in dying rising and reviving he became Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.9 Revel 5.12 And thus he is Lord in two respects First A Lord in Power and strength Power to forgive sinnes Power to quicken whom hee will Power to cleanse justifie and sanctifie Power to succor in temptations Power to raise from the dead Power to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Power to hold fast his sheepe Power to cast out the accuser of the brethren Power to put downe all his enemies and to subdue all things unto himselfe Secondly A Lord in Authoritie To judge to anoint to imploy to command whom and what hee will He onely is Lord over our persons over our faith over our consciences To him onely we must say Lord save us lest wee perish to him onely wee must say Lord what will thou have me to doe And such a Lord Christ was to his owne fore-fathers They all did eate of the same Spirituall meate and all dranke of the same Spirituall drinke even of that rock which was Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. He was the substance of the Ceremonies the Doctrine of the Prophets the accomplishment of the Promises the joy and salvation of Patriarchs and Princes the desire and expectation of all flesh The Gospell to us a History and narration and therefore delivered by the hand of witnesses to them a promise and prediction and therefore delivered by the hand of Prophets The Apostles entered into the Prophets Labours and were servants in the same common salvation these as sowers and they as reapers these as preachers of the seed hoped and they as preachers of the same seed exhibited The ancient Iewes then were not saved by bare temporall promises neither was their faith ultimately fixed upon Ceremonies or earthly things but as their preachers had the same Spirit of Christ with ours so the Doctrine which they preached the faith and obedience which they required the salvation which they foretold was the same with ours As the same Sun illightens the starres above and the earth beneath so the same Christ was the Righteousnesse and salvation both of his fore-fathers and of his seed They without us could not be made perfect that is as I conceive their faith had nothing actually extant amongst themselves to perfect it but received all its forme and accomplishment from that better thing which was provided for and exhibited unto us For the Law that is the carnall Commandement and outward Ceremonies therein prescribed made nothing no grace no person perfect but the bringing in of a better hope that is of Christ who as hee is unto us the hope of glory so hee was unto them the hope of deliverance for he alone it is by whom wee draw nigh unto God doth perfect for ever those that are sanctified Heb. 7.19 Heb. 10.14 If Christ then be our Lord wee must trust in him and depend upon him for all our present subsistence and our future expectations For he never faileth those that wait upon him He that beleeveth in him shall not bee ashamed And indeed faith is necessary to call Christ Lord. No man can call Iesus Lord but by the Spirit Because other Lords are present with us they doe with their own eye oversee and by their owne visible power order and direct us in their service But Christ is absent from our senses Though I have knowne Christ after the flesh yet henceforth saith the Apostle know I him no more Therefore to feare and honor and serve him with all fidelity to yeeld more absolute and universall obedience to his commands though absent though tenderd unto us by the Ministerie of meane and despicable persons than to the threates and Scepters of the greatest Princes to labour that not only present but absent we may bee accepted of him to doe his hardest workes of selfe-deniall of overcomming and rejecting the assaults of the World of standing out against principalities powers and spirituall wickednes of suffering and dying in his service needs must there bee faith in the hart to see him present by his Spirit to set to our seale to the truth authoritie and Majesty of all his commands to heare the Lord speaking from heaven and to finde by the secret and powerfull revelations of his Spirit out of the word to the soule evident and invincible proofes of his living by the power of God and speaking mightily in the Ministery of his Word to our consciences Therefore when the Apostle had said Wee are absent from the Lord hee presently addes We walk by faith That is we labor to yeeld all service and obedience to this our Lord though absent because by faith which giveth presence to things unseen and subsistence to things that are yet but hoped wee know that hee is and that hee is a rewarder of those that diligently seeke him And indeed though every man call him Lord yet no man doth in truth and sincerity of heart so esteeme him but those who doe in this manner serve him and by faith walke after him If I be a Master saith the Lord where is my feare Malach. 1.6 It is not every one that saith Lord Lord but hee that doth my will that trembleth at my word that laboureth in my service who declares himselfe to be mine indeed For the heart of man cannot have two Masters because which way ever it goes it goes whole and undivided Wee cannot serve Christ and any thing else which stands in Competition with him First because they are Contrary Masters one cannot bee pleased or served without the disallowance of the other The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy that is grudgeth and cannot endure that any service should be done to the Lord. For the Friendship of the World is enmitie against God Iam. 4.4 5. And therefore saith the Apostle If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him and the reason is because they are contrarie principles and have contrary Spirits and lusts and therefore must needs over-rule unto contrary services Secondly because both Masters have employments enough to take up a whole man Satan and the World have lusts to fill the whole head and heart of their most active and industrious servants for the Apostle saith that all which is in the World is lusts And the heart of man is wholy or most greedily set in him to doe that evill which it is tasked withall Eccle. 8.11 The all that is in man all his faculties all his affections the whole Compasse of his created abilities are all gone aside or turned backward there is no man no part in man that doth any good no not one Psal. 14.3.53.3 Christ likewise is a great Lord hath much more businesse than all the time or strength of his Servants can bring about Hee requireth the obedience of every thought of the heart 2 Cor. 10.5 Grace and edification and profit in all the words
more than men and by relying on him against the power and confederacies of men Esay 8.12 13. And therefore in the same argument touching the happinesse of the Saints if they suffer for righteousnesse sake or be reproched for the name of Christ Saint Peter useth in one place sanctifying of the Lord in our hearts and in another glorifying of him as termes equivalent And therefore unbeleefe is said to make God a lyar that is to dishonour him and to rob him of the glory of his truth And despaire to rob God of his mercy and to make the guilt of sinne greater than the power of God And therefore murmurers and unbeleevers are said to speake against God and to grieve him to tempt to limit him that is to call into question the glory of his power and truth Herein then consisteth another glorious effect of the Gospell of Christ that being a ministration of righteousnesse it is a glasse of that power truth mercy and fidelity of God which by faith we rest upon for the forgivenesse and subduing of sinne Thirdly another glorious end of the Gospell is to be a ministration and a law of life If the ministration of death saith the Apostle were glorious how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8. The Law alone by it selfe is towards sinners but a dead letter onely the rule according unto which a man ought to walke not any principle enabling him to walke If Moses alone should speake unto men he could onely tell them what they ought to doe hee could in no wise enable them to doe it nay further the Law hath occasionally from the sinne of man a malignant propertie in it to irritate and exasperate lust the more to beget an occasionall rage and fiercenesse in our nature As the Sunne shining on a dung-hill exhaleth noysome vapours and maketh it stinke the more But now the Gospell by the Spirit doth not onely teach but helpe too sheweth us what wee should doe and giveth us strength to doe it we doe not onely therein see the glory of God but are withall changed into the same Image even from glory to glory that is as I conceive from that allusion to a glasse the glory of the Lord shining upon the Gospell and from the Gospell shining upon our hearts doth change them into the Image of the same glory even as the glory of the Sunne shining upon a glasse and from that glasse reflecting on a wall doth therein produce a more extraordinary image of its owne light so that the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with the Poets è speculo in speculum from the glory of the Gospell which is one glasse of Gods Image there is shâ—ped the same glory in the heart which is another glasse of his Image This is that which the Apostle calleth the forming of Christ in the soule and the planting of it into the likenesse of his death and resurrection Fourthly it is a glorious Gospell in the Iudicature thereof The Spirit iâ— the Gospell doth convince not of righteousnesse onely but of Iudgement too that is the Spirit shall erect a throne in the hearts of men shall pull downe the prince of this world and dispossesse him shal enable mens owne hearts to proceed like upright Iudges with truth and with victory which are two of the principall honours of judgement against their owne lusts to censure to condemne to crucifie them though before they were as deare as their owne members to throw all their idols away as menstruous rags and to judge and revenge themselves Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with idols In that day saith the Lord every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which your owne hands have made unto you for a sin I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe After that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh Thus the government of the Gospell in the heart makes a man severe to sentence every sinne to hang up his Haman his favourite lusts to give up himselfe to the obedience of Christ and to have his conversation his trading his treasure his priviledges his freedome his fellowship in heaven as being now constituted under the gracious and peaceable government of an heavenly Prince Fifthly it is a glorious Gospell in that it was to be a continuing ministration and an Immortall seed If that which was done away saith the Apostle was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3.11 Now the Gospell is able to preserve a man blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Jesus it will not suffer a man to be shaken nor overturn'd by all the powers of darknesse there is strength enough in it to repell and wisdome to answer all the temptations and assaults of the enemies of our salvation If the world set upon us with any temptations on the right hand or on the left with disgraces persecutions discomforts exprobrations lâ—e this was the man who made God his helpe and would needs be more excellent than his neighbours the Gospel furnisheth us with sure promises and sure mercies this is answer sufficient against all the discouragements of the world I know whom I have beleeved I know that hee hath overcome the world I know that he is able to keepe that which I have committed unto him untill the last day and in the meane time the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world that is we are at an equall point of distance and defiance the world contemnes me and I am as carelesse of the world If with pleasures honours and gilded baites to draw us away from God Faith in the Gospell easily overcommeth the world for it giveth both the Promises and first-fruits of such Treasures as are infinitely more pretious and massie than all the world can affoord the very reproches of Christ how much more his Promises how infinitely more his Performances at the last are farre greater riches than the treasures of Egypt The daily sacrifice of a godly life and the daily feast of a quiet conscience put more sweetnesse into the afflictions of Christ than is in all the profits pleasures or preferments of the world being made bitter with the guilt of sinne If Satan or our owne reasonings stand up against the kingdome of Christ in us the Gospell is a store-house which can furnish us with armorie of all sorts to repell them Faith can quench firie darts the weapons of the spirit can captivate the very thoughts of the heart unto the obedience of Christ no weapon which is formed against it can prosper and every tongue which riseth up against it in judgement it shall condemn it is a staffe which can carry a man over any Jordan and can support comfort him in any shadow of death This is the honour of the Word
enriched to be stedfast unmoveable abundant in the worke of the Lord to doe his will as the Angels in heaven doe it yet in many things they faile and have daily experience of their owne defects But here is all the comfort though I am not able to doe any of my duties as I should yet Christ hath finished all his to the full and therefore though I am compassed with infirmities so that I cannot doe the things which I would yet I have a compassionate advocate with the Father who both giveth and craveth pardon for every one that prepareth his heart to seeke the Lord though he be not perfectly cleansed 1 Ioh. 2.2 2 Chron. 30.18 19. Secondly Against the pertinacie and close adherence of our corruptions which cleave as fast unto us as the very powers and faculties of our soule as heat unto fire or light unto the Sunne Yet sure we are that he who forbad the fire to burne and put blacknesse upon the face of the Sunne at midday is able likewise to remove our corruptions as farre from us as he hath removed them from his owne sight And the ground of our expectation hereof is this Christ when he was upon the earth in the forme of a servant accomplished all the Offices of suffering and obedience for us Therefore being now exalted farre above all heavens at the right hand of Majestie and glory he will much more fulfill those Offices of Power which he hath there to doe Which are by the supplies of his Spirit to purge us from sinne by the sufficiencie of his grace to strengthen us by his word to sanctifie and cleanse us and to present us to himselfe a glorious Church without spot or wrinckle He that brought from the dead the Lord Iesus and suffered not death to hold the head is able by that power and for that reason to make us perfect in every good worke to doe his will and not to suffer corruption for ever to hold the members It is the frequent argument of the Scripture Heb. 13.20 21. Col. 2.12 Eph. 1.19 20. Rom. 6.5 6. Rom. 8.11 Thirdly against all those firie darts of Satan wherby he tempteth us to despaire and to forsake our mercie If he could have held Christ under when he was in the grave then indeed our faith would have been vaine we should be yet in our sinnes 1 Cor. 15. 17. But he who himselfe suffered being tempted and overcame both the sufferings and the temptation is able to succor those that are tempted and to shew them mercie and grace to helpe in time of need Heb. 2.17 18. Heb. 4. 15 16. Lastly against death it selfe For the Accomplishment of Christs Office of redemption in his resurrection from the dead was both the Merit the Seale and the first fruits of ours 1 Cor. 15.20 22. Thirdly The sitting of Christ on the right hand of his Father noteth unto us the actuall Administration of his Kingdome Therefore that which is here said sit at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole the Apostle thus expoundeth He must raigne till he hath put all enemies vnder his feete 1 Cor. 15.25 And he therefore died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of dead and living namely by being exalted unto Gods right hand Rom. 14.9 Now this Administration of Christs Kingdome implies severall particulars First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The publication of established Lawes For that which is in this Psalme called the sending forth of the rod of Christs strength out of Sion is thus by the Prophets expounded Out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem Esai 2.3 Mich. 4.2 Secondly The conquering and subduing of subjects to himselfe by converting the hearts of men and bringing their thoughts into the obedience of his Kingdome Ministerially by the word of reconciliation and effectually by the power of his Spirit writing his Lawes in their hearts and transforming them into the image of his word from glorie to glorie Thirdly Ruling and leading those whom he hath thus converted in his way continuing unto their hearts his heavenly voice never utterly depriving them of the exciting assisting cooperating grace of his holy Spirit but by his divine power giving unto them all things which pertaine unto life and godlinesse after he had once called them by his glorious power Esai 2.2 Ioh. 10.3 4. 1 Cor. 1.4 8. Esai 30.21 1 Pet. 2.9 2 Pet. 1.3 Fourthly Protecting upholding succouring them against all temptations and discouragements By his compassion pittying them by his power and promises helping them by his care and wisedome proportioning their strength to their trials By his peace recompencing their conflicts by patience and experience establishing their hearts in the hope of deliverance Heb. 2.17 Ioh. 16.33 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 1.5 Phil. 4.7 19. Rom. 15.4 Fifthy Confounding all his enemies First Their projects holding up his Kingdome in the midst of their malice and making his truth like a tree settle the faster and like a torch shine the brighter for the shaking Secondly Their Persons Whom he doth here gall and torment by the Scepter of his word constraining them by the evidence thereof to subscribe to the Iustice of his wrath and whom he reserveth for the day of his appearing till they shall be put all under his feete In which respect he is said to stand at the right hand of God as a man of warre ready armed for the defence of his Church Act. 7.56 Fourthly the sitting of Christ on the right hand of God noteth unto us his giving of gifts and sending downe of the Holy Ghost upon men It hath been an universall custome both in the Church and elsewhere in dayes of great joy and solemnitie to give gifts and send presents unto men Thus after the wall of Ierusalem was built and the worship of God restored and the Law read and expounded by Ezra to the people after their captivitie it is said that the people did eate and drinke and send portions Nehem. 8. 10 12. The like forme was by the people of the Iewes observed in their feast of Purim Ester 9.22 And the same custome hath bin observed amongst heathen Princes upon solemne and great occasions to distribute donations and congiaries amongst the people Thus Christ in the day of his Majestie and Inauguration in that great and solemne triumph when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive he did withall give gifts unto men Eph. 4.10 Christ was notably typified in the Ark of the Testament In it were the Tables of the Law to shew that the whole Law was in Christ fulfilled and that he was the end of the Law for Righteousnesse to those that beleeve in him There was the golden pot which had Manna to signifie that heavenly and abiding nourishment which from him the Church receiveth There was the Rod of Aaron which budded Signifying either the miraculous incarnation of Christ in a Virgin or
In opinion by adulterating it with humane mixtures and superinducements teaching for Doctrines the traditions of men In affection by wishing many divine truths were razed out of the Scriptures as being manifestly contrary to those pleasures which they love rather than God In conversation by keeping downe the truth in unrighteousnesse and in those things which they know as brute beasts corrupting themselves Enmity against his Teaching by quenching the motions and resisting the evidence of his Spirit in the word refusing to heare his voyce and rejecting the counsell of God against themselves There is Enmitie against him as a Priest by undervaluing his Person Sufferings Righteousnesse or Merits And as a King Enmity to his Worship by profanesse neglecting it by idolatry communicating it by superstition corrupting it Enmity to his wayes and service by ungrounded prejudices mis-judging them as grievous unprofitable or unequall wayes and by wilfull disobedience forsaking them to walke in the wayes of our owne heart And this is a point which men should labour to trie themselves in for the enemies of Christ are not onely out of the Church but in the midst where his kingdome is set up v. 2. Esay 8.14 And indeed by how much the more dangerous it is by so much the more subtil wil Satan and a sinfull heart be to deceive it selfe therein for this is a certaine truth that men may professe and falsly beleeve that they love the Lord Iesus and yet be as reall enemies unto his Person and Kingdome as the Iewes that accused and the Heathen that crucified him Hee was set up for a signe to be spoken against for a rocke of offence and a stone of stumbling which the very builders themselves would reject False brethren amongst the Philippians there were who professed the name of Christians and yet by their sensuall walking and worldly mindednesse declared themselves to bee enemies to the crosse of Christ Phil. 3.18 19. To honour the bodies of the Saints departed with beautifull sepulchres is in it selfe a testimoniall of sincere love and inward estimation of their persons and graces and therefore the Holy Ghost hath recorded it for the perpetuall honour of Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus that they embalmed the body of Iesus and laid it in a new sepulcher Ioh. 19 38-41 yet our Saviour pronounceth a woe against the Scribes and Pharisees because they built the tombe◠of the Prophets and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous Matth. 23.29 The fault was not in the fact it selfe but in the hypocrisie of the heart in the incongruitie of their other practices and in that damned protection which by this plausible pretext of honour to the Prophets they laboured to gaine to their persons and approbation to their attempts against Christ in the mindes of the people who yet ordinarily esteemed Christ whom they persecuted a Prophet sent from God They professe If we had beene in the dayes of our Fathers wee would not have done as they did But our Saviour reproves this hypocriticall perswasion by shewing first that it was no strange thing with them to persecute Prophets but a nationall and hereditary sinne and therefore they had no reason to boast of their descent as their manner was Luke 3.8 Ioh. 8.39 or to thinke that Gods mercies were entail'd unto them since by their owne confession they were the posteritie of those that had killed the Prophets and secondly that they did fulfill the measure of their Fathers that is that which their Fathers had beene long and leasurely a doing they now did altogether in one blow for it was the same Christ whom they persecuted in his person and their fathers in his Prophets and therefore though they seemed to honour and revive the memory of those holy martyrs yet upon them should light the guilt of all the righteous bloud which had ever beene shed in the Land inasmuch as their malice was directed against that fulnesse of which all the Prophets had but a measure If by severall enemies a man be severally mangled one cuts off a foot another an hand another an arme and after all this there come one who cuts off the head and yet bestows some honourable ceremonies upon those members which the rest had abused he shall justly suffer as if he had slaine a whole man inasmuch as his malice did eminently containe in it the degrees of all the rest and that pretended honour shall be so far from compensating the injury that it shall adde thereunto an aggravation of base hypocrisie Thus as the Iewes when they thought they did honour and admire the Prophets did yet harbour in their brests that very root of fury and had that selfe-same constitution of soule which was in their fore-fathers who shed their bloud so in our dayes men may say and thinke that they love Christ and court him with much out-side and emptie service may boast that if they had lived in the dayes of those unthankfull Iewes they would not have partaked with them in so execrable a murther and yet interpretatively and at second hand shew the very same root of bitternesse and rancorous constitution of heart against him in his Spirit and ordinances which was in those men when they cried Away with him crucifie him crucifie him Many grounds there are of this grand misperswasion of the heart in its love to Christ which I will but touch upon The first is the generall acceptation and continuance which the Gospell of Christ receiveth amongst the Princes of this world who in Christian Common-wealths doe both by their owne voluntary and professed subjection and by the vigour of their publike lawes establish the same Now this is most certain that as in all other sciences there cannot be transitus à genere in genus the principles of one will not serve to beget the conclusions of another so here especially if a spirituall assent and affection be grounded upon no other than humane inducements it is most undoubtedly spurious and illegitimate That reason which the Pharisees used to disswade men from beleeving in Christ Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees beleeved on him Ioh. 7.48 is one of the principall arguments which many men have now why they doe beleeve him because the Rulers whose examples and lawes they observe more upon trust than triall doe lead them thereunto and therefore wee finde amongst the Iewes that those very men who when the Government of the whole twelve Tribes was one did all consent in an unity of religion upon the distraction of the kingdome under Ieroboam were presently likewise divided in their observance of Gods worship and they who before were zealous for the Temple at Ierusalem were after as superstitious for Dan and Bethel the Prophet giveth the reason of it They willingly walked after the commandement namely of Ieroboam Hos. 5.11 no sooner did the Prince interpose his authoritie but the people were willing to pin their opinions and practices upon his word If Omri make
they but have an exemption from his spirituall government and a dispensation to live according to their owne lusts stil no man should be more greedily desirous As Sampson met the Lion as an enemie when hee was alive but after he was slaine he went unto him as to a table there was onely terrour while he lived but honey when hee was dead so doubtlesse many men to whom the bodily presence of Christ and the mighty power and penetration of his heavenly preaching whereby hee smote sinners unto the ground and spake with such authoritie as never man spake would have beene unsufferably irkesome and full of terrour as it was unto the Scribes and Pharisees can yet now that he is out of their sight and doth not in person but onely by those who are his witnesses torment the inhabitants of the earth pretend much admiration and thankfull remembrance of that death of his which was so full of hony for all that come unto him for as particular dependencies and expectations may make a man flatter and adore the greatnesse of some living Potentate whose very image notwithstanding the same man doth professedly abominate in other tyrants of the world who are dead or upon whom he hath not the same ends so the selfe-same reason may make men in hypocriticall expressions flatter fawne upon Christ himselfe who is absent and yet hate with a perfect hatred the very image of his Spirit in the power of his Word and in the lives of his people The very Scribes and Pharisees who blasphemed his Spirit and contrived his death could yet be contented to be gainers thereby for see they confesse It is expedient for us that one die for the people Lastly a false love to Christ may be grounded upon a false conceit of love to his ordinances For as it is certaine that he who loves the Word and worship of Christ as his doth love him too who is the Author of them so it is certaine likewise that that love which is sometimes pretended unto them may indeed in them fix upon nothing but accidentall and by-respects This people saith the Lord to his Prophet come and sit before thee as my people and they heare thy words but they will not doe them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse Here is love in pretence but falshood in the heart what then was it which in the Prophet they did thus love That presently followes Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument Ezek. 33.31 32. that is it is not my will which in thy ministery they at all regard but onely those circumstantiall ornaments of gracefull action and elocution which they attend with just alike proportion of sensuall delight as an eare doth the harmony of a well tuned instrument for as a man may be much affected with the picture of his enemie if drawne by a skilfull hand and yet therein love nothing of the person but only the cunning of the workman who drew the peece So a man who hates the life and Spirit of the Word of God it selfe as being diametrically contrary to that spirit of lust and of the world which rules in him may yet be so wonderfully taken with that dexteritie of wit or delicacie of expression or variety of learning or sweetnesse of speech and action or whatsoever other perfection of nature or industry in the dispencers of that Word are most sutable to his naturall affections as that he may from thence easily cheat his owne conscience and ground a misperswasion of his love to Gods Word which yet indeed admireth nothing but the perfections of a man Nay suppose he meete not with such lenocinia to entice his affection yet the very pacification of the conscience which by a notorious neglect of Gods ordinances would haply be disquieted or the credit of bearing conformity to Ecclesiasticall orders and the established service of God in his Church or some other the like sinister respect may hold a man to such an externall faire correspondence as by a deceitfull heart may easily be misconstrued a love of Gods ordinances Nay further a man may externally glory in the priviledge of Gods oracles hee may distinctly beleeve and subscribe to the truth of them he may therin heare many things gladly and escape many pollutions of the world and yet here hence conclude no cleerer evidence of his love to Christ in his word than the unbeleeving Iews or Herod or Ahab or Simon Magus or the foolish Virgins and apostates all which have attained to some of these degrees could have done For the cleering then of this great case touching the evidence of a mans love to Christ wee must first know that this is not a flower of our owne garden for every man by nature is an enemie to Christ and his Kingdome of the Iews minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us and the reason is because the image of the old Adam which we beare is extremely contrary to the heavenly image of the second Adam unto which wee are not borne but must bee renewed And this is certaine our love is according to our likenesse he who hath not the nature and Spirit of Christ can never love him or move towards him For love is like fire congregat homogenea it carrieth things of a nature to one another Our love then unto Christ must bee of a spirituall generation and it is grounded upon two causes First upon the Proportion which is in him unto all our desires or capacities upon the evidence of that unsearchable and bottomlesse goodnesse which is in him which makes him the fairest often thousand even altogether lovely For that heart which hath a spirituall view of Christ will bee able by faith to observe more dimensions of love and sweetnesse in him than the knowledge of any creature is able to measure In all worldly things though of never so curious and delicate an extraction yet still even those hearts which swimme in them and glut upon them can easily discover more dregs than Spirits nothing was ever so exactly fitted to the soule of man wherein there was not some defect or excesse something which the heart could wish were away or something which it could desire were tempered with it But in Christ and his kingdome there is nothing unlovely For as in man the all that is is full of corruption so in Christ the all that hee is is nothing but perfection His fulnesse is the center and treasure of the soule of man and therefore that love which is therupon grounded must needs be in the soule as an universall habit and principle to facilitate every service whereby we move unto this center for love is the weight or spring of the soule which sets every facultie on worke neither are any of those commandments grievous which are obeyed in Love
when I finde Christ in his word promising and by the planting and watering of his Laborers in the vineyard making good that promise unto his Church That every branch bringing forth fruit in him shall not onely bee as Aarons Rod have his fruit preserved upon him but shall bring forth more fruit and shall have life more abundantly how can I but conclude that that word which is the Instrument of so unperishable a condition is indeed Virga virtutis a Rod of strength a Rod cut out of the tree of life it selfe Fifthly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in comforting and supporting of the faithfull as it is Virga pulchritudinis colligationis a Rod of Beauty and of Binding as it is a word which doth binde that which was broken and give unto them which mourne in Sion beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the Spirit of heavinesse as it quencheth all the firie darts and answereth all the bloudy reasonings of Satan against the soule as it is a staffe which giveth comfort and subsistence in the very vallie of the shadow of death The shadow of death is an usuall expressioÌ„ in the Scripture for all feares terrors affrightments or any dreadfull calamities either of soule or body The whole misery of our naturall condition is thereby signified Luk. 1.79 Many wayes doth the Prophet David set forth the extremities hee had been driven unto my bones are vexed and dried like a potsheard and turned into the drought of summer my couch swimmeth with teares mine eye is consumed and waxen old with griefe I am powred out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like melted wax in the mids of my bowels Thine arrowes stick fast in mee thine hand presseth me sore there is no soundnesse in my flesh my wounds stinke and are corrupt I am feeble and fore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietnesse of my heart Innumerable evils compasse mee about I am not able to looke up Fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon me and horror hath overwhelmed mee My soule is among lions I lie amongst them that are set on fire The waters are come in unto my soule I sinke in deepe mire the flouds overflow mee c. These all and the like are comprehended in that one word The shadow of death And in that it was onely the word and the Spirit of God which did support him This is my comfort in my affliction saith hee for thy word hath quickned mee When my afflictions had brought me to the very brinke and darknesse of the grave thy word revived mee againe and made me flourish Vnlesse thy Law had been my delights I should have perished in mine affliction Now then when I see a man upon whom so many heavie pressures doe meete the weight of sinne the weight of Gods heavie displeasure the weight of a wounded Spirit the weight of a decaied body the weight of skorne and temptations from Satan and the world in the mids of all this not to turne unto lying vanities not to consult with flesh and bloud nor to rely on the wisedome or helpe of man but to leane onely on this word to trust in it at all times and to cast all his expectations upon it to make it his onely Rod and staffe to comfort him in such sore extremities how can I but confesse that this word is indeed Virga virtutis a Rod of strength Lastly the Gospell of Christ is a Rod of strength in sanctifying and blessing of our Temporall things As it is Baculus Panis A staffe of bread Man liveth not by bread alone but by the word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth not by the creature but by the blessing which prepareth the creature for our use Now it is the word of God namely his promises in Christ of things concerning this life as well as that which is to come that doth sanctifie the creatures of God to those whâ— with thankfulnesse receive them The fall of man bâ—ought a pollution upon the creatures a curse upon the stone and timber of a mans house a snare upon his table a poison and bitternesse upon his meat distractions and terrors upon his bed emptinesse and vexation upon all his estate which cleaves as fast therunto as blacknesse to the skinne of an Ethiopian or sinne to the soule of man For all the creatures of God are by sinne mischievously converted into the instruments and provisions of lust The Sunne and all the glorious lights of nature but instruments to serve the pride covetousnesse adultery vanity of a lustfull eye All the delicacies which the earth aire or Sea can affoord but materials to feed the luxurie and intemperance of a lustfull body All the honors and promotions of the world but fuell to satisfie the haughtinesse and ambition of a lustfull heart That word then which can fetch out this leprosie from the creatures and put life strength and comfort into them againe must needs bee Virga virtutis a Rod of strength Secondly the Gospell and Spirit of Christ is a rod of strength in regard of his and his Churches enemies Able both to repell and to revenge all their injuries to disappoint the ends and machinations of Satan to triumph and get above the persecutions of men to get a treasure which no malice nor fury of the enemy can take away a noblenesse of minde which no insultation of the adversary can abate a security of condition and calmenesse of spirit where no worldly tempests can any more extinguish than the darknesse of a cloud or the boisterousnesse of a wind can blot out the lustre or perturbe the order of celestiall bodies a heavenly wisdome able to prevaile against the gates of hell and to stop the mouthes of every gain-sayer The Word hath ever a Readinesse to revenge disobedience as the Apostle speaks it hardens the faces of men and armes them that they may breake all those who fall upon them This power of the Word towards wicked men sheweth it selfe in many particulars First in a mighty worke of Conviction The Spirit was therefore sent into the world to convince it by the ministery of the Gospell which one word containeth the ground of the whole strength here spoken of for all which the word bringeth to passe it doth it by the conviction of the Spirit This Conviction is two-fold A Conviction unto conversion whereby the hearts of men are wonderfully over-ruled ruled by that invincible evidence of the Spirit of truth to feele acknowledge their wofull condition by reason of sinne so long as they continue in unbeleefe to take unto themselves the just shame and confusion of face which belongs unto them to give unto God the glory of his righteous and just severity if hee should destroy them and hereupon to be secondly by the terror of the Lord perswaded to count worthy of all acceptation any deliverance out of that
that it doth not onely sanctifie men but preserve their holinesse in them If it were not for the treasure of the word in the heart every little thing would easily turne a man out of his way and make him revolt from Christ againe How easily would afflictions make us mistrust Gods affection to us and so change ours unto him for this is certaine His Love to us is the originall of our love to him make us murmure repine struggle fret under his hand if in the Gospell wee did not looke upon them as the gentle corrections of a Father who loves us as the pruning and harrowing of our foules that they may bring forth more fruit Except thy Law had beene my delight I should have perished in mine affliction My affliction would have destroied me and made mee perish from the right way if it had not beene tempered and sanctified by thy Word It wrought so with that wicked king of Israel Behold this evill is of the Lord what should I waite upon the Lord any longer what profit is there to walke humbly before him or to afflict our selves before him who will not see nor take knowledge of it but continue to be our enemie still But the Gospell teacheth a mans heart to rest in God assureth it that there is hope in Israel and balme in Gilead that they which beleeve should not make haste to limit or to misconstrue God but waite for his Salvation which will ever come in that due time wherein it shall be both most acceptable and most beautifull Againe how easily would Temptations over-turne the faith of men if it were not daily supported by the Word what is the reason that the sheepe of Christ will not follow strangers nor know their voice that is will not acknowledge any force nor subscribe in their hearts to the conviction or evidence of any temptation which would draw them from God but onely because they heare and know the voice of Christ in his Gospell and feele a spirit in their owne hearts setting to its seale and bearing witnesse to that truth from whence those solicitations would seduce them The Apostle foretold the Elders of Ephesus at his solemne departure from them that grievous wolves would enter in amongst them that some of themselves would arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them And the maine remedie which the Apostle gives them against this danger was I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace which is able to build you up c. Noting that it is the Word of God which keepeth men from being drawne away with perverse disputes And the same intimation he gives them in his Epistle unto them Hee gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in waite to deceive The more richly the word of God in the love and evidence thereof doth dwell in any man and enable him to prove all things the more stedfastly will he hold that which is good and stand immoveable against the sleights and solicitations of men Againe how easily would our owne evill hearts gather a rust and unaptnesse for service over themselves if they were not daily whet and brightned upon the Word of God That onely it is which scrapeth away that leprosie and mossinesse which our soules are apt to contract out of themselves A man may lose all that hee hath wrought all the benefit of what hee hath done already and all the strength to doe any more onely by not abiding in the Doctrine of Christ. Hee onely is no doer of the Word who looketh in it as a man on a glasse and presently forgetteth the image and state of his conscience againe it is onely hee that continueth therein who is a doer of the worke and blessed in his deed He that treasureth up the Gospell in his heart and laboureth to grow rich in the knowledge thereof can never be turned quite out of his way or become an Apostate from the grace of Christ. Lastly it is a glorious Gospell in regard of those noble and majesticall endowments with which it qualifieth the soule of a Christian for there is no nobility to that of the Gospell It giveth men the highest priviledge in the world to bee called the Sonnes of God to bee kings and priests before him to be a Royall priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people a nation of priests Nothing doth so honour a land as to bee the seate of the Gospell It was the honour of the Iewes that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Therefore the Arke is called the Glory of Israel and Christ the glory of Israel and the excellency of Iacob neither is there any thing else allowed a man to glory in save onely this that hee understandeth and knoweth the Lord in his word It putteth magnanimity into the breasts of men high thoughts regall affections publike desires and attempts a kinde of heavenly ambition to doe and to gaine the greatest good The maine ends of a Christian are all high and noble The favour of God the fellowship of the Father and the Son the Grace of Christ the peace of the Church his trafficke and negotiation is for heaven his language the Dialect of heaven his order a heavenly order innumerable companies of Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect A holy man who hath the spirit of his minde raised and ennobled by the Gospell is an Agent in the same affaires and doth in his thoughts desires prayers emulations pursue the same high and heavenly ends for the advancement of the glory of Christ and demolishing the kingdome of Satan with the blessed Angels of God His desires looke no lower than a kingdome a weight of massie and most superlative exceeding glory That which other men make the utmost point even of their impudent and immodest hopes the secular favours and dignities of the world these put lowest under their feet but their wings the higher and more aspiring affections of their soule are directed onely unto heaven and heavenly things They no sooner are placed in the body of Christ but they have publike services some to preach some to defend all to pray to practise to adorne the profession they have under-taken For indeede every Christian hath his talent given him his service injoyn'd him The Gospell is a Depositum a publike Treasure committed to the keeping of every Christian each man having as it were a severall key of the Church a severall trust for the honour of this kingdome deliver'd unto him As in the solemne Coronation of the Prince every Peere of the Realme hath his station about the Throne and with the touch of his hand upon the roiall Crowne declareth the personall
duty of that honour which hee is called unto namely to hold on the Crowne on the head of his Soveraigne to make it the maine end of his greatnesse to study and by all meanes endeavour the establishment of his Princes Throne so every Christian as soone as he hath the honour to be called unto the kingdome and presence of Christ hath immediately no meaner a depositum committed to his care than the very Throne and Crowne of his Saviour than the publike honour peace victorie and stability of his masters kingdome The Gospell is committed to the custody of the Bishops and Pastors of the Church to preach it They are as it were the Heralds and Fore-runners of Christ to prepare his way into the soules of men To the custody of the Princes and Judges of the earth to defend it to be a guard about the person and truth of Christ to command the obedience and to encourage the teaching of it The Gospell is the Law of Christs Throne and the princes of the world are the lions about his Throne set there to watch and guard it against the malice of enemies And therefore it is recorded for the honour of David that he set in order the courses of the Priests and appointed them their formes and vicissitudes of Service Of Salomon that he built adorned and dedicated a Temple for Gods solemne worship Of Iosiah that hee made the people to serve the Lord their God Of Ezekiah that he restored the service and repaired the Temple of God that he spake comfortably to the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord that hee proclaimed a solemne passeover that hee ordered the courses of the Priests and Levites that hee gave commandement concerning the portion of their due maintenance that they might be encouraged in the Law of the Lord a patterne worthy the admiration and imitation of all Christian princes in spight of the sacrilegious doctrine of those men who would rob them of that power and office which God hath given them for the establishment of his Gospell and it was imitated by the first Christian Prince that ever the world had Lastly the Gospell is committed to the keeping of every Christian to practise it to adorne it to pray for it to be valiant and couragious in his place and station for the truth of it And for a man to neglect these duties is to betray and dishonour the Kingdome of Christ and to degenerate from that high and publike condition in which God had placed him Againe it putteth a spirit of Fortitude and boldnesse into the hearts of men Boldnesse to withstand the corruptions of the times to walke contrary to the courses of the world to out-face the sinnes and the scornes of men to be valiant for a despised truth or power of religion not to be ashamed of a persecuted profession to spread out contra torrentem brachia to stand alone against the power and credit of a prevailing faction as Paul against the contradiction of the Iewes and Peter and Iohn against a Synode of Pharises and those invincible champions of Christ Athanasius against the power of Constantius the frequent synodicall conventions of countenanced heretiks and the generall deluge of Arrianisme in the world Ambrose against the wrath and terrour of the emperour of the world to whom having imbrued his hands in much innocent bloud that holy Father durst not deliver the bloud of Christ. Chrysostome against the pride and persecution of the Empresse Eudoxa Luther against the mistresse of fornications the princesse of the earth and as himselfe professed if it had beene possible against a whole citty full of divels The Christians of all ages against the fire fury and arts of torment executed by the bloudy persecutors of the Church Nay further the Gospell giveth boldnesse against that universall fire which shall melt the Elements and shrivell up the heavens like a role of parchment Herein saith the Apostle is our love made perfect that we may have boldnesse in the day of judgement because as he is so we are in this world that is we have his image in us and his love shed abroad in our hearts and therefore wee are able to assure our hearts before him and to have confidence towards him Now he who hath boldnesse to stand before God to dwell with consuming fire and with everlasting burnings who can get the Lord on his right hand and put on the Lord Jesus though he bee not out of the reach or beyond the blow yet is hee above the injurie of the malice of men they may kill but they can never overcome him I am he that comforteth you who art thou saith the Lord that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and forgettest the Lord thy Maker c What an invincible courage was that of Eliah which retorted the slander of Ahab upon his owne face I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house And that of Micaiah against the base request of a flattering Courtier who thought God to bee such an one as himselfe that would magnifie and cry up the ends of a wicked king As the Lord liveth what the Lord saith unto me that will I speake And that of Amos against the unworthy instructions of Amaziah the priest of Bethel Thou saiest prophesie not against Israel and drop not thy words against the house of Isaac therefore thus saith the Lord Thy wife shall be an harlot in the citie and thy sonnes and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and thy land shall be divided by line and thou shalt dye in a polluted land and Israel shall surely goe into captivitie forth of his land And that of Ieremiah who boldly gave the lye to Irijah the captaine of the ward It is false I fall not away to the Caldeans The time would faile if I should speake of the unbended constancy or as the Gentiles stiled it obstinacie of Ignatius Polycarp Iustin Cyprian Pionius Sabina Maximus as those infinite armies of holy martyrs who posed the inventions tyred out the cruelties withstood the flatteries and with one word Christiani sumus overcame all the tyrannies quenched the fire and stopped the mouthes of their proudest persecutors Againe the Gospell putteth a kinde of lustre and terrour on the faces of those in whom it raigneth and maketh them as the Law did Moses to shine as lights in the world and to bee more excellent than their neighbours worketh in others towards them a dread and awfulnesse Though Ieremie were a prisoner cast-into the dungeon and in such extremity as he was there likely to perish yet such a majestie and honor did God even then put upon him and that in the thoughts of the king himselfe that he could not be in quiet till hee consulted with him about the will of the Lord and by his many conferences with him made it plainely appeare that hee stood in
interpretatively in the constitution and preparation of heart the violation of all because they are all grounded upon the same divine authority and directed unto the same saving ends and therefore wee ought not to picke and choose either in the preaching or practising thereof Thirdly we are to answere for the bloud of the people if wee prevaricate if wee let their sinnes alone they will have a double edge to kill them and us both like the mutuall embracements of two in a river which is the meanes to drowne them both Speake unto them all that I command thee be not dismaied at their faces saith the Lord to his Prophet lest I confound thee before them If thou warne not the wicked from his wicked way that hee may live he shall dye in his wickednesse thy bashfulnesse shall doe him no good but his bloud will I require at thy hands Is it at all congruous that men should have boldnesse enough to declare their sinnes to speake them to proclaime them to weare them to glorie in them and that those officers who are sent for no other businesse but in the name and authority of Almighty God to fight against the corruptions of the world should in the meane time hang downe the head and be tongue-tied that men should have more boldnesse to destroy themselves and to doe Satans works than we to save them or to serve God Fourthly we are to speake in the person of Christ and in the vertue of his Spirit We must speake as the Oracles of God and with his words as if he himselfe did by us speake unto the people We must give manifestation of Christ speaking by us that men may be convinc'd that God is in us of a truth and that we are full of power by his spirit that his spirit setteth to his seale to authorize our commission and to countenance our ministery and therefore we must use judgement and might that is spirituall discretion and inflexible constancy against the sinnes of men for these two are contrary to the two grand props of Satans kingdome which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his craftinesse and his weapons of power for where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty his spirit will not be straightned neither will the Lord keepe silence hee that speaketh by the spirit of Christ must speake though not in equality which is impossible yet in some similitude and proportion as he spake that is as those that have Authority and power committed to them for the edification of the Church Lastly a partiall unsearching and unreproving Minister is one of Gods curses and scourges against a place the forerunner of a finall and fearefull visitation The dayes of visitation and recompence come saith the Lord. The Prophet is a foole the spirituall man is mad for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred If a man walking in the spirit and falshood that is professing the worke of a spirituall man and yet betraying his office or in a false and lying spirit prophesying of wine and strong drinke that is cherishing and encouraging sensuall livers in their pernitious courses he shall even be the prophet of this people And therefore when the Lord will punish with an extreme revenge the rebellion of a people against his Gospell who judge themselves unworthy of so great a salvation hee either removeth their Candlesticke and taketh it away from them or else sealeth up the mouth of his Prophets that they may bee dumbe and reprove them no longer and that they may not bee purged any more from their filthinesse or else infatuates their Prophets and suffereth Satan to seduce them and to be a lying Spirit in their mouthes that he may destroy them as wee see in the ruine of Ahab and in the captivity of Iudah Againe as the Ministers of the Gospell must use liberty so must they likewise use sinceritie in the dispensation thereof because it is a glorious Gospell This likewise is the Apostles inference for having spent a whole chapter in this one argument of the glory of the Gospell he presently concludeth Therefore seeing we have this ministery that is the dispensation of such a Gospell committed unto us wee faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonestie that is as I conceive the arts of dawbing and palliating and covering over uncleane courses with plausible reasonings and fleshly apologies which is the use of false prophets not walking in craftinesse that is not using humane sleights or cogging to carry men about with every wind of false doctrine as sinners are very willing to be deceived and love to have it as false prophets say it is nor handling the Word of God deceitfully that is falsifying and adulterating it with corrupt glosses and so tempering it to the palat of sinners that the working searching vertue thereof whereby of it selfe it is apt to purge out and wrestle with the lusts of men may be deaded and so it may well consist with the power of lusts still as Physitians use so to qualifie and allay poison by other correctives and crosse ingredients that it shall serve as an instrument to strengthen us not extinguish life or as immodest Poets may so tamper with the chast expressions of Virgil or Homer as by them both to notifie and in corrupt minds to kindle uncleane lustings but by manifestation of the truth that is by such spirituall and perspicuous demonstrations as under which there cannot subesse falsum there can no falsitie nor deceit lurke commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God that is working not the fancies or humours or fleshly conceits of men which alwayes take the part of sinne but their very consciences which alwayes is on Gods side to beare witnesse unto the truth which wee speake to receive it not as the wit or learning of a man but as the Word and wisdome of God to acknowledge the conviction the judicature the penetration thereof and so to fal down upon their faces and to glorifie God and report that he is in us of a truth and all this in the sight of God that is so handling the Word as that wee may please and approve our selves to his eye whose servants we are and whose worke wee doe This is that which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vncorruptnesse gravitie sinceritie soundnesse of doctrine such as the very adversaries themselves shall not be able to picke quarrels withall or to speake against we must not then make account to adorne the Gospell with our owne inventions or with superstructions of humane wit and fancie though these things may to fleshly reason seeme full of beautie yet indeed they are but like the mingling of glasse-beads with a chaine of diamonds or of lime with pure and generous wine they are indeed but
these considerations we should labor to walke worthy of so glorious a Gospell and of so great a salvation Thus have we at large spoken of the Rod of Christs strength as it is Insigne regium or Sceptrum majestatis an Ensigne and Rod of Majestie we are now to speake a little of it as it is Pedum pastorale an episcopall Rod which denoteth much heedfulnesse and tender care This is the Precept which the Apostle giveth unto the Pastors of the Church that they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take speciall heed to all the flocke over which the holy Ghost had made them overseers And the Apostle againe reckoneth Vigilancie or care over the flocke amongst the principall characters of a bishop and hee professeth of himselfe that there did daily lye upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Care of all the Churches And this consideration affordeth us another note out of the words namely That Christ in the ministerie of his Gospell and dispensation of his spirit is full of care and tendernesse towards his Church This Christ maketh one maine point of opposition betweene himselfe and hirelings that these Care not for the flock but suffer the Woolfe to come and to scatter them while they fly away whereas hee keepeth them that none may bee lost and prayeth unto the Father to keepe them through his owne name The Lord committed the Church unto Christ as their Head gave them into his hands not as an ordinary gift wherein he did relinquish his owne interest in them or care of them for hee careth for them still but as a blessed depositum entrusted them with him as the choicest of his Iewels as the most pretious casket amongst all the treasures of the Creation that he should polish preserve present them faultlesse and without spot before the presence of his glory at the last day And for this purpose hee gave him a Commandement of the greatest care and tendernesse that ever the world knew that hee should lay downe his life for his sheepe and should lose nothing of all that was given him but should raise it up at the last day So that now want of care or compassion of Christ towards his Church would be an argument of unfaithfulnesse If he had not been a mercifull high priest neither could he have beene faithfull to him that appointed him for he was appointed to bee mercifull and was by the Spirit of God filled with most tender affections and qualified with an heart fuller of compassion than the sea is of waters that he might commiserate the distresses of his people and take care of their salvations Notably doth this Care of Christ shew it selfe First in the apportioning and measuring forth to every oâ—e his due dimensum and in the midst of those infinite occasions and exigencies of his severall members in providing such particular passages of his Word as may be thereunto most exactly sutable for this sheweth that his Care reacheth unto particular men It is the dutie of a faithfull bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make such a difference betweene men and so to divide or distribute the word aright as that every one may have the portion which is due unto him some are but Lambes in Christs flocke young tender weake easily offended or affrighted others sheepe growne up to more strength and maturity some in his garner are but Cummin seede others Fitches and some harder corne some can but beare a little Rod others a greater staffe or flaile and some the pressure of a Cart wheele that which doth but cleanse some would batter and breake others into pieces some are great with young in the pangs of a loaded conscience in the travaile under some sore affliction or in the throwes of a bitter repentance as it were in fits of breeding or new forming of Christ in their soule and these hee leadeth with a gentle hand Others are as it were new borne past their paines but yet very tender weake and fearefull and these he gathers with his arme and carries in his bosome shewes them that his care doth not onely reach unto the least of his kingdome but that his compassions are most enlarged to those that are too weake to helpe themselves that hee hath brests of consolation to satisfie and delight with abundance the smallest infant of his kingdome Some are broken-hearted and those he bindeth some are captives to those hee proclaimeth liberty some are mourners in Sion and for them he hath beautie and oile of joy and garments of praise some are bruized reedes whom every curse or commination is able to crush and some are smoaking flax whom every temptation is able to discourage and yet even these doth hee so carefully tend and furnish with such proportionable supplies of his Spirit of grace as makes that seede and sparkle of holinesse which hee began in them get up above all their owne feares or their enemies machinations and grow from a judgement of truth and sincerity as it is called by the Prophet unto a judgement of victory and perfection as it is turned by the Evangelist In one word some are strong and others are weake the strong hee feedeth the weake he cureth the strong hee confirmeth the weake hee restoreth hee hath trials for the strong to exercise their graces and hee hath cordials for the weake to strengthen theirs According unto the severall estates and unto the secret demands of each members condition so doth the Care of Christ severally shew it selfe towards the same in his Word there is provision for any want medicine for any disease comforts for any distresse promises for any faith answeres to any doubt directions in any difficulty weapons against any temptation preservatives against any sinne restoratives against lapse garments to cover my nakednesse meate to satisfie my hunger physicke to cure my diseases armour to protect my person a treasure to provide for my posteritie If I am rich I have there the wisedome of God to instruct me and if I am poore I have there the obligations of God to enrich mee If I am honourable I have there the sight of my sins to make me vile and rules of moderation to make me humble If I am of low degree I have there the Communion and consanguinitie of Christ the participation of the divine nature the adoption of God the Father to make me noble If I am learned I have there a law of charitie to order it unto edification and if I am unlearned I have there a Spirit which searcheth the deepe things of God which can give wisedome unto the simple which can reveale secrets unto babes which can command light to shine out of darknes which can give the light of the knowledge of the glory fulnesse and love of God in the face of Iesus Christ which can make me though ignorant of all other things to learne Christ in whom there is more
first workes lest so excellent a priviledge be removed from us There is no wrath that is wrath to the uttermost but that which depriveth a people of the Gospell and taketh away their Candlesticke from them Thirdly it notes unto us the difference of the two covenants the one out of Sinai and the other out of Sion At first the Law proceeded out of Sinai wherein though the end were merciful yet the manner was terrible and therfore the effect nothing but bondage but after it was sent out of Sion with the Spirit of grace and adoption observed with cheerefulnesse and libertie as by those that know God will spare them as a man spareth his childe that serveth him for in my bond-slave I looke to the perfection of the worke but in my son to the affection and disposition of the heart Lastly it notes unto us that the seat of saving truth the custodie of the promises and Gospell of salvation doth still belong unto Sion to the Church of God Out of the Church there is no Gospell and therefore out of the Church there is no salvation The Apostle saith of children which are borne out of the Church that they are uncleane unto the Church above all congregations of men belongeth this excellent priviledge to be the Treasurer of the riches of Christ and to hold forth the Word of life unto men In which sense the Apostle saith that it is the pillar and the ground of truth not that which giveth being to the Church for the Law must not faile nor perish nor that which giveth authoritie imposeth a sense canonizeth and maketh authenticall is a judge or absolute determiner of the truth for in that sense the Church is held up by the Word and not that by it for the Church is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles namely upon that fundamentall doctrine which they have laid But the Church is the depositary of the truth that orbe out of which this glorious light shines forth unto it appertaines the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Her office and her honour it is to be the Candlesticke which holdeth up the Word of truth to set to her seale unto the evidence and excellencie thereof by her ministery authority consent and countenance to conciliate respect thereunto in the mindes of aliens and to confirme it in the mindes of beleevers to fasten the nailes and points thereof like masters of the assemblies under one principall Shepherd which is Christ in the hearts of men not to dishonour it by their usurped authority above it for by that meanes all controversies of religions are turned not into contentions of doctrine that that may be rested in which doth appeare to have in it most intrinsecall majestie spiritualnesse and evidence but into factions and emulations of men that that sect may bee rested in who can with most impudence and ostentation arrogate an usurped authority to themselves but by their willing submission thereunto to credit it in the affections of men and to establish others in the love and obedience thereunto for the authoritie of the Church is not Autoritas jurisdictionis an authority of jurisdiction above the Scriptures but onely Autoritas muneris an authoritie of dispensation and of trust to proclaime exhibite present the truth of God unto the people to point to the starre which is directed unto by the finger but is seene by the evidence of its owne light To hold forth as a pasquill or pillar that Law and Proclamation of Christ the contents whereof we discover out of it selfe In one word that place sheweth the duty of the Church to preserve knowledge and to shew forth the truth of sacred Scriptures out of themselves but not any infallibilitie in it selfe or authority over others to binde their consciences to assent unto such expositions of Scripture as derive not their evidence from the harmonie and analogie of the Scriptures themselves but only from Ipse dixit because the Church hath spoken it To conclude this point we are to note for the cleere understanding of the office of the Church concerning the holy Scriptures First that some things therein are Hard to be understood as Saint Peter speakes either by reason of their allegoricall and figurative expressions as the visions of Ezekiel Daniel Zechary c. or by reason of the obscure and strange connexion of one part with another or of the dependance thereof upon forren learning or the like but then we must note that the knowledge of such things as these are not of absolute necessitie unto salvation for though the perverting of hard places be damnable as Saint Peter telleth us yet that ignorance of them which groweth out of their owne obscurity and not out of our neglect is not damnable Secondly some things have evidence enough in the termes that expresse them but yet are Hard to be beleeved by reason of the supernaturall quality of them As when we say that Christ was the Sonne of a Virgin or that he died and rose againe there is no difficultie in the sense of these things it is easily understood what he that affirmeth them doth meane by them All the difficultie is to bring the minde to give assent unto them Thirdly some things though easie in their sense to be understood and it may be easie likewise in their nature to be beleeved are yet Hard to be obeyed and practised as repentance and forsaking of sinne c. Now according unto these differences wee may conceive of the office and power which the Church hath in matters of holy Scripture First for hard places in regard of the sense and meaning of the place it is the dutie of the Church to open them to Gods people with modestie and moderation and therein God alloweth the learned a Christian libertie with submission of their opinions alwayes to the spirits of the Prophets so long as they doe therein nothing contrary to the Analogie of faith to the generall peace and unity of the Church to the rules of charitie pietie loyaltie and sobrietie to abound in their owne sense and to declare for the further edifying of the Church what they conceive to be in such difficult places principally intended And further than this no Church nor person can goe for if unto any man or chaire there were annexed an infallible spirit enabling him to give such a cleere and indubitate exposition of all holy Scriptures as should leave no inevidence in the Text nor hesitancie in the mindes of men how comes it to passe that hitherto so many difficulties remaine wherein even our Adversaries amongst themselves doe give severall conjectures and explications and how can that man to whom so excellent a gift of infallibilitie is bestowed cleere himselfe of envie and abuse of the grace of God who maketh not use thereof to expound the Scriptures
and to compose those differences thereabouts which doe so much perplex the world Secondly for those places which in their meaning are easie to be understood but in their excellent and high nature hard to be beleeved as all Articles of faith and things of absolute necessitie are in their termes perspicuous but in their heavenly nature unevident unto humane reason the office of the Church is not to binde mens consciences to beleeve these truths upon her authoritie for wee have not dominion over the faith of men neither are we lords in Christs flock and how shal any scrupulous minde which is desirous to boult things to the bran be secure of the power which the Church in this case arrogates or have any certaintie that this society of men must be beleeved in their religion who will allow the same honor to no society of men but thēselves But in this case the office of the Church is both to labour by al good means to evidence the credibility of the things which are to be beleeved to discover unto men those essentiall and intimate beauties of the Gospel which to spirituall mindes and hearts raised to such a proportionable pitch of capacitie as are suteable to the excellency of their natures are apt to evidence and notifie themselves and also to labour to take men off from dependance on their owne reason or corrupted judgement to worke in their heart an experience of the Spirit of grace and an obedience to those holy truths which they already assent unto with which preparations and perswasions the heart being possessed will in due time come to observe more cleerely by that spirituall eye the evidence of those things which were at first so difficult so then the Act of the Church is in matters of faith an act of introduction and guidance but that which begetteth the infallible and unquestionable assent of faith is that spirituall taste relish and experience of the heavenly sweetnesse of divine doctrine which by the ministery of the Church accompanied with the speciall concurrence of almighty God therewithall is wrought in the heart for it is only the Spirit of God which writeth the Law in mens hearts which searcheth the things of God and which maketh us to know them Thirdly for those places which are difficult rather to be obeyed than to be understood The worke of the Church is to enforce upon the conscience the necessitie of them to perswade rebuke exhort encourage with all authority Which should teach us all to love the Church of Christ and to pray for the peace and prosperity of the walls of Sion for the purity spiritualnesse power and countenance of the Word therein which is able to hold up its owne honour in the minds of men if it be but faithfully published we should therefore studie to maintaine to credit to promote the Gospell to encourage truth discountenance errour to stand in the gap against all the stratagems and advantages of the enemies thereof and to hold the candlestick fast amongst us to buy the truth and sell it not betray it not forsake it not temper it not misguize it not This is to be a pillar to put the shoulder under the Gospell of Christ. And surely though the Papists boast of the word and name of the Church as none more apt to justifie and brag of their sobrietie than those whom the wine hath overtaken yet the plaine truth is they have farre lesse of the nature thereof than any other Churches because farre lesse of the pure service and ministration thereof for in stead of holding forth the Word of life they pull it downe denying unto the people of Christ the use of his Gospell dimidiating the use of his Sacrament breeding them up in an ignorant worship to begge they know not what in all points disgracing the Word of truth and robbing it of its certaintie sufficiencie perspicuitie authoritie purity energie in the minds of men And this is certain the more any set themselves against the light and generall knowledge of the Word of truth the lesse of the nature of the Church they have in them what-ever ostentations they may make of the name thereof The last thing observed in this second verse amongst the regalities of Christ was Imperium his rule and government in his Church by his holy Word maugre all the attempts and machinations of the enemies thereof against it Rule thou in the middest of thine enemies that is Thou shalt rule safely securely undisturbedly without danger feare or hazard from the enemies round about their counsels shall be infatuated their purposes shall vanish their decrees shall not stand their persecutions shall but sow the bloud of Christ and the ashes of Christians the thicker they shall see it and gnash with their teeth and gnaw their tongues and be horribly amazed at the emulation and triumph of a Christians sufferings over the malice and wrath of men The kingdome of Christ is two-fold His kingdome of glory of which there shall be no end when hee shall rule over his enemies and tread them under his feet and his kingdome of grace whereby hee ruleth amongst his enemies by the scepter of his Word And this is the kingdome here spoken of noting unto us that Christ will have a Church and people gathered unto him by the preaching of his Gospell on the earth maugre all the malice power or policie of all his enemies Never was Satan so loose never heresie and darknesse so thicke never persecution so prevalent never the taile of the Dragon so long as to sweepe away all the Starres of heaven or to devoure the remnant of the womans seed The gates of hell all the policie power and machinations of the kingdome of darknesse shall never root out the Vine which the Father hath planted nor prevaile against the body of Christ. His Gospell must be preached till the worlds end and till then he will be with it to give it successe Though the Kings of the earth stand up and the Rulers gather together against the Lord and his Christ yet they imagine but a vaine thing and hee that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorne The grounds of the certainetie and perpetuitie of Christs Evangelicall Kingdome is not the nature of the Church in it selfe consider'd either in the whole or parts for Adam and Evah were a Church at first a people that were under the law of obedience and worship of God and yet they fell away from that excellent condition And the Prophet tels us that except the Lord had left a very small remnant the Church had beene all as Sodom and like to Gomorrah But the grounds hereof are First The Decree ordination and appointment of God Psal. 2.7 Acts 10.42 Hebr. 3.2 and wee know what ever men project the counsell of the Lord must stand Secondly Gods Gift unto Christ Aske of mee and I wil give thee the heathen for thine inheritance c. Ps. 2.8
Thine they were and thou gavest them me Ioh. 17.6 My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to plucke them out of my Fathers hand Ioh. 10.29 Thirdly Gods Oath which is the Seale of his irreversible decree and Covenant with Christ. Once have I sworne by my holinesse that I will not lye unto David His seede shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sunne before me Psal. 89.35 36. Fourthly Christs owne Purchase and price which he paied for it The Apostle saith Christ died not in vaine and the vertue of his bloud lasteth to the end of the world for as his bloud was shed from the beginning of the world in regard of Gods Decree so doth it continue to the end in regard of its owne merit and efficacie so long as hee sitteth at the right hand of God which must be till the time of the restitution of all things the merit of his bloud shall worke amongst men Fifthly Christs owne Power to keepe inviolable the proprietie he hath gotten My sheepe heare my voyce and I give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any man plucke them out of my hand Ioh. 10.27 28. Sixthly the Fathers Command unto his Son This is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing c. Ioh. 6.39 Seventhly Christs Love and Care The Church is his Spouse under his Coverture and protection and therefore as hee hath power and office so hee hath delight to preserve it still His Love is better able to helpe than the malice of the enemy is to hurt Eighthly Christs Intercession which is not for the world but for those whom God hath given him out of the world and those he demandeth of his Father who heareth him alwayes in the verture of that Covenant which betweene them was ratified on Gods part by a Promise and Oath and on Christs part by a Merit and Purchase Now Christs Intercession shall last till his returning to judge the world and therefore still he must have a Church for whom to intercede Lastly Christs owne Promise to be with the preaching of his Gospell that is to give it assistance and successe for the gathering together and perfecting of the Saints unto the End of the world Matth. 28.20 Here then may bee answered two great Questions First whether the Church may deficere faile upon the earth or no To which I answere That the Church may bee taken either mystically spiritually and universally And in that sense it can never faile but there must bee upon the earth a true Church of Christ not onely certitudine eventus by the certainety of the event which is on all sides agreed but certitudine causa too by a certaintie growing out of those irresistible causes upon which the being of the mysticall body of Christ on the earth dependeth Or it may be considered particularly in the severall parts and places of the world where the Gospell is planted and hierarchically and politically denoting a company of men professing the faith of Christ and reduc'd into a quiet peaceable composed and conspicuous governement and so wee affirme that there is no Church in the world so safe but that it may deficere faile and be extinguished out of its place The Church of the Jewes did and after them any may Else the Apostles argument even to the Roman Church it selfe which was then a famous Church throughout the world and of that passage in the Apostle Baronius makes a long boast were very weake when à majori ad minus hee thus argueth Be not high-minded but feare for if God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Thus we finde the ten tribes in their apostacie till they became Lo-ammi to be no more a people and their brethren after fall in their condition Wrath saith the Apostle is come to the uttermost upon them And hee telleth us that the man of sinne the Sonne of perdition should be revealed by Apostacie to note unto us that Antichrist was to be generated out of the corruption or falling away of some eminent Church and that by a mysterious and insensible declination A second question which may be made is this that since the Church doth not totally faile from off the earth whether that which remaineth thereof be alwayes visible To which wee answere That if wee take the Church for the spirituall and mysticall body of Christ which is indeed the House of God so it is in a sort still invisible because the qualities and principles which constitute a man in the body of Christ as Faith and the Spirit of Grace are invisible things Seene indeed they may be by an eye of Charitie in their fruits but not by an eye of certainety in their owne infallible being Secondly if wee take the Church for a company of men professing the true Doctrine of Christ wee answere that take the men in themselves so truly professing and impossible it is but their faith should shew it selfe in the fruits thereof for the kingdome of Christ is in the heart like leaven which will manifest it selfe in the whole lumpe and so we can in all even the worst ages of the Church shew some who have witnessed the truth against that deluge of ignorance errour and idolatry which had invaded the world like gray haires here and there mingled on a blacke head as if you single out fire from the ashes it will be seene by its owne evidence though it may be so raked up that it is not observed But then if we speake of these men in aggregato as concurring to make up a distinct external body or Church so we say that the professors of the truth may be so few and they persecuted traduced suppressed cried downe driven into the wildernesse without any apparant separated conspicuousnesse and governement of its owne as in the time of Constantius the emperour the publike professors of the Divinitie of Christs person against the damnable heresie of the Arrians were used as that in this sense we may justly denie the Church to have beene alwayes visible that is The few true professors of Christ in power and puritie to have had a free open uncontroled distinct ecclesiasticall body of their owne notoriously and in conspectu hominum different from that tyrannicall and pompous hierarchie under which they suffered for though Christ rule yet it is in the midst of his enemies and the enemies may be so many and Christs subjects in whom he rules so few that the corne may be invisible for the abundance of weeds amongst which it growes though in it selfe very apt to be seene And this giveth a full answer to that Question where Our Church was before the late Reformation began by Luther for that Reformation did not new-make the Church but purge it And that it stood in need of purging the Papists themselves were
faine to confesse and declare to the world in their Councell of Trent Onely herein is the difference The Councell pretended a Reformation in points of Discipline and manners and wee made a Reformation in points of Doctrine too When Christ purged the Temple of buyers and sellers it was the same Temple after which before When a man separateth the wheate from the chaffe it is the same corne which before In these corrupter ages then the pure Professour of Christ who denied not his faith did dwell where Satan had his seate The members of Christ were amongst the Rulers of Antichrist Wee are not another Church newly started up but the same which before from the Apostles times held the common and necessarie grounds of Faith and Salvation which grounds being in latter ages perverted and over-turned by Antichristianisme have beene by valiant Champions for the faith of Christ therefrom vindicated who have onely pruned the Lords Vine and picked out the stones and driven out the bores out of his Vineyard but have not made either one or other new Now this point that Christ ruleth in the midst of his enemies is ground of great confidence in his Church in as much as shee subsisteth not upon any corruptible strength of her owne but upon the Promise decree oath power and love of God things invincible by all the Powers of darkenesse Let the enemies rage never so much they cannot dis-throne Christ nor extinguish his Gospell for it is an everlasting Gospell It is but as the comming forth of a Shepheard against a Lion as the Prophet compareth it For either Christ is unable to protect his people and that is against Saint Iude Hee is able to keepe you from falling and to present you faultlesse c. or else he is unwilling and that is against Saint Paul This is the will of God even your sanctification Or else both his Power and his will are suspended upon expectation of humane concurrence or nullified and disappointed by us and that is against the influence of his Grace which giveth us both the will and the deed against the mercie of his gracious promise I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sinnes and their iniquities will I remember no more I will heale their back-slidings I will save them freely against the immutabilitie of his Covenant and holy nature I am God and not man I change not therefore the sonnes of Iacob are not destroied Now besides this generall observation the words afford some particular notes which I will but briefly touch As first That Christs kingdome in this world is Regnum Crucis a Kingdome beset with enemies of all other the most hated and opposed They that submit unto it must resolve to be herein conformable to their head a Crosse was his Throne and Thornes were his Crowne and every one which will live godly must suffer persecution and through many afflictions enter into his Masters Kingdome Quod erat Christus erimus Christiani No marvell if the world hate the Church of Christ for it hated him first In his word he is resisted disobeyed belied and if it were possible silenced and corrupted in his officers mocked and misused in his subjects persecuted and reviled in his Spirit thrust away and grieved in his worship neglected and polluted in all his wayes slandered and blasphemed The Reasons of which strange entertainement of the Kingdome of Christ are first because it is a New Kingdome which enters into the world by way of chalenge and dispossession of former lords and therefore no wonder if it finde opposition Secondly it is an invisible unconspicuous unattended desolate and in appearance ignoble kingdome It began in the forme of a servant in the ignominie of a Crosse none of the Princes of this world none of the learned of this world to countenance or helpe set it up but amongst them all esteemed as an offensive and foolish thing Thirdly it is an universall kingdome Nec parem patitur nec superiorem Christ will admit of no Consorts or Corrivals in his Government Body and Soule and Spirit hee will have wholly and throughout unto himselfe And this amongst others is given for the reason why when Tiberius proposed Christ unto the Romane Senate with the priviledge of his owne suffrage to be worshipped they rejected him because hee would be a God alone If hee would exempt some of the earthly members from his subjection let lust have the eye or folly the eare or violence the hand or covetousnesse the heart or any other evill affection share with him he would be the easier tolerated but when he will be absolute and nothing must remaine in our hearts but as his vassall to be spoiled subdued condemned and crucified by him if the whole state of sinne must bee ruined and the body destroied no wonder if the world cannot away with him Fourthly which is the Summe of all It is a heavenly Kingdome a spirituall Kingdome My Kingdome is not of this world and therefore no marvell if the divels of hell and the lusts of the flesh doe set themselves against him Note secondly even there where Christs Throne and Kingdome is set up hee hath enemies Satan hath his seate even where Christ dwelleth Men may say they are Jewes and are not but of the Synagogue of Satan and men may say they are Christians and are not but of the kingdome of Satan too A Wenne in the body seemeth to belong unto the integrity of the whole when indeed it is an enemie and thiefe therein Ivie about a tree seemeth to embrace it with much affection when indeed it doth but kill and choake it Men may take upon them the profession of Christians and like a Wenne bee skinned over with the same out-side which the true members have may pretend much submission worship and ceremony unto him and yet such is the hellish hypocrisie of the heart the same men may haply inwardly swell and rancle against the power of his truth and Spirit This people saith the Lord draw neere me with their mouth and honour mee with their lips but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare towards mee is taught by the precepts of men In the Apostles times there were false brethren and false teachers who crept in to spie out and betray the libertie of the Church and privily to bring in damnable heresies and to speake lies in hypocrisie that is under the pretext of devotion and carnall humilitie to corrupt the Doctrine of Christ and under a forme of Godlinesse to denie the Power thereof Therefore Antichrist is called a Whore because hee should seduce the Christian world with much expression of love and creepe peaceably and by flatteries into the kingdome of Christ of these severall enemies of Christ under the profession of his name and worship some are Christians but not in purity as heretikes some not in unity as schismatikes some not
of the worke but onely the willingnesse the loving and obedient disposition of the heart and therefore I passe over those failings and weaknesses which discover themselves for want of skill or strength and not of love praising the endevours and pardoning the miscarriages Thus doth the Lord deale with his children Fourthly if we be Christs he will pray for us I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine c. so that wee shall be sure to have helpe in all times of need because we know that tho Father heareth his Sonne alwayes and those things which in much feare weaknesse and ignorance we aske for our selves if it bee according to Gods will and by the dictate and mouth of the Spirit in our heart Christ himselfe in his intercession demandeth for us the same things And this is the ground of that confidence which we have in him that if wee aske any thing according to his will hee heareth us and we have the petitions that we desire of him For as the world hateth us because it hateth him first so the Father loveth and heareth us because he loveth and heareth him first Fifthly if wee be Christs then hee will teach us and commune with us and reveale himselfe unto us and lead us with his voice He calleth his owne sheepe by name and leadeth them and putteth them forth and goeth before them Because Israel was his owne people therefore he shewed them his words The Law was theirs and the Oracles theirs when hee entreth into covenant with a people that they become his then he writeth his Law in their hearts and teacheth them This is the Prophet Davids argument I am thy servant give me understanding Because I am thine in a speciall relation therefore acquaint me with thee in an especiall manner The earth is full of thy mercy there is much of thy goodnesse revealed to all the nations of the world even to those that are not called by thy name but as for mee whom thou hast made thine owne by a neerer relation let mee have experience of a greater mercy Teach mee thy Statutes Sixthly if we be his he will chastise us in mercy and not in fury though he leave us not altogether unpunished yet he will punish us lesse than our iniquities deserve he will not deale with us as with others Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have driven thee yet I will not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure I will correct thee to cure but not to ruine thee The second thing considered in the words was the Present condition of the people of Christ which was to be military men to joyne with the armies of Christ against all his enemies As he was so must we be in this world no sooner was Christ consecrated by his solemne Baptisme unto the worke of a Mediatour but presently hee was assaulted by the Tempter And no sooner doth any man give up his name to Christ and breake loose from that hellish power under which hee was held but presently Pharaoh and his hoasts Satan and his confederates pursue him with deadly fury and powre out flouds of malice and rage against him Hell and death are at truce with wicked men there is a covenant and agreement betwixt them Satan holdeth his possession in peace but when a stronger than he commeth upon and overcommeth him there is from that time implacable venomâ— and hostility against such a soule the malice power policie stratagems and machianations of Satan the lusts and vanities the pleasures honours profits persecutions frownes flatteries snares of the wicked world the affections desires inclinations deceits of our owne fleshly hearts will ever plie the soule of a Christian and force it to perpetuall combates There is in Satan an everlasting enmitie against the glory mercy and truth of God against the power and mystery of the Gospel of Christ. This malice of his exerciseth it selfe against all those that have given themselves to Christ whose Kingdome he mightily laboureth to demolish by his power persecuting it by his craftinesse and wily insinuations undermining it by his vast knowledge and experience in palliating altering mixing proportioning and measuring his temptations and spirituall wickednesse in such manner as that he may subvert the Church of Christ either in the purity thereof by corrupting the doctrine of Christ with heresie and his worship with idolatrie and superstition or in the unity thereof by pestering it with schisme and distraction or in the liberty thereof by bondage of conscience or in the progresse and inlargement thereof endevouring to blast and make fruitlesse the ministery of the Gospell And this malice of Satan is wonderfully set on and encouraged both by the corruption of our nature those armies of lusts and affections which swarme within us entertaining joyning force and co-operating with all his suggestions disheartning reclaiming and pulling backe the soule when it offers to make any opposition and also by the men and materials of this evill world By the examples the threats the interests the power the intimacie the wit the tongues the hands the exprobrations the persecutions the insinuations and seductions of wicked men By the profits the pleasures the preferments the acceptation credit and applause of the world By all which meanes Satan most importunately pursueth one of these two ends either to subvert the godly by drawing them away from Christ to apostacie formalitie hypocrisie spirituall pride and the like or else to Discomfort them with diffidence doubts sight of sinne opposition of the times vexation of spirit and the like afflictions And these oppositions of Satan meet with a Christian in every respect or consideration under which he may be conceiv'd consider him in his spirituall estate in his severall parts in his temporall relations in his Actions or imployments and in all these Satan is busie to overturne the Kingdome of Christ in him In his spirituall estate if he be a weake Christian he assaulteth him with perpetuall doubts and feares touching his election conversion adoption perseverance christian liberty strength against corruptions companies temptations persecutions c. if he be a strong Christian he laboureth to draw him unto selfe-confidence spirituall pride contempt of the weake neglect of further proficiencie and the like There is no naturall part or facultie which is not aimed at likewise by the malice of Satan for Christ when hee comes takes possession of the whole man and therefore Satan sets himselfe against the whole man Corporeall and sensitive faculties tempted either to sinfull representations letting in and transmitting the provisions of lust unto the heart by gazing and glutting themselves on the objects of the world or to sinfull executions finishing and letting out those lusts which have beene conceived in the heart The phantasie tempted
and shame of sinne and the first fruits of that eternall vengeance which is thereunto due not onely set forth Christ before them as a rock of redemption reaching out a hand to save and offering great and pretious promises of an exceeding eternall abundant weight of glory but besides all this doth inwardly touch the heart by the finger of his Spirit framing it to a spirituall and divine conformity unto Christ. How can the soule of such a man in these present extremities of horror which yet are but the pledges of infinite more which must ensue and in the evidence of so wonderfull and sweete promises the seales of the eternall favor and fellowship of God choose but with much importunity of affection to lay hold on so great a hope which is set before it and with all readinesse and ambition of so high a service yeild up it selfe into the hands of so gracious a Lord to bee by him ordered and over-ruled unto any obedience Secondly this willingnesse of Christs People is wrought by a spirituall illumination of minde And therefore the Conversion of sinners is called a Conviction because it is ever wrought in us Secundum modum judicii as wee are reasonable and intelligent creatures I take it under favor and submission to better judgements for a firme truth that if the minde of a man were once throughly and in a spirituall manner as it becommeth such objects as are altogether spirituall possessed of the adequate goodnesse and truth which is in grace and glory the heart could not utterly reject them for humane liberty is not a brutish but a reasonable thing it consisteth not in contumacie or headstrongnesse but in such a manner of working as is apt to bee regulated varied or suspended by the dictates of right reason The onely cause why men are not willing to submit unto Christ is because they are not throughly and in a manner suteable to the spirituall excellency of the things illightned in their minde The Apostle often maketh mention of fulfilling and making full proofe of our ministery and of preaching the Gospell fully namely with the evidence of the Spirit and of power and with such a manifestation of the truth as doth commend it selfe unto the conscience of a man The Word of God saith the Apostle is not yea and nay that is a thing which may bee admitted or denied at pleasure but such a word as hath no inevidence in it selfe nor leaveth any uncertainty or hesitancie in a minde sitted to receive it And as wee may thus distinguish of preaching that there is an imperfect and a full preaching so may wee distinguish of understanding the things preached in some it is full and in others but superficiall for there is a Twofold illumination of the minde the one Theoreticall and meerly Notionall consisting in knowledge the other Practicall Experimentall and spirituall consisting in the irradiation of the soule by the light of Gods countenance in such an apprehension of the truth as maketh the heart to burne therby when we know things as wee ought to know them that is when the manner and life of our knowledge is answerable to the nature and excellencie of the things knowne when the eye is spiritually opened to beleeve and seriously conclude that the things spoken are of most pretious and everlasting consequence to the soule as things that concerne our peace with God This is the Learning of Christ the teaching of the Father the knowing of things which passe knowledge the setting to the seale of our owne hearts that God is true the evidence of spirituall things not to the braine but to the conscience In one word this is that which the Apostle calleth a spirituall Demonstration And surely in this case the heart is never over-ruled contrary to the full spirituall and infallible evidence of divine truths unto a practicall judgement Therefore the Apostle saith that Eve being Deceived was in the transgression and there is frequent mention made of the deceitfulnesse of sinne to note that sinne got into the world by error â—nd seduction For certainly the will is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Rationall Appetite and therefore as I conceive doth not stirre from such a good as is fully and spiritually represented thereunto as the most universall adequate and unquestionable object of the desires and capacities of a humane soule for the freedome and willing consent of the heart is not lawlesse or without rules to moderate it but it is therefore said to bee free because whether out of a true judgement it move one way or out of a false another yet in both it moveth naturally secundum modum sibi competentem in a manner suteable to its owne condition If it bee objected that the heart being unregenerate is utterly averse unto any good and therefore is not likely to bee made willing by the illumination of the minde To this I answere that it is true the will must not onely bee movâ—d but also renewed and changed before it can yeeld to Christ. But withall that God doth never so fully and spiritually convince the judgement in that manner of which I have spoken without a speciall worke of grace thereupon opening the eye and removing all naturall ignorance prejudice hesitancie inadvertency misperswasion or any other distemper of the minde which might hinder the evidence of spirituall truth By which meanes hee also frameth and fashioneth the will to accept embrace and love those good things of which the minde is thus prepossessed Thirdly this willingnesse of Christs people is wrought by the Communion and adspiration of the spirit of Grace which is a free spirit a spirit of love and a spirit of liberty a spirit which is in every faculty of man as the soule and principle of its Christianity or heavenly being and working And therefore it makes every faculty secundum modum sibi proprium to worke unto spirituall ends and objects As the soule in the eye causeth that to see and in the eare to heare and in the tongue to speake so the spirit of Grace in the minde causeth it rightly to understand and in the will causeth it freely to desire heavenly things and in every facultie causeth it to move towards Christ in such a way and maner of working as is suteable to its nature Fourthly this willingnesse of Christs people ariseth from the apprehension of Gods deare love bowels of mercy and riches of most unsearchable grace revealed in the face of Iesus Christ to every broken and penitent spirit Love is naturally when it is once apprehended an Attractive of love And therefore it is that the Apostle saith Faith worketh by love that is By faith first the heart is perswaded and affected with Gods Love unto us in Christ. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me Gal. 2.20 Eph. 3.17 18. Being thus perswaded of his love to us the heart is framed
upon his service In the Beauties of Holinesse These words referre to those before and that either to the word People or to the word willing If to People then they are a further description of Christs Subjects or Souldiers they shall be all like servants in Princes Courts beautifully arraied like the Priests of the Law that had garments of beauty and glory and so Schindler expounds it In societate sacerdotum If to the word willing then it notes the ground and inducement of their great devotion and subjection unto Christs kingdome that as the people came up in troopes to the Lords house which was the Beauty of his Holinesse or as men doe flocke together to the sight of some honorable and stately solemnity so Christs people should by the beauty of his banners be allured to gather unto him and flye in multitudes as Doves unto their windowes Which way ever wee understand the words we may from them observe First That Holinesse is a glorious and a beautifull thing The holy oile with which all the vessels of the Sanctuary were to be consecrated was a type of that Spirit which sanctifieth us and maketh us Kings and Priests unto God and it was to be compounded of the purest and most delicate ingredients which the art of the Apothecary could put together Therefore our Saviour still calleth his Spouse the fairest of womâ—n to note that no other beauty in the world is to be compared with Holinesse Therefore our Faith and Holinesse is called a Wedding Garment at which solemnitie men use above all other to adorne themselves with their costliest and most beautifull attire Therefore we are said to Put on the Lord Iesus and to Put on bowels of mercie and humblenesse of minde and meekenesse c. and therefore likewise the Church is compared to a Bride decked in her choicest ornaments and jewels broidred worke silke fine linnen bracelets chaines jewels crownes gold silver perfect comelinesse garments of salvation and of praise robes of righteousnesse c. And Christ the husband of this Spouse the chiefest and most amiable of ten thousand even altogether lovely The Desire of all Nations and the allurement of all hearts that can looke upon him And Ierusalem the palace of this glorious couple described by the most pretious and desireable things which can bee thought on Iaspar the wall gold the pavement pearle the gates pretious stones the foundation and the Lord the light thereof Of our selves by reason of sinne we are full of filthinesse and deformity in flesh and spirit clothed with filthy garments and overspread from the head to the foot with blaines and putrefactions It is only the holy Word of God which maketh us cleane from our filthinesse and from all our pollutions By the washing of water through the Word Christ sanctifieth us that he may present unto himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle that it might be holy and without blemish Ephes. 5.27 And therefore the Apostle Saint Peter exhorteth Christian women to adorne the inner man of the heart with the ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God whose pure eye they ought rather to please than the wanton eye of man of great price 1 Pet. 3.3 4. And the truth hereof may bee proved even from the practice of hypocrites themselves for no man will counterfeite villanies and make a shew of the vices which indeed hee hath not except he be desperately thereunto swayed by an humor of pleasing his wicked companions And therefore Saint Austin complaineth of it as of a prodigious corruption of his nature that he did sometimes belie himselfe to his wicked associates and boasted of the wickednesse which he durst not practise No woman will paint her selfe with dung or spread inke upon her face It must be beautifull in it selfe which any man will ordinarily counterfeit so that Holinesse hath the prerogative of an enemies suffrage which is one of the strongest evidences to testifie the beauty and excellency thereof This point will more distinctly appeare if we consider either the Author Nature properties or Operations of this Holinesse First the Author is God himselfe by his spirit The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly saith the Apostle and the God of peace make you perfect in every good worke to doe his will Therefore the spirit is called a spirit of Holinesse by the power whereof Christ rising from the dead was declared to bee the Sonne of God to note the answerablenesse betweene raising from the dead or giving life where there was none before and the sanctification of a sinner Therefore the Apostle calleth it the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the forming of Christ in us the quickning and creating us to good workes By all which we may note that what Beautie the Creation brought upon that emptie and unshaped Chaos when it was distributed into this orderly frame which we now admire or what beautie the reunion of a living soule unto a dead and gastly body doth restore unto it the same beautie doth Holinesse bring unto the soule of a man which was filthy before But yet further we must note that God did not make man as other ordinarie Creatures for some low and inferior use and yet Salomon saith that they were made all beautifull in their time but there was a pause a consultation a more than common wisedome power and mercie revealed in the workemanship of man for God made man for his owne more peculiar delight company and communion one whom hee would enter into a more intimate league and covenant withall The Lord hath set apart the man that is godly for himselfe This people have I formed for my selfe they shall shew forth my praise I will magnifie the beautie of my glorious vertues in those whom I have sanctified for my selfe Thus wee finde what perfect comelinesse the Lord bestowed upon his people when he entred into Covenant with them and made them his owne one which was alwayes to leane on his bosome and to stand in his owne presence Ezek. 16.8 14. The Church is the Lords owne House a Temple in the which hee will dwell and walke it is his Throne in which he sitteth as our Prince and Law-giver And in this regard it must needs bee extraordinarie beautifull for the Lord will beautifie the place of his Sanctuary and will make the place of his feet glorious Now then if by Holinesse we are made Gods building and that not as the rest of the world is for his Creatures to inhabite but as a Temple for himselfe to dwell in as a gallerie for himselfe to walke and refresh himselfe in certainely Holinesse which is the Ornament and ingraving of this temple must needs be a glorious thing for there is much glory and wisedome in all Gods workes Secondly if we consider the
and draw it away ever so should the word and worship of God worke upon us in all our distempers and in all our deviations Christ was hungry and faint with fasting it was about the sixth houre and hee had sent his Disciples to buy meate and yet having an occasion to doe his Father service hee forgat his food and refused to eate Ioh. 4.6.8.34 The Love of Children hee that is begotten loveth him that did beget him 1 Ioh. 5.1 with a Love of Thankfulnesse We love him because He loved us 1 Ioh. 4.19 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and my supplication Psal. 116.1 With a love of obedience faith worketh by love Gal. 5 6. Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 If a man love me hee will keepe my words Ioh. 14.23 with a love of reverence and awfull feare A Sonne honoureth his Father Mal. 1.6 If you call on the Father c. Passe the time of your sojourning here in feare 1 Pet. 1.17 The faith of Children For whom should the Childe relie on for maintenance and supportance but the Father Take no thought saying what shall wee eate or what shall wee drinke or wherewith shall wee bee cloathed For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things Matth. 6.31 32. The hope assurance and expectation of Children For as Children depend on their parents for present supply so for portions and provisions for the future fathers lay up for their Children and so doth God for his There is an inheritance reserved for us 1 Pet. 1.4 Lastly the Prayers and requests of Children Because ye are Sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 4.6 Note 2. The Birth of a Christian is a divine and heavenly workâ— God is both Father Mother of the Dew by his power and wisedome a Father by his providence and indulgence a mother Progenitor genitrixque therefore hee is cald in Clem. Alex. Metripater to note that those causalities which are in the second agents divided are eminently and perfectly in him united as all things are to bee resolved into a first unity Hath the Raine a Father or who hath begotten the Drops of Dew saith Iob. Out of whose wombe came the Ice and the hoary frost of heaven who hath gendred it None but God is the parent of the Dew it doth not stay for nor expect any humane concurrence or causality Mich. 5.7 Esai 55.10 such is the call and conversion of a man to Christ A heavenly calling Heb. 3.1 the operation of God in us Col. 2.12 A birth not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh noâ— of the will of man but of God Ioh. 1 1â— 1 Ioh. 3.9 Paul may plaâ—t and Apollo may water but it is God that must blesse both nay it is God who by them as his instruments doth both of his owne will begat he us Iam. 1.18 The Miâ—isters are a Savor of Christ 2 Cor. 2.15 It is not the garment but the perfume in it which diffuseth a sweet sent It is not the Labor of the Minister but Christ whom hee preacheth that worketh upon the soule I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with mee 1 Cor. 15.10 It is not good therefore to have the faith of God in respect of persons the seed of this spirituall generation cannot otherwise bee given us than in earthen vessels by men of like passions and infirmities with others Therefore when pure and good seed is here and there sowed to attribute any thing to persons is to derogate from God where gifts are fewer parts meaner probabilities lesse God may and often doth give an increase above hope as to Daniels Pulse that the excellency of the power may bee of him and not of man Though it bee a lame or a leprous hand which soweth the seed yet the successe is no way altered good seed depends not in its growth on the hand that sowes it but on the earth that covers and on the heavens that cherish it So the word borroweth not its efficacy from any humane vertue but from the heart which ponders and the Spirit which sanctifies it When then thou comest unto the word come with affections suteable unto it All earth will not beare all seed some wheate and some but pulse there is first required a fitnesse before there will bee a fruitfulnesse Christ had many things to teach which his Disciples at the time could not carry away because the Comforter was not then sent who was to lead them into all truth they who by use have their senses exercised are fit for strong meate The truth of the Gospell is an heavenly truth and therefore it requires a heavenly disposition of heart to prosper it It is wisedome to those that are perfect though to others foolishnesse and offence The onely reason why the word of truth doth not thrive is because the heart is not fitted nor prepared unto it The seed of it selfe is equall unto all grounds but it prospers onely in the honest and good heart the raine in it selfe alike unto all but of no vertue to the rocks as to other ground by reason of their inward hardnesse and incapacity The Pharises had covetous hearts and they mocked Christ the Philosophers had proud hearts and they scorned Paul The Iewes had carnall hearts and they were offended at the Gospell the people in the wildernesse had unbeleeving hearts and the word preached did not profit them But now a heavenly heart comes with the affections of a Scholer to bee taught by God with the affections of a servant to bee commanded by God with the affections of a Sonne to bee educated by God with the affections of a sinner to bee cur'd by God It considers that it is the Lord from heaven who speakes in the Ministery of the word to him who is but dust and ashes and therefore hee puts his hand on his mouth dares not reply against God nor wrestle with the evidence of his holy Spirit but falleth upon his face and giveth glory unto God beleeves when God promiseth trembles when God threatneth obeyes when God commandeth learnes when God teacheth bringeth alwayes meeknesse and humility of Spirit ready to open unto the word that it may incorporate Lastly from hence we must learne to looke unto God in all his ordinances to expect his arme and Spirit to bee there in revealed to call on and depend on him for the blessing of it If a man could when hee enters into Gods house but powre out his heart in these two things A Promise and a Prayer Lord I am now entring into thy presence to heare thee speake from heaven unto mee to receive thy raine and spirituall Dew which never returneth in vaine but ripeneth a harvest either of corne or weeds of grace or judgement My heart is prepared ô Lord my heart is prepared to learne
and to love any of thy words Thy Law is my Counsellor I will bee ruled by it it is my Physitian I will bee patient under it it is my Schoolemaster I will bee obedient unto it But who am I that I should promise any service unto thee and who is thy Minister that hee should doe any good unto me without thy grace and heavenly call bee thou therefore pleased to reveale thine owne Spirit unto mee and to worke in mee that which thou requirest of mee I say if a man could come with such sweete preparations of heart unto the word and could thus open his soule when this spirituall Manna fals down from heaven he should finde the truth of that which the Apostle speaketh Ye are not straitned in us or in our ministerie wee come unto you with abundance of grace but yee are straitned onely in your owne bowels in the hardnesse unbeliefe incapacity and negligence of your owne hearts which receiveth that in drops which falleth downe in showres Note 3. As it is a divine so it is a secret and undiscerned Birth As the winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but caust not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So saith our Savior is every one that is borne of God Ioh. 3 8. The voluntary breathings and accesses of the Spirit of God unto the soule whereby hee cometh mightily and as it were cloatheth a man with power and courage are of a very secret nature and notwithstanding the power thereof bee so great yet there is nothing in apparance but a voyce of all other one of the most empty and vanishing things As Dew fals in small and insensible drops and as a Childe is borne by slow and undiscerned progresses as the Prophet David saith Fearefully and wonderfully am I made Such is the birth of a Christian unto Christ by a secret hidden and inward call Vocatione Altâ as S. Austen calleth it by a deepe and intimate energie of the Spirit of grace is Christ formed and the soule organized unto a spirituall being A man heares a voyce but it is behinde him hee seeth no man hee feels a blow in that voyce which others take no notice of though externally they heare it too Therefore it is observable that the men which were with Paul at his miraculous conversion are in one place said to heare a voyce Act. 9.7 and in another place not to have heard the voyce of him that spake unto Paul Act. 22.9 They heard onely a voyce and so were but astonished but Paul heard it distinctly as the voyce of Christ and so was converted Note 4. As it is a Divine and secret so is it likewise a sudden birth In naturall generations the more vast the creature the more slow the production an Elephant ten years in the wombe In humane actions magnarum rerum tarda molimina great workes move like great engines slowly by leasure to their maturity but in spirituall generations Children are borne unto Christ like Dew which is exhaled conceived formed produced and all in one night Paul to day a Woolfe to morrow a Sheepe to day a Persecutor to morrow a Disciple and not long after an Apostle of Christ. The Nobleman of Samaria could see no possibility of turning a famine into a plentie within one night neither can the heart of a man who rightly understands the closenesse and intimate radication of sinne and guilt in the soule conceive it possible to remove either in a sudden change yet such is the birth of men unto Christ Before shee travelled shee brought forth before her paine came she was delivered of a man-Childe The earth bringeth forth in one day and a nation is borne at once It is spoken of Ierusalem the mother of us all Esai 66.7 8. VERSE 4. The Lord hath sworne and will not Repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck FRom the Regall Office of Christ and the Administration thereof by the Scepter of his Word and Spirit to the conquering of a willing people unto himselfe the Prophet now passeth to his sacerdotall office the vigor and merit whereof is by the two former applied unto the Church Therefore wee may observe that though the tribes were interdicted confusion with one another in their marriages Num. 36.7 Yet the Regall and Leviticall Tribes might interchange and mingle blouds to intimate as I conceive that the Messiah with relation unto whose lineage that confusion was avoided was to bee both a King and a Priest Thus wee finde Iehoiada the Priest married Iehoshabeath the Daughter of King Iehoram 2 Chron. 22.11 And Aaron of the Tribe of Levi tooke Elishâ—ba the Daughter of Amminadab who was of the tribe of Iuda Exod. 6.23 Numb 1.7 In which respect I suppose Mary and Elizabeth the Wife of Zatharie the Priest are called Cousins Luk. 1.36 In the Law indeed these two Offices were distinct Our Lord saith the Apostle sprang out of the Tribe of Iuda of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood Heb. 7.14 And therefore when King Vzziah incroached on the Priests Office hee was smitten with a Leprosie 2 Chron. 26.18 21. But amongst the Gentiles amongst whom Melchizedek is thought to have beene a Priest it was usuall for the same person to have been both King and Priest The words containe the Doctrine of Christs Priesthood The Quality of it Eternall The Order not of Aaron but of Melchizedek The foundation of both Gods immutable decree and counsell hee cannot repent of it because hee hath confirmed it by an Oath I shall handle the words in the Order as they lie The Lord hath sworne Here two things are to bee enquired First how God is said to sweare Secondly why hee swears in this particular case of Christs Priesthood The former of these the Apostle resolves in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.17 Hee interposed in or by an oath namely himselfe for that is to bee supplied out of the thirteenth verse where it is said that bee sware by himselfe So elsewhere it is said that he sware by the excellency of Iacob that is by himselfe Amos 8.7.6.8 By my selfe have I sworne saith the Lord that in blessing I will blesse thee Gen. 22.16 The meaning is that God should denie himselfe which hee cannot doe 2 Tim. 2.13 and should cease to bee God if the word which hee hath sworne should not come to passe So that usuall forme as I live is to be understood let me not be esteemed a living God if my word come not to passe so elsewhere the Lord interposeth his holinesse I have sworne by my Holinesse that I will not lie unto David Psal. 89.35 As impossible for him to breake his word as to bee unholy For the second question why God swears in this particular I answer First and principally to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The immutable and irreversible certainty
of what hee speakes Heb. 6.17 I have sworne by my selfe the word is gone out of my mouth and it shall not returne c. Esai 45.23 Thus wee finde God confirming the unmoveablenesse of his covenant by an Oath Esai 54.9 10. Psal. 89.34 35. When the Lord doth onely say a thing though his word bee as certaine in it selfe as his oath for it is as impossible for him to lie as to forsweare himselfe yet there is an implicite kinde of reservation for the altering revoking or reversing that word by some subsequent declaration As in the covenant and Priesthood of Aaron though God made it for a perpetuall ordinance yet there was after a change of it for the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse thereof So when the Lord sent Ionah to preach destruction unto Ninive within fortie dayes though the Denuntiation came not to passe yet was it not any false message because it was made reversible upon an implicite condition which condition the Lord is pleased sometimes in mercy to conceale that men may bee the sooner frighted out of their security upon the apprehension of so approching a danger At what time saith the Lord I shall speake concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull downe and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them Ier. 18.7 8. But when the Lord sweares any absolute Act or promise of his owne for the Revocation whereof there can no other ground de novo arise than was extant at the time of making it and yet was no barre nor hinderance unto it namely the sinne of man he then by that oath seales and assures the immutability thereof to those that rely upon it Secondly it is to commend the excellencie and preeminencie of that above other things which hath this great seale of Heaven the Oath of God to confirme and establish it Inasmuch saith the Apostle as not without an oath hee was made Priest by so much was hee made a surety of a better Testament Heb. 6.20 22. and this is a consequent of the former for by how much the more abiding by so much the more glorious is the Ministery of the Gospell If that which is done away were glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3.11 The more solemne and sacred the institution was the more excellent is the Priesthood Now this Oath was that Seale of God by which hee designed and set apart his Sonne for that great Office in a more solemne manner of ordination than was to others usuall Him hath God the Father sealed Iohn 6.27 It was but Hee hath said unto others ye are Gods but it is He hath sanctified to his Sonne Iohn 10.34 36. Thirdly It is to commend Gods great compassion and good will for the establishing of the hearts of men in comfort and assurance He therefore confirmed his promise by an oath That by two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope which is set before us Heb. 6.17 18. an oath even amongst men is the end of all controversie the determination and composing of all differences how much more when hee sets his Seale upon his mercy and covenant should the hearts of men bee secure and lay fast hold thereon without doubt or scruple Therefore wee finde the Saints in the Scripture make mention of the Oath of God for establishing their hearts against feares or dangers Thou wilt performe the truth to Iaakob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworne to our fathers from the dayes of old Micah 7.20 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oathes of the tribes even thy Word Hab. 3.9 that is Thou didst make it appeare to thine enemies that thou didst fight for thy People and remember thy Word or Covenant of mercy which thou didst sweare unto Abraham the Father of the faithfull and so oftentimes new ratifie unto his seed the Tribes which proceeded from him And this is the ground of all the Churches comfort and stabilitie for alas wee every day deserve to have God abrogate his Covenant of mercy with us but hee is mindefull of the Oath which hee hath sworne Deut. 7.7 8.9.5 There was wickednesse enough in the world to have drawne downe another flood after that of Noah the same reason that caused it did remaine after it was removed Genes 6.12 13.8.21 But Gods Oath bound him to his mercy Esay 54.9 The meaning then of this first Clause is this The Lord to shew the immutability of his Counsell the unchangeablenesse of Christs Priesthood the excellencie of it above the Priesthood of Aaron the strong consolation which the Saints may there hence receive hath sealed it by an Oath so that he is a Priest by a decree which cannot be revoked It notes unto us the Solemne call of Christ unto the office of Priesthood as before of King verse 1. He did not usurpe this honour to himselfe as Nadab and Abihu did when of their owne heads they offered strange fire unto the Lord nor incroach upon us as Vzziah but hee was ordained and begotten and called of God thereunto after the order of Melchisedech Heb. 5.5.10 Hee was sanctified and sent and had a commandement and a worke set him to doe Iohn 10.18.36.37 In which respect hee was called a Servant or a chosen officer formed for a speciall imployment Esay 42.1.49.5.53.11 Phil. 2.7 here then is the consent of the whole Trinitie unto Christs Priesthood First the Fathers consent in his Act of ordination for him hath God the Father sealed Iohn 6.27 Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee Heb. 5.5 6. Secondly The Sonnes by voluntary susception and vadimonie for mankinde for he was the Suretie of the Covenant Heb. 8.22 The Apostle joyneth these two together Heb. 10.9 10. Loe I come to doe thy Will O God there was Gods Will and Christs submission thereunto in which regard he is said to sanctifie himselfe Iohn 17.19 There was a Covenant betweene God and Christ Christ was to undertake an office of service and obedience for men to offer himselfe a sacrifice for sinne to be made of a woman under the Law c. And for this God was to prolong his dayes to give him a seed and a Generation which could not bee numbred a Kingdome which cannot bee bounded a portion with the great and a spoyle with the strong a Name above every name to set a joy and a glory before him after hee should have finishâ—d his worke c. Thirdly here is the consent of the Holy Ghost which did hereunto anoint him which came along with him which formed him in the wombe of the Virgin and descended upon him in his solemne susception of this office in Iohns Baptisme by which Spirit he was consecrated warranted and