one of them to another that they should study humility which he urgeth by several arguments ver 5 6. that they should trust God with their thorow-bearing in these duties ver 7. and prepare themselves for the battel against Satan their cruel and restlesse adversary ver 8. by faith opposing all his temptations notwithstanding of afflictions in that way considering that all the rest of the Saints were their fellow-souldiers in this warfare ver 9. The third part containeth the close of the whole Epistle wherein the Apostle prayeth for their perseverance and perfection ver 10. praiseth in confidence of hearing ver 11. commendeth the bearer of the Epistle and the Epistle it self ver 12. delivereth commendation to them from other Saints ver 13. exhorteth them to mutual expressions of love and wisheth unto them all true happinesse ver 14. Vers 1. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder and a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed THe Apostle being to prâ—sse the duty of the Church-Officers he doth in the first place insinuate himself upon them by drawing several reasons from his own person to make his following exhortations have the more weight with them The first is That he who was so earnest with them had the same Office with them to the duties whereof he did excite them The second is That he had been an eye-witnesse of Christ's suff rings for the Church which did oblige him and all Christs Servants to faithfulnesse The third is That he did by faith share with them and other Believers of the right unto and first-fruits of that blessednesse which Christ had purchased and will in due time manifest to his Redeemed Ones All which considerations might move them to take an up-stirring message well off his hand Hence Learn 1. Even in the midst of persecution and while the Lord's People are in exile and under the power of enemies to the Truth the Lord can keep up a standing Ministery and his Ordinances among them in despight of Satan and all his instruments for the Apostle writing to the dispersed and persecuted Christian Jews supposeth them to have Officers and those Officers to have opportunity of going about their duty while he thus exhorts them to it The Elders which are among you I exhort c. 2. Even those whose calling it is to stir up others to their duty and in whom there is no such remarkable defect in the discharge of their duty as deserveth any publick notice to be taken of it have notwithstanding great need to be very earnestly stirred up to greater diligence and progresse in their duty than what they have already attained there being in the best even of Christ's Ministers a strong party drawing them back from their duty Mat. 26.41 and at their best much short-coming in what they might attain unto Philip. 3.12 13. for here the Spirit of the Lord whose love maketh him publish the faults of his dearest Servants when it is necessary Rev. 2.4 Although he see it not meet before the Church in this Epistle to reprove the Officers for any failing Yet doth he by his Apostle very earnestly stir them up to their duty The Elders which are among you I exhort c. 3. The duties of Ministers and other Office-bearers of the Church ought to be pressed upon them in the hearing of the People that so those Officers may be the more engaged to their duty and the People the more able to discern betwixt those of them that are conscionable in the discharge of their duty and others that are not Therefore the Apostle doth not satisfie himself to write to the Church-Officers concerning their duty in any private Letter directed to themselves alone but doth insist upon their duty in this publick Letter directed to the whole Church and while he beginneth to deal with the Officers he directeth his speech to the People The Elders which are among you I exhort c. 4. Those that bear Office in the House of God ought to be such as are come to some maturity of age and such as are of some considerable standing in the profession of Christianity See 1 Tim. 3.6 and especially such as for their wisdom experience and gravity may deserve that reverence and respect which is suitable for the aged for this stile of Presbyters or Elders here given to the Officers of the Church may be safely conceived both to point at their age and their qualifications suitable to the aged The Elders that are among you 5. Christ's Ministers have not only the charge of his Flock but also of their Fellow-labourers with whom they have society or correspondence in the Work of the Lord and so are bound to stir up and encourage one another in their duty for thâ—â— Apostle doth not only presse the duty of the People bâ— also of their Church-officers and while he doth it represents himself as a Fellow-presbyter or Colleague with other ordinary Ministers The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder 6. No Minister of Jesus Christ ought to affect or usurp any superiority over other Ministers considering how much Christ was displeased with it in his own Disciples Mat. 20.25 26. And that this great Apostle from whom the Antichristian Church pretendeth her warrant for Prelacy among Ministers while he speaketh to other Church-officers holdeth forth himself only as their equall Who am also an Elder 7. As the Ministers of Christ ought to take well with exhortation to their duty even from the people under their charge who though they have no jurisdiction over their Officers to call them to a judicial accompt or inflict censures upon them for their faults which doth belong to their Fellow-presbyters 1 Cor. 14.32 Yet they have good warrant to warn them of their duty and incite them to it with due reverence and modesty suitable to their station Col. 4.17 So should they receive counsel and warning especially from their Fellow-labourers who ought to have more courage and skill than ordinarily the people have to point out the duty of Church-officers and ought to be looked upon by other Officers who hear them point out their duty as having a calling from God through vertue of their Office so to do for the Apostle speaking to the Officers of the Church makes this an argument to prevail with them that he who brought this message was also an Elder 8. It is no easie thing for one of Christ's Ministers to prevail with others of that same sacred Calling by counsel and exhortation every one of them being apt to lift up themselves above another Luke 22.24 and at the apprehension of that frame of spirit in their Fellow-labourers to have their passions stirred against them Mat. 20.24 The consideration whereof should move every Minister to much humility and loving-earnestnesse in dealing with their Fellow-labourers for the Apostle doth here use many insinuations upon
the Church-guides as arguments to bear-in his following exhortations upon them thereby importing some difficulty of prevailing with them and is very humbly earnest with them thereby casting a copie to one Minister how to deal with another as is imported in the signification of these words The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder 9. It pleased our Redeemer to suffer before witnesses both in his agony in the Garden Mat. 26.37 and upon the Crosse Mat. 27.39 and likewise to imploy some of these Witnesses to preach Him crucified to the Church thereby condescending to beget the greater certainty in the hearts of Believers that God's justice is satisfied for them Act. 5.30 31. to give us the more lively description of his sufferings Act. 3.15 and to let us know that he hath born shame for us as a part of the punishment due to our sins Heb. 12.2 for which and the like causes the Apostle calleth himself here A Witnesse of the sufferings of Christ 10. However these whom the Lord makes most instrumental to gain others to himself may expect a special reward from him Dan. 12.3 Yet everlasting blessednesse or glory is not a thing proper to them alone but is the common portion of all faithful Ministers and Believers in Jesus Christ for the Apostle only calleth himself a partaker or as the word signifieth a sharer together with others to wit the flock of Christ to whom his speech is directed and their Officers whose duty he presseth of the glory that shall be revealed 11. Although the Saints in this mortal state could not well endure the least glimpse of glory much lesse partake of it as they shall do afterward Mark 9.6 Yet even while they are in the midst of much outward misery and in the expectation of more they have a right and may attain unto some real participation of glory while they are by faith united with Christ the Lord of glory Col. 1.27 and do sometimes tast of the first fruits of that whereupon glorified spirits do live Rev. 2.17 for the Apostle a persecuted man and looking for martyrdom 2 Pet. 1.14 calleth himself a partaker or sharer with other Believers of the glory that shall be revealed 12. Although Christ's Ministers should detest the seeking of their own glory before the world as they desire to resemble their Master Joh. 8.50 and the best of his Servants 1 Thess 2.6 Yet may they humbly assert any special honour that Christ hath put upon them when it is manifest that their so doing may tend to his glory and the advantage of the message they carry for that the Apostle may make way for the receiving of the message which he hath to the Church-guides he doth commend himself from the honour Christ had put upon him to be a personal witnesse of his sufferings and a partaker of the glory to be revealed 13. The greater certainty of the Truth and comfort by it appear to be in them that deliver it and the more charity they may expresse concerning the good estate of those to whom they do deliver it the better acceptance and successe of their message may they expect for the Apostle that his message might be the better taken representeth himself as one to whom the truth of the Gospel was most certain he being a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ as one that had much courage and comfort in adhering to it and much charity toward those with whom he dealeth as being a co-partner with them of the glory to be revealed Vers 2. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind 3. Neither as being lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock The Apostle having insinuated himself in the former Verse upon the Officers of the Church that so his counsel here might have the better acceptance with them he doth in the next place branch out particularly their duty exhorting them to feed the Lord's People with his Truth and rule them by his Discipline both which are in the signification of the first word and that these might be the better done he presseth them to take diligent inspection of the manners and several conditions of the people which duties he beareth-in by an argument taken from the relation that the People of their charge had to the Lord as being his Flock and withall pointeth out the right manner of going about these duties in six several directions one whereof is still negative disswading from some evil incident to men of that calling and another positive perswading to the study of some necessary qualification requisit in such to wit first That they should not go about their duty as if they were forced unto it But secondly from an inward inclination to serve their Master and profit his People Thirdly not from so base an end as their outward gain But fourthly from a heart fitted by Jesu-Christ for their duty Fifthly that they should not affect any dominion over the Lord's People But sixthly in their whole carriage cast them a copie of holy and humble walking Hence Learn 1. Every Minister of Christ ought both to be able to feed his People with his saving Truth Jer. 3.15 rightly divided and applied 2 Tim. 2.15 to every one of them according to their several conditions Mat. 24.45 which is no lesse necessary for cherishing and encreasing their spiritual life than their ordinary food in season is for their bodi s Job 23.12 And likewise they ought to have wisdom authority and equity for ruling of the Lord's People by the right exercise of discipline and application of censures for both feeding and ruling is exprest by one word in both the original languages to signifie that they are joyntly requisite in every Minister whose duty here is mainly held forth Feed the Flock c. 2. It is not enough for the Ministers of Christ to hold forth sound and saving Truths to his People in their doctrine and to rule them by the application of censures and discipline unlesse they also take diligent inspection of their manners and of their several conditions and necessities by frequent conversing with and visiting of them as this other word holding forth their duty signifieth without which they can neither apply the Truth nor censures to the People as they ought for this is the second principal part of Church-officers duty especially Ministers toward the Flock of God taking the oversight thereof 3. It should provoke Ministers to fidelity and diligence in their Calling to consider that the People of their Charge are the Flock of God who therefore will provide for them Isa 40.11 and will be very terrible to them that have the charge of them in case they slight or wrong them Ezek. 34.2 10. c. for to move the Church-officers to faithfulnesse and painfulnesse in their duty the Apostle thus designeth the People of their
stayed there after the expiring of the seventy years captivity whom this Apostle being a Minister of the Circumcision Gal. 2.7 hath gone to visit and planted in a visible Church And next he delivers commendations from Mark who was a publick Minister of the Gospel Col. 4.10 11. and being one of this Apostle's old acquaintance Act. 12.12 hath been instructed by him in the Gospel for which he is here called his son as Timothy is called Paul's for the same reason 1 Tim. 1.2 Hence Learn 1. It is the duty of the Lord's People especially in a suffering time though never so far distant in place to love and remember one another as if they were present and embracing one another as the word of saluting in the Original imports to signifie their desires to know one anothers condition their sympathy with one anothers suffering and joy for one anothers welfare all which is imported in the salutation common among the Hebrews 1 Sam. 25.25 1 Chron. 18.10 And it is likewise the duty of those who are intrusted with the carrying of such salutations to make conscience of the delivery of them for the Church at Babylon remembereth their dispersed Countrymen and desireth the Apostle to signifie the same to them who doth it here accordingly The Church which is at Babylon saluteth you 2. The Lord who reigneth in the midst of His enemies Psal 110.2 can erect and keep up a Church to himself even in those places of the world where His enemies are permitted to have all the external power in their hand for He hath here a Church at Babylon where we never read that the civil-power was imployed for Him 3. The Lord hath many designs of providence which will not appear for a long time after He hath begun to work in order to the execution of them for now it appears that when the Jews were carried captive to Babylon the Lord hath had a design to have a Gospel-church erected there before they should all come back again as is clear by comparing Acts 15.18 with this that there is a Church at Babylon 4. The Lord can make the sinful failings of His People subservient to His gracious purposes and yet be holy in all His wayes for the sinfull stay of some of the Jews in Babylon when they had a call and opportunity to return in Cyrus's time is made to serve the accomplishment of this holy purpose of God â—anent the having of a visible Gospel-Church at Babylon 5. The constancy of some of the Lords People who are under the power of wicked men and the appearance of the grace of Christ in them especially their love and sympathy with the rest of His People ought to move others to constancy under their sufferings and make them confident of the same thorow-bearing strength for that the Apostle may encourage these suffering-Believers to whom he writeth he sendeth them here commendations from their Bretheen in Babylon in testimony of their love to and sympathy with them The Church which is at Babylon saluteth you 6. No journey never so long or hazardous ought to be shunned by any Servant of Christ to do service to Him who hath engaged Himself to be with them go whither they will Mat. 28.20 In the faith whereof Peter hath undertaken this long and hazardous journey from Judea to Babylon from whence he sendeth this Epistle to the rest of the Christian Jews 7. Because all the Members of the visible Church are chosen out of the world to professe Christ and to have the offers of His grace made to them and so many of them as do really imbrace these offers have doubtlesse been from eternity chosen to be equal sharers of spiritual and eternal mercies Therefore they may be all spoken of and dealt with by Christ's Ministers as the Elect of God for so doth the Apostle here speak of the whole visible Churches at Babylon and other places Elected together 8. It is a special comfort to suffering-Christians to know themselves remembred and respected by more eminent Christians than themselves by whom they are apt to apprehend themselves forgotten and slighted for which cause we may safely conceive the Apostle here to mention commendations particularly from Marcus his son 9. Those who have been instrumental in the conversion or spiritual edification of others ought to entertain a special measure of tender affection toward them and should have from them a special measure of reverence and love such as children owe to their parents for because Mark was instructed by this Apostle in the knowledge of Christ and the Gospel and did resemble him in faith and conversation he is here called his son 10. A penitent's former failings ought not to hinder his esteem with any of the Lords People for Mark who by his separating from the Apostles while they were about the Work of the Lord did occasion a sinful separation of one of them from another Act. 15.37 38 39. is here particularly mentioned as one dear to this Apostle and whose love and remembrance should be a comfort to sufferers And Marcus my son 11. So careful should the Ministers of Christ be to entertain love among the Lords People and particularly to beget and cherish in their hearts a good esteem of other Ministers though inferiour to themselves that they should willingly condescend to be servants in the meanest offices of love that may conduce for that end Therefore doth this great Apostle registrate in his Epistle the commendations of the Church at Babylon and Marcus his son Vers 14. Greet ye one another with a kisse of charity Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus Amen In this last article of the Conclusion the Apostle exhorteth these to whom he writeth to expresse mutually their hearty affection one to another by such signs as were ordinary in those times and confidently wisheth unto them all sort of happinesse Hence Learn 1. It doth much contribute for the successe of the Gospel among a people that there be mutual love amongst them and expressions thereof Therefore the Apostles do ordinarily close their Epistles with exhortations to mutual love and unity as that without which the fruit of their pains in these Writings would be much hindered and so doth the Apostle here Greet ye one another with a kisse of charity 2. Whatever decent expressions of mutual respect and love be the ordinary custom of the times and places where the Lord's People live they ought not to be scrupled at but rather made conscience of by them in obedience to Him who commandeth love and respect and consequently the expressions thereof to be among His People Greet one another with a kisse of charity 3. All the mutual expressions of love and respect among the Lord's People ought to flow from an inward affection of christian love in the heart of one of them towards another and ought not to be performed as fashional and flattering compliments which are hateful to God Psal 12.2 3.
wrath which they shall get at the day of judgment when they together with all that serve them and follow their counsel shall have nothing else to do but endure torment and shall torment one another for ever for they are delivered in chains of darknesse to be reserved unto judgment Vers 5. and spared not the old World but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing in the floud upon the world of the ungodly Followeth the second instance to prove the certainty of God's judgment to come upon these soul-deceivers whereof the sum is That if the old World notwithstanding of their multitude and their long and great prosperity were all excepting a few swept away with the sloud because of their wickednesse those false teachers notwithstanding their multitude of followers and long successe in propagating their errors have no reason to imagine to themselves an escape from the wrath of God with which instance the Apostle doth intermix the example of Noah's preservation as a pledge of the Lord's respect to all who keep the way of Truth and Holinesse in an evil time as is clear by comparing this and the 9. Verse Although there were seven preserved from the sloud beside Noah who is therefore called the eight Yet he only is named because he was mainly respected in that deliverance and the rest for his cause He is called a Preacher of Righteousnesse because even in that time he did hold forth to the people the way of free justification by the Righteousnesse of Christ and the duties of holinesse wherein justified persons ought to walk with both which Noah hath been well acquainted as is clear by comparing Heb. 11.7 with Gen. 6.9 Hence Learn 〈◊〉 Theâ—e are not a few shifts in the hearts of wicked men prospering in their sinful courses whereby 〈◊〉 harden themselves against the threatnings of the Word of the Lord and put the thoughts of His wrath far away from them for after the Apostle hath by the former instance of God's judgment upon the fallen Angels cutted off the hopes of false teachers evading the wrath of God because of any pretended or real excellency they had he doth by this instance prove that neither their multitude of followers not former successe could avail them since God spared not the old World 2. As the Lord useth in times of greatest defection to profanity or error to preserve a few who will bear testimony for His Truth and against the dishonour done to Him by others So He is never so terrible to the wicked but that He will remember to manifest His respect to His own few amongst them who labour to keep themselves free of and mourn for these abominations which provoke Him to let forth His terror For Noah in this instance and Lot in the following are brought in as pledges of a few whom the Lord minded to preserve from that universal infection of error and vilenesse which was to prevail in the Church of the New Testament and whom He minded also to deliver from the plagues to follow thereupon as appears from ver 9. But saved Noah the eighth c. 3. Even in the very infancy of the Church under the Old Testament the way of justification by Christ's Righteousnesse hath been publickly preached and the duties of holinesse prest upon justified persons the study of both which ought alwayes to be much prest upon people by the Ministers of Christ especially in a time of abounding of iniquity and approaching of judgment as the only way to be hid from wrath and enjoy communion with God for Noah in such a time was a Preacher of Righteousnesse both imputed and inherent as was cleared in the Exposition of this Verse 4. The Lord in the dispensation of His Justice is not bound to keep the ordinary course of nature but for the illustration thereof 〈◊〉 may and sometimes doth make the creatures moâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their nature there being in them all a stronger â—â—â—pension so to do for their Maker's service than to move according to their ordinary course in serving their fellow-creatures to His dishonour for here in this instance the Sea cometh out of its channel at His Command to drown a profane World and in the following instance the Fire cometh down out of its region to burn up filthy Cities Bringing in the floud upon the world of the ungodly Vers 6. And turning the Cities of Sodom and Gomorra into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly Here is the third instance confirming the certainty of God's dreadful reckoning with false teachers and their followers The sum whereof is That if Sodom and Gomorra with other flourishing Cities beside them were for their vilenesse totally and terribly destroyed and so made lasting Copies of Divine wrath to come upon all ungodly persons these soul-deceivers who were guilty of as high provocations and had drawn in their guilt a great number of the Lord's People could not think in reason to escape Hence Learn 1. The judgments of God upon sinful Cities and Incorporations use to be most terrible and exemplary there being in them a confluence of many mercies and so of many provocations powerful examples to sin and bold despising of warnings which provoketh God to make them ensamples of much wrath Turning the Cities of Sodom and Gomorra into ashes condemned with a total and singular overthrow as the word signifieth making them ensamples c. 2. The sins of reasonable creatures provoke the Lord to write His displeasure not only upon the persons of the sinners but also upon the sinlesse and unreasonable creatures which they abuse to His dishonour for here the Cities comprehending both the persons of the sinners and all the plantation store and pleasant things of Sodom are burnt to ashes and condemned with an overthâ—â—â— 3. However error or heresie be often looked upon with more charity and lesse abhorrency than profane practices Yet shall not the judgment of Hereticks and their followers be inferiour to the judgment of the vilest of men that ever lived for God's judgment upon Sodom is here brought in as an ensample and pledge of His wrath to come upon all the ungodly amongst whom false teachers and their followers are mainly eyed as is clear by considering the connexion betwixt the third Verse and this 4. However sins and judgments in respect of their special nature and circumstance may vary in several times Yet the desert of every sin and the exactnesse of Divine Justice remaining still thâ— same former judgments of what sort soever executed upon any kind of sinners are certain pledges of the same wrath or the like for substance to come upon all that walk contrary to the Truth and Will of God though they were never so free of these special sins that formerly did procure that wrath Therfore is this instance of Gods judgment upon the Sodomites as also the two former brought in here as
further motives The one is That since the Lord had vouchsafed to call them from an estate of sin and wrath to a state of holinesse and happiness they ought therefore to walk answerably to their holy calling The other is That there should be a conformity between the Holy Lord and all His Children and therefore holiness which is His property ought to be studied by them and manifested in all the particular passages of their christian course And this last argument the Apostle confirms from the Scripture whereof though there be no particular place here cited yet the substance of the words are to be found in several places Lev. 11.44.19.2 and 20.7 Mat. 5.17 Hence Learn 1. They that would prove themselves to be truly holy and so to be the Children of the Lord must not satisfie themselves with the negative part of holiness which consists in abstenance from what is unsuitable to the relation of Children but they must also labour for the positive part of it which consists in some measure of conformity to their heavenly Father in His holinesse for after the Apostle hath prest that study negatively that they should not conform themselves to their former lusts in their ignorance he urgeth here the positive part thereof But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy 2. They who have found the Lord powerfully calling them from that estate of sin and wrath wherein they are naturally to a blessed condition of grace and happiness should think themselves thereby strongly obliged to the study of holiness whereby Christians in heart and practise are alienated and drawn from things earthly and are set apart for the use of their Lord and so do evidence to themselves their effectual calling 2 Pet. 1.10 for as a motive to the study of holiness the Apostle here suggests to Believers their calling But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy 3. Although it be altogether impossible for any Man or Angel to be conform in holinesse unto God who is essentially immutable and infinitly holy 1 Sam. 2.2 Yet there is no absolute unerring patern lower than the holy One to be set before the eyes of the Children of the Lord who ought not to make the holiest on earth a sufficient copie to them but being still ashamed of their defects in holiness and unsatisfied with their present measure thereof must still be aiming at a nearer conformity with Christ the Lord and daily making use of Him who is their sanctification 1 Cor. 1.30 to cover their defects and to sanctifie them more fully for this is the example and patern of that holinesse to which all the called Children of God should aspire As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy 4. Although internal holinesse be mainly lovely to the Lord Psal 51.6 and the external without it be loathsom to Him Mat. 23.27 Yet none should satisfie themselves with that holinesse which they imagine to have within but should labour to manifest holiness in their external conversation by shewing themselves in their visible actings mindful and respective of all the Commands of God Lev. 20.7 8. Psal 119.6 whereby they glorifie Him before others and evidence themselves to have true holinesse Joh. 15.8 for this conformity to our Father in holinesse must be manifested in the conversation 5. There is no part of a Christian's conversation which ought not to favour of holiness and true piety not only his religious but even his common and civil actions ought to be done in the Lord and for his glory 1 Cor. 10.31 And under all the various dispensations of God with him he ought still to prove himself a hater of sin and a lover of what the Lord approves which is the thing here pressed to be holy in all manner of conversation 6. The strictest of moral precepts in the Old Testament are binding to Believers under the New the substance of all of them which is That reasonable creatures should love their Maker and their fellow-creatures being of perpetual equity obliging both Angels and Men and nothing being required of us in any of them to be done by vertue of our own strength or that we may be justified thereby but only what the Regenerate are enabled to aim at and to attain to such a measure of as through Christ shall be accepted as if they had attained to what is required Col. 2.10 for here one of the strictest of moral precepts that are in the Old Testament is pressed upon Believers As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy for it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 7. The Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to have His Word so richly dwelling in them that they may be able to confirm what they deliver to the Lords People from clear and expresse testimonies thereof especially when they presse such Truths as natural hearts are most averse from for even this extraordinary Minister the Apostle whom people had lesse reason to suspect than any ordinary Minister while he presseth this high pitch of holinesse to wit the study of conformity to the Holy One he thus confirms his doctrine by Scripture Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 8. Although it be the duty of Ministers sometimes to point out to people the particular place of Scripture whereby they do confirm their doctrine Act. 13.33 yet ought the Lords People to be so well acquainted with the written Word that upon the hearing of any sentence of it they may acknowledge it to be the Lords mind that so there may be no necessity for Ministers to spend time and burthen peoples memories with multiplied citations for every Truth they deliver especially where the words of Scripture are remarkable and frequently to be found for so the Apostle citing this remarkable Scripture which is frequently to be found in the Old Testament doth not name any particular place but only saith It is written Be ye holy for I am holy Vers 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work passe the time of your sojourning here in fear Follows the fifth and sixth motives to the study of holiness The one is That even those who take the Lord for their Father and themselves for his Children will find Him an exact and impartial Judge of them and all their actions The other is That His Children are but strangers and sojourners and so living in the midst of many hazards and temptations both which should move them to study holiness whereof this is a special part to carry along in their hearts through their pilgrimage some fear of offending their heavenly Father who is to be their Judge Hence Learn 1. The more acquaintance with the Lord and confidence of His fatherly affection Christians attain unto the more are they obliged to the study of holiness and particularly to walk in fear of offending Him who will
forth the praises of him 8. Even the Elect before conversion are living in grosse ignorance of their own miserable condition and the remedy thereof Eph. 5.8 in the slavery of their lusts Rom. 13.12 They are under a staâ—e of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 and so without any true comfort Eph. 2.12 All which in Scripture is frequently set out by this word darkness whereby the Apostle expresseth the state of the Elect before conversion 9. Conversion brings sinners into a state of light which comprehends some clear knowledge of their own misery Rev. 3.18 and the remedy thereof 2 Cor. 4.6 a new and spiritual life communicated to them whereby they are enabled to close with Christ and cleave unto him Joh 18.12 to walk in holiness of life Mat. 5.16 their living in his favour Psal 89.15 their having a right to glory Col. 1.12 and his allowance to rejoyce and comfort themselves in their blessed estate Rom. 5.2 All which are set forth in Scripture by this word whereby the Apostle expresseth the excellent state of Converted Ones Who are called out of darkness into his light 10. The blessed estate of true Converts is much to be admired by them considering the Lords wonderful condescendency in plucking them out of so woful a condition as they were in before his marvellous loving kindness in possessing them in such excellent priviledges as they have in their new state and giving them an undoubted right to so matchless an inheritance as cannot but surpass the power of their understanding to comprehend and so make them wonder at their own happiness which is here called marvellous light 11. The way how the Lord brings his own out of the state of nature which is here called darkness into the state of grace which is called light is by his calling of them by the Gospel 2 Thess 2.14 opening their hearts to receive it by the power of his Spirit comming along with it Act. 16.14 and so powerfully changing them into his own Image 2 Cor. 3.18 Who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light 12. These upon whom the Lord hath wrought this blessed change ought frequently to reflect upon their former woful state that they may be kept humble 1 Cor. 15.9 and compassionate to others who are yet in the like Tit. 3.2 3. and likewise upon their present blessed condition that they may be provoked to praise and to the study of holiness 1 Tim. 1.16 17. for which and the like causes the change of Believers from the one state to the other is here represented to their thoughts that they might shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Vers 10. Which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which bad not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy Here is a further description of that happy change wrought upon these Christian Hebrews to whom he writeth to wit that they who before their imbracing of the Gospel had not been owned nor dealt with by the Lord as his peculiar People in Covenant with him neither yet had enjoyed any of his special mercies were how made his in a more special way than others and had saving and special mercies offered to all of them and bestowed upon some of them So that Hosea's Prophecy chap. 2.23 concerning the restoring of the Jewish Nation after their rejection for a time had now a begun accomplishment in them especially in those of them who had felt the fore-mentioned remarkable change whereby they should be moved to live to the praise of him that made it Hence Learn 1. When the Lord speaks to his Church in one age or to some particular persons in it he doth often speak also to his Church in after-ages and to all the rest of his People who are to live afterward See Mark 13.37 and Heb. 13.4 compared with Josh 1.6 and therefore it is the duty of all his People to mark how far promises made long since to the Church oâ— particular Believers in it have their accomplishment toward themselves that so they finding what was long since spoken to others made good to them they may be the more affected with that ancient and constant love of God whose thoughts hath been upon them for good while he was speaking to others who lived many ages before them for the Apostle cites and applies this Scripture spoken by Hosea to the People in his time as now verified upon these Christian Hebrews to whom he writeth Which in time past were not a people c. 2. They that would delight in shewing forth the praises of God and have their hearts engaged to the study of holiness must learn to dwell upon the thoughts of their wofull case wherein they were before conversion and upon the blessed state whereunto through Gods mercy they are advanced and often to compare the one with the other that so they may be the more affected with the change and engaged to study his honour that made it for after the Apostle had in the former Verse represented this to their thoughts as a motive to holiness he doth here insist upon and represent the same again by a new enlargement of it which is mainly verified in true Converts Who in time past were not a people but are now the people of God c. Although the elect be the Lord's People from eternity in regard of his purpose of grace toward them Psal 90.1 2 Tim. 1.9 Yet in regard of any actual manifestation of special love to them or of his complacency in them as carrying his Image they are not his People but remain slaves to Satan Eph. 2.2 and to their own lusts Tit. 3.3 until such time as by his power put forth with the preaching of the Law their wofull case be discovered to them Luke 1.17 and by the same power coming along with the preaching of the Gospel they be made willing to accept the offer of Reconciliation through Jesus Christ Psal 110.3 and thereby also be fitted for the duties of new obedience for the honour of Christ Isa 43.21 All which as the places cited prove are marks of them whom he doth in a special way own for his People for of the chosen Generation the Apostle thus speaketh in reference to their state before and after conversion VVhich in time past were not a people but are now the people of God 4. Though there be not a sinner in the world who hath not many mercies of God freely bestowed upon him Psal 145.9 and many deserved strokes kept off him Rom. 2.3 Yet even the Elect before their conversion have not obtained that special mercy whereby their sins are actually pardoned Act. 3.19 and whereby the Lord hath complacency in them Ezek. 16.8 and so they cannot be justified actually from eternity for only of true Converts is the Apostle's speech here principally to be understood while he saith That in time past to
28.19 20. 1 Cor. 11.26 or the duties we owe to others of his People Gal. 5.13 But it doth consist in our freedom from the Law as a Covenant of works by which we are not to seek Justification or Salvation Gal. 3.18 Rom. 3.21 22. we are free from the guilt of sin Tit. 2.14 from the dominion thereof Rom. 6.22 and the curse due thereunto Rom. 8.1 2. and from the yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies Gal. 5.1 and especially in this we are free that we are honoured and enabled to do God acceptable service Psa 119.45 In all which respects Believers are presupposed truly free according to the Apostle's concession here As free 2. Even the Redeemed Ones by Christ have as much corruption remaining unmortified in their hearts after Regeneration as makes them in hazard not only to commit wickednesse and excuse the same but to make the priviledges they have through Christ and particularly their christian liberty a cloak to hide it as if sin were no sin in them or as if Christ had purchased to them liberty to sin for so much is imported in the Apostle's disswading Christians here not only from refusing subjection to Magistrates but from defending the same and using their liberty as a cloak of that wickednesse As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse 3. When Christians shake off any duty prest in the Moral Law under a pretence that their christian liberty gives them warrant so to do they are then come to such a height of wickednesse as hath much of malice in it especially against any that would oppose them in that course and such as will spread to more and more wickednesse for the Apostle sets forth here Christians defending their exemption from obedience to Magistrates with the pretext of their christian liberty by such a word as doth comprehend in the signification of it all wickednesse and points especially at that particular sin of malice or envie Not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse 4. These iniquities which are unjustly charged upon all the Godly by wicked men may be justly charged by the Godly themselves upon their own hearts as inclinable to those iniquities which do break forth in some for the Apostle having in the former Verse called them ignorant and foolish men who did slander all Professors of Christianity as enemies to Magistracy doth here warn all to beware to make their christian liberty a cloak of it while he saith Not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousnesse 5. The right use which Believers ought to make of that liberty which Christ hath purchased for them is to be thereby the more strictly engaged to his service our serving of Him being a great part of true christian liberty Psal 119.45 and one great end of God's giving a Redeemer for us Luke 1.74 for here the Apostle discovers wherein the right use of christian liberty did consist to wit that Christians who are truly free should carry themselves as the servants of God Vers 17. Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King The fifth argument whereby the Apostle presseth upon all Christians due subjection to Civil Magistrates is taken from the necessary connexion that is betwixt this and other unquestionable duties of which the Apostle giveth three instances every one whereof doth in some sort infer the equity of this duty which was questioned by some of them The first is That some respect is due to all men and therefore much more to Magistrates The second is That christian society should be very dear to all the Lord's People and consequently they ought to respect Magistrates under whose power and protection they do enjoy the same The third is That they should stand in aw to offend God and therefore should give that honour to Magistrates which he had so straitly enjoyned by the Apostle before and here presseth again in the close of this Verse Hence Learn 1. While the Ministers of Christ are earnestly pressing some one special duty upon the Lord's People they ought also joyntly to press such other duties as are to be joyned therewith in their practice and may be helpfull toward the performance of that lest by insisting much in the pressing of one duty without mentioning of others which ought to be carried along therewith the Lord's People may receive such impression of the necessity of that one as may make them forgetful of others not only equally necessary with that one but also subservient toward the performance of it for while the Apostle is earnestly pressing subjection to Magistrates by many reasons he intermixeth a bundle of other duties which are necessary to be joyned in practice with that and being made conscience of will fit them for the performance of it Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God And so Honour the King 2. It is a prevailing way of dealing with the Lord's People which Christ's Ministers should study to bear in upon them duties more questionable against which they may have some prejudice as necessary concommitants or effects of other duties which they do lesse question and will more easily subject themselves unto that from the acknowledged equity of the one they may be brought to yeeld to the other which hath necessary connexion therewith even as it is a most convincing way of reasoning upon any subject to make use of premises easily assented to for gaining assent to some questionable conclusion which is the Apostle's way here for while he presseth the duty of subjection to Civil Magistrates from which some Professors of Christianity did apprehend themselves exempted by their christian liberty he presseth upon them such other unquestionable duties as did infer that subjection by the force of good consequence if they found themselves bound to honour all men to love the Brotherhood to fear God then they could not but find themselves bound also to honour the King 3. Although there be some so grosly and avowedly wicked that they ought to be contemned and esteemed vile by the Lord's People in comparison of others Psal 15.4 Yet there is no man to whom the Children of the Lord do not owe some respect considering that all men do partake of some excellency from God Act. 17.25 c. and carry some resemblance of his Image Jam. 3 9. and that the best may know more to be loathed in themselves than they can do in the worst Philip. 2.3 and that the worst for ought we know may be within the compasse of God's election 1 Cor. 7.16 for which causes we ought to give them some signs of our respect that so we may keep our selves in the better capacity of doing good to their souls Honour all men 4. It is not only the duty of every Christian to give a special measure of love and respect to the persons of other Christians beyond what they give to any other men Psal 16.3 and to evidence the same by their sympathy with and supply of one
another Fifthly that they should shew themselves courteous in their carriage and easie to be conversed with ver 8. Sixthly that they should not study to requite mutual injuries But seventhly rather seek the happinesse of them that wrong them All which especially the last two the Apostle presseth by this reason that they were all called to inherit one common blessednesse From ver 8. Learn 1. Although compleat onenesse of judgment cannot be expected among the Lord's People whilest knowledge is imperfect in all 1 Cor. 13.9 and dispensed in different measures Rom. 12.6 Yet it ought to be the sincere endeavour of every one so to drink-in the knowledge of all saving and necessary Truths themselves and to imploy their power according to their calling to make all others do the same that they may be so far as is possible as if one and the same mind were in them all as the word here signifieth which is in some good measure attained when Christians do agree in all saving and fundamental Truths and when their prime projects and designs as the word also signifieth do meet in one to wit the advancement of the glory of Jesus Christ without which unity of judgment there doth ordinarily follow among the Lord's People alienation of affection Gal. 4.15 16. and a losse of the consolations of Christ's Spirit which uses to be given through their communion among themselves Philip. 2.1 2. for this is it which the Apostle here expresly presseth Finally be all of one mind 2. Every one of the Children of the Lord ought to be so affected with the condition of another as if it were their own mourning with and for one another in affliction as if they were afflicted with them Heb. 13.3 rejoycing in and praising for their welfare as if they were in their case Rom. 12.15 considering that they are all members of one body 1 Cor. 12.26 and that this sympathizing frame of spirit is a special part of our conformity to Jesus Christ Heb. 4.15 for this is the second duty here pressed having compassion one of another 3. Whatever differences for worldly respects or measures of spiritual gifts there may be among the Children of the Lord there should be notwithstanding such affection and love in the most eminent and strongest toward the meanest and weakest as is among Brethren they being all Children of one Father Joh. 1.12 and the weakest owned by Christ as his Brethren Heb. 2.11 and co-heirs not only with the strongest but with Jesus Christ himself of everlasting blessednesse Rom. 8.17 and therefore that measure of affection which may be found among men without the Church who have not put off humanity is not sufficient for one of the Lord's People toward another for this is the third duty here pressed Love as Brethren 4. There can neither be unity sympathy nor brotherly love among the Lord's People unlesse they have hearts to pity the infirmities one of another and some prouenesse of spirit to do good to others even when they deserve the contrary at their hands for this word whereby the Apostle presseth the fourth duty is often used to signifie Christ's compassion to his own which is manifested in bestowing favours notwithstanding of provocations and signifieth such a tender-heartednesse as is evidenced by forgiving of wrongs Eph. 4.32 be pitiful 5. They that would keep up a sweet and profitable society with others of the Lord's People must shew themselves affable and pleasant in their carriage towards them studying to speak and do so far as they may with a good conscience what may be acceptable and engaging of their affections to them for this duty which is the last in the eight Verse as also all the former may be taken in reference to the keeping up of society with others be courteous From ver 9. Learn 1. Even those who have attained to such a carriage as ought in all reason to be lovely and honoured by all with whom they converse may notwithstanding resolve to meet with much hard usage and many slanders for the Apostle presseth here patience in the sixth place importing that they who had attained to all the former sive would notwithstanding have ado with their patience Not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing 2. The Children of the Lord may resolve not only to meet with hard usage and bitter language from the profane or those that are without but even from their fellow-Professors whether Hypocrites who will still be maligning the sincere Gal. 4.29 or even truly gracious whose corruptions oppose grace in others Job 16.20 for this last grace of patience prest in the beginning of the eight Verse cannot well be taken in reference to other persons than these in reference to whom the exercise of the former graces or duties were pressed which do clearly relate to other Professors and therefore this imports that they might be tried both with evil deeds and words from such while the Apostle thus dehorteth Not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing 3. However the best of the Children of the Lord are prone to study revenge and requital of private injuries as is supponed in this disswasive Yet must they not allow themselves in so doing as they love their own and others peace and desire to eschew the displeasure of God for usurping his place Rom. 12.19 Prov. 23.2 Not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing 4. So far should the Lord's People be from the study of private revenge and retaliation of wrongs done by one of them against another that by the contrary the greatest personal wrong by word or deed should not hinder one of them to procure the bestowing of blessings if they be able upon another to commend in them what they can discern to be praise-worthy or to pray for their true blessednesse which is a special draught of the Image of the Lord Mat. 5.44 45. All which is in the signification of this word whereby the Apostle expresseth the duty opposite to rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing 5. The consideration of that everlasting blessednesse which consisteth in the clear vision and full fruition of God in Christ through the Spirit and which sinners who are naturally under the curse are called to possesse as their free-gifted inheritance as the word here translated to inherit signifies should comfort the hearts of Believers against the worst usage and vilest reproaches of men which will be sufficiently made up when they come to possess that blessedness the thoughts wherof should take them off from all study of revenge toward those who may be heirs with them of the same inheritance and who could never wrong them so far as they have wronged the Lord who hath graciously called them to possess that free-gifted inheritance for this is here proposed by the Apostle as an argument to patience under wrongs and a disswasive from revenge among the Lord's people for even hereunto were ye called that ye should
of the necessities of others of the Lord's People and that with due consideration how far his ability may reach so as his charity may neither be unsuitable to the Lord's liberality towards him 2 Cor. 16.2 nor prejudicial to duties of equity Rom. 13.8 especially to those of his near relations 1 Tim. 5.8 So those who have an Office in the House of God for gathering and distributing the charity of others ought to discharge the same with faithfulnesse and diligence chearfully going about the meanest â—uty of their office for this last part of the Apostle's direction may be understood both of the Deacons and of every private Christian and likewise of the proportion which should be betwixt their charity and their ability as also of their stretching themselves to the utmost of the grace given unto them to do those duties of charity in a right manner If any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth 3. As there is a great pronenesse in all men naturally whereof the Regenerate are not free to seek their own glory especially in the giving out of their receipts as is imported in the Apostle's proposing this end to Believers in the communication of their gifts that God may be glorified So none can acceptably imploy their best gifts unlesse their main end be that God he giver may be praised both by the dispenser of these gifts and by those that are profited by them for giving such gifts to men and the heart to let them forth for so holy an end as this that God in all things may be glorified 4. As every gift we have comes to us through Jesus Christ Job 1.16 So all the glory that redounds to God by the right use of these gifts must be given to Him whether by the dispenser of them or those who are profited by them through Jesus Christ in whose strength they are rightly imployed Job 15.5 who makes His People intend the glory of God in all things Isa 61.3 Job 17.10 and makes their intention to glorifie Him accepted by His merits Heb. 13.15 for this glorifying of God which is here proposed as the end to be intended both by them that let out their gifts to others and by those to whom they are dispensed must be through Jesus Christ That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ 5. Although the essential glory of God be so infinitly great that it can receive no addition Neh. 9.5 and His dominion in it self so absolute and large that it cannot be more Psal 115.3 Yet it is the duty of all His People especially His Ministers to declare that glory of His to wish that it may be ascribed to Him by all and that His dominion may be voluntarily acknowledged and submitted to by all for so doth the Apostle here To Him be glory and dominion for ever 6. So full of desires to have Christ glorified and submitted unto by others should the hearts of all that love Him especially His Ministers be that they should be ready to intermit other purposes and burst forth in His praise thereby to provoke others to that duty for so doth the Apostle here To Him be glory and dominion for ever 7. Our desires to have the glory of the Lord manifested and His dominion over all acknowledged and willingly submitted unto should reach the length of eternity in regard we are obliged to Him by favours of infinit worth for which we will never be able to give Him the glory due to Him To whom be glory and dominion for ever 8. We ought to raise our hearts in praise by the consideration of the Lord's faithfulnesse in performing of His Promises and to close that exercise for the time with the hearty acknowledgment thereof and with our faithful engaging of our selves to glorifie Him by believing of His faithfulnesse for this Hebrew word Amen signifying faithfulnesse is used in all languages importing that all tongues should and must at last give to God the glory of faithfulnesse and is made the ordinary close of our prayers and praises to signifie our acknowledgment of His faithfulnesse and engaging of our selves faithfully to every duty that may honour Him Amen Vers 12. Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing â—â—â—pened 〈…〉 The second part of the Chapter containeth several directions for aâ—â—ining to a right disposition and carriage under a crosâ— for Christ and several encouragements against the â—â—t â—e The first direction propounded negatively 〈◊〉 Thaâ— they should not be amazed nor perplexed at the â—rest sufferings as men use to be when they meet with â—â—e new and strange thing The first reason pressing this direction is That their hardest sufferings were but to 〈◊〉 graces and purge away their corruptions and 〈◊〉 â—ore ought to be well taken Doct. 1. Christians under a crosse especially for Christ and Truth stand in need of frequent directions and encouragements and those born-in with much affection they being then in hazard to take some sinfull course for their ease or else to suffer heartlesly and in a way unbeseeming their Master and ready also to think themselves forgotten or slighted by others for which and the like causes it is that the Apostle having been upon this subject of directing and encouraging sufferers frequently before in this Epistle doth here return to it again and make way for it by this loving compellation Beloved think it not strange c. 2. The Children of the Lord have not only trials but fiery trials to prepare for which are such as do deprive them of the sweetest of earthly comforts and reaches to that which is dearest to them as men their credit liberty and life Mat. 16.24 and such as few Professors will abide Zech. 13.9 for such trials are the Godly here forewarned of and supposed to be in while the Apostle thus directs Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 3. So unwilling are the Children of the Lord to forecast sore trials and so make them familiar to themselves before they come Heb. 12.5 so subject to security even when trials are nearest Mat. 26.40 so ready to dream of much worldly ease Act. 1.6 and when they get but a little breathing-time from trouble to promise themselves perpetual exemption therfrom Psal 30.6 that they are in great hazard to be surprized and perplexed at the sight of approaching trials as men use to be at the sight of any thing strange and terrible which they did not forecast and prepare for as is imported in this direction Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial c. as though some strange thing had happened unto you 4. How fiery soever the trials of the Lord's People be there is no reason why they should seem strange to them seing they are so frequently forewarned of them in Scripture considering that the best of the Saints and the Captain of our salvation have gone through
even Christians being found guilty of any of those iniquities ought to be put to suffer for them while he giveth them this caution But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters 2. Even natures light will speak against the toleration of several sorts of evils and will not suffer men that have power and have not put out that light by frequent sinning against it to passe them without punishment What a shame then is it for these within the Church to commit such things or tolerate them in others For the Apostle supposeth here that Christians who lived under Heathen Magistrates would certainly be put to suffer by them if they were found murderers thieves evil-doers or busie-bodies in other mens matters 3. As it is the duty of every one who by their miscarriage have deserved the stroak of humane justice willingly to submit to the same Luke 23.41 So it should be the great care of the Lord's people to eschew those sins which may draw them under that stroak it being a great reproach to Christianity when the professors of it are found guilty of those things which even Heathens or such as are no better cannot but punish and a great hardening of wicked men in their evil ways for which and the like causes the Apostle giveth this third direction But let none of you suffer as a murderer c. 4. Except Christians imploy Christ's Spirit to apply that vertue which He hath purchased by His death for the changing of their nature and mortifying of the love of sin in their hearts and study watchfulnesse in their carriage they will readily break out in those abominations for which even Heathens would justly put them to suffer for this direction of the Apostle's doth import that except Christians did watch and pray and make use of Christ's death for mortification of sin within to which duties he had stirred them up before they were in hazard to break out in the sins here mentioned and so be put to suffer as murderers thieves evil-doers and busie-bodies in other mens matters Vers 16. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf The Apostle giveth some further directions for attaining the fore-mentioned end The fourth in number is implied in the beginning of this Verse That they should cleave to the profession of the Name and Truth of Christ carrying themselves under their sufferings as His anointed ones upon which he inferreth the fifth That if they did so suffer they ought not to be ashamed of their sufferings But on the contrary which is a sixth direction they should take occasion from such sufferings of giving much glory to God for honouring and enabling them so to suffer Hence Learn 1. They that would have true comfort under their sufferings for Christ must first study to be real Christians taught of Christ to know Him and His will Act. 11.26 to have from Him the anointing of His Spirit 1 Joh. 2.20 whereby they are made in some measure to resemble Him in His nature and disposition 1 Cor. 3.18 2 Pet. 1.4 and in His Offices to which He is anointed by having power over their lusts and in His strength overcoming all opposition in the way of their duty 1 Joh. 5.4 as anointed Kings to God by offering up themselves in a sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 and their service through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 as a spiritual Priesthood by communicating the knowledge of Christ to others especially those under their charge Gen. 18.19 whereby they do resemble Him in the exercise of his Prophetical Office and especially to be conform to Him in suffering for Him and shewing forth that meeknesse and constancy and other of His communicable perfections which shined in Him under his sufferings avowing his Name and Offices to which He is anointed upon all hazards for this is to suffer as a Christian whose name is an anointed one which the Apostle here implies as necessary for all that would tast the sweetnesse of the former consolations But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed 2. Profane Christians who may be justly put to suffer for their faults are very ready to entitle themselves to the honour of suffering for Christ and therefore it concerneth Christ's Ministers to clear the cause of suffering in which Christians may comfort themselves and the right manner of suffering for a right cause for the Apostle in this and the preceding Verse setteth a guard about the former consolations given to sufferers for Christ lest they might be usurped by profane professors justly put to suffer for their miscarriage Let none of you suffer as a murderer c. but if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed 3. There is no shame or contempt that the world can pour upon sufferers for Christ whereof they ought to be ashamed but rather to despise shame for Him as He did for us Heb. 12.2 as they would not have Him dealing with them as if He were ashamed of them another day Mark 8.38 for this is the fifth direction If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed 4. When the Lord by His providence brings a necessity upon Christians of suffering for Him and his Truth and by his grace enableth them to carry themselves christianly under the same they owe much praise and glory to Him for putting that honour upon them especially considering that His grace alone hath prevented their falling in those sins which might justly have brought them to no lesse suffering and with far lesse credit and comfort than now while they are put to suffer for Christ and their duty to Him for this is the sixth direction Let him glorifie God on this behalf to wit that he is put to suffer not as a thief or a murderer but as a Christian Vers 17. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the House of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God Here are two further arguments to move the Godly to courage and constancy under their sufferings the one is That now God's appointed and fit opportunity was come wherein he would have his just displeasure against the sins of men beginning first to kyth in his own family the Church under the New Testament by trouble and persecution for the correction and trial of his own and therefore they had no reason to faint under these trials seing the time of them was of God's appointment and that the Godly were only to endure the beginning of that which would make an end of their persecutors The other argument is That seing God's just displeasure against sin was first manifested toward his own People the end of their wicked enemies behoved to be unspeakably terrible and therefore they had no reason to
73.2 17. but rather to endure sufferings from them that they may not share with them in their wofull end for that the Godly might not run with their prospering persecutors to the same excesse of riot nor faint under sufferings from them The Apostle doth again represent to their hearts the consideration of their unspeakably terrible end by this other question Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 3. The consideration of this difficulty in the way of the Godlie's salvation is sufficient to convince us that their end must be unspeakably terrible who are so far from taking paint to be saved that they shake off all duties of Religion as the word ungodly signifies and give themselves up to all wickednesse as the word sinners doth import and so hast their own destruction for so much is imported in the connexion of the first part of this Verse with the latter If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear Vers 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Lest the sharpnesse of the trials whereof the Apostle gave fore-warning in the former words and the difficulty of attaining salvation by reason thereof might discourage the hearts of the Godly The Apostle giveth here the seventh and last direction which is That they should give up their souls to the keeping of their Lord fâ—r whom they suffered and so hold on in their duty notwithstanding of sufferings and this direction the Apostle beareth in by two arguments the one is That whatever they did suffer was carved out to them not by the lust of men but by the good-will of their God The other is That under their sufferings for well-doing they might be at quietnesse concerning the eternal salvation of their souls and their through-bearing till they come to the possession thereof having put them in his hand who is both able to save them having made them and all things of nothing and in testimony of his good-will to save them hath engaged his faithfulnesse in his Promises for that end and therefore Believers had no reason but to go on chearfully and constantly in their duty notwithstanding of all their sufferings Hence Learn 1. The consideration of the difficulty that is in the way of the salvation of the Lord's People by reason of the many fiery trials they have to go through should stir them up to make sure work about their souls by putting them in Christs hand so shall they have courage and strength under their sufferings for this last direction is inferred upon the former purpose as the first word maketh clear Wherefore let them that suffer c. commit the keeping of their souls to Him 2. The Lord's People should more highly esteem of and be more solicitous about tâ—e preservation of their souls especially in a troublesome time than of all things else in the world it being a special part of heavenly wisdom and prudence to ensure that by faith putting it in Christ's hand So will they be sure of quietnesse of spirit under all their sufferings Psal 31.5 and will value the lesse other losses their best Jewel being in safety 2 Tim. 1.12 for the Spirit of God doth not mind them of taking course to preserve other things knowing they were ready to spend too much of their care that way in an evil time but giveth them this direction for quieting their hearts however other things went Commit the keeping of your souls to Him 3. They that have committed the keeping of their souls to Jesus Christ as they would have comfort under their sufferings must hold on in the way of well-doing considering that however their souls that are committed to him cannot be lost yet their assurance and comfort cannot be kept but in that way therefore the Apostle qualifieth this direction Commit the keeping of your souls to Him in well doing 4. They who from the sense of their souls hazard to perish for any ability themselves have to preserve them and from their desire to have their soul 〈◊〉 â—â—fety above all other things do by faith put them in the hand of a Saviour for mercy and salvation and having so done do betake themselves in his strength to the way of their duty whatever they may suffer in it they need not doubt of Christ's taking the charge and custody of the soul thus committed to him for that they may be confident he will take the charge of them and safely keep what is committed to him he thus by his Spirit speaking through the Apostle commandeth Commit the keeping of your souls to Him 5. The sufferings of the Lord's People come not according to the lust and will of their adversaries but are measured out and ordered by the will of the Lord which is alwayes a good will towards his own making all things work for their good Rom. 8.28 The consideration whereof should hearten them under all their sufferings for this is here asserted as an argument to constancy and chearfulnesse under their sufferings that they did suffer according to the will of God 6. They that would have courage under their sufferings from powerful adversaries must by faith lay hold upon God's Omnipotency manifested in the works of Creation The consideration whereof cannot but give strength and courage to Believers under their sufferings they having the Lord and all his Properties engaged to be forth-coming for them in the Covenant of Grace and especially considering that their through-bearing and deliverance cannot but be easie to Him who made all of nothing for that the Apostle may encourage sufferers he representeth the Lord to their faith under the consideration of a Creator 7. The consideration of the Lord's faithfulness in keeping of his Promises is a strong pillar of the Saints confidence that they shall be well born through all their trials seing his good will hath moved him expresly to pawn his faithfulnesse for every thing they need particularly for pardoning their sin upon their confession 1 Joh. 1.9 for enabling them to the duties of holinesse 1 Thess 5.24 and for bearing them through all their sufferings 1 Cor. 10.13 1 Thess 3.2 3. for this consideration of the Lord joyned with that of his Omnipotency is here held forth to the faith of sufferers as a strong ground of their confidence anent the safety of their souls and their being well born thorow all their trials He is a faithful Creator CHAP. V. THis Chapter hath three parts In the first the Apostle having insinuate himself upon the Officers of the Church ver 1. perswadeth them to the prime duties of their Calling and disswadeth them from the main evils incident to them ver 2 3. by the consideration of the glorious reward abiding Christ's faithful Servants ver 4. In the second part he presseth the duties of the slock that they should be subject to their Officers and
charge The Flock of God 4. Although none that are sensible of their own weaknesse and the weight of the charge of souls will be very forward to thrust themselves into that employment Exod. 3.11 Jer. 1.6 Yet being once called to it and engaged therein they should not go about the duties thereof as being constrained thereunto by their fears lest they discover their own weaknesse or lest they fall under the censure of others or lest their own conscience may vex them for neglect of their duty for this is the first evil from which the Apostle disswadeth Christ's Ministers as that which would mar the right manner of going about their duty Not by constraint 5. There should be in the heart of every faithful-Minister so much love to Jesus Christ arising from the sense of his personal obligation to him 2 Cor. 5.14 and so great a desire of the salvation of souls 1 Cor. 10.33 as may beget in him such a strong inclination and inward bensel of spirit to his duty that though there were no external consideration of gain glory or the like to hold him on Yet may he not be suffered to neglect it for this is the first positive qualification of a Minister going rightly about his duty But willingly 6. Although Christ's Ministers may with his allowance challenge from the People under their charge a competent means of outward subsistance according to their ability 1 Cor. 9.14 Yet for any of the Ministers of Christ to make their worldly gain their great inducement to undertake that Calling or their prime encouragement in going about the Duties of it is a filthy frame of spirit which appears to be in them when they streatch themselves to the utmost to please them most from whom they expect most gain Numb 23.1 and to oppose and discourage others from whom they expect least Mic. 3.5 for from this evil as abominable to God detestable to faithful Ministers and a thing that indisposeth them for the right discharge of their duty the Apostle here doth disswade in the third direction Not for filthy lucre 7. A Minister of Christ that would go rightly about his duty must ly in wait for every opportunity thereof keeping himself in some fitnesse of disposition for every part of his Calling whether the opportunity of discharging the particular duties thereof do presently offer or not as is imported in the fourth direction which is positive But of a ready mind 8. It is an evil to be abhorred by all that would expect the reward of faithfull Ministers to affect or usurp any lordship or dominion whether over their Fellow-labourers which appeareth in their seeking preference over them 3 Joh. 9. or over the People of their charge which appeareth by their taking a way with people rather to compel them to subjection to the Gospel than to perswade them to it contrary to the Apostles practice 1 Cor. 4.21 2 Cor. 12.20 by their making use of the Word or Discipline to vent their own private revenge or to carry their point by meer violence and outwearying of those that oppose them Ezek. 34.4 contrary to the Apostle's precept 2 Tim. 2.24 25. for this is the third evil the Apostle disswadeth from in his fifth direction Neither as being lords over God's heritage 9. The Church and People of God are his inheritance which he hath purchased to himself with his blood Act. 20.28 in which he is the only Lawgiver Isa 33.22 and therefore will never cast off or alienate the same Psal 94.14 The consideration whereof should make all afraid to lord it over his People or to appropriate this stile to themselves which is here given to all the Lord's People as a motive to their Overseers to diligence and a disswasive from usurping dominion over them Neither as being lords over God's heritage 10. That which doth much compleat the Ministers of Jesus Christ is when with their abilities to teach and rule and other inward qualifications they have also such an external conversation as may be alluring to the Flock to follow and worthy of their imitation while they expresse in their practice the graces of God to be in their heart such as faith and love 1 Tim. 4.12 patience under personal injuries 1 Cor. 4.16 humility and self-denial for the good of others 1 Cor. 10.33 and 11.1 for this is the Apostle's last direction without which all the rest suppose they could be where this is wanting would do little good But being ensamples to the Flock Vers 4. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away The Apostle having cleared the duty of the Officers of the Church he giveth them here in the close of the first part of the Chapter some strong motives to fidelity and diligence therein As first That there was a higher Shepherd than they to wit Jesus Christ the Prince of Pastors to take an account of them Secondly That if they were found faithfull and diligent in their duty they might be sure of an eminent degree of glory from Christ at his second coming Thirdly That that glorious reward should remain alwayes the same in it self and be eternally possest by them Hence Learn 1. The most eminent of Christ's Servants have no lesse need of encouragement in their duty than the meanest under their charge their trials and temptations being often greater than others Luke 22.31 and they no lesse subject to discouragement by reason of these than others Cor. 7. 5 6. Therefore the Spirit of the Lord findeth it necessary here to give them encouragement as he did to the Flock before Chap. 4.13 14. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown 2. Jesus Christ is the chief Shepherd the Prince of Pastors the prime Feeder and Ruler as the word signifies of his own Flock from whom all the Under-shepherds the Officers of his House have their Commission Mat. 28.18 19. their furniture or gifts Eph. 4.8 11. and to whom they must all give an account Heb. 13.17 who taketh the prime charge of his own Flock Isa 40.11 and will supply to them the defects of the Shepherds under Him Ezek. 34.11 In all which respects he is here called the chief Shepherd 3. Albeit the Lord useth to give in hand unto his faithfull Servants worth all their pains in his service either by letting them see some successe of their labours 2 Cor. 2.14 or by giving them inward peace from the faith of his approbation when desired successe is wanting Isa 49. 4. Yet he would have them taking their prime encouragement from what they shall get when he and they meet for to the consideration of this the Apostle here leadeth all the Servants of Christ When the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory 4. The reward abiding Christ's faithfull Ministers wherein all the lovers of Christ shall share in their own measure 2 Tim. 4. 8. shall be exceeding compleat and glorious
as the metaphor of a Crown of glory signifieth and such as shall never fade or wax old but unto all eternity shall remain still in its primitive vigour as if a flower should still keep its fairest lustre and sweetest smell which metaphor is also in the words and this may comfort them against the fading of their reputation among men which is incident to the best Joh. 5. 35. Gal. 4.16 for this is here given to the Church-guides as their great encouragement that they are to receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away Vers 5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves unto the elder yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble The Apostle having in the former part of the Chapter exhorted the Officers of the Church to their duty In the second part he pointeth out the duties of the flock whom he designeth by the name of younger not only because the most part of them are ordinarily younger in years than their Officers but mainly because in their disposition and carriage toward their Overseers they should shew some resemblance of that reverence and obedience which is suitable in young ones toward the aged And their duty he holdeth forth in six directions The first which belongeth to them considered only as they are under the charge of their Officers is subjection to them in the Lord which importeth obedience to their message and respect to their persons The second which concerns them mainly as fellow-members of the Church is mutual subjection of one to another in all the duties of love The third which holdeth forth the special mean of attaining to the former two is that they should adorn themselves with a mean esteem of themselves and this the Apostle presseth by two arguments The one is that the Lord opposeth himself to them that lift up themselves And the other is that he giveth his favour and grace to them that abase themselves Hence Learn 1. It is the duty of the Lord's People to be subject to their Rulers whom he hath set over them in his Church by submitting to the duties which they presse upon them from the Word Heb. 13.22 and to the censures they inflict according to the Word 2 Cor. 2.9 by affording them some means of outward subsistance Gal. 6.6 and by giving some respect to their persons because of their Office 1 Cor. 4.1 in respect whereof they are lifted up by the Lord above his People as the word here signifies for the substance of the duty of the flock to their Church Officers is here by the Apostle comprehended in this one word Be subject 2. Whether the Members of the Church be younger or elder in years they should in reference to their Overseers resemble that disposition and carriage which beseemeth young ones toward the elder in their earnest desire of the Word and means of salvation administred by them chap. 2.3 by depending upon them as instruments for counsel in their difficult cases Mal. 2.7 calling for their help and assistance under their crosses Jam. 5.14 and by their meek submission to censures from them Heb. 13.17 for it is mainly in respect of the resemblance that should be betwixt the disposition of the Flock in reference to their Pastors and Overseers and that of Children toward their Parents or such as have the charge of them that the Apostle thus designeth them Ye younger be subject to the elder 3. The obligation of the Lord's People to their duty toward their Overseers is no lesse strait than that of their Overseers to their duty toward them and therefore their hazard in neglecting their duty can be no lesse than theirs for the Apostle beareth in their duty upon them toward their Overseers by such a word as importeth an equality in the strictnesse of the tye Likewise ye younger be subject to the elder 4. There is a mutual subjection due by every one of the Lord's People toward another which consists in their condescendency to reprove one another in love for their faults Lev. 19.17 their instructing and admonishing one another concerning their duty Col. 3.16 in their taking well with reproofs and admonitions one from another Psal 141.5 and in their stooping to all the duties of charity one toward another Gal. 5. 13. and the like All which is comprehended in this second direction given to the Members of the Church in reference to their fellow-members Yea all of you be subject one to another 5. However men appointed for destruction do glory in their pride and violence wherewith they think themselves adorned Psal 73.6 18 19. Yet the grace of humility whereby a Christian hath a mean esteem of himself flowing from the sense of his own sinfulnesse 1 Cor. 15.9 and of the undeserved goodnesse of God 2 Sam. 7.18 20 whereby he is inclined to prefer others to himself Rom. 12.10 not desiring more esteem from others than God alloweth him to have 1 Cor. 3.5 and 4.6 and taketh well with all chastisements from God as lesse than his deserving Ezr. 9.13 is the prime ornament of Christians which they should tye about them and delight to wear as the word here signifies and be no lesse ashamed to appear without than without their clothing Be clothed with humility 6. There can be no right discharge of any duty that the Lord's People owe to Superiours inferiours or equals until they get from God that humble frame of spirit formerly described for this exhortation may be taken for a mean of attaining to the former duties And be clothed with humility 7. Although the Lord may suffer proud sinners to prosper in their sins for a time Psal 73.4 5. Yet he doth still stand in battel array as the word here translated to resist signifieth against them and will take his fittest opportunity to bear down all that live in that sin of pride which doth manifest it self in the slighting of the study of reconciliation with God through Christ Psal 10.4 the neglect of clear duties prest by the Word Neh. 9.16 17 29. and in unthankfulnesse to God for his mercies 2 Chron. 32.25 26. The consideration of which opposition from God should make the study of humility lovely and pride hateful to the Lord's People as they would not have God for their party for this is a reason to presse humility God resisteth the proud 8. The sweet proofs of God's favour and the increase of the graces of his Spirit is that which every humble sinner may expect which should commend the grace of humilitie to them and make them study the exercise of it for both these are comprehended in this second argument pressing them to put on this ornament God giveth grace to the humble Vers 6. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time The Apostle doth here again urge his former exhortation to the study of humility especially under the
for so the Apostle exhorteth Greet ye one another with a kisse of charity 4. The occasion of frequent converse and correspondence among the Lords People ought not to diminish their love or hinder the expressions thereof but rather to encrease the same they who live together being more ready to offend or mistake one another and so to be mutually jealous of the alienation of one anothers affection than those who are at a greater distance whose love should provoke those that are nearer for the Apostle having signified the love of those that were at Babylon to their dispersed Brethren doth here exhort them that had more frequent occasion of meeting and correspondence to greet one another with a kiss of charity 5. As it is the duty of Christ's Ministers heartily to wish all sort of true peace upon all the Members of the visible Church who in regard of their external profession and participation of common gifts and benefits from Christ may be said to be in Him Joh. 15.2 So true spiritual peace which is the calmnesse and contentment of the soul arising from the faith of acceptation with God through Christ when fears of His wrath and jealousies of His love are in some measure banished Rom. 5.1 together with as much outward peace and prosperity as shall be for their true good is the Lords allowance only to real Believers and to all of them whether weaker or stronger and may be in a good measure attained unto in the midst of many troubles by those who are chased out of themselves and by faith planted in the living Vine Christ Jesus for as this Apostolick-benediction may be understood of the Apostle's wish to all the Members of the visible Church So it doth especially respect true Believers therein Peace be to all them that are in Christ Jesus 6. As it is the duty of Christ's Ministers to presse duties upon all Professors So it is their part to guard promises and priviledges by qualifying the persons to whom they do belong for the Apostle having prest the duties of love and expressions thereof upon all indefinitly to whom he writeth in the first part of this Verse he doth in the latter part restrict his wish of Peace qualifying the persons to whom it doth especially belong Peace be to all them that are in Christ Jesus 7. As the Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to enter upon every part of their Imployment with the faith of their Calling and Commission from Him as was observed upon the first words of this Epistle So they ought to close the same with some confidence in their hearts of the blessing of God upon their labours and of His granting their desires for that end for here the Apostle closeth his exhortations and prayers in this Epistle with this word of confidence Amen A BRIEF EXPOSITION Of the second Epistle General of PETER The ARGUMENT THis Epistle may be called the latter Will of a dying Apostle and Martyr of Jesus Christ for when Peter wrote it he knew that he was shortly to seal the Truth in it with his bloud as will be clear by comparing the 14. Verse of this Chap. with Christ's prediction concerning his death Joh. 21.18 It is not directed to any particular Church but to all Believers especially believing Jews scattered at that time through many Nations as appeareth by comparing 1 Pet. 1.1 with the first Verse of this and of the third Chapter The principal heads of Doctrine contained in it make clear the scope and parts of it And they are three The first is concerning a Christians growth in grace and diligence in holy duties which is cleared and pressed chap. 1. The second is concerning error the way of working and hazard whereof is handled chap. 2. The third is concerning the last coming of Christ some errors about it being confuted and the right preparation for it held forth chap. 3. What can be more necessary than to study growth and diligence in so declining and secure a time as this is to guard against error when it so prevaileth and to prepare for the last coming of our Lord when now it is so near and so much forgotten CHAP. 1. THe parts of this Chapter are three In the first which is the preface to the whole Epistle is contained a description of the Apostle and those to whom he writeth in the Inscription ver 1. An Apostolick wish for the best blessings of God to them to wit the growing sense of His love and the fruits thereof in the Salutation ver 2. Grounds of encouragement that it should be according to his wish to wit that there was a saving work of grace already begun in them which he describeth from the cause nature parts and way of working of it ver 3 4. In the second which is the first principal part of the Epistle he exhorteth to diligence and the study of growth in grace reckoning out several steps of their progresse ver 5 6 7. with many moving arguments thereto ver 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. And because there is no growth but by the knowledge and use-making of Christ and Christ is only revealed in the Word preached and written Therefore In the third part of the Chapter there is a commendation of the preaching of the Gospel ver 16. of Christ himself the chief subject thereof ver 17 18. and of the whole written Word from the certainty and usefulnesse thereof ver 19. and from the divine authority thereof ver 20 21. Vers 1. Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ THe Apostle describeth himself 1. from two names which design his person Simon his old name when he was a fisher Peter his new surname given him when Christ called him Mark 1.16 and 3.16 The one minding him of his former ignorant and mean condition the other of the honour Christ put upon him when He made him a lively stone in the Church and a Believer and Preacher of that Truth upon which as a Rock He buildeth His Church which is Christ's own exposition of the name Peter Mat. 16.18 Hence Learn It is very necessary to carry to the end of our time with us the sensible remembrance of what we were before Christ did manifest himself to us and of what His grace hath made us that we may go to Heaven both humble and thankful Therefore the Apostle setteth down these two names here in the beginning of his Testament Simon Peter Next he describeth himself from two stiles which design his office the one common to all the Officers of the Church the other proper to those who had immediate Commission and extraordinary Assistance from Christ to publish the Gospel and work Miracles Hence Learn 1. It is honour enough for the highest Office-bearer in the Church to be a Servant of Christ so doth this Apostle esteem it who never
no provision for a better they do declare that they undervalue the forgivenesse of sins 〈◊〉 for when the esteem of forgivenesse doth not stir up to thankfulnesse and holinesse God esteemeth it forgotten And he that walketh as if he forgot himself to be pardoned cannot comfortably conclude himself to be such a one however he may be esteemed and spoken of by the best as one that hath been purged from his old sins 3. As sins once committed ought still to be esteemed old as rags that are cast off or vomits never to be licked up again So all that either are or do professe or esteem themselves to be pardoned ought to keep the sensible remembrance of the Lord 's pardoning mercy so fresh in their hearts as they may be daily renewing their repentance for their old sins their thankfulness for the forgiveness of them and watchfulness against the like the lack of which lively exercises even in real Believers proveth them to be much forgetful that they have been purged from their old sins Vers 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall Followeth the third and fourth motives to diligence and growth in grace The one is The more of these a Christian attain unto the more shall be his clearnesse and certainty that he was from eternity chosen to life and is in time effectually called The other is That by this means he shall be kept from Apostasie and yeelding to temptations by the way From the third motive Learn 1. Although the election and effectual calling of every soul fled to Christ can be no surer than they are in themselves Rom. 11.29 2 Tim. 2.19 Yet may those priviledges be very unsure and unclear to the apprehension of these that are both chosen and called Therefore they are here exhorted to make them sure 2. As some comfortable measure of the certainty of both may be attained to even by ordinary Believers So this jewel of Assurance doth not fall in the lap of any lazie soul nor can any expect to attain to it or yet to entertain it in whose hearts grace is without exercise and whose conversation is without fruitfulnesse for so the Apostle exhorteth to give all diligence to make them sure importing that without that diligence they cannot be made sure to our hearts From the fourth motive Learn 1. Although none that are chosen and called can finally or totally fall away from grace Yet are they of themselves subject so to do and may actually fall in foul and scandalous sins for a time so much is supposed in this argument to diligence If you do these things ye shall never fall 2. The Lord's way of preserving His own from falling is by helping them to exercise their faith and other graces before named and to entertain so much of the fear of falling finally or scandalously as stirreth them up to give all diligence that their falling either wayes may be prevented for the hazard of falling is here made a motive to stir up Believers to diligence and exercise of grace Vers 11. For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Here is the fifth motive The life of a Christian growing in grace and diligent in duties shall be to him a begun Heaven upon Earth his clearnesse concerning his right to it and his feeling of the first fruits of it being a begun entry into Heaven and the blessing of God upon his pains Hence Learn 1. There is a beginning of Heaven to be had in this life even such a clear sight by faith in the VVord of God reconciled with us in Christ and such fore-tasts of that sweet life we shall have with Him for ever as filleth the heart sometimes with comfort makes duties and difficulties easie as if a Christian were walking in the entry or pâ—rch of Heaven and stepping-in at the open gate thereof Psal 63.5 6. Philip. 3.20 which is to have an entrance abundantly ministred unto us in that everlasting Kingdom 2. As the reward of wel-doing here and hereafter may be proposed to Believers and looked upon by them as a motive to diligence and growth in grace So the only way to win to the beginning of that sweet life here and the full possession of it hereafter is activity in duties and keeping grace in lively exercise for the Apostle doth propose sweet first-fruits to be had here and an eternal reign in Christ's company for ever hereafter as a motive to diligence and the study of growth without which neither can be expected for So saith he an entrance shall be ministred c. Vers 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present Truth As a sixth motive the Apostle applieth his own Doctrine pressing growth and diligence to himself in his Calling as a Minister That since the hazard of negligence and the vantage of diligence was so great as he had cleared therefore he himself would not be negligent in his duty of stirring them up to diligence although he supposed many of them to be both discerning and solid Christians by reason whereof they might conceive so much pressing needlesse Hence Learn 1. While a Minister presseth duties upon People by arguments or motives he ought to apply these motives to himself for his own up-stirring in the duties of his Calling So doth the Apostle here while he saith Wherefore to wit because of the motives whereby I pressed diligence upon you I will not be negligent 2. One kindly motive of a Minister's diligence and earnestnesse with People is the sense he hath of the hazard or benefit may come to souls by slighting or obeying the Truths and Duties pressed So is it with the Apostle here as his own hazard and vantage stirreth him up So his consideration of their hazard and advantage maketh him stir them up 3. As it is the duty and commendation of Christians not to be still fluctuating and unfixed in matters of opinion or practice in Religion So neither the promise of the Spirit to bring all things to their remembrance nor Peoples great knowledge and setlednesse in the Truth doth put them beyond the need of the daily pains of Ministers whose work is not only to point out Believers Priviledges and to inform them of what they know not But to inculcate clear and presse known Truths and Duties even upon discerning and stablished Christians whose imperfection in knowledge forgetfulnesse lazinesse formality and oftentimes conceit that much pressing of known Truths and Duties is needlesse doth require that they should be put in mind though they know and be established in these things Vers 13. Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance The seventh motive serveth both to
in duties a great remnant of hypocrisie deadnesse and unwillingnesse to the practice of many known duties for the Apostle findeth it necessary to write two Epistles for the up-stirring of pure minds or as the word in the Original signifieth minds so sincere that they may be judged by the Sun 5. The Word of the Lord hath most weight with People when not only they that carry it to them are holy and so esteemed by the People but the minds of the hearers are carried above the Messengers to Jesus Christ and their hearts in hearing or reading are filled with some sense of His Soveraignity who doth imploy those Messengers and of His usefulnesse for them in all His Offices Therefore that the Word which the Apostle here exhorteth them to study may have the more weight he leadeth them not only to look upon the Messengers that carried it as holy men but to consider the soveraignity excellency and usefulnesse of Christ in His Offices to which He is anointed Be mindfull of the Words which were spoken by the holy Prophets and of the Commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 6. The way to keep life in the affections of the Lord's People is to have their wit and memory actually exercised about the Truths of God both the Prophesies and Promises of good to the Church and People of God and to presse the Precepts enjoyning their duty for that the Apostle may gain his principal scope to wit the rousing up of their affections he maketh this his speech subordinate thereto That they might be mindful of the Words that were spoken before by the holy Prophets and of the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 7. Although the Lord hath letten forth His mind to His Church by little and little in several Ages of the World and by several Messengers Heb. 1.1 Yet is there such a compleat harmony among all the parts of His Mind that all serve for one and the same principal scope the up-stirring of the Lord's People to a hearty receiving and use-making of Christ and His Truth for unto this scope the Apostle here affirmeth that the whole Doctrine both of the Prophets and Apostles did harmoniously tend Vers 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of His coming For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation That the Apostle may attain his fore-mentioned scope he doth forewarn of the rise of profane mockers toward the end of time who that they might sin the more securely should question the second coming of Christ and plead for an eternity of this present World pretending this reason for it That since the whole frame of Nature had kept one constant tenour and course since the death of Adam Seth Enos and the rest of the first fathers it was not to them credible that ever there should be such a change as was foretold to be at the day of judgment Doct. 1. Variety of very fierce and discouraging opposition in the way of Christ and that from several sorts of enemies is the lot wherewith the Church and People of Christ may resolve to be exercised for the Apostle having forewarned of and guarded against open persecutors in the former Epistle subtil and fair pretending Hereticks in the former Chapter he doth here forewarn ofâ— and guard against a third sort to wit profane scoffers of Christ's second coming 2. The consideration of the hazard that the best are in of being drawn aside some one way or other from the Truth and Way of Christ by such variety of opposition as they ordinarily meet with ought both to stir up Ministers carefully to warn and guard People against the same and People to the use-making of their pains for after the Apostle had guarded against open persecutors and cunning deceivers he doth here bring in the forewarning of the third sort of enemies scoffers which may be taken both for a reason of his pains in writing two Epistles as also for a reason why they should be stirred up by what he had written Knowing this that besides furious persecutors and subtil deceivers they should also be exercised with profane scoffers They who have not been terrified by the first sort nor deceived by the second are in hazard to be discouraged by the third 3. The certainty and necessity of being exercised with variety of opposition in the Way of Christ is one of the principles of Christianity which ought to be held in the first place by all that resolve to adhere to any other saving Truth they who do not first know this and notwithstanding thereof resolve upon adherance to the Truth in Christ's strength will readily when they meet with such a lot be surprised therewith and either forsake the Truth or faint in their adherance to it Therefore the Apostle would have them knowing this first that after several other sorts of enemies there were also to come in the last dayes scoffers 4. There are no such pure or peaceable times to be expected by the Church and People of God within time wherein the fore-mentioned lot is not to be expected they who dream of the best times to the Church on Earth look for them toward the end of time and yet the Spirit of God here forwarneth that beside the rage of persecutors and prevailing of hereticks there shall come in the last dayes scoffers 5. It is a clear evidence that men are slaves to their lusts when they do strongly desire an eternall enjoyment of this present world and labour to banish out of their own hearts the thoughts of a day of judgment Yea their so doing is also the cause why they give up themselves to the service of their lusts the believing consideration of the terror of that day to the wicked being a special help to mortification and of the sweetnesse thereof to the Godly a special encouragement in the battel against corruption for their scoffing at the promise of Christ's second coming may be looked upon here both as the evidence and cause of their walking after their ungodly lusts 6. When men are left of God to vile opinions for not receiving the Truth in love they are then oftentimes plagued further not only with devilish wit to find out seeming reasons for the defence of them very plausible to themselves and others like themselves but also to take manifest falshoods for undeniable grounds of their errors for these mockers here lay all the weight of their blasphemous opinion upon this seeming reason That since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were c. which appeareth from the Apostle's contrary instance ver 6. to be a manifest falshood 7. Although it be a sweet mercy much to be acknowledged by the Lord's People that things in nature do ordinarily keep one constant
inexcusable who except they will exclude themselves are not excluded by such large expressions of the grace of God as are here He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 6. All those whom the Lord mindeth to save in an ordinary way are first brought by Him to a sensible sight of sin and deserved wrath and to such apprehensions of mercy in God for them through Jesus Christ as maketh them turn in to Him grieving for and forsaking their sins and giving up themselves to His service for those whom He willeth not to perish He willeth and maketh to come to repentance Vers 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth also and the works that are therein shall he burnt up The third thing whereby the Apostle laboureth to satisfie the Godly anent the delay of the day of judgment is That that day will be very unexpected and terrible to secure sinners as the coming of a thief in the night useth to be to a sleeping family and that there will be then a great change and dissolution of the whole frame of Nature and of all things wherein most men place their happinesse the inference from which not being exprest but to be collected from the Apostle's scope is That it is the wisdom of the Lord's People rather to prepare for that day than to complain of the delay or to be anxious concerning it Doct. 1. Similitudes made use of in Scripture do not justifie the actions of men whence these similitudes are taken only they do much commend to us the Lord's condescendency and desire to have us taking up His mind while He dimitteth Himself for our capacity to compare His most just and holy actions to these actions among men which are most abominable and hatefull to Him Therefore is the suddenty and terror of Christ's second coming set forth here by the coming of a thief in the night which practice though it be in it self sinfull and condemned by the Lord Yet it is made use of by Him because the terror and suddennesse of it is so well known to men that they may by it the better conceive the manner of Christ's second coming But the day of the Lord will come as a chief in the night 2. Christ's coming at the last day will be a great surprisal to the most part of the children of men who will not be wakened out of their security by the Word to make preparation for it As for these fore-going signs of that day which the Scripture speaketh of such as the destruction of Antichrist the conversion of the Jews and that great alteration of the whole course of Nature some of them may be done in so little time and so immediatly before that day and others of them so little taken notice of or believed as signs of that day that notwithstanding of them all the most part shall be surprized with it as with the coming of a thief in the night 3. That day of judgment will be a most terrible day to all who do not expect and prepare for it There will be a strange sight and a dreadfull noise when this great Workmanship being on fire shall all rush down and all the delights of wicked men shall be burnt up before their eyes The Lord thereby testifying His displeasure against mens placing their happinesse in these things and their defiling of them by making them subservient to their lusts mean time signifying His purpose to give a more cleanly and glorious Mansion to His own to dwell in In that day the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up As for questions which may be stated here it is much more safe for us to give time and pains that we may be found of Him in peace at that day than to be taken up in enquiring and determining whether the visible Heavens and the Earth and the rest of the creatures of that kind shall then be totally and for ever annihilated or whether there shall be a new edition of them all or of some of them only to be lasting monuments of the power and glory of the Maker and so ravishing objects of the Saints delight who may through that new world follow the Lamb where-ever He goeth Vers 11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse In this second part of the Chapter are contained the several uses which the Apostle draweth from his former Doctrine concerning the last judgment and they are especially six The first which is in this Verse is That the consideration of that day should make all the Lord's People very inquisitive how they may be more and more forth-coming for His honour in the discharge of all the duties of holinesse especially those whereby He may be glorified in their conversation Hence Learn 1. The Ministers of Christ ought not to satisfie themselves to draw the Lord's People to a naked contemplation of the Truth which Hypocrites yea Devils may attain unto Jam. 2.19 But they ought to draw every Truth they propound to them to some practical use for the promoting of holinesse in the hearts and lives of their hearers without which peoples condemnation will be greater than if they had not heard or known these Truths 2 Pet. 2.21 Therefore the Apostle doth not think it enough to have defended by reason the second coming of Christ and to tell them of strange events to fall forth at that day But doth here and to the end of the Chapter apply all to them for their use Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be c 2. The whole creation is now in a manner imprisoned and in bondage while they are abused contrary to their inclination to the service of mens lusts and dishonour of their Maker from which slavery they shall be loosed at Christs coming Rom. 8.21 for the word in the original here is used to signify the loosing of a captive or prisoner out of his bonds Act. 22.30 These things shall be dissolved 3. The consideration of this dissolution of the creatures should make these of the Lord's People that are furthest promoted in holinesse very inquisitive after and still aspiring toward a further degree of holinesse than what they have formerly attained knowing that the greater degree of holinesse they attain unto the more comfort shall they have now and the more glory when Christ cometh for the Apostle putteth this question to his own heart and the hearts of all the Lord's People What manner of persons ought ye to be c 4. That holinesse which should be aimed at by
the consideration of that work which the Lord is about during the delay how much it serveth for the advancement of our spiritual and eternal welfare for this way would the Apostle have the Lord's People to lay their reckoning that every dayes sparing of the world is given to them for making fast-work of their peace with God and fitting of them for glory that so their hearts might be quieted under the delay And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation 2. These Truths which have been often and by several of the Lords Ministers harmoniously prest upon the Lords people ought to have a special weight with them as being attested by many witnesses to be the mind of God more fully cleared and offered with a new relish from several hands for by this the Apostle bears-in the study of holiness and preparation for the day of judgment that both he and the Apostle Paul had agreed in substance upon the use that was to be made of the doctrine of Christ's second coming Even as our beloved brother Paul also hath written 3. All the faithfull Ministers of Christ ought to be so far from lifting up themselves above their fellow-labourers or lessening the reputation of their persons and labours among the Lords People even although their fellow-labourers be in some things inferiour to them or differing from them yea and have sharply rebuked them for their failings That by the contrary they ought to entertain and to expresse love and esteem of them and to conciliate respect to them and to their gifts and labours among the Lord's People â— for this Apostle who had the advantage of Paul in the priority of his calling to the Ministery and acquaintance with Christ in the flesh whom Paul had withstood to the face and whose failings he had registred in one of his Epistles Gal. 2.11 14. doth not lift up himself above Paul nor labour to weaken his esteem but doth write of him as his equal beloved by him and faithful according to his gifts and doth commend his Writings as useful for this people Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written 4. The Lord hath not given a like measure of gifts and qualifications for His Service to all his faithful Servants but to some moe to some fewer talents that every one may make use of another and none may expect fulnesse but in Christ Himself for that there were diverse measures even among the Apostles is imported in this that Paul according to the wisdom given unto him hath written 5. Whatever measure of gifts or graces any have more than another it is a free gift of God's and therfore ought to be humbly and thankfully possest and carefully imployed for His honour who ought to be acknowledged as author of these gifts not only by those that have them but by every one who doth discern them in others for while this Apostle speaketh of Paul's wisdom He calleth it the wisdom given him 6. It is the prime commendation of a faithfull Minister that he hath faithfully imployed his measure whether it be lesse or more in serving Christ and doing good to the souls of His People for here it is Paul's commendation that according to the wisdom given him he hath written 7. Although it be the duty of one faithful Minister to keep up the credit of another among the People Yet ought their commendations one of another to be in sobriety such as may not detract from the due esteem of those whom they do not commend and such as may lead peoples thoughts above them that are commended to God as the author and free-giver of any thing commendable in them for this Apostle doth sufficiently commend Paul his Writings while he saith of him According to the measure given him he hath written 8. Although it be both the sin and the character of false teachers to steal the words and lessen the estimation of other ministers that are more in esteem than themselves that thereby they may cloak their own lazinesse and want of God's calling Jer. 23.30 Yet it is very lawfull and the duty of the most eminent Ministers of Christ to make use of the Gifts and Writings of their Fellow-labourers for clearing of the Truth to themselves and others and sometimes to cite their testimony for gaining the greater credit to Truth with people for so doth this Apostle here who not only presseth the same Truth that Paul had prest but is not ashamed to a vow that he had perused Pauls Writings to those Hebrews as also all the rest of his Epistles wherein he had found that which did agree with his doctrine Even as our beloved brother Paul hath also written 9. Although the Apostle Paul hath not put his name to that Epistle to the Hebrews which is extant in the New Testament either because he was hatefull to the unconverted Jews or suspected by weak Converts who were too much addicted to the Levitical Law or because he was sufficiently known and of unquestioned authority with the stronger sort Yet this place of Scripture putteth it out of doubt that he is the Author thereof for it is clear that this Apostle writeth both his Epistles to the Twelve Tribes by comparing 1 Epist 1.1 and 2 Epist 1.1 with 1 Epist 2.12 and here he asserteth that Paul also had written to them which writing of Paul's can be no other than that Epistle to the Hebrews which is extant 1. Because the purpose in Paul's writing to which this Apostle here relateth is clearly held forth there in Heb. 10 35 36. 2. Because that which this Apostle speaketh in the following Verse concerning the difficulty of understanding some passages in Paul's writing doth especially agree to that Epistle And 3. because that writing of Paul's to the Hebrews whereof this Apostle here speaketh cannot be supposed to be lost except we would reflect both upon the providence of God and upon the fidelity of those to whom the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 whose faithfulnesse in that matter the Lord hath never challenged Even as our beloved brother Paul hath written unto you Vers 16. As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things in which are somethings hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction The Apostle having confirmed his doctrine from Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews taketh occasion to commend all the rest of his Epistles as confirming the same Truth and withall removeth a prejudice which hath been at that time rife against Pauls Writings as dark and obscure showing that there were only some few things in his Writings hard to be understood which none but unhumbled and wanton spirits would pervert and mistake as they would do much more of the Scripture to their own damnation Hence Learn 1. Although the frequent pressing of necessary Truths upon People be
incarnation of Christ and the clearer out-breaking of the light of the Gospel which reveals Him should think the Lord hath had a special respect to them and hath in a peculiar manner designed Christ for them and manifested Him to them that they may be more eminent in holiness and thankfulness to Him for to this end the Apostle speaks thus of Christ Manifested in these last times for you 5. Although experience hath proven that there was a considerable part of time to be after Christs incarnation yet all that is but the last time in regard it is to be much shorter than the time that was before and because after that time though there be a continual increase of knowledge and grace to be expected Ezek. 47.1 c. Yet there is no more change of that way of Worship and Ordinances which Christ setled before He left the world Mat. 28.18 19 20. for which cause among others the times after Christs incarnation are here called The last times Vers 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God Having commended Christ the Redeemer he describeth those for whose sakes He was appointed and manifested to wit those who do by Faith flee to God thorow Him and that they may be the more encouraged so to do he leads them to consider the Father as one fully satisfied with the ransom paid for sinners by Jesus Christ seing after the payment of it He hath exalted and glorified Him for this very end That the Faith of sinners may safely and comfortably rest upon God as now pacified toward all that flee to Him thorow Christ Which purpose doth contain the ninth argument to the study of holiness That since the Father hath exalted and glorified our Cautioner in our nature for this very end that we may confidently draw near to Him as to our own reconciled God we ought therefore to live to the honour of the Father and the Son in the study of holiness Hence Learn 1. When ever the Ministers of Christ hold forth the ransom paid by Christ for sinners and the benefits purchased thereby to them they ought also to design and describe the persons who may appropriate the same to themselves and ought not to propose that which is peculiar to some Joh. 10.15 as common to all So shall the few that have right to apply the benefits of His Redemption be the more sure and comforted and others shall not be disappointed for so doth the Apostle here while having described Christ the Redeemer and set forth some of the benefits of His Redemption he comes next to describe what manner of persons they are who may comfort themselves in that Redemption purchased by Him even those who by Him do believe in God 2. Although our Faith may close with any one of the blessed Persons of the Trinity providing we do not divide in our thoughts the Divine Essence which is One in all the Three 1 Joh. 5.7 Yet God the Father considered as the fountain of the Deity to whom we come thorow the Second Person cloathed with our flesh being helped by the holy Spirit the Third Person is that full and most satisfying object with which saving Faith closeth when it acts most distinctly for such an object is here proposed with which the Faith of the Redeemed doth close to wit the whole Godhead in the Father apprehended as ours by the Son incarnate thorow the help of the Spirit as the next verse compared with this makes clear 3. There is no closing with God as ours but by the Mediatour Christ in whom God trysts with sinners who hath merited Gods favour to them the power to believe the same and actually works that Faith in them Who by Him do believe in God 4. Although Jesus Christ being the same God equal with the Father Philip. 2.6 did by His own proper vertue raise Himself from the dead Joh. 2.19 and 10.18 Yet to assure us of the Fathers full satisfaction with the price paid by our Cautioner and because the power of all the Three Persons is one and the actions ascribed to any of them in reference to the creatures are common to all His raising from the dead and exaltation is here as frequently elswhere in Scripture Eph. 1.20 Philip. 2.9 attributed to the Father who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory 5. Gods justice is fully satisfied in the behalf of all that flee to Him through Jesus Christ because their Cautioner is liberate and glory is insured to all such their Head being already possessed in it for in testimony that His satisfaction for the Elect is accepted God hath raised Him from the dead and as a sure pledge that His Members shall be glorified He hath given Him glory that your faith and hope might be in God Vers 22. Seing ye have purified your souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently The tenth motive to presse upon Believers the study of holiness is taken from the former progress they had made therein whence the Apostle infers an exhortation to that particular duty of holiness to wit love to the Saints The sum of both is That since by the power of Christ's Spirit enabling them to obey the Gospel they had gotten their heart-corruptions so far purged out as to attain unto some sincere affection unto the rest of the Lords People Therefore they should study to grow in grace particularly in love to the Saints and that they should labour to have such love to them as sloweth from a sincere desire of their good and by the effects of it doth prove it self to be such Hence Learn 1. The fairer beginnings and further progress any have already made in the way of holiness they should find themselves the more strongly obliged to hold on in that way lest they lose the fruit of their former pains 2 Joh. 8. and prove more dishonourable to God and offensive to others than if they had never entered or made such progress in that way 2 Pet. 2.22 for the Apostle here makes former progress in holiness a motive to further progress therein Seing you have purified your souls c. see that ye love c. 2. As all those whom the Lord hath savingly enlightened and renewed will discern in their souls many filthy and unclean roots besides any that have broken out so their great work should be to have their souls purged from those knowing that from the polluted fountain of the heart flows all the pollution of the life Mat. 15.19 and that except the heart be in some measure cleansed all the purity of the outside is loathsom to God Mat. 23.27 for the Apostle thus describeth the Regenerate that they have purified their souls 3. Although it be the alone work of God as the principal efficient cause
doing 4. The lively and frequent exercise of Faith draweth vertue from Christ to make the Believer resemble Him in those communicable perfections of His wherewith the Scripture holds Him forth adorned and to be closed with by sinners so that under whatsoever consideration of Christ held forth in Scripture sinners do close with Him they are thereby in some measure changed to some likeness with Him in that consideration if the unclean soul close with Him offered under the consideration of a fountain it becomes in some measure like Him in purity and holinesse if the dead sinner receive Him offered as life he becomes to live like Him if the unstable soul come to Him as the foundation-stone it grows stable as a stone and so of every consideration under which Christ offered in the Word is closed with for He being before proposed under the consideration of a living stone as the object of Faith to be closed with the Apostle here affirms that they who did so close with Him should find that by their so doing they also as lively stones should be built up 5. Those souls who may expect that the Lord will keep communion with them and dwell familiarly in them as in His House must labour to be made spiritual in their minds enlightened and elevated to discern things spiritual which the natural man cannot do 1 Cor. 2.14 15. Pro. 8.12 in their affections humbled in the sense of their unworthiness and sinfulness Isa 57.15 confident of their acceptation with God through Christ Heb. 6.3 chearfull in Him as reconciled to them Psal 22.3 loathing sin and loving holiness 2 Cor. 6.16 c. and all persons that are holy 1 Joh. 4.16 All which the Scriptures cited make clear to be parts of a spiritual frame which is to be studied by all those who may expect the Lord to dwell in them as in His House for Believers in order to their enjoying of fellowship with Christ are here said to be built up a spiritual house 6. The more heartily and frequently sinners flee to and make use of Jesus Christ as the Gospel offers Him the more fit are they to be an habitation for Him to dwell in and the more familiarly will He converse with them and that because the only way to attain to and grow in a spiritual frame which makes sinners a fit habitation for the Lord to dwell in is to be daily flying to and making use of Jesus Christ who gives the Spirit for working of that frame 2 Cor. 3.18 for Believers by coming to Him ver 4. are here said to be built up a spiritual house 7. Near union with Jesus Christ and daily use-making of Him by Faith is the best way to make the Saints one among themselves the division difference of judgment and alienation of affection among them proves one or other or all of them to be at a distance from Him for while the Apostle saith To whom coming c. Ye are built up a spiritual house he doth import That Believers by their closing with and use-making of Jesus Christ are as closely united one of them to another as the stones of a building are 3. Every particular Believer should esteem himself a part of the Church universal which maketh up one house to God 1 Tim. 3.15 and so should seek the good thereof Psal 122.9 and sympathize with the sufferings of the whole or any member thereof 1 Cor. 12.25 26. seing they are built up to wit in the universal Church with the rest of the members thereof a spiritual house 9. Although the most eminent Believers may not take upon them any part of the Ministerial Office without a lawful and orderly calling thereunto Rom. 10.15 Heb. 5 4. yet all Professours of Christianity do in some respects resemble the Priests under the Law in so far as they are separated by the Lord from all the rest of the world and true Believers among them do receive that unction from the Lord to wit His holy Spirit 1 Joh. 2.20 which was signified by that oyl wherewith the Priests were anointed Exod. 28.41 and have their service accepted while others are rejected Prov. 15.8 in which respects they are here called An holy Priesthood 10. Although internal or real holiness be not the necessary qualification which maketh one a member of the visible Church Act. 8.13 Joh. 15.2 Yet is it the duty of all to study that holiness and the mark of all the true and lively members of the Church to be endued therewith therefore they are here called A holy Priesthood 11. The great imployment of Believers in Jesus Christ is to offer sacrifices to God not typical which are now abolished by Christ Heb. 10.1 c. nor expiatory which Christ alone hath once offered never to be repeated Heb. 7.27 but gratulatory in testimony of their thankfulness to Him for that sacrifice of Himself for them such as the sacrifice of themselves for His service Rom. 12.1 their penitent and humble supplications Psal 51.17 and 141.2 their praises Heb. 13.15 and their charity to his Saints Philip. 4.18 These and the like are they to ofter who are a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices 12. What ever sacrifices of this sort Believers offer up to God they must be spiritual done from a spiritual principle a new nature Ezek. 36.26 27. upon spiritual furniture the strength of Christ Philip. 4.13 and for a spiritual end the glory of Christ 1 Cor. 10.31 In which and the like respects they are here called spiritual sacrifices 13. Such spiritual sacrifices as Believers offer up to God are well-pleasing to Him not for any worth that is in them Isa 64.6 or advantage they can be to Him Psal 16.2 Act. 17.25 But because they are presented to God by Jesus Christ who taketh away the iniquity of their holy things Exod. 28.38 and doth perfume their service with the incense of his merits Rev. 8.3 Therefore are their sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Vers 6. Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone elect precious and be that believeth on Him shall not he confounded The Apostle doth confirm his former Doctrine concerning the usefulness and excellency of Jesus Christ for the Church and Believers in Him by a testimony of Scripture which though no particular place be here cited is to be found Isa 28.16 And withall he adds two further arguments to move them to that hearty receiving of the Gospel and use-making of Christ offered in it which he hath prest in the former words The one is That we have Jesus Christ who is the Father's choice and highly esteemed by Him with the Father's great good will laid in the Church as the foundation and chief corner-stone thereof for every soul to flee to and rest upon The other is That whosoever betake themselves to Him by Faith shall never need to be ashamed of their so doing Hence Learn 1. The Ministers of Christ
were all of them federally holy and some of them endued with true sanctification and so were a holy Nation Fourthly That all of them who did externally subject themselves to Christ were owned by him as his propriety and prime interest in comparison of the rest of the world and true Believers among them as his Elect and Redeemed Ones and so were a peculiar People And all for this end that they might in their practice commend and express his properties to his praise who had called all of them externally and some of them effectually out of the state of sin and wrath to a state of favour and happiness Which purpose containeth two further arguments to press a hearty receiving of the Gospel and daily use-making of Christ offered in it in order to their spiritual growth The one taken from the excellency of their present estate in the several fore-mentioned particulars The other from that wonderful change which God had made upon them from so wofull to so blessed a condition Hence Learn 1. It is very safe and suitable to Scripture-language to give unto the whole visible Church and all the Professours within the same these stiles and compellations which do only agree in their full and best signification to true Believers Suppose the most part within the visible Church void of saving grace yet in respect of the rest of the world and by vertue of that Covenant which is betwixt the Lord and her and all her Members Deut. 26.17 c. and 29.10 c. all Professors may in some sense have all the stiles that are here in the Text and others like them for though these stiles be most truly verified in Believers Yet did the Lord of old give them unto the whole Church of the Jews and the Apostle here giveth them indefinitly to all the nation of the Jews who were professours of Christ to whom he writeth though with a special eye to those who were true Believers among them Ye are a chosen Generation c. 2. So excellent is that state whereunto sinners are advanced by believing in Jesus Christ that the sharpest sighted in the world the longer they look upon it will still see more and more of the excellency and priviledges thereof The discovery whereof to the Lord's People especially while they are under affliction should much take up the heart and pains of all the Ministers of Christ it being his peoples prime comfort under all their crosses and their chief motive to all their duties that they are in so excellent a spiritual state for after the Apostle hath largely described it in the former Chapter and spoken much of it in the former part of this he cometh yet again upon the branching out of it here But ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood c. All which stiles do most truly agree to true Believers 3. They who do by Faith choose Jesus Christ for their portion who entertain in their hearts a high esteem of him and do make use of him daily for growth in grace and holiness They have the characters and marks of such as have been from eternity elected of God and in time effectually called there being no other ordinary way to evidence the latter to us but by the former 2 Pet. 1.10 for of Election and effectual calling in reference to true Believers may this be understood which here the Apostle affirmeth of those to whom he said before that Christ was precious But ye are a chosen Generation 4. As that dignity whereunto sinners are advanced by flying to Jesus Christ doth in a spiritual sense resemble that of the Priests under the Law as was cleared in the tenth Doctrine upon the fifth Verse So are they also thereby brought unto a kingly dignity and in a spiritual sense they only are truly royal having a new nature in some measure resembling the divine 2 Pet. 1.4 being co-heirs with Jesus Christ Rom. 8.17 of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 and more than conquerors over all their spiritual enemies Rom. 8.37 In all which and the like respects they are a Royal Priesthood 5. Our union with Jesus doth not only oblige us to keep a distance from the disposition and profane fashions of the men whose portion is in this earth and to consecrate our selves wholly for the Lords use in the study of holiness but likewise it doth really make Believers a holy People In so far as he is daily made use of by Faith their hearts are purged from the love of their lusts Act. 15.9 and they are made to exercise other graces and duties of holinesse wherein he is honoured Gal. 5.6 for this third branch of the commendation of their excellent state includeth both their duty and their priviledge They are a holy Nation 6. As all the people on earth are the Lords they being all the works of his hand and under the disposal of his providence Act. 17.26 and all the Members of the Church visible are His in a more peculiar way than others Amos 3.2 So Believers in Jesus Christ are in a most special way his propriety and peculiar interest whom he hath purchased to himself at a dear rate Act. 20 28. and made new again by a second creation Eph. 2.10 in whom he doth delight Zeph. 3.17 and whom also he will maintain and never forsake Psal 94.14 for this is the fourth branch of the dignity of his People which doth in some sense agree to the whole company of Professours and most truly to true Believers that they are a peculiar People 7. That which is the Lords end in bestowing all these priviledges upon Believers and which they should make the great end and business of their life is That they may shew forth the praises of the Lord by numbering out as the Hebrew word Isa 43 21. which the Apostle here translateth doth signifie to the Lord himself his blessed perfections or vertues as the word here rendred praises is in the original or rather by their prudent and seasonable commending to others his properties such as his Wisdom Power Terror Sweetness Faithfulness manifested in his dealing Psal 145.4 c. 10 c. that so others may be stirred up to serve him and praise him but especially by their expressing and holding forth in their practise some resemblance of his properties to his praise Philip. 2.15 16. by their prudent and wise carriage declaring to on-lookers that he is most wise by whose counsel they are guided by their hazarding upon affliction rather than sin demonstrating his terror to be above the terror of flesh and by their patience and chearfulness under crosses and trials proclaming to discerning beholders that his power is great that sustains them and his consolations sweet that do refresh their hearts under such afflictions and make up the bitterness of them for this is here set down as the end of all the fore-mentioned priviledges and the compend of Believers duty that they should shew
wit before their conversion they had not obtained mercy 5. The closing of sinners by Faith with Jesus Christ as the Gospel offers him to them doth bring them to a most sweet and excellent state namely to be owned and dealt with by the Lord as his People in a most special manner whom he will never forsake Psal 94.14 and to obtain mercy of him for pardoning their daily sinfulness Mica 7.18 for pitying and supplying as is fitting all their necessities as the word here translated to obtain mercy signifies and for bearing them through all the straits of their life Psal 23 6. and at last crowning them with glory 2 Tim. 1.18 All which is comprehended under this That they are now the people of God and have now obtained mercy 6. Of all miseries that can be exprest to live in an unconverted state under unpardoned sin is the greatest And of all priviledges in this world to be brought out of that state and to obtain mercy is the greatest and the most engaging to the study of holiness for the one is here held forth as the depth of misery and the other as the height of happiness and the change from the one to the other as one of the strongest engagements to duty lying upon those who in time past were not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy Vers 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul The Apostle repeateth and enlargeth that which he pressed in the first Verse of this Chapter in order to their spiritual growth to wit That they should keep up the battel against their inward unmortified lusts and this is prest by three arguments The first is taken from Christ's affection and the Apostle's toward them as being dearly beloved of both The second from their hard lot in the world that they were strangers and pilgrims which was verified in a special way of these scattered Hebrews to whom he writes And the third is from the hazard of the prevailing of these lusts which is no lesse than the eternal ruine of the soul Hence Learn 1. There doth remain even in those who are far advanced in mortification such swarms of sinfull motions and strong inclinations to evils yet in a great part unmortified in them and so prone are they to give way to them and to fall slack in the battel against them that they have great need of exhortation upon exhortation and of one motive upon the back of another to stir them up to that exercise for even these whom the Apostle supponed to have made some progress in mortification Chap. 1. ver 22. and whom he had exhorted to further progress therein in the first Verse of this Chapter he doth here again exhort very earnestly to the same by several arguments Dearly beloved I beseech you abstain from fleshly lusts c. 2. True mortification of sin consisteth not only in abstenance from the outward acts thereof but in the weakning of the root and power of sin within and the inclinations and desires of the soul after the acting thereof which are here called fleshly lusts in regard they tend to the gratifying and pleasing of the flesh and are acted by the outward man abstain from fleshly lusts 3. The best way for Believers to fit themselves for the shewing forth of the praises of God in their practise is To set about the mortifying of those motions and inclinations to sin that remain in their heart these being the cause of all the out-breakings which dishonour God in their conversation Jam. 4.1 for this exhortation may safely be taken as the mean of attaining to that which is the great end of Christians calling exprest in the former Verse That they may shew forth his praise they must abstain from fleshly lusts 4. The love of the Lord manifested toward sinners should be a very strong argument to move them to fight against these lusts which dishonour him and mar the sense of his love and the further manifestation thereof for this stile Dearly beloved may be taken as an argument to the duty prest and understood mainly of the love of God to his People because the Apostle Paul Rom. 9.25 citing the place which this Apostle cited immediatly before doth find in it this stile in reference to God and therefore this Apostle may be conceived to make use of it here in the same sense as a motive to the study of mortification Dearly beloved abstain c. 5. Those who presse people to the mortifying of their beloved lusts had need not only to entertain much love to them in their hearts that so they may deal earnestly with them but likewise by some prudent expressions of their love to them insinuate themselves upon their affections that so the stirring of their passions which are ready to rise when unmortified corruptions are touched both in good 2 Chron. 16.10 and bad Mat. 14.4 5. may be prevented Therfore the Apostle breaths forth his affection to this People which may be safely taken to be also comprehended in this compellation as following after Christ and moving the Apostle to much earnestness Dearly beloved I beseech you abstain c. 6. As it may be the lot of those who in regard of their right to the Covenant of Grace and the benefits thereof are no more strangers and foreiners but fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the Houshold of God to be separated from their native Country as these Christian Hebrews were to whom this is spoken So what ever their condition in the world be they ought to esteem and confess themselves as the best of God's Saints have done Heb. 11.13 strangers and pilgrims who are absent from their own Country 2 Cor. 5.6 and may expect hard usage in their way Gen. 31.15 who ought to lay aside every thing that may hinder them in their journey Heb. 12.1 and have their hearts still homward Heb. 11.16 who should take little pleasure in the delights that offer themselves in the course of their pilgrimage Gen. 23.4 and esteem it a great honour to get leave to do any piece of service to God while they are upon their journey 1 Chron. 29.15 and should count much of any mercifull providence they meet with Ruth 2.10 and make their case an argument to God for his pity and kindness Psal 119.19 and a motive to themselves to abstain from every thing that may hinder them in their journey homward for this is brought in by the Apostle as an argument to all the duties of holiness and especially to the study of mortification that they were strangers and pilgrims 7. The inward motions of unmortified corruptions which are in the Godly do not only fight against the welfare of their bodies Prov. 14. 30. against that light and knowledge of God which is in their understandings Rom. 7.23 and against the graces and motions of God's
another under their necessities Gal. 6.10 But also to love the society one of another both in the exercise of publick Ordinances to which Christ hath promised his special presence Mat. 18.20 and in the more private duties of mutual edification which are very pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.16 and profitable to themselves Heb. 3.12 13. for the Apostle having exhorted to honour all men subjoyneth this as a further degree of respect not only to the Saints themselves But as the word signifies to their society Love the Brotherhood 5. It should be the great care of the Children of God to carry along in the discharge of every duty the fear of God in their hearts which is a frame of spirit that he worketh in all that are in Covenant with him Jer. 32.40 whereby they hate every known sin Prov. 8.13 and in obedience to him aim at every commanded duty especially those of their particular relations 2 Chron. 19.7 and is entertained by the believing consideration of the terror of the Lord Psa 119.119 120. his excellency Job 13.11 his goodness Hos 3.5 and his pronenesse to pardon sin Psal 130.4 All which is comprehended under this duty which seasoneth all the rest here pressed Fear God 6. There is a special measure of honour and respect due by the Lords People unto those whom God hath set in Lawfull Authority over them beyond what is due to any others on earth by reason of their place wherein they resemble the Majesty of God to his People Psal 82.6 for the Apostle having exhorted in the beginning of this Verse to honour all men as if that honour which is due to all were not sufficient for Magistrates he closeth the Verse with this Honour the King 7. The Lord's People are so to honour Magistrates as that they forget not the fear of the Lord and the duties comprehended under it in the first place without which no duty can be faithfully discharged to any man Luke 18.2 for this is not only the order of the words here but of the purpose it self Fear God Honour the King 8. These duties against which the hearts of the Godly have some prejudice and the neglect whereof proveth most offensive to the profane had need to be frequently and earnestly prest upon the Lord's People for this duty was unpleasant to many Professors and the profane apprehending it to be so to all were incensed against Christians Therefore the Apostle having pressed it before ver 14. reneweth his exhortation to it here again Honour the King Vers 18. Servants be subject to your masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward The second exhortation to the study of holinesse for shewing forth the praises of God is directed to Christian Servants in which rank the greatest number of Believers then were who seem to have been in hazard under pretence of their christian liberty not only to shake off subjection to Magistrates as was shewen before but to their particular Masters the most part whereof were also at that time Heathens unto whom the Apostle presseth Christian Servants to give subjection and obedience with all fear to wit of offending God or their Masters and that not only to the better and more equitable sort of them but even to the more austere and inhumane Hence Learn 1. As the Children of the Lord in the meanest and hardest condition wherein his providence doth cast them may be instrumentall in bringing some glory to Him So He is especially glorified by them in their conscionable discharge of the particular duties of that relation wherein they are fixed for the Apostle having shewen the end of all Believers priviledges to be that they might shew forth the praises of God ver 9. holdeth forth this to persecuted Christian Servants as one principal way of shewing forth His praises Servants be subject to your Masters 2. One wrong principle being admitted in the minds of Christians concerning the matters of God may be the occasion and rise of manifold disorders in their practice for it is clear from the former purpose that the mistake of Christians concerning the nature of their christian liberty did make them apprehend themselves exempted from subjection to Magistracy and by this exhortation immediatly subjoyned compared with 1 Cor. 7.20 21 22. it doth appear that the same mistake hath prevailed to make Servants apprehend exemption from subjection to their Heathen Masters which makes the Apostle find it necessary to presse them to this duty Servants be subject to your Masters 3. Although there be some of the great ones of the earth given by the Father to Christ the Mediator who will therefore receive Him and subject themselves to Him Psal 72.10 Yet the most part of His Subjects and Servants are of the poorest and meanest in the world whom He chooses to commend the freedom of His grace and the condescendency of His love which often lights upon the Servant and passeth by the Master for it would seem there hath not been many Magistrates or Masters in those Nations where these believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle writes were scattered who have been fit to be spoken to which makes the Apostle omit them and speak to their Subjects in the former words and to their Servants here Servants be subject to your Masters 4. Christian liberty doth not exempt Christian Servants from subjection to their Masters though they were Heathens but doth consist with obeying all their lawful commands heartily and as service to God Col. 3.22 23. in giving due respect to their persons as being placed above them as the word here signifieth for this is here prest upon the chosen Generation and such as were truly free by Jesus Christ Servants be subject to your Masters 5. Not only the immediate acts of God's Worship and Service should be gone about with much fear and reverence to Him in the heart Psal 2.11 but even these outward duties which we owe to men should be seasoned therewith that so Christians even while they are employed in most common duties may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 for this is the qualification of that subjection which Christian Servants owe to their Masters Be subject with all fear 6. It may be the lot of the Lords dearest People not only to be in the rank of Servants which is a part of their likeness to their Lord for His outward state in the flesh Philip. 2.7 but likewise to be by divine providence put to serve Heathens and the worst of Heathens that so the Lord may make them instrumental to do good to some of these 2 King 5.2 3. or convince them that God is with their Servants Gen. 31.44 for here the Apostle suppones some of the chosen Generation and the peculiar People to be Servants to Heathens and to froward and perverse Heathens 7. Although all that are without the saving knowledge of God in Christ be in a like damnable
and cursed estate Eph. 2.3 Yet there may be amongst them much difference of disposition some of them being of a more bountiful and liberal temper as the word here rendered good may signifie Mat. 20.15 and lesse rigid in exacting all that in strict justice they might as the word translated gentle doth import others of them more perverse and harder to have dealing with according to the signification of this word froward which difference doth mainly flow from the Lord 's various dispensation of the gifts of nature and his common influences for improving the same according to His Soveraign pleasure for here among wicked and heathen Masters there are some good and equitable or moderate to wit in comparison of some others of them and there are others who are more perverse or froward 8. The wickednesse of those to whom in God's providence Christians are tied by any relation doth not exempt them from making conscience of the duties of that relation toward those to whom they are tied the ground of our duty not being the qualification of the person to whom we owe it but the Command of God obliging us to it Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward Vers 19. For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully 20. For what glory is it if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God From this to the end of the Chapter the Apostle bringeth many arguments to presse upon Christian Servants dutifulness to their Pagan-Masters and patient suffering of injuries from them in following their duty to Christ The first is That if they did out of respect to Christ's command and glory hold on in their duty notwithstanding of hardest sufferings He should graciously reward their so doing as acceptable service to Him ver 19. The second is That it would be a great disgrace for Christians to deserve by their miscarriage hard usage from Heathens but if they were faithful in their duty and patient under sufferings for it they might be sure of God's approbation ver 20. Hence Learn 1. Although neither our doing nor our suffering can merit any thing at God's hand it being wholly His grace as the first expression ver 19. may be rendered from the Original that enables us for both Philip. 1.29 Yet when His grace hath in some measure enabled us for both He is pleased to esteem thereof as if it were worthy of thanks from Him and graciously to reward it with a further increase of grace and ability to do and suffer Mat. 25.19 with begun peace and consolation in the heart under sufferings for duty to Him 2 Cor. 1.5 as earnest of the full reward which His grace is to bestow at last Rev. 3.4 5. which ought to be a sufficient encouragement to the Godly in their duty against all their sufferings from men for which end it is held forth here for This is thank-worthy or as the Original may be rendered this is grace 2. God doth not so much respect the sufferings of Professors even for Truth and Duty seing Hypocrites may attain thereunto 1 Cor. 13.3 as He looks unto the principle and manner of their sufferings whether they suffer because of their former engagements by profession or otherwise and because they desire to carry a name and esteem of religious persons to the end with them or whether they suffer out of conscience toward God that is in obedience to Him who commands them to choose affliction rather than sin and from a desire to please and honour Him by bearing Testimony to His Truth by suffering for this suffering and this only is reckoned thank-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully 3. Although the Lord sometimes keeps heavinesse and grief off the spirits of his People under such sufferings as are very heavie and grievous in themselves Act. 16.25 Yet at other times He sees it sitting not only to exercise them with hard and unjust sufferings from men but likewise with many sad weights upon their spirits under these sufferings arising partly from the sight of God's dishonour by their enemies Psal 42.3 and partly from the fear of their own miscarriage under their trials Joh. 14.1 together with their mis-belief of the Promise of their through-bearing and out-gate Psal 116.11 both which exercises together are sometimes necessary for the Godly that they may be compleatly denied to their own strength and courage and may be taught to depend on God for their through-bearing 2 Cor. 1.8 9. and therefore both exercises ought to be patiently submitted unto by them in so far as they are for their trial and advantage even as they would expect a reward from God for this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully 4. Although it be the mark of Hypocrites to do all duties of Religion for respect to their own credit and glory before men Mat. 23.5 Yet the Lord allows His own People to have so much respect to their own credit especially before the profane as may provoke them to a tender and holy walking and to eschew every thing that may disgrace them and their holy Profession for this is here made an argument to duty and patient suffering of wrongs that if they neglected duty and so were put to suffer for their miscarriage That would be no glory but rather a disgrace to them and their Profession for what glory is it if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently 5. As it hath pleased the Lord for the good of humane society to leave in the minds even of Heathens some knowledge of what is contrary to His will Rom. 2.14 15. and some inclination to punish the same Act. 28.4 So it is a very great disgrace to Christian Religion when Heathens or such as are like Heathens void of the saving knowledge of God in Christ may find Christians in those sins which their light leads them to punish especially when Christians make their liberty by Christ a pretence and cloak to cover those sins for it is here imported by the Apostle that Heathen Masters did not only know some what of their Servants duty but also would justly punish them for neglect of it and that if Christian Servants did by their miscarriage deserve sufferings from such Masters as they were in hazard to do by abusing their christian liberty this would prove a great disgrace to them and to the Profession of Christianity for what glory is it if when ye be buffetted for your faults ye shall take it patiently 6. Although patience under deserved stroaks from men be in it self commendable and will prove persons to be accepted with God when they accept the punishment of their iniquity and flie to Christ
a motive to holinesse he doth here hold it forth again as a motive to constancy in holinesse notwithstanding of sufferings For ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls CHAP. III. THis Chapter hath three parts In the first containing the duties of married persons the Apostle presseth upon Christian Women first That they should make conscience of duty to their Husbands though they were Pagans that so they might be gained to fall in love with Christianity ver 1. by the sight of their chast and religious carriage ver 2. Secondly That they should not be much taken up with trimming of their bodies ver 3. But thirdly That their prime care should be to have their souls adorned with grace especially meeknesse because 1. that's an ornament durable and 2. it 's in high esteem with God ver 4. So should they resemble holy Women recorded in Scripture ver 5. and prove themselves heirs of Sarah's blessednesse ver 6. Next he exhorteth Husbands to a wise and tender walking toward them by some arguments ver 7. In the second part he exhorteth all Christians whatever their relations be to the exercise of such graces and duties of holinesse as serve for keeping up a comfortable communion among themselves and with the Lord ver 8. and disswadeth them from some evils that might mar the same Because first they were all called to inherite the same blessednesse ver 9. And secondly because a holy walking with God and a peaceable carriage toward others is the only way to sweeten the lives of Christians under all their troubles ver 10 11. Thirdly that that was the way to have God's favourable providence watching over them for good Fourthly to get acceptance to their prayers And fifthly to eschew his wrath ver 12. The third part containeth several motives to constancy in holinesse and encouragements against suffering in that way As first that well-doing was the way toward off the evil of all their troubles ver 13. Secondly that no trouble for well-doing should hinder but rather promove their blessednesse to which encouragements the Apostle subjoyneth six directions for attaining a right carriage under suffering First that they should labour to banish the fear of flesh ver 14. Secondly that they should adore the holinesse of God in carving out a suffering lot for them Thirdly that they should timously enrich themselves with the knowledge of the Truth so as they might be able to give a reason of what they suffered for Fourthly that they should manifest meeknesse toward their persecutors And fifthly entertain fear of their own miscarriage ver 15. Sixthly that they should labour still to keep a good conscience under their suffering so should their carriage convince and make ashamed their very persecutors which is their third encouragement ver 16. Fourthly that their sufferings after this manner should prove much more comfortable to them than if they were procured by their own miscarriage Fifthly that the good will of God had the carving out of these sufferings ver 17. Sixthly that innocent Jesus Christ had suffered to the death for reconciling them to God and for the applying of his purchase was raised by the power of his Spirit or God-head ver 18. Seventhly that there are many souls now imprisoned in Hell for slighting such Truths as Christ's Spirit speaking through Noah and others of his Servants had prest upon them ver 19 20. Eighthly that the spiritual safety of Believers from the deluge of Gods wrath was made no lesse sure to them by their Baptism and the work of Christ's Spirit with it than the temporal safety of Noah and those few persons with him from the floud was made sure to them by the Ark ver 21. And ninthly that their Surety is now in highest power and glory that he may bear them through all their troubles and possesse them in that salvation which he hath purchased for them ver 22. All which prove that Believers ought to follow their duty to him notwithstanding of all sufferings for him Vers 1. Likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the Word they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives 2. While they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear THe Apostle being to point out the duties of married persons he beginneth with and insisteth most upon the duties of the Women partly because they had maniest discouragements and partly because their making conscience of their duty was the best means to provoke their Husbands to their duty Upon them he presseth subjection or dutifulnesse to their Husbands by two arguments The first is Because their obligation to their duty was no less strait than the obligation of others who stood in any of those relations mentioned in the former Chapter The second is Because their unbelieving Husbands might through Gods blessing be moved to receive the Gospel which formerly they had rejected ver 1. providing they did mark nothing but chastity and holinesse joyned with the fear of God and reverence toward themselves shining in the conversation of their Wives ver 2. And therefore Christian Women had reason to make conscience of duties even toward their Pagan-Husbands Hence Learn 1. They that would rightly divide the Word of Truth among the Lord's People must not content themselves to presse the duties of holinesse in general as they concern all Christians but must learn in their Doctrine to come down to the lowest relations that are among the Lord's People and to point out the particular duties of these it being in the discharge of such duties mainly that Religion is adorned Tit. 2.10 Therefore the Apostle after he hath spoken at large of the duties of holinesse belonging to all in general he comes among other relations to point out the duties of wives to their husbands Likewise ye wives be subject c. 2. The sum of a Womans duty to her Husband is subjection which doth consist in a reverend esteem of him as of one placed by the Lord in a degree of superiority above her which will produce reverent speaking of him and to him ver 5. and in giving obedience to his commands in things lawfull both which are in the signification of this word whereby the Apostle expresseth the whole duty of Wives to their Husbands Likewise ye wives be subject to your own husbands 3. However there be difference among those relations that are betwixt the Lord's People some of them having more of dominion and subjection in them as those last mentioned in the former Chapter betwixt Magistrates and Subjects Masters and Servants others of them having more of equality and love in them as this which is here betwixt Husband and Wife Yet the obligation to the duties of the latter sort is no lesse strict than to the duties of the former both being enjoyned by the same authoritie and so to be made conscience of upon
the same hazard Therefore the Apostle presseth the duty of Women to their Husbands by such an expression as imports a like strictnesse of tye upon them to their duty as was upon those mentioned in the last part of the former Chapter Likewise ye wives be subject c. 4. The wickednesse and disobedience to the Gospel of any married person however it may draw themselves under the curse of God Yet it doth neither loose the relation nor exempt the other party from their duty excepting in the case of Adultery and lawful divorce thereupon Mat. 5.32 or wilful desertion 1 Cor. 7.15 but doth rather tye the better party the more strictly to a conscionable discharge of that duty for the conviction or gaining of the other party for though the Apostle here doth suppone Husbands some of them at least to be disobedient to the Word Yet he presseth upon their Wives dutifulness to them as to their own Hubands Be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the Word c. 5. Although the publick Ministery of the Word be the ordinary and principal mean of sinners conversion to the Lord Rom. 10.15 17. Yet the Lord may and sometimes doth make use of the pains of private Christians for that effect for it is supponed that they who obey not the Word may be won to obey it by the conversation of their wives 6. Although the Children of the Lord be bound to deal with the unconverted or profane among whom they live by discourse and conference commending Christ to them and pointing out the way of attaining acquaintance and communion with him Joh. 4.29 30. Philip. 2.15 16. Yet it is mainly a conversation suitable to the Word that God useth to blesse for gaining of such to fall in love with Religion without which the best discourses will rather harden folk in sin than reclaim them from their sinful wayes Therefore the Apostle here presseth practical duties upon Christian Women as the best way to gain their unbelieving Husbands That if any obey not the Word they may be won by the conversation of the wives while they behold your chast conversation c. 7. The Lord's People ought not to quit their hopes of the conversion of those who have not hitherto been perswaded by the Word to follow the directions thereof neither yet do believe the Truths revealed in it But they ought to continue their pains toward those with whom the publick Ministery doth not prevail for even to these Husbands whom the Apostle supponeth to be unbelievers disobedient to the Word and such as will not be perswaded thereby as the word here signifieth he pleads for duty from their Wives in hopes of gaining them thereby That if any obey not the Word they may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives 8. The winning of a sinner to Jesus Christ is an imployment full of gain and advantage as the word here translated to be won signifieth both to the sinner it self who is thereby made partaker of the true riches Jam. 2.5 and to those who are instrumental in that work in regard of the comfort they may have from them Philip. 4.1 and the reward they shall have from God Dan. 12.3 and therefore it ought to be mannaged with a great deal of spiritual policy and skill as the same word also signifieth That if any obey not the Word c. they may be won 9. There is no part of a Christians conversation so prevalent to gain on-lookers to fall in love with Religion as that wherein the duties which we owe to others in the relation we have to them doth shine for these two chastity which in the peculiar signification of it is one main duty of the Wife in reference to her Husband and fear signifying reverence to a superiour Rom. 13.7 are the qualities of a christian conversation which the Spirit of God here condescends upon as most prevalent for gaining unbelievers to fall in love with Religion They may be won while they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear 10. Carnal men do very accurately pry into all the secrets of the practice of those that are religious which though it be done by them that they may find occasion against the Godly Psal 56.6 who should therefore be the more circumspect Psal 39.1 and the more earnest for God's teaching Psal 27.11 Yet the Lord may make use of it contrary to their intention to be a mean of much good to their souls for the word which the Apostle uses here while they behold signifieth very accurately to pry into and seriously to consider a thing upon which the Apostle may be safely conceived to lay some weight for moving Christian Women to the more holy circumspection in their carriage which the Lord might blesse for gaining of their Husbands While they behold your chast conversation 11. There is no true purity or holinesse of conversation which doth not flow from fear of offending God in the heart by which Christians depart from evil in their practice Prov. 16.6 Nor is there any true fear of God in the heart where the conversation is not in some measure holy Jer. 32.40 for though this chastity and fear of Christian Women here spoken of may be taken with a special respect to their Husbands Yet the words are of a larger signification and must necessarily include holinesse of life and fear of offending God in the heart what ever they might suffer from their Husbands the one whereof cannot be separated from the other A chast conversation coupled with fear Vers 3. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel 4. But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price The Apostle giveth here two further directions to believing Women for attaining to such a conversation as through the Lord's blessing might prove a mean of gaining their unbelieving Husbands The one is negative that they should not be too curious and superfluous in trimming their outward man The other is positive that their great pains should be to have their inward man adorned with the grace of God especially meeknesse and peaceablenesse of spirit in reference to their Husbands and the Lord's dispensation in tying them to such men and to a crosse with them which last he presseth by two arguments The first is that this was an ornament that would not wax old as others do The second is that it is in very high esteem with the Lord and therefore as they desired to gain their husbands by their outward carriage their great care should be to attain to a right frame of spirit within Hence Learn 1. Even the Children of the Lord are in hazard to offend Him and others in the matter of their apparrel while they labour not
The other argument is from the advantage of such a carriage that if they did imitate these holy Women especially Sarah in dutifulnesse to their Husbands notwithstanding of any terror from them they should prove themselves heirs of Sarah's blessednesse Hence Learn 1. The Children of the Lord have not only need of precepts to presse their duty upon them but likewise of the examples of others held forth to them who have gone before them in the practise of these duties that so they may apprehend them feasible seing others have attained to them and sweet seing others have chearfully practised them and the neglect of them hazardous since these who have made conscience of them may be brought as witnesses against the neglecters of them Therefore after the Apostle hath prest by precepts and reasons the duty of believing Women to their Husbands he here beareth in the same further by the example of the Saints for after this manner also the holy Women in the old time who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands 2. The approven examples of the most eminent of the Saints making conscience of moral duties which are registred in the Old Testament are obligatory under the New to the meanest of Believers in Christ who are not by their Christian Liberty freed from imitating them in these for here the Apostle presseth upon Christian Women dutifulnesse to their Husbands from the example of holy Women under the Old Testament and particularly Sarah who was an eminent and in some respects an extraordinary person For after this manner in the old time the holy women also c. Even as Sarah c. 3. There is no true holinesse which hath not Faith in God for the fountain and root of it whereby the heart relieth on God for furniture for the duties of holinesse and encouragement against difficulties in the way thereof Nor is there any real trusting in God which hath not for the fruit thereof holinesse consisting in the study of abstenance from every known sin and endeavour after every known duty for from these two joyntly are those ancient Believers described as examples to be imitated by others Holy Women who trusted in God 4. True holinesse and faith in God are mainly evidenced in the particular duties of these relations wherein the Lord's Providence hath placâ—d his People the conscionable discharge whereof doth prove the principal ornament of Professors for here the Apostle sets forth those ancient believing Women as in their best ornaments while they are evidencing their holinesse and trusting in God by their dutifulnesse to their Husbands to be imitated by Christian Women under the Gospel The holy Women who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their Husbands 5. The Lord takes notice of the least act of sincere obedience to his Commands even when it is mixed with many sinful failings which he passeth in penitents and would not have any of his People cast at any good in others nor be the lesse careful to imitate it that they do discern much miscarriage joyned with it for in that passage of Sarah's Gen. 18.12 which is here related to there are many sinful failings and little thing commendable beside that one word evidencing her reverence to her Husband which the Lord here registreth for her commendation and others imitation hiding the faults that were therewith Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. 6. The want of these qualifications in parties to whom the Lord's People have relation which have been eminent in others doth not exempt them from these duties which by vertue of that relation have been performed to others endued with these qualifications for here the Apostle from Sarah's reverencing of Abraham an extraordinary and eminently gracious man inferreth upon Christian Women reverence to their wicked infidel Husbands Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. 7. When we obtain grace from the Lord to follow the footsteps of the Saints registred in Scripture especially in the faithful discharge of the duties of our particular stations and relations then do we prove our selves to be partakers of the same spiritual priviledges with them and heirs of the same eternal blessednesse which they now possess for as those who imitate the faith and obedience of Abraham are for that called his children Rom. 4.11 12. Gal. 3.7 9 29. So these Women here who imitate Sarah in well-doing particularly in obedience to their Husbands are called her daughters Whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well which is not to be understood as if they were cast out of the number of her daughters for every short-coming in their duty but that it is in the way of their duty that they will clear to themselves their right to her blessedness and enjoy the sense of their interest in the spiritual priviledges which she had 8. They that resolve to hold on in the way of well-doing may resolve to meet with as much of terror and afrightment therein as wicked men can make them yea even from those of their nearest relations whose enmity against godlinesse before the Lord change them is greater than any natural affection they have to those they are most strictly tied unto for it is mainly against the terror and amazement of wicked Husbands that the Apostle here guards Christian Women encouraging them by this that they should prove themselves daughters of Sarah if they held on in their duty and were not afraid of any amazement 9. It is perseverance in the way of duty when there is not only small appearance of successe but much terrible opposition from wicked men in following of it which mainly cleareth to Believers their right to the heavenly inheritance for this the Apostle presseth upon Christian Women as that which would prove them daughters of Sarah that is co-heirs with her of the heavenly inheritance if they did well and were not afraid of any amazement Vers 7. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindred In the next place the Apostle presseth the duties of Husbands to their Wives which he comprehendeth in two branches First That they should manifest a special measure of prudence and heavenly wisdom in conversing with them And secondly that they should season their authority over them with tenderness and respect to them both which he presseth by several arguments 1. From the strictnesse of their obligation to these duties which was the same with that of the Wives to theirs 2. From the weaknesse and infirmity of the Women which calls for the more wise and tender dealing 3. From the equality of both in partaking of spiritual and eternal priviledges And 4. from the hazard of the neglect of those duties to wit the interrupting of their service to God particularly the marring of their access to him in prayer Hence
Learn 1. Husbands are no lesse strictly tied to duty toward their Wives than the Wives are to duty toward them or any inferiour toward their superiour and therefore they ought not to make their superiority a pretence to the neglect of their duty as if their Wives were tied and themselves left at liberty for the Apostle useth the same word in pressing the duty of Husbands to their Wives which he did before in pressing the duty of Wives to their Husbands and of Servants to their Masters Likewise ye husbands 2. It is the duty of Husbands to cohabit with their Wives and to labour for much prudence and wisdom in conversing with them that they may not only know their own duty toward them but may be able to instruct them in theirs 1 Cor. 14.35 that they may discern how far to intrust them with their affairs and counsels Prov. 31.11 and how far they ought to keep up the same from them Mica 7.5 and that they do not rule them according to their passion and will but according to that wise rule set down in the Word for the Apostle here presseth upon Husbands both cohabitation and wise walking with their Wives Ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge 3. There is not only love required of the Husband toward the Wife but likewise some respect and honour such as makes them signifie their sympathy with them under their crosses 1 Sam. 1.8 their high esteem of the vertues they discern in them Prov. 31.28 and such as may conciliate respect to them from the rest of the family Gen. 16.6 for this is the other branch of the duty of Husbands giving honour unto the Wife 4. It hath pleased the Lord to exercise the Woman with a special measure of weaknesse and infirmity both natural by imposing upon her much pain and labour in bringing forth and educating of Children and moral by giving her fewer opportunities than the Man hath of means for perfecting of her natural parts which likewise are not ordinarily so strong in her as in the Man in which respects she is here called the weaker vessel 5. The consideration of this weaknesse of the Woman should be so far from making Husbands to despise and slight them that by the contrary it should increase their respect to them considering that by reason thereof they are the more easily crushed and broken in their spirits especially by the austere and undutiful carriage of their Husbands and the more apt to apprehend themselves slighted for so it is here made an argument to procure respect to them from their Husbands giving honour unto the Wife as unto the weaker vessel 6. Both the work of God's saving grace in his own which is here called the grace of life because it quickens the soul where it is for spiritual performances and clears its right to eternal life and likewise eternal life it self which may be safely conceived to be comprehended in the same expression is the free gift of God's grace proceeding meerly from his favour and love bestowing the same upon sinners as their inheritance never to be taken from them for of both these the Apostle may be understood while he calleth Christian Women and their Husbands to whom he speaketh as being Believers Heirs together of the grace of life 7. The difference of sex or outward condition among the Lord's People doth not hinder their equality in the participation of spiritual and eternal priviledges which free grace doth bestow without respect to these differences Gal. 3.28 for here Husbands and Wives are called Heirs together of the grace of life 8. The consideration of this equality should strongly move superiours to make conscience of duty toward their inferiours considering that because of this equality their inferiours are no lesse dear to God than themselves and that they are fellow-heirs with them of that which is much better than any thing of a temporary concernment wherin they do excel them for this is here brought as an argument of Husbands dutifulnesse to their Wives That they are heirs together of the grace of life 9. Although none can be so infallibly perswaded of anothers being in the state of grace and salvation as they may be of their own Rev. 1.17 Yet ought every Professor to entertain so much charity of another concerning that as may make them no lesse conscionable in every duty toward them than if they were such and not upon slender grounds to question the same or admit of thoughts to the contrary lest thereupon Satan make them apprehend exemption from duty toward them for so much is imported here while Husbands are exhorted to duty toward their Wives and that because they ought to judge them in charity Heirs with them of the grace of life 10. When Christians are not making conscience of the faithful discharge of the duties of their particular relations especially of this betwixt Husband and Wife then the duties of God's Service chiefly in their families and in secret will either be broken off or the successe of them marred for how-ever the one party may be more innocent than the other yet the guilt of the injuring party and the grief and passion of the injured will not only indispose the hearts of both for duties and mar their hearty joyning in them but will also readily cut off as the word here rendred to hinder signifieth the very external performance of the duty of Prayer under which all other religious performances may be comprehended and mar their accesse to God and the successe of their duties for so much is imported in this last reason That your prayers be not hindred 11. The more conscionable Christians are by the grace of God enabled to be in the discharge of the particular duties of their several relations the more accesse to God and successe of all their religious performances may they expect for this motive as it imports the hazard to follow upon the neglect of duties of that sort so it imports also the advantage to follow upon the conscionable discharge thereof to wit that their Prayers should not be hindred Vers 8. Finally be all of one mind having compassion one of another love as Brethren be pitiful be courteous 9. Not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing Here is the second part of the Chapter wherein the Apostle exhorteth to the exercise of such graces and duties of holinesse as do concern every Christian and do serve in a special way for keeping up a profitable and comfortable communion with God and with his people of which sort the Apostle condescendeth upon seven First That they should labour for unity of judgement among themselves Secondly that they should be affected with one anothers condition as if it were their own Thirdly that their love one to another should resemble that which is among Brethren Fourthly that they should pity the infirmities one of
inherit a blessing Vers 10. For he that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile 11. Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it Here is a second motive to the study of the duties formerly pressed to wit That that study was the way to have a sweet life and many good dayes in communion with the Lord notwithstanding of all their troubles And this argument is taken out of Psal 34.12 13. and doth contain four several directions for clearing the way of attaining to that sweet fellowship with God and among themselves The first is that they should watch against the evils of the tongue The second is that they should set against every known sin The third is that they should set about the practise of every known duty And fourthly that they should earnestly pursue peace with others of the Lord's People So might they expect sweet communion with himself Hence Learn 1. Although the most part of men esteem their life happy and their dayes good enough if they enjoy abundance of earthly comforts Psal 4.6 7. and 49.16 18. Yet there is no life that deserves the name of a life except it be sweetned sometimes with tasts of the Lord 's special love nor are there any dayes that are worthy to be called good dayes which are not spent in fellowship with God for this life and those good dayes here spoken of are the same with tasting how gracious the Lord is as appears by comparing these words with the ninth verse of the Psalm whence they are cited 2. There is no way to live that sweet life and to see those good dayes that sinners may attain unto even here away in communion with the Lord but by the study of holinesse eschewing every thing that grieves the Spirit of God and aiming sincerely at the practise of every thing that is well-pleasing in his sight for both these are here prest as the way to have that life and to see those good dayes 3. Although men are prone to count very little of the sins of their tongue Psal 12.2 4. Yet much of that guilt which marreth sweet fellowship with God will be found in sins of that kind partly in idle and unprofitable discourses whereof men must give an accompt Mat. 12.36 foolish talking and jesting which is not convenient Eph. 5.4 rigid censuring of and bitter envâ—ighing against others which makes all that Christians do in Religion uselesse Jam. 1.26 and grieves the Spirit of God Eph. 4.29 30 31. medling with those things in discourse wherein folks are not concerned 1 Tim. 5.13 and the like which may be comprehended under that which is here called Evil and partly in equivocation Gen. 20.2 12. venting of error under fair speeches and pretences Rom. 16.17 and hypocritical or fained discourses whereby Christians do give out themselves to be what they are not which resembles that whereunto David relateth in that passage of the Psalm which is here cited as appears by comparing the words with the title of that Psalm All which and the like may be comprehended under guile and both sorts of sins of the tongue are to be abstained from by those that would enjoy communion with the Lord for in order to that this is the first direction He that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile 4. Were Christians never so innocent in their discourses and watchful over their tongue except also they make it their serious study to keep a distance in heart and practice from every known sin and that as it is evil and contrary to the holy nature and will of God they cannot expect to keep up that sweet communion with God which he allows upon his own for this is the second direction necessary for attaining to that end Let him eschew evil 5. It is not simple abstinence from sin suppose that could be attained to without further that fitteth souls for entertaining fellowship with God unlesse there be also joyned therewith a sincere and universal aim at every thing that is well-pleasing in the sight of God both in duties relating more immediately to God and his publick matters in the world 2 Chron. 24.16 and in duties toward others of his People whether those of our particular relations 1 Tim. 5.4 or others Gal. 6.10 to which these Scriptures give the name of doing good for this is the third direction for attaining and enjoying communion with God Let him do good 6. They that desire to have much peace in fellowship with God must be very serious in studying peace with others both by living peaceably with them themselves so far as is possible Rom. 12.18 without prejudice to Truth Zech. 8.19 or holinesse Heb. 12.14 and procuring and cherishing peace among others of the Lord's People Mat. 5.9 both which are comprehended in this fourth direction for attaining to and enjoying of communion with God Let him seek peace and ensue it 7. As there will be no small difficulty from Satan our own and others corruptions in the way of attaining and entertaining peace among the Lord's People So none of them must stand upon their pains in the pursuit thereof nor quit the same though upon many former essayes they have not had successe and though peace seem to be flying from them All which is imported in the signification and doubling of the word here Seek peace and ensue it Vers 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil Here are three further arguments to presse the forementioned duties The first is that the watchful providence of God is exercised about them for their good who having fled to the righteousnesse of Christ do also walk in the way of righteousnesse or holinesse formerly described The second is that he doth favourably accept of their prayers And the third is that the terror and wrath of God is imployed against those that walk in the contrary way Hence Learn 1. It is the priviledge of justified persons walking in the way of holinesse to have the favourable providence of God watching over them for good which comprehends his furnishing of them with every thing necessary for their welfare Deut. 11.12 warding hazards off them as far as shall be for their good 2 Chron. 16.9 rendring ineffectual all opposition made to them while he hath service for them Ezra 5.5 supporting them under and delivering them from all their troubles in due time Psal 33.18 and making out his Covenant to them Jer. 24.6 7. All which the Scriptures cited make clear to be comprehended in this expression which holds forth their priviledges The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous 2. Although for wise reasons the prayers of the Lord's People may have no answer for
a time even after frequency and importunity in that duty 2 Cor. 12.8 Yea and to their sense may seem to be mis-regarded by the Lord Psal 22.2 Yet their requests have alwayes a favourable acceptance with Him in so far as He delights to hear them Prov. 15.8 Cant. 2.14 and during the delay is preparing them for a good answer Psal 10.17 Isa 30.18 19. Providing they be praying for things agreeable to His will 1 Joh. 5.14 not to gratifie their lusts Jam. 4.3 but for his glory and building their confidence of acceptance upon Christ's merits and intercession Joh. 14.13 for this must be some special notice he takes of their prayers since he hears also the prayers of the wicked though with detestation Prov. 28.9 His ears are open to their prayers 3. Only those who in the sense of their own unrighteousnesse are fled to the righteousnesse of Christ that so their persons may be accepted with God and have obtained grace to be sincere students of true holinesse may lay claim to these priviledges the Lord 's favourable providence exercised about them for good and his acceptance of their prayers for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers 4. That which makes the life of Believers a life indeed and their dayes good dayes to them in the midst of many troubles is this favourable providence of God watching over them for their good and his gracious acceptance of their prayers through his Son for these priviledges are brought in to clear wherein that life and those good days spoken of in the former words do stand even in this that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers 5. However the Lord may long spare wicked men in their sinful courses from which indulgency of his they take occasion to do more and more wickedly Eccles 8.11 Yet His constant purpose is to destroy all of them who make a constant trade of provoking Him Psal 68.21 and that without any battel or reluctancy in their heart Ezek. 11.21 and at last He will imploy his power and terror for their ruine as is imported in this The face of the Lord is against them that do evil 6. It is both lawful and necessary for the Lord's People to encourage their own hearts in the duties of holinesse by the consideration of that sweetnesse which the Lord useth to let out to them while they hold that way and to deter their hearts from those sins whereunto they do strongly incline by the consideration of the hazard abiding them that continue in sin for both the gain of godlinesse and the hazard of sinful courses is here proposed to be considered by them for these ends for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous c. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil Vers 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good Followeth the last part of the Chapter which is full of encouragement against sufferings and motives to the duties of holinesse notwithstanding thereof together with several directions for attaining to a right carriage under the same The first encouragement is That the following of duty notwithstanding of suffering would prove the best way of any to eschew the hurt of all trouble from wicked men with whom the Lord would assuredly reckon for molesting of his People while they were following their duty to him Hence Learn 1. Although the Godly may expect the hardest usage in following their duty that wicked men can devise or inflict upon them Heb. 11.34 Yet properly there can be no harm or evil done unto them in regard the nature of all afflictions especially for well-doing is charged to them Rom. 8.28 their persecutors cannot at all reach their better part Luke 12.4 and all their losses by suffering for Truth are more than sufficiently made up to them Mat. 19.29 for this question may be safely conceived to have the force of a denial None shall be able to harm you if ye be followers of that which is good 2. The best way to eschew at least to mitigate trouble even from wicked men is close adherance to that which is right in the sight of God not because wicked men favour the way of well-doing but because the Lord doth sometimes allay their fury against those that follow it by putting convictions upon their conscience of the equity of the cause which they persecute 1 Sam. 24.17 c. and doth sometimes work in their heart some reverence toward it and them that follow it Mark 6.20 for here the Apostle mentioneth the following of that which is good as the best way of eschewing trouble from wicked men who would be glad to see the miscarriage of the Godly that they might thence have occasion to trouble them And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good 3. Whoever shal enterprise to harm or evil intreat as the word here signifieth the Children of the Lord for their dutifulnesse to him the Lord shall enquire after them he shall find them out and reckon with them be who they will for this question may be taken for the Lord's chalenge of them and his enquiry for them to judge them Who is he that will harm you 4. The Children of the Lord are not only to go about their duty in obedience to his Commands but likewise in imitation both of Christ himself as their prime patern Eph. 5.1 and of the rest of his Saints who have walked in that way before them Heb. 6.11 for this is the description of those to whom this encouragement is given that they are followers or as the word is imitators of that which is good Vers 14. But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled The second encouragement to constancy in duty notwithstanding of sufferings is That if Christians be put to suffer for adhering to the way of free justification by Christ's imputed righteousnesse which legalists did then persecute or for any duty of holinesse which Libertines opposed those sufferings should evidence and promote their true blessednesse from which encouragements the Apostle doth infer in the following words several directions for attaining to a right carriage under suffering whereof the first is in this verse to wit That they should labour to banish the fear of what flesh could do unto them and not suffer their hearts to be terrified or perturbed by the terror or hard usage of wicked men while they suffered for so honourable a cause Hence Learn 1. Were the cause which the Lord's People maintain never 〈◊〉 â—ood and their carriage in following of it never so innocent it is in vain for them to dream of exemption from trouble at the hands of wicked men who are oftentimes the more incensed against them that their â—ause be
well-doing as here it is by the Apostle For it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing 2. The consideration of this difference in regard of comfort and spiritual advantage which is betwixt suffering for well-doing and for evil doing should move the Lord's People to watchfulnesse and tender walking lest by their miscarriage they deserve suffering at mens hands and to constancy in suffering for well doing considering that they have within them strong inclinations to such evils as being acted might justly put them to suffer before men and that if they shift duty to Him for fear of suffering from men He may justly leave them to fall in those sins which may procure harder sufferings with lesse comfort than what they should have met with in suffering for well doing for this is here brought in as a motive to constancy in duty and suffering in the way of duty that it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing 3. Suffering for well doing is a duty that doth not bind as negative precepts do at all times and in all cases nor are the Children of the Lord tied to it as they are to some other positive duties for the opportunity whereof they are to watch 1 Pet. 4 7. but is only binding when the Lord by his providence hath brought his People under the power of persecutors and they do put them to a necessity either of suffering or sinning in which case only the Lord manifesteth his will to his People that they should suffer for the Apostle here commends suffering not absolutely as other duties but only upon this supposition that it be manifested to be the will of God For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing 4. When God's will that his People should suffer is manifested to them by leaving them no midst between sin and suffering then they ought with courage and chearfulnesse to choose suffering as the only best course for them considering that his will is a good will to them and so would have prevented their suffering if it had been good for them that without His will no creature could bring them to that necessity and that as it is His will they should suffer for Him so it is His will they should reign with Him for this is here cast in as a special encouragement to constancy in suffering for well doing that they should not be put to undergo that lot except the will of God be so Vers 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit The sixth motive or encouragement to constancy in duty notwithstanding of hardest sufferings is taken from Christ's sufferings for us whence many encouraging arguments to suffer for Him may be drawn The sum of all which is That since the innocent Son of God hath compleatly satisfied God's justice for unworthy sinners that He might reconcile them to God having for that end suffered to the very death in his humanity and that He might apply his purchase is raised up again by the power of his Spirit or Godhead it doth therefore well become his sinful Followers for whom He died and rose again to undergo chearfully a suffering lot in following their duty to Him Hence Learn 1. Of all motives that may prevail with Christians to suffer for Christ when they are called His suffering in their room is one of the strongest and should be most frequently made use of by them for that end considering that He by His sufferings hath taken the sting out of all theirs Isa 53.4 hath defeated all their enemies Joh. 16.33 Col. 2.15 hath cast them a sweet copy to follow concerning the right way of suffering Heb. 12.2 hath engaged them not to desire a better lot than He had Joh. 15.20 and hath made sure their perseverance and eternal happinesse which none of their troubles can mar Rom. 8.38 for the Apostle having made use of this same argument to this same purpose in the close of the former Chapter doth here again insist upon it as the strongest and that which should have most weight with all His Redeemed Ones to move them to suffer for Him For Christ also hath suffered for sins 2. As the whole time of Christ's humiliation was one uninterrupted course of suffering So by that whole course and especially by His offering Himself a sacrifice for us upon the Crosse He hath so compleated the work of satisfaction to God's justice for the sins of the Elect and of purchasing grace and glory to them that nothing thereof remaineth to be done nor needeth that sacrifice be again repeated for though His sufferings were finite in regard of duration Yet in regard of the worth which the excellency of His Person who was God did add to them they were infinite for both in respect of the continuation of His sufferings all along His state of humiliation and in regard of the compleatnesse of them for satisfaction to God's justice as also in opposition to all the legal sacrifices which for their imperfection behoved to be often repeated Heb. 7.27 the Apostle saith here He hath once suffered for sins 3. Although our blessed Mediator had all the sins of all the Elect upon Him by imputation 2 Cor. 5.21 and the punishment laid upon Him of all the heinous crimes that ever were or shall be committed by the Elect Isa 53.6 Yet was He in Himself compleatly just and righteous not only as He is God Isa 45.21 but even as Man He being wholly freed of that original contagion Luke 1.35 wherewith all others that are come of Adam are defiled Job 14.4 and compleatly conform to the Law of God in heart and practice Mat. 3.15 that so as our Mediator He might be lovely to God Psal 45.7 and to all the Saints Cant. 5.16 for so the Apostle sets Him forth who suffered for sins the Just for the unjust 4. There was nothing in those for whom Christ suffered to have moved Him to lay down his life for them many of them who were then living being his actual persecutors and murderers and all of them being still at enmity with Him till He by the vertue of His death changed them and yet His free love made Him suffer for their sins The Just for the unjust 5. As all are naturally far from God Eph. 2.13 and the Godly at their best at a distance and â—nable to come nearer Cant. 1.4 So this is the comfortable end of Christ's death and His intention in dying that sinners might be brought to a state of nearnesse to wit of favour and reconciliation with God Col. 1.21 and that being done to a growing nearnesse to wit of communion and fellowship till they be compleatly one with Him Job 17.11 20 21 c. for thus doth the Apostle expresse the end of Christ's death and His
offers of forgivenesse of sin and eternal life through the Messiah invitations to repentance and holy walking and some motions of his Spirit working with his Words and yet though they were guilty of many grosse and filthy sins as appeareth by the sixth and seventh Chapters of Genesis their disobedience to the Gospel or unwillingnesse to be perswaded thereby as the word signifieth is here set down as the chief cause of their perpetual imprisonment in Hell those spirits are in prison who sometimes were disobedient 7. The Lord doth not at the first give over dealing with despisers of his saving counsels and rejecters of his blessed offers but doth defer their deserved punishment and draw out his patience in length toward them as the word here signifieth that they may be the more inexcusable and he may have the glory of long-suffering and patience after it is expired for upon those who are now in prison the long-suffering of God once waited in the dayes of Noah 8. 〈◊〉 length of time can make the Lord forget his 〈◊〉 which in penitent sinners have abused even when 〈◊〉 are in Hell he will remember them and make 〈…〉 remember their for the increase of their 〈…〉 torment and vexation Luke 16.25 for here the Spirit of the Lord speaking by this Apostle declareth to the world that he is mindful of the despising of his patience and pains manifested many thousand years ago toward them that are now in Hell Once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah c. 9. Even those who may have good hope through grace that they are delivered from the pit of destruction ought to consider the woful case of them that are there as a mean to keep them from provoking the Lord by those sins which bring souls to that prison and as a motive unto thankfulnesse to Jesus Christ and constancy in duty to him notwithstanding of temporary sufferings who hath delivered them from the same for here the case of the damned for disobedience to the Gospel is presented by the Apostle to the consideration of those who as he supposeth in the former words might comfort themselves in their exemption from wrath by Christ's sufferings as an argument to constancy in holinesse notwithstanding of hardest usage from men which is the Apostle's scope to presse 10. When the Lord vouchsafes to send his Word unto a People he useth also with it to frame his workings and dispensations so as may be most fitting for bearing-in his Word upon them that if they reject and slight both their stripes may be double for beside that Christ went and preached to the old world he made a work to be wrought before their eyes which was a visible preaching of wrath to come upon them except they did repent and a real invitation of them to repentance that they seeing such a small vessel in comparison of the great multitude that were upon the face of the earth every one might have studied to be one of those who might have had entry into it He went and preached and his long-suffering waited while the Ark was a preparing 11. Whensoever the Lord hath judgments to bring upon the generality of a People it is his way to provide sufficient means of safety for his own that are among them sometimes from the outward judgment as here and alwayes from the evil of it Psal 91.10 for while judgment was approaching upon the old world the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved 12. Though there never were nor will be at any time wanting some true Believers in Jesus Christ in regard of his standing relation of a Husband and Head to the Church Yet so far may profanity or error overspread the face of the Church that the number of visible Professors may be very few and therefore the multitude of such can be no real mark of the true Church for here in all the world there are but a few and of those a great part wicked for what may be gathered from the Scripture history that is eight souls saved by water 13. It may fare the better with the wicked in this life though nothing in that which is to come that they have been in society with the Godly and have outward relations to them partly for the more satisfaction and encouragement of the Godly who are tied to them by natural bonds or affection and partly that they may be some way serviceable to the Godly in the Work of the Lord for which causes among others there are here eight souls whereof some were of a wicked disposition and cursed Gen. 9.22 25. saved by water 14. The Lord can make that which is the mean of destruction to the wicked a mean of safety to his own for the water which drowned the rest of the world beareth up the Ark and so proveth a mean of the safety of there eight who were saved by water Vers 21. The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ The eight encouragement to constancy in suffering for Christ and his Truth is That since Believers have a spiritual priviledge answerable to the Ark sealing their safety from the â—â—ludge of God's wrath to wit their Baptism not the external part of it alone which can only remove the filth of the body But the internal to wit the application of Christs bloud to the conscience of Believers which the Apostle expresseth here by the effect thereof that thereby Believers may challenge all Christ's purchase as theirs and answer all challenges to the contrary and that upon this ground that their Cautioner is absolved from their Debt whereof his Resurrection is the evidence Therefore they have no reason to faint in following their duty or fear to be lost in the midst of their sufferings Hence Learn 1. Whatever outward priviledge any of the Lord's People had of old when he was working in a more extraordinary way than now every ordinary Believer may find in Jesus Christ a spiritual privileage answerable to it Faith can seed upon Christ the bread from Heaven Joh. 6.32 35. as the Israelites did upon the Manna it can draw spiritual life and health from him as the stung Israelites had health to their bodies by looking to the brazen Serpent Joh. 3.15 16. and can find spiritual and eternal safety in Him through his own means as in an Ark when others are perishing in the deludge of his wrath for though Believers in the Apostle's time had not such an extraordinary way of preservation from persecution as Noah and the few with him had from the flood Yet they have a spiritual priviledge answerable to it and of a far better nature The like figure whereunto Baptism doth also now save us 2. Baptism doth in a spiritual sense resemble the Ark in so far as few in comparison of
the rest of the world do partake even of that outward Ordinance as few were in the Ark In that it is equally dispensed to good and bad who are within the visible Church as but such were admitted into the Ark In that it doth exempt all that partake of it according to Christ's appointment from the common case of the rest of the world and doth seal to the Elect safety from that wrath which doth destroy the greatest part of the world in which and the like respects it is here compared with the Ark The like figure whereunto Baptism doth also now save us 3. Although the spiritual and eternal salvation of Believers be only the effect of the merit of Christ's bloud applied to the conscience Yet doth the Spirit of Christ in Scripture oftentimes ascribe the same to the instrument or mean by which He doth convey that salvation to them compare with this place Luke 7.50 1 Tim. 4.16 that so he may keep up due respect to his own means which if they be neglected or despised by them that have the opportunity of them salvation cannot be expected Therefore saith the Apostle Baptism doth now save us 4. There is no small hazard of peoples placing too much in the external and outward part of the Ordinances as if that of it self were of some efficacy for salvation against which the Ministers of Christ have no lesse need to guard in their Doctrine than against peoples under valuing of the Ordinance for after that the Apostle hath asserted Baptism to be the mean of our salvation answerable to the Ark lest any might perswade themselves of salvation because they had received the external Baptism he addeth as a guard not the putting away of the filth of the flesh 5. The internal Baptism to wit the application of Christ's merits is known to be bestowed upon sinners by the effects thereof upon their conscience which do appear first When they do answer to the Lord's offers and commands in the Gospel by their hearty acceptation of the one and engagement in his strength to obey the other Secondly When they become humbly familiar with God in laying claim to the purchase of Christ's death as theirs And thirdly When they are taught of Him to answer the accusations and challenges that may be brought against them in doing of the former two for all there three which make a good conscience to wit stipulation or engagement claim or challenge and apologie or answer are in the signification of this word which the Apostle makes use of here to expresse the internal part of Baptism to wit the application of Christ's merits by the effect thereof which effect manifesteth the cause even the answer of a good conscience 6. Christ's Resurrection is to the Believer one chief ground of this answer of a good conscience formerly described from whence he may justly claim to absolution from guiltinesse since his Cautioner's discharge is evidenced by his Resurrection Rom. 4.25 and to vertue for subduing of his corruptions since he who purchased it is risen to apply it Rom. 6.9 11 12. and to through-bearing strength under all trials since the Head being risen the Members must needs be where it is Joh. 14.3 and from thence also may answer all objections drawn from his guiltinesse and from the strength of his corruptions and from his weaknesse to go through trials which might discourage his heart or brangle his faith Rom. 8.33 for here the Apostle sheweth how the Believer hath this answer of a good conscience to wit by the resurrection of Jesus Christ Vers 22. Who is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto Him The last encouragement to Christians under all their sufferings hath three branches First That since their Head and Mediator is gone in their nature and name to possesse Heaven Secondly Since He is in highest dignity and power with God And thirdly Since He hath all the heavenly hosts of Angels at his command Therefore none of his Followers need to fear suffering in following their duty to Him Hence Learn 1. Christ's withdrawing of his bodily presence from his People at his Ascension is so far from being matter of discouragement to them as the Disciples did mistake it Joh. 16.5 6. that by the contrary it is to them a well-spring of much consolation whence they may with joy draw answers to every discouragement He being gone to Heaven that He may pour out of his Spirit more plentifully than He did before His Ascension Joh. 7.39 Eph. 4.10 and having in that very act of His Ascension triumphed over all our spiritual enemies Psal 68.18 and made 〈◊〉 patent access to us to enter Heaven by our faith and prayers since He is gone there in our nature and name Heb. 6.19 20. 10.19 c. for as a consolation against sufferings and ground of the answer of a good conscience is this brought in that Christ is gone into Heaven 2. The high esteem and power which Christ as our Mediator hath with the Father signified by his sitting at his right hand Eph. 1.20 c. having the fulnesse of grace and glory given Him to dispense to his Redeemed Ones Act. 5.31 is another strong ground of Believers consolation whence also they have the answer of a good conscience to all challenges given-in against them His sitting there being a clear evidence to them that the work of their Redemption is compleatly done Heb. 10. 11 12. that the Father is abundantly satisfied therewith Psal 110.1 Rom. 8.33 34. for this is another branch of their encouragement That Christ is on the right hand of God 3. Whatever be the order or several degrees that are among the Angels in Heaven in which we are not curiously to enquire seing it is not made known in Scripture Yet this is sure That Jesus Christ not only as He is God but as He is our Mediator hath all of them subject to Him as His Messengers and mighty Hosts having authority from Him for the defence and comfort of the Godly Psal 34.7 Heb. 1.14 and for the terror and punishment of His and their enemies Psal 68.16 17. for of Him as our Mediator is this spoken that He hath Angels and Authorities and Powers subject unto Him 4. The consideration of this subjection of all the Angels and heavenly Hosts to Jesus Christ the Mediator may be very comfortable to the few opprest Godly Especially when the Powers and Authorities on Eearth and their Messengers and Hosts are imployed against them as in this Apostle's time they were for this is here given to Believers as the last branch of their encouragement in this Chapter That they serve and suffer for such a Master as hath Angels and Authorities and Powers subject unto Him CHAP. IV. IN this Chapter which containeth an enlargement of the former purpose the Apostle doth by several arguments presse upon the Redeemed the study of holinesse and giveth
hath given a proof of His power and good-will to bear His own through all their trials Secondly That their troubles from wicked men can reach no further than their flesh or outward man and the concernments thereof Thirdly That those troubles can continue no longer than their dwelling in the flesh And fourthly That all their hard exercises are carved out not by the lusts of men but by the holy and wise providence of God for these considerations are here presented to the Godly for their encouragement against the mockery and persecution of the profane that the same had been the lot of the Saints now departed that it was measured out by the Lord that it could only reach their flesh and them only while they were in frail flesh as is imported in these words For for this cause was the Gospel preached to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh 4. Gods great end in sending and keeping up the Gospel among His own is That they being quickened by His Spirit which He communicates to them through the preaching of the Gospel Gal. 3.2 may be enabled to live the life of faith Joh. 20.31 and holinesse 2 Cor. 3.18 and may have also a life of consolation here 1 Joh. 1.4 and a life of glory hereafter 1 Joh. 5.13 All which is imported in this great end of preaching of the Gospel to the Lords People That they might live according to God in the spirit 5. The life of grace and of consolation could not thrive so well in the hearts of the Godly not could they be fitted for the life of glory except they met with trials and opposition from the wicked of the world to stir them up to the exercise of their grace Rom. 5.3 and to cry for a further measure of it Psal 119.25 to loose their hearts from this life and make them long for a better 2 Cor. 5.2 For for this cause the Gospel was preached to the Saints departed that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but by the blessing of God upon the Gospel and upon their hard exercise from the wicked might live according to God in the spirit Vers 7. But the end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer The fifth argument to the study of holinesse notwithstanding of discouragements in the way thereof is That wicked mens opposition and the Godlies sufferings and all things of that nature would shortly be at an end from which together with the former arguments the Apostle inferreth seven directions for attaining to a right carriage in duty under so much opposition from wicked men whereof three are comprehended in this Verse The first is That they should manifest moderation and prudence in their disposition and carriage The second is That they should be much with God in prayer The third is That they should carefully watch against every thing that might mar their intercourse with God in that duty Hence Learn 1. It cannot now be long to the end of time and all things in it whether we compare the remainder of time with that which is already past or the whole of it with eternity or whether we consider how near the end of time and all things in it is to every particular person in all which respects the Apostle expresly asserts here that the end of all things is at hand 2. The Lord's People could not faint in their duty nor be discouraged because of opposition in the way of it if they did entertain the believing consideration of the nearnesse of the end of wicked mens persecution and of their pains in duty and sufferings for it for this is here given as an encouraging argument to constancy in duty notwithstanding of opposition in the way thereof That the end of all things is at hand 3. They that would carry themselves aright under much discouraging opposition in the wayes of the Lord and would keep themselves in a fit disposition for meeting with Him at the end of all things must study sobriety which consists in a mean esteem of our selves for our gifts or graces Rom. 1â— 3 in the exercise of right reason and Christian prudence in compassing our affairs Mark 5.15 and in a spare-modling with such earthly delights as may indispose us for our christian warfare 1 Thes 5.8 for this is the first particular direction which the Apostle gives for a right carriage in duty under opposition and which he inferreth upon the nearnesse of the end of all things as the way to be prepared for the same Be ye therefore sober 4. None can hold out in their duty when they meet with discouragement in the way of it nor can keep themselves in a right disposition for the end of all things but those only who keep much correspondency with God by prayer in which exercise His People receive from Him light and strength to carry themselves aright and encouragment against all that might discourage them in His way for this is the second thing recommended to them that would persevere in their duty even under opposition and be sit for the end of all things that they should watch unto prayer 5. None can expect acceptance or successe of their prayers except they joyn therewith watchfulnesse that so they may furnish themselves beforehand with matter for prayer Psal 5.1 that they may discern and make use of the fittest opportunities for the discharge of that duty Psal 55.17 that they may eschew in their ordinary carriage what may mar their accesse to God in prayer and the return of the same 1 Pet. 3.7 and may carefully observe what answers of their former prayers they have from God Hab. 2.1 for in order to this duty and as a necessary pre-requisite of it watchfulnesse is here pressed Watch unto prayer Vers 8. And above all things have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins The fourth direction to the Lord's People for attaining to a right carriage under so much opposition from the profane which the Apostle inferreth from the former arguments to the study of holinesse especially that taken from Christ's love to His own manifested in his sufferings is That they would labour for fervency of affection one towards another and this the Apostle presseth with great earnestnesse as the sum and chief of all the duties we owe to our neighbour and bears it in by this argument That love will prevent and passe many mutual wrongs which cannot but mar comfortable society among the Lord's People Hence Learn 1. Next unto our love to the Lord Jesus which is the first and great Command in the Law Mat. 22.38 Love to His People ought to be studied above all other things it being the main evidence of our love to Him 1 Joh. 5.1 and of His love to us 1 Joh. 3.14 and that which makes way for every other duty to our neighbour 1 Cor. 13.4 for the
Apostle supposing love to Christ to be in the hearts of those to whom he writes Chap. 1.8 doth presse this love to others of His People in the next room as that which should have the precedency of any other duty Above all things have fervent charity among your selves 2. They that love Christ should not only entertain love in their own hearts to others of His People what-ever their estate or condition be but should likewise labour to procure and cherish hearty love in and among all the rest of God's People for this direction as it presseth upon every one of the Lord's People love towards one another so it presseth upon every one of them the entertaining and promoting of mutual love among others Have fervent charity among your selves 3. The more hatred and opposition the Children of the Lord meet with from the profane world the more warmnesse of affection should they entertain and expresse towards one another that so the comfort they have in one anothers affection may make up to them the discouragement they have from their wicked enemies for while this People were exposed to many discouragements from the profane as is clear from the former words the Apostle with great earnestnesse presseth them to this as that which would sweeten their sad lot Above all things have fervent charity among your selves 4. It is not enough that the Lord's People keep themselves free of malice and hatred one of another neither yet that they have such a measure of affection toward one another as they ought to have toward all men Tit. 3.2 Yea even their very enemies Mat. 5.44 but they must beware of all cold-rifenesse of affection one toward another and labour for such a hight of love as may keep them alwayes in a bensel to do one another good and such as may not be interrupted by the failings one of another for such a measure of affection is here pressed by the Apostle in these words wherein there is a metaphor from a Bow that is bended Have fervent charity among your selves 5. None of the Children of the Lord have ground to expect such a society of His People to converse with in this life in whom they may not discern many failings and wrongs and those often reiterated both against God and against one another which cannot but mar the benefit and comfort of their society unlesse one of them can pardon and passe-by a multitude of such in others for this argument doth import that there will be among the Saints a multitude of sins to be covered 6. Although the Lord's People ought not to justifie or connive at the faults one of another Lev. 19.17 but with zeal and meeknesse to point them out to them and reprove them Gal. 2.11 which should be much desired and well taken by one of them from another Psal 141.5 Yet where true love is it will not be interrupted by the discerning of these but will cover them by pardoning the wrong done to the person that hath love Eph. 4.32 interceding with God for pardon of the wrong done against Him Jam. 5.16 hiding from the party injuring our knowledge of such wrongs as we may in charity think they will challenge themselves for Prov. 12.23 and all of them so far as may be from the profane Prov. 11.13 who can make no better use of their knowledge of them than to take occasion from them to loath and disgrace Religion 2 Sam. 12.14 Rom. 2.24 and especially by furthering the repentance of the guilty person and their use-making of the bloud of Christ Jam. 5.20 whereby alone sin is covered from God's justice Psal 32.1 2. for the covering of sin here spoken of is not attributed to love as if it could either justifie our selves or others But because it is a grace that pardoneth and hideth wrongs done against them that have it and furthereth others what it can to seek the Lord's forgiving of these wrongs also Love covereth a multitude of sins 7. The consideration of the many wrongs and sinful infirmities that one of the Lord's People may discern in another should be so far from weakening the affections of one of them toward another and so marring their comfortable society that by the contrary it should move them to study the greater fervency of affection that thereby they may cover these infirmities and by their so doing be the liker to their Lord whose love kythes in covering a multitude of sins in every one of His own Eph. 4.32 for it is here brought in as a reason encouraging to the study of fervent charity that thereby they should cover a multitude of sins Vers 9. Use hospitality one to another without grudging The fifth direction is That they should prove the fervency of their love one to another by their kindly entertainment of such Christians as wanted those outward accommodations which others had and this duty the Apostle qualifieth that it ought to be made conscience of without any fretting or male-contentment Hence Learn 1. It may be the lot of the Lord 's dear People to be without house or harbour or any such worldly accommodations of their own and to be put to live upon the charity of others for in such a case are several of the Lord's People here supposed to be while the Apostle commandeth them to use hospitality one towards another 2. The Lord doth not ordinarily bring all of His People in a like hard condition at once but in hardest times useth to keep some of them in a capacity to be helpfull and comfortable to others for while there are some that want lodging and accommodation of their own there are others of His People that have these things to give to such as want them as is supposed in this exhortation Use hospitality one to another 3. Although humane Laws do not bind Christians to the duties of charity nor punish them for the neglect thereof yet the supream Law-giver hath enjoyned these duties as strictly as any other and therefore no question will be as terrible to the neglecters of these duties as of any other duties Mat. 25.44 for this Text is the poors right to a share of the accommodations and society of the rich and the Lords order to the rich for giving the same to the poor Use hospitality one to another 4. Duties of charity to the Lord's People in necessity ought to be done without fretting or male-contentment either at the poor as being burthensom or at God's providence for casting so many objects of charity in our way and consequently they ought to be gone about willingly and pleasantly considering that the Lord esteemeth of them as done to Himself Prov. 19.17 and that He delighteth exceedingly in our chearfull performance of such duties as are expensive to us 2 Cor. 9.7 for thus doth the Apostle qualifie the right manner of performing this duty of hospitality that it be used without grudging Vers 10. As every man hath received the gift even so minister
crosse by two further arguments The one taken from the omnipotency of God which is able to crush the proud and carry the humble through all their straits The other from the certainâ—y of the humble person's deliverance which is promised in the season fittest for it Hence Learn 1. Humility is a lesson so hard to be learned that Christ's Ministers had need to presse the same frequently upon his People and study many arguments to bear it in upon them for the Apostle having in the former verse by very strong reasons perswaded them to clothe themselves with that ornament he doth here again by other arguments presse the same in substance Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God c. 2. The consideration of the mighty power of God which is sufficiently able to protect and bear through all his Followers Joh. 10.28 and to find out and punish all that oppose him or them Psal 21.8 9. should move the Lord's people humbly to submit to their duty and to the hardest dispensation in following thereof for his Almighty Power here signified by his Hand is mentioned as a further reason of his Peoples humbling of themselves Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God 3. Although the Lord's People who have attained to some approven measure of the exercise of this grace of humility under their straits may not expect a present deliverance out of them Hab. 2.1 3. Yet their delivery is made sure for them and they are certified by his faithfull Word that they shall be carried through till they meet with it for though he do not promise here to the humble that they shall be presently exalted Yet he maketh them sure of this that if they humble themselves under his mighty hand they shall be exalted 4. The deliverance of the Lord 's humble People cometh alwayes to them in the fittest time which is when the Lord hath perfected his work intended by their affliction Isa 10.12 particularly when they are brought to that measure of humiliation to which by their straits the Lord intends to bring them Lev. 26.41 when they are prepared by their straits to put a due price upon a delivery Psal 102.13 14. and when the cup of their enemies iniquity is full Gen. 15.16 for this word signifieth both the opportunity fixed and fittest for the exaltation of the humble He shall exalt you in due time Vers 7. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you The fourth direction which is brought in as a special mean of attaining to the former is that Believers should by faith commit unto the Lord their thorow-bearing in their duty the event thereof and all their anxiety about these and that because the Lord's loving providence doth not suffer him to neglect them or any of their concernments Hence Learn 1. The Children of the Lord are subject to much sinfull anxiety in following of their duty which appeareth when they are hindered from their duty by looking more to their own weaknesse and the difficulties in the way of duty than to the sufficiency promised by him that calleth them to it Exod. 3.11 or when they are discouraged in their duty by the apprehension of probable hazards in the way of it Isa 51.12 13. of which evil the Spirit of the Lord would have them sensible while he findeth it necessary thus to exhort them Casting all your care on him 2. Although it be most commendable in Christians to entertain such a care of discharging their duty aright and of eschewing what may provoke the Lord in their way of going about it as stirreth them up to much diligence and employing of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 7.11 Yet such a care whether anent the manner of their going about their duty or the successe and event thereof as doth distract their heart in duty and indispose them for it is sinful and to be shaken off by all that would discharge their duty acceptably for so doth the Apostle here direct Casting all your care upon him 3. The way to be liberated of anxiety and heart-dividing cares which indispose for duty is by prayer to commend the successe and event of our duty and our thorow-bearing therein to the Lord Philip. 4.6 and by faith to commit both to him Prov. 16.3 for this is here the direction of the Spirit of the Lord for attaining to freedom from sinfull anxiety Casting all your care upon him 4. The Lord alloweth his Children to cast upon him all their anxieties both such as they have about their souls and matters of highest concernment and those about their bodies and lesser matters how small soever the thing be where-about their heart becometh anxious he alloweth them to commit the same to him for he knoweth that a very small matter is ready to occasion much vexation of spirit to his own Jona 4.8 Therefore doth he thus direct them to cast all their care upon him 5. It is not only the priviledge of Believers that they may disburden themselves of their distrustful heart-dividing cares by casting them over upon the Lord but it is also the very great desire of our God that we should not sink under the insupportable burden of our own needlesse cares and fears Yea it is his peremptory command to put these off our selves upon him which his People may not disobey except they would incur his displeasure and destroy themselves for this hath the force of a command Casting all your care upon him 6. As no duty can be rightly discharged by us while the Lord is not trusted with our thorow-bearing in it and with the event and successe thereof or while the heart is distracted with misbelieving anxiety about these So the trusting of God with these is the best way to come speed in every duty for the Apostle having exhorted before to duties toward their Overseers to one another and to God he brings in this as a mean of attaining to all these without which none of them could be attained unto Casting all your care upon him 7. Misbelieving anxiety whereby Christians break themselves with the burden of these cares which God requireth to be cast upon him is one of the greatest signs of pride in the world and to trust God with the weight of these in following our duty is a prime evidence of true humility for this is brought in as a special way how they should prove themselves to be humbled under God's mighty hand and as that without which they could not but declare their pride as both the construction of the words and their connexion with the former do import Humble your selves c. casting all your care upon him 8. Although the Lord be altogether free of such passions as care sorrow and the like which are in men Numb 23.19 Yet those of his People that cast their care upon him shall find no lesse proofs of his love both in warding off hazards so far as is necessary and providing every thing needful for
The strongest of Satan's temptations are conveyed to the Godly through afflictions under which his temptations are ordinarily most prevalent with them to make them quit the Truth or their duty or else to ding them from their confidence in adhering to these Therefore the Apostle giving an encouragement to oppose Satan's temptations he suiteth the same for an afflicted condition importing that through affliction the greatest temptations are ordinarily conveyed to the Godly Whom resist c. knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren 4. It is an ordinary and strong temptation which Satan suggests to the hearts of the Godly That they are singular and matchlesse in their sufferings that so he may make them question their Fathers affection and put themselves out of the number of his Children because of their afflictions for this is the temptation which the Apostle mainly guards the hearts of sufferers against while he saith Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren that are in the world 5. It ought to be a great encouragement to sufferers in that battel against their temptations which accompany their afflictions to consider that their lot is no harder than the rest of the Saints of God through the world from whom they may expect sympathy and the help of their prayers for this is here given as an encouragement to the battel against Satan's temptations notwithstanding of afflictions in the way of their duty That the same afflictions were accomplished in their Brethren that are in the world Vers 10. But the God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you Followeth the last part of the Chapter which is the Conclusion of the whole Epistle containing several articles In the first the Apostle betakes himself to God by prayer for these suffering Christians that the begun work of grace in them might be carried on to perfection and for that end that they might be established in what they had already attained that their spiritual strength for all their duties and difficulties might be renewed and increased and their union with Christ the foundation made more and more firm which is the signification of these several expressions in the Apostle's petition and for the strengthening of his faith and theirs concerning the hearing of this prayer he takes hold of the alsufficiency of grace which is in God and makes use of the sweet proof thereof which they had already received in the Lord 's calling of them by the Gospel to the possession of his everlasting blessednesse through the Mediatour after they had wrestled a little while through a few difficulties in the way to it Hence Learn 1. The Ministers of Christ ought not to satisfie themselves with the pressing of pertinent duties upon the Lord's People and holding forth fitting encouragements to be made use of by them that thereby people may come to the knowledge and approbation of their doctrine but they must also by prayer and faith put over upon the Lord to work in the people what they have pressed and must go before them to the Fountain of furniture that so the people may apprehend a necessity of divine influence to concur with mens best gifts in order to their profiting without which neither Ministers pains nor peoples resolutions or endeavours can have successe Rom. 9. â—6 for so doth the Apostle here put over upon the Lord by prayer to work in the people that which was his main scope in preaching and writing to them But the God of all grace c. make you perfect c. 2. It may be a great comfort to the Lord's People and encouragement in their duty when the Lord sends them such Messengers as have not only ability to clear their duty and hold forth their encouragements to them but such as have also skill of wrestling in prayer with God for them to draw down the blessing upon their doctrine and by their practice of that duty of prayer before the Lord's People to direct them in the right manner of going about it for this may be taken for a sweeet encouragement to them to study the duties he had prest upon them that they had the Apostle so earnest and skilful a wrestler with God for them putting up as it were in their hearing such pertinent petitions on their behalf and making use of such strong grounds of confidence as was fitting for the strengthening of their faith and his that he should be heard The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Jesus Christ after ye have suffered a while make you perfect c. 3. Even those of the Lord's People who are furthest advanced in grace are far short of that measure of perfection which is attainable they are oftentimes like a member out of joynt as the first expression here in the Apostle's prayer signifies both in regard of their own inward distempers Psal 22.14 and of their divisions among themselves for healing whereof Paul useth the same word in his exhortation to the Corinthians 2 Ep. 13.11 they are not so hardened against nor resolute as they ought to be to meet with further difficulties as the next expression in his prayer imports They are far from that vigour and ability for their duties and crosses and from that close adherence to Christ the Foundation-stone as the two last expressions import that they might be at Of all which defects every one that desires to thrive in grace would labour to be sensible that so they may be humble and stirred up to greater progresse for which cause the Apostle maketh use of such expressions in his petitions as might represent to the minds of the people of whose progresse he had spoken much before their several defects The God of all grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you 4. It ought to be the great aim and design of Ministers in all their labours with God and with the people That those who have attained to some good measure of grace may not rest satisfied with the same But may be stirred up to aim at progresse and perfection therein and for that end may have their inward distempers and mutual divisions healed as a broken member is set in joynt again that they may be made able for their duties and hardened against their trials and that they may be better built upon the Foundation Christ by a more hearty imbracing of his offered Grace and firm adherance to his Truth for these are the things which the Apostle hath aimed at in his writing this Epistle to these persecuted Hebrews and in his prayer to God for them as is clear by the signification of the words in the Original The God of all grace make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you 5. There is in God an Alsufficiency of every grace and withall a strong propension to communicate the same freely
related the greatest things present And because a transient Voice is more easily mistaken or forgotten than a standing authentick Record therefore the written Word is a more sure ground for sinners faith to rest upon than a Voice from Heaven could be Next he commendeth the written Word from the usefulnesse thereof that it should prove to sinners who make it the rule of their faith and manners a comfortable Directory through this dark state of ignorance and misery until they get such a measure of the promised Spirit and nearness to the Son of righteousness that they shall not need a prospect of Glasse of the Word and Ordinances which will not be till death and the dawning of the day of eternity Hence Learn 1. The written Word believed to be the Lord's mind is the surest ground for faith to rest upon of any that ever hath been or can be given to sinners subject to forgetfulnesse jealousies and mistakes the general offers of Christ and free promises of His grace excluding none who will not exclude themselves give more solid encouragement to self-judging sinners than they could have by a Voice from Heaven calling them by their names for that would readily be suspected to be another than the Lord's or spoken to another of that name Therefore the Apostle comparing the written Word with the Voice from Heaven calleth it to sinners A more sure Word 2. As this world is so dark a place that our own reason the counsel or example of others will often leave us comfortlesse to wander and fall in snares except we look to the light of the Word which shineth in this dark place So they have the Lord's approbation and commendation who do apply their hearts to and satisfie themselves with this Word as the only and sufficient ground of their faith and rule of their manners to keep them from erring in judgment or practice for so saith the Apostle VVhereunto ye do well to take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place 3. Although the light be now clear in comparison of what was before Christ came Yet being compared with that light we shall have in Heaven it is but dark Like the light that shineth out of a room where a candle is in a room where the candle is not seen So much doth this similitude of a light shining in a dark place import 4. Though it be so Yet shall the Word give comfortable direction to all that follow the light of it under all their crosses confusions and difficulties and these who make it a lamp to their feet and a light to their path may be sure to get at last such a clear and satisfactory sight of Christ as shall banish all darknesse and doubts and such a near union and fellowship with Him the bright Morning-Star gloriously present by His Spirit in their hearts and personally also in humane nature conversing with them for ever that they shall have no more need of Word or Ordinances which is the condition here described by the Apostle only to be expected in Heaven till which time we will never be above the direction of the Word and use of the Ordinances Eph. 4.13 Cant. 4.12 Vers 20. Knowing this first that no Prophesie of the Scripture is of any private interpretation 21. For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Last of all the Apostle commendeth the written Word from the Divine Authority of it the interpretation or true meaning whereof cannot be found out by the wit or proper invention of any whereof the Apostle giveth a reason Because these truly gracious men who were consecrated and set a part by the Lord for receiving and registring His mind in Scriptures could neither speak nor write when nor what things they pleased but as they were immediatly moved and infallibly furnished by the Lord's Spirit whose mind it is Therefore the Scriptures are of Divine Authority and this the Apostle saith must be known first to wit as a principle of saving knowledge without which Christians cannot profit by the Scriptures Hence Learn 1. As the Scriptures do not hold forth to us the device of their heads who wrote it but the publick mind of God So none can attain to the right meaning nor be able to hold forth the true interpretation thereof by their own proper skill or invention there being in it such knots as the word interpretation importeth as cannot be loosed but by humble imploring the help of the Spirit whose mind it is as the Pen-men of it themselves did that they might know what was revealed to themselves Psa 119.18 Dan. 2.22 Zech. 4.4 5. and by comparing one place with another Act. 17.11 and making use of other helps that God hath given Dan. 9.2 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. by which means through the Lords blessing we may come to some saving measure of the knowledge of God's mind in His Word and may have the common or publick consent of both Prophets and Apostles to every saving Truth made known 〈◊〉 us therein for no Prophesie or part of Scripture is of any private interpretation 2. As it is the duty of all the Lord's People to fix in their minds as an unquestionable Truth this principle That the Scriptures being the Lord's mind none can of themselves attain to the true meaning of them So till this principle be known at least so far as that it be not questioned there can be no light or comfort expected from the Word for the Apostle having exhorted in the former Verse to look to the Word for direction and comfort doth adde here that as they would find these they must know this first that it is not of any private interpretation And though only the Spirit of the Lord the Author of the Scriptures can fully perswade hearts that they are His mind Yet if men would consider that a great many of these truths that are revealed in Scripture are not only agreeable to Natures-light but may be in some measure known by it The one to wit the light of Nature teaching That there is one God the first cause of all omnipotent wise righteous and good that it is reasonable He should be served and that according to His own will which therefore He being both wise and good must have some way revealed that reasonable creatures have immortal souls and so die not as the beasts that there is no true happinesse in these things wherein men do ordinarily seek it that since vice and vertue receive not suitable rewards here there must be punishment and reward after this life all which and many other things of this sort Natures-light teacheth though darkly as the Scriptures themselves Rom. 1.19 20. and the Writings of those that never knew the Scriptures do witnesse The other again to wit the Scriptures clearly revealing these same things pointing out the nature will and way of worshipping of
changed in their nature for these of whom the Apostle speaketh here being still dogs and swine were only washen externally and did vomit up by confession and seeming renunciation their filthy practices to which they did return again as the dog returneth to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire and so this place can make nothing for the apostasie of the Saints Lastly It is lawfull for the Ministers of Christ to make use of common similitudes or proverbs to clear the Truth and fix it in the minds of those that are led by sense providing they do make use especially of such as are scriptural propose all their similitudes in a decent and cleanly way suitable to the majesty and purity of Truth and apposit to their present purpose and bring them forth only for illustration of Truths otherwise proven for so doth the Apostle here make use of such a similitude as he found in Scripture which though it be taken from things in themselves vile is exprest in the most honest tearms that can fitly set out the vilenesse of apostasie the evil whereof he had clearly proven before It is happened unto them according to the true proverb c. CHAP. III. BEcause the believing consideration of Christ's second coming is a special mean to make Christians thrive in grace and holinesse and to guard their hearts against temptations Therefore the Apostle having pressed growth in grace and holinesse in the first part of this Epistle Chap. 1. and guarded against the infection of error in the second part Chap. 2. He doth in this last Chapter wherein is the third part of the Epistle 1. defend and clear the doctrine of the last judgment and 2. doth shew what use Believers should make thereof In the first part of this Chapter the Apostle having put them in mind of his main scope in both the Epistles which was to keep the substance of the Gospel fresh in their minds ver 1 2. giveth forewarning of the rise of profane mockers of Christ's second coming who that they might serve their lusts with the more quietnesse would plead for an eternity of this present world because they had never observed any appearance of such a change as was foretold to be at that day ver 3 4. Which blasphemous opinion together with their seeming reason for it the Apostle confuteth by several reasons drawn from the works of Creation and Providence which prove there will be such a day as will be very terrible to profane mockers of it ver 5 6 7. and holdeth forth to the Godly satisfying reasons of the delay of that day to wit that it is very small being compared with eternity ver 8. that the delay is mainly for the gathering of the Elect ver 9. which being done that day will come suddenly and with much terror ver 10. In the second part of the Chapter the Apostle maketh use of his former Doctrine concerning Christ's second coming for the up-stirring of the Lord's People to the study of holinesse ver 11. to wait and pray for that day ver 12. when they had ground to look for so excellent an estate ver 13. as might provoke them to much diligence in making ready for it ver 14. to esteem the delay thereof to be granted for the furtherance of their salvation in which strain Paul had insisted much in his Epistles ver 15 16. And upon the consideration of all to labour for stedfastnesse and progresse in grace and in the knowledge of Christ who is worthy of eternal praise ver 17 18. Vers 1. This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance 2. That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets and of the Commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour THe Apostle doth here present to them his chief scope intended by him in both the Epistles which was the wakening and rousing of these sincere-hearted Christians to whom he writeth to an actual consideration and constant practice of known Truths that had been delivered to them by the Prophets himself and other Apostles of Jesus Christ Hence Learn 1. The Ministers of Christ ought not only to intend as their scope some particular advantage to the souls of the Lord's People by all the Messages they carry to them But also in their delivery of them frequently to make clear to the People what their main intent is that so themselves may be engaged to direct all they deliver toward that scope the People may have it the better fixed in their minds and all that they hear relating to that scope may be the better understood and have the greater weight otherwise the greatest variety of Truth and most taking expressions can have but a slender and soon evanishing impression upon that hearer who cannot be able to condescend upon the principal scope of the speaker for here the Apostle hath proposed their up-stirring as his scope and by his frequent mentioning of it in the first Chapter and this also did ty himself to speak to it and made his hearers able to judge how all he delivered did make for it This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds 2. A Minister's main scope ought not to be the acquiting of himself before men in his duty so as he may be free of censure neither only the clear information of the minds of the Lord's People in the Truth neither yet the bringing forth of some new things which they that live under the Gospel have not formerly heard But more principally he must study the quickning and wakening of the affections of the Lord's People to a delight in and resolution to walk in the practice of Truths they have formerly known and remembred for it is here the Apostle's scope to stir them up a word frequently used in the New Testament of raising the dead and wakening those that are asleep by putting them in remembrance which signifieth to represent of new to the mind and memory truths formerly known and remembred 3. A Minister that would prevail with the Lord's People ought both to keep love to them that his pains may flow therefrom and in his dealing with them to expresse his love and high esteem of any measure of sincerity he hath discerned in them Therefore doth the Apostle stile these whom he intends to stir up Beloved and doth acknowledge that they had sincere and pure minds 4. Even those who for sincerity of heart and honesty of their aims and intentions may a bide the trial of Gospel-light have great need of many messages to the same purpose and of much up-stirring to the right use-making of them there being in them that have the clearest understanding much darknesse and many mistakes concerning the Truths of God and in the sincerest Believer whose heart is most lively and forward
time nor ability to reckon out all the particulars of that new and blessed Estate setteth it out by a new World which comprehendeth many new things in it We look for new Heavens and a new Earth 3. In that new World there shall neither be sin nor temptation to sin there shall be no wrong nor oppression nor affliction which are the consequences of sin there shall neither be any change nor any possibility or fear of change for righteousnesse which often falleth in the straits now and cannot get enterance but is banished out of the most parts of this World Isa 59.14 shall have a constant mansion there as the word here signifieth Where righteousnesse dwelleth 4. They that would have a well-grounded confidence of attaining to this better World must take hold of it in the promises thereof in Scripture which ordinarily contain both the qualification and duty of the person that may expect it as is clear by comparing 2 Cor. 5.17 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 3.3 with this present Text We according to His promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth 5. They who have laid sure hold upon eternal life by faith in the promises thereof will not be shaken out of their confident expectation of it either by profane mens scoffing at the ground of their confidence or by the sight of never so strange events falling forth before they possesse what they believe for the Apostle having foretold Believers that they should hear much bold mockery of the last judgment and a better life than this and that they should see all this World on fire before they did possesse that better expresseth here what should be their hope and language notwithstanding of both Neverthelesse we according to His promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth Vers 14. Wherefore Beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace without spot and blamelesse From the consideration of that comfortable state that Believers have to look for beyond time the Apostle exhorteth them to serious and constant diligence in making use of the Bloud and Spirit of Christ for the doing away of their sinful spots as the only way wherein they may expect true peace when Christ cometh which is in substance the same with the first use of his former doctrine ver 11. Hence Learn 1. The lively hope and expectation of everlasting blessednesse should be so far from making them that have it negligent and remisse in holy duties that it should be a special motive and engagement to the same that so they may honour Him who hath made sure for them that heavenly inheritance after time and alloweth them the comfortable expectation of it in time for this exhortation to Believers is inferred upon their confidence Wherefore Beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent c. 2. They who have an approven and well-grounded confidence of Heaven are so subject to lazinesse in their duty and thereby in hazard to lose or weaken their assurance which is only maintained in the way of diligence 2 Pet. 1.10 11. that they have much need to be frequently roused up by the word of exhortation to diligence in their duty for it is those whose confidence of Heaven the Apostle questioneth not but supposeth to be well-grounded whom he doth here as often before exhort to give diligence 3. It is not unlawful for the Lord's People to look upon the excellency of the reward which free-grace hath prepared for them and thereby to provoke their own hearts to diligence in their duty Though the reward be neither the main nor the only motive of a Christian to his duty Yet it is one that may warrantably be made use of as here the Apostle doth Wherefore Beloved seeing ye look for such things to wit the new Heavens and the new Earth spoken of in the former verse be diligent 4. The main thing whereabout Christians diligence ought to be exercised is The washing away of the spots of their by past guiltinesse by the frequent application of the Bloud of Christ and the changing of their polluted natures whereby they are inclined to defile themselves further by the vertue of the Spirit of Christ both which may be comprehended in this without spot and blameless which is here holden forth as the object of Christians constant and serious diligence 5. Although there be now many spots and much to blame in the best who may so long as they are in time cry Uunclean unclean Yet these who get grace to be seriously diligent as the word here signifieth in imploying of Christ for pardon of by-past guiltinesse and for strength in the battel against sin for time to come shall be found by Him when He cometh without spot and blameless 6. Much sweet peace and quietness when Christ cometh whether at death or judgment will be found in the spirits of those who make it their serious work in time to have their daily guiltinesse washen away by the application of the Bloud of Jesus and their filthy natures changed by the power of His Spirit and on the contrary much fearful unquietnesse and bitter anxiety will be at that time in their hearts who carry their unpardoned guilt and unrenewed nature to their end with them without any serious diligence for removal of either for the words in the Original are That ye being without spot and blamelesse may be found by Him in peace importing that these and none but these will have peace when He cometh 7. The thoughts of that peace which diligent Believers will have at Christ's coming and of that unquietnesse which will be then in the hearts of others ought to provoke all that love their own peace to much diligence in making use of Christ for pardon of sin and victory over it for the Apostle maketh this an alluring motive to diligence that such and none else shall be found in peace without spot and blamelesse Vers 15. And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you The fourth use of the former doctrine both anent the delay of Christ's second coming and the manner thereof is For upstirring of the Lord's People seriously to ponder what work the Lord is about while His second coming seemeth to be delayed to wit the working and promoting of saving grace in His own and fitting of them for that eternal salvation which He is to bring with Him for which work time and pains are necessary and this use the Apostle beareth-in upon them as a thing that had been much prest from the same ground upon these same Hebrews by the Apostle Paul of whom he speaketh with much love and respect as a man dear to him and faithfull according to his talent Hence Learn 1. The way to quiet our hearts under the delay of the performance of promises is to have them much exercised with