we are certified 1. By the analogy or proportion between the sign and the thing signified 2. By the promise which is added to the sign The analogy chiefly proposeth two things to us 1. The Sacrifice of Christ 2. Our Communion with him Because the bread is not only broken but also is given to us to eat Or more clearly thus The Lord's Supper is the second Sacrament of the New Testament wherein by the outward elements of Bread and Wine sanctified and exhibited by the Minister and rightly received by the Communicants assurance is given to those that are ingraâ—sed into Christ of their continuance in Him and receiving nourishment from Him unto eternal life In the same sense it is also called the Lord's Table thou dost therefore come to the banquet of Christ to be His guest as often as thou dost eat and drink of this Supper The Lord's Supper came in stead of the Passeover or Paschal Lamb not because He appointed it a Supper unto us but because He ordained it in room of the Passeover For in the same night wherein He was 1 Cor. 11. 23. betrayed immediately after He had eaten the Passeover with His Disciples He did both Himself with them celebrate Mat 26. 26. this Holy Sacrament and withal gave charge for continuance of the same in the Church until His second 1 Cor. 11. 20 coming The parts of the Lord's Supper are two 1. The earthly matter or the outward signs 2. The action requisite for the use of the outward sign The outward sign or earthly matter is again twofold 1. The Bread 2. The Wine 1. The Bread of the Lord is Christ's body given to death for us so Christ said This is my body which is given for you 2. The Cup of the Lord is that New Covenant through His blood which was shed for us By a Synechdoche the Cup is put for the Wine contained in the Cup. Then by a Sacramental Metonymie because neither the Cup nor the Wine in the Cup is substantially that very new Covenant which was confirmed by Christ's blood shed for us but it is the Sacrament of that Covenant and that in a double respect 1. Because it is an outward sign calling to our remembrance and as it were representing before our eyes that New Covenant or Testament established by the blood of Christ 2. Because it is a seal of our faith sealing up the certainty of that Covenant and the continuance of it with us So the Wine is a Sacrament of the blood of Christ not contained in the veins but shed out of His body upon the Cross or as it was shed for the forgiveness of sins So our Saviour said This Mat. 26. 28. is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Also here by Bread and Wine is noted out unto us that we do perfectly and wholly find in Christ not meat alone but drink also that is not only one cause or part of Salvation and eternal life but whatsoever wholly is requisite or necessary thereunto Q. What are the ends of the Lord's Supper A. 1. To confirm our faith and to be a most sure testification of our union and communion with Christ For Christ by these signs testifies to us that He by His body and blood doth as truly nourish us to eternal life as truly as we receive these signs out of the hand of the Minister And this testification is directed to every particular person that with true faith receives these signs or symbols And we so receive these elements out of the hand of the Minister as if Jesus Christ Himself did reach it forth with His own hand unto us 2. That it may be a publick profession of our faith and a solemn thanksgiving with an obliging our selves to perpetual thankfulness and a celebration of this so great a benefit And these are included in Christ's words This do in remembrance Luk. 22. 19. of Me. This commemoration is chiefly faith in the heart joyned with a publick confession and thanksgiving 3. That it may be a publick distinction or discerning mark between the true Church of Christ and all other Nations and Sects whatsoever For the Lord instituted this for His Disciples and not for others 4. That it might be a bond of Love between all those who lawfully take it to become Members of one body under one Head the Lord Jesus Christ We being many are one bread and one body 1 Cor. 10. 7. for we are all partakers of that one bread Now the Members of the same body do mutually love each other 5. That it may be a bond of the publick meetings of the Church for the institution of this Sacrament is that it be done in the publick Assembly or Congregation Thence are those words When ye come together into one place And 1 Cor. 11. 20 33. when ye come together to eat c. Or more briefly thus The ends of the Lord's Supper are 1. To be a remembrance of Christ's Sacrifice performed on the Cross 2. To be a sign of the Covenant of Grace established by the blood of Christ 3. To be a Sacrament of the nourishing continuance and preservation of them in the Church which once by Baptism have been ingraffed into the Church of Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ by this Sacrament doth teach us by the communion of His body and blood that our Souls are nourished in hope of eternal life By the Bread Christ represent His body to us and by the Wine his blood to shew unto us that as there is in Bread a nourishing faculty to feed and strengthen our bodies for this present life So His body hath a nourishing and quickening power with it spiritually to nourish our souls In like manner also as Wine exhilarates and cheers the heart of him that drinks it refresheth his spirits and maketh the whole body the more strong Even so Christs blood doth strengthen our hearts and fill them with joy and gladness We do truly by faith feed on the body and blood of Christ when we are pâ—rswaded that we shall be saved by His obedience righteousness and satisfaction to His Father on our behalf as the Father imputeth it unto us Therefore we must necessarily have an interest in Christ for we can never be partakers of His good benefits unless first He had given Himself unto us By this Sacrament our communion with Christ is confirmed and sealed The Lord's Supper refers us to the death of Christ that we may so communicate of His virtue for upon the Cross that His own and perpetual Sacrifice was offered for our redemption He redeemed us by His blood and He made atonement for us by the blood of his Cross So we do not as the Papists say offer up the body of Christ to the Father for Christ Himself alone is worthy of that honour who was both Priest and Sacrifice and who offered up Himself He remains a Priest
baptized into His death Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it thâ—â— He might sanctifie and cleanse it by the Eph. 5. 25 26. washing of water through the word The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 1 Joh. 1. 7. all sin As the filthiness of the body is washed away with water so we are purged from our sins by the blood and spirit of Christ Ye are washed ye are sanctified 1 Cor. 6. 11. ye are justified in the Name of the Lorâ— Jesus and by the Spirit of our God That inward washing is made or done both by the blood and by the spirit of Christ 1. Washing through the blood oâ— Christ is Justification So we have it Acts 22. 16 Arise and be baptized calling on the name of the Lord. 2. Washing through the spirit is regeneration when we are by the Holy Spirit regenerated or born again to a new life 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thus far of the action of the Minister now to speak of the action of him or her baptized Every faithful person that is baptized receiveth the outward Baptism of water that there may be signified and sealed up unto him that he is assuredly washed from his sins by the blood and spirit of Christ as surely as his body is sprinkled or washed with water Then will I Ezek. 36. 25. sprinkle said the Lord clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesses and from all your Idols I will cleanse you To be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ signifieth to be made partakers of the Covenant of Grace namely to be reconciled to God justified regenerated adopted to be the Son or Child of God and to be endowed with the freedom of the Sons of God All are washed with water but believers only by the blood and spirit of Christ Therefore not all that are baptized receive remission of sins and regeneration but the believers only For without a man have his name in the Covenant the seal set to it confirms nothing unto him To the receiving of the Sacrament as very worthily it is in our Liturgy there must be adjoyned thanksgiving which is presently performed by every person that is baptized if he be adult or of years of discretion or by the witnesses in his stead if he be an infant who when he comes to years of discretion all his life long ought to be thankful unto God for this benefit Q. What are the ends of Baptism A. Especially these four 1. To be a seal to us of our receiving into the Covenant of Grace and fellowship with Christ and His Church 2. By the outward washing to represent and confirm to us the inward cleansing of our Souls which standeth in justification and regeneration Eph. 5. 26. So in this sence Baptism as it is 1 Pet. 3. 21. is said to save us because it sealeth unto us eternal salvation 3. To mind us of repentance and reforming our lives for we are baptized with water unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. 4. To be sealed to the certain hope of resurrection and of an eternal blessed life In Baptism Original sin is washed and taken away especially as concerning the guilt that is to say the fault and the punishment there remaining notwithstanding the vitiation and the sickness namely wicked lusts and inclination to evil and that to this end that we might all our life long fight against sin and the Devil who is the Author of sin But the Papists say that by Baptism rightly administred not only the guiltiness but also the corruption of Original sin is so washed away as that it is not afterward properly accounted a sin But we contrarily distinguish thus of sin sin in regard of the guiltiness or obnoxiousness to the wrath of God and also in regard of the punishment together by one act is taken away in Baptism But in regard of that error and corruption of Nature it is not at the first wholly taken away but successively and by little and little or by degrees it is extinguished even as our renovation or renewing by the Holy Ghost is by little and little begun increased and carried on in us And this we evince by these four reasons 1. Else St. Paul would not so greatly bewail his Original sin if after Baptism it ceased to be a sin when-as he cryed out O miserable man that I am who shall Rom. 7. 23 24. deliver me from the body of this deathâ— I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members 2. Original sin is called a sin exceeding or out of measure sinful and a sin that hangeth fast on or easily encompasseth Rom. 7. 13. us about Heb. 12. 1. 3. Concupiscence is the root of actual sin and therefore after Baptism it must needs properly be a sin 4. Unless that concupiscence were a sin where would or could be that vehement and hot combate between the flesh and the spirit for the flesh lusteth against Gal. 5. 17. the spirit and the spirit against the â—lesh and these are contrary the one to the other Q. Why was Christ baptized what could Baptism signifie or seal unto Him He had no sin to wash away A. â— That He might fulfil all righteousness that is for us and on our behalf Mat. 3. 15. 2. That He might in His own person commend and confirm Baptism against all those who so debase and decry it 3. That He might sanctifie our Baptism in Himself 4. That by Baptism we might know Him to have entered into His office and the execution of it Q. How doth Baptism belong to Infants and how are they capable of performing the conditions required A. I have perused the learned Exercitations of Mr. John Tombes B. D. formerly a Cotemporary with me in Magdalen-Hall who is the best and most learned of that opinion and perswasion who hath many arguments against Infant Baptism which require a large volume particularly to answer I shall therefore only lay down some argument to assert the laudable use of the Churches Infant-Baptism which do fully convince and satisfie me and I suppose by God's blessing on serious meditation and consideration may satisfie those which will not wilfully close their eyes against the truth Arguments 1. Because Infants are comprehended in the Covenant of the Grace of God and therefore both the faith of the Parents themselves and also of the Church 1 Cor. 7. 14. is confirmed by this sign that God will be the God and Saviour as of the faithful Parents so of their seed and children which promise of His He at His good Rom. 8. 29 30. Tit. 3. 5. time performeth in His elect 2. Because to them belongeth also the promise of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ 3. Because they belong to the Church of God 4. Because they are redeemed by the blood of
for ever And when He said take and eat He commanded Heb. 5. 6. us not to offer up His body but only to feed on it So also another abuse of the Papists is to deny the Cup to the people whereas Christ in His institution said Drink ye all of this It is a high Sacrilegious impiety thus expresly to go against Christ's institution in His own words It is by faith alone we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ And yet we say not that the body of Christ is included in the Bread and His blood included in the Cup but if we will enjoy the truth and reality of the Sacrament we must have our hearts lifted up heaven-wards and look upwards where Christ is in the glory of His Father and from whence He shall come to be our Judge for he that seeks Him corporally in these corruptible elements manifestly errs So for me to eat the body of Christ crucified for me and to drink His blood shed for me is not only firmly to believe the whole passion and death of Christ and by it to obtain remission of Joh. 6. 35. to 54. sins and everlasting life but also by His Spirit which dwelleth in me to be more and more united to His blessed body as Christ there said He that eateth My Joh. 6. 56. â—lesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him So that although Christ is in Heaven and we on Earth yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone Eph. 5. 30. 3. 16 17. 4. 15 16. Joh. 6. 57. Even as all the members of the body are quickened and directed by one soul so are we by one and the self same S-pirit So then our eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ which is not corporally but spiritually done signifies four things 1. Our believing of the passion and death of Christ 2. Our receiving remission of sins and everlasting life by faith in Him 3. Our union with Christ by His Holy Spirit which dwelleth both in Christ and us 4. The benefit of quickening by the same Holy Spirit So to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that we through the merits of Christ are received by God into grace and favour and by the same faith we receive remission of sins and are reconciled unto God and that the Son of God that Word which was made flesh who hath Joh. 1. 14. united to Himself our humane nature which He personally took doth dwell in us and hath joyned us to Himself and His assumed humane nature by pouring upon us His Holy Spirit by which He regenerates us and restores light in us righteousness and eternal life the same which shineth in His assumed humane nature Or more briefly thus to eat the body of Christ is 1. To believe in Him 2. By faith to receive remission of sins 3. To be united unto Christ 4. To be made partaker of the life of Christ or to be conformable to Christ by His Holy Spirit which worketh the same things both in Christ and in us This our eating is our communion with Christ which the Scripture teacheth and which in this Sacrament we do profess namely our spiritual union with Christ such as is of the members with the head and of the branches with the vine This eating of His flesh Christ teacheth in John 6. and confirmeth it by these outward signs in the Lord's Supper For in the Lord's Supper as we do eat the Bread and drink the Wine even so there as surely Christ gives to all true believers His body to eat and His blood to drink This is clearly manifested to us in the words of institution Mat. 26. 26 27 28. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. And this promise is repeated by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread To explain this briefly It is called the cup of blessing or of giving thanks because it is received to this end that we should give thanks to Christ for His death and passion for us or that we should use it so as to put us in mind of Christ's benefits towards us and for these to give Him thanks Communion of the blood of Christ Communion is a participation of a common thing the Communion of the body and blood of Christ is by faith to be made partakers of Christ and all His benefits the same Spirit being in us which is in Christ and working the same thing in us which he doth in Christ It is a spiritual communion which believers have with Christ as members with the head and as branches with the vine For the Bread and Wine are the Communion that is the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ This Communion as the Apostle there said consisteth in this that we being many are one body This makes against the corporal eating of the Papists in this Sacrament for our communion with Christ is only by faith and by the Holy Ghost Christ is the common head His benefits are common and communicated to all His members Hence also it follows that the members are common among themselves whence should flow mutual love and amity The Papists to uphold their Transubstantiation do say that we must take the words litterally and so immediately after the words of consecration at the last syllable of the last word that the Bread is transubstantiated or changed into the very body of Christ and the Wine into His blood But this is a Sacramental speech of Christ This is my body As St. Austin to that general rule about Sacramental actions adds this instance of eating the body of Christ This is a certain way said he of finding out whether such a phrase or speech be proper or figurative that whatsoever in Divine Word or holy Scriptures cannot be done by honest and good manners nor be properly referred to the truth of our faith we must know it to be a figurative speech And shortly after instances in that place Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man Joh. 6. 53. and drink His blood ye have no life in you Doth our Saviour here command such a nefarious act to have the Jews fall upon Him kill and â—ley Him to eat His flesh and drink His blood No it is a figurative speech there Christ commands them to communicate with the passion and sufferings of the Lord and most sweetly to lay it up in remembrance that for us His body and flesh was crucified and wounded So also this is a figurative speech when our Saviour speaks of the Bread This is my body and of the Cup This is my blood This Cup is the New Testament in My blood where the
could not be induced to Print it But he writes Religious books doth as one said Retia salutis expandere spread the nets of Salvation to catch souls in and the good works of Rev. 14. 13. such will last as long as their Books live and follow them also after death I cannot Momo satisfacere as the Proverb is satisfie one who will do nothing himself but carp and cavil at every thing another doth whether deservedly or undeservedly Neither care I much for a detracting Zoilus whom I answer with the Poet Pexatus pulchrè rides mea Zoile trita Sunt haec trita quidem Zoile sed mea sunt Leaving these following Exercitations and Meditations to your most serious Meditation and your Meditations to Gods especial blessing and setting it home upon your hearts by His Holy Spirit that God in all things may be glorified and the salvation of Souls furthered against that great and notable day of the Lord Jesus to whom I commend you and remain Your Friend and Servant Sam. Thomsonn Esse tibi tantâ cautus brevitate videris Hei mihi quà m multis sic quoque longus eris Martial ad librum THE CONTENTS Exercitation I. OF the Covenant and our Covenant interest in God upon these words Ezek. 16. 8 I entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest Mine Where is discussed 1. What a Covenant is The difference between a Law Covenant and Testament The Covenant of God with man twofold 1. Of Works 2. Of Grace What the Covenant of Works was it was confirmed by a double Sacrament proving that God dealt with man in a Covenant way How God can be said to Covenant with man Why God deals with man in a Covenant way rather than in a meer supream absolute way Gods great mercy therein Of the Covenant of Grace Four Reasons why all depends upon faith The sum of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of grace divided into the old and new first and second The Covenant of grace is one in substance proved by two arguments Three things wherein the old and new Covenant agree Fight things wherein they differ Inferences thereupon The happiness of all those that are in Covenant with God and the miseries of those who are not Exhortations comforts and admonitions to those that are in Covenant with God God hath confirmed his Covenant four ways to us How to know if we are in Covenant with God The blessings ensuing thereon A farther description of Gods Covenanting with us A short Paraphrase on Jehovah God in the Old Testament revealed himself by ten names The Conclusion Exercitation II. 1. Of Sacraments in general There first what a Sacrament is How many Sacraments there are Of the word Sacrament whence borrowed and how used A Sacrament is a mysterie and why so Of the outward signs The external and internal form The Sacraments are signs in a fourfold respect Three thrings required in a Sacrament The ends of Sacraments are three Our want and need of Sacraments c. 2. Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular Of the word Baptism Word Baptism used six ways A fourfold Baptism Baptism represents unto us two things The right use of baptism What baptism is How baptism came in place of circumcision Four ways To be baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the S. S. implies three things Two parts of baptism The action of the Minister is twofold the inward baptism is done 1. By the Blood 2. by the Holy Spirit of Christ The ends of baptism are four In baptism Original sin is taken away c. Why was Christ baptized answered in four things How baptism belongs to Infants Infant-baptism asserted by nine Arguments Answer to an Oâ—jection That we have no rule or example for â—aptizing of Infants What warraâ—â— we have for sprinkling answered in â—our things How circumcision and baptism do agree answered in three things Wherein they differ answered in six things Four Aphorisms about baptism Exercitation III. Of the Lords Supper the second Sacrament of the New Testament It hath six appellations What the Lords Supper is A short Paraphrase upon the definition of the Lords Supper The signs and the things signified The analogy and proportion between them How the cup of the Lord is the new Covenant in two respects What are the ends of the Lords Supper answered at large in five respects and more especially in three respects How and wherein bread and wine represent Christs body and blood By this Sacrament our Communion with Christ is sealed and confirmed Two abuses of the Papists 1. Offering up Christs body c. 2. Denying the Cup to the Laity What it is to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ This signifies four things This our eating c. is our Communion with Christ That place 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 explained The Bread and Wine are the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ About Transubstantiation Seven Arguments against it and four Reasonâ— against it What Consubstantiation is Five Reasons against it This is a Sacrament not of Christs living or glorified body but his crucified body and that two ways The outward actions of the Minister are four What each signifie The outward actions of the receiver are two what they signifie Q. Who are to be admitted to be partakers of this Sacrament Answered in three particulars Three things to be performed of every worthy communicant 1. Preparation before the right manner of it and several things wherein it consists 2. Heedfulness in the duty of receiving consists in four things 3. A thankful close consisting in two things What it is to do this in remembrance of Christ in three things The allegory between Christ and the Paschal Lamb explained in thirteen particulars Some sentences about the Supper Exercitation IV. Fear God Eccles 12. 13 The whole verse is thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment The scope and meaning of the first Commandment Seven virtues or parts of obedience due to the first Commandment Descriptions of the fear of God Fear due to God Twofold fear of God as 1. Servile 2. Filial both described Three things wherein servile and filial fear differ Some things oppose the fear of God in excess and some in defect Nine acceptations or significations of fear in Scripture What the fear of God is which is here required Many Encouragements out of Scripture to fear God Several Encomiums or Praises of the fear of God all wholly also out of the Scripture Exhortation to the fear of God Q. What fear Saints may have in the service of God answered in two things Differences between the fear of the Godly and the fear of the wicked God requires the reverence both of a Father and also of a Master An answer to that place in 1 Joh. 4.
to do us good But though God turn not away from us oh how apt are we to turn away from Him Nay saith the Lord I will Jer. 32. 40. put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me God inclines our hearts to do those things which He commandeth and so by over-powring our stubborn and perverse wills He makes us to be a willing people in the day of His power Psal 110. 3. First This Covenant of Grace is one in substance for there is one God one Mediator between God and men even Christ Jesus one manner of reconciliation Acts 4. 12. Joh. 14. 6 8. 56. one faith one way of salvation and that for all those that are saved since the beginning of the world or shall be saved to the end of it So the Covenant of Grace is one according to the principal conditions whereby 1. God obligeth Himself to us promising remission of Sins to all those who repent and believe and we do bind our selves to believe in God and act repentance 2. But according to the less principal conditions or as others say the manner of administration so they are two Covenants the Old and the New the first and the second Q. Wherein do the two Covenants agree viz. this old and new A. 1. They agree in the author God and in the Mediator Christ 2. In the promise of Grace which is of pardon of Sin and life everlasting freely given to those that believe by and through Christ which promise of Grace was common to the Saints of old as well as unto us although now it is more clear and more often repeated 3. In the condition in respect of us In both God required faith and obedience So to Abraham Walk before Gen. 17. 1. Mark 1. 15. me and be upright And to us Repent and believe the Gospel So the new Covenant agrees with the old according to the principal conditions both in respect of God and also of us Q. Wherein the new Covenant and the old do differ A. 1. In corporal promises as the Land of Canaan promised to the Jews their form of ceremonial Worship and their outward political Government until Christ came Christ to be of their seed and many other such-like But the new Covenant hath not such special corporal promises but only in general that God will preserve His Church to the end of the world c. 2. In the circumstances of the promise of Grace In the old Covenant they were received into Grace and favour upon believing in Christ that was to come In the new Covenant we are received into Grace and favour by believing in Christ that is already come 3. In the rights and signs added to the promise of Grace for in the old Covenant there were other Sacraments various chargeable painful as Circumcision the Passeover Oblations Sacrifices But in the new Covenant there are fewer Sacraments and they more simple as Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 4. In the clearness in the old Covenant all were typical and under shaddows as their Priests Sacrifices c. so all things were obscure But in the New Covenant all things are clearer both in Doctrine and in Sacraments we having the fulfilling of the types 5. The old Covenant and the new do differ in gifts heretofore it was more narrow and sparing now a more large Jer. 31. 31 2 Cor. 3. 9. Joel 2. 28. and plentiful effusion of the Graces of the Spirit I will make a new Covenant with them saith the Lord I will write My Law in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be My people c. I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh c. 6. In the time the old Covenant was but temporary until the coming of the Messiah The new Covenant is eternal I will make an everlasting Covenant Jer. 32. 40 with them 7. In obliging the old Covenant obliged the people to all the Law both both Moral Ceremonial and Judicial The new Covenant obligeth us only to the Moral Law and to the use oâ— the Sacraments of Christ 8. In the amplitude and largeness in the old Covenant the Church was included within the Jewish Nation to which all others that would be saved must joyn themselves thence was that saying Salvation is of the Jews But in Joh. 4. 22. the new Covenant the Church is scaâ—tered over all Nations and access is open to it unto all believers Of every nation he that feareth God and worketh Acts 10. 35. righteousness is accepted of Him 1. Then take we heed of refusing this acceptable time and this day of Salvation Now the door is open let us come in thereat and joyn our selves to the Lord to be His Covenant-Servants and that for ever taking the Lord to be our God to love serve and fear Him and to keep his Commandments 2. The cause why God enters into Covenant with us is as because He loves Heb. 6. 18 us so to give us strong consolation that He will do us good and make us for to know it Labour we therefore for more knowledg of God in Christ to understand the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3. 8 19. and to be filled with all the fulness of God For there may be knowledg without Grace but there can be no Grace without knowledg Then may we comfort our selves in applying the promises of the Covenant to our selves as to instance in these three promises only As 1 Of Justification when Sin lyes heavy on thy Conscience lay claim to the Covenant wherein God hath said Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more 2. Of Sanctification if a lust be too strong for thee and thou wouldst fain be rid of it go to God and beseech Him to make good His Covenant in this respect to deliver thee from all thine enemies to write His Law in thy heart to give thee a new heart to pour clean Ezek. 36. 25 26. water upon thee even the sanctifying Graces of His holy Spirit and from all thy filthinesses to cleanse thee And then as He said to St. Paul His Grace 2 Cor. 12. 6. shall be sufficient for thee 3. Of outward blessings and deliverances in every streight want danger disease or the like plead hard with God tell Him of His Covenant pray Him to be thy buckler and to deliver thee to supply all thy need and to be a present help unto thee in thy needful time of trouble c. The promises are full of consolation but thou must suck hard at these breasts of consolation and draw them out Isai 66. 11. And so make use of the promises to the utmost Thus Jacob stayed himself upon the promise when he was in great extremity and in very much fear of his rough brother Esau he urged God with his promise Lord thou hast said Thou Gen. 32. 12. 28. 13 15. wilt surely do me good deliver me
other true believers that God for ever will be the God of His people and of their posterity also if they walk in God's ways and make not void His Covenant And they again promise and oblige themselves to God to be His people to keep His Covenant by believing in Him and obeying His Commandments Let all those that truly endeavour to keep Covenant with God beware of Covenant-breaking if they fail that way be duly humbled for it and be more watchful and wary for the future striving to recover themselves by serious and renewed repentance Let them set God always before their Psal 16. 8. eyes endeavouring to walk before Him Gen. 17. 1. and to be perfect The meaning is let them bear God always in their mind as present with them rest themselves by faith on Him alone depend upon His Providence and regulate all their actions according to His Will revealed in His Word God hath made His Covenant between Him and all such and God declares it is so and enlargeth on it saying to Abraham I will establish My Verse 2. 4. 7. Covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee These words to be a God to thee signifie as if God had said By virtue of my Covenant I will communicate to thee and thy seed the effects of all the perfections of My nature and all that I am in My Self I will be on their behalf and as I do live eternally so will I cause all mine to live likewise And so in reference to our part of the Covenant it is as much as if God had said I will be He alone whom thou shalt serve acknowledge and worship as God and upon whom alone thou shalt absolutely depend forsaking all others For so the words of the Covenant are I will put My Law in their inward Jer. 31. 33 34. parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be My people and they shall all know Me from the least even to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more And in Ezekiel it is laid down thus Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. I will sprinkle clean water upon you even the sanctifying Graces of My Spirit and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new-new-heart also will I give you and a new-new-spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and ye shall keep My judgments and do them They that are thus brought into the Ezek. 20. 37. bond of the Covenant may say and so said the Apostle Paul I am perswaded Rom. 8. 38 39 that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God it is in the Hebrew the Lord Jehovah Where-ever in Scripture in the Old Testament the Word Lord or God is written in great or Capital Letters it is in the Hebrew Jehovah Jehovah setteth out God's eternity in that it contains all times to come or present or past The 3 syllables in the word Jehovah contain the notes of all times The first syllable Je denotes the time to come The second Ho the time present The third Vah the time past God hath His being and is from Himself He always is always liveth and always is the same For He is unchangeable Mal. 3. 6. So none can say IAM but Exod. 3. 14. God alone Thus the title given to Christ which Rev. 1 4 8. is and which was and which is to come is an express interpretation of Jehovah It sets out also God's Self-existency coming from the Verb that signifieth to be God gives a being to Himself to His Creatures and to His Promises When-ever in Scripture some special Levit. 19. 12 14 16 18 25 30 34 37. Mercy is promised or some extraordinary Judgment threatned the Name of Jehovah is affixed or added I am Jehovah To shew that God is just and faithful in the performance both of His promises and threatnings This Name Jehovah as the Hebrews well note consisteth of Letters quiescent or Letters of rest to shew that there is no rest till we come to Jehovah and that in Him we may safely rest There the wicked cease Job 3. 17. from troubling and there the weary be at rest The Septuagint in the Greek Translation do almost every-where render the Name Jehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord for He that is Jehovah namely whose essence and being is from Himself who giveth to all their beings and preserveth and upholdeth them therein He is most absolutely and properly Lord. Jehovah sometimes is used essentially for the three Persons in the blessed Trinity joyntly as Exodus 20 2 5 7. Sometimes personally for the Father Jehovah said to my Lord sit thou on my Psal 110. 1. right hand c. that is God the Father to God the Son Sometime Jehovah is used personally for the Son as Jehovah rained from Gen. 19. 24. Jehovah fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah out of Heaven that is God the Father from God the Son For the Father hath committed all judgment Joh. 5. 22. to the Son And sometimes the Name Jehovah is given to the Holy Ghost as it is understood and gathered out of Numb 12. 6. God in the Hebrew tongue in the Old Testament hath been pleased to name and manifest Himself by ten Names whereof three are from His being or ab esse as Jehovah Jah Ehejeh Sum Ero from His eternal Essence Three more from His Almighty Power or a posse as El Eloheh Elohim And three from His being over all or a prae-esse as Adonai Shaddai Jehovah Tzebaoth or Deus exercituum the Lord of Hosts And the last Name of God is from His eminency or ab eminere Gnel jon which signifies God above all or Lord over all This last Name of God is used in Psal 73. 11. Is there knowledg in the most High And in Genes 14. 10. 20. Blessed be Abraham of the most High God the possessor of Heaven and Earth And blessed be the most High God c. He alone is King of Kings and Lord Rev. 19. 16. of Lords By His Name Jehovah hath He been Exod. 6. 3. Isai 26. 4. made known to us Therefore trust we in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength As all things were made by Him and for Him so all things are upheld and preserved by Him He
the words in our Church-Catechism are a death unto sin and a new-birth unto righteousness So said the Apostle buried with Christ in Baptism wherein also we are risen with Him through faith c. Col. 2. 12. God who usually accompanies His own Ordinance with His blessing will not frustrate our expectation in any of those good things which He hath promised therefore we must strive to be perswaded that remission of sins and regeneration or a renewedness of life by Baptism is offered unto us and that we receive it therein In as much as by Baptism we are incorporated into Christ and receive His Holy Spirit unless we reject the promises there made unto us and so render them unprofitable to our selves The right use of Baptism is placed in faith and repentance if thou wouldst use Baptism aright as it should be then repent and believe so we read in sundry places of the Gospels and also in the Acts of the Apostles that is that we be perswaded that we are purged by the blood of Christ from our sins and be sensible that we have His holy Spirit dwelling in us and so daily to meditate of mortifying our corrupt flesh and of yielding obedience to all Gods commands Baptism is a Sacrament of the New Testament by the washing of water representing the powerful washing of Eph. 5. 26. the Blood and Spirit of Christ and so 1 Cor. 6. 11. Heb. 10. 22. sealing up our regeneration or new birth our entrance into the Covenant of Grace our ingraffing into Christ and into His mystical body which is the Joh. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 5. Church Acts 8. 27. This Sacramental washing sealeth to those that are within Gods Covenant their birth in Christ and entrance into Christianity The Covenant which is in general to all believers is in Baptism especially made and established with every one of the faithful And it is always ratified and sure even to them that fall when they do repent Although Novatus and his Sect taught otherwise Neither do they enter into a new Covenant after their falls but that which was entered into is restored renewed and confirmed again We must often meditate on and consider of the Covenant made and entered into in our Baptism Baptism came in place of circumcision and keepeth analogy and proportion with it for both of them were a Sacrament of entrance or of receiving into the Covenant of Grace Baptism came in place of circumcision 1. By the command of God God sent John to baptize with water so we have it Joh. 1. 33. 2. By the Ministry of John therefore he was called John the Baptist so we have it Mat. 3. 1 In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness c. 3. It was sanctified and confirmed by our Saviour Christ Himself being baptized by John Mat. 3. 13. 4. By his giving commission to His Apostles and Ministers to continue the Mat. 28. 18. same in His Church unto the end Baptism is therefore also called the circumcision made without hands or tâ—ue regeneration in the Spirit in puting off the body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2. 11 by the circumcision of Christ That is by virtue of the gift of regeneration which is the spiritual circumcision whereof Christ alone is the workeâ— Buried with Him in Baptism c. So Baptism is our Circumcision on comes to us in the place of Circumcision that is by which the same things are confirmed and in all things assured to us in the Nâ—w Testament which were confirmed and conferred on those in the Old Testament by Circumcision The words of institution of Baptism are recorded in Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 14. Go ye into all the world and preach theâ— Gospel to every creature that is to every rational and intelligent creature or Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To be baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost signifies and imports these things 1. That it is done by the command of God 2. To testifie that by this Rite and Ceremony that he that is thus baptized is received into Grace and favour by the eternal Father for and through His Son and is sanctified by the Holy Ghost We must still understand this of believers and them alone for Mark 16. 1â— He that believeth not shall be damned and that for all his Baptism unless he believe So here is the principal end of Baptism 3. To be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is to shew that the pâ—â—son baptized is bound to know and acknowledg to believe and trust in to worship and fear to honour and call upon this true God Father Son and Holy Ghost and this is the second end of Baptism which St. Paul shews in these words 1 Cor. 1. 13 Were ye baptized in the name of â—aul â—â— as much as if he had said ye must be His to whom in Baptism ye have given and obliged your selves given your names unto and in whose name ye were baptiâ—eâ— Of Baptism there are two parts 1. The water of Baptism 2. The lawful use thereof 1. By the water of Baptism is signified both the Spirit and the Blood of Christ spilt upon the Cross This is that blood of sprinkling which speaketh better Heb 12. 24. things than that of Abel We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without 1 Pet. 1. 19. spot This is the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. As the Blood of Christ so also the Spirit of Christ is signified by the water of Baptism Therefore said our Saviour If any man thirst let him come unto Me Joh. 7. 37 38 39. and drink he that believeth on Me out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive John indeed baptized with water but Acts 11. 16 â—e shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost The lawful use of the water of Bapâ—ism is perceived in the action both of the Minister administring it and also of the faithful who receive Baptism The action of the Minister is twoâ—old 1. The Sanctification of the water 2. The outward washing 1. The Sanctification of the water is the setting it apart to this end to signifie the Blood and Spirit of Christ by His ordinance and institution which the words of institution do declare 2. The outward washing is a most sure sign pledg and seal of the inward washing whereby we with the Blood and Spirit of Christ are washed from out sins He hath washed us from our sins Rev. 1. 5. in His own blood So many of us as Rom. 3. 1. are baptized into Jesus Christ are
precept drives on to an endeavour of obedience and well-pleasing Slavish fear forceth a man to do the duty some way or other without any regard to the manner of doing of it There is also another branch of a holy filial fear when we thinking on the examples of God's vengeance shewed on wicked men for their sins do take care not to fall into the same sins lest we have the same punishments and so crave aid and assistance of God against them depending upon His Grace and assistance by His Spirit For we are of the same flesh and blood as they were and bear about us a body of sin So said the Apostle These things were our 1 Cor. 10. 6. to 12. examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them c. Neither let us commit fornication c. Neither let us tempt Christ c. Neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things happened to them for ensamples and were written for our admonition c. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Therefore we are bid to work out our Phil. 2. 12. own salvation with fear and trembling Seeing our own weakness wretchedness and sinfulness to lye low in our own sight and to look up unto and rest upon the Almighty Power and Grace of God Nothing so much awakens us to cast all our confidence upon God and by faith to rely upon Him as to have a distrust of our selves seeing our own weakness and frailty And when we thus go out of our selves resting wholly upon God it always goes best with us Ephraim was Hosâ—â— 1â— 1. heard in that he â—eared Therefore Solomon said happy is the man that feareth always Prov. 28. 14. How wretched soever we be of our selves by faith we know that through God's most gracious acceptation of us in Christ we shall be blessed God requires to Himself the reverence both of a Father and also of a Master A son honoureth his father and a servant Mal. 1. 6. his master If then I be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts He that truly worshippeth God will endeavour to shew himself both a dutiful Son and an obedient Servant unto Him Therefore let the fear of God be a reverence joyned with honour Q. But how shall we answer that place there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear 1 Joh. 4. 18. hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love A. The wicked fear not displeasing God so that they may do it without punishment but because they do know God is armed with power to revenge therefore they tremble and fear apprehending His wrath and vengeance But the Godly fear to displease and offend God more than they fear the punishments And therefore they are the more careful wary and watchful The fear which the Apostle John there speaks of is slavish fear There is no such slavish fear in love but perfect love casteth out that fear that is our true lively and sincere love to God carryeth it self no longer towards God with a simple fear of His terrible Majesty and Judgments but with a sweet humble and reverend apprehension of His Grace and goodness by which He hath made and declared Himself most amiable and lovely to the soul whereby is begotten hope and confidence in Him Q. How may we understand that place Ye have not received the spirit of Rom. 8. 15. bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father A. There is a threefold operation of the Holy Ghost in those that are led by Him 1. He is unto them a Spirit of bondage working fear 2. He is a Spirit of adoption working love through the sence of God's mercy for He not only makes them the Sons of God but intimates to their Spirits God's love towards them that they are His Sons 3. He is a Spirit of intercession making Rom. 8. 26. them to go with boldness to the throne of Grace and call upon God as their Father We are now to speak only of the first The Godly usually in the first act of Conversion feel the Spirit casting them down in the sight of their sins rebuking them for sin and convincing them of sin letting them see the bondage and servitude under which they lye that they are slaves of Sathan and guilty of everlasting damnation which works in them great fear As the proclaiming of the Law wrought in the Children of Exod. 20. 18 19. Israel great terrour and amazement So John Baptist began at the Preaching of Mat. 3. 10. the Law and the people asked him Luk. 3. 10. what shall we do that we may be saved And yet the Apostle here doth not compare the Godly under the Law with the Godly under the Gospel but the Godly under the Gospel with themselves their second experience of the operation of the Spirit in them with the first Whereas in the first operation He was a Spirit of bondage now He is a Spirit of adoption God is pleased to bring us by the gates of Hell to Heaven First deeply to humble us then to exalt and comfort us So then the meaning of these words ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear is thus Albeit in the time of your first Conversion you were stricken with a fear of that wrath which is the recompence of sin yet now the Spirit of adoption hath not only released you of that fear of damnation which you conceived at the first through the sight and sence of your sins but also hath assured you of Salvation making you certain that God is become your Father in Christ Jesus All the terrours and fears wherewith God humbles his children at the first are but preparatives to his comforts and Consolations that they may be the more sweet to the Soul In this 15th verse of Rom. 8. Two effects of the Spirit are opposed For in some the Spirit worketh fear in others love and assurance and first fear then assurance In all the elect which are of years of discretion the Spirit worketh a slavish fear first before the filial assurance fear is the sign of the Spirit of bondage confidence and assurance in God as a Father is the proper effect of the Spirit of adoption So the Jews at Peters Sermon were Acts 2. 37. first pricked at the heart and after comforted in assurance of forgiveness All are brought to this exigent more or less that they may acknowledg they stand in need of Christ and be stirred up to seek out after him Such as were never afraid were never assured So none have the Spirit of adoption but such as have had the Spirit of bondage
except the Father draw him That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us ward who 〈…〉 eve according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead c. Here is the exceeding greatness of Gods power and the working of His mighty power which is expressed as much in the conversion of a sinner and in working saving Faith in his heart as it was manifested in raising Christ from the dead O the great power Eph. 2. 4. 56. riches inmercy and greatness of the love of God to poor sinners And to me in especial Where-with He hath loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Furthermore the principal efficient cause of Faith is God the impulsive cause is His free grace by which we are elected and called the instrumental cause whereby Faith is given to us in those of ripeness of age is ordinarily the word of God Faith cometh by hearing and Rom. 10. 17. hearing by the word of God And yet not the preaching of the word alone but as it is joyned with the efficacy of the Holy Spirit For the Lord opened Acts 16. 14. the heart of Lydia that she attended to those things spoken by Paul Thâ—â—â—â—tter of our Faith which is as the obâ—ect largely is the Word of God properly the free promises of the Gospel founded upon Jesus Christ The righteousness of God Rom. 3. 22. verse 25. which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Rom. 10. 9. through Faith in His blood If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved So then justifying Faith consists in these two things 1. In having a mind to know Christ 2. In having a will to rest upon Him Whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him as the only Rock of Salvation that man truly believes to justification Thus far of the description of Faith the several kinds of Faith and the causes of it that we may know the nature of true justifying saving Faith Such a Faith as our Saviour here requires Oh! this precious Faith of what 2 Pet. 1. 1. absolute necessity is it Necessary to everlasting Salvation We are kept by 1 Pet. 1. â— the power of God through Faith unto salvation Believe on the Lord Jesus Acts 16. 32. Christ and thou shalt be saved Which was the answer the jaylor had of Paul when he asked What he must do to be saved Without Faith it is impossible Heb. 11. 6. verse 2. to please God by Faith the elders obtained a good report Faith causes us to apprehend those deep mysteries of salvation which by the eye of Sense we can never fathom as Trinity in Unity the Incarnation of the Son of God c. The Word is unprofitable to us if it be not mixt with Faith In the Sacrament Heb. 4. 2. we receive no more than we do believe hast thou no Faith thou reapest no fruit or benefit or comfort If thou prayest thou must pray in Faith nothing Jam. 1. 5 7. wavering else do not think to receive any thing of the Lord. Whatsoever Mark 11. 24. things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them So we see that Faith is of absolute necessity in all our spiritual duties Worship and Services Pray we therefore with the disciples Lord increase Lord strengthen our Faith Luk. 17. 5. Acts 15. 9. Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. Faith it purifies the heart Aman is justified by Faith We are justified before God only by Faith in Christ i. e. by Christs righteousness imputed to us by God and received and laid hold on by us with a lively Faith As Faith justifies it also quickeneth The righteousness of God Rom. 1. 17. is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith Faith is the means of obtaining and professing a spiritual life From faith to saith that is to say more and more according as Faith increases and grows stronger so it doeth more and more enjoy the benefit of this righteousness of Christ imputed Labour therefore to be strong in faith Abraham being strong in faith gave Rom. 4. 20. glory to God The stronger in Faith the more glory mayest thou bring to God They which be of faith are blessed Gal. 3. 9. with faithful Abraham Our faith must be a working faith Faith worketh by Gal. 5. 6. love It shews it self by the fruits of a new-life which are comprehended under the love of God and our neighbour 1 Thess 1. 3. We read of the work of faith our faith must not be a dead and idle faith but a lively and working faith shewing it self by its fruits and effects Jaâ—m 2. 18. verse 20. Shew me thy faith by thy works faith without works is dead There can be no justifying and saving faith separate from good works for he who truly doth good works hath a lively faith which is the root and spring of them and good works are proper perpetual and inseparable from a true and lively faith So we must reconcile those two places of Scripture which seem contrary to each other in Jam. 2. 24. Ye see then that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely and Rom. 3. 28 We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law the meaning is thus We are justified before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ but our good works which are the true fruits of saving lively faith declare us to be just before men Let us therefore be fruitful in every good Câ—â—â— 1. 10. Coll. 2. 7. 2 Thess 1. 3. Heb. 10. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Jude 20. Rom. 3. 22. Rev. 14. 12. work and be stablished in the faith let our faith grow exceedingly that we may have that full assurance of faith This faith as it is a precious faith as we said before so it is a most holy faith It is called the faith of God Rom. 3. and the faith of Jesus Christ where the object is put for the subject And in our spiritual armour above all we are Eph. 6. 16. bid to take the shield of faith whereby we shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the Devil Now a shield is an instrument of War made for defence to award and keep off the blows of an enemy such a shield is faith to bear off and beat back the sierce temptations of Satan whom we must resist being sted fast in the faith 1 Pet. 5. 9.
even so must we be and that in all the faculties and powers of our souls and in all the members of our bodies Let us therefore have holy and heavenly thoughts holy and gracious speeches Let our speeches be always gracious Col. 4. 6. seasoned with salt with the salt of wisdom and discretion that it may Eph. 4. 29. minister Grace unto the hearers that others may be edified and bless God for our holy and religious speeches and discourses And let our affections be set upon heaven Col. 3. 2. Phill. 3. 20. and heavenly things and our conversation be in heaven but the word here rendered conversation is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City holding forth thus much that we are Burgesses Citizens free-Denizens of Heaven and therefore it is the property as well as the glory of all holy persons true believers to whom only Heaven belongeth to live in this world as if they were in Heaven already Sith God when we Eph. 2. 5 6. were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The meaning is thus there is a most strict union between Christ our glorious Head and us His members that which is done to the Head is done and belongeth to all the members therefore the members of Christ's body in right and in virtue of the infallible cause and in certainty and assurance of faith are already raised up and glorified and at the appointed time shall really and effectually be so Thus as members of so blessed an Head in Heaven let us so live in this world as if we were in Heaven already bending all our thoughts and desires all our speeches and actions that way having heavenly thoughts when we are about our earthly and worldly employments And so walk in that way which is called the way of holiness that holiness to the Isai 35. 8. Zeâ—h 14. 20. Lord may be written both on our hearts and foreheads for the Lord hath called us not unto uncleanness but unto holiness that God may establish our hearts unblameable 1 Thess 4. 7. 3. 13. in holiness before Him That our holiness may not be like the righteousness of the Israelites as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth Hos 6. 4. away therefore God threatned them That they should be as a morning-cloud and as the early dew that passeth away as the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind Hos 13. 3. out of the floore and as the smoak out of the Chimney that is they should not be stedfast or established but quickly dispersed and brought to nothing But let us walk as becometh holiness Titus 2. 3. how much soever holiness is slighted and derided by the prophane ungodly wretches of this world yet strive we to go on perfecting holiness in the fear of 2 Cor. 7. 1. God For without holiness no man shall Heb. 12. 14. see the Lord that is to his comfort So that yeilding our members servants Rom. 6. 19 22. to righteousness unto holiness we may have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life To sum up this last briefly Hath God quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ That is not only so hath done spoken in the Preterperfect tense for the Future tense that He will assuredly do it or that it is as sure as if it were already done for that we do believe But this expression signifieth something more that as we are mystical members of the body of Christ quickned and raised up together with Him and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him How then should we have raised thoughts sanctified affections and a holy and heavenly conversation being cloathed with the long white robes of the Imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness to have the Moon Rev. 12. 1. which is in the lowest Orb that is all these sublunary and lower earthly things under our feet Therefore what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God c. And sith we look for such things to be diligent that we 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 14 may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless Wherefore as we are thus partakers Heb. 3. 1 2. 14. of the holy and heavenly calling let us consider the Apostle and great High Priest of our profession even Jesus the Son of God 6. 20. who as our forerunner is for us entered into the heavens and is gone to prepare a place for us so will He come again and Joh. 17. 17. 19. receive us unto Himself that where He is there we may be also that we may for ever behold the glory which His Father and our Father hath given Him Who when He was here upon earth prayed to His Father to sanctifie us through His truth his word is truth And for our sakes did he sanctifie himself that we also might be sanctified through the truth For both he that sanctifieth and they who Heb. 2. 11 are sanctified are all of one therefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren For our sake did he sanctifie himself the meaning is though He was perfectly holy and sanctified in His humane nature wherein for us He did accomplish all righteousness and all manner of holiness He did consecrate Himself to the death of the Cross to cleanse us from all our sins and to procure for us the gift of the Holy Ghost to regenerate us in a holy and permanent newness of life We are Gods house the Temple â—eb 3. 6. God's house under the Law was overlaid within with pure Gold Let us especially look to our hearts our inward parts and strive to cleanse our 2 Cor. 7. 1. selves from all filthiness of the spirit as well as of the flesh For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries Mat. 15. 19 â—0 c. These are the things which defile a man Oh these heart-wickednesses The heart is as a cage full of unclean birds The heart of man is deceitful Rev. 18. 2. above all things desperately Jer. 17. 9. wicked who can know it Let us give our hearts to God as He Prov. 23. 26. commands us For the Lord searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and hath 1 Chron. 29. 17. pleasure in uprightness God is the great heart-maker He must be the heart-mender Go to God in these or the like expressions and pray O create in me a clean heart O Psal 51. 10. God and renew a right spirit within me Let my heart be perfect with Thee 1 Kin. 8. 61. that I may walk before Thee in truth in righteousness and in
uprightness Jer. 30. 21. and may engage my heart to approach unto God to walk before Thee to do every thing as in Thy sight and presence Lord help me to keep my heart with all diligence and to wash Prov. 4. 23. my heart from wickedness that I may be clean that although vain and evil Jer. 4. 14 thoughts will pass through me yet I may not give them entertainment or suffer them to lodge within me Take Thou away this stony heart from me and give me a heart of flesh a heart Ezek. 36. 26. pliable and flexible and capable of being governed and guided by thy Spirit Vnite my heart to fear thy name Let Psal 86. 11. 119. 80. my heart be sound in thy statutes That so when my heart is sound Christ may set me as a seal upon his heart and as a seal upon his arm keeping me nearly Cant. 8. 6. and dearly joyned unto Him and refresh me by the comfort of the presence of His Grace setting me as a signet upon his right hand to have me always Jer. 22. 24. in His eye and in His heart to be present with me to guide me in His ways to bless me and to do me good that at last He may present me glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish For holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever as here in this life which is glory begun so especially in Heaven where Grace and Glory is consummate and made perfect into which place no unholy thing shall ever enter Holiness is the badge of Christs people Addition Isai 63. 18. they are called the people of his holiness Israel was holiness to the Lord Jer. 2. 3. The Spirit of holiness distinguisheth and setteth a mark upon the sheep of Christ they are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Eph 1. 13. Holiness setteth us apart for God and Psal 4. 3. Tit. 2. 14. for His Service to do His Will and to serve Him He hath set apart him that is Godly for himself to see and enjoy him for without holiness none shall see Heb. 12. 14. the Lord Our holiness is not the cause of our Salvation but it is the way thereunto Holiness hath none but gracious and honourable effects it filleth the soul with joy comfort and peace with joy unspeakable and full of glory with Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Isai 32. 17. peace and quietness and assurance for ever Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall Isai 35. 10. flee away God is glorious in holiness and glories most in the Attribute of holiness God stands upon nothing more than to appear to all the world to be a Exod. 15. 11. holy God therefore the Angels when they celebrate the glory of God cry out Holy holy holy is the Lord God of hosts Isai 6. 3. Let those therefore that draw nigh to God and make profession of his name labour to hold forth above all things the glory of his holiness in their lives and conversations EXERCITATION THE EIGHTH Jer. 23. 9. For because of Oaths swearing the Land mourneth IF the holy Prophet in his dayes cryed out as in the former Verse Mine heart within me is broken because of those cursings and oaths which do make the Land to mourn that is which draw down God's judgments upon the Land as it is evident in the following words the pleasant places of the wilderness are dryed up namely God did send drought and scorching heats and withheld the rain in its due season for those crying sins so it cannot be meant Metonymically the Land for the People of the Land but the Land mourned because the people had no hearts to do it Oh what cause have we now to break our hearts with sighting to have rivers Psal 119. 136. of water to run down our eyes because God's Laws are so broken and his name so highly dishonoured by hellish Oaths and Blasphemies by damned damning curses and execrations whose judgment 2 Pet. 3. 2. lingreth not and their damnation slumbereth not These as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed shall Verse 12. utterly perish in their own corruption These are raging waves of the Sea foaming Jude 13. out their own shame to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We read of a flying rowle which is interpreted a curse that goeth forth over Zech. 5. 2 3 4. the earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on that side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut as on that side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord of hosts and it shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsly by My name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Oh this dreadful denunciation O that prophane Swearers would consider it and lay it to heart hearing God's dreadful threatnings on themselves both Souls and Bodies and all that they have yea even their houses and habitations where they dwell and that for their sakes How many times doth the Lord God and how frequently forbid this horrid sin of Swearing Ye shall not falsly swear by My name Levit. 19. 12. neither shalt thou prophane the name of the Lord thy God I am the Lord. Where-ever in Scripture this is added I am the Lord it is to shew that God is faithful in revenging the breach of His Commandments and on the contrary that He is faithful in rewarding the observation or keeping His Commandments Our blessed Saviour biddeth us Swear not at all that is in our ordinary discourses but let your communication be Mat. 5. 34. 37. yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that evil one meaning the Devil who is the father of all lyes oaths and blasphemies Joh. 8. 44. So Saint James But above all Jam. 5. 12. things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth that is by nothing which is either in heaven or earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest ye fall into damnation No less punishment than everlasting damnation is here threatned against all prophane Swearers If of every idle word that we shall Mat. 12. 36. speak of the same shall we give account at the day of judgment how much more then of every horrid oath and wicked cursing Oh that the terror of 2 Cor. 5. 11. the Lord might awaken and perswade men The Lord is a Sin-revenging God a consuming fire a jealous God Who Heb. 12. 29. Isai 33. 14. can dwell with everlasting burnings who can dwell with devouring fire These even
keep and preserve them subdue the Canaanites before them and settle them in that Land for a possession as He had sworn to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice I know not the Lord. But God said the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten Me honour upon Pharaoh upon Exod. 14. 18. his chariots and upon his horse-men Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at Thy people Isai 26. 11. yea the sire of thine enemies shall devour them For the Scripture saith of Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew My power in thee and that My name Rom. 9. 17. might be declared in all the earth So Sihon King of Heshbon though probably he had heard of the wonders God had wrought for Israel he would not let the people pass by him for the Lord hardened his Spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel who smoâ—e him his sons and all his people until Numb 21. 35. there was none left him alive and they possessed his Land So Nebuchadnezar when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride he was deposed from his kingly Dan. 5. 20 21. throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses they fed him with grass like oxen c. And thou his son O Beshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou Dan. 5. 22. 23. 30. knewest all this but hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven c. and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not honoured in that same night he was slain What became of the Jews who hardened their hearts against the preaching of Christ and His Apostles God gave them over to hardness of heart and impenitency c. those spiritual plagues and followed them so with His temporal judgments also until His wrath came 1 Thess 2. 16. upon them even to the utmost This St. Paul then spake in a way of Prophecy for he writ these Epistles to the Thessalonians from Athens about the 13th year of Claudius Caesar which was about 22 years after Christ Crucified and Jerusalem was not destroyed by Titus Vespâ—sian until some years after for some place it in the 40th year but the most Authentick in the 38th year after Christ was Crucified when in the Siege were slain Eleven hundred thousand in the war taken Captives Ninety seven thousand besides many millions that perished in silence Thus perished those wicked hardened Jews as they had wished that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children and so it hath rested Mat. 27. 25. heavily for above these Sixteen hundred years and they are as vagabonds on the earth still 〈◊〉 no more of this To harden the heart may have reference 1. To God which is when He leaves a man in his natural hardness not softning his heart but as a just Judge delivering him over to Satan to be more hardened thus God hardened Pharaoh's Exod. 9 12. heart 2. To Satan to inspire blind thoughts and so to make the heart of a man more hard 3. To a man's Self to follow his own lusts stubbornly thus Pharaoh hardened his heart So at last such a man hath a stony heart which is an extream hardness of man's wit and heart with stubbornness resisting God's will Thus a man comes to a hard heart which is a disobedient and unyielding heart a heart Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 3. 13. that cannot repent which the Apostle bids them beware of lest their heart be made hard through the deceitfulness of Isai 48. 4. Zech. 7. 12. sin This is the brâ—sen forehead the iron sinew the stony heart the heart of Adamant spoken of in Scripture which nothing can bow or break neither promises nor threatnings blessings nor afflictions Unto this estate men come by long custom in sin custom of sin bringeth hardness of heart Well doth holy David therefore pray to God to Psal 139. 24. 119. 101. 104. deliver him from every way of wickedness that he might not make wickedness his trade his customary way to walk in as too too many do This hardness of heart comes as I said before 1. By the just judgment of God 2. By the malice of Satan 3. By a man 's own perverse will This the Apostle fully describes They Eph. 4. 18 19 walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness I translate it the hardness of their heart for the word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies induration or hardening although rendered in our translation according to the blindness of their heart Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 callum Joh. 12. 40. obduco obduro is rendered He hath hardened their hearts and both words come from the same word in the Original So from these words we see in what consists this alienation or estranging from God namely in the darkness of the understanding and the untamed malice of the heart being deprived of God's Spirit and Grace being given over to a reprobate mind i. e. to a mind void of judgment or God took from them the light of right reason for all Rom. 1. 28. these the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Original they are wilfully ignorant obstinately refusing the light of God which is offered them Who being past feeling having lost all remorse of Conscience all fear of God's judgments and likewise all just feeling of their punishments have deaded their Conscience that they may not be stayed from doing evil by God's judgments And this is the last degree and fulness of the said alienation from God by which a man is not only destitute of God's light and power to do well but also shakes off the only curb he had to keep him from doing evil which is his Conscience And so he brings himself to a seared Conscience to have his Conscience seared as with a hot iron that hath lost 1 Tim. 4. 2 all manner of feeling and motion of Conscience as a cautery or searing iron applyed to any part of the body deadens it and makes it insensible For Conscience is a Judge and a Witness unless it be deadned the Conscience is but a correspondency and relation of man's spirit unto the Law either to bind or unbind him to accuse or excuse him to condemn or absolve him
Wherefore seeing the Heathen have a Conscience they have also a Law which leaves them without excuse at the great day of Judgment though they have not the light of the glorious Gospel shining among them as blessed be God we have Let us strive to keep Conscience awake while we are here in this life and not to muzzle its mouth then it will either accuse or excuse us but if it be deadned here at the great day of judgment when the books shall Rev. 20. 12. be opened that is mens Consciences or the records and testimonies of every man's Conscience being unfolded and manifested through the mighty power of God wherein as in books are written all mens thoughts words and works then Conscience will speak and not be dumb and thou shalt be judged out of those things which are written in those books yea if thou stiflest the mouth of Conscience here thy Conscience as ten thosand witnesses will fly in thy face for ever hereafter where the worm never Isai 66. 24. Mark 9. 44. dyes where that worm of Conscience will for ever gnaw upon thine heart in the fire that never goeth out Then the Lord will be known by the judgments Psal 9. 16. which He executeth and the wicked shall be snared in the works of their own hands Oh that dreadful expression the Lord said by Moses unto Pharaoh Exod. 9. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people And in the next Chapter I have hardened his heart and Exod. 10. 1. the heart of his servants These spiritual judgments are of all others the most fearful and terrible that can befall a man or woman in this life As 1. Blindness of mind 2. Hardness of heart 3. Searedness of Conscience for these are the dreadful fore-runners of hell Let us therefore hearken to the checks of Conscience and not stifle them and labour we to have our hearts sprinkled Heb. 10. 22. from an evil Conscience that is from the inward impurity and defilements of corruption whereof every man's Conscience is a witness and judge And strive we also to have the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good conscience towards God The meaning of the Apostle there is of the inward baptism or washing wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost whereby a believers Conscience is in such manner eased acquitted and purified that it being tryed and questioned before God it answers and witnesses to it self in the name of the Holy Ghost Pardon Grace and Peace which is Rom. 8. 16. which is unto such a soul a foundation pledge and assurance of everlasting Salvation As the former were the pledges and assurances of everlasting damnation Despair is that which follows from an evil Conscience and obstinate contempt of God and is the greatest part of punishment and evil which wicked men suffer Conscience may be thus described though there be other definitions of it A power and faculty of the Soul taking knowledge and bearing witness of all a man's thoughts words and actions and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or condemning comforting or tormenting of the same Conscience is God's Notary and there is nothing passes in our whole life whether good or evil which Conscience notes not down with an indeleble Character which nothing can rase out but Christ's blood alone Conscience writes men's sins as with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and they are graven upon the table of their hearts Their conscience Jer. 17. 1. also bearing witness c. In the day when Rom. 2. 15 16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Conscience I say is exact and punctual in setting down the particulars of a man's whole life that it may be a faithful witness either for him or against him at the last day Our transgressions Isai 59. 12. are multiplyed before Thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our sins we know them A hard heart is not rent by compunction Bernard nor mollified by Piety nor moved by intreaties yieldeth not unto threatnings is hardened by corrections is ingrateful for benefits will not hearken to good counsel cruel to revenge immodest in regard of shameful things not dismayed with dangers inhumane in humane things râ—sh in Divine things forgetting things past neglecting present things not providing for future that is which remembreth nothing past but only injuries to revenge them c. Q. How may we understand this that is said in several places Pharaoh hardened Exod. 4. 21 his heart and God said I have hardened Pharaohs heart and the Lord 9. 12. hardened Pharaohs heart if God hardened his heart how did he do it himself A. God worketh two ways in the hearts of wicked men 1. By with-holding His Grace whereby they might be moved unto good as when light is taken away there remaineth nothing but darkness and blindness when God's Spirit is taken away then mens hearts become hard as stones when God's direction ceaseth then mens hearts are turned aside into crookedness and perverseness so it is said that God doth blind harden and bow them from whom He takes away the power to see and to do that which is right 2. By using the Ministery of Sathan to stir up frame and incline their wills God for the executing of His judgments by Sathan the Minister of His wrath both appointeth the purposes of wicked men to what end it pleaseth Him and stirreth up their wills and strengthneth their endeavours So Sihon King of Heshbon as we said Deut. 2. 30. before did not let Israel pass by him because the Lord hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that He might deliver him into the hand of Israel Therefore because it was God's Will to have him destroyed the making of his heart hard and obstinate was God's preparing him for his destruction So God hardened Pharaoh's heart that is not only in not sustaining it but also in committing his heart to Sathan to be confirmed with obstinacy So God turned their hearts to hate His Psal 105. 25. people c. And it was the Lord that hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants to pursue after Israel that He Exod. 14. 4. might be honoured upon Pharaoh c. God hardened Pharaoh's heart not that He did set and imprint hardness in his heart but because by sundry actions He ordered and governed His wicked will And they are four 1. God permitted Pharaoh to walk after his own will 2. He left him to the malice of the Devil and the lusts of his own heart 3. He urgeth him with a Commandment to let the people go and Pharaoh the more he is urged the stiffeâ— and more stubborn he is and the more he reâ—els against God 4. God useth the hardness of Pharaoh's heart to the manifestation of His own
proud either directly or indirectly 1. Directly when he simply preferreth himself above another 2. Indirectly and interpretatively when he will not submit himself to another to whom he ought to be subject In this last respect as it is pride against man not to be subject to Superiours and Magistrates whom he ought to submit unto which he is enjoyned to do and Rom. 13. 5. that for Conscience sake So also it brancheth it self out in the second place in reference to God 2dly Pride against God is shewed when men will not be subject to God's Will and refuse to hear and obey His Word Then spake all the proud men Jer. 43. 2. saying to Jeremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not said so To these the same Prophet in another place speaketh Hear ye and give ear be not proud for 13. 15. the Lord hath spoken There is another sort of pride also simply against God when a man is proud of his Gifts and Graces or of the performance of duties or any enlargedness therein which of all pride is most devilish O watch thy heart here-against for Satan will be apt to tempt thee lest thou fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the devil be humbled for it and Pray against it For what hast thou that thou hast not received wilt thou then boast or be puffed up with pride as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. But to speak a little more of pride towards men which we should have done before and then to proceed in speaking more fully of pride immediately towards God Pride in reference to men is toward Superiours or Inferiours or Equals 1. Toward Superiours when proud men will not be subject to them 2. Toward Inferiours when they will not behave themselves so towards them as is meet but scorn them and trample upon them 3. Toward Equals when they desire to be or seem to be higher than they This pride is either in heart or in speeches or in outward gesture 1. In the heart then it is called a lifting up of the heart so it is spoken of Amaziah when he had smitten the Edomites â— Chr. 25. 19. then his heart was lifted up So Ezech. 28. 2. of the King of Tyrus because thine heart is lifted up c. 2. In speeches then it is called boasting when a man 's own tongue Prov. 20 6. proclaimeth his own goodness 3. In outward gestures The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they go c. Isai 3. 16. To speak a little more of pride against God Oh this pride Some learned men do hold that it was this sin of Pride that did cast the Angels out of Heaven mistaking that place Isai 14. 13 14. which is meant of the King of Babylon The sin of the Angels comprehended pride envy and more too Being an utter falling away from God and that holy standing which God had placed them in especially to minister to man's good So also pride was a great ingredient in the sin of our first Parents though in general it was disobedience the degrees whereof were first infidelity then pride and lastly the disavowing of subjection to God Gen. 2. 16 17. 3. 6 7. by eating the forbidden fruit which they imagined should be the means to attain to a higher degree of blessedness but proved to be the sin that procured their fall Thus we see the rise and original of pride and how odious it is to God and the dreadful consequences of it It made the Angels become Devils and God spared them not but 2 Pet. 2. 4. threw them out of heaven and cast them down to hell and delivered them into Jude 6. chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment So also it cast our first Parents out of Paradise brought upon them and all their posterity sin guiltiness and punishment which three do always follow one upon another all manner of miseries death yea everlasting death and damnation without Christ's merits and God's mercies This is the fruit of pride and yet we are still so wicked and such fools to hug this serpent this viper of pride in our bosomes This was the iniquity of Sodom Pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her c. and they were haughty c. Therefore said the Lord I took them away as I saw good And Ezek. 16. 49 50. still this pride reigns in Sodom's children though God hath revealed His wrath from Heaven against it by such terrible vociferations Pride and arrogancy Rom. 1. 18. Prov. 8. 13. do I hate They that are lifted up with pride fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the Devil A man's pride shall bring him low Pride goeth before destruction Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 18. and a haughty spirit before a fall When pride cometh then cometh shame Only Prov. 11. 2. Prov. 13. 10. Oâ—ad 3. Isai 23. 9. by pride cometh contention The pride of their heart will deceive them when God shall stain the pride of all glory this shall they have for their pride they shall lye Zeph. 2. 10. Dan. 4. 37. down in sorrow Those that walk in pride God is able to abase them and will abase them This made the holy Prophet Jeremiah tell the Jews My soul Jer 3. 17. shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears yet the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek Psal 10. 4. after God God is not in all his thoughts Though their pride testifyeth to their face yet do they not return to the Lord Hosea 7. 10. nor seek him for all this but have their hearts lifted up and their minds Dan. 5. 20. Psal 31. 23. Prov. 15. 25. hardened in pride Though the Lord will plentifully reward the proud doer and will destroy the house of the proud Every one that is proud in heart is abomination to the Lord though hand joyn in hand though he use all outward Prov. 16. 5. means of prevention yet he shall not be unpunished Think upon what God said of Babylon heretofore She hath been proud Jer. 50. 29. 31 32. against the Lord behold I am against thee O thou most proud saith the Lord God of hosts for thy day is come the time that I will visit thee and the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his Cities and it shall devour all round about him Wherein they deal proudly God will be above them Dost Exod 18. 11. thou think to resist God when He sets Himself in battel-array against thee Who can stand before Him when He is angry If he doth but touch the mountains Psal 104. 32. and they smoke Assure thy self thou canst not contend with
God Who Job 9. 4. ever hardened himself against God and prospered Know as thou canst not contend with Him so He knows thee afar Psal 138. 6. Psal 73. 27. off and all they that be far from Him shall perish Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogancy come forth of thy lips for the Lord is a God of judgment 1 Sam. 2. 3. and by Him actions are weighed Though in thy towring thoughts thou thinkest highly of thy self yet when God weighs thee in the ballance thou wilt be found a pitiful poor empty creature Therefore hear and give ear for Jer. 13. 15. the Lord hath spoken these things against thee and be not proud any longer The height of pride is scornfulness He that is proud and haughty scornful is Prov. 21. 24. his name who worketh in the pride of his wrath this man despiseth his neighbour Prov. 18. 3. and therefore is destitute of understanding Judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the backs of such Prov. 19. 29. proud fools And so I leave them Surely God scorneth the scorners but He giveth Prov. 3. 34. grace unto the lowly Q. What are the proper means whereby pride may be subdued A. 1. With the consideration of the greatness and power of God the serious apprehension thereof will make us vile Job 42. 5 6. Rom. 9. 20. 21. in our own eyes and to abhor our selves in dust and ashes 2. So the second means is the consideration of our own vileness 3. The consideration of those obligations and tyes by which we are bound to subject our selves wholly to God as He is our Creator Up-holder Provider and our Lord. 4. The consideration of God's wrath and indignation against all proud persons and His grace and favour toward the humble Come we now to the second Proposition God giveth grace to the humble 2 Proposition There are several acceptations of Grace in Scripture But to wave them Grace in God is His eternal favour and good-will which is the well-spring of all the benefits we have So we have it 1 Tim. 1. 9. according to His own purpose and Grace So Rom. 11. 6. if of Grace then not of works This is the Grace of Election which makes us gracious and acceptable unto God There is also Grace freely given as the gifts of the Spirit freely bestowed upon us so we are bid to grow in Grace So also faith with all the saving 2 Pet. 3. 18 effects and fruits thereof which are called Grace because they are freely given unto us So also the free imputation Rom. 5. 1. 15 17. 20 21. of Christ's righteousness or our justification is by God's Grace and called the Grace of God which hath abounded unto many By the name of Grace we use to comprehend the free favour of God in Christ and His gifts from that Grace whether given to believers as ingraffing into the body of Christ by His Spirit remission of sins final perseverance or to hold out unto the end and in the end eternal life These gifts are not given of God but only to those who are in His Grace and favour that is to true believers But corporal and temporal good things are given to many yea to those that are not true believers and have no faith whereby men alone may please God Heb. 11. 6. Some do understand by Grace in this place favour and acceptation with God Luk. 2. 80. and men So we read that Jesus grew in Grace and savour with God and men so it is in the Original The Lord will give his people grace and glory and no good thing will â—e withhold from them that Psal 8â— 11. walk uprightly So God gives grace to the humble makes them accepted and favoured with God and men Briefly Grace in Scripture is used three ways 1. For comeliness stature meekness or mildness 2. For free favour whereby one embraceth another pardoning former injuries and receiving the party offending into favour So Gen. 6. 8. Noah found grace in the eyes of God 3. For all kinds of gifts and graces which of God's free favour are given whether temporal or eternal Eph. 4. 7. So I understand that grace is taken here Now to speak of humility we have the same expression in St. Peter as is here All of you be subject one to another and 1 Pet. 5. 5 6. be clothed with humility for God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time A humble man signifies one lowly-minded A description of Humility esteeming others better than himself ascribing all unto God being little in his own eyes or account even as a weaned child Whosoever shall humble Mat. 18. 4. himself as this little child saith our Saviour the same is greatest in the kingdom of God So David to profess his humility said Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother my soul is even Psal 131. 1. â— as a weaned child Christ in his incarnation exceedingly humbled Himself for us in that He would be man a Servant and subject to death yea the death of the Cross He being equal to God God Phill. 2. 5 6 7 8. abaseth Himself to behold the things in heaven how much more the things on earth The great God hath two houses where He dwells as in His glory He Psal 113. 6. dwells in Heaven so is He present by His grace to dwell with His humble afflicted poor servants here on earth To this man will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite Isai 66. 2. spirit and that trembleth at My word Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with Isai 57. 15. Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and â—o revive the heart of the contrite ones A man is never so humble as after he hath received the holy Spirit of promise The best men are worst and lowest in their own eyes As the attaining of great learning makes us see our own ignorance more and more for the emptiest vessels sound most so the more grace we have the more we see our own weaknesses and corruptions to be humbled under the sence of them and to loath our selves in our own sight for all Ezek. 36. 31. our iniquities This puts a man quite out of conceit with himself for that the Lord comes in as the Sun-shine and shewes him those corruptions which he never saw before that he wonders at himself how he hath lived so long with himself and knew himself no better This makes him humble and is a means to keep him humble Now there is a Two-fold Humility 1. Toward God 2. Towards Man 1. Of
Humility towards God and that is a holy submission which is joyned with the fear of God Submit your Jam 4. 7. Prov. 22. 4. selves to God By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life There humility and the fear of the Lord are joyned together Q. By what Arguments may a man be excited to the study of humility towards God A. 1. If he sets before his eyes the Majesty and Power of God 2. If he thinks on the nature of humility which makes the soul of man fit Isa 66. 3. Prov. 11. 2. to be the House and Temple of God and that it may be capable of wisdom that it may be a Sacrifice unto God that it may be the Receptacle of the Psal 51. 19 Prov. 3. 3 5. Grace of God for with the lowly is wisdom This humility is the mother of all other vertues and is also a singular Ornament 1 Pet. 3. 4. of the soul The Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price 3. If he is mindful of the promises made to the humble the Lord hath a respect unto them To this man will the Isa 66. 2. Lord look that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at His word The Lord will give grace to the humble Jâ—m 4. 10. and he will lift them up He that Luke 18. 14. humbleth himself shall be exalted 4. If he consider that humility is necessary to seek God and to turnaway His anger And when the Lord â—eph 2. 3. â— Cron. 12. 7. saw that they humbled themselves He said because they have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them c. 5. If he understand that humility is required in every duty towards God What doth the Lord require of thee but Mic. 6. 8. to love mercy and do justly and walk humbly with thy God As if the Prophet had said we can never walk with God please Him or be acceptable to Him without humility 2. Of Humility towards Man Out of conscience towards God we must behave our selves humbly towards man yea and the sence and acknowledging of our vileness and unworthiness before God makes us truly submissive and so doth dispose us to true humility in every respect Humility towards man is a vertue Definition whereby a man takes heed that he lift not up himself above his degree nor willingly commend himself as knowing that whosoever exalts himself shall Mat. 23. 12. Luk. 14. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 12. be abased but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted There are Three marks of humility towards men 1. A humble man affecteth not those outward signs of eminency as the uppermost Mat. 2â— 6 7 8 rooms chief seats greetings in the market the cup and knee c. like proud Haman who so stormed and was full of wrath because Mordecai Ester 3. 2 5 bowed not nor did him obeisance But in lowliness of mind let each esteem Phil. 2. 3. others better than himself I speak not to countenance sawcy pride neglect or contempt for we should give honour to whom it belongs Honour is Rom. 13. 7. in the person honouring not in the person honored What if a proud and unmannerly person sleights and neglects me shall I fret my self at it 2. A humble man beareth the contempt of himself so far as belongs to 2 Cor. 5. 12 13. himself So David when Shimei cursed him and slang stones he meekly reply'd let him curse it may be the Lord will look upon my affliction and will requite good for his cursing me this 2 Sam. 16. 7 to 12. day Lastly A humble man will not aspire Psal 131. 2 3. Jer. 14. 5. to high things Jeremy blamed Baruch for this seekest thou great things to thy self seek them not Next as there is humility towards God and towards man So also there is humility in condition and estate when a man is low and mean and poor in the world There is also a voluntary humility and the Popish Vow of Col. 2. 18. Beggery c. which have no warrant in the word of God and who required this at their hands It is humility in heart and spirit which is here meant This humility is the first step to Christianity Our Saviour said whosoever Luâ—e 9. 23. will come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. A man that is not humbled is not sit for any good duty God offereth abundant mercy to us in His Son Christ Jesus even the treasure of heavenly grace an unhumbled and a proud heart is not fit to receive it Satan hath so filled his heart with pride he hath no room to receive it he doth Luke 16. 11. not desire it but to get riches and honour credit and esteem in the world and to be revenged on those whom he apprehends have sleighted him this he desires and seeks after He careth not for the true riches and true honour which is from God alone Tell such a one of the plentiful Redemption wrought out by Christs death what doth he esteem it he hath no such feeling that he is in an undone and lost condition without it As in the Apostles days some were such proud worldly-wise fools who could not see the excellency of heavenly knowledge but esteemed the Preaching of the Gospel foolishness So St. Paul when he was at Athens the 1 Cor. 1. 21. Famousest University in the world was very much sleighted of those great Philosophers and Schollars some mocked Acts 1â— 18 32. and others said what will this babler say Even so it is in our days Others are so wise in their own conceit thinking they know enough already they are too good to be iustructed and too wise to be taught No no God hath promised the meek He will guide in Psal 25. 9. judgment and the meek He will teach His way He silleth the hungry with good Luke 1. 53. things Therefore blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Mat. 5. 6. for they shall be filled God will satiate the weary soul and replenish every Jer. 31. 25. sorrowful soul that is every contrite and humble soul which is sorrowful and broken for sin and hungreth and thirstest after Christ and His righteousness and the grace of His Spirit God will satiate and replenish them The Word is compared to Seed Mat. 4. 14. Now the seed can take no good root in the ground untill it be broken and turned up with the Plough So neither can the Word take any place in the heart before it be rent and broken for sin and from sin therefore the Prophet Joel bids them to rend their hearts Joâ—l 2. 13. Jer. 4. 3. And Jeremy bids them break up the sallow ground of your heart and sow not among thornes If that men will not thus rent