enriched to be stedfast unmoveable abundant in the worke of the Lord to doe his will as the Angels in heaven doe it yet in many things they faile and have daily experience of their owne defects But here is all the comfort though I am not able to doe any of my duties as I should yet Christ hath finished all his to the full and therefore though I am compassed with infirmities so that I cannot doe the things which I would yet I have a compassionate advocate with the Father who both giveth and craveth pardon for every one that prepareth his heart to seeke the Lord though he be not perfectly cleansed 1 Ioh. 2.2 2 Chron. 30.18 19. Secondly Against the pertinacie and close adherence of our corruptions which cleave as fast unto us as the very powers and faculties of our soule as heat unto fire or light unto the Sunne Yet sure we are that he who forbad the fire to burne and put blacknesse upon the face of the Sunne at midday is able likewise to remove our corruptions as farre from us as he hath removed them from his owne sight And the ground of our expectation hereof is this Christ when he was upon the earth in the forme of a servant accomplished all the Offices of suffering and obedience for us Therefore being now exalted farre above all heavens at the right hand of Majestie and glory he will much more fulfill those Offices of Power which he hath there to doe Which are by the supplies of his Spirit to purge us from sinne by the sufficiencie of his grace to strengthen us by his word to sanctifie and cleanse us and to present us to himselfe a glorious Church without spot or wrinckle He that brought from the dead the Lord Iesus and suffered not death to hold the head is able by that power and for that reason to make us perfect in every good worke to doe his will and not to suffer corruption for ever to hold the members It is the frequent argument of the Scripture Heb. 13.20 21. Col. 2.12 Eph. 1.19 20. Rom. 6.5 6. Rom. 8.11 Thirdly against all those firie darts of Satan wherby he tempteth us to despaire and to forsake our mercie If he could have held Christ under when he was in the grave then indeed our faith would have been vaine we should be yet in our sinnes 1 Cor. 15. 17. But he who himselfe suffered being tempted and overcame both the sufferings and the temptation is able to succor those that are tempted and to shew them mercie and grace to helpe in time of need Heb. 2.17 18. Heb. 4. 15 16. Lastly against death it selfe For the Accomplishment of Christs Office of redemption in his resurrection from the dead was both the Merit the Seale and the first fruits of ours 1 Cor. 15.20 22. Thirdly The sitting of Christ on the right hand of his Father noteth unto us the actuall Administration of his Kingdome Therefore that which is here said sit at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole the Apostle thus expoundeth He must raigne till he hath put all enemies vnder his feete 1 Cor. 15.25 And he therefore died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of dead and living namely by being exalted unto Gods right hand Rom. 14.9 Now this Administration of Christs Kingdome implies severall particulars First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The publication of established Lawes For that which is in this Psalme called the sending forth of the rod of Christs strength out of Sion is thus by the Prophets expounded Out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem Esai 2.3 Mich. 4.2 Secondly The conquering and subduing of subjects to himselfe by converting the hearts of men and bringing their thoughts into the obedience of his Kingdome Ministerially by the word of reconciliation and effectually by the power of his Spirit writing his Lawes in their hearts and transforming them into the image of his word from glorie to glorie Thirdly Ruling and leading those whom he hath thus converted in his way continuing unto their hearts his heavenly voice never utterly depriving them of the exciting assisting cooperating grace of his holy Spirit but by his divine power giving unto them all things which pertaine unto life and godlinesse after he had once called them by his glorious power Esai 2.2 Ioh. 10.3 4. 1 Cor. 1.4 8. Esai 30.21 1 Pet. 2.9 2 Pet. 1.3 Fourthly Protecting upholding succouring them against all temptations and discouragements By his compassion pittying them by his power and promises helping them by his care and wisedome proportioning their strength to their trials By his peace recompencing their conflicts by patience and experience establishing their hearts in the hope of deliverance Heb. 2.17 Ioh. 16.33 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 1.5 Phil. 4.7 19. Rom. 15.4 Fifthy Confounding all his enemies First Their projects holding up his Kingdome in the midst of their malice and making his truth like a tree settle the faster and like a torch shine the brighter for the shaking Secondly Their Persons Whom he doth here gall and torment by the Scepter of his word constraining them by the evidence thereof to subscribe to the Iustice of his wrath and whom he reserveth for the day of his appearing till they shall be put all under his feete In which respect he is said to stand at the right hand of God as a man of warre ready armed for the defence of his Church Act. 7.56 Fourthly the sitting of Christ on the right hand of God noteth unto us his giving of gifts and sending downe of the Holy Ghost upon men It hath been an universall custome both in the Church and elsewhere in dayes of great joy and solemnitie to give gifts and send presents unto men Thus after the wall of Ierusalem was built and the worship of God restored and the Law read and expounded by Ezra to the people after their captivitie it is said that the people did eate and drinke and send portions Nehem. 8. 10 12. The like forme was by the people of the Iewes observed in their feast of Purim Ester 9.22 And the same custome hath bin observed amongst heathen Princes upon solemne and great occasions to distribute donations and congiaries amongst the people Thus Christ in the day of his Majestie and Inauguration in that great and solemne triumph when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive he did withall give gifts unto men Eph. 4.10 Christ was notably typified in the Ark of the Testament In it were the Tables of the Law to shew that the whole Law was in Christ fulfilled and that he was the end of the Law for Righteousnesse to those that beleeve in him There was the golden pot which had Manna to signifie that heavenly and abiding nourishment which from him the Church receiveth There was the Rod of Aaron which budded Signifying either the miraculous incarnation of Christ in a Virgin or
completely sent both in regard of manifestation and efficacie than ever before The difference is chiefly in three things First In the manner of his mission To the old Church in dreames and visions in figures and latent waies But to the Evangelicall Churches in power evidence and demonstration 1 Cor. 2.4 5. Therefore it is called the spirit of revelation and knowledge which discovereth and that unto principalities and powers by the Church the manifold and mysterious wisedome of God in Christ Eph. 1.17.3.10 Therefore the Spirit was sent in the latter dayes in wind and fire and tongues and earthquake all which have in them a selfe-discovering propertie which will not be hidden Wheras in the time of the Prophets God did not in any such things save onely in a low and still voyce reveale himselfe 1 Kings 19.11 12. Secondly In the subjects unto whom he was sent Before onely upon the inclosed garden of the Iewes did this winde blow but now is the Spirit powred upon all flesh and this heavenly dew falleth not upon the fleece but upon the whole earth And therefore our Savior opposeth Ierusalem and the Spirit Ioh. 4.21 23. Every beleever is of the Israel of God every Christian a Temple of the Holy Ghost no people of the earth secluded But in every nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousnesse is accepted no place uncleane but every where pure hands may be lifted up Thirdly In the measure of his grace At first he was sent onely in drops and dew but after he was powred out in showres and abundance Tit. 3.6 and therefore as I have before observed the grace of the Gospell is frequently expressed by the name of Riches to note not onely the pretiousnesse but the plentie thereof in the Church And it is here worth our observation that the Spirit under the Gospell is compared to things of a spreading multiplying and operative nature First To water and that not a little measure to sprinckle or bedew but to Baptize the faithfull in Matth. 3.11 Act. 1.5 and that not in a font or vessell which growes lesse and lesse but in a springing and living river Ioh. 7.39 Now water besides its purging propertie is first of a spreading nature It hath no bounds nor limits to it selfe as firme and solid bodies have but receives its restraint by the vessell or continent which holds it so the Spirit of the Lord is not straightned in himselfe but onely by the narrow hearts of men into which he comes Ye are not straitned saith the Apostle in us that is in that ministerie of grace and dispensation of the Spirit which is committed to us but in your owne bowels which are not in any proportion enlarged unto that abundance and fulnesse of heavenly grace which in the Gospel of salvation is offered unto you Secondly Spring water is a growing and multiplying thing which is the reason why rivers which rise from narrow fountaines have yet by reason of a constant and regular supply a great breadth in remote channels because the water lives Wheras in pits and torrents it groweth lesse and lesse so the graces of the Spirit are living and springing things the longer they continue the larger they grow like the waters of the sanctuary Ezek. 36.25 and the reason is because they come from a fountaine which is all life Ioh. 4.10 Ioh. 14.6 Col. 3.4 Thirdly as water multiplies in it selfe so by insinuation and mollification it hath a fructifying vertue in other things Fruitfull trees are planted by the waters side so the Spirit searching and mollifying the heart maketh it fruitfull in holy obedience Ezek. 11.19 20. Fourthly water is very strong in its owne streame we see what mighty engines it moveth what huge vessels it rouleth like a ball what walls and bulwarkes it overthrowes so the spirit of God is able to beate downe all strong holds which the wit of man or the malice of Satan can erect against the Church The horses of Egypt are flesh not Spirit saith the Lord not by might nor by power but by my Spirit noting that that which might and created power could not doe the Spirit of the Lord was able to effect And this strength of water serves to carry it as high as its owne spring and levell so the Spirit will never cease to raise the hearts of his people till it carries them up to their fountaine and spring-head in heaven Secondly The Spirit is compared to the rushing of a mighty winde The learned observe that before Christs time God spake unto men in a soft still voyce which they called Bath Koll but after in the time of the Gospell by a mighty wind noting thereby both the Abundance of his Spirit which he would powre out in the latter dayes and the strength thereof as of a rushing winde Though a man have walls of brasse and bars of iron upon his conscience though he set up fortifications of fleshly reason and the very gates of hell to shut out the Spirit of grace yet nothing is able to withstand the power of this mighty rushing winde Who art thou O great mountaine Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plaine c. Zech. 4.7 No mountaines no difficulties can prevent the power of Gods Spirit He hath strength to pull downe the strongest oppositions and to enable the weakest condition unto the service which he will have done Though there be mountaines betweene Israel and their deliverance yet the blinde and the lame and the woman with childe and her that travelleth with childe together will he strengthen to climbe over the precipices of the highest mountaine Ier. 31.8 Thirdly The Spirit is compared to Fire noting likewise both the multiplying or diffusive property thereof turning every thing into its owne nature and the mighty strength thereof wherby it either cleanseth or consumeth any thing that it meets with If thou art stubble it will devoure thee if stone it will breake if gold it will purge thee The hard heart it can melt and the foule heart it can purifie Lay downe thine heart under the word and yeeld it to the Spirit who is as it were the artificer which doth manage the word he can frame it into a vessel of honour but if thou resist and be stubborne against the Spirit in the word know that it is but the crackling of a leafe in the fire if thou wilt not suffer it to purge thee thou canst not hinder it to torment thee nothing is more comfortable nothing more consuming than fire nothing more comfortable than the light warmth and witnesse of the Spirit nothing more terrible than the conviction condemnation and bondage of the Spirit Now this difference in the measure of the Spirit may be seen in two things First in a greater measure of knowledge They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord Ier. 31.34 And the earth shall be full of the
faith worship and obedience dependeth But wee say that as Peter was a foundation so were all the other Apostles likewise Eph. 2.20 Revel 21.14 and that upon the same reason For the Apostles were not foundations of the Church by any dignity of their persons as Christ the chiefe corner stone was but by the vertue of their Apostolicall office which was universall jurisdiction in governing the people of Christ universall commission in instructing them and a Spirit of infallibility in revealing Gods will unto them throughout the whole world And therefore as Peter had the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven to remit or retaine the sinnes of men so likewise had the other Apostles Ioh. 20.23 That Christs charge to Peter feed my sheepe feed my lambes is no other in substance than his commission to them all goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost And that the particular directing of it unto Peter and praying for him was with respect unto his particular onely by way of comfort and confirmation as being then a weake member not by way of dignity or deputation of Christs owne regall power to him in the visible Church For all the offices of Christ are intransient and uncommunicable to any other in as much as that administration and execution of them dependeth upon the dignity of his person and upon the fulnesse of his Spirit which no mortall man or immortall Angell is capable of But all this is not enough to bee granted them for the raising their authority But then thirdly we must grant them too that Peter thus qualified was Bishop of Rome for proofe wherof they have no Testimonie of Holy Scriptures but onely humane tradition Cui impossibile non est subesse falsum So that in this which is one of the maine principles they build upon their faith cannot bee resolved into the word of God and therefore is no divine faith Fourthly that hee did appoint that Church to bee the monarchicall and fundamentall see to all other Churches for hee was Bishop as well of Antioch as of Rome by their owne confession And I wonder why some of his personall vertue should not cleave to his chaire at Antioch but all passe over with him to another place Fifthly that hee did transmit all his prerogatives to his successors in that chaire By which assertion they may as well prove that they all though some of them have been sorcerers others murtherers others blasphemous atheists were inheriters of S. Peters love to Christ for from thence our Savior inferres feed my sheep to note that none feed his sheepe but those that love his person Lastly that that long succession from S. Peter untill now hath ever since been legall and uninterrupted Or else the Church must sometimes have been a monster without a head Wee grant that some of the Ancients argue from succession in the Church but it was while it was yet pure and while they could by reason of the little space of time betweene them and the Apostles with evidence resolve their Doctrine through every medium into the preaching of the Apostles themselves But even in their personall succession who knoweth not what Simonies and Sorceries have raised divers of them unto that degree and who is able to resolve that every Episcopall ordination of every Bishop there hath been valid since therunto is requisite both the intention and Orders of that Bishop that ordained him These and a world of the like uncertainties must the faith of these men depend upon who dare arrogate to themselves the prerogatives of Christ and of his Catholike Kingdome But I have been too long upon this argument Againe this point of the stabilitie of Christs Kingdome is a ground of strong confidence comfort to the whole Church of Christ against all the violence of any outward enemies wherwith sometimes they may seeme to bee swallowed upon Though they associate themselves and gird to the battle though they take counsell and make decrees against the Lords anointed and against his spouse yet it shall all come to nought and be broken in pieces all the smoake of hell shall not bee able to extinguish nor all the power of hell to overturne the Church of God and the reason is Immanuel God is with us Esai 8.9 10. That anointing which the Church hath received shall deliver it at last from the yoke of the enemie Esai 10.27 Though it seeme for the time in as desperate a condition as a dry stick in the fire or a dead body in the grave yet this is not indeed a sepulture but a semination Though it seeme to bee cast away for a season yet in due time it will come up and flourish againe Zechariah 3.2 Ezekiel 37.11 And this is the assurance that the Church may have that the Lord can save and deliver a second time Esai 11.11 that hee is the same God yesterday and to day and for ever and therfore such a God as the Church hath found him heretofore such a God it shall finde him to day and for ever in the returnes and manifestations of his mercy Which discovers the folly and foretels the confusion of the enemies of Christs Kingdome they conceive mischiefe but they bring forth nothing but vanity Iob 15.35 They conceive chaffe and bring forth stubble Esai 33.11 They imagine nothing but a vaine thing their malice is but like the fighting of briars and thornes with the fire Esai 27.4 Nahum 1.10 like the dashing of waves against a rock like a mad mans shooting arrowes against the Sunne which at last returne upon his owne head like the puffing of the fanne against the corne which driveth away nothing but the chaffe like the beating of the winde against the saile or the foming and raging of the water against a mill which by the wisedome of the artificers are all ordered unto usefull and excellent ends And surely when the Lord shall have accomplished his worke on mount Sion when hee shall by the adversary as by a fanne have purged away the iniquity of Iacob and taken away his sinne hee will then returne in peace and beauty unto his people againe Looke on the preparation of some large building in one place you shall see heapes of lime and morter in another piles of timber every where rude and indigested materials and a tumultuary noise of axes and hammers but at length the artificer sets every thing in order and raiseth up a beautifull structure such is the proceeding of the Lord in the afflictions and vastations of his Church though the enemie intend to ruine it yet God intends onely to repaire it Thus farre as Donec respects Christs Kingdome in it selfe Now as it respecteth the enemies of Christ it notes First The present inconsummatenesse of the victories and by consequence the intranquillity of Christs Kingdome here upon the earth All his enemies are not yet under his feete Satan is not yet shut up
excellent endowments but I have them all in an earthen vessell And shall the potsheard strive with the potter and provoke him that made it This would teach us to feare and tremble at Gods power Though wee looke upon death and judgment as a-farre off yet God can make them neere when hee will for hee hath said that the damnation of wicked men is swift and that they are neere unto cursing His judgments are like lightning and have wings suddenly to overtake a sinner Hee requires but a moneth nay but a morning nay but a moment to consume his enemies and bring desolation upon those who said they should â—it as a Lady for ever and did never remember the latter end Though a sinner doe evill an hundred times and his dayes bee prolonged namely by the patience and permission of God in whose hands his dayes are yet it shall goe well at last onely with those that feare God The wicked are not able to prolong their owne dayes Againe for Afflictions and Temptations it is a great fruit of the infidelity of mens hearts and a foolish charging and chiding of our Maker to accompt our selves swallowed up of any present pressure If we did but consider that it is as easie with God to subdue our enemies and to rebuke our afflictions as it is with us to put a stoole under our feete wee would then learne to waite on him in all our distresses and when we cannot answere difficulties nor extricate our selves out of our owne doubts or fears to conclude that his thoughts are above our thoughts and his wayes above our wayes and so to cast our selves wholly upon his power T is an argument which the Lord every where useth to establish his Church withall Feare not the feare of men nor bee affraid but sanctifie the Lord of hosts himselfe and let him bee your feare Who art thou that thou shouldst bee affraid of a man that shall dye and of the Sonne of Man which shall bee made as grasse and forgettest the Lord thy maker and hast feared every day because of the fury of the oppressor And where is the fury of the oppressor If it bee marvailous in the eyes of the remnant of this people should it bee marvailous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh is there any thing too hard for mee Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Hee shall bee as a tree planted by the waters which shall not bee carefull in the yeere of drought When the poore and needy seeke water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will heare them I the God of Israel will not forsake them Though the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruite bee in the vines the labor of the olive shall faile and the field shall yeeld no meate the flock shall bee cut off from the fould and there shall bee no heard in the stals yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hee is able to doe abundantly above all that wee can ask or thinke God would never so frequently carry men to the dependance upon his power if they were not apt in extremities to judge of God by themselves and to suspect his power Secondly as this Putting of Christs enemies like a stoole under his feete noteth Easinesse so also it noteth Order or Beauty too When Christs enemies shall bee under his foote then there shall bee a right Order in things then it shall indeed appeare that God is a God of Order and therefore the day wherin that shall bee done is called the Time of the Restitution of all things Act. 3.21 The putting of Christs enemies under his feete is an Act of Iustice and of all other Iustice is the most orderly vertue that which keepeth beauty upon the face of a people as consisting it selfe in a symmetrie and proportion Againe every thing out of its owne place is out of order but when things are all in their proper places and due proportions then there results a beauty and comelinesse from them In a great house there are many vessels some of wood and brasse others of gold and silver some for honorable others for base and sordid uses Now if all these were confusedly together in one roome a man would conclude that things were out of order but when the plate is in one place the brasse and wood in another wee acknowledge a decency and cleanlinesse in such a house Let a body bee of never so exact temperature and delicate complexion yet if any member therin bee misplaced the eye in the roome of the eare or the cheeke of the forehead there can bee no beauty in such a body So in the Church till God set every one in his right place the order thereof is but imperfect Therefore when Iudas was put under Christs feete hee is said to have gone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto his owne place Act. 1.25 Why then should any man murmure at the prosperity of wicked men or conceive of Gods proceedings as if they were irregular and unequall as if there were no profit for those who walke mournfully but the proud and wicked workers were set up This is to revile the workman while hee is yet in the fitting of his worke The pieces are not yet put together in their proper joints and therefore no marvell if the evennesse and beauty of Gods workes bee not so plainly discovered For every thing is beautifull in its time what though the corne in the field hang downe the head and the weeds seeme to flourish and overtop it stay but till the harvest and it will then appeare which was for the garner and which for the fire Goe into the Sanctuary of the Lord and by faith looke unto the day of the revelation of Gods righteous judgments and it will appeare that the wayes of the Lord are right though the transgressors stumble in them or bee offended at them Secondly from hence every man may learne how to bring beauty and order into himselfe namely by subduing those enemies of Christ those lusts and evill affections which dwell within him Lawes wee know are the ligaments and sinewes of a state the strings as it were which being touched and animated by skilfull governors doe yield that excellent harmonie which is to bee seen in well constituted common wealths the more they prevaile so much the more unitie is preserved and faction abated and community cherished in the mindes of men Even so where the Scepter of Christ the Law of the minde the roiall Law of Liberty and grace doe more prevaile over the lusts of the heart by so much the more excellent is the harmonie and complexion of such a soule Now the last thing in this verse is Scabellum pedibus tuis A stoole under thy feete Things are under Christs
an escape from himselfe the priviledge wherof hee did afterwards in vaine lay hold on And thus will Christ deale with his enemies at the last day Here they trample upon Christ in his word in his wayes in his members They make the Saints bow downe for them to goe over and make them as the pavements on the ground They tread under foote the bloud of the covenant and the Sanctuary of the Lord and put Christ to shame here and there their owne measure shall bee returned into their owne bosome they shall bee constrained to confesse as Adonibezek as I have done so God hath requited mee Yea this they shall suffer from the meanest of Christs members whom they here insulted over They shall then as witnesses and as it were co-assessors with Christ judge the very wicked Angels and tread them under their feet They shall take them captives whose captives they were and shall rule over their oppressors All they that despised them shall bow themselves at the soles of their feete They who gathered themselves against Sion and said let her bee defiled and let our eye see it shall themselves bee gathered as sheaves into the floore and the Daughter of Sion shall arise and thresh them with hornes of iron and with hooves of brasse Then saith the Church shee that is mine enemies shall see it shame shall cover her which said unto mee Where is the Lord thy God Mine eyes shall behold her Now shall shee bee troden downe as the mire of the streetes Even so let all thine enemies perish O Lord but let them which love thee bee as the Sunne when he goeth forth in his might Lastly herin wee may note the great Power and wisedome of Christ in turning the malice and mischiefe of his enemies into his owne use and advantage and in so ordering wicked men that though they intend nothing but extirpation and ruine to his Kingdome yet they shall bee usefull unto him and against their owne wills serviceable to those glorious ends in the accomplishing wherof hee shall bee admired by all those that beleeve As in a great house there is necessary use of vessels of dishonour destinated unto fordid and meane but yet dayly services so in the great house of God wicked men are his utensils and houshold instruments as footstooles and staves and vessels wherin there is no pleasure though of them there may bee good use The Assyrian was the Rod of his anger his axe wherwith hee pruned and his Saw wherwith hee threatned his people Pharoah was a vessell fitted to shew the glory and power of his name It is necessary saith our Savior that offences come and there must bee heresâ—es saith the Apostle Because as a skilfull Physitian ordereth poysonfull and destructive ingredients unto usefull services So the Lord by his wisedome doth make use of wicked mens persons and purposes to his owne most righteous and wonderfull ends secretly and mightily directing their wicked designes to the magnifying of his owne power and providence and to the furthering of his people in faith and godlinesse VERSE 2. The Lord shall send the Rod of thy strength out of Sion Rule thou in the mids of thine enemies THis Verse is a continuation of the former touching the Kingdome of Christ and it containes the forme of its spirituall administration Wherin is secretly couched another of the Offices of Christ namely his Propheticall Office For that is as it were the dispensation and execution of his regall Office in the militant Church The summe of this Administration consists in two principall things First in matters military for the subduing of enemies and for the defence and protection of his people Secondly in matters civill and judiciall for the government preservation and honor of his Kingdome And both these are in this Psalme The former in the latter part of this verse Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies The other in the third verse Thy people shall bee willing c. and the way of compassing and effecting in the former words of this verse The Lord shall send forth the Rod of thy strength out of Sion Every King hath his jura Regalia certaine roiall prerogatives and peculiar honors proper to his owne person which no man can use but with subordination unto him And if wee observe them wee shall finde many of them as exactly belong unto Christ in his Kingdome as to any secular prince in his First unto Kings doe belong Armamentaria publica the Magazins for military provision and the power and disposition of publike armes Therefore hee is said by the Apostle to Beare the sword because armes properly belong unto him and unto others under his allowance and protection So to Christ alone doth belong and in him onely is to bee found the publike armorie of a Christian man The weapons of our warfare are mighty onely through him Nay hee is himselfe the armour and panoply of a Christian and therefore wee are commanded to put on the Lord Iesus Againe via publica is via regia the high way is the Kingâ— way wherin every man walketh freely under the protection of his Soveraigne So that Law of faith and obedience under which wee are to walke which S. Paul calleth the Law of Christ is by S. Iames called Lex Regia a roiall Law and a Law of Libertie in which while any man continueth hee is under the protection of the promises and of the Angels of Christ. Againe Bona adespota seu incerti Domini Lands that are concealed and under the evident claime of no other person or Lord doe belong unto the Prince as hee that hath the supreme and universall dominion in his countries And this is most certainly true of Christ in his Kingdome if any man can once truly say Lord I am not the servant of any other Master no other King hath the rightfull dominion or peaceable possession of my heart hee may most truly from thence inferre Therefore Lord I am thy servant and therefore Lord my heart is thine True it is Lord our God that other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but now by thee onely will wee make mention of thy name Againe Vectigaliae and Census Tributes and Customes and Testifications of homage and fidelity are personall prerogatives belonging unto Princes and as the Apostle saith Due unto them for that Ministerie and Office which under God they attend upon So in Christs Kingdome there is a worship which the Psalmist saith is Due unto his name They which came unto the Temple which was a type of Christ were not to come empty handed but to bring Testimonies of their reverence and willing subjection unto that worship When Abraham met Melchisedek a figure of Christ as from him hee received a blessing so unto him hee gave an expression of a loyall heart the tenth of the spoiles When the people of Israel entred into
charge even the great men of the world It is true the ministers of the Gospell are servants to the Church In compassion to pitty the diseases the infirmities the temptations of Gods people in ministerie to assist them with all needfull supplies of comfort or instruction or exhortation in righteousnesse in humility to waite upon men of lowest degree and to condescend unto men of weakest capacitie And thus the very Angels in heaven are servants to the Church of Christ. But yet we are servants onely for the Churches good to serve their soules not to serve their humors And therefore we are such servants as may command too These things command and teach Let no man despise thy youth And againe These things speake and exhort and rebuke with all authority Let no man despise thee No ministers are more despicable than those who by ignorance or flattery or any base and ambitious affections betray the power majesticall simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. When we deliver Gods message we must not then be the servants of men If I yet please men I were not then the servant of Christ saith the Apostle To captivate the truth of God unto the humours of men and to make the Spirit of Christ in his Gospell to bend comply and complement with humane lusts is with Ionah to play the runnagates from our office and to prostrate the Scepter of Christ unto the insultation of men There is a wonderfull majesty and authority in the word when it is set on with Christs Spirit He taught men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one who had power and authority or priviledge to speake as one that cared not for the persons of men and therefore where ever his spirit is there will this power and liberty of Christ appeare for he hath given it to his ministers that they may commend themselves in the consciences of those that heare them that they may harden their faces against the pride and scorne of men that they may goe out in armies against the enemies of his kingdome that they may speake boldly as they ought to speake that they may not suffer his word to be bound or his Spirit to be straitened by the humors of men Againe we should all labour to receive the word in the power thereof and to expose our tender parts unto it A Cocke is in comparison but a weake Creature and yet the crowing of a Cocke will cause the trembling of a Lion What is a Bee to a Beare or a Mouse to an Elephant and yet if a Bee fasten his sting in the nose of a Beare or a Mouse creepe up and gnaw the trunke of an Elephant how easily doe so little Creatures upon such an advantage torment the greatest Certainely the proudest of men have some tender part into which a sting may enter The conscience is as sensible of Gods displeasure as obnoxious to his wrath as subject to his word in a prince as in a beggar If the word like Davids stone finde that open and get into it it is able to sinke the greatest Goliah Therefore wee should open our consciences unto that word and expect his spirit to come along with it and receive it as Iosiah did with humility and trembling Wee should learne to feare the Lord in his word and when his voyce cryeth in the city to see his name and his power therein Will ye not feare me faith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence who make the sand abound to the sea No Creature so swelling and of it selfe so strong and incroaching as the sea nothing so small weake smoothe and passable as the sand and yet the sand a creature so easily removed and swept away decreed to hold in so raging an Element What in appearance weaker than words spoken by a despised man and what in the experience of all the world stronger than the raging of an army of lusts and yet that hath the Lord appointed to tame and subdue these that men might learne to feare his power Againe it should teach us to Rest upon God in all things as being unto us all-sufficient a sunne a shield an exceeding great reward in the truth and promises of his Gospell The word of God is a sure thing that which a man may cast his whole weight upon and leane confidently on in any extremity All the Creatures in the world are full of vanity uncertaineties and disappointments and then usually doe deceive a man most when he most of all relies upon them and therefore the Apostle chargeth us not to trust in them But the word of the Lord is an abiding word as being founded upon the Immutability of Gods owne truth he that maketh it his refuge relieth on Gods omnipotency and hath all the strength of the Almighty engaged to helpe him Asa was safe while hee depended on the Lord in his promises against the hugest host of men that was ever read of but when he turned aside to collaterall aides hee purchased to himselfe nothing but perpetuall warres And this was that which established the throne of Iehoshaphat and caused the feare of the Lord to fall upon the kingdomes of the lands which were round about him because he honoured the Word of God and caused it to be taught unto his people Whensoever Israel and Judah did forget to leane upon Gods word and betooke themselves to humane confederacies to correspondence with Idolatrous people to facility in superstitious compliances and the like fleshly counsels they found them alwaies to be but very lies like waxen and wooden feasts made specious of purpose to delude ignorant commers things of so thinne and unsoâ—id a consistence as were ever broken with the weight of those who did leane upon them Let us not therefore rest upon our owne wisedome nor build our hopes or securities upon humane foundations but let us in all conditions take hold of Gods Covenant of this staffe of his strength which is able to stay us up in any extremities Againe since the Gospell is a word of such soveraigne power as to strengthen us against all enemies and temptations to uphold us in all our wayes and callings to make us strong in the Grace of Christ for ever a Christian mans knowledge of the Word is the measure of his strength and comfort wee should therefore labour to acquit our selves with God in his Word to hide it in our hearts and grow rich in the knowledge of it In heaven our blessednesse shall consist in the knowledge and communion with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ. So that the Gospell and the Spirit are to us upon earth the preludes and supplies of heaven for by them onely is this knowledge and communion begun And that man doth but delude himselfe and lye to the world who professeth his desire to goe to heaven and doth not here desire to know so much of God as he is pleased to afford to
more than men and by relying on him against the power and confederacies of men Esay 8.12 13. And therefore in the same argument touching the happinesse of the Saints if they suffer for righteousnesse sake or be reproched for the name of Christ Saint Peter useth in one place sanctifying of the Lord in our hearts and in another glorifying of him as termes equivalent And therefore unbeleefe is said to make God a lyar that is to dishonour him and to rob him of the glory of his truth And despaire to rob God of his mercy and to make the guilt of sinne greater than the power of God And therefore murmurers and unbeleevers are said to speake against God and to grieve him to tempt to limit him that is to call into question the glory of his power and truth Herein then consisteth another glorious effect of the Gospell of Christ that being a ministration of righteousnesse it is a glasse of that power truth mercy and fidelity of God which by faith we rest upon for the forgivenesse and subduing of sinne Thirdly another glorious end of the Gospell is to be a ministration and a law of life If the ministration of death saith the Apostle were glorious how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8. The Law alone by it selfe is towards sinners but a dead letter onely the rule according unto which a man ought to walke not any principle enabling him to walke If Moses alone should speake unto men he could onely tell them what they ought to doe hee could in no wise enable them to doe it nay further the Law hath occasionally from the sinne of man a malignant propertie in it to irritate and exasperate lust the more to beget an occasionall rage and fiercenesse in our nature As the Sunne shining on a dung-hill exhaleth noysome vapours and maketh it stinke the more But now the Gospell by the Spirit doth not onely teach but helpe too sheweth us what wee should doe and giveth us strength to doe it we doe not onely therein see the glory of God but are withall changed into the same Image even from glory to glory that is as I conceive from that allusion to a glasse the glory of the Lord shining upon the Gospell and from the Gospell shining upon our hearts doth change them into the Image of the same glory even as the glory of the Sunne shining upon a glasse and from that glasse reflecting on a wall doth therein produce a more extraordinary image of its owne light so that the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with the Poets è speculo in speculum from the glory of the Gospell which is one glasse of Gods Image there is shâ—ped the same glory in the heart which is another glasse of his Image This is that which the Apostle calleth the forming of Christ in the soule and the planting of it into the likenesse of his death and resurrection Fourthly it is a glorious Gospell in the Iudicature thereof The Spirit iâ— the Gospell doth convince not of righteousnesse onely but of Iudgement too that is the Spirit shall erect a throne in the hearts of men shall pull downe the prince of this world and dispossesse him shal enable mens owne hearts to proceed like upright Iudges with truth and with victory which are two of the principall honours of judgement against their owne lusts to censure to condemne to crucifie them though before they were as deare as their owne members to throw all their idols away as menstruous rags and to judge and revenge themselves Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with idols In that day saith the Lord every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which your owne hands have made unto you for a sin I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe After that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh Thus the government of the Gospell in the heart makes a man severe to sentence every sinne to hang up his Haman his favourite lusts to give up himselfe to the obedience of Christ and to have his conversation his trading his treasure his priviledges his freedome his fellowship in heaven as being now constituted under the gracious and peaceable government of an heavenly Prince Fifthly it is a glorious Gospell in that it was to be a continuing ministration and an Immortall seed If that which was done away saith the Apostle was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3.11 Now the Gospell is able to preserve a man blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Jesus it will not suffer a man to be shaken nor overturn'd by all the powers of darknesse there is strength enough in it to repell and wisdome to answer all the temptations and assaults of the enemies of our salvation If the world set upon us with any temptations on the right hand or on the left with disgraces persecutions discomforts exprobrations lâ—e this was the man who made God his helpe and would needs be more excellent than his neighbours the Gospel furnisheth us with sure promises and sure mercies this is answer sufficient against all the discouragements of the world I know whom I have beleeved I know that hee hath overcome the world I know that he is able to keepe that which I have committed unto him untill the last day and in the meane time the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world that is we are at an equall point of distance and defiance the world contemnes me and I am as carelesse of the world If with pleasures honours and gilded baites to draw us away from God Faith in the Gospell easily overcommeth the world for it giveth both the Promises and first-fruits of such Treasures as are infinitely more pretious and massie than all the world can affoord the very reproches of Christ how much more his Promises how infinitely more his Performances at the last are farre greater riches than the treasures of Egypt The daily sacrifice of a godly life and the daily feast of a quiet conscience put more sweetnesse into the afflictions of Christ than is in all the profits pleasures or preferments of the world being made bitter with the guilt of sinne If Satan or our owne reasonings stand up against the kingdome of Christ in us the Gospell is a store-house which can furnish us with armorie of all sorts to repell them Faith can quench firie darts the weapons of the spirit can captivate the very thoughts of the heart unto the obedience of Christ no weapon which is formed against it can prosper and every tongue which riseth up against it in judgement it shall condemn it is a staffe which can carry a man over any Jordan and can support comfort him in any shadow of death This is the honour of the Word
care or respect towards it This is an errour of Gods benevolence and the latitude of his mercy and heighth of his thoughts towards sinners Hee hath declared himselfe willing that all men should be saved he hath set forth examples of the compasse of his long-suffering his invitations run in generall termes that no man may dare to preoccupate damnation but looke unto God as to one that careth for his soule Let a mans sinnes be never so crimson and his continuance therein never so obdurate I speake this for the prevention of despaire not for the encouragement of security or hardnesse yet as soone as he is willing to turne God is willing to save as soone as he hath an heart to attend God hath a tongue to speake salvation unto him Wee see then the way to trust in Christ is to looke upon him as the Bishop of our soules as the Officer of our peace as one that careth and provideth for us as one that hath promised to save to the uttermost to give supplies of his Spirit and Grace in time of need to give us daily bread and life in abundance to bee with us alwayes to the end of the world never to faile us nor forsake us And we may hereby learne our dutie one to another to put on the affections of members and the minde of Christ in compassionating considering and seeking the good of one another in bearing one anothers burthens in pleasing not our selves but our neighbour for his edification for even Christ pleased not himselfe that man cannot live in honour nor dye in comfort who liveth only to himselfe and doth not by his praiers compassions and supplies imitate Christ and interest himselfe in the good of his brethren Now the ground of all this power majestie and mercie of the Gospell is here set forth unto us in two words First it is the strength of Christ Secondly it is sent by God himselfe The Lord shall send the Rod of Thy strength out of Sion Here then we may first note That the Gospel is Christs owne Power and strength and the Power of God his Father by whom it is sent abroad So the Apostle cals it The Power of God unto Salvation and the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power that our faith should not stand in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God Therefore in one place we are said to be taught of God and in another to be taught of Christ in one place it is called the Gospell of the blessed God and in another the Gospell of Christ to note that whatsoever things the Father doth in his Church the same the Sonne doth also and that the Father doth not make knowne his will of mercie but by his Sonne that as in the Sonne he did reconcile the world unto himselfe so in the Son hee did reveale himselfe unto the world No man hath seene the Father at any time but the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne shall reveale him Christ is both the Matter and the Authour of the Gospell As in the worke of our Redemption he was both the sacrifice and the Priest to offer and the Altar to sanctifie it So in the dispensation of the Gospell Christ is both the Sermon and the Preacher and the Power which giveth blessing unto all He is the Sermon Wee preach Christ crucified saith the Apostle wee preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord. And he is the Preacher See that yee refuse not him that speaketh Hee came and preached peace to those afarre off and to those that were nigh And lastly he is the Power which enliveneth his owne word The dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of man and they that heare shall live for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternall life c. He is the Lord of your faith we are but the Helpers of your joy He is the Master in the Church wee are but your servants for Iesus sake He is the chiefe Shepheard the Lord of the sheepe the sheepe are his owne we are but his Depositaries entrusted with the ministerie of reconciliation unto us is committed the dispensation of the Grace of God So then the Word is his but the service ours From whence both the Ministers of the Word and they which heare it may learne their severall duties First we should learne to speake as the Oracles of God as the Servants and Stewards of a higher Master whose Word it is which wee preach and whose Church it is which we serve We should therefore doe his worke as men that are set in his stead preach him and not our selves There can bee no greater sacrilege in the world than to put our owne image upon the Ordinances of Christ than to make another Gospell than we have received Saint Paul durst not please men because hee was the servant of Christ neither durst he preach himselfe because hee was the servant of the Church For hereby men doe even justle Christ out of his owne throne and as it were snatch the Scepter of his kingdome out of his owne hand boldly intruding upon that sacred and uncommunicable dignitie which the Father hath given to his Sonne onely which is to bee the Authour of his Gospell and the totall and adequate Object of all Evangelicall Preaching This sacrilege of selfe-preaching is committed three manner of wayes First when men make themselves the Authors of their owne preaching when they preach their owne inventions and make their owne braines the seminaries and forges of a new faith when they so glosse the pure Word of God as that withall they poison and pervert it This is that which the Prophet calleth lying visions and dreames of mens owne hearts which Saint Peter cals perverting or maketh crooked the rule of faith and Saint Paul the huckstering adulterating and using the Word of God deceitfully Which putteth mee in minde of a speech in the Prophet The Prophet is the snare of a fowler in all his wayes Birds wee know use to be caught with the same corne wherewith they are usually fed but then it is either adulterated with some venemous mixture which may intoxicate the bird or else put into a ginne which shall imprison it and such were the carnall Preachers in the Prophets and in Saint Pauls time who turned the truth of Christ into a snare that by that meanes they might bring the Church into bondage The occasions and originals of this perverse humour are first without men the seducements of Satan unto which by the just severity of God they are sometimes given over for the punishment of their owne and others sinnes Secondly within them upon which the other is grounded as Pride
dispensation toward one and other the giving of saving knowledge to one people and with-holding it from others was not grounded upon any preceding differences and dispositions thereunto in the people but onely in the Love of God The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to bee a speciall people unto himselfe above all people that are upon the face of the earth The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because yee were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you c. The Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possesse it for thy righteousnesse for you art a stiffe-necked people Your Fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood mold time and they served other gods There was no difference betweene them and the Gentiles from whom I gathered them Fiftly that the Gospell was hidden from others in God his owne will and counsell was the cause of it Hee forbad men to goe into the cities of the Gentiles neither were they to goe unto them without a speciall gift and commission The same Beneplacitum was the reason of revealing it to some and of hiding it from others Even so ô father for so it seemed good in thy sight If all these particulars bee true needs must we both admire the inscrutablenesse of Gods judgments towards the Gentiles of old for no humane presumptions are a fit measure of the wayes and severities of God towards sinners And also everlastingly adore his Compassions towards us whom hee hath reserved for these times of light and out of the alone unsearchable riches of his grace hath together with principalities and powers in heavenly places made us to see what is the fellowship of that great mysterie which from the beginning of the world was hidden in himselfe Thirdly in that the Lord doth send forth the Gospell of Christ out of Sion into the world wee may further observe that the Gospell is a Message and an invitation from heaven unto men For for that end was it sent that thereby men might bee invited and perswaded to salvation The Lord sendeth his Sonne up and down carrieth him from place to place he is set forth before mens eyes he comes and stands and calls knocks at their doores and beseecheth them to bee reconciled Hee setteth his word before us at our doores and in our mouths and eares He hath not erected any standing sanctuary or city of refuge for men to fly for their salvations unto but hath appointed Ambassadors to carry this treasure unto mens houses where hee inviteth them and intreateth them and requireth them and commandeth them and compelleth them to come into his feast of mercy And this must needs bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unsearchable riches of grace for mercy pardon preferment life salvation to goe a begging and sue for acceptance and very unsearchable likewise must needs bee the love of sinne and madnesse of folly in wicked men to trample upon such pearles and to neglect so great salvation when it is tendered unto them O what a heavy charge will it bee for men at the last day to have the mercy of God the humility of Christ the entreaties of his Spirit the proclamations of pardon the approches of salvation the dayes the years the ages of peace the ministers of the word the booke of God the great Mysterie of Godlinesse to rise up in judgement and to testifie against their soules Lastly in that the Gospell is sent from God the Dispencers thereof must looke unto their mission and not intrude upon so sacred a businesse before they are thereunto called by God Now this call is twofold Extraordinary by immediate instinct and revelation from God which is ever accompanied with immediate and infused gifts of this wee doe not now speake And Ordinary by imposition of hands and Ecclesiasticall designation Whereunto there are to concurre three things First an Act of Gods providence casting a man upon such a course of studies and fashioning his minde unto such affections towards learning and disposing of him in such Schooles and Colleges of the Prophets as are congruons preparations and were appointed for nurseries and seminaries of Gods Church It is true many things fall under Gods providence which are not within his allowance and therefore it is no sufficient argument to conclude Gods consent or commission in this office because his wisedome hath cast mee upon a collegiate education But when therewithall hee in whose hands the hearts of all men are as clay or wax to bee moulded into such shapes as the counsell of his will shall order hath bended the desires of my heart to serve him in his Church and hath set the strongest delight of my minde upon those kindes of learning which are unto that service most proper and conducent when measuring either the good will of my heart or the appliablenesse of my parts by this and other professions of learning I can cleerly conclude that that measure and proportion which the Lord hath given mee is more suteable unto this than other learned callings I suppose other qualifications herewith concurring a man may safely from thence conclude that God who will have every man live in some profitable calling doth not onely by his providence permit but by his secret direction lead him unto that service whereunto the measure of gifts which he hath conferred upon him are most suteable and proper And therefore secondly there is to bee respected in this Ordinary mission the meet qualification of the person who shall bee ordained unto this ministerie For if no Prince will send a mechanick from his loome or his sheers in an honorable Embassage to some other forraigne Prince shall wee thinke that the Lord will send forth stupid and unprepared instruments about so great a worke as the perfecting of the Saints and Edification of the Church It is registred for the perpetuall dishonor of that wicked King Ieroboam who made no other use of any Religion but as a secondary bye thing to bee the supplement of policie that he made of the Lowest of the People those who were really such as the Apostles were falsly esteemed to be the scumme and offscouring of men to bee Priests unto the Lord. Now the Qualities more directly and essentially belonging unto this office are these two Fidelitie and Abilitie The things saith the Apostle which thou hast heard of amongst many witnesses the same commit thou to Faithfull men who shall bee able to teach others also Wee are stewards of no meaner a gift than the Grace of God and the Wisedome of God that grace which by S. Peter is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifold Grace and that wisedome which by S. Paul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifold wisedome of God Wee are the depositaries and dispencers of the most pretious treasures which were ever opened unto the
to the wayes of grace as there is in any The consideration whereof may justly humble us in our reflexion upon our selves whom neither the promises of heaven can allure nor the bloud and passions of Christ perswade nor the flames of hell affright from our sinnes till the Lord by the sweet and gracious power of his holy â—â—irit subdue and conquer the soule unto himselfe If a man should rise from the dead and truly relate unto the conscience the woefull and everlasting horrors of hell if a mans naturall capacity were made as wide to apprehend the wrath fury and vengeance of a provoked God the foulenesse guilt and venome of a soule fuller of sins than the heavens of stars as the most intelligent divels of hell doe conceive them If an Archangell or Seraphim should be sent from heaven to reveale unto the soule of a naturall man the infinite glory of Gods presence the full pleasures of his right hand the admirable beauty of his wayes the intimate conformity and resemblance between his divine nature in himselfe the Image of his holinesse in the creature the unsearchable and bottomlesse love of Christ in his Incarnation and sufferings the endlesse incomprehensible vertue pretiousnesse of his bloud and prayers yet so desperately evill is the heart of man that if after all this God should not afford the blessed operation and concurrence of his owne gratious Spirit the revelation of his own arme and power upon the soule to set on those instrumentall causes it would be invincible by any evidence which all the cries and flames of hell which all the armies and hosts of heaven were able to beget There is no might or power able to snatch a man out of the hands of his sin but onely Gods Spirit Notable are the expressions which the holy Ghost every where useth to set forth this wretched condition of the heart by nature wilfulnesse and selfe-willednesse We will not hearken we will not have this man to raigne over us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many wils in one Rebellion and stubbornenesse stoutnesse of heart contestation with God and gain-saying his Word Impudence stiffenesse and hard-heartednesse mischievous profoundnes and deepe reasonings against the Law of God pertinacie resolvednesse and abiding in mischiefe they hold fast deceit obstinacie and selfe-obduration They have hardned their neckes that they might not heare Impotencie immoveablenesse and undocilenesse their heart is uncircumcised they cannot heare there is none that understandeth or seeketh after God scorne and slighting of the messages of the Lord where is his Word Where is the promise of his comming Incredulity and belying the Lord in his Word saying it is not he Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Wrestling resisting and fighting with the Word rejecting the counsell of God vexing and striving with his holy Spirit ye have alwayes resisted the holy Ghost Rage and fiercenesse of disordred affections despising of goodnesse trayterous heady and high-minded thoughts Brutishnes of immoderate lust the untamed madnesse of an enraged beast without any restraint of reason or moderation In one word a hell and gulfe of unsearchable mischiefe which is never satisfied It is impossible that any reasonable man duly considering all these difficulties should conceive such an heart as this to be overcome with meere morall perswasions or by any thing lesse than the mightie power of Gods owne grace To him therefore we should willingly acknowledge all our conversion and salvation So extremely impotent are we O Lord unto any good so utterly unprofitable and unmeet for our Masters use and yet so strongly hurried by the impulsion of our owne lust towards hell that no precipice nor danger no hope nor reward no man or Angell is able to stop us without thine owne immediate power and therefore Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name onely be attributed the glory of our conversion Againe by this consideration we should be provoked to stirre up and call together all our strength in the Lords service to recover our mispent time to use the more contention and violence for the kingdome of heaven when wee consider how abundant wee have beene in the workes of sinne in the pursuing of vast desires which had neither end nor hope in them O how happie a thing would it be if men could serve God with the same proportion of vigour and willingnesse of mind as they served Satan and themselves before I was never tired in that way I went on indefatigably towards hell like a swift Dromedary or an untamed heifer I pursued those evill desires which had vanity for their object and misery for their end no fruit but shame and no wages but death But in the service of Christ I have a price before mee an abiding Citie an enduring substance an immarcescible crowne to fix the highest of my thoughts upon I have the promises of Christ to strengthen me his Angels to guard his Spirit to lead his Word to illighten me In one word I have a soule to save and a God to honour And why should not I apply my power to serve him who did reach forth his owne power to convert me A long way I have to goe and I must doe it in a spanne of time so many temptations to overcome so many corruptions to shake off so many promises to beleeve so many precepts to obey so many mysteries to study so many workes to finish and so little time for all my weaknesses on one side my businesses on another mine enemies and my sinnes round about me take away so much that I have scarce any left to give to God And yet alas if I could serve God on earth as he is served in heaven if I had the strength of Angels and glorified Saints to doe his will it would come infinitely short of that good will of God in my redemption or of his power in my conversion If God should have said to all the Angels in heaven there is such a poore wretch posting with full strength towards hell goe stand in his way and drive him back againe all those glorious armies would have beene too few to blocke up the passageâ— betweene sin and heâ— without the concurrence of Gods owne Spirit and power they could have returned none other answer but this we have done all we can to perswade and turne him but he will not be turned If then the Lord did put to his owne power to save me great reason there is that I should set my weake and impotent faculties to honour him especially since hee hath beene pleased both to mingle with his service great joy liberty and tranquillity here and also to set before it a full a sure and a great reward for my further animation and encouragement thereunto The fourth thing observed in this Verse was the attire wherein Christs people should attend
which a created nature joyned to an infinitie and bottomlesse fountaine could receive From hence therefore wee should learne to let the same minde bee in us which was in Christ to humble our selves first that wee may bee exalted in due time to finish our workes of selfe-deniall and service which wee owe to God that so wee may enter into our Masters glory For he himselfe entred not but by a way of bloud Wee learne likewise to have recourse and dependance on him for all supplies of the Spirit for all strength of grace for all influences of life for the measure of every joynt and member He is our treasure our fountaine our head it is his free grace his voluntarie influence which habituateth and fitteth all our faculties which animateth us unto a heavenly being which giveth us both the strength and first act wherby we are qualified to worke and which concurreth with us in actu secundâ— to all those workes which wee set our selves about As an instrument even when it hath an edge cutteth nothing till it be assisted and moved by the hand of the artificer so a Christian when hee hath a will and an habituall fitnesse to worke yet is able to doe nothing without the constant supply assistance and concomitancie of the grace of Christ exciting moving and applying that habituall power unto particular actions He it is that giveth us not onely to will but to doe that goeth through with us and worketh all our works for us by his grace Without him wee can doe nothing all our sufficiencie is from him But it may bee objected if wee can doe nothing without a second grace to what end is a former grace given or what use is there of our exciting that grace and gift of God in us which can doe nothing without a further concourse of Christs Spirit To this I answer first that as light is necessarie and requisite unto seeing and yet there is no seeing without an eye so without the assisting grace of Christs Spirit concurring with us unto every holy Dutie wee can doe nothing and yet that grace doth ever presuppose an implanted seminall and habituall grace fore-disposing the soule unto the said Duties Secondly as in the Course of naturall Effects though God bee a most voluntary Agent yet in the ordinary Concurrence of a first Cause hee worketh ad modum naturae measuring forth his assistance proportionably to the Condition and Preparation of the second Causes so in supernaturall and holy operations albeit not with a like certaine and unaltered constancy though Christ bee a most voluntary head of his Church yet usually he proportioneth his assisting and second grace unto the growth progresse and radication of those Spirituall habits which are in the soule before From whence commeth the difference of holinesse and profitablenesse amongst the Saints that some are more active and unwearied in all holy conversation than others as in the naturall bodie some members are larger and more full of life and motion than others according to the different distribution of Spirits from the heart and influences from the head This then affords matter enough both to humble us and to comfort us To humble us that wee can doe nothing of our selves that wee have nothing in our selves but sinne All the fulnesse of grace is in him and therefore whosoever hath any must have it from him as in the Egyptian famine whosoever had any corn had it from Ioseph to whom the granaries and treasures of Egypt were for that purpose committed And this Lowlinesse of heart and sense of our owne Emptinesse is that which makes us alwayes have recourse to our fountaine and keepe in favor with our head from whom wee must receive fresh supply of strength for doing any good for bearing any evill for resisting any temptation for overcomming any enemie For beginning for continuing and for perfecting any Dutie For though it bee mans heart that doth these things yet it is by a forraigne and impressed strength as it is iron that burnes but not by its owne nature which is cold but by the heate which it hath received from the fire It was not I saith the Apostle but that grace of God which was with mee To comfort us likewise when wee consider that all fulnesse and strength is in him as in an Officer an Adam a treasurer and dispencer of all needfull supplies to his people according to the place they beare in his bodie and to the exigence and measure of their condition in themselves or service in his Church Sure wee are that what measure soever hee gives unto any hee hath still a residue of Spirit nay hee still retaineth his owne fulnesse hath still enough to carry us through any condition and according to the difficulties of the service hee puts us upon hath still wisedome to understand compassion to pitie strength to supply all our needs And that all this hee hath as a mercifull and faithfull depositarie as a Guardian and husband and elder brother to imploy for the good of his Church that he is unto this office appointed by the will of him that sent him to lose nothing of all that which is given him but to keepe and perfect it unto the resurrection at the last day That God hath planted in him a Spirit of faithfulnesse and pittie for the cheerfull discharge of this great Office given him a propriety unto us made us as neere and deare unto him as the members of his sacred body are to one another and therfore whosoever commeth to him with emptines and hunger and faith he will in no wise cast them out it is as possible for him to hew off and to throw away the members of his naturall body to have any of his bones broken as to reject the humble and faithfull desires of those that duly waite upon him Againe from this Exaltation of Christ in his humane nature wee should learne to keepe our vessels in holinesse and in honor as those who expect to bee fashioned at the last like unto him For how can that man truly hope to bee like Christ hereafter that labors to bee as unlike him here as hee can Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot saith the Apostle So may I say shall I take the nature of Christ that nature which he in his person hath so highly glorified and make it in my person the nature of a devill If a Prince should marry a meane woman would he endure to see those of her neerest kindred her brethren and sisters live like scullians or strumpets under his owne eye Now Christ hath taken our nature into a neerer union with himselfe than marriage for man and wife are still two persons but God and man is but one Christ. Death it selfe was not able to dissolve this union for when the soule was separated from the body yet the Deitie was separated from neither it was the Lord that lay
upon Christ. In the midst of thine enemies Some understand it of changing the hearts of his enemies and converting them as captives unto his obedience Other understand the wonderfull effect of the power of Christs kingdome that he can by his Word and Spirit hold up his Church in despight of all the enemies thereof round about The Church ever was and will be pester'd with divers kindes of adversaries heretikes and hypocrites and false brethren with profanenesse temptations persecutions spirituall wickednesses and in the midst of all these the Church of Christ groweth as a Lily amongst the thornes Now this In medio noteth two things Dominium plenum and dominium securum A perfect and full governement without mutilation without impediment the Church being amongst the wicked as a rocke in the midst of the sea or as a garrison in an enemies towne Media dominantur in urbe is an expression of such a rule as can no way be hindered or removed The Church of God is a burdensome stone they who goe about to remove it out of that place where Christ will plant it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth should gather together against it Zech. 12.3 A secure and confident governement so in the Scripture phrase In the midst notes confidence and security When the Prophet asked the Shunamite would'st thou be spoken for to the king or to the Captaine of the host she answered I dwell amongst mine owne people that is I am safe and have enough already 2 King 4.13 When they of the Synagogue would have cast Christ downe head-long from the brow of a hill it is said that he passed through the midst of them and went his way that is with much confidence safety and assurance he withdrew himselfe Luk. 4.29 30. As the Prophet was full of security and quietnesse in the midst of the Syrian siege 2 King 6 14-16 The words being thus unfolded wee may observe in them Three of Christs principall Regalities Sceptrum Solium and Imperium The Scepter the Throne and the Power or governement of his kingdome His Scepter is the Word of his Gospell animated by the Power of his holy Spirit and accompanied with the blessing and authority of God the Father who sendeth it abroad into the world His Throne from whence this his Scepter is extended Sion the Church of the Jewes His victorious plenarie and secure governement Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies First the Scepter here is the Gospell and the Spirit of Christ. Christ is a Shepheard towards his Flocke the Church Esai 40.11 A great Shepheard Heb. 13.20 that notes his Power and Majesty over them and a good Shepheard Ioh. 10.14 that notes his care and tendernesse towards his Sheepe Kings in the Scripture are called Shepheards to lead and to feed and to govern the people So David is said to have beene taken from the sheepfolds to feed Iacob and Israel Psal. 78.71 2 Sam. 5.2 and thus Christ is a Shepheard and a King I will set up one Shepheard over them and he shall feede them Even my servant David I the Lord will be their God and my servant David a Prince among them Ezek. 34.23 24. Prophets Teachers are in the Scripture likewise called Shepherds Ier. 23.1 4. and so Christ is a Shepheard and a Bishop Ye were as sheepe going astray but now ye are returned unto the Shepheard and Bishop of your soules 1 Pet. 2.25 And therefore wee finde in the Scripture that Christ hath two pastorall staves to note his great care and double office in his Church The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want I will feare no evill for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staffe they comfort me Psal. 23.4 I tooke unto me two staves the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands and I fed the flocke Zech. 11.7 So then the Rod of Christs strength or his strong staffe doth in these severall relations note unto us three things As it is a staffe of strength so it notes the power of Christ. As it is the Scepter of a King so it notes the majestie of Christ. As it is the staffe of a Bishop or Prophet so it notes the care and superintendencie of Christ over his Church So then this first particular of the Rod of Christs kingdome affoords unto us three observations First that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of power and strength towards the Church Secondly that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of Glory and Majesty towards his Church Thirdly that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of care and of tendernesse towards his Church First the words of the Gospell with the spirit is full of power and strength No man will denie that Christ in his owne person is full of power And as the power of a Prince is principally seene in his lawes edicts pardons and gratious patents so is the power of Christ wonderfully magnified towards the Church in his Gospell which unto us is both a Covenant of mercy and a Law of obedience We may observe how Christ is frequently pleased to honor his Gospell with his owne titles and attributes And therefore the Apostle speakes of him and his word as of one and the same thing The word of God is quicke and powerfull a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any Creature which is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doe That which is the word in one verse is Christ himselfe in another which hath given occasion to some learned men without any constraining reason as I conceive to take the Word there for the essentiall Word of God or the person of Christ himselfe to whom I thinke that appellation is not given by any of the sacred Writers but onely by his beloved Disciple Saint Iohn We know that Christ was crucified at Jerusalem and yet the Apostle saith that he was crucified amongst the Galatians Certainely in that he died he died but once unto sin S. Paul could not doe that himselfe which he curseth others for doing Crucifie againe the Lord of Glory So then at Jerusalem he was crucified in his person and at Galatia in the ministery of his Word One and the same crucifying was as lively set forth in Saint Pauls preaching as it was really acted upon Christs person for Christ is as really present to his Church now in the spirituall dispensation of his ordinances as hee was corporally present with the Jewes in the dayes of his flesh And therefore I say it is that we finde the same attributes given to both Christ the power of God and the wisedome of God and the Gospell else-where the Power of God and the wisdome of God in a mystery to them that are perfect Againe Christ the Lord of glory and the Gospell the Gospell of
glory or the glorious Gospell Christ the prince of life yea the Word of life and the Gospell the Word of life too Christ a Iudge and the Word of Christ a Iudge too The word which I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day Christ a Saviour and Salvation unto men Mine eyes have seene thy Salvation And the Gospell of Christ a Salvation too wee know saith Christ to the woman of Samaria what we worship for salvation is of the Iewes The force of the reason leads us to understand by Salvation the Oracles of God which were committed unto that people for out of them only it is that we know what and how to worship and this is not unusuall in holy Scriptures If the Word saith the Apostle spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord c Where we finde Salvation set in opposition to the Word spoken by Angels which was the Law of God or the ministerie of condemnation and therefore it must needes signifie the Gospell of Christ. Be it knowne unto you saith the Apostle to the unbeleeving Iewes that the salvation of God that is the Gospell of God as appeareth plainely by the like paralell speech in another place is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will heare it So the Apostle saith that the engraffed Word is able to save the soules of men All which and many other the like particulars note unto us That as Christ is the Power and Image of his Father so the Gospell is in some sort of Christ For which reason the Apostle as I conceive calleth the Gospel the Face of Iesus Christ God who commanded the light to shine out of darkenesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. Where is it that wee behold the glorie of God but in a glasse and what is that glasse but the word of God as S. Iames cals it Iam. 1.23 Christ is not pleased any other wayes ordinarily to exercise his power or to reveale his glory but in these ordinances of his which wee dispense Therefore hee walketh in his Church with a sword is his mouth and with a Rod in his mouth to note that hee giveth no greater testification of his strength than in the Ministery of his Gospell which is therefore sometimes called a sword a hammer a fire sometimes onely a savor of life and death to note the mighty working thereof that can kill as well by a sent as by a wound as well by a breath as by a blow To consider this point a little more distinctly This Power of the Gospell of Christ appeares in both those regards as it is a savor of life unto life and as it is a savor of death unto death Towards his Church who shall bee saved and towards his enemies who shall perish Many wayes is the Gospell of Christ and his Spirit a Rod of strength unto his Church First in their Calling and conversion from the power of Satan unto God Satan is a strong man and hee is armed hath a whole panoply and full provision of militarie instruments and which is a great advantage hath both the first possession and the full love of the hearts of men before Christ attempts any thing upon them And therefore that which pulleth a man from under the paw of such a Lion and forceth him away from his owne palace must needs bee much stronger than hee And therefore the Apostle commendeth the power of the word by this argument that it is a sword fit to overcome principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places Againe the old Man in our nature is a strong man too a Raigning King which setteth himselfe mightily against the word and will of Christ and cherisheth the disease against the remedie And by that likewise the Apostle commendeth the power of the Gospell that it is mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds and imaginations or fleshly reasonings When Christ still'd the windes and the Sea with but two words Peace bee still they were exceedingly amazed at his power and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the windes and the Sea obey him The conversion of a man is a farre greater worke than the stilling of the Sea that will bee sometimes calme of it selfe when the furie of the winde ceaseth The wicked indeed are like the Sea but not at any time but like a troubled Sea when it cannot rest The Sea wee know is subject unto severall motions An inward boyling and unquietnesse from it selfe its ordinary fluxes and refluxes from the influence of the moone many casuall agitations from the violence of the windes and from its owne waves one wave precipitating impelling and repelling another So are the hearts of wicked men by the foaming estuations and excesses of naturall concupiscence by the provisions and materials of sinfull pleasures by the courses of the world by the solicitations and impulsions of Satan by a world of hourely casualties and provocations so tempestuous that they alwayes cast out upon the words and actions of men mire and dirt Now in the dispensation of the word by the ministery of a weake man Christ stilleth the raging of this Sea quels the lusts correcteth the distempeâ—s scattereth the temptations worketh a smoothnesse and tranquillity of Spirit in the soule of a man Surely when this is done the soule cannot but stand amazed at its owne recovery and admire that wonderfull and invisible power which could so suddenly rebuke such raging affections and reduce them unto calmenesse and beauty againe What ailed thee O thou Sea that thou fleddest and thou Iordan that thou wert driven back yee mountaines that yee skipped like Rams and yee little hils like Lambes It is an expression of Gods power towards his people in their triumphall entrance into the Land of Canaan Wee may apply it to the conquest and possession which the word takes of the soules of men What ailed a man that hee was driven back from his owne channell and made suddenly to forget his wonted course what ailed those strong and mountainous lusts which were as immoveably setled upon the soule as a hill upon his base to fly away at the voice of a man like a frighted sheepe what ailed those smaller corruptions and intemperancies which haply had before lost their names and were rather customes and infirmities than sinnes to flie away like lambes from the word of Christ A man went into the Church with a full tide and streame of lusts every thicket in his heart every reasoning and imagination of his
soule did before shelter whole flocks of evill affections when hee came out the tide was driven back the streame turned the center of his heart altered his forrest discovered his lusts scattered and subdued What ailes this man Hee hath but heard an houres discourse the same which others heare and their tide riseth the higher by it Certainly these Devils were not cast out these streames were not turned back but by the finger of God himselfe When the minister of Christ shall whisper in the ears of a dead man whom no thunder could have awakened and hee shall immediatly rise up and give glory to God when Christ shall call men to denie themselves to get above themselves to hate Father and Mother and Wife and Children and their owne life to sell all that they have to crucifie and be cruell to their owne members to pull out their right eyes to cut off their right hands to part from those sinnes which before they esteemed their choicest ornaments and from those too which before they made their chiefest support and subsistence to stand at defiance with the allurements or discouragements of the world to bee set up for signes and wonders for very proverbs of skorne and objects of hatred to those of their owne house to receive persecutions as rewards and entertaine them not with patience onely but with thankfulnesse and rejoicing to bee all their life long in the midst of enemies put to tedious conflicts with the powers of the world and of darknesse to beleeve things which they have not seen and to hope for things which they doe not know and yet maugre all this to refuse to consult with flesh and bloud to stand still more in awe of Gods word than of any other thing certainly that which with the voice of a weake man bringeth such great things to passe must needs bee Virga virtutis a Rod of strength A Rod like the Rod of Moses which can lead us through such seas as these to one whom wee have never seen nor knowen before Esai 55.5 Secondly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in the justification of men as it is Sceptrum Iustitiae a Scepter of Righteousnesse a word of reconciliation a Gospell of salvation a Law of the Spirit of life a ministration of the Spirit of life and of Righteousnesse an opening of prisons and a proclaiming of liberty unto captives in these respects likewise it is full of power There was a mighty power in the Law of God typified in those thundrings and terrors with which it was administred upon mount Sina the Apostle calleth it a Schoolmaster to scourge and drive us unto Christ and the Psalmist an iron Rod able to breake in pieces all the potsherds of the earth And we know boies in a Schoole doe not apprehend so much terror in the King as in their Master Yet in comparison of the Power of the Gospell the Law it selfe was very weake and unprofitable able to make nothing perfect The Power of the Law was onely to destruction the Power of the Gospell for edification The Law could onely hold under him that was downe before it could never raise him up againe Now the power is farre greater to raise than to kill to forgive sinnes than to bind them Herein is the mighty strength of Gods mercy seen that it can passe by iniquities transgressions and sinnes To preach the Gospell of Christ in his name and authority is an evident argument of that plenary power which is given unto him both in heaven and earth And the very dispensing of this word of reconciliation which is committed unto the Ministers of the Gospell how basely soever the ungratefull world may esteeme of them hath honored them with a title of as great power as a man is capable of to bee called Saviors to have the custodie of the keyes of heaven ministerially and instrumentally under Christ and his Spirit to save the soules and to cover the sinnes of men Now then that word which from the mouth of a weake man is able to reconcile a child of wrath unto God and by the words of one houre to cover and wipe out the sinnes of many yeares which were scattered as thick in the soules of men as the starres in the firmament must needs bee virga virtutis a Rod of strength Thirdly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in the sanctification of men as it is Sceptrum cum unctione a Scepter which hath ever an unction accompanying it As it is a Sanctifying Truth an heavenly teaching a forming of Christ in the soule a making of the heart as it were his Epistle by writing the Law therein and manifesting the power and image of Christ in the conscience If a man should touch a marble or adamant stone with a seale and taking it off should see the print of it left behinde hee could not but conceive some wonderfull and secret vertue to have wrought so strange an effect Now our hearts are of themselves as hard as the nether milstone when then a holy word so meekly and gently laid on upon them shall leave there an impression of its own puritie when so small a thing as a graine of mustard-seed shall transforme an earthy soule into its owne nature when the eyes and hands and mouth of Christ being in the ministerie of his word spread upon the eyes and hands and mouth of a Childe shall revive the same from death when by looking into a glasse wee shall not onely have a view of our owne faces but shall see them changed into the image of another face which from thence shineth upon us how can wee but conclude that certainly that word by which such wonders as these are effected is indeed virga virtutis a Rod of strength Fourthly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in the Perservation and Perseverance of the Saints as it is Virga germinans a Rod like Aarons Rod which blossomed and the blossomes perished not but remained in the Ark for a Testimony of Gods power For as those buds or the Manna in the Ark did not perish so neither doth the word of the Gospell in the hearts of the faithfull The Apostle saith that wee are kept by the power of God unto salvation and S. Iude that Gods power keepeth the Saints from falling and presenteth them faultlesse before the presence of his glory and what is this power of God whereby hee doth it but the Gospell of Christ which S. Peter calleth semen incorruptibile uncorruptible seed and the Spirit of Christ which S. Iohn calleth semen manens an abiding seed If I should see a tree with perpetuall fruit without any variation from the difference of seasons a tree like that in S. Iohns Paradise which every moneth did bring forth fruite of twelve severall kindes I should conclude that it had an extraordinary vitall power in it so
when I finde Christ in his word promising and by the planting and watering of his Laborers in the vineyard making good that promise unto his Church That every branch bringing forth fruit in him shall not onely bee as Aarons Rod have his fruit preserved upon him but shall bring forth more fruit and shall have life more abundantly how can I but conclude that that word which is the Instrument of so unperishable a condition is indeed Virga virtutis a Rod of strength a Rod cut out of the tree of life it selfe Fifthly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in comforting and supporting of the faithfull as it is Virga pulchritudinis colligationis a Rod of Beauty and of Binding as it is a word which doth binde that which was broken and give unto them which mourne in Sion beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the Spirit of heavinesse as it quencheth all the firie darts and answereth all the bloudy reasonings of Satan against the soule as it is a staffe which giveth comfort and subsistence in the very vallie of the shadow of death The shadow of death is an usuall expressioÌ„ in the Scripture for all feares terrors affrightments or any dreadfull calamities either of soule or body The whole misery of our naturall condition is thereby signified Luk. 1.79 Many wayes doth the Prophet David set forth the extremities hee had been driven unto my bones are vexed and dried like a potsheard and turned into the drought of summer my couch swimmeth with teares mine eye is consumed and waxen old with griefe I am powred out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like melted wax in the mids of my bowels Thine arrowes stick fast in mee thine hand presseth me sore there is no soundnesse in my flesh my wounds stinke and are corrupt I am feeble and fore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietnesse of my heart Innumerable evils compasse mee about I am not able to looke up Fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon me and horror hath overwhelmed mee My soule is among lions I lie amongst them that are set on fire The waters are come in unto my soule I sinke in deepe mire the flouds overflow mee c. These all and the like are comprehended in that one word The shadow of death And in that it was onely the word and the Spirit of God which did support him This is my comfort in my affliction saith hee for thy word hath quickned mee When my afflictions had brought me to the very brinke and darknesse of the grave thy word revived mee againe and made me flourish Vnlesse thy Law had been my delights I should have perished in mine affliction Now then when I see a man upon whom so many heavie pressures doe meete the weight of sinne the weight of Gods heavie displeasure the weight of a wounded Spirit the weight of a decaied body the weight of skorne and temptations from Satan and the world in the mids of all this not to turne unto lying vanities not to consult with flesh and bloud nor to rely on the wisedome or helpe of man but to leane onely on this word to trust in it at all times and to cast all his expectations upon it to make it his onely Rod and staffe to comfort him in such sore extremities how can I but confesse that this word is indeed Virga virtutis a Rod of strength Lastly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in sanctifying and blessing of our Temporall things As it is Baculus Panis A staffe of bread Man liveth not by bread alone but by the word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth not by the creature but by the blessing which prepareth the creature for our use Now it is the word of God namely his promises in Christ of things concerning this life as well as that which is to come that doth sanctifie the creatures of God to those whâ— with thankfulnesse receive them The fall of man bâ—ought a pollution upon the creatures a curse upon the stone and timber of a mans house a snare upon his table a poison and bitternesse upon his meat distractions and terrors upon his bed emptinesse and vexation upon all his estate which cleaves as fast therunto as blacknesse to the skinne of an Ethiopian or sinne to the soule of man For all the creatures of God are by sinne mischievously converted into the instruments and provisions of lust The Sunne and all the glorious lights of nature but instruments to serve the pride covetousnesse adultery vanity of a lustfull eye All the delicacies which the earth aire or Sea can affoord but materials to feed the luxurie and intemperance of a lustfull body All the honors and promotions of the world but fuell to satisfie the haughtinesse and ambition of a lustfull heart That word then which can fetch out this leprosie from the creatures and put life strength and comfort into them againe must needs bee Virga virtutis a Rod of strength Secondly the Gospell and Spirit of Christ is a rod of strength in regard of his and his Churches enemies Able both to repell and to revenge all their injuries to disappoint the ends and machinations of Satan to triumph and get above the persecutions of men to get a treasure which no malice nor fury of the enemy can take away a noblenesse of minde which no insultation of the adversary can abate a security of condition and calmenesse of spirit where no worldly tempests can any more extinguish than the darknesse of a cloud or the boisterousnesse of a wind can blot out the lustre or perturbe the order of celestiall bodies a heavenly wisdome able to prevaile against the gates of hell and to stop the mouthes of every gain-sayer The Word hath ever a Readinesse to revenge disobedience as the Apostle speaks it hardens the faces of men and armes them that they may breake all those who fall upon them This power of the Word towards wicked men sheweth it selfe in many particulars First in a mighty worke of Conviction The Spirit was therefore sent into the world to convince it by the ministery of the Gospell which one word containeth the ground of the whole strength here spoken of for all which the word bringeth to passe it doth it by the conviction of the Spirit This Conviction is two-fold A Conviction unto conversion whereby the hearts of men are wonderfully over-ruled ruled by that invincible evidence of the Spirit of truth to feele acknowledge their wofull condition by reason of sinne so long as they continue in unbeleefe to take unto themselves the just shame and confusion of face which belongs unto them to give unto God the glory of his righteous and just severity if hee should destroy them and hereupon to be secondly by the terror of the Lord perswaded to count worthy of all acceptation any deliverance out of that
estate which shall be tendred unto them To admire adore and greedily embrace any termes of peace and reconciliation which shall be offered them To submit unto the righteousnesse and with all willing and meeke affection to bend the heart to the Scepter of Christ and to whatsoever forme of judicature and spirituall government he shall please to erect therein And this magnifies the strength of this Rod of Christs Kingdome that it maketh men yeeld upon any termes when we see the little stone grow into a mightie mountaine and eat into all the Kingdomes of the world when wee see Emperours and Princes submit their necks and scepters to a doctrine at first every where spoken against and that upon the words of a few despicable peâ—sons and that such a doctrine too as is diametrally contrary to the naturall constitution of the hearts of men and teacheth nothing but selfe-deniall and this for hope of reward from one whom they never saw and whom if they had seene they should have found by a naturall eye no beauty in him for which hee should bee desired and this reward too what-ever it be deferred for a long time and in the interim no ground of assurance to expect it but onely faith in himselfe that promiseth it and in the meane time a world of afflictions for his names sake How can we think that a world of wise and of great men should give eare most willingly unto such termes as these if there were not a demonstrative and constraining evidence of truth and goodnesse therein able to stop the mouths and to answer the objections of all gain sayers Of this point I have spoken more copiously upon another Scripture Secondly there is a Conviction unto condemnation of those who stand out against this saving power of the Gospell and Spirit of grace driving them from all their strong holds and constraining them perforce to acknowledge the truth which they doe not love Thus wee finde our Saviour disputing with the Jewes till no man was able to answer him a word and as he did so himselfe so hee promised that his messengers should doe so too I will give you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain-say nor resist And this promise wee finde made good the enemies of Steven were not able to resist the Spirit by which hee spake And Apollos mightily convinced the Jews shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ And this the Apostle numbreth amongst the qualifications of a Bishop that he should be able by sound doctrine to convince the gain-sayers and to stop the mouthes of those unruly deceivers whose businesse it is to subvert men for this is the excellent vertue of Gods Word that it concludeth or shutteth men in and leaveth not any gap or evasion of corrupted reason unanswered or unprevented Thus wee finde how the Prophets in their ministery did still drive the Jewes from their shifts and presse them with Dilemma's the inconveniences whereof they could on no side escape either there must be a fault in you or else in God who rebuketh you but now what iniquity saith the Lord have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me Have I beene a wildernesse unto Israel or a land of darknesse wherefore say my people we are lords we will come no more unto thee O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against mee I raised up of your sonnes for Prophets and of your young men for Nazarites Is it not even thus O yee children of Israel Here the Scripture useth that figure which is called by the Rhetoritians Communicatio a debating and deliberation with the adverse party an evidencing of a cause so cleerely as that at last a man can challenge the adversary himselfe to make such a determination as himselfe shall in reason judge the merits of the cause to require How shall I pardon thee for this and how shall I doe for the daughters of my people Set me in a way determine the controversie your selves and I will stand to the issue which your owne consciences shall make O inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iudah judge I pray you betweene me and my Vineyard that is doe you your selves undertake the deciding of your owne cause When a band of armed men came against Christ to attach him and at the pronouncing but of two words I am he fell all downe backward to the earth we must needs confesse that there was some mightie power and evidence of Majesty in him that uttered them what thinke wee can he doe when hee raigneth and judgeth the world who did let out so much power when he was to die and to be judged by the world Now Christ raigneth and judgeth the world by his Word and that more mightily after his ascending up on high and therefore he promiseth his Apostles that they should doe greater workes than himselfe had done When I shall see a man armed with scorne against Christ in his Word standing proudly upon the defence of his owne wayes by his owne wisdome and wrapping up himselfe in the mud of his owne carnall reasonings by a few postulata and deductions from Gods Word to bee enforced to stoppe his owne mouth to be condemned by his owne witnesse to betray his owne succours and to bee shut up in a prison without barres when I shall force such a man by the mighty penetration and invincible evidence of Gods Word to see in his owne conscience a hand subscribing to the truth which condemnes him and belying all those delusions which he had fram'd to deceive himselfe withall who can deny but that the rod of Gods mouth is indeed Virga virtutis a rod of strength an iron rod able to deale with all humane reasonings as a hammer with a potsherd which though to the hand of a man it may feele as hard as a rocke yet is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod Strange it is to observe how boldly men venture on sinnes under the names of custome or fashions or some other pretences of corrupted reason contrary to the cleere and literal evidence of holy Scriptures the most immediate and grammaticall sense whereof is ever soundest where there doth not some apparant and unavoidable errour in doctrine or mischiefe in manners follow thereupon Men will justifie the cause of the wicked for reward and by dexterity of wit put a better colour upon a worser businesse as hath beene observed of Protagoras and Carneades and yet the Lord saith expressely Thou shalt not speake in a cause to wrest judgement thou shalt keepe thee far from a false matter for God whom thou oughtest to imitate will not justifie the wicked Men will follow the sinfull fashions of the world in strange apparell in prodigious haire in lustfull and unprofitable expence of that pretious
moment of time upon the abuse or right improvement whereof dependeth the severall issues of their eternall condition though the Lord say expresly Bee not conformed to this world they that walke according to the course of the world walke according to the Prince of the power of the aire The Lord will punish all such as are clothed with strange apparell who take up the fashions of idolaters or other nations or other sexes as that place is differently expounded Nature it selfe teacheth that it is a shame for a man to weare long haire nay Nature it selfe taught that honest Heathen to stand at defiance with the sinnes of his age and not comply with the course of the world upon that slight apologie as if the commonnesse had taken away the illnesse that which committed by one would have been a sin being imitated after a multitude were but a fashion To conclude this particular The Apostle is peremptory Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor effeminate nor covetous nor theeves nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God and the consciences of many men who yet will never yeeld to the conclusion cannot choose but subsume as the Apostle goes on such are some of we nay and such we will be too But now if we should bespeake these men in the word of the Prophet Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong reasons saith the King of Iacob they should finde at the last their reasons to be like themselves vanity and lighter than nothing that the Word of the Lord will at last prevaile and sweepe away all their refuge of lyes Secondly the power of the Word towards wicked men is seene in Affrighting of them there is a spirit of bondage and a savour of death aswell as a spirit of life and libertie which goeth along with the Word Guilt is an inseparable consequent of sinne and feare of the manifestation of guilt If the heart be once convinced of this it will presently faint and tremble even at the shaking of a leafe at the wagging of a mans owne conscience how much more at the voice of the Lord which shaketh mountaines and maketh the strong foundations of the earth to tremble If I should see a prisoner at the barre passe sentence upon his Judge and the Judge thereupon surpriz'd with trembling and forced to subscribe and acknowledge the doome I could not but stand amaz'd at so inverted a proceeding yet in the Scripture wee finde presidents for it Micatah a prisoner pronouncing death unto Ahab a King Ieremie a prisoner pronouncing captivitie unto Zedekiah a King Paul in his chain preaching of judgment unto Felix in his robes and making his owne Judge to tremble It is not for want of strength in the Word or because there is stoutnesse in the hearts of men to stand out against it that all the wicked of the world do not tremble at it but meerly their ignorance of the power evidence thereof The Devils are stronger and more stubborne creatures than any man can be yet because of their full illumination and that invincible conviction of their consciences from the power of the Word they beleeve and tremble at it Though men were as hard as rocks the Word is a hammer which can breake them though as sharp as thornes and briars the Word is a fire which can devour and torment them though as strong as kingdomes and nations the Word is able to root them up and to pull them downe though as fierce as Dragons and Lions the Word is able to trample upon them and to chaine them up Thirdly the power of the Word is seene towards wicked men in that it doth judge them Sonne of man wilt thou judge wilt thou judge the bloudy Citie saith the Lord yea thou shalt shew them their abominations To note that when wicked men are made to see their filthinesse in the Word they have therby the wrath of God as it were seal'd upon them He that rejecteth mee the Word which I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day saith our Saviour And if all prophecie saith the Apostle and there come in one that beleeveth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all hee is judged of all and the secrets of his heart are made manifest Nay the Word doth in some sort execute death and judgement upon wicked men Therefore it is said that the Lord would smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips would slay the wicked And againe I have hewed them by the Prophets I have slaine them by the words of my mouth And therefore the Word of the Lord is called fury by the Prophet to note that when wrath fury is powred out upon a land they are the effects of Gods Word If a pestilence devoure a city and a sword come and gleane after it it is the Word only which flayes they are but the instruments which are as it were actuated and applied by the Word of God to their severall services Therefore it is that the Prophet saith that wise men see the voice of God and heare his rod. A rod is properly to be seene and a voice to bee heard but here is a transposition and as it were a communication of properties betweene the Word of God and his punishments to note that towards wicked men there is a judging and tormenting vertue in the Word For judgement saith our Saviour am I come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blinde If it be here objected that Christ saith of himselfe The Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them and that he came not to condemne the world but that the world through him might bee saved I answer that there are two events of Christs comming and by consequence of his Gospell The one principall and by him intended the other accidentall and occasionall growing out of the ill disposition of the subject unto whom he was sent The maine and essentiall businesse of the Gospell is to declare salvation and to set open unto men a doore of escape from the wrath to come but when men wilfully stand out and neglect so great salvation then secondarily doth Christ prove unto those men a stone of offence and the Gospell a savour of death unto death as that potion which was intended for a cure by the Physitian may upon occasion of the indisposednesse of the body and stubborne radication of the disease hasten a mans end sooner than the disease it selfe would have done So that to the wicked the Word of God is a two-edged sword indeed an edge in the Law and an edge in the Gospell they are on every side beset with condemnation if they goe to the Law that cannot save them because they have broken it
spirits senses which are in the head are there placed as in a Watch-tower or Councell-chamber to consult and provide for the good of the whole the eye seeth the eare heareth the tongue speaketh the fancie worketh the memory retaineth for the welfare of the other members and they have all the same care one for another Fourthly He is our Advocate and Mediatour he is the onely practicer in the court of heaven and therefore he must needs be full of the businesses of his Church It is his office to dispatch the affaires of those that come unto him and crave his favour and intercession to debate their causes and he is both faithfull and mercifull in his place and besides furnished with such an unmeasurable unction of Spirit and vast abilities to transact all the businesses of his Church that whosoever commeth unto him for his counsell and intercession hee will in no wise cast them out or refuse their cause And this is one great assurance we may take comfort in that be our matters never so foule and unexcusable in themselves yet the very entertaining him of our counsell and the leaning upon his wisdome power fidelity and mercy to expedite our businesses to compassionate our estate and to rescue us from our owne demerits doth as it were alter the propertie of the cause and produce a cleane contrary issue to that which the evidence of the thing in triall would of it selfe have created And as we may observe that men of extraordinary abilities in the Law delight to wrestle with some difficult businesse and to shew their learning in clearing matters of greatest intricacie and perplexitie before so doth Christ esteeme himselfe most honoured and the vertue and wisedome of his Crosse magnified when in cases of sorest extremitie of most hideous guilt of most blacke and uncomfortable darknesse of soule which pose not onely the presumptions but the hope faith conjectures thoughts contrivances which the hearts of men can even in wishes make to themselves for mercy they doe yet trust him whose thoughts are infinitely above their thoughts and whose wayes above their wayes who is there among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God When the soule can goe unto Christ with such complaints and acknowledgements as these Lord when I examine my cause by mine owne conscience and judgement of it I cannot but give it over as utterly desperate and beyond cure my bones are dried my hope is cut off I am utterly lost my sins and my sorrowes are so heavie that they have broken my spirit all to peeces and there is no sound part in me But Lord I beleeve that thou knowest a way to make dead bones live that thy thoughts and waies are above mine that thou knowest thine owne thoughts of peace and mercy though I cannot comprehend them that thy riches are unsearchable that thy love is above humane knowledge that thy peace passeth all created understandings that though I am the greatest of all sinners and feele enough in my selfe to sinke me as low as Iudas into hell yet thou hast not left me without patternes of all long-suffering of thy royall power in enduring and in forgiving sinnes And now Lord though thou afford me no light though thou beset me with terrours though thou make me to possesse the sinnes of my youth yet I still desire to feare thy name to walke in thy way to wait upon thy counsell I know there is not in men or Angels so much wisdome compassion or fidelity as in thee and therefore if I must perish I will perish at thy feet I will starve under thy table I will be turned away and rejected by thee who hast promised to cast away none that come unto thee I have tried all wayes and I here resolve to rest and to looke no further thou that hast kept such a sinner as I am out of hell thus long canst by the same power keep me out for ever upon thy wisdome and compassion who canst make dried bones to flourish like an herbe and broken bones to rejoyce and sing I cast the whole weight of my guilty spirit into thy bosome I emptie all the feares cares and requests of my distracted and sinking soule I say when a man can thus powre out himselfe uâ—to Christ he esteemeth the price and power of his bloud most highly honoured when men beleeve in him against reason and above hope and beyond the experience or apprehensions they have of mercy for Christ loveth to shew the greatnesse of his skill in the salvation of a Manasse a Mary Magdalen a crucified Theefe a persecutour and injurious blasphemer in giving life unto them that nailed him to his Crosse the more desperate the disease the more honourable the cure Fifthly He is our Purchaser our Proprietary wee belong unto him by grant from the Father Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me and by payment from him unto the Father yee are bought with a price There is no good that concernes the Church that he hath not fully paid for with his owne pretious bloud And Christ will not die in vaine he will take order for the accomplishing of that redemption which himselfe hath merited And this is the greatest argument of his care and fidelitie that he is not as a servant but as a Lord and his care is over His owne house An ordinary advocate is faithfull onely ratione officii because the dutie of his office requireth it but the businesses which he manageth come not close unto his heart because he hath no personall interest in them but Christ is faithfull not as Moses or a servant onely but ratione Dominii as Lord in his owne house so that the affaires of the Church concerne him in as neere a right as they concerne the Church her selfe so that in his office of intercession hee pleadeth his owne causes with his Father and in the miscarriages of them himselfe should lose that which was infinitely more pretious than any thing in the world besides even the price and merit of his owne bloud These are the grounds of the great care of Christ towards his people And from hence we should learne faith and dependence on Christ in all our necessities because we are under the protection and provision of him who careth for us and is able to helpe us A right judgement of God in Christ and in his Gospell of salvation will wonderfully strengthen the faith of men Paul was not ashamed of persecutions because he knew whom he had beleeved hee doubted neither of his care or power and therefore hee committed the keeping of his soule unto him against the last day and therefore when all forsooke him he stood to the truth because the Lord forsooke him not The reason why men
trust in themselves or their friends is because they are assured of their care and good-will to helpe them But if men did compare the affections of Christ to other succours they would rather choose to build their hopes and assurances on him This consideration of the care and the power of God made the three Children at a point against the edict of an idolatrous King Our God is able to deliver us and hee will deliver us And this made Abraham at a point to offer his sonne without staggering because he rested upon the promise and the power of God who was able to raise him from the dead from whence in a sort he had received him before namely from a dead body and from a barren wombe And this is the ground of all diffidence that men consider not the power and the care of God towards them but conceive of him as if he had forgotten to be gratious as if he had cast them out of his sight as if he had given over his thoughts of them and that maketh them feare second causes and seeke unto things which cannot profit And therefore the Lord suffereth second causes to goe crosse to faile and disappoint a man because he loveth to be glorified by our dependance on his all-sufficiencie and protection Hee suffereth friends to faile to be off and on promises to be uncertaine assurances to vanish projections and frames of businesses to bee shattered that men may know how to trust him for man being impotent in himselfe must needs have something without himselfe to subsist upon Now when a man findeth the creatures to be deceitfull and second causes vaine and considereth that God is I Am a most certaine rewarder of those that diligently seek him then the soule findeth it good to draw neere to God to live under his fidelitie and to cast all its care on him because he careth for it And indeed a right judgement of God will helpe us to imploy our faith in any condition In wealth men are apt to trust in their abundance to stand upon their mountaine and to say I shall never be moved But now in this estate if a man conceive aright of God that it is he who giveth strength to be rich who giveth riches strength to doe us good that hee can blast the greatest estate with an imperceptible consumption and in the midst of a mans sufficiencie make him bee in straits that hee can embitter all with his sore displeasure and not suffer the floore nor the winepresse to feed him In great wisdome and deepe counsels if a man consider that the counsell of the Lord shall stand and that hee can turne the wisdome of oracles into foolishnesse and catch the wise in their owne craftinesse In great provisions of worldly strength and humane combinations if he consider that God can take off the wheeles and amaze the phantasies and dissipate the affections and melt the spirits and way-lay the enterprises of the hugest hosts of men that he can arme flies and lice and dust and wind and starres and every small unexpected contingencie against the strongest opposition it must need make him set his rest and hang his confidences and assurances upon an higher principle Againe in povertie and the extremest straits which a man can be in if he consider that God is a God as well of the valleyes as of the hils that he will be seene in the mount when his people are under the sword and upon the Altar that the Lord knoweth the dayes of the upright and will satisfie them in the time of famine that when the young Lions famish for hunger they which live not by the fruits on the earth but by their prey they which can feed of the dead bodies of those other creatures whom a famine had devoured yet even then hee can provide abundantly for his that when things are marvellous unto us then they are easie unto him that when they are impossible unto us then they are possible with him that he can lead in a wildernesse and feed with an unknowne and an unsuspected bread that when the light of the Sun and the Moone shall faile he can be an everlasting light and glory to his people that as a Father so he pitieth and as an heavenly Father so he knoweth and can supply all our needs that when we are without any wisdome to disappoint or strength to withstand the confederacies of men when they come with chariots of iron and walls of brasse even then the eyes of the Lord runne to and fro to shew himselfe valiant in the behalfe of those that walke uprightly that he can then order some accident produce some engine discover some way to extricate and to cleere all then will a man learne to be carefull or distracted in nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thankesgiving make his request knowne unto him who is at hand and who careth for him The like may be said of mens spirituall condition when men despaire as Cain that their sinne is greater than can be forgiven the onely ground is because they judge not aright of God in Christ they looke not on him in his Gospell as a God that careth for them they doe not leane upon the staffe of his strength Despaire is an affection growing out of the sense of sin and wrath as it is malum arduum instans ineluctabile an evill too heavie to be borne and yet impossible to be removed All victory ariseth either out of an inward power of our owne or by the assistance of forren power which is more than our owne Now then when we despaire because of sinne this commeth first from the consideration of our owne everlasting disability to breake thorow sin by our owne strength and this is a good despaire which helpeth to drive men unto Christ. Secondly it commeth from a misconceiving either of the Power or Care of those which might assist us sometimes from the mis-judging of Gods power for the forgivenesse of sinnes is an act of omnipotencie and therefore when the Lord proclaimeth himselfe a forgiver of iniquitie transgression and sinne he introduceth it with his titles of power The Lord the Lord God Gracious and mercifull c. To pardon malefactours is a power and royaltie which belongeth onely unto Princes There is much strength required in bearing burdens and therefore patience especially towards sinners is an act of power and impatiencie ever a signe of impotencie And therefore the weakest affections are ever most revengefull children old men sicke or indigent persons are ever most subject to anger and least able to concoct an injury so that to conceive sin greater than can be forgiven is to mis-judge the omnipotencie of God but ordinarily despaire proceedeth from the mis-judging of Gods affection and good-will towards men the soule conceives of him as of one that hath utterly cast off all
effectually that is it doth not consummate nor accomplish any perfect worke but onely in those that beleeve in the rest it proves but an abortion and withers in the blade Secondly with love and readinesse of minde without despising or rejecting it No man can bee saved who doth not receive the truth in love who doth not receive it as the primitive Saints did with gladnesse and readinesse of minde as Eli though from the hand of Samuel a Child as David though from the hand of Abigail a woman as the Galatians though from the hand of Paul an infirme and persecuted Apostle For herein is our homage to Christ the more apparent when we suffer a little childe to lead us Thirdly with meeknesse and submission of heart reverencing and yeelding unto it in all things Wresting shifting evading perverting the word is as great an indignity unto Christ as altering interlining or rasing a patent which the King hath drawen with his owne royall hand is an offence against him Patience and effectuall obedience even in affliction is an argument that a man esteemes the word to bee indeed Gods owne word and so receives it Hee onely who putteth off the old man the corrupt deceitfull lusts of his former conversation and is renewed in the Spirit of his minde is the man that hath heard and been taught by Christ that hath received the Truth in him Againe in as much as the Gospell is the Rod of Christs owne strength or the instrument of his arme who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed and the instrument is no further operative or effectuall than according to the measure of that impressed vertue which it receiveth from the superior cause therefore wee should learne alwayes to repaire unto Christ for the successe of his word For he onely is the teacher of mens hearts and the author of their faith To him onely it belongeth to call men out of their graves and to quicken whom hee will Wee have nothing but the ministerie he keepeth the power in his own hands that men might learne to waite upon him and to have to doe with him who onely can send a blessing with his word and teach his people to profit thereby Another ground of the power of the word is that it is sent from God The Lord shall send forth the Rod of thy strength From which particular likewise wee may note some usefull observations as First that Gods appointment and ordination is that which gives being life majesty and successe to his owne word authority boldnesse and protection to his servants When hee sendeth his word hee will make it prosper When Moses disputed against his going down into Egypt to deliver his brethren sometimes alleaging his owne unfitnesse and infirmity sometimes the unbeliefe of the people this was still the warrant with which God encouraged him I will bee with thee I have sent thee doe not I make mans mouth I will bee with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say I was no Prophet neither was I a Prophets Sonne saith Amos but I was an heardsman a gatherer of sycamore fruit And the Lord tooke me as I followed the flock and said unto mee Goe prophecie unto my people Israel And this made him peremptory in his office to prophecie against the idolatry of the Kings Court and against the flattery of the Priest of Bethel And this made the Apostles bold though otherwise unlearned and ignorant men to stand against the learned councill of Priests and Doctors of the Law Wee ought to obey God rather than men Vpon which Grave was the advice of Gamaliel If this counsell or worke bee of men it will come to nought But if it bee of God yee cannot overthrow it lest haply yee bee found even to fight against God For to withstand the power or progresse of the Gospell is to set a mans face against God himselfe Secondly in as much as the Gospell is sent forth by God that is revealed and published out of Sion wee may observe That Evangelicall learning came not into the world by humane discovery or observation but it is utterly above the compasse of all reason or naturall disquisition neither men nor Angels ever knew it but by divine revelation And therfore the Apostle every where calleth it a Mystery a great and a hidden Mystery which was kept secret since the world began There is a Naturall Theologie without the world gathered out of the workes of God out of the resolution of causes and effects into their first originals and out of the Law of nature written in the heart But there is no naturall Christianity Nature is so farre from finding it out by her owne inquiries that shee cannot yeeld unto it when it is revealed without a Spirit of faith to assist it The Iewes stumbled at it as dishonorable to their Law and the Gentiles derided it as absurd in their Philosophy It was a Hidden and secret wisedome the execution and publication whereof was committed onely to Christ. In God it was an Eternall Gospell for Christ was a lambe slaine from before the foundations of the world namely in the predeterminate counsell decree of his father but revealed it was not till the dispensation of the fulnesse of time wherein he gathered together in one all things in Christ. The purpose and ordination of it was eternall but the preaching and manifestation of it reserved untill the time of Christs solemne inauguration into his Kingdome and of the obstinacy of the Iewes upon whose defection the Gentiles were called in Which might teach us to adore the unsearchablenesse of Gods judgements unto former ages of the world whom hee suffered to walke in their owne wayes and to live in times of utter ignorance destitute of any knowledge of the Gospell or of any naturall parts or abilities to finde it out For if these things bee true First that without the knowledge of Christ there is no salvation This is eternall life to know thee and him whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifye many Secondly that Christ cannot bee knowen by naturall but Evangelicall and revealed light The naturall man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerend The light shined in darknesse and the darknesse was so thick and fixed that it did not let in the light nor apprehend it Thirdly that this light was at the first sent onely unto the Iewes as to the first borne-people excepting onely some particular extraordinary dispensations and priviledges to some few first fruits and preludes of the Gentiles He sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and his judgements unto Israel Hee hath not dealt so with any nation Hee hath not afforded the meanes of salvation ordinarily unto any other people the world by wisedome knew him not Fourthly that this severall
Sonnes of men the incorruptible and precious bloud of Christ the exceeding great and pretious promises of the Gospell the word of the Grace of God and of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now it is required of stewards that a man bee found faithfull that hee defraud not Christ of his purchase which is the soules of men nor men of their price and priviledge which is the bloud of Christ that hee neither favour the sinnes of men nor dissemble the truth of God that hee watch because hee is a seer that hee speake because he is an oracle that hee feed because hee is a shepheard that hee labour because hee is a husband-man that hee bee tender because hee is a mother that hee bee carefull because is a father that hee bee faithfull because he is a servant to God and his Church in one word that he bee instant in season and out of season to exhort rebuke instruct to doe the worke of an Evangelist to accomplish and make full proofe of his ministery because he hath an account to make because hee hath the presence of Christ to assist him the promises of Christ to reward him the example of Christ his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Bishops and Martyrs of the purest time who have now their palmes in their hands to encourage him It was Christs custome to enter into their Synagogues on the Sabbath-dayes and to read and expound the Scriptures to the people It was S. Pauls manner to reason in the Synagogues and to open the Scriptures on the Sabbath dayes Vpon Sunday saith Iustin Martyr All the Christians that are in the cities or countries about meete together and after some Commentaries of the Apostles and writings of the Prophets have been read the Senior or President doth by a Sermon exhort the people and admonish them to the imitation and practice of those divine truths which they had heard read unto them And S. Austen telleth us of Ambrose that hee heard him rightly handling the word of God unto the people every Lords day Yea it should seeme by the Homilies of S. Chrysostome that hee did oftentimes preach daily unto the people and therefore wee frequently meete with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yesterday this and this I taught you And Origen intimateth this frequency of expounding the Scriptures in his time if saith hee you come frequently unto the Church of God and there attend unto the sacred Scriptures and to the explication of those heavenly commandements thy soule will be strengthened as thy body with food And our Church in her Ecclesiasticall Constitutions hath provided for the continuance of so faithfull and pious a custome injoining every allowed Preacher to have a Sermon every Sunday in the yeare and in the afternoone besides to spend halfe an houre in Catechizing the yonger and ruder sort in the Principles of Christian Religion The neglect of which most necessary dutie no man can more bewaile nor more urge the necessity thereof than those who looking abroad into the world have experience of more thick and palpable darknesse in the mindes of men concerning those absolutely necessary Doctrines of the passion merits and redemption of Christ and of faith in them than men who have not with their owne eyes observed it can almost beleeve And that too in such places where Sermons have been very frequently preached I will close this point with the asâ—ertion and profession of Holy Austen Nothing saith he is in this life more pleasant and â—asie than the life of a Bishop or Minister if it be perfunctorily and flatteringly executed but then in Gods sight nihil turpius miserius damnabilius and it was his profession that hee was never absent from his Episcopall service and attendance upon any licentious and assumed liberty but onely upon some other necessary service of the Church Touching the abilitie required in the discharge of this great office there are as I conceive two speciall branches thereunto belonging First Learning for the right information of the consciences of men that men may not pervert the Scripture Secondly Wisedome or spirituall prudence for seasonable application of the truth to particular circumstances which is that which maketh a wise builder For this latter it being so various according to those infinite varieties of particular cases and conditions which are hardly reducible unto generall rules I cannot here speake but referre the Reader to the grave pious counsels of those holy men who have given some directions herein For the other two great workes there are which belong to this high calling Instruction of the Scholer Conviction of the Adversarie Vnto the perfection of which two services when wee duly consider how many different parts of learning are requisite as knowledge of the tongues for the better understanding of the holy Scriptures by their originall idiome and emphasis of the arts to observe the connexion and argumentation and method of them of ancient customes Histories and antiquities of the Babylonians Persians Greeks and Romanes without insight whereinto the full meaning of many passages of holy Scripture cannot bee cleerly apprehended of Schoole learning for discovering repelling the subtilty of the adversaries a thing required in a Rhetorician by Aristotle and Quintilian insomuch that Iulian the Apostate complained of the Christians that they used the weapons of the Gentiles against them and threfore interdicted them the use of Schooles of learning Lastly of Histories and Antiquities of the Church that wee may observe the succession of the Professors and Doctrines hereof the originals and sproutings of heresie therein the better to answere the reproaches of our insolent adversaries who lay innovation to our charge I say when wee duly consider these particulars wee cannot sufficiently admire nor detest the saucinesse of those bold intruders who when they have themselves need to bee taught what are the first Principles of the Oracles of God become teachers of the ignorant before themselves have been Disciples of the learned and before either maturity of years or any severe progresse of studies have prepared them boldly leape some from their manuall trades many from their grammar and logick rudiments into this sacred and dreadfull office unto which heretofore the most learned and pious men have trembled to approach To these men I can give no better advice than that which Tully once gave unto Aristoxenus a musitian who would needs venture upon Philosophicall difficulties and out of the principles of his art determine the nature of a humane soule Haec magistro relinquat Aristoteli canere ipse doceat Let them spend their time in the worke which best befits them and leave great matters unto abler men Thirdly and lastly unto this call is requisite the imposition of hands and the authoritative act of the Church ordaining and setting apart and deriving actuall power upon such men of whose fidelity and ability they have sufficient evidence
faine to confesse and declare to the world in their Councell of Trent Onely herein is the difference The Councell pretended a Reformation in points of Discipline and manners and wee made a Reformation in points of Doctrine too When Christ purged the Temple of buyers and sellers it was the same Temple after which before When a man separateth the wheate from the chaffe it is the same corne which before In these corrupter ages then the pure Professour of Christ who denied not his faith did dwell where Satan had his seate The members of Christ were amongst the Rulers of Antichrist Wee are not another Church newly started up but the same which before from the Apostles times held the common and necessarie grounds of Faith and Salvation which grounds being in latter ages perverted and over-turned by Antichristianisme have beene by valiant Champions for the faith of Christ therefrom vindicated who have onely pruned the Lords Vine and picked out the stones and driven out the bores out of his Vineyard but have not made either one or other new Now this point that Christ ruleth in the midst of his enemies is ground of great confidence in his Church in as much as shee subsisteth not upon any corruptible strength of her owne but upon the Promise decree oath power and love of God things invincible by all the Powers of darkenesse Let the enemies rage never so much they cannot dis-throne Christ nor extinguish his Gospell for it is an everlasting Gospell It is but as the comming forth of a Shepheard against a Lion as the Prophet compareth it For either Christ is unable to protect his people and that is against Saint Iude Hee is able to keepe you from falling and to present you faultlesse c. or else he is unwilling and that is against Saint Paul This is the will of God even your sanctification Or else both his Power and his will are suspended upon expectation of humane concurrence or nullified and disappointed by us and that is against the influence of his Grace which giveth us both the will and the deed against the mercie of his gracious promise I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sinnes and their iniquities will I remember no more I will heale their back-slidings I will save them freely against the immutabilitie of his Covenant and holy nature I am God and not man I change not therefore the sonnes of Iacob are not destroied Now besides this generall observation the words afford some particular notes which I will but briefly touch As first That Christs kingdome in this world is Regnum Crucis a Kingdome beset with enemies of all other the most hated and opposed They that submit unto it must resolve to be herein conformable to their head a Crosse was his Throne and Thornes were his Crowne and every one which will live godly must suffer persecution and through many afflictions enter into his Masters Kingdome Quod erat Christus erimus Christiani No marvell if the world hate the Church of Christ for it hated him first In his word he is resisted disobeyed belied and if it were possible silenced and corrupted in his officers mocked and misused in his subjects persecuted and reviled in his Spirit thrust away and grieved in his worship neglected and polluted in all his wayes slandered and blasphemed The Reasons of which strange entertainement of the Kingdome of Christ are first because it is a New Kingdome which enters into the world by way of chalenge and dispossession of former lords and therefore no wonder if it finde opposition Secondly it is an invisible unconspicuous unattended desolate and in appearance ignoble kingdome It began in the forme of a servant in the ignominie of a Crosse none of the Princes of this world none of the learned of this world to countenance or helpe set it up but amongst them all esteemed as an offensive and foolish thing Thirdly it is an universall kingdome Nec parem patitur nec superiorem Christ will admit of no Consorts or Corrivals in his Government Body and Soule and Spirit hee will have wholly and throughout unto himselfe And this amongst others is given for the reason why when Tiberius proposed Christ unto the Romane Senate with the priviledge of his owne suffrage to be worshipped they rejected him because hee would be a God alone If hee would exempt some of the earthly members from his subjection let lust have the eye or folly the eare or violence the hand or covetousnesse the heart or any other evill affection share with him he would be the easier tolerated but when he will be absolute and nothing must remaine in our hearts but as his vassall to be spoiled subdued condemned and crucified by him if the whole state of sinne must bee ruined and the body destroied no wonder if the world cannot away with him Fourthly which is the Summe of all It is a heavenly Kingdome a spirituall Kingdome My Kingdome is not of this world and therefore no marvell if the divels of hell and the lusts of the flesh doe set themselves against him Note secondly even there where Christs Throne and Kingdome is set up hee hath enemies Satan hath his seate even where Christ dwelleth Men may say they are Jewes and are not but of the Synagogue of Satan and men may say they are Christians and are not but of the kingdome of Satan too A Wenne in the body seemeth to belong unto the integrity of the whole when indeed it is an enemie and thiefe therein Ivie about a tree seemeth to embrace it with much affection when indeed it doth but kill and choake it Men may take upon them the profession of Christians and like a Wenne bee skinned over with the same out-side which the true members have may pretend much submission worship and ceremony unto him and yet such is the hellish hypocrisie of the heart the same men may haply inwardly swell and rancle against the power of his truth and Spirit This people saith the Lord draw neere me with their mouth and honour mee with their lips but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare towards mee is taught by the precepts of men In the Apostles times there were false brethren and false teachers who crept in to spie out and betray the libertie of the Church and privily to bring in damnable heresies and to speake lies in hypocrisie that is under the pretext of devotion and carnall humilitie to corrupt the Doctrine of Christ and under a forme of Godlinesse to denie the Power thereof Therefore Antichrist is called a Whore because hee should seduce the Christian world with much expression of love and creepe peaceably and by flatteries into the kingdome of Christ of these severall enemies of Christ under the profession of his name and worship some are Christians but not in purity as heretikes some not in unity as schismatikes some not
by Satanicall injections and immutations to be the forge of loose vaine unprofitable and uncleane thoughts The understanding to earthly wisdome vanity infidelity prejudices misperswasions fleshly reasonings vaine speculations and curiosities c. The will to stiffenesse resistance dislike of holy things and pursuite of the world The conscience to deadnesse immobilitie and a stupid benummednesse to slavish terrours and evidences of hell to superstitious bondage to carnall securitie to desperate conclusions The affections to independence distraction excesse precipitancie c. In temporall conditions there is no estate of health wealth peace honor estimation or the contraries unto these no relation of husband father magistrate subject c. unto which Satan hath not such suteable suggestions as by the advantage of fleshly corruptions may take from them occasion to draw a man from God Lastly in regard of our actions and imployments whether they be Divine such as respect God as acts of pietie in reading hearing meditating and studying his Word in calling upon his name and the like or such as respect our selves as acts of temperance and sobriety personall examinations and more particular acquaintance with our owne hearts or such as respect others as acts of righteousnesse charity and edification Or whether they be actions naturall such as are requisite to the preservation of our being as sleepe and diet or actions civill in our callings or recreations in all these Satan laboureth either to pervert us in the performance of them or to divert us from it There is then no condition facultie relation or action of a Christian man the which is not alwayes under the eye and envy of a most raging wise and industrious enemie And therefore great reason there is that Christians should be Military men well instructed in the whole armour of God that they may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devill and to quench all his firy darts It is our calling to wrestle against principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places to resist the devill to strive against sinne to mortifie earthly members to destroy the body of sinne to denie our selves to contradict the reasonings of the flesh to checke and controule the stirrings of concupiscence to resist and subdue the desires of our evill hearts to withstand and answere the assaults of Satan to out-face the scornes and despise the flatteries of the present world in all things to endure hardnesse as the souldiers of Iesus Christ. Our cause is righteous our captaine is wise and puissant our service honourable our victory certaine our reward massie and eternall so that in all respects great encouragements we have to be voluntaries in such warre the issue whereof is our enemies perdition our Masters honour and our owne Salvation The third thing observed was the through and universall Resignation and devotednesse of Christs people unto him Thy people shall be willing or a people of great devotion in the day of thy Power From whence I shall gather two observations First They that belong unto Christ as his people are most throughly and willingly subject unto his government doe consecrate resigne and yeeld up their whole soules and bodies to serve in his warres against all his enemies For the distinct understanding of which point we are to observe first that by nature wee are utterly unwilling to be subject unto Christ. The carnall minde is enmitie against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can bee For if Christ be over us the body of sinne must dye it once crucified him and he will be reveng'd upon it By nature wee are willingly subject unto no Law but the Law of our members nor to no will but the will of the flesh full of contumacie rebellion and stoutnesse of spirit against the truth and beauty of the word or wayes of God The Love of corrupted nature is wholly set upon our owne wayes as an untamed heifer or a wilde asse men wander and goe about and wearie themselves in their full compasse and swinge of lust and will not be turned And therefore it is that they bid God depart from them and desire not the knowledge of his wayes that they leave the paths of uprightnesse that having crooked hearts of their owne they labour likewise to pervert and make crooked the Gospell of Christ that they may from thence steale countenance to their sinnes contrary to that holy affection of David Make my way strait before me that they snuffe and rage and pull away the shoulder and fall backward and thrust away God from them And hence it is that men are so apt to cavill and foolishly to charge the wayes of God first as grievous wayes too full of austerity narrownesse and restraint I knew that thou wert an austere man and this is an hard saying who can beare it The land is not able to beare all his words There is a Lion in the way a certaine damage and unavoidable mischiefe will follow me if I keepe in it Thus as Israel when they heard of Giants and sonnes of Anak had no heart to Canaan but cried and whined and rebelled and mutined and in their heart turned back into Egypt that is had more will to their owne bondage than to Gods Promise so when a naturall man heares of walking in a narrow way with much exactnesse and circumspection that come what baite of preferment pleasure profit or advantage will yet hee must not turne to the right hand or to the left nor commit the least evill for the greatest good that as the people in the wildernesse were to goe onely where the cloud and pillar of Gods presence led them though hee carried them through giants terrours and temptations so a Christian must resolve to follow the Lambe whither soever he goeth He then turneth backe to his iniquities and refuseth to heare the words of the Lord. Secondly as unprofitable wayes for who will shew us any good is the onely language of carnall men What can the Almighty doe for us say the wicked in Iob It is in vaine to serve God what profit have we that we have kept his ordinances c If we must take our conscience along in all the businesses of our life there will be no living in the world notwithstanding the Lord saith that his words doe good to those that walke uprightly that godlinesse hath the Promises even of this life that God will honour those that honor him Thirdly as unequall and unreasonable wayes as a strange a mad and a foolish strictnesse rather the meteor of a speculative braine than a thing of any reall existence rather votum than veritas a wish or figment than a solid truth And from such prejudices as these men grow to wrestle with the Spirit of Christ to withstand his motions to quench his suggestions
enabled unto this great function Esay 61.1.42.1 Matth. 3.16 17. Heb. 1.9 If then God call Christ unto his Priesthood by a solemne Oath and make him surety of a better covenant we ought to take the more especiall notice thereof for when God sweares he must be heard The more excellent any thing is the more earnest hee should bee given unto it for how shall we escape saith the Apostle if wee neglect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great Salvation so sure a covenant Heb. 2.1 3. This is the onely rocke on which we may cast anchor in any trouble doubt or feare of Spirit It is not our owne will or strength that holds us up from ruine but onely Gods Oath by which Christ is made a Priest Able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Saint Paul and his company were in a great tempest all hope that they should be saved was taken away Act. 27.20 yet he exhorts them to bee of good cheere because there should not bee the losse of any mans life amongst them and the ground hereof was Gods promise which he beleeved verse 24 25. The case is the same with us we are compassed about with infirmities with enemies too hard and with sinnes too heavie for us with feares and doubting that we shall lose all againe how can wee in such tempests of Spirit be cheered but onely by casting anchor upon Gods covenant which is established by an oath by learning to hope above hope Rom. 4. 18. to be strong in him when we are weake in our selves to bee faithfull in him when wee are fearefull in our selves to be stedfast in him when we stagger in our selves in the midst of Satans buffets and our owne corruptions to finde a sufficiencie in his Grace able to answer and to ward off all 2 Cor. 12.10 To catch hold of his covenant and to flie to the hope that is set before us as to the only refuge and sanctuary of a pursued soule when wee are not able to stand by our selves Esay 56.6 Heb. 6.18 It is hard very thing when a man hath a distinct view of his filthinesse and guilt by reason of time not to give over himselfe and his salvation as desparate things It is nothing but ignorance and insensibilitie which makes men presume of the pardon of sinne In this case then we must consider Gods Oath and Covenant with his people First not to reject them for their sinnes Israel hath not beene forsaken nor Iudah of his God though their land was filled with sinne against the holy One of Israel Ier. 51.5 My People are bent unto backsliding c. and yet I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim For I am God and not Man c. Hos. 11.7 9. Secondly not alwayes to suffer them to lie under sin but in due time to heale their backeslidings Hos. 14.4 he will not onely remove our transgressions from himselfe but he will remove them from us too and that so farre as that it shall be as possible for the East and West to meet together as for a man and his sin Psal. 103.12 Though we have made him to serve with our sinnes and wearied him with our iniquities yet Hee will not remember against us our sinnes past Esay 43.25 neither will hee see against us the sinnes which remaine Numb 23.11 These he will forgive and these he will subdue and all this because of his Truth unto Iacob and his mercy unto Abraham which he sware unto our fathers from the dayes of old Micah 7.18 19.20 Hee hath given us ground for both our feete to stand upon and hold fast for both our hands to cleave unto A Promise and an Oath that by two immutable things wee might have strong consolation Heb. 6.18 So the Apostle saith that all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen yea to note their Truth and amen to note their certainty and stability being confirmed by the Oath of Christ. For so that word may be conceived either as an Oath or at least as a very strong and confident affirmation which is equivalent unto an oath 2 Cor. 1.20 except happily we will understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee the same thing expressed in severall tongues as Abba Pater in other places thereby noting not onely the stabilitie but the universalitie of Gods promises Many things there are in this call of Christ unto his Office to confirme this consolation and upon which the troubled soule may cast Anker First from the Father he hath received a command and call unto thy service and so as a Servant he hath fidelity for God choseth none but faithfull servants Hee was an Apostle and high Priest sent to preach the Will and to pacifie the wrath of God and he was faithfull to him that appointed him as Moses was Heb. 3.11.2 And if he be faithfull we may trust him for he will doe the worke which is given him to doe Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will doe it 1 Thes. 5.24 Secondly from himselfe there is a voluntarie submission whereby he gives himselfe for his Church and layes downe his owne life Eph. 5.25 Tit. 2.14 Ioh. 10.11 for being of himselfe equall with the Father he could not be by him commanded ordained or overruled to any service without a voluntary concurring to the same decree emptying himselfe and taking on him the forme of a servant making himselfe lesse than his Father and in some sort for a while lower than the Angels that so he might be commanded So that besides his fidelitie to rest on as a servant here is his especiall mercy as a concurring agent in the decree whereby he was ordained unto this office He is not onely a Faithfull but a mercifull high Priest to make reconciliation for the sinnes of men Heb. 2.17 But a man may both by his Fidelitie as a servant and by his Mercy as having the same tender compassion with him that sent him be willing to helpe another out of misery and yet may not be able to effect his owne desires for want of Power And therefore Thirdly by the Vnction of the holy Spirit who proceedeth from the Father and himselfe hee is said to bee sanctified by the Father Iohn 10.36 and to sanctifie himselfe Iohn 17.19 To have received power and authority from his Father Matth. 28.18 Iohn 5.27 Iohn 17.2 and to have power likewise within himselfe Iohn 10.18 That spirit which for the discharge of this office hee brought with him in fulnesse and unto all purposes of that service into the world is a Spirit of Power 2 Tim. 1.7 whereby he is enabled perfectly to save all commers Heb. 7.25 so that unto his Fidelity and Mercy here is added Abilitie likewise Fourthly as he received an office and a service so hee received a Promise from his father likewise which did much encourage him in
shadow hath neither being in it selfe nor can give refreshment unto another but dependently on the body to which it belongeth And this appeareth first by their reiteration where the conscience is once purged and there is remission of sin there is no more offring Heb. 10 2-18 for the repeating of the sacrifice shews that the person for whose sake it is repeated is in statu quo prius in the same condition now as hee was in at the time of the former oblation Secondly by their Variety there were both Gifts and sacrifices for sins Heb. 5.1.8.3 buls and goats and calves and lambes Heb. 9.9.12.13 and that shewes that no one thing was fit to typifie the full expiation wrought by Christ whereas he offered but One Sacrifice and by that perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.12.14 And if legall sacrifices would not serve the turne then neither would legall Priests be fit for so great a worke for all the good which the Priest doth is in the vertue of the sacrifice which he brings and this likewise the Apostle proves by many arguments First because of their sinfulnes for they themselves wanted an expiation and therefore could not be mediatours for the sinnes of others Heb. 5.3.7.27 Secondly because of the carnalnesse of their institution They were made after the Law of a carnall commandement that is of a temporary perishable and meerely externall ordinance Heb. 7.16 which prescribed onely the examples and shadowes of heavenly things Thirdly because of their mortality they were not suffered to continue by reason of death wheras our Priest must live to make intercession Fourthly because of their ministery and the revolution of their services which never came to a period or perfection in which the Priest might give over and Sit downe They Stood daily ministring and oftentimes offering their service did daily returne upon them againe whereas Christ after he had offered One sacrifice for sinne for ever sate downe on the right hand of God Heb. 10.11 12. To shew you then the qualifications of this Priest A Priest in general is ordained for men in things pertaining to God to offer sacrifice for the obtaining of righteousnesse and remission of sinnes First then Christ being a Priest must of necessity be a Mediator and a Surety betweene parties that he might have one unto whom and others for whom in whose behalfe to offer a sacrifice Every Priest must be a mediator to stand betweene God and the people and to intercept and beare the iniquity even of their holy things And unto this mediation there must concur the consent of the parties between whom it is negotiated for a mediator is not a mediator of one Now God giveth his consent by laying on him our iniquities and making his soule an offering for sin and thereby declaring himselfe to be One with us And man gives his consent when by faith hee receiveth Christ and so becommeth not only the friend but the Sonne of God Ioh. 1.12 Secondly but every Mediator is not presently a Priest for there is a mediation onely by way of intreaty prayer and request wherein men doe obtaine but not deserve or purchase remission for others such mediators were Ioab and the Widdow of Tekoah in the behalfe of Absalom 2 Sam. 14. and there are mediators by way of satisfaction as Sureties are between the creditor and the debtor and such a mediator was Christ not onely a Mediator but also a surety of a better covenant Heb. 8.6 Heb. 7.22 he was not to procure remission of our sinnes by way of favor and request but hee was set forth to declare the Righteousnesse of God Rom. 3.25 and such a mediator betweene God and us must needs bee a Priest too for the debt which we owed unto God was bloud Without shedding of bloud there is no remission Heb. ◠22 Thirdly being such a Priest he must have a Sacrifice answerable to the debt which was owed to his Father The debt wee owed was the forfeiture and subjection of our Soules and Bodies to the wrath of God and the curse of the Law God is able to destroy both Soule and Body in Hell Matth. 10.28 It is not to bee understood onely of his Absolute power but of that power which as our Iudge hee hath over us per modum Iustitiae as we are his Prisoners and so obnoxious to the Curses of his Law Therefore our Priest also was to have a Soule and a Body to pay as a surety for our Soules and Bodies Thou shalt make his Soule an offering for sinne Esai 53.10 My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto Death Matth. 26.38 And againe A Body hast thou prepared mee we are sanctified through the Offering of the Body of Iesus Christ once for all Heb. 10.5.10 His owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne Body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 So hee was to bee Man that he might have a fit and answerable Sacrifice to offer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast fitted or prepared a Body for mee that my Sacrifice might bee proportionable to that in the place whereof it stood And thereby as hee is fit for passion so also for Compassion hee was to bee our Kinsman and of our bloud that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest Heb. 2.11.14.17 Deut. 18.15 And fit for derivation of his Righteousnesse and transfusion of his Spirit upon us for hee that Sanctifieth and they that are Sanctified are both of one And as it must bee thus fitted to the sinner that it may bee a proper and suteable Sacrifice for his sinne So must it bee perfect likewise First Without blemish or sinne Such an High Priest became us who is Holy Harmelesse undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 That so hee might offer himselfe without spot unto God and have no need of a Sacrifice for himselfe Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 1.19 Secondly without any manner of Defect which should stand in need of supplement and contribution from some thing else that of it selfe alone it might bee sufficient and available to bring perfection and salvation unto men and to leave no more conscience of sinne behinde it Heb. 7.19.10.14 Fourthly as there was to bee such a Sacrifice perfect in it selfe and fit for the use and occasion for which it was appointed so there must bee an Altar upon which to offer it unto the Father for it is the Altar which Sanctifieth the offering that is which in regard of God giveth it acceptance and which in regard of Man giveth it vertue merit and value answerable to his occasions This Sacrifice was to be sufficient for the satisfaction of God and for the justification and reparation of Man and both these by meanes of the Altar on which it was offered which was the Divine Nature Through the Eternall Spirit hee offered himselfe without spot unto God and so by his bloud purgeth our consciences from dead workes Heb. 9.14 For Christ as God sanctified himselfe as man
greater glory The Lord seemeth to neglect to breake up the hedge to sleepe while his Church is sinking as Christ to his Disciples seemed carelesse Mark 4.38 39. so frequently in Scripture the Saints expostulate with God in an humble and mourning debate Why sleepest thou O Lord Arise cast us not off for ever Psal. 44.23 Ier. 14.8 9. But God hath his quare against us too for this infirmitie and haste of ours Why sayest thou O Iacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God That is he hath not taken notice of my calamitie Hast thou not knowne hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary There is no searching of his understanding Esay 40.27 28. He is wonderfull in counsell and excellent in working and therefore he doth not slumber nor sleepe but only in wisdome ordereth times and seasons that there may in the end be the greater glory unto him and in the things done the more beautie Every thing saith Salomon is beautifull in its time if you gather it before it loseth both its beauty and vertue It would bee a madnesse for a man to mow downe his corne when it is in the greene blade Hee waiteth saith the Apostle for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience Iam. 5.7 Now the Prophet assureth us that Light that is comfort refreshment peace deliverance is sowne for the righteous Psal. 97.11 It was sowen for the people of God when they were in captivity though to themselves they seemed as dead men in their graves yet indeed they were dead but as seed in the furrowes which revived againe Psal. 126.5 6. and therefore the Lord likewise like Saint Iames his husbandman is said to wait that he may be gracious to his people Esay 30.18 Though a man suffer never so much injury and be most violently kept out of his owne right yet he must wait till time and mature proceedings have brought on his matters to a triall therefore the Lord calleth it The yeare of recompences for the controversies of Sion Esay 34.8 It is not for private men to order the periods or stints or revolutions of times wherein businesses are to be tried but publike authoritie constitutes that and every man must wait for the appointed time so the Church must not set God the times when it would bee heard or eased but must trust his wisedome and power Ier. 49.19 for there is a set time wherein he will have mercy upon Sion Psal. 102.13 Now this Time is ruled and bounded by these considerations First when the sinne of the enemie is growen ripe and his heart proud and insolent against God and his people when he trampleth upon the poore when he sacrificeth to his owne net when he adoreth his owne counsels when he deifieth his owne condition and thinketh that none can pull him downe then is it a time for God to shew himselfe and to stir up his glory It is time saith David for thee O Lord to worke for they have made void thy Law Psal. 119.126 So outragious they are that their fury runneth over from thy servants to thine ordinances to blot out the very records of heaven the name and feare of God out of the earth And this reason and period of time wee finde frequently in the Scriptures given In the fourth generation they shall come hither againe for the iniquitie of the Amorites is not yet full Gen. 15.16 It is not growen to that ripenesse and compasse as I in my wise secret and patient providence will permit O thou that dwellest upon many waters abundant in treasures saith the Lord to Babylon thine end is come and the measure of thy covetousnesse Ier. 51.13 when men have filled up the measure of their sinne then is their end come bee their wealth or safety or their naturall or acquired munition never so great Put you in the sickle saith the Prophet for the harvest is ripe come get you downe for the presse is full the fats over-flow for the wickednesse is great Ioel 3.13 When wickednesse is so great that it filleth all the vessels then is the Lord ready to put in his sickle and to cut it downe It is further demanded when sinne is full To this I answer that there are three things principally which set forth the fulnesse of sinne Vniversality Impudence and Obstinacy First when a whole Land is filled with it that there are none to intercede or to stand in the gap when from Streets to Palaces from Houses to Courts from Schooles to Churches from every corner sinne breaketh forth so that bloud toucheth bloud The Land is full of adulterers saith the Prophet because of swearers the Land mourneth for both Priest and Prophet are profane yea in my house have I found their wickednesse saith the Lord Ier. 23.10 11. when in every place and at every view there are new and more abominations Ezek. 8.17 Ier. 5 1-6 Secondly when sinne is impudent whorish and outragious when there is no feare modesty or restraint but it breaketh all bonds and like a raging sea overrunneth the bankes They declare their sinne as Sodome saith the Prophet and hide it not woe unto their soules Esay 3.9 it is so full that it breakes out into their countenance hypocrisie it selfe is too narrow to cover it This is that which the Apostle calleth An excesse of riot and the Prophet a rushing like an horse into the battell Now when God thus gives a man over sinne will not be long a filling up when lusts breake forth and throng together when from concupiscence sinne goes on to conception and delight to formation and contrivance to birth and execution to education and custome to maintenances and defence to glory and boasting to insensibilitie hardnesse and a reprobate sense then there is such a fulnesse in sinne as is neere unto cursing the very next step is hell Lastly when sinne holds out in stubbornenesse and is incorrigible when the remedy is refused the pardon rejected the peace not accepted Then is sinne come to its fulnesse The sinne of the Amorites was never quite full but when they rejected that peace mercy and subjection to Gods people which was offered them first But when men sinne against those meanes of grace which are sent unto them and leave no remedie to themselves no marvell if the Lord give them over and let in the enemie upon them 2 Chron. 36.16 Therefore we must take heed of finishing sinne for it is not sin but the consummation and finishing of sinne which condemnes a man Now when thus the sinne of the enemie is growne so ripe that it breaketh forth into pride and insultation against Gods people then is the Lords time to shew himselfe I will restore health unto thee saith the Lord to his Church and I will heale thee of thy wounds because