Sufferings shall speedily determine their Joys shall never end For when life is ended all these Conflicts and cruel Fights are ended and they are instantly at rest cease from all their Labours and are secured of their eternal full Glory 3. A thousand years with Man are but as one day with God and in this â—espect his stay till the last Saint shall be perfected and finally Victorious is not much 4. When the day appointed is once come he will not stay an hour no not a minute He will rend the Heavens and come down and do glorious things And is his coming so certain and so speedy and hath God said so why should we be impatient and complain of delay The Saints of God sometimes will cry out Oh when shall these Labours these Difficulties these Sufferings of ours have an end How long will my Saviour delay his Coming When will he come in the Clouds of Heaven with all his holy Angels Shall I never see an end of this Battel and obtain a final Victory and so triumph for ever And the Church is alwayes praying Come Lord Jesu come quickly To all this his answer is Surely I come quickly And Behold I come quickly and again Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to render to every one according to his Works Revel 22. 7 12 20. And if we will not be patient strive suffer and fight a little while and that for a great and glorious Reward which we shall receive certainly and without all doubt we shall render our selvs unworthy altogether of so blessed a Victory and so joyful a Triumph as God hath of his free and unspeakable mercy promised us § 39. Further to encourage them he proves the certainty of their Reward to such as persevere and his displeasure against all such as draw back out of the next words of the Prophet which he renders thus Ver. 38. Now the Just shall live by Faith but if â—â—y man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him IN the handling of these words we must consider 1. How they come in upon the former 2. To what end the Apostle doth alledge them 3. What the matter therein contained is 4. For particular and more distinct Explication reduce then to Propositions 1. They come in upon the former as agreeing with them in the matter which is the great Reward Yet they have more immediate Connexion with the words immediately aâ—tecedent 1. As being taking out of the same place of the Prophets 2. As signifying that when Christ shall come he will accept and reward those that persevere and reject the rest 2. The End Scope is to encourage them from God's own words and Promise for they are the words of God to persevere and not draw back 3. The material parts are two 1. The final Acceptation of such as persevere 2. The Rejection of such as do not but draw back The Propositions are two 1. The just shall live by Faith 2. If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him In the first Proposition we have 1. Faith 2. Righteousness 3. Life These three are subordinate for by Faith we attain Righteousness by Righteousness Life and by what we are justified by that we live No Faith no Righteousness no Righteousness no Life these three go together In the words we have two Propositions at least implied 1. We are justified or just by Faith 2. We are glorified and live by Faith According to the former Proposition the Apostle made use of this Text in the Prophet Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3. 11. to prove Justification by Faith in Christ without Works For because Man is sinful and guilty his Justification is Remission of Sin which presupposing the party penitent and believing depends upon the Satisfaction Merits and Intercession of Christ and the Mercy of God expressed in the Promise As there he makes use of this Text to prove gratuitous Justification so here he takes it up again to assure them that if they continue in this justifying Faith to the End in the End they shall live and be glorified and that Faith which is first justifying shall be Faith glorifying 1. We have Faith which is a divine practical Assent unto the saving Truths of the Gospel and a reliance upon the Promises of God And here it 's taken for this Faith continued to the End even in the midst of all Persecutions and Afflictions and includes the former continued Boldness of Profession with Patience and other heavenly Vertues with which it hath an inseparable Connexion and is the foundation of all 2. Upon Faith followeth Righteousness for the just have Faith and are just and justified by Faith For by just are here meant the justified by Faith according to the Tenour of the new Covenant For Man being sinful and guilty cannot be justified by his own Innocency Purity inherent Righteousness and perfect Obedience He is condemnable by Reason of his Guilt and is freed from Condemnation by deprecating the Wrath of the Supream Judg and pleading Christ's Sacrifice and God's Promise according to his penitent Faith God in justifying is merciful because the Person justified is a Sinner yet just because Christ hath suffered God hath promised and Man guilty doth believe This Justification doth not leave a Man under the Power and Dominion of Sin but in freeing from Guilt he renews and sanctifies him by his Spirit so that he is inherently righteous So that he is justified and inherently just yet the place is to be understood of such as are finally just as they are finally believing For he that hath Faith is just he that continueth in Faith continueth just and he that is finally believing is finally just 3. As guilty Man is just by Faith so being just he shall live by Faith By Life in this place is meant a spiritual happy and eternal Life the Life of Glory which is the great Reward which will certainly follow upon final Faith For it 's Faith which by vertue of Christ's Merit and God's Promise gives a Right to Life and upon a finall Faith the Possession and full Enjoyment of this blessed Life doth certainly follow The Duty therefore which the Apostle urgeth is final Perseverance in Faith and the Motive whereby he seeks to stir them up to Performance is the certain full Possession of the great Rewards for which he alledgeth God's own Word and Promise recorded in the Prophet And if they will hearken unto God speaking by the Prophet and take his Word and Promise there is great Reason why they should persevere § 40. As the former Reason is taken from God's Promise of Life so the latter is drawn from the Punishment and Displeasure of God which if they fall away they must suffer as certainly threatned by God For if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him The Proposition is hypothetical or compound and connex the Nature whereof is to deduce a Consequent from an
AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrewes Wherein The Text is cleared Theopolitica improved The Socinian Comment examined Optimus ille Lector est qui dictorum intelligentiam expectet ex dictis potius quà m imponant retulcrit magis quam attulerit neque cogat id videri dictis contineri quod ante lectioâ—em praesumpserit intelligendum Hilar. de Trinitate lib. 1. By GEORGE LAVVSON Rector of More in the County of Salop. LONDON Printed by J. S. for George Sawbridge at the Sign of the Bible on Ludgate-Hill 1662. THE EPISTLE MAny receive their Knowledg in matters of Salvation from the Words and Writings of other men upon trust and at the second hand But that is the most certain and purest Doctrine and the most effectual both to inform the Mind and ulso to reform the Heart and Life of ignorant and sinful man which is taken from the Scriptures clearly explained and truly understood And though there be many good and prositable Books yet those are the best which are written by learned and pious men who being endued with the knowledg of Arts and the Original Languages have by the assistance of God and their diligent study found out those hidden Treasures of heavenly wisdom contained in those blessed Writings Of this sacred Volume there be many parts and some more edifying than others and amogst the rest the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews is inferiour to none The Subject thereof is The Prophetical and Sacerdotal Office of Christ our blessed Saviour upon whom our eternal Salvation doth depend the Frame and Contexture is wonderful and excellent the Method clear and exact the Arguments whereby the Truth is confirmed demonstrative and undeniable the Motives whereby heavenly Duties are pressed piercing powerful and prevailing This I have singled out to be the Subject of the ensuing Discourse and after the Labours of other learned and worthy men have endeavoured in our native Language to make it plain and more easy to be understood by meaner Capacities and my earnest desire and hearty prayer is That it may have the same effect upon our Hearts which the blessed Apostle intended it should have upon these Hebrews My design in this Work principally was by searching the Original and the Translations to find out the sense of the Phrases and Expressions by giving the Analysis of the several Chapters by shewing the Connexion of one part with another and the tendency of them to the main Scope to make a positive clear Explication of the whole And by this I improve my Theo-Politica for divers points and parts of divine Wisdom concerning the Prophetical and Sacerdotal Office of Christ final Perseverance Faith the Sacrifice of our great High Priest but briefly touched there are more largely handled here Neither is this all but whilst I proceed in this Work I take notice of the Vanity of the Socinian Expositor who goes about to elude such Texts as asserts the Deity of Christ as the eternal Word of God whereby the World was made his Incarnation and his expiation of Sin by a bloody Sacrifice offered by him as Priest and accepted of God before his Ascension into Heaven and his Sâ—ssion at the right hand of God Where he was not first made but confirmed by Oath an everlasting Priest according to the Order of Melchizedec For all these he denies contrary to the scope of the Apostle and the express words of Scripture in other places Impertinent Digressions and needless Amplifications I have forborn I am neither too brief as some nor too large and voluminous as others have been I have endeavoured to observe the Golden mean My desire is by this Discourse to edify confirm and comfort God's People who aim at Heaven and seek eternal Life by our blessed Saviour The whole I submit unto the Judgment of the pious learned and judicious Reader who I hope will pardon my Imperfections correct my Mistakes accept my Endeavours and if he find the Work beneficial will give the Praise and Glory to God Who is blessed for evermore AMEN ERRATA PAge 1. line 29. 15. read 19. p. 2. l. 57. both infallible r. that infallbly p. 3. l. 22. dele sit p. 4. l. 58. there r. three p. 8. l. 1. he r. they p. 10 l. 5. dele Zurick p. 11. l. 10. sor Zanch. Divlnes r. or the Zurick Divines Ibid. l. 13. Zank read Zurick p. 14. l. 2. the r. they Ibid. l. 12. the r. they Ibid. l. 29. the r. their p. 20. l. 38. Rivera r. Ribera p. 21. l. 7. that r. they p. 25. l. 2. then some r. yet some p. 27. l. 28. so must r. so much p. 30. to Angels r. 1 ot to Angels p. 4. l. 25. in these r. in thesi Ibid. l 58. of those r. of those times p. 42. in the margent for Sacraments r. Ser mons p. 50. l. 1. our with r. with our Ibid. l. 8. then those r. then of those p. 63. l. 12. and invest men r. but actually investeth men p. 66. l. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 39. that they are r. that there are p. 77. l. 56. sussabdi r. jus subditi p. 78. l. 11. predicated r. predicate p. 88. l. 24. in r. in my Theopolitica p. 193. l. 15. r. Metaphorical not a Metaphorical p. 121. l. 33. 9. for 6. p. 127. l. 35. him r. them p. 130. l. 24. excepted r. accepted p. 13 r. l. 1. he r. they p. 152. l. 33. for 12. r. 1. 2. p. 160. l. 17. Being r. King p. 174. l. 5. pledges r. pleadet p. 177. l. 36. part r. party p. 188. l. 18. figured r. fig uring p. 192. l. 4. or if he do not believe it r. or if they do believe it p. 197. l. 56. Vetâ—siuâ— r. Velâ—sius his Copy p. 201. l. 32. Nobitius r. Nobilius p. 203. l. 10. Megittath r. Megillath p. 215. l. 56. any r. nay p. 225. l. 2. professeth r. professed Ibid. l. 8. as so r. so as p. 226. l. 14. dele or p. 243. l. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 245. l. 5. ter r. chapter p. 249. l. 7. meant r. made p. 251. l. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 256. after the last line blot out the word fountain p. 257. l. 13. end r. evil Ibid. l. 4. 49. stored r. stered p. 283. l. 46. impulsive mountains r. impossible mountains p. 290. l. 23. to referred r. to be referred p. 294. l. 9. descerti r. deserti p. 299. l. 56. deprivation r. depravation p. 303. l. 8. that we in r. that we may p. 304. l. 50. receiving r. reviving p. 312. l. 49. regeneration r. generation p. 312. l. 48. portions r. potions p. 340. l. 21. exhorted r. dehorted p. 342. l. 36. simple r. single Ibid. l. last prefection r. protection p. 343. l. 13. to on stand r. to stand on p. 349. l. 26. are all of us by nature r. even all us by nature are contrary A brief Analysis of the Epistle to the
Hell to our best friends to the end they may hate the one and escape the other Thus God doth in the Scriptures thus Christ often doth in his heavenly Sermons and useth this as a means to prevent their Damnation and promote their Salvation So that his former discourse was consistent both with Christian Charity and his good perswasion of them I am perswaded better things of you and such as accompany Salvation These words imply 1. That there were good things in them 2. He was perswaded of this The good things which in comparison of the former barrenness or fruitfulness in bringing forth briars and thorns and cursing and burning were better were 1. Their Qualification 2. Their Condition And they were better not because the other was good for they were not but very evil but because they were very good as the other were very bad This is a special kind of Phrase and Expression yet in some Languages ordinary yet it 's improper though elegant Some would call it a Mâ—iosis which is when more is meant than is expressed and so it 's reducible to a Synâ—chdochs Their qualification was from some heavenly vertues which did manifest themselvs in their practice their Condition was that of Salvation They were in the state of Salvation for their vertues were such as that by divine Ordination and Promise there was an inseparable Connexion between Salvation and them For Salvation and divine Graces go together in one Company the Graces go before Salvation follows after yet so that the Graces take hold of Salvation as the word in the Original signifies For such Christians as these Hebrews were have a present Right by Faith evidenced by the Works of Charity unto eternal life and Hope takes hold of it But what these vertues were we shall know from the next Verse 2. That these better things were in them the Apostle was perswaded that is he did not deny them no nor doubt of them but was confident of their good Qualification and Disposition § 10. Yet if a man be confident of another man's sincere Christianity he must have some ground sufficient for his confidence otherwise it 's vain and irrational Therefore he gives us the ground Ver. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love c. The ground of his confidence concerning 1. Their qualification was his Knowledge of their Divine and Christian virtues 2. Concerning their condition was his Knowledg of God's Righteousness In the first we may observe 1. Their virtues 2. The manifestation of them so as that he might know them The virtues were Faith and Love Faith in Christ Love of the Saints Their Love is expresly mentioned your labour of Love their Faith is implied in that it was toward his Name There were other virtues for these could not be alone as their Patience in suffering of Afflictions for Christ's sake and that with joy and their hope of Glory Chap. 10. 34. The manifestation of these was in their work and labour in continuing to minister unto the Saints whereof he had certain Knowledge Here we are informed that Love will be working and labouring and ever bringing forth fruit and that is not real and sincere Love which is not such Therefore another Apostle exhorts us not to love onely in tongue but in truth and in deed 1 John 3. 18. And what it is to love in truth and indeed is signified in the 16th and 17th Verses going before it 's to give the lives of our bodies for them and relieve them with our goods it's a dying and giving Love And happy they which find this heavenly fire burning in their Souls But in most men though professed Christians we either find no Love or if any it 's but cold it will neither take pains nor be at Charge much less hazard life for the Brethren as Christ gave his life for us This love was fixed upon the suffering Saints who were persecuted for Christ's sake they were the speciall Object of it and this did argue their Love to God and their Faith in Christ without which this love could not have been truly Christian Therefore the Apostle joyns Faith in Christ and Love to all the Saints together Col. 1. 4. By all which we may understand that there is a Connexion of divine vertues For where one is in sincerity there all the rest are they cannot be seperated This work and labour in particular was their Ministration to the Saints Where we must enquire 1. What this Ministration is 2. To whom they did minister 3. How long they did minister 1. This Ministration was a work of Faith and Love whereby they used all just and effectual means in their power to preserve maintain comfort deliver the Saints persecuted and suffering 2. These Saints were Christians which suffered banishment imprisonment loss of Goods and other earthly Comforts for the Profession of their Faith in Christ. And by this Suffering were they known to be Saints Therefore this Love was not meerly natural nor meerly Moral but truly Christian Love and so denominated from the parties that loved who are such as that we are bound to love them above others and this Love is that whereby we may know that we are passed from Death to Life 3. The continuance of this Love was that they had ministred formerly in time past and now for the time present they continued this Work of Love for Christian Love is an immortal fire it will still burn and never dy This Ministration was a great evidence of their good Qualification and a good and firm ground of the Apostle's perswasion The ground of his perswasion concerning their good condition was the Knowledge of God's Righteousness For God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love This Proposition is Negative and includes the Affirmative which is That God is fighteous and will remember their Christian Faith Love and good Works And it 's delivered Negatively to signify the infallible certain truth of the Affirmative for in this Case the Negative is more peremptory and emphatical The ground it self is thus expressed his Knowledge of it is implyed But let 's consider 1. What it is for God here to forget or remember 2. What it is for him to be righteous or not unrighteous 1. God can forget nothing at any time but alwayes remembers all things and the reason of this is the perfection of his Knowledge which is infinite as he himself is Therefore to forget in this place is not to take notice of their vertues and actions so as to recompense them To remember is so to regard them as to render a Reward To reward is an Act of God as a Supream Judge The Righteousness of God is his distributive Justice and faithfulness in performing his Promise in judging according to his Law And this rewarding of his loyal and obedient Subjects is a proper Act of his judicial Justice for God is the universal Judge and is
in it self but as it is an object of that hope which is a divine vertue and this eternal Life which though it be not the only yet is the principal object of our Christian hope Sometimes it 's taken properly for the expectation of this glorious and great Reward of eternal felicity It presupposeth Faith whereby we certainly believe it possible to be had and enjoyed with a vehement desire and longing after it And though the distance between us and it be great yet we are patient and willing to stay God's leisure There is a vain and groundless hope which is irrational there is a rational and probable hope yet not so firm and certain there is a firm and certain hope and that is when we have assurance of the thing hoped for This assurance also may admit of degrees for it may be full or not full This full assurance is the second thing and it 's that which removes all doubts and fears and this it may do at sometimes and not at others it may be interrupted or continued to the end This place speaks of full assurance of hope to the end This assurance will not be had much less continued to the end by sloth by diligence it may And so we are in the third place come unto the Duty which is to use all means and that with diligence whereby we may attain this assurance and continue it full unto the end And here he implies that they had been formerly diligent and so diligent as to have attained this assurance yet here he tells them 1. That they must continue the same diligence to the end 2. That the same diligence zeal affection they had shewed formerly being continued would serve the turn Assurance or certainty is either of the thing or the person The latter presupposeth the former for there can be no certainty to the person of a thing which is not certain in it self This certainty is in respect of the person who is either God or Man Eternal life is certain in respect of God who is able to give it and hath decreed so to do And that it might be certain unto us and that before the time of possession he hath signified his purpose bound himself by promise and confirmed his promise by Oath so that on his part it 's fully and every way certain Yet because the promise requireth a qualification and a performance of duty in the person to whom the promise is made therefore before we can be certain we must not only perform the duty and have the qualification but we must certainly know that we have done that which the Promise requireth and are duly qualified And the more clear and full the knowledg is the more full the assurance of hope and if this full knowledg continue this full assurance continueth to the end which is no groundless presumption but a firm and well-grounded hope Yet this is so to be understood that so far as Man may neglect his Duty and abate in the Qualification so far this assurance may abate If man's diligence in performing the Duty continue to the end this full assurance will do so too For to them who by patient continuance in well-doing shall seek Glory Honour and Immortality God will render eternal life Rom. 2. 7. Yet this patient continuance in well-doing depends upon God's special assistance and support For it 's God that worketh in us the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And this is the reason why we must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling The full assurance not only depends upon the merit and intercession of Christ the Decree Promise and Oath of God but also requireth the diligence of Man and the continual support of God God's support assistance and concurrence are alwayes ready yet so is not Man's diligence For the best and most confirmed Saints on Earth may sometimes be remisse and so have their failings whereupon follow desertions to their great discomfort Yet neither do their failings wholly annihilate Grace nor frustrate the final event but God sometimes in his wonderful wisdom by with-drawing his comforts awakens and quickens them to Duty and useth outward Afflictions as Chastisements to improve their inherent virtues and corrects them And in that he promiseth to be their Father he binds himself to Chastise them if need require Otherwise he should not take them as Sons but account them as Bastards and so utterly neglect them So that we may apply that of the Psalmist in this case If his Children for sake my Law and walk not in my Judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquities with Stripes Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Psal. 89. 30 31 32 33. So God's adopred Children may have their failings yet God will Chastise them that their Covenant may stand firm unto the end Yet let every one be diligent to the end and look for no comfort but upon performance of Duty For that God who is most merciful will be holy and just and he requires his Children should be so too Therefore let all those who have made so great a progress in Grace as to attain a full assurance of hope and a sight of their heavenly Canaan go on with all care and diligence for it 's a sad thing after that we are upon the borders of our heavenly Country to be turned back and wander in this Wilderness For Ver. 12. We must not be slothfull but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises § 14. THE Duty exhorted unto may be sufficiently understood by what hath been said already but that 's not sufficient it must be performed Yet who will go about it except it be reasonable And to manifest this is the next Work of the Apostle declaring the Reasons and Motives the first whereof is from Examples 1. Of many not named 2. Of Abraham in particular Examples do prove the Duty to be not onely possible but to have been actually performed and as such they do not bind though they may encourage but because the matter of them is something commanded they may and do oblige and not onely so but God commands us to imitate them and for that end makes them known and proposeth them yet in these patterns there is a special reason and motive superadded for as they by Faith and Patience obtained the Promises so shall we if we follow them The Persons intended are patterns for imitation in two things 1. The end whereat they aimed which was the attainment of the Promises 2. The means whereby they attained this end Faith Patience 1. They attained the Promises By Promises understand the things promised which were spiritual deliverances blessings and rewards and in one word Salvation yet temporal Mercies in reference to spiritual are not to be excluded For God
imprinted there more perfectly Yet the word turned Laws signifies in the Hebrew Doctrines And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ's Person Nature Offices and the Work of Redemption the Doctrines of Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and eternal Life and these either presuppose or include the Moral Law For they must be such Truths as are necessary and effectual to Man's Salvation without the Knowledge and practice whereof sinful Man cannot attain eternal Life Further they are Doctrines concerning Christ as already exhibited glorified reigning and officiating in Heaven 2. The Book or Tables wherein they must be written are the mind and heart of Man By Mind some conceive is meant the Understanding and by Heart the Will and rational Appetite But by both words are meant the immortal Soul endued with a Power to understand and will or nill that which is understood The word in the Hebrew turned by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind and intellective Faculty signifieth the inward parts because as the heart and reins are the inmost parts of the Body so the mind thoughts and rational Appetite are intima Anime the inmost parts if we may so speak of the Soul They are as it were the Center of that immortal Substance where all the active vigour and powers of the Soul are united There is the Spring and Original of all rational and moral Operations of all thoughts affections and inward Motions There is the directive Counsel and imperial commanding Power There is the prime Mover of all humane Actions as such This is the Subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural Truths and Doctrines and all Laws There divine Characters may be imprinted and made legible to the Soul it self This is the most noble and excellent Book that any can write in This is an Allusion to the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written for the Law was not written in the heart but in stone upon Phylacteries Frontlets Posts and Walls of their Houses And now the Scriptures and divine Revelations are written in Books so as that they are legible by the Eye they may be spoken and so uttered by Man as to be perceived by the Ear and from these be conveyed to the common sense and fancy and by degree be transmitted to the Soul which by them receives some imperfect representations not informations This immortal Soul is the Book or Table wherein these Laws and divine Doctrines must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man is God for it 's said I will give or put I will write He that said so was the Lord And it must be He because the Work is so curious and excellent that it 's far above the Sphere of created activity He alone can immediately work upon the immortal Soul to inform it move it alter it and mould it anew so as neither Man or Angel can do They may by the outward senses and the fancy come near the Soul but immediately prepare it and make lively Impressions and write clear Characters of divine Truth upon it they cannot They may move it and affect or disaffect it yet to take away the stony heart and make an heart of Flesh is far above their Power Therefore God doth alwayes ascribe this great Work unto himself 4. The Act and Work of this Pen-man is to write and write these Laws and write them in the heart How he doth it we know not That he doth it is clear enough His preparations illuminations impulsions inspirations are strange and wonderful of great and mighty force For in this Work he doth not onely represent divine Objects in a clearer light and propose high Motives to incline and turn the heart but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive Power whereby the Soul more easily and clearly apprehends and more effectually affects heavenly things The Effect of this Writing is a divine Knowledge of God's Laws and a ready and willing heart to obey them and conform unto them a Power to know and do the Word of God This is that Work of the Spirit which is called Vocation Renovation Regeneration Conversion actively taken without which Man cannot repent believe obey and turn to God It 's said to be a quickning of Man dead in sin a putting God's fear in Man's heart a putting God's Spirit within Man to cause him to obey his Laws a calling out of Darkness into Light a writing upon the fleshy Tables of Man's heart By this writing Man is said to have a new Heart and Spirit not that God creates in Man a new Soul or new Faculties but because he gives new Power new Light new Life new Qualifications so that Man is made partaker of a divine Nature and moulded anew with so much alteration that he is another Man though not for Substance yet for Qualities and Operations All this tends to an imperfect explication of this Promise wherein this new Covenant differs from and is more excellent than the former For that had no Promise of God's writing his Laws and Doctrines in Man's heart or of giving any sanctifying or renewing Power to enable them to observe and keep his Judgments Yet lest we mistake this excellent and most comfortable part of Scripture many things are to be observed 1. Concerning the Laws 2. Concerning the heart 3. Concerning God's writing in the heart 1. The Laws the Laws of God are written in the heart not the inventions fancies of men nor natural nor mathematical nor moral Philosophy much less the Errors and Blasphemies of Seducers and false Prophets It 's true that humane Learning and Languages are excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures and are great Blessings ordained of God for that end and being used with Prayer and sanctified may do much Yet we must know that these Doctrines are not only those of the Moral Law but these high Mysteries concerning Christ the Redemption Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and the eternal Punishments and Rewards in the World to come as they are revealed in the Gospel For the matter and subject of them is God's Kingdom and the Government of God-Redeemer ordering Man to his final and eternal estate as I have manifested in another Treatise 2. The heart of Man is by Nature a very untoward and indisposed Subject and not capable of these heavenly Doctrines It 's blind and perverse and there is an Antipathy between it and these Laws It hath some little parcels of the Law of Nature written in it but not any thing of these heavenly and evangelical Truths it neither knows them nor can relish them And when they are represented unto it yet it hath no intellective Power to understand them nor any Will or Desire to seek them or inclination to obey the Laws of God which direct unto everlasting life It 's not only ignorant but filthily blotted and blurred with Errours both in matters of Religion and humane Conversation And this is the condition not only of Heathens
Case When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13 10. Both Law and Gospel have their Teachers Teaching and the matter taught which is the Knowledg of the Lord and both agree thus far Yet they differ in the Quality Power and Manner in which respects the former shall cease and the latter continue There shall be no such Teaching under the Gospel as under the Law because there shall be a far better The second Enquiry is Whether these words are added to the former only for Explication or for to inform us of another distinct Promise Upon due consideration they may be found so to explicate the former as to add another Promise For they signify 1. That the end and issue of God's putting his Laws in their mind and writing them in their hearts is to know God the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent 2. To know God and Jesus Christ far more perfectly than ever they could do under the Law 3. To know him so as never to depart from him as their Fathers did 4. To know him so as that God should be their God for ever and bind himself in an everlasting Covenant unto them And this effect it should have not in a few but in very many of all sorts of all Nations And all and every one in whom he would thus write his Doctrines should thus know him fear him love him and obey him constantly and cheerfully so as they should not need either so much teaching admonishing threatning correcting punishing as they did under the Law nor be in such danger of departing and revolting from their God as their Fathers were For our God doth so deeply imprint his heavenly saving Truth in our hearts as that we shall be enamoured with Christ and so firmly adhere unto him as never to be separated from him This Effect it is not onely able to produce but hath actually produced it in thousands and millions This may be a new Promise whereby God doth engage himself not onely to be our God and take us for his People for a time but for ever For after once he becomes our God as here is meant he not onely rewards us but amongst other things doth continually minister unto us the sanctifying Power of his Spirit to enable us more and more to keep his Covenant that so in the end we may obtain the final and eternal Reward for he first writes his Laws in our hearts that upon our first Faith and Conversion he may first become our God and after he once is our God he writes them more and more that he may continue to be our God for evermore He will not only begin but finish the great Work of Salvation § 14. There is another Promise of unspeakable comfort expressed Ver. 12. For I will be merciful to their Unrighteousness and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more THis is a Mercy of that concernment and necessity to sinful Man that all the rest without it are nothing The thing promised is eternal Remission of all sins Where we have 1. Sins 2. Remission of Sins 3. Remission for ever 4. The Person remitting 5. The Persons to whom they are remitted 1. For Sin we have three words 1. Unrighteousness 2. Sins 3. Iniquities Two of these are only named in the Prophet and the Apostle adds the third according to that of Exod. 34. 7. where we find three Hebrew words as we do Psal. 32. 12. And the Septuagint translate the three Original words by these three Greek words which are here used by the Apostle And here it 's implied That the People with whom God makes this Covenant have their Unrighteousness Sins and Iniquities and some of them not onely many but very hainous What Sin is I need not here define because I have done it more at large in my Theopolitica where I explain the meaning of the Apostle's definition 1 Joh. 3. 4. Sin presupposeth a Law-giver one Subject and under his Power a Law and the Obligation of the party subject And it 's a disobedience to the Law Here God's the Law-giver Man 's the Subject Commandments the Laws and when Man acts moves or is inclined contrary unto these Laws then he sins The Commands of God are his Rule and he ought to follow it and his heart ought to be conformable unto it and that freely and upon Knowledg For Man is bound to know the Law and to observe it And when Man sâ—vervs from this Rule he forsakes the Wisdom and Righteousness of God and follows his own Imagination and the Suggestion of the Devil and is carried away from his God by his base and ill-disposed Will and Lusts. And though all Sin is base yet some sins are more hainous than others Amongst other Consequents of Sin Guilt and Punishment are most remarkable and there can be no Sin which makes not Man guilty and liable to Punishment though the Punishment may be removed or the Suffering of it prevented And because God in his Law promiseth not only temporal but eternal Rewards and threatneth not only temporal but eternal Punishments therefore the condition of the guilty is very miserable and the more guilty the more miserable And if once we see our condition and be sensible of it our Souls are troubled and fearfully tormented and the thoughts and remembrance of Judgment are very terrible not onely because we are in danger to lose the eternal Rewards but to suffer eternal Punishments 2. Though there be Sins and the Guilt after the Sin is past remains yet there is Remission This Remission is a kind of loosing and dissolving an Obligation This Obligation here to be loosed is Guilt which is not Obligation to Obedience which is the Act of a Law but unto Punishment which follows upon the transgression of the Law by vertue of the Law and the Commination Pardon therefore and Remission is a freedom from the Guilt and so from the Punishment by necessary Consequence This Remission in this place is expressed by two words the first is I will be merciful the second I will not remember their Sins and Iniquities The first implies that Remission is an Act of Mercy pure and free Mercy for he that is guilty is in the hands of the Judge to punish or spare him and if he spare it 's a favour and an undeserved kindness Yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercifull doth sometime imply such a Mercy as presupposeth some satisfaction and propitiation made without which Mercy and Pardon will not be granted and so it 's taken in this place For though God be merciful and inclined to pardon yet he will be just and Justice requires some expiation to be made by Blood or some other way and this to manifest his purest holiness and hatred of Sin and that he will not suffer his just Laws to be violated and yet let the party violating go free without any
respect of the prohibition and commination of the Law is guilt and rendring of the Sinner obnoxiâ—us unto vindicative Justice of the Law-giver and Judge This guilt can no waye he taken away but either by suffering or pardon or both as here it 's put away by Christ's suffering and God's pardon for Christ suffers for Sin God pardons it so Christ's sake and in consideration of his suffering and offering The effect of Sin is to render the party sinning obnoxious and liable to punishment and God's vindicative Justice and by this virtue of the commination of the Law God to make way for pardon by a transâ—endent extraordinary power makes Christ man's Surety and Christ voluntarily submits himself out of love to his Brethren to God's will so far as to suffer Death for man's Sin and offers himself as being â—lain to the Supream Judge Upon his submission he becomes one person with sinful man as a Surety with the principal and so is liable to that punishment which sinful man should have suffered as a Surety becomes liable to pay the debt of the principal From all this it 's evident that Sin is an efficient moral cause of Christ's suffering and Christ's suffering is a punishment in proper sense though both these be denied without any reason by the Socinian By this Legal substitution of Christ and the offering of himself Sin is made remissible and the way is made open to pardon and upon the penitency and faith of the Sinner actual pardon follows That Sin is pardonable and pardoned is the end and effect of Christ's Suffering To put away Sin is first to make Sin pardonable and the consequents of Sin removable For this is the work and immediate effect of Christ's Sacrifice of himself and the same not often but once offered in the end of the World In all this we may observe the difference between Christ and the Levitical High-Priest Christ suffers and offers himself and enters Heaven with his own Blood but the Levitical High-Priest offers often and enters with the blood of Bulls and Goats The virtue of the High-Priest's offering was but for a little time but the virtue of Christ's extends to all time In these respects Christ's Sacrifice is far more excellent and more purifying § 25. This discourse of Christ's once offering and once suffering is continued and enlarged for the Apostle informs us that the reason why Christ suffered but once in the end of the World was the Decree of God which had determined of Christ as he had done of other men and this decree was regulated by Divine Wisdom which alwayes dictates that which shall be best and fittest This Decree is two-fold 1. Concerning other men 2. Concerning Christ. And because there is some agreement between the lot of Christ and other Men in respect of Death and that which followeth Death therefore the singularity of Christ's Death is set forth comparatively And of the comparison we have 1. The Proposition Verse 27. And as it was appointed unto Men once to dye but after that the Judgment IN which words we have 1. Something 's ordained 2. The ordination The things ordained are two 1. That men once dy 2. Come to Judgment The words absolutely considered may be reduced to two Propositions 1. That it 's appointed unto men once to dye 2. But after Death follows Judgment The first tells us 1. That men dye and this we certainly know 2. That they dye but once 3. That this is appointed yet though men must dye and it 's so certain and so evident and easily known yet men little consider it but their hearts are strangely taken up with the things of this life and they admire the vanities of this World and promise unto themselves long life and certain enjoyment of these earthly things They do not remember that they are mortal and that there is no assurance that they shall live one hour before Death arrest them and seise upon their estates and all earthly comforts in that day their thoughts perish and their pride and glory are laid in the dust Oh inconsiderate Wretches are ye able to conquer Death turn Mortality into Eternity and Earth into Heaven Be wise and never forget that you must dye 2. Men dye but once there is no return into this World again neither any recovery of what man once dead hath lost As no man can keep alive his Soul so no man can raise his Body and re-unite the Soul unto it This is a work proper to God who made us and far above the power of any Creature When it 's said That men must dye it 's to be understood of the generality of mankind that all must dye because all are obnoxious to Death and Mortal even Enoch and Elias and all those who shall be found alive when Christ shall come to Judge the World And though the two Prophets did not and they who remain till Christ's coming shall not dye as others do yet the former suffered and the latter shall suffer a change equivalent to Death though in both there seems to be some exception from the general rule So to dye but once is the general rule and the ordinary fate yet Lazarus and others may dye twice because God reserved an arbitrary power to himself to raise some unto a mortal life so that they became obnoxious to a double Death and he did exercise this power to manifest his Glory in some particular persons Yet this was an extraordinary case and this reservation did not take away the general and ordinary rule according to which the Apostle is to be understood 3. This is appointed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood and translated and it 's capable of that signification by a Trope The party who appointed decreed and ordained both that all men shall dye and dye once and but once is not expressed but it 's easily understood For the Supream Lord of Life and Death who hath an Universal Power over all Men is God and none else and therefore this must be a Decree of God as Supream Lord and a Sentence of him as Judge and the same irrevocable yet dispensable in some particular and extraordinary Cases as should seem good unto him Death is a punishment and therefore men being obnoxious unto it must be guilty of some Crime and condemned thereunto for some Offence against some Law threatening Death And that was the positive Law which God gave to Adam saying But of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17. This Law was transgressed and the Sentence followed in these words Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. Whereas the Socinian saith That Death is natural and not from any Decree of God his Opinion is not reconcileable with that of the Apostle As by one man Sin entred into the World and by Sin Death
may observe 1. An Effect To perfect the sanctified for ever 2. A Cause of that Effect Christ's one Offering I will begin for Explication's sake with the Effect though it be after the Cause in the Order of Nature In it we may consider 1. An Act. 2. A Subject 3. The Perpetuity of the force of this Act in the Subject 1. The Act is to perfect which may be to consummate or make a thing perfect and seeing the end of Christ's Sacrifice is Man's full Happiness therefore to perfect is to make us perfectly and fully happy and this certainly is intended in this place Yet we must further examine the force of the Greek Verb as it is used in this Epistle and other places of the Holy Scriptures and we find it signifies To consecrate and make one a perfect complete Priest so as that he may minister before God And though some understand the perfecting of the sanctified to be nothing else but to sanctify perfectly yet we find in several places of this Epistle that it signifies to make a Priest and is applyed by the Septuagint to the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons For though they were chosen and designed formerly to be Priests yet they could not act as Priests minister in the Tabernacle offer Sacrifice and officiate before they were consecrated and upon their Consecration finished they were actually constituted Priests and might perform any Acts of Service essential and proper to a Priest so as to please God and be accepted This Work of Consecration was finished in seven dayes and one Sacrifice used in this Consecsation was that of a Ram which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ram of Consecration And as they so we must be consecrated and made Priests to God and that by the Blood of Christ and this life is the time of our Consecration which goes on by degrees and will be made complete for Body and Soul upon the Resurrection when we shall be fit to approach the Throne of Glory and serve our God in a perfect manner in the eternal Temple of Heaven That Christ doth consecrate and make us Kings and Priests is express Scripture He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Rev. 1. 6. And this is the acknowledgment of all his redeemed Saints Thou hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5. 10. In this respect we are said to be a Royal Priest-hood an Holy Nation 1 Pet. 2. 9. There in this life though our Consecration be not finished we are styled An holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ ibid. 5. This perfection and Consecration we find attributed to his Blood and Offering 2. The Subject of this Consecration are the Sanctified for Sanctification must go before Consecration and the more sanctified the more consecrated and when our Sanctification is finished then our Consecration is consummate By Sanctification some understand Baptism as it 's a solemn Rite of our Initiation Others say it is Election whereby we are separated and set apart to this Perfection Yet it is that whereby we are freed not only from Infirmities Defects Depravations Inclinations to evil and so made inherently holy and righteous but also from the guilt of Sin The former is an act of the Spirit regenerating us and renuing the Image of God in us the other is the work of the same Spirit sprinkling our Consciences with the Blood of Christ and by the same frees us from God's vindicative Justice and the punishments due unto us for our Sins The former is usually called Sanctification the latter Justification That only the sanctified can be thus consecrated and come so near to God it 's plain out of the former places as Revel 1. 5 6. we are said first to be washed from our Sins in Christ's Blood which is Sanctification before we are be made Kings and Priests And Chap. 5. 9 10. to be redeemed with his Blood before we are Crowned and Consecrated And the persecuted Saints who came out of great Tribulation had their Garments first washed in the Blood of the Lamb before they were admitted to be as Priests before the Throne of God to serve him Day and Night in his Temple Chap. 7. 14 15. Where we learn that upon this Sanctification and Consecration we have near access to the Throne of Glory full communion with our God a clear vision of his eternal beauty and as great a fiuition of his God-head as we shall be capable thereof And upon all this follows our eternal bliss joy and full content when we shall be freed from all evil and enjoy the fountain of eternal life This Sanctification and Consecration is said in the third place to be for ever because they are perpetually continued of endless date and of everlasting continuance § 13. This effect is glorious and most excellent and includes Regeneration Justification Reconciliation Adoption with the inferiour degrees of them all and also the Resurrection and eternal Glorification And surely so rare an effect must have some excellent cause and so it hath and that is that one offering of Christ For Christ is the cause and he isthe cause as offering himself not often but only once For by one Offering he consecrated the sanctified for ever Meer Man or Angel though most excellent was insufficient had no power to undertake and finish this glorious Work For man's Salvation and his eternal blisse must needs be ascribed to the highest first and universal cause and issuing from the fountain of eternal Love was contrived by infinite Wisdom and effected by Almighty Power and no way was thought so fit to accomplish it as this one Offering of this one Priest For this end the eternal Word of God which was God must be made Flesh But neither God as God nor the Word nor Flesh severally were the cause but God by the Word made Flesh yet this is not all this Word made Flesh must be a Priest and as a Priest he must suffer dye and offer himself for the Sin of Man He must be the Priest and Sacrifice too and offer himself without spot unto God the Supream and Universal Lord and Judge that so his Justice being satisfied his mercy might freely and aboundantly issue out upon sinful Man as it did when once this Sacrifice was offered and accepted and being offered once it was so accepted that a second offering was needless For this was of eternal virtue in respect of all Sins and Sinners and was the most noble and highest piece of Service that ever was performed by Men or Angels in Heaven or Earth and was an Ilastical and propitiatory Sacrifice The Priest offering it was the the Head and Representative of Mankind and the second Adam and was made such by God and his own voluntary submission as willing to suffer Death for those whom he did represent By this representation and substitution he became the Surety and Hostage of Mankind
compass God's Altar was to draw nigh to God and to worship him to wash his hands in innocency was to cleanse his Heart and Body from sin before he did approach unto that God who requires holiness in all them that draw nigh unto him for they must be holy as he is holy This seems to be the reason why in our Liturgy the Confession of Sin was premised and began the Worship of God § 20. The second duty exhorted unto follows in these words Ver. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised THe first Exhortation is to the exercise of Divine and religious Worship upon which both our perseverance and eternal happiness depend and if the parties drawing nigh be prepared and the Worship duly performed there will be greater hope of Salvation In these words we are exhorted to perseverance in the profession of our Christian Faith and Hope which is necessary to the attainment and actuall enjoyment of the great Reward In the words two things are observable 1. The Duty Perseverance 2. The reason why the Duty should be performed This is the principal Duty and both the former and the two latter are means and helps which will enable us to perform it In the Duty we may take notice 1. Of Faith 2. Of the Confession of Faith 3. The holding of this Confession without wavering 1. We must have Faith that divine and fundamental vertue in our hearts Most Copies make no mention of Faith but of Hope and so do most of the Translations so that we may wonder what Copy our Translatours followed Yet this doth not vary the sense For where there is Hope there must be Faith and where there is true Faith there is certainly Hope for Faith is the ground of Hope and Hope depends upon Faith and these two are inseparable Besides Faith as a confidence hath great affinity with Hope and though they may be distinguished so as that confidence may look at the party promising and Hope at the thing promised yet both are taken often for the same I need not here inform you of the Nature of Hope for that I have done already Chap. 3. ver 6. 6. 11. Both Faith and Hope with Charity are by the School-men called Theological vertues 2. If there be Hope there must be a Confession of it Hope is inward and invisible as Faith is and must be manifested to others by our Confession This Confession may be made by Works or Words When our Works are holy and just and agreeable to our Faith we thereby signify that we believe in Christ and expect eternal Glory by him When in Words we signify to men that we believe that God raised up Jesus Christ from the dead and testify our Hope of the Resurrection unto everlasting Life then we confess both our Faith and Hope This Confession is solemnly made in Baptism and also in the Eucharist and by our Communion with God's People in our publick Assemblies This Confession is necessary without it such as are at Age are not capable of Baptism neither can they without it be justly admitted to the Lord's Supper To deny Christ before men as Peter did is contrary to this Confession and a grievous Sin For with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 10. So that as without Faith there is no Righteousness so without Confession there is no Salvation 3. A man may confess his Hope for a time yet as his mind may alter so his Confession may waver therefore the Duty is to hold fast this Confession without wavering The more sincere Faith and Hope shall be and the more deeply they shall be rooted in the heart the more likely they are to persevere yet perseverance doth chiefly depend upon God's support and assistance For if temptation be violent and he desert us but for a little time we shall be in danger to waver if not to fall yet this divine assistance cannot be expected but in the diligent use of the means therefore saith the Apostle Let us hold fast And this will be the more easy in time of Peace when we shall meet with no Opposition But when the subtle Arguments of Seducers shall begin to delude the Understanding and the fear of cruel Persecution of bloody Enemies on the one hand and the desire of temporal Life Peace Happiness on the other hand shall work upon the Will then it will be a difficult thing to hold fast and not be shaken § 21. The Reason to perswade stir up and encourage is God's Promise and Fidelity For 1. We have a Promise 2. It 's God's Promise 3. God promising is faithful 1. We have a Promise We are secure when one that is able hath passed his word and by Promise bound himself unto us then we make sure thus far of the thing promised The thing which we desire and which is promised unto us is not onely the Reward of eternal Glory which is the Object of our Hope but power and ability with assistance to do all things necessary for the attainment thereof for in the Gospel not only the Reward but Power to perform our Duty are promised Therefore Paul prayes that the Ephesians may be enlightned that they may more fully know not only the excellency of the Reward of Glory but also the exceeding greatness of that Power which must not only strengthen but support and assist them in the seeking of the full possession and enjoyment Eph. 1. 16 17 18 19. 2. This Promise is not the Promise of any Man or Angel but of God this is more than if all the best men and all the holy Angels had bound themselvs unto us and given us all security which possibly they could The Reason hereof is that his Power is absolute and almighty and nothing can resist or hinder it if once it begin to work The Power of Men and Angels is great yet nothing unto this Besides God's Mercy is like his Power and as he is able so he is willing to do what he hath promised and he hath signified his Will and Purpose through Faith by his Power to preserve us unto Salvation 3. Yet one may be able and for a time willing and yet upon several Reasons and Motives change his mind for the Mind and Will of Man or Angel is not absolutely immutable and so though perhaps they will not yet it 's possible they may fail us But God will not God cannot for God who hath promised is faithful For as he cannot forget or be hindred by any contrary Power so he cannot change his Will If he say the word it must be done if he pass his Promise he will perform This faithfulness presupposeth his Power and his Promise and it 's the immutability of his Will for as he is unchangeable in his Being so he is in his Promise For the strength in Israel will not lye nor repent
1 Sam. 15. 29. And these are his words I am the Lord I change not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Malach. 3. 6. So that all is sure on God's part and Man hath no cause to waver except he neglect his Duty and if he perish his destruction must be of himself O therefore let us give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure and persevere unto the end And shall we who have so great advantage so many helps so blessed an Opportunity and the Promise of a faithful God neglect and injure our selves so much as to lose this glorious and incomparable prize Shall we come out of Aegypt and come so near the borders of the heavenly Canaan and turn back or refuse to go forward Let us detest and eternally abhor to waver let us go on whatsoever it may cost us § 22. The third Duty is to further and set forward one another in this blessed Work This is the Exhortation of the Apostle Ver. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and good Works THE first Duty exhorted unto seems to be principally Faith in the full assurance whereof we must draw nigh to God The second Hope in the Profession whereof we must persevere The third Charity to which we must provoke one another The words have little difficulty in them and so need not much Explication In them we are exhorted 1. To consider one another 2. To provocation upon consideration 3. To provocation unto Love and good Works 1. This consideration is a Work and Duty of every Christian as he is a Member of the Church and it is universal all are bound unto it The Object is every Christian and Fellow-Member The thing to be considered is not their temporal but their spiritual Carriage and Conversation so far as it shall be manifested and made intelligible unto us The immediate End thereof to know their Life Carriage and Conversation which cannot be so well done as by a serious view and animadversion The Duty is to be performed mutually so as that every Christian may be the person considering another and the person considered by another In this Act though we may make use of our Eyes and outward senses yet we most of all must exercise the apprehensive and judicative faculty of our Understanding 2. We must consider to Provocation This word is but used twice in the New Testament and the Verb no oftner yet we find the Verb frequently taken up by the Septuagint under several Hebrew words It may be taken here either actively to provoke others or passively to be provoked our selves We provoke or stir up others when we see them ignorant forgetful negligent cold backward and that by Information minding them of their Duty perswading moving quickning them unto performance Or if we see our Brethren persecuted we stir up such as are able to pity them and by Works of Mercy to relieve them We are passively provoked our selvs by considering the good Example of others to do the like and follow them 3. The thing which we must provoke others or be provoked our selves unto is Charity for we must be provoked and provoke 1. To Love 2. To good Works which are the fruits of Love and amongst these good Works the principal are Works of Mercy whereby God's poor and persecuted Saints are relieved and comforted And that is no true real Love which is without good Works as that is no true Faith which can be separated either from the Love of Christ or from the Love of Christian Brethren From the words considered in the Context and explained in this Latitude many practical Conclusions are deducible 1. From the Context we are informed that Confession without Practice Love and good Works is defective imperfect and to little purpose Confession of the Mouth Love in the Heart and Works issuing from Love must go together and must never be separated in true and sincere Christians 2. From the word provoking taken passively we may learn this lesson to give good Example unto our Brethren and so let that heavenly Light which is in us shine forth that others may see our good Works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven For we should be the Light of the World and our Lives should be a Mirrour of all divine vertues 3. We must consides and take special notice of such as are eminent in Piety Righteousness and true Holness and follow closely their good Example they give us and tread in their paths which lead to the eternal Rest of Heaven 4. Take provoking actively and the Text informs of another Duty and that is to have care not only of our own Souls but the Souls of others and to use all means to promote their Salvation as well as our own Love teacheth us this Lession for we must Love our Neighbour as our self and the greatest Love we can shew unto him is to endeavour his spiritual and eternal good And we must remember that Love especially Christian Love is diffusive and communicative and in imitation of God doth good unto many Non solum nobis nati aâ—t â—eâ—iati sumus We are neither born nor born again for our selvs The End both of our natural and spiritual Birth is to benefit others as well as our selvs we should sharpen quicken and mightily stir up others to the best things especially to Love and good Works And this is the Duty not only of Ministers in relation to their People or of Parents in relation to their Children or of Masters in relation to their Servants but it 's general and so extensive that no Christian is exempted from the performance And the neglect of this Duty hath been the Cause why there is so little Piety so much Iniquity amongst us and why most men are profane or bare Professor and so few are zealous in the best things 5. From hence we may infer the Excellency of Christian Society Civil Society tends much to the temporal good of person civilly associated but spiritual Society in Religion and Christianity is far more excellent and beneficial Yet this presupposeth the Persons associated with whom we live and must converse to be good for otherwise ill Company is most pestiferous Therefore the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to purge out the old Leaven and scandalous Persons which like a contagion infect others And this doth imply that Christian Assemblies should be kept pure and consist of Orthodox and pious Members and to live amongst such must needs be a great advantage unto poor Souls seeking Salvation § 23. There was a fourth Duty exhorted unto For Ver. 25. They mustnot not for sake the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some was but they must exhort one another and so much the more as they saw the day approaching IN which we have 1. A Duty 2. A Reason to enforce the performance The Duty is expressed 1. Negatively They must not for sake the assembling of themselves
For unnecessary private Conventicles with the neglect of the publick Assemblies are usually the Seminaries of Errours and Schisms and very prejudicial to the publick good of the Church So that the Duty exhorted unto is to frequent constantly these Assemblies and make right use of them to edify confirm and encourage one another to perseverance in the Christian Faith and to Love and good Works I might here take occasion to enlarge and reckon up all the particular Duties to be performed in these religious Meetings and shew how subservient they are every one severally and all joyntly to that end whereat the Apostle chiefly aims but I proceed to the Reason § 24. For it might be said What Reason Suasive Motive may be given why we should be so careful to perform this Duty Yes there is a great and powerful Reason and that is Because the day approacheth Where 1. We must understand the words of the Reason considered in it self 2. The force of the Reason in respect of the performance of the Duty In the words of the Reason we have 1. A Day 2. The Approach of that Day 3. The nearer Approach 1. A Day is a part and the principal part of time as opposed to the Night and in this place it signifies some special and more than ordinary time as the day of death of the destruction of Jerusalem of the End of the World The day of death every Man must look for Nothing more certain than death though nothing more uncertain than the Hour of death Every man must dy and then be brought unto his last Account and as that shall be made so shall be the condition of every Man for ever for where the Tree falleth there it lyeth and as Death leavs us Judgment finds us There was a day of Jerusalem's destruction and of the ruine of that Nation appointed and made known by Christ and his Apostles and these Hebrews could not be altogether ignorant of it There is another greater day of the final and universal Judgment and this was part of their Creed All these and every one of these are special and great dayes And one or two or all these three may here be meant Some think the day of Jerusalem's râ—ine was most of all intended by the Apostle though that cannot be evidently evinced to be pointed at so as to exclude the other two 2. This day did approach and was near for first the day of every Man's death could not be far off the day of Jerusalem's destruction was near and so near as many then living might survive not only the Peace and Happiness of that Nation but the very Being and Existence of that City and of the Temple they might see the ruine and destruction of both and for ought they knew the end of the World 3. This day drew nearer and nearer For 1. We no sooner begin to live but we begin to dy for we are born mortal and ready we are to return to that dust from whence we were taken and raised at the first and the more of our Life is past the less is yet to come and every Day Hour Minute of our Life we approach nearer unto death and death unto us 2. As for Jerusalem's destruction there were many Signs of that approaching fore-told and then known to be past It was fatal and unavoidable even then when Christ wept over it lamenting her Sin and Punishment which he certainly did fore-know and when this Letter was written to these Hebrews that day of her Calamity was far nearer 3. For the day of Judgment the particular Year Month Day was hid yet the times of the Gospel were the last times and upon us the ends of the World are come And that which is alwayes unknown may alwayes be looked for seeing it will certainly come and that suddenly And though that day in those times was far off yet it 's nearer now and though now it may be many years before the Son of God shall come from Heaven and the time to Man may seem long yet a thousand years with God is but as one day Besides that day of final Judgment if we consider that the unchangeable condition of every Man begins immediately upon his death then the great day of Judgment may in some sense be said to be as near as death to every particular Person This is the meaning of the words considered in themselvs and now the force of them as containing a Reason remains to be considered For this end we must take notice of the thing here urged and it 's 1. The performance of a Duty 2. The performance of it the rather and the more for the more the day approacheth the more we should prepare for it Not to forsake the assembling of our selvs together and to exhort one another and to be careful very careful diligent and frequent in this Work of Association and Exhortation is a Duty commanded by God and pressed upon us by the Apostle to neglect this Duty is our Sin and Disobedience to do it constantly is our performance And this is that which is intended by this Reason The force thereof is great For seeing 1. The day of our great Account God's final Sentence to be passed upon us and the Execution thereof is so near it concerns us much not only to know our Duty but to bestir our selves and to perform it constantly with all our Power Our progress towards Heaven should be like a natural Motion which is slow or not so swift at the beginning and is swifter and swifter towards the end Upon this performance depends our final and eternal estate For if we neglect fail and fall away then we are undone for ever if we perform and be prepared we are eternally happy Seeing therefore that day is a day of eternal Rewards or Punishments and approacheth so near What should not we do to provide for our everlasting safety Yet men think little of these things If we under stand the Text of the day of Jerusalem's Calamities and desolation which was near at hand and was a day of death to many thousands yea to hundreds of thousands and a lively resemblance of the final Judgment this also might effectually work upon them and move them to performance and perseverance For then they should see and clearly behold the woful End of that unbelieving Nation and most of all of all Apostates from Christianity Then their seducing Brethren and their persecuting Enemies should be destroyed the Temple burnt and demolished all their Judaism and Legal Service wherein they trusted for ever abolished and those which out of fear complyed with them or of Christians turned Jews should suffer in the highest degree Therefore there was no Reason in the World they should forsake or deny Christ and turn from him to Moses from the Gospel to the Law for the day was approaching when they should see God's Judgment executed upon the unbelieving seducing persecuting Jew and the eternal Confusion of
Power of God piercing the Understanding enables it to understand and know and believe such things which otherwise could not be understood known and believed Yet this Assent may be moral and probable or divine here is meant a divine Assent which without the Power of the Spirit cannot be in â—he heart of Man Thus by Faith and not by Reason we understand how the World was made that it was not eternal that the Wisdom and Power of God was wonderfully manifested in that glorious Work § 6. These things premised the Apostle enters upon his Argument from Examples which are set forth according to the order of time 1. By a particular Enumeration 2. By Accumulation He might have instanced in far more but these were the most eminent and for number sufficient for his purpose He begins with Abel who Ver. 4. By Faith offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice than Kain by which he obtained Witness that he was righteous God testifying of his Gifts And by it he being dead yet speaketh YOU must here observe that one thing wherein all these Saints und Worthies do agree was Faith 2. That this Faith is the principal thing to be noted in them all 3. His End is by a kind of Induction to prove the excellency and necessity of Faith 4. That according to the History of the Old Testament which he makes his Rule Abel is the first most eminent Person in whom he thought good to instance For as Stephen was though not the first Sufferer yet the Proto-Martyr of the New Testament so Abel was the Proto-Martyr of the Old and was the first Man who after the Creation and the Fall suffered death and sealed the Truth of God with his Blood And though his Father Adam and his Mother Eve had Faith yet the Scriptures do not relate unto us any special and eminent Work of their Faith so that there was no Example of eminency in Faith before him For seeing by Faith we believe the Creation of the World and the Fall of the first Man who was his Father by whom Sin came into the World there could not be any before him so near the beginning of the World so fit for Example Of this Abel two things are related 1. His Vertue 2. His Reward His Vertue in general was Faith manifesting it self in his excellent Sacrifice His Reward God's Testimony of him and his perpetual Fame The words may be reduced to three Propositions 1. That Abel by Faith offered a more excellent Sacrifice than â—ain 2. By this he obtained Witness that he was righteous God testifying of his Gifts 3. By this he being dead yet speaketh or is spoken of In the first Divine Axiom we may observe 1. That he offered Sacrifice to God 2. This Sacrifice was more excellent than that of Kain 3. That he offered this so excellent a Sacrifice by Faith 1. To offer Sacrifice was a religious Worship and may be considered as Moral Positive * Ceremonial As offered unto God in acknowledgment of his Supream Dominion it 's Moral so is the Gift and Offering of some part of our Goods for pious Uses and Maintenance of his Worship As it was a part of God's outward Worship depending only upon Divine Institution it was Positive As this Sacrifice signified a far greater Sacrifice to come it was Ceremonial For after Man had sinned besides the Confession and Amendment of the Sinner Satisfaction to God's Justice by a Sacrifice was required That this was Typically an explatory Sacrifice for Sin seems to be implied by the thing sacrificed which was of the Flock which must be slain and the Blood shed as though for compensation Life was given for Life and Blood for Blood so that this was a Shadow of Christ's Death and Offering This Sacrifice was offered unto the true and living God and not unto Idols and this according to the first Commandment For no Worship or Service Religious is due to any but to God who alone is Supream Lord and to whom alone the highest degree of honour is to be given Yet all these bloody Sacrifices began to be out of date upon the Death and Resurrection of Christ and now only the spiritual Sacrifices of an humble broken Spirit of Praise of Prayer of Thanksgiving and such like continue in force 2. This Sacrifice was more excellent than that of Kain This Kain was his Elder Brother He offered and Abel offered too They both offered unto the same eternal and universal Lord. The marter of his Offering was according to his outward Profession and Imployment of the fruits of the Earth and besides the difference in the matter there was a great Inequality For Abel's compared to his was far more excellent and acceptable Here we might take occasion to consider 1. Adam's care in the Education of his Children to fit them not only for the matters of this Life but for Religion and the World to come 2. That two Persons may worship God with the same kind of Worship and yet differ very much in the manner of their Service 3. This more excellent Sacrifice was offered by Faith and this Faith did make it so excellent For it was not the matter offered but the Qualification of the Person and his manner of Offering that gave the worth unto the Sacrifice and made it more precious Kain offers without Faith sincere and lively his Offering is base Abel offers with Faith his Offering is excellent and of great value This Faith is the Soul of all Religious Worship and here the principal thing to be observed is that Faith was the Principle which did animate and honour this piece of Service § 7. The Reward follows and it is a good Report 1. In his life-time 2. After death 1. In his life-time For 1. It was testified of him that he was righteous 2. This was done by God testifying of his Gifts 1. He was righteous for so our Saviour terms him speaking of the Blood of righteous Abel Mat. 23. 35. He was righteous not without all Sin for such no Man after the Fall ever was yet he was without Wickedness He was upright and his Faith was sincere and his Worship of God and his Obedience were without Hypocrisy He was justified and sanctified and continued in the State of Justification and Sanctification and in such a manner as that he may be said to be eminently righteous This Righteousness was not by Nature but Grace not by his deserts but by the merit of Christ and the mercy of God As he was righteous so he was manifested to be so and it was testified to his comfort and honour 2. It was God who testified of his Righteousness by testifying of his Gifts His Gifts were his Sacrifices offered to God these God did accept and some wayes signified his acceptation both of the Person and his Offering In Gen. 4. 45. we read thus And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his Offering But unto Cain and his Offering he had
walk with God doth presuppose we are with him and with him we cannot be except we first come unto him and come unto him for to walk with him we cannot without this Faith And here I might take occasion to speak of the distance between God and Man by Nature caused by Sin and also of Man's return and first approach unto this Fountain of eternal Bliss but of these things I have spoken in my Theo-Politica yet here you must remember that he that cometh unto God is the Subject of this divine vertue of Faith This is a definition of Faith in general the Object whereof is the whole Scripture as representing God the Cause and Fountain of eternal happiness whereof justifying Faith as justifying is but a Branch After the absolute consideration of this Text in the second place it remains we examine the words as they are an Argument or Reason to clear and prove something that went before And for this purpose we must remember that his intention was to prove that Enoch obtained the great Reward of his blessed Translation by Faith This he proves because he pleased God the Connexion of Faith and pleasing God is proved because without Faith it 's impossible to please God and that it 's impossible he makes evident from the definition of Faith necessarily required in every one that will come to God For if a man believe not that God is or that there is a God he can never come unto him for no God no Worship of God no thoughts of the Worship of that which is not believed to be Therefore all Atheists are profane Scoffers and not only neglect but deride Religion The belief of a God is the first Ground of all Religious Service But let a man believe there is a God and yet not be perswaded that this God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him his Religion will be very cold if any at all The mighty Motive to come to God and to walk with him is a certain Belief not only that God is but that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Upon this Ground because upon the Resurrection we receive this great and glorious Reward the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to be stedfast and immovable in this Faith of the Resurrection alwayes abounding ing in the Work of the Lord in as much as they knew their Labour in the Lord was not in vain This presupposeth that the end is the Principle of Motion in Morals and this end as known The End whereat Man should aime chiefly is eternal happiness in the enjoyment of his God the means to walk with God and so diligently seek him These things are known by Revelation and if Man upon Revelation do not certainly believe that God is and that he will richly reward with eternal Bliss all such as diligently seek him he can have no Principle of divine Motion in him but will think all Religious Service and Obedience to be in vain If any therefore ask what Faith divine and saving Faith is this Text will teach us that Faith is a Belief that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him This definition is an Abridgment of the whole Creed it begins with Faith in God and ends with Life everlasting which is the great Reward It 's true that the Creeds and Confessious of the Ancients were not so full so clear so explicit as these of the Gospel yet they included implicitly the great work of Redemption by Christ as yet to come and somewhat darkly represented unto them § 10. This rare Example of the great Reward obtained by Faith was a mighty Motive to perswade them to Perseverance yet he stayes not here but proceeds to a third who also lived before the Flood and survived the old World as a Man of both This was Noah of whom it followeth Ver. 7. By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his House by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith IN those words we might observe 1. Noah's Faith 2. His Obedience 3. The Issue of both Yet for the better handling of them I will reduce them to three Propositions 1. By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen was moved with fear 2. Being moved with fear he prepared an Ark for the saving of his House 3. By this he condemned the World and became Heir of that Righteousness which is by Faith 1. The first informs us 1. Of the Ground 2. Of the Object 3. Of the Effect in his heart of his Faith 1. The ground of his Faith was the Word of God for he was warned by God This we may learn at large both that God spake unto him and what he informed him of For these few words of this Text are a pithy abridgment of a larger History delivered by Moses Gen. 6. 7 8. Chapters And here it 's observable that the rule of the divine Faith of God's Saints in all Ages was the Revelation and the Word For the matters of their Faith are such as that without this word it could not have any certain and firm ground How God spake unto him whether by Angels or by audible Voice or by immediate inspiration or some other way is neither here nor in Moses his History expressed 2. The object of this Faith materially considered were things not seen formally these things not seen as revealed for he was warned or rather informed by God For it was God who spake unto him and because that information did represent some danger of a great end yet avoidable the word which hath many significations is turned being warned so warning is sometimes taken Those things were then not seen and so matter of Faith yet after they were seen But first whilst these things were in the mind of God no Man nor Angel could know them After that God had revealed them they might be known and seen by Faith but no wayes else 3. The Effect of this Faith in his heart was this That he feared The object of fear is some danger apprehended The danger revealed unto him by God was an universal destruction by a deluge this he understood by Faith The effectual belief of this caused fear fear made him careful to provide for his safety The word in the Original may signify to fear yet so to fear as to be cautious and wary and by caution to seek for to avoid some danger and because there may be some danger of Sin and punishment for Sin therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometime taken for a devout and religious fear So that in this Effect of Faith may be fear caution and a care lest we offend our God This was his Faith his Obedience signified in the second Proposition followeth For being moved with fear he prepared an Ark to save his House As fear was an Effect
special act of that Faith which was from former dayes habitual in his Soul and often exercised and exerted in the course of his whole Life This is an excellent argument to perswade to perseverance in Faith because by it we may condemn the World be saved from the deluge of God's wrath and be made Heirs of Righteousness that is justified before the Tribunal of God And whosoever being warned of the eternal penalties threatned by God doth not repent shall be condemned Therefore seeing we are all warned of God let us be moved by fear and by faith to prepare the Ark of Repentance that we may be saved from the Streams and Flood of eternal Fire and Brimstone And here we must note that Faith Repentance and Fear are opposed to Unbelief Impenitency and security in Sin and Condemnation to Justification for to be Heir of Righteousness is to be justified not by Works but by Faith The destruction by the Flood was but part of that punishment which the wicked impenitent World did suffer and deliverance from the Flood was but part of the great Reward and that eternal Salvation which is obtained by Faith in Christ. All this is plainly signified by that Doctrine of St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 21 22. Where we have Salvation and the Causes of it as water of Baptism the answer of a good Conscience which is Faith and Repentance and the Resurrection of Christ. To close up this Example let us prepare this Ark and enter into it beâ—mes lest we perish with the wicked World § 11. The former patterns of Faith were such as lived before the Flood the following are such as lived after the Flood and first they who lived before the Law These are Abraham Isanc Jacob Joseph and Moses The first is Abraham whose Faith was so eminent that he was called the Father of Believers and therefore the Apostle enlargeth his Discourse concerning his Faith and instanceth in four rare and excellent Works and Effects of the same As 1. His obedience to the heavenly Call 2. His seeking as a Pilgrim on Earth an heavenly Country 3. His receiving of Isaac 4. His offering of Isaac The first we thus read Ver. 8. By Faith Abram when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went IN the Text we may observe 1. God's Call 2. His obedience to this Call In his Call or Vocation we have 1. A Precept 2. A Promise In his Obedience likewise two things are to be noted 1. His Faith as the principle of his Obedience 2. The parts of his Obedience which are two 1. His departure out of his own Country 2. His going towards Canaan To begin with his Vocation which is briefly expressed in this place but more largely Gen. 12. For the Apostle doth contract the words of Moses into one Proposition concerning his Calling and into another concerning his Obedience So that the Text may be reduced to these two Divine Axioms 1. Abraham was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance 2. Abraham being called by Faith obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went In the first of these we have a Command expressed and a Promise implyed The party calling him was God therefore it 's said to be an heavenly Calling The party called was Abraham who thought of no such thing The condition of this Worthy wherein God found him was a condition of Sin and Misery for he lived in an Idolatrous place and very likely it is he was an Idolater himself This seems to be implyed by those words Your Fathers dwelt on the other side of the Flood in old time even Terah the Father of Abraham and the Father of Nachor and they served other Gods Josh. 24. 2. Upon which Masuis observes that these words were added to signify God's free mercy towards them in that he not only adopted them freely when they neither deserved nor desired any such thing but when they were Enemies This Vocation therefore must need at in act of free mècy whereby he chuseth and singles man out of the World and draws him near unto himself for his eternal Happiness It 's a gracious translating of Man out of Darkness into his marvellous Light and out of the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. And if we would seriously consider our Unworthiness and the glorious I state we are called unto we might easily understand that as the giving of his only begotten Son so this Vocation is a Work of stupendious Mercy The means which God did use in calling Abraham and so in calling us is 1. A Precept 2. A Promise The Precept informs Man of his Duty and binds him to Obedience the Promise informs of God's Will and the great Reward and so encourageth us and as Man by the Precept is bound to obey so by the Promise God is bound to Reward The Precept to Abraham was Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I will shew thee Gen. 12. 1. This signifies that God requires of Man that he should forsake the World and all things therein even Life it self though never so near and dear unto us and because our Sins are most inconsistent with his Commands we must forsake them Therefore Abraham was commanded to renounce Idols and false Gods we must also in forsaking these resign up our selves wholly to the Will of our heavenly Father and resolve to obey him alone and follow his directions we must leave the World and love our God and fix our thoughts and affections on Heaven This is the Precept He must go out into a place The Promise is here implyed that he should have a full Compensation and instead of the Country he left he should have another and the same more excellent for an Inheritance This Promise is far more largely expressed Gen. 12. 2 3. for there the Promise consists of several Branches and the last and principal was this that in him all the Families of the Earth should be blessed For this was a Promise of Christ and of eternal Life in him for so afterward it 's explained of his Seed that is Christ in whom the Believers of all Nations are made for ever happy Yet you must know that neither Abraham nor any other Person can so understand believe and obey this Command and rely upon this Promise as to come to God except he enlighten and inspire Man by his Spirit and make him able to perform this Duty Thus Abraham was called His Obedience followeth for by Faith he obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went 1. He obeyed 2. He went out not knowing whither he went 3. He obeyed and did thus by Faith 1. Obedience presupposeth a Superiour who hath power to command one subject to that commanding Power a Command given and made known unto the party subject
an Acknowledgment of the Power and the receiving of the Command and it is a willing and free Observation of the Command The Superiour here is God who is the supream Lord Abraham is the Subject to come out of his Country is the Law and Command Abraham's coming out of his Country and that willingly as bound by God's Command is his Obedience And here it 's to be observed that except Man first submit unfeignedly unto God as his Supream Lord renouncing his own Will he can never sincerely obey For this voluntary total Submission is the ground of all Obedience and may be said to be the Observation of the fundamental Law of Allegiance which is required in the first Commandment upon which all the rest do depend Obedience in general is no particular Duty to be restrained to any particular Command exclusively for it extends to all 2. He went out not knowing whither he went In that he knew not whither he went it doth inform us of the total absolute Resignation of his Will and heart to God This high degree of Resignation and Submission is due only unto God as absolutely wise and just and infinitely merciful There be two parts of this Obedience 1. He went out 2. He knew not whither he went 1. He went out This was a difficult part of Obedience To forsake his Countrey Kindred Friends Inheritance which his heart did so much affect and dearly love and to renounce that Religion which he had learned and observed seems to be above natural Power To part the heart and that which it most loveth is a Work that cannot be performed without some mighty conflict and torment of the Soul to overcome our strongest Affections and so forsake our darling-sins is an Heroick and Divine Victory Yet this was done by him and must be done by us all if we will be saved To deny our selvs take up the Cross forsake Father Mother Wife Children Brother Sister and Life it self was first of all required by Christ as without which no Man could be his Disciple The Promise of eternal Life and Treasure in Heaven could not part the young man and his great estate and therefore he continued uncapable of eternal Bliss 2. As he came out so he went he knew not whither for the Command was that he should go unto a Land which God should shew him a Land he never knew for he neither knew it not the way unto it This made the business more difficult for he must depend wholly upon God for his Protection Assistance and Direction And when we leave our Sin we must come unto our God and when we forsake the World we must come unto our Saviour and though the way may be very rough and troublesom we must pass through it We must not take up our Rest untill we come unto our Canaan whither out God will bring us 3. This he did by Faith which without Faith was impossible to be be done For except he had certainly known that it was God who called him and believed God's Command and Promises he could not have obeyed so as to come out and go towards Canaan So that this Belief was the very principle of his Obedience without this Faith this Obedience had been not only irrational but impossible But God who was his absolute supream Lord did command him and as almighty and most faithful did promise him a great and glorious Reward which would abundantly recompense his Damages which he should suffer in obeying him and these did effectually move him and powerfully incline his heart to Obedience For God doth know what will work most strongly upon Man's heart and therefore by a divine Light and Inspiration penetrateth the heart and lets him assuredly know that he calls him to eternal Glory so that by this divine Vocation Faith is produced in the Heart of Man and by it he most willingly and joyfully comes unto his God and continues to obey him From all this it 's evident that Man's Conversion is a supernatural Work of God's great Mercy and Power for that which is impossible with Man is possible with God The natural freedom of the Will is a poor impotent thing let us therefore pray earnestly to our God to give us with his Word his blessed Spirit § 12. This was the first and fundamental Effect of Faith in Abraham the second is that whereby he was content to be a Pilgrim and Stranger on Earth that he might attain an abiding City in Heaven which God had promised and prepared for him For so it followeth Ver. 9. By Faith he sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the Heirs with him of the same Promise Ver. 10. For he looked for a City which hath Foundations whose Buâ—lder and Maker is God THese words inform us that after that Abraham was once by Faith converted and became obedient to the heavenly Call he presently changed his Condition and was a Stranger in this World and a Citizen or Denison of Heaven Such are all the Saints of God upon their Regeneration In them we may observe two things 1. The sojourning of Abraham with Isaac and Jacob in the Land of Canaan Ver. 9. 2. His Expectation of a better Country Ver. 10. In the first we have three Propositions 1. That Abraham Isaac and Jacob were Heirs of the same Promise 2. That they sojourned as Strangers in a strange Land dwelling in Tabernacles 3. They thus sojourned by Faith In the first observe 1. A Promise 2. Heirs of this Promise 3. The parties who were Heirs 1. By Promise understand the thing promised which was the Land of Canaan This was the Inheritance yet they had it not by natural Descent nor by Purchase nor by Exchange but by free Promise For it was promised and that by God who is the Proprietary of all Land and Counâ—reys and could not only convey it but give Possession This Inheritance was but a Type of a far better and this Promise was added to another far greater and more excellent 2. There were Heirs of this Promise or Land promised and to be an Heir in this place is to have a Right unto that Land and the Title and Ground of this Right was God's Promise which was the best and surest Instrument of conveyance in the World Before this Promise they could challenge no Right unto it after the Promise their Right was firm good clear without any flaw at all This is the great Mercy of God that when upon his Command we part with any thing he will give us something better that will more than countervail our damage 3. Abraham Isaac and Jacob were the Heirs For the Indenture and first Promise was made to Abraham sealed and confirmed Gen. 15. and in him it was made to them in which respect they were Joynt-Heifs but the same Promise was made severally to Isaac and then after that to Jacob. The parties who then possessed this Land
〈◊〉 right Sojourner on Earth who doth not look for a City eternally stable in Heaven For that which most effectually draws the heart of Man off from this World is the expectation of a far better Estate in the World to come 2. That Believers and Expectants of Heaven who are Candidates of Eternity are of a most noble and divine Spirit Amongst men of this World the Ambitious who aspire to Crowns and Kingdoms and aim at perpetual fame by their heroick Vertues and rare Exploits are judged persons of far greater Gallantry than covetous Muck-worms or brutish Epicures yet in their thoughts and highest designs they are very base in Comparison of these Pilgrims in whose breast the Sparks of heavenly fire do ever burn and move and carry them upward far above the World 3. That neither Abraham nor any other without Faith could look for this glorious City For by it they did not only understand how glorious it was but also were verily perswaded of God's Promise and fidelity and without this Faith they could not possibly hope or look for it And as by Faith they did sojoum so by the same Faith they did look for this City § 14. The third Work of Abraham's Faith was the obtaining of Isaac For Ver. 11. Through Faith Sarah her self received strength to conceive Seed and was delivered of a Child when she was past Age because she judged him faithfull that had promised THis is attributed to Sarah's Faith yet it was a Blessing obtained also and that principally by the Faith of Abraham of whom it 's thus written That against hope he believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according to that which was promised So shall thy Seed be And being not weak in Faith he considered not his own Body now dead when he was an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarah's Womb. He staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. 18 19 20. So that in this particular we must consider the Faith of both and though Sarah only be expressed yet Abraham as the chief Believer is to be understood Upon this Faith it followeth that not only Isaac Sarah's immediate Issue by Abraham but a numerous Posterity was given upon this Faith For Ver. 12. Therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead so many as the Start of the Skie in multitude and as the Sands of the Sea-shore innumerable IN these Verses taken joyntly we may consider 1. A Promise made by God 2. The receiving of this Promise by Faith 3. God's sidelity in performing this Promise to the parties believing 1. The Promise is only implyed in these words who promised where you must know that the party promising was God and the thing promised was that Abraham should have a Son by Sarah and by that Son his Posterity in after times should be multiplyed as the Stars of Heaven and the Sand upon the Sea-shore This Promise was made to both though not expressed at several times 1. Gen. 15. 4 5. 2. It was renewed to both of them and that more expresly Gen. 17. 15 16 c. In both these places mention is made not only of one Son but a of very numerous Posterity 3. This Promise was repeated the third and last time Gen. 18. 10. The parties to whom this Promise was made were Abraham and Sarah The Mercy promised was considerable not only in this that they should have a Son of their own Bodies to continue their Name and inherit their temporal Estate but chiefly because of his Seed Christ should be brought into the World and his Posterity should enjoy the means of Salvation and be included in the special Covenant of Grace 2. This Promise was received by Faith for Sarah counted him faithful that had promised She seemed indeed to doubt till she was reproved and heard that nothing was impossible with God and the Promise was again repeated unto her Gen. 18. 14. So Abraham upon the first Promise of Isaac and a numerous Posterity is said to have believed in the Lord Gen. 15. 6. And the Apostle to signify the firmness of his Faith informs us as you heard before 1. That against hope he believed in 〈◊〉 2. He was not weak in Faith 3. He staggered not at the Promise 4. He was strong in Faith 5. He was fully perswaded Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. This Faith was grounded upon divine Revelation and was a firm and practical Assent unto the Word and Promise of God which did settle his mind For he looked not upon secondary Causes nor upon the Barrenness of Sarah nor their Age nor the deadness of their Bodies and Impotency of Generation by reason of Age But he considered that it was God who had promised that he was Almighty that he was faithful This Faith was required in both as necessary for to attain this great Blessing not that it had any Physical force to enable them for Generation but that it was a Moral Qualification required in them This their Faith is made known unto us for imitation that as they did so we should do rest upon God's Promise in greatest extremities perplexities and seeming impossibilities We must look higher and above all created Power and not measure God's Almighty strength according to and within the bounds of created activity 3. This Promise was fulfilled according to this Faith For Sarah received strength to conceive and in her Old-Age above the Course of Nature became the Mother of Isaac which was part of the Promise And from this one so good as dead sprang a posterity numerous and in some sort innumerable amongst whom Christ was born in whom all Nation were blessed by whom Abraham became the Father of a far more numerous spiritual Posterity which were Believers of all Nations So excellent a thing is Faith and upon Faith so wonderful the Works of the glorious and almighty God who begins with small things though unlikely at the first and multiplies a few to a vast number and magnifies small things to a stupendious greatness § 15. After this third Effect the Apostle returns unto the second concerning the Pilgrimage of Abraham Sarah Isaac Jacob and their expectation of that better and more glorious City which God had promised to them and their Heirs upon the condition of their Faith For thus we read in the words following Ver. 13. These all dyed in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth Ver. 14. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country THese words with the two Verses following are an Amplification of that which was briefly delivered in the 9 and 10. Verses They are sitly brought in upon the former as presupposing the Birth not only of Isaac but Jacob and the Apostle doth not only
Devils 3. If they had offered them to God their Blood could not have expiated their Sins The Case being so different though the Obedience of Abraham was so pleasing to God yet their sacrificing was plainly unnatural Murther and abominable Idolatry 4. If our Faith be sincere we must Sacrifice our Isaac even what we love most unto our God The Lord increase our Faith that we may do this Service readily In the Text two things are observable 1. Isaac's Blessing and Effect or Work of his Faith 2. His Faith whereby he blessed his Sons In the Blessing we have 1. The Parties blessed 2. The Matter of the Blessing 3. The Blessing it self 1. The Parties blessed were Jacob and Esau these were Twins conceived and born together For as their Birth so their Conception were simultaneous in respect of time They were both his Children both Sons and all the Children which he had for we read of none others born unto him Jacob was the Younger because born thâ— lâ—â—ter yet preferred before the Elder by God's free Election and also in this Blessing for he received the Priviledges of the first-begotten and in him not in Esau he made the Covenant good 2. The Matter of the Blessing were things to come hoped for not seen and therefore fit Objects of Faith as no wayes certainly intelligible by the natural Light of Reason These things were Blessings and the same both temporal and spiritual Esau's Blessings were only temporal and not spiritual Jacob's both temporal and spiritual From which dispensation of these Mercies we may observe 1. That profane Persons as Esau may enjoy temporal Blessings and Prosperity and that in a greater measure than God's Children do and therefore they are no Argument of God's special Love for God causeth his Rain to fall and his Sun to shine as well upon the unjust as upon the just 2. That the godly such as Jacob was have the Blessings of this Life and of that which is to come And because they desire heavenly more than earthly Blessings therefore God though sometimes he denyes them earthly Prosperity yet will be sure to give them heavenly Comforts 3. The Blessing it self was an Act of Isaac though God was the principal Cause Of blessing others I have spoken Chap. 7. 6 7. All Blessings come from God for he is the Fountain and first Cause of them and disposeth of them as he pleaseth He sometimes communicates them by Man to Man as in this particular Example and makes Priests Prophets Parents instrumental and gives them Power to bless in his Name and that either in an ordinary or extraordinary way This Blessing was extraordinary wherein God made his words effectual for what he said came to pass The words of Benediction were Prophetical yet not meerly a Prophecy or Prediction but a Prediction with Power And though he intended to have blessed Esau with the principal Blessing yet Jacob obtained it It was God's Will to order it so yet his Will gave no Warrant to Rebeccah or Jacob to use any unlawfull means neither did their frailties hinder God's Mercy so gracious he was When the Blessing of Jacob intended for Esau was once past it proved irrevocable though profane Esau sought it even with tears yet there was no place found for Repentance But how did Isaac thus bless his Sons The Text informs that he blessed them by Faith and this is evident because the Benediction was concerning things to come This Faith required some divine Revelation and Promise as a necessary Ground and Foundation God had promised before great Blessings to his Father Abraham and to him yet to be fulfilled to their Posterity by this he understood that they should fall upon his Children but whether the principal Mercies should be given to Jacob and his Posterity or to Esau and his Children he knew not that was not revealed unto him and therefore he was so much mistaken Yet besides the former Revelation and Promise he had some more particular Illumination concerning his Sons and their Children for time to come and his Faith did believe both and relyed confidently upon the Promises and out of this Faith he blessed them really which without Faith he could not have done This shews the excellency of Faith and may perswade all Parents to believe and may encourage them to continue in Faith forby it they may derive some Blessings to their Children if they shall prove capable For some Children prove to be profane as Esaâ— and are not capable of spiritual Blessings § 20. Jacob succeeded Isaac and being blessed by his Father he blessed Joseph's Children For Ver. 21. By Faith Jacob when he was a dying blessed both the Sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on his Rod. IT 's an happiness to be the Children of believing Parents who by their Faith transmit Blessings to Posterity For Jacob the Son of believing Isaac was blessed and he by his Faith transmits God's Blessings to Joseph's Children In the words we may note 1. Jacob's Effects or Works of Faith 2. His Faith The Effects are two 1. His Blessing of Joseph's Children when he was a dying 2. His Adoration leaning upon his Staff 1. To begin with the Blessing which was both predictive and effective as the former was we may observe 1. The Persons blessed 2. Divers Circumstances and Passages of this Act. The Persons were not his own immediate Children but his Grand-Children by Joseph every one of the Sons of Joseph These were Maâ—â—asseh and Ephrains and as we read of no other so it 's likely these two were all the Sons of Joseph at that time The Blessings by him solemnly then declared were to be expected and received by their Posterity 2. The Circumstance of time is expressed to be when he was a dying that is a little before and when he was drawing nigh unto death For then having some thoughts and care of his Posterity and especially of Joseph and his Children whom he dearly loved the Spirit of the Almighty came upon him to inform him of things to come especially concerning his Nephews and moved him to bless them and that being done he leavs the World The Passages are many Joseph presents his two Sons before him and perhaps by some divine Instinct or Impulse that he might bless them before his death and intended the Priviledg of Birth-right to his Elder Son as Isaac did formerly purpose Jacob layes his hands upon them a Rite used in Benediction He guided them so that he laid his right hand upon Ephraim the Younger and this was purposely done by divine direction This being done he adopts them and by Adoption makes them his immediate Children and by his Blessing gives them the Portion of two Tribes with the rest of his Sons and prefers the Younger before the Elder 2. The second Effect is his Adoration leaning upon his Staff where you must observe that the Apostle follows the Septuagint as in most part of this Epistle he doth Whereas others following
his Preservation as an Effect of his Parents Faith 2. In his Works which were Effects of his own Faith His Preservation is expressed thus Ver. 23. By Faith Moses when he was born was hid three Months of his Parents because they saw he was a proper Child and they not afraid of the King's Commandment IN which words we have 1. The Work of his Parents 2. The Intimation of their Faith whereby they did this Work 1. The Work of his Parents was that they hid him three Months For 1. Moses was hid 2. He was hid three Months 3. He was hid so long by his Parents The hiding of Moses was a concealing of his Birth for to prevent his Ruine and it was of great difficulty and no less danger and of strange Consequence for this hiding was a means of his Preservation and his Preservation the Ruine of Aegypt and the Deliverance of Israel Yet unto this concealment we must add the exposing of him in that manner as that Pharaoh's Daughter did adopt him take care of him and brought him up like a Prince so that he was skilful in all the Learning of the Aegyptians We may read the History at large Exod. 2. where we may observe divers special Passages of God's Providence The time was three Months a thing hard to be done because as some relate and it 's very likely the King of Aegypt had Searchers amongst the Hebrews to find out their Male-Children as soon as they were born For no sooner were they born but they were to be destroyed as designed to destruction before their Entrance into the World Thus long he was hid and no longer could they conceal him so the Text saith Exod. 2. This is said to be the Work of his Parents It 's ascribed only to the Mother in the History yet no doubt with the consent and advice of the Father 2. This was done by Faith the Faith of his Parents intimated in two things 1. In that they saw him to be a proper Child 2. In that they feared not the Wrath of the King 1. They saw him to be a proper Child 1. He was a proper Child 2. They saw it 3 Because they saw it therefore hid him three Months 1. He was a proper Child that is fair comely beautiful and that not in an ordinary but an eminent measure God perhaps had imprinted some extraordinary Characters upon him 2. This his beauty and comliness they saw and as it did appear unto them so they took special notice of it and began to conceive that God had designed him for some extraordinary Work 3. Because he was such and they saw it therefore they resolved to hide and conceal him so long as they could and when they could no longer do it they expose him in the wisest way they could unto divine Providence It 's true that natural Affection might incline them much and his divine beauty might move them more to use all means to prevent his Ruine Yet this could not be all there was some divine Revelation and Instinct which was the Ground of their Resolution and their Confidence and some tell us that it was so Out of Confidence and Trust in God's Mercy they might earnestly pray and upon their Prayer God might further manifest his Will concerning that Child and so more fully settle their minds 2. That they had some Faith it further appears by their boldness that they feard not the Commandment of the King This King was one of the Pharaâ—hs and Lord of Aegypt who out of State-Policy fearing the multiplication and strength of Israel being Strangers sent out a cruel Edict and Command to murther all their Males so soon as born And it 's very likely he appointed certain Persons as the Mid-wives with some others for the Execution with a strict Charge upon pain of death if they should not execute his Command and either spare them or conceal them This Command made it so full of danger and hazard to his Parents to hide and conceal him so long Yet this Command or Edict they did not fear so as to bewray him No doubt their fear was great yet their Faith was greater and overcame their fear and this undaunted and resolved boldness was an Evidence of their Faith Therefore is it said that by Faith they hid him three Months and so he was preserved if it was by Faith formerly described then there must be some divine Testimony and Promise which was both the Ground of their Faith and also of their Hope § 23. Thus far his Preservation by the Faith of his Parents Now follow the Works and rare Effects of his own Faith for Ver. 24. By Faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter Ver. 25. Chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the Children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season Ver. 26. Esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Aegypt for he had respect unto the Recompence of Reward THE Apostle doth instance in four several Effects of Moses Faith The first whereof is the principal upon which he doth most of all enlarge and in the same we may observe 1. His Obedience to the principal Command 2. His Faith an effectual Principle of his Obedience Of his Obedience we find two parts 1. His Self-Denial or his Refusal 2. His bearing of the Cross or his Choice 1 His Self-Denial was this That when he come to years he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter Where I must explain 1. Who Pharaoh's Daughter was 2. What it was to be called her Son 3. What the Refusal of this was 4. When he did refuse it 1. Pharaoh's Daughter was a Lady and great Princess for she was the Daughter of a great King Whether she was the only Daughter or if the onely Daughter the onely Child and Heir Apparant to that rich and potent Kingdom we know not yet howsoever her place was a place of great Honour Power Wealth and Delights and such as that she might advance Moses very high not only because he was her Son by Adoption but also because he was so goodly a Person of such excellent parts and of so great deserts for he was skilful in all the Learning of the Aegyptians and mighty in words and deeds eminently qualified and above the ordinary ranck not only of ordinary men but of Princes 2. He was called the Son of this great Princess To be called as I have formerly observed is sometimes for to be therefore in this sense to be called her Son was to be her Son so that this Name was not a meer Title but a Reality Yet to be called may signify something more for it 's implyed here as it is expressed in the History that he was not her natural but her adopted Son he was not of her Flesh and Blood but of her Will and Choice For Adoption is a Choice of one that is
it seems grow upon the banks and also the Sea of Edom and because Edom signifies Red therefore it 's named the Red-Sea as the Septuaginâ—turns the proper substantive into an appellative 2. Pharoah and the Egyptians pursue them into the Sea and so were drowned This was ordered by the wisdom of God and was the execution of his just Judgment While way is made for Israel to pass the inconsistency and fluid nature of the Waters is suspended that the Egyptians following after the Israelies might enter into the heart and depth of the Channel Yet in the mean time the Angel of God continues to keep between Israel and Pharoah's Army till such time as all the People were safely landed and to retard the march of the Horse takes off their Chariot Wheels so that they drove heavily When Israel was past all danger God suffers the Waters to return to their former Course and so they overwhelm Pharoah and all his Host who sunk like lead into the bottom of the Sea and this was done in the sight of Israel that they might rejoyce and give glory unto God for their Salvation and the destruction of their Enemies This was a wonderful deliverance of God's People and the end of a proud and cruel Tyrant 3. The reason of the one was Faith of the other Unbelief For by Faith they found a way through the great deep And this was not the Faith of Israel alone but principally of Moses For it might truly be said They passed through the Sea by his Faith yet joyned with their's For God commanded Moses with his Rod to smite the Sea and Israel to pass on and promised to divide the Sea and save them not only from the Waters but from their Enemies This Moses did believe and perswades them to do so likewise and this Faith moved them to obey God's Command and upon their Obedience to expect the Mercy promised Without this Warrant and Word from Heaven and their belief of it and confidence in it it had been impossible for them to have escaped destruction The Egyptians assaying without this Faith to passe were drowned Pride cruelty desire of revenge drove them forward they had neither Revelation nor Command nor Promise and therefore they perished This example informs us 1. That there is no danger so great but God can deliver us out of it for God hath many wayes to deliver us 2. That when man's danger is the greatest God's help is the nearest For as the saying is Man's Extremity is God's Opportunity For he is a present help in time of trouble in the midst of the Waters and in the fiery Furnace 3. Many times the Salvation of God's People is the destruction of their Enemies and when he saves the one he destroyes the other and there will a day come when all God's People shall see their desire upon all their Enemies Yet we must believe and obey and trust in God and have a just Cause if we will expect deliverance and he that doth not so believe as to be ready to do what God Commands can never attain the benefit God doth promise which is so limited and consined to the performance of the Command upon Faith that without Performance and Obedience the Mercy promised cannot be expected and received This is the true reason why justifying Faith is inconsistent with the predominancy of any Lust and Sin For true Faith receives the Promise with the terms and conditions it requireth and whosoever believes or is perswaded that he may receive the Blessing promised without obedience to the Command annexed doth deceive himself For he that continuing in his sins not resolving from his heart to forsake them to renounce all righteousness in himself to rely wholly and solely upon the merit of Christ and mercy of God perswades himself of Remission promised doth mistake the Promise and shall not obtain that which he desires For his Faith is not sincere his confidence is but presumption and the issue will be shame and confusion This Doctrine also ministreth unspeakable comfort to all true Believers in the midst of their Extremities § 29. Joshua succeeded Moses and he by Faith did many glorious works one whereof the Apostle singleth out and instanceth in which was the fall of the walls Jericho For Ver. 30. By Faith the Walls of Jericho fell after they were compassed about seven times THis work was miraculous and is ascribed to Faith in God's Word The whole History here abridged by the Apostle we may read at large Joshua 6. Upon which as upon the rest of that Book Masuis doth excellently discourse In the words as in the former examples we may observe 1. The Work 2. The Faith whereby it was done In the Work as it 's briefly here expressed we may consider 1. What it was The fall of the Walls of Jericho 2. The means whereby it was done and that was by compassing them about seven times 3. The time When they had seven times compassed them But if we consider the History the principal things remarkable are 1. The Command and Instructions of God given to Joshua and the People 2. God's Promise 3. Their Obedience 4. The Issue or Event 1. God's Command was signified to Joshua and by Joshua to Israd and in general it was to compass about Jericho which was the first City of Canaan on this West side of Jordan which God gave into their hand and in such a manner as that it might encourage his Pecple and strike a terrour into the rest of their Enemies and let them know what to expect It was not very great yet strong For the manner how often in what order with what rites when to begin when to end they received Instructions and Directions and they were bound to follow them For we must not only do the thing God Commands but we must do it in that manner as he shall prescribe 2. God's Promise was in general to deliver it into their Hands and in that manner as that there should be no formal Siege or effusion of Blood This was a miraculous and extraordinary way which he did prescribe unto them and in it self very unlikely to take effect for there seemed to be no causality in the means not any power in them for to produce the effect Therefore a Promise of God was necessary that so they might have a ground of their Faith an encouragement to use the means and upon the use a certain expectation of the event Neither would the Promise of any other but of God serve the turn yet seeing they had had so much experience of his wonderful and almighty power it was sufficient and there was no cause of doubting 3. Seeing God had promised and they believed therefore they obey his Command readily and chearfully use the means and follow his Directions and compass the City in that manner and so often as God required This obedience to the Enemies who were ignorant both of God's Command and Promise might seem
ridiculous and a matter of laughter rather then of fears except they did suspect some magick Spells and diâ—belical power might be used in that formal procession 4. The Event was the fall of the Walls of Jericho and the ruine of that City and the Inhabitants Some think this fall to be the sinking of the Wall whole and entire into the ground so that the highest parts of them lay level with the surface of the Earth yet there is no certainty of this But this is certain that they so fell as that Israel might easily enter This was a work of almighty power and by this example we easily understand that when out of Faith we obey God's Commands that which God hath promised will be effected Therefore when any business is difficult to be done we must not so much look at the impotency of natural and secondary Causes as at the promise of God and the performance of our Duty And though it 's true that the principal if not the sole effective cause be the Power of God yet without the Faith and Obedience of man the fulfilling of the Promise cannot be expected This manner of giving Jericho into Israel's hand to humane reason not acquainted with the Counsel of God might seem strange Yet it was an excellent way to animate Israel and terrify the Canaanites For by this miraculous Event Israel might understand how easily without blow or blood of any man the strongest City might be taken and delivered into their hands and the Enemy might know that neither the strongest and highest Walls nor the power of the most warlike Souldiers could be able to stand out The principal thing here to be observed is the excellency of Faith grounded upon the Word and Promise of God § 30. In this strange and fearful destruction of Jericho God remembred mercy and saved Rahab and her Family so that they perished not with the rest For Ver. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the Spies with peace THis is the last Example of those whereupon the Apostle severally and more distinctly insists In it we may observe 1. The Party named and proposed for an Example which was Rahab the Harlot 2. The Work of her Faith She received the Spies in peace 3. Her Preservation in the general ruine of that City 4. Her Faith whereby she obtained that Reward 1. The Party was a Woman her Name Rahab a Gentile a Canaanite an Inhabitant and Native of Jericho an Inn-Keeper and an Harlot for she seems to be both Yet this is so far true that though she had formerly been guilty yet now she was a Penitent and upon her Faith if not before reformed God had prepared her for his own Design and made her a sit Instrument to save the Spies and the Spies fit Agents to inform Joshua of the Truth and to encourage all Israel to go on boldly in the Conquest of all Canaan 2. Her Work of Faith was that she received the Spies in peace These Spies were Agents sent by Joshua to discover the Country on the West-side of Jordan according to his Directions and his End in sending them was to receive Information from them of such things as were convenient to be known as Preparative for the future Conquest As Stratagems so Spies were useful as other Intelligencers are in a well-ordered State that hath to deal with Enemies and if the Cause be just and the Enemies unjust they are certainly lawful These she received though Enemies to her Country not only as Guests but Friends and as she received so she dismissed them in peace that is in safety and as Friends and not as Enemies This she did with so great Care Prudence and Fidelity that their best Friends in that Case could not have done more and better for them The manner how she entertained them the Conference she had with them the Contract made between them the Act how she concealed them the Counsel she gave them and the Contrivance of their safety you may read more at large in the Book of Joshua Her officious Lie which she made in their behalf cannot in strict Justice be excused though in mercy it may be pardoned And in this Act and Work of Charity towards them she was not guilty of persidious Treachery to her own Country which she knew to be wicked and destined by God himself unto Destruction and she was bound to love God more than her Country and his People more than his Enemies By her Faith she had renounced all to serve the true God and in her heart was become already one of God's Saints and Servants Treachery indeed is unjust and contrary to the Laws of God which require fidelity to God first and then to our Country so far as it shall be consistent with Fidelity to the Supream Lord and not one â—ote further 3. Her Reward followed upon this For she perished not with them that believed not Where we have 1. The Destruction of Unbelievers 2. Her Preservation The first implies that her Neighbours and Fellow-Citizens were grievous Sinners and so hardned in their Sins that they did not believe and so were Vessels of Wrath and fitted for Destruction These being such did perish and suffered Punishment due unto their Sins which was a total and final ruine But she perished not but was preserved and the manner of her Preservation we find related in the History For both the Spies and Joshua were faithful to her and performed the Promise and the Oath made unto her By this we learn how easily God can save us even in the midst of general Calamities 4. This her Preservation was a Reward of her Faith not that Faith did merit it but made her capable of God's Mercy This here Faith was wrought in her by the Fame of God's glorious Works and Counsels which she had heard and by the Power of the Holy Ghost and it was manifested much and very much both by her Words and Deeds when she received the Spies and preserved them from Death It was so much the more to be admited seeing she was an Alien a Gentile a Canaaâ—ute and dwelt amongst a cursed People amongst whom she had been a grievous Sinner Surely she will rise up in Judgment against the Unbelievers of our times § 31. The Apostle forbears to insist largely and particularly upon the Faith of any more of the ancient Worthies either Men or Women and draws towards a Conclusion by Contraction of his Discourse and in this manner Ver. 32. And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barac and of Samson and of Jeptha of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets IN these words and those that follow in this Chapter we must consider 1. The manner how the following Discourse is brought in 2. The matter of it 1. The manner is by a Rhetorical Paraleipsis signifying 1. There was no necessity of any more
Instances because the former were sufficient 2. That to go on to instance so largely in the rest of the following Ages would be too tedious take up much time and enlarge his Letter till it swell to a great Volume 3. Yet he lets them know that if need were and it were requisite he could instance in many more but yet he thought it no Wisdom to do so 2. In the matter we have 1. A particular enumeration of certain former Worthies 2. Their rare Exploits 3. Their many Sufferings 4. Their Deeds and Sufferings issuing from Faith 5. The time when they lived believed did these Works and suffered 6. God's benignity to us who in his Wisdom did so order it that they should not be perfect without us This is the Sum and Substance of the rest of this Chapter which contracts much matter into a narrow Compass and expresseth it in a few words As for the Persons commended for their Faith 1. Some of them are signified particularly by Name some by a general term expressing their Office 2. That though he names but six yet this was not because there were no more but these or that he was ignorant of them but because it was not needful 3. Amongst these we have four Judges one Prophet one King yet so that the Prophet was a Judge and the King a Prophet The Persons not mentioned by Name but signified by their Office were the Prophets and whereas there were Prophets both ordinary and extraordinary the extraordinary are intended By this passage and proceeding of the Apostle we learn that in our Discourses we should not be needlesly tedious and say all that we can but that only which is sufficient most expedient and conducing to the main Scope This was a Letter and he was not willing to enlarge beyond the bounds of a Letter which he must needs have done if he had instanced and amplified in all the particulars which he knew § 32. These are the Persons Their rare Exploits and Works of Faith follow for thus we read Ver. 33. Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the Mouths of Lions Ver. 34. Quenched the violence of Fire escaped the Edge of the Sword out of Weakness were made strong waxed strong in Fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens THE Effects of their Faith being doing great things obtaining great Mercies suffering great Afflictions are here only touched upon and briefly related Yet this is done without any Attribution of them to the Persons formerly named and mentioned for of these Persons those things are to be understood and they are all Effects and Consequents of Faith There is it said Who by Faith subdued c. And seeing his chief Intention was to shew the Excellency of Faith and these Effects were rare and excellent and such as depended upon Faith as Effects upon the Cause it was sufficient in this manner to reckon them up and to inform these Hebrews of them 1. They subdued Kingdoms Though this may agree to and be affirmed of others yet in this particular David seems to be most eminent who subdued the Philistins Edomites Ammonites and other of the Syrian Kingdoms For to understand this it 's to be observed 1. That the Cause of the Conqueror was just 2. That he had Warrant from God and many times the Warrant was extraordinary 3. Sometimes he had Directions from God who was first consulted 4. He depended not upon his own strength and policy but upon his God 5. The Victory was given by God upon the Faith and Prayer of the victorious Party 6. The Kingdoms subdued were not only Enemies to God's People but to God himself and his Laws so that both the safety of the People and also of Religion did much depend upon these Victories which were far more glorious and excellent because given upon the Faith of such as trusted in their God Others might prove Conquerors who waged War against others out of Ambition Pride Covetousness Cruelty without any just Cause of Commission from Heaven and they were rather Executioners of God's just Judgments upon wicked People and Offenders whom they cruelly punished without any thoughts of God or care of Justice as being wicked Person themselvs 2. They wrought Righteousness The subduing of Kingdoms was the exercise of their Military Power and this may seem to be the Use of the Sword of Justice For the Judges and David were Generals in War and Judges in peace they went out before the People and fought their Battles and in the time of Peace they did Justice and Judgments by reason of their Faith they were victorious in their Wars and just in their Judgment The Duty of a Prince is to defend his People from Forreign Enemies and to protect their just and loyal Subjects and punish the Oppressors and Injurious This Righteousness therefore is judicial Righteousness and their doing of Righteousness their constant Administration of Justice For the meaning is not meerly that they did some few Acts of Justice for so many wicked Princes do but these did execute Justice and Judgment constantly and in an eminent manner And the more their Faith the more their Righteousness for Faith must needs effectually incline them unto it 3. By Faith they obtained Promises By Promises understand things promised and these not general but particular To the Patriarchs before Joshua the Land of Caâ—aan was promised yet not given not enjoyed only their Posterity under Joshua obtained that Promise Christ was promised to them all yet they obtained not this Promise for he was not exhibited till many years after These were more general Promises There were besides many eminent Mercies particular of Victory Deliverance Peace and other things which by Faith they obtained yet so as that they used the means which God vouchsased unto them and these means without Faith had been insufficient This informs us that as great things are done so great things are obtained by Faith which believeth the Word of God and relyeth upon his Promises For God promised they believed the things promised were performed 4. By Faith they stopped the Mouths of Lions This is understood principally of Daniel Sampson slew a Lion and so did David Daniel was saved from the hungry fierce Lions when he was cast into their Den of purpose to be devoured This he acknowledged as a great and special Mercy from his God when he said to Darius My God hath sent his Angel and hath shut the Lions Mouths that they have not hurt me Dan. 6. 22. This Preservation was miraculous and a Mercy obtained by Faith For his Cause was just he would not intermit his constant Devotion and his Supplications unto his God though he should suffer Death and resolved to observe the just Command of God and refused to obey the unjust Command of Man and was perswaded that God was able to deliver him and therefore he cast himself wholly upon his Mercy This he could never have done without Faith
of All and many great miseries for his sake and continued faithful in the Covenant of their God 4. They did all this by Faith For they believed the Word of God to be true rested in his promises exspected the great Reward and were assured that it was better to suffer Affliction for a while then lose the eternal Comforts of their God § 38. Thus the Catalogue and Induction of these rare Worthies is finished and by it we understand the universal necessity of Faith and the excellency of it in the rare Effects thereof and the Chapter is closed up thus Ver. 39. And these all having obtained a good Report through Faith received not the Promise Ver. 40. God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect IN these words we may observe the difference of the Times wherein these Worthies and those wherein the Apostle and these Hebrews lived with the imperfection of the one and the perfection of the other In the former Verse we have a Rhetorical Epanalepsis and a elegant Repetition of the main Proposition which the Author intended to prove by Induction For he had said ver 2. That by Faith which he had described the Elders obtained a good Report This he repeats again in this manner These all having obtained a good Report through Faith The propositions are two 1. The forementioned Elders obtained a good Report through Faith 2. Yet they received not the Promise In the first we must consider 1. The parties intended 2. Their good Report 3. The means whereby they obtained this good Report These things were formerly spoken of and therefore I may be brief 1. The persons formerly said to be the Elders that is the Saints who lived in former time This was a general term which is here more explicitely limited and enlarged by pointing at the particular persons The words are all these by these are meant Abel Enoch Noah Abraham and the rest by name expressed or some other wayes implyed All this note of universality puts them all and every one together without exclusion or exception of any one 2. These all these obtained a good Report and had their Testimonials To be witnessed is to be commended and well spoken of by a Synechdoche as you formerly heard The person who approved and testified of them was God and that in the holy Scriptures and Records of former times and they must needs be good whom God doth commend All expressed by name are spoken of expresly and particularly in the Canonical Writings of the Old Testament and some others not named at all The rest who lived after the Canon was finished are also in the Canon commended implicitely and by undoubted Consequence For when God approves any Virtues and virtuous Acts he approves all such as are endued with those Vertues and manifest them in their lives and conversation 3. The means whereby they became so famous and of so good report was their Faith For without it they neither could have pleased God nor done so rare and glorious Works nor obtained so great Promises nor suffered with patience so great tryals and afflictions Faith was the fundamental Virtue in them all and the very principle of all their divine Actions and Sufferings These obtained a good Report yet received not the Promise For 1. They had a Promise 2. They received it not 1. By Promise understand something promised which upon God's Promise made to them they expected What this was is doubted by many some will have it to be the Resurrection some the Deliverance out of Limbus where it 's imagined their Souls were lodged till Christ descended into Hell and brought them out of that Lake As for the former opinion if understood of the universal Resurrection it may be true As for the latter it presupposeth divers things which yet were never proved and therefore it 's no matter or fit object of a divine Faith it 's a meer fiction and no better This is very certain and clear out of Scripture that they all had a Promise of Christ to be exhibited and this was the great Promise the foundation and chief corner-stone of their Faith No Faith but in him could please God or give sinful man any hope of eternal Glory 2. This Promise they received not for though it be said before ver 33. That many of them received Promises and it 's true they did so yet Christ was not exhibited in their times they all dyed before the Incarnation Passion Death and Glorification of Christ The Word made Flesh. This signifies both the imperfection of those Times and of their Faith for they believed indeed in Christ and by that Faith were justified and saved yet their Faith was in Christ to come and could not be so full and clear as that of the Saints under the dispensation of the Gospel And the Redemption of Christ to come was fore-seen and fore-accepted of God and was effectual to all Believers from the beginning Yet this doth manifest the excellency of Faith in that it was so effectual in these Saints before the exhibition of Christ and doth much commend these Saints who seeing Christ represented unto them at so great a distance yet did so firmly believe in him and by that Faith did effect so glorious Works and so constantly endured so many Afflictions And here one thing specially is to be noted that is that the Faith whereby they obtained a good Report was not a meer speculative assent but a divine lively powerful working Faith Such must ours be or else we can never certainly expect eternal life This condemns many of us living in the times and light of the Gospel For some of us have no Faith some have only a speculative liveless Faith some have only a weak Faith and come far short of these Worthies Yet we have their example and enjoy a clearer Light Thus far concerning the times wherein these Saints lived 3. In the next place follows God's benignity and favour unto us who live in the dayes of the Gospel For God hath provided some better thing for us that without us they should not be made perfect Where we have two Propositions 1. God provided some better thing for us 2. They were not made perfect without us In the former observe 1. Some better thing 2. The same provided by God for us This better thing is the exhibition of Christ and the revelation of the Gospel which made the latter times more perfect and more happy The truth of this appears 1. By that Halelujal◠which the Angels sung at Christ's Nativity when they brought the News thereof from Heaven Luke 2. 13 14. 2. By words of our Saviour who turning unto his Disciples said privately Blessed are the Eyes which see the things that ye see For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see the things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear the things which ye hear and have not
therefore the Duty is to cast off these This is the same with putting off the Old Man and mortifying the inordinate Inclinations and Motions both of the concupiscible and irascible part and this Mortification must be universal we must cast off every weight 2. The second Proposition is That when these Impediments are removed and every Weight and Sin cast off to run with Patience the Race that is set before us This implies 1. That there is a glorious prize set before us 2. That there is a Distance between it and us 3. That there is a space or way through which we must pass and leads directly unto it These things presupposed the Duty is To run with Patience the Race that is set before us This Running is a Motion and a speedy Motion too whereby we measure the space between Heaven and us it must be speedy and therefore requires the putting forth of our utmost Strength so as to strive as the Original word turned Race implies As we must run and so make speed so we must run with Patience The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies 1. That the way is troublesom 2. That it 's long It 's troblesom because we shall meet with many Impediments it 's long because of the great Distance between us and eternal Glory Because it 's troublesom and grievous to Flesh and Blood therefore we must be patient and endure because it 's long we must be constant and though the Flesh may much desire it yet we must not rest nor think of Rest before we reach the Goal and be possessed of the Prize for the word doth not only signify Patience but continued Patience If it be God's Will that we must pass unto our heavenly Inheritance through a Wilderness and there to wander forty years and longer we must be content go on not rest not think of returning into Aegypt we must quietly submit unto his good Pleasure This business of Perseverance is not so easy it cannot be performed except we receive a new life and vigour from Heaven and continual Assistance besides our care watchfulness and incessant labour We must strive if ever we will enter in at the strait Gate for the Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Yet the Prize is excellent and far above all that we can do and suffer for though we pass through Fire and Water yet God bringeth us into a wealthy place The force of the Apostle's Reason is very strong for we should persevere because 1. We have good Examples 2. These Examples are many 3. They are Examples of rare and excellent Persons some of the best that ever lived under Heaven 4. These Examples being upon Divine Record are proposed unto us by God himself 5. They are Patterns of the rarest Vertues manifested in their Divine and Noble Acts. 6. They are Precedents not onely in Words and Profession but in Deeds and bitter Sufferings and do manifest unto us that there is nothing in this Duty impossible nor any thing so difficult but may be overcome through Christ strengthning and enabling us § 2. The Apostle closeth up this Induction with the Example of Jesus Christ our Lord and the Son of God This he kept for a Reserve as far above all the rest for Christ was the purest Mirrour of all heavenly Vertues which as exemplified in Him were beyond Comparison and in the highest Degree They must eye the other Worthies much but Christ more for they must follow them and run their Race yet in running they must be Ver. 2. Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God IN these we have 1. An Example proposed 2. An Exhortation to look upon it In the first we may consider 1. Who it is that is proposed as an Example 2. Wherein He is an Example and what it is in Him which we must look upon The Party proposed for an Example is Christ who is described to be 1. The Author 2. The Finisher of our Faith That which we must look upon is 1. His Vertues manifested in his Humiliation 2. The great Reward of these Vertues and his glorious Exaltation The whole may be reduced to these Propositions 1. Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our Faith 2. He for the Glory set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame 3. After that despising the Shame he had endured the Cross he sate down at the right hand of God 4. In running with Patience the Race that is set before us We must look upon him thus represented 1. Christ is the Author and Finisher of our Faith This is not meant that he is the adequate Object of our Faith as saving nor that if Faith be taken for the habit and gift of Faith that he doth plant it in us at the first and continueth to preserve it till it be finished though both these in some respects are true But Faith seems here to be taken for our Christian Religion which we profess and also for the Rule of our Faith and Religion It 's true that this Christian Faith was from the beginning in a large sense for there was never any time since the first Promise of Christ wherein the Saints did not believe in Christ and had a certain Rule of their Faith Yet here Faith is taken more strictly for that Doctrine which represents Christ more fully and clearly as already come into the World and as having finished the great Work of Redemption This place is like that in Chap. 3. 1. where these Hebrews were exhorted to consider the Apostle and the High-Priest of their Profession Christ Jesus That which is there called Profession is here called Faith he who there is said to be the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession is said here to be the Author and Finisher of our Faith as though he were the Author as an Apostle and the Finisher as a Priest That as an Apostle and Prophet he was the Author Institutor and first Publisher of our Faith is evident For Chap. 2. 3. that Salvation that is that Doctrine of Salvation which is the Gospel began first to be spoken by the Lord. He might be said to finish perfect and confirm it as a Priest when he sealed i◠with his Blood and merited the Spirit of Revelation to make it known and of Power to make it effectual upon our hearts Again he is the Finisher of it as sending the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles and by them making known the Gospel and diffusing the Christian Religion through the World In a word He was the sole and whole efficient Cause of Christian Religion and this is the meaning of the words The Reason of this Character given is to set forth the Excellency of the Person who is here proposed a Pattern more effectually to encourage
God with a profane and wicked heart some serve him ignorantly or negligently without servency and due affection The Pharisee could give Alms Fast Pray pay Tythe of Mint Anniseed Cumin and neglect the weighty things of the Law as Justice Judgment Mercy they could and did draw near to God with their Lips and yet be far from God with their hearts they served God but according to the Traditions of men The Jews were zealous and devout in Ceremonials yet their hearts were polluted and their hands full of Blood Therefore we must know that no profane man or hypocrite or indisposed person can serve God acceptably To do this doth presuppose man in the state of Grace and an heart prepared and rightly disposed the person must first be accepted before the work can please God And as the Person so the Service must be rightly qualified and so it is when it proceeds from Faith in Christ is conformable to the Word of God and tends unto his Glory And if We and our Service be thus qualified though our infirmities be many yet so great is God's mercy that for Christ's sake he will accept both us and it we must not presume upon his mercy but yet we must rely upon him when we have a special care to shun that which offends him and do that which is just and holy and when we have done our best humbly in the Name of Christ pray for pardon of defects and acceptance of our sincere endeavours Yet we cannot serve God thus acceptably without reverence and godly feat Reverence in God's Service looks at his excellency and glorious Majesty and at our own unworthiness and the infinite distance between Him and Us and therefore we must adore God's excellent Majesty with deep humility abasing our selves very low being afraid and ashamed out of a sense of our own vileness to come near him except in his great mercy and free grace he vouchsafe access Signs of this reverence is cut kneeling bowing covering our faces prostration and such like gestures And if we were either apprehensive and sensible of our own vileness or God's excellency how could we possibly be so profane and unreverent in his Worship Godly fear may be the same with Reverence or distinct from it The word in the Greek signifies sometimes caution sometimes devotion sometimes fear and that in the Service of God which is a religious fear and care not to offend but to please him Both reverence and fear in this place may farther be a more then ordinary care and diligence in the Service of God that we may please him and be accepted of him For as the greatest honour with the greatest humility is due to God that Supreme Lord whose Majesty is infinite and eternal so the greatest caution must be used in his Worship for he will be sanctified in all them that draw near unto him 3. This is the manner how he will be served by all such as are admitted Subjects of this unmoveable and unchangeable Kingdom The reason is He is a consuming Fire These words are improper and metaphorical and a Metaphor is a contract Similitude which here we find In such Comparisons we may observe 1. The things compared as like and agreeing 2. The thing wherein they do agree The things here compared are God and Fire God is like to Fire The thing wherein they agree is this that they are consuming So that the meaning is That God is like unto Fire and he is like to it in this that as That so He hath a consuming force Many are the qualities and effects of Fire but this one is singled to represent the terrour of God For though that flery Law which God gave out of the midst of fire burning up to Heaven be removed yet in the Gospel of sweetest mercy and freest grace there are threatnings of unquenchable Fire and eternal Flames Therefore this expression signifies his punishing and vindictive Justice the Subjects whereof are profane impenitent and unbelieving persons who are disobedient to the Law of Grace and refuse the tender of saving mercy The effect of this Justice upon these Offenders are severe and everlasting punishments which cannot be expressed or conceived but are represented by the raging flames and â—â—erce burning of the most violent Fire which cannot be quenched And as the torment of violent hottest flames is the most grievous so these punishments are and if the Sufferers be immortal and immortally sensible the Torment will be not only grievous but perpetual The sum is that the punishment of delinquent and disloyal Subjects which the Judge shall execute and they suffer is extreme and everlasting The force of the Reason is great for as men tremble to think of everlasting tormenting and consuming Flames so let them have a special care to serve God unto the end in due manner This implies that there is a glorious Reward of eternal Light and delight to all such as shall like loyal Subjects continue constant unto the end in the profession of the Truth and the acceptable Service of this glorious and eternal Soveraign CHAP. XIII § 1. PRofession without Practise Faith without good works cannot attain the fruition of that eternal Life which Christ hath merited and God hath promised therefore the Apostle in this Chapter exhorts to Love good Works constancy in the Truth and other Duties He begins with Love Ver. 1. Let brotherly Love continue THe Analysis of this Chapter is easy for we have 1. The hortatory part thereof 2. The conclusion of the whole The Duties exhorted unto with several Motives are reduced to a kind of order by divers Expositors Yet as this is not exactly done so it 's needless to do it We may indeed enumerate the Duties and reduce them to their proper places and heads in the Body of Divine Wisdom and that is very easie to be done Yet the Wisdom of the Apostle was this that he doth not mention all Duties but such as were most requisite at that time to be performed by those persons and doth not strictly follow the method of the moral Law but takes liberty to place them in that order which he thought most convenient For he knew the performance of them to be the principal thing and it was sufficient for him to press them and then to know them The first Exhortation is to brotherly Love The Duty is 1. Brotherly love 2. Continuance in it Brotherly love is love of the Brethren For there are Brethren and these must be loved To love our Neighbour as our selves is the substance of the second Table of the moral Law And as there are several degrees of Neighbours so there is of Love Neighbours in full extent include Strangers Enemies and all such as are capable of our Love Of these some are more nearly linckt unto us as Brethren Yet these are either natural political or spiritual here spiritual Brethren are meant who have God to be their Father Jerusalem above to be their
Mother are born of the same incorruptible seed animated with the same Spirit of Christ and partakers of a divine Nature This spiritual consangunity is a principle of spiritual Love and this Divine Nature an object of a more ardent affection Though therefore we must love others truly and as our selves yet these if we be Christians we must love more then others And though we know no man's heart and reins yet such as appear and manifest themselves by their profession and practise to be Saints we must love as Brethren and though they be not such and we mistake yet our Love is acceptable to God This Love is not only a complacency in them and an esteem of their persons as having more of God in them then other men but we must effectually desire their good and happiness and when occasion serves really promote it It must be a real and a giving and a suffering love For as Christ laid down his Life for us so we must lay down our Lives for the Brethren And we must not love only in word and tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3. 16 18. By vertue of this Love there is in us a secret Sympathy which will manifest it self by rejoycing with them that rejoyce and mourning with them that mourn Yet this spiritual Love and divine Affection is found in few and it 's not so fervent and effectual in us as it should be Self-love and love of the World do much abate it And as the Brethren love the Brethren so the World hates them and counts them their greatest Enemies This is the love we must love them but this love must remain and continue in them This doth presuppose that they formerly had loved them and that was evident enough for they had ministred unto the Saints and did minister Chap. 6. 10. and became Companions of such as were teproached Chap. 10. 34. And their Duty was that as they had begun so they should go on and love to the End Life and Love must end together whilest we live we must love the Brethren And the words are not onely Paul's Exhortation but God's Command and the same universal and binds us as well as them § 2. The second Duty is Hospitality Ver. 2. Be not forgetful to entertain Strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares VVHere 1. The Duty is to entertain Strangers 2. The Motive is Because some have thereby been so happy as to entertain Angels unawares The Object of this Duty is Strangers the Duty it self is to entertain them the Cayeat is Not to forget so to do Strangers in this place may be either Christians or others both are an Object of Charity but especially the former We are Strangers when we are from home in another Place or Country where we have few Friends are not well known And being amongst Strangers where we have neither harbour nor other necessaries we must needs be in a miserable Condition and a proper Object of Hospitality Though this extends to others yet it 's principally understood of such as in these times were persecuted and scattered in strange Countries and being spoiled of their Goods were in great necessity not knowing sometimes where to have the next Lodging or Morsel of Bread These are principally meant and must be entertained To entertain them is freely to take them into our Houses and according to our ability supply their Wants for where should these receive Comfort or Relief but with Christian Brethren Some might pretend themselves to be such and that falsly and so abuse the Charity of well-meaning Christians yet there were several wayes whereby poor Christians and their sad Condition might be known And if they were once known we must not forget this Duty to forget is to neglect it not to forget is to perform it The Motive or Reason is this That by the performing of this Duty some have entertained Angels unawares The Persons who are here understood were Abraham and Lot both pious and righteous men of great Civility and Humanity and such as considered the Condition of Strangers as being Strangers themselves and dealt with them accordingly These received and entertained Angels who being sent by God did appear first to Abraham then to Lot Their business was to destroy Sodom Gomorrah and the Cities of the Plaines Yet in the Execution of this Judgment God remembred Abraham and Lot and according to his tender care of them gave these Angels a Charge and Instructions to preserve them They first came to Abraham in the appearance of men and of Strangers and as such he invites them and entertains them in the same manner they came to Sodom where they were invited and entertained under the same Notion yet they were truly and really Angels though conceived to be Men Therefore is it said they entertained them unawares that is though wittingly and willingly they received them as Men yet they knew them not at first to be Angels The force of this Reason to perswade Hospitality is 1. In respect of the Guests 2. Of the benefit they received by them 1. It was an Honour and a special Grace that the glorious blessed immortal Inhabitants of Heaven should enter their Houses and Tents accept of their Invitation and be so familiar with them 2. In respect of the benefit they received by them for first they came from Heaven to Abraham to let him know his Wife Sarah should bear him a Son and within a short time God would perform his Promise unto him This was a great Blessing much expected and desired of a long time and now determined assuredly to a certain Period within the present Year besides God acquainted him by these Angels with his Intention to destroy Sodom and yet upon his Intercession to save the Righteous in it and this Prayer may be conceived to be effectual for saving though not the City yet his Kinsman in it Lot also had the Honour and the Benefit too for by his blessed Guests he was saved not only from the cursed Sodomites but from the Flames that destroyed that City Yet it may be said What was this to these Hebrews or What is it to us It was a rare thing and not expected of these Saints and beloved Servants of God Yet it is much to us for by the receiving Strangers out of Faith in Christ and Love to God we may receive precious Saints and with them some blessed Angels which have a special Charge to keep and guard them in that condition and if a Cup of cold Water shall be rewarded how much more will so great a Work of Mercy be remembred Nay which is more by receiving them we receive Christ who will acknowledg this kindness as done to Him For in the day of final Judgment He will acknowledge before all Men all Angels and his heavenly Father that this Work of Mercy done to His was done to Him § 3. Yet there is another Work of Mercy which he exhorts them unto
spiritual Sacrifice unto God but by Christ as his High-Priest who offers them unto God John in a Vision sawin Heaven an Angel standing at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne Rev. 8. 3. This Angel is Christ our High-Priest who offers the Prayers of all his Saints perfumed with the Incense of his merits mhich makes them as offered by him so acceptable and so effectual This is the reason why we conclude our prayers in Christ's Name and desire that they may be heard for his sake 5. We must offer this Sacrifice continually not that we must be like the Euchitae which would do nothing but pray but that we must keep a constant Course and observe a certain order in worshipping God both in private and publick For God is continually beneficial unto us blessing and delivering his People every day and by new mercies giving new matter of praise and thanksgiving and there are some mercies so general and so beneficial that they should never be forgotten but remembred before God every day This is the same with that Exhortation of the Apostle To give thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of Jesus Christ Eph. 5. 20. We read that the four Beasts which were the universal Church did not rest Day and Night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is come Rev. 4. 8. For this is one continual Imployment of the universal Church militant to give Praise and Glory to God for ever The more lively apprehension we have of God's perfection and the more sensible of his love and mercy we shall be the more excellent and acceptable this Service will prove § 15. There is another Sacrifice to be offered which is the matter of another Exhortation Ver. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased VVHere we have 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Motive 1. The Duty is Not to forget to do good and to communicate This hath some affinity with the former and is fitly subjoyned For 1. If God be beneficial to us and communicate his goodness then we must be benesicial unto our Neighbour especially his poor Saints and communicate of those Goods he hath given us for he hath not given us a greater measure of his Blessings either to hoard them up or spend them vainly and sinfully upon our selves to maintain our pride and pleasure We are but Stewards and only trusted with them and must give an account 2. There were Eucharistical Sacrifices under the Law wherein they must remember the Levit the Poor the Fatherless the Widow such as these are and God requires them in the Gospel 3. By doing good to others we manifest our praise and thankgiving offered to God to be real and sincere for I cannot think that any man can be truly thankful to God who is not merciful to his Brother The matter of this Duty is something of these worldly Goods which God hath given us are justly our own and which we may spare though never so little if but the poor Widow's mite for God requires our Charity according to our portion we must give willingly and plentifully The Objects of this our Charity are such as want and we are able to relieve and amongst others the poor Saints of Christ. This Duty must not be forgotten that is neglected but we must have a special care to exercise our Charity as God shall call for it Though we are not bound to relieve others by the Laws of Men yet we are deeply obliged unto it by the Laws of God and therefore we are not left at liberty to give or not give it 's an universal Duty and lies upon us and all Christians and upon them more then upon any other 2. The reason and motive is With such Sacrifices God is well pleased Where it 's implyed every work of Charity should be a Sacrifice and so given to Man as to be offered to God So it is when it 's done out of Faith in Christ love to God and in obedience to his Command In this respect Alms are part of God's Worship given and offered to God at the perception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist added unto their thanksgiving Therefore they were called Oblations and also were reckoned as works of Sanctification of the Christian Sabbath 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 c. This Sacrifice if offered aright is pleasing to God there are Sacrifices which God is not well pleased with for some he abhominates some he regards not but this he accepts and it 's very pleasing unto him For the benevolence and charity of the Philippians sent to Paul was an Odour of sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Phil. 4. 18. Where we may observe 1. That it was a Sacrifice 2. It was acceptable and well-pleasing that is very much and highly accepted of God It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of divine Service a part of the Liturgy and Service of God 2 Cor. 9. 12. Thatit is thus pleasing to God is evident because hecommands it commends it and that often and much promiseth to reward it with temporal and spiritual Blessings takes that which is given to the poor as lent unto himself and becomes Debtor to repay it Christ takes that done to himself which was done to his poor Saints and assures us that a Cup of cold water should not be forgotten and magnisies the Widow's mite cast into the Treasury And how willing and ready should we be to perform that Duty which God so much accepts § 16. The last Exhortation followeth Ver. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit uour Selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you CHrist in the administration of his heavenly Kingdom and the ordering of men unto everlasting Life hath his Officers under him For though by his Spirit alone without the Ministry of Men or Angels he could save us yet he is pleased to make use of Min and by Man convert Man and bring him to everlasting Glory Therefore when he ascended up on high to take possession of his Kingdom he gave Gifts to Men and gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers and all this for the building up of his Church In laying the foundation he used extraordinary in building upon the foundation ordinary Officers and this Text is concerning both the work of these Officers and the duty of the People subject unto them In that as being an Exhortation we have as in most of the rest 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reasons and Motives 1. The Duty is To obey them who have the Rule over us and
upon this mercy and power as having raised and advanced Christ first that by him thus raised and exalted he may first sanctify us fully and then give us everlasting Glory Therefore the Apostle saith That God out of his great mercy and love had quickned the believing Ephesians being formerly dead in Sins Trespasses together with Christ and raised them up together and set them in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 4 5 6. Where we may observe 1. That he quickened Christ being dead raised him up and set him in heavenly places 2. That he quickened them being dead in Sins and Trespasses raised them up and set them in heavenly places together with Christ and by Christ. 3. That both these were done by the same mercy and power first exercised upon Christ and then upon them After the Adoration and Compellation follows the Petition wherein the principal thing desired is Sanctification and the power of Regeneration continued in them that so they might perform a constant and universal Obedienceâ— which was a means to attain the possession of eternal Glory Where we must observe 1. That the Apostle having requested their prayers formerly doth in these words being not requested but of his own accord pray for them 2. That having exhorted them to the performance of several Duties and the exercise of several Virtues knowing that without the sanctifying Grace of God they could not perform these Duties constantly to the end in these words he prayes for the continuance of God's sanctifying power to enable them to do that which they without it cannot do 3. That seeing the Duties exhorted unto were but few and there were many more he desires God to perfect them not only in these but in every good Work that so they might perform an universal Obedience These things first observed in the words we must consider 1. Their Duty which is to be perfect in every good Work to do God's Will and that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. 2. God's Power whereby they are enabled to do their Duty and the same sought for by prayer 1. The Duty 1. Hath for the Rule the Will of God 2. This Will is observed when we do every good Work 3. Every good work thus done according to the Will of God is well-pleasing unto God 1. By the Will of God is meant his legislative and commanding Will whereby he signifies unto man what is just and good and binds him to observe these his Laws 2. The Will of God being our binding Rule our Duty is to observe it and we observe it when we do every good Work The works of man are the actions and operations of Man as a rational Creature and subject to the Laws and Will of God These works may be good or bad and then they are good when they are conformable to the Will and Law of God and this goodness presupposeth knowledg of this Will and the right disposition and qualification of the heart For if the heart be not good the work which is qualified by the heart cannot be good But it 's not sufficient to do some but every good work For the Laws of God command all good works and require that every work of man be good This is universal Obedience for the Law binds in all things and at all times so that it gives no liberty to do evil or transgress at any time 3. Every good work as good is well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ because it 's agreeable to his Will for to please God so as to be accepted of God is a Consequent of the goodness of the work as it is the end whereat man must aim Yet it cannot please God but by Faith in Jesus Christ For without Faith it 's impossible to please God Though these word Jesus Christ may be referred also to the Prayer wherein they desire sanctifying power through him and for his sake 2. The sanctifying power desired of God is expressed in two words 1. Perfecting 2. Working 1. The work of God must perfect us before we can do any good the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint signifies to uphold stablish direct compose and make up a thing so as to set it in order and finish it that it may be fit for the end it was made Thus to compose and make up a man in this place is to sanctify him and give him a power to do every good work and this is a work of the regenerating Spirit of God abiding in us and renewing us more and more In this respect we are said to be God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Eph. 2. 10. Yet this is not here meant of the first Regeneration but of the continuance and increase of this sanctifying Grace to strengthen us more and more As preservation and providence is to Creation so this work of perfecting is to the first Regeneration and as we are at first created unto good Works so we are perfected in Christ. Another thing desired of God is working in us that which is well pleasing unto him this signifies that God doth not only give us Power but continually co-operate and work in us and with us without whose co-operation we can do nothing that will please him For it is he that works in us both the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. This prayer in effect is the same with that we read was made for the Colossians For the Apostle and Timothy did not cease to pray for them and desire that he might be filled with the knowledg of God's Will in all spiritual Wisdom and Understanding That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fritful in every good Work increasing in the knowledg of God Col. 1. 9 10. Where we have 1. The Will of God as here which is the rule of our Obedience 2. Being fruitful in every good Work which is the same with doing every good Work which is the observation of God's Will 3. They must walk worthy to all pleasing so here they must do that which is well pleasing in his sight not in the sight of Man And as here when we do every good work we please him so there we please him by being fruitful in every good work 4. As here they could not please God except God perfect them and work in them so there neither could the Colossians please God without spiritual Knowledg Wisdom and Understanding of God's Will for Knowledg spiritual Wisdom and Understanding are the same as appears Prov. 2. 6. Where we find the words of the Septuagâ—nt taken up by the Apostle 5. As there this Grace of wisdom and fulness of it was sught by prayer so this continuance of God's sanctifying Grace is prayed for here This prayer informs us 1. That in doing all our good works we depend upon God both for the power given at the first and continued unto us and also for the working