They saw him not but were perswaded hee should bee seene at the time appointed Neither haue wee seene him but are out of doubt that hee was seene while he liued here vpon the earth They trusted in him as the onely and all-sufficient meanes of life Is not our faith the same Therefore least any man should imagine that the Fathers which died before our Sauiour Christ was born were destitute of spirituall life our Euangelist assures vs that there was euen then life in him These reasons may giue some good satisfaction to them who desire rather to informe themselues to edification then to aime themselues for contention Giue me leaue also I pray you to propound to your consideration meditation at your better leasure what it hath pleased God I should conceiue of this matter would any man knowe of me why the Euangelist saith In him was rather then In him is life I think he may be fully satisfied if he do aduisedly consider that hee continueth the course which he begun in the first verse followed in the second and third In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God The same was By him were without him was Do not meruaile thē that the Euangelist sayth here In him was life Tell mee how hee could haue spoken more fitly Hee proceedes in the description of the Messiah touching his mediatorship whose Godhead he had before declared Could he doe better thē to hold on the same manner of speech But will you see yet a farther reason that nothing may be wanting which may helpe vou forward in the vnderstanding of this scripture Who knowes not that the Euangelist according to the ordinary course which they take that write the hystories of famous men settes downe in the beginning a briefe description of him of whom afterward hee is to intreat at large by shewing that in particular which was at the first deliuered in a generall sort This being so let vs remember that the historie is of him that is not now liuing amongst vs but departed out of this life from vs. Therefore it was necessarie for our Euangelist to speak of him as of one that had beene and now was not Not as if hee were not now at all but because hee is not now aliue in the world as hee was when those things were done the historie whereof is written in this Gospell So then we must conceiue that Saint Iohn in saying was hath respect to the time of our Sauiours being herein our nature and therefore not only might but ought also to say In him was rather then In him is life because he is totel vs what he did here in the world and not what hee doth now he is out of the world This the holy Ghost teacheth vs when he saith k Ioh. 20. 30. toward and l Ioh 21. 25. in the end of this Gospell Many other signes also did Iesus and there are also many other things which Iesus did Yet the ende of all is m Ioh. 20. 31. that wee might beleeue that Iesus is the Christ and so that life is in him now for vs as well as it was for them that liued in his time The excellent comfort of this doctrine drawes mee to it with both the hands but that my promise holdes mee backe very strongly Let me first discharge this then I will bestowe my selfe wholly vpon the handling of that more at large I vndertooke to shewe these two thinges what spirituall life is here signified of grace or of glorie or of both why the tearme life is applyed to note that holinesse and happinesse I doubt not but euerie man perceiues already that by life I vnderstand as well our liuing righteously in this world as our liuing gloriously in the world to come How else could it note such holinesse and happinesse The reason perhaps is not so apparant I will doo my best endeuour to giue you satisfaction touching that also It is verie fitte if not necessarie to giue as large an extent to all texts of Scripture as the circumstances of the present place and the ordinarie vse of the wordes will beare least wee seeme to restraine the meaning of the holy Ghost more then wee are warranted by him to doe And therefore I could haue beene contented to haue stretched the worde euen to note the preseruing of naturall life but that I can finde no such vse of it in the Scripture neither will that sense well agree with that exposition which the light in the second clause seemes necessarily to require as I hope to make it appeare anone if God will But neither any circumstance of the place tieth life to the one or to the other and the word is diuers times taken in both senses Of eternall life what shall I need to bring many examples This Gospell is full of them I will giue you a taste by one or two Yee search the Scriptures n Ioh. 5. 39. 40. sayth our Sauiour to the Iewes for in them yee thinke to haue eternall life and they are they which testifie of mee Yet yee will not come to mee that yee might haue life That which in the former verse hee nameth eternall life in the later hee calleth simply life The Ver. 24. like wee haue in the same Chapter not very many verses before Hee that beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life To what life Euen to euerlasting life which he was sayd before to haue The other life grace in this world both is implyed oftentimes in the life of glorie whereof also it is a part the Image of God in vs being renewed by it and is manie times spoken of by it selfe as I shewed at large before out of o Eph. 4. 24. diuerse places of Scripture It is needlesse to repeate them or to adde more to them What should hinder vs then frō expounding this life so largely as wee haue done Nave might wee not be thought iniurious to the holy Ghost if wee should leaue out either of them By life then wee vnderstand that spirituall estate of righteousnesse and glory of which all that beleeue in Christ are made partakers by beeing ingraffed into his mysticall bodie Would any man knowe why this estate into which wee are restored by our Sauiour should be tearmed life I aunswere him in a word because the miserable estate into which wee fell by sinne was called by the name of death It will not bee vnworthy our labour to consider this point a little When the Lord God had made our first parents and placed them in that palace of pleasure the garden of Paradise p Gen. 2. 8. Hee charged them to forbeare to eate of the Tree of the knowledge of good and euill threatning them that if they brake his commaundement that day that they ate thereof Ver. 17. they should dye the
him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him That his gratious reguard of man whom the Lord sets in the next place to himselfe may the better appeare as the first worke of Creation was for his seruice so the second of Regeneration was for his saluation This wee learne of our Euangelist q Ioh. 20. 31. who tels vs that the ende of writing the Gospell was That wee might beleeue that Iesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and that by beleeuing wee might haue life through his name See I pray you how Saint Iohn hath loyned these two endes together the former is the glorifying of Iesus Christ as the Sonne of God the later the procuring life to men by faith in him According to these two endes the Euangelist hath framed this beginning of his Gospell First r Ioh. 1. 1. 2. he describes Iesus Christ vnto vs as hee is in himselfe God euerlasting Then hee shewes what hee is to vs. A creator of vs when wee were nothing a Sauiour to vs when Ver. 3. wee were worse then nothing Of the former points we haue heard out of the three former verses now of the Ver 4. 5. later out of these two that follow Whereof wee may sitly make these two parts a description of the Messiah as the aâ—tor of Life in the fourth verse and the former part of the fift His intertainment by men in the later part of the same verse In the description oâ—r Euangelist declareth first what hee was in the nature of his mediation verse 4. then what in regard of the effect verse 5. Concerning the nature of that his office two points are to bee considered First that In him was life 2. that That life was the light of men The effect is that The light shineth in darkenesse But how was this light intertaind Or rather this light found no entertainement The darkenesse comprehended it not Now for the better vnderstanding of these points First according to my custome I wil examine the words then expound the meaning of the Text. For the wordes in the first clause for I will take euery one seuerally by it selfe we must consider both what life the Euangelist speaks of and why hee speakes in that manner saying In him was life Why hee sayth In him was life rather then He was life why was rather then Is seeing it is as true and plaine that Hee is life as that life was in him But what is this life hee speakes of Looke not that I should trouble you or my selfe with refuting or so much as reciting the diuers strange interpretatioÌ„s of Heretickes foolishly grounded vpon that manner of reading which couples the former part of this verse with the later ende of the third That which was made was life in him I shewed in my last exercise that if this had beene intended by the Euangelist hee would rather haue said All things that were made were life in him Surely the manifold and different expositions that so many heretickes haue made of these wordes so read and the absurd errors and blasphemies they haue gathered from them may well seeme a sufficient reason to discredite such a kinde of reading as hath no better warrant then the coniectures of men Howsoeuer the vulgar Latine retaine it with the mislike of many learned Papists Å¿ August in Ioa. tract 1. Ambrosde fide lib. 3. cap. 3. and in Psal 36. Theophyl ad Ioa. 1. The Manichees deuis'd two senerall and almost contrarie interpretations of them The Arians a third The Macedonians a fourth Heracleon a fist and euerie one of these an erroneous doctrine sutable to his exposition Yea t Origen lib. 3 in Ioan. the best sense that is giuen of the words so read is so curious and sub till that it rather shewes the witte and learning of the Interpreters then the meaning of the Writer And perhaps it were but lost labor for the greatest part of this auditorie to take paines and spend time in striuing to make them vnderstand it Wherefore leauing those nice points to another kinde of exercise and auditorie let vs take the wordes plainely and simply as they offer themselues to bee conceiv'd of all men Who if they haue any knowledge at all of the Scripture or of religion by reading or hearing by this word life vnderstand one of these two things Either the naturall life whereby all liuing creatures are sayd to liue or the spirituall life by which they that are regenerate by the spirite of God liue spiritually in this world by grace and in the world to come by glorie Let vs see some examples of the word in these senses out of the Scripture For the naturall life wee haue the very beginning of it in Moses u Gen. 1. 20. God saide Let the waters bring foorth in abundance euerie creeping thing that hath life And afterward Let the earth bring foorth euerie liuing thing according Ver. 24. to his kinde Of man it is particularly written that x Gen. 2. 7. The Lord God breathed in his face breath of life and the man was a liuing soule So sayth y 1. Cor. 15. 45. the Apostle alluding to that place The first man Adam was made a liuing soule This is that life which the Lord threatned hee would take away by the floud Behold * Gen. 6. 17. sayth hee I will bring a floud of waters vpon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life vnder the heauen In this sense the word is not so common in the newe Testament I thinke not once in this whole Gospell in other places some times a Luk. 8. 15. Though a man haue abundance his life standeth not in his riches b Act. 17. 25. God giueth to all life and breath in all things c 1. Cor. 15. 19. If in this life onely wee haue hope in Christ And as this signification of life is rare in the new Testament so is the other for spirituall life in the old yet now and then vnder the title of this present life the life to come is also implyed Behold d Deu. 30. 15. 19. 20. sayeth Moses I haue set before thee this day life and good death and euill Afterward life and death blessing and cursing And in the next verse The Lord thy God is thy life and the length of thy dayes In the Psalme oftner and playner e Psal 16. 11. Thou wilt shewe mee the path of life f Psal 36. 9. With thee is the well of life So in g Pro. 2. 19. the Prouerbes All they that goe vnto her returne not againe neither take they hold of the wayes of life h Pro. 6. 23. Corrections for instruction are the way of life That one booke affordes vs more examples of this kinde then all the olde Testament beside But the new is full of them euery where i Mat. 7. 14. 18. 8. The way is narrow
death Do you perceiue that the Lord himlelfe hath giuen that condition of ours the name of death The olde Testament furnish â—th vs with many examples to precue the first sinne comâ—itted by vs in Adam cast vs all into the state of death â—ut this death so often there spoken of is partly the mortalitie of the body and partly the eternall punishment of the soule in hell fire the other death of sinnei â—eldome or I thinke neuer mentioned in any of those books The new Testament supplyes vs with very great plentie of example of both kindes Of the one I will say nothing at all because euery man continually obserueâ— them Of the other I must needes speak because perhaps they are not so ordinarily markt of all men q Mat. 8. 22. Let the dead bury their dead saith our Sauiour The dead to be buried are they whose carcases are left without life by the departure of the soules froÌ„ theÌ„ as the historie that place manifestly sheweth But who bee the dead that must bee the buriers of those corpses Who else buâ— they that are dead in sinne dead to righteousnessâ— and so looke after nothing that concernes euerlasting life any more then men naturally dead doe after the things of this present life So saith r Luk. 15. 32. the kind Father of the prodigal Sonne This thy brother was dead Dead The parable had said no such thing of him What theÌ„ was that death the Father speaks of Questionles the death of sin whereby he had liued lewdly wasted his goods with verse 13. riotousnesse and as his brother angerly obiected had deuoured them with harlots This the Apostle expresseth Verse 30. when speaking of vs all in our naturall estate before grace he f Epb. 2. 5. 7. saith that we were dead in sinnes and trespasses This may yet farder be manifested by the title that is giuen to that condition into which wee enter by regeneration First t Ioh. 3. 5. our Sauiour saith we must be borne againe what needs that if we were neuer dead And u Rom. 6. 2. the Apostle S. Paul affirmeth that they which are so borne againe are dead to sinne Then till they were so borne againe they liu'd in sinne The life of the one is alwaies the dea'h of the other If thou liue to sinne thou art dead to righteousnes If thou liue to righteousnes thou art dead to sinne Therefore x 1. Pet. 2. 24. S. Peter ioynes them both together That we being dead to sinne might liue to righteousnesse S. Paul hath the like speech in vnlike tearmes When y Rom. 6. 20. saith he yee were the seruants of sinne yee were freed from righteousnesse But now being freed from sinne Verse 22. made seruants vnto God Marke I pray you how one of these as it were destroies the other A naturall man without grace is free from righteousnesse yea as free as a dead man is from all matters of this worlde A spirituall man indued with grace is free from sinne yea as free as Lazarus was from all the cares of this worlde while he lay in his graue without life or breath But I may not forget my selfe too much The summe of all is this that our Sauiour Christ himselfe and by his example our Euangelist describeth the estate into which we are brought by becomming members of his body by the tearm of life because ourformer estate out of which he deliuered vs was in name nature an estate oâ— death Now hauing examined the words let vs come to the doctrine it selfe In him was life which is all one as if the holy Euangelist should haue said This word or promised Messiah of whom I haue begun to intreat and intend to write this story not only was eternall hauing his being before any thing created ever began to be that with God euen then when there was nothing beside God but was also himselfe very God From him al things that are or euer were had their whole being in him the spirituall life both of grace and glory was so plaÌ„ted that who soeuer desires to be partaker of it must haue it only as in him being come into the world This is that which we are to learne out of this place In the handling whereof I will first deliuer the doctrine that our spirituall life is by Christ then I will speake of the manner how it is by him Concerning the former point first I wil propouÌ„d it in general then I wil shew it in those particulars of holynes happynes The manner also hath 2. things to bee considered That this life was in Christ that it was in him eueÌ„ while he liued here vpoÌ„ the earth Touching the first point that our estate is to be recouered by our Sauiour Christ let me put you in mind of those places which I once before alleag'd which are indeed the very foundation of the Gospell By sinne the diuell got dominion ouer vs God in iustice leauing vs when we had forsaken him Satan iniustly seizing on vs as it were intruding himselfe into a house void of any owner to keepe possession But the Lord God though he would not presently thrust out by the head shoulders or pluck out by the eares that presumptuous intruder yet tels him that he should not imagin he had gotten or should hold quiet possession for euer I will put enmity * Gen. 3. 15. saith the Lord betwixt thee the woman between thy seed her seed What shall be the euent of this long doubtfull contention He shal breake thy head thou shalt bruise his beele Though Satan be strong armed by that meanes may seeme to keepe his palace without disturbance yet there comes a Luk. 11. 11. 22 a stronger then he that ouercomes him takes from him al his armoâ— wherin he trusted diuides his spoils This shews manifestly that the deuill shall lose his possession but perhaps he may reenter or if he do not yet are wee by this meanes rather freed from misery then restored to felicity Let vs go forward therfore and heare the promise that God makes to Abraham the Father of the faithfull b Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed c Gal 3. 16. S. Paul thus expounds To Abraham and his seedwere the promises made He saith not to the seeds as of many but to thy seed as of one which is Christ And this promise thus made the same Apostle cals the preaching of the Verse 8. Gospell The Scripture saith he foreseeing that God would iustifie the Gentiles by faith preached before the Gospell vnto Abraham saying In thee shall al the Gentils be blessed This belssing our Euangelist describes where setting downe the end of the Gospel he tels vs that d Ioh. 20. 31. by beleeuing we shal haue life through his name What shall I need to
heape vp any more testimonies in a matter nothing doubted of we haue found that we sought that life is to bee had in Iesus Christ See I pray you consider a little with me how many greate reasons we haue to bee inflamed with the loue of Iesus Christ If we regard excellency of nature in which respect e Velleius Epi cur apud Cicer. de nat deor l. 1. the graund Atheists of the worlde thought the heatheÌ„ imagined Gods worthy of honor seruice behold he is God If length of yeers he is eternall without beginning or ending But these things rather cause admiratioÌ„ then moue affection which is then most effectually stirred vp when the sense of some benefit receiu'd hath taken ful possession of our hearts If there be any man with whom these respects canot preuaile what is he but meerely senslesse neither knowing what he hath nor feeling what hee wantes What said I Not knowing what hee hath There needes not so much If no man can bee ignorant that hee is all men must need vnderstand that they are beholding to him by whome they are Looke not vpon the goodly feature of thy body think not on the excellency of thy soule vnderstand not that thou hast vnderstaÌ„ding forget that thou canst remember only deny not that thou art because thou prou'st it by denying it and thou hasâ— cause enough to loue the author of thy being Doth this benefit of thy naturall being somewhat affect thee Oh how wouldst thou bee rauisht if thou couldst see the blessednes of thy supernaturall estate I will not goe about to shew thee the misery in which thou art now by the corruption of thy nature I will not so much as say thou art miserable I reserue those points for some other opportunity the next verse will giue mee occasion to speake somewhat of them Only giue meeleaue to proclayme life in Iesus Christ Doost thou heare what I say I wil repeate it againe and that as loud as I can that all may heare it The Word the promised Messiah Iesus Christ the Sonne of God hath life in him for all that will be partakers of it Dost thou sit still at the hearing of this proclamation No maruaile How should a dead man stit Wouldest thou haue a better proofe that thou art dead indeed Well if there be no remedy but that thou wilt continue stil in death I wil leaue thee in it turne to them whom I see running vp and downe to seeke out this life Why do you vexe weary your selues with seeking that which is vnder your noses f Rom 10. 6. The righteousnesse of Verse 7 this faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heauen That is to bring Christ from aboue Or Verse 8. who shaldescend into deepe That is to bring Christ againe from the dead But what saith it The word is neere thee euen in thy mouth and in thy heart g Gen. 21. 15. 16. When Agar being turned out of Abrahams house with her Sonne Ismaell had spent the bottle of water that she brought from home heleft her Sonne vnder a tree and went a bowe shoote off that she might not see him dy And yet as it appeared afterward she might hard by a well of water though shee knewe it not God opened her eies saith the text and she Verse 19. saw a well of water This is the case of those men to whoÌ„ I now speake Are yee turned out of doores from God your heauenly Father Doe you finde your selues out of all hope to recouer his fauour Are you dead and would you liue but that you can see no meanes of life Be of good comfort and cheere vp your selues The water of life is neerer then you are aware of You are in it and knowe it not It comes vp to your very lips Doe but open your mouths and it will run in Agar sate her downe and did not so much as looke about her to see if Verse 16. she could light vpoÌ„ any spring or pit of water to maintaine life in her Sonne and the Lord himselfe cald vnto her and fhew'd her where she might fill many bottels And will he suffer thee thinkst thou to wander from place to place to seeke life Behold it is in his Son Thou shalt not need to climbe vp to heauen h lib. 3. 13 Iesus Christ of his owne accord without thy desire or thought of any such matter came downe from thence brought life with him Sound not the depths to fetch it out from below i Luk. 24. 6. Euen from thence also the same Iesus Christ came vp with life Art thou dead There is life in him If thou wert not dead neither couldst thou receiue nor he bestow life vpon thee k Mat 9. 12. Can a whole man be cured or l Ioh. 8. 33. 34. a free man set at liberty Was m Ioh. 11. 6. 39. not Lazarus dead before he could be raised againe to life Therfore did our Sauiour stay in the place where he was 2. dayes after he had word of his sicknes that he might be dead and buried ere he should come to restore him to life againe Tell me not how long thou hast bin dead The strength of death growes not by continuance as sicknesse doth He that hath bin dead but one hower is as void of life as he that died a yeere ago When our Sauiour came to raise Lazarus he had bin dead 4 daies Lord said Martha he stinks by this time There wanted life and when that came neither continuance of time nor noysmnes of â—aâ—or nor the bands at his hands and feete were able to make any resistance for the detayning of the prisoner If the force of life be so greate that no contrary power is of strength to make head against it may it not well seem exceeding strange that so few recouer life or once looke after it n Ioh. 5. 39. 40. Our Sauiour complaines of the Iewes that although they search the Scripturs with an opinioÌ„ that euerlasting life was to be had out of them those Scriptures testified of him that he was the autor of that â—ife yet they would not come to him that they might haue life There is no reason that we should expect better intertainement then he found Hee that will not beleeue that the light shines when it is plaine to be seene wil hardly giue credit to him that tels him afterward it did shine Yet me thinks I cannot chuse but wonder that this life which is in our Sauiour should so generally be neglected I am loth to say despised or refused bâ—â— I must of necessity coÌ„â—ess it is not embraced as it shâ—uâ—d be Would you know what the reason of it is what â—â—e we vnwilling to haue life That is not possible seing our chiefest care is to maintaine life Doe wee despaire of means to come by it The least shew of
the effect but also the manner of our comming by it is signified Will you haue a plaine example of it q 1 Cor. 15. x1 Since by man came death by man also came the resurrection of the dead We haue here the effect of Adams transgression and of Christs resurrection The next verse shewes the maner of both more Ver. 22. euidently For as in Adam saith the Apostle all men die euen so in Christ shall all bee made aliue How die all men in Adam but r Rom 5. 12. as beeing one with Adam in whose loines they were when he sinned Å¿ Heb. 7 9. 10. as Leui was in his father Abrahams when he paide tithes to Melchisedech So are all raised againe in Christ Not simply all but all his t 1 Cor. 15. 23. The first fruits is Christs then they that are Christs at his comming Wouldest thou then bee made partaker of this life of which thou hast heard so many admirable and glorious things This life is in Christ How wilt thou do to fetch it out of him Deceiue not thy selfe it is not so to he had Hee that will enioy the life which is in Christ must not thinke to come to him and take a snatch and carry it away with him He keepes it close shut vp within himselfe Not refusing to impart it to other but desiring to ioine other to him that they may bee sure to holde fast for euer that hee giues them If hee should commit it to thy custodie and let thee depart from him with it what wouldest thou doe or what meanes couldest thou vse to keepe it safe Satan is craftie and mighty It is a great venture but either hee would cosin thee of it by deceipt or robbe thee of it by force What say I a venture It is out of question thou wouldest neuer be able to keepe it from him If thou haue any experience of his vndermining and assaulting thee thou knowest how hardly and with what adoe it is now held when yet thou art knit by faith to him in whom the very fountaine of it is Doost thou not feele how strongly he pulls to rent thee from him that sometimes thou canst scarce tell whether hee haue seuered thee from him or no If thy experience bee small in thy selfe didst thou neuer see a poore soule stand quaking and trembling looking ruefully about on euery side shrieking and crying out for feare least hee should bee separated from Iesus Christ At the least perswade thy selfe it is not for nothing that our Sauiour himselfe when hee labours to assure his sheepe that they shall neuer bee wrung out of his hands puts them in mind of his fathers Almigh â—ie power u Ioh. 10. 27. ver 28 My sheepe heare my voice and I know them ind they follow mee And I giue them eternall life and they shall neuer perish neither shall any plucke them out of my hand Is not here assurance enough They know his voice that they may not bee deceiued by harkning to a stranger They follow him hauing him stil in sight least they should mistake some other for him Hee giues them eternall life How shall they die that haue life euerlasting He secures them in saying they shall neuer perish They haue life and shall hold it fast to the end Is there yet more None shall take them out of his hand This confirmes all the rest What though the deuill be haling and drawing of them continually Hee shall not preuaile How shall wee bee assured of that For then wee are safe indeede Heare what followes My father which gaue them mee is greater then all and none is able to take ver 29. them out of my fathers hand What needed all this if it bee so easie a matter to keepe life when once thou hast it Thou makest account to take life of our Sauiour and when thou hast it to be gone with all speed Alas poore man thou wilt keepe it but a little while lwis if thou haue no better help then thine owne But if thou cleaue fast to Iesus Christ and stirre not an inch or an hayres bredth from his side thou maist perhaps heare the diuell roaring at thy backe or see him running vp and downe prying and seeking some aduantage to seize vpon thee it may bee hee will offer to snatch at thee and lay holde vpon thee cling to rhy Sauiour as the childe dooth to the mother when hee is in feare and then doubt not but he that is greater then all will keepe thee out of Satans iawes maugre all his power and malice Beare with mee I pray you if I seeme to be ouer-large in this point I feele such an increase of comfort and assurance in the meditation of this matter that I can not leaue it till I haue lookt a little neerer into the particulars thereof especially those that concerne the temporall death of the body and the eternall both of it and the soule Now the life whereby wee are deliuered from the one and the other death as it hath oft bin said is in Christ For the better and fuller conceiuing whereof wee must remember that faith whereby we are ioined vnto Christ that wee may partake of that life which is in him maketh vs al one with him There are a similirudes by which the Scripture expresseth this spirituall coniunction the one is that bond which is betwixt man and wife by which they that were two become one flesh This is most excellently set out by x Eph. 5. 23. the Apostle S. Paul where he shewes that Christ is the head of the Church as the husband thereof that the Lord nourisheth cherisheth it as his owne flesh And no maruaile though he do so For as it followes we are members of his body of his flesh of his bones Yea so members of them that wee are one flesh with him by reason of this bond of marriage that so chaynes links vs together No man can be so fond as to vnderstand this of our humane nature as if therefore wee were said to bee one flesh because hee wee are of the same nature For neither are all men one flesh though they be all of the same nature if the Apostle had intended to speake of that point he would not haue said that wee are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh but rather that he was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh For it is well knowne to al men that in regard of the nature of man they that are the Church I meane a great part of them eueÌ„ al that died before our Sauiour and were partakers of the life we speake of had it before he was made man but for their sake some others hee had not taken that nature vpon him But the mysticall coniunction whereof x Eph. 5. 23. 29 the Apostle professeth to speak in that place hath the beginning and ground in Christ not in
can doubt but life was always in him who only liues of himself giues life both tēporal spiritual to al euē to euery one that hath it But because this maner of giuing life is an effect of Godhead so common to him with the Father and the holy Ghost and not a matter belonging properly to his person nor any worke of his mediatorship I will leaue it as not intended in this place and come to a second consideration of life being in him from all eternity as in the mediator betwixt God and man In what respect then may it be truly and fitly said that life was in him from all eternity In respect of the eternall decree of God whereby he determined to restore to life those whome hee chose therevnto by the mediation of his Sonne the word of whom we speake Of this f Rom. 8. 29. 30 the Apostle speaks Those whom he knewe before he did also predestinate to bee made like to the image of his Sonne that he might bee the first borne among many children Vpon this predestination as the Apostle adds followeth calling iustifying and at the last glorifying which is the highest degree of the life that is in Christ But in g Eph. 1. 3. 4. an other place hee speakes more plainely Blessed be God euen the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which hath blessed vs with all spirituall blessings in heauenly things in Christ As he hath chosen vs in him be-before the foundation of the world Therefore doth the Apostle Peter ascribe the appointing of the meanes and the execution of it according to the appointment to the foreknowledge of God h Act. 2. 23. Him haue ye taken by the hands of the wicked being deliuered by the determinate counsaile and fore knowledge of God The same is acknowledged by the ioynt confession of the Apostles where they say that Herod Pontius Pilat the Gentiles and the people of Israell gathered them selues together against the holy Sonne of 4. 27. 28. God Iesus whom God had annointed to doe what soeuer the hande and counsaile of the Lorde had determined afore to bee donne VVorthily then doth Saint Iohn avouch that life was in him yea before any time was life was in him i Gal. 4. 4. VVhen the fulnesse of time was come God sent his Sonne Life did not then begin to be in him but to shew it selfe to be in him k Rom 3 25. God set him forth by his incarnation to be apropitiation Life was in him before in regard of Gods eternall counsaile but not discouered nor manifested to the world no nor those works of his which were to bring life performed Yet euen thē was life in him If it seeme to any man somewhat ouermuch to go so far for the Euangelists meaning let him shorten his iorney containe him selfe within the compasse of the world created Shal we not find sufficient reason of this speech In him was life though wee goe not out of the world yes out of doubt very sufficient For seeing many worthy Patriarchs and holy Prophets many true Israelits Sonns of Abraham by faith as well as by nature departed out of this worlde before our Sauiour came into it to performe the foreappointed worke of redemption either these must haue died without life so alwaies continue dead or there was life in him before he was incarnat l Luk. 10. 24. Many Prophets and Kings desired to see and heare him at the Apostles while hee liued heere saw and heard Surely then they were not ignorant of him and that life was in him But did they not see him By one iudge of the rest Your Father Abraham m Ioh. 8. 56. saith Christ reioyced to see my day and hee saw it and was glad And yet what name I one seeing wee haue a cloud of witnesses that compasseth vs round about n Heb. 11. 1. 2. 3. c. sounding out the same assurance of fayth that we now haue and looking for the same promises to bee fulfilled which wee beleeue and knowe to haue beene performed to the vttermost Was not our God o Mat 22. 32. the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Was not our Sauiour their Sauiour p Rom. 4. 11. Gal. 3. 16. Dooth not our interest wee haue in Christ depend vpon our being the children of Abraham q Heb. 13. 8. VVas not Iesus Christ yester-day is hee not to day shall hee not bee the same for euer Then may wee safely and truely conclude that there was life in him before he was in the nature of man But howsoeuer it be true certaine that life was in him both from all eternity in regard of the counsaile of God which is as ancient as himselfe in effect in respect of them that from time to time were partakers of it euen from Adam to Iohn Baptist yet it was then most properly in him when hauing taken our nature vpon him he ouercame death and him that had power ouer it the Deuill This was that which those Kings Prophets desired and longed to see This was that which good olde Simeon so reioyced at that he was ready to depart out of this life with full satisfaction and contentednesse when he had seene the promised Messiah in the nature of man Lord r Luk. 2. 29. 39 saith he now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eies haue seen thy saluation The holy man had a long time beleeu'd by faith that saluation was to come and in hope with patience waited for the comming of it but he neuer saw it til that time Indeed how should he For it was neuer to be seene till then How could it be For it neuer was fully perfitly till then It was not enough for the Son of God that he had infinite power as God to giue life to whom he would to repair the ruins of his image in man by clensing him frō sin cloathing him with righteousnes by raising him frō death as he first breath ed the soule of life into him by vouchsafing him a place in heauen which was at his command that had made it Al this I say would not serue the turne that the Euangelist might say as he doth In him was life For the Lorde God Father Son Holy ghost had appointed another course of giuing life another meanes of saluatiō not to be perform'd by the Son of God sitting in heauē but to be wrought here vpō earth in the same nature that had sind was dead He that made mā holy righteous at his creatiō could by the same powr haue restord to him his original righteousnes in a momēt But it pleas'd him to doe it after an other maner wherof more hereafter in due place To say al at once seing by man cam death God would haue life to come by mā no otherwise Let it be graunted may some man say that
there was no possibility of life but by the death of the Sonne of God and that the Sonne of God could not dye vnlesse he became man yet might the Evangelist haue wel said In him is life For since it is confest that hee tooke the nature of man and continues still in heauen in that nature surely life was no more in him while hee was heere then it is in him now he is gone from hence Why then saith S. Iohn In him was life I answere in one word though life be still in him yet it is in respect of that which he performed when he was here on the earth Here he tooke and sanctified our nature here hee bare the chastisement of our peace here he offred vp that invaluable sacrifice for the purging of our sinnes Here hee triumphed on the Crosse ouer all principalities and powers Heere hee rose out of the graue from death to life Only one thing which here possibly could not be don he hath done being gon from hence that is he hath taken possessioÌ„ of our inheritance in heauen waites there to receiue vs into his owne glory The Euangelist therefore writing the history of his life death while he was here in the world speaks of him as of one that was is not But of this enough before I should now proceed to the later part of this fourth verse And that life was the light of men But I find my self so much ouertaken by the time that it is in vain to meddle with it I will I therefore content my selfe with some word of exhortation whereby wee maie bee stirred vp to the embracing of that life which was in Christ To which purpose what shal I need to say much The mat ter dooth so highly commende it selfe that it refuseth to be entreated for Looke not therefore that I shoulde desire you to bee willing to liue Nay bee vnwilling if you can Doe but propound the matter to your own hearts and you will not choose but like of it And yet mee thinkes I see no man make any great haste Shall I wonder or complayne It is strange that life life euerlasting should bee so little set by It is lamentable that death eternall death should so little bee feared If it were any long Iorney or daungerous way if hard to come by or soone lost againe there might bee perhaps some colour of excuse for this backewardnesse But when the thing it selfe is neere at hand the way to it safe the meanes of attaining to it easie and the possession of it sure who can excuse himselfe to himselfe I say not to God if hee fayle of so glorious a treasure Do wee not beleeue the Euangelist that there is life in him Doe wee flatter our selues with a conceite that there is life in vs Why come wee to heare that which when wee haue heard wee will not credite why make wee a shew as if wee stood in need of life from Christ when wee thinke our selues sped of it already Perhaps it seemes the lesse worth because it is offered Who euer thought that the kindnesse of the giuer should abate the valew of the gift Condemne thy selfe for not seeking to him not him for seeking to thee That hee reueales to thee hee conceales from many That which thou vnthankefully refusest many thousandes would most thankefully receiue O the frowardnesse of the hearts of men O the blindnesse of their minds If this life were in God they would tremble to come neere him for it because of his dreadfull maiestie Now it is in a man least happely they should be too much afrayd they disdaine to take it of him by reason of his meanenesse Å¿ Mat. 11. 19. But wisedome is iustified of her children He is both God and man that thou maist neither feare nor despise him If thou wilt not liue to shew his mercie thou shalt die to set foorth his Iustice For to him belongeth all glorie both of mercy and Iustice for euer and euer Amen THE FIFT SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 4. And that life was the light of men And the light shineth in darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not THey that take vpon them to write the liues of famous men such as the world admires either for their goodnesse or greatnesse ordinarily deliuer some generall description of them in the beginning of their histories These descriptions vsually containe either a rehersal of their pedegree and descent together with the place time and other matters concerning their birth and such like or a commendation of them for some especiall vertues Wee haue examples of both these kindes in the Scripture t 1. â—â—â— 1. 1. 2 He that was the holy Ghosts Secretarie in penning the historie of Samuell begins his booke with a recitall of his genealogy a description of his parents and diuers other points touching his conception birth and education u Iob. 1. 1. 2. Another whome it pleased the same spirit of God to imploy in writing the life of Iob makes the entrance into his historie by commending him for an vpright and iust man one that feared God and eschewed euill Our Euangelist intending to set forth the life and death of our Sauiour Iesus Christ as the partie he writes of was extraordinarie so doth he extraordinarily ioyne both together And because two other Euangelists x Mâ—â— 1. 1. 2. 3. c. Saint Mathew y Luk. 3. 50. 31 c. Saint Luke had already set out his humane pedegree both for succession in the kingdom fornaturall descent Saint Iohn leauing them vntoucht betakes himself to the declaring of his diuine estate First what he was in himself eternall with God the Father himselfe very God Secondly what he was to vs a Creator in making all things for vs a Sauiour in giuing life euen spirituall life life of grace pardoÌ„ life of immortality glory So that whether we respect his greatnes or his goodnes neuer was any maÌ„ so worthy the writing of neuer any maÌ„ so worthy the knowing following His greatnesse was magnified in the power of creation his goodnesse shewes it selfe especially in the work of regeneration Wherein first the Euangelist declares what he is and doth then how he is intertaind In him was life and that life was the light of men What doth hee According to the nature of light Hee shines in darkenes But the darkenesse will not bee inlightned Of the first of these points concerning life in him I spake in my last Sermon now let vs proceede to that which followes touching light And therein keeping our former course of handling the Clauses seuerally as they lye wee must first labour to vnderstand the words then seeke out the Euangelists meaning The wordes direct vs to inquire what life it is that is heere spoken of to consider what is saide of it that it is light and the light of men For the first worde a little
of the sonnes of the Diuell his owne children and giuing vs a sound and certaine title thereby to the inheritance of his glory in heauen And shall I neede to vse many words in amplifying so rare a kindnes in setting out so inestimable a benefitte Small fauours require inlarging infinite blessings will not admitte it They by amplification may bee made greater then they are these the more you speake of them the lesse you make them For what is it but a diminishing of that which is infinite to atteÌ„pt in any kind of manner I say not to inlarge but euen to expresse it He that striues to speake much and almost makes no ende of commending that which is excellent seemes to haue perswaded himselfe and to desire that other men should beleeue that hee hath spoken all that can be said in the matter As for me I professe the contrary assuring my selfe and you that when I haue said all that possibly I can deuise I shall be as farre from the infinitnesse of the benefit as when I first began to speake of it Yet may it somewhat helpe our conceyt of the matter though it cannot come neere the excellency of the thing And with this perswasion let vs a little consider the prerogatiue of this Son-ship There is a great opinion and not without good cause of the estate of our first paâ—â—nts Adam and Eue while they were in Paradise before their fall They had the image of God wherein they were created shineing Gen. 1. 26. in them so gloriously that all the fishes in the sea the foules in the aire the beasts in the earth and euery thing that moueth and creepeth on the earth were subiect and obedient to them What adoe haue wee in our estate as now it standeth to make not Beares or Lions but those of whome we haue necessary and continuall vse horses and other cattle to performe any kind of seruice to vs The whip the goad the wand the spur the yoke the bit all the meanes of terror and extreamity that wee can possibly deuise cannot preuaile so much against these tame creatures as autority and maiestie did in them with those beasts that are now most fierce and cruell The Prophet Dauid though he were a King of great command ouer Gods owne free people yet when he considered those little poore seruices which the creatures in our present estate such as it is ordinarily doe vs and the gouernement wee haue ouer them breaks out into an exclamation of wonder What is man saith he to the Lord that thou art mindfull of him and Ps 8. 4. the Sonne of man that thou visitest him How would hee haue esteemed Adams rule ouer the creatures that values our gouernement of them so highly What should I speake of their familiarity with God who vouchsaf't himselfe to talke with them to informe and direct them It is recorded as a singular fauour and honour done to Moses that the Lord spake vnto him face to face as a Exod 33. 11. man speaketh to his friend How were our first Parents fauoured honoured that were to haue ordinary conference with him from time to time But to come to the point for which al this is alledg'd what was their estate for all these honors fauors but the condition of seruants They were threatned with death death both of body and soule if they transgrest the bounds that were set them Of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt not eate of it for in the day thou Gen. 2. 17. eatest thereof thou shall dy the death Put case they had coÌ„tinued in obedience to God their Creator according to their allegeance duty What could they haue lookt for but either a confirmation of that estate which they then inioyed or at the most the reward of their seruice the wages for their worke They could neuer haue attained to this dignity To be the Sons of God And is it not a prerogatiue trowe you to be brought by Christ into a more excellent estate then that which Adam in his innocency and glory had iust cause to wonder at Blessed may we say was the day and houre Oh the goodnesse power of God that brings light out of darknes that euer Adam harkened to the voice of his wife perswading him to eate of the forbiddeÌ„ fruit Not that either the sin was small to transgress the commandement of God or that it was the purpose of Adam in sinning to be occasion of so great a blessing But for that the Lord of his meere affection loue according to his owne former counsaile predestination turned misery to happines death to life We were seruants to a bountiful and gratious Lord we are made Sons to a most kind louing Father Our seruice if it had beene neuer so good could haue procured no more but wages Our Son-ship conveies vnto vs assurance of a goodly inheritance There is no seruant though hee bee put in neuer so great trust haue neuer so much autority bee neuer so highly in the Princes fauour like Daniell in the prouince Dan. 2. 48. of Babell or Ioseph in the Kingdome of Aegypt but is many degrees inferiour to the Kings Sonne Gen. 41. 40. Moses was a most faithfull seruant in the house of the Lorde and disposed of all things after the direction and to the especiall liking of his master Such as his seruice was such was his honor He had the gouernmeÌ„t of the people of God committed to him no man might refuse Heb. 3. 5. to yeeld obedience or demaunde a reason of that which hee commaunded VVas hee therefore comparable to Christ who ruled as the Sonne ouer his owne Verse 6. house VVhat was Abrahams eldest seruant to his youngest Sonne VVhat was Ioab to Salomon Dauid was a man of no meane imployment vnder Saul of no small desert toward him and his whole estate yet when he was earnestly perswaded by his fellow seruants to enter into the Kings alliance by marriage what answere made hee Seemeth it to you a light thing saith Dauid to bee a Kings Sonne in lawe Did it seeme so 1. Sam. 18. 23. great a matter to so worthie a seruant to become Son in law to a King and can wee thinke it a little honour to bee made the Sonnes of God Saul though hee were a King was but a man Dauid though hee were a seruant in condition was a King in true vertue Wee are men nay wretches wormes nothing Hee that will adopt vs is God most mightie most glorious euen Iehouah himselfe Dauid though hee should become Sonne in lawe to the King could haue no title to the Kingdome by that aduancement Our Son-ship makes heauen Gauel kind giues euery one of vs a ful intrest to the inheritaÌ„ce If yee bee Sonnes yee are heyres Moses could not looke for any Rom. 8. 17. such preferment though Pharaohs daughter tooke him for her Son And yet it is
I was before hee was or before him And I am before him but I am before hee was passeth my vnderstanding Yet by this our Sauiour would teach vs that in respect of his nature he is alwayes one and the same not like vs first Infants then Children afterwardes youthes in the strength of our age and life men in the decay of it old men and at last no men Thy yeeres ô my God f Psal 102. 24 saith the Prophet are from generation to generation Thou hast afore time laide the foundation of the Earth and the Heauens are the workes of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt indure euen they all shall waxe olde as dooth a garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall bee changed But thou art the same and thy yeeres shall not fayle That this is spoken of our Sauiour Christ g Heb. 1. 10 the Apostle sheweth by proouing his God-head from that place To speake truely and properly we can not say of God either that Hee was or that hee is to come but onely that He is Therfore when Moses would needes knowe his name God answered h Exod. 3. 14 So rather then by the future I AM that I AM. Also hee sayd Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israell I AM hath sent mee to you It is hee onely that is as well because hee is of himselfe without dependance vpon anie other as also for that hee is absolutely without any change in himselfe whatsoeuer As for vs wee so are that in a manner wee are not because we neuer continue any time in the same estate without some alteration If we could as plainly see and as certainely iudge of the inward parts of a man as wee can of his outward countenance we should soone perceiue that hee is continually waxing or waning so that hardly can we thinke of any man that He is but while wee are thinking hee is not in the ende of our thought as short a moment as it is altogether the same that he was in the beginning thereof But our most glorious Sauiour IESVS CHRIST being eternall without beginning without middle without end is alwaies most perfectâ—y the same was is and is to come are in him without all kind of difference though to our weake capacitie it hath pleased him to vouchsafe so to speake of himselfe for our better instruction Come now thou that desirest to be for euer ioyne thy selfe to him of whose daies there shall neuer be end They that by faith become one with the Lord Iesus shall be sure to bee one with him in continuance look not back what thou hast not been heretofore but look forward what thou shalt be hereafter Father i Ioh. 17. 24 saith the sameour Sauiour I will that they which thou hast giuen me be with me euen where I am But where was he when he spake this In his humane nature vpon earth And there the Disciples at that time were as well as he But by his God-head he was euen then also in heauen where hee will haue all to be with him who beleeue in him k Ioh. 3. 16 that they may not perish but haue life euerlasting This testimony of the Euangelist concerning our Sauiours eternity was sufficient to stop the mouthes of those first Heretickes and to settle the faithfull in the true beliefe therof But Satan not discouraged by this fayle l Anno. 290 som 200. years after stirred vp the turbulent pestilent spirit of Arius a man of Alexandria in Egypt to call the Godhead of our Sauiour again in question It is Father The Word that became flesh shewed himselfe by his glory to be the Sonne of God Is it not the VVord of whom it followeth The onely begotten Sonne Verse 18. which is in the bosome of the Father hath manifested God Verse 3. vnto vs By the VVord all things were made By the Sonne u Heb. 1. 1. 3 sayth the Apostle He made the world And againe x Col. 1. 16 By him were al things created which are in heauen which are in earth What neede more words Our Euangelist sheweth through the whole Gospel that he speaketh of no other word then the Sonne of God These things are written y Ioh. 20. 31 sayth hee that ye might beleeue that IESVS is the CHRIST the Sonne of God Leaue we therfore these shifting blasphemies let vs labour to settle our harts in the assured belief of our Sauiour Christs diuine eternity To which purpose it shal be sufficient for vs to remeÌ„ber that which we heard ere while out of the * Psal 102. 27 Psalme Thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile that testimony of Christ himself a Reuelat. 1. 8 I am A Ω the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come euen the Almighty What can the sottish heatheÌ„ the stubborn Iews or the brutish Turks now say Come ye that deride and persecute the true religion of the Lord Iesus you great wisards that despise all men as barbarous in comparison of your selues Are not you they that worship stocks and stones instead of the true God Are not the Parents of your greatest and auntientest gods easily to be knowen named I am ashamed to speak it but your folly wil not suffer it self to be hidden b Tertullian in Apolog. cap. 25 Were not the sepulchers graues of your soueraign god Iupiter the rest to be seene for many years by all men when you sottishly honoured them for gods in heauen whose carcases lay rotting amongst you in the earth But our God is eternall without beginning without middle without ending He became man in time he was God before all time he died was buried But he ouercame death rose again ascended in his body visibly vp to heauen Look not my brethren that I should discourse at large of these matters I haue bin too long already and I shall haue fitter opportunitie hereafter if God wil. Let the Iewes with all their malice the Romans with all their power deuise what vntruths practise whatsoeuer cruelty they are able our God sitteth in heauen and laugheth them to scorne causing his religion to continue in despight of both and thereby assuring vs of his owne eternall being for euer and euer As for the Mahometan though hee be incredibly shamelesse in lyes blasphemies yet hee is driuen to confesse that often in his sensless Alcoran that Iesus our God was holy vertuous wonderful in miracles a great Prophet of the Lord. Would the wretch Mahomet haue yielded so much to our Sauiour if euidence of truth coÌ„tinued so powerfully had not wruÌ„g it out of him But how could he be holy or not most prophane if hee made himselfe the Sonne of God and were not we should be as voide of sense as his absurde Alcoran if wee should
was in Christ indeede because no man euer had it that was not in him many haue had haue it in abundance by depending wholy vpoÌ„ him The principal point is yet behind coÌ„cerning the life of glory Which though it properly belong to the world to come yet there is one chiefe thing apperteining therunto which is to be had in this world as an entrance to the other The death that insued vpon the breach of that charge * Gen. 2. 17. Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good euill was the estate of mortalitie to the body and of condemnation both to body and soule Therefore the life that was in Christ must needs affoord vs remedy against both these Let vs take them in their order And first that by death the separation of the soule and body was signified it may euidently appeare as by the words themselues in their proper sense so also by the sentence of the Lord pronounced after the sinne according to the penalty before threatned In a Gen 3. 19. the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread till thou returne to the earth for out of it wast thou taken because thou art dust and to dust thou shalt returne Adam indeede liued many hundred yeeres after this sentence but at last the execution of it came b Gen. 5. 5. All the daies that Adam liued were 930. yeeres and he died But this is so well knowne and generally confest that it needs no furder proofe Let vs shew that there is life in Christ to destroy this death Ne ther neede wee goe farre to seeke for that matter Remember c Gâ—n 3. 15. what was threatned the diuell that the seed of the woman should bruse his head d Heb. 2. 14. If the diuell bee subdued who hath the power of death as the Apostle tells vs what shall become of death that is vnder his power The Lord himselfe tells thee by e Heb. 2. 14. his Prophet e Ose 13. 14. where he triumpheth ouer death trampling him vnder his feete O death I will be thy death Oh graue I will bee thy destruction But this was rather a discouragement of death then a destruction Heare f 1 Cor. 15. 54. the Apostle proclaiming the victory after the fight was ended Death is swalowed Verse 55. vp in victory He proceeds to insult ouer him O death where is thy sting O graue where is thy victory The Verse 56. 27. sting of death is sin and the strength of sinne is the law But thanks be vnto God who hath giue vs victory through I. Chr. Verse 21. 22. our Lord. GiueÌ„ vs victory How doth that appear For since by man came death by man also came the resurrection of the dead For as in AdaÌ„al meÌ„dy so in Christ shal albe made aliue 2. Tim 1. 10. through Christ I say gwho hath abolished death hath brought life immortalitie to light through the Gospell I wish it were so may some men say that death were indeede destoried that we need no longer stand in feare of him But what credit may be giuen to that which is refuted by sense in daily and hoverly experience Did not Aâ—aÌ„ die Are not Abraham Isaak Iacob al the prophets and Patriarchs dead Is not there proofe enough in the scripture that euery man must die h Psal 89. 48. What man liueth and shall not see death The Apostle seconds the Prophet i Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to men that they shal once die What say you to that great conquerour of death himselfe The two tneeues that were executed with him withstood death longer theÌ„ he did The Souldiers came k Ioh. 19. 32. Ver 33. saith the Euangelist and brake the legges of the first and of the other which was crucified with Iesus But when they came to Iesus and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legges See I pray you the champion that should ouercome death is sooner subdued by death then either of these two ordinarie fellowes It was no wonder though the Iewes vpbraided him when he hung vpon the Crosse He saued others quoth they but he cannot saue himselfe Is it possible l Mat. 27. 42. to beleeue that there was life in him whose death his best friends coÌ„fesse Doth this seeme vnpossible to thee What wilt thou say then if I tell thee of a greater matter Hee ouercame death by dying The same stroke that tooke life from him through him m Heb. 2. 14. slew death himselfe him that had power over death euen the diuell Would you know more particularly how that could bee I may not enter into any large discourse of the point In one word it was thus The sting of death as the Apostle taught vs is sinne By which the diuell preuailed to the destruction of them that had sinned This sting was not onely blunted and rebated but pluckt out and cast away by our Sauiour For his death being a sacrifice for sin tooke sinne quite away n Iob. 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world So that now the name of death is more terrible then the thing there is more feare then hurt in it Tell me what it could indanger or indamage thee to haue a snake creepe vpon thee yea if it were into thy bosom so the sting teeth and whatsoeuer els it hath power to hurt withall were first pulled out It might perhaps scarre thee or make thee start as a litle cold water will doe if it be cast vpon a sodaine in thy face but that is all the harme thou couldest haue by it Death then is thus disarmd by our Sauiour Christ but the destructioÌ„ of him is by his resurrection If thou wouldest see death dead indeed look into the graue where Iesus thy sauiour was laid There shewd death the vttermost of his power He thought himselfe sure enough of the victory when he had shut him vp without life in the sepulchre rolled a great stone to the mouth of it and saw a guard of souldiers set to watch him well there hee keeps him in that estate the same day he was crucified all the next and the beginning of the third What ensued Surely if hee had bin put in aliue hee would haue bin dead by that time There is no question then but that wee shall finde him dead in the graue So though his disciples Who the next day after the Iewes Sabboath o Luke 24. 1. Early in the morning came vnto the Sepulchre and brought the odors which they had prepared to embalme his body withall They made no doubt but they should finde him p Mark 16. 1. Mark 15. 47. where they had seene him laid For dead men are no starters Onely their feare was that they should not be able to roule away the stone from the doore of the Sepulchre
But that feare lasted not long q Luke 24. 2. 3 When they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away And they went in but found not the body of the Lord IESVS What should they now thinke Or how should they come to learne what was become of him Sure they were that there hee was laid and being dead had no power to conuay himselfe away from thence The likeliest was that some body had taken him vp and caried him away to some other place Sir r Ioh. 20. 15. saith Mary Magdalen to one who shee thought had bin the Gardiner If thou hast borne him hence tell mee where thou hast laide him and I will take him away Thou shalt not neede to bee in feare of hauing thy garden annoyed or troubled with him any further ſ Ioh. 20. 2. His Apostles were informed of this doubtfull matter To Ver. 6. assure themselues the better they runne to the sepulchre they find the linnen clothes in which hee was wrapped the Ver. 7. kerchiefe that was vpon his head not lying with the linnen clothes but wrapped together in aplace by it selfe Hauing Ver. 17. seen this they return back whēce they came Mary staies to her Iesus discouers himselfe What should I make many words The proofe of this point belōgs to an other place Death had done his worst in despite of him the Lord Iesus is risen again leauing him ashamed cōquequered To e Luk 24. 5. 6. this the Angels beare witnes Why seeke yee him that liueth among the dead He is not here n but is risen I speake of knowne things it is enough to name them Wee see for all this goodly discourse that death still seizeth vpon all men let them be neuer so well setled in Iesus Christ he plucks them vp carries them away with him into the graue What is become of the holy Apostles where is his blessed mother the virgin Is there life in the head when the members of the body die so fast euery day And not one or two a ioint or a finger or a limme but the very principall parts yea all one other Doost thou doubt whether there bee life in him or no who hath wrastled with death and ouerthrowne him Can death preuaile against him now he liueth whom he could not keepe in subiection when he had him dead buried u Rom. 5. 9. 10. Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion ouer him For in that hee died he died once to sinne but in that be liueth hee liueth to God Sinne had his due a sacrifice of infinit worth to pay the price of mans redemption now must God also haue his due that hee that liueth to him may liue for euer But I would not haue any man so much deceiue himselfe as to imagin that the dying of them which are in Christ is an argument of the continuance of the authoritie or power of death No no beloued there is an other reason of this dissolution Alas alas death doth not aduance his owne estate and kingdome by this meanes but serues the Lords turne to bring his purpose to effect It fares with him in this case as it did in the death of our Sauiour That which hee thought to establish his power by by that he destroied it So is it in the death of those that are Christs The body as now it is is neither capable of immortalitie and fit for the seruice of sinne How shall it be prepared to receiue the one how purged and clensed from the other but by death Flesh bloud x 1. Cor. 15. 50. saith the Apostle can not inherit the kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Wouldest thou haue part in our Sauiour Christs immortalitie that thou mightest bee free from death Die then that thou maiest be ridde of mortalitie Art thou affraid Of what Least death should be too strong for thee if he once ger thee into his clouches Hast thou not an example in Christ I am aliue y Reuel 1. 18. saith he but I was dead and beholde I am aliue for euermore But thou fearest because thy body shall be turned into dust O foole * 1 Cor. 15. 36 saith the Apostle that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die Keepe thy corne aboue ground because if thou put it into the earth it will consume that thou shalt neuer finde it againe Where then shall the fresh greene blade appeare When shall the stalke grow vp When shall it eare When shall it flower Shall not all this glorie bee lost if the graine bee not sowed in the furrowes of the earth And art thou so I will not say fearefull but foolish and childish that thou darest not die once that thou maist liue for euer Plucke vp thy spirits and bee no longer a childe but a man were it not better for thee to die a thousand deaths then to bee continually disquieted with the motions of thy corruption Thou hast now some life of Christ in thee by the power of his spirit which inables thee to fight against sinne and to preuaile But there is no finall subduing of it till the body be destroied which doth so incline draw thee to the seruice thereof Neither hath the spirit of God quiet or full possession of thy soule as long as that corruption abides therein And that as it was bred with thee must die with thee there is no other course appointed by God to rid thee of it I doubt not but thou art now resolu'd to desire death whē it shall please God seeing there is no way to life but by it with this resolution I leaue thee that I may speak a word or two to thē that are yet out of Christ And how shall I addresse my speech vnto them It is needlesse to inflame them with a desire of life For they are wholly possest with that already It is in vaine to perswade them they shall neuer die if they be in Christ For all experience teacheth the contrary Shall I exhort them not to feare that which they cannot auoide They may learne that in the schoole of reason what remaines then At the least giue mee leaue to aduise you how you may make the best of that which can by no meanes bee escaped You are resolued there is no way with you but one Die you must and it is vncertaine how soone Yet if you may die so that you may be sure to liue againe that for euer what hurt can there be in death what feare should there be of it A crab stock that hauing his head boughts armes cut off is graffed with a pippin or some other dainty fruit can not reasonably complaine of hurt but rather hath great cause to reioice and glory Hath hee any wrong done him that hauing his cottage of clay pulled downe hath a goodly palace of stone built for his dwelling
But these mē will not beleeue that there is any such life in Christ I would to God I were able to perswade thē but to make som litle trial O! if they would be cōtented but to rest vpō him for life how quickly should they find his promise true certain Be perswaded be intreated I beseech you by the loue of life which you so desire what shall you lose by it If that we preach be false yet shal the rest of your yeers be spent in more hope cōfort If you know any better waie to prouide for your selues in kindnes humanity impart that at knowledge to vs. If you do not in quilitie good manners cōdemne vs not till vpon triall you can disproue vs. Life you earnestly desire euen bodily life refuse it not when it is oftred you without any danger of losse if you should be deceiued I am come now at the last to the chiefe point of all which is life euerlasting begun as I said ere-while in this world by the forgiuing of sin perfited in the next by the giuing of glory Of which notwithstāding I intēd not to say much because being the maine matter of the Gospell euery chapter almost will afford me necessary occasion to intreat therof Shortly for the proofe of the point that eternall death and condemnation are compriz'd in that threating a Gen. 2. 17. Thou shalt die the death I appeale to the whole course of the scripture and the ioint consent of all that euer profest true religion Iewes Christians But it is manifest enough by the deliuerance wee haue through Christ that I may make one labour of two b Iob. 3. 17. God sent not his Sonne into the world that he should condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved He Ver. 18. that beleeueth in him shall not be condemned but he that beleeueth not is condemned already Yea such is the redemption which we haue by Iesus Christ c Iob. 5. 24. that he which beleeueth hath passed from death to life What is this passing from death to life but obteining forgiuenes of sinnes being reconciled to God whose wrath otherwise abideth in vs to condemnation God hath set forth Iesus Christ d Rom. 3. 25. saith the Apostle to bee apropitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenes of sinnes that are past e Rom. 5. 10. If when wee were enemies wee were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne much more beeing reeonciled we shall be saued by his life But I forget my selfe in staying too long in this discourse wherein the new Testament is so plentifull and easie to bee vnderstood Neither is the point of euerlasting life either harder or rarer This one Gospell of S. Iohn hath not so few as twenty seuerall places to that purpose f 10. 3. 16. God so loued the world that hee gaue his onely begotten sonne that who soeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting This is the will of him that sent me that euery man which seeth the son beleeueth in him should haue euerlasting life g Ioh. 6. 40. I will raise him vp at the last day Look not that I should go forward in this course or spēd time in amplifying the vnspeakable glory of that life For the one I refer al men to the reading of this gospel especially the chapters I named before and concerning the other all I can possibly say of it is lesse then nothing in comparison of the thing it selfe Therefore also I hold it in a manner needlesse to enter into any course of exhortation For who can hear of these kindes of life in our Sauiour and not be carried to him for the enioying of them with all speed and means he can possibly make Let it be a small thing for a man to bee dead in sinne because perhaps he feeles it not Let the life of righteousnesse be little accounted of ov reason of the pleasure we take in sinning Let vs despie bodily death as a common matter Let vs not reguard the resurrection of the flesh as long as the soul is immortall Shall not feare of damnation for euer in hel fire affright vs Shall not hope of eternall ioy in heauen delight vs Is it nothing to indure most horrible torments without ease or ende Is it nothing to be partaker of such pleasure as cannot be conceiu'd without danger or feare of change What is the immortality of the soule of which thou bragst but an immortall miserie The more thou art perswaded of the euerlasting continuance thereof the greater knowledge thou hast of thine owne endlesse calamitie Whereas if once thou come to bee ioined to Christ the farderthou seest into the continuance of thy life the more thou art inflamed with a delight to liue But now I haue brought thee where this life is to bee had I will shew thee how it is to bee attained In him was life Where though it may seeme that the Euangelist sayes no more but he is life or life is by him yet indeed the speech is more significant First in respect of life the manner of speaking makes difference in the thing For when the scripture saith that Christ is life the word is to be taken for the cause of life h Iohn 11. 25. I am the resurrection and the life saith our Sauiour and again I i Ioh. 14. 6. am the way the truth the life So speakes k Col. 3. 4. the Apostle of him When Christ your life shal appear Who see not that by life in these places the author of life or life as it is in the cause thereof is vnderstood But in the other phrase the same thing is noted as it is imparted by him to vs. l 1 Ioh. 5 11. God hath giuen vs euerlasting life and that life is in his sonne Wee haue example of both these in one place yee are dead saith m Col. 3. 3. 4. the Apostle and your life is hidwith God in Christ What life That same life which Christ hath communicated to you and by which you liue What followes When Christ your life shall appeare How is Christ their life By giuing them life And as in this kind of speech wee may easily discerne some reason of the difference that the scripture obserueth so may wee also in the other Sometimes n Cor. 1. 30. the holy Ghost saith that Christ is made vnto vs wisedome righteousnesse c. What is this els but that wee receiue these things from Christ as the autor and cause therof Somtimes life is said to be in him so we are said to bee in Christ Iesus o 1 Ioh 5. 11. yee are of him in Christ as in the place I named before p Rom. 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Now in these speeches and the like not onely
was his not trusting in God The same point hee amplifyed in the verse following The Aethiopians saith he and the Lybians were Ver. 8. they not a great hoast with Charrets hors-men exceeding many Yet because thou didst rest on the Lorde he deliuered them into thy hand Therefore doth Iehosaphat exhort his people to the like trust in God and assureth them of deliuerance from their enimies therevpon Put your trust on the Lord your God saith he and yee shall be assured Chap 20. 20. We heard of the Reubenites before that the Hagarins were deliuered into their hands because they trusted in God 1 Chro. 5. 20. That the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the Israelits Because they beleeued not in God trusted not in his helpe Psal 78. 22. To this trust is blessednesse ascrib'd Blessed are all that Psa 2. 12. trust in him Yea with such a blessednesse as shal neuer fayle them They that trust in the Lord shall bee as mount Psal 125. 1. Syon which cannot be remoued but standeth fast for euer Tast and see saith the Psalme how gracious the Lord is Psal 34. 8. blessed is the man that trusteth in him Such a man will not be afrayd of euill tidings his heart is fixed and beleeueth in the Lord. This is to beleeue to saluation euen to haue his heart settled and to repose himself wholly and only Ps 112 7. Act. 16. 31. vpon Iesus Christ As for that perswasion which euery man must haue and wherein some woulde haue faith consist it followes him that is iustified and goes not before any mans iustification as faith must needes doe for the condition to be performed on our part to iustification is to Beleeue So then to beleeue in Christ is to rest vpon Christ but what is it To beleeue in his name Must his name bee rested vpon as if there were some especiall vertue in it In which of his names In IESVS or in CHRIST For of Imanuell it is needlesse to say any thing because hee is not once so called in all this Gospell and if the Euangelist speake of a name doubtlesse hee speakes of such a name as was knowne and ordinary neither woulde hee haue omitted it in the history if it had beene of such importance and vse It may seeme perhaps that Iesus is the name in which all men that will be saued must beleeue For that is it by which Saint Iohn commonly calls our Lord in his gospell and by which he was well knowne amongst men as hauing beene giuen him at the time of his circumcision Luk. 2. 21. and continued according to the custome of the Iewes We haue found him saith Philip to Nathaneel of Ioh. 1. 45. whome Moses did write in the law and of whome the Prophets writ Iesus the Sonne of Ioseph And of this name Iesus many excellent things are spoken in the Scripture That is said to haue cured the man that had beene a cripple Act. 3. 16. 6. from his mothers wombe At that name euen at the name of Iesus must euery knee bow By that name wonders haue beene Phil. 2. 10. wrought according as the Apostles prayed to God that healing and signes and wonders might be done by the name of his Act. 4. 30. holy Sonne Iesus Neither is this name effectuall for bodily cures only but as the Apostle Saint Peter profeseth Ver. 12. There is giuen no other name vnder heauen by which we must be saued But is there indeed such power in the name What then needed our Lord to haue come himself in the flesh seeing there were more then one of that name many yeeres before he was conceiued in the wombe of the blessed virgin in his mother Iesus the Sonne of Iosedec is Hag. 1. 12. famous in Hagge being high Priest after the peoples return out of the Captiuity But much more famous was osua 1. 1. 2. 3. the other Iesus who brought the people of Israell into the Land of Canaan and diuided to euery Tribe his proper in heritance That the names are all one though some would make a curious and an idle distinction betwixt them both the nature of the wordes shewe and the holy Gost in the new testament hath made it manifest by calling Iosua Iesus without any kind of difference in the name If Iesus had giuen them rest Afterwarde Heb. 4. 8. the Apostle in the same Chapter hauing occasion to name Iesus our Sauiour that hee might bee vnderstood to speake of him and not of Iosua addes his title Iesus the sonne of God What should that haue needed Ver. 14. if the name it selfe had afforded sufficient note of difference betwixt them But it is plaine in the originall Greeke and in the Syriake and Latine translations as also in our English that there is none The 70. Iewes that turned the olde Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke so exprest the names both of that Leader and of the high Priest Iosua 1. 1. Nowe after the death of Moses the seruant of the Lord the Lord spake vnto Ioshua Iesus sayeth the Greeke and so through out that whole booke So of Iehoshua the highe Priest Zach the third and the first And hee shewed mee Iehoshua or Iesus the high Priest so in the 3 6 and 8 verses of the same Chap. If the name giuen to our Sauiour Christ by Gods owne appointment had been diuers from the other surely the holy Ghost would not haue confounded them But now of purpose the same is retained that all men might vnderstand the reason of it as it is partly signified in that place to the Hebrewes concerning another Rest into which Iesus Christ hath brought the people of Israell the true children of God Hebrewes 4 8. For if Iesus had giuen them rest who was this Iesus but Ioshua then woulde hee not after this daye haue spoken of another What should I trouble you with many wordes of this matter By the name the partie whose name it is is signifyed Let the Apostle Peter expound himselfe His name hath made this man sound through faith in his Act. 3. 16. name Is it the name or faith in the name Iesus and not rather Iesus himselfe and faith in him And the faith which is by him sayeth the Apostle hath giuen him his perfect health The like wee haue touchinge the same matter in the next Chapter By the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth by him doth this man stand heer Chap. 4. 10. before you whole This sheweth that the Miracles which were wrought proceeded from the power of Christ not from any vertue in his name How then should saluation come from or by it Hearken what the Angell sayth when hee giues the name Thou shalt Mat. 1. 21. call his name Iesus for he shall saue his people from their sinnes Not his name but Hee For the name had neither bloud nor life to giue in
sacrifice without which there is no forgiuenesse of sinnes to bee had Heb. 9 22. Phil. 2. 10. Neither is that honour Saint Paul speakes of to bee giuen to the name as if the sound of those letters so set together deserued any speciall reuerence or as if Iesus were of more excelleÌ„cy theÌ„ Christ For as I sayd once before then ought wee to esteeme the name of Iesus the sonne of Nun and of the other Iesus the sonne of Iosedeck more then of Christ the sonne of God Surely if any name require bowing of the knee it is that which God gaue himselfe euen Iehouah and the other of the same kind Eheieh Iah But the person is meant when the name is mentioned and the office of being a Sauiour is that to which all honour is due in heauen and in earth and vnder the earth by Angels and men not the Name of sauing which was common to our Lord with other men Why then doth the Euangelist vse this kinde of speech To beleeue in his name would hee thereby note our Lords power vpon which euery one that will bee saued must rest that hee may bee deliuered out of the handes of sinne and death This may seeme the likelier because that miracle of curing the cripple was wrought by the name of our Lord. In the name of Iesus Act. 3. 6. 16. Christ of Nazareth say Peter and Iohn rise vp and walke And where they giue account of their dooing His name hath made this man sound But I rather perswade my selfe that Saint Iohn followes the Hebrewe phrase by which ordinarily the name is vsed for the person Ahraham called on the name of the Gen. 13. 4. Lord. That is Abraham worshipt God and offered vp sacrifize vnto him for as yet that glorious name Iehouah was not knowne I hold it altogether needlesse to Exod. 3. 14. heape vp many examples in a matter out of question Nothing is more common then to haue the name of God taken for God himselfe Let him that hath no light Isay 50. 10. sayth the Prophet Isay trust in the name of the Lord and stay vpon his God The later expounds the former To trust in the name of God is nothing else but to stay or rest vpon God So that the name of God and God himselfe signifie both one thing His name also is often put for his worshippe as when the Priests are sayd to despise Mal. 1. 6. the name of the Lord the meaning is that they prophane his worship as a matter of no worth But this caÌ„not bee intended by the Euangelist For the better vnderstanding of whose meaning after the exposition of the words wee must consider how this verse dependes vpon the former which wee may thus reasonably conceiue The Euangelist in the next wordes before shewed the vnkindnesse and vnthankfulnesse of the Iewes in refusing him that made offer of himselfe vnto them His own receiued him not A strange vnkindnesse that a man so full of grace and power so holy in his life so gratious in his words so mighty in his deedes and that to the benefit of them among whome heeliued should notwithstanding all this bee so peremptorily reiected But was this all I grant it is not nothing to bee iustly condemned of such vnciuill and vnnaturall dealing But there is worse behind to shew the folly of these men in being occasion to themselues of so great a losse If an olde man of fayre lands and great wealth should seeke to bee intertained of his neer kinsmen or friends and not bee receiued would not all the world charge them with extraordinary vnkindnes and condemne them of singular folly for depriuing themselues of so goodly an inheritance and so great an estate as they weresure to haue enioyed by receiuing of him Such was the case in the Iewes refusall of our Sauiour As if Saint Iohn should haue sayd His owne to whome hee came receiued him not but if they had receiued him they had thereby beene made the sonnes of God For that prerogatiue hee gaue to as many as by faith entertained him So that our Euangelist in this one verse both implyes the vnrecouerable losse of the Iewes and all other that refuse him and expresseth the inualuable gaine of all that receiued him whether they were Iewes or Gentiles It seemes a small matter perhappes to many a man not to beleeue in Iesus Christ yea some men thinke it little better then simplicitie and basenesse to rest vpon him If these wretches knewe what is lost by refusing him what is gotten by receiuing him they would run after him with all the haste they can possibly make and imbrace him with both their armes But I will leaue these points to bee amplyfied anone when I haue handled the doctrine that our Euangelist teacheth vs in this place which is briefly this that whosoeuer beleeues in Iesus Christ hath by that beleeuing the honour to bee the sonne of God And because the matter is of so great importance containing the glorie of a true Christian and the meanes of attaining to it let vs I beseech you stirre vp our selues with all diligence to know and doe that which will certainely bring vs to the height of all true felicitie To which purpose I wil diuide my whole discourse into these two parts The prerogatiue to be the sonnes of God The meanes of obtaining it In the former I will first shewe what it is that is heere vouâ—chsaf't vs To he the sonnes of God Secondly that it is a prerogatiue which is amplyfied by the generality of it that it belonges to all that beleeue The later part offers two things to be considered touching the meanes That this prerogatiue is giuen that on our part beleeuing in Christ is required Many other points will fall in here and there but I content my selfe with propounding these that are most generall and easie to bee discerned in the Text. The first point concerning our being the sonnes of God requires that I should shewe some reason why the Euangelist makes choyse of this benefit aboue the rest that being declared I will come to the exposition of the point it selfe Many and excellent are the blessings which it hath pleased God of his infinite mercy to bestow vpon vs in his sonne Iesus Christ He saues vs from our sinnes He reconciles vs Mat. 1. 21. Rom. 5. 10 1. Cor. 1. 30. to God He is made vnto vs wisedome righteousnesse and redemption When should I make an ende if I should recite euerie particular The question is why Saint Iohn passing ouer all other benefittes receiued by him mentions this rather theÌ„ any other What if we say he made especial choise of this because it is the greatest Surely wee shall say no more then is true and not vn likely For how could the Iewes be more iustly coÌ„demned the hearts of all men more inflamed with the loue of faith or the kindnesse of our Lord more