offend I will not eat a bit of flesh as long as the world lasts Beloved we use to say when we are averse to a thing Before I will doe such a thing I will never eat bit of bread such a kinde of zeale and such a kinde of expression may you imagin St Pauls to have been in his resolution of not sinning against Christ and yet how many are there that make no bones of this but let them take heed that God make not their bones and their hearts into the bargain ake for it Sure I am the new converts in the second of the Acts were pricked to the very heart at this very consideration see the place Acts 2.37 You may observe St Peter ver 14. beginning to preach his first Sermon after the ascension his first work is to take off a mistake a misapprehension from the people touching themselves These men are not drunken as ye suppose At ver 22. his Sermon begins to pinch close for he speakes plainely Ye men of Israel heare these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves know Ver. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine He followes this argument close all along heightning the sinne by the consideration of Gods exalting of Christ and in ver 36. he puts Gods goodnesse to Christ and their wickednesse against Christ both together and with this as with a great and irresistible hammer God pricks their hearts in Peters Ministry yea he breaks them all to pieces for see ver 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe When they heard this that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was exalted by God to be Lord and Christ when they heard this and that they had thus sinned against their Lord their Christ their King this oh this pricked them to the quick this shivered them all to pieces this divided betwixt the joynts and marrow it broke downe all opposition Men and brethren what shall we doe such wretches such vile creatures as we are never were in the world What! is that Jesus that we have crucified is he our Christ our Lord have we thus wronged him thus dealt with him Woe umo us that we have sinned Thus you see how farre this consideration strikes terror here it did strike terror into their hearts may it not strike terrour into yours for know assuredly that that same Jesus the motions of whose spirit or of Gods Spirit you have stood out against I suppose you look upon it as all one for he and the Father are one is that very Jesus whom God hath exalted-heretofore yea and will exalt him again and he will make him actually both Lord and King in all the souls of his people and over all the world and this is he whom ye sinne against whom in a spirituall sense ye crucifie againe as it were even the Lord of glory nay let me go further with you and drive you up closer I must tell you that whilest ye rebell against the workings of the Spirit of God ye do at once sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at one stroake as I may say A time bath been and that in my dayes when a mans naming the sinne against the holy Ghost in the Pulpit would have made many a heart to tremble I am sure it made mine tremble when I was a boy and minded nothing but pastime and pleasure but though I tell you and I shall make it appear that in resisting the motions of Gods Spirit ye have sinned against Father Sonne and holy Ghost and that your actions especially in some have entrenched and bordered much upon the chanell of such actions as do leade directly to the grand sinne the unpardonable sinne even the sinne against the holy Ghost which you know Christ saith shall never be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come yet who trembles whose heart quakes nay do we not mock at fear and have not some sucked in such principles that doe utterly overturne all shaking all trembling either at the apprehension of their sinnes or of Gods judgements due to them for their sinne My friends for as yet I am no mans declared enemy in the world do not I tell you the truth Do not your hearts and consciences bear me witnesse and witnesse for me If so though you are so hardened that ye cannot cry out What shall we do Yet God hath so softned my heart towards you that I cannot but ask What ye will do Will ye go on I trust in God your hearts will not let you say We will go on and we will do what seemeth good in our own eyes and as for these words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hear thee No will ye not Are ye resolved thus if you are I will break your resolutions if I can and rather then suffer you to runne on thus headlong into your destruction I will kindle a fire in your very bones I will vex your very souls and bring you with David to cry out as he Psa 6. My bones are vexed O Lord yea my soul is vexed but thou O Lord how long Consider then in the fear of God what I assert what I insist upon viz. That he that sinnes against the strivings of Gods good Spirit sinnes against Father Sonne and holy Ghost That he sins against the Father is evident 1. From those words which Christ useth Joh. 15.23 24. He that hateth me hateth my Father also If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sinne but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father also Would you have a clearer Text He that hates the Son hates the Father by the same argument He that sins against the Sonne sins against the Father and indeed he and the Father are one or else Union with Christ would not be enough to make Christs poor ones one with the Father but that this is sufficient you may most remarkably see from that heavenly piece of Scripture Joh. 14. from v. 7. to the middle of the 11. verse If saith Christ ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him The Disciples stumbled at this but Philip particularly saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Christ seems to stumble at them as much as they at him for he speaks to Philip as in their stead Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how saist thou then Shew us the Father Would ye
have things clearer yet viz. that Union with Christ is sufficient to make up Union with the Father and consequently he that sinnes against Christ must needs sinne against the Father Would you I say have it clearer then go on to the 10th verse Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self as if he should say The Father speaks them as well as I nay The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works too and then he proceeds Beleeve me Philip that I am in the Father and the Father in me Plainet words then these surely cannot be used to assert the Point in hand That sins against Christ are sins against the Father My next work must be to prove that they are sins against the holy Ghost likewise and then I have done in point of proof To evidence this clearly and plainly I suppose we take it for granted that the holy Ghost and the holy Spirit are all one that being granted me as a Suppositum not so much as disputed by your selves Let me put you in minde of some Texts of Scripture wherein the same actions being spoken of you shall finde are in one place implied or expressed plainly to be sins against God by which I understand to be meant the Father in another place they are termed sins against Christ by which name we understand the Sonne and in a third place sins against Gods holy Spirit by which 't is already supposed we mean and understand the holy Ghost These Scriptures being produced and asserting the thing in hand I suppose I have gained the Cause Compare then these three Scriptures together Numb 21.5 1 Cor. 10.9 Isa 63.10 Let us look first upon Num. 21.5 The people of Israel it should seem were in great affliction they wanted bread and water and their soul lothed the Manna they call it this light bread Being in this distresse and affliction it is said expresly They spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Aegypt to die in the Wildernesse for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread here you see plainly the Israclites sinne of murmuring under this affliction is said expresly to be against God They murmured against God and against Moses by which word God I hope you will give me leave to understand the Father and never trouble your selves with much scruple or dissatisfaction in the businesse Let us now go to the next Scripture which ye shall finde 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents The Question will be how it appears that the same sin is spoken of in both places To make this sure I must turn you back to Numb 21.6 again which tels us that God for their sin of murmuring immediatly before sent fiery Serpents among the people and they died Now reade the verse I have quoted out of the Corinthians Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents Do you desire I should argue now Is it not plain that that which was called murmuring against God in the Book of Numbers is called tempting of Christ in the Epistle to the Corinthians For what did the Lord send fiery Serpents among the people for murmuring against God For what were they destroied of Serpents for tempting of Christ These then were both one unlesse you understand any other destruction of Serpents to be intended by St Paul then this which was by the biting of the fiery Serpents mentioned in the Book of Numbers My proofs touching Father and Sonne I have done with My next labour must be touching the holy Spirit or holy Ghost as we call him For this view my third Text Isa 63.10 where the Prophet having in the verse before mentioned the gracious and generall loving kindenesse of the Lord toward his people in the daies of old sets down in the next words in the beginning of the 10th verse the general demeanour and carriage of the Israelites his people toward God And what was their carriage 'T was sad I confesse I fear ours is so too They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Their general posture of actions against God is termed here you see a rebelling and vexing his holy Spirit certainly if all their wicked actions come under this expression then this action likewise of murmuring against God or tempting of Christ being one of their actions must needs do so too And now I think I have gained my cause Having done with my proof let me now treat with you a little you that have sin'd so often against the motions of Gods Spirit and therein in some sense troden under foot the Son of God for Gods sake What do ye think of your selves have ye done well think ye thus at one blow as it were to strike Father Son and holy Ghost in the face Is this recompence for his mercies in sending Jesus Christ to shed his bloud for your sins a fair recompence to the Father Is it equal that such a Lex Talionis should be returned to the Son that we should thus grieve and vex the holy Spirit Certainly if there be any fear of God before out eyes the doing of these things cannot rightly please our hearts But because ye are so hardened in your wickednesse and rebellions against him who will either glorifie you if ye willingly submit to him or torment you for ever if still ye persist be ye under what Form or Administrations ye will For I love not to flatter you in your imaginary shadowâ— taken up of your own heads nor do I place godlinesse or wickednesse in externall Forms but rather in submitting or walking contrary to Christ Let me presse you a little eagerly to consider what ye are doing when ye are sinning against the motions workings and pleadings of Gods good Spirit striving within you as doubtlesse sometimes he doth or else things go very sadly with you Be as merry as ye will Shall I minde you in one word what ye do ye sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at once ye do in a sense as I told you tread under foot the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God for this treading things under foot what is it 't is an expression whereby we signifie our scorning and lothing of a thing as when we say If I could I would tread thee under my foot My Brethren my brethren what do ye lesse when ye do so resist the motions of Gods good Spirit that ye cannot endure to hear him speak to you Nay how many are there who when the Spirit of God would pleade with them and reason them into godlinesse or into the omission of this or that or the other particular sin as of whoredom jeering at good things drunkennesse covetousness or the like presently they take the first
seemes to me to consist of these grand parts First Of severall Exhortations full of life which St John received from Christ the author of them Secondly Of certaine high and heavenly predictions which represented to St John the state of the Church till the end of the world The Exhortations are set down in the 2d and 3d Chapters The predictions from thence to the end Which he concludes so sweetly as if he knew not whether he were out of the body or in the body witnesse those words of ravishment Rev. ult ver 18. And the spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely And those other gracious words ver 20. He which testifieth of these things saith surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus As for the first Chapter I looke upon it as containing principally three things First The Title of the whole Booke in the three first verses Secondly The Preface or Dedication of the whole Booke in the three next verses Thirdly A solemne and majestical description of Jesus Christ the Author of the whole Booke which I finde something scattered in divers parts of the Chapter This description seems to be in 4. fragments One is set forth by St John in his Preface A second is aimed at in the terriblenesse of his coming to judgement ver 7 th And the third comes to us in the words of Christ himselfe ver 8 11 10. A fourth is presented to St John in a vision and in that vision to us if we have eyes eyes to see and eares to heare from v. 13. to v. 17. This vision was so full of amazing majesty that when St John saw it he fell at Christs feet but Christ soone layes his right hand upon him and revives him saying unto him I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the keyes of hell and of death This vision being over and St John having got to himselfe againe Christ gives him directions to write 1. The things which he had seene 2. The things which are 3. The things which must be hereafter That is as Pareus in effects observes First Transactions which St John himselfe had been witnesse of from the first preaching of the Gospel after Christs ascenfion till the time of Domitian Secondly Things which at the time of St Johns writing were then on foot Thirdly Things which from thence forwards should come to passe till the end of the world But whether some other transactions touching the condition of the Church before Christ were not withall aimed at in some of those visions which were represented to S. John and are mentioned in this Booke of the Revelations I must confesse I am yet to learne But to close as fast as I can You see the maine body of the Revelations branched by me into Exhortations and Predictions or rather Representations My Text you see falls out to be part of the Exhortations being part of the third Chapter which concludes them These Exhortations are inscribed to the severall Angels of severall Churches Touching which let me give you one note of Pareus Caeterum non ad solos Episcopes saith he sed ad ipsas quoque Ecclesias spect are Epistolas ex Epilog is intelligitur But from the Conclusions its evident that these Epistles I have called them Exhortations doe not onely belong to the Bishops but also to the very Churches themselves for each Epistle ends thus He that hath an care to heare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches But what are the names or distinctions of these Churches to whose Angels or Bishops these Exhortations are inscribed I will barely name them and haste to my Text. The first is the Church in Ephesus Ch. 2. v. 1. The second the Church in Smyrna Ch 2 v. 8. The third the Church in Pergamus Ch. 2. v. 12. The fourth the Church in Thyatira Ch. 2. v. 18. The fifth the Church in Sardis Ch. 3. v. 1. The fixth the Church of Philadelphia Ch. 3. v. 7. The seventh and last the Church of Laodiceans or as the margin of the great Bible hath it in Laodieca Ch. 3. v. 14. I might give you a note here that the Churches are called Churches in Ephesus in Smyrna in Pergamus in Tbyatira in Sardis in Philadelphia nor would any objection crosse me in the tendency of my note that the last Church is called the Church of Laodiceans or in Laodicea but I promised you the naming of the Churches onely and therefore I presse not my note but haste according to my promise At length you see plainely and methodically that my Text is part of those Exhortations or Epistles which were directed by Jesus Christ to the Church of the Laodiceans Which if Mr Brightman observe aright in making it a type of our Church here in England it must be granted that we are the more concerned to hear what the Spirit of Christ saith unto this Church let me cite his note which having lately seen in his Latine edition onely I think I may give you the sense of them in english thus But why doth he say that he stands at the doore and knocks Why doth not himselfe open the doore Why doth he not directly enter in especially seeing he hath the key of David by which he openeth nor doth any shut as v. 7. And then he adds These things saith he are most significantly spoken pro ratione Laodicensis nostraeque Ecclesiae with a sutablenesse to the Laodiceans and our Church in which Christ stands before the doores but our hearing saith he is in a manner quite stopped or intercluded I will not dispute here whether the Spirit of Jesus Christ intended the Church of the Laodiceans to be a type of the Church in England or not But be it as it will this both you and I and all of us in England must yeeld him that the reproofs and accusations fastened upon this Church are as fit to be spoken and charged upon us as upon any Church this day in the world Let us take the words as they lie in our way what more true then that Jesus Christ knows our works that we are neither hot nor cold and so because we are lukewarm how justly may we fear yea fear and tremble that Jesus Christ will spue us out of his mouth if ever we were in it for we are generally so wicked that it may be questioned How justly may Christ charge us as the Laodiceans that we say We are rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and know not that we are wretched and miscrable and poor and blinde and naked How fit are we in some sense viz. in respect of our condition for that heavenly and spirituall counsell of Christ v. 18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire