1. Whither is not Neigbour to be taken in the same latitude when it is said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as when it is said Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour and again Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours If this be denied that will be enough to evince it that the particular commands of the second Table are but severall Explications of the generall command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and therefore it is the same Neighbour to whom we must express our Love by not bearing false witness against him and the like and if it be granted then certainly Neighbour must include Stranger nay Enemy Since the Jews were not to bear false witness against their Enimies or to covet unjustly what belonged to them To this purpose is the note of a Rabbin upon these words of the Psalmist He that doth no evill to his Neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour understanding it of enemies as well as friends 2. When our blessed Saviour repeateth this Law of Moses whither did not Christ understand it in the same sense with Moses If he did noâ— then he affixed another sense to Moses his words then what he intended which is not to be imagined if he did then either Moses meant them universally or else Christ did not and so Christ hath added nothing in this particular to Moses As for that passage in our Saviours Sermon Thou shalt love thy neighhour and hate thine enemy it is doubtless to be understood as Abulensis hath well noted only as a Tradition of the Scribes and Pharisees Indeed St Austin and St Hilary seem to be of opinion that hatred was allowed in the Old Testament Yea Oecumenius in this place harpeth upon the same string but by the leave of those Reverend Fathers upon what ground it doth not appear since it is no where written in the whole Body of the Law Thou shalt hate thy Enemies and therefore it is well observed that our blessed Saviour doth not say You have heard that it hath been said by Moses or in the Law but You have heard that it hath been said to wit by the Scribes and Pharisees those corrupt Interpreters of the Law To all this for the further Confirmation I may add That Solomon expresly requireth in his Proverbs and St Paul from him enjoyneth in his Epistle If thine Enomy â—e hungry give him Bread to Eat And if he be thirsty give him water to drink so shalt thou heap coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward thee That God in the Law gave strict charge concerning the beast even of our Enemy If thou meet thine Enemies Oxe or his Ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him Again If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help him And certainly he that required them to assist their Enemy in rescuing his beast did not allow them hatred and malice to his Person Nay yet once more in the forementioned place where Moses saith Thou shalt love thy Neighbour is prefixed Thou shalt not avenge nor bear grudge which refers to an Enemie that hath done one an injury As for that lex talionis Law of retaliation though as appeareth by our Saviour it was otherwise construed by the Pharisees yet doubtless it was only intended by God as a rule for the publique Magistrate in his Administrations of justice and is no less in this sense allowable now And though they were to exercise acts of Hostility towards the Nations about them in making no peace with the Ammonites casting out the Cananites and cutting off the Amalekites yet this was by a speciall command from God which both then and now may dispence with a generall Precept and withall their being the Instruments of Gods vengance upon the Heathen did not hinder but that they might be free from any private revenge and so fulfill the generall Precept as well as any Headsman who notwithstanding he is the Executor of Justice may yet love that Person whom he doth execute 2. That Love which the Law requireth may very well in some cases be raised up to that heighth of suffering death Briefly to clear which know That laying down our life in reference to our neighbour is only required in one of these two cases the one when the publique the other when the spirtuall good of others necessitateth to it To lay down a mans life for the publique good is so far from being purely Christian that even Heathens have done it and therefore is no doubt included in the Mosaicall Precept which we may the rather believe because we find himself willing to be blotted out of the Book of Life for the preservation of the People and if it be said that this is to love our Neighbour more then our selves I answer It is not if we take Neighbour Distributively and if we take it Collectively for the Generality even nature teacheth us and surely then Moses his Law did require to prefer the puhlique before the private Wellfare a Generall before a Particular good 3. But that dying which is especially an act of Love is when we are willing to lose our own temporall life for the eternall good of others An example of this we have in the Old Testament What else meant Davids wish in regard of his Son Absalom when he said Would God I had died for thee Desiring no doubt to prevent that eternall death into which he had reason to think his Son dying in Rebellion against his King his Father was now plunged by the loss of his temporary life And in truth though this be to love our Neighbours Souls better then our Body yet it is not to love our Neighbour better then our selves and therefore exceeds not the Mosaicall Precept Caeâ—eris paribus let there be an equality every way and a Christian is as much bound now to prefer himself before his Neighbour as a Jew was and in way of inequality a Jew was bound to dammage himself for his Neghbours good as well as a Christian I am not to love my Neighbours Soul more then my own Soul nor his Body more then my Body nor his Estate more then my own Christian charity in this respect as well as Jewish begins at home only when it is my Estate or Body and my Neighbours Soul which come in Competicion this must be valued above those and this is required by Moses as well as Christ In one word That addition as thy self was certainly intended not as a Limitation or Restriction but rather as an Amplification and Inlargment of this duty of love that look how dear and entire and cordiall that love is which men bear to themselves the same they ought to have towards their Neighbours And therefore I shut up this
Jewes to search the Scriptures for in them you think to have eternal life doth he not plainly intimate that in the Law of Moses and Scriptures of the Prophets Eternal Life is made known together with the way that leads to it In one word the Resurrection of the dead the term whereof is eternal life is expressely called by the Apostle Paul the Promise of God made unto the Fathers This then is the Promise which hee hath promised not that it was not at all promised before but not so fully so clearly eternal life was promised in the Old Testament rather typically than litterally in general phrases than in expresse terms and hence it is that they were but a few comparatively who understood any thing by those Promises concerning it whereas now according to St. Pauls expression Christ hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel which plainly maketh it manifest to us in which respect the Promises of the Gospel are called by the Author to the Hebrews better promises not as to the things promised which are the same for substance but as to the easiness of the condition and chiefly the clearnesse of the Revelation It will not now bee amiss to consider a while who this Hee is by whom this promise is so punctually promised nor need wee any further character of him than what is given before in this very chapter It is hee that is righteous and therefore cannot deceive It is hee that is the Holy one and therefore cannot lye so that since it is hee that hath promised it must bee performed It is hee who is an advocate with the Father to plead for our admission into heaven who is the Propitiation for our sins to wit by his blood which is also the purchase of this life It is hee who is the Christ annointed to the office of a Prophet that hee might reveal to of a Priest that hee might obtain for and of a King that hee might confâ—r on us this eternal life Finally it is hee who is the Son and being the Son is the Heir and being the Heir hath a title to this Life not onely to injoy it himself but impart it to us By all which it appeareth that whereas men oftentimes promise those things which they have no power or right to give yea sometimes they promise what they never intend to give and hence it is that their Promises are vain lying and deceitful Hee that hath promised hath Power and Will to give it hee saith nothing but what hee really intends and will certainly fulfil and now if you would know to whom this promise belongs go on to a view of the next and last particular which is the 4 Propriety of the persons in the pronoune us It is that which may be looked upon both in a way of inlargement and of restriction 1 In a way of inlargement us not me onely the Proâ—ise was not peculiarly to the Apostles but to all true Christians upon this account St. Paul elsewhere speaking of this benefit under the name of a crown of Righteousness saith it is that which the Lord the Righteous Judge will give mee at that day and not me onely but all them that love his appearing In other Races though never so many run yet only one obtains the prize but this prize is given to all Christian runners that which intituled St. John to this life was not his new office of an Apostle but his new birth as a Christian so much the Apostle Peter implyeth when hee saith Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten us to a lively hope to an inheritance and the meanest Christian is begotten of God as well as any of the Apostles it is not Grace in strength but Truth which is the condition of Glory and therefore this us taketh in all those sorts of Christians before mentioned not onely Fathers but Young men nay little Children 2 In a way of restriction us not all but us who are thus and thus qualified and if you please you may take in all those who are before expressed in this Chapter us who keep his Commandements for the promise and the precept are knit together nor can any partake of the one who do not keep the other us who walk as Christ walked for wee cannot expect to attain the end which hee hath promised if wee do not walk in the way which hee hath walked in and which leads to the end us who love our brother this being the Old and the New Commandement must bee obeyed if wee will enter into life us who love not the World nor the things of the World for hee is unworthy of the Life in that World to come who doteth with the love of this us who acknowledge the Son since onely hee that hath the Son hath Life Finally and principally us in whom that abideth which wee have heard from the beginning Indeed if you mark it you shall still finde the Promises of Eternal Life made to perseverance To them whâ— by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life so St. Paul to the Romans I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for mee a crown of Righteousnesse so the same Apostle concerning himselfe not to multiply instances in those seven Epistles to the seven Angels of the Churches of Asia we find eternal life promised under several metaphors but still the condition prefixed is to him that overcommeth not to him that fighteth but who continueth fighting till hee overcome so true is that of St. Bernard whereas all the vertues run in the race it is perseverance alone which carrieth away the reward And thus I have given you an account of all the parts of the Text. I close up all in one word of Application and that 1 In General is there an Eternal Life promised why then do wee not beleeve it and if wee do beleeve it why do we not prize it and if we prize it why do we not seek after it Were it possible that men should be so much in loveâ— with this Life did they beleeve there were another or could they dote so much on a frail fading Life did they beleeve there were one that is Eternal If we view the practises of the Sons and Daughters of men wee may sadly observe that this Life is ever providing for as if it should never end and that Life is never prepared for as if it should never beginne whereas this Life shall soon end but that never We see saith St. Austin the Lovers of this present Life using their utmost care and cost to preserve it and all they can doe is onely ut differant non auferant mortem to delay that Death which they cannot prevent if men are solicitous ut aliquantulum plus vivatur that they may live
assured he keepeth them may know and be assured that he knoweth Christ I shut up all with one Caution In your indeavours after the reflex forget not the direct acts of Faith Look upon Christ as he who is your righteousness to justifie you and then look upon your Obedience as that which may testifie to you that you are justified by him even then when you cannot clearly discover inherent qualifications cast not away wholly your confidence in Christs Merits and when you do discover them rest not in them but only in Christs Merits ever remembring that it is the being in Christ by Faith which intitleth you to justification and salvation and your keeping the Commandments and walking as Christ walked is that which manifesteth the truth of your Faith by which you are in Christ by whom you are justified and shall at last be saved THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 7 8 9 10 11. 7. Brethren I write no new Commandment unto you but an old Commandment which you had from the beginning the old Commandment is the Word which ye have heard from the beginning 8. Again a new Commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth 9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now 10. He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him 11. But he that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes IT was St Pauls sage and sacred advice to Timothy Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Where these words Faith and Love are by some and not unfitly referred to the manner of holding these being the two hands by which we hold fast the truth but by others and no less probably they are refered to the forme of sound words which he heard of him the matter of the form the substance of those words being reducible to those two heads suitable hereunto is that Paraphrase of Theophilact in Faith and Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is My words and discourses are conversant about Faith and Love what he saith concerning St Pauls we may concerning St Johns words in this Epistle all of which tend either to the enlightning of our Faith or inflaming of our Love the latter of which our Apostle beginneth with at these Verses Brethren I write no new Commandment c. Which words consist of two generall Parts A Preamble inviting in the 7 and 8 Verses A Doctrine instructing in the 9 10 and 11 Verses Our Apostle intending to spend a great part of this Epistle in a discourse of Love doth not unfitly begin it with a Preface especially considering that the end of an Exordium is captare benevolentiam to gain love both to the Orator and his matter In this Preamble there are two things considerable The kind Appellation our Apostle giveth those to whom he wrote in the first word Brethren The large Commendation he giveth of the Doctrine about which he was to write in the rest of the words That which first occureth to be handled is the kind Appellation Brethren The vulgar Latine following the Syriack read it Charissimi dearly Beloved and Grotius finds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Greek Manuscript Indeed either is very suitable To shew that he himself was not a stranger to that love he would teach them he might fitly call them dearly Beloved and being to treat of Brotherly Love he no less aptly useth the stile of Brethren so that it is not much materiall which way we read it but because the other phrase of dearly Beloved is used afterward and the most Greek Copies here read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall handle that reading which our Translation following renders Brethren It is a title that is very considerable upon severall accounts especially these foure Inasmuch as it is a word of Verity of Humility of Charity of Dignity There was really such a relation between St John and those to whom he wrote The mentioning it by the Apostle argueth in him a Spirit of love and lowliness and much advanceth the honour of those to whom he wrote 1. It is a word of verity indeed it is somewhat strange how this should be true If you cast your eyes on the first verse of this Chapter you find him calling them children and how is it possible they should at once be his brethren and his children If they were his brethren he and they must be children of one Father if they were his children he must be their Father and these two cannot consist together The truth is these relations in a natural way and a proper notion are altogether incompatible between the same persons and yet this hinders not but that in a spiritual and Scripture-sence both these are verified of S t John in reference to those to whom he wrote Know then that the sacred penman of this Epistle may be considered under a three-fold latitude as an Apostle as a Christian as a Man 1. Consider him as an Apostle invested by Christ with authority to publish the Gospell whereby they were converted to the Faith so he was their Father and might therefore call them his Children But 2. Consider him as a Christian embracing the same Faith with them which he Preached to them so he and they were Bretheren They who have the same Father and Mother are undoubtedly Brethren now the Apostles as Christians had God to their Father and the Catholick Church to their Mother and therefore Brethren to all even ordinary Christians In this respect it is that St Peter giving thanks to God for this mercy of Regeneration useth a Pronoune of the first person Plurall Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten not me or you or me and you but us again to a lively Hope thereby intimating that he and they were all the Children of God and that by the same meanes of the new Birth and St Paul writing to the Corinthians maketh himself one of the number when he saith We being many are one body and again By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body thereby implying that he and they stand in the same relation to the Church This Relation is that which is not between every Minister and his People On the one hand sometimes the Minister himself is not a Brother because a prophane wicked Person yea in this respect he may be able to say my Children and yet not my Brethren for since the Spirituall Birth dependeth upon the energie of the Seed which is the Word accompanied with the Spirit not at all upon the goodness of him that dispenseth it it is not impossible for
here especially observed is that our Apostle speaking of the love of God calls it the love of the Father nor is it without good reason and that upon a double account 1. To informe us under what notion chiefly God is the Object of love True indeed in himself he is good nay goodness which is loves Object but yet this goodness is known to us by its communication and it is good as known which causeth love so that we love God chiefly under those mercifull relations in which he stands to us nor is there any relation of greater goodness towards man then that of a Father He is our King our Master our Judge but under these notions he is especially to be feared as he is our Father principally he is to be loved 2. To insinuate how greatly we are obliged to love God rather then the world The world at the best is but a servant at the worst our enemy as our servant it is to be used not loved at least not with a choice love as our enemy it is to be not loved but hated and trampled on Now God is our Father and there is a naturall affection due from Children to their Parents whom should we love if not our Father so that to love the world before God is as if one should preferre his Servant nay his enemy before his friend his Lord his Father then which what can be more monstrous And when I find the Apostle here disswading from worldly love upon the account of its inconsistency with the love of God I am apt to believe that he purposely phraseth it the love of the Father to render the love of the world which is so repugnant to the love of God so much the more odious to us But to let go the phrase The design of this proposition is manifest there is no positive love of God in him in whom there is a Superlative love of the world he that loveth the world chiefly doth not love God truly he that is a lover of pleasure or wealth or honour more then God is not at all a lover of God Indeed a worldling may be in shew a Saint and as farre as words will go a friend of God so may an Harlot seem kinde to her Husband but as she who giveth her heart to another beareth no reall love to her Husband so he who loveth the world hath no sincere affection to God Upon which account St James calleth worldly sinners Adulterers and Adulteresses so that to speak after our Apostles phrase elsewhere He that saith he loveth the Father and yet loveth the world is a lyar and there is no truth in him It is that indeed which holds true both waies as it is with a paire of scales the one goeth up the other goeth down so it is with these two Loves 1. On the one hand The Negation holds firme the proposition being inverted If any man love the Father the love of the world is not in him Moses rod swallowed up the Magicians so doth the love of God all other loves It is observed of the Sun beames that if they shine bright and hot upon the fire they put it out so do Heavenly affections extinguish Earthly Postquam Amarillis nos tenuit Galatea reliquit When divine love enters in carnall goeth out The command of love to God is of a large extent Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy might and if the love of God take up the whole there is not so much as a corner for left worldly love St Bernard commenting upon that precept thus expounds it and that aptly to our present purpose thou shalt love God withall thy heart soul might that is dulciter prudenter fortiter sweetly wisely strongly and where this love is predominant as that Father hath excellently observed there is no roome for worldly lusts he that loveth God sweetly withall his heart tasteth no sweetness in carnall things which is the lust of the flesh he that loveth God wisely with all his soul is not curicus or covetous of temporall things which is the lust of the eyes he that loveth God strongly so as to indure all things for him regards not honours which is the pride of life Nor is it less true in the direct then in the inverted notion If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Indeed one who hath been a lover of the world may be won to be a lover of God yea he who loveth the world in the second may love God in the first place but as St Gregory hath pithily and aptly exprest it Utraque sâ—mul aequaliter amari non possunt both cannot together be equally loved when the inferior sensitive powers of the soul are vehemently affected the superior rationall faculties are hindred in their operations so is spirituall love by carnall The trees which spread in breadth grow not in height those who extend their love to the things below ascend not in love to the things above Pharaohs leane Kine did eate up the fat so doth the pining love of the world devoure the love of God which is the Fat and Marrow of the soul It is very observable that St Paul describing the wicked conversation of false teachers brands them with these three lusts whose belly is their God the lust of the flesh who glory in their shame or as some read it whose glory is their shame the pride of life who minde earthly things the lust of the eyes to all which he opposeth that one character of himself and the rest of the teachers but our conversation is in Heaven thereby intimating that they who give themselves to worldly lusts are strangers to an Heavenly conversation and consequently to divine affection by which especially we climbe to and converse with God in Heaven To give you yet more fully the sense of this proposition if you compare it with parallel Scriptures you shall finde it will admit of a double enlargement to wit in regard of the predicate and the copula the thing denied and the manner of denying it 1. The love of the Father is not in him nay The hatred of the Father is in him so St James his assertion runs Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God and that he might bring the charge home to their consciences he repeats it with the change of the Abstract into the Concrete Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God It is true as hath been already intimated he may be a seeming friend but he is a reall enemy and so much the worse enemy because a seeming friend I know if this Question were put to many lovers of the world Do you hate God they would say in Hazaels language Am I a dead Dog that I should do this thing I say my Prayers frequent the Church and thinke
here intended and hath already been unfolded Indeed as to corporeal sight there are among others two things especially required to wit an eye within and a Light without and therefore if either adest lumen et desunt oculi light bee present but the visive faculty absent or adsunt oculi et deest lumen the visive faculty be present but the light absent there can bee no sight so is there required to spiritual knowledge an external revelation and an internal illumination the one whereof sets the object before us and the other elevateth the understanding within us and both of those are from this unction 1 By the extraordinary unction of the Holy Ghost the Apostles were inspired to reveal both by their Tongues and pens Evangelical Doctrin and had there not been this Revelation of it wee could never have known it It is not once but often that the Gospel is called a mystery yea saith S. Paul without controversy it is a great mystery Now a mystery as S. Chrysostome well observeth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something unutterable admirable and unconceivable so that it could never have been found out by us had it not been made known to us from above As for Humane Natural things Reason is conversant about them and yet ever in these it is many times nonplus'd as being not able to fathome the depth of them but as to Divine things Reason is not onely dimme but blinde Indeed there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some common Principles of Divinity and Morality Religion and Honesty still remaining in our Nature but Evangelical verities are such as Reason could never have prompted to us so that what our Saviour said to Peter concerning the particular Article of his being the Son of the living God flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee may bee asserted of all the Doctrins of the Gospel they are such as Natural reason could never have revealed to us True it is reason that Candle of the Lord as Solomon calls it affords so much light even to Pagans as will render them inexcusable since their not walking according to Reasons dictates shall be their condemnation but it is Christ The Sun of Righteousnesse as Malachy calls him who giveth us that light by following of which wee may attain salvation for no man knoweth the Father whom to know is eternal life but the Son and him to whom the Son revealeth him But this is that truth which is agreed to on all hands even Pelagians and Socinians acknowledging the necessity of Divine Revelation in order to the acquisition of Happiness Bee pleased therefore to know further that by the ordinary unction of the Spirit which is conferred on every Christian in some degree or other there is a spiritual illumination of the minde whereby Natural Reason is elevated to a right apprehension of Evangelical doctrines and this is no lesse needful than the former to which purpose is that gloss of Calvin upon the Text Non acumine proprii sensus rectè sapiunt homines sed illuminatione Spiritus It is not by the sharpenesse of our own understanding but by the inlightning of the Spirit that wee savour divine things To this Truth S. Paul giveth a most clear and full evidence where hee saith in expresse words But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned where the chief question to bee resolved in order to the genuine Interpretation of the words is who is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural man concerning whom this is said that he receiveth not and cannot know the things of the Spirit of God Some affirm the Natural man to bee the weak beleever but how weakly will appear if wee observe the opposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one who is perfect but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one who is spiritual which though it bee more eminently true of the strong yet it is verified of every true Christian hee is one who hath not received the spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God and so is among the number of the we mentioned in the twelfth verse of that Chapter And which fully cleareth it that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here cannot be the weak Christian is that the things of the Spirit are said to bee foolishness to him which cannot bee affirmed of any true Christian though never so weak who hath Learned to adore and admire those divine mysteries which hee cannot apprehend Suitable hereunto it is that the Apostle in the eighteenth verse of the former Chapter saith The Preaching of the Crosse is foolishnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that perish whereas the weakest Christian is among the number of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter clause of that verse them who are saved to whom therefore it is impossible that the things of the Spirit should bee foolishnesse Others there are who by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand the man who is altogether destitute of the helps of ingenuous education and Divine Revelation whereas our Apostle plainly tells us in the former chapter that they were the wise Disputers of the World to whom Evangelical doctrin when revealed did seem no other than folly and therfore when Paul Preached at Athens a place of literature and Knowledge Arts and Sciences the cry of those Sophies is what will this babler say Once again Some there are who interpret this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee one who is given to sensual lusts and so hath his Reason clouded by carnal affections but it should then have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between which Suidas and Isidore Peleusiota from whom probably the other borrowed it make this distinction that the Carnal man is one who serveth the flesh and suffereth himself to bee guided by his corrupt affections and the natural or animal man one who builds upon humane Reason thinking by his raâ—iâ—cinations disputations and syllogismes to finde out what is just and profitable not craving or admitting the influence of the Spirit The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then here mentioned is every man who though otherwise well furnished with intellectuals and morals having all those improvements of Reason which all kinde of Philosophy can afford him is yet altogether destitute of the inlightening and renewing grace of the Holy Spirit nor is this my distinction but St. Judes who in the Characters hee giveth of those false Teachers puts these two together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explaining the former by the latter and letting us see that all such who have not the Spirit are meer Natural men Of this Natural man St. Paul plainly and positively asserteth hee receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God indeed there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some
shall assault us as once they did Peter to deny him let us remember what he is in himself and what hee hath done for us let us consider his greatnesse and bee afraid his goodnesse and bee ashamed for fear or shame or any cause whatsoever to deny him 2 That I may drive the nayl to the head let us often set before our eyes that dismal commination so often denounced in the Gospel by the Son of God himself against those who shall deny him Whosoever shall deny mee before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven and again inculcated by St. Paul if we deny him he will deny us a threat then which none more just and yet withall none more terrible just it is in that it is the retaliation of like for like what more rational than that despisers should bee despised forsakers should bee forsaken and denyers should bee denyed and how terrible it is will soon appear if you consider that the Son of God will then deny us when he shall appear in his glory that he will deny us not only before men but Angels nay his Father that if he pronounce upon us an I know you not which is to deny us wee are the cursed of the Father he will not acknowledge them for his adopted children who durst not here own his begotten Son and whom his Son will not then own for brethren yea which consummateth the misery of such Apostates they must have their portion with Hypocrites having denied Christ and being denyed by him they must depart from him into that fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels there being no reason that they should bee neer to Christ hereafter who follow him a far off nay run away from him here With these meditations let us arm our selves against this heinous sin that we may be the better strengthened 1 Labour wee to be throughly established upon good grounds in this fundamental doctrin that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God He that imbraceth Christian Religion upon the account onely of the Publike Law or private education will in time of tryal renege it Let therefore our assent to this Doctrin rest upon these sure Pillars primarily the authority of Scriptures and secondarily the Catholike Church and then we shall not easily deny it nor let us content our selves with a Conjectural opinion but strive for a firm and settled perswasion a stake in the ground may bee quickly plucked up but a tree rooted in the ground abideth unmoveable he that doubteth may soon be brought to deny but a well grounded perswasion will not quickly bee moved much lesse removed 2 Learn we according to our Saviours precept to deny our selves since oft times self and Christ come in competition so that one must be denyed and if we have not in some measure taken out this excellent lesson of self denial we shall soon deny him No wonder if an Ancient saith ingenuously Christiani praludium sui repudium the first step in the ladder of Christianity is self-denial 3 Nor must we forget that advice of St. Paul to deny Worldly Lusts for if wee take not our hearts off from the World the World will take them off from Christ it is very observable that our Saviour had no sooner threatned this sin of denying him but hee presently forbids Loving Father or Mother Son or daughter more than him intimating how prone the inordinate love of worldly things is to alienate us from him 4 Finally strive for a real union to Christ by a lively faith hee who is but a visible Christian may cease to be so much as visible but the spiritual union will not endure a dissolution much lesse an abnegation maintain and increase familiar communion with him that thou maiest more and more taste the sweetnesse that is in him and then no allurement or affrightment shall cause thee to deny him I end all as we desire not to be found deniers of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as wee desire to have the Father propitious towards us and Christ to own us before the Father at the last day let us dread to deny let us be ready to acknowledge with our hearts lipes lives Jesus the Christ the Son of God to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 24. 25. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning if that which yee have heard from the beginning shall remain in you yee shall continue in the Son and in the Father And this is the Promise that hee hath promised to us even eternal life ZEal Sincerity and Perseverance are not so much particular graces as each of them necessary ingredients to every grace Zeal being the fervor sincerity the truth and perseverance the duration of all graces of these three the last is not the least needful since constancy is the best evidence of sincerity nor will fervour avail without permanency no wonder if it be called by Bonaventure conditio annexa cuilibet virtuti an inseparable condition of every vertue and by Aquinas donum que caetera servantur dâ—nae that gift which preserveth all the rest without perseverance our Love will prove not a Star but a Comet our Devotion not a flame but a flash our Repentance not a River but a Pond our Hope not a Staff but a Reed and our Faith not a sub stance but a shadow And since this grace of Faith last mentioned is indeed the First the Root the Mother Grace constancy is not more needful in any than this The truth is there is no Grace more oppugned by the Devil than our faith hee well knoweth that if hee can undermine the foundation hee shall soon overthrow the building for which reason having obtained leave to sift S. Peter our Saviour prayeth for him that his faith may not fail Upon this account it is that more or lesse in all ages the Devil hath raised up false Teachers in the Church whose indeavour it is to with-draw the people from the Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith and for this cause no doubt it is that one of the chief designs of the holy Apostles in all their Epistles is to stablish Christians in the faith A pregnant instance whereof wee have in this Epistle particularly in these verses whose scope is by most obliging arguments to perswade a stedfast adherence to the truth which they had embraced Let that therefore which you have heard from the beginning c. Which words do plainly part themselves into two generals a mandate and a motive a command and a comfort an exhortation and an incitation The Exhortation enjoyneth a needful duty Let that therefore abide in you which ye heard from the beginning The Incitation adjoyneth a powerful motive drawn from the present comfort and future blisse of persevering Saints If that
provided it bee not out of flattery and for base ends we may upon just occasion not onely commend but inlarge and as it were Hyperbolize in the Commendations of them that are good Indeed to flourish with Rhetorical exaggerations in laying open the faults of others except of such crimes as are very open and hainous is uncharitable but to expatiate though it bee with Hyperboles in the praises of others for their vertues is very allowable as being that which this Holy Apostle giveth as a pattern of in this high Eâ—comium you need not that any man teach you 2 There is yet another way of giving the sense of this clause which to mee seemeth most genuine and that is by construing those words you need not that any man teach you with the following but as the sume Annointing teacheth you of all things which being put together doe onely deny any need that any man should teach them any other Doctrin than what this Annointing had taught them All things to wit necessary to Salvation this Unction had taught them and therefore no need of any man to teach them any thing besides these all things To this purpose is that glosse of Heinsius who conceiveth that the conjunction But is to be here taken in the same notion in which it is used by the Chaldee and Syriack Those words there is no God besides mee are read by the Chaldee There is no God but I. Thus in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you need not that any man teach you but as that is except those things which the same Annointing teacheth you With this sense that gloss agreeth in effect which I finde among some Expositors who refer the man here mentioned to the Seducers before spoken of There is no need of any new Masters that any of those seducers concerning whom the Apostle had discoursed should teach them any new Doctrin Very Apposite to this purpose is that excellent saying of Tertu Nob is curiositate opus non est post Jesum Christum nec inquisitionâ— post Evangelium nil desideramus ultra credere hoc enim prius credimus nil esse quod ultra credere debemus Christ being now revealed in his Gospel it is curiosity to make further inquiry wee desire not to beleeve any thing more for this wee first beleeve that there is nothing more to be beleeved There is need indeed that the Orthodox teachers should inculcate upon the people what this Unction teacheth but as for any Doctrin besides there is no need of nor regard to bee had to it or him that bringeth it It is very probable that those Seducers did teach their new Doctrins as things necessary to bee known and beleeved in reference to whom our Apostle assureth them that whatever those Hereticks might pretend they were already sufficiently instructed in all things needful for them to know According to this notion this very Scripture which is made use of by Euthusiasts as a buckler to defend proveth a Sword to cut asunder their opinion for what other must their pretended Revelations bee but vain and foolish if there bee no need of any thing to bee taught us by any man but what this Unction teacheth to wit as it hath been already explained outwardly by the Word and inwardly by Grace The truth is wee need not that any man no nor yet any Angel should teach us and if any Angel from Heaven should come and teach any other doctrine than what this unction hath already taught the holy Apostles and by them us let him bee accursed nor is this more than what St. Paul hath given us warrant for and let this suffice to have been spoken of the sufficiency of this Schoolmaster Passe we on to the 3 Next Character which is his Fidelity as it is set down in those words and is truth and is no lye The first which is the affirmative expression according to the Greek is to be read in the Concrete and is true and the latter which is the negative in the abstract and is no lye our Translators finding the latter to be the abstract read the former so too though it may seem more rational to read the latter as if it were a Concrete finding the former to be so But as to the rendring it it is not much material whilest the sense is the same which is that this annoynting is true without the mixture of any falshood in his teaching The more fully to expresse this it is that our Apostle speaketh the same thing twice first by affirming and then by denying the contrary that look as when in the former Chapter he would set forth Gods purity to the full as being free from the least pollution he saith He is light and in him is no darknesse so here that he might expresse the veracity of the Spirits dictates as being without the least errour he saith it is truth and is no lye The Devils answers which he gave those who consulted him were so dubious that they could not tell which way to construe them and so were deluded by them but the Spirits dictates are certain and infallible The Devil is a lying Spirit the Father of Lyes and his suggestions are lyes and no truth but the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth so our Saviour calls him once and again yea he is truth and no lye True it is Hereticks the Devils instruments doe sometimes speak truth but it is in order to the advancing of some lye yea it is usually mixed with lyes But the Spirits Pen-men deliver truth and nothing but the truth so that wee may venture our souls upon their writings Indeed it is not so with us who expound and preach upon their writings since we have not so full a measure of this unction as they had in which respect St. Hier ome saith Aliter habere Apostolos aliter reliquot tractatores illos semper vera dicere istos ut homines in quibusdam aberrare that there is a great deal of difference between the Apostles and other Preachers those alwayes write truth but these erre in many things but withall it is then when they are not led by the Spirit who being wisdome cannot be deceived and being truth cannot deceive Keep wee therefore close to the dictates of this unction and that as they are set down in the Word Since they are truth and no lye let us beleeve and not doubt trust and not waver left if we receive not the truth in the love of it God give us over to beleeve a lye it being just that they who will not bee taught by this unction which is truth and no lye should bee fooled by delusions which are lyes and no truth 4 There is only one clause of the verse to be dispatched in those words and even as it hath taught you you shall abide in him where the verb abide according to the different Greek
consists 140 143 Love of the World see World Lust three-fold 338. that which was in us by Creation was not prone to irregularity 432. forbidden as well as the outward act 406. after worldly things many times disappointed and if fulfilled soone glutted 448 Lye threefold 23 580. Lyars the vilest of men 597 M. MAlice see Hatred Marriage may bee unlawfully used 348 Memory apt to forget Divine things 593. wee must not onely hear â—ut remember 640 Ministers how they and the people brethren 79 286. must have a futherly affection to the people 203 c. they are watch-men and shepheards 200. must be faithful and prudent 274. must preach particularly 220 220 387. seasonably suitably to their Auditors conditions capacities 275. make a distinction between hearers 593. warn the people of seducers 597 690. commend what is good in their people 134. must win upon them by expressing love 735. their endeavour shall bee accepted 677. no need of them in Heaven 716. they are instituted by Christ to continue in the Church to the end of the world 719. their teaching cannot avail without the Spirit 717. they must bee constant in the faith 644. their peoples constancy their honour at the last day 753. they must live their Sermons 120 121 Miracles by true ones the Gospel was confirmed 580. the shew of them made a prop of heresy 686 Multitude no note of a true Church 499 N. NAme its several acceptions 249. when changed in Scripture some spiritual gift conferd 615 the names of those whom wee reprove not to be mentioned 257 673 Necessity twofold 647 Neutrality and lukewarmness condemned 425 Novelty a badge of errour affecting it dangerous 91 to 94 100 101 O. OBedience cannot bee without knowledge 22. the way to increase knowledge 4 5. it is according to our knowledge 17. Negative not sufficient 11 474. must bee universal 14 15 464. cheerful 465. by it wee know our interest in Christ 71 72. it cannot be exact 16. a bare command should bee enough to oblige to it 429. it is the best tryal of our love to God 472 473. and perfects it 33 35 Old-men why called Fathers 208. to bee reverenced 209. they had need to bee good 212. not too old to learn 221. ignorance in them inexcusable 269. they must labour to know Christ 267 268 tOvercome in what sense wee are said to overcome the Devil now 285. wee are not compleat victors in this life 286. how it is to be done 283 284 P. PArdon of sin see Forgiveness Perfection twofold 33. perfect Christians compared to Fathers 204. b. Perseverance in adhering to Christ the Church the truth received 641 738. it must bee to the end 740. most commendable in Apostatizing times 635. it is not by our selves but Gods sustentation 529. the doctrine of it upon what grounds built 531 532. no true cause of security 535. an attendant of true grace 633 Play how unlawful 356 Polygamy a lust of the flesh 347 Prayse due to Virtue 134 259 578 Preacher see Minister Predictions the verity of those which are Divine 496. especially concerning Christ 603 604 Presumption of an interest in Christ 74 75. of our own abilities 394 Priviledges the enjoyment of them should not content us 526 Pride loveth to show it self 389. why called pride of life 390. its several kinds 390 to 394 a general sin 402. maketh a man like the Devil 404. it is attended with shame 405 Promises Divine are sometimes matter of precept 736. suitable to our necessities 648. most faithful 666. The promise is Eternal life 663. first promised and then given 665. to them that persevere 670. promised before Christ but not so clearly as by him 665. Humane oft-times larger than their performances 399 661 Protestants injustly charged by the Papists as Schismaticks 512 513 Q. QUakers how irrationally they decry the Ministry and blasphemously they wrest Scripture 721 722 R. REason of what use in Divine things 577 insufficient without an higher light 575. pretended to by Hereticks 686 Regeneration compared to light 131 Remission of sin see Forgiveness Repentance abstaineth from all sort of lusts 406 407. the delay of it dangerous 304 Repetition of one and the same thing frequently used in Holy Writ and why 131 to 135 Reproof ought to bee with expression of love 205. a. and yet sharp against notorious sinners 599. but yet without naming the persons 257 673 Resolution necessary in a Christian to his combat with the Devil 290 Riches when got and kept sinfully 376 to 381 S. SAcrament of the Lords Supper what gesture was used by Christ is not certain if it were wee are not bound to follow it 49 50 Saints their security dignity and felicity by reason of the Annointing 550 Schism the causes of it 508. a great sin 518. un ustly charged upon the Protestants by the Papists 512. justly by us upon the Sectaries 514 Scripture why God would have his Word written 216. man the Pen-man Gods Spirit the Author 219. to bee read by and to all 224 225. with reverence 220. quoted and wrested by the Devil 299. by Hereticks 589 722. a special weapon against seducers 689 Sectaries justly accused as Schismaticks 514 Security greatest when Judgement is neerest 490 Seducers they often prove such who should be Teachers 675. the several wayes of seducing 689. c. Sights wanton forbidden 363. as also such as curiosity prompts to 367 368 Signes three sorts of them 499 Sin God cannot bee the Author of it 433 434. men are apt to transfer it on God 436. it maketh us like the Devil 282 484. it ruineth Churches and Kingdoms 489. How many waies to bee considered 237 238 Sleep when a lust of the flesh 355 Soul no proportion between it and the world 454. hath its diseases as well as the Body 733 Son of God Christ was in such a way as proveth him higher than men nay Angels yea the high God 625 626. hee that denieth Christ denieth Gods Son 617. how much God is offended with it 624 625 Spirit of God compared to Oyl and why 514 c. given by Christ 557 701. the Author of Scripture 219. is not onely illuminating but confirming 731. his grace needful to overcome the Devil 91 his teaching extraordinary and ordinary internal and external 707 708. his inward teaching agreeeth with that in the word 709. it is faithful 727. effectual 729. how hee concurreth to assurance 73 74 Strength spiritual needful to our fight with the Devil 288. wherein it consists 290 strong Christians compared to young-men 210 211 Superfluity what measure of Riches is so 372 373 Superiours ought to bee exemplary 38 T. TEaching see Spirit Ministers Tempting God a great sin 367 Types fulfilled in Christ 579 Truth of the Gospel proved 580 581 V. VAin-glory a branch of pride 396 Victory see Overcome Unction of the sick in the primitive times for another end than that of the Papists 696. in Baptisme ancient but not Apostolical 695. Spiritual is
used my utmost care that the several windows might bee well leaded by a methodical and rational connexion Many flaws thou wilt meet with some whereof are already observed which I hope thy can did ingenuity will pardon That it may please the Father of Lights to transmit through these discourses some beams of heavenly knowledge into thy soul is and shall bee the earnest Prayer of him who desireth to live no longer than he may be serviceable to God and the Church in his Generation Nath. Hardy THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 3 4 5 6. 3. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandements 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a lier and the truth is not in him 5. But who so keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk as he walked AMong the many excellencies of this Epistle this is one that it is a Sacred and Spiritual Touchststone For as a Touchstone discovereth mettals so doth this both Doctrines and Persons By a Touchstone the Goldsmith discerneth what is right and what is counterfeit and by this Epistle we may know Truth from Error and sincerity from hypocrisie Would we be informed concerning Positions what are Orthodox and what Heterodox concerning Professours who are sound and who are rotten we need go no further then this Book If you cast your eyes on the latter end of this and the beginning of the fourth and fifth Chapters you may learn what is the true Christian Religion namely to believe Jesus to be the Christ that Christ is come in the flesh and that he is the Son of God If you peruse every Chapter throughout the Epistle you shall find those markes whereby you may know who are true Christians This is that which more especially is observable in this Scripture the chief scope whereof is to describe a true and sincere Christian by his conformity to Christ in his Command and Example Hereby we know c. It is not unfitly taken notice of by the Greek Scholiast that these words have a reference to those in the seventh vers of the former Chapter If we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another And indeed if we view these Verses well you shall find them a further and fuller explication of that Proposition and that both in the Predicate and Subject The Predicate of that assertion We have fellowship with one another is here explained by two Phrases the one in the third verse We know him and the other in the fifth and sixth verses We are and abide in him These being as it were the Springs of that fellowship since our Communion is founded in our Vnion and all fellowship is between those who know each other The Subject of that Assertion If we walk in the light as he is in the light is here characterized by two eminent steps of this walk namely obedience to and imitation of Christ Keeping his Commandements and walking as he walked By which we see that verified in this part which I have formerly told you is the chief design of the whole Epistle to wit an explication of that Proposition as being the Message which he heard and was sent to declare to them to whom he wrote In these four verses there are four Propositions considerable two whereof are Principall and two Collaterall The two Principal Assertions set forth the Characters of sincere Christians The two Collaterall refer to the knowledg we have of our Christianity by those Characters The first of the Principal Doctrines is asserted amplified proved Asserted as a Thesis in the close of the third verse We know him if we keep his Commandements Amplified by an Antithesis in the fourth verse He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a liar and the truth is not in him Proved by a strong Reason in the beginning of the fifth Who so keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected The second Principal Doctrine is only propounded by way of position in the sixth verse yet with a tacite intimation of an opposition and withall of a probation as will appear in the handling He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk as he walked Besides these there are two other Propositions which I call Collaterall as being Appendixes to the former The one That a knowledg of our knowledg of and interest in Christ is to be endeavoured The other That an especial means of attaining this knowledg is hereby to wit by keeping his Commandements and walking after his footsteps And these are couched in the beginning of the third Hereby by we know that we know him and the end of the fifth verse Hereby we know that we are in him The first Assertion as it is propounded in the end of the third verse We know or according to the Greek We have known him if we keep his Commandements is that which will take up our present Discourse It is a Proposition which is true both waies saving knowledg being both the cause and the effect the root and the fruit of obedience on the one hand Keeping the Commandements is a means whereby we come to know him that is to increase our knowledg And on the other the saving knowledg of him is a means inabling us to keep his Commandements That of St Paul to the Collossians is very full to this purpose where he prayeth for them that they might be filled with the knowledg of Gods wilâ— in all spiritual wisdom and understanding that they might walk worthy of him and please him in all things being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledg of God Intending thereby to teach us that we cannot walk worthy of the Lord unless we be filled with the knowledg of his will and withall that by being fruitfull in every good work we should increase in the knowledg of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophilact aptly one of these being as it were constitutive and productive of the other that as water engendereth Iâ—â— and Ice water so doth knowledg beget obedience and obedience augment knowledg 1. Would we then know him let us keep his Commandements By thy Precepts saith David that is by the observance of thy Precepts I get understanding If any man do my will saith our blessed Saviour he shall know my Dostrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Wouldst thou be a Divine do the Commandements For action is as it were the Basis of contemplation It is St Gregories observation concerning the two Disciples who whilst Christ talked with them knew him not but in performing an Act of Hospitality towards him to wit breaking bread with him they knew him that they were inlightned not by hearing but by doing Divine Precepts Quisquis
discussed That which next followeth in order is the Antithesis by which it is illustrated a Sentence equivalently the same with the former and as Ferus hath observed that we may see it did not fall from him rashly yea withall vehementiae gratia as Gualter notes that it might make the deeper impression on us he expresseth it again by its contrary In which words there are two things to be considered an implicite Accusation an explicite Aggravation The one in these words He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements the other in these is a lyar and the truth is not in him According to which Zanchy laieth down two Positions the one That there were many in St Johns time yea alwaies would be in the Church who say they know Christ and keep not his Commandements and the other that all such do most impudently lye 1. These words He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements plainly intimate that there are some who keep not Christs Commandements and yet say they know him Parallel to this is that of St Paul to Titus where he speaketh of some who profess they know God and in works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every Good work reprobate They whom both these Apostles may most probably be supposed to intend were the Gnosticks this phrase of knowing so fitly answering that name which out of an arrogant self-conceit they gave to themselves whilst they were men of flagitious lives and licentious Conversations calling themselves Gnosticks and accounting themselves the only knowing men in the matters of Religion Nor is it only true of these Hereticks but is likewise verified of all Hypocrites who whilst they indulge to their lusts and live in wilfull violation of the Precepts pretend to great measure of illumination with divine knowledg In which respect Aretius saith this is vera nota simulatorum filiorum Dei a true mark of bastard Children and false Saints The sins of the people of Israel were so great and their transgressions hainous that God bids his Prophet to lift up his voice like a Trumpet and cry aloud against them and yet they seek God daily and delight to know his way The same people are charged by God for transgressing his Covenant and trespassing against his laws and yet the Prophet saith of them presently after they cry to the Lord my God we know thee as if they were familiar with and had an especiall interest in him Our blessed Saviour in the Gospell speaketh not of a few but many who shall at the last day take acquaintance of him as if they had long known him for they shall say Lord Lord have not we prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonderfull works whom yet he cals workers of iniquity Whence it appeareth that wicked men may not only say it to others by profession but within themselves by their opinion yea may not onely live but die in this self-delusion that they know Christ and so have an interest in him whilst yet they work iniquity It was the observation of Calvin in his time that many hypocrites men of loose lives did fidei titulo superbire pride u◠themselves in the title of believer and made large profession of Christianity nor is it less observable in the seeming Saints of this age on the one hand their actions are manifestly contrary to those commands of self-deniall and humility loyalty and equity meekness and patience mercy and charity in giving and forgiving which Christ hath imposed on all those that will come after him and yet on the other hand whilst their hands are leaden their tongues are guilded they say they know God yea they are intimate with him they talk much of the new birth the work of grace having an interest in Christ and the like 2. You see the truth of the charge now view the hainoufness of the fault He that saith this is a lyar and the truth is not in him Indeed both wayes it is an untruth and he that saith it deserveth to be branded for a liar To say we keep his Commandements when we do not know him is a lie since if the eye be blind it is impossible the foot should make strait steps God never turneth any from the power of Satan to himself whom he doth not first turne from darkness to light Knowledg is the souls rudder according to which its course is steered the Christian travellers Mercury pointing him the right way nor can we give up our selves in obedience to his precepts whom we know not as our Lord and of whose command we are ignorant And as it is true on the one so on the other hand To say we know him and not to keep his Commandements is a lie nor can there be truth in those who say it it was well spoken by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without virtue God is but an empty name and it is as true without Obedience all knowledg of God and Christ is but an empty notion a lying vanity For the further illustrating of this it will not be amiss to take notice of a threefold lye to wit verball doctrinall practicall told taught acted A verball lye is when we tell a false tale raise an untrue report and so become lying witnesses and our lips lying lips A doctrinall lye is when men assert that to be Gods Word which is their own fancy and vent their false opinions under the notion of sublime verities to believe these lies God threatens to give up those who receive not the truth in the love of it Finally a practicall lie is when a mans actions do not correspond to his profession in which respect he is justly called a liar whose actions are breaches of the Precepts and yet his pretences are large of knowing Christ since as Lorinus well noteth such an one Non praestat quod scit quod profitetur quod dicit quod promittit he performeth not according to what he knoweth professeth saith nay promiseth and so there is no truth not only of veracity but fidelity in him as that Author observeth whilst he fulfilleth not that which in his Baptism he promised and by his profession he is oblieged to the keeping the Commandements But it may be here objected that there are many who do know Christ and that not onely in a weake but great measure since they are able to discourse excellently of the mysteries of Salvation the things of God and Christ whose lives are yet dissonant to the rule of Christianity and if so surely when such say they know Christ they do not lye though they do not keep his Commandements The answer to which objection will be easily made by distinguishing of a double knowledg of Christ to wit informis and formata literall and spirituall notionall and practicall speculative and active Look as there is in a man caro spiritus
to exclaime against the madness of this Generation Mirari satis nequeo said Lyrenensis of the men in his daies we may no less truly of those in ours I cannot enough wonder at the impiety of those blind minds which not being contented with anciently received truths are alwaies either adding or detracting or changing some way or other introducing somewhat that is new that which here St John sets down as a commendation is now become an accusation he preacheth nothing but what is old the voice of those in the Psalms is Quis ostendet bonum who will shew us any good the cry of this age Quis ostendet novum who will shew us any thing that is new our proud Women are not more for new fashinos then both Men and Women for new fancies But surely if that which our Apostle wrote was not new but old they who vent not old but new are false Apostles upon this account it was that Ireneus inveighing against Hereticks maketh this one Character of them Affectant per singulos dies novum quicquam ad invenire quod nunquam quâ—squam excogitavit they affect to broach somewhat new which was not heard of before and to the same purpose St Austin giveth a Definition of a Heretick He is one Qui alicujus temporalis commodi vanae gloria causâ novas opiniones vel gignit vel sequitur Who for secular advantage or vain-glories sake doth either invent or uphold some new Doctrine and to name no more Origen observeth concerning Hereticks that they Marry themselves extraneo verbo to a Forraign and so some new word altogether alyene from that which is conteined in the holy Scriptures And therefore my Brethrer take ye heed of them who publish according to Tertullians phrase concerning Marcion hesternum Evangelium a Gâ—spell that is of yesterday who change their Faith and Doctrine with the Moon every Moneth and are as it were Skepticks in Divinity Remember I beseech you who it is that soweth the new Tares among the good Corn Even the envious man observe I pray you whither those men wander who as Ghislerius his phrase is Antiquâdimissâ per novam gradiuntur viam Leaving the ancient path seek new waies it is seldome that he who is taken of his old and sure basis sâ—tleth any where but is tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine falling away from truth to eâ—ror from error to heresie from that to Blasphemy and at last to Atheism Remove nâ—â— then the ancient Land-marks it is Solomons ingeminated counsell no doubt to be understood literally but yet such as is applyed allusively by the ancients to this present matter Terminos antiquos dicit terminos veritatis fidei quos statuerunt ab initio Catholici Doctores he calls the old Doctrines embraced by the Chatholick Doctors the ancient Land-marks saith Salazar let us not dare to remove them yea if an Angel from Heaven as St Paul speaketh shall Preach any other Gospell let him be accursed In one word let the obedience which we yield to the Commandments be a new Obedience but the Commandments to which we yield Obedience must be not new but old such was this concerning which the holy Apostle here writeth 2. In Speciall Yet further and lastly take notice that the Commandment of Love is not a new but an old Commandment many indeed are the Topicks whence this Commandment of Love might justly be commended and among others this is not the least that it is gray-headed and of ancient institution There are some things to which oldness is a disparagement an old Garment past mending an old house past repairing an old ship past rigging but then there are other things of which oldness is a praise old Coynes Manuscripts Monuments Buildings have a face of honour upon them it is a great dignity for a man to be descended of an ancient house no wonder if this command of love be therefore honourable because it is an old Commandment The truth of this which is here attributed to Love will best appear by the proofe which is annexed and is next to be handled For the present we will take it for granted and let the improvement of it be to render this command of Love the more amiable and acceptable to us Indeed were it a new Precept and the imposition of it but of Yesterday we might have some reluctancy against it Haud facilè insuetum jugum suscipimus saith Calvin well men do not easily undertake a yoke to which they are not accustomed but this yoke is no other then what was of old imposed It is well observed by an Historian the Laws which at first were exceeding harsh and heavy by force of custome become not only tolerable but light and easie Hereupon one compareth customes to a King and Edicts to a Tyrant because we are subject voluntarily to the one but upon necessity to the other To this purpose Herodotus reporteth that Darius having under his dominion certain Grecians of Asia who had a custome of burning their dead friends and certain Indians who used to eat them he called the Grecians and would have them to conforme to the Indians afterward he called the Indians and would have them to conforme to the Grecians but found both very unwilling to leave the usage of their countrey so tenacious are men of old customes Oh then my Brethren since this command is such as hath alwaies been a custome among the Saints and hath upon it the stamp of antiquity let it be embraced and practiced by us with the more readiness and alacrity And so much for the Point it self It remaineth I now proceed to the proofe it is from the beginning But the time being past commands me to end and reserue that to the next opportunity THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. Vâ—RS 7 8. 7. Brethren I write no new Commandment unto you but an old Commandment which ye had from the beginning the old Commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning 8. Again a new Commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth EVery Scribe instructed for the Kingdome of Heaven saith our blessed Saviour is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasury things new and old an excellent similitude representing to us the properties of a good Preacher The Housholder hath his Treasury where provision is laid up The Preacher his storehouse of divine knowledg The Housholder doth not hoard up but bring forth what he hath in his Treasury for the use of his Family The Preacher being furnished with abilities employeth them for the Churches good The things which the Housholder bringeth â—orth out of his Treasury are both new and old all sorts of provision both of the present and former years growth The Doctrines which
the Preacher delivereth are either according to Brugensis the new and glorious mysteries of the Gospell in old and common resemblances or according to St Hilary and the Ancients Nova vetera in Evangeliis in lege the Legall and Evangelicall verities according to this is that occasionall note of St Ambrose upon those words of the Spouse At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits new and old which I have laid up for thee oh my Beloved Teneo mandata omnia novi veteri Testamenti I keep the Commandments both of the old and new Testament for whereas the Jewish Synagogue neither keep the new in the letter nor the old in the Spirit the Christian Church observeth both and instructeth her Children in both Suiteble hereunto it is that this great Apostle of the Christian Church and well instructed Scribe for the Kingdome of Heaven brought forth in his Preaching and here layeth up a writing both old and new chiefly pressing upon us the observance of a command both Legall and Evangelicall Brethren I waite no new but an old c. Again a new Commandment I write unto you 2. Having dispatched the Compellation Brethren we have entred upon the first branch of the commendation drawn from its divine authority and therein the consideration of it as an old Commandment which having been already handled in the Assertion we are now to proceed to the Probation as it is implicitly couched in these words which we had from the beginning and explicitly set forth in those The old Commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning That you may see the strength of the Argument I shall forme it into a Syllogism thus That which you heard and had from the beginning is the old Commandment But This Commandment about which I write unto you is that you heard and had from the beginning Therefore It is not a new but an old Commandment The Conclusion is the Assertion and hath been already handled the Major and Minor containe the Probation and remaine now to be dispatched 1. Begin we with the Major The old Commandment is the word which was heard from the beginning To clear this Be pleased to know That a thing may be said to be old either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in some respects only or absolutely That which is not from the beginning and therefore is new in respect of preceding times may yet in respect of following ages be said to be old but only what is from the beginning is absolutely old Antiquity properly referreth to time so that what hath the priority carryeth it in point of antiquity and Id prius quod ab initio saith Tertullian That is first which is from the beginning principium a beginning being Id quo nihill prius that before which nothing is else it could not be the beginning In this sence it is we most justly say that which is true is old for though error may be old truth cannot be new Yea Since as that forementioned Father excellently argueth Falsum est corruptio veri Falshood is nothing else but an adulteration of truth Truth must needs be before Falshood and so the terms are convertible that which is true is old and that which is old is true for no error but is new in respect of that which is from the beginning though it be old in regard of that which followeth Upon this account it is that the same Father disputing with Marcion put it to this issue I say my Gospell is true Marcion saith his is I say Marcions Gospell is false he saith mine is Quis inter nos determinabit nisi temporis ratio ei praescribens authoritatem quod antiquius reperiretur let antiquity end the controversie that which can shew largest prescription of time and so the eldest let it be accounted truest Indeed Christianity stands upon holy antiquity and there is no better way of discovering what is false and reforming what is amiss then by looking back to the beginning Upon this ground it is that we contest both with the Papists on the one and all Sectaries on the other hand as being ready to justifie against both that what we teach is truly old because the word from the beginning 1. As the Gibeonites cheated Joshuah with their old Shooes clouted upon their feet old Garments dry and mouldy Bread So do the Papists delude many poore souls with pretence of the old Commandment and the old Religion It is the calumny they cast upon us Where was your Religion before Luther we are Novelists and but of Yesterday yea that we daily broach new Doctrines That some who are among us but not of us do so we cannot deny but still we are ready to justifie the Doctrine of our Church to be the old Doctrine nor do we desire a better Medium of proving it then this in the Text The old Commandment is the word which was from the beginning Take any or all of those opinions wherein we differ and for which we separate from them such as are Transubstantiation half Communion adoration of Images invocation of Saints and Angels the supremacy and infabillity of the Pope and the like And we shall find even by their own confessions that they were not from the beginning Scotus acknowledgeth that till the Counsell of Laterrane which was almost 1200 Years since Christ Transubstantiation was no Article of Faith Cassander confesseth that for a thousand years the holy Sacrament was administred in both kinds it were easie to instance in the rest but that learned Prelate hath already done it to the full and now let any rationall man judge whether we or they are to be charged with Novelty when as those things wherein they and we disagree have no primitive antiquity to establish them 2. As in this Particuler we vie with the Papists so are we ready to put the differences between Us and the Sectaries upon this triall Do we contend for a Lyturgy in the Church is it not because all Churches Greek and Latine have had their Lyturgies from the first Plantation of Christianity Yea Christ himself hath left a Prayer upon record to be not only a Platform after which manner he would have his Disciples pray but a Set form which they were to say when they did Pray Do we contest for our Hierarchie in the Church is it not because it was so from the beginning St Paul gave Timothy and Titus single persons Episcopall power of ordaining and governing Presbyters Those Angels of the Seaven Churches manifestly appear by the Ecclesiasticall History to be Bishops Yea No Church since the Apostles till Calvins time hath been without Episcopall Government Do we oppose the office of a Lay ruling Elder in the Church is it not because it was not from the beginning We can trace no footsteps of it in antiquity nor yet any such Officer or Office described in holy writ Finally To name no
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why he loved us there can no reason on our part be given of it And surely since his love was not deserved no nor so much as desired by us fit it is it should be acknowledged with admiration and retaliated with gratulation and followed by imitation This last our Apostle here aimeth at in which respect he fitly addeth and in you it being most rationall that what was true in the Head should be true also in the Members what was true in the Root should be true in the Branches that as Christ loved us so we Christians should love one another Before I proceed to this which is the next part I shall in a few words mind you of one reading of these words in which they have reference to this second part Grotius tels us that in one Manuscript it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St Hierom in his translation reads it nobis A thing which is true in him that is Chriâ—t and in us that is his Apostles who write and publish this Commandment to you The Originall Copy was drawn by Christ his Disciples transcribed it in their own practice and have commended it to all Christians to write after both him and them This Cup of Love was begun by Christ his Apostles pledged him and it must go round all Christians are to drink of it And here I cannot but take notice of that which I would to God were seriously laid to heart by all who succeed the Apostles in the work of the Ministry Namely that as St John in the behalf of himself and the other Apostles saith I write to you a Commandment concerning a thing which is true in us so we may be able to say that that which we enjoyn the people is verified in our selves This is according to Isidores phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to joyn living with dead instruction when our life as well as our tongue preacheth this is according to Primasius his Exposition rightly to divide the word of truth when we confirme our Doctrine by our practice Finally This is according to Playfers allusion to lift up the voice like a Trumpet which must be held with the hand as well as blown with the mouth when we not only report the truth by a lively Preaching but support it by a Preaching life Indeed then only can Ministers publish commands with authority so as to gain belief with boldness so as not to be ashamed with efficacy so as to perswade when they joyn patterns to their Precepts 1. Men are very apt to question the truth of that Dectrine to which the Preachers practice giveth the lye the way to imprint an instruction upon the Hearers heart as well as ear is to speak by our works as well as words It is said of our blessed Saviour He spake as one having authority and St Gregories morall is Cum imperio docetur quod prius agitur quam docetur he only Preacheth with authority who doth what he teacheth 2. When a Ministers Conversation confuteth his instruction blushing may well sit upon his cheeks and his ears tingle to hear that of St Paul Thou that teachest another shall not steal dost thou steal The Leper in the Law was to cover his lips which one morally applyeth to Leprous Ministers who may well stop their mouths for shame 3. A speech not accompanied with action saith Isidore truely for the most part is liveless and ineffectuall if the Heavens that is the Preachers are as Brass only tinckling with sound of words no marvell if the Earth to wit the People are as Iron obdurate to all their counsels since Cujus vita despicitur restat ut ejus praecatio contemnatur his Preaching is usually despicable whose life is contemptible in which regard St Bernard saith truly of such an one Verendum ne non tam nutriat doctrinâ verbi quam sterili vitâ noceat It is to be feared his vitious life more infects then his pious Doctrine instructs That Preacher wi ll both find most comfort in himself and do most good to others who can say in the words of a devout Abbot Nâ—n aliquem docui quicquam quod ego prius ipse non fecerim I never taught any man any lesson which I did not first learn my self as here St John saith of this Commandment it is true in us And so much for this second commendatory Character of this grace of Love its conformity to the pattern of Christ and as you see by some readings his Apostles I now hasten to the 3. Last That conformity which this duty hath to the state of the Gospell and the truth of Christianity in these words And in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth In these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in you is implyed a Substantive Verb which may be put either Indicatively or Imperatively is or let it be true in you according to a different construction of the following words Whilst some by darkness and light understand the Legall and Evangelicall administration so the Imperative rendering best suiteth Let this Love be true in you because the darkness of the Law is past and the light of the Gospell shineth And others by darkness understand the state of unregeneracy and by light the state of regeneracy and so the Indicative best fits this thing which is commanded the duty of Love is true in you because you are brought out of the darkness of nature into the light of grace Each of these constructions are consonant to the Analogy of Faith agree well with the scope of the Apostle want not the concurrence of judicious Expositors and therefore I shall neglect neither 1. In handling these words according to the first interpretation we shall loook upon them two waies as an Assertion and as an Argument 1. As an Assertion we have considerable in them A double Subject darkness and light A double predicate of the darkness that it is past of the true light that it now shineth 1. It would in the first place be here considred that the Gospell is set forth by light and the Law by darkness Suitable to this it is that St Paul as some expound those words The night is far spent the day is at hand compareth the one to the day and the other to the night and St Ambrose interprets these words of the Psalmist Day unto day uttereth speech and Night unto night sheweth knowledg the one of the Christian and the other of the Jew 1. That the Gospell is most fitly described by light is out of question and the Analogy may easily be demonstrated in severall parables The Fountain of light is the Sun and Christ the Son of righteousness is the Author of the Gospell in which respect it is called the word of Christ The nature of light is pure the Doctrine of the Gospell is holy in which regard it is called the mystery
it If thy enemy hunger saith St Paul feed him if he thirst give him drink the Hebrew word in the proverb whence St Paul borroweth it is rendred by Vatablus Propina ei aquam not only give him drink but drink to him as a token of love that it may appear however he is towards thee thou art reconciled to him Excellent to this purpose is that advice of Gregory Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must say brethren unto them that hate us and accordingly express brotherly love to them And thus in this construction of brother we have beheld the extension of love how farre it reacheth in regard of the objects about which it is conversant 2. But besides this carnal fraternity between all men there is a spiritual brotherhood between all Christians they have all the same Father even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who begetteth them again they have the same Mother the Church Jerusalem from above which bringeth them forth they all are washed in the same laver of regeneration baptisme partake of the fame immortal seed and are nourished by the same sincere milk of the Word Finally they are all begotten to the same undefiled inheritance heirs of the same glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus we call them brethren who are born anew of the same Word yea quanto dignius fratres dicuntur habentur saith Tertullian how much more deservedly then other men are they called and accounted brethren who acknowledge one Father God have drank of one spirit of holiness and are brought forth of the same womb of ignorance into the glorious light of Evangelical truth A brother in the sense above-mentioned is only so by nature but in this by grace that 's only a brother on the left hand but this on the right hand that of the earth earthly but this from heaven heavenly In this sense some Expositors and as I conceive most rationally take the word here this name brother being by the Apostle and afterwards in the primitive times in common language given to all and only those who did embrace Christian Religion and which maketh this interpretation more manifest is that our Apostle in the next Chapter phraseth it love the brethren which seemeth to indigitate a certain society of men so called yea in the fifth Chapter at the beginning he describeth him whom here he calls brother to be one that is begotten of God According to this construction that which is here required is called by the Apostle Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brotherly kindness and is distinguished as a particular species from its genus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is presently annexed charity As then there is a general love which belongeth to all men so a special love which belongeth to all Christians and as we must do good to all men so especially to the houshould of faith indeed seeing the Christian brother hath a double cause of love in him that is Gods image as a man and Gods graces as a Christian we ought to deal by him as Joseph did by his brother Benjamin whose mess was five times greater then the rest of his brethren If any shall yet further enquire why our Apostle speaking of this love to a Christian calls him by the name of a brother I answer for these three reasons because this name of brother carrieth in it an obligation to a specification and modification of that love which is here required since we must love a Christian quia quatenus qualis because he is a brother inasmuch as he is a brother and with such a love as is among brothers 1. This word Brother carryeth with it a strong Obligation to Love In fratris voce ratio so Danaeus It is an urgent reason why we should Love a Christian because he is our Brother all relation is a ground of affection and hence it is a man loveth any thing that is his the nearer the relation the greater tye to love and therefore the more reason why a Brother should be beloved the nearest relation is that which is spirituall and therefore yet greater reason to Love a Christian who is ours our Brother yea our Brother in Christ When Moses saw two Israelites Countrey men strugling together he said to them Sirs you are Brethren why do you wrong one another when Abraham and Lot kinsmen were likely to fall out saith Abraham Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we are Brethren when Socrates saw two Brethren striving one with another he told them they did as if the two hands which were made to help should beat each other so that since Christians are Brethren in the highest and closest relation this should be a great ingagement upon them to love 2. This word Brother intimateth a specification of this love in regard of its Object which is then rightly placed when it is upon a Brother as he is a Brother that is a Christian as he is a Christian One that is a Brother in this spirituall notion may be my naturall Brother or Kinsman and then to love him is what nature dictates or he is my Friend and Benefactor and so to love him gratitude teacheth or he is able to do me either an injury or a courtesie so that I have cause to fear the one and hope the other and in this respect to love him self love prompts me or once more he may be a man of rare naturall and acquired endowments and to love him for this ingenuity moves me but to love him because he is a Brother in a spirituall sense this is that which Christianity inciteth to and this only is a right Christian love Indeed thus to love him is to love him in reference to God and Christ because he hath the grace of God in him the Image of God upon him To love him as a Brother in this sense is to love him as a Son of God a Member of Christ and as St Hieromes phrase is Diligere Christum habitantem in Augustine to love God and Christ dwelling in him And now if any shall say it is hard nay impossible to know any man to be such a Brother and therefore how can I love him as such when I cannot know him to be such I answer that there is a great deale of difference between the judgment of certainty and charity love doth not need nor require infallible but only probable signs and therefore whosoever doth profess the true faith of Christ and doth not by a flagitious conversation give that profession the lye love taketh him to be a Brother and to love one because he atleast seemeth to be such a one by his externall Profession and Conversation so as the more Christian graces we discover in him the more we are affected towards him this is that which most especially falleth under the Precept of loving our Brother 3. Yet once
an open enemy and ex magno appetitu â—â—â— mâ—â—tat modum loquendi it is the greatness of hatred which puts him upon this pretence of love 4. Yet again are there not some whose hatred is so deadly to their brother that they will be content to do themselves a loss so they may do him a great Injury That Apologâ—e of Cupidus and Invidus the covetous and the envious man is very observable to this purpose Jupiter promised that whatsoever the one asked the other should have double whereupon they much strove one with the other who should ask first the covetous man refused because he was desirous of the double portion and the envious man was no less unwilling as repining that the other should have more then himself At length the envious man resolveth to be the first in asking but what did he ask That Jupiter would 〈…〉 of his eyes because he then knew the other must lose both Such malicious men there are and that among Christians who care not to deprive themselves if they may disappoint their brother This is that hatred which is fetcht from hell witness Dives who desireth not that he might come to Lazarus but that Lazarus might come to him as if he had rather Lazarus should be miserable with him then he happy with Lazarus But if there be as I hope there are many who can acquit themselves from these effects of hatred at the height yet I feare we may observe those Symptomes in the most which discover them to be somewhat sick of this disease When the eye is evill because God is good doth it not discover that besides the black which nature hath put in the eye as the seat of its perfection there is another black which envy hath put into it as a seat of corruption What doth the smoake of detraction stander calumnie cursing rayling scoffing back-biteing which cometh forth at the lips of many men but argue a fire of malice burning in their hearts whence cometh betraying quarrelling fighting plundering yea killing one another but from this lust of hatred in mens minds Indeed who can consider the hatefull practices which are continually acted among us and not acknowledge the great predominancy of this sin Drop down ye Heavens and let the Skies poure down righteousness saith the Prophet Drop down ye Heavens and let the Skies poure down charity and love may we say for it hath left the earth yea instead thereof the smoake of hatred ascending out of the bottomless pit hath filled it What calling or profession of men is free from this vice I would to God the black Coate were not besmeared with it What state and condition of men is not guilty of it Oppressours plainly tread in the footsteps of hatred and I would to God sufferers did not harbour the lust of revenge How needfull then is a dehortation to disswade you from this sin and indeed this very name Brother if it be as you have already heard an argument of love may well be a disswasive from hatred if he be a Brother in the highest notion he is Christs Brother as well as thine and wilt thou hate him whom Christ loveth if in the lowest degree he is flesh of thy flesh and wilt thou hide thine eyes in contempt and haired from thine own flesh St Paul saith No man ever yet hated his own flesh and wilt thou be so unreasonable But if this consideration be too weake go on and view the description which followeth of the state of such a sinner and that is the next generall which God willing the next time shall be set before your eyes that if possible this sin of hatred may be eradicated out of your hearts THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness hath blinded his eyes AMong the manifold excellencies of Gods Law this is not the least that it is according to St Pauls phrase a spirituall Law and that not only effective because dictated by Gods Spirit but Objective because extending to Mans spirit Indeed it is one of the differences between humane and divine Precepts that those only reach the outward these the inward man those only order the conversation these our cogitations Finally those take hold of words and works these of thoughts and desires This is evident in matters of Religion towards God Man requireth the externall observance but Gods internall devotion Man forbideth prophane Oaths but God blasphemous Imaginations nor is it less true in regard of our duty towards Man Humane commands inhibit the gross acts of uncleanness but Divine lustfull affections and to instance in no more whereas only actuall injuries of our Brother come within the compass of Mans cognisance God prohibits the very hatred and enjoyneth the contrary affection of love to him as here we see in the words He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother c. Having discussed the first generall part of the opposition Namely the sin briefly specified He that hateth his Brother we are now to go on to the other which is the state of the sinner as it is largely described in the 9th and 11th Verses 1. That which first occurreth in this description is the sinners own imagination what he fancyeth himself to be He saith he is in the light What is meant by this phrase of being in the light needs not again to be insisted on It is as much as to say he is in Christ he savingly knoweth Christ or he is in a state of grace This is that which he that hateth his Brother may say Indeed this cannot be in truth for St John saith of him He is in darkness and to be at once in the light and in the darkness is impossible but yet he may say so though it be not so and that two waies namely in opinion and profession 1. He that hateth his Brother may think himself to be in the light and so say it in his heart For 1. He may be acquainted in a great measure with the mysteries of Christian Religion and much conversant in divine speculations and for this reason imagine himself in the light The Pharisees though a generation of Vipers for their venemous nature say it of themselves we see and no doubt as to the letter of Moses his Law did see and know much so may Hypocriticall malicious Christians be versed in the Theory of Christianity 2. He may be frequent in Religious performances and upon this account fancy himself to be in the light Those Israelites whose hands were full of blood and therefore their hearts full of malice made many Prayers and offered multitudes
difference in Religion when the one is a Christian and the other a Pagan and therefore whereas in the generall mandate St Paul saith not I but the Lord in the particular counsell he saith I not the Lord that is the Lord Christ hath not said any thing expresly as to this present case but still what St Paul said in it was by the dictate of Gods Spirit and therefore in the end of that Chapter he closeth with this I think also which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an emphaticall diminution expressing more then an opinion a confident knowledge that I have the Spirit of God And surely this consideration is that which should oblige us to read Apostolicall writings with reverence looking beyond the Penman to God who inspired them far be it from any of us to think of these writeings what Julian said of certain Papers which were sent him in vindication of the Christian Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have read I understand I despise them no rather let us admire and adore them The truth is in the very writings themselves there is that verity purity and elegancy which may render them acceptable but when besides we ponder their authority they call not only for acceptance but reverence Nor is it enough thus to read but we must labour for a transcript of what we read that what is written in the Book may be written in our hearts and truly not only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this sense belongs to Gods Spirit The Apostle may write to them but it is the Spirit must write in them God appropriateth it to himself as his own act I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts in reading therefore the sacred Books let us implore that Spirit which dictated to the Penman to imprint upon our hearts that so we may be transformed into the Image of those truths we read and have within us a coppy of the writing without us 2. To the Subject Fathers young Men Children and here 1. It would be observed that our Apostle in writing contents not himself with generalities but directs his diicourse particularly like a good Archer he doth not shoot at randome but levell the arrow of his admonition at the severall marks or like the Master of a Feast doth not only set whole dishes but carveth to his severall Guests Indeed as Calvin well noteth Generalis sermo minus afficit what is spoken generally to all is too often looked upon as if it belonged to none we are all very apt to put of rebuks and counsels as if they did not concern us and our question like that of Peters is what shall this man do not like that of the Jayler what shall I do and therefore it is a pious prudence in the Minister to bring home his discourse by particular application to the various conditions of his Auditors Thus St Paul in his Epistle laid down instructions for Men for Women for the Aged and the Young for Parents for Children for Masters for Servants and here Sâ— John writeth not only to all Christians Verse twelfth but particularly to Fathers young Men Children Verses thirteen fourteen 2. Observe St John in his writing excâ—seth not old Men nor yet excludeth little Children 1. On the one hand St John writing to old Men intimateth that none are too old to learn divine Doctrines and therefore they must not think scorne that the Ministers of God should instruct them Elegant is that of Seneca Tamdiu audiendum discendum est quamdiu nescias quamdiu vivas We must hear so long as we are ignorant and learn so long as we live more appositely St Austin Ad discendum audiendum nulla aetas senex videri potest No age exempts from instruction Since though it is more proper for old Men to teach then learn yet it is better for them to learn then to be ignorant Indeed St Paul justly blameth those who were ever learning and never came to the knowledg of the truth but yet those who are come to the knowledg of the truth must be ever learning even to their dying day It is no other then a base pride of spirit which causeth men to account themselves either too wise or too old to be taught in the waies of God It were a strange reasoning if an old man being constrained to take a tedious journey and not knowing the way should say thus within himself I know not where I am but I will not ask the way because I am old and is not their folly great who reason thus about the way to Heaven Indeed when we address our selves to the ancient we must manage our counsels with respect not imperiously commanding or malapertly reproving but humbly intreating and meekly admonishing them yet still neither must they think much to be minded of nor must we neglect to acquaint them with their duty for thus St John as he gives them the reuerent title of Fathers so he writeth to them for their instruction 2. On the other hand St John writing to little Children intimateth that care ought to be taken for the institution of little Children Indeed little Children are most fit to be taught Citius assuescit omne quod tenerum we tame a Lion when it is young heale a wound whilst it is green break an Horse whilst it is a Colt teach a Dog whilst it is a Whelp bow a tree whilst it is a twig and men as well as other Creatures are most easily instructed whilst young 2. Besides what we learn whilst little Children as it is most easily received so most firmely retained Altius praecepta descendunt quae teneris imprimuntur aetatibus those precepts which are cast into the mindes of little ones take deepest root That of the Poet is well known Vessels keep the liquor longest with which they are first seasoned and Solomon assureth us Traine a Childe in the way he should go and he will not depart from it when he is old 3. Adde to this That if Children be not instructed in good they will learn evill things mans mind is like the ground into which if good seed be not cast evill weeds will spring up or like a restless mill which cannot stand still so that if it be not taken up with virtnes it will imploy it self in vitious practices Indeed as the Heathen saith truly Omnes praeoccupati sumus we are all forestalled and our minds are naturally inclined to what is evill the more need to indeavour the plucking it up before it fasten too much in and take too much hold upon us Upon all these considerations no wonder if Sâ— John take little Children as well as young Men into his Tuition by writing to them And surely this is that which should minde Parents to take heed of delaies in providing for the ingenious and pious education of their
the damned shall never be inflicted and whatsoever miseries and afflictions may befall a pardoned sinner though they are materially yet they are not formally punishments because not for satisfaction of offended justice And thus with what brevity this weighty point would admit I have discovered to you the nature of this mercy and surely by what hath been said we may easily see how precious a blessing it is as being eminently the Queen of mercies the Ocean of blessings the Quintessence of comforts and vertually all blessings whatsoever we can stand in need of or long after Till sin be forgiven no good can be expected and therefore they are put together Take away all iniquity and do us good either God withholds mercy or else the mercy proveth a curse to the unpardoned sinner sin being forgiven there is no evill which we need to fear not Gods wrath not the Laws curse not Satans malice not Hels torments when the Angell said of Jesus He shall save his people from their sins he implyeth salvation from all evils which are the proper effects of sin since according to that known Maxime Sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus the cause being removed the effects cannot but cease And as there is no evill which we need feare so neither is there any good which we may not hope Zanchy observeth upon the Text that by a Synecdoche forgiveness of sins is here put for all blessings sure I am all good goeth along with pardoning mercy it is not so in mens pardons the forgiven malefactor is not therefore received into favour or advanced to honour but grace and glory yea all blessings attend those whom God forgiveth Indeed it is only sin which stops the current of mercy no wonder then if sin being removed mercy flows in a pace Reconciliatioâ— to acceptation with God both of our persons and services freedome of access to the throne of grace and a mercifull audience of our Prayers supplies of all needfull comforts and a turning of all afflictions to our good Finally the sonship now and the inheritance hereafter do all belong to him whose sâ—ns are forgiven Excellently Fulgentius to our present purpose Non de re parvâ disserimus nec vile aliquid quaerimus cum de remissione peccatorum disputamus it is not a light matter an unworthy Subject we discourse of when we speak of Remission of sins by this we are freed from eternall punishment that we may enjoy eternall bliss by this that weight of â—â—n which either by nature or life hath been contracted is removed and Christ giveth ease to the weary and laden by this the ungodly is freely justiâ—â—ed his faith being accounted to him for righteousness Finally by Remission of sins men are graciously differenced from those who shall be eternally tormented with and by the Devill and joyned to those who shall eternally reign with Christ Oh then according to Ferus his pious counsell Hoc ipsum pro maximo dono gratiâ repetimus let us esteem this the highest favour and the greatest gift whereof we can be partakers and withall labour we to be among that number to whom this priviledg belongs And so I am fallen on the Propriety of the Persons in the word your Forgiveness of â—â—ns as you have already heard is a great but withall it is a speciall blessing There are some benefits which are common to elect and reprobate good and bad such is that whereby God doth spare sinners and withholds the execution of punishment from them for so St Paul speaketh of goodness and forbearance to those who dâ—spâ—se it But then there are peculiar benefits which are the portion only of the good so confer'd oâ—â— as that they aâ—â— confined to the regenerate among which is this oâ— â—â—rgiveness and therefore it is said here your sins Forgiveness of sins may be considered three waies 1. In the decree and purpose of it which was before the begining of the world from all eternity In the plenarâ— completion and open publication of it which shall not be till the end of the world when time shall be no more In the particular application of it to severall persons which is time by time in this present world and is not vouchsafed to any till they are regenerated To unfold this more fully take this your both exclusivè and inclusivè by way of restriction and inlargement yours that is none but yours yours that is all your sins are forgiven 1. Yours and none but your sins are forgiven This bread of life is for Sons not Slaves this kiss of Love is for Favourites not Rebels this Sunbeame of mercy for the Children of the Day not the Night Indeed we must distinguish between the collation and the oblation the conferring and the offering of this benefit forgiveness of sins is offered to all upon the condition of believing and repenting but bestowed only upon them who actually believe and repent and therefore in the publication of this mercy Ministers must write a bill of divorce to all wicked sinners that so according to Gods command they may seperate the precious from the vile and in the Applicaâ—ioâ— of it every one must take heed lest he too rashly hastily and presumptuously lay hold upon it Blessed is that man saith the Psalmist whose sins are forgiven ey but miserable is that man who thinketh his â—â—ns forgiven when they are not yea he is so much the more miserable because he thinketh himself happy We need to be very cautelous how we pass the sentence of absolution and you have no less reason to be carefull how you â—pply the promises of pardon least a vain presumptioâ—â—f â—f mercy betray you to endless misery 2. Yours and all your sâ—ns are forgiven you whither Fathers or young Men or little Children That is 1. In a literall sense liâ—tle Children having received Baptismall regeneration are cleansed from their Originall sin young Men turning to God have the folliâ—s of their Childhood pardoned yea to Fathers repenting the sins of their former ages shall not be mentioned 2. In a spirituall notion not only strong but weake Christians are capable of this benefit I will remember their iniquities no more is a branch of the nâ—w Covenanâ— and truth of grace entituleth us to the Covenant Indeed we must distinguish between the collation and the manifestation of this mercy Christians whilst they are but novicâ—s are weake in faith nor can they clearly apprehend that their sins are forgiven but still the benefit no less truly belongs to them then to groâ—n Saints As then before I disswaded the wicked from presumption so now I must warne the weake of despaire those are too apt to lay hold upon and these are too ready to refuse pardon nor is it more hard to drivâ— these from then to draw those to eate of this tree of life But tell me oh drooping soul Why dost thou frowardly put that comfort far from thee
own imaginations and sets up himself in Gods roome admiring and adoring his own though but sometime fancied excellencies nay which is yet worse he so sets himself above that he sets himselfe against God for so the Prophet accusing Mâ—aâ— of pride and haughtiness proveth it by this Medium Thou hast magnified thy self against God In this respect it is enquired and resolved by the Schooles that pride is the greatest of sâ—ns for whereas in other lusts there is directly a conversion to the Creature in this there is a direct aversion from the Creator by all which it appeareth how injurious these lusts are to the Father and therefore incompatible with the love of the Father To what hath been already said concerning the express and positive truth of this clause I must not forget to adde that there is another implicite and consequentiall truth wrapped up in it namely That if any man love the world the love of the Brethren is not in him Indeed the sâ—nse of these words the love of the Father may be rendred the love which the Father requireth and so it extends to Botherly love Besides the Connexion seemeth to intimate that loving the world is forbidden as an enemy to Brotherly love which is discussed a little before Finally Omne majus continet in â—se miâ—â—s the less is involved in the greater so that as Eâ—ius well notes since the love of the Father which is the greater the love of the Brethren which is the less is also to be denied of him who loves â—he world S Paul speaking of charity saith shee seeks not her own whereas the worldling is altogether for himself and therefore hath no affection to others though to speake truth as he is nomini bonus good to no man so he is sibi nequam worse to himselfe To enlarge upon this a little Consider the worldly lover in reference to his Superiours Inferiour Equals and you shall finde he hath no love to any 1. He is so farre from loving that he envieth those that are are above him in place in wealth in power To use the phrase of the Text The love of the Father is not in him not of the politicall Father against whom he will not stick to rebell when opportunity is offered The proud man grudgeth Subjection the Covetous man Tribute and the Epicure Obedience to his Laws Not of the Ecclesiasticall Father whom worldly lusts prompt him to undervalue yea if he reprove him to spurne against nay ofttimes not of the naturall Father whilest they who are tainted with these lusts like Esau wish The daies of mourning for their Father were at hand nay some like Absolom consult their Fathers ruine that they may enjoy their honours and estates 2. As for those who are under him he is very apt to trample them under his feet and if they be in want very backward to reach forth an hand of succour to them The Voluptuous layeth out so much upon his pleasures the ambitious wants so much for the maintaining of his honours and the covetous layeth up so much for the satisfying of his eyes that they have little or nothing to spare for the needy nay that too often they oppress and grinde the faces of the poore 3. Instead of loving his equall he is apt to contend and quarrell with them Whence come wars and fightings among you saith St James and answering his Question he addeth Come they not hence even of the lusts that war in your Members Omnia perfecte in pace consisterent si hominem imperandi cupiditas non teneret said Valerius truly It is the desire of being above others that hindreth us from living in peace with others and speaking of covetousness he asserts Hinc pullulare odiorum causas amicitiarum faedera dissipari it to be the breaker of amity and begetter of enmity amongst men nor is it less true of sensuall lusts which very often blow the fire of discord into a flame In one word what wrong will not men do to their Neighbours in their relations names estates by fraud and treachery by violence and cruelty in words and works for the base love of wealth of honour or pleasure all which are directly repugnant to brotherly love To close up with some usefull inferences from the consideration of what hath been handled Learne we 1. How desperate and dangerous a sin is worldly love One upon this clause hath well observed Lenis oratio sed plena aculeo it is seemingly a gentle speech but carryeth a sting with it For in saying there is no love of the Father and consequently not of his Brother in him that loveth the world he saith in effect he is one that breaketh all the Commandement for if love be the fullfilling of the Law to wit love to God of the first and love to our Neighbour of the second he that neither loveth God nor Men must needs breake both It is very observable that David praying God to incline his heart to his Testimonies presently addeth and not to covetousness thereby implying that if he were inclined to covetousnes he could not love or keep Gods Testimonies Moses brake the Table in pieces out of a zealous anger at the golden Calfe and the worldling will breake the Laws written on those Tables for the Gold upon the Calfe The love of money I and of honour and pleasure is the rot of all goodness and the root of all wickedness the Moath of sanctity the rust of virtue the breeder and the feeder of vice Ungodliness and worldly lusts are coupled together by St Paul Abstaine from fleshly lusts and having our conversation honest are joyned together by St Peter there is neither honesty nor piety to be found where worldly love raigneth 2. How great is the folly of Hypocrites who thinke to joyne what here St John hath opposed the love of the world and the love of the Father together Many there are saith Isidore Hispalensis truly who will flye to Heaven by a divine conversation but yet they are loath to leave earthly contentments Provocat eos amor Christi sed revocat amor seculi The love of Christ puts them a little forward but the love of the world pulls them backward and so as Erasmus is painted by the Romans they hang between Heaven and Earth There is a City in Germany which belonging to two Governments was called Mindin which is according to the sâ—gnification of it in the Germane language mine and thine Thus the Hypocrite saith to God thou art mine and to the world I am thine in which respect he is called a double minded man and is said to have an heart and an heart like the Samaritans who feared the Lord and served Idols the Israelites who halted between God and Baal those in the Prophet Zephany who did sweare by the Lord and Malchom and those lukewarme Laodiceans who were neither hot nor cold But alas how vainly do such
3. Be pleased then to remember what I have already told you that world may be either understood of persons or things and accordingly both constructions may here not unfitly be made use of 1. Of the world that is saith St Austin Ab hominibus mundi dilectoribus of those men who are the worlds darlings and thus these lusts are said to be of the world as a pattern or exemplary cause inasmuch as to walke in them is according to the Apostles phrase To walke according to the course of the world The truth is we are very apt to learn of and conforme to the corrupt lusts and practises of the world We do not with the Pelagians farre be it from us say that sin came in only by imitation but yet withall it is an undeniable truth that imitation is a cause of much sin that corrupt nature which is with in us rendring us prone to follow others in their evill waies This is that which those Dehortations both of St Paul and St Peter plainly intimate This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye henceforth walke not as other Gentiles walke so St Paul For the time past of our lives may it suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles So St Peter Both imply that we are very ready to walke in the way do the will of the wicked among whom we live 2. But that interpretation which I look upon as most genuine is by the world to understand the things of the world and therefore these lusts are said to be of the world because by reason of our inbred corruption these worldly things become occasions and inciters of lust To this purpose it is that St Paul calls these lusts worldly lusts not only because they are conversant about the world but because the world is in some sense a cause that is an externall moving cause of them The Father of these lusts is the Devill their Mother the flesh the world is a Midwife to bring forth and a Nurse to bring up these monstrous brats no wonder if upon this account it is reckoned as one of the three grand enemies of mans salvation Learn we then that excellent admonition of St James To keep our selves unspotted of the world The truth is mundus immundus the world is uncleane and filthy and if we take not heed it will defile and besmeare us if we be not very carefull where we tread we shall soon step into a dirty puddle if we be not very wary where we walke we shall quickly be caught in a snare Oh how hard is it to looke upon these things and not long after them to use them and not love them to have them in our eye or hand and yet keep them out of our heart Oh therefore watch and be sober so often as you are engaged about worldly things keep a godly jealousie over your hearts least they go out too much after them for the world is very insinuating and too often creepeth into our hearts the presence Chamber of the King of glory in which respects these lusts are most truly said to be of the world And so much for the two branches of this clause Absolutely considered 2. Pass we on now to a Relative view and thus it may have a double reference 1. Some conceive it as an Argument why we should not love the world and the things of it and truly whither we understand the Subject of this proposition All that is in the world is not of the Father but is of the world of the things themselves or the lust after them it will hold good 1. Love not the things of the world because these things are not of the Father but of the world Qualia sunt haec saith Zanchy aptly how low poor things are these how unworthy of a Christian love These are from an earthly extraction an inferiour principle Set your affections saith St Paul on the things that are above and not on the things that are upon the earth if you will love let it be those things above that are of the Father of a noble divine originall not these earthly things which are of the world 2. Love not the things of the world because those lusts which are conversant about those things are not of the father but of the world the strength of which argument will better appeare if we consider who they are namely Believers such as are not of the world but of the father to whom this dehortation is given it being very unreasonable that they who are not of the world but of the father should harbour those lusts which are not of the father but of the world When therefore oh Christian any desires arise in thine heart put these two questions to them whither tend they and especially whence are they if they be of the father and so consequently tending upwards embrace them but if of the world and so necessarily bending downwards refuse them 2. But though I do not reject these Interpretations yet I rather adhere to that exposition which looketh upon this clause as a reason of the reason preceding why the love of the world and the love of the Father are inconsistent and the strength of the Argument may be drawn out two waies 1. These worldly lusts are not of the Father and therefore not to the Father Things move in a circle where they begin there they end Rivers come from and return to the Sea These lusts the being not of the Father cannot be toward him nay indeed are against him and therefore cannot consist with the love of him The love of the Father carrieth the heart towards him these lusts being not of the Father turn away the heart from him how can they agree together 2. Where there is a love of the Father only that which is of the Father will finde acceptance yea whatever is not of the Father the soul that loveth him cannot choose but abhorre he that loveth God truly hath a sympathy and antipathy correspondent to his what God loveth he loveth what God hateth he hateth and therefore since these lusts are so far from being of the Father that they are of the world yea the Father instead of an Authour or an Abettour of them is an abhorer and opposer of them no wonder if there be no sincere love of the Father where the love of the world is predominant And this shall suffice to have been spoken of the first branch of the Argumentation drawn from the love of world its repugnancy to the love of God It now remaineth that we proceed to The other branch which is taken from the world it self its short continuance as it is set down in the seaventeenth Verse For the world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God indureth for ever where there are two generall parts occurre to our observation to wit A Thesis or proposition For the world passeth away and the
he imagined he should enjoy these goods for many years Such fools were those Drunkards who say We will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as to day and much more abundant and those Mammonists of whom the Psalmist saith Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations But oh when will we believe that which we so often see and heare and acknowledg what daily experience confirmeth that this worlds goods are as they are called moveables yea all these worldly things mutable and inconstant Alas my Brethren the time will come when too late we shall see their vanity and instability Vilia sluida esse cognoscit amissa saith St Gregory quae duri aderant magna mansura videbantur When we are stripâ— of all the vain fugacity of these things which whilst we enjoy are so glorious and permanent in our eyes will appeare But oh how much better will it be for us whilst yet they are present with us to looke upon them as parting from us To this end Pray we for a spiritually enlightned minde It is the saying of Jamblicus If a man could behold this world in the light of divine knowledge he will finde it to be a vanishing shadow and Plato Etymologizing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth wisdome saith it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a due apprehension of the fluid motion of these terrene contentments oh let us implore this wisdome from above That blind man in the Gospell whose eyes Christ opened saw at first men walking like trees an argument of the weakness of his naturall sight but in a mysticall sense saith Chrysologus it argueth the strength of spirituall sight to see all the things of this world not as pillars but as trees and those not standing but walking in a continuall motion It is very observable with what a different aspect our blessed Saviour looked upon the stones of the Temple from the standers by they beheld them as goodly stones but Christ saw one stone not left upon another thus whilst these worldly Objects appeare amiable to a carnall eye the spirituall Christian beholds them as those which in a little time will perish and come to nought 2. Being throughly perswaded of this truth it will I trust make way for that which is the maine designe of our Apostle namely to disswade us from the love of the world because it passeth away It was a notable speech of Laconâ—uâ— in Plutarch when he was told of a ship richly laden that was come into the Port I am not saith he much moved with that prosperity which hangeth upon ropes Oh then why are we so much taken with this world which is so uncertaine quid strepis oh munde immunde saith St Austin oh thou filthy world what a noise dost thou make how would men dote upon thee if thou wert lasting who love thee so well though thou art fading Alas Beloved you may as well stop the running streame with your hand blow back the winde with your breath or cause the Sun to stand still as hinder the passing away of these worldly things and why will you hold that fast in affection which you cannot long in possession Swallows they say will not build their nests in an house which is ready to fall which of you if the Carpenter should tell you your house would drop down within few daies would not presently remove from it oh let us leave this world before it leave us and possesse it as though we possessed it not because ere long we shall be dispossessed of it We sometimes laugh at Children that are pleased with paper Castles which may be philipt down in a moment have we not more reason to weep over our selves who hold fast deceit and set our hearts on those things which are so easily and sodainly snatched away from us What is pleasure wealth honour but as the sand so Gregory Nyssen aptly and you know when Children have been running up and down in the sand so soon as they are gone no footsteps remaine of all their toyle The truth is how wise soever worldly lovers may account themselves they are notorious fools even upon this account that they leane upon a broken reed feed upon the winde and graspe at a shadow Let therefore the counsell of devout Anselme be acceptable to us Nolite constanter mundum diligere quando ipse quem diligitis non potest constare Incassum cor quasi manenter figitis dum fugit ipse quem diligitis Why should we so constantly love this world whenas this world which we love is so inconstant let not our foolish heart thinke to fix it selfe on that which is still ready to flye away Tell me I beseech you Would any of you weary your selves in scraping up wealth in compassing honour pursuing pleasure did you certainly know that before to morrow either you should die or those enjoyments should be taken away from you can any of you secure your selves that it shall not be so yea is there any thing more possible then that these things may presently or more certaine then that they shall ere long pass away and therefore since the world passeth away from us let us according to Leo's counsell resolutely pass by the world so as it may be only viaticum itineris non illecebra mansionis a subservient handmaid not a domineering Mistress And now that this Argument which our Apostle here useth may have the stronger influence upon us to disswade from worldly love let me intreat you seriously to ponder upon these foure particulars 1. What a disproportion there is and that upon this very account between this world and our soules It is a rule in marriage that there should be a fit proportion as in other things so in yeares between the persons how unfit then is it for thy soul to be married to this world whenas the world is transitory and thy soul is immortall canst thou be so sottish as to thinke that God did breath that immateriall spirit of thine into thee to have only the happiness of a muckworme which breedeth and feedeth in dung or at best of an Indian Emmet which glittereth in golden dust about it Dost thou imagine what that soul of thine which is glued to this world will do when this world shall be taken from it surely as Philip said to his Son Par tibi regnum quaere seek a Kingdome sutable to thy greatness so let me say to thee seeke an Object proportionable to thy soul and that cannot be the world for it passeth away 1. This world as in it selfe it is transitory so it passeth away soonest from them who set their hearts upon it I have read of certaine flitting Islands which seem continually to move in the Sea and if you saile towards them the nearer you approach to them the further they
spiritual and saving knowledge It is a known Axiome in Philosophy that there must be a due proportion between the faculty and the object and therefore as sense cannot apprehend the things of reason so neither can reason the things of the Spirit there being no proportion between natural Reason and spirtual verities Indeed Reason in it self is a thing spiritual as spiritual is opposite to material but not as it is opposed to natural and it must bee a spiritual that is a supernatural quality infused by the Spirit which can inable us to apprehend supernatural objects suitable hereunto is that distinction in the Schools of a three-fold light of Nature of Grace of Glory one whereof is far short of the other and as the light of Grace is not proportionable to those beatifical objects of Glory so neither is the light of nature to the spiritual objects of grace and therfore most justly is this affirmative You have an Unction and know all things construed as including the negative if you had not this Unction you could not know any thing To conclude then let the consideration hereof learn us a double lesson to wit of Humility and Prayer 1 Let it abase us in our own estimation notwithstanding our choicest natural or acquired abilities vain man saith Eliphaz would bee wise though hee bee born like a wilde Asses colt men would bee Masters not onely of natural but Divine Knowledge but they become vaine in their Imaginations In reason as corrupted there is a direct enmity against the Gospels simplicity yea the line of reason at the best is too short to fathome the depth of evangelical mysteries and therefore if any one would bee wise let him according to S. Pauls Counsel become a fool that hee may bee wise he only is in a fit capacity for divine knowledge who humbly acknowledgeth his own inability of himself to attain it 2 As wee desire to know all things needful to salvation pray wee for the Spirits Illumination it is strange and yet true to consider how simple Idiots are able more divinely to discourse of Gospel verities than some learned Clerks and whence this but from this special Unction of the renewing Spirit and when wee hear wicked Christians sometimes fluently uttering divine knowledge whence is it but from the common Unction of the illuminating Spirit There is no unfolding Samsons riddle unlesse wee plow with Samsons Heifer no understanding the things of the Spirit but by the grace of the Spirit and therefore I shall end my discourse with the beginning of that excellent Hymn Oh Holy Ghost into our wits send down thy heavenly light Kindle our hearts with servent love to serve God day and night Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 21. I have not written unto you because yee know not the truth but because yee know it and that no lye is of the truth THis Verse may well bee called a Religious Complement inserted by the Apostle no doubt for this end that hee might the better gain upon those to whom he wrote That piece of Oratory which teacheth captare benevelentiam to seek the good will of Auditors is of good use in Divinity They are too morâ—se and rigid who account all Civil Language in a Pulpit daâ—bing with untempered mortar St. Paul doubtlesse did not court Agrippa with a falshood when hee saith Beleevest thou the Prophets I know thou beleevest them nor did hee gild rotten posts when hee saith to those Hebrews I am perswaded better things of you though I thus speak far bee it from St. John who declaimeth against hars at the same time to bee guilty of flattery which is no better than lying To sooth up our hearers in their wickedness is abominable but to smooth them with oyly Language and silken words that they may bee more pliable to what is good is allowable whilest herein wee trace the footsteps of the penmen of holy writ particularly S. John and that in this verse which is as it were an insinuating parenthesis I have not written unto you because yee know not the truth c. In which words there are three General Observable I A Delineation of the Gospel by a double character 1 Principal and â—rect â—n that it is called the truth 2 Collâ—â—eral and Coâ—sequeâ—â—ial when it is said no lye is of the Truth II A Commendation of the Christians to whom the Apostle wrote by removing ignorance from them attributing knowledge to them in those words not because you know not the Truth but because ye know it c. III An Anticipation of an objection which might be made against his writing to them who were thus knowing in those words I have not written unto you c. Begin we with the Delineation and therein 1 The Principal Character which though comprized in that one word Truth carrieth in it a great deal of weight Not to trouble you with the Philosophical distinctions of Truth be pleased to know to our present purpose 1 As there is a double word so there is a double truth to wit personal and doctrinal our blessed Saviour saith of himself I am the truth and some Interpreters conceive that by truth here the Apostle meaneth Christ when our Saviour prayeth for his Disciples sanctify them through thy truth hee presently addeth Thy Word is truth and accordingly others expound Truth here to bee the Evangelical Doctrin To this latter interpretation I rather adhere because it is most probable that St. John understands the same by truth in this verse which he intends by all things in the former and those are all things revealed in the Gospel 2 Truth may bee construed in a double opposition either to that which is Typical or that which is false 1 Sometimes the truth is opposed to Types and Ceremonies thus when wee are required to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth as the former is opposed to hypocritical so the latter most rationally to ceremonial worship and when it is said The Law came by Moses but grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ wee may probably conceive the sense to bee that whereas Moses onely delivered precepts to bee done Christ giveth by his Spirit grace to do them and whereas the Ceremonial Law consisted onely of Types and Shadows the Truth that is the impletion of all those is now performed by Christ Accordingly the Gospel is the truth because it revealeth the body of those shadows the mystery of those figures the substance of those Types and to this Zanchy conceiveth the Apostle Paul might have respect when hee calls it The word of truth 2 Sometimes the truth is opposed to falshood and lies for that is the most genuine signification of the Word and withall the most rational interpretation of it in this place where wee finde a lye expressely set in opposition to it upon this account no doubt it is that the Gospel is so
frequently stiled the word of truth and the way of truth and the truth To this purpose is that metaphoricalâ—hrase â—hrase of S. Peter where he calls it the sincere milk of the Word to wit without any base mixture of falshood Indeed there are some doctrins of the Gospel which are nor verisimilia probable to our reason but still all of them are verissima of most certain verity For the clearer manifestation whereof which was never more needful than in this Sceptical yea Atheistical age and that in opposition to all other doctrins whatsoever bee pleased to consider the matter the witnesses the Miracles and the success of the Evangelical doctrin 1 The matter of the Gospel proclaimeth it to be the truth inasmuch as it layeth down surer principles purer precepts and higher Promises than any other doctrin whatsoever This is that Doctrin which maketh full provision for our comfort by teaching us how God and man may bee brought together how justice and mercy may meet each other by proposing to us such a reward which for its excellency and perpetuity is every way adaequate to a rational desire This is that doctrin which giveth full direction for our obedience by injoyning such duties as are most just and pure and so most consonant to right reason 2 The Testimony given to the Historical part of this Doctrin especially that of Christs resurrection which if acknowledged true there will bee no reason to deny the truth of any thing revealed in the Gospel is so valid that there need not could not bee a clearer evidence For however they were persons tenuioris fortunae of a mean estate yet they were incâ—lpatae famae of unblemished credit nor was it onely one or two but a great number of men and women who testifyed the truth of it and this not upon hear-say but as that which they had seen with their eies and their hands had handled nor which would not bee left out was there any hope of profit or preferment which might induce them to attest a falshood 4. The Miracles which accompanied those Oracles were such as abundantly confirm their Truth for though it is true the publishers of lying doctrines have by the Devils help wrought wonders yet either they were as St. Paul calls them lying wonders meer delusions making things appear which are not by corrupting sometimes the fancy sometimes the sense sometimes the air and sometimes the object or if they were true wonders yet they were not Miracles properly so called because not above the power of nature onely the Devil either by his agility removing of or bringing on objects upon the stage in a moment as it was probably in the Magicians imitation of Moses when hee turned Rods into Serpents or by his sagacity discovering the secrets of nature oft times effects such things as to us being unknown are wonderful though indeed they are but natural But the wonders which were wrought by the preachers of the Gospel plainly appear to bee such as either no created power can at all effect as raising the dead curing the blind lame and deaf which were so out of a natural defect in the Organ and are reckoned among those total privations which in course of nature admit of no return to the habit or which if a natural virtue can effect yet not in that way and time as the healing of the sick by a touch by a word at a distance in an instant and therefore were no other than divine Miracles So that unless were will suppose that the true God would confirm a lye by signs and wonders wee must needs acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel 4. Lastly The wonderful success which this Doctrine hath had in the world may very rationally evince its Truth It is a known saying veritas magna praevalebit the power of Truth is unconquerable and though sometimes it may bee suppressed yet it cannot bee extinguished Indeed it is not true reciprocally that though Truth will preval at last yet every Doctrine which prevaileth for a time is Truth If this plea were sufficient nakedly considered the Mahumetan Doctrine would challenge this Title of Truth as having gained upon the greatest part of the habitable world for many hundred years It is not therefore simply the strength but the strangeness of the Gospels prevalency which argues its verity That the Mahumetan Doctrine should bee generally embraced is no wonder partly because it is a Doctrine congruous to mans corrupt inclination it was at first propagated and is still maintained by force of arms But that the Evangelical Doctrine which teacheth Lessons contrary to flesh and blood liberality to a covetous humility to a proud piety to a prophane and righteousness to a cruel world which was so much opposed and persecuted by the wise and great men the Princes of this world should bee published by twelve illiterate unarmed men who had not spears but onely staves in their hands not swords but scrips by their sides and were as a few Sheep among a multitude of ravenous Wolves and yet the publishing should bee so effectual as to gain a multitude of Disciples in all parts and those such as did many of them lose their liberties states and lives in defence of it is so strange a success as may very well bee a strong Argument to testifie the Truth of the Gospel by all which it appeareth what good reason St. John had to call the Gospel the Truth in opposition to falsehood But yet this is not all which this type prompts us to for in that the Apostle doth not say the true Doctrine in the concrete but the Truth in the abstract so that whereas there are many other Truths which every Art and Science teacheth hee seemeth to appropriate it to the Evangelical Doctrine as if that onely deserved the name of Truth is very Emphatical and no doubt his intention hereby is to let us see that the Gospel is eminently and transcendently true Indeed veritas consistit in indivisibili one thing cannot bee truer than another but yet one Truth may bee of greater eminency than another Such is the Doctrin of the Gospel whose excellency will appear if you consider that it is a Divine an Universal and an effectual truth Well may the Gospel bee called the truth in as much as it is 1 The Divine truth which was dictated to those who published it by the Spirit of God I grant as St. Ambrose saith omnis veritas à spiritu sancto all even humane truth is from the Divine Spirit in which respect Truth is called by the Greek Poet the daughter of God but still it is onely Scriptural truth which is of immediate inspiration all truth calls God Father but this is his Reuben his first-born These things saith hee that is true and again These things saith the Amen the faithful and true witnesse so run the Prefaces of the two Epistles to Philadelphiae and Laodicea and accordingly St. Peter They
spake as moved by the Holy Ghost Indeed if you please to review three of the fore-mentioned Arguments to wit the matter the miracles and successe of this Doctrin you shall find them proving as well the Divinity as the verity of the Gospel 2 An Universal truth such as containeth in it all truth needful to bee known in order to salvation Indeed there are many natural truths which are below the Majesty and beside the Scope of the Gospel and therefore are not contained in it but all saving truths either formaliter or reductivè in expresse words or plain necessary consequences are revealed by the Gospel hence it is that this Doctrin is as it were a rule or standard by which all Doctrines must bee tryed so that If an Angel Preach any other Gospel he is acâ—ursed for which reason no doubt it is called a Canon by St. Paul where hee saith As many as walk according to this rule or Canon peace bee upon them and upon the Israel of God 3 Lastly An effectual truth the truth which of all others hath the most powerful operation indeed as it was first inspired by so the Preaching of it is still accompanied with the Holy Spirit whereby it hath a far greater efficacy than any other truth whatsoever for whereas other truths have onely an influence upon the understanding this together with the understanding hath an influence upon the Will and Affections other truths may make us wise but this will make us both wise and better Glorious things are spoken of thee oh thou coelestial truth The truth shall make you free sanctify them through thy truth they are Christs own words â—â— his own good will begat hee us by the word of truth So St. Peter all truth is Gods daughter but this is as it were his Spouse by which hee begets Sons and Daughters to himself In one Word it is this truth and this alone which doth so inlighten the minde as to incline the will regulate the passions comfort the conscience renew our nature and sanctify our whole man No wonder if our Apostle call it abstractively Truth and emphatically the Truth Having given you this Account of the Principal it will bee easy to infer the Collateral Character of the Gospel where it is said No lye is of the truth In the Greek it seemeth to bee a particular proposition Every lye is not of the truth but it is equivalent to an universal and therefore is fitly rendred no lye is of the truth To open the sense briefly There is a threefold Lye verbal practical Doctrinal verbal is an untrue narration when wee either affirm what is false or deny what is true Practical is an unsuitable conversation when wee unsay with our lives what wee say with our lips Doctrinal is an erroneous position concerning matters of faith or practice and though it bee true of all sort of lies yet no doubt it is the doctrinal lye which is here chiefly intended 2 Whereas it is possible upon false hypotheses to inferr true conclusions whence it is usual in Astronomy by supposing things that are not to demonstrate the truth of things that are it is impossible from true positions to infer a false conclusion Indeed too often wicked Hereticks fasten their lyes upon the Evangelical truth and for this reason probably St. John inserted this clause which at first may seem supervacaneous that whereas the Antichristian Teachers might pretend to boast of the Truth our Apostle assureth those to whom hee wrote that the truth did not could not father any such lyes The truth is when Hereticks indeavour to prove their Doctrines by Scripture they deal by it as Caligula did by the Image of Jupiter Olympiacus when hee took from it its own head which was of Gold and put upon it one of Brass they spoil Truth of its genuine sense to put upon it a corrupt glosse it being as possible for cold to come from heat or darknesse from light as any lye from the Truth 3 Nor yet is this all that this clause imports minus dicit plus volens intelligi saith Estius our Apostle intends more than hee speaketh for whereas he saith No lye is of the truth hee meaneth every lye is against the truth Indeed some Lies have a semblance of Truth and are so bold as to claim kindred to it but notwithstanding their seeming consonancy there is a real repugnancy and they are so far from being of that they are contrary to the truth To close up this first general since the Gospel is the truth and consequently no Lye is of it learn wee to embrace it with those two Armes of faith and love 1 Let us stedfastly beleeve it The Heathen had an high opinion of their Sybils as appeareth by that of the Poet Credite me folium vobis recitare Sybillae and shall not wee yield a firm credence to the Gospel St. Paul saith of the Thessalonians that the Gospel came not to them onely in Word but in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurrnce intimating that they had not onely a conjectural opinion but a full perswasion of the truth of the Gospel let the same confidenee be in us It is the truth and therefore wee may infallibly venture our souls upon it Heaven and Earth shall pass away before the least jot of it shall be found false and lying 2 Let us affectionately love it so as not onely to yield obedience to but contend in the defence of it whensoever wee are called to it The Heathen in their sacrifices to Apollo cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth is sweet Let us say with David of this Truth Oh how sweet is it to my taste it is sweeter than the honey and the honey combe Veritas Christianorum incomparabiliter pulchrior Helenâ Graecorum saith St. Austin The Christians truth is incomparably fairer than the Hellen of Greece and if the Grecians so hotly strove for the one how zealously should wee contend for the other wee may venture our souls on it and we must be willing to venture ouâ— states and bodies for it and as he said though upon another account Amicus Plato Amicus Aristoteles sed magis amica veritas Plato and Aristotle are my friends but truth much more so let us in this my Liberty my Life is dear to mee but the truth of the Gospel is far dearer And that wee may thus beleeve and love let us bee careful to know it for which it is that our Apostle praiseth these Christians and so I am fallen on the Commendation Not because you know not the truth but because yee know it whence it will not bee amiss to observe 1 In General that this holy Apostle is not awanting in just praises of those to whom hee writeth very often in this Epistle hee calls them Little Children and in this hee dealeth with them as with Little Children who are best won upon by
incouraging commendations It was one of St. Jeromes counsels to Laeta about the bringing up of her daughter Laudibus excitandum est ingenium that shee should excite her by praises When the School-master by commending his Scholar for doing well le ts him see that hee hath a good opinion of him it is a notable spur to put him upon preserving and increasing that good opinion by doing better what the blowing of the horn is to the hounds in their chase and the sounding of the Trumpet to the Horse in the battel that is praise to men in their prosecution of vertue and opposition against vice And therefore let all Ministers learn to take notice of and incourage the forwardnesse of their people and let them be no lesse careful to extoll their virtues than to reprove their vices when the people do what is commendable it is but just wee should commend what they do and if they finde matter let not us want words in giving them their deserved praises according to the pattern which here St. John sets us 2 In special take a view of the commendation here given which is first by way of remotion acquitting them from ignorance they were not like St. Pauls silly women which were ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth not like those Hebrews who whereas for the time they ought to have been Teachers they had need that one teach them again which bee the first Principles of the Oracles of God they were not such as did not know the truth And then by way of attribution asserting that they were such who did know the truth yea that they had a distinct knowledge of it whereby they were able to distinguish between truth and falshood for that you know is very fitly by interpreters supplyed in the last clause you know that no Lye is of the truth Our blessed Saviour speaking of his sheep saith they know his voice and that so as to distinguish it from the voice of strangers for so it followeth and a stranger will they not follow thus doth S. John here commend these Christians not only for a true but a clear knowledge whereby they were able to judge aright and discern between things that differ Indeed according to that known maxim rectum est index sui et obliqui that which is true discovers not only it self but that which is false and therefore he that knoweth the truth knows that no lye is of it That it may the better appear how high a commendation this is it will bee needful to discusse a little on the one hand the evil of ignorance and on the other the good of knowledge 1 Not to know the truth is a sin sadly to bee bemoaned and such as contracts not onely guilt but shame upon the person Indeed this is not true of all kinde of Ignorance There is an Ignorance which is commendable not to know what God hath kept secret because hee would not have us know it s no shame for a man not to know that which is not in his possibility and such are all those things which God hath not been pleased to reveal There is an Ignorance which is excusable to wit 1 when it is of such truths which are without our sphere and therefore have no need to know them 2 when it is of such truths as are polemical problematical which partly by reason of the difficulty of the matter and partly by reason of the imbecillity of our understanding wee cannot attain to a full knowledge of 3 when though it be of the Evangelical Truth yet it is either through a defect of Revelation which is the onely means whereby wee can know it as in Pagans who never heard of the Gospel and therefore shall not bee condemned for not knowing and beleeving it or through a natural incapacity as in infants and fools and mad-men who being not able to make use of their reason cannot attain to this knowledge But not to know in some measure the necessary truths of the Gospel notwithstanding the opportunities and means of knowledge afforded to us is an ignorance deservedly blameable Indeed it is negligentia non impotentia incuria non incapacitas not an impotent incapacity but a retchlesse negligence it is not an invincible but a vincible not a negative but a Privative not an involuntary but a wilfull ignorance not of one who would but cannot but of one who may but will not know the truth And now to bee thus ignorant is our sin our shame our ruine what a travellor is without his feet a workman without his hands a Painter without his eies that is a Christian without knowledge unable to do the will of God What danger a ship is in that wants a Rudder Ballasse Anchors Cables Sails the like is hee in who wants knowledge How easily is hee tossed up and down with every winde of Doctrin how unable is hee to stear a right course towards heaven how quickly is hee overturned into a gulf of errors and vices no wonder if God complain by the Prophet Hoseah My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge Our proverb saith The blinde man swalloweth many a flye and catcheth many a fall it is no lesse true of an Ignorant Christian hee swalloweth many an errour and falls into many a sin this jaw bone of an Asse I mean Ignorance hath slain its thousands laying heaps upon heaps In a word Almighty God is so far provoked with affected ignorance that hee threatneth by his Prophet It is a people of no understanding therefore hee that made them will not have mercy on them and hee that formed them will shew them no favour and by his Apostle that the Lord Jesus shall beerevealed from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God 2 To know the Truth and that no Lye is of it is a virtue highly to bee commended Indeed there is an excellency in all kinde of knowledge it is a pearl despised of none but fools Knowledge having no enemy but the Ignorant Alexander was wont to say hee had rather excell in knowledge than bee great in Power Indeed what the eie is in the body that is knowledge in the minde that the choycest member of the one this the noblest ornament of the other but surely this knowledge whereof my Text speaks is far more excellent than all other knowledge whatsoever for wheras by knowledge it is that a man differeth from a beast by this knowledge it is that a Christian differeth from other men nullus omnino cibus suavior quam cognitio veritatis saith Lactantius no sweeter food to the minde than the knowledge of truth and especially of this truth What the foundation is to the building the root to the tree that is this knowledge to the Soul the beginning of all grace and goodnesse what the Sun is to the world that is this knowledge to the minde to
and the very name Immanuel by which hee is to bee called intimateth as much it being a name too high for any person except the Messiah What in this Prophecy Isaiah spake plainly in the fifty third chap. hee utters allusively where speaking of the Messiah for that that Chapter is to be understood of him is so evident that hee who runs may read it hee saith He shall grow up as a tender plant in a dry ground that is say some not improbably of a Virgin without the help of a man Now that Jesus was born of Mary whilest yet a Virgin the Evangelical History plainly affirmeth nor need it seem impossible either to Jew or Pagan As for the Jew why may hee not beleeve that the same Divine power which caused Old Sarah to conceive and bring forth when shee was as good as dead which made Aarons rod to bud blossome and bring forth Almonds yea which formed the first man Adam without the help of woman could enable a Virgin to conceive and bring forth without the help of man As for the Pagans they affirm that Venus was engendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth of the Sun that Pallas came from Joves brain and Bacchus from his thigh that some of their Heroes were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures Hercules on Alemena by Jupiter Pan on Pâ—nelope by Mercury Romulus on Rhea a Virgin by Mars and why is it not credible that Jesus should bee born of the Virgin Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost And thus I have given you a brief account of the parallel between the Prophecy of the Messiah and the History of Jesus as to his birth 2 The Prophet Isaiah speaking concerning the Messiah tells us that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdome and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might and the Spirit of Knowledge and of the fear of the Lord that this Spirit did rest on Jesus appeareth both by the Oracles hee spake and the Works especially by the Miracles hee wrought It was the testimony the people gave of him that never man spake like him by which it appeareth that the Spirit of Wisdome and Knowledge did rest on him never did any so clearly reveal the Will of God to the people as hee The Glorious Promises were never so unveiled as by him and by him the Precepts of the Law were most exactly interpreted That the Spirit of Might did rest on him eminently appeared in his wondrous Miracles which were not done in a corner but openly before the people who cryed out wee never saw it on this fashion That Miraculous works were expected by the Jews from the Messiah when hee should come appeareth by the Question when Christ commeth will hee do more Miracles than those which this man hath done and accordingly when John sent to Jesus Art thou hee that should come or do wee look for another hee returneth this Answer Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see The blinde receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear and the dead are raised up all which could not have been done by him if hee had not been annointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power 3 Concerning the Messiah we finde a Three-fold Office to which he was annoynted to wit of King Priest and Prophet Moses fore-tells him to be a Prophet where he saith A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren David mentioneth him under the Offices of a King and a Priest Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion and thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck This was that which was peculiar to the Messiah for though David was a King and a Prophet Samuel was a Prophet and a Priest and Melchisedeck was a King and a Priest yet only the Messiah was a King Priest and Prophet accordingly it is that we finde Jesus as a Prophet teaching the Mysteries of the Kingdom as a Priest praying yea dying for the people and acknowledged by the Magi to be King of the Jews Once more it is fore-told in the Psalms and the Prophets concerning the Messiah that hee should bee a man of sorrows despised and rejected of men yea that he should bee cut off from the land of the living that hee should be taken from Prison and Judgement that having drunk of the brook in the way hee should lift up his head that hee should not see corruption and sit at the right hand of God And now that all these things which were written concerning the Son of Man were accomplisht the Evangelical Histories doe abundantly testifie it were easie to trace out an exact Parallel not only as to substance but circumstances concerning the humiliation and exaltation of Christ As for that pretence of the Jewes opposing our Saviours Resurrection that his Disciples stole him away it is so frivolous and absurd that no rational man can beleeve it yea that Dilemma of St. Austine abundantly confuteth it If the Souldiers were not asleep when the Disciples stole his body why did they permit them to doe it if they were asleep how could they affirm it to be done By all these considerations put together it cannot but appear an undeniable truth that Jesus is the Christ and however it may bee alleadged that some Prophecies which concern the glory and power of the Messiahs Kingdome seem not yet to bee accomplished the Answer is justly returned that it is not an outward and visible but an invisible and spiritual glory and power which is in those Prophecies intended and that is continually fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospel and withall they may very rationally be extended to his Second coming when he shall appear in glory to Judge the World and when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confesse what now perhaps it denieth that Jesus is the Lord the Christ to the glory of God the Father and so I have given a dispatch to the truth implicitly asserted passe we on more briefly to the 2 Heresie explicitly charged on the false teachers namely denying that Jesus is the Christ If wee render the words exactly according to the Greek text it is Hee that denieth that Jesus is not the Christ but yet the not is justly left out in our translation because according to our way of speaking Hee that denyeth that Jesus is not the Christ is he who affirmeth Jesus is the Christ which is the truth whereas in the Greek Language Gemina negatio fortiùs negat A double negation denieth more vehemently Parallel to this is that speech of our Saviour to Peter The Cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me where in each clause the Greek useth two Negatives for the greater emphasis Wee cannot better expresse the force
of the Greek phrase in our English Language than by supplying a word after denieth namely thus who is a lyar but hee that denieth saying that Jesus is not the Christ and surely if the affirmative be the truth as hath been already proved hee must needs be a Lyar who asserteth the negative That this then is a lying Heresie appeareth by the preceding Discourse that which only remaineth to bee inquired is the truth of the charge that these false teachers did deny Jesus to be the Christ indeed as Justinian well Hoc maximè faciebant Judai this was that which the Jews did most expresly deny but yet withall there were Judaizing false teachers among the Christians such was Simon Magus Menander Ebion and Cerinthus with others upon whom this was justly charged Simon Magus taught that it was he who appeared among the Jews as the Son in Samaria as the Father and to the rest of the Nations as the Holy Ghost Menander that he was sent from the invisible Powers a Saviour for the redemption of men and so affirmed themselves to be the Christ and in that denied Jesus to be the Christ Valentinus Ebion and Cerinthus affirmed Jesus to be a meer man begotten by Joseph conceived and born of Mary after the ordinary way and that Christ was another Person who descended on him in the shape of a Dove when he was thirty years of age and that it was not Christ but Jesus who dyed upon the Crosse and was buried and rose again and what did these but in effect deny Jesus to be the Christ And now if any shall say this concerneth not us for wee doe heartily acknowledge and openly professe that Jesus is the Christ I shall desire such to consider that there is a direct and a collateral a dogmatical and a practical denying Jesus to be the Christ 1 Hee who acknowledging Jesus to bee the Christ doth yet detract from any of his Offices to which he was annoynted vertually and collaterally denieth him to bee the Christ upon this account both Socinians and Papists are justly charged by the Orthodox as Antichristian Lyers The Socinians indeed acknowledge Christs Regal Prophetical and Sacerdotal Offices but yet they confound the Regal and the Sacerdotal they detract from the Regal taking the rise of it from his Resurrection when as the Angel saith of him as soon as born hee is Christ the Lord and chiefly from his Sacerdotal whilest they acknowledge his intercession but deny his Sacrifice and assert his death to bee onely a consecration of him to his Priesthood which say they hee only exerciseth in Heaven The Papists likewise do ascribe those three Offices to him and yet they detract from every one of them from his Prophetical by denying the written Word to be a sufficient and perfect rule of Faith and manners from his Sacerdotical in both the parts of it by their Superstitious sacrifice of the Masse and praying to Saints and Angels to bee their Intercessours Finally from the Regal by setting up the Pope as Head of the Church and giving him that power of supremacy and infallibility which hee never derived from Christ 2 But to bring it yet a little nearer to our selves he who professedly assents to this truth that Jesus is the Christ and yet is not guided by him as a Prophet governed by him as a King and rests not on him as his Priest practically denyeth him to bee the Christ Very apposite to this purpose is that of St. Austin Quiescat paululum linguâ— interroga vitam quisquis factis negat Christum Antichristus est let thy life speak rather than thy tongue whosoever denyeth Christ in his works is an Antichrist If any provide not for his house saith St. Paul hee hath denyed the faith that is done an act inconsistent with the Christian faith whereof he maketh profession which is in effect to deny the faith thus hee whose life dishonours Christ who giveth not up himself to the rule and government of Christ who sayeth in his actions I will not have this man to reign over mee in truth denyeth Christ and is no better than an Antichrist and oh how many Antichristian Christians then are there In one word whatever profession wee make of Christ and our faith in him Whilest by our Envy and Malice pride and Covetousnesse Rapine and oppression Intemperance and Prophanenesse wee walk directly contrary to the Law and Life the Command and Example of our holy humble peaceable and charitable 〈…〉 s we do that in our actions which the false Teachers did in their Doctrins deny Jesus to be the Christ and thus much shall suffice for the dispatch of the first-branch of the accusation the time being expired I shall put off the further prosecution of the charge against these Antichrists till another Sessions THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. 22 23 VERS Who is a Lyer but hee that denieth that Jesus is the Christ hee is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also OVr blessed Saviour calling those two sons of Zebedee James and John to bee his Disciples gave them the Sur-name of Boanerges which signifieth a Son of thunder mutatio nominis dâ—ni alicujus spiritualis significationem habet where names are changed some spiritual gift is conferred it was so no doubt upon those Apostles to whom Christ gave eminent abilities of asserting truth confuting errours reproving sin perswading repentance in such a way as might like thunder awaken the dull and drowsy world That St. James was such a Thunderer appeareth by his sufferings it being very probable that his powerfull Preaching of the Gospel was the occasion of Herods malitious persecution and that the liberty of his tongue cost him his life That St. John was one who did not onely lighten in his conversation but thunder in his Doctrines appeareth by his writings and more particularly this Epistle wherein hee cryeth aloud and lifteth up his voice like thunder against both the Hypocrites and Heretickes of his time against those in the former chapter these in this and more especially in these verses Who is a Lyar c. The latter branch of the accusation against the Antichrists in S. Johns daies is that which now commeth to bee discussed as it is propounded in the end of the two and twentieth and proved in the three and twentieth verse 1 Begin wee with the charge it self Hee is Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son These words are looked upon by Expositors in a double notion either as a distinct accusation or as an aggravation of the former charge 1 Serrarius upon this clause saith Altera haeresis est negantium patrem et filium in these words another sort of Hereticks are charged who denyed the Father and the Son inasmuch as they feigned another father so did Basilides and Saturnius as
consider what consequence do naturally flow from them I have so much charity as to think that many of the Jews and some of the followers of those Antichrists did not think that by denying Jesus to bee the Christ they were guilty of such a blasphemy against the Deity as to deny the Father and the Son but yet so it was as appeareth by what hath been already said I have the same opinion of many seduced persons in this age who are not so considerate to weigh the evil inferences which are justly deducible from such praemises which they embrace as truth Indeed we must distinguish between natural and forced deductions some like Spiders suck poyson out of flowers like bad stomacks turn the best nutriment into ill humours perverting the soundest Doctrins by fallacious paralogismes If wee are made sinners by one mans disobedience then say some God is unjust in charging Adams posterity with his guilt If Justification bee by Faith alone then say others what need of good works If Christ bee the Propitiation for the sins of the world then say others wee need not fear though wee adde sin to sin and thus the most pretious Doctrins of the Gospel are abused to patronize horrid conclusions but how irrationall they are easily appeareth to any who shall judiciously examine them Nor doth this hinder but that many specious doctrines have a sting in their tayl and how amiable soever they seem in their direct aspects yet they will bee found very detestable in their reflection The Antinomian in denying that God seeeth any sin in justified persons or is at all displeased with them when they sin denyeth that hee is Omniscient not knowing all things and that he is a Pure and Holy God hating sin where-ever hee findes it The Socinian in denying that Christ did expiate sin and satisfy justice denyeth the merit of his death the dignity of his person and justification by faith in his blood Many instances of this kinde might bee brought in several erroneous positions both of these and other Hereticks the truth is according to that known saying uno dato absurdo mille sequnntur one absurdity being granted a thousand follow and such as were they apprehended would doubtlesse be abhorred though not by those who broach yet by many of them who entertain such positions and therefore let it bee our Wisdome to examine whither this or that Doctrin tends to what it leads and what must necessarily follow upon it for so doth S. John here in which respect hee chargeth them who deny that Jesus is the Christ with denying the Father and the Son 2 The Proof of this latter part of the charge is that which now followeth in the next verse Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father but hee that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also I call this a proof and not without Reason since the Argument is strong Hee that hath not the Father denyeth him hee that denieth the Son hath not the Father and therefore he denieth the Father and the Son The verse consists of two clauses the latter whereof is not in our ordinary Greek Copies and therefore is left out by Calvin and is conceived by Daneus to have crept out of the glosse into the Text. But Beza assureth us that hee saw it in two Greek manuscripts it is also in the Syriack and vulgar Latine and inserted though in another Character by our Translators If wee peruse the writings of this Apostle wee shall finde no way of illustration more frequent than that which is by contraries whilest sometime the Affirmative is amplified by the Negative and then again the Negative by the Affirmative in which respect it is not improbable that this affirmative might here bee annexed by the Apostle But since I shall have a more fit occasion of handling the duty of confessing Christ when by Gods grace I shall come to the second and thirteenth verses of the fourth Chapter and withall there being the same reason of contraries the unfolding of the one is virtually an explication of the other I shall not inlarge in a distinct handling of these clauses That which would here bee principally inquired into is the notion of this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have the Father of which Interpreters give a threefold construction 1 That phrase in the first Commandement of having none but Jehovah to bee our God may give some light to this for as there habendi verbum pro credere intelligere usurpatur the word having is as much as knowing and beleeving So here and then the design of our Apostle in these words is to let us know that all Jews and others who deny the Messiah however they pretend to beleeve in and give worship to and have the knowledge of the true God in truth they are ignorant of him and so neither beleeve nor worship him aright because they do not know beleeve and worship him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Indeed this is to bee understood as to the explicit notion with a limitation in reference to Christ already come As for the Jews before Christ though the godly among them had some glympse of this for otherwise they could not have beleeved in the Messiah which was to come yet it was not expresly required of them to invocate God as the father of Christ but God having now sent his Son into and by him revealed himself unto the World hee can no other waies bee rightly adored and invocated but as his Father To this purpose it is that Christ is called by the Apostle the image of the invisible God which though it bee true of him as hee is the Son of God in respect of his eternal Generation by which the Divine essence being communicated to him hee is the Image of God that is personally taken God the Father yet in that the Apostle saith not onely the Image of God but of the invisible God there seemeth to be a tacit Antithesis and so it is to bee understood of the Son of God made man who by his incarnation is become a visible Image of the invisible God for this reason it is hee saith himself elsewhere if yee knew mee you would know the father also and indeed as wee cannot comfortably see the Sun with a direct aspect but in its reflexion so neither can wee rightly know the father but in Christ who is his visible Image Suitable hereunto it is that our Saviour expressely saith No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and hee to whomsoever the Son will reveal him and among other constructions of those words you beleeve in God beleeve also in mee this is one That if they did not beleeve in him they could not beleeve in God so that from hence wee may infer that not onely the Barbarous Pagans who worship the Sun the fire or any other creatures of Gods
making or stones and Images of their own making but the Mahumetans and the Jews who worship the Great Creator inasmuch as those onely worship him as revealing himself in their fanatick opinion by Mahumet and these worship him onely as he was pleased to reveal himself of Old by Moses but not as now hee hath manifested himself in his Son Jesus nay both of them denying his Son Jesus are therefore most justly looked upon not onely as false Worshippers of a true God but in some sense as Worshipers of a false God because they have not that is they know not neither do they beleeve and worship the Father of Christ to wit not formally though materially adoring him who is but not as he is the Father 2 That phrase of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have the minde of Christ may serve as a paraphrase upon this To have the Father is to have the minde of the Father which is else where called his good acceptable and perfect will This will or good pleasure of the father is the redemption of the World which he sent his Son both to accomplish and reveal in this respect St. Basil upon these words Hee that hath seen mee hath seen the Father thus glosseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the figure or form of the Fathers essence which is most simple and uncompounded but the goodness of his will and therefore hee who denieth the Son cannot have but is either altogether ignorant of or Apostatized from the Doctrin of the Father of which latter the Apostle especially speaking the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so it is many times used to hold and accordingly Grotius glosseth Non tenet quae sit voluntas patris hee doth not hold fast the good will of the Father which is published in the Evangelical Doctrin And no wonder for hee that hath not holdeth not the foundation cannot have the Superstructure Now this Thesis That Jesus is the Christ is the very foundation of that gospel-Gospel-truth which the Father hath by Christ imparted to us and consequently the denial of this cannot consist with having the father that is with holding the will and minde of the Father declared in the Gospel 3 Lastly that Glosse of St. Cyprian would by no means bee left out Non habet patrem benevolum he hath not the father benevolous and propitious to him and so wee may construe this phrase by that in the first chapter of having fellowship with the father and whereas it is said in the former verse hee denyeth the father this carrieth more in it namely That the father denyeth him Indeed all that love the father hath to us and fellowship we have with the father is through his Son Whence it followeth that every one who hath not the Son but much more hee who denyeth the Son hath not the Father yea the Father is highly displeased and enraged against him When Theodosius would not bee intreated by Amphilochius to suppresse the Arrian Hereticks who denyed Christ to bee the eternal Son of God that Godly Bishop saith Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found out a memorable stratagem to convince him of his fault for going into the Palace when Theodosius and his Son Arcadius were together hee saluteth the Emperour with his wonted reverence but giveth no Honour to the Son the Emperour supposing it was a forgetful neglect puts him in minde of it to whom his Answer was it was enough that hee had done obedience to him at which the Emperour being greatly offended the good Bishop thus bespoke him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see O King how ill you take it that your Son should bee dishonoured how angry you are with mee for not giving him Reverence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beleeve therefore that the great Lord of the universe cannot but abhor those who blaspheme his onely begotten Son Of this number were these Antichrists concerning whom St. John plainly asserteth that denying the Son they have not the father no true knowledge of him nor of his Doctrin nor can they expect his love and favour towards them What now remaineth but that wee take heed least we bee found among the number of them who deny the Son nor is this Caution unseasonable for 1 There want not among us such the Socinians I mean who affirm with those Hereticks of old Christ to bee onely man and these however they pretend to acknowledge yet consequentially deny him to be the Son of God for saith the Author to the Hebrews Vnto which of the Angels said hee at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and if not to the Angels surely not to a meer man who is lower than the Angels It would not bee passed by that a little after in that very Epistle Jesus whom the Apostle had proved to bee far higher than the Angels and that in this very particular of being Gods Son is said to bee little lower than the Angles and that this is to be understood in respect of his man hood appeareth by the Scripture just before quoted what is man that thou art mindful of him thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels the litteral sense whereof is to assert the humane nature inferiour to the Angelical surely then in respect of that nature wherein hee is below hee cannot bee far above the Angels and therefore to assert him a meer man though never so highly honoured is to deny him to bee the Son of God in the Apostles sense that is so as by reason of that Sonship to bee higher than the Angels for to allude to S. Pauls expression though they are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there bee Gods many and Lords many but there is but one God the father so though there bee that are called the Sons of God whether Angels or men yet there is but one who is the begotten Son of God which is so high a dignity that hee must bee more than Man or Angel who is capable of it and consequently to assert him a meer man is to deny him to be Gods Son 2 Besides wee may bee Orthodox in our Judgement concerning the Son of God and forward in our confession of him and yet interpretatively deny him and that especially two waies 1 When wee detract from the al-sufficiency of his merits upon what is it that the infinite vertue of our Saviours death did chiefly depend but this that hee is the Son of God so that hee that doth not relye on the virtue of his death denieth him to bee Gods Son and yet how apt are many to offend in this kinde by either a total despairing of salvation through Christ or a part al-joyning of other Saviours with him and to say that either Christs blood cannot at all or that it cannot alone to wit as a meritorious cause expiate sin is to
must wee Christians bee withdrawn from our assent to and love of those truths wee have heard This is that which is expressed by those phrases of standing fast in the Faith like a Souldier which keepeth his ground of keeping the faith as a Commander keepeth a Castle and of holding fast by which three Greek words are translated and all of them very emphatieal hold fast that which thou hast saith Christ to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia where the Greek Verbe is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth strength and intimateth holding fast with a strong hand by force or might as wee do one that would get away from us Hold fast that which is good is St. Pauls advice to the Thessalonians where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which noteth a firm holding with both hands and is used of them that are violently held in Prison Holding fast the faithful word is St. Pauls word to Titus where the Greek Verbe is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Seventy render the Hebrew Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which according to its derivation signifieth to hold fast against opposers thus must wee by divine streugth so hold that which wee have heard as resolving not to let it go whatever befall us Nor is it without cause that our Apostle adviseth to this stedfast retaining of the Evangelical Doctrin if wee consider what danger they were and more or lessc Christians in all ages are of being deprived of it That which wee have in possession may bee taken from us three waies rapto furto dolo by manifest Theft by subtle fraud and by violent force by all these means do our spiritual enemies endeavour to bereave us of that which wee have heard 1 Very often the lusts of the flesh and the delights of the World steal away that which we have heard out of our hearts as the fowles of the Air plucked up the seed which fell by the High-way side Oh how many are so bewitched with carnal pleasures that they let go spiritual truths like the Dog who lost the flesh in his mouth by catching at the shadow of it in the water 2 Not seldome false Teachers by their fair pretences of divine Revelations sublime notions Gospel light endeavour to cheat us of that wee have heard from the beginning S. Pauls phrase is very apposite to this purpose where hee speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sleight of men tacitly comparing them to false gamesters who have devices by cogging a dye to deceive the unskilful nothing more usual than for Hereticks by subtle insinuations to be guile the unlearned and unstable of those pretious truths which they had before received 3 Sometimes the Devil stirreth up wicked Persecutors who set upon us with open violence to make us let go our hold of the Gospel and as Lactantius well Haec vera est constantâ—a â—t nullus terror à Deo possit avertere then doth that wee have heard abide in us when no terrors can divert us from it that is a truely Heroical spirit which will not bee dared out of his Religion which determineth to let go estate liberty nay life it self rather than that which it hath heard and embraced it was a brave resolve of the Spartan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to bring back his buckler or to be brought back upon it such should bee a Christians resolution in point of Religion either to defend it or dye for it we know not what storms and Tempests may arise needful it is wee should be unmoved like the rocks in the midst of opposition But oh what cause is there of bemoaning the unsettledness of many in matters of Religion Pliny reports of a swimming Island which never appeareth in the same place one whole day together and Carystius of a flower that changeth colour three times in one day how fit emblemes are these of the Professors of this age who are ever and anon changing their Religion like the ship without an Anchor that is tossed to and fro in the Sea or like the chaff that is carried up and down with every blast let any one start up and broach some new doctrin under the mask of a glorious truth and how do the giddy multitude run after him forsaking those Orthodox Doctrines in which they were heretofore instructed What went you out for to see a Reed shaken with the wind too many such reeds may be seen every where in these Apostatizing days men as of barren lives so of fickle mindes unprofitable in their conversations and unstable in their judgements And especially if any thing of self-interest as to Profit or Honour or Pleasure come in competition Oh how easily are they removed from their former Profession no wonder if when danger approacheth and looketh them in the face their trembling hands let go their hold and they forgoe the truth In few words some are so foolish as to bee cheated more are so careless as to bee robbed the most are so cowardly as to bee frighted out of the truth which they have heard and professed Receive then a word of admonition to retain and maintain the ancient Catholick and Apostolick faith Indeed it is that which by way of Analogy may be pressed upon the Ministers of the Gospel Let that abide in them which they have taught from the beginning In the Law the shoulder of the Beast that was Sacrificed was the Priests and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an embleme of strength The first Priests name Aaron signifieth a mountain of strength and the Altar was called Ariel The Lyon of the Lord by all which is intimated how valiant they should bee for the Truth who serve at the Altar and are the Priests of the most High God It is set down by the Apostle as one of the Characters of a Bishop holding fast the faithful Word for this the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia is highly commended and comforted Because thou hast kept the Word of my Patience and it is the Apostles charge to Timothy that good thing which is committed to thee keep Indeed the Evangelical Doctrine is a sacred depositum which Christ hath left with the Bishops and Pastours of the Church To us saith the Apostle is committed the Word of Reconciliation Oh let us not bee so unfaithful as to betray our trust But yet it is not onely the Ministers but all Christians who are concerned in this duty as that must abide with the Preachers which they have taught so that must abide with the People they which have heard from the beginning This was that which St. Paul and Barnabas perswaded the Jews and Religious Professors which followed them namely to continue in the grace of God for this end they returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch to confirm the soules of the Disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith It is sage Counsel of
is of quality by way of Analogy is that which wee finde as in Threatnings so in Promises between the Service and the Reward and this expressed two waies 1 Sometimes one contrary is promised as the recompense of another To the Mourners is assured comfort to the Hungry fulnesse to the Humble exaltation to the Poor a Kingdome and to them that sow in tears a joyful Harvest in all which how great a congruity there is is obvious at the first view 2 Sometimes Like is promised as the reward of like thus wee read of Honour to them that Honour God and Love to them that Love him of Giving to them that Give Forgiving to them that Forgive and Mercy to them that are Merciful of Eternal life to them that continue in well doing and here of eternal life and continuing in the Father and the Son to them that continue in what they have heard 2 How pretious is the benefit considered in it self you shall continue in the Son and in the Father that is saith the Greek Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the same in substance with that in the former Chapter Our fellowship is with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ onely the manner of expression is somewhat more â—mphatical whilest the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in noteth the Propinquity and the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the permanency of this fellowship That Question why the Holy Ghost is not mentioned is thus resolved by Estiuâ— Quia de eo non erat oborta questio because as yet there was no controversy raised and so no need of mentioning him If it bee asked why the Son is put before the Father the answer is well returned because the Apostle had just before inveighed against those who though they pretended to acknowledge the Father yet deny the Son Though withall there may besides bee a double reason assigned The one to insinuate that the Son is not lesse than the Father but that they are equal in essence and dignity upon this account most probable it is that the Apostolical benediction beginneth with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and then followeth the love of God the Father The other because as Beda well glosseth No man commeth to or continueth in the Father but by the Son who saith of himself I am the way the truth and the life To draw it up lo here Eximia laus doctrinae an high commendation of Evangelical Doctrin that it leads up to Christ and by him to the Father the water riseth as high as the spring from whence it floweth no wonder if the Gospel which commeth from God through Christ lead us back again through Christ to God and as by hearing and beleeving this Doctrin we are united to so by adhering to and persevering in it wee continue in the Son and the Father Suitable to this is that promise of our blessed Saviour If any man love mee hee will keep my Word and my Father will love him and wee will come to him and make our abode with him if wee not onely receive but keep Christs word he and the Father will not only come but continue with us They who never heard nor received the Gospel are without God and without Christ so St. Paul saith of the Ephesians whilest they were in their Heathenish condition They who having heard the Gospel and for sake it are far from God and Christ God himself saith If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but if that which wee have heard abide with us wee shall continue in the favour and affection of in â—nion and communion with Christ and the Father And now beloved if the Psalmist said Blessed are they that dwell in thy house much more may I. Blessed are they that continue in the Son and in the Father if S. Peter said of being on Mount Tabor with Christ at his Transfiguration it is good for us to be here much more may we say It is good for us to be with the Son and the Father If hee that was asked where his treasure was answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Cyrus was his friend well may the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place his wealth in the friendship of and fellowship with the Son and the Father Let me then be speak you in those words of St. Jude keep your selves in the love of God which though it be chiefly understood in the active sense keep in you a love to God yet withall it may admit a Passive Interpretation keep your selves in Gods love not is there any better way than by keeping Gods word in our selves if Christs word dwell in us he himself will dwell with us the Ark was a blessing to Obed Edoms house so is the Gospel to the place where it is Preached much more to them who so hear as to receive and so receive as to retain it Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard that you may continue in the Son and the Father so much the rather when we consider what Followeth in the next verse an assurance that this continuance shall know no end but being begun on earth it shall be perpetuated in heaven to all eternity for this is the Promise which he hath promised â—â— eternal life which God willing in our next discourse shall bee unfolded THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. 25. VERS And this is the Promise that hee hath promised us even eternal life AS there is in bad men an aversnesse from so there is in the best a backwardnesse to their duty The one through wickednesse have an Antipathy the other through weaknesse an inability to what is good corruption is so prevalent in those that they will not receive and so remanent in these that they have much ado to retain either Truth in their minds or grace in their hearts For this Reason no doubt it is that Almighty God is pleased by his sacred Pen men not onely to impose services but propose rewards and to enforce his commands by arguments Among those many Arguments by which our duty is perswaded none more effectual than those which concern our selves there being in us all such a principle of self-love as puts us upon seeking our own advantage and of all those advantages which allure to the doing our duty none equal to that recompence of reward that eternal life which is laid up for promised to and shall be conferr'd upon us How fitly hath our Apostle here coupled together a difficult duty and an excellent motive perseverance whether in well beleeving or well-doing is no easy task the hands of our Faith and obedience like those of Moses are apt to grow heavy and have need of the stone of a Promise to bee put under them that they may bee steady to the going down of the Sun of our lives and a sweeter fuller Promise there is not in the whole book
Father accepteth it as if he had drawn it to the head and hâ— the mark It is said of Abraham by St. James that he offered his Son Isaac upon the Altar when yet not Isaac but the Ram was offered and good reason since on Abrahams part there was nothing wanting according to Gods command he rose up early in the morning sadled his Asse took Isaac his Son with him clave the wood went to the place built an Altar prepared the fire laid the wood on the Altar Isaac on the wood took the knife to slay him and had not an Angel from God prevented him he had actually slain him Where God denieth ability or oppâ—rtunity he alwayes accepts the will for the deed It is that which may more particularly bee taken notice of for the comfort of the Ministers of the Gospel who sincerely indeavouring the conversion of Sinners though they prove not successeful shall be looked upon by God as if they were A Pilot saith Quintilian cannot be denied his lawful plea though the ship miscarry whilest he holdeth the helm aright and sayleth by the Compass nor shall hee who carefully steereth the course of his Ministry by the compass of Gods Word bee found guilty though the ship whereof he is Pilot sink into perdition that promise in the Book of Daâ—iâ—l They that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmaâ—â—nt and they that turn many to righteousnesse as the stars for ever and ever is probably to be understood in the first clause of all the godly who are most truly wise and in the second of the Prophets of God who are said to turn many to righteousnesse even when perhaps they doe not turn any in respect of their cordial desires and earnest labours as here false Prophets and Teachers are charged to seduce them whom yet they did not seduce because of their design and indeavour 3 The last and chief thing considerable in this part of the text is the what the act in that word seduce indeed venerable Bede by these Seducers understands all those who by fair or foul means draw men to any evil and thereby hinder them from partaking the promise of eternal life mentioned in the former verse but I rather with the stream of Interpreters expound these Seducers to bee the Heretical Antichrists spoken of before though in the handling I shall reflect on all that seduce to any evil The Greek word here used most properly belongs to Travellers when they wander out of the way from thence it is applied in the first place to erring which is a wandring from the way of truth so in that of St. James Doe not erre my beloved brethren and in the next to seducers which is a causing others to erre so here and many other places indeed Aretius on the text taketh in both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id est qui errant alios in errorem trahunt them that seduce that is them who erre themselves and draw others into it That which would here bee observed is the evil temper of Hereticks who having espoused an error are very solicitous to be get children by causing others to erre for this cause they are compared by St. Jude to wandring starres by which we are not to understand the Planets in the Heaven which are so called because by reason of their various motions they seem in the eye of the vulgar to wander but the fiery Meteors in the air which are called Starres for that resemblance they have to Starres in outward appearance which being hurried up and down by the wind themselves doe oft-times misguide the unwary Traveller into Boggs and Fens thus having before borrowed a Metaphor from the Air resembling these false Teachers to Clouds without rain for their vain-glorious boasting from the Earth comparing them to withered Trees for their barren conversations from the Water resembling them to the raging waves of the Sea for their furious cruelty so taking in all the Elements he borroweth a Metaphor from the Fire comparing them to wandring starres or meteors because of their mischievous mis-leading for as these especially the Ignes fatui as they are called foolish Fires being carried up and down by the Wind have themselves an uncertain motion and mis-guide the Traveller into a wrong path so did those Hereticks having themselves forsaken the right way entice others to follow them in which respect St. Paul saith of these Seducers that they wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Nor is this lesse observable in other sorts of sinners Jeroboam having set up Calves at Dan and Bethel ingageth the people to worship them Absolom having a rebellious design against his King and Father David attempts to steal away the hearts of the People from him The Harlot resolving to prostitute herself goeth forth to inveagle the next young man shee meets to her wanton imbraces and those bloody miscreants call upon others saying Come let us lye in wait for blood Thus there is in wicked men a kinde of itching desire to make others as bad as themselves and perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase in the Prophet They draw iniquity to wit by drawing others to iniquity Indeed here in they follow the suggestion of that Prince of darkness for as it was Christs charge to Peter Being converted strengthen thy brethren so it is the Devils to his Agents Being perverted pervert thy Bâ—ethren nay hereby it is they do not only obey the Command but imitate that pattern of their Father the Devil who not standing in the truth with too happy or rather unhappy a successe endeavoured mans fall that as hee with his evil Angels were thrown out of Heaven so Adam with his Posterity might bee cast out of an earthly and kept out of â—n heavenly Paradise And now I would to God all Hercticks would consider how great an evill this is to bee a seducer It is bad to bee an actor of evil our selves but far worse to be an inticer It is bad to bee seduced by but much worse to bee a seducer of others wee seldome finde Jeroboam the Son of Nebat mentioned but with this mark That made Israel to sin no doubt for his greater infamy When Elimas indeavoureth to turn away the Deputy from the Faith St. Paul is inraged with an holy zeal and in him giveth every Seducer his due brand Thou full of all subtilty and mischief childe of the devil and enemy of â—ll righteousnesse Wee are not able to answer for our own sins wee had not need contract upon us the guilt of others wee cannot pay our own scores there is no reason for us to make others debts ours God knoweth we have sinnes enough as so many Sons of our own why should we adopt others yet so doth the Seducer whilest without timely repentance hee must give an account for all those souls which hee hath either in design or effect seduced
either to errour of Doctrin or evil of manners and surely if they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Sun in Heaven they who turn many from it to errour and wickedness shall burn as coals in Hell But I fear seducing Hereticks whilest they have open mouths and nâ—mble tongues to the perverting of others have their ears heavy nay closed lest they should bee converted themselves and therefore though I shall not cease to pray for I shall forbear any longer to speak to them The Improvement that should be made of this doctrin by the godly and Orthodox is 1 That wee take heed of going amongst or conversing with Hereticks lest wee be seduced by them Indeed it were ground enough of abstaining their society lest wee should bee thought such but much more lest we should prove such This Holy Apostle would not stay in the bath with that Arch-heretick Cerinthus out of a just indignation against him we should not frequent the company of such out of a wise circumspection in reference to our selves The Orthodox hearers of Athanasius forsook the Church when Lucius the Arrian Bishop came to Preach both the private society and more publique meetings of Hereticks should bee avoided by us it is ill coming within the breath of such rotten persons There is not more danger of being burned by comming too neer the fire of being defiled by touching pitch or dirt and of being infected by comming neer one that is sick of the plague than of being seduced by hearkning to and having familiarity with Hereticks It is that indeed which may bee extended and I would to God were observed as a general rule in regard of all wicked company Come out from among her my people saith God concerning Babylon lest thou bee partaker of her sins Depart from me you evil doers saith David for I will keep the Commandements of my God Wicked men will strive to make us like themselves nor have wee any promise of assistance against their inticements if wee needlesly associate with them The Psalmist saith Blessed is the man that walketh not after the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners Indeed he that would not walk in the wickeds counsel must not stand in his way lest if the wicked finde him in his way hee entice him to go along with him 2 That they obliquely imitate these seducers in striving to make others as sound in the faith and conscientious in their lives as themselves why should and yet how often is it so the Devils instruments be more forward than Christs Servants his messengers more active than Christs Ministers Did Heliogabalus take care to make his Son like himself luxurious and shall not religious Parents endeavour that their children may serve the Lord did the Pharisees compass Sea and Land to make a Proselite and shall not Christs Apostles do as much to make Christians Are the Wolves ranging up and down to worry and shall not the Shepheards bee watchful to preserve the sheep Are Hereticks industrious to seduce from and shall not the Orthodox be solicitous to reduce to the truth God forbid Oh let the heavenly stars as readily give forth their light to guide the people into the way of Truth and Peace as those fiery meteors are to lead them into the bogs and ditches of sin and errours Them that seduce you But this is not all that our Apostle intends by this expression The word here rendred seduce is elsewhere in this Epistle yea generally through the New Testament translated deceive and accordingly Planus which is derived from it is used by the Latine Poet to signify an Impostor now decipimur specie recti wee are deceived by specious pretences and accordingly such a kinde of seducing which is by making us beleeve wee are in the right when we are in the wrong way is that which is here meant It lets us see what is the cunning of Heretical seducers St. Paul saith of them that by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple like the Hyaena which when shee intends to devour feigneth a mans voice St. Austin observeth that the Devil seeing his Temples forsaken Altars demolished and Oracles silenced by Christs comming into the world to make a new supply of his Kingdome stirred up certain Hereticks of whom Christ himself foretold and whom no doubt our Apostle here meaneth qui sub vocabulo Christianae doctrinae resisterent Christianae who under the name of Christian doctrin should oppose Christianity like Pyrates who hang out their colours whom they mean to surprize Indeed it hath ever been the practice of false Teachers to lead into errour by a pretext of truth like those to use Irenaeus his comparison who give lime mixed with water instead of milk deceiving by the similitude of the colour herein as St. Paul observeth learning of their Master the Devil who though the Prince of Darkness oft times transformeth himself into an Angel of Light The truth is as the forementioned Father observeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 errour loveth not to appear naked as being foul and ugly no wonder if she cover her self with borrowed robes that she may be the more amiable It will not I suppose bee a digression from the Text nor losse of time to inquire into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use St. Pauls language sleights and methods of errour whereby these Seducers lye in wait to deceive and these wee shall finde to bee of many sorts Hereticks Proteus like make use of several shapes under which they delude many In particular we my observe them seducing by the mixtur of some truths the Promise of much Liberty the Plea of long Tradition and the shew of glorious Miracles under the veil of an outside religion the vernish of humane reason the colour of divine Revelation the glosse of sacred Scripture the name of the true Church 1 A mixture of truth with errour is an usual trick of these impostours herein doing like those who put off lead or brass in Coines with the mingling of silver or who convey poyson in milk or some such wholesome food This St. Gregory took notice of when hee saith of Hereticks miscent recta perversis ut ostendendo bona auditores ad se pertrahant et exhibendo mala latenti peste corrumpant They joyn right Doctrines with perverse that by an open publication of the one they may secretly instil the other even these Antichrists did acknowledge some truth Preaching a Christ that came from heaven but withall denying Jesus to be the Christ 2 A Promise of Liberty is another cheat of these Jugglers as well knowing how suitable liberty is to mans corrupt nature Hereticks how rigid soever they may bee upon design in their personal Practice yet are commonly libertines in their doctrin indulging to their followers a lawlesse licentiousnesse This St. Peter
things are not taught simultaneously but successively fully but gradually the Disciples themselves were taught by degrees and did not know all things at first nay indeed not exactly at the last it is but a partial knowledge the best have of these all things but yet all those things which conduce to the strengthening us against error and the guiding us in the way of truth are in some though not the same measure taught by this Unction 2 The chief thing here to be discussed is the quality of the act what kind of teaching it is that is here attributed to the Spirit whereof all Christians participate For the better understanding hereof take notice of a double distinction 1 The teaching of this unction is either extraordinary or ordinary that peculiar to some this common to all Christians in reference to the extraordinary teaching it is that St. Gregory saith excellently Ungit Spiritus iste sanctus Citharaedum Psalmistam facit ungit pastorem Prophetam facit ungit Piscatorem praedicatorem facit ungit persecutorem doctorem gentium facit ungit publicanum facit Evangelistam the annoynting of this holy Spirit maketh an Harper so was David a Psalmist a Shepherd so was Amos a Prophet a Fisher-man so was St. Peter a Fisher of men by preaching a Publican so was St. Matthew an Evangelist finally a Persecutor so was St. Paul a Teacher of the Gentiles But it is the ordinary not that peculiar and extraordinary way of teaching which is here intended 2 The ordinary teaching of the Spirit is either external or internal and both these are no doubt included 1 The outward teaching of the Spirit is by the Ministry of the Word and preaching of the Gospel which is contained in the holy Scriptures look as the holy Writings were at first inspired by the Holy Ghost so by them he still teacheth his Church Accordingly it is that all saving truths were dictated by the Spirit to the Pen-men and are fully faithfully delineated in sacred Writ It is a form of sound words every way compleat explicating as Gregory the great saith all the Divine mysteries of Religion and delivering all precepts for Moral practice Quibus quidem duabus partibus omnis nostrae salutis faelicitatis ratio continetur in which two consists the whole doctrine of attaining true happinesse and therefore in this respect this of the Apostle is verified The annoynting teacheth us of all things to wit in the external ministration of the Word 2 Besides this outward there is an inward teaching which the Spirit vouchsafeth to the Church and every true member of it and is here principally aymed at This is that teaching which being the secret work of Gods Spirit is not so visibly discernable the more things are abstracted from sense the more mysterious they are no wonder if it be difficult to apprehend what this teaching is which according to St. Gregory is Allocutio intimae inspirationis an inward inspiration or Spiritual allocution It is a Question much controverted in the Schools how the Angels being Spiritual substances impart their conceptions to one another and surely it is much more hard to know how the Spirit imparts his Divine learning to the soul even they who are thus taught are sure of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is but are not able to unfold the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how it is so And yet that wee may in some measure apprehend what we cannot fully conceive I shall in a few words acquaint you with that notion of this teaching which the Scripture is pleased to give us and accordingly if you ask what this inward teaching is whereof the Apostle speaketh I shall return the answer in the words of the Prophet Jeremy or rather God by the Prophet It is the putting his Law in our inward parts and writing it in our hearts Indeed as we say in general the Scripture is the best interpreter of it self so in this particular the Prophet is the best Commentator on the Apostle and therefore that wee may more clearly understand the one it will bee needful more particularly to comment on the other and let you see what this putting this Law in our inward parts and writing it in our hearts meaneth by which wee shall the better perceive what this teaching is in reference to which I shall lay down a double conclusion 1 That which the Spirit teacheth inwardly is the same with that hee teacheth outwardly and therefore that which he is said to write in the heart of man is no other than that Law which is written in the Book of God As the minde of the Spirit in one parcel agreeth with the minde of the Spirit in another parcel of Holy Writ so the impressions of the Spirit on the soul answer to the dictates of the Spirit in the Scriptures It is very observable that Christ tells his Disciples the Spirit should bring all things to their remembrance as if the chief end of the miraculous descension of the Holy Ghost upon them were not to teach them any new doctrine but to bring to remembrance what Christ had before taught them surely then the inward teaching of this Vnction whereof all Christians participate doth not reveal any new mysteries which are not already delivered in the Word Among other resemblances the Spirits working upon the Soul is said to be a sealing and among other reasons for this because as the seal maketh no stamp upon the wax but what is answerable to that which is upon the seal so whatsoever the Spirit teacheth the heart is answerable to what it teacheth in the Word 2 The inward teaching or writing of the Spirit is the imprinting of Scripture-truths upon the soul Conceive then the soul as the paper the truths revealed in Gods Word as the Letters the Spirit of God as the Scribe and the ayl of his grace as the Inke by which there is an impression made of the letters upon the paper truths upon the soul For the more particular opening hereof know 1 That this teaching is not a naked motion but a real impression not a superficial wetting but a deep soaking Many there are to whom the Spirit vouchsafeth some taste yet never drink a full draught who have some gliding aspects but no direct beams of the Sun of righteousnesse shining on them it is one thing to hear the voyce of the Spirit speaking another to find the Pen of the Spirit writing that teaching which is here meant is such as confirmeth against error and therefore doth not glide off like water but abide like oyl slightly move but strongly work upon the soul 2 That this impression of the Spirits teaching is upon the whole soul more especially the two chief faculties of the soul the Understanding and the Will so much seemeth to be intimated by that double character of the subject the inward parts and the heart which wee finde in the Prophet as of
Copies is in the future tense of the indicative and so rendred you shall abide and in the imperative mood and rendred abide in him and accordingly it may be looked upon either as a promise or a precept according to the former it lets us see the efficiency of the School master and according to the latter the duty of the Scholar but because I finde this given as a precept in the very next verse I shall here only consider it as a promise and so a further commendation of this unction Those words you shall abide are conceived by some to be only verba sperantis words of one that hopeth well concerning them but I rather take them to be a promise assuring them of the vertue of this unction which being received by and abiding in them would enable them to abide as it had taught them The pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of the verse may be construed in a double reference either to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the thing or the person and so may be read you shall abide in it that is in the unction or you shall abide in him that is in Christ from whom you received the unction Indeed in the next verse it is manifestly belonging to the person the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being no doubt the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that shall appear but here it may very rationally bee referred to both and accordingly I shall speak a word of each 1 Even as it hath taught you you shal abide in him That which this unction chiefly teacheth is to abide in Christ suitably the Arabick readeth it as it hath taught you to abide in him and in this sense it lets us see the excellency of this School-master above all others they may teach what to doe but cannot enable to doe what they teach but this unction as it hath taught you so you shall doe it hath taught you to abide and you shall abide in him this voyce saith behind us This is the way walk in it and it withall giveth us feet to walk in that way Look as when our blessed Saviour said to Lazarus Come forth there was a power accompanying that voyce which enabled him to come forth so when this unction as it were saith to us abide in him there is grace communicated strengthning us to abide in him Very congruous to this purpose is that Discourse of St. Austin against Pelagius and Celestius Sic docet Deus eos qui secundum propositum vocati sunt simul donans quid agant scire quod sciunt agere God so teacheth those who are called according to his purpose that they both know what to doe and doe what they know whence St. Paul thus speaketh to the Thessalonians You are taught of God to love one another and that he might prove they were taught of God hee presently addeth for indeed you doe it towards all the brethren Tanquam hoc sit certissimum signum quod a Deo didiceritis si id quod didiceritis feceritis as if this were the most sure sign of being taught of God to doe what they were taught after this manner were all the called according to purpose as it is written in the Prophets taught of God but he that knoweth what he ought to doe and doth it not hath not yet learned of God according to grace but to the law not according to the Spirit but the letter and a little after bee addeth Of this manner of teaching our Lord saith Whosoever hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me he therefore that doth not come to him it is not truly said he hath heard and learned for if as hee who is the truth saith Every one who hath learned cometh he that cometh not hath not learned so that as hee presently addeth not only the power but the will is assisted by this teaching for if it had been only an ability were conferred our Lord would have said Every one that hath heard and hath learned of the Father can or may come to me but it is he cometh Ubi jam possibilitatis profectus voluntatis affectus actionis effectus est by which is intimated a câ—llation of power an affection of the will and the effect of the action Hitherto the words of St. Austine whose expressions both here and a little before in this Discourse as also St. Gregories I have the more largely rehearsed that the Doctrine of the necessity and efficacy of the Spirits grace may appear to bee no new doctrin nor shall I need to adde much more in this particular Indeed that prayer of the Spouse would not be omitted Draw me and we will run after thee whereby is intimated that when the Spirit of Christ draweth though it be not a forcible yet it is an effectual operation it is not such a drawing as maketh us goe whether we will or no but as maketh us of unwilling willing not only to goe but run the way of Gods Commandements Agreeable to which it is here not only said you may but you shall abide in him 2 Nor would the other reading bee left out even as it hath taught you you shall abide in it that is in the Doctrine which this Unction hath taught you whereby is intimated that the grace of this Unction is not only iâ—uminating but corroberating and as it teacheth us so it strengthneth us to continue in what it teacheth As oyled Paper doth not only let in the light of the Sun but beat back the violence of the Wind so doth this Unction not only enlighten its Scholars whereby they understand the truth but also enable them to withstand the opposition of errours This confirming energie of the Spirit St. Paul hath elegantly set forth by several Metaphors where hee saith Hee which est ablisheth us with you in Christ and annoynteth us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts manifestly comparing the Spirit to an earnest to a seal to an oyntment and as the earnest assureth the bargain the seal confirmeth the grant and the oyntment strengtheneth the part so doth the Spirit stablish the heart in a firm expectation of Divine promises assurance of Divine love and a stedfast adherence to Divine truth And now putting all together what great cause of gratulation and ground of consolation doth this verse afford us wee are infinitely beholding to our blessed Jesus in that hee shed his bloud for us and wee are no lesse engaged to him for giving his Spirit to us since as by the one hee purchased Salvation for us so by the other it is hee preserveth us to salvation Had not this Unction revealed the things wee are to know in order to Salvation wee must have continued ignorant but blessed bee God this Unction teacheth us of all things Though wee bee instructed in the things