Christo Calvin in loc He looks upon such as serve him in sincerity as upon sons and daughters 2. That he will surely shew like mercies and mildnesse to his children in their faults and failings in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serveth him For the former point The promise of pardon is here fitly made sub patris parabola saith Gualther under the similitude of a father Figuier in loc And the sense is thus much saith another Interpreter although I seem for a time to the blinde moles of the world to be negligent of those that are diligent about me of my best and busiest servants yet I think upon them still as my dearest children and when I may be thought most carelesse and cruel towards them then am I a most propitious and sin-pardoning father fully reconciled unto them in Christ for there comes in the kinred according to that of our Saviour in his message by Mary to his distressed disciples after his resurrection I ascend unto your father Iohn 20.17 and my father mine and yours and therefore yours because mine For as many as received him saith St. Iohn to them he gave priviledge to become the sons of God Ioh. 1.12 And again when the fulnesse of time was come saith another Apostle God sent forth his son his natural onely begotten son made of a woman and so by personal union of the two natures in one Christ his son by a new relation Gal. 4.4 according to that This day have I begotten thee and all to the end that we may receive the adoption of sons That we which by nature were children of wrath and by practise children of the devil might by divine acceptation and grace be made the children of God who had predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Ephe. 1.4 5. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved One. SECT I. Reasons hereof drawn from the causes IN which heavenly Text Reas 1 we have the first and chief ground of this doctrine drawn from the causes of our spiritual sonship 1. The fundamental and original cause Gods decree of election by grace we have an act for it in Gods eternal counsel According as he hath chosen us in Christ before the soundation of the world c. For which cause also the predestinate are called the Church of the first-born who are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 And whom he did foreknow saith Saint Paul them he did predestinate also to be conformed to the image of his son like him in glory as well as in sufferings like in being sons as he is a son that he might be even according to his humanity the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 2. The meritorious and procuring or working cause of our adoption is here set forth to be the Lord Christ in whom he as a father hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephe. 1.3 but all in Christ and all in this order A christian by the Gospel is made a beleever Now faith afteran unspeakable manner engrafteth him into the body of Christ the natural son and hence we become the adopted sons of God it being the property of faith to adopt as well as to justifie ratione objecti by means of the object Christ up whom faith layeth hold For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26 Children I say not by creation as Adam is called the son of God Luk. 3. because he was produced in the similitude of God but by marriage and mystical union with Christ the fecond Adam the heir of all who hath 1. Laid down the price of that great priviledge Heb. 9.15 even his own most precious blood redeeming us thereby that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons Gal. 45. 2. He hath sealed it up to us by his spirit that earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 called therefore the spirit of adoption and the spirit of Gods son as springing out of his death Rom. 8.15 Joh. 16.14 Gal 4.6 and procured by his intercession For because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba father 3. Here is the motive and impulsive cause and that is the good pleasure of his will Joh. 1.12 1 John 3.1 2 Tim. 1. vlt. his absolute independent grace and mercy was the sole inductive He giveth us this dignity saith St Iohn in his Gospel And what more free then gift he sheweth us this love saith he in his epistle because it was the time of love that we should be called the sons of God So that our Adoption is not a priviledge purchased by contract of justice Rom. 8.23 Prov. 16.4 but an inheritance cast upon us of free grace and goodnesse The Lord shew mercy to Onesiphorus in that day when our adoption shal be crowned with its ful accomplishment Lastly here we have the final cause of our adoption â—heprâ—â—ise of the glory of his grace This is the end God propounds to himself in this as in all other his works as having none higher then himself to whom to have respect for he is the most highest God hath made all things for himself yea the wicked also for the day of evil viz. for the glory of his Justice and power as he told Pharaoh Rom. 9.17 but especially of his grace sith all that his justice doth in the Reprobation of some tendeth to this ultimate end of all that the riches of his grace may be the more displayed in the election of others SECT II. Reasons from the effects of his father-hood A Second reason followeth from the effects and those are no lesse demonstrative of the point then the causes Reas 2 These are 1. Gods fatherly affections 2. His expressions both which speake him a father to all his For his affection first to his people Albeit they be but his Adopted children yet he loves them more then any naturall father doth his own bowels Jam. 1. ult Hence he is called the father by an eminency as if there were no father to him none like him none besides him as indeed there is not originally and properly Called he is the father of all mercies Eph. 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paternitas paerentela Math. 23.9 the fountaine of all that mercy that is found in any father all is but a spark of his flame a drop of his ocean Yea he is stiled the father of all the fatherhoods in heaven and earth Whence also our Saviour Call no man saith He your father on earth for one is your father even God To enter comparison in some few particulars First a father loves freely not so much for that his child is witty or wealthy Patriam amat quisque nonquia
seasonable and sweet as when misery weighs down and nothing but mercy turns the scale therefore Judah shall have mercy when Israel shall have none True it is that Judah was not at this time much better then Israel Aholibah then Aholah they were scarce free from Sodomy and many such like foul abominations But what of that if God come with a non obstante as Psal 106.8 Neverthelesse he saved them for his names sake c. who shall gainstand him If he will shew mercy for his names sake what people is there so wicked whom he may not save See Esay 57.47 Ezek. 20.8.14.22.44 Add hereunto that Israel and Syria were confederate against Judah thought to have made but a breakfast of them Isay 7.5 c. but God here promiseth Judah mercy and lets them know to their comfort that there is more mercy for them in heaven then there can be misery in earth or malice in hell against them True it is that even after this gratious promise made to Judah it went very hard with them See 2. Chron. 28.6 there 120000. of them were slâ—in in one battle and 200000. of them carried captive yea and all this by these Israelites here rejected from that mercy that Judah is promised besides abundance more misery that befell them by Edomites Ver. 17. Philistines 18. Assyrians 20. c. Ecclesia hares Crucis saith Luther The Church as she is heire of the promises so is she of the Cross and the promises are alwayes to be understood with condition of the cross The palsy-man in the Gospel healed by our Saviour heard Son be of good cheere thy sins are forgiven thee and yet he was not presently free'd of his disease till after a dispute held with the Pharises which must needs take up some time and the case cleared Jesus said Arise take up thy bed and walk and so shew thy self a sound man But to go on Judah shall be saved and not Israel that envied Judah and maliciously sought their ruine David looketh upon it as a sweet mercy that God had spred him a table in the presence and maugre the malice of his enemies Psal 23.4 Mat. 8.11 And the children of the kingdome so the Jewes are called shall gnash their teeth and be even ready to eat their nailes at the reception of the Gentiles This was it that put the men of Nazareth into an anger and our Saviour into a danger Luk. 4.25.26 By the Lord their God that i by the Lord Christ by Messiah their Prince by the word of the Lord their God saith the Chaldee here that word essentiall John 1.1 that true Zaphnath Paaneach that is Saviour of the world as Hierome interprets it whereof Joseph was but a type This horn of salvation or mighty Saviour able to save them to the uâ—â—ost that come unto God by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.25 God raised up for there unworthy Jews and even thrust him upon them whether they would or no Isay 7.13.14 that all might appear to be of free grace Well might God say 〈◊〉 have mercy upon the house of Judah matchlesse mercy indeed mercy that rejoyced against judgement Mans perversness breaketh not off the course of Gods goodness Judah shall be saved by the Lord their God who is Alius from his Father but not Alâ—â— a distinct person not a distinct thing This Angel of Gods presence saved them in hâ— love and in his pitty he redeemed them c. Isay 63.9 even the Angel that had redeemed their father Jacoh from all evill Gen. 48.16 and that soon after this prophesie destroyed so many thousands in Senacheribs army Not by bow ner by battle c. but by his own bare hand immediatly and miracul usly 2. King 19. where we may see that when Senacherib after the example of his father Salmaneser who had captivated the ten tribes came up against Judah having already devoured Jerusalem in his hopes and thinking to cut them off at a blow as if they had all had but one neck they were saved by Jehovah their God the Virgin daughter of Zion knew well the worth and valour of Christ her champion and that made her so confident Esay 37.22 She knew whom she had trusted not with her outward condition onely but with her inward and everlasting with her precious soul saying with David I am thine save me for I haue sought thy precepts Psal 119.94 I will not trust in my bow neither shall mine arme save me but thy right hand and thine arme Psal 44.3.5 and the light of thy countenance for thou hast a favour unto me See the Note on Zach. 4.6 and on 14.3.5 That 's an excellent passage Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Vers 9. Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah That is after that the patience of God had waited and long looked for their conversion but all in vaâ—ne he resolved upon their utter rejection And first he sent for his love tokens back againe Esa 66.11 he weanes them and takes them off from those breasts of consolation the holy Ordinances deprived them of those dugs better then wine Cant. 1 4. that they had despised carried them far away from that good land that abounded with milk and hony the men of the East should be sent in upon them to eat their fruit and drink their milk Ezek. 25.4 This nation saith a Divine is sick of a spirituall plurisie we begin to surfet on the bread of life the unadulterated milk of Gods word and to spill it Now when God seeth his mercies lying under table 't is just with him to call to the enemy to take away Say not here with those in the Gospell threatned with this judgment Luk. 20.16 God forbid Think it not a thing impossible that England should be thus visited The Sea is not so calme in summer but it may be troubled with a storme the mountain so fâ—me but may be moved with an earthquake We have seen as fair Suns as ours fall from the midst of heaven for our instance Lege historiam ne fias historia Surely except we repent and reforme a little better then we have done yet a removall of our Candlestick a totall eclipse of our Sun may be as certainly foreseen and foretold as if visions and letters were sent us from heaven as once to the seven Churches of Asia who sinned away their light c. And bare a sonne Not a daughter as before but a sonne because under Hosea the last King of Israel that Kingdom began a little to lift up the head and to stand it out against the Assyrian But this was but extremus nisus regni the last sprunting of that dying State For soon after Samaria the chief City was close besiegeâ— and although it held out three whole yeers with a Masculine resolution yet at length it was sacked and all the people of the land
to our Saviour that they were not the children of fornication for they had Abraham to their father Joh. 6.33 nay God to their father vers 41 But he as boldly telleth them that they a eâ—a bastardly brood yea a serpentine seed and that they were of their father the devil vers 44. And in another place as Serpents saith He ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell If mercy interpose not as the cold grave must one day hold your bodies so hot hell your souls But I will have no mercy upon her children for they are the children of fornications i.e. they are not onely misbegotten and illegitimate which though no fault of theirs yet is their reproach as hath been said in the Notes on the former chapter but they are children of fornications in an active sense too they have learned of their mother to fornicate they are as good at resisting the holy Ghost as ever their Fathers were Acts 7.51 they fill up the measure of their fathers fias that wrath may come upon them to the utmost Children as they derive from their parents a cursed birth blot which comes by propagation so they are very apt to fall into their vices by imitation and then they â—ue both their own and their parents iniquities Verse 5. For their mother hath plaid the harlot Being a wife of whoredoms chap. 1.2 see the Note there therefore I will not have mercy upon her children but will root out all her increase job 31.12 Either she shall commit whoredom and not increase Hos 4.10 Or if she do it is for mischief she shall bring forth children to the murtherer or at least she shall bequeath them a fearfull legacy of sin and punishment worse then that leprosie that Gehezi left to his posterity or that Joab lest to his 2 Sam. 3.29 lameness and gonorrhaea c. It is a dangerous thing to keep up the succession of a sin in the world and to propagate guilt from one generation to another it is a great provocation When the wickednesse of such is ripe in the field and they have filled up the measure of their fathers sins God will not let it shed to grow again but cuts it up by a just and seasonable vengeance Let parents therefore break off their sins and get into Gods favour if for nothing else yet for their poor childrens sake labouring to mend that by Education which they have marred by propagation and evil example And let children of wicked parents as they tender their own eternall good take Gods counsell Ezek 20. vers 18.30 Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers and commit ye whoredom after their abominations Oh walk ye not after the statutes of your fathers neither observe their judgements nor defile your selves with their idols True it is men are wonderous apt to dote upon their fathers doings and are hardly drawn off from their vain conversation by received tradition from their ancestors 1 Pet. 1.18 A boâ—e majori discit arare minor Ovid. Prescription is held Authoritie sufficient Me ex ea opinione quam à majoribus accepi de cultu deorum nullius unquam movebit oratio â—ic saith Tully No man shall ever disswade me from that way of divine worship that my forefathers lived and died in It is reported of a certain Monarch of Morocco that having read Saint Pauls Epistles he liked them so well that he professed that were he then to chuse his Religion he would before any other embrace Christianity But every one ought Heyl. Geog. pag. 714. said he to die in his own Religion and the leaving of the faith wherein he was born was the onely thing that he disliked in that Apostle Thus He. Sed teto erravit caelo Antiquity must have no more Authority then what it can maintain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mine Antiquity said Ignatius is Christ Jesus who said not to the young man Do as thy forefathers but Follow thou me She that conceived them hath done shamefully She hath utterly shamed her self and all her friends husband children all The woman is or should be the glory of the man Solomons good huswife was she Prov. 31.28 29. Her children rise up and call her blessed her husband also and he praiseth her saying Many daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Alphonsus King of Arragon was once resolved never to commend his wife lest he should be accounted immodest or uxorious but afterwards he changed his mind Val Max. Chri. 73. and was so taken with his wives vertues and constancy that he resolved to praise her quocunq in trivio cuique obvio sine modo et modestia in all places and companies c. So did Budaeus Pareus and others Plin. Tacit. utinam aut coelebs vixissem aut orbusperirssem Prov. 14.34 Deut. 28. Jer. 25.9 Ezek. 5.15 but a wicked wife an harlot especially puts her husband to the blush and is a great heart-break as Livia was to Augustus Eudemus was both her Physician and her stallion his children also proved start naught which made him wish that either he had lived a Batchelour or died childlesse Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a shame to any people It is the snuff that dimmeth their candlestick the leaven that sowreth their Passeover the reproach that rendreth them a proverb and a by-word an astonishment and an hissing a taunt and a talk to other countries Such was Israels Apostasie Idolatry their subjecting Religion to carnal policy in setting up the two calves and Baalim when Ephraim spake there was trembling and then he exalted himself in Israel but when he offended in Baal he died Hos 13.1 Whilst he kept close to God who but Ephraim None durst quack but all quaked at the name of Ephraim he was on high and much honoured But when he declined to Idolatry he became contemptible and every paltry adversary cast dirt in his face and crowed over him So true is that of Solomon The wise shall inherit glory Prov. 3.35 but shame shall be the promotion of fools What a victorious Prince was Henry the fourth of France till he for politike respects turned Papist Till then he was Bonus Orbi but after that Orbus Boni as the wits of the time played upon his name Borbonius Life of Phil. de Mornay by way of Anagram Once he was before his revolt perswaded by Du-Plessy to do publike pennance for having abused the daughter of a certain Gentleman in Rochel by whom he had a son Hereunto he was drawn with some difficulty being read to fight a battle and this was no disgrace to him But when by compliance at least he became an Idolater for lucre of a crown and love of life he became a vile person as Antiochus is called Dan. 11.21 and was worthily lashed with rods by the Pope in the person of his Embassadours and butchered by the instigation of those Jesuites whom
12.1 yet was not smitten with leprosy as she for the honour of the Priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys lest such a foule disease on his person should redound to the disgrace of his office But I rather think he escaped by his true and timely repentance whereby he disarmed Gods indignation and redeemed his own sorrow and shame For God is an impartiall judge neither is there with him respect of persons Priest and people shall all be carried captive one with another the priests for the people according to that of Esay I am a man of poullted lips for why I live among a people of polluted lips and have learned their language Esay 6. and especially the people for the priests Jer. 23.10.14.15 from the prophets there goes profanenesse quite through the land so they shall fare the worse one for another they shall all be involved in the same punishment Onely it shall be more grievous to the priest by how much higher thoughts he had of himself looking on the people as his underlings as they did Joh. 7.49 and I will punish them for their wayes Heb. visit them So Exod. 32.34 In the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them God hath his visitation-dayes wherein to visit those visitours the priests and his articles will be as strict and as criticall saith one as ever was the inquisition of Spain or Lambeth It was therefore good counsel that a Martyr gave his wife in a letter Among all other prisoners visit your own soul and set all to rights there for else what will you do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what will you answer him Job 31 14â— And that which Tertullian gave Scapula a Pagan persecutor Si nobis non parcis tibi parce si non tibi Carthagini God will surely make inquisition for our blood therefore if thou wilt not spare us yet spare thy self if not thy self yet spare thy countrey which must be responsible when God comes to visit and reward them for their deed Heb. I will make to return your doings Hence this is well observed by a good interpreter Sin passeth away in the act of it with much sweetnesse but God will make it return back againe in the guilt of it with much bitternesse Verse 10. For they shall eat and not have enough Onely they shall be filled with their own wayes Prov. 14.14 but that is but to feed upon the wind with Ephraim Hos 12.1 which breedeth nothing but troublesome belching or a doglike appetite as they call it that cannot be satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appetitus caninus These greedy dogs the Priests that did eat up the sins of Gods people and thought to have full gorged themselves therewith they met with that sore plague of unsatisfiablenesse for the present a man may assoon fill a chest with wind as a soul with wealth See Eccles 5.10 Non plus satiatur cor auro quam corpus cura Ang. with the note and for the future they coveted an evill covetousnesse to themselves for they gat Gods curse along with their evill gotten goods which will bring them to a morsel of bread they have not onely suckt in the ayre but pestilentiall ayre that not onely not fills them but kills them too See the note on Hagg. 1.6 they shall commit whordome and shall not increase The Chaldee renders it They shall take wives but shall not beget sons Aristot. Sol homo generant hominem saith the Philosopher but unlesse God the first agent concurr that cannot be neither Loe Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psal 1â—7 3 saith David to his son Solomon who found it true by experience for by all his wives and concubines no lesse then a thousand he had but one son that wee read of and he was none of the wisest nothing like Edward the sixt whom alone Henry the eight left with his two sisters to succeed him though he had so many wives and concubines Wantonnesse is a sin commonly punished with want of posterity especially when it is accompanied with obstinacy in evill courses as in Ahab who to crosse Gods threat of rooting out him and his posterity took many wives 2 King 10.1 and so bestir'd him that he begat of them seventy sons but with evill successe for they were all cut off in one day Wicked men must not think to carry it against God and to have their wils al disputo di Dio as that prophane Pope said and as that gracelesse Ahaziah who sent a third captaine after that the former two had been consumed with fire as if he would despitfully spit in the face of heaven and wrestle a fall with the almighty Let no man expect to prosper in unlawfull practises to encrease by whoredome as these profane priests sought to do that they might be full of children any how and leave the rest of their substance to their babes Psal 17.14 But fertility is not from the meanes right or wrong but from the Authour many a poore man hath a house-full of children by one wife whilest Solomon hath but one son by many house-fuls of wives and Job could tell that whoredome is a fire that consumeth to destruction and would root out all his increase Chap. 31.12 because they have left off to take heed to the Lord God is not bound to render a reason of his proceedings yet doth it oft as here that he may be justified and every mouth stopped Their Apostasy is here shew'd to be the cause of their calamity Time was when they took some heed to God and his wayes they kept close to him and observed his commandements to do them as the word here importeth but now they had left off to be wise and to do good Psal 36.3 untill their iniquity was found to be hatefull and themselves altogether filthy Psal 53.3 wicked doers against the covenant Dan 11.30.32 Apostates cannot chuse unto themselves a worse condition 2 Pet. 2.20.22 Mat. 12.43.45 Job 9.4 let them look to it Hath ever any waxed fierce against God and prospered even of late my people is risen up against me as an enemy Mic. 2.8 but what will they do in the end thereof Verse 11. Whoredome and wine and new wine have taken away the heart i. e. have robbed my people of themselves and laid a beast in their roome Any lust allowed and wallowed in will eate out the heart of grace and at length all grace out of the heart Hence temporizers grow in time so saplesse heatelesse and heartlesse to any good some unmortified lust or other there is that as a worme lieth grubbing at the root and makes all to wither that like a drone in a hive proves a great waster that as a moth in fine cloth consumes all or as the light of the Sun puts out the light of the fire so here But above all
the better lift up their hearts and eyes to heaven saying as it were to all worldly cares and cogitations as Abraham did to his servants whom he left at the foot of the hill Gen. 22.5 Abide you here with the Asse Hierom upon this place hath this Note Israel saith he loveth high places for they have forsaken the high God and they love the shadow having left the substance But what could be more absurd then to think as they did that God who is omnipresent was neerer to them on hills and high places and further off them in vallyes See Esay 57.7 Ezek. 6.13 This they had partly also learned of the heathens from whom neverthelesse God had shut them up as it were in an Island so their land is called that having little commerce with them Esay 20.6 they might not learn their manners But our nature is very catching this way and doth as easily draw and suck Idolatry to it as the loadstone doth iron or Turpentine fire under oaks and Poplars and Elmes because the shadow thereof is good So they proceed from one evill to another for sin is infinite and when a man is fal'n down one round of Hels ladder he knowes not where he shall stop or how he shall step back These Idolaters as they had their high places in imitation of the Patriarks so their groves of shady trees consecrated to their Idols to strike reverence into their hearts as they conceited and for the greater solemnity Sin comes commonly clothed with a shew of reason Exod. 1.10 Come let us deale wisely say they yet every oppressour is a fool Prov. 28.16 It will so bleare the understanding that a man shall think he hath reason to be mad and that there is some sence in sinning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But especially will-worship hath a shew of wisdome Colos 2. ult or the reason of wisdome as the word there signifieth the very quintessence of it Hence the Papists write Rationals whole volumes of reason for their rites and ceremonies in Divine service the shadow is good say these therefore we get under trees And Iohn Hunt See Dr. Sheldons mark of the beast serm a blasphemous Papist in his humble Appendix to King Iames Chap. 6. was not afraid to say That the God of the Protestants is the most uncivil and evil-mannered God of all those who have borne the name of Gods upon the earth yea worse then Pan God of the Clowns which can endure no ceremonies nor good manners at all O tongue worthy to be pulled out cut in gobbets and driven down the throat of this hideous blasphemer for he could not but know the God of the Protestants as he scornfully termeth him to be the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Did not Rabshakeh rail after this rate upon good Hezekiah for taking down the high-places and Altars of God as he called them which yet God well approved of 2 King 18.22 Mr. Boroughs maketh mention of a Lady in Paris who when she saw the bravery of a Procession to a Saint shee cried out Oh how fine is our religion beyond that of the Huguenots They have a mean and beggerly religion but ours is full of solemnity and bravery c. The Catholikes in their Supplication to King Iames for a Toleration plead that their religion is inter caetera so pleasing to nature and so sutable to sense and reason that it must therefore needs be the right A proper Argument surely and not all out so convincing as that of Cenalis Bishop of Auranches who writing against the Christian Congregation at Paris and basely slandering their meetings as if they were to maintain whoredome Act. Mon. will in conclusion needfully prove if he could the Catholikes to be the true Church because they had bells to call them together but the Huguenots had claps of Harquebuzes or Pistolets for that purpose Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredome Impunè they shall do it and for a punishment of your Idolatry and in asmuch as you have prostituted your souls that is my spouse to the devil your houses shall be whorehouses to your utter disgrace and heart-break Certain it is that where there is most Idolatry there is most adultery as at Rome which is nothing else but a great brothel-house and hath fully made good that of the Poet Roma quod inverso delectaretur amore Nomen ab inverso nomine fecit Amor. Thus God punished the idolatrous Ethnikes by delivering them up to passions of dishonour or vile affections to Sodomitical practises which did abase them below those four-footed beasts which they adored Rom. 1.23 24 c. Some put off all manhood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became dogs worse then dogs scalded in their own grease verse 27. and this is there called a meet recompense such as God here threatneth Mr. Levely a very learned Interpreter thinketh that when God saith here your daughters shall commit whoredome and your daughters in law for so he renders it shall commit adultery he meaneth it not of voluntary whoredome but of that which is forced according to that of Amos to Amaziah Chap. 7.17 Therefore thus saith the Lord the wife shall be an harlot in the City and they sonnes and daughters shall fâ—ll by the sword c. that is thy wife shall be ravished by the enemy Theodoret also is of the same judgement Verse 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome q. d. I will not once foul my fingers with them or be at pains to correct them but they shall take their swinge in sin for me c. Origen in a certain Homily quoting this Scripture Hom. 8. in Exod. 20. saith Vis indignantis Dei terribilem vocem audire c. Will you hear the terrible voice of a provoked God hear it here I will not punish c. You shall be without chastisement for an argument that you are bastards and not sons Never was Jerusalems condition so desperate as when God said unto her My fury shall depart from thee I will be quiet and no more angry Ezek. 16.42 Feri Domine seri cried Luther Strike Lord strike and spare not Ferre minora volo nè graeviora feram There is not a greater plague can befall a man then to prosper in sinfull practises Bernard calleth it misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem a killing courtesie Ezek. 3.20 I will lay a stumbling-block before him that is saith Vatablus I will prosper him in all things and not by affliction restrain him from sin Job surely counts it for a great favour to sorry man Job 7.17 18. that God accompts him worth melting though it be every morning and trying though it be every moment And Ieremy calleth for correction as a thing that he could not well be without Correct me O Lord c. For themselves are separated with whores Rivet God seemeth to speak this to others by change of person
tremend employment my call thereto was extraordinary The Prophets scholars were called their sons 2 King 2.3 5 7 15. Esa 8.18 Mar. 10.24 1 Cor. 4.14 17. but I was an heardman and a gatherer of Sicomore fruit Of meane condition and hardly bred so that I could live with a little and needed not to turn Prophet ventris causâ for food sake When one said to the Philosopher If you will but please Dionysius you need not feed upon green herbs he presently replied And if you can feed upon green herbes Melch. Adam you need not please Dionysius Nature is content with a little grace with lesse It is not for a servant of God to be a slave to his palate Luther made many a meale of a herring Verse 15. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock As he took Elisha from the plow-taile the Apostles from casting and mending their nets c. Asinos elegit Christus idiotas sed â—culdvit in prudentes simulque dona dedit ministeria he called them to the office and withall he gifted them He called also learned Nathaneel and Nicodemus a Master in Israel lest if he had called none but such as were simple saith Ioh. de Turrecremata it should have been thought they had been deceived through their simplicity But it is Gods way to chuse the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.27 28 29. and the Lord said unto me He often inculcates the Name of the Lord to shew that there was a necessity of his prophesying for who can safely disobey such a commander See chap. 3.8 Aut faciendum aut patiendum The Philosopher could tell the Emperour who challenged him to dispute that there was no contesting with Him that had twenty Legions at his command Go prophesie unto my people Israel Keep within my precincts and thou shalt bee sure of my protection be true to thy trust and I will see to thy safety If thou have not fine manchet as Bucer said to Bradford encouraging him to bestow his talent in preaching yet give the poor people barley-bread or what ever else the Lord hath committed unto thee Having therefore such a call from heaven to this work Act. Mon. 1454. with what face canst thou hinder me therein with what countenance will ye appear before the judgement-seat of Christ said Dr. Taylour Martyr to Stephen Gardiner Lord Chancellour who had thus saluted him Art thou come thou villain how darest thou look me in the face for shame knowest thou not who I am c How dare ye for shame look any Christian man in the face seeing you have forsaken the truth denied our Saviour Christ and his word Ibid. 1387. and done contrary to your own oath and writing And if I should be afraid of your Lordly looks why fear you not God the Lord of us all who hath sent us on his errand which we must deliver and truth be spoken however it be taken 1 Cor. 9.16 Verse 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord Hear thou despiser and wonder and perish for I work a work in thy dayes a work which thou wilt in no wise beleeve though a man declare it unto thee Acts 13.41 But whether thou wilt hear or forbear beleeve or otherwise thy doom is determined and shall bee pronounced Hear therefore and give ear be not proud Ezek. 3.27 for the Lord hath spoken it Oh that thou wouldst give glory to the Lord and confesse thy sinne Oh that thou wouldst submit to Divine justice implore his mercy Jer. 13.15 16. and putting thy mouth in the dust say as once that good man did Veniat veniat verbum Domini Melc Ad. submittemus ei sexcenta si nobis essent eolla Let the Lord speak for his servant heareth But because there is little hopes of that stand forth and hear thy sentence and the evil that shall befall thee as sure as the coat is on thy back or the heart in thy body For hath the Lord spoken and shall he not do it Thou sayest prophesie not By a bold countermand to that of God in the former vers Go prophesie c. But wee to him that striveth with his maker Esay 45.9 let the potsherd strive with the pâ—tsherds of the earth let men meddle with their matches Eccles 6.10 and not with him that is mightier then they and drop not thy word which is as sharp as vineger and nitre Or though it were as sweet as honey yet it would cause pain to exulcerate parts when dropped upon them against the house of Isaac though commanded so to do verse 9. Toothlesse truths would be better disgested Verse 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord Thy wife c. Thou shalt bee sure of thy share in the common calamity which thou wilt not hear of but thou shalt hear and be ashamed c. Esay 26.11 So little is gotten by thwarting with God and seeking to frustrate his counsell With these froward pieces God will shew himself froward and if they walk contrary to him he will also walk as crosse to them he will tame such sturdy rebels as he did Pharaoh Psal 16. Lev. 26. and that way raise him a name all they shall get by him is but more weight of punishment as when Jeboiakim had burnt Jeremies roul of curses all that he gained was that the roul was renewed and there were added besides thereunto many like words Jer. 36.32 See the like Ier. 20.2 1 King 13.4 and 22.25 Acts 5.38 39. Dum devitâ—tur impletur The counsel of God saith Gregory whiles shunned is executed the wisdom of man may wriggle but cannot escape Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city a common strumpet Kimchi for a punishment of thy spirituall harlotry Rev. 2.20 together with thy seducing my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols Or Per vim stuprabitur thy wife shall be an harlot that is she shall be ravished by the enemy before thy face so Theodoret Calvin Mercer c. See Esay 13.16 Lam. 5.11 The Irish rebels bound the husband to the bed-post whiles they abused his wife before his face And thy sonnes and thy daughters shall fall by the sword because thou hast taken my sonnes and my daughters and these hast thou sacrificed unto devils to be devoured Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter that thou hast slain my children and brought them forth to the murtherer Ezek. 16.20 21. that thou hast sent so many souls to hell Peremptores potius quam parentes Bern. and nuzled up thine own sons and daughters in ignorance and superstition being therein rather a parricide then a parent Thy land shall be divided by line thy purchases shall be parted among the enemies Virg. Eclog. thine ill-gotten
children who commonly take after the mother as did most of those Idolatrous kings of Judah and follow the worser side though it be the weaker as the conclusion in a Syllogisme follows the weaker proposition The birth we say followeth the belly and most men we see do matrissare take after the mother in matters of religion Hereunto might be added that Gods service must by these unequal matches necessarily be hindered if not altogether omitted to gratifie a froward Zipporah or a mocking Michol and the better party forced to see and hear that that cannot but grieve the Spirit of God Besides danger of disloyalty and a cursed posterity as Edomites of the daughters of Heth. D. Hall Here then I could joyn with that Reverend Contemplatour in that holy wish of his that Manoah could speak so loud that all our Israelites might hear him Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all Gods people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines If Religion be any other then a cypher how dare we not regard it in our most important choyces how dare we yoke our selves with any untamed heifer that beareth not Christs yoke what mad work made that noble pair of naughty-packs Iezabel and Athaliah in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah the later beginning her reigne in the same year that the former perished as Bucholcer observeth And who knoweth not what a deal of mischief was done to the poor people of God in France by Katherine de Medices Q. Mother with the advice and aslistance of the Cardinall of Lorrain Concerning which two it was said Non audet stygius Pluto tentare quod ander Effraenis Monachus plenaque frandis anus Verse 12. The Lord will cut off the man that doth this Though the Magistrate be carelesse and corrupt though he either cannot punish this evil it being growen so universall or will not and so impunity in the Magistrate maketh impenitency in the offendours God will take the sword in hand and cut off every mothers child that doth this Metaphora est à Medicis â—â—â—la Polan nisi currat poenitentia as a chirurgion cutteth off a rotten member so will God destroy such for ever he will take them away and pluck them out of their dwelling places and root them out of the land of the living Psal 52.5 Neither shall this be done to himself onely but to his wretched posterity such a legacy like Joabs leprosie leaves every gracelesse man to his children for so the Chaldee here rendreth and interpreteth that proverbiall expression in the text both the master and the scholler Sic R. Salom. filium filium filii his sonne and his sous sonne though he teach never so well by wholesome instruction and politicâ— advisement to prevent the mischief Agreeably hereunto for sence Piscator rendreth this text thus The Lord will cut off his children that doth thus the children that he begets of the daughter of a strange god An heavy curse surely and frequently inflicted as upon Ahab though he to avoid it so followed the work of generation that he lest seventy sonnes behind him which yet would not do and him that offereth an offering c. that is Although he be a Priest Or Although he seek to make peace with me by an offering as hoping thereby to stop my mouth or stay my hand to expiate his sin or to purchase a dispensation as those Mic. 6.6 7. and Esay 58.2 3. Thus Saul sacrificeth Ahab trembleth and humbleth Ieroboams wile goeth to the Prophet Ioab taketh hold of the horns of the Altar the king of Persia having lost some of his children by untimely death as Ciesias reporteth sends earnestly to the Jews for prayers for him and his Ezra 6.10 So did Maximinus in like case to the Christians Tully tells us that they which prayed whole dayes together and offered sacrifice 〈◊〉 Dâ—vr ut sâ—â— liberi superstites sibi essent that their children might out-live them these were 〈◊〉 called superstitiou persons afterwards the word was taken in a larger sense But devotion without holy conversation availes nothing to avert Gods judgements Isa 1.12.15 and â—6 3 He that killeth an Ox unlesse withall he kill his curruptions is as if he slew a man he that sacrisiccth a lamb unlesse by faith he ley hold upon the Lamb of God is as if he cut off a dogs nick he that effereth an oldâ—tion c. This men are hardly drawn to viz. to part with their sins to cail the traytours head over the wall to hang up the heads of the people before the Sun Sin harboured in the soule is like Achan in the army or Jonas in the ship much paines the marriners were at and much losle too to have saved Jonas from the sea they ventured their own casting away ere they would cast him over-board but there could be no calme till they had done it effectually So it is here Full fain men would keep their sins and yet lave their foules but that 's impossible God will not be bribed Psal 50. nor brought to suster sin unrepented to escape unpunished Poor soules when stung by the Friers sermons they set them penunces pilgrimages all sorts of good works which stilled them a while and for them they thought they should have pardon So many run now â—mongst us to holy duties but with the same opinion they did them a bribes for a pardon These dig for pearle in their own dunghils make the meanes their mediat urs 〈…〉 think to save themselves by riding on horses c. Verse 13. And this have ye done againe Or in the second place q. â— Nor content to have married strange wives yea have brought them in to your lowfull wives to their intolerable vexation so adding this sin to the former as a greater to the lesse This is still the guise of gracelesse men to add druakeâ—â—â—sse to thirst rebellion to sin to amasse and heape up one evill upon another till wrath come upon them to the ut mest For three transgressions and for soxr I will not turn away their punishment Am. 1. that is so long as the wicked commit one or two inâ—â—uities I forbear them but when it comes once to threes and fours how much more to so many scores hundreds thousands as one cipher added to a figure makes it so many tenns two so many hundreds three so many thousands c. God will bear with them no longer Of those old Israelites it is demanded not without great indignation on Gods part How oft did they provoke him in the wildernesse and grieve him in the desart Yea they turned baâ—â— and tempted God c. Psal 78.40 41. Good men if they fall once into foule practises they fall not often Of Judah it is expressely recorded that he knew Tamar no more Lot indeed committed incest two night together but the orifice of his lust was not yet stopped by repentance
that ye may see the inequality of the comparison our light and momentary affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory In which text there is well observed to be a triple Antithesis with a more then superlative description of heavens happinesse 2 Cor. 5.14 Mr. Leigh of the promises Hicsi usquam Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque Lucret. by an hyperbole above an hyperbole For for affliction here 's glory for light affliction a waight of glory a heavy massy substantial glory for momentary affliction an eternal excessive weight of glory A lively losty kinde of expression but such as falles far short of that inexplicable felicity that abides us and is wrought out unto us by our shortest sufferings Words are too weak to uter it Thirdly Rev. 21.4 consider that it s here that God must meet with us or no where Hereafter there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Here we must have it or in a worse place This world is our purgatory our little-ease our wash-house our place of penance penalty pilgrimage Here he rubs off our rust scours off our scurf hewes us as in the mount to be living stones in the coelestial Temple 〈◊〉 â—â—9 54. Here he fines us files us polisheth us thresheth us out of the husk that we may be meat for the masters tooth as that Father phrased it In a word this is all the hell we are like to have let us make us merry with it and sing sweet songs as David did in this house of our pilgrimage Home's hard by In the mean while fourthly life is a mercy though never so full of misery A living dog is better then a dead lion Eccles 9.4 Lam. 3.39 Ioseph is yet alive that 's more then Joseph is the second man in the land Why is living man sorrowful Man suffers for his sin q. d. Suffer he never so much never so long he receives but the due desert of his evil deeds as that penitent thief told his fellow And that he yet lives amidst all and cuts not off as a weaver the thrum of his wretched life Hezekiah held it a precious indulgence The reason whereof he yeelds a little after The grave cannot praise thee they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth Death cannot celebrate thee that is dead men cannot be exemplary and so shine before men that they may see their good works Esay 38.12.18.19 and glorifie thee The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth Adde hereunto for a fist consideration that no man is so hard beset with sorrows behinde and before but he hath some lucida intervalla some refreshings some respits and breathing-whiles betwixt Iobs case is not every mans nay it is scarce any mans to be visited every morning to be tried every momâ—â— to be held uncessantly on the rack and not so much liberty left him as while he swallows his spittle This was an hard case and might be any of ours as well as Jobs Now that it is not see ground of patience nay of thankfulnesse to that God that might have doomed man at first to be ever in sweating out a poor living called therefore the life of his hand Esay 57.10 because it is upheld by the labour of his hand and women to be ever labouring in the extream paines of child birth neither yet to be saved after all 1 Tim 2.15 no though she should continue in faith and charuy and holinesse with sobriety Sixthly God is with us al the while we are in durance optimum solaâ—ium sodaliâ—â—um can we have better company He goes along with us into the fire as with the three children and into the water as with Ionas yea though hel had closed her mouth upon us and swallowed us up into her bowels yet it must in despite of it render us up again because God is with us and for us Hels stomack could not long hold us no more then the whale could brook Ionas which if he had light upon the marriners he would devoured and disgested twenty of them in lesse space Seventhly God accounts what we suffer now sufficient for all and lookes upon us as those that have been judged already yea that have received double for al our sins The time is now that judgement begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 And when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 Abiathar though worthy of death shall live because he had been formerly afflicted with David So shall we which have suffered with Christ raign for ever with him Psal 94.12 Prov. 6.23 2 Cor. 7.6 Esay 30.13 Sustine tu illum qui sustinuit te Sustinuit ille te dum tu corrigeres vitam malam sustine tuillum dum coronet vitam bonam Aug. Esay 26.9 1 Pet. 5.6 who else had been but dead men had not God chastised us and taught us in his law by those corrections of instruction that are the way to life Lastly consider that God that comforteth the abject hath set a certain time for our deliverence a day to do us good in waiting mean-while to shew mercy and counting as it were the slow minutes till we become capable Iob. 13.36 Now shall he wait upon us and sall not we wait for him Yea we have waited for the Lord saith the Chruch in the way of thy judgements And humble your selves under the mighty hand of God saith Peter and he will lift you up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the opportunity of time To prescribe to the most wise God were intolerable presumption and to antevert his season dangerous precipitancy to set him a time with that king of Israel 2 King 6.33 to send for him by a post with those Bethulians either be must save us now or not at all how can he endure it Rebeccah was too nimble with her If it be so why am I thus as ill-advised when she said I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. And she and her son Jacob should have had the patience to wait Gods leisure for the blessing and not to have gotten in by the back-door But we are all naturally impatient of delaies and too ready to think we should sow and reape both in a day As our grand-mother Eve who having received the promise of a Messiah thought that her first-borne Cain must needs have been the Man and therefore as pleased with the conceit thereof she said I have gotten that Man that famous Man even the man Christ Jesus of the Lord. But she was fairely deceived and so are all such like to be as are in like hast and cannot frame with patience to wait for the Lord as David-Psal 40.1 Yea to pant and somtimes to faint as Ieremy with
so much only as the Eccho resounds But we must be getting and growing in this grace even in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He is the brightnesse of his fathers glory and the expresse image of his person The beam of the Sun is not so like the body of the Sun the character on the wax is not so like the seal that imprints it nay milk is not so like milke as Christ is like his father He is up and down the self-same that his Father is they differ in nothing Christus est alius à patre non aliud but that the one is the father and not the son the other is the son and not the father Hence that of our Saviour to Philip when he said Lord shew us the father and it sufficeth us Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me Ioh. 14.8 9 hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then shew us the Father The very same All-powerfull God who in fellowship of his sacred person hath a soul and body glorified the same spirituall nature is the nature of the Father As if the same soul and body that is in you were communicated with the person of your child Well might our Saviour therefore say If ye had known me ye should have known my father also John 14.7 Oh learne and labour therefore to profit more and more in the mystery of Christ to know him better in his natures in his offices in his workes both of Abasement and Advancement of Humiliation and Exaltation but especially to know him as St. Paul did for the other you may easily know out of every Catechisme to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.10 This is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus ver 8. this is life eternall Ioh. 17.3 We know no more of God and his will then we practise and have experience of Christ is said to know no sin because he did none and Eli's sons knew not the Lord though priests because they feared him not they deteined the truth they knew in unrighteousnesse as those Philosophers did Rom. 1.18 SECT IX Let them thankfully acknowledge his free grace in their adoption and why A Second duty we owe to God as his children is thankfull acknowledgement of that never-enough adored depth of his singular love in our Adoption The absolute and independant freedome of his grace herein was such that without any the least colour of cause or shew of reason in us without any defect on his part or desert on ours He drew us out of the most vile and servile condition that could be into the glorious liberty of the sons of God David was to be gathered to his fathers Psal 132.11 Esay 9.6 1 Tim. 1.17 Psal 2. and it was therefore a singular favour to him that he should have children to sit upon his throne after him But God is the King immortall as St. Paul stiles him the everlasting Father as Esay and therefore needs no son to succeed him But if he did he had a son of his own as like him as is possible whom also he hath set as King upon his holy hill of Sion Amongst men those that have children of their own if they adopt another mans childe it is commonly because their own are unfit for succession either from some bodily weaknesse as not likely to leave issue or for basenesse of spirit and badnesse of behaviour as uncapable and unfit for government Now none of all this can without horrible blasphemy be said of the Lord Christ But admit the case had so stood with God that it had been requisite he should have adopted any for his sons and heirs the good Angels might have drawn away his affection from us by their holinesse or the evill angels his compassion for their wretchednesse or he could for a need of very stones have raised up children to himself to be heirs of his kingdome in Christ It was his will only and nothing else that moved his will to set his love upon us as we may see both in the type Deut. 7.7 and in the truth Eâ—h 1.5 Surely as there was no defect or need in him so there was as little merit or desert in us For whereas in the civill adoption as when Pharaohs daughter adopted Moses Mordecai adopted Esther Jacob the two sons of Joseph there is something in the Adopted that moveth the Adoptant cither some outward inducement as kindred beauty favour c. or some inward as the gifts of the minde understanding ingenuity hopefulnes c. there was nothing at all in us to move God to such a mercy For outward respects there was neither kindled to mâ—â—te him for our father was an Amorite Ezek. 16.3 4 5 6. Christ calls his spouse first his Love and thâ—n his fair one Câ—â—t 2.10 Homo est inversâ—s decalogus Eph. 2.1 2. our mother a Hittite we were the sons of the perverse rebellious woman as Saul reproached Ionathan nor yet beauty to intice him for we were in our blood in our blood in our blood when he spread the skirt of his garment over us and said unto us Live Blood is so many severall times there named to note our extreme filthinesse so little amiable were we when he set his love upon us And for any inward motive grace which is the only thing that God looks after Psal 14.2 is not at all to be found in the naturall man Nay he stands acrosse and is quite contrary to it as being acted and agitated by the devill and held captive as a slave by him at his pleasure Loe this was our estate thus the Lord found us when he came to adopt us And indeed Adoption to speak properly as it is a borrowed terme from the civil law imports as much For it is the raking of one foâ— a son who is for present in some servitude to another And so Lawyers distinguish it from Arrogation which is say they the chusing of one for a son that is free his own man not under the command of another But such alass was not our case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3.23 for both Jews and Gentiles were shut up under sin fist shut up close prisoners in the devills dungeon whose works we did as slaves and could not but do them whose image we bear as sons and could not but resemble him being as like the devill as if we had been spâ—tout of his mouth and had perished together with him in our own filth and blood like that forlorne infant Ezek. 16. had not he of his mere grace and goodnesse when it was thetime of loves said unto us Live yea when we were weltring in our blood he said Live Oh let the deep and due consideration of this matchlesse mercy and free favour ravish and
accuratissimis libris Num suspensum est supra â—lâ—as literas in signum cam siteram adesse vel abesse pesseâ—ut sit silius Mosis Manassis 2 Reg. 21. istius prosapiâ hujus imitatione Buxtorf Tiber. Amam Coronis in reference to the dung of the beasts that were slain in sacrifice Now God is of purer eyes then to behold sin with patience in his own especially for can two walâ— together and they not be agreed David is grievously threatened for despising God his father that is for daring to do that before him that he would not have done before a childe of a dozen yeers-old Cornelius and his company set themselves as in Gods view looked him ful in the face and carried themselves accordingly so must we remembring that al things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do Iacob feared to displease his father lest he should get himself a curse and not a blessing yea that profane Esau would not offer to attempt any thing against Iacob his brother during his fathers dayes for fear of displeasing him Epaminondas rejoyced in nothing more then that he had done noble exploits and atteined great victories whiles his parents were yet alive that they might share with him in the comfort and credit thereof Oh let it be our constant care so to carry our selves that we may not shame our fathers house as Solomons fool but to get him honour from others Mat. 5.16 that they may see and say that we are the seed that the Lord hath blessed Esay 61.9 It is not for noble mens sons to be lingering and lodging in the stable or gate-house that 's a place for grooms and hindes much lesse to be found filling muck-cart the No more doth it sute with the sons of God to be loading themselves with thick clay to have their hands elbow-deep in the world to busie themselves about many things with neglect of the one thing necessary to run sqeaking up and down the world as rats and mice good for nothing but to devour victuals This is not to walk worthy of God their father and of Christ their elder brother SECT XI Let them resemble their father and wherein GOds children must resemble him M. Rob. Harris Math 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb as well as reverence him The child is but the father multiplied the father of the second Edition as One speaketh like him ordinarily both in countenance and condition The Pharisees were so like their fathers they were the worse again Isaac trod in his fathers foot-steps and heyred him even in his infirmities Gen. 26.7 Constantines sonnes exactly resembled their father in his good parts and practises We must also be followers of God as dear children 1. In light 1 Joh. 1.5 being transparent as a chrystall glasse with a light in the midst of it 2. In love Ephes 5.1 2. for have we not all one father Mal. 2.10 Ephes 4.5 6. love therefore as brethren 1 Pet. 3.8 fall not out by the way Gen. 45.24 let there be no difference for we are brethren and the Canaanite is in the land Gen. 13.7 8. How can we look our father in the face or expect his blessing when we know that he knowes there is dissention amongst us Oh how happy and pleasant a thing it is brethren to be at unity there surely it is that God commands the blessing Psal 133.1 3. He never came at Abraham that we read of till the breach betwixt him and Lot was made up again live therefore at peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you 3. In mercy Luk. 6.36 loving them that hate us blessing them that curse us doing good to them that persecute us for so shall we be the children of our heavenly father who doth good both to the just and to the unjust causeth his sun to shine and his raine to fall not onely upon flowers and fruit-trees but also upon briers and thorns of the wildernesse such incarnat devils as march up and down the earth with hearts and hands as full as hell with al manner of malice and mischief Such a childe of God was Elisha that feasted his enemies Steven that prayed for his persecutours and that Martyr that when he could not obtain a fair hearing before Steven Gardner cryed out Send me to my prison again among my frogs and toads which will not interrupt me whiles I pray for your Lordships conversion 4. In sanctifying the sabbath Exod. 20.11 Esay 56.5.6 by resting not only from corporal labour but spiritual idlenesse Acts Mon. as God rested on that day from creating and yet works hitherunto in preserving and upholding all things by the word of his power The baser sort of people in Sweth-land do alwayes break the sabbath Davids desire by Rob. Abbot p 16 saying that its onely for gentlemen to keep that day And in many places amongst us Gods sabbaths are made the voyder and dunghill for all refuse businesses But the Pharisees taking it for granted that Christ had done that he could not justifie on that day where in they were mistaken rightly conclude If this man were of God he would not have broke the sabbath day this not the guise of Gods children 5. Lastly 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Pet. 1.14 15 in all holy life and pure conversation according to that Be ye holy as I am holy pure as I am pure perfect as I am perfect Our lives should be as so many visible commentaries upon Christ's life we should preach forth his vertues Coloss 2.6 1 Joh. 2.6 and expresse him to the world in all his imitable praises and practises Then we are said to walk in Christ yea to walk as Christ walked when we resemble him not as an image doth a man in out-ward lineaments onely but as a son doth his father in nature and disposition in affection and action Our utmost good consists in communion with God and conformity to him in keeping inward peace with him that he abhor us not because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters Deut. 33.13 and in seeking and keeping if it be possible and as much as in us lies peace with all men and holinesse for such shall both see God which is not every mans priviledge Heb. 12.14 and be counted and called the sons of God Math. 5.10 they shall have both the comfort and credit of divine Adoption SECT XII Let them love their Father and how to expresse their love IF God be our Father it 's but fit we should love him 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avi magis amant nepotes quà m suosliberos Heidfeld Cos amoris amor Joh 3.16 God having tied parents and children together with cords of love saith Nazianzen Love I grant though of a fiery nature yet contrary to the nature of fire herein descends rather then ascends Hence grandfathers oft love their grandchildren better then their own But love
kings as Iosephus relates it He was faithfull in all Gods house as a servant Joh. 8.35 but that was not all For the servant abideth not in the house for ever as the son doth Moreover the kings of the earth take tribute of their servants and subjects but their children go free Mat. 17.26 Behold Gods children are all manumitted by Christ and possessed of a twofold freedome 1. Multò plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae Gerson Privative from the dominion and damnation of sin from the rigour and irritation of the law from the captivity and cruelty of the devill from the danger of death and horrour of hell c. This is a priviledge far beyond that of a citizen of Rome which yet might neither be suffered to beg nor be bound with thongs Act. 22.29 Rom. 8. And this is that the Apostle calls the glorious liberty of the sons of God as elsewhere he couples Adoption with glory Rom. 9.4 includes it in glory Rom. 8.30 and puts it for glory Rom. 8.23 Freed Gods children are not I confesse of crosses and corrections for then were they bastards and not sons He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Joh. 14.18 but he never leaveth them orphans helpelesse comfortlesse In the midst of desertion the sorest kinde of affliction they may nay they must call him Father and ask him blessing Esay 64.7 8 9. and he knowes not how to say them nay coming unto him in that name and under that notion Should a parent see his sick childe pant and look pittifully cry out as once the Shunamites son to his father O my head my head my heart is sick my head is heavy I am weary with paines what shall I do where shall I rest c. He could not turn his back upon him and neglect his moans much lesse could he continue to strike him lifting up his feeble hands for mercy and looking upon him with watery eyes but would rather set himself to seek out and to do him all possible ease and comfort Hic cum triste aliquid staruit fit tristis ipsa Cuique ferè poenam sumere poena fua est Ovid. 2 de Pont eleg 2. To say God hath cast you off because he hath hid his face is a fallacy fetcht out of the Devils Topicks And shall not the God of all mercy and the Father of all consolation pity his poor children that are distressed or diseased and send deliverance Will he not melt over his childe and burn his rod Will he not hold him up with one hand as he did Iacob when he beats him down with the other will he not look through the chinkers to see how we do when he hath shut us up close prisoners will he not deal by us as the mother deals by her little-one makes him beleeve she will cast him away to the puttock or pitch him headlong into the pool when yet she keeps fast hold on him 2. Positive and so he is made a free-denison of Jerusalem that is above and possessed of all the priviledges of that supernall citty See a brief extract of them in that 1 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours A very large charter All illuminations inspirations gifts and graces of the spirit gifts of Gods ministers and the abler sort of Christians all these are not more their own then yours to use you have title to them and interest in them and may claime them for your own Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world you are heirs of it together with faithfull Abraham Or life grace to spend it well or death to the wicked a trap-dore to hell Janua vita porta coeli Bern. but to the saints an inlet into eternall happines or things present all occurrences are sanctified to you or things to come heaven waits for you hell hath nothing to do with you Thus all is yours as the Apostle there reiterates it though not in possession unlesse it be in our Head yet in use in right or by way of reduction as we say the worst things are Gods childrens they are heirs of the kingdome saith Iames heads destinated to the diadem Jam. 2.5 Serms non valet exprimere experimento opus est Chrys Lati simus non securi gaudentes in spiritu sancto scd tamen caventes à recidivo Bern. saith Tertullian Their priviledges as sons are fitter to be beleeved then possible to be discoursed And this should make them hold up their heads but not too high and be cheerfull but not withall scornefull CHAP. V. God will pity and pardon his people their wants and weaknesses And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him HOw graciously God will deal with his dear children in respect of their pious performances is here sweetly set forth by an exquisite simile Shindler Pentag miserebor misericordia commovebor Figuier Clementiâutar Trem. polan. In quo duplex est aemoris ratio c. Figuier De Cartulone filio à patre Machaeo ob contemptum cruci affixo lege Just lib. 18. Heb. 13.18 from the dealing of an indulgent father with his obsequious childe I will spare them saith he nay that 's not full enough I will pardon and pity them I will commiserate and compassionate them as Pharaohs daughter once did the forlorne infant she found among the flags I will use clemency and shew kindnesse unto them And how As a man doth to his own son that serves him In which comfortable expression there is a double declaration saith an Interpreter of Gods fatherly affection as thus We cannot but shew love even to a stranger that observes us As o' tother side we dislike and detest even a son that slights us But a son and a serviceable son what father can chuse but love and like well of And shall God the father of all the father-hoods in heaven and earth shew lesse love to his obedient children that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing at least to keep a good conscience and are faithfull in weaknesse though weak in faith No but he will kindly accept of what they are able and remit the rest He will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him Than the which I know not what the good Lord could have spoken more effectually for the setting forth of his own fatherly compassion or for the setting of our hearts in sound consolation Take it thus God will surely shew like mercy and mildenesse to his obedient children in Doct their faults and faculties in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serves him SECT 1.2.3.4 Reasons from God out of Micah 7.18 19. THis is no new doctrine for besides that the Text is for us in so many words almost the man whose eyes are open hath said it He hath said Num. 23.21 who heard the words of God who saw the visions of the Almighty God
him saith David that is whatsoever thou wouldst that God should bestow upon thee cast it first upon him by faith and it shall be effected Rom. 8. Qui misit unigenitum immimisit spiritum promisit vultum quid tandem tibi negaturus est Bâ—r. de tem he shall bring it to passe Away with the spirits of bondage to feare againe we have now received the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba father yea for an unquestionable pledge of his infinite love he hath given us his son how shall he not then together with him give us all things also That 's St. Pauls argument If ye which are evill can give good things to your children how much more wil your heavenly father give to them that ask of him that 's our Saviours argument Whereunto let me adde this God made himself known to be our gracious and provident Father Mat. 6 A Christian is crowned not only in his cradle with K. James but before he is born as Sapores K. of Persia was For his father dying left his mother with child and the Persian Nobility set the crown on his mothers belly acknowledging thereby her issue for their Prince Heyl. Geog. p. 64 Mat. 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 23.3 before we could know our selves to be his children He formed us in the womb crudled us there like cheese curiously wrought us in those lowermost parts of the earth as an Artificer when he hath some speciall piece of work to do retires into some private room out of the sight of others whilest we were there he filled two bottles of milk for our entertainment into the world whereinto we no sooner came but he entred into covenant with us to be our God and Father hee signed and sealed this covenant by the Sacrament of Baptisme the solemne seal of our adoption And all this before ere we knew what was done unto us And will hee now forget to do us good when we know and acknowledge him when we pray unto him and by faith depend upon him It is not possible He feeds the fowls and clothes the lillies to whom he is no father And will he not much more do so for you Oh ye mall faiths A child whiles he hath his fathers favour cares for nothing never troubles himself to think where he shall have his next meal or a new suit of clothes let him but please his father and those things shall be provided to his hand Again let a child walk in dark and dangerous places so long as he hath hold of his father he fears not Did we but stirre up our selves to take hold of God wee should be secure yea though we walked in the vale of the shadow of death with David we should never be heard to say as Heathens that have no interest in God What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed so long as our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things and will not fail to provide them in a competent measure The men of Gods hand it may be shall have more then wee because they have their portion here with the prodigall But we need not envie them that for it is but an estate for life granted them in the utmost and most remote part of our inheritance Psal 17 Will a child think much a father should give a pension for life out of this or that whiles he hath far greater things left him yea the inheritance also of that out of which an annuity is granted for a time to some other Children ought not to lay up for their parents but parents for their children saith the Apostle And Oh how great things saith the Prophet hast thou laid up in store for them that fear thee Now 2 Cor. 12.14 will he give us a crown and deny us a crust provide heaven for us and with-hold earth from us Ask onely and it shall be given you the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof In your Fathers house is bread enough Shall the prodigall call so confidently for his childs part shall Esau go so roundly to his father for the blessing Luk. 15.12 Gen. 27.34 And do we stand doubting whether we were best speak or hold our tongues and not fall down with Esther before Ahashuerosh or with Achsah before her father Caleb and beg the upper-springs of spirituall blessings and the nether-springs of temporall comforts which he with-holds haply for a time with an unwilling willingnesse that he may hear of us and have our prayers which though never so poor and imperfect yet he is much taken with as a naturall parent is with the pratling and stammering of his own above all the plain speech of all the children in the Town besides SECT XIV Comfort of Adoption where are shewed the Priviledges of sonnes privative and positive COmfort to all Gods faithfull servants Vse 5 they are sonnes and daughters to the Almighty and count you that a small matter Is it nothing to be son-in-law to a king saith David What pains did Jacob take night and day to be but sonne-in-law to Laban who changed his wages ten times and ever for the worse Joseph and Daniel were for their good service highly advanced but not adopted But every servant of God is a sonne and every sonne an heir Great was the glory of our first Parents in Paradise had they held it and yet if they had what had they gotten more then a confirmation of their present estate or at most the reward of their service wages for their work they could never have attained to this honour Joh. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the sons of God This St. Iohn in his gospell calls a dignity an eminency a royalty And in his first epistle he stands and wonders as transported with an extasy of admiration at it 1 Ioh. 3.1 And well he might For this saith the psalmist is to be set above the Kings of the earth it interesteth and inrighteth a man to the inheritance of heaven and earth The possession of the earth is as yet deteyned from God children by the wicked for a time as the promised land was from Israel by the Amorites but they have great things mean-while in reversion even heaven with all its happines whither they may comfortably look up and boast on better ground then Nebuchadnezzar did of his Babel 1 Pet 1.4 Is not this mine inheritance Am I not kept by the power of God to that salvation reserved for me in the heavens Yea they may comfortably lift up their eye as God bâ—d Abraham toward heaven and tell the starrs if he were able so they their glorious priviledges This Moses well understood and therefore chose rather to suffer as a son Heb. 11. then to scape as a bastard he preferr'd the reproach of Christ before the honour of being the son of Pharaohs daughter and the possibility of being heir to two