and speeches for we may bleare mens eyes but not his 3 Decently and comely When the sunne is up men must doe lawfull and justifiable things because all eyes are upon them Let the theefe cover himselfe with darkenesse let the adulterer watch the twilight let Papists and Atheists and profane persons doe shamefull things without shame But let us in so open a light doe things comely let not the light make us ashamed of any indecent and uncomly or unconscionable action let not the sunne see our nakednesse without shame or holy blushing 4 Painefully and diligently When the sunne riseth man goeth forth to his labour by Gods ordinance Ps. 104. 25. so while the sunne and day and light lasts us let us walke and worke hard for faith for repentance for oyle for the wedding garment See Iohn 12. 35 36. 2 A ground of comfort that this Sunne shall never fall to his Church The sunne may be hid and clouded for a time but at length shall breake forth with much brightnesse and comfort So Iesus Christ may hide himselfe and the cloud of our sinnes and corruptions may get betweene him and us but at length his grace and light shall shine forth againe and manifest it selfe to every soule to which it ever arose So for the publique estate of the Church As the Sunne of the world may withdraw and remove it selfe and doth in winter so as all things seeme dead and lost but be the winter never so sharpe and tedious the sunne comes backe againe and brings with it a sweet and pleasant spring So the Church may sustaine a blacke and bitter winter be afflicted and shaken with many stormes blustrings of furious enemies but these shal blow over and it shall see a happy spring againe Our sun is in the heavens and so long as the enemies cannot reach him to pull him thence whatsoever winter the Churches abroade doe now sustaine whatsoever winter our Church at home may endure faith and patience will waite and attaine a sweet spring and fruitfull summer againe which shall make the enemies gnash their teeth and the Church sing for joy as men do sing in harvest Amen We have seene what the garment is Now of the application Clothed where consider 1 How the Sonne is a garment 2 How it differs from other garments 3 How the woman is clothed with it First Iesus Christ the Sunne is in many places of the Scrpture called by the name of a garment by resemblance because his righteousnesse and meritorious obedience supplieth all the offices of a precious garment to the Church of God In observing the use of a garment we shall see what usefull offices Christ performes to his Church his body Quest. What are the chiefe ends of garments Answ. Garments serve 1 for necessity 2 ornament 3 distinction 1. The necessity of a garment is in three things 1 To cover bodily nakednesse and to hide all corporall shame and defects so the Church wrapped in this robe of Christs righteousnesse hath all her sinnes which are her speciall nakednesse and shame hid and covered from the eyes of God When Adam had sinned he saw his nakednesse and sewed figg-leaves but neither they nor any thing he could devise could hide it till God made him a cover Neither can any of the sonnes of Adam by their owne reach or power attaine a cover but the Son of God the second Adam onely can afford a garment to hide sinfull nakednesse from the eyes of God 2 To defend the body from the injurie of weather both of Summer and winter so onely Christ his meritorious righteousness can save shelter the soule from the burning heat of his Fathers wrath and from the pinching and shaking terrours of a mans self-accusing conscience Onely Christ can cover his Church from the stormes and blasts of temptation by Satan and from the raging tempests of persecution by tyrants and enemies Isai 4. 5 6. Iesus Christ was the true Cloud and Pillar protecting his people through the wildernesse by day and by night who makes a gracious promise that upon all the glory shal be a defence aud a couering shal be for a shadow in the day for the heat and a place of refuge and a cover for the storme and for the raine He will for ever supply all to his Church of all ages whatsoever he did to Israel by that Cloud which was but a shadow of his protection 3 To preserve and cherish naturall life for a while by keeping in and repressing naturall heat which else would spend too fast So doth Iesus Christ and his pretious merits preserve and cherish spirituall life and heate in the soule nay which no clothes can brings in a new and heavenly heat life where was nothing but a cold death and maintaines it not for a time onely but unto life eternall Whence this second Adam is called 1 Cor. 15. 45. a quickning spirit a spirit not changed into a spirit but for that his body after the resurrection became and remaines spirituall and glorious and quickning not onely because his holy flesh is united to the quickning word but because by his death he brings life unto the world dead and rotten in sinnes and corruptions 2 Garments serve not onely for necessitie but also for ornament When Rebecca was given to Isaac to be married Abrahams servant gave to her from Isaac in token of love not onely raiment and garments but also Iewels of gold and of silver and precious bracelets to put on her hands Gen. 24. 22. 53. A manifest type of the Church married to her Isaac Iesus Christ who endoweth her not with garments only to cover her nakednesse but Iewells also to adorne her See Ezec. 16. 10 11. the Lord covers his spouse with fine silke and deckes her with ornaments bracelets and chaines Quest. What are these ornaments An. The blessed and beautiful graces of humility faith hope love good conscience layed up in the closet and Casket of the heart within and the shining and grace of holy life and vertuous conversation of Saints which as a cleane garment adornes the righteousness of faith where ever it is Because whersoever the merit of Christ is applied there the spirit of Christ is conferred who effectually worketh all these shining graces by which the whole man is sanctified and the spirits mansion adorned 3 Garments serve for distinction as the liverie given to servants shewes to whom they belong what Masters they serve Even so the righteousnes of Iesus Christ is 1 In the external professiō of Christ a liverie and garment discerning and distinguishing the Christian from all Heathens Turkes and Infidels 2 In the sound application of it there is a reall distinction of the servants and sons of God from the slaves of sinne and the Devill not onely without the Church but within the bosome it A King is not better knowne by his purple then a
the woman drunke with blood of the Saints That religion which is so fiery and fierce must be from the Devill a man-slayer from the beginning unknowne of Christ and his Apostles and all their true Disciples and followers 4 A fourth note of this woman is her Marriage A good way to know one by is the head and how can wee know the Church better then by her head Jesus Christ whose wife she is of whom all the Children of the Church are begotten by vertue of the eternall Covenant of grace as in Lawfull wedlocke Our Mother scornes to be the Popes Concubine she hath betaken herselfe onely to Christ and professeth of him Cant. 2. 16. My welbâ—loved is mine and I am his Christ is he whom her soule loveth and is in her eyes the chiefe of ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. To him she hath plighted her troth and cleaves onely and undividedly unto him in life and in death The whore of Rome holds not Christ the head For 1 By Image-worshiping and many other Idolatries they are fallen from Christ this is plaine in Colossians 2. 18. 19. 2 They set up the Pope in Christs place Bellarmine on the 1 Pet. 2. 8. by the stone understandeth the Pope And Catharinus by head mentioned in Colos. 2. 19. will have the Pope to be meant Ob. But they professe Jesus Christ. An. Union is either Sacramentall so they are joyned by profession or Mysticall so they are not joyned The fift marke of the true Mother is her carriage and behaviour First to her husband to whom in all her behaviour shee expresseth foure vertues As 1 She is chast and faithfull unto him she keepes herselfe onely to her husband and preserves the marriage band She forgets not the guide of her youth nor the commandement of her God nor playeth false with any other lover any secondary head or Vicar generall she thinkes it strange that an husband should have a Vicar She abhorres that foule and spirituall adultery by grosse Idolatry and false worship which the whore of Rome impudently acteth and defendeth Neither Angels nor men nor merits nor Saints nor Images doth she bow unto nor any other alluring harlot can unsettle her from him whom her soule loveth 2 She is subject to her husband in all things content to be tryed and ruled in all cases by his will and word in the Scriptures What will we say to a woman that laies claime to a man to be her husband but rejecteth and disgraceth his directions and cleaveth wholly to her owne will and to other mens counsels and decrees Who will not suspect and conclude her to be an harlot But so doth the apostaticall Romish Synagogue 3 She depends onely on her husband and no other for the meanes of her welfare and all needfull supplies She scornes to seeke to any other Advocates or mediators whether Saints or Angels either for redemption or intercession her husband that can supply the greater can the lesser much more She cares for no pardons nor merits but her Lords She scornes to marry one and seeke maintenance of another 4 Shee honors her husband onely and will give his honor to none other If she did derogate from his glory in the worke of redemption by the doctrine of free-will justification by workes humane satisfactions she were an arrant strumpet and no wife But our Church ascribes all the worke of salvation to God onely from first to last Teaching that we are wholly dead in trespasses and sinnes till he quicken us and that good workes are the way to the kingdome not the cause of it and follow a person justified but goe not before to justifie him and are necessary by a necessitie of presence not by a necessity of efficiency Thus men and Angels are excluded from any part of Gods honor Secondly her behaviour to her children 1 She nurseth them at her owne breasts puts them not forth to suck strange milke of traditions Councels Decretals 2 She instructs them and teacheth her children The vertuous woman opens her mouth with wisdome Prov. 31. 26. Eunica taught Timothy the scriptures of a child 3 She provides for her children as the vertuous woman for all her family Prov. 31. 15. The Church upholds the meanes of salvation to keepe the beleevers in good state She is not the naturall Mother that starves her children that shuts up the breasts from them that hideth the Scriptures and counts it heresie to reade them that corrupteth the Sacraments that a man can see nothing lesse then the institution in them But Popery leadeth her children directly to perdition whatsoever shewes they make to the contrary For 1 They runne after it whose names are not written in the booke of life 2 All the children of that mother are without comfort in life and death because they are the sons of Agar and not of the true Mother and therfore no inheritance belongeth unto them II. Having found out the true Mother in herselfe we are now to enquire how or by what markes we may find this Mother to be our Mother and our selves her children A man may know himselfe the sonne of this Mother by sundrie notes 1 As a child borne comes into a new world and findes a marveilous change in the estate of it So a sonne borne of this mother comes into a new estate is separated from the world and the corruptions of it brought out of the corruption of nature and practise as out of the waste and wombe of the world and set into a new condition in grace and is in all things contrary to himselfe in his old nativity The change especially appeareth in five things 1 Thou wast borne of flesh and after the will of the flesh but now thou art borne of God This is called a birth of water and the holy Ghost because in this the spirit supplies the office of water in washing away corruptions and defilements of flesh 2 In thy old nativity thou wast borne in sinne now being borne againe thou sinnest not 1 Joh. 3. 9. because the seed of God is in thee thou canst not sinne raigning sinne wholly and finally thou hast now a new or renewed nature 3 In thy old nativity thou wast borne dead in sin Eph. 2. 1. but now borne of this mother thou art quickned with a new life of grace called the life of God Now thou livest not but Christ liveth in thee Now maiest thou say as Christ himselfe said Rev. 1 18. I was dead but now I am alive 4 In thy old nativity thou wast as a dead man bound hand and foot without all motion of grace nay all thy motion was downeward for nature with contempt of grace But now a new motion in spirituall things attends spirituall life Now thou movest upward towards heaven according to the command of grace whereto thou wast before an open enemie 5 In thy old
in Antiochus and Antichrist typified in him practised wholly to destroy the mighty and holy people Dan. 8. 24. And the same we see in Herod who slew all the male children under two yeares old Thirdly See it especially in the Imperiall dragon the bloodinesse and tyranny of those Romane Emperours was matchlesse who poured out the blood of innocent Christians by thousands and tenne thousands in their streetes and territories like water For the first 300. yeares after Christ were nine or tenne bloody dragons that dyed themselves red in the blood of Christians which they sucked out greedily more like hell-hounds then men that had a drop of pitty or humanity left Nero began and flew upon them as a monster as if they had beene incendiaries of the city which him self caused to be set on fire only to lay it upon them like our incendaries and Romish powder plotters After him Domitian who cast John the Evangelist into a furnance of scalding oyle but when he saw he came forth unhurt he banished him into the I le Pathmos where he writ this Revelation Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 17. After him Traian under pretence that there must be but one religion in one Region persued Christistians with fire and sword and new devised torments to chase the name of Christian out of the world He slew Simeon Iustus and Ignatius the Pastors one at Jerusalem the other at Antioch After him came Antonius Verus who slew with Policarp Pastor of Smirna innumerable Christians What shal I speake of Hadrian that in one Mount crucified 10000. Christians crowned with thornes and darts thrust into their sides in derision of the passion of our Lord Jesus Or of the last of these dragons in one month of whose raigne were slaine 17. thousand Martyrs and innumerable more condemned to mines and slavery worse then death In a word the dragons were so red as the very story seemes to be written in blood which tell us that no man could step his foote in Rome and not tread on a Martyr Fourthly See it in the causes First God in his counsell hath just reason for as he foundeth his Church in the blood of Christ so he finisheth and perfecteth his worke in blood He advanceth his glory and maketh his power shine in working by contraries and confoundeth the adversaries when they see their wrath turned to Gods praise and the blood of Martyrs the seed and watering of the Church Pharaoh shall see he cannot worke wisely enough here is a more glorious world fetched out of a greater Chaos Iulian shall say vicisti Galilaee Secondly So deepe and inveterate is the poyson and malice of a dragon that no lighter or smaller revenge will serve him then death The same poyson lighted upon Christ he was judged unworthy either to live or dye in Jerusalem So the enemies of David when will he die and of Paul he is unworthy to live The rancorous poyson of an enemie of God and grace is such as a smaller revenge will not content them No whipping or mocking of Christ but crucifie him Thirdly The fury and feircenesse of the enemy is still augmented by reason it findes fuell to feed it First the light and grace in the godly which the more it encreaseth and shineth the more their malice and hatred burneth and boyleth against it For Why did Cain as a dragon slay Abel but because his workes were good 1 Joh. 3. 12. Why do the godly make themselves a prey but because they refraine from evill Esay 59. 15. Dragons can plead many causes Amos is accused by Hamaziah that he hath conspired against the King Daniell by the envious princes that he rebells against the Kings proclamation Ieremy if he exhort to go out into Babel according to Gods word and decree that he is a confederate with the Caldeans Paul that he is a troubler of the City and preacheth strange doctrine and pittie it is that hee lives But the true cause is if the white horse go forth the red horse will follow him at the heeles Psal. 38. 20. Mine adversaries hate me without cause Nay because I doe the thing that is good that is cause enough to hate to death Psal. 59. 3. They are gathered against me not for mine offence nor for my sinne This doctrine may serve as a glasse to let many see their owne faces and to what head they belong There is a generation of men who are feirce revengfull and cruell hearted against the godly who may here see what spirit they are guided by The spirit of God is gracious meeke mercifull gentle but they are not led by him His they are whose spirit they resemble in mischiefe and malice Joh. 8. 44. Yee are of your father the devill for his workes ye do A naturall child resembleth his father so do they theirs who was a murderer from the beginning As it was once so will it ever be Gal. 4. 29. He that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit and delighted in scorning the generation of God and seed of the promise these shew themselves a bastardly brood of Ismael who have no part in the promise no foote in the promised land To let us see whence that religion is that practiseth and teacheth all manner of fiercenesse and cruelty against the Saints It is of the devill of the dragon and is no religion of God Abraham makes this aptitude and forwardnesse to homicide a note of a false religion and proper to Idolaters Genes 20. 11. The feare of God is not in this place and they will slay me Hence it followes that the Romane religion cannot be of God for 1 Her head is that Abaddon and Apollyon The great destroyer of bodies and soules Rev. 9. 11. 2 Her members resemble the head for never were any more cruell and fiery dragons and homicides then the Antichristian zealotes and popish Inquisitors which for so many ages have destroyed the bodies of the innocent Saints with fire and sword and innumerable soules with divelish and hereticall doctrines 3 Her principles and positions are bloody and mischievous and such as the Heathens and sanguinary Savages would be ashamed of 4 Her proper colour is red scarlet dyed and drunken with the blood of the Saints which noteth her an essentiall member of the dragon fierie dragons are they furious and sulphurious kindling blazing fires not onely against the bodies of men women and children but laying their fire workes under ground against the bodies of many kingdomes at once This is that generation of which Christ spake They shall thinke they do God good service in killing you And the more fierce any man is against good men the more of this leaven he doth discover in himselfe Pray to be delivered from these direfull dragons Psal. 59. Deliver me from the bloody man and of all plagues which we have deserved let us pray we be never stung with these fiery dragons
1 Cor. 4. 9 10. Such spouses were the faithfull martyrs and all those witnesses that lie under the Altar who left all house and home goods and name land and libertie yea life it selfe for the honor of their husband But how doe we take our husbands part that have no word of defence or rebuke of those that highly blaspheme his name by word or deed Nay when our selves joyne in his dishonor disgracing our profession polluting his name by swearing lying drinking rioting gaming and all unseemely behaviour 4 The wife as a good spouse must doe all things to please her husband herein testifying her love to him so must everie spouse of Christ herein testifie love to Christ. The Apostle prayeth Col. 1. 10 that they might walke worthy of the Lord and please him in all things Quest. How shall we please our husband Answ. By observing sixe rules 1 Never seeke to please thy selfe in any thing displeasing unto him A good and loving wife will displease her selfe and depart from her owne will to please her husband A good Christian must deny himselfe his owne will reason affections and desires and much more his sinnes and lusts be they as deare as his eyes to please that husband The Apostle Rom. 15. 1 2 3. both propounds the duty and perswades it by a most forcible reason wee must not please our selves for Christ pleased not himselfe that he might pleasure us He was not bound but we in way of thankfull retribution are bound 2 Never seeke to please other men in thine actions for then thou canst never please Christ. Gal. 1. 10. If I should now goe about to please men I could not be the servant of Christ. A loving wife lookes not to please other men but will please her owne husband though others be never so much displeased so a sound Christian must resolve to please the Lord and not be plausible to men 3 A good wife that would please her husband will pry into his nature and disposition and having found what is pleasing or displeasing unto him will frame herselfe unto his minde and honest desires Thus Rebeâ—ca pleased Isaack in providing for him such meat as he loved Thou art then pleasing to Christ thy husband when there is a conformity and similitude in manners and affections Therefore see therebe First a conformitie in vertues that thy heart be an holy heart an humble innocent patient loving spirit a sober and temperate minde For what is marriage spirituall or corporall but a conjunction of two bodies and two spirits into one Adam had no other but an holy help made of an holy ribbe and knew no Eve but out of his owne side so the second Adam hath no spouse but an holy one which sprang out of his owne side Secondly a conformity in will will nothing but holily as he willeth and nill what he nilleth Thirdly a conformity in practise Likenesse of manners is very pleasing See thou cheerefully embrace observe what he commands Herein is love expressed hee that keepeth my words is he that loveth me Thus must wee grow fit for our head for First marriage requireth fitnesse God brought Adam a fit help Secondly Christ was like unto us in all things sinne excepted that we might be like unto him 4 To please our heavenly husband we must decke and trimme our selves with graces It is the folly of these times and foolish Virgins to decke themselves not with vertue but with vanitie pride in attire and all foolish and immodest fashions He is none of the wisest earthly husbands that can affect his wife for these things But it is other manner of attire that makes Christs Spouse lovely Psal. 45. 13 the spouse is all glorious within and her cloathing of wrought gold Thou must put on lowliness meeknesse love truth sobriety watchfulnesse sincerity else the King hath no delight in thy beautie 1 Tim. 2. 9. 5 A loving wife cannot better please her husband then by loving and gladly entertaining his friends Every godly man is as Iohn was a friend of the bridegroome The love of a Christian reacheth to Christ himselfe and he that hates the child loves not the father 6 A good wife to please her husband must shew her delight in his presence and long after him in his absence so the Christian must rejoyce in the cheerfull societie of Christ Isai. 26. 8. when he absenteth himselfe must thinke much and often upon him and mourne after him as the widow doth when her husband is departed and never be at quiet till she enjoy his comfortable presence againe Shall Christs delight be with the sons of men and should not ours be much more with him And as every good spouse in her husbands absence saith in her self Come so saith this Spouse Come Amen Evenso Come Lord Iesus Rev. 22. 20. Having spoken of such maine duties as the spouse of Christ oweth to her husband we will for her encouragement mention some of her priviledges by meanes of this happie conjunction by which shee may see it is no lost labour to frame to these duties and so as by so many motives be provoked to the cheerefull performance of them The first priviledg is free electioÌ„ the bridegroome hath made choice of us not we of him The wife wooeth not nor chuseth the husband but the husband the wife Ioh. 15. 16. Yee have not chosen me but I have chosen you Therefore 1 Neither was he bound any way to chuse us As a young man intending to marry is bound to none nor tyed to any but out of his free wil makes his choice of one above al other Even so the Sonne of God chuseth to himself out of his own free wil being bouÌ„d unto none a wife out of al mankinde and that is his Church of which we are members 2 Neither findeth he any reason in us as other young men doe in their spouses to set their love upon them No disposition no workes of preparation no freewill no aptitude or affection towards him but when wee were enemies he made love unto us 3 Neither if he had passed by us as he hath many others were he bound to give any reason to us or them that are refused why he did not chuse us or them Even as a yong man free to his choise having betaken himselfe to one spouse need give no reasoÌ„ why he hath passed by all the rest in the world The second priviledge is divine pacification By this marriage all hostility and emnity is removed betweene God and his Church For as great Princes use to pacifie strong emnities betweene themselves and also to stablish true and constant friendship by contracting some marriages between them Even so doth the Lord by marrying his owne Sonne to the sonnes of men Ephes. 2. 14 15. for he is our peace who hath broken all partition walls and abrogated yea and slaine all hatred Col. 2. 14. he hath
whereof wee must know that Christ is put on either in regard of his satisfaction or of his sanctification Now although we have put on Christ once for all in respect of his satisfaction which faithfully applyed to us is our justification yet in respect of sanctification he is put on e-every day more and more seeing that the life of beleevers is a daily profiting and encreasing in spirituall graces unto full holinesse 2 This putting on of Christ in this world is in much weaknes 1 In respect of the weaknes of the instrument This instrument is faith which is feeble at the best as knowledge is as all other graces are the more we can encrease in knowledge and stirre up our faith the more firmely we lay hold on Christ and his righteousnesse for life and salvation and so in respect of us we more certainly and feelingly put on Christ. 2 In respect of the strength of the opposites These are the security and corruption of flesh which is still working against grace In the dayes of peace and prosperitie as in a warme sunshine wee are willing to hang our garment loosely and lightly about us and it is ready to fall off we must therefore daily strive against flesh and fasten Christ unto us This is done when by daily confession of sinne striving against sinne prayer for pardon of sinne assent of the promises and purposing to sinne no more the poore beleever fastneth Christ unto him and by daily renewing faith and repentance he layes faster hold on Christ then before This every baptized person doth not yet this putting on of Christ should be the work of every day Many cōmēd this garmēt but few put him on It may be doubted that a little tryall wil manifest it in multitudes that either they never put on Christ or hung him loosely in a vaine profession The second duty The Church must labour to expresse the bright shining and purity of Iesus Christ with whom she is clothed A man that weares a great mans cloth will be seene and made knowne to others that he belongs to such a Master Quest. How may a Christian expresse the shining of the Sunne of righteousnesse Answ. First in purity of nature by regeneration and sanctification of nature which healeth in part and chaseth away native darkenesse and bringeth a new saving light So the Apostle Yee were darknes now ye are light in the Lord. The sunne shineth by the lightsomnesse of his owne nature so the Sunne of righteousnesse was in his nature more pure and shining then the sunne And every one clothed with this Sunne is renewed and hath attained a glorious and divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. yea the so clothed are new borne of God and as sonnes of God shining c. Phil. 2. 15. Secondly in the puritie of the shining and new gifts and graces of the Spirit within Such as are 1 Illumination the light of knowledge Iudgement and discerning Can a man be clothed and compassed with the sunne and not be enlightened 2 Love which is as a warme flame shewing and shining a farre off such was in Zacheus such was in the laylor 3. Zeale which is a fervent and fiery affection He shall want no heate that is cloathed with the sunne We see how in our Sunne Iesus Christ the zeale of his Fathers house consumed him and so in the rest of the faculties As the sunne shines in every part so it is not enough to have one part graced but grace must be in all Thirdly in shining and lightsome conversation without The sunne shines not onely within but from within shines outwardly so must a Christian clothed with the sun manifest his clothing as well by shining and lightsome actions as by renewed nature 1 The commandement is Let your light so shine before men As the sunne shines to men from within his owne substance so did our sunne of righteousnesse and so must his be that are clothed with the sunne their life must be as a light in a lanthorne not a glistering on the outside onely as a civill mans or an hypocrites may but a light within shining outwardly on every side 2 Iesus Christ shined in all innocency and graces and wee must labour to shine as he did that we may appeare to whom wee belong Can any man be clothed with this Sunne and not shine both in purity of grace within and gracious conversation without His words were so gracious as never man spake so Do thou expresse Christ in all thy words let them be savoury fruitfull and for God and his glory as all his were from God and for God he walked in lightsome pathes 3 His life was wholly heavenly as the sunne shines from heaven If thou beest clothed with the sunne thy conversation must bee heavenly thou must direct all thy thoughts that way and in all thy actions ayme someway to further that end 4 He kept himselfe from the impurity and darknesse of the world and age in which he lived though a most wicked generatiō So must thou be like the Sunne of the world and of the Church walke and move as lights in the midst of a froward and crooked generation 5 He brought light unto the world as the sunne doth so must thou if clothed with the sunne to thy power and in thy place enlighten all round about thee How dare men mocke at purity and holinesse and cast myre and durt upon so precious and costly a garment For what is it they scorn but even Iesus Christ himselfe whom God hath given for the clothing of his Church How doe the Papists and enemies of grace and religion undermine our religion and make their advantages on us but under such titles and imputations of purity precisenesse scripturers and the like And must wee needs learne of them to blow up our owne religion Let the land of Aegypt be darke there shall be light in all Goshen There cannot be a truer note of a false Church then to shunne the light and love the night of darke ignorance and feare and scorne nothing so much as the sunshine upon themselves or others But against the scorne of prophane ones hold before thee 1 The commandemēt to be as pure as the sunne Phil. 1. 10. for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken from the splendor of the sunne which is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This purity must bee from all corruption in doctrine and manners as the sunne is not mixed with any staine or impurity Do not thou joyne with the prophane ones who here object Wee like not this purenesse such strictnes is naught and to stand so precisely as not to yeeld a little to the fashions of the times c. Answ. Will they moderate the holy Ghost set him to schoole teach him to speak if he over-reach bring him to their scantling But hee tells thee thou must either be pure or
stead of the Sunne she put on and arrayed her selfe with purple and scarlet and set the Moone above her head affecting admiring and aspiring after earthly wealth and dignitie and in stead of twelve starres in her Crowne shee decked her crowne with gold and pearles and precious stones Then she became the harlot sitting on the scarlet coloured Beast and the mother of whordomes and abominatiōs of the whole earth Rev. 17. 3 4 5. They are deceived that suppose the glory of Christs true Church consisteth in scarlet and purple in gold and silver in pompe and externall honor in princely Lordship and Popedome Let the whore of Babylon decke her selfe with these enticing trickes But the spoule of Christ is knowne by her crowne of starres and that inward simple and native beauty and glory which useth to draw not the worlds admiration but contempt upon it Ver. 2. And she was with child and cryed travelling c. Now followeth the fourth propertie in the description of this woman namely her pregnācy and fruitfulnesse in travelling and bearing of children In the verse are two generall parts I. Her conception and carrying of her child in that she was with child ready to be delivered II. Her painefull travell and birth that she was pained and cryed to be delivered In the meaning are three questions to be resolved 1 What is meant by this conception and being with child of this woman An. It is no new or strange thing in the Scriptures to finde the Church compared to a woman with child Isa. 54. 1. Reioyce thou barren c. The Church of the Gentiles which before was barren but now hath more children then the married wife that is the Jewes who came of Sarah opposed to Agar The reason is because of the similitude and agreemēt between the bringing forth of children to God in grace and that to man in nature The resemblance stands especially in five things 1 As wee had two parents saith Augustine who begat us to death Adam and Eve so must wee have two parēts to beget us unto life Christ his Church and these two must be one flesh by the bond of marriage 2 As a woman becomes a mother by meanes of her marriage and company with her husband so doth the Church by her marriage and conjunction with Christ bring forth many Children to God For had she not beene the spouse of Christ and the Lambes wife she had beene for ever barren Sarah was a type of this bride Therefore as Sarah was of a barren wombe and unfit for conception but by the word and promise of God brought forth Isaac who was therefore called the sonne of the promise So the Church was of a fruitles and barren wombe and had never brought forth children to Christ were it not for the covenant and promise of God by which all the faithfull are formed in her wombe who are therefore also called children of the promise Rom 9. 8. The children of the promise are the seed 3 When Jesus Christ the father the second Adam and quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. soweth the seed of grace and spiritual generation partly externally by the preaching of the word which is called the immortall seed of Gods word that endures for ever which therefore carryeth life and quickning with it as being the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16 and partly in wardly by the Spirit of God a powerfull agent without whose mighty operation all would proove but a false conception The Church as a Mother receiveth conceiveth it in the wombe of faithfull and pure hearts So Mary pondred all things in her heart And Heb. 4. 2. the word must be mingled with faith or else it profiteth not to this conception 4 As a Woman having conceived brings not forth presently but keepeth her moneths and seasons appointed by God till her very houre come so the Church brings not children to God at her owne pleasure and will but when she hath gone out the full time moneths appointed by God for the new birth of every one of them which is finished by degrees and in due season this is in the text 5 As a mother come to the full moneths of birth bringeth her child into the light So doth the Church bring her children into the light by two meanes partly by profession of the doctrine of grace and partly by the practise of the gifts of grace Then doth she nurse her new-borne babes with the syncere milke of Gods word drawne out of her owne two breasts the Testaments of holy Scripture whereby they out-grow their infancy and come to their age in Christ. 2 Why is this woman said now to be with child and ready to be delivered What was she barren ever before this time An. No. For first she had beene very fruitfull before as ver 17. there is mention of the remnant of her seed Secondly all the sonnes and children of God in all ages were children of this woman Thirdly this vision being to be referred to the times after the Apostles before and about the times of the tyrannicall Heathen Emperors both Scriptures and stories record that there was a wonderfull increase of Christians almost all the world over so as the Tyrants were still kept in worke though they slew them by tenne thousands and hundred thousands Therefore wee must distinguish of the Churches travell This travell is either 1 Generall in the bringing forth of faithfull men to Christ in generall and this is not directly aymed at here Or 2 Speciall and particular of some speciall Childbirth which now she was payned for and cryed to the Lord with ardent prayers for and which was shortly to be borne and brought forth This seemes plaine in the fift verse For what she was with child with that she brought forth and that was a particular manchild of whom we will enquire in the place 3 Why she is said to cry in paine ready to be delivered An. For two reasons 1 To hold the resemblance For as God hath by his inevitable sentence for the sinne of man annexed sharpe sorrow to the birth of every Child Gen. 3. 16. In sorrow shalt thou conceive and bring forth so the text implyeth not a little sorrow in bearing and bringing forth children to God 2 For a more speciall reason in the text which in a word was this The Church being now in and under cruell persecutions and lamentable oppressions and being in her selfe as Woman weake and helplesse exposed to all tyranny and unjust vexation seeth the want of a protector and powerfull defender of the Christian faith and Christian people And therefore as earnestly desires by some of her owne Sonnes deliverance from those paines and oppressions as a woman in travell doth desire riddance from her paines and sorrowes 1. The Church of God is a fruitfull Mother daily bringing forth children to Jesus Christ. Psa. 87. 5. Of Sion shall be said
nativity thou wast borne an enemie of God a child of Hell as full of venome and poyson as a toad or serpent But by this birth thou receivest power to be a sonne of God 1 Joh. 3. 2 and the priviledge of sonnes pardon of sinne the favour of god or fatherly affection and a childs portion in that immortall and eternall inheritance and a sweet joy in the assurance of that estate 2 The second marke to know a man borne of this Mother is his crying The first thing which discovers the birth of a Child if alive is the crying of it or else it is still-borne so the new borne child of this Mother cryeth in sense of want of miserie and of spirituall nakednesse In naturall birth is sense of weakenesse and crying after supply so in supernaturall is sense of frailties and much griefe for sinne and the miserable fruits of it And as the child in those wants can doe nothing for it selfe but cry and by crying it gets help so is it with the child of God when he findeth an utter nothing in himselfe but a gulfe of miserie ready to drown him in despaire yet now he hath a spirit which makes him cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. If any of us have never gotten a distinct and sound knowledge of sinnes and the curse of God due to the same nor applied to ourselves that wrath and curse denounced and due to our particular sins of which we are guilty for the humbling and breaking of our hard and stony hearts If we have not out of the sense of an humbled and terrified conscience seene our need of Jesus Christ and from thence have not more earnestly hungred and thirsted after Jesus Christ and cryed as much after pardon of sinne as a condemned man after the Kings gracious pardon These persons may well instruct their conversion and their birth of this woman All thy profession will not make thee a true sonne of the Church except thou cryest in sense of miserie after mercy and grace and this desire be above al other desires in the world On the othe side art thou distressed in conscience in the sense of thy sinne and feare of damnation due to it Doest thou freely confesse thy sinnes and heartily bewaile them Doest thou crie after Christ crucified so as the whole world would not be so sweet as a taste of Christ and the more thou valuest grace dost thou the more thirst and desire after it Oh be of good comfort let not thine estate discourage thee thou art in a good way and a comfortable condition It is a comfort to heare a child new borne to cry it argues both birth and life and so is it here 3 The third note of tryall of one borne of this Mother is sucking An infant so soone as ever it is borne seekes and suckes the breast and so the new borne babe seekes and suckes the sincere milke of the word 1 Pet. 2. 2. And as an infant is never well but when it is sucking night and day and nothing stils the cryes of it or quiets it but the breast so the child of God suppose him but an infant in grace hungerly desires Gods word Gold silver honor pleasure which satisfie carnall men quiet not him only Gods word can quiet and satisfie the heart And as the infant desires the pure breast-milke without any other blending or cookery so Gods children affect chiefly the sincere milke of the word in the plaine evidence of Gods wisedome and care not for blending with froth of wit or humane eloquence but as it comes out of the breasts of the Mother the two Testaments And as the infant sucketh the breast to grow thereby So by the sincere milke the children of God grow in spirituall strength and stature till they come to their talnesse 1 Pet. 2. 2. 4 The fourth note is similitude and likenesse to the father of this birth This mother brings forth children to God in the similitude and Image of god Other Mothers bring children in their owne Image as Adam begat Seth in his owne Image Gen. 5. 3. But what is borne of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. Now examine how thou expressest the seed of new birth Whom resemblest thou If God be thy father thou resemblest him in quality though not in equality Thou art like him in holinesse in righteousnesse and in the whole divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Our Saviour makes this a sure note of a sonne of God or of the Devill Joh. 8. The Jewes bragge they are sonnes of Abraham ver 39. Christ saith were they sonnes of Abraham they would doe the works of Abraham Then they bragge God is their father ver 41. Christ answereth If God were your father you would love me and resemble him for I came from him and he loves me But I will tell you whose sons you are ye are of your father the Devill for his workes yee doe So thou that professest in the Creed that God is thy Father and thou beleevest in him if in stead of Divine vertues thou expressest impious and vicious behaviour thou art of the Devill whose workes thou doest He delights in blaspheming swearing drunkennesse filthinesse he hates the word the Sabbaths the Ministers he delights in feircenesse slaunders and the like so dost thou Thou professest Jesus Christ thy Lord and Saviour but how dost thou grow in conformity with Christ If thou expressest not his humility patience selfe-deniall holinesse and all Christian vertues in some measure thou art none of his The member will grow in conformity with the head a good child will imitate a good father in goodnesse 5 The fift note of new birth is growth A child once borne growes up to strength and stature A child in nature that still suckes wholsome milke stands not at a pitch but growes every month and quarter sensibly so if thou beest borne of this Mother thou growest 1 In understanding and knowledge 2 Pet. 3. 18. 2 In sound affection and powerfull use of the meanes of salvation As a child the more it growes the more it feeds so a man new borne hath daily more love to the word more reformation by it and outgrowes weakenesses 3. In sound practise of holy duties As a child growes active to naturall and civill actions so the child of God and the Church growes strong to prayer and the parts of Gods pure worship strong to endure the labour of the power of godlinesse 4 In strength for the Christian combate He growes able to beare afflictions and stand under great burdens and crosses for Christ and the Gospell He growes strong in resistance of temptations that he is not now carried ordinarily away neither by the world nor by the God of the world from his place To this marke St. John sends us for tryall of our new birth 1 Joh. 5. 4. He that is borne of God overcommeth the world and ver 18. He
name or we will not heare Ier. 44. 16. to delight and rest in flattering and smooth Ministers that may not disturbe us Esay 30. 10. to dull us from hearing the rod not turning to the smiter to rest in the outward meanes of good and not on the Author and blesser All these fore-runneth desolation and sheweth the Church to bee neare the wildernesse II. The second point in the womans flight is her sustentation that they should feede her alluding to the feeding of the Church of the Iewes in the wildernesse this woman is fled into the vaste and desolate wildernesse where she is sure to bee safe because the Text saith God hath prepared her a place but now shee seemeth in as ill case as before what shall shee doe for food there is no tilling sowing reaping no fruits in the barren wildernesse how shal she doe for food the Text answereth They shall feed her The word They standeth in relation to some persons spoken of before for it is not said That she should be fed nor that he that is the Lord might feed her but that they should feed her Now who are those that must feed her The words then have reference to Chapter the 11. 2. so that the two witnesses shall feed her for the time of both fitly agreeth Quest. What is meant by those two witnesses Ans. The Papists grosly conceive them to bee Henoc and Elias who they say are reserved above in Paradise to returne againe in the dayes of Antichrist to oppose him whom Antichrist shall slay and trample their dead bodies in the streets of Hierusalem but they shall revive the third day at which miracle the Iews say they shall be converted to Christ and shall slay Antichrist in the Mount Olivet and cleave unto Christ who shall come againe five and forty dayes after A notorious fable without all colour of Scripture for of Henochs returne in flesh or spirit is not a syllable in the Scripture and of Elias his spirituall returne it was â—â—â—formed before Saint Iohn writ this Prophesie as our Saviour affirmeth Matth. 17. 11. in Iohn Baptist I forbeare to follow or persecute so manifest a falshood Some also understand them of such Pastors and witnesses of the truth as assisted the woman and resisted the corruptions of those times not too precisely but a few noted by that number and by that number because the law requireth two witnesses at least to confirme every truth But I doe understand the two witnesses to be the two Testaments of holy Scripture for 1. Both witnesse unto God in his holinesse truth power justice mercy and all other attributes and to Christ Iohn 5. 2. Both witnesse the will of God to man in all things to bee beleeved done 3. Both witnesse against the wicked not the Law onely not Moses onely but the Gospell the word that I speake saith Christ shall judge you at the last day 4. Both feed the woman in the wildernesse maintaining heavenly life and strength both supply her with a dayly showre of Mannah as was notably prefigured in that type to which allusion because the Spirit of God here looketh I rather chuse this interpretation of Augustine and others The words thus unfolded we may learne That God feedeth his children even in the wildernesse and provideth for his owne in times of greatest scarcity as here the woman in a place of famine barrennesse banishment and persecution is fed and provided for Never was the Israel of GOD without a showre of Mannah nor a Rocke of water in the dry and barren wildernesse 1 Kings 19. 6. Eliah flying for his life is fed by an Angell and what else would our Saviour teach by thoâ—â— two miracles of so many thousand in the wildernesse with so small meanes Matth. 14. 18. but that such as follow Christ and cleave unto his word shall not bee destitute of any thing needfull though in never so vast and terrible a wildernesse They are first in respect of God secondly of themselves In respect of God for three causes 1. Because of his gracious promise so often passed Psal. 34. 10. The Lyons shall want but they that feare the Lord they shall want nothing that is good Psal. 84. 11. no good thing shall be wanting to him that liveth uprightly Psal. 37. 19. they shall have enough in dayes of famine for godlinesse hath the promise even of this life as well as of that to come 2. Because of his mighty power who can doe what he hath promised 1. He can create food where none is as Mannah in the wildernesse and water out of a Rocke the most unlikely meanes in the world and out of an Asses tooth to Samson as dry as a flint 2 Hee can multiply a little and make it supply many and make it last long as 1 Kings 17. 14. the Meale in the barrell 2 Kings 4. 3. Oyle in the Câ—use we see the like in Christs miracles feeding many thousand with seven Loaves 3. He can by extraordinary meanes supply his servants if ordinary faile if men feed not Elias Angels shall if Angels doe not Ravens shall 4. He can without all meanes sustaine them if both ordinary and extraordinary faile them as Moses and Elias forty dayes without any food This mighty power added to his promise assureth his Church to be fed seeing nothing can hinder him from doing them good 3. Because of the fulnesse and abundance of grace in God and fulnesse of goodnesse to communicate it who can deny him to be the Ocean and full Sea even the inexhaustible fountaine of goodnesse and who can hinder his full streames from issuing forth and running abroade in all affluence or whether should it flow and issue if not to his Sanctuary who have the Buckets to draw out of this deepe Well but beleevers In regard of themselves and in this respect there are three more causes 1. The right of the Church for the beleever having Christ hath in him right to all things of this life good for them If Christ be yours then all is yours whether things present or to come 1 Cor. 3. 22. 2. Their relation to God they are nearer than Gentiles yet he feeds them they are nearer than Oxen yet God hath care of oxen they are nearer than sparrowes yet he feeds them for 1. They are his servants The Prodigall childs father is said to have bread enough for his servants much more have Gods servants in his house 2. They are childreÌ„ He that provideth for dogs and Swine will hee not provide for his children 3. They are the Spouse and wife of Christ will a loving husband suffer his deare wife to want food and necessaries if hee know her need and be able to supply it therefore so long as the Lord hath knowledge of the Chuches estate and love of her person shee shall not be destitute 3. Their power and prevailing of their faith procureth them food they trust in him and commend
out of the Church into the earth and there among earthly and carnall men holdeth his power still Ephes. 2. 2. The Prince that ruleth in the aire worketh among the sonnes of disobedience 2 Thes. 2. 9. Sathan worketh in Antichrist by all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish 2 Cor. 4. 4. The god of this world blindeth the mindes of infidels or unbeleevers And why 1. Sathans raigne is in the reigne of sin that is his scepter a wicked heart in which sinne raigneth is his chaire of estate But sinne raignes not in the elect that are under grace Rom. 6. 14. 2. Sathan being the Prince of darknesse rules in the kingdome of darknesse whence wicked spirits are called rulers of the darknesse of this world Ephes. 6. 12. The devill is the father of all spirituall darknesse of lies heresies false doctrines false worship and all workes of darknesse This is the world of darknesse in which hee ruleth as a king in his Kingdome But the godly are gotten out of this Egypt out of the reach of this hellish Pharaoh and are gotten into Goshen the Church where light is Ephes. 5. 8. Ye were once darknesse but now are light in the Lord. 3. Sathan is the father of sinne and sinne is the mother of death by which necessary connexion appeares who are his subjects over whom hee holdeth his full and absolute power to weet a world of dead men dead in trespasses and sinnes destitute of the life and Spirit of God and as dead men laid and buryed in the earth among these hee ruleth As the demoniake in our Saviours time lived among the graves and there tyrannized so doth Sathan being cast out into the earth which is as another Golgatha But the godly are quickned by Christ being formerly dead in trespasses and live now the life of the Sonne of God and have part in the first resurrection Gal. 2. 20. And so are exempted from the power of Sathan Which is a ground of comfort to all true hearted Christians that stand in the spirituall combate 1. Thou fightest against a conquered and bound enemy who is cast out of all thy Lords dominions 2. Hee is cast into the earth and keepeth state in the world as the god of the world but thou art called out of the world and brought from the earth Object If hee be cast out how comes it to passe that I am so afflicted with horrible hellish and violent temptations Answ. 1. The Dragon is not cast out of all power till hee bee cast into hell but hee is cast out of full power in the godly 2. There is a reserved wrigling power of the Dragon which may assault thee but hee shall never hurt thee that art one of Gods chosen neither by his temptation nor persecution For first though they may afflict and exercise thee yet all the gates of hell cannot overcome or extinguish thy faith Secondly though they may trouble thee and hinder thee in the way as the Moabites did Israel by their wiles yet can they not in the end of it which is life and glory Thirdly though they may hinder the sense and comfort and joy of thy salvation yet can they not the right nor assured hope of thy happinesse Object I finde these temptations prevaiâ—e in mee and if the devill raigne in sinne I feare he is not cast out of mee Answ. There is the least feare of that sinne that is most feared The feare of sinne keepes downe the raigne of it But for the strengthening of such as are in combate we must know that the best have sinne but sinne hath not them the best slip and fall but lye not in falls the best do the acts of sinne but not habitually they trade not nor walke in sinnes at least with delight as men in a pleasant way the best have flesh but walke not according to flesh And therefore although thou findest sinne present with thee yet if thou canst finde the power of it weakened if thou sometimes sinnest but art so farre from tumbling and trading in sinne as that thou hatest what thou doest all is safe the dragon is cast out for all that 2. Here is a rule of tryall to know our estate whether wee belong to heaven or are yet in the earth under the dominion of Sathan If Sathan uphold his power and state in sinne and unrighteousnesse within thy heart thou art apparently in the earth and of the earth Christ hath no part in thee nor thou in him Art thou an enemy to grace to the doctrine of grace Art thou a stubborne and obstinate sinner an enemy to the perswasions of the Word and Spirit a sonne of disobedience a rebell against all thou hearest Art thou a lover of thy sinnes an hater of them that hate and discover them Art thou of the Dragons trade and walkest in fraud lying accusing and envying Gods children Dost thou cast thy selfe out of the Church and wilfully excommunicate and separate thy selfe from God from his house and worship from his Saints and people Now this doctrine tells thee that for these accursed qualities the devill himselfe was cast out by Christs victory and so shalt thou as an enemy of Christ shall Christ cast him out and keepe thee in who resemblest him no confounded shall ye be together and eternally excommunicate from God and his Church 3. This is a ground of instruction if Sathan bee once cast out to keepe him out and let him enter no more When Christ cast out a devill he said Go out of him and enter into him no more So hee never recovereth his power against the Church againe being once cast into the earth Apostasie and revolt from the truth once received gives him a stronger and surer possession then before For he never comes againe but hee brings seaven worse spirits then himselfe And now seeing that Sathan is cast out of our Church into the earth let us not turne to worldly rudiments and that earthly religion and doctrine of Popery and Antichristian idolatry which is from earth set up and upheld by earthly power and policie thrusting it selfe on the world by serpentine craft lying pretenses of miracles martyrdome concord of doctors perpetuall succession from the Apostles c. But let the Dragon rage and dominere in the earth whither hee is cast and in that fleshly doctrine which carrieth away earthly and unstable men Let him make spoile in his owne dominion amongst Papists and Idolaters and hypocrites and atheists Let us keepe that pretious truth which is committed to us and hold fast that which Michael hath wonne for us shall wee runne after the dragon cast into the earth Consider hereunto 1. How can that be a religion of God that openeth a wide gate to all manner of hatefull and unnaturall sinnes by licenses pardons before and after sanctuaries c. that exempts subjects from lawes obedience oathes and allegiance to Princes that under pretence of Christ
his holds I. In his owne person preaching most divine and effectuall doctrine with such authority and power as never man spake so For Michael carryeth a two edged sword in his mouth so sharpe as that it pearceth and cutteth Leviathan in peeces And this doctrine was confirmed partly with a most holy and innocent life so as when the dragon came he found nothing in him Iohn 14. 30 no power no right no matter to fasten any temptation upon being pure from all sinne both in nature and act partly with most powerfull miracles evidences of his divine person because they were performed by his owne power and such as the dragon could neither resist falsifie or imitate II. In the persons of his servants whether Prophets Apostles or Pastors When the Disciples were sent out into Judea to preach they returned to Christ rejoycing because the devils were subdued and Christ said he saw Satan fall downe like lightning Luke 10. 18. How suddenly the sound of the Gospell was carried into all nations by the Apostles and the world conquered unto Christ appeareth in the Epistles of Paul Then went downe Paganisme Idolatry Atheisme and the walls of hellish Iericho were soone throwne downe by the sound of these rammes-hornes And at this day how doe the faithfull Pastors hold forth the shining light of truth to destroy and cast out heretikes and the numberlesse droves of false teachers and seducers out of the Church for as the devils were not able to withstand one word of Christs mouth in his flesh and infirmity so the same word is no lesse powerfull in the mouths of his Ministers with whom himselfe is present to the end of the world 4. He comes with a powerfull Spirit a Spirit of fortitude and unresistable strength by which as hee upholds the whole frame of the world in the estate of nature so also the whole frame of the Church and the whole state of grace in the world renewed and called out of the world This Spirit is not powerfull onely in the Head to foyle the dragon but in every member also who cast him out and tread him under their feet Rom. 16. 20. 5. He comes with a powerfull arme of justice to revenge and confound all enmities spirituall and corporall this our Ioshua hath set his feet on the neckes of five Kings at once and daily casteth out the dragon by the miserable destruction of tyrants and enemies Neroes Domitians Dioclesians Trajans Valences c. and at last shall make all his enemies his footstoole Now seeing onely the power of Jesus Christ can cast out the dragon let us make much of the presence of Christ and rejoyce in it Magicians have devised many wayes of casting out devils as Amulets Words Characters but all diabolicall Papists have devised holy-bread holy-water salt herbes lights Crosses the word Jesus or some part of the Gospell to charme or exâ—rcise devils of the same diabolicall invention and intention with the former but Christ is present with no such sorceries neither doe they cast downe the dragon but hold him up Satan is not cast out by Beelzebub except by compact and collusion but the Lord hath appointed the holy Ministerie and in it hath promised his presence and in that hee commeth to cast out Satan the way to keep Satan downe is to embrace and rejoyce in an holy and powerfull Ministery This is the hammer of heresies the sword against his temptations the touchstone of errour the whetstone of grace the rule of prayer and a whole armory against all the enterprises of the dragon He that findes the power of the Ministery casting downe the dragons power in his owne soule will sticke to it as to the arme of God nothing shall be of power to plucke him from it being the power of God and the wisedome of God Every man saith hee will cleave to Christ and the power of Christ for he onely can foile the dragon but renouncing the Ministery thou renouncest Christ who hath said Hee that receiveth you receiveth mee and hee that refuseth you refuseth mee Luke 10. 16. Againe note hence the reason why the powerfull preaching of Gods Word is so generally resisted in the world namely because all wicked men whatever they professe are friends with the dragon and chuse to be under his power as for the power of Christ they renounce it and say plainly We will not have this man to rule over us nor endure his yoakes as for example 1. Why doth Satan so oppose the true preaching of the Word but because hee feeles the power of Christ in it haÌ„mering downe his kingdome of darknesse hee stormes not at frothy and foolish preaching onely faithfull Preachers beare the burden of his rage Christ and his Apostles and all faithfull Pastors he opposeth he slandereth because Christ is powerfull in them against his Kingdome and not in others 2. What is the cause that Antichrist cannot indure the Scriptures but disgraceth them with vile terms or that he doth preferre fables and devises of men before them shut them up and imprison them in Cloysters and unknown tongues punish the reading of them in the Mother-tongue with death c but because being an enemie to the power of Christ hee findes it the weapon which hath wounded him and must slay him and the rod that Christuseth to smite him downe no winde can so blast herbes as this breath of Christ blasteth him The Arke cannot stand up but Dagon goeth downe Christ and Antichrist cannot stand together 3. Why doe the Idolatrous countries of Spaine Italy France and the rest sticke so fast to the support of Antichrist and keepe life in him and cast him not out as other Countries have done but because Christ is not come among them they resist his power and the rod of his power they suffer not the breath of Christs mouth the preaching of the Word among them and where doe Papists increase at home but in rude and untaught countries where Christ is not come in the power of his Word 4. Why doe our Papists both Recusants and Church Papists most resist and disgrace painfull and diligent Preachers these cannot be indured preach damnation are authors of faction enemies to authoritie c. but the very reason is because these comming in the power of Christ are the greatest enemies of Antichrist their good father and friend for if there bee idle or corrupt Preachers they like well because they know these are speciall friends to their friend for if the Spirit of Christ breath not in him who stands in the roome of a Minister Antichrist may and doth stand in full state and strength for all him 5. Why doe many formall Protestants that say they wil be saved by Christ so directly and manifestly resist the power of Christ to salvation and doe the dragon so good service as none more as First by spurning against wholesome doctrine and turning the backe contemptuously and professedly on the house of GOD This
in their stead Gods plagues are removed and turned into all kindes of blessing The custome of the Church is every private Christians instructiō we must therfore provoke our selves to rejoyce in the overthrow of the dragons kingdome that both in respect of our selves and others First when in our selves we see our spirituall enemies throwne downe by the power of the Word None of us but professeth his part in that great victory of Michael from those dreadfull enemies sinne Satan hell death and damnation as this is the highest raised mercy that ever God gave us so ought it chiefly to raise our spirituall joy to sing the Song of Moses the servant of the Lord and of the Lambe as it is penned and pricked for us Revel 15. 3. Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O King of Saints Are wee delivered from the leprosie of sinne let us not forget to goe backe as the nine Lepers to give praise but challenge our owne dulnesse who can as soone forget such good turnes as Pharaohs butler did the good turne of Ioseph Gen. 40 23. So likewise when wee see our temporall enemies who want no will nor malice to do us mischiefe but are muzled hampred and fall before us now wee ought to lift up the voice of thanksgiving as Psal. 9. 1 2 3. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart I will bee glad rejoyce and sing to thy name for that mine enemies are turned backe and thou hast maintained my right Psalm 22. Save mee from the mouth of the lions and I will declare thy name to my brethren But with this pure affection onely as they are enemies to Gods Kingdome and so farre resist us as wee seeke to uphold the same Secondly without our selves wee must breake forth into praises when wee see the powers of the dragon cast downe in others whether spirituall or temporall When wee see the holds of ignorance errour wickednesse overthrowne by the preaching of the Gospell when wee see the walls of hellish Jericho battered by the sound of the rammes hornes of the Gospell when wee see countries or persons converted and yeeld up themselves to the obedience of the word Here is matter of joy and praise that the tents and curtaines of the Church are spred out and enlarged and the kingdome of Christ prevailes against the power of the dragon Thus the seventy Disciples having beene sent out returne to Christ with joy saying Lord even the devils are subdued unto us nay our Lord himselfe rejoyceth that Satan fell downe like lightening from heaven Or if wee see the temporall enemies of the Church overthrowne if we see Amalec stricken downe before Israel Hamans devise broken Antichrists power weakened and lessened Popish forces repulsed Do wee see Pharaohs chariots and his hosts cast into the sea and his captaines drowned in the red sea Exod. 15. 4. Do wee see the windes blow and the sea cover them that they sinke as lead in the mighty waters as our enemies did in 88 Do wee see hellish powder-plots digged as doepe as hell prevented and the diggers falling into their owne pits How should wee now take up the songs of praise and tryumph that the Lord hath done so great things for us whereof wee rejoyce Psal. 126. 4. Now for the better performance of our duty herein consider three things 1. The conditions of this praise 2. Meanes to attaine it 3. Motives to it I. For rules of direction our text hath foure conditions 1. That all the praise honor of victory belongs to God as in the next vers For God only can overthrow the devils kingdome hee onely hath power above the dragon the Churches victory is the worke of his finger as the Church acknowledgeth Exod. 15. 1. I will sing unto the Lord for hee hath tryumphed gloriously Iudg. 5. 3. I will sing unto the Lord I will sing unto the Lord God of Israel Salvation is the Lords Psalm 3. 8. 2. So soone as we see the victory so soone should we sing out the Lords praises as the Church here Wee must not put off our vowes nor suffer the blessing to grow stale before wee have performed them Israel on the shore seeing the Egyptians dead on the sea banke Then sang Israel Exod. 15. 1. So soone as the Jews had obtained victory over their enemies they consecrate the very next day after the victory to the publique praise of God so while the sense of mercy affects us and while our hearts are warme with it wee must praise the Lord. 3. As here is a lowd voyce for this great victory so according to the greatnesse of the benefit our praises must bee A great victory calls for a great voice of many The blessing conferred upon any part of the Church is the blessing of the whole and the whole must joy In so common mercy none must sit out none must say what is it to mee 4. As the Church here so must wee sing out the majesty of Gods name not with a cold affection but with a mighty fervencie and ardor of spirit to stirre up and kindle in others the feare and love of God For this hearty and spirituall fervencie is the lowdnesse of the voice which God requireth and how can hee kindle or inflame another who himselfe is not warme or kindled II. Meanes to helpe us in this duty are these 1. Earnestly to affect the prosperity and welfare of the Church as feeling members and sharers of her joyes and sorrows preferring the joy of Jerusalem before thy chiefe joy Sound affection will imprinta sound notice of blessings which else passe away as nothing concerning our selves 3 Not to forget but remember Gods mercifull deliverances Psalm 103. 1. My soule praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits as if hee had said If thou forget thou canst not praise and if thou praise not thou wilt forget them To this end write and register them make a day-booke of the noble acts of the Lord. Psalm 102. 18. Let it bee written for the generation to come that the people not yet borne may praise the Lord and that thy selfe looking backe upon one mayest finde out and espie many other 3. Often speake of them and raise monuments of them in thy heart as the stones in Gilgal the setting up of Altars and imposition of names in the old Testament Tell the children of the acts of God that they they may tell their children The Passover was instituted among other ends for this that the children in times to come might know how God destroyed the Egyptians and passed over Israel Exod. 12. 26. So must wee tell our children of 88 Of the powder-treason and other deliverances and make much of their monuments to the perpetuall glory of God shame of Papists and comfort and instruction of the Church 4. Often recount the great benefits redounding to the Church by Gods execution of judgement upon the
not trouble himselfe with those whom he is sure of III. Where doth he accuse Ans. Before our God bewraying three things First the impudency of this Accuser who dares accuse them before God who knoweth their uprightnesse and innocency and is their only Patron and Justifier as of Iob. Secondly his malicious end in accusing which is to breake off the relation and union that is betwixt God and his people for whereas God is our God being reconciled unto us in Jesus Christ and entred into an everlasting covenant with us that he will never cease to doe us good Satan impudently accuseth us before him to make him not ours if it were possible Thirdly the losse of his labour and how frustrate hee is in his calumniation hee is indeed an instant and spightfull accuser but seeing it is before our God hee can availe himselfe nothing nor prejudice the Saints any thing at all he commeth too late for al the matter of accusation is answered already and taken up betweene God and us so that hee remaineth our GOD still when Satan hath done the worst he can IV. When doth hee accuse Night and day which argueth his instance and importunity in accusing that hee is restlesse and incessant and farre beyond all other accusers in his accusation For First other accusers sometimes cease accusing for if they accuse all the day they must rest at night but he is restlesse and needeth no sleepe hee is busie day and night Secondly other Accusers Plaintifes have their times and termes to put in their bils of complaint afterward have their vacations but this Informer keepeth a perpetuall terme without any vacation at all hee applies the barre perpetually night and day Thirdly other Accusers knowing their cause to be naught carry it close and shoote their Arrowes in the darke as it were in the night and flie the light as much as they may but this Accuser although hee knowes his accusation false yet transported with malice and impudence will accuse in the day aswell as in the night even in the light and Sun-shine as not caring where hee may doe mischiefe nor how openly Wee come now to the instructions 1. Note hence that all that professe Jesus Christ are brethren and so to be esteemed Mat. 23. 8. One is your Master even Christ and all yee are brethren But as in nature there are brethren in common nature as all men in the first Adam though never so remote as also brethren in ne are and speciall kindred of the same next parents so ingrace there is in the second Adam a common brotherhood and a speciall fraternity The former is only by externall vocation and profession and fruition of common grace The latter is by speciall grace and inward conjunction which is a nearer and surer band than any in nature of which our Text speaketh These are neare brethren 1. They have all one father and mother and elder brother God their father hath begotten them all of immortall seed and adopted them into the number of his sonnes and daughters The Church is their mother the free woman the mother of us all which nurseth them up on her breasts the two Testaments whence as new borne Babes they sucke the sincere milke of the Word to grow by it 1 Pet. 2. 2. They have all one elder brother Jesus Christ who is not ashamed to call them brethren Heb. 2. 11. Mat. 12. ult All of them have the same language of Canaan all the same affection to Gods house all opposed by the world As concerning this sect wee know it is every where spoken against Acts 28. 22. 2. They have all one and the same provision as brethren the same garments and livery Christs righte ousnesse their elder brothers coate put on them by baptisme the same diet and table of the Lord the same bread and Manna that came downe from heaven the same water out of the Well of Life the same servants to attend them the holy Angels Ministers to all the heires of salvation 3. They have all the â—mage of God their Father renewed upon them and they all grow up like their heavenly Father daily holy as hee is holy mercifull as he is mercifull and perfect as he is perfect in quality not equality as a child is like his father not in greatnesse or dimension but resembleth him in proportion feature and similitude 4 They have all one faith one hope and expectation and one inheritance in the kingdome of heaven a patrimony purchased for them before the beginning of the world whereof they are all heires and fellow-heires with Christ. Rom. 8. 17. Which teacheth us to love all the Saints and people of God with brotherly love Heb. 13. 1. Let brotherly love continue 1 Pet. 3. 8. Love as brethren be pittiful and courteous 2 Pet. 1. 7. joyne to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse 1 It is a lovely thing for brethren to dwell together in unity Psal. 133. 1. And as it is a shame for Brethren in nature to bee separated in affection so is it much more uncomely for those whom grace hath joyned whom one heavenly Father faith and religion hath coupled to be disunited and make a breach in the body of Christ in the house of God 2 True love of brethren is the first fruit of faith and the first bud and blossome which discryeth a tree of righteousnesse and by this it is discerned that we are translated from death to life For by nature every man is a lover of himselfe and an hater of his brethren but grace obeyeth the new commandement of love which commandement being before antiquated is by the new worke of the Spirit renewed in those that are renewed and shewes us borne of God 1 Ioh. 4. 7. 3 Our Lord Christ in his example preferred the spirituall kindred by â—aith and the new birth before his naturall Mat. 12. 44. These considerations would cut off many contentions and quarrells and be as water cast into the fiâ—ry hearts and hands of brother against brother as Gen. 13. 8. I pray thee let there be no strife betweene us for wee are brethren and Act. 7. 26. Moses said to the striving Hebrewes Sirs why strive yee yee are brethren both Hebrewes of one family and one faith So should Christians say what doe I striving with such a one doth not common nature joyne us doth not common profession yea and grace too and cannot all these prevaile against my passion This consideration would answer all Objections incensing us Object 1. One saith oh he is a man of bad qualities an ill natured man Answ. Yet account him not as an enemie but admonish him as a brother 2 Thes. 3. Obiect 2. Another saith oh he hath much wronged me Answ. Yea but a brother must cover his brothers faults brothetly love will cover a multitude of offences a brother must beare forbeare not often take forfeits nor notice of small
hence the dragon in this verse is said to be cast downe into the earth where he was before but into a farre lower condition 3 Because the Saints by holy profession and godly conversation testifie the glory of God as the heavens do Psal. 19. 1. and therefore as their house and inheritance is there so are their cogitations and conversation 4 They have a tast of heaven and beginning of heavenly joy and gladnesse for the victory and salvation which in part they have already obtained by Christ against enemies spirituall and temporall which is pointed at in this text For as in heaven is a perfect and unmixed joy for a full deliverance and perfect salvation so here is a tast and resemblance for a deliverance in part None are called to rejoyce in Scripture but onely godly men who are said here to dwell in heaven Psal. 32. 11. Be glad ye righteous and Psal. 40. 16. Let them that seeke the Lord rejoyce Now by joy I meane not any naturall joy arising from things pleasing to nature which wicked men and reprobates yea the beasts have in abundance but that heavenly and spirituall joy which is called the joy of the Spirit both because it is wrought by the Spirit of God and also hath spirituall and heavenly things for the obiect of it as 1 The ioy of reconciliation with God and remission of sins 2 Joy of heavenly graces faith love c. called ioy of faith Phil. 1. 25. 3 Joy of heavenly glory held in certaine hope this is called ioy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1 8. and joy of salvation Psal. 51. 12. This ioy is limited in Scripture to the faithfull and therefore is called the joy of Gods people and all other are barred out from it Prov. 14. 10. The stranger entreth not into his joy 1 The godly are only qualified persons and fitted for holy reioycing For First they onely have Christ who merited this ioy and therefore it is called His joy Ioh. 15. 11. 2 They onely have the Spirit the immediate worker and preserver of sound ioy whence it is called a fruit of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. and the oyle of ioy because it flowes from that anoynting 3 They onely have faith which is not of all men and therefore they onely have joy of beleeving having with Christ gotten all things they have purchased the field and goe away reioycing Simeon reioyced when his faith had got Christ into his armes 4 They onely are such as mourne and onely such are called to ioy Mat. 5. 4. It ariseth out of sound sorrow and a broken heart as the Lute is tuned to sweet musicke by wresting the strings as if wee would breake them to pieces 5 They onely have attained victory in part over enemies and are delivered from the dragons power As Israel having escaped the sea and mountaines and Egyptians so the Israel of God being set free frō hell sinne sinners and the curse of sinne have iust cause of ioy and gladnesse and all but they want it 6 They onely are in heavenly state and condition and have taste of the ioyes of heaven which differ not in kinde from those they expect in heaven but only in degree 2 Wicked men are never bidden to reioyce nor are capable of this ioy He never enters into it nor it into him for First he is at warre with God a stranger to the covenant without Christ without the Spirit What joy where is no life what joy can man dead in sinne have separate from Christ the fountaine of life and wanting the quickning Spirit Secondly what joy can hee have on whom sentence of condemnation is passed and hee going on to execution If such a man laugh every one will thinke hee hath little cause It is a laughter in the face not in the heart Thirdly what true joy can hee have who neither hath the Well nor can abide the Bucket by which he should draw out of the Wels of salvation and consolation Esa. 12. 3. Gods Word which onely hath the joyfull tydings of salvation hee hath no part in it is a bill of indictemēt to him The Sacraments to him are Seales set to blankes seale nothing to him His prayers are abominable he hath no joy in any service all the duties of his calling are sinne to him Hee rejoyceth indeed in the creatures of God but as a theefe in a true mans purse and that joy which ariseth out of the creature perisheth with it Fourthly wicked men need not bee bidden rejoyce for 1. What hindereth or pincheth such his sinne troubleth him not it is his delight Temptations of the devill vexe him not hee runnes out to meet the Tempter His conscience troubleth him not that is brawned up The world vexeth him not but dandles him as her darling 2. They are surfetted already with carnall joy and are called from such joy to mourning and howling Iam 5. 1. and Luke 6. 25. Note hereby what a miserable estate a wicked man is in who cannot finde one syllable in all the Scripture to ground any comfort in and so hath no warrant nor cause to reioyce in any thing For God hath covenanted nothing but woe and wrath with them Esa. 65. 13. My servants shall rejoyce and yee shall be ashamed my servants shal sing for joy of heart and ye shal cry for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit Consider a little 1 What good thing is there in heaven or earth good as in it selfe so to thee that art an impenitent person Looke at God the chiefe good he is thine enemie a consuming fire what ioy hath stubble and chaffe in the fire Looke at Christ the Saviour of his body and he is thy Judge and he whom thou hast pierced In stead of the sweet Comforter thou hast the spirit of bondage and feare a sound of feare is ever in thine eares Iob. 15. 21. Looke on thy selfe thou art a man in the divells fetters ruled at his will and within thee a wicked conscience eyther following thee with hue and cryes vexing and accusing thee or else dead and benummed which hath given thee over to all sinne to swallow it with senslesnesse and greedinesse Looke without thee thou swimmest in a streame of outward contents and fulnesse and herein thou reioycest too much but thou hast thy portion here and to the impure all is uncleane thy table meat drinke wife children all are a snare to thee all upheapeth thy sin and vengeance thou hast nothing out of Gods love because thou hast nothing in the Sonne of his love Looke beyond thy self the presēt what hast thou to ioy in what hope hath the wicked in death when God takes away his soule A few mooveables God sends thee away with but the inheritance is reserved for the sons of the free-woman 2 As thou hast no cause of ioy so thou hast no hold of thy ioy who hast grounded it in perishing things Well
Antichristians who are the beast rising out of the earth And they are called inhabitants of the sea for their tumult and incōstancy casting up as the sea nothing but mire and dirt and carryed as waves of the sea by every winde Jude 13. But if any thinke the Evangelist aymeth more distinctly at some particulars I am not ignorant that some by earth understand the common multitude of wicked persons enemies unto Christ and by sea the ecclesiasticall men who have corrupted the earth with bitter brinish and salt doctrine of errors and humane traditions and thus still oppose them But I conceive a further drift of the Spirit of God well suiting to our whole exposition and period of time which this part of the Chapter aymeth at That rather by earth are meant all such nations and Kingdomes of earth subjected to the spirituall whordomes of the dragon so called for their earthly profession affection and practise and by sea the then Roman Empire it selfe so called 1 For the floods of impietie that issued from it as the floods and rivers do all from the sea it was the head of wickednesses 2 For the unbridled rage of it and the unresistable power which was then the great Ocean swelling over all bankes So as the sense seemes to be Wo to the earth and all wicked nations that are enemies to the Church of God but especially wo to the sea the great Empire whose sinnes the dragon hath brought to a great height so as the great mutation of that great estate is now neare and the subversion of the Imperiall and Cesariall power is at hand For now at this time so effectually did the dragon worke in the delusions of Antichrist as that he whose comming was in all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse was shortly to swallow up the Imperiall power and so to take him out of the way which stood betweene him and his greatnesse as was formerly prophesied 2 Thes. 2. and not long after accomplished When the Church is happy in the midst of persecutions wicked and earthly men are unhappy and miserable So is it here rejoyce ye heavens but wo to the earth and sea Eccles. 8. 12. 13. Though a sinner do evill an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet surely I know that it shal be well with them that feare God which feare before him but it shall not be well with the wicked Esa. 3. 10. Say yee it shal be well to the just but wo to the wicked it shall not be so to him it shal be evill to him the reward of his hands shal be given him Psal. 37. 37. Marke the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but the transgressors shal be destroyed together One reason hereof is in the text Satan being cast out of the men of the Church gets into the swine of the world and carries them into the lake first of sin then of destruction In their best estate they are Satans possession 2 It must be so by the perpetuall rule of divine justice who neither shuffles good and evill men together as men do nor mistakes persons and actions Among men there is a righteous man to whom it commeth according to the worke of the wicked and the contrary Eccles. 8. 14. But the Lord judgeth with righteous judgement Neither doth he forget any of their workes A wise man that delivers the City by his wisdome may be forgotten among men Eccles. 9. 15. as Ioseph was but the Lord forgets not the goodnesse of his servants nor his enemies sinnes but sets up all on their heads for the day of reckoning and recompense Revel 22. 12. Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to render to every man according to his workes The just Judge of all the world must do right 3 According to a mans seed time so commonly is his harvest Gal. 6. 7. As a man sowes so must he reape he that sowes to the flesh must reape corruption but he that sowes to the spirit shall reape life everlasting Doest thou sow chaffe and darnell and weeds and lookest thou for a crop of wheat Sow righteousnesse and thou shalt have a sure reward Prov. 11. 18. but if thou sowest iniquitie looke to reape affliction 4 The truth of God in accomplishing his word must leave the godly most happy while the wicked are wrapped in hellish woes and horrors The same weight of truth which carries downe wicked men into their place hoiseth up the godly as in the other scoale For as all the precious promises of the word belong to the one whereof earth nor hell can defeat them so al the woes and execrations of Scripture belong to the other and shal be true upon him so long as God is true in himselfe There is not a wicked man but he hath all the threatnings of God all the curses of the law and all the terrors of his owne conscience standing and shall stand for ever in force against him if hee stand out impenitently against GOD. Now this is a direction to Ministers for the course and carriage of their doctrine to sing both mercy and judgment and to come both with a rod and the spirit of meekensse Wee must speake peace to godly men but feed the impenitent with judgement This text and all texts and the whole tenor of the Scriptures go before us in this course Unhappy men are they that speake all peace and preach nothing but promises as if all men were godly and the congregations not mixt or if they distinguish of men it is to encourage hearten and harden wicked men for their owne gaine and dishearten and disgrace such as feare the Lord. 2 It is a direction to all men to carry our affections differently according to the differences of men expressing our love and kindnesse to men fearing God and our dislike of evill and wicked men 1 So doth the Lord and his Spirit in this text and whosoever are guided by the Spirit of grace will shew themselves in the helping up and encouragement of godlinesse and furthering the joy of the faithfull and in the discouraging and daunting so far as lyeth in him the wickednesse of men 2 A note of a good man is that a vile person shall be contemned in his eyes and he will love them that feare the Lord. 3 True judgment helps him to discerne between an Israelite and Ismaelite and true affection will cleave to the one and disclaime the other Gods Spirit teacheth none to esteeme carefull Christians vile persons nor to cleave to enemies and resisters of the grace of God who are indeed vile persons and so are they that sort with them or plead for them and as sin makes men vile to God so it makes them seeme to good men 3 It is an incouragement to godly men in the way of holinesse for they are in the way of happiness nothing can make them fall short of
are most easily foyled in these rather then in the other For the first Satan is more dangerous in these for as an enemie when he cannot overcome in a pitcht field gets him to the woods and bushes and there layes his ambushments in which he is more dangerous then in open hostility so Satan when he cannot by violence and open force conquer by secret and bewitching allurements he gets an easie victory For the secoÌ„d our-selves are more securely drawn and allured by the sweetnesse of prosperity which as a bewitching Delilah hath more prevayled by sugred words and craft against many Sampsons then by all the power of the Philistians If prosperity came out against us with a bloody ensigne or a flag of defiance or with a dreadfull sword shaking in open hostility our feare would be more and our danger lesse But it comes as Ioab or Iudas when it kisseth it killeth it killeth with kindenesse and with the sweet poison of a cunning inchanted cup. Which serves for refutation of Papists who glorie in outward prosperity as a note of the true Church but by this text and our owne experience we see that their prosperity is like Jaels milke which hath brought them on a dead sleepe as Sisera whence they shall never awake without a mortall wound and like the dead sea in which no life or living thing no grace no spirit no spirituall worship is to bee found Likewise it reprooves the folly of carnall men who wil be acquainted with religion so farre as they may profit themselves and thrive by it If godlinesse may be gainefull and wisdome come with inheritance they are forward and devoute but if it will not stand with their state ease credit and outward prosperity either they forsake it with Demas or with Demetrius persecute it Heaven it selfe hath no content because golden gaine and hurtfull prosperity powres not from thence 2 Note hence how contrary our nature is to Gods he by his infinite wisdome fetcheth good out of evill for us but wee out of our folly suâ—ke evill of good God gives us good gifts as sweet as hony but we like spiders draw infection and poison from them Lamentable it is how wee pervert all Gods gracious ends and aymes for our good There be three chiefe ends which the Lord aymeth at in raining downe the showres of good blessings and prosperity upon us but we pervert them 1 He expresseth his bountifulnesse to lead us to repentance Rom. 2 4. Every benefit should be a meanes yea Sermon of repentance But we by hardnesse of heart that cannot repent abuse them to hinder our selves from repentance or to multiply that where of wee must repent And no marvell if the wicked by their prosperity harden their own hearts when the godly are in danger by others prosperity to harden themselves as David Psal. 73. 13 14. 2 The Lord shineth upon us with the sunne of prosperity that wee might rejoyce in the beames of his love and serve him with more chearefulnesse and better hearts Deut. 28. 47. thou servedst not the Lord with joyfulnesse and a good heart for the abundance of all things But wee use them as clouds to hide from us the light of the sunne and hinder our sight from the beholding of his grace being never lesse mindfull of him then when he is most mindfull of us 3 The Lord affords outward prosperity to his servants to bee by them occasioned and incouraged in goodnesse to quicken them in the way and to make by them better speed to heavenly habitations Luke 16. 9. Make you friends of unrighteous Mammon that they may receive you into heavenly Mansions namely not as causes but witnesses of our salvation But we make it as a dead sea in which lives nothing or as nailes to fasten our hearts to earth and earthly things so as hardly and heavily are wee lifted up in heavenly meditation or conversation All this injoynes us First to bewayle the vile corruption of our nature which is so started away from God with whom we had once a similitude and conformity Secondly to watch it narrowly being so slippery and prone to decline even where it is most incouraged and fenced to the contrary Thirdly to labour to correct it and bring it backe the way it is gone from God Keepe it straightly to Gods aymes and ends For shall the Lord even by afflictions ill in their nature worke out our good in conversion sanctification and salvation and shall wee be so contrary to him as by his benefits set forward our owne damnation as if the Lord intended to kill us with kindnesse 3. If prosperity more bane the Church than adversity then must wee be more watchfull in prosperity and peace because then danger is nearer For compare these two a little and see and say whether is more dangerous For 1. Prosperity usually is a beame in the eye and shuts the eye of understanding and closeth the eare from hearing counsell whereas the rod and persecution openeth the shut eye and the eare that was sealed Iob 33. 16. For as the Sunne and dust doe hinder the sight whereas a ruffling stirring wind cleareth both the ayre and our eye so the sunshine of prosperity fils the eyes of the minde with moates and dust which suffers us not to discerne spirituall things so clearly till God by some tempest cleare our sight according to that Vexation sharpeneth the sight See Iâ—r 31. 18 19. 2. Prosperity commonly makes men secure naked open to temptation whereas persecution and tyranny makes them watchfull and armed and fit to make resistance against sinne and assaults David who could not be ouercome in his battels but was humble tender-hearted chaste and conscionable compiling holy Psalmes and prayers full of gracious soliloquies in his peace and rest was soone conquered now must hee have Bathsheba slay Vriah in the pride of his heart send out Ioab to number his people to see how hee could stand by his owne strength and what great evill comes amisse now hee is off his guard and out of his strength and as a City without wals Looke upon Hezekiah in his sicknesse and see him a picture of humility a patterne of piety full of confessions prayers praises and divine meditations Esa. 38. But look on him recovered and you shal see him glorying in his wealth priding himselfe in his treasures and confederating with enemies for as a faire hot summers day makes a man cast off his cloathes whereas a cold storme or winde makes him fasten them unto him even so it is incident to good men in the gleame of peace and rest to walke more loose and at large whereas a threatning storme will make them buckle themselves and get their graces fast unto them 3. Prosperity makes men and Churches wanton and unruly as Israel is an untamed heifer knows not his master and leapes over all hedges but adversity is as a thorny