Ezech. â—7 11 Our bones are dryed and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts This world This is the lost World 1. Because it is the judged World John 3.19 2. It is that World of which Sathan is Prince The world being the damned is the worst of the creation which I prove from the word and withall shall give the signes and characters of the men of the world 1. The World is the black company that lyes in sinne all of them 1 John 5.9 The whole world lyes in sinne They are haters of Christ and all his John 15.18 If the world hate you yee know saith Christ that it hated me before you 2. They are a number uncapable of grace or reconciliation which is terrible and have no part in Christs prayers Joh. 17.9 I pray not for the world nor of Sanctification the Comforter that Christ was to send is Joh. 14.17 the Spirit that the world cannot receive 3. It is one of the professed enemies on Christs contrary side that he overcommeth and wee in him Joh. 16.33 In the world you shall have tribulation They are the onely troublers of the Saints But be of good cheere I have overcome the world 1 Joh. 5.4 Whosoever is borne of God overcometh the world 4. It s a dirty and defiling thing Pure religion saith Iames 1.27 keeps a man unspotted of the world It is the praise of the Church of Sardis Revel 3.4 that there was amongst them a few names that had not defiled their garments but kept themselves from the pollutions of the world it s a sutty Pest-house there bee drops of sutt that defiles men in it 5. There can be no worse Character then to be a child of the world It is a black mark Luke 16.8 You know the Hebraisme Children of disobedience that is much addicted to disobedience as the Sonne hath the nature of Father and Mother in him Children of pride of wrath much addicted and farre under the power of wrath and pride So the sparks of fire are called Job 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the daughters of the burning coale then a childe of the world is one that lay in the wombe of the World one of the worlds breeding opposed to a Pilgrime and a stranger on earth for a stranger is one that is borne in a strange land Psal. 119.19 Psal. 39.12 Hebr. 11.13 and contrary to a childe of light Who hath the Pilgrimes sigh ordinarily night and day Oh if I were in my owne Countrey Wrong him not his mother is a woman of heaven she is a mighty Princesse and a Kings daughter Rev. 21.10 the New Jerusalem the Church of God came down from heaven Father Mother Seed Principles and all are from heaven 2. There is a Spirit called the Spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2.12 This Spirit is the Genius the nature and disposition of the World 1 Ioh. 2.16 and is all for the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and these bee the Worlds all things Such a soule knoweth not the white stone and the new name nor can he smell the rose of the field and the Lillâ—y of the valley nor knowes he the Kings banqueting house nor the absence or presence of Christ in the soule the mans portion is in this world Psal. 17.14 within the foure angles of this clay-globe This World The World the Lord Jesus judgeth is this World a thing that cometh within the compasse of time and may be pointed with the finger 1. It is neere our senses therefore called Gal. 1.4 The present evill world the world that now is on the stage so 2 Tim. 4.10 Dâ—mas hath forsaken me and hath loved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world that is upon its present Now. The World that is on its Post and Now in its flux motion and tendencie to corruption 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in THIS WORLD that they be not high minded this World is opposed to eternity and to life eternall for the which the rich are to lay up a sure foundation Luke 20.34 The sonnes of THIS WORLD Marrie and are given in Marriage Vers. 35. But these that shall be counted worthy of that World and the resurrection from the dead neither Marry nor are given in Marriage Vers. 36. Neither can they doe any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that world this puts a great note of excellencie on the World to come 2. This World is a thing that comes under our senses and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a single one creature that we may point with our finger Satan from the top of a mountaine shewed Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the kingdomes of the World and the glory or opinion of them Matth. 4.8 and it is Luke 4.5 all the Kingdomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee shewed him the phancie of the habitable earth in a point of time the life to come cannot come under your senses Yee cannot point out the throne of God and the Lambe and the Tree of life and the pure River of water of life that proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lambe there be such various treasures of glorie in the infinite Lord Jesus so many dwelling places in our Fathers house that yee cannot number then all The Kingdomes of this world and the glory of it comes within tale and reckoning I grant this is meant of the structure and dwellings of the World but they are the setled home of Reprobate men It were good if wee could beleeve that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the world the figure and paintrie of this house of lost men 1 Cor. 7.30 is in a transe and passing away ah are yee conform'd to the World Your condition is woefull The World sweares and so doe you the World serves the time in Religion and so doe you the World is vaine in their apparell the World cousens lyes whores and so doe you the world hates Christ and his friends and so doe you the World lyes in sinne it is the fashion of the World and so doe you Oh! if you would be conformed to the new World in righteousnesse and holynesse 1. The in-dwellers are all the children of a King and Princes and their mother a Princes daughter 2. The lowest piece of the dwelling house of that other World the heavens we see are curious worke any one pearle or candle of Sunne or Moone or Starres is worth the whole Earth setting aside the soules of men 3. The foundation of the City is precious Stones Revel 21. c. What fooles are we who kill every one another for peeces and bitts of the Lords lowest foot-stoole for the earth the seat of the worldly man is but the foot-stoole of God The judgement of this World How did Christ condemne and passe sentence on the wicked world in his death 1. He did it Legally in that his offering of a
nor armes to climbe so high as to ascend to a throne But the naturall man neither will nor can chuse a kings life and be a follower of Christ nor is man any other then a naturall hater of Christ though many thinke they beare Christ at good will Joh. 15.24 But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father The reason why men thinke they love Christ is the luster that education and common literall report from the womb hath put upon Christ our fathers and teachers said ever Christ is the Saviour of man and a mercifull God and therefore we have that common esteeme of him but were wee borne of Jewish parents or among Jewes and taken from our parents and heard nothing from the womb of Christ but what the Jewes say and that is that hee is a false Prophet that hee rose not from the dead but that his disciples by night stole him away out of the grave wee should from the womb hate Christ as well as the Jewes And the like wee may see in Indians who love and adore the Devill from the womb but with this difference they love Satan truly because both nature now corrupt and education carries them thereunto but education can give no man a true love of Christ. 2. Whence is it that the world hates the children of God It is from instinct and nature rather then from any imperated acts Joh. 15.19 Because yee are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you Vers. 21. But all these things will they doe unto you for my Names sake To be chosen out of the world to carry any thing of Christ and his image and nature and to be borne againe and of another seed then the world is born of is no ground of arbitrary and elective hatred but of such hatred as comes from divers naturall instincts such as is the hatred between the Wolfe and the Lambe the Raven and the Dove If then the world hate the Saints as they doe Rom. 1.30 and hate Christ and hate the Saints upon this formall ground Because they have in them the nature of God the image of Christ some of the excellency of Christ then they must hate Christ farre more for Propter quodunumquodque tale id ipsum magis tale The world hated Christ for God for there was more of God in the Man Christ then ever was in any creature then they hated God more and with a higher hatred So Christ is the Sampler and Copy to all the Saints therefore Christ must be more contrary to the wicked world then the Saints are If you hate the servant for the masters sake then you hate the Master more If you love the nurse for the childs sake then you love the child more So the Jewes killed the servants the Prophets they stoned them and beat them Mat. 21.35 but they did more to Christ Vers. 39. They caught him slew him and cast him out of the vineyard and took the inheritance to themselves 3. Men naturally hate the wayes of God If there be holinesse in his wayes then it must be most eminently in God If they esteem his yoke soure and heavie and Reformation a burden then must they farre more esteeme so of himselfe 2. Men have a sort of satisfaction in their naturall condition A whole man desires no Physician A dead man hath some negative content to lie in grave hee can have no acts of sorrow for want of life 2. Wee doe not put forth any stirring of life or desire toward that which is naturally above us A child in the belly hath no acts toward a Crown or a Kingdome in this life because desires are bottomed and founded on nature As an Ape or a Horse hath no desire to be a man Pilate as if hee were burdened with Christ saith Mat. 27.22 What shall I then doe with Jesus that is called Christ What availeth my birth-right to me saith Esau seeing I die for hunger 3. When beasts and birds are allured by the snare and fishes by the bait death cometh to them in the garments of life for food is all their heaven and instinct helpeth them to prosecute their ends and there is a naturall similitude and inclination between their nature and what they desire bottomed on an instinct even when the object of their inclination is but dyed with the hew and apparency of good But there is no such instinct in the naturall man nor similitude between a cage of hell and the beauty and excellency of Christ between his sense and the hid manna or the banquetting house of wine 4. The naturall man cannot come to Christ. In that place Ioh. 6.44 there be four things considerable 1. The best of men is unapt to come to Christ No man what ever his parts and eminencie be had he a nature of gold he cannot come to Christ. 2. He saith not No man cometh as denying the act for so no man of himselfe is an excellent Philosopher but he denieth a power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot come 3. But help is much happily if his eyes were open the will is good he would gladly come to Christ if he were able Nay saith Christ he is unwilling and unable both He that cannot come except he be haled and drawn and some violence offered to his corruption hath no good liking of Christ. But 4. It is but little drawing possibly that will do the businesse some gentle blast or aire of golden words some morall suasion some breathings and spiration of fine reasonings from men or Angel can do much No but it is not so no lesse saith Christ can draw a sinner to me then the arm of the Father and a pull of his omnipotencie who is greater then all Ioh. 10. No man what ever mettall he be of the finest of men can come or hath power to come to me and to beleeve on the only begotten son of God except the Father who sent me draw him We know Christ was much to extoll his Father his Father was ever in his esteem an eminent one as Matth. 11.25 26 27. Mark 14. â—6 Luke 23.46 John 3.35 John 5.21 and 6.27 Matth. 10.32 c. 24.37 Iohn 2.16 and 5.43 and 10.29 c. 19.2 Rev. 2.27 Joh. 15.1 So is there a power alwayes denyed to the naturall man to close with Christ Rom. 8.7 2 Cor. â— 5 5. A will to beleeve and to submit to Christ is denyed to naturall men Joh. 5. â—0 Ye will not come to me that yee may bee saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 19.14 The enemies of Christ say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We will not have this man to reigne over us Verse 27. But these mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these to me seem to be allusions to Israels wearying of the Lord of old Isai. 43.23 I have
many deaths as Christ will is a rare grace of God and not of ordinary capacity Rule 7. Christ in submitting his will maketh the Prophecies the revealed Gospel his rule and in the matter of duty is willing to be ruled by Gods revealed will in the matter of suffering hee is willing that the Lords will stand for a Law to which hee doth willingly submit and will in no sort quarrell with everlasting decrees To be ruled by the one is holinesse to submit to the other is patience For patience is higher then any ordinary grace in regard its willing to adore and reverence something more and higher then a commanding promising and threatning will of God It was a grace in Christ most eminent in the Lamb of God dumb meek and silent before his shearers the meekest in earth and in heaven that hee did not onely never resist the revealed will of God but never thought motion nor any hint of a desire was in him against the secret and oâ—ernall decree and counsell of God Christ will not have us to make Images of him who is the invisible God but when in his works of justice power love free grace hee setteth before us the image of his glorious nature and attributes hee will have us to adore him in these According to his decree of reprobation hee raised up Pharaoh to be clay to all men on whom as on a voluntary and rationall vessell of wrath they might read power justice truth soveraignty in these works wee are to tremble before him and adore the Lord. So in works of Grace that are the Image of the invisible God the Lord is to be loved 1 Tim. 1.16 In Paul the chiefe of sinners the Lord holds forth an image of the freest grace no lesse then in the revealed will of God for 1. Christ made an example of mercy and free grace in him 2. Hee made a speaking and crying spectacle to all Ages an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a printed copy of crying grace to all the world and in this wee are to adore and submit to him Such a limb of hell hath received mercy not I who before men was holier O submit to this worke of grace as to the copy of his eternall decree and be silent Rule 8. Christ putteth nature and naturall reason that his naturall will might seem to plead withall under the Lords feet So it would seeme strange God hath many sonnes but none like Christ hee was a Sonne his alone hee had never a brother by an eternall generation hee was the onely heire of the house but never a son so afflicted as hee This seemes against all reason But Christ brings in his Fathers will with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Mat. 26.39 Joh. 12.27 Luk. 22.42 Mark 14.36 But thy will be done It s against submission to put absolute interrogatories upon the Lord Wee love to have God make an account of his providence to us and that the last and finall appeale of the wayes of the Lord should be to our reason as to the great Senate and supremest Court in heaven and earth It s true Christ putteth a Why upon God My God my God why hast thou forsaken me but 1. with the greatest faith that ever was a doubled act of beleeving My God my God 2. With the extremest love that ever was in a man it s also a two-fold cord of warmnesse of heart to his Father My God my God 3. It s a word relative to the covenant between the Father and the Son for My God is a covenant-expression that the Father will keep what he hath promised to his Son and relateth to the infinite faithfulnesse of the Covenant-Maker 4. God relateth to the Dominion Lord-ship and Soveraignty that the Lord hath and therefore that Christ will submit to him 5. Christs complaint of the Lords forsaking sheweth the tendernesse of his soule in prizing the favour of his Father more then any thing in heaven and earth And therefore Christs why is a note of 1. Admiration 2. Of sinlesse Sorrow conjoyned with love tendernesse and submission to God Christ cannot speak to his Father beside the truth But every man is a lyar and wee seldome put questions and queries upon Soveraignty but wee preferre our reason to infinite wisdome Job is out and takes his marks by the Clouds and the Moone when hee saith Job 13.24 Why holdest thou me for thine enemy Chap. 3.11 Why died I not from the womb why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly And Jeremiah 15.18 Why is my paine perpetuall and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed Chap. 20.18 Wherefore came I out of the wombe to see labour and sorrow that my dayes should be consumed with shame All the Lords works are full yea with child of reason wisdome and grave and weighty causes and though wee see not his acts to have a why yet there is a cause why hee doth all hee doth reason is necessity to him and an essentiall ingredient in all his actions Rule 9. In this Administration of Providence with Christ the Lord goeth many wayes at once In this very act hee redeemeth the world judgeth Satan satisfieth the Law and Justice glorifieth Christ destroyeth sin fulfilleth his owne eternall will and counsell In one warre hee can ripen Babylon for wrath humble his Church deliver Jeremiah punish Idolatry In the same warre hee can humble and correct Scotland harden Malignants that they will not hearken to offers of peace and blow up their haters that they may be lofty through victories and be ripened for wrath through unthankfulnesse to God Providence hath many eyes so also many feet and hands under the wings to act and walk a thousand wayes at once There is a manifold wisdome in Providence as in the work of Redemption In every worke that God doth hee leaveth a wonder behind him No man can come after the Almighty and say I could have done better then hee It s naturall to blame God in his working but unpossible to mend his work Rule 10. Nor is Christ made a loser by losing his will for the Lord but his will is fulfilled in that which he feared Heb. 5.7 Providence submitted unto rendereth an hundred fold in this life Matth. 19.29 God makes the income above hope Gen. 48.11 And Israel said to Ioseph I had not thought to see thy face and lo God hath shewed me also thy seed One berry is not a cluster that two men cannot bear but it s a field an earth of Vine-trees in the seed Ephes. 3.20 He is able to doe above all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then aboundantly above that we can aske or thinke above the shaping or frame of my words and thoughts But I can ask heaven he can give more then heaven and above heaven yea I can think of Christ but he can give above the Christ that I can thinke on
New man mentioned in the Gospel is not meant of Grace but of Christ and by love 1 Cor. 13.13 and by the armour mentioned Ephes. 6. are meant Christ. So said that vile man Pocquius that we and Christ are made one as Evah was formed out of a rib of Adams side he meaneth one person 3. Man following his lusts and committing all sin with greedinesse is made spirituall and mortified by Christs death so also Pocquius who said to sin without sense is the Spirituall life we are restored to in Christ So Antinomians aime at this that what ever the regenerate do they are as free of sin before God as Christ or the Elect Angels and this is the begun Spirituall Life 4. Libertines in Calvins time said that life eternall was in this life and that the resurrection was past as Hymeneus and Phyletus who made shipwrack of the faith because a man knowes his soule is an immortall Spirit living in the heavens and because Christ hath taken away the opinion and sense of death by his death and so hath restored us to life Mistris Hutchison and her Disciples the Familists of New England denying the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of these our mortall bodies affirmed all the resurrection they knew was the union of the soule with Christ in this life I never could observe any considerable difference between the foule Heresies of the Familists of New England and of Old England either by the writings of or conference with them nor of either from the damnable Doctrine of Hymeneus and Phyletus and the old Libertines who said The Resurrection was past Vse 3. The drawing of sinners to Christ if he draw so sweetly and with such a loving condiscension cannot be a violence offered to free will by which the naturall and concreated liberty of the creature is destroyed for there remaines a naturall indifferency by which reason and judgement proposeth to the elective faculty divers objects that have no naturall connexion with will so as the will should be bowed to any of them as the fire casteth out heat and the Sun light and the stone falleth downward its true in drawing of a sinner Christ is carried into the heart with a greater weight of love and a stronger sway of grace then any other object whatsoever and with so prevailing a sway as masters the elective power that it cannot will to refuse yet it destroyes not the elective power because this non posse repudiare impotencie or unwillingnesse to reject Christ to speak so is a most free vitall kindly voluntary and delighting impotency and comes from the bowels and innate power of will and this is the Virgin-liberty and power of will But againe because Christs drawing is efficacious and strong and carries the businesse with a heavenly and loving prevalency the Arminian and Jesuiticall indifferency that New Pelagians ascribes to free will as an essentiall property of it by which when God and the pull and nerves of the right arme of Jesus Christ in his free grace have done what they can to draw a free Agent neverthelesse the man may refuse to be drawn if so it please free will though it displease God and crosse his decree and most hearty and naturall desire is a wicked fancie 1. Because by this dream God hath not a dominion and soveraign power over the created will of man to determine it for his own ends and to make use of it for the glory of his grace though the Lord with his soul desire so to doe but the creature hath an absolute free and independent power to crosse the desire of the Lords soule for its own destruction and a far other end which God intends but at the second hand and contrary to his naturall and essentiall desire as they teach to save his creature to wit that revenging justice may be declared in the eternall destruction of the most part of mankind whereas it was his desire that not only the most part but that all and every single Man and Angell the fallen Devils not excepted should be eternally saved 2. We beleeve that God the first cause as he decrees to all things that were from eternity in a state of poor possiblity so as of themselves they might be or might not be a futurition or a shall be or a non-futurition or a shall never be So he is midwife to his own blessed decrees and determines all created causes to bring forth these effects that were in the wombe of his holy decrees for all things that were to be and doe fall out in time were births from eternity that lay in the wombe of the decree of God evils of punishment or sins as permitted Acts 17.30 are not excepted So Zephaniah willeth the people to flee to God before the decree that is with child bring forth the birth Then God must in time open and unlock free will for all its actions Isai. 44.7 And who as I shall call and set it in order for me since I appointed or decreed the ancient people and the things that are coming or shall come let them shew unto them So God taketh this to him as proper to appoint things to come and no supposed God nor power what ever can share with him in it and let any man answer and give a reason why of ten thousand possible worlds of infinite things actions of Men and Angels that from eternity of themselves were only possible and might be or not be so many of them not more not fewer received a futurition that they shall come to passe and so fall out in time and others remained only possible and came never further to being and never fall out but from the only free decree and will of God who conceived in that infinite wombe of his eternall counsell and wisedome such things shall be such things shall only remaine possible and shall never be nor never come to passe As it was decreed that wicked men should break the legs of the two Theeves crucified with Christ and that they should not break Christs legs yet the breaking of Christs legs was in it selfe and from eternity no lesse possible then the breaking of the legs of the fellow-sufferers with him but Gods only decree gave a futurition and an actuall being to the one not to the other So are all the actions the chusings refusings â—illings willings of free will determined to be or not be and come to passe or not come to passe according as they were births conceived in the mother-decree of God from eternity Psal. 139.16 In thy booke were all my members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them 3. Hee that works all things according to the counsell of his will as Ephes. 1.11 Hee of whom and through whom and for whom are all things as Rom. 11.36 Hee that made all things for himselfe Pro. 16.4 even the
complaining would be examined Seldome or never is it seen that a reprobate man can be in sad earnest heavie in heart touching his deadnesse of heart and fruitlesse hearing of the word of God thirty or fourty yeares and withall if there be a dram of sincerity the least graine of Christ as if the soule doe but look afarre-off with halfe an eye yet greedily after the Lord Jesus it s a sweet beginning It s true a talent weight of iron or sand is as weighty as a talent weight of gold but in a Saint an ounce weight of grace hath more weight then a pound of corruption It is no Gospel-truth that Antinomians teach That God loves no man lesse for sin or no man more for inherent holinesse It s true of the love of election and reconciliation in the work of justification but most false of the love of divine manifestation in the work of sanctification as is cleare Joh. 14.21 23. Nor are men by this taught to seek righteousnesse in themselves because they are commanded to try and examine themselves as 1 Cor. 11.28 2 Cor. 13.5 4. Such soules would upon any termes be brought to reason and debate the question with Christ that as the Law may stop their mouth before God so mercy may stop the mouth of the Law and sin and it may convincingly be cleared that though scarlet or crimson can by no art be made white yet Christ who is above art can make them white Isai. 1.18 as wooll and snow And therefore such would be brought in an high esteeme and deep judgement of Christs fairnesse beauty excellency incompatable and transcendent worth and though a soule have a too high esteeme of his sins yet say that hee dies with an high esteeme of Jesus Chriâ—t hee is in no danger for faith is but a swelled an high and broad opinion and thought of the incomparable excellency and sweetnesse of Jesus Christ. Vse 8. This powerfull drawing teacheth humble thankefulnesse 1. The most harmelesse and innocent sinner must bee in Christs book for the debt of ten thousand Talents 2. The sense of drawing grace is mighty ingaging every act of thankfull obedience should come out of this wombe as the birth and child of the felt love of God Christ did bid such a man battell 2. He was Christs enemy when he took him 3. It cost Christ blood he died to conquer an enemie Rom. 5.10 4. He kept the taken enemy alive he might have killed him he gave him more then quarters he made a captive a King Rev. 1.6 Suppose we Christ should in his own person come locally down to hell and look upon so many thousands scorching and flaming in that unsufferable lake of fire and brimstone if he should cull out by the head and name so many thousands of them even while they were spitting on Christ blaspheming his name and scratching his face and should loose off the fetters of everlasting vengeance and draw them from amongst millions of damned Spirits lay them in his bosome carry them to heaven set them on Thrones of glory crown them as Kings to raigne with him for evermore Would they not be shamed and overcome with this love kisse and adore so free a Redeemer and thus really hath Christ dealt with sinners look on your debts written in Christs grace-book would not such a redeemed one praise his Ransomer and say O if every finger every inch of a bone every lith every drop of blood of my body every hair of my head were in an Angels perfection to praise Iesus Christ O the weight of the debt of love O the gold Mynes and the depths of Christs free love 3. Consider what expressions vessels of grace have used of free grace how far below grace Paul sets himself lo here Eph. 3.8 To me who am 1. Lesse then a Saint 2. Not that only but lesse then the least 3. Lesse then the least of Saints But 4. yet a little lower lesse then the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Gospell riches is grace and mercy but there is a great abundance of it it s a speech from quick-sented hounds who have neither footstep nor trace nor sent left them of the game they pursue Christ defies men and Angels to trace him in the wayes of grace So Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 I was a blasphemer and a persecuter and an injurious person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I was be-mercied as if dipt in a river in a Sea of mercy Vers. 14. And the grace of the Lord Jesus to me was abundant No that is to low a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace was more or over-abundant one Paul obtained as much grace even so whole and compleat a ransome without diminishing as would have saved a world Rom. 5.15 If through the offence of one many bee dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is exceedingly to abound and borrowed from fountaines and rivers which have flowed with waters since the creation but there is a higher word Vers. 12. Where sinne abounded grace farre more or exceedingly over-abounded or more then over-abounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Vers. 21. Sin reigned unto death that grace might reigne unto life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christs grace might play the King The saving knowledge of God under the Kingdome of the Messiah Esai 11.9 fills the earth as the Sea is covered with waters A Sea of Faith and a Earthfull of the grace of saving light and a Sunne sevenfold as the light of seven dayes Esai 30.26 hold forth to us a large measure of grace and righteousnessâ— and peace like a river and the waves of the sea Esai 48.18 All these say Christ is no niggard of grace And 4. can they not weare and out-spend their harps who fall downe before the Lambe Revel 14. and Revel 5.8 Who with a loude voice praise the grace of God Vers. 12. For ever and ever Consider if it must not be a loud voice when ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand thousands all joyne in one song to extoll grace if we be not in word and deed obliged to expresse the vertues and praises of him who hath called us from darkenesse to his marveilous light Vers. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to me Article II. The next thing we consider is the person that drawes I sayes Christ I will draw all men to me There is a peculiar aptitude in Jesus Christ to drawe sinners to himselfe 1. As concerning his person he is fit for neither is the Father nor the Holy Ghost in person Lord Redeemer but Christ as in the deep of Gods wisdome the Sonne was thought fittest to make Sonnes Galat. 4.4 the heire to communicate the right of heire-ship
beleeve they shall be saved the Lords purpose being â—o deny to them the grace of beleeving without which it is unpossible they can beleeve the promise in Gods purpose is not made with them He that so willeth what he promiseth upon a condition which he that so willeth only can doe and work and yet will not do or work the condition he doth indeed not will to the party what is so promised if John send Peter to work in his garden upon condition that if he worke he shall give him a talent a day and in the mean while Iohn onely can give to Peter strength of legs and armes and body to work can determine his consent to the work and yet refuse to give strength and to win his consent to the work Sure he never wiâ—led either to give him a talent for his work nor intended hee should work at all Hence I arâ—ue it is against the wisedome of God to intend and will that the Reprobate be redeemed pardoned saved upon a condition which he himself only can work by his grace and absolutely and irresistibly will not work Now in Scripture such a thing is argued not to bee done because the Scripture must be fulfillâ—â— and the decree of God and his will fulâ—â—lled as Christs bones upon this ground could not be broken and such a thing is done that the Scripture and so the will and decree of God might be fulfilled so that which is never done is simply Gods will it shall never be done that which is done is simply Gods will it must be I mean either his permissive or approving will and the will of God revealing what is the duty of Reprobates though it never be done arguâ—s it was not simply the will of God hence that voluntas signi in which God reveales what is our dutie and what we ought to doe not what is his decree or what he either wil or ought to doe is not Gods will properly but by a figure only for commands and promises and threatnings revealed argue not the will and purpose decree or intention of God which are properly his will 10. It is against the wisedome of God to intend the actuall Redemption and salvation of all and every one and not to will nor work such conditions which onely he himself can work and are in his power only and without the which the creature cannot be redeemed and saved but he neither will nor doth work faith in all then he never intended the actuall redemption and salvation of all and every one Hence what ever wanton and lascivious reason can object against absolute Reprobation the absolute Redemption of some few a particular attonâ—ment of some few equally fighteth with the opinion of adversaries as against ours they say 1. God intends the eternall destruction of the innocent sinlesse and greatest part of mankind 2. Mercie bowels of compassion by your particular absolute Redemption is extended to few and all the rest of the lost world left to sincke eternally notwithstanding of the infinite and boundlesse love and man-kindnesse of God It s answered these fall with equall strength of wanton reason upon conditionall and universall Redemption or Gods conditionall and universall will to save all and every one for say that a father did foresee if he beget twenty sonnes that eighteen of them shall be cast in a river of fire to be burnt quick where they shall bee tormented ten thousand yeares ever dying and not able to finde death to end their miseries and that they may be Kings in great riches and honour upon a condition of such and such a carriage of them in their education and young yeares which this father can easily worke with one word yet hee willingly begets these children hee can worke such a condition in them as they may all be kings yet deliberatly this he will not doe but acts so upon the will of these children as he knowes indeclinably the greatest part of them all shâ—ll be tormented for ten thousand yeares in this extreme fire Who can say 1. that this father quantum in se as farre as he can hath redeemed all and every one of his children from ten thousand yeares paine Who can say this father intended and willed the life and honour of these eighteene children when as hee might with no paine to himselfe most easily have wrought the condition in them which he wrought in others and would not Hence if there must bee a mystery in the Gospel and the Lords waies and thoughts must be above ours as farre as the heaven is above the earth if the Lord did foresee the greatest part of mankind and many legions of Angels should be cast in chaines of darknesse and in a lake of fire and brimstone for ever and ever 1. Vaine reason would say why did hee create them if hee fore-saw their misery would bee so deplorable and how can he earnestly and ardently with prayers obtestations wishes threatnings precepts promises desire their eternall salvation 2. If he could have hindred them to sinne as no question he could without hurting Adams freewill and without strangling the nature of free obedience in reference to threatning of ill and promising of good and life as wee see all Angels being equally under one law he kept some from sinne of free grace and permitted others to fall in eternall misery if he could have hindered them to sinne how created he them and gave them a law which he saw they would violate and make themselves eternally miserable 3. When the same Gospel was preached to some yea and to a huge multitude within the visible Church if the Lord willed all and every one to be saved and gave his Sonne to redeeme all and every one was there not an eternall and absolute will most unlike and disparous to some beside others when as he tooke a way of working with the Gospel preached on some which hee saw would eternally indeclinably and inevitably save them and a contrary way of working with others which hee foresaw would be fruitlesse ineffectuall and null and tend to their sadder condemnation now can he will both the redemption and salvation of these that he moveth ineffectually to obey and also efficaciously to obey Corvinus saith in this He willeth all ex aequo equally to be saved in regard of his affection and will to all but he willeth not all equally to be saved ex parte boni voliti in regard of the thing willed for he willeth the Gospel to be preached to some and of these that heare the Gospel he gives more grace yea more grace actu secundo efficaciously effectuall and denies both to other Nations and people and with this distinction he willeth and willeth not equally ex aequo the salvation of all But this is Petitio principii the disparitie of favours bestowed on persons and Nations doe argue in Scripture disparitie of good-wills in the Lord as because God sent his Law and
when your soule shall be loaden with glory and thousands of souls blowing and spitting out blasphemies on the Majesty of God out of the sense of the torment of the gnawing worm that never dies and yee consider the soule of Iudas might have been in my soules stead and my soule in the same place of torment that his is now in what wonder then Iohn cry out behold what love 4. How much love for extention and intention for one man and every one in covenant Psal 106.45 multitudes of mercies and Ps. 130.7 plentious redemption one David must have multitude of tender mercies Psal. 51.1 Psal. 69.13.16 It s not one love but loves many loves Ezech. 16.8 Cant. 1.2 He gives many salvations to one as if one heaven and one crown of glory were not enough Ephes. 2.4 he is rich in mercy and he quickned us when we were dead in sinnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For his multiplyed love every man has a particular act of love a particular act of atonement bestowed on him can ye multiply figures with a pen and write from the east to the west and then begin again and make the heaven of heavens all circular lines of figures it should wearie the arm of Angels to write the multiplyed loves of Christ. Christs love desires to engage many how many millions be there of elect Angels and men every one of them for his own part must have a heaven of love and Christ thinks it little enough that the first-bornes love be on them all and that they all be first-borne Col. 1.20 It pleased the Father by Christ to reconcile all things in heaven and in earth to himself All the Angels are Christs vassals and he is their head Col. 2.10 then Christ must have two eyes you seven eyes to see for every one and two legs for every Angel to walk withall Christ must have a huge hoast and numerous troups in his familie 2 Who then can number the sums of all the debts of free grace that Angels and me now Christ and when they shall be paid though sinnes shall be acquitted yet debts of undeserved love shall stand for ever and ever O how unsearchable is the riches of Christs grace Know yâ— O Angels O gloryfied Spirits where is the Brim or where is the bottom of free grace Yet not one sinner can have lesse grace then hee has hee has need of all he has no oyl to spare to lend to his neighbourâ— Matth. 25. Our deep diseases and festered wounds could have no lesse to cure them then infinite love and free grace passing all knowledge It was a broad wound that required a plaister as long and broad as infinite â—esus Christ. Paul bows his knee to the Master of the families of heaven and earth for this act of grace to weigh the love of Christ Ephes. 3.18 I pray saith he that ye may comprehend or overtake the love of God 2. How many are set on work to compasse that love as if one man could not be able to do it Yet I pray that ye with all the Saints may comprehend what is the bredth it s broader then the Sea or the earth and what is the length of it its longer then between East and West though ye could measure between the extremity of the higest ciâ—cle of the heaven of heavens and then it hath depth and heigth more then from the center of the earth to the circle of the Moon and up through all the orbes of the sâ—ven Planets and to the orbe of Sâ—atrreâ— and highest heavens who can comprehend either the diameter or circumâ—â—rence of so great a love Love is an Element that all the Elect Men and Angels swim in the the banks of the river swell above the circle of the Sunne to the highest of the highest heavens Christs love in the Gospel takes all alive as a mighty Conqueror his seed for multitude is like the drops of dew that come out of the womb of the morning Psal. 110. and they are the dew of the youth of Christ for Christ as a strong and vigorous young man full of strength who never fails through old age brings in the forces of the Gentiles like the flocks of Kedar Esai â—0 5 6. 5 Christs love outworks Hell and Devils Can yee seale up the Sunne that it cannot rise or can ye hinder the flowing of the Sea or lay a Law upon the Windes that they blow not farre lesse can ye hinder Christs wildernesse to blossom as a Rose or his grace to blow to flow over banks oâ—â—o flee with Eagles wings O how strong an agent iâ— Christs love that beares the sinnes of the world â—oh 1.29 It woâ—ks as fire doth by nature rather then by will and none can bind up Christs heart or restraine his bowels but he must work all to heaven that he has loved Vse 2. We are hence taught to acknowledge no love to be in God which is not effectuall in doing good to the creaâ—ure there is no lip-love no raw wel-wishing to the creature which God doth not make good we know but three sorts of love that God has to the creature all the three are like the fruitfull womb there is no miscarrying no barrennesse in the womb of divine love he loves all that he has made so farre as to give them a being to conserve them in being as long as he pleaseth hee had a desire to have Sunne Moone Starres Earth Heaven Sea Clouds Ayr hee created them out of the womb of love and out of goodnesse and keeps them in being hee can hate nothing that hee made now according to Arminians he wishâ—d a being to many things in then seed and causes as he wished the earth to be more fruitfull before the fall then now it is so that against Gods will and his good will to the creatures he comes short of that naturall antecedent love that he beareth to creatures he could have wished death never to be noâ— sicknesse nor old age say Arminians nor barrennesse of the earth nor corruption Nay but though these have causes by rule of justice in the sins of men yet we have no cause to say God falls short of his love and wished and desired such and such a good to the creature but things mscarried in his hand his love was like a mother that conceiveth with many children but they die in the womb so God willed and loved the being of many things but they could not be the love of God was like the miscarrying womb that parts with the dead child we cannot acknowledge any such love in God 2. There is a second love and mercy in God by which he loves all Men and Angels yea even his enemies makes the Sun to shine on the unjust man as well as the just and cauâ—eth dew and raine to fall on the orchard and fields of the bloody and deceitfull man whom the Lord abhors as Christ teacheth us Matth.