Act of sin doth not prevail against the habit of righteousness and much less above it So that the habit of righteousness cannot be captivated under an everlasting lethargie that it should alwaies forget its own act The Spirit of Christ which at first infused the habit so working in all those who belong to him that either they still retain the act of righteousness by their innocency or in due time recover it by their repentance God of his infinite mercy give unto us all this Spirit and continue unto us his own gift that we being his adopted sons may so honour and obey him as our Father that we may have the comfortable assurance of our adoption in this life and the glorious fruition of our inheritance in the life to come The one by the Spirit the other by the merits of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with the Father in the unity of the same Spirit one God world without end Amen Christ received in the state of true Christianity CAP. I. Of the state of true Christianity SECT I. The happiness of Christians who have their conversation with Christ That lovers of themselves or of the world have not this happiness For though Christ speaks to all yet he answers only to good Christians that is to Sheep not to Wolves to Christians not to Heathens for such he accounteth all Persecutors teaching the one to their instruction and contentation the other only to their conviction and condemnation the reason why so many Christians come not to the state of true Christianity IT is the special priviledge of Christians not only to have their appellation or name from Christ the eternal Son of God but also to have their Religion from him and their conversation with him The Jews could begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with God and the Heathen learned it from them But we Christians can begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the salvation of God even with Jesus who had that name from salvation for he shall save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. Happy soul that is so well acquainted with the dialect of heaven as to understand the language of Jesus and so wholly taken up with that acquaintance as to maintain familiar colloquies with him to hear and to know and to love his voice For if the Psalmist could say with great admiration and greater comfort O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Then much more O how amiable art thou O Lord who makest thy dwellings so The hope of men and the joy of Angels the salvation of earth and the beauty of heaven No wonder if it follow in the next verse My soul hath a desire and a longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh rejoyce in the living God But where is the soul that enjoyeth this happiness for even one of his Apostles who daily seemed to converse with him enjoyed it not Saint John plainly excludes him in these words Judas saith unto him not Iscariot John 14. 22. As if the Spirit of God had been afraid least we should think that a Traytor could familiarly converse with Christ though he dipped with him in the same dish or have any comfort from that conversation Tremelius glosseth the word Iscariot two waies mercede inducitur ad defectionem ultro declinavit ad strangulationem Mat. 10. 4. The hopes of gain made him a Traitor the thought of his treason made him hang himself Such was this Iscariot A man whose heart was so settled and fixed on money as to sell his Saviour for the love of it Therefore he could not comfortably and much less familiarly converse with Christ by questions and answers For he durst not ask Christ a question to be informed of his Doctrine for fear the answer should have proved an Indictment to convine him of his treason whereof he knew himself already guilty in his heart which made him afraid least he should disclose the same who was the searcher of hearts Therefore he desired not to make any particular addresses to his Master when as the other Judas who had none of this Treachery or covetousness did as it were continually hang upon his lips and was wholly ravished with his Doctrine saying within himself How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter then honâ—y to my mouth Psal 119. v. 103. And accordingly our blessed Saviour answers the Jude but not the Iscariot answers the Confessor but not the Traytor For Jude was a name imposed from confession and praise Now will I praise the Lord therefore she called his name Judah Gen. 29. 35. that is praise or confession whence the Vulgar Latine doth often say Confitebor tibi Domine I will confess unto thee O Lord for I will praise thee O Lord because the same word in the Hebrew signifies both confession and praise Be it so then Christ will answer one that confesseth him but he will not answer one that betrayeth him This is the reason that though he speak so loud yet so few hear his voice That though his love be greatly extended yet it is but little diffused in our hearts For though he be most lovely in himself yet is he not so to them whose breast is filled with another love The Text tells us of a fourfold lover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lover of himself A lover of his pleasure A lover of his profit and A lover of his God The first lover will not hearken to Christs voice for self-self-love and saviour-Saviour-love cannot be together since self ends and Saviour-ends are so far asunder The second and third lovers though they may a little hearken to Christs voice yet they cannot much regard it for if any man love the world that is his pleasure or his profit the whole world consisting of nothing else the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15. It is only the last lover the lover of God who heareth Christs voice and rejoyceth to hear it for every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 1 John 5. 1. To such lovers he will not only speak but he will also answer which shews a familiarity of speaking For though he speak to very many yet he answers to very few that is only to those who are willing to discourse and advise with him He speaks to all that are Christians by outward profession calling aloud to them now in his Word as once he did to the Jews in his person and saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Mat. 4. 1. But he answers only to Christians by inward affection because indeed they only do hear his voice for why should he answer to those that will not give him the hearing Thus himself hath told us my sheep hear my voice John 10. 27. He must be a sheep that will hear the voice of Christ not a wolf one more ready
Rom. 10. 12. as if it were as absurd to think God not rich unto all that call upon him as to think him not Lord over all wherefore as no Christian Church can doubt of his being Lord over them so neither of his being rich towards them unless we will say that Saint Paul did by this argument take away the difference betwixt the Jew and the Gentile that he might set it up betwixt Christians That he took it away betwixt men of two different Religions to set it up betwixt men of one and the same Religion whereas the contrary is evident from his doctrine for though he said explicitely yet he said not exclusively To all that be in Rome Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 7. for he extended the same benediction to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 2. not thinking it so little as to be confined to one place Let us observe his words Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 2 3. He tells us of a Church of God in Corinth as well as in Rome and in other places as well as in Corinth which are sanctified and called to be Saints the one as well as the other and he proves it because the Lord Jesus whose name they call on is both theirs and ours therefore have they Grace and peace from him as well as we And the like is Saint Peters doctrine when he saith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 34 35. He saith of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons not that he had first perceived it for Moses had perceived the same before and had told the Jews so For the Lord your God is God of Gods which regardeth not persons Deut. 10. 17. But S. Peter perceived it better then Moses For Moses did only see that God would not overvalue the Jew because of his being circumcised in the flesh if in his heart he remained uncircumcised But Saint Peter did moreover see and t is a wonder his Successors will not see it after him That God would not undervalue the Gentiles confining them all to the dictates and documents of one particular Church But that in every nation they who would fear him and work righteousness should be accepted with him Nor is this indefinite manner of speech he that feareth him a warrant for every Schismatick and Sectary to set up a new Church of his own making for such men do neither truly fear God because not in his Authority nor work righteousness because not according to his commands For if they work for righteousness in the first Table by renouncing superstition they work against righteousness in the Second Table by setting up sedition And working against righteousness in the second Table they cannot either truly or rightly work for righteousness in the first Table So saith Saint James who soever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2. 10. The reason is because he that can despise the authority of the Law-giver by a voluntary breach or violation of any one of his commandments cannot observe the rest out of duty or obedience for the same Authority commanding all requires the same duty and obedience to all And therefore he that willfully rejects but one embraceth the rest more out of conveniency then out of conscience more for his own then for Gods sake more for his self-interest then or his Saviours glory SECT V. That the certainty in true Christianity or the state thereof is from the Word and Spirit of Christ The uncertainty from our selves and of doubtings in good Christians concerning their state that some are by way of admiration others by way of infirmity but none by way of infidelity THE certainty that is in true Christianity or the state thereof is wholly from the word and Spirit of Christ the uncertainty is wholly from our selves For what shall we be sure of if not of our Religion What certainty can we have but of truth What truth can we have so certain as the truth of Christian Religion grounded upon the word of truth and testified by the spirit of truth Therefore doubtless the state of true Christianity cannot be capable of any doubt in it self but only in regard of us that profess to be Christians For Saint Paul tells the Colossians of a full assurance of understanding in the knowledge of Christ Colossians 2. 2 And Christian faith is in its own nature more sure and certain then any humane science whatsoever though in us it often hath a less proportion of certainty For Faith in it self looks wholly on Gods infallibility though in us it partake of and sympathize with mans infirmity Therefore the doubt the uncertainty is not in the Religion but in the professor of it T is not in the thing but in the person as for example t is without all doubt that true Christianity is to love Christ the doubt is only whether we that are Christians do truly love him But is it lawful for us to make this doubt of our selves who by our inordinate self-self-love have caused all the world besides to make it of us Doth not the Apostle bid us receive him that is weak in the faith not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14. 1. And shall we think he would have us oppress a weak faith in our own selves by doubting I answer out of Bonaventures words in 3. sent dist 25. Quod triplex est modus duâ—itandi Est enim quaedam dubitatio proveniens ex infidelitate sicut dubitaverunt Iudaei est dubitatio proveniens ex tarditate sicut dubitaverunt Discipuli quibus dicitur Lucae ultimo O stulti tardi corde ad credendum est dubitatio proveniens ex pietate sicut quam aliquis ex magna admiratione ad modum dubitantes se habet There is a threefold manner of doubting one that proceedeth from infidelity so the Jews doubted of Christ and of his Doctrine Another that proceedeth from infirmity so the two Disciples that went to Emmaus doubted of Christs Resurrection to whom it was therefore said O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. A third doubting there is that proceedeth from piety because of astonishment and admiration which makes a man to seem to doubt what he doth most stedfastly believe And such a doubting we read of in the blessed Virgin Then said Mary unto the Angel How shall this thing be seeing I
God the searcher of hearts hath reserved the knowledge of the invisible Church only to himself and requireth all Christians to join in communion with that visible Church wherein they live if so be that therein is preserved the outward sincere profession of Gods truth and worship and the right administration of his Sacraments which is a condition not to be excepted against unles we will deny men the use of reason there only where they most want it in the choice of their religion and yet allow it in the choice of their Church and think it enough for them to serve God according to the dictates of others consciences when we are sure they shall be acquitted or condemned in the last judgement according to the dictates of their own Wherefore we must allow an outward sincere profession of Gods truth and word and a right administration of his Sacraments to the constitution of that visible Church which obligeth us to her communion as a member of the true Catholick Church And if we cannot make it appear out of the written Word of God that our own Church is faulty in either of these we may not forsake her communion since by vertue of these she is to us instead of the Catholick Church and by authority of the Catholick Church bindeth us to her communion For if we acknowledge our Church to be Catholick in her profession which we are bound to do unless we can prove the contrary we must also acknowledge her to be Catholick in her obligation because where is unquestionable purity there must be unquestionable Authority unless we will say that Religion is a matter of indifferency and leaves men at their liberty either to practice or to despise it as they please This was not the opinion of the Primitive Christians of whom it is said And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Acts 2. 42. They thought themselves bound to continue stedâ—astly in that communion wherein was a sincere profession of Gods truth and worship here expressed by doctrine and Prayers and a right administration of the Sacraments here expressed by breaking of bread And so must we likewise think our selves bound to continue stedfastly in their Communion who succeed the Apostles in the publick exercise of the same religious duties or deny that this Scripture was written for our learning So that unless it be evident to us that the Church wherein we live is faulty either in doctrine or in Prayers or in administration of the Sacraments we may not recede from her communion without being guilty of schism and faction and then Saint Augustine unless you will say Fulgentius was the author of that book will tell us our doom in these words Firmissime tene nullatenus dubites non solùm omnes Paganos sed etiam omnes Judaeos Haereticos atque Schismaticos qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam praesentem finiunt vitam in ignem aeternum ituros qui paratus est diabolo angelis ejus Aug. de fide ad Patr. Daph. c. 38. You must firmly believe and in no wise doubt that not only all Pagans but also all Jews and Hereticks and Schismaticks who end this present life out of the communion of the Catholick Church shall go into that eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For he that willfully lives and dies out of the communion of his own Church being a true member of the Catholick lives and dies at least in the perverse disposition of his soul out of the communion of the Catholick Church and consequently lives and dies in the state of damnation so neerly doth it concern every Christian not to break communion with his own Church unadvisedly and undeservedly for that is in effect to break communion with the Catholick Church but to try the Spirits whether they are of God and to know there is no warrantable disobedience of that command Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace unless it be evident That the Spirit is not of God And yet even in that case men ought to be very cautelous and wary that they so forsake the communion of the Church as not to disturb the peace of it for that was all that those seven thousand did who bowed not their knee to Baal in the general defection of the Church of Israel 1 King 19. 18. And that is all we are bound to do in the like case if we will have Gods mark set upon us to preserve us from wrath in the day of wrath for so saith the Prophet Ezekiel Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof sc of Jerusalem Ezech. 9. 4. Sighing and crying for those abominations we cannot help is enough to discharge us from the guilt of them and this may be done if not without making of a noise yet sure without making of any tumult And this is according to Saint Augustines advice Misericorditer corripiat homo quod potest quod autem non potest patienter ferat dilectione gemat atque lugeat donec aut ille desuper emen det corrigat aut usque ad mâ—ssem differat eradicare zizania palâ—am ventilare ut tamen securi de salute sua bonae spei Christiani inter desperatos quos corripere non valent in unitate versentur auferant malum à seipsis id est ut in ipsis non inveniatur quod in moribus aliorum eis displicet Aug. lib. 3. contra Parmen cap. 2. Let every man correct what he can with mildness and what he cannot let him bear with patience And let him sigh and mourn in love till God from above amend what is amiss or at the harvest pluck up the tares and blow away the chaff yet that Christians who have a good hope may without danger of their own salvation live in unity among those desperate wretches whom they cannot amend let every man reform one that he may not find that in himself which he dislikes in another This is the safest way for every particular man to be sure not to be out of the communion of the Catholick Church and yet not to be in the corruptions of his own Church For he that sighs for the abominations shews he loves Gods truth and he that only sighs shews he loves his neighbours peace His love to Gods truth will keep him in the actual communion of the Catholick Church his love to his neighbours peace will not let him violate the communion of his own Church although he refuse to communicate in its corruptions It is not to be doubted but holy David all the while he lived in Sauls house or was afterwards driven from Jerusalem was under the affliction and temptation of evil company yet he saith of himself I have walked in my integrity I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go
that Christian joy The first part is Christ Preached The second part is Christ Practised The third part must be your own that is Christ Purchased which from the bottom of his heart and in the bowels of Christian Charity he wisheth unto you who is Your Brother and Servant in Christ E. H. A Prayer in honour of Christs Nativity OBlessed Jesus thou Lover and Redeemer of souls God manifest in the flesh who camest unto men and didst become man to bring true light into the world from the Father of Lights grant we beseech thee unto us miserable sinners so to glorifie thee for thy coming to us and being in us and reigning over us that though of our selves we are in darkness and in the shadow of death yet in thee we may come to see the true light of Grace and by thee may come to enjoy the true light of Glory to glorifie thee eternally who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God eternal world without end Amen A short Scheme of the whole Christ welcomed in his Nativity Hath three Chapters The first sheweth the Motives of that welcome The second sheweth the Reasons of that welcome The third sheweth the joyful manner of that welcome CAP. 1. Shewing the Motives of Christs welcome from God and from Gods Church both Triumphant and Militant Hath fifteen Sections Sect. 1. CHrists image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire tâ—… Christ should be formed in us Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation Sect. 2. Christs humiliation was in the fulness of time Sect. 3. The fulness of time in which Christ came to humble himself was the perfection of time Sect. 4. God observed the fulness of time for the sending of Christ to fill our souls with Patience and with Piety which two make up the true Christians fulness Sect. 5. The authority of God and of his Church for a solemn Festival to celebrate the coming of Christ and that the Church did no more then her Duty in appointing that Festival and an Advent Sunday to prepare for it and that we cannot justly or safely gainsay that Appointment Sect. 6. Christmass no superstitious word and Christmass-day observed not for it self but for its duty takes off all controversies and can fall under no just exceptions and may not fall under any unjust cavils much less calumnies Sect. 7. The difference betwixt a Iewish and a Christian observation of daies This latter is a moral part of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal Sect 8. To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to Iews keeping them from Christianity Sect. 9. The Iews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaneness especially that profaneness or irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ Sect. 10. That those Christians who oppose Christmass-day do give occasion to other good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion Sect. 11. The first Christmass-day was kept by the holy Angels therefore no will-worship in keeping Christmass but rather a necessity to keep it from Heb. 1. 6. The Kingdom of Christ as Creator and as Redeemer Sect. 12. We must embrace all opportunities of glorifying Christ that we may not be thought to desert either our Saviour or our selves whiles we are defective in our Devotions either for want of Preparation before them which hath hitherto made us so bad Christians in so good a Churâ—â— or of Affection in them which will keep us from being good Christians or of Thankfulness after them which will keep us from worthily magnifying the name of Christ Sect. 13. A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it Sect. 14. Everlasting thankfulness is due to God for this everlasting mercy Sect. 15. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Iews not destroyed and Time not untimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son And no other should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him CAP. 2. Shewing the Reasons of Christs welcome because of the infinite love of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bestowed on man in his Redemption Hath nine Sections Sect. 1. GOds first gift to man was his love in Christ his second Gift was Christ in our nature No Gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love Not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best temporal the other the best Spiritual Gift Sect. 2. Gods love in Christ though it be Universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the Obligation Sect. 3. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his Consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life Sect. 4. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without Success though his Churches love to us in daily Praying for us and teaching us to pray for our selves often proves unsuccessful And yet our best proof that God hath loved us in Christ is That we love him again both in his Authority and in his Ordinances and in his Members Sect. 5. Gods love to us in Christ was not in vain or without a cause for as much as Christ was the ground of our Election as well as the Author of our Reconciliation More men Reconciled by Christ to God then Recommended to Him Or more men reconciled Potentially then Actually Sect. 6. Gods love in Christ is not a fond love therefore he scourgeth whom he loveth The Christian Church not taught in the New Testament to expostulate for being scourged though she be crucified as Christ was between two thieves Sect. 7. Christs love to us that he would come from the bosom of his Father to teach and to redeem us The title of the chief corner-stone blasphemously applyed to his pretended Vicar Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Ex-apostle one sent out of God Sect. 8. Tht mother of Christ so a Woman as still a Virgin The Prayer of the seventy Interpreters Christs love to us that he would be made the Son of a woman whereby he hath exalted men above Angels A mercy not to be forgotten till there be no man to remember it That the Iews corrupted not the Text proved from the Prophecies concerning Christ Sect. 9. Christs love to us that he would be made under the Law That man is a Son of Belial not a Member of Christ who will not be under the Law All good Christians follow Christ both in Active and in Passive obedience CAP. 3. Shewing the joyful manner of Christs welcome as proceeding from joy in the Holy-Ghost
wil-worship and superstition That the general equity of the Levtical Law as far as it was not Typical is still in force concerning the solemnities of Religion and that approves Anniversary as well as weekly Festivals Sect. 4. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about duties then about days doth not overthrow the observing of particular days in the service of God And that those days ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring the Sacraments and also by Alms-deeds so that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false devotions and false doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are all alike profanations of a Festival Sect. 5. The practice of the Primitive Christians in observing the Feast of Easter and that there was no superstition in that practice Sect. 6. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection And hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duty which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our redemption by Christ and is the Principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords day then the Sabbath Sect. 7. That Sunday hath a better Title to holiness and unchangeableness as the Lords Day then as the Sabbath And that the Lords Day and the Lords labourers or Ministers are both to continue to the worlds end by virtue of Gods command in general and of Christs determination and institution in particular Sect. 8. That Sunday as the Lords Day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths Sect. 9. The fourth Commandment was not given to limit the First and therefore excludes not other Festivals shewing our true love of Christ but rather commands them The true manner of observing any Christian Festival particularly Easter is to account and make it a day of observations by observing our selves and our Saviour Our selves what we have been what we are what we desire to be Our Saviour what he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will be in his Retribution Sect. 10. That the end of this and of all other Christian Festivals is our spiritual Communion with Christ and therefore they ought to be celebrated more with spiritual then with carnal joys that though our carnal joys are greater in their proportion yet our spiritual joys are greater in their foundation Sect. 11. A zealous observation of this Christian Festival proceedeth from the true love of our Redeemer and thankfulness for our redemption A set form of praise fittest to express that thankfulness CAA. 2. That God is to be adored only in Christ Hath four Sections Sect. 1. THat no man whilst he is in the state of sin cares to come neer God and that Adam after his sin could not have adored God rightly if Christ had not been revealed to him as the propitiation for his sins Sect. 2. That no Religion adoreth God rightly which adoreth him not in Christ and of the excellencies of the Christian Religion That no other Religion teacheth such conformable truths to right reason declareth an expiation for sin promiseth so great a reward sheweth so pure a worship or so innocent a conversation Sect. 3. The reason why God cannot be rightly adored but only by Christians is because he cannot be truly known and loved but only by those who know and love him in Christ The true way to gain that knowledge and to shew and keep that love is universal obedience both to his affirmative and negative precepts without which there can be no saving knowledge of God That the Christians do know and worship God in Christ cleerly and substantially and that the Jews did so know and worship him in Types and Figures so that the Jewish and the Christian Religion differ not in substance but only in degrees of perfection Sect. 4. That those Christians who adore God by any other Mediator then by Christ alone do not rightly adore him And that those who do rightly adore him ought not to be discouraged in their Religion and much less be deterred from it Christ glorified in his Ascension Hath a Prooem and three Chapters The Proeem That our blessed Saviours Ascension is not so truly observed by our Commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the history of his Ascension The first Chapter is Christ considered before his Ascension The second Chapter is Christ considered whilst he was Ascending The third Chapter is Christ considered after he was Ascended CAP. 1. Christ considered before his Ascension Hath three Sections Sect. 1. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions Sect. 2. The Apparition to above five hundred at once cleared And Christ considered in his instructions before he Ascended That those instructions are more particularly to be observed as more directly conducing to the Constitution and the conservation of his Church Those instructions briefly explained as they are set down Mat. 28. 19 20. Sect. 3. That the words which our Saviour Christ spake to his Apostles before he ascended may be reduced to these three heads Words of instruction consolation benediction That the effect of them all is registred in the Text not left to unwritten Tradition That the Apostles though thus instructed comforted and blessed yet preached not the Gospel till the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them whereby they had not only ability but also authority or Mission and Commission in a full degree CAP. 2. Christ considered whilst he was ascending Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THat the words used to express Christs ascension did manifest his twofold claim or title to heaven the one by inheritance as God the other by merit or purchase as man And that Christ in his ascension wrought a twofold miracle one in the conquest of Earth the other in the conquest of Heaven and what comfort and benefit redounds to us Christians from these Titles and these Miracles Sect. 2. The time of Christs ascension particularly named in the Text and the observation of that Day is founded upon the practise of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as precept why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the ascension was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence Sect. 3. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended
he did rest He made the Sun Moon and Stars nor do I read there that he did rest But I read that when he had made man he did rest because â—e then had one to whom he could forgive sins God was not at rest till he had made man to whom he might forgive sins And after he had made him he was not at rest till he had forgiven him O my soul how canst thou be at rest till thou hast asked and obtained forgiveness God accounts the Perfection of Time not from his Power whereby he created the world but from his mercy whereby he redeemed it as if the creation of the whole world had been imperfect without man and the creation of man had been imperfect without his Redemption and all other Time not worth the notice save only that which Christ honoured with his coming for whose only sake Time it self deserved to be continued and not to be Untimed after men had corrupted it For as no satisfactory reason can be given why God destroyed not the whole people of the Jews in their so many Idolatries Rebellions and Apostasies but only that Christ was to come of their Nation So neither why Time it self should not have been destroyed long before Christs coming for the outragious sins and villanies which were acted by men but only that Christ was promised to come in it And so likewise for the same reason is Time still continued notwithstanding all the defections of wicked men from God and their defiances against God because Christ may not lose the end of his coming which was to save Repentant sinners so saith Saint Peter The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise but is long suffering to us-ward not willing That any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. His will is That since his Son hath been pleased to take upon him the nature of man both sinful man should come to Repentance and Repentant sinners should come to salvation Thus in Gods account That is only the Perfection of Time wherein he gives Christ and why not also in ours that wherein we receive him For in truth all the Time of our life is but an imperfect Time till we have gained Christ There may be the Perfection of the natural man before but not of the spiritual man till he come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. All the Time of our life though we live to Methuselah's Age is but imperfection of Time till with good old Simeon we come by the Spirit into the Temple and there see and embrace the Lord Christ Luke 2. 27 28. And then our life though never so short will immediately be so compleat and perfect that we may pray for a nunc dimittis and say Lord now at this very instant without any longer stay Lord new lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Saint Paul tells the Galathians plainly that though never so aged in themselves yet they were but meer children in his account till Christ was formed in them Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you Did we truly believe this and seriously reflect upon our own belief we would look much less after the man and much more after the Christian Less after our selves more after our Saviour Less after our Interests more after our Devotions Since that only is to be accounted a perfect Time which Christ by his presence did once make so in the world and still is pleased to make so in our hearts Nor is it any disparagement to those heavenly Spheres by whose revolution Philosophy hath taught us to measure the duration of earthly things to say That though Time do borrow its continuance from heaven yet it borrows its Perfection only from the God of Heaven The continuance of Time leads to death but the perfection of Time leads to everlasting life This moment in it self is not a part of fleeting Time but in its good employment it is no less then a blessed eternity The motion of the first mover is exceeding glorious in the heavens but it is much more glorious in our hearts I will admire that motion because it produceth Time but I will rejoyce and acquiesce in this motion because it produceth eternity For this is the motion which alone affords rest unto my soul whiles I consider my blessed Saviour humbling himself but exalting and raising me O thou blessed moneth of December wherein the earth gives us nothing but heaven hath given us all things having given us him who is All in All CAP. II. Containing the Reasons of Christs welcome the infinite love of God the Father and of God the Son and Holy Ghost in our Redemption SECT I. Gods first gift to man was his Love in Christ His second gift was Christ in our nature No gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best Temporal the other the best Spiritual gift WE have passed through the Porch called Beautiful Acts 3. 2. wherein all mankind lame from their mothers womb had a long time laid expecting alms of the Son of God when he should please to enter into the Temple of his body Let us now go into the Sanctuary and there contemplate and consider the infinite Love of God which caused him to send his only Son for our Redemption and we shall never want Thankful hearts to bid him welcome nor Pious Hearts to make a right and conscionable use of his coming That as he came at first for our Redemption so he may come at last for our salvation And this Part of Christian Divinity hath been taught us by Christ himself not only by his Spirit as all the rest but also with his own mouth Saint John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Where it is evident That the cause why Christ was given to man was no other but only the love of God And consequently the grand Reason of our joyfully receiving this gift must be this That it proceeded from Gods infinite and undeserved love towards us For Gods first gift to man was his love in his Son His second gift was his Son in our nature So saith Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 9. According to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Gods first gift was grace given us in Christ his second gift was Christ given us in our flesh And the Master of Scholastical subtilties makes this a rule of sound Reason as well as of sound Religion Inter omnia dona dantis primum donum quod dat quisquis dare potest est Amor ejus quem primo dat amato quia est ratio cujuscunque alterius doni nihil enim habet rationem doni nisi in quantum
cadit sub actu Amoris Scotus in 1. lib. sent dist 18. The first gift which every one gives to him whom he loves is his love which is indeed the only reason of all his other gifts for nothing can have the nature of a gift but as it proceeds from love And therefore God first gives us his love before he gives us any thing else and he gives nothing as a blessing but what he gives in love as for example Government is the best temporal gift to any Nation yet given in anger is no blessing and consequently no gift so saith the Prophet Dedi Regem iratus eis Hos 13. 11. I gave them a King in mine anger This was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A gift that was no gift because not given in love And as it is in Regal so also in Popular Government as appears from the 94. Psalm the 20. ver For whether we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Septuagint A Throne of wickedness when Kings and Princes sit thereon or sedes iniquitatis with the Vulgar Latine a seat or stool of wickedness when mean People are got up to it it is still a curse not a blessing if the Government be not given in love For then whosoever be the Governors They will imagine mischief as a Law and gather them together against the soul of the righteous and condemn innocent blood So Musculus an excellent Protestant Divine glosseth those words of the Psalmist That they do note unto us judiciary meetings of wicked men to oppress the Righteous and to Condemn innocent blood by vertue of some unjust Laws or Constitutions not at consensus Judiciarios Hominum iniquâ—rum qui ad hoc conglobantur ut Justâ—s opprimerent sanguinem innocentem vigore Legum injustarum condemnarent Thus that Author glosseth upon the place and we cannot gainsay his gloss since it is undeniable that truth and righteousness doth hold only of Christ not of mans Government whether it be by one or by many Again the Gospel of Christ is the best spiritual gift that can be given to any People yet given not in love oft-times proves no Blessing and consequently no gift Like Manna to the Israelites in Psal 78. Manna was a type of Christ so owned by Christ himself Joh. 6. 32. That was the Typical this is the real Bread from Heaven which nourisheth our souls to eternal Life And it is with this as it was with that bread with the Gospel of Christ as it was with the Manna If given not in love but in anger it will scarce turn to our spiritual nourishment And we may justly fear it is now with the Gospel as it was then with that Manna God gives it without his love to those that either tempt him in their hearts as the Jews did ver 18. asking meat for their lusts looking after the Word more for curiosity then for conscience or that tempt him with their mouths as the Jews did ver 19 20. They spake against God and said Can God furnish a Table in the wilderness can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people A sin that contentious men are too much guilty of who in the midst of Eden cry out as if they were in in a wilderdess in the midst of plenty repine as if they were in want they do in effect say that God cannot prepare them a table good enough unless their own hands help to make it or will not prepare them a table soon enough unless they overhasten his preparation To complain against God instead of rendring humble hearty thanks unto him to complain against him out of meer wantonness not out of any want save only of a thankful heart within our selves is to do as the Jews did in this place and then we must look to fare as they did for a fire was kindled amongst them and anger came up against them ver 21. And if we make God angry as they did we cannot but expect to feel the same sad effects of his Anger as it is said ver 30 31. But while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fastest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel Just so is it with those that are of a quarrelsom religion that will not receive Christ in the way that God offers him they commonly have Christ not in love but in anger not to make them the more happy but the more inexcusable not to make them the better Christians but to bring them under a stricter account for their defiance of Christ and their abuse of Christianity they know more of their Masters will but it is to do the less of it that so they may be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. Nay indeed they know less of their Masters will though they would be thought to know more of it For those know least of Christ who seek to know most of him by contention and by faction since he that said learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11. 29. will never take contention for meekness nor faction for lowliness and therefore will not teach such as love to be contentious and factions Saint Paul indeed tell us of some who preached Christ out of Envy Phil. 1. 15 16. but he doth not tell us of any that ever learned him so he said to the Galatians Christ shall profit you nothing and Christ is become of none effect to you Gal. 5. 24. but he had given the reason of that saying before he said it in the first chapter and sixth and seventh ver I marvail that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ wherefore let those that make nothing of removing from the Church by which they have been called to the Grace of Christ take heed lest they cause Christ to remove himself and his Gospel from them let those that surfet of one Christ take heed they have not many Christs for one for there are many false Christs spoken of Mat. 24. 24. who though they shall not deceive the elect who are constant to themselves and to their Saviour yet may not onely deceive and delude but also destroy the wicked that love to gad after their own Inventions and please themselves in their own imaginations For Christ himself if he be indeed given to such men is not given in love and that is the reason that he profits them nothing and becomes of none effect to them though to others he be all in all working with great power to the establishment of their hearts here and with greater mercy to the salvation of their souls hereafter SECT II. Gods love in Christ though it be universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the obligation IT is observable that Saint Paul first rejoyceth in the
love and then in the gift of Christ Gal. 2. 20. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me First he gave me his love then he gave me himself for even himself had been no gift to me without his love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom What dost thou say blessed Apostle did he love thee only did he give himself only for thee no he loved the whole nature of man all the world besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I think my self as much bound to my Saviour as if he had only loved me and given himself only for me I think my self as much bound to live to him as if he had died only for me and to give my self as entirely to him as if he had given himself onely for me A large soul which can readily comprehend much more which doth willingly embrace and entertain the obligation of the whole world and yet there is no Christians soul but must be thus enlarged For Gods love in Christ though universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the obligation obliging every particular man to love the Lamb of God as if he had been slain only for his sake as if in him alone he had taken away the sins of the world For indeed in him alone be he never so righteous hath he taken away both the sin of the world and a world of sin the sin of the world that is the original corruption contracted in his nature and a world of sin that is a numberless number of actual transgressions committed in his person SECT III. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life WE have seen Gods eternal love given us in Christ the main reason of our Christian joy and we must now endeavour to see the fruits and effects of that love that we may accordingly rejoyce in him even in our blessed Saviour And truly Saint Paul makes eternal life to spring from no other root but only from this root of Jesse when he saith in his Epistle to Titus cap. 1. v. 2. That God promised eternal life before the world began I ask to whom did he promise it Saint Hierom thinks to the Angels but they not having been before the world it was impossible a promise made before the world began should be made to them It is much safer to say That this promise of eternal life was made to our blessed Saviour in our stead and that God the Father promised to God the Son before the world began That as many as should live according to the Faith of Gods Elect and the acknowledgment of the Truth which is after Godliness should in him have eternal life For thus the same Saint Paul makes a dialogue betwixt God the Father and God the Son in the Love and Communion of God the Holy Ghost to which the Angels were not admitted Heb. 1. 13. To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool And the Psalmist tells us plainly the persons that were in this Dialogue saying The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand c. Psal 110. v. 1. whence we may safely conclude that there was a great consultation betwixt God the Father Son and Holy Ghost concerning the Redemption of mankind from the vassalage of sin and Satan and what can we think was the ground of this Consultation but only Gods everlasting love to us in our Redeemer SECT IV. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without success though his Churches love to us in praying for us and teaching us to pray for our selves often proves unsuccessful And yet our best proof that God hath loved us in Christ is that we love him again both in his Authority and in his Ordinances and in his Members GOD will have love for love and never casts away his love in vain Man may love where he may be hated for his pains it fared so of old with the best of men the Church of God among the Iews whose sad complaint is registred Psal 109. 3. 4. for the love that I had unto them lo they take now my contrary part but I give my self unto prayer Thus have they rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will we may be sure this complaint was made by the Church for none else could say but I give my self unto Prayer or as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I am Prayer save onely the Church which being more peculiarly consecrated to the service of God knew Her self bound more then any other to Pray Continually Thus it is said of the singers chief of the Fathers of the Levites who remaining in the chambers were free for they were imployed in that work day and night 1 Chron. 9. 33. that is to say in the work of singing Gods praises according to that of the 134. Psalm ver 1. Behold now Praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord ye which by night stand in the house of the Lord. But least we should think that these words they were imployed in that work day and night did only shew the continual obligation of the Levites duty not their continued actual discharge thereof we are told the particular times of the day and night wherein they did actually discharge the same 1 Chron. 23. 28 30. Their office was to wait for the service of the house of the Lord and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at even It was their office every morning and evening to sing Gods praises publickly in Gods house and not to content themselves only with and much less to confine themselves only to their Sabbath as if God by claiming or challenging that day had thereby denyed and rejected all the rest Had this practice of praising God daily in the Temple been superstition or will-worship in the Jewish Church we should have found it not commanded and commended but reproved and reformed by their Pious Kings and Prophets for their Kings did not reform without the advice of their Prophets but not finding this Practise Reproved or Reformed by them how comes it among some Christians to be accounted as a main Piece of their Reformation to shut up the doors of Gods house all the week daies and to open them only upon Sundaies and then in truth to open them for such a worship of God as is publick rather for its accidents then for its substance rather for its time and place then for its matter and form rather for its notice and for its noise then for its Communion For though a man may go to Church as a Judge wherein he chiefly serves himself and pleases his curiosity upon unknown and uncertain terms yet he can scarce go to Church as a Communicant wherein alone he serves his God and
satisfies his conscience unless he be sure and certain of the terms of his Communion for the conscience cannot be satisfied and much less can God be served upon uncertainties And since the Apostle hath expresly said That whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 13. 23. Those men do very indiscreetly who in their publick worship do rather exercise their Phansies then their Faith and those do very irreligiously who labour all they can to spread and to promote that exercise For in the work of serving God above all other works it is evident That the diminution of Faith is the addition of sin wherefore men have little reason to bring themselves and less Religion to seek to bring others to any the least diminution of their Faith in Gods service for that is to come under the hazard of Judas his curse Let his prayer be turned into sin Psalm 109. v. 6. We must then take it for an argument of true love even the love of our souls and of our salvation that the Christian Church did in imitation of the Church of the Jews offer up daily Prayers and Praises unto Almighty God for us and also teach us to offer up daily Prayers and Praises for our selves And it is to be feared That men have rewarded the Church of Christ evil for good hatred for her good will in that the dismal curse which follows in the next verses hath fallen upon so many Nations of the Christian world For it is evident that this curse set thou an ungodly man to rule over him and let Satan stand at his right hand let his days be few and his children be vagabonds c. is ushered in with this sin For the love that I had unto them loe they take now my contrary part ver 3. and is continued and confirmed for it is because his mind was not to do good but persecuted the poor helpless man that he might slay him that was vexed at the heart and ver 16. His delight was in cursing and it shall happen unto him he loved not blessing therefore shall it be far from him For nothing is more offensive to God then that men will not return love for love And yet this hath been always the portion of his Church she hath still found returns of hatred for love For there is no true Christian Church but may truely say with Saint Paul 2 Cor. 12. 15. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you it is in the Original Greek for your souls though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved No love affectionate like this which loves the soul no love abundant like this which makes the lover spend and be spent for his affection and such is the love of every true Christian Church which is the grand Apostle of its nation it loves affectionately it loves abundantly for what it wants of this charity it wants of true Christianity but doth seldome receive back again love for love It was Luthers complaint that whilst he Preached and practised mans Inventions he found too much love but after he preached Gods truth the Gospel in its own sincerity he found too little so hath it been ever since his time with Protestant Churches for those which have most deserved the peoples thanks for teaching them the true and the right way to heaven have least found their love Thus we see to our grief no less then to our mischief that the best of men may love in vain but God never loves in vain For he never loves but he is beloved again so saith the beloved Disciple 1 Joh. 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us As he loves us so we love him again though he love first we afterwards and therefore if we love not him the reason is because he hath not loved us in the Son of his love I say not if we love not God in himself for that 's impossible acccording to that excellent position of Aquinas Deus secundum essentiam suam à nullo potest odio haberi sicut neque bonitas At secundum quosdam Justitiae suae effectus potest 22. qu. 34. God cannot be hated by any man as he is in himself no more then goodness can be hated but he is hated only for some effects of his Justice therefore I say not if we love not God in himself but if we love not God in his Vice-gerency or Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical by our dutifulness and fidelity If we love not God in his Commands and Ordinances by our Obedience and Piety Lastly If we love not God in his image and likeness by our brotherly and Christian Charity we do indeed not love God for himself hath said I ye love me keep my commandments Joh. 14 15. And if we do not love God the reason can be no other but this because he hath not loved us And it were to be wished that some men who most think themselves the darlings of heaven would try their spiritual estate by this touchstone for if we are indeed in the love of God and in the Son of his love it will appear by our returning love back again to him And the Apostles consequence being as good for the Negative as for the Affirmative it must needs follow that if we love not God it is because he first loved not us SECT V. Gods love to us in Christ was not vain or without a cause for as much as Christ was the ground of our Election as well as the Author of our reconciliation More men reconciled by Christ to God then recommened by him or more men reconciled potentially then actually GOD had a good reason of his love to us thoug not in our selves yet in our Saviour the Son of his love For he began his first Epistle or message of love unto our souls as Saint John began his second and third Epistles Vnto the elect and welbeloved whom I love in the truth the same in effect with salutem in Christo or dearly beloved in the Lord which salutations have since been used by the Church God loves us in the truth that is in our Saviour Christ who is called the truth John 14. 6. And as no man cometh to the Father but by him so no man abideth with the Father but in him so saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them where is punctually set down both the meritorious cause of our reconciliation Christ and the formal cause of it Gods not imputing our sins to us for Christs sake For God cannot be reconciled to a sinner whilst he looks upon him as a sinner because sin is directly opposite to his own goodness and therefore he cannot but hate sin as he cannot but love himself and God cannot but look upon a sinner as a sinner whilst he looks upon him in himself not in his Saviour who hath expiated his sin Hence Scotus tels us
how God proceeded in primo secundo tertio quarto Instanti concerning Judas and makes Judas a sinner before he supposeth God to hate him at all and a final sinner before he supposeth God to hate him finally and we being all sinners by the same reason must needs also be under Gods hatred till he look on us in Christ the only ground and reason of his love According to which the learned Grotius saith Distinguenda sunt tua ut ita dicam momenta divinae Voluntatis circa hominem peccatorem We must distinguish as it were three Moments in Gods will concerning sinful man Grotius his Moment comes very neer to Scotus his instant Primum est ante Christi mortem The first moment is before the death and pason of Christ In this God is altogether angry Secundum est positâ jam Christi morte the second moment is after Christs satisfaction made In this God is willing to be reconciled Tertium est quum homo verâ fide in Christum credit Christus credentem Deo commendat The third Moment is after Christs satisfaction is actually laid hold on by a lively faith and Christ actually recommendeth the believer to his Father And in this Moment God is actually reconciled and well pleased with the sinner and gives him all the benefits if not the comforts of that reconciliation For Christ may be said to reconcile where he may not be said to recommend He is said in Saint Paul to reconcile the world unto God 2 Cor. 5. 19. But himself saith in Saint John he did not recommend the world unto God John 17. 9. I pray not for the world His reconciliation it seems concerns the whole nature of man but his recommendation concerns only the persons of some particular men even such as lay hold on his reconciliation by faith and repentance saying Lord I believe help my unbelief For there is a meritorious or potential and there is a personal or actual reconciliation wrought by Christ The potential reconciliation belongs to all mankind because it is founded on the infinite merit of Christs satisfaction But the actual reconciliation belongs only to the true believers because it is founded on the Application of that merit unto our souls Still the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only in Christ God is well pleased in him for his own sake but in us only for his sake Excellently Zanch. lib. 4. de tribus Elohim cap. 1. glosseth upon those words Mat. 3. 17. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tria beneficia iis paucis verbis docet Pater per Christum nobis communicari dilectionis reconciliationis adoptionis seu regenerationis three blessings doth God the Father teach us in these few words to be communicated to us by Christ The blessing of dilection of reconciliation and of adoption or regeneration we beloved in him there is the dilection we sons in him there is the adoption we accepted in him there is the reconciliation And indeed the words added to this voice Hear ye him Mat. 17. 5. plainly shew that the voice it self came not for Christs sake but for ours that we might think our selves in him beloved and sons and such in whom God is well pleased The voice was from heaven and the comfort is heavenly Blessed be the God of heaven for them both And we beseech him to repeat this heavenly voice and to renew this Heavenly comfort by his own Holy Spirit unto our souls SECT VI. Gods love in Christ is not a fond love therefore he scourgeth whom he loveth The Christian Church not taught in the New Testament to expostulate for being scourged though she be crucified as Christ was between two thieves AS God loves us in order to our Saviour and therefore not causelesly so also he loves us in order to our salvation and therefore not fondly or preposterously Gods love is not a fond love◠for whom he loveth he chastneth but it is a saving love for when he chastneth he chastneth us for our good that we might be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. He loves not like a fond mother who had rather venture to break her own heart then her childs stomack For God will make his sons by adoption like his Son by nature whom he most loved and yet he most scourged He will make those whom he intends to save like the Captain of their salvation by wearing a crown of thorns before he will make them like him by wearing a crown of Glory Hence happily it comes to pass that though we find many and great expostulations with God in the Old Testament concerning the persecutions of his Church as particularly Psalm 74. and Jer. the twelfth Yet we scarse find so much as a direct complaint which is much less then an expostulation concerning it in all the New Testament The reason is plain that the Christian Church might be taught by Christs Doctrine as well as by his Example not to look to fare better then her Master and sure she is she cannot fare worse Therefore is the Christian Church in a manner ashamed to say with David Psalm 74. 1. O God why hast thou cast us off for ever Since she knows the Son of God himself hath said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me or with the Prophet Jer. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements Since she knows Saint Peter hath said For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. or again with the same Prophet Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Since Christ himself hath said this is your hour and the power of darkness Luke 22 53. Or lastly with the same Prophet Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Since our blessed Saviour himself had a Traytor among his own Apostles and hath shewed us that true happiness consists not in having power to persecute but in having patience to be persecuted for righteousness sake Mat. 5. 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Christ himself was crucified between two theives and that 's reason enough why his Church should not greatly complain though she be crucified not only between but also by two thieves The one robbing God of his honour the other of his Patrimony Saint Paul hath given a hint of them both in one piece of a verse Rom. 2. 22. Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge For in truth Idolatry and Sacriledge have a long time been the two grand scourges of the Christian Church Idolatry whipping God out of his Temple to let in other petty Dieties and Sacriledge whipping him in it They that abhor the Sacriledge committing the Idolatry they that abhor the Idolatry committing the Sacriledge SECT VII Christs love to us that he would come from his Father to
teach and redeem us The title of the chief corner stone blasphemously applyed to the Pope Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Exapostle one sent out of God I must needs confess that being in this Eden of God in this Paradise contemplating the tree of life I am unwilling to divert my eyes from that tree and much more my heart from that contemplation but am desious to perswade my self that I see the Prophet Isaiahs vision turned into action and God acting it in heaven no less then the Prophet acting it on earth Isa 6. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send or who will go for us then I said here am I send me For God the Father did as it were consult with himself saying whom shall I send and God the Son did forthwith answer him Here am I send me For as there was faciamus hominem Gen. 1. 26. God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal wisdom and with his Spirit his eternal power about our creation so there was redimamus hominem God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal righteousness and with his spirit his eternal love about our redemption For Gods goodness is as infinite as himself and that hath made him impart to man not only his goodness but also himself Hence that saying of the sublime Areopagite quod ipse Deus propter amorem est exstasin passus That love made God as it were go out of himself For great love is never without some kind of exstasie and therefore as it makes man go out of himself and be not where he lives but where he loves so it also made God the Son as it were go out of himself and come and be in man whom he had loved with an eternal love Thus hath love brought God from God to be in man and thus should it also bring man from man to be in God For this is the end of that blessed Mysterie and more blessed mercy which we commemorate when we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God he was made of us that we might be new made by him he made one flesh with us that we should be one spirit with him Saint Peter accounted it a great mercy that God had sent his Angel to deliver him from the hand of Herod Act. 12. 11. How much more ought we to account it a great mercy that he hath sent his only Son to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan which persued us much more fiercely and would have wounded us much more desperately He considers his deliverance ver 12. and shall not we especially since the Apostle hath shewed us the way how to enlarge this consideration Heb. 1. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers maaners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son It was a great mercy that he spake to the Fathers by holy men a greater that he spake to them by the holy Angels for that was one of the divers manners of his speaking But the greatest mercy of all was that he hath spoken to us by his son and the reason is intimated in the following words for in time past was the beginning the inchoation of his love when he spake by his Prophets and Angels but in these last dayes hath been the accomplishment and consummation of it when he spake to us by his Son Before he had made the world and upheld all things by the word of his power but now he hath redeemed the world and having purged our sins upholds it by the hand of his mercy For till our sins were purged it was only the power of God upheld the world that he might purge it But now our sins are purged t is the mercy of God upholds the world that he may save it This is the only reason Saint Peter gives us why the last day that shall destroy all things by fire is so long in coming 2 Pet. 3. 9. The Lord is not slack but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance The same mercy that made him hasten his first coming makes him delay his second And was it not a mercy not only beyond our expression but also beyond our admiration that the Son of God who was the brightness of his glory should become the brightness of his enemies and the glory of his people Yet so saith Saint Luke 2. 32. to be a light to lighten the Gentiles there he was the Bridegroom of his enemies and to be the glory of thy people Israel there he was the glory of his own people It was a mercy that we could never deserve and therefore must ever acknowledge that God was pleased to send his Apostles to teach us his saving truth and to shew the way of salvation for they were the pillars of the Church Gal. 2. 9. But infinitely greater was the mercy that he pleased to send his own Son to teach the Apostles for he is the cheif corner stone 1 Pet. 2. 5. For it is observable that Saint Peter himself was content to be accounted a pillar of the Church and leaves it only for Christ to be called the chief corner stone And therefore that Preface of Bellarmine which he once made in the Roman Schools Praefatio habita in gymnasio Romano and hath since prefixed before the third general controversie of his first Tome which is de summo Pontifice had need of all the waters of Tiber to wash it from gross flattery if not from detestable blasphemy since he is pleased therein to wrest those words of the Prophet Isaiah Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tryed stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation and to apply them to Saint Peters Successor which Saint Peter durst not apply unto himself but leaves them only for Christ the eternal Son of God We cannot too much prize the voice of the Apostles as for example Saint Pauls Epistles cannot be in too great esteem which saith Saint Hierom bring him every day more glory as Christ more converts But the voice of the eternal word calling to Saint Paul from heaven Act. 9. 4 5. and in him to us who can ever hear with sufficient care and attention who can embrace with sufficient reverence and estimation who can follow with sufficient alacrity and devotion Saint Paul was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent from God and yet how greatly doth he magnifie that office in every one of his Epistles but our Saviour Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent out of God to man for so saith Paul Gal. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sent forth his son that is God sent him not only from himself as he sent the Apostles but also out of himself as he sent none but only his beloved Son SECT VIII The Mother of Christ so
and necessary in regard of the Jews to keep them in obedience and from idolatry as circumcision sacrificing of beasts the distinction of meats and the rigorous observation of the Sabbath But the Christian Religion requires nothing of us save what is usefull and necessary in it self though it were not commanded as it requires us not to circumcise the foresking of our flesh but of our hearts not to keep a Sabbath by the external rest of the body ceasing from motion but by the internal rest of the soul ceasing from sin and taking its repose in God Not to offer the blood of bullocks but to be ready to offer our own blood for Gods glory not to abstain from certain kinds of meats but to use them all with sobriety for the chastisement of the body and sometimes to use none at all for the advantage of the soul And whereas other Religions have too much of Mammon in them to teach men to forsake their estates ours teacheth us to forsake our selves nor if I had the tongue of men and Angels were I able to express the incomparable purity of that faith whereby we are taught to hope in God not only above hope but also against it in the midst of death to hope for life in the extremity of Justice to hope for mercy and so wholly to trust God with our souls as not to hope for salvation but only to glorifie him thereby desiring his glory equally with our own eternal bliss or rather above it Nor if I had a Seraphins quill were I able to delineate the purity of that worship which teacheth us to pray for nothing but in relation to the honour and with subordination to the will of God and to rest secure in the deniall of temporal blessings whiles we rely upon the promises of those which are eternal This being such a purity as is above our Praise and yet required to come under our Practice plainly sheweth that our Religion is too much above our selves either to proceed from our own understanding or to depend upon our own wills and consequently that God alone was the first founder and is still the Master-builder and defender of it Nor doth our Christian Religion teach us this admirable purity and holiness only in conversing with our God but also in conversing with our selves not only in our duty towards God but also in our duty towards our neighbour Do but consider the ordinary offices of humanity and the Christian Religion will shew you there is some thing of Divinity in those offices for that teacheth you to relieve your brother not only as a member of your own body having the same flesh and blood with your self which is according to the office of humanity but also to relieve him as a member of your Saviours body as a member of God the Son as a temple of God the Holy-Ghost which adds something of divinity to that office Humanitas quà m sit proprium hominis ipsum nomen indicat shew the offices of Humanity to another man for your own sake because you are a man unless you would be accounted a beast was a forcible argument for men to be curteous and friendly one to another before Christ came in the flesh But now that argument must be strained to a higher pitch and we must say shew the offices of humanity to another man for the Son of Gods sake because you are a Christian unless you would be accounted not a beast but a devil So undeniable is the argument of the Christian Religion for the practise of Charity So inexcusable are Christians above other men for the practice of uncharitableness For surely we cannot deny but this doctrine of doing good to all and hurt to none for Christs sake is nowhere to be found but among Christians though their practise in this yron age of the hard-hearted world hath much disagreed from this doctrine As for the Turks religion it was born in the camp smells of the camp lives by the camp it was brought in by the sword savours of the sword is preserved and propagated by the Sword And yet in this respect shame it is to say it but the shame is theirs of whom it may be truly said many Christians are of late turned Turks So that the black-mouthed calumnie of Calvino-Turcismus is in this sense a Truth and the retaliation of that by Papismo-Turcismus is in this sense not to be thought a calumnie for both Protestants and Papists as much as they have of cutting of purses and cutting of throats in their late inhumane rapines and butcheries so much they have of Turcism not of Christianity For that hath said If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12. 20. That is strive to make thine enemy thy friend by overcoming evil with good but in no case to make thy friend and much less thy God thine enemy by overcoming good with evil And indeed this mild voice is only the voice of the Christian religion For even the Jew who came neerest to God and his goodness did nevertheless say An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and thou shalt love thy neighbour but hate thine enemy T is only the Christians hath learned this lesson from the mouth of their master Love your enemies blâ—ss them that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 42. As much then as love is above hatred blessing above cursing forgiving above reviling relieving above revenging and praying above persecuting or in one word heaven above hell so much is the Christians Religion above all other religions in the offices of humanity or in the conversation of man with man Again look upon the conversation of man with woman and you shall find the Christian is taught and the good Christian doth practice a greater chastity in his marriage then other men look after in their virginity He knows he is bound to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God 1 Thes 4. 1. and therefore will take heed of making his remedy his disease of adding oyle to the fire of provoking that lust of concupiscence which he should banish and expel for what he retains of lust that he loses of sanctification and honour in his body and of the knowledge of God in his soul This chast consideration being grounded in the hearts of good Christians will either keep them innocent or make them penitent whereas other men that know not this Doctrine or regard it not do let loose the rains of their concupiscence and are further from chastity in their virginity then these men are in their marriage For the one follow the Apostles advice It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. The other
follow their own unbrideled distempers which makes them that have no wives to be as though they had them And surely of the two these are the further from chastity The Heathen did glory of rapes and adulteries in their Gods and therefore could not easily be ashamed of rapines and adulteries in themselves And the Jew though he was tyed from fornication and adultery yet whiles he practiced his polygamy he did in effect commit fornication with his second wife and whiles he exercised his divorce he did in effect invite others to commit adultery with his first wife For the best that we can say in this case of Polygamy is that the text which forbad it Gen. 2. 24. was not so fitly explained to the Jews as it hath been since to the Christians and so the Jews were excusable because of their ignorance For the words of Moses did leave them some liberty of thinking a man might be one flesh with as many women as he made his wives for there it is only said and they shall be one flesh But our Saviour Christ hath plainly shewed us that those words are in truth to be confined to two persons one man and one woman by saying And they twain shall be one flesh Mat. 19. 5. whereby it appears to us Christians that Polygamy was a sin from the beginning for it was against the law but in the Jews it was a sin of ignorance and by that means not without excuse for not being able to prove that God gave them a dispensation to make more wives we must either say their ignorance excused them or their conscience condemned them but t is not safe to say their concience condemned them since no man can be saved that sins against his conscience and doth not repent him of his sin whereas without doubt the Patriarchs and King David were saved though we find not they repented for having been Polygamists However it is clearly evident that the Christian Religion teacheth a far more chaste modest and innocent conversation of man with woman then did that of the Jews and what can we require more in that conversation then chastity modesty and innocency And yet Saint Peter doth moreover add piety bidding the husband and wife to dwel together that their prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3. 7. Others may look only after pleasure or profit but Saint Peter bids all Christians look after prayer and piety in their marriages SECT III. The reason why God cannot be rightly adored but only by Christians is because he cannot be truly known and loved but only by those who know and love him in Christ the true way to gain that knowledge and to shew and keep that love is universal obedience both to his affirmative and to his negative precepts without which there can be no saving knowledge of God That the Christians do know and worship God in Christ cleerly and substantially and that the Jews did so know and worship him in types and figures so that the Jewish and the Christian religion differ not in substance but only in degrees of perfection GOD cannot be rightly worshipped by those by whom he is not truly known nor loved and he cannot be truly known or loved by those who know and love him not in Christ For he is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person Heb. 1. 3. The brightness of his glory so that we cannot love God but for his brightness and the express image of person so that we cannot know God but by this image which being a Doctrine that contains something of ambiguity in regard of the several states of men some having been trained up as Jews others as Christians in the true knowledge and love of God though it contain nothing of uncertainty in regard of it self yet will not unfitly be explained by way of Catechism and that in these three questions 1. Whether a man can love God save only in Christ I answer he cannot with an elective or deliberative love as a man though he may with a natural love as a creature The reason is because having defiled and corrupted both his nature and his person by his sin he hath lost the innocency and the comfort of his being though he cannot lose the obligation of it And consequently if he look upon God without Christ he cannot look upon him as a merciful Father that will relieve his infirmities and forgive his infirmities but only as an angry Judge that will pass against him the sentence and will bring upon him the vengeance of eternal condemnation 2. Whether a man can love God in Christ till Christ be revealed or manifested to his soul I answer again he cannot Ignoti nulla cupido As a man cannot desire so neither can he love what he doth not know and he doth not know God in Christ to whose soul Christ is not yet manifested or revealed So that in this case most true is that common Axiome of the Law idem est non esse non apparere It is all one for a thing not to be and not to appear All one to me if I know not God in Christ as if he were not at all to be known in him For which cause it is worth our enquiry how it comes to pass that so many who are called Christians and who perchance think and call themselves the best Christians yet do not truly know God in Christ and I must say t is because they desire to receive Christ only according to the promises and not also according to the precepts of the Gospel or only for the speculation and knowledge not for the practice and obedience of faith so that indeed they do not desire truly to know Christ and therefore he is not revealed or manifested to their souls And this is the reason there is so little love of God amongst us because there is so little manifestation of the Son of God in us We think and say we know Christ more then all other men but sure we know him less or else we would not love him less then others For what shall we say that the wise men from the East were mistaken in their love of Christ when they offered him gold frankincense and myrrh Mat. 2. but that we are now better instructed and directed in the love of Christ whiles we take away all that we can rape and rend from him This is in truth as unquoth an argument that we know him as it is an unkind proof that we love him himself hath taught us another lesson saying he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him John 14. 21. We must love his Commandments that we may love him and we must love him that he may love us and manifest himself unto us for he will not manifest himself to those whom he doth not love and he
doth not love those who do not love him and they do not love him who do not keep his commandments This is such a Doctrine as our Saviour did not think he could teach too much and therefore sure we cannot learn enough If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. Love is the inchoation of friendship and that is not shewed without some obedience If ye love me keep my Commandments But friendship is the consummation of love and that is not shewed without an universal obedience Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you he that will be thus universally obedient must be sure to interpret all Christs commands after the true rules of Logical supposition that an universal Affirmative must hold in every particular as thou shalt love thy neigbbour as thy self must reach to all mankind and to all offices of love thou shalt honour thy father must reach to all our governours and to all offices of reverence and honour We may not leave out any one particular either of the subject or of the predicate but we shall make a false supposition in Logick and a false interpretation in Divinity And so on the other side that an universal negative must hold in no one particular as do no wrong bindeth us to our good behaviour not only in our wordâ— and deeds but also in our very thoughts and that in regard of all men whatsoever and much more in regard of those to whom we have been obliged either for natural or civil or spiritual benefits So that if I have but an uncharitable thought of any man living I do him wrong but I do my self more wrong in sinning against this Commandment Wherefore though other men be never so confident of their own innocency yet will I weigh my self in this ballance for this is the ballance of the sanctuary and I am sure God will one day weigh me in it that seeing I have many wayes been a delinquent for want of obedience I may not accumulate my delinquencies by want of repentance For this I cannot but see that if Zaccheus had not at last been as willing to give and to restore as he was at first to take away he would not easily have gotten that comfortable saying from our Saviours own lips to which all the comforts of this world are comfortless This day is salvation come to this house for so much as he also is the son of Abraham Luke 19. 9. And let not my profit be the impediment of my piety for what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Mat. 16. 26. I know that my Saviour hath given his blood in exchange for my soul that he might redeem it from death and damnation and therefore as I will love my soul above my estate because it was redeemed at so great a price so I will love my Saviour above my soul because he paid that price for my redemption to make me of an enemy a servant of a servant a friend that I might not only be in his love but also abide in it Therefore I will offer my soul to him to do whatsoever he commandeth me for I cannot hope to be confirmed in his love as his friend unless I be desirous to offer unto him this universal obedience or at least be sorry that I have not offered or cannor offer it A little of this affection will more strengthen my faith in Christ then my greatest perswasion can strengthen it And I shall more truly know my Saviour by devoting my will then my understanding to him by obeying his law then by studying it Therefore I will pray the Lord to make me increase and abound in love to the end he may establish my heart unblameable in holiness 1 Thes 3. 12 13. For himself hath told me If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God John 7. 17. That is he and he only shall have an experimental knowledge of Religion that it will bring him to God who labours to do the will of God such a man shall know that Christ is the way the truth and the life and that the Christian Religion is the way to Christ not only by a speculative knowledge which swims in his brain and may be ejected thence by arguments of Sophistry but also by an effective knowledge which sinks into his heart and which he will keep as carefully and as faithfully as he will keep his heart Thus to know Christ is truly to have him manifested in our souls and this manifestation is not gotten so much by speculation as by practice not so much by knowing Gods will as by doing it For it is undeniable by Saint Pauls argument Gal. 3. 1. That though Jesus Christ were evidently set forth crucified among the Galatians yet it was before their eyes only not in their hearts whilst they obeyed not the truth And that the Jews had not known Christ though he had stretched out his hands unto them all the day long because they were still a disobedient and a gainsaying people Rom. 10. 20 21. And Saint John saith expresly hereby we do know that we do know him if we keep his Commandments 1 John 2. 3. Telling us of a twofold knowledge of God and of Christ the one inefficacious to salvation such as hypocrites may have who know God but glorifie him not as God Rom. 1. 21. or who profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. The other is a saving knowledge of God and of Christ such as only good Christians can have who keep his Commandments for this knowledge is joyned with obedience and that is the cheif ground of its assurance hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments A man may have some evidence of faith without obedience but he cannot have the assurance of faith without it Whence we may gather that the true knowledge of God is not that which enables a man to talk sublimely of his essence or to talk confidently of his secrets but that which knows him in his precepts and in his promises seriously obeying the one no less then truly relying on the other And only he that thus knows God knows him truly to salvation because he only knows him truly in his Saviour and only he so knows God as to love him because only he knows him in the Son of his love Thirdly it may be demanded whether the Jews before the comming of Christ had the same love of God that we Christians now have since they seem not to have had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ I answer yes they had the same love of God for they had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ
's the strength of perswasion And to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion there 's the strength of affection first in the exercise of devotion to speak Secondly in the extent of it of all thy works Thirdly in the profession of it in the gates Fourthly in the integrity or purity of it in the gates of the daughter of Sion What pitty is it that we who out-pass others in the purity of our devotions should come far short of them in the profession extension and exercise of the same That we who are in the daughter of Sion should come short of those who we say are under the Whore of Babylon For this second miracle in Christs ascension The conquest over heaven in his Soul must needs make us conclude concerning our selves that we cannot possess heaven till we have first conquered it Man in his composition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world but in his affection he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great world A conqueror over heaven and earth over neither by himself but over both by his Saviour In all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8. 37. and we may see who it was that loved us from ver 35. who shall seperate us from the love of Christ It was he that loved us it is by him that we are more then Conquerours Let me fight the good fight of faith that I may have my Saviours love and though all the Nimrods and mischiefs of this wicked world prevail against me yet none of them shall conquer me SECT II. The time of Christs ascention is particularly named in the Text and the observation of that day is founded upon the practice of the Apostles which in the exercise of Religion is to be embraced as Precept And why the Apostles left not many precepts concerning the circumstances of worship to the Christian Church The place of the Ascention was Bethany in Mount Olivet and what considerations arise from thence LOgicians do tell us that it is the property of verbs to be adsignificant as saith the great scholler of nature and greater master of Art Aristotle in his book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum est quod adsignificat tempus It is the property of a verb not only to express the thing it self which is to be significant but also to declare the chief circumstances of time and place and person which is to be adsignificant And for this reason it will not be improper to consider in these three verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went he was carried he was received up not only the substance or act of our Saviours Ascention but also the chief circumstances of it to wit the time in which the place from which and the persons before whom he was pleased to ascend into heaven As for the time in which it was exactly the fourtieth day after his resurrection being seen of them fourty dayes saith the Text Acts 1. 3. which doubtless is not set down superfluously and therefore ought to be observed carefully I may justly add conscientiously For though duties and not dayes yet duties upon their own dayes call for a most religious observation God himself having said in express terms to the Jews and consequently by the rule of general equity to the Christians since the reason of his saying is rather moral then typical The man that is clean and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passeover even the same soul shall be cut off from his people because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season that man shall bear his sins Num. 9. 13. Whence we may safely conclude not as Jews but as Christians that t is not safe but sinfull meerly out of peevishness or willfullness to neglect the appointed seasons of serving God for such a grievous punishment as being cut off from Gods people would not be threatned but for a grieveous sin such as begins in the contempt of God and ends in the scandal of men Therefore duties are to be most strictly observed upon their own dayes Thus the resurrection is most solemnly to be celebrated on its own day the first day of the week and the Ascention on its own day the fift day of the week for the fourtieth day after a Sunday can be no other then thirsday So that either the fourtieth day after the resurrection of Christ is lawfully consecrated to celebrate his ascention and by consequent is the day appointed for that duty or this particular circumstance was unnecessarily set down in the text and as unlawfully observed by the Apostles who turning from the mount Olivet came into Jerusalem and went up into their upper room when they durst not assemble together in the Temple and prayed there immediately upon their return even on the very same day of Christs Ascension and did not think fit to put off their solemn meeting till the next Sabbath or till the next Lords day after it Wherefore it is reasonably concluded by Judicious men that Apostolical practice is to us Christians what Mosaical precept was to the Jews concerning the observation of dayes places and persons for religious assemblies and therefore our Lords day is as indispensable as was their Sabbath our Churches as inviolable as their Temple and Synagogues our orders of Ministers as unchangeable as their orders of Priests for Apostolical Practice in these circumstances or adjuncts of Religion doth oblige us Christians to conformity as Mosaical precept did the Jewes to obedience I say Comformity because time place person were all essential parts of their ceremonial and typical but cannot be so of our moral worship and therefore obedience was necessary for them but comformity is enough for us So that a willfull neglect and much more a scornfull contempt of any rite observed by the Apostles cannot but be impious in it self dangerous to us and scandalous to our brethren And as this is judiciously concluded by some learned men so it must be couragiously resolved by all good men not to fear superstition in that which the Apostles practised when their practice is declared in the text since all circumstances adjuncts of Religion are derived to us Christians rather by practice then by precept as not being of the Substance of our Religion And indeed they could not well be derived otherwise because types and ceremonies were utterly to be abolished to the Jews and therefore ceremonies though without types could not but with offence to the Jews be particularly prescribed to the Christians consequently were to be left unto them only in example and practice as matter of decency and order which are capable of dispensation not set down in the text by way of command or imposition as matter of Substance which hath alwayes a rigour of Justice and should alwayes have a readiness of obedience both alike indispensable Nay yet more
Apostolical practice recorded in the Text was therefore imbraced by the Catholike Church as if it had been Precept for the time and place and persons of Religious worship because that Practice in all these respects was founded upon the precepts of the old Testament not as they were typical and figurative but as they were solemn and positive and did no less concern the Christian in the publike exercise of his moral then they did concern the Jew in the publike exercise of his ceremonial Worship For publike worship requires the same publike adjuncts of time place and person no less in the Christians then it did in the Jews Religion And therefore we cannot deny but all those precepts in the old Testament that were given about those publike adjuncts do still remain in force as to that intent of the publike exercise of Religion unless we will deny that Christians are obliged to the exercise of Gods publike worship we must then still have our set dayes as Sabbaths our set places as Churches our set Persons as Ministers for the solemn publike worship of God And consequently they who go about to abolish any of these adjuncts or circumstances of publike worship do in effect go about to expunge the fourth commandment out of the Decalogue which was written with Gods own finger as well as the rest commandeth the solemn benediction consecration and conservation of all those adjuncts of time place person as conducing to the Publike service of God and exercise of Religion And as for times and persons they have been since in many respects determined by Apostolical Practice and particularly the Day of our Saviours Ascension seems to have been Annually observed by them as the day of his Resurrection was observed weekly since we find that Festival universally received by the Catholike Church and the Fathers made many admirable Sermons or Homilies upon it long before superstition had infected or Popery had invaded the Church of Christ in so much as Saint Augustine tells us plainly that the feast of the Ascension was observed in the Catholike Church even from the Apostles times Sure we are those primitive Christians well understood that God did not intend to confine but to enlarge his own worship by the fourth Commandment to wit to make that exercise of Religion solemn and publike in the fourth which was private in the other three Commandments not to make that to be only on one day which was before commanded to be all the week For he that saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart supposeth that as no day thou canst be without thy heart so no day thy heart may be without his love And therefore when we have a publike day set apart to make this our love publikely known if we do wilfully neglect the same we are grievous transgressors and downright plain Sabbath-breakers though not on the Sabbath day and consequently twice sinners in one contempt or profanation for omitting the substance of the duty and for contemning the circumstance of the day Another circumstance in our blessed Saviours Ascension is the place from which he was received up and that was not Hierusalem but Bethany For although the Apostles had been with him in Galilee many dayes where he conversed with them after the first day of his Resurrection yet now they were again returned back to Hierusalem waiting there for the promise of the Father as they had been commanded Act. 1. 4. And he led them out from thence as far as Bethany Luk 24. 50. before he was pleased to ascend into heaven partly because he would not have the people see but rather believe the Mysterie of his Ascension and partly because he would not expose his Apostles to the outrages of those who though they had seen it yet were resolved not to believe but to persecute the true believers And yet in that he led his Apostles out to Bethany he shewed them what was the right use they were to make of this worlds afflictions or persecutions even to have their conversation with him in heaven For Bethany is by interpretation the house of sorrow or affliction and our blessed Saviour Ascending to heaven from thence hath shewed us that then do we make a right use of of our afflictions on earth when they do make our souls ascend up to heaven This is to turn Bethany into Bethel the house of sorrow into the house of God But the place from which our blessed Saviour ascended into heaven is called Mount Olivet Act. 1. 12. And indeed these two were but one and the same place for Bethany stood upon Mount Olivet Christ ascended from a Mount and from this Mount Olivet He ascended from a Mount to shew it was not an easie step from earth to heaven there must be three ladders joyned together to accomplish this ascent scala mentis scala voluntatis scala vitae one ladder of the mind by contemplation another ladder of the will by affection a third ladder of the life by action All three have several rongs or degrees as Jacobs ladder had and God is only at the top Again he ascended from this Mount Olivet where he begun his passion by sweating blood Luk. 22. to shew us the necessity of passive obedience if we desire to go to heaven Moses his Mount Sinai which teacheth the rule of active obedience will not serve the turn we must also go up to Christs Mount Olivet and there learn his passive obedience that by suffering with him we may also reign with him for he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God highly exalted him Phil. 2. Can you drink of his cup without fear it may overcome your weak Stomack since the fear of it made him offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Heb. 5. 7. If you can then may you find some pretence though little cause to take that for granted to you which the sons of Zebedee only requested for themselves to sit with him in his Kingdom But if your frailty and humility bid you fear you may stick at the dregs in drinking of his cup much more should your frailty and modesty bid you blush that you are so exceeding unworthy of comming to his Kingdom and of sitting in it together with him that so you may not turn your own Churchwarden to appoint your own place in heaven but may wholly relie upon him for your place upon whom you must relie for your worthiness SECT III. The persons before whom our Saviour Christ ascended were 1. Angels 2. Men yet men only not Angels appointed by him as witnesses of his ascension though not all men And that the disturbers of these witnesses that is of the orders of Christs Ministers in his Church do sin against this article of Christs ascension which however is it self and puts all true believers above all disturbances THE persons before whom or in whose
it a most disconsolate and doleful prayer yet it begins with praise I will magnifie thee O Lord for thou hast set me up and it ends with praise O my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever And it is the peculiar observation concerning the 88. Psalm nullâ consolatione clauditur saith Musculus that it hath in it no clause of comfort and consolation and yet even this Psalm hath in it some shaddow or dark representation of Abba Father in that it is said O Lord God of my salvation and O let my prayer enter into thy presence even as our blessed Saviour when he thought himself most forsaken of God yet even then laid hold on him by a true and lively Faith saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This we are sure It is the same Spirit of adoption that inditeth the most uncomfortable prayer and the most comfortable praise Only the prayer proceedeth from the great apprehension and constant necessity of our own manifold wants and imperfections even in our best condition But the praise proceedeth from the comfortable enjoyment of Gods undeserved goodness in mercies received and more comfortable assurance of his everlasting mercies in blessings promised So that the uncomfortableness of the prayer is from the testimony of our own spirits concerning our miseries and sorrows in our selves but the comfortableness of the praise is from the testimony of Gods Holy Spirit concerning the blessings and joys treasured up for us in our Redeemer Accordingly there is no gift or comfort of the Spirit which we can now pray for in our distresses which was not prayed for by the Psalmist in his greatest distress Psal 51. Renew a right spirit within me take not thy holy spirit from me stablish me with thy free spirit He prayeth for a right spirit against the perversness for an holy spirit against the profaness and uncleanness for a free spirit against the dulness and deadness of his heart And what can we say more of that spirit which teacheth us to cry Abba Father but that it is a right spirit to rectifie us when we are out of order but that it is an holy spirit to sanctifie us that we may be kept in order and that it is a free spirit to testifie unto us that being rectified and sanctified we shall doubtless be accepted as beloved in the beloved Accordingly Saint Hierom thus translateth the words Et spiritu principali confirma me and confirm or stablish me with thy principal spirit which in Saint Pauls phrase is the spirit of thy Son or the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father So that we find these Psalms of David as necessary and as useful devotions for us Christians as they were for the Jews for that one and the same spirit cryed Abba Father in them which cryeth Abba Father in us Wherefore he so prayeth as that he also praiseth and so praiseth as that he also prayeth He praiseth for the joy of his Saviour he prayeth for the joy of his salvation Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui restore unto me the joy of thy salvation So restore it when it is lost as also preserve and increase it when it is restored This is a joy which all the delights of this world cannot give and therefore sure all the sorrows of this world cannot take away Although the figg tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. 17 18. The Prophets festival doth not depend upon the joy and mirth of the times his good chear doth not hang upon the fig-tree nor upon the vine it ariseth not out of the fields nor out of the flocks God may sequester all these from man or man may sequester them all from Gods Prophet yet still he will keep his solemn feast he will rejoyce in the Lord he will joy in the God of his salvation and the reason is because God will not and man cannot sequester the true Prophet from his God Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8. 35. And as this joy of the good Christian is unsequestrable not to be taken from him so is it also unspeakable not to be expressed by him thus saith Saint Peter speaking of our blessed Saviour Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. You that love him from your soul cannot but rejoyce in him from your soul If your love of him be with all your soul with all your might with all your strength your joy in him will be so too you love him with all your might because he is your Saviour you rejoyce in him with all your might because of his salvation Who can sufficiently admire the goodness of God in giving the gift of faith unto men thereby in some sort to antedate the beatifical vision and to let us into heaven whiles we live here on earth For the Apostle describes to us such a faith as is to be known not by its pretences but by its power and that power is threefold A power of believing in Christ yet believing A power of loving Christ whom having not seen ye love A power of rejoycing in Christ in whom ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable Whosoever hath not this threefold power of believing of loving and of rejoycing in Christ hath not true Faith in Christ but a phansie in stead of Faith So inseparable are these three Sisters the three Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity that whosoever hath one hath All whosoever doth believe doth also love whosoever doth love doth also rejoyce rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. A joy not to be expressed to others by our speaking but by our doing not by our words but by our works It is fit they should see us offer the sacrifice of righteousness and from thence know that we put our trust in the Lord Psalm 4. 4. For we Christians also have an Altar Heb. 13. 10. and we have a two fold sacrifice to offer upon that Altar 1. A Sacrifice of thanksgiving let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually v. 15. 2. A Sacrifice of Almsgiving to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased ver 16. These our sacrifices as they do express our joy in Christ so they should also answer it
due time which is best for my soul either now to hear thy voice as a sheep to my salvation or hereafter to hear it as a goat to my condemnation Thou hast said My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me John 10. 27. Which is thy voice Lord that we may hear it And where wilt thou be that we may follow thee Is not thy voice in thy Word art not thou in thy Church How then do those men hear thy voice that neglect thy word How do they follow thee that run away from thy Church Surely he is no good sheep that doth this and therefore Christ is none of his shepherd He careth not to answer one that is either a Wolf or a Divel either a Wolf for his bloody cruelty or a Divel for his continued Apostacy or if he do answer such a one it shall be only as he did once answer Judas Iscariot who was both a Wolf and a Divel with a Tu dixisti Thou hast said Mat. 26. 25. An answer tending to nothing but to his conviction or to his condemnation He that hath persecuted or betrayed his Saviour if he say unto him Master is it I shall soon find such an answer returned to him in his own guilty conscience Thou hast said an answer tending only to his conviction or to his condemnation But the answer which our blessed Saviour was pleased to return to Saint Jude the Confessor was of another strain for it was a gracious answer for his instruction a satisfactory answer for his contentation If Christ made so great a distinction betwixt two of the same communion and of the same order no wonder if he still make so great a distinction betwixt those that will not be of the same Church who regard neither the Doctrine of Christ nor the communion of Christians Judas the traytor had not yet forsaken Christs Communion yet was not benefited by his teaching because he regarded not his Doctrine Judas the Confessor that he might be sure to be well taught by him readily embraced his Doctrine and resolved never to forsake his Communion And hence it was that our Saviour Christ returned to him a gracious answer for his instruction teaching him that great Mysterie of the manifestation of the Son of God in the soul of man Nay yet more a satisfactory answer for his contentation assuring him that he would thus manifest himself unto him The manifestation of Christ unto the soul is a great mysterie and a greater mercy the mysterie instructs the soul but the mercy contents it And well it may for t is no less then eternal life In qua quidem manifestatione vita aeterna consistit as saith Aquinas in which manifestation of Christ unto the soul consisteth eternal life and he proveth his saying from John 17. 3. And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Aquin. 22. qu. 24. art 12. So then if I will enjoy eternal life I must first know it if I will know eternal life I must know Christ If I will know Christ I must not disesteem his Doctrine or discountenance his communion for if I do either though I live never so long among Christians yet I am like never to come to the state of true Christianity SECT II. Many Christians not so careful of their spiritual as of their temporal estate or condition The State of true Christianity is not external in the profession but internal in the love of Christ which will make us hate all sin No malicious man can be in the state of true Christianity The ground of true Christian charity generally abused to most unchristian uncharitableness charity is more safely mistaken then not maintained IF men were as zealous to look after their spiritual as they are to look after their temporal state the earth would be less filled with sin and heaven would be more filled with Saints But we are generally careless to know the state and condition of our souls because we are generally careless to make it such as might be worth our knowing Hence that sad Epiphonema from our Saviours own mouth so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Luke 12. 21. That is so very a fool is he in the account of the eternal wisdom though perhaps he be wise in his own account who is carefull of his Mammon and careless of his God who takes so much pains about his body so little about his soul who is so busie in contriving of his temporal but thinks not at all of his eternal welfare Hence it is that men so easily betake themselves to that profession of the Chrisâ—ian Religion which makes most for their temporal advantages though it much disadvantage them in their spiritual condition and thereby declare themselves not to be in the state of true Christianity for that would make them prefer the love of Christ above all worldly interest whatsoever But we need not have to do with the several professions of the Christian Religion in this case for the state of true Christianity is not to profess but to love Christ and we are then truly in the state of salvation when we truly love our Saviour And this plainly appears by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Ephesians and in them to us where he saith Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Ephes 5. 1 2. To be followers of God and to be his dear children and to walk in love are put for one and the ame thing And what love is here meant but the love of Christ who so dearly loved us as to give himself for us and therefore may justly require our entirest love And if we entirely love him we will be sure not to love what he hateth nor to hate what he loveth and consequently not to abide in any sin either of commission or of omission for to be wilfully guilty of a sin of commission is to love what Christ hateth and to be wilfully guilty of a sin of omission is to hate what Christ loveth and either of these is enough to keep a man from being a good Christian Therefore saith the Psalmist O ye that love the Lord see that ye hate the thing which is evil Psalm 97. 10. For ye cannot love him unless ye hate what he hateth he hateth every thing that is evil whether it be evil by omission or by commission The state of salvation consists so much of love that t is not possible for an uncharitable and much less for a malicious man to be in that state but either he must forgoe his malice or he must forgoe his salvation for God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him John 4. 16. No man can be in the state of salvation who hath not communion with God and there is no having communion with
God but by love we must dwell in love or he will not dwel in us And therefore it was most Christian Doctrine which was delivered by Saint Augustine lib. 1. de Doctrina Christiana when he said Quatuor sunt diligenda unum quod est supra nos Sc. Deus Alterum quod nos sumus Tertium quod juxta nos i. e. proximus Quartum quod infra nos i. e. corpus There are four things which every man is bound to love that he may be a good Christian or in the state of true Christianity his God that is above him His neighbour that is about him His soul that is within him and His body that is without him for as the body is capable of eternal bliss by redundancy from the soul so is it also capable of true Christian charity which is not a momentary or temporal but an eternal and everlasting love grounded upon the communication and the communion of a blessed eternity So that in truth the love of God doth not only produce but also comprize and contain all those three other loves man loving his body and his soul and his neighbour with Christian charity only in relation to Christ and as they belong to his communion For undeniable if not indisputable is that position of the Angelical Doctor Amicitia charitatis super communicatione beatitudinis fundatur The friendship of Christian charity is founded upon the communication of eternal blessedness Aquin. 22â— qu. 25. art 5. and by consequent is to be extended according to the extent of that communication Therefore it beginneth with our Saviour Christ and goeth on to every one of his members this spiritual unction of the Holy Ghost being like to that holy ointment poured upon Aaron which ran from his head down to the skirts of his cloathing Psal 133. 2. And yet even from this excellent ground of charity do many men find a pretence for gross uncharitableness whilst those that are of divers perswasions in matters of Religion will needs deny to one another the hopes of salvation every one being resolved to maintain that his own Religion is the only true Christian though it be no more then a profession of it and all agreeing that t is only the true Christian Religion wherein and whereby we can attain eternal blessedness Hence it is that we commonly receive those very faintly whom we suspect God hath not received and those not at all whom we are perswaded he will not receive So that we do little less then invade Christs Judgement seat that we may discard true Christian charity and if we now invade his seat we shall hereafter tremble at his bar Why should we so grosly abuse the very ground of Christian charity to a most unchristian uncharitableness Why should we be so hasty to exclude out of the communion of eternal blessedness those whom our Saviour Christ hath called to it Surely if it be not in our power to give heaven by our charity t is not in power to deny heaven by our uncharitableness unless it be only to our selves True Christian charity is of as large an extent as heaven it self and embraceth all those who have any probability of getting thither For it is grounded upon the communion of eternal bliss and therefore as it loves Christ the head so it cannot but love all Christians as members of that communion It first loves Christ for his own sake by whom we have the communication it afterwards loves our Christian brethren for Christs sake with whom we have inchoately and hope to have consumâ—… of eternal blessedness O Christ let me love as a Christian that I may live as a Christian for I cannot live as a Christian unless I live in thee and I cannot live in thee unless I live in love Let me rather mistake my charity in believing their salvation who have gross errors mixed with their profession then not maintain my charity by denying them salvation who are not of mine own profession For thou wilt sooner pardon their errors which may proceed from ignorance or infirmity then my uncharitableness which can proceed from nothing else but pride and presumption SECT III. That the state of true Christianity is best taught by our Saviour Christ and best learned of him how far the Jews may be said to have known Christ and Christianity That Christ teacheth us by his voice in the holy Scriptures more certainly then by his voice in holy Church the Scripture is to teach the Church as the Church is to teach the people THere is not in all the world any thing taught by a Preacher from heaven but only the Christian Religion And the Son of God came from heaven to teach that and his Fathers voice came from heaven to bid us observe and follow his teaching Behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17. 5. And we may very well be not only contented but also desirous to hear him for the state of true Christianity is without all doubt best taught by Christ himself and is therefore best learned of him Moses was faithful in Gods house as a servant and the best teachers amongst men can but sit in Moses chair Mat. 23. 2. but Christ was faithful as a Son Heb. 3. 5 6. The servant was appointed and ordained for the Son and so was Moses for Christ but the Son came only for himself The servant was faithful in his Masters house but the Son in his own house Christ as a Son over his own house ver 6. Moses his faithfulness was by way of introduction for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after ver 5. sc by Christ But Christs faithfulness was by way of perfection to speak those things plainly of which Moses had testified obscurely and to accomplish or perform whatsoever Moses his testimony had either prophesied or promised concerning him For Moses in his writings spake of Christ and directed these Jews unto him in so much that our Saviour telleth the Jews that they needed no other then Moses to accuse them of unbelief for not turning Christians Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his writings How shall ye believe my words John 5. 45 46 47. We may put the whole sense of those three verses into these two propositions 1. That Moses writ so much of Christ as to leave the Jews inexcusable if they did not from his writings look after Christ and believe in him which more particularly appears from Deut. 18. 15. where Moses saith The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which words we find Saint Peter and Saint Stephen both
know not a man Luke 1. 34. I answer then according to this distinction First If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from piety or admiration it is exceeding commendable we have an excellent president for it the man after Gods own heart who twice spoke these words from Gods own mouth for surely with his spirit What is man that thou hast such respect unto him or the son of man that thou so regardest him Psalm 8. 4. and 144. 3. Nor is it possible for any one that hath indeed the Spirit of God when he considers the immensity of Gods goodness and of his own unworthiness not to make this doubt of admiration unto his own soul What is man what am I a sinful man in my person that thou hast such respect unto me or What is the son of man what am I a sinful man in my nature that thou so regardest me Secondly If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infirmity it is at all times excusable because though the spirit be willing yet the flesh is weak Mat. 26. 41. and at sometimes almost commendable when either by our omissions of piety we have quenched or by our commissions of impiety we have grieved the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption In this case of spiritual leprosie Gods answer to Moses concerning Miriam may be taken as a full determination concerning us If her Father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days Let her be shut out of the camp seven days and after that let her be received in again Numb 12. 14. Si pater terrenus aliquod gravis in eam irae signum edidisset puderet eam saltem septem Dies redire in conspectum ejus saith Junius If her father on earth had shewed some great sign of anger against her she would for shame not presently rush into his sight but would forbear to come before him for one seven days The explanation is very punctual and we cannot but see that in God Almighties own Logick the argument is good from our Father on earth to our Father in heaven Hence that prayer of sorrowful David Cast me not away from thy presence He confesseth he durst not come into his sight and prays that he might not be for ever banished from it Psal 51. 11. and again redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Having grievously offended his God he could not but discover in his own soul the signs and tokens of that offence therefore he prayes God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation For had he not in his blood-guiltiness lost the joy of his salvation he might in his impenitency have lost the enjoyment of it Good Lord that we should so out-strip this holy man in our sin and come so short of him in our repentance This is certainly a ready way not to strengthen our faith but to weaken it not to lessen our doubtings but to increase them yea to turn our doubtings into distresses and our distresses into despair and our despair into damnation Thirdly and lastly if the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infidelity it is neither commendable nor excusable in any nay it is so far from being commendable in any that t is altogether inexcusable in all For such a doubt supposeth not a weakness but a want of faith and consequently sheweth the man that hath it to distrust his Saviour not himself and to remain still in the state of infidelity notwithstanding God calleth him so earnestly to the state of faith Wherefore since without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. such a doubting of infidelity must needs leave him that hath it under Gods most heavy and more just displeasure under his most heavy displeasure because he embraceth not reconciliation when it is offered under his most just displeasure because he believeth not him that offereth it This is the reason of the Apostles exceeding pathetical exhortation Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3. 12. The heart is made evil by unbelief and shews it is so by departing from the living God so that we are advised and exhorted to take heed of unbelief as we would take heed of an evil heart and of departing from the living God T is at first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart oâ—â—nfidelity t is at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart of apoâ—tacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in apostatizing from the living God But we must here take heed that we confound not together the doubtings of infirmity and of infidelity The one saith Lord I believe help thou my unbelief the other cannot say Lord I believe The one dare not trust himself but the other will not trust his Saviour a doubting of infidelity rejecteth faith but a doubting of infirmity desireth it For though doubting cannot be in faith yet it may be in him that hath faith Saint Peters faith could not doubt yet himself doubted so saith the text when he saw the wind boistrous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cryed saying Lord save me Mat. 14. 13. Though he was full of fear yet he was not empty of faith For he cryed saying Lord save me And therefore we may not say of any other in his case more then our Saviour Christ did say of him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Mat. 14. 31. O thou of little faith not O thou of no faith for he did fully believe in Christ and did only misdoubt himself And surely it would not be much amiss if every confident man would do so too and ask himself the question which Christ asks Saint Peter Lovest thou me John 21. 17. and ask it again and again and not be grieved at the often asking it dost thou indeed love thy Saviour lovest thou him who died for thee lovest thou him who loved thee with an everlasting love For the more you are assured in your own heart that you love your Saviour the more will he assure you of his everlasting love CAP. II. Of the knowledge of the state of true Christianity SECT I. The knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is from our keeping the words of Christ And that Antinomians cannot truly be and much less know they be in the state of true Christianity HE that is in the state of true Christianity cannot but desire to know it and he that knows himself to be so cannot but exceedingly rejoyce and triumph in that knowledge Accordingly after the discourse of the state of true Christianity in the next place we ought to enquire concerning our own knowledge of that state for that man can scarce be thought to believe the life everlasting who labours not
is the most miserable cheat of all cheats to deceive our own souls and cheat our selves of our salvation And this we shall do if we be only hearers of the word as it is a promise to strengthen our saith and not also doers of it as it is a precept to exercise our obedience For Saint Paul tells us plainly that even the Gospel the preaching of Jesus Christ was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 25 26. Not for the assent or perswasion only but also and much rather for the obedience of faith The second Principle of good Christianity is this That the true love of Christ will make us labour with all our might to keep his words For this is substantia Christianismi the very substance of the Christian Religion so Saint Paul saith expresly Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God 1 Cor. 7. 19. as if he had said External rights and professions are nothing to the Substance of Christianity though to the order of it they may be much but the keeping of the commandments of God is all in all And this is the true touchstone of the soul to try whether it it be made of dross or of purer metal whether it love God or Mammon as its chiefest good For he that cares not to thwart Gods will to fulfill his own is certainly in the state of sin and not in the state of Grace For he loves his pleasure or profit or preferment better then God who for his pleasure or his profit or his preferment cares not to break Gods commandments The Casuists rule is undeniable Constituitur in honore ultimus finis si ob honorem consequendum non curat quis offendere Deum mortaliter Cajet Sum. and again Si paratus sit non curare de praecepto He that so resolves upon riches or honour or any thing of this world as to break through a commandment to come by it is not yet a true lover of God but loves only himself nay the worst though truest part of himself his sinfull affections and is not yet a new Creature because he hath not yet in him faith working by love to make him so For faith working by love and a new creature are one and the same thing in Saint Pauls account as appears Gal. 5. 6. and Gal. 6. 15. in the former place he tels us that which availeth in Christ Jesus is a faith which worketh by love in the latter place that t is a new creature For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but faith which worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6. 15. Compare these two places of Scripture with that other formerly cited out of 1 Cor 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God and you will see the cord which either draws or knits us unto Christ to be made up of these three links keeping the Commandments of God A faith which worketh by love and a new creature This three fold cord is not easily broken and cannot possibly be untwisted In that it is not easily broken it may comfort the good Christian against the fear of being a Castaway but in that it cannot possibly be untwisted it must distinguish him from one that is so For he hath not one of these truly that hath them not all three and he that hath them not all three at least in his purpose and and desire where he is defective in his practise and actual performance is not yet in Christ Jesus For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge thaet if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. The love of Christ is a constraining love impatient either of denial or of delay and the more impatient of delay for fear it should end in a denial The love of Christ constraineth not courteth those who are in Christ to live not to themselves but to their Saviour by whose death they have already obtained the life of grace and by whose resurrection from death they hope to obtain the life of glory The third principle of good Christianity is this That true faith in Christ was never yet without true love of Christ And this much we have learned from our Saviours own mouth who when he was asked a question that concerned faith returned his answer concerning love For so we find St Judes question Lord how is it that thou will manifest thy self unto us John 14. 22. But our Saviours answer is this If any man love me he will keep my words v. 23. The question was made concerning the manifestation of Christ unto the soul which is by faith but the answer was only concerning love and since our Saviours answer may not be thought impertinent or improper we must conclude that true faith in Christ cannot be without true love wherefore the Solifidian must either say That he may have true faith without Christs manifesting himself unto his Soul or shew that Christ hath manifested himself unto his Soul by loving him and keeping his words Saint Jude himself thus understood our Saviours answer and thus in effect explaineth it in his Epistle for our better understanding saying thus But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost v. 20. There 's Christ manifested unto the soul by faith a most pious faith for t is praying a most holy faith for t is praying in the Holy Ghost not despising much less destroying either the house or the exercise of prayer and again Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to eternal life v. 21. There 's that holy faith shewing it self by love teaching a man to forsake all things else to gain Christs love and to forsake himself to keep it not looking after that fading life which he hath in himself but after that eternal life which he hath in Christ There is in man a two fold manifestation and a twofold love for either we are manifested unto our selves and love our selves or Christ is manifested unto us and we love our Saviour For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil 1 John 3. 8. He was manifested in his own own flesh to destroy sin and for the same purpose is he also manifested in our spirits and accordingly till he be there manifested we are so far from destroying sin that we wholly delight in it For as long as we are manifestd to our selves our love is wholly of our selves either of our pleasures to defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evill
of dignities ver 8. such a licentiousness as hates to be controuled and much more to be confined and therefore hates the dominion and dignities which God hath ordained to controul and to confine it Or we are lovers of our profits as in ver 11. They have gon in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gain saying of Core where Balaam though put in the Second place yet is clearly the first mover in the way of unrighteousness for Cain and Core both do homage unto him For Cain is ready to kill and Core is ready to rebell if Balaam once run greedily after reward Such are we whiles we are manifested to our selves even lovers of our selves in our pleasures to all abominable licentiousness in our profits to all abominable out-rages and such are the cursed effects of our self-love even murders and seditions So that in truth we are self-haters whiles we are self-lovers for we have our woe denounced against us Woe unto them v. 11. Praedicit eorum exitium quoniam Cainum impudenti malitia Balaamum turpi avaritia Core dâ—nique factioso ambitioso ingenio referunt saith Beza in his short notes He foretelleth the destruction of such men because they follow Cain in his impudent malice Balaam in his filthy coveteousness and Core in his factious and ambitious unruliness But if Christ be manifested unto us our love is wholly of him and we will never think that we can sufficiently express that love We will labour to build up our selves in our most holy faith delighting in those things that are for Edification not for destruction and being afraid of that faith which is more for pulling down then for seeting up of holiness for we may not so build up our selves as to throw down others Praying in the holy Ghost that is praying in such a manner as that he may pray in us and in such a form as that he may pray with us not pinning those prayers upon the spirit of God which a sober man would be ashamed to speak and a conscientious man must be afraid to hear Keeping our selves in the love of God and loving whatsoever may be a means to keep us in his love as his word because it instructs us his authority because it restrains us his ordinances because they confirm and strengthen us having our eyes and our hearts alwayes lifted up to heaven looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life This is the only way to be assured that Christ is manifested unto our souls if indeed we thus entirely love him For our faith makes us accepted in Christ not so much from the strength of its perswasion as from the sincerity of its affection and is therefore called by Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faith which worketh by love Gal. 5. 16. There is no moral certainty to others of our being in Christ without this love In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devill whosoever loveth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother 1 Iohn 3. 10. There can be no theological certainty to our selves of being in Christ without this same love as it follows v. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death And again cap. 4. v. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit and sure we are that spirit is the Spirit of love Thus if we love we shall be assured of love and the more we find that we do love the more we shall find that we are beloved What have we then to do who profess our selves Christians but to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Eph. 5. 2. and by this love to give our selves unto him who hath given himself for us So shall we also in him be made an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savour being made partakers of the greatest glory that is incident to the creature even to be an offering and a sacrifice to the Greator and of the greatest blessing that is incident to that glory even to be an offering and a sacrifice for a sweet smelling Savour unto him That he smelling the smell of the Goodly raiment which we have borrowed from our Elder brother may bless us and say See the smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Gen. 27. 27. God the Son hath blessed that soul to which he hath given this sweet smelling Savour and God the Father will bless it and God the Holy Ghost will continue the blessing for ever more Amen CAP. III. Of the Comforts that arise from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity SECT I. The first comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is That we are thereby assured of the love of God MANY are the comforts of those who know they are in the state of true Christianity but they are all reducible to these three Heads That they are assured of love from God of communion with God and the continuance of that communion Three such comforts the least whereof is able to outweigh all that can be put against it not only in the balance of the Sanctuary but also in the scales of right reason For man naturally doth love God above his life and doth desire communion where he loveth and doth exceedingly delight in the continuance of that communion So that the comfort which ariseth from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity consists of these three degrees 1. That we are thereby assured of the love of God 2. That we are thereby assured of communion with God 3. That we are thereby on Gods part assured of the continuance of that communion which must needs bring heaven down to us if not carry us up to heaven The first degree of this comfort is that we are assured of the Love of God in whose presence is the fulness of joy and at whose right hand there is pleasure for evermore Psal 16. 12. For God is not as man that he should be changeable in his love but his love is like himself without beginning or ending He loves not more or less in process of time as men do and if he did we should have but small comfort of his love For love that is in time is but for a time not for all times it will be sure to choose the best time If Gods love were such woe would be to us upon whom are come the last and the worst times of this wicked world and therefore the last because the worst The worst as farthest from God and for that reason the last as neerest their own destruction Were Gods love to have a beginning in such times
as these both they and it would quickly have an ending his love would end and the times would end which are supported only by his love and we should all suddenly pass from a most wicked time to a most woefull eternity We must therefore say of Gods love to our souls what himself hath said of it by the mouth of his holy Prophet Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee Jer. 31. 3. in that he hath drawn us to himself t is an argument he hath loved us with an everlasting love wherefore every one whom God hath drawn unto himself by the bands of the Christian Religion is bound to believe that God hath loved him in Christ from all eternity and will love him to all eternity if he abide in Christ the Son of his love Thus hath Saint Paul joined these two titles both together beloved of God called to be Saints Rom. 1. 7. taking it for a proof that they were beloved of God because they were called to be Saints And yet we may still admit the School distinction of Gods love Secundum affectum Secundum effectum not as setting forth a new love of God but only new effects of his former love For though his love be eternal and alwayes the same yet the effects the benefits thereof are temporal and various according to our various temper or disposition to receive them And particularly the assurance of his love to our Souls is in time and not till such time as we have approved our selves to love him And hence it is that our love to God is reckoned up before Gods love to us even that love whereby he loved us in his holy purpose of eternity We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. in which words our love is put before Gods love not that it is so in it self but that it is so in our experience We must love before we can know that we are beloved for though we are called according to his purpose before we can love him yet we must love him before we can know that we are called according to his purpose Hence Saint John writeth to an honourable Lady as if she had been elected but then when she walked in the truth and yet Saint Paul saith plainly we were elected in Christ before the foundations of the world Eph. 1. 4. And these two will very well agree for we are not Gods elect in the judgement of our own consciences till we have used all diligence to make sure our calling and our election we cannot know that we are elected in Christ till we can find that we are approved in him Hence electus in Christo and probatus in Christo are but several expressions of the same spiritual blessing in Christ Apelles approved in Christ and Rufus elected or chosen in the Lord Rom. 16. 10 13. set forth to us two several good Christians but only one true being in Christ for he that is elected in Christ is also approved in him And till he can make good his approbation he cannot make good his election whereas on the other side he that can make it appear that he is approved in Christ by being in the state of true Christianity needs not doubt of his being elected in him for knowing that he loves his Saviour he shall much more know that his Saviour first loved him since no man can be so well assured that he loves God as he must be assured that God is love for the former assurance is from the testimony of his own conscience but the latter is from the testimony of Gods most holy and infallible word SECT II. The second comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is that we are thereby assured of communion with God the cause the work and the effects of that communion The cause of it is God The work of it is contemplation of God and consultation with God The effects of it that it makes a man live for to with and in God HE that will truly comfort himself in his communion with God must first consider the cause of that communion and then after that the communion it self and its effects The cause of that communion is only Gods own free grace and undeserved goodness in coming unto us when we were unworthy if not unwilling to come unto him For all the love that we can possibly bestow upon our Saviour and all the obedience that we can possibly bestow upon our love are not a sufficient invitation for such a heavenly guest to come unto our souls and much less a sufficient entertainment for him when he is come Let us view that scala salutis that Jacob's ladder whereby we climb up to heaven set down Rom 8. 29 30. we shall find in it five several steps or degrees and God freely coming unto us in them all The five steps whereby we ascend up to heaven are these 1 Precognition 2 Predestination 3 Vocation 4 Justification 5 Glorification For whom he did 1 foreknow he also did 2 predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son whom he did predestinate them he also 3 called and whom he called them he also 4 justified and whom he justified them he also 5 glorified Here are five steps in our ascending up into heaven God freely comes to us in every one of them He did foreknow there he comes to us in the first step that of precognition He did predestinate there he comes to us in the second step that of predestinacion He also called there he comes to us in the third step that of vocation He also justified there he comes to us in the fourth step that of Justification He also glorified there he still comes to us in the fifth and last step that of glorification What shall we then say to these things If God be for us and he is certainly for us whilst we are for him 2 Chron. 15. 2. who can be against us He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 31 32. Nay rather how hath he not already given us all things in him as our head how will he not give them us with him if we continue still his members We have already all things in him by vertue of his merit it remains only that we have them with him by virtue of his communion God in giving his Son gives himself in giving himself gives all things for he is all in all Nothing but God can give God to the soul of man The Father gives the Son the Father and Son give the Holy Ghost For as the Father did heretofore come to us by the Son So Father and Son do now come to us by the Holy Ghost and do also by him
communicating of himself Praesens autem est in quantum praesentat seu praesentem facit beatitudinem quae est in ipso in habitu tantum ut in parvulis in affectu tantum ut in adultis in habitu effectu et intellectu ut in beatis saith that excellent Schoolman Alensis par 3. qu. 61. God is then present with the soul when he represents unto it his own blessedness either in habit or disposition as in children that know him not and yet love him or in desire or affection as to men that know him and love him or in a habit desire and comprehension as to the blessed souls that not only know and love but also enjoy him So that according to the degrees of Gods presence are also the degrees of his communion where his presence is incompleat and imperfect as in grace there his communion is so too where his presence is compleat and perfect as in glory there so also is his communion But it is best for us to examine the effects of our communion with God in the presence of his grace that so we the more may undoubtedly attain to a communion with him in the presence of his glory And these effects are excellently set down in few words by the Casuists saying Spirituale bonum Divinum consistit in amicitia inter Deum hominem ac per hoc in consentire conversari convivere colloqui cum Deo The blessing of the soul consists in this that a man hath friendship or communion with God and consequently that he lives for him by consent lives to him by conversation lives with him by cohabitation lives in him by contentation I will briefly explain them all that the good Christian may know his own happiness in that he is called to live in this communion by vertue whereof First he lives for God by consent Fiat volunt as tuaâ— Thy will be done is a petition twice sanctified unto us by our Saviours own lips in two several prayers One of them taught us by his Doctrine in the Mount Mat. 6. So that we cannot contemn his prayer but we must also contemn his Sermon The other taught us by his practice or example Mat. 26. 42. where he made but one speech yet three prayers he prayed the third time saying the same words ver 44 It was one and the same expression of his voice it was not one and the same elevation of his soul therefore he prayed the third time though he spake but his first words We place the gift of prayer in the volubility of our tongues our Saviour placed it in the groans of his heart He prayed thrice in the same words we use many words scarce pray at all It is the heart that pants it not the tongue that chants it out when we truly say Thy will be done Conformitas in volito formali must be in all our desires where in volito materiali cannot be Here was a conformity of our Saviours will with Gods will in what he desired formally in his intention though a seeming non-formity in what he desired materially in his expression And so it must ever be with us For we are most sure that in this case the Non Conformist cannot be a good Christian but the want of conformity is the want of Christianity The second effect of this communion is that the good Christian lives to God by conversation T is a pleasant contemplation of Aquinas that local distance is no impediment in the Angels conversing one with another or speaking one to the other because that is a meer intellectual operation In loquutione Angelorum nullum impedimentum praestat localis distantia quia est mere intellectualis operatio Aqu. 1. par qu. 107. art 4. But t is a much more comfortable assertion of the Apostle that the distance of heaven from earth cannot hinder the conversation of man with God for so much he plainly asserteth when he saith For our conversation is in heaven for whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 20. In which words the Apostle affordeth us three observations concerning the heavenly conversation of good Christians 1. that it is nothing else but a serious study and exercise of Christian piety in imitation of Christ to whom they are always lifting up their eyes and their hearts 2. that they only are true Christians who firmly and constantly exercise this piety for they only have true faith in Christ they only have a firm hope of immortality 3. that we have all two great Motives for this exercise the one is that Christ our Saviour on whom all our hopes rely and in whom all our joys are fixed is in heaven thefore what have we to do on earth The other is that the same Christ will at the last day come from heaven to judge us according to the works that we have done therefore if we will have a favourable judgement we must have an innocent conversation Conversation is but a frequent conversion and requires our often turning to God by our repentance as we often turn away from him by our sins The third effect of this communion is that he lives with God by cohabitation I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Saint Paul by this losing his life did indeed save it had he kept his life in himself he might have lost it by a temporal a spiritual an eternal death for he would have been subject to the separation of his body from his soul of his soul from grace and of his soul and body from God But having lost his life in himself that he might keep it in his Saviour he keeps it for ever He keeps his natural life which else he could not but lose for his dissolution is not to him a death but only a change making good his We shall all be changed even before the last day for he had a change only when others had a death Our departure hence if looked upon as a change is our greatest consolation for it must needs be much for the better because our corruptible shall thereby put on incorruption our mortal shall put on immortality But if looked upon as a death must needs be our greatest horror and confusion for that can only tell us of the destroying not of the amending or bettering our present state and condition He keeps also his spiritual life so continuing as moreover improving it His soul being more knit and united with grace then before which is the spiritual life the union of the soul with grace for though we suppose it the same grace yet the soul must needs be united to it the more neerly and the more firmly the longer it abides in the communion of Christ the fountain of grace But we may well suppose the good Christian to grow
in grace since the Apostle so adviseth him 2 Pet. 3. 18. and say that by communion with his Saviour his soul is united to more and more grace and that both most neerly and most firmly so neerly as without a distance so firmly as without a disunion Lastly He keeps also his eternal life by living to and in his Saviour that is he presently enters his claim that he may keep his right though he happily stay a long time before he enters possession Hence the Apostle said cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. T is all one for him to be dissolved and to be with Christ for he did live with Christ before his dissolution and therefore cannot but live with him after it The fourth and last effect of this communion with God is that the good Christian lives in God by contentation Hence it is that the outrages of this world may disturb or discompose but not discontent him For when he is weary of men he can retire to himself and when he is weary of himself he can retire to his God And though he be not weary of himself yet he cannot be satisfied in himself as long as he is absent from his God Therefore he will be alwayes turning to him and never satisfied with turning till he get within him Turn again then unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee And why Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living Psalm 116. 7 8 9. We have been a long time turning and we have turned again and again but surely not unto our God because not unto our rest we have turned unadvisedly and irreligiously for we have turned away from our peace and from our God and therefore the more shall be our turnings in this sort the more will be our troubles But this holy man turns very advisedly for he is sure to get rest by his turning He turns unto God with a deliberate election because he is sure in him to find joy and rest Turn unto thy rest O my soul he turns unto him with a zealous and a thankful affection acknowledging his manifold spiritual and temporal deliverances Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Lastly he turns to him with a firm and a constant resolution of persisting and presevering in his thankful acknowledgements I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living These be the effects and fruits of our communion with God we have a league of friendship with him and that friendship makes us more devoted to him then to our selves And hence it comes to pass that we live for him by consent live to him by conversation live with him by cohabitation live in him by contentation SECT III. The third comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is that we are thereby assured of the continuance of our communion with God For his Desertion will be only for tryal not for punishment unless we become unfaithful and unfruitful TRue friendship consisteth in a proportionable communication of offices and of benefices Amicitia consistit in analogica officiorum beneficiorum communicatione One friendly office one friendly courtesie for another So is it in our communion with God The friendship on Gods part is wholly in giving benefits or blessings the friendship in our part is wholly in returning offices or services we receive benefits from him he receives offices from us Beneficium requirit officium His benefice requires our office and we cannot better befriend our selves then by readily and faithfully serving so good a Master who is more willing to pay us our wages then we are to earn them and is not willing to cast us off for every neglect or default in our services It was a sad complaint of the Orator in behalf of that widow whom he lamented Nescio an foeliciorem dicam quod talem virum habueâ—it an miseriorem quod amiserit I cannot tell whether I may call her more happy in that she once had so good a husband or more unhappy that now she hath lost him But God forbid this complaint should be verified of a soul espoused to Christ by a spiritual marriage and associated with him by a spiritual communion Therefore there is yet a third comfort arising from the knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity which is this that we are thereby assured of the continuance of our communion with God according to that triumphant exaltation of the Psalmist But thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Psalm 23. 6. Did my communion with God depend upon mine own deserts I that could not invite him to me might justly fear I should soon drive him from me but now that it dependeth upon his mercy and loving kindness I will hope I shall never lose it though I know I can never deserve it For what can love do else but love what can goodness do but good What can the fountain of mercy delight in but in shewing mercy Therefore though I sometimes step aside from him yet I hope he will not forsake me for he hath not only a preventing mercy to receive me but also a following mercy to recall me He came to me when I was out of the way and will he go from me because I cannot constantly keep in it No His mercy and loving kindness shall follow me all the dayes of my life For though men do follow that they may receive yet God doth follow that he may give and that he may give pardon among the rest of his gifts This is the ground of my confidence that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever and that he will continue his dwelling in my heart For God doth not come to men with an intent presently to leave them He comes to the devout foul not as a guest to lodge for a night but as a friend or a lover to abide for ever The Psalmist reckons up four wayes of Gods discontinuing his communion with his servants Ne abscondas faciem ne declines in ira ne dimittas ne derelinquas Hide not thy face turn not away leave not forsake not Psalm 27. 8 9. Each of these is an interruption of Gods communion with us and our communion with him but none of them is a total abruption of it each of them is a breach but none of them is a final breach The first breach is expressed by the hiding of his face the second by turning away his face the third by leaving us the fourth by forsaking us But this which is the greatest of all is capable of a mitigation for though he forsake us for a while
sins The Second positive argument why we should communicate with our Saviour is our fruitfulness in all good works ver 5. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit that is fruits of piety and religion towards God fruits of temperance and sobriety towards himself fruits of justice and charity towards his neighbour for he is like a tree planted by the water side bringing forth at all times and seasons the fruits of a holy a chaste and an upright conversation The third reason why we should communicate with our Saviour Christ is our own contentation ver 7. Ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you For he that abideth in Christ conformeth his will to the will of Christ and is sure to obtain what he asketh because he asketh such things as please him according to that excellent prayer of our own Church That they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee Collect for 10. Sunday after Trin. So Saint Augustine glosseth the words Manendo quippe in Christo quid velle possunt nisi quod convenit Christo quid velle possunt manendo in salvatore nisi quod alienum non est à salute He that abideth in Christ what can he ask against Christ He that abideth in his Saviour what can he ask that is destructive of salvation Therefore if he beg any thing of God that is not granted him he begs it as he is in himself not as he is in his Saviour so the same Father Quia si hoc petimus quod non fit non hoe petimus quod habet mansâ—o in Christo sed quod habet cupiditas aut infirmitas carnis If we ask that which God will not do for us we ask not according to our being and abiding in Christ but according to our being and abiding in our own fleshly lusts and infirmities Wherefore this being a certain truth that the good Christian desires to live rather according to the will of Christ then his own will he can never be discontented for whatsoever befals him because he knows that though God hear him not according to his prayer yet he heareth him according to his profit si non audit ad voluntatem audit ad utilitatem as saith Saint Augustine and being perswaded that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. he resolves to be thankful for what God gives him and for what he denies him and he that resolves to be thankfull is sure not to be miserable The fourth reason why we should communicate with our Saviour Christ is Gods glory ver 8. Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit which is agreeable with that Doctrine in his first Sermon upon the Mount Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. An argument so powerfull that we may call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or violentum because it offereth force or violence to our consciences which cannot but tell us that unless we do glorifie our God here we may not hope to be glorified by him hereafter The fifth reason why we should communicate with our blessed Saviour is rather privative then positive because it is taken from the punishment of those who are not in his communion and that reason is urged in the sixth ver If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned Where the punishment of those who abide not in Christ is the same which those endure that are in hell For it is a punishment of loss and a punishment of sense The punishment of loss is twofold 1. The loss of glory he is cast forth 2. The loss of nourishment he is withered The punishment of sense is also twofold 1. He is confined to ill company men gather them he is gathered together with other branches as rotten as himself he can have no other company but of wicked men and of evil spirits which we cannot but see in our late outrages was a most unsufferable mischeif and if it be so tedious for an hour what is it for ever 2 He is cast into a place of torment to be there tormented and cast them into the fire and they are burned Hence Saint Augustine most excellently Vnum è duobus Palmiti congruit aut vitis aut ignis si in vite non est in igne erit ut ergo in igne non sit maneat in vite One of those two things must needs befall every branch either he is in the Vine or he is in the fire therefore that he may not be in the fire he were best abide in the Vine Thirdly the cause of this communion ver 9. As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you continue ye in my love Gods love to us in Christ is the first efficient cause of our communion with Christ even as his grace is the secundary or instrumental cause of it and Saint Augustine hath found that also in these words manete in dilectione mea id est in gratia mea saith he continue ye in my love that is in my grace He that is an enemy to the grace of God is not yet fitted for communion with Christ Fourthly and lastly our blessed Saviour sheweth the proofs or evidences of our communion with him that we may rejoyce when we have it and repent when we have it not and those proofs are three The first proof of our communion with Christ is this that Christs words abide in us ver 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you the one alwayes accompanies the other so that those men give an ill proof of their communion with Christ who make it their business to revile and reproach his word Tunc dicenda sunt verba ejus in nobis manere quando facimus qua praecepit diligimus que promisit saith Saint Augustine Then is it to be said that his words do abide in us when we do what he hath commanded and desire what he hath promised But Aquinas tells us that Christs words do abide in us when we believe them when we love them when we consider them and when we obey them Amando credendo meditando implendo And he proves this his Exposition from Prov. 4. 20 21. My son attend to my words that you may believe them Encline thine ear unto my sayings that you may obey and fulfill them Let them not depart from thine eyes that you may consider and meditate upon them Keep them in the midst of thine heart that you may entirely affect and love them If the words of Christ do thus abide in us by faith by love by meditation and by obedience then we have a sure token that we our selves do abide in him so saith Saint Bern. Serm.
the Truth into their minds as they are able to receive it 2. In the object of it every man excluding none from the benefit of their Ministry who desire to be taught or to be warned though more particularly including those of their own Pastoral charge in which respect Clemens Alexandrinus his gloss may be admitted who saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warning and teaching the whole man that he may be purified both in his body and in his soul 3. In the manner of it with all assiduity and industry for so the Participles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do set forth not only continued but also multiplyed acts 4. And lastly in the end of scope of it which is to bring men to the communion of Christ that so they may be presented to God as perfect having that perfection in their Saviour which they have not in themselves Wherefore we cannot deny but as we still need the warning so we still need the watchmen and we must confess that watchmen of Gods own setting up may not be disturbed or displaced till himself be pleased to put them away or to pull them down and sure we are that will not be till we shall no longer need them And if the watchmen are bound to give the warning then questionless the people are bound to take it when it is given For it is plain the Text said Obey them that watch for your souls Heb. 13. 17. before the civil Magistrate was yet Christian to force men to that obedience Nay indeed while he was yet Heathen to deterre them from it and to persecute them for it So that the fifth Commandment obligeth me to obey those whom God hath set over me in spirituals no less then those whom he hath set over me in temporals And I may no more forsake the Church to set up a new Religion then I may forsake the State to set up a new Government For my obedience is due to both as a moral debt by the necessity of Justice since I am as much obliged to my spiritual Father for the care of my soul as I am to my civil Father for the care of my body and therefore I can no more withdraw my duty from the Church then I can from the Common-wealth Nor may I go out of my Nation to look for a Head of the Church any more then to look for a Head of the State since the fifth Commandment obligeth me equally to the Church and to the State And I ought to be as much afraid of Schism which is a sedition against the Church as of Sedition which is a schism against the State Sure I am if I will be a true Gospeller I must see that my conversation be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ and that 's a conversation which requires Unity no less then Verity Unity of Spirit no less then Verity of Faith So the Apostle advising the Philippians that their conversation should be as becometh the Gospel of Christ sheweth them in the next words wherein consisteth that conversation saying That ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind there 's the Vnity striving together for the faith of the Gospel there 's the Verity Phil. 1. 27. He permitteth not the pretence of Verity to break the bonds of Unity for he saith striving together not striving one with or against another for the faith of the Gospel Their concord and communion was to be the credit of their Religion not the pretence of Religion to be the bane of their communion He accounts it as necessary to their salvation that they should stand fast in the same Unity as that they should strive for the same Verity that they should stand fast in one spirit with one mind as that they should strive for the faith of the Gospel This is the true way to set up Christs Discipline for himself hath said By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another John 13. 35. As we are made Christs Disciples by the Verity of our Faith so we are known to be his Disciples by the Unity of our Love and if we desire to set up his Discipline we must take a course that men may know we are his Disciples which they cannot do unless we have love one to another and surely factions divisions strifes contentions are very ill arguments and worse evidences of love So that I cannot be a Schismatick in with-drawing my love from Christs Church but I must be a piece of an Atheist in withdrawing my love from Christ himself as refusing to be accounted his Disciple This makes Saint Paul come like clypei Dominus septemplicis Ajax holding out a Buckler with no less then seven folds in it to keep off all the assaults of schism saying 1. There is one Body that is one Catholick Church of Christ whereof we are all members that profess our selves to be Christians 2. One Spirit to quicken and enliven that body 3. One hope of immortality to comfort and confirm it 4. One Lord to wit our Saviour Christ that hath purchased and doth claim it 5. One faith to feed and nourish it 6. One Baptism to wash and cleanse it 7. One God and Father of all to rule and govern it Eph. 4. 4 5 6. So that I dare no more be a Schismatick then I dare think to divide this one body to multiply this one Spirit to falsifie this one hope to renounce this one Lord to forsake this one faith to despise this one Baptism to deny this one God for I must be zealous to maintain this Christian Communion in its authority that I may be so happy as to enjoy it in its excellency CAP. II. Christian Communion in its excellency SECT I. The excellency of Christian Communion because of its large extent as reaching to all Christians though of different perswasions and professions THE Christian Church is truly Catholick in that it comprizeth all true Believers of what nation sex age or condition soever for God acknowledgeth them all for his children by faith in Christ Jesus So saith Saint Paul Gal. 3. 26 27. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ So that whosoever believeth in Christ and is baptized in his name must be acknowledged a member of the Christian Church whether he be Jew or Greek bond or free which was not so before Christs coming in the flesh for then it was said only of the Jews ye shall be my people and I will be your God Jer. 30. 22. But since our blessed Saviour hath broken down the partition wall God hath called to himself a people not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles and it hath come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them ye are not my people there they are now called the children of the living God Rom. 9. 24 26. Those whom
God calls his sons how shall we not call our brethren unless we will deny him to be our Father Whence it must follow that Christian communion is of as great a latitude or extent as is the Christian Church according to that of Saint Paul ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Having said before ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus to shew they were of the same Christian Church he now saith ye are all one in Christ Jesus to shew they were also of the same Christian communion And this principle we may not gain-say if we will acknowledge the excellency of true Christian communion for it cannot be so excellent if it depend on man as if it depend on God if it depend on Christs Vicar as if it depend on Christ himself if it be confined to one party of Christians as if it be extended to all for undenyable is that rule in reason Bonum quo communius eo melius Every good the more common it is the better it is and much more undenyable is it in charity when it is applyed to our Christian Communion For it is against the nature of God to be under a restraint or a Monoply God the fountain of goodness is an universal good He is good unto all and every other good the more it partakes of his goodness the more it partakes of his universality and is the more diffusive of it self being good only to it self whiles it is not diffused and therefore diffusing it self that it may also be good to others Much more is this to be seen and confessed in the good of Christian Communion which is therefore good because it is a common good and may not be abridged of its Community without being also abridged of its goodness Saint Paul will have us if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. therefore much more with the best of men with Christians who have the name the word the image the Spirit of Christ with all men we must keep an external and civil but with Christians we must moreover maintain an internal and spiritual peace Our hand is bound to the good behaviour in regard of Christs enemies but our heart is so bound in regard of his servants We may not break the outward peace with those that persecute him much less may we break the inward peace with those that love him There is a great difference betwixt our Civil and our Christian conversation or communion The Civil depends upon the body and is accordingly confined to time and place but the Christian depends chiefly upon the soul and therefore may be extended as far as the souls apprehension and affection to know and to love the Truth Whence Saint John saith to that elect Lady Whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth though they had not known her for the truths sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever 2 John 1. 2. As far as truth and love do extend so far extends our Christian Communion the foundation whereof is truth the building whereof is love Communio spiritualis est in consensu vero vel interpretativo Spiritual communion consists either in an explicit or an implicit consent with other Christians Alensis par 2. qu. 161. m. 10. which as I may not afford to any Christians as they abide in errour so I may not deny to any Christians as they embrace the Truth For wherever the Truth is it calls for my interpretative or virtual consent not to deny or gain-say it and where I know it to be there it calls for my actual and explicit consent to love and follow it I may not turn Donatist to confine the spirit of truth nor may I turn Familist to confine the spirit of love For as it cannot be denyed but that the spirit breatheth where it listeth so it may not be disputed but I must love wheresoever the spirit is pleased to breath Either I must deny the spirit of Truth to breath upon all those Christians that are not of my profession or the spirit of love to breath upon me if I will not allow them to be of my Christian Communion So that I must first limit and confine the Catholick Church before I can limit and confine the Communion of Saints for as is the Church so is the communion if the one be Catholick the other is so too If I will make a particular Christian communion I must make a particular Christian Church and consequently make that two Articles of my Faith which Christ and his Apostles have made but one even The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints Saint John the beloved Disciple loved for the Truths sake and so must I where God hath not denyed his truth there may not I deny my love If there be such a Christian Church in the world which I cannot well love for its own sake yet even that Church must I love for the truth sake as far as it hath my Saviours Truth so far it must have my souls love And though that Church may most justly claim my love which hath most entirely Christs truth yet no Christian Church but may in some sort claim it since no Christian Church but hath Christs Truth by which it is made Christian Some have this truth mingled with many and gross errours but God forbid that the tares which the enemy hath sowed should make me out of love with that good seed which I know came from Christ himself For why should I be alwaies looking on the mote in my brothers eye and not rather see the beam in mine own To his own master he standeth or falleth and God is willing to make him stand why should I be willing to make him fall or to keep him down If I would look on the Christian not on the man I should account him a brother whom now I think an enemy for what he is in Christ is most amiable though not what is he in himself God looks on me in Christ to love me and why should not I so look on my Brother to love him Gods love in Christ towards me covers a multitude of my sins and why should not my love in the same Christ towards my Brother cover a few of his mistakes Sure I am my Saviour hath made Charity a necessary condition to the forgiveness of my sins and therefore I must willingly cover my brothers faults or I cannot hope that God will cover mine If I will needs lay open his miscarriages to my sight I shall but lay open mine own miscarriages to the sight of God for he that cursed Cham meerly for not covering will certainly never bless me only for discovering either my fathers or my brothers nakedness I cannot judge him but I shall bring my self into Judgement and therefore I must pass by his faults as I would have God to pass by mine This is
be feared we have no true faith in him and consequently no true communion with him Did we indeed look upon our Saviour as the beginning we would begin in his fear and in his faith not in our own phansies and much less in our own factions that we might live to him did we look upon him as the first born from the dead we would go on in his favour that so we might at last die to him and through him be made partakers of a joyful resurrection from death to everlasting life This would we all do if indeed we had communion with our Saviour Christ and we would before and above all things seek to have communion with him if we did rightly understand or could sufficiently value not only the future but also the present excellencies of his communion For what excellency is there not to be found here and not to be expected hence He is the beginning that 's ground for Christian piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to begin with God or else we must begin without our beginning He is from the dead that 's ground for Christian verity no religion in the world teaching this truth of the resurrection but only the Christian and that teaching it as the consummation of all other truths And lastly he is the first born from the dead that 's ground for our Christian unity or charity in that we are all under the same Captain of our Salvation and therefore should upon no pretences fall into mutinies and much less into outrages one against another For that Disciple who leaned in his Masters bosome and therefore probably knew most of his heart plainly tells us we cannot have a share in the resurrection of this first born from the dead or at least not know we have it unless it be from our love to those that are to follow after him We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Were it possible for any man to pass from death to life who loveth not his brother yet it were not possible for him to know so much We know that we have passed because we love therefore they who will not have this love cannot have this knowledge and indeed they cannot have this passage for he that abideth in death hath not yet passed from death unto life And he that hath not passed from death hath not yet communion with the first born from the dead and consequently is no less destitute of piety and of verity then he is of charity I was willing to find out all these three heavenly virtues together in the Apostles expression but sure I am I shall find them altogether in my Saviours communion for without doubt therein is piety to keep us from being hypocrites verity to keep us from being hereticks and unity to keep us from being schismaticks or sectaries agreeably to those three honourable compellations given to the Colossians by Saint Paul and in them to all good Christians the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ Col. 1. 2. Saints faithful and brethren Saints from the piety faithful from the verity and brethren from the unity that is in the true Christian Religion wherein he is adored who is the beginning author of the piety who is from the dead author of the verity and the first born from the dead to raise us all after him author of the unity I must now confess with Saint Chrysostome That those of Saint Pauls Epistles have something more of Divinity in them which were written in his bonds as this was to the Colossians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since I find both the grounds and the excellencies of all Christian Religion twice fully expressed in three words once speculatively in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beginning first born from the dead another time practically in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints Faithful brethren I cannot hear those compellations of Christ the Beginning the first born from the dead but I think my self called to the blessed speculation of piety verity and charity I cannot hear those compellations of Christians Saints faithful brethren but I must confess my self called to the more blessed practice of them since he is not a Saint who is without piety he is not faithful who is without verity and he is not a brother who is without charity Wherefore the best and readiest way to be a good Christian is to have communion immediately with Christ for by this means we shall be sure never to be destitute either of piety or of verity or of charity to make us perfect Christians or of immortality to make us happy Christians but in the midst of hypocrites we shall have piety in the midst of hereticks we shall have verity in the midst of schismaticks we shall have Charity there is our purchase in the midst of death and destruction we shall have immortality there is our happiness In the midst of life we be in death as men but in the midst of death we be in life as Christians And for this cause I conceive the Church did more peculiarly enjoyn Communions at Easter because then she did more especially commemorate the resurrection of Christ thereby putting us in mind that if we did indeed communicate with him we should not only be partakers of his piety verity and charity but also of his immortality and be not only strengthened against the errours of our life but also against the terrours of our death For through his blessed resurrection even the grave it self hath teemed to eternity and is become a second Eve to be called the mother of all living at least in respect of the true life that is to say the life everlasting For by vertue of this first-born from the dead corruption it self is become a father and the worm is become a mother to bring forth children to incorruption and to immortality So that what was holy Jobs complaint I have said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Job 17. 14. must be our joy and triumph ever since that text hath been verified Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption For ever since that day hath our corruptible put on incorruption in our blessed Saviour and our mortal hath put on immortality so that although we still carry about us mortality in our condition yet we have already put on immortality in our Communion Hence was the time between the Resurrection and Ascention of Christ antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cedrenus calls that week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Zonaras calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Meursius partly for the historie that our Saviour abode in Galilee altogether after his resurrection till his ascension but much rather for the mysterie the reason why he chose Galilee for the place of his abode and that
would give them life by his ordinary as well as by his extraordinary Ministers For we cannot but say that those are words of eternal truth as well as of eternal comfort Psal 73. 1. Truly God is loving unto Israel even unto such as are of a clean heart for there is no doubt of Gods being loving unto Israel no more then of Israels being of a clean heart If they be of a clean heart they must be of Gods Israel though they may be of several Tribes And if they be of Gods Israel they are sure of Gods love He will here guide them with his counsel and hereafter receive them with glory For he sanctifieth them by his Truth that he may save them by his mercy And accordingly S. Paul saith to Timothy Take heed unto thy self and unto the Doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 1 Tim 4. 16. Thereby shewing he had left the people of Ephesus sufficient means of being saved in that he had left them an infallible doctrine though he had not left them an infallible Doctor For if Timothy by taking heed unto himself and to the Doctrine he had received was able to save both himself and those who were committed to his charge t is evident the people of Ephesus had no more need in Gods account of an infallible Bishop to teach them then they had of an impeccable Bishop to govern them and indeed infallibility cannot be in the understanding without impeccability in the will since the will doth necessarily follow the last dictate of the understanding and it self being depraved may corrupt and deprave both the first and the last dictate of it Nay yet more lest we should make light account of the authority of particular Churches because we can neither prove nor believe their infallibility any more then we can their impeccability we find plainly that S. Paul calleth the particular Church of Ephesus even that Church with which Timothy was entrusted and in which he was taught by this Epistle how to behave himself The house of God the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim 3. 35. Though we may justly and should willingly infer that if a particular Church by cleaving to the word of Truth deserved to be called the pillar and ground of Truth then sure the Universal Church much more For so the argument will proceed à minore ad majus If one Minister shall be able to teach the saving Truth whilst he swerves neither to the right hand nor to the left from the word of Truth then much more a whole National Church and most of all the Catholike and Universal Church that is diffused over all Nations if she carefully attend and stedfastly cleave to that same word of Truth And if any man think this condition unnecessary let him consider that those four general Councils which Saint Gregory received as four Gospels did set the Bible upon a Throne in the midst of their assembly appealing to it for all their Doctrines and proving by it all their determinations which if all other general Councils at least so reputed had done since that time well we might have had fewer Articles but certainly we must have had a surer Creed and a founder faith nor can we deny but some provincial Councils by cleaving to the Text have more truly shewed themselves the pillars of Truth then some reputed general Councils that have forsaken it as the Council of Gangra which had in it but thirteen Bishops yet suppressed no less then twenty Schismatical opinions together whereas the Council of Constance that consisted almost of all Nations making light regard of Christs institution and order concerning the Eucharist though it ended the Schism of the Popes yet it began such a Schism in the Church as is like to continue to the worlds end for surely there will alwaies be some conscionable men who will prefer the Institution of Christ in his own Sacrament above the constitution of a Council and who will think there can be no Schism either less curable or more damnable then that which dares set up the pretended authority of the Church against the undoubted Authority of Christ This is most certain Saint Paul took it for granted that the Church of Ephesus was instructed in the whole Doctrine of the Scriptures for in the first Chapter he mentions both the Law and the Gospel and that she also followed those instructions before he called her the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth For indeed the first part of every Churches Trust is the Word of God which she is entrusted withal in a threefold respect 1. That she should keep it 2. That she should expound it 3. That she should obey it Wherefore those men who of late have cavilled at the written Word thereby thinking to resolve all Religion into the Authority of the Church have in truth taken a direct course to resolve the Authority of the Church into nothing For if the Church hath not been Gods faithful Trustee in keeping the substance or letter of his word who can think her faithful in expounding the sense or in observing the commands of the same And so then farewell to the Churches faithfulness and consequently to her authority which is grounded chiefly upon her faithfulness For it is as just an exception now as it was in the Apostles times Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. The intent of your arguments against the Scriptures is to advise us not to hearken unto God that we might only hearken unto you But the reason and force of your arguments will certainly â—eep us from hearkning unto you because they make it evident that you have not hearkned unto God Nay you have set light by his Word that you might not hearken unto him But this argument is good only against the men not against the cause and it is therefore best when it is against the worst men Those who have least hearkned to Gods voice have given the greatest cause to others not to hearken unto their voices And if they will needs be angry with us let them consider that God is first angry with them and therefore they ought to be angry with themselves For they took not only a very impious but also a very indiscreet way by vilifying the authority of Gods word to magnifie the authority of their own And yet to speak the plain truth this is rather to be called a cavil then an argument For let all the Original Bibles be examined both of the Papists and of the Protestant Churches we shall find them all exactly agreeing in one Hebrew and Greek Text and their disagreement to be only in their several glosses and Translations in so much that all these parts of Christendom would soon be of one and the same profession as well as they are of one and the same