charge even the great men of the world It is true the ministers of the Gospell are servants to the Church In compassion to pitty the diseases the infirmities the temptations of Gods people in ministerie to assist them with all needfull supplies of comfort or instruction or exhortation in righteousnesse in humility to waite upon men of lowest degree and to condescend unto men of weakest capacitie And thus the very Angels in heaven are servants to the Church of Christ. But yet we are servants onely for the Churches good to serve their soules not to serve their humors And therefore we are such servants as may command too These things command and teach Let no man despise thy youth And againe These things speake and exhort and rebuke with all authority Let no man despise thee No ministers are more despicable than those who by ignorance or flattery or any base and ambitious affections betray the power majesticall simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. When we deliver Gods message we must not then be the servants of men If I yet please men I were not then the servant of Christ saith the Apostle To captivate the truth of God unto the humours of men and to make the Spirit of Christ in his Gospell to bend comply and complement with humane lusts is with Ionah to play the runnagates from our office and to prostrate the Scepter of Christ unto the insultation of men There is a wonderfull majesty and authority in the word when it is set on with Christs Spirit He taught men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one who had power and authority or priviledge to speake as one that cared not for the persons of men and therefore where ever his spirit is there will this power and liberty of Christ appeare for he hath given it to his ministers that they may commend themselves in the consciences of those that heare them that they may harden their faces against the pride and scorne of men that they may goe out in armies against the enemies of his kingdome that they may speake boldly as they ought to speake that they may not suffer his word to be bound or his Spirit to be straitened by the humors of men Againe we should all labour to receive the word in the power thereof and to expose our tender parts unto it A Cocke is in comparison but a weake Creature and yet the crowing of a Cocke will cause the trembling of a Lion What is a Bee to a Beare or a Mouse to an Elephant and yet if a Bee fasten his sting in the nose of a Beare or a Mouse creepe up and gnaw the trunke of an Elephant how easily doe so little Creatures upon such an advantage torment the greatest Certainely the proudest of men have some tender part into which a sting may enter The conscience is as sensible of Gods displeasure as obnoxious to his wrath as subject to his word in a prince as in a beggar If the word like Davids stone finde that open and get into it it is able to sinke the greatest Goliah Therefore wee should open our consciences unto that word and expect his spirit to come along with it and receive it as Iosiah did with humility and trembling Wee should learne to feare the Lord in his word and when his voyce cryeth in the city to see his name and his power therein Will ye not feare me faith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence who make the sand abound to the sea No Creature so swelling and of it selfe so strong and incroaching as the sea nothing so small weake smoothe and passable as the sand and yet the sand a creature so easily removed and swept away decreed to hold in so raging an Element What in appearance weaker than words spoken by a despised man and what in the experience of all the world stronger than the raging of an army of lusts and yet that hath the Lord appointed to tame and subdue these that men might learne to feare his power Againe it should teach us to Rest upon God in all things as being unto us all-sufficient a sunne a shield an exceeding great reward in the truth and promises of his Gospell The word of God is a sure thing that which a man may cast his whole weight upon and leane confidently on in any extremity All the Creatures in the world are full of vanity uncertaineties and disappointments and then usually doe deceive a man most when he most of all relies upon them and therefore the Apostle chargeth us not to trust in them But the word of the Lord is an abiding word as being founded upon the Immutability of Gods owne truth he that maketh it his refuge relieth on Gods omnipotency and hath all the strength of the Almighty engaged to helpe him Asa was safe while hee depended on the Lord in his promises against the hugest host of men that was ever read of but when he turned aside to collaterall aides hee purchased to himselfe nothing but perpetuall warres And this was that which established the throne of Iehoshaphat and caused the feare of the Lord to fall upon the kingdomes of the lands which were round about him because he honoured the Word of God and caused it to be taught unto his people Whensoever Israel and Judah did forget to leane upon Gods word and betooke themselves to humane confederacies to correspondence with Idolatrous people to facility in superstitious compliances and the like fleshly counsels they found them alwaies to be but very lies like waxen and wooden feasts made specious of purpose to delude ignorant commers things of so thinne and unsoâ—id a consistence as were ever broken with the weight of those who did leane upon them Let us not therefore rest upon our owne wisedome nor build our hopes or securities upon humane foundations but let us in all conditions take hold of Gods Covenant of this staffe of his strength which is able to stay us up in any extremities Againe since the Gospell is a word of such soveraigne power as to strengthen us against all enemies and temptations to uphold us in all our wayes and callings to make us strong in the Grace of Christ for ever a Christian mans knowledge of the Word is the measure of his strength and comfort wee should therefore labour to acquit our selves with God in his Word to hide it in our hearts and grow rich in the knowledge of it In heaven our blessednesse shall consist in the knowledge and communion with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ. So that the Gospell and the Spirit are to us upon earth the preludes and supplies of heaven for by them onely is this knowledge and communion begun And that man doth but delude himselfe and lye to the world who professeth his desire to goe to heaven and doth not here desire to know so much of God as he is pleased to afford to
and to compose those differences thereabouts which doe so much perplex the world Secondly for those places which in their meaning are easie to be understood but in their excellent and high nature hard to be beleeved as all Articles of faith and things of absolute necessitie are in their termes perspicuous but in their heavenly nature unevident unto humane reason the office of the Church is not to binde mens consciences to beleeve these truths upon her authoritie for wee have not dominion over the faith of men neither are we lords in Christs flock and how shal any scrupulous minde which is desirous to boult things to the bran be secure of the power which the Church in this case arrogates or have any certaintie that this society of men must be beleeved in their religion who will allow the same honor to no society of men but thēselves But in this case the office of the Church is both to labour by al good means to evidence the credibility of the things which are to be beleeved to discover unto men those essentiall and intimate beauties of the Gospel which to spirituall mindes and hearts raised to such a proportionable pitch of capacitie as are suteable to the excellency of their natures are apt to evidence and notifie themselves and also to labour to take men off from dependance on their owne reason or corrupted judgement to worke in their heart an experience of the Spirit of grace and an obedience to those holy truths which they already assent unto with which preparations and perswasions the heart being possessed will in due time come to observe more cleerely by that spirituall eye the evidence of those things which were at first so difficult so then the Act of the Church is in matters of faith an act of introduction and guidance but that which begetteth the infallible and unquestionable assent of faith is that spirituall taste relish and experience of the heavenly sweetnesse of divine doctrine which by the ministery of the Church accompanied with the speciall concurrence of almighty God therewithall is wrought in the heart for it is only the Spirit of God which writeth the Law in mens hearts which searcheth the things of God and which maketh us to know them Thirdly for those places which are difficult rather to be obeyed than to be understood The worke of the Church is to enforce upon the conscience the necessitie of them to perswade rebuke exhort encourage with all authority Which should teach us all to love the Church of Christ and to pray for the peace and prosperity of the walls of Sion for the purity spiritualnesse power and countenance of the Word therein which is able to hold up its owne honour in the minds of men if it be but faithfully published we should therefore studie to maintaine to credit to promote the Gospell to encourage truth discountenance errour to stand in the gap against all the stratagems and advantages of the enemies thereof and to hold the candlestick fast amongst us to buy the truth and sell it not betray it not forsake it not temper it not misguize it not This is to be a pillar to put the shoulder under the Gospell of Christ. And surely though the Papists boast of the word and name of the Church as none more apt to justifie and brag of their sobrietie than those whom the wine hath overtaken yet the plaine truth is they have farre lesse of the nature thereof than any other Churches because farre lesse of the pure service and ministration thereof for in stead of holding forth the Word of life they pull it downe denying unto the people of Christ the use of his Gospell dimidiating the use of his Sacrament breeding them up in an ignorant worship to begge they know not what in all points disgracing the Word of truth and robbing it of its certaintie sufficiencie perspicuitie authoritie purity energie in the minds of men And this is certain the more any set themselves against the light and generall knowledge of the Word of truth the lesse of the nature of the Church they have in them what-ever ostentations they may make of the name thereof The last thing observed in this second verse amongst the regalities of Christ was Imperium his rule and government in his Church by his holy Word maugre all the attempts and machinations of the enemies thereof against it Rule thou in the middest of thine enemies that is Thou shalt rule safely securely undisturbedly without danger feare or hazard from the enemies round about their counsels shall be infatuated their purposes shall vanish their decrees shall not stand their persecutions shall but sow the bloud of Christ and the ashes of Christians the thicker they shall see it and gnash with their teeth and gnaw their tongues and be horribly amazed at the emulation and triumph of a Christians sufferings over the malice and wrath of men The kingdome of Christ is two-fold His kingdome of glory of which there shall be no end when hee shall rule over his enemies and tread them under his feet and his kingdome of grace whereby hee ruleth amongst his enemies by the scepter of his Word And this is the kingdome here spoken of noting unto us that Christ will have a Church and people gathered unto him by the preaching of his Gospell on the earth maugre all the malice power or policie of all his enemies Never was Satan so loose never heresie and darknesse so thicke never persecution so prevalent never the taile of the Dragon so long as to sweepe away all the Starres of heaven or to devoure the remnant of the womans seed The gates of hell all the policie power and machinations of the kingdome of darknesse shall never root out the Vine which the Father hath planted nor prevaile against the body of Christ. His Gospell must be preached till the worlds end and till then he will be with it to give it successe Though the Kings of the earth stand up and the Rulers gather together against the Lord and his Christ yet they imagine but a vaine thing and hee that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorne The grounds of the certainetie and perpetuitie of Christs Evangelicall Kingdome is not the nature of the Church in it selfe consider'd either in the whole or parts for Adam and Evah were a Church at first a people that were under the law of obedience and worship of God and yet they fell away from that excellent condition And the Prophet tels us that except the Lord had left a very small remnant the Church had beene all as Sodom and like to Gomorrah But the grounds hereof are First The Decree ordination and appointment of God Psal. 2.7 Acts 10.42 Hebr. 3.2 and wee know what ever men project the counsell of the Lord must stand Secondly Gods Gift unto Christ Aske of mee and I wil give thee the heathen for thine inheritance c. Ps. 2.8
in dying rising and reviving he became Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.9 Revel 5.12 And thus he is Lord in two respects First A Lord in Power and strength Power to forgive sinnes Power to quicken whom hee will Power to cleanse justifie and sanctifie Power to succor in temptations Power to raise from the dead Power to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Power to hold fast his sheepe Power to cast out the accuser of the brethren Power to put downe all his enemies and to subdue all things unto himselfe Secondly A Lord in Authoritie To judge to anoint to imploy to command whom and what hee will He onely is Lord over our persons over our faith over our consciences To him onely we must say Lord save us lest wee perish to him onely wee must say Lord what will thou have me to doe And such a Lord Christ was to his owne fore-fathers They all did eate of the same Spirituall meate and all dranke of the same Spirituall drinke even of that rock which was Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. He was the substance of the Ceremonies the Doctrine of the Prophets the accomplishment of the Promises the joy and salvation of Patriarchs and Princes the desire and expectation of all flesh The Gospell to us a History and narration and therefore delivered by the hand of witnesses to them a promise and prediction and therefore delivered by the hand of Prophets The Apostles entered into the Prophets Labours and were servants in the same common salvation these as sowers and they as reapers these as preachers of the seed hoped and they as preachers of the same seed exhibited The ancient Iewes then were not saved by bare temporall promises neither was their faith ultimately fixed upon Ceremonies or earthly things but as their preachers had the same Spirit of Christ with ours so the Doctrine which they preached the faith and obedience which they required the salvation which they foretold was the same with ours As the same Sun illightens the starres above and the earth beneath so the same Christ was the Righteousnesse and salvation both of his fore-fathers and of his seed They without us could not be made perfect that is as I conceive their faith had nothing actually extant amongst themselves to perfect it but received all its forme and accomplishment from that better thing which was provided for and exhibited unto us For the Law that is the carnall Commandement and outward Ceremonies therein prescribed made nothing no grace no person perfect but the bringing in of a better hope that is of Christ who as hee is unto us the hope of glory so hee was unto them the hope of deliverance for he alone it is by whom wee draw nigh unto God doth perfect for ever those that are sanctified Heb. 7.19 Heb. 10.14 If Christ then be our Lord wee must trust in him and depend upon him for all our present subsistence and our future expectations For he never faileth those that wait upon him He that beleeveth in him shall not bee ashamed And indeed faith is necessary to call Christ Lord. No man can call Iesus Lord but by the Spirit Because other Lords are present with us they doe with their own eye oversee and by their owne visible power order and direct us in their service But Christ is absent from our senses Though I have knowne Christ after the flesh yet henceforth saith the Apostle know I him no more Therefore to feare and honor and serve him with all fidelity to yeeld more absolute and universall obedience to his commands though absent though tenderd unto us by the Ministerie of meane and despicable persons than to the threates and Scepters of the greatest Princes to labour that not only present but absent we may bee accepted of him to doe his hardest workes of selfe-deniall of overcomming and rejecting the assaults of the World of standing out against principalities powers and spirituall wickednes of suffering and dying in his service needs must there bee faith in the hart to see him present by his Spirit to set to our seale to the truth authoritie and Majesty of all his commands to heare the Lord speaking from heaven and to finde by the secret and powerfull revelations of his Spirit out of the word to the soule evident and invincible proofes of his living by the power of God and speaking mightily in the Ministery of his Word to our consciences Therefore when the Apostle had said Wee are absent from the Lord hee presently addes We walk by faith That is we labor to yeeld all service and obedience to this our Lord though absent because by faith which giveth presence to things unseen and subsistence to things that are yet but hoped wee know that hee is and that hee is a rewarder of those that diligently seeke him And indeed though every man call him Lord yet no man doth in truth and sincerity of heart so esteeme him but those who doe in this manner serve him and by faith walke after him If I be a Master saith the Lord where is my feare Malach. 1.6 It is not every one that saith Lord Lord but hee that doth my will that trembleth at my word that laboureth in my service who declares himselfe to be mine indeed For the heart of man cannot have two Masters because which way ever it goes it goes whole and undivided Wee cannot serve Christ and any thing else which stands in Competition with him First because they are Contrary Masters one cannot bee pleased or served without the disallowance of the other The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy that is grudgeth and cannot endure that any service should be done to the Lord. For the Friendship of the World is enmitie against God Iam. 4.4 5. And therefore saith the Apostle If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him and the reason is because they are contrarie principles and have contrary Spirits and lusts and therefore must needs over-rule unto contrary services Secondly because both Masters have employments enough to take up a whole man Satan and the World have lusts to fill the whole head and heart of their most active and industrious servants for the Apostle saith that all which is in the World is lusts And the heart of man is wholy or most greedily set in him to doe that evill which it is tasked withall Eccle. 8.11 The all that is in man all his faculties all his affections the whole Compasse of his created abilities are all gone aside or turned backward there is no man no part in man that doth any good no not one Psal. 14.3.53.3 Christ likewise is a great Lord hath much more businesse than all the time or strength of his Servants can bring about Hee requireth the obedience of every thought of the heart 2 Cor. 10.5 Grace and edification and profit in all the words
the land of Canaan which was a type of Christs Church which he should conquer unto himselfe if any people accepted of the peace which they were first to proclaime they were to become tributaries and servants unto Israel So it is said of Salomon whose peaceable kingdome was a type of Christs after his many victories that he bond-service upon all the nations about Israel and that those princes with whom he held correspondence brought unto him presents as testimonies of his greatnesse and wisedome So when the wise men the first fruits of the Gentiles after Christ exhibited came to submit unto his kingdome they opened their treasure and presented him with gifts gold frankincense and myrrh Againe Monetarum leges valores the authorizing and valuations of publike coines belong unto the prince onely it is his image and inscription alone which maketh them currant Even so unto Christ onely doth belong the power of stamping and creating as it were new ordinances in his Church nothing is with God nor should be currant with us which hath not his image or expresse authority upon it Neither can any man falsify or corrupt any constitution of his without notable contempt against his royall prerogative Againe Iudicium or potestas judiciaria a power of judging the persons and causes of men is a peculiar royalty the administration whereof is from the prince as the fountaine of all humane equitie under God deposited in the hands of inferiour officers who are as it were the mouth of the prince to publish the lawes and to execute those acts of justice and peace which principally belong to his owne sacred breast And so Christ saith of himselfe The Father hath committed all judgement unto the Sonne and hath given him authority to execute judgement Againe Ius vitae necis A power to pardon condemned persons and deliver them from the terrour of the Lawes sentence is a transcendent mercie a gemme which can shine only from the diadems of Princes Now unto Christ likewise belongeth in his Church a power to forgive sinnes it is the most sacred roialty of this prince of peace not onely to suspend but for ever to revoke and as it were annihilate the sentence of malediction under which every man is borne There are likewise Ornamenta Regia regall Ornaments a Crowne a Throne a Scepter and the like Thus we finde the Romanes were wont to send to those forraine kings with whom they were in league as testimonies and confirmations of their dignity scipionem eburneum togam pictam sellam curulem an ivorie scepter a roiall robe and a chaire of state And the like honours wee finde in the Scriptures belonging unto Christ that hee was crowned with glory and honour and that hee had a Throne and righteous scepter belonging to his kingdome Thus we have seene in severall particulars how Christ hath his Royalties belonging to his kingdome Some principall of them we finde in this place A throne a scepter ambassadours armies for the right dispensing of his sacred power We will first consider the words and then raise such observations as shall offer themselves First what is meant by the Rod of Christs Strength or his Strong Rod It notes a thing which a man may leane upon or lay the whole weight of his body on in his wearinesse But being spoken of Christs kingdome wee take it for a scepter or rod of majestie I will not hold you with the variety of acceptions in Expositors Some take it for the branch that groweth out of that roote of Iesse Some for the wood of the crosse Some for the body of Christ borne of a Virgin Some for the kingdome of Christs power taking the signe for the thing signified Some for the power of his mightie workes and preaching That of the body and of the crosse of Christ except by them wee understand the vertue of Christ crucified I conceive to be not so pertinent to the purpose of the Prophet The rest agree in one But for the more distinct understanding of the words wee may consider out of the holy Scriptures what things were sent out of Sion And we finde there two things First the word of the Lord or his holy Gospell The Law shall proceed out of Sion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem Mic. 4.2 Secondly the spirit of the Lord which was first sent unto Sion for at Hierusalem the Apostles were to wait for the promise of the Father Act. 1.4 and from thence was shed abroad into the world upon al flesh Act. 2.17 and both these are the power or strength of Christ. His word a Gospell of power unto salvation Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 4.7.10.4 and his spirit a spirit of power 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Tim. 1.7 which is therefore called the finger and the arme of the Lord Luk. 11.20 Matt. 12.28 Esai 53.1 so by the Rod is meant the Gospell and the Spirit of Christ. Secondly what is meant by Gods sending this Rod of Christs strength It notes the manifestation of the Gospell we knew it not before it was sent The donation of the Gospell we had it not before it was sent the invitations of the Gospell we were without God in the world and strangers from the Covenant of promise before it was sent The Commission of the Dispensers of the Gospell they have their patent from heaven they are not to speake untill they be sent Thirdly what is meant by sending it out of Sion It is put in Opposition to mount Sina from whence the Law was sometimes sent with thunders and fire and much terrour unto the people of Israel Ye are not come saith the Apostle unto the mount that burned with fire nor unto blacknesse and darknesse and tempest c. but yee are come unto mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant c. Heb. 12.18.24 and the Apostle elsewhere sheweth us the meaning of this Allegoricall opposition betweene Sina and Sion betweene Sarah and Hagar namely the two covenants of the Law and of Grace or of bondage and liberty Gal. 4.24 25. Sion was the place whither the tribes resorted to worship the Lord the place towards which that people praied the place of Gods mercifull residence amongst them the beauty of holines the place upon which first the gift of the holy Ghost was powred forth and in which the Gospell was first of all preached after Christs Ascension We may take it by a Synechdoche for the whole Church of the Jewes unto whom the Lord first revealed his Covenant of Grace in Christ Act. 3.26 Act. 13.46 Rom. 2.10 Rule Thou that is Thou shalt rule which is a usuall forme to put the Imperative for the future Indicative It is not a command which hath relation unto any service but it is a promise a commission a dignity conferred
upon Christ. In the midst of thine enemies Some understand it of changing the hearts of his enemies and converting them as captives unto his obedience Other understand the wonderfull effect of the power of Christs kingdome that he can by his Word and Spirit hold up his Church in despight of all the enemies thereof round about The Church ever was and will be pester'd with divers kindes of adversaries heretikes and hypocrites and false brethren with profanenesse temptations persecutions spirituall wickednesses and in the midst of all these the Church of Christ groweth as a Lily amongst the thornes Now this In medio noteth two things Dominium plenum and dominium securum A perfect and full governement without mutilation without impediment the Church being amongst the wicked as a rocke in the midst of the sea or as a garrison in an enemies towne Media dominantur in urbe is an expression of such a rule as can no way be hindered or removed The Church of God is a burdensome stone they who goe about to remove it out of that place where Christ will plant it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth should gather together against it Zech. 12.3 A secure and confident governement so in the Scripture phrase In the midst notes confidence and security When the Prophet asked the Shunamite would'st thou be spoken for to the king or to the Captaine of the host she answered I dwell amongst mine owne people that is I am safe and have enough already 2 King 4.13 When they of the Synagogue would have cast Christ downe head-long from the brow of a hill it is said that he passed through the midst of them and went his way that is with much confidence safety and assurance he withdrew himselfe Luk. 4.29 30. As the Prophet was full of security and quietnesse in the midst of the Syrian siege 2 King 6 14-16 The words being thus unfolded wee may observe in them Three of Christs principall Regalities Sceptrum Solium and Imperium The Scepter the Throne and the Power or governement of his kingdome His Scepter is the Word of his Gospell animated by the Power of his holy Spirit and accompanied with the blessing and authority of God the Father who sendeth it abroad into the world His Throne from whence this his Scepter is extended Sion the Church of the Jewes His victorious plenarie and secure governement Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies First the Scepter here is the Gospell and the Spirit of Christ. Christ is a Shepheard towards his Flocke the Church Esai 40.11 A great Shepheard Heb. 13.20 that notes his Power and Majesty over them and a good Shepheard Ioh. 10.14 that notes his care and tendernesse towards his Sheepe Kings in the Scripture are called Shepheards to lead and to feed and to govern the people So David is said to have beene taken from the sheepfolds to feed Iacob and Israel Psal. 78.71 2 Sam. 5.2 and thus Christ is a Shepheard and a King I will set up one Shepheard over them and he shall feede them Even my servant David I the Lord will be their God and my servant David a Prince among them Ezek. 34.23 24. Prophets Teachers are in the Scripture likewise called Shepherds Ier. 23.1 4. and so Christ is a Shepheard and a Bishop Ye were as sheepe going astray but now ye are returned unto the Shepheard and Bishop of your soules 1 Pet. 2.25 And therefore wee finde in the Scripture that Christ hath two pastorall staves to note his great care and double office in his Church The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want I will feare no evill for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staffe they comfort me Psal. 23.4 I tooke unto me two staves the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands and I fed the flocke Zech. 11.7 So then the Rod of Christs strength or his strong staffe doth in these severall relations note unto us three things As it is a staffe of strength so it notes the power of Christ. As it is the Scepter of a King so it notes the majestie of Christ. As it is the staffe of a Bishop or Prophet so it notes the care and superintendencie of Christ over his Church So then this first particular of the Rod of Christs kingdome affoords unto us three observations First that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of power and strength towards the Church Secondly that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of Glory and Majesty towards his Church Thirdly that Christ in his Gospell and Spirit is full of care and of tendernesse towards his Church First the words of the Gospell with the spirit is full of power and strength No man will denie that Christ in his owne person is full of power And as the power of a Prince is principally seene in his lawes edicts pardons and gratious patents so is the power of Christ wonderfully magnified towards the Church in his Gospell which unto us is both a Covenant of mercy and a Law of obedience We may observe how Christ is frequently pleased to honor his Gospell with his owne titles and attributes And therefore the Apostle speakes of him and his word as of one and the same thing The word of God is quicke and powerfull a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any Creature which is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doe That which is the word in one verse is Christ himselfe in another which hath given occasion to some learned men without any constraining reason as I conceive to take the Word there for the essentiall Word of God or the person of Christ himselfe to whom I thinke that appellation is not given by any of the sacred Writers but onely by his beloved Disciple Saint Iohn We know that Christ was crucified at Jerusalem and yet the Apostle saith that he was crucified amongst the Galatians Certainely in that he died he died but once unto sin S. Paul could not doe that himselfe which he curseth others for doing Crucifie againe the Lord of Glory So then at Jerusalem he was crucified in his person and at Galatia in the ministery of his Word One and the same crucifying was as lively set forth in Saint Pauls preaching as it was really acted upon Christs person for Christ is as really present to his Church now in the spirituall dispensation of his ordinances as hee was corporally present with the Jewes in the dayes of his flesh And therefore I say it is that we finde the same attributes given to both Christ the power of God and the wisedome of God and the Gospell else-where the Power of God and the wisdome of God in a mystery to them that are perfect Againe Christ the Lord of glory and the Gospell the Gospell of
a proclamation of the Gospell unto him Moses his prayer was I beseech thee shew me thy glory How doth the Lord grant this Prayer I will make all my goodnesse to passe before thee and then revealeth himselfe unto him almost all by mercy The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sinne to note unto us that the glory of God is in nothing so much revealed as in his goodnesse Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his people Besides though the Law be indeed from God as from the Authour of it so that in that respect there may seeme to be no difference of excellency betweene that and the Gospell yet wee must observe that by the remainders of Creation though God should not have revealed his Law againe unto Moses in the mount much of the Law and by consequence of God himselfe might have beene discover'd by humane industry as wee see by notable examples of the philosophers and grave heathen But the Gospell is such a mystery as was for ever hidden from the reach and very suspicion of nature and wholly of divine revelation Eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the hearts of men the things which God hath prepared for them that love him the Apostle speaketh it of the mystery of the Gospell noting that it is above the observation or learning or comprehension of nature so much as to suspect it nay the naturall inquirie of the Angels themselves could never have discovered it even unto them it is made knowne by the Church that is if it had not beene for the Churches sake that God would reveale so glorious a mystery the Angels in heaven must have beene for ever ignorant of it So extremely desperate was the fall of man that it wanted the infinite and unsearchable wisedome of God himselfe to finde out a remedie against it If the Lord should have proceeded thus farre in mercy towards man and no farther Thou art a wretched Creature and I am a righteous God yea so heavy is my wrath and so wofull thy condition that I cannot choose but take compassion upon thee and therefore I will put the matter into thine owne hands requisite it is that my pitty towards thee should not swallow up the respects to mine owne justice and honour that my mercy should bee a righteous and a wise mercy Consult therefore together all ye children of men and invent a way to reconcile my justice and mercy to one another set mee in a course to shew you mercy without parting from mine owne right and denying the righteous demands of mine offended justice and I will promise you to observe it I say if the mercy of the Lord should have confin'd it selfe within these bounds and referr'd the method of our redemption unto humane discovery we should for ever have continued in a desperate estate everlastingly unable to conceive or so much as in fancy to frame unto our selves a way of escape As the Creatures before their being could have no thought or notion of their being educ'd out of that nothing which they were before So man fallen could not have the smallest conjecture or suspition of any feaseable way to deliver himselfe out of that misery into which he fell If all the learning in the world were gather'd into one man and that man should imploy all his time and studie to frame unto himselfe the notions of a sixth or seventh sense which yet are as expressely fashion'd amongst those infinite Idea's of Gods power and omniscience as these five which are already created he would be as totally ignorant of the conclusion he sought at last as hee was at first For all humane knowledge of naturall things is wrought by a reflexion upon those Phantasmes or Idea's which are impressions made from those senses wee already use and are indeed nothing else but a kinde of notionall existence of things in the memory of man wrought by an externall and sensible perception of that reall existence which they have in themselves And yet in this case a sixth or a seventh sense would agree in genere proximo and so have some kinde of Cognation with those wee already enjoy But a new Covenant a new life a new faith a new salvation are things toto genere beyond the straine and sphere of nature That two should become one and yet remaine two still as God and man doe in one Christ that hee who maketh should bee One with the thing which himselfe hath made that hee who is above all should humble himselfe that he who filleth all should emptie himselfe that he who blesseth all should be himselfe a curse that hee who ruleth all should be himselfe a servant that he who was the prince of life and by whom all things in the world doe consist should himselfe be dissolved and dye that mercy and justice should meet together and kisse each other that the debt should bee payed and yet pardoned that the fault should bee punished and yet remitted that death like Sampsons Lion should have life and sweetnesse in it and be used as an instrument to destroy it selfe these and the like Evangelicall truths are mysteries which surpasse the reach of all the princes of learning in the world It is to be beleeved by a spirituall light which was not so much as possible to a humane reason We may observe that every person in the Trinity setteth himselfe to teach the mystery of the Gospell The Father revealeth it unto men Flesh and bloud hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven It is written in the Prophets They shall be all taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee The Son likewise teacheth it unto men therefore hee is called the Angell of Gods Covenant and Counsell that is the Revealer thereof because unto the world he made knowne that deepe project of his Fathers counsell touching the restoring of mankind No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him He only it is who openeth the bosome of his Father that is who revealeth the secret and mysterious counsels and the tender and compassionat affections for the bosome is the seat of secrets and of Love of his Father unto the world And therefore he is said to be a Teacher sent from God and to be the Lord which speaketh from heaven in the ministery of his Gospel and the doctrine which he teacheth is called a heavenly doctrin and a heavenly calling a high calling and oft by the Apost to the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavenly things to note that they are not of a naturall or earthly
the Law The Law was a glorious ministery as appeares by the thunderings and lightnings the shining of Moses his face and trembling at Gods presence the service of the Angels and sound of the trumpet the ascending of the smoke and the quaking of the mountaine but yet still the glory of the Gospell was farre more excellent a better Covenant a more excellent ministery The Law had weaknesse and unprofitablenesse in it both termes of diminution from the the glory thereof and therefore it could make nothing perfect But that which the Law could not doe in as much as it was weake through the flesh the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus which is a periphrasis of the Gospell as appeareth 2 Cor. 3.6 did doe for us namely make us free from the law of sin and death So then the Law was glorious but the Gospell in many respects did excell in glory 2 Cor. 3.10 To take a more particular view of the spirituall glory of the Gospell of Christ in those excellent ends and purposes for which it serveth First It is full of light to informe to comfort to guide those who sate in darknesse and the shadow of death into the way of peace Light was the first of all the creatures which were made and the Apostle magnifieth it for a glorious thing in those other luminaries which were after created 1 Cor. 15.41 How much more glorious was the light of the Gospell The Apostle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A marvellous light and therefore the kingdome of the Gospell is exprest by light and glory together as termes of a promiscuous signification Esay 60.1 2 3. Of all other learning the knowledge of the Gospell doth infinitly excell in worth both in regard of the object thereof which is God manifested in the flesh and in regard of the end thereof which is flesh reconciled and brought unto God A knowledge which passeth knowledge a knowledge which bringeth fulnesse with it even all the fulnesse of God a knowledge so excellent that all other humane excellencies are but dung in comparison of it What Angell in heaven would trouble himselfe to busie his noble thoughts which have the glorious presence of God and the joyes of heaven to fill them with metaphysicall or mathematicall or philologicall contemplations which yet are the highest delicacies which humane reason doth fasten on to delight in And yet we finde the Angels in heaven with much greedinesse of speculation stoope downe and as it were turne away their eyes from that expressesse glory which is before them in heaven to gaze upon the wonderfull light and bottomlesse mysteries of the Gospell of Christ. In all other learning a Devill in hell the most cursed of all creatures doth wonderfully surpasse the greatest proficients amongst men but in the learning of the Gospell and in the spirituall revelations and evidences of the benefits of Christ to the soule from thence there is a knowledge which surpasseth the comprehension of any angell of darknesse for it is the Spirit of God onely which knoweth the things of God It was the devillish flout of Iulian the Apostate against Christian Religion that it was an illiterate rusticitie and a naked beliefe and that true polite learning did belong to him and his Ethnick faction and for that reason he interdicted Christians the use of Schooles and humane learning as things improper to their beleeving religion a persecution esteemed by the Ancients as cruel as the other bloudy massacres of his predecessors To which slander though the most learned Father might have justly returned the lye and given proofes both in the canonicall bookes of holy Scripture and in the professours of that religion of as profound learning as invincible argumentation and as forcible eloquence as in any Heathen Author for I dare challenge all the Pagan learning in the world to parallel the writings of Clemens of Alexandria Origen Iustin Tertullian Cyprian Minutius Augustine Theodoret Nazianzen and the other champions of Christian Religion against Gentilisme yet he rather chooseth thus to answer that that authoritie which the faith he so much derided was built upon came to the soule with more selfe-evidence and invincible demonstration than all the disputes of reason or learning of Philosophie could create Though therefore it were to the Iewes an offence as contrary to the honour of their Law and to the Greekes foolishnesse as contrary to the pride of their reason yet to those that were perfect it was an hidden and mysterious wisdome able to convince the gain-sayers to convert sinners to comfort mourners to give wisdome to the simple and to guide a man in all his wayes with spirituall prudence for what ever the prejudice of the world may be there is no man a wiser man nor more able to bring about those ends which his heart is justly set upon than hee who being acquainted with God in Christ by the Gospell hath the Father of wisedome the Treasurer of wisedome the Spirit of wisedome and the Law of wisedome to furnish him therewithall It is not for want of sufficiencie in the Gospell but for want of more intimate acquaintance and knowledge thereof in us that the children of this world are more wise in their generation than the children of light Secondly another glorious end and effect of the Gospell is to be a ministration of Righteousnesse a publication of a pardon to the world and that so generall that there is not one exception therein of any other sin than onely of the contempt of the pardon it selfe And in this respect likewise the Gospell exceeds in glory If the ministration of condemnation saith the Apostle bee glory much more doth the ministration of righteousnesse exceed in glory 2 Cor. 3.9 It is the glory of a man to passe by an offence and the Lord proclaimeth his glory to Moses in that he would forgive iniquitie transgression and sinne that is multitudes of sinnes and sinnes of all degrees Exod. 34.7 And thus the Lord magnifies his mercie and thoughts towards sinners above all the wayes and thoughts of men even as the heavens are higher than the earth because he can abundantly pardon or multiply forgivenesses upon those who forsake their wayes and turne to him Esay 55.7 8 9. and therefore justifying faith whereby we rely upon the power of God to forgive and subdue our sinnes is said to give glory to God Abraham staggered not at the Promise through unbeleefe but being strong in faith hee gave glory to God namely the glory of his power and fidelity Rom. 4.20 21. Ye shall not bring this congregation into the Land which I have given them saith the Lord to Moses and Aaron because yee beleeved me not to sanctifie mee in the eyes of the children of Israel that is to give me the glory of my power and truth for to sanctifie the Lord of hoasts signifieth to glorifie his power by fearing him
spirits senses which are in the head are there placed as in a Watch-tower or Councell-chamber to consult and provide for the good of the whole the eye seeth the eare heareth the tongue speaketh the fancie worketh the memory retaineth for the welfare of the other members and they have all the same care one for another Fourthly He is our Advocate and Mediatour he is the onely practicer in the court of heaven and therefore he must needs be full of the businesses of his Church It is his office to dispatch the affaires of those that come unto him and crave his favour and intercession to debate their causes and he is both faithfull and mercifull in his place and besides furnished with such an unmeasurable unction of Spirit and vast abilities to transact all the businesses of his Church that whosoever commeth unto him for his counsell and intercession hee will in no wise cast them out or refuse their cause And this is one great assurance we may take comfort in that be our matters never so foule and unexcusable in themselves yet the very entertaining him of our counsell and the leaning upon his wisdome power fidelity and mercy to expedite our businesses to compassionate our estate and to rescue us from our owne demerits doth as it were alter the propertie of the cause and produce a cleane contrary issue to that which the evidence of the thing in triall would of it selfe have created And as we may observe that men of extraordinary abilities in the Law delight to wrestle with some difficult businesse and to shew their learning in clearing matters of greatest intricacie and perplexitie before so doth Christ esteeme himselfe most honoured and the vertue and wisedome of his Crosse magnified when in cases of sorest extremitie of most hideous guilt of most blacke and uncomfortable darknesse of soule which pose not onely the presumptions but the hope faith conjectures thoughts contrivances which the hearts of men can even in wishes make to themselves for mercy they doe yet trust him whose thoughts are infinitely above their thoughts and whose wayes above their wayes who is there among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God When the soule can goe unto Christ with such complaints and acknowledgements as these Lord when I examine my cause by mine owne conscience and judgement of it I cannot but give it over as utterly desperate and beyond cure my bones are dried my hope is cut off I am utterly lost my sins and my sorrowes are so heavie that they have broken my spirit all to peeces and there is no sound part in me But Lord I beleeve that thou knowest a way to make dead bones live that thy thoughts and waies are above mine that thou knowest thine owne thoughts of peace and mercy though I cannot comprehend them that thy riches are unsearchable that thy love is above humane knowledge that thy peace passeth all created understandings that though I am the greatest of all sinners and feele enough in my selfe to sinke me as low as Iudas into hell yet thou hast not left me without patternes of all long-suffering of thy royall power in enduring and in forgiving sinnes And now Lord though thou afford me no light though thou beset me with terrours though thou make me to possesse the sinnes of my youth yet I still desire to feare thy name to walke in thy way to wait upon thy counsell I know there is not in men or Angels so much wisdome compassion or fidelity as in thee and therefore if I must perish I will perish at thy feet I will starve under thy table I will be turned away and rejected by thee who hast promised to cast away none that come unto thee I have tried all wayes and I here resolve to rest and to looke no further thou that hast kept such a sinner as I am out of hell thus long canst by the same power keep me out for ever upon thy wisdome and compassion who canst make dried bones to flourish like an herbe and broken bones to rejoyce and sing I cast the whole weight of my guilty spirit into thy bosome I emptie all the feares cares and requests of my distracted and sinking soule I say when a man can thus powre out himselfe uâ—to Christ he esteemeth the price and power of his bloud most highly honoured when men beleeve in him against reason and above hope and beyond the experience or apprehensions they have of mercy for Christ loveth to shew the greatnesse of his skill in the salvation of a Manasse a Mary Magdalen a crucified Theefe a persecutour and injurious blasphemer in giving life unto them that nailed him to his Crosse the more desperate the disease the more honourable the cure Fifthly He is our Purchaser our Proprietary wee belong unto him by grant from the Father Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me and by payment from him unto the Father yee are bought with a price There is no good that concernes the Church that he hath not fully paid for with his owne pretious bloud And Christ will not die in vaine he will take order for the accomplishing of that redemption which himselfe hath merited And this is the greatest argument of his care and fidelitie that he is not as a servant but as a Lord and his care is over His owne house An ordinary advocate is faithfull onely ratione officii because the dutie of his office requireth it but the businesses which he manageth come not close unto his heart because he hath no personall interest in them but Christ is faithfull not as Moses or a servant onely but ratione Dominii as Lord in his owne house so that the affaires of the Church concerne him in as neere a right as they concerne the Church her selfe so that in his office of intercession hee pleadeth his owne causes with his Father and in the miscarriages of them himselfe should lose that which was infinitely more pretious than any thing in the world besides even the price and merit of his owne bloud These are the grounds of the great care of Christ towards his people And from hence we should learne faith and dependence on Christ in all our necessities because we are under the protection and provision of him who careth for us and is able to helpe us A right judgement of God in Christ and in his Gospell of salvation will wonderfully strengthen the faith of men Paul was not ashamed of persecutions because he knew whom he had beleeved hee doubted neither of his care or power and therefore hee committed the keeping of his soule unto him against the last day and therefore when all forsooke him he stood to the truth because the Lord forsooke him not The reason why men
care or respect towards it This is an errour of Gods benevolence and the latitude of his mercy and heighth of his thoughts towards sinners Hee hath declared himselfe willing that all men should be saved he hath set forth examples of the compasse of his long-suffering his invitations run in generall termes that no man may dare to preoccupate damnation but looke unto God as to one that careth for his soule Let a mans sinnes be never so crimson and his continuance therein never so obdurate I speake this for the prevention of despaire not for the encouragement of security or hardnesse yet as soone as he is willing to turne God is willing to save as soone as he hath an heart to attend God hath a tongue to speake salvation unto him Wee see then the way to trust in Christ is to looke upon him as the Bishop of our soules as the Officer of our peace as one that careth and provideth for us as one that hath promised to save to the uttermost to give supplies of his Spirit and Grace in time of need to give us daily bread and life in abundance to bee with us alwayes to the end of the world never to faile us nor forsake us And we may hereby learne our dutie one to another to put on the affections of members and the minde of Christ in compassionating considering and seeking the good of one another in bearing one anothers burthens in pleasing not our selves but our neighbour for his edification for even Christ pleased not himselfe that man cannot live in honour nor dye in comfort who liveth only to himselfe and doth not by his praiers compassions and supplies imitate Christ and interest himselfe in the good of his brethren Now the ground of all this power majestie and mercie of the Gospell is here set forth unto us in two words First it is the strength of Christ Secondly it is sent by God himselfe The Lord shall send the Rod of Thy strength out of Sion Here then we may first note That the Gospel is Christs owne Power and strength and the Power of God his Father by whom it is sent abroad So the Apostle cals it The Power of God unto Salvation and the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power that our faith should not stand in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God Therefore in one place we are said to be taught of God and in another to be taught of Christ in one place it is called the Gospell of the blessed God and in another the Gospell of Christ to note that whatsoever things the Father doth in his Church the same the Sonne doth also and that the Father doth not make knowne his will of mercie but by his Sonne that as in the Sonne he did reconcile the world unto himselfe so in the Son hee did reveale himselfe unto the world No man hath seene the Father at any time but the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne shall reveale him Christ is both the Matter and the Authour of the Gospell As in the worke of our Redemption he was both the sacrifice and the Priest to offer and the Altar to sanctifie it So in the dispensation of the Gospell Christ is both the Sermon and the Preacher and the Power which giveth blessing unto all He is the Sermon Wee preach Christ crucified saith the Apostle wee preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord. And he is the Preacher See that yee refuse not him that speaketh Hee came and preached peace to those afarre off and to those that were nigh And lastly he is the Power which enliveneth his owne word The dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of man and they that heare shall live for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternall life c. He is the Lord of your faith we are but the Helpers of your joy He is the Master in the Church wee are but your servants for Iesus sake He is the chiefe Shepheard the Lord of the sheepe the sheepe are his owne we are but his Depositaries entrusted with the ministerie of reconciliation unto us is committed the dispensation of the Grace of God So then the Word is his but the service ours From whence both the Ministers of the Word and they which heare it may learne their severall duties First we should learne to speake as the Oracles of God as the Servants and Stewards of a higher Master whose Word it is which wee preach and whose Church it is which we serve We should therefore doe his worke as men that are set in his stead preach him and not our selves There can bee no greater sacrilege in the world than to put our owne image upon the Ordinances of Christ than to make another Gospell than we have received Saint Paul durst not please men because hee was the servant of Christ neither durst he preach himselfe because hee was the servant of the Church For hereby men doe even justle Christ out of his owne throne and as it were snatch the Scepter of his kingdome out of his owne hand boldly intruding upon that sacred and uncommunicable dignitie which the Father hath given to his Sonne onely which is to bee the Authour of his Gospell and the totall and adequate Object of all Evangelicall Preaching This sacrilege of selfe-preaching is committed three manner of wayes First when men make themselves the Authors of their owne preaching when they preach their owne inventions and make their owne braines the seminaries and forges of a new faith when they so glosse the pure Word of God as that withall they poison and pervert it This is that which the Prophet calleth lying visions and dreames of mens owne hearts which Saint Peter cals perverting or maketh crooked the rule of faith and Saint Paul the huckstering adulterating and using the Word of God deceitfully Which putteth mee in minde of a speech in the Prophet The Prophet is the snare of a fowler in all his wayes Birds wee know use to be caught with the same corne wherewith they are usually fed but then it is either adulterated with some venemous mixture which may intoxicate the bird or else put into a ginne which shall imprison it and such were the carnall Preachers in the Prophets and in Saint Pauls time who turned the truth of Christ into a snare that by that meanes they might bring the Church into bondage The occasions and originals of this perverse humour are first without men the seducements of Satan unto which by the just severity of God they are sometimes given over for the punishment of their owne and others sinnes Secondly within them upon which the other is grounded as Pride
Thine they were and thou gavest them me Ioh. 17.6 My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to plucke them out of my Fathers hand Ioh. 10.29 Thirdly Gods Oath which is the Seale of his irreversible decree and Covenant with Christ. Once have I sworne by my holinesse that I will not lye unto David His seede shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sunne before me Psal. 89.35 36. Fourthly Christs owne Purchase and price which he paied for it The Apostle saith Christ died not in vaine and the vertue of his bloud lasteth to the end of the world for as his bloud was shed from the beginning of the world in regard of Gods Decree so doth it continue to the end in regard of its owne merit and efficacie so long as hee sitteth at the right hand of God which must be till the time of the restitution of all things the merit of his bloud shall worke amongst men Fifthly Christs owne Power to keepe inviolable the proprietie he hath gotten My sheepe heare my voyce and I give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any man plucke them out of my hand Ioh. 10.27 28. Sixthly the Fathers Command unto his Son This is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing c. Ioh. 6.39 Seventhly Christs Love and Care The Church is his Spouse under his Coverture and protection and therefore as hee hath power and office so hee hath delight to preserve it still His Love is better able to helpe than the malice of the enemy is to hurt Eighthly Christs Intercession which is not for the world but for those whom God hath given him out of the world and those he demandeth of his Father who heareth him alwayes in the verture of that Covenant which betweene them was ratified on Gods part by a Promise and Oath and on Christs part by a Merit and Purchase Now Christs Intercession shall last till his returning to judge the world and therefore still he must have a Church for whom to intercede Lastly Christs owne Promise to be with the preaching of his Gospell that is to give it assistance and successe for the gathering together and perfecting of the Saints unto the End of the world Matth. 28.20 Here then may bee answered two great Questions First whether the Church may deficere faile upon the earth or no To which I answere That the Church may bee taken either mystically spiritually and universally And in that sense it can never faile but there must bee upon the earth a true Church of Christ not onely certitudine eventus by the certainety of the event which is on all sides agreed but certitudine causa too by a certaintie growing out of those irresistible causes upon which the being of the mysticall body of Christ on the earth dependeth Or it may be considered particularly in the severall parts and places of the world where the Gospell is planted and hierarchically and politically denoting a company of men professing the faith of Christ and reduc'd into a quiet peaceable composed and conspicuous governement and so wee affirme that there is no Church in the world so safe but that it may deficere faile and be extinguished out of its place The Church of the Jewes did and after them any may Else the Apostles argument even to the Roman Church it selfe which was then a famous Church throughout the world and of that passage in the Apostle Baronius makes a long boast were very weake when à majori ad minus hee thus argueth Be not high-minded but feare for if God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Thus we finde the ten tribes in their apostacie till they became Lo-ammi to be no more a people and their brethren after fall in their condition Wrath saith the Apostle is come to the uttermost upon them And hee telleth us that the man of sinne the Sonne of perdition should be revealed by Apostacie to note unto us that Antichrist was to be generated out of the corruption or falling away of some eminent Church and that by a mysterious and insensible declination A second question which may be made is this that since the Church doth not totally faile from off the earth whether that which remaineth thereof be alwayes visible To which wee answere That if wee take the Church for the spirituall and mysticall body of Christ which is indeed the House of God so it is in a sort still invisible because the qualities and principles which constitute a man in the body of Christ as Faith and the Spirit of Grace are invisible things Seene indeed they may be by an eye of Charitie in their fruits but not by an eye of certainety in their owne infallible being Secondly if wee take the Church for a company of men professing the true Doctrine of Christ wee answere that take the men in themselves so truly professing and impossible it is but their faith should shew it selfe in the fruits thereof for the kingdome of Christ is in the heart like leaven which will manifest it selfe in the whole lumpe and so we can in all even the worst ages of the Church shew some who have witnessed the truth against that deluge of ignorance errour and idolatry which had invaded the world like gray haires here and there mingled on a blacke head as if you single out fire from the ashes it will be seene by its owne evidence though it may be so raked up that it is not observed But then if we speake of these men in aggregato as concurring to make up a distinct external body or Church so we say that the professors of the truth may be so few and they persecuted traduced suppressed cried downe driven into the wildernesse without any apparant separated conspicuousnesse and governement of its owne as in the time of Constantius the emperour the publike professors of the Divinitie of Christs person against the damnable heresie of the Arrians were used as that in this sense we may justly denie the Church to have beene alwayes visible that is The few true professors of Christ in power and puritie to have had a free open uncontroled distinct ecclesiasticall body of their owne notoriously and in conspectu hominum different from that tyrannicall and pompous hierarchie under which they suffered for though Christ rule yet it is in the midst of his enemies and the enemies may be so many and Christs subjects in whom he rules so few that the corne may be invisible for the abundance of weeds amongst which it growes though in it selfe very apt to be seene And this giveth a full answer to that Question where Our Church was before the late Reformation began by Luther for that Reformation did not new-make the Church but purge it And that it stood in need of purging the Papists themselves were
constant to any rules Now this division of the minde stands thus The heart on the one side is taken up with the pleasures of sinne for the present and on the other with the desires of salvation for the future and now according as the workings and representations of the one or other are at the time more fresh and predominant in like maner is sinne for that time either cherished or suppressed Many men at a good Sermon when the matter is fresh and newly presented while they are looking on their face in the glasse or in any extremitie of sicknesse when the provisions of lust doe not relish for the present when they have none but thoughts of salvation to depend upon are very resolute to make promises vowes and professions of better living but when the pleasures of sin grow strong to present themselves again they returne like a man recover'd of an ague with more stomacke and greedinesse to their lusts againe As water which hath been stop'd for a while rusheth with the more violence when its passages are opened A double heart is like the boles of a Scale according as more weight is put into one or other so are they indifferently over-rul'd unto either motion up or downe When I see a vapour ascend out of the earth into the aire why should I not thinke that it will never leave rising till it get up to heaven and yet because the motion is not naturall but caused either by expulsion from a heat within or by attraction from a heat without when the cause of that ascent is abated and the matter gathers together into a thicker consistence it growes heavie and fals downe againe Even such is the affection of those faint unresolved desires of men who like Agrippa are but halfe-perswaded to believe in Christ. But now lastly wee must observe that in the day of Christs power when he by his word and Spirit worketh effectually in the hearts of men they are then made free-will offerings Totally willing to obey and serve him in all conditions The heart of every one stirreth him up and his Spirit maketh him willing for the worke and service of the Lord Exod. 35.21 They yeeld themselves unto the Lord and their members as weapons of righteousnesse unto him 2 Chron. 30.8 Rom. 6.19 They offer and present themselves to God as a living Sacrifice and therefore they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an oblation sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 12.1 Rom. 15.16 Therefore they are said to come unto Christ by the vertue of his Fathers teaching Ioh. 6.45 To runne unto him Esai 55.5 To gather themselves together under him as a common head and to flow or flock together with much mutuall encouragement unto the mountaine of the Lord Hos. 1.11 Esai 2.2 3. To waite upon him in his Law Esai 42.4 To enter into a sure covenant and to write and seale it Nehem. 9.38 In one word To serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde 1 Chron. 28.9 when the heart is perfect undivided and goeth all together the minde will bee willing to serve the Lord. This willingnesse of Christs people sheweth it selfe in two things First in begetting most cordiall and constant Enmitie against all the enemies of Christ never holding any league or intelligence with them but being alwayes ready to answere the Lord as David did Saul Thy servant will goe and fight with this Philistime Hee that is a voluntary in Christs armies is not disheartned with the potencie policie malice subtlety or prevailing faction of any of his adversaries Hee is contented to deny himselfe to renounce the friendship of the world to bid defiance to the allurements of Satan to smile upon the face of danger to hate father and mother and land and life to be cruel to himselfe and regardlesse of others for his masters service Through honor and dishonor through evill report and good report through a Sea and a wildernesse through the hottest services and strongest oppositions will hee follow the Lambe whither soever he goeth though he receive the word in much affliction yet hee will receive it with joy too Secondly in begetting most loving constant and deare affections to the mercy grace glory and wayes of God an universall conformity unto Christ our head who was contented to take upon him the forme of a servant to have his eare bored and his will subjected unto the will of his Father I delight to doe thy will ô my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal. 40.8 And as hee was so are all his in this world of the same minde judgement Spirit conversation and therefore of the same will too Now this deare and melting affection of the heart toward Christ and his wayes whereby the soule longeth after him and hasteth unto him is wrought by severall principles First by the Conviction of our naturall Estate and a through humiliation for the same Pride is ever the principle of disobedience They were the proud men who said unto Ieremie thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not sent thee Ier. 43.2 And they were the proud men who hardned their necks and withdrew the shoulder and would not heare and refused to obey Nehem. 9.16 17 29. A man must bee first brought to denie himselfe before hee will bee willing to follow Christ and to lug a crosse after him A man must first humble himselfe before he will walke with God Mic. 6.8 The poore onely receive the Gospell The hungrie onely finde sweetnesse in bitter things Extremities will make any man not onely willing but thankfull to take any course wherin hee may recover himselfe and subsist againe when the soule findes it selfe in darknesse and hath no light and begins to consider whither darknesse leads it that it is even now in the mouth of Hell under the paw of the roaring lion under the guilt of sinne the curse of the Law and the hatred and wrath of God it cannot chuse but most willingly pursue any probability and with most inlarged affections meete any tender of deliverance Suppose wee that a Prince should cause some bloudy malefactor to bee brought forth should set before his eyes all the racks and tortures which the wit of man can invent to punish prodigions offenders withall and should cause him to tast some of those extremities and then in the middest of his howling and anguish should not onely reach out a hand of mercy to deliver him but should further promise him upon his submission to advance him like Ioseph from the iron which enters into his soule unto publike honor and service in the state would not the heart of such a man bee melted into thankfulnesse and with all submission resigne it selfe unto the mercy and service of so gracious a Prince Now the Lord doth not onely deale thus with sinners doth not onely cause them by the report of his word and by the experience of their own guilty hearts to feel the weight fruitlesnesse
Nature of Holinesse it must needs be very Beautifull In generall it consists in a Relation of conformitie as all Goodnesse save that of God doth for no Creature is so absolute as to have its being from it selfe and therefore its Goodnesse cannot consist in any thing which hath its originall in it selfe It is the Rule and End which denominateth the Goodnesse of any created thing that therefore which ought not to worke for its owne end ought not to worke by its owne Rule for he who is Lord of an end must needs be Lord of the meanes and directions which lead unto that end And this is indeed the ground of all sinne when men make themselves their owne will wit reason or resolutions to bee the spring and fountaine of all their actions Therefore sinne is called our owne wayes and the lusts of our owne hearts and our owne counsels because it is absolutely from our selves and hath no constituted rule to moderate or direct it Impossible it is for any Creature as it comes out of Gods hands to bee without a Law or to be an originall law unto it selfe for as hee who hath none over him cannot possibly be subject unto any Law in as much as a Law is but the declaration of a Superiours will what he requires to bee done and what he threatneth on default thereof to inflict so hee that is under the wisedome and ends of another must needs likewise bee subject to the Lawes which his will prescribes for advancing and compassing his owne ends who if he bee in his owne nature and ends most holy must needs be holy in the Lawes which he enacts By all which we may observe that Holinesse consisteth in conformity so that according to the excellencie of the patterne whereunto it referres so is the measure of its beautie to be conjectured And the patterne of our Holinesse is God himselfe Be you holy as your father which is in heaven is Holy Other Creatures have some prints and paths of God in them and so are all beautifull in their time but man had the image of God created in him his will was set up in our heart as a Law of nature most pure right holy good wise and perfect and that Law did beare the same relation to mans life as his soule doth unto his members to animate forme and organize every motion of the heart every word of the mouth every action of the soule and bodie according unto the will of God When after this man threw away this Image and God was pleased in mercy again to renue Holinesse in him he did it againe by another patterne or rather the same exhibited in another maner He made him then conformable to the Image of his Son the heavenly Adam who is himselfe the Image of the invisible God the expresse Character of his Fathers brightnesse a Sunne of righteousnesse a morning starre the light of the world the fairest of ten thousand so that compare Holinesse with the first originall draught thereof in Paradise the nature of Adam as it came new out of Gods fashioning or that with the Law of God written in his heart or that with the Holinesse of God of which it was a ray shining into the soule or that Image of God with it selfe in Christ the second Adam and every way Holinesse in its nature consists in a Conformity and Commensuration to the most beautifull things Thirdly if we consider some of the chiefe Properties of Holinesse wee shall finde it in that regard likewise very Beautifull First Rectitude and Vprightnesse sinceritie and simplicitie of heart God made man upright but they have found out many inventions that is have sought up and downe through many turnings and by-wayes to satisfie crooked affections It was Davids Prayer Make thy way strait before my face and it is the Apostles instruction Make strait paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way True Holinesse is a plaine and an even thing without falsehood guile perversenesse of Spirit deceitfulnesse of heart or starting aside It hath one end one rule one way one heart whereas hypocrites are in the Scripture called Double minded men because they pretend to God and follow the world And crooked men like the swelling of a wall whose parts are not perpendicular nor levell to their foundation Now rectitude sincerity and singlenesse of heart is ever both in the eyes of God and man a beautifull thing Secondly Harmonie and Vniformity within it selfe The Philosopher saith of a Iust man that he is like a Dye which is every way even and like it selfe turne it how you will it fals upon an equall bottome And so Holilinesse keepes the heart like its selfe in all conditions as a watch though all together it may bee tossed up and downe with the agitation of him that carrieth it about him yet that motion doth no way perturbe the frame or disorder the workings of the spring and wheeles within so though the man may bee many wayes tempted and disquieted yet the frame of his heart the order of his affections the governement of the spirit within him is not thereby stopped but holdeth on in the same tenour We know in the body if any part doe exceed the due proportion it destroies the beautie and acceptablenesse of the rest Symmetrie and fitnesse of the parts unto one another is that which commends a body Now Holinesse consisteth in this proportion there is in it an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an exactnesse of obedience an equall respect unto all Gods Commandements an hatred of every false way an universall worke upon the whole spirit soule and body a supply made unto every joynt a measure dispenced unto every part not a grace due unto Christian integritie which is not in some proportion fashioned in a man Christ hath no Monsters begotten by his spirituall seed for Monsters are ever caused either by an excesse or by a defect of seed in the one case nature being overcharged is forc'd to labour that which remaines and will not be laid aside into some superfluous members and in the other for want of materials to leave her worke unfinished and destitute of some necessary parts But now first wee are to note that a man can have no superfluitie of Grace we can never have too much of that the fulnesse whereof we should labour to get and for the other danger wee know Christ hath a Residue of spirit to supply any defect and to make up whatsoever is away for the fashioning of Christ in us so then Holinesse fashioneth the whole man Hee that leaves any one faculty of his soule neglected or any one part of the Service or Law of God disobeyed I speake of a totall and constant neglect is undoubtedly an Hypocrite and disobeyes all Iam. 2.10 11. As David with a little stone slew Goliah because his forehead was open so can our enemie easily deale with us
Consider the Church in it selfe and so it is a very vast body but yet consider it comparatively with the other more prevailing malignant part of the world so it is but a little flock as many graines and measures of corne may lie hid under a greater heape of chaffe Secondly the Church now is many comparatively with the old church of the Iewes more are the Children of the desolate than of the married wife Esai 54.1 But not comparatively with the adversaries of the Church in generall Wee see of thirtie parts of the world nineteene are either idolatrous or Mahumetan and the other eleven serving Christ in so different a manner as if there were many Christs or many Gospels or many wayes to the same end Thirdly though Christ alwayes have a numerous offspring yet in severall ages there is observable a different purity and conspicuousnesse according to the different administrations and breathings of the Spirit upon his garden In some ages the Doctrine more uncorrupt the profession and acceptation more universall than in others In the Apostles times there were many borne unto Christ by reason of the more abundant measure of Spirit which was shed abroad upon them Tit. 3.6 In the times of the Primitive persecutions there were many likewise born because God would glorifie the foundations of his Church and the power of his Spirit above the pride of men In the first countenancing of it by Imperiall Laws and favors it was very generall and conspicuous because professed by the obedience and introduced by the power of those great emperors whom the world followed But after that long peace and great dignities had corrupted the mindes of the chiefe in the Church and made them looke more after the pompe than the purity thereof the mystery of iniquity like a weed grew apace and overspread the Corne first abusing and after that subjecting the power of princes and bewitching the Kings of the earth with its fornications Hence likewise wee may learne to acknowledge Gods mercy in the worst times in those ages wherin the Church was most oppressed yet many have yeelded themselves unto Christ. The woman was with Childe and was delivered even when the Dragon did persecute her Revel 12.1.4 and even then God found out in the wildernesse a place of refuge defence and feeding for his Church As in those cruell times of Arrianisme when heresie had invaded the world and in those blinde and miserable ages wherin Satan was loosed God still stirred up some notable instruments by whom hee did defend his truth and amongst whom hee did preserve his Church though they were driven into solitary places and forced to avoid the assemblies of Hereticall and Antichristian Teachers Wee learne likewise not to censure persons places or times God had seven thousand in Israel when Elias thought none but himselfe had been left all are not alike venturous or confident of their strength Nicodemus came to Christ by night and yet even then Christ did not reject him Therefore we must not presently censure our neighbours as cold or dead if they discover not immediatly the same measure of courage and publike stoutnesse in the profession of Christ with our selves some men are by nature more retir'd silent unsociable unactive men some by the engagement of their places persons and callings wherein they are of more publike and necessary use in the Church are put upon more abundant caution and circumspection in the moderate carriage of themselves than other men Paul was of himselfe very zealous and earnest in that great confusion when Gaius and Aristarchus were haled into the theater to have gone in unto the people in that their outrage and distemper but the wisedome of the Disciples and some of his chiefe friends is herin commended that they sent unto him desiring him that hee would not adventure into the theater and that they suffered him not Act. 19.30 31. It is a grave observation which Gregorie Nazianzen makes of that great champian and universall agent for composing the differences and distractions of the Church S. Basil that pro temporis ratione Haereticorum principatu by reason of the prevalencie of adversaries and condition of the times hee did in the controversies concerning the Deitie of the Holy Ghost abstaine from some words which others of an inferior ranke did with liberty and boldnesse use and that this hee did in much wisedome and upon necessary reasons because it was not fit for so eminent a person and one who had such generall influence by the quality of his place and greatnesse of his parts in the welfare of the Church by the envie of words or phrases to exasperate a countenanced enemie and to draw upon himselfe and in him upon the Church of God any inevitable and unnecessary danger And surely if the wisedome and moderation of that holy man were with the same pious affection generally observed that men when they doe earnestly contend for the truth once delivered which is the duty of every Christian did not in heate of argument load the truth they maintaine with such hard and severe though it may bee true expressions as beget more obstinacie in the adversarie and it may bee suspition in the weake or unresolved looker on differences amongst men might bee more soberly composed and the truth with more assurance entertained Againe wee have from hence an encouragement to goe on in the wayes of Christ because wee goe in great and in good Company many wee have to suffer with us many wee have to comfort and to encourage us As the people of Israel when they went solemnely up to meete the Lord in Sion went on from troope to troope the further they went the more companie they were mixed withall going to the same purpose so when the Saints goe towards heaven to meete the Lord there they doe not onely goe unto an innumerable Company of Angells and just men but they meete with troopes in their way to encourage one another All the discouragement that Elias had was that hee was alone but we have no such plea for our unwillingnesse to professe the truth and power of Religion now Wee are not like a lambe in a wide place without comfort or company but wee are sure to have an excellent guard and convoy unto Christs Kingdome And this use the Apostle makes of the multitudes of beleevers that wee should by so great a Cloud of witnesses bee the more encouraged in our patient running of that race which is set before us Heb. 12.1 Lastly It should teach us to love the multitudes the assemblies and the Communion of the Saints to speak often to one another to encourage strengthen one another not to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is to concurre in mutuall desires to conspire in the same holy thoughts and affections to bee of one heart of one soule of one judgement to walke by one the same
enabled unto this great function Esay 61.1.42.1 Matth. 3.16 17. Heb. 1.9 If then God call Christ unto his Priesthood by a solemne Oath and make him surety of a better covenant we ought to take the more especiall notice thereof for when God sweares he must be heard The more excellent any thing is the more earnest hee should bee given unto it for how shall we escape saith the Apostle if wee neglect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great Salvation so sure a covenant Heb. 2.1 3. This is the onely rocke on which we may cast anchor in any trouble doubt or feare of Spirit It is not our owne will or strength that holds us up from ruine but onely Gods Oath by which Christ is made a Priest Able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Saint Paul and his company were in a great tempest all hope that they should be saved was taken away Act. 27.20 yet he exhorts them to bee of good cheere because there should not bee the losse of any mans life amongst them and the ground hereof was Gods promise which he beleeved verse 24 25. The case is the same with us we are compassed about with infirmities with enemies too hard and with sinnes too heavie for us with feares and doubting that we shall lose all againe how can wee in such tempests of Spirit be cheered but onely by casting anchor upon Gods covenant which is established by an oath by learning to hope above hope Rom. 4. 18. to be strong in him when we are weake in our selves to bee faithfull in him when wee are fearefull in our selves to be stedfast in him when we stagger in our selves in the midst of Satans buffets and our owne corruptions to finde a sufficiencie in his Grace able to answer and to ward off all 2 Cor. 12.10 To catch hold of his covenant and to flie to the hope that is set before us as to the only refuge and sanctuary of a pursued soule when wee are not able to stand by our selves Esay 56.6 Heb. 6.18 It is hard very thing when a man hath a distinct view of his filthinesse and guilt by reason of time not to give over himselfe and his salvation as desparate things It is nothing but ignorance and insensibilitie which makes men presume of the pardon of sinne In this case then we must consider Gods Oath and Covenant with his people First not to reject them for their sinnes Israel hath not beene forsaken nor Iudah of his God though their land was filled with sinne against the holy One of Israel Ier. 51.5 My People are bent unto backsliding c. and yet I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim For I am God and not Man c. Hos. 11.7 9. Secondly not alwayes to suffer them to lie under sin but in due time to heale their backeslidings Hos. 14.4 he will not onely remove our transgressions from himselfe but he will remove them from us too and that so farre as that it shall be as possible for the East and West to meet together as for a man and his sin Psal. 103.12 Though we have made him to serve with our sinnes and wearied him with our iniquities yet Hee will not remember against us our sinnes past Esay 43.25 neither will hee see against us the sinnes which remaine Numb 23.11 These he will forgive and these he will subdue and all this because of his Truth unto Iacob and his mercy unto Abraham which he sware unto our fathers from the dayes of old Micah 7.18 19.20 Hee hath given us ground for both our feete to stand upon and hold fast for both our hands to cleave unto A Promise and an Oath that by two immutable things wee might have strong consolation Heb. 6.18 So the Apostle saith that all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen yea to note their Truth and amen to note their certainty and stability being confirmed by the Oath of Christ. For so that word may be conceived either as an Oath or at least as a very strong and confident affirmation which is equivalent unto an oath 2 Cor. 1.20 except happily we will understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee the same thing expressed in severall tongues as Abba Pater in other places thereby noting not onely the stabilitie but the universalitie of Gods promises Many things there are in this call of Christ unto his Office to confirme this consolation and upon which the troubled soule may cast Anker First from the Father he hath received a command and call unto thy service and so as a Servant he hath fidelity for God choseth none but faithfull servants Hee was an Apostle and high Priest sent to preach the Will and to pacifie the wrath of God and he was faithfull to him that appointed him as Moses was Heb. 3.11.2 And if he be faithfull we may trust him for he will doe the worke which is given him to doe Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will doe it 1 Thes. 5.24 Secondly from himselfe there is a voluntarie submission whereby he gives himselfe for his Church and layes downe his owne life Eph. 5.25 Tit. 2.14 Ioh. 10.11 for being of himselfe equall with the Father he could not be by him commanded ordained or overruled to any service without a voluntary concurring to the same decree emptying himselfe and taking on him the forme of a servant making himselfe lesse than his Father and in some sort for a while lower than the Angels that so he might be commanded So that besides his fidelitie to rest on as a servant here is his especiall mercy as a concurring agent in the decree whereby he was ordained unto this office He is not onely a Faithfull but a mercifull high Priest to make reconciliation for the sinnes of men Heb. 2.17 But a man may both by his Fidelitie as a servant and by his Mercy as having the same tender compassion with him that sent him be willing to helpe another out of misery and yet may not be able to effect his owne desires for want of Power And therefore Thirdly by the Vnction of the holy Spirit who proceedeth from the Father and himselfe hee is said to bee sanctified by the Father Iohn 10.36 and to sanctifie himselfe Iohn 17.19 To have received power and authority from his Father Matth. 28.18 Iohn 5.27 Iohn 17.2 and to have power likewise within himselfe Iohn 10.18 That spirit which for the discharge of this office hee brought with him in fulnesse and unto all purposes of that service into the world is a Spirit of Power 2 Tim. 1.7 whereby he is enabled perfectly to save all commers Heb. 7.25 so that unto his Fidelity and Mercy here is added Abilitie likewise Fourthly as he received an office and a service so hee received a Promise from his father likewise which did much encourage him in
and victorie to encourage him none of which shall be allowed the wicked in hell who shall not onely bee the vessels of his vengeance but which will bee as grievous as that the everlasting objects of his hatred and detestation which made I say even the Sonne of God himselfe notwithstanding all these abatements to pray with strong Cries and bloudy drops and woefull conflicts of soule against the Cup of his Fathers wrath and to shrink and decline that very worke for which onely hee came into the world Thirdly to praise God for that great honour which hee hath conferred upon our nature in the flesh of his Sonne which in him is anointed with more grace and glory and filled with more vast and unmatchable perfections than all the Angels in heaven are together capable of for though for a little while hee was made lower than the Angels for the purpose of his suffering yet hee is now sat downe on the right hand of the Majesty on high Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him Heb. 2 6-9 1 Pet. 3.22 Heb. 1 4-13 And for the infinite mercy which hee hath shewed to our soules bodies and persons in the sacrifice of his Sonne in our reconciliation and favour with him in the justification of our persons from the guilt of sinne in the sanctification of our nature from the corruption of sinne in the inheritance reserved in heaven for us in the Communion and fellowship wee have with Christ in his merits power Priviledges and heavenly likenesse Now saith the Apostle wee are Sonnes and it doth not yet appeare what wee shall bee but wee know that when hee shall appeare wee shall bee â—ike him for wee shall see him as hee is 1 Ioh. 3.2 From these things which have been spoken of the Personall Qualifications of our High Priest it will bee easie to finde out the third particular inquired into touching the Acts or Offices of Christs Priesthood or rather touching the parts of the same Action for it is all but one Two Acts there are wherein the execution of this office doth consist The first an Act of Oblation of himselfe once for all as an adequate sacrifice and full compensation for the sinnes of the whole world Heb. 9.14.26 Our Debt unto God was Twofold As we were his Creatures so wee owed unto him a Debt of Active Obedience in doing the Duties of the whole Law and as wee are his prisoners so wee owed unto him a Debt of passive obedience in suffering willingly and throughly the Curses of the Law And under this Law Christ was made to redeeme us by his fulfilling all that righteousnesse who were under the precepts and penalties of the Law our selves Therefore the Apostle saith hee was sinne for us that is a Sacrifice for sinne to meete and intercept that wrath which was breaking out upon us 2 Cor. 5.21 Herein was the great mercy of God seen to us that hee would not punish Sinners though he would not spare Sinne. If hee should have resolved to have judged Sinners wee must have perished in our owne persons but being pleased to deale with sinne onely in abstracto and to spare the sinner hee was contented to accept of a Sacrifice which under the Relation and Title of a Sacrifice stood in his sight like the body of sinne alone by it selfe in which respect hee is likewise said to bee made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 Now that which together with these things giveth the complete and ultimate formality of a Sacrifice unto the death of Christ was his owne willingnesse thereunto in that hee offered himselfe And therefore hee is called the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world because hee was dumbe and opened not his mouth but was obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Phil. 2.8 Christs death in regard of God the Father was a necessary death for hee had before determined that it should bee done Act. 4.28 Thus it is written and thus it behov'd Christ to suffer Luk. 24.46 The Sonne of Man must bee lifted up Ioh. 3.14 And therefore hee is said to bee a Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world in regard of Gods Decree and preordination But this gave it not the formality of a Sacrifice for God the Father was not the Priest and it is the Action of the Priest which giveth the being of a Sacrifice to that which is offered Againe Christs death in regard of men was violent They slew him with wicked hands and killed the Prince of life Act. 2. â—3 3.15 And in this sense it was no Sacrifice neither for they werâ—â—ot Priests but butchers of Christ. Thirdly his death in regard of himselfe was voluntarie I lay down my life no man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it downe and I have power to take it againe Ioh. 10.17 18. And this oblation and willing obedience or rendring himselfe to God is that which gives being to a Sacrifice Hee was delivered by God Act. 2.23 Hee was delivered by Iudas and the Iewes Matth. 27.2 Act. 3.13 and hee was yeelded and given up by himselfe Gal. 2.20 Eph. 5.25 In regard of God it was Iustice and mercy Ioh. 3.16 17. Rom. 3.25 In regard of man it was murther and crueltie Act. 7.52 In regard of Christ it was obedience and humility Phil. 2.8 And that voluntary act of his was that which made it a Sacrifice Hee gave himselfe for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweete smelling savor Eph. 5.2 His death did not grow out of the condition of his nature neither was it inflicted on him by reason of an excesse of strength in those that executed it for he was the Lord of glory but onely out of mercy towards men out of obedience towards God and out of power in himselfe For omnis Christi infirmitas fuit ex potestate By his power hee assumed those infirmities which the oeconomic and dispensation of his Priesthood on the earth required and by the same power hee laid them aside againe when that service was ended And this I say was that which made it a Sacrifice As martyrdome when men lay down their lives for the profession of the truth and the service of the Church is called a Sacrifice Phil. 2.17 If it bee here objected that Christs death was against his owne will for hee exceedingly feared it Heb. 5.7 and prayed earnestly against it as a thing contrary to his will Matth. 26.39 To this I answer that all this doth not hinder but commend his willingnesse and obedience Consider him in private as a Man of the same naturall affections desires and abhorâ—encies with other men and consider the cup as it was calix amarituâ—â—â—â—s a very bitter cup and so hee most justly feared and declined it as knowing that it would bee a most woefull and a heavy combate which hee was entring upon but consider
due to the Ministers of the Gospell by a Law of Iustice. It is a wrong and foolish Apologie to pretend the punishment for the continuance of the fault The poverty of many men is doubtlesse a just recompence for their neglect of the honor of the Gospell For God hath ever severely punished the contempt and dishonor done to his messengers 2 Chron. 16.10.12 2 Chron. 24 21-25 2 Chron. 26.19 20. 2 Chron. 36.16 17. Wheras on the other side doe thou deale faithfully with God fulfill to thy power his appointment and decree that they which preach the Gospell may live by the Gospell and then hearken unto God Honor the Lord with thy substance and the first fruits of all thine increase so shall thy barnes bee filled with plenty and thy presses burst out with new wine Prov. 3.9 10. Consider now from this day and upward from the day that the foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it Is the seed yet in the barne From this day I will blesse you Hag. 2.18 19. Yee are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation Bring yee all the Tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in mine house and prove mee herewith saith the Lord of Hoasts if you will not doe it out of duty yet doe it out of experiment If I will not open you the windowes of heaven and powre you out a blessing that there shall not be roome enough to receive it Mal. 3 9-12 There was never any man lost by paying God his Dues there was never any man thrived by grudging or pittancing the Almighty I will conclude this point with the Apostle It is his Doctrine faithfull Ministers are worthy of double honor And it is his Exhortation Render to all their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute Custome to whom Custome feare to whom feare Honor to whom Honor Rom. 13.3 Note lastly The Priesthood of Christ is an everlasting Priesthood Hee also was without Father and without Mother without beginning of dayes or end of life As man without a Father as God without a Mother The same yesterday and to day and for ever His name was Everlasting Father His Gospell an Everlasting Gospell He was a lamb slaine from the beginning of the world The vertue of his bloud goes backward as high as Adam He was foreordain'd before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1.9 The redemption of those that transgressed under the first Testament the remission of sinnes that were past were procured by this Sacrifice Heb. 9.15 Rom. 3.25 It goeth downward to the end of the world he must raigne till all be put under his feete and he must raise up all by the power and vertue of his victory over death Ioh. 5 26-29 And lastly it goeth onward to all immortality for though the Acts and administration of his Priest-hood shall cease when hee shall have delivered the Kingdome to his Father and have brought the whole Church into Gods presence yet the vertue and fruits of those Acts shall bee absolutely eternall for so long as the Saints shall bee in heaven so long they shall enjoy the benefit of that Sacrifice which did purchase not a lease or expiring terme but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an endlesse life an everlasting glory an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away reserved in the heaven for them VERSE 5. The Lord at thy Right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath VERSE 6. Hee shall judge amongst the Heathen he shall fill the places with dead Bodies Hee shall wound the heads over many Countries IN the former part of the Psalme we have had the description of Christs offices of King and Priest together with the effect thereof in gathering a willing people unto himselfe Now here the Prophet sheweth another effect of the powerfull administration of these offices containing his victories over all his enemies allegorically expressed in a Hypotiposis or lively allusion unto the manner of humane victories wherein first I shall in a few words labour to cleere the sense and then the observations which are naturall will the more evidently arise The Lord at thy right hand To lay aside their exposition who understand these words of God the Father the words are an Apostrophe of the Prophet to those at whose right hand the Lord Iesus is Some make it an Apostrophe to God the Father a triumphall and thankfull prediction of that power and Iudgement which he hath given to this his Benjamin the Sonne at his right hand Because that thereby the phrase retaineth the same signification and sense which it had in the first verse As if David had said O God the Father of all power and majesty worthy art thou of all praise thanksgiving and honor who hast given such power to thy Sonne in the behalfe of thy Church as to smite through Kings and judge heathen and pull downe the chiefe of his enemies and to subdue all things to himselfe and these read it thus O Lord hee that is at thy right hand shall strike through Kings c. Others make it to be an Apostrophe to the Church and so to bee a phrase not expressing Christs exaltation as verse 1. But his care and protection over his Church his readinesse to assist and defend his owne people against all the injuries and assaults of adverse power Salomon saith A wise mans heart is at his right hand but a fooles heart is at his left Eccl. 10.2 That is his heart is ready and prepared to execute any wife counsels or godly resolutions as the Prophet David saith My heart is prepared ô God my heart is prepared I will sing and give thankes But a fooles heart when hee should doe any thing is like his left hand to seeke of skill unactive and unprepared when hee walketh by the way his heart faileth him vers 3. And this readinesse and present helpe of God to defend and guide his Church is expressed frequently by his being at the right hand thereof Because the Lord is at my right hand I shall not bee moved Psal. 16.8 Hee shall stand at the right hand of the poore to save him Psal. 109.31 I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee feare not I will helpe thee Esai 31.13 As if David had said Bee not dismayed nor cast downe ô yee subjects of this King as if being exalted to Gods right hand hee had given over the care and protection of his people for as hee is at the right hand of his Father in glory and majesty so is he at your right hand too standing to execute judgement on your enemies and to reveale the power of his arme towards you in your protection Now the reasons of this phrase and expression as I conceive are these two First to note that Christs power providence and protection doe not exclude but onely strengthen assist and prosper the ordinary and just endeavors of the Church
for executing condemnation upon the contumacious adversaries of the Gospell of Christ amongst the Gentiles as in the great victory of Gog and Magog Ezek. 39. Some by Gentiles understand all Enemies both spirituall and earthly Hee shall fill the places with dead Bodies That notes both the swiftnesse of the victory and the greatnesse of the victory That it shall bee so generall and so speedy that the enemie shall have either none left or they that are left shall not bee able nor have leasure to bury their dead Bodies Ezek. 39.11 He shall wound the head over divers Countries That is either the principall of his enemies every where or Satan who is the God of the World that ruleth as Head over the Children of disobedience in all places Or Antichrist the Head of nations the chiefe of Gods enemies Revel 13.7 8.14.8.17.15.18 The Lord at thy right hand According to the two-fold Apostrophe before mentioned here are two observations which I will but touch First that God the Father is worthy to have all the power Majesty and judgement which hee hath given to his Sonne our Mediator for our protection salvation and defence most thankfully and triumphantly acknowledged to him We finde our Savior himselfe praising God in this behalfe that hee had delivered all things into his hand even power to make Babes beleeve on him Matth. 11.25.27 And this S. Paul is frequent in namely in praising and glorifying God for Christ. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee c. I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.25 1 Tim. 1.16 17. All the promises of God are in him yea and in him Amen to the Glory of God by us 2 Cor. 1.19 20. Hee gave himselfe for our sinnes that hee might deliver us from this present evill world according to the will of God and our Father to whom bee glory for ever and ever Amen Gal. 1.4 5. Every tongue must confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father Phil. 2.11 And reason there is that it should thus bee acknowledged to the Father because hee hath all his Kingdome and power in the Church from the Father All power is given unto mee Hee hath given him a name above every name and this the Sonne hath revealed to us that so hee might manifest the name that is get glory to his Father thereby Ioh. 17.6 7. For in Christ it was God that reconciled the world to himselfe Secondly hee hath it all given unto him in our nature in our behalfe and as our head so that wee in the gifts of God to him were onely respected and therefore wee have reason to praise God for them It was not indeed given to him strictly for it was not to him Beneficium but Onus an office but not a benefit but to him for us or to us in and by him In all the victories deliverances refreshments experiences of Gods power and goodnesse wee must ever remember to praise God in and through his Sonne to acknowledge the power of his right hand which is not now against his Church but against the enemies of his Church For therefore the deliverance of his Church is ascribed to Gods Right hand because hee hath there one to plead to intreat to move his right hand in our behalfe Therefore in all our distresses in all conflicts and temptations wee must by faith looke up unto Gods right hand put him in remembrance of that faithfulnesse righteousnesse atonement and intercession which is there made in our behalfe There wee shall have matter enough to fill our mouths and hearts with praises and triumph and rejoicing in him It is Christ who is at the right hand of God who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Rom. 8.34 35. Here are two arguments of the Churches safety and triumph The Love of Christ and the Honor of Christ. Hee loveth all his to the end But what good can love doe without power Therefore hee that loveth us is exalted by God and hath all power given him for this purpose that his love may doe us good In the conflicts of my corruptions which are an adversary too wise too subtile too numberlesse for mee to vanquish I may yet when I am driven to Pauls extremity rest in his thanksgiving and looking up to Iesus who will be the finisher of every good worke which hee beginnes and seeing him at Gods right hand may triumph in the power and office which God hath given to his Sonne there which is to subdue our iniquities and to sanctifie us by his Truth and by that residue of Spirit which he keepeth for the Church Ioh. 17.17 19. for that Prayer is a Modell as it were and counterpane of Christs Intercession for saith he I come to thee and speake these things in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in them ver 13. that is that they having a specimen and forme of that Intercession which with thee I shall make for them left upon publike record for them to looke on and there finding that their sanctification is the businesse of my sitting at thy right hand may in the midst of the discomforts and conflicts of their corruption have a full joy and triumph in the honour which thou hast given me I am beset with the temptations of mine enemies and persecutions for the Name of Christ In this case I may give God praise for the power which hee hath given to his Sonne I may from mine enemies appeale unto Gods right hand I may like Stephen when the stones and buffets are about my soule looke up by faith see there my Captain standing up in my defence Act. 7.55 I may acknowledge unto God the power given unto his Sonne that though nothing of all this fall upon me without his provision and permission yet sure I am that he hath power and mercy in his right hand that though mine enemies were as strong as a combination and armie of kings yet the Lord at his right hand hath from him in my behalfe received power enough to strike through kings when the day of his wrath is come Note secondly Christ is at the right hand of his people present with them and prepared to defend them from all their enemies present by his Spirit to strengthen comfort and uphold them enabling them to glory and rejoyce in all their sufferings as knowing that they are but for a moment and that which is needfull to purge their faith and to make them beare their shame 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Iam. 1.2 3. Esai 27.8 9. and to glorifie the consequent power of Christ which shall bee revealed to their joy 1 Pet. 4.13 when hee will recompence double to us in mercy and to our enemies in severity Esai 54.7 8.61.7 present by his mighty power and by his Angels to rescue deliver and protect them to bee as a wall of fire as a shield a buckler a rocke a Captaine to his people
subscribe unto if God would then shew him mercy when the court of mercy is shut up wouldst thou returne to the earth and live there a thousand yeares under contempt and persecution for my service O yes not under thy service onely but under the rockes and mountaines of the earth so I may be hid from the face of the Lambe Wilt thou be content to goe to hell and serve me there a thousand yeeres in the midst of hellish torments and the reviling of damned creatures O yes even in hell infinitely better would it be to be thy servant than thine enemie Wilt thou revenge every oath with an yeare of prayers every bribe or corruption with a treasury of almes every vanity with an age of precisenesse Yes Lord the severest of thy commands to escape but the smallest of thy judgements O let us be wise for our selves there shall be no such easie conditions then proposed when it will be impossible to observe them and there are now farre easier proposed when we are invited to observe them Lastly from hence we learne that none will be Willing to come unto Christ till they see Beauty in his service which with a carnall eye they cannot doe for naturally the heart is possessed with much prejudice against it that the way of religion in that exactnesse which the Word requires is but the phantasme of more sublimated speculations a meere notionall and airy thing which hath no being at all but in the wishes of a few men who fancie unto themselves the shape of a Church as Zenophon did of a Prince or Plato of a Common-wealth And therefore though with their tongues they doe not yet in their hearts men are apt to lay aside that rigour and exactnesse which the Scripture requires namely to pull out our right eyes to cut off our right hands to hate father and mother and wife and lands and our owne life to deny our selves to crosse our own desires to mortifie our earthly members to follow the Lambe through evill report and good report through afflictions and persecutions and manifold temptations whither soever hee goeth to warre with principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesses to acquaint our selves with the whole counsell of God and the like and in stead thereof to resolve upon certaine more tolerable maximes of their owne to goe to heaven by certaine mediocrities betweene piety and prophanenesse wherein men hope to hold God fast enough and yet not to lose either the world or their sinfull lusts This is a certaine and confessed truth that the spirit which is in us by nature is contrary to the spirit of purity and power which is in the world and therefore the universall and willing submission of the heart unto this must needs finde both many antipathies within and many discouragements and contempts without Christ was set up for a signe of contradiction to be spoken against and that in the houses of Israel and of Iuda and as it was then so is it now even in Abrahams family in the houshold and visible Church of Christ They that are of the flesh persecute those that are after the spirit Christ had never greater enemies than those which professed his name This is one of the sorest engines Satan hath against his kingdome to make it appeare in the eyes of men as a despicable contemptuous and unbeautifull thing And therefore no man comes under Christs government till that prejudice by manifest evidence of the Spirit be removed And for this reason the wayes of Christ are set forth as beautifull even under crosses and afflictions I am blacke with persecution with the beating of the Sunne upon me but yet I am comely O yee daughters of Jerusalem When the watch-men smote the Church and wounded her and tooke away her veile yet still she acknowledged Christ for whose sake she suffered these persecutions to be the white and ruddy the fairest of ten thousand and the same opinion hath Christ of his Church though she be afflicted and tossed with tempest yet he esteemeth of her as of a beautifull structure How faire and how pleasant art thou O love for delights And this is that we should all endevour to shew forth in a shining and unblameable conversation the Beauty of the Gospell that the enemie may have no occasion from any indiscretions affectatitions unnecessary reservednesse and deformities ungrounded scrupulosities over-worldly affections or any other miscarriages of those who professe not the name onely but the power of religion to blaspheme or fling off from a way against which they have such prejudices offered them for all that which the faithfull have common with the world shall yet be sure to be charg'd upon their profession by wicked men who have not either reason or charity enough to distinguish betweene Gods rule and mans errour Submit your selves saith the Apostle to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake c. for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men for this is certaine the ignorance of foolish men will not so much lay the blowes upon your persons as upon that truth and religion which you professe when you needlessely withstand any such ordinances as you might without sinne obey The last thing observed in this verse was the Multitudes of Christs subjects and the manner of their birth From the wombe of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth Thy children are borne in as great abundance unto thee as the dew which falleth from the morning wombe From whence we may note First that Christ in the day of his power in the morning of his Church had multitudes of children borne unto him This promise the Lord made to Abraham and it is not to be limited to his children after the flesh but to his children of promise that his seed should be as the Starres and as the Dust for multitude And the Prophet applies that Promise to Israel by promise when those after the flesh should be dissipated and become no people yet saith the Prophet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbred c. meaning the Israel of God amongst the Gentiles Thus the faithfull are said to flocke like Doves unto their windowes and to swell into a sea of great waters an hundred and foure and forty thousand with an innumerable company more all sealed and standing before the Lambe Now this was in die copiarum in the time when Christ first sent abroad his armies and the rod of his strength into the world Before this God suffered men to walke in their owne wayes yea in his owne life-time hee forbade his Disciples to enter into the Cities of the Samaritans or the Gentiles And he promised them that they should do greater works than he himselfe had done because he went unto his Father
for when he ascended up on high he then led captivitie captive that ignorance and thraldome under which the world was held he triumphed over and gave gifts of his Spirit unto men of all sorts in abundance Visions to the young Dreames to the aged and his gracious Spirit unto all Wee never reade of so many converted by Christs personall preaching which was indeed but the beginning of his preaching for it is the Lord which speaketh from heaven still as by the ministery of his Apostles he thereby providing to magnifie the excellencie of his spirituall presence against all the carnall superstitions of those men who seeke for an invisible corporall presence of Christ on the earth charmed downe out of heaven under the lying shapes of separated accidents And who cannot be content with that All-sufficient Remembrancer which himselfe hath promised to his Church Ioh. 14.26 except they may have others and those such as the holy Scriptures every where disgraceth as teachers of lyes and vanity the Crucifixes and images of their owne erecting therein infinitly derogating from that all-sufficient provision which the Lord in his word and Sacraments the onely living and full images of Christ crucified Gal. 3.1 hath proposed unto men as alone able to make them wise unto salvation being opened and represented unto the consciences of men not by humane inventions but by those holy ordinances and offices which himselfe hath appointed in his Church the preaching of his word and administration of his Sacraments And surely they who by Moses and the Prophets by that Ministerie which Christ after his ascension did establish in his Church doth not repent would bee no whit the neerer no more than Iudas or the Pharises were if they should see or heare Christ in the flesh Therefore it is observed after Christs ascension that the word of God grew mightily and prevailed and that there were men dayly added unto the Church That the Savor of the Gospell was made manifest in every place That the Children of the desolate were more than of the married wife Therefore the beleevers after Christs ascension are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The multitude of them that beleeved and multitudes of men and women were added to the Lord. Ten to one of that there was before Ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations of the skirt of him that is a Iew saying We will goe with you that is shall take the Kingdome of heaven by violence as Saul laid hold on the skirt of Samuels Maâ—tle that hee might not goe from him The Reason hereof is to magnifie the exaltation spirituall presence and power of Christ in the Church while he was upon the earth he confin'd his ordinary residence and personall preaching unto one people because his bodily presence was narrow and could not bee communicated to the whole world For he tooke our nature with those conditions and limitations which belong thereunto But his Spirit and power is over the whole Church by them hee walketh in the middest of the Candlesticks Christs bodily presence and preaching the Iewes withstood and crucified the Lord of glory But now to shew the greatnesse of his power by the Gospell hee goes himselfe away and leaves but a few poore and persecuted men behinde him assisted with the vertue of his Spirit and by them wrought workes which all the world could not withstand Hee could have published the Gospell as hee did the Law by the ministery of Angels hee could have anointed his Apostles with regall oyle and made them not Preachers only but Princes and Defenders of his faith in the world But hee rather chose to have them to the end of the world poore and despised men whom the world without any shew of just reason which can bee by them alleaged should overlooke and account of as low and meane conditioned men that his Spirit might in their ministerie bee the more glorified God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and weake things of the world to confound things that are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen ye and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence But that his own Spirit might have all the honor therefore I was with you in weaknesse saith the Apostle and in feare in much trembling c. That your faith should not stand in the wisedome of men but in the power of God And againe Wee have this treasure in earthen vessells that the excellency of the power may bee of God and not of us not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord. Thus we finde that when the Church was most persecuted it did then most grow and in the worst times it brought forth the greatest fruit to note the power of Christs Kingdome above all the attempts of men A great doore and effectuall is opened unto mee saith the Apostle and there are many adversaries intimating that the Gospell of Christ had great successe when it was most resisted All persecutors as S. Cyprian observes are like Herod they take their times and seeke to slay Christ and overthrow his Kingdome in its infancie and therefore at that time doth hee most of all magnifie the power and protection of his Spirit over the same Never were there so many men converted as in those infant-times of the Church when the dragon stood before the woman ready to devoure her Childe as soone as it should bee borne The great Potentates of the world which did persecute the name of Christ were themselves at last thereunto subjected Non a repugnantibus sed a morientibus Christianis not by fighting but by dying Christians As a tree shaken sheds the more fruit and a perfume burnt diffuseth the sweetest Savor so persecuted Christianity doth the more flourish by the power of that Holy Spirit whose foolishnesse is wiser and whose weaknesse is stronger than all the oppositions and contradictions of men But if there bee such multitudes belonging unto Christs Kingdome is not universality and a visible pompe a true note to discerne the Church of Christ by To this I answer that a true characteristicall note or difference ought to bee convertible with that of which it is made a note and onely suteable thereunto for that which is common unto many can bee no evident note of this or that particular Now universality is common to Antichristian idolatrous malignant Churches The Arrian heresie invaded the world and by the Imperiall countenance spread it selfe into all Churches The whore was to sit upon many waters which were peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues the Kings of the earth were to bee made drunk with the wine of her fornications and all nations to drinke thereof Therefore touching these multitudes in the Church we are thus to state the point