who despised him and killed him and persecuted his Cause and Servants did also destroy the Jews 10. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day 10. Note The End of Christs glorious coming will be to be glorified and admired in holy Believers as having by his Merit Intercession and Spirit made them by Holiness fit for Glory and in Justice set them above their Persecutors 2. So far were the poore Christians from being then such a Glory and Admiration that they continued above two hundred years after this to be persecuted and made the scorn of the World 11. Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power 11. We pray that God will fit you by his Grace for this and make you suitable to your holy Calling and fully perform to you all the Purposes of his Love and powerfully finish your Work of Faith Note Worthiness in the Gospel-sense is that Moral Qualification by Grace to which as a Moral Condition God hath promised the Blessing 12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ 12. Note That Sanctifying Grace maketh Christians a Glory to the Name of Christ declaratively as the Cause is honoured in the Effect and they are glorified in Christ possessively as the Means in the End obtained and the Runner in the Prize and relatively as an adopted Son in a Prince that adopteth him CHAP. II. 1. NOw we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him 2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand 1 2. I vehemently beseech you that no Pretence either of Spirit Word or Apostolical Letter persuade you that Christs Coming is near at hand and so trouble you and your Faith be shaken when that 's disappointed Note further That it 's more than the Destruction of Jerusalem that is here meant For it will be the Churches gathering together to Christ at his coming 2. And it neither agreeth with the following long Persecutions of the Church by the Heathens nor with Paul's usual Pity to the Jews thus to insult in their Destruction as if it brought a Felicity to the Church like Heaven it self 3. Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God 3. It is dangerous deceit for any to persuade you that the Day of Christ is at hand for there are many things that must first come to pass There must first be a falling away of many from the Faith and that notable Man of Sin must appear who is to be destroyed 4. Who arrogantly opposeth true Christianity and exalteth himself above all c. 5 6 7. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time For the mystery of iniquity doth already work onely he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming 9. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders 10. And with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Note 1. That Forewarning should be Forearming 2. Both the rise and fall of Sin and Sinners must have their proper Seasons Gods delays are but staying till the due time 3. Removing Impediments is the Prepartory work for future events 4. This great Enemy of Christ is a Man Lawless and made up of Wickedness 5. He must be first revealed and then consumed even by his Word Spirit and Coming 5. Satan will promote this Enemy of Christ with Power Signs and lying Wonders and Deceivableness of Unrighteousness 6. Not receiving the Love of the Truth of Gospel nor heartily believing it but taking pleasure in Unrighteousness prepare Men for damning Delusions 7. God is said to send them such Delusions by penal Desertions and Permissions Readers I dare not take on me to teach you that as true which I know not my self nor yet to pretend that I know more than I do I confess that I am uncertain who it is that Paul here describeth And meerly to know what other Men say of it is no satisfaction to me especially when they so greatly differ as they do 1. Most of the Fathers and Papists think that Antichrist here described is some odious False-Christ who is yet to come before the End of the World I have much to say against that Opinion 2. Grotius thought that this Chapter speaks of the Emperour Caius Caligula chiefly and partly of Simon Magus So much may be said against that as that his Follower Dr. Hammond rejecteth it 3. Dr. Hammond thinks it speaketh onely of Simon Magus I cannot believe that 1. Because really this Simon was no such considerable formidable Person as he describeth him The few Scraps of History of Simon recited by him are very dubious No great or publick History of those Times mention him He was affrighted into Submission and Supplication to Peter Acts 8. He was not thought worthy the naming after in all the sharp Charges against Hereticks in the Epistles The Judaizers are reproved the Concision called Dogs the Troublers Paul wisheth cut off the Nicolaitans named and the Woman Jezebel and many Antichrists mentioned by John the grosser sort of Hereticks smartly described and condemned by Peter and Jude John forbids us to bid them Good-speed Paul bids Men avoid them as self-condemned The Revelation speaketh yet more fully And none of them all mention Simon as the God and Ringleader of them If the Nicolaitans and all those that the Doctor calleth Gâ—osticks were known to be the Disciples of Simon why is that concealed in such large Reproofs and why not called Simonians as well as Nicolaitans If they were not then known to be his Off-spring it seems these Heresies had other Fathers before him more noted
come till the Jews Rebellion and Revolt from the Romans provoke them to destroy them and then will the wicked Destroyer appear even the Roman Imperial Pride and Rage who exalt themselves above all Humane Power and will arrogate the Name and worship of Gods and put down Gods own instituted Worship and will have Altars and Images erected to themselves 6. What delayeth them yet you know They are killing one another for Empire at Rome and the sin of the poor Jews against Christ and his Apostles is not yet ripe for utter ruine and then next the destroyer will appear For their Self-idolizing is already at work as Caligula's attempt assureth us with Nero's Pride and Cruelty Onely the foresaid impediments at Rome c. do stop the Desolation and Abomination till it be removed and then it will invade the Holy City and Temple and Judea shall feel the Roman Pride and Idolatry Who come as from Satan with all the help that he can give them by Powerful Armies and with the Countenance of the Roman Idolaters Learning and Magicks and Lying Oracles and wonders such as Vespasian pretended to work and the Virtues that his Son Titus made ostentation of And with all the deceitful Learning and Arts which may countenance Idolatry and Wickedness and beguile Men fitted to destruction Because these poor Jews received not the Gospel in Love that they might be saved by Christ and many Christians proved Hypocrites and Formalists and Hereticks therefore God penally will let loose upon them the Learned Roman Idolaters with their Arts and Subtlety and advantages of Power to delude them to worship Idols which are Lying Vanities And so they that would not believe the Truth but had pleasure in Unrighteousness might be left to be their own destroyers by believing and practising the Idolatry and Wickedness which will damn them The Matter of all these three Expositions in it self hath a great deal of Truth that is Mahomet is an Antichrist most notorious The Pope as pretended Universal Head of the Church corrupting Christianity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and bloodily destroying Sounder Christ is one sort of Antichrist The Roman Pagan Idolaters that set up the Desolating Abomination were no less But which this Text meaneth I know not But I detest that Opinion that maketh all the Visible Church Idolatrous and Antichristian since Constantine delivered it from Pagan Persecution Sure such should not now complain of Persecution but fear Deliverance and Prosperity 13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 13. But when I speak of this pernicious Apostasie of the followers of this Man of sin and perdition it mindeth me to be thankful to God for you that from the beginning he hath chosen and marked you out for Salvation by Sanctifying you by his Spirit and giving you a found belief of that truth which these Apostates do deny Note That Gods election Connecteth the End and Means whom he chooseth to Salvation he at once chooseth to Sanctification and Confirmed Faith 14. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 14. And I am thankful that my preaching the Gospel was the means by which he called you hereto and to obtain your part with Christ in Glory 15. Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our epistle 15. Therefore stand fast and hold the same Doctrine which I have delivered to you whether by Preaching Discourse or Writing against all Innovating Seducers 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 17. Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work 16 17. And I have great incouragement to pray for you in hope that you may be comforted and established in all that is good because it is to that Christ that is our Saviour and God who is our Father and hath already shewed that he loveth us and hath by his Grace given us solid hope and the foretaste of the everlasting consolation CHAP. III. 1. FInally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you 1. And as I pray for you pray ye for us that the word of God may run abroad with speed and prosperous success and not be stopt or hindred by persecutors contradictions or Scandalous Seducers but may be honoured by free and full reception and obedience as it is with you which praise I give you to encourage you 2. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith 2. And that our Persons may be preserved and our Preaching prosper against all the endeavours of absurd and wicked Men who are our adversaries For faithless Men are every where against us 3. But the Lord is faithful who shall stablish you and keep you from evil 3. But tho Men be faithless who resist me we have a faithful God who will confirm you and keep you from Satan and from evil 4. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you that ye both do and will do the things which we command you 4. And we have good hope that you will still follow the Precepts which we give you from the Lord. 5. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ 5. To which end I pray that God would direct your Hearts to love himself and patiently to wait for Christ and these two Graces will keep you in obedience from backsliding 6. Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us 6. And this is one of the Commands which in the name of Christ I have to deliver you to preserve you from revolting viz to keep your Society clean from Scandal by avoiding the familiar company of every one professing Christianity who liveth disorderly and not according to the Law of Christ which we delivered to him Note 1. That there is a degree of avoiding Familiarity with a disorderly Christian to shame him into Repentance and to preserve our selves and the Honour of Christianity which is short of a publick Declarative Excommunication and casting out of the Church It is justly called Suspension because a Man is not to be Excommunicate till he be proved obstinately Impenitent But a Man that is guilty of a notorious scandalous sin may be suspended while he is under tryal whether he will repent or not 2. Note That this Command of withdrawing from the disorderly doth not require that we withdraw from the Church when
and followed 2. Simon was revealed before the writing of this Epistle Acts 8. and the Heresies before too common 3. There were seven or eight other Heresies described by Epiphanius as early as the Simonians and Gnosticks and as bad 4. Sure Gnosticism was not then an unrevealed Mystery if it be mentioned as oft as the Doctor thinketh 5. And through Gods Mercy the falling away first was comparatively but of few and not of so great a number of Churches or Christians as was a stop to their Expectation of the coming of Christ It is not noted in Acts 8. that the Samaritans were seduced by him after they believed If it were true that they and some at Rome were what 's that to all the Churches 6. It is above Sixteen hundred years since Simon was revealed and yet Christ is not come How then is that made an Occasion of Mens delayed Expectation 7. That Christs coming signified but the Destruction of Jerusalem is before shewed to be very improbable and fullier might be How many hot Persecutions of Christians after that do all Church-Histories describe in another manner than Simon 's Pranks And what could the Jews do through all the Empire being contemned Vagabonds but by way of Rabble tumult which the Roman Power restrained 8. And it seemeth meer violence to the Text to make him that withholdeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie not him but that thing which withholdeth even the Christians not yet separating from the Jews For 1. There was no set time of separation Paul did it long before the Apostles that conversed with them in Judea and when they did none know And Paul withdrew from them as Obstinacy gave him cause in one Place sooner than in others and never so far but that he laboured for their Conversion Nor were any such direful Persecutions an Effect of that Separation as far as just History informeth us It was the scattered Jews that were the Rudiments of most of the Christian Churches in the Empire to whom the Gentiles were added And this Doctor himself oft asserteth That Rome Alexandria Antioch and such other great Cities had two Bishops and two Churches one of the Jews and one of the Gentiles And the Christian Jews did not separate from their Countrymen of a long time That which the Apostle mentioneth the whole Catholick Church seemeth to be concerned in whereas the little Pranks of Simon Magus were like John of Leyden's and Knipperdolling's and James Naylor's which had a few contemned Followers in a few Towns a little while and then ended in Shame Like the Boys Squibs compared to a War 8. And what Mystery was there in so gross Iniquity as for Simon to call himself God the Father c. any more than to have seen Hacket or a Bedlam rave 9. And if such wonders of deceit had been wrought by him as is here mentioned as should delude those that received not the Love of the Truth to Salvation History would have fullier recorded his Miracles and this Success Even on All them that believed not the Truth but had pleasure in Unrighteousness 4. Some think that Paul here speaketh of a Seditious Ringleader of the Jews that drew them into Rebellion to their destruction and that the fear of some Roman Governour was it that for a time restrained him But this Opinion few follow 5. Lyra and some other Papists think that it was Mahomet that was this great Deceiver and the Antichrist and the Empire that withheld His Reasons are rendred in his Annotations on the Revelations and on this Text And Zanchy was much of the same mind though he thought the Pope was a kind of second Antichrist 6. But the far greatest number of Protestants think that it is the Pope that is here spoken of as the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition c. and that it is the Roman Empire that withheld his Revelation But some few think that it was the Godly Bishops of Rome that for some Ages possest that Seat and many were Martyrs that withheld this Revelation of Antichrist till they were taken away by Death For Men would not believe that the Successours of so good Men could be Antichrist Abundance of Volumes are written to prove the Pope to be the Antichrist and one of the chief by Bishop George Doâ—name For my selfe 1. I can better try him by the plain parts of Scripture than by the hard Prophecies And I can easily see many and great points in which Popery is contrary to the Word of God and I am most moved by such Moral Arguments as Dr. H. More useth in his Mystery of Iniquity And I find enough to settle me against Popery 2. But whether it be he that this Text meaneth or those applied to him in the Revelation I have not skill enough to be sure or very confident And 3. I think a Christian may be very safe without understanding these obscure Texts I long to know God and Jesus Christ better more than to know Antichrist His name is not in the Creed nor is it an Article of the ancient necessary Faith to know who he is so we know the False Doctrines and Practices which we must avoid Perhaps those that have more throughly studied these Texts may know more though I must say that their great disagreement of Opinion discourageth my hopes of full understanding them I think it my duty to confess my Ignorance and not pretend to the Knowledge which I have not They that are offended at this gap or defect in my Paraphrase may turn to many others that know more or are more confident If you say Why were these Prophecies written if not to be understood I answer To be understood by them that can and not to be Expounded by them that cannot And I add that the great Beloved Prophet Daniel thus concludeth Ch. 12.8 9. I heard but I understood not And the Angel said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end And I take it to be no excess of Humility to confess that in Expounding Prophecies I am not so wise as Daniel That Popery is a heinous corruption of Christianity I am past doubt And that it is aggravated by the profession of the Gospel and Fathering their sin on Christ But for the help of those that are more capable of arriving at certainty than I am I will distinctly tell the Reader the Paraphrase of the three most considerable sort of Expositours I. V. 3. Let no Man perswade you that Christs coming is at hand for it will not be till a great part of the Church fall away from Christianity and Mahomet that wicked Man and Seducer be revealed who is a destroyer and shall be destroyed 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself not onely above all Earthly Powers but above all sorts of Divine Worship both Heathenish and Christian So that as if he were a God he will set up his own Worship as next to the
supream onely God both in the Temple at Jerusalem and throughout all the now-Christian Eastern Empire and a great part further of the World and under the Title of God's greatest Prophet will put down God's own Institutions and Laws and Gospel and set up his own in the stead 6. What it is that stops him is a thing known to you all even the Imperial Power which as it falls he will rise For as he is to make his false Religion by a composition of Arianism Judaism and his own Inventions so the swarm of Heresies now among us Nicolaitans Ebionites Cerinthians Gnosticks c. are secretly a Mystereous Iniquity preparing for him Onely that Empire that now letteth must give place to him by diminution at his first rising and by its total-overthrow in the East at his full possession And so he shall in his time become the open Seducer and Captivater of the Church and World and must stay till Christ diminish and consume Mahometanism by his Word preached and utterly destroy it with the Glory of his more full appearance before the end 9. Even that Mâ—homets Kingdom whose coming is by Satanical Murdering Wars and deceitful pretences of Heavenly Signs and Revelations and with the unrighteous deceit of pretended opposition to Idolatry and to Christians as if they worship two or three Gods and their Laws were not so good as his And those Superficial Hypocrite-Christians that had but the Name and Form and not the hearty belief love and obedience to the Truth shall turn Mahometans and be damned II. The commonest Protestant Paraphrase is thus V. 3. Christs coming shall not be till there be a general Apostacie of the whole visible Church say some or of most or much of it say others unto Idolatrous Worship and subjection to the Papacy and that Man of sin the Pope be revealed the Active and Passive Son of Perdition the Abaddon the Head of this Apostacie given up to all sin himself and to promote it 4. Who claimeth Christs Prerogative under the name of his Universal Vicar and overthrows his Officers and Laws and sets up his own against them and overtoppeth and subjecteth all Princes and Magistrates and this in the Church of God say most or in that Idolatrous Church of his own falsely called The Church of God say others as if he were there chief Lord himself and arrogating names of Blasphemy I told you formerly of all this And now you know what hindereth his speedy arising Even the Empire as such say some including both the Pagan and Christian Or as others the Empire as Pagan only 6. For the beginnings of Antichristianity are secretly and mysteriously already working which will bring him forth in time even the Pride and Ambition of Ministers seeking Superiority and the Peoples excess of Factious Respects to some above others and falling into Sects and Heresies in following them Only the Empire that now hindreth must first be taken out of the way 8. And then shall the Pope that Man of Wickedness arise say some or be openly discovered to be Antichrist say others Whom the Lord shall consume by the Power of his Word preached by the two Witnesses and then destroy by pouring out the Vials of his Wrath upon him at his later coming to restore his Church 9. Even that Pope with his Roman Church of Papists whose coming to the Papacy is after that way of working by force and cheats and feigned Miracles which Satan teacheth and giveth them to seduce the Christian World 10. And with all the deceiving Arts of falshood by which unrighteousness is upheld and promoted to delude those that shall perish for ever Because they received not sound Doctrine when it was delivered nor held the Christian Faith in Love and in its Power but in Custom Hypocrisie and Form that it might sanctifie and save them Therefore God justly gave them up by desertions to Deceivers and Delusions to believe a lie 12. That all these Papists might be damned who believed not the Truth that is contrary to Popery but had pleasure in its unrighteous Principles and Practices and in that sensual life which is contrary to the Christianity which they profess III. The third considerable Opinion runs thus in the Paraphrase Exposition 1. Pauls words have relation both to Daniels words of Antiochus say most but of the Roman Power rather say Calvin and Brightman who largely proveth it 2. It is so far from being true that the Christians rejoiced in Christs sending the Romans to destroy Jerusalem that they greatly lamented it The Cities name was precious to them the first Christians being all Jews and the Gentiles receiving the Gospel from Jerusalem Christ wept over them when he Prophesied their ruine Paul's lamentation was great for them The ruine was dreadful 1110000 killed and 700000 carried Captive And the Apostles were all Jews and there was a common expectation among the Jews of the Messiah's glorious Kingdom at Jerusalem and they called it The Holy City and Land 3. The Abomination of desolation is by Christ himself compared to that spoken of by Daniel the Prophet which was the destroying the Holy Place and Worship and setting up Idolatry in its stead And the Authors themselves of the second Exposition as against the Pope Expound the Desolating Abomination in Matth. 24. to be the Roman Heathen Army coming to lay waste the Holy City and Temple For that Abomination of Desolation was to go before the flight of Men from Jerusalem or to concur And this Text v. 3. c. seemeth plainly to follow Christ and speak of the same that he speaketh of 4. Vespasian and his Son Titus by his Command were the Men that destroyed the Holy City Temple and Nation and the Idolatrous Heathens and their Worship there took present possession and so set up the Desolation and Abomination And his younger Son Domitian destroyed the Christians and Proclaimed himself to be God and to be worshipped with Altars and Sacrifices as God 5. This Vespatian took on him to work Miracles healing a Blind Man and many others So that some foolish Jews called him the Messiah And he and his Son Titus by their flattery and fair lives got great esteem as excellent Men And their Learned Orators c. promoted the honour of Idolatry by theirs 6. This way of Self-deifying and promoting Idolatry and Captivating the Jews and all Christians went on though not equally through all the Emperours almost till Constantine 7. The attempt of Caius Caligula told the Christians what further to expect when he Commanded Petronius to set up his Image in the Temple to be worshipped as Jupiter Nero's Cruelty prognosticated much 8. But Vespasian and Titus were stopt from the Desolation first attempted by the Life of Claudius Galba Otho Vitellius till he was made Emperour himself 9. And Christ consumed their Idolatry by his Gospel and destroyed it by Constantine These things premised their Paraphrase is v. 3. The day of the Lord will not
When man consents it is a Law accepted a gift and Testament accepted and a mutual actual Covenant the Law hath its introductive History and Doctrine its precepts prohibitions promises and threats And the Covenant hath the same parts only denominated from mutual consent But because there are Laws of more or less rigor and of various tenours it is the Law of Faith or Grace which is the Covenant Testament and Gospel which is now before us denominated from the Donative and Promissory parts though precept and threatening be included IV. It is of great importance that we err not by giving too little or too much to the sacred Scriptures from both which extreams many dangerous errours How 1. On the left hand those err that deny it to be Gods word of infallible truth intelligible and perfect as to its proper use without humane supplements written or orall Doctrinal or Canon Laws and those that deny it to have infallible ascertaining evidences of its truth These be-friend infidelity heresies prophaness Church Tyranny leaving it to Clergy-men to make us a new Faith New Sacraments and a new Religion at their Pleasure and to persecute good men that dare not renounce the Scripture sufficiency and Christs perfection by obeying their dictates and Cannons as Co-ordinate with Christs if not co-equal These make Church-concord utterly impossible while they deny the sufficiency not only of the essentials but of all the Bible to be the terms of Concord without their supplements or additions as if Christ that is the Author and finisher of our Faith and the maker of his own Church had not so much as told us what a Church or a Christian is or whom we must take for such into our love and Communion nor fixed the necessary terms of Union but left them to none knoweth whom even fallible men lyable to error and Tyranny that can but get uppermost and say then that they are the true Church and the Masters that must be obeyed while they are themselves of as many minds as they are of different Countrys interests and degrees of knowledge and sincerity 2. On the other side those overdo in ascribing to the Scripture who say that God had no Church or the Church no infallable rule of Faith and life before the writing of iâ— and who say that men converted by the Creed Catechismes preaching or tradition without knowing the Scripture can have no saving faith and that think none can be saved that doubt of any Canonical Books text or matter whether it be Gods word or that say Scripture is so perfect that there is no humane imperfection of the Pen-Men founâ— in phrase word or method and that God could not have made it better or that every Book may be known to be Canonical and every reading to be right when copies vary without Historical tradition by its own evident light and that we have no more cause to doubt of any word or matter than of the truth of the Gospel and that Reason is of small use either for the proof or exposition of the Scripture but the most illiterate if he found a Bible that he had never heard of may by its own light know its truth and sense as well as studious learned Men and that no other Books need to be readâ— and that the Scripture is a sufficient teacher of Physick Logick Grammar c. and that nothing is to be used or done in the External Forms Modes and Accidents of Gods Worship but what is particularly commanded in Scripture and that it telleth every man whether he be sincere and justified or not and not only telleth him â—ow to know it by inward evidence with many other such mistakes proceeding from mistaking the use of the Scripture by which its perfection must be measured Which all tend to confusion and at last to infidelity or doubting of the whole when these errourâ— are discerned V. And tho all the Scripture be of equal truth as it is Gods word yet many untruths are in it as uttered by Men and Devils which God truly recordeth And all parts are not of equal necessity or weight And as many err by casting off the Old Testament so others err by equalling it to us with the New It is Gods word left to acquaint us what was heretofore and to shew us how Christ was prophesied of and expected and how the Church was governed in the darker and more servile state and times But we have great cause to take heed of overvaluing its use to us lest we contradict Paul that saith that even that which was written in stone is done away and the Law Changed with the Priesthood and the old and faulty Covenant for a Better of which see the nine first Chapters to the Hebrews c. Judaizers are they that most of Pauls Epistles are writtâ—n against And as John Baptist waâ— greater than the Prophets so the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he Evâ—n the holy Patriarks and David had a far more obscure Revelation of Christ and grace and the love of God and the glory to come then we have And accordingly we should have much more faith holiness and comfort than they It is dangerous making the best of them our Examples in points of faith or duty wherein they came far short of Gospel light and grace God doth not now bear with Poligamy as lie did then nor with such divorces nor doth the Gospel countenance such streams of blood as the Israelites ordinarily shed nor such lies as David was oft guilty of nor such a strange life as Solomon lived I mean that such faults will not now consist with true grace under our fuller light and mercy as would do then to men in a darker infant Age and therefore let us take heed of presuming on their Examples Christ and his Apostles are far fitter for our imitation David fills most of his Psalms with such complaints of his Enemies and curses against them as shew a far deeper sense of the suffering of the flesh and the concerns of this life than Peter and Paul shewed who suffered far more and for a holier cause and rejoyced in tribulation and then is suitable either to the precepts or examples of Christ All was not well said and done by good men which is recited in the New Testament much less in the old So far are they mistaken that say the Jews and Gentiles were bound to believe the Apostles in no more than they proved out of the Scripture that most of the Creed was to be believed by other evidences And Christ and his Apostles gave us so full proof of the truth of the Gospel as that their attestation of the Old Testament is to us a more convincing proof of its Divine Authority than any others Therefore Christians must read and honour the Old Testament and study it but the New far more to which it is that the Heart and Life must be conformed There Heavenly glory shineth far
World and the Flesh will strive hard against both But Grace will conquer and make all a delight 3. Fewer turned Christians then than did after Christs ascension But if most on earth perish how little is the earth to the vast and glorious regions of the blessed 15. Beware of false Prophets who come to you in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles 15 16. And you must expect the temptation of Teachers falsly pretending Divine inspiration and authority they will come to you with enticing pretences as speaking for God for truth for godliness for your salvation for order peace c. but mischief and hurtfulness is in their heart and design And if you think their pretences too hard for you to confute look to the tendency and effects Thorns and thistles prick and hurt and Grapes and Figs are sweet and nourishing If their Counsel and their practice be hurtfull and destroying they are Wolves and not of God Their bloudy jaws and teeth will bewray them tho in sheeps cloathing If they would draw you to wickedness or turn you from a sober just and holy life or if instead of Love and Peace and doing good they are for hatred contention cruelty oppression unjust silencing excommunicating and persecuting by these fruits you may know them N. Tho every cruel wicked man is not a false teacher nor every man is to believed in all his Doctrines who is loving and godly Yet 1. that doctrine that tendeth to do more hurt than good is naught 2. And usually God teacheth the meek and loving and holy persons all necessary truth and forsaketh most the understanding of the wicked proud and worldly And tho not meer ornamental accomplishments yet the saving gifts of the Spirit go together that is Illumination and holy love and obedience and peace And who can be confident that Gods Spirit teacheth those men the truth above others whom he never taught the knows necessary duties of love peace justice holiness and temperance When their lives tell us that they serve the Devil its hard to believe that they are inspired of God as extraordinary men tho they may preach the truth for reputation and advantage 1. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them 17 18 19 20. As the man is so will he do Therefore by the badness of their fruit you may know that they speak not from the Spirit of God Note That Christ giveth us not this Rule to know ordinary Priests and Preachers Doctrine by For when Rulers and Countreys own sound Doctrine wicâ—ed worldly men will own it for preferment and worldly ends But it is to trie Prophets by who pretend to the Spirits inspiration He that is not ruled by the Spirit is not like to be inspired by the Spirit 2. And tho this hold true as to all wickedness yet the fruit that Christ specially meaneth is hurtfulness As the names of Wolves Thorns and Thistles shew 3. If a good man speak or do ill it is because he is not perfectly good but partly bad For instance The Papal Church pretendeth to the infallible guidance of the Spirit when Pope and Councils agree which is To Prophetical Inspiration beyond the meer improvement of theiâ— own knowledge How shall we know whether their pretence be true 1. We find that they cherish ignorance by forbidding the reading of the Scripture in a known Tongue without a License and praying in a Tongue not understood 2. We find that they divide the Christian world by laying its Unity and Peace on impossible terms even a multitude of their own Canons 3. We find they are adversaries to Catholick love by damning all the Christian world save their own Sect and keeping up their Church and Religion by bloudy Doctrines Inquisitions and Massacres 4. And that it is a worldly interest that is thus managed These being all Wolâ—ish Thorny hurtful fruits disprove their pretence to the Spirits infallibility But it being their interest to be for the Deity Christianity and Immortality of Souls in that they may own the truth And if the Reformed Churches have had some errours it is because they are but of imperfect knowledge and reformation 21. Not every one that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven 21. It is not verbal professions and pretending to the Spirit or to be Orthodox or to be better than others nor is it formal worshipping God as the Hypocrites do nor honouring me with the lips and knee alone that will save any one but it is only the holy obedient beliver that shall be saved 22. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works 23. And then I will profess to them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity 22 23. Many will then plead not only that they were Bishops or Preachers in the Church but even that they Prophesied and wrought miracles in my name to whom I will say Depart from me all you that lived wickedly whatever you said or did in my name I never owned you nor will I save you 24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock 25. And the rain descended and and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it self not for it was founded on a rock 24 25. He that heareth believeth and obeyeth that which I have now taught you is like a wise man c. Note The obedient believer is the only wise man that buildeth the hopes of his salvation on a sure foundation 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not shall be like â—ed to a foolish man who built his house on the sand 27. And the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it 26 27. Note 1. Ungodly men that hear Christs Gospel and obey it not are fools and build their hopes of Salvation as on the sands 2. All mens Religion and hopes shall be tried as a house by Storms whether it be well founded and built or not 3. Grievous will be the overthrow of the religious hopes of all hypocrites and ungodly livers 28 29. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine For he taught them
go into Gallilee and there they shall see me 10. N. 1. He would not shew himself so openly to the malicious forsaken people at Jerusalem 2. His disciples and kinsmen are called his Brethren 3. No one evangelist mentioneth the whole of this History but what one omitteth another hath of which after 11. Now when they were going Behold some of the watch came into the city and shewed to the chief priests all the things that were done 12. And when they were assembled with the Elders and had taken counsel they gave large money to the soldiers 13. Saying say ye His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept 14. And if this come to the governours ears we will perswade him and secure you 11. N. What will convince hardned forsaken men 15. So they took the money and did as they were taught And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews to this day 15. N. 1. Lying is the Devils great meanes against Faith And the love of money is the meanes that subserveth it 2. They that will not believe the truth easily believe deceiving lies 16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them 17. And when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted 17. N. Tho the evangelists say no more of Christs meeting them on this Mountain and what he there said to them and Luke and John say nothing of it and there seem a strange difference in their Narratives of Christs appearances it is but one saying what another had omitted and no one of them saying all of which after on John 20. and 21. 18. And Jesus came and spake to them saying All power is given to me in heaven and on Earth 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 18. After these and other appearings to them Jesus said As I have dyed to redeem the World in order to the ends of my undertaking the Father hath given me an Universal Propiety and Governing power by the right to Redemption as chief Administrator under him in Heaven and Earth So that henceforth all the concerns of men in this World and the other are at my dispose and all men under my Government by Right and Obligation By which authority I now commission you to go abroad the World and make all Nations to the utmost of your power my Disciples taking them into my Church by Solemn Covenant celebrated by Baptizing them into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost N. 1. Christs Right of Dominion and Empire is founded in the Fathers Covenant with him as redeemer 2. And being Vniversal Lord Redemption is so far universal as to prove these and other common effects Rom. 14.9 To this end Christ dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living 2. The word translated Teach signifieth Disciple to me or make Nations my Disciples 3. All Christians should endeavour to make Christianity the National Religion that the Kingdoms of the World may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ that is that they be Christian Kingdoms and not only Christians gathered out of Kingdoms 4. This maketh not all to be Christians who are in those Kingdoms but only such as are Discipled 5. Infants being parts of all Kingdoms this text commandeth to Disciple and Baptize them they are made Disciples by being justly dedicated to Christ by those that have true Power to dispose of them to learn of him and obey him as they grow up and are Capable As Christ was relatively Head of the Church in his Infancy when his humane nature was uncapable of the actual administration so are Infants capable of being Disciples by Covenant Dedication by those that have the dispose of them for their good and can covenant for them which men and by Relation and Obligation God had never a Church on Earth of which Infants were not Infant-members since there were Infants in the World 6. To be baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is no less than by solemn Covenant to give up ones self to God the Father as our Father reconciled by Christ our chief owner and rules and our chief Benefactor even as our God and to Christ as our Saviour and the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier And meerly to consent to learn of Christ makes none a baptizable disciple 7. Baptism is Christening and is the badge of those that must love and take each other for Christians and the terms of Church Unity till it be nullified by verbal or actual apostacy And it is Church tyranny and Schism to make Canons which shall exclude those from the Church of Christ whom he taketh in by baptism before they impenitently nullify that Covenant in whole or in some essential part viz. by proved denying essentials of Faith or forsaking some essential part of obedience 8. Baptism making us Christians is our state of Regeneration by which we may know our right to Justification and Salvation that is He that consenteth heartily and unfeignedly to the Baptismal Covenant is Regenerate and justified and shall be saved And he that doth consent but with the mouth and outward signe or leaveth out some essential part in his heart consent is regenerate only sacramentally and a visible member of the Church but is not justified nor shall be saved 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and â—o I am with you alway to the end of the World 20. And when you have Baptized them and so united them to me and my universal Church upon their understanding professed faith and repentance and dedication of their seed to me then congregate them in order under faithful Pastors And as you as general Teachers to all the Churches must deliver to them all the commands which I have committed to your trust by word and writing so these Pastors must further instruct them that they may grow up in knowledge of all these my commands And in the performance of this charge I shall by the help of my Spirit and protection be present with you and such pastors in their course to the end of this World or age till I shall come in glory to the final judgment Tho you see me not I shall be as really assisting to you and regardful of you even in all your labours and sufferings as if you saw me Note 1. This general command of teaching all Nations Christs commands includeth writing the Scriptures without which they could not teach posterity in all Nations his commands 2. It maketh them his intrusted Apostles from whose fidelity we may believingly receive his commands And therefore implyeth the promise of his Spirit to make them true and credible reporters 3. It implyeth that his commands are the universal Laws for his Catholick Church And no man or men have authority
64 65. N. What is it that the ignorant Rabble will not say and do against the best of men when men called Sacred and Great encourage them 66. And assoon as it was day the elders of the people and the chief priests and the Scribes came together and led them into their council saying 67. Art thou the Christ tell us And he said unto them If I tell you you will not believe 68. And if I also ask you you will not answer me nor let me go 66 67 68. It 's in vain to discourse with you for you are resolved what to do with me and trust to force and not to Truth 69. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God 69. I shall shortly be advanced in Heaven as Man to be Lord of all 70. Then said they all Art thou then the Son of God and he said unto them Ye say that I am 71. And they said What need we any further witness for we our selves have heard of his own mouth 70 71. N. Though Christ answered not their other Accusations he would not to save his life by silence seem to fear to own his Nature Dignity and Office else he that laid our Salvation upon our open confessing him in the face of greatest danger should have required more of us than he would do himself Paul saith With the mouth confession is made to Salvation and giveth Timothy Christ's Example who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession Rom. 10 9 10. 1 Tim. 6.13 CHAP. XXIII 1. ANd the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate 2. And they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Cesar saying That he himself is Christ a King 1 2. N. The last clause which was true gave a colour to the former which was false They thought that Pilate could not believe that he could claim a Kingdom and not be against Caesar's Reign And to this day the Devil's design is to make Princes jealous that Christ's Kingdom is against theirs when as they have all their true power from him No way seemeth so effectual to the Diabolists to get down Christ's Kingdom as to raise jealousie and enmity in Kings against it 3. And Pilate asked him saying Art thou the King of the Jews And he answered him and said Thou â—ayest it 3 I am â—o I will not deny my Office and Dignity But my Kingdom is not of this Worâ—d 4. Then said Pilate to the chief priest and to the people I find no fault in this man 4. Though he call himself a King he raiseth no War or Sedition against Caâ—sar and so the Law will not reach him 5. And they were the more fierce saying He stirreth up the people teaching throughout all Jury beginning from Galilee to this place 5. His Preaching is seditious disaffecting the people to the Government and to the publick Peace 6. When Pilate heard of Galilee he asked whether the man were a Galilean 7. And assoon as he knew that he belonged unto Herods jurisdiction he sent him to Herod who himself was also at Jerusalem at that time 8. And when Herod saw Jesus he was exceeding glad for he was desirous to see him of a long season because he had heard many things of him and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him 6 7 8. N. When the King of Glory in the form of a Servant was thus tossed in triumph and scorn from Ruler to Ruler it was to shew what we deserved and what we must expect 9. Then he questioned with him in many words but he answered him nothing 9. N. As he was not over sollicitous to refel their Accusations so he would no accuse himself nor give them matter against him out of his own mouth He would not have taken an ex Officio Oath to answer whatever Question they should ask him though they told him not what 10. And the chief priests and Scribes stood and vehemently accused him 10 N. Consecrated men are Satan's Agents with the King against Christ 11. And Herod with his men of war set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him again to Pilate 11. N. The King and his Souldiers thought they were far enough above a despised unarmed Prisoner 12. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together for before they were at enmity between themselves 12. N. They can agree in enmity and persecution of the just who cannot agree about their worldly interest 13. And Pilate when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people 14. Said unto them Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people and behold I having examined him before you have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him 15. No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done unto him 16. I will therefore chastise him and release him 17. For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast 13 14 15 16 17. His accusation of Sedition is not proved to me nor to Herod I will therefore scourge him and so release him 18. And they cryed out all at once saying Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas 18. N. A Murderer or the most deboist seems better than Christ himself to malignant Hypocrites 19. Who for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder was cast in prison 20. Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus spake again to them 21. But they cryed saying Crucify him crucify him 22. And he said unto them the third time Why what evil hath he done I have found no cause of death in him I will therefore chastise him and let him go 19 20 21 22. N. The malignant Jews are worse than the Heathens in persecuting rage 23. And they were instant with loud voices requiring that he might be crucified and the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed 24. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required 23 24. N. Wicked men dare deny God's importunity mercy but cannot deny temptations from mens importunity and worldly interest 25. And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they had desired but he delivered Jesus to their will 25. N. 1. It is the greatest means of bad mens ruine to let them have their wills 2. God in flesh was not innocent enough in the eyes of wicked men to scape condemnation 26. And as they led him away they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming out of the countrey and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus 27. And there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him 28. But Jesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem
in Religion instead of great and needful things 21. Jesus saith unto her Woman believe me the hour cometh vvhen ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem Worship the Father 21. Alass poor woman hast thou not greater matter than Ceremony even the Place of Worship to mind Believe me that time is hard at hand when Jerusalem shall be destroyed and you scattered and a better way of Worship setled so that you shall no more keep up your Ceremonious Worship either at Shiloh or Jerusalem 22. Ye vvorship ye knovv not vvhat vve knovv vvhat vve Worship For Salvation is of the Jevvs 22. You worship ignorantly and corruptly you know not what ever since the Captivity of the Ten Tribes and you strive about the Place and Ceremonies when you have more need to learn who he is that you must worship It is of the Tribe of Judah that the Saviour cometh who must teach you how to worship God and this the Jews do rightly believe and own none in Worship but the true God 23. But the hour cometh and novv is vvhen the true Worshippers shall vvorship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him 23. The time is now at hand yea come when true Worshippers shall not take up with shadows nor worship God by Mosaical Ceremonies or Samaritane Traditions but with that spiritual Worship which Types and Ceremonies did signifie even from the Spirit of God within them as their Principle and according to the spiritual Law or Word as their Rule and not with bodily Exercise that profiteth nothing 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth 24. Acceptable Worship must be suited to the God you worship and therefore they that worship him must worship him spiritually and not by Jewish Ceremony because he is a Spirit N. Though Spirit signifie a Nature more excellent than Body yet that and all human Words are too low to speak the Essence of God any otherwise than Analogically or Metaphorically for God is above all our formal Conceptions or Expressions but created Spirits being the highest created Beings known to us and our souls of that nature they are the clearest Glass in which we can know God and though the word Spirit first signifie created Spirit it doth transcendently eminently signifie the Infinite Father of Spirits and we can say nothing higher of Gods Essence than that he is this Infinite perfect transcendent Spirit what our best Conceptions of a Spirit are I have opened in Methodo Theologiae c. 25. The Woman saith unto him I know that Messias cometh who is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things 25. N. Even the Samaritans expected the Messiah But with misconceivings of him 26. Jesus saith unto her I that speak to thee am he 26. N. Why did Christ tell that to this woman which he forbad others to tell abroad Ans He knew where and when it was seasonable and would do more good than harm 27. And upon this came his Disciples and marvelled that he talked with the Woman yet no man said what seekest thou or why talkest thou with her 27. Tho they presumed not to ask him why yet they thought it strange that he should talk so long with one woman 28. The Woman then left her Water-pot and went away into the City and saith to the Men 29. Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ 28. Telling her her secrets perswaded her to believe him saying I am he 30. Then they went out of the City and came unto him 31. In the mean time his Disciples prayed him saying Master eat 32. But he saith to them I have meat to eat that ye know not of 33. Therefore said the Disciples one to another hath any man brought him ought to eat 34. Jesus saith to them my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work 30. c. N. The converting of one Soul was more pleasing to Christ than his natural food and so must it be to us He that loveth God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Church must rejoyce when there is one more converted to please and worship God to honour Christ and his Spirit to encrease the Church He that loveth his Country must rejoyce that one more is made a blessing to it when the wicked are it's enemies He that loveth Souls will rejoyce in that Grace which is better to them than all riches He that loveth Gods Word will rejoyce in it's success He that loveth Heaven will be glad that there is one more to possess it He that loveth himself aright will be glad that there is one more made like him to love him and pray for him And he that hateth Sin and Satan will be glad that there is one less to serve him 35. Say not ye There are four months and then cometh harvest Behold I say unto you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest 35. You rejoyce that within four months it will be harvest And shall not I rejoyce to see the harvest of my husbandry even at hand in the conversion of many Souls to God 36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoyce together 36. And as I sow the seed so you that I shall senâ— out as Apostles shall see and reap more plenteous fruit hereafter and shall for your labour under me be well rewarded that I that have sowed and you that reap may rejoyce together in the success 37. And herein is that saying true One soweth and another reapeth 38. I have sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour Other men laboured and ye are entred on their labours 38. The Prophets and John and I after all have sowed the seed and been at the costliest labour and yet it is you that must see the success in gathering the universal Church when I that labour'd and suffer'd am gone 39. And many of the Samaritans of that City believed on him for the saying of the woman which testifyed He told me all that ever I did 39. N. That to believe in Christ by the means of mens credible testimony of his Words and Miracles is not as many falsly say to resolve our faith into the credit of man and to make it a meer humane Faith They that believe Apostles who said they saw Christs Miracles Resurrection and Ascention believe by a divine Faith on the same evidence that the Apostles were convinced by but not conveyed by the same means what they received by their eyes and ears immediately we receive mediately by their report living at a distance So that their testimony is not believed instead of Christs nor instead of evidence of his truth but as the conveyance of this
was not there neither his Disciples they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus 22 23 24. How earnest did these persons seem in following Christ 25. And when they had found him on the other side of the Seas they said to him Rabbi when camest thou hither 26. Jesus answered and said to them verily verily I say unto you Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled 25. N. It seems these were a very poor sort of people that would follow Christ for Barley Bread 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of Man shall give you for him hath God the Father sealed 27. Labour first and chiefly for the food which endureth to everlasting Life even the Spirit of Holiness renewing you by the Gospel and an union with me who am the Bread of Life which I will give unto all true Believers to which use God hath sent and sealed me by fulness of the Spirit and Power But trust God for bodily food while you labour for it but in the second place N. The words have a comparative signification Labour not is Labour lesâ— or but subordinately 28. Then said they to him what shall we do that we may work the works of God 28. What is that Labour for the everlasting Life which God requireth of us What must we do for it 29. Jesus answered and said unto them This is the work of God that ye believe on him which he hath sent 29. This is your first and great work which God requireth that you believe on me whom God hath sent and take me for your Teacher and Saviour that I may guide and sanctifie you and teach you your further duty in order to fit you for everlasting Life 30. They said therefore to him What sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe in thee what dost thou work 31. Our Fathers did eat Manna in the desart as it is written He gave them Bread from heaven to eat 30. If thou wouldst have us believe in thee convince us yet by further Miracles Canst thou procure us Bread from Heaven as Moses did N. 1. Strange that they should call for more Miracles when they newly came from seeing one 2. It was a feeding Miracle that these expected which might gratifie their flesh as well as their faith 32. Then Jesus said to them verily verily I say to you Moses gave not that bread from heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven 33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the World 32. It was not Moses that gave you the true Bread from Heaven Manna and other Types did but fore-signifie me who am the true Bread which my father giveth you from Heaven whence I come called Bread because I give life to the World 34. Then said they to him Lord evermore give us this bread 34. N. Their carnal minds had carnal desires and understood Christ accordingly 35. And Jesus said to them I am the bread of Life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst 35. As your bodies live by food so he that cometh to me by true Faith and is united to me shall have by me true spiritual everlasting Life and shall have all his necessities of hunger and thirst satisfied 36. But I say to you that ye also have seen me and believe not 36. But I know your hearts that many of you that have seen my Miracles and thus crowd after me for the strangenesâ— and novelty yet are no true believers 37. All that the Father gâ—veth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out 37. All that the Father hath given to me as fully resolved to save them shall believe and take me for their Saviour I come not into the World upon an uncertainty of success I have undertaken the effectual saving of those that are given me by the Father to be certainly saved All those will come to me and I will refuse none that by obedient trust doth come to me 38. For I come down from heaven not to do my own Will but the Will of him that sent me 38. For I come not at random or on any selfish temporal design but to fulfill my Fathers will who will give the Kingdom to his selected Flocks N. It is a troubling controversie how Christ is said to come down from Heaven His humane Nature was never there and his Divine removeth not thence and is every where To pass by their opinion who say it is a middle super-angelical first created Nature between the Divine and Humane that came down I answer that the Divine is said to come down not by a substantial removal or change of place but by a transcendent influx and operation on the Humane Nature of Christ Men may talk in the dark how they please but it 's certain that that Divine Essence is every where without inequality or existence and is no more in Christs Humane Nature as to essential presence than he is every where But as he is said to be in Heaven because there he operateth by glorious refulgency and love to the glorified so he is more eminently and peculiarly united to the Manhood of Christ for and by a more eminent and peculiar operation on the Humane Nature As the Sun is more in the Eye than in the Hand or Foot more in the Plants that it quickneth than in the Stones so is the Godhead in the Humane Nature of Christ And so the Godhead came down from Heaven as the Sun doth when it shineth in at our Windows or on a burning glass or rather as it animateth Plants 39. And this is the Fathers will who hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day 39. And it is the special Commission which I have from my Father that I should effectually save all these his chosen and raise them up to life everlasting 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that every one who seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day 40. And it is my Fathers will that every one by notice of the evidence of my truth truly believeth on me shall have everlasting Life to which first here begun I will raise him at the last 41. The Jews then murmured at him because he said I am the bread which came down from heaven 42. And they said Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose Father and Mother we know How is it then that he saith I come down from heaven 41. N. This difficulty stalled their Faith not knowing the mystery of Christs Person and Incarnation 43. Jesus therefore answered
my chosen flock nor qualified to believe Were you my sheep you would understand believe and obey my Word 28. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand 28. To my true flock I will give eternal Life and they shall never be condemned lost or forsaken Nor shall any power prevail against me who will save them 29. My Father which gave them me is greater then all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand 30. I and my Father are one 29 30. God my Father who gave them me to be saved is Almighty and none can overcome him and take them from his saving love And He and I being one they are safe with me 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him 32. Jesus answered them Many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do ye stone me 33. The Jews answered him saying For a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thy self God 31. N. No good work could secure the Lord himself from the rage of ignorant men nor from their accusation 34. Jesus answered them Is it not written in your Law I said Ye are gods 35. If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken 36. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God 34 35 36. If they may be called Gods that are but Magistrates and men in dignity and power how can you say It is blasphemy for me to say I am the Son of God who am by the Father sanctified to the office of Mediator and sent into the World thereunto N. That Christ here by his pleading for his right to his Title only from his office doth not deny his Title as from eternal generation but only tell them what they were then fit to hear 37. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not 38. But if I do though ye believe not me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him 37. If I do not such works as certainly signifie Gods attestation believe me not But if I do believe what those works do surely evidence and then you will confess that God is in me and worketh them by me and that I am in him and approved and acted by him 39. Therefore they sought again to take him but he escaped out of their hands 40. And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized and there he abode 41. And many resorted unto him and said John did no miracle but all things that John spake of this man were true 42. And many believed on him there 39. He avoided their persecution by flight And in the Wilderness where John first baptized many believed on him seeing all fulfilled by him which John had foretold of him CHAP. XI NOW a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha 2. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick 3. Therefore his sisters sent unto him saying Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick N. 1. It 's a doubt whether Bethany be the name of a Town or only of a tract of ground where the Town was 2. It is like that this Mary is not the same with Mary Magdalen 3. It is a word of comfort in all troubles if we can say it is on one that Christ loveth 4. When Jesus heard that he said this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby 4. Gods end in this sickness of Lazarus is not to remove him by death from this world but to prepare an advantage for the glorifying of himself in me 5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus 6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was 7. Then after that saith he to his disciples Let us go into Judea again 5. His love to them inclined him to help them yet he moved not that his advantage might be the greater to shew his Love and Power by raising the dead N. We must not misinterpret Gods delays 8. His disciples say unto him Master the Jews of late have sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again 9. Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours in the day If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world 10. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him 9. As a man that walketh in the twelve hours of day light is kept from stumbling by that light So while my day of work continueth I am safe 11. These things said he and after that he saith unto them Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of his sleep 12. Then said his disciples Lord if he sleep he shall do well 13. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep 14. Then said Jesus unto them plainly Lazarus is dead 15. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe nevertheless let us go unto him 15. To raise him will more convince you than it would have done meerly to cure him 16. Then said Thomas which is called Didymus unto his fellow-disciples Let us also go that we may die with him 16. Whether Thomas spake this in meer passion Let us die with grief or as expecting Christs death and theirs by the persecuting Jews is to us uncertain 17. Then when Jesus came he found that he had lain in the grave four days already 18. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs off 19. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother 18. N. A furlong is six hundred foot 20. Then Martha assoon as she heard that Jesus was coming went and met him but Mary sat still in the house 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died 22. But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee 21 22. N. She believed that Christ could have prevented his death and could yet raise him 2. And that it must be by prayer to God 23. Jesus saith unto her Thy brother shall rise again 24. Martha saith unto him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day 23. N. The Resurrection of the Body was then believed as an undoubted truth 25. Jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life
had not come with sufficient evidence it had not been their sin not to believe me to be the Christ But now their unbelief and Persecution hath no pretence 23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also 23. The hatred that is against me is consequently against God my Father it being his Word Works and Witness which they reject 24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father 24. They had not been bound to believe me to be the Christ if I had not shewed Gods Attestation such works as no man else can do or if any one had done the like Note Yet it is a false inference of the Infidels that therefore none are bound to take him for the Christ where he never came and did such works For History may as infallibly transmit the notice of his Works as Sight and Hearing could receive them 25. But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law They hated me without a cause 25. But the Word written in Psal 3.19 which in a large sense is part of their Law is thus fulfilled 26. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which procedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me 26. But when the Holy Ghost my Advocate and your Comforter is sent down upon you whom after my Resurrection I will send to you for his Eminent signal Gifts from the Father even that Holy Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall be my great Prevailing Witness both to you and by you to the World and shall cause belief 27. And ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning 27. And you on whom this Spirit shall come down shall by his operation be made my effectual Witnesses of what I have said and done and suffered because you have been with me as Eye and Ear Witnesses from the beginning of my publick Ministration CHAP. XVI THese things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended 2. They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service 1 2. I foretell you what you must expect that when it cometh you may not be scandalized and turned back They shall cast you out by Excommunication of their Sacred and Civil Assemblys as a reproach yea they that kill you shall do it as an acceptable offering or service to God Note How little do the Religious pretenses of Persecutors deserve regard 3. And these things wilâ— they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me 3. Did they know the Father and me they would do otherwise wilful Ignorance is the cause 4. But these things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them And these things I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you 4. Remember I foretold you all this which I said not from the beginning because I was with you to incourage you and your time of trial was not come and at first you could not so well bear it 5. But now I go my way to him that sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest thou 6. But because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your heart 5 6. But now I am going to him that sent me and though it be on your business and for your interest you ask me not whither and for what I go But sorrow oppresseth you to hear of my departure 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you 7. Believe it my departure is for your benefit For the Holy Ghost whom I will then send will be better to you than my bodily presence on Earth 8. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment 9. Of sin because they believe not on me 10. Of righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more 11. Of judgement because the prince of this world is judged 8 9 10 11. And it will be his work effectually to plead my cause And first to convince the World of their sin in accusing rejecting and murdering me in whom they should have believed which he will do by his Gifts Miracles and inward Operations And Secondly to convince them of the Truth and Righteousness of my Person and Doctrine and my Right to be the Head of the Church and the Righteousness of my Government of it Because I go into Heaven to take fuller Possession of my Plenipotency and Administration and by my Spirit in you and on the Hearers shall more effectually convince Men and gather my Church than I did while I was with you And Thirdly He shall convince them that God hath Exalted me to the Power of Conquering Satan and his Kingdom and punishing Rebellious Adversaries when they shall see that by my Spirit the Kingdom of Satan falleth and the Powers that served him are partly Converted and partly confounded and destroyed 12. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now 12. I have many things more to make known to you which you are not yet prepared to receive 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speake of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speake and he will shew you things to come 13. But when the Holy Spirit of Truth is come upon you he will make you capable and will guide you into all Truth which you must Preach and Record for the Propagating and ordering my Church Preaching to the Gentiles laying by the Mosaick Law c. For he shall speak but that which is of God and things to come and which you are not yet fit to receive 14. He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you 14. It is this Extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost which shall be my great convincing Witness in the World that shall prove me to be the Saviour For it is from me that he is sent and my Word that he shall Teach you whether it be Remembring or Expounding what I have already spoken or Teaching you more by Inspiration What he saith and doth in and by you my chosen Apostles that I do by him and you 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you 15. I say he shall take of mine For the wisdom Grace and Gifts that come from the Father come from me that which
22. N. The History of his Cure and their Plotting his death for it is here past over and supposed But Christ knew their malicious design 24. Judge not according to the appearance but judg righteous judgment 24. Judge not by outward shews and worldly mens opinions but according to the evidence of truth 25. Then said some of them of Jerusalem is not this he whom they seek to kill 26. But lo he speaketh boldly and they say nothing to him Do the Rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ 25. Do they suffer him because they believe him to be Christ 27. Howbeit we know this man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is 27. N. They knew his visible Originals but they knew not his heavenly nature and glory 28. Then cried Jesus in the Temple as he taught saying ye both know me and ye know whence I am and I am not come of my self but he that sent me is true whom ye know not 29. But I know him for I am from him and he hath sent me 28. Ye know my visible Originals But you know not my Heavenly Father who sent me But I know him for I c. 30. Then they sought to take him but no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come 31. And many of the people believed on him and said when Christ cometh will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done 30.31 His Miracles convinced some against all prejudices and objections 32. The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him and the Pharisees aâ—d cheif Priests sent Officers to take him 33 Then said Jesus unto them yet a little while I am with you and then I go unto him that sent me 34. Ye shall seek me and shall not find me and where I am thither ye cannot come 32. c. The Pharisees and Priests thought persecuting necessary to keep people from believing on him And Christ told them it 's but a little while till I shall be out of the reach of your malice 35. Then said the Jews among themselves whither will he go that we shall not find him Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles 36. What manner of saying is this that he said ye shall seek me and shall not find me and where I am thither ye cannot come 35. Will he go to those Jews who are dispersed abroad the World or what meaneth he 37. In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters 39. But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified 37. In the last and great day of that Feast Christ proclaimed the promised gift of the Spirit under the name of Rivers of living Waters to all that should truly believe on him That is when he was glorified for till then the Holy Ghost for the operation of these eminent gifts was not given 40. Many of the people therefore when they heard this saying said of a truth this is the Prophet 41. Others said this is the Christ But some said shall Christ come out of Galilee 42. Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of Bethleem whence David was 43. So there was a division among the people because of him 40. His Words and Works inclined many to believe in him but they could not answer objections from his Originals 44. And some of them would have taken him but no man laid hands on him 44. N. God hindereth bad men from doing what they would do and they know not how he doth it 45. Then came the officers to the cheif Priests and Pharisees and they said unto them Why have ye not brought him 46. The Officers answered Never man spake like this man 45 46. God made Christs words effectual at the present to convince and restrain them from violence 47. Then answered them the Pharisees are ye also deceived 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him 49. But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed 47. 48. N. The vain respect to men of reputation and power is a usual cause of unbelief and disobedience to God 2. They rightly judged that ignorance is the cause of error and deceit but they falsly thought their literal knowledge with prejudice and worldly minds had been a safe state 50. Nicodemus saith unto them he that came to Jesus by night being one of them 51. Doth our law judg any man before it hear him and know what he doth 50.51 Nicodemus bearing a good will to Christ stopt them by a common rule of Justice that by the Law no man should be condemned till he be heard speak for himself and the Case be well tried 52. They answered and said unto him art thou also of Galilee Search and look for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet 53. And every man went into his own house 52. N. 1. They give him a scorn instead of a good answer 2. And then how poor a reason satisfieth them against all the Miracles and Doctrine of Christ because Galilee was a contemned Country where Christ dwelt though he was born at Bethlehem of Davids line 3. One mans words may sometimes divert a persecution CHAP. VIII JEsus went unto the mount of Olives 2. And early in the morning he came again into the Temple and all the people came unto him and he sate down and taught them 1. N. 1. He left the City at Night lest they should surprize him 2. He chose the Temple as a place of Gods Consecration and of best opportunity for auditors 3. The Jews used to let them teach who professed themselves to be teachers 4. His sitting in teaching is not an obligatory example to us but an indifferent circumstance 3. And the Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery and when they had set her in the midst 4. They say unto him Master this woman was taken in adultery in the very act 5. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou 3. N. That the last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and the eleven first Verses of this Chapter were not in divers of the old Books in the Greek and divers of the most credible Fathers have them not or take them for Apocryphal and so do many Protestants besides Beza So that it is uncertain to us whether it be any part of Gods word But we have enough besides of which we may be certain Suppose the Text current it seems they would have drawn Christ into a snare by getting him either to speak against the
Law or against Caesar who had taken from them the power of putting offenders to death which the Law gave them 6. This they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not 6. Beza taketh this Writing on the ground to be improbable and part of the Apocryphal story If it was otherwise it signified but a discerning of their snare and a putting off the answer by a seeming neglect or disregard 7. So when they continued asking him he lift up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her 7. N. Thus he evadeth the snare of their question as not belonging to him to judg 8. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground 9. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst 8.9 N. It is so improbable that Christ should be left alone in the Temple that this increaseth Beza's suspition that it is Apocryphal But if it be true it meaneth that those went away who came to accuse the woman and left him with his auditors and the woman 10. When Jesus had lift up himself and saw none but the woman he said to her where are those thine accusers Hath no man condemned thee 11. She said No man Lord And Jesus said to her neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more 10.11 N. Those that hence take encouragement to connive at adultery must note 1. That the text it self is of uncertain authority 2. If it were certain it signifieth not that Christ would have adultery unpâ—pnished but that he disclaimed the office of a Judg in matters of corporal punishment as being no Magistrate 12. Then spake Jesus again to them saying I am the light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life 12. N. Here begins the certain Text q. d. I am that Teacher sent from God who shew all my followers that light that quickneth and leadeth to everlasting life and others live and walk in darkness 13. The Pharisees therefore said to him Thou bearest record of thy self thy record is not true 14. Jesus answered and said to them though I bear record of my self yet my record is true for I know whence I came and whither I go but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go 13.14 Thy own testimony of thy self is not credible Jesus said Even my testimony of my self is true and credible because I know what I say and whence I come c. But your denial of it is not credible because you know not whence I come c. but speak against what you know not 15. Ye judg after the flesh I judg no man 16. And if I judg my judgment is true for I am not alone but I and the Father that sent me 15.16 You see no further than my fleshly part and originals I do not so rashly judg of any But yet my judgment is true and credible for you have not my bare word but therewith the works of the power of my Father that sent me and his attestation 17. It is also written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true 18. I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me 17.18 Your Law alloweth two Witnesses to be credible I am one who may be allowed to witness about other mens interest that I am sent by the Father to save lost sinners and the Father is the other whose Voice and Works bear witness of me 19. Then said they to him Where is thy Father Jesus answered ye neither know me nor my father If you had known me ye would have known my father also 19. Where is thy Father Is not Joseph thy father He said you know neither Me nor my Father Had you by my Doctrine and Works known Me and my Office I should have taught you to know my Father 20. These words spake Jesus in the treasury as he taught in the Temple and no man laid hands on him for his hour was not yet come 20. N. Till Gods appointed time of trial and suffering among the fiercest enemies there is safety 21. Then said Jesus again unto them I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins Whither I go ye cannot come 21. I came to you as a Saviour and ye reject me and I will accordingly depart from you and your sin shall bring destruction on you and I will send the Gospel to the Gentiles and will ascend to Heaven whence your sin will exclude you 22. Then said the Jews Will he kill himself because he saith Wither I go ye cannot come 23. And he said unto them ye are from beneath I am from above ye are of this world I am not of this world 24. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins For if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins 22. Ye are of this lower World I am of above and thither I go And if you believe not that I am the Christ your Nation shall be destroyed for rejecting me and you shall die unpardoned in your sin 25. Then said they unto him Who art thou And Jesus saith unto them even the same that I laid unto you from the beginning 26. I have many things to say and to judge of you but he that sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him 25. Even the Messiah as I have always told you I have much to say against your Infidelity but I will now only appeal to my Fathers testimony whose words I speak 27. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father 27. N. Gross ignorance is the parent and nurse of unbelief 28. Then said Jesus unto them when ye have lift up the son of man then shall ye know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things 28. When ye have crucified me then I shall convince many of you by fuller evidence that I am the Christ and the rest shall feel it to their destruction and these my words shall be confirmed 29. And he that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I do always those things which please him 29. My Father that sent me never deserteth me for I do but fulfil his will and do what he appointed me 30. And as he spake these words many believed on him 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if ye continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed 32. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free 30.31 I cannot take you for my disciples unless your Faith be rooted so as to persevere and proceed to learn what yet you have not learned And if ye do this you shall know more of that truth that will save you and deliver you from the greatest of your bondage 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou Ye shall be made free 33. Some present answered him we be Abrahams seed and though the Romans master us we are no mens slaves What then is the freedom which thou dost promise us 34. Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin 35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed 34 35.36 Can you boast of your freedom who by your sinful practice shew that you are the servants of sin and by it are liable to the judgment of God as slaves are to stripes And if you have thus enslaved your selves to sin and to Gods judgments he may turn you out of his house you know not how soon But the Son and Heir is not turned away Therefore if you will be free indeed from the guilt of sin and the wrath of God and the malice of Satan come in by the Son and so you may be free 37. I know you are Abrahams seed but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you 38. I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ye do that which ye have seen with your father 37.38 I know that ye are the seed of Abraham by the flesh But were you seed as he is the Father of the faithful you would not seek to kill me and reject my word Even that word of truth which I have received of my Father which you reject and obey the will of your father 39. They answered and said unto him Abraham is our father Jesus saith unto them If you were Abrahams Children ye would do the works of Abraham 40. But now ye seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God this did not Abraham 39.40 If ye were Abrahams Children you would be like him and do as he did But to seek to murder me for telling you the truth which I have heard from God is not like Abrahams works of Faith 41. Ye do the deeds of your father Then said they to him We be not born of fornication we have one Father even God 42. Jesus said unto them If God were your father ye would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me 4â— Ye shew by your deeds whose nature you have and so who is your father 42. If God were your Father you would be like him and then you would love me who came from him as sent by him 43. Why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my word 44. Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it 43.44 Why is my doctrine rejected by you but because your corrupt natures and sin are contrary to it To speak plainly to you as the Childs nature is like the Fathers from whom it is received so yours is so like the Devils nature that I may say you received it from him and he is the father of it and so far of you For you love to do that which he loveth and desireth These are his great Characters 1. He was from the beginning A MALICIOUS MURDERER 2. He is A LIAR a deserter of the Truth and an enemy to it His business in the World is to Deceive by Lying and when he thus lieth and deceiveth he doth according to his corrupt nature for he is a Liar and the Father of Lies N 1. By these three Characters of LYING MALIGNITY and MURDER or hurtfulness the devilish nature and seed is known And no boasting of Abraham or Christianity is any disproof of it 2. Devilisms is the universal pravity of the malignant World And it is no wrong or railing so to say that the Devil is their Father 45. And because I tell you the truth ye believe me not 45. Though nature love the Truth as Truth yet because the Truth that I tell you is cross to your prejudice and carnal minds and lusts ye reject it as if it were error 46. Which of you convinceth me of sin And if I say the truth why do ye not believe me 46. If you know any falshood or sin by me prove it if you can but if it be Truth that I say why doth prejudice and malice hinder you from believing it 47. He that is of God heareth Gods words ye therefore hear them nor because ye are not of God 47. The Children of God have a mind and nature like him And therefore they savour and love his word Therefore your rejecting Gods word doth prove that ye are not the Children of God 48. Then answered the Jews and said unto him Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil 48. They said do we not call thee as thou art in saying thou art a distracteâ— Samaritan heretick 49. Jesus answered I have not a devil but I honour my Father and you do dishonour me 50. And I seek not my own glory there is one that seeketh and judgeth 49. I am not a distracted Demoniak but you calumniators My Doctrine and Works honour my Father and as for your dishonouring of me though I can bear it who seek not my own Glory my Father will secure my honour and judg you for your reproach 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death 51. I tell you that reject my word that to believe and keep it is the way to everlasting life and to be saved from death spiritual temporal by resurrection and eternal 52. Then said the Jews unto him Now we know that thou hast a devil Abraham is dead and the Prophets and thou sayest If a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death 53. Art thou greater than our father Abraham which is dead And the Prophets are dead whom makest thou thy self 52 53. Now we know that thou art a distracted demoniack When thou talkest of mens not dying when Abraham and the Prophets are dead Art thou so much greater than all they 54. Jesus answered If I honour my self my honour is nothing It is my Father that honoureth me of whom ye say that he is your God 55. Yet ye have not known him but I know him and if I should say I know
house 34. Note 1. True Conversion changeth Mens thoughts of Gods Servants and causeth men to love and honour them 2. Conversion puts Men into a joyful state 35. And when it was day the magistrates sent the Sergeants saying Let those men go 36. And the keeper of the Prison told this saying to Paul The magistrates have sent to let you go now therefore depart and go in peace 37. But Paul said unto them They have beaten us openly uncondemned being Romans and have cast us into Prison and now do they thrust us out privily nay verily but let them come themselves and fetch us out 37. Note It is lawful to plead our right by Law against unjust Magistrates Paul was a Roman by enfrauchisment though a Jew 38. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates and they feared when they heard that they were Romans 38. Note The Roman Laws forbad all such base usage of any that was of Roman freedom 39. And they came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city 40. And they went out of the Prison and entred into the house of Lydia and when they had seen the brethren they comfoâ—ed them and departed 39. They spake them fair for fear and intreated them to depart 40. They visited comforted and confirmed their converts CHAP. XVII NOw when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where was a Synagogue of the Jews 2. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures 3. Opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I Preach unto unto you is Christ 2 3. Note Paul began his Preaâ—hing usually in the Jews Synagogue because they were most prepared by expectation of the Messiah and understood his language for it is not certain that the miraculous gift of unlearnt tongues was it which he used in his ordinary Preaching and not only on extraordinary inspirations 4. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks a great multitude and of the cheif women not a few 4. And being convinced by proof out of the old Testament that Christ must suffer and rise again many believed some Jews but more of the Proselites and chief Women 5. But the Jews which believed not moved with envy took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the city on an uprore and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people 5. Note The rabble are fit instruments for persecution for they have sufficient ignorance and malignity and will rage against reason But its Legalists that incite them 6. And when they found them not they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the Rulers of the city crying These that have turned the world up side down are come hither also 7. Whom Jason hath received and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cesar saying That there is another King one Jesus 6 7. Note 1. Were it not for the false pretence of Sedition against Rulers to engage their safety and honour in jealousie against Christ and Religion the Devil would be posed in his Accusation of the Faithful 2. The name of King Jesus falsly Expounded is it that is used to engage Princes against Christ 8. And they troubled the people and the Rulers of the city when they heard these things 9. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other they let them go 8. Note So Solicitous are men of their own safety from the Rulers power that all puts them into trouble which seemeth to bring them into any danger Fears raise Commotions 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea who coming thither went into the Synagogue of the Jews 10. Note 1. It is good to reserve Persecuted Ministers for further work when Satan would destroy them 2. Again the Apostles make the Jews Synagogue their Preaching place 11. These were more noble then those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so 11. These were more ingenious rational sober Jews and did not meet the Gospel with rage but thought it worthy their serious enquiry whether the Scriptures did foretell of the Death and Resurrection of Christ and whether Pauls proofs of Christianity were valid 12. Therefore many of them believed also of honourable women which were Greeks and of men not a few 12. This preparation of a sober enquiry after truth is a reason rendred why many of them believed As did many Men and Women of note 13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was Preached of Paul at Berea they came thither also and stired up the people 13. Note Satan sends about his Messenger as Christ did his To stir up the People 14. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea but Silas and Timotheus abode there still 14. Note Not because Paul was more fearful than the rest but that he was more useful and more maliced 15. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a Commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed 15. Paul passing by many Countries between was conducted to Athens the great Seat or University of Philosophy to Greece and all the Learned World 16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens his Spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry 16. He was much moved to see such abundance of Statues Images and Altars in the City 17. Therefore disputed he in the Synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the Market daily with them that met with him 17. Therefore he did not only dispute for Christianity in the Sinagogue with the Jews and devout Worshippers who when converted were usually the first Members of the Churches but also with the Heathens where he met them against their Idolatry 18. Then certain Philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoicks encountred him and some said What will this babbler say other some He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods because he Preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection 18. The Epicureans a loose sensual Sect and the Stoicks a stricter Sect encountred him and some of them despising him as an unlearned Babler Others thought that he Preacht some God by the Name of Jesus and the Resurrection not known to them before Note The Athenians were not only for liberty for every one to worship what God he would but thought it the height of Religion to take in and worship the Gods of all Nations And to please them all and build them Altars 19. And they took him and
have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you 9. For God whom I serve with a devoted Soul doth know that this your honourable profession of the Christian Faith doth make me the more constantly remember you in my Prayers 10. And request of God if it seem good to him that I may come to you for the furtherance of my joy and your edification 11. For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established 12. That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me 11 12. For I long to see you that by communicating to you what God hath given to me you may be further established and you and I may be comforted in the mutual manifestation of our Concordant Faith 13 Now I would not have you ignorant brethren that oft times I purposed to come unto you but was let hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also even as among other Gentiles 13. I would have you know that as God hath called me to be an Apostle to the Gentiles I oft purposed to come to you though hitherto hindred that I might reap some fruit of that my Office among you as well as among other Gentiles 14. I am a debter both to the Greeks and the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise 14. By this my Mission and Office it is my duty to Preach the Gospel both to the learned Greeks and Romans and to unlearned Barbarous Nations 15. So as much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also 15. Therefore if it be the Will of God that I shall come unto you I am ready as the Apostle to the Gentiles to exercise mine Office by Preaching to you as I have done to others 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek 16. For though a Crucified Christ be to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness I am not ashamed most openly to own and Preach this Gospel For the Power of God by this called weakness and foolishness by Men is manifested in it and by it in the Conversion Comfort and Salvation of every true Believer whether Jews with whom it began or Greeks to whom it is now preached 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith As it is written The just shall live by faith 17. For that sort of Righteousness which God hath made the necessary and acceptable way to Salvation is therein revealed to the World even Righteousness by Faith is revealed to beget Faith in Men by which it is that Men must be justified and saved as was foretold 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness 18. For that Gospel which pardoneth Penitent Believers doth reveal Gods wrath against the Impenitent and Unbelievers who by the love of Sin resist and reject the Truth and continue in ungodliness and unrighteousness 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it to them 19. For they may know much of the nature and attributes of God as manifested by the light of Nature in them and by the Providence of God among them by which God sheweth it unto them 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they have no excuse 20. For though God and Heavenly things be invisible even his Eternal Power and his God-head yet are they clearly to be seen in the Glass of his Works so that their sin against God thus revealed leaveth them without all just excuse 21. Because that when they knew God they glorified him him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened 22. Professing themselves wise they became fools 23. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things 21. Because when by his Works and the light of Nature they were forc'd to confess the Divine perfections they yet lived not to his Glory or in holy thankfulness to the God whom they acknowledged but dishonoured him and corrupted their Minds by vain Imaginations and their foolish Hearts were darkened by gross errours 22. And professing themselves to be the Learned Philosophers and Wise Men of the World and contemning others as Ignorant and Barbarous they shewed by their practice that they were Fools 23. For when their Tongues acknowledged the glory of the incorruptible God they worshipped him as in and by the Images of Corruptible Men and of Birds Beasts and creeping things as if God had been like these 24. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed for ever Amen 24. Wherefore as a just punishment for their wilful sins God lest them to the lusts of the Flesh to base unnatural uncleanness 25. Seeing they confessing the Perfections of the True God yet represented him in the Image of vain shadows and Creatures and so offered their worship to such Creatures and to the Stars rather than to the True and Blessed Creator whom they acknowledged 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature 27. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their errour which is meet 26 27. For this Sin God gave them to base lusts against Nature who in their Religion sinned against the light of Nature both Women and Men burning in worse than beastly unnatural lusts towards those of their own Sex and by being left to that unnatural filthiness were justly punished for their unnatural Idolatry 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient 28. And as their wicked Hearts refused to obey and honour God practically though they did in words acknowledge him God gave them over to a reprobate Mind to do those things which the light of Nature and common Reason do condemn 29 30 31. Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder debate deceit malignity whisperers backbiters haters
of God despightful proud boasters inventers of evil things disobedient to parents without understanding covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful 29. So far is their Learning and Arts from making them just and happy that they abound with all manner of odious shameful Sin here named 32. Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only commit the same but have pleasure in them that do them 32. And all their knowledge of Good and Evil is so far from Justifying or Sanctfying them that they live in the practice of that which they know God doth condemn and in their Societies and Conversation make it their delight CHAP. II. 1. THerefore thou art unexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things 1. Therefore thou that thinkest highly of thy self for thy Knowledg and basely of others as ignorant or barbarous art so far from being justified by this that it aggravateth thy Sin and leaveth thee without excuse For thou livest in as great Sin as those whom thou condemnest as Ignorant 2. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things 2. But we know that God will judge all Men in Truth and Righteousness according to their Works and will condemn evil doers whatever their Knowledge and Profession be 3. And thinkest thou this O man who judgest them which do such things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God 3. Is it not then thy manifest error to think that thy Knowledge and condemning Sin in-others will justifie and save thee that livest in Sin 4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God 6. Who will render to every man according to his deeds 4 5 6. While thou boastest of Wisdom and livest in Wickedness thou shewest the more contempt of God even of the Riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing Practically that the goodness of God which thou dost acknowledge in Words should lead thee to Repentance and forsaking of Sin 5. But thy Heart being hardened in impenitency by Sin against Knowledge thou dost but treasure up certain punishment against the Day when God will shew his Righteousness by his Judgment 6. And will judge and use Men according to their Deeds 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life 7. To them who by a life of true obedience and patient waiting for his Reward do seek first for future Glory and Honour and Immortal Happiness he will give Eternal Life 8 9. But to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentiles 8 9. But to them that resist the Light and contend against the revealed Truth and obey it not but live in the Practice of Uunrighteousness while they boast of Knowledge God will pour forth his Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish even on every one that liveth in Sin and Wickedness first on the Jews who sin under their boasting of their Peculiarity Law and Jewish Knowledge and the Greeks and Romans who sin under their boasting of Learning and Philosophy and conceited Wisdom 10 11. But glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile For there is no respect of persons with God 10 11. But Glory Honour and Peace to every Man that liveth a life of true Obedience and well doing to the Jew first according to their Covenant-Prerogative and also to the Gentiles as being in the same Covenant of Grace for God saveth not Men partially for their outward Priviledges or their barren Knowledge and Profession 12. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law 12. For all Men shall be judged according to the Oblâ—gations which they were under They that sinned against the Law of Nature and commmon Mercies and were never under the Mosaical Law or Supernatural Revelation shall be condemned by the Law which they sinned against and not by that which was never given them But the Jews that sinned under Moses's Law shall be judged by it 13. For not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified 13. For no Law of God doth justifie Men meerly for having it and hearing it but for doing it so far as they do it 14. For when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the law are a law unto themselves 15. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another 14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Jewish or any written Law of God do by Nature that which that Law commandeth these having not that supernatural written Law have Gods Law of Nature in themselves and shew the effects of this Natural Revelation written in their Hearts their Consciences naturally having some Conviction of Gods Soveraign Government and Mans duty tells them as a Witness whether they do well or ill and their Reason accusing or defending them accordingly 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel 16. I mean not by any mistaken self judging in this World but even at the Bar of Christ when God shall open all mens secret Acts and rectifie all mistaken judgings as I have preached in foretelling that judgment of Christ 17. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God 18. And knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law 19. And art confident that thou thy self art a guide to the blind a light of them that are in darkness 20. An instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law 17 18 19 20. And that you may know that the Law will justifie no man for having or knowing it but for doing it consider that it is but self-deceit to think that thou shalt be justified for being called a Jew and resting in the Divineness and perfection of your Law and boasting that you are Gods peculiar People and that his Will and excellent things are known by you which the world knoweth not
of peace have they not known 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. David truly describeth the state of Corrupted Nature and of all Men till Grace restrain or change them in Psal 14. and 53 c. that There is not one of them that are Righteous Men They understand not practically the matters of True Wisdom and chief concerns but are a blind and sottish Generation and therefore they seek not seriously to know God or to please him and enjoy his love They are turned from the way of truth and obedience and happiness They are all but hurtful or unprofitable in the World and none of them that set themselves to a Life that may do good to themselves or others or to please God They are so like Satan who seeketh whom he may devour that their Throat is like an open Sepulchre greedily gaping to devour the Just and Godly their Tongues serve the Father of lies in slandering Gods Truth and Servants and their Words are like Adders Poyson that tends to do mischief and destroy the good and innocent Cursing and false deceitful words are the fruit of their Lips They are ready to shed the Blood of the Godly and Innocent The way of their Life is Destruction and Misery to the Faithful and to the Societies where they live and finally to themselves Nature and Custom may teach them to talk for Peace and Unity and Love But they do not and will not know the true Nature of them or the way by which they must be attained For they are not governed by the Law and Fear of God but by their Carnal deceived Wit and Worldly Interest which God condemneth 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God 19. All this is written in the Jews Law and therefore is spoken to and of the Jews as well as others for the Law speaketh to none but those that are Subjects and obliged by it So that neither Jew nor Gentile can be justified as innocent but all such self-justifiers will be confuted and all the World proved guilty of Sin and Punishment before God when he shall judge them 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin 20. By all this therefore it is clear that seeing all that are under Moses's Law are Sinners against the Law and none are innocent no Flesh shall be justified in Gods sight by that Law For as they are Sinners so it is the Law which notifieth their Sin and condemneth them for it 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference 21. But there is another way of Righteousness ordained of God for our Justification and the Glory of his Grace and Justice without the keeping of Moses's Law or being justified by it 22. Even the Righteousness prescribed by God and given by his Grace which is by the way of Faith in Christ even our believing trust in him and adhering to him and this is prescribed and given to and found in all true Believers without difference 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ 23 24. For all Men are Sinners and therefore have come short of obtaining the Glory which God had appointed to the Innocent that never brake his Law and cannot be saved or justified by the Law which they have broken but must be justified by his free Grace forgiving their sin and giving and accepting their sincere Faith and Repentance through the Redemption of lost Sinners which Jesus Christ hath wrought for them and in them 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus 25 26. Whom God hath by his unsearchable Counsel Decree and Ordination set forth to be the great Reconciler and Propitiation by the way and means of Faith in his blood as a Propitiatory Sacrifice and the Seal of his Truth and Love and this was as well as by justifying the Innocent to demonstrate that he is a Holy Just and Merciful God and no friend to sin but a loâ—er of Holiness and Truth in Pardoning to such Believers all their past Sins to which his forbearance and reprieve was a preparation I say to declare that he is as merciful so Just while he will have so precious a Sacrifice for Sin and by Pardon and Grace doth make and judge the Faithful Righteous which is it which is now fully declared by our preaching the Gospel 27. Where is boasting then It is excluded By what law of works Nay but by the law of faith 27. Grace therefore must have the Glory of our Justification For who can boast that he hath it by Innocency because he deserved not death by Sin No this is utterly shut out By what Law Is it by the Law of Moses or any Law which justifieth Men because they sinned not against it nor deserved death No but by another Law even the Law of Faith which Grace hath brought us under which pardoneth and saveth true Penitent Believers 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law 28. Therefore against the Jews and all self justiciaries we conclude that the Law of Moses much less the first Law of pure Innocency is so far from being necessary to the Gentiles for Justification and Salvation that no Man Jew or Gentile is otherwise justified by God but by his free Grace given through Jesus Christ to all true Believers who accept it as a free gift 29. Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also 29. And how absurd is it to think that God is a God that is a merciful Governour to no more in the World than that little sorry People of the Jews Doth not his actual Mercies and his Government obliging all the World to the use of some means for Recovery Pardon and Salvation confute this and shew that he is the God and Merciful Governour also of the Gentiles 30. Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith 30. It is the same God who will justifie Circumcised Believers and uncircumcised Believers by one and the same way Even by the way of Grace and
and so only to them then it was null to Abraham and it is of no effect to any 15. Becsuse the law worketh wrath for where no law is there is no transgression 15. Because as the Law is made to forbid and condemn Sin so it obligeth Sinners to undergo the Punishment which were no obligation were there no obliging Law And Abraham was not under Moses's Law and so transgressed it not 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the law but to that also which is of the saith of Abraham who is the father of us all 16. Therefore this great Promise and Blessing is made to Believers as such that it may be free and of meer Grace that so it may be sure and firm to all the Seed or Children of Promise not only to the Jews that had the Law and were the Natural Seed but to the Gentiles also who have Abraham's Faith and so are his Spiritual Seed who is the Father of all Believers 17. As it is written I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were 17. As it is written I have made thee a Father of many Nations and not of the Israelitish Nation only So that though the Gentiles were not then called as now they are by the Gospel yet that God who promised this to Abraham when his Body and Sarah's were naturally past Generation and to Isaac when he was unborn and again when God demanded him as an Offering and thence as it were raised him from the dead that God I say did decree the calling of the Gentiles and spake of that in Promise which was long after to be done 18. Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken So shall thy seed be 18. This was the meaning of Gods Promise to Abraham who against all natural probability trusted Gods Promise and believed and hoped that accordingly he should become the Father of many Nations And that as was promised his Seed should be as the Stars in Heaven 19. And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb 19. And his Faith was not weak and shaken with the consideration that his aged Body was almost dead and unfit for procreation or that Sarah's Womb was so also 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in saith giving glory to God 21. And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform 20 21. He was not staggered by unbelief unto a distrustful doubting but was strong in Faith whereby he gave God the Glory of his Power Wisdom Love and Truth being fully perswaded that though Nature shewed no probability of it in second Causes the Almighty God could perform all that he had promised 22. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness 22. And therefore this way of glorifying God by the trusting belief of his free Promise was so suitable to Gods Ends and Honour that he accepted it as Righteousness or a sufficient qualification of him that should partake of his free given Mercy though Abraham had no sinless innocency nor could say that he never deserved death 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him 24. But for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead 23. And certainly God did not leave this on Record for Abraham's sake only as if there had been a Righteousness and right to Life which he only must have and belonged to no other and he must be justified by some odd way proper to himself 24. But this is written also for all us to tell us what Righteousness God requireth and accepteth to our Salvation and that if we believe with trust on his Power Truth and Mercy who raised up our Lord from the dead this Faith shall be imputed to us for Righteousness and we shall be saved by the Sacrifice Merits and Mediation of Christ though our Sins deserved death and neither the Law of Innocency or of Moses justifie us 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification 25. Even our Faith in God by Christ and in him who for our Sins was made a Propitiatory Sacrifice to procure us free Forgiveness of them and was raised again to cause our Justification by uniting us to himself and pardoning our Sin and giving us his Spirit and right to Impunity and Salvation and justifâ—ifying this right and us as our Advocate and by his Sentence as our Judge CHAP. V. 1. THerefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Therefore I may conclude that being Constituted Accounted of God and judged Righteous by Faith we have Peace with and towards God as Reconciled and Adopted through our Lord Jesus Christ notwithstanding we are not justifiable as fulfillers of the Law 2. By whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God 2. By whose mediation it is that we came or had access by Faith into this blessed state of Grace and Gods Favour wherein we now are and greatly rejoyce in hope of the promised Glory of God 3. And not onely so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience 4. And patience experience and experience hope 5. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad on our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us 3 4 5. Yea more than so but also in all our tribulations which we undergo in the World for Christ and Righteousness we exult with glorying and joy knowing that this tribulation doth by exercise increase our Patience and being tryed our patient and constant suffering maketh us the more certain by experience that our Faith is sound and giveth us experience of Gods supporting Grace And this experience much confirmeth our hope of Gods acceptance and our Salvation which we should be apt to doubt of if our Faith and Gods Grace had not been thus tryed it being easie by self-flattery to think untryed Faith is better than it is And this confirmed hope will never leave us to shame by disappointment for it is accompanied and sealed by that special gift of the Holy Ghost which sheddeth abroad on our Hearts the effects and sense of the Love of God through Christ and so replenisheth us with Reflecting-love to God even as the Summer Rains and Sunshine moisten and warm the Earth and replenish it with pleasant Fruits 6. For when we were yet without strength
as he lift and giveth them arbitrarily in great inequality He giveth his Mercy to whom and in what degree he please and whom he will he leaveth in their wilful sin and even occasioneth though he cause it not their obduration by such mercies and providential dispensations as he knows they will abuse to harden themselves in sin 19. Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will 19. It 's like you will say If this he so why doth he find fault with Men that want but what he will not give them and are not what he will not make them Doth not all this proceed according to his Will If he would give them all his Grace they would be better 20. Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formeth it Why hast thou made me thus 20. Gods Laws and Governing Will which make Mans Duty is resisted by sin but as to the Disposing and Donative Will of God as our Owner and free Benefactor can Man that is a dark and sinful Worm think himself meet to call God to account and demand a reason of his free Gifts why he giveth them to this Man and not to another Darest thou thus dispute with God and ask a reason of his Will which is absolute and the spring and reason of all created good Hath the unformed Matter an antecedent right to any subsequent shape or use and may it say Why hast thou made me thus and not in a nobler form for higher use 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour 21. The power that a Potter hath over his Clay is incomparably less than God hath over Man and yet none accuseth him for making one Vessel to serve at the Table and another for a baser use As God had done thee no wrong if he had made thee a Dog or a Toad and not a Man so he doth thee none if he give thee not that undeserved abused Grace which he freely giveth to others that as little deserve it 22. What if God willing to shew hi wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 22. Shall Man accuse God because he resolveth to shew his punishing Justice and Power on those self-hardening wilful sinners who made themselves Vessels of wrath and fitted to destruction when he hath in long patience and forbearance endured them while they abused Mercy 23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory 23. And because he will make known the riches of his Glory in the felicity of those whom he had freely made Vessels of Mercy and had by Grace prepared them for Glory 24. Even us whom he hath called not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles 24. I mean on all us that are true Christians both Jews and Gentiles effctually called by his free Grace 25. As he saith also in Osee I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved 25. Which purpose of free Mercy to undeserving sinners he expresseth in Hosea 2.23 saying I will call them c. 26. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there shall they be called the children of the living God 26. And as the words Hos 1.10 shew that God will call even unworthy outcasts and make them his People by free Grace 27. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved 27. Which differencing Grace God expresseth even of the Israelites Isa 10.32 33. that of all their number it is but a remnant that shall escape his Judgment and return from captivity signifying the like difference as to their Salvation by the Faith of Christ 28. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make on the earth 28. Or the Consumption decreed shall overflow in Justice for the Lord God of Hosts shall make a Consumption even determined in the midst of all the Land c. 29. And as Esaias said before Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed we had been as Sodom and made like to Gomorrah 29. And that differencing mercy decreed to save a little remnant the other words of Isay prove Except the Lord c. 30. What shall we say then That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousnes have attained righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith 30. What shall we say then to this mystery of Grace the calling of the Gentile world and the abscission of the most of the present Nation of the Jews which so much offendeth them That the Gentiles who lived in darkness and unrighteousness have attained Righteousness in reality and imputation even that which is by Faith in Christ 31. But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness 31. But Israel who had Gods own Righteous Law and trusted to be justified by keeping it have not understood the True Law and terms of Justification nor have attained that Justifying Righteousness to which their Law did point them 32. Wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone 32. And wherefore have they not attained it Because they understood not that the Promise and Covenant of Grace was the very life and foundation and end of the Law by which they should by faith have expected Justification as Gods free gift to True Believers but thought it must be had by the Righteousness of their own Works in keeping all the Ceremonies and Precepts of that Law For Christ became to them a Stumbling-stone in whom they should have believed 33. As it is written Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 33. As it is written Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion a Stone which many will stumble and fall upon though it be the pretious Foundation-stone and a Rock that many shall be split upon though that on which my Church is built and whosoever believeth on him shall not be disappointed nor ashamed of his hopes So that the cause why Israel is cast off is not because God sent not his Son and Gospel to them nor invited them to believe nor gave them evidence of the Truth of Christ which was sufficient to convince a well-disposed mind much less because he hindred them from believing or because he shewed mercy to the Gentiles but because by error they hardned themselves against Christ as not answering their Carnal erroneous
Law and freely given by Grace and fully now revealed in the Gospel by Jesus Christ and trusting to their own Works of the Law as a sufficient Righteousness to justifie them have by their errour rejected Gods free gift of Justification by Faith in Christ 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth 4. For they should have understood that the sense and use of the Law is to lead them for Righteousness to Christ who is its end and prefigured in its Sacrifices and other Types 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law That the man which doth those things shall live by them 5. For though the Law do point Men to a better Righteousness yet in it self as a Law it owneth nothing as a Righteousness sufficient to Justification but that which Moses thus discribeth Lev. 18.5 The Man that doth these things and breaketh not this Law shall live by them 6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above 7. Or Who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead 8. But what saith it The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach 6 7 8. But I may describe the Righteousness which is of Faith in the Words of Moses Deut. 30. Say not in thy Heart Who shall ascend into Heaven or how can we know Gods Will that never were in Heaven Or who shall bring us thence a certain Messenger of it or Who shall descend into the deep or it is hid from us like the depths of the Sea and who shall fetch it to our Knowledge But as it saith The word is nigh thee God hath not concealed it but sent it from Heaven Christ is come down to make known God and his Word and he is risen and gone to intercede for us in Heaven And he hath brought his Gospel both to our Eyes Mouth and Ears and writeth it by his Spirit in our Hearts And Moses there seemeth to intend such a way of Righteousness by free Grace to the Repenting Israelites And this is it which our Preaching fuller revealeth to you 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved 9. That if thou confess Christ before Men notwithstanding persecution and own him as Christ before the world and believe truly and heartily that God raised him from the dead and thereby witnessed that he owned him and justified the truth of his Gospel thou shalt be saved as well as justified For to justifie a Man is partly to justifie his Right to Salvation 10. For with the heart man believeth to righreousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation 10. For these two make up the Gospel terms of Life To give up Soul and Body to Christ if thou believe sincerely in him with thy Heart thou wilt be accepted for his Merits by God as Righteous and if thou constantly confess and own him whatever thou suffer by it from Men by Word and Deed in obedience and patience thou shalt possess the Salvation to which thy Justification initially gave thee right 11. For the scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 11. For Isa 8.16 God hath prmised us in his Word that whoever believeth on him and trusteth him on his Promise and practically placeth his hope accordingly shall never be disappointed and ashamed of that Hope 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him 12. For God is no respecter of persons and saveth not Men or rejecteth Men because they are Jews or Greeks The Law of Grace doth equally pardon and justifie Jew and Gentile that truly repent and believe and no other He is the same Lord over all and is Rich in Mercy to all that call on him in Faith for when he proclaimed his Name to Moses Exod. 34. as gracious and merciful forgiving iniquity transgression and sin c. it was his very Nature and Decree by which he would be known to all the World and not only by the Jews 13. For whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved 13. For as it is said Joel 2.32 Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall he saved that is of what Nation soever he be if he truly seek God he will be found of him and if he fear God and work Righteousness by Faith he shall be accepted of him for he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher 14. And this sheweth you the necessity of Preaching the Gospel for how shall Men seek and worship and call on that God and Saviour in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have never heard And how shall they hear if no one tell them or preach to them Even the Works of Nature and Providence that reveal God darkly must be told Men by Instructors to make them capable of understanding them Much more the Gospel of Christ 15. And how shall they preach except they be sent As it is written How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things 15. And how shall Men Preach the Mysteries of Salvation that are not called and sent of God by his Qualifications and Commission for who can be such a Light in the World that is not taught and gifted by the Father of Lights And who can in Gods name proclaim the Word of Reconciliation as his Messenger who is not authorized by him so to do We love glad Tidings and welcome the Messengers of them and this should be the Entertainment of Christs Apostles and Ministers in the World who bring the most joiful Tidings of Salvation As it is written How beautiful are the Feet of them that c. Isa 52.7 16. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel for Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report 16. But you may say Why then doth not this Preaching convert more of the Jews This excellence of the Gospel and the preaching of it doth not suppose that all that have it will be converted by it For of the Jews Isaiah saith Lord who hath believed our Report Few did hearken to the Prophets Isa 53.1 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God 17. It is evident that they must hear that they may believe and Gods Word must be preach'd to them or made
kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith 27. To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen 25 26 27. I conclude as Christ taught us in his Prayer with that which is the End of all Religion and of our Lives and salvation it self the Glorifying of God To him that can make all our Exhortations effectual and is of Power to establish you according to that Gospel which we preach as it is now a Mystery openly revealed which was more darkly delivered from the beginning and not clearly understood by Jews or Gentiles but now is openly made manifest by Christ the Light of the World and his Spirit in his Servants and by the Scriptures of the Prophets now opened and agreeing with our Gospel which by Gods Command we make known to all Nations to bring them to this Faith which now is the eminent and necessary Obedience to the Command and Covenant of Grace I say To God only be Glory as the End of all our Grace and Glory through Jesus Christ whom he hath ordained to be the Chief Means and Glass in whom his Glory shall shine forth to Man for ever Amen ANNOTATIONS WHy do we read so much in the scriptures of the Obedience of Faith Some would not have Faith called Obedience lest that signifie Works Ans God hath not made Believers or Unbelievers Lawless or under no Command No Act of Man pleaseth God whicn is not Obedience to his Will When God sendeth abroad the Gospel or Word of Faith he commandeth Men to hear it believe it and obey it But bare Commanding is not all but with it he giveth convincing Evidence of its Truth and persuading Reasons and Motives to obey it Therefore we translate the same Word sometime believing and sometime being persuaded and the same sometime unbelieving and sometime unpersuaded and disobedient And Christ is called The Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him To say that Faith as it is Obedience is the Condition or Qualification for Salvation but not for Pardon or Justification is a perverse Invention of Mans Brain But cannot Men distinguish between obeying the Law of Innocency or of Moses and obeying the Law of Faith and Grace yea and between obeying this Gospel initially by believing repenting and entring into the Baptismal Covenant which entreth into a State of Justification and Right to Life and the progressive Obedience of performing that Covenant to the End which is necessary to Survivors for actual Glory Christ knew what he said to the Jews This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent and Paul was sent to the Gentâ—le World to preach the Obedience of Faith that is that Obedience which consisteth in actual Faith performed to the Doctrine and Command of Faith and which hath the Promise of Pardon Grace and Glory freely given for the Merits of Christ The First Epistle of PAUL the Apostle to the CORINTHIANS The INTRODUCTION WHen it was that Paul wrote this Epistle and when these Corinthians were converted to Christianity and what Wealth and Reputation Corinth a Chief City of Achaia was then of I pass by as things presupposed The Occasion of writing this is of nearer concern to be known for the understanding of it It was not unusual with him as to visit the Churches which he had planted so to write to them for their Establishment when he could not be present with them But as to the Matter and Manner of his Writing the Case of the Corinthians was the Occasion 1. There were several Cases which it seems they proposed to him which he resolveth as about Church-Order and Prophesie and Prayer about Eating things offered to Idols about Marriage and Separation c. 2. There were many Scandals among them which he endeavoureth to heal by convincing Reproof as 1. â—actions and Schisms by setting up Teachers in envious Competition 2. Conceitedness of more Wisdom than they had 3. Hearkning to envious Teachers that villified him and defamed his Person and Ministry 4. The favouring of Incest and Scandal and neglect of Discipline 5. Going to Law against one another and that before Heathen Judges when they should have decided their Differences by amicable Arbitration 6. Defrauding and wronging one another 7. Too easie Thoughts of Fornication 8. Scandalous eating things offered to Idols 9. Too much backwardness to maintain the Ministers and the Charges of their Work 10. Prophane Disorder at their Love-Feasts and Sacrament even to partiality and Excess of Drink and scandalous Unreverence for which God punihsed some in the Flesh 11. Overvaluing Gifts and undervaluing lower Christians that wanted them as not enough sensible of the Necessity and Extent of Christian Unity 12. Disorder in their Sacred Assemblies in the Exercise of their Gifts 13. Some erring about and against the Resurrection and others too much hearkning to them These things Paul reproveth and blameth them for not reforming but persuadeth none to separate from that Church for all these Corruptions But by this we may know what must be expected from young unskillful Christians and what Faults will be in such Churches as ours though the Pastors were the best when the Churches were so faulty in the Apostles Time and Presence and how far they are from the Apostolick Spirit Skill Love and Lenity who would Excommunicate all as intollerable Schismaticks who Conform not to all their devised unnecessary Additions and dare not subscribe their Justification or Approbation of all their Forms And they also that quarrel with their Teachers and forsake them when Men of New Opinions and Zealous Confidence tempt them And they that in stead of doing their own part to reform the Corruptions of such Church and in Love and Tenderness to draw Sinners to Repentance do take the dividing lazie Course to separate from such Churches with a few counted the best who will put them to least Labour and Trouble in Discipline Paul himself held Communion with this and other such Churches notwithstanding all these Faults And we find not that he Excommunicated any one though he require them to do it and decreed to do it but on one 1 Cor. 5. and reverst that Purpose I find not in all the New Testament that there was ever two Christian Churches in any one Town or City upon any Difference among them unless you will call the condemned Nests of Hereticks such CHAP. I. 1. PAul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Softhenes our Brother 2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 2. Paul a called Apostle by the special Electing Will and Favour of
emboldned to go on in Sin supposing that now God pardoneth all Thus Satan hath turned Christs Sacred Ordinance against himself and the Peace of the Church and the Comfort of some and the Reformation of others and carrieth on these most horrid Depravations with such odious Success that without Wonders of gracious Providence there appeareth no probability of Deliverance from these heavy Effects of Sacrament-distraction CHAP. XII 1. NOw concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant 2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as ye were led 1 2. As to your case of discerning Spirits and Spiritual Gifts it is of great importance that you should not be ignorant lest you should take evil Spirits for the Spirit of God or not distinguish the various Gifts of Gods own Spirit in Believers In your Heathen state you were carried away with Idol Oracles and Worship 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 3. First in general you may be sure that none of those Idol Oracles or Blasphemers that speak against Christ and Anathematize him as Infidels do do speak by the Spirit of God For God's Spirit bore uncontrolable witness to Christ by Prophesie Resurrection Miracles and Holiness And on the contrary side he that believeth and confesseth that Jesus is the Lord the true Son of God and our Mediator hath surely learnt this of the holy Ghost his outward testimony in the foresaid evidence and his inward teaching For do but truly believe the truth of Christ himself and the truth of all his Doctrine will undeniably follow 4. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit 5. And there are differences of administrations but the same Lord. 6. And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all 4 5 6. And as Gifts are ascribed to the Holy Ghost and Administrations to the Son and Operations to the Father Almighty so in all these there is great diversities both of kinds and of degrees 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall 7. But all the gifts of the Spirit are given for the Churches edification or to do good with Though some of them are found in unholy Men who perish in their sin 8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit 8. The same Spirit maketh one eminently wise and prudent in applying sacred Truth to the Case of the Hearers and it giveth another an eminent knowledge of sacred Mysteries 9. To another faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit 9. Another he maketh eminently strong in Faith for extraordinary Effects and another hath the Gift of miraculous Healing of the Sick when the Spirit will have it done 10. To another the working of miracles to another prophesie to another discerning of Spirits to another divers kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues 10. To another other sorts of powerful Miracles to another to speak by immediate Inspiration either Predictions or powerful Explications and Applications of Gods Word to another a quick and sure Discerning whether Men pretending to the Spirit speak from God or not to another the speaking of divers Languages to another the Interpretation of those Languages to them that understand them not 11. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will 11. And though these are very various and greatly dâ—fference Man from Man yet it is the same Spirit that worketh them all diversifying as he freely and wisely pleaseth 12. For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 12. For here One and Many well consist As the Natural Body is but One Body but made of Many Members differing in number excellency and office so is Christ and his Church 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 13. Fâ—r as Sacramentally all visible Members are baptized into one Universal Church of professed Christian and drink the Cap of holy Union and Communion in the Lords Supper so all true living saved Members are baptized by one Spirit into one Universal Church of true spiritual Christians and drink the true uniting Spirit of Communion 14 15 16 17. For the body is not one member but many If the foot shall say Because I am not the hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body And if the ear shall say Because I am not the eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling 14 15 16 17. The Body is not one Member as to Number Kind or Office but many united And so in Christs Body the Church If a mistaken Christian himself should say Because I am low in place Grace or Gifts I am none of the Church this will not prove or make him none Much less if others by false Censure or Church-tyranny say he is none or excommunicate him for dissenting from their vain Appendages or Opinions If all were of one Office Stature Complexion or degree of Grace or Knowledge who would be Rulers and who Subjects who Teachers and who Learners How many Offices of Piety and Charity would be unperformed God hath not a Church on Earth where all Members are so wise as besides the Essentials of Christianity to know all the Integrals much less to know the numerous little Accidents of Forms and Ceremonies and all that is really or pretendedly Indifferent and Lawful which Domineerers can invent to be so indeed and so to be all united in such things indifferent 18. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him 19. And if they were all one member where were the body 20. But now are they many members yet but one body 18 19 20. But as the Wise Creator in Nature so as our Redeemer Governor and Regenerator by Grace God hath chosen great diversity of Members as to Office and Gifts and he himself as it pleased him hath set them in his Church And who are they that presume against him to censure or cast out the meanest of such Were they all numerically or in Office or degree of Knowledge and Grace but one or equal the Church would not be such a thing as God hath made it But now God that freely delighteth in the variety of his Works hath made it one Body of Christ composed of
Lord Jesus Christ 57. But by Faith which seeth things to come we give God thanks that will raise us from the Dead and give us final Victory over Death through Christ 58. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 58. And now Brethren make this necessary use of all Seeing our Faith and Hope of a Resurrection and future Life assureth us that none of our Christian Labour or Suffering shall be in vain or to our loss or without a glorious Reward what remaineth but that against all Temptations you be steadfast and unmovable and do Gods Work with all your Power abounding in Labour and Patience to the end ANNOTATIONS AS this Chapter is of great use for our Instruction so it is not without many Difficulties to our Understanding I. It 's needful to be observed into how narrow a room Paul reduceth the Gospel or Articles of Faith concerning Christ and how greatly herein they differ from him that condemn excommunicate or persecute those who believe These and all the Bible besides if they subscribe not to the Truth of all their Articles and Forms superadded and the justness of their numerous Canons II. The Apparition of Christ to the Five hundred and to James seemeth part of that which St. John saith was not by him written So that part of the Evidence of Christs Resurrection should be enough to cause us to believe it III. Though it was but some at Corinth that denied the Resurrection the Church was faulty in bearing with them yet Separation from that Church for their sakes is not required nor allowed by the Apostle IV. The Socinians from the 19th Verse and divers others gather That Paul denieth the Felicity of our Souls before the Resurrection because he intimateth That if there were no Resurrection but only an Immortality of the Soul Christians were the most miserable Men and their Faith and Sufferings vain and they were yet in their Sins c. The Matter is weighty and the Solution hath its Difficulty Some say That because the Heretical denied the Immortality of the Soul as well as the Resurrection of the Body Paul supposeth this and answereth them as to both And they say That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying but to stand up that is to live again includeth the Life of the Separated Soul as well as the Resurrection of the Body Others say That Paul speaketh only of the Man and not of the Soul alone which is but part of the Man Soul and Body are essential to a Man and as a Man he may be miserable because part is so as a Tooth-ach is to the whole Body though the Soul be happy Others say That the Felicity or perfect Man at the Resurrection will be so much greater than that of the Separated Soul before and also that this Separate State is so darkly revealed to us that the Apostle maketh light of it in comparison of the latter The first of these Opinions is not inconsiderable but the chief Answer is by a stricter Exposition of the particular Texts And 1. Verse 19. argueth thus If we believe in and suffer for a Christ as risen who is not risen then he cannot save us either as to Soul or Body and then we are the most miserable sort of Men. For our Hopes in him for the Time and Things of this Life only affords us less than others have his Kingdom being not of this World This Argument is not against but for the Immortality of the Soul So Verse 32. What advantageth it me if the dead rise not i. e. Neither Soul nor Body is advantaged by suffering for a Christ as risen who is not risen V. The Comparison of Adam and Christ is as hard seeming to mean that Adam's Soul and his Posterities as such are not Immortal But indeed it implieth no more than this 1. That it 's called Gen. 2. a Living Soul but Christ the Lord of Life 2. That Adam had but a Soul breathed into him by Creation on Earth but Christ was in Heaven from Everlasting the Living God 3. That Adam propagated only Humanity but Christ also Sanctity and Felicity 4. That Adam by Nature had but a loseable Capacity of Bodily Life continued and Heavenly Felicity and by Sin came short of both But Christ hath Life in himself as the Root of Holiness and Happiness in Heaven which he will give Believers both to their Souls and Bodies and will give a Bodily Resurrection to all Men. VI. Ver. 24. The Kingdom delivered up to the Father is but that Government which Christ useth to recover and save Sinners and is no addition to the Father nor diminution to Christ But as a Prince undertaking to reduce Rebels layeth down his Commission and Arms when he hath done his Work and yet increaseth his own Honour or as a Physician giveth up his Hospital when he hath healed all the Sick And it is like yea certain that when Christs acquisitive Mediation is finished he will still be some sort of Mediator of our Fruition For we shall still behold his Glory VII Ver. 37.39 seem to intimate That the Body that shall rise is not the same that was sowed but such a Body as God pleaseth a new to give Doubtless it is the same in some respect and not the same in an respects And to be able to know just how far it is or is not the same is too hard for us and may be quietly left to the Will of God The Seminal part of the Grain Matter and Form liveth in the new Fruit in which it springeth up as the Seminal part of Man begins his Being in the Womb but the added Mass which makes up the Root the Stalk and Ear and new Grains are all drawn from without from the Water Earth and Air by God and by the Seminal Spirit We see that Men oft grow Fleshy Fat and Lean again and at last die with little but a skinned Skeleton I think few believe that either Men dying Fat shall rise Fat or Men dying Lean shall rise Lean or yet that every Man shall rise with all the Flesh which he ever lived or sinned in and which daily passed away or consumed in Sickness To know how much and what goeth to identifie the Body we must leave to God if we will not pretend to the knowledge we have not Nor is it necessary to believe that all Fowls Beasts and Fishes rise again and go to Heaven which are ever digested and made Humane Flesh The Apostle likening our Bodies to Seed maketh some to doubt whether the dead Body have a Resurrection by any Seminal Vertue as a Natural Cause or only rise by Miracle The latter is most commonly held And yet it is certain that the Soul taketh with it a Love and Inclination to its Body which is a sort of Seminal Disposition And no mortal Man knoweth
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ 3. Thanks and Praise be given to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in Celestials or Heavenly things which tend to Glory which Christ doth purchase promise prepare and possess for us 4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love 4. As he chose us as Members of Christ whom he chose to be our Head before the World was made that we should be holy and blameless both which summarily consist in holy Love 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved 5 6. Having predestinated us to become his adopted Children to him in and by Jesus Christ of his own free and good Will that so his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in his beloved Son might have the Praise and Glory Note 1. That the Election is from before the Foundation of the World 2. That it is one Decree or Election of God by which he chuseth Christ to be our Head and us to be his Members 3. It is one and the same Election by which God hath chosen us to the praise and glory of his Grace to be saved and to be holy and blameless in Love On Gods part it is by one Act and on our part it is to one state of Blessedness as Generation maketh one Man though as objectively that one have many Parts it may accordingly be named Many and distinguished And the Essentials are given at once though the Integrals and Augmentation be after given by degrees 4. That Love is the sum of that Holiness and Blamelesness to which we are predestinated 5. That we are not onely Predestinated to Life on condition of Holiness but are Predestinated to Holiness it self and consequently to Faith and Repentance and not onely on condition that we believe and repent And so Election is of Individual Persons to Faith Holiness and Salvation and not onely of Believers to Salvation or of Persons to be saved if they believe A Conditional puts nothing into being or act Were the Scripture dark in the Point of Gods free Electing of some to Faith and Repentance more than others of equal Guilt and Pravity Experience might fully satisfie us of it 7 8. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence 7 8. In whom we have deliverance by Redemption through the Sacrifice of his Blood for our Sins even the forgiveness of all our Sin which manifesteth the Riches of his Grace and Bounty from which this Gift proceedeth in which he abounded toward us in the exercise of that wonderful Divine Wisdom and Prudence in the way of our Salvation by Christ which to search and know is the greatest Wisdom and Prudence of Man 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself 9. Having now opened to us the Mystery of his own Will and good Pleasure which he purposed in himself but was little known by Jews or Gentiles 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him 10. That when he saw the fit time fully come he might gather into one Universal Church united to Christ the Head as his Kingdom and Body both Jews and Gentiles yea Angels and Men the departed Souls and those on Earth to be One I say in him their Head and King Note Those that confine this to Jews and Gentiles yea and those that exclude Angels force the Text without proof For though Angels sinned not Christ may gather us into one Heavenly Society with them and make us like them himself being the Head 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will 11. In whom also we have our Lot of Inheritance being thereto predestinated by God who calleth whom he pleaseth and worketh all things according to his own Counsel Wisdom and Will 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ 12. That we who were first called and made Believers in Christ might be the First-fruits of his Church and bring him much Praise and Glory by our Service 13. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise 13. In whom you trusted when you had heard the true Gospel of your Salvation and in and by Christ after you believed you received the great Gift of the promised Spirit which is Gods Seal upon you and the Seal of the Truth of his Promise to you 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory 14. Which Spirit is given us by God as the ascertaining Earnest of our Inheritance to fit us for and assure us of our attaining the Possession of that which Christ hath purchased for those whom he had redeemed to be his peculiar People 15. Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints 16. Cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers 15 16. Hearing of the continuance and increase of your Faith and your Love to all the Saints and not onely to those that conform to your Minds in small or indifferent things do constantly give thanks to God for your Stability and daily pray for you 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him 17. That he that is the God of our Lord Jesus as Man who sent him and raised him from the dead and glorified him would give you yet more of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that you may know yet more of the Mystery of his Love in our Redemption by Christ 18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints 18. That your Minds being yet more illuminated you may fullier and clearlier know to what glorioâ—s Hopes he hath called us and what Treasures of Glory he hath promised to his Saints in whom he will be glorified for ever 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who
accept it and doth by many Mercies intimate to them that he useth them not according to the meer violated Law of Innocency but on Terms of Grace 4. Few Christians have the face to affirm that this Universal Conditional Pardon and Gift or Law of Grace is no Fruit of the Death of Christ 5. If therefore this Act of Pardon was purchased by Christ and given to all no modest Face can deny that he so far died for all as to purchase for them all that he actually giveth them 6. It is usual to say that we give a Man a Benefit e. g. Life to a condemned Malefactor if it be given him on the fair Condition of his Acceptance and brought to his own Will and he intreated to receive it 7. If any Wrangler say that this is unfit Language to say He is willing that Men shall be saved who offereth them Salvation freely unless he also make them willing Let him confess that it is but the Name that he denieth and none of the Gifts in question 8. And be it known that Unwillingness cometh not from a Physical Impossibility through the want of Natural Faculties as it is with Brutes but from a voluntary Pravity which aggravateth the Sin 9. And the mutable Will of Man is to be changed by Reason And God giveth Men Reasons in their kind sufficient to persuade them to accept of Christ and Life 10. And lastly No Man can say that Adam when he fell had not Grace enough to make him Able to have stood which he might have used and should have done to his actual standing Noâ— that God never giveth such a power to believe or at least to come nearer the State of a true Believer to many that might bring it into Act and do not This much is enough to end this Controversie with modest Wits 7. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle I speak the truth in Christ and lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity 7. This Gospel I am appointed to preach to the Gentiles Christ knoweth that I feign not his Commission and faithfully and truly to be their Teacher 8. I will therefore that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting 8. According to this my Commission I give these Directions following to all sorts First That all Men be much in Prayer to God not onely in the Assemblies but in all convenient Places wheresoever open or secret but that they lift not up to God Hands defiled with any wilful Sin but pure and clean by harmless Conversation and that they come not to God with Wrath against others or with a quarrelsom disputing contentious Disposition but in Christian Love Note That the Ceremony of Lifting up the Hands in Prayer which was an Act of Corporal secondary Worship is lawful and fit where Custom maketh it so and yet is not necessary by Institution as Kneeling also is 9. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety not with broidered-hair or gold or pearls or costly aray 9. And for Women I forbid them not all Ornaments specially when they come to the Sacred Assemblies but let them be adorned onely with Attire which expresseth Gravity Modesty and Sobriety not like proud vain or alluring Persons with curious Dressings of their Hair Embroidery Jewels Gold or any over-costly Apparel as those that would seem either Richer or Comelier than they are 10. But which becometh women professing godliness with good works 10. But let them take Good Works of Piety to God and Charity to Man for their chiefest Ornament as they will do if they are true Professors of Godliness It is these in which they must excel the Ungodly and not in Ostentation of Wealth or Beauty 11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection 11. Let them be Learners rather than Teachers and let them use Silence and humble Subjection and not be over-talkative and masterly specially silent in the Church 12. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence 12. I forbid Women to be Publick Teachers and to usurp any Authority over their Husbands or over Men in Church-government but to be quiet silent and obedient Note 1. That Paul forbiddeth not Women to teach their Children or Servants or the elder Women to teach the younger 2. Nor doth he meddle with Cases of Civil Government as whether a Woman may Govern a Kingdom or a City or a multitude of her own Tenants and Men-servants 13 14. For Adam was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression 13 14. For God made the Woman for Subjection by making Adam first and then making her to be for his help And the Woman subjected her self yet lower by being first in the Transgression deceived by the Serpent and then tempting her Husband 15. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety 15. Yet though her Sin have brought her low and even under a Curse in the Pain and Peril of Child-bearing she is even in that low and sad condition under Gods merciful Protection and saving Covenant of Grace which containeth the Promise of this Life and that to come if they continue in Faith Charity and Purity with Sobriety Or Though Sin and Sorrow in Travel came in by the Woman yet by a Womans Child-bearing a Saviour came into the World which is some Reparation of the Honour of the Sex And so the Women may be saved as well as the Men by Christ if they continue in Faith Charity Purity and Sobriety CHAP. III 1. THis is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work 1. As for the Office of a Bishop believe it he that desireth it doth desire a very great and excellent work It is not a bare Name Title Dignity or place of Honour and Command but a Work and a Work of great Importance and Labour and Difficulty which every desirer is not fit for Take heed therefore whom thou dost admit 2. A bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach A Bishop must be one 1. That is not guilty of any scandalous sin since his Conversion 2. One that hath not put away his Wife except for Fornication and married another much less that hath two at once 3. One that is vigilant and wholly addicted to do what he shall undertake 4. One that is of a sober moderate temper and not guilty of Levity and Temerity 5. One that is of an Orderly Composed Decent Temper and Carriage 6. By Charity to be ready to entertain Strangers and take in those that are exposed to want 7. One that is fit by Ability and Zealous Willingness to teach the Flock the necessary things
forwardness to backbite and speak evil falsely as Accusers of those that distaste them â—ot sober and careful of their Business not trusty in all things 12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their children and their own houses well 12. The Deacons must not be such as have more Wives than one or that have injuriously put away one and married another The good government of their own Children and Houses also must shew that they are fit to serve in the Church 13. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus 13. For though the Deacons be as Servants to the Pastors they that have used that Office well are in a degree above the Vulgar and have matter of confident Boldness and Freedom in the management and defence of the Affairs of Christianity 14. These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly 15. But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth 14 15. I hope to come to thee shortly but lest I should be delayed I write these things to thee that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to converse in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God as in it a Pillar and firm Buttress or Basis of the Truth Note Though it be true that the Truth of God is most safely preserved in his Church yet I with Gataker marvel that so many apply these Words to the Church which are spoken of Timothy That it is he that is called here a Pillar and Buttress of the Truth seemeth to me evident 1. In that in the Allegory it is not like that Paul would in the very next Words call the Church a Pillar and Buttress in the House when he calleth it The House it self He plainly dâ—fferenceth a Part from the Whole The Church is the Whole a Pillar is a Part. 2. It is the very Sum of Paul's Exhortation to Timothy that according to his Office he should be a Pillar and Buttress of Truth in the Church 3. The Preposition in the House agreeth to him and the Word Pillar c. which is in the House 4. The omission of the Article before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate that it should rather be translated a Pillar c. than the Pillar which it's like would have been put in had it been the Churches peculiar Privilege that had been meant 5. The Apostle useth the same Word of James Cephas and John Gal. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accounted Pillars which Timothy was And the very same Phrase as here is used Rev. 3.12 He that overcometh I will make him a Pillar in the Temple of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Rev. 10.1 the Angels Feet c But the Church is never called a Pillar that 's in the Church 6. As to them that feign it would be false Construction because the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Nominative Case this hath no pretence from the Text So that I doubt not but the plain sense is as it is Paraphrased and all the Fabrick is built on a meer Mistake which the Papists raise upon this Text Though were it otherwise it would not serve their turn 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory 16. And confessedly the Mystery of Godliness which requireth such great Abilities in thee as to make thee a Pillar and Buttress of it in the Church is exceeding great and high 1. God himself appeared to Man in the Flesh of our Redeemer to manifest his Love and Will for our Salvation 2. The Spirit was Christs Witness which by its unimitable holy Impressions Miracles his Ressurection and Communication to his Followers did justifie Christ to be truly what he did profess to be and sealed his Doctrine to the World 3. Angels beheld proclaimed and obeyed him 4. The Wall of Separation being broken down he was preached by his Commissioned Apostles to the Gentile World 5. The World that knew him not or despised him is by a few poor unlearned Men brought to believe in him and submit to him as Lord and Saviour Philosophy submitteth and Wit is silenced and Policy and Power stoop to him in part and more will do 6. He was taken up into Heaven in Glory Angels attending him his Apostles looking on These Six Articles are that great Mystery which requireth the ablest Preacher and the soundest Faith And he that firmly believeth these doth see into a more excellent Mystery than Philosophy and will be a stable Pillar in the Church CHAP. IV. 1. NOw the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils 1. The Spirit of Prophecy plainly foretelleth us that in the latter times some who profest themselves Christians shall depart from either the Whole or some Essential Parts of the Christian Faith turning Apostates or Hereticks and this by giving heed to false Revelations of seducing Spirits in themselves or others and to Doctrines of Devils Note Whether it mean effectively Doctrines taught by Devils or as Mr. Mede largely maintaineth objectively Doctrines concerning Demons or the Nature Order and Minds of the Spirits like the Valentinians Aioâ—es c. I leave to the Judgment of others 2. Speaking lies in hypocrisie having their conscience feared with a hot iron 2. Covering their Lies or False Doctrine by Hypocritical Pretences of Piety or Divine Revelation or some great Excellency having Consciences feared and branded as the Perfidious use to be by their flagitious Lives 3. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth 3. Note I think it far more probable that Paul here speaketh of those Hereticks which made up a Religion of Judaism and Pythagorean Fancies who taught That Marriage was of the Devil to propagate sinful miserable Men and that Flesh was not to be eaten especially the unclean Beasts than of those erroneous Christians who onely forbid Marriage to the Clergy and Flesh on certain Days of Abstinence or that affect the total avoiding Marriage and eating Flesh as a State of special Strictness not required of most For Paul seemeth plainly to speak of a Doctrine taught to all and he describeth Christian Knowledge herein to be That God hath made such Meat in kind to be received with Thanksgiving and not that All men or any at all times must use such Meats 4. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving 5.
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer 4 5. For all that God hath made for Food is good and clean and not to be refused as in kind unlawful if it be received thankfully as from Gods Gift to fit us for his Service For to such as do thus it is more than lawful even a sanctified Means to sit them to serve God Gods Word allowing and giving it them and Prayer craving his Blessing to that end 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained 6. These things thou must suggest to the Brethren as their Teacher that thou maist approve thy self a good Minister of Christ bred up in sound Faith and Doctrine c. 7. But refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise thy self rather unto godliness 7. But as for the Jewish and Heretical Fancies of Abstinence from Marriage and Meats and the idle Reasons from Tradition or Pythagorean Dotage which they give for them avoid them and let it be thy Business to preach promote and practise plain Doctrine and Duties of Godliness and guide the Flock therein 8. For bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life the now is and of that which is to come 8. For no Corporal Austerities or Exercises in Religion must be overvalued The best of them are of small Profit in comparison of that Godliness which consisteth in Spiritual Exercises of Faith Hope Love and their Expressions But this true Spiritual substantial Godliness is profitable to all that we can justly desire having from God the Promise of all the Good of this Life which is meet for us and we meet for it and of that which is to come after this Life is ended 9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation 10. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe 9 10. And what I say of the Promise to Godliness for this Life and that to come is a Truth most sure and of greatest moment and worthy of our greatest acceptation For it is on the belief of this that we labour strive and suffer trusting on the Goodness and Promises of God who is Life and the Lord of Life and as their Saviour giveth the Mercies of this Life and that to come as Men are fitted for each to all Men all Good being from him to all the World But eternal Good being by his Promise secured to all true Believers which others reject when it is offered them for temporal Good 11 12. These things command and teach Let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity 11 12. These things teach commandingly as necessary with Authority And so behave thy self that thy Youth expose thee not to Contempt Be thou an Example in whom all the Believers may see how they should live in thy Speech and thy Conversation in Love and Spirituality in sound Faith and spotless Purity 13. Till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 13. Till I come be diligent in Reading the Scripture privately for thy self and publickly to Expound it to the Church to apply it by Exhortation and sound Doctrine 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery 14. Neglect not diligently to use and improve those Eminent Gifts which were given thee even with Prophecy of thee as one that would be faithful by the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery or Elders of of the Church when thou wast called and ordained to the Ministry For neglect quencheth the Spirit 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all 15. Note That even those that are extraordinarily Inspired and Qualified must study hard and wholly give themselves to that and all their Ministerial Work if they would appear good Proficients Therefore those thaâ— have no such Inspiration have need of hard study And they that wholly addict themselves to the Ministry have no leisure for Magistracy or Worldly Avocations Nor can do that for many hundred Churches which required the whole of a Timothy for one 16. Take heed unto thy self and unto thy doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 16. In sum Take greatest heed First that thy own Soul and Life be Sound and Holy and Undefiled and next that thy Doctrine be so and thou diligently labour in it Continue in this twofold Care and Diligence and thou shalt secure thy own Salvation and in all likelyhood thy Hearers for God will will not deny his Blessing to such Labours CHAP. V. 1. REbuke not an elder but intreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren 2. The elder women as mothers the younger as sisters with all purity 1 2. When Elders in Age or Office transgress use not Magisterial roughness of Reproof but Humble Exhortation as to Fathers And speak to the Younger with Love and Gentleness as to Brethren And speak to the Elder Women as to Mothers with due respect and to the Younger as Sisters carefully shunning all that savoureth of Immodesty or Unchastity in thought or speech or looks or behaviour 3 4. Honour widows that are widows indeed But if any widow have children or nephews let them learn first to shew piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable before God 3 4. Let those that are Widdows indeed at once deprived of Husbands and Maintenance being Aged and unable to work be maintained by the Church with due respect But if any of them have Children and Nephews that can maintain them Let these their Off-spring be taught that Piety and Gratitude for all their Parents care of them oblige them to maintain their Widdows and not to cast them on the Church and that this is a Duty that God requireth of them and will accept Note That it is doubted whether these Widdows were Deaconesses or meerly kept for poverty I think that it was the Custom of the Ancient Churches to maintain all that are Poor and Aged and unable to get their own livings but not to maintain them in Idleness but to appoint them to employ much of their time in visiting the sick and poor Women and counselling the younger sort and giving notice of their Wants and Cases to the Elders so that the same Women were also as Deaconesses tho some that were wiser and fitter than the rest might be more specially thus employ'd 5. Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and
angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward 2. For if the Law which God delivered to Moses by the ministry of the voice and appearance of Angels was yet firm and sure and every sin against it and threatned by it was punished 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him 4. God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will 3 4. Much less shall we escape if we neglect this far greater Salvation and more excellent manifestation of the Will of God even that Gospel which Christ first preacht himself and those that heard him confirmed by their testimony and preaching God also confirming to us their testimony from Heaven by many such signs and wonderful works and with many sorts of miracles or acts of Power and distributions of the Holy Ghost to others when they believed as were a certain proof of God's attestation and the approbation of his own Will Note That here we have the true evidence of the truth of the Gospel on which Believers may build their faith 5. For unto angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak 5. God hath not made Angels the Soveraigns of the World to come and put the Kingdom of Glory so under them that all must be their Subjects 6. But one in a certain place testified saying What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him 7. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels thou crownedst him with glory and honour and didst set him over the works of thy hands 8. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet 6 7 8. But the Psalm is ultimately to be understood of Christ and his Church which saith What is man c. Though Christ was a while on Earth in a state of Humiliation below Angels us to the Flesh yet it was in order to the Glory and victorious Power of his Kingdom 8. For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him But now we see not yet all things put under him 8. By this it is sure that all things are to be subdued to Christ though yet we see it not done 9. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man 9. But we see that Jesus who was made lower than Angels for and in his state of Humiliation and Crucifixion is already ascended up into Heaven where he is crowned with Glory And as his death was suffered in the common nature of Man and the sins of all men had a causal hand in it and it was by God's Grace the purchasing Cause of the conditional Covenant of Grace and of all the good that men receive so he dyed to bring Man to Glory with himself And therefore that Text may well be understood of the advancement of Man both in Christ and his Church that shall be advanced by him 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings 10. For it seemed meet to the God of Wisdom for whom and by whom all things are to make Christ the Captain of their Salvation a perfect performer of his Saving-Office and to obtain his own Glory in heavenly Perfection by the way of suffering and to bring all God's adopted Sons to Glory by the Merit of it and by following him in the same suffering way 11. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren 12. Saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee 13. And again I will put my trust in him and again Behold I and the children which God hath given me 11 12 13. And that it is in and by Christ that Humane Nature is advanced as the Psal 8. saith is proved by the Union that is between Christ and us He that sanctifieth us and we that are sanctified are of the same Humane Nature and are as one Body And therefore as we must suffer with him we shall reign with him Therefore in the Texts that under other typical persons speak of Christ he calls us his Brethren and Children given him to whose trust we are committed 14 15. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage 14 15. And that he might bring us to Glory with him as we have flesh and blood he would first be so far made one with us as to take also flesh and blood that he might be capable of suffering and dying for us and so by undergoing death which we by sin had brought our selves under and by rising from the Dead he might conquer Satan and Death and destroy his Kingdom and Power of Death which he had obtained by conquering Man by his Temptations and by God's letting him be the Executioner where he had been the conquering Tempter and so that Christ might deliver the Faithful by his Conquest of Satan and Death from continuance under Death and from the danger of Hell and from the slavish fear of both Death temporal and everlasting who else by their guilt and liableness to both these must be all their life time in bondage both by their danger and their fears 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 16. For it is not Angels that he took hold of or whose Natures he assumed and came to save but he took on him the Nature of Man the Seed of Abraham to save Man 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people 17. So that he must be in all things like Man whom he would save that he might be fit for his undertaken Office to be an High Priest for us to Godward and to be merciful and faithful therein to make Reconciliation for our sins 18. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted 18. For he himself having been tempted and tryed by Sufferings and having overcome them all he is now
more meet to be a Compassionate Helper the Example the Teacher and the Trust of them that must follow him through temptations and by his Merit and Victory hath obtained power to deliver them CHAP. III. WHerefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Jesus 2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house 1. Wherefore you who are holy Brethren by Faith and Dedication given up to Christ and in him made partakers of that Calling from Heaven which maketh you Heirs of Heaven study and consider Jesus Christ the great Apostle sent of God to be the prime Preacher of the Gospel and the High Priest and chief Guide and Mediator to Godward of our Religion and Profession who faithfully did all that belonged to his undertaken Office in sacrificing himself for our sins and fulfilling all Righteousness and conquering Satan and Death and ascending to intercede for us in Glory and sending down the Holy Ghost and making and sealing the Law of Faith even as Moses in his time was faithful though with disparity of Honour and Work Christ in his own House by a more perfect Administration and Moses but as a Steward 3. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house 3. For Christ is as much more honourable than Moses as the Maker and Master is than the House for Moses was but a Member of the Family but Christ the Maker and Master of it 4. For every house is builded by some man but he that built all things is God 4. All Families or Houses are founded by some man but he that built the Church is the same that built or made all things and that is God 5. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after 6. But Christ as a son over his own house 5 6. And Moses as a Servant was faithful for the Delivery and Confirmation of so much of God's Word as was to be spoken to the Jews by him but Christ as the Son and Heir and Master of the House as his own 6. Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end 6. This House is the Church of which we are parts so be it we hold fast the confident Profession of our faith and the joy and glorying in our hopes of the promised Blessedness firm to the end 7. Wherefore as the holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice 8. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness 9. When your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do always err in their hearts and they have not known my ways 11. So I sware in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest 7 8 9 10 11. But seeing he will take none to dwell with him in Glory but those that persevere hear and consider what the Holy Ghost said to and of the Israelites To day c. Neglect not his present Call and your present Day to the hardening of your hearts as your Fathers did in the Wilderness by which God's Justice was engaged against them as a People whose hearts were habituated to evil and have not the obedient knowledge of his Ways and Works and Will So that he sware in his just displeasure that that Generation should not enter into the promised Land 12. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God 12. Take warning by these Israelites and see that there be not in any of you an evil unsound heart that is prepared by secret Unbelief to depart in Tryal from the Living God 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin 13. To this end one means appointed by God for your perseverance is speedily and daily to exhort and stir up one another the Pastors in the Church and Assemblies and all in their Places and Converse And the rather because Sin of which you are in danger is a deceitful thing and they that revolt are made believe that it is but a receiving of the Truth or a necessary Self-saving and no forsaking of Christ or Truth or Godliness N. Qu. But what if Rulers forbid us to meet daily for such Exhortation Answ God commandeth you to do it in the manner and time that the End requireth and no man can dispense with his Law The Christians for three hundred years assembled when forbidden Qu. But what if Christian Rulers forbid it Ans Christians have more Obligation than Heathens to do good but no more Authority to do evil or null God's Laws Qu. But what if Violence or Prisons restrain us Ans God requireth not Impossibilities 14. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end 14. We are iâ—itially made partakers of Christ as our Saviour but if we will attain Salvation by him we must hold the subsisting faith or the confidence in which we have begun or which is our Principle firm to the end For Perseverance is made a Condition of the Promise of Salvation 15. Whilst it is said To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation 16. For some when they had heard did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses 15 16. The words tell us that some that heard after Deliverance from Egypt provoked God but it was not all 17. But with whom was he grieved forty years was it not with them that had sinned whose carcases fell in the wilderness 17. With whom was God so displeased as Grief here signifieth Nothing displeaseth him but sin It was with backsliding disobedient unthankful murmurers that would not rest in the Will and Word and Providence of God but must have their own carnal will fulfilled and so God in Justice killed them in the Wilderness after so many Miracles had led them many years towards the promised Land Take heed lest you follow them in the like sin to greater punishment for abusing greater mercies 18 19. And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief 18 19. It was the sinning Unbelievers that he sware should not enter and it was because of their Unbelief that they could not enter Take heed therefore lest ye fall by Unbelief in Tryal for there is more required to our compleat Salvation than to our first part in Christ CHAP. IV. 1. LEt us therefore fear lest a
see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God 5. It was by trusting God for a better unseen life that Enoch was made fit for and obtained to be translated by God without dying and so was no more seen on Earth For before it is recorded of him that he pleased God who thus rewarded him Note 1. That though Enoch died not by any corruption of his body no doubt but it had such change at its entrance into Heaven as the bodies of the living Saints shall have at Christ's Second Coming which proveth a transmutation of Elements by Scripture Testimony and as Christ's own body had which made it suitable to the heavenly Region For flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God It is made a spiritual incorruptible body as ours shall be 2. It is like that this intimateth how God would have used Man if he had not by sin contracted the guilt of threatned death 3. But it 's certain that it is recorded to tell us whither it is that Faith and Holiness do tend and that there is a better life 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him 6. Those that please God must needs be happy for that is Happiness it self But it is impossible to have a heart or life that pleaseth God without a Trusting-belief of these two Articles 1. That God is the very and only God infinite in all perfection 2. And that he is as our Ruler and Benefactor the full Rewarder of all them that with sincere diligence seek to please him in the obedience of his Governing Will or his Law revealed to them Note He that thinks there is no God can neither love trust or obey him And he that thinks he is impotent ignorant or bad or any way imperfect thinks that he is not God giveth him but the name of God while he denyeth and blasphemeth him and he that thinketh that he is not Man's Ruler morally by Law but only physically by Motion like lifeless Engines will never obey his Laws and therefore will live after his lusts and be far worsâ— than saya e Brutes as abusing a nobler Nature And he that thinks that God will let men be losers by their most costly and diligent obedience takes him to be none of our Governour or to be unjust and so not to be God indeed Nay if he believe not that his Holiness and Goodness will â—e pleased with and abundantly reward such sincere diligence And he that believeth not a life of great Reward after this cannot well believe that God is such a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him seeing what they suffer here Qu. But are these two Articles enough to Salvation Ans He that sincerely and trustingly believeth and practiseth these shall not perish but what more is necessary God will make known to him For of a truth whoever deny it God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him And if a Soul that truly loveth God and is accepted of him should be in Hell Heaven it self should be in Hell 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith Note 1. God's Revelation was Noah's warning 2. The Flood neither seen nor likely in it self was the thing revealed and believed with the way to scape 3. True Belief will be effectual in an obedient use of God's appointed means of Salvation 4. The belief of God's Threatnings is a part of Saving Faith 5. Faithful Obedience to God condemneth the unbelieving rebellious World 6. All these acts of Faith go to make us Heirs of the Righteousness of Faith that is to be saved as those that God accounteth acceptably righteous 7. To be moved with the promised Glory and threatned Misery that is unseen is the Life of Faith 8. By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went 8. Why did Abraham go when God called him into an unknown Land but that he practically trusted and believed God that he would give it his Seed for an Inheritance 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange countrey dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise 10. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God 9 10 And why did he and Isaac and Jacob sojourn there in Tents as strangers but because he believed that God would give his Posterity Cities there such as Jerusalem strong and walled instead of Tents and would give him in the Mean time a place in the heavenly Jerusalem for his Faith and Obedience to God 11. Through faith also Sarah her self received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a Child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised 11. And Sarah past age brought forth Isaac because she trusted God's Promise against natural probability 12. Therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead so many as the stars of the sky in multitude and as the sand which is by the Sea-shore innumerable 12. Thus the numerous Seed of Israel sprang from one dead to generating by believing God 13. These all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth 13. Both Abraham and his posterity long lived as strangers before the promised Land was given to their Successors which they received not themselves And Abraham who foresaw Christ's day and rejoyced and his believing Seed died in that Faith which saw him afar off and the heaven Glory promised by him and yet lived not to see the promised Messiah but confessed that they were Pilgrims on Earth though they believed and embraced the Promises 14. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Countrey 14. And as their taking themselves for strangers in Canaan shewed that they were not yet at home and were but seekers of a Countrey promised so those that were true Believers confessing that they were but strangers and Pilgrims on Earth declare that it was a better place than Earth that they sought and hoped for 15. And truly if they had been mindful of that countrey from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned 15. And it was not Chaldea whence they came which they sought for they might have returned to that 16. But now
they desire a better countrey that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city 16. But it was a better Countrey which they desired and though the carnal Seed look't but to Canaan the true Believers took Jerusalem but as a Type of the Jerusalem above and chiefly desired a heavenly Countrey and it was specially in relation to Heaven that God condescended to be called The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the God of Israel for it 's there that he will gloriously own and govern them Note 1. The force of Christ's Argument against the Sadduces from God's relation to Abraham c. is here expounded 2. They err that think Believers of old expected not a heavenly felicity Though Moses's Law as it was political to be the Rule of Magistrates Judgment reached not so high yet as subordinate to the Promise or Covenant of Grace it did 17. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son 18. Of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy seed be called 17 18. It was by believing and trusting the Promise of God concerning his Seed in Isaac that Abraham when God thereby tryed him offered up even that Son to death to whom the Promise of Multiplication was made and the Nations to be blest in his Seed 19. Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the Dead from whence also he received him in a figure 19. For he believed that God's Promise must be fulfilled and could not be broken for want of Power no more than for want of Wisdom or Goodness and that he would rather raise him from the dead than break his word And indeed he received him again as it had been from the dead in which he prefigured Christ's Resurrection and ours Note The great difficulty of Abraham's case was how he was bound to take that to be God's Voice which bid him murder the Innocent and so break God's Law of Nature Must not we try the Spirits by the standing Law of God in Nature Ans 1. God is the absolute Lord of all Lives and can do no man wrong And Abraham knew that he could make both Isaac and himself amends yea that he could and would presently raise him to life again 2. And by full evidence and experimental proof he knew that it was God that spake to him But we are supposed to have more cause of doubting where we must try the Spirits We must believe no pretended Revelation against certain foreknown Truth nor yet disbelieve God upon a proud pretence that we know that to be Truth which indeed we know not 20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come 20. It was by believing God's Promise of things to come yet unseen that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau foretelling what God would do with them 21. By faith Jacob when he was a dying blessed both the Sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff 21. It was by believing unseen future things that Jacob when he could scarce sit up and was ready to die foretold what God would do with the posterity of Joseph's Sons Note Qu. When Isaac and Jacob both ignorantly preferred the younger before the elder how could that be said to be done by Faith which they understood not Ans. 1. They believed the promised Blessing to both 2. And they believed the inward Inspiration of God which told them This person on whom thou layest thy hands shall have this particular Blessing though they knew not which of them it was by name It was to a determinate individual 22. By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones 22. How could Joseph foretel the Israelites going out of Egypt and give them order to carry his bones with them but by believing unseen future things on the credit of God's Testimony by inward prophetical Inspiration which was his Word to him 23. By faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the Kings commandment 23. It was by believing some intimation from God partly inward and partly in his personal appearance what Moses should prove as to unseen future things which encouraged his Parents to hide him notwithstanding the murderous commandment of the King 24. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs daughter 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward 24 25 26. It was by trusting God's Intimations oâ— unseen future things that Moses being grown up refused the wealth and honour of an Adopted Son of Pharaoh's Daughter preferring affliction among the People of God before the short enjoyment of sinful pleasures yea esteeming such reproach as we Christians now undergo for Christ and as the Believers of the future Kingdom of Christ then suffered to be not only tolerable but greater riches than all the Treasures of Egypt because he had a believing respect to the recompence of Reward to which such sufferings did conduce 27. By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 27. Why left he Egypt to go into a Foreign Land and Wilderness and after fearlesly faced a wrathful King when he spake from God but because as his Eyes saw the flaming tokens of the presence of God so his Faith was instead of a sight of him that is invisible He believed in an unseen God for unseen future things 28. Through faith he kept the passeover and the sprinkling of blood lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them 28. Why kept he the Passover and sprinkled the door-posts with blood but because he believed God for unseen future things even that the destroying Angel should spare such houses 29. By faith they passed through the red sea as by dry land which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned 28. How durst they have ventured into and through the Red Sea but that they believed God that he would there deliver them by that Miracle when the Egyptians were drowned who went not in by Faith but by Presumption Note It is a great Controversie among Expositors whether the Israelites passed quite through the Sea to the other side or rather went in and came out as in a semicircular course on the same side because their Journeys are after said to be on the same side where they entred and so they think it was but to draw in the Egyptians 30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven
chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him 5. Consider how God himself confuteth your over-valuing rich men and vilifying the poor Is it not mostly of the poor that your Churches consist Is it not them that God hath chosen poor in the World but rich in Faith to be here made Heirs and hereafter Possessors of that Kingdom of Glory which he hath promised to them that truly love him 6 7. But ye have despised the poor Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called 6 7. Yet you despise the poor whom God himself chuseth and honoureth And doth not your own experience and suffering condemn you Who is it but rich men that oppress you by tyranny and draw you like Malefactors before their Courts of Judicature Do they not blaspheme the name of Christ and reproach your Religion 8. If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well 8 I persuade you not to hate men for their riches but not to think that these allow you so partial a differencing If you obey God's great Command as the Scripture teacheth you to love all sorts of your neighbours as your selves according to the various degrees of their truest amiableness be they rich or poor you then do well 9. But if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors 9. But if you thus inordinately respect men differently for their wealth not only the Gospel of Love but the Law of Moses convinceth you as sinners Exod. 23.3 Lev. 30.15 Deut. 1.16 17. 10. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all 11. For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill Now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the law 10 11. And that Law condemneth all that continue not in all things therein written to do them and we are bound by God's Law inforce to universal Obedience If you keep all other Commands and presumptuously break one you are contemners of the Law and so interpretatively break all 12. So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty 12. And though you are delivered from Moses's Law and the Covenant of Works remember that Christ is your King and Law-giver and you are not lawless therefore so speak and so do as they that are under his Law of Liberty and Grace and shall be judged by it by Justification or Condemnation 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgment 13. For though this be a Law of Mercy it will condemn the unmerciful without mercy It hath its conditions of life or death though none but what consist with Grace But the merciful shall find mercy at Judgment And God's mercy in Christ as the cause and their mercy to men for his sake as the condition will prevail against condemning Judgment 14. What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him 14. Is not a meer wordy Profession an unprofitable thing to your selves as well as to others Will professing Christianity and saying you believe profit you to Salvation if you obey not Christ and live not according to the Gospel 15 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food And one of you say unto them Depart in peace be you warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit 15 16. Will good words cloath the naked or feed the hungry Is it not like a mocking of them 17. Even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone 17. Even so your notional knowledge and belief and the bare professiâ—n of Faith if it produce not the fruits of Obedience Love and Mercy is but an uneffectual dead thing in it self shewing a dead Soul and is dead as to your Justification and Salvation 18. Yea a man may say Thou hast faith and I have works shew me thy faith without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works 18. Any one may say to this man if thy Religion be sound it will have life and power and be known by its fruits Canst thou shew and justifie thy Religion or Belief without any good works or fruits as I can do mine by them 19. Thou believest that there is one God thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble 19. It is part of thy Religion to believe that there is One God This is well done it is a most fundamental Truth but it saveth not the Devils that believe it and tremble 20. But wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar 20 21. But art not thou a vain man that knowest not that Faith is but a dead Opinion uneffectual to justifie and save if it be uneffectual to Works Dost thou not discern how plainly the Scripture confuteth thee Was it not Doing in Faith or a Faith that caused working Obedience by which Abraham was justified who was the Father of the Faithful when he offered his Son Isaac and God said Gen. 22.16 Because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy Son thy only Son in blessing I will bless thee c. 22. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect 22. You may see that his Faith made him obey God's Command and the obedient working of it did constitute it a sound effectual Faith without which it could not justifie him 23. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God 23. And this is the true sense of the Scripture which saith Abraham believed c. that is he so far believed and trusted God as to offer up his Son and this trust working by such Obedience or this practical effectual trust was so accepted by God that though he was not perfect without sin God accounted him a righteous man that was meet for the free Salvation of his Grace and to be called The Friend of God 24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only 24. You see then that by such necessary doing God's will which is the product of an effectual Faith and sheweth it to be lively and sincere and not a dead Opinion a man is accounted just by God accordâ—ng to the Covenant of Grace through Christ and not only by bare believing or not by believing only without
with holy Resolution and soberly watch and keep up your Hope until the end for that glorious effect of Redemption and Grace which you shall see and enjoy at the day of Christ's glorious appearing which will answer all your Hopes 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance 14. And as obedient Children of God to whom you are reconciled no more living as you did in the time of your ignorance in fleshly lusts and worldly vice 15. But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 16. Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 15 16. And as Children must be like their Father and they must please God who will be saved by him therefore as he that hath called you is a holy God and Saviour be ye a holy People for so God requireth Be holy for I am holy 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work passe the time of your sojourning here in fear 17. And if you call God your Father and call on him who without respect of persons for any worldly difference judgeth all men according to their works let the thoughts of his Holiness and future Judgment cause you to pass the time that you as Sojourners wait for Christ's coming in holy cautelous obedient fear 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers 19. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 18 19. For the preciousness of the price which redeemed us tells us the great worth of our Salvation from sin and misery which was not with silver and gold or any corruptible price but it was with the precious blood of Christ the spotless Lamb of God that ye were redeemed from the vain Ceremonies and Traditions which you were bred up in and from your sinful conversation 20. Who verily was fore ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God 20 21. Whom God had sore-ordained to this blessed Office before the foundation of the World but though oft prophesied of was not incarnate and manifest in the flesh till these last times even for you that live since his coming who are not by him drawn as we are falsly accused from the true and only God but by him are taught the true knowledge of God and to believe that God to be God indeed wise good and almighty who raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory and so that your Faith and Hope might be ultimately in God alone by Christ's Mediation 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently 22. And as you have purified your Souls from former Errour and Sin by obeying the Gospel by the work of God's Spirit unto unfeigned love of Christian Brethren be sure to keep up that Love and with a pure heart and deep affection to love each other 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 23. Seeing you are not only Brethren by corruptible generation and relation but of incorruptible seed by the Word of God who liveth and abideth for ever and so must your incorruptible love to each other which is part of your incorruptible nature 24. For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you 24 25. For all flesh and all its glory is a fading dying thing like the grass and flower But God's Word is everlasting Truth as Christ the Author is and is our Guide to an Everlasting Life And this true Word is it which we preach to you by the Gospel and bespeaketh endless constancy in your holy love and obedience CHAP. II. 1. WHerefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil-speakings 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby 1 2. Lay aside therefore and renounce all naughtiness and all deceit and hypocrisy or counterfeiting and all envy and all speaking evil of others And as new born babes desire and seek and drink in the rational Milk or intellectual without fraud and mixture that you may grow up to Salvation by it which the mixture of heresie or hypocrisie would vitiate and invectives against others would but turn it against your selves 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 4. To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious 5. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 3 4.5 And if you are Christians indeed and have had a Spiritual relish of the love of God in Christ you must suppose his Church to be like an House in which every stone is a living man and Christ is the chief Foundation stone as the Lord of Life on whom all the building is erected rejected indeed by the Jewish and Heathen Rulers but chosen of God to this blessed Office and more Precious than any Pearl and so coming to him the Foundation as so many living stones your selves you being cemented to him and to one another are made one Spiritual House of God yea as a Temple in which you are all Priests to offer Daily Sacrifice to God which he will accept through the Intercession of the great High Priest Jesus Christ For your Prayer and Praise may be thus accepted Think thus of Gods House and you may be for sweeping and repairing it but you will never be for dividing dismembring or separating from it 6. Wherefore it is contained in the scripture Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded 6. This the Scripture foretold saying I lay in Sion c. That is I set over the Church a Saviour and a King on whom the Church shall be sounded And none shall be put to shame by the frustration of their Faith Hope and Obedience who put their trust in him 7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner 8. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to
this Doctrine and Spirit is not of God But this is the Spirit of Antichrist which you have been foretold should come and is already in the World Note By the Spirit of Antichrist is not here meant the Spirit sent by Antichrist but the same Doctrine that Antichrist will vend and therefore from the sâ—me Spirit that acteth Antichrist which is a Spirit of opposition to Christ And in those times Ebion Cerinthus and many other Hereticks did some deny Christ's Manhood some his Godhead some his Death and some his Resurrection and each part of his Office was denyed That among all there Simon Magus only should be the Antichrist I see no reason to believe of which more before and after 4. Ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world 4. But your Faith in Christ is of the Spirit of God who dwelleth and worketh in you and you have overcome the worldly seducing Spirit its Doctrines Baits and Temptations for God's Spirit which is in you is more powerful than the Spirit which deludeth the World 5. They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 5. These Seducers are men of a worldly interest and mind and therefore they preach a wordly Doctrine fitted to a worldly Interest and Ear and therefore worldly men believe them 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of errour 6. We are of God and can prove our Mission by his attestation to our Doctrine as being from God And therefore all that truly know God will receive and own our Doctrine as God's and us as his Apostles but he that is not of God having not the same Spirit receiveth not the same holy Doctrine nor us Thus differ the Spirit of God and of Errour 7. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love 7 8. And as true Faith in Christ and open confessing him is one sign so true Christian LOVE is another to know that our Doctrine and Spirit is of God Therefore be sure that you unfeignedly love one another Most certainly LOVE is of God common Love is his common gift and holy Love is his special grace and every one that Loveth Saints as Saints as well as Men as Men sincerely for the Love of God and goodness in them is so far like God who as the God of Nature loveth Nature and as the God of Grace loveth Holiness and therefore is a regenerate Child of God and hath true Faith and Knowledge of God or else he could not love him in his Saints And whatever they pretend they have no true effectual Love of the most Holy God or of his Will who love not his Holiness in his Children and are not dear to one another For LOVE is not a meer quality in God but his very Essence GOD IS LOVE Note I know no sentence more worthy to be written in Letters of Gold or rather written on all our hearts But the other two prime Attributes written in this Epistle must be conjoyned GOD is LIFE LIGHT and LOVE And LOVE is complacency and includeth Infinite JOY or PLEASURE 9. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God lent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 9. And God's Essential LOVE doth tend to communication he is good and doth good He loveth us not with a barren Love as Hypocrites do but he chose this most woderful glorifying way of publick manifesting his Love to us even by sending his Son into the World that we might live through him 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins 10. And the Glory of God's Love to us is not only that he consequently loved us for loving him but that he antecedently loved us that we might love him and while we were in sin and enmity freely sâ—nâ— his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins 11. Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 11. And Gods great works and glorious manifestations of himself to us are purposely to be as the Seal to the Wax to make us like him in our degree And he therefore chose this astonishing way of revealing his LOVE to us that by it we might be brought to love him and one another for him 12. No man hath seen God at any time If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 12. It is God himself that his Love â—bligâ—th us to LOVE But as we see him but in the Glass or Image of his Nature and Holiness in Man so we must Love him 〈◊〉 we see him here even in the Natuâ—e and Holiness of Man And if â—e thus holily love one another as Godâ—â— Image God by his Spirit dwelleth in us for it is his Spirit of Love that maketh us thus Love And his Love to us attaineth its end which was to make us like him in Love O that Christians would study this well 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 13. By this sure evidence we know that God and we do as it were dwell in each other and have blessed communion because he hath given us this Spirit of holy Love 14. And we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world 14. And we are the Preachers of Faith and Love as we have seen so we testifie that God the Father glorified his Love by sending his Son to be the Saviour of the sinful World 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 15. It cannot be that any man can soundly believe such astonishing Love that God was manifested in flesh or that the Father sent his Son into flesh by his Doctrine Example Suffering Merits Resurrection and Intercession to save us and shall confess this whatever suffering it cost him but that man must needs be possessed by God's Spirit of holy Love and so God dwelleth in that man by his Spirit and that man in God as the great Object of his Faith and Love For with the heart man believeth to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation Rom. 10. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 16. And knowing and by Faith believing the Love that God hath to us and hath declared in Christ we again conclude that GOD IS LOVE and he that
of the Capitol at Rome the Head-Temple of Idols either in Vitellius's Stirs when after Vespasian rebuilt it or in Titus's Reign when being burnt by Lightning Domitian rebuilt it But it seemeth unlikely that all this should be spoken of so small a matter as a Temple Others expound it of the sacking and taking of Rome five times in forty two Years by the Goths and Vandals and the Recovery by Justinian and Belisarius and Naâ—ses The most learned Protestants say the deadly Wound of the Beast was the Overthrow of the Heathen Roman Religion and Power but what the Healing was is the doubt Julian's Cure was too short to be meant Most think that the very erecting of the Papacy is meant as restoring Devilism or Idolatry under the Christian name Other Protestants think that the many Schisms in the Papacy was the deadly Wound and that it was healed by the Councils of Constance and Basil And others think that the Reformation gave the Pope the Wound and that the Revolt to Popery in France by Hen. IV. in England by Queen Mary in Germany by the Overthrow of the Palsgrave c. was the healing of it To wander after him is to follow him in blind Devotion 4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast saying Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him 4. That is say some They worship the Devil under the name of Heathen Gods for making their Empire so great and repairing the Wound of their Religion Say others They honoured and served the Papacy and him that erected it thinking it had been God when it was the Devil admiring the Sanctity and Power of the Papacy 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months 5. This the Ancients expound of an Antichrist not yet come And others of Domitian And others of the Pope 6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven 6. Say some He blasphemed the true God and Christ directly that is Domitian persecuting Christians Say others 'T is the Papal Blasphemy by Transubstantiation Image-worship arrogating God's Prerogatives persecuting them that obey his Word c. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations 7. Those that take the first Beast to be Mahomet himself with his Arabian Saracen Powers and the second to be the Turkish Mahometans do easily tell when and how the Saints were overcome and Nations subjected to him But several Objections lie against this and so there do against those that apply it to Domitian And why it may not more plausibly be applyed to some following Persecutors especially Dioclesian I see not yet But that it is meant of the Papal Tyranny is the more easily believed by many that know the truth of the History that all the ten Heathen Persecutions set together were a little thing compared to the Papal Blood-shed Mede truly tells us that Perion reporteth and divers second him tâ—aâ— in France alone a Million of the Albigenses and Waldenses were killed And that Sanders de Vis Mon. l. 8. dem 34. confesseth that infinite Lollards were burnt in Europe And that Vergerius saith that within thirty Years an hundred and fifty thousand were consumed by the Inquisition and such Means And the numbers murdered in Bohemia and other Countries and since then in the Low-Countries France England Ireland c. render the ten Persecutions by Heathens as described by our most aggravating old Church-Historians to appear but as Morsel to the Papal Sacrifices 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 8. And his great Power and Victories shall cause the generality of worldly men to own admire and obey him whether it be the Heathen Rome or Mahometans or the Pope except those chosen Children of Wisdom whose names from the foundation of the world were by God's Decree written in the Book of the slain Lamb or in the Catalogue of those who were to be saved by Christ crucified 9. If any man have an ear let him hear 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Here is the patience and the faith of the saints 9 10. Let all Christians regardfully mark what I say that they be not by the success of Persecutors or Tyrants tempted from their Patience Constancy or Duty Though these great Conquerours and Persecutors are a while adored for their Success and Power in the end they shall be used as they used others commonly when they have conquered and triumphed others conquer them and triumph over them and when they have killed many they are usually killed themselves Few famous Conquerors die the common death of all men Therefore the holy Wisdom of God teacheth his Saints as much as is possible to avoid War even defensive and to overcome by Faith and Patience especially in the case of Persecution and of private and particular persons towards injurious Rulers though Kingdoms may exercise self-defence lest they tempt all their Neighbours to make them their prey 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon 11. Many say that by Another Beast is meant the former in another respect and that they are but one But when the Text saith it is Another with so many notes and acts of difference such presumption doth not expound the sense but make it and may say any other improbable thing Others that say the first Beast was Heathen Rome and the second Papal Rome will as hardly as the former make it probable that Heathen Rome was one of the Popes Heads if he be the Beast Was the first Beast but one of the many Heads of the second Beast Or was the Heathen Religion but one of Heathen Rome's own Heads Or was the Pope's wounded Head in being before him If the Heathen Rome or its Heathenism was the wounded Head of the first Beast then the Pope was not the first Beast for that was not one of his Heads especially at its overthrow by Constantine Grot. and Dr. H. that say the second beast is Apollonius or Magicians or Magick if they soconfine it speak as improbably Whoever was the second his Lamb-like Horns shew him to be an Hypocrite pretending to Truth his Dragon-like Speech shew him to be the Devil's Agent But the Reasons to prove both one being against the plain Text some think rather that the first Beast was the Idolatrous Emperours that so cruelly set up Image-worship in the East and West and