be one If he offend that puts away his wife for no just cause what is doth that cuts himself from her by such an impious course And the more when God gave her him to keep his body in holinesse and honour having no necessity to it For as he that casts away his ship in the haven is more inexcusable then he that doth it in the maine sea so he that doth cast away himselfe upon a harlot being in marriage estate Chrysostome making the comparison betwixt theft and adultery saith * Gravis quidem res fur sed non tam gravis quam adulter Ille enim etsi frigidam causam habet tamen ex pauperie necessitatem pretendere potest hic vero nulla ipsum cogente necessitate per dementia sola in peccati voragimen corruit Chrysost Hom. 10. ad pop Antioch It is an heynous thing to be a thiefe but not so heynous as to be an adulterer The thiefe though his excuse be but a sorry one yet may pretend he is forced by poverty but the adulterer having no necessity onely through his owne madnesse rusheth into the gulfe of sinne Yet had he abundance of spirit He could have made more women for one man for it had been as easie for him to have created more soules and breathed them into more bodyes as he did but one and gave her to Adam Insinuating that the spirit or soule of the woman as of the man was created immediately of nothing and not made of the substance of the man as her body was And from this I would gather this generall Doctrine The souls of men are not propagated with the seede and substance of the body from the souls of their parents as their bodies from their seede but they are created of God of nothing and joyned to the body So much this insinuates And that Gen. 2.23 he saith not soule of my soule but bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh apparantly that he knew it not if it were that her soule was propagated from his soule as the body was If it had beene so and he had knowne it certainely it had been more fit to have expressed the conjunction of marriage to have said this is now flesh of my flesh and soule of my soule then as he did To this we adde Eccles 12.7 Dust returnes to the earth as it was and the spirit returnes to God that gave it And Isaiah 42.5 and 57.16 The souls which I have made Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him Heb. 12.9 God is the father of spirits Where the Apostle maketh the opposition not denying God to be the Author of our bodies as of the soules but that by the parents this immediately else should there be no opposition Reason 1 Because Adams soule was not made of the substance of his body or whereof his body was made but of nothing therefore Eves for though it is not said of her that he breathed into her the breath of life as of Adam Therefore saith Tertullian and some others she had both from him But August in 10. lib. sup Genes saith that this concludeth the contray for if God had created her soule after another manner then Adams the Scripture would not have been silent in it no more then it is in the new manner of the creation of her body Therefore that which was spoken of the man must be understood of the woman and if of her then of others for there is no new manner of creation of man Reason 2 Because if it were propagated it must either receive matter from the body or soule of the parents not from the body because they differ in nature that corporall this spirituall not from the soule for then should it be subject to mutation and change to augmentation and diminution and so to corruption but the soule is immortall and not subject to corruption as no spirit is Vse 1 This serves to confute their opinion who thinke that the soule is propagated and not created comes from God by the parents and not from the power of God immediately It would be too too tedious not so profitable to make answer to all the reasons they bring which are of a contrary opinion yet not to passe over some common ones which are tossed up and downe of the common sort of men who have entered into this question It is an usuall objection with them that which troubled St. August in lib. 10. sup Genes That if God doe now create soules how should that be true that in the seventh day he rested from all his workes i. the workes of creation as it is generally taken how then should he create souls To answer I demand whether that Christ his soule was propagated from his Mother or created If they say it was propagated they must needs say it was tainted with sinne originall If they say it was created which the learned affirme S. August and others because it could not be tainted with sinne then have they answered for us that soules are now created And the meaning of God ceasing from his worke is that which the learned give that after the sixt day he created no new kinde of creatures or things though he doe still make particulars of kindes Secondly they say man begets a man and the mother brings forth a man of body and soule like themselves But admit this they beget and bring forth onely one part and not the whole then they beget and bring forth not like themselves In answer and demand did not God make Eve of Adam It will not be denyed yet did he make but her body and created her soule And if that speech be true why not this though but the body onely is propagated Againe I demand brought not Mary forth our Saviour Christ a true and perfect man and like her It is granted yet was his soule created of God and not propagated confessed of all Then so in this And the reason is given because in the body which is traduced and propagated from the parents by vertue of the seed there are qualities and conditions found by which it is made capable of a reasonable soule and so because of that the soule it selfe is said to be propagated from the parents And thus the schoole probably disputeth Thirdly they say if God create all soules then his which is begotten by adultery and so is the author of sinne or else a co-worker or a worker with the adulterers I answer first a difference is to be put betwixt the action and the evill of it God who workes in the action is free from the evill as in the betraying of Christ and murdering all move in him and worke by him but the evill is of themselves Secondly it is answered by some that there must be put a difference betwixt the action of an adulterer and his will The action simply and of it selfe is not evill but of things indifferent or naturally good the will is
be accounted a good pay master and yet such deale nothing so currantly with God neither when we looke for so much from God Man will not give God so much give him our selves and that we have received one will give him his heart another his body not his heart another will part both with him as if he created not both as one as if his title be not as great to one as to another or to the whole as to part He is the Father of our spirits and the Father of our bodies or if thou wilt give one and not the other thou condemnest thy selfe by the one for with-holding the other for his right is in this respect to both and must have both and be honoured in the whole But why pay they as much because they would receive more and have not yet enough So in this no man is perfect though he have received much And why hath not God made him perfect Verily it was as one said not because he was covetous and niggard but because he was loving and bountifull knowing that it was good for him to be such an one not that he should be poore but humble not as alwayes needy but as alwayes looking up to him and remembring to honour him with that he hath given him that he may receive that he wants and further perfection pay then thy debt and pay it to receive more that thou mayest be perfect and thinke he speakes to every one If I be thy Father honour me remember me thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and thy age even as one saith so often as thou breathest so often thou oughtest to remember God And seeing thy being is ever in one so thy thankfulnesse should be ever both for thy ever being And as Chrysostome thou wilt say Lord keepe me as the Apple of thine Eye he will answer thee againe Keepe my Commandements as the Apple of thine eye so thou wilt come to God and say Lord keepe me for thou hast made me I am thine and the workes of thy hands God will answer thee then Keepe the words of my mouth and so honour me for thou art the workes of my hands Doctr. The election of God by which he hath freely chosen men to be his sonnes and to be heires of eternall life binds them to obedience service and honouring of him so the Lord reasoneth here if I be a father if I have adopted and chosen you for sonnes where is my honour He challengeth but that he hath title To this purpose is that Ephe. 1.4 1 Pet. 1.17 Math. 5.16 Reas Because his choise and adoption is so free for it is without any merits or deserts of man of his owne free will and pleasure Ephe. 1.5 long before there was any merit of man for it was before he was it is ancienter then the world it is coeternall with God himselfe for as he is from all eternities so he hath loved his from all eternity then free and most franke is this choice of men to be sonnes Now benefits the more free undeserved the more they bind men to performe thankfulnesse for them So in this And this is that God would have for it Honour him Reas 2 Because it is so rare a benefit not all not many but few of many Math. 20.16 few chosen Benefits that are rare are pretious rara chara and so deserve and exact more when as then God amongst so many Nations of barbarous men and in such a multitude of condemned men hath called a man to so happy a condition that he should be in the number of those who are chosen his sons and to inherit eternall life the benefit being so much the greater as the number is smaller must needs binde to this duty Vse 1 This may serve to stop the mouth of desperate wretches that make the doctrine of Gods decree an occasion of carelesnesse and from it take liberty to dishonour God that reason if they be elected they are sure to be saved whether they live well or ill and so è contra whence they give all liberty to themselves and live licentiously and dishonour God of these I would demand whether they thinke the former testimonies and this particular preface was written by the spirit of Christ If they say no they shew themselves in the state of reprobation whatsoever God hath decreed of them If they say it is then let them compare the spirit they speake with and this spirit by which these are written and see themselves not to be led with the spirit of Christ which can not so contradict it selfe It requireth duty and reverence service and honour because thou art his thou wilt give none because if perhaps thou beest thou needest not if not it is bootlesse and doubtfull in this thou determinest not to honour God but to dishonour him Tell me this thou thou art a father and disposest of all thy goods in secret before ever thy sonne knows how or hath enquired and used means to know how if he should set light by thee and carry himself undutifully towards thee as if he would give thee an occasion to give all away from him if thou hast not done it already wouldest thou not thinke it a marvellous preposterous and impious course and yet this is that which thou wilt doe with God like a desperate miscreant not knowing whether God hath purposed thee salvation and heaven which he had disposed and made his will of in secret yea not taking so much paines to search and enquire by the booke of God and the notes in it whether thou be in the number but yer ever thou seeke after it to know whether thou be in his booke so wilfully behavest thy selfe as if thou meantst to make him alter his will if it were possible if he were purposed to deale well with thee before But know thou if he were purposed to disinherit thee yet thou oughtest to honor him because he is the father And this without all consideration of Heaven and Hell much more if he have elected thee and thou be his sonne this way too oughtst thou to honour him And know that if thou beest his no such thought can possesse thy heart long lesse allow thy mouth to speake it boastingly in a secure and carelesse course of life what may come from a man of a troubled minde and in a temptation that is not to this purpose but the other can never bee Nay know that God disposeth all things sweetly and orderly to bring a man to this end if he have once chosen him As a father that aymes at some state of life for his sonne as to make him a Lawyer or a Divine he traines him up so and brings him up in learning and studies and directions Vse 2 This should admonish every one who by a divine search findeth himselfe the son of God by adoption or election or thinks himselfe is one to remember what he is and what it requires of him
teach every man who would keepe himselfe free from the practice and trade of sinne and that neither the pleasures nor displeasures of the world the delights nor the dreads of it shall draw him to be enticed and openly sinne to labour for this feare by which he shall be able to overcome temptations on all sides For if he have this feare a man would never sell himselfe to eternall torments for a draught of pleasure or for a Million of Gold when it might be said to him as Joshua 22.18 Ye also are turned away this day from the Lord and seeing yee rebell to day against the Lord even to morrow he will be wroth with all the congregation of Israel Loe to day he offendeth and to morrow God will be wroth and he shall perish in his wrath surely no profit or pleasure tendered unto him would make him incurre this danger And for the other temptation hee would easily overcome it by this even the feare of mens feare with the feare of Gods punishments and say happily as David though he spoke it more sanctifiedly Psal 119.161 Princes have persecuted me without cause but mine heart stood in awe of thy words If he have this feare hardly such temptations will assault him For as Chrysost Hom. 15. ad pop Ant. If it be once knowne and heard that an armed Souldier stands watching in a house for the defence of it there is neither thiefe nor robber nor any that practiseth such evill will come neere it So when feare is the keeper of mans heart there is neither the temptation of pleasure or profit or worldly feare will set upon a man but will fly away or be easily expelled subdued as it were by the command of feare God hath set two Schoole-masters over us Pudor Timor shame and feare that should lead an ingenuous nature but if not that yet this should unlesse we will be worse than beasts The second effect of this feare is that it is tanquam acus ad filum the needle or the bristle to the threed that is that as they goe before and make way for the threed but abide not there when it is once come but goes out againe So this feare first entereth the heart of man and makes way for love or the Child-like feare that loving feare first when he is converted and it entereth in for this end to bring or draw in love after it and love when it is once entered casteth feare out of doores that made entrance before 1 John 4.18 This is further manifest by the example of Paul Acts 9.3 6. and Josiah 2 Chron. 34.19 27. so Act. 2.37 38. and 16.30 Rom. 7.10 Reas 1 Because God respects and accepts men to give them grace when they are troubled and are smitten with this feare Isaiah 66.2 and it is spoken exclusivè none but them this then must needs goe before Reas 2 Because mans heart is not capable of grace without this first without this it is not fit to receive the impression of Gods Spirit It gives no grace but it makes capable of grace as we see fire though it give the metall no fashion yet it maketh it liquid and fit to be cast in any mould it maketh the waxe fit to receive any impression of the Seale So this feare though it worke no grace in the heart but leaveth it as corrupt as it findeth it yet it mollifieth it and maketh it plyable for Gods Spirit to worke upon which before could not take the stamp of Gods grace Vse 1 This manifesteth that many men must needs be without grace because many have not had this feare which is ever before grace wheresoever it comes and grace never comes any where where this Usher hath not beene before it is the forerunner of grace as John Baptist was of Christ As God appeared to Elias so he approacheth to the soule 2 Kings 19 12 13 14. he was neither in the winde nor earthquake which rended the earth and clave the rockes nor in the fire that devoureth all before it nor he went not before them but he was in a soft voyce which came afterwards So is the spirit and grace of God it goes not before the servile feare it is not with it when it rends the hard hearts of men and when it melts and mollifies them with the fire of Gods wrath but it cometh after and speaketh peace and rest to the soule whereas many never tasted of this feare and shew it by their lives they have no feare of God nay in words brag they had never no such rentings and meltings of heart nay jest at those which have they shew themselves voyd of grace of true grace yea many who are not so outragious but civill or rather secure who indeed never felt any such trouble and fight in them any such feare or terror but all things is and ever was at peace within they are men voyd of true grace and saving grace they may have the shaddow and similitudes of grace but no substance and truth of it Vse 2 This may teach every man that hath this feare in him to make much of it and nourish it it being the forerunner of grace and as it were the harbinger of it without which it never appeares as God never comes with grace unlesse this apparitor go before as men therefore who desire the Prince and joy in his comming will rejoyce at the comming of his Harbinger and make much of him so ought they of this feare yea and the greater this feare is the more rejoyce at it aswell as men may rejoyce in feare for the greater grace follows after for in the examples of the Scriptures those who have had most feare and conflicts in their conversion have been the best men and women most full of grace God saith Bernard hath two feet the one of feare the other of love and when he would enter a mans Soule he is wont to send afore or step first in with his foot of feare then after his foot of love and the greater the feare is which went before the greater the love is which follows after The third effect of this feare is to make the party it possesseth credulous apprehending every surmise against him making him encline to the worst and forecast the utmost of the evill As in that feare which the Goaler was possest with Acts 16.27 he apprehended the worst and utmost In Samuel and Josiah so in the Ninevites Ion. 3.5 therefore it made them apprehend the worst and beleeve it would be so Reas 1 Because feare brings to minde a mans sinnes and deserts even those which were long before committed and for them makes him apprehend danger and deeper then indeed it is As in the brethren of Joseph Gen. 42.21 no marvell then if it make them easily beleeve that such things may fall upon them Reas 2 Because they know by themselves that those who are injured and offended doe hate the offenders and where hatred
among you seeme religious and refraineth not his tongue but deceiveth his owne heart this mans religion is vaine And Matth. 12.34 O generation of vipers how can you speake good things when yee are evill for of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Hence is that Matth. 26.73 So after a while came unto him they that stood by and said unto Peter surely thou art also one of them for even thy speech bewrayeth thee Though the tongue may now and then prove a false glasse yet it is then when it maketh shew not of the worse but of the better as false glasses doe commonly make men seeme fairer than they are and not fouler Reas 2 Because the nature of man is so hypocriticall and willing to be accounted good that if any thing be in the heart that good is it will shew it selfe nay though nothing be in it yet it will dissemble at least for time and place so when there nothing appeares but evill and the whole course is nought it must follow that the heart must needs be starke naught Many Apples rotten at the heart are whole skinned but if rotten in the outside they have the taint of the heart Vse 1 This controuleth such rash censurers as will goe further than Gods Prophet as will judge of men not by their lives and their actions but by their owne fancies and conceits contrary to their actions If the Prophet a man of that wisdome and revelations did content himselfe with their actions and joyne issue with them upon their outward carriage shall these men who have no such thing nor any extraordinary gifts to discerne spirits sit upon mens soules and judge their secrets and condemne them for hypocrites and contemne them for deepe dissemblers though they can find nothing in their lives that may argue their hypocrisie and hollownesse Object But doe such wise men of the world these things without ground Answ It cannot be neither is but they are deceitfull grounds The first is the strict course of life that the parties take they thus judge a marvellous thing different spirits The Prophet condemnes men for their dissolute lives these for the straitnesse of their lives Thus if any man doe make conscience of sinne he is by them noted as a Pharisee that is an hypocrite That as he said Non potest esse salvus qui non vult esse malus salvus saltem à linguis maledicis so it is 1 Pet. 4.4 It seemeth unto them strange that ye runne not with them unto the same excesse of riot therefore speake they evill of you But as S. Bernard said that Balaam when he thought to have cursed Gods people for hyre did blesse them againe and againe though against his will so these men more commend than discommend these persons where they seeke so to disgrace them while unwillingly they heape praises as reproaches upon them and while they goe about to back-bite them against their wills they acquit them because they object good things instead of evill against them as if they could find no matter of evill in them Object But Matth. 23.23 Christ condemnes the Scribes for strictnesse in paying tythes Answ But the latter part answers the former and it sheweth they are hypocrites not for doing the lesse but omitting the greater as on the other side that they are hypocrites who doe the greater and omit the lesse If they cannot justly challenge them for omitting the greater they cannot make them hypocrites nay happily these that are censured may justly by Christs rule judge their censurers as hypocrites because they omit the lesse and are altogether negligent in them For undoubtedly the heart can be sound in neither that is not in both Luke 16.10 He that is faithfull in the least he is also faithfull in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much It is a sure token of an hypocrite for a man to live apparently in the practice of any one known sinne though in other things hee seeme never so strict For Eccles 10.12 Any one dead Fly corrupts the oyntment But to condemne a man for an hypocrite in being stricter than our selves in some cases and for being nice in matters of small moment when the whole tenour of his life is otherwise righteous also it is to condemne him for that which Christ will commend him for at the last when no man shall take his praise or his joy from him Matth. 25.21 But these men thus condemne themselves for as the Heathen Vt quisque optimus est ita quemque optimum esse putat so Vt quisque pessimus c. as Heliogabalus thought every man dishonest in heart because he was so himselfe so these men thinke that men cannot without hypocrisie either be nice in small things or very carefull and zealous in greater things because themselves are not come to that sincerity to make conscience of them themselves and therefore if they should seeme to doe it they should but dissemble and they measure other mens consciences by their owne In a word thus to judge is a most corrupt course as if a man would needs have it that the tree is rotten at the roote because the fruit of it seemed to be good or at least because the fruit of it shewed better and fairer then the fruit of many other trees that grew neer it Then as Math. 7.1 Judge not that yee be not judged Else if thou thus judge Gods servants take heed of a censure from him and it may be from those whom thou thus censurest because 1 Cor. 6.2 The Saints shall judge the world The second ground of these mens judging is some strange judgment that befals them that seeme thus religious and carefull for if one that hath made conscience of his wayes be overtaken with any judgement an unusuall crosse or dye suddenly then judge they of him as Jobs friends did of him that God hath found out his hyprocisie what would they doe if he had dyed in that misery and yet might he have done well enough for all that and did trust in God Job 13.15 Loe though hee slay me yet will I trust in him and I will approve my wayes in his sight Thus the Barbarians judged of St. Paul Acts 28.4 And so the Disciples John 9.2 But as men shall not be judged before God for that they have suffered but done so men shall not be judged of men for so Christ shewed by crossing his Disciples judgement John 9.3 as also theirs Luke 13.3 5. as he sheweth not only by this which might come from the malice of Pilate but from that of the 18. who perished under the Tower of Siloam for the like may befall to another and themselves Object But may not a man judge at all by Gods judgements Answ Yes in these and the like cases if God have foretold such a thing Numb 16.29 30. when it comes we may judge or if the judgment befall him that hath been and
contentus sit nos autem in quibus ipsum colimus alios testes quaeramus ad ostentationem quicquam faciamus Chrysost hom 21. ad populum Antioch whereas God conferres benefits on us he is content to doe it privately yet wee will never worship God but before witnesses and for ostentation sake saith Saint Chrysostome Hezekiah turned himselfe to the wall and prayed Vse 3 A comfort for all those who by any occasion may be excluded from the publique assemblies and places of Gods worship whether unjustly excommunicated or cast out of the Church as he was that was cast out Joh. 9. or otherwise hindered by the violence of man or the hand of God yet wheresoever he be in every place may he worship God and God will respect and accept that worship from him He that found out the once blind now seeing man though cast out will be found when he is sought though out of the Temple and Church he that was found of Hezekiah in his bed of Paul and Silas in the prison of Jonas in the Whales belly of Paul upon the Sea and in every place where they held up pure hands unto him he is the same still and will be found of them that seeke him aright every where Princes have their times and places out of which if they be taken and petitions put up they that doe so offend and for favour carry displeasure Sometime they are like to Ahashuerosh Ester 4.11 sometime as Darius Dan. 6.7 8. but God is ever ready to heare Incense shall be offered and a pure offering The matter of this worship The Papists affirme that by this can be understood nothing else but the most holy sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ offered in every place in the sacrifice of the Masse we understand it of spirituall sacrifices not reall whether is most probable we must enquire Object 1 They to overthrow ours and to establish their owne say The word used for offering Mincha Bellarm. signifies an externall sacrifice which was made of Oyle and Incense and so no spirituall sacrifice Answ 1 To this I answer that then it cannot be the sacrifice of the Masse which consisteth not of any such things but of the formes of Bread and Wine Answ 2 Againe it is false which they say for it is used for spirituall sacrifice Psal 141.2 Object 2 But secondly spirituall sacrifices were amongst the Jews and he speaketh of a sacrifice which was not amongst them therefore it must be understood of the Masse for he speaketh of a new sacrifice Answ It is answered here is never a word of a new Sacrifice but of he ranne after him to serve him they must then remember Gods end and not defeat him of it They must remember what they were and see his mercy what they are and acknowledge his bounty who hath of bondslaves made them free of servants sonnes If he had but delivered them all a man could doe were little enough more that he hath thus advanced them Therefore must they doe him the more honor and be more zealous of his service and worship and if they be upbraided for it they must answer as David did 2 Sam. 6.21 22. Then David said unto Michal it was before the Lord which chose mee rather then thy father and all his house and commanded me to be ruler over the People of the Lord even over Israel And therefore will I play before the Lord and will yet be more vile then thus and will be low in mine owne sight and of the very same maid servants which thou hast spoken of shall I be had in honor Incense and an offering By the reall and outward sacrifice of the Jewes he understandeth the spirituall sacrifice of the Gentiles and Church under Christ Doctr. Under the Gospell Christians are freed from all outward and reall sacrifices to be offered immediately to God and of them are only required spirituall sacrifices as their soules and bodies their prayers and praises their repentance and almes Rom. 12.1 Hebr. 13.15 16. 1 Pet. 2.5 Phil. 4.18 Iohn 4.23 Reas 1 Because their priesthood is only spirituall therefore is his sacrifice only spirituall such as the priest such his sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 And yee as lively stones he made a spirituall house an holy priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Reas 2 Because all those outward ceremonies were shadows types now the body and truth being come they are abolished Reas 3 Because ceremonies and sacrifices were given the Church for her infirmities and onely as a help to keep her from the corruptions of Idolaters til she had received the spirit of God in a larger sort and measure Si quis uxorem habet propensam ad impudicitiam â—â—m certis locis concludit cubiculis conclavibus ut ei non liceat vagari pro arbitrio addit praetereà Eunuchos pedissequas ancillas qui eam diligentissimè custodiant ut fides ejus non amplius esset suspecta ita Deùs cum Judeis Hos 2.19 verum ille populus admodum fuit infirmus ac debilis ad adulteria idolatriae ultra modum proclivis Quare Deus eam separavit à caeteris nationibus in terra Canaan seorsim habitare voluit à ceremoniis ritibus undique ceu à paedagogis custodiri ut fides ejus non esset amplius suspecta ita ut maritus sic Deus cum jam spiritum sanctum pen Christum ecclesiae donavit custodiam ceremoniarum ab ea removit Chrysost St. Chrys compares the Church to a wife and God to a husband and thus expresseth his purpose If a man have a wife wantonly disposed he confines her to some certaine places to her chambers and private roomes that shee may not gad abroad at her pleasure and appoints her Eunuches chambermaids diligently to attend her that her honesty may not be suspected so God dealt with the Jewes Hosea 2.19 that people was much inclined to adultery of false worship therefore God shut them up from other Nations and made them dwell alone in Canaan and kept guard upon them with rites and ceremonies as so many pedagogues that their faith to him might not be suspect But now when God had given his holy Spirit by Christ unto his Church he removed from her the custody of ceremonies Object Our bodies are reall sacrifices so are our almes Solut. The first is not outward the second is not immediately offered to God And the sacrifice is not the thing given but the affection as appeares by the difference which Christ put betwixt the widow and the rich rulers in their offering to the treasury Vse 1 Then are there now no externall reall Priests such as were under the Law because no externall reall sacrifice he who tooke away the sacrifice tooke away the sacrificer And as he was the end of the Law that is of the morall Law because he was the consummation perfection
ungodly Patrons to enrich themselves and better their state and portion thinke any body sufficient to discharge if he can change Peters voyce Acts 3.6 Silver and gold have I store or if he want that if he can part stakes and divide it take thirds or stand to his courtesie though he have not a whit of Elisha's spirit nor any knowledge in his lips such a one if they may be judges there is none to him as David said of Goliahs sword and more fit then one that hath Elisha's double spirit doubled upon him and will looke as he may to have that which God hath given him If we will make them judges either the Apostle Paul forgot himselfe or the Printer by negligence left out a word 2 Corinth 2.16 for it should be Who is not sufficient for these things But these Ieroboams which bring in Ministers of the lower sort of the people because they fill the hand shall have Ieroboams punishment 1 Kings 13.33.34 Qui potestatem facit volenti Ecclesiam corrumpere is certè author fuerit corū omnium quae perdita illius audacia turbaverit Chrysost de Sacerd. 3. Like to these are carnall parents who bring up their children onely so farre as they may be capable by the law of a living but care not for other sufficiencie onely perhaps for credit and complement sake that they be able now and then to make a Sermon in some place of honour and fame And they will provide and purchase livings and benefices for them and thrust them into them To these and their like I may apply that Dan. 1.10 And to these may I adjoyne those Ministers which themselves having knowledge yet I know not out of what corruption it commeth they thinke a few men of learning is enough If a few Parishes in a Citie or Countrey have learned men and preachers as if all Ministers should not be men of knowledge Vse 3 To reprove all Ministers who are ignorant whose lips have not knowledge who though they should be good Scribes yet are as ignorant of the word of God as Samuel was in his childhood of the voyce of God 1 Sam. 3.4 So unable are they for that place Like to Balaam Num. 22. that though God forbad him yet for gain he would needs go So these for the wages of iniquitie when as God by denying them gifts hath said Go not yet they will threap kindnesse of him and will go As Ahimaaz 2 Sam. 18.23 that would needs run to carry the King newes from the Campe but when he came he knew nothing So these needs must they be Ministers of the Gospel Messengers of glad tidings such as will carry newes from the King to the Campe but when they come to tell their message they know nothing no more or often not so much as many of their flockes as Hosea 4.4 Vse 4 To admonish every man how he takes this calling upon him that he finde in himselfe some competent sufficiencie for it not to be perswaded by friends drawn by others not thinking it is enough when he hath the calling of the Church for he must be a man of knowledge These things may increase other mens sinnes but not lessen his owne for he must be accepted by that is in him therfore must he be studious and of some competent parts before and still continue in reading and looke to learning as 1 Tim. 4.13.16 For he shall finde himselfe still bound to study and to have need of it daily for so great a worke to finde out knowledge for his people the Word being so deep as it is Bernard Object Whether if he have not gifts not knowledge is he a Minister or not Answer He is though not such as he should as he is a Minister which is corrupt and lewd though not as he should From these words some of our Papists do gather that the Priests could not erre and so by consequent not now the Bishops nor a Councel The reason is because this is a promise and God keeps his promises * The Councell of Chalcedon not denied to be a lawfull Councell equalled the Bishop of Constant with the Bishop of Rome in authoritie honour and other priviledges save onely in precedence which they say is an error The first Councell of Nice decreed That those hereticks who followed Paulus Samosatenus should againe be baptized as Cyprian and the Anabaptists The second of Nice decreed That Images should be worshipped and that Angels had bodies and that the soules of men were corporall Why else did Augustine appeale from the Councell of Africa where Cyprian was present to the Scriptures affirming we may not doubt of the Scriptures but of them it is lawfull lib. 2. de Baptist cont Donatist cap. 3. Concilia plenaria errare posse dicens If the Qu. be of the authoritie of the Pope whether greater then a Councell Hierom answeres Si authoritas quaeritur major orbis est urbe But aske the Councell of Constance which deposed Iohn 23. and chose Martin 5. Either the Councell erred or else Martin was no lawfull Pope Then all his successors were schismatickes no lawfull Popes To this I answer It is no promise but a commandment shewing what manner of man a Minister ought to bee The same which the next sentence is Againe I affirme that if it be a promise it is generall for the reason is generall to all yea and particular to every one But the Scripture is manifest that both particular Priests and generall Councels of Priests have erred In general are these Isaiah 59.10 Jerem. 6.13 and 14.14 which places shew that the most of the Priests and Prophets were then corrupt Now if there should have been a Councell gathered of these what good might be hoped for from them by going to the Councell they might have changed their places but not their mindes they would have been the same in a Councell they were at home Besides is it not manifest that Councels have erred 1 Kings 22. But Bellarmine happily will answere they were a Councell of Prophets not Priests gathered by the King not the high Priest Then see a Councel of Priests gathered by the high Priest erring John 9.22 and 11.53 and Mark 14.64 But Bellarmine will say that a Councell of the Jewes lawfully called before Christ could not erre but he being come they might The ground must be because they are not Priests neither the high Priest but this is false for the Priestood of Aaron was not abolished till Christ became a Priest which was not till his sacrifice for if they had been then had he sinned in communicating with them And if this were so it were marvell how the Rhemists and the generall Popish argument will hold who by the example of Caiaphas Joh. 11.49 proves that the Pope cannot erre though he be wicked for if he were not a high Priest then holds not this argument but he was a high Priest and they all Priests and yet
erre is Matth. 16.18 The gates of hell shall not prevaile against the Church whence they first reason that the foundation and roofe of the Church cannot erre such as Peter and the Popes his successors I say nothing that it is not yet proved that the Pope is Peters successor nay it is manifest that he succeeded rather Simon Maguer then Simon Peter But I say that Peter is not the rocke In the words saith Augustine there is difference betwixt Petrus and Petra both in the Greeke and Latine Againe the rocke here is not Peter but Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 and 3.11 whereunto agrees the Fathers and their owne writers also late writers whereby all colour of argument taken from this place for the Pope is utterly quashed But grant that they begge then must it either be in regard of his person but but cannot be for the Church cannot be builded upon flesh and bloud Or in regard of some superioritie and place above the rest But as that cannot be proved so the contrary is manifest 2. Cor. 12.11 Or of his doctrine taught by him and of the faith of Christ confessed by him and so it is true Now this was common to him and all the rest For as Iohn is called a Pillar Gal. 2.9 so was Iames as well as Peter and all the rest as Revel 21.14 To which is that Ephes 2.20 with whom the Prophets are joyned because they writ the Scriptures which is indeed te foundation of our faith they being put for their writings Our of all which nothing will follow for the Pope or nothing in speciall manner I will trouble you with no other reasons onely I will shew you this chalenge is false because many of them have erred The first shall be Marcellus or Marcellinus who offered up sacrifice to Idols and by the Councell of Sessa was made to recant it The second Liberius whom Hierom and Athan sius affirme to have been an Arrian one that denied the Deity of Christ Thirdly Thirdly like to him was Felix who was an Arrian as the same Hierom writeth Innocent the first made both Baptisme and the Eucharist necessary to salvation of Infants Augustine lib. 1. contra Iulian. Pelagian cap. 2. The latter of these errours was condemned by the Councell of Trent Sessio 5. sub Pio quarto Canon 4. Fourthly Leo the first who died as Arrius did an Arrian Fifthly Siricius accounted Matrimony pollution Sixthly Vigilius accursed all who affirmed that there be two natures in Christ Seventhly Honorius the first which taught as Melchior Canus confesseth that Christ had not two wills or operations Eighthly In Concilio Romano Pope Stephen the sixt he abolished all the Acts of Formosus his predecessour and commanded all that had received Orders from him to be ordered againe and thought that the Sacrament depended upon the vertue of the Minister Ninthly in concilio Ravennae habito Iohn 9. disanulled all the Acts of Stephen and Sergius the third all that Formosus had done And so that which Iohn had done and approved the Acts of Stephen Some of these must needs erre Tenthly Gregory the seventh whom Cardinal Benno in his writing of him who lived at the same time makes an Heretick a Necromancer a seditious and a Simonist an adulterer not the worst Bishop but the worst of all men A right Hellebrand Eleventhly Celestinus the third allowed heresie to breake the bond of marriage and that a man might marry againe if his wife fell into heresie and è contra So Alphonsus de Castro Twelfthly Iohn 22. or 21. who held that the soules separated from the bodies saw not God nor rejoyced not with him before the day of judgement and was forced to recant it with sound of trumpet by the University of Paris for feare of losing his Popedome as Iohn Gerson writeth in his Sermon of Easter Thirteenthly Iohn 23. or 22. was accused in the Councell of Constance for denying eternall life and the resurrection of the body All which with many moe prove manifestly against them that the Pope can erre and hath erred and so may still Bellarmine I confesse hath a great many of shifts and evasions to cleare his holy Fathers but they are so light and foolish they are not worth the studying on for the most part Vse 2 This teacheth us how dangerous a thing ignorance is even in every Christian for if it be the cause of errour in the Ministers it will be in the people And if the Ministers all one and other are subject to errour if they erre and the people be without knowledge they will go after taking errour for truth because they are able to distinguish neither the one nor the other If it were infallible and certaine that their guides could not erre nor their Ministers be deceived it were no matter though they were never so ignorant but when it is most certaine that they are subject to it and their erring will not excuse the people though the other answer for their abusing and mis-leading of them their ignorance is very dangerous and that implicite faith Popery so much commends damnable And in them and others who would perswade the people they may be ignorant and a little or no knowledge is required of them it is suspitious as if they meant to make a prey of them to broach some errors among them For then saith Chrysostome theeves go to stealing when they have first put out the candle and then do men utter their bad wares when they have dim and false lights Vse 3 To perswade all men to labour for knowledge and to increase in the knowledge of the Word and Mysteries of salvation That they having the rule of truth and falshood the word of God may not be carried away with the errour of one or many be they never so great or learned Erre they may be they never so learned for they know but at the best in part and erre oftentimes they do because they are not wholly sanctified For as the greatest part of a Church is wholly unsanctified so the best are but in part sanctified and so are subject to partiality and errour yea may both erre and defend errour against their knowledge some violent temptation of pride pleasure and profit and such like carrying them thereunto seeing none now is incessantly guided and governed by the Spirit Then had they need of knowledge that they may try and discerne the spirits and doctrines and he that is not carelesse which end goes forwards not retchlesse for his soule whether it walke in the paths of truth or in the paths of errour will not be carelesse for it and to grow in knowledge But if they erre how not we Lookers on may see more then players We may allude to that Prov. 28.11 The rich man is wise in his owne conceit but the poore that hath understanding can try him And God often to the simple reveales things when hid from wise Matth. 11.25 to humble them
them in word deed and provoke them to unkindnesse distemper by strange cariage of theirs it may be sometimes taking Sarahs mayde as Abraham did though Sarah never give her him and so driving them into divers passions distractions making them forget both their sex their duty and hence comes oftentimes so many complaints of wives when the husband is the cause of it As if the head should lead the body through fire water through myre dirt through woods and thickets where it receives much hurt and then complaine of the hurt and paine that it suffereth so many by their strange behaviour draw themselves into contempt and make their wives undutifull and then exclaim against them when they should condemne themselves they have gone against the rule of God and so have brought the curse of God upon them Vse 2 To instruct every man to abstaine from vexing and grieving his wife either by his absence or presence but to dwell with her and delight in her company not withdrawing himselfe from her but upon a good calling and a good cause and then so as she may perceive he takes no delight nay that it is a griefe to him to be an occasion of her griefe and that yet he leaves his heart behinde with her When he is present he must live lovingly and amiably with her abstaining from all things that may grieve her so shall he give her an example to do so to him For they ought not to please themselves but one another The good things that are in her he must cherish for as in children or servants so in the wife nothing incourageth her more in any good thing then that her husband observeth and approveth those good things 〈◊〉 in her The evill things ordinary infirmities he must rather intreat God for them then reprove her but if either he must take his fittest time for it as with Physitians observe her nature as they their patients and do it in love not passion with a grave yet cheerfull countenance letting her see her fault out of the Word rather then from his will and dislike And though he be master Bee and have a sting yet must he seldome or never use it unlesse extremity drive him and that by her peevishnesse rather then his passion or folly in handling of the matter And so may he have comfort by her and fruit of her for shee is therefore compared to a vine which by the care and diligence of the Gardiner in carefull pruning and underpropping it and dressing of it brings forth fruit even grapes whence comes wine which rejoyceth the heart otherwise it will but wallow on the ground and remaine fruitlesse But to conclude provided alwayes that she be dutifull and kinde loving and obedient unto him or else she forfeits her right and then if he be bitter and unkinde to her I do not warrant him but I lesse blame him If she be to him not a turtle Dove but a chattering Pye full of brawlings and contentions because every thing must not be as she would have it I lesse blame him if he delight abroad seeing Salomon hath said Prov. 21.9 It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top then with a contentious woman in a wide house Prov. 19.13 The contentions of a wife are as a continuall dropping If she be as one saith like a vine that were planted in the flowing sea which prospereth least when the water is lowest so his fellowship sweetest when he is furthest off If as many women who tell us they make themselves fine and trim to please their husbands and yet are least trim when they onely enjoy them but onely when they are to shew themselves abroad which in many is rather to please others then their husbands I censure not all so they have no cheerfulnesse and loving carriage in them when they and their husbands are alone never so merry as when he is absent never so solemne and drooping as with him as if his company were a burden and his presence a clog unto them who can to any body else put on cheerfull lookes have lively spirits and finde talke enough but with their husbands can finde none but sit heavie a whole dinner and supper while and not a word from her no token of her joying in his company And upon every discontent be strange a day two or three looking he should seeke to her I say by such dealings she hath forfeited her right and though it bee Summum jus and so summa iujuria to take it such a forfeiture or rather it is indeed injustice yet if hee do take it it is but just upon her and though he be not fit to do it yet she hath deserved to suffer it And covered the Altar of the Lord with teares The generall of these words we have heard the particulars we must examine These women though heavie in heart and full of grief yet would they not desist from praying to God and performing their service and offerings to him neither doth he for that reject them and their offerings though he be their husbands afterwards who were the cause of their griefe Doctrine Though men cannot performe the service and worship of God with that cheerfulnesse and perfection which he requireth who loves a cheerfull giver and so a cheerfull worshipper and being Perfection it selfe would have things in perfection yet must they performe them as they are able and he will accept them in their imperfection Manifest as here so by that reproofe of Moses to Aaron Levit. 10.16 The practise of Nehemiah Nehem. 1.4 of David Psal 42.5.6 of Zacharie Luke 1.22 of Christ who might stand for all Matth. 26.38.39 Reason Because many so have obtained a blessing and God hath given it them as Psa 126.5 They that sow in teares shall reap in joy as the Goaler Acts 16.29 came trembling to Paul and Silas but departed with joy of heart vers 34. Vse 1 Not let our infirmities hinder us from prayer Vse 2 To come confidently to God And covered the Altar of the Lord. These did not seeke to revenge themselves they resisted not by giving injury for injury dealing with their husbands as they had dealt with them but patiently bore it and committed it to the Lord. Doctrine Men who are injured oppressed and hardly dealt withall by others ought to beare it patiently and not to revenge themselves and to resist by force and violence Vse To teach every man to beare patiently the injuries done unto him if he have received them do not requite them but rather with well-doing let him go to Gods Altar and with Hezekiah spread the letter of the King of Ashur before God with Ioseph carry the hard speeches of his brethren to his father If he have the same spirit he must have the same minde which was in the Lord Jesus and leave vengeance and recompence to him to whom it belongs Thou art injured deprived of thy goods beaten
had abundance to make as many women as he would or he had remainder of the Spirit As some taking that the Prophet alludeth to Gen. 2.7 The Lord God also made the man of the dust of the ground and breathed in his face breath of life and the man was a living soule And after making woman of his rib he breathed into her breath of life as it was the remainder of the Spirit and though he had abundance more because he had denied that they two should be one and not moe Because he sought a godly seed Here is another amplification of it from one speciall end of marriage which is the propagation of the Church and to have a religious and holy posterity such as might worship the true God which will not come from the other but rather increase the Synagogue of Satan and make a profane seed for taking to them the daughters of a strange God must needs have a corrupt seed they following the mothers and if of their owne yet to doe a thing so contrary to Gods commandment must needs bring a curse and a profanenesse upon them and an adulterous seed prove an idolatrous brood and it being the fruit of their perfidy and unfaithfulnesse can have no blessing from God In this verse the Prophet condemneth Poligamy from Gods ordinance as a thing against it because he was the authour of marriage which he made but to be of two and ordained they two should be one and but they two and so hence we have a doctrine which is the description of marriage Doctrine Marriage is a lawfull conjunction of one man and one woman that they two may be one flesh There are many sorts of conjunctions but what conjunction this is that which followes expresseth But that marriage is a lawfull conjunction of two thus to be made one is manifest as here so Gen. 2.24 He shall cleave to his wife which is meant of a carnall conjunction and copulation whereby they are as it were incarnated one to another That as Eve was flesh really of the flesh of Adam so she was given to him by marriage that she might againe be one and the same flesh with him by a holy conjunction of their bodies Hence followes it in the same place They shall be one flesh And this Chapter explaines Matâ—h 19.5 For having repeated the institution he addes for conclusion and for further confirmation vers 6. Wherefore they are no more twaine but one flesh Now when we speake of a conjunction we understand not that onely which is after the consummation of the marriage carnall copulation and knowledge one of another as it is coÌ„monly taken for without that though it never follow there may be marriage this matrimoniall conjunction as we commonly receive the marriage to have been betwixt Mary and Ioseph but also that voluntary and free covenant which is passed betwixt them by which the man hath power over the body of the woman and so è contra he is become her head and she subject to him as the body to the head as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 7. Reason 1 Because God would have a holy feed and the propagation of his Church which that it might be he requires a conjunction and a lawfull one and but of these two For howsoever it was increased by other conjunctions of one with many yet that was Gods indulgence to them and his over-ruling providence which brings light out of darknesse and makes good of evill Reason 2 Because he who by the holy Ghost in a reall union is united to the Lord is made one spirit with him 1 Cor. 6.17 Therefore by a reall conjunction of man with his wife they are made one with another one flesh Reason 3 Because he that committed adultery is become one flesh with a harlot 1 Cor. 6.16 And so as much as in him is hath cut off himself from his wife is no longer one flesh with her Then by a carnal corporal holy conjunction he is one and they one flesh Vse 1 This serves for that end the Prophet speaketh it it condemnes Polygamie Zanc de operibus Dei p. 659. b. for if marriage be a conjunction of two how can it be of moe Adam and Eve were but two and God said they should be one flesh And his son which came from the bosome of the Father saith They two shall be one The reason that some give to excuse at least if not make lawful the Polygamy of the Fathers for the multiplying and increasing of mankinde might here have better taken place seeing whole mankinde was to be derived from them and the earth to be replenished from them and seeing to them was the commandment given Gen. 1.28 Be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth If God did not permit it to them it must needs be apparant that it was not from the beginning but hath since crept into the world by the corruption of man But of this afterwards Vse 2 This condemnes all divorces which are not done and made for adultery but for other vain and slight causes such as for the hardnesse of the peoples hearts and which in compassion to the weaknesse of the women Moses permitted to the Jewes for when God hath said they shall be one they make them two as if his law were not perpetuall And when as Christ hath said Those whom God hath joyned may no man sever they take upon them to sever and dissolve themselves at their pleasure The decrees of the Medes and Persians were not to be broken no not by the Kings themselves much lesse could any subject do it But these decrees are far surer But such men are grossely impudent as take upon them to dissolve if not to give her a bill of divorce so put her away yet many send them home to their friends and separate themselves from them and live very reproachfully Vse 3 This condemnth all adultery all adulterers as they who doe divide that which God hath joyned more neere then any bond of nature can make for it is to be preferred before that which is betwixt children and parents when as both of them must forsake father and mother and cleave one to another yea their owne children that they may remaine one For seeing God hath made him one with his wife by his owne consent and he joyning himselfe to a harlot maketh himselfe one body with her as the Apostle Now one body cannot be two bodies therefore an adulterer cannot be one body with an harlot and at the same time one body with his wife but joyning to her he doth what is in him cut himselfe off from this and so they are no longer one but two And so as he dealeth injuriously with her taking from her that is hers for he is not his owne she having power over his body as he of hers 1 Cor. 7.4 So he dealeth impiously against God who hath joyned them and said they shall
and opinion must needs condemne all the generation of Gods children who sometimes have had such abundance plenty and prosperous estate and that which hath beene may be for as there is no new thing under the sunne so nothing hath beene but it may be renued Vse 2 This will confute the doctrine of Popery making this a note of the Church for being but sometimes befalling it it cannot note the Church which is certainely knowne onely by such things as are inseparable which this is not being oftner under persecution then in prosperity and how otherwise seeing here it is but a stranger and sojourner compared to a Dove lodged in the rockes Cant. 2.14 to a ship shaken with the windes but not sunke to a house upon the rocke beaten with winde and weather but not cast downe Therefore is it but a weake argument which Bell. Sad. Stapl. and others use to prove the true Church and to deny ours to be and indeed no other then that which the Heathen and Pagans have used against Christians Symachus against whom Prudentius writ in an Epistle to Theodosius the Emperor which is in Ambros Epist 30. used this argument and almost no other to prove that the Emperor should still abide in the religion of the Romans because that Common-wealth was most flourishing and prosperous so long as they worshipped Iupiter Apollo and other Gods Also the old Tyrants Persecuters of the Church were wont to impute to chance the cause of all calamities and miseries for they used to say when calamities were upon them we are now lesse fortunate then in former times because we suffer the Christians and because we do not with that religion and devotion worship Iupiter and other of the Gods as we did before therefore are the Gods angry with us so the Papists from a temporal felicity measure piety and gather that God doth favour them because he gives them these outward things by it would condemne us and al other Churches But if the Heathen reasoned absurdly they conclude not well but very impudently but if the conclusion would follow it would be on our sides rather then theirs who have for these 48. yeares not been inferiour to any Kingdome in the world for peace plenty and prosperity and specially when we have beene most severe not in persecuting but correcting of their impieties Idolatries For pro justitiâ persequentes persecutores sunt propter flagitìum correctores August contra lit Petil. lib. 21. ca. 84. And for victory in warre which is the principallest they stand of we have given them more foiles then ever they us and have often carried the day and triumph both by sea and land blessed be our God for it Therefore must they let this argument this weapon goe or else we will sheath it in their owne sides Vse 3 If this be a blessing then have we cause to stirre up our selves and soules to God to give him thankes for that he hath performed to us which he promised to this land and people that we have had such peace plenty and prosperity as we have beene accounted of all blessed and happy and of our enemies mightily maligned and envied That we use that of August de Civit. D. l. 1. c. 7. Quisquis non videt caecus quisquis nec laudat ingratus quisquis laudanti reluctatis in sanus est And yet seeing it is no perpetuall blessing but such as the Church is often deprived of and hath beene let us see we walke worthy of it lest he pull us downe as low as he lifted us up high and make us as vile as he hath made us honourable As he did divers times with his people Deuter. 29.22.24.25 which was then and shall be when they are worse and walke unworthy of this and we be as Salvian ad Catholicum Ecclessiam lib. 1. * Ac sic nescio quomodo c. I know not how but thy felicity fights against thy selfe so much as thou art encreased in people thou art almost as much encreast in vices by how much thou hast more abounded thou hast lost in discipline and thy prosperity hath brought with it a great encrease of evills for the professors of the faith being multiplyed the faith it selfe is lessened and her children encreasing the mother is sicke and thou O Church of God! art made weaker by thy fruitfulnesse and the more children the lesse strength for thou hast spread through the whole world the professors of thy religious name but not having the power of religion as if thou wert rich in men poore in faith wealthy in multitude needy in devotion enlarged in body strengthned in spirit c. VERS XIII Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet yee say What have we spoken against thee YOur words have been stout against me Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord of Hosts The Prophet proceedeth to reprove this people of another sinne and to expostulate the thing with them The sinne of it is the denying of Gods providence both over the evill and good not punishing the one and not providing for the other This people afflicted of God with penury and want for other of their sinnes but especially for spoiling God his Levits and Church they thought and spoke blasphemously against God but accusing his providence as not regarding those who worship and professe him but such as dishonoured him and were wicked and never would they accuse themselves of their sinnes which is that he saith their words have been great against him they spoke hard and odious things of him as the words following shew that these were they Yet yee say What have we spoken against thee They answer for themselves not denying simply that they had spoken any such thing but putting God to his proofe as thinking that he did not know nor understand as those who had oftentimes said among themselves that God regarded not the things here below neither tooke notice of what men did Therefore this question of theirs tendeth not to any deniall of the deed but to the tempting of God For if hee could not or did not answer directly and shew them what they had said then would they conclude as before they had that he did not regard nor understand the things that were said and done by men which if he did then could he tell in particular what words they had spoken against him and not thus insist in the generall Doctrine Your words have been stout Observe God takes notice of the words of men as well as their actions and will reprove them for them and call them to an account and judge them Jam. 2.12 Your words have been stout against me They deny the providence of God and his wise disposing of things upon earth among men as the verses following shew and so are accused to have spoken against God himselfe though they have not denied him or blasphemed him Doctrine They who deny the providence of God and his
perceive that their masters overheare them talking of any thing or oversee them doing of any thing speake and doe well this is eye service or eare service yet God would be served with eye and eare service and he that seeth in secret will reward openly And the words are Attendit Iehovah auait He hearkened and heard he so heares that he also attends or regards it A man may overheare a thing and not regard it and so as good as he heard it not Eccles 7.22 But God as he heares so he regardeth Contrary to that the wicked say Psa 10. That God regardeth it not Zeph. 1.12 But God doth regard the words of the tongue because he hath made a law as wel for the words as deeds God made the tongue and therefore will have the fruit 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought for a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit for they are Gods so with tongue as well as hand and therefore we must looke to give account of words as well as of our actions Matth. 12.36 But I say unto you that of every iale word that men shall speake they shall give account thereof at the day of judgement Jude verses 14.15 And Enoch also the seaventh from Adam prophesied of such saying behold the Lord commeth with thousands of his Saints to give judgement against all men and to rebuke all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their cruell speakings which wicked sinners have spoken against him Plumea verba plumbea pondera windy words if they be wicked words lye as a dead weight on thy soule Take heed of lifting up his name take heede of an oath for it bringeth an heavy burthen But it is our incouragement I say that God rewards us for good words as well as for our deeds though they seeme to be but little worth they are arguments of a sanctified heart and of the feare of God as it is Matth. 12.34.35 O generation of vipers how can you speake good things when ye are evill for of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of an evill treasure bringeth forth evill things And a booke of remembrance was written before him That is he keepes the remembrance of the things he knowes Doctrine The Lord as he seeth and knoweth all things so he remembreth them as he hath knowledge without ignorance of any thing so he hath remembrance without oblivion of the same things good or evill Therefore is he here said to have a booke because things are more certainely and perpetually kept in it then left to remembrance of man Hence is that Amos 8.7 The Lord hath sworne by the excellency of Iaakob surely I will never forget any of their workes Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous that he should forget your worke and labour of love which ye shewed toward his name in that ye have ministred unto the Saints and yet minister Psal 139.2 Jer. 44.21 Psal 56.8 Thou hast counted my wandrings put my teares into thy bottell are they not in thy register Dan. 7.10 Revel 20.12 A similitude taken from Kings who have things written for memory Ester 6.1 though God need not Reason 1 Because of his eternall and infinite apprehension being as able to apprehend things and keepe them done thousand yeares since as but yesterday as man is able to remember things done but yesterday as that Psal 90.4 2 Pet. 3.8 Reason 2 Because he is absolutely perfect without either sinne or imperfection therefore without oblivion that in many things is sinne and in any thing imperfection even as ignorance of things necessary to be knowne and which may be knowne is sinne of things not necessary is imperfection and infirmity though without sin Object Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that putteth away thine iniquities for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Then God doth forget and there is oblivion in him Answer Gods forgetting of sinne is like his not seeing of sinne Num. 23.21 which is not that he seeth not the act and thing done but hee seeth it not to impute it to them in that respect hee is as though he saw it not So he forgetteth not the act and the thing done but not to impute it to him or to punish him for it which is in effect to forget it As his remembrance is taken for the effect of his remembrance As Isaiah 38.3.9 I pray thee let me have the effect and feeling of thy remembrance let me know by experience thou dost remember me So his forgetfulnesse or forgetting is taken for the effect and feeling of it They should finde he had as it were forgotten Vse 1 To let us see the folly of wicked men as in committing sinne in secret and darke thinking the Lord cannot or doth not see so in seeking to cover it committed and labour to bring an oblivion of it who though the corruption cleave to them as Jer. 17.1 The sinne of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and graven upon the table of their heart and upon the hornes of your Altars Yet they by all meanes labour to forget it and if they have escaped and prospered with it for a month or two or a yeare or two c. they thinke also God hath forgotten it But doe they not deceive themselves when with God is no oblivion no forgetfulnesse What benefit can they then get by this even as a malefactor that hath committed some haynous offence whom the Magistrate lets alone to see what he will doe whether he will seeke his pardon or no and he goes about to corrupt or remove all that should give evidence against him when it is in the power of the Judge both to be witnesse and Judge and proceed of his owne knowledge and out of his owne memory of the act and who also cannot forget So here What got the sonnes of Iaakob by smothering their treachery to their father and brother It may terrifie the wicked that every evill word is registred Matth. 12. and though God should not the Divell would keepe them in mind to accuse them Rev. 12. yea and their owne consciences Gods register booke Vse 2 To instruct every man to keep his bookes of account well and to remember all his debts and his sinnes seeing they shall be remembred though he would forget them or could when as his remembrance of them to humble himselfe and to get his pardon makes God to forget them Saint Chrysostome would have a man not to forget his sinnnes after pardon * Non ut taeipsum c. Chryso ho. 12. ad popu Antioch Not to consume thy selfe with the thought of them but to teach thy soule not to grow wanton nor to fall into the same sinnes againe But most necessary before
feare God lift up your heads in peace and hope for to you shall arise The sunne of righteousnes Thus the Prophet calls Christ after the manner of the Prophets who in diverse places have given him this name Esa 60.1.2.19 Ioh. 8.12 Luc. 1.78 And he is sayd to arise unto them because he doth enlighten them by his word and spirit And he is called the Sun of righteousnes being so himselfe and making them so regenerating purging them from their corruptions renewing in them the image of God which things are more particularly expressed by that which follows With healing in his wings Keeping the same metaphor he calleth the sunne beames wings that as by the beames of the sun the aire is purged and health procured to men so Christ should by his grace and spirit purge them whom he enlightens And you shall goe forth That is be set at liberty from bondage and slavery from sin the divel and death And grow up as the calves of the stall That is you shall have an encrease and augmentation of grace and of the spirit more and more as fat calves an homely similitude to make it clearer Some reade you shall leape but this other the words will well beare and is as fit Doctrine 1 All men are in themselves darknesse and have no light that is the estate of every man by nature The point is only implied Doctrine 2 Christ is risen a sunne to as many as are truly called and they have light and not darknesse they have the knowledge of God and of his will necessary to salvation Doctrine 3 Christ is most holy and pure without spot and blemish of sin a Sun of Righteousnesse Doctrine 4 They who are Gods elected and called have health under the wings of Christ i. have their sinns purged their spirituall sores cured and they made holy and sanctified 1. Cor. 6.11 Rom. 8.10 Gal. 5.24 Eph. 5.26.27 Reason 1 Because they are made one with Christ and joyned with him and so being in Christ are new creatures 2. Cor. 5.17 New in quality and condition being made partakers of the divine nature 2. Pet. 1.4 as iron put into the fire remains so in the substance but yet is pulled forth wholly burning like fire The same substance with the name remaineth the heat shining brightnesse other accidents are not the irons but the fires Reason 2 Because as a cause of this they being one with him must needs pertake of his spirit and have life from him as members and this life is holynesse They are sanctified wholly 1. Thes 5.23 The mind inlightned with the true knowledge of God Col. 1.9 The memory keeps and remembers that which is agreeable to Gods will wheras naturally it best remembreth lewdnesse and vanity Psal 119.11 The word is hid in the heart The will is sanctified so farre as it is freed from sin that it can will and chuse that which is good and acceptable to God and refuse that which is evill Phil. 2.13 The affections are sanctified and move to that which is good to embrace it and eschew evill Rom. 12.9 The body is sanctified when the members are instruments of righteousnesse Rom. 6.13 And all is from Christ in whom they are and to whom they are joyned In Christ they have a gracious health of mind and spirit and body who tooke whole man In Christo habent c. Aug. de civit Dei lib. 10. c. 27. that he might heale the whole man of all pestilentiall contagion as Saint Aug. speakes But none hath this holinesse in perfection but in part and to dreame of a perfection is a Pelagian fancy contrary to experience conscience our owne confessions to God and to the word of God that hath taught us that we have but here the first fruits Rom. 8.23 And the full measure not accomplisht till after death Col. 3.4 In the meane time he is in hand with the cure and healing of us So that the state of the best is cleane in part and yet in part to be made cleane and must hearken to the Apostle 2. Cor. 7.1 To cleanse themselves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit St. Bern. in Cant. serm 58. perfecting holinesse in the feare of God knowing they have still an army of vitious desires to fight against which are the Jebusites who dwel in our borders and may be subdued though they cannot be driven out Vse This will answer the Papists slander who affirme in their late pamphlets and by D. Bishop in his Epistle to the King that we say that to thinke of inherent righteousnesse and to stand just by it before God is to rase the foundation of religion and to make Christ a Pseudo-Christ If they understand it of being just imperfectly before God we none of us deny it but if as perfect righteousnesse in Gods sight we say it doth rase the foundation and justleth Christ out of his place and take away from him that honour which the Scripture hath given him to be called the Lord our Righteousnesse Jer. 33.16 and to defeate the worke of God by whom he is made unto us righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 But this is injurious to the inestimable value of Christs blood God cloakes our sinne now and cures it too by degrees and afterward fully he cloaketh and covereth our iniquity with the righteousnesse of Christ which is not a short cloake that cannot cover two Bern. in Cant. 61. as Saint Bernard speakes but being a large and everlasting righteousnesse it will largely cover both thee and me They who are elected and called are redeemed that is are set at liberty and freed by Christ from sinne satan and death and shall goe forth as the words are here from sinne Rom. 7.5.6 Rom. 6.6.14 1 John 3.8 from Satan Joh. 12.31 Col. 1.13 from death heb 2.14 Reason 1 Because they are one with Christ and he having overcome those enemies and delivered himselfe they must needs bee freed Reason 2 Because being one with him they have his spirit Now where the spirit is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Reason 3 Because they must and ought to serve him whose they are that is God which they cannot doe if still they be servants to sinne and Satan for if no man can serve two masters Mat. 6.24 who may in some case be subordinate to one another how may they serve such as are so farre opposite God and sinne Reason 4 Because God hath shewed mercy to pardon their sinne but to what end were that mercy if he should leave them in their former bondage as if one should pay the ransome of a captive and yet leave him still in thraldome Object We see many of them who are partakers of this redemption yet are still overcome of sin and are led captive to transgresse the commandement as Saint Paul was Rom. 7. Answer Falling into sinnne doth no way prove the dominion of sinne Sinne hath dominion when it raignes in a man and when man rebells not strives
marriages See Canones Aelfrici can 9. apud Spelman Cone p. 574. but whether it bee agreeable to the Canon of Concil Neocaesar quoted by Gratian. caus 31. qu. 1. De his qui frequenter let the Reader compare the places with the glosse at the letters m and o and judge and 2. That they put Bigamie even successive Bigamie among Irregularities as it to be seene in their Casuists and Canonists See excerptiones Egberti ad An. Dom. 750. excerp 32. and 89. apud D. H. Spelm. in Conc. Pambrit p. 261. The reason such as it is we have in Pet. Damian a devout Author in a most corrupt time lib. cui titulus Dominus Nobiscum cap. 12. apud Ioh. Cochlaei Speculum p. 156. who yet speakes of it with a Quis non miretur that Bigamy successive Bigamie he speaks of allowed by the ancient Ecclesiasticall Canons should bee a greater Irregularitie and sinne then Fornication expressely condemned in holy writ But of this also enough being only obiter And thus much of the reproofe of the sin we have next 2. A dehortation from this sin in the latter part of the 15. verse and vers 16. which is 1. Propounded 2. Repeated First the dehortation is propounded verse 15. Therefore take heed unto your spirit and lot none deale treacherously against the Wife of his youth Verse 16 Vers 16. For the Lord the God of Israel saith That hee hates putting away for one covereth violence with his garment sayth the Lord of hosts Take heede to your spirits The Geneva keepe your selves in your spirit Remigius and Lyra keepe your spirit your Wife is the residue of your spirit keepe and cherish her The Tigurine keepe and preserve and tender your Wives as dearely as you doe your owne soules Corn. a lap Take heede to your breath your breath on one another breath not on a stranger keep thy self solely to thy Wife Conceited interpretations Arias Montanus came nearer the sense Be wary and not rash I like best that of our Commentary Be sober and containe your selves keep a watch upon your spirits and affections to content your selves with your lawfull Wives And let none deale treacherously Or unfaithfully That is In taking other Wives and when you are convinced of the sinfulnesse of keeping two Wives deale not treacherously to put away your old pretending law for divorces and that you may safely doe it for the Lord hates this treachery in making needlesse divorces and thereby cloaking your sin And this I take to be the meaning of these and the next words For the Lord the God of Israel saith That hee hates putting away for one covereth violence with his garment saith the Lord Deale not treacherously with your Wives after your vexing them by taking other Wives unto them then to put them away and pretend that the law allowes you to give them Bills of divorce for this is but the covering of your violence and injury with that garment or cloake but the Lord is so farre from allowing divorces in such cases that he hates them The Lord hateth putting away Or To put away The younger Tarnovius gives here the same sense with us The Lord hates your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dimitte the imperative in Piel you have Dimitte Dimitte much in your mouthes Put her away Put her away but the Lord hates your Dimitte So it is an ironicall repetition of their owne usuall word which the Lord rejects with indignation Or else he takes it for the Infinitive in Piel put for a Noune Hee hates to put away that is putting away And so is our text-reading Our margin indeed is If he hate her put her away Pagnin otherwise If shee that is thy Wife hate thee that is be perverse Put her away The Geneva and our old English If thou hatest her put her away And so doth Zanchy reade it in that discourse of divorces which he wrote upon occasion of Andreas Pizzardus his divorce as indeed agreeing best with the matter hee undertooke to defend And so reade The Vulg. Vatabl and among others Michael Walther a Lutheran in his Harmonia Scripturae lib. 2. sect 185. Followes this reading of the Vulg. and therefore takes a needlesse paines in reconciling this place to that of Christ Mat. 19.11 for reading it aright according to our last and approved translation there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all between them And Montanus tells us that Rab. Hananus a Jewish interpreter interprets it also as we doe God hates him who puts away his wife For one covereth violence with his garments The Vulg. Latine But iniquitie will cover his garment Corn. a Lap. who is bound to follow it labours much to make good sense of it First he tells us we must take His for Thine Put her away but iniquity will or shall cover thy garment But how is that meant 1. Iniquity that is the punishment of thy iniquity shall cover thy garment that is shall be upon thy body in regard of diseases c. 2. Upon thy garment that is thou shalt be punished in thy cloathing naked ragged c. 3. punishment shall be upon thee the garment taken for the man Thou shalt be openly punished Thus he from others for the Vulg. of which translation Steph. Menochius a latter Iesuite gives another sense The Iewes excuse themselves Why doe you reprehend us seeing the law permits us to put away our Wives If thou hate her put her away But which he makes the Prophets answer your iniquity shall thereby so abound and swell that no garment will be able to cover it The Law permitting it onely for the hardnesse of your hearts but not freeing you from sinne if rashly and without cause you put them away A better sense then that of A lapide but for which he is faine to take his farewell of the authorized Vulgar translation If thou put her away give her some part of thy garments to cover her something to live on So Luther occasionally expounds it which sense Osiander followes give her a good dowry that if she be put away shee may marry another Let him put her away for while hee keepes her he covers his injury and makes as if he loved her so the Geneva and Winkleman Much like to the Chalde paraphrase Put her away and cover not thy hatred with a pretense that thou lovest her and keepest her and makest her a drudge Vatablus is singular as if their fault were that they put away their Wives and covered their iniquity under a garment that is discovered not their fault as the Law required they should and so wanting a formall bill of divorce they were made uncapable of a second marriage and so they added to the injury Some take it for an Ironie Put her away doe so but thy sinne shall overtake thee All these mistake the sense I rest in that above The Lord hates needlesse divorces and the more when the Law is pretended for one that is the man