been I shall content my self with generalities Onely taking notice of that long day of grace and mercy which this Nation hath had during which the light of the Gospel hath shone forth to it and that in so clear and glorious a manner as I suppose without flatterie I may speak it it hath not done to any other nation under heaven Now have we in this our day known the things which belonged to our peace Hath Christ and his Gospell found that intertainment among the generality which he expected and it deserved The Generalitie I say True it is some there have been and at this day are who have sincerely imbraced both And so there were in Jerusalem some that cryed Hosanna to the Sonne of David Hosanna in the highest Matth. 21. 9 15. But how is it with the greatest part do not they yet love darknesse rather then light setting light by the light of the Gospel and the Ministery thereof even Gadarene like preferring their swine before Iesus Christ. A charge wherein I wish there were not too much truth Such sleight and slender entertainment hath the Gospell with the faithful messengers thereof found among the greatest part of this Nation A sad prognostick Specially if it be considered to what a height this disaffection is at this day improved and risen even to the disclaiming and crying down of the Ministery it self So is it with some and not a few They are growen disaffected not onely to the persons of Ministers but even to their function and calling disclaiming that as Antichristian Thus are the feet of them who bring glad tidings of peace which sometimes were and in themselves are beautifull now become in the eyes of many black and deformed A sad symptome So it was in Jerusalem of which we read 2 Chr. 36. 16. The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people on his dwelling place But they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy no Healing This made their disease incurable and the wrath of God implacable When sickmen being distracted shall flye in the faces of their Physitians and there be none to bind them what hope of Cure can there be This was Jerusalems case as the Parable sets it forth Matth. 21. 33. God the great Householder having planted a Vineyard the Jewish Church and let it forth to Husbandmen so the Priests he sends his servants some after other to receive the fruites thereof his Prophets former and latter to require that people to bring forth fruits meet for repentance but they beat one and killed another and stoned another so did they use the Prophets Hereupon he sendeth his sonne Christ himself who met with the like usage Now what followeth hereupon That you may hear first from the mouthes of the Jews themselves to whom our Saviour here propoundeth this Parable making them judges in the cause that so he might cōdemn them out of their own mouthes They say unto him he will miserably destroy these wicked men and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen which shall render him the fruites in their season v. 41. which afterwards you find explained and applyed by our Saviour to themselves v. 43. Therefore I say unto you the Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof When the Ministers of God come to meet with such intertainment and that for doing their office it is a sad presage that the Kingdome of God the Gospel shall not long continue there and that Judgment is not far from such a people Upon this account our Saviour looketh upon Jerusalems condition as desperate O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate Matthew 23. 37 38. Here is a first Prognostick and that a sad one Secondly Let a second be that which I have named and touched upon already Gods withdrawing the light by putting out the Candles I mean taking away his Ministers who are said to be the light of the world Thus was it done to Ierusalem And whether this be in any degree applicable to this Nation or no I shall leave it to those who are privie to the present state of it to judge Of late how many able and faithfull Ministers taken away Now when a Prince begins to call away his Ambassadours it is ordinarily looked upon as a Passing-bell to the peace of that Nation Repl. But howsoever it may be said some be by Providence taken away yet others by the like providence are substituted in their roomes A. True it may be in some places but not so in all Some Candlesticks there are at this day and I suppose not a few destitute of Candles not well knowing where to find a supply Again as for those which are thus substituted by the providence of God are they also all substituted by his Ordinance Are there not some and not a few Ambassadours without their commission men running before they are sent not called nor impowred to do any Ministeriall act which yet Vzziah like they attempt to do that not onely to preach which the Apostle will tell us none can do except they be sent Rom. 10. 15. speak they may but not Preach which is an act of office but also some of them to administer the Seales the Sacraments And by this means the Church in many places cometh to be deprived of an Ordinance upon which all other publick Ordinances have a dependance I mean of a true Gospell Ministerie with which Iesus Christ hath promised his special countenance Thirdly To this add in the third place that where means are continued yet is not the Spirit withdrawen So was it with Ierusalem they injoyed Ordinances but there was no life in them the Glorie of the Lord was gone up from the Cherub And is it not so in many parts of this Nation at this day Ordinances remain but is not the glorie of the Lord departed from them where is that life where is that power which heretofore appeared in them God hath yet his Armies of Prophets many faithfull and powerfull Ministers who may be looked upon as the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but he doth not go forth with these his Armies as formerly giving such successe unto the labours of his servants as heretofore he hath done How is it that in many places where the word is purely and powerfully preached there are such thin Auditories as there are specially upon the week daies in comparison of what they have been some refusing to come not willing to lend an eare to any but their
and glory hereafter And such is the office of all the ministers of Jesus Christ. Which the same Apostle sets forth 2 Cor. 4. 6. God hath shined into our hearts speaking of himself and other Gospel Ministers that we should give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ that being our selves effectually illuminated we might be instrumentall in the inlightning of others This are the Ministers of Christ to doe by word 2. And as by word so by worke As by Doctrine so by Example Thus are they to shine before others in an Exemplarie Conversation So indeede ought all Christians to doe It is the Commendation which the Apostle giveth of his Thessalonians 1 Thes. 1. 7. They were ensamples to all that beleeved in Macedonia and Achaia But the Ministers of Christ in a special manner They beeing by their office shepheards they should as shepheards anciently were wont to doe go before their flocks Or to hold to the Emblem in the Text from which I would deviate as little as may be as that Star did which was given for a guide to the wise men to direct them to the place of Christs nativity It went before them saith the Text until it came and stood over where the young child was Matth 2. 9. Such Stars should the Ministers of God be unto the people Being given them for Guides they should not onely shew them light which that star also did to them but they should go before them till they bring them to heaven being Ensamples to them So was Paul to the believers of his time Marke them saith he to his Philippians which so walk as ye have us for an ensample Phil. 3. 17. Whereupon he there propounds himself unto them as a pattern for their Imitation Brethren be followers together of me And such all Gospel Ministers either are or ought to be This is that which Paul requires from Timothy 1 Tim. 4. 14. Be thou an example to the believers in word in conversation c. And the like from Titus Tit. 2. 7. In all things shew thy self a pattern of good works And it is Saint Peters charge to all of that Tribe Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock 1 Pet. 5. 3. The Ministers of Christ though they be as stars set over others by God yet they may not as Astrologers tell us some of the stars do Lord it over their Brethren Whether over their Consciences or Personâ— by an imperious obtruding of their own dictates instead of Gods Commandements as the Pharisees did or by carrying themselves Magisterially towards any under their charge But Patterns they should be teaching the people as by Doctrine so by Example Here is a fourth resemblance to which add a fifth 5. Stars have light and give light but it is a borrowed light In that differing from the light of the Sun whis is originally in the body of it The Sun being the fountain of light it hath light in and from it self But so have not the stars Their light is a borrowed light which they receive from the Sun And such is the light which the Ministers of Christ communicate unto others it is but a borrowed light Therein differing from that light which is in Christ who is the Sun of Righteousness as he is called Mal. 4. 2. the fountain of all spiritual light That was that true light saith Saint Iohn speaking of Christ Iohn 1. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light it self Original light So was not Iohn the Baptist as the verse foregoing hath it He was not that light A light he was and that a shining an eniment one but not that light that Original light This was onely Iesus Christ. He is the Sun As for his Ministers they are but stars receiving their light from him I have received from the Lord that which also I delivered unto you saith the Apostle to the Church of Corinth touching the Doctrine of the Sacrament And the like may be said of the whole doctrine of the Gospel This the Ministers of Christ receive before they can deliver it Being themselves enlightned before they can enlighten others God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts saith the Apostle that we should give the light c. in that place fore-named 2 Cor. 4. 6. Hence is it that sometimes they are compared to Candlâ—s or Lamps Ye are the light of the world saith our Saviour to his Apostles Matth. 5. 14. But what light why not Sun-light but Candle-light So the verse following explains it Neither do men light a Candle and put it under a bushel meaning that he had not communicated unto them that light to the end that they should hide it And thus it is said of Iohn the Baptist that he was a shining light John 5. 35. But what light why a Lamp or a Candle for so the word there properly signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence cometh the Latine word Lychnus and the English Linke And such were these Angels the Ministers of these seven Churches of Asia the Churches being the Candlestick as they are here represented to Iohn in this vision they were the Candles in them Now a Candle or Lamp how great soever the light be that it giveth yet it is but a borrowed light And so is it with the Ministers of the Gospel Their light is but a borrowed light Here is a fifth resemblance Take one more 6. Stars are Influentiall As they all give light and the same light so they have their severall Influences What those Influences are it is in a great measure a Mysterie a secret to us But that they have such Influences it is not to be questioned So much we may learne from God himselfe who Putteth the Question to Iob Cap. 38. 31. Canst thou binde the sweete Influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Pleiades and Orion two of the Constellations of heaven Pleiades the seven stars which rising in the spring bring warme showres for the moistning and refreshing of the earth Orion a winter Star which brings with it hard frosts which are there called the Bands of Orion because the earth is as it were bound with them Thus are they both Influentiall changing and altering the Earth and the Ayre And like Influences have these Stars the Ministers of the Gospell upon the Persons and places over which they are set working upon them as by their Doctrine so by their Examples Both which are very Influentiall and operative for the changing and altering of the people either for the better or the worse Hence is it that they are compared to salt Mat. 5. 3. Ye are the salt of the earth Salt being layed upon a peice of flesh it hath in a little time a great influence upon it in altering the taste of it seasoning it and making it savorie And thus the Ministers of Christ by their wholesome and
their lives and conversations that they may he exemplary to others That is that which both Paul and Peter require from them in the places forecited 1 Tim. 4. 12. Tit. 2. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 3. Quest. But wherein should they he so exemplary unto others Answ. In setting forth of this I will not go from the word I have in hand Onely send them to the Stars which I shall propound as patterns to them in those things wherein I would have them to be patterns to others 1. Let them be Examples to others in Purity Such are the Stars pure creatures Not a spot not a blemish to be seen in any of them I mean in the fixed stars True indeed in the Moon there are spots but not so in any of the fixed stars which are most properly the Ministers Embleme They are all pure And such all the Ministers of Christ should labour to be Pure The Priests under the Law must not have a blemish Levit. 22. Patterns of Purity This is one thing wherein Paul would have Timothy to be a Pattern in that place forenamed 1 Tim. 4. 12. Be thou an example of the believers But wherein why among other things in Puritie And again Chap. 5. 22. Keep thy self pure And herein should all the Ministers of Christ be exemplary to others In purity of Conversation keeping themselves unspotted of the world free from the evils of the times and places wherein they live that their lives be not spotted with any scandalous crimes Which if they be they will be like those spots in the Moon obvious to every eye and no small blemish to their holy function 2. As in Purity so in Zeal Stars as they shine so they sparkle Therein differing from the Moon as a Diamond doth from a Christal The one shines but it is but with a pale wan light The other both shines and sparkles And so should it be with the Ministers of Christ Whilest they shine in purity they should sparkle with zeal Such a light was Iohn the Baptist not onely shining but burning John 6. 35. shining with holiness and burning with zeal And such should all the Ministers of God be as pure so zealous That is the thing which the Spirit requires from one of these seven Angels the Minister or Ministers of the Laodicean Church Rev. 3. 19. Be zealous And so should all the Ministers of Christ be zealous for God for his truth for his worship and service zealous against Errours Heresies all kind of doctrinal or practical wickedness Such were Moses and Phineas whose zeal standeth upon record to their eternal honour And such was Paul of whom the story tels us Acts 13. 9. that when he saw Elimas the Sorcerer opposing him as he did not so much his Person as his Doctrine Being filled with the Holy Ghost saith the Text he set his eyes upon him His eyes even sparkled with a holy indignation against him And so when he came to Athens and there saw the City so wholly given to Idolatry his spirit was stirred within him saith the Text Acts 17. 16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exacerbabat spiritus ejus his spirit was sharpned it had an edge set upon it it was so stirred that he could not but break forth into an open and tart reproof And so was it with our blessed Lord and Master the Lord Iesus However in his own personal concernments none more patient that Lamb of God yet in the cause of his father none more zealous The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up It is spoken of Christ Iohn 2. 17. Such was his holy zeal for the service and honour of God his Father that it was as a fire in his Breast continually feeding upon his spirits so busying and taking up his thoughts that it made him even regardless of himself And such should be the zeal of his servants his Ministers Onely let them see that it be a well tempered zeal Not fiery not furious In this do Stars differ from Comets Blazing-stars Both sparkle but the one in a temperate the other in a furious way as if they would set the world on fire Such zeal the Ministers of God must be ware of When Iames and Iohn having had some affront offered them and their Master by the Samaritans wo refused to receive them propound to him this course of proceeding against them wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven to consume them he presently makes answer to them with a Check ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9. 54 55. Giving them to know that their counsel did not suit with their calling neither did it favour of a truly Ministerial spirit which should be a spirit of meekness and gentleness Zealous the Ministers of God may be ought to be But let it be for God and not for themselves And then let their fervour be tempered with a wise and holy discretion Let them sparkle where need is but let it be like Stars not like Blazing-stars Thirdly As in Puritie and Zeale so in Humilitie Hereof the Stars are very proper Emblems as Lapide hints it upon the Text. Which though they be vaste bodyes most of them far bigger then the Earth yet how little doe they seem to be And such should the Ministers of the Gospel be what euer they be for place for partes for gifts yet they should be little in their owne eyes· So was Paul however not Inferiour in place or gifts to any of the Apostles which being thereunto provoked by his emulous Adversaries he sometimes asserts and stands upon 2 Cor. 11. 5. I suppose I was not any whit behind the cheifest of the Apostles And againe in the Chapter following verse 11. he inculcates the same In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles Yet in his owne eyes how low was he Even the least of them So much we may heare him elswhere acknowledging 1 Cor. 15. 9. I am the least of the Apostles Yea the least of Saints So he tels his Ephesians cap. 3. verse 8 Vnto me who am least then the least of all Saints is this grace given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double diminitive Less then the Least i.e. for the least So little was this great Apostle to himself Even as nothing That is his Expression elswhere in that place forenamed 2. Cor. 12 11. In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles though I be nothing Thus whilst he tooke notice of the abundant grace of God to him in bestowing such gifts as he had done upon him yet with all he acknowledgeth his owne nothingness How in and of himself he was nothing nothing without Christ even as the stars are nothing without the Sun of no use good for nothing Such was Paul in his own eyes And he would not seeme over great in the eyes of others It is the reason which he giveth why he did forbeare to speake somewhat of himself which
onely to him as Romanists would have it but to other his Apostles and Disciples and in them to their Successours even to all the Ministers of the Gospel as I touched before Into whose hands he hath put a double Key The Key of Doctrine and discipline of Doctrine giving them not onely leave or allowance but power to preach the Gospel Go teach all Nations Matth. 28. 19. Go preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16. 15. And that in measure as himself is said to have done Matthew 7. last with Authoritie These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authoritie saith Paul to Titus Tit. 2. last And as the Key of Doctrine which is elsewhere called the Key of Knowledge Luke 11. 52. because it openeth the door and letteth men into the saving knowledge of God in Christ so of Discipline and Government Jesus Christ having given a Ministerial power to them partly by the Application of that Doctrine to the consciences of men and partly by the censures of the Church as it were to open and shut the Kingdome of Heaven the Kingdome of Grace and Glorie to open it to penitent believers to shut it against obstinate sinners Whatsover ye bind on earth c. Whose sins ye remit c. Thus have Gospel Ministers their Office from Christ their persons also being sent by him with Authoritie from him And upon this account are these stars here placed in the hand of this Son of Man to intimate the interest and propertie that Iesus Christ hath in the Ministers of the Churches who are his Ministers Here is a first thing hereby signified Pass we to a second Secondly As they are Ministers his Officers so they are ordered and governed by him And upon this account again they may be said to be in his hand in as much as they are disposed of and directed by him As are Ambassadours by their Masters that send them together with their Commission they receive particular directions and instructions both whither they are to go and what they are to say and do Even so it is with the Ministers of Christ being sent by him they are also directed by him As whither to go so were the Apostles whose Commission was first restrained to one particular Nation viz. to the Jewes Go not into the way of the Gentiles Matth. 10. 15. afterwards inlarged Goe teach all Nations Matth. 28. 19. And so was S. Paul sent to the Gentiles by Christ who appeared to him Acts 26. 18. And so are ordinarie Ministers though not in so immediate a way yet still they are directed by Christ viz. by his special Providence whither to goe where they are to be imployed It is this hand that fixeth these Stars in their several Orbes that placeth Ministers in their particular charges where also he continues them during his good pleasure disposing of them both for life and libertie as he seeth fitting So also what it is that they are to speak in his Name To which end he as it were putteth his word into their mouths So the Lord is said to have done into that fals Prophet Balams Numb 23. 16. The Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth And so he did in the mouths of his true Prophets Behold I have put my word into thy mouth saith the Lord to the Prophet Ieremy Jer. 1. 9. And the like doth the Lord Jesus into the mouthes of his Ministers he putteth his word into their mouthes sending them to preach he ordereth them what they are to preach Goe preach the Gospel Thus he giveth them directions and instructions from his Word the Scriptures whereby the Man of God cometh to be perfect as the Apostle telleth Timothie 2 Tim. 3. last And with his word he giveth them his Spirit This is that which our Saviour maketh promise to his Apostles and Disciples John 14. 16. 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth which Spirit he afterwards tells them should guide them into all Truth chap. 16. 13. And this Spirit Christ giveth in measure to all their Successours the true and faithfull Ministers of the Gospel whereby their Heads and Hearts come to be enlightned with those saving and usefull truths which they are to hold forth uuto others God hath shined into our hearts saith the Apostle in that place forenamed Thus are they in their ministerial work and service disposed of ordered governed by Christ. And upon this account again may be said to be in his hand Thirdly They are in his hand his right hand being powerfully supported and upheld defended and maintained by him In this sense all the Saints of God are said to be in his hand All his Saints are in thy hand saith Moses Deut. 23. 3. Gods Saints in the hand of Jesus Christ under his custody and protection But so are his Ministers after a special manner They are in his right hand under his powerful and gracious protection and support So the Psalmist often useth this phrase Thy right hand upholdeth me Psal. 18. 35. v. 63. 8. O thou that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust iâ— thee Psal. 17 7. The right hand is a member strong and active whereby a man sheweth and putteth forth the whole strength of his body And thence is it that Gods power manifested in the protection or deliverance of his people is called the strength of his right hand The Lord saveth his anointed with the saving strength of his right hand saith the Church speaking of David her king Psal. 20. 6. And such is the salvation which the Lord Christ sheweth unto his servants his faithful Ministers First maintaining their office which he will do in despite of all opposition to the end of the world I am with you alwaies to the end of the world And then so far as he seeth it expedient defending their persons continuing their lives and liberties Thus was this Son of man with those stars the Ministers of the Asian Churches He held them in his right hand protectiug them keeping them either from or in the hour of Temptation That is the promise which he maketh to the Philadelphian Angel Revel 3. 10. I will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world Such was the state of the Church then under the reign of that cruel Tyrant the Emperour Domitian it lay under a general persecution yet the Lord Iesus promiseth to the Church and in particular to the Ministers thereof an exemption and immunitie And thus doth Iesus Christ hide his Ministers sometimes as it were in the hollow or shadow of his hand Thus was he himself hid by his Father as the Prophet Esay saith of him Isai. 49. 21. In or with the shadow of his hand hath he hid me So protecting him against all the might and malice of his capital enemies that they could not lay hold upon him or do ought
of the mouth of Jesus Christ his word it hath a double yea a contrary operation being both a killing and a qâ—ickning word Both these doth the Lord in a literal sense The Lord killeth and maketh alive saith Hannah in her song 1 Sam. 2. 6. And both these doth the Lord Jesus in a Spiritual sense and that by his word So the Apostle setteth forth the two-fold property of it 2 Cor. 3. 6. The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life The letter The letter of the Law which is litera occidens a killing letter in as much as it requireth part from man which in his now corrupted estate he is no wayes able to perform and so is a sword at his heart giving him a deadly wound Whence it is that is called in the verses following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministerie or Ministration of death vers 7. and in the 9 th verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of condemnation Because it layeth men under the sentence of eternal condemnation Such is the Ministery of the Law But now the Spirit and the Ministery thereof in the preaching of the Gospel that giveth life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it quickneth maketh alive First putting a new life into a dead soul raising it up from the death of sin to the life of holinesse to the life of grace here and glory hereafter Whence it is called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word of life Phil. 2. 16. And then reviving and chearing it with the sweet promises thereof Thy word hath quickned me saith David Psal. 119. 50. Thus hath the Word like a two edged sword a double and contrary operation upon the soul. And so it hath to prosecute this point yet a a little further both upon different subjects and upon the same First In different subjects or persons it hath a different opperation So it hath upon beleevers and unbeleevers Elect ones and Reprobates Working upon both but in different yea contrary waies This the same Apostle setteth forth most clearly in the chapter there foregoing 2 Cor. 2. 15 16 For we saith he speaking of himself and other Gospel Ministers are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish Their service in preaching of the word is acceptable unto God through Christ though it do not produce the same effect in those that hear them but have a contrary work according as it needeth with different subjects So it followeth To the one we are a savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life Such contrary smels and savours there are in nature as Grotius notes upon it some poysonous and deadly as of those Lakes Avernus and Asphalties others again so recreating and refreshing that being put to the nose they will revive the spirits of a fainting person And of such a contrary operation is the sword in the preaching of it Meeting with persons of different dispositions it is to the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the one a sweet savour a savour of life So is it to Gods Elect to whom believing it it is made the power of God to their salvation as the same Apostle elsewhere saith of it Rom. 1. 16. A savour of life unto life quickening them up as I said before to the life of grace here and glory hereafter But on the other hand to unbelivers it becometh a savour of death unto death A deadly savour Not that the Gospel is so of it self being in its own nature as I said even now the word of life but accidentally it becometh so to them through their rejecting of it Now it is to them not onely an occasion but a cause of their just and greater condemnation Even as it is with the Proclamation of a Prince which he maketh to his rebellious subjects wherein he maketh offer not onely of pardon but of grace and favour to those that will lay down their armes and forthwith come in shewing themselves loyal and obedient but on the other hand threatneth extremity of punishment to those that shall yet stand out This Proclamation with the same breath breatheth both life and death Life to those which will hearken to it which is the proper end and intent of proclaiming it but death to those that oppose themselves against it Even so it is with the Evangelicall Proclamation the Doctrine of the Gospel it preacheth life and death after the same manner Life to penitent believers who readily accept the offers of grace and mercy there tendered Death to obstinate and rebellious sinners who reject them Thus is Iesus Christ who is the proper subject of the Gospel according to Simeons Prophesie at his Birth Luk. 2. 34. Behold saith he this childe is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel Even as the same Star as our new Annotators glosseth upon it is at the same time both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both morning Star and evening Star To some the morning Star bringing the light and day to them To others the evening Star bringing darknesse and night Thus is the Lord Iesus that Star of Jacob being held forth in the Gospell to some those that believe on him he is what he calls himsel Rev. 22. 16. The bright morning Star bringing to them the light and day of Grace here and Glorie hereafter But to others such as reject him will not receive him as their Saviour and Lord as the evening Star bringing to them a night of everlasting darknesse Such is the different and contrary operation of the word upon different persons 2. And in the second place such is the operation of it in and upon the same Persons A different nay a contrary operation So it hath in and upon Gods Elect upon all true believers of whom it may be said not onely that they were dead and are alive This my sonne was dead and is alive again saith the Father of his Prodigall sonne being returned home Luke 15. 24. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins saith Paul of his believing Ephesians Eph. 2. 1. But also that they are dead and alive both at the same time So that the Apostle tels his Romanes Rom. 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God And both these they are the effects of the word Which first killeth them which it may be said to do two wayes First by showing them their naturall state which is a state of death Such effect it had in and upon the Apostle as he sets it forth Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the â—ommandment came sin revived I died Whil'st he was a Pharisee he thought well and highly of himself that he was in a happy condition he apprehended himself to be in perfect health as
which he there reduceth to those two heads Faith and Love in Christ Iesus which are as the 2. hings upon which all Religion turneth like the Vrim and Thummin in the breast-plate of the high Priest this will not now content many unlesse there be some other mixtures with it O far be this itching humour from all you who hear me this day You see what sword it is that is held forth to us the Ministers of Christ to make use of that and no other but that which cometh out of the mouth of Iesus Christ. And let this content you being assured that this will sufficient to all intents and purposes which either you or we shall have occasion to make use of it for And Secondly Let them also be exhorted to take unto themselves this sword Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God saith Paul to his Ephesians Ephes. 6. 17. Take it and make use of it I do not mean in a publick way as too many at this day do who will be medling with this sword having no skill to handle it I mean such as take upon them to teach being no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no wayes fitted for and so not called to that service For first I could wish that they would but take notice what kind of sword this is which they thus meddle with a sharpe and a two edged sword and therefore not fit to be put into every hand to use in such a way It was not for nothing that the Apostle giveth that charge to Timothy which he doth 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things which thou hastheard of me even that form of sound words which he had spoke of in the chapter foregoing the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also The word being a two edged sword he would not have it put into every hand nor left loose for every one that would to take it up but he would have it put into choice hands such as might have some skill how to welde and use it It is not for every one to make use of this sword in a publick way But in a private way they both may and ought This is that which the Apostle not onely allowes but injoynes in that place even now named Ephes. 6. 17. where he willeth private Christians to take the sword of the Spirt to themselves This is one and a principal piece of that Christian panoplie that compleat Armour wherewith every private souldier of Jesus Christ ought to be furnished The word of God which all Christians are to make use of as a sword to defend themselves with against all their Spiritual enemies And such use do you all make of it Seeing Christ hath provided this sword for yoru eâ—â—heth it forth unto you take it and make use of it for the killing of your own corruptions the wounding and mortifying of your own sinful and inordinate lusts therewith repelling all the assaults the temptations of your grand adversarie Satan This was the sword which Christ himself made use of in that combate with this enemy of his in the wildernesse He maketh use of no other weapon but a scriptum est It is written It is written Matth. 4. And with this sword did he foil that enemy Such a tryed sword is this never did it fail any that made right use of it And therefore let it in this way be useful unto you First girding this sword about you In dangerous places which use to be haunted with Theeves and Robbers travellers will not ride without their swords Much lesse will the Souldier go into the field without his sword by his side Truly such is this world whilest you are here you are in the midst of enemies I mean those spiritual enemies the world the flesh and the divel whereby you are in danger of being assaulted every moment And therefore do not go without this sword Get the word into your hearts and directions promises threatnings thereof And then draw it forth and make use of it as occasion is offered Which if you do going out against your enemies under the conduct of this your Commander in the Name and strength of Iesus Christ fear not the successe This is a sharpe two edged sword Divers other duties yet there are which Christians from hence may learn in reference unto Christ and his word Take some few of them In the Third place Let them all stand in awe of him and it This is that which the Psalmist calleth for at the hands of all Psal. 33. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of him And David speaking of himself saith My heart standeth in awe of thy word Psal. 119. 161. And such respect let all that professe the Name of Christ yeeld unto him stand in awe of him and him words To this end among other he here sheweth himself in the midst of the Candlesticks with the sword in his mouth to teach the Churches both Ministers and People all to stand in awe of him This will men do of the Magistrate seeing the sword in his hand or the hand of his officer they will stand in awe of him not daring to trangresse the Law in his prefence And this respect let all both Ministers and people give unto Iesus Christ who hath his sword in his mouth Let all stand in awe of him not daring to sin against him Stand in awe and sin not saith the Psalmist Psal. 4. 4. which who so shall willingly dare to do let them fear this sword which the Lord Iesus beareth not in vain So saith the Apostle of the civil Magistrate Rom. 13. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He beareth not the sword in vain It is not onely an ensigne of honour and dignitie to his person but of his Authoritie and Power over offenders giving all to take notice if they shall dare to transgresse the Law what it is they must expect So it there followeth For he is a Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil And to a like end is this sword put into the mouth of Iesus Christ to shew his Authoritie and power which he hath over the sons of men and to intimate unto them what they must expect from him in case they shall stand out against his word carrying themselves stubbornly and disobediently against him now this sword shall go forth of his mouth he will now fight against them with it So he threatens those Sectaries the Baâ—lamites and Nicolaitans which were not tolerated in the Church of Pergamus Rev. 2. 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the Sword of my mouth Taking vengeance upon them as it is by some expounded And thus will this Son of man the Lord Jesus Christ sooner or latter come forth against all his enemies specially those that have rejected his word
He will fight against them with the sword of his mouth executing upon them those judgements which he hath threatned in his word Temporal or Eternal It may be temporal Thus is he said to slay the Isralites with the words of his mouth in that place forecited Hos. 6. 5. And thus shall he go forth against Antichrist and his party as you have it set forth Revel 19. 15. Out of his mouth goeth a sharpe sword that with it he should smite the Nations Thus shall the Lord Jesus execute upon that grand enemy of his that man of sin and his adherents the judgements denounced and threatned in his Word And thus let all obstinate and rebellious sinners fear lest Jesus Christ whose Word they now contemn should thus come forth against them here thus fighting against them with the sword of his mouth executing upon them Temporal judgements But if not so yet let them know there is a judgement to come which they shall not escape even that last and Eternal judgement And then shall they both see and feel this sword coming out of the mouth of Iesus Christ when they shall hear that terrible sentence put out of his mouth As for those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me as you have it Luk. 19. 27. O how will this sword then pierce through their soul Now thus knowing the terrour of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 5. 11. taking notice of this sharpe two edged sword going out of the mouth of Jesus Christ the refore we perswade men and that it might take place with all you that hear it that they would stand in awe fearing before him Fourthly And thus standing in awe of his Person now hear and receive his word Receiving it from the mouth of his Ministers The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth saith the Prophet Malachy Mal. 2. 7. And this let the people do seek the Law of Christ at the mouth of his Ministers Receiving it as his word Though spoken by man yet so have and receive it as coming from the mouth of Iesus Christ. So did those believing Thessalonians receive the word which came from Pauls mouth as he giveth testimony of them 1 Thes. 2. 13. When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God And thus let the word which is spoken to you by the Ministers of Christ in his Name be heard and received not as their word but as his word as coming out of his mouth Fifthly And being so looked upon let it be heard and received with holy fear and trembling To this man will I look saith the Lord even to him that trembleth at my Word Isai. 66. 2. letting it into the heart labouring to find and feel effectual working of it upon your souls to find it there as it is here represented and set forth as a sharpe two edged sword First Pricking your hearts with Godly communication and contrition for sin Which who so have not in measure felt they may conclude they have not yet heard Iesus Christ speaking to them His word is a sword Secondly And thus pricking suffer it to pierce further even to the dividing a sunder of the soul and spirit and of the joynts and morrow making a full and thorow discovety of the frame and temper of your hearts and souls so as the secrets of your hearts may thereby be made manifest to your selves that you may be thorowly convinced of the corruption of your natures the lusts of your hearts and errour of your lives Thirdly Thus piercing labour also to find and feel the killing and mortifying property of it as in making you to see your selves dead men by reason of sin so in killing the body of sin mortifying all sinful and inordinate lusts in your souls Fourthly And thus feeling the killing labour also to find the quickning power of it This is the two fold operation of this two edged sword as I told you it both killeth and maketh alive Labour to feel this efficacy of it that whilest you are dead unto sin you may be alive unto God through Iesus Christ. Thus feeling the power of this sword of Jesus Christ the sword of his Word here yea shall then feel of that other sword of his the sword of judgement and vengeance which he is said to whet against all obstinate sinners Psal. 7. 12. and wherewith he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of every such a one as goeth on in his trespasses Psal. 68. 21. FINIS THE Mystical Sun In the Face of JESUS CHRIST And his Countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength HEre have we the last branch of this Description which our Evangelist and Apostle giveth of this Sun of Man which appeared unto him in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks Iesus Christ in the midst of the Churches Wherein he giveth us an account of the most noble and principal part of his Body his Face his Countenance That ordinarily sheweth what the the man is And so it here did what this Son of man was No ordinarie person but one far surpassing all other of the Sons of men His face had a radiant Majestie in it such as never was seene in the Face of any mere man It was as the Sun as the Sun shining as the Sun shining in his strength Quest. And what was hereby represented and signified Ans. Here againe I finde different apprehensions among expositors 1. Some looking upon this as a representation of the glorie of the mysticall body of Iesus Christ his Church which is and shall bee Glorious here Thence are called the Glorie Isai. 4. 5. upon all the Glorie shall be a defence saith the Prophet speaking of Gods protection and his Church under the Gospell which is called the Glorie in as much as it is the habitation of the God of glorie as the Arke upon the same account also was called The glorie is departed 1 Sam. 4. 22. where he manifesteth his presence in the midest of his ordinances The Church glorious here much more hereafter As glorious in the Kingdome of grace so much more in the Kingdome of glorie where all the members of the misticall Bodie shall be made conformable to their glorious head when Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall ye also appeare with him in glorie Col. 3. 4. And this glorious condition of theirs some looke upon as represented here by this glory in the face of Iesus Christ. 2. One and but one I meete with who in this glass fancies a representation of the splendor and glorie of the Roman Church which in regard of externall pomp and state must be acknowledged to be paramount for
the height of Summer when it is in his greatest vigour and strength Such a difference here is betwixt the head aud members of the mystical body The Saints they shall shine yea shine gloriously shine as the Sun but not so as Iesus Christ doth he shineth as the Sun in his strength Such is the transcendent glory and excellency of the Head above the members as Pareus observes it from this word in the Text. He being as before I said the Head of the Church and the first-born it is meet that he should have a double portion as he had of grace so of glory having the preeminence in all things Here is his Personal property Besides which we may yet conceive some other operations of his hereby insinuated I shall touch upon two or three and that briefly 1. The Sun in his strength dissipates and dispels all mists and fogs which were before upon the earth hiding the face of it And so will the Lord Iesus this Sun of righteousness when he shall shew himself in his strength he shall dissipate and dispel all those mists and fogs of Heresies and Errours which do infect the Church and darken the truth of God So the Apostle tells us concerning Anti-Christianisme in that known Text 2 Thes. 2. 8. Where speaking of that Mystery of Iniquity which began to work as he saith in his time there being then some Errours and Superstitious doctrines held forth which served as materials for the building of mystical Babel he saith Then shall that wicked one meaning that man of sin the Romish Anti-Christ be revealed whom the Lord shall answer with the spirit or breath of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming He shall consume him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wasting him by little and little till he come to nothing as that word doth properly signifie Thus doth the Sun arising on the earth by little and little it consumes and wasts the fogs and mists which were upon it till at length they disappear and come to nothing And thus shall the Lord Iesus do to that man of sin and all those Antichristian mists which have in so great a measure overspread the face of the Church he shall consume them by little and little by the preaching of his Gospel till at length by the brightness of his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a powerful manifestation of his presence he shall utterly destroy both him and them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abolish and bring them to nothing as that word signifieth And so shall it be with all other erroneous doctrines It may be for a time they overspread the face of the Church and darken the truth of God but in his time the Lord Iesus shall dissipate them all being unto his Church as the Sun shining in his strength 2. Again the Sun shining in his strength resolveth and melteth what was before congealed and frozen The Summers Sun resolves the Winters Frosts loosing those bands of Orion wherewith the Earth and Waters before were bound And such operation hath the Lord Iesus upon the hearts of poor sinners Though frozen as it were and congealed in sin yet he arising and coming upon them by the powerfull work of his Spirit he thaweth melteth resolveth them bringing them into a relenting temper Such operation had the eye of Christ upon the heart of Peter After he had denied his Master and was grown stiff in his denial standing to it though pressed again and again like the water which being hard frozen bears whoever treads upon it adding Abjuration to his Abnegation forswearing to his denying yet no sooner doth his Master turn and look upon him but presently his heart forgave So Saint Luke expresly notes it Luke 22. 61. 62. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter c. looked upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a benigne aspect a gracious eye even as the Sun looketh upon the frozen earth and Peter went out and wept bitterly Such a suddain thaw there was upon the appearing of this Sun his heart melted And so did the heart of that Mary whom the same Evangelist denominates a sinner Luke 7. 37. a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a notorious lewd woman a trumpet upon her appearing and coming nigh unto Christ vertue also going out of him as it did for the healing of the Bodies of those that touched him Lu. 6. 19. her heart also melted melted into tears wherwith she washed her Saviours feet Such operation hath the spirit of Christ upon the most obdurate and obstinate sinners Though before through long custome and continuance in sin their hearts were hardned even frozen in their wickedness yet he coming to them in the power and strength of his spirit meleth and softneth them making them pliable and tractable fit and ready to receive the impressions of his grace so setting them at liberty from those bonds of sin wherein before they were bound This is the proper office of Iesus Christ as the Prophet sets it forth Isaiah 61. 1. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me c. he hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to set them free both from the Guilt and Power of sin which he doth by the Application of his Merit and the communication of his Spâ—rit unto them 3. Againe the Sun in his strength not only looseth softeneth the earth but also warms it heats it whereby it cometh to steame upwards exhaling and sending forth a warm vapour out of the bottom of it towards the Sun from which it hath received that warmth And the like operation hath the Lord Iesus upon the hearts of his people shining upon them giving them some cleare and comfortable euidences of his love and favour some sence and feeling of it there with he Warmeth their hearts So it was with those Disciples forenamed whome our Saviour fell with as they were going to Eâ—â—maus while he talked with them opening to them the Scriptures their hearts as they say burned within them They felt a holy fervour in their spirits kindled there by that Spirit of Christ which accompanied his word And such effect hath the Spirit of Christ where he is pleased gratiously to communicate himself to the souls of his people he causeth a holy fervour in thier hearts Warming them with inward Ioy which is the immediate fruit and effect of the face of Iesus Christ shining upon the soule Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us saith the Psalmist adding Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their corne and their mine increased Psal. 4 6 7. No warmth so kindly as the warmth of the Sun No joy like that which is caused by the light of Gods countenance the shining of the face of Iesus Christ upon the soul. And breeding Joy it also produceth Love and Zeale Love to
Christ Zeale for Christ. The aforesaid Mary having had experience of the great love of Christ in forgiving her so many and great sins she returns an answerable affection she loved much Luk. 7 47. And Paul after he had seene that great light shining round about him from heaven and heard the Lord Iesus speake unto him how Zealous was he ever after for Christ Not more Zealous against him before then now for him Now he calleth out Lord what wilt thou have me to doe Act. 9 3 6. And not only do but suffer I am readie not only to be bound but to dye at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Act. 21 13. Thus doth this Sun shining upon the heart in its strength it draweth up ardent Affections towards it self I might go on and yet instance in some other particulars wherein the Lord Iesus is like the Sun in his strength As viz. In drying up of sinful Corruption and inordinate lusts in the soule even as the Sun in the Summer season dryeth up those waters wherewith the face of the earth was before surcharged to the prejudice of it And so in diverse other But I shall harken to the Counsell which Aretius writing upon the Text giving to those that handle it which is that whilst they prosecute this Allegorie betwixt Christ and the Sun wherin he acknowledgeth there are many very apt resemblances to be found yet ne modum excedant they take heed of following it too far so as to extort that from it which it will not naturally yield Taking this advice I shall pass to Application That consisteth of many Branches but I shall graft them upon one stock reducing all to one head which shall be onely to exhort and excite every of us to seeke the face of this Son of man Seeke the face of Iesus Christ. This is that which the Lord calleth upon his people to doe in that foresaid Text Psal. 27 8. Seeke ye my face And wherefore was it that this Son of man here shewed his face in this glorious manner in the midest of the Churches but that they should be invited to seek his face And this doe wee Having heard how glorious this face of Iesus Christ is let all of us seeke it This is the Psalmists resolve there in the Text last named Hearing what God sayed unto him and other beleevers Seeke ye my face his heart ecchoeth backe againe Thy face O Lord I will seeke And let there be the like mind in every of us Hearing how Christ shewed his face here unto his servant Iohn in the midest of the Churches seeke we this face of his Q. How seeke it A. Take the Answere in two words Seeke it that we may See it and seeke it that we may feele it 1. That we may See it A sight worth the seeing His face was as the Sun saith the Text Now what more desirable sight then this Truely the light is sweet saith the Preacher and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Eccles. 11. 7 How pleasant to beholde this Sun the Sun of righteousness It is so to the Saints in heaven who behold this Sun shining in his strength see Iesus Christ as he is in the fulness of his glory they are never wearie of beholding him That we may also in due season be made partakers of that beatificall vision to see Christ in his Kingdom of glory seeke we his face now in his Kingdom of grace that we may see it This was that which some were so desirous to see when he was upon earth to see the face of Christ though then to the bodily eye it was scarce worth the seing there being no beautie in him that he should be desired as the Prophet hath it Yet Zacheus gets up into a tree to see him as he passed by Luk. 19. 3. And this is the request which those Greekes which came to worship in the Temple made unto Philip Sir we would see Iesus Ioh. 12. 21. What they desired to see with the bodily eye every of us labour to see with the eye of our soules This is the vision which maketh the eye of the beholder happie and blessed Blessed are your eyes for they see saith our Saviour to his Disciples Math. 13. 16. And what did they see that should make them so blessed why they sawe Christ in the flesh But did not others so also Yes but not as they did They saw him not onely with their bodily eyes as the multitude did many of which sawe him but beleeved not in him as our Saviour tells some of them Ioh. 6. 36. Yee also have seene me and beleeve not nay multi viderunt oderunt many saw him and hated him but they sawe him also with the eye of their minde they saw his inside who he was and what he was they so saw him as that they beleeved on him which is the true seeing of Christ. This is the will of him that sent mee that every one which seeth the Son and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life saith our Saviour vers 40. of the same Chapter They sawe not only that meane out side of his as others did who were thereby prejudiced against him Is not this the Carpenter Mark 6. 3. but they saw the glorie which was hid under that veile The word was made flesh aâ—d dwelt amongst us and we saw his glory the glory as of the onely begotten sonne of the father saith Saint Iohn Ioh. 1. 14. O that all our eyes may be blessed with this vision with the beholding of the glory of Christ that wee may see this face of his shining as the Sun That so we may give unto him the glory of those Personall Properties wherein hee resembles the Sun the glory of his Sole Lordship and Mediatorship by submitting to him and resting wholly upon him the glory of his transcendent Dignitie by adoring and Worshipping him the glory of his Omnisciens by indeavouring to approve our selves unto him and that not onely our actions but our secretest Counsels and intentions â—he glory of his absolute Puritie by striving to be like him holy as he is holy Q. But where or how shall wee thus see him A. Take the Answer first Negatively Do not looke to see him as Saint Iohn here did by way of vision immediate Revelation Thus indeede Christ here shewed himselfe to this his servant but this was an extraordinary favour and so not to bee expected by us Nay thus wee cannot see him see his face When Moses desired to see the glory of God Exod. 33. 18. The Lord returnes him answere verse 20. Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see mee and liue And our Apostle here upon the sight of the face of this Son of man fell down as dead Such is the glory of this face that no mortall eye is capable of beholding it in an immediate way Q. How then A.
is hid to nature as viz. the Miserie of their naturall Condition by reason of sin and the punishment due thereunto together with the meanes of deliverance by and through Jesus Christ as also shewing them the way wherein they are to walke so as they may please God Now is it so that any of you are as yet strangers to this light which it is to be feared too many among us are poore ignorant Creatures whose soules are like dungeons into which the Sun never yet looked as darke as midnight they know nothing of God of Christ of themselves nothing of the mysterie of salvation be you awakened to looke up and to looke out for it This is the watchword which the Apostle Saint Paul having received it from some of the prophets the prophet Isaiah as it is conceved giveth to such as were in that dead sleep of sin Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall shine upon thee inlighten thee And let me hand it to every of you who are thus asleepe Awake you and stand up from the dead that Christ may give you light Be you awakened and roused out of that bed of sinfull securitie wherein you have beene sleeping and beeing convinced of your owne ignorance and blindness looke out for that light of knowledg without which the heart cannot be good That the soule be without knowledge it is not good saith the wiseman Prov. 19. 2. Or as the former Translation not without the consent of the Originall readeth it without knowledg the minde is not good Of what use is a dungeon fit for nothing but to make a prison of And such is a soule without knowledg And therefore in the fear of God now awake open your eys Behold the Sun is up the Sun of righteousness is risen the Lord Jesus sheweth himselfe to you in the preaching of the Gospel doe not now shut your eyes against the light Men will not doe so by the light of the Sun When that ariseth they will not shut their doores and windowes against it to keepe it out but rather set them open to let it in that they may receive the comfort and benefit of it And so doe you by that light the light of the Gospell which now shineth forth to you Let it not be said of you what our Saviour chargeth upon the Jewes Ioh. 3. 19. That Light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light This if you shall doe it will be unto you as our Saviour there saith it was unto them a just Condemnation This is the Condemnation Were it for heathens who never heard of the name of Christ to be ignorant and blinde as to what concerneth their eternal happines and salvation this would be some extenuation as of their sin so of their punishment But for Christians such as are borne in times and places of light having the Sun as it were standing over their heads for them to love darkness rather then light still to continue in their naturall blindnes and ignorance so shutting out the light they are here in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-condemned and were there nothing else to be layed to their charg this is to them a matter and ground of a just Condemnation That it may not be so to any of you be you perswaded to set open the doores and windowes of your soules and to let in the beames of this Sun of righteousness into your hearts Be you inlightened by the light of the Gospell which as yet shineth forth unto you And being thus inlightened now reflect that light So doe the Stars Having received light from the Sun they reflect it upon the earth And the like doe you Having received light from Iesus Christ shew forth that light and that by walking as children of light That is the Apostles Exhortation to his Epehsians Eph. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walke as children of the light And let it be mine to you All of you to whome Christ hath beene as a Sun inlightning of you walke you as children of light Hath Christ shined upon you doe you shine Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee saith the Prophet to Ierusalem Isai. 60. 1. And let me in his words though happily in somewhat a different sense speake unto you Arise you and shine for the light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you The Lord Iesus who is the true light the Sun of righteousness he is risen upon you in the preaching of the Gospel And therefore doe you arise and shine shine as lights That is Pauls Commendation of or Exhortation to his Philippians for it is read both ways Phil. 2. 15. Ye doe shine or shine ye as lights in the world And this be you also exhorted to doe The night being spent and the day come unto you doe you cast off the workes of darkness and put on the armour of light as the same Apostle exhorts his Romanes Romans 13. 12. Those sinful ways and courses which heretofore you have walked in which may fitly be tearmed workes of darkness in as much as they both proceede from darkness and tend to darkness proceede from the darkness of ignorance and tend to the darkness of Hell whither they will bring them that go on in them lay them a side cast them away Putting on the Armour of light that bright shining Armour Even the graces of the Spirit within shining forth in an answerable Conversation without Thus Let your light shine before men that they seeing your good workes may glorifie your father which is in heaven as our Saviour presseth it Math. 5. 16. Here is the first of these Operations Inlightning 2. The second is Enliuening This also doth Iesus Christ as I have shewen you Being like the Sun the fountaine as of Light so of Life In him was life Ioh. 1. 4. As Naturall so Supernaturall life both Originally in him as in the fountaine Having then received the former seeke also the later from him That living the life of nature in him In him we live Act. 17. 28. So we may live the life of grace by and through him finding and feeling him living in us Now I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. Thus the Sun liveth in the plant vertually by causing it to live And O that Iesus Christ may thus live in every of us by communicating unto us his quickning Spirit whereby being raised from the grave of sin we may live unto God living the life of grace Which that we may be made partakers of be we united unto him All Communion is from union And such is the Communion which the members of the mysticall Body have with their Head it floweth from that Union which they have
Ioy in the Lord Christ as when the Candles are all blowne out there is light enough in the Sun Rejoice we in him Seeking how to make answerable returnes unto him Answering his love with love loving him above all which who so doth not Saint Paul hath denounced an Anathema Maranatha upon him If any man love not the Lord Iesus let him be had in execration even unto the death 1 Cor. 16. 22. And loving him be Zealous for him Zealous for his truth Zealous for his worship and service Zealous for his honour and glory Thus labour we to find and feel these and the like efficatious and powerfull operations of this Sun of Righteousness Which whilst we doe now feare not the rising of this Sun the coming and appearing of the Lord Iesus at the last day Which indeede unto all his enemies as I shewed you both open and secret shall be a terrible appearing in so much as they shall not be able to abide it So saith the prophet Malachie concerning his first coming Mal. 3. 2. Who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth Such was the day of his first coming his coming in the flesh a dreadfull day to obstinate and obdurate sinners for whome it had been better he had never come How much more the day of his second coming his second appearing when he shall come like the Sun in his strength in the glory of his power and Majesty come purposely to render vengeance to them that would not knowe and acknowledg him nor obey his Gospell Then shall all the kindreds of the earth wail because of him as you have it verse 7. of this Chapter Rev. 1. Then shall the sinners in Sion be afraid fearefullness shall surprize the Hypocrites as the prophet speakes Isaiah 33. 14. And why Because then they shall be discovered That shall be a day of Revelation when God shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts of men as the Apostle hath it 1. Cor. 4. 5. Then shall all masks and vizardes be pulled off And then shall they who have here stood out against the Government of Jesus Christ would not stoope to his scepter to be guided by his word they shall be dragged before his dreadful tribunall brought to appeare before the Iudgment seat of Christ that they may receive the things done in the body as the same Apostle tels them 2 Cor. 5. 10. So terrible shall that his second appearing be to all his Enemies But to others who have here owned him in the Relations of a Saviour and Lord it shall be a joyfull day Such was his first coming to these that beleeved on him So it was to Abraham who onely sawe it afar off by faith in the promise your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day so our Saviour tels the Jewes Ioh. 8. 56. And so it was to Iohn the Baptist who being then in his mothers womb yet leaps for joy at the salvation of Marie Luk. 1. 41 44. by a secret sympathie exulting in the Incarnation of Christ. And the Angell bringing the tidings of the Nativity unto the shepherds telleth them Behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Luk. 2. 10. The greatest Ioy that ever sounded in the eares of men or Angels Such was his first coming to all beleevers And such shall his second coming much more be unto them When they shall see their King coming to them not as he did to Ierusalem in that meane and despicable garbe but in his glory coming with clouds as the seventh verse of this Chapter hath it sitting upon them as on a throne of glory his face shining like the Sun in his strength this shall be a joyfull and a happie day to them all them who having been in their measure made comformable to him here shall then be transformed into his Image When he shall appeare we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3. 2. Having beene like unto him in grace we shall be like him in glory When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Col. 3. 4. And so have I now done with this verse Wherein we have met with three sacred Emblems The Mysticall Stars Sword Sun the first in the Hand the second in the Mouth the third in the Face of this Son of man the Lord Iesus Each holding forth unto us many usefull truths and some of them verie seasonable for the present times My prayer shall now be that they may be in like manner profitable to you to whome they have beene delivered FINIS Reader besides some other Literal and Punctual mistakes pardon and Correct these more considerable Errours of the Press FIrst Part. p. 2. l. last for Mysteries r. Ministers p. 3. marg r. â—aspidefulvo p. 4. l. 14. dele as p. 17. l 13. r. affectionate p. 19. l. 17. r. as he p. 25. l. 22. r. am less l. 24. r. far the least p. 32. l. 14 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 33. l 3 for cumbring r. combining p. 35 l. 24. dele have p. 37 l. 6. dele little p. 40. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 46. l. 17. for twice r. choice p. 50. l 11. r his Ministers l. 15. r. Ambassadours are p. 56. l. 27. r. mission p. 57. many r. doing his will p. 62. l. 21. r. tels us p. 64. l. 18. dele by p. 20. for reports r. respects p. 65. l 6. r. but not l. 8. for see r. be l. 11. r. saith our Part 2. p. 2. l. 7. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 12. for his r. a. l. 21. dele story l. 28. for Engine r Ensign p. 3. l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 26. r. thâ—s King p. 4. l. 11 r Etymologist l. 28 r. Virga oris l. 30 for life r. lips p. 7. l 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17. r. like as l. 20 r. Simeon p 8 l. 28. marg r. The word doing p. 9. l. 22 for part r. that l. 25. r. it is called p 10. l 28 for needeth r. meeteth p. 11 l 6. for sword r. word p. 13. l. 10. del that p 14 l. 13 r This is also the p. 16. l. 9 r in and by p. 17 l 22 for change r challenge ibid. r. to a p. 19. l 3. r. did those p. 21. l 22. r his truth p. 22. l. 6. for blinded r. blended l. 26. r. two hinges p. 23. l. 4. r will be l 16 for first r. such p. 25. l. 8. r. the directions p 26 l 30 del not p. 27. l. 32 for put r passe p. 28 l 9. r. O that l 20 r so here p 29. l 5 r the effectuall l. 9 for communication r compunction p. 30 l 4 for then r never Part 3. p. 1 l 3 r Son of man p. 2. l 14 del
1. For our Temporal happinesse O! that we and all others in this Nation were but yet so wise as in this our day to know the things belonging thereunto so to know them as that we might complie with them Q. But here it may be some of you will be ready to ask me What are these things A. A Question not unuseful In the resolution whereof I shall give you no other directions then what the Text it self giveth me the hint of 1. Seek Peace it self I mean external peace It is not for nothing as I told you that Peace is here and so often elswhere in phrase of Scripture put for prosperity and happinesse Peace as in it self it is one of the chief blessings upon earth one chief part of this external happinesse so it is a thing which doth much conduce to the compleating of it As War maketh a people miserable so Peace happie making them flourish in all kinde of outward blessings And upon this account seek we after this Peace making this our Motto Pacem te poscimus omnes all of us seriously desiring and indeavoring after peace 1. Civil Peace the Peace of the State It is the Prophet Ieremies Counsel to the Captives in Babylon that they should seek the peace thereof Ier. 29. 7. Seek the peace of the Citie 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 And the like do we for England Pray for the Peace of it Upon that depends her welfare and happinesse Divisions hastened Ierusalem ruine O! pray that Englands divisions may not do the like to her Seek the peace of the State Civil peace 2. And as Civil so Ecclesiastical the peace of the Church Pray for the peace of Ierusalem Psal. 122. 6. Peace be within the walls and prosperitie within thy palaces ver 7. Upon Ierusalems peace depended the peace of the whole Nation of the Jewes And surely upon the Churches peace in a great measure depends the peace of this Nation And therefore seek after this peace seek it from God being earnest with him that he would heal our breaches giving one heart and way to his people And promote it by all holy waies and means But I shall not dwell upon this which I do but meet with by the by taking the hint from the word in the Text. For the procuring the welfare of this Nation seek Peace it self 2. And Secondly be we sons of Peace It is the direction which our Saviour giveth to his Disciples when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel in that fore-cited Text Luk. 10. 5 6. Into whatsoever house yee enter first say Peace be to this house And if the Son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon it The Son of peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as before I have explained it such persons as were disposed to receive and imbrace the Doctrine of Peace the Doctrine of the Gospel where they met with such persons there their Peace should rest all the happinesse which they had wished to them should come upon them Now would we in like manner that that peace which is to be wished unto this Nation might thus rest upon it be we in this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of Peace readily imbracing this Doctrine of peace the Gospel This it was as I have shewen you which above all other things belonged to Ieusalems peace her receiving of Christ and his Gospel Had she but done this happie had she been That England may be so have we a regard unto this In this our day make much of God's Religion make much of the Gospel which as yet through the goodnesse of God is continued unto us Let that at the length find such entertainment amongst us as it deserveth Let the Messengers thereof be received Let their feet be accounted as they are said to be Isa. 52. 7. Beautiful which bring good tidings which publish peace This do the Ministers of Jesus Christ who are Messengers of peace bringing those glad tidings of peace and reconciliation with God through Christ publishing salvation O! let their feet be beautiful Let their persons be welcom much more their message While you receive them into your houses receive that into your hearts shewing forth the power of it in your lives and conversations by so walking as becometh the Gospel In this way seek we the External peace welfare and happinesse of this Nation However in this our day seeke wee our owne peace Eternall peace being all of us wise for our selves so wise as in this our day to know what belongeth to our peace the peace and happiness of our own soules our eternall salvation As yet through the mercie and goodnesse of God our day is continued to us The day of our lives Whereas the Sun is set upon many others before our eyes every day it goeth down upon some or other of our brethren our Relation our friends our associates and Companions It is night with them It is yet day with us And as the day of our lives so the day of grace and salvation is yet continued to us Yet doth the Sun of right eousnesse stand over our heads yet doth the light of the Gospel shine forth unto us yet is the Golden scepter of grace and salvation held forth unto us our day is yet continued Oh that in this our day whil'st the meanes of grace are continued unto us and we to the meanes we might all of us see and know the things which belong nuto our peace Which word of Exhortation I desire it may come home to everie soule that heareth it It may bee and I feare it is so some and many of us have a long time shut our eyes against the light we have not seen we do not to this day see these things which do so nâ—arly concern us How many offers of grace and mercie have we sleighted and rejected God hath offered conditions of peace to us it treating beseching us by his Ministers to be reconciled unto him striving with us by mercies by chastisements by word by the secret motions of his own Spirit And yet for all this we still stand out against him harden our hearts against him so as we wil not receive Iesus Christ upon Gospel tearms as our Saviour and Lord. Now unto all such be it spoken in the language of the text Oh that you even you at least in this your day did but know the things which belong unto your peace How ever you have most rebelliously and ingratefully withstood many offers of grace yet that now at the length whil'st this day of grace last's before the Sun set upon you and your eyes be closed up with everlasting darkness you would come in accept of these offers of grace not standing out any longer To that end consider first that the time of your
and decrees this is highly taken as being an affrâ—nt to the Court and the offendors are severeâ—y proâ—eeded against And so is it in the Court of heaven when men shall refuse to take notice of the minde and will of God clearly intimated unto tâ—em this being a contempt an affront to heaven God cannot but take it highly at the hands of those that are guilty of it and make them know that he doth so So much we have fully expressed in those words of Wisdome Prov 1. 24. Because I have called and ye have refused c. ye have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my repâ—oof I will laugh at your calamity c. And again vers 29 For that they haâ—ed knowledge c. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own ways c. Of such dangerous and desparate consequence is it to shut out any beam of divine light out of the fouâ— to stop the ear against any word of God Specially when men shall close their eyes against Gospel-light stop their ears against the word of life the word of grace and salvation This was Ierusalems case here She did not she would not know the things belonging to her eternal peace notwithstanding he who was the Prâ—nce and Lord of peace the great Peace-maker the Son of God himself came to preach peace unto them to shew them what it was that was of so great concernment to them yet they would not hearken to him And by reason hereof these things were now hid from their eyes And upon this account the Lord Iesus as a tender hearted Saviour here so passionatly weepeth over them And surely of all things that can happen unto man up on earth there is no one thing more deplorable then this when men are thus wilfully blinde obstinately ignorant And to make some Application of this Branch Is not this the case of too many among our selves at this day Alass how many such poor ignorant souls are every where to be found Men and women willingly and wilfully ignorant of what concerneth their eternall peace They cannot say it is for want of light that the are blind that they do not see No the light of the Gospel hath for a long time shone forth unto them They have been born and brought up in Gospel-times and places where they have injoyed the meanes of grace and salvation in a plentiful manner So as in this respect they may be called Children of the light and Children of the day And yet for all that they walk in darkness the things which belong unto their eternall peace are hid from their eyes They do not see because they will not see They have no desire to be acquainted with the mysterie of salvation and so continue strangers to it A most deplorable state and condition So let it be looked upon by others by those whose eyes God hath opened to see what they do not Whilâ—st they see these things hid from them which God hath revealed to themselves let them blessing God for this his free grace which hath caused them thus to differ in imitation of their blessed Saviours pittie and compassionate this their wilful obstinacie and blindnesse This we may find the Lord somtimes sadly bemoaning in this his people the people of the Iewes Jer. 4. 22. my people is foollish they have not known me they are sortish children and they have no understanding And the like wee may heat the Prophet doing in the Chapter following Ier. 5. where complaining of the incorrigiblenesse of that people the generality of them under the Judgment of God how notwithstanding God hath strucken them yet they were not sensible they had made their face harder then a Rock as he speaks ver 3. he then bemoaneth and pittieth this their condition in the next verse Therefore I sayd surely these are poor they are foolish c. of all follie none like this when men do as it were sanis insanire they are wittingly mad or foolish They will not see what belongeth to their peace O pitie we them that are in this condition And O that they might be perswaded to pitie themselves to mourn over this their desperate obstinacie This they shall do sooner or later it may be when it is too late So they may hear some of their Companions doing as viz. that impure Adulterer whom the Wiseman speaks of Prov. 5. Who having given his honour unto others and his years to the cruel as the 9 ver hath iâ— having spent both his reputation and estate and strength upon Harlots who seeking nothing but themselvs care not how they make a prey of others oft-times with their honesty putting off also all kind of humanitie then he cometh to mourn at the last when his flesh and bodie are consumed as it followeth ver 11. finding nature decaied and spent and his bodie it may be seized upon by some foul and loathsome disease some of which it may seem were wont to attend this sin in those times as well as in these feeling his hones full of the sin of his youth as Zophar speaks Iob 20. 11. now he cometh rugire in novissimis as the Original hath it At his last seeing how he hath by his lewd and dissolute courses brought himself to an untimely and infamous end now he roareth roareth as a Lion as the word there properly signifieth Seeing himself ready to go to hell now his soul is filled with more horror then ever his bodie was with pleasure And mark what followeth ver 12. And say How have I hated Instruction and my heart despised reproof And have not obeied the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ears to them that instructed me Lo here the true original of all his miserie which though before he would not yet now when it is too late he is brought to acknowledge even his not hearkning to Instruction O take heed that it may never be so with any of you that you be not at your latter ends brought to mourn upon any such account Which that you may not do not any longer what he did hate instruction despise reproof Do not stop your ears against the truth of God held forth unto you in the Ministerie of his Word discovering unto you the sinfulnesse of those waies and courses wherein you have walked and shewing you how you ought to walk so as you may please God do not shut the counsel which the word giveth you out of your hearts Do not any longer say unto God Depart from us This do all obstinate sinners who living under the means of grace do yet go on in their sins So Iob describeth some of them Iob. 21. 13 14. They spend their daies in wealth living in joâ—litie and mirth pleasure happily injoying an interrupted course of prosperitie not being acquainted with those crosses and afflictions which befall others Therefore they say unto God depart from us for we desire
the people of the Iews Isaiah 5. ver 6. I will also command the cloudes that they rain no rain upon it That is as some safely if not somewhat too curiously expound it the means of grace and salvation should not bee continued unto that people as formerly He would beâ—eave them of their Prophets take away their Teachers Which accordingly he did as may be collected from that Promise which the same Prophet maketh to the Church Isaiah 30. 20. Though the Lord give you the bread of adversitie and the water of affliction yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy teachers So it had been with that people Prophets had been very scarce among them So much we may take notice of from that of the Psalmist Psal. 74. 9. where the Church lying under a sad desolation is brought in complaining We see not our signes there is no more any Prophet neither is there a-mong us any that knoweth how long They wanted their Seers as the Prophets sometimes are called And by this meanes were the things which belonged to their peace hid from their eyes And by a like means came they here to be hid from Ierusalems by withdrawing those means of grace from them which formerly they had injoied Christ himself being taken away he also ordered his Apostles after a while to withdraw from them So much is insinuated in that Parable of the Mariage feast where the first guests that were invited though sollicited by messenger after messenger refusing to come the servants are then ordered by the Master of the Feast to go into the High-waies and Hedges and By-lanes and to bid new guests as the Evangelists have it Mat. 22. 9. Luke 14. 21. 23. The meaning of the Parable seems to be obvious This Marriage is the marriage betwixt Christ and his Church The first invited guests were the Iews to whom God sends his servants one after another first the Prophets then Iohn the Baptist with the Apostles and Disciples of CHRIST who perswaded them to come and receive Iesus Christ and to have Communion with him but they refusing the Apostles with their Successors are afterwards sent to the Gentiles Which accordingly sometimes after our Saviours Ascension came to passe For however at the first according to their Masters direction they applied themselves onely to the Jewes yet afterwards finding them unworthie and being rejected by them they shook off the dust of their feet against them turning to the Gentiles So Paul and Barnabas expresly tell them Act. 13. 46. When they heard the Jewes contradicting them and blaspheming their doctrine Then they waxed bold saith the Text and said It was necessarie that the Word of God should first have been spoken unto you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthie of eternal life lo wee turn to the Gentiles for so hath the Lord commanded us Thus when men do abuse the light of the Gospel Christ often removeth the Candlestick as hee threatens the Church of Ephesus Revel 2. 5. taketh away that light taketh away his Ministers and Ordinances and so leaveth them in the darke by which meanes the things belonging to their peace are hid from their eies and that through the want of means 2. But Secondly sometimes the means are injoyed but the Spirit is withheld not accompanying not going along with the meanes Even as the Church complaineth Psal. 44. 9. that God did not go forth with her Armies Her Armies went forth but God did not go forth with them as formerly to direct assist blesse and prosper them to make them victorious Thus God sometimes sends forth his Ministers but hee doth not go forth with them hee doth not accompany his Ordinances with his Spirit This is that which the Prophet Isaiah complaineth of hee lift up his voice like a trumpet hee spared not to his dutie But who hath believed our report to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Isaiah 53. 1. His Ministerie was for the most part ineffectual few there were that were wrought upon by it Hee had as elswhere hee bemoans it Isaiah 49. 4. even laboured in vain and spent his strength for nought Now whence was this Why God did not concurr with him by the efficacious work of his Spirit hee did not put forth his power reveal his Arme hence was it that his indeavours became so ineffectual to the greatest part And thus God is pleased sometimes to enervate his Ordinances by withdrawing his presence from them Even as it was in Ezekiels Vision hee saw the Glorie of the God of Israel going up from the Cherub to the threshold of the house Ezekiel 9. Verse 3. The Cherub stood still in his place but the glorie was departed God had withdrawn his presence from it Thus Ordinances may bee continued and yet the Spirit withdrawn whereby they become ineffectual So as though the light shine forth unto men yet wanting that Spirit of Illumination which should open their eies and let that light into their hearts they still remain in the dark So fared it with the Scribes and Pharisees though the mysterie of Salvation was as clearly held forth unto them as unto others yet whilest others saw it it was hid from them How so Why this was God's work to put a differencee betwixt the one and the other So much our Saviour taketh notice of and acknowledgeth Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee Father Lord of heaven and earth or I confesse unto thee or acknowledge before thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because or that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes The same Word was preached by the same persons unto both but it had not the same effect in both To the simpler sort of persons men and women of weak apprehensions altogether unlearned and ignorant very children in understanding the mysteries of eternall Salvation were clearly revealed by the Ministerie of Christ and his Apostles but not so to the wise and prudent great and learned Clerks men wise in their own and others opinions as the Scribes and Pharisees were To them were these things hid Now whence was this Why God did not co-operate with the Word as to them hee did not work upon their mindes by his Spirit by which means the Word became ineffectual unto them Again in the Third place God coucurreth in hiding these things from the eies of men not onely in Negative or Privative but also after a sort in a Positive way Not onely by not opening their eies and hearts but by blinding and hardning them So it was with this people the people of the Iewes as our Saviour also taketh notice of it giving this as a reason why they did not believe Iohn 12. 39 40. Therefore they could not believe saith hee because Isaias said again He hath blinded their eies and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eies
and understand with their hearts and bee converted and I should heal them Thus dealt God with that people justly punishing their wilful obstinacie by giving them up unto a reprobate sence to a spiritual blindnesse and obduracie In as much as they had first blinded themselves closing their own eies against the light Their eies they have closed so Saint Matthew hath it Matth 13 5. As also the Apostle Act. 28. 27. therefore God in his just judgment blindeth them They blinded themselves first they would not see therefore God in his justice blindeth them that they should not see So giving them up to spiritual blindnesse which as that Apostle tells us still resteth upon that people untill this day I would not brethren that yee should bee ignorant that blindnesse in part is happened to Israel untill the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in Rom 11. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blindnesse or Hardnesse for the word signifieth both is happened in part unto the greatest part the generalitie of that Nation insomuch that they do not nay till the time appointed be come they shall not see the things which belong to their peace This is the reason which the same Apostle giveth why those of that Nation did not see what was so clearly held forth unto them in the preaching of the Gospel 2. Cor. 3. 14. Their mindes were blinded there was a veil upon their hearts as the next ver hath it God hath given them up in his just judgment for their contempt of the means of grace to a fearful exceration and obduration blinding their eies and hardning their hearts Thus the Lord is said to have done Pharaohs Exod. 4. 21. And the like is said of Sihon King of Heshbon that refused to let Israel passe by him Deuteronom 2. 30. The Lord thy God hardned his spirit and made his heart obstinate that he might deliver him into thy hand This hee did not onely by with-holding his grace from them but by delivering them up unto the perversnesse of their own spirits and to Satan to bee acted by him unto their ruine and destruction And after the like manner may God bee said to have hardned the hearts of this people the people of the Iewes not onely by with-holding his Spirit from them but also giving them up unto their own hearts lusts as the Psalmist hath it Psal. 81. 11 12. My people would not hearken unto my voice and Israel would none of mee So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts or as the margin readeth it to the hardnesse of their hearts and they walked in their own counsels and to the power of Satan to bee acted by him to bee blinded and hardned by him Yea even giving Commission to his Word to have such an accidental effect upon them even as the Sun hath upon the Clay to harden it So much wee may learn from that Text of the Prophet Isaiah cited by our Saviour Isaiah 6. ver 9 10. Where the Lord giving him his Commission to go unto that people hee bids him or rather foretelleth him what hee should do that hee should make their heart fat Make thou the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavie and shut their eies c. Now how should hee do this Why onely by preaching the Word to them But what then had the Word any such proper Operation of it self Not so neither had the Prophet any such intention in the preaching of it but through their obstinate tempers it become so to them an occasion of their further blinding and hardening God in his just judgment suffering and ordering that his Word should have such a direfull effect upon them as that they should grow worse and worse by it untill they should attain to that height of impenitencie as should bee irrecoverable This it is The Word will have it work one way or other beeing as the Apostle saith the savour of life or of death 2 Corinth 2 16. Where it doth not open and clear the eye it will close and blinde it Where it doth not soften the heart it will harden it And in this way and by this means doth God in his most righteous Judgment hide from the eyes of men the things which belong to their peace which they have refused to see To these I might adde his sending of False Teachers among them such as those the Prophet Ieremie speaketh of who cried unto the people Peace Peace where there was no peace Jeremiah 6 14. So lulling them asleep in carnall securitie that they shall not see what belongs to their peace in truth As also his sending of strong delusions that men should believe a lie because they have not received a love of the truth as the Apostle hath it 2 Thes. 2. 11. Sending a Spirit of Errour a lying spirit to them such as that was which seduced Ahab to his destruction 2 King 2. 22. These and many other wayes God hath to carry on this his most just and righteous design But herein I shall follow him no further That which hath been spoken may be sufficient for doctrinal Confirmation and Illustration What now remaines is Application Where in the first place set me design you to make a stand a little and look upon this Nation wherein we live as our Saviour did here upon this City Ierusalem and see whether there be any just cause to do what he did to weep over it mourn over it upon any such account Touching which let me first declare for my self that not having my Saviours eyes a prophetical eye as he had I dare not pronounce the like sentence upon this that he doth upon that viz. that the things which belong unto Englands peace are now hid from her eyes No as my prayers have been and shall be so my hopes yet are to the contrary that God will yet be merciful to this Nation and I want not some grounds to bottom these hopes upon But yet let me shew you what two just causes of fear may be apprehended that God hath a sad controversie with it In the declaring whereof I shall as far as I may parallel it with this City of Ierusalem which I shall do altogether upon a Religious account not medling at all with the Civil of these sad prognosticks I might reckon up diverse But I shall content my self to single out some of those which are most obvious Among which let the first and principal be our not seeing the thing which belonged to our peace in our day Where I shall not do what happily with too much evidence of truth I might descend to those particular times and seasons wherein mercy hath been held forth and offered unto this Nation in a more signal and remarkable manner Surely such Criticall daies England hath had and some of them within our mememorie seasons and opportunities which had they been laid hold of and improved as they might how happy might she have
own others neglecting to come out of an irreligious prophanesse and among those that do come yet how few constant conscionable attendants upon this Ordinance A plain evidence that this ordinance hath lost much of that respect as also of that power that sometimes it hath had And what I say of the word I may also apply it to the Sacrament the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Which though held forth in the purest and most comfortable way of Administration according to Christs Institution the Churches primitive practise yet how is it by many fleighted and neglected So as those who heretofore were wont to come as it now seemeth for fear or fashion being now left to themselves will not come for love The feast is prepared and the Guests invited but they find some excuse or other to keep them away A thing which I wish there were not too just cause to complain of even in this place Now surely among other this is also a sad token 4. To which let me add those other which I have also made mention of Gods blinding the Eyes and hardning the hearts of many sending so many false Teachers with strong and strange delusions amongst us giving up many to the believing of them All sadly remarkable in this Nation at this day I think never more in any And what may we conceive these to portend Surely sad Omens they are giving us too just cause to fear lest God should be about to depart to take away his Kingdom his Gospel from us which meeteth not only with such sleightings but such affronts and oppositions as it doth 5. To which let me yet subjoyn that which bodes as ill as any of the former our not profiting by Iudgments but rather being made worse by them This is that which the Lord complaines of against Israel Isai. 1. 5. why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Gods judgments had a contrary effect upon them to what they were intended He corrected them for their amendment thereby to bring them home to himself but they took occasion thereby to go further away from him so as his Corrections were in vain to them as elswhere he complains Ier. 2. 30. In vaine have I smitten your children they received no correction viz. so as to be bettered by it but rather waxed worse worse And would to God that this did not lie as too just a charge against this sad Land and Nation wherein we live That God hath stricken us I suppose there are few but are in some kinde or other sensible But what effect have these Rods these Judgments had upon us Are we better by them Are we thereby reclaimed reformed brought home to God Are we made the more humble the more careful the more watchful the more fruitful O that these effects were to be found amongst us But is it not clean contrary Are we not grown more proud a sin I think never so visible in this Nation as at this day more remiss more loose more barren and unfruitful then ever And if so what just cause have we to fear lest the Lord in his most righteous judgment do unto us as there he threatens unto Israel give us over striving no longer with us but leaving us to our selves letting us alone as elswhere he threatens unto Ephraim Hos. 4. 17. to go on in our sinful provocations until there be no remedy These are some of those grounds upon which we may build our too just fears To which I might yet have added some other But I forbear any further charge Coming rather to enquire Q. What shall we now do for the Land of our Nativity A. 1. Do what our Saviour here doth for Ierusalem Mourn over it weep over it with compassionate and affectionate tears laying to heart the sad state and condition thereof This doth he knowing how it was with that City that the things belonging to her peace were now hid from her And this do we over England fearing lest it should be so with it 2. But tears alone will not help When Ioshuah was fallen upon his face mourning for the discomfiture which had happened unto Israel Iosh. 7. 10. the Lord takes him up with these words Get thee up wherefore lyest thou upon thy face Intimating unto him that it was not his humbling and afflicting himself without somewhat else that would heal that breach which Israels sinne their violating and transgressing the Covenant of their God had made upon them as it followeth in the next verse There must be some other course taken for the reconciling of them unto God and making their peace with him And what was that Why the people must be sanctified and the Accursed thing must be taken from among them as the 13. verse hath it And O that England might take the like course It is not all our falling upon our faces before the Lord all our daies of publick Humiliation though that be a sacrifice acceptable unto God that will serve to appease his wrath and to procure his favour that alone will not do it unlesse also the people be sanctified and the Accursed thing removed from among us This then let every of us in our several places indeavour Beginning first with our selves Every one searching and trying our own waies that we may find out the Action in our own hearts and lives our own personal sinns Which having found out now take them away putting away the evill of our doings from before the eyes of our God by serious and unfeined repentance and reformation renewing our Covenant with our God cleaving unto him with full purpose of heart Then indeavour we the like for others every of us in our places as I said Magistrates in their places Ministers in theirs Masters of families in theirs private Christians in theirs contributing what we may towards a reall and National Reformation that so the Accursed thing even all kind of wrath provoking abominatious may be taken away from the midst of us and that we may be a people sanctified dedicated and consecrated unto the Lord. So doing now know we for our Comfort that we have to deal with a God gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse ready to repent of what ever evill he intendeth against a people Especially his own people not willing to reject and cast off a people that are in Covenant with him So much he expressed to this people the people of the Iewes before the Captivity by making so many removes before his final departure from them so the Prophet Ezekiel saw it in his Visions in which the glory of the Lord removed not lesse then five several times before it took its leave First from the Cherub to the threshold of the house the Temple Ezek. 9. 3. 2. It removed higher standing over the door cap. 10. 4. 3. From the threshold it returned and stood over the Cherubins which were mounted up from
the Earth as ready to take their flight v. 18 19. 4. From thence to the midst of the City and 5ly From thence to the Mountain on the East side of the City the Mount of Olives Cap. 11. v. 23. Now what did these frequent removes import Surely a great unwillingnesse in God to depart from that people And so it is so long as there is any remedy God is not willing to forsake a people whom once he hath taken into Covenant with himself So much we may hear him passionately declaring concerning Israel Hos. 11. 7 8. My people saith he are bent to back sliding from me So was Israel yet mark what followes How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee O Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Myne heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together So loath is God as it were to cast off a people whom once he hath struck a Covenant with if there be any hope of teturning unto him and demeaning themselves as becommeth his people And who knoweth what his thoughts may yet be towards this sinful and most unworthy Nation Onely turn we unto him with all our hearts and soules And then as the Prophet Ioel goeth on Ioel 2. 14. Who knoweth if he will return and leave a blessing behind him And thus have I done with the first branch of the Application as is directed to the Nation in general Come we in the next place to bring it nearer home applying it to every of our selves in particular And this I shall do in the first place by way of Terrour to some Is it so that daies of grace have their dates what terrour may this strike into the hearts of all obstinate and obdurate sinners of which kind I wish there were none before me this day Despisers of Grace such as have had their Day their day of grace and mercy wherein God hath shewen unto them the things belonging to their peace but they have not known them they would not know them they have done what the Iewes did stopped their eares closed their eies hardned their hearts refusing to hearken to the counsel which Wisedome gave them to hearken to Iesus Christ speaking to them in and by his Ministers not regarding the counsel which the word held forth to them sleighting those offers of grace and mercie tendred to them in the Gospell upon their receiving of Christ but still going on in their wonted Rebellions Now to all such be it spoken how do you know but that the date of your day may be out the time of grace and mercy may be past and the dreadful doom passed upon you in heaven which our Saviour here denounceth against Ierusalem upon earth that Now the things belonging to your peace are hid from your eyes so as you shall never see what you have refused to see Certainly so it hath been with some others And why not so with you for ought that you or others know How ever a just and righteous thing it is with God God that it should be so that seeing you have closed your eyes and would not see that he should seal them so as you should not see And if so how deplorable how miserable is your condition So we loook upon a poor blind man whose bodily eyes are put out past hope of ever recovering his sight again What is it then to have the eye of the soul blinded So as it shall never see never se what belongeth to its peace hapines but is shut up under an everlasting darkness Miserable and deplorable is the condition of every such a soul in as much as it is now desperate helplesse hopelesse So is it with a person upon whom this doom is once passed Now he may call and cry for mercy with Esau seeking blessing with tears but all in vain Neither his own nor yet the prayers of any other shall be available on his behalf Though Noah Iob and Daniel the chiefest favourites of heaven should undertake to intercede for such a one yet shall they not be able to procure a revocation and reversement of that sentence which is past upon him Such was Sauls case upon whom Samuel denounceth that irrevocable sentence from the Lord 1 Sam. 15. 26. Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee A sentence not to be reversed So he tels him v. 29 Also the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not as man that he should repent No though Saul himself sought God by confessing and bewailing of his sinne as he doth v. 24. begging pardon for it desiring Samuel to go along with him that he might worship God as it followeth v 25. which accordingly he did v. 31 Yet would not all this avail No nor yet though Samuel was an intercessour for him praying and mourning for him as we find him v. last So irreversible was that sentence which the Lord had passed upon Saul that what ever he did or Samuel could do all could not change the purpose of God concerning him Rejected he was for his Rebellion and rejected he should be O fear and tremble you obstinate and rebellious sinners who stand guilty of the same sin that is charged upon him of rejecting the word of the Lord not hearkning to his voice not yeilding obedience to his Commands but doing what is good in your own eies fear ye and tremble I say least the Lord should have passed or should passe the like sentence upon you which if once done I and others may do for you what Samuel there did for Saul mourn for you but cannot help you Obj. But what is Gods decree so absolute and peremptory concerning any particular person here upon earth that what ever means shall be used by themselves or others for them shall not be able to reverse it It was not so with that barren Figtree in the Gospel upon which the owner had passed his doom that it should be cut down giving order to the dresser of his vineyard that he should execute what he had decreed Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground Yet notwithstanding at that his servants request it was reprived and spared one year longer Luk. 13. 7 8 9. A. True thus God is pleased to deal sometimes with some to exercise great long sufferance and forbearance towards them Yea sometimes reverting the sentence which is past upon them Thence it is that he is said sometimes to Repent of what he hath done or intended to do So he did concerning the Ninevites which Ionah supecting taketh up as his excuse for his not going to the City according to Gods direction to denounce that sentence against them but rather fleeing to Tarshish Jon. 4. 2. Therefore saith he I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of
the evill the evil intended and threatned which accordingly he did reversing that sentence which was passed upon them And the like he did to Israel at Moses's intercession the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people Exod 32. 14. But it will not hence follow that because God dealeth thus with some therefore he will do so to all However that Figtree was spared for a year yet the other Fig-tree which we read of was not spared an hour So the Storie tels you Matth. 21. 19. Iesus passing by the way and espying a figtree or which he found no fruit however as St. Mark notes it Mark 11. 13. the time of Figs was not yet yet he presently blasteth it passing that doom upon it let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever which sentence was accordingly executed and that forthwith So it followeth And presently the figtree withered away Thus though God may for time spare some and seem to repent of what he hath threatened concerning them yet as he will not ever do so to any so neither will he doe so to all He that spaâ—ed Israel at that time yet afterwards sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest And he who spared Aaron at Moses request when he was angrie with him to have destroyed him as you have it Deut. 9. 20. would not spare Korah and his Companie of whom you reade Numb 16. Upon their Rebellion against Moses and Aaron there was a suddain and dreadful execution done upon them The ground clave a sunder that was under them And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up c. So as They went alive into the pit v. 31. 32. 33. And so for those others who at the same time usurped the Priests Office taking upon them to offer Incense presently There came out a fire from the Lord and consumed them v. 35 As it was also with the Sonnes of Aaron Nadab and Abihu they daring to offer strange fire before the Lord presently there went out a strange fire from the Lord and confounded them Lev. 10. 1. 2. Thus however God belong suffering towards some yet not so to all And however he doth as it were repent over some yet not over all Cain Esauâ—â— and Saul could finde no place for such repentance And what knowest thou who takest up this plea but that this may be thy case thy lot Obj. why but hath not God ingaged himselfe to doe the like to all that shall repent and turne to him This is that which Ieremie assures the Princes and all the people of Israel Ier. 26. 13. Amend your waies and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God and the Lord will repent him of the evill which he hath pronounced against you And what he promised them he likewise assureth unto others all others in the like case Cap. 18. 7 8 Where the promise is indefinite At what instant I shal speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and destroy it If that Nation against whome I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to do unto them If they repent of the evill of sin he will repent of the evil of punishment And if it be thus with a Nation why not with particular persons A To this I answere as before True it is so vpon mans repentance God will also repent But how knowst thou as before I sayd whether ever God will give thee that grace or space to repent How knowest thou but that in his just judgment he either already hath or suddainly may give thee up to that impenitent heart that shall not that cannot repent Not repent truely and sincerely Possibly in an hypocriticall or Legall way thou maist So did Cain so did Esau so did Saul so did Iudas being sensible of what they had brought upon themselves they bewailed their condition yet were far from true repentance Theire countenance was changed as it is said of Cain Gen. 4. 5. his countenance fell but not their hearts And so may it be with thee True Repentance Repentance unto life and salvation is Gods gift which he bestoweth freely upon whome he will and when he will And being so he may justly deny it which hold it from those who have sleighted and dispised his grace when it was offered and held forth to them To all such this doctrine upon this account speakes abundance of terrour Which let it serve in the next place as a Needle to draw in a thread after it making way for and now letting in a word of Advise and Counsell and that to all that are here this day before the Lord. Take you heede that you doe not receive the grace of gâ—d in vaine This is Paules Obtestation to his Corinthians 2. Cor. 6. 1. Wee then as workers together with God beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vaine And let it now be mine to you all and every of you who heare me this day I as a poore Minister of Christ working together with him as his unworthy Instrument exhort and beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain this Gospel grace the offer of grace mercy held forth uÌ„to you in the Ministerie of the word see that you do not receive it in vaine by onely giving it the hearing and so letting it dye and perish in the eare not having any such affect in and upon you as is intended by it viz. to bring you home unto God and Jesus Christ to receive and embrace him as your Saviour and Lord to beleive on him to submit unto him This is the end of all our preaching thus to some this good seede as the doctrine of truth is called Math. 13. 24. the seede of the word for the begetting of faith and obedience in the hearts of those that hear us Now see you to it that this seede doe not fall like that in the Parable which fell by the high way side Math. 13. 4. where the ground being hardned by the feere of the Passengers the seede cannot enter but lyeth above ground and so is sowen in vaine being spilt and lost Take heede that the word be not so spilt upon any of you that your hearts be not hardened against it that you should not receive it into them This is that which the Apostle presseth upon his Hebrewes Heb. 3. 7. 8 wherefore as the Holy-ghost saith Today if ye will heare his voice harden not your hearts And let me press the same upon you Today if you will heare the voice of the Sonne of man the voice of Jesus Christ so heare it as that you may live doe not harden your hearts doe not oppose doe not resist the call of God by shutting the word out of your hearts This did the Israelites in the wildernesse When God spake unto them by
his servant Moses they hardened their hearts not regarding what was sayd to them But what was the issue Hereby they exceedingly provoked God against them This was a day of Provocation as the Apostle there calleth it Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such was that day of Temptation in the wilderness the time where in the Israelites tempted their God by not hearkning to his voice it was a day of Exacerbation and Exasperation So it was not onely to Moses betwixt whome and the people there was a sharpe contention as we find it Exod. 17. 2. But also unto God who by that their not harkning to his voice was exceedingly greived as it there followeth Heb. 3. 10 yea so provoked and exasperated that he sware in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest v. 11. Now take you heede that it be not so with you that you doe not thus provoke God by hardning your hearts not receiving his word not imbracing his Gospel Which if you shall doe know that this will be a greater Provocation then that of theirs was So much you may learne from the Apostle Heb. 12. 25. Where upon this ground he exhorteth his Hebrewes to give eare to the Gospel See saith he that ye refuse not him that speaketh viz. Christ speaketh to you his word For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth the Israelites who hearkened not unto Moses much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from heaven viz from Iesus Christ who came from heaven and now speakes in and by his Gospel Ministeries And upon the same ground let me perswade you Take you heede how any of you turne away from Iesus Christ thus speaking unto you turn away your eares turn away your hearts so as not to receive not to imbrace the doctrine of the Gospel held forth unto you This if you shall do how know you but that God may justly retaliate and requite this contempt of yours by turning away his face from you for ever hiding from your eyes the things which belong unto your peace Which that he may not do Know you these things And that Now in this your day Now whilest it is called to day as the Apostle there hath it Heb. 3. 13. imbracing the present time Not putting off this work till the Morrow It is the Wisemans Councel Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth And St. Iames speaking to men who lay out their businesse what they will do such a day and such a year not considering what crosse providence may happen Go too now saith he Ye that say to day and to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be to morrow Such is the uncertainty of mans life that no man can assure unto himself the succeeding day And therefore now whilest it is called to day now harden not your hearts Novv that God is pleased to knock at the doores of your hearts to call upon you in and by the Ministerie of his word do not send him away as Foelix did Paul with a complement that you will hear him again another time What know you whether ever he will vouchsafe to speak unto you again so much as to your eares Probably here are some present before the Lord at this time who shall never hear him speak unto them again after this manner not speaking to their eares in the Ministery of his word But if he do hovv knovv you whether ever he vvill knock at the dores of your hearts by his spirit again And therefore novv hear and hearken and set open those everlasting dores the dores of your hearts that the King of glorie the Lord Jesus may enter in and take a full possession of them henceforth to rule and reign in you and that for ever Obj. But what need such haste May not old age be soon enough Do we not read of some who came into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour the last hour of the day and yet received their pennie as well as those that came in at the sixth or third or first houre Matthew 20. 6. A. True there were so But who were they Such as had not been called before That is their excuse when they were questioned by the Lord of the vineyard why they stood all the day idle They say unto him because no man hath hired us v. 7. And so it may be with those who either have wanted the means of salvation or else have had no such workings upon their hearts at to awaken them and convince them Possibly God may have mercie upon them as he had upon that penitent thief upon the Crosse calling them home at the last houre of the day in their old age But let not others promise to themselves the like indulgence Those who were brought into the vineyard at the eleventh hour were none of those that had been called at the first third or sixt houre but such as had not been hired before What ever may happen to others who have not enjoyed the means of grace or have not been acquainted with the Motions of the Spirit of God It is not for you who have injoyed the former and have been acquainted with the latter and yet withstand both to promise the like unto your selves No you that have rejected the call of God again and again in your Childhood Youth Manhood you have no ground to hope that God should come unto you and bring you home to himself in your old age but you may rather fear that if he do not cut you off before he should then hide from your eyes those things which formerly you have refused to know Obj. But is there not still hope so long as there is life And is not the day of life and the day of grace of an equal latitude and extent Doth not the Apostle say Now is the Accepted time now is the day of salvation meaning the time of this life 2 Cor. 6. 2. doth not the one last as long as the other A. Yes in some sense they may be said so to do And these two may be looked on as of an equal extent 1. Because the one is the utmost limit of the other The day of grace is bounded by the day of life not extending beyond it When the one is ended the other is ended also 2. As to others they are so to judg of it Not being of Gods counsel not acquainted with his secret decrees they are to hope well of others so long as they live Not shutting the door of mercie against any while they are here So long as private Christians both may and ought to pray for them so the Ministers of Christ are to hold forth the tenders of grace and mercie to them
upon Gospell tearmes 3. And 3ly as to themselves so long as they live they stand obliged to accept of these offers which still refusing to do their sin is therby aggravated and heightned through that continued contempt 4. But yet in the 4th place If we speak of Gods secret decree and purpose questionlesse the day of grace may determine unto a man before the day of his life So it did there to Ierusalem She still liveth and flourisheth for a time Her day of prosperity was yet continued but her day of grace was now at an end Now are these things hid from thine eyes And questionlesse so may it be with some particular persons whom God in his just judgment hath given up to final impenitence so delivering them up unto Satan and themselves as that from thenceforth they never shall know the things belonging to their peace Obj. But what then may some say may not this be our case And if so then it is in vain for us to strive to seek for what is not to be found to knock at that door which is shut uppon us as it shall not be opened A. In answer to this I shall deal as tenderly as I may so as I may not discourage or dishearten any soul that intertaines but a thought of returning and coming in unto God that begins so much as to cast a glance heaven-ward Wherein I shall do no other then what the Lord Jesus himself doth of whom it was prophecied that he should not quench the smoaking flax Matth. 12. 20. Such was and is the gracious lenity and clemency of the Lord Jesus in his dealing with poor sinners in whom there are as yet onely some weak desires after grace some slender beginnings of conversion and faith And so shall I deal with all such 1. Willing them in the first place to take notice what is their Rule to walk by Not the secret but the revealed will of God Secret things belong unto the Lord but those things which are revealed to us and to our children for ever Deut. 29. 29. This is that which we are to look at and take notice of And therefore let not any upon this account disquiet and trouble their own soules with such anxious disquisitions as neither they nor any other for them whether man or Angel is able to resolve But apply themselves to the use of means This will men do as concerning their temporall estates They ne-over stand prying into Gods decree to enquire what portion in his secret purpose he hath layed out for them but they set about the work of their calling applying themselves to the use of means And so do you touching your spirituall and eternall estates Stand not to enquire how God hath disposed of you in his secret purpose but go about the work of your general calling apply your selves to the use of such means as God hath appointed to bring you home to himself by so waiting upon his good will and pleasure This is that which the Lord requires you to do And therefore in obedience to his command do it with that Poor impotent person Iohn 5. lying at the pool untill the Angell shall come down and stir the waters attending upon Ordinances untill God by his spirit concurring with them shall please to work effectually by them inclining your hearts to look towards himself giving you a sight and sense of your own sinfulnesse and miserie making you to see and feel the need you have of Jesus Christ and heginning to draw your hearts towards him Which when you find let this be a comfortable evidence unto you that your day is not yet past Onely be not you now wanting to this grace of God in giving intertainment to these motions of the spirit in opening of the doore of your hearts that so the Lord Jesus who is now knocking at them may enter in Which in the feare of God be ye now perswaded to do Not knowing but that this may be the last knock this the last sermon that ever we shall heare or the last mention of the spirit that ever you shall feele Now therefore even now before you goe from this place strike up the Covenant betwixt Iesus Christ and your soules accepting and receiving him in all those Gospell Relations not onely as a Saviour casting your soules upon him so as to rest upon the al sufficiencie of his merit for the pardon of sin and eternall salvation but also as a Lord a Husband a Head giving your selves up unto him to be guided and governed by him by his word and Spirit so receiving him into your hearts as that he may dwell in you and rule over you and that for ever This being done now know you for your comfort that you are through grace and mercie exempted out of this black list out of the number of those from whose eies the things belonging to their peace are hid God having thus revealed his Sonne Christ not onely to you but in you as the Apostle saith of himself Gal. 1. 16. not onely revealed him to your eares but to your hearts as by his word so by his spirit inclining your hearts to close with him to receive him upon these Gospel tearms now he hath made you to know the things which belong unto your peace Which whilest he hath hid from others he hath revealed to you For which differencing mercie to close up all in a word blesse you God giving unto him the glorie of this his free grace which hath put such a difference betwixt you and others This doth our Saviour in the behalfe of his Disciples in the Text forecited Math. 11. 25. I thanke thei O father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes The great misteries of this Kingdome God had revealed them unto the poore and simpler sort of people the poore received the Gospell whilest in the meane time they were hid from the Scribes and Pharises men worldly wise and learned And this our Saviour there acknowledgeth to be his work an art of his meere good will and pleasure Even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight v. 26. And the like doe you for your selves Seeing God hath now revealed unto you those things which he hath hid from others many others who upon a Naturall or Civill account are far your betters being preferred before you as in place and estate so in understanding and worldly wisedome Give ye unto him the glorie of this mercie acknowledging it to be an art of his free grace a singular favour vouchsafed unto you For which let your soules for ever bless him prasing and magnifying him who hath thus now made you Children or light whereas others the greatest part of the world still sit in darknesse in the shaddow of death some of them having their eies already closed up so as they neither do nor ever
TWO TREATISES I. Three Sacred Emblems The Mystical Starres Sword Sunne in the Hand Mouth Face of the SON OF MAN II. TEARS for JERUSALEM OR The Compassionate Lamentation of a tender-hearted SAVIOUR over a rebellious and obdurate people Both lately delivered to the Church of God at Great YARMOUTH and now published as useful and seasonable By JOHN BRINSLEY Minister of the Gospel there London Printed by I. L. for Tho. Newberry over-against the Conduit in Cornhill by the Exchange 1656. THREE Sacred Emblems The Mystical Starres Sword Sunne in the Hand Mouth Face of the SON OF MAN Wherein is held forth the Authority Dignity Duty and Security of the Gospel Ministery with the efficacious and powerful opperations of the Word and Spirit of Iesus Cirist With divers other particulars useful at all times and some of them very seasonable for the present As they were lately delivered to the Church of God at Great Yarmouth by JOHN BRINSLEY Minister of the Gospel there TEXT Revel 1. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword And his countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength London Printed by I. L. for Tho. Newberry 1656. To my honoured and worthy Brethren the faithful dispensers of the Mysteries of Christ in the County of NORFOLKE And especially those who were Assistant or present at the late publick Ordination of Ministers in the City of Norwich November 14. 1655. Much esteemed in the Lord. HAving made choice of the three first Chapters of the Revelation to be the subject of a weekly Exercise in the place where God hath set me if he shall please so long to continue my life and liberty till I have finished this taske and having through his assistance passed through the first fifteene verses it pleased his providence so to dispose as that the sixteenth came to hand upon that verie day on which some and as I since understood many of you were assembled together for the Ordaining of certaine Candidates for the Ministery Being in number parallel to the Starres in my Text however one of them as it happeneth sometimes to the Starres appeared not With this providential Syncronisme I was then somewhat affected looking upon the Subject I had in hand as far more sutable to that audience where you then were and my self should have been had not bodily imfirmity not daring to conflict with the difficulty of the season hindred then that to which I was then preaching And hereupon it is that I have beene since induced to communicate unto you these my Meditations which here I put into your hands wishing that they may be as useful to you and others of my Brethren elsewhere as they are seasonable and needful for the present times I shall not neede to minde you of what I presume you cannot but be sensible what designes there are at this day on foote against your sacred function either to render it null or else contemptible either of which will serve the Devils and the Iesuites turne well enough for the exterpating of Gods true Religion Against these you shall finde that in this Treatise which serveth to animate and beare up your spirits Onely let it be your care to answer the first of these Emblems here held forth that you be Starres First such as are placed by God in the firmament of his Churh whereunto that Ordinance of a solemn Ordination is so necessary a requisite as that I suppose no moderate and well advised spirit will blame what you in this juncture of time have done though happily therein all things have not beene so regular as might have beene wished And being thus placed then let it be your care and indeavour to approve your selves in measure worthy of that honour shining as Starres giving light to this darksome world by your doctrine and example being like the Pleiades sweetly influentiall unto those over whom God hath set you And then with confidence put your selves into the hands of this Son of man committing your lives livelyhood Libertie labours to the care and custodie of this your Archbishop who being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chiefe Shepherd will have an eye as to the Sheepe so to the Shepherds In whose hand as I find you in my Text so I leave you resting Yarmouth Decem. 11. 1655. Your unworthy fellow labourer yet desirous to be found faithful John Brinsley THE Mystical Stars In the Right Hand of JESUS CHRIST REVEL 1. 16. And he had in his right hand seven Stars IN this and the three foregoing verses we have a Description of that Son of man which in Vision appeared unto his servant Iohn in the midst of the seven Golden caâ—dlâ—sticks the Lord Iesus in the midst of the Churches Him our Apostle here sets forth as by his Habit and attire verse 13. so by the several parts and members of his Body Three whereof you have in this verse whereof the Text is part viz. His hand his mouth his face or countenance It is the first of these I have now to deal with his Hand his Right hand with the Appurtenances what he had in it viz. seven stars And he had in his right hand seven stars Where our first Enquiry must be touching the Mysterie what was herein signified What by these Stars what by their being in the hand the right hand of this Son of Man Begin with the former About which if I had any time to waste I might shew you the several fancies and conceits of Expositors Some of which hereby understand seven Angels Angelical spirits such as they conceive those to have been which are said to stand before the throne of God verse 4. Others the Spirit of God that Spiritus septiformis whose gifts and graces are seven-fold many and manifold Others the seven Planets each of which they suit with some eminent person shining in his Generation But I shall not trouble you or my self with these fancies which I 〈◊〉 upon as not worth the mentioning seeing 〈◊〉 who best knew what it was that 〈…〉 hand himself explains the Mysterie Which 〈◊〉 doth expresly in the last verse of the 〈…〉 The seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches Not the tutelary Guardian Angels but the symbolical Angels the Mysteries of those seven Churches of Asia These are the stars here in the hand of Christ. Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not precious stores Orient gems which shine like stars So I find one conceâ—â—ing of it looking upon these as so many rings upon the right hand of this Son of man every of which should have a precious stone in it Applying it to the ministers of the Gospel who being faithful are as the Lord supposeth it concerning Ieconias Jer. 22. 24. Like the signet upon his right hand dear and precious unto him But let that go among the rest Take the word here as it founds in the proper and literal signification of it
Stars Such are the Ministers of the Gospel Mark it This is that which I am now to prosecute Gospel Ministers are stars Such was their Lord and Master Iesus Christ himself he was a Star There shall come a star out of Iacob saith Baâ—â—â—m in his prophecy concerning Christ Nâ—mb 24. 17. I am the bright and morning star saith Christ of himself Reâ— 22. 10. A Star having his birth manifested to the wise men by a Star Mat. 20 2. to shew that he was that star foretold A bright star excelling all others in glory and a morning star bâ—â—ging the day of grace and glory to the Church after the night of ignorance and misery And as the Master so the Servants They are also stars Such were the Apostles whom Saint Iohn saw so represented Râ—â—l 12. â— where he tells us of the woman 〈…〉 with the 〈◊〉 having the Moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars And who was this woman why the Church the true Church of Christ which being cloathed with the righteousness of Christ who is the Sun of righteousness and trampling under foot all earthly glory is beautified and adorned with the doctrine of the twelve Apostles who were as so many stars Such were they and such are their successors all the true Ministers of Jesus Christ. Gospel Ministers they are as stars So called and represented in regard of the resemblances betwixt the one and the other which are divers I shall onely single out some of the chief and principal which as I conceive to be most plain proper and genuine 1. Stars are set by God in the firmament of heaven So we find it Gen. 1. 16 17. He made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of heaven And even so hath he set the Ministers of the Gospel in the firmament of the Church which is often called by the name of Heaven So the Apostle setteth forth their original 1 Cor. 12. 28. God set some in the Church speaking of Gospel Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constituit he Constituted and appointed them to their places in the Church the Church Catholick visible for so it must be there understood So then a Gospel Ministry is a Divine Institution not a humane Invention He that set the stars in the firmament hath set his Ministers in the Church And he hath set them there as stars fixing and setling them by a perpetual ordinance That is the difference betwixt Stars and Comets Comets though they blaze for a time yet it is but for a time and that a short time but Stars are for perpetuity to continue to the end of the world Such Stars are the Ministers of the Gospel How else saith our Saviour what he doth that he will be with them to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. 2. Stars though they be set in the same firmament yet they have their several Orbs to move in And so is it with the Ministers of the Gospel though they be set in the same firmament of the Church being all Ministers of the same Church Catholick visible yet they have their several Orbs their several Charges committed and assigned to them for their inspection and oversight Thus Paul willeth the Elders the Ministers of Ephesus to feed the flock over which the holy Ghost had made them overseers Acts 20. 28. And thus those seven stars in the Text the Ministers of the seven Churches of Asia had their several Charges which were as their several Orbs. And so it is with ordinary Ministers That being one difference betwixt them and the Apostles The Apostles were universal Pastors having the care of all the Churches committed unto them This was Pauls daily cumbrance as he tels his Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. 28. Even the care of all the Churches Thus were they universal Bishops But so are not their successors That of the Bishop of Rome is but a groundless usurpation Ordinary Ministers have their severall charges 3. Stars have their different Altitudes and Magnitudes Some above others and some greater then others One star differeth from another star in glory 1 Cor. 15. 41. And so is it in the Gospell Ministerie In the firmament of the Church there are such different stars Ministers of different Orders and Dignities So much we may learne from the Apostle in that place forecited 1. Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church saith he first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. Severall Orders and Degrees So there were then And still there are severall Magnitudes even among Ordinarie Ministers Who differ in respect of theire gifts and ministeriall abilities even as one Star differeth from another in Glory Thus are these Stars set in the firmameut of the Church having their sevearll Orbes Altitudes and Magnitudes But wherefore are they thus set That is a fourth particular which I conceive to be here principally eyed and intended 4. Stars are set up for Lightes like so many Tapers in the firmament of heaven to give light to this inferiour world in the night season So you have the end of their first Creation set down Gen. 1. 16. God made the stars also and he set them in the firmament of heaven to give light unto the earth This is the office as of the Sun and the Moon so of the Stars to give light unto the earth and that in the night season And such is the office of the Ministers of the Gospel-God hath set them up in the firmament of the Church to a like end that they should be Lights So it is said of Iohn the Baptist He was a Burning and a shining light Ioh. 5. 35. And such all the Ministers of the Gospel either are or ought to be Ye are the light of the world saith our Saviour to his Apostles Mat 5. 14. True it is such all private Christians in their measure ought to be This is that which Paul saith of his Philippians Phil. 2 15. Yee doe shine or shine yee for so the word may be and is read either Indicatively or Imparatively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This they did or should have done But this the ministers of the Gospell ought to doe in a speciall manner They being Lights by office which requireth this at their hands that they should give light to others Which they are to doe two wayes By Doctrine and by Example 1. By Doctrine Holding forth to others the word of truth the word of Life that so those which yet sit in darkness may see a marveiloâ—s light This was Paules errand whereupon he was sent to the Gentiles viz. to open their eyes and so turne them from darkness to light Act 26. 18. Which he was to doe by preaching of the Gospell unto them whereby they might have their eyes opened to see the sinfulness and miserie of their natural condition and so might be brought to the light of Grace here