayes appeareth and as a token and testimony of my thankfull remembrance of your love to me in that you disdaine not but upon every occasion of passing by to come under the roofe of my poore cottage remembring the words of our blessed Saviour Mar. 6.4 A Prophet is not without honour save in his owne Countrey and among his owne kinne and in his owne house The God of heaven and earth encrease your zeale to the truth and finish that good worke which he hath begunne in you unto the day of Jesus Christ Your Worships at command William Attersoll THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTISE OF FASTING and PRAYER of FAITH and REPENTANCE IONAH 3.4 And Ionah beganne to enter into the City a dayes iourney and he cryed and said Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrowne THis Prophecie is wholly Historicall as the other prophecies are dogmaticall It containeth the History of Ionah relating what happened to himselfe when he was sent of God to the great Cittie Nineveh Gen. 10.12 to denounce unto the Ninevites their utter overthrow Who this Prophet was and when he prophecied may be gathered sufficiently out of the Scripture where we reade that Ieroboam the second restored the coast of Israel from the entring of Hamath unto the Sea of the Wildernesse according to the word of the Lord 2 King 14.25 which he spake by his servant Ionah the sonne of Amittai the Prophet which was in Gath Hepher And it seemeth that he was the first of all the Prophets whose writings are extant and remaine in the Church for the instruction thereof in faith and obedience For he lived before the battell of Ioash King of Israel with the Syrians about the end of the dayes of Elisha 2 King 13.14 and 14.25 Neither let any object the Prophecy of Micah as though he were before in time the same that prophecied in the daies of Ahab 1 King 22. Because these two were not both one but different neither doe their names accord in the Originall as may appeare to every one that readeth True it is this prophet hath this end and yssue of his writing with the rest to set forth the judgements and mercies of God toward mankind but this he hath proper and peculiar that he is not here sent unto the Church and people of Israel but onely unto prophane unbeleevers and uncircumcised persons that we should understand thereby that God hath rule over all nations and is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Iewes Rom. 3.29 and an avenger of sinne in whomsoever he findeth it Rom. 2.12 according to the saying of the Apostle As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.12 For then the Prophets were sent to the Syrians 1 King 17.9 19.15 2 King 8.7 and to them of Damascus and to the Tyrians howbeit extraordinarily at the will and pleasure of God And doubtlesse by his sending of his Prophets to strangers out of the promised land God would reprove and condemne the desperate stubbornnesse of the people of Israel who would not be moved and perswaded by so many of his holy Prophets that were sent and dwelt among them and by so many threatnings as were brought upon them where as these poore infidels and unbeleevers did by and by beleeve and obey the voyce of one Prophet Math. 12.41 Luk. 11.32 that the Lord might say of them as he doth in an other case Matth. 8.10 I have not found so great faith no not in Israel I will not stand to discourse at large the vaine conceit and idle speculation of Epiphanius Epiphan of the life of the Prophets touching this Ionah For he telleth us that Elias gat himsalfe into the Wildernesse by reason of a great famine which hee had called upon the land where being nourished by Ravens he quenched his thirst with the water of the brooke and when the brooke was dryed up hee was an hungred and removed into Sarepta a Citie of Sidonia 1 King 17.9 Luk. 4.26 unto a poore woman a Widdow the mother of Ionah and entred into her house now the woman left nothing undone of that which he commanded her and he did eate and blessed her for he could have no abode with the uncircumcised And when as Ionah the sonne of the woman was deceased God raised him up by Elias and restored him alive unto his mother because of the entertainement which she gave unto him and that when Ionah was come to full age he was sent unto Nineveh to the Assyrians Where we have some truth mingled with much falsehood and therefore he deserveth to be credited no farther then he hath the warrant of Gods word being deceived with the tales of the Iewes that are masters of such lyes I know the common sort are most of all delighted with such new tangled devises that have no substance in them howbeit we should not please such itching eares nor feed them with empty winde in stead of wholesome food but avoid prophane bablings and oppositions of science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith 1 Tim. 6.20.21 In this prophecy observe a twofold calling or sending of Ionah the first in the two former chapters which he rejected the second in the two latter which he executed In this third chapter is set forth the execution of his calling together with the fruit and profit thereof in the Ninevites whereby we may see his errour and oversight in flying from his function and supposing that he was sent in vaine when
as afterward he beheld with his owne eyes so worthy and glorious an effect of his preaching 1 Thess 2.19.20 as might rejoyce his heart and be his crowne and glory before the Lord and in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ aâ— his comming who as a fisher of men cast his net into the sea and inclosed a great multitude of fish of all sorts But yet for all this it did not sufficiently content the Prophet through a carnall misdeeming and misjudging of the successe of his labours as if by Gods shewing of mercy his ministery were contemned his credit empaired and his person scorned and exposed to contempt because the Citie was spared and not destroyed as appeareth in the next Chapter In the 4. Verse and the rest that follow to the end of the Chapter we are to consider two things First the preaching of Ionah Verse 4. A Sermon consisting of judgement he singeth a mournfull song foretelling them of their full and final destruction Secondly the effect of his preaching in the residue of the Chap. The preaching of Ionah is a fearfull threatning of a fearful overthrow to come upon them for their wickednesse Circumstances in the threatning which was come up before the Lord did cry for vengeance to heaven Chap. 1 2. In this denunciation we may observe sundry circumstances to passe over the beginning of the verse first the circumstance of the time to come forty dayes are limited for their repentance as the dayes of Gods patience which once expired they must looke for suddaine destruction Secondly the circumstance of time already past implied in the word Yet putting them in remembrance that he had already spared them a long time not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance As if the Lord should have said by his Prophet I have spared you long enough already that I might justly poure upon you all my wrath yet neverthelesse I will spare you a little longer Thirdly the subject of the judgement Nineveh a great a mightie a populous and proud Citie whereby also are understood the inhabitants thereof from the greatest to the least and lowest of them Lastly the measure or quantitie of the judgement an utter overthrow not of one person or one family but of the whole Citty now whether it were by sword or famine or pestilence or by fire from heaven as God overthrew Sâ—dome and Gâ—morrha and the Cities of the plaine or otherwise is not expressed Now let us come to the words And Ionah began to enter c. Albeit the Lord might forthwith have destroyed the Ninevites yet he giveth them some time of repentance and sendeth his holy Prophet unto them which declareth the infinite and endlesse patience of God even toward these Infidels that knew him not neither called upon his name Rom. 2.4 First let us observe the generall doctrine out of the whole threatning and afterward come to the particulars Before the Lord would utterly destroy the City he raised up Ionah the Prophet to foretell their destruction Doct. 1 This teacheth Before the Lord destroyeth he warneth by his ministers that the Lord for the most part never bringeth any judgement upon any people or person but hee first foretelleth of it and maketh it knowne unto them hee warneth them and threatneth it by his Ministers This truth is to be seene every where in the Scripture Amos 3.6.7 Luk. 13.7 We reade that the world was once destroyed by water and it shall bee destroyed againe by fire Of the first destruction we finde that be foretold it unto Noah and by Noah to the world before ever the flood came And touching the second destruction which shall bee by fire 2 Pet. 3.10 when the Elements shall melt with fervent heate the earth also and the workes that are therein shall bee burnt up God hath not left us ignorant but in diverse places hath plainely set it downe unto us The reasons of this course and order of Gods dealing who warneth before he smiteth are eyther in respect of God or in respect of the godly or in respect of the ungodly In respect of God to justifie his proceedings and judgements with men even before the sonnes of men to stop the mouth of iniquitie that it might have nothing to object or plead against him 2 Chro. 36.15 Ier. 25.3 and 35.15 Secondly in respect of the godly because hee would not take his people at unwares who is friendly unto them and loveth them as his owne children Now it were the part of an enemy and not of a friend to come upon them surprise them at unwares as they doe that come to assault a Citty and therefore God to shew his favour and friendship to them that are his doth foretell and give them warning before hand that so they might happily prevent it by their repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 and thereby have judgements kept from them Thirdly in respect of the ungodly themselves because God would have those that are none of his to be left without excuse that they might not be able to accuse God of any unjust dealing or murmure against him for as much as they had warning but would not bee warned they heard of his judgements but they would not judge themselves neither labour to prevent them Matth. 24.14 therefore the damnation of such is just Vse 1. Vse 1 Behold from hence the wonderfull mercy goodnesse and patience of our good God whose manner is alwaies to give warning before hee proceede in judgement He seeketh not to take any at advantage neither desireth hee the death of a sinner And therefore the Prophet saith Lam. 3.33.36 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not Lam. 3.33.36 He would have none to perish that are his but all to repent and to be saved He instructeth that he may not threaten he threatneth that he may not smite he smiteth that he may not destroy 1 Cor. 11.32 yea and sometime he destroyeth temporally that he may not destroy eternally This is the course which he neede not observe because upon our owne perill the perill of our soules wee are bound to take heed of judgements to come that wee should prevent them before they come He would have us to send out our Embassadours which are our prayers to treate of conditions of peace betweene God and us Such as intend revenge and the execution of their wrath are not wont to give warning but to watch their opportunity as we see in Absolom 2 Sam. 13.22 who spake neither good nor evill to his brother Amnon because he hated him and then suddenly when his heart was merry with wine commanded him to be smitten If God had a purpose to destroy us as his enemies and to come upon us at unwares hee would never threaten us and give us
this threatning Chap. 3.9 Chap. 3. Let every one turne from his evill way for who can tell if God will turne and repent and turne away from his fierce anger that we perish not Vse 1. Vse 1 There is comfort in the greatest the heaviest and most fearefull threatnings of certaine judgements there is hope of grace and mercy to be found if we doe repent as it were light shining out of darkenesse Let none say it is too late my sinnes are too great or too many that they cannot be forgiven as Caine said Gen. 4. The Elders of Iudah did profit better by the threatnings of Ieremy For when he had threatned desolation of the Lords house and the destruction of the whole land for which the Priests and Prophets would have put him to death they pleaded the practise and example of good King Hezekiah for their comfort as we noted before when the Prophet Micah threatned that Ierusalem should be plowed up like a field and lye desolate as a Forrest he did not put him to death Mic. 3.12 Ier. 26.18 but feared the Lord and the Lord repented him of the evill which he pronounced against them But it may be objected Ob. If God threatneth and willeth one thing and yet doth another as heere he threatned to destroy Nineveh and did it not then Gods will is changeable or else he hath two willes one will to destroy another to preserve which seeme contrary the one to the other I answer Answ as God is one so he hath but one will Howbeit it is distinguished into that which is revealed and secret The secret is of things hidde with himselfe and not manifested as Deutero 29.29 The revealed is of things made knowne by the word and by daily experience The secret will is without condition annexed unto it the reveald is with condition and it is joyned with exhortations admonitions instructions and reprehensions as may best serve for mans salvation and to keepe him in awe of God and his threatnings The secret shall and must be accomplished notwithstanding all the opposition and gainesaying of men and Angels Rom. 9.19 For who hath resisted his will and therefore albeit it bee most just and righteous yet it is not to us a rule of righteousnesse The revealed onely is the rule of our lives and the square to measure and direct all our actions The ignorance of these two parts of the single and simple will of God leadeth into manifold errour and the sound knowledge thereof beateth downe to the ground the perverse and corrupt practise of many For when they breake out into sundry evils and much prophanenesse contrary to the expresse commandement of God and rule of the word left unto us for our instruction a Plaut Aulid act 4. sc 10. Factum est fieri infectum non potest deos credo voluisse nam ni vellent non fieret scio Terent. in Eumuch Act. 5. sc 2. Quid. si hoc quispiam Coluit deus they follow the practise of the heathen and excuse themselves because forsooth it was the will of God it should be so or else it could not have beene done A grosse abuse of God and his wil. For when they walked in their owne waies as it were in by-paths and followed their sinfull lusts and pleasures did they set Gods will before their eyes or did they aske counsell of him or did they enter into such practises with a purpose to doe his will No doubtlesse they were ledde by their owne fansy as by a false guide that turned them out of their right way and therefore let them not excuse themselves by his will but rather accuse their owne wickednesse Secondly it is the duty of all men in hearing the threatnings of God to beware of all impediments and hindrances of repentance for as much as they must take effect unlesse we observe the condition If wee doe not keepe the condition the threatning is absolute and surer than the heavens Take heede therefore of these lets which as so many stumbling blockes lye in our way to cause us to fall Impediments hindring true repentance First wee must not slight the threatnings of God nor set light by them as the manner of many is who for the most part regard them no otherwise Esa 28.15 than as if they had made a covenant with death and were at league with hell and not with God to serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life Such were the sonnes in law of Lot that should have married his daughters when they heard of the overthrow of Sodome with fire and brimstone and were exhorted to save themselves from that crooked generation and to depart from the tents of those wicked men and to separate themselves from among that Congregation least they were consumed with them hee seemed as one that mocked unto his sonnes in law Gen. 19.14 and therefore they perished in those flames Secondly we must not exempt our selves from them and post them over to others or thinke they belong not at all to us Esa 28.15 that albeit the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come upon us for wee have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have wee hidde our selves Esa 28.15 These are they that hide their owne sinnes like Adam and turne them over to others as hee did to the woman and the woman to the Serpent Genesis 3. wee care not on whose shoulders wee lay the burthen so that wee doe not beare it nor touch it with our little finger neither who smart for it so that wee be free and doe not beare it Thus wee flatter our selves and never lay his threatnings to heart untill his judgements fall full upon our heads as they did upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians Thirdly bee not deceived to thinke by riches or honour by power or pollicy by favour or friendship to fave and deliver our selves from the punishments of God whereas nothing shall prevaile with him nothing in the world but repentance and turning from sinne hating and forsaking it True it is in the courts and consistories of men these may beare sway and get the upper hand a man may escape by his purse or winde himselfe out of trouble by might of men and so avoyd the danger of the Law but it is not so with God For howsoever men use to reason I care not I will doe well enough as long as I have money and friends howbeit this will not serve to free us from Gods Plagues and punishments as Zeph. I. Zeph. 1.18 When God had threatned to consume all things from off the Land both man and beast least they should imagine by their wealth or other wiles to escape hee saith Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath Fourthly delay not the time nor put off the threatnings which the Lord abhorreth as Ezek. Ezek. 12.22.23 12. Sonne
of man what is that proverbe that yee have in the Land of Israel saying The dayes are prolonged and every vision faileth Tell them therefore thus saith the Lord God I will make this proverbe to cease they shall use it no more but say to them The daies are at hand the word that I speake shall not be prolonged for in your dayes O rebellious house will I say the word and in your daies I will performe it saith the Lord God Let us therefore stirre up our selves to repentance and amendment of life to prevent his wrath least we rushing on in sinne doe rush into our destruction Thirdly if God threaten and there follow no repentance be well assured that which he hath threatned shall come to passe Gen. 15.16 Gen. 15.16 the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full but when they had filled up the measure then his judgements were to fall upon them O how many examples have we to terrify us and to verify this to our hearts and consciences as the old world Sodome and Gomorrah the falling of the Israelites into the hands of the Cananites the Ammonites and the Amalekites mentioned almost in every place of the booke of Iudges the carrying away of the ten Tribes never restored the captivity of the rest the seven Churches of Asia the destruction of the Iewes by the Romans called the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place Dan. 9.27 Matth. 24.15 and sundry others all which assure us of the truth of this point Let us apply this to our selves and reason as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 11.20.21 If God spared not the naturall branches take heed least he also spare not thee and if the branches were broken off through unbeleefe let not us be high-minded but feare We heare the threatnings of God denounced and his fearefull judgements published and pronounced by his faithfull servants but what repentance what amendment followeth May we not say with the Prophet I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright Ier. 8.6.7 no man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have I done every one turne to his course as the horse rusheth into the battell c. And is it not so in our times nay rather is it not worse We are so farre from repentance and turning to God that the Lord seemeth in his just judgement to have given us over and forsaken us and to have blinded our eyes to have stopped our eares and to have hardned our hearts least we should see with our eyes and heare with our eares and understand with our hearts and should returne and bee saved Sometimes he doth take away his word utterly and hee threatneth it as a grievous judgement unto the Iewes Matth. 21.43 The kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and we are assured of the accomplishing thereof Rom. 11.12 because the fall of them was the rising of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles Sometimes he will have it to remaine and continue among a people for the farther hardning of their hearts and the increasing of their just judgement and condemnation This is a secret judgement and therefore more sharpe and greevous than the former as Esa 6. Make the heart of this people fat Esay 6.10 as they had fatted and fleshed themselves in sinne and even glutted themselves in iniquity make their eares heavy as they had stopped and stuffed them with vanity that the word could not enter and shut their eyes as they had drowsie and sleepy eyes and had closed the eyes of their bodies so God threatneth to shut the eyes of their minds as men benummed and past feeling least they should see with their eyes and convert and be healed Lastly as it is with the threatnings of God so on the other side it is with his promises We have many worthy and precious promises mentioned in the word some of this life some of the life to come some temporall and some eternall but all sorts are conditionall and all sorts are to us as if they were never made except wee leave our sinfull waies and so turne to the Lord with all our hearts Psal 130.4 Exod. 20.5 Deut. 28.3 4 5. c. Matth. 6.33 We have the promise of mercy and forgivenesse reserved for us under hope but to whom is it made to them that feare him and love him Wee have the promise of earthly blessings to be ministred unto us Deut. 28.3.4 c. but to whom To such as first seeke the kingdome of God and to none others We are ready to lay hold on the promise but we forget the condition like hirelings that regard the wages more than the worke There is a promise to heare our prayers and to save us but to whome is it made Not to the prophane and to unbeleevers Ioh. 9.31 Psal 66.18 for God heareth not sinners and if we regard wickednesse in our hearts the Lord will not heare us as wee shall shew afterward This admonisheth us of two things One that wee despaire not nor distrust the mercies of God toward us in earthly things or in spirituall transitory or eternall in things of this life or the life to come we have comfort and strong consolation when wee are truly and unfainedly turned to God Psal 37.25 Heb. 13.5.6 The other that we blesse not our selves in our wickednesse adding drunkennesse unto thirst as the manner is promising unto our selves peace when wee are at warre and open defiance with God It may bee said to such as Iehu answered unto Iehoram 2 King 9.22 Esa 57.20.21 what hast thou to doe with peace What peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Iezabel and her witchcrafts are so many and Esa 57. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it can not rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Iussus fuit pradicare aliquid amplius quà m hìc dicitur collego ex cap. 4 2. Io. Drusij Lection in cap. 1. Ioâ—ae there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Nineveh shall be overthrowne That is the City and the Citizens young and old rich and poore one and other This is the summe and effect of Ionahs Sermon We may not imagine that hee cryed nothing else or spake no more than is here expressed Iussus fuit pradicare aliquid amplius quam hic dicitur colligo ex cap. 1.4.2 Io. Drusiij Lection in cap. 1. Iona. Strabo lib. 5. Geograph Dio. Siculus lib. 3. cap. 1. Herod in Euterpe For no doubt the Prophet lifted up his voyce as a Trumpet and shewed them their sinnes and transgressions as the Lord had before shewed unto him that their wickednesse was come before his face Chap. 1.2 This was a great and wealthy citty seated by the river Tygris famous for the compasse of it and the tops and towers where with it florished as sundry histories doe
Israel when they saw the wrath of God kindled against them the chosen men of Israel smitten down Iosh 7.8 the Canaanites to preuaile against them to cry out O Lord what shall I say when Israel turneth their backes before their enemies And when the people were smitten by the children of Benjamin with a greeuous slaughter they went up and came to the house of the Lord and wept and sate there before the Lord Iudg. 20.26 and fasted that day untill the even The third cause is Gods threatning to destroy for some generall or notorious sins reigning in the land crying unto God for vengance This moved these Ninevites to fast when Ionah the Prophet cryed out against them Chap. 1.2 because their wickednesse was come before the Lord. This is so urgent a cause that it prevailed with Ahab who by the instigation of wicked Iezabel sold himselfe to worke wickednesse for when he heard the fearful threatning denounced against him by the Prophet against his house he rent his garments put on sackcloth fasted 1 King 21.27 and humbled himselfe whereby he obtained a respit of the judgement a temporall reward for a temporal repentance The fourth cause is the calamity and misery of the neighbour Churches lying under the Crosse Psal 80.13 when the boare out of the wood doth waste them and the wild beast of the field devoure them to witnesse our communion of Saints and to shew a fellow feeling of their sighes and sorrowes that they also may doe the like for us This seemeth to be the cause of the assembly of the Congregation at Antioch they laboured mightily in praier fasting for the people of God dispersed among the Gentiles Act. 13.2.5 and specially for the poore Saints at Ierusalem persecuted through the cruelty of Herod Act. 12. The last cause why the Churches assembled in this manner was to crave a blessing from God when they did enterprize or execute any special work which highly cōcerned the church or cōmon wealth Act. 13.3 When the Church did lay their hands on Paul Barrabas they fasted and prayed cōmended them to the grace of God that he would prosper their ministery These were the reasons of such solemne assemblies And are not the same causes found among us Yes doubtlesse all of them presse us to the practise of this duty and call upon us for humiliation to move the Lord to shew mercy in these daies of trouble heavinesse Are not dāgers threatned on every side nay are they not already inflicted upon us Hath not the Lord a controversie against us for our common sinnes hath not iniquity the upper hand and is not godlinesse troden under foot And as for the miseries and desolations of the neighbouring Churches are they not in paine like a woman in travaile bring forth nothing but wind Psal 79.1.2.3.4 may we not say The heathen are come into thine inheritance thine holy Temple have they defiled and shed the blood of thy Saints like water that they are become a reproach to their enimies a scorne and derision to them that are round about them who say where is their God Lastly we enterprize great things how can we looke for a blessing if we crave it not with fasting and prayer doubtlesse this is the cause why we have no better successe in our endeavours because we trust in our multitudes munition pollicies and seeke not aright the God of heaven Let us come to the uses Vse 1 First it reproveth such as hold fasting to be meerly Iudaicall and ceremoniall a part of the rudiments of the Law which are shadowes of things to come and that it hath no use in the times of the Gospel And true it is this exercise had in it somewhat ceremonial and proper to the Iewes annexed unto it as one certaine and fixed day of the yeare Levit. 16. Levit. 16.29 Zach. 7.5 This shall be a statute for euer unto you in the seuenth moneth on the tenth day of the moxeth ye shall afflict your soules c. and it had sundry legal rites and facrifices annexed unto it But may we not say the like of the Sabbath is it to be holden wholly ceremoniall not to be obserued as moral because the day is changed and all the rites abolished together with the strict rest No doubtlesse there remaineth a Sabboth and holy day of rest for the people of God to the end of the world or else religion would soone perish out of the earth So we may say touching fasting true it is we find no setled time in the new Testament appointed and set apart to fast by the ordinance of Christ neverthelesse because the causes of fasting remaine which we noted before as great a necessity lyeth upon us as ever lay upon the Iewes when the like occasions shall be offered unto us that were offered unto them Now where the causes of the institution remaine there the things themselues must continue but the causes of the institution remaine therfore fasting it selfe must continue Be sides when our Saviour was blamed by the Pharisees Disciples the Disciples of Iohn because his disciples fasted not doth he exempt them vtterly from it discharge them from such practise as impertinent unto them No doubtlesse he only sheweth the unfitnesse of the present time Math. 9.15 but layeth a commandement upon them to do it afterward then shall they fast And they performed it accordingly Act. 13. Secondly it reproveth the Popish fasting to whom I may say as Paul sometime did to the men of Athens Act. 17.22 I perceive that in all things yee are too superstitious And indeed here is one mystery of iniquity The chiefe points of religion remaine in the Church of Rome howbeit in name onely not in nature in shew not in substance in appearance not in truth I may say therefore of them as Iohn doth to the Angel of the Church in Sardis I know thy workes Revel 3.1 that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead They have the name of Christ of justification of the Scripture of prayer of faith of the Sacraments of repentance but they have set up a mock-Christ they have overthrowne his humanity and destroyed all his Offices they beleeve justification but it is by their owne workes they receive faith but it is nothing but a beleeving the word to be true which also the Devils doe they admit repentance but it is nothing else but penance and corporall chasticement they acknowledge the Scriptures but they have patched their Apochryphal additions unto them and their owne Traditions as unwritten verities to be of equall authority with them they use prayer but it is in an unknowne tongue they have the Sacraments but one of them they have defiled the other they have destroyed and turned it into the idolatrous and blasphemous Masse And herein lyeth the depth of Satan For if he should utterly have
abolished these fundamentall points of religion and not have broched lyes in hypocrisie all men would soone have espied the treachery The like I might say of fasting What the Popish fast is What the Popish fast is I will describe out of their owne writers It is an abstinence from flesh onely and the things that come from it according to the order of the Church upon set and certaine times appointed to make satisfaction for our sinnes to merit the grace of Christ and to obtaine everlasting life Can light and darknesse be more contrary one to the other then these things are to the truth But this I have handled else where Comment upon Esther albeit the bare allegation be a sufficient confutation of this vanity Lastly it behoveth us to meet the Lord by prayer and fasting as the Church in all ages hath usually done in times of dāger It is the Counsell of the Prophet when the Lord commeth out as an armed man against his people to seek reconciliation and attonement with him Amos. 4.12 This will I doe to thee O Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meete thy God O Israel We are not stronger than he Psal 24.8 who is the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel Exod. 15.3 as a man of Warre and therefore we are not able to encounter him Remember the words of our Saviour Luk. 14. Luk. 14.31.32 What king going to make warre against another king sitteth not downe first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that commeth against him with twenty thousand or else while the other is yet a great way off hee sendeth an Ambassage and desireth conditions of peace The Lord is come out already against us and hath his twenty thousand in battel aray and hath smitten downe many thousands of us We cannot now say he is yet a great way off there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begunne among the people Numb 16.46 and yet who almost layeth it to his heart Act. 12.20 O that there were that wisedome in us which was in the men of Tyre and Sidon when they knew that Herod was displeased with them they came with one accord and desired peace because their countrey was nourished by the kings country We know we feele the Lord is highly displeased with us and that we have provoked him to anger why do we then delay the time and send not out to him an embassage of prayer and repentance and offer conditions of peace This we must doe many wayes first accuse and endite our selues as guilty before him like poore prisoners standing at the the barre and holding up our hands Secondly Confesse our sinnes that have procured his heavy displeasure Thirdly Let us vow to forsake them this must evermore be joyned with confession Pro. 28. Fourthly Give no rest to our own soules till we be reconciled to God and restored to his favour againe and he have called in his judgments against us Lastly Eph. 4.22.23 let us leade a new life cast off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of our minde without this all our meetings and assemblies are nothing worth yea our prayers and fastings are turned into sinne Neither circumcision avayleth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are made new 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he layd his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sate in ashes Hitherto of the solemne repentance of the Ninevites from the highest to the lowest now consider the actions of the King both in his owne person and in his proclamation Behold a wicked city turned from her wickednesse in the turning of an hand Ionah no sooner proclaimed destruction but the King sent out his Proclamation he no sooner heard of wrath denounced from the throne of God but he presently arose from his owne throne when he heard how they had all covered the whole land with their sinnes he covered himselfe with sackcloth he laid aside his royall robes and clad himselfe with repentance as with a robe See then the outward meanes of their repentance the word of the Prophet Ionah preached judgment through the City this could not long be hidden from the King and hence arose their turning to God Doct. This teacheth Repentance is wrought by the preaching of the word in the hearts of men that God worketh repentance and the conversion of a sinner by the Preaching of the Word The author and giver is God or else we never have it but the meanes and instrument by which he worketh it is the ministery of the Word The Apostle Paul exhorteth the servant of the Lord to instruct those that oppose themselues 2 Tim. 2.25 if God peraduenture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth Iam. 1.18 An other Apostle confirmeth the same Of his owne will he begate us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruites of his creatures And we have a third witnesse of another Apostle We are borne anew not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 1. Pet. 1.23 by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever Reasons First the word is quicke and livelie Reason 1 powerfull and piercing sharper than any two edged sword Heb. 4.12 and entreth even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts Heb. 4. Howbeit not from any inherent power in it selfe nor from the mouth of him that Preacheth it for he can give it no force Gal. 2.8 nor set any edge upon it but from the power of God as Gal. 2. He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles Secondly faith is the fountaine and beginning of repentance but whence have we faith but by the word as we have declared already that Ionah preached and the Ninevites beleeved This also the Apostle teacheth Rom. 10.17 Faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God So then these three stand thus in order the word faith and repentance How shall they heare saith the same Apostle and in the same place without a Preacher The Ninevites heard Ionah before they beleeved and they beleeved his preaching before they repented if they had not heard the Prophet they had never beleeved and if they had never beleeved they had not to turned the Lord. NO man therefore can be converted except he have beleeved Thirdly the conversion of a sinner is as I may say the onely miracle of the Gospell It is usuall with the Lord to shadow his miracles by outward meanes Pro. 25.2 that he might conceale his owne workes as Pro. 25. The glory of God is to
or our carnall pleasures if we had followed the calling of God and waited at the postes of his house if we had beene as carefull and eager to heare as we are foolish and madde to follow our vanities we might have obtained and receiued faith and repentance long agoe Shall we then be so Prophane as to bring the Lord to dance our attendance and to give us his grace when we our selues list and to bestow it upon us at our leysure and pleasure In all worldly businesse we know we must take opportunity while it is offered we can say that tide and time tarryeth no man and that happily we may never have the same occasion offered us againe why then are we not as wise for spirituall and heavenly things as we are for earthly and for the life to come as for this present life Remember this if we remember nothing else that Iacob obtained the blessing while Esau was in hunting Gen. 27. So might we happily obtaine faith and repentance while we are hunting after our pleasures or profits and while we sit idle or lye sleeping in our houses or worse occupied than thus and will not vouchsafe to come and hearken unto his word Never therefore wickedly accuse the Lord for not giving to thee the graces of faith and repentance but come home and enter into thy selfe and learne to accuse thine owne wicked and prophane heart who doest not so much as thou hast in thine owne power to wit to come to the house of God and to heare and attend Let us doe these things diligently and we may looke for his blessing Math. 13.12 for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance Besides God is bound to no man the winde bloweth freely where it list and may he not doe with his owne as pleaseth him or who can complaine against him True it is God is able to convert us and to give us to beleeve without the meanes of his word because he is not tyed thereunto but he hath tyed us and left us no other way Luk. 16.29.31 1 Cor. 1.21 Rom. 10.14 He will by the preaching of the word save them that beleeve 1 Cor. 1.21 and how shall they heare without a Preacher Rom. 10. The Lord fed Israel his people with quailes in the wildernesse and gave them bread from heaven but when he had brought them into Canaan a land flowing with milke and honey where they had corne and haruest in due season the Manna ceased Iosh 5.12 he fed them no longer from heaven So then this is the first point we must marke and practise we must be swft to heare with reverence with Conscience and with diligence use all the meanes we can to attaine to regeneration Touching the second point It is our duty to be slow to speake as we must be swift to heare so we must be slow to speake not slow or backward to speake of the word to conferre one with another and to sit and reason of the wayes of the Lord but slow to speak against it to quarrell with it to gainesay it resist it as the manner of many is who have dul eares but nimble tongues they are slow to heare but quicke to speake and reject what they have heard quite contrary to the Apostles commandement These men will question oftentimes with their companions as carnall as themselues but seldome or never will once conferre with the Minister who is most able to resolve them and most willing to instruct them which argueth they are possessed with a spirit of contradiction have no desire to be instructed The third point is slow to wrath It is our duty to be slow to wrath and to be offended when we heare our speciall sinnes touched and our corruptions ripped up to the quicke These are like the hearers of Stephen Act. 7.54.57.58 Act. 7. when they heard somewhat that pleased them not their hearts brast with anger and they guashed upon him with their teeth they cryed out with a loud voyce stopped their eares and ranne upon him with one accord Our hearers happly will not use these gestures but they will practise worse they will laugh at us and that not closely in their sleeves as we say but openly in our faces an evident argument of the contempt not of our persons so much as of the word of God it selfe Gal. 4.16 But what are we therefore become your enemies because we tell you the truth These never came to any degree of repentance or regenetation Iam. 1.20 for the wrath of man cannot accomplish the righteousnes of God Iā 1. He that will reprove others with fruit must ree his minde from fury and hastinesse so must hearers likewise if they will heare with profit For as surgeons Chrysost advers Gentes that goe about to cut off rotten members do not fill themselues with anger or choler when they goe about their cure but then specially endeavour to quiet their mindes from such unruly passions least happly such distemper might hinder their art so should reproovers be free from wrath least it should hinder them from doing that good which otherwise they might doe In like manner such as are hearers and reprooved that it may be as a precious oyle that shall not breake their head Psal 141.5 when they come into the house of God to heare his word which is able to save their soules must lay aside all filthinesse superfluity of naughtinesse and put on the spirit of meekenesse to receive the word ingrafted in us neiter must be offended at the word it selfe when it speaks not as they would have it Word came to the King he rose from his throne c. All these gestures of the King he rose he layd aside he covered he sate downe in ashes doe declare his forwardnesse and all of them are amplified by the circumstance of time so soone as the word of God preached by Ionah came unto him This teacheth us that repentance must be present speedy Doct. without delay or prolonging of the time from one day to an other Repentance must be speedy For if the King and the rest of the Ninevites had done so they had beene utterly overthrowne for not repenting The Prophet exhorteth to heare the voyce of the Lord while it is called to day Psal Psal 95.7 Heb. 3.13 and 4.7 Esay 55.6 95. and the Apostle exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne Heb. 3. Hereunto tendeth the precept Seeke the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neere Esay 55. And no marveill For first Reason 1 the deferring and delaying of repentance is an argument of great folly heaping up the greater measure of sinne and drawing a farther degree of judgment Math. 23.32.34.35 Rom. 2.5.6 making our selues two-fold more the children of hell as
godlinesse and honesty Ier. 29.7 So the Prophet chargeth the Captives of the people Ier. 29.7 Seeke the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried away Captives and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall yee have peace Fourthly it is their duty that are seruants to make wise choise of their Masters and Governours where they may be soberly gouerned and godlily instructed But what do such for the most part hunt after and under what roofe will they rest Doubtlesse in their choise they regard nothing they ayme after nothing but where they may serve for greatest wages where they may make most gaine profit and worldly commodity where they finde most liberty and where they may speake as they list doe as they list and live as they list Nay they affect and preferre above all other the houses of prophane persons where themselues may live as prophanely also without feare of God or man and without checke and controlment that it may be said like master like seruant which notwithstanding is the common but corrupt custome of the common sort who have more care to provide for the body than for the soule But they have chosen the better part who are carried with a desire and love of godlinesse where they may learne the best things that shall not be taken from them remembring that 1 Tim. 6.6 1 Tim. 6.6 Godlinesse is greate gaine if a man be content with that he hath True it is there may be one Lot in Sodome one Ioseph in Pharaohs house one Rahab in Iericho one Paul in the ship and one Obadiah in Ahabs Court but this is very rare and falleth out seldome For where the heads of the family be prophane what shall ye see in the rest of the household but Prophanenesse Worldlinesse Wantonnesse Drunkennesse brawling and contention Where they be lukewarme it may be observed that their children and seruants for the most part that attend upon them are Neuters neither fish nor flesh neither hote nor cold such care not which end goe forward where they be faithfull and zealous zeale will oftentimes be found in the lowest seruant that looketh to the doore Act. 12.5.14 as we see in Rhoda who reioyced to heare Peters voyce and was glad to carry that newes when he was brought out of prison for whom prayer had beene made by the Church without ceasing to God 7 And he caused it to be Proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the King and his Nobles saying Let neither man nor beast heard nor flocke tast any thing let them not feede nor drinke water 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turne every one from his evill way and from the violence that is in their hands The example and precedency of the King hath beene considered in the former verse His repentance was the repentance of all the rest and his humiliation was the laying of the threatning to heart by all the rest For they followed his example and he knew that repentance was the only meanes to appease the wrath of God Now touching the Kings edict he consulteth with his Councell or Nobles joyntly together they publish a decree the summe whereof is that there should be fasting and prayer 1 King 12.6 2 Sam. 16.23 declared by the reason vers 9. Who can tell if God will turne from his fierce wrath that we perish not Here are sundry points offered that might be handled that the King had his Councell without whose advise direction he would do nothing This hath ever beene the manner of Princes to have their wise Councell about them in regard of the waightinesse of their charge Two eyes see more then one and two eares heare more then one In this respect Solomon teacheth that two are better then one and so have a greater fruit of their labours Besides the dangers are greater if they erre and goe astray their errors are oftentimes irrevocable and had I wist commeth too late But because this better fitteth another place I will passe it ouer And touching fasting it selfe I have spoken of it before and therefore I passe that also Onely it may seeme strange that the commandement runneth indifferently to man and beast that they must be covered with sackcloth and fast and that man and beast must cry mightily unto God For some may say seeing these things may seeme strange what have beasts to doe with repenting and turning to God have they or can they sinne The good Angels the Devils the beastes cannot repent Why the bruit beastes are commanded to fast The elect Angels neede it not the Devils cannot the beastes are not capable of it This then was not commanded for the beasts sake but to stirre up the Ninevites themselues the more when they should heare the crying of children the neyghing of horses the lowing of bullockes the bleating of sheep all making lamentation and all sending up their cries to heaven themselues might be provoked to double their owne mourning who were the causes of all the other The common danger it selfe might seeme all-sufficient to provoke the people to this humiliation but besides this they had the example of the King and his Councell the force of an edict or proclamation yea the very sight and hearing of the beasts put them in minde of their duty Doct. We must use all occasions to stirre up our selues to repentance Thus they must take all occasions to stirre up themselues to turne every one from his evill wayes This teacheth that we have all neede to use all meanes and take all occasions to stirre up our selues and one another to repentance and amendment of life and all little enough yea too little Hereunto come the many warnings and jnvitations to godlinesse found every where in the word of God as do charger us to remember to take heed to come to looke to our selues and such like Deut. 4.23 Luk. 11.34 Psal 34.11 And no marueil For we have neede to be often put in remembrance of our duties Exod. 20.8 Deut. 9.7 Eccl. 12.1 1 Tim. Reason 1 1.15 3.1 4.9 6.17 2 Tim. 4.1 What meane these so often caveats and Commandements but to teach us that we have great neede to be stirred up to all good things Secondly we are very dull and untoward to all good things To evill we neede no teacher nor instructer nor inciter we are forward enough and too forward but to good we are backward and have neede of spurres We are by nature slacke and untoward to that is good Hence it is Iob 11.12 that man by nature is compared to a wilde Asses colt Iob. 11. Vaine man would be wise though man be borne like a wilde Asses colt that is untamed and untractable Ier Ier. 2 24. 2. to a wild asse used to the wildernesse that snuffeth up the winde at her pleasure
Thirdly it is a very difficult and hard worke to attaine to any good Vertue is planted groweth upon the top of an high hill it is painfull to climbe up unto it or upon a steep rocke to which we can hardly ascend we shall be driven to creepe up on all foure 1 Sam. 14.13 as Ionathan and his armour-bearer did to the garrison of the Philistims This is that which the wise Solomon teacheth Pro. 15.24 The way of l fe is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath Hence it is also Psal 15.1 Phil. 3.19 Col. 3.1 that the Rrophet David compareth heaven to an high hill Psal 15.1 We should clime and get up nearer and nearer unto it euery day So our Saviour teacheth that the way to life is narrow Math. 7.14 and the gate strait it is not wide and broad as the path that tendeth to death and therefore much striving and strugling much fighting and wrastling is needfull for us Math. 11.12 that the kingdome of heaven may suffer violence and the violent take it by force The way is onely one that leadeth to life and we must make straight steppes unto it but the by-pathes and crooked lanes and crosse turnings that tend to death are many nay infinite This instructeth us to admonish one an other Vse 1 to consider one an other to provoke to love and to good workes to exhort one an other and so much the more Heb. 10.24.25 because we see the day approching This the Saints have practised thus the Prophet foretelleth it should be in times of the Gospel under the kingdome of Christ Esay 2. Esay 2.3 Mic. 4. â— many people shall goe and say Come let us goe up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob he will teach us his wayes and we will walke in his pathes So the Apostle chargeth us to exhort one an other to reprove and comfort We see in the things of this life how ready men are to helpe one another and to doe good to the body nay we are commanded to shew our love and compassion to the beast yea of our enemy Exod. 23.5 If he lye downe under his burden wilt thou forbeare to lift him up thou shalt surely helpe him up how much more then should we doe good to the soule which is more precious than the body and further him in the matters of salvation which are of more worth a thousand times than a temporal possession Especially this duty is to be performed by parents and masters that are bound by a nearer and straiter band to their families than others are and so are charged with the same in a double respect and generally it is required of all to keepe watch and ward over others for their good For they that are truly religious must approve themselues to be so by seeking to draw others thereunto Where true religion possesseth the heart of a man The properties of true religion there also cannot but be a desire kindled and inflamed to bring others to it also This is not onely as a good tree that bringeth forth good fruit but it is also as a fire which having matter to worke upon will send forth light and heat to comfort and refresh others And who is he that knoweth and considereth from what misery he is delivered and to what freedome from sinne and Satan he is brought that can be so unthankfull to God and so mercilesse and hard-hearted to his brethren as to rest contented in his owne happinesse and be altogether carelesse to give glory to God for his happinesse Cant 1.4 Iam. 5.19.20 and to testifie his love to his neighbour and desire to pull him out of the state of damnation and make him partaker of the inheritance in the heavenly places We see in the examples of the Disciples how diligent they were so soone as they were brought to Christ to perswade draw others to the knowledge and feare of God When Andrew was brought to Christ he never rested till he had found his brother Simon Ioh. 1.41.42 and sayd unto him We have found the Messias and he brought him to Iesus and when the Lord Iesus had called Philip and willed him to follow him Philip findeth Nathaniel and sayd We have found him vers 45.46 of whom Moses and the Prophets did write come and see him The like also we see afterward in the woman of Samaria when once Christ had touched her heart and given her to drinke of the fountaine of living waters springing up into everlasting life she could not rest her selfe contented therewith to be partaker of so great a benefit alone Ioh 4.29 but shee lest her waterpot and ranne into the City and called them out to tast of those waters whereof she had drunke Indeed he asked of her but he gave unto her waters of life Let us be therefore like to those Lepers who being almost affamished and ready to dye and finding a rich booty meat and drinke silver and gold in great abundance would not nay could not keepe such a benefit long to themselues but they accused themselues and reproved one another 2 King 7.9 saying We doe not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace if we tarry till the morning some mischiefe will come upon us now therefore come that we may tell it abroad So when God in great mercy hath opened himselfe unto us which is better than to find siluer and gold should we then hide his mercy as the unfaithfull seruant did his talent and not rather put it out to the exchangers Math. 25.27 that the Lord at his comming might receive his owne with usury And should we not say with those Lepers This day is a day of good tidings and should we hold our peace and not communicate this good to others This is the charge that the Lord layd upon Peter Luk. 22. I have prayed for thee Luk. 22.32 that thy faith faile not when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Thus the sheepheards after the Angels were departed into heaven encouraged one another to see the thing that was come to passe and to make that knowne abroad in the City which the Lord had made knowne to them in the field Luk. 2 1.5 Secondly it reproveth sundry sorts that offend against this doctrine First such as shake off this duty The first reproofe as too heavy a burthen from their owne shoulders and lay it upon the Ministers of the word and it is posted over from one to another as Adam laid the blame vpon the woman and the woman upon the Serpent whereas every private man ought to be a meane according to his calling to perswade others to the hearing of the word that they might be saved If every one would perswade himselfe that it is his duty to perswade others then would the Church be enlarged
afterward when the passion is past they are haile fellow well met with them This kind of reproofe seeldome or neuer doth any good it is so sharpe and biting So then to conclude this point reproofe must not be too cold neither to hote and hasty As Physicke that is ministred if it be too cold it never worketh but if too hote that it be ready to skald the mouth the patient will never suffet it to descend into the stomacke but both of them instead of doing Good doe hurt so it is in the matter of reproofe which is the Physicke of the soule to cure the diseases thereof when it is seasoned with wisedome and discretion and the golden meane observed between too much and too little but if it be given too cold Aurea mediocritas Horat. lib. â— Ode 10. 1 Sam. 2.24 we can looke for no benefit to come thereof as we see in the practise of Eli toward his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. on the other side if it be applied too hote as the Disciples would have dealt with the Samaritans Luk. 9.54 to call downe fire from heaven to consume them at once no man will suffer it to go downe into the bowels of the belly but distasteth the reproofe and the reprover Thirdly they that would be meanes to bring others to repentance or to godlinesse must first be such themselues for asmuch as otherwise we shall seeme to draw them in jest to speake one thing and to meane another not indeed and in truth to desire that which we make shew off For what man I pray you will be disswaded from drunkennesse by the perswasion of a drunkard or who will regard the words of a blasphemer when he findeth fault with swearing The person reprooved never regardeth or esteemeth any such reproofe he never layeth it to his heart but heareth it as words of course and scoffeth at such folly as one ready to cast the reproover in the teeth with the common proverbe Luk. 4.23 Physition heale thy selfe If we would doe any good with our reprooving and seeke the amendment of such as goe astray we must first cast the beame out of our owne eye Math. 7.5 and then we shall see cleerly to cast out the mote out of our brothers eyes Hence it is that the Apostle saith Rom. 2.21 Thou that teachest an other teachest thou not thy selfe c. Such therefore as goe about to perswade others to a love of the truth and of the house of God where the truth is published must give an example to others and be a patterne and president thereof themselves and so lead them the way Thus the Prophet fortelleth the people should do under the Gospel Zach. 8.21 Let us goe speedily to pray before the Lord and to seeke the Lord of hostes I will goe also as if they should say Come friends come neighbours let us goe to the house of God to pray to heare his word to sanctifie his Sabbaths to learne his wayes and I will goe with you I will beare you company Thus also doth the Prophet David Psal 111. as appeareth in the title compared with the beginning of the Psalme Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart otherwise we shall be like the Statues in the high way which point the way to others but never remove out of their place themselves or like our common ringers who helpe to bring others into the Church and then depart themselves Lastly as we must call upon others so we must be content to be called upon by others especially such whose calling is most familiarly to converse together as children servants and such like They must not as the manner is thinke amisse to be often admonished by their Parents Masters or Superiors or esteeme it any disgrant or reproch to be pricked forward by the goad of exhortation much lesse say with the obstinate and refractory Let us breake their bandes Psal 2.3 and cast their cordes from us but stoop downe our neckes to the yoake of God and submit our selves to discipline even from our youth The Apostle Saint Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.12 I will not be negligent to put you in minde of these things though ye have knowledge and be established in the truth already This answereth the Objection of some men that boast they are able to admonish themselves and they know those things already sufficiently for albeit they to whom Peter wrote were well grounded and established in the present truth yet he would not cease diligently to admonish them And the Apostle Paul though he were perswaded of the Romans that they were full of goodnesse Rom. 15.14 filled with knowledge and able to admonish one another yet was he bold by writing to put them in mind of these things Phil 3.1 and it did not greeue him to write the same things to the Philippians because he knew that for them it was a sure and safe thing So that such as are best furnished and well stored with good knowledge with grace and goodnesse oftentimes find they have need to be whet up and put forward and if such as are most forward and furnished need the spurres to be clapped to their sides much more others that are children in knowledge backward in good things rude and raw in the doctrine which is according to godlinesse 8. Let man and beâ—st be covered with sackcloth and cry c. Here we have the summe and effect of the Kings Proclamation that as the danger was common to all which hung over their heads so the meanes must be common to turne away the judgment Doct. they must joyntly together put on sackcloth and call upon God This teacheth Prayer and fasting â—ust go together us that fasting and prayer must be joyned and goe hand in hand together The truth of this appeareth by sundry examples in the old and new Testament as Iudg. 20 23. 2 Chro. 20.3.6 Math. 17.21 Luk. 2.37 1 Cor. 7.5 Ioel. 2.15.17 The reasons are evident for first Math. 19.6 Whatsoever God hath coupled together no man must put asunder This is a generall rule belonging to all Gods ordinances which he hath united Secondly fasting considered in it selfe is an outward ceremony and cannot touch the conscience neither doth the kingdome of God consist therein Rom. 14.17 1 Tim. 4.8 but it is a bodily exercise that severed from the spiritual profiteth little 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 14.17 Thirdly the Conjunction of these is the right and ready meaâ—es to turne away the wrath of God from us as Ezr. 8. I Proclaimed a fast that we might humble our selves before our God Ezr. 8.21.23 and seeke of him a right way for us and for our children and for all our substance Fourthly to make our prayers more available and effectuall and that the Lord might be intreated of us Ezra 8.23 The use hereof is first Vse 1 to overthrow the Popish fastings which consist in
sorts of the Ministery of our selves of our families Dan. 9.3.7.8 of our fathers of our Princes of our people and of our whole land For all our fasting is nothing worth without this Fasting is no part of Gods worship but onely joyned to prayer to be an helpe unto it or as a wing to mount is up toward heaven and make it ascend into the presence of God Prayer is avaylable without fasting because it is a lifting up of the heart to him but fasting never without prayer because it goeth not beyond the outward man Prayer is a spirituall exercise of our faith wherein as in an acceptable sacrifice God delighteth but fasting is a bodily exercise which in it selfe pleaseth not God who is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth God being of a spirituall nature requireth a spirituall service and agreeable to his nature And cry mightily vnto God This is the life and the very quintessence of all the great abstinence before commanded For what had it availed to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and to abstaine from food had they not used prayer to God to crave mercy and forgivenesse at his hands Yea this is the end of private or publike fastes that we should call upon God the more fervently and effectually They are not prescribed as hath beene shewed as parts of Gods seruice for whether we eate we are never the worse or whether we abstaine we are not at all the better in respect of any religion or holinesse that consisteth in them but onely as they are meanes to further us in his seruice Now in these words we must observe three things the matter the manner and the object that is their prayer their zeale and the person to whom they prayed their prayer is noted by their crying their zeale by doing it mightily the person to whom they prayed unto God Let us consider these in order The first is the matter they prayed they cryed the end is that thereby God might turne away from his fierce wrath Doct. This teacheth us that prayer is a principall meanes appointed and sanctified of God to remove his judgements Prayer is a meanes to remove Gods judgments This is as it were the tongue or voyce of repentance The prayer of this people was more worth a thousand times than the crying of the beasts and the loud noyse of men women and children They cryed they cryed mightily they cryed to God This the heathen by the light of nature have confessed The Marriners acknowledged this to be the only meanes to obtaine mercy at the hands of God Ion. 1.6 and to remoove his judgement when they were like to perish So did Pharaoh he was glad to fly to it in his misery and calamity Exod. 8.28 Pray for me and for my people to the Lord that this plague may depart So it was with Ieroboam little better than the former 1 King 13.6 1 King 13. So it was with Simon the forcerer they all thought it was the readiest way to remove his judgments from falling upon them Behold sundry examples of this truth in traveilers in captives in sicke men in sea-men and sundry other troubles of which the Prophet saith They cryed unto the Lord in their troubles Psal 107.6.13 19.28 Amos. 7.2.3 4.5.6 and he delivered them out of their distresses We see this oftentimes in Moses the servant of the Lord when he praied for the Israelites Exod. 32. Numb 14. Yea so forcible were his prayers with God that they after a sort tyed up his hands that he could not smite but said Exod. 32.10 Let me alone that I may destroy them So Gen. 19. he said to Let I can doe nothing till thou art gone and Exod. 17. Gen. 19.22 the prayer of Moses prevailed more for the overthrow and destruction of the Amalekites than the sword of Ioshua and the people The reasons are Reas 1 first it hath a promise of blessing to such as use it a right Math. 7. Psal 50. We do not beat the aire nor build upon the sand our labour in the fire Psal 50.15 when we pray unto him but we lay a sure foundatiō upon the certaine rocke of his promise Math. 7.7 which shall never faile us who hath said Aske and ye shall receive Secondly our sinnes cry up to heaven pierce the cloudes Gen. 18.20 4.10 come into Gods presence and call for vengance Gen. 18. Our prayers cry to God for mercy and drowne the noise of our sinnes that the cry of them cannot be heard though they cry never so loud Thirdly we obtaine not because we aske not aright Iam. 4. We aske and receive not Iam. 4.3 we seeke and find not but the cause is not in God the fault is in our selves Vse 1. This reproveth such as pray not at all Vse 1 nor desire to have conference with God as if they stood in no need of him as if they enjoyed all things by their owne labour as if they did not live and move by his blessing as if it were not in his power to stoppe our breath when we must goe hence and be no more and as if any thing could do us good without a sanctifying of the creature to our use Psal 14.4 whereas he can take away the staffe of bread whensoever it pleaseth him All these should be motives to move us to paryer Rom. 10.13 The Prophet maketh this the note of Atheistes they call not upon the Lord. If a man should be waighed in this ballance alas how many would be found to light and if whosoever would be saved must call upon the name of the Lord how many are there that stand not in the state of salvation because they know not what prayer meaneth it is a stranger to them and they unto it Secondly it is our duty to practise this duty to call upon his holy name But it may be said what needeth prayer God hath foreappointed what to do and our prayer cannot altar Gods purpose decree which is unchangable I answer we do not pray to chage Gods decree but to shew our obedience faith toward God It pleaseth him to try them this way whether as his children they will depend upon him or not Again it may be said He knoweth what we need what need we then to put him in mind as if he had forgotten to shew mercy I answer we do not pray to teach God any thing that he knoweth not neither to bring to his remēbrance what he hath forgotten yet this ought to be farre from discouraging of us in prayer and from stopping our mouthes Math 6.8 9. that it rather openeth them wider for asmuch as therefore we ought to be encouraged in prayer because our heavenly father knoweth whereof we have need and thus our Saviour reasoneth your father knoweth your necessities after this manner therefore pray ye
Thirdly continue in prayer supplication without ceasing and never give over to be his remembrancers such praier evermore hath mercy joyned with it This doth our Saviour teach Luk. 11 8. 18.1.5 Math. 15.22.24.26 I meane this perseverance by sundry parables of the poore widow of the vnjust judge Luk. 18. of the friend that did lend three Loves Luk. 11. by the example of the woman of Canaan who followed our Saviour and would not give him over till she had obtained Math. 15. And the rather ought we to do so because sometimes God will proove our faith patience obedience and constancy sometimes to make us more earnest in prayer for we are to dull cold must be stirred up sometimes to teach us the value and price of the graces of his spirit because such as are soone and easily obtained are oftentimes dispiced or at least lesse regarded and not so carefully preserued sometimes to make us more watchfull and heedfull that we might not easily loose them when we have them The Prophts themselues complaine oftentimes that God heareth them not that they have called day and night and are weary of their crying Wherefore not that he will not heare much lesse that he cannot heare but that his mercy might the more appeare for the greater our necessity is the more is his power and mercy seene sometimes he delayeth us Iudg. 7.2 to teach us to renounce all confidence in the flesh as Iudg. 7. the Lord said to Gideon The people that are with thee are to many for me to give the Midianites into their hands least Israel make their vaunt against me and say mine hand hath saved me so would it be with us if we had alwayes helpes at hand 2 Cor. 1.9.10 and 2 Cor. 1.9.10 that we should not trust in our selues but in God which raiseth the dead Lastly sometimes we are differred that our danger being the greater wherein we are his glory might be the greater in our deliverance As the skill of the Phyfition is most seene in most desperate diseases and of the Surgeon in the deepest woundes for what great knowledge in his art doth he shew in curing the scratch of a pin or a little razing of the skin so the power of God is most of al seene in delivering of us from troubles dangers wherein we have lienand languished a long time and from thence also ariseth his glory Lastly it is our duty to give thankes to God when he hath heard us as Psal 50. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Our owne wants and necessities constraine us oftentimes to remember the former precept Call upon me but our deliverances cannot make us remember the latter clause thou shalt glorifie me We are ready with the Lepers to opon our mouthes for mercy but our mouthes are soone shut when we should give him the glory Luk. 17.12 and we quickly forget his goodnesse with the same Lepers There is no triall of our selues by prayer in our wants for it is often forced not free wrested not voluntary but rather by our thankesgiving whether we make conscience of our duties to God or not Forced prayer is no prayer As he loueth a cheerefull giver so he loveth a cheerfull prayer O how often was the Prophet David in praising God! how doth he provoke his owne heart not to forget his benefits and others O that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Psal 116.12.103 107.8 and for his wonderfull workes to the children of men Cry mightliy Hitherto of the first point the matter or substance of the Kings coÌ„mandement they must all zeale The pray Doct. from the highest to the lowest the second point solloweth Prayer must â—e seruent the maner of their pray mightily this noteth their danger was certaine in a manner present therfore their prayer must not be cold Hence we must obserue that it is not enough to pray but prayer must be earnest fervent Hereunto commeth the double and trebled commandement of Christ to aske to seeke to knocke which repetition importeth and imposeth upon us this fervency True it is that prayer joyned with fasting ought to be earnest too fold but though it go alone without fasting yet it must not go alone without fervency of spirit The Apostle Iames speaking of ordinary prayer teacheth that the prayer of a righteous man prevailâ—th much Iam. 5.16.17 if it bâ—forment not otherwise This he proveth by the example of Elias â—e prayed earnestly that it might not raine and it rained not on the earth by the space of three yeares and sixe mâ—â—â—thâ— c. And least any should pretend that he was a great Prophet and in high favour with God no marveil therfore if his prayer prevailed who raised the dead to life and brought fire from heaven as also he obtained that the heaven should be as brasse and the earth as jron but all cannot be like to him every Christian cannot be an other Elias besides his prayer was extraordinary The Apostle answereth that notwithstanding his great graces yet he was a man subject to the same passions infirmities that others are and yet God heard him And true it is his prayer was extraordinary in regard of the manner we caÌ„not pray that the heaven should not give rain nor the clouds senddown their shewres because we have not that spirit which he had but we must have the spirit of Sanctification to pray â—erveÌ„tly as he did or else we shal never be heard as he was The reasons Reason 1 first God looketh not onely what we do when we come before him but how we do it he regardeth the maâ—ner as well as the matter not only that we do good things but that we do them well For as we must take heede not only what we hearâ— Mar. 4.24 Mark 4.24 Luk. 8.18 but likewise how we heare Luk. 8.18 so we must looke to our selues that we pray what we pray but withall how we pray seeing we must faile neither in the one nor in the other Secondly the Lord only loveth zealous servants that â—erue him faithfully and servently as he is sayd to love a cheerfull giver 2 Cor. 8. Thirdly cold suiters among men teach them to deny such suites If a man come to our dores and bâ—g coldly as if he cared not whether he speed oâ— not who will take any pittie or have compassion on such persons and shall we thinke that God will regard those that regard not in what cold and carelesse manner they present themselves before him Lastly he is cursed that doth any worke of the Lord negligently yea such as are luke-warme shall be spâ—â—ed onâ— of his mouth Rev. 3.16 Râ—â— 3. Such are they that caâ—e not which â—â—dge for wâ—rd whether they obtaine or not obtaine These are dead prayers without life as of dead men without breath This reproveth such Vse 1 as come negligently to the throne of
neglect the body catch after the shadow they straine at a gnat and swallow a Camell Math. 23 24. Fourthly it behoveth us to looke first of all to the heart and to clense the inside Ier 4.14 Iam. 4.8 that so the outside may be cleane also Math. 23.26 or else it is no zeale but hypocrity Fiftly Math 23.4 We must be more strict and precise to our selues then to others and give more liberty to them then we will take to our selues Let not us be as the Pharises who bound heauy burdens and greeuous to be borne and laid them upon other mens shoulders but themselues will not move them with one of their fingers Math. 23.4 Let us rather follow the example of Abraham Gen. 14.23.24 and of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 4.12 1 Thess 2.9 with 1 Cor. 9.6.14 1 Tim. 5.18 Sixtly true zeale condemneth and reproveth sinne without respect of persons in their acquaintance as well as in strangers in their friends as well as in foes in the higher as well as in the lower sort Math. 16.23 Gal. 3. â— Iob. 29.8.9 But many offend and are partiall against this rule and are afraid of the face of the mighty Seventhly we are to be most fervent in Gods causes This was the commendation of Moses though he were as meeke as a lain be in his own cause the meekest upon the face of the earth Numb 12.3 but in case of Idolatry and worshipping the golden calfe his wrath waxed hote he cast the Tables out of his hands he brake them in pieces he burnt the Calfe in the fire he ground it to powder and being strewed upon the water he made the Israelites drinke of it Exod. 32.19.20 This is otherwise in the greatest number who practise the quite contrary They are as hote as fire in their owne private matters but as cold as ice in things pertaining to the honour and glory of God Let a seruant offend his Master in the least trifle and neglect his businesse any way how is he moved and his rage kindled but if he transgresse the Commandement of God and neglect his worship he is never touched or troubled at it Maâ—h 15.6 â— he never reproveth him for it what is this but to make the commandement of God of none effect by their tradition Lastly albeit zeale be requisit and necessiry for all Christians yet it must be alayed and tempered with mercy and compassion considering our selues least we also be tempted Gal. 6.1.2 being humbled in our selues for those sinnes which we espy and censure in others It is noted of Christ our Saviour when the Pharisees murmured because he would heale on the Sabbath day Mark 3.5 that he looked angerly about him and yet he sorrowed for the hardnesse of their hearts Here anger and sorrow meet together and so they ought to doe in us Cry unto God Hitherto of the second point the manner of their prayer they cried mightily now we come to the third point the object of prayer to God that is the true God Ion. 1.5 The Mariners mentioned in the first Chapter cryed every man to his God but none of them to the true God Doct. and therefore they laboured but all in vaine This teacheth us Prayer must be made to God onely that prayer must be directed unto the true God only Gen. 4.26 Psal 50.15 107.6 Math. 6.9 Dan. 9.4 2 Chro. 20.6 Act. 8.22 The reasons are apparently drawne from the nature of God For first he onely is able to heare and to helpe Reason 1 He is infinite in power and nothing is to hard for him nothing unpossible to him Secondly In regard of his knowledge he searcheth the heart who made the heart and understandeth our thoughts and imaginations a farre off Thirdly He only is present in all places Ier. 23.24 Esay 66.1 that none can hide himself in secret places that he shall not see him he filleth heaven and earth the heaven being his throne and the earth his foot stoole Esay 66.1 Fourthly Faith and prayer go together and therefore it is called the prayer of faith Iam. 5.15 We beleeve only in God therefore we must pray onely to him The Apostle therefore having shewed that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13.14 he addeth but how shall they call upon him in whom they have not beleeved First of all Vse 1 this reproveth the sacriledge of the Church of Rome that robbe God of the honour due to his name and give that to the Saints departed and to Angels which is proper unto him To him all the faithfull Patriarkes Prophets and righteous men have prayed been heard and we have ten thousand places by which we are warranted and willed to doe the like Our Saviour cammandeth us to go to our Father which is in heaven Math. 6. The contrary practise hath neither Precept nor example nor promise nor threatning against any that refuse it nor punishment upon any that hath neglected the performance thereof Thus the Prophet speaketh Thou Esay 63.16 O Lord art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us David freely confesseth Psal 63.25 that he had none in heaven but God and none upon earth that he desired beside him The Church of Rome hath gotten more knowledge then ever this Prophet had and they are not ashamed to professe that they have â—no in heaven then God other mediators in whom they put their trust besides him Such lye under an heavy curse Ier. 17.5 â— 17. for cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. What do these but forsake God the fountaine of living waters and hew out to themselues broken cisternes that can hold no water Into both these mischeifes the Romish Synagogue falleth by praying to Saints and Angels If the blessed virgin the Apostles and Saints in heaven did know what these Idolaters and Saint-worshippers doe to them on earth doubtlesse they would abhorre this detestable derogation from the glory of God as much as Paul and Barnabas did the peoples offering to doe sacrifice to them Act. 14.14 nay much more as their knowledge being glorified was greater and their zeale of Gods glory more fervent then before in the dayes of their flesh Secondly it reproveth such as neglect wholly or for the most part this duty as not belonging unto them or as not necessary or as if God had never required it or spoken word of it or as if his faithfull servants had never practised it Whereas the Lord presseth no duty more earnestly the Scripture expresseth no duty more commonly and the Godly have performed no duty more constantly But from whence commeth this retchlessenesse in so plaine a matter and the disregarding of so holy an exercise so often commanded and so profitable to our selves Surely it proceedeth either from ignorance to make the best of it which yet excuseth not or
them the lesse sorry they were for themselues These are like drunken men that dread nothing because all their wit is gone to discerne of danger or like little children that feare not the fire till they be burned Pro. 20.11 nor the candle till they be singed with it As Pro. 20.11 even a child is knowne by his doings whether his worke be pure and whether it be right Lastly it behoveth us to examine our owne hearts The trials of a true faith whether we have true faith or not But how shall we try and prove our selues let these be the trials First if our faith be not fruitlesse and barren but worke in us love and hatred joy and greefe hope and feare If this faith be in us it will make us that we shall not be idle or unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ It will make to a â—ound in us both the love of God and our brethren and of good things and the hatred of evill both joy to see Religion florish and greeve to see God dishonoured both hope of everlasting life and feare to offend the everliving God That faith which swimmeth in the braine descendeth not to the bottome of the heart is no found faith but in shew and shadow onely a dead and counterfeite fâ—ith Secondly it is sound if it make us stand in feare of his judgments executed upon others like children that shake and quiver when the father correcteth any of their brethren nay of the seruants of the house so it is with the children of God they feare and lay it to heart when he chasteneth his Church or any of his own people nay the ungodly and prophane persons of the world they by and by looke upon themselues and examine their own wayes to see whether they be not guilty of the same sinnes 2 Sam. 6.6.7.9 This appeareth in David when the Lord in his anger smote Vzzah for his errour that he died by the Arke of God because he put forth his hand and tooke hold of it when the Oxen shooke it be feared God exceedingly that day What did he nor feare the Lord before Yes doubtlesse but exceedingly at that time when he saw a visible example of his wrath before his eyes and this also made him say Psal 19.120 my flesh trembleth for feare of thee and I am afraid of thy judgment This the Evangelist sheweth Act. 5. when Ananias and Sapphâ—ra were suddainly smittendown with suddaine death Act. 5.11 feare came upon the whole Church and upon all thâ—se that heard of it If it be the property of the child of God to tremble at his word Esay 66.2 Esay 66. as the heart of Iosiâ—h melted for feare at the hearing of the Iaâ—v 2 King 22. Because a reproofe entreth more into a wise man then an hundred stripes into a Foole Pro. 17. Pro. 17.10 how much more at his rods at his scourges and at the drawing and shaking of his glittering sword when his hand layeth hold on judgment like the child at the sight of his fathers rod So the Prophet Hab. 3.2 16. when he heard of the judgments of the Lord was afraid his belly trembled his lippes quivered at the voice rottennesse entred into his bones and he trembled in himselfe This feare of Gods anger is a worke of grace in the heart Thirdly if the feare of his judgments be an effectuall meanes preventing in us the feeling of them They that feare most now shall have least cause to feare hereafter and contrary wise such as feare least now when they are called to feare shall be suddainly overtaken with feare hereafter when they can neither prevent it nor avoid it Fourthly we may try the truth and efficacy of our faith if we can beleeve God on his bare word although we see not the performance thereof neither any appearance or likelihood thereof This we must consider in two respectes both of his promises and of his threatnings Touching his promises when we dare trust him on his bare word for the performance of them We say of some men we will trust them no farther then we see them or have some earnest pledge or pawne from them howbeit we must not deale so with God this is as much as not to trust him at all but our owne eyes and to trust our owne pawne not him But for us to trust him 2 Cor. 5.7 when he seemeth to go from his owne word or against his word even deny himselfe this is assuredly a true faith Thus it was with Abrahram when the Lord bad him kill his sonne his onely sonne even Isaac the sonne of promise by whom he looked to have issue in number as the Starres of heaven and as the sand by the Sea-shore he accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure So it was with Iob H. b. 1.29 we must beleeve that God will save us even when he seemeth to goe about to destroy us Iob. 13.15 Thus we are taught to beleeve that he loveth us when he chasteneth us and frowneth upon us and maketh little shew of love toward us we must beleeve that he remembreth us when he seemeth to forget us Esay 49.4.15.16 And touching his threatnings we must beleeve them before they come The threatnings of God are manifold and evident The soule that sinneth Ezek. 18.5 Psal 68.21 shall dy the death Ezek. 18.5 and Psal 68. The Lord will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalpe of every one that goeth on obstinately in his sinnes But because we see it not presently instantly and immediatly performed the ungodly put farre from them the evill day and they live merrily and pleasantly thereby seeming to escape the scourge here Eccl. 8.11 as Eccl. 8. Because sentence against an evil worke is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to doe evill These thinke God will be better then his word and that these threatnings are spoken onely to fray and affright men as scare-crowes do birdes to keepe them in awe not to bring them to ruine and destruction What are these but infidels who cannot beleeve that God will doe that which they see him not to do presently Here then is the worke of faith to beleeve that which may seeme to carry no likelihood of comming to passe remembring what Salomon saith Though the wicked live an hundred yeares and passe them all ouer in pleasure yet I know it shal not go wel with the wicked Eccl. 8.13 neither shall he prolong his dayes which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God The heathen do account it a point of mans misery above all other creatures that he alone is vexed with care and feare for the future but I account it a point of mans excellency and eminency above other creatures and of true Christians above
other men that they are not all for the present but have their eyes in their fore head to foresee and so to prevent evils to come as Eccl. 2. The wise mans eyes are in his head Eccl. 2.14 but the foole walketh in darknesse The naturall man seeth with one eye to witt the carnall eye of naturall reason that can pierce no farther then the light of nature reacheth but Christian men have together with it the spirituall eye of faith also to foresee evils to come such as sense and reason are not able to apprehend Bernard in Psal Quihabitat Serm. 1. There are foure sortes of men in this case to be considered of us some hope but feare not others feare but hope not some neither hope nor feare others both hope and feare The first sort is of those that hope but feare not these runne through thicke and thinne and stand at nothing they feare not when there is cause but they presume without cause These hope for his mercy but they feare not his wrath they have their eyes fastned upon his mercy but they shut them upon his wrath least they should looke upon it and thereby take liberty to sinne without any remorse of conscience or of repentance from dead workes We have infinite examples both written and unwritten of such persons and therefore the Prophet David prayeth to God to keepe his servant from presumptuous sinnes least they have dominion over him Psal 19.13 This faith is no faith but a fancy or rather a frenzy These set up an idoll instead of God made all of mercy that is an other kind of God then he hath described himselfe to be in his word Exod. 20 and 34 he will by no meanes cleare the wicked Exod. 34.7 visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and to the fourth generation Wherefore all mercy and no feare is all fansie and no faith An other sort is of such as feare but hope not at all These are contrary to the former They feare his judgments too much but they hope in his mercies too little as Caine Saul Achitaphel Iudas and such like who had no more hope then the Devils have and so come to be swallowed up in the deepe gulfe of desperation The third sort neither hope nor feare neither hope in his mercy neither fear his justice It is al one with such which end goforward whether God be offended or not whether he be pleased or displeased These are like the Laodiceans neither hote nor cold but luke warme whom God wil spew out of his mouth Revel 3.16 Rev. 3. These are seiled in their lees or dregs of their sins that say in their hearts the Lord will do neither good nor evill Zeph. 1.12 These are Epicures or Atheists that make God sit idle in heaven and do nothing The Fourth and last sort are such as both hope and feare also In the first sort raigneth presumption in the second desperation in the third prophanation in the last religion These so hope in his mercy that they stand in feare of his wrath as Noah David Iosiah and sundry others Such must we be to regard both of his mercy and judgment We must not be any of the former sinners neither presumptuous nor desperate nor prophane but fearefull of his wrath and yet confident in his mercy 10 And God saw their workes that they turned from their evill way and God repented of the evill that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not Hitherto we have heard what the Ninevites did Knowledge is of Apprehension Heb. 4 13 Approbation Psal 1.6 Math. 7.23 here we are to consider what the Lord did he saw their works and repented of the evill which he had denounced Let us first marke the meaning of the words and consider them in order as they lie He saw First he not onely beheld what they did but he approved their workes Chap. 1.2 and conceiveth a liking of the service they performed as Gen. 1.31 4.4 Lam. 3.6 But doth not the Lord see the wicked and their workes Ob. did he not see before this their wickednesse Yes doubtlesse Answ or else how could it come up before him For answer unto this we must understand that he is said to have a two fold eye the eye of knowledge and the eye of alowance He seeth all persons and all things good and evill with the eye of his knowledge that nothing can be hid from him for he that formed the eye shall not he see the night Psal 94.9 139.11 and the light are both a like with him but he seeth not all things in this maner with the eye of his alowance liking loving and approving In this sence he did not looke upon Caine and upon his offering but upon Abel and his offering to whom he had respect Their workes First their faith their conversion from their evill wayes their fasting and prayer how they cryed mightily unto him God repented of the evill First God is after a sort transformed and transfigured into our nature as we sometimes read of his eyes eares hands heart feet nostrils and other bodily members not that he is so indeed not that he hath these parts but the Scripture speaketh after our capacity and understanding as they do that speake to children we are not ignorant what use office and property these severall parts have in our selues and we conceive not how a man should see without eyes or heare without eares or walke without feet or worke without hands and to teach us therefore that God seeth heareth worketh and understandeth all things those parts are ascribed unto him by which we see heare worke walke and understand But properly repentance is not in God as we have noted before but the effect is Repentance not properly in god which is nothing else but the undoing of a worke which he had formerly done So then the Ninevites turned and God turned they turned from their evill and God from his evill Howbeit these evils differ the one from the other for theirs is criminall his penall Doct. they turned from the evill of their sinne he from the evill of his punishment God knoweth whatsoever we do and approoveth of that which is good From hence we may obserue two points which because they have affinity one with an other we will consider together namely that God seeth knoweth and heareth whatsoever we do speake or thinke yea he acknowledgeth aloweth Whatsoever we do and approoveth of that which is good Psal 139.2.3.4 33.13.14 praiseth and commendeth good things in whomsoever they are Touching the first branch the Prophet saith Psal 139. Thou vnderstandest my fitting my rising my thoughts afarre off there is not a word in my tongue but thou knowest it wholly thou possessest my reines my bones are not hid from thee and 33.13.14 The Lord looketh from
sackcloth God deferred his judgment threatned how much more shall true repentance obtaine the love and favour of God and blot out all our offences out of his sight From hence arise sundry uses Vse 1 First from the nature of contraries we learne that to such as continue in sinne and have hearts that cannot repent there is no mercy to be looked for because they treasure up vnto themselues wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds And therefore the Apostle saith Vnto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse shall be indignation and wrath Revel 2.5 tribulation and anguish upon every soule of man that doth evill of the Iew first and also of the Gentile Woe then to all such as lie in sinne and please not God they fill up their sinnes alway and his wrath shall come upon them to the uttermost True it is every unrepentant sinner can say the Lord is mercifull and Christ is the Saviour of the world but to whom is he mercifull and whom will he save Not every one that can say Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of the father which is in heaven To this purpose consider these few rules First God hath made no promise in all the Scripture to impenitent persons Search the Scriptures for in them ye looke to have eternall life but in the whole volume of that booke ye shall not find one line or letter that will minister comfort to the soule that continueth in evill doing Secondly they deceive themselues that looke for mercy that lie under wrath and see not their owne misery Indeed there is promise of mercy yea sundry promises in every Prophet and in the writings of the Apostles but they are made to the penitent The Lord God hath no pleasure at all that the wicked should die but then they must returne from their owne waies Ezek. 18.21.23 that they may live he will put all their wickednesse out of his remembrance but first they must turne from all their sinnes that they have committed and do that which is lawfull and right he hath promised to draw neere unto them Iam. 4.8.10 but then they must draw neere unto him yea they must clense their hands and purifie their hearts he hath said he will lift them up but first they must humble themselues in the sight of the Lord. Thirdly Christ Iesus is a Saviour but he saveth none but such as are his people none are his people but such as beleeve in him and none beleeve in him but those whose hearts are purified by faith Except we be new creatures let us never say we are in Christ or that he is a Saviour unto us he hath wrought the great worke of redemption and paid a deare price to ransome us his own pretious blood but let us remember and never forget that he gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes Tit. 2. Lastly consider that notwithstanding the shield sheiter of the mercy of God to which every man runneth he hath brought sundry both generall and particular judgments upon the children of disobedience and his wrath hath beene revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men Rom. 1.18 who no doubt builded with the untempered morter of supposed mercy but were swallowed up with his justice Such were the old world who no doubt set up an Idol all made of mercy but they found him to be a God of justice Such were the Cities of Sodome and Gomorrah with the rest of the plaine Gen. 19. Such were Pharaoh and the Egyptians that pursued Israel to the red Sea and infinite others Nay see how God hath whipped his owne children Pro. 11.31 1 Pet. 4.17.18 and scourged them with greevous chastisements as we see in David and other Saints if judgment have begun at Gods owne house what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare Secondly hence ariseth matter of much comfort to the humble and contrite spirit that is weary and heavy laden with the waight and burden of his sinnes lying heavy upon his conscience Math. 11.28.29 Nothing indeed can come hereby to the impenitent that is to the obstinate and wilfull offender thaâ— resolveth to continue in his sinne neither can he looke for any thing but judgement that hangeth over his head and lyeth at the dore but to the humble and repentant sinner there are a thousand comforts a treasury of mercies laid up in store for him to keepe preserue him from doubting and despaire Such Christ Iesus calleth unto him embraceti them in the armes of his mere that they should not be dismaied all the multitude or greatnesse of their sinnes but rather lay hold upon the multitude and greatnesse of his mercies which are infinite higher then the heavens broader then the Seas deeper then the earth and surmount all the sinnes which they have committed O what comfort is it to a sicke man lying and languishing upon the bed of sorrow to heare of a certaine and Soveraigne medicine a present and effectuall remedy of his discase and ought it not to find rest in our soules when we are willed to come to Christ the Physitian of the soule ought it not to be as marrow unto our bones and bring peace to our soules forasmuch as his yoke is easie and his burden light Who ever came penitently unto him and weat away heavily or discomfortably Suet. in vita Titirespatâ—c If it were the saying of a great Prince that none should depart from his presence heavy-hearted how much more may we be assured it is the voyce of the King of kings that no penitent person shall ever go from him without grace and favour comfortlesse Repentance is a salve that healeth all the woundes of the soule Search into the examples of all the Saints from the beginning of the word What was it turned Noahs drunkennesse into sobriety Gen. 9.25 19. cum 2 Pet. 2.8 1 Tim. 1.13 2 Chro. 33.12 Esay 11.9 Repentance What changed the unnaturall lust and excesse of Lot into eleannesse and purity repentance What was it that cast Manasseth Paul and many others into a new mould and of oppressors persecuters blasphemers made them meeke and gentle as Lambes repentance No man was ever saved without repentance for finall impenitency bringeth damnation Damnation is a necessary effect of divine justice from the just God brought upon vniust offenders Such sinners and transgressours can have no peace with God without reconcilement there is no reconcilement without remission no remission without Christ no Christ without faith no faith without repentance Woe
then to such as presume of hope of pardon without paiment these disioyne faith and repentance and separate mercy and justice asunder in God to whom both are alike essentiall in whom both are infinite for albeit his mercies exceed his justice in his workes toward us yet in himselfe they are alike And woe unto such as say though we give our selues to the free and full practise of sinne yet God is abundantly nay infinitely mercifull for such shall certainly perish in their presumption and to make him all mercy is to leave him to be uniust in suffering sinne to go unpunished whereas the judge of all the world should do right Gen. 19.25 Lastly it is our duty as we desire grace and mercy so to practise repentance betimes All will seeme to be willing to have remission of their sinnes but all do not take the right way Motiues to stirre up to repentance nor use the meanes to attaine unto it which is by repentance Now we have sundry motives to move us and perswade us to repentance which we must no lesse affect then we do repentance it seâ—fe First the man that liveth without repentance is farre worse then the basest creature then the bruit beast It would be thought a base comparison to compare such to a dogge or Swine or Serpent but it is too good for such base and worse then brutish persons that forsake God and will have no communion with him For their misery and torments begin after this life whereas the bruit beasts perish and there is an end of them with this life That which our Saviour speaketh of impenitent Iudas who ended his his daies in despaire may be said of every impenitent person Math. 26.24 Woe unto that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed Ioh. 6.70 3.18 it had beene good for that man if he had not beene borne and in an other place one of you is a Devil and is condemned already because he hath not beleeved and repented Secondly such a one is under the power of Satan which is the greatest and sorest bondage 2 Tim. 2.26 all the Pharohs and Hazaels in the world cannot be compared with his tyranny as 2 Tim. 2. for impenitent the are taken captive by the Divell and holden in his snares to do his will Thirdly such are in danger of all the judgements of God to fall upon their heads every houre For albeit they should escape thâ—m in this life yet they are but respited or reprived as the judge sometimes doth the malefactour that is afterward executed and in the meane season all the fearfull plagues and punishments that have come upon sinners are imminent may suddainly swiftly come upon them They may be summoned to the barre of Gods judgement in this life as Adam was Gen. 3. and Caine chap. 4. Gen. 3.9 4.9 6.7 they may be drowned in the waters with the old world Gen. 6. with Pharaoh and the Egyptians Exod. 14. Fxod 14.28 Psal 136.15 they may be overthrowne and overturned with fire brimstone from the Lord out of heaven as Sodome and Gomorrha were Gen. 19.24 Gen. 19. they may perish with the arrowes of Famine Pestilence the Sword banishment and evill beastes Ezek. 5.15.16.17 Exod. 7. 8. 9. 10. as many in Israel Ezek. 5. they may suffer sustaine all the plagues of Egypt as the King and people of Egypt Exod. 7. c. they may be burned and consumed with fire as the captaines and their fifties 2 King 1. 2 King 1.10.12 they may be stung with fiery Serpents and perish as the people in the wildernesse Numb 21. the earth may open and swallow them as it did Dathan and Abiram Numb 6. Psal 106. Numb 21.6 16.31 Psal 106.17 1 Sam. 31.4 2 Sam. 17.23 Act. 1.18 Act. 12. â—3 Act. 13. â—1 Gen. 19.11 2 King 6.18 they may destroy themselues and lay violent hands upon themselues as Saul and Athithophel 1 Sam. 31.2 Sam. 17. they may fall headlong and burst a sunder in the middle all their bowels gush out as Iudas Act. 1. they may be smitten by the Angel of the Lord be eaten up of wormes as Herod was because he gave not God the glory chap. 12. they may be smitten with blindnesse by the hand of the Lord and a mist darknesse may fall upon them Luk 13.3 that they may seeke some to lead them by the hand as Elymas the sorcerer and sundry others This is that of which our Saviour warned his hearers by occasion of the suddaine slaughter of the Galileans and those eighteene upon whom the tower in Siloe fell and slew them that except they did returne they should all likewise perish Luk. 13. Fourthly such are in danger not onely of these corporall plagues to fall upon the body but of eternal death and everlasting damnation from the comfortable presence of God Act. 17.30.31 the heaviest judgment of all the rest as Act. 17. Now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousnesse Fiftly God oftentimes knocketh at the dore of our consciences to open unto him This is the acceptable season of comming to Christ This is the time appointed for repentance make much of it we know not whether we shall have it againe He that abuseth and mispendeth that time forfeiteth his Salvation as Eccl. 9. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do Eccl. 9.10 do it with thy might for there is no worke nor devise nor knowledge nor wisedome in the grave whither thou goest Lastly none can be made partakers of eternall life but such as are penitent It is vaine with Balaam to wish for heaven Numb 23.10 and to dye the death of the righteous except we live the life of the righteous and repent us of our sinnes and so turne from our evill wayes with these Ninevites To conclude let us take heed least these men rise up in judgment and condemne us who repented at the preaching of one Prophet the more hath beene committed to us the more shall be required at our hands The Lord that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the reines Ier. 7. to give to every man according to his waies and according to the fruite of his doings turne us unto him and then we shall be turned to whom be glory and praise in the Church for ever Amen A Recapitulation of the doctrines in this Treatise GOd warneth before he punisheth Gods threatnings are conditionall Generall all sinnes procure generall judgmentes The preaching of the word is the meanes to worke faith It is a fruit of repentance to take revenge for sinne of our selues Publike fastes were alwaies called and solemnized in dangerous times Repentance is wrought by the preaching of the word Repentance must be speedy and not prolonged Superiors must give good example to their inferiors We have need to stirre up
no fruit then thou maiest cut it downe This is the summe of this Parable the application whereof is So God hath placed you of Iudea in a fertile place hath bestowed many blessings upon you and hath looked for good fruit from you but behold ye bring forth none I tell you therefore except ye repent that speedily ye shall all likewise perish Now for our better proceeding in the orderly handling of these words Observe herein 2. things An exhortation to repentance or a threatning of destruction to the impenitent vers 3. 5. An amplification or enlargement thereof in the residue The amplification or illustration is By examples By a parable The examples are of the Galileans Eighteene upon whom the tower fell and slew them The second amplification which is by parable we will relerue to the proper place handle the same particularly For all these things belong vnto us as well as unto those to whom they were spoken by our Saviour and may be applied to us as well as unto them The doctrine of repentance was never more needfull to be preached and the threatning also as fully concerneth us Except we repent we shall likewise perish as Marke 13. least we passe by the exhortation uttered to the Disciples by our Saviour as impertinent to us he addeth What I say unto you Mark 13.37 I say unto all Waâ—ch So it is in this place as if he had said what I say unto these I say unto all Repent Wherefore Doct. the generall point that Christ laboureth to presse and perswade is to worke in them and in all others repentance The way to prevent Gods judgments is to amend our lives This teacheth that the onely way to prevent and escape the judgments of God is to amend our lives and turne unto him with all our hearts and to repent from dead workes We live in the dayes of many judgments some lying heavy upon us others hanging over our heads so that we may say with the Prophet Psal 1â—0 1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord and 42.7 deepe calleth unto deepe at the noyse of thy water spoutes all thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me The meanes ordained of God to revoke his heavy hand gone out against us is to turne from our evill wayes See this Deut. 4. Deut. 4.29 30 31. after that God punisheth his people for their sinnes he saith When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter dayes if thou turne to the Lord thy God and shall be obedient unto his voyce hee will not forsake thee nor destroy thee 2 Chro. 17.13.14 if thou seeke him with all thine heart and with all thy soule Thus the Lord said to Salomon 2 Chro. 7. If I shut up heaven that there be no raine or if I command the Locustes to devoure the land or if I send postilence among my people if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselues and pray and seeke my face and turne from their wicked wayes then will I heare from heaven and will forgive their sinne Ier. 3 22. and will heale their land And the Prophet Ieremy bringeth in the Lord speaking Math. 3.7.8.10 Returne ye back-sliding children I will heale your backsliding So doth Iohn the Baptist reprove the Pharisees O generation of vipers who hath warned you to sly from the wrath to come bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewne downe and cast into the fire So then the onely way to stay Gods hand and to stop his judgments now that his arrowes fly through the land is to returne from all our evill wayes and to cause others to returne The reasons follow Reas 1 First because untill we repent all judgements hang over our heads and shall overtake us as they did the old world as they did Sodome and Gomorrha as they did Pharaoh and infinite others We may be destroyed by fiery Serpents burned in the fire drowned in the waters swallowed up in the earth as Dathan and Abiram and may looke every day for some plague or other to find us out and seaze upon us Secondly when we truly repent forgivenesse of sinnes and other blessings do follow For repentance and remission go together We see this in the Ninevites Ionah 3.10 God saw their workes that they turned from their evill wayes and he repented of the evill he had said he would do unto them and he did it not If then we would prevent Gods judgments Vse 1 first we must beware of all false counterfeite turnings and by-pathes of our owne invention and walke in the Kings high way Some make confession of our selues to have sinned and to say I am a sinner to be true repentance but thus every civill man should repent Some make all kind of sorrow and greefe and sheding of teares to be turning to God but so should Esau repent Some content themselues with a little humbling and an outware casting downe of themselues to hang downe their heads for a day like a Bulrush but so should Ahab repent Some thinke every good word Lord Lord to be repentance and if they can but say Lord have mercy upon me they have truly repented but so should every sicke man repent Others turne not from sinne untill sinne turne from them and they leave it not till they can follow it no longer but thus every old man repenteth Others turne from one sinne to an other as many from one disease into another and from evill to worse as it were from a fever into a frenzy Lastly others turne from some sinne but not from all they will keepe some beloved sinne still but thus Herod and Iudas repented but this must be the Covenant that we make with God to keepe us from all sinne remembring that he which faileth in one point is guilty of all Iam. 2.10 All these blind wayes wherein the greatest sort doe walke must be avoyded of us True it is wicked men may walke in all these pathes they may confesse their sinnes and desire others to pray for them but this is an enforced repentance this is compulsion not conversion and thus Pharaoh repented whereas true repentance must be voluntary and as a free-will offering They may confesse some heinous and capitall sinne knowne to others as well as to themselues whereby they have brought shame and confusion upon themselues howbeit they will not confesse all but thus Iudus repented saying I have sinned Math. 27.4 in that I have betrayed innocent blood but he acknowledged not his covetousnesse that he was a theefe and kept the bagge They have often some remorse and touch of conscience but it is a great deale more for the punishment threatned or inflicted then for the sinne committed if they might any way escape
Secondly it may be objected What reason is it Object 2 that we should answer for an other mans sinne This may seeme jniustice in God and wrong done to the sons of men to condemne them for an other for what could we helpe or hinder Adams fall I answer Answ this indeed seemeth strange to the carnall or naturall man wherein the rule of the Apostle if in any thing holdeth in this Let no man deceive himselfe 1 Cor. 3.18 if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a foole that he may be wise Cur omnium fit culpa paucorum sceluss Seneca in Hippoli But howsoever few among the multitude thinke or beleeve they shall answer for Adams sinne yet we must know it was not his sinne alone but a common sinne his and ours as he was a common or publike person and carried all mankind in him If any aske the reason why the sinne of Adam should be imputed to his posterity rather then the sinne of other parents as our fathers grandfathers or great-grand-fathers to their children I answer the difference appeareth in diverse respects First by the sinne of Adam we lost originall purity but not by the sinnes of the other Secondly we shewed before that Adam received gifts which he should have conveyed to his posterity when they were lost it commeth to passe justly that all his posterity should be stripped and deprived of them but our grand fathers or fathers received not supernaturall gifts which by an hereditary right were to be derived to their children Besides the sinnes of such Parents were personall or proper sinnes because they did not sustaine the persons of their posterity it cannot be said of Hezekiah Iehoshaphat or Iosiah Velut aâ—mine facto quidataâ— portaruunt et terras turbine perflant Virg. Aeneid lib. 1. who were the posterity of David that they did in the loynes of David murther Vriah or commit adultery with her that was the wife of Vriah Let us see the truth of this in the example of Adam He was the roote and originall of all sinne he disobeyed the Commandement of God and after that a flood gate being opened followed a multitude of sinnes yet doubtlesse onely that first sin of Adam was imputed to his posterity not his daily failings because by this sin he brake the Couenant of God made with him as with the author and originall of all mankind To conclude then we must distinguish of Adams sinnes they are of two sorts his first sinnes and his after sinnes His first sin was the sinne of mankind generally this was not his alone nor ours alone but his and ours joyntly together his after sinnes for no doubt he sinned dayly being now become a sinner which he committed as a private man were his alone being sins of his person not of his nature and therefore not to be laid to our charge The last objection is out of the Prophet Ezekiel Object 3 chap. 18.4 Ezek. 18.4 20. All soules are mine as the soule of the father so also the soule of the Sonne is mine the soule that sinneth it shall dye the Sonne shall not beare the iniquity of the father Deut. 24.16 neither shall the father beare the iniquity of the sonne How then commeth it to passe that we die for anothers sinne or wherefore is the sinne of Adam imputed to us or is it credible that that he which forgiveth us our owne sinnes will impute to any one an other sinne Answ I answer the meaning of the Prophet is that none perish or are punished being innocent therefore the sonne that is innocent shall not beare the punishment of his father that is guilty Exod. 20.5 So in the law when the Lord threatneth to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children Ezek. 18.2 he understandeth such children as walke in their fathers steppes and are partakers of the same sinnes For in this place he reproveth them that used this Froverbe The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge But the sonnes of Adam cannot be said to be innocent as they which not onely sinned in Adam as in the stocke and roote of mankinde but also themselues are borne stained with the same depravation and prone to the same sinne So then this place maketh nothing to the present matter for the first sin of Adam was not personall being as one that represented the person of his posterity whereas the Prophet speaketh of the sinnes of the fathers whose sinnes are meerely personall as they that in sinning did not sustaine the persons of their children The second rule dependeth upon the former which is The second rule that in all men in regard of the guiltinesse aforesaid the whole nature of man is corrupted so that the whole man lyeth in evill as Ioh 5. The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1 Ioh. 5.19 so we may say that every part and power of soule body is infected with sin as with a foule Leprosie from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing in us but woundes and bruises and putrifying sores so that we may cry out with the Leper I am unclean Levit. 13.45 I am uncleane No man is free from this blot whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh Ioh. 3.6 Ioh. 3.6 We are by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2.3 Eph. 2 3. Iob. 14.4 Who can bring forth a cleance thing out of an uncleane There is not one Iob. 14.4 David acknowledgeth himselfe infected with this contagion from his conception Psal 51.5 Psal 51.5 and in this common lot he doth bewaile and lament his owne This we must confesse to be in our selues and thus the Apostle teacheth Rom. 3. Rom. 3.9.10.11.12.13.14 c. Are we more excellent or better then they No in no wise for we have before proved both Iewes and Gentiles that they are all under sinne As it is written There is none righteous no not one and they are all gone out of the way and their throate is an open Sepulchre with their tongues they have vsed deceit the poyson of Aspes is under their lippes c. that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God This was signified by Circumcision for by that externall signe or Symbole the Church was and is warned that there was somewhat in man so soone as he was borne that ought to be cut off and corrected The end of our Baptisme is the same which is the Sacrament of our clensing in the blood of Christ by which our naturall filthinesse is washed away Neither doth the estate of this universall contagion belong only to Turkes and infidels to the Sauages or evill Christians but even to the off-spring of the Godly faithfull even as he that was Circumcised begate one that was uncircumcised as a graine of wheat well winnowed from the chaffe bringeth forth
of his Angels Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish We have heard before that the scope of Christ in these words to which the examples one going before the other following after are referred is to perswade men to repentance This we must lay as the foundation of our weekly meeting together to make profession before God before men and Angels of our repentance to renew our Couenant with God and to seale to it with our hearts and to cry unto him to remove his judgements that lye heavy upon us Consider in this threatning farther an other doctrine to wit what danger it is to omit and reject repentance such persons are subject to death and destruction thâ—â— repent not Doct. This teacheth Such as continue in sinne without repentance shall certainly perâ—â— that howsoever God for a time spare and forbeare the Church and do not alway strike upon every occasion as he might do yet it is a sure and certaine thing concluded with him that such as continue to walke and wallow in evill without repentance their end is confusion their reward and wages is to perish See the truth of this in the Prophet remembred in a parable answearable to that which followeth of the Vineyard he had pruned trimmed and hedged about it he had digged and dunged done all that he could Esay 5.4 he looked for grapes but it brought forth wild grapes the conclusion is this I will take away the hedge and it shall be troden downe I will command the clouds and they shall raine upon it I will lay it waste and there shall come up briers and thrones This will farther appeare by sundry examples and by the wofull experience of many desolations made in all ages of the Church through default of repentance When the Lord had heaped his mercies upon the old world Gen. 6.3 and given them 120. yeares the dayes of his patience as the time of their repentance he sent the Patriarkes that called upon them and appointed Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 who confirmed his doctrine by building the Arke which was a figure of the destruction of the world of the ungodly yet they continued their evil wayes Luc. 17.27 eating and drinking c they never though of the day of the Lord they never considered the day of their visitation the flood come and destroyed them all a small remnant reserued and a few soules saved The like we might say of the Sodomites Gen. 13.13 19.25 Gen. 19. They were exceeding sinners before the Lord and were overturned with fire from heaven because they repented not And was it any otherwise with the Israelites themselues 2 Chro. 36. he sent to them by his messengers rising up betimes because he had compassion on his people and desireth not the death of a sinner 2 Chro. 36.16 Math. 23.37.38 but that they should turne vnto him but after all this they mocked his messengers and despised his word and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord in the end arose against his people till there was no remedy So then howsoever God sometimes spareth the sonnes of men yet such as continue in sinne and wholly delight in the workes of the flesh the end of them is fearefull they repent not and therefore they must perish Reason 1. Reason 1 He hath pure eyes and cannot like or allow that which is evill For can two walke together Amos. 3.3 except they be agreed but the Lord hath no agreement with evill neither have the evill any agreement with him He is holy in all his wayes but impenitency is contrary to his wayes and hath all sinnes following after it and attending upon it and consequently also all plagues Ier. 5. Secondly he taketh away his mercy and louing kindnesse from such What is it then that turneth away his heavy wrath and displeasure from us Is it any worthinessein our selues we are alas an uncleane thing Doth any deserve life or can he plead with his maker we are all corrupt and abominable The world the Church the Common-wealth our selues our owne Consciences know it and witnesse against us Lam. 3.22 It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not His mercy is not reserved for the impenitent that proceed and goe forward in their sinnes this were to confound heaven earth nay heaven and hell God and the devill Therefore the Prophet Ieremy declareth that God had taken away his mercies from them Ier. 5. If then he will not shew mercy to such as walke in the stubbornnesse of their euill hearts conclude with me this point for a certaine truth that howsoever God forbeare the children yet wearying him by vrging and provoking him by our sinnes destruction is reserued for such impenitent persons Seeing such as have hearts that cannot repent Vse 1 doe heape up wrath as a treasure against the day of wrath and iust declaration of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 let us put farre from us the wayes of the impenitent let them not clea◠〈◊〉 as pitch unto our soules lest if we follow their workes we be partakers of their Plagues Let us be grieved for our former evils and returne to the Lord that be which hath sâ—ricken us may heale us againe But alas while we goe forward in our wicked wayes doe we hold this point that the impenitent are reserved to wrath So many of us as hold and beleeve this truth let us depart from our old courses and labour to heape up mercy upon mercy Iob. 21.30 being assured that the wicked is reserved to the day of wrath and destruction O how many things have we neede to repent of the dayes of our ignorance the sinnes of our youth our presumptuous sinnes If the Lord call us to an account who shall be able to abide Secondly let no man mocke at his judgements or set light by them let no man thinke himselfe safe and secure and no danger to be neere him because he seeth not his judgements at hand or upon him or evermore to fall out O how deepe are his judgements how neere oftentimes when we suppose them to be farthest off how unsearchable are his Counsels and his wayes past finding out Esâ—y 28.15 2 Pâ—t 3 3. Carnal men promise peace and have made a covenant with death and with hell and make a mocke of all judgements They see the wicked prosper and the ungodly florish but they cannot mealure him that is not to be measured there is no measure of that which is infinite God hath more workes to worke then one he will not speake peace for ever Esai 28.24 The husbandman doth not plough al the yeare long neither reap or gather into his barne all the yeare and God hath given to man this wisedome and understanding to observe the times and seasons and shall we not thinke that the Lord also hath his times of his judgements and of
his mercies Hee hath preached unto us by his mercies a long time and the dayes of his patience have long continued among us How neere hath Gods hand bin unto many of us in the great plague When it hath beene in the same house one hath bin taken away and another hath bin spared Nay in the same bed one hath bin smitten another hath had his life granted him for a pray Consider this yee that have forgotten this mercy of God and labour to appease his wrath before his judgement falleth upon us He commeth with a leaden foote but he striketh with a rod of iron and dasheth his enemies in pieces as a potters vessel The Lord complaineth in the Prophet Ier. 8.7 that the storke in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the turtle and the crane and the Swallow obserue the time of their comming but my people know not the judgement of the Lord they have rejected the word of the Lord c. Every man even by the light of nature obserueth his times for his several workeâ— Skilfull Physitians have their times of the yeare and of the Moone for their purges and potions The Mariner stayeth not when the tide is come the Husbandman soweth while it is winter the Smith striketh while the iron is hote the Merchant buyeth while the market lasteth thus doe these take their time while the time tarrieth onely men in the matters of God and their owne Saluation know not or will not know the time of their returning Eph. 5.14 They will not awake from their deepe sleepe in sinne they will not stand up from the dead that Christ may give them light and life They will not heare his voyce while it is called to day but suffer themselves to be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne The Lord speaketh in the time present behold now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation but we will take a further day with God as desperate debters doe with men they can abide no present reckonings Thus doth Satan beguile carelesse sinners he promiseth them time enough hereafter like to biting Vsurers as one saith who are wont to give day to young heires from yeare to yeare untill at last they wind and wring their inheritance from them So the Prince of darknesse August Confâ—s lib. 8. cap. 5 the God of this world suggesteth to the children of disobedience that they may let repentance alone a little and it will be soone enough to come anone to repent heereafter Remember that Esau losing the opportunity of the blessing sought it afterward with teares Heb. 12.17 and yet found no place for repentance Remember that the rich man cryed for mercy but it was too late Lne 16.24 Remember the foolish Virgins that cryed Lord Lord open unto us Math. 25.11.12 7.22.23 but the doore of mercy was shut and they received their answer verily I say vnto you I know you not Remember that many shall say in that day Lord have we not Prophecied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderfull workes but it shall be said to them Depart from me yee that worke iniquity Let us therefore beginne betimes to turne to God while the day of grace endureth let us cease to doe evill learne to doe well eschew evill and doe good Lastly let no man flatter himselfe with the enioying of earthly blessings health wealth peace plenty and prosperity nor with the bare continuance of the Gospel among us as though it must therefore goe well with us and that we must needes be highly in Gods fauour This was the folly of Micah Iudg. 17.13 Now I know that the Lord will doe me good seing I have a Levite to my priest This was the vaine flattery of the Iewes who because they had Abraham to their father together with the law and the Oracles the Arke and the Covenant thought themselves in a good case and that they must needes be Gods people they cryed the Temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord. But Iohn the Baptist putteth them from this foolish confidence in the flesh Math. 3. Math. 3.9 thinke not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father for I say vnto you that God is able of these stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham And the Prophet Ieremy chap. 7. Ier. 7.8.9 Behold ye trust in lying words that shall not profit will ye steale murther and commit adultery c. and then come and stand in this house before me which is called by my name and say we are delivered to doe all these abominations behold I see it sayth the Lord. O let it not be so with us to prophane the house house of God to continue in our sinnes farre be it from us to bring them to the place of Gods worship for this will cause him to curse all our meetings and assemblies that they shall be for the worse not for the better to encrease our plagues not decrease them and to double his judgements not diminish them Let us therefore leave them behind us and cast them from us never to returne to them againe 2 Pet. 2.22 lest we be like the Dog that returneth to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Otherwise let us not boast of the Gospel and flatter our selves because we have the Gospel as the Iewes did glory in the Temple but seeke to bring forth the fruit of the Gospel For our sinnes are the causes of all plagues and judgements neither can we looke that he should stay his hand or say to the destroying Angel 2 Sam. 24.16 It is enough stay now thy hand as he did in the dayes of David And doubtlesse then we have begun to profit vnder the correcting hand of God when we seeke the cause of his judgments within us and acknowledge out sinnes to be the cause of all For what is the true cause of this plague and pestilence Our sinnes And what is the cause of the continuance of his heavy judgement Rom. 1.18 doubtlesse the continuance in our sinnes We must confesse that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men When Israel had received an overthorw and turned and their backes to their enimes Iosh 7.10.11 When we are chastened we must looke to our sinnes 1 Cor. 11.30 Esay 64.5.7 Lam. 3.39.40 Levit. 26. the Lord said unto Ioshua Get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned and they have also trespassed my Covenant which I coÌ„manded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stollen and dissembled also Nay as we encrease our sinnes in number and measure he will not onely continue his judgements but encrease them also and if we will not for all this hearken vnto him but walke contrary unto him he will walke
come Rom. 8. Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.17 The griefe may be great but the glory will be greater For what comparison is there betweene a thing finite and a thing infinite Tell me my brethren how many stripes is heauen worth Nay what is a few drops of blood to the kingdome of heaven how much lesse then can a word or two of reproach be worthy of that glory Lastly from thence we may conclude that certainely the wicked shall not escape in the end howsoever they may for a time True it is the ungodly abuse his patience because sentence is not speedily executed against an evill worke Eccl. 8.11.12 therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to do evill but though a sinner doe evill an hundred times and his daies be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that feare God which feare before him Hence it is 1 Pet. 4.17.18 that the Apostle concludeth the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God c. So the Prophet Ieremy fortelleth the destruction of Babylon the rod of his wrath and assureth them thereof because he would chastice and correct his owne people can he then let them alone or shall they escape no doubtlesse for loe saith the Lord I begin to bring evill on the City which is called by my name Ier. 25.29 and calleth upon my name and should ye be utterly unpunished ye shall not goe unpunished c. When we see how God hath delt with his owne servants whom he tendereth as the apple of his eye as we see in the examples of David for his uncleannesse 2 Sam. 12.10.11 Psal 106.33 Luc. 1.20 2 Chro. 32.25 19.2 of Moses Aaron for their disobedience of Zachariah for his unbeleefe of Hezekiah for his unthankfulnesse of Iehoshaphat for his affinity with Ahab may we not be assured that he will visit with grievous plagues the rebellion of such as are strangers to him nay his utter enemies Nay his little finger in the latter end shall be heavier upon the reprobate then his whole loines have beene upon his owne deare children He chastised poore Lazarus in this life with penury and much misery while the rich man was clad in purple and fared deliciously every day but what was the end and issue of them both the poore man was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome and the rich man lay in torments in hell This made Abraham say when he desired to find some ease or release Lu◠16.25 Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evill things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Whose blood Pilate had mingled with c. the tower in Siloe fell and slew them The Galileans about their best actions are suddainly taken away by the sword when they thought themselves most in safety For where and when should we judge our selves more in safe-gard then when we are about the service of God and in the house of prayer And the Iewes that lay under the towre were pressed and crushed to death in like manner both examples joyntly shewing both that God hath many wayes and weapons to take away the life of men and to consume them at a suddaine and in a moment even while they perswade thēselves to be safe in a Sanctuary or priviledged place and to be without all feare of death or of danger This teacheth us Doct. God hath many wayes to take away many mans life and can doe it suddenely that the Lord hath variable and infinite wayes to take away mans life and it is offentimes suddainly taken from them even while they say peace and safety suddaine destruction commeth upon them There are two points to be marked in this doctrine and both offered unto us in these examples the first is the variety and manifold meanes the Lord hath in store to cut off our dayes the second is the uncertainty of our life which is soone gone and taken away Touching the variety read Deut. 28. Deut. 28.20.21.22 c. Ezek. 14.13.15.17.19 where the point is handled at large See Ezek. 14. When the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously I will stretch out mine hand against it and will breake the staffe of bread and will send famine upon it I will bring a sword upon the land and say sword goe through the land and cut them off I will send the pestilence into the land and poure out my fury upon it to cut them off What should I speake of the overflowing of waters Gen. 7.4 of the violence of fire Gen. 19.24 Psal 106.18 of the opening of the earth Numb 16.31.32 of the stinging of Serpents Numb 21.6 of the eating of Wormes Act. 12.23 of the destroying of the destroying Angel 2 King 19.35 and what not Nay he can make the meanes and instruments ordained to preserve life to be meanes to shorten our life And touching the second point to wit the suddainnesse of death and the uncertainty of our life nothing appeareth more evident though we be active young strong fresh lusty and beautifull and promise to our selves many dayes and yeares yet our life is fraile and speedily gone Iob. 14.1 Psal 49.11.20 1 Pet. 1 24. Luc. 12.20 Act. 5 5.10 Eccl. 9.12 The reasons first for the variety Reas 1 Esay 7.18.19 he is the Lord of hostes and hath every creature as his servants and souldiers even a royall army or campe to employ them if he bid them goe they goe if he bid them come they come if he say doe this they do it We see this in the plagues of Egypt Psal 105.31.34 Psal 105. He spake and there came diverse sorts of flies and Lice in all their coastes he spake and the Locustes came and Caterpillers and that without number c. Secondly for the suddaine fading and vanity of our dayes the Scripture expresseth it by comparisons to shew the shortnesse thereof Hence it is that our life is compared to the swiftnesse of the weavers shittle Psal 103.15.16 Iob. 9.25 7.6 to a wind that passeth away to a swift post that tarrieth not long in one place but soone departeth to an other to a Flower of the field which quickly wasteth and withereth to a shadow which easily vanisheth 1 Chro. 29.15 Iob. 8.9 Psal 90.4.9.109.23 2 Sam 14.14 Iob. 13.28 to a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Iam. 4.14 The Prophet Dauid compareth it to an hand-breadth and to vanity and what is lighter then vanity to a watch in the night to a tale that is told so that our life is soone gone and we fly away and we are carried away as with a flood to water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up againe and to a garment that
is moth-eaten We have spent our dayes as a thought they are but in a maner begun and yet in a maner they are already done For what are forty or fifty yeares when they are past Nay a thousand yeares are but as yesterday when they are past Psal 90.4 This doctrine is not hard to conceave Vse 1 neither obscure to the understand we all know it and confesse it but not one of an hundred maketh right use of it we passe by it as an ordinary and common thing it must be aspeciall worke of God to say it to our hearts as Psal 90. So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisedome Psal 90.12 But some will say nothing is more easie then to number our dayes and to reckon the yeares of our life thus indeed we may doe and yet never gather any profit by it to say with the Prophet Psal 39.4 The first reproofe Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how fraile I am First this serveth for reproofe and that of sundry sorts who never consider the uncertainty and ininstability of future things and are unmindful of the frailty and inconstancy of our life and of all humane affaires For how many are there which thinke wholly and onely of heaping up riches and getting gaine yet cannot tell who shall possesse them Such a one was the rich man in the Gospel Lue. 12. Alas who knoweth what one day or one night may bring forth good or evill prosperity or adversity life or death One night or one day altereth and changeth many things and turneth them quite upside downe Many men alive merry and pleasant over night and dead in the morning in good health in the morning and dead before night Nay many in one houre alive and dead the same houre is it not thus at this time Many at night rich and goe to bedde wealthy men able to helpe relieve others but the next way impoverished and beggered and utterly undone for ever Many houses and buildings standing to day which before to morrow may be destroyed and burnt sticke and stake to the ground The sonnes and daughters of Iob were making merry together and feasting together in their elder brothers house Iob. 1.18 but in one day even in a moment they were oppressed and slaine by the fall of the house upon their heads wherein they were and not one of them escaped Secondly The second reproofe it reprooveth such as delay and deferre the time of their repentance and put it off from day to day nay from yeare to yeare and from time to time till there be no more time remaining for them never remembring that the present day may be the last We dreame oftentimes of a time to come heereafter and in the meane season death cutteth short our dayes We ought evermore to gird up our loynes ready to take our iourney from hence we should watch and prepare our selves Math. 25.8 and learne wisedome by the example of the Foolish Virgins Math. 25. This was never more necessary then now it is when God summoneth us by his judgments round about us and yet we labour not to have oyle in our Lampes The third reproofe Thirdly they are condemned that reioyce at other mens evils albeit they hold life all with the greatest uncertainty and such as insult over the misery of others so adde affliction unto affliction Doubtlesse if we were wel grounded established in the present truth that we know not how soone and suddainly our selves may end our dayes we would not triumph at the miseries of our brethren Hence it is that Salomon calleth us homeward Pro. 17.5 24.17.18 Pro. 17.5 He that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished and chap 24. Rejoyce not when thine enemie falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth lest the Lord see it and he turne away his wrath from him to wit upon thy selfe as the stone that rolleth upon him that moved it We ought rather as fellow-members one of an other to be grieved and inwardly touched at the calamities of our brethren and these are the dayes if ever that call for this affection from us No man can be ignorant under what afflictions they lye Amos. 6.6 Esay 57.1 yet who is sorry for the affliction of Ioseph and albeit the righteous perish and mercifull men are taken away yet no man layeth is to his heart This is it that Iob complaineth of chap. 19. all mine inward friends abhorred me they whom I loved are turned against me then he cryeth out Iob. 19.21 Have pitty upon me have pitty upon me Oye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me The Apostle chargeth us to remember them that are in bonds Heb. 13.3 as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being your selves also in the body First being your selves subject to the same afflictions and lying open to the same dangers Miseries and calamities sicknesses and diseases are common whatsoever happeneth to others may befall to our selves we know not how soone they are chastened to day we may be corrected nay consumed to morrow Iob. 31.29 Let us be like minded and tender hearted with Iob chap. 31. I rejoyced not at the destruction of him that hated me neither have I suffered my mouth to sinne by wishing a curse to his soule This is the note and nature of a godly man to be grieved at the evill of others as we see in Davids example 2 Sam. 1. He and his men mourned fasted 2 Sam. 1.12 and wept till even for Saul and for Ionathan the one the head and gouernour of the people the other his sonne albeit Saul had persecuted him and hunted him up and downe as a Partridge in the Mountaines and sought to take away his life and albeit he were to succeed after him in the kingdome and Psal 35. Psal 35.13.14 They rewarded me evill for good to the spoile of my soule but as for me when they were sicke my clothing was sack-cloth I humbled my selfe with fasting I behaved my selfe as though they had beene my friend or brother I bowed downe heaâ—ily as one that mourneth for his mother On the other side would we know a wicked man he is not onely without naturall affections but insulteth and grinneth his teeth at the miseries of others especially of the faithful Thus doth the Prophet describe the malice of his enemies Vers 15 in mine adversity they reioyced and gathered themselves to gether against mee yea the abjects gathered themselves together they did teare me and ceased not 2 Sam. 16.5 1 King 2.8 O how did Shemei laugh and leape for joy in Davids misery he cursed him with an horrible curse but what was the end the curse causelesse shall not come saith the wise man Pro. 26.2 but was that all no the Lord
the Lord will both we shall live and doe this or that But on the other side it should hasten and further our repentance and cause us to humble our selves under the mighty hand of God as the Ninivites did who hearing their end was neere at hand they proclaimed a fast they put on sack-cloth they cryed unto God from the greatest of them to the least of them And who knoweth how nigh at hand our time may be are not many gone and swept away that seemed before as safe as we The Sodomites thought themselves as free from judgement and as farre from their end as we doe Gen. 19.23.24 the Sunne shined upon them they promised to themselves a faire day but before night they suffered a perpetuall night and darknesse of death they were destroyed with fire and brimst one from heaven So it was with the Egyptians they went quietly to bed and slept soundly but it came to passe at midnight Exod. 12.29 the Lord smote all the first-borne in the land of Egypt c. The like I might say of Belshazzar Dan. 5. and of Anarias and Sapphira Act. 5. Now is the time of our acceptance of turning and changing after death there is no change at all Thirdly learne to content our selves with every estate and condition whatsoever shall befall us Our life is vaine and suddainly gone we have a short journey to make Cicer. de Senectute and therefore the lesse provision will serve our turne It is great folly for a man that hath a short way to goe and a little iourney to take to carry greater provision with him for it A little will serve to bring us to our iournies end 1 Tim. 6.7 Heb. 13.5 Therefore the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. We brought nothing into this world and it is certaine we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us be therewith content Lastly let us be wise to number our dayes and to measure out the length of our time that we may know how fraile we are There is a great art and skill required to doe this aright few have learned this knowledge Hence it is that the Prophet himselfe turneth himselfe to God to be instructed of him as one that was not able of himselfe to conceive it without such a master Lord teach me Psal 39.4 90.12 Lord make me to know mine end c. This is the best art of numbering and skill of mensuration It is a vaine thing to be able to measure our land and to number our sheepe and other cattell and yet have no knowledge how to number our dayes The numbring of our dayes aright hath many branches A man may seeke the register and know his age and not number his dayes but suffer whole yeares to passe over his head and the greatest part of all his life without heavenly wisedome This point hath many branches first account the present time and day to be as the last and so live as if every day we should die that we may prepare our selves for the day of our dissolution Luc. 12.10 when we must go hence be no more not as the rich man that numbred falsely and deceived himselfe in his accounts Thou hast much laid up for many yeares take thine ease eate drinke and be merry and therefore is worthily called a foole for his labour There can be no worse deceit then when a man deceiveth himselfe in his reckonings Secondly we number our daies when we looke backe and remember the miserie into which sinne hath brought our nature Gen. 2. Must not that needs be bitter which hath brought forth such bitter fruit Gen. 3.17.18 the ground was cursed to bring forth thornes and thistles but man bringeth forth more sowre and unsavery fruits of ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse and hath pulled down that goodly building which God had set up that only a little rubbage therof remaineth An evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit so man drinketh iniquity as water and cannot bring that which is cleane from the fountaine that is uncleane Thirdly we learne thereby to dy daily 1 Cor. 15.31 This the Apostle practised 1 Cor. 15. I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dy daily We must exercise and enure our selves in dying by little and little so long as we live here upon earth before we come tody indeed and then I doubt not but we shall depart hence in peace dye well in the end Every afflictiō is a preparation to death and a putting of us in minde of our dissolution For he died daily not onely because he was often in danger of death that there was often but a steppe betweene death and him but because in all his troubles and dangers he made himselfe ready not knowing when God might call him He that will inable himselfe to beare the crosse of all crosses I meane death Iob. 18.24 called the King of terrours must first of all learne to beare smaller lesser crosses patiently and meekly as sicknesse of body trouble of minde anguivh of conscience losse of goods greatnesse of paines death of friends burdens of poverty lacking of maintenance crosses in our affaires and many such like which are as the harbingers or messengers of death making the way before it Learne we therefore to entertaine them and make good use of them that when death the end of all commeth indeed to cut off our dayes as the sickle reapeth downe the corne that is ripe and ready to be carried into the barne we may looke it in the face bid it welcome and prepare to meete it halfe way O how bitter and distastfull is death to them that live in the pleasures of sinne and how sweet to the distressed Fourthly labour to take away the power and sting and strength of death It is as a Scropion that carrieth poison in the taile of it and therefore we must deale with it as they doe with a venimous beast pull out the sting of it then it cannot hurt What is that may some say 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is sinne saith the Apostle as the strength of sinne is the law Or let us deale with it as the Philistines dealt with Sampson they never rested but laboured day and night to know wherein his strength lay Iudg. 16.5 that they might weaken him and make him like to one of them So ought we to doe If any aske wherin lyeth the strength of death that it beateth downe so many to the ground nay throweth and thrusteth them headlong downe to hell I answer it lyeth altogether in our sinnes and therefore we must labour earnestly to take away the strength of them by repentance from dead workes and faith in Christ Iesus So many sinnes as we maintaine and cherish in our selves so many stings of death be in us the least whereof is able to wound our soules to eternall death The venime of
particular parts thereof in order as they lye And first there is propounded in the parable the greatnesse of Gods patience waiting long for fruit the first the second and the third yeere Some read the words by warrant of an ancient coppy after this manner Behold there are three yeeres since the time I come c. and thus also the vulgar Edition readeth the place Whereby it may appeare that this communication was had in the beginning of the fourth yeare after the baptisme of Christ And albeit he speake in the time present I come Doct. yet he meaneth he came in the time past or I am wont and accustomed to come God is very patient as Math. 26.23 From hence we learne that the favour of God to his Church his patience is great infinite he is not easily moved nor quickly provoked He is of much patience even toward them that obey not much more toward his deare children he is of a forbearing nature and will not poure out all his wrath neither execute his justice upon offenders so soone as they deserve it He expecteth many dayes moneths and yeares for the conuersion of sinners Esay 65.2.3 48.9 he spreadeth out his hand all the day long unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that is not good c. Ier. 35.15 Math. 22. a people that procureth me to anger continually to my face and chap. 4.8 for my names sake will I deferre mine anger and for my praise will I refraine for thee that I cut thee not off His patience is so great that it exceedâ—th the height of heaven Psal 103.11.13 and goeth beyond the love of women We see it in the old world nay we need not seeke farâ—e to prove it nor goe out of our selves we have all good experience thereof The reasons are plaine Reasons 1 Sometimes to the inten this enemies should not thereby take occasion to blaspheme his name which is holy throughout all generations as Deut. 32. I said I would scatter them into corners Deut. 32.26.27 I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemie lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely and should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Hence it is also that Moses groundeth his prayer upon such a point as this Exod. 32. Exod. 32.11 Why doth thy wrath waxe hote against thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand Numb 14.13.14 wherefore should the Egyptians speake and say for mischiefe did he bring them out to slay them from the mountaines and to consume them from the face of the earth and againe in an another place Then the Egyptians shal heare it and they will tel it to the inhabitants of this land c. Secondly are not we the workmanship of God he knoweth our weaknesse that we are nothing but dust and ashes neither able to answer him one of a thousand he considereth whereof we are made he remembereth that we are but flesh Psal 103.14 yea as a wind that suddenly passeth away as Psal 103. So the Prophet Esay speaketh chap. 57. I will not contend for ever Esay 57.16 neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit would faile before me and the soules which I have made Thus God rejoyceth not to be alwayes smiting in regard of our enemies lest they should insult over the Church and in regard of our owne frame and frailty lest we should be consumed and come to nothing First Vse 1 therefore take notice how the Lord exerciseth his patience toward his servants which he doth divers wayes first he powreth not out all his wrath he proceedeth by steppes and degrees Hab. 3.2 and when his people pray unto him in judgement he remembreth mercy Or else wee should immediatly be consumed Heb. 12.29 for why our God is a consuming fire Math. 17.5 Secondly he sent a Saviour and redeemer as a remedy of our sinnes in whom he is well pleased and he hath appeased the wrath of his father 1 Ioh. 2.1 1.7 Ioh. 3.16 for we have an advocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous his blood clenseth us from all sinne Is it then any marvell if God be patient toward his people and do not keepe his anger for ever Esay 65.1 Thirdly he sendeth to his enemies an Ambassage of peace before they seeke to him and is found of them that never asked for him he setteth up his ordinances among them Psal 147.19.20 as meanes to reclaime them for he sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any nation and as for his judgments they have not knowne them Hence it is that he hath committed the word of reconciliation to his Ministers who as the ambassadours of Christ beseech us to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 Fourthly he is infinitly patient in that he putteth off the day of judgment to so long a day 2 Pet. 3.9 as 2 Peter 3. the Lord is not slacke of his comming but is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Secondly is his kindnesse great then blessed are they that belong to him who have the God of Iacob for their refuge because his mercy is endlesse and his compassion infinite Such shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty happy are they that put their trust in him as Iam. Iam. 5.11 5. Behold we count them happy that endure we have seene the end of the Lord for he is very pitifull and mercifull Lastly it putteth us in minde of sundry good duties both toward God and toward one another First to seeke the Lord with a steadfast faith because we deale not with one that stoppeth his eares against us but heareth the cryes of his servants helpeth them This the Prophet presseth Amos. 5. Seeke the Lord and ye shall live Amos. 5.6.14.15 seeke good and not evill c it may be that the Lord God of hostes will be gratious unto the remnant of Ioseph The ungodly haue no promise of his patience who hate the good and love the evill Secondly it behoveth us to repent us of our sinnes withall our hearts and that betimes For albeit he be patient yet he is also just and therefore we may not dreame of such a patience as shall destroy his justice Mockers at Gods judgments This reproveth such as make a mocke of his threatnings and feare them no longer then they are upon them The Lord threatned the Egyptians to raine downe a very grievous haile upon man and beast Exod. 9. and willed them not to abide abroad in the field but what followed Gen. 19.15 he that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh
the blood of the new Testament as an unholy thing and doe despite to the spirit of grace God for bid Lastly let all stand in feare to provoke him and breake off his patience least there come a wofull and heavy reckoning in the end Let us take heed and beware of after reckonings We are wary enough to prevent them in our dealings with men and ought we not to be wise more in our reckonings with God The increase of sins bringeth with them an heavier waight of vengance upon our selves when the Lord beginneth to enter into judgment with us He is slow to wrath and proceedeth leysurely but when once he commeth he striketh home We cannot be brought to feare before him because he doth not presently strike but be not deceived he is all this while fetching his blow the higher he lifteth his hand the heavier it lighteth and the sorer he striketh This the Prophet notably expresseth Psal Psal 7.12.13 7. If he turne not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he ordaineth his arrowes against the persecuters O that we could alwayes when we heareor read understand what we heare and marke what we read according to the commandement of our Saviour who so readeth Math. 24.15 let him understand There the Prophet compareth the Lord to A man of warre Exod. 15.3 that taketh some time to scoure up his sword bright and to sharpen the edge and point thereof to strike and wound his enemie as also to an archer that taketh a certaine time to bend his bow and to make ready his arrowes but in the end he draweth them up to the head never misseth his marke being more skilfull then those Benjamites that could sling stones at an haire bredth Iudg. 20.16 and not misse so that he shooteth sure and meaneth to pierce deepe to the very heart of all his aduersaries Thus it is with the Lord when we thinke him forgetfull oftentimes or unmindfull of justice and judgment we must thus judge that he is whetting his sword and bending his bow drawing out his arrowes and preparing to shoot all which require some time and therefore let us feare before him and not tarry untill his judgements be upon us Why combereth it the ground Hitherto of the commandement to cut down the figtree now we come to the reason The owner propoundeth the justice of his former doome or sentence The word importeth and signifieth not onely to make unprofitable fruitlesse barraine and good for nothing but to hinder the growth of other things which might be planted in the roome thereof that might bring forth good fruit They that professe the Gospel if they be not fruitfull are unprofitable and hurtfull to themselues and others Doct. Evill minded men are altogether unprofitable and full to the vvhole society where they remaine Iudg. 19.22 20.13 Iosh 7.11.12 This teacheth that evill minded men are noysome hurtfull and unprofitable to themselves and to others wheresoever they abide untill they be removed We see this in the rebellion of Korah Dathan and Abiram how hurtfull they were to the whole assembly Numb 16. in the shamelesse uncleannesse of Zimri and Cosbi Chap. 25. A notable example hereof is at large expressed Iudg. 20.15 Those wicked Beniamites the sonnes of Belial that committed folly in Israel were the causes of the ruine of many thousands and brought the whole tribe to a low ebbe yea this often falleth out to the children of God when they provoke him to wrath We see this in David 2 Sam. 24. When he had numbred the people in the pride of his owne heart 2 Sam. 24.17 and had exalted himselfe in his owne strength he said I have sinned and have done wickedly but these sheepe what have they done let thy hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house Hereby many thousands perished The like we see in Ionah chap. 1. he forsooke his calling and the commandement of God he must be cast into the sea or else the passengers in the ship must perish who had beene almost drowned through his disobedience Ionah 1.11 for the sea wrought and was tempestuous And no marveil Reasons 1 For first they are the meanes and causes of judgments and punishments to others among whom they live as well as to themselves as trees twise dead reserved to the fire A tree albeit it were dead in it selfe and albeit it did keepe the ground barrne and hinder the growth of a better in his place yet it killeth not another that standeth beside it but one wicked man hurteth and destroyeth another and therefore we must needes judge such to be hurtfull and dangerous to an whole family or society We feare judgements but we seeke not to know and remove the true cause thereof The faithfull are commanded to depart out of Babylon Revel 18.4 the mother of fornications that they be not partaker of her sinnes and that they receive not of her plagues wherby we see these follow each other infection participation destruction He that is infected himselfe never resteth till he have made other partakers of his sinne and from them both followeth the destruction of them both as we shall shew afterward Secondly they are unprofitable hurtfull and dangerous and why because other vines and trees cannot prosper and florish or bring forth fruit neere unto them When any part of the body is putrified it passeth and spreadeth from ioynt to ioynt and from one member to another 2 Tim. 2.17 as the canker or gangrene fretteth or eateth the flesh next unto it so where loose livers are many others are brought to the same loosenesse and stand in danger to go to wracke 2 Cor. 5.6 Gal. 5.9 To this purpose the Apostle saith Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lumpe Sinne is fruitfull and compared to the child in the wombe it groweth apace one sinne begetteth another and one sinner infecteth another which bringeth forth death Iam. 1.15 This reproveth such as reioyce in the fellowship of the ungodly and delight wholly in their company Vse 1 For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse or what communion hath light with darknesse and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what agreement hath he that beleeveth with an infidel But what is more common in every place then this that which the Lord himselfe could never doe to reconcile these contraries and bring light and darknesse nay heaven and hell together sinfull men professe themselves able to doe These goe about to set God to schoole and to make God and the devill Christ and Belial good friends Gen. 3.15 God in the beginning put enmity betweene the woman and the serpent betweene her seed and his seed but these have broken downe this hedge and pulled away the wall of partition and have set them together againe The
Apostle plainely declareth Iam. 4.4 that the friendship of the world is enmity with God but these spirituall adulterers and adulteresses as he calleth them will have no enmity at all betweene them but will have the friends of God and the world shake hands and kisse one another The Prophet asketh the Question Amos. 3.3 Can two walke together except they be agreed that is they cannot but these answer otherwise they can walke hand in hand together or else they must needes confesse they are themselves at an agreement with hell We must learne to avoyd these sinfull practises know that danger alwaies commeth to the better part by the evill seldome or never any good to the worse sort For when the good and bad are ioyned together the evill man is hardly made better by the good but he that is good is rather corrupted by the evill It is an easie thing to defile and make uncleane but the a matter of great difficulty to clense and purifie And the reasons are first because the wicked are wholly carnall and a lumpe of flesh and runne one way without any resistance Why the wicked sooner corrupt the godly then the godly can correct the wicked but the Godly are onely in part spirituall and regenerate the wicked therefore being altogether unregenerate are but as one man so that they draw and pull the Godly with all their might and with full swinge of will whereas the Godly being partly carnall and partly spirituall as consisting of two men have their power and strength divided the flesh drawing one way and the spirit another and consequently cannot have such force and vertue Againe the ungodly are as men that runne downe a steep hill or swimme downe a swift streame and therefore if they catch hold on us or we one them it is a thousand to one but we are carried smoothly away with them on the other side the Godly are as men that climbe up an high hill or that swimme up against the streame and therefore must put to all their strength and yet they creepe but softly forward because the flesh striveth to carry them another way Moreover besides that the ungodly are apt of themselves to infect and corrupt we must consider that we are by nature apt to be corrupted and to receive infection as when fire and tow meete together Psal 106.34.35.36 Thus it was with the Israelites as the Prophet teacheth They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them but were mingled among the beathen and learned their workes and they served their Idols which were a snare vnto them Such then are justly condemned that thinke they may have usuall and familiar company with prophane persons a rash presuâ—ptuous desperate course whereat they dash themselves as against a rocke and suffer shipracke both of soule and body Secondly observe that many others of all sorts doe fare the worse both in soule and body for the wickeds sake who are disobedient to God We see this evidently in Lot living in Sodome Gen. 13. He was first allured to so journe there by the richnesse and ranknesse of the soile when he saw all the coast fruitfull as the land of Egypt and beautifull as the garden of Eden Gen. 13.10 14.14 he made choise to inhabit there but what followed First he was taken prisoner in the sacking of Sodome and his goods made a pray to the enemie so that he lost both his substance and himselfe yea after he was recovered againe by the strength and power of Abraham out of their hands and returned together with the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 they vexed his righteous soule from day to day by their unlawfull deedes but was this all no he ranne into a greater danger for it had well neere cost him his life had not God beene mercifull unto him and pulled him as a brand out of the fire Amos. 3.12 or as a sheepheard taketh out of the mouth of the Lyon two legges or a piece of an care See this yet farther in the example of the Israelites going to battel against their enemies the host of the Lord could not prosper or prevaile but turned their backes and fell by the edge of the sword so long as Achan was among them the Lord said I will not be with you any more Iosh 7.12 except ye destroy the accursed from among you Numb 16.26 1 King 22.22 2 Chro. 20.37 But when he was taken out of the way then they had the upper hand See more in other places The wicked oftentimes speede the better for the righteous seeke so did Laban for Iacob Gen. 30.27 So did Potaphar for Ioseph Chap. 39.3 so did the passengers in the ship for Paul Act. 27.24 Yea God would have spared Sodome and not destroyed it if ten righteous persons had beene found in it Gen. 18.32 but the faithfull evermore speed the worse for the society of the wicked Thirdly it is our duty to come out from among them and not to be unequally yoked with them to be separated from them and to touch no uncleane thing then he promised to receive us to be a father unto us and to account us as his sonnes and daughters 2 Cor. 6. 2 Cor. 6.17.18 For certainly they are very pestes and they have plague-sores running upon them Nay no sicknesse so contagious and noysome as sinne and the sinners are We shunne infected persons and places for feare of bodily harmes but let us learne to shunne prophane and wicked persons and places no lesse nay rather much more The other may corrupt the body but these endanger the soule here the commandement of our Saviour taketh place Math. 10.28 feare not them so much which can but kill the body and doe no more but feare especially those things and persons which will be able to cast body and soule into hell fire I say unto you feare them They are like to the spreading leprosie which beginning in one house proceedeth to another untill it have infected the greatest part of a towne or City or as the Lepers that were were put apart for feare of their infection Psal 119.115 Therefore the Prophet saiâ—h Depart from me yee evill doers for I will keepe the Commandements of my God 1 Cor. 5. and the Apostle Purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump and afterward put away from your selves that wicked person Lastly it is the duty of all such as have the oversight of others to looke to their charge that they foster not nor entertaine those within their gates or jurisdiction that are knowne wicked persons they will infect and poyson the rest One scabbed sheepe will annoy the rest of the flocke Psal 101.3.4.6.7 This made David to say I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the worke of them that turne aside it shall not cleave to me I will not know a wicked person he
threatnings of judgments and punishments are conditionall and to be understood with limitation See this 1 King 8. Now O Lord God of Israel keepe with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him saying There shall not faile thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel so that their children take heed to their way that they walke before me as thou hast walked before me Of this did David himselfe put his sonne Salomon in mind 1 Chro. 28.9 Know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts c. if thou seeke him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever So doth our Saviour threaten the Church of Ephesus to remove the Candlesticke out of his place except it did repent Revel 2.5 The reason is plaine both of the one and of the other He promiseth mercy with condition that we should be stirred up to obedience that no defect might be on Gods behalfe and againe he threatneth judgement that he might not enter into judgement and denounceth punishment that he might not punish but that we should repent and amend our lives and remember from whence we are fallen Revel 2.5 This appeareth evidently in his threatning against Nineveh who can tell Ionah 3.9 if God will turne and repent from his fierce wrath that we perish not When we repent he repenteth we of the evill of sinne he of the evill of punishment but if we repent not of our sinne he will never repent him of the punishment that he hath threatned to bring upon us It reproveth all such as remember what God hath promised to us but forget what he requireth of us Vse 1 God hath made a Covenant with us as he did with Abraham Gen. 17.7.1.2.6 and we binde our selves interchangably one to another He said unto Abraham I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee but how on this condition Thou shalt keepe my Covenant and what was that Obedience whereof circumcision was a signe walke before me and be upright If Abraham had called unto God to performe his part to blesse him as his God and in the meane season had never performed his owne part of the Covenant to walke before him in the uprightnesse of his heart had he not dallied with God and deceived himselfe But thus the case standeth with us we are ready to cōplaine murmur if the Lord do not blesse us when in the meane season we forget what promise we have made to him If we should deale so with men like unto our selves would not all accuse us of folly Secondly let us not flatter our selves and beare our selves bold and presume because we have many precious promises of grace and helpe in time of neede These promises howsoever they be in themselves surer then the heavens and more stable then the earth yea be ratified confirmed by an oath that by two unchangable things wherin it is unpossible that he should lye Heb. 6.18 we might have strong consolation I say these promises are no promises to us if we doe not keepe the Covenant it is all one as if they had never beene made Mat. 6.25.33 Our Saviour willeth us to take no thought what to eate or what to drinke or wherewith to be clothed he promiseth that he will never leave us nor forsake us but it is with condition first seeke the kingdome of God and then all these things shall be ministred unto us then he saith my mercy will I keepe for them for evermore my promise shall stand with them my covenant will I not breake Psal 89.28.34 neither alter the thing that is gone out of my lippes Lastly let us serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind seeke to know his will and serve him when we do know it Let us not be discouraged in his threatnings seing they also are conditionall as well as his promises Let us breake off the course of our sinnes and amend our lives then we may be well assured he will turne from all his wrath and remember our sins and iniquities no more For he is faithfull he never forsaketh us untill we forsake him This is it that the Prophet is sent to tell Asa and all Iudah and Benjamin The Lord is with you while ye be with him 2 Chr. 15.2 and if ye seeke him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you And is it not just with God to deale with us as we deale with him and to measure to us againe as we have measured to him Let us therefore seeke him while he may be found and call upon him while he is neere let us forsake our evill wayes and returne unto the Lord then he will have mercy upon us and he will abundantly pardon all our sinnes If it beare fruit well Doct. The barren estate is very dangerous neare to bee burnt up The fig-tree in this place is not said expresly to be dead but to be barren and to bring forth no fruit at all which is all one This teacheth that the barren condition hath no life nor comfort in it but is full of danger even neere to burning This Iohn the Baptist teacheth Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen downe and cast into the fire Math 3.10 Math. 3.10 So the Apostle Heb. 6.6 The earth which beareth thornes and briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6.7.8 whose end is to be burned A man may say of such as the Disciples of the fig-tree Math. 21.29 against which the curse was passed by the mouth of Christ How soone is the figge-tree withered away Such then doe lye under an heavy curse We thinke we have said much in praise and commendation of many and indeed of many it is too much to say they are harmelesse men they doe no man any hurt you may live long among them and you shall receive no wrong nor jniury from them but is this enough no doubtlesse for what shall this profit if we bring forth no good fruit Ier. 17.8 Ezek. 47.12 The reasons are plaine for first Reason 1 the law of God is not onely negative but also affirmative it commandeth good as well as forbiddeth evill The negative part is but halfe the Commandement and he that performeth so much hath done but halfe his duty like a Dove that flyeth with one wing or like a lame man that hoppeth upon one legge The Commandement which saith thou shalt not kill saith also inclusively Thou shalt preserue thy neighbours life Secondly to omit the duties which a man ought to performe is a kind of contempt against God For not to honour or obey is to contemne A servant which will not doe what his Master commandeth Mal. 3.6 because a servant honoureth his
Master it is joyned with open contempt of him no marveil therefore if disobedience to God be also a contempt against God as the Prophet saith If I be a Master where is my feare saith the Lord of hostes This teacheth that doubtlesse many stand guilty of a multitude of sinnes which they never thought of Vse 1 neither once dreamed upon Many men happly will grant there is some conscience to be made of committing evill who never thinke it a sinne to omit a good duty Such will confesse it a sin to worship a false god but never consider they are commanded to vnite their affections to the true God to trust in him to beleeve him to love him to feare him and to depend upon him that it is an heinous Crime to pray to a strange God or to Saints and Angels or to bow downe to an image who regard not to worship God in truth and sincerity and to call upon him in the day of trouble Many will refraine from working on the Sabbath day and prophaning it by riding about their businesse or running after their sports and pastimes they would be loth to doe these but in the meane season how doe they sanctifie and keepe it holy when they care not to heare the word or to performe publike and private duties of religion upon it We must all give account at the great day of the Lord as well what good we have done as what evill we have done That good governour of the people Nehemiah desired the Lord to remember him concerning the good deedes which he had done for the house of his God Neh. 13.14 It had beene small comfort to him if he had onely done them no hurt and gone no farther for so much might be said of an image or of the bruit beast but his comfort was he had endeavoured and employed himselfe to doe them good And how did Obadiah shew his religious heart in the dayes of persecution toward the Lords Prophets what did he rest in this that he had done them no hurt No 1 King 18.13 he did an hundred of them by fifty in a cave and fedde them with bread and water Or how did Rahab the harlot testifie her faith toward the spies that were sent to search the land did she content her selfe to offer them no injury and to bewray them or deliver them into the hands of their enemie No doubtlesse she was justified by her workes Iam. 225. Heb. 11.31 when she had received the messengers with peace and had sent them out another way But the religion of most men in our dayes is a negative religion they have little positive you may sooner obserue what they doe not Gal. 6.10 then understand what they doe We must obserue the rule of the Apostle As we have opportunity let us doe good unto all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith Secondly it reproveth such as content themselves with idle shewes and appearances of obedience and sincerity It will not serve our turne to be Christians onely in outward profession if we be fruitlesse and faulty in conversation It is not enough to make us sound Christians to come to Church to be at prayers to heare the word and receive the Sacraments when we yeeld no fruit of obedience as if it were sufficient that the fig-tree were planted in the Vineyard albeit it bare nothing but leaves Psal 1.3 but we must be as trees of righteousnesse planted by the rivers side which bring forth fruite in their season True it is the Church hath alwayes had such painted Sepulchers or gilded tombes outwardly as the Iewes that had the Temple of the Lord alwayes in their mouthes who yet remained wicked and prophane persons in their lives The sound Christian is not discerned by the leaves of outward appearance but by the precious fruits of the spirit not by his profession but by his practise and they are the true Israelites which are so within whose praise is of God and not of men The fig-tree had leaves good flore which were seene a farre off Mar. 11.13 and seemed to promise great store of fruit but when Christ drew neere and looked for fruit found none he said Never more fruit grow upon thee Let us take heed in time of such a wofull sentence For may not Christ Iesus trow you finde store of such fruitlesse fig-trees in this Vineyard of his nay when he commeth to looke upon his Vineyard will it not be a rare thing and an hard matter to see a fig-tree with any fruit upon it Nay are we not for the most part come to this passe that we have scarce any leave at all to be seene that a man may take a Candle and search for leaves and yet find none upon them This is the state and condition of sundry among us how neere are such to the curse and to be burned up which have neither fruit nor leaves neither substance nor shew neither body nor shadow neither truth nor appearance but openly and evidently make plaine Demonstration of wild and wicked fruit Deut. 32.32.33 their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of Dragons and the cruell venime of Aspes Such shall never be suffered to remaine within the Vineyard the axe is laid to the root of the tree to cut them downe Thirdly this checketh and controlleth the slanderous mouthes and pennes of the Romish Church opened wide and enlarged against our doctrine which they knew not or will not know who beare the world and their ignorant Disciples the multitude in hand that our religion destroyeth good works Math. 5.16 whereas we call upon the people to bring forth the fruits of the Gospel and to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good workes and glorifie our father which is heaven Nay we teach a necessity of good workes as well as they to be in all true beleevers that they which have beleeved in God might be carefull to maintaine good workes these things are good and profitable unto men Wherein then lyeth the difference between us they teach them to be the causes of our justification we that they be lively fruits and effects of faith they doe not goe before him that is to be justified but they follow him that is already justified they are not necessary in the act or office of justification but they are necessarily required to be in every justified person Lastly let us all be provoked to the diligent practise of good workes No man must thinke himselfe exempted or priviledged from good workes albeit he be never so poore or simple The most sort post over this duty from one to another and thinke when we call for good workes it is a doctrine that toucheth onely rich men and such as have the wealth of this world at will and none other as if there were no good workes of charity that did deserue the
name of good workes which neuerthelesse are neither the onely good workes nor the chiefest good workes For we looke upon our selves in the glasse of the law and try our selves thereby These workes are of two sorts some generall and others speciall The generall are such as concerne all among which the workes of the first Table being the first and great Commandements Math. 22.38 must have the first place to love God above our selves to feare him to beleeve in him to trust in him to pray unto him to serve and worship him to reverence his name and to sanctifie his Sabbath and the workes of the second Table are like Gal. 5.22.23 for the fruits of the spirit are manifest love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse faith meekenesse temperance and such like These belong to all and must be practised of all persons high and low rich and poore none may excuse themselves The speciall workes are such as belong to every man in his particular calling For as we have all a generall calling as we are Christians so we are set in severall callings such as are superiors and inferiors as the Magistrate and subject the husband and wife father and sonne master and servant we must labour to be found faithfull in these how low so ever our place be if we be found carefull and conscionable even the meanest servant that drudgeth in the Kitchin if his calling be nothing but to scoure spittes Eph. 6.6.7 or to wipe shooes yet if he be obedient to his Master as unto Christ not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servant of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men he is no lesse accepted of God in his place then he that preacheth the word or he that ruleth a kingdome Well or thou shalt let it alone These words are expresly mentioned but they or some such like must necessarily be understood as if it were said let it stand and continue in the Vineyard that it may bring forth more fruit as Ioh. Ioh. 15.2 15. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Doct. This teacheth us that the fruits of repentance obtaine the pardon and forgivenesse of all sinnes and offences Repentance obtaineth forgivenesse of sinnes and the favour of God and prevent Gods wrath and judgements and procure his love and favour He hath made a sure promise of remission of former offences to all such as truly turne unto him Thus the Prophet hath Wash you make you cleane take away the evill of your workes from before mine eyes c. then though your sinnes were as crimsin Esay 1.16.18 55.6.7 they shall be as wooll and though they were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and chap 55. Seeke the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neere let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous his owne imaginations c. let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Ezek. 18.23 And the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18. I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live where he coupleth these two together The truth of this point is farther confirmed by sundry examples as 2 Sam. 2 Sam. 12.13 12.13 When David had acknowledged his sinne against the Lord the Prophet said for his comfort The Lord also put away thy sinne The like we see in Manasseth when he was carried away captive and clapt up in prison being in great tribulation prayed unto the Lord 2 Chr. 33.12 and humbled himselfe greatly be fore the Lord God of his fathers and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him backe againe to Ierusalem and set him upon the throne of his fathers The Publican smote his brest saying Lord Luk. 18.13.14 be mercifull to me a sinner I tell you this man went downe to his house justified rather then the proud Pharisee The like I might say of Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 he obtained mercy and forgivenesse when he was converted so the penitent theefe upon the Crosse said to the Lord Iesus Lord Luk. 23.42.43 remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome and Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Mar. 1.4 Hence it is that the Evangelist witnesseth that Iohn did baptise in the wildernesse and preach the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes where we see he knitieth repentance and forgivenesse of sinnes together The reasons first Reason 1 all penitent persons shall have the blood of Christ Iesus to wash clense their soules from all their sinnes a singular benefit This reason the Prophet vrgeth Esay 1.17.17.18 For to speake properly nothing can clense us but Christs blood so foule and filthy we are and therefore it is called cleane water Ezek. 36.25 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 I will powre cleane water upon him and thus the Apostle Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne clenseth us from all sinne Secondly such shall have right to carthly blessings and to a right use of them to their everlasting comfort as Esay 1. Ye shall eate the good things of the land Esay 1.19.20 but if they refused and rebelled they should be destroyed for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Let us apply these things First conclude Vse 1 that all impenitent persons are out of Gods favour and protection and lye under all the plagues and punishments that God denourceth against sinners This is a fearefull estate and condition Deut. 28.16 to be cursed in the whole course of our life at home and abroad in the City and in the field in all that we put our hand unto Deut. 28. The curse of God bringeth with it all miseries of this life and of the life to come If then we repent not we die Secondly they that are truly penitent are truly happy for that man is blessed Psal 32.1.2 38.4 whose transgressions are for given and whose sinne is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity There cannot be a greater blessing befall us in this world then to get pardon of our finnes for all the burdens that we can beare are not to be compared to the burden of sin and therefore to be lighted of it is one of the greatest blessings of all the spottes staines that can sticke unto us Iam. 1.21 sinne is the filthiest and therefore to be clensed and washed from it maketh us cleane in his sight Lastly hence ariseth matter of comfort to all such as earnestly endeavour this worke of clensing and purging of themselves The vvay and the meanes to attaine
haue filled up the measure of their sinne being disobedient and to every good worke reprobate Math. 23.32 it is now come to the top and his judgments lye even at the doore ready to fal heavy upon them then will God fill up the vials of his wrath and powre them downe upon their heads To apply these things to our selves it ought to move us to turne to the Lord betimes Vse 1 while there may be an healing and binding up of the wounds least the heart be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne which of all judgments is the most grievous If it be once said of us as it was of the Iewes That the Lord sent to us his servants rising up continually and carefully because 2 Chro. 36.15.16 he hath compassion on his people but we on the other side mocke his messengers ministers despise his words what remaineth but that the wrath of the Lord arise against us either by the plague pestilence as he hath upon our brethren or by the sword of the enemy which wil have no coÌ„passion upon the yong the maiden or him that stooped for age He hath other man or secret judgements which the world taketh no knowledge of neither judgeth them to be any judgements at all these as they are more secret so they are more sharpe as when he taketh away his word from us or if he continue it yet maketh it unprofitable through our abuse and contempt of it Secondly wofull is their estate which goe forward in their evill wayes are not these nigh destruction Doubtlesse there is but a step betweene death and them nay they have as it were one foot in hell already being readier to draw the other after a thousand times then to withdraw the other from thence Hence it is that the Prophet saith Ier. 30.12 Thus saith the Lord thy bruise is incurable and thy wound is grievous there is none to plead thy cause that thou maist be bound up thou bast no healing â—â—dicine there is no Balme in Gilead to heale them whom the Lord seeth thus without remedy and thus past recovery They are like a man desperately sicke whom all the Physitians have forsaken The husbandman taketh his weeding instruments and laboureth to grubbe up the thornes and thistles and weedes out of his ground that the good corne might the better prosper and flourish but when once he seeth there is no end of his worke nor fruit of his labour but the more he toyleth and moyleth the more they grow and encrease he is without hope to overcome them and so withdraweth himselfe and letteth all alone For why or to what end should he busie and bestirre himselfe in vaine Thus it is with the Lord he sendeth his messengers and chargeth them to warne his people in season to admonish and exhort them but when they stop their eares and pull away their shoulders and refuse to hearken what can we thinke but that the Lord is determined to lay waste his Vineyard that it shal not be pruned or digged or dunged any longer but there shall come upbries and thornes Esay 5.5 and to command the cloudes that they raine downe no more raine upon it yea to take away the hedge thereof that it may be eaten up and to breake downe the wall thereof that it may be troden downe as he threatned to the Vineyard of the house of Isâ—ael when he looked for judgement but behold oppression and for righteousnesse but behold a cry Thirdly let not the Ministers neverthelesse be discouraged though they see oftentimes they must be driven to plough the waste and barren wildernesse and then sow among thornes and thistles The sower goeth out to sow his seede and it falleth not all or alwayes in good ground but some by the high-way side some in stony ground and other falleth upon thornes without any fault either of the sower or of the seed We may not not be ouâ—own chusers to chuse our ground where we will sow neither lay our plot-forme where we will build much lesse can we make the earth fruitfull or the building healthfull The Prophet complaineth Esay 53.1 49.4 that no man beleeved his report and prophesying of the labours of Christ Iesus to plant the Gospel who was the best labourer in the field and the best shepheard of the sheepe he bringeth him in complayning that he had laboured in vaine and spent all his strength in vaine neverthelesse he was not discouraged but comforted himselfe in this that the reward of his worke was laid up in heaven Salomon giving directious for workes of charity Eccl. 11.1.6 chargeth them that have this worlds good to cast their bread upon the waters because they should find it after many dayes and afterward he addeth to the same purpose In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withdraw not thine hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good much rather should it be thus with us we should cast the bread of life upon the waters even when we have small hope to find it againe as if a man should sow his seed in the sea and use all diligence and take all occasions to doe good leaving the issue of our labours to the cheife husband man And the rather we ought to doe it because we are unto God the sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved 2 Cor. 2.15 and in them that perish that is in all persons because all men whatsoever either are such as shall be saved or such as shall be condemned and the reward shall be according to the faithfulnesse of the Ministers teaching not according to the fruitfulnesse of the peoples hearing Lastly it behoveth us in time to take heed how we heare not onely what we heare touching the matter Mark 4.24 Mar. 4 24. Luk. 8.18 but also how we heare touching the manner Luk. 8.18 and regard how it be performed as well as that it be performed The more the word of God soundeth in our eares and we respect it but as a sound the more our hearts are hardned like the anvill that is beaten and hardned by the continuall strokes of the hammer Gods word is in regard of the effectes resembled compared to fire to an hammer as Ier. 23. Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord Ier. 23.29 and like an hammer that breaketh the rooke in pieces There is more hope of men that never heard the word and never lived under the ordinary ministry and preaching of it then of such as have had their eares beaten with it yet it cannot enter into their hearts as our Saviour speaketh to the chiefe Priests and Elders of the people Math. 21.31 Verily I say unto you that the publicanes and the harlots goe into the kingdome of God before you If the word do not convert us it doth condemne us and if
therewith rest contented Secondly having store of this worlds good if wee doe not set our hearts upon them then we will be content to leave them whensoever God the supreme and soveraigne Owner calleth againe for them and not excessively mourne for them when they leave us And as we will not refuse and reject them when we have them seeing they are the gifts of God so when they betake them to their wings and flee away we will looke after them with a quiet minde as it was with Iob who because hee rejoyced not when his substance was great Iob 31.25 1 21. and when his hand had gotten much therefore he did not much grieve when his wealth was taken away but in his greatest losse praiseth the Lord. So also it was with Paul who because he used this world as not abusing it and esteemed the best things thereof no better then dung in comparison of Christ and his benefits 1 Cor. 7.31 Phil. 3.7 8. 4.11 12 13. it was no great paine to him to take forth a farther lesson in what state soever he was therewithall to be content he could be abased and abound every where in all things he was instructed both to be full and to be hungry to abound and to have want yea hee could say I can doe all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Thirdly if worldly riches be wanting we will not seeke them by evil meanes nor glory in them when we have them to make us high minded or to put our trust and confidence in them Lastly it will make us keepe a vigilant eye over them that through our abuse they doc not degenerate from their owne nature and become Satans baits to allure us nor his snares to intangle us nor his thornes to choke us that the seed of the Word cannot prosper neither the graces of God grow in us Hence it is that I goe about to perswade to lay hold on Gods speciall providence watching over his children to succour and relieve them out of hopelesse and remedilesse troubles when they appeare destitute of all succour and in a manner in a desperate estate without all meanes left unto them When the Sonnes of Iacob stood gazing one upon another that is Gen. 42.1 they fared as men amazed and at their wits end that they know not what to doe for themselves their wives and their children then the Lord by his good hand opened a way for their reliefe that there was plenty of Corne in Egypt when there was none in the Land of Canaan verifying his gracious promise Gen. 8.22 So when the poore widdow in time of a great famine was brought to that extremity 1. King 17.12 13. that shee had but an handfull of meale in a barrell and a little oyle in a cruse and was now going purposely to gather a few stickes to dresse it for her selfe and her sonne that they might eate and die when she was in this great perplexity necessity and extremity the Lord that never leaveth his by his good providence directed the Prophet Elijah who immediately before had himselfe beene fed by Ravens that brought him bread and flesh in the morning verse 6. and bread and flesh in the evening to tell her good newes that the barrell of meale should not waste verse 14. neither the cruse of oyle faile until the Day that the Lord sendeth raine upon the earth Thus it was with the widdow of one of the sonnes of the Prophets she was left so farre in debt that her children were to be sold to satisfie the griping and greedinesse of the mercilesse Creditor and she had nothing to discharge it 2 Kings 4.2 but a little pitcher of oyle yet she was provided for by wonderfull meanes all which examples as a cloud of witnesses doe verifie the saying of the Psalmist Psa 33.18 19. and 37.25 Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soule from death and to keepe them alive in famine and Psal 37. I have beene young and now am old yet have I not seene the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread But if there were no other reasons or considerations then such as are handled in this Scripture to be as a preservative or counterpoison against diffidence and distrust touching earthly things which doe more disquiet disturbe not onely the naturall man but even the Regenerate themselves oftentimes then any thing in the world besides herein we may finde matter sufficient to take from us the carnall feare of future wants first because we are his Flocke and he is our Shepheard Will the good Shepheard starve his Sheepe and not make them lye downe in greene pastures This confidence in God doth the Prophet shew and concludeth from this ground the point in hand The Lord is my Shepheard Psal 23.1 therefore I shall not want how then can they assure themselves to be in the number of the Sheep of Christ that doe not rely upon the care of this great Shepheard As then the Prophet saith in another case Esay 40.11 Ezek. 34.2 Should not the Shepheards feed the Flocke So we may be assured that the Shepheard of Israel that leadeth Ioseph like a Flocke will never be wanting to his sheepe that call and cry unto him Secondly because the Title given to God assureth us hereof he is called a Father Psal 80.1 2. Will the father give over the care of his children and forsake or forget the fruite of his owne body nay doth not the Prophet say Esay 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee whom I have graven upon the palmes of my hands And Christ our Saviour speaketh to the same purpose What man is there of you Matth. 7.9.10.11 whom if his sonne aske bread will he give him a stone or if he aske a fish will he give him a Serpent If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that aske him Lastly because we have the promise of a Kingdome and of the glory of heaven which is unspeakeable incomprehensible and everlasting He that hath promised us a Kingdome will he with-hold from us food and raiment nay Rom. 8.32 as the Apostle teacheth us to reason He that spared not his owne Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things So should we cōclude that seeing he hath called us to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 He will never leave us nor forsake us in this life but if we first seeke the Kingdome of God Matth 33. all other things shall be added unto us He
a reason whereby it is enforced In the counsell consider these particulars First an earnest dehortation or disswasion feare not Secondly a loving appellation by way of an Apostrophe or a turning of his speech belonging to those hearers that are called from feare the Flocke of God Thirdly a strict limitation or word of restraint it is a little Flocke that God taketh charge and care of The Shepheard regardeth not the Goates and wild beasts of the field and forrest it is enough for the Shepheard that he feed his Sheepe and his Lambes The second point is a reason and that reason is a promise and that promise is of a Kingdome For so gracious is our good God unto us that he annexeth his promise to our obedience to give us encouragement in doing our duty And herein observe divers branches for the promise containeth the Author the application the ground-worke the manner the object and the subject First the Author of the promise who also is as able to performe it Many men doe make large and faire promises but are not able oftentimes to make them good This promiser is God described unto us by a word of relation he is in nature a Father Secondly the speciall application thereof to our selves he is our Father so that as he is able so likewise he is willing to performe his promise because he loveth us For what Father will forsake his children Thirdly the ground and originall of it his owne good pleasure and not any thing in our selves as of our selves to move him to favour us Fourthly the manner of it he giveth it he doth not sell it or exchange and barter with us to receive the like againe or the worth of his promise in some other commodity at our hands it is his free gift it is not for any merits done or workes and worthinesse foreseene so that we cannot say to God as Abraham did to the Hittites Give it me for so much mony as it is worth Gen. Gen. 23.9 23.9 and if any be so foolish Acts 8.20 we may answer them as Peter doth to Simon Magus Act. 8. Thy mony perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with mony Fiftly the object of the promise to wit the persons to whom it is given to You but to what You not to the wise and prudent of this world but to babes and simple ones not neither to all in generall for hee hath made no such large promise to all the sonnes of men but to You called before the little Flocke Lastly the subject or matter of the promise the Kingdome of Heaven without which all other promises are of no value This is promised and bestowed upon a few onely And thus much touching the occasion the interpretation and the division of the words Now let us come to the particular handling of them in order as they have beene unfolded unto us Feare not The first point that commeth to be considered is the dehortation wherein our Saviour sheweth what wee may not doe This is the ground of all diffidence and distrust a causelesse and needlesse feare This is the root of all doubting and distraction and therefore he laboureth first of all to pull it up by the root and to cut it off with the sword of Gods providence Doct. 1 This teacheth that Gods servants have no cause to feare the want of Gods hand or helpe in temporall things We need not be afraid to be forsaken or forgotten of God as if hee neglected us or had cast us off in time of distresse True it is when we looke upon our present estate with fleshly eyes and can see no end nor issue out of our troubles like a Sea that hath neither banke nor bottome we are oftentimes assaulted with doubting and sometimes with despaire but when we cast up our eyes to Heaven and behold the providence the purpose the promise the protection and preservation of God we have a staffe of comfort put into our hands to stay us up that we fall not to the ground The Israelites being brought out of Egypt lifted up their eyes and beheld the Egyptians marching after them Then they were sore afraid and began to murmure against Moses not without a bitter taunt likewise Exod. 14.10.11 Exod. 14.10 Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to dye in the wildernesse Wherefore hast thou delt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt then Moses said unto them Feare ye not stand still and see the salvation which he will shew to you to day for the Egyptians whom ye have seene to day yee shall see them againe no more for ever the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace Thus the Prophet speaketh Psal 34.9 10. Psal 34. They that feare the Lord shall need to feare no lacke the Lyons lacke and suffer hunger but they that seeke the Lord shall want nothing that is good Where no feare of God is no marvaile if there be feare of all things else but where the feare of his name is there is a counterpoyson to expell all other feare Hereunto accordeth the saying of Christ I say unto you Matth. 6.25 be not carefull for your life what yee shall eat or what yee shall drinke nor for your body what yee shall put on is not the life more worth then meat and the body then raiment It is the manner of the most sort when they begin to feele any want especially in times of famine to cry out Oh we are undone what shall wee doe how shall we live wherewithall shall we maintaine our families and housholds As if there were no God in Israel that looked upon us or cared for us or knew our wants But who is it that gave thee thy life or from whence receivedst thou thy body have wee not our breath and being from God doubtlesse hee will therefore maintaine our lives and cloath our bodies so that we may say with the Apostle Phil 4.6 Bee carefull for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thankesgiving let your request bee made knowne unto God This truth receiveth farther strength from the titles given to God Is not he the Husband the Shepheard Reas 1 and Father of the Church It is the duty of the Husband to provide all necessaries for his Wife Ephes 5 31. For no man hateth his owne flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Ephes 5.31 Will a good Shepheard take charge of a flocke and then starve it God hath taken charge of all that are his when we are once become his Sheepe in that very moment we live under his protection as Psal 23.1 2. The Lord is my Shepheard Psal 23.1 80.1 and he maketh me lye downe in greene pastures he leadeth mee beside the still waters and Psal 80.1 Give eare O thou Shepheard of Israel thou that leadest Ioseph like a Flocke Will not
naturall Fathers and Mothers sustaine their Children and supply all their wants can Parents see them perish or miscarry and never bee moved at it Our Saviour telleth us What man is there if his sonne aske him bread Matth. 7 9 10 11. will he give him a stone or if he aske a fish will hee give him a serpent If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that aske him And the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Esay 49.15 16. Can a woman forget her sucking Childe that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Esay 49.15 The love of God therefore toward his is greater then the love of men is or can be to their Children he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye and shall not escape his hand his revenging hand Secondly God will worke above and beyond all ordinary meanes rather then such as are his shall perish and after the course of nature to doe them good and to preserve them from evill who hath all creatures in his owne hand A memorable example hereof we have in the Israelites while they were in the wildernesse hee fed them with Manna for the space of 40. Exod 16.15 Numb 20.8 yeeres and opened the hard Rocke to give them water whereof they and their Cattell dranke Exod. 16. Numb 20. Consider this further in the example of Eliah 1 King 19. when he was constrained to flye for his life from the persecution of Jezabel and desired to dye the Angell of the Lord came unto him and said 1 King 19. â— 17.6 Arise and eat and he went in the strength of that meat 40. dayes and 40. hights unto Horeb the mountaine of God The like we read before that is The Word of the Lord came unto him Hide thy selfe in the brooke Charith and thou shalt drinke of the brooke and I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee So hee did according to the Word of the Lord for he dwelt by the brooke and the Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he dranke of the brooke But be hold how the Lord tryed him for hee had not tarryed there long but the brooke dryed up because no raine fell in the Land What then did the Prophet of the Lord did he murmure against God No hee waited with patience his leisure and he sent him other meanes for his maintenance he directed him to the widdow of Sarepta where he was fed in that famine She had indeed but an handfull of meale in a barrell and a little oyle in a cruse and he saith unto her Verse 14 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel The barrell of meale shall not waste neither shall the cruse of oyle faile untill the day that the Lord sendeth raine upon the earth Thus he commandeth to lay aside feare and to submit her selfe to the will and pleasure of Almighty God Thus also the Lord dealt with her that had beene the wife of one of the children of the Prophets after his decease 2 King 2 King 4.1 43 44. Ioh. 6.5 6 10 11. 4. he dying indebted the mercilesse Creditor came to take unto him her two sonnes to be his bondmen but the mercy of God was such in her extremity that having in her house a pot of oyle onely it was so increased and multiplied that she received more then shee desired through his abundant blessing that giveth more then is asked so that she not onely paied the debt but her selfe and children lived of the residue Thirdly God will sanctifie a little and that of the worst and coursest sort to serve and suffice those that are his that albeit they have but short Commons and a poore Pittance yet a little that the righteous hath shall be better unto them then all the store and abundance of the ungodly This Moses teacheth Deut. 8. Man liveth not by bread onely but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live Wee have a lively example hereof in Daniel and his fellowes that did eate nothing but pulse a graine that beareth his fruit in poddes yet were they fairer and fresher fuller and fatter at the end of ten dayes Dan. 1.15 then all the children which did eate the portion of the Kings meate Dan. 1.15 This also we may see by experience in rich mens and poore mens children and in themselves also as well as in their children For whereas the poorer sort have scarce one good meales meat in a moneth but keep a perpetuall Lent not eating a bit of flesh in their owne houses once in a yeere and feed hardly and homely with browne bread and yet have not enough of that neither Eccles 5.12 yet is their labour pleasant and their sleepe sweet whereas the richer sort that fare deliciously every day are many times oppressed with raw humours and are neither so strong and healthy as the other Fourthly nothing shall bee able to hurt Gods servants For as all things tend to the hurt of the wicked and nothing shall doe them good so contrariwise nothing can hinder the salvation of the Church Rom. 8.28 Rom. 8. But all things shall fall out for the best to them that love him For what shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perils no doubtlesse forasmuch as we are more then conquerours through him that loved us Psal 90.5 6 7. So likewise Psal 90. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day neither for the pestilence that walketh in darknesse nor for the destruction that wasteth at noone day a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shal not come nigh thee there shall no evill befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Obiect But it may bee objected Doe not these befall the righteous as well as the unrighteous nay doe not the godly often fall by them while the ungodly escape out of them or never enter into them Answ I answer Divers wayes First albeit all these may befall and doe befall the Faithfull yet doe they not come upon them as evils They may dye of the plague but to them the plague is no plague True it is of themselves or in the nature of them they are evill and the punishments of evill but to Gods children they are onely chastisements and correction of a good and gentle Father and that for their further good to prevent sinnes to come Contrariwise to the wicked they are the heavy strokes of a just Iudge or of a revenging enemy Secondly God pulleth out the sting of them that they cannot hurt them True it is
hand Ioh. 10.28 or who shall fight against his Sheepe and the Flocke of his pasture and prevaile This the Prophet teacheth Ier. 2.3 Israel was holinesse unto the Lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devoure him shall offend evill shall come upon them saith the Lord. Ier. Iob 1.3 2 3. The Sheepe of Job are reckoned in the account of his substance so are Gods Sheepe a part of his substance which he chose to himselfe so great is the kindnesse and mercy of God toward us For why doth hee take them for his Sheepe and let the rest goe as Goats being by nature no better Is it any worthinesse or excellency in them before others Rom. 2.12 19. No we are all gone out of the way there is none that doth good no not one that every mouth might be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God Is it for their multitude Iohn 14.6 No they are called by Christ in this place a little Flocke and hee is the truth it selfe that speaketh it Thus Moses sheweth that the Lord did not set his love upon Israel neither chuse them because they were moe in number then any people Deut. 7.7 For they were the fewest of all people Deut. 7.7 Is it for their strength might and power they have Ezek. 16.5 6. No he found them weake and wallowing in their blood none eye pittied them to have compassion upon them so that wee may not say in our hearts Deut. 8.17 18. My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth but wee must remember the Lord our God for it is he from whom wee receive all good things What then is it because we are more righteous The Israelites are charged not to speake so in their hearts Deut. 9.4 5. Deut. 9.4 5. because It was not for their righteousnesse or uprightnesse of heart that they entred to possesse the Land but for the wickednesse of those Nations which were driven out before them Who is it among the sonnes of men that will not spend land and limme and life it selfe to defend that which hee hath bought and purchased with a great price and at a deare rate And will not God defend and avenge his Children whom he knew to be his before the foundation of the world was laid though they bee oppressed for a time and he beare long with the vessels of wrath who cry out against them Downe with them downe with them even to the ground 2 Tim. 2.19 Rom. 11.1 2 3 howbeit the foundation remaineth sure and hath this seale The Lord knoweth who are his and hee will not cast off the care of them for ever Fourthly here is matter offered unto us to stirre our hearts to thanksgiving considering the infinite mercy of God toward us who hath vouchsafed to make choise of us to be his Sheepe passing by so many thousands in the world Of this duty the Prophet putteth us in minde arising from this doctrine Psal 100. Psal 100.3 4. It is the Lord that hath made us and not we ourselves for we are his people and the Sheepe of his pasture What followeth he maketh this use thereupon Enter into his Gates with thankesgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankefull unto him and blesse his Name It is no small token of his love toward us to make us to be his Sheep that are by nature Lyons Leopards Beares Bulls Dogs Psal 22.12 13 16 21. Matth. 15.26 Wolves and wild Beasts and what not Is not his love who loved us first worth our love to him againe If it be a great blessing that we are made to bee reasonable men how much greater is it to be received and regarded as his owne inheritance then which nothing is dearer to him nothing ought to be better to us The unfaithfull are the worke of God by naturall generation but they are the new-worke of God by spirituall regeneration It is not our owne free will that can frame and fashion us to be the people of God for then we might say It is we our selves that have made us and not the Lord. Particular branches of thankfulnesse This thankfulnesse consisteth not in words onely but in divers other particular branches noted by the Prophet in that place First let us give to him our hearts that our tongues may bee guided thereby let us first offer him all that is within us and then all that is without us will follow also for other worship God accepteth not In vaine they worship him Matth. 15.8 that draw neere unto him with their mouth and honour him with their lippes when their hearts are farre from him Secondly we must never bee ashamed to praise the Lord and to confesse his wonderfull workes to the children of men We see how men are not ashamed to sinne before the Lord openly publikely proudly presumptuously and prophanely and they blush at nothing but at godlinesse prayer profession hearing the Word and such like workes of Christian piety These men glory in their owne shame Phil. 3.19 Ier. 6.15 but they are ashamed of their glory nay of Gods glory and even of their owne good Thirdly the service which we performe to God wee must yeeld willingly readily joyfully 2 Cor. 9.6 and with a glad heart for hee loveth a cheerefull giver Thankes constrained or wrung and wrested from us are rejected of God Wee must give unto him backe againe as he giveth to us But how is that and in what manner bestoweth he upon us hee giveth us his gifts freely we must therefore returne to him our thankes frankly Lastly he calleth us to the assembly of his Saints which he nameth the Court and presence of God which was the place appointed for his publike service and worship Indeed God is not confined to a certaine place Act. 7.48 Iohn 4.21 neither is there any place wherein he is not to bee worshipped neverthelesse such as are indued with true faith must follow the communion of the Saints as Sheepe that feed not alone but with their fellowes Gods Sheepe and servants must shew themselves in the publike Assemblies being publikely thankefull for publike benefits received at his mercifull hands Psal 84.10 considering that one day in a his Courts is better then a thousandelsewhere Fiftly all that are Pastors and Teachers under Christ are bound to feed the Flocke that dependeth upon them They are Vnder-shepheards as it were Christs Vicars or Curates hee is the great Shepheard of our soules to whom the rest must be subject for the Sheepe are his This use is gathered from the exhortation that Paul giveth to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20. Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flocke Act. 20.28 over the which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his owne blood Where he reasoneth thus It is the Flock of
saving such as have received it How then can they bee forgotten of him that knoweth them all by their names Thus David reasoneth Psal 23.1 Psal 23.1 The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want Observe the conclusion of the Prophet in this place the Lord was his Shepheard and he one of his sheepe therefore he is assured he shall never want therefore he will have a speciall care of him For what I pray you can they want who have God to be their Shepheard Hence it is that hee saith elsewhere I am poore and needy Psal 10.17 yet the Lord thinketh upon me But it will be objected Obiect Doe we not see many of Gods servants live in want to suffer hunger thirst nakednesse cold and an heape of many miseries to be driven from house and home and to wander from place to place and doth not the Scripture teach us as much 2 Cor. 11.27 Heb. 11.37 I answer Answ God feedeth his in such extremities as these another way hee strengthneth and stayeth them up with his grace that they cleave unto him and depend upon him for hee is their portion and never forsaketh them They have such inward peace that the world knoweth not of which made the Apostle say Phil. 4 11 12. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to bee hungry both to abound and to suffer need This hee expresseth more at large 2 Cor. 6.8 9 10. What then is there nothing required on our behalfe Yes doubtlesse for we have no promise of earthly things Matth. 6 32. except we seeke first of all the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse If our chiefest care be of heavenly things all these temporall things shall be added unto us And this must bee our chiefest care for these causes First the soule is of more excelelnt price then the body by many degrees Matth. 16.26 and draweth neerer to the nature of God because it is a Spirit immortall and invisible Secondly corporall and earthly blessings are common blessings Luke 12.16 16.19 23. 18.18 23. the ungodly are partakers of them as well as the godly nay oftentimes they have the greatest share and portion of them Luk. 12.16 16.19 18.23 Thirdly temporall blessings serve onely for this present life but spirituall belong to the life to come As then the life to come ought more to be desired which never shall have end then this present which is transitory and cannot continue but passeth away wee know not how soone so we should much more desire the blessings of the next life which abide for ever 2 Cor. 4.18 2 Cor. 4. For the things that are seene are temporall but the things that are not seene are eternall Fourthly we may have earthly blessings and yet they may lie dead by us and wee have no use at all of them either to our selves or to others it is not so with heavenly blessings such as possesse them alwaies doe good with them Fiftly spirituall things are simply and absolutely necessary to salvation so that without them we cannot be saved the other not so For albeit they be required for the use of this life yet they are not necessarily requisite to bring us to salvation Nay sometimes through the abuse of them and sometimes through the want of a speciall sanctifying grace they become hindrances and clogs and snares and thornes unto us as lamentable experience in the world teacheth Lastly spirituall blessings once received shall never bee taken away from us because his owne Iohn 13.1 Rom. 11.29 Luke 22.32 whom he loved in the world he loveth to the end his gifts and graces are without repentance and their faith shall never faile whereas temporall things are onely left and lent unto us but the time shall come when they must leave us and we them These two points last remembred are concluded out of the words of Christ himselfe Luke 10.42 Luk. 10. touching the necessity and perpetuity of spirituall graces as for temporall blessings they are indeed convenient and profitable but not simply necessary so that we may be saved without them as many are condemned with them For the soule of Lazarus was carried into Abrahams bosome that wanted them and the soule of the rich man to hell and torments that had them Lastly we are moved to seeke Gods Kingdome before and above all earthly things because as earthly things are Gods gifts so they belong rightly and properly to the faithfull They onely have the promise that they shall not want and therefore they have the truest title and tenure whereby they hold them as Esay 65.13 This made the Prophet say Psal 37.25 I have beene yong and now am old Psal 37.25 yet have I not seene the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread The Lord hath made no such promise to ungodly men True it is they have earthly blessings oftentimes more then the godly to make them without excuse but they have them not by vertue of his promise For where hath hee given to them any such promise or how can they shew us their charter nay they and their children have a contrary judgement wayting upon them Psal 109 9 20. Let his children bee continually vagabonds and begge Psal 109. Such as will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord to observe all his Commandements shall be cursed in the City and in the Field Deut. 28.15 16 c. 2 Sam. 3.29 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.32 Matth. 5.5 in their basket and store in all their fruit and increase Deut. 28. 2 Sam. 3.29 As for the godly it is not so with them Christ Iesus is theirs and therefore no marvaile if all things else be theirs and that they shall inherit the earth The Sheepe of Christ have all by a right of donation the ungodly hold all by a wrong of usurpation Can there be a better or truer title then Gods gift by which Israel possessed the Land of Canaan or can there be a meaner or worser hold then to usurpe that which is not their owne as the theefe doth the true mans purse All that the godly man hath is his freehold touching the Conscience Iohn 8.36 Gal. 4.26 as themselves are made free by the Sonne and as his service is perfect freedome his food is free his house and land if hee have any is free his dwelling is free all that he putteth on or any way belongeth unto him is of a free tenure Howbeit understand thus much that this freedome of the faith full exempteth them not from Princes lawes but is wholy spirituall and this is their advantage that which they have is their owne and they may use it to their comfort For they have an interest both from God and man from Heaven and earth to enjoy the things of this
confession For as Christ Iesus at the last Day shall say to the reprobate Inasmuch as they shewed no mercy to his brethren they did it not to him so may I say to these scoffers In as much as they doe it against the Word they doe it against the Lord himselfe whose Word it is To conclude I will speak to them in the words of the Prophet Esay 57.3 4. Draw neere hither ye sonnes of the Sorceresse the seed of the Adulterer and the Whore against whom doe yee sport your selves against whom make yee a wide mouth and draw out the tongue are ye not children of transgression a seed of falsehood Secondly here is peace and comfort against all discouragements that arise in the world from prophane persons and a soveraigne preservative to all those that truely feare God though they see themselves alone like a Pellican in the Wildernesse like an Owle in the Desart and like a Sparrow upon the house top If wee be as a signe and wonder in Israel Esay 8.28 yea as a monster among men yet let us not be discouraged but remember that the Lords portion hath beene but as the tenth that is in comparison of the multitude in all ages the least part as it were an handfull If then we have heretofore run into all excesse of riot with the world of the ungodly and made conscience of nothing that is good or pleasing to God and now have learned better things by the direction of the Word to refraine from every evill way to have respect to all the Commandements of God and to make conscience of all even the least sins albeit we finde our selves left alone as Eliah the Prophet did when they had killed the Prophets of the Lord and digged downe his Altars and walke in a rugged and untrodden path like Jonathan and his Armour-bearer having few to follow us 1 Sam. 14 13. or to accompany us many to disswade and discourage us and some ready to hinder us and to pull us backe yet let us say with Peter Though all men should forsake thee Matth. 26.32 Iohn 6.68 yet will I never leave thee and elsewhere Whither shall wee goe thou hast the Words of eternall life when Iesus said unto the Twelve Will yee also goe away And let this bee our comfort and give us rest that thus it hath gone evermore with the faithfull this hath beene the state of Religion and few in comparison of the rest have found the true path-way that leadeth to life and salvation to their endlesse comfort Thirdly learne that the number of the wicked and reprobate is exceeding great and the way to Hell hath many people and passengers that thrust and throng by heapes that way The way is broad and the gate wide that leadeth to destruction Matth. 7.14 and many there be that enter in thereat Matth. 7. We are ready to follow a multitude to evill but Christ Iesus giveth us counsell to shun that way as a dangerous rocke which the multitude treadeth Hence it is that the Apostle teacheth 1 Cor. 1. Not many wise after the flesh not many mighty 1 Cor. 1.26 27. not many noble are called but the foolish things weake and base and despised and things which are not hath God chosen to confound and bring to nought the glory of the world The worst courses have commonly the most followers and the worst number is for the most part the greatest number forasmuch as the greatest part are left out of the Booke of Life and the Catalogue of Gods election And as in the old world when the flood came 2 Pet. 2.5 Gen. 6.22 Luke 18.8 all flesh had corrupted his wayes upon the earth so at the comming of the Sonne of man shall he finde faith upon the earth The greatest part shall bee given to carnall security and worldly profits without any respect to heavenly things Such as came out of Egypt were for the most part of them murmurers and therefore perished There were foure hundred and fifty false prophets standing to plead Baals cause 1 King 18.19 when one onely Elias stood for the honour and glory of the true God of Israel 1 King 22.6 There were also foure hundred flattering prophets against one plaine Preacher Michaiah that spake the truth from his heart yea even for the good of the King himselfe if he had knowne the things that belonged to his owne peace but they were hidden from him Hereby then we learne the vanity of all such as goe about to excuse themselves because they have many fellowes that are followers of their folly and multitudes of companions in throngs and heapes partakers of their evil courses They say We are not alone We have a world of people in the same case If this be all they can alleadge for themselves and their sinnes and their consorts woe unto them for as they have many joyne with them in evill so they shall have multitudes partake with them in punishment God will judge all the ungodly he regardeth neither might nor multitude What store of carcasses perished in the waters and what heapes went to Hell among them and at the last Day the Lord will give iudgement against all men Iude 15. and rebuke all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their cruell speaking which wicked sinners have spoken against him Every man shall receive the things which are done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 according to that he hath done whether it be good or evill 2 Cor. 5.10 Hee hath evermore plagued multitudes as well as a few persons with whom it is easie to doe execution inasmuch as he commeth with thousands of his Saints and Angels Jude 14. The worst waies have evermore found the greatest applause consent and countenance of the world When it was agreed to compasse Lots house they assembled together both young and old Gen 19.4 all the people from every quarter Gen. 19. When the golden calfe was to be made Exod. 32.3 all the people brake off the golden earings which were in their eares Exod. 32. When Pilate demanded what should be done with Christ Matth. 27.22 they all cryed out Let him bee crucified Matth. 27. So in maintenance of Idolatry the zeale was so great Acts 19.34 that all with one voyce cryed out Great is Diana of the Ephesians Every place is full of evill the greatest part ready to backe and bolster it to uphold and countenance it Esay 59.15 and such as never so little oppose against it make themselves a prey Who seeth not what plenty is every where of Atheists unbeleevers ignorant persons disobedient swearers blasphemers prophane breakers of the Sabbath contemners of the Gospell and what not It is not their multitudes that can protect and patronize them but shall rather encrease their sorrow and punishment Lastly it is our duty to seeke nay to strive to enter
their synagogue yea the time commeth that whosoever killeth you will thinke that he doth God service The Apostle Paul was no sooner converted but by and by he was hated reviled and persecuted who before lived in peace and preferment in credit and countenance in favour and friendship with the greatest men Whereupon he saith 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 4.9 13. 2 Cor. 11.23 24 25. I thinke that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men even the off-scouring of all things unto this day And thus it is with others also And no marvaile For first they follow goodnesse Reas 1 which the men of this world cannot abide but hate unto the death and therefore how can it be otherwise The Prophet saith Psal 38. Psal 38.19 20. They that hate me wrongfully are multiplied they also that render evill for good are mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good is If hee had followed evill hee had beene loved of the evill Secondly they refuse to follow wicked men in the workes of the flesh so that they thinke it strange that they runne not with them into all excesse of riot 1 Pet. 4.4 5. and they speake evill because they are evill of such as are better then themselves but they shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quicke and the dead 1 Pet. 4. If wee were of the world the world would love his owne but because we are not of the world but we are chosen out of world therefore the world hateth us Iohn 15.19 Iohn 15.19 As then the friends of the world are the enemies of God so the enemies of the world are the friends of God Jam. 4. Thirdly the servant is not greater then his Lord nor the Disciple then his Master neither hee that is sent Iohn 13.16 15.20 Luke 11 18. Matth. 10.25 Luke 7.34 23.32 greater then him that sent him John 13.16 15.20 If then they have called the master of the house Beelzebub a Samaritane a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Luke 7.34 How much more shall they call them of his household And if they doe these things to the greene tree what shall bee done to the dry and barren Luke 23.32 and if they have persecuted him they will also persecute them that belong unto him Fourthly they know not the Father neither his Sonne Iesus Christ and therefore no marvaile if he will not know them no marvaile if they doe not know his Children The world doth not know the Sonnes of God neither the love of the Father toward them neither their love toward the Father because they know not the Father himselfe Ioh. 15.21 16.3 Joh. 15.21 1 Joh. 3.1 God is not their Father neither they his children and therefore his children are strange to them Lastly the ungodly are the seed of the Serpent that is Iohn 8.44 the children of the Devill and he their father whose lusts and will they performe and whose expresse Image they represent Joh. 8. This the Lord saith Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele To this purpose Salomon speaketh Prov. 29.27 Prov. 29.27 28.4 28.4 An uniust man is an abomination to the iust and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked The wicked hate the godly wrongfully and without cause the godly hate them worthily not simply their persons but so farre as Gods Image is defaced as the old Serpents brood and therefore account of them no otherwise then they doe of their Father For as every one that loveth him that begate 1 Iohn 5.1 loveth him also that is begotten of him so they that hate him that begetteth to his corrupt image hate them also that are begotten of him The hatred of the ungodly whereby they abhorre the faithfull for their faiths sake which is good nay for their Fathers sake which is God is implacable and never can they be reconciled it may not therefore seeme strange if the godly doe not onely hate ungodlinesse but the desperate ungodly also themselves for their ungodlinesse as we hate not onely the poison of the Serpent but the Serpent for the poisons sake But it will be said Obiect We are commanded to love our enemies to blesse them that curse us to doe good to them that â—ate us and to pray for them that persecute us Matth. 5. If then we must love them Matth. 5.44 we may not hate them I answer It is true Answ wee are charged to love our enemies but not Gods enemies nor the enemies of godlinesse so farre as they may bee discerned so to be For we must make a difference betweene his enemies and ours Wee must love them that are enemies to our persons but not those that are enemies so farre as they are enemies to our profession and for the profession sake It will be objected further Obiect Are we not bound to love every creature of God Gen. 1.31 seeing hee saw them all to be very good and are we not charged to love all men as they are men 2 Pet. 1.7 and not onely to embrace brotherly kindnesse but love in generall I answer It is true Answ we are commanded to love all men as men and every creature as it is a creature created of God and not to hate and abhorre any of them as they are the worke of his hands but so farre as the Image of God is deformed and disfigured in them wee may hate them and we ought to hate them Nay the more this Image of God is stained and corrupted the more we are to dislike them and detest them Rom. 9.13 Mal. 1.3 God himselfe hateth the wicked with a perfect hatred Rom. 9. Mal. 1. Now we are entred into a covenant with God to have the same friends and the same enemies his friends must be our friends and his enemies must bee our enemies This made the Prophet say Doe not I hate them O Lord Psal 139.21 22. that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I account them mine enemies Psal 139. Wee must therefore be at peace with them that are at peace with him and wee must have continuall warre with them that are at warre with him even as the Lord himselfe professeth to Abraham Gen. 12 3. that he will blesse them that blesse him and curse them that curse him Gen. 12.3 First Vse 1 conclude from hence that we must take heed we despise not one of these little ones For though they be little yea nothing at all and lesse then nothing in the eyes of the world yet we may not set them at nought whom the Lord Iesus will
at the last day set at his right hand neither make them our footstoole that shall sit upon seates Matth. 18.10 1 Cor. 62 3. and iudge the Angels nay the world There are sundry motives to move us to beware of hating and despising them all of them of great force and moment First their Angels in Heaven doe alwaies behold the face of the Father which is in Heaven and they are ready Heb. 1.14 as ministring spirits to minister for them that shall be heires of salvation and are armed with power against them that are their enemies and heires of wrath and destruction For wherefore are they said to behold the face of God but because they stand about the Throne of God as their King waiting his appointment to doe his will and to send them to safegard his servants that are so smally set by of the world Secondly the Sonne of man came to save them Matth. 18.11 therefore wee may not condemne them he loved them with perfect love therefore we may not hate them with perfect hatred Mat. 18.11 It is God that justifieth who shall dare to condemne Matth. 18.5 Thirdly such as receive them doe receive him and contrariwise such as hate them doe hate him such as persecute them Acts 9.5 doe persecute him such as revile them doe revile him because hee accounteth this as done to himselfe and esteemeth himselfe wounded thorow their sides Fourthly woe to such as any way offend these though they bee little ones it were better that a milstone were hung about their necke Matth. 18.6 and that they were drowned in the depth of the Sea An offence is sometimes taken and sometimes given An offence onely taken is not to bee regarded as not being given Matth. 15.14 neither yet in it selfe any sinne The Pharises were offended but Christ Iesus giveth a precept to let them alone Matth. 15.14 For no man must bee hindred from doing his duty because offence is taken thereby forasmuch as that were to subject the Precepts of God to the pleasure of man Christ himselfe and his Gospel were a rocke of offence and a stone to stumble at Esay 8.14 Esay 8.14 15. Rom. 9.32 1 Pet. 2.6 Luke 2.34 1 Cor. 1.23 15. Rom. 9.32 c. Offence was taken sometimes at the meannesse of his person and sometimes at the matter or manner of his doctrine howbeit the fault was not in Christ but in the Iewes and Pharises themselves who looked for a Messiah not such as is described in the Scripture but such as they had framed and hammered in their owne braines by misunderstanding the Scriptures An offence given is in the nature thereof a sinne of which Christ Iesus speaketh in that place of offending the little ones This is sometimes barely given but not taken God preveting the evil that might come thereof sanctifying those with his grace that behold the offence that they are not corrupted by it or intangled in it and sometimes it is both given and taken so that others are taken and overtaken in the same manner This is a sinne against God and man which becommeth so much the greater when it is both offered and accepted of which Paul giveth a charge 1 Cor. 10. Give none offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles 1 Cor. 10 3â— nor to the Church of God that is to none either within or without to beleevers or unbeleevers Obiect But doth the offence given excuse those from all fault to whom it is given or doth it give them freedome from guilt and punishment being drawne away and entised by others I answer Answ No in no wise This was the sinne of Elies sonnes who by their evill life caused the people to abhorre the offerings of God yet notwithstanding God threatneth to bring an heavy judgement upon Israel at which 1 Sam. 3.11 both the eares of every one that heareth it should tingle As then a woe is denounced against such as give offence so is a woe due to such as take it when it is given For the Commandement of God ought to bee of more force with us to keepe us within the compasse of our duty then all the evill examples of men to corrupt us and hinder us from it that so wee may shew our selves to be the Sonnes of God in the middest of a froward and crooked generation among whom we must shine as lights in the world Phil. 2.15 Secondly let us not marvaile that the world hateth us rather it were to bee marveled if they should not hate us that hate the Lord and cannot abide to be tyed to his Commandements which are most grievous and irkesome and toylesome unto them Neither let us wonder concerning the fiery triall 1 Ioh. 3.13 1 Pet. 1.7 4.12 which is to try us and to make our faith much more precious then gold that perisheth as though some strange thing had hapned unto us but rather let us rejoyce inasmuch as wee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed we may be glad also with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 1.13 Such is our weaknesse and infirmity yea such is our love and liking to our selves and our owne ease that we desire freedome from all troubles and rather are ready to joyne with the wicked then we would willingly suffer any thing or be hated of them We are prone to say in our prosperity Psal 30.6 I shall never bee moved and therefore when wee begin to be evill spoken off for righteousnesse sake and heare slanders and reproaches on every side we take the matter so heavily and hainously and looke so strangely upon it as if we had never heard of any such condition or as if the Saints of God had never endured like persecution or as if the Word of God had never spoken word of enduring affliction or as if it were not the beaten path that bringeth us to salvation or as if Satan and his instruments had put on a new affection and altered their former disposition How have wee forgotten that all the servants of God from righteous Abel to these present times have suffered tribulation and therefore it may not bee thought any novelty Matth. 5.12 forasmuch as they have done this to the Prophets and people that were before us Wee have forgotten what befell our Lord and Master who endured the Crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 and is set downe at the right hand of his Father Wee have forgotten that wee must walke through good report and evill report through honour and dishonour 2 Cor. 6.8 Wee have forgotten that the holy Apostles went away from the Councell reioycing Acts 5.41 that they were accounted worthy to suffer any thing for Christs sake Heb. 10.34 Wee have forgotten that the beleeving Hebrewes suffered with ioy the spoyling of their goods knowing that they had a better inheritance reserved for them in the Heavens and an enduring substance that
am not worthy as we have noted before On the other side as they take away all worthinesse from themselves Rev. 4.10 11. and east downe their Crownes at the feete of him that sitteth upon the Throne so when they speake of God they give all praise and honour and ascribe all worthinesse to him Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Secondly Rom. 1.30 2 Tim. 3.21 all such as are boasters and proud persons heady high-minded and there are not a few of those whose practices cannot stand with true humility Some are boasters of false liberality like cloudes without raine or bubbles of water that rise up and suddenly vanish away Such were Ananias and Saphira his wife Acts 5.3 8. who kept backe part of the price of the Land they sold and yet boasted of their bounty as if they had brought the whole price and had sold it for so much onely Some are boasters of false obedience as if they had dealt soundly and sincerely with God and yet offer unto him a lame service as it were a blinde and maimed sacrifice which he abhorreth Mal. 1.8 1 Sam. 15.13 20. Such was Sauls oblation which was indeed rebellion yet he gloried that he had done all that the Lord commanded and had left nothing undone This boasting of his sincerity was a notable discovering of his hypocrisie Some are boasters of perfection as if they had gone as farre as God prescribed like such as thinke themselves at their journeis end as soone as they are set forth out of doores Matth. 19.20 Such was the yong man in the Gospell that professed hee had kept the whole Law from his youth Rom. 8.3 which notwithstanding is not possible through the flesh who said to our Saviour All these things have I performed what lacke I yet Such was the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.17 which boasted shee was rich and had need of nothing Revel 3.17 and knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked Such also are they that boast of workes of supererogation swelling like a bladder till they be ready to burst againe as if they were able to doe more then God requireth at their hands and had more strength then ever he gave them These make themselves over-iust Eccles 7.16 and are indeed over-unjust Some boast of their sinne and wickednesse in filthinesse and prophanenesse in whoredome in drunkennesse and beastlinesse as if a sicke man should glory in his sicknesse in his wounds and ulcers in his boiles and blaines and blisters in his running and putrifying sores which no man that is sober and well in his wits would doe Sinnes are the ulcers and sores of the soule Psal 38.5 at which we should rather blush then boast and of which there is cause why we should be ashamed rather then any way enamored Some filly soules boast of their ignorance that they know nothing neither God nor themselves neither any thing pertaining to the salvation of their soules as if a man should glory that he liveth in a dungeon or in the darke and thanke God he never had the Sunne shining in his face all the daies of his life or as if a subject should boast he never knew any of the Princes Lawes or a servant that he never regarded to know the will and pleasure of his Master Such are silly fooles and love their owne folly and are to be pittied for their simplicity Some boast of their hypocrisie that they can carry matters so closely and so cunningly as not to be espied Luke 12.2 never considering that there is nothing covered that shall not be discovered and revealed Some boast of their felicity and prosperity some of their riches some of their honour and nobility all which the Apostle esteemed as dung in comparison of the righteousnesse of Christ that hee might win him Phil. 3.8 nay he would not glory in divine revelations lest hee should be exalted but rather in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12.9 that he might be humbled by them and that the power of Christ might be magnified in him Secondly let us not thinke highly of our owne gifts neither yet be high-conceited of our abilities as proud persons that rise early to praise and admire themselves because no man else will doe it or can doe it We have sundry exhortations and admonitions in holy Scriptures to this purpase as Rom. 12.2 16. Rom. 12.3 16 Minde not high things but condescend to men of low estate be not wise in your owne conceits And againe Verse 3. Let every man thinke soberly of himselfe according as God hath dealt to him the measure of faith and let him not think more highly of himselfe then he ought to thinke So likewise Prov. 3.7 Prov. 3.7 Be not wise in thine owne eyes feare the Lord and depart from evill So we are also charged in giving honour Rom. 12.10 to goe one before another Rom. 12.10 for there is little hope of a conceited foole that thinketh better of himselfe then any besides and is so blinde that he cannot see his grossest corruptions that are as beames in the eyes nay is so weake in judgement that he thinketh his blemishes to bee ornaments and his vices to be vertues in himselfe Therefore Salomon saith Prov. 26.12 Prov. 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his owne conceit there is more hope of a foole then of him Let us examine our selves whether we bee indeed lowly or not Matth. 5.3 and that by these rules First if we be poore in Spirit knowing and evermore meditating upon our infirmities insufficiences weaknesses imperfections defects and faults labouring thereby to understand them better and better and to heale them the sooner this is one signe of humility Secondly if wee despise and disgrace none though never so meane and reject not the opinion and judgement of any though much more unlearned then our selves and farre inferiour to our selves Gen. 21.12 Abraham must sometimes be content to hearkon to the voice of Sarah the higher to the lower the man to the woman the husband to the wife Moses the great Prophet of the Lord and the Church must learne of Jethro his Father in law Exoâ— 18.24 2 King 5.1 4 12. Naaman a Master and great Captaine and honourable thought it no disparagement to himselfe and his high place to follow the aduice first of his poore Maid-servant and afterward of his Men-servants or else that foule leprosie had cleaved unto him for ever David a mighty man of warre and anoynted to be King disdained not the wise counsell of Abigail a woman 1 Sam. 25.33 and therefore kept himselfe from sheading of blood and blessed God for it Apollos was an eloquent man fervent in the Spirit and mighty in the Scriptures who watered where the Apostle planted Acts
taken sometimes personally and sometimes essentially Personally when it is restrained to one of the Persons as to the first Person in the holy and blessed Trinity Matth. 28.19 Ephes 2.3 2 Cor. 13.13 to wit God the Father begetting the Sonne and sending forth the holy Ghost whensoever mention is made of any of the other Persons also Thus likewise it is taken when it is limited to the second Person in Trinity to wit God the Sonne begotten of the Father before all worlds â—say 9.6 as Esay 9.6 Vnto us a Childe is borne unto us a Sonne is given his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father And in this sence the holy Ghost the third Person proceeding from the Father and the Sonne may also be called Father because he together with the Father and the Sonne giveth being to all things Sometimes the Word is taken essentially without consideration of any personall relation and then it is referred simply to God and is extended to all the three Persons Deut. 32.6 as Deut. 32.6 Doe yee so reward the Lord Mal. 2.10 Iam. 1.27 O yee foolish people is not he thy Father that hath bought thee and Mal. 2.10 Have yee not all one Father and thus it is taken in this place for the whole God-head the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost who have a Soveraigne Father-hood over the Church loving it defending it delighting in it caring for it bestowing all blessings upon it and withholding nothing that is good from it Doct. 7 This title teacheth us that God is the Father of his Church and Children As a Father loveth his Children to whom hee hath given breath and being as he feedeth and clotheth them nourisheth and layeth up for them so God loveth his Children to whom he hath given their first life their second life and to whom he will give a third life The first life is in the flesh the second in grace the third in glory The first is a naturall life the second a spirituall life the third an eternall life The first is their generation the second their regeneration the third shall be their glorification and therefore he loveth them with a love infinitely above the love of all Parents toward their Children whose love must needs be as finite as themselves when it is at the highest What the love of Parents is toward their Children the Scripture setteth downe by sundry examples 1 King 3.26 2 Sam. 18.23 1 King 3.26 Esay 66.13 Zach. 12.10 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 49.1 1 King 14.2 Esay 49.15 Psal 103.13 17. 68.5 Esay 63.16 69.8 2 Thes 2.6 2 Sam. 18 23. they rejoice at their good Prov. 101. they moutne for their trouble and evill that befalleth them Zach. 12.10 they comfort them in sorrow and anguish Esay 66.13 they procure them what good and preferment they can 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 they provide for the time present and to come Gen. 49.1 they tender them in sicknesse and in health 1 King 14.2 they prevent dangers that doe hang over their heads and may befall them Gen. 27.43 28.2 they regard them in prosperity and adversity in wealth and in poverty so that they cannot leave them nor forget them nor forsake them Esay 49.15 All these being onely in part and unperfectly in men are fully infinitely and perfectly in God as his nature and essence and therefore he commendeth his love to us above all this Esay 49. Matth. 7. of which places before The Prophets and Apostles are full of such testimonies as Psal 103. As a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him and as the Heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that feare him And 68.5 A Father of the Fatherlesse and a Judge of the Widdowes is God in his holy habitation So Esay 63.16 Doubtlesse thou art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting And 64.8 Thou O Lord art our Father we are the clay and thou our Potter and wee all are the worke of thine hand Thus the Apostle 2 Thes 2.6 The Lord Iesus and God even the Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts This title is indeed proper to God alone Reas 1 that albeit there be that are called Fathers as indeed there be many upon the earth Magistrates Ministers Masters naturall Parents Exod. 20.12 and all Superiours Exod. 20.12 Yet to us as there is but one God and one Lord so there is but one Father as we heard before out of the Prophet to whom this name is properly and peculiarly belonging Matth. 23.9 This Christ himselfe teacheth Matth. 23.9 Call no man Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven neither be yee called Masters for one is your Master Obiect even Christ But is it unlawfull to call any Father the Apostle calleth himselfe the Father of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.15 1 Cor. 9. Though yee have ten thousand Instructours yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell Answ I answer He doth not simply forbid the appellation but restraine them from ambition neither condemneth he properly the title but absolutely the affecting of the title We may not therefore imagine that Christ would utterly abolish from among Christians the name of Father or Master or Teacher as if it were unlawfull for Children to call those their Fathers of whom they received their beeing or for Servants to call any their Masters to whom they owe their service forasmuch as the Scripture willeth Children to honour their Fathers and Servants to be obedient to their bodily Masters but his purpose is to forbid these names in such sort as the Pharises were called by them who loved or desired to be called Rabbies Fathers and Masters and challenged the names as proper and peculiar to themselves It is not therefore the bare title but their vaine glory that is condemned Againe so to be called Rabbi Father or Master that the people of the Lord should wholly and absolutely depend upon their mouthes 1 Cor. 7.23 to become servants of men and rest slavishly in their opinions and traditions as the onely true Teachers and Fathers of the Church as the Iesuits would be accounted in these dayes may not be admitted in any case or that their doctrines were not subject to triall and examination by the Scripture is wholly to be rejected forasmuch as the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 Thus to be called Father or Master agreeth to no mortall man but God is the onely true Father and Christ Iesus the onely true Master as the onely Law-giver that is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4. whose Precepts we must receive and are bound to obey though all the world should teach otherwise God then must be held to be supreme others are
I will not answer the prayer of the wicked is abominable And Ioh. 9.31 We know that God heareth not sinners Ioh. 9.31 but if any man be a Worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Thus James speaketh Chap. 4. Iam. 4.3 Yee aske and receive not because yee aske amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts So Christ himselfe teacheth This people draweth neere to me with their mouthes Matth. 15.8 9. and honour me with their lips but their heart is farre from mee in vaine doe they worship me And the Prophet long before When yee spread forth your hands Esay 1.11 12 15. I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not heare These and such like places comming every where to hand are so many threatnings and watchwords and must be our continuall study and meditation whensoever we goe to prayer to awake us and rowze us up to come unto God as to a Father with the more reverence and godly feare and to assure us that if we take not good heed we may tread in his Courts and appeare in his presence and yet receive no gracious answer from him because we doe no other nor no better then take his name in vaine Secondly hence proceed sundry instructions to sundry duties which we may referre to these heads Our duty to God learned out of this Title some belonging to God some to our selves and some to our brethren Touching God it leadeth us as it were by the hand to honour reverence and obey him as Children doe their earthly Parents Ephes 6.1 2. This the Prophet Malachi teacheth Mal. 1.6 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 17. Chap. 1. A Sonne honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my feare saith the Lord of Hosts And if wee take his name in our mouthes and call him Father let us not fashion our selves according to the former lusts but passe the time of our sojourning here in feare and as he that calleth us is holy so let us be holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be yee holy for I am holy If then we beleeve God to be our Father in Christ Iesus we must as good and obedient Children submit our selves to his holy Will and pleasure Hee that doth the Will of the Father that is in Heaven he is the Childe of God and every one that calleth him Father Ioh. 4.44 he that doth the will of the Devill is the childe of the Devill Ioh. 8. For know ye not that to whomsoever yee give your selves as servants to obey his servants yee are to whom yee obey Rom. 6.16 whether it bee of sinne unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse It is a grievous and heavy charge to have it said to us as Christ doth to the Iewes Yee are of your father the Devill But doe we thinke that this charge lyeth heavy upon them alone or that they onely may justly bee upbraided with this reproach Nay doubtlesse all such as follow their steps must be content to beare and borrow the same name If then this saying fall fully upon us Obiect woe unto us But now how may wee know whether we be the Children of God or not for all will lay claime unto it alike even the children of the Devill will usurpe it wherein then lyeth the difference I answer Answ We shall know it by these particulars First if we labour to know his will How to knovv whether vve be Gods Children which is the groundworke of the doing thereof First we regard not to know it how or when shall we practise and performe it Hee that hath not as yet laid the foundation when will he set up the rest of the building Hence it is that Christ saith Ioh. 13.17 If yee know these things happy are ye Ioh. 13 1â— if yee doe them The Sonne and Heire will search and know the Will and Testament of his earthly Father that he may not be ignorant what is left unto him So ought we to doe we must be alwaies looking into the Will of our Heavenly Father that we may know what is befallen us and what is acceptable in his sight This is one evident signe of our adoption Secondly The second signe Psal 119.6 if wee labour to please him in all things and have respect to all his Commandements If wee regard his will in some things but displease and despise him and dispence with our selves in the rest he hath no respect to us neither to our obedience For this is not the obedience of Sonnes but rather to serve two Fathers Matth. 6.24 while wee love the one we hate the other and while wee cleave to the one we neglect the other and therefore God will not be a Father to such Thirdly The third signe wee must feare to offend him because hee is a Father and loveth us and because we love his Commandements If we feare him onely because hee can and will and doth punish such as commit sinne we are rather slaves then sonnes For this is a servile feare not a child-like feare Wicked men oftentimes feare to offend but it is onely or chiefely for feare of punishment Rom. 8.15 which proceedeth from the spirit of bondage that ingendreth feare not from the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 The godly feare to offend because they love God and his Lawes and they know hee loveth them againe they know he is ready to forgive and not to powre out all his wrath and therefore they feare him Fourthly if we unfainedly take God for our Father The fourth signe Psal 119.136 we must be greatly grieved when by sinne wee displease him or see others displease him and transgresse his Commandements No other crosse or calamity should goe so neere us as to dishonour and disobey him No losse of friends so great as to lose his favour No want so great as to want his love and protection and the light of his countenance The greatest griefe that possessed the Prodigall Sonne was this that he had offended his loving Father by sinning against him Luke 15.20 this strooke him more to the heart then the wasting of his wealth and that he began to be pinched with poverty This was the beginning of his repentance and of his comming to himselfe And as it was with him so it must be with us also This must bee our griefe and hereby we must shew our repentance The fifth signe Fiftly we may not nay we will not nor cannot be silent when wee heare the holy Name of God dishonoured His love hath so ravished our hearts Cant. 5.8 that we are even sicke of love it is such a fire kindled in our brests that much water cannot quench it for albeit wee would hide it it cannot be smothered and though
wee resolve to hold our peace yet it will breake out This we see in the Prophet when the Word of the Lord became a reproach unto him and a derision daily hee said within himselfe Ier. 20.9 I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his Name howbeit his Word was in his heart as a burning flame in his bones and he was weary with forbearing so that he could not stay Ier. 20.9 It is not enough for us to mourne in secret for the abominations committed openly but it is our duty to reprove those that dishonour him and such as sinne openly should be reprooved openly as the Apostle teacheth both by precept 1 Tim. 5.20 Gal. 2.14 1 Tim. 5.20 and by example Gal. 2.14 Can a good Childe that loveth his Father heare him in his presence reviled traduced and evill spoken of and yet hold his peace as if he were a deafe man and heard nothing doth he not thereby after a sort give consent to such reproaches and make himselfe partaker of those evils as it were a party and joyne himselfe to his Fathers enemy Or will a good Servant heare his Master disgraced before him and yet say nothing at all How then shall we heare the Lord blasphemed who is both our Father and Master and his Name taken in vaine and yet keepe silence and not answer a word How shall we dare once to call him Father and not blush at the naming of him if there be any shame in us when we have no care to maintaine his honour but suffer it to lye in the dust and trodden under foot as a polluted thing How shall God open his eares at our prayers to powre on us his graces when our mouthes are quite shut up and stopped at his disgraces or how shall we looke to have him confesse us before his Father Matth. 10.32 and the elect Angels in Heaven when we are ashamed to confesse him before the sonnes of men upon earth Alas how jealous are wee of our owne names and upon what nice and tender points of saving credit and reputation doe we stand to maintaine them And ought not the Name of God to be much more deare and precious unto us Either let us cease once to take the name of a Father in our mouthes or else let us shew a more Sonne-like affection toward him in our hearts Either let us forbeare to professe our selves his Children or else let us beare our selves as Children and carry in us a readinesse every way to honour him The sixth signe Sixtly we are bound to love God againe and to answer love for love And so much the rather because he commendeth his love toward us that when we were his enemies hee sent his Sonne into the world to die for us O how great was his love toward us O how little is our love toward him were not he a very unnaturall childe that tasting abundantly of his Fathers kindnesse recompenceth it with unkindnesse stubbornenesse unthankfulnesse and disobedience againe Thus doe we foolish people deale with the Lord and reward him hatred for his love and enmity for his friendship How to knovv vvhether vve love God But how shall we know whether we love him or not Is every mans claime and entituling himselfe unto it a certaine and sufficient rule to know this No doubtlesse this is a marke too generall and may soone deceive us if we leane upon it as a broken staffe or a reed of Egypt If we love him indeed and in truth we will love him even when hee chasteneth and afflicteth us It is an easie matter for us to say we love God greatly when he blesseth and prospereth us and when he mercifully supplieth all things unto us that we desire Such love the hypocrites may pretend and make greater shew thereof then the true Children of God This may all such doe as live in peace and prosperity and yet notwithstanding deceive themselves and others also This corruption doth Satan discover to be in us naturally Iob 1.9 10. Iob 1.9 10. Doth Iob feare God for naught hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side thou hast blessed the worke of his hands and his substance is increased in the Land but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face But we must testifie our love toward him that we can love him when he chasteneth us and beare the crosse patiently whatsoever hee shall lay upon us and looke for deliverance from him alone And so much the rather because he chasteneth in love toward us and if we endure chastisement Heb. 12.7 God offereth himselfe to us as unto children Heb. 12.7 especially considering hee doth it evermore for our good And if his chastisements proceed from love why should they not worke the same in them that are chastened we have had the fathers of our bodies which corrected us oftentimes for their pleasure and yet we gave them reverence shall wee not then much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live who chasteneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse Lastly The seventh signe wee must come out from the society and company of evill men and have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse If wee delight as much in the company of the ungodly as of the godly of the children of the Devill as of Gods we are become one body with them we cannot be assured that we are Gods Children but he that is their Father is become our Father and he that ruleth in them ruleth in us also This note not onely giveth light to our selves but holdeth out the candle to others to know whose wee are and to whom we belong Psal 16.3 15.4 If our greatest delight bee in the Saints we are also ourselves in the number of the Saints and if we honour them that feare the Lord it is an evident token our selves feare him and that a vile person is contemned of us But if wee bee never more merry then with them whose conversation would make us sorry and sigh if the zeale of Gods glory were before our eyes how can we assure our hearts that God is our Father seeing his enemies are our greatest friends and best welcome unto us This doth the Apostle teach at large 2 Cor. 6. who upon the promise that God will be a Father unto us and we shall bee his Sonnes and Daughters concludeth 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Be not therefore unequally yoaked with Infidels what fellowship is there betweene righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse betweene Christ and Belial wherefore come out from among them and separate from them and touch no uncleane thing and I will receive you But it may be said Obiect What needeth this separation to be urged so hotly unto us that live not among any Infidels mingled pell
ought so much the more to be magnified if we consider what we are by nature to wit the children of wrath the heires of damnation the sonnes of Satan the servants of sinne so that wee may say not onely with Abraham Gen. 18.27 Luke 15.21 I am but dust and ashes but with the Prodigall Sonne I am not worthy to be called thy Sonne For what are we from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot but a very lumpe of sinne and corruption It is by grace and adoption that we are made the Brethren of Christ and fellow-heires with him and not much inferiour to the very Angels in Heaven Psal 8. Secondly in that God professeth himselfe a Father of all the faithfull observe that with him there is no accepting of persons Acts 11.36 Iob 34.19 Gal. 2.6 The poore man hath as great right and interest in Gods Kingdome and in this Title to call him Father as the rich man whose corne and cattell is encreased whose wine and oyle is multiplyed The weake brother may comfort himselfe herein knowing that God is a Father to him as well as he was to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to David to Peter or to Paul As all the Faithfull have obtained like precious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 so have all of them a like or equall right in this Father-hood the low as well as high the poore as well as rich the simple as well as wise the bond as well as free are allowed and warranted to speak to him as to a Father as we are also taught in the Lords prayer which is a perfect platforme for all to use that come before him For there is neither Jew nor Gentile Gal. 3.28 Col. 3.11 male nor female circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian but Christ is all and in all and they have interest in him alike who shed his blood as well for the one as for the other and paid the same price for them all And thus it shall be at the last Day when no outward thing shall commend us to God neither birth nor blood neither learning nor riches neither great revenues nor golden crownes nor large Kingdomes none of these shall helpe no not the outward calling of a Christian if there be no more in us Let us therefore comfort our selves in this that the love of God is as great toward us as to those that are greater in the world True it is all men have not neither can have free accesse into the presence of Kings and Princes to stand before them and to heare their voice but all men even of low degree have liberty to come into the presence of Almighty God to heare his Word which is his voice nay they are called and invited unto it All men have not liberty to sit downe at the Table of great Personages howbeit God admitteth all true beleevers and penitent persons though never so poore to sit at his Table and to partake of his Supper yea they are the guests that he inviteth and entertaineth and welcommeth he will suppe with them and they shall suppe with him Thirdly from hence we have assurance that God will accept of our service and obedience albeit it bee maimed and unperfect and many waies defective The father that commandeth his childe to serve him albeit he faile oftentimes in the manner of doing yet when he beholdeth his care and endeavour to please him he praiseth his doing and passeth by his misdoing as if he saw it not so it is with God he requireth at our hands to obey him and albeit we faile and offend many waies in our obedience yet when he seeth a ready and willing minde 2 Cor. 8.12 and an unfained desire in us to doe our duty he accepteth us according to that we have and not according to that we have not Psal 203.13 This the Prophet teacheth He pittieth them that feare him no lesse then a Father doth his Children Doth the Father accept of nothing but that which is on every side perfect and every way absolute Yes he commendeth the heart when the foot halteth so God accepteth of our sincerity even when it is mingled with much infirmity This the Prophet Malachi witnesseth Chap. 3.17 They shall be mine Mal. 3.17 saith the Lord of Hosts in the Day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him This serveth as a great encouragement to us to cause us to serve him and to put forth all our strength and utmost endeavour to doe his will Lastly he will not cast away any of the faithfull finally and for ever neither shall any fall away from his favour True it is they may many waies fall but they shall rise againe Mic. 7.8 he may chastise them with the rods of men but his mercy he will never take away from them neither purposeth hee to cast them away utterly out of his sight He may suffer them to be winnowed Esay 54.8 Luk. 22.31 32. as men winnow wheat but he hath prayed for them that their faith shall not fully nor finally faile as Christ our Saviour speaketh unto Peter Luk. 22.31 32 Your Father The second point in the promise is the application Christ Iesus contenteth not himselfe to say It is the Fathers pleasure but your Fathers as when we pray we are taught to say Our Father Neither doth the reason run in this manner It is my Fathers pleasure as he might have spoken as indeed sometimes hee speaketh and as the Scripture calleth him the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Ioh. 20.17 but to set the better edge upon it and to make it pierce the deeper he saith It is your Fathers good pleasure Ephes 1.3 It is not enough to beleeve that God is the Father of Christ or the Father of the Church but we must further beleeve that he is our Father and every one for his part must say He is my Father It is a matter of knowledge onely to confesse him a Father but it is a matter of faith to confesse him to be our Father Doct. 8 This teacheth that it is a duty belonging to the faithfull to apply the promises of God to themselves particularly as Ier. 3.19 Thou shalt call me Ier. 3.19 My Father and shalt not turne away from me Christ also sendeth Mary to his Brethren to say unto them Ioh. 20.17 28. I ascend unto my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God Ioh. 20. This was the confession and application of Thomas Luke 1.47 Gal. 2.20 My Lord and my God This was the faith of the blessed Virgin My spirit reioyceth in God my Saviour Even so the Apostle Gal. 2.20 The Sonne of God who liveth in me loved me and gave himselfe for me It must bee thus with every soule in particular not onely to say Christ is the beloved Sonne of the Father but as it was with the
any were to worke in us such duties as may please him To give The fourth branch of the reason These words containe the manner of bestowing the promise and the meanes how it is convaied unto us As the fountaine of it is Gods good pleasure so the chanell to convay it is his free gift Some kinde of gifts are given but they are first well deserved by them that receive them Againe some things are given Luke 14.11 but it is with hope and expectation to have as great or greater bestowed upon them againe as they that give to Kings and Princes Some things are said to be given when a sufficient recompence is tendred and offered withall as Gen. 23.9 Give me the cave for as much money as it is worth Gen. 23.9 and 1. King 12.2 Give me thy Vineyard and I will give thee for it a better Vineyard then it This giving by way of commutative justice is no other then bargaine and sale or exchange But it is not thus with the gifts of God who is a free giver and bestower hee doth not alter them neither barter them for other he doth not chop and change buy and sell his blessings as men doe Bullockes in a market that he should be as much beholding to us as we to him He offereth with a willing heart Doct. 10 and performeth with a free hand This teacheth us that all spirituall gifts and graces are bestowed upon us frankely and freely They come unto us neither by inheritance nor by exchange nor by bargaine and sale nor yet by purchase True it is our Salvation and Redemption were purchased by Christ who paid a deare price to bring us to God because his Iustice required it Ephes 1.7 yet was this also of meere grace We have Redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of our sinnes according to the riches of his grace So then albeit Salvation were purchased and as I may say dearely bought in respect of Christ yet neither the whole worke nor any part or parcell thereof was purchased in regard of our selves who are made partakers thereof through Gods speciall grace We conferre nothing toward the attainement of Salvation to procure to our selves this unspeakable benefit Wee cannot gratifie Christ Iesus againe in any matter or measure Esay 63.3 who trode the wine-presse of the wrath of the Father alone for us and hath paid the utmost farthing that could be required of us and therefore it commeth as a meere gratuity unto us without any purchase or paiment without any money or satisfaction Rom. 3.24 6.23 This the Apostle teacheth Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ and Chap. 6.23 The gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And Peter speaketh to the same purpose 2 Pet. 1.3 According to his divine power hee hath given us all things that pertaine unto life and godlinesse 2. Pet. 1.3 Thus the Prophet long before proclaimed the free gift of God without either money or money-worth or any price all that are a-thirst may come freely to the waters of life Revel 22.17 Esay 55.1 2. John 7.37 The reasons are Reas 1 first from the generall to the speciall All good gifts and perfect gifts whatsoever are from above and come downe from the Father of lights Jam. 1. They spring not out of the earth Iam. 1.17 Ioh. 3.27 as John 3. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above neither yet come unto Christ except the Father draw him John 6. Secondly wee cannot obtaine a bit of bread to doe us any good but we must have it by Gods gift as appeareth in the Lords Prayer where wee are taught to come to him to have our daily bread given unto us Matth. 6.11 Deut. 9.5 The Israelites could not inherit the Land of Canaan by any inherent righteousnesse in themselves the uprightnes of their hearts neither yet conquer it by their owne sword Psal 44.3 Psal 44.3 They gate not the Land in possession by their owne sword neither did their owne arme save them but thy right hand and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour unto them much lesse then are we able to possesse the heavenly Canaan by any godlinesse in our owne persons This doctrine overthroweth all Iustification by our owne workes and merits whether done before grace Vse 1 or in the state of grace The Apostle saith Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of the Law shall no flesh bee iustified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne And Tit. 3. Rom. 3.20 The kindnesse and love of God appeared Tit. 3.4 5. not by workes of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy hee saved us and againe 2. Tim. 1.9 He hath saved us and called us by an holy calling 2 Tim. 1.9 not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace which is given us in Christ Jesus before the world began What can workes before a mans conversion availe for as much as wee are borne dead in sinnes and trespasses as wee have shewed before being without faith without hope without any good so that wee should be justified by our sinnes and our righteousnesse should be by unrighteousnesse if we should bee justified by these or any such workes Neither can workes of righteousnesse done in faith and after our conversion present us as righteous in the sight of God because they are all unperfect even the best and the holiest of them that we cannot challenge righteousnesse by them Psal 143.2 130. 3. 32.1 2. but must with the Prophet cry out Lord enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified And againe to like purpose If thou Lord shouldst marke iniquities O Lord who shall stand but there is forgivenesse with thee that thou maist be feared This is our justification to obtaine remission of our sinnes Psal 32. The Servants of God doe not in the pride of their hearts advance themselves against God through their owne righteousnesse but they aske forgivenesse for their unrighteousnesse The Apostle John saith 1 Iob. 1.10 If we say that we have not sinned we make him a lyer and his Word is not in us All our righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth Esay 64.6 spotted with the flesh Obiect But the Adversaries object that the Scripture never saith We are justified by faith onely and complaine that this word is fraudulently foysted and cunningly thrust into this Question as an Addition of our owne whereupon notwithstanding the chiefe state of the Controversie betweene us and them dependeth I answere Answ The putting to of that word is not alwaies an Addition to the Text but rather an exposition or explication Luke 4.8 Deut. 6.13 as wee see the like case in Christ our Saviour Luke 4.8 compareth with Deut. 6.13 who
exceeding loud and sounding long so that all the people trembled But the fire and the feare shall bee much greater at the last day when the Lord Iesus shall appeare in great glory when the Elements shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.10 the earth also and all the workes therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Fiftly they shall have shame and perpetuall contempt powred upon them so that they shall be shamed for ever before many witnesses before men and Angels even before all the world Dan. 12.2 Forasmuch as there is nothing secret that shall not be evident and come to light This the Lord teacheth by the Prophet These things hast thou done Psal 50.21 and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Lastly they shall have the Sentence of death and damnation pronounced against them the misery whereof standeth in three points First in feeling paines intolerable unspeakable and unsupportable not to be uttered by the tongue of man We see how terrible and tedious many diseases are and what torments they bring to the body in this life but what are they to the torments of hell For as all the comforts and pleasutes of this life are nothing in comparison of the joyes of heaven 1 Cor. 2.9 the eye hath not seene them the care hath not heard them the heart cannot comprehend them So I may say of the punishments of damned soules Neither hath the eye of man seene them neither the eare of man heard them neither can the heart fully conceive of them as they are indeed Onely the Scripture expresseth them by things most bitter and violent that we might in some sort attaine to the knowledge of them and therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 2. Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soule of every man that doth evill Secondly in a separation from God from Christ from the Angels from all the righteous from all comfort and from eternall glory A paine and punishment no lesse then the former to see the Saints whom they thorowout their whole life have mocked and misused and judged to be fooles and mad men now honoured and advanced to the Kingdome of God and themselves in greatest disgrace for ever The sight doubtlesse of the felicity of others shall aggravate and encrease their owne misery Thirdly in the fellowship that the Reprobate shall have with the Devill and his angels They that now will seeme to shake and tremble at the very naked naming of the Devill and cannot abide to heare of him they that are ready to defie and denie and detest him in words yea to blesse themselves when any mention is made of him alas alas now they must be constrained to abide this as a part of their cursed condition to have the continuall fellowship of the Devill and the rest of the damned crue and of none other but of them David complaineth of it as of a great misery and a woe much to be bewailed and lamented that he did soiourne in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar but woe woe woe againe and againe to those that must not sojourne for a season but dwell for ever and ever not in Mesech or Kedar but in the house of darkenesse with the Devill the Prince of darkenesse where they shall be cast into utter darkenesse Mitth 8.12 there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly acknowledge the wonderfull mercy of God toward his Children who hath loved them with a speciall and unspeakable love True it is the Reprobate have many blessings in this life because they live among the godly and for their sakes because God would leave them without excuse and stoppe their mouthes for ever because he would teach his owne servants not to place any happinesse in them but to looke for greater blessings in the other life howbeit they have not such among them all Gen. 25.5 6. as doe accompany salvation For as Abraham gave sundry blessings to the sonnes of the Concubines but he made Isaak the sonne of the free woman to be his heire so God bestoweth common gifts Matth. 5.45 and many temporall blessings upon the Reprobates hee maketh his Sunne to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth raine upon the just and unjust howbeit he maketh them not his heires for as much as spirituall and eternall graces are communicated to none but to the Elect which shall be inheriters of Salvation and for them he hath prepared the Kingdome Why may wee not therefore cry out with the Prophet Psal 144.3 8.5 3 4.8 9. Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest account of him who is like to vanity and his daies are as a shadow that passeth away Psal 144. And else-where O taste and see for the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him O feare the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that feare him If God must have praise for the least of his blessings how much more for this that is the greatest of all wherein the Lord hath enlarged his love towards us and without which our faith had beene in vaine yea Christ Iesus had dyed risen againe and ascended in vaine and all the worke of our Redemption were frustrate so that without consideration of the Kingdome of heaven of which we come now to consider in the last place blessings were no blessings and graces were no graces at all The Kingdome This is the last but not the least branch of the promise which containeth the highest staire and top of our felicity and happines The ungodly thinke faithfull men unworthy to breathe or whom the earth should beare but behold God even the Father vouchsafeth of his grace and good pleasure to account them worthy of heaven The ungodly deeme them not to be worthy to live in the world but the Lord esteemeth not the world worthy of them Heb. 11.38 and therefore he will translate them out of the world that they may enjoy his presence Now as before we heard of the object of the promise the Flocke of Christ so now we come to consider of the subject or principall matter of the promise the Kingdome of heaven And in this word we have the substance of the reason used by Christ our Saviour to keepe us from feare of falling away from him for feare of future wants and therefore we have deferred to consider of the strength thereof to this place The reason may be thus framed and put into forme that we may see the force of it If God will bestow upon us the Kingdome then feare not the lacke of earthly things But God will bestow upon us the Kingdome Therefore Feare not the lacke of earthly things Or more plainely after this manner Whosoever have a Kingdom promised unto them need
owne If wee travell without the Word it will bring us to Hell the kingdome of darknesse but never to the Kingdome of Heaven and of God who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto No man by nature knoweth the way to Heaven neither can possibly finde it without his guide there are so many odde lanes and blinde turnings and by-pathes and crosse waies that we are sure to misse the Devill standeth at one corner and telleth us This is the way the World calleth to us at another I will lead thee and sinne sitteth at anoother ready to perswade us to follow it Wee know the way that leadeth to Hell well enough nature is a sufficient guide to instruct us and direct us if we have no other we cannot misse it the way is so broad and the gate so wide that leadeth to destruction and the company so great going before us that thrusteth and throngeth to enter into it Wherefore it standeth us upon to doe nothing without our guide Howbeit this is an hard matter men will not stoope downe when God holds out his Scepter ready to lead them neither will they draw neere when God stretcheth out his arme to receive them The causes why vve follovv not the guidance of the Word but hang backe many wayes And will we understand and learne the causes that stop up our way and hinder us from following the guidance of the Word Ignorance negligence and contempt have so possessed the greatest part that they are a small remnant that make conscience to seeke knowledge to use diligence and to performe obedience These lead us by the hand to the Kingdome the former are the greatest enemies to our soules Ignorance of the Word the first hinderance to the Kingdome Heb. 5.12 Of these three that blocke up the way and stop our passage I will speake in order And touching the first I will say with the Apostle Heb. 5.12 When for the time yee ought to bee teachers yee have need that one teach you againe which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milke and not of strong meat After all our hearing and learning after so many yeeres teaching and preaching Heb. 6.1 the greatest part know not the principles of the doctrine of Christian Religion The raine and dew of Heaven hath fallen upon the ground and yet it remaineth dry and barren The Hammer of the Word hath beaten upon our hearts yet they are hardned as the Anvill Many gracious showres have dropped downe upon the grasse of the field and yet alas it is ready to wither away The Sunne hath shined clearely in our eyes and yet alas we remaine in palpable darknesse O what a deepe and secret judgement is this that the raine should make us dry and the Sunne make us blinde that the light should cause darknesse and the sound of the Gospell should make us deafe But thus it is and thus it must bee when we regard not to know the will of our God Certainely such blinde sottish people that remaine willingly nay wilfully blinde in the middest of the meanes of knowledge like those that having meat before them arise empty from the Table cannot assure themselves to bee true members of the Christian Church The Prophet foretelleth touching the Church of Christ that the earth should be full of the knowledge of the Lord Esay 11.9 2.3 Ioel 2.28 as the waters that cover the Sea but these have their hearts as full of ignorance as the Sea is of water True it is a man may be ignorant of many truthes and yet be saved 1 Cor. 13.9.12 And it is true likewise that here wee know in part and wee see as thorow a glasse darkely and so wee shall untill wee come to know even as also wee are knowne Howbeit wee must understand that there is difference betweene truth and truth There are some such truths as are like the heart in the body without which there is no life or like the foundation of an house except it be well laid no building can be reared and erected Or like the Pillers on which Samson leaned if they bee shaken the house falleth and is overthrowne and the fall thereof is great and draweth with it the ruine of others So it is in Religion There are sundry such principles and grounds of the faith that whosoever is ignorant of them all or of any one of them it is impossible he should be saved These are to Christians as the A. B. C. is to Children except the Childe know his letters he can never be able to read yea albeit he be ignorant but of one of them so except they which be rude be well and thorowly grounded in the Rudiments and first Principles 1 Pet. 2.2 as it were the first milke that they sucke from their Mothers brests that they may grow thereby they are not yet in the way to the Kingdome they have not set one step forward to Heaven Notwithstanding if a thorow view and exact examination were taken of the most places I feare the greatest number even of such as are of yeeres of discretion would be found faulty and guilty that they know not so much as every Christian must know that shall be saved and see Christ Iesus his Saviour to his comfort And therefore I may conclude that the greatest number of them yet stand in the state of damnation I will not say they shall bee condemned neither dare I because God hath given to us no such warrant Deut. 29.29 and secret things belong unto him but rather I hope better things of them though I thus speake howbeit this I affirme and dare bee bold to pronounce that such doe as yet stand through their ignorance in the state of condemnation What though many of you be of great age what though yee have beene baptized and beene admitted to the Lords Supper what though yee have beene long hearers of the Word I beseech you by the mercies and patience of God toward you deceive not your selves doe not flatter your owne soules perswade not better things of your selves then there is just cause be not as Children that know not the right hand from the left be not alwaies blinde in your understanding but rather examine your selves and call your selves to an account what yee have heard and learned lest yee be like those that are alwaies learning 2 Tim. 3.7 but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth The Lord complaineth by the Prophet Hos 4.1 6. My people are destroyed for lacke of knowledge And againe a little before There is no knowledge of God in the Land and therefore the Inhabitants thereof shall be cut off Thus much of ignorance the mother of errour Neglect of the Word the second hinderance to the Kingdome the second hinderance that stoppeth up the way to the Kingdome is the neglect of the Word a farther degree
of sinne then the former This is the sinne of our time the common sinne of every place yea almost of every person The light is come among us but we love darknesse more then the light and are luke-warme Revel 3.16 as retchlesse men that care not which end goeth forward God will spew out such out of his mouth as evill humours out of the stomacke Salomon teacheth us in the Proverbes that he which is sloathfull in his worke Prov. 18.9 is brother to him that is a great waster so is it with such as are sloathfull in the Lords worke and in their owne duty they are companions and brethren with such as are open and obstinate contemners of the Word and make haste a pace after them they follow them close at the heeles and in short time will overtake them There is such carelesnesse and security every-where in the matters of God among us as if every man were left to doe what he list as if the soule were the least matter of a thousand as if Religion were last of all to be regarded or as if there were no day of account to come hereafter Among those that come to the place of Gods worship many indeed are kept in awe and in order but how and wherefore Is it by any conscience of their duty or by love to the Word Nay nay but for sinister ends some by force of the Law because they feare to be presented some by awe of their Superiours because they would not be thought stubborne some come for custome and fashion sake because it is Sunday some for company of others because they would doe as their honest neighbours doe and love not to be singular some for that they would not be accounted Papists because the State fauoureth them not some lest they should bee esteemed Atheists and so be pointed at with the finger some to please their Parents because they should leave them a better portion some to content their Masters lest they should be thrusted out of their dores or because they hope to gaine by them some to passe away the time because they have nothing else to doe some to meet with their friends and acquaintance because they are loth to spare another day some to meete with their debters because they would demand their money but the fewest number to meet the Lord in his owne Ordinances because they love the habitation of his house and the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 26.8 who hath promised to be in the middest of them that are gathered together in his Name Matth. 18.20 Happy are we if we be in the number of these few If such retchlesse men were left to themselves without any bridle of Law or feare of Superiour and authority of whom we spake before and suffered to doe what they pleased without any checke or controlment we should have our thinne Assemblies a great deale thinner and our streets and fields and houses and Ale-houses fuller-stuffed and thronged then our Churches And this may appeare hereby that notwithstanding we have Lawes and Magistrates and Officers and good examples of the chiefest and principall among us yet they are few a very few in comparison of the rest that are constant and conscionable in their hearing some if their presence and absence were ballanced together the waightier scole would be given to their absence and would waigh downe their presence as being found too light Others albeit they dwell neere enough are starting away at every turne and when they make shew of going to the Churche turne aside another way Others are more carefull to fill the body then to feed the soule who take every even the least occasion to feast with their friends forgetting the feast that God hath prepared in his house and not regarding it though they even starve their owne soules Others are gadding yea madding in a manner after every vanity and doe delight much more in the pleasure of the body then in the profit that commeth to the Spirit Others are weary of the Word as the Israelites that loathed Manna Numb 11.6 Others have hired ground and they must needs goe see it others have bought five yoke of Oxen Luk. 14.18 19. Matth. 22.5 and they must goe to prove them others must visit their Farmes or attend their Marchandise and yet every one must be holden excused though all set light by the Word and runne after their owne wayes like the guests in the Gospell that were bidden to the wedding and to the great Supper God sendeth out his Servants to invite them Come for all things are ready I have prepared my Dinner my Oxen and my fatlings are killed but they neglect the Lords sending to them and his calling of them But what followeth The Lord pronounceth Luke 14.24 I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper These are they that are araigned as guilty of the neglect of heavenly things who will sometimes seeme to beare some affection to the house of God but partly their profits and partly their pleasures carry them another way of all which the Prophet speaketh Ier. 48.10 Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently or deceitfully All these stand under this heauy curse of the Lord and therefore I counsell them to looke to it betimes to seeke the Lord while he may be found and to meet him by unfained repentance while he is here Lastly Contempt of the Word another hinderance to the Kingdome touching the contempt of the Word who seeth not how common it is which notwithstanding is the top of impiety and that many have filled the measure of their sinnes till it be full that the cry of them is come up to heaven If any aske the cause I answer Our great negligence and generall coldnesse have brought this evill upon us and God doth hereby in his deepe and yet just Iudgement revenge our carelesnesse in his Service by giving us over into all prophanenesse The Word of the Lord by which wee shall all be judged at the last Day is so farre from holding men in awe and from having their lives and hearts in subjection that they reject it from them as a needlesse thing and regard it no longer The Minister may teach what he will and threaten as long as he list but these Gallants like Gallio in the Actes of the Apostles Acts 18.17 care for none of those things The time hath beene when the Word hath beene reverenced even by such as were not converted by it nor transformed into the obedience of it yet it hath held them in some awe but now in these our dayes loosenesse and licenciousnesse have generally prevailed in every place and sinne is growne to such an head and height as if the Word were but a Scare-crow and all Religion but a fable We are come to this passe to mocke at zeale and Religion and to contemne the