Commandement then that which was written in tables of stone For that exacted an impossibility Rom. 8. 3. by reason of the weaknesse and corruption of our flesh But the New Commandement is written in the fleshly tables of our heart whereby ability is given unto us cherefully and acceptably to performe the same 5. A new way This is also called a living way which Christ by his flesh hath consecrated for us For Christ himselfe having with his own bloud entred into the most holy place hath thereby made full satisfaction for all our sins which causes the way to Heaven to be impassible and made the way easy for us to walke in Thus is he the way the truth and the life the only true way that leadeth us unto life 6. A new heart This is opposed to a mans naturall heart which is stiled an heart of stone in that it is so obdurate that it will sooner like a stone be broken all to pieces and utterly confounded with Gods judgements then yield to him and his word This new heart is not only freed from that obstinacy but also made flexible and pliable to the Word of God and worke of his spirit and thereupon called an heart of flesh 7. A new spirit This also is opposed to a mans naturall spirit which in all things resisteth the good Spirit of God Such a spirit the Jewes of old had of whom Stephen the first Martyr for Christ thus speaketh Ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye But this new spirit readily and willingly yeeldeth to every good motion of the Spirit of God 8. A new song A song which shall sound forth as the Prophet expounds himselfe Gods praises from the end of the earth by reason of the Gospel whose sound as the sound of the heavens hath gone forth thorow all the earth The sum and substance of this new song was sung out by an heavenly quire at the birth of Christ It was this Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men Finally to insist on no more particulars there is a promise made of making all things new If any shall thinke that this is meant of the world to come let him consider how expressely the Apostle applyes it to the time of the Gospell saying of that time Behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. Thus we see how this promise of Gods doing better for his Church in the later times is evidenced by sundry particulars of better and new things Yet further as if ordinary words and usuall comparisons were not sufficient to set forth the great increase of Gods providence the Prophets use very transcendent and hyperbolicall expressions to set it out the more to the life and that according to our capacity To which purpose this increase of Gods Providence is thus expressed For brasse I will bring gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brasse and for stones iron Hereby he sheweth that as wood is better then common stones and iron better then wood and brasse better then iron and silver better then brasse and gold better then silver so much better yea infinitely more are the good things of these later times better then the good things of former times Yet further is this increase thus heightened Isa. 30. 26. The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven fold as the light of seven dayes Who knowes not how great a difference there is between the two lights of the Moone and the Sun to make the light of the Moone as great as of the Sun must needs be a wonderfull great increase And because there can be no greater light then the light of the Sun he multiplieth that light to the number of perfection saying The light of the Sun shall be seven fold as the light of seven dayes And to shew that no comparisons are sufficient to set out the increase of Gods goodnes to the full it is further said The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightnes shall the Moone give light unto thee But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Isa. 60. 19. If we take a view of the increase of Gods good Providence generation after generation even from the beginning of the world to the end thereof it will yet more clearely appeare that as Gods goodnes hath ever increased more and more so the greatest increase thereof hath been in later times and so the better things reserved for us and others who have lived therein For the clearer exemplification hereof we will account the whole continuance of the world together with the world to come as one great week And distinguish the whole course thereof from the creation to the day of judgement into six long dayes the seventh being an eternall {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a keeping a Sabbath or rest after the day of judgement The six forementioned dayes may thus be distinguished The first from Adam to Noah Wherein besides Gods goodnes in creating the world was manifested that great evidence of mercy in promising a Redeemer to free man from his miserable bondage under Satan whereinto he had implunged himself the words of the promise are these It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele By this relative particle It the seed of the woman the Lord Jesus Christ is meant The words being spoken to Satan under the serpent by thy head is meant Satan and all his power by bruising an utter subduing of the same The next words Thou shalt bruise his heele set forth Satans attempts against the mysticall body of Christ and his annoying of the same in many respects But so as the heele only the externall condition of the foresaid body not the head the soule of it can be crushed This was a very gracious promise and a great good The second day lasted from Noah to Abraham wherein the Church had that memorable type of Gods preserving it out of that common deluge which destroyed the whole world besides This type was the Arke This the Apostle calls in relation to Baptisme a like figure For it did lively set forth to the Church such a preservation and deliverance from sinne and destruction as Baptisme doth In this respect a more expresse evidence of Gods goodnes was given in this day then in the former The third day was from Abraham to David wherein that precious and expresse promise of blessing all Nations in Abrahams seed was made wherein also Israel was brought out of the Egyptian bondage a type of the redemption of the Church from her spiritual bondage under sinne and Satan In this day the Tabernacle with the many other types of Christ his offices and benefits to his Church were first ordained and Israel
setled in the land of Canaan a type of their heavenly rest Thus did this third day farre exceed the former in glory The fourth was from David to the carrying of Israel into captivity Herein a royall government was given to Gods people a type of Christs royall Kingdome Herein most of the extraordinary Prophets speciall types of Christs propheticall office were raised up and most cleare prophecies made of the better things to come in the Christian Church Herein also Solomons Temple was built and sundry new and more glorious types of Christ were made then in the Tabernacle So much therefore as this Temple of Solomon excelled the Tabernacle of Moses and the Cherubins Tables Altars Pillars and all manner of sacred instruments in the Temple surpassed them that were in the Tabernacle so much more did Gods goodnesse in this day exceed the goodnesse of former dayes The fifth day was from Israels going into captivity to Christs ascension into Heaven This day for the greatest part thereof was indeed a dismall day Yet the delivering of Israel out of the Babylonish captivity was a more cleare and full type of our redemption by Christ then any former deliverance whereupon it is said It shall no more be said The Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the lands of the North and from all the land whither he had driven them The re-edifying of the Temple was also a principall type of Christs resurrection and of this Temple it is said The glory of this later house shall be greater then of the former so as these added much to the glory of this day But in that the Lord Christ was in the evening of this day actually exhibited and the things accomplished which were perfigured by the legall types and fore-told by the ancient Prophets the goodnesse of God manifested in this day farre exceeded that which was in former dayes In this respect it is said of John the Baptist who saw and made known that promised Messiah and was the first that directly pointed him out saying Behold the Lambe of God Of him it is said among them that are borne of women there hath not risen a greater This was the surpassing glory of the fifth day The sixth was from Christs ascension into Heaven to his second comming unto judgement This is the day of the cleare and full revelation of all the glorious mysteries that were hidden from the beginning of the world till then This is the day wherein all the forementioned new things and better things were conferred upon the Christian Church In this day as better things shall not be given so better things cannot be expected while the world lasteth This is the day whereof we may say This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Thus from this exemplification of the increase of Gods goodnesse in the severall ages of the world we may well inferre that God hath provided better things for the later times Questionlesse God thus ordereth his good providence upon just and weighty reasons and though his counsell be unsearchable and his waies past finding out in regard of the full latitude of them yet hath he left some footsteps wherein and whereby we may observe some grounds of his wise proceedings therein Among others I suppose these may be some 1. That the extent of his goodnesse may be more distinctly considered more clearly discerned and more transcendently admired Gods governing of his Church in the world by his providence is ordered in such a manner as his prudence in creating the world was manifested In that first great work he still put off the better things to the later daies He could if it had pleased him have created all the things that he did create at once Had he at once said Let there be light firmament waters earth all manner of trees and herbs bearing seed Sunne Moon and Stars fowls fishes beasts and man they had instantly been all but voluntarily and purposely he took up six daies in creating them and in each day made severall and distinct creatures but ever the better for the reason before specified This will evidently appear by an induction of particulars which follow in order 1. The light which he created in the first day was indeed a glorious creature But either it was the element of fire for no where else we read of creating fire or else it was some other light which was of use but for three daies for in the fourth day those lights were made which have hitherto continued and shall continue to the worlds end So as either this light was annihilated when those were made or else it was setled in the body of the Sun 2. In the second day the firmament or air was made and called heaven then also were the seas and earth made If we mark the Text we shall finde that the blessing of the second daies work is not expressed till the seas and earth were made Genes 1. 10. These three air water earth are the three elements of which all bodies are compounded These are more excellent then the fore-said light in regard of their continuall use 3. In the third day all the grasse and herb yeelding seed and the tree yeelding fruit after his kinde were made These being vegitable creatures by reason of that life which is in them excelled the former 4. In the fourth day the host of heaven was made This daies work in the glory and immutability of it and in the constant perpetuall motion running most swiftly round about the world every day without wasting or wearinesse excelled all that went before 5. In the fift day all the fowl of heaven and fish in the sea were created These having life and sense in them and voluntarily moving from place to place surpassed the very host of heaven 6. In the sixth day besides other creatures living on the earth Man was made Man in the image of God This was Gods master-piece and reserved unto the last working day By this distinct encrease of Gods goodnesse God comes the more to be admired and his wisdom power and other excellencies the better discerned The like course therefore God took in his providence 2. God provides better things for the later times to make those better things to be the more earnestly desired and longed for before they come and to be the more highly prized and the better esteemed after they are exhibited It is said That many Prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear the things which were seen and heard in Christs daies which were the last daies It is also said that the Prophets searched diligently what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of
THE PROGRESSE OF Divine Providence SET OVT IN A SERMON PREACHED In the Abbey Church of Westminster before the house of PEERS on the 24th of September 1645. being the day of their Monethly FAST By William Gouge one of the MEMBERS of the ASSEMBLY ECCLES. 7. 8. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Inest omni utenti ratione naturaliter appetere potiora Bem de diligendo Deo LONDON Printed by G. M. for Ioshua Kirton next Goldsmiths-hall in Foster-lane MDCXLV Die Veneris 26. Sept. 1645. IT is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That M. Doctour Gouge who preached on Wednesday last before the Lords of Parliament in the Abbey Church Westminster it being the day of the publike Fast is hereby thanked for his great pains he took in his said Sermon and desired to print and publish the same which is to be done only by authority under his hand Iohn Brown Cleric Parliamentorum I Appoint Joshua Kirton to print my Sermon and none else William Gouge TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of PEERS Assembled in PARLIAMENT RIGHT HONOURABLE AS in sundry other ages and places so in this age and place wherein we now live hath my Text been verified and that within the compasse of these last five years in every of which God hath done better unto us then at our beginnings and we have great and just cause to hope that he will yet continue to doe better and better It was an especial evidence of Gods good providence that the great Counsel of England was called at that time that it was called The State of Church and Common-wealth was so farre out of order and the disorder in both so backed as without a Parliament it would not it could not in mans apprehensions have been redressed The Reformation that was then intended by that Parliament being by some envious eyes espied a dissolution thereof was procured But that and other former dissolutions of Parliaments necessity forcing another Parliament soon after to be called occasioned an Act to prevent inconveniencies which may happen by the untimely Adjourning Proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament What better thing rebus sic stantibus ut tunc nunc could have happened to this State The good consequencies that have happened thereupon are evident demonstrations of Gods minde still to do better and better for us It would exceed the proportion of a Dedicatory Epistle to reckon up the particular instances of the Divine Providence encreasing time after time for the better unto us and that by vertue of this present Parliament they are so clear and evident as none but such as take notice of nothing can be ignorant of them and none but envious and malignant spirits can conceal or pervert them When might the good Providence of God have been better discerned in protecting the persons upholding the spirits directing the counsels and prospering the endeavours of such as were assembled in a Parliament then in this When might the like Providence of God have been better discerned in stirring up mens mindes encouraging their spirits enabling their bodies and preserving their persons for maintaining a cause then in this cause that is now maintained by the Parliament Of them who with a single eye behold the footsteps of the Lord in the Counsels of our Parliament it may justly be said They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King Have not our Armies had successe beyond expectation even to admiration What a stop hath been set to Superstition How good a progresse hath been made in Reformation And may we not yet hope that God will doe better unto us then at our beginnings Gods promise is the ground of hope and my Text sheweth that God hath promised as much Goe on Right Honourable and put forth your utmost endeavours for bringing on those better things that yet remain Where their is Hope there endeavours use to be most earnest For Hope stirreth up mens spirits to set upon great things Though the full accomplishment of the remaining better things should be reserved to a future age yet it becomes us to be as earnest in prosecuting them according to the ability and opportunity that God doth give us as if we our selves were sure while we live to have the fruition of them Experience sheweth that to be true which of old was said of the provident husbandman that he planteth trees which may be usefull in an other age But I hope that God will let you see and enjoy the fruit of your Counsels and of our desires This shall be the continuall prayer of Your Honours humble Servant and Oratour William Gouge THE PROGRESSE OF GODS Providence EZEK. 36. 11. I will doe better unto you then at your beginnings AMong other evidences of Gods speciall providence and care over his Church this is an especiall one that he ever afforded unto it sufficient means to instruct it in his will and to direct it in the way to happinesse When at the beginning he made man he did not only write his law in his heart but also revealed means of standing in his happy estate or falling from the same Instance the two Sacraments in Paradise the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil When men encreased into a Family God ordained the first-born both to be a Governour and also an Instructour of the Family When the Church multiplied into a Nation God set apart the twelfth part thereof namely one Tribe of twelve to be ordinary Ministers therein These he distinguished into Priests and Levites When that Politie ended be ordained Pastors and Teachers to be ordinary Ministers in his Church to the end of the world Of old in extraordinary times and upon extraordinary occasions God endued men with an extraordinary spirit who were stiled Prophets such an one was Ezekiel to whom I suppose more extrordinary visions and revelations were made known then to any other He was raised up in most corrupt and said times even when God was forced to doe his work his strange work and to bring to passe his act his strange act He prophesied in Babylon whither he was carried captive when the Babylonians first entred into Jerusalem and took away many of the sacred and precious vessels of the Temple together with a great part of the treasures of that house and of the King and Princes and carried them together with Jehoiakim the King and many of the Princes Priests and people into Babylon There he also continued after that the said Babylonians had again entred into the said City broke down the walls thereof burnt the house of God and all the houses in the City and carried away the remainder of the vessels of the said Temple and of the treasures therein together with Zedekiah another King and the remainder of Princes Priests and people About the same time Jeremiah was raised up to bea Prophet among that
the rest My purpose therefore is to insist upon the last Doctrine You heard it before hear it again God hath provided his better things for the later times of his Church Well observe the particular good things which God hath provided for the Christian Church which is the Church of the later times and you shall finde them stiled better The Testament given to the Christian Church is a better Testament It is made by the Sonne of God Immanuel God with us and ratified by his death wherein an eternall inheritance is bequeathed unto us Was there ever such a testament before 2. The Covenant made between God and his Church in these later times is a better Covenant Give me here leave because mention is made both of a Testament and a Covenant to shew you the difference between them 1. A Covenant is an agreement between two a Testament is the declaration of the will of one 2. The two between whom a Covenant passeth must be both living a Testament receiveth force by the death of him that made it 3. A Covenant is ratified by the mutuall consent of both parties a Testament by the will only of him that made it 4. A Covenant useth to be made upon conditions on both parts a Testament is made upon the meer favour and grace of the testatour Now the Covenant made with Christians is better then the two former Covenant both called old because they are both in such respects nulled The first was a Covenant of works made with man in his entire estate which by his fall he made impossible for man to keep But this Covenant giveth ability to keep it with much alacrity 2. There was a Covenant indeed of grace made with the Church before Christ exhibited but set out in such obscure promises and prophecies and dark types and shadows as it was needfull in time to be abolished but the new Covenant made with the Christian Church is so clearly and plainly revealed as it may well in that respect also be called better 3. The Promises now made are better Promises most of the Promises before Christ exhibited were of temporall good things I will not deny but that spirituall and celestiall good things were prefigured under them but now spirituall and heavenly good things are more expressely perspicuously and plentifully promised to the Church 4. The hope that now we have is a better hope Promises are the ground of hope The better the promises the better must hope needs be and that in those respects wherein the Promises are better Christians may more immediately directly and steadily hope for all spirituall and heavenly blessings then they that lived before Christ could 5. The sacrifice that now we have is better then the former sacrifices He that considereth the difference between the bodies of unreasonable creatures the body of Christ the Sonne of God cannot but know that there is an infinite excellency in this sacrifice over and above those If any thing under the Gospel may justly be stiled better then the like under the Law surely this sacrifice may most of all be stiled better then those 6. The blood of Christ in regard of the crie of it is stiled better It is said to speak better things then that of Abel because Abels blood cried for vengeance Christs for pardon Christ when he was upon the crosse where he shed his blood thus cried Father forigive them Yea further Christs blood is better then that blood which was shed on the Altars under the Law For it is not possible that the blood of buls and goats should take away sins but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 7. To insist upon no more particulars the Apostle under this indefinite phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} some better thing compriseth all those good things which in comparison of the Church of the Jewes are bestowed on the Christian Church For thus he saith God hath provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect In such a respect as Gospel-blessings are called better they are also called new as A new Covenant a new Testament a new Hierusalem a new Heaven and earth a new name a new commandement a new way a new heart a new spirit and a new song These and other like things are called new in opposition to old things which decaid and vanished away so as there was a necessity of new things to succeed in their room These new things shall never wax old they are new not only in their beginning but also in their perpetuall continuance They shall ever be fresh and flourishing like Aarons rod which budded and bloomed blossomes and yeelded Almonds and so alwayes continued even as long as the Arke of the testimony before which it was set remained The new Covenant and the new Testament are the same which were before stiled better and in such like respects called new Of them therefore I shall need to say no more then what hath been said The rest that follow are these 1. A new Jerusalem The old Jerusalem was of senseles corruptible materialls The new Jerusalem is of lively stones a spirituall house It is stiled the City of God in regard of the excellency thereof for excellent things in Canaans language are said to be things of God and in regard of that care which God taketh of it and delight which he takes to be in it The old Jerusalem was but a type and figure of this 2. New Heavens and a new Earth Hereby is meant a new face of a Church farre more glorious in the spirituality of it then the former before Christ The phrase is hyperbolicall it is used to set forth not only a renovation of the Church but such a renovation as should put the world as it were into a new forme and frame insomuch as he that should attentively look upon it might say Behold new Heavens and a new Earth If it be objected that an Apostle speaking of the times of the Gospel saith We looke for new Heavens and a new Earth and thereby intends the glory of the world to come I answer that excellent matters are some times spoken of in their inchoation and progresse and sometimes in their perfection and consummation so as the new Heavens and the new Earth in their beginning and increase may be under the Gospell and in their consummation and perfection after the day of judgement 3. A new name This Christ stileth his name Rev. 3. 12. This name is to be a sonne of God For as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God Of old they were called children of Israel now Christians yea the Apostle giveth the name Christ to the mysticall body of Christ consisting of many Saints 1 Cor. 12. 12. 4. A new Commandement Another kinde of
by the Prophets Many apply sundry prophecies that tend that way to the delivery of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity and others to the spirituall Israel consisting of Gentiles But assuredly such prophecies as fore-tell the re-uniting of Judah and Ephraim together have especiall reference to the fore-said recalling of the Jews as that Parable whereof this our Prophet maketh mention about joyning two sticks on the one whereof was written For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions and on the other For Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions That Parable the Prophet thus applieth I will make them one Nation and one King shall be King to them all c. But if any shall question this and other prophecies of the ancient Prophets The Apostle Paul hath so expresly fore-told a recalling of the Jews and thereupon a bringing in a fullness of the Gentiles as no question can be made thereof and he doth after such a manner expresse these as apparently declareth a future glory of the Christian Church Some particular expressions of his in the 11. to the Romans are these 1. Vers 11. Having propounded this Question concerning the Jews Have they stumbled that they should fall namely totally and finally never to be raised again He gives this answer God forbid Whereby he implieth that assuredly they shall be raised again that is they shall be made a visible Church of Christ and submit themselves to his ordinances 2. Vers 12. This supposition If the fall of them be riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fullnesse By their fullnesse he meaneth their bringing them in to the Church of Christ consisting of Gentiles and thereby making that Church full when both Gentiles and Jews shall be joyned together 3. Vers 15. This Question What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead doth take it for grant that they shall be received and taken into the Church of Christ and that this restauration of theirs will be as a new glorious resurrection 4. Vers 23. It is said They also shall be graffed in namely into the body of the Christian Church and a proof thereof is taken from Gods omnipotency For God is able to graff them in again 5. Vers 24. This emphaticall Interrogation How much more shall these which be the naturall branches he graffed into their own Olive-tree doth put it out of all question that the Jews shall again be brought to be of the true Church which is the Olive-tree here intended 6. Vers 25. This restrictive particle In part blindenesse in part is happened unto Israel doth import that they shall not be finally blinded but that at length they shall come to have their eyes so opened as they shall know and believe in Jesus Christ This is further manifested by expressing the period of this limitation thus Vntill the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in 7. Verse 26. This generall phrase All Israel shall be saved sheweth that there is a time to come when not only two or three or a few Jews here and there thorowout the Christian Church as have been in all ages thereof but the whole Nation shall be called 8. Vers 31. This phrase Through your mercy they also may obtain mercy sheweth that God purposely suffered them sometime to abide in unbelief that when they should be brought to believe this grace and honour might appear to arise from Gods meer mercy and free grace The words following in the next verse doe shew as much They are these For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Thus we see that there is a calling of the Jews to come and that their calling shall be as a resurrection from the dead as an incision of many more branches into a glorious tree that it shall be an universall conspicuous calling of a whole Nation wherein the freenesse and largenesse of Gods grace and mercy shall be evidently manifested At which time there shall be also such a number of Gentiles brought in as may well be called the fulnesse of the Gentiles vers. 25. This certainly shall be a most glorious condition of the Christian Church and this is yet to come therefore God will yet doe better things for us In expectation whereof we may comfort our selves though for a while thick clouds of troubles doe over-spread the face of the Church and somewhat eclipse the glorious brightnesse thereof Yea further we may expect better things then yet we doe enjoy upon the fore-mentioned progresse of Gods good providence before that glorious calling of the Jews be accomplished For the Jews after this promise made before the first comming of the Messiah and calling of the Gentiles had conferred upon them many better things then before They were brought out of Captivity to their own Land A second Temple was built The Law was restored unto them by Ezra and many other blessings So after Christs first comming the Gospel was preached in many Nations multitudes of Churches were erected and established the Gospel confirmed by many undaunted Martyrs Yea after much persecution the Church had great rest and liberty in Constantines and other Christian Emperours times And though that rest and liberty were in time exceedingly abused by the ambition of Prelates which at length brought it to the height of Papacy yet God by a Reformation in these later times shewed that he was mindefull of this his promise and did better things for her then before This may further be exemplified by Gods doing better for us here in England then at our beginnings For as the thick dark cloud of Antichristianisme over-spread the skie of the whole Christian Church for many years together so did it clean keep away the bright shining of the Gospel from England But it pleased God almost three hundred years agoe in the raign of Edward the third to raise up John Wickliff a Professour at Oxford to hold out the light of the Gospel so as many in those daies were much enlightned thereby Among other principles wherein he instructed the people these were some 1. The Eucharist after consecration is not the very body of Christ but figuratively 2. The Church of Rome is not the head of all Churches more then any Church is Nor hath Peter any more power given of Christ then any other Apostle hath 3. The Pope of rome hath no more in the keyes of the Church then any other within the order of Priesthood 4. The Gospel is a rule sufficient of it self to rule the life of every Christian man here without any other rule 5. All other rules under whose observances divers religious persons be governed doe adde no more perfection to the Gospel then doth the white colour to the wall These and other like positions wrought so effectually upon the hearts of noble and mean persons as this may