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
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
sons of the rebellious whorish woman children of transgrâ—ssion a seed of falshood Esay 57.4 The Hebrews call such children brambles such as Abimelech was who grew in the hedge-row of an harlot they call them also Mamzer as ye would say a strange blot And Shatuki or silent because when others are praising their parents such must hold their peace and hold down their heads with shame enough because by-blows for the land hath committed great whoredoms Fornicando fornicata est i. e. frequentissimè faedissimè most frequently and most filthily See Eezek 23. thoroughout Aholah that is Israel plaied the harlot when she was mine verse 5. In her youth they lay with her verse 8. so that she might say with that impudent strumpet Quartilla in Petronius â—etron Satyr that she could never remember her self a virgin Yea she grew old in her adulteries verse 43. opened her feet to every passenger and multiplied her whoredoms Ezek. 16.25 Meretrices scilicet hoc est meretricissimae Such a common prostibulum is the whore of Rome whom her followers call piam matrem quae gremium claudat nemini Joan of Naples was a saint to her Idolatry is spiritual whoredome in many respects It defiles the soul Gods bridal-bed It breaks the marriage-knot and discovenants It enrageth God who in this case will take no ransome It subjecteth men to Gods deepest displeasure It besots them and unmans them they that make idols are like unto them so are all they that trust in them Psal 115. Lastly â—dolatry is seldome without adultery in a proper sense as appears in the old Heathens at their feasts of Priapus Lupercalia c. the Canaanites had filled the Land from one end to another with their uncleannesse Ezra 9.11 and in the Papists at this day who reckon fornication a venial sin have their Stews allowed them yea among the very Indians who abhor their most loathsome living And for Rome it self tota est jam Roma lupanar it is become a great brothel-house and her stench is come up to heaven as Matthew Paris one of her sons long since said Departing from the Lord In whom all amiables and admirables are concentred This did exceedingly aggravate the unkindnesse Verse 3. So he went He said not john 6.60 This is a hard saying who can hear it Dura mihi praecipit poene terret He doth not reason but run dispute but dispatch God must be obeyed though we see no sense for it And took Gomer which signifieth both consummation and consumption to shew that she was consummata meretrix a compleat whore had all the tricks of a whore and brings her paramours to finall consumption utter extermination the daughter of Diblaim Not quasi de Belaim a place so called as Hugo dreameth though there was a wildernesse of this name whereto some think the Prophet here alludeth to shew the Churches wretched beginning in its own nature as Cant. 3 6. Ezek. 16.7 But Diblaim is by some taken for Gomers father by more for her mother which is also held to be an harlot according to that Ezek. 16.44 As is the mother so is the daughter Diblaim signifieth bunches of dried figs that were the delicacies of those times Gluttony is the gallery that lechery walketh thorough Sine Cerere Libero friget Venus Concupiscence as Plato saith hath the lowest places and is alligata ventri as one would tie an horse or an asse to the manger Jer. 5.8 Jeremy not unfitly compareth sensualists to fed horses neighing after their neighbours wives Saturity breeds security which is the sure forerunner of destruction Est ergo hic gnome saith à Lapide i. e. Here we have then an elegant sentence Gomer is the daughter of Diblaim that is rottennesse of sensuality for as the worm that grows in the fruit devoureth it so doth grief the pleasure of sin This Observation we have from the Cabbalists Verse 4. Call his name Jezreel For the honourable name of Israel is too good for this people call them therefore Jezreel a people devoted to dispersion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spargere and such as I will scatter into the four windes of heaven as the seedsâ—man scattereth his seed Thus Jeconiah is called Coniah for a judgement upon him Bethel Beth-aven Har Hammischa the mount Olivet or of Unction Har hammaschith the mount of corruption 2 King 23.13 And this is not unusuall amongst men so when they would disgrace a man to clip or play upon his name as when they spitefully called Athanasius Sathanasius Cyprian Coprian as if all his excellent works were but dung Calvine Cain c. This people saith God hére are more like Ahab then Jacob. Call them therefore Jezreel Ahabs Court that is a den of theeves and murtherers where innocent Naboth cannot be master of the vineyard that he was born to Micah who prophesied also much about these times hath a saying much to the same purpose Chap. 2. ver 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob is the spirit of the Lord straitned are these his doings q. d. Ye that boast of Jacob to be your father do you tread in his steps are ye of his spirit of his practise was there such vile prophanenesse found in him as is openly found in you David describeth the generation of such as seek God Psal 24.6 as seek his face and then subjoyneth This is Jacob these are Israelites indeed these are Jews inwardly and all others are degenerate plants and are the worse for their outward priviledges sith tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doth evil but of the Jew first and then also of the Gentile Rom. 2.9 for yet a little while And yet this little was a long while through Gods gracious forbearance As bad as this people were they should not perish without warning yea though the Lord foreknew they would make no good use of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Heathen Historian God loves to foresignifie Herodot and premonish But there is nothing more dangerous and disinall then these still revenges as when God suddenly brake out in wrath upon Nadab and Abihu upon Nebuchadnezzar Herod Pharaoh at the Red-Sea when he would not beware It is a just both desert and presage of ruine not to be warned See this in Nineveh spared at first but after a little while revolting soundly paid for the new and old faults Nahum 3.19 Non consurget iterùm afflictio saith the same Prophet Nahum 3.19 chap. 1.9 Affliction shall not rise up the second time God will not make two doings of it but when he begins he will also make an end 1 Sam. 3.12 that is as sure as he begins so sure will he make an end and though it may be some time ere he begin yet a little while for he is slow to wrath and of great kindnesse yet assuredly he will avenge the blood of Jezreel i. e. the executions done by
carried captive young and old naked and barefoot even with their buttocks uncovered c. as it is said of their confederates the Egyptians Esay 20.4 and as it shall be done at length to that purple whore of Rome who shall be stript naked broil'd and eaten Revel 17.16 A cold sweat stands already upon her limbs and for a presage of her future ruine it is observed that Rome since it became Papall was never besieged by any but it was taken As for their late Masculine attempts and atchievements if any it is but as here in the Kingdom of Israel a lightning before death as the blaze of a candle a little afore it goes out the bulging of a wall that 's ready to come down or as it was said of Carthage a little afore it was taken Morientium bestiarum violentiores esse morsus dying beasts bite cruelly Verse 9. Call his name Loammi Nomen extremum deploratum saith Pareus the last and most lamentable name of all containing a most heavy but spiritual and therefore lesse sensible punishment viz. an utter abjection and abdication from the covenant from grace from God from life eternall For ye are not my people But being totally cashiered and discovenanted Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me O children of Israel saith the Lord Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the Philistims from Caphtor Amos 9.7 and the Syrians from Kir q. d. True it is I have brought you up out of Egypt and therein you greatly glory but have I not done as much as all this for those profane Nations here mentioned with and amongst whom henceforward I shall reckon you for you are no people of mine but discarded and dispeopled Till the Covenant made with Abraham all Nations were suffered to walk in their own wayes as fishes passe at liberty thorow the paths of the Seas Psal 8.8 One person was no more respected then another But as soon as it was said I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee the Church became as fish cast into a Pond for peculiar use and was divided from other Nations Act. 14.16 no otherwise then light was from darknesse in the first creation or then Goshen was from Egypt in that wonderfull separation But here God seems to rescind his own act to cast off the people of his purchase and utterly to disown them as once before he also did when he fathered them upon Moses saying Thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt c. Exod. 32.7 But this we must know is no other then mutatio rei non Dei effectus non affectus facti non consilij not a change of Gods will but onely of his works For hath God indeed cast away his people God forbid Rom. 11.1 2. God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew Thus saith the Lord God If heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord. Jer. 31.37 And albeit by an angry Aposiopesis he say here I will not be your God The word God is not in the Original ab irato omittitur saith Mercer yet to shew that he is Bagnal Chemah One that can rule his wrath as Neb. 1.2 he subjoyneth here verse 10. Verse 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel i. e. of the Israel of God those Jews inwardly the Circumcision indeed which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus putting no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 Bern. but saying each for himself as that good Father did Horreo quicquid de meo est ut sim meus All my care is to be found in Christ sc when sought for by the justice of God not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the law Beza but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 Lo to such Israelites indeed and of such it is here promised the Lord in Judgement remembring Mercy that they shall be the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered This was first promised to Abraham and afterwards confirmed with an oath Gen. 22.16 It began to be fulfilled when by the preaching of the Apostles so many of both Jews and Gentiles came in and were converted to the faith of the true Messiah as S. Paul expoundeth this text Rom. 9.24 25. and he had the mind of Christ It shall have its full accomplishment when the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in and all Israel shall be saved Rom. 11.26 Then the Church shall be as the stone that smote the Image it shall become a great mountain and fill the whole earth Though the beginning of it be small yet the later end of it shall greatly increase Job 8.7 for all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Christ he shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth Psal 72.8 11 17 Great is the paucity of Gods people for present but let us by the help of this promise get above that stumbling block Cosmographers tell us that if we divide all the known world into thirty parts the Heathens part is as nineteen of this thirty the Mahometans as six the Christians as five only And of those five more then the one half is held by idolatrous Papists But let not this discourage us it will be otherwise one day for the Scripture cannot be broken And although God may seem utterly to have abandoned his ancient people the Jews the ten Tribes especially yet they as well as the rest shall be vouchsafed this honour to be called to the participation of Christ Ezek. 37.16 19. Jer. 3 12 13 c. Esay 11.12 13. Obad. 20. Zach. 10.6 Rom. 11.26 If God after so dreadful a threatning come in with his non-obstante as he doth likewise Psal 106.8 and elsewhere and say yet the number of the children of Israel shall be c. who shall gain say him Their interpretation is too narrow that understand this text of the increase of this people in all their dispersions until the time of their conversion And that of Rabbi Ezra is pretty though not proper that as the sand keeps the waves of the sea from breaking in and drowning the world so doth Israel preserve man-kind from perishing by the waves of Gods wrath It should have been considered by him and the rest of those refractary Rabbines that at that general conversion of the Jews here plainly foretold there shall be some stubborn spirits that will not even then stoop to Christ but will be filled with envy as those cankered Pharisees their fore-fathers were Acts 13.44 45. to see almost the whole City come together to hear Christ Yea they will be ready to say as John 12.19 perceive ye how ye
prevaile nothing behold the whole world follows him Now against these spiritual spirits the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven Rev. 21.8 Dan. 12.2 Esay 65.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. and it shall come to passe that in the place where it was said unto them As if God did now even repent and would make them a full amends make them glad according to the time Psal 90.15 and in that very place when and where they had seen evil Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in Jerusalem Zech. 12.6 The Jews it is thought shall dwell in their own Countrey Jer. 3.18 23.8 Ezek. 37.11 12. Amos 9.14 15. and God have a very glorious Church in the Land of Canaan But that 's not all The Gentiles who shall be made a spiritual Israel though in time past they were not a people yet now are they the people of God and which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy 1 Pet. 2.10 yea such a signal mercy as S. John cannot look on without an Ecce admirantis Behold Qualem quantum As 2 Pet. 3.11 saith he what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1 John 3.1 Yes the sons of the living God who as he lives so he gives us all things richly to enjoy and is therefore to be trusted 1 Tim. 6.17 And that we should not only be Gods people but his sons reconciled but adopted and not only be so but be called so have the name and the note the credit and the comfort Well might the Apostle say that the grace of God herein had abounded even to an overflow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.14 Well may Oecolampadius say as he doth upon this very Text Vide ut major gratia quam peccatum Behold how as sin abounded grace superabounded Serm. 6. de Nativit Well might Leo say Omnia dona excedit hoc donum c. This is a gift of God that exceedeth all gifts that man should call God Father and God call a man his sonne this is a greater dignity then to be called an Angel Archangel Cherubim Seraphim c. See more of this in my Righteous mans Recompense part 2. doct 5. Calvin upon this verse noteth that there is an emphasis in these words It was said and It shall be said The latter sheweth that till the Lord speak peace to his people and say to their souls that he is their salvation they cannot have the comfortable assurance of their Adoption and acceptation into his favour Eph. 1.13 After that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation ye believed and were sealed with that holy spirit of promise Again if God by his Prophets have said to any ye are not my people c. he will effect it God heweth men by his Prophets and slayeth them by the words of his mouth Hosea 6.5 Elisha hath his sword as well as Jehu and Hazael 1 Kings 19.17 Ezekiel besiegeth Jerusalem and overthroweth it Jeremy is set over nations and kingdoms to root out and pull down c. Chap. 1.10 S. Paul hath vengeance ready for the disobedient 2 Cor. 10.6 And what Gods Ministers do on earth he ratifies in heaven Mat. 16.19 and 18.18 Verse 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together i. e. they shall unite into one body and one religion and shall all make one entire Kingdome John 12. Ezek. 37.22 24. Christ once lifted up shall draw all things to himself and wherever this carcase is Mat. 24. there will the spiritual Eagles be also Caiaphas like another Balaam prophesied that Jesus should die for that Nation And not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.51.52 Zeph. 3.9 This is the gathering together here mentioned Christ shall be one amongst his people and his name one Zeâ—h 14.9 See the Note there they shall serve the Lord with one shoulder It seems to be a Metaphor taken from Oxen that are yoked together and that set their shoulders joyntly to the work Surely the more the Gospel prevaileth the more peace there will be They shall be gathered together in that day So when Christ shall be preached and obedience yielded to his government Esay 9.7 then shall there be a blessed harmony of hearts then shall they flie in flocks to the ordinances as the doves to their windows then shall they come to the Lords house upon horses and in charrets and in litters Esay 66.20 and appoint themselves one head The Lord Christ called David their King chap. 3.5 A multitude gathered under this one Head and united to him is a Church This head is indeed appointed and set up over the Church by God Psal 2.6 Eph. 1.22 But the Saints are said to appoint Christ their head and indeed to set the Crown upon his head as Cant. 3.11 when they chuse him and embrace him for their Soveraign when with highest estimations most vigorous affections and utmost endeavours of unfained obedience they set him up in their hearts and serve him in their lives giving him the preheminence and holding all in Capite in Christ yea holding of the head as the Apostles expression is Col. 2.19 not of Paul or Apollo or Cephas That Popish Buzzard was utterly out who said that he had found in the Dictionaries that Cephas signifieth an Head and that therefore Peter was head of the Church For neither doth Cephas signifie an Head but a Stone or Rock nor if it did would that prove what he alledgeth it for Judah and Israel shall appoint to themselves one head not more then one The Church is not bellua multorum capitum neither is there any need of a ministerial head of the Church Indeed there is a contradiction in the very mention of it as one well observeth a Ministerial Head it is absurd to speak it and they shall come up out of the land i. e. They shall be gathered into the heavenly Jerusalem saith Occolampadius They shall come up from their miserable life saith Luther from their earthly affections saith Hierom. Rather from Chaldea or where ever they lie captivated and dispersed to Jerusalem there to joyn in the same way of worship as once the twelve Tribes did before the schism under Jeroboam with the Christian Church and so go on the way to the kingdom of heaven for great is the day of Jezreel i. e. of Christ saith Hierom who is Gods seed and shall see his seed and so prolong his dayes by a succession of Saints Esay 53.10 for whom God also will do great things in that day of his power Psal 100.3 when there shall be a marvellous increase of his Church which he shall sow with the seed of men and of beasts Jer. 31.37 Ezech. 36.38 revealing his arm another etymologie of the word Jezreel
the face of Iesus Christ and he shall come unto us as the rain As the showres of blessing Ezek. 34.26 rain of liberalities Psal 68.9 rain of righteousnesse Hos 10.12 Citò exaudi me Domine complue me saith Austin upon those words of David My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Hear me quickly O Lord rain righteousnesse upon my dry soul fill me with the fruits of thy Spirit whose work it is to illuminate and sanctifie as it is the Fathers to heal verse 1. and the Sons to revive and raise us together with himself the first-fruits of them that sleep verse 2. as the latter and former rain unto the earth sc in perfection of gifts and graces by degrees wrought in our hearts Or in seasonable and sutable comforts as rain in seed-time softening the ground and a little before harvest to plump and fill up the corn in the ear Verse 4. O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee c See how soon the Prophet changeth his note Hitherto he had set forth their repentance in sense of mercy now all on the sudden he upbraideth and threatneth them for their incorrigiblenesse and inconstancy Ministers must turn themselves as it were into all shapes and fashions both of speech and spirit to win people to God Aarons bels must be wisely rung saith One. Sometimes the Treble of Mercy sounds well M. Neh. Rog. At other times the Tenour of Judgement or Counter-tenour of reproof sounds better and it oft falls out that the Mean of Exhortation soundeth best of all It is his wisdom to observe circumstances and know how to curse as well as blesse chide as well as comfort and speak warre to a rebell as well as peace to a friend And herein indeed lieth the wisdom and faithfulnesse of a Teacher Then and onely then shall he prove himself sincere and unpartiall when he holds this course What shall I do unto unto thee It is as if God should say I have done mine utmost as Esay 5.5 Mich. 5.3 and now am at a stand and can scarce tell what to do more See the like expostulatory complaints Ier. 2.30 31. Chap. 5.3 Amos 4.6 Esay 26.10 Matth. 11.16 17 18. 23.37 I would but thou wouldest not As the loving hen is alwayes caring for her chickens and calling them about her that she may gather and guard them from the mischief of all vermin but they will needs be stragling and so perish So if Gods people will not hearken to his voice if Israel will none of him what can he do lesse then give them up to their own hearts lusts Psal 81.12 yea give them up to the devil to be further hardened to their just destruction saying That which will die let is die All that God can do is as here to mourn for their obstinacy and fool-hardinesse in rejecting his grace as he wept over Jerusalem Luke 19.42 We should also do the like Esay 24.16 Jer. 4.19 Rom 9.2 Acts 2.40 crying out with Esay My leannesse my leannesse and with Jeremy My bowels my bowels and with Paul I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in my heart for my perverse Countrey-men Peter calleth them an untoward generation such crooked pieces that there was no working upon them A cunning Carver can cut the similitude of any creature yet not on a crooked or rotten stick Where lieth the fault surely in the crookednesse of the stick and not in the Carvers cunning so is it here When men wrestle with God as Deut. 32.5 shift him off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostles word signifieth Heb. 12.25 take up the bucklers against the sword of his Spirit lest it should prick them at heart as Acts 2.37 and let out the life-blood of their lusts that they might live what can the Lord do in this case more then pity their unhappinesse and punish them for their stubbornnesse as the Judge pitieth a malefactour as he is a man but yet condemneth him as a thief or murtherer Tell me not here that God could have done more for Ephraim and Iudah then the did Matt. 8.2 and they might have said in answer to Gods question here as that Leper in the Gospel did Why Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Hence it is God by his absolute power can make iron swim rocks stream forth water stones to yeeld children to Abraham he can do whatsoever he pleaseth save without means c. But it is his actuall power that man must look to And so he having tied the end and the means together cannot say Divines because hee will not bring men to the end without their using those means which tend unto the end for that is the ordinary course which he hath decreed to use and which he will not alter but upon speciall occasion as our Saviour noteth in the cure of Naaman and in the feeding of the widow of Sarepta Luke 4.26.27 for your goodnesse is as the morning cloud c. This people hearing God say What shall I do unto you might possibly reply why what should you do but rain down righteousnesse upon us and load us with loving-kindnesses for we are good all over we have returned and done right in thy sight as it is said of those hypocrites Ier. 34.15 16. and as Peter saith of some Apostates in his time that they were clean escaped from them who live in errour and for matter of practise they had also escaped the pollutions of the world knew the way of â—ighteousnesse and seemed very forward in it were as the fore-horses in a Teem â—ing-leaders of good exercises c. who yet afterwards fell off to the world tur◠〈◊〉 from the holy commandements and returned with the dog to their vomit and with the washed sow to her wallowing again in the mire And this is that which the Lord here upbraideth this people with and so stops their mouthes viz. that their goodnesse or mercifulnesse their piety toward God and charity toward men â—as nothing else but a morning-cloud Jude ver 12. a waterlesse cloud as Jude hath it a meer flaunt or flash an out-side onely an empty sound a vain pretence It was also as the morning-dew which is soon dried up by the Sun-beams In a word they were both false and fickle unsteady and unstable constant onely in their inconstancy Hence this patheticall complaint of them God knew not where to have them and therefore not what to do with them These were never right with God because not stedfast in his covenant Psal 78.36 37. they are unstable as water therefore they shall not excell Gen. 49.4 they never were a willing people in the day of Christs power Psal 110 3. his power was never put forth upon them to subdue their wils to Gods will They never yet attained to that spirit of power of love and of a sound minde 2 Tim. 1.7 Inconstancy comes from weaknesse The strength of Israel repenteth not 1 Sam.
shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater who shall devour them at a bit Nah. 3.12 as Shalman spoyled Betharbel Shalman signifieth peaceabley saith an Interpreter a man of a calme spirit but he answered not his name for he exercised greatest cruelty There is not a more troublesome sea then that which is called Mare pacificum There is oft Aliud in Titulo aliud in Pyxidc Absalom signifieth the Fathers peace but he proved otherwise then was hoped Fallitur augurio spes bena saepe suo But this Salman is by the best Interpreters thought to be Salmanasar king of Assyria in this Prophets time Salman is vox truncata a name cut off to the halves a thing very ordinary in all the learned languages as were easie to instance See Esay 15.2 Bamoth for Bamoth-Baal Josh 19.35 Chamath for Chamath-Dor Hesiod puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Lips ep 19. lib. 1. Ennius hath Fabric for Fabricius This Salmanasar or as Luther will have it some other great warriour called Salman not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture but not unknown to the ten tribes did cruell execution it seems upon Betharbel a city beyond Jordan 1 Maccab. 9.2 like as Tamerlan for a terrour to the Greek Empire much whereof he afterwards subdued did at Sebastia Turk hist fol. 211. where he made a mercilesse slaughter of all sexes and sizes whereby he held the whole East in such awe as that he was commonly called The wrath of God and Terrour of the world There are that think this Arbel to be the same with that Arbela where Alexander defeated Darius and won the Persian Monarchy They make it a city or countrey of Assyria beneath Arpad and hinted at by Rabshakeh 2 King 18.34 See 2 King 15.29 16.34 19.13 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad sc Salmanasar hath utterly destroyed them Arbel is by some interpreted the city of Bel where Belus or Baal was worshipped By others Beth-arbel is interpreted The house of the insnaring god the god of policie or subtilty It seemeth to them that the people of this place had a god that they thought would ensnare and ensnarle all their enemies but it proved much otherwise For the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children Dashed against the ground so the word signifieth against the walls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. or pavement See Gen. 32.11 Psal 137.9 Esay 13.16 Such is the savage cruelty of warre when God lets it out Such was the barbarous dealing of the French in the Parisian Massacre such the Sicilian Vespers and at Merindoll where the paps of many women were cut off which gave suck to their children Act. Mon. fol. 868. â— which looking for suck at their mothers brests being dead before died also for hunger Was not this to kill the mother with the children which God forbade by a symboll of taking the dam with the young Deut. 22.6 and again of killing the ewe and the lamb both in one day Lev. 22.28 The Spaniards murdered fifty millions of Indians in 42. years as Acosta the Jesuite testifieth Arsenoe was killed upon her children by her bloody brother Ptolomce king of Egypt And another of that name killed thirty thousand Jewes and compel'd the living to feed upon the flesh of the dead When the Switzers vanquished the Thericcuses in battle Languet Chron. they banqueted in the place where they won the victory using the dead bodies of their Adversaries instead of stools and tables The sight of such like cruelties common in warre might well make Zuing lius say when he had been abroad with the Army Melch. Ad. in vit 36. that he had found more wickednesse and bad counsels and courses therein then ever he had known before either by experience or out of books This passage in Gods book and the like chap. 13.16 their infants shall be dashed-in pieces and their women with child shall be ript up he could not be ignorant of The Prophet refers his hearers to a sad example of fresh-bleeding cruelty well known to them that they might relent repent and prevent the like misery upon themselves This is the use we should all put such examples to Luke 13.2 3 5. 17.26.28 1 Cor. 10.6 7 8 11. Verse 15. So shall Bethel do unto you i. e. the idolatry that you have committed at Bethel by a Synechdoche of the place this shall undo you Or So shall he do unto you O inhabitants of Bethel Bethel shall be made a Betharbel They that take not example by others shall be made an example to others Lege historiam ne sias historiaâ— Because of your great wickednesse Heb. the wickednesse of your wickednesse the iniquity of your sin the foolishnesse of your madnesse Eccles 7.25 your idolatry especially that wickednesse with a witnesse Let us by Gods example learn to lay load upon our sins and not to extenuate but to aggravate them against our selves In a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off This was fulfilled in Hoseâ—â— the last king of Israel 2 King 17. cut off in a morning that is in a moment as foam or a bubble upon the waters The morning-light lasteth not long but shineth on to the perefect day Or in a morning when some hope appears and some comfort is expected as Psal 30.6 it is but a lightning afore death Accidit in puncto quod non speratur in anâ—â— Contrarily the Saints at evening-time have light Zech. 14.7 See the Note there CHAP. XI Verse 1. WHen Israel was a childe then I loved him Or Because Israel was a childe I loved him Young things are lovely young children especially for their innocency and ignescency Some sence it thus Israel was a child and had nothing of worth or lovely in him yet I loved him freely Deut. 7.7 Hos 10.9 called him out of Egypt out of the iron furnace led him thorow the deep as an horse in the wildernesse Esay 63.13 possessed him of the promised land Out of which though I shall shortly cast him for him ingratitudes yet there is hope of his restauration by the Messiah my Sonne whom when I have called out of Egypt he shall gather together again the dispersed of Israel and bring life and immortality to light by the Gospel The foundation of which restauration he here maketh to be his own free-grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 1.53 He hath holpen his servant or his childe Israel in remembrance of his mercy God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son c. Joh. 3.16 Here then beginneth our Prophets first Evangelicall sermon as Tarnoviâ—s observeth who also readeth the Text thus Albeit Israel was a childe such a forlorn out-cast childe as is described Ezek. 16. and 23. Yet I loved him and adopted him for my sonne not for any defect on my part for I had an onely begotten Son in whom I am well
mean while so should we glad to hover and cover under the shadow of the Almighty by the grace of faith quae te pullastrum Christum gallinum facit which makes Christ the hen and thee the chicken saith Luther till he might see what would become of the city whether God would not ratifie his word by raining down hell from heaven upon it as once he did upon sinfull Sodom or overwhelme it with the river Tigris as once he did some part of it saith Diodorus Siculus Diod. lib. 2. so that twenty furlongs of the town-wall were thrown down by it And the Prophet Nahum threateneth that with an over-flowing flood God would make an end of the place thereof chap. 1.8 Verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd sc after that his booth was dried up and the leaves withered God by his providence and not without a miracle because without seed and so suddenly furnished Ionah with this gourd or ivy-bush or white vine or the plant called Palma Christi or Pentadactylon because it resembleth a mans hand with five fingers something it was but what is not certainely known Kimchi thus describeth it Est herba longis altis frondibus umbrosa It is an herb or plant that yeeldeth good shade with its long and large leaves And many yeares before him one Rabba son of Hanna said that it growes by the waters side is commonly set for shade-sake before tavern doores and that oyle is made of the seeds of it and made it to come up over Ionah Not only to refresh him who having been so lately in the whales-belly was haply more tender-skinned then before and not so well able to endure the heate of the Sun but also to make way to that reproof he afterwards gave him ver 10. Hoc enim exierno signo saith Mercer for by this outward signe God sporting with him as it were clearly convinceth him of his impatiency admonisheth him of his duty this He thinketh was not done till the forty dayes wore over to deliver him from his grief from his head-ach caused by the heat of the Sun which yet he cursed not as the scorched Atlantes are said to doe Or to exhilarate and refresh his spirits after his self-vexing for the hasty man never wants woe and the envious person because he cannot come at another mans heart feedeth upon his own Esa 5.7 Now though God chide him for his fault yet as a father he tendereth his infirmity and taketh care that the spirit faile not before him and the soule that he had made And it is as if he should say Ionah goeth on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heale him I will leade him also and restore comforts unto him Esay 57.16 17 18 As it is a rule in Physick still to maintaine nature so Ionah was exceeding glad Heb. rejoyced with great joy that is supra modum he was excessive in all his passions which speakes him a weake man Some think he rejoyced the more in the gourd as conceiving that God thereby voted with him and for him This was also Leahs errour when rejoycing in that whereof she should have repented rather she said Gen. 30.18 God hath given me my hire because I have given my maiden to my husband and she hath borne me a fist son So much mistaken are the best sometimes and so bladder-like is mans soule that filled with earthly vanityes though but wind and gone with a wind it growes great and swels in pride and folly but if prickt with the least pin of piercing grief it shriveleth to nothing Verse 7. But God prepared a worm All occurrences are to be ascribed not to Nature Fate or Fortune but to God who as he is Great in great things so is he not little in the least Maximus in magnis nec parvus in minimis He prepared first the gourd and then the worm and then the wind He was the great doer in all He so attempereth all that his people shall have their times and their turns of joy and sorrow These two are tyed together said the Heathen with chaines of Adamant hence also Ageronia's altar in the temple of Volupia Flut. See the circle God usually goes in with his Psal 30.5 6 7. c. to teach them that all outward comforts are but as grass or flower of the field which he can soone blast or corrode by some worme of his providing Moneo te iterumque iterumque monebo saith Lactantius I warn thee therefore will do it againe againe that thou look not upon those earthly delights as either great or true to those that trust them De opisicio Da. ad Dem. but as things that are not onely deceitfull because doubtfull but also deadly because delicious There is a worm lies couchant in every gourd to smite it a teredo to wast it besides the worm of conscience bred in that froath and filth for a perpetuall torment and it smot the gourd that it withered Plants have also their wounds diseases and death Lib. 17. cap. 14. saith Pliny The gourd being gnawed at the root and robbed of its moistness withered Sic transit gloria mundi But the righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree tree not like this palm-crist Psal 92.12 Now the palm-tree though it have many waights at the top and many snakes or wormes at the root yet it still sayes Alciat Emb. Nec premor nec perimor I am neither born down nor dried up but as Noahs olive drown'd kept its verdure and as Moses bush fired but not consumed so fareth it with the righteous persecuted but not forsaken c. 2 Cor. 4.8 9. and at death a crown of life awaites him Quanta perennis erit an immarcescible crown Sr. Thom. Bodlye 's posy an inheritance undefiled and that withereth not Pet. 1.4 that suffereth no Marasmus but is reserved fresh and green for you in heaven like the palm-tree which Pliny saith never loseth his leafe nor fruit or like that Persian tree whereof Theophrastus saith that at the same time it doth bud blossome and beare fruit Verse 8. God prepared a vehement East-wind The windes then blow not where they list at randome I mean and without rule but are both raised and layed againe by God at his pleasure He prepared and sent out of his treasures Jer. 10.13 this violent East-wind ◠Heb silent R. Selomoh so called either because it silenceth all other winds with its vehemency or because when it blowes men are made silent or deaf with its dinn so that their tale cannot be heard There are that by silent here understand a still low gentle East-wind that cooled not the heate of the avre inflamed by the Sun but rather added to it and set it on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks interpret it and this suites well with that which followeth and the Sun beat upon the head of
the rebellious Iewes that God stileth them his people Doth he not elsewhere disclaim them and call them a sinful nation a people laden with iniquity the people of his wrath and of his curse May not all Formalists fear Jacobs fear Gen. 27.12 My father peradventure will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Our heavenly Father will surely feel us in our addresses and if he find us but complementing and contenting our selves to be called the house of Jacob he will confute our vain confidences and cut us out of the roll as he did Dan and Ephraim who were named the house of Jacob and yet for their wickednesse are passed by in the reckoning up of the twelve tribes Rev. 7. as if they were souldiers put out of pay and cashiered Is the spirit of the Lord straitned or shortned Is he a penny-penny-father hath he but one blessing Mal. 2.15 Is there not with him the residue of the spirit plenteous redemption an exceeding abundant goodnesse even to a superpleonasme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.14 Where then is the fault that you are no more Jacob-like plain-hearted and perswasible that ye refuse to be reformed hate to be healed saying to me Depart and to my Prophets Drop not c. Neither curse ye nor blesse ye as he said to Balaam wherein if they should hearken to you and be ruled by you yea should you straitly threaten them with bonds to speak henceforth to no man in my name as Act. 4.17 yet my word is not bound 2 Thess 3.1 2 Tim. 2.9 but runs and is glorified my spirit is not straitned but is free and not fettered I tell you that if these Prophets should hold their peace Luk. 19.40 and not drop the stones would immediatly cry out which against change of weather do stand with great drops of water to confute your unyeeldingnesse Turn ye therefore now at my reproof behold I will turn out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Prov. 1.23 I will do it howsoever yea in despite of you I will do it as some sense the foregoing verse reading it thus and the original will bear it Drop ye not but they shall drop Are these his doings i.e. Such as God doth approve of or rather are these Jacobs doings tread you in the steps of your father Jacob did he ever silence the Prophets and withstand those that were sent unto him Did he not rather lie low put his mouth in the dust and crie out speak Lord for thy servant heareth Good is the word of the Lord which ye have spoken c. And whereas ye will be apt enough to replie that Iacob had no other cause for the Prophets never spake but good and comfortable things to him it is answered in the next words Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Heb. upright that pondereth his paths by the weights of my word and turneth not to the right hand nor to the left Pro. 4.26 27. but walketh exactly accurately and precisely Eph. 5.15 keeping within my precincts c. Do not my words do good to such and speak they not peace to him David felt it as sweet as honey Ps 119.103 But as honey causeth pain to exulcerate parts though of it self it be sweet and medicinal so doth the word of God to exulcerate consciences Children though they love to lick in honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al. Aphrod Probl. yet they will not endure to have it come neer their lips when they have sore mouths so is it here Excellently saith Saint Austin Adversarius est nobis quamdiu sumus ipsi nobis c. The word of God is adversary to none but such as are their own greatest adversaries c. It may well be compared to Moses rod which whiles he held it in his hand it flourished and brought forth almonds but being cast on the ground it turned into a serpent Did it not take hold of those refractaries Zech. 1.6 that would not take hold of Gods covenant and chuse the things that pleased him Esay 56.4 Doth it not still sting wicked people with unquestionable conviction and horrour when as great peace have they which love Gods law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Vers 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy Heb. yesterday no longer ago to all their former flagitious practises they have now newly added this of execrable rapine and robbery which is still fresh and as it were flagrant in mine eyes Although the truth is that God looketh upon former sins as presently committed for as there is no beginning of eternity so neither is there any succession But let men take heed how they heap up sin lest they heap up wrath for although God may bear with people for one or two out-strayes yet when once it comes to three transgressions and to four he will not turn away the punishment Am. 1.2 and one new sin may set many old awork in the conscience making it like Ezekiels scroul Ezek. 2.12 wherein was written lamentations and mourning and woe Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons saith the Lord 2 Kin. 9.26 The word signifieth last night though it were done some while before See the word yesterday so used by the Apostle Hebraizing with his Hebrews Chap. 15.8 Some read the text thus He that was yesterday my people is risen up on the other side as against an enemy viz. raging against God and ranging against all men biting all they come aneer as mad dogs See Esay 9.21 1 Thess 2.15 they please not God but rise up in rebellion against him and are contrary to all men being rather Ismaelites then Israelites Gen. 16.12 and therefore not rightly named the house of Jacob that plain man Gen. 25.27 without welt or gard guile or gall nor could the word of the Lord do good unto them so long as their deeds were evil and they loved darknesse rather then light Joh. 3.19 Ye pull off the robe with the garment Robbing and pillaging passengers with greatest inhumanity not leaving them a rag to cover them or a crosse to blesse them with as the proverb is This was common in Scotland and Africa saith Daâ—â—â— here It was in England also till the dayes of king Alfred who first divided the land into shires and then the subjects into tenths or Tithings every of which severally should give bond for the good a bearing of each other c. Heyl. Geog. 474. By this course men were not careful onely of their own actions but had an eye to all the nine for which they stood bound as the nine had over each Insomuch that a poor girle might travel safely with a bag of gold in her hand and none durst meddle with her from men that passe by securely as
cause before he proceedes to judgment this deserves admiration and acknowledgement in the highest degree O the depth Verse 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt Here God twits them with his former favours which he never doth but in case of brutish unthankfulnesse Now there was brutish and worse To render good for evill is divine good for good is humane evill for evill is brutish but evill for good devilish This makes God contrary to his custome upbraid people with what he hath done for them and angrily call for his love-tokens back againe as Hos 2.9 For their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude how great a mercy it was see the Note on Hos 11.1 such as they were againe and againe charged never to forget Deut. 6.12 and 5.15 and 26.5 to 12. How much more bound are we to God for our Redemption by Christ for what 's Pharaoh to Satan Egypt to this present evill world Egyptian bondage to fins slavery Seeing then that our God hath given us such deliverance as this should we againe break his commandements c. Well might the hills and mountaines testify against such a monstrous unthankfullnesse and disingenuity and redeemed thee out of the house of servants Gradatim progreditur saith Calvin It was somthing to be brought out of the land of Egypt a most superstitious place where they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man for they defiled their king Osiris and of birds for they worshipped the hawk and Ibis and of foure-footed beasts for they worshipped an ox Rom. 1.23 a dog a cat a swine and of creeping things for they worshipped the Crocodile Ichneumon c. yea they worshipped plants and pot-herbs Hence the Poet Felices gentes Iuven. quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina To be brought out therefore from amongst such hatefull Idolaters was no small favour lest they should smell of their superstitions as Mica's mother did after all that ayring sin in the desert Judg. 17.3 and Jeroboam by being there awhile had learned calf-worship hence that strickt charge never to make leagne with them But to be redeemed out of the house of servants was more out of the iron furnace Deut. 4.20 Ier. 11.4 where they wrought night and day in latere luto Exod. 1. in setting up those famous Pyramids and treasure-cities for Pharaoh where they served with rigour Exod. 1.13 their lives were made bitter with hard bondage ver 14. till God withdrew their shoulders from the burden and their hands did leave the pots Psal 81.6 till they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved-work of a Saphire-stone Exod. 24.10 to shew that God had now changed their condition their bricks made in their bondage to Saphirs Confer Esay 54.11 and consider what God hath done for us by bringing us into the glorious liberty of his own children who were once the devils drudges and dromedaries serving diverse lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 which gave lawes to our members Rom. 7. and held us under in a brutish bondage much worse then the Heathens mil-house the Turks gallies Bajazets iron-cage the Indian mines or Egyptian furnace For there if they did their task they escaped stripes but here let men do the devill never such doughty service they are sure of scourges and scorpions after all armies and changes of sorrowes and sufferings terrours and torments without any the least hope of ever either mending or ending This should make us lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to our most powerfull Redeemer saying with St. Paul Now to the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.17 and I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam As three principall guides and Miriam for one who did her part among the women Exod. 15.20 and having a prophetick spirit became a singular instrument in the hand of God who spake by her Num. 12.2 But her weak head was not able to bear such a cup of honour without being intoxicated which caused her father to spit in her face Num. 12.2 14. Her death is recorded in scripture Num 20.1 but not her age as is Sarahs Gen. 23.1 Some have observed that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scripture but Sarah to humble that sex But as soules have no sexes so of some women such as were Miriam Deborah the Virgin Mary Priscilla Blandina the Lady Jane Gray Q. Elizabeth c. it may be said that in them besides their sex there was nothing woman-like or weak as if what Philosophy saith the soules of these noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies which consist of a frame of rarer roomes of a more exact composition then mans doth It is possible that Miriam might till that matter of emulation betwixt her and Moses his wife fell out be as helpfull to Moses and Aaron as Nazianzens mother was to his father Non solum adjutricem in pietate sed etiam doctricem gubernatricem Nazian Epitap pat not a help-fellow only but a doctresse and governesse Verse 5. O my people remember now what Balak There must be a Recognition of Gods mercies or else there will neither follow Estimation nor Retribution Else we that should be as temples of his praises shall be as graves of his benefits Our soules are naturally like filthy ponds wherein fish die soon and frogs live long rotten stuff is remembred memorable mercies are forgotten whereas the soul should be as an holy Ark the memory like the pot of Manna preserving holy truths as the Law and speciall blessings as Aarons rod fresh and flourishing This Israel did not and are therefore justly blamed Psal 106.7 13 21. and here againe reminded of one signall mercy among many that they might take notice of the enemies malignity Gods benignity and their own indignity and ingratitude that parching wind that drieth up the fountaine of divine favours Ventus urens exsiccans what Balack king of Moab consulted Joshua saith that he arose and fought against Israel chap. 24.9 that is he had a good mind to have fought but he did not because he durst not So Esth 8.7 Haman is said to have laid his hand upon the Jewes because he intended and attempted such a matter They that is the Sortilegi or Lot-sorcerers with whom Balack-like he consulted cast Pur that is the lot before Haman from day to day and from month to month viz. Esth 3.7 to find out what month or day would be lucky for the accomplishment of his intended massacre of the Iewes but before that black-day came Mordecai was advanced and Haman hanged Now as there by the speciall providence of God over-ruling the superstition of that wicked wreth way was made for the preservation of Gods people So
ye also ignorant of these things saith our Saviour to the twelve are ye also without understanding Mat. 15.16 what know you not c. seven several times in one chapter 1 Cor. 6. And how doth the Apostle shent and shame his Hebrewes for their duâ—nesse and doltishnesse Heb. 5.12 It was expected it seems by the Angel here that Zachary a Master in Israel should have known more then he did of the meaning of this candlestick by Moses his ancient candlestick For the godly of those times did not beleeve those rites and ceremonies of the law did of themselves please God or that they were dumb shewes and insignificant Heb. 9. But they acknowledged them to be figures the truth and signification whereof was to be sought in Christ The ceremoniall law was indeed their Gospell and I said No my Lord An ingenious confession of his ignorance and this was far better then to plead for it as many now-adayes or to pretend more skill then he had that he might at least seem to be some body Ignorantiam meam non ignoro saith Origen Though I know little else yet this I know that it is but little that I know And not only in innumerable other things am I ignorant Ep. 119. c. 21. saith Austin but even in the very Scriptures also my chief study multò plura nescio quam scio I am to seek of many more things then I understand Surely saith Agur I am more brutish then any man and yet he had commerce with Ithiel and Vcal ver 1. and have not the understanding of a man sc of a man in Christ I neither learned wisdome though taught it nor have the knowledge of the holy that is of the Angels as Dan. 4.13 17. and 8.13 Zachary here saw himself farr short of the holy angel that â—alked with him and therefore desireth to be taught by him Verse 6. This is the Word of the Lord that is this Hieroglyphique containes the mind of God in it This is the interpretation of the vision neither so concise nor obscure ut Oedipo sit opus as a Lapide after Ribera here saith that it can hardly be understood For who seeth not by the opposition here made between humane help and divine that in building and beautifying his Church with safety and salvation God will make bare his own holy arme and do the work alone or by the weakest meanes against the strongest resistance Thus then have we saith an Interpreter in three words the scope of this whole vision Mr. Pemble That as the making and maintaining of this Candlestick and his Lamps was without the art and cunning of man by means supernaturall so Gods spirit without and above all humane helps should suffice for the reedification and preservation of the materiall Temple and true Church unto Zorobabel The Tirshata or chief magistrate Ezra 2.63 called also as it is thought Shesbazzar Ezra 1.8 He was a type of Christ to whom also God the Father here speaketh concerning his church to be gathered by the preaching of the Gospell not by might nor by strength as Mahomet in the East and the Spaniard in the Indies but by the power of his spirit that great Wonder-worker whereby the people fall under him Psal 45.5 and strong holds are cast down before him 2 Cor. 10.4 as once the walles of Iericho Thus he unwalled all the children of Seth Num. 24.17 viz. by the foolishnesse of preaching and thus hestill rideth upon his white horses his Ministers conquering and to conquer Rev. 6.2 Britaniorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo subdita sunt Tertull. The Romanes could never subdue this Nation but Christ could The Germans and other Western people embraced the Christian religion in the yeer 772. when the Mahomitan impiety wasted the East Gods spirit is irresistible compared to the wind Ioh to a mighty rushing wind Act. 2. that beares all before it therefore called a spirit of power 2 Tim. 1.7 of counsel and of might Esay 11.2 and therefore here fitly opposed to an army and to the arme of flesh to all humane power and policy whatsoever though the gates of hell come to their help not by might nor by strength c. These two words some take to be Synonymas Mercor saith that the former signifieth stout and noble acts the later importeth power and faculty of doing those acts and is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek By the Spirit of God we are to understand his power providence and Grace 2 Thes 2.8 Is 11.4 c. whereby he helpeth his people with a little help Dan. 11.34 that throug weaker meanes they may see his greater strength Thus he helped David against Goliath and the Israelites against the Philistines often but especially then when unarmed they marched with their slings and plow-staves and hooks and forks and other instruments of their husbandry against a mighty and well-furnished enemy and returned laden both with arms and victory Sometimes againe God helpeth his without any visible help as when he destroyed Senacherib's army by an Angel swept away Sisera's army by the river Kison and the Saracens and Persians by the river Euphrates in the dayes of Theodosius Anno. 394 Alsted Chronol p. 300. smitten with a Panick terrour they ran headlong into the river and were drowned to the number of an hundred thousand for whom also the winds sought in that famous battle against Maximus as both winds and waves did for us against the invincible navy Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 5. cap. 26. The Church alone deserveth to be stiled invincible that hath the Lord of Hosts to be her Champion who hath armies above and armies beneath as the Rabbines well observe 2. generall troopes as his horse and foot Magnleh cheloth matteh cheloth ready prest Legions of Angels Millions of other creatures the curtaines of the Tabernacle embroidered with Cherubims signified the service and protection of the Church by the Angels Let the Pope be the Sun and the Emperour the Moon as the Canonists stile them yet the Sun must not smite the Church by day nor the Moon by night but the starrs in their courses must fight against Sisera and both the Popes bull and the Emperours thunderbolt tend exceedingly to the furtherance of the Reformation begun by Luther Whereupon Scultetus makes this observation Ecce tibi adimpletum Psalmicum illud Psal 54.3 Behold that of the Psalmist made good He shall send from heaven and save us from the reproach of him that would swallow us up Selah God shall send forth his mercy and his truth He shall but when will he may some say First when his people in distresse cry aloud I came for thy word Dan. 10.12 He will come but he will have his peoples prayers lead him Secondly when his enemies blaspheme and insult saying Where is now their God When Rabshakeh a Renegado Jew as the Rabbins report him shall jear at Hezekiahs prayers as an
had collected an elected Church 1 Epist 5.13 and thence he writeth his Epistle to the sojourning Jews scattered thorow those Eastern parts chap. 1.10 from whence also those kings of the East Rev. 16.12 the converted Jews as some expound it are expected And who can tell whether this land of Shinar be not the same with that land of Sinim Esay 49.12 Confer Esay 11.16 Zach. 10.11 Or by the land of Shinar here may be meant exilium totius orbis their generall rejection by all nations the whole world being to them a Shinar that is a land of excussion and it shall be established c. This denoteth the diuturnity or perpetuity of their punishment CHAP. VI. Verse 1. ANd I turned and lift up mine eyes i. e. I passed on to another vision and 1 lifted up the eyes of my mind higher to heaven saith Hierom to receive a further revelation from God And whereas he saith I turned he declareth that God from on every side giveth his Church clear testimonies of his care of her so that she will give heed unto them and lift up her eyes there came four chariots out i.e. four squadrons of Angels Gods Warriours and Ministers of his manifold decrees which are here set forth by the name of brazen mountains 2 King 2.11 2 King 6.17 So Hab. 3.8 See chap. 1.8 with the Note Chariots the Angels are called in many places but especially Psal 68.17 The chariots of God in the Hebrew it is chariot in the singular to note the joynt service of all the Angels are twenty thousand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even thousands of Angels of chearfull ones so the Septuagint of such as serve the Lord readily and freely with joy and tranquillity and so do quiet his spirit Deut. 33.26 God rideth upon the heavens for Isra els help i.e. upon the Angels Heb. as it is said here vorse 8 give him full satisfaction The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place that is the Angels by their swiftnesse and warlike prowesse make Sion the Church as dreadfull to all her enemies did not one of them so to Sennacherib as those Angels made Sinai at the delivery of the Law which was given in fire Deut. 33.2 The word rendred Angels in the above-cited Psal 68.17 and so the Chaldee plainly expresseth it is by some who derive it of Shaan to sharpen referred to chariots to note a kinde of chariots armed with sharp hooks used in warres as many humane Writers record And so it maketh something to the confirmation of this Interpretation Statius Macrob. Vegetius concerning Angels rather then the four Monarchies But the Angel himself is our best Interpreter verse 5. where being asked by Zachary what these chariots were he answereth These are the four spirits of the heavens which go sorth from standing before the Lord of all the earth a plain Periphrasis of the Angels chap. 1.10 See the Note there from between two mountains tanquam è carceribus as designed by Gods all disposing providence and power and ready prest at his appointment and pleasure to run their race do their office execute Gods judgements which are both unsearchable and inevitable and this the Poets hammer'd at in their ineluctabile Fatum as they called it Gods decrees lie hid under mountains of brasse as it were till they come to execution they run as a river under ground till they break out and shew themselves When he hath once signified his will then we understand it which before lay hid from us that is when these chariots come out from between the mountains of brasse when the event declareth what was the immutable decrce of God Hence the Psalmist Thy right cousnesse is like the great mountains thy judgements are a great deep this for the decree And for the execution Thou preservest man and beast Psal 36.6 but by such means and in such manner as to thee seemeth best It is our part to say Amen to his Amen and to put our Fâ—at and Placet to his The will of the Lord be done said those primitive Christians Act. 21.14 Here am I send me Esay 6.8 Verse 2. In the first chariot were red horses c. These severall colours seem to set forth the diverse ministrations of the Angels deputed to severall employments The black colour betokeneth sorrowfull occurrences and revolutions The white joyfull The red bloody The grisled sundry and mixt matters partly joyfull and partly sorrowfull But I easily subscribe to Him that said We must be content to be ignorant of the full meaning of this vision Tanta est profunditas Christianarum literarum saith Austin so great is the depth of divine learning that there is no fathoming of it Prophecy is pictured like a Matrone with her eyes covered for the difficulty For which cause Paulinus Nolanus would never be drawn to write Commentaries and Psellus in Theodoret asketh pardon for expounding the Canticles of Solomon Verse 4. What are these my Lord Difficulty doth but whet desire in Heroick spirites the harder the vision the more earnest was the Prophets inquisition he was restlesse till better resolved and therefore applieth himself again to his Angel Tutour rather then Tutelar whom for honour sake he calleth My Lord. See the Note on chap. 4.5 and take notice of the truth of Saint Peters Assertion concerning the Prophetick scrutiny 1 Pet. 1.11 with greatest sagacity and sedulity Verse 5. These are the four spirits of the heavens Angels are spirits Heb. 1.7 14. and spirits of heaven Mat. 24.36 Gal. 1.8 resembling their Creatour as children do their Father both in their substance which is incorporeall Hence they are called sons of God Job 1.6 and 38.7 and in their excellent properties Life and Immortality Blessednesse and Glory a part whereof is their just Lordship and command over inferiour creatures For like as ministring spirits they stand before the Lord of the whole earth who sends them out at his pleasure to serve his providence so they have as his Agents and Instruments no small stroke in the ordering and managing of naturall and civill affairs as may be seen in the first of Ezechiel The wheels that is the events of things have eyes that is something that might shew the reason of their turnings if we could see it And they are stirred but as the living creatures that is the Angels stirred them And both the wheels and living creatures were acted and guided by Gods spirit as the principall and supream Cause of all the Lord of the whole earth as he is here called that stand before c. As waiting his commands and ready to runne on his errand Mat. 18 10. Dan. 7.10 Jacob at Bethel saw them 1. ascending sc to contemplate and praise God and to minister to him 2. descending sc to execute Gods will upon men for mercy or for judgement Psal 103.20 For which purpose Ezekiel tells us that they have four faces to look every way when as
expanse as a curtain or as a molten looking-glasse Job 37.18 Job 26.7 2. From the wisdome of God in laying the foundation of the earth and hanging it by Geometry as we say in the midst of heaven like Archimedes his pigeon equally poized with its own weight Terra pilae similis nullo fulcimine nixa Ovid. Fast l. 5 Aere subjecto tam grave pendet onus 3. From the goodnesse of God who formeth the spirit of man within him who hath made us these souls Esay 57.16 which he doth daily create and infuse into mens bodies yea and that alone without any help of their parents hence hee is called the Father of spirits Heb. 12.9 and the spirit of a dying man is said to return to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 This last text convinced Augustine who held sometime with Origen that the soul as well as the body was begotten by the parents farre more then the peremptory rashnesse of Vincentius Victor who censured boldly the Fathers unresolvednesse Chemnitius when hee doubted concerning the originall of a rationall soul and vaunted that he would prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo by God Aristotle Natures chief Secretary was much puzled about this point of the soul which indeed cannot fully bee conceived of nor defined by man Onely this we can say that the soul as it comes from God so it is like him viz. One immateriall immortall understanding Spirit distinguisht into three Powers which all make up one Spirit Verse 2. Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling Or slumber or poyson A Metaphor taken from a cup of generous wine but empoysoned so that those that drink of it do presently tremble grow giddy sleepy sick as heart can hold Poyson in wine works more furiously Thou hast made us to drink the wine of giddinesse saith the Church Psal 60.3 In the hand of the Lord is a cup and the wine is red it is full mixed c. The Prophet here seems to allude to Jer. 25.15 Esay 29.8 Jer. 31.7 Ovid saith of the river Gallus that whoso drinketh of it runneth mad immediatly Hierom telleth of a Lake neer Naples whereinto if a dog be thrown he presently dieth The like is reported by Josephus of the Lake Asphaltites Jerusalem shall be a murthering morsell to those that swallow it His meat in his bowels is turned it is the gall of aspes within him Hee hath swallowed down her spoil and he shall vomit it up again Job 20.14 15 God shall rake it out of his belly He shall have as little joy of his tid-bits of his sweet draughts as Jonathan had of his honey whereof he had no sooner tasted but his head was forfeited Pliny speaketh of a kind of honey that poysoneth because it is sucked out of poysonous flowers Our Chronicler telleth us Speed 1210. that at Alvelana three miles from Lisbon many of our English souldiers under the Earl of Essex perished by eating of honey purposely left in the houses and spiced with poyson The enemies of the Church make a dangerous adventure they are even ambitious of destruction they run to meet their bane as did those Philistines at Mizpeh 1 Sam. 7. And had they but so much wit as Pilats wife in a dream they would take heed of having any thing to do with those just men of eating up Gods people as they eat bread Psal 14.4 of bowsing in the bowles of the Sanctuary with Baltasar who fell thereupon into a trembling Dan. 5.6 so that his loyns were loosed and his knees knockt one against another when they shall be in the siege And so about to do their last and worst against the Church The people of Rome was saepe praelio victus nunquam bello saith Florus they lost many battles but were never overcome in a set warre at the last at the long-runne as they say they crushed all their enemies so doth the Church See Psal 129. thorowout and the story of the Maccabees Verse 3. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone Such a stone as that wherewith the woman brake Abimelech his brainpan at the tower of Thebez Judg. 9.53 He had slain all his brethren upon one stone verse 5. he receives therefore his deaths-wound by a stone and that by the hand of a woman which was his greatest grief The like death befell Pyrrhus king of Epirotes slain at the siege of Argos with a tyle thrown by a woman from the wall So was Earl Simon Mountfort that bloody persecutour of the Albigenses in Irance A woman discharged an engine at him Cades Justif of the Church from the walls of Tholouse and by a stone parted his head from his shoulders The virgin daughter of Zion shall do as much as all this comes to for her besiegers though all the people of the earth be gathered together against her For why she hath a strong champion that in maintaining her quarrell will dash them to pieces and grind them to powder Luke 20.18 They are no more able to stand before him then a glasse-bottle before a cannon-shot Hence her confidence her laughing and shaking her head by way of derision at her stoutest enemies Esay 37.22 She knows that all that burden themselves with her shall be cut in pieces Hamans wife could tell so much If Mordecai said she be of the seed of the Jews Esih 5.13 before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him A Jew may-fall before a Fersian and get up and prevail But if a Persian or whosoever of the Gentiles begin to sall before a Jew he can neither stay nor rise There is an invisible hand of omnipotency that strikes in for his own and confounds their opposites That little stone cut out without hands Christs humane nature is called a tabernacle not made with hands not of this building Heb. 9.11 that is not by an ordinary course of generation smiteth the four mighty Monarchies and crumbleth them to crattle Dan. 2.34 Hierom upon this text and after him other Interpreters both Ancient and Modern tell us that the Holy Ghost here alludeth to a certain exercise or game used much among the Jews namely to take up a great round stone for the triall of a mans strength lifting it up from the ground sometimes to the knees sometimes to their navels sometimes to their breasts and sometimes as high as their heads or above their heads At which sport many times they did grievously hurt themselves or at least scarify and make cuts in their flesh See Levit. 21.5 where the same word is used The Churches enemies shall strive and try who shall do her most hurt but the stoutest of them all shall be fooled and foiled in the end The irrepairable ruine of Rome is graphically described and even set forth to the eye Rev. 18.21 by a notable gradation An Angel a mighty Angel taketh a stone a great stone
hath it Ad ablutionem peccatoris menstruâ—â—â— For washing clean the sinner and the menstruous woman alluding as doth also the Chaldee to the waters of expiation made of the ashes of a red cow Num. 19.11 17. See the Note there and importing the purging both of he sinners and she-sinners Or as some will have it both of Actual and Original sin Lo this is the vertue of Christs merit and spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 11. far beyond that of Abanah Pharphar of Jordan and Siloam which yet are said not onely to wash and scour but also to heal and cure The Saracenes naturally stink like goats but by washing themselves and their children in the pool of Siloam Saligniacus Adrichom Plin. lib. 31. cap 11. Isidor lib. 13. Orig c. 13. Heyl Geog. 285. they become sweeter The Turks make use of it to sharpen their eye-sight At Cyzicum there is a well called Cupids well the water whereof is said to quench the fire of lust This is better yet then those Bathes of Rome concerning which Seneca no lesse wittily then truly complained Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt spurciores sunt qui lavant Or those wanton Bathes of upper-Badin in Helvetia much frequented yet not so much for health as filthy pleasure They that are in Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 they are not onely washed from their wickednesse Jer. 4.14 but bereft of their swinish natures nè tanquam sus ad volutabrum c 2 Pet. 2.22 Verse 2. gnotsabim terriculorum scar-crows I will cut off the names of the idols Heb. of the fray-bugges as they are likewise called 1 Sam. 31.9 1 Chro. 10.9 Psal 115.4 in contempt as Priapus in Horace furum qniumque Maxime formido Or grievous idols as Psal 16.4 because they tormented the mindes of the superstitious and put them to great pains to no purpose as is to be seen in Popish Pilgrims who though used hardly and lose much of their estates and other comforts yet satisfie themselves in this I have that I came for viz. the sight of a dumb idol as Calvin noteth on that place Seek ye my face Now of these mawmets and monuments of idolatry these Balaams blocks the Lord here promiseth to rid the land as he did under the Maccabees And as in the Primitive Church he did by the Christian Emperors stiled therefore by the superstitious Iconomachi and Iconaclastae and of late by the renowned Reformers as at Geneva Bern Basile where they were burnt all together on an Ash-wednesday of Gods own making and here in England by the command of King Edward the sixth who the self same day obtained a signal victory at Muscleborough-field and they shall no more be remembred Unlesse it be with shame and detestation as Ezech. 16.61 Psal 16.4 Hos 14.8 Ephraim shall say what have I to do any more with idols He shall pollute the idols which he once perfumed and say unto them Get you hence Isay 30.22 I was an obstinate Papist saith Latimer of himself as any was in England and a grosse Idolater c. But after that he came to a sight of his errour he so far forth abhorred idols that being brought forth after he was condemned to die to see a procession Act. and Mon. fol. 1230. he ran as fast as his old bones would carry him to one Spensers shop neer Karfax in Oxford and would not once look toward it and also I will cause the Prophets So they will needs be called and counted when as they are no better then unclean spirits see the Geneva-Note here or at least are acted and set on work by that unclean spirit the Devil See Mat. 12.43 Mar. 1.26 Iohn 8.44 Rev. 16.13 with the Notes indeed they are false Prophets Mat 7.15 false teachers who privily bring in damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 vanae orationis cui nulla veritatis vel virtutis ratio subest sunt artifices stultè loquaces garruli saith Montanus they are loud lewd liers inspired by that unclean spirit the father of lies Junius in loc ut impurati impurent alios seducant seducti that being themselves defiled and seduced they may defile and seduce others For by corrupt teachers Satan catcheth men as a cunning fisher by one fish catcheth another that he may feed upon both and the unclean spirit to passe out of the land This connexion is worthy to be noted saith reverend Calvin here because it shews us the source of all errours viz. the letting loose the reins to perverse teachers I confesse saith He we are apt enough of our selves to run after falsities such is the corruption of our natures Sed interea ubi grassatur licentia quidvis docendi necesse est corrumpi totam pietatem sic misceri omnia ut nihil differat lux à tenebris c. But where in matters of Religion every man may think that he lists and utter what he thinks and defend what he utters and publish what he defends and gather disciples to what he publisheth this libertas prophetandi this liberty or licentiousnesse rather of prophecying alasse poor England must needs bane the Church and bring in confusion God therefore here gives us to know that a Church canot stand unlesse false teachers be forbidden to turn the truth into a lie and to prate at their pleasure against the word of God and this saith He is diligently to be noted Videmus enim ut hodiè nebulones quidam c. For we see how at this day certain vile persons take it up for a principle that the Church is not free unlesse every man may be suffered to preach or broach what he pleaseth and that it is greatest cruelty to punish an heretike and not to give him leave to blaspheme the truth But the Prophet here sheweth that the Church of God cannot be kept in pure state nor stand intire and safe unlesse the rashnesse and impudency of such be restrained as dare pervert sound and sincere doctrine Thus He. Verse 3. And it shall come to passe that when any shall yet prophesie Here the Prophet sheweth how God will effect the former promise He will first give unto his people a spirit of judgement and then a spirit of burning as Esay 4.4 so that they shall be able to discerne both good and evil Heb. 5.14 2 Pet. 2.17 and not be led away with the errour of the wicked to fall from their own stedfastnesse they shall also be adeo percici zelo so carried on by a zeal of Gods glory and so blessedly blown up as I may so say in his cause that they shall fall upon their dearest relations in this case and labour to bring their own children to condigne punishment according to the Law of God in that behalf provided Deut. 13.8 9. Neither let any object here Ob. Sol. that this is Old Testament we find no such thing in the Gospel For the Prophet here
Padres do their Novices And yet the most people are to this day wofully to seek for the warrant of their worships resting on that old Popish rule to follow the drove and beleeve as the Church beleeves Act. 19.32 As at Ephesus so in our Church-assemblies the more part knew not wherefore they were come together They will say in generall to serve God But who he is how to be served wherein and in whom to be served they know not There is in a printed sermon a memorable story of an old man above threescore who lived and died in a parish Mr. Pemble Serm. misch of lâ—â—â—r where there had been preaching almost all his time This man was a constant hearer as any might be and seemed forward in the love of the word On his death-bed being questioned by a minister touching his faith and hope in God he made these strange answers Being demanded what he thought of God he answered that he was a good old man And what of Christ that he was a towardly yong youth And of his soule that it was a great bone in his body And what should become of his soule after he was dead That if he had done well he should be put into a pleasant green meddow These answers astonished those that were present to think how it were possible for a man of good understanding and one that in his dayes had heard at the least two or three thousand sermons yet upon his death-bed in serious manner thus to deliver his opinion in such main points of Religion which infants and sucklings should not be ignorant of But we may be sure this man is not alone there be many hundreds whose gray haires shew they have had time enough to learn more wit who yet are in case to be set to their A. B. C. againe for their admirable simplicity in matters of religion Blind they are and blind sacrifices they offer never once opening their eyes till death if then as Pliny reporteth of the Mole but alwayes rooting and digging in the earth as if thorough the bowels of it they would dig themselves a new way to hell is it not evill Or as some read it It is not evill q. d. 't is good enough and may serve turn well enough Or thus It is not evill in your opinion who rather then you would lose any gaine say Melius est ill quà m Nil 't is Osianders rime better that which is ill and bad then nothing at all But they which count all good fish that comes to net will in the end catch the devill and all The sense is much clearer in the interrogative Is it not evill It is It is and therefore studiously to be declined and avoided as poyson in your meat or a serpent in your way 1 Thess 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evill saith that great Apostle how much more from all apparant evils such as stare you in the face and are so directly contrary to the plain word of God Such are sins with an accent wickednesse with a witnesse great transgressions Psal 19.13 and if ye offer the lame and languishing He offers the lame that brings his sacrifice with a wicked mind Pro. 21.27 as Balac and Balaam did Num. 21.1 2. that walks not evenly before the Lord and with an upright foot Gen. 17.1 that halts between two opinions as the people did 1 King 18.21 inter coelum terramque penduli hanging betwixt heaven and earth as Meteors uncertain whether to hang or fall Such were Ecebolus Baldwin Spalatensis Erasmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyprian calleth such ancipites palpatores temporum in levitate tantum constantes doubtfull-minded men St. James calleth them double-minded men unstable in all their wayes Jam. 1.8 Bradsords letters Rev. 3.14 as he is that stands on one leg or as a howle upon a smooth table But what said that Martyr If God be God follow him if the Masse be God let him that will see it heare it and be present at it and go to the devill with it But let him do what he doth with all his heart God cannot abide these Neuter-passives I would thou wert either hot or cold He requires to be served truly that there be no halting and totally that there be no halving To halt between two opinions to hang in fuspence to be in religion as idle beggars are in their way ready to go which way soever the staff falleth how hatefull is it When some took Christ for Iohn Baptist some for Elias some for Jeremias But whom say you that I am said our Saviour to teach us that Christ hates to have men stand doubtful and adhere to nothing certainly to have them as mills fit to be driven about by the devil with every wind of doctrine or as hunting dogs betwixt two hares running assoon after this assoon after that and so losing both This for point of judgement And for matter of practise the soule is well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should not yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly A wise mans course is of one colour like it self he is homo quadratus a square stone fet into the spirituall building 1 Pet. 2.7 he is Semper idem as Joseph was no changling but one and the same in all places and estates of life his fcet stand in an even place as Davids did Psa 26.12 that is in an equall tenour Uniformity and ubiquity of obedience are sure signes of his sincerity when godlinesse runs thorough his whole life as the woof runs thorough the warp But the legs of the lame are not equall saith Solomon Pro. 26.7 The hypocrites life is a crooked life he turneth aside to his crooked wayes Psal 125.5 saith David as the crabfish goes backwards or as the Planets though hurried from East to West yet by a retrograde motion of their own steal their passage from West to East It 's a crooked life when all the parts of the line of a mans life be not straight before God when he lifteth not up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and maketh straight paths for his feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way Heb. 12.12 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not rather healed and rectified or set to rights as the Apostles word signifieth That 's a sick soule that is not right set for heaven and that 's a gasping devotion a languishing sacrifice that leaneth not upon Christ and that is not quickened by his spirit fitly called by the Apostle a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 Surely as a rotten rag hath no strength so an unsound mind hath no power to do ought that may please God Frustra nititur qui Christo non innititur saith a Father He loseth his labour that leaneth not upon Christ who is the power of God and the wisdome of God that leaneth not wholy upon
See both these together 2 Sam. 18 21. For thy words sake and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these things According to thine own heart that is of thine own meer motion out of pure and unexcited love thou didst give thy word and promise and for thy words sake hast thou performed it There was nothing in Aaron or his seed that God should make his special covenant with him of life and peace His rod was as dry and dead as any of the rest til God made it to blossom But when God had once passed his promise and so made himself a voluntary debter he failed not to perform it to him and his Aaron himself lived one hundred three years Phineas three hundred as it is thought and as some Chronologers do observe Joshua the son of Josedech lived according to Helvicus 110 years in the office of the high-priesthood To these and others was expresly fulfilled a Covenant of life and peace and God would have been ready to have performed it to these to whom Malachy prophecieth had not themselves hindred For they like men or like Adam transgressed the covenant Or as Junius and Tremellius read it not tanquam homines Hos 6.7 but tanquam hominis they made no more of breaking it then if they had had to do with dust and ashes like themselves and not with the great God Remember them Neh. 13.29 O my God saith good Nehemiah concerning these covenant-breakers because they have defiled the priest-hood and the covenant of the Priest-hood and of the Levites for the fear wherewith he feared me c. that is the good priests did so the bad did otherwise but God reckons of men by their righteousnesse and this was the restipulation or the condition on the priests part performed for in a covenant both parties undertake to do somewhat As in the general covenant of grace God promiseth to be the God of his people that is an universal good All-sufficient satisfactory and every way proportionable and fitting to their souls And they interchangeably promise to be his people that is to bestow themselves wholly upon him with highest estimation most vigorous affections and utmost endeavours giving up their names and hearts to the profession of his truth So that when he eryes out Who is on my side Who one sayes Esay 44.5 I am the Lords another calls himself by the name of Jacob another subscribes c. Semblably in this particular covenant with the tribe of Levi God promised them life and peace and they assured him of fear and humility Fear is an affection of the soul shrinking in it self from some imminent evil Hereof there are three sorts natural carnal and spiritual The first is not to be disliked if it do not degenerate into the second The next is a base fear of the creature more then of the Creator who is God blessed for ever The third is nothing else but an awful respect to the Divine Majesty Spiritual fear we called it in respect 1. Of the Author of it Gods holy Spirit called therefore A Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 2. Of the object of it The Father of Spirits who is therefore by an Appellative proper called Fear Ps 76.11 3. Of the effect which is to spiritualize both us and our services and was therefore fitly vowed to God by those of the spirituality that stood before him continually and were to be exact in their whole deportment at their peril God is of purer eyes then to behold evil He cannot look on iniquity in any Hab. 1.13 Moses ' and Aaron among his priests and Samuel among them that call upon his name They called upon the Lord and he answered them he forgave their iniquities howbeit he took vengeance of their inventions Psal 99.8 He met Moses in the Inne and had much ado to forbear killing him Exod. 4.44 And for Aaron when together with Miriam he murmured against Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l'olan Conterchatur Consternebatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 14.72 and Mariâ—m was thereupon smitten with leprosie Aaron was spared not so much for the honour of the Priest-hood as Chrysostom gives the reason but because of the feare wherewith he feared the Lord and his humiliation that followed upon that fear for he was afraid before Gods name Or as others better render this text Propter nomen meum humiliatus est He was amazed affeighted humbled because of my name he withdrew himself so some render it or threw himself out of doores as Peter did into alone place where he might sowce himself in the salt tears of godly sorrow Or he shrunk and shriveld up and so testified the trouble of his mind by the horror of his body Horripilatus est his heart fell down his hair stood upright See Psal 119.53 120. His humiliation was deep and down-right soaking and sowring his heart Psal 73.21 The word here used is pailive but Levi his humiliation was active he was not humbled onely but humble low but lowly he knew that no sacrifice could be accepted but that which was laid on the low altar of a contrite heart which sanctifies the sacrifice Verse 6. The law of truth was in his mouth Hitherto hath been set forth what the Priests of old were for their own particular and as private persons they were not high-minded but feared God Now as Pulpit-men and publike Teachers they have here a four-fold commendation And first that Truth was their study and trade they were expert in it and had an excellent faculty in communicating their conceptions of it to others so that if they did but open their mouthes almost it was a sermon they had a ready and easie way of discourse an holy volubility and dexterity of delivering themselves to the benefit of others as the law of God was in their hearts so their mouthes spake wisdome and their tongues talked of judgement Psal 37.30 31. Out of the good treasure of their hearts they could throw forth at pleasure good things for the edification of others yea like full clouds they willingly distilled and like full paps they were in pain till eased of their milk Neither medled they onely with toothlesse truths lest themselves should be lest toothlesse as One said Truth is a good mistresse but he that followeth her too close at heels shall have his teeth struck out as Balac bad Balaâ—m neither curse nor blesse at all and as the Papists were wont to say Missa non mordet the Masse biteth no man Ezek 13.10 But they held that truth must be spoken however it be taken and abhorred to be looked upon as the devils dire-dawbers and upholsters to dawb with untempered morter or to sowe pillows under their elbowes They affected rather to be stiled as Arrianus the Historian was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of Truth plain-dealers Eâ libertate scripsit Imperatorum vitas â—ua ipsi vixeâ—â—nt Lib. ult
mean fear of punishment is a good legall preparative to filiall the spirit of bondage to the spirit of Adoption which it introduceth as the needle or bristle doth the threed that follows it Secondly as it cannot be utterly cast out whiles we are here so it is of singular use to a Christian in his way homeward for being paâ—tly flesh and partly spirit it is profitable for the unregenerate part which is a slave and not a sonne to be contain'd in duty and restrain'd from sinne by the fear of Gods justice power and punishments And hence it is saith One that the fear of God is so much urged in Scripture Cum audis quod Dominus tuus dulcis est attende quid disigas cum audis quod rectus attende quid timeaâ— ut amore timore Dei excnatus legem ejus custodias Cass super Psal 25. Dulcis rectus Dominus Si amor Deite tenere noâ— potest saltem teneat terreat amor judicis meius gehennae laqueâ—mâ—tis â—olorâ—s injer ni ignis urens vermis corrodens c. Hug. l. 3. de anima to shew a difference between mans first integrity wherein he needed no other motive to duty then love and the renovation of Gods image in us since the fall which being but imperfect and in part onely therefore hath God purposely fixed in us the affection of fear and sanctified it in his own to the restraining of them from sin and provoking them to duty How farre forth then may it be lawfull to stand in fear of Gods wrath and judgements Quest Divines determine it thus Answ we may not fear the punishment onely and not the offence The chief object of godly fear is evil of sin a just man is one that feareth an oath Eccl. 9.2 Gods offence rather then his own distresse which appears in that however God spare him yet he will not spare himself he is a law to himself nor yet the punishment chirefly and more then the offence but the punishment must be feared with the offence the offence being feared first and most And this is both commanded by the Lord Christ q Maâ— 10.28 29. and commended unto us in the examples of David r Psal 119.120 Jostah Å¿ 2 Chron. 34.27 Habakkuk t Hab. 3.16 and diverse other saints And the reason is ready rendred by Moses Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath u Psal 90.11 that is As any man fears thy displeasure more or lesse so shall he feel it as some understand that Text. SECT IIII. Use 1. Information They that scar not God are not his and who these are by their Character out of Psal 36.1 2 3 4 c. Vse 1. NOw for Use of this point Is it so that every faithfull servant of God feareth God hence then in the first place will follow as a consectary that all such as are destitute of this reverentiall fear of the Almighty are notwitstanding all their other commendable parts and properties to be esteemed no better then gracelesse and irreligious persons Hence it is so often made the brand of a sonne of Belial that there is no fear of God before his eyes and this is purposely reserved in Scripture after a large bedroll of other abominations found in mens hearts and lives to the last place of all w Rom. 3.18 Mal. 3 5. to intimate that the want of Gods fear is the ground of all the forementioned mischiefs the mother of all the misrule in the world As in that unjust Judge for instance who was therefore unjust because he fear'd not God nor regarded man x Luk. 18.2 And surely the fear of God is not in this place therefore they will slay me said Abraham of the men of Gerar y Gen. 20.11 Lo he could promise himself no good at all of that place and people Object Sol. where God was not feared God was not feared may some say what a reason 's that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timendus terribiliâ— per Metonyâ—â—aÌ„ Deus cui timor debetur Shindler there is no people so barbarous or person almost so bruitish that feareth not God For answer I confesse there is nothing more naturall then to stand in awe of a Deity Whence also it is that God in the Greek tongue hath his Name from fear as some derive it And the Chaldee Paraphrast sometimes useth the word Fear or Terrour for God because of the fear confessedly due to him Hence Jacob coming from Syria and being to swear to a Syrian sware by the fear of his father Isaac z Gen. 31.53 But that all fear not the true God or 2. that they do not truely fear him and so are none of his 't is more then evident First 't is certain that all men fear not the true God but some thing else which they set up in his room Who seeth not that some fear idols and devils a 1 Cor. 10.20 Lev. 17.7 Seghnirim of their horrour and terrour which they cause to men as Pagans some hee-saints and shee-saints as Papagans some the Queen of heaven b Jer. 44.17 as the superstitious person that consults his calendar and scars nothing more then to fall sick upon an evil day Some again fear diâ—grace as Saul c 1 Sam. 15.30 see Jer. 38.19 danger and displeasure of great Ones as Pilate who fear'd if he released Clirist according to his conscience Caesote * Caius Imperator should as indeed afterwards he did pull his purple over his ears and kick him off the bench * Contra propriae couscientiae testimoniuÌ„ ores sui enuntiatum he delivered up to death the Lord of life so not only drew upon Casar and his throne the guilt of innocent blood in which respect Christ is said to have been crucified at Rome Revel 11. but also ran himself at once vpon Gods and the Emperours heavy displea sure shortly after became his own deaths-man Eurrop 1.7 Eus b.l. 2 c. 7. some fear losse of goods as the rich young man that went away sorrowfull for nothing more then that Christ should require such conditions as he was not willing to yeeld to d Mat. 19 20 21 Some fear losse of liberty as those that forsook Paul the prisoner and were ashamed of his chaiâ— e 2 Tim. 4.16 some fear losse of life making much of a thing of nought f Psal 39.5 shrinking in the shoulder when called to carry the crosse of Christ or to suffer with him though it be to bee glorisied together g Rom. 8.17 Thus men can make a shift to fear any thing so what they should fear God I mean 〈◊〉 proper object of this and all other our affections whatsoever There is I confesie a â—nd of fear of God abusively * Timor Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sic appellatus Polan Synt. so called a generall fear a
of the Apostle By him let us offer the sacrifice of praise and so any other spirituall service that shall finde acceptance to God continually h Heb. 13.15 And by him we have accesse by one spirit unto the father i Eph. 2.18 This was shadowed out of old by the door of the tabernacle which as it never was or any hard or debarring matter but of a veile easily penetrable so at the passion of our â—avâ—our it did of its own accord rend in sunder to shew our easie accosse unto and high acceptance with God in any holy duty through Christ the peace-maker k Eph. 2.14 This also was not obscurely typified by the high Priest's plate wherein was fairly engraven Holinesse to the Lord which was to be upon his forehead the forefront of his miter that he might beare the iniquitie of the offerings which the children of Israel should offer in all their holy offerings and it should be alway on his forehead to make them acceptable before the Lord l Exo. 28.36 38. But thirdly as it is by the mercy of the father and the me it of the son so is it also by the hand of the holy ghost upon them that God is so greatly pleased with the suite and services of his people the Apâ—stie instancet in â—ne religious duty we may safely extend it to all the rest Likewise saith he the spirit helpeth our infirmities m Rom 8.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sets his shoulder to the work together with us as th word there imports For we silly soules know not what we should pray for as we ought we neither know what for the matter nor as we ought for the manner But the spirit it self against all the roarings and repinings of the flesh maketh loud and shâ—ill intercessions for us in this case with groanings which cannot be uttered * Excitat vehemens desiderium liberationis accendit quoque alios affectus ammi ut gaudium et amorem adeò ut ardeant supra modum eâ— naturam communem longè exaperent Rolloc and that thus 1. He lets us see our want of God which nature studiously covereth 2. He sets before us the excellency and worth of finding favour with God the thought whereof never entereth the naturall mans heart n 1 Cor. 2 9. 3. He stirreth up and kindleth in us strong affections in prayer dictating words and expressions answerable to those affections In short he workes all our workes in us o Esa 26.12 Quoties video te susphâ—rtem non dubito spiritum aspirantem â—yprian as the prophet saith for we cannot so much a suspirare unlesse he do first inspirare breath out a sigh for sin except the spirit do first breath it into us Much lesse can we make an effectuall and comfortable prayer or do any thing else that 's truely good without him Sith prayer think the same still of any other holy duty is the breath of the spirit the pulse of the spirit without whom what is prayer else but an empty ring a tinkling Cymball Pray saith St. Iude in the holy ghost p Iede 20. set 1 Cer 14.15 Eph 5 18. And then he that searech the heart will easily know the minde of the spirit that he intercedeth for us according to God q Bom. 8.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or worthy of God and to his greatest liking Such another phrase the Apostle hath of Godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. where he calleth it A sorrow according to God r 2 Cor. 7.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Luke 6.12 he continued all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the prayer of God that is a spirituall god-like sorrow and such as issueth from the spirit of God For the wind must blow ere the waters flow Å¿ Psa 147.18 Dike saith the Prophet And it is the fire of the spirit saith a Divine in our hearts as in a still that sendeth up those dews of repenting tears into our heads that drop forth of our eyes Think the like of christian watchfulnesse Even Peter James and John those pillars t Gal 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be ready to sleep and buckle yea and that in the houre of remptation u Mat 26.41 too if the spirit do not quicken them and as it were hold up with forks their heavy eye-lids And for reading of the Scriptures look how the Philistines could never understand Sampsons riddle till they plow'd with Sampsons heifer x Judg 14.18 so neither can we conceive or relish the deep things of God without the ayde and assistance of the spirit of God y 1 Cor 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As on the other side With his holy spirit and by it we are sanctified unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus z 1 Pet. 1.2 purified in obeying the truth unto unfained love of the brethren a 1 Pet. 1.22 quickened unto all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth b Eph. 5.9 caused to keep Gods commandements c Ezek. 36.27 himself setting us to work * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 working all our works for us d Esay 26.12 sanctifying all the works of our hands yea sanctifying the offering up both of our selves and our services to God as the Altar sanctifies the gift e Rom. 15 16. and opening us a welcome accesse to to God in all our performances f Eph. 2.18 who as he knowes the meaning and minde of his spirit g Rom. 8.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he cannot but accept that sacrifice that is kindled by the fire of his own spirit upon the true Altar Christ his own son This is the first Reason taken from the three persons in the Godhead SECT III. The Doctrine further confirmed by reasons from the Saints THe next respecteth the saints themselves whose persons first are elect holy and beloved Colos 3.12 whose performances in the second place have a true and reall goodnesse in them and are therefore dearly accepted and highly accounted of in the sight of God For the first It cannot be denied but that by nature all are alike hatefull to the Almighty Reas 2 Neither is it for any goodnesse he discerns in one more then another that he puts any difference He loves his people merely because he loves them h Deut. 7.7 the ground of his love being only in himself He adopts them according to the good-pleasure of his will i Eph. 1.4 without the least defect in himself or desert in the creature It is otherwise with us then it was with those maids in Ahâ—shueâ—osh his time they were first perfumed and purified afore he chose one for himself k Esth 2.10 God found us in our blood when he said unto us live l Ezek. 16.6 and Christ gave himself for his people that he might sanctifie and present them to himself a glorious church m Eph. 5 26 What was
the walls of Jericho But what matter is it how unlikely the means are if in the hands of Omnipotency An Ox-goad in the hand of a Shamgar an Asse-bone in the hand of a Sampson may do much so here The Devil must needs down if God once send forth his Pauls to open mens eyes to turn them from darknesse to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Oh Obj but the Devil tells me I shall never inherit for I am not sanctified by faith Settle that first be sure by sound and infallible evidences Sol. See that thy faith and other graces be of the right stamp effectuall faith laborious love patient hope c. 1 Thes 1.3 and then sing a Requiem to thy self as Luther once did after a grievous conflict the Psalm De profundis Joh Manly loc com in contemptum Diaboli in defiance to the Devil Onely be advised not to pore over-much upon thy sanctification which in the best is unperfect but to take comfort of thy Justification which is compleat and absolute In confident consideration whereof St. Paul triumphantly cries out Rom. 8.33 34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen so long as it is God that justifieth Or as Austin reads it Shall God that justifies us Who is he that condemneth Do Angels No they rejoyce in our conversion and call us their fellow-servants But who then Do the insensible or unreasonable creatures They in their kind are in covenant with us Hos 2.18 and in earnest expectation groan nay travell together with us waiting and as it were lying bed-ridden the while for our full manifestation â—â—en the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.19 c. But who is it then Do our own hearts condemn us No neither if not bemisted and abused by Satan for being justified by faith we have so farre peace with God that we glory in tribulation by the confident intergatory of a good conscience toward God Rom. 5.1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Joh. 3.20 But say our own hearts do wrongfully accuse us yet God is greater then our hearts as well for good as for evil to do us right notwithstanding a misgiving or misguided heart of our own But say then who is he that condemneth us Is it the Devil and his wicked imps Let them do their worst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 12. He is indeed the accuser of the brethren but Christ our Advocate is ever ready to non-suit and cast out all his accusations The Spirit also is in direct and full opposition to this Accuser called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter or Pleader for us Yea what apology or clearing of your selves Rev. 12.10 pleading our evidences to our spirits and helping us upon true repentance to make apology for our selves 2 Cor. 7.11 such as God admits of and accepts As for that old Serpent the Accuser of the brethren he is cast down already and all his limbs shall bee cast after him ere long into the burning lake In the mean while what cares the prisoner at the barre though the gaoler and his fellow-prisoners passe sentence of death upon him in the gaole so long as the Judge acquits him from the bench And as little need any servant of the Lord of Hosts stand upon the censurs of earth and hell so long as God thinks well of him and all the Hosts of God combine for his comfort Oh Obj but I have hosts within me that do me all the despite and displeasure The flesh lusteth against the spirit and other-whiles gets the better of it Besides there be bands of fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 which like armed souldiers lie billetted in my bosome and ever and anon fight against my soul Yet bee of good comfort the spirit also lusteth against the flesh so that thou canst not do what thou naturally wouldest Sol. Gal. 5.17 thy new nature will not suffer thee as Paul would have gone to a certain place but the Spirit forbade him As for thy lusts be they never so lordly God can easily cut the combes nay the throats of them and let out their life-blood My Father is stronger then all and None can take you out of his hands The weak brother shall be holden up amidst a world of scandals without Joh. 10 Rom. 14.4 and staggerings within for God is able to make him stand He can preserve a fire alive upon the face of the Ocean a spark of the spirit amidst a world of wickednesse within He can cause weak and worthlesse grashoppers to become a great nation Ioel 1.6 a mighty people chap. 2.2 a huge army ib. Esay 30.22 Psal 19.5 He can make the house of Israel pollute the idols which they had once perfumed with incense and to say to their familiar devils get thee hence He can stop or strike back the course of the Sun though it rejoyce as a strong man to run his race Naturally and freely it giveth light but he can turn it into darknesse and blood The mountains of themselves are ponderous and pressing yet at Gods command they skip like lambs Think the same of our dull and undutiful hearts God can quickly oyl them and nimble them drawing us by his free spirit so as we shall run after him as a baldder of it self is a heavy substance and unapt for motion but being filled with winde it will scarce ' bide in a place So we being filled with the holy Ghost shall finde our feet as hinds feet upon the everlasting mountains no longer shackled by corruption Psal 119. but at very good liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments It s most sure we are not strained at all in God but in our own bowels He is both able and ready both to cover and cure our sins and sicknesses In the dayes of his flesh he offered himself to his patients and was found of them that sought him not He heal'd them also of diseases hereditary and such as all the Physitians in the countrey might have cast their caps at Now he hath lost nothing by heaven you may be sure neither of his will nor skill to do the same cures upon mens souls as once he did upon their bodies nay he cured their bodies onely in reference to their souls and still hangs out his table of cures Math. 8.17.18 to draw custome Rev. 3.18 Lo thus we have searched and so it is Hear it and know it for thy good Iob. 5.27 CHAP. II. The Lord will finde a fit time to make up his jewels from the worlds misusages And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels Doct GOd is the Lord of hosts This is a point hath been hitherto proved and improved Followes now a second Observation Confirmat
righteousnesses of the Saints Revel 19.8 the pure Lamb of God having covered us with his own fleece and as it were exchanged suits with us clothing himself with our nature that he might again clothe us with the divine nature Daniels Hist of England so that Christ puts on us and we put on him as once Edmund Ironfide and Knute the Dane did by exchange of garments sealing up thereby a sure peace Christ becomes ours and we become Christs and both together make up but one mysticall Christ For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members being many are but one body so also is Christ that is mysticall Christ the Church 1 Cor. 12.12 Now to bring what hath been said home to the point in hand Look how that King could remember no hostility in Themistocles whiles he saw in his arms the smiling countenance of his own sonne and heir whom he had taken up And as David could discern no defect or deformity in lame Mephibosheth whiles he beholds in him the feature of his friend Jonathan so neither doth our heavenly Father regard our infirmities whiles he looks upon us in the face of Christ and finds us framed anew according to the image of Christ in whom he is abundantly well-pleased SECT VIII Let none suck poyson out of this sweet Point FOr Application Vse 1 Of this comfortable point we may well say as the Prophet doth in another case Esay 28.9 To whom shall we teach this Doctrine who is fit to hear and receive it This is meat for children not off all for dogs not draff for swine Let it therefore be limited to Gods children that fail of infirmity not laid hold on by his enemies that go on in iniquity And that they may not let us bound the point and mound it too that no beast break thorow to this mountain of mercy lest he be thrust thorow with a dart that no oxe nor asse fal into this pit by turning Gods grace into wantonnesse lest at length he fall into the bottomlesse pit that no spider suck poison out of this flower lest he burst and his bowels gush out with Judas Acts 1.18 and so he go to his place In a word that none stumble at this good word of God being disobedient thereunto 1 Pet. 2.8 lest he stumble and fall and never rise again Hos 14.9 Which to prevent two things would be considered First that though all men have their spots and therefore deserve not to be spared yet as wicked mens spots are not the spots of Gods children so neither is their speed For their spots first Hear what God saith of the one They have corrupted themselves their spots are not the spots of my children they are a perverse generation Deut. 32.5 Phil. 2.15 As of the other They are saith he blamelesse and harmlesse the sonnes of God unspotted in the midst of a wicked and wayward generation Where it is easie to observe a flat opposition a palable difference The naturall man is all overspread with the bright spot of sins-leprosie Spots they are and blemishes saith St. Peter in the abstract 2 Pet. 2.19 sporting themselves with their own deceivings having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease to sinne Such an habit and even necessity of sinne they have by long trading contracted that if the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots then may they also do good that are inured to evil Jer. 13 23 Sinne is in such no otherwise then spots are in a leopard not by accident but by nature such as no Art can cure no water wash off For why they are not in the leopards skin but in the flesh and bones in the sinews and inwards And this to say truth is the case and condition of us all by nature Whence also it is that the just man slips seven times a day and Non datur malum punicum in quo nen inest granum putre dixit Crates 1 Joh. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in many things we offend all saith St. James Apostles and all and that none can say his heart is clean Howbeit though a godly man sin yet he doth not commit sin he doth not sinne sinningly for his seed remaineth in him The oil of Gods Spirit wherewith such a one is anointed setteth the colours which are of his own tempering so sure on and maketh them cleave so fast together that it is impossible he should return to his own hue Christ also that offereth himself without spot to God his Father hath so purged their consciences from dead works that they thenceforth serve the living God acceptably lifting up their faces before him without spot yea they are stedfast and need not fear Job 11.5 Lo this is the comfortable condition of the children of God This is their spot on earth and this is their speed in heaven But now the ungodly are not so Neither their spot nor their speed is as that of the Saints For first the lepers lips should be covered according to the law their breath is infectious and offensive To the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes c. Psal 50.16 Quia non indigebat imn undorum laude Neque enim speciosa laus in ere peceatares Theophyl in Luc. 4. Psal 4.3 Psal â—6 â—6 In Graecorum sacris sacerdos exclamabat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis hic Respondebaut qui aderant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 13.8 In fermento totajacet uxor Plaut Mic. 1.5 Tubulus quidam paulò supra Ciceronem praetor fuit homorâ—m projectè improbus ut ejuâ—â—omen non horrinis sed vitâ—â— esse videretur Lips antiq lect Our Saviour suffered not the devils to speak because he needed not the service of such high words befit not a fool saith Solomon Even David himself till thoroughly purged from his two more grievous sinnes was suspended from the comfort of the covenant and disabled for holy duties Psal 51.15 For know ye not saith He that the Lord hath set apart the godly man for himself And thence inferres the Lord will hear when as such a One I call unto him But if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me If I cast but a leering look toward some lust or have but a moneths mind to it If there be in me but an irresolution against any evil much more a deliberate purpose to run into it God that cannot see evil will not hear the prayers nor bear the manners of such a David How much lesse of gracelesse and profane persons whose whole lump is leavened whose whole hide is spotted whose whole frame is corrupted being evil onely evil and evill continually Who lastly are so transformed into sinne that it is even predicated of them according to that of the Prophet What is the transgression of Iacob is it not Samaria And what are the high-places of