The Law of God Ratified By the GOSPEL of CHRIST OR THE HARMONY OF THE Doctrine of Faith WITH THE Law of Righteousness Wherein many of the Types and Rites of the Ceremonial Law are unfolded And the Moral Law adjusted a Rule of holy living to all though justified by Faith As it was delivered in several Sermons Preacht to the Parochial Congregation of Mayfield in Sussex by Mr. Mainard late Rector thereof publisht since his Death Col. 1. 27 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3. 14. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Sign of the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1674. THE Epistle Dedicatory To Mrs. Elizabeth Baker Widow To Captain Iohn Baker and his Wife And to Mr. Iohn Baker and his Wife To Mr. Clement Read and to the rest of the Inhabitants of Mayfield in Sussex Auditors of these ensuing Sermons Much honoured and well-beloved in our Lord THe high Opinion he hath of you who desired me to dedicate these Sermons to you commands me to make good my compellation by bearing a particular respect to that worth and love for those Graces and Profession in you which were sufficient to determine the Publisher of these Sermons to the choice of you to be Countenancers of them now printed and exposed to publick View which you first heard from your own privater Pulpit The Publisher makes the Church somewhat a debtor but Mayfield very much a debtor to him for his care of your spiritual profit and advantage to which end these Discourses delivered in such plainness as becomes the truth and with such clearness as may capacitate any amongst you to read understand and gain by them are set before you That of your faithful Monitor now dead might be said as is in somewhat different sense said of Abel Being dead he yet speaketh Instruction unfolding that which many would else not discern Caution that you avoid what he knew was dangerous and might prove deadly And Exhortation perswading you to weighty instances of obedience and constancy If it be as doubtless it is a Truth that the Legal and Mosaick Rites were the Gospel vailed this piece deserveth your serious perusal for it takes the vail from off the face of Moses and doth with plainness and brevity explicate many of those divine Riddles and heavenly Hieroglyphicks on whose out-side too many of the Jews like unexperienced Children gazing on Pictures determin'd their eye inapprehensive of the import of them I would give you some account of the Subjects handled in this ensuing Treatise but it is publisht that your reading might inform you Nor will I doubt your readiness to view that with your eye which I believe much pleased your ear And I hope your desires to profit by it wish my Epistle brief that you may be taken up with the seasonableness and pertinency of the Subject A piece which I assure you doth very particularly express the temper of its Author who could have walked abroad as easily as most in a gorgeous dress of rich learning but he was as well versed in this part of self-denial and resolved to practice it as he was vers'd in Authors and knew how to use them He preacht it to you that you might understand it and his Son-in-law hath taken care it should be printed that you might read and remember it I wish that among the many eagerly snatcht occasions men take to publish their own Conceptions More would take this course and print for the use of particular places some of the choice and profitable Sermons of their own Ministers as soon as might be after their death when in all likelihood the mourning remembrance of their dead Minister will enhance the value of his living Sermons whilst the sense of their loss in the death of his person would increase the care of some at least that they lose not his Counsels Exhortations Reproofs and Comforts which by this means do survive him I know many are so obstinate in their Vnbelief and so unperswadable to Obedience they will not promise to believe or obey unless one arose from the dead to witness to the Promises and to require their Obedience God shew them mercy opening their blind eyes and perswading their hard hearts If there be any such among your Inhabitants of Mayfield and alas in so great a Parish there are too too many Behold here is that which of all courses seemeth to come nearest to such a condescension Though your Minister be not sent from the dead yet providence sends as it were from his Grave And if you will not obey Commands nor follow Counsels nor be warned by Cautions in his writings you would not be perswaded if he came from the dead But of you in particular I have no jealousie to whom this Epistle and the Book is dedicated Instead of perswading you to read it of which I am perswaded you are very forward of your selves I shall adventure and I hope with no more boldness than success to move you to bestow many of these Books among your poorer Neighbours who will gladly read Mr. Maynard's Book when perhaps they have as little mind to read other mens Works as they have knowledge of their persons Promote knowledge of Christ and saving Grace by the means which are most likely to do it hereby you shall through the blessing of the Lord turn many to righteousness and shine as the brightness of the Firmament for ever which is that great thing that with hope of success is for you all and for the rest of the Church-of God the prayer of From my Study in the house of the Right Honourable the Countess of Manchester at Waltham-Abbey April 3. 1674. Yours in our Common Lord both Servant to your Souls and Coheir of your Hopes H. Hurst The Contents of the several Chapters Chap. I. NO justification by works to Gentile or Iew transgressours of the Law and how yet the Iew had advantage by the Law which is not voided by doctrine of Faith Corrupt nature dispute perversely against the truths of God partly out of ignorance and mistakes Christ's righteousness the matter of our justification Prepossession of false opinions pervert the Scripture this ruin'd the Iews obstructed the Gospel among the Greeks Pride natural to us and opposite to the Gospel Love of sin of the world pervert truths of the Gospel the danger of this as rejecting the remedy or turning it to the increase of the disease Errors easily increas'd How Errors found in godly men while sometime the carnal are free from them Chap. II. Grace abhors the Perverting of truth So Moses Elijah c. St. Paul c. For hereby God is dishonoured the New Nature is thwarted Errors broken out are hardly limited easily overgrow the truth So the bulk of Popish Errors did So Arianisme did Errors divide the Church So the Errour of the Necessity of Circumcision the Errour about keeping Easter in Victor's time Pope's Supremacy now divides the Church Such
is a full fountain sufficient to send forth a multitude of these poysoned streams It is a fruitful wombe to conceive and bring forth abundantly ignorance mistaking the sense of Scripture drawing false conclusions from the word filling the mind with mists and clouds of prejudice against the Truth Love of sin Pride Corrupt and inordinate self-love excessive love of the world and outward things These and the like distempers of corrupt Nature What truths may they not corrupt or deny What errours and false opinions may they not breed and cherish Now when Satan the Father of Lyes either more immediately by himself or mediately by his instruments worketh upon corrupt nature then followes strong delusion or efficacy of error whereby people are brought to believe lyes tending to damnation Yea such is the power of Satan joyning with corrupt nature in the producing of false doctrines that one error begetteth many and one Seducer deceiveth many one blind guide draweth a multitude into the ditch with himself yea one Heresie may soon over-run a whole Country and spread suddenly from one Nation to another How soon did the Heresies of Arius overcome the world and how were the Kings and Kingdoms of the earth made drunk with the cup of the Whore of Babylon lying drenched and drowned in Popish errours Superstitions and Idolatries and like horns fastned to the head of the beast imploying their power to maintain the tyranny of Antichrist and to suppress and persecute the truth and them that were sincere and zealous in professing and promoting it And Thirdly upon the same ground we may see the cause of such wicked practices as are used to advance and establish errours Satan and mans corrupt nature joyn together in the breeding of them False doctrines have an hellish original and so are carried on by hellish means What juglings were used by the Arians to delude the Emperor Constantine to bring the Champions of the Truth especially Athanasius into disgrace and suspicion with him how importunate were they to obtain a toleration and to be received into Communion with the Church covering their wolvish natures under sheeps cloathing while they were weak and kept under but casting off the sheeps skin when once they grew numerous and strong and had Emperours for their turn and appearing in their own colours devouring the sheep of Christ making havock of the Church and exercising outragious persecution against them Much is related also of the fury and cruelty of the Circumcellions As for the Papists what Country in Europe almost hath not had experience more or less of their bloody butcheries how many thousands of Saints and Martyrs have they murdered with fire and sword and put to cruel torments in Italy Germany Spain France Netherlands England and Scotland Among the rest the barbarous Massacres acted upon the Protestants at Paris in France under pretence of friendship and a royal wedding and the like cruelty executed in other Cities of that Kingdome and the hellish Powder plot here in England are sufficient evidences by what spirit they are led and this latter is on the one side I conceive matter of perpetual infamy and reproach to the Whore of Babylon and on the other side an everlasting monument of the goodness of God and his watchful eye over his Church in discovering this work of darkness laughing to scorn the counsels of his Enemies and commanding deliverance for his people in this Land by which means the Gospel and ordinances of God are continued among us to this day But by these and the like examples it may appear that Satan and the corrupt nature of man closing together do both bring forth dangerous errours and contrive wicked means to maintain them Hence it is that they have dealt perfidiously with men to work their own ends having first dealt falsly with God in denying his Truth and as much as lyeth in them falsifying his word putting false constructions upon it and drawing false conclusions from it And therefore none ought to stumble at the multitude of errors and false opinions so as to question the Truth and certainty of Religion but rather so much the more to use means to be established in the Truth by searching the Scriptures with diligence earnestly praying to the Lord to open their understandings to lead them into all Truth and confirm them in it to frame their hearts to receive the love of the Truth and to keep them from being led away with the error of the wicked But some may question If Satan and corrupt nature are the cause of errours what is the reason then 1. That some of the godly are drawn into Error 2. What is the cause that many carnal persons and many notoriously wicked are free from Errours yea at such times and in such places where errours and sects abound For answer to the former I conceive First that many who have been of note for godliness were never sound they were but chaffe in the Lords floore aud so easily blown away with every wind of false Doctrine Saith the Apostle Iohn Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time These lesser Antâ—â—â—ists were forerunners of the great Antiâ—hrist but whence came these petty Antichrists even out of the bosome of the primitive apostolical Church for saith this Apostle They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us If these that were in communion with the Church of Christ in those purest times were unsound at the best and afterwards discovered their unsoundness by departing from the faith and Church of Christ and becoming open enemies to the Truth have we not cause to think that many who in these days imbrace false opinions were never upright when they seemed most zealous for the Truth and wayes of God And therefore what need have all to search their hearts and while they seem to stand take heed least they fall by lâ—bouring to ground themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith unfeigned Secondly I doubt not but sincere Christians may fall into some lesser errors because they do but know in part There are degrees of ignorance in them and the remainders of corrupt nature which may darken their minds and expose them to the danger of erring partly through the weakness of their own judgements partly through the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive partly through the high esteem which they have of some men So it is thought that multitudes were carried away with Luthers Name and the eminency of his gifts and the great service done by him to the Church of Christ. Lastly I conceive that the Lord may in his wisdom suffer some
eminent Saints of his to err in some things that men may learn not to think of men above that which is meet but to give that great prerogative of infallibility to the God of truth alone who hath revealed his Truth in the holy Scriptures and therefore Christians should try all spirits and doctrines by this Rule bring them all to the Law and to the Testimony concluding that if they speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no light in them no light in their doctrine so far as it will not endure the trial of Scripture light yea the Apostle speaks very high in this case Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached let him be accursed If it were possible for a blessed Angel to preach false doctrine we must reject and cleave to the Scripture against all contradiction For answer to the Second Question In as much as Satan and the corrupt nature of man are the cause of Errours and Heresies What is the reason that many carnal persons both such as are of civil conversation and fair moral principles and also such as are loose and licentious yea openly profane are free from errours in such places and ages where when false doctrines abound whereas they are such in whom the corruption of nature raigneth and such as are held captive by Satan according to his will For answer to this I conceive First that some such persons being naturally quick of apprehension and judicious may be so clearly convinced of some truths that though many deny them and oppose them yet they will stand to them especially when there is liberty for all sides to hold and profess what they list and a man may stick to the Truth without loss and danger in such cases natural Conscience is a strong tye upon mens spirits to cause them not willfully to deny a known Truth Secondly Some may affect the reputation of constancy being loth to be noted for light vain and fickle persons and therefore in as much as it was their lot to be trained up from their childhood in the truth they will cleave to it howsoever others cast it off so long as they see they may do it with safety They account it a childish thing to hearken to every novelty and vain fancy as indeed it is and therefore not becoming their gravity It may be they would have been as obstinate in error had they happened to have been taught it in their youth as now they seem to be constant in the Truth Is not this apparent in divers at this day who stand firm in doctrinal truths and remain perversely stiffe in old Ceremonyes and superstitious observances which have no footing in the holy Scriptures because they have been trained up in both On the one side they were trained up under sound doctrine concerning the main points of faith On the other side they received some superstitious observances by tradition and therefore they will part with neither Thirdly I suppose Satan having possession of carnal persons another way doth not much tempâ— some of them to renounce the Truth and entertain errours because they are not such as are likely to do him any special service in promoting false doctrines Fourthly many carnal persons may be engaged to stand for the Truth against errors because some whom they respect or upon whom they depend or of whom they look for some advantage go that way Fifthly many carnal persons seem to be indifferent in matter of Religion They are serious and hearty about things that bring in profit in following their business or in pursuing their pleasures in satisfying their lusts they think it no great matter what men hold or profess in matter of doctrine When the Iews accused the Apostle Paul for teaching false doctrine saith Gallio the Roman deputy If it be a question of words and names and of your law look ye to it for I will be no judge of such matters See how slightly he speaks of matters of Religion as if they were but empty words whereas the Question between Paul and the Iews was one of the weigtiest that ever was in controversie scil Whether the Lord Jesus were the Christ And so Festus another Roman Governour relating Pauls Case to King Agrippa accused by the Iews said When the Accusers stood up they brought none accusation of such things as I supsed but had certain questions against him of their own superstition and of one Iesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive It seemeth he thought these things to be frivolous queries not worthy of the cognizance of so great a Magistrate as himself whereas the Râ—surrection of Christ from the dead which was in question between Paul and his adversaries was such a fundamental point as that mans salvation depended upon it Thus it seemeth many are kept from embracing errours because they hold it a matter of no great weight what men profess in point of Religion But let all that mind their salvation receive the love of the Truth and walk in it hating and shunning every false opinion and every false way out of sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ and true zeal for his Glory So much of the Question or Objection CHAP. II. THe Answer is first by way of abhorrence or detestation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it not be or far be it from â—s which our translaturs render God Forbid I suppose because this English phrase is used in cases of like nature howsoever the Apostle by these words signified that he abhorred and detested such a consequence as to make void the Law by the doctrine of free justification through the righteousness of Christ applied by Faith Hence may be noted this point That gracious hearts do exceedingly abhor those opinions which corrupt or oppose the truth of God Heresies and false doctrines are odious to the godly 1. This may appear in many examples and first in the old Testament Moses did exceedingly abhorre the wicked counsel of Balaam whereby he taught the Midianites to deceivâ— the people of Israel so as to draw many of them from the worship of God to Idolatry and therefore saith he to the people arm some of your selves to the war and let them go against the Midianites and avenge the Lord of Midian which they did and slew the Males and five Kings of Midian and Balaam himself who gave this wicked counsel But Moses was not satisfied with this execution but was wroth with the officers of the Host and said unto them have ye saved all the women alive Behold these caused the Children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord and then he commanded them to kill all except the women children which were Virgins And it seemeth that
like Locusts overspreading the earth devouring the fruits of it These came out of the smoak of the bottomless pit the smoak of errours and superstitions for when such doctrines passed for currant that men might be saved by observing vain humane traditions that there was a Treasure in the Church filled up with the merits of those that had an overplus besides what was needful for themselves and that they who were benefactors to the Monks should be partakers of their merits how mad was the world in building Monasteries and giving their Land and goods to the Friers devoting their children to that profession Yea it seemeth divers noble persons and some Kings and Queens turning Monks and Nuns And as the smoak of the pit did breed the Locusts so the Locusts encreased the smoak and made the mists of darkness greater and thicker multiplying errours and superstitions If this were one of those grievous woes whereof the Angel flying through the midst of Heaven gave warning to the world how should we be humbled and ashamed in respect of the great earthliness dulness senselesness of spirit that is among us yea too much in those that have some love to the Truth that this great and woful evil doth so abound with us and is so little laid to heart Should not the very thought of it startle us that such thick and dark vollies of smoak in our days should break out of the bottomless pit and cover so great a part of our Land darkning the Air and Sun eclipsing the Light of the truth and putting out the eyes of many and so many Locusts deceivers and deceived coming out of the smoak of errours This ought to be for a Lamentation But how many that profess themselves Christians set their hearts so much upon their own private concernments their business wealth ease and pleasure c. and those that have something of a publick spirit yet confine their serious thoughts to the external good of the Common-wealth that they little or nothing regard these destructive evils that are of a spiritual nature If Gallio his temper who when complaint was made to him about differences in Religion slighted them as words and names and cared for none of these things may be thought tolerably or at at least not much to be marvailed at in an Heathen yet doubtless it is shameful and odious in a Christian. What! a Christian and not moved that Christ who is the Truth is so highly dishonoured by lyes and falshood taught and received instead of Truths that multitudes of poor souls are in a ready way to be destroyed by damnable doctrines that errours beget errours and are likely to overgrow the Truth to spread far and wide that so many are both infected by them and alienated from the remedy shunning the publick Ordinances where sound doctrine is taught that such bleeding wounds and Rents are made in the Church Art thou a Christian and so one that pretendest to be begotten with the word of Truth and hast thou no such principle of contrariety planted in thee against errours and false doctrines as to make them bitter and grievous to thee Some may raile at those that are misled and others may make a sport of their folly but how small is the number of those who like Christians mourn for them as dishonourable to Christ pernicious to souls How deeply was the holy Apostle affected with the obstinacy of the Iews in their errours in preferring the ceremonies of the Law above Christ the Substance and their own imaginary legal righteousness above the perfect righteousness of Christ applied by faith I say the truth in Christ. I lye not my Conscience also bearing me witness in the holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish that I my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh How passionately did he express himself to the Galatians who had once embraced the pure doctrine of the Gospel but afterwards suffered themselves to be so deluded by seducers as to seek justification by the Law My little children of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you He felt such sorrow such fear such strong and compassionate workings of heart towards them as were answerable to the pangs of a woman in child-bearing Saith the Psalmist I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy word This I conceive doth plainly concern both transgressions in practice and in doctrine or belief Both these forts of transgressiours are guilty of not keeping Gods word They that live in a course of sin they keep the word in their judgement and profession but keep it not in their lives and actions They that go on in errours keep not the word so much as in judgment and profession Besides how can a man forsake any truth of God which he hath once received but he must ipso facto in that very act transgress in point of practise He transgresseth that precept Prov. 23 buy the truth and sell it not that of the Apostle be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine c. and that hold fast the form of sound words c. Now the Psalmist beheld those with a mournful eye I beheld the transgressours and was grieved c. Is it not a sign of a graceless heart to behold transgressours without grief If we moan not for these things out of spiritual respects the Lord may justly make us mourn for those outward evils that they may bring upon us The Divel as he is the Father of lyes so he is a murderer Spiritus mendax est homicida and they that are led by a lying spirit if they can establish their facton and party so as to grow confident of their power may soon discover a murtherous spirit and then those that are lukewarm and indifferent in matters of Religion may feel their fury as well as they that are most zealous Secondly This truth may shame those who plead for a toleration of all sorts of errours Hereticks Seducers false prophets It seemeth the Apostle Paul accounted them intolerable when he pronounced them accursed and wished them cut off But such pretend Christian charity meekness mercy I answer 1. Will they boast of more love than Paul had who could have wished himself accursed that Israel might have been saved Will they pretend to more meekness than Moses who was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth and yet ye heard how he acted against Balaam and the Midianites and we find also that he caused three thousand to be slain for Idolatry If men will approve themselves to be of such a spirit as Paul and Moses let them shew meekness and love in â—earing and forgiving private and personal injuries offered to themselves and on the other side manifest true zeal for the Truth and
any flee from sin and not rather add sin to sin doing evil that good may come that Gods grace may be the more manifested to his glory The Apostle rejecteth these with detestation shewing that notwithstanding all their perverse cavils they shall find God a severe judge and that their damnation is just for it doth no way lessen the guilt of sin that God getteth glory by it for sin in its own nature tendeth to the darkning of Gods Glory and men by sinning dishonour God but such is the infinite perfection of God that as he commanded the light to shine out of darkness though darkness be contrary to the light so he can work good and get himself glory out of the evil of sin which in it self tendeth to rob him of his glory So in the sixth Chapter of this Epistle shall we continue in sin that grace may abound The Apostle had shewed before that all had sinned in Adam besides the guilt of their own actual sins yea even such as lived before the Law was given by Moses and that by the publishing of the Law sin abounded the guilt of sin increased but then withal he added that where sin abounded grace did much more abound the free love and favour of God was gloriously manifested in pardoning sin thus heightned and aggravated by the express Law and in freely justifying sinners condemned by the written Law Hence this Question or Objection to which the Apostle answers with detestation as before and withal sheweth that they who are justified by the righteousness of Christ have received the Spirit and so dye to sin and live to righteousness and are engaged hereunto by their Baptisme and therefore it is in vain for any to hope for justification and pardon of sin through Christ who yeild themselves up to the service of sin So verse 14th he saith to Believers Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Hence again a Question or Objection of corrupt nature or carnal reason What then Shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace May we not therefore sin securely if we be free from the Law if the Law have no power nor authority over us to condemn us The Apostle answereth this after his usual manner with detestation and then more fully Know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness They that are justâ—fied by Christ and freed from the curse the condemnation and rigour of the Law are the Members of Christ and servants of righteousness but they that sin securely upon a conceit that they are freed from the Law are indeed the servants of sin and this service of sin tendeth to everlasting death The Reason of this in general is the contrariety of mans nature unto God and his Truth since the fall since the Image of God was defaced and the Nature of man corrupted by sin so that the powers of the soul thus degenerated are become cross and opposite unto the counsel and truth of God They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 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 Error all of us are naturally of the world and all remain so unless the Lord do effectually by his grace call them out of the world and so their worldly minds and hearts are unsutable and opposite unto the mind and truth of God More particularly 1. Ignorance is a great cause why men deprave the Scriptures and pervert the Truths of God the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not All are naturally darkness and therefore full of contrariety to the light and truth of God ye were sometimes darkness saith the Apostle to those that then were light in the Lord the best of those whom God hath savingly inlightned by his spirit were sometimes darkness Lye not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him They that are regenerated are renewed as in other regards so in knowledge This sheweth that the old man is possessed with darkness Corrupt Nature is void of saving knowledge and therefore in that condition men are apt to put light for darkness and darkness for light The Sadduces that denied that great Mystery of the Resurrection of the body I conceive were much pleased with an Argument whereby they hoped to non-plus the Lord Jesus Christ they seemed not directly to deny the Resurrection but only to desire a Resolution in a difficult case concerning â—a woman that had seven husbands out-liv'd them all The Question was which of those seven should enjoy her for his wife at the Resurrection but the Lord Christ telleth them they shewed gross ignorance in that wherein they thought themselves veâ—y acute saith he Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God and first sheweth them how by the Almighty power of God the bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection should be so wonderfully transformed and glorified that they should not need nor desire marriage or other things of the like natrue no more then the Angels do which are Spirits and have no bodies then he proveth by the Scripture that the dead shall rise Now this ignorance is more or less gross in several persons some that are not so grossely ignorant as others yet being weak in knowledge and judgement are apt to miscarry in this kind First by misunderstanding some Texts or passages of holy Scripture so it seemeth the Saints at Thessalonica mistook what the Apostle had written to them in his former Epistle when speaking of the last day he saith This we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. Where twice he speaketh of himself if we look on the bare words as if he should live to the end of the world as if Christ should come in glory before Paul should leave this world I conceive he spake by way of supposition that if he and other Believers then living should remain to the last day then they should be thus translated to Glory and as he saith elsewhere they should not dye but should be changed and this he might do to teach others by his example to live in a continual expectation
dye to sin to mortifie their members which are upon the earth to live to righteousness to walk in newness of life Thirdly the pride of corrupt Nature is very contrary to the Gospel which teacheth to be poor in spirit to empty our selves of all self-sufficiency to go out of our selves to become fools that we may be wise to be less than nothing in our own eyes to receive all of meer grace the free love and favour of God to present our selves in anothers garment before God in the righteousness of Christ for the covering of our shame and cloathing of our nakedness to look for no acceptance of any service but by anothers worthiness the merit of Christ. Fourthly corrupt and inordinate self-love may move men to reject or corrupt the Truths of the Gospel which teacheth self denyal and the renouncing of all that is dear unto us so far as it standeth in opposition against Christ Then saith Iesus unto his Disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me The Gospel striketh at the right eye at the heart and root of the most beloved lusts How then will self-love rise up against it Fifty inordinate love of the world of things below being deeply rooted in corrupt Nature raiseth rebellion against the Gospel and moveth men either to reject or corrupt the Truths revealed in it Felix trembled at Pauls discourse and commanded him away the young man went away sorrowful when Christ required him to fell all and give to the poor and follow him in hope of treasures in Heaven The Pharises who were covetous when they heard Christ speak against that sin deâ—ided him Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him So if any man love the world inordinately the love of the Truth is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world The Use of this may be First to teach us to see and bewayle the corruption of our nature and withal to make us sensible how dangerous it is to continue in our natural estate destitute of the spirit of Christ Our corrupt nature is apt to corrupt and deny the precious Truths of the Gospel it were a dangerous and malignant disease of the body that should turn the best physick into poyson and either cast it out of the stomach as soon as it is taken in or grow worse by occasion of the remedy Our natures are wholly overspread with the deadly disease of sin and corruption and there is no part â—ound in them as the Apostle saith I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing He had much good in him through grace a great measure of the spirit of Christ but in his flesh so far as he was carnal so far as he was not renewed by the holy Ghost â—o far there was no good thing dwelling in him which sheweth that in them which are not regenerate there is nothing spiritually good nothing suitable and pleasing to God Whence these two great evils follow First an inclination to reject the Remedyâ— like a corrupt Stomack that gives no entertainment to the Physick leaveth it no time to work the cure but presently casteth it out So do many in the state of corrupt Nature they hear the Truths of the Gospel which the Lord hath appoynted as preâ—ious Remedies against that disease and reject them cast them up again either denying them in the secret thoughts not believing them or not seriously minding or regarding them So the Apostle told the unbelieving Iews it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing ye put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life Lo we turn to the Gentiles He charged them for putting the word of God from them The Apostle had put the word of God home to them and they put it from them thus it is with many The Gospel is tendered to them as necessary physick sent down from Heaven and ministred to them by the Preachers of the word but they put it from them either they do not take it down or presently cast it up again Secondly there is an inclination in corrupt Nature to corrupt the Truths of the Gospel and to make them occasions of increasing the disease and so to make the Gospel to become the servant of death unto death Corrupt Nature is apt to make both the law and the Gospel occasions of increasing these diseases of the soul concerning the Law the Apostle saith when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death This explaineth afterwards as in other passages wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good the Law is perfectly holy and just and good and therefore cannot be properly the cause of any thing sinful and unholy Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful such is the malignity of corrupt Nature that it worketh evil out of good and maketh the pure and holy Law of God an occasion of sin the more sin is forbidden reproved threatned condemned by the Law the more vehemently is the corruption of nature carried after sin So for the Gospel the Apostle Peter saith that Christ preached in the Gospel is to them that are disobedient a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence when to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed They stumble and take offence because they like not those terms upon which Christ is offered to them in the Gospel How dangerous is it then to continue in this estate of corrupt nature How earnest should poor souls be with the Lord to deliver them The body is in a sad estate when all both food and physick increaseth some deadly disease in it The word and Gospel of God is both food and physick and corrupt Nature is apt to make it an occasion to increase sin and aggravate condemnation Cry mightily to the Lord to work a through cure upon your souls to change and renew your natures to send his spirit along with his word that it may overpower the diseases of your souls and be unto you the favour of life unto life Secondly This may teach us not to think it strange that so many pretious Truths of the Gospel are denyed and rejected in these days so many parts of Scripture abused with false interpretations and corrupt glosses so many errors and lyes maintained instead of Truths Corrupt nature
Churches by Victor Bishop of Rome about the year 198 about a business of small moment scil the time of keeping Easter inclining to excommunicate many famous Churches of Asia dissenting from him had not some more moderate men especially Irenaeus Bishop of Lions restrained his rashness though agreeing with him about the thing in controversie What worse divisions were made by the abominable Heresie of the Maniche's in Iudea Egypt Greece Thrace Spain and other places But as the blasphemous Heresie of Arius was raised in a time when the Church was free from heathen persecutors so what dismal Rents and divisions did it make in the Church when there were Bishops against Bishops Churches against Churches Councels against Councels So the Macedonians Nestorians Eutichians Monothelites and others how sadly did they tear the Church in pieces That false and proud tenent of the Papists making the Pope the universal Bishop and head of the whole Church what a breach hath it made between the Eastern and Western Churches for many hundred years and what is the reason that there is no reconciliation made all this while between them and the Protestants but because they remain so obstinate in their errours Heresies and Idolatries against the manifest light of the holy Scriptures The stiffeness of those that are called Lutherans in adhering to their corrupt opinions hath made a miserable and lasting breach amongst the Protestant Churches But though we should not look either far back or far off for examples in this kind our own Land and our present times may afford us more then enough Have we not breach upon breach divisions and subdivisions many rending themselves from our Churches and then again making new rents among themselves and yet when there is an opportunity to act mischief against the truth and the Preachers and Professors of it they can make truce with each other for a time and conspire together to carry on wretched designs as the Pharises and Sadduces as also Herod and Pilate did against Christ. But here I think it needful to put in a caution or two First some are apt to lay the blame of these divisions upon those that maintain sound doctrine either when they labour to revive the truth after it hath been kept under by old errours and corrupt customes or to defend it against new heresies and attempts of Seducers When men see them constant and inflexible that they will not suffer themselves to be bowed and biassed according to the crooked fancies of those that are Seducers or seduced how ready are they to condemn them for Schismaticks froward men enemies of peace But this is a dangerous mistake and a very great injury to them that stand for the truth and to the truth it self For 1. The people and Ministers of Christ are bound to stand fast in the Truth against all opposition and contradiction So the Apostle sheweth that one end why Christ ascending into Heaven gave gifts unto men Ministers and ministerial abilities was that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head even Christ. Buy the Truth and sell it not The peace of the Church is greatly to be esteemed and endeavoured yet we must not sell the Truth to buy peace Iude accounted it needful for him to write unto the people of God and exhrrt them that thoy should earnesty contend for the faith scil the truth or doctrine of faith which was once delivered unto the Saints for saith he there are certain men crept in unawares c. The Apostle Paul gives a strict charge to Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and Love which is in Christ Iesus Hold it fast whatsoever means are used to wrest it from thee that good thing which was committed to thee keep by the holy Ghost which dwelleth in us Then he addeth this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be carried away from me I conceive the word all is not to be taken universally here for all absolutely but indefinitely for the generality of those in Asia the lesser and therefore Timothy being left at Ephesus a chiefe City of Asia was likely to meet with many Adversaries and much contention in holding fast the form of sound words yet the Apostle would not dispense with him in this case he must stick close to the Truth So he telleth Titus that a Minister must hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers especially they of the Circumcision whose mouthes must be stopped c. And then he addeth wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith Is it not very likely that contentions and divisions would follow hereupon Secondly Therefore consider that when contentions and divisions follow upon the faithful preaching professing maintaining of the Truth or the right administration of holy Ordinances the fault is in those that will not indure sound doctrine but take offence when none is given either because their errours are confuted or their sinful practices reproved If divisions and contentions follow upon the publishing and asserting the Counsel of God they are the cause of it who resist the Truth for was not this the case of our Lord Jesus Christ himself and his Apostles Many of the people when they heard Christ said Of a truth this is the Prophet others said this is the Christ but some said shall Christ come out of Galilee c. so there was a division among the people because of him There was a division therefore again among the Iews because of these sayings and many of them said he hath a Devil and is mad Why hear ye him Others said these are not the words of him that hath a Devil Can a Devil open the eyes of the blind Yea the Lord Christ forewarned his Disciples Think not that I am come to send peace on the Earth I am not come to send peace but a sword or as it is in Luke division For I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter in Law against the Mother in Law and a mans foes shall be they of his own houshold Christ is the Prince of peace and his Gospel is the Gospel of peace and the proper end of his coming in the flesh and the great business that he undertook was to make peace between God and men and so by consequent between men and men and this design took effect accordingly in those that savingly received Christ and his Gospel and yeilded up their hearts to him but
glory of Christ. 2. Charity and mercy is to be shewed to souls especially that they may not be poysoned with damnable heresies Is it not gross hypocrisie to pretend much tenderness towards deceivers and to have no bowels of compassion towards poor weak creatures whose simplicity is abused and whose souls are daily insnared by their mischievous subtilties Is this become a point of charity to desire that ravening wolves may have free liberty without check or controul to make havock of the flock of Christ 3. I say that charity is to be shewed to Hereticks not by suffering them to add sin to sin and to give them protection and encouragement in acting mischief but by restraining them from their sin Ministers and private Christians doing their parts in discouraging their errrours praying for them c. Magistrates using their power to curb them 4. I grant a difference is to be made as the Apostle Iude having spoken very sharply against Hereticks towards the end of the Epistle saith Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Some may err in less matters and out of simplicity and carry themselves humbly and modestly not troubling the peace of the Church such are to be tenderly dealt with as Brethren while they shew themselves willing to be informed Some may agree with the Church in all main and most substantial points and differ in things that seem not clearly laid down in Scripture these if they do not proudly and obstinately reject the truth I suppose ought to have much moderation shewed towards them Again there is a great difference between the simple and weak that are misled and those that are cunning seducers and deceivers of others More severity is to be used towards seducers than those that are misled by them Yet even these are to be heard and means used to convince them out of the Scriptures to be admonished exhorted patience and long suffering to be exercised toward them If after all such means used they remain obstinate neither forsaking their errours nor ceasing to draw others from the truth How can it suit either with zeal for Christ or love to souls to suffer them to go on It may be Objected that the weapons of this warfare are spiritual and therefore no other are to be used I answer that Ministers weapons are spiritual but they according to their calling may call upon the Magistrate to use other weapons against those that despise spiritual weapons as against drunkenâ—â—â—â— Adultery Murder c. Some it may be will say that many Magiâ—â—â—â—es are not able to judge of the truth or falshood of Doctrines I answer it is the duty of Christians in general to labour that the word of God may dwell in them richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding This is required of Christians whether private persons or Magistrates 2. If some false doctrines be so artificially painted over and have such fair colours put upon them that it 's hard to discover their falshood a godly Magistrate may have the assistance of such as are more exercised in this kind than himself Fourtbly it may be said that conscience ought not to be compelled I answer I am fully of that judgement and therefore I conceive none ought by any violent courses to be enforced to profess any doctrine contrary to their own consciences though their judgements be never so erroneous But when any cannot be content to err alone but are restless and active in corrupting others and will not forbear though often admonished in such a case to remedy so great a mischief either by banishment or imprisonment of the offenders is no violence to their Consciences but a just punishment upon the outward man It may be they will say They are bound in conscience to teach others the same things which they believe themselves I answer Then I conceive the Magistrate should think himself bound in conscience to stop them in their course and if nothing else will do it to shut them up as he would do one who having the Pestilence offereth to thrust himself into throngs of people to infect them Fifthly Some it seemeth have found out a strange conceit that the examples of those godly Kings of Iudah in punishing Idolaters is no rule for Christian Magistrates now because they were tyes of Christ who is called the Son of David according to the flesh and of whom it is said the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David and he shall raign over the house of Iacob for ever I answer 1. If this reason were of any force it would as well take away from the Magistrate all power of punishing other offences as well as this or at least take away this proof 2. As the reason is frivolous so we find that others are commended in Scripture that were not of the family of David nor types of Christ. To pass by that execution of Moses and the Israelites upon Balaam and the Midianites for seducing the people Observe the act of Elijah in slaying the Prophets of Baal Some may say Elijah was a Prophet I answer This execution was no Prophetical act but an act of Magistracy for which in this extraordinary case Elijah was Authorized immediately by the Lord himself to whom all power and authority belongs But how clear is thâ—â— in the case of Iehu King of the ten Tribeâ— who though he was not upright yet because he destroyed Baal out of Israel brake down his Image and house and made it a draughâ—-house slew the Worshippers of Baal and the Idolatrous family of Ahab he was both commended and rewarded by the Lord in so much that the Kingdom was settled upon him and his to the fourth Generation Sixthly Some may say Christians should be very tender of shedding of blood I answer 1. I am clearly of the same mind and I wish some of our Laws were mittigated and some other punishment were laid upon some offences which among us are made Capital But what shall we say to such that can be content to see men loose their lives for sheep-stealing and horse-stealing and yet cry out upon it as an high degree of cruelty if Blasphemers and those that draw others from the Ordinances of God into damnable Heresies should be put to death Have we not had such among us who have been very tender hearted Patrons of Hereticks not only sparing their lives but countenancing and preferring them and yet when any out of principles of Conscience have opposed their usurped power their feet have been swift to shed blood 2. I conceive Magistrates in restraining Heresies ought to be very wary in taking away life I wish 1. They would take them from all publick Offices of trust and power 2. Discountenance them 3. Suppress their Meetings And if any be obstinate and refractory there be other wayes to curb them besides
cannot disprove and to discredit those teachers the light of whose doctrine they cannot resist And how ready are the weaker sort to be scared from the truth and alienated from those assemblies where it is taught by such shifts as these A bold face and a rolling tongue pouring out store of opprobrious language against the truth goes a great way with the simple What an out-cry was made by the Iews of Asia against Paul Men of Israel help This is the man that teacheth all men every where against the people and the Law and this place and farther brought Greeks also into the Temple and hath polluted this holy place And all the City was moved and the people ran together and they took Paul and drew him out of the Temple and went about to kill him How soon are the multitude stirred up and set in a rage by the meer clamours of those who outragiously exclaim against the truth and them that maintain it Men of Israel help as if all were like to be lost unless Paul and his doctrine were suppressed So when they that disputed with Stephen were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake Then they suborned men which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God and they stirred up the people They were beaten from their arguments and then sought to over-bear him with false accusations and the ignorant people were ready to hearken to them First This may teach us not to think it strange if the Truth and those that profess it be evil spoken of in these times if things that are doubly false be objected against it and them Solomon saith There is no new thing under the Sun Certainly this is no new thing as ye have heard by divers examples out of Scripture it is a practice as antient as the Apostles dayes Paul and his Ministry did not escape these envenomed tongues Nay the Lord Christ himself together with his doctrine and works was thus traduced Why should it be expected that the servants should be above their Master or the truth in their mouths be more free from false reproaches than it was in his If ye hear such things in these dayes consider that the Divel doth but keep his old wont If the doctrine of free justification be slandered as licentious and tending to carnal liberty was it not so in Pauls time If the Ministers of the Gospel be called Antichristian Baals-Priests and the like by Hereticks and Sectaries it is no wonder the Divel seeth them to stand in his way and hinder his work I think it is easie to prove that there is a double falshood in this reproach For first they do not promote the interest and Kingdom of Antichrist either in regard of discipline doctrine or worship Not in regard of discipline they are far from seeking to bring men into subjection to him as the visible head of the Church or to exalt his authority above Kings and Princes and above the Laws of Christ. Nor in doctrine they teach not Popish opinions Nor in worship they are no Patrons of Idolatry and superstition But secondly They are so far from being Antichristians that I am perswaded that they are the greatest and most considerable opposites and adversaries to Antichrist that are in the world And therefore there is a double falshood in this charge And I think it very probable that the Jesuites were either the first instruments of Satan in broaching this reproach or else are very apt to promote it and set it on that by crying down the Ministers of the Gospel as Antichristian they may make way for Antichrist to get ground amongst us with the more ease and speed How easie were it to demonstrate that Ministers of the same order and the same judgement with those that now by foul-mouthed adversaries are branded for Antichristian have been principally instrumental under Christ to overthrow Popery and to prevent it for recovering its former strength For the eminent instruments in this work were Luther Melanchthon and Bucer and others of Germany Calvin Beza Iunius Chamier of France Zuinglius Oeâ—olampadius Bullinger Grinaeus of Switzerland Whitaker and Reinolds of England and divers others Besides the diligent and constant endeavours of Ministers in preaching clearing confirming the Truth and through the Lords blessing grounding and establishing the people in it against Popish errours and Antichristian corruptions As for Sectaries who are so liberal in bestowing such Titles upon the Ministers of the Gospel have they not occasionally at least given much advantage to Antichrist and as it were opened a back door at which to let him in again 1. By seeking to discredit the Ministers of the word and their Ministry 2. By drawing many people from the Ordinances and so preparing them to take such impressions as Satan and his instruments are ready to put upon them and if opportunity be to receive the mark of the Beast 3. By multiplying divisions and factions and setting up party against party and thereby taking a ready course to make Religion ridiculous in the eyes of worldly Politicians filling the minds of the simple with doubting and amazement as not knowing which way to take And 4. Hereupon ministring occasion to the Jesuites and Friers to perswade the people that there will be no certainty no end of divisions no remedy against sects and errours but by uniting themselves to one visible head the Pope and returning to the bosom of the Mother Church of Rome yea it is verily thought that many of the Popes Agents and Emissaries are now very active among us disguised under the appearance of Sectaries labouring to encrease contention among us for the designs of Antichrist I conceive it is very observable that those Sectaries which cry down the Preachers and Professours of the truth as Antichristian have usually come in the rear and a day after the fight as it were for when they that are sound in their principles have set upon the work of reformation and through the good hand of God some hopeful beginings have been made then have crept in Anabaptists and other Sectaries So in Germany Switzerland Geneva England I conceive the Divel finding that upon the breâ—king forth of light those old errours and corrupt customes will not be digested he then stirreth up some to pretend to reformation disguising himself that way that he may both hinder the work and blemish it This it seemeth was his practice about the time of Christs coming in the flesh to raise up false Christs and deceivers c. CHAP. IV. Rom. 3. 31. I Conceive it is clear that the Apostle in the two first Chapters of this Epistle speaketh of a threefold Law one of which was given to mankind in general both Gentiles and Israelites the other two were peculiarly delivered to the people of Israel The first of these scil that which was given to mankind in general is that which is called the Law
strive to purge out this Leaven of sin and errour and keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth Sixthly This feast of unleavened bread which was joyned with the Passover was to be kept seven days and seven in Scripture is noted for a number of perfection and therefore let Christians labour to purge out more and more the old Leaven of sin and corruption and to walk in sincerity and truth all the days of their life even till the seventh day that is until they come to keep an eternal feast and Sabbath of Rest with Christ in his glorious Kingdom Seventhly As they kept the feast with their loins girded So let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching They that wear long garments need to gird them up when they are either to walk or to work They that would have communion with him need to call in and gather up their straggling thoughts their wandring minds their loose affections to unite the powers of their souls to fix them upon Christ and the things of Christ that they may be always ready for any way or work of Christ. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Iesus Christ. As they were to eat the Passeover with their shoes on their feet and their staffe in their hand as being ready for their departure out of Egypt so let those that will rightly keep the spiritual Passeover and feed upon Christ be affected as strangers and sojourners expecting daily their departure out of this world labouring to be ready to enter into the heavenly Canaan How should they condemn that earthly mindedness when they are of such a temper as if they had a continuing City here not seriously seeking one to come Eighthly They were to eat the Passeover with bitter herbs let those then that would indeed feed upon Christ unto eternal life feed upon this Lamb of God with bitter herbs of Godly sorrow for sin holy anger and indignation against themselves afflicting their souls looking upon him whom they have pierced by their sins and mourning for him as one mourneth for his only Son and being in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Let them feed upon Christ by faith with self-denial which is as it were a bitter herb to the flesh denying themselves in their dearest lusts and carnal affections not sparing the right hand or the right eye Let them joyn repentance with faith otherwise they can never keep the feast according to the mind of Christ. Lastly Ye may read of the Law of the Passeover and unleavened bread and presently after that the ordinance of the first-fruits Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them when ye be come into Land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest and he shall wave this sheafe before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it It is conceived that this Sabbath or day of rest was the first day of unleavened bread scil the fifteenth day of the first month on whatsoever day of the week it fell but in the year wherein Christ suffered it fell upon the last day of the week so that it was a double Sabbath the paschal Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath meeting together upon the same day Now the sheaf of first-fruits was to be waved or offered before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath which was the day on which Christ rose from the dead See how the Apostle applyeth this Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep It seemeth there was such an exact agreement and correspondence between the Type and the Antetype the shadow and the substance that the Lord Christ arose from the dead the very same day that the sheafe of first fruits was to be offered and he arose as the first fruits of them that slept or of the dead I conceive the meaning is that as the first fruits being offered to God did sanctifie the whole increase of the fruits of the earth that year so Christ as the first fruits of the dead arose from death to eternal life and glory and in himself and his resurrection did as it were offer up to God the dead bodies of all his members not always to lye under the power of death and corruption but to be raised to immortality and everlasting glory Let us labour then to have part in the first resurrection rising with Christ by virtue of his quickning spirit to newness of life that this may be an earnest and sure evidence unto us of a second resurrection to everlasting life So much for the Sacraments of the Ceremonial Law CHAP. IV. SEcondly in the next place follow the Sacrifices It seemeth there were but few sorts of creatures used for Sacrifices Of sensible creatures such as have life and sense but five sorts whereof three were of four-footed beasts scil Bullocks Sheep and Goats old or young and so comprehending under them Calves Lambs and Kids and two sorts of fowls as turtle doves and young pigeons Thefe were creatures that were meek and gentle above many others and such as were in a special manner subject and serviceable to men so the Lord Christ who was appointed to be a Sacrifice to the justice of God was meek and lowly in heart He was lead as a sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before the shearer so opened he not his mouth who being in the form of God thought it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a seâ—vant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. Lions Bears Tigres Leopards wild-beasts beasts of prey fierce and cruel creatures Eagles Hawks Vultures or other ravenous fouls were not appointed for Sacrifice These were not fit to represent the Lord Christ in his state of humiliation in his suffering condition as he was appointed to be a Sacrifice for sin It is true Christ is called the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah I conceive to represent him in regard of his mighty powers in protecting his Church and subduing his enemies but not to resemble him as a Sacrifice for so he was in a state of suffering and of service and therefore Christians according
not the light of his word and his Law written in the Scriptures to many Nations yet he giveth to them all the light and Law of Nature and therefore the transgressions of the Law of Nature are sins against God The Apostle saith until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after tbe similitude of Adams transgression Sin was in the world before the Law was given on mount Sinai But how can it be just to charge sin upon them who had no Law against which to sin Nevertheless death raigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Who are they Some seem to understand Infants only who sinned not actually in their own persons as Adam did yet dying in their infancy were guilty of original sin Others take it for all that lived between the time of Adam and Moses who sinned not after the similitude of Adams transgression because they sinned not against an express Law given by revelation from Heaven as Adam did who sinned against that express prohibition of God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil under the pain of certain death and destruction I conceive this latter sense more probable because of that special limitation of time from Adam to Moses for the case of those that dye in their Infancy for ought I know is the same whether before or after the time of Moses before and after the Law written but the condition of those that lived between Adams time and that of Moses differed from those that lived after Now the Apostle sheweth that death the punishment of sin fell upon them so did many other judgements the flood destroying the old world the showr of fire and brimstone upon Sodom fell within the compass of that time and therefore certainly they were guilty of sin and justly punished because these calamities were the just judgements of God who is the righteous judge of all the world and therefore although these sinned not against any positive Law of God delivered to them either by word or writing yet they sinned against the light and Law of Nature which God had given them Secondly This may shew us the reason and the justice of those severe executions of God upon Heathen Nations who had no Scripture nor written Law to sin against They sinned against the Light and Law of Nature for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them c. The Judgements and Calamities publick national private personal brought upon any of mankind in several ages are evidences of Gods wrath and displeasure against them and therefore proofs of their sin and guiltiness against God otherwise the Lord who is perfectly righteous would not bring these evils upon them and among the rest the death of the body is a universal declaration of the wrath of God against mankind for sin If any should be free from all other evils yet this alone would be a sufficient proof of their sinfulness and therefore the Lord said unto Adam and in him to each particular person of his posterity soon after he had sinned and they had sinned in him Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Euery dead Corps every Funeral that ye see or hear of all the persons that have died from the beginning of the world unto this day have by their death manifested the wrath of God against sin and mens guiltiness before the Lord for though through the grace and mercy of God in Christ the death of a true believer is turned into a blessing and made an inlet or entrance into everlasting life yet in its own Nature it is a consequent of sin and sin was the original of it In special the Heathens who had not the mind of God so fully revealed to them as those within the Church yet had the Light and Law of Nature and in sinning against that Light and Law were justly punished for they held the Truth in unrighteousness This common Light and Law of Nature was the Truth of God und they by opposing their wills and lusts against it and so not following the guidance of it were found guilty of fighting against God and crossing that Light which the Lord had given them and therefore the Lord dealt with them as Enemies So the Lord punished Sodom and the Cities adjoynning with fire and brimstone So the Canaanites and Amorites were destroyed for their sins against the Light and Law of Nature and Israel was planted in their Land The Lord told Abraham that his seed should possess it but not until after four hundred years Why Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full so that it was the fullness of their iniquity which was the cause of their destruction it was because their sin was come to its full height that they were rooted out So the Lord having forbidden Israel the practice of divers great sins saith Defile not your selves in any of these things for in all these things the Nations are defiled which I cast out before you And the Land is defiled therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it and the Land it self vomiteth out the Inhabitants The Lord threatned divers grievous Judgements by the Prophet Amos against many Heathen Nations Syria the Philistines Tyrus Edom Ammon Moab All the miseries of war brought upon Heathen Nations what were they but revelations and reall demonstrations of the wrath of God from Heaven for their sins against the Law and Light of Nature The ruining of the Babylonish Monarchy by the Medes and Persians of the Persian by the Macedonians and Grecians the Macedonians by the Romans of the Roman by the Saracens and Turks on the one side and divers Northern Nations on the other these and the like were just Judgements of God upon Heathens for sins against the Light and Law of Nature So I conceive the cruel Spaniards were unjust executioners of the righteous Judgements of God upon the poor Indians or Americans for their sins against the same common Light and Law of Nature for the Lord executeth just Judgements by wicked men yea by Divels who aime not at all at the Lords end but either delight to exercise their malice and cruelty or act thus to make a ful conquest and utterly disable a people to make head again Thirdly This may clearly convince us that the sins of Christians are far more heinous then the sins of Infidels and Heathens because they sin against the same Law
manifested and made visible and so framed this humane nature thus united to his God-head after the image of God in perfect Righteousness and holiness and inabled it to perform full and compleat obedience to the Law And thus the work of Satan was destroyed one of the Sons of Adam one of the seed of the woman after the fall of mankind being inabled to fulfill the Righteousness of the Law Fourthly Ye may note by the way that I do not speak of this as the full sense of this Text as it this were all that Christ did in destroying the works of the Devil and in restoring what he had ruined but I speak of it as a part of the Apostles meaning and a part of that work of Christ concerning the point in hand Fifthly Observe that by this work Christ established the Law For first As the Law was given to man so the Son of God took upon him the nature of man and subjected it to the Law as it is said he was made under the Law 2. He wrote this Law of perfect holiness and Righteousness upon this humane Soul thus united to his God-head 3. In this nature of man He perfectly fulfilled the Law by all which he acknowledged the Law to be a perfect Rule of Righteousness which as man he was bound to obey and so did really confirm and ratifie the Authority of it whereas on the contrary they that taught mâ—n to seek justification and to approve themselves as Righteous in the sight of God by their own personal works of obedience to the Law though they pretended to magnifie the Law they did make void the Law because their Righteousness was far short of what the Law required and therefore to profess that they looked to be justified or found Righteous in the sight of God by their own imperfect works done in obedience to the Law was to accuse the Law of imperfection and so to make void the Law Saith David The Law of the Lord is perfect and therefore none can be justified by the Law unless their Righteousness be perfect Now for sinful men whose natures are contrary to the Law whose sinful omissions and commissions are numberless whose best works are exceedingly imperfect and defective to profess themselves justified by the Law is to deny the perfection of the Law and so to abolish or make void the Law So much for the first particular point comprehended in the general doctrine The second is this That the Lord Iesus Christ established the Law by making full satisfaction to the Law where note two particulars 1. That Christ did make full satisfaction to the Law 2. That hereby he did establish it 1. For the former When Christ was gloriously transfigured upon a certain mountain in the sight of three of his Disciples Behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Ierusalem These two holy men of God who many ages before had been taken out of this world by an extraordinary dispensation of God were sent to meet the Lord Christ upon this Mount and why these two Moses was the Lawgiver I mean the ministerial Law-giver the Minister Servant or Instrument of the Lord by whom God who is the only authentical the supream Law-giver delivered and as it were handed over his Law to the people of Israel Elias was one of the most eminent among all the Prophets and exceeding zealous of the Law and by an extraordinary warrant from God slew divers hundreds of false Prophets for Idolatary and for teaching the people to transgress the Law and when he complained against Israel for their heinous sins against the Law the Lord directed him to annoint Hazael to be King over Syria Iehu to be King over Israel and Elisha to be Prophet in his stead as so many executioners of Gods justice upon backsliding Israel for their horrible sins against the Law It seemeth then that these two were sent to shew that the Lord Jesus Christ was he of whom the Law and the Prophets spake whom the Ceremonial Law shadowed out by Types and Figures who was to perform full obedience to the Moral Law and make full satisfaction for the transgressions of men against the Law and to accomplish what was foretold by the Prophets and it is said expresly that they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem They spake of his death and sufferings whereby he should make full satisfaction for the sins and transgressions of men against the Law and fulfill the sayings of the Prophets It is not barely said he should dye or suffer death but that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accomplish his decease He should fully and compleatly suffer such a death as should make full satisfaction to the Law He should undergo the full penalty of the Law and make full payment of all the debts which the Law could charge upon his people To make this appear more clearly consider these particulars 1. That the Lord Iesus Christ was very God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Son of God is called the word God the Father manifesting himself by the Son as a man maketh known his mind by his words or speech There is the coessential word of God and there is the declarative word of God the Son of God is the coessential word of God of the same essence with God the Father The declarative word of God is that which we have in the holy Scriptures So Christ prayed to his Father for his people Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy word is truth For this cause saith the Apostle thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which worketh effectually in you that believe These and the like places shew the folly of those who seem to hold that there is no other word of God but Christ whereas it is plain that the holy Ghost calleth the word written in the Scriptures and the word preached and taught according to the Scriptures the Word of God scil his declarative word but Christ is the coessential or co substantial word of God and here it iâ— said He was in the beginning declaring his eternity when the world and the creatures in it were made He was not made but he was from eternity before all things and accordingly he saith to his Father O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was that is from all eternity And the word was with God that sheweth the personal distinction betwixt the Father and the
divisions occasioned by Preaching old forgotten truths but the fault in those that will not endure such doctrines Satans malice and some mens weakness So the inundation of Popish Superstitions broke in How much we should resent these things their danger Toleration of them discussed in the Objections for Errours answered Chap. III. Objections against truth many times are double falshoods this riseth from Ignorance Credulity malice and want of Arguments to confirm errours No strange or new thing that men erre and are slanderous Protestant Ministers are no promoters of Antichrist but his great Adversaries lessening them greatens Antichrists interest Seducing Sectaries expedite Antichrists affairs Satan hath still hindered reformation by such ways Chap. IV. A Threefold Law first given to the Gentiles with the Iews the other given only to the Iew. Law of nature and its use The Ceremonial cannot justifie nor the Moral yet neither made void by Faith Faith confirms the Ceremonial Law what this is 't is of God how long to last abus'd or not understood by many of the Iews who precisely observed Ceremonial cleanness palpably neglecting moral purity In what sense doctrine of Faith doth not abolish the Ceremonial Law The dispute between Iews and Samaritans and whence it arose when and how long continued Divine worship in spirit and truth not limited to any place Law Ceremonial a School-master to bring us to Christ full of deep mysteries and spiritual realities cleared by the Gospel These unfolded in explication of Circumcision seal of that promise I will be their God which contains all grace and comfort is made good to us in Christ the Covenant sealed by Circumcision the same that is sealed by Baptisme Passeover what its occasion the circumstances of it its meaning in each particular applied to Christ. Actual faith in Christ delivers from Curse of the Law should excite to thanfulness holiness exercise faith preparedness for our duties godly sorrow Feast of first Fruits when enjoyned excite to endeavour a rising to newness of life Chap. V. Few Creatures appointed for Sacrifices three sorts of Beasts two of Fowls all meek resembling Christ as we should Korban whence derived how apply'd to Christ through whom we are made nigh to God Burnt offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It s import to us the rites in offering it blindness of the Iews and to be pittied deep slaine of sin it is deadly to the sinner or his surety Christs Bloud precious shed that we should not live in sin The continual burnt-offering Christians should offer morning and evening as most likely the Iews did pray and praise God in their Houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its signification Imputation of sin to Christ speaks Gods love of Compassion to sinners sin base and shameful The blood of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sprinkled before the Lord on the Golden Altar the meaning hereof It s inward fat burned what meant some other rites in the offering it and their import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it was noted Christ and how a sufficient sacrifice therefore fit to be trusted in How the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth the Christians sacrifice and apply'd Oyle used in the meat offering its purport with other rites of it explained Salt with all Sacrifices and its meaning The Covenant of Salt The drink offering wherein it consisted The Peace offering what and on what occasion meaneth whole Christian duty in general to be offered to God through Christ. Peace-offering might be male or female part of it to be burnt part for the Priest part for the offerer hence our Communion with God inferr'd How Sacrificers are partakers of the Altar Priests under the Law were sacred persons especially the High-Priest type of Christ whose is an eternal Priesthood The Garments of the High-Priest and their meaning viz. the holiness beauty and glory of Christ in general A more particular view of each part of the Garments their import and our instruction Ordinary Priests were in a sort types of Christians who are to be spiritual Priests and Sacrifices Ministers of the Gospel no where called Priests in the New Testament Tabernacle and Temple agreed in some differed in other particulars how each signified Christ to dwell with us in much humility and love we ought therefore to unite our selves to him estrange our selves from sin scandalous sins should not be cause of gladness in any who observe them in others Temple and Tabernacle signify'd each be liever Sin defiles the whole man the heart first the outward man next sin begins in the heart Altar made of Shittim wood the meaning covered with brass its purport the Godheadpreserving the humane nature under its sufferings Where the Altar was placed its meaning The Altar of incense its meaning The Ark what in it and their Import The mercy seat the Cherubims looking down towards the Ark. The fire used in Sacrifices its meaning Christs love to us undergoing such sufferings for us requireth love from us to him This fire came from Heaven never was to go out such should Christian zeal be Chap. VI. Sacred observances as restraint from unclean beasts so not in their own nature the meaning equalleth all mankind in their Original Gods Soveraignty in chusing Israel incomprehensible His infinite goodness calling the Gentiles who should be thankful and take heed of unbelief and all sin Our liberty to use all wholesome food Blood whether now forbidden Probably a Natural though secret reason why so many Creatures were forbidden to Israel Prohibition of eating blood Acts 15. explained Festivals Religious among the Iews noted our Christian joy What feasts these were At the time of the feast of Harvest Christ sent down the Spirit on his Apostles who were to gather in the Harvest of the Gentiles Feast of ingathering about our September the meaning of it well applyed in three or four particulars The feast of Trumpets the type of Preaching the Gospel and calling to faith and repentance who are deaf to this shall be astonied at the last Trumpets sound The various washings in use among the Iews well unfolded shew Christ the accomplishment of them and our Christian duty of dayly purging our selves in the fountain of his blood Chap. VII St. Pauls design to deliver to us the doctrine of justification by grace This clear'd by reducing all men under an examen The Gentile examined and cast by Law of nature transgressed The Iew examined and cast by the written Law moral transgressed There is a Law of nature this not nulled by Faith What this Law is in the particular description of it T is engraven on the heart given by Christ yet different from that he gives Believers who follow him It was a perfect rule before the fall it is yet of great use though much impaired The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was to be served and worshipped that he created all being himself eternal and omnipotent wise and good This Law declared what is good and what evil in some