all manner of riches This affection towards Gods Word David expresseth psal 119. 14 15 16 24. 47. 72. 111. 127. 143. 162. We must give our selves to prayer as devoted thereunto Psal. 109. 4. taking delight to conferre with God in prayer and offering up our prayers and thanksgivings as a willing sacrifice Psal. 119. 108. We must praise God with joyfulness and give thanks with chearfulness Psal. 9. 2. 95 2. 95. 1. 2. 63. 5. for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is thanks cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reâ—oyce so it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with joy Phil. 1. 3. 4. we must esteeme it a blessed thing wherein we resemble the blessed Saints and Angels in heaven Psal 84 4. We must call the Sabbath our delight Esay 58. 13 And we must esteeme one day spent in the house of God as better then a thousand Psal. 84. 10. Psal. 26. 8. 27. 4. 84. 1 2 3 4. 10. The duties of charity are also cheerfully to be performed Rom. 12 8. he that sheweth mercy let him doe it with cheerfulnesse drawing forth his soule to the hungry and afflicted Esay 58 10. id est ex animo liberaliter hilariterque communicans ejus necessitatibus For the Lord loveth a cheerfull giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. Finally in doing the will of God wee are to imitate the holy Angels according to our daily prayer that we may doe the will of God upon earth as it is done in heaven that is willingly readily cheerfully following also the example of all examples our blessed Saviour whose delight it was Psal. 40. 8. and whose meat it was to doe the will of his heavenly father John 4. 34. As for that obedience or service which is extorted from men by servile feare because it is forced it is but momentany For no violent thing is of continuance and being momeâ—tany it is but counterfeit whereas true piety is constant and permanent Such is the obedience and repentance of hypocrites who when they are affrighted with Gods judgements or afflicted with his heavie hand pretend repentance and promise amendment but when the hand of God is removed from them they returne to their former courses and are so farre from learning obedience by that which they have suffered or feared that like anviles with often striking they are more and more hardned according to that Esay 1. 5. why should you be shricken any more you will adde revolt A notable example hereof we have in Pharaoh who as upon the inflicting of the severall judgements promised obedience Exod. 8. 8. 25. 9. 27. 10. 16. 12. 31. so upon the removing of the plagues he returned to his former obstinacy Exod. 8. 15. 32. 9. 34. 10. 20. 14. 5. Yea in the Israelites themselves who when God slew some of them they sought him and they returned and enquired early after GOD c. Nevertheles they did but flatter him with their mouth and with their tongues they lied unto him for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant Psal. 78 34 36 37. This therefore ought to teach men not to put off their repentance to the time of sicknesse or old age or to the houre of death lest the repentance which then they hope to performe prove counterfeit Now that our obedience may be voluntary and cheerfull and our service of God without servile feare we are to be adorned with the three Theologicall Vertues Faith Hope and Charity for according to the measure of these three graces in the measure of our spirituall security and assurance which is the ground of our cheerfulness Faith for no man can worship the Lord with a willing mind and cheerfull heart that is not by Faith perswaded that his service is accepted of him The perswasion of Gods love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is to say Faith maketh us to love him againe and in love to serve him willingly to whom much is forgiven they love much Luke 7. 47. That charity wherby the whole law is fulfilled proceedeth from Faith unfained 2 Tim. 1. 5. and without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Hope for they that have fastened their anchor of hope in Heaven performe the duties of piety and righteousness with a comfortable expectation of everlasting happiness The hope whereof maketh them easily to swallow all the difficulties and troubles of this life for the joy that is set before them and with cheerfulnes to serve the Lord and to finish their course with joy Act. 20. 24. whiles we hold fast this hope nothing shal be able to discourage or to with-draw us from the voluntary worshippe of GOD. Not the desires of this world which to him that hath this hope seeme meer vanities in comparison of the happines hoped for Not the terrours or bugg-beares of this world which are not worthy of the glory expected see Rom. 5. 2. 3. Consider the example of Moses who when hee was come to yeares refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of GOD then to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ in his members greater riches then the treasures of Egypt the reason of all which is this for he had respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 24 25 26. Charity 1 John 4. 18. which expelling fearfulness causeth cheerfulness To him that loveth the commandments of God are not grievous 1 Iohn 5. 3. nor the yoake of CHRIST tedious Nothing is hard to him that loveth Iacobs 7 years of hard service for the love of Rachel seemed to him but a few dayes Gen. 29. 20. The third use is a singular comfort which from hence ariseth to the Faithfull For whereas the Lord in other places when he would comfort his servants bideth them not to feare as Esay 43. 1. feare not for I have redeemed thee Luke 12. 32. feare not little flocke for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome Here in this covenant of grace he promiseth and that by oath that hee will give us to worship him without feare or at least without cause of feare so Esay 54. 4. which must needes be a singular consolation unto us whether we respect our condition by nature or by grace For by Nature we are obnoxious to our enemies subject to the terrour of the law and to the feare Heb. 2. 15. of death and damnation And though we be in the state of grace yet are we infirme and weake not able by our owne strength to resist our enemies The ground therefore of this our being without feare is not any confidence of our owne strength but first of all the truth of God Heb. 6. 17 18. who by oath hath promised that wee shall worship him without feare 2. Secondly the power of God whereby he is able to make good his promise 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Pet.
to those which are redeemed and justified by faith to give them grace to worship him in holyness and righteousness Secondly we note that our justification and sanctification are both the free gifts of God for it is he that redeemeth and justifieth and it is he also that sanctifieth which point needeth no proof seeing God 〈◊〉 swear they are both his gifts The use where of in a word is that both they which want these benefits being neither freed from the guilt of their sins nor purged from their corruptions may know where to seek themâ— also those that have them maybe thankful to God the giver of them which is the thing whereunto the holy Ghost by Zachary exciteth us in this Psalm Now this gift promised by Oath that I may come to the parts thereof is twofold our redemption or justification for to be redeemed is to have our sins remitted Ephes. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. and to have our sins remitted is to be justified and the fruit or end of our redemption which is our sanctification consisting in the faithful sincere and constant service of God in holyness and righteousness Of these I am to speak First joyntly of both together and then of either of them severally In the ioynt consideration we are to observe both the order and coniunction of them The order is plainly expressed by the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that being delivered from the hand of our enemies we should worship him c. For the meaning of the holy Ghost is that God would give us both that we should be redeemed and delivered from the hand of our enemies and also that we should worship him But to note the order he hath expressed the former part which is the benefit of redemption by the Participle that being delivered from the hand of our enemies we should worship him c. which teacheth us that before we can worship God aright we must be delivered from the bondage of our spiritual enemies and that for two reasons For first naturally we are the servants of sin and of Sathan Being servants of sin we are in two respects utterly disabied from serving God until we be delivered out of this bondage for first being servants of sin we are frâ—e from righteousness Rom. 6. 20. in respect of that privative corruption which is in us all derived from our first parents being a privation of all spiritual goodness Rom. 7. 18. not only in respect of the act but also in respect of the habite and power as blindness is of sight being a meer impotency to that which is spiritually good in so much that not only we do not think nor wil nor do that which is good but also we are not able thereunto Of our selves we cannot so much as think a good thought 2 Cor. 3. 5. The natural man doth not understand spiritual things neither can he understand them 1. Cor. 2. 14. Fulgentius De incarnat gratia 〈…〉 wel that Adam by his sin wholy lost the faculty of thinking those things which appertain to God and also of willing that which is good and much more of doing that which is good for wil may be present when performance is wanting Rom. 7. 18. But it is God that worketh in us both to wil and to do Phil 2. 13. Insomuch that the faithfull themselves if they think or 〈◊〉 or do any thing that is good may truly say every of them 1 Cor. 15. 10. not I but the grace of God which is with me For the carnal mind or the disposition of our corrupt nature is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be Rom. 8. 7. Augustine truly faith that man by his fall lost bonum passibilitatis and our Saviour professeth that without him or not being in him we can do nothing John 15. 5. Doth not the holy Ghost elsewhere teach the same when he affirmeth thaâ— we are naturally dead in fin Ephes. 2. 1. 5 And therefore as a dead man cannot perform the actions of the natural life no more can he that is dead in sin perform the actions of the life spiritual likewise when he calleth our recovery from sin sometimes the first resurrection whereby the soul which before was dead is Homo per peccatum facultatem 〈…〉 perdidit bona voluntatis it raysed as it were from the grave of sinne sometimes regeneration whereby we being before dead are quickened and begotten a new unto God Sometimes new creation by which we are made new creatures created unto good works For as the first creation was a motion from nothing to those things which are so the new creation is a motion from our not being of grace and spiritual goodness to a being thereof which serveth notably to confuâ—e the erroneous conceipts of the patrons of freewil the Pelagians Papists Arminians and our new Anabaptists Secondly being servants of sin sin raigneth in us as a Iyrant without resistance imposing upon us a necessity of sinning In respect whereof it may truly be said that naturally we do nothing but sin neither can we do otherwise but sin Our free-wil by nature having as Augustine saith no hability but to sin For as the same Augustine saith 〈…〉 The frame of a mans thoughts and imaginations which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evil and only evil and that 〈◊〉 Gen. 6. 5. 8. 21. and therefore of the 〈…〉 Apostle affirmeth Rom. 8. 7. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not an 〈…〉 also enmity against God And for the 〈◊〉 cause our Saviour when Peter 〈…〉 counsel called him Sathan 〈…〉 why he so called him was 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is mind and affect the things which are of men Mat. 16. 23. And S 〈◊〉 affirmeth that that wisdom which is 〈◊〉 and carnal is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iam. 3. 15. As therefore it was wel said of Augustine De natura gratiae contra Pelag that man by his fall did lose 〈◊〉 possibilitatis so as truly he did deny that he retaineth possibilitatem non peccandi And this 〈◊〉 the estate of all men in their pure 〈◊〉 which the Philosophers do magnifie as good and the Papists qualifie as not evil In regard whereof notwithstanding we may truly be said besides the guiltiness of Adams heynous transgression to have but two faults the one that there is in us no goodness spirituall nor possibility of our selves but a meer impotency to that which is good The other that there is us naturally an evill disposition and 〈◊〉 into all mâ—â—â—er of sâ—â— which doth so domâ—â—â—â—r in us that it imposeth a necessity of sinning so that by nature as we do no good neither can we think or wil or do that which is good so do we nothing but sin neither can we do any thing but sin And as we are naturally the servants of sin so by sin we are also the serof the devil who is the
us to return unto him by unfained repentance as himself exhorteth Esay 44 22. These things saith Saint Iohn I write unto you that you sin not but if any man do sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Ioh. 2. 1 2. 3. Seeing our Saviour hath redeemed and bought us with so great a price therefore we ought to acknowledg him to be our Lord in the right of Redemption and our selves not to be our own men but his servants For therefore Christ died and rose again to life that he might be the Lord both of the quick and of the dead Rom. 14. 9. And if we acknowledg him to be our Lord we must be carefull to do his will otherwise in vaine do we call him so Why do you call me Lord and do not the things that I command you Luke 6. 46. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shal enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Mat. 7. 22. Again being bought with a price we are not our own men but his that bought us and therefore ought not to seek our selves or the satisfying of our own lusts but to glorifie God both in our bodies and in our spirit which are not ours but Gods 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. That body is not thine to spend in sin but is to be offered unto God as an holy and acceptable sacrifice That tongue is not thine own as the wicked say of theirs Psal. 12. 4. to use or rather abuse at thy pleasure but to be used to the glory of God That heart is not thine to be addicted to worldly vanities but to be given to God In a word Christ died for al that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 4. 15. 4. Seeing Christ hath given himself for us to fâ—ee us from our enemies let us stand fast in that liberty which Christ at so deâ—r a price purchased for us and not suffer our selves to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage Gal. 5. 1. For what can be either more dishonorable to out Redeemer then that we should revolt froÌ„ him to serve sin Satan or more pernicious to our selves for then our latter end should be worse then our beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Remember the Israelites who being redeemed out of Aegypt for desiring to return perished in the wilderness Remember Lots wife Luk. 17. 32. who being delivered out of Sodom for looking back was turned into a pillar of salt The which I speak not as though I thought that a man who is once truly justified redeemed can either totally or finally fall away from saving grace but to admonish those who think they stand to take heed they do not fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. For if any professing himself to be redeemed shall fall away his example will not prove that a man may fall from saving grace but his falling away will evidently prove that he was never in the state of grace 1 Ioh. 2. 19. 〈◊〉 5. For as much as Christ our 〈◊〉 is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 8. we should purge out the old leaven and keep a perpâ—â—â—all feast of unleavened bread signified by the 〈◊〉 days of that feast not with the 〈◊〉 hypocrisie nor with the old leaven of naughtinesse but with the unleâ—vened graces of sincerity and truth but especially when we celebrate the memory of our redemption 〈◊〉 the Lords day or in any of our Lords Feasts or at the celebrating of the holy 〈◊〉 which is the antitype to the Passeover 6. Lastly we are to be hearâ—dy thankfull unto God for this 〈◊〉 benefit wherby we being 〈◊〉 lost by sin and therefore in our selves worse then nothing for better were it not to be then being lost not to be redeemed are restored to a betten estate then we lost in Adam And this our thankfulness we are to expresse partly by thanksgiving whereunto we are excited in this Psalme 〈…〉 CHAP. VI. The fruits and end of our redemption viz. the true worship of God in holinesse and righteousnesse 〈…〉 we shall abuse this great benefit of Redemption if we have not respect to the end thereof which is our sanctification For else what can be the cause of such dissolute living as is every where to be seen among those who professe themselves redeemed by Christ but a foolish opinion that Christ having freed them from their sins they may sin the more freely and that he having dyed for their sins they need not to die to them and so abuse the grace of God unto wantonnesse Iude 4. For if our sanctification be the end of our redemption then do we abuse this great benefit of God if we do not refer it to this end yea rather we deceive and abuse our selves with a vain opinion of our redemption For if this be the end of our redemption then those that live in sin as the servants of sin either are not redeemed for whom Christ the Son maketh free they are free indeed or else they are redeemed in vain for that is in vain which is frustrate of the end Now that sanctification is the end of our redemption it may be proved by the testimonies of holy Scripture and also by sound reasons drawn from thence Tit. 2. 14. Christ hath given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and that he might purifie or sanctifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse in with the washing of water by thâ— Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or anysâ—ch thâ—ng but that it should be hâ—ly and without blemish Col. 1. 21 22. You that were enemies Christ hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable in his sight 1 Pet. 2. 24. Christ himself bare out sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness The reason is evident For that which is the end of all Gods blessings in this life both spiritual and temporal must needs be the end of our Redemption But our sanctification is the end of all Gods blessings in this life 1 Thes. 4. 3. This is the will of God even your sanctification this is that which God willeth and intendeth in bestowing his benefits upon us He hath elected us that we might be holy Ephes. 1. 4. he created us after his own Image that we might worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse Eph. 4. 24. he hath called us to holinesse 1 Thess. 4. 7. and we are called to be Saints or Saints by calling Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 1. 2. he doth regenerate us to the same end For we are the workmanship