under tribulation the condition it self one thing cannot be the cause and the effect too as a faithful holding out under persecution is the cause causa dispositiva the kingdom or reigning is as the fruits and effects therefore not one and the same so that the interpretation or sense of this verse runs thus I Iohn your brother and sharer or companion in tribulation with you for the hopes in that kingdom which is to be revealed by Jesus Christ at his second coming and for which I and you and all Christ's faithful ones wait for in patience and longing desirings through Jesus Christ our Lord. From whence this Note ariseth Observ That all Christ's faithful ones ought to wait with patience under all afflictions and tribulations for the day of their release by the coming of the Lord Jesus and his Kingdom This is the Kingdom of patience and suffering not of reigning and tryumphing Some of Christ's disciples would needs have the kingdom presently in that their question Is this the time that thou wilt restore the Kingdom unto Israel But Christ answered It is not for you to know the time and seasons you are to occupy employ your talents till I come Of the souls beheaded for the testimony of Jesus How long Lord is their continual cry Their work is with prayers and tears to wait upon God for deliverance they set not the world on fire by wars and bloodshed the proper works of Satan and his members they are to wit the Saints or at least should be of meek placid and peaceable spirits easily to be entreated when they are reviled not to revile when they are stricken not to strike again yea to pray even for their very enemies and to such persons in God's appointed time he will fulfil that promise The meek shall inherit the earth This sets a check upon the turbulent ones of this age the soundness of whose spirit I question being opposite to the former characters of Christ's spirit who conceive they go about to pull down Antichrist when they raise commotions rebellions and bloodsheds in states and Common-wealths and endeavour the ruine of the Soveraign Magistrates thereof when as indeed the prosecution of the work against Antichrist is rather hindered then furthered hereby for hereby they weaken and divert the hands of Soveraigns from that work in as much as in them lieth for antichrist is to fall by the hands of those Princes and Powers of the world from whom it had its first rise Rev. 17.16 and therefore all should rather add to their helping hands in assisting those Christian Magistrates they live under rather then disturb or oppose them in this work and for those that are otherwise minded let them be here companions with John Wait for his coming in faith and patience and stand still and they shall see the salvation of our God Observ 2. Another note hence riseth That the contempletion of the coming of the Kingdom of Christ is the great prop and stay of the spirits of all Christ's faithful ones under all their afflictions and tribulations Iohn here comforts himself and the Churches with those thoughts in the next place he often inculcates this contemplation on them that should be tryed and come under tribulation Christ would give them as the guerdon of all their sufferings this Kingdom described under several names of the crown of life v. 10. Manna which is hid and white stone v. 17. the Tree of Life v. 7. Power over Nations v. 26. and to rule with a rod of iron v. 27. and lastly Christ himself by the name of Morning Star v. 28. And indeed what can more support the spirits of afflicted Saints then to know there is a crown laid up for them and dominion that shall last for ever after the progress of a short afflicted life here and therefore the Apostle Paul accounted the afflictions of this present life not worthy of the glory which should be revealed unto us Rom. 8.18 Was in the Isle called Patmos Whether John fled there voluntarily to avoid persecution or banished there as most ancient Writers affirm I shall not contend but sure he was in this Island called Patmos by reason of the great persecutions in Domitian's days about Anno Christi 97. This Island was one of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea now called Archipelago scituated between the lesser Asia and Greece now under the command of the Grand Seignior and in the way going up from the Mediterranean unto the Hellespont and Constantinople This Island was famous for nothing so much as for this entertainment of our Apostle Iohn in his exile being one of those barbarous Islands into which the Romans did use to send their malefactors and exiles and here in this Island amongst the Barbarians Iohn received these Visions and Revelations wherein observe Observ That God does not tye himself in the discoveries of himself unto the holiness of places The Rabbins have a rule amongst them and they hold it for truth That God never spake unto the Prophets out of the holy Land but this is contradicted in the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel who received their visions at Babylon by the River Chebar in Chaldea Ezek. 1.1 2. God did here pass by the holy Land the holy Temple the holy City and gave those Visions of God in Chaldea and pours out his spirit in Babylon Whiles Iohn conversed about Ierusalem and those holy places Iohn had not any Visions but when in Patmos amongst Barbarians he had these high and glorious Revelations God is not tyed to places in a dungeon in prison as unto Paul and others In a Babylon as unto Ezekiel Daniel and the three children God pours down his Spirit into the hearts of his servants and raiseth them up unto a height of Prophesie Observ 2. That God often in the most obscurest and barbarous corners of the earth doth raise up glorious Instruments for his service It was once a question Can any good come out of Nazareth Much more may it be said Can any good come out of Egypt of Rome of Babylon of Patmos The answer was Come and see so I say come and see a glorious prophet in Patmos a Moses in Egypt a church of saints in the house of Nero in Babylon an Ezekiel a Daniel in Caldea God can raise up instruments most serviceable unto his name and glory in the most profane and idolatrous places and this is from that unlimitted spirit of God that bloweth where it listeth see more hereon in chap. 2. v. 13. For the Word of God and the Testimony of Iesus Christ This shows the cause of Iohn's exile because he professed faithfully the Word and the Testimony of Jesus Christ Hence observe That the Saints faithful profession of God and Christ moves the rage of Christ's and their enemies against them Iohn here became a fugitive and exile in Patmos for this faithful testimony and this is no more then what Christ foretold of before his passion that his
they in this particular witness the Jesuitish Sect with their many pretended miracles voluminous interpretations of Scriptures Councels Fathers Traditions super-numerary Sacraments c. I confess it is the common trade with all new and false doctrine-mongers to amuse the vulgar with their intricate Scriptural glosses that so thereby they may the better swallow down the hook or poison undiscovered within the artificially composed bait and pill and as the fish Sepia darkens the water with its inky humour to avoid the hand of the Fisher so do these serpentine Fry so cloud the truth with their polemical discourses that unawares they have brought many heretical Syncretismes upon the church of God under the pretence of Scriptural truths and reasons but notwithstanding their high pretence to Scripture and Reason both are undermined by them and have endeavoured the overthrow thereof by their strange conclusions which are both false and opposite to the truth as it is in Jesus Now understand that I hold not that every difference of opinion about the externals or accidentals of Religion is sufficient to denominate the holder thereof a heretique or false Teacher for then which of the Fathers would go clear nor but few if any of their Successors But that truly and really denominates a heretique or false teacher is the holding and maintaining such errors as directly strike at and will subvert the foundation Now this is the foundation article That ye believe in God and in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for this is life eternal John 17 3. And that doctrine that strikes at this either directly or consequentially is heresie and false doctrine and therefore justly were they called false Apostles that went about to add Circumcision unto the Gospel and said they could not be saved without it Acts 15. This was to nullifie Christ's sacrifice and satisfaction and to make Christ of none effect as the Apostle Paul tells the Galathians That hereby they hearken to a new Gospel Therefore it is of plain and easie discernment for a competent spiritualized Christian to make discovery of a false Apostle Prophet false Teacher or Heretique by the doctrine he brings For first If it strike at the root or tends to the subversion of the true fear of God and godliness it is of Satan and from hell Next If it strikes directly or consequentially at the subversion of Christ in any of his offices be sure that doctrine is not of God for there is no name way or practise under heaven whereby we may be saved but in the name and faith of Christ who is the alone way unto the Father and none cometh unto him but in and by the Son all other ways are not only broken reeds but dangerous this only in the Son is eternal life 2. In the next place false Apostles and Teachers may be discerned from their false calls or missions and this will the better be evinced by first considering its contrary the right Call of true and faithful Teachers and Apostles of Christ and their Call was either first from God or secondly from the church God's call is by giving abilities gifts and affections sutable to the work and office that he ordains him for He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists c. and so when God sent Moses he furnished him for the great work he appointed him to Moses pleads his unaptness and slowness of speech but God said Go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee c. Exod. 4.12 and so unto all the Prophets of old God came with his Spirit upon them and filled them with a sufficiency thereof before they were sent upon their errands God calls Apostles of Fishers and makes them Fishers of men and so spirits them and enables them that they fear not the faces of men nor the learned of the world for he tells them Go preach and lo I am with you to the end of the world that is by a peculiar assistance by his grace strength comfort direction Spirit Those that Christ calls and sends he gives them a full supply of all gifts and graces necessary to discharge their respective services Secondly God's call gives affections and heart unto the work he moves strongly by a secret impulse of Spirit on the soul that he sends on his employments it will not consult with flesh and blood but will on as Paul did in the work of the Lord without hesitating or securing his carnal interests Yet secondly This call must proceed orderly unto the exercise thereof since extraordinary Gifts and Calls are ceased the mediate call must concur to set the seal and authority upon the first God's giving to a man the call of abilities parts and affections to an office do not really and ipso facto invest him in that office it maybe said that he hath jus ad rem but not jus in re he hath a potential right thereunto but not a right of possession for Christ hath delegated that power unto his church of setting their publique Signature upon all Officers for his service for whom God qualifies with a call of abilities he is only judged and deemed fit for the Ministry of Christ but not really a Minister or Officer of Christ before he is ordained thereunto by the church by the first call only he may perform many good duties and services unto the church as an able and faithful Disciple or member but by the conjunction of the other he can do it ex officio and authoritatively Therefore such as pretend their call to publique offices as Apostles Teachers Pastors c. only as from God and contemn the other from the church surely I am of judgement as unto their mission they are false Apostles and are neither called of God nor man for if their call of abilities was from God as they boast of then it would manifest it self to be of God by a submitting to the wisdom of God in the order of the dispensation of his Ordinances in his word Therefore both conjunct together makes up a compleat officer and shining star within the church In the next place Those that boast of their callings from the church and want the first call of God of abilities they are good for nothing but as unsavoury salt to be cast unto the dung useless to any service they will not serve so much as to make a pin in the house of God such are false Apostles to the purpose fit to be spewed out of all Christian churches in the world Wherefore all faithful christian assemblies should have a special care not to admit of such who can only manifest their call from man and not from God in competent gifts and parts fit for so high a calling They cannot work at all to edification in the Lord's house for they want supplies to that end We know an Artificer can do little work without his tools or instruments but unto those who should be employed about spiritual buildings if God hath
go undiscovered that deserve such Titles better themselves or at least wise so to raise a Scar-crow to drive away the fearful and dis-ingenious from a full enquiring into the Truths of God that would discover the vanity and folly of their opposers But no more of this And here by the way I shall not be ashamed to acquaint you with one mistake of mine who once thought as most men do that God in his Providential disposing the Kingdoms oâ— this world and in exalting men of low degreâ— into the Throne of Princes and throwing down great Princes and their Progenies into the state of slaves it was only to manifest his Soveraignty over the Kingdoms of this world to give them to whom he pleaseth but more maturely considering the All-wise ordering hand of God in such great Transactions I have found the issue in all Ages to be very advantagious to the Church of God and the result of all such State-shakings and Revolutions to be in mercy towards his Church and People When God broke the great Caldeo-Assyrian Monarchy and transferred it to the Medio-Persian how vvonderfully and by vvhat strange providence did God raise Cyrus his servant or instrument for that work Who was exposed to be destroyed by the command of his Grandsire Astyages whiles an Infant upon pretence of some fatal Prophesie yet preserved and brought up amongst Shepherds as his Story goes that afterwards he became most providentially the great deliverer of God's people the Jews from their Assyrian bondage Moses the great Captain of Israel we are sure trod almost the same path under a strange providence of Preservation that at last he became the deliverer of Israel from their Aegyptian thraldome When Saul was set by who was of a Kingly Presence and by the Head and Shoulders above his brethren David was called from the Sheep-cot to the Throne the issue whereof was the exaltation of Israel and the downfal of their enemies If we shall but reflect since Christ's coming in the flesh on the example of Constantine the Great Son unto Helena a Brittish Lady who through many glorious and eminent Victories and Services was at last advanced to the Imperial Seat and how he at last became as a Temporal Saviour to the Church of Christ and Destroyer to the Kingdom of the Dragon is most marvellous to consider It is worth further the taking notice of how wonderfully God in late ages raised the Spirits of some obscure persons as Martin Luther and his Associates of the first Reformation with some other Reformed Ministers since that they have made the great Hierarchy of Rome to shake with their Power so that many Christian Princes then and since began to hate the Whore with the Wine of whose Fornications they were made drunken and now begin not only to hate her but to make her desolate and naked and to eat her flesh But yet that age was but the first fruits or Prodromus not the consummation of the work for she having since lifted up her head and endeavoured to cover her nakedness and to cure her self of her great Wound received but all in vain for her period drawing nigh God exasperates her sore more and more and makes those Horns those Princes that were once her strong Supporters to fall off from her and to hate her Indeed the first Reformers took off her outward garments and showed her nakedness in her false Doctrine and partly in her false Worship and then began to eat her Flesh in taking off some of her pompous Revenues but yet the main Work was left undone to its appointed time For as this great City rose not in one day but gradually so will also her ruine be by several Measures or Vials of God's wrath poured out upon her until the consummation of her ruine come with fire both Material and Analogical the one the fire of God's Word first destroying quite her false Worship which daylie goes on in perfecting the other God's fire of War and Judgements destroying quite up her outward State and Policy that her place be no more found And to the bringing about this great end God works very variously somtimes in moving on the hearts of Princes and so makes them willing unto this work somtimes in laying aside Princes of ancient and potent Families and raising up meaner and lower Persons on their Thrones as he most wonderfully hath done of late among our selves to whom he gives Hearts Spirits and Gifts meet for this great work and lastly in over-ruling the designs of others that though they go about to seek themselves and to advance their own Dominion and Power of Ruling yet the All-wise providence of God knows how so to order them as to bring about his predesigned end For I cannot believe that they will be all pious good Princes and right in their ends that shall be employed about this work for they are the ten Horns or ten Kings that receive power one hour with the Beast and were Members of him that shall destroy the Whore and burn her with Fire Rev. 17.12.16 I am of the minde that few conclude that Hen. 8. and some other Princes were so justifiable in their ends in expelling the Authority of Antichrist as they should have been and yet God employed them as his Instruments in this Work and when they have done his business God knows how to lay them by and all such self-ended persons as useless or at least make them but as Gibeonites or Hewers of Wood in the House of the Lord. Lastly Your Worship may be pleased to take notice that some conceive those and the like Interpretations of dark Prophesies to be but the issues of distempered brains and of little certainty To whom I answer Seeing that this is a Book that hath the publique impress of the Spirit in it and left as it were as its last Legacy of this sort in the Church of Christ I profess soberly I know not what tolerable sense to set on this Book of the Revelation if it be not for an historical discovery under Types and Figures of all the Changes and Revolutions with their Periods and Issues that should befal the Church of God and their Oppressors and Enemies until the end of all I confess there may be some difference in Interpreting and in not rightly Applying some of the several Characters Periods and Visions of this Book and in other circumstantial parts thereof and wherein I fail I entreat not only your Worship but all others to remember my weakness and our common attribute Humanum est errare and especially being amongst such Prophetical deeps and difficulties which may well plead for his failings who is conscious of his insufficiencies for so high and difficult an undertaking Yet this I dare be bold to say that the substantial part of this Prophesie is here cleared and discovered And if any receive light hereby to the better understanding the dark Mysteries thereof give me leave to say with Daniel cap.
people to be forewarned of this time fore see it though long before it come to bear up their Spirits in there greatest afflictions and distresses Abraham saw Christs day and blessed God though seeing it afar of by faith This God hath more especially done in this Book of the Revelation it being a discovery unto the Apostle John in Prophetical representations and Hierogliphique figures of all the Empires States and Kingdoms both Ethnick and Antichristian with their severall usurpations and oppressions over the Church of God which should happen from Iohn's time unto the end of the World together with the issue thereof the finall destruction of the one and the exaltation of the other before the ultimate end of all But here by the way it will be objected and said that this Book is full of hidden mysteries and sealed and very difficult to be understood and therefore most of those that have espoused their studies to the opening of this Book have come of with losse in their over bold undertaking 1. I Answer this Book of the Revelation of S. Iohn is indeed full of mysteries which will so remain untill the accomplishment thereof do discover them unto us and make them manifest But when we by the observation of the events do see before our eyes the effect of each Prophesie and what by this and that thing hath been meant it is now no longer a mystery unto us It is now obvious to every eye what is meant by mystery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots Rev. 17.6 This the Spirit of God doth clear up in the same Chapter to be the City with seven heads raigning over the Kings of the earth And few or none do hesitate but do acknowledge yea even the learnest of the Jesuites themselves as Bellar. Lib. 2. de Pontif. Rom. Chap. 2. Blasius Viegas in Chap. 17.18 Apoc. 5. Sect. 3. Ribera in Apoc. Châ—p 14. Page 144. c. That by this great City here is meant Rome likewise all interpreters of the Reformation do harmoniously accord that by the Beast of seven heads and ten horns Rev. 13 1. must be meant the Romish Empire divided into ten Kingdoms And the Beast with two horns like a Lamb Rev. 13.11 yet speaking like a Dragon to be the Popish Antichristian Hierarchy and if events hath plainly evidenced these without contradiction so to be understood and interpreted as in the progresse of this discourse will more fully appear why then should if seem strange that the residue of the mysteries of this Book should be unlocked and made obvious as well as the former Since the Spirit of God it self in the 17. Chapter hath laid the first ground work from whence as from a sure foundation we may have a view of the whole Revelation by collating Hystories times and passages one with another and lay them to their several characters and periods which the Spirit hath affixed to every remarkable revolution passage and Prophesie in this Book as a sure token and touch-stone to finde them out and make them manifest So that now the Revelation is no longer a mystery but a Book of History of memorable Acts and passages Wherein is fore told the several changes that shall befall to the secular State or Roman Empire and to the Church of Christ under the Dominion of that Empire untill it shall as that stone prophesied of in Dan. 2. Smite the Image on his feet and become it self a great Mountaine and set up upon the top of all Mountains And if we compare the Historyes and changes that hath hapned in the Romane Empire with the Revelation we shall discover clearly how far the accomplishments reacheth and what we may expect ere long So that the things represented in this Book are no more mysteries and hidden things but as clear and accomplished Acts unto us 2. The very Title and first entrance into the first Chapter first verse of this Book denies it to be a hidden mistery no farther then before the events do discover themselves for it is called the Apocalypse or the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his Servants which shortly must be done which hee sent and shewed by his Angel unto his Servant Iohn Besides it is contrary to the clear letter of the Text that it should be a Book shut and sealed for in the 6. Chapter vers 8. The Lambs is found worthy to open the sealed Book and so discoveries are made unto Iohn and by him to all the Church of God 3. That little Book mentioned in Chap. 10. which more especially containes the fate or destiny of the Church to the end of the World was an open book and the Son of God in the end of the Revelation Chap. 22.10 plainly prohibiteth to seale the sayings of the Prophesie of this book for the time is at hand Therefore this hence clearly follows to set a check upon our supine and overly looking on this book We would rather have it sealed and hidden though the Son of God testifies the contrary then to bestow our industry with the help of the Spirit of God to seeks out the minde of the Spirit in it Truths are like treasures got by the forest labours are most sweet and precious but with all such slowbellies that think there is a Lyon in the way I leave with them these considerations Is it the Book or Word of God or not If it is as I hereafter shall clearly evince then study it Some good will come to the soule by it No Word of God is of private interpretation or written in vain it will stand in great stead Yea in the Alpha of this book and the Omega thereof in the first and last Chapters there is a blessing stored up for them that read and they that learn the words of this Prophesie and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand Chap. 1. ver 3. and Chap. 22. ver 7. And shall there a blessing be promised to all these that read hear and keep the words of this Prophesie and he that hath promised being most faithful to perform Yea these things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flaming fire Revel 2.18 These things saith hee that is holy and true Chap 3.7 These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true wittnesse Chap. 3.14 And so closes in the last Chapter ver 6. that these sayings are faithfull and true Heaven and earth shall first pass away before one jota or tittle of the Word of God shall fall to the ground unaccomplished I say shall there a blessing be promised upon so faithful grounds and wilt thou not look after it I should judge blessedness worth the looking after seeing that hee that hath promised is most ready willing and able to perform But if it demanded what is the advantage what is this blessing that may accrue in reading hearing and keeping the words of this Prophesy I answer
his church for the service thereof God first fills them with his Spirit When John was but upon entring upon his prophetical office God ravishes him with his Spirit and fills him therewith to fit him for this office When men in the Apostles days were to be chosen but for the lowest services in the Church as for the over-sight of the poor and the like yet they must be men full of the holy Ghost and wisdom Acts 6.3 Much more then for the highest places as Prophets Pastors Teachers and Elders c. It is said Paul and Barnabas were filled with the holy Ghost and therefore to be separated unto the work Acts 11.24 and 13.2 The Offices of the churches of Christ are for those that have the Spirit of Christ in them in some fulness of it those places are not for such as are filled with the spirit of envie covetousness pride the world contention ignorance and antichristian lording such have not the spirit of Christ in them it may be well said of such that they run for profit here and the like but the Lord sent them not Jer. 14.14 and 23.21 They flatter themselves and think they are called and sent of God because God hath given them some common acquired gifts and parts yet want all the especial graces of the Spirit as meekness self-denial contempt of this world humility bowels of compassion ready to forgive sound knowledge in the truth and holiness and righteousness in their lives and conversations they that want those graces in the truth of them are neither fit for those high functions in the church nor can satisfyingly perswade themselves or others that they are called unto it Let this be as a memento to all such that climbe over the walls into those holy Functions and are well satisfied with a call from men when they were never called of God I say let all such fear and tremble lest God spew them all our together with their flocks that would have it so in his wrath for ever John was rapt in Spirit on the Lord's day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Whether this day be here called the Lord's day for the great discoveries of those visions made unto John upon this day or because it was the Lord's day for the assembling of the Saints to perform their services unto God it being the same day with that which the Apostles call the first day of the week and our christian Sabbath I shall not much contend but rather am enclined unto the latter for these two reasons First Because the great work of Christ's resurrection on that day wherein he was manifested Lord and Conquerour over hell and Satan purchased it that Title of the Lords day Secondly Because the observation of the Sabbath with all christian publique services were transferred to that day and so is called the Lord's day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or according to the Scottish dialect the Kirks day the Churches day because they held their assemblies and performed their publique services upon that day Hence note Observ That the Lord's day or the day of the great and publique assemblings of the Saints is the fittest time for God's highest discoveries of Grace and Truth John received here on this day his high irradiations of spirit and Prophesies This is God's great Market day wherein there is a constant and mutual Exchange or Bartering of heavenly and divine commodities the Saints come with the returns of their improvements of mercies in praises prayers and thanksgivings God gives out in return farther supplies of grace and greater measure of knowledge in his ways and truths Therefore sure most happy most knowing and most gracious are those Saints that are most found in this way O! this should make all of us that are not in this way to wail for it as David in his absence and exile from the church of God that being the special habitation of God's glory Psal 96.6 and to breath after it even as the Hart brayeth after the fountain streams for this is the day of the Saints assemblings wherein the Angel comes down the Angel of the New Covenant Christ in spirit to stir upon the waters of Bethesda upon the hearts and affections of all his people When John was in this rapture of spirit on the Lord's day then he heard behind him a mighty voice as it were of a Trumpet loud and terrible The Trumpet being a warlike Instrument whose sound is to prepare unto Battel and to the terror of the adversary God's publique admonitions are so unto his church it not only prepares his own unto repentance but is also of terrible signification unto all his impenitent enemies But here comes in a question fit to be discussed John had here his raptures of spirit extasies and heard a great voice as of a Trumpet The Quere will be How shall we know Divine raptures extasies or visions from diabolical For Satan is God's Ape and hath his raptures possessions strange apparitions sounds and voices also For answer first know that God's visions are given either in the sleep as unto Jacob when he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven and Angels ascending and descending in Gen. 28. but such are more properly called Divine Dreams Or secondly When the person is awake as here when Iohn was at Patmos on the Lord's day doubtless either in God's services or holy contemplations he received those visions and raptures of spirit and those extasies or raptures of spirit do cause a great alteration upon the person that receives them he is as it were taken out of himself that is in this posture and frame and therefore it is called a rapture or extasie quasi extra se raptus being in that posture not master of the faculties of his own soul which are wholly in the power and motions of the Spirit that acts them and this is common to both sorts of raptures whether from the good or evil spirit Now to discern what spirit moves in such raptures or visions observe first Whether the person passive or that is under such raptures of spirit were always or for the most part of their lives faithful witnesses unto the word of God and of Jesus Christ such have not only the promise of the holy Spirit to teach them all things 1 Iohn 2.27 but to be preserved against the evil one in their bodies souls and spirits Secondly Observe the matter of their visions in such raptures whether it be to denounce God's judgments against sinful practises or not for surely Satan will never be divided against himself if we will believe our Saviour for so his kingdom could not stand though I have read a story in some old Popish Mass-monger that the divel once in the shape of a Priest preached a very catholique sermon but being discovered by some Saint in presence it seems one of an excellent endowment in discerning spirits asked him how durst Satan to appear in that presence with so sound holy
and catholique instructions in his mouth The divel or the divelish preacher answered him that whilst he preached good and sound doctrine unto his auditors and they were not followers of it he had his end even the aggravation of their condemnation for their neglect inproficiency and contempt of such good doctrine surely how this odd designe should come into the divel 's head I know not being a liar from the beginning and the truth abideth not in him nor will confess it no further then he is compelled to do it by an over-mastering divine power this were indeed to destroy his own Kingdom and God never sends the evil spirits to be the messengers to provoke to break off from sins to live to God holiness and works of reformation his very nature is contrary to such works and therefore is the great hinderer not the promoter of them This is another mark to discern of what spirits visions are of Thirdly Another distinguishing mark is That in respect those visions and raptures of spirit carries with them a terribleness in the strange apparitions therein they leave a high and strange impression of spirit upon the parties under them and those that are from God leaves always behind them when they are passed away a holy awe and reverence of the divine Majesty and glory and a contempt of themselves and their own worthlesness Isaiah the Prophet when he saw the Lord and had discoveries of his glory he could call out Wo is me for I am undone I am a man of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa 6.5 Iob also confesseth cap. 42. 5 6. Now mine eyes seeth thee I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes The sight of divine glory and majesty doth always humble in that it brings to sight our own worthlesness even in our best attainments in respect of it which causeth a godly sorrow Now the contrary spirit brings contrary fruits and effects as pride vain-glory c. and therefore not difficult to be differenced in their operations Fourthly Visions extasies or raptures of the Divine Spirit though often they may much grieve and trouble their spirits that are under them as in Dan. 7.15 and 8.27 and take away their senses for the present and their strength and comliness and make them as it were faint dead dumb and breathless as in Daniel cap. 10. 8. 15. 17. verses and as Iohn in verse 17. at the vision of Christ he fell at his feet as dead and in the examples of Zachariah Paul c. yet after they are passed they have no impairing in the parts either of their bodies or souls but rather a greater glory put upon them as Moses whose face did shine coming from the presence and visions of God Paul grew a most eminent light and the highest of all the Apostles after he was strucken as dead with his converting vision Acts 9. Iohn here receives great and high revelations from Christ after he was stricken as dead at his feet by the glory of the vision God is no hard master none were ever losers to be his instruments in this sort for unto such he commonly adds greater additions of parts grace and glory But on the other side by the evil spirit's raptures or possessions many have not only lost the due temperature of their reason and understanding and so become altogether besotted and wittols but have also their bodies impaired by the hard service of their master Hence it is that as it is reported and commonly by experience seen of witches and such wretched creatures that are truly bewitched by the spirit of delusion and have given up themselves as servants to his will have the faculties of their souls so impaired and hurt by his possessions and daylie disturbing of them he being an Apollyon or destroyer from the beginning that being broken in their reasons they conceive in their raptures that they are transformed into strange shapes of cats dogs hares c. and in an instant to be transported and carried into far places distant and in and out to houses though the doors were shut things in themselves above the efficiency of any creature and contradictory to nature and all its works and unless persons of such belief makes two Omnipotents it can never stand Indeed the true ground hereof and of all their confessions in this kind proceeds from hence that the divel from whom they have their frequent extasies and raptures hath so befooled them in their understandings that they do verily believe those things to be really done and acted which the divel does represent unto them in their extasies and trances and so when they are out of them having lost their reasons believes and often confesses them to be of truth though many of them be impossibilities in nature without a miracle and had never a being further then in the fancies of their confused and disturbed brains This is the reward of the divel 's instruments in this kind Fifthly and lastly If all these former distinguishing marks fail for a hypocrite may go very far in complying with the signs of God's word yet herein he cannot deceive to wit in the truth of his vision or revelation in the event thereof this will be sure to try him whether his vision be from God or not Events discovers visions and distinguishes prophets Jer. 28.9 The prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the prophet shall come to pass then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him and this is according to that of Deut. 18.21 22. The question is How we shall know whether a vision be from God or not Look to the event if it comes to pass it is of God if not it is a lie Jeremiah prophesied against Jerusalem Hananiah and other false prophets the contrary Jer. 28.2 3 4. Ahab feared not to go against Ramoth Gilead whiles Zedekiah the false prophet told him Go and prosper 1 Kings 22. but when the words of Micaiah proved true to Ahab in his destruction then the false prophets were confounded and Zedekiah ran into an inner chamber to hide himself 2 Kings 22.25 Object But hath not the divel often foretold the truth of events Yes but not with that clearness as the divine Spirit does he leaves no hesitation or doubting on which side the overthrow will be The Beast together with the false Prophet and their adherents must be taken and destroyed the Saints must remain the conquerors Satan in his predictions is but as a good guesser or conjecturer at best to keep his credit good with his complices he gives out his predictions in riddles or aenigma's as of old in the Oracles at Delphos Aio te Aeacides Romanos vincere posse Or that of Croesus Croesus Halyn penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim Both which may be taken in a diverse sense which the constructors took in advantage as to themselves and so proved to both fatal in not
right hand on Iohn First upon his consternation he gives him the spirit of Prophesie elevates and excites John's spirit to see Divine mysteries And secondly gives him his Spirit of strength power and consolation which might subdue all his carnal conceits and fears and so remove all impediments whatsoever that hindered him in that work which God would have him to undertake and therefore comes in with consolation and bids John fear not for I am the first and the last From this Note That those that are strucken low and humbled by God are fittest to be risen by God for the reception of his choicest divine truths and mysteries John was strucken as dead with his glory and then heard a voice Fear not but write the things that thou shalt see to the seven Churches When the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel were fallen down on their faces then they were lifted by the Spirit and received glorious visions We must let all our own go our false confidences and carnal props as of our own parts our graces our eminency in gifts and the like if we will be fit auditors for Christ we must fall down at the feet of his Throne if we expect an answer from his Throne Moses a meek man yea the meekest of all men he received the choicest favours from God's hand for he spake to him mouth to mouth and face to face Deut. 34.10 He laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not Hence secondly Note That the hand of Christ or his Spirit is not only a most powerful but also a comforting and consolating Spirit This is the Comforter that takes off all fears from Iohn It is the Spirit of God that does convince it is the Spirit of God that converts it is the Spirit that doth inspire godly men it is the Spirit that sanctifies it is the Spirit that comforts the Spirit is the great Agent and hand of God by which God doth all his works Christ here in the likeness of the Son of man was but as a terrible apparition unto Iohn it served only to strike him dead before he laid his right hand upon him to comfort and support him so the sight or knowledge of Christ in the Gospel without the co-operation of his holy Spirit is but as a terrible sight and knowledge that makes for the greater condemnation Christ unto some may be a rock of offence and a stumbling stone whiles unto others that have his Spirit he is the rock of salvation and the corner stone which is sure and precious O lay thy right hand O Lord upon thy servant give him thy Spirit that he may know thy Will and minde in thy Word and serve thee without fear Observ 3. That Christ is full of bowels of grace and compassion towards all such as he smites and humbles The sight of Divine glory being the most effectual thing unto poor frail worthless creatures God follows it with the greatest comfort and sweetest consolations No sooner does Christ appear unto Iohn in his glory that makes him fall at his feet as dead but presently Christ lays his right hand upon him and he hears his comforting word saying Fear not Christ would not leave Iohn in that spiritless and liveless condition that the glory of the Vision had affected him with but quickly raises him and comforts him again with the most effectual and sweetest consolations Christ is our merciful high Priest and that good compassionate Samaritane who is so affected and touched with our wounds and infirmities Luk. 10.33 Heb 4.15 and that more especially with such hurts and wounds that proceeds from his own hand that he is most ready at hand with the oyl and wine the Grace of his Gospel and Blood of his Covenant to pour into our wounded souls for peace healing and consolation Job after he was stricken and humbled by the hand of God and came to a true sight of the hand that did it His captivity is turned into joy and comforts are multiplyed Job 42.5 6 c. Daniel after he was afflicted and humbled for his own sins and the sins of his forefathers cap. 4. Then the Lord sent Gabriel to comfort him and to tell him that he was a man greatly beloved ver 22. God does not throw down afflict wound or humble any of his servants to leave them so but forthwith or within a short time reaches out his right hand and lays it upon them to raise them up and to comfort them Observ 4. Another Note from this comforting word of Christ saying Fear not is That the Word of Christ being conjunct with the Hand of Christ his Spirit is the most effectual comfort to a wounded spirit The Word without the Spirit is inefficacious in its operations John had lain still as a sensless and dead person notwithstanding the word and voice of Christ if he had not lain his hand upon him also The word is of little power if the efficacy of the Spirit be not in it without this it is but a dead letter That word of Christ which is powerful and efficacious carries the Spirit with it the same word goes forth unto all and works from common gifts in some so many are called But that that makes it a distinguishing powerful word is the concomitancy of the Spirit of grace and so few are chosen When therefore we find in Scriptures such expressions as that the Word is the incorruptible seed the power of God to salvation the word of life sharper then a two-edged sword and the like These and the like phrases we must understand not as if the Word were such in it self without the Spirit but conjunctively when the Word is made the chariot of the Spirit and the Spirit is made the life and power of the Word The Word without the Spirit is only a voice void of vertue and operation and the Spirit without the medium of the Word works not ordinarily but both conjunct together makes up that true dispensation of the Gospel which is called the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 and the Grace of God that brings salvation Tit. 2.11 God is light it self and the Father of lights yet the Sun is not useless but by it he enlightens us so the Spirit of God is the Comforter and the Sanctifier but does both comfort sanctifie and perform all other his offices and works in by and through the Word O Lord sanctifie and comfort us by thy Word and Spirit for thy Word is Truth and the power of our God unto salvation Observ 5. The last Note that I shall raise from these words And he laid his right hand upon me c. shall be That Christ doth fully furnish in some good measure with the gifts and graces of his Spirit all such as he calls and employs in the great offices of his church First he lays his right hand upon John intimating his designation enstalment and confirmation in his Prophetical office for as Imposition of hands was
the solemn and the ultimate compleat act in Ordination unto all Offices in the Church so Christ here follows his own method used in his churches he lays his right hand upon him but here lies the difference men may lay their hands on that is bestow offices on men but cannot add power to execute those offices but Christ not only lays his hand on makes John a Prophet but fils him with his Spirit also Whom Christ calls unto offices in his church he lays his right hand upon them he fills them with his Spirit John before he received his confirmation in his Prophetical office and the command to write his visions and what he saw unto the churches had in the first place divine visions of Christ in the likeness of the Son of man and was struck as dead with the glory thereof whereupon Christ laid his hand of comfort upon him and he heard that rousing voice saying Fear not The case and condition of such persons that are called to the Ministerial offices in the church should in some measure run paralel with Iohn's First They ought to have clear visions of Christ sound knowledge in the mysteries of the Gospel Secondly under the apprehension of divine glory and their own corruption they ought to be humble and lie low at the feet of Christ to be patterns unto others in humility self-denial and other graces Thirdly They ought to be sensible of Christs hand upon them that is his spirit which will manifest it self in their sanctified desires willingness and readiness unto the work of the Lord. Fourthly and lastly They ought to hear that rousing word of comfort within Fear not that is the comfortable experience of the Spirit in their own souls Fear not which will raise them to a holy confidence to declare the mind of God in all things and not to fear the faces of men for the righteous are as bold as a Lion This endowment with the Spirit was that that was principally looked at in the chusing of Officers in the Acts of the Apostles yea even Officers of the lowest form Consult Acts 6.3 and 9.17.11.24 and 13.2 unless men have the Spirit of Christ in them in some fulness of it they are neither fit for those holy functions nor can satisfyingly perswade themselves or others that they are called of God unto them Vers 18. I am the first and the last and I am alive but I was dead and behold I am alive for evermore That this person that is here spoken of was Christ is clear to avoid repetitions peruse the precedent 8 and 13 verses but here lies the difficulty Object It was formerly asserted on vers 13. that this was the divine person of Christ that appeared unto Iohn in the form of a man now according to his divine nature he is impassible he did not suffer death nor was again made alive for he is life it self therefore this is only proper to his humanity and that was it to wit his humane nature that appeared unto Iohn that which was now alive and was dead To clear this I answer you must understand that is frequent in Scripture to attribute that unto one nature which is the proper attribute of the other and so as the Learned calls it communicatione Idiomatum by the communication of properties what is due unto the divine nature is communicated or attributed unto the humane and so on the contrary as to instance When we are said to be bought justified or saved by the blood of God wherein we must not be so gross to conceive that God hath blood but it is meant of that person who cleansed us by his blood was both Man and God in one person and that which is proper to the humane nature is here attributed unto the divine And so when it is said that God suffered and the Son of man created all things and 't was he that was with the Father from everlasting This is predicated of one nature which is proper to the other Consult Acts 20.28 And so in this verse though it is said that Christ in his divine person appeared unto John under the similitude of the Son of man who is alive but was dead imports only thus much That that similitude or form that appeared unto John was the very same Christ and Divine Person that was conjunct with his humanity in heaven and by a mutual and interchangeable communication and attribution of properties this divine Idea or Representation that John saw is called by the proper attribution of Christ's humanity which was pierced dead and lived again though indeed it was only the diuine person of Christ clothed with the figure and likeness of the Son of man which was dead but was now alive This is very usual in Scripture and amongst Divines wherein the properties of one nature are really attributed to the person denominated of the other nature interchangeably by reason of the unity of person consisting in both natures Secondly I answer That oft in Scripture that hath the real denomination of a thing which is only so in appearance and resemblance That apparition or counterfeit of Samuel that appeared unto Saul at the Witch of Endors is called Samuel several times in 1 Sam. 28. without any note of distinction from the true and real Prophet Samuel further then is collected from scriptural reason and the coherence of the discourse in that place Angels that appeared in the form and likeness of men to Jacob Lot c. are called men because they appeared in humane form so this divine appearance of Christ here is called the same person that was dead but is now alive because he appeared in that shape and figure of the Son of man which was dead but is now alive And behold I am alive for evermore Amen As he is the first and the last the first before all beginnings and the last to all eternity so Christ assures all his in this place he is the same for ever to them a King to rule and protect them a Mediator to intercede for them a Prophet to teach and direct them unto everlasting Amen so be it so it shall be and so it must be And he adds And I have the Keys of hell and death Christ to take off all fear from John and to assure John and all his Saints that he is most powerful and able to effect and bring to pass those visions and ptedictions that he was about to reveal unto John and by him unto his churches he now publisheth unto John that all power now is put into his hand from the Father even over hell it self for he hath despoiled it of its power Here is a transporting of the word hell before death Hell is the sting of death and therefore according to order of things the last Rev. 20.14 so death and hell were cast into the Lake of fire Take hell here for the grave or the state of the dead so Christ hath the key to open it
in part to come written without that is plain for discovery open to the view All which imports that Iohn was to write of the then present state of Affairs and of the churches which was plain and open and as of things that are and also of the future state of things which are as a book written within sealed and secret in respect of their futurity 2. Another Note hence is That God's true Prophets and faithful Ministers will commend no more to the observation of their churches as visions from God then what they have really seen and hath been discovered from God unto them They are not to come with the word of the Lord in their mouth and pretend visions from God like the false prophets in Ier. 14 whiles their mouths and hearts are full of lying vanities Iohn writes no more then what he saw to the seven churches nor discovers no more then what he saw was then present or should come to pass in after time What we haue seen and heard saith the Apostle we speak and are bold to preach and to commend unto you Christ's Ministers should press no more then what they are assured are experienced truths I doubt me every opinion concerning outward forms of Government Discipline and the like will not at last appear to be visions of God which some do now a days so hotly contend for it may be one day said unto such hot-spurs Boanerges sons of Thunder who required such things at your hands whiles you let the greatest works as of love righteousness and judgement lie prostrate at your feet as if they did not concern you Vers 20. The mysterie of the seven Stars c. Christ in the last verse to make things plain unto John and to give him a taste of the discovery of those mysteries in his book interprets the mystery of the vision of seven Stars and of the seven Candlesticks presented unto his sight in the precedent 12 and 16 verses and he calls it the mysterie of seven Stars and candlesticks because indeed unto John it was a secret and hidden thing what those figures of stars and candlesticks did mystically mean or represent and unto John it would be still a mysterie if Christ himself had not here interpreted Hence Note That this book of Revelations is made clear obvious and manifest by a diligent observation and a right applicationof the mystical characters and figures of each vision Christ himself in this verse hath made the first enterance and essay on this account He tells us that the seven Stars in his right hand and the seven golden candlesticks do mystically represent the seven Angels or Messengers of his churches and the seven candlesticks the churches themselves In the seventeenth chapter Christ is more large in interpreting the mysterie of Babylon the great the mother of harlots c. All which connotes unto us Observ That the wise observant christian may attain unto the revelation and discovery of the mysteries of this book of Prophesies by the help of the Spirit of God upon a diligent enquiry thereinto The Spirit says often in the second and third chapters Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches and in chap. 13. vers 18. Here is wisdom let him that hath wit count the number Here is the mind that hath wisdom cap. 17. v. 9. so that it is for him that hath an ear an intelligent understanding ear and wisdom a wise heart to consider that is fit and capable to open and apply aright the mysteries of this book It is a mystery therefore difficult to all but unto the spiritualized eye and unto the mind that hath wisdom but it should not therefore be accounted presumption in such to undertake this essay seeing it hath pleased Christ to give us the first fruits himself in opening the mysteries of the vision of the seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks which is as an enterance into the whole and since he hath interpreted unto us that by the seven stars are meant the seven Angels of the churches by the seven golden candlesticks the seven famous Asian churches by the woman arrayed in scarlet the mother of harlots in the seventeenth of the Revelations to be the great City that reigneth over the Kings of the earth and the Beast with seven heads and ten horns to signifie a Government Empire or Kingdom on seven Mountains where the great harlot reigneth under ten Kings why should it be thought strange rash or presumptuous to interpret the rest of the mystical figures and hyeroglyphick characters of this book according to their natural and genuine tendency and as they are opened and applyed in other prophetical writings by one and the same Spirit of Prophesie whose wisdom it was ever from the beginning to represent the risings progress and downials of the great Empires and Kingdoms of the word by such dark and mysterious figures and representations unto God's servants his Prophets And conceive one great reason of this dark and mysterious carriage of the Spirit is That the Intendments of God towards the Powers and Kingdoms of the world may be revealed and made known but unto few such as have spirits sutable and wills to conform to the will of God in all things for if those great events and revolutions of State were made vulgar and known unto all it would raise innumerable combustions in the world and great sufferings and afflictions to the children of God from those Powers that they live under for whose sakes these great concussions and subversions of States and Kingdoms do come to pass that Christ's and their Interest may be exalted at the last 2. Note That it is the Spirit of Christ in his Word that makes known and opens the secrets of all Divine mysteries unto his servants Christ discovers unto John those mysteries of stars c. It is this Spirit that searcheth into the deep things of God He shall take of mine as Christ saith John 16.15 and shall show it unto you and hence he is called the Comforter because he makes the love of the Father and the grace of Christ which was before-hand hid in the bosome and counsel of God manifest unto poor souls and so sheds abroad the love of God in their hearts by faith The discovery of Divine mysteries are too high a work for the ablest and wisest person in his natural capacity without the help of Christ's Spirit for they are spiritually not carnally to be discerned But to proceed The mysterie of the seven stars Christ interprets to be the Angels of the seven churches Stars in all prophetical writings do signifie persons of eminency and honour and in Heraldry it is accounted the most noble sort of blazoning peculiar alone to the Armory of Princes The Angels of the seven churches or rather Messengers for so the Greek word signifies because they come with the best message and news that ever came to man to wit the glad tydings of
be praised cherished and followed as having the impress of the Spirit on them Christ having given his approbation of the sufferings constancy and patience of the church of Ephesus for his names sake and taking notice thereof as their works catexochen I know thy works that is I take notice of these your graces and works of suffering patience and zeal against such workers false Teachers and false Apostles and these are your good works worthy of commendation and imitation in you Now in all our actions observe there must be many circumstantial ingredients to denominate them by the name of good works according to that old rule A Quo cui quomodo quando First They must proceed from a true Fountain God's Spirit must be the first Mover and Author of them corrupt Nature can produce nothing higher then it self Rom. 3.9 10. God can look upon none of our duties or works with an eye of complacency unless they have in the first place his stamp upon them Secondly Cui You must examine to what ends and to whom to whose name and glory they are directed if we sacrifice to our selves for our own ends and advantages our sacrifice is in vain an abomination and as the cutting off a dogs head in as much as we do it unto our selves and not unto the Lord consider Isa 1. A good action or work may lose its crown for want of a right end If we pray repent mourn for sin c. which are necessary duties yet if we only respect our selves and our own ends to wit to be freed and delivered only from wrath to come not having an eye to the sanctifying of God's name thereby we may lose much of the comfort of those duties if not the duties themselves become sin unto us for all must be done unto the glory of his Name Thirdly You must consider the Quomodo In what manner works are to be done to denominate them good they must not be done Pharisaically to be seen of men so they lose their reward The sufferings and patience of the church of Ephesus for the name of Christ were highly commendable graces in them yet if they should affect them as the popelings do to attain to themselves the glory and name of Martyrs they had their rewards The Familistical Quakers of these days do most perversly walk in the same steps highly affecting sufferings and rushing thereinto not considering the Cui nor the Quomodo neither to what end they do it nor the manner how they do it Indeed persons may suffer justly for their pertinacy and obstinacy against Magistrates but not for the name of Christ unless in his providence he calls them to it Therefore Fourthly The Quando is also to be considered the time when they are to be performed To bestow a beneficence on a rich person or one that wants it not it cannot be called an act of charity for they are able to make retribution for it but to do it towards Christ's poor afflicted members when their wants and necessities call for it then it is truly a good work Secondly To draw sufferings on ones self for ones pertinaciousness in opinions not relating as necessaries or fundamentals unto salvation and so disturbing the peace of Commonwealths in the promotion thereof this cannot be termed a suffering for Christ's name But it must be clear and real Truths that justifies a soul in his sufferings for it that the soul and conscience be kept undefiled thereby and so become a faithful witness unto Christ and the Truth when God calls him to it in clear dispensations of providence See more hereon in v. 9. of the former chapter Fifthly in the last place understand That the best and choicest of our works though they are all rightly circumstantiated as aforesaid yet strictly and simply in themselves according to the rules of Justice they are not to be called good works for so and in that sense God is only good Mark 10.18 and our best works being mingled with much weakness and imperfection in the production of them though the agency of God's Spirit is manifestly in them yet passing through corrupt conduits and the hands of sinful instruments they receive a tincture of the vessels and defilement from the sinful Agents that do produce and effect them and so singly in themselves are sinful and imperfect But as our persons are accepted in Christ our works though otherwise weak sinful and imperfect in themselves being performed in the sincerity of our souls God accepteth as good holy and perfect as being done and presented in the name of Christ and upon that altar that both sanctifies the gift and the giver In vain to seek for an acceptation of our works before our persons be in Christ then he accepts the will for the deed and our works though weak and imperfect in themselves yet in Christ and as flowing from his divine efficiency they are accepted of God as most holy good and perfect I shall in the next place consider more especially what was commendable in the church of Ephesus which was the labour and patience they under-went for Christ's sake which did manifestly appear in their zeal against evil doers and false Apostles which they could not bear From hence Note Observ That it is equally burdensome troublesome and grievous to Christ's faithful churches to have evil doers and false teachers amongst them The one doth corrupt their manners the other their judgements the one is pernicious in their examples the other in their doctrines the one destroyeth the life of godliness the other the truth of God and where the one is tolerated the other follows also for if evil workers are forborn in the churches their judgements will be soon corrupted to endeavour to uphold their more corrupt practises for such as keep not to the commands of God he gives them over judicially to embrace and follow false Teachers and to believe lies and vanities And secondly When false Teachers are tolerated quickly follows evil practises When in the time of the late Bishops in opposition to the godly it was asserted that the Law that required the observation of the Sabbath was not moral but only humane and Ecclesiastique what followed that false teaching but most profane and wicked practise of carding bowling sporting revelling drunkenness and all sort of profaness upon that day Uprightness in life and doctrine are the two pillars of a church and where one fails the other will soon fall to ground after they are as inseparable twins the corruption of the one will be the death of the other It is to be observed as soon as these primitive churches entertained false Apostles amongst them we presently hear of the obscene Sect of the Nicholaitans following the divel will not be contented to corrupt the head only but the heart also and if in the first place he corrupts the heart the evil affections will soon fume into the judgement and darken the understanding wherefore a use of caution
denied the instrumentality of his Spirit be sure that in stead of a Zion such will erect a Babel and being ignorant where the green pastures of the Gospel lies they will like idle Shepherds either starve the sheep of their flocks or at least poyson them with unwholsome herbage And these I account as sufficient rules to try and examine false Apostles and Teachers by and to find them liars Object But an Objection may here arise from him that hath the first call of abilities from God That if I count it so necessary for him to denominate him Orthodox in his call to have the additional call of the church also But then saith he to what church shall I repair to receive this call seeing there are so many that are pretenders to be the true and right churches of Christ and that the alone ordaining authority is in them and not in others This is indeed locus lubricus a slippery question and I should be loth to deal with it lest I should offend the contrary minded by ventilating my judgement herein but I profess ingeniously it was neither men nor parties self interests nor by-affections that did lead me first to this undertaking but only the general good of christians unto which the Lord moved my heart with much singleness of Spirit being clearly unbyassed and not so over-much engaged to any of the new parties of these times but that I can reserve my judgement free to close with truth wheresoever I can find it And therefore I think it not amiss but to prosecute my first intendment in the singleness of heart to endeavour to clear up truth according to the scantle of my judgement not as walking in the clouds but in plainness and perspicuity though for my reward I may have his hire that traced truth so near at the heels that had his teeth dashed out for his pains but if I be a fool herein yet being reputed a fool for the promotion of truth it will be some comfort and if I suffer loss herein yet this consideration will consolate Magnis tamen excidit Ausis First then to the business Understand that the word Church in Scripture is ordinarily taken to avoid all criticizing upon the word to be the company of the faithful gathered out of all Nations by the ministry of the Word and Spirit and this I conceive to be the genuine definition of the church which may abundantly be made good both by good authority and Scripture Now this church is either more improperly first called the invisible church or secondly more properly the visible church The invisible church comprehends only the elect and seeing their number to us are unknown therefore they are denominated invisible But secondly The visible church is either to be taken for the visible universal catholique church or secondly for a visible particular political church Now the question is concerning the church in this last notion for 't is apparent the invisible church as invisible hath not to do in visible and outward ordinances Neither secondly the visible universal church can by themselves or others their representatives convene for the institution of Officers for how can it stand with conveniency or with the least shew of reasonableness that all the churches of Christ dispersed and planted in the various and far distant corners and Ilands of the world should either by themselves or their representing Officers meet together in one catholique assembly for the disposing and conferring of all mediate calls and Offices And therefore Christ hath ordained that All wise order and gubernation in and over his mystical body the church that every part of this universal body I mean every particular christian assembly of the church catholique for every particular is part of the whole should have within their own limits and jurisdiction a full power to exercise all the offices and ordinances which Christ hath given and instituted for the good and edification of his church unto the end of the world Neither is the church to be called catholique in respect of any her Officers for we know no such office since the first Apostles that were so extraordinary gifted as to have the denomination of Catholique authority over the universal church though they may be accounted to have Jus ad rem fit to be officers of any parts of the catholique church and so to have a potential right thereunto yet actual they have not before their particular calls does invest them into Jus in re as well as their gifts and abilities does to Jus ad rem But the profession of that catholique universal faith which is one and the same in all churches over the whole world that gives denomination to the universal or catholique church therefore the results and conclusions of combined Churches Provincial or National may be only admitted as prudentially binding and obliging as Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons but not as having a divine authority stamped upon them though agreeable to the divine truth it self so that such constitutions are to be received and embraced not solely virtute authoritatis convocation is sed virtute veritatis propositae which if the same conclusions were enjoyned by a particular christian political church were to be received by all of that church not only for the truths sake therein but in submission to the divine authority of the church that commands and institutes them Such is the difference between prudential Ecclesiastique Edicts and Ecclesiastique divine Institutions the one is humane and binding only prudentially the other is divine and obligeth conscienciously These considerations being cleared I come to answer the question to what particular visible church must a candidate apply himself for a mediate authoritative call and mission to receive it rightly and according to the mind of God and satisfaction of a good Conscience I answer and take leave here first to distinguish and take notice between the bene esse and the esse of a call There may be particular churches which I cannot deny but to be truly churches of Christ but not true ones that is they may have being in Christ by faith as branches in the Vine yet mixed with much rottenness and unsoundness and as a leprous person is a man yet a sorry one so a church holding the faith which is as the soul and life thereof yet entertaining much corruption and errour may be truly called a christian church but a sad one So the Ministerial call does answer the constitution of the churches from whence they proceed It s observable that the off-springs constitution do follow the parents temperature strong issues are not to be expected of sickly parents Fortes creantur fortibus as Seneca so in politique bodies of particular churches if they are found and healthy in the faith their off springs are strong and healthy also then their officers and ordinances will be lively efficacious and virtual If ootherwise be with them they will lose much of their vigour life and vertue and
as in sickly bodies have much to do to keep life and soul together Hence I assert a person may receive a call from divers particular churches but the more sound and Orthodox the church is from whence it is derived the more orthodox and sound is the call though in a corrupted church there may be the true essentials of all offices and calls yet not so virtual and with that satisfaction of conscience as in a more sound and undefiled one But for the particular church of Rome as now constituted cannot be a perfect church to this end nay I much question whether she hath not by her abounding abominations false doctrines and idolatries lost the very essence of a church of Christ and so by consequence the essence of all church offices and ordinances also A wife and spouse when she turns a harlot she loseth the priviledges of a wife and ipso facto virtually becomes a cast-out and divorced So the church of Rome though by some too favourably acknowledged to be truly a church though not a true one having not only forsaken her first love but having committed adultery and spiritual fornication with the Kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the earth being made drunk with the wine of her fornication Rev. 17.2 now she that hath played the part of so notorious a harlot as that she is entituled in Scripture v. 5. The mother of harlots and abominations of the earth the great Whore Babylon the great c. how such a church or rather antichristian Synagogue should give an essence to christian officers and ordinances it cannot enter into my judgement or conscience to conclude though otherwise extensive enough in charity to erroneous and backsliding churches and ready to acknowledge and approve whatsoever of truth and God is in them But that which is most admirable to consider in this adulterate Romish church is that God hath so far infatuated her spiritual reason and understanding that of all those offices and officers we read in the Gospel that Christ hath instituted for the work of his Ministery and perfecting of the Saints we can hear but of one to wit Bishops and that too with most abundant Prelatical corruptions in the whole Apocryphal catalogue of the officers of the Synagogue of Rome where is it asserted in Scripture of a secondary monstrous head of the church to be a Pope Where shall you read of those Princely Cardinals in the whole Treasury of God's Word In what page of his word shall you find the Lord-like Titles of Archbishops Lord Abbots Archdeacons c Where shall we find it recorded in holy Writ of all the rest of the rabble and supernumerary officers of this harlot church as Deans Canons Prebends Surrogates Priests Abbots Abbesses Friers Nuns Doctors Proctors Sumners cum multis aliis c And again hath not this adulteress instead of those spurious Issues spewed out of her bosome the sound and orthodox offices and officers of Christ As where shall you hear in all her Egyptian or Babylonish Territory the sound of those Gospel officers as Pastors Teachers Elders Bishops rightly qualified c Therefore sure shame unto all such that will own a derivation of office and call from such a church that hath not only banished such officers out of her jurisdiction as are truly Christ's but is become her self an adulteress and the mother of harlots and also the Throne of Antichrist and yet if any for all this will endeavour to avouch their calls and missions good as unto the essentials thereof from the church of Rome they must in the first place maintain that she is truly a church of Christ as unto the essence at least and to separate and depart from such a church I know not how they can defend it without sin therefore either be so ingenious as to acknowledge to be a true essential christian church and justifie your calls therefrom and hold communion with her or else acknowledge her to be the Synagogue of Satan and of Antichrist together with all her dependencies of missions calls and ordinances which at best are but antichristian and therefore worthily to be rejected removed and loathed of all true christian hearts Besides we have a command for it Come out of her my people and I pray how shall we depart or come out of her if we communicate with her in her holy things Indeed ingenious M. Baxter affirms if the Pope be Antichrist the case is clear as the good Bishops Downam Jewel c. hath evinced See his Worcestershire agreement p. 69 and 70. Object But it may be objected How then should the first Reformers that fell off from Rome have a right call to the Ministerial offices of the church if they had it not from that church from which they departed I answer Surely they never owned their call from Rome from whence they had departed and had manifested to be the seat of Antichrist but withal assert that their call was som what extraordinary and som what ordinary God in that time of spiritual darkness moved most powerfully and vigorously on the hearts of the first Restorers as Wickliffe Husse Luther c. and gave them such a call of abilities and courage that was not ordinary in that great first undertaking and breaking forth of light Secondly He gave them the ordinary call of their respective churches to be their Pastors Teachers c. So being both abilitated and called of God and man they had a true and justifiable call to the Ministery of Christ If any one say the Ministerial office must precede in order before the Being of the church I grant that the church cannot be called or gathered without a precedent officer for How shall they hear without a Preacher Or how shall they preach unless they be sent But withal rejoyn and super-add that in the first constitution of churches extraordinary calls did supply all wants otherwise so I am of opinion it may be granted that in so miserable collapsed church estate as the Antichristian darkness in the times of the first Reformation was God did supply not with ordinary gifts only those that he employed in that work of the first Reformation and in absence of the ordinary call God gave them an additament of parts and gifts not ordinary which was to be observed in all their constant course and Ministery carried on with a Spirit of extraordinary courage and abilities Witness that saying of Luther when he was advised by some of his friends in respect of danger that he should abstain from a Diet wherein he promised to give his adversaries a conference he answered if there were as many divels at the Diet as there were tyles in the City he would not fear them but would among them But in rightly constituted churches the ordinary call is not to be neglected but to be attended to as a positive Law of God indispensable and not in the least to be slighted but where God hath dispensed
christians and churches do much abate and fail in their first zeal and love to Christ and his ways in a short progress of time after their conversion or from their first entertainment of the Truth Paul did much complain of the church of Galatia in this particular at their first entertainment of the truth they were so full of affections and zeal that they were even ready to pull out their eyes to do Paul service who was their great Apostle yet shortly after he complains of them as if they had entertained another Gospel and exclaims O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you It seems Ephesus was much faulty herein and so were divers others of the primitive churches and therefore the Apostles were very urgent and pressing in their preachings to maintain love alive and of the three eminent Gospel graces Faith Hope and Charity charity has the precedency First in regard it hath a more extensive object then the other two faith and hope respects only God and eternal glory as their object charity hath not only God for its object but the Saints also Secondly it hath the precedency in that love abideth in glory when faith and hope ceaseth Thirdly it is as the soul and life unto other graces faith it self is but as a dead carcass unless it be enlivened by love To know and entertain the Gospel and its truth is an excellent gift and quality yet if we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Receive the truth in the love thereof we may know so much as may justly condemn us for our unproficiency but not save us for want of love Indeed I could wish that this were still a paradox That the love of christians is waxed cold for it was once a hard saying to be a christian and to want love I have read that some christians of the first ages after Christ were so famous amongst their heathen adversaries for this grace of love that they were ready even to die one for another whereof their very enemies taking notice with approbation when they would commend the love of any they would say proverbially that it was like the love of christians but now O christians Quantum mut ast is ab illo It was far otherwise with you at your first coming to the truth then it is now then every one loved one the other for the truths sake At the first breaking out of light in England from under Antichristian clouds and darkness every one had his breast on fire for the promotion of truth and godliness Presbyterian Independent and Anabaptist were then all under the notion of Puritans and Non-conformists zealous for the common cause of advancement of Christ and his Gospel what is the cause that ye have now left your first love both towards God and towards one another Is God and Truth grown less lovely then at first Or were you mistaken then in the right objects of your love I rather fear of the both that the God of the world hath blinded you when ye seek to advance every one his particular interest by rearing one the other most uncharitably as bears not as christians who are meek full of bowels of compassion easily to be entreated c. Have ye not one Lord one Faith one Baptism one Spirit one Scripture one common hope of Salvation and yet look upon one the other as the Jews did on the Samaritans and that for some small differences in circumstantials of Religion It would better besuit christians to be like the good Samaritan that will be ready to pour oyl and wine into the wounds of their afflicted brethren not vinegar and gall which was the work of those that piercd Christ not of his followers and disciples Tantane Ira Fratrum Sed praestat motes componere fluctus In the next place all sorts of christians have sadly experienced the truth of this position that they have forsaken their first love Where is the love of the Presbyterian to his Geneva model as if it had been the very Elixar of all church Discipline Was he not even fire and sword against Episcopacy that stood in his way as a bar to the advancement of his Form and now Episcopacy being down and the aspect of authority benigne towards them yet how remiss and cold are they in setting up their Elders I believe they fear the Iure Divine of it and therefore will not move a foot farther without a Soveraign hand for to support it but all this shows they have much abated in their first love Next What is become of the ardent affections and frequent private and publique exercises and assemblings of the Independents Were they not the only men in the world in their first appearance that carried the face and judgement of Saints yet now how remiss and cold they are grown all see How formal or rather carnal are some of them become that were once as fire in the hearth and in the sheaf ready to warm and enflame all that came by by their ardent affections and duties Yea are not many of them that would not be satisfied otherwise but with hewen stones for the building of the Temple evidentially visible Saints for the House of the Lord now content and sit down satisfied in a parochial congregation of a mixed multitude the tenth whereof if so much be good wheat amongst the pile of chaff that answereth that part which they have for their maintenance they may account themselves most happy ◠And lastly How is the great zeal of the Anabaptists so called slaked There was a time when they would compass Sea and Land to make a proselyte at their first appearance how strict they were to Discipline and Order that they might justly be called above all others the Disciplinarians Yet now how remiss they are unto it all know by a too large toleration of errours amongst them And how flat their zeal is for the promotion of the truth all see yea strange how they are changed from their first principles who at first loved one the other as christians and for the Truths sake yet now who more worldly or haughty then they Therefore seeing ye have all come short of your duty and made a defection from your first love take the exhortation of the Spirit in the next verse Verse 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent The Spirit sets a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Memento home on the affection and zeal-fallen church of Ephesus and to re-mind her of her first state and condition when she had a greater measure of zeal and love both towards God and his Saints then now she had that that consideration might so work upon her as to make a renovation in her affections and to be-think her self of a recovery of that measure of zeal and love which once she had and bring forth such fruits
and good works as formerly she did as the true effects and issues of that love or else c. Hence Note Observ That the contemplation of grace is the only Gospel motive unto true repentance The commemoration of God's former gracious dealing unto a backslidden soul will operate very strongly if not judicially hardned to recal him unto his God The straying prodigal experienced this truth in himself Luke 15.17 when he came to himself and considered how that many hired servants in his fathers house had bread enough and yet he starving for hunger it made him to reflect upon that full and gracious condition when he was as an obedient son with his father which moved him to set on the resolution to be a Trewant no longer but to arise and go unto his Father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee If any thing will break the course of sin and recall the heart unto its first love the consideration of the former gracious dealings of God with it will effect it It will reason thus with it self was it not better with me when I kept close to God then now it is since I have broken with him Was not my soul more at peace within it self when I was more zealous of God's glory and of keeping his commands then now when I am more remiss and colder in my affections both towards God and christian duties Was not then my food more spiritual and my delights more heavenly then now when I am clogg'd with the vanities of this world and the bewitching lusts thereof Had I not then a freer access to God and of a freer spirit in my approches crying Abba Father then now having strayed from him instead thereof having a spirit of bondage and of fear In short when I kept close with God did not a face of heaven as it were appear in all my performances and relations but now having departed from him all is turned into hell and bitterness against me Surely those considerations of grace formerly received will work more upon an ingenious spirit then any thundring Legal threats whatsoever yet I add if these will not do Christ hath another course and method and can come judicially and remove his candlestick from amongst such obstinate and unrepentant sinners Observ 2. Another Note is That true Gospel repentance consists not only in changing the mind but of practise and conversation also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rescipicite to wax wiser or repent do not only consist to grow wiser in the judgement but in the choice of the practical affections also If the will be not right as to its objects as well as the judgement it will not denominate a true repentant The church of Ephesus was right as to her faith for which she suffered in patience yet her practise and affections were not streight for which she had the check and commanded to do the first works works of love works of charity works of piety which formerly she had been zealous in In true repentance there is a Terminus a quo and Terminus ad quem Turn ye turn ye every one from the abomination of his ways there is the terminus a quo but this is not all a negative righteousness will not serve turn but there must be Terminus ad quem a positive righteousness also There must be a doing of the first works of holiness and godliness towards God and of love and righteousness towards all but more especially towards the houshold of faith These are the adequate ingredients of true and Gospel repentance It is a gross deceit in many that think that they have believed sufficiently and they have repented sufficiently when they have altered their judgment or at least their weather-cock opinion from one external form unto another as when an Episcopal man is become for a Presbyterie O most kind and benigne Sun-shine quoth he but when a Presbyterian turns Independent in judgement he presently cries out that heaven is opened unto him never considering that the kingdom of heaven does consist in godliness and righteousness but in outward forms of worship which if rightly regulated somthing of each might be rightly admitted to make a just composure In the next place some think their repentance very sound when they have changed one errour for another when of an Arminian or Pelagian are become Antinomists rightly so termed denying and opposing the morality of the Law as a rule of duty obliging unto christians when of an Arrian or Antitrinitarian are become Tridheites or worshippers of three Gods c. So corrupt is the heart of man that will make his own opinion an Idol and all that looks not that way nor brings any flowers to that sacrifice and yet otherwise apparently gracious shall neither have the title of a true believer or a repentant soul amongst them Therefore with all such I would leave this Scripture as a Signet upon their finger Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works Observ 3. Another Note from the authority of the person Christ that gives this memento is That Christ's commands in his Word should be very powerful and efficacious to bring us unto repentance Shall Christ be our Anamnestes or Remembrancer and set our faults before us by his Spirit in the Word and shall not our hearts be molten for it Shall he call from heaven to us in his ever-living word of Prophesie and shall we not intend or hearken to that heavenly vision He gave but one glance on Peter reflecting on his unkindness and denial which caused Peter to turn aside and weep bitterly And shall he not only look upon us with his daylie providential acts of goodness and mercy which leadeth unto repentance but give us line upon line and precept upon precept and yet not return by repentance It is the signe of most obdurate hearts and of stiff-necked sinners But some will say We want wills to it and if Christ gave wills as well as commands we should readily follow him I answer first Where Christ lays his commands on his chosen ones he also gives there the first grace of his Spirit to enable to obey that command and we know the Spirit may be opposed and the Spirit may be quenched and is so often by our own defects and by reason of the abundancy of corruptions so that the want of wills to good things proceed from our own base and corrupt wills not for want of power from Christ who commands us to them but take notice though the operations of the Spirit may by the Elect themselves be opposed darkned and quenched partially but not totally and finally but at last will get the victory in bringing forth the work of God unto perfection Secondly It is in vain for persons in an â—nregenerate state to complain for want of wills for before Christ moves thereon by his Spirit of grace they cannot rightly will any good thing or work but the first grace being given
called christians were truly and worthily abominable This artifice and method Satan keeps still afoot to this day to vilifie Christ's Truth 's and his followers by terming their doctrines Novel and new Lights though of above 1600 years standing and of Apostolical Institution and if they prove faithful Assertors of it are presently termed factious or Schismatical for it being as they say Disturbers of the National Peace perverters of Customs Laws and Governments and forthwith branded with Anti-magistratical and Anti-Ministerial Titles as if they were against Magistracy when they say in the first place Fear God in the next Honour the King Or if they were against all Ministers because they are against the formal lazie and belly-god Priests whose very forms as carnal ordinances are perished with using and in the room thereof desires a Ministery sound able godly efficacious spiritual and more edifying in the assemblies and churches of Christ In the next place if any defection happens in the churches of Christ as if some among them turn loose Nicolaitans or the like there will not be wanting the Nominal Jews formal christians to blaspheme them as if they were all of that feather The Papists as soon as they heard of some heresies broken forth among the Protestants presently cry out and blaspheme the whole name of Protestants as if they were all of that heresie Among the old Episcopal men of our Nation it was a common saying That a Geneva Presbytery made a fair gap and was a downright way to Brownism and Anabaptism as M. Hooker's Preface to his Ecclesiastical Policy manifests And if any Non-conformist turned Anabaptist or Brownist presently they would say the Presbyters were all such And again if any Independent or Baptist now a days became a Familistical Quaker or Antiscripturist presently the Presbyters lay the same harsh judgement and contumely upon the whole churches of the same profession to render them abominable in the eyes of all as if the eleven Apostles were all Judasses because one in twelve was a Judas This Satanical method should be quite laid by by such as have truly learned Christ This was the old Jewish trick and stratagem against the primitive precious Asiatique churches of Christ who were not all Nicholaitans because some Nicolaitans were crept in among them but precious in the eye of God both for their graces and sufferings for the testimony of Jesus But for such as will blaspheme the true doctrines of Christ and the Professors thereof by means of the evil among them and to cast a reproach tribulation and affliction thereby upon them all let them too withal not be discontented to read their judgement in this verse Whiles they say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Observ 4. The last Note from these words shall be That a mis-led zeal is both dangerous and pernicious Little did the Jews think that they were fighting against the God of heaven when they were persecuting and blaspheming the Professors of Christ Nay they do it and think as Paul in his ignorance that they do God good service in it If our zeal be not commixt with sound knowledge instead of promoting the glory of God we may do the downright work of Satan These poor Jews had an indubitable aim and zeal to glorifie God for so Paul bears testimony of them Rom. 10.2 but it was exercised amiss in that it was not according unto knowledge if their judgement had been rightly informed or bore the least proportion with their zeal they would not persecute the disciples of Christ from city to city and from Town to Town much less put the Lord of life to death amongst them But the Scriptures must be fulfilled Use Christians now adays should look to it lest they go about to do the work of Satan when they blaspheme and persecute all others that are differently minded from them in some particulars They may call themselves christians but are not for it savours not of a christian spirit which is ready to cover and heal the infirmity of his christian brother not to revile or cast a rancour on it to Gangrene it which is the work of Satan Though I am not for the least toleration of evil or heresie in the church of Christ yet I would have all to take heed how they blaspheme persecute or speak evil of that way or practise which has the visible stamp of Christ upon it though at present by reason of some clouds of ignorance over them they cannot plainly discern the truth of it In this case the counsel of Gamaliel Acts 5. is very seasonable Refrain your selves from these men and let them alone for if their work be of men it will surely come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot destroy it lest ye be found even fighters against God Verse 10. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer Behold the Divel shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten days Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life I know says Christ the tribulation and affliction that will overtake thee O church of Smyrna yet fear none of those things which shall come upon thee Neither art thou to suffer only the reproach and blasphemy of the tongue but also the divel shall so far prevail against you as by his instigation that the Tyrants of the world and your malicious enemies shall so far persecute you and cast some of you into prison but comfort ye it is not for your destruction but only for the tryal of your faith and constancy to your christian profession and your tribulation is not for a little space but to continue ten days that is ten years that answers ten prophetical days or rather I understand it ten days of tribulation shall pass over you to wit the ten great primitive persecutions the first whereof began against the christians under Nero and the tenth under Dioclesian yet however this long and tedious persecution reach thee yet leave not thy constancy but be thou faithful unto thy Lord and Saviour though their persecution be so high and fiery as to make thee to taste the tortures of death for thy faith yet be thou a faithful witness to me in that death and thou shalt be crowned as a reward of thy faithfulness with the glory of eternal life Observ 1. From the words is God never lets the divel loose to raise tribulation or persecution against his churches but he gives them first a cordial a preparative and strength from himself that they may not sink under ut though they may suffer by it Before the ten great days of persecution fell on the primitive Asian churches Christ tells them Fear not those things which ye shall suffer though imprisonments and death it self attend you for it is only for your tryal and that your faith may be more apparent by your constant Martyrdom in the face
to them and as apt to hear them as they you But I confess you have those christian societies and churches among you that are as Lillies shining in graces among those Thorns and unfruitful Nations and to retard our reformation in church and ordinances till all be squared and hewn fit for this work or before the Magistrate compels all unto this work is a vain expectation seeing that there is so much of that old leven of our ancestors National Churches National Officers Birth priviledges and Ordinances on that account c. still remaining in the hearts of most amongst us that it will not only render the work of a full reformation in this generation most difficult but the attempt thereof rather dangerous and prejudicial not only to the faithful in this Land but generally to the cause of Christ in all the reformed Nations round about us Witness the intemperate zeale of many that lived in the days of the first reformation who became a reproach and a shame in their irregular attempts about this work Though they had good hearts and desired and aimed at good and just things yet they prosecuted it not justly for to denominate a good action or work The thing it self desired and attempted must not only be a good and honest thing in it self as a full reformation to God's word is but it must have other honest circumstances in it also 1 The time when must be considered in such a time when God and a clear providence calls unto it 2 The manner how must be considered in a peaceable maner it is to be endeavoured and promoted as the work of the spirit of peace not with wars tumults and rebellions against Magistrates which is as the sin of witchcraft So that the best action may lose its reward and the atempters thereof suffer justly for the unjust prosecution thereof It is a sure rule to christians that they are to do no evil that good may come thereof We are not to sin against the Laws of God nor his Ordinance of Magistracy unless cases of inevitable necessity where God will rather have mercy then Sacrifice to promote any just end or good whatsoever for we are bound to walk by the rule of God's commands and precepts not of events and providences Therefore all ye faithfull ones of this land be wise and sober in this your way of temptation stop not the current of God's reformation by your precipitate and irregular actings be you still and you shall see the salvation of our God You see the main hinderance of this full work amongst us even the old leven of false worships derived and left unto us from our ancestors God will remove this more and more by steps and degrees and that more generally and will enlarge the Tents of Jacob among us if we provoke not God by our sins towards him But to expect a total reformation never look for it until the day Star shall arise with an incomparable glory In the interim let us walk honestly and soberly like children of the Light serving and fearing God and honoring the King and then God will make them unto us Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers And most happy and blessed are the people that have their portion and lot in such a Land Object But after all this an Objection may be risen The church of Pergamus had those among them that held and maintained the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans and practised spiritual and corporal adulteries so held the church of Corinth Thyatira had the doctrines of Jezabel Galathia the Jewish doctrine of circumcision and many other great corruptions were among those primitive churches as drunkenness denying the resurrection incest eating things offered unto Idols and the obscenity of the Nicolaitans Yet these are still called the churches of Christ his seven candlesticks his faithful ones called and elect And are not then our Parochial churches our National churches as truly churches of Christ as those were And are they not as sound in doctrine and practises as those first primitive christians and churches were and so deserve the Name of churches of Christ faithful elect and called as well as they 1 I Answer We are to look unto the first institution of all churches if they are gathered and planted by the Ministry of the Gospel and Spirit they are truly churches of Christ elect and called though in process of time the envious one sowed plentifully among the good Wheat his Tares and Darnel as among those of Corinth Pergamus and others in the Primitive time yet I believe Christ had but a few things against theirs in respect what he has against ours they were but corrupt in part ours all leprous they lost but some members we the very vitals For I much question whether our National churches were of this Gospel structure as those primitive churches were at the first seeing we read in History of their civill institution and beginning being so divided or ordained by the politique Laws of the Nation Yet withall I say we had the sincere faith of Christ here preach'd amongst us presently after if not in the very Apostles days by Joseph of Arimathea as Historians testifie this good seed was almost lost among us but again revived by the providence of God in after ages but held captive and low under the Tyranny of Antichristian darkness yet doubtless God had here and elswhere his invisible church and elect ones Our succession to the Apostles is by cleaving to their doctrines and so we own a succession from them but not a visible succession of churches for so we have sayled under the Antichrists raign and tyranny over us and to plead that our parochial Societies are churches of Christ is but at best to plead that our Hundreds or Counties are churchdivisions Presbyteries or Ecclesiastique Jurisdictions also being of the same civil institution with the former But some write that Dionysius Pope of Rome was the first divider and institutor of Parishes about Anno 267. and brought into England by Honorius Bishop of Canterbury as learned Master Selden in his Book de Decimis testifies 2 I Answer If our churches were right in their first institution gathered by the word and spirit we have as really lost the very being of our churches under Antichrist's raign as the churches of Corinth Pergamus Ephesus Smyrna c. under the Saracenical tyranny and Mahometanism And therefore there is as great need to call our churches out of Babylon and to restore them from Antichristianisme as Pergamus c. of the miserable captivated Asian churches from Turcism and Mahometanism unless we grant that the whore of Babylon had the keeping and was the preserver of the Ordinances of the true Spouse and had the power of the Keys committed unto her And therefore the authority that many churches pretend unto by succession of churches is but a sorry one and at the best but Antichristian and Popish Lastly I Answer That it is not corruptions in
Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. This is the terrible and unknown name of Christ which no man knoweth but Christ himself which one day he will manifest when all his enemies are made his footstool and takes the Kingdom unto himself O let this thy Kingdom come and blessed is he that shall sit down with Christ in his Kingdome Observ 2. Christ is very zealous and intense on the punishment of delinquent Churches Christ comes all in a fiery posture against Thyatira and withall tels her ver 22 23. that for suffering Jezabel within her Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great Tribulation except they repent of their deeds And I will kill her children with death c. Christ when he whipped out of the Temple the buyers and sellers Jo 2. did it so zealously that for that very act it was formerly prophesied of him The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up How zealous was Christ in his carriage and ready to punish all those delinquent Asian churches He tels Ephesus in the first place Except she repent and recover her first love and do her first works he will come quickly and remove her candlestick out of its place To Pergamus he saith Repent or I come quickly against thee with the sword of my mouth How zealous was Christ against the zeal-fallen church of Laodicea cap. 3. 15 16. I know thou art neither hot nor cold I would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm I will spew thee out of my mouth You see Christ will not spare his delinquent churches but come quickly against them except they repent And this proceeding of Christ with his Churches answers to this apparition of his to Iohn who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and feet like burning brass cap. 1. 14 15. Vers 19. I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first All those graces here mentioned by the Spirit and found in the church of Thyatira are to be understood of true â—eal graces not only so in appearance and opinion but in truth and sincerity and therefore Christ before he fals on the charge against her first he gives an approbation and an encouragement to her graces and in effect tels her 'T is true O church of Thyatira I must acknowledg thy works of grace as thy true love towards me which hath produced and brought forth in thee the happy fruits of thy zealous service and thy faith enlivened by love together with thy constant patience under sufferings for my names sake and by this it appeareth that thou hast received the truth in the love thereof and withal I must add unto thy praise that there is a growth and improvment in those gracious works and the last to be more then the first That is Though thy first works were done out of much zeal yet the latter were done on more certain and sober grounds of knowledg and sincerer ends then the first and therefore as thou hast made an improvement of thy graces so thou art more in esteem and thy works also then at the first By the way here Observ We may Observe Though the Church of Thyatira be never so blame-worthy yet Christ will give her her due and set too his Seal of approbation to all that is sound and righteous in her It seems there were graces sufficient in Thyatira to denominate her a golden candlestick and a church of Christ notwithstanding Christ had a few things to say against her it savors not of the Dove-like spirit of Christ and love when any shall be so rigid as will not acknowledg such societies to be churches of Christ because some imperfections in them either in doctrine or manners though otherwise abounding in works of holiness as love to God and his Saints and faith towards Jesus Christ zeal towards God's worship and service and in suffering for Christ's sake Doubtless with some rigid persons in these days the churches of Pergamus and Thyatira would be unchurched and anathematized by them had they but authority over them though Christ had set his Seal upon them and marked them as golden candlesticks As in a natural body some members may be rotten and dead and yet a lively body So in those spiritual bodies politiques there may be som members rotten and dead at the root yet the body still an organical body and no great hinderance to the whole And again in a natural body there may be a catholique disease seasing upon every part and member of the body which may render it very uncapable for its seruices and yet still a lively body So it may be in a church a body politique it may be catholiquely sick and infected with some venomous disease some pestifferous doctrine or other and yet a church still though a decrepid infirm and lame one but when the disease comes to be mortal leaprous or incurable it is time then to cry out Sum impurus sum impurus Procul hinc procul ite For the words I know thy works and thy loue c. Here we see the good works that God does approve of in his people and does also render them as approved Saints both unto themselves and the whole world Christ alone is the publique approved person in the room of all his members in the sight of God as unto justification and perfect righteousness yet before these graces does appear in the Saints to evidence their calling they are but the children of wrath as well as others Election does secure our eternal estate but before the spirit of grace comes to evidence it by faith that worketh by love sin and death hath dominion over us And though we are heirs of all in God's predetermination yet differ we not at all from servants in the state of unregeneracy yea therein we are slaves and captives to sin and Satan These gracious works are called thy works though they are the gifts of God and wrought by his spirit in us yet God's goodness does call them ours because they are acted by the instrumentality of our souls as passing through our wils affections and understandings and here love or charity is put in the first place among all the graces of the Spirit Whether love in order of nature is before faith I shall not here dispute only thus much I say that all generally grant that faith's first act is an assent to the truth as unto a proposition now unless love come in to ingrediate the affection unto the truth proposed it will only be but a bare opinion and never come to a lively faith Secondly I say love is here proposed as first in order as being the most excellent Gospel grace 1 Cor. 13. throughout Now abideth faith hope and charity but the greatest of
cap. 18. The Beast and false Prophet joynt companions in evil the one upholding and confirming the other the one by an unrighteous and tyrannical Sword the other by false doctrines and miracles till at last both are caught by Christ and his Armies and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Rev. 19.20 And if common tribulations were not enough for false teachers and their folowers Christ will cast them into a bed wherein they shall roul themselves in grief cover themselvs in grief and with great tribulation and if all this will not do to bring them to repentance for their wicked deeds and practises Christ hath another bed to cast them into a bed of death and destruction in the next verse And I will kill her children with death except they repent of their deeds Repentance is the only remedy against divine judgments turning from sin and turning to God will turn God's wrath from us and his love towards us See more hereon about repentance ver 5. and 16 of this cap. Vers 23. And I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reines and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works As the true church of Christ hath her children begotten and fostered up by the immortal seed of the word so false Teachers and Heretiques have their children also begotten by the spirit of deceit and falshood and nourished by errors and wickedness So this false Nicolaitish Prophetess had her children followers of her Fornication and Idolatry In the former verse we read of her Adulteries that doth commit fornication with her and promote her doctrines of Idolatries equally with her self and that Christ would cast them together into great tribulation except they repent and here we find their Issue children of the same cursed stock which Christ will aso shew no mercy to but kill her children with death that is will sweep them away in judgment not only with a violent and precipitant deatnh â—ut will also slay them with a death eternal Hence Note Observ 1. That children that tread in the steps of their wicked parents are envolved under the same judgments with themselves If we be partakers of our Father's sins it is just that we should be partakers of their punishments If we follow the steps of our faithful parents we shall have the same reward with them of our faithfulness in the latter day God giveth to every one according to his works the child shall not dye for the sin of his parent nor shall the child be saved for the faith or obedience of his parent For the Soul that sinneth shall dye And he that believeth shall be saved But as for the little ones that are uncapable of actual sin or faith their salvation or damnation is according to his will that sheweth mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens Rom. 9. Quest. But if it be demanded How will it stand with the justice of God to cut off little children which are innocent nor ever yet done good or evil together in judgment with their parents Answ Little children that had never committed actual sin even babes new born or in the womb doubtless perished in the floud and many in Sodome and yet without impeachment of or derogation to divine Justice First God can do it out of Soveraignty and absolute dominion which he hath over his creatures He is the Potter he that made the Vessel can break it he that gave life to babes can take it away and who can say why dost thou this Secondly all Infants are defiled with original sin and as the wages of sin is death so God can justly inflict death on them both temporal and eternal as the due wages thereof together with their parents Thirdly Little children are part of their parents substance and family and God may justly punish the living parent in his child by death as well as any others of his stock and substance as by a temporal punishment Fourthly Though God may often sweep away in his temporal judgments many little innocent children as by the Sword Famine c. and yet they not perish eternally for violent or sudden death is no Argument of God's hatred to them for many precious souls expire by a more terrible and violent death then that of the Sword Pestilence or Famine Fifthly and lastly For the comfort and the better support of the hopes of faithful parents for the well being of their little innocent dying infants whether they are taken off by God either by an ordinary death or in a common judgment let them understand for their comfort that God hath made an everlasting covenant of grace and salvation with Christ for all his Elect ones Gal. 3.16 Isa 53.11 12. and though the Infants of believers die before they can receive the promise of the Spirit by faith yet the chosen ones in Christ are secure by virtue of God's eternal love towards them in Christ being chosen in him from all eternity Ephes 1.14 and let me with reverence speak it Christ may as soon perish as one of them he being the head they the members making up one mystical church Had God ever cloathed himself with flesh in the person of the Son had it not been to lay down a sufficient price and ransom to divine Justice for all his ever beloved chosen ones And where there is such a predeterminating love as God's is towards his Elect and such an inestimable and compleat price paid for them as Christ's death is how can any such possibly perish without violation and impeachment both of divine Love and divine Justice This is a surer ground of the salvation of some dying Infants of believing parents then that that some Arminianising persons of these days do make to wit the parents faith the condition of the Infant 's salvation Dying Infants with those of that perswasion I leave these few following considerations First They should do well in the first place to produce that grant which they pretend to be in the Gospel covenant that the parents faith is the condition of their Infants salvation dying so but this will be done ad Graecas Calendas it savors too much of works of Supererrogation and Popery to be true Secondly If some dying Infants of believing parents are saved on the condition of their parents faith then all are so saved that dyes so before they have forfeited their condition by their own actual transgressions and if all of them are saved dying so then happier would faithful parents be to see all their children dy whilst Infants and innocent for then they should be sure of their salvation then to see them live for some of them must become reprobate and wicked for few godly parents have ever had all godly children Abraham had Ishmael as well as Isaac Isaac had an Esau as well as a Jacob Jacob had a Reuben Simeon and Levi. brethren
received to and by souls before they can act towards God in the least acceptable services Object But then again some one may say If the small remaines of grace that were in Sardis were almost dead or ready to dy does not this argue a falling away and a possibility of the faithful to perish totally Answ Grace may be very low and yet not dead it was as sparks of fire under much ashes with Sardis and yet we know sparks are as real fire though not as fervent and virtual as a flaming one Indeed it was low with Sardis in her spiritual condition and it is most just with God when we are great sinners against him that he hides much of his gracious presence from us When by sin we quench the operations of the spirit of God God may justly quench its effects towards us but no sooner shall we follow the motions of the spirit and renew by repentance but presently God gives a more enlivening and effectual spirit into our souls and notwithstanding his former withdrawings yet it is but a Fatherly chastisement not an utter dereliction and forsaking Secondly I answer Persons that are Elect and have really tasted of the vertue of Christ's death and intercession can never utterly fall away unless they would make the power wisdome and preordination of God to be weak and fallible and the death and intercession of Christ impotent and insufficient unto that end to which it is ordained yet withal I assert though Elect persons cannot utterly fall away as being given by the Father unto Christ and none such can be cast away being helped by the mighty powâ—â— of God unto salvation yet Election of a state of persons may fail and perish As to instance in the Jewish Nation the Election thereof did obtain Rom. 11.7 to wit those that did pertain to the Election of God in that Nation did obtain mercy and reconcilliation by Christ yet at last for the sin of that Nation the Election of God did fail as respecting that State and Nation and the Ax was laid unto the root and that good Olive cut down and cast into the fire and the wild Olive or Gentile Nations graffed in upon their Stock Obstinacy in sin and unbelief was their cutting off and faith is the Gentiles incision and graffing in as the one is cut off by unbelief so the other is graffed in by faith Rom. 11.20 Those few names in Sardis that do hold fast the faith they are in a safe condition whilst all the rest of that church may perish utterly the first are marked and written in the eternal book of life of God and of the Lambe and therefore cannot perish but after God had finished his work at Sardis Thyatira Rome Corinth c. and called his Elect out of them and secured their eternal happiness he can remove the current of his Election to another people without any changeableness or shaddow of change in him and make those very people in their posterities the very seat and Sinagogue of Satan who were once his beulahs darling and beloved ones Thirdly there are guilded formal hipocritical graces and believers and such may not be only ready to dy but dead twice dead dead at the root and fit for nothing but to be plucked up and cast into the fire and therefore it is very ordinary in Scripture to say that such are fallen away perished and lost from their faith which they seemed to have all their graces are in the outward appearance only So Demas Simon Magus Judas Ananias and Saphira c. may be said to fall away from the faith because they had never the truth of real grace in them all was but seeming formal hypocritical and at best but historical which the divels may have and for all this perish everlastingly Observ 2. It is a great mercy for God to leave some remains of grace in a sinful Church and people If God had not left us a remnant we had been worse then Sodome and Gomorrah Small sparks being blown and cherished may become a flame so little grace though like a Mustard-seed may become a great Tree If God should deprive us of all the seed of grace there must needs follow a spiritual death unto our souls for when the soul of the soul is gone the soul will be soul-less and dead unto every good and spiritual worke As long as there is life in us though it is infirm and weak yet there is some hopes of recovery but being once dead there is no hopes of Redemption from the grave So as long as we have the Spirit of Christ though it works but faintly and weakly by reason of corruption in us and if it comes but to the first step and lowest degree of spiritual life to wit to be sensible of its dead and carnal condition and to complain under it there are good hopes of recovery unto such a soul and unto such I may boldly say unto its comfort Awake and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dy Observ 3. Though our graces are but weak and low and ready to dy yet it is our duty to cherish strengthen and confirm them until we bring forth the worke of Christ within our selves unto perfection We are not to contemn the day of small things for he that improves but one Talent well shall be made ruler of many Talents The Beasts in the Prophet always went forward Ezek. 1.11 but grubs that are backward are reckoned among unclean creatures Lev. 11.10 God hath promised that he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax If we cherish the work of grace in us though in never so small a measure God will add a greater and fuller supply unto us God will add unto faith vertue unto vertue patience c. and according to that word in 2 Pet. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall all come hand in hand in consort as following one the other as in a chorus or dance Doubtless it would not be labor lost for Sardis to strengthen and revive the remainders of grace that were ready to expire within her though Christ would be at hand to assist her by his grace and spirit yet he would not do it without her motion and improvment as it was once said by Austine Though God made us without us yet he would not save us without us Grace works most kindly when it meets with improving hearts that are ready to say with young Samuel Thy servant heareth Lord speak Though God hath ascertained and decreed the salvation of his Elect yet it does not exclude the duty of creatures and the work of second causes Ezek. 36.37 Jer. 29.11 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling we are to worke for life as if life were to be got by working and doubtless the crown will be the more glorious where the greater improvments of grace are made the more grace the Vessel is capable of and filled with here
the more glory it will be capable of and filled with hereafter Every Vessel shall have his fulness in glory but every one acording to its capacity as there is a glory in the Stars Moon and Sun and one differing from another in glory yet every one hath their fulness So in the Kingdom o◠glory when God giveth to every one according to his works every one shall have the reward of their works eternal happiness but some shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel all shall be shining Stars but some of a greater Magnitude then others But to proceed For I have not found thy works perfect before God It was not a legal perfection that Christ could not find in Sardis he did never seek for that absolute perfection in them that would be in vain seeing they were so full of Imperfections But yet this intimates that the faithful christians and their works may be perfect before God although they are not found perfect in Sardis yet may be found perfect in others that are more sound and godly For the clearing of which understand that sometimes in Scripture perfection is taken for sincerity and uprightness as Gen. 17.1 Walk before me be thou perfect that is upright sincere as Iob 1.1 he was a man that was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil he was a plain simple man honest at the heart in this sense the works of Sardis were not perfect before God they were not honest sincere and upright according to his will they were Hypocritical in name shew and appearance only not in truth and sincerity Secondly Perfection may be taken 1. As respecting our justification Or 2. Our sanctification The first of these in a strict sense is a compleat perfection for the Saints are compleat in Christ their head as unto justification and from all sin and the guilt thereof there is not one sin left which is not washed away by his blood in this respect they are perfect By one offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Then Secondly There is a perfection of sanctification and holiness And that is 1. In the respect of the beginnings and parts thereof 2. In respect of the prevailing degree thereof 3. In respect of the aimes thereof 4. In respect of the duration and perseverance of it 5. In respect of others First the Saints in this life have a perfect beginning of holiness as to its parts because it begins in every part they are sanctified throughout in soul body and spirit 1 Thes 5.23 though every part be not throughout sanctified by reason of the imperfection of mediums by which they are sanctified yet they are sanctified in every part throughout in understandings wills affections desires memories thoughts and hearts Secondly They have every grace in their souls not only in the truth thereof but in the prevailing degree thereof as when faith love patience humility c. overcome infidelity hatred impatience pride and other their opposite vices and evils So when this work of sanctification is begun in all parts thereof it may be said a perfect work in beginning and when it comes to the prevailing degree thereof it may be called a perfect work having prevailed against its contrary Thirdly They are likewise perfect in respect of their aims and desires God accepts the will for the deed and he that aims and strives for perfection God accepts as perfect though mixed with much imperfections Christ could not find the works of Sardis perfect in this sense neither Fourthly They are likewise perfect in respect of their duration Apostacy from the faith and truth will loose the honor of perfection and makes their crown to wither when a righteous or perfect man turneth to iniquity all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned Ezek. 18.24 Fifthly In respect of others the Saints are perfect souls compare them unto the guilded out side formal christians and they are gold and perfect in respect of them and so Christ could not find the works of Sardis perfect before him as those of Ephesus Smyrna c. Hence Note first Observ 1. The great cause that our works are not perfect but defective before God is for want of honest sincerity in them Sardis was blamed for this very thing and for want of this grace she carried a fair name that she lived in her pretended graces but she was dead there was no sincerity and truth in them If we suppose a man to worship God in all his Ordinances and avoid all outward evil yet if there be double-heartedness in his spirit all is cast off by God as abominable Sincerity is that that gives perfection to every grace it is the very truth and spirit of every grace as when we believe we must believe sincerely when we love we must love sincerely and cordially when we sorrow or repent it must be done sincerely that is truly fully without any mixture or hypocrisie for a double minded man God doth hate Sincere quasi sine cera without wax without composition and as the word here beares it in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not found thy works full there was somwhat wanting within to make them compleat and perfect without this ingredient grace of sincerity all our duties are but as sounding Brass and a tinckling Cimbal But add sincerity unto the least and most imperfect of our duties and they will become in the esteem of God most perfect God accepts a Lamb from Abel offered in sincerity rather then clouds of Incense and thousands of Sacrifices from a wicked and profain Cain Yea if it be but a widdows mite or some Goats hair coming from one that is sincere God looks upon it as a rich present and calls the presenter thereof perfect Truth of grace and sincerity is our perfection here but in the world to come we shall have perfection in the highest degree as well as the perfection of sincerity and truth of grace in this life therefore let us so walk before God as becometh perfect ones Observ 2. It is the Saints duty that they aim and press after perfection in all their graces works and duties The church of Sardis was worthily blamed for want of this perfection her works were not full and entire there was somwhat wanting and therefore blame-worthy and imperfect First They are to press after the perfection of justification by faith and evidenced by love and works and so make their election and justification sure unto their own souls and manifest it unto others also Secondly To seek after perfection in all graces and parts of christianity in souls bodies and spirits to be perfect intire wanting nothing Ja. 1.4 as ye abound in every thing in faith and utterance and knowledg and all diligence see that ye abound in this grace also to wit charity 2 Cor. 8.7 There must not one necessary grace be wanting in true Saints though
unto its operations and offices I can but judge them very immorigerous unto the sweet and easy yoak of Christ that will not endure a Pastor an Angel a Minister over them to precede in all official duties unto the flock of Christ It is unto such that the Holy Ghost hath committed the oversight of the flock and therefore all are to submit unto them as unto the Lord For though I should grant many things unto the members in common with their Officers yet not to be Officers or Pastors in common with them for there are none such as Pastors of Pastors in the Gospel of Christ but Pastors of the flock of Christ And therefore as I could never brook a lawless community or leveling in the churches of Christ all to be Rulers and Teachers and none to be taught and ruled so neither would it comport with truth according to my judgment to admit of Pastors over Pastors or one Presbitery over another no farther then prudence will lead unto but not of Divine right and equity It is evident these seven Asian churches and all the other the Primitive Apostolical ones were Pastoral Episcopal Independent ones I think it no Paradox to assert that an Episcopal church may be Independent for I take such a one to be of Divine right indeed whilst the Prelatical Episcopal church hath lost its jure divino by exalting it self beyond Christ's bounds and taking too much upon it Observ 2. That the pure undefiled Saints of Christ are persons of high esteem and account with God They are men of Name and Quality God takes notice of them as men of most excellent and eminent spirits all the rest of Sardis besides them are but such that had the name that they were living but are dead Those are they that shall walk with Christ in white for they are worthy All the rest of the world are not of the same valew with these in the sight of God for they are those for whom the world was made yea God reproves Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine Anointed Psal 105.15 They are God's Jewels his Precious ones which he makes up in safty and secâ—rity When all the world is on fire and combustion besides they are in a Land of Goshen of light peace and comfort Mal. 3.17 And the great reason of this is in that they have the image and likness of God upon them and his spirit dwelling in them and every thing does love and highly esteem its like for likness is the root of love much more God's who is love it self will highly esteem and love his Saints being the workmanship of his own hands Even in Sardis thou hast a few Names Hence Note Observ 3. That in the most corrupted Church state Christ may have some chosen and precious Saints Sardis had but the name that show as living and was dead and yet in this nominal dead formal church God had a few Names there that were precious to him The church of God did never totally fail upon the earth nor never shall though the visibility thereof may fail yet the invisible church will never fail When all flesh had corrupted its ways and wickedness of man grown great and the earth filled with violence before the Floud Gen. 6.11 12. yet then was Noah undefiled and a faithful Preacher of righteousness yea he was just and perfect in his generation and walked with God In the corrupted church state in the days of Ahab when Jezebel cut off the Prophets of the Lord and set up Idolatries in the room of them true worship of God and the godly and righteous so vexed and wasted that Elijah the Prophet thought none but himself left in Israel Even then the Lord tells him there were seven thousand which had not bowed the knee to Baal 1 Kings 1.18 In the time when Christ came in the flesh which was in an exceeding bad and corrupted church state and in a time when the Jewish church was never more corrupt then when he came yet there was then a Joseph a Mary a Zachariah and Elizabeth a Simeon and Anna and some few others that truly feared God In the darkest and deepest night of Popery there were some faithfull witnesses unto the truth The Waldenses the Abigenses Pauperes Lugdunenses c. of whom some of the Popish Writers themselves testifie that they were upright in their carriages and believed aright concerning God only they blasphemed the church of Rome So there was a Huc a Jerome of Prague a Wickliff Berengarius Peter de Bruis Luther Oecolompadius Melancthon c. in a time and state bad enough So here in England when the church was exceeding corrupt under the Prelacy yet then appeared here a Cartwright Hooker Ames Parker Bolton Robinson Reynolds Aynsworth Baynes and many other pretious Saints and faithful Witnesses unto the truths of Christ Observ 4. God accepteth the pure and undefiled as worthy of eternal life at 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God They are those that shall walk in white with Christ and inherit the Kingdom with him Quest But if it be demanded Doth not this assert a merit in workes or that purity in the life doth exact from God in the way of Justice some answerable compensation to it I answer first and assert That holiness or purity of heart is the descriptive quality of those that shall see God they and they only of Adult persons are accepted by God to that high priviledg Secondly I grant too that the eternal life of happiness is set forth and given as a prize as a reward as a crown to the conquering Saints so in this and the last chapter it is often promised unto such holy ones under such a notion of a crown and reward Thirdly but I utterly deny that it hath the least proportion to satisfie Divine Justice or merit the least in strict Justice from God towards eternal life 1. Because eternal life is the free gift of God and he giveth it to whom he pleaseth Joh 17.2 1 Joh. 5.11 2. Because Divine Justice requires exact obedience which saith that he that is guilty of the breach of one tittle of the Law is guilty of the transgression of the whole For the best Saints being so imperfect in their obedience that they come far short in obtaining any thing at the hands of God in strict Justice 3. Because our sanctification and holiness is the alone work of God's own grace and spirit and therefore improperly said to merit at his own hands A child may merit from his Father in Justice by his filial obedience the parent being under a natural Law of compensation as well as the child is under the law of obedience towards him But God our heavenly Father is tied up unto no such Laws being a free agent and giveth life to whom he pleaseth 4. And therefore Lastly Because man hath forfeited his first covenant of merit and life by righteousness in Adam and
God if we were not of his family he would leave us alone to run on in our own perverse ways until destruction and hell overwhelmed us Be zealous therefore and repent What zeal is see formerly on the fifteenth and sixteenth verses Christ in the former verse prescribed the remedy to the church of Laodicea for her disease and here he adviseth to the application of it Be zealous be fervent be hot cast away thy half mongrel Religion which is neither hot nor cold Purge out O England thy Romish leven that makes thee hang even half way between heaven and hell between Christ and Antichrist Be zealous and repent O Laodicea cast out O England thy pretended riches honours and preferments which works a conceit in thee that thou art rich whiles thou art but beggarly and naked and buy gold tryed of the fire of Christ and true honours from him and that white rayment of his righteousness and of his holy Spouse in her external offices and ordinances which will make thee truly honourable beautiful rich and comly Be zealous I say and fervent hot after those precious jewels and spiritual riches and repent of thy former follies and vain conceits and then thou wilt be wise to purpose and become as a Lilly among the Thorns and the fairest of all thy Sisters Vers 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Christ adds here another motive to the poor blinde Laodiceans to come unto him for gold for white rayment for eye-salve to supply all their wants which is drawn from his willingness and readiness to come in and converse with all such that are but willing to receive him and to close with him and therefore he tells them Behold I stand at the door and knock Christ comes as one desiring to have entrance he knocks first that they may know to whom it is that they must open Christ coming in his first grace is irresistable and as the strong man dispossesses Satan and takes possession of the house the soul by a spiritual force and over-powering hand But if the soul after faith received by its own sloth remisness or backsliding shall shut the door or entrance thereof against the kindly operations of Christ and his Spirit Christ is not obliged to break up the door of that heart again by violence as at his first coming in unto it but will come and call and knock for entrance that is will wait with mercies with providences with precepts commands with exhortations and reproofs that if possible to melt the straying and erring soul into compunction and to open again unto him that the King of glory may enter in From which posture of Christ Observe Observ That Christ uses all possible means for the reclaiming and regaining erring souls into the ways of life He comes as it were a supplicant at their doors and desires them to give entrance to him He stands and knocks he waits and waits long and calls and calls again by divers and various ways of mercies and grace he puts them in minde of his former loving kindnesses and how ready he is to help them if they will but open to him and follow his direction and hearken to his voice Somtimes he shakes his rod over them to bring them to repentance and tells them as many as he loves he rebukes and chastens somtimes he invites them by mercies and gracious considerations to return unto him then again he takes the terrors of the Law to make them see their danger if they continue obstinate unto his calls and lastly he sends his Ambassadours with precept upon precept and line upon line beseeching in Christ's name the straying souls to return unto him Christ will never be wanting to them unless they be wanting unto themselves Quest But why does not Christ himself use his force and open the door himself by his Spirits power to these poor Laodiceans Is not he the great Key-bearer of David who openeth and no man shutteth and if he would but speak the word he need not stand knocking at their doors they would fly open to him that he might enter in I answer 1. 'T is true At Christ's first entring into the soul our base natures are so resistable and abhorrent to the work of grace that he must come by force by a spiritual force with his Key of David to unlock the doors of our hearts if he will have an entrance thereinto But secondly Having first shed abroad his first grace into our hearts then he commands us to work in the power of that grace to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Having received the promises saith the Apostle clense your selves from all filthiness 2 Cor. 7.1 and Christ puts us then upon doing that we may stir up our graces improve our talents and become active growing and fruitful christians and on this account Christ here knocks at the door of the hearts of the church of Laodicea and bids her to hearken to his voice and ro open to him She had received the first grace of faith from Christ or else she could not be numbred among the seven golden candlesticks though she was a sad disorderly and rusty one yet she was a church of Christ still and therefore might very well be commanded to set her power and grace a working to open unto Christ the operations of whose Spirit she had shut out and quenched by her uneven carriage and luke-warm temper Thirdly and in the last place Know that Laodicea had not quite shut the door to Christ as unto the operation of his graces she was a church of Christ though a luke-warm one but she had shut the door and denied him passage in some of his Ordinances by which Christ usually and ordinarily enters she had shut the door unto a true spiritual Ministery Discipline orderly calls and regular dispensing of his Ordinances and instead thereof entertains a formal lazy indifferent luke-warm Ministery State-discipline Officers and calls and so all Ordinances are brought to the scantling of the will of man not of God or of Christ and so makes up a mongrel Hermaphroditical worship part of God's and part of man's which indeed is purely neither God's nor man's and therefore an abomination both to God and man She had shut this door and way of entrance against Christ as some of our churches has done this day and therefore Christ comes and knocks and how By the Ministery of his Word and faithful Witnesses And as John was sent with an Epistle in his hand to Laodicea and the rest of the delinquent Asian churches so Christ sends his faithful Teachers and Prophets with a burden in their mouths against all such false worship and doctrine to unshut the doors if it may be that the King of glory may enter in Use From the discoursed premisses it plainly appears That this Scripture
stands little in stead unto the Papists and their champion Bellarmine in his book of Grace and Free will cap. 1. to maintain from hence their Pelagian doctrine The power of mans Free-will before conversion unto Faith and amendment For Bellarmine therein triumphantly interrogates were not he foolish that would knock at his neighbours door if he knew for certain that there were no man within that could open It is true it were so but Bellarmine for all his great learning herein is much mistaken Christ here knocks at a door where there was one within that was able to open the party was only asleep he was not dead or quite departed from his house and therefore he knocks and calls unto him to awake and open unto him like the Spouse in the Canticles 5.2 She was asleep when her beloved came and knocked saying Open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my Undefiled So Christ comes to the church of Sardis vers 2. and bids her to awake and strengthen the things that remain and commands Laodicea to open unto him who had a power and ability to open though it was grown weak and remiss and therefore had need of a knocking a vigorous call to rouse her up unto her duty And therefore Bellarmine is quite mistaken when from hence he asserts That Christ bids the reprobate and unregenerate to open to him it is only a believing church a backslidden luke-warm believing church that he bids to rise up and open to him it is not one altogether dead but a sleepy careless luke-warm church that he stirs up to this duty of opening to him Secondly I answer Though it were granted Bellarmine that Christ somtimes knocks at the doors of Reprobates and unregenerate persons and calls to open to him though they neither will or can open to him yet Christ may do this as often he does without any impeachment to his wisdom he hereby shows what their duty is and requires it from them and justly he may though they are not in a possibility to perform it they having forfeited and lost their ability by their own fault not only in their common parent the first Adam but also by walking in the same steps of disobedience with him and Christ is not bound by any Law to restore it again unto them And therefore Christ in the last place does often call to open to him upon the very reprobate themselves as in a judiciary way for the aggravation of their condemnation upon their refusal according to that of John 15.22 If I had not come and spoken to them they had no sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Thus much in answer to Bellarmine and his doctrine of Free-will and the power of the meerly natural man in the works of grace and faith which are in the first place to be wrought by the Spirit to be nourished by the Spirit to be consummated and perfected by the same Spirit But to proceed If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me As if Christ had said If any man will be obedient to the word of my mouth opening the door of their hearts yeilding obedience to my many and earnest solicitations I will then come and dwell in that soul and impart my self unto him and sup with him that is communicate and have mutual fellowship with him and he with me Note hence Observ 1. That it is the Saints highest priviledge to have fellowship with Christ and he with them Where there are those heavenly intercourses there is a heaven upon earth or earth ascending into heaven and heaven coming down upon earth persons hereby do become the Temples of the holy Spirit I will come in to him saith Christ that is Christ will dwell in him spiritually really operatively by his grace and he shall dwell in me that is by faith and so such become and are made the sons of God Luke 19.5 and are made partakers of his holy nature Is it not a great shame to our christian churches to deny themselves this great priviledge in not hearkning to the voice of Christ or opening the door unto him It is true we are ready to hearken to the voice of Christ so far as stands with our interest that we may not be accounted heathens abroad in the world and indeed that is all if it will amount so far for the ordinance of preaching is no distinguishing Ordinance Go Teach all Nations and the Ordinances of Prayer and Praise are but natural duties which all persons in the world are bound unto as well as christians but where is the opening the door to Christ in his especial distinguishing Ordinances Where is the mutual feasting supping and communicating between Christ and his churches in his holy Ordinances of the Supper tasting and feeding on the several and various gifts of the Spirit of Christ in his members Where is the improving of his Discipline Where are his Gardens enclosed Are not all like a Forrest or Wilderness without any culture or hedge about them 'T is true there are some few gardens whose savoury spices and precious ointment does cast a sweet smelling savour abroad but their tender Grapes are but weak and it is to be feared if God's mercy prevent not that either the little Foxes will undermine them or the wild Boar root them out I speak it according to my judgement and conscience that our contentation and sitting satisfied under a formal and luke-warm preaching and some other natural duties only will be a means to provoke God to spew us out of his mouth for our half way Religion the one ought to be done and the other not left undone we ought to have a respect to the whole will of God not so far only as our carnal wisdom thinks sufficient and no farther It was once and not long since a just complaint That common Prayer and other church Discipline and Episcopal Ruling had thrust out of doors a true preaching and divers other holy Ordinances of Christ But observe the change now it is to be feared that preaching will silence and invalidate many other of the Ordinances of Christ and render them useless to us Therefore we are to hearken to the voice of God the whole voice of God and open to it if we expect Christ to come in and to sup with us and we with him We are first to hearken to his Word open the door to him of our hearts in the preaching thereof then we are to proceed and not sit still as those silly ones that are ever learning and never coming to the knowledge or practise of the truth we are to go on to the work of perfection that is to walk in all the Ways and Ordinances of Christ which will build up our souls unto the measure of a perfect man in Christ and make us wise indeed unto salvation Lastly I conceive there is more in these words I