exposition of Scriptures doth It requires a greater skill then the skill of Alchymie to extract the true sense and meaning of the holy Ghost from the plausible glosses or expositions which are dayly made upon them But how sincerely soever the word may be delivered by the Pastor it may be corrupted by the hearer Milk as Physicians tell us is turned into purer blood with greater facilitie than any other nutriment so the body which receives it be free from humors but if the stomack or other vitall parts be stuft with Phlegm opprest with Choler or other corruption there is no nutriment which is more easily corrupted or more apt to feed bad humors than milk how pure soever it be Thus though the sincere milk of the word be not only the best but the onely nutriment of soules by which wee must grow up in faith yet if the heart which receives it from the preachers mouth sincere be pestered with corrupt affections it doth not nourish if it do not purge or purifie the corrupt humours but mingle with them they malignifie one another The speciall humours which on the hearers part corrupt the sincere milk of the word and of which every one that will be a diligent hearer must endeavour to purge his soule by repentance are set downe by S. Peter in the same Chapter vers 1. Wherefore laying aside all malice all guile and all hypocrisie and envies and evill-speakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word Wee must first then desire the word as Physick to purge our soules That part of the word I mean which teacheth Repentance and denyall of all ungodliness before wee can hope to grow by the milk of it that is by the comfort of Gods promises Unlesse our hearts be in good measure purified by obedience to the Generall precepts or morall duties how sincere soever the milk of the word preached be our desire of it cannot be sincere wee shall desire it or delight in it to maintain Faction or secret pride not to grow up thereby in sinceritie of mind and humblenesse of spirit which are the most proper effects of the milk of the word sincerely delivered and sincerely received SECT II. Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Phil. 2. 11. That every Tongue should Confesse that Jesus Christ is LORD to the Glorie of God the Father Acts 2. 36. Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye Crucified both Lord and Christ Rev. 5. 13. Every Creature in heaven and earth and sea did say Blessing Honour Glorie and Power to Him that sitteth on the Throne and to The Lamb for ever ever The Degrees or Steps by which we must ascend before we enter this Beautiful Gate of the Lords House are Three First What it is to be a LORD Second Upon what Grounds or in what respects Christ is by peculiar Title called THE LORD Third How our Confession or acknowledgment of Christ to be The Lord doth redound to the Glorie of God the Father CHAP. VI. What it is to be a Lord. Though there be many called Lords yet is there but One Absolute Lord. 1. THe Title of Lord whether we take it in the Greek in the Latin or in our English is sometimes a Title only of Respect or courtesie So strangers usually salute men of place or note by the name of Dominus or sometimes of Domination it self And we usually instile the Eldest Sons of Earles by the title of Lords And all the Sons of Dukes even from their Cradles are so instiled Not to vouchsafe them this Title when we mention them were ill manners or discourtesie Howbeit even they which are bound to love them best the very parents of their bodies do not permit them to enjoy the Realities answering to these honourable Titles before their full age and for the most part till they themselves have surrendred them by death The Realitie answering to this title of Lord is Dominion Every one that hath Dominion is a Lord in respect of that over which he hath Dominion and whosoever really is a Lord is so instiled from some Dominion which he exerciseth Dominus in Latin sometimes goes for no more then our English word Owner and this is the lowest or meanest signification of the word Lord. The full Extent or highest value of the word Dominus or Lord must be gathered from the several degrees or scale of Dominion as either from the Extent of the matter or subject over which Dominion is exercised or from the Soveraigntie of Title Dominion as Lawyers define it is A Facultie or power fully to dispose of any corporal or bodily substance so far as they are not restrained by law And by how much a mans power to dispose of what he hath is lesse restrained by law by so much his Dominion over it is the greater and he in respect of it is if not so much a greater Lord yet so much more properly a Lord. But fitting it is in regard of publick good or of posteritie that most mens power to dispose of that which otherwise by full right is their own should be in certain Cases restrained Many are Lords of great Lands and may dispose of their annual profits as they please but yet cannot sell or alienate their perpetual inheritance Others have a more full power to dispose of the houses wherein they dwell a power not only to let or set them for yeers but to sell or give away the perpetual inheritance who yet are by Law restrained utterly to demolish or set them on fire especially if they be inclosed by neighbour Lodgings The Cases are many wherein Dominuim sub altiore dominio est There is a sub ordination of Lordships or Dominions some are Mean Lords some are Chief Lords Even meaner Lords or owners are not to be denyed the titles of Lords albeit they cannot alienate the soil whereof they are owners without licence of the Chief Lord much more are chief or higher Lords to be so reputed because their Dominion or power to dispose of their own Lands is lesse subordinate howbeit in some cases limited by the Rule of Law And this restraint in how few cases soever it be hinders their greatnesse from growing into absolute Dominion Lords they are but not absolute Lords This is a Title peculiar to Kings or Monarches who are so called only in respect of their own subjects or of their own Lands No meere mortal man since Adam was Lord of the whole earth or bare soveraigntie over all men or bodily substances And the greatest of men have been subject or inferiour to Angels 2. To leave other divisions of Dominion to Lawyers All Dominion is either Jurisdictionis or Proprietatis A power of Jurisdiction or a right to the Propertie The former branch of Dominion is exercised only over men or resonable creatures which only are capable of Jurisdiction passive or of Government The later branch which we call
ready to put in execution Now this Judgment of Sodom was but as a Private or Particular Sessions to give the world an undoubted pledge of that General and Terrible Judgment which must be given upon all such as they were by the same Lord 's visible appearance before whom Abraham did now appear as Advocate or Intercessor for these men of Sodom So St. Iude instructs us Ver. 6 7. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire There were Three in number which then appeared unto Abraham under the shape and likeness of men yet to his apprehension more then Men Angels of the Lord or the Lord Himself in a Trinity of Angels representing the Blessed Trinity in which as Athanasius tels us there are not three Lords but one Lord Yet though there be but one Lord Iehovah and though the Father Son and Holy Ghost be This One Lord yet as we said Chap. 6. 7. The Son of God is Adonai or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord or Judge by peculiar Title and by such personal Right as God the Father and God the Holy Ghost is not Lord and Judge And for this reason albeit there were Three that appeared to Abraham yet Abraham directs his speech unto One as unto his Lord this Lord did vouchsafe his answer unto Abraham after the men which appeared unto him turned their faces thence and went towards Sodom Other Testimonies to this purpose are most frequent in the book of Psalms Psal 50. 1 2 3. The mighty God even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And ver 6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Psal 93. 1 2. The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himself The world also is established that it cannot be moved Thy Throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Every Throne or Tribunal is established for execution of Judgment But this Throne though established of old or from Eternity yet was not the Judgment for which this Throne was established executed from eternity or so executed at any time before the Date of this Psalm as the Psalmist expected in due time or at the end of time it would be And the Author of the next Psalm whether the same or some other conceives a solemn prayer for the speedy execution of that Judgment which was to proceed from the former Throne which had been established from everlasting and to be executed by that God to whose honor the former Psalm was consecrated O Lord God saith the Psalmist Psal 94. 1 2 3 4. to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou Judge of the Earth render a reward to the proud Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves To omit other testimonies to the like purpose This one Observation is general to all As the Messias who was first promised and but Promised only to Adam was afterwards Promised by Oath to Abraham and to David and by them to all mankind So this future general Judgement which was first revealed for ought we read to Enoch afterwards known to Abraham and to David and to the Psalmists were they one or more was afterwards confirmed by the Oath of God himself unto the Prophet Esay Cap. 45. ver 22 23. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear 3. All these Testimonies are Concludent that God is Judge of all the earth and that there shall be A final Judgment executed by God himself But the Point wherein the Reader as I suppose expects satisfaction is From what authentick Testimony of Scripture it is or may be made as clear and evident that This final Iudgment shall be personally executed by the Son of God or by the Man Christ Jesus As much as to this purpose can be required is avouched by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14. 11. It is written as I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God The written Testimony which he avoucheth is That before last cited Esay 45. 23. And from this Testimony he infers these Two Conclusions the Former ver 10. which is the same with 2 Cor. 5. 10. We shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ The Later ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God The Issue or Corollary of both Conclusions is That Iesus Christ is that Lord and God which had interposed his Oath unto the Prophet Esay that every knee should bow unto him This Issue of both Conclusions Rom. 14. is more fully exprest Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father But for more full satisfaction some here may justly Demand Whether St. Paul did make this interpretation of the Prophet Esay by some new Revelation of the Spirit made in particular to him unknown to most others before that time Or whether the interpretation of the Prophet Esay and of other like prophecies which he made were literally and really included in the prophecies themselves and ratified by the General Analogie of Faith or by the Common Rule of interpretation in those times sufficiently known to the learned whose eyes were not blinded with passion nor prejudiced with partiality to their own Sects or Factions To this we Answer that St. Paul's Interpretation of the Prophet was really included in the literal sense of the Prophecie and the literal sense or construction which he made of the fore-cited passage in the Prophet Esay and other Prophets was warrantable by the Common Rule of Interpretation sufficiently known in those times The Rule is General That all those places of the old Testament which
God It could not There had been indeed an Exaltation of the bodie so assumed but none of the Nature or Person assuming it How then is the Son of God said now to be Exalted by his bodily Ascension into Heaven or by his Sitting at the Right-hand of the Father in our Nature wherein he was formerly humbled Take the Resolution plainely thus God the Father had remained as glorious as now he is although he had never created the world For the creation gave much even all they had to things created it gave nothing unto God who was in Being infinite yet if God had created nothing the Attribute of Creator could have had no real Ground it had been no real Attribute In like manner Suppose the Son of God had never condescended to take our nature upon him he had remained as Glorious in his Nature and Person as now he is yet not glorified for or by this Title or Attribute of Incarnation Or suppose he had not humbled himself unto death by taking the Form of a Servant upon him he had remained as glorious in his Nature and Person and in the Attribute of Incarnation as now he is but without these glorious Attributes of being our Lord and Redeemer and of being the Fountain of Grace and Salvation unto us All these are Real Attributes and suppose a Real Ground or foundation and that was his humbling himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross Nor are these Attributes only Real but more Glorious both in respect of God the Father who was pleased to give his Only Son for us and in respect of God the Son who was pleased to pay our ransome by his humiliation then the Attribute of Creation is The Son of God then not the Son of David only hath been Exalted since his death to be our Lord by a new and Real Title by the Title of Redemption and Salvation This is the Sum of our Apostles Inference concerning our Saviours Exaltation Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is The Lord unto the Glorie of God the Father To shut up this Point Though Christ Jesus be both our High-Priest and Lord not only as he is the Son of David but as he is the only begotten Son of God and so begotten from all Eternitie yet was he neither begotten a Priest nor Lord from all Eternitie but made a Priest and made a Lord in time The Word of the Oath saith the Apostle Heb. 7. 28. which was since the Law maketh the Son a Priest who was consecrated for evermore And in the very same Charter wherein this Word of the Oath or uncontrollable Fiat for making the Eternal Word an Everlasting Priest is contained this Peculiar Title of Lord is first inferred For so that 110 th Psalm begins Jehovah said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine Enemies thy foot-stool Not that Adonai importeth lesse Honour or Majestie then Jehovah doth as the Jews and Arians ignorantly and impiously collect but with purpose to notifie that this Title of Lord or Adonai was to become as peculiar to Jehovah the Son of God as the Title of Cohen or Priest But this Title of Lord as peculiar to Christ will require and doth well deserve a peculiar discourse and the place allotted it is in the beginning of the second Section 5. Now for Use or Application These insuing Meditations and Considerations offer themselves What branch of sorrow of bodily affliction or anguish of soul or Spirit can we imagin incident to any degree condition or sort of men to any son of man at any time unto which the waters of Comfort may not plentifully be derived from this inexhaustible Fountain of Comfort comprised in This Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty No man can be of so low dejected or forlorn estate for means or friends re or spe either by birth or by misfortune but may raise his heart with this Consideration that it is no servitude or beggerie but freedom or riches to be truly entitled A Servant to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings to whom Angels and Principalities as Saint Peter speaks even those Angels and Principalities to whom not Kings and Monarchs but even Kingdoms and Monarchies are Pupils are subject and his fellow servants Or in case any poor dejected soul should be surprized with distrust or jealousie lest his Lord in such infinite height of Exaltation and distance should not from heaven take notice of him thrown down to earth let him to his comfort consider That the Son of God and Lord of Glorie to the end he might assure us that he was not a Lord more Great in himself then Gracious and loving unto us was pleased for a long time to become a Servant before he would be made a Lord and a Servant subject to multitudes of publick despights disgraces and contempts from which ordinarie servants or men of forlorn hopes are freed If he willingly became such a Servant for thee to whom he owed nothing wilt not thou resolve to make a vertue of necessitie by patient bearing thy meannesse or misfortunes for his sake to whom even Kings owe themselves their Scepters and all their worldly glorie But though it be a contemplation full of comfort to have him for our Supreme Lord and Protector who sometimes was a Servant cruelly oppressed by the greatest Powers on earth without any power of man to defend or protect him yet the sweet streams of joy and comfort flow more plentifully to all sorts and conditions of men from the Attribute of his Royal Priesthood To be a Priest implies as much as to be a Mediator or Intercessor for averting Gods wrath or an Advocate for procuring his Favours and blessings * And what could Comfort her self wish more for her children suppose she had been our mother then to have Him for our perpetual Advocate and Intercessor at the Right-hand of God who is equal to God in Glorie in Power and Immortalitie and yet was sometimes more then equal unto us in all manner of anguish of grievances and afflictions that either our nature state or casual condition of life can be charged with * Albeit he knew no sin yet never was the heart of any the most grievovs sinner no not whilest it melted with penitent tears and sorrow for misdoings past so deeply touched with the fellow-feeling of his brothers miseries of such miseries as were the proper effects or fruits of sin as the heart of this our High-Priest was touched with every mans miserie and affliction that presented himself with prayers unto him his heart was as fit a Receptacle for others sorrows of all sorts as the eye is of colours Who was weak and he was not weak who was grieved and he burned not who was afflicted and he not tormented 6. There be Two more special and remarkable Maxims of our Apostles for our comfort The One Heb.
to the Jews which had answer'd him rightly that the Messias was to be the Son of David is unanswerable and most satisfactorie If the expected Messias were not to be the Son of God and truly God the supreme Lord as well of the dead as of the living why did David in spirit call him Lord before he was the Son of David It is a point to be observed that the Iews in our Saviours time did not or could not deny that this Psalm was literally meant of their expected Messias albeit the later Iews seek to wrest it but most ridiculously some to Ezekiah some to Abraham But that the word Adonai is of no lesse value or importance then Iehovah but only imports Iehovah or God incarnate or the Messias his Exaltation to be Lord or King may be evinced against the Iew for that the same sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving which One Psalmist solemnly offers unto Iehovah Another Psalmist or perhaps the same doth alike solemnly offer up to Adonai or to the expected Messias in another Psalm As Psal 57. which is a Prophetical Song of David and containes the Exaltation of his God and Lord Exalt thy self O God above the heaven and let thy glory be upon all the earth ver 5 11. This Prophecie was then punctually fulfilled and Davids prayer or request signed by the mouth of God when our Saviour after his Resurrection said All power is given to me in heaven and in earth go therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holie Ghost Mat. 28. 18. Unto this Iehovah or God whose Exaltation he foresaw and heartily prayed for and unto whom he had directed his prayers ver 1. He offers the Sacrifice of praise ver 9. under the title of Adonai I will praise or confesse thee among the people O Lord I will sing unto thee among the Nations The verie self-same sacrifice David offers unto the same God under the title of Iehovah Psal 108. 1 2 3 4 5. O God mine heart is prepared so is my tongue I will sing and give praise Awake Viol and Harp I will awake early I will praise thee O Lord among the people I will sing unto thee among the Nations For thy mercie is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds Exalt thy self O God above the heavens and let thy glorie be upon all the earth which last words were twice repeated in the 57. Psam 2. These Fundamental Points of Faith are clear from this collation of Scripture First That Adonai or Lord was the known Title of the Messias whom the Jews expected in our Saviours time and this was the reason that the Pharisces had not a word to answer or rejoyn unto our Saviour when he avouched that the Messias was to be The Son of God because David in Spirit called him Adonai Lord Matth. 22. 45. The second That he that was Adonai or the Messias was likewise Jehovah truly God because David did not in spirit onely call him Lord but did in spirit worship him as his Lord and God with the best sacrifice that he could devise as appears from Psalm 57. 8. A great part of the Book of Psalms even all those passages if my observation fail me not without exception which mention the extraordinary manifestation of Gods glory or his exaltation as King run the same way and as it were pay Tribute unto the infinite Ocean of Gods mercy first manifested in our Saviours Exaltation to the right hand of God The more remarkable Passages are these Psal 97. ver 1. Jehovah reigneth let the earth rejoice let the multitude of the Isles be glad Whilest Jehovah was onely known in Jurie the multitude of the Isles or Nations had no special reason to be glad for Iudah was then his Sanctuary and Israel his dominion but after God had given our Saviour Christ the utmost parts of the earth for his possession that is after our Saviours Ascension into Heaven and the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom unto all Nations the multitude of the Isles the whole Earth had reason to rejoyce Then was that fulfilled which followeth in that Psal ver 6. The Heavens declare his righteousness and all the people saw his Glory That this Psalm is literally meant of Christs Exaltation to be Lord of Lords and of his Inauguration to his everlasting Kingdom The Apostle St. Paul Heb. 1. 6. puts out of question amongst all Christians when he bringeth in his first begotten Son into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him so the Psalmist had said in this 97. Psal ver 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images worship Him all ye Gods or as the Septuagint upon which our Apostle often Paraphrased Worship him all ye Angels of God The matter or subject of this Psalm is almost the same with Psal 2. Both of them contain Prophesies concerning the Declaration of Christ to be the Son of God And from this harmonie between this 97. and the second Psalm and from the common Prenotion or Rule of interpreting Scriptures known to the Learned or unpartially observant in those days the Apostle adds that Preface unto his Testimonie when he bringeth in his onely begotten Son into the World He supposeth that the Learned among his Countrie-men should or might have known that both these Prophecies were to be punctually fulfilled upon the Exaltation of the Messias or of those times wherein God should be manifested in the Flesh 3. Yet some conjecture that our Apostle Heb. 1. 6. hath reference rather to Deut. 32. ver 43. in the Greek Translation then unto the 97 Psalm in the Hebrew The words indeed in the Greek or Septuagint are the very same though in the Hebrew not the same by any Equivalencie of the literal sense At nec sic quidem malè There is a varietie of sense yet no discord but rather a full and perfect Consort between the Literal and Grammatical sense of the Hebrew and the mystical and real sense which the Greek or Septuagint in both places expresseth First The 97 Psalm as many others are is a Poetical descant upon Moses his divine Prophetical Song Deut. 32. And the 70 Interpreters whether out of some Prenotion or out of the admirable Concord between that song of Moses and the 97 Psalm or out of a divine Instinct wherewith as St. Augustine is of opinion they were impelled sometimes to intersert a more express meaning of the Holie Ghost then an ordinary Commentator could out of the Hebrew have observed whether this way or that way moved they have given the same Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. ver 43. which our Apostle hath made upon Psal 97. ver 7. which is no other then the Septuagint had made before but literally more consonant to the Hebrew then their Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. is But
Or did he give us as the Church of Rome saith Evangelical Counsels as Additionals unto the Law In no wise Christ taught no other things then his Apostles after his resurrection did preach and his Apostles taught no other things then Moses and the Prophets had taught Acts 26. 22. But these they taught after another maner then the Scribes and Pharisees did then the ordinary Expositors of the Law and the Prophesies had done So that Gods will concerning man was more fully declared by Christ then it was by Moses or by the Prophets the very true meaning of Moses himself and of the Prophets was more fully revealed and clearly manifested unto mankinde in Christ then it was to Moses himself or to the Prophets Unto me saith our Apostle Ephes 3. 8 9 10. who am less then the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mysterie which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God And by this more full declaration of Gods Will in Christ we Christians are tyed unto more strict observance of His Will known then men were tyed unto before Christ was declared to be the Lord Admitting the Services to be the very same yet the same services are now due under a double Title They are due to God the Father by right of Creation and due to Christ as he is Lord For God the Father is to be honored not onely in himself but in Christ 6. God when he gave the moral Law to Israel useth this Preface I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt This was his peculiar right or Title unto Israel and the Precept grounded upon this Title follows Thou shalt have no other Gods but me But you may remember how it was foretold by the Prophet Jeremie Jer. 23. 7 8. That it should no more be said the Lord liveth which brought the children of Israel out of Egypt But the Lord liveth which brought up the seed of the house of Israel out of the North Land Or according to the prime Grammatical sense of the word principally intended by the Holie Ghost out of the Land of darkness and This was fulfilled onely in Christ So that He who was the Lord of Israel by right of redemption from Egyptian bondage is now become the Lord of every Language of every Nation and Kindred by a more peculiar Title by right of redemption from the Powers of darkness and from Hell it self Hence saith our Apostle 1. Cor. 8. 5 6. Though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there are Gods many and Lords many But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him As the Israelites are forbid to have any other God besides the Lord which brought them out of the Land of Egypt so are we Christians forbid to have any Lords or Masters besides Christ So saith our Saviour Matth. 23. 8 9 10. Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ call no man your father upon the Earth for one is your Father which is in heaven And he repeats the former Caveat Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ He that forbids them to be called Masters over others doth likewise forbid them to be servants to other Masters besides himself And this Duty is more fully exprest by our Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 23. Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men He no way forbids bodily service but rather injoyns such as were servants properly so called that is slaves or bond-men to continue in their calling ver 20 21. as knowing bodily servitude not to be incompatible with Christian liberty no not with the Liberty of the Sons of God He that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man likewise he that is called being a Free-man is Christs servant What service of men then doth Christ or his Apostles forbid The vassalage of our reason or understanding or the submission of our consciences to the pleasures or services of men or of the corrupt times wherein we live Thus to alienate our service from Christ to any mortal men is whether you list to call it a branch of Sacriledge or Idolatry if not more gross yet certainly more deadly in all such as confess Christ to be their Lord then the worshipping of stocks and stones was either in the Heathen or in the Israelites themselves before Christ was declared to be the Son of God and solemnly proclaimed to be the Lord. To give you another Instance how Gods Will is more exactly done by Real Confession of Christ to be THE LORD 7. This is the will of God saith the Apostle 1 Thess 4. 3. Even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God To this duty the Israelites were as truly tyed as we Christians are It was as the Apostle intimates a necessary branch or fruit of the true knowledge of God a service due unto him as he was the Creator But unto this same duty the Israelites were not bound by so many ties as we Christians are It is required of us by a strict peculiar Title not onely by our knowledge of God as our Creator nor by our acknowledgement of Christ to be the Lord as this Title of Lord hath relation onely unto servants he may and doth exact this duty at our hands not onely by right of Redemption or by paying the ransom for our sins upon the Cross but by right of Espousals or by Title of Lord as he is the Head and Husband of his Spouse the Church No motive can be so forcible to deter men from transgressing this negative Commandment or for incouraging them to do Gods Will in the affirmative part of the former Commandment as that of our Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 13. 14 15. Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid And again ver 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods 8. It was well observed long ago by Occolampadius that
help of this Rule For Instance to lay this Rule unto St. John Baptists speech Matth. 3. 10 11 12. Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the tree Therefore every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed Baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the Garner But will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire This Prediction cannot be exactly fulfilled until the Final Sentence be given and put in execution And yet within 43 years after his Baptism by John there was a manifest and lively representation exhibited to the World of his second coming unto Judgement and this representation was exhibited upon the Nation of the Jews The full accomplishment whereof shall at his second coming and not before be universally and exactly accomplished in all Nations and Languages and People Wherein then doth this representation of Final Judgement which at his first coming was exhibited in the Jewish Nation punctually consist In this especially There was such a notorious and manifest Crisis or distinction between the Elect and Reprobate of the Jewish Nation or seed of Abraham at his first coming as in no Nation or People had been experienced before nor shall be experienced in any before the day of Final Judgement in which this distinction of Elect and Reprobates shall not be onely universally manifested but solemnly declared in respect of all mankinde Every Son of Adam shall in that day be irrevocably marshalled or ranked either amongst the absolute Reprobates or absolute Elect In the one or other rank of which estates neither all nor most of every Nation or Church are at all points of time in the Interim to be accounted no not in respect of Gods Eternal Decree Nor may the Verdicts or Aphorisms whether of our Saviour himself or of his Apostles after his death concerning Election or Reprobation be extended to other times or Nations in the same measure or Tenor wherein they were verified and experienced in the Nation of the Jews at or upon our Saviors first coming Thus far to extend them in respect of all Times or Nations were to transgress the Analogie of Faith or received Rules of Interpreting Scriptures and to dissolve the sweet and pleasant Harmony between the Law and the Gospel or between the Evangelists and the Prophets And thus far of the second Point in handling whereof divers passages have intruded themselves which are not impertinent to the third Point CHAP. XII Of the manner of Christs coming to Judgement which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter 1. IT is said in the former Prophecie of Daniel chap. 7. ver 13. that One like the Son of Man came in the clouds of Heaven unto the Ancient of days The literal fulfilling of this Prophetical vision is recorded Acts 1. 9. And when he to wit Christ the Son of Man had spoken these things whilest they beheld He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight But whither he was carried in the Cloud which received him they could not distinctly see Their bodily eyes could not see so much by day as had been revealed to Daniel in vision by night But admit that this cloud did carry him into the presence of the Ancient of days or of God his Father What is this manner of his going into Heaven unto the manner of his coming to Judge the Earth which is The Point in hand Certainly much for so the Angels ver 11. admonished his Disciples which stedfastly beheld the Manner of his Ascension Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven But shall the manner of his coming to Judge the World be in every point like unto the manner of his ascending into Heaven No! then it should not be so terrible as we believe it shall be The chief parts then of this similitude are these Two The First As he did locally and visibly go into Heaven so he shall locally and visibly come to judge the earth The second As he was received into Heaven in a cloud so he shall come to Judge the World as he himself foretold the High Priest and his Complices Matthew 26. 64. in the clouds of heaven The literal meaning of both places and the intent and purpose as well of the Angels as of our Saviour in this prediction infers That this Son of man whom they now beheld with bodily eyes was that very God whose glorious kingdom and reign the Psalmist describes Psal 104. 3. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind Who maketh his Angels Spirits or the Spirits his Angels his Ministers a flame of fire So they will appear when they attend him Coming to Judgment which will be in flaming Fire In all the manifestations of Christ to be the Son of God The Cloud is still a Witness First In his Transfiguration upon the Mount A Cloud did overshadow him and out of the Cloud this testimony was given him by God the Father Matth. 17. 5. this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him 2. Whilest he ascends to God his Father Acts 1. 9. A Cloud receives him And 3. When he shall come from heaven or from his Fathers presence to judge the earth he shall have a Cloud for his Canopy For more particular Description of the Manner of his Coming the next Point is From what place he shall come Now it is expresly said in our Creed That Christ Jesus our Lord who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended into hell who the third day rose again from the dead ascended into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God shall thence come to Judge the quick and the dead But this word Thence is of ambiguous Reference It may be referred in general either to the Heavens into which he ascended or unto the Right hand of God or unto both Certain it is that he shall come from Heaven as visibly and locally as he ascended thither Yet whether he shall come from the Right hand of God is questionable but not by us determinable unless it be determined already in the first Chapter of this Book what is literally meant by The Right hand of God either in the Creed or in those places of the New Testament out of which This Article is taken If Christs Body as Lutherans did contend chapt 3. § 6. be every where or if
in the instruments of the same senses and so it shall be in every other particular sense or faculty wherein sin hath lodged or exercised his dominion The hint of this general Rule or doctrine is given unto us by our Saviour in the Parable of the rich Glutton the principal crime wherewith he is expresly taxed was his too much pampering of the sense of tast without compassion of his poor brother whom he suffered to die for hunger And the only punishment which is expressed by our Saviour is the scorching heat of his tongue which is the Instrument of taste and his unquenchable thirst without so much hope of comfort as a drop of cold water could afford him though this comfort were earnestly begged at the hands or rather at the finger of Abraham who in his life time had been open-handed unto the poor a man full of bounty mercie and pitie But these are works which follow such as practise them here on earth into heaven they extend not themselves unto such as are shut up in that everlasting prison which is under the earth CHAP. XXIV ROMANS 6. 23. The wages of Sin is Death But the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The Body of Death being proportioned to the Body of Sin Christian meditation must applie part to part but by Rule and in Season The Dregs or Reliques of Sin be The sting of Conscience and This is a Prognostick of the Worm of Conscience which is chief part of the Second Death Directions how to make right use of The fear of the Second Death without falling into despere and of the Hope of Life eternal without mounting into presumption viz. Beware 1. Of immature perswasions of Certaintie in Salvation 2. Of this Opinion That all men be at all times either in the Estate of the Elect or Reprobates 3. Of the Irrespective Decree of Absolute Reprobation The use of the Tast of Death and pleasures The Turkish use of Both. How Christians may get a Relish of Joy Eternal by peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost and works of Righteousness Affliction useful to that purpose 1. SEeing the Body of the Second Death is in every part proportionable to the Body of Sin which not mortified doth procure it The Art of Meditation upon the one branch of this Great Article viz. Everlasting Death must be thus assisted or deduced First By right fitting or suiting the several members or branches of the Second Death unto the several members of the Body of sin The force or efficacie of this Medicine depends especially upon the right Application of it And the right Application consists in counterpoizing our hopes or desires of unlawful pleasures with the just fear of sutable Evils Now as the fear of those evils whereof we have a distinct or comprehensive notion hath more weight or force upon our affections then the fear of evils far greater in themselves but of which we have only an indistinct confused or general notion such as a man blind from his birth may have of colours which in the general he knows to be sensible qualities but what kind of qualities in the particular he cannot know So of those evils whereof we have a specifical or distinct notion those have the greatest sway upon our several corrupt affections which are most directly contrary to our particular delights or pleasures which accompany the exercise or motions of the same affections So as the chief if not the only means to mortifie the several members of the old man or body of sin is to plant the fear of those particular evils in the same sense or faculty by whose peculiar delights or pleasures we find our selves to be most usually withdrawn from the wayes of life For the fear of any evil distinctly known though in it self more weighty doth not so directly or fully countersway any delight or pleasure unless it be seated in the same particular subject with it and move upon the same Center Curiosity of the eye is not so easily tamed with any other fear as with fear of blindness Lust or delight in the pleasures of the flesh are not so forcibly restrained by any other fear as by fear of some loathsome disease or grievous pain incident to the Instruments or Organs of such pleasures Pride and Ambition stand not in so much awe of any other punishment as of shame dis-grace or dis-respect 2. But how good soever the Medicine be it is either dangerous or unuseful unless it be applied in due season The same Physick hath contrary effects upon a full and a fasting stomack And as a great part of the Art of Husbandry consists in the observation of times and seasons wherein to sow or plant So a great part of this divine Art of Meditation depends upon our knowledge or observance of opportunities best fitting the plantation of this fear of particular evils which must countersway our inclinations to particular pleasures This must be attempted as we say in cold blood and in the Calm of our affections or in the absence of strong temptations which scarce admit of any other Medicine or restraint save only flying to the Force of Prayer It was a wise Caveat of an heathen that as often as well call those pleasures or delights of the body or sense whereof we have had any former experience to mind we should not look upon them as they did present themselves or came towards us for their face or countenance is pleasant and inticing But if we diligently observe them in their passage from us they are ugly and loathsom and alwayes leave their sting behind them And as the several delightful Objects of every particular outward sense meet in the internal Common sense or Phantasie So the dregs or Reliques which every unlawful pleasure at his departure leaves in the sense or faculty wherein it harboured do all concur to make up the Sting of Conscience And the Sting of Conscience unless we wittingly stifle the working of it doth give the truest representation of the Second Death and makes the deepest impression of hell pains that in this life can generally be had 3. There is no man unless he be given over by God to a reprobate sense whose heart will not smite him either in the consciousness of grosser sins unto which he hath in a lower degree been accustomed or of usual sins though for the quality not so gross Now if men would suffer their Cogitations to reflect upon the regretings which alwayes accompany the accomplishments of unlawful desires as frequently and seriously as they in a manner impel them to reflect upon those inticing Objects which inflame their brests with such desires these cogitations would awake the natural Sting of Conscience and This being awakned or quickned would not suffer them to sleep any longer in their sins For the smart or feeling of the Sting of Conscience is as sensible and lively a Prognostick of the Worm which
and Last consists of Thirteen Select Sermons the fittest I could chuse out to aid and accompany the precedent Discourses especially to attend the Tracts Of Christs coming to Judgment Of the Resurrection Of Life and Death Eternal which as they most flagrantly set forth THE TERROR OF THE LORD so are they most likely by startling and amateing the Conscience to prepare mens minds that the Impressions of those Sermons may be most penetrative and permanent As in the last mentioned Tracts me-thinks I find A Particular Summons directed to my self Prepare to meet thy God Give an Account of thy Stewardship So in the annexed Sermons I find peculiar and proper Remembrances of several things wherein I have done very foolishly deeds that ought not to be done For this cause I bow my knees and pray the Reader to lift his heart up in my behalf to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for Pardon and Peace and that what I have here printed in this Book may so be written in the Table of my heart not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God that I may not only wait for but haste to the Coming of the Day of God Having transferred these things unto my self and thus far made the Reader yea the World it self my Confessor I hope none will offend if I shew what respective parts of the ensuing Work may by others be usefully applyed to themselves And first of all The Sorrowful and rightly suffering soul if his actings be according may reap harvests of Comfort from what Our Author hath written About Judgment Resurrection and the Life to Come Whereas he that adds sin to miserie and wrath may certainly presume all the Desolations and Destructions God hath brought upon the Earth as so many Tastes and pledges of Greater to ensue The Woes past are but Schiographies and portendments scarce beginnings of future evils And I earnestly beseech all of the former sort as to fortifie themselves with Arguments to Charitie and forgiving injuries out of Chap. 32. So to regulate their Conversation and Demeanour by the Directions to be sound Chap. 35. The Section Of Christs coming to Judgment is very useful for such as take upon them places of Judicature and most useful for such as judge in matters of Highest Nature and Difference The Precept of Deborah Judg. 5. 10. Meditate ye Ye that sit in Judgment is the same with that of David Psal 2. 10 12. Be Wise Kiss the Son And the Question which David puts in that Golden Psalm Ne perdas will again be put to the Question by the Son of David when he comes to judge the Judges of the Earth Are your minds set upon righteousness O ye Congregation And do ye judge the thing that is right O ye sons of Men Whether ye do or no will then be justly and finally judged The Tract Of the Resurrection who can express the use of it An astonishing Meditation it is to think I now see as surely the eyes of some shal see those Christian brethren that fel in any late Battail were buried where they fell rising out of their places of Burial whether impleading or forgiving one another and with haste marching into the Valley of Jehoshaphat to see the day won or lost there and whose Heads shall then be crowned with Glory Yet is this but as the drop of a bucket to the Ocean of that days Terrors The Sermons upon that Precept of Christ I might say of Noah and Tullie Do as you would be done to are worth their weight in Gold of Ophir and useful for all Christians of what condition soever There came out a Book some sixteen years ago intituled Autocatacrisis Ladensium To the Partie or Persons that Composed or applauded that Book wherein Our Author is named I would especially recommend His Discourses upon Rom. 2. 1. presuming that that those with the Verifications of them exhibited in these late Revolutions will convince Him or them sufficiently That it is no difficult matter to compile a Larger Volume of Particularities wherein they that have judged others have by doing over and over again and again the same things or things more then equivalent condemned themselves and justified those whom they have condemned The Sermons upon 2 Chron. 24. and Matth. 23. contein very sound reproof of the Pharisaical Duplicitie of such as built the Sepulchres of ancient and yet persecuted the present Prophets and therein of such as in our dayes commend the Lives and condemn the Authors of the Deaths of Bishop Cranmer Hooper Ridley Ferrar Father Latimer c. And yet destroy their successors in Order Discipline and Doctrine I call heaven and earth to Record this day not to condemn such but to convince them that they may be saved That Those Men whom they have cast out as enemies to the Church of England and in Effect by driving them out from the Inheritance of the Lord tempted saying Go serve other Gods are The Men that bear the Burthen and heat of the day in all Contests betwixt parties of the English and Romish Churches and that preserve their undoers from being overborn with Romish Errors And this they do upon disadvantages unimaginable save only to such as have experimented them for want of their own Libraries Their former accommodations of Secessus Otia c. Besides Those Sermons will shew That the guilt of Blood will lye long upon a Nation That it justly may and certainly will be required of late Posterity unless A Signal Repentance of the same and especial abstinence from the like sins intervene I appeal to the meekest Moses upon earth what Degree of Guilt he would apportion to that Communitie suppose it in any Forrain Kingdom or the Posteritie thereof which being not only A Pretender to Christianitie but to the Puritie thereof did Sit as a Spectator whilst a Tumultuous Tempest of People for divers hours together did hunt and chase an Aged man were he good or bad unto the Death Yet was this thing done in our Metropolis which is a kind of standing Representative of the whole Nation some thirtie yeers ago Or what censure he would pass upon three Kingdomes the Generality whereof did though but ex-post-facto only by rejoycing at the deed consent to the Assassination of A Prince the man whom the King had honoured Yet was this also done about the same number of years since It is true Justice did treatably overtake the Partie that did this Fact But Who ever sorrowed for the Joy conceived at it These two seem to have been Portentuous Aboadments of Calamities ensuing as the daily visible desolation and Profanation of Gods House is of future woe And I remember them not as making Intercession against Israel or as things I have whereof to accuse mine own Nation with delight but upon the same account that I call mine own sins to remembrance that God may be intreated for the Land to blot them out of His.
Throne Rev. 3. 21. To confine the presence of God the Father of God the Son or of God the Holy-Ghost to any visible Throne were a grosse Heresie But that there may be Real Emblems or Representations of the Blessed Trinitie in heaven as conspicuous and sensible to blessed Saints and Angels as the representations which have been made of them to Gods Saints or people here on earth who can conceive improbable The representations or pledges of the Blessed Trinitie have been diverse Daniel law the Glory of the Father shadowed by the Ancient of daies the Glory of the Son represented by the similitude of the Son of man At our Saviours Baptism there was A voice from heaven as an audible Testimonie of the distinct Person of the Father Christ as Man was the conspicuous seat or Throne of God the Son and the Dove which appeared unto John a visible pledge of the Holy-Ghost And may not the Church Triumphant have as punctual representations or pledges of this Distinction no lesse sensible though more admirable then the Church militant hath had here on earth 4. It is not then altogether so clear that this Title of Christs Sitting at the right hand of God the Father is borrowed from the Rites or customes of the Kings of Judah as it is questionable whether this Rite or custome amongst them were not framed after the Patern of the heavenly Thrones or representations of coelestial dignities so we know the earthly Sanctuarie was framed according to the patern of the heavenly Sanctuarie Our Fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen Act. 7. 44. Ex. 25. 40. And our Apostle saith Heb. 8. 5. Those served unto the patern or shadow of heavenly things as Moses was warned by God when he was about to finish the tabernacle See saith he that thou make all things according to the patern shewed to thee in the mount But it may be the patern shewed to him in the Mount was but a Shew or Mathematical Draught of the material Tabernacle which he was to erect and yet is stiled an heavenly patern or heavenly thing because it was represented from heaven by God himself yet so represented without any real Tabernacle answerable to it in heaven I could subscribe to this interpretation if the Apostles Inference Heb. 9. 23 24. did not prove or presuppose something more It was then necessary that the similitude of heavenly things should be purified with such things but the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices then these for Christ is not entred into the holie places made with hands which are similitudes of the true Sanctuarie but is entred into very heaven to appear now in the sight of God for us But hath he the whole heavens for his Sanctuarie or is there as real a Distinction of places or Mansions in the heavens as there was of Courts or Sanctuaries in the material or in Solomons Temple We have such an high Priest saith Saint Paul as sitteth at the right hand of the throne of the majestie in the heavens and is a Minister of the Sanctuarie and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man and Eph. 1. 20. The father of glory set him at his own right hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the heavenly places Some Distinction between the Throne of Majestie and Christs humanitie was apprehended surely by Saint Steven Act. 7. 55. He being full of the Holy-Ghost looked stedfastly into heaven and saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Object of his sight was surely Real not a meer vision in the air for he saw the heavens open and by their opening found opportunity to prie with bodily eyes but bodily eyes extraordinarily enlightned by the Spirit of God into heaven it self and to take a view of the land of Promise and the Sanctuary pitched in it The Divine Essence or Person of God the Father he could not see and yet he saw the Glorie of God and Christ at the Right-hand of this Glorie But he saw Christ Standing and not Sitting as here it is said All is one It is the height of Christs Exaltation that He hath the pre-eminence to Sit upon his Throne in the immediate presence of God the Fathers Glorious Throne But this prerogative of Sitting upon his Throne doth not tye him to such perpetual Residence that he may not Stand when it pleaseth him and it seems it was at this time this great Judge his pleasure to Stand as a Spectator of his blessed Martyrs Combat and for the present as a Witness against these his malicious Enemies which afterward were to be made his Foot-stool Now was that of the Psalmist Psal 102. 19. verified He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuarie out of the heaven did the Lord behold the earth 5. But if Christ have a Visible Throne or Sanctuarie in heaven how is it true which Saint Steven saith Acts 7. 48 49. The most high dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as saith the Prophet Heaven is my throne and earth is my foot-stool what house will ye build for me saith the Lord or what place is it that I shall rest in hath not my hand made all these things And if God dwell not in any Sanctuary which he hath made how can he have any Visible Sanctuary in heaven For even the heaven of heavens every creature whether visible or invisible are the works of Gods hands To this the Answer is easie when the Prophet saith God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands he excludeth only the works of mens hands not all created Thrones or Sanctuaries made immediately by God himself For as the Apostle saith Heb. 8. 2. Christ is a Minister of the Sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not man And Hebr. 9. 11. Christ being come a high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this building c. Thus much of the Grammatical or Literal meaning of these words As for this Opinion of Distinction of Thrones in heaven as I dare not boldly avouch it so I am afraid peremptorily to deny it For Peremptorie Negatives in Divine Mysteries oft-times sway more dangerously unto Infidelitie then Affirmative Paradoxes do to Heresie The Affirmative in this Mysterie is in my opinion more safe and probable then the Negative However The Point which all of us are bound absolutely to Believe is That this Article of Christs sitting at the Right-Hand of God doth contain the height of His Exaltation far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come Eph. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith the same Apostle Phil. 2. 9. hath very highly
of Judgement and yet by this Tenent according to some parts of his Humane Nature he shall be Consubstantially present with the Damned in hell If they say that Christs whole bodie is intirely Every where or every part of it Every where then either he hath no Right-hand or his Right-hand is in his Left either he hath no Humane Bodie or else his whole Bodie is in his Little Finger But to be after this manner intirely Every where is Proper only unto God 6. It may be we shall hit their Meaning better by tracing their footsteps Thus then they proceed The Right-hand of God is every where Christ according to his Humane Nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God Ergo Christ according to his Humane Nature sitteth every where and if his Sear according to his Humane Nature be every where his Humane Nature is present every where for Session or Residence according to his Humane Nature includeth his Presence according to his Humane Nature First admitting the Major The Right-hand of God is every where were absolutely true according to the literal meaning of this Article they stand bound by the Rules of Logick to rectifie the Minor and make it thus But Christ according to his Humane Nature is the Right-hand of God And if Christ according to his Humane Nature be the Right-hand of God then if the Right-hand of God be every where it would directly and perpendicularly follow that Christ is every where according to his Humane Nature But this i. e. the words of the minor they will not say Now the minor not being thus rectified the Conclusion must be corrected and in stead of saying Christs Humanitie is every where it must be taught to say That Christs Humanitie or Christ according to his Humane Nature Sitteth at that or by that which is every where Secondly If we take that Definition which some good Divines make of Christ's Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father that is to be a person equal to the Father by whom the Father doth immediately rule the world but the Church especially the Inference will be a Fallacie à rebus ad voces The Connexion between the Terms howsoever placed will be no better then if a man should naile a piece of solid timber at the one end to the Aire and at the other end to the Water Lastly If by the Right-hand of God in this place be Literally meant A visible or comprehensible Throne wherein the God head is after the like but a far more glorious manner conspicuously present as it was in the Ark of the Covenant here on earth then the Major proposition on which the whole structure of Christs Ubiquitie according to his Manhood depends will be a great deal too narrow for the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty taken in this Sense is not every where That Glorie of God at whose Right-hand Saint Steven saw Christ standing was not on earth but in heaven nor in every place of heaven but in that place only where he saw the heavens to open and on which he fixed his eyes 7. But they further add That Christs Humane Nature is glorified with that Glorie which he had with the Father before the world was made Now that Glorie doubtlesse was no created Glorie but Glorie uncreated and if uncreated then questionlesse Infinite and if this Glorie wherewith his Humane Nature is glorified be Infinite then his Humane Nature is infinitely Exalted or exalted to a Real communication of all the Divine Attributes as to be every where to be Omnipotent c. To This some answer Christs Divine Nature or Person may in that place John 17. ver 5. be said to be Glorified after the same manner that it was Exalted But though it be true that Christ meant the Glorification of his Divine Person in that place yet this no way contadicts the Glorification of his Humane Nature but rather supposeth it For his Divine Person was glorified by the glorification of his Humane Nature that is The world should not have known the Glorie of the Son of God or of him as their Lord and Redeemer unlesse this Glorie had appeared in his Man-hood or Humane Nature Now if the Humane Nature were glorified with that Glorie which was before the world it was glorified with an uncreated Glorie And uncreated Glorie is Absolutely Infinite If this consequence were sound the First Branch of it would be This That Christs Humane Nature was glorified with Infinite glorie before the foundation of the world and so the conclusion should contradict the Article of Christs Incarnation in time as also the whole course of his Humiliation here on earth The same Arguments which they bring to prove the Glorie of his Humane Nature to be Infinite in respect of place or power will prove his Humane Nature to have been Infinite and glorious in respect of its Duration or Christ as man to be Co-eternal with God the Father or else they prove just nothing at all That Real communication of the Divine Attributes which they so eagerly contend for is but a dream or Fancie which could not possibly have come into their brains but either for want of Logick or of Consideration The root of their Error is that they distinguish not between the uncreated Glorie which is the Incomprehensible Fountain by participation whereof Christs Humane Nature is immediately Glorified and the Participation or Communication of it The Glorie of the God-head which dwelleth Bodily in Christ is Infinite But it is not Communicated to Christs Humane Nature according to its infinitie The Communication of it or the Glorie communicated is Created and therefore finite The Sun truly and Really Communicates his light unto the Moon and we properly say That the Moon is enlightned or made glorious by the light of the Sun yet will it not hence follow That the Light Communicated or imparted to the Moon is equal to the light of the Sun which doth communicate it or impart it Much lesse will it follow that the Glorie wherewith Christs Humane Nature is glorified should be equal to that Glorie of the God-head which doth communicate or impart Glorie unto it or from which all the Glorie which it hath above other Creatures is derived To conclude this Point The best Frame whereunto the Lutherans Arguments in this Controversie can be drawn is this The glorie of God is infinite Christ as Man is glorified by the glorie of God Ergo His glorie as Man is infinite Yet the connexion is not as good as this following The light of the Sun doth by his presence make the day but the Moon is enlightned by the light of the Sun Ergo The Moon by presence of its light makes the day Sooner shall the Lutheran turn night into day by this or the like Sophism then prove that Real communication of the Divine Attributes to Christs Humane Nature which he dreams of As that Christ as man should be Really present every where or
any good Christian that will but raise his thoughts above the earth by this or the like Experiment of nature Albeit this bodily Sun which we dayly see were much further distant from the earth then now it is yet could we easily conceive it to be of force and efficacie enough to enlighten the earth whereon we dwell and those coelestial Spheres which are or might be as farre above it as it is above the Center And in the greatest distance we can imagin it is or might be distant from the earth it would give life and vigour to things vegetable or capable of vital heat It were a silly Argument to infer that because the hottest fire on earth cannot impart his heat to bodies 10 miles distant from it therefore the Sun cannot communicate vital heat and Comfort to vegetables more then ten-hundred-thousand miles distant from it This Inference notwithstanding is not so foolish in Philosophie as This following is in Divinitie The Sun cannot quicken trees or herbs which have lost their root and sap Ergo the Sun of righteousnes or Christs Humane Nature in which the Godhead dwelleth Bodily cannot quicken the dead or raise up our mortal bodies to immortalitie The only sure Anchor of all our hopes for a joyfull Resurrection unto the life of Glorie is the Mystical Union which must be wrought here on earth betwixt Christs Humane Nature glorified and our mortal or dissoluble nature The Divine Nature indeed is the Prime Fountain of Life to all but though inexhaustible in it self yet a fountain whereof we cannot drink save as it is derived unto us through the Humane Nature of Christ 11. Although it be most true which Tertullian in the 17 Chapter of his Apologie hath observed That even those Heathens which adored Jupiter Capitolinus and multiplied their Gods according to the number of the places wherein they worshiped them when they were throughly stung with any grievous affliction or calamitie were wont to lift up their eyes and hands not to the Roman Capitol but to heaven it self as knowing that by instinct of nature to be the seat or throne of Divine Majestie And the Hill from whence came their help Yet notwithstanding the truth of this Observation and the profitable use which that Father there makes of it it was an extraordinary Favour of God unto the Israelites that they were permitted and instructed to worship God in his Sanctuarie and to present their devotions towards the Ark of the Covenant or the Mercy-seat before which they might adore him in such manner and sort as they might not in any other place or before any other creature They knew much better then the heathen that Gods Throne of Majestie was in heaven and yet were to tender their devotions unto him as extraordinarily present in his Temple or Sanctuarie here on earth For as our bodily sight doth scatter or dazle without some sensible Object to gather and terminate it So our cogitations though of heaven and heavenly things do float or vanish without some determinate and comprehensible Object whereon to fasten them Now albeit the Temple of Jerusalem wherein Gods People only were to worship were long since demolished yet the Sanctuarie wherein they were to worship God is rather translated or advanced from earth to heaven then destroyed For it was Gods Presence that made the Temple and That is more extraordinary in Christs Body which the Jewes destroyed but which he raised again in three dayes then ever it had been in Solomons Temple in the Glorie of whose goodly structure and manifestation of Gods Glorie in it the true Israelites did much rejoyce and the later Iewes too much boast and glorie But this Prerogative we have in respect of the ancientest and truest Israelites that since the vail of the Temple was rent we may at all times reflecting upon that modell the Scripture hath imprinted in our mindes look within the vail and behold the Ark or Mercy-seat and use the most holy Sanctuarie or inner place made with hands as a Perspective Glasse or instrument for surveying the heavenly Sanctuarie which God hath pitched and not man This hope have we saith S t Paul Heb. 6. 19. as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek He is gone before us into the Sanctuarie to make perpetual intercession who before had made an everlasting attonement for us here on earth He is now become to us the Temple of God the Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatorie or Mercie-seat the fulfilling of all things and unto him now placed in his Sanctuarie at the Right-hand of God we are not only to direct our Cogitations or devotions but to transmit our affections to the Divine Nature by him The Son of God after he had suffered in Our flesh and made a full sufficient satisfaction for all our sins did in our nature rise again did in our nature ascend into heaven and in our nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God not only to gather our scatered contemplations and broken notions of the Godhead but withall to draw and unite our affections unto him which otherwise would flagg droop or miscarry if we should direct them to heaven at large or to the incomprehensible Majestie of the Godhead without a known Advocate or Intercessor to present them and to return their effects or issues Hence saith our Apostle Colos 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ that is if you sted fastly believe that Christ who was the Son of God and as incomprehensible for his Divine Nature as God the Father to whom he was equal did dye in your flesh and comprehensible nature and in the same nature did rise againe from the dead then seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God Set or settle or fasten your affections on things above not on things on the earth And as we are to settle our dearest affections on him so are we to direct our prayers unto him in his heavenly Sanctuarie 12. That we may direct our prayers unto the Blessed Trinitie according to the Rule of Faith which is the first Degree of praying in Faith take for the present these short Directions The First and Fundamental Object of Belief as Christian is the acknowledgement of the Blessed Trinitie And by this Belief we acknowledge such a Distinction of Persons or Parties between God the Father God the Son and God the Holy-Ghost that God the Father doth Personally and in proprietie of Person exact Satisfaction for all the offences committed against the God-head or Blessed Trinitie and that the Son of God doth by like Personal Proprietie undertake to make Satisfaction and Reconciliation for us He it is that doth avert the wrath of God from us and inhibit the proceedings of Divine Justice against us We are then in the First
over the souls and spirits of Kings and Monarchs over the blessed Angels under whose Guardianship the greatest Monarchs are then they have over their meanest Vassals So that His dominion extends beyond the definition given by Lawyers which comprehends only things corporal but meddles not with coelestial substances or spiritual as Angels which are not subject to the Iurisdiction of Princes nor can they be imprisoned in their coffers Men as they could not make themselves so neither can they by their valour wit or industrie gain or create a title to any thing which is not Gods and whereof he is not Absolute Lord before and after they come to be Lords and owners subordinate of it They cannot move their bodies nor imploy their minds but by his free donation nor can they enjoy his freest gifts but by his concurse or Co-operation He hath a Dominion of propertie over their souls yea an absolute dominion not of propertie only but of uncontrollable iurisdiction over their very thoughts as it is implyed Deut. 8. 17 18. He doth not only give us the substance which we are enabled to get but gives us the very power wit and strength to get or gather it Not this power only whereby we gather substance but our very Being which supports this power is his gift and unlesse our Being be supported and strengthned hy his power sustentative we cannot so much as think of gathering wealth or getting necessaries much less can we dispose of our own endeavours for accomplishing our hopes desires or thoughts To conclude then All we have even wee our selves are Gods by absolute Dominion as well of propertie as of Iurisdiction There is no Law in heaven or earth that can inhibit or restrayne his absolute Power to dispose of all things as he pleaseth for he works all things by the Counsel of his Will and He only is Absolute Lord. But absolute Lordship or Dominion how far soever extended though over Angels Powers and Principalites from this ground or universal Title of Creation is intirely jointly and indivisibly common to the Blessed Trinitie For so S. Athanasius teacheh us the Father is LORD the Son is LORD the Holie Ghost is LORD absolute Lord as well in respect of Dominion as of Jurisdiction and yet not three Lords but one Lord and if but One Lord then the Lordship or dominion is One and the same alike absolute either for intensive Perfection or Extension in the Son as in the Father in the Holy Ghost as in the Son Yet is it well observed by a judicious Commentator upon S. Pauls Epistles that to be LORD is the proper Title or Epitheton in S. Pauls Language of Christ the Son of God both God and Man and Emphatically ascribed to him even in those passages wherein he had occasion expressely to mention the distinction of Persons in the Trinitie As where he saith The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God he doth not say of God the Lord and the fellowship of the Holie Ghost without addition of this title of Lord be with you all And so in our Apostles Creed we professe to Believe in God the Father Almightie without addition of the title LORD and so in God the Holie Ghost not in the Lord the Holy Ghost but in Christ our Lord. Which leades to the Second Point proposed in the Entrance to this Second Section CHAP. VII In what respects or upon what grounds Christ is by peculiar Title called The Lord. And First of the Title it self Secondly Of the Real grounds unto this Title 1. COncerning the name of Lord there is no verbal difference in the Greek or Latin whether this name or Title be attributed to God the Father as oft it is or to God the Holy Ghost unto the Blessed Trinitie or unto Christ God and Man Yet in the Hebrew there is a difference in the very Names or words The Name Jehovah which is usually rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominus or Lord is alike common to every Person in the Holie Trinitie as expressing the Nature of the God-head he that is being it self Howbeit even this Name is sometimes in peculiar sort attributed unto Christ But that Christ or the Son of God is in those places personally meant this must be gathered from the Subject or special Circumstances of the matter not from the Name or Title it self But the name Adonai which properly signifies Lord or King as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek doth implying as much as the Pillar or Foundation of the people is the peculiar Title of the Son of God or of God incarnate And for attributing this Title unto Christ as his peculiar the Apostle St. Paul had a good warrant out of the Prophetical Writings especially the Psalms which he questionlesse understood a great deal better then many great Divines and accurate Linguists have done his writings or the harmonie betwixt the Psalmists and his Evangelical Comments on them This Title of Lord Adonai is used most frequently in those Psalmes which contain the most pregnant Prophecies of Christ or the Messias his exaltation Psal 2. 2 4. The Kings of the earth band themselves and the Princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ But he that dwelleth in the heavens doubtlesse he means the same Jehovah shall laugh Yet he doth not say Jehovah but Adonai the Lord shall have them in derision The Reality of Dominion answering to this Title of Lord whereunto the Messias against whom they conspired was exalted is more fully expressed in the same Psalm v. 8 9 10. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt crush them with a Scepter of Iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel Be wise now therefore ye Kings be learned ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in trembling Kisse the Son the Son doubtlesse of Jehovah lest he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burn Blessed are all they that trust in him And so again Psal 45. which is as it were the Epithalamium or marriage song of Christ and his Church The Prophet exhorts the Spouse to do as Christ willed his Disciples to do and as Abraham had done at Gods Command Forget thine own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is the Lord reverence or worship him v. 10 11. And again Psal 110. wherein Christs everlasting Priesthood is confirmed by Oath it is said Jehovah said to my Lord Adonai sit thou at my Right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool But may not the Jew thus Object that seeing our Christ or their expected Messias is enstyled Adonai not Jehovah in these very places wherein his Exaltation or supreme Dominion is foretold That therefore he is not truly God as Jehovah is To this Objection our Saviours Reply
gracious words of others in his behalfe will not suffice unless God by their praiers do frame his heart to beleive and move his tongue if God have given him the use of the tongue to Confess that Iesus Christ is the Lord. Corde creditur ad justitiam ore fit confessio ad salutem If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt beleive in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man beleiveth unto righteousnes and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 9 10. The Universalitie or extent of this Belief or Confession in respect of the parties whom it concernes is most fully exprest in the verse following For the Scripture saith Esa 28. 16. Whosoever believeth on him shall not make haste or not be ashamed And again Joel 2. 32. Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord whether he be Jew or Gentile shall be saved Thus you see that there is an universalitie of the parties or persons which are bound de Jure to make this Confession and an Universalitie of comfortable promises unto all such as make it as they ought that is not in tongue only but with the Heart not in heart only if God have given them the use of the heart and of the tongue or his blessings of memory and understanding 4. That besides this universality of persons confessing Christ with their tongues to be the Lord there is an Universalitie or Totality of duties to be performed by every one that confesseth Christ to be the Lord is evident from Iesus Christ our Lords own mouth Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say This speech infers thus much at least That though all other both Jews Gentiles even every tongue throughout the world had confessed as much as these his present Disciples of which some were temporary some perpetual Professors did yet this would not suffice to make them capable of the reward universally promised to his true Disciples and servants That this confession though made by every tongue besides was not sufficient to make any particular man capable of the reward promised to all his true servants that are capable of his words and sayings which was not ready and willing to do them That every one which heard his sayings and was willing to do them was truly capable of all the blessings which he promised is clear from his words following ver 47 48 49. Who so cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doth them I will shew you to whom he is like He is like a man which built an house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a Rock And when the flood arose the stream brake violently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a Rock But he that heareth and doth not is like unto a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruine of that house was great But our Lord and Saviours mind is by himself more fully exprest to this purpose Math. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven The limitation of these words as well for their negative as affirmative extent is this That neither every one nor any one of them which shall confess onely with their tongues that he is the Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This limitation of the Negative or rather our Assurance of Faith that this negative is thus far to be extended is manifest from the verse following For to prophesie in the Name of Christ is more than to confesse with the tongue only that Christ is Lord. To cast out Divels in the Name of Christ is more then to prophecie in his Name To do many works of wonder in Christs Name is more than to cast out Devils in his Name For to cast out Divels indeed is a wonderful work and yet but One of those wonderful works which then and for many years after were done in Christs Name by such as although they did call Christ Lord Lord as he truly is the Lord of all were not Christs true servants not such as Christ will take notice of or approve as better but rather reject as worse then Infidels in that last and dreadful day when he shall call his servants whether de jure or de facto to a final account For so it is expressed in the words following ver 23 23. Many will say unto me in that day and the more the better so their plea were good Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works And then will I professe unto them I never knew you that is I never approved of you but rather disapproved you and your works as worse then the works of heathens or heathenish workers For unto the Heathens as Heathens he hath not said that he will say in the last day Depart from me Ye Workers of iniquity That the Affirmative extent of his words to such as shall not only with their tongues confess but in heart and practice acknowledge him to be the Lord is as large and ample as his former threatnings to such as either indeed and facts deny him or with their tongues and lips do not confess him to be the Lord his promise in the next words ver 24. will give us full assurance Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock And thus you see The words of our Lord and Savior confirmed by the mouthes of two Authentick witnesses St. Matthew and St. Luke do warrant the truth of these two Universals That never a one of such as onely with the tongue confess him to be the Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That every one which in heart confesseth him though with tongue he cannot confess him to be the Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven For every one which doth the will of his Father which is in heaven and the doing of this his heavenly Fathers will here is not an act of the Tongue but of the heart and of the affections shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which is the place and seat appointed for all Christs true Servants and onely for them The onely question then remaining is What this Will of his heavenly Father is what it is to do it 5. This will of His heavenly Father is either General whatsoever is expressed in the Ten Commandements in the moral Law or in the Prophets or more Special as it is revealed in Christ or by Christ Did Christ then give us a New Law or other precepts then God by Moses had done
children were taught amiss to know the nature of God or of his Enemy by vulgar Pictures or Representations For so the fashion was long before and continued till his time to picture God or the blessed Trinity in some fair and beautiful form and to paint the divel in some foul loathsom or ugly shape And this good Writer to correct their error well admonished as well the parents as their children That if they would learn to know what God was they must first be taught to know what Goodness is what Justice is what Mercy is what Bounty or loving kindness is And if they desire to know what maner of creature the divel is who is the chief enemy of God they should first be taught to know what malice is what filthiness is what loathsomness is what villany or treachery is For Satan is but a Compost of these or an extract of all that children or their parents acknowledge for evil Howbeit if either children or parents could be taught to know what Iustice is what Mercy is what loving kindness is or if they could be taught to know that God is what all these are even Iustice it self even mercy it self loving kindness it self wisdom it self or Wisdom Justice Mercy and loving kindness it self truly infinite yet his wisdom his mercy and loving kindness would be to us incomprehensible unapprehensible even in that these Attributes in him are infinite We could have no true or lively apprehension either speculative to inform our understandings what were good and ought to be followed or moral to enable and qualifie our hearts and affections to imitate or express that patern of goodness or so much of it as we apprehend in God if we should look upon these Attributes as they are in God the Father only or in the Divine nature But as he that cannot look upon the Sun in its strength or brightness or at the noon day may take the model of it in the water or in the Moon at full So we that cannot behold the glory of Divine Majesty in the Godhead may safely behold the Map or Model of his incomprehensible Goodness in the Man Christ Iesus All His actions and endeavors were with such wisdom set and bent upon mercy on goodness on loving kindness that every one which saw and duly considered his maner and course of life here on Earth might collect that he truly was as himself avouched more then the Son of man the very Son of God himself who is good and gracious to all For Christ as Man went about doing good to all doing hurt to none Now as the Son of Syrach saith Ecclus. 22. 3. That an evil son is the dishonor of his father So it will follow by the Rule of Contraries That a wise or good son is the honor of his father So Solomon hath said in express terms Prov. 10. 1. A wise son maketh a glad father but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother Now Christ as we know is called The Wisdom of the onely wise immortal God his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased And well pleased with him he is for that he is the honor of his Father And as Christ by confessing God and by real expression of his Goodness in his life and actions did truly glorifie his Father as he himself expresly avoucheth John 17. So all that really confess Christ to be the Lord that is all which throughly express the Map or Model of his Goodness in their lives and conversations do truly glorifie God the Father 9. Briefly then Every tongue truly and rightly confesseth Christ to be the Lord that observes his Commandments or that observes the Commandments of God more strictly and more religiously then others do who although they profess they honor God yet do not honor him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ or do not honor Jesus Christ as his only Son This is that special Will of the Father which is in heaven and that which must be done by all which mean to enter into Heaven that every one which honoreth the Father should also honor the Son Joh. 5. 23. Honor the Son they must not in words or title only but by performance of real Service Every one that thus honoreth the Son doth hereby glorifie God the Father Hence saith our Savior Matth. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven And again Ioh. 15. 1. Our Savior compares himself to the Vine and his Father unto a Husbandman which expects the fruit of his vineyard So that the end why the Son of God did descend from heaven why he was planted and took root here on earth was that the sons of Adam or Abraham might be ingrafted in him and the End of our ingrafting in him was that we might bring forth fruit unto his Father But What comfort is it to have Christ Our Lord if by Allegeance to him we be more strictly bound to do the will of God then those which do not acknowledge Him their Lord I Answer 1. It is a credit by consent of Nations and repute of men naturally wise if not A Real Comfort to have him Our Lord who governs his people by the most excellent and equitable Laws Such were those which the Son of God gave the Jews What are these now refined in the Gospel All men naturally desire happiness As by those Laws God directed the Jews so by these he disciplines Us for our Good seeking occasion or Title in our obedience to exercise his bounty by rewarding us for doing good to our selves and others at his command He that sins against the laws of Christ doth it in Sui damnum sins against his own soul and by straying from them goes out of that way which only can lead him to the happiness he desireth 2. It is comfort that our Lord rules not with rigor but masters his Dominion with Equity Novit figmentum nostrum having Himself been compassed with the infirmities of mans nature all but such as did proceed from sin or lead unto sin he can by acquaintance and experience of them tell both how willing the spirit and how weak the flesh of miserable Mortals be and ready is he to give allowance accordingly But Thirdly Here is comfort indeed That as JESUS CHRIST the Righteous is our Lord so He is The Lord our Righteousness so is He our Sollicitor our Advocate our most compassionate High-Priest who ex officio negotiates on our behalf by mediation and intercession with the Father for pardon of all our transgressions negligences ignorances both of all sins committed and duties omitted or performed untowardly and amiss He made One Propitiation by his death and he lives for ever to make intercession for us Yea so gracious is This our Lord that he seems in a manner during this Acceptable Day or time of Grace to lay aside The Title
observe did report of Them to the Asiaticks who slandered and persecuted them Take notice saith he of the late and daily Earthquakes compare our estate with theirs They he means Christians have more confidence to God-ward then you have 15. This was The solid Truth whose liveless Lineaments or obscure Picture nature had drawn unto the Heathen in the former indefinite Notions or Suggestions The best fruits of a good conscience the principal end why we are to study and labor for the preservation of our Consciences void of offence towards God and man throughout the whole course of our life is that we may be enabled in that last day to stand without horror or confusion before the Son of Man As peace of conscience breedeth confidence so the onely Fountain whence this peace of conscience can issue must be our reconciliation to that supreme Judge whose doom or Censure the Consciences of meer natural men implicitly or by instinct of Nature dread albeit they cannot apprehend the express manner of the Judgement to come or who it is that shall be Judge Both these and all like points which are necessary unto true Christian Faith must be learned out of the Book of Life Thus much of the First General viz. Heathen Notions of a Judgement to come c. we proceed to the second according to the method proposed in the 9 th Chapter CHAP. XI By what authority of Scripture the Exercise of this Final Judgement is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ 1. THat there was to be a Judgement general to all but most terrible to the wicked and ungodly was a Truth revealed before any part of the sacred Books now extant were written But if it be a Revelation more ancient then the written Canon what warrant can we have to believe it besides Tradition Is then Tradition a sufficient warrant for us to believe unwritten verities or Revelations made to Gods Saints for many thousand years ago It is not unless the Tradition be expresly avouched by some Canonical Writer But then it or rather the Vouchers authority concerning the truth of the Tradition is to be believed So that our Belief in this Point must be resolved into a written verity or a parcel of Canonical Scripture The Revelation concerning the final Judgement whereof we now speak was made to Enoch before the Flood The Avoucher of this Revelation is St. Jude ver 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Besides the authority of St. Jude which makes this Tradition to be no more a meer Tradition but Canonical Scripture we have other more special Grounds to believe that Enoch did thus Prophesie then we have to believe any other pretended Revelations which are not contained in Scripture The truth and certainty of this Judgment denounced by Enoch was so publickly and notoriously known that the Hebrew Church before our Saviours incarnation did begin the Writ or Instrument of their Great and terrible Excommunication with the first words of Enochs Prophesie Dominus veniet the Lord shall come As if they meant to bind the party whom they excommunicated besides all other punishments or infamies over to this Grand Assize But is there in this Prophecie any particular character of Christ Any pregnant intimation that this Great Judge of the world should be the Second Person in the Trinity rather then The First In the words themselves there is no peculiar Character of Christ save only in The Title LORD which as we said before is peculiar to Christ whether it be in the Original exprest by the word Jehovah or Adonai whensoever Judgment or visible exercise of Jurisdiction Regal is the subject or matter of the prophetical discourse as in this Prophecy of Enoch it is Besides this Character in the words of the prophecie the Prophet himself Enoch was a lively Type of Christ the great Prophet in the very ground of his Title to Lordship and Jurisdiction Enoch was translated that he should not see death but before his translation had this testimony that he Pleased God Hebr. 11. 5. Before his Translation he denounced this Wo or Curse against all that continue in ungodliness fore warning the world withal that the Lord himself whose Embassador he was should come to put his Embassage in execution The congruity of the Fact or Type with the Body fore-shadowed implies that this Propheeie was then to be fulfilled after the Prince of Prophets had been translated as Enoch was from earth but in a higher degree then Enoch was into heaven it self And albeit before his translation he had a more ample Testimony then Enoch had this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet was he not made Lord and King and Judge till after his Resurrection and Translation From that time the Angels and Principalities and Powers even all the Hoast of Heaven intimated by Enoch became by that Title subject unto him That Christ is that very Lord against whom those ungodly men whom Enoch mentions did speak such bitter words our Apostle St. Paul though obscurely yet fully implies in the conclusion of his first Epistle to the Corinthians chapt 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let him be accursed or excommunicated with that Great and terrible Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lord shall come for so they call their Excommunication as we do Writs by the first words of the Writ or Instrument and these were the first words of Enochs Prophecie Veniet Dominus The Lord shall come The full meaning or implication of the Apostle is That whosoever doth not love the Lord Jesus shall be liable to all the Iudgments or Woes denounced by Enoch against the hard speeches of ungodly Sinners which they have spoken against their Lord and Iudge 2. That God is Judge of all the Earth that there shall be a final Judgment generally awarded to all the Inhabitants of the Earth by God himself the places of the old Testament are infinite I shall only touch the principal or more pregnant testimonies to this purpose To begin with the First Gen. 18. 22. When the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before The Lord and drawing neer he said wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ver 23. And again ver 25. To slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee Shall not The Judge of all the Earth do right Thus he spake in the case of Sodom whose Judgment this Lord and Judge of all the earth was then
intimate either a new manner of Gods governing the world or a beginning of his reign over all Nations or of being made Lord and King or of arising to Judge the earth must be meant of God incarnate that is of the Son of God begotten before all worlds and begotten again from the dead For as the Son of God by his death and resurrection became our Lord by a peculiar Title So he was from the ground of the same Title appointed Judge of quick and dead by a peculiar and personal right This is more often and more Emphatically intimated by our Saviour Christ and by his Apostles then observed by many of their profest Interpreters First by St. Peter Acts 10. 40 41 42. Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not unto all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the dead And again by St. Paul Acts 17. 30 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will Judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead But more fully by the same St. Paul Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might he Lord both of the dead and living In this Collection from the Prophet Esay he saith no more then our Saviour hath done Iohn 5. 21 22. For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will For the Father Iudgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son 4. But the Former Question still revolves upon the same Center that it did before The Point or Center is This Whether St. Peter or St. Paul or whether our Saviour himself did deliver the doctrine fore-cited from that authority only which was delegated to them from God within that compass of time wherein they did converse with men here on earth or whether the doctrine which they then delivered were fully ratified by Divine Authority revealed and written before To this we Answer that our Saviour Himself in all his Answers to the Jews did but Comment upon or expound those Texts of holy Scripture which he had put into his Prophets mouthes long before he himself had spoken with the mouth of man One of the most pregnant Texts of the Old Testament is Psal 82. 1 2. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the Gods How long will ye Judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the most High but ye shall die like men and fall like one of the Princes that is like any Princes amongst the Heathen And dying and falling thus they could not expect that they were to rise again to Judge others but rather to be Judged by God himself or by him that was the Son of the most High in another manner then they were who though he were to die as man yet did he not cease to be the Son of God by his death Yea He was declared to be The only Son of God with Power by His Resurrection from the Dead And out of this hope of his future resurrection the Psalmist for Conclusion being as it seems opprest with corruption of Judgment appeals unto the supreme Judge as well of the dead as of the living Arise O God Iudge the earth for thou shalt inherit all Nations ver 8. He doth not say Thou dost inherit all Nations or thou art already set in Judgment but arise O God to Iudge the earth for thou shalt inherit all Nations So that the ground or Title of his universal Jurisdiction or judicature is his Inheritance of all Nations and his Title of Inheritance over all Nations bears date or began to be in Esse from the day of his Resurrection as you heard before out of St Paul Rom. 14. And was before him expresly foretold by the Prophet David Psal 2. 7 8 9. I will declare the Decree the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son This day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel This Decree was executed this promise performed when All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto Christ Matth. 28. 18. 5. To omit all further variety of Testimonies No other Article in our Creed is or can be so authentickly testified as This One Article of Christs coming to Judgment is Besides that it was expresly and distinctly foretold by the Prophets and the fulfilling of their prophecies expresly avouched by the Evangelists and the Apostles the Truth of it was in special manner sealed by the blood of this Great Judge himself The only matter of death which the malicious wit of his enemies could invent or pretend against him was from his voluntary Confession of this Article in the same Form or Terms wherein we profess our Belief of it For as you may read Matth. 26. 59. After the High-Priest and Elders had found that the Witnesses suborned against him did not agree in their testimonies or else which is more probable that their testimonies though well agreeing did not amount to any matter Capital the High-Priest seeks to intangle him in his own Answers to This Interrogatory I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be The Christ the Son of God ver 63. Our Saviour confesseth the Article or Interrogatory For so much is answered at least in the next words Thou hast said it Nevertheless I say unto you Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven This Adversative Particle Nevertheless hath much troubled some Interpreters and some to ease themselves of further trouble would have it to be no Adversative but an Affirmative As to their apprehensions the Hebrew Ac whereof the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is the expression in many places of the Old Testament is an Affirmative no Adversative Particle But it were easie to shew them wherein their Observations fail The difficulty of the Construction in this place may be Two wayes salved either 1. by filling up this Hiatus or chink in St. Matthew with the words of our Saviours answer which St. Luke relates Or 2. by borrowing this Adversative Particle from St. Matthew and adding it unto St. Luke's Relation Unto the former
Gideon exempt his Successors from the like or greater fear upon notice of Gods extraordinary presence For so Manoah Samsons father after long Conference with the Lord after he knew that it was an Angel of the Lord which had brought the Message to him of Samsons birth said unto his Wife Judg. 13. 22. We shall surely die because we have seen God But his Wife said unto him if the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things neither would he at this time have told us such things as these ver 23. So then Gods extraordinary presence is terrible even to his servants to flesh and blood without exception though in the issue it will prove comfortable to such as truly fear him and faithfully rely upon his promises St. Peter long after this time was a man less conscious of many grievous sins then most of us alive this day are yet not upon any sight or spectacle of Gods Extraordinary Presence but only upon an instinct or secret apprehension of his Peculiar Presence in Christ as man notified unto him by the miraculous draught of fishes which he took by his direction and command cries out Lord depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. And St. Paul before his conversion fell to the earth upon a suddain glimpse or representation of that glorious light wherein Christ shall appear at the last day Acts 9. 3 4. And after he had heard A Voyce saying unto him though in no extraordinary manner for terror Saul Saul why persecutest thou me He trembling and astonished at the name of Jesus said Lord what wilt thou have me to do ver 6. No marvel if St. Paul being conscious of persecution intended by him against Christs Church and having by Fact and Resolution declared himself to be Christs Enemy were thus affrighted at the Sight and Voice when as St. Peter St. James and St. John after long and peculiar familiarity with Christ and after many gracious promises made unto them of Gods special protection over them were thrown down to the earth with a more placid and comfortable Voice then that which St. Paul heard The Voice which they heard out of the cloud was this This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And when they heard it saith the text Matth. 17. 6. they fell on their faces and were sore afraid until Christ came and touched them and said arise and be not afraid This strange dejection of these three great Apostles at so mild and gentle a Voice yet a Voice uttered from the extraordinary presence of God gives us a Remarkable Document or grounded Observation of the truth of that saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Christ had told these Three Matth. 16. 28. that they should see not God but the Son of man coming in his Kingdom Peter had a desire to have inherited that joy wherewith his heart was ravished at the sight of our Saviours Transfiguration which as you heard before was but a representation of his coming in glory to Judge the world and out of this desire he said Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias Yet as soon as he heard the Voice the Antipathie between sinful flesh and the fruition of Gods presence or the inheritance of that Kingdom of Christ which was then represented begun to shew it self And what shall We do then which are conscious of more grievous sins then St. Peter S. Iames or S. John then were unto whom both the Spectacle of Christs glorious presence and the Voice or Sound which in that day shall be heard from heaven will be far more terrible then any manifestation of Gods presence whether made by Voice or Sight unto our First Parents unto Gideon unto Manoah or unto any of his Apostles recorded in Scripture 4. Let us now take a view of such representations or descriptions of the Terrible Spectacles which shall be seen and of the Terrible Voices or sounds which in that last day shall be heard as Gods Prophets or Evangelists have framed to us These representations are of Two Sorts either Charactred out unto us in meer Words or in Matters of Fact historically related To begin with the Terrible Spectacles which shall appear before the last day or at the least before the Process or Judgment begin These are most punctually exprest by the Prophet Joel Cap. 2. 30 31. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come And Ioel 3. 15 16. The Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining The Lord also shall roar out of Sion utter his voice out of Jerusalem the heavens the earth shall shake The Terrors here foretold were really represented by the first desolation of Iudah and destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and Chaldeans whose approach to execute Gods Judgments upon that land and people was prophesied of by this Prophet in the beginning of this Second Chapter yet so foretold by him as the plagues there threatned might by Repentance have been prevented So could not the Terrors foretold in the Second Prophecie at least the Prophet expresseth no means for averting these fearful signs in the heavens and earth This later prophecie is in particular exemplified by our Saviour Matth. 24. 27 29 30. For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West So shall also the coming of the Son of man be Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of heaven shall fall and the Powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Both the Prophecie of Joel and this prediction of our Savior were in part fulfilled shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus by the burning of the Mount Vesuvius in Campania a Province of Italy the manner and effects whereof how fearful and terrible they were not to Rome onely or Italy but to a great part of Africa to Egypt to Syria and to Constantinople with the Countries adjoyning and how consonant they were unto the Prophet Joels and our Saviors Prediction may be gathered from Dion in his 66. and 68. Books and from other Roman Heathenish
shaken may remain that is that there may be a world everlasting That which the Prophet Haggai intimates more darkly the Prophet Esay had exprest more plainly chap 34. ver 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroul and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the Vine and as a falling fig from a fig-tree The same vision was more lively and clearly made unto St. John Rev. 6. 12 13 14. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sack-cloth of hair and the Moon became as blood And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind And the heaven departed as a scroul when it is rolled together and every mountain and Island were moved out of their places 7. But that which shall adde life and spirit to all these is The terrible Voice or sound which shall then be heard summoning all flesh to appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ As it was the Voice of Christ which did shake the earth at the giving of the Law so shall the Voice of Christ but a Voice more terrible then That produce this terrible commotion here mentioned in the Heavens and in the earth For as St. Paul instructs us 1 Cor. 15. 52. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised c. And again 1 Thess 4. 16. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven in a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first The Terror of this Voice to such as sleep not in Christ may be gathered from the power or efficacy of it which is more fully expressed by St. John Rev. 20. 13. The sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works This universal efficacy of his Voice is expressed by our Saviour Iohn 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Some late Historians and Astronomers relate a natural Eclipse of the Sun so terrible in Spain that the Crows and other Fowls of the air seeking as it seems to flie from it were so affrighted with the suddain increase of darkness about mid-day that they fell down to the earth in a deadly astonishment What tongue then can express the Dread and Horror which the terrible apparitions at that day shall produce in all such as have lived and died in incredulity or security of the Judgement which shall follow them in all on whom that day shall come as suddenly without any better observation or preparation for it as the forementioned Eclipse of the Sun did upon the reasonless Fowls of the air Or if you desire a further a description of the Terror which shall then fall upon the Inhabitants of the earth even upon the most intrepid and undanted in respect of any ordinary Terrors then take it from St. Iohn Rev. 6. 15 16. And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man hid themselves in the dens and in the Rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us Thus much was distinctly likewise fore-told and Prophetically set forth by the Prophet Esay chap. 2. 11 c. That neither St. Johns words nor the Prophet Esays are Hyperbolical but are Literally meant by them and really and punctually to be fulfilled is clear from our Saviors Interpretation of the Prophet Esay and the like passages of other Prophets at his going to the Cross Luke 23. 30 31. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us for if they do these things in a green tree what shall be done in a dry Howbeit this terror shall not meerly proceed from these Terrible Spectacles and Sounds which shall be Antecedent to the Final Judgement but from the Sight of Christ placed in his seat of Judicature So St. Iohn in the forecited place Rev. 6. 16. tells us That the Affrightment and dread that seized upon the great men of the Earth did arise from seeing the face of him that sate upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 8. Having thus shown the Terrors antecedent to the Process we go on to the Process it self That takes beginning from the Manner of Christ's Coming and approach or from His Appearance as he shall sit in Judgement He shall come from Heaven or from the Right hand of the Throne of God where he now sitteth to execute Judgment in the open air or in that region wherein the clouds have their Rake The Manner of his Progress or approach shall be Swift and as before hath been intimated to our apprehension Violent For at his coming to Judgment and not before shall the Prophet Esay's Prayer or Wish be accomplished Oh that thou wouldest rent the heavens that thou wouldst come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the waters to boyl to make thy name known to thy adversaries that the nations may tremble at thy presence When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for thou camest down the mountains flowed down at thy presence Esay 64. 1 2 3. But because St. John intimates in the fore-cited place that the chief cause of Terror was the sight of him that sate upon the Throne we shall first consider how his Throne or Presence is described in the Old Testament Secondly how these Descriptions or Representations are decyphred or charactred out unto us by more then parallels in the New Now all the Prophecies or Predictions which to this purpose can be produced must all be interpreted by the Rule heretofore given that is However they may be literally meant or verified of some former times or events yet they are verified or meant of them Inchoativè onely They are not they cannot be Completivè applyed to any other time or times besides the day of Final Judgement or the world to come which shall ensue upon it The terror of his Throne and of him that sitteth thereon is described Dan. 7. 9 10. I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto
him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened The Fiery Wheels are Emblems of his suddain approach or of the swiftness of his Judgements to overtake his Enemies Though the Vision was new and uncouth yet the Branches of the things seen or revealed unto Daniel were known before unto Gods Prophets His Seat or Throne was prepared of old so faith the Psalmist Psal 9. 4. Thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the Throne Judging right And again ver 6 7. O thou enemy destruction is come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed Cities their memorial is perished with them But the Lord shall endure for ever he hath prepared his Throne for Judgement See Psal 96 ver 10. 13. And Psal 98. ver 8 9. But Daniel saw more seats and Thrones then one albeit he mention as perhaps he saw none sitting in them This as one wittily commenteth upon this place of Daniel is an Emblem of the Law which was an Emptiness or vacuum in respect of the Gospel and as all things else in the Law prefigured or forepainted were solidly accomplished in the Gospel So these Seats which are here indefinitely represented unto us by Daniel without any specification of their number without intimation of any sitting on them are pictured unto us by St. John with 24. Elders sitting upon them Rev. 4. 4. And round about the Throne were 24. seats and upon the seats I saw 24. Elders sitting and clothed in white raiment and they had on their heads Crowns of Gold Our Savior had said unto his Apostles Matth. 19. 28. that They should sit upon twelve seats Iudging the twelve Tribes of Israel And twelve Heads of the Tribes of Israel or the like number of Select Ones who lived under the Old Testament may make up the number of 24. That as all the Truths of both Testaments will consummately be fulfilled so the Saints of Both may then be most perfectly united in the Church Triumphant 9. But to proceed to such other Representations as are to be found in the Scripture This manner of Christs coming to Judge the earth or of his appearance in glory was represented unto Moses and to the Israelites Exod. 24. 10. 17. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel And this fire had devoured them if they had approached the mountain or Gods presence without Gods invitation But Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and 70. of the Elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir stone and as it were the body of Heaven in its clearness And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand This was a Peculiar Priviledge or dispensation Also they saw God and did eat and drink and in this they represented the state of the Elect which notwithstanding the terror of that last day shall be invited by Christ and be admitted to eat and drink with him in his Kingdom But this dispensation during the time of the Law was not granted to all Israel but to Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and to the 70. Elders or Nobles of Israel only unto all the rest whom God did not vouchsafe to invite the Spectacle though seen afar off was Terrible so terrible that they durst not approach unto it So shall the coming of the Son of Man be to all the kindreds of the earth which have not hearkned to his sweet and loving Invitations here on earth All such as have neglected them or make their appearance before him without a garment or habit in some sort suitable to the Marriage unto which they have been invited shall be everlastingly excluded and cast into utter darkness where shall be nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth But the thred which I am now to follow is the forementioned Prophecie Dan. 7. v. 9. 10. Now whether in the vision of the Ancient of days God the Father were personally represented or whether it were a representation of the Godhead or Divine Power onely as it is indivisibly in the Blessed Trinity without any note of Personal difference or whether at the last day there shall be any distinct representation of Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father or whether The Throne of the Son of God shall then onely appear are Questions which I will refer wholly to the Schools It sufficeth us to believe and know that the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement especially this Final Judgement to the Son and that the SON OF MAN shall then appear in the Glory of his God-head in Glory equal to God the Father What Manner of appearance this shall be and how the world shall be affected with it we are now to inquire so far as is fitting taking the description of it from Gods written word And haply lest we should conceive of God the Father as more ancient for dayes then the Son which Transformation of the Divine Nature the pictures of the Blessed Trinity seen and allowed by the Roman Church do naturally and inevitably suggest to the unlearned St. John doth describe the Son of Man or that glory wherein the Son of God and the Son of Man shall then appear much what after the same manner that Daniel had done the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7. 9 10. The description of the Son of God and of the Son of Man taken by St. John is Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. And I saw in the middest of the 7. Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle His head and his hairs were white like wooll as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire And his feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength You have heard before out of the seventeenth of St. Matthew that St. Peter Iames and John when they were spectators of his transfiguration which was but a representation of the Son of Mans coming in his kingdom when they heard the voice out of the cloud fell on their faces and were sore afraid until he came and touched them and said arise be not afraid This sight or vision of his glory Apoc. 1. 17 18. was more terrible then the Voice which they then heard When I saw him saith St. John I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am be that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore
that this conversion is rightly called Transubstantiation So that in fine the unitie whereof the children of that Church do so much brag is not an unity of faith or belief but an unity of faction or conspiracy for their own gain such as may be between the Jews the Turks the Heathens and the Arian hereticks which denied the Divinity of Christ to rob or spoil the Orthodoxal or true Catholick Christians 13. Most men have often read All almost have often heard of a Twofold Resurrection The one from death in sin unto newness of life The other from bodily death unto glory and immortality The second Resurrection is the End of our whole life here on earth the first Resurrection from death in sin to newness of life is the mean most necessary for attaining this joyful and happy End Now as the second Resurrection from bodily death unto glory is the End of the first Resurrection from sin to newness of life So is the first Resurrection the End of the blessed Sacrament or solemn commemoration of Christs death till he come to Judgment And although the Omnipotent Power of God by which all things were created of nothing be the most prime and powerful Cause of the second Resurrection yet of our Resurrection unto that Glory and Immortality whereof Christ is now possest Christ as man is not only the Idaeal or Exemplarie but the immediate Efficient or working Cause also Howbeit the power of his Efficiency or working as man be derived from the Omnipotent Power of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily But unto the real participation of this All-powerful Influence from Christs humanity by which the dead shall be quickned by which these mortal bodies shall be cloathed with glory and immortality the bodily or local presence of Christ is not required by the Romish Church It doth not hold it necessary that all or any body which shall be quickened or raised to Glorie shall first swallow Christs Body or be touched by it Of Angelical ministerie or service for gathering the dispersed reliques of mens bodies which have been dissolved by death some use there shall be in the last day as some Romanists with divers Antients think but no use at all of any Mass-Priest to make Christs Body to be locally present unto all that shall be quickened by it There shall be no need then of Transubstantiating Sacramental bread into Christs Body or wine into his bloud for giving life unto those that have been long dead or for effecting that change which shall be wrought in the living Now if by the meer virtual presence of Christs Body and Blood the men which have been long dead shall be restored to perfect life immortalitie shall not the souls of all which receive him in the Sacrament by Faith and true repentance be raised to Newness of life by the same virtual presence without any local touch of His Body but only by that sweet Influence which daily issueth from this Sun of righteousness now placed at the Right hand of God as in its proper Sphere This manner of Christs presence of his real presence in the Sacrament to wit by powerful Influence from his Humanitie our Church did never deny nor doth God the Father or Christ the Son deny this Real Influence of life unto any that hunger and thirst after it in the Sacrament CHAP. XIV 1 COR. 15. 36 c. But some will say How are the dead raised up and With what body do they come Thou Fool That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die c. That this Argument drawn from Seed sown is a Concludent Proof of the Resurrection of The Bodie THe Questions are Two First How the dead shall be raised The second With what bodies shall they come forth The former imports thus much How is it possible that the Dead shall be raised Or it being admitted that it is possible for the dead in some sort or manner to arise to life the next branch of the same Question is in what particular manner they shall de Facto arise as whether by Gods Creative Power by which he made all things of nothing or by his Conservative Power by which he preserveth all things that are in their proper Being or advanceth them to an higher estate or better Tenure of Being The second Question or Quaerie is With what kind of bodies shall the dead arise Whether with the self same bodies wherein they died Or if not every way the same what alteration or change shall be wrought in them Unto Both these Questions our Apostle vouchsafeth but this one Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die But this Answer may seem in the first place to break the Rule of Christian Charity For many of these Corinthians though in this point of the Resurrection erroneous and ignorant were yet Christian though weak brethren and the Law is general he that shall say unto his brother THOU FOOL shall be guilty of Hell fire Matth. 5. 22. The Rule indeed is General if this or the like opprobrious speech be hatched out of malice leavened wrath or invetered hatred But this sentence they do not incur out of whose mouthes these or the like speeches issue by way of just reproof or instruction as from a Master to his Scholers or from a Lord to his Servants in points wherein they err and are to be corrected or instructed by him In these cases or upon these occasions their censure passeth rather upon the folly then upon the persons of them whom they so chastise correct or seek to instruct And it is not altogether impertinent which some have noted upon that place That our Apostles censure doth not aim at any particular or determinate person but it is indefinitely directed to all those which seriously make the former questions either concerning the Possibilitie of mens arising from the dead or the particular Manner how this Resurrection should be wrought or with what bodies they should come forth But many such as will confess his reason or Argument to be free from breach of Christian Charitie or good manners will question the Logical strength or pertinence of it The strength or efficacy of it is questionable upon These points As first How the dayly experiment of seed-corn which first dies and is quickned again can inferr the Fundamental conclusion by our Apostle intended to wit the Resurrection of mens bodies which have been dead and rotten for many hundred years and their Reliques dispersed into so many several Elements or places that if the seed-corn which men sow were but dispersed into half so many places the husband-man should in vain expect an increase or his seed again Secondly admitting this yearly experiment of the seed dying and reviving were of force sufficient to inforce our belief of the former conclusion that the bodies of men dead may be raised to life again yet the
The imperfection of all Contentments incident to this life discovers it self these Two Wayes First The several capacities are too narrow and feeble in themselves to give entertainment to any portion of sincere and true joy the very best Contentments which here they find in any Object are mingled with dregs Secondly The satisfying of one capacitie defrauds another of that measure of contentment whereof in this life it was otherwayes capable And commonly the satisfying of the baser facultie or meanest capacitie doth deprive the more noble facultie of its due Men given to their bellies or solicitous in purveying for the grosser senses of taste or touch defraud the sense of sight which is the gate of knowledge and the ear which is the sense of discipline of their best Contentments For as the old saying is Venter non habet aures the Belly hath no ears And too much insight in the means which procure bodily pleasures doth blind or darken the Common sense Others not so solicitous to feed the belly with meat as the ear with pleasant sounds or the eye with delightful spectacles do by both means rob the reasonable soul of her best solace and as it were block up these ports and havens by which provision should come into her Every handy-craft or art of husbandry requires an ordinary capacitie not of the Common sense only but of the understanding And yet such as have their minds exercised in these and the like imployments are thereby dis-enabled for bearing Rule or Government over more civil and ingenuous men as may be collected from the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus. 38. from the 25. to the 33. Even amongst the capacities or faculties of the reasonable soul there is not that harmony or concord which were requisite for her better contentment Some men in a manner freed from the servitude of their outward senses and able to command their service for contemplation by too much contemplating upon one sort of objects make themselves uncapable of reaping that delight which other objects would more plentifully afford to these Contemplators Some by studying the Mathematicks too much do benum their apprehensive faculties or capacities of prudence or civil knowledge Others whiles they seek to give too much satisfaction to their desires or capacities of civil wisdom or humane Prudence do infeeble their capacities and starve their desires of divine Mysteries or spiritual understanding Quite contrary it is in the life to come First The Capacitie of every sense or facultie is improved to the uttermost and no object shall intrude or offer it self but such as are able to give severally full Contentment without satietie Secondly The Harmony or Consent between the several Capacities and desires of every Sense and Facultie is most exact the satisfying of one doth no way prejudice but rather further another Every one is apt to bear its part for making up of that full harmony which is required to true happiness And For those grosser Senses of Touch and Taste â—ith the Appetite of meat and drink All the pleasures in this life wherewith that are commonly overtaken are as we said before medicines of diseases rather than any true Contentments The first degree or step to happiness is To be freed from those diseases wherewith they now are pestered For though it be a miserie for a man to want food when he is an hungry or drink when he is thirstie or rayment when he is cold or needs it for ornament yet we all conceive it to be a far greater happiness to enjoy continual health and liveliness without either hunger or thirst or to have perfect comeliness without clothing or rayment And for this reason that branch of happiness which consists in satisfying the Capacities of these Senses is in Scripture described by Negatives As there shall be no hunger there no thirst no greif no pain These are the Symptomes of those grosser Senses in this life which in the life to come shall not enjoy the pleasures or Contentments which are contrary to these annoyances as we say in kind but by a happy Exchange by such an exchange as he that turns lead into silver doth forego a great deal of dross or baser metal but gains that which contains the full value of it in a small waight or compass Of all and every one of the bodily Contentments we can possibly imagine the very immortalitie of glorified Bodies is for qualitie more then the Quintessence or Extraction It containeth health and chearfulness of Spirit with all the pleasures that accompany them as we say Eminenter that is As one pound waight of Gold fully contains in its worth many hundreds of lead so one Moment of immortalitie the least waight of glory we can imagine is worth a full Age of all the health and happinesse that can be had on earth Instead of material food which perisheth with the use and whose fulness doth alwayes breed satietie the appetite of meat and drink shall be continually satisfied with the Tree of Life which or rather the Emblem or Type of which our First Parents were not admitted to touch in Paradise 6. When the Sadduces captiously demanded Which of those seven brethren should have that woman to his wife in the world to come which had been successively married to all the seven Our Saviour answers The children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more for they are equal to the Angels What then shall such as have enjoyed the comfort of wedlock be utterly deprived of that comfort in heaven which was allotted to Adam in Paradise even in the state of innocencie They shall not have it in kind for seeing flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven there shall not be there any Two in one flesh but in lieu of this comfort such as observe the Commandements of Christ shall be more neerly espoused and joyned in spirit unto Christ For as man and wife make one body so he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. This is the consummation of that Great Mystery which is here begun on earth and whereof the first marriage in Paradise was but the visible sign or shadow This is the very perfection of all pure and chast love As for those other purer Senses of Sight and Hearing they shall enjoy their former Contentments both Eminenter and Formaliter both in kind and by happy exchange Though enabled they shall be to see far more glorious sights and to hear more heavenly sounds then in this life they could either hear or see Yet shall they not be disenabled to see the same sights or hear the same sounds which sometimes in this life they did But these they shall hear and see with infinite more delight and joy because the Capacitie of these senses shall
glorified There are no Envious Comparisons there seeing every one of them hath his full portion in that publick and common joy which amounts from their joynt expressions of thanksgiving The Ditty of their song is the same and no man there shall be either deaf or silent 4. This Inequalitie of Essential Ioy and this equalitie of joy Accidental cannot to my apprehension be better represented then by A Chorus or Quire of voyces well skilled and practised to hold perfect consort Amongst a great number thus qualified it cannot be expected that every one shall have either the like clearness or sweetness of voyce or the like command over his voice that another hath Nor can he that hath the best natural voyce or best skill in singing impart or communicate either his voyce or skill unto others which sing in consort with him and yet every one is partaker of the sweetness of anothers voyce as well as of his own The concent or harmony is alike to all that have musical ears And a man even in this life is oftimes more delighted to hear another man then himself sing either alone or in consort but most delight in a full Chorus A Choir or consort After this manner the blessed Saints and Angels shall not impart any part of that Internal joy or happiness which ariseth from the Fruition or vision of the God of Love unto another nor shall he have any need of it as we say at the second hand for every one shall have as much of it within himself as he is capable of But of that external joy which results from their joynt consort in singing praise and glory unto God every one shall be partaker and the more they are the greater shall be every ones portion of this delight or joy And thus much of life Eternal and of the blessedness which is contained in it or is the property of it whether it be Blessedness Essential or Concomitant 5. Yet some there be which give a more particular Terrar or distinct Map of this heavenly life or Kingdom out of the fifth of Saint Matthews Gospel And many Excellent Discants upon our Saviours words in that place you may find in Authors Ancient and Modern in all such as Comment upon the Eight Beatitudes as they call them Yet whilst you read or hear them take this Memorandum with you That there are not eight several Beatitudes distinct one from another for all are contained in this one word to wit Eternal life which is but one and the same the joy or happiness which is the property of it is the same it hath not eight several branches albeit our Saviour pronounce this blessedness eight several times What then Are these but so many Tautologies or repetitions of one and the same thing God forbid we should so think or speak of him who spake as never man spake Or is there a mystery in the Number of eight None questionless in the abstract number All the mystery if it be to be termed a mystery is in the Reference of one and the same Blessednesse to eight several qualifications without which no man shall be partaker of the life to come and to eight sorts of men unto whom according to their several qualifications or conditions One and the same Blessednesse comes more welcome under one Style or Title then it would do under another especially whilest it is proferred not as present or In re but as future and In spe as a thing far off whilst it is yet under promise 6. The First Promise of this Blessedness is unto such as are poor in Spirit that is to men free from secular ambition to men of an humble mind The greatest grievance which men thus qualified and affected in this life suffer is that they are in a manner trod upon by others and for the most part excluded from rule or Jurisdiction inferiors to all superiors to none And if they be as poor in wealth as spirit there is a kind of necessity laid upon them for continuing such For his Observation is not yet out of date Pauper eris semper si pauper es Aemilianc Munera non dantur nunc nisi divitibus If a man be once poor he shall be alwayes poor for no man grows rich by gifts but he that is able to give Now to encourage such as already are poor in spirit to continue this Resolution and to arm their humilitie with constancy against all the secular inconveniences or grievances wherewith it is charged The Blessednesse of the life to come is promised to them under the name or Title of a Kingdom Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 3. that is they are neerer to life eternal to true happiness and glory then ambitious or aspiring minds which have not a desire only but oft-times means and opportunitie to attain to honor and dominion over others here on earth This Affection of Poornesse in Spirit is the first degree and step to Blessednesse And with Reference to this scarcitie of means or external povertie is for some men more expedient then wealth For though many be humbled which are not humble yet few are humble which have not been first humbled by some cross or affliction 7. But many are poor in spirit which have no extraordinary occasion to spend their dayes in mourning Unto such as truly mourn the very conceit or mention of pomp or jollity is ungrateful To provoke them to mirth until nature have her Forth is unseasonable a kind of sin To tell them of a Kingdom were all one as to mock them yet none there are who truly mourn which do not seriously desire Comfort though it be but in mourning with them And for this reason it is that unto such as mourn our Saviour promises the blessednesse of the life to come not under the style or title of a Kingdom but under a title more grateful and that is Comfort Ver. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted So they mourn not as those that have no hope so they murmur not nor repine at Gods providence As for mourning it self it is a branch of evil a kind of punishment or chastisement no way pleasant for the present Comfort in the Sacred Dialect includes abundance of good things as appears by Abrahams answer unto Dives Luke 16. 25. Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The very joyes of heaven could not have been so sweet to Lazarus unless in this life he had wanted Comfort 8. Many again have just occasion to mourn and whilst these occasions last do not transgress in the manner of their mourning they repine not at God are not malicious against the men which find them matter to mourn for and yet for all this are not of so meek a spirit as every Good Christian
souls and affections are withdrawn from pursuit of that happy and blessed life which hath its beginning here on earth but hath no End in Heaven were the Belief of it firmly rooted in our souls If any man swerve from the wayes of righteousness whether in the General course of his life or in particular Acts it is through want of this Hope either in the Act or in the Habit. The want of this Hope in the Habit proceeds from habitual want of our spiritual Tast The want of the same Hope in particular Acts proceeds from the interruption of this Tast in such as sometimes have been partakers of it The chief part then of our Ministery is First To plant This Tast Secondly To preserve it in our hearers In these Two consists Tota Ars Medendi the whole method of spiritual Physick The objects of our spiritual Tast are Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost for in these two consists the Kingdom of God as was observed before out of Rom. 14. 17. Without Righteousness there is no Peace Without Peace of conscience there is no Joy First then of Peace Secondly of Joy 2. Under the name of Peace All blessings spiritual are included It is the Fruit of Righteousnesse and the Root or stemme of Joy The best tydings which the Angels could bring unto the people at our Saviours birth were tydings of Joy And in their hymn after they had ascribed Glory to God they declare the Original of this Joy to be Peace on earth and Good-will towards men The best Legacie which our Saviour had to bestow upon his Apostles before his death after he had as it were made his last Will and Testament was Peace John 14. 27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid And at his first appearance to his Disciples being assembled together after his Resurrection he came and stood in the midst of them and said Iohn 20. 19. Peace be with you And after he had shewed them his hands and his side he said to them again Peace be unto you ver 21. The same Salutation is recorded by Saint Luke Chap. 24. 36. And this Salutation is continued to the Church as the sum and brief of all good things which we can desire for our selves or wish to others Peace be to this House and to all that dwell in it Be the very solemn words which The Priest going to visit the sick is by the appointment of our Church to take with him and to say when he enters into the sick persons house And this I suppose is injoyned not so much with reference to The like form of Salutation commonly used among the Jewes as either in Imitation of that Form of Blessing prescribed by our Saviour or rather in obedience and observation of that Precept given by Him Matth. 10. 12. Luke 10. 5. Salute the House ye enter into and Say Peace be to this House And so likewise by the Churches Appointment we conclude our prayers The peace of God that is The Peace wherein the Kingdom of God consists which passeth all understanding keep your harts and minds in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ c. The Form of this Blessing is taken from our Apostle Phil. 4. 7. And therein we do but pray for that which the Apostle promiseth in Gods name to the Philippians 3. But if this Peace as our Apostle there speakes surpasseth all understanding how shall we seek after it or discover the nature of it or the nature of that joy in the holy Ghost which is the fruit of it Or is this Peace and this Ioy one or both of them that New Name written in the white stone Revel 2. 17. Which Christ promiseth to give to him that overcometh which no man knoweth saving he which hath it For Answer we say This Peace surpasseth the understanding of all men who are not acquainted with it But if it must keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ sure we must have an experimental knowledge of it we must feel and perceive it So in effect the Prophet Esay had said Esay 64. 4. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of any man the things which God hath prepared for them which love him But all this is to be understood of the Natural Man or of the man as yet not partaker of the spirit of regeneration For as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 2. 10. God hath revealed these things even unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And Again ver 12. We have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The same spirit gives us a true rellish of that Peace whence these joys do spring 4. But if such as have the Tast or Rellish of it know it better by experience then they can by any Map or description of it How shall we perswade such as do not know it to seek after it Or what description shall we make of it to bring them in love with it The best Description which we can make of it must be taken from the known sweetnesse of Temporal Peace which is but the Emblem or shadow of it And the sweetness of Civil peace is alwayes much better known much better esteemed Carendo quam Fruendo by some interposition of want then by continual fruition of it A consuet is nulla fit passio We of this land which have longer enjoyed Civil Peace without interruption then any Nation in the world besides have not so true a rellish of the sweetness of it as most of our neighbor Nations which within these few years have often felt the bitterness of warre as well domestick or Civil as Forraign Necessary therefore it will be for us which neither have seen or felt the enemies Sword for these Threescore years and more to use some Fiction of Warre for right conceiving the sweetness even of Civill Peace Imagine then we lived in such a Land or State as the State of Israel was in the dayes wherein Esaias prophecied or in the dayes whereof he prophecied Chap. 9. ver 19. 20. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the Land darkened and the People shall be as the fewel of the fire no man shall spare his brother And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry and he shall eat on the left hand and shall not be satisfied they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasses shall be ready to devour Ephraim his brother Tribe and Ephraim's intentions against him shall be as cruel and yet both like Simeon and Levi brethren only in mischief and cruelty shall conspire to ruinate Judah the soveraign Tribe of that people Thus imagine
were much better then their present in mercie favour and loving kindnesse 5. But whilst they thus contend for the merit of works done by Grace do they not derogate from the merits of Christ who is the only fountain of all Grace We say They do But They Reply They do not but rather magnifie the merits of Christ more then we do who deny the merits of Saints For Christ as they alledge did not only merit Grace for us but this also that we by Grace might truly Merit Now grace itself and the merit of grace is a more Magnificent Effect of Christs Merits then grace alone Here is a Double Effect of Christs Merits by their Doctrine whereas we admit but a single One. Thus they reply But if the One of those two effects which they imagine or conceive doth derogate more in true construction from the merits of Christ then the supposal or admission of it can add unto them We attribute more unto his merits by the admission of One single Effect only to wit meer grace then they do by acknowledgment of Two to wit grace it self and the merit of grace in us But the more we are to merit by grace for our selves the less measure of merit we leave unto Christ For as that which he merited for us is not ours but his so that which we merit for ourselves is not His but Ours The merit of grace supposeth a Fulnesse or Fountain of grace and Fountain of grace there is no other but Christ himself nor is there any Fulness of grace but in him only For of his fulnesse as the Evangelist saith Iohn 1. 16. we all have received grace for grace that is grace upon Grace Every degree or greater measure of Grace which we receive doth flow alike immediatly from the fulness of this inexhaustible Fountain of Grace without any secondary Fountain or Feeders Grace doth not grow in us as Rivers do which although they have one main spring or fountain yet they grow not to any greatness without the help of secondary Fountains or concurrence of many springs or feeders Grace doth so immediatly come from Christ as the Rivers do from the sea Increase of Grace doth come as immediatly from Christ as the increase of Rivers from rain or as the increase of light in the waxing Moon comes from the Sun 6. The state of this Question concerning The merits of works comes to the same issue with that other Great question concering Justification As whether it be by faith alone or by faith and works The Romish Church grants that we are justified by faith in Christs blood or merits Tanquam per Causam efficientem as by a true efficient Cause seeing all the Grace which we first receive is bestowed upon us for Christs sake But they hold withall that it is the Grace which for Christs sake is bestowed upon us by which we are formally justified that is As water poured into a vessel doth immediatly expell the air which was in it before so the infusion of Grace for the merits of Christ doth expell sin whether Original or actuall out of our souls And this in their Language is The remission of sins for the attaining whereof There needs no imputation of Christs righteousness after Grace be once infused The formall Cause of every thing requires some efficient or Agent for the production or resultance of it but being once produced or existent it excludes the interposition or intervention of any other Cause whatsoever for the production or existence of its formall Effect To produce heat in the water it is impossible without the Agency or Efficiency of fire but the water being made scalding hot by the heat of fire will heat or scald the flesh of of man or other living creature although it be removed from the fire although it work only in its own strength or of the heat inherent in it Thus say the Romanists that grace cannot be produced in us but by the vertue and efficiency of Christs merits but being by them once produced it doth justifie us immediatly by the strength and vertue of it inherent in us and by the same strength and vertue working in us it doth produce its formall effect to wit the increase of grace and lastly eternal life But if this Doctrine of theirs so far as it concerns Justification or the Remission of sins were true then this inconvenience as I have elsewhere shewed would necessarily follow That no man already after this manner justified could say or repeat that Petition in our Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us without a mockerie of God or Christ For if our sins be formally remitted by the infusion of grace and if by the infusion of the same grace we be formally justified the only true meaning of this Petition is in true Resolution This Lord makes us such or remit our sins after such a manner that we shall not stand in need of thy remission or forgivenss of them or that we shall not stand in need of the mediation of thine only Son For if they be remitted immediatly by grace so long as this grace endures all mediation is superfluous is impossible This Inconvenience is farther improved by the same Doctrine so far as it concerns the merits of works done in charitie And prophanes those Two other Petitions in the same our Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven no lesse then their Doctrine of Justification doth that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us For if works done by grace or charitie could truly merit eternal life the effect of all the three Petitions should be but this Lord let thy Kingdom of Grace so come unto us Lord let thy will be so done by us here on earth that as we have been long debters unto thee for giving thine only Son to die for our sins and for the purchasing of the First Grace unto us so let us by this grace be inabled to make both Thee and Him debters to us by the merit of this grace and debters in no meaner a sum then the retribution or payment of Eternal Life For if that life can be merited by our works then God doth owe it unto us for our works And if it be due unto us by merit or by debt then it is not as our Apostle hath it in this 23. verse the gift of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original hath it the Grace of God The Apostle might as well have said that Eternal Life was as truly the wages of our righteousness as death is the wages of our sin And so the best Scholars in the Romish Church do grant he might have said What then is the Reason why he did not say so Of this they give us This Reason Inasmuch say they as the First grace by which we merit the Kingdom of heaven is
no dependence of man upon the Divine Power did often shew commendable effects of this Law written in their hearts in sundry duties of Good neighborhood as we speak and civil kindnesses As for any Affinity or Bonds of society between man and man at least between men of divers Countries more then is between beasts of the same kind most of them acknowledged none nor did they acknowledge as much affinity betwixt Creatures of any kind as we do that acknowledge all things to have one Creator Herein then is Our Equalitie and Affinity greater that we all acknowledge one God for our Father who is in a more peculiar sort the Creator of every man then of any other corruptible Creature Again All we Christians acknowledge One Christ for our Head of whose Body we are Members hence ariseth another Peculiar Equalitie from the equal price of our Redemption which was all one for the Rich and Poor for the Little and Mighty Ones of the Earth This God pre-figured in the Law Exod. 30. verse 11 12 15. Afterwards the Lord spake unto Moses When thou takest the sum of the Children of Israel after their number then they shall give every man a Redemption of his life unto the Lord when thou tellest them that there be no plague among them when thou countest them The Rich shall not passe and the poor shall not diminish from half a shekel when ye shall give an Offering unto the Lord for the Redemption of your Lives From this strict Dependencie of all men upon one and the same Creator and this Equality and Brother-hood which we have in one Father doth our Saviour Christ Luke 6 v. 36. draw that precept Of loving our Enemies which he makes as it were an Essential property of all such as truly acknowledge One God Not that all men were not bound thereto and might have known so much by nature but that it was a greater shame and more praeposterous sin in such as did acknowledge One God not to perform that Duty The Consciences of the Gentiles as St. Paul saith might secretly accuse them But the Others words and speeches did bear open Testimony against them if they neglected so to do so saith our Saviour Christ immediately upon the words of the Text For if you love them which love you what thank shall you have for even the sinners love those that love them And if you do good for them which do good for you what thank shall ye have for even the sinners do the same And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive what thank shall ye have for even the sinners lend to sinners to receive the like Wherefore love ye your enemies and do good and lend looking for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the most High for he is kind to the unkind and to the evil 15. This further confirms what out of the principles of Nature was formerly gathered to wit that where it is said Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do ye so unto them The meaning is not What ye would have this or that man do unto you do ye so unto the same man but rather thus Whatsoever ye would that any man should do unto you do ye the like in like case to every man in that he is man in that he is your fellow Creature in that he is the Son of your heavenly Father be he otherwise friend or foe Yet further we may nay we must inlarge this Precept if we will have the full meaning of it Thus. Whatsoever ye would should be done unto you whether by Man by Angel or any other of Gods ministring Spirits or procurer of mankinds good or by God himself That do to every man because every man that God to his Father who as He hath a care and providence over all so is it his will that every Creature under him all men especially that call him Father should be his Ministers in procuring and furthering any others good of whom this our heavenly Father vouchsafes to take care and charge A lively Emblem of this Duty we have in the Ravens feeding of Eliah being destitute of all ordinary means of Food If we consider the nature of this Bird none more Ravenous none more Greedy of the Prey then it yet because the Lord feeds the young Ravens when they call upon him being otherwise destitute of ordinary relief from their Dams or old Ones as both Aristotle and Plinie observe and the Psalmist alludes to it in that speech Therefore the Lord commanded them to afford the like help to Elias being forsaken or rather persecuted by the King and his Officers who should have yielded him house and harbour and from their example we should learn the practise to do for others as either the Lord hath done or we expect he should do for us Thus much I say is fully and directly included in our Saviours Deductions and Conclusions drawn from this Principal Rule albeit so much be not fully exprest in his words especially if we observe the Greek phrase only But the language whose manner of Dialect the Evangelists retain though writing in the Greek Tongue will very well bear and our Saviours words Luke 6. 36. verse enforce as much Be ye therefore merciful as your H. Father is merciful and in the 6. of Matth. v. 14. He tels us that if we look for mercie at Gods hand we must shew mercie unto men not to our friends or brethren by kindred or Nation but unto men The place is so much the more worth our observation because he adds no Exposition or Comment to any one Petition in all the Lords Prayer save only that He gives this Note upon that And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us his Note is this If ye forgive men their Trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you do not forgive men their Trespasses no more will your Heavenly Father forgive you your Trespasses Wherefore as we desire God to forgive us our Trespasses though we have been his Enemies so must we be ready to forgive our Enemies and as we desire all good of him so must we be ready not only to forgive but even to do any good to our enemies If he be our enemie deservedly we should therefore do him good that we might make amends for the occasion offered if our Enemy he be without any just occasion given by us we should consider that this voluntary Enmity in him is the work of Satan but he Himself as man is our fellow Creature the workmanship of Gods own hand God made him man but the Divel made him an Enemy And we should seek by all meanes possible to dissolve the works of Satan and to repair the handy work of God that is we should love his person and seek to reform his vice we should overcome his evil with our good-will to him if
he be hungry we should give him meat if thirstie drink as the Apostle commands In sum we must feed Him but seek to starve his Humor by substracting all occasions of exasperating his mind and seeking occasions to do him good so the heat of his malice having nothing to work upon will by little and little die as fire goes out when the fewel fails 16. For a Friends sake that has indeared us to him for many of whom we yet expect more kindnesses we think it good manners to tolerate many things which otherwise we would not And shall not Christian Faith and true Religion teach us much more to remit all for Gods sake of whom we have received our selves our very bodies and souls and all that we have of whom we yet expect much more then we have received even everlasting life and immortal bodies to be crowned with Glory What if our Enemies have sought to take away this miserable and mortal life God freely gave it us who likewise at his pleasure may justly challenge it And if we cannot justly complain if he should take it from us is it an hard Precept that he wills us not to revenge yea not to complain by way of revenge of such as would but could not take it from us The Lord may as justly command us to forbear all desire of revenge all complaint of such as would take away our Life as he himself can take it That they would so have done was their own That they could not do so unto us is the Lords doing to whom we owe all thankfulness for preserving it and this may be the best occasion of shewing our thankfulness if we for his sake forgive such as sought to take away our Lives Nay if we would but examine this Precept by exact Reason passion set aside in as much as God hath freely given us life he might most Justly command us not to murmur against such as should take it from us For who can appoint him his Time or who can refuse any for his Executioner whom the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth shall permit But in as much as God hath preserved our lives which our Enemies sought he may justly command and we must obey him so commanding to do any good unto them that sought our evil God is a a more Absolute Lord over the lives of Kings and Princes then they are over their Lands or goods he hath a more absolute interest in all mens actions and affections then any man hath in his own goods or fruits of his ground Now what Lord or Master is there that would indure such a servant as would not bestow his goods or benevolence on whomsoever it pleased him to appoint albeit he were his servants enemie If this we refuse and yet acknowledge our selves to be Gods servants may not God justly say unto us Ex tuo ipsius ore judicaberis If any refuse to set his affections on whomsoever God shall appoint him to employ his actions for whose good it pleaseth him albeit he be our open enemie How much more ought we to do it if we consider the Hope of reward in the life to come 17. Thus you see The First ground of this precept drawn from The equalitie of all men by nature improved and fortified by the Doctrine of Faith that is by The acknowledgement of One Father and Creator and yet may it be further confirmed if we consider what Affinitie nay what Consanguinitie we all have in Christ and what he hath done for us We are saith the Apostle if we be Christs flesh of his Flesh and bone of his Bone Our conjunction with him if we be or would be conjoyned with Him although it be spiritual and mystical yet is it a True a real and lively conjunction He is a True and lively Head we are true and lively members of him and one of another And must have as true a fellow feeling one of anothers harms or sorrows as one part of our own body hath of the pain of another No body Politick ever on earth not the most united in place in Lawes customes or any other Bond of Civil Societie whatsoever had or can have the like union or so near conjunction as all that are members of Christs mystical Bodie truly have as all that professe themselves members thereof should in practise testifie that they have otherwise as the Lawyers say Protestatio non valet contra factum It is in vain to professe thou art a Christian in vain to protest thou art a true professor or Protestant if thy deeds and resolution if thy practice do not seal the truth of thy profession or Protestation for not doing this as the Apostle saith thou shalt confesse Christ and Christianitie with thy lips but deny both Him and it in thy deeds and in thy practise and so thou shalt be judged not according to thy sayings but according to thy works and resolution or omissions of working Would you know then what some of the Heathen have thought of the duties of every member in a body Politick Plato in his fifth Book De Republica hath a comparison to this purpose If a man receive a wound in any part as in his foot or hand or have but some pain or grief in his finger we will not say That his hand or foot is wounded or that his finger feels pain But The man himself hath suffered a wound in his hand or foot That he himself hath a great pain c. For albeit the pain or grief spring first from this or that part yet it overflowes and affects the whole bodie The branches of it spread throughout all parts and every part is worse because one part is so ill Yea every part forbears its natural function or recreation in some measure for the ease of this The head wants its sleep other parts their rest by reason of the spirits recourse thither as so many comforters sent from them to visit their sick friend or fellow member In like manner Plato thought it meet that in every City or Common-weal as often as any good or harm did happen to any Citizen or Free denizon thereof it should not be counted that mans good or harm only but the good or harm of the whole City and every member thereof should be alike affected If this the Heathens by meer light of nature could discern to be the dutie of the meer natural man what tongue of man or Angel can expresse in Terms befitting so high A mysterie what Brotherhood what fellowship what Sympathie and what affection should be between the members of Christs Body for no society like this no fellowship like to that in Him This union exceeds all other much more then the union of one part of our heart with another doth the union of the heart with the foot Doubtless our Saviour spake according to the duty if not according to the custome of honest hartie neighbours in the good old world in the Parable
the time of his imprisonment in Constantinople This Busbequius the Legate there for Ferdinand being requested by some of Sandeus's quondam followers now his companions in captivity to comfort their master by his letters tels us Ego recusabam quod mihi non ratio non oratio suppetebat quâ hominem tam graviter afflictum consolarer It is a true and lively Symptome of a great spirits temper whom the Lord begins to humble once subject to the Almighties discipline which the same Author hath observed upon this occasion Erat Sandeus ingentis spiritus vir spei abundans timoris nescius sed qui sunt hujusmodi ut omnia quae optant sperant sic post quam cuncta retrò ferri et contra animi sententiam evenire experiuntur Ita plerunque animis concidunt ut non sit facile ad aequitatem eos erigere 4. Pearls are precious and as he sayes cara auro contrà though such simple creatures as Aesops cock value them lower then a grain of barley And life at all times is sweet alwayes more worth then any pleasure wealth or honour unless that honour which cometh from God alone however haughty cock-brains or furious hot-spurs esteem it lighter then a puff of popular fame But besides the untimely losse of life or ordinary dread of violent or bloody death the manner how it is God grant we never know by experience but so assuredly it is That When the wrath of God once throughly kindles against any Land or people it puts an unusual terror upon the countenances of their enemies an unusual edge upon their swords It sharpens the sting of natural death and so envenomes the jawes and teeth of famine and his fellow messengers that the smart of their impressions or the mere terror of their threatnings becomes unsufferably grievous beyond all measure of former experience or precedent cogitation Nothing before hath been held so base whereunto greatest spirits will not then be fain to stoop Nothing so cruel or unnatural unto whose practise the mildest and lovingest natures will not be brought upon Condition yea upon Hope nay upon probable Presumption that they might become but half sharers in the Donative which is here bestowed on Baruch Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest Not the most womanish among the weaker sex in this whole Land but would presume of so much manlike resolution as by one means or other to lay down the wearisome burthen of an irksome life rather then she should be inforced to seek the preservation of it by killing them whom she had lately quickened or devouring their flesh whom she lately brought forth with sorrow and dayly fed with her own substance Suppose we then that those mothers of Jerusalem which re-intombed their sucking infants in their wombs were naturally more cruel and savage than other women ordinarily are No! The Lord himself hath fully acquitted them of this imputation The hands of the pittiful women saith the Prophet Lament 4. 10. have sodden their own children they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people And if women women of pitie in the time of War can thus bestrip themselves of all wonted bowels of compassion towards the tender off-spring of their wombes shall not the strong man put off his valour and the valiant forget to fight shall not flight be far from the swift and wisdom perish from the Politick It is the day of the Lords wrath saith the Prophet and who can stand who can abide it Not such as for any motion of fear have stood more immoveable then a rock whilst the strongest wals of their defence have been terribly shaken with the enemies shot The stronger their wonted confidence had been the greater their horrour and confusion when they shall discern the finger of God beginning once to draw the dismall lines of their disasterous Fates or when with Belshazzar they begin to read their Destinyes in visible but Transient and unknown Characters then feebleness wo and sorrow come upon the mightiest men as upon a woman in her travel breeding a dissolution in the loyns and causing their knees to smite one against another The terrors of War or other affrightments whereunto they have formerly been accustomed though oft-times very great did never appear more then finite because alwayes known in part But of these Panici terrores or Representations which usher Gods wrath in the day of vengeance that is most true which the Philosopher gives as the Reason why uncouth wayes seem alwayes long Ignotum quà ignotum infinitum est And as the the Kingdom of God so his judgements and the terrors which accompany them come not by Observation In respect of this sudden dread or un-observable terror wherewith the Almighty blasts their souls whom he hath signed to fearful destruction They may say of their adversaries most furious assaults as he did of his Antagonists most blustering words Non me tua fervida terrent Dicta ferox Dii me terrent et Iupiter hostis One while they shall seek for death but it will not be found of them Another while death shall present it self to them and they shall make from it and yet it in the very next moment wish they had entertained it And though life abide with them still yet shall it not be as a Prey unto them but as a Clogg their persons being exposed unto their enemies pleasure perpetually tortured either between vain hopes of escape and uncertain expectance of an ignominious doom or between their desires of speedy and gentle death and the lingering grievances of miserable and captived life In all these respects the Prophets Advice is good seek ye the Lord all the meek of the earth which have wrought his judgements seek righteousness seek lowlinesse if so be that you may be hid in the day of the Lords wrath 5. But be it true in Thesi That life in its naked substance is sweet That ingenuous Libertie though mixt with povertie is as a pleasant sauce to make it rellish better yet who shall perswade Baruch as The Case stands with him so to accept it Nay me thinks flesh and blood should regurgitate his former murmurings upon this motion made by Jeremy and interpret the Prorogation of his life as a fresh heap of sorrowes laid unto the burthen of griefs under which he fainted Profers made by earthly Princes must be respected by their followers though worth little in themselves for unto them Court holy-water must seem sweet although it have no smel of gain But shall the The King of Kings obtrude That as an Extraordinary blessing upon his poor distressed servant which had been adjudged as his own word bears Record for a bitter curse or grievious plague from which Two Kings the one of Israel the other of Judah were not exempted but upon great humiliation and penitent tears For was it not The word of the Lord which
yet obedience is due unto them in particular and they which disobey or transgress them in any particular are to be punished or made Examples lest others be emboldened to do the like And the Reason why they would have such punished which I would request you to observe is lest their impunity should minister offence to the weak brethren And a man cannot give greater offence to the weak or ignorant then by emboldening them to disobedience in Cases wherein obedience is due But soon after these Publick Injunctions other Private Spirits rose up which out of desire to be Extreamly Contrary to the Romish Church concerning Traditions did expresly contradict their Lawful Governors in that Article The Contrary Error into which they run by seeking to avoid the error of the Romish Church was in brief This That no Christian man is bound to obey superiors in matters of sacred Rite or Ceremony or in Duties of ordinary practise unless their Governors or such as demand their Obedience can shew them expresse Authority of Scripture or can convince their understandings that God by his Word doth enjoyn them to obey in these particulars But thus to oppose the Romish Church by way of Contrarietie is but to seek the overthrow of a Tyranny by the Erection of an Anarchie For if the Flock or inferior members of the Church owe no obedience unto their superiors but upon these Termes then Pastors Prelates yea Kings should owe the same obedience unto the meanest Tradesmen or Day-labourers that Tradesmen or Day-labourers owne to them For Pastors and Prelates even Kings themselves are bound to obey the Word of God by whomsoever it shall be manifested or made known unto them and to obey it in every particular which it manifestly injoynes And if obedience were not due to Pastors Prelates and Kings in matters concerning the service of God or sacred Rites until they can shew warrant for every particular which they enjoyn out of Gods word there were no obedience at all due unto them but unto Gods Word only And every man might say to them as the Emperour said to the Pope Non Tibi sed Petro. But so the Sacred Rule of Faith and manners should be not the Author of such Order as we believe it is but an occasion of confusion in every Christian Estate or Congregation 10. But this is the happiness of the English Church or Clergie that all the Arguments which have been or can be brought by Factious or discontented spirits in matters of Rites Ceremonies or Discipline do draw their strength from such false or mistaken Principles as if way were given to their growth or exercise of their force they could not peck the least hole in the Miter or make the least thirle in the Surpellice without working a proportionable crack or flaw in the Royal Crown Their Authors disobedience to Lawes or Discipline Ecclesiastick would quickly induce if opportunitie served open rebellion against the Prerogative Royal. Reason and Experience had taught the Heathen States-men That it was a matter of like sufferance or equally insufferable to live Ubi omnia Licita et ubi nihil Licitum In A State wherein all must be subject to the Will of One man and in a place where every man may do what he will A Tyran is like a Ravenous Beast which devours all that comes within his Walk or Range but which there are many wayes for a wise man to escape But if a Tyrannie once dissolve into an Anarchie Homo homini fit Lupus every man becomes a Wolfe unto his neighbour Their habitations or places of meeting become but nests of waspes or serpents 11. Let Rome then be accounted as it was when our Forefathers departed from it and as it still remains the spiritual Babylon Let the Pope be a Tyran more cruel and Barbarous then Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar yet let us remember that when God called his people out of Babylon he called them unto Jerusalem which is by interpretation the vision of peace A citie as the Psalmist in the literal sense perhaps meant compacted But in the mystical or Emblematical sense a City at unity in it self The long Durance of an hard and forein yoke had taught them subjection unto their native Governours Zerubbabel their Prince and Jesus their High-Priest The hatred contempt and scorn which they had endured amongst barbarous Aliens was a Cement to unite their hearts in brotherly affections But we by misimploying our peace and securitie of dread from the Enemy have turned the Grace of God into wantonness and transformed that Christian Libertie which our forefathers purchased with their Ashes into such Licentiousness as if we had departed out of Babylon to build a Babel in Jerusalem How have our Printing-houses become the Cels and Arcenals of strife and contention And our Pulpits been made Babels or Towers of Confusion When the men which came from the East attempted to build a Tower unto Heaven God as you know confounded their Language that they could not understand one another and the enterprize was dissolved and the enterprizers were dispersed over the face of the earth This was the Lords doing and therefore it was a confusion which did not end in Contention Though one of them did not understand another Yet we do not read but that every man did well understand himself But our misery is that every one will over-understand another when he doth not half-understand himself or the matter whereof he writes or speaks and so raiseth contention without an Adversarie and builds up a Babel without help making a confusion without mixture of Language only by pouring out his own simplicitie ignorance and malice and making no conscience of taking Gods Name in vain quoting Scripture to no other end then to countenance blasphemie or to dazle the eyes of the unlearned whilst he transforms the Nature and Goodness of God into worse similitudes then the Papists or Heathen do One while speaking against Arminians another while unwittingly pleading for them one Page containing a comfortable Use or Application whereas in the next before and after it he hath laid the Doctrinal Foundations of despaire or more then desperate presumption Thus to contradict themselves is so familiar and natural unto them that they cannot endure to be contradicted by any others which in the spirit of meekness would shew them the way how they might maintain all those Conclusions which they so much labour for and that without giving advantage to the Adversaries without dissension or disagreeing from themselves 12. These are the men that must be disclaimed as no true members of the English Church or at least no fit Expositors of her Tenets Otherwise we shall be inforced to grant that our Church participates as well of Babel or Beth-aven as of Bethel I have been the bolder to insist the longer upon This Point because some of good place and Authority in the Church and Common-weale take notice That some unlicensed and scandalous
them ye shall scourge in your Synagogues and persecute them from City to City That upon you may come all the righteous blood that was shee l upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar Verse 36. Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this Generation Or as it is in St. Lukes Narration of our Saviours Comment upon this Story taken by himself or by others who heard him in the very same words wherein he uttered it Therefore also saith the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles some of them they shall or will slay persecute That the blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this Generation from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the Altar and the Temple Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation This vehement reiterated Asseveration literally and punctually referrs unto the words of my Text. The Implication or Importance is as much as if he had said Ye Scribes and Pharisees may call to mind that when your Fore-fathers whose murtherous acts ye acknowledge did slay Zacharias the High-Priest he expired with these words in his mouth Lord look upon it and require it His innocent blood was then in part required upon King Ioash upon the Princes of Judah and other chief offenders But shall now again be required in full and exact measure of this present Generation more murtherous and bloody then their idolatrous fore-fathers at any time were 9. What shall we say then That this last Generation was guilty of the murther of Zachariah or to be plagued for their fathers sins in murthering him This Point will come to be discussed in the Third General And however that may be determined This Case is clear that These later Iews did make up the full measure of their fore-fathers iniquity in killing Gods Prophets especially in murthering Zechariah who was the most illustrious Type of Christ the Son of God in the Manner of his death and for the Occasions which these several Generations took respectively to murther them both The special Occasion which their fore-fathers took to kill Zachariah the Son of Iehoiada or Barachias for he bore both names though both in effect the same or one equivalent to the other was because he taxed them for their idolatry and laboured to bring them again to the worship of the true God The only quarel which the malice of the later Jews could pick against our Lord and Saviour was because he taxed their hellish Hypocrisies which their too Curious Reformation of their fore-fathers Idolatry had bred And taught them how to worship God in spirit and truth not in Ceremonies or meer bodily observance Neither Generation were so blind as to persecute men whom they did acknowledge to be immediately sent from God Yet were both furiously prone to persecute such as indeed were sent from God for pretending or promulging their Commission from God or taking the names of Prophets upon them so often as their doctrine did crosse their practises or violent passions This later Generation of Scribes and Pharisees after they had failed in their Proofs of any Capital matter of Fact or point of doctrine delivered by Christ condemned him for answering affirmatively to this Question proposed Tell us art thou the Son of God or as St. Mark more punctually expresseth it Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed Mark 14. 61. Zechariah as was now said was Christs true Picture for Quality for Office and for the Relation of Names and kindred For Zechariah was a Prophet and a Priest the Son of Iehoida which signifieth as much as The knowledge of God or as our Saviour expresseth the Reality answering to his name The son of Barachias that is The blessed of God And our Saviour was The Son of the only wise God the wisdom of God and The blessed of God the very God of blessing being the Great Prophet of God and high-Priest of our souls Lastly the Princes of Iudah having by glozing flattery perswaded their King to authorize their projects against Zechariah the High-Priest and Prophet of the Lord put them in execution upon the solemn Feast of Attonement or expiation The Scribes and Pharisees equal or Superior to these Lay-Princes in cruelty importuned Pilate by pretended observance and loyal obedience to the Roman Caesar to sacrifice The Son of the Blessed whom they had unjustly condemned unto their malice at that solemn Feast which was prefigured by the Feast of Expiation the Feast instituted in the memory of their deliverance out of Egypt CHAP. XLII MATTH 23. verse 34 35 36 c. Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and Wise men and Scribes and some of them ye shall or will kill and crucifie and some of them shall or will ye scourge in your Synagogues and persecute them from City to City That upon you may come or by which means will come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this Generation 2 Chron. 24. 22. The Lord look upon it and require it Luke 11. 51. Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation THese words were uttered by our blessed Lord and Saviour against the Scribes and Pharisees with their Associates in Blood a little before the Feast of the Passover Whether that Last Passover wherein this Lamb of God prefigured by that Solemn Feast as also by the Death of Abel and his Sacrifice was offered upon the Cross is or may be a Question amongst the learned not at this time to be disputed But rather if occasion serve in the explication of the last verse Verily I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till that ye say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. For gathering the true and full Connexion of this Passage with the former Relations it shall suffice to observe that as our Saviour never spared the Scribes and Pharisees So at this time above others he reproves them most fully and sharply The Matter of this Reproof was their avarice and hypocrisie The End partly to prevent the like desire of vain-glory with other Enormities in his Disciples Partly to cure if it were possible the Scribes and Pharisees of their hereditary disease Hence whereas they most affected Complemental Greetings in publick places or glorious Titles of Rabbies Our Saviour to allay this humour for respectful Salutations presents them Woes instead of glorious Titles he instyles them Hypocrites For striking at seven several Branches of their Hypocrisie he seven times in this Chapter begins his speech in this style Wo
Kiriath-jearim who for prophesying against Hicrusalem was put to death 240. years after Zechariah by Jehoiachim King of Judah and by his Council of State and of Warre and was fetcht back from Egypt whither he had fled for refuge by Elnathan the son of Achbor a great Counsellor of State and other Commissioners for this purpose unto Iehoiachim who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people And this Prophets blood and other indignities done unto him and to his Calling after his death were Required of that Present Generation of the King especially For as Ieremie perhaps taking his hint from this Bloody Fact had foretold so it came to pass that Iehoiachim was cast out of Ierusalem not into the Graves of the Common people but into the Open Fields for he had no other burial then the Burial of the Ass or other like contemptible creature But however the blood perhaps of this Prophet amongst many others was to be further Required of this Present Generation Yet Zacharias was the Last and I think the First of all the Prophets which at the moment of his death did beseech God to Require his blood and to revenge his death And this I take is the true Reason why Our Saviour after he had indicted the Jews of the blood of all the Prophets and righteous men shed from the foundation of the world should instance only in Abel the son of Adam and Zacharias the son of Iehoiada or Barachiah Christs Instance in Abel literally and punctually referres to that Dialogue betwixt God and Cain Gen. 4. 10. The Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy Brother And he said I know not Am my brothers keeper And he said what hast thou done The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth to me from the ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand But did the voyce of Zacharias his blood cry in like manner unto the Lord after his death or sollicit the like Curse or vengeance upon them which shed it or their posteritie as Abels did yes besides the fore-mentioned Imprecation Lord look upon it and Require it which was uttered by him after a great part of his blood and Spirits were spent his blood spake as bad things as that of Abels For so the Iewish Rabbins besides that Cluster of seven deadly sins committed by their fore-fathers at once in the murther of Zacharias mention another Circumstance subsequent not recorded in Scripture or not so plainly as a Christian Reader without their Comment or Tradition would take notice of it which in my Opinion doth better illustrate that passage of Scripture whereon they ground or seek to countenance it then any Christian Commentator hath done Our Fathers say they in shedding Zacharias's blood did not observe the Law of the blood of the Deer or Hart For so it was commanded Levit. 17. 13. Whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that so journ among you which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten he shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust But Zacharias blood though shed in the Temple was not so covered it was apparent To this purpose they allege that of the Prophet Ezekiel chap 24. 6. Wo unto the bloody City Her blood is in the middest of her she set it upon the top of a rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance No question but the Prophets entire purpose was to indict Jerusalem as our Saviour doth in my Text of all the Innocent blood that had been shed before his time within her Territories and withall to note her Impudence in committing such foul sins so openly without care to cover the conspicuous marks of her own shame Yet this no way argues that the Prophets did not point out some Memorable and Prodigious Fact which might serve as an Emblem of her shameless carelessness in all the rest Such Allusions to particulars sufficiently known in their own times are very usual in the Prophets This is the special Reason why their Writings in General are so obscure to us why some of their Metaphors seem harsh or farre fetcht because in truth their speeches in these Cases are not meerly Metaphorical but include Historical References to some famous Accidents present or fresh in memory From the same Cause all antient Satyrists or such as tax the capital vices of their own times are hardly understood by later Ages without the Comments of such as lived with them or not long after them as our Posterity within few years will hardly understand some passages in the Fairie Queen or in Mother Hubbards or other Tales in Chaucer better known at this day to old Courtiers then to young Students It may be these murtherers sayd of Zachariah as their posteritie said of our Saviour His blood be on us and on our Children It is not likely they would be careful to cover it with dust or wipe the stain of it whilest fresh out of the wals or stones of the Temple because they had solemnly forsaken the House of the Lord and made a league to serve Groves and Idols willing perhaps to let the Print of his blood remain to terrifie others from beeing too forward in reproving the King and His Council for their offences against God But whether the marks of it were left on purpose or through mere forgetfulness of this people God in his Providence as the Prophet intimates suffered it so to remain To cause fury to come and to take vengeance For whereas this fact or forgetfulness to cover it was in the words before attributed to Jerusalem Her blood is in the middest of her she set it up on the top of the Rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust The Prophet after intimation of the Cause why it so remained To cause fury c. Immediately adds in the Person of God I have set her blood upon the top of a rock that it should not be covered Of these words no meaning can be rendred more natural then This To wit That God did suffer the print of Zachariah's righteous blood to remain in the Temple as it were to sollicit vengeance for all the rest that had been or should be shed in Jerusalem to crie unto him as Abel's did from the earth which as it seems was not covered certainly the voice of it was not smothered with dust How long the stain of blood especially dashed out of the body by violence will be apparent upon stones or moist wals experience doth not often teach because it is usually covered or wiped off whilest it is fresh Yet some prints of blood have longer remained unless Domestick Traditions be false on stones then the blood it self could have done by course of
present generation in my Text had crucified But so returning unto him by true Repentance he will return unto them in mercie and be as gracious and favourable to the last Generations of this miserable people as he was of old unto the first or best of their Fore-fathers For in this Case especially and in this and the like alone that Saying of our Apostle which some in our dayes most unadvisedly and impertinently mis-apply and confine to their own particular state in Grace or Gods Favour is most true The Gifts of God are without repentance That Lord and God whom they solemnly forsook hath not finally forsaken them but with unspeakable patience and long-suffering still expects their Conversion For which Christians above all others are bound to pray Convert them Good Lord unto the Knowledge and us unto the Practise of that Truth wherewith thou hast elightened our souls that our Prayers for them and for our selves may ever be acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer Amen Amen CHAP. XLIII The Second Sermon upon this Text. MATTH 23. verse 34 35 36. Wherefore Behold I send unto you Prophets and some of them ye will kill c. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth c. Verily I say unto you All these things shall come upon this Generation 2 Chron. 24. 22. And as he was dying he said The Lord look upon it and Require it Luke 11. 51 Verily I say unto you IT that is ver 50. The blood of all the Prophets shed from the Foundation of the world shall be Required of this Generation 1. OF several Queries or Problems emergent out of these words proposed unto this Audience a year ago One and that one of greatest difficultie was How the sins of former Generations can be required of later specially in so great a distance of time as was between the death of Abel and of Zachariah and this last Generation which crucified the Lord of life the Discussion whereof is my present Task In this disquisition you will I hope dispense with me for want of a formal Division or Dichotomie because the Channel through which I am to pass is so narrow and so dangerously beset with Rocks and shelves on the right hand and on the left as there is no possibility for two to go on brest nor any room for Steerage but only Towage One passage in my Disquisition must draw another after it by one and the same direct Line For first if I should chance to say any thing which either Directly or by way of Consequence might probably inferre this Affirmative Conclusion That God doth at any time punish the children for the fathers sins or later generations for the Iniquities of former This were to contradict that Fundamental Truth which the Lord himself hath so often protested by Oath Ezek. 18. 1 2 c. And the word of the Lord came unto me again saying What mean ye that ye use this Proverb concerning the Land of Israel saying the Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the Father so also the soul of the Son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die And again verse the last I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live ye Now to contradict any Branch of these or the like Protestations or Promises would be to make shipwrack of Faith more dangerous then to rush with full sail upon a Rock of Adamant On the other hand if I should affirm any thing either directly or indirectly which might inferre any part of this Negative That God doth not visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children or of former Generations upon later This were to strike upon a shelf no less dangerous then to dash against the former Rock directly to contradict Gods solemn Declaration in the second Commandement of His Proceedings in this Case which are no less just and equal then the former Promise Ezekiel the 18. By this you see the only safe way for passage through the straits proposed must be to find out the middle Line or Mean whether Medium Abnegationis or Participationis or in one word The difference betwixt this Negative God doth not punish the Children for the Fathers sins and the other Affirmative God visiteth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children even unto the third and fourth Generation c. 2. But in the very first setting forth or entry into this narrow Passage some here present perhaps have already discovered a shelf or sand to wit that the passage fore-cited out of the second Commandement doth better reach or fit the Case concerning Josiah his death and the calamity of his people then the present difficultie or Problem now in handling For Josiah was but the third in succession from Manasseh and dyed within fewer years then a Generation in ordinary Construction imports after his wicked Grand-father But if the blood of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada or other Prophets slain in that Age or the Age after him were required of this present Generation God doth visit the sins of Fore-fathers upon the Children after more then three or four after more then five times five Generations according to St. Matthew's account in the Genealogie of our Lord and Saviour Yet this seeming Difficulty to use the Mariners Dialect is rather an Over-fall then a shelf or at the worst but such a shelf or sand as cannot hinder our passage if we sound it by the Line or Plummet of the Sanctuary or number our Fathoms by the scale of sacred Dialect in like Cases For when it is said in the Second Commandement that God doth visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him This is Numerus certus proincerto aut indefinito an expression or speech equivalent to that of the Prophet Amos. For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishments thereof For three transgressions of Tyrus and for four for three transgressions of Ammon and for four c. Throughout almost every third verse of the first Chapter and some part of the Second The Prophets meaning is that all the Kingdoms or several Sovereignties there mentioned by him especially Judah and Israel should certainly be punished not for three or four only but for the multitude of their continual transgressions and many of them transgressions of a high and dangerous nature Both speeches as well that in Amos as in the Second Commandement reverently to compare magna parvis are like to that of the Poet O terque quaterque beati that is most happy So that unto the third and fourth generation may imply more then seven
ignorant of his Call that had often redeemed them from their enemies How often would I have gathered you and you would not Here were large matter for Rhetorical Digressions or mellifluous Encomions of Divine Love Points wherein many Learned Divines have in later times been very copious yet still leaving the truth of that Love which they so magnifie very questionable It shall suffice me at this time First To prove the undoubted truth and unfeignednesse of Gods tender Love even towards such Cast-awayes as these proved to whom he made this protestation Secondly To unfold as far as is fitting for us to inquire how it is possible that they should not be gathered unto God nor saved by Christ whose gathering and whose safety he to whom nothing can be impossible had so earnestly so tenderly and constantly longed after These are Points of such Use and Consequence that if God shall enable me soundly though plainly to unfold their truth you will I hope dispense with me for want of artificial Exornations or words more choice then such as naturally spring out of the matters handled as willingly as the poor amongst you pardon good house-keepers for wearing nothing but home-spun cloth For as it is hard for a man of ordinary means to bestow much on his own back and feed many bellies so neither is it easie for me and my present opportunities both to feed your souls with the Truth and to cloath my Discourse with choice words and flourishing phrases And I am perswaded many Preachers might in this Argument often prove more Theological so they could be content to be lesse Rhetorical My purpose is not to dissent from any of the Reformed Churches but only in those particulars wherein they evidently dissent from themselves and from General Principles of Truth acknowledged by all that believe God or his Word 3. Were I to speak in some Audience of this Point it would be needful to dip my pen in Nectar or sweeten my voice with Ambrosia to allay the harshnesse of this Position That God should so earnestly desire the conversion of such as perish Howbeit the surest Grounds of that Charitie which God requires should be in every one of us towards all our greatest enemies not excepted is Firm Belief of this his unspeakable Love towards all even towards such as kill his Prophets and stone the Messengers of their peace I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2. 1. that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authoritie Yet did most such in those dayes oppress Christians and draw them before Judgement Seats James 2. 6. even because they did pray unto the true God for them who did blaspheme that worthy Name c. This Dutie notwithstanding which was so odious unto those great and rich men for whose good it was performed S. Paul tells us was good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2. 3. Why acceptable in his sight Because v. 4. he would have all men and therefore the sworn enemies of the Gospel to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the truth which they now oppugned Or if the expresse Authoritie of the Apostle suffice not his Reasons drawn from the Principles of Nature will perswade such as have not quenched the Light of Nature by setting not the corruptions only but the very Essence of Nature at odds with Grace For v. 5. there is one God had there beene moe every one might have been conceived as partial for his own Creatures But in as much as all of us have but one Father his love to every one must needs be greater then any earthly Parents love unto their children in as much as we are more truly His then Children are their Parents But here as the Apostle foreseeth might be Replyed That albeit God be One and the onely Creator of all yet in as much as all of us are the Seed of Rebels with whom he is displeased our Mediator might be more partial and commend some to Gods love neglecting others To prevent this Scruple the Apostle adds ver 5. that as there is but One God so there is but One Mediator between God and Man and he of the same Nature with us A Man But men are partial yet so is not the Man Christ Jesus that is The Man annointed by the Holy Ghost to be the Saviour of the world As he truly took our flesh upon him that he might be a faithful and affectionate High Priest so that we might conceive of him as of an unpartial Solicitor or Mediator betwixt God and us he took not our Nature enstampt with any Individual Properties Characters or References to any one Tribe or Kindred Father according to the flesh he had none but was framed by the sole immediate hand of God to the end that as the eye because it hath no set colour is apt to receive the impression of every colour So Christ because he had not those carnal References which others have but was without father without brother without sister on earth might be unpartial towards all and account every one that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven as sister mother and brother Thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and chuse the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a Name better then of sons and of daughters I will give them an everlasting Name that shall not be cut off Briefly he is A Brother to all mankind more loving and more affectionate then brothers of intire blood are one towards another 4. The very Ground of the Apostles Reason thus barred will of its owne accord reverberate that distinction which hath been laid against his meaning by some otherwise most worthy defendants of the truth The Distinction is that when the Apostle saith God will have all men to be saved he means Genera singulorum not singula generum Some few of all sorts not all of every sort Some rich some poor some learned some unlearned some Jewes some Gentiles some Italians some English c. The Illustrations which they bring to justifie this manner of speech did the time permit I could retort upon themselves and make them speak more plainly for my Opinion then for theirs It shall be sufficient by the way to note the Impertinencie of the Application supposing the Instances brought by them were justifiable by the Illustrations which they bring Or to shew how little it could weaken Our Assertion although it might intercept all the strength or aid this Place affords for the Fortification of it For what can it help them to turn these words because they make towards us from their ordinary and usual meaning or to restrain Gods Love only unto such as are saved when as the Current of it in
the Son of God more then other men are some in our dayes have taught That Christ did not only suffer all for them but as for them in particular all others being not such as they deemed themselves to be that is not truly Elect being excluded from the Benefit of his sufferings This is the best Use and most Charitable construction that can be made of so unuseful and uncharitable a Doctrine Though to gather any good Use from it is as impossible as to reap Figgs of Thistles Howbeit as well as they who hold That Christ died for the Elect only as they which teach That he dyed for all must beware lest they mis-apply That Rule of Seneca's touching ordinarie benefits or Common courtesies unto that Extraordinarie loving kindnesse of Christs sufferings Quod debeo cum multis solvam cum multis That which I owe amongst others I will not pay alone His meaning is That for Common benefits he is only bound to pay his share or portion Far be it from any one that nameth the Name of the Lord Jesus to reason thus in his heart or secret thoughts Christ died for the many hundreds of thousands now living and for the more hundreds of ten thousands late or long since dead as well as for me therefore I owe him love and thankfulnesse but pro ratà suppose the exact number was certainly known I am but to acknowledge such a part of his sufferings to have been undertaken for me as I am of that great multitude Every humane soul is indebted to Christ for the whole not every single man for his part of mans Redemption That which St. Bernard speaks in a Case not altogether the same is most true of the Benefits of Christs sufferings Nec in multitudinem divisa sunt nec ad paucitatem restricta If Gods love to mankind be infinite and if the value of Christs blood or sufferings be truly infinite as they truly be they cannot be divided amongst many much lesse can they be restrained to some few both these being against the nature of Infinitie And if the value of Christs sufferings cannot be divided into parts Everie one must acknowledge that He paid an infinite price for his Redemption in particular A price lesse then infinite could not have Redeemed any one of us and a price more then infinite could not be given for all If Christ became a second Adam to die and suffer for redeeming man he dyed and suffered for all men for every man albeit the number of men which proceed from the first Adam could be infinite Had it been the Will or Purpose of the Son of God to have taken upon him the Form of a Servant immediately upon the First Woman's sin of Disobedience his sufferings for her could not have sufficed unlesse they had been of value infinite And being of value infinite for her they had been of the same value for everie living Soul that issued from her to the Worlds end If then the price he laid down for thee were infinite that is without measure or Bounds thy Love and thankfulnesse to Him must be without Stint or limit Though He died for others as well as thee yet art thou bound to love Him no lesse then if he had died for thee alone Thus must Thou think of Christ's Death and Passion if thou remember it aright And as often as thou Readest Hearest or makest Confession with thy Lips That Christ's Blood was shed for thee make this Comment or Paraphrase in thine heart He shed his whole Blood for me every drop that fell from Him either in the Garden or on the Crosse or elsewhere was poured out for my sake for me in particular Yea every one which hears of Christ is bound to believe that he dyed for him and as for him that the benefit of his Passion redounds et mihi et tanquam mihi and charitie if it spring from Faith will teach us to exclude none from Title to the benefits of Christs Death and sufferings 14. This Doctrine of Christ's Dying for All of His purpose to dissolve the works of Satan in all I am bold to professe in every place where Christ's Name is called upon in every place where I have or may have oportunitie to make Christ known The bolder because it sets forth not only the Love and Mercie but the Justice of God a great deal more then the contrarie Doctrine can do It makes mans sinfulnesse and unthankfulnesse appear much greater then by the contrarie Doctrine can be apprehended or acknowledged Besides it makes our Ministrie of preaching more useful then otherwise it could be For if we grant That Christ dyed only for the Elect we might acquit our selves with safetie of Conscience from the burden of preaching or Catechizing save only in those Congregations which we know to be of the number of the Elect or men alreadie regenerate Howbeit even in respect of Them our preaching could not be so useful as it would be harmful to others We could but testifie that to the Elect which they already know that is that they shall be saved But if once we teach that the Elect only or some few perhaps one of a Thousand not one of five hundred have any interest in Christs sufferings every man which is not as yet regenerate nor in the state of Election would forthwith conclude that it is a thousand to One more then five hundred to One that he can receive no benefit from Christs sufferings having no interest in the everlasting inheritance purchased by them And were it not much better to be silenced then by our preaching to put such stumbling-blocks in their wayes whom we are sent to call unto Christ For we are not sent to call the righteous or men alreadie regenerate but sinners to repentance to the state of regeneration How true soever in the Event it may prove That but a Few shall be saved in respect of them that perish though the most part of men do die in their sins yet their blood shall be required at their hands who have taught that they could not be saved that Christ did not die did not suffer for them But if we teach as God in his Word hath taught us That Christ Dyed and suffered for all men no man can doubt whether Christ dyed for him or no and not doubting that Christ dyed for him he need not Dispair of Salvation by him we leave him without excuse for not repenting and seeking Christ Again This same Doctrine sets forth the Glorie of God much more then the other can For albeit Gods mercies unto One man be truly infinite or rather infinite in themselves yet if according to this infinitie they be extended unto all they are extensively much greater If God had created only these inferior Elements and man their creation would necessarily infer the infinitie of his power for without infinite power nothing could have been made of Nothing but yet his praise or glorie would
not have appear'd so great in the creation of Earth and Water as it doth in the creation not of them only but of the whole heavens with all their Hosts and furniture The more Gods creatures be the greater be his praises for this Tribute he ought to receive from all of them for their verie Being In like manner though the Redemption of one or some few men do truly argue the value of his sufferings to be truly infinite yet the more they be for whom he dyed the more is his glorie the greater is his praise For all are bound joyntly and severally to laud and magnifie his Name for the infinite price of their Redemption 15. Lastly This Doctrine is so necessarie for manifesting the just measure of their unthankfulnesse which perish that without This we cannot take so much as a true Surface of it not so much as the least Dimension of Sin Some there be which tell us that we had power in Adam to Glorifie God but that finning in Adam our sin is infinite because against an infinite Majestie For so it is that the greater the Partie is whom we offend the greater always the offence is And thus by degrees they gather that everie sin against the infinite Majestie of God deserveth infinitie of Punishment But albeit the degrees of Sin which accrue from the degrees of Dignitie in the person whom we offend be successively infinite yet because these Degrees are indeterminate every man which hath any skill at all in Arguments of Proportion must needs know that it is impossible for the wit or art of man to find out the true Product of such Calculatorie Inductions or to conjecture unto what set measure of ingratitude these infinite degrees will amount It is not the ten-hundreth-thousandth part of any Sin that can be truly notifyed unto us by inferences of this kind How then shall we take the true measure of our Sinnes or the full Dimension of our unthankfulnesse From the Great Goodnesse of God in our Creation and the unmeasurable Love of Christ in our Redemption If God in our Creation as the Psalmist saies did make us but litle lower then the Glorious Angels that the might afterward crown us with Glorie everlasting if when through the First mans follie we had lost that Honour he made his Onely Son for a litle while for 33. yeares space lower then the Angels that he might exalt Him above all Principalitie and Power and in Him recrown us with Honour and Glorie aequal to the Angels Their Sin is truly infinite their unthankfulnesse is unexpressible and justly deserveth punishment everlasting who voluntarily and continually despise so great Salvation which by Christ was purchased for them No Torment can be too great no anguish too Durable because no Happiness could be in any degree comparable much lesse equal to that which they refused though treasured up for them in that inexhaustible fountain of happinesse Christ Jesus our Lord our God and our Redeemer To conclude this meditation It is a thing most seriously to be considered That though Gods mercies in Christ can never be magnified too much yet may they be apprehended amisse And that as it is most Dangerous to sink in Deep waters wherein it is the easiest to Swim so the more infinite Gods mercies towards us are the more deadly sin it is to Dallie with them or to take incouragement by the Contemplation of them to continue in Sin The contemplation of their infinitie is then most seasonable when we are touched with a feeling of the infinitenesse of our sins In that case we can not look upon them but we shall be desirous to be partakers of them and that upon such Termes as God offers them the forsaking of all our sinnes Pro. 28. 13. 16. But is this all that thou art to remember when thou art by Spirituall eating and drinking Christs flesh and blood a preparing thy self for Sacramental and Spiritual receiving him together in The Lords Supper is it enough to acknowledge that he payd as great a Ransom for thee as he did for all Mankind in general No! This is but the first part of thy Redemption and this first part of thy redemption was intirely and alsufficiently and most effectually wrought for thee before any part of thy bodie was framed before thy Soul was created it was then wrought for thee without any endeavour or wish of thine No more was required at thy hands for this work then was required of thee for thy creation But there is A second part of thy Redemption of which that saying of A Father is true Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te He that made thee without any work or endeavour of thine will not save wil not Redeem thee without some endeavour at least on thy part What then is the second part of the Redemption which wee expect that Christ should yet work in us and for us or what is the endeavour on our parts required that he should work it in us and for us The second part of our Redemption which is yet in most of us to be accomplished is The Mortification of our Bodies the diminishing the Reign of sin in them in a word our Sanctification or Ratification of our Election These are wholly Christ's workes the sole works of God for it is He that works in us both the will and the Deed and yet are we commanded to work out our own Salvation to make our Election sure But how shall we do this which is wholly Gods work or what are we to do that these works may be wrought in us Besides the renewing of the Astipulation or answer of a Pure Conscience and Resumption of our BAPTISMAL VOW heretofore mentioned we are to humble our selves mightily before the Lord by a meek acknowledgement of our vilenesse and sincere confession of our sinnes And if we so humble our selves Hee that giveth Grace to the humble will lift us up if we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse not only to remit and cover our iniquities but to purifie our hearts and renew our spirits and mindes that they shall bring forth fruits unto holinesse We are to call upon God by the prayer of faith and perseverance Turn thou us Good Lord and so shall we be turned Speak but Thou the word and Thy Servants shall be whole 17. Thus we may esteem of Christs love to us and yet not examin or judge our selves as wee ought before we eat This Bread and Drink this Cup. To examin and judge our selves aright requires these Two meditations or Two parts of one and the same meditation First How farre wee are guilty of Christ's Death by our Sinnes But this falles under the former Meditation That Christ Dyed for us all not onely all joyntly considered but for everie one in particular or as alone considered and if