an Enthusiasme or immediate Revelation but such motives and inducements as were before recited which amounted onely to strong and high probabilities yet sufficient enough in an humble modest heart to produce Faith a certainty of adhaerence though not of evidence and this sufficient to produce acts and operations of Faith to provoke to the obedience of Faith A bruised Reed God will not break nor quench a smoaking Flax Mat. 12.20 if we have but Faith so much as a graine for a little Faith if sound is true Faith of mustard seed let the motives be what they will if this encline and promote obedience the least degree thereof is well pleasing to God he will accept without being furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full Armour of infallibilities and demonstration Nathaniels Faith had neither Enthusiasme nor demonstration but a Topick or Argument a paribus backed by an humane testimony or report John 1.48 and Christ approved this his Faith and rewarded it with an higher concession of grace ver 30.51 and so Christ accepted Thomas his Faith though enduced by senfible experiments John 20 28. whatsoever the instrument or beginning or motive of beleife be if that work by love and work in us a care and desire to find the truth humility in following and constancy in professing it this shall be our reasonable service of God The third Part the Prayer O Eternall Lord God in whom to beleeve is Eternall life give to us thy grace which may suppresse every motion of infidelity that there be not in us an evill heart of unbeleife and however we be not able to manage the shield of Faith yet perfect thou thy strength in our weaknesse making it mighty through thy power working in us to pull down strong holds cast downe imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowlege of God O holy Jesus the Eternall Word of the Father we beleeve thou hast the Words of Eternall Life Lord help thou our unbeleife and increase our Faith bring into captivity every thought to thine obedience that thy servants and followers may submit to thee our Lord and Master resigning our Vnderstandings to the Truth our Wills to the Goodnesse our Affections to the holinesse of thy Precepts and by Hope depending for satisfaction on thy precious promises O Immortall and all-glorious Spirit sanctifie unto us all those means and methods which are the preparatives and Introductions of Faith that they may be Instrumentall to Principle us in wholesome Doctrine to beget in us a love of the truth and obedience to thy Laws unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and advance us to further degrees of Knowledge and spirituall Wisedom to the spirit of obsignation the confidence of hope and the assurance of thine eternall love and favour O holy blessed and glorious Trinity to whom belongeth the Kingdom the Power and the Glory throughout all Ages World without end Amen MOSES his Choice Heb. 11.24.25.26 By Faith Moses when he was come to Years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter c. MOses in his Infancy and Minority being saved and preserved by a miraculous mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in his Minority and riper Years preferred educated and advanced in Pharaohs Court when he had arrived at full maturity and strength of dayes he bethinks himself how to exercise his Princely perfections and accomplishments supposing God had been so good and gracious to him for some great and honourable ends and purposes of mercy and beleeving no better way to imploy those powers then in the service of God the interest and concerments of his Church and People and further conceiving God therefore had delivered him that he might be the Cheif and Principall Instrument of his glory in the Preservation of his Fathers House and the redemption of his Brethren according to the Flesh For By Faith c. The first Part. Q. But why should Moses desert and relinquish Pharaohs Court in which he was so Honourably Educated and Entertained Or why should he deny for so the Vulgar renders it the appellation and title of the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter who by her tender care and liberall bounty had obliged him Was it not both grosse ingratitude and great incivility thus to sleight her and her high respect Could he not at once be called the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter and be indeed the Child and Servant of God a Courtier and a Christian Did not Joseph the holy Patriarch before him live both magnificently and religiously in the same Egypt and enjoyed the dignities and wealth thereof And long after this was not Devout Esther Queen to Ahasuerus Daniel and his Associates Nobles to Nebuchadnezzar A. Doubtlesse had not Pharaoh and his Court been implacable and mercilesse Tyrants violent Persecutors of and incorrigible irreconcilable Enemies to the people of God Moses might still have resided in that Court and without any violence to his Religion possessed whatsoever Egypt afforded but in this juncture of time the case was otherwise to be stated then it was when Joseph Esther and Daniel had charge and command under Infidell Princes for these had liberty and opportunities to exercise their Religion to improve and manage their Royall Priviledges and immunities to the behoofe and advantage of their civill and sacred relations whereas Moses must either in a base and unworthy complyance joyn with the Egyptians to vex them whom God had wounded or in a dull sleepy security and Epicurean softnesse neglect the remembrance and afflictions of Joseph and stifle and choke that publike Spirit which God had endowed and enobled him withall for eminent and illustrious atcheivements for besides what is above mentioned Moses had sufficient Authority and Commission to enterprize and undertake the Deliverance of his Hebrew Brethren from the Egyptian Bondage a Command Call and Order from God the Lord of Lords the onely Supreme and so as Pharaohs cruelty did lessen Moses his Obligation of gratitude for he being a Publique Spirit and no pure self-lover every indignity and injury to his Brethren was so to him so Gods command did quite supersede all Obligations to Pharaoh his Daughter or Court both because they were but the Instruments of Gods providence who of Enemies made them Friends and Benefactors and so the highest Obligation was to the principall efficient God and also because a command from God to whom proud Pharaoh was but a mean Subject the Supreme of all doth null and voyd all Orders and Obedience to the Inferiour for though Religion doth not take away or disanull the tyes of Nature and Civility but rather enforce and perfect them yet where their Ruler and Offices are counter-checked by an expresse command or prohibition from God there it is Religion and Duty to wave them and observe the expresse The result then is this That if it come to this passe and point that our temporall preferments and possessions our naturall or civill
on the Crosse to his justice should be as available to them as to us and the merits of Christs death as imputable to them as to us And upon that account God accepted these all as his Redeemed ones Even as an honest Creditor will release his Debtor when a faithfull Solvent Surety or undertaker makes satisfaction or gives security to content and according to desire and demand And as Jesus Christ was yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. so the vertue of his death is Eternall both à parte ante and à parte post is from and to all Eternity But besides all this premised we have expresse Evidence for our Plea and Cause for the precedent Verses of this Chapter where it is set down in plain Language that some of these all had passed from Earth to Heaven and particularly instanced in Enoch and Elijah and it s said of Abraham that he looked for a City and that sure was a free Priviledged Place conspicuous eminent and glorious not a close dark hole or Prison and of the Patriarkes that they aymed at Patriam Caelestem an Heavenly Country and that jam tum illis paratum even then prepared for them Heb. 11.10.16 And hereupon Haymo thus concludes Nunc verò quiescunt in animae in heatudine Regui Caelestis ineffabili laetitia perfruontes It seems this conceit of the present Romaniscs was not at that time a Catholike truth or else he was mistaken The second is that of some of the Ancient Fathers who referr this common perfection to be received solely to the day of the Resurrection supposing That no Soules enter into Heaven or enjoyes the beatificall Vision till the day of the generall Resurrection But although the souls be extinguished at the time of their separation from the Body yet they did lye in seeret receptacles in a profound or deep sleep untill the Resurrection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their Glory For so some of them conceive That Heaven shall not be opened till the day of Judgement unlesse to a few priviledged persons And of this opinion was Irenous Iust Martyr Tertull. August Ambrose Iohn 22. and the Greeke Church still maintains it The Text upon which they ground this perswasion is Apoc. 6.9.10.11 I saw under the Altar the soules of them that wore slain for the Word of God c. Indeed there are severall Expositions of this place Some making it Allegoricall Others Figurative c. Whatsoever the true meaning is Certainly the Text strongly proves the Immortality of the humane Soules by their subsistence after separated But whether their Conclusion let others judge Indeed some later Divines have moderated the supposition Neither with the Romanists dooming their soules to inferior Vaults if not infernall Nor placing in severall resting receptacles yet withall allowing them no residence in Heaven the Throne of Gods Glory But they pretend they are carried into Abrahams bosome or which is all one with them to Paradise thus distinguishing Paradise from Heaven which distinction they attempt to prove from these following places of holy Scripture First from Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise From which words they thus argue how concludingly let others examine That Paradise must needs import a Place or Seate of blessednesse because it is promised as a mercifull reward and favour and this reward the enjoyment of the society of Iesus yet Heaven it cannot be because that Kingdom of blisse was not opened till Christ made the first entry and took Possession thereof at his Ascension when he was solemnly inaugurated intoch is Kingly Office And so they Expound Christs descent into Hell to signifie a state of separation or common receptable of Spirits so that with them both are Seats of Glory but the one far excelling the other And this they in the second place strengthen from 2 Cor. 12. supposing Saint Paul had two Revelations One When he was caught up into the third Heaven The other When into Paradise which say they was the place from whence Laezarus his soule was called back But that the chief and highest degree of blisse is reserved for the last day they infer from Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.8 But the now common received opinion which is all I adde by way of censure is That all the soules of the saints departed goe straightwayes to Heaven upon their separation To this purpose compare Heb. 10.19 with Heb. 12.22.23.24 which words seem to have this sense The spirits of the just could not be perfect unlesse they were in Heaven enjoying the society of God Christ and the Angels and by enjoyment of these their being in Heaven is concluded So 2 Cor. 5.1 If our Earthly Tabernacle c. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have immediately thereupon a building of God c. as soon as the Tabernacle is dissolved Otherwise the Apostle would not have said we have but we hope or expect and to expect is but in reference to a reversion to have supposes Possession For here we hope for Heaven we have it not and here we desire we may have For so it follows ver 2. In this we groane c. Yet we would not have desired to be uncloathed ver 4. but upon this account and assurance That as soon as we were uncloathed we would be cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life And further yet We are willing to be absent from the Body that we might be present with the Lord ver 8. of the same Chapter Hence St. Paul saith Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ And St. Stephen when he dyed thus Prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and he Prayed so because he beleeved for this was a Prayer of Faith Iesus would receive his Spirit But super totam materiam we shall anon find as hath been proved and shall be further that waving the supposition upon which this second judgement is given it yet comes neer the mark and the truth if it be not the truth it selfe And therefore we passe to the third The third is that which is commonly asserted by most of the Writers of the Reformed Churches who apprehend this promise to relate to Christs Incarnation and with these the words are thus Paraphrased they obtained not the promises that is The promised Messas had not in their times assumed the humane nature and become flesh So Beza Non obtinuerunt they obtained not that is Eminus viderunt Christum they looked for Christ to come they saw him as Abraham afar off So Major Non sunt consecuti promissionem viz. promissum semen mulieris the promised Seed of the Woman And so Calvin Iunius Piscator and certainly their judgement herein is true the dispensation under Christ more glorious then that under the Law and greater perfections received and better provision made by Christs comming then was before insomuch that our Saviour affirmeth
simul oriuntur simul moriuntur here in via at least yet Faith is the first-born and according to the Law of Primogeniture and Birth-right it layes the claim and title to Heaven and gives the jus ad rem Legall Right thereto though the actuall possession thereof the jus in re be from Faith perfected by Works And hence in Scripture account howsoever Faith and Obedience are Philosophically two distinct habits they are the same in as much as true Christian Faith is Obedientiall not meerly Notionall and all Christian Obedience is an emanation of Faith For there we find one and the same Word denoting both Infidelity and Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes unbeleif Acts 14.2 But the unbeleeving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evill affected against the Brethren John 3.36 He that beleeveth on the Son hath Everlasting life and he that beleeveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Sometimes disobedience undutifulnesse obstinacy Ephes 3.2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this World according to the prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Col. 3.6 For which things sake the wrath of God commeth on the children of disobedience 1 Pet. 3.20 Which somtimes wore disobedient when once the long suffering of God wayted c. So not providing for our Family which in strictnesse of Language is an act of disobedience because an omission of a prescribed duty is yet made by the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.8 a bad peice of Infidelity and men are said to be absurd and wicked because they have not Faith 2 Thes 3.2 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not onely barely to assent but also to obey Galat. 3.1 and true sineere conversion is stiled Faith to God ward 1 Thes 1.8.9.10 and the keeping of the Commandements and Faith are inseparably conjoyned Apoc. 14.12 And then the Exhortation will be seasonable What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder what God hath joyned in praecept let no man separate either in Dispute Discourse or Practice For 7. We find Rahabs Faith working by love and her love demonstrated by her Hospitality She received the Spies in peace which the Apostle St James 2.25 urgeth as an instance to demonstrate her Faith to be true and truely Christian Zacheus upon his profession of Faith promised restitution and vowed liberality The Convert therefore on the Crosse even in those dying minutes beleeved and through Faith confessed Christs innocency and his own guilt and in great charity both reproves and exhorts his fellow sufferer If we pretend to Faith and have not Repentance towards God and love towards the Brethren as the Apostle in another case so here our Faith is in vain we are yet in our sins The love of the Brethren is a good expression of our love to God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ If we receive our Lord by Faith we will well-come and receive with kindnesse the people whom he hath chosen for his portion and Inheritance and if we love God as the Soveraigne we must joyntly love them whom he loveth and to whom he communicateth some share and measure of his fulnesse 1 John 4.20.21 If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a lyar For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandement have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also And no better or clearer expression of love then Hospitality and honourable and liberall entertainment of strangers and exiles and therefore Brotherly love and Hospitality are conjoyned as the antecedent and the consequent Heb. 13.1.2 But 8. Her Faith made her faithfull to God and his Church having undertaken this Profession she will hold it fast neither to desert it nor to comply with its opposite and enemy If we fall away from our holy Profession though but by some secret complyance to the contrary we are not so faithfull nor so clear as we ought to be our Faith is not fincere at least suspitious and Rahabs Zeale will either convince us of coldnesse or luke-warmnesse in a good cause 9. Rahab perished not because she upon Treaty with the Spies had made her Conditions and Articles Wicked faithlesse men are noted to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who will prevaricate with their Word and Promise though solemnly Covenanted Rom. 1.31 Faith is to be kept and Covenants to be observed even with Hereticks and Heathens such was Rahab at the Treaty Thus the Israelites kept touch with the Gibeonites Joshua 9.18.19 And the Children of Israel smote them not because the Princes of the Congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel And all the Congregation murmured against the Princes But all the Princes said unto all the Congregation We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them And because after they and the House of Saul did prevaricate God severely punished them 2 Sam. 21.5.6 And they answered the King The man that consumed us and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the Coasts of Israel Let seven men of his Sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul whom the Lord did chuse And the King said I will give them So he punished the perfidious Moabites 2 Kings 3.5 34. and the falshood of Zedechiab Ezech. 17 19. 10. She perished not but not onely she even her Relatives shared in this happinesse God blesseth the faithfull and mercifull man in his Relations and Posterity The Generation of the Righteous shall be blessed Never any destruction so totall so universall but a residue escaped Isay 10.20.21 And it shall come to passe in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the House of Jacob shall no more again stay upon him that smote them but shall stay upon the Lord the holy One of Israel in truth The remnant shall return even the remnant of Iacob unto the mighty God Rev. 7.3 Hurt not the Earth neither the Sea nor the Treet till we have Sealed the Servants of our God in their Foreheads The Third Part. OAlmighty God and most mercifull Father the giver of all grace and Author of all goodnesse who delightest not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live Turn thee unto us and turn us unto thee and so shall we be turned Convert thou us and so shall we be converted O let us not any longer goe a whoring after our own imaginations nor be led by the deceitfulnesse of sin but having Faith to God-ward we may turn from Idols to serve thee the living God and to wait for thy Son from Heaven and in the mean time receive and welcome him in our
who is so ready at every turn to serve them Nec non pios c. sed cupides avaros facere This indeed were to make men not godly but Mammonists not holy but worldly 6. Manet dissimilitudo passorum etiane in similitudine passionum The severall demeanors of the sufferers makes a clear difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked Mal. 3.18 So the wicked fret murmure Psal 59.15 and repine and sometimes fall into open blasphemy sometimes into secret hatred of God instances enough of this kind The Righteous humbleth himselfe betaketh himselfe to Prayer and Prayses and considers that he is punished far lesse then he deserved examines himselfe how the case stands betwixt God and his soule and he looketh unto the Hand that smites him and takes his Crosse kindly either as a correction because he hath sinned or as a caveat not to sin or as a tryall of his Faith And so Super totam materiam that Father resolves that though good and evill be common both to the good and evill yet both are not alike affected with them in themselves nor respected by God in them A Righteous Person is neither passed up with prosperity nor abased with adversity An evill man is insolent and cruell in an high condition is mad or desperate in a low Estate The evills which the good suffers alwayes betters and reformes him An evill man Felicitate corrumpitur is first corrupted then poysoned with good things Prov. 1.32 impunity is the saddest punishment and Gods wrath is at the height when he will not afflict againe when he will strike no more Isay 1. J. Marima est ira cum Deus non irascitur saith Saint Hierom For then God leaves him to himselfe useth no further methods to reclaime him and then he and his sin thrives till judgement be executed against them Indeed this Father shewes in the soure next following Chapters particular instances of Gods Wisedom Justice Power and Goodnesse in permitting the Righteous to be troubled and the great advantages they may receive thereby But I shall onely propose to your consideration Jobs case and offer to your observation the series and contrivances of Providence in Joseph Reseue Sale Advancement his after Imprisonment and againe his high Preferment and how in every or all of these you may see Gods Justice in afflicting his Wisedome in ordering those alternative sorrows and joyes his mercy in moderating his Brethrens rage and his griefes his power removing and his goodnesse in rewarding and even by this uncouth way providing for the necessities and releife of his Father and Brethren who sold him But now to draw to a conclusion of this so long insisted on Observation The Apostle seems here to perswade these Hebrews to run with patience the race set before them and to take joyfully whatseever shall befall them in their way to Heaven by an Argument taken from their fore-fathers demeanor and behaviour in the like case and Gods gracious dealing with them which may be resolved into this or such like Dilemma In this your present juncture of Affaires and Persecution either your Deliverance is expedient for Gods glory and your good or not If the former be supposed and so resolved or in the affirmative then certainly as God in his time prefixed by his infinite wisedom did deliver and save your Ancestors so if the time be come will he deale with you even deliver you though a miracle be required for the effectuating this mercy For though God useth a liberty in the circumstances of your deliverance as to the time quality and manner thereof yet he keeps close and sure to the substance of that Rule he hath prescribed to himselfe he will never faile nor forsake them that trust in him the patient expectation of the Righteous shall finde what they waite and attend for He that beleeveth shall not be confounded He that hopeth shall not be ashamed that is bafled in his expectation If the negative part of the dilemma be conceited then from the same Presidents you have these encouragements and arguments There is nothing happened you but what hath befalne your holy Fathers Gods dearest Children He loved them when he chastised them he now chastiseth and yet loveth you though the good hand of God did not deliver them yet the good Spirit of God sustained them so will it you 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to beare it They weited on Gods leisure so should you Faith will teach you to doe so In all changes the most changeable unsetled times he setled and composed their spirits though not their states In all sorrows his comforts refreshed them In all necessities his presence supported them In all difficulties his grace was sufficient for them and what he was to them he will be the same to you for he changeth nor if you be to him what they were faithfull And now me thinks the Argument runs not onely à pari but à fortiori not onely in this respect that this Father of mercies hath a more tender and indulgent respect for you then them having provided better things for you then for them as it is in the last Verse of this Chapter but also upon another account you have stronger motives to a faithfull attendance on God then they for they had onely Promises and Prophesies to live upon to nourish and cherish their Faith you have not onely what they had even their Promises and Prophesies for they were Written for your Instruction 1 Cor. 10.11 and they belonged to you as well as to them Acts 2.39 but you have new Promises and new Prophesies of better things and which is more you have the examples and practices of all Beleovers from the beginning of the World till this present day and so besides Promises and Prophesies you have experiments to strengthen your Faith and how powerfull examples and experiments are to provoke imitation especially when the experiments are of the best sort and the examples drawn from them whose memory we most honour as of our Ancestors a short digression will easily demonstrate Certainly examples are Rhetoricall Sillogismes have a strong perswasive Power both with men of great judgement and weaker parts for they insinuate especially if they jumpe with mens inelinations more easily and purchase more kindly mens affections then down right reason argument or demonstration and are hereby a Topicke more apt to gain imitation then precepts backt with the most cogent reason to procure obedience For the obligingnesse of a bare Precept is either from the authority of the commander and men are naturally rebells uitimur in vetitum or the reasonablenesse of the duty and ' it s the hardest thing to effect considering how men are inclined to be drawn by sensuall