come when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth sometime for sincerity in our conversation Ioh. 3. 21. hee that doth truth commeth to the light an Israelite in whom is no guile Ioh. 1. 47. Sometime for the rule of Gods law Rom. 2. 8. Disobeying the truth and obeying vnrighteousnesse and 1. Pet. 1. 22. Your selves are purified by obeying the truth Sometime for the sincere doctrine of the Gospell Gal. 2. 5. that the truth of the Gospell might continue with you Sometime for Iustice Prov. 20. 28. Mercy and truth preserves the King Sometime for such a truth as depends not vpon Opinion which may erre but for that Metaphysicall truth which is affectio Entis and such I take it to be here and so in God it cannot faile so taken Rom. 3. 7. If the verity or truth of God hath more abounded through my lye and so vpon the premisses this doctrine builds it selfe There is nothing more certaine to come to passe in a due and true performance then the truth of all Gods promises Wee neede not stand to prop the truth of this truth vpon any weake foundation of mans building for his truth is himselfe Exod. 34. 6. aboundant in goodnesse and truth Man may be said to be true mercifull just but God is truth mercie and justice it selfe in the abstract so the Prophet here brings his truth in the second place as the sure performer of his mercifull kindnesse whatsoever saith Calvyn He doth promise by his mercy he doth faithfully performe because his mercy and truth are vndissolubly knit together they goe hand in hand and cannot be seperated and as he cannot lye nor deny himselfe Tit. 1. 2. No more can his truth faile Num. 23. 19. God is not as man that he should lye or the sonne of man to repent his truth is confirmed strengthened veryfied and so corroborated toward us for so the word translated great in the Originall signifieth that if we would we cannot put it from us but it will overcome us to acknowledge it if the Lord speake it even to the miraculous continuing of the Meale in the barrell and the Oyle in the Cruse 1. King 17. 14. Even in the preservation and maintenance of the Patriarch Iacob Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy the least of thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed vnto thy servant heere is finem non habitura fides his truth is even decked and clothed with constancy and firmnesse we cannot obiect against him as the Poet against Iason and in him against vnstable Man Mobilis AEsonide vernaque incertior aura Cur tua polliciti pondere verba earent Inconstant sonne of AEson fickle wight and more vnconstant then the wind in spring How is it that thy words are growne so light to want that weight should be in promising He deserves not with Antigonus to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who promised much and performed little neither with Thaeaginus to be called smoake who promised much being very poore neither with Hermodorus will he sell his words he doth not will not cannot equivocate with man in the truth of his promises as he that promised centum oves and performed centum ova he hath given us an hand-writing and obligation of promises made himselfe our debter not by owing but promising sayth the great Bishop of little Hippo the heavenly Augustine that we cannot say vnto him give that thou owest but we must pray vnto him for what he promiseth his promises are not like the golden shewes nor showers of the World who like Sathan Mat. 4. 9. promise what they cannot perform inverting the words of the wise Phocion who would have great matters performed not promised as Stobaeus witnesseth but they promise golden mountaines the opulency of Lidian Craesus which in performance prove but moale-hills Among the sonnes of the earth some indeed performe that which after ward they repent as Ioshua did to the Gibeonites Ios 9. 23. some promise what they can doe but meane it not as Iacobs sonnes to the Sichemits Gen 34. 26. Some promise willingly but give vnwillingly as Herod Iohn Baptists head to Herodias Mar. 6. 16. Some promise but after deny it as Laban dealt with Iacob Gen. 29. 23. as is complained Cap. 31. 41. Thou hast changed my wages tenne times but the promises of God are to the faithfull in hope without hope above hope and against hope the father of the faithfull proved all this to be true Rom. 4. 18. Who against hope beleeved in hope that he might be the Father of many Nations the ground of whose Faith was the promise according to that which was spoken so shall thy seede bee Gen. 15. 5. This was accompted vnto Abraham for righteousnesse saith Ambrese because he beleeved and required no reason so the truth of the Lord endureth for ever Because he hath made his truth as strong as the brazen pillers of eternitie to encourage his servants wholly to relye vpon him expecting the performance of his promises he made them before the foundation of the World inact them in the great Parliament of Heaven before all time Ephe. 1. 5. they were and are firme stable great and precious to make us partakers of the divine nature 2. Pet. 1 4. performed in time when the time of promise came which God had sworne to Abraham given a word of prmoise Rom. 9. 7 in Isaac shall thy seede be blessed purposed salvation for us before the world began 2. Tim. 1. 9. Purchased inheritance of promise Heb. 6. 12. be not sloathfull but followers of them which through Faith and patience inherit the promises adopted as children of promise Gal. 4. 28. Now we brethren as Isaac are the children of promise drawne Covenants of promise Ephes 2. 12. The spirit of truth the Scrivener of them Ephes 1. 13. And sealed with the spirit of promise having set not onely his hand but the signet of his right hand the character ingraven image of his own person Amen The truth of the father 2. Cor 10. 10. All the promises of God are yea Amen in CHRIST which is the truth it selfe Reu. 3. 14. These things saith the Amen the true and faithfull witnesse the new convenant drawne Ier. 31. 31. And the counterpane thereof Heb. 8. 8. Are of more force and vertue then all the bills bonds and obligations be they never so curiously and cunningly framed in the winding Mâ—ander of a Ploydons braine Heaven and Earth shall passe ereone jot or title of these can perish nay if there were neither booke record inke or paper in the world they are written more surely then with a pen of Iron ingraven more firmely then with the point of a Diamond by the spirit of Gods grace and adoption in the heart of every beleever and further we have not onely his bond
sparing in some and too lavish and prodigail in others Obiect But it may be objected Valentinian the godly Emperor would be Baptised by none but Ambrose Answ The reason is apparant not to be respect of persons which caused him to travaile for Baptisme to Ambrose but because the Bishops of that time were generally possessed with Arianisme and scarce one so sound as Ambrose was the cause why he repaired thither But where Idolatry is banished Heresy demolished the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments established and sincerely delivered and administred Christ himselfe being the head and President over his Church giving gifts unto all that he sends though to some more to some lesse yet to all sufficient for their Calling Ephes 4. 11 We must not we ought not if we will escape the brand and marke of câ—rnall men have mens persons in admiration in setting one so farre before another to make them more than Christ himselfe ever made them which is to be instruments for the gathering of his Church It was his owne admonition Mat. 23. 8. Be ye not called Râ—â—bi for one is your Master which is Christ and he must be heard if he come in stammering Moses as well as in eloquent Paul or courtly Esay in the weakest and poorest of them Mat. 3. 17. and Math. 17. 5. This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him Neither must we idolatrously magnifie the creature to shrinke in and pinche and pinne up too streight the large glory of the Creator The wise man Wisd 14. 15. laying downe the ground-worke of all Idolatry and spirituall fornication saith thus A Father afflicted with untimely mourning when he had made an Image of his child soone taken away now honoured him as a God which was then a dead man and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and Sacrifices Thus we see out of the heat of a too ardent and earnest love transported in a preposterous current that is soone taken from the Creator and given to the creature and where that true-loving affection of man is placed there is way made for Idolatry if not rightly and strongly guided by the Spirit of Grace and thus we may offend even in things that are most deare most neare unto us in our wives children selfe love c. as 1 Sam. 2. 29. Eli honoured his children more than God Ambition in the disobedience of our first Parents in a selfe love to themselves is made the way to that fearefull Apostacy hence covetous men are called Idolaters Eph. 5. 5. Col. 3. 5. Mammon is the Idoll and the worldling the Priest that sacrificeth to their imprisoned god as the Gyants Aloydae did to their captived Mars And upon this he bestowes a double worship an inward for hee loves desires delights and trusts in his wealth and an outward for he spends most of his time upon his Idoll in gathering carefully keeping watchfully encreasing painefully and honouring dutifully his carved and painted God and yet the dust of earthly profits hath put out both his eyes that hee sees not his horrible Idolatry The like wee see Wisd 13. 1. c. The madnesse of man first to ascribe the praise due to the Creator to stockes and stones creatures insensible Secondly to men which are but dust and ashes vers 18. for health he calleth to that which is weake Thirdly to wicked men the worst of reasonable creatures and then even to Devils the enemies of God and man they gave that incommunicable name of God Thus by little and little the Devill brought on the highest pitch of Idolatry making the wayes of men and their Religion as uncertaine as Hanniball's crooked passages upon the Alpes That fooles make a mocke at sinne Pro. 14. 9. and they erre in their hearts not knowing the wayes of God Psal 95. 10. Thus when we will set our hearts upon these sublunary and terrestriall vanities it is iust with God to make our ignorance both our sinne and our punishment that the ignorant Idolater may complaine with the wicked Wisd 5. 6. Therefore have we erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us and the Sunne of righteousnesse rose not upon us we wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction yea we have walked through deserts where there lay no way but for the way of the Lord we have not knowne it Neither must we with these bezling Bacchanalians of Belshazzar swallowing his last draught in the sacred bolles which his father had sacrilegiously taken from the Temple drinke wine and praise the Gods of gold Silver Iron brasse wood Dan. 5. 4. neglecting to praise and glorifie the God in whose hand our breath is and whose are all our wayes sacrificing to our cuppes and our cannes our nets and our navigations Thus as though we had made an atonement with death and an agreement with hell Esay 28. 15. Though we be poysoned with the drowsie venome of the Aspe securely snorting in the fooles Paradise and enchaunted castle of this ebrietie swimming in the charmed cupps of Calypso and the dangerous drugges of Circes we are for all this in no more saftety than â— man sleeping in the midst of the Sea or upon the top of the tottering maste of a shippe Pro. 23 34. and though it have the face of beauty yet in the end it bites like a Serpent armed in the taile with the sting of a Cockatrice and though wee misse the heavy doome of Elpenor who in this madnesse was sent to the grave if not to the horrible pit with a broken necke Yet let every intemperate Helluâ— and grape-devouring panther the auncient Hierogly phicke of this vice know that without his speedy amendment his belly is his God and he glories in his shame a fearefull destruction waites his cursed end Phil. 3. 18. For he is a lover of pleasure more than of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. Neither must wee place in this our Hallelu-jah an admiration of any superstition be it as auncient as the Embryons world in its nonage like those Ephesians Acts 19. 28. for their she god Diana erring in the knowledge of the true God which is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and trueth Io. 4 24. or like those famosed Idolaters Ier. 44. 17. Wee will burne incense to the Queene of heaven and powre out drinke offerings vnto her as wee have done and our Fathers our Kings and Princes have done in the Cities of Iudah and in the Streetes of Ierusalem for then had we plenty of all things wee were then well and sawe no evill See wee not this foolish generation to continue praising the superstitious times of heathenderived Popery even wholly sprung out of superstitious Gentilisme as hath bin proved their outward showes and their antique fashions in crossing creeping washing elevating their new-made god c. that we might wonder at them as sometime M. Cato did
comming a plaine testification of their calling which afterward increased as the sand of the Sea the daughter of Aegypt forgot her fathers house and the prophane barren Gentile bore children unto God The wise men come here among the Iewes as Apostles and teachers of their Rabbinicall Doctors that so long had held the chaire of Moses blind fat-bellyes that could not see so farre as the auncient Sybils or those strangers that so oft had tossed over those divine Oracles of this starre of Iacob and the mighty volumes of their Master Moses but Thou O God hidest those things from the wise and prudent of the world and revealest them to babes and sucklings even so it is thy will Thou pullest downe the mighty from their seate and exaltest the humble and meeke Luke 2. revealing that mystery that was hid from ages and generations Testified likewise Iohn 4. 27. he is found talking with a Gentle-woman shewing himselfe to be a Iesus a Saviour to her vers 10. If thou knewest the gift of God that is mee which am given of my Father 2 Cor. 9. 15. so called by the Apostle Thankes be unto God for his unspeakeable gift And if thou knewest mee which am the true immortall Ambrosia Nectar and aqua vitae of the Soule-sicke sinners The fountaine of living waters Ier. 2. 13. The fountaine of Israel Psal 68. 26. all this he is even to the Gentile Iohn 4. 26. I that speake unto thee am hee I am the expectation of you Gentiles The sides of the North which Satan challenged for his owne seate and Pontificiall throne Esay 14. 13 are become the Citie of the great King Iesus Christ Psa 48. 3. so that even as a stone though malleable is hardly brought to frame and square to his fit place in a building yet being laboriously hammered is durable and of long continuance so the Gentiles were a most crabbed wilde stocke to plant in a most crooked timber to hewe for Gods building yet being planted and brought to the faith they are most permanent gathered into the inclosed garden of Gods Church Reason 1. That they might shewe forth the wonderfull riches of Gods mercy the greater the sinner the richer the mercy that saves him as Gods mercy appeared more in calling one covetous Publican one incontinent Magdalene one Saul as bloody as Nero or Iulian one lost sheepe to be brought home Luk. 15. one prophane Gentile than in a multitude that needed no repentance It is a greater worke of Gods divine majestie to change a wicked man to a godly than of nothing to erect the glorious arches of thewhole world as Paul said of himselfe Where sin abounded there grace more abounded 1 Tim. 1. 16. For this cause I obtayned mercy that in me first Christ Iesus might shew forth all long suffering for a patterne to them which should hereafter beleeve on him to life everlasting As the Orator spake He that exalts his dejected adversary to his auncient place and dignities and not onely thus but amplifies his honours I not onely comparatively equall him with the best of men but judge him most like to God himselfe It is the glory of a King to passe by offences saith Eccles so is Gods mercy made great in pardoning the innumerable sinnes of the East the abhominations of the Gentiles In the East was the fall of our first Parents the unbeleefe of Eva the disobedience of Adam Gen. 3. the fratricide of Cain Gen. 4. Nimrods rebellion first Idolatry Magicke delivered and taught by those Phantasticke divels Incubus and Succubus with many more so that here is the magnifying of his mercy also of his glory As it is a great glory to a King to have strangers from remote parts of the world to bring presents and submit themselves to his scepter and governement So is it to have the raging Gentiles that so long had bandied themselves against the Lord and his annoynted to yeeld their necks under his yoake and those lands which like Ezechiels bloudy pots had nought but theyr scum in them full of Mephyticall stinckes like the five Cities or like the pot among the children of the Prophets in which was nought but death and the entoxicating poyson of abhominable villaines should at the last like Noahs sacrifice be a favour of rest in the nosthrils of Almighty God pots of holinesse like those in Zach. 13. last And so here is the mercy love and glory of God manifested in the calling of those long-loathed Gentiles Thus wee see Christs Kingdome according to his promises and prophecyes reaching from sea to sea and from the great river to the ends of the World as the Angell said Of his Kingdome shall be no end not onely in regard of the stability and durance but also of the boundlesse interminable amplitude thereof The Ocean shall not bound his regiment His fame shall flie above the firmament Else where had beene those huge Nations which have bin converted to the faith some by Apostles c. to omit the rest our selves which long lay in the darknesse of superstitious Gentilisme and of late times by those famous Colonies in Virginia brought from worshipping of Divils mirabile dictu to worship the true God in spirit and truth the instruments of whose happy calling were our famous English If the mercy of God had not appeared how had wee and the most part of the world still remained in horrible blindnesse slaves to Satan and heires of eternall perdition Come unto us then miserably blinded Turkes Infidels and Pagans and we will tell you what God hath done for our soules we have tasted how true how gracious the Lord is the Sea of knowledge which Esay spake of is accomplished among the Churches of the Gentiles Ieremie said They should come unto God from the ends of the earth and it is fullfilled the concourse to the preaching of the Word foretold by Micah and Zacharie is verified Mic. 4. 1. Zach. 8. 20. This day are these Scriptures fulfilled in our eares Thus much for confirmation of the Doctrine the uses follow First to teach us to magnifie the glorious name of God who hath called us out of darknesse into the marveilous light of the saving knowledge of Christ If we should make a quare with David concerning the generall estate of man What is man that thou art so mindfull of him or of himselfe What am I and what is my Fathers house Why we were even a refused people in whom there was neither favour nor beauty without hope without God in the World children even whose profession was disobedience drowned in the sinke of abhominations Our religion if we had any was mere idolatry Quicquid humus pelagus coelum mirabile gignit Id dixere Deos colles freta flumina flammas What'ere the God of nature hath made strange In Sea in earth in hill floud fire
thou returne I will bring thee againe and thou such stand before mee and if thou take the previous from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth Where he is given to understand that if he continued in negligence he should cease to be a Prophet unto God which will be sanctified of all but especially of such as carry the vessels of the Sanctâ—ary and goe before the aske The Kindome of Assyria Esay 13. 3. is said to be sanctified for Gods anger in the destruction of his enemies If then there be a kind of sanctification for the worke of destruction then much more for that great and glorious worke of edification in Gods Church When Nadab and Abihu had broken the commandement of God in offering strange fire Moses to satisfie Aaron tells him that the Lord will be sanctified of all them that come before him God hath given man two hands not to build with the one and pull downe with the other but to buld with both Take heede then of falling away with Demias least by thy decay in love to religion thou pull downe the Church of God and 1 Cor. 3. 17. If any man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are If then he spared not the sacrilegious prophaners of his earthly temple as in Balthazar Dan. 5. 1. Helidorous 2 Mac. 3. 15. and that notorious rob-Church Dionysins but brought them to fearefull ends Much lesse will be spare the prophaners of his spirituall Temple but for thy wickednesse will in fatuate thy gifts remove thy calling from thee or thee from it as he did the king dome from Saul and gave it to another or as he dealt with those ingratefull Iowee The world is a Spirituall spittle and in the Church are some languishing in a consumption some sicke unto death in a spirituall leprosy some slumbring in a deepe security in imminent danger yet not perceiving it as the drunkard Prov. 23. 34. sleeping upon the toppe of a mast or poysoned with Aspes which causeth death sleeping or with the roote Halicacobus Some wanting a Cordiall and others a Corrasive some Moses to launce them and others CHRIST to heale them some a sound from Sinai others a song from Sioâ— some the râ—d of Moses others the pot of Mauna Now the Minister here is sent to play the part of a Physitian or Chirurgian as CHRIST himselfe Esay 61. 1. To heale the broken hearted Ezech. 34. 16. the office of a Pastor to seek that which was lost to bring againe that which was driven away to binde up that which was broken and to strengthen that which was weake or as Eliphea testifies of Iob. chap. 40 3. He strengthened the weake hands and fee ble knees CHRIST commends the halfe dead traveller to the Minister as to an hoste to cure his wounds and to care for his promise provision Luke 10. 34. Now if the Physitian himselfe be sicke how can he cure the disease How can he heale the plague-soares of firme that hath the boyle of the same pestilence raging in himselfe First then cure and heale thy selfe cast the beames out of thine owne eyes least God deale with thee as he did to the Minister of Ephesus Revel 2. 5. confiscate thy Candlesticke and take away thy graces and leave thee bare and barren Therefore be carefull to admonish them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weake be patient toward all men 1 Thess 5. 14. The second is concerning the whole body politick and Ecclesiasticall both for the Church and common wealth If the people decay in love to the Word to Religion to holinesse and godlinesse as sometime backsliding Israel did Esay 1. 6. From the sole of the foote to the crowne of the head there is no foundnesse but soares wounde and putrifying bruises and live in drunkennesse prophanenesse atheisme infidelity and contempt of God this will procure the removeall of the Gospell and of all Religion Hos 9. 7. The prophet is a foole and the man of the spirit is mad This is a fearefull judgement and if we aske the cause it is for the multitude of thine iniquitie and the great hatred for the sinne of the whole Church God doth send unsanctified foolish ignorant and wicked Ministers Ierem. 5. 13. For the backesliding Apostacie of Israel the Prophets shall become winde and the Word is not in them Ierem. 14. 14. They prophecie lies in Gods Name Thus doth God give up men to strong delusions to beleeve lies because they love not the truth 2 Thess 2. 13. Thy sins and the sinnes of the Church withhold good things from thee Ier. 5. 25. even to take away from thee his Word as he did the Arke which was the glory of Israel 1 Sam. 4. 22. Heare this then ye prophaners of Gods Name contemners of his Word and yee backesliding Apostates that have turned your Religion into policie your zeale into luke-warnenesse like Ephraim a cake not turned Hos 7. 8. that have a knee for God and a knee for Rimmon 2 King 5. 18. halting betwixt two opinions 1 Kings 18. 21. that can hold the Religion stamped with the Image of the most High and yet mixe it with the paintings and false complexions of the purple Harlot the Whore of Babylon It is recorded of a certaine Soldan which died at the Siege of Zigetum who being perswaded by the Muphti a Bishop or Patriarke among the Mahumetan Turkes not to suffer so many Religions as were in his Dominions He answered that a Nosegay made of divers flowers was the sweeter which may be true in a Posie because they may be all flowers but in Religion they must be all weedes and heresies tares and the conceits of men except onely the flower which is the truth But there is no communion with CHRIST and Beliall with the truth and falshood with God and Baal with the Gospell and Popery Saint John could not endure to be in the bathe with Cerinthus Ieromes pen was like a lance charged against Vigilantius Iovinian and others and Augustine spake in his disputations against the Donatists and Manichces Arians and Pelagians hotte coales of Iuniper words armed with aequa fortis steeped in vinegar and could not endure Idolatry while he reigned If wee rent then the seamelesse coate of CHRIST and become luke-warme Laodiceans Reu. 3. 17. God will speâ—e vs out of his mouth abhorre us as a thing that is rawe What ought wee to doe then that have by our continuall rebellions und wicked backslidings even moved to anger the Holy one of Israel but humble our selves in repentance that God in tender compassion may remove our judgements and continue his Gospell the lanthorne and light of his word the marke and character of his love among us as he hath promised Ier. 18. 8. If that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill
and counterpane thereof but for our better assurance wee have his oath Gen. 22. 16. I have sworne by my selfe as much as if he had said let me be no more God if these things be not performed thus Isa 45. 23. sometime for this purpose he sweareth by his Soule Ier. 51. 14. Amos 6. 8. by his Name Ier. 44. 26. by his Holines Amos 4. 2. by his right hand Isa 62. 8. so to sweare by himselfe his Name Holinesse c. are all one contrary to Philo the Iewe who would have God to sweare by himselfe and man by his attributes thus God for our assurance deales with us like a debter who for the certainty of payment pawns his Faith Truth Soule and sometime his God and this promise was so Sacred even in the light of Nature that Adesilaus King of the Lacedemonians thanked Tissiphernes for breaking his promised truce because by this breach he had incurred the anger of the Gods if thus inviolable in Man how much more in God who will not falsifie his truth nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth Psal 89. 33. and whose truth of promise is so confirmed in his CHRIST Rom. 15. 8. It was the worthy resolution of the Prophets long before the actuall incarnation of CHRIST and the reall performance of that great mysterie 1 Tim. 3. 16. that he would performe his truth to Iacob Mic. 7. 20 that he is the Lord Iehova and changeth not Mal. 3. 6. and that he is faithfull 2 Tim. 2. 13 so that his truth endureth for ever And that we may be the more assured of this turth for our third Reason let us looke a little into the all-sufficiency of his power and launch our selves into the mayne Ocean of his omnipotencie David tels us Psal 115. 3 hee hath done whatsoever pleased him he hath potentiall power by which he is able to doe more then he will As of stones to rayse up children to Abraham Math. 3. 9. to send 12 legions of Angels to rescue our Saviour CHRIST from the Crosse Math. 26. 53. to built a thousand worlds c. But his will is the limmit of his power In his actuall power by which he mightily works in the daily preservation and gubernation of his creatures he works not with wearinesse irkesomenesse or tediousnesse but without all impediment not as Man in the sweate of his face but in the whole Hexameron and worke of Creation he onely spake the Word and they were made successively in order by his word onely he causeth the thunder which is his glorious voyce the Hindes to calve and the whole course of nature to be continued in her severall species without controlment so that whether wee respect his principall promise in sending CHRIST the desire of all nations or his inferiour lesse principall all are surely sealed duely to be performed unto us and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever But it may be obiected against the faithfulnes of Gods truth Gen. 12. 7 hee promiseth to give Abraham the land of Canaan but he inherited it not as the protomartyr witnesseth Acts 7. 4. God brought him in but gave him no inheritance in it no not the breadth of one foote Resp Though Abraham did not personally possesse it yet he may be said to inherite it two wayes First mystically as it was not onely a fertile fruitfull and country in Asia as Scicilia to Italie but likewise it did Typically shadowe the Kingdome of Heaven the celestiall Canaan the Church Tryumphant and this did Abraham inherit in his owne person called his owne bosome Luke 16. 23. into which all the faithfull are gathered as into a sure haven out of the raging stormes of the glassie Sea the brickle world Rev. 4. 6. So that God in the performance of his promises though he give not the samething yet hee give something equibalent as to Iosia 2 Kings 22. 10. Though he gaue him not long life the promised portion to obedient children Exo. 20. 12. yet he gave him a more excellent thing taking him from the evill which presentlie upon his death fell heavily vpon his people and giving him a better life in Heaven Secondly he may be said to inherit it though not in his owne person or his immediate seede yet in his posterity 430 yeares after the promise was made as the Apostle proveth Gal. 3. 17. so though not to the same parties yet to their successors the truth of God is surely performed the godly mans patience is expected for Hab. 2. 3. the vision is for an appoynted time though it tarty waite for it which shall surely come and not stay thus Psal 97. 11. Light is sowne for the the righteous not in the harvest but in the seede time thy harvest is but in hope as the husbandman casteth his seede into the ground and is content to stay the time of the reaping so must wee waite for the promises And though yet hee hath not gathered the dispiered of Iacob his ancient people yet the time shall come when the Shulamites shall returne and the spirit of grace shall be powred upon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem Zach. 12. 10. CHRIST himselfe the coyne or corner stone and to joyne together those two great seeds the Iewes and Gentiles as by a corner two wals which otherwise were broken a sunder are joyned and made one and the building perfected Ephes 2 20. and thus of the truth of all his promises revealed to his Church from time to time sealed by the infallible witnesse of the Spirit of truth even to Peters vision Acts 10. 19 are and shall surely be performed so the Doctrine is confirmed against all Atheists that doubt of any of the particulers and say 2 Pet 3. 5. Where is the promise of his comming and against all those by whom the way of truth is blasphmed and evill spoken of let God be true and every Man a lyer Rom. 3. 4. To teach us to make the truth of God in his promises the ground worke of our comfort stedfastly setling our faith and full assurance thereon devote Barnard in the consideration of this truth was even ravished in an holy extasie saying O the wonderfull love of God in our adoption the trueth of his promises and his power in their performance we must beleeve with Abraham beleeving above hope though in mans reason they seemed to be frustrate as those millions of Nations to issue out of halfe sacrificed Isaac and with faithfull Paul who in his dangerous voyage to Rome a great tempest arising neither Sunne nor Starres appearing for many dayes and being hopelesse of all safety Acts 27. 20. saw by the vision of his faith and comforts the Marriners that there should be no losse of any mans life but onely of the Ship and with David Psal 77. 2 â—n the day of my trouble I sought the Lord c. when his Soule
6. and to the Spirit which is the spirit of truth 1 Iohn 5. 6. What shall wee say then of these spurious brats of Sathan which beare his image and superscription in their lying dissembling false swearing undermining ledgier-dumaine c. which have the deepenesse of craft in the center of their hearts whose sinne of lying goes not alone like the Raile but like the Partridge in covies coupled and yoaked with the Theefe as his fittest copesmate Zach. 5. 4. Let our Saviour CHRIST bee the Herald to derive theyr base pedigree and lyneall discent Iohn 8. 44. You are of your father the Devill he was a lyer from the beginning so are yee as like as one apple to another and how many of these Cratians Tit. 1. 12. which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes lyers Irijahs and false accusers Iere. 37. 13. bearing in his tongue the image of his patron which is called an Accuser Rev. 12. 20. How many covetous lying Gehezies which beare the marke of their infamous leprosies to their graves 2 Kings 5. 25. how many dissembling Ziba's 2 Sam. 16. 2. undermining the honest hearted Mephibosheth how many like the false and perjured Elders against the innocent Susanna in whose gray beards and grave heads should have shined the lustre and splendor of truth and honestie yet filled with in continency and perjury How many of such false witnesses as were suborned against our Saviour CHRIST Math. 26. And those perjured wretches which out of their venemous hearts and mouths belched out those false accusations and foule aspersions upon the sincere Narcissus sometime Byshop of Ierusalem Al which three were shortly after rewarded with the due desert of perjury how many of those monsters of men who in the dayes of that Virag the mirror of Fame of more than famous memory have not onely multiplyed and variated strange and hell-bred plots and Iesuiticall more than Italianated complots against her Sacred person crowne and Kingdome like those monsters in Affrica every day a new conspiracy but even after her death to cast the venome of their more then malicious spite upon her immaculate Virgin soule that rests with her God Nec mors mihi finiet iras Saeva sed in manes manibus arma dabo It is not death can end my endlesse wrath But Spite shall rake her ashes Envie saith Hence then thou sublimated malice among the infernall Spirits her incorruptible part is gone to God that gave it how many of those dogged Doegs 1 Sam. 22. How many Ananiasses and Saphyraes Acts 5. with thousands more which like locusts cover the surface of the Earth is not the Starre Wormewood fallen into the glassie Sea of this world and hath poysoned it the whole world lyes in wickednesse 1 Iohn 5. 19. There is none that doth good no not one Psal 14. 3. Truth is parted from the Sonnes of Men Psal 12. 1. Every man is a lyer Rom. 3. 4. the abstruse Hypocrite thinkes all simplicity faulty and truth scarce warrantable Learne then beloved from aged Eleazer 2 Macchab. 6 24. who going to his death because he would not eate Swines flesh unlawfull to the Iewes profession was counselled for the saving of his life to dissemble faine the eating thereof but he considering his age his gray haires his Godly education c. answered It becommeth not our age in any wise to dissemble So a Christian bearing in his crest the Armes of Heaven being a Knight of the conquering order of Saint Vincent and of the red Crosse must not defraud his brother in any matter for God is the avenger of all such things 1 Thes 4. 6. neither dissembling in matters of Religion which is a capitall lye nor in civill affaires as being pernicious nor in the least kinde which may be officious for none of these are justifiable being layd in the ballance of Gods truth Quisquis esse aliquid genus mendatij quod peccatum non sit putarit seipsum decipit Hee that thinkes any the least kinde of lye to be no sinne deceives himselfe for No lye is of the truth 1 Iohn 2. 21. for the severall kindes of lying and dissembling reade at large Augustine de mendacio ad consentium Further that wee may be drawne to love the Truth let us consider the Iudgements of the true God against the enemies of his truth Psal 5. 6. He will destroy them that speake lyes him that in the one closet of his heart sees a dissembling lye and in the other Cabinet conceives the Embryo of truth Psal 55 23 Bloody and deceitfull Men shall not live out halfe their dayes Wisd 1. 11. The mouth that belyeth sleyeth the Soule Iohn makes it a marke of Reprobation Revel 21. last Whose portion is the flying Booke of Iudgements Zach. 5 4. and Revel 22. 15. Lyers are the blacke guests entertained in the same ranke with Murtherers Adulterers Witches Dogs and the Divels Machivistians which must be without and have their portion in vtter darknesse Nec artificioso mendatio nec simplici verbo opertet quenquam decipere quia quomodo libet mentitur quis occidet animam suam We must not deceive eyther by artificiall Lying or by pretended Simplicity for by what meanes soever a Man doth lye hee destroyes his owne soule Turpis est omnis fraus etiam in rebus vilibus Dissimulation in the least things is abominable See the all-just God justly punishing Vladislaus a Christian King of Poland and Hungarie because hee broke a Truce dissembling with Amurath the 6. an irreligious Turke with a great overthrow of 30000. at Berna a just revenge for perfidious dissembling The like may be seene upon equivocating Arrius who being called to the Councell of Constantinople that there hee might renounce his Heresie deceives those Fathers by a paper in his bosome in which he had written his Heresie swearing hee beleeved as he had written meaning in a divelish mentall reservation his hereticall position which hee kept in secret but see the justice of God following him at the heeles for presently after by the loosnesse of his Belly in the sodaine terrour of his Conscience sinne lying now at the doore hee empties his very bowels into the draught so taking his last farewell of the world a just judgement upon perfidious Equivocators and enemies of the Truth And I would to God that the maintayners of mentall reservation cunningly contriving their mixt propositions partly mentall partly vocall seeking hereby to delude the truth would looke upon and consider these Examples upholding that Monster which no doubt was first bred and brought to light from the darke Cells of the State-undermining Iesuits these Assassionates as they have severall and sundry many and manifold policies especially in the Elders and Fathers of that Order as hath beene discovered in their subterranious vaults in their severall Colledges so have they likewise severall Names in every new Christened
The second is shewed in forgiving the pâ—ecept of which is laid downe Eph. 4. 32. Forgiue one another as God for CHRISTS sake forgave you when our Saviour CHRIST had laid it downe in that methodicall Prayer commended and commanded to his Church Mat. 6. 12. And that vnder paine of excommunication from God retaliating vpon vs the same measure we offer to others knowing our backward perversnesse in performing those duties of love especially this of forgiving he begins a fresh Sermon Verse 14. Drawne from the law of equity by which we shal be measured If you will not forgive men their trespasses no more will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses In the parable of the vnmercifull servant Mat. 18. 34. How sharpely doth our Saviour reprehend him O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst mee shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow as I had pitty on thee and his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors c. Pro. 19. 11. It is the glory of a man to passe by offences Yet not in a foolish pitty as Ahab with Benhadad 1. King 21. letting him escape whom the Lord had commanded to be slaine or to take away the sword from the secular Magistrate the Kings owne Sonne borne of his Grace and soveraignety for he is appointed to punish offenders whose ordinance is from God Rom. 13. 4. of such Deut. 19. 13. Their eyes must not spare the offenders whose escapements by their negligence shal be required at their hands but of revenge for private wrongs to take the sword of Iustice into our owne hands how dare we when God hath threatthreatned by the mouth of truth it selfe that their shal be iudgement without mercy to him that sheweth no mercy and he that forgiveth not must never be forgiven how many woes then lye vpon this Iron age wherein we live how many of those barbarous Scythians which seeke no iustice but by bloody cruelty sword and revenge to right themselves say not then I will recompence evill but waite vpon the Lord and he shall save thee Prov. 20. 22. How many are there whose hearts are as hard as the nether mill-stone and whose hands are withered like the hand of Ieroboam which they cannot stretch forth to give any thing If they give it is for their owne ends and not for the affliction of Iosoph Amos 6. 6. Which with many more showes that we are but emptie barrels sounding but holding no liquor our professions like the bird with the great voyce but almost no body and as we know not how to give no more doe we how to forgive our private grudges heart-burnings and continuall suits which makes one cluster of humane Lawe more esteemed then the whole Vintage of divine Law proclaime that our profession is nought but policie our cases in Law more worth than the cases of Conscience Lastly this doctrine serveth as a Counterplea to a false Challenge made by the wicked and vnregenerate Man daring in his presumptuous security to challenge those mercies of God as his owne by free Charter like the Divels lay claime to the whole World Mat. 4. 9. All these things will I give thee pretending them all to be his owne free Lordship but Dan. 4. 21. It is Iehovah the most high God that beareth rule over all the Kingdomes of Men giveth them vnto whom he will Or like the deepe Lunatike who dreames of Kingdomes and greatnesse being poore or like the Foole in Athens who challenged all the Ships in the port and all the riches that came to the Citty to he his when in the meane time hee had scarce a rag to cover himselfe withall or like Isaiahs Dreamer dreaming of eating drinking but waking his soule is emptie hungry and thirsty Or like Charles the 7. king of France being by our victorious English and that warlike Edward named the Blacke-prince almost expelled and expulsed his whole Kingdome was called King of the poore Biturgians a King without a Kingdome So doe the wicked claime an interest in Gods mercies CHRIST indeed is sufficient for all but not efficient to all Ioh. 1. 12. To as many as received him he gave power to be called the sonnes of God He came to all but all receives him not The mercies of God Psal 120. Are from ever lasting to everlasting Great are thy tender mercies Psal 119. 156. but it is vpon them that feare him Mal. 4. 2. Vpon such the Sunne of Righteousnesse shall shine with healings in his wings as the Sunne is cheerefully pleasant to eyes that be found so it is troublesome to the sore so is CHRIST IESVS in his rising and even as a halfe blind man passing over a narrow bridgevsing spectacles which make the bridge seeme broader then it is the blind man being thus deceived falls headlong into the water So by the spectacles of corrupt naturall reason and presumption which the wicked man lookes through the mercy of God which is the bridge is made too broad his iustice shruck too narrow leaning vpon the one forgetting the other till he tumble downe into the brimstone Gulfe of perdition so that thou must know saith Stella that as he is mercifull so is he iust and of most exact integrity Zeph 3. 5. The iust Lord is ia the middest of his Temple he will doe no iniquity every morning doth he bring his iudgement to light Therefore doth he punish most heavily in regard of the weight and greatnesse of sinne most justly because of the holinesse of his Law and most certainely because of his integrity truth In this regard Nehemiah Chap. 9. 33. acknowledgeth Thou O lord art iust in all that is come vpon vs for thou hast dealt truely but we have done wickedly Mercy and justice walking in a iust Paralell with God humble thy heart than and examine thy selfe if thou lye with Moab corrupted vpon the lees and dregs of Swearing Lying Stealing c. Thy claime to Gods mercies is nought thou art in the gall of bitternesse having neither part nor portion in this businesse Act. 8. 21. Be ye not deceiued 1. Cor. 6. 9. The vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God No vncleane thing is written in the Booke of the Lambe Reu. 21. 27. Be thou then obedient to the Heavenly vocation and the mercie of God shall imbrace thee on every side The second motive inioyning us to the duty of praise is drawne from the truth of the Lord that is the stedfast mutability and the vnchangable constancie of his promises the most certaine and continuall testimonies of his Grace in sending CHRIST and in him performing all those Covenants betwixt him and his people Sometime truth is taken as opposed to all the outward Leviticall cerimonies onely shaddowing the Messiah to come Ioh. 4. 23. The time shall