Testament is made There is no Mediatour besides him Mediatour quasi medius dator Of the New Testament which is farre different from the Old Covenant or Testament for it consisteth on better promises Hebrewes 8. ver 6. By the meanes of death that death being or comming betweene for the redeeming of us from the punishments due to the transgressions and the price wherewith he redeemed us from them was his owne bloud If CHRIST his death doth redeeme us from all transgressions then there needs no sacrifices for sin after his death Yes say the Iesuites one to be a representation of that on the Crosse. I but you say that the sacrifice of the Masse and that on the Crosse are all one in substance differing only in the forme and manner Now if Christ be really present in the Masse how can the Masse bee a representation of him And that manner is opposite to the Scriptures for the Scripture sayes he is only offered up with bloud Your unbloudy sacrifice is no sacrifice In the former covenant whereas we for our part were not able to performe that which belonged to us GOD performed his part but we could not doe ours It is unseasonable here to dispute whether CHRIST delivered them that lived in the time of the Law for by the Old Testament is meant the Old Covenant not the time of the Old Testament Therefore it is opposed to the New Testament In the Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were for the sins of them that were under the Old Testament That they which are called namely effectually as well internally by the spirit as externally by the word 1 Cor. 1.2 24. Rom. 8.30 Not only heare it but receive it namely by faith The promise The full fruition whereof they should receive hereafter in the meane season the Holy Ghost is as a Seale and earnest penny of it Ephes. 1.13 2 Cor. 1.22 It is not a thing merited by our workes but a gracious inheritance promised to us CHRIST is the right and principall heire Hebr. 1.2 we are secondary heyres with him and by him Rom. 8.17 Not a fading inheritance as these be but that lasteth for ever CHRIST is the sole Mediatour 1 Tim. 2.5 Ioh. 16.23 Apoc. 8.3 Let us not cry with those Idolaters ô Baal heare us but aske the Father in his Sons name and say ô CHRIST heare us Who prevailes more with the King then the Kings Son Let us not leave the Sonne and goe to servants There is a double calling the one externall alone by the outward sound of the word the other externall and internall too not by the Trumpet of the Word alone ringing in the eare but by the voice of the Spirit also perswading the heart and moving us to goe to Christ. Of this calling spake our SAVIOUR CHRIST no man commeth to me except the Father draw him namely by his spirit as well as by his word Iudas was called hee was not a professour alone but a Preacher of the Gospell Simon Magus was called he believed and was baptized Herod was called he heard Iohn Baptist sweetely and did many things that he willed him Sundry at this day come to Church heare Sermons talke of Religion that doe not answere Gods call Therefore let us entreat the Lord to call us effectually by his blessed Spirit out of our sinnes to holinesse and newnesse of life If wee be thus called we shall receive the eternall inheritance which CHRIST hath purchased for us Let us be suiters to God that he would make us partakers of this calling that makes an alteration of us 1 Cor. 6.9 11. If wee were Idolaters as Manasseh to call us out of our superstition and idolatry if persecutors as Paul to call us out of our persecuting if wee are Adulterers as David to call us out of our uncleannesse if drunkards out of our drunkennes if covetous oppressours as Zacheus was to call us out of our oppression and make us new Creatures in Christ Iesus It is not a purchase bought with the money of our owne merits but an inheritance bequeathed to us by the last Will and Testament of our Saviour Christ Luk. 22.29 and I appoint unto you a kingdome as my father hath appointed unto me The inheritances that bee in the world seeme faire and glorious it is a goodly thing to have the inheritance of a great Gentleman of a Knight Lord Earle Duke but a Kings inheritance surpasseth all yet these are but strawes to this inheritance These inheritances may bee taken from us while wee bee here Mephibosheth's lands were given away to Tsibah and Naboth lost his Vineyard though it was the inheritance of his fathers When Death comes then we must forgoe all houses and lands all that our fathers left us But this inheritance is eternall wee can never be deprived of it we shall enjoy it world without end Therefore let us seeke to have an assurance of this inheritance in our hearts and consciences If a man be sure to be a Lords heyre though hee is in misery yet he will endure it we are sure to have an eternall inheritance by Christ let us therefore abide patiently the miseries of this short life VERSE 16. THere must needs be carryed as a true and an infallible report it must be sure and certaine that the Testatour is dead Where 1. The axiome 2. The proofe or illustration of it Verse 17. Here wee see it was necessary CHRIST should dye Ought not CHRIST to suffer these things and to enter into his glory Luk. 24 26. why not because the Devill would have it to be so not that the rage and fury of the Pharises should bee satisfied not because Iudas would but because God the Father in singular love to mankinde had so ordained in his eternall counsell and because Christ was willing to dye for us Can mankinde bee saved no otherwise but by my death then here am I take me I will dye for them ô the wonderfull love of Christ Here the Testatour would live still if he might and then the legataries should never have their legacies our testatour might have lived still if he would being the Lord of life yet that we might have our legacy hee would dye ô unspeakable love Let it bee imprinted on our hearts that it may constraine us to leave all sins VERSE 17. NOw followes the proofe or illustration of the axiom A Testament is thus defined by Vlpianus Est declaratio voluntatis nostrae de eo quod fieri volumus post mortem Is of force Is firme After the Testatour is dead both because hee may alter it at his pleasure and the goods remaine all still in the Testatours hands it is testamentum ambulatorium usque ad mortem The Testament of our SAVIOUR CHRIST is a good Testament It is partly nuncupativum as it was pronounced by himselfe when hee was alive partly Scriptum as it was after committed to
they that thought most highly of him tooke him to be but some admirable Prophet like Moses or an Angell in the shape of man Therefore here he shewes him to be above the Angels Where 1. A proposition comprehending in it the excellency of CHRIST above the Angels 2. A confirmation of it by diverse strong and invincible arguments 1. CHRIST is the Sonne of God So are not the Angels 2. The Angels worship CHRIST therefore hee is their superiour 3. The Angels are Ministers and servants Christ is the Lord to whom they minister 4. CHRIST is an everlasting King So are not the Angels 5. CHRIST made heaven an earth So did not the Angels 6. CHRIST sits as an equall at the right hand of GOD whereas the Angels are ministring spirits and stand round about his throne therefore it must needs bee confessed that Christ hath a chaire of dignity above the Angels and for that cause is the high and eternall God and is become by vertue of his Deity being from all eternity with the Father better than the Angels by many degrees they are not worthy to be named with him the same day A more surpassing name above them .i. greater honour and dignity then they Phi. 2.9 Eph. 1.21 he hath given him a name .i. A prerogative and priviledge this name came to him jure haereditario by descent as it doth to the Sonne from the Father CHRIST is exalted into a chaire of dignity above the Angels This is a singular comfort to the Church The Angels are great mighty puissant and glorious creatures wee men cannot endure the presence of an Angell many of the Saints have fainted for feare at the sight of Angels yet our Saviour Christ that hath dyed for us our elder brother the Lord protectour of his Church and Children is farre more excellent than the Angels If he be above the good Angels then above the bad therefore let us not feare all the Devils in hell Christ our captaine is above them and able to trample them under his feet VERSE 5. I But how proves he this that Christ is more excellent then the Angels 1. By a relation betweene GOD and him which agreeth not to the Angels He brings it in by the way of an interrogation after the manner of Rhetoritians That CHRIST is the Sonne of GOD hee doth not prove by his preaching which made some to confesse it never man spake as this man doth not by his miracles the stilling of the Sea and Windes which made some come and worship him not by his resurrection ascension and sending of the Holy Ghost from heaven the Iewes would have cavilled at these but he proveth it by two places of Scripture What Sonne The naturall Sonne of GOD begotten of Gods essence the Angels are made by God but not begotten of God as Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discretivè thou alone whereby he distinguishes him from other Sonnes The Angels Iob 1.6 The Magistrates Psalme 82.6 are called the Sonnes of God in regard of the Majestie of that rule and dominion which they exercise in the name of God whose sons they are in respect of their office but they not begotten of the essence of GOD as Christ is God begetteth us by the word of truth but that is mediately hee begat Christ immediately of himselfe To day some referre it to the Virgins Wombe to day i. When thou wast conceived begotten and borne of the Virgin Athanas. and Cyril others interpret it de hodie quodam infinito To day .i. from all eternity in such a day as lasteth for ever Hebr. 13.8 So Augustine To day In this cleere light of the Gospell I have manifested thee to be my begotten Son Matth. 3.17 So the word hodiè is used Hebr. 3.13 as he was begotten of the Father from all eternity so hee was begotten by him anew againe in the mindes and hearts of men when he was revealed to them by the preaching of the Gospell after Christ his resurrection and ascension into heaven Rom. 1.4 This first text of Scripture the Rabbins themselves expound of Christ 2 Sam. 7.14 No doubt but that was spoken of Salomon that was to build a Temple unto God Many things are peculiar to him as the words immediately following yet Salomon was a type of Christ which is our true pacificus who built a more glorious temple to God which was the Church And some things there be in that prophesie which cannot be applyed to Salomon but to Christ as Verse 12. the seed that shall proceed out of thy body Salomon was come out of Davids loynes already CHRIST was to come of him which is called the seed of David and the Sonne of David 2. Verse 13. Salomons kingdome was not established for ever 11. Tribes were rent from his Sonne By Christ we also are made the Sonnes of God and God is our Father I goe to my God and your God to my father and your father We are all the Sonnes of God by faith in Christ Iesus the Spirit cryeth in our hearts that is makes us to cry Abba Father 1 What an honour is this Seest thou a man that beleeves in Christ though never so poore a man he is a Kings Son the Son of the King of Kings and Prince of Princes 2 As Christ hath made us the Sons of God so let us live like the Sons of God If I be your Father where is my honour will a child play the wag in his fathers sight he will reverence his Father more then so we are continually in the sight of our heavenly Father He compasseth our pathes round about not a thought in our hearts but he searches it out therefore let us feare Him let us commit no sin in any secret closet because our father seeth us Potiphers Wife picked out a time when no man was in the house then shee sayd to Ioseph come lye with me I pray thee here is no man to looke on us I but our Father is in the house therefore let us not sin because of him let this bee a bridle to restraine us from all Sin VERSE 6. ANd when againe hee bringeth in the Prophet or rather God the Father a trajection of the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if it had beene said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather no trajection For once He brought him into the world in the Verse going before when at His exhibition in the flesh Hee manifested it to the world that Hee was His onely begotten Sonne as Matth. 3 17. chap. 17 5 27 54. He brought Him in first when Hee sent Him to take flesh of the Virgin 2. When after His Ascension Hee manifested Him to the world by the propagation of the Gospell over all the earth therefore when Hee sends Him at the day of judgement to judge the World He brought Him into the World to take possession of it as His owne house Chrys. He is the first begotten Sonne of Blessed Mary in respect of His
off-spring of man what a vile and contemptible thing of no worth of no value In respect of his originall he is dust for the course of his life on the face of the earth he is subject to all griefes sorrowes sicknesses diseases a continuall sinner against thee for his end he is wormes-meat That thou once mindest him that thou hast such a fatherly care over him that thou carriest him in thy remembrance that thou hast written him in thy Table-bookes and art mindfull continually to doe him good Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Iovi said the Poet. Visitest him There is Visitatio irae gratiae not in judgement but in mercy as appeareth by that which followeth as a Physitian his Patient or a Father his Son Elizabeth wondred that the Virgin Mary should visit her Whence commeth this to me that the Mother of my Lord c. Much more may we admire this visitation that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords should visit us Forsomuch as this Psalme is applyed to the Messiah by our Saviour Christ Mat. 21.16 and by Paul 1 Cor. 15.27 the Author of this Epistle doth directly apply it to him in the words following Sundry learned and godly men apply it first and principally to our Saviour Christ but I see not how that can be shall wee say of CHRIST What is he that God should be mindfull of him his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased that never did any thing amisse that never transgressed his Commandement though hee bee a man as wee are yet hee is an unspotted man separate from sinners higher than the heavens as hee is man so he is GOD too and shall we say of him What is he that God should visit him Sundry things in this Psalme must needs be applied to him but not the whole Psalme It is not so in any Psalme First it is understood of the type then of him that is figured by the type What is man He doth not speake of man in his first creation he retained that estate but a while therefore he would rather have deplored than admired it He doth not speak of man as he is after his fall for in that respect he is most miserable not glorious therefore he must needs speake of man as he is ingraffed into Christ by whom he is advanced to wonderfull and unspeakable glory What is man Not onely considered in his first creation but even in his renovation what is the best man that ever was What is Abraham Isaac and Iacob What is Moses David Peter Paul What is the holiest man on the face of the earth that God should have any respect to him by creation indeed he is the workemanship of God the image of God Almighty yet for all that in respect of his originall he was taken out of the ground he is but a peece of earth since the fall he is a masse of sin though he be regenerate and by faith ingraffed into Christ yet still he hath sin in him and must dye Therefore what is this man that thou shouldest powre downe so many blessings on him That the Sun Moone and Stars should give him light That the birds of the Ayre fishes of the Sea the beasts of the field should be his meat That he should walke as a King on the earth especially that thou shouldest send thy only Son to dye for him make him a member of his body and provide an everlasting kingdome for him in the life to come What is vile wretched sinfull corrupted man that thou shouldest be so farre mindfull of him Protect him with the shield of thy fauours from all dangers That thou shouldest vouchsafe him thy word and Sacraments That thou shouldest give him thy holy Spirit to helpe him to pray and to comfort him in all miseries We should not be like the Peacock spreading forth our golden feathers and say within our selves what goodly men be we wee ought to thinke basely of our selves what are we that God should regard us What am I and my Fathers house said that regall Prophet that thou hast brought me hitherto What are we miserable wretches wormes meat that God Almighty should doe any thing for us we are lesse than the least of all his mercies Yet we are wont to vaunt of our selves doe ye not know who I am Doest thou not consider to whom thou speakest yes very well I speake to dust and ashes Let no high conceit of our selves enter into our minds let us thinke basely of our selves What am I O Lord that thou shouldest give me the least thing in the world A drop of drinke a crust of bread an hole to hide my head in especially that thou shouldest give me thine only Son and together with him all things that be good What is any man in the world Art thou a rich man God can puffe away thy riches and make thee poore Art thou a wise man God can take away thy senses and make thee a foole art thou a beautifull man God can send the pox and many diseases to take away thy beauty art thou a strong man God can send sicknes and make thee weak art thou a Gentleman a Knight a Lord yet thy breath is in Gods hand This night he can take away thy soule from thee and what art thou then therefore let us all have an humble opinion of our selves let us cast downe our selves at Gods feet and say What are we O Lord that thou art mindfull of us that thou so graciously visitest us especially with thy everlasting mercies in Christ Iesus VERSE 7. MAclohim Some interpret it then God as Hierome Bucer But the seventy Interpreters translate it Angels so doth the Chalde Paraphrase and the word in Scripture is most commonly applied to them The Angels are glorious creatures and when we speake of an excellent man we call him an Angell 1 Sam. 29.9 2 Sam. 14.20 Acts 6.15 There is not much ods betweene the Angels and us they are immortall wholly we immortall in part they have no sin because they never fell we that are ingrafted into Christ have sin within us yet it is covered with the garment of Christs righteousnesse so that it is not imputed to us They have a rule and dominion under GOD in the world whereupon they are called principalities powers thrones dominations and wee have a rule in the world too all things through CHRIST being subjected to us they are in heaven and behold the face of God So wee one day shall be in heaven and like the Angels they are endewed with wisedome knowledge and understanding So are we though we come short of them by many a mile they are our brethren and fellow servants in sundry things there is not much difference betweene them and us We are but a little inferiour to them we have massie heavy sinfull corruptible bodies So have not they They tooke to them true bodies for a time but those bodies were no essentiall parts of
and it is good for Preachers to draw their matter into a summe We have such a worthie High Priest as all the High-Priests in the Law were not worthy to be named with him the same day Then he comes to shew his magnificence Hee doth not say standeth as a Lord Earle Duke may stand by a King bare-headed but sitteth Indeed Act. 7.5 6. he is said to be standing on the right hand of God but then he is seene standing as ready to pull Stephen out of the jawes of his enemies He doth not sit at his foot-stoole but at his hand not at his left hand but on the right hand God the Father as Prince and Potentate sitteth on his throne and Christ sitteth by him Of that Majestie which excelleth the Majesty of all the Kings in the world either Majesty is put for Majesticall Prince to whom is due Majesty Iude 25. or it may be an Hebraisme the throne of the Majesty for a majesticall throne Not in earth but in heaven In the heavens where there bee many mansions and in them hee prepareth a place for us The High-Priests in the time of the Law sate in Moses chaire heere upon the earth but our High-Priest sitteth in Gods chaire in heaven and thinkes it no robbery to bee equall with God In this respect he is not only higher than all the Priests in the Law but higher than the Angels Here hee sitteth as a ruler for the welfare of his Church From hence it cannot be gathered that Christ's body is every where because Gods right hand is every where for this his sitting is restrained to a place namely to heaven Stephen saw him in heaven Acts 7.55 Love is an excellent vertue because it is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole Law The Lords prayer carries away the bell from all prayers because that is the summe of all the prayers that can be made by all men in the world Here we have the summe of this large and famous epistle Therefore let it be reverently regarded and diligently marked by us all This may bee a singular comfort to us that wee have such a mightie High-Priest as hath all power in heaven and earth The High-Priests here on the earth were controlled by Kings and Princes Salomon deposed Abiathar and Saul put Abimelech to death but this our High-Priest is above all the Kings and Princes in the world they must all cast downe their Scepters at his feete hee can take the breath out of their nostrils when hee pleases In what an happy ease are we that have such a LORD protectour of the Church He may suffer us to be tryed as gold in the furnace of affliction but he will not suffer us to perish at the length he will deliver us out of the hands of all our enemies only let us have a care so neere as we can not to displease this our high-Priest As the people were obedient to the high-Priest in the time of the Law So let us be to our high-Priest in the time of the Gospell kisse the Sonne least he be angry and yee perish from the way All Papists kisse the Popes feete yea Kings Princes and Emperours But let us all from the highest to the lowest in meekenesse and humility kisse this our high-Priest that sitteth at the right hand of the throne of the Majestie in the heavens and he will defend us from all enemies whatsoever VERSE 2. THe second argument Those high-Priests were Ministers of an earthly Sanctuary this of an heavenly Ergo more glorious than they Of the Sanctuary The Greeke is Ambiguous of the masculine or neuter gender Some interpret it Minister of the Saints So indeed he is not the Angels alone but Christ Himselfe is our Minister O unspeakable honour Rather as the word is taken in this Epistle of the Holies that is of the Sanctuary the Holy of Holies Hebr. 9.12 and 24. The place where he Ministers is Heaven there he appeares in the sight of God for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publicus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui facit opus publicum So are the Angels Hebr. 1.14 the Magistrate Rom. 13.4 The third argument hee that hath the more worthy Sacrifice is the more worthy Priest Christ's sacrifice is more worthy Ergo. This sacrifice is set forth to us 1. Figuratively 2. Properly Figuratively it is resembled to a Tabernacle Some by Tabernacle understand heaven too as well as the Sanctuary but rather by it is meant the body of our Saviour Christ. 1. It is not like that in so few words he would use a tautology 2. The Tabernacle was for the Priests not for the High-Priests 3. The reason following Verse 3. doth evince that by the Tabernacle is signified the body of Christ wherewith hee did sacrifice It is an usuall thing to resemble the body to a Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 2. 2 Pet. 1.13 14. As a man dwelleth in an house or Tabernacle So doth the soule in the body And as God dwelt in the Tabernacle among the Iewes so doth the deity dwell in the humanity of Christ therefore it hath the name of a Tabernacle This similitude is fitly introduced by the Apostle As the high-Priest by the Tabernacle went into the Sanctum Sanctorum so Christ by his body offered on the Crosse went into heaven Hebr. 9.11 Hence it is that Christ's body is compared to a Temple Ioh. 2.21 to a vaile Heb. 10.20 This Tabernacle is illustrated by an adjunct and the efficient cause The other was but a counterfeit to this True is not opposed to false that was not a forged Tabernacle it was of Gods institution and made by his direction But it is called the true Tabernacle as Christ may be called the true David Salomon Melchizedec the true Manna that came from heaven Iohn 6.32 And as the picture of a man is nothing to the man himselfe So that Tabernacle was but a picture of this this is the true Tabernacle indeed The shadow of the Sun in the water is not the Sunne that is the true Sun that is in the firmament so that was but a shadow of this Tabernacle this is the true Tabernacle 2. It is illustrated by the efficient cause Moses Aholiab Bezaleel and other artificers pight that Tabernacle which were mortall men though they did it by Gods appointment this Tabernacle was framed immediately by God Himselfe the body of our Saviour Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost The name of a Minister is no base name seeing Christ being now in heaven doth not thinke scorne of it He was a Minister of the circumcision when he lived on the earth and he is a Minister of the Sanctuary now in heaven Therefore let none have a base opinion of the name and office of the Ministers Christ is the head Minister and we inferiour Ministers under him therefore let us be reverently regarded for his sake There by presenting of his owne sacred body
better of it to be coupled in the same yoke with him 1. He tells them what they are not Wee are not of the withdrawing Either the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be supplyed after the manner of the Grecians or the noune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the custome of the Hebrewes we are not the Children of the withdrawing to the destruction of our soules but we are the Children of faith to the conservation of our soules in this Sea of miseries wherein we are tossed 1. Here wee learne that when the Preacher hath occasion to terrifie the wicked hee must comfort the godly least they take it to themselves and bee discouraged So Hebr. 6.9 1 Thes. 5.4 2 Thes. 2.13 Many weake consciences are soone cast downe and ready to apply that to them which the Preacher never meant of them therefore we must use this wise and heavenly discretion that the Apostle doth 2. Here we see that good Christians must be no withdrawers of themselves Wee must withdraw our selves from the wicked come out come out my people from the middest of them We must not withdraw our selves from the Church of God because of some pretended spots in her as the sectaries doe but we must withdraw our selves from Gods enemies There is a time also when we must withdraw our selves from the company of our friends into our secret chambers and pray to God as Daniel did But in the time of persecution we must not withdraw our selves through infidelity and run out of the field wherein God hath set us We may read of some with-drawers Ioh. 6.66 Demas was a withdrawer so was Iulian the Apostata but let not us be such Let us say with them Ioh. 6.68 to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall life Iosua would be no withdrawer choose yee whom you will serve but I and my house will serve the Lord Ios. 24.15 Saint Peter would be no withdrawer though all forsake thee yet will not I he did deny him for a time and withdrew himselfe but he wept bitterly for it and stood better to his tackling If the storme and tempest of persequution should arise let us not withdraw our selves and refuse to suffer for CHRIST but let us sticke to him all the dayes of our life Yee are they that have continued with me in my temptations CHRIST loves continuers Be faithfull to the end and I will give thee the Crowne of life Let nothing make us to withdraw our selves from CHRIST but let us cleave stedfastly to him in this world that wee may reigne and triumph with him in the world to come CHAP. XI IN the substance of that exhortation derived out of the doctrine of CHRIST 's Priest-Hood three severall vertues were commended to us the first faith the second hope the third love Now followeth a particular explication of all these Faith is painted out to us in this Chapter Hope in the twelfth Love with the fruits thereof in the thirteenth This Chapter hath two principall parts a definition of faith and an illustration of it 1. By Example 2. By instance Verse 3. It is defined Verse 1. Where the nature of it is expressed It makes them existent not onely in intellectu but also in corde voluntate It is a full perswasion that wee shall have these things which we hope for nay it puts us into a reall possession of them VERSE 1. FAith is the evidence of things which are not seene The holy and celestiall Hierusalem where there is no Sunne but is enlightned with the glory of the Lamb continually where there is no night crying or weeping where all teares shal be wiped from our eyes for ever cannot be seene with mortall eye yet faith makes it evident to us even in this life The blessed and glorious Trinity GOD the Father Sonne and HOLY GHOST cannot be seene no man hath seene GOD at any time yet faith makes GOD visible to us standing by us in all afflictions Our SAVIOUR CHRIST the King of the Church and mediatour of mankinde clothed with our nature sitting at the right hand of GOD in all glory and Majestie cannot now be seene of us Stephen saw him when hee was on earth but that was extraordinary now we cannot see CHRIST in his glory yet by faith we see him and know that so soone as we are dissolved we shall be with him The holy and celestiall Angels that are our guaâ—dians that hold us in their hands that sing prayses to God continually in heaven cannot now bee seene of us yet by faith we see them and are assured that they will take our soules at our dying day and carry them into heaven The spirits of just and perfect men of Adam Eve Isaak Moses David of the Patriarkes and Prophets of the blessed Virgin Mary Saint Paul Saint Peter of the Apostles and Martyrs cannot as yet be seene of us but by faith we know they are in heaven and we our selves one day shall be with them Wee cannot now see or apprehend the joyes of heaven no eare hath heard them no eye hath seene them they cannot enter into the heart of man yet by faith they are evident to us The resurrection of the body cannot now bee seene wee see many carryed to the Church and Church-yard to be buryed but we see none rise again yet by faith it is evident to us so that we can say with Iob our Redeemer liveth and with these eyes shall wee see him and no other for us Faith is an excellent eye The eye of the Eagle is very sharp and piercing shee can see from heaven to earth she can espie her prey a farre of she and her birds can look on the Sun but the eye of faith is farre more piercing that sees Christ the Sun of righteousnesse and by it we looke into the Sanctuary of heaven and behold what is there Some write of one Lynceus that he could see an hundred thirty thousand paces off but wee by the eye of faith can see further this one eye is better than all Argos his eyes Howsoever the eyes of our bodyes waxe dimme let us entreat the Lord to preserve this eye to make it brighter and brighter every day Faith is the evidence of things not seene Let us make much of this evidence If wee have an evidence whereby we hold our lands we will shew it to some Lawyer to see of what validity it is we will keepe it safe under locke and key Let us examine this our evidence of faith if there bee a cracke in it let us seeke to have it amended and let us take up that prayer of the Apostles Lord encrease our faith Lord strengthen the eye of our faith that even on earth we may see heaven VERSE 2. HEre is an illustration of it 1. Ab exemplis 1. In generall If for this faith our fathers were well reported of then this is the true faith but our fathers were well reported of
Love not in word and tongue onely but indeed and truth Ioabs health and Iudas kisse are too frequent Let us love truely as Saint Iohn did Having averred it for his owne part he doâ—h amplifie it on the behalfe of others Not I onely It might joy her that hee loved her being the disciple whom Iesus loved but it must needs be a greater joy to her that all did love her Yet it is with a restraint all that have knowne the truth revealed in the Word for thy Word is truth saith Christ. All that have knowne it he speakes De notitia approbationis as Aquinas doth well interpret it of the knowledge not of speculation but of approbation that approve love and embrace the truth for indeed they that be of the houshold of faith are lead by one and the same Spirit therefore where one loves all love But is this so great a matter to be loved of all Woe be to you when all men speake well of you true when all tag and rag good and bad speake well of us For then wee should be happier than Christ himselfe was he could not have every mans good word Some said he was a good man others nay but he deceiveth the people All did not love him but all the godly all that loved the truth and where they love God himselfe loves therefore wee are to rejoyce in the love of the faithfull VERSE 2. THe last is the procreant cause of this love Where first there is the Loadstone that drew this love 2. The permanencie of this love in regard of the foundation whereupon it is built for the truths sake truth lasts for ever so shall this love doe They did not love her because she was an honourable Lady a beautifull Lady c. but because of the truth of the Gospell that had taken firme roote in her heart Some love for pleasure Isaac loved Esau because Venison was his meate that was his delight An adulterer loves an harlot for the satisfying of his filthy lust Some love for profit they love their friends as they doe their cowes horses and grounds for the benefit they reape by them Some love for beauty so Shechem loved Dinah Some love for honour and promotion in hope to be preferred by such a great man All these stand upon a tickle ground pleasure vanisheth and that quickly too then love vanisheth together with it When Amnon had gotten his pleasure of Tamar he hated her more than before he loved her Riches betake themselves to their wings as Salomon speaketh and flie away then love flies away too If a rich man become a poore man we set not much by him Honour is mutable the naile that is now aloft is in the dirt as it fell out with Haman then he is little regarded of any of his followers Beauty fades away like a flower then love fades away too love for the truths sake for Christs sake for the Gospels sake and that will be a permanent love But what is this truth Is not that changeable No verily For as Aquinas doth well distinguish though fides qua creditur ceaseth when we be in heaven yet fides quae creditur shall be in heaven though justifying faith ceaseth for we shall not neede to beleeve in Christ any longer when we shall see him face to face Yet the doctrine of faith which wee beleeve touching eternall happinesse purchased by Christ shall remaine when wee be in heaven the truth shall be with us for ever VERSE 3. THat shall suffice for the description now to the precation Where 1. There is the blessing prayed for 2. the persons frow whom 3. An addition made to those blessings The blessings prayed for are three grace mercy peace these be with you In the Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be with you but the future is put for the imperative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be with you and abide with you forever Aquinas doth thus distinguish them Gratia culpam delens Grace wiping away the guilt of Sinne Misericordiam poenam indulgens mercy remitting the punishment of sinne Pax Deo reconcilians peace reconciling us to God rather Grace is the roote the undeserved love and favour of God by which we are all that we are By the grace of God I am that I am Without him we are nothing the other are the branches budding from it Mercy which hath reference to our manifold miseries Peace arising of our reconciliation to God by Christ Being justified by faith wee have peace with God The persons from whom First from God the Father as the Author of all goodnesse Every good gift commeth from above form the Father of lights c. Then from Christ the Sonne of God and the Mediatour of mankinde who is 1. The Lord the Lord and King of the Church 2. Iesus a sweete Saviour that hath saved us from our sinnes 3. Christ the annointed King Priest and Prophet of the Church the Sonne of the Father Therefore God as well as the Father Where then is the holy Ghost Saint Augustine will have him to be comprehended in the gifts for we can have no gift but by the holy Ghost the destributer of them Or as Aquinas saith the holy Ghost is understood in the other two persons being nexus utriusque he sacred bond that unites them together The blessings annexed and added are truth and love Caietan with some others referre them to Christ the Sonne of the Father in truth and love that is his true and beloved Sonne they be rather to be adjoyned to the former and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with truth i. the vertue of truth and love to God and man these make a demonstration of the former to the world VERSE 4. NOw let us enter into the bowels of the Epistle The matter of it is a gratulation and an exhortation verse 5. First he praiseth her for the time past then he doth incite her for the time to come the gratulation is expressed by a joy wherewith he was ravished where 1. There is the greatnesse of his joy 2 the object of his joy 3. the rule for the ordering of it I rejoyced Christians may be joyfull Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes againe I say rejoyce At that time Iesus rejoyced in his Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he danced as it were for joy as here Saint Iohn rejoyceth in his Spirit and not a little but greatly too As the wise men rejoyced with an exceeding great joy when they found Christ. So he rejoyced with a great joy that he found of her children walking in the truth of Christ there is the object of his joy That I found by diligent observation when I was at thy house and by the constant relation of others since Of thy Children not all but some of them seldome are all good
Adam had a Cain Noah had a Cham Abraham had an Ishmael Isaac had an Esau. This collection doe some make but this is not necessarie he might finde them all good in externall carriage and behaviour he goes no further but how did he finde them not sitting still but walking in what not in falshood but in truth that is in the truth of the Gospell embraced professed honoured by them in framing their lives too according to the truth This doth argue the great care of this worthy Lady in the vertuous education of her children which is to bee imitated by all fathers and mothers If wee have a peece of ground we will bestow cost and paines in the manuring tilling and sowing of it If we have a young horse we will be at charge to bring him to a good pace and shall we neglect our children Children are the inheritance of the Lord and the fruite of the wombe is his reward and shall wee reward the giver so unkindly as not to give them education Which consisteth in three things religion learning manners and behaviour touching the former David and Bathsheba joyning together in seasoning the tender yeares of Salomon with the sweete liquor of celestiall pietie by the meanes of Hannah Samuel came presently à mamma corporali ad mammam spiritualem from the corporall to the spirituall dugge Eunice taught Timothy the holy Scripture from his child-hood Hierom would have Laeta to teach her daughter Paula the Canonicall Scriptures beginning with the Psalmes and ending with the Canticles the Psalmes as the easiest and sweetest the Canticles as the hardest To this end chatechizing is very requisite Clemens Alexandrinus was a chatechist Theophilus was Catechized David chatechiseth children There is a forme of catechizing and some principalls of religion specified and that hath the appellation of milke which is fit for children There were catechumenoy in the primitive Church which must say their Catechisme before they were admitted into the Church The Church of England hath a compendious and faithfull catechisme in the booke of Common Prayer which if it were diligently taught and effectually learned both young old should be better acquainted with the principles of religion and being wisely done would be more profitable than preaching without chatechizing for want whereof many that runne to Sermons have beene found to be very ignorant of the maine principles of religion For education in learning Pharaohs daughter trained up her adopted sonne in all the learning of the Aegyptians Aristippus that famous Philosopher was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught by his mother the eloquent tongue of Cornelia was a great meanes of the eloquence of the Gracchi her two sons Hortensius his eloquence grew up inter paternos sinus in the bosome of his father and mother If we cannot nor have leysure to learne them our selves let us put them forth to learning provide fit teachers for them Iehonathan and Iehiel men of understanding were with the Kings Sonnes 1 Paral. 27.32 Iehoiadah taught King Ioash Saint Paul had Gamaleel to his Tutour a Doctor of the Law Philip procured two School-masters for his sonne Alexander Aristotle for his teacher Leonides for his directer and informer Constantine he procured three severall Tutors for his three severall sonnes one for Divinitie the other for the Civill Law the third for military discipline Concerning manners and behaviour we must bring up our children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in instruction and information that may formare mores frame their manners and put a good minde into them as the word importeth When Diogenes looked upon an unmannerly boy that eate his meate rudely he gave his master a box of the eare because the fault was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the Scholler but in the master Gregorie writes of a man well knowne but names him not who had a sonne to whom hee was too indulgent when any thing crossed him he was wont to curse and blaspheme his father never corrected him for it It fell out that he dyed blaspheming in his fathers armes and the Devill was seene to carry him away we are to have a diligent circumspection over the behaviour of our children when they bee young to keepe them from swearing lying pilfering and other vices least they grow up with them when they be old they be flexible in their young yeares proove inflexible afterwards While the waxe is soft ye may set a good impression on it as well as a bad the print of a Dove as well as of a vulture when it is hard ye cannot ye may safely bend a young plant so can yee not an old tree let us have a care of them while they be young least they and we repent afterwards when it is too late Naboth would not give the inheritance of his fathers to Achab children are inheritances given us of God and shall we through our negligence give them to the Devill let us treade in the steps of this renowned Lady give our children the best education we can every kinde of way We have had the greatnesse of his joy together with the object of it then comes the rule for the squaring of their walking wherein he rejoyced Not according to our owne braines or after the traditions of men but as we have received a Commandement from the Father in holy Scriptures This is his Commandement that we beleeve in his Sonne Iesus Christ and love one another Thy word is a light to my feet and a Lanthorne to my steps this is the light after which wee must walke God hath ordeined good workes that we should walke in them Let your light so shine before men that seeing your good workes they may glorifie your father which is in heaven walke as children of the light It is not a Councell which we may follow if we will it is a Commandement that must be obeyed not from a master but from a father and all children must obey their fathers Cammandement VERSE 5. THe other branch of the matter of the Epistle is an exhortatiō or an admonition where 1. he doth exhort to love in special 2 to constancie in the truth in generall v. 6. in the exhortation 1 there is the manner how it is introduced 2. the delivery of it being introduced It is introduced after a most kinde and lovely manner as Saint Paul had authority to command Philemon so Saint Iohn had authoritie to command the Lady yet they doe both rather beseech we might come with a rod yet we had rather come in love and in the spirit of meekenesse as Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you through us we pray you in Christs steed that ye be reconciled to God if we can prevaile any way with you wee are glad Having made a way for it hee delivers it where 1 there is a commendation of the vertue whereunto he doth exhort 2. a nomination of it
the levitie of it for the matter A short thing not worth the reading then away with the LORDS prayer with some of the small Prophets Abdie Nabum Sephonie Who art thou that despisest the day of small things Zach. 4.10 There was a little Citie and a wise poore man in it So here is a little Epistle and a wise poore man in it namely Onesimus whom God made rich in faith and in the graces of the spirit Our little Sister sayes the Church must not be contemned He that made the Camell and the Elephant made the Ant and the Bee too The same God is Author of little Epistles as well as of great they be all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspired from above by God God made Pella as well as Hierusalem Lot said of Zoar is it not a little one Let my soule fly thither and live this Epistle is but a little one yet fly hither and your soule shall live Ye shall find much heavenly foode in it the shorter the way is the sooner it may be gone the shorter the Epistle is the sooner it may be read therefore read it to the comfort and instruction of you all The second thing that displeased them was the levitie of it for the matter of the Epistle trifling things are handled in it 1. It was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one man that good Shepheard left 99. sheepe in the Wildernesse and sought up one One soule is to bee saved being more worth than a world One man is Gods Image and our brother therefore not to be neglected 2. For a base man 1. A servant CHRIST tooke on him the forme of a servant In saeculo there is great difference betweene a Master and a servant In Christo equall CHRIST died for servants as well as for masters Saul sought his fathers Asses and should not Saint Paul seeke up Gods servant 2. A fugitive the prodigall sonne was a fugitive yet his father embraced him Saint Paul reduced him à fugâ from his flight and caused him to flie to Christ with the wing of faith he lost his earthly master and found an heavenly master as Saul seeking Asses lighted on a kingdome 3. A thiefe he stole from his Master I but he did not continue a thiefe Saint Paul was a blasphemer and a persecutour the good thiefe was with CHRIST in Paradise the young man which Saint Iohn commended to the Bishop became a thiefe a master thiefe yet Saint Iohn went to him in his owne person and reduced him to CHRIST againe this thiefe became a good Spirituall thiefe one of those that did rapere regnum Caelorum therefore this Historie is worth the reading 2. There be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it matters of small importance as Verse 22. he is sollicitous for his lodging so he is for his cloake and Christ sent messengers to provide a lodging for him therefore away with the Gospell of St. Luke and the 2. to Timothie In this Epistle is to be considered 1. The gate or entrance into it 2. The house it selfe or substance of the Epistle Verse 4. An entrance is made into it by a wise a Christian a loving an eloquent salutation where 1. The persons concurring in it 2. The blessings wished in it 3. The persons are saluting or saluted the person saluting is described by his owne name by his masters badge or Liverie His name is Paul his Hebrew name was Saul he was an Hebrew of the Tribe of Benjamin King Saul and hee were of one Tribe Paul is a little name and being the Apostle of the Gentiles hee takes most delight in that Saint Hierome supposeth he tooke this name of Sergius Paulus the proconsull tanquam à primo ecclesiae spolio as of the first spoile among the Gentiles which he tooke out of the Devils mouth as Scipio was called Africanus of Africk which he subdued and Metellus Creticus Creete which he conquered so he was called Paul of Sergius Paulus whom he converted There may be some probabilitie of it but Saint Augustins interpretation is rather to be embraced Paulus i. e. modicus pusillus de Saulo Paulus de superbo modicus immò minimus as he interprets his owne name minimus apostolorum 1 Cor. l5 9 It is nomen humilitatis a name of humilitie in that we must all be Pauls having a base and lowly opinion of our selves In the next place he is described by his masters badge or livery not the Apostle of Iesus Christ but the prisoner of Iesus Christ which is greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there can bee no greater thing to glorie of than this Some may be the Apostles of IESUS CHRIST as Iudas was yet not the prisoner of Iesus Christ the Apostles themselves gloried in this that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. He uses this title to mollifie the heart of Philemon and to make it more inclinable to his suit for Onesimus hee must needs have an heart of iron that denies the request of a poore prisoner and the prisoner of Iesus Christ. There bee vincti diaboli vincti Iesu Christi Zedekiah was a prisoner bound in chaines by the King of Babel He was imprisoned for rebellion not for religion Barabbas was a famous prisoner as we say famosum scortum He was against Christ not for Christ. The good thiefe on the Crosse was a prisoner yet not for Christ but for his owne evill deeds we receive worthie of that we have done though Christ in mercy had compassion on him The Iesuits have alwayes boasted of their bonds imprisonment and martyrdome as they did in Wisbich Castle in Fremingam Castle and in other places they were vincti Papae non Christi The Popes not Christs prisoners All Queene Elizabeths dayes all KING Iames his dayes all King CHARLES his dayes never any was imprisoned or put to death simplie for Religion if they could have kept their fingers out of treason they might have kept their neckes out of the halter I would they would listen to that of Cyprian ardeant licet flammis what though they give their bodies to be burnt though they be cast to Wild beasts non erit illa fidei Corona sed paena perfidiae non religiosae virtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus that is not the Crowne of Faith but the punishment of perfidiousnesse not the glorious end of religious vertue but the miserable destruction of desperation The Donatists complained of their persecution as the Brownists and Sectaries doe amongst us but as Saint Augustine told them yee suffer non propter Christum sed contra Christum persecutionem patimini non à nobis sed à factis vestris CHRIST was whipped that was persecution CHRIST whipped some out of the Temple that was no persecution Sarah beat Hagar and the Apostle calls that no persecution Ismael mocked Isaac and that hee calls a persecution Quid
laudas paenam at non ostendis causam Let no man suffer as a thiefe as a murtherer as a busie bodie in another mans matters it seemes there was a rout of them then but now a rable of them but if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on that behalfe It is a glorious thing to bee CHRISTS prisoner and to say with St. Paul for the hope of Israel am I bound with this chaine The second person saluting is annexed to him which is Timothie His mother was a Iewesse and a believer his father a Grecian Eunice his mother had brought him up in the holy Scriptures from a child him he styles his brother when he writes to him he calls him his Sonne because he writes with him he honours him with the title of brother Vt hoc negotium utriusque nomine authoretur that his request being commenced in the name of them both might bee armed with greater authoritie Hee was his brother not only in the faith in generall but in the Ministery in speciall One is your Doctour which is CHRIST and all yee are brethren Sosthenes our brother Saint Peter whom the Papists will have to be head of the Church and LORD over all the Apostles calls Saint Paul his brother though he came Postliminio after him It is said of our blessed Saviour hee is not ashamed to call us brethren and shall we be ashamed to call one another brethren All the faithfull are brethren we have one father and mother too but after a more speciall manner in an honourable office are the Ministers brethren Some are in higher places as the reverend Bishops some in lower as the inferiour Ministers yet all brethren the Maior and Aldermen are brethren the Iudges and Sergeants are brethren Bishops are to be honoured as Fathers inferiour Ministers to be esteemed of as brethren Meis conservis loquor tanquam obediens servus sayes Saint Ambrose Quanto sublimitas notior tanto humilitas pretiosior The higher the place the more precious is the humilitie of the Person I have knowne diverse Bishops that have used their inferiour brethren with greater humanitie humilitie and courtesie then many arrogant Schismaticall preachers would use their superiors Brethren should not be so Lord-like one over another that was a fault in S. Chrys. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was too supercilious Brethren love accord support one another 1. Accidentally they may hate as Cain hated Abel Esau Iacob that is unnaturall naturally they love one another so should we if the people must have us above all abundance in love for our workes sake then we that be the workemen must abound in love one towards another else we are hinderers of the worke 2. Brethren accord sometimes there is discord among them nay rara est concordia fratrum brethren seldome agree that is the Divells pollicie and our corruption nature conjoynes them together So it should be with us in the ministerie CHRIST sent his Disciples two and two not one by one wee should not sever our selves one from another but be linked together one with another We should be like the Muses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they should be together as in place so in affection all Ministers are tanquam chordae in Cythara Colligatae as strings in a Lute tyed together and sounding together that will make a sweete harmonie Oh that all the Ministers in England did accord together in points of doctrine and in rites and ceremonies 3. Brethren support one another wee should not bee underminers but underproppers one of another frater à fratre adjutus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is in the 70. A brother helped of a brother is as a strong and high Citie we should support the good name and the goods one of another brethren must not be like the scoales in a ballance one up and another downe we must not goe about to pull downe one another in our Sermons but to set up one another It is the manner of some labourers almost in every Sermon to declame against ministers because they know it to bee a plausible theme to the people whose servants they are as one told Demosthenes being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men-pleasers rather then God-pleasers The persons saluted 1. The house-holders 2. The household The house-holders the man and the woman the man is described ex nomine ex amore ex labore 1. By his name his name was PHILEMON Saint Hierom de nominibus hebraicis deriveth it from the Hebrew mire donatus wonderfully gifted of Spalal mirabile Nathan donatus Indeed his gifts were admirable or phi-lechem os panis corum the mouth of their bread But why may it not be a Greeke name He especially being a Grecian of Colosse Col. 4.12 PHILEMON quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our friend Gaius was the Churches hoast he the Churches friend in the same kinde too all that professed the name of CHRIST were welcome to him he was a friendly entertainer of them all 2. He is set forth by love not active but passive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that our dearly beloved above others our especiall friend not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may be dilecti that deserve no love as our enemies they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which deserve love in respect of the rare qualities and excellent vertues wherewith they bee adorned as PHILEMON was Some say he was Nobilis a noble man surely he was Dives a rich man in faith and in good workes too that was a load stone to draw love unto him Last of all hee is described ex labore by his labour fellow-labourer not in the harvest of the ministery pray you the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest but in the generall harvest of Christianitie Fuit cooperarius Evangelij non praedicatione sed facto he was a fellow-labourer in the Gospell not by preaching but by doing non praedicando sed praedicatores reciplendo not by preaching but by receiving the preachers Carthusian enlarges it further non fuit praedicator sed fidelium sustentator he was not a preacher but the sustainer and nourisher of the faithfull Fuit magnus quidem Christianus a Christian of great note They that put to their helping hand any kinde of way for the furtherance of the Gospel are the Ministers fellow-labourers that edifie their brethren in the most holy faith that exhort one another while it is called to day that comfort one another that are as bells to toll others to Christ are the Preachers fellow-labourers So was the Woman of Samaria that called the whole Citie to Christ those women that ministred to Christ of their owne substance Priscilla and Aquila tent-makers which expounded to
deviation from the Lawe of God shall wee therefore sinne The proper fruit of sinne is death yea death everlasting It is by accident through Gods mercie if any good come of it therefore let it be carefully abandoned by us all He does not say perhaps he therefore ranne away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he uses a word of better report he departed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was separated from thee by the permissive hand of Gods providence After that men have repented of their sinnes we must not aggravaâ—e but in some measure extenuate them Not Noah's drunkennesse but Noah's unadvised drinking Not David's adultery with Vriah's wife but the matter of Vriah Not Peter's apostasie but Peter's deniall Not Onesimus running away but departing Before they be humbled we must be as Trumpeters to waken them out of their sinnes Lift up thy voice as a trumpet After that we must be as Nurses to cherish them before Corazives after lenitives before wee must come with the Law as a Schoolemaster to whip them after with the Gospell to comfort them before we must be Bonerges the sonnes of thunder after Barnabasses the sonnes of consolation But for how long did he depart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an houre It is the last houre Our whole life is but an houre in respect of eternity The whole race of our life is but the running of an houre-glasse and a short houre-glasse too a spanne long There was a woman that had an issue of bloud twelve yeeres an other that was bowed by Satan eighteene yeeres a man diseased in his feete 38. yeares all in comparison of eternity was but an houre Endure with cheerfulnesse an houres paine here that thou mayest have eternall joy hereafter Having made a narration of Gods providence in his flight hee makes an application of it to Philemon 1. Shewing the end of it to be that he might receive him with advantage 2. Declaring the manner how hee should receive him Verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. à fugâ from his flight 2. à me from me 3. à Deo from GOD. In all these respects let him bee welcome unto thee But for how long not for a season as before but for ever Some interpret it for ever .i. to serve thee for ever so long as yee both shall live alluding to that place If the servant say thus I love my Master I will not goe out free then his Master shall bring him to the Iudges set him to the post bore his eare through with an awle and hee shall serve him for ever .i. to the yeere of Iubilee So that hee should serve Philemon for ever .i. during life that is not sutable to the place 1. The opposition requires it should be taken for eternity He departed for a while but thou shalt receive him for ever 2. In the Greeke it is an Adjective not an Adverbe that thou shouldest receive him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternall not onely for a time in this world but also to reigne eternally with CHRIST together with thy selfe and the rest of his Saints being now engraffed into CHRIST by faith as thou art This implyes the resurrection of the body for if Onesimus should not rise againe he could not bee eternall Idoneus est reficere qui fecit hee that made the body of nothing can remake it when it is consumed to nothing The faithfull are omnipotentes in CHRISTO omnipotent in CHRIST I can doe all things by IESUS CHRIST that strengtheneth mee that is Luther's collection and they bee aeterni in CHRISTO eternall in CHRIST In CHRIST wee shall all be made alive againe meet him in the ayre be translated with him into the Kingdome of glory and abide with him for ever The wicked are eternall too they in endlesse torments the godly in endlesse joyes which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard nor can enter into the heart of man VERSE 16. BVt how is he to receive him not now because an alteration is made in him now as a Servant He doth not speak it in contempt of servants Dominus servus diversa nomina sed homines homines paria sunt nomina Master and servant are diverse names but men and men are equall names Thou art a man a weake man a sinfull man as well as thy servant therefore despise not thy servant One may goe to heaven as well out of the degree of a servant as of a master Let none of you suffer as a thiefe there the name of thiefe is a contemptible name so is not the name of a servant here when as he sayes not as a servant non ut servum tantùm not as a servant only Ioseph esteemed Mary not as a Wife but as a woman greatly honoured by God to bee the mother of him that was both GOD and man yet he esteemed her as his Wife So here What then but above a servant Why a brother and a brother is more than a servant We are all brethren maximè cùm fides accedit media qua omnem superbiam amputat especially when faith conjoynes us together which is as a knife to cut off all pride In CHRIST there is neither bond nor free but we are all one in CHRIST IESUS The Father and the Sonne are brethren the Minister and the people are brethren if they believe in Christ. So also the Master and the servant are brethren we have one Father which is God one mother the Catholike Church one elder brother which is IESUS CHRIST one inheritance the kingdom of heaven we are all brethren and godly servants are to be used by their masters as brethren Before Paul called Onesimus his Sonne Verse 10. Now his brother in the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the one is manifested his naturall affection in the other his benevolence and equality What brother a beloved brother beloved of all good Christians but especially of Saint Paul who was his Father as well as his brother upon that he inferres he should bee more beloved of PHILEMON because he is tyed to him with two bonds to St. Paul but with one The one in the flesh the other in the LORD Grace alone knit him to Saint Paul grace and nature too to Philemon By the flesh is meant Carnall affinitie by the LORD spirituall Onesimus was Saint Pauls only in the Spirit he is PHILEMONS in the spirit and in the flesh too they be neere to us in the flesh that be neere in carnall and outward considerations as man and wife brethren kins-folke countrey men Townsmen of one house or one familie Laban said to Iacob thou art my bone and my flesh the fire warmes them most that be neerest to it GOD is more beneficiall to the good Angels then to men because they be neerer to him then men in nature spirits as he is in quality
we know the Sunne by his brightnesse so the Father by Christ. And the expresse image of his person The former did shew that CHRIST was of the same nature with the Father but this that he further resembleth the person of the Father every Sonne is of the same nature and essence that his Father is of but every Sonne is not like the person of his Father in stature countenance voice gesture c. Whereas there is nothing in the person of the father but it is expressed in lively colours in CHRIST not a painted forme but an engraven forme As if a mans picture were taken in brasse or Waxe all the lineaments of his face hands and the rest of the parts of the body might evidently be seene in it he that beholdeth the one beholdeth the other Col. 1.15 Io. 14.9 the eternity of the God-head his wisedome power justice and goodnesse may be seene in CHRIST This is the third argument to prove the deity of CHRIST and it is drawne from the identity of the divine essence Hee that is the brightnesse of Gods glory and engraven forme of his person is GOD but CHRIST is the brightnesse of GODS glory and engraven forme of his person Ergo He shewes him in the fourth place to be God by the worke of preservation He that beareth up the world by the mighty power of his providence is God Exod. 15.13 Isai. 46.3 Deut. 1.31 Cap. 32. v. 11. but Christ beareth up the world by the power of his providence Ergo hee beareth it up else it would fall Some say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruling all things Yet the metaphor is significant Christ beareth up all things in heaven and earth There were two pillars that bere up the house where Sampson played and the Philistims were assembled together but Christ is the only pillar that beareth up the house of the world The Poets write much of one Atlas that bore up the heavens with his shoulders but our Saviour Christ is the true Atlas that beareth up heaven and earth As he made the world so he beares up the world and keepeth it up from falling If it were not for him the Sunne Moone Stars and all the host of heaven would fall to the ground if it were not for him the birds of the ayre the fishes of the Sea the beasts of the field would drop away in a moment the earth would sinke downe under our feet the Sea would overflow his bankes and drowne us all Our Saviour Christ beares up all in regard of their nature he beareth up the Devils themselves and all his instruments in the world he does not beare them out in their wickednesse but hee beareth up their essence In him all live breath and have their being But more particularly in love and mercy he beareth up his children and the members of Christ as a father beareth his Sonne and taketh him up into his armes so doth he those whom he hath adopted in Christ Nay as a mother beareth the infant so doth he us as an Eagle fluttereth about her young ones so the Lord beareth us on his wings This may bee a singular comfort to us all wheresoever we be on the water or on the land in the day or night though we be among the thickest of our enemies nay among Devills yet the Lord Iesus beareth us in his hands and none can take us out of his hands This should cause us all to stand in aw of him to be afraid to displease him Will any be so madde as to make holes in the ship that beareth them Will any hew downe the pillars that beare up the house Shall a child scratch out the eyes of the nurse that beareth him Our Saviour Christ beares us up all therfore let us not like rebels fight against him by our sinnes let us please him all that we can by whom wee are borne up They of Tyre and Sydon sought Herods favour because their land was nourished by him all men throughout the wide compasse of the world are nourished by our Saviour Christ. The breath would quickly be out of the nostrills of us all if it were not for him Kings Princes Noblemen Gentlemen Merchants Clothiers Rich and Poore depend upon him if he take away his hand we are all gone Therefore let us serve him with all our might that beareth us up with his mighty word It is not our riches our Silver and Gold our Sheep and Oxen that can beare us up then the rich man would never have dyed It is Christ that upholdeth us all Let us all therefore feare and reverence him wee especially that be his Ministers of whom he hath such a fatherly care being the watchman and keeper Let us above all others glorifie this GOD that beareth us up by the hand of his power and mercy The fifth argument to prove the deity of Christ is drawn from the worke of redemption He that hath purged us from our sins is God But Christ c. This is spoken of whole Christ His humanity was the instrumentall cause of this purgation his deity the efficient We are purged by the word as by an instrument applying this to us and by the Sacrament of Baptisme sealing it up in our hearts Ephes. 5.26 but by the bloud of Christ Meritoriè Acts 20.28 by the oblation of his owne body and the shedding of his owne bloud not by an Angell not by the co-operation of our merits with himselfe Not of His owne for He knew no sin but ours that are bred borne and brought up in sin of all our sinnes He hath not left one unpurged Not by our selves nor by Angels Here the slie and nice distinction of the Iesuits is taken away which they invented of late to make us beleeve that by the Doctrine of Merits they derogate nothing from the glory of CHRIST Indeed they say that we may make satisfaction for sin and merit Heaven yet it is not we that doe it but Christ by us not our workes simply in themselves but as dyed in the bloud of CHRIST Our merits are Christs merits and therefore they may deserve Heaven I but Christ hath purged our sins by Himselfe not by our selves he hath done it by his owne bloud immediately not mediately by our workes dyed in His bloud therefore that is a meere delusion to mock the World withall This is a singular benefit that we receive from Christ a purgation from all our sins Sin is an heavie load and importable burthen a man had better have a mountaine than one sin hang on Him Hence it is that they cry O ye hils fall on us In what a pittifull taking was Iudas when he felt the horrour of his sin not purged by the Lord Iesus How did he houle and cry I have sinned and at length tooke a rope and hanged himselfe There is no torment to the torment of sin this is in a manner the only hell
meanes that as man by sin had deserved death so by the death of a man he should be redeemed from sin and death The necessity of Christs incarnation he proves first from the end of it He that by suffering for men was to bring men to salvation must be man Christ by suffering for men was to bring men to salvation ergo Christ was to bring many to glory This he could not do but by afflictions and namely by death it selfe for the Crosse must goe before the Crowne therefore it was requisite that in our humane nature he should first suffer It became this was most comely fit and convenient for him namely that God ver 9. which so graciously gave his Son for us that is God the Father by whose grace and mercy Christ died for us It became him for the better illustration of his owneglory for a more lively demonstration of his mercy and justice to the world of his mercy in not sparing his owne Son but giving him up to the death for us of his justice in punishing the sins of the world so severely in his owne Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. These words are to be referred to Christ not to God the Father 1. They are affirmed of him in Scripture 1 Cor. 8.6 Col. 1.16 2. Before hee spake of his humiliation it was meet to premise something concerning his glory power and dignity 3. For so much as it is said he was to be perfected through afflictions by afflictions to mount up to glory that concerning his Deity was well premised that we might know it was no new glory which he took but that which hee had from all eternity as hee was GOD Ioh. 17.5 It became God the Father to perfect the Prince of our salvation through afflictions for whom are all things and by whom are all things after he had brought many children to glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having made them willing by his holy spirit Wee are said also to be drawne Sed trahit sua quemque voluptas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Syntaxis might better be referred to CHRIST than to the Father otherwise the participle should have beene in the dative case to agree with the pronoune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in the accusative case It ought to bee translated thus for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of their salvation through afflictions bringing many Children to glory Children not friends but Children begotten by the word made the Sonnes of God by faith Iohn 1.12 knowne by the spirit Rom. 8.14 Not a few but many for he is a powerfull SAVIOUR many shall come from the East c. Not all men because all imbrace him not being offered to them Sundry were called to the feast that came not To glory in the kingdome of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it Sanctifie because of the next Verse but the words are diverse To perfect CHRIST is said to bee perfected because after his suffering hee was glorified in his Humanity as well as in his Deitie CHRIST his afflictions are so farre from being a shame or ignominie to him that they bee solemne rites or sacred ceremonies whereby he was consecrated Bishop of the universall Church Through afflictions in the whole course of his life especially at his death and passion The Arch-duke the Captaine the leader in whose steps wee are to tread the Author of their salvation Acts 3.15 If CHRIST had not become man afflicted and put to death he could not have carryed men into the kingdome of heaven for a purgation must be made for the sinne of man by the fiery furnace of affliction and especially by death therefore it became Christ to be made man too though he were God GOD is the efficient and finall cause of all 1. There is nothing but it is by GOD the Host of heaven the Sunne Moone and Starres are by him the birds of the ayre the fishies of the Sea the beasts of the field the greene and flourishing coat that the earth hath is by him All men yea Angels even the Devils themselves are by him not as Devils .i. malicious accusers of the Saints but as they be invisible and immortall spirits all are by him nay to proceede a little further and yet to keepe our selves within compasse of sound Divinity sin it selfe is not without the providence of God it is not à Deo creante sed disponente he disposeth of all the grosse sins that be in the world to his owne glory as a wise Physition makes a good use even of poyson in his confections Furthermore as all things are by GOD so all for him all serve his holy will and blessed pleasure some unwillingly some willingly GOD makes Satan and his instruments to be for him whether they will or no but the faithfull are willingly for him and serve him with all cheerefulnesse Let us remember that wee our selves and all that we have is for God he made us he redeemed us with the bloud of his Sonne therefore we are his not our owne our wit wealth honour worship learning our soules our bodies our eyes tongues hands feete all are for him with all that wee have we must glorifie him Our tongues are our owne sayd the wicked that is false all that we have is Gods therefore all must be at his commandement The pot is for him that made it and the servant must be imployed about his Masters businesse he must be his masters man not his owne therefore as we were created by God so let us be wholly for him Now it became this high and mighty God for whom are all things and by whom are all things which worketh all as seemeth best to him to consecrate the Prince of their salvation through afflictions bringing many children to glory CHRIST brought them to glory which he could not doe but by enduring many afflictions 1 Here we see that CHRIST could not bring us to heaven without innumerable afflictions which our sinnes had deserved he himselfe knew no sin but he was afflicted for our sins And indeed he was wonderfully afflicted for them from his cradle to his grave A man of sorrowes as the Prophet termeth him he was borne not of a wealthy Lady but of a poore woman base and contemptible to the eyes of the world at his first comming he was not laid in a costly Cradle but in a Cratch not in a Chamber well furnished but in a Stable borne in Winter and in the night when he was an Infant banished into Egypt hee wrought as is thought in the trade of his Father and was a Carpenter he had not a hole to hide his head in women were faine to minister to him of their owne substance as he went up and downe preaching the Gospell he had not bags of silver and gold about him but was faine to send to the Sea for a peece of 20d.
hungry and thirsty he was many times He was called all to naught a bibber of wine a Samaritane and one that had a devill a little before his Passion they blindfolded him spit on his face buffeted him whipped him extreamely platted a crowne of Thornes on his Head that made the bloud run about his Eares they stripped off all his clothes nailed him hand and foot to the Crosse where he continued in bitter paines of soule and body a long while together Thus was this innocent Lambe killed and pittifully handled for our sakes Our sins were the causes of all He bore our infirmities and hee was wounded for our transgressions These were the knives that cut the throat of this Lambe and yet shall we take delight in sin CHRIST went through all these afflictions for our drunkennesse uncleannesse covetousnes pride c. yet shall we lye wallowing in these sins the consideration of the manifold afflictions that Christ suffered for sin should cause sin to be odious and loathsome to us all 2 If the Prince could nor get to Heaven without afflictions should the subjects imagine to go thither without crosses the Master was afflicted and shall the servants thinke to live without affliction it cannot be avoided we must all drinke of Christs cup and be baptised with his baptisme Many in their hearts complaine of God that he is too hard to them they are never without some crosse or other one while in their soules another while in their bodies sometimes in goods in good-name one while they have the tooth-ach another while the head-ach one while vexed with children another while with servants one while losses in goods another while by lying and malevolent tongues they are robbed of their good names sometimes God stirreth up adversaries against them in Towne or Countrey as he did against Salomon Marvell not at that neither repine nor grudge at it God grievously afflicted his naturall Son and shall we thinke much if he afflict his adopted sons GOD imposed many afflictions upon him that knew no sin and shall we sinners stomack it if we be afflicted CHRIST hath gone before as a Captaine in the foule way of afflictions we must follow him All that will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdome of God Acts 14.22 no remedy They that Will goe to London in the dead of Winter must goe through many showres and if we will passe to that high Citie the heavenly Ierusalem it must be through afflictions they that are without correction are bastards not children It is an argument of a wicked man of whom God makes no reckoning to bee without affliction they are not in trouble as other men If we Will be glorified with Christ let us suffer with Christ as he went to heaven through afflictions so must we else we shall never get thither we must not think to goe to heaven out of all prosperity but out of adversitie These be they that came out of many tribulations Therefore let not afflictions be altogether unwelcome to us nay let us boast of them after an heavenly manner I carry about with me the markes of CHRIST sayes Saint Paul afflictions are CHRIST his markes by them wee are knowne to belong to him afflictions consecrate us There is no Bishop elected but will joyfully goe to his consecration afflictions consecrate us as Kings and Priests to GOD Almighty therefore though irkesome to the flesh yet in some sort let us willingly embrace them as some Martyrs did the flame of fire CHRIST went to Heaven by afflictions and let us be content to be afflicted here for a short season that wee may live with CHRIST for ever let us suffer with Christ that we may be glorified with Him VERSE 11. ANother reason why it became Christ to be man it is taken from the impurity of our nature Men had sinned and were destitute of the grace of God they were by nature impure and unholy conceived borne brought up in sin now it was necessary they should be sanctified made cleane and holy This could not be done by the bloud of Goates and other sacrifices in the Law neither could they sanctifie themselves by their owne good workes and merits therefore it was requisite that God should take this sanctification on him Now mans nature being corrupt was to be sanctified by a man that knew no sin or corruption for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one therefore Christ became man The High Priest that sanctified the people in the time of the Law and the people sanctified by him were both of one Father namely Abraham the Father of the Israelites so Christ that sanctifieth us and we that be sanctified by him are of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the neuter gender of one thing of one nature Of one that is of one Parent of whom came all mankinde Acts 17.26 Christ and we came of one Adam whereupon S. Luke deduceth his Genealogie from Adam Luke 3.38 We are all of one high and low rich and poore and Christ is man like to us sin onely excepted All the persons in the Trinity sanctifie us God the Father by the Son God the Son by the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost immediately by himselfe but Christ as the Mediator of the Church sanctifieth it As the ointment came from Aarons head downe to the skirts of his garment so the spirituall oile of holinesse comes from Christ the Head to us that be his members Christ is our onely sanctifier 1 Cor. 1.30 No Saint as the Virgin Mary no Angell can sanctifie us How he sanctifies us is apparent Ephes. 5.26 27. 1 Cor. 6.11 by purging us from our sins clothing us with his righteousnesse renewing us by his Spirit making us New Creatures and fit for the holy Ierusalem This doth give us to understand that by nature we are unholy and un-sanctified conceived borne and brought forth in sinne the children of Gods wrath In us that is in our flesh dwels no good thing Being considered in our selves we are Idolaters Whoremongers Wantons Raylers Drunkards ready to be carried into all impiety Such were some of you sayes S. Paul but ye are washed As the Leper in the time of the law cryed out I am uncleane I am uncleane So must every mothers Sonne of us say we are as uncleane swine by nature except the Lord Iesus sanctifie us When Christ washing his Disciples feet came to Saint Peter he repelled him saying thou shalt not wash my feete No sayes Christ then thou hast no portion in me Saint Peter hearing that answered Lord not my feete alone but my head and hands Wee are corrupt in soule and body therefore let us entreat Christ to wash and sanctifie us in them both No uncleane thing shall enter into the heavenly Hierusalem Dogs Enchanters Whoremongers are without Therefore let us beseech CHRIST to make us cleane by his Word
and Spirit in this life that wee may have entrance into the holy Hierusalem in the life to come If CHRIST and we are all of one much more are we among our selves A King and a beggar are of one a rich man and a poore man are of one a faire and beautifull man or woman and they that want beauty are of one we descended all of Adam and were taken out of the dust of the ground therefore let us not insult one over another GOD for a season hath advanced one above another the Magistrate above the Subject the Father above the Son the Rich man above the poore man and every one is to be honoured according to that place whereunto God hath exalted him yet if we look back to our originall to the stocke from whence we are taken we are all of one The Wax that hath the print of the Kings seale on it is the same in substance with the waxe that hath the print of the seale of a meane man yet it is honoured in that the Kings seale is set on it So we are all of one weake and waxie nature save that it pleaseth God to set a more honourable print upon one then on another Therefore let us not thinke highly of ourselves and contemne our brethren but submitte to them of low degree using the greatnesse that GOD hath given us to the glory of the Giver Seest thou a poore Lazarus full of sores desirous to bee refreshed with the crumbes that fall from rich mens bordes Contemne him not in thy heart he and thou though thou farest deliciously every day and rufflest out in silkes and velvet are both of one This he proveth by the relatives They that be brethren come of one Father and Mother CHRIST and wee are brethren therefore we are of one of one Adam which is our Father and of one Mother which is Eve Whereas some interpret it of one God of one heavenly Father it is impertinent to the Text. He doth not simply say they are his brethren but hee is not ashamed to call them brethren Prov. 19.7 All the brethren of the poore doe hate him how much more doe his friends goe far from him He pursueth them with words but they are wanting to him But Christ thought it no disparagement to his glorious Deity to call men his brethren Though there be wonderfull ods betweene Christ and us hee the Creator we the creatures hee the LORD and Master we his servants he without sinne we defiled with sinne in Soule and body he mervailous rich heaven and earth being his we poore men of our selves not worth a groat yet Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren If a man come once to be Lord Major of London hee will scant acknowledge his poore brethren and Sisters when they come to him Christ is not a Lord for a yeere and a day but an everlasting King yea the King of Kings yet he vouchsafes to call us brethren One Iudge will call another brother and if he be a Sergeant he shall have that name but every pettifogger and paltrie Lawyer shall not be the Iudges brother yet Christ the Iudge of the whole world calls us all brethren O the humility of Christ and the dignity whereunto he hath advanced us VERSE 12. THis he proved out of the Psalme 22.22 Many things in that Psalme are in the New Testament applyed to CHRIST as Verse 1. Verse 16. Verse 18. The Prophet speaketh this of himselfe that when GOD had delivered him from his enemies he would declare his name to the people which were his brethren though GOD had exalted him above them But prophetically also he speaketh of the Messiah after that CHRIST was delivered from Satans fury and the rage of his instruments from the power of death and of the grave hee would declare the name of GOD to his brethren This he did while he was alive Ioh. 17.6 but especially after his resurrection when hee sent his Apostles to preach the Gospell to all nations CHRIST was not only the Author and matter of the Gospell but he was also the proclaimer and Preacher of it he declared it in his owne life time by himselfe after his Ascension by his Apostles The name that is the power mercie and goodnesse of God By brethren here are understood not the Apostles or faithfull onely though they in more speciall manner bee the brethren of CHRIST Matth. 12.49 Ioh. 20.17 but all men generally for CHRIST and all men came of one which is Adam and were made by one God Mal. 2.10 CHRIST will not declare his name in a corner but in the middest of the Church In the middest of the Church among the rest of my brethren as fellow singers Christ did sing with his Disciples after the supper he prayed worshipped and sung as we doe CHRIST hath many Brethren 1. All men in respect of our humane nature which Christ assumed to himselfe are his brethren hee a man as all are 2. In regard of Country and lineall descent the Iewes are his brethren of whom Christ came according to the flesh Rom. 9.5 Deut. 18.18 3. In respect of consanguinity the kinsfolke of CHRIST in the Scripture are called his brethren Iames the brother of the Lord that is the kinsman of the Lord. 4. In respect of the Ministery the Preachers of the Word are CHRIST his brethren for hee was a Minister and Preacher of the Gospell as we are although in gifts and graces he excelled us all as the Sunne doth the Starres But more neerely and properly the faithfull are his brethren being made the Sonnes of GOD by faith in CHRIST IESUS I goe to my God and your God to my Father and your Father Ioh. 20.17 1. As CHRIST is not ashamed to call us brethren so let us doe nothing so neere as wee can that may shame this our Brother Is it not a shame that the Kings brother should bee a common drunkard whoremaster or such like Doth not the King take himselfe disgraced by it And shall wee that are Brethren to the King of Kings take such courses as that great ignominie should redound to CHRIST by it As hee is not ashamed to call us brethren so let us doe nothing that may pull a shame on him and his Gospell 2. Can a brother that is a wealthie man of faire revenewes and ample possessions see any of his brethren goe a begging will hee not rather receive him to his owne house and set him at his table CHRIST which is the Lord of heaven and earth is our brother therefore let us feare no want so long as wee feare him This may be a comfort to us in all our calamities that CHRIST and we are brethren VERSE 13. AN other argument to prove the humanity of Christ it is drawne from the effects Christ putteth his trust in God therefore he is man Hee that trusteth to another is inferiour to him to whom hee trusts the party whom he makes his pillar
sin as we have but the greatest of all is his owne goodnesse and mercy Isai. 9.6 Iohn 3.16 Both had sinned Angels and men Why was Christ made a man to dye for men and not an Angell to redeeme Angels from everlasting death because it was his owne good will and pleasure his singular love to mankinde Let us therefore magnifie him for it from generation to generation Some as Augustine observeth tooke occasion from hence to be proud and insolent See Christ tooke on him our nature not the Angels therefore we are exalted above Angels we have just cause to thinke highly of our selves As if a sick man should boast the Physitian came to my house not to my neighbours therefore I am a better man than my neighbour the reason why Christ tooke on him thy nature not the Angels was because thou wert sick of sin so were not the good Angels Neverthelesse it is a preferment to us that Christ should assume our nature to his our corruptible nature to his incorruptible as if a King should take the patcht cloake of a beggar and annex it to his royall cloake decked with Pearles and precious Stones Now as Christ hath honoured our nature in becomming man so let not us men dishonour our owne nature by drunkennesse uncleannesse covetousnesse nor by wrangling and contending one with another Christ hath graced our nature let not us disgrace it VERSE 17. WHereupon he returnes to his conclusion which he would have to be infixed in our memories I will declare thy name to my brethren which he could not doe unlesse hee were a man as his brethren are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debuit he ought because it was his fathers will and his owne will too necessitate non coactione In all things appertaining to the substance not to the corruption of our nature He was like unto us in all things sin only excepted He was like to us in all the faculties and members of soule and body He had the same affections that we have yet unstained with sin We are sorrowfull so was He My soule is heavie to the death We are joyfull so was He Luke 10.21 In that houre Iesus rejoyced in spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are zealous so was He the zeale of thy house hath eaten me up We are hungry so was hee Marke 3.5 Wee wonder at all things so did He. We are afraid of death so was He My soule is heavie to the death Come to the Body We are little ones grow in stature so Christ Luke 2. ult We are hungry thirsty sleepy so was He He slept in a Ship Mat. 8.24 not in a Church We are weary so was he He rested himselfe on Iacobs-Well Iohn 4 6. We dye so He died also As He is like to us so let us be like him in meekenesse patience charity in praying for our enemies Brethren All are his brethren quoad naturam the faithfull quoad gratiam Iohn 20.17 He will not be ashamed to call us Brethren at the day of judgement Mat. 25.40 and shall not we call one another brother The King and Subjects are brethren the Ministers and their People rich and poore are brethren and let us not be snapping and snarling one at another but live lovingly together as brethren Both members are unfolded in the words following that is he was a faithfull High Priest Appertaining to God In divine not in humane matters The High Priest made an attonement for the people Levit. 16. So did Christ for his people GOD and man were fallen out Christ made us friends God was displeased with us he pacified his wrath towards us which the Father by an audible voice witnessed from heaven Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased How by the bloud of his Crosse which was Gods bloud Acts 20.28 We were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. In many things we offend all who then can be saved our sins for number exceed the sands of the Sea the least sin is sufficient to throw us into hell without Christ. But by Christ we are reconciled to his Father and have peace with him Col. 1.20 Luke 2.14 Rom. 5.1 Oh I have sinned but 1 Iohn 2.2 Christ is the propitiation for our sins Worthy then is the Lamb the Lord Iesus to receive all glory Men at Christ-masse use to take a greater liberty to sin to quaffe swill and carowse to open the floud-gates of all impiety but the consideration of Christs comming into the world should be a bridle to restraine us from sin Christ came now to make a reconciliation for our sins and shall we plunge our selves deeper into the Sea of sin God forbid The love of Christ should constraine us to forsake sin it should not make us wallow in the filthy puddle and sinke of sin Wilt thou make much of the knife that cut thy Fathers throat David though he longed for the water of the Well of Bethlehem yet when it was brought to him by three of his Worthies he refused to drinke of it saying Is not this the bloud of the men that went in jeopardie of their lives 2 Sam. 23.17 Sin cost the bloud of Christ let us not then drinke iniquity like water VERSE 18. HEE prosecuteth the former branch touching mercy As CHRIST was like to us in nature so hee was tempted as we are Saepius ipse miser miseris succurrere disce Art thou tempted whether thou art the child of GOD or not A shrowd temptation wherewith the best men and women are shaken So was CHRIST If thou beest the Sonne of God the Devill calls it into question and would have had CHRIST to doubt of it Art thou tempted with povertie with want of things necessarie for this life So Was Christ from his Cradle to his grave he was borne in a stable laid in a cratch had not an hole to hide his head in he had no money in his purse but was faine to send to the Sea for some he kept his Passeover in an other mans chamber was buryed in an other mans grave Art thou tempted with malevolent tongues with some that are ever rayling on thee So was Christ hee was termed a Wine bibber a glutton c. Art thou tempted with sicknesse the toothach the headach the cholike the gout c. We never read that Christ was sicke because he had no sinne in him yet being clothed with our nature hee knowes what belongs to paine and will succour us in all our distresses Art thou persecuted Herod sought his life as soone as he was borne A rich man that hath a good fire continually in his house a table furnished with all delicates that lyes soft on a bed of dowlne he cannot so well pitty a poore man as one poore man may doe another CHRIST being rich would become poore he would bee a man
the Gospell to give eare to Christ that speaketh to us in the ministery of the Word This is my beloved Son heare him Now in the end the Apostle makes an exposition of the Allegorie and applies it to them to whom he writeth I doe not speake of the Tabernacle or Temple which were glorious houses wherein God in some sort dwelt but I speake of Gods spirituall house the Church a part whereof you are as well as Moses and they in the time of the Law All Christians in all Ages are the house of God What a singular honor is this that we should be Gods house yea his dwelling-house 1. A Nobleman hath many Houses which hee dwels not in himselfe but letteth them forth to other men we are not houses to let but God himselfe dwelleth in us we are his mansion-House The Centurion said to Christ I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roofe so may we say we are mortall and sinfull men houses of clay unworthy that God should come under our roofe yet it pleaseth him of his infinite mercy to dwell in such base houses as we are 2 If God dwell in us and we be his house then how neat and handsome should it be kept Shall a Kings house be overgrowne with weeds Shall there be filthy and sluttish corners in a Kings Palace And shall we that professe our selves to be Gods house be full of pride envie and malice that be stinking weeds in the nostrils of God Shall Gods house be full of swearers drunkards adultereres c. The divell found his house swept and garnished to his minde and shall not Gods house be swept for the entertaining of him Let us garnish our selves which are Gods house with the sweet flowers of faith love hope zeale humility temperance patience sobriety that God may take delight to dwell in us 3 There is no man especially if he dwell in an house and it be his owne but will bestow needfull reparations on it and do you think God will suffer his house to lye unrepaired nay being Gods house we shall want nothing for soule or body If we decay in faith zeale and other graces of his spirit he will in due season repaire them againe he will keepe his house wind-tyde and water-tyde he will preserve it from wind and weather yea the gates of hell shall never prevaile against his house 4 A man may have an house and be defeated of it some wrangling Lawyer may wring it out of his hand or he may be weary of his house and make it away none can snatch Gods house out of his hand he is no changling he will keepe his house for ever Blessed are we that be GODS house and the Lord give us grace to keepe us undefiled for his Majesty that he may take pleasure to dwell in us in this World and wee may dwell with him in the World to come What are we the house of God simply Live as we list and do what we will No verily but if we hold fast the confidence c. One speciall quality of a good house is to be firme and stable if it be a tottering house ready to shake in every wind and tempest a man will have small joy to dwell in it even so we that be the house of God Almighty must not be wavering and inconstant but we must stand sure and hold fast the graces we have received There be two things which we must hold fast faith and hope the boldnesse that we have by faith to come into the presence of God to whom we have accesse by Christ apprehended by faith and by vertue whereof we may boldly call God Father and open our minds freely to him that is the nature of the word Vnto faith must be annexed hope faith makes a Christian hope nourishes and susteines a Christian we must hold both fast As we have begun to put our trust in Christ so we must make him our pillar to leane upon continually as we have begun to hope for eternall happinesse purchased by Christ so we must still stand in a stedfast expectation of it Though persecution arise for the Gospell though we be clapt up into prison banished out of our country though we be put to the fire for the name of Christ yet let us not cast away our hope let us not deny Christ and sleepe in an whole skin let not the pleasures and profits of this world carry us away from Christ though death it selfe come yet let us trust in him We are wont to be hold-fasts in our money none shall easily get that from us but let us chiefly be hold-fasts in the Pearles and graces of the Spirit Whatsoever comes let us hold faith and hope fast let Houses and Lands Wife and Children yea our owne life goe rather than them Thus if we hold the confidence that we have in CHRIST and the rejoycing of our hope to the end we shall be Gods houses in this life and be received up into that house which is made without hands in the heavens He doth not simply say hope but the rejoycing of the hope the glorying of hope Satan and his instruments goe about to overthrow our hope and mocke at it It is a goodly thing I warrant you which you hope for What fooles are you in hope of an imaginarie kingdome hereafter to deprive your selves of so many pleasures in this life bee wiser than so A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush Take your pleasure whyle you be here and hope not yee cannot tell for what To that hee opposeth this glorying and rejoycing Yea boast of your hope even before your enemies faces what excellent things are reposed for you and rejoyce in this hope as if you had the kingdome of heaven already Not as if these did make us the house of GOD but by these wee shall have an assurance to our selves that we are the house of GOD. A Father sayes to his Sonne if thou wilt be no Ale-house hunter but doe as I will have thee thou shalt be my Sonne this doth not make him his Sonne for he was his Sonne before but it assures him to be his Sonne A Captaine sayes to his souldier if thou wilt play the man and not shrinke in the wetting thou shalt be my Souldier yet hee was his Souldier before so here if yee hold fast faith and hope ye shall be my house that is all the world shall see indeede that you are my house not for a while but to the end So as neither we faint in persecution nor in the time of prosperity bee drowned in the pleasures and profits of this world Be faithfull to the end he that continueth to the end shall be saved The second argument is desumed from the testimony of the Holy Ghost In the allegation of the testimony first a charge not to shut up their eares and hearts against this worthie and heavenly Prophet but to entertaine him
is acquainted with all the infirmities of men he doth not only know them notitia speculativa but experimentali Saepius ipse miser miseris succurrere disco he that â—s in misery himselfe can the better pitty them that bee in misery hee that never tasted of poverty can hardly pitty a poore man a Physitian may pitty a sicke man but unlesse he have beene molested with sicknesse himselfe he cannot have so great compassion on â—hem that be sicke Countrie fellowes that never knew the labour of a student and painefull Preacher thinke it is no labour to preach Nothing can move commiseration so much as a fellow-feeling of the same misery This is in our High Priest our Lord and Saviour being clothed with our nature he is touched with our infirmities 2. When wee are afflicted Christ is afflicted If the meanest Christian suffer he suffers Saul Saul why persecutest thou me non meos We doe not only suffer for CHRIST but with CHRIST hee is not only the master for whom we suffer but the companion with whom we suffer If we be sick he is sick Art thou tempted of the devill sometimes to presumption to desperation so Christ art thou hungry thirsty weary or heavy of sleepe Art thou grieved for the departure of thy friends So was hee for Lazarus Is thy soule heavy and pensive So was Christs my soule is heavy to the death doe thine own familiar friends betray thee So was it with Christ art thou molested with rayling scoffing and backbiting tongues So was CHRIST as he hung on the Crosse in all his paines they derided him and nodded their heads at him art thou tormented with the paines of Death and at the last givest up the ghost So was it with our blessed Saviour No temptation hath fallen to us but the same befell to Christ before us We drink of his cup and are baptized with his baptisme When the Wife is grieved the Husband if he be as he ought to be is grieved We are the Spouse Christ is our husband therefore our griefe is his griefe When any member of the body suffers though it bee the foote that treadeth on the ground the head suffers Wee are the members Christ the head therefore our crosses are his crosses Many are the troubles of the righteous through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdome of God But let this bee a pillar for us to leane upon in all afflictions our sufferings are Christs sufferings and he will one day make a comfortable end of them all VERSE 16. THe other comfortable use wee are to make of this Priest is contained in this Verse which is that we have an accesse to God which is amplified by the manner how the place whereunto and the end Let us not feare him because hee is a great and mighty high Priest but let us goe to him and to God the Father by him This going is not only with the feete of our bodies but of the minde Let us goe by prayer to God not feare to put up our supplications to him Not quaking and trembling as to a Iudge but with boldnesse as to a father uttering our mindes and disclosing our hearts to him To the throne of grace There is thronus gloriae Matth. 25.31 Apoc. 6.16 he speakes not of that but of grace because God is reconciled to us in the bloud of Christ. 1. We must pray to God flie to him by prayer 2. In the mediation of Christ our high Priest 3. In boldnesse with faith Hebr. 11.6 Iac. 1.6 4. The fruit of prayer which is double 1. That wee may finde mercy for all our sinnes and grace for all our miseries 2. To a seasonable helpe to helpe us in due time and season when wee stand in need of it In due time even in the time of trouble The Papists are enemies to this boldnesse they will not have us to be so bold as to goe to God immediately by Christ but we must have other intercessours by the way the Angels the Virgin Mary and all the Saints triumphing in heaven yet the Holy Ghost will have us to goe to God the father boldly in the name of Christ alone observe the words of the Text. Therefore First seeing we have such a compassionate high Priest let us goe boldly in his name to the throne of God 2. He doth not say let us stand a farre off but let us goe 3. Not quaking and shaking like Aspen leaves but with boldnesse 4. Not to the Throne of justice but of grace a gracious reconciliation being made by him betweene God and us 5. Not to finde Iack drummes enterteinments and to be sent packing away but that wee may obtaine mercy c. Therefore let us sue to God in the only name of this our high Priest Whatsoever yee aske the Father in my name hee will give it you Then why should we seeke to any other he makes intercession in the heavens for us not the Saints or Angels there is one Mediatour betweene God and man 1 Tim. 2.5 The Scripture acknowledges but one True say the Papists but one immediate Mediatour yet there be many mediate Mediatours besides him This is a playster for many soares with the Papists There is but one immediate head of the Church whereunto the Church is united as a body but the Pope may bee a mediate head of the Church So there may bee mediate mediatours betweene Christ the immediate Mediatour They might as well say there be many mediate Gods for the text sayes as there is one Mediatour so one God shall we then distinguish as they do but one Immediate God yet many mediate Gods besides him they may affirme the one as well as the other Away with all those mediatours set up by the Church of Rome and let us goe with boldnesse to the throne of grace in the name of this our High Priest and only Mediatour None so gracious with God as hee none hath reconciled us to God but he none loveth nor tendereth us as hee doth having layd downe his life for us Shall we goe to a father in the name of a servant when we may goe in the name of his Sonne Angels and Saints are but servants our fellow servants and brethren Christ is the Sonne of God therfore let us goe to him in his name and if we aske any thing according to his will he will heare us for his sake This incouragement doth the Holy Ghost give us in the next words we shall not loose our labour nor goe away emptie God the Father for Christ his sake will lade us with his benefits In due time even in affliction sayes the Psalmist God will stand by us in all our needs in sicknesse povertie imprisonment banishment yea in death it selfe The examples of Iosuah the three Children Daniel Ionah Peter stand as so many marble pillars to confirme and ratifie this when all leave us he will not forsake us when my Father and Mother
an hard father chode sharply now hee stroakes them on the head againe saying wee are perswaded better things of you 2. We must have a good and charitable opinion of them that sit in the lap of the Church that subject themselves to the Ministerie of the Word though there bee some defects and blemishes in them St. Paul judged all in the Church of Philippi to be the elect Children of God Phil. 1.7 We must not be too lavish or too strict in our judgment some have such large consciences as that they are perswaded too well of all that all in the end shall bee saved yea even the Devills themselves that was the dotage of Origen And some at this day cannot bee perswaded that any shall be damned the lappe of their charity is too wide and others is too narrow They are scant perswaded well of any but of themselves they thanke God with the Pharisee they are not as other men all others are naught and they only are good but except there appeare manifest tokens of reprobation except they take an apparant bad course and the very high way to hell we must perswade our selves that they may appertaine to the number of Gods faithfull and elect Children wee are perswaded of our owne salvation judicio fidei and we may be perswaded of the salvation of others scientia charitatis wee must not bee too rash in our sentence as the Barbarians against Saint Paul doubtlesse this man is a murderer Such a one hath these and these faults doubtlesse he is the child of the Devill if they prosesse the Gospell and have any godly care to live accordingly though there be wants in them wee must be well perswaded of them But what was St. Pauls perswasion did hee perswade himselfe that they were honest good natured men and the like Nay more then so that they were in the number of those that should be saved That young man in the Gospell was a man of rare and excellent parts he had kept as he said all the tenne Commandements from his youth and Christ loved him yet there were not things in him that accompanied salvation Thou maiest be a sowre Cato a just and upright Aristides in thy dealings with men and yet have not the infallible markes of salvation It is an excellent thing when there be those vertues in men and women that accompany salvation Hast thou a sharpe and pregnant wit So had Esau that could wittily descant on his brothers name Hast thou a brave and eloquent tongue So had Aeschines Tully and Demosthenes Art thou a faire comely and beautifull man as goodly a man as one shall see in a summers day So was Absalom Hast thou a reaching and a politike head So had Achitophel Art thou a deepe Scholler a profound learned man So was Porphyrie Lucian Iulian that never set a foote in the kingdome of heaven Labour to have those things that accompany salvation faith hope zeale patience humility and other graces of the spirit whereby we may be perswaded that you are the deare Children of God The Lord worke those things in us all that accompany salvation Though the Church be perswaded of thee that thou art a wise man witty learned that is to small purpose So live that both the Preachers and all good people may bee perswaded you have that in you for the which they may judge you to be heyres of salvation Here hee prevents an objection that might be made What Paul hast thou bin so bitter towards us hast thou called us babes and novices in Religion Hast thou set before our eyes such a terrible example of Apostates and backsliders as if we were birds of the same feather and now art thou well perswaded of us thou doest but flatter us wee can hardly thinke so O yes saies St. Paul assure your selves we have a good opinion of you though we thus speake these are but trumpets to waken you out of sin the wounds of a lover to cure you withall they be but spurs of fatherly admonitions to pricke you forwards unto all goodnesse Wee made mention of these men not as if you were such but to warne you that you be not such Though the Preacher be sometimes round and vehement yet the people must not imagine that he is hardly conceited of them A Father loves his child when he chides him a Physician his patient though he give him bitter pils and we love you though we be hot against the corruptions that raigne among you VERSE 10. SAint Pauls perswasion was not grounded on nothing it is not as a castle built in the ayre it hath a sure ground to stand upon you have good workes issuing from faith therefore we are perswaded of your salvation To forget that is both to prosequute and crowne your workes as hee hath begun a good worke in you so he will finish it in this life and reward it in the life to come If God should not doe this he should be unjust but he is not unjust he is not an unrighteous Father that forsakes his Sonne or an unjust builder that leaves his building That this is his meaning is apparant by that which went before and that which followes after unlesse he were perswaded that God would finish the worke begun in them his perswasion could not be firme and in the next Verse he prayes that they may goe on forward to the end and when he hath done so hee will crowne his owne worke The Iesuits say it is a world to see what wrything and wringing the Protestants make to shift off this place whereby it is cleere that good workes are meritorious and causes of salvation If it bee an unrighteous thing with God not to give heaven to our workes then we have it not on meere mercy but of justice Iustum est ut reddat qui debet debet autem qui promisit It is just with God so to doe not in regard of our merit but of his own promise They that came into the vineyard at the last houre had as much as the first yet not of merit but of covenant It is an unrighteous thing for one to break his promise GOD hath promised to reward our workes with eternall life therefore he should be unrighteous if he did it not and in the next words he shewes that wee must not depend on our merits but on Gods promise ratified by an oath But what manner of work is it not an easie work but a labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seco. Such a wearisome labour as cuts the body it may be they went away a mile to visit the Ministers and members of CHRIST they had many discouragements yet they waded through them all it was an hazarding of their life to bee seene in their quarrell to make their part and to relieve them This worke of theirs is illustrated by the manner of it the end the matter
things Abraham gave tithe of all things to Melchizedec so ought yee to doe howsoever you flatter your selves to the contrary Our best workes are too often defiled with sinne many strange by-thoughts creepe into our minds while we are a praying we pray not with sighes and groanes of the spirit as wee ought to doe we preach not with such wisedome love zeale and power as we should we give not our almes so sincerely as becommeth us we receive not the Communion so penitently and thankfully as we should we heare not the word with such reverence and attention as becommeth us every one of us may knocke on our breasts after the best action we have done with the Publican and say Oh God be mercifull to mee a sinner I have no righteousnesse of mine owne to appeare before thee withall cloath us with the righteousnesse of thy deere Sonne the King of righteousnesse that wee may bee found in him to the everlasting joy and comfort of us all Let the Papists trust to the broken staffe of their inherent righteousnesse scoffing at the imputed righteousnesse of Christ but let us desire this righteousnesse By nature there is Warre betweene GOD and us hee is our enemie and wee his the flagge of defiance is displayed betweene us both Then in what a wofull case are we are we able to encounter with the GOD of heaven and earth that hath all creatures at his becke we must needs goe by the worst he can arme heaven earth and hell against us but here is our comfort IESUS CHRIST is our peace hee hath set at peace by the bloud of his crosse all things in heaven and earth This is the true peace indeed without the which wee can have no sound comfort there is no peace saith God to the wicked What peace said Iehu to Iehoram when as the adulteries of thy mother Iesabel are yet in great number Though a man have the world at will faire houses large lands ample possessions great bagges of silver and gold yet if his adulteries oppressions and other sinnes lye as an heavy loade on his conscience alas what peace can hee have hee is as the raging Sea that cannot bee quiet Achitophel had wealth enough yet because he was not at peace with God by Christ tooke a rope and hanged himselfe Iudas had money enough being the purse bearer and having lately received â—hirtie pieces of silver from the Scribes and Pharisees but alas his sinne vexing his conscience he could have no rest but became his owne butcher Therefore let us all desire God to give us an assurance in our hearts and consciences that wee are subjects appertaining to the King of peace and that Christ Iesus is our Peace It is a singular blessing to have outward peace to sit quietly under our vines and figtrees to have no leading into Captivity no complaining in our streets God hath beene wonderfull gracious to England these many yeares together and that for the admirable peace which it enjoyed we are to praise God that there be no tumults insurrections nor massacres that there is no sword of the enemies to devoure in the land but if in the meane season wee bee not at peace with God by Christ we are most miserable Therefore let us pray especially for this peace that we may be perswaded of the remission of all our sinnes in the bloud of Christ. This is most livelily represented to us in the Lords Supper The breaking of the bread sets before our eyes the breaking of Christs body for our sins the powring out of the Wine represents to us the gushing out of the bloud of Christ out of his Holy side for our iniquities therefore let us come to this heavenly banquet with broken hearts and contrite spirits with a true and lively faith in Christ Iesus the true King of peace that wee may be assured that Christ is ours so that whensoever death shall come we may say with Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy salvation This is that peace which passeth all understanding the God of peace give it to us all VERSE 3. THe thing concealed by Moses is the eternity of Melchizedec not in deed but in respect of Moses History Hee is introduced by him on the suddaine as if he came then presently from heaven and returned thither againe for Moses never spake of him before nor after His father and mother were not onely not knowne but they were not at all namely in the History of the bible Cujus neque pater neque mater scribuntur in generationibus Syr. otherwise he could not have beene a fit type of our Saviour Christ. He doth not say of yeeres but not so much as of dayes dayes goe before yeeres Melchizedec was without beginning of dayes quia hoc scriptum non est Christus quia non habet initium Chrys. Theoph. Nor end of life Not that he was translated as Enoch but because his end is not mentioned So Christ had no father in respect of his humanity no mother in respect of his deity He had kindred according to the flesh but not as God without beginning and ending as God Ioh. 12.34 This he applyeth Likened they are not the same but the one like to the other As the picture of the King is like the King so Melchizedec was as a picture of our Saviour Christ. Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can overthrow it An immoveable Priest-hood a permanent Priest so was not Aaron and his posteritie Some have affirmed from hence that Melchizedec was not a man but something greater then a man Origen as Ierome testifieth of him Epist. 126. said hee was an Angell others that hee was the HOLY GHOST others that he was the great power of GOD yea greater then Christ because Christ is said to bee a Priest after his order Epiphan l. 2. cont haereses haeresi 55. Aug. de haeresibus c. 34. The same did Theodotus the Heretike avouch and that hee was the mediatour of the Angels praying for them as CHRIST doth for men Tertul. de praescrip adversus haereticos in fine Some have taken upon them to set downe his fathers and mothers name that his fathers name was Eracla his mothers name Astareth or Asteria Vide Epiphanium All these are confuted by the text 1. Hee is said to bee likened to the Sonne of God but nullum simile est idem 2. Hee is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because hee had no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stocke or kinred but because there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mention no commemoration of his kinred in the Scripture from whence ariseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 6. So Horace lib. 2. Satyr 5. sayes of one that he was sine gente because his nation was not knowne qui quamvis perjurus erat sine
and to God the things that are Gods i. Caesari tributa Deo decimas Ierome and Augustine 3. The Ministers give us the raine of the Word of GOD and shall we thinke much to give them the hay of tithes faenum decimarum 4. The Pharisees payd tithes and our righteousnesse must exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees Aug. in Psalm 146. Est de jure naturae divino ut aliquid solvant laici sacerdotibus de jure ecclesiastico ut id quod solvitur sit pars decima De clericis cap. 25. pag. 137. Decimae etiam quoad determinationem quantitatis debentur jure divino nec ulla humana lege aut consuetudine statui potest alia quantitas Hanc opinionem inquit Bellar. damnant ferè omnes Theologi Hanc refellit Bellar. 1. A commandement to pay the tenth is no where imposed upon Christians in the Old or New Testament That it is not in the New is evident that it is not in the Old he proveth Because the commandement of paying the tenth part was neither morall nor properly ceremoniall but judiciall That it was not morall he sheweth 1. All morall Commandements did ever binde from the beginning of the world but the Commandement to pay the tenth part was not till Moses time therefore not morall 2. Every morall commandement is agreeable to reason but reason doth not will that the Priest should have the tenth part but so much as is sufficient for the sustentation of him 3. Iacob vowed if GOD would blesse him in his journey he would give him the tenth of all that he had but if he had beene bound to it absolutely hee had done wickedly to vow it upon such a condition 4. If the determination of the tenth part bee a morall precept then that which is annexed to it is likewise morall that they which receive tithes should have no other patrimony then Ministers must enjoy no temporall things pag. 141. 1. To the first The assignation of the tenth part began in Moses time but the institution of it was before 2. In reason that is the most equall and sufficient 3. Is fully answered before 4. That is not annexed to the first institution of tithes but to the assignation of them to the Levites 2. The Levites had Citties and a great deale of lands round about those Cities appointed to them besides their tenthes So the ministers of the Gospell may have temporall lands besides their tithes Vide Lev. 25.2 and 3. That the paying of the tenth part was not properly ceremoniall he proveth Because it was not ordained immediately for the worship of God but for the constitution of equity among men and for that cause judiciall rather than ceremoniall The equity was this that there might be a proportion between the goods of the Levites and others The whole family of Israel was divided into twelve tribes or rather thirteene tribes for Ioseph made two Ephraim and Manasseh whereupon in equity the Levites should have had but the thirteenth part yet because God foresaw that a number would pay badly he allotted to the Levites the tenth part By the same reason no maintenance of Ministers should bee morall because it hath not an immediate relation to the worship of God 2. I but tithes have an immediate relation to the worship of God because they bee the Lords immediately who of his owne right gives them to the Ministers Neither is that the reason but God assigned tithes to Levi out of his owne right Levit. 27.30 2. If that had beene the reason for paying of tithes then they should not have beene payd before the law By what reason it may bee shewed that the determination of the Church is just that Christians should give the tenth part of their fruits to the Church The meaning is not whether that be just which the Church determineth for it were a madnes sayes Bell. to dispute that but upon what justice and equity the payment of the tenth part dependeth There was some equity for it in the old law because the Levites were the twelfth or thirteenth part of the people but now there seemes to be no equitie of it because the Clergy is not the hundred part of the people Yet it is still agreeable to equitie 1. Because the Clergy must bee hospitall and maintaine the poore 2. Bellarmine denies that the Levites were the thirteenth part of the people and that the Clergie now is not the hundreth part for the people were sixe hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fiftie besides Women and Children Num. 1.45.46 whereas the Levites in all were but two and twenty thousand Num. 3.39 3. Now the Clergie is subject to more cost and labour 4. The Ministery of the New Testament is more worthy then the Old 5. Now the Church is more deprived of her right Some pay no tithes at all the most pay unfaithfully 6. Christian people should bee more perfect then the Iewes were Ergo at the least they should pay the tenth pag. 146. Where there is no custome set downe by the Church to pay tithes whether doe the people offend in not paying them In three cases they may offend 1. If for want of tithes the Church bee in great affliction and penurie 2. If the Church doe require them 3. If the people be of this minde not to pay them though they be lawfully required Otherwise they are excused because the Church in not demanding tithes doth seeme to forgive them and it is no sin not to pay a forgiven debt pag. 145. Quest. 4. Whether we are bound to pay tithes to a bad Minister or not Tithes must be given to bad Ministers 1. Matthew 22. Verse 21. Yet at that time bad Caesars and bad Priests 2. Decimae non dantur clericis quia boni sunt sed quia clerici sunt Sicut tributa dantur regibus non quia probi sed quia reges sunt A bad Father must have maintenance from his Sonne and a bad Minister must have tithes from his people But how cheerefully ought yee to give it to them that are faithfull and diligent in the worke of the Lord Yet all is one Let him be never so good a Preacher if St. Paul were among us unlesse the law constrained us he should have nothing What a lamentable case is this The light of this truth is as cleere as the noone day Tithes are still due by the Law of God to the Ministers of the Gospell yet what a stirre hath hee to get his due how hardly is it wrung even from them that carry a glorious shew of Religion Wee have a custome said the Iewes to Pilat thou must let loose Barabbas to us though hee bee a thiefe and a murtherer so wee pleade wee have a custome to pay little or nothing instead of any tithes therefore we will hold this custome though you preach your hearts out 1. Consider the equity of the custome That which
God and one another in love in some calling or other The eye serveth one way for the benefit of the body the eare another way the hand another way and the foote the lowest part of the body serves too the service whereof is so necessary as that the body cannot be without it We may serve God to his glory and our owne comfort in the meanest calling that is and let us all so serve him in our severall places in this world that wee may raigne with him in the world to come The Apostle doth not say whereof no man ruled at the Altar It cannot bee denyed but that Ministers in some sort are rulers of the people obey them that have the oversight of you in the Lord yet our office must not puffe us up with pride we must remember it is a service yea a painefull and an honourable service He that desireth the office of a Bishop desireth a worthy worke on us rather than honos prodesse rather than praesse 2 Cor. 4.5 Our selves your servants for CHRIST 's sake Yet it is not a base service as some imagine and in reproch they will say of a Minister hee serves at such a towne Wee grant we are servants yet in an high and honourable place we serve in the Church the house of God as stewards do in a Noble mans house we dispense to you the foode of life Therefore as all the household honours the steward so ought all the parish to honour the Minister VERSE 14. TO put it out of all doubt hee sheweth to what Tribe this Priest appertaineth he proves it by the common voice and testimony of all it is a cleere case all confesse it Of whom it is said the Lord said to my Lord sit thou on my right hand c. As the Sunne dispelling the clouds and darknesse of the night riseth in the morning and scattereth his beames over all the world So the Sonne of righteousnesse rose dispelling the foggie mists of the ceremoniall law and spreading the light of the Gospell over all the world Iudah both on his supposed fathers side Luk. 2.4 and on his mothers side Luk. 1.27 It seemes that Christ pertained to the Tribe of Levi too 1. Elizabeth was Maries Couzin she was Wife to Zacharie which was of the Tribe of Levi now they were to marry in their owne Tribes Sol They of the Tribe of Levi might take Wives out of other Tribes so as the inheritance were not transported out of the Tribe as 2 Chron. 22.11 yet the men not the women gave the denomination of the Tribe and the child was not said to be of that Tribe whereof his mother was but whereof his father was 2. Nathan was of the Tribe of Levi yet Christ came of him Luk. 3.31 It was not Nathan the Prophet but one of David's sonnes of that name 2 Sam. 5.14 It is manifest Christ was of the Tribe of Iudah the Sonne of David concerning which Moses Gods Scribe and Pen-man of that that was deputed to the Priest hood The Tribe is changed ergo the Priest-hood It pleased CHRIST to come of the Tribe of Iudah not for any holinesse that was in Iudah above the rest of the twelve Patriarchs Iudah himselfe committed incest with his daughter though unknowne to him at the least hee tooke her to be an Whore and lay with her but our Saviour made choice of this Tribe of his owne gracious goodnesse Though CHRIST descended of the Tribe of Iudah yet all of that Tribe were not sayed There are seald as many thousands of all other Tribes as of that and of that Tribe as Kings and others are noted to be wicked men Therefore wee must not flatter our selves in any outward prerogatives as the Papists doe They have a part of the coate wherein Christ went to be crucified some of the nailes wherewith hee was fastned to the Crosse they make pilgrimages to the Sepulchre of Christ c. All these are nothing to salvation Though thou couldest derive thy generation from Christ according to the flesh though thou haddest beene one of Christs brethren if possible lien in the same wombe yet that makes thee not the neerer to the kingdome of heaven Lay hold on Christ with a lively faith labour to say with Paul I live and yet not I but the Son of God liveth in mee then thou shalt be eternally saved Our LORD CHRIST is often honoured in Scripture with this title it may worthily bee adscribed to him He created us of nothing preserveth and upholdeth us being created hee bought us with his precious bloud when we were worse than nothing therefore justly is he our Lord. This we confesse in our Creede And in Iesus Christ our Lord this we professe in our prayers which end thus through Iesus Christ our Lord. Yet we use him not as our Lord yee call mee Master and Lord and yee doe well but then yee ought to behave your selves as dutifull and obedient servants to me Servants goe and come at the commandement of their Lord. I have servants under me sayes the Centurion I say to one goe and he goeth doe this and he doth it Doe we deale so with Christ our Lord hee sayes come not at the Ale-house there to sit quaffing and swilling till reason be buried in you yet we will be as drunken as Apes as wee use to speake Our Lord sayes your bodies are mine they bee my members and the temples of the Holy Ghost doe not prostitute them to Whores and Harlots yet we will do it Our Lord sayes one thing is necessary preferre the hearing of my Word before all worldly businesses yet if there be a Sermon in the Towne and a paltry faire a little from the Towne we will preferre the faire before the Sermon Christ shall speake to the walls for all us Our Lord sayes use my name reverently in all your talke yet we will make it as common as a Tennis ball and sweare by God and Christ at every word Is this to call Christ Lord Christ hath the name of our Lord and the Devill hath our service what a monstrous thing is this As in word we call Christ Lord so let our deeds shew us to be his servants we are bought with a price wee are not our owne but Iesus Christs therefore let us glorifie him in our Spirits and bodies which be his VERSE 15. THe second Argument is taken from the discrepant creation of Priests he that is made a Priest after an heavenly and Spirituall manner is greater then they that are made after an earthly and carnall manner our Saviour Christ is made after an heavenly and Spirituall manner they after an earthly and carnall manner therefore he is greater then they Hee makes an entrance into it by the cleerenesse and evidencie of the case More abundantly evident that the Leviticall Priesthood is gone and the Priesthood of Christ is come into the roome of it If after but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is
hee teacheth us to pray he doth not in his owne person make intercession with sighes and groanes for the Holy Ghost cannot sigh and groane but he stirres up to it The Papists say that Christ is intercessor immediatus but the Saints bee mediatores mediatâ— But wee must goe to God by Christ alone there is one Mediatour and no other As there is but one God So but one Mediatour They might as well say there is but one immediate God and many mediate Gods as to say there is one immediate intercessor and many mediate When thou goest to a King sayes St. Ambrose thou must make a friend with some about him but ad deum non opus est suffrâ—gâ—tore sed mente devota Christ is our eye by whom we see the Father our mouth whereby wee speake to the Father Nonâ— loves us so deerely as Christ none is in greater favour with the Father than the only Son that lyeth in his bosome therefore let us go to God by him and him alone We must not imagine that Christ makes intercession for us now in heaven after the same manner he did when hee was on the earth either by bowing of the knee by falling down on his face by praying with sighes and groanes as hee did at the death of Lazarus or with strong cryes and teares as he did in the Garden being glorified in heaven hee doth it not after such a carnall manner but Christ is said now to make intercession for us two kinde of wayes 1. Non voce sed miseratione not by uttering any voice by making prayers to his father as he did on the earth but by having pitty and compassion on us We have not a high-Priest which cannot be touched with our infirmities but a mercifull high Priest that was tempted as we are and can succour us in our temptations 2. He maketh intercession for us by presenting himselfe before the Father for us Hebr. 9.34 the exhibition of his glorious body in heaven the force and efficacy of his passion the recordation of his obedience these intercede with the Father for us Whereupon it is well said of Gregory l. 21. moral cap. 13. Vnigenito filio Deum pro homine interpellare est apud coaeternum Patrem seipsum hominem demonstrare The consideration of Christs perpetuall intercession in heaven for us may be a singular comfort to all Christians We count him happie that hath a friend in the Court then how happy are wee that have such a friend as Christ in the Court of heaven If the Kings Sonne make a request and that earnestly to the King for us shall wee not be in great hope to speede Christ Iesus the Sonne of God makes request to God for us and shall we not assure our selves that whatsoever wee aske in his name according to his will he heareth us In sicknesse poverty disgrace in the assaults and temptations of Satan yea in death it selfe Let us flie to this our Intercessour in heaven Say on my mother said Solomon to Bathshebah I will not say thee nay so sayes God the Father to Christ say on my Sonne make intercession for thy members I will not say thee nay Blessed are we that have such an Intercessour only let us not grieve him with our sins let us glorifie him by an holy life let us bring forth fruits worthy of the faith we have in him then we may boldly commence our suits to him and he will prefer them to his Father to the everlasting joy and comfort of us all VERSE 26. HItherto the Priest-hood of our Saviour hath beene advanced above the Leviticall Priest-hood by foure strong and infallible arguments Now there remaineth an high and magnificent description of the Priest himselfe Wherein 1. The substance of the description ver 26 27. 2. A reason for the confirmation of it In the substance of the description 1. The person of our High-Priest 2. His Ministery Became Not as if wee were worthy of him as wee say the best Preacher in England becomes the King It is better translated as Stephen doth conveniebat nobis was requisite and convenient for us it behooved us to have such an High-Priest Our redemption could not have been accomplished without such a one What manner of one 1. Holy in himselfe and in his own nature not only in respect of his deity but of his humanity also Luk. 1.35 Act. 2.27 The Devills acknowledge this we know who thou art that holy one of God Dan. 9.24 Chodesh Chodashim Some Priests Prophets and others have beene holy men but none so holy as Christ not a spot or blemish of unholinesse in him therefore fit to discharge the office of an high-Priest and to reconcile us to his Father 2. In respect of others doing no harme but all good to all not circumventing any by fraud or deceit nor offering open wrong and injurie to any In regard whereof hee is compared to a sheepe which of all creatures is most harmelesse nay profitable for his flesh and wooll too So was Christ so farre from doing any harme that hee did good to his very enemies a simple man no craft in him 3. As he was harmelesse himselfe so he tooke no harme from nothing 1. Actively 2. Passively 1. Vndefiled of all things The Priests in the time of the Law above others were to be circumspect that they were defiled with nothing especially in the time of the exequution of their office all that while they might not keepe company with their Wives they were to abstaine from wine not to touch a dead body or any uncleane thing Christ was more undefiled than any of them all they might keepe their bodies from being outwardly defiled yet they were stained with sin in soule and body too Christ had no defilement any kinde of way 2. He was undefiled of any person Hee conversed with sinners for the reclaiming of them as the Physition keeps company with sicke persons for the curing of them but he neither gave allowance to their sinnes nor received any contagion from them Then his ministery is set forth to us Where 1. The place where he doth Minister in the Sanctuary of heaven Some expound it thus that is a most high and excellent man But it is rather to be referred to the place where he ministers he is exalted above all those adspectable heavens Ep. 4.10 he is made higher than them and exequutes the office of an high-Priest for us in the highest heavens where he makes continuall intercession for us Is our high Priest holy and shall we be unholy that belong to him Is the head holy and shall the members bee unholy Is the husband pure and shall the wife be an impure strumpet Nay wee must labour in some acceptable measure to expresse the holinesse that is in him whereupon he saith be yee holy as I am holy Indeed wee cannot bee so holy as he is and as certaine Heretickes dreamed that were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure
taken from the subject whereabout He Ministers hee hath obtained a more excellent ministery Hee that is a Mediatour of a better covenant is a more excellent Priest Our Saviour Christ is a Mediatour of a more excellent covenant ergo he is a more excellent Priest In all covenants there bee some that interpose themselves betweene the parties for the ratifying of the covenant The only Mediatour betweene God and us in this New Covenant is our Saviour and High-Priest CHRIST IESUS hee undertakes for the Fathers part to make satisfaction to him for our sinnes though wee be not able to doe it and for our comfort and securitie to reconcile the Father to us Aaron and the rest of the Priests were mediatours in the time of the Law betweene God and the people and the Law it selfe was given by the hand of Moses as of a Mediatour But the only Mediatour of this New Testament or covenant is Christ Iesus Neither the Virgin Mary nor any of the Apostles and Saints joyne with him in it he discharges this office alone Now that he is a Mediatour of a better Testament he proveth by the materiall cause of a testament or covenant That testament which hath the better promises is the better testament for a testament or covenant consists of promises But this testament whereof CHRIST is the mediatour hath better promises ergo Which was established He speakes more emphatically by order of Law on better promises which are the pillars for it to leane upon What hath the New Testament better promises than the Old was not Christ promised to them in the time of the Law as well as to us in the time of the Gospell did not God say to Adam the seede of the woman shall breake the Serpents head to Abraham In thy seede shall all nations bee blessed how then are our promises better than theirs when as Christ and the kingdome of heaven were promised to them as well as to us In the promises there are these two things the matter and the manner as for matter and substance the promises were all one in the Old and New Testament that is CHRIST and eternall salvation by him But ours in respect of the manner are better and excell theirs 1. Their promises were included within the narrow compasse of Iudea our promises are blazed all the world over 2. Their promises were published by men by the Patriarcks Prophets which were but servants ours by Christ the Son of God 3. They according to Gods promise had the graces of the spirit as we have yet not in such abundant measure as they bee now powred out in the time of the Gospell 4. Their promises were darke and obscure covered under the vaile of many ceremonies and shadowed out by temporall things our promises are more cleere and evident 5. Theirs were at the delivery of the Law with a condition doe this and live Cursed be he that continueth not in all things c. Ours believe and live 6. The Sacraments whereby the promises were confirmed unto them were more hard and difficult the cutting off the fore-skin the preparing of a Lamb for every house ours are more easie and familiar the sprinkling of a little water or the dipping in the water the procuring of bread and wine 7 Their promises were of things to come there should come a Lamb that should take away the sins of the world ours are of things already come and exhibited This Lambe is come and hath offered up himselfe on the Altar of the Crosse for us Therefore the promises being better the covenant is better and we are to praise God for this Mediatour of a better covenant Hath God in mercy vouchsafed us greater promises and doth he not look think yee for greater obedience at our hands To whom much is given much is required A father is more kind to one Son than to another and hath made a more ample promise to him ought not that Son to be more dutifull to his Father Our heavenly father hath beene more benigne and loving to us then to them in the time of the Law therefore our gratitude and obedience should exceed theirs wee should excell them in all vertues and bee more carefull to keepe Gods Commandements then they yet we are behind them in vertue and all vices flow with a fuller streame among us For all the excellent promises that wee have where shall wee finde a man so strong in faith as Abraham was So meeke and courteous as Moses was So chast as Ioseph was So zealous as Phinees was So sincere and heavenly minded man as David was So patient and mercifull as Iob whom the very loines of the poore blessed When did abhominable swearing contempt of the word pride malice covetousnesse abound more than at this day wee have more gracious promises then they to allure us to goodnesse yet wee are worse than they A fearefull thing Our condemnation will be the greater if we doe not repent Let us set these promises before our eyes that they may be as whet-stones to sharpen us to all good duties God hath promised better things to us therfore we will be better in our lives and conversations then they VERSE 7. THis better and more worthy Testament is illustrated two kinde of wayes 1. By the necessity of it 2. By the introduction of it The necessitie was a fault or imperfection in the old That there was a fault and imperfection in it hee proveth by the bringing in of another If there had beene no want in the Old Testament another had not beene brought in but another was brought in ergo there was a want in the Old Testament But what was there a fault in that Testament why God was the Author of it and God I hope makes no faults In the matter and substance of the covenant there was no fault but in the circumstance and that in respect of us not of it It was weake in regard of the flesh Rom. 8.3 a condition of that covenant was that we should serve God and obey his Lawes we were not able to doe it therefore that covenant was weake and could not carry us to heaven if it could there should have beene no place for another Such as no complaint could be made any way of it The Old Testament was faultie there is no fault in the New because whatsoever is wanting on our part is abundantly supplyed by our SAVIOUR CHRIST the Mediatour of the New Testament therefore this is to be had in great price and estimation with us all VERSE 8. NOw that another was introduced in the roome of it blaming the other he proveth by the words of the Prophet himselfe Where 1. An allegation of the testimony 2. A collection deduced out of it Verse 13. Complaining of them that they had not kept the former covenant there was the fault it could not be performed whereupon another was inferred Graec. it is reprooving he said to them that is reproving the imbecillitie
hands from covetousnesse theft and rapine our feete from going to unlawfull places our tongues from reviling lying backe-biting slandering St. Peter at the first refused to have his feete washed by CHRIST but when hee understood the mystery of it hee cryed Lord not my feete alone but my hands and my head Ioh. 13.9 So let us entreat Christ to wash all the faculties of our soules and all the members of our body with this pure water that so we may reigne with him for ever VERSE 23. STill hee alludeth to the rites and ceremonies of the Law Hebr. 9.10 And washed according to the body We must be washed in soule before we can bee washed in body but hee makes a speciall mention of the washing of the body because it was more conspicuous and because hee now comes to an outward profession of the name of GOD which must bee declared by our bodies Some interpret this of baptisme which is the washing of the new birth Tit. 3. but they were baptized already and admitted into the Church and fellowship of the faithfull which some relinquished Verse 25. Therefore hee need not bid them draw neere by baptisme Rather it is to be understood of the HOLY GHOST who is oft in Scripture signified by water Ezek. 36.25 Ioh. 3.5 This is pure water indeed proceeding from a pure and holy spirit this surpasses all the waters in the Law whereof they were figures Let us keepe it with all our strength tooth and naile Let neither Satan nor any of his instruments let no boysterous windes of stormie persequutions drive us from it It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keepe it so as we loose it not he doth not simply say hope but the confession of it Let us bee ready to make an open profession of the hope we have by Christ before all men whatsoever Not inclining one while this way another while that way but keeping alwayes one and perpetuall tenor Matthew 10. verse 32. Rom. 10.10 Not leaning on our owne wit wisedome or strength but upon the fidelity of God He that hath promised to us eternall salvation by Christ will accomplish it therefore let us hold fast the profession of the hope which wee have in him If wee had the word of a man only wee might bee wavering but we have the Word of God he doth not directly say God but he describes him by his attribute Many are washed with the water of baptisme that are not washed with this water as Simon Magus of whom it is said fonte quidem lotus sed non in pectore mundus except a man be borne of this water he cannot enter into the kingdome of God Therefore let us entreat the Lord to wash us with this water Let us say with the woman of Samaria yet more sensibly than she did Lord ever give us of this water then shall wee be cleane and fit for the Holy Hierusalem It is not enough to have hope as a precious jewell locked up in the Chest of our hearts but wee must also make a profession of it before the world Rom. 10.10 1 Pet. 3.15 We must professe before all men that we looke for salvation by CHRIST and by no other Whatsoever come of it we must keepe this our profession What went yee out into the wildernesse to see a reede shaken with the winde wee must not be wavering Reedes but Stones built on the Rocke CHRIST IESUS we must not be as meteors hanging in the ayre betweene heaven and earth we must not halt betweene two religions wee must not be wavering which way to take whether to be Papists Familists Schismatickes or of no religion but we must hold fast the profession of true religion to the end When many of Christ's Disciples departed from him he said to the twelve will yee also goe away to whom should we goe saies St. Peter Let us sticke to CHRIST and goe to none but him There be two things that hinder it feare and shame Of the former we have an evident example Ioh. 12.42 Many of the chiefe rulers believed in Christ but because of the Pharisees they did not confesse him least they should bee put out of the Synagogue Men in times of persequution are afraid to loose their goods honour liberty life it is good sleeping in an whole skinne This terrifies them from any open profession of the name of CHRIST But let such remember that the fearefull are the first that have their portion in the lake Apoc. 21.8 Let nothing drive us from the profession of CHRIST our SAVIOUR let us not feare them that can kill the body but Him that can cast body and soule into hell fire This caveat is needfull in some places and time The other is shame CHRIST is poore in this world the Gospell is sometimes naked destitute of wealth and honour many afflictions attend on it the professours of it sometimes thrust to the walls In Iulians time none of the Christians were Captaines or had any office this makes many ashamed of it If the father be a poore man many a sonne is ashamed of him ashamed to owne him for his father so because the profession of CHRIST in some places hath nothing to grace it withall sundry are ashamed of it but Saint Paul sayes I am not ashamed of the Gospell of CHRIST Men will hold fast their purses and shall they not hold fast their profession of CHRIST Let us not bee ashamed of CHRIST how contemptible so ever he seeme to be lest he be ashamed of us before his father and his glorious Angels Why what should move us to it The Papists will have two pillars for hope to leane upon gratia Dei merita praecedentia sine meritis sperare aliquid non spes sed praesumptio est I but the grace and mercy of GOD is a sufficient pillar alone by it selfe the Apostle sayes not keepe the profession of your hope yee have many merits yee shall never fall but keepe it let no persequution remove you from it for he is faithfull that hath promised You are weake you stand to day and fall to morrow your enemies are many and mighty and there is no strength in you to resist them yet hold fast your hope for God is faithfull In him there is not so much as a shadow of turning Wee are unfaithfull wee promise and unpromise It is not so with him I know whom I have believed I have fought a good fight from henceforth is laid up for mee a Crowne of righteousnesse In all assaults and temptations let us not looke to our owne weakenesse for then we may stagger but to the promise of God and then we may be sure for as hee hath promised us a kingdome so hee will performe it Therefore let us hold the profession of our hope VERSE 24. LEt us set our mindes one on another Consider what their growth is in Christ what progresse they have made in Christianity Not to
for this faith Ergo. Elders whom we are to reverence which went before us and lived longer than we Reported of adorned by the testimony of God and man the testimony of the Lord is pure As the Father testified of Christ this is my beloved Sonne So also of Noah that he was a just and upright man and one that walked with God Abraham the friend of God Moses the meekest man upon the earth David a man after Gods owne heart hast thou not considered my servant Iob how none is like him in the earth an upright and just man one that feareth God and escheweth evill Of Nathaneel Christ said behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile This also got them a goodreport among men all their famous exploits were done by faith Verse 29. A good name is above Gold and silver it is greatly desired of all but all take not the right course of getting it Some thinke to get them a name by building as they that set up the tower of Babel they imagine to be famous by sumptuous buildings some by hunting as Nimrod some by drinking as Fâ—cidius some by whoring as Hercules some strive to get them a name by their courteous behaviour as Absalom did by a counterfeit kinde of kindnes towards all some by liberality and house keeping and I would there were moe of them some by their great variety of learning but all these misse the marke they begin at a wrong end The best foundation for a good name is faith she will leave a sweete savour behinde her wheresoever she become she will procure us favour with God and man when the name that the wicked have gotten shall rot the faithfull shall be had in perpetuall remembrance therefore let us all beg faith at the hands of God that we may be renowned in this world and eternally famous in the world to come VERSE 3. SEcondly it is illustrated by an instance in one particular which is famous by this we understand the world was made of things not seene therefore faith is the evidence of them Ages or times The world mas made in time hath continued in time and shall end in time Omnibus numeris absolutus no commoditie no pleasure wanting To this end that we might all understand c. We believe the Scriptures as Agrippa did they tell us that the world was made by GOD. In principio creavit Deus therefore we believe the creation of the world Aristotle held that the world was eternall Plato that GOD made the heavens and Angels but the Angels made the bodies of men and beasts but we by faith understand that God made the world yea that all creatures were of his making and that without him nothing was made he made the high and celestial Angels the Sun Moone and the whole host of heaven birds of the ayre fishes of the Sea all trees men and beasts on the earth and all these did he make by his owne bare word he commanded and they were created let there be a firmament and there was one let there be a Sea birds and it was so only he paused and deliberated at the making of one creature which was man because he was to be his vicegerent and a King over all creatures By his omnipotent word all were made And of what was the world made what timber what stones had God to make this building withall Surely nothing yet hee made it Not so much as any atomes even materia prima was made of him he found it not in the world before O mighty and puissant God! Let us all feare him that made heaven and earth O how wonderfully am I made said David of himselfe much more of the whole world how wonderfully was the world made of nothing The world came not by chance or fortune it was framed by no earthly artificers Aholiab Bezaleel made the Tabernacle Hyram the Temple God the world and this did he make principally for sinfull man All creatures were made for us the Sun Moone Birds Fishes c. that we might freely eat of all yea the Angels were in a sort made for us that they might be ministring spirits for our salvation Therefore let us praise God all the dayes of our lives that made the glorious pallace of the world for us Now as the world was made so it must have an end 2 Pet. 3. therefore notwithstanding all the pleasure and wealth of this world let us use it as if wee used it not for the glory thereof fadeth away they waxe old as doth a garment Therefore let us lay up our treasures in a better world From hence the Iesuites make this collection we must believe the world was made out of nothing though wee doe not see it so we must believe that the body of CHRIST is corporally in the Lords Supper though we cannot see it But they might see there is a different reason Wee believe the world was made of nothing though we see it not because the Word of God hath avouched it God's Word never teacheth us that the body of CHRIST is in the Sacrament corporally but in heaven therefore there is no cause why we should believe it VERSE 4. NOw hee returnes to the examples 1. At large then summarily Verse 32. before the floud and after before the entrance into Canaan and after 1. A commendation of Abels fact 2. An approbation of it In the former 1. What it was that gave a relish to his sacrifice 2. To whom it was offered 3. The eminencie of it Caine had the more worthy name Caine acquisitio as if she had gotten the Messiah Abel vanity or weeping 2. He had the worthyest trade bread is the staffe of life 3. He was the first borne 4. He built a City Yet Abel is preferred before him A fuller sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kissed Caines sacrifice was voyd of faith therefore empty Cain tooke absque delectu Abel chose 2. Corne was not so lively to represent CHRIST as Sheepe and Lambes 3. His more sparing Abels more plentifull rather better for his faith By the which faith not sacrifice as Verse 2. and in the end of this Verse The second thing is the approbation 1. In his life 2. After his death In life internall in his owne heart and conscience that he was righteous believing in the Messiah externall either by word Gen. 4 4. or by action as Levit. 9.24 1 Reg. 18.38 1 Chron. 21.26 2 Chron. 7.1 Some have beene of opinion that Adam was damned because he is left out of the catalogue of the faithfull but if none should be saved save those that be in this calender few should be saved The salvation of Adam and Eve may bee concluded by probable reasons rendred by Irenaeus Epiphan Chrys. Aug. 1. It is not like that GOD would cast away the first man that he made the first borne is greatly beloved Seldome doth any father disinherit his first borne Adam was the first that God
beasts the Arke ready to rush on rockes and mountaines So the Children of God shall bee saved yet through many tribulations Apoc. 7.14 Wee must looke to be tossed with the waves of many afflictions before we come to the kingdome of heaven but let us bee of good comfort in the middest of them all The Arke was hoysed but not drowned so though we be afflicted yet we shall not perish God kept the Arke by the hand of his providence and so will he us too Hee that hath loved us will love us to the end and will keepe us to his everlasting kingdome the gates of hell may availe but shall never prevaile against the Church GOD in all extremities prepareth for his Children Gen. 19.30 he prepared a place in Aegypt for his Church in the time of famine he prepared Pharaohs daughter and drew her to the river to save Moses from drowning he prepared a Whale to receive Ionah as soone as he was cast out of the ship and caused him within three dayes to set him safe on the dry land hee prepared Pella for the Iewes unto which they fled and escaped the fury of the Romans he prepared an Arke by the hands of Noah for the saving of him and his house-hold Let us be thankfull unto him and depend on him There be many things that condemne a thiefe The Iudge condemnes him hee gives sentence against him the evidence condemnes him and the witnesses condemne him but the chiefest of all is his owne sinne the theft which he hath committed So many concurre in the condemnation of a wicked man God condemnes him as a just Iudge his conscience brings in evidence against him and condemnes him the holy and righteous men that have shined as Starres among them condemne them but the greatest of all is their owne sin The Queene of the South shall condemne the Israelites She came from the uttermost parts of the earth to heare the wisedome of Solomon They had Solomon at home and regarded not the hearing of him The Ninevites shall condemne them they repented at the preaching of one Ionah The Iewes repented not at the preaching of many Ionahs The Scripture shall condemne us there is one that judgeth you even Moses in whom yee trust The plentifull preaching of the Gospell and the small reckoning that is made of it shall condemne us Noah condemned the world and our Noahs shall condemne us if wee regard them not We for our parts had rather save you then condemne you Therefore receive with meekenesse the engraffed Word that by it yee may be saved in the life to come The good actions of godly men that were as reall Sermons to preach to the wicked shall condemne them at the latter day The holy and unspotted life of Lot that vexed his righteous soule in Sodom shall condemne the Sodomites The Synagogue set up by the Centurion shall condemne those miserable wretches that will give nothing to good uses the continuall praying of Annah them that never pray The garments that Dorcas made for poore widdowes them that except Law compell them will give nothing to the poore the diligence of a good Scholler shall condemne all the loytering Schollers in the Schoole Therefore let us profit by these examples let them be as spurs to pricke us forward to the practise of those good things which we see in them especially in the Preachers of the word such as Noah was If we contemne their preaching it shall rise up in condemnation against us in the world to come Faith as yee see makes us heyres not of silver and gold houses and lands mannours and Lordships but of the righteousnesse of Christ by whom wee have a right to all things 1 Cor. 3.22 Wee thinke highly of one that is heyre to a great Gentleman a Knight a Lord c. There comes such a Noblemans heyre I but poore Lazarus that believes in Christ is in better estate than he if he want faith Therefore let us pray to God for faith that may assure us of the inheritance of the kingdome of heaven which surpasseth all the inheritances in the world And what manner of faith is it that makes us heyres of this kingdome not a verball faith that hath nothing but faire words and a glorious profession like the figge tree but a working faith such a faith as worketh by love that is full of good workes as Dorcas was All these that be in this Catalogue had workes for the expression of their faith Abel had his sacrifice Enoch walked with God Noah had the building of the Arke Abraham the offering of his Sonne Moses the leaving of Aegypt Rahab the preservation of the spies None of them but had workes Therfore if we say we have faith and have not workes wee deceive our selves Let us shew our faith by our workes make up our calling and election sure by them then we are heyres of the blessed inheritance reserved for the Saints in the life to come VERSE 8. WE have had the faithfull before the floud Now to them after the floud before the possession of the land of Canaan and after The first is Abraham who because he was the Father of the faithfull entreating of faith he is more plentifull in him Here are three things for the celebration of his faith concerning himselfe his Wife and his Sonne 1. His obedience to GOD calling him out of his owne Country 2. His patient abode in a strange Country whereunto hee was called Or 1. His egresse out of a Country which he knew 2. His progresse to a Country which he knew not The vulgar translation hath it hee that is called Abraham which before was Abram At the first hee was called Ab ram Pater excelsus now Abraham Ab rab gnam the Father of many Nations That dreadfull name of GOD Iehovah hath two Hehs in it GOD say some gave Abraham a letter of his owne name because GOD was to come of his loines for our SAVIOUR CHRIST who is GOD above all blessed for ever was of the seed of Abraham that is somewhat too curious The change of his name did signifie that hee was a great man highly esteemed of GOD and worthy to bee honoured of men The Iewes boasted of him as of their Father therefore above all others hee propoundeth him as an example of faith that they his Children might tread in his steps He was of great fame among the heathen as Iosephus writeth many ancient Historiographers make an honourable mention of him Berosus Damascenus c. He went not of his own head upon an idle and phantasticall brain he had a calling so to doe whereof Gen. 12.1 that was his warrant his passeport and licence to travell withall If all travellours had this calling they might be secure in their journeys Some goe into strange countries in a male contended minde because many things crosse them at home Some because they cannot live at home some to see fashions for the satisfying of
Sea insomuch as the Psalmist exclameth how great is thy goodnes ô Lord which thou even then preparedst for the sons of men He prepares for us the foules of heaven fishes of the Sea beasts of the field to be our nourishment but of all preparations this is the greatest he prepared for us a City a most glorious Citty All the Cities in the world are not worthy to be named the same day with this thieves may breake into these Citties so cannot they into that These may be sacked by enemies so cannot that These Citties shall be burnt at the day of Iudgment this abides ever these need the Sun by day and Moone by night this needes none of them for it is enlightned with the glory of the Lamb. In these there is good and bad there none but good the spirits of just and perfect men In these there is sometimes dancing sometimes weeping there is no weeping at all but continuall singing to GOD Almighty these Cities may be famished so cannot that we shall eate of the hidden Manna and of the tree of life in the Paradise of God for ever Here our fellow Cittizens are men and sinfull men there we shall be Cittizens with the Angels here Cittizens have their Gownes whereby they are knowne which at length are moath eaten and come to nothing there wee shall be cloathed with the white robe of immortality that lasteth for ever In these Citties some are rulers some ruled there wee shall all be Kings and reigne with CHRIST for ever These Citties are made by Carpenters and Masons this by God O admirable City Let our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee in it in this life that we may be taken up into it and remaine in it for ever in the life to come Yet this City is little regarded If Yorke Norwich London were ours we would thinke our selves happy men yet we count the preparation of this City nothing Ye talke of a City to come I would I were Lord of one Towne here take thou that City Many a prophane Esau is ready to say so but let us be thankefull to God for this City Hebrewes 11.17.18 19. WE have here a Catalogue of famous Christians in the Old Testament wherof some were before the floud others after as Abraham with whom having begun now he addes and concludes of him in these Verses Wherein we have a tragedy and a comedy a tragedie in a fathers oblation of his Sonne a comedie in the unexpected restitution of his Son to him 19. a sorrowfull tragedie in his going a joyfull comedy in his teturning Touching the former 1. An admirable worke performed by Abraham 2. The motive that set him on worke his stedfast faith in the resurrection Verse 19. In the work the author of it and the exquutioner of it VERSE 17. THe author of it was God that tried him Man tryes the Devill tries and God tries homo tentat ut cognoseat man tries to know what is in another Tentare à teneo wee try that we may quasi manu tenere hold as it were with the hand and have a certaine knowledge of him whom we try As the Queene of Shebah hearing of the fame of Salomon went to try him with hard questions 1 Reg. 10.1 Diabolus tentat ut decipiat to coozen us and to destroy us So the Serpent tempted our great Grandmother Eve and beguiled her Deus tentat ut quis sit homo hominibus innotescat that what is in man may be made manifest unto men hee tryed Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Chrysost. not to learne more than he knew before but to demonstrate the excellent graces that were in Abraham the world how he preferred God before all things even before his onely Sonne Thus CHRIST tempted Philip about the loaves Ioh. 6.6 God knew what was in Abraham but hee tryed him to make others know whereas Gen. 22.12 he speakes it after the manner of men When a man hath tryed the fidelity of his friend he sayes now I know thou lovest me so God applying himselfe to our capacity having tryed Abraham sayes now I know yet no accesse of knowledge to GOD hee knew what was in him before An admirable tryall a wind that might shake the strongest Cedar in Lebanon yee may take a view of it Gen. 22.2 Every word is very emphaticall 1. He doth not say send him by another but take him thy selfe carry this innocent Lamb to the slaughter house thy selfe 2. Not five or sixe yeeres hence but now presently without delay 3. Not thy servant but thy Sonne Tully tooke heavily the death of his servant how might Abraham take the death of his Sonne 4. Not one of many but thine only Sonne though thou hast no more but he take him kill him 5. Hee names him I doe not meane Ismael though thou art loath to part with him but Isaac 6. Whom thou lovest so deerely so tenderly all thy love is contracted into him thou hast no other to love 7. To the land of Moriah which is a great way off three dayes journey Oh what thoughts did trouble him all that while 8. When he comes there he doth not say hang him on a tree drowne him which had beene intollerable for a father to doe but burne him which is the sharpest death of all offer him up for a burnt offering to me 9. Consider the conference that was betweene him and Isaac in the way which might strike Abraham to the heart Father here is fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for the burnt offering alas my Son said Abraham in his heart though hee spake it not with his tongue thou must bee the burnt offering no doubt but the teares went trickling downe his cheekes Oh how wonderfully was he tryed all these were as so many daggers held at his heart 10. Besides all these the Hebrewes report that the Devill appeared to him in the shape of a good Angell and disswaded him from the offering of his Son telling him it was a most monstrous and unnaturall fact greatly displeasing to GOD Almighty No doubt but the Devill was busie with him to withdraw him from Obedience to GOD but that of his apparition is a feyned fable That we see how this holy man was tryed he was tryed indeed to the utmost a wonder he did proceed to the action Thus it pleaseth God to trye his Children A Gold-Smith tries his gold by casting it into the fire and Saint Peter calls it the fiery tryall A Captaine tryes his Souldiers before he brings them into the field One friend tryes another and God in love and wisedome tries us all how we are affected to him he sent false Prophets and dreamers of dreames to try the Israelites whether they would cleave to him with all their hearts and soules or not Deut. 13.3 hee tryed David by Shimei that rayled on him and hurled stones at him being a King A great indignity for a King to beare he tryed Ioseph with sore
imprisonment till yron entred into his soule hee tryed Iob with the losse of seven thousand Sheepe three thousand Camels five hundred yoke of Oxen and she Asses he tryed him with the death of seven Sonnes and three daughters at a clap after a fearefull manner the house fell on them as they were banquetting and they were crushed in pieces he tryed him with boyles in his body from the Crowne of his head to the sole of his foote The arrowes of the Almighty stucke in his soule he tryed him to the full Others have had their severall tryalls but Iob had all tryalls yet he stood immoveable in them all he tryed Lazarus with extreame poverty hee desired crumbs and could not get them hee tryes some women with churlish Husbands as he did Abigail he tryes some with froward Wives as he did Iob he tryes some with stubborne and disobedient Children that make them weary of their lives as he did Isaac and Rebeccah with Esau he tryes some by taking away their Children one after another on whom their greatest delight was fixed he tryes by taking away our goods by fire water thievs gatherings for fire almost every weeke hee tryes some by tedious sicknesses and diseases that continue long together a wearisome tryall hee tryes us by malevolent tongues that cast aspersions upon our names He corrects every Child So he tryes every Child GOD hath many wayes to try us that the tryall of our faith being more pure than gold may be more illustrious in this world and we made more fit for the celestiall Hierusalem in the world to come Let us entreat him to strengthen us by his holy Spirit in all tryalls As hee seemes to cast us downe with one hand so let us be suiters to him to uphold us with the other that we may stand stedfast and immoveable in all tryalls and temptations to his glory and the salvation of us all Let that suffice for the author of the worke Now to the exequution of it Where 1. A bare narration of the worke then an amplification of it Offered up Isaac Nay bate me an ace of that Offerre caepit or offerre voluit Voluntate he did it though non re intentionaliter though non actualiter He pretermitted nothing on his part for the offering of him up therfore God accepted of it as if it had beene done Gen. 22.16 he extolls it to the skies There be Martyrs desiderio facto Origen was a Martyr in desire when he was a Child If his mother had not kept away his Cloathes hee had gone to bee burnt with his father So Abraham Conatu desiderio offered up Isaac David built the Temple in will and desire hee made a great preparation for it three thousand Talents of gold seven thousand Talents of fine silver 1 Chron. 29.4 So Abraham made all ready for the offering of his Sonne The wood was ready the fire was ready the Altar was ready the knife in his hand was ready to cut his throat which hee would have done if GOD by his voice from heaven had not stayed him therefore he might well be said to offer him up There is an amplification of it ex parte patris on the Fathers behalfe and ex parte pueri on the Childs behalfe Not only he that begat Isaac but that had received the promises concerning Isaac that in him all the Nations of the earth should he blessed he had not only heard of these promises but received them into his brest and bosome locked them up as precious Iewels in the closet of his heart there keeping and nourishing them yet he that had received the promises must kill him that was the foundation of the promises a great shaking of his faith 2. Ex parte pueri not a servant but a Sonne Not an adopted Sonne but begotten of him the fruit of his body and his owne bowels Not one of many but all that he had begotten in lawfull Matrimony and to whom alone the promises were tyed Ishmael was his begotten Sonne too but he was begotten of his maid Isaac was his only begotten Sonne of his Wife in lawfull marriage 2. He was his only begotten Sonne ratione promissi the promise was made to Isaac and to no other quantùm ad istam conditionem hee was anigenitus Lyra. VERSE 18. THat which hee said of the promises he confirmes by Scripture To the which Abraham his father it was said of him Gen. 21.12 This hee heard not from others but with his owne eares and that from the mouth of God that cannot lye The promised Messiah shall come of Isaac yet hee must bee offered up Then what shall become of his seed and the salvation of the world God here seemes to bee at variance with himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith warres with faith one Commandement warres with another and the Commandement warres with the promise as Saint Chrysostome well observeth That promise was that in Isaac should his seed be called and that the Saviour of the world should come of Isaac yet now Isaac must be slaine before he had any seed A strange tryall Againe the Law of nature written in Abrahams heart said love thy Child preserve thy Child especially such a rare Sonne as this is rarely borne and endewed with rare qualities This Commandement crosses that and saies kill the Child What a contrariety was this how did this perplex Abraham and cast him into the bryars but faith did reconcile all and all these obstacles set aside hee offered him up A most worthy and unmatchable example The like is not to bee found againe in the whole world As Ioel saith of the Grasse-hoppers and Caterpillers in his time hearken ô yee elders heare all ye inhabitants of the land whether hath such a thing beene done in your dayes or in the dayes of your fathers so may we say of this hearken all yee that live on the face of the earth though yee be as old as Methusalem whether hath such a thing as this beene done in your dayes for a Father to offer up his only Sonne at the commandement of GOD Manasses caused his Sons and his Daughters to passe through the fire to his Idols so did other Idolaters but they offered them up to devills not to God contrary to the will of God in a blind superstition at the instigation of the Devill that was a murderer from the beginning and delights in bloud but Abraham did it in a pure devotion to testifie his obedience and love to God at the commandement and provocation of God to glorifie him withall Those Idolaters it may bee were not present at the offering of their Children or at least they offered them by others Abraham with his owne hands offered him himselfe Wee reade of a Woman in the Maccabees that saw seven of her sonnes cruelly tormented before her eyes because they would not eat swines flesh yet she was not the tormentour of them herselfe Mauritius that good yet unfortunate Emperour
saw all his sons slaine before his face by usurping Phocas and at the death of every one hee uttered these religious words justus es domine justum judicium tuum but he did not kill them himselfe In prophane histories sundry are recorded to have offered their Children as Agamemnon did Iphigenia though she were carryed away by Diana So did divers others among the heathen but these offered them to devills not to God and they did it not with such a divine resolution as Abraham did I but what say yee to Iephte he offered up his only daughter unlesse a Sonne be valued at an higher rate than a daughter So that he comes not behind Abraham Yes many degrees 1. Some collect out of the Hebrew words that he did not offer her up but let it be granted yet it is not worthy to bee compared with this of Abraham for he did it not with his owne hands and if hee did it was in a rash and preposterous zeale and his vow like Herods oath had better beene broken then kept he had not Gods warrant for it as Abraham had 2. In her the promises were not made as here in Isaac There only nature was tryed here faith was tryed and nature too An example that cannot bee pattern'd Iob lost seven sons and three daughters at a clap Abraham but one that was as much as Abrahams if not more Nothing neere 1. Iobs eye saw it not neither was he charged to kill them with his owne hands 2. In none of them were the promises made this was the principall shaker of Abrahams faith In what a perplexity thinke yee was Abraham when he tooke this journey about such a sorrowfull businesse as this was how might Sarah take on when shee missed her Sonne five or sixe daies and could not tell what was become of him nor her husband If Zipporah cryed bloudy husband to Moses for circumcising the foreskin of her Sonnes flesh how might Sarah have cryed ô bloudy ô cruell Husband that killest thine owne Son and mine too In what a pittifull case was Abraham when hee built the Altar couched the wood on it bound Isaac to it put to the fire and was stretching out of his hand to cut his throate If David kept such an howling for Absalom an ungracious child ô my Sonne Absalom my Son Absalom when he saw him not he was a wicked son a rebell a Traytor one that went about to put his father besides the saddle and to justle him out of his throne yet how lamented he for him how might Abraham be pierced in this time and cry ô my Sonne Isaac my Sonne Isaac my sweet Child the only staffe of mine old age my loving my dutifull and obedient Sonne beautified with so many glittering vertues the joy of the world to whom the promises are tyed must thou be killed and that by thine own father too must I be the butcher and kill thee this touched him to the quicke If the bowels of the harlot yerned within her when her child was to be divided by Solomons sword how did Abrahams bowels yerne within him when with his own sword he was to take away the life of his owne Sonne yea of his only Son This might wring teares from the eyes of us all Chrysostome hom 3. in 2 Cor. reports that when he preached of this story the people fell a weeping Gregory Nissen seeing a lively picture of this history could not passe by it without teares in truth it may worthily affect us all and let us make it our owne case it will cause us all to weepe Oh what a lamentable sight was this to see Abraham about the killing of his only Sonne that a father should bee put to this extremity to be the butcher of his Sonne his only Sonne upon whom depended the salvation of all the world you that be fathers though yee have many children are you willing to kill any of them your selves Surly no unles ye be unnaturall fathers Vpon a turbulent sedition in Thessalonica Theodosius in an anger tooke order that seven thousand should be put to death A Merchant in the City that had two Sonnes there put into the Calender of those that should be executed their good old father put up a supplication for his two sons the Souldiers pitying him told him they could not save both for then the Emperours number would not be fulfilled but they said they would spare one choose which hee would The poore father looking rufully on both could not tell which to chuse while he delayed both were slaine If God take away but one or two of our children we are in Rachels case we will admit no comfort God tooke all that Abraham had Abraham had but one Sonne whom hee loved deerely a vertuous a Religious Sonne of whose loines should descend the Messiah and SAVIOUR of the world yet hee offers him up because it is GODS Will as a burnt offering to the LORD Where is this faith this love now a dayes to bee found There are many Naboths few Abrahams GOD may take up that complaint against us which he doth against Eli. We honour our Children above God Though they lye sweare and blaspheme the name of God c. we cannot abide they should have any correction for it I had rather God should be dishonoured than my Child corrected If we will not sacrifice them spiritually how corporally as Abraham did Will we not correct them and will we kill them at Gods commandement He that loveth father or mother wife or children more than me is not worthy of me God gave us them and he can take them away at his pleasure and shall wee bee more wedded to them then to God My life saies Paul is not deare to me so I may fulfill my course with joy and shall any Child bee so deare to us as to pull us from God and heaven too our lives and owne soules must not bee deare to us so as we may glorifie God much lesse our Children As the Christians said when with weeping eyes they could not hold Paul from Ierusalem why then say they the will of the Lord be done so let us in all things Will God have our goods our children our lives the will of this blessed God be done The Lord gave c. blessed be his name We have had the admirable act performed by Abraham Now to the motive of it which was a certaine perswasion which he had of the resurrection His accounts being cast up after many consultations to and fro this was the totall summe the finall conclusion wherein he would rest Though I offer up my Sonne as a burnt offering to God yet he is able to raise him up again from the dead Of the ashes of one Phenix arises another Phenix and of the ashes of one Isaac shall rise another yea the same Isaac in substance that was before In whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed therefore I will doe it
come on it what will O the magnanimous spirit of a right heroicall man resurrectio mortuorum fiducia Christianorum It is the principall pillar that Christians have to leane upon if we had hope only in this life of all others wee were most miserable Therefore let our faith bee firmely grounded in the resurrection as was the faith of Abraham the Father of the faithfull We have strong inducements thereunto 1. Is potentia dei idoneus est reficere qui fecit hee that made our bodies of nothing at the beginning can remake them when they are consumed to nothing 2. Is bonitas dei I am the GOD of Abraham of Isaac and Iacob that was spoken after they were dead though they were dead yet he was their God the God not of their soules only but of bodies too Absit ut Deus manuum suarum operam ingenii sui curam afflatus sui vaginam liberalitatis suae haeredem testimonii sui militem Christi sui sororem Spiritus sancti templum in aeternum destituat exitium Bee it farre from God to forsake the worke of his owne hands the care of his owne witt and invention let us make man after our Image the bladder or sheath whereinto he breathed the breath of life they heyre of his liberality the Souldier of his testimony that hath fought for him as well as the soule the sister and member of Christ the Temple of the Holy Ghost Be it farre from God that hee should leave this in eternall destruction As the soule and body have beene consorts in labours in this life so shall they be in rewards in the life to come 3. Exempla resurgentium the examples of them that have risen from the dead in the Old and New Testament Christ raised up three the one in domo which was the daughter of Iairus the other in feretro on the beere the widdowes Sonne of Naim the third in Sepulchro in the grave which was Lazarus when he began to stincke These are praeludia nostrae resurrectionis forerunners or pledges of our resurrection 4. Dulcis titulus mortis a sweete description of death It is but a sleepe I would not have you ignorant concerning them that are fallen asleepe Those that sleepe in IESUS will GOD bring with him LORD said they of Lazarus if hee sleepe hee shall doe well enough The dead are but asleepe they shall doe well enough Philip slept securely while Antipater was awake and the dead sleepe safely while God is awake the keeper of Israel that neither slumbers nor sleepes Therefore let us be firmely perswaded of the Resurrection as Abraham was hee believed that God was able to rayse up Isaac from the dead and let us believe that GOD can rayse us all from the dead Abraham was a good considerer At the first when God promised Isaac he considered not his owne body that was dead Now when he is to loose Isaac he considers that God was able to raise him up O heavenly consideration in all extremities let us consider the power of God as Abraham did Art thou grievously sicke yea even to death is there but a step betweene thee and death yet consider that God if it be his pleasure can set thee on thy legges againe Art thou fallen to poverty of a mighty rich man art thou become an exceeding poore man as Iob was yet consider that God is able to raise thee up againe Is thy Sonne or thy daughter dead is thy Wife or thy Husband dead is thy friend dead that was as thine owne soule Weepe not over much consider that God is able to raise them up from the dead they bee not amissi but praemissi they are gone into heaven before and we shall follow after Doest thou thy selfe dye is thy body layd in the grave doth it there putrifie to dust and ashes yet consider that God is able to raise thee up againe Say with that holy man I am sure my Redeemer liveth The consideration of Gods power must comfort us in all calamities We have had the Tragedy now to the Comedy Hereupon followed a joyfull event he did not receive him in a parable but truly and indeed he received him from the dead that is from the state of the dead in a parable he was not deceived in his expectation In a parable that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a figure sayes Chrysostome in a darke and obscure figure or as hee unfolds it more plainely afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an example in similitudine quadam as Henry Stephen expounds it quodam modo as Beza after a sort as it was in the translation before this In a parable in a similitude for all parables are similitudes Neerenesse to death is a lively type and figure of death whereupon it hath the name of death 2 Cor. 1.10 blessed be God that hath delivered us from so great a death Yet Saint Paul did not dye then So the neerenesse of death wherein Isaac was was a similitude of Death the Altar was built the wood laid on the Altar Isaac bound on the wood the fire was ready the knife was comming to his throat to kill him Therfore Abraham received him from the dead in a similitude Old Father Iacob received his Sonne Ioseph as it were from the dead he verily thought he had been torne in pieces by wild beasts yet at that time he was alive and ruler of the land of Aegypt Hezekiah received his life in a similitude from the dead for sentence of death was pronounced against him by Gods own mouth The Iewes in the provinces of Ahasuerus received their lives in a similitude from the dead The Kings letters were sent by Posts into all quarters to roote them out kill and destroy them all even Men Women and Children in one day S. Paul and all that were in the Ship with him received their lives in a similitude from the dead For all hope that they should bee saved was taken away Act. 27.20 The King and Queene and Prince that then was the Lords spirituall and temporall the Gentlemen of the lower house in them wee Protestants in England received our lives in a similitude from the dead at the powder treason Thirty seven barrels of Gunpowder were cunningly couched under the vault of the Parliament house Vaux the same morning had his match in his hand to set them on fire we were in the mouth of death in a manner as neere as Isaac but by Gods miraculous providence through the quicke apprehension of the wise and learned King wee were delivered as Isaac was which deliverance requires hearty thankesgiving to God Gods tryalls begin with a tragedy and end with a Comedy The Psalmist sayes of the faithfull Psal. 126. ult they went out weeping and carryed precious seed but they shall returne with joy and bring their sheaves with them So Abraham poore desolate Father went out weeping with his precious Sonne Isaac to be offered up but hee returnes
rejoycing and brings home the sheaves of heavenly comfort with him Gods dealing with his Children is contrary to Ezekiels scrowle it was sweete in his mouth and bitter in his belly God begins bitterly but ends sweetely as hee did with Abraham Yee remember the patience of Iob and what end the Lord made So remember the tryall of Abraham and what end the Lord made The beginning was sorrow the end was joy Let us beare with patience the bitter beginning that we may be partakers of the sweete ending He that will save his life shall loose it but hee that looseth it for my sake shall finde it hee that will save his goods by the denyall of Christ shall loose them he that will save his Children by dishonouring of God shall loose them as Eli did he cockered his Children and lost them they were both slaine in a day Abraham is content to loose his Child for God's sake and he findes his Child there is nothing lost by obeying God we shall be gainers by it Contemne divitias eris locuples contemne gloriam eris gloriosus contemne filium habebis filium We shall have fathers and mothers Children as it were in this world and in the world to come life everlasting Let this encourage us to submit our selves in all obedience to God in all things as Abraham did VERSE 20. WE have had the Chapter of death here followes that of faith wherein we have an Ilias of examples 1. Of the Grand-father then of the Sonne lastly of the Grand-child Isaac was in a manner dead yet he lives still many a yeere and at his going out of the world blesseth his two Sonnes which was a demonstration of his faith he lived and dyed in faith as Abraham had done But it seemeth the Holy Ghost might have made choyse of other workes of Isaacs serving better for the expressing of his faith then this he was a devout and religious man much given to prayer and heavenly meditation he went into the field to pray or meditate he continued praying twenty yeeres together for a Child and would not give over hee was obedient to God and followed him from place to place why doth not the Apostle make mention of these but of his blessing 1. These were common to others together with him 2. This blessing did most of all argue that he had lively faith in the promises of God made to him and Abraham when as hee doth bestow the things promised with as great assurance as if they were accomplished already This blessing is a fulfilling of all the promises therefore most fit to declare his faith and to publish it to all the world In this blessing there are three things 1. The instrumentall cause whereby it was done 2. The persons blessed 3. The things whereabout they were blessed For the instrument it was by faith Was it so he was coozened in it by Rebeccah and Iacob and he was induced to it against his will and purpose for he was determined to have blessed Esau. 1. Distinguish between the action and the infirmities in it Nature lead him one way and grace another yet for all that all things were governed by GODS providence as Exod. 1.20 and this blessing was an execution of Gods will decree and counsell and in some fort issued from faith in him Some infirmities of a man cannot marre the action of God as a sicke man is a man so a weake faith is a faith 2. His constant resolution after the blessing was ended doth shew it came from faith I have blessed thy brother already and he shall be blessed The voice of faith For the persons Iacob is set first because the birth-right was his his brother having sold it to him and he was the man whom God loved and in whom the promises were continued Esau was a prophane person yet he had some blessings Therefore both are included in the blessing though diversly Concerning what did hee blesse them not things present but to come temporall and eternall in this life and that to come which was an evident declaration of his faith For faith is a ground of things hoped for he pronounced of things to come as certainely as if they were already and they fell out as he had said Neither were the things to come temporall blessings alone but especially spirituall shadowed out by earthly things In the blessing hee said to Iacob Genesis 27.29 Be thou thy brothers Lord yet Iacob was faine to crouch to Esau hee was his Lord but this was accomplished in CHRIST that should come of Iacob All Nations were subject to him In this blessing Iacob saw CHRIST though it were afarre off therefore no mervaile though it bee adscribed to faith The blessing of Parents is highly to be regarded Praerogativa parentum disciplina filiorum Though there be a difference betweene our blessing of our Children and of the Patriarkes Our benedictio is but bona dictio or bona precatio their 's was an actuall and a reall bestowing of things on them yet the curse or blessing of Parents in all ages is to bee respected whom they curse justly God curseth â—nd whom they blesse God blesseth Therefore let Children so behave themselves that they may have their Parents blessing especially at their departure out of the world These temporall blessings are blessings Wealth health honour prosperity these GOD bestoweth on the reprobate these had Ismael and Esau hee was a jolly hunter and abounded in pleasure hee flourished in worldly prosperity more than Iacob So may the wicked doe Psal. 73.4 Dives But let us be content rather to lye with Lazarus then to frye with Dives to be plaine and simple men as Iacob was then to have their felicity here and misery hereafter 2 Sam. 19.30 Faith sees things to come Isaac now was blind yet he saw things to come The eye of faith is the best eye Let us entreat the Lord to make the eye of our faith brighter and brighter to our dying day VERSE 21. TOuching Iacob there bee two facts to be considered which are illustrated by the instrumentall cause and the circumstance of time when they were performed The facts are the blessing of Iosephs two Sonnes and his worshipping of GOD described by the manner how the instrumentall cause faith the time when when he was a dying By faith for without the eye of faith hee could not see the things that should happen to his Childrens Children conteyned in the blessing Which was more than the blessing of his owne Sonnes all fathers will doe that when hee was about to dye when death did approach 1. He adopted them into his family that they might be members of the Church as well as his owne Sons 2. He preferred the younger before the elder Ephraim is put for the tenne tribes Hos. 5. they were both Children Ephraim had no more in him then Manasseh 3. Being a stranger in Aegypt he gave them portions in the land
of Canaan as if he had beene present at the distribution of it Gen. 48.22 Shechem a portion or the name of a City called Sichem which fell to the tribe of Ephraim Ios. 13. The seventie translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that select and famous Sichem Iishtaku Gnal Rosh Hammittah an open jarre the latter being a staffe to beate the former out of doores How agreeth this with the Hebrew it is one and the same word with a little alteration the diversity may arise on the affinity of the vowels Mittah a bed Matteh a rod and both may be true Hee worshipped upon the beds head and he worshipped on the top of his staffe too Inclining upon his pillow towards the bed head being weake and aged he held his staffe in his hand too and leaning on it he worshipped God He did worship towards the bed head because being bed-red he could no other than lye on his pillow Vpon which way soever it stood on the beds head or on the top of his staffe both may stand together 2. This was before the other Gen. 47. ult the blessing Gen. 48. It is very like he leaned often on his staffe and worshipped God not only after Iosephs promise but also when he had blessed all his Sonnes when he pluckt up his feete into the bed he might leane on his staffe and worship Or it may be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is frequent in the Bible Worshipped He praised God for this and all other his mercies hee prayed for their speedy deliverance out of Aegypt that they might be planted in the promised land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he blessed them with a singular blessing Ephraim with one Manasseh with another Super utrumque proprium benedictionem fudit posuit minorem ante majorem Haymo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Apostle leaveth the Hebrew and followes the seventie So the Papists may leave the Hebrew and the Greeke and follow the vulgar translation 1. That is not of as great authority as the Seventy 2. When the Seventie differ in sense from the Hebrew the Apostles follow it not The Iesuites he worshipped the end of his staffe that is the top of Iosephs Scepter reverencing the authority he had in Aegypt So that was fulfilled the Sunne the Moone eleven Starres did obeysance to Ioseph Hyperius addeth that in Ioseph a type of Christ he worshipped Christ. 1. Ioseph was most loved of them all 2. He was stript of his Coate 3. Sold into Aegypt 4. Cast into Prison 5. Advanced to great honour So was CHRIST 1. Ioseph being but Viceroy had no Scepter Gen. 41.40 2. Hee should rather have reverenced his Sonnes authoritie at his first comming then at his last departure out of the world 3. Rather publikely than in a private house 4. That had beene no great testimony of faith for even unbeleevers honour the Magistracy 5. The preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not admit that interpretation hee worshipped upon the top of his rod not the top of his rod. 6. This makes nothing for religious worshipping of Images or God at or before the crucifix and Images The occasion of blessing them was ministred by Iosephs bringing of them to him Genesis 48. ver 1. hee having intelligence of his Fathers sicknesse repaires presently to him with his two Sons that they might bee partakers of their Grandfathers blessing they were borne of the daughter of Potipherah Prince of On a woman that was a stranger from the common-wealth of Israel and not in the Calendar of GODS people they had been nourished in Aegypt where the worship of the true God was in a manner abolished Therefore he is desirous that Iacob a famous Patriarke a man deepe in GODS bookes might blesse them ere hee dyed for his blessing was GODS blessing Ioseph being ruler of the land of Aegypt no doubt had purchased great lands and Lord-ships for them hee was like to leave them money enough that they should want no earthly blessing yet because all these were not worth a straw without the blessing of God hee is most carefull to procure this to them which they were to receive from the mouth and hands of Iacob Fathers are carefull enough to provide outward things for their Children to lay up bagges of Gold and Silver for them to leave them houses and lands Sheepe and Oxen and such like but as for GODS blessing that is the least thing they take thought for This is to build without a foundation for the blessing of God is all in all Therefore above all things procure that to your Children Why doth not the Holy Ghost rather say by faith he blessed his owne Sonnes 1. Because this is greater By the eye of faith hee did not onely foresee what should happen to his owne Children but also to the Children of his Child 2. They being his owne immediate seed were engraffed into Israel already There might be some question of Iosephs Sons because they were the seed of a strange woman therefore it is said that Iacob by faith blessed them and by vertue of this blessing inserted them into the stocke of Israel 2. Here we learne that honour and preferments come neither from the East nor from the West but from GOD. Hee sets up one and pulls downe another Ephraim was the younger yet here in Iacobs blessing as it were by Gods owne hand he is advanced above Manasseh Ioseph himselfe was one of the youngest of all his brethren hated of them cast into a pit sold to the Madianites throwne into prison where hee lay till the yron entred into his soule who would have thought that this abject this poore prisoner should be ruler of all Aegypt yet so it came to passe Saul seeking his Fathers Asses lighted on a kingdome which he never sought for David was taken from following the sheepe great with young and made ruler of Israel Hester a poore banished maide fatherlesse and motherlesse became a Queene this is the Lords doing and it ought to be mervailous in our eyes It hath a double use 1. It must pull downe the Peacocks feathers of all them that be mounted aloft not to be proud of those high places whereunto they are exalted It was not chance and fortune that set them in the throne of dignity it was not simply their owne witt and wisedome their great variety of learning their policie and forecast paines and diligence the favour of their friends that promoted them but the good will and pleasure of GOD Almighty What hast thou beest thou never so great which thou hast not received Therefore swell not in pride in respect of the gift but thanke the giver of it 2. This must represse the envy of inferiours Is another man aloft and art thou beneath digitus Dei est Is thy younger brother in a more worshipfull and honourable place then thou as Ephraim got the start of Manasseh is
offered to them if they would have transgressed Gods Commandement Which is illustrated by the end Some interpret it the better Resurrection not that worser of the reprobate that shall rise againe but to everlasting woe but that better resurrection of the godly to eternall glory Others A better that is a more glorious resurrection as martyrs not that common one of all the faithfull 1 Cor. 15.41 Yet by the opposition this is the meaning of it If they would have denied God and broken his Commandements they might have had a kinde of resurrection from the sentence of death pronounced against them and have lived longer in the world yet they refused that for a far better resurrection in the world to come when they shall rise againe with comfort and enter into GOD's Kingdome a better resurrection than they that were raised up by Elias and Elisha they rose to a temporall life So we by faith shall receive our Fathers and mothers brethren and sisters our sons and daughters alive againe by faith we shall receive our owne bodies againe after the wormes have eaten our flesh with the same eyes in substance that we now have shall we see GOD meet CHRIST IESUS in the ayre and be translated into the kingdome of glory Vnspeakable is the force of faith the LORD strengthen the faith of us all If Eleazar would but have dissembled that he had eaten Swines flesh he might have beene delivered If the three children would have fallen downe and worshiped Nebuchadnezzars golden Image they might have beene delivered if Daniel would have praied to King Darius he might have beene delivered from the Lions Master favour thy selfe said S. Peter to Christ when he went to Ierusalem to be crucified and many Syrens sang this sweet song to the Martyrs O favour your selves doe not wilfully cast away your selves have a care of your selves your wives and children Who would not bee intised with this Musick yet it could not prevaile with them And why That they might receive a better resurrection If for the preservation of this short life which is but a span long they had revolted from Christ and his truth they should have had a miserable resurrection they should have risen with a sting of conscience with a worme continually gnawing on them they choose rather to suffer death that they might rise with a cheerefull and joyfull conscience to eternall life All shall rise againe good and bad Cain shall rise with the same hand wherewith he slew his brother Iesabel with the same body that was eaten up by the Dogs Rabsekeh with the same tongue wherewith he railed on the God of Israel Iudas with the same lips wherewith he trayterously betrayed our Saviour Christ Turne-coats like Ecebolius shall rise but they shall rise with horror of conscience The godly that have stuck to Christ that have fought valiantly under his banner to the very death they shall rise with comfortable consciences meet Christ joyfully in the aire bee translated into the kingdome of glory and remaine with him forever Therefore let us all have an eye to this resurrection VERSE 36. THE lesser belong to the Name or to the body Some did incutere pudorem some dolorem some horrorem Were tryed by mockings as Elisha 2 Reg. 2.23 Ieremiah Cap. 20.7 Psal. 38.13 c. They received the triall of mockings and scourgings Yet it is not like they used wyre whips as some now in other parts doe By bonds and imprisonments As Micajah and Ieremiah The drunkards made songs of David Ieremiah Iob. Our Saviour was mocked on the crosse The Scribes the Pharisees the Elders and all the common people mocked him The Martyrs were mocked in the Primitive Church This is a tryall we have daily even in the peace and light of the Gospell There be Atheists Drunkards Adulterers Prophane persons that daily mock the children of God This is an horrible sin 1 Saint Paul cals it persecution Gal. 4.29 and all mockers are persecutors Seest thou a jesting fellow that is alwayes scoffing at good men Thou mayest well say there goes a persecutor 2 The seat of the scornefull is the highest step of sin Psal. 1.1 3 God is a speciall avenger of it he made Beares come out of a Wood and devoure two and forty litle children that mocked Elisha Then let those men looke to themselves that mock the Prophets of GOD the Lord will meet with them one way or other 4 Mocks touch the good name A thiefe is a lesser sinner than a mocker A good name is above gold Prov. 22.1 Therefore let us all take heed of this vice which is frequent among us The Apostle would not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is when as men presuming on their wit think to turn a thing whither they will he would not have this to be named among us much lesse to bee practised by us Elias scoffed at Baals Priests in an holy zeale being directed to it by the Spirit of God Such Ironies proceed from an extraordinary motion of Gods spirit but let us beware how we scoffe at Gods workes how we make our selves merry with his Word how we mock his Ministers and other his servants It is a vice too rife among us Some had rather lose their friend than their jest nay some had rather lose the friendship of God than their jest It is a great sin to grieve any of Gods children wilt thou grieve him sayes S. Paul for whom Christ died he had rather eat no flesh so long as he lived than he would offend his brother and let not us jest so long as we live if we cannot doe it without the offence of our brethren Mockings are tryals woe to the tryers but blessed are they that with meeknesse and patience endure these tryals And scourgings which must needs be painfull to the body By bonds and prisonments which are uncomfortable to all Though a Bird want nothing in a Cage have bread and water enough yet she had rather an hundred times be abroad Liberty is sweet bondage soure though it bee accompanied with some delights and pleasures But I warrant you their imprisonment was hard enough they were fed with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction as Micaiah was and some as the Story saith in Queene Maries dayes were faine to drinke their owne water instead of drinke they had a miserable imprisonment which they notwithstanding endured cheerefully for the Lord's sake VERSE 37. THey were stoned as Zecharias the son of Iehojadah 2 Chro. 24.21 S. Stephen and S. Paul were stoned They were hewne asunder as Ierome reporteth by the common consent of the Iewes Isaiah was Origen sayes he was sawne in peeces with a woodden saw at the commandement of Manasseh because he affirmed he saw the Lord of Hosts Tempted This is left out altogether by Chrysostome and Theophylact Some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were burnt as some were under Antiochus That might be entertained with some applause
lust will be quenched Let us strive against drunkennesse by not comming at Ale-houses by not looking on the Wine when it smileth in the glasse 4 By imbracing the contrary vertue Instead of Pride let us imbrace Humility instead of Covetousnesse Liberality of Vncleannesse Chastity c. VERSE 5. THE profitable vse of afflictions is grounded on a testimony of sacred Scripture Where 1. An allegation of the testimony Verse 5.6 2. An application of it In the allegation 1. The manner how it is alleaged 2. The matter of the testimony alleaged The Physitions prescript and the reason of it Verse 6. It seemes that it should rather be an Interrogation which is more forcible and frequent in the writings of the Apostle Have ye forgotten Have yee suffered such a sweet sentence to slip out of your mindes Some interpret it exhortation but the word consolation is comfortable suitable to the place as the word children doth import What consolation not that which is dumbe but speaketh by the way of a kinde reasoning and loving disputation Not onely to them of the Old Testament but to you also of the New And how doth it speake not as to servants but as to children 1 We are ready to forget good things those that be most joyful and comfortable to us our memories are as Iron Chests for bad things they will keepe them fast enough We will remember injuries seven yeeres after we will remember that which we have heard at a Play and interlude many yeeres together and talke of it If we have read a thing in a wanton and lascivious Booke wee will remember it But as for the sacred Scriptures the pastures of our soules we quickly forget them yea even those things that serve most for our comfort Though we forget spurs yet me thinkes wee should not forget comfits though we forget those Scriptures that spur us on to goodnesse yet we should not forget them that may comfort us in our calamities Yet sayes he ye have forgotten the consolation Little children will hardly forget sweet things plums sugar c. yet we forget the sweetest junkates that bee in GOD's Apothecaries shop Let us rub our memories and call them to minde to the everlasting comfort of us all 2 The Papists will not be judged by the Scripture because it is mute and cannot speake Iudex est lex loquens The Scripture cannot speake therefore unfit to be a Iudge Yet here ye see the Scripture speaketh So Iohn 5.39.7.42.19.37 and not that alone but God speaketh by it Heb. 3.7 Luke 1.70 Therefore it may well be Iudge of all Controversies 3 The Scriptures speake generally unto all not to them alone that were alive at the first writing and publishing of it but it speaketh to al posterities to the end of the world Rom. 15.4 Marke 13.37 The Lawes appertaine to the whole Nation so doe the Scriptures to the whole Church Therefore let us not say of any place in the Old or New Testament this belongs not to me 4 It speakes to the wicked as to servants they shall quake at it whether they will or no as Foelix trembled at S. Paul's speech but it speaketh to the godly as to children therefore we should reverently attend to the voice of our Father c. speaking in it Then comes the testimony it selfe which hath two branches an exhortation and a reason of it In the exhortation a double counsell is prescribed to us 1. That we should not despise GOD's corrections 2. That we should not be discouraged by them Hee speakes to us as a Father Not my servant but my Sonne Despise not according to the Hebrew cast it not away according to the Greeke set not light which is all one For that which we care not for we hurle away The fatherly chastening as a father chastiseth his children For he it is that chasteneth us whatsoever the rod or instrument be which he useth Sometimes he chasteneth us by the Devill as he did Iob sometimes by creatures fire and water by men of our owne mold yet alwayes the LORD chasteneth us The Philistims had killed Eli his two sons and taken away the Arke yet Eli said it is the Lord The Sabeans and Chaldeans tooke away Iob's cattell yet Iob sayes the Lord hath taken away Afflictions come not by chance or fortune 1 Sam. 6.9 but by the providence of God Therefore let us not despise but accept with meeknesse Gods chastenings 2 We must not faint under the burthen of afflictions imposed on us by GOD. How ready are we to breake forth into passionate and desperate speeches Never was any so tormented as I am If GOD loved me he would not thus afflict me Oh this is greater than I can beare We have much Aquavitae to keep us from fainting 1. The inward comfort of the Spirit which in all afflictions cryeth in our hearts Abba Father 2. The consolation of Scripture GODS Apothecary shop from whence we may have medicines against all griefes whatsoever 3. The recoâ—dation of the mercy of God that will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able to beare 4 The cogitation of that heavenly company that draweth in he yoke of afflictions with us If we did beare the burthen alone we might faint but we have many to beare it with us 5 The sweet end afflictions Ye have heard of the patience of Iob and what end the Lord made Our light affliction which is but for a moment causeth unto us an eternall weight of glory therefore faint not VERSE 6. THE reason is double 1. These chastisements are a token of GOD's love therefore let us not despise them 2 They are a token of our salvation which is an effect of the love of GOD he receiveth that is into his Kingdome May we certainely conclude that God loves all he chastens I surely He may punish the wicked as a Iudge doth Malefactors but chastises onely his children whom he loves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He punished Pharaoh and the Egyptians with frogs lice and other plagues but he chastises onely those whom he loveth A bad man may have his house burnt so may a good man The one the Lord punishes the other he chastens A bad man may be grievously sick so may a good man the one God punishes the other he chastens How may we discerne betweene punishments and chastisements 1 The one is inflicted in mercy the other in fury Correct me O Lord yet not in thy fury 2 The one waxe worse they fret and fume blaspheme fight against God continue still in their sins and obstinately resist God to the end as Cain and others did 3 The one are crushed by their afflictions they are as Gods hammers to crush them in peeces the other are amended by their afflictions They say with David It is good for me that I have beene afflicted Their afflictions makes them hurle away their sins drunkennesse pride covetousnesse uncleannesse c. The one are
better the other worse after their afflictions Whom he loveth he whom thou lovest is sick said Martha to our Saviour meaning Lazarus And scourgeth if a rod will not serve the turne hee takes a whip Marke 5.29 That woman had a whip If a lesser affliction will not draw us to him and pull us out of our sinnes hee sends a greater Whom he receiveth into his love and favour in this life and into his kingdome in the life to come Afflictions are as Gods tooles that make us fit stones for the heavenly Ierusalem Wee have had a text of Scripture out of the Old Testament which spake to us lovingly as to children Now S. Paul makes a Commentary of it inducing us to a patient suffering of Gods corrections by three forcible arguments 1 From the necessity of correction 2. From the excellency of the person that correcteth us Vers. 9.10 Set forth by a comparison 1. What these Fathers be to us 2. What they doe to us 3. From the fruit of correction V. 11. 1. What it is for the present 2. What it will be in the time to come VERSE 7. THE necessity of correction is set forth 1. Affirmatively then Negatively affirmatively shewing what commodity we shall reape if we receive correction negatively declaring the in commodity of not receiving it 8. Not onely if ye take it but endure it so long as your heavenly Father shall strike A childe must not limit his Father so many stripes shalt thou give me and no more he must referre himselfe to the wisdome and discretion of his Father so must wee endure whatsoever our Heavenly Father shall impose on us though it be a sharpe and a long chastening we must endure it We read of a woman that had an issue of bloud twelve yeeres and had spent all on the Physitians Wee reade of another woman that was bound by Sathan eighteene yeeres and of a man diseased in his feet thirty eight yeeres yet they endured it so must we doe though it be hard for flesh and bloud If we have an ague a weeke a moneth a quarter a whole yeere we must endure it If it continue three sixe tenne yeeres wee must endure it Iob lost seven thousand Sheepe three thousand Camels five hundred yoke of Oxen yet he endured it he was deprived of seven Sons and three Daughters at a clap yet he endured it his owne body was full of boyles from the Crowne of his head to the soales of his feet hee sate scraping himselfe in ashes yet he endured it his wife provoked him to shorten his paine to curse GOD and dye yet he would not he still endured it Thou speakest like a foolish woman c. He was an Adamant against all afflictions so must we be we must endure all There be two reasons to excite us to it both set downe by S. Paul 1 Cor 10.13 1. No temptation happens to us but that which is incident to men Other men have endured as much as we The Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles yea Christ himselfe We are not alone there are many thousands that draw with us in the yoke Yea Christ himselfe suffers with us Saul Saul why persecutest thou me therefore let us endure it 2 God is faithfull and will not suffer us to bee tempted above that which wee are able he knowes whereof we be made he is as loath to afflict us as we are to be afflicted he doth not willingly punish the children of men It goes to the heart of a tender Father to beate his childe the water stands in his eyes it grieves him to doe it So is it with our Heavenly Father hee is full of pitty and compassion therefore let us endure his chastening how bitter soever it seemes to bee If we do then God offers himselfe to us as unto sons you are my sons I will acknowledge you for mine now ye are my sons now I will be your Father No son but will deserve it at one time or another though he be never so good a childe For children will forget themselves and our bloud is soone stirred even so the best of Gods children will deserve it In many things we sin all the just falleth seven times a day and God in justice must strike though not in fury as we doe Which he proveth by a common custome among men if they be not carried more by affection than judgement they will doe it Oftentimes good fathers forget themselves in it and become fooles but ordinarily what son is there whom the Father chasteneth not No son but the Father chasteneth him so no good man or woman but must be chastened by GOD. VERSE 8. 2 THE necessity of correction is set forth negatively which is amplified by the generality of it All. Before the Law under the Law after the Law Are partakers Some one way some another some in one measure some in another some in soule some in body name goods Some have a long sicknesse some a short Is there any that never had Febriculam Bastards spurius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semen nothus quasi ignotus Iud. 11.1 It is an ignominious thing to be a bastard Bastards are despised by all many brands of infamy are set on them by the Law 1 A Bastard properly is not a son Abraham was Pater when he had Ishmael but not filii Pater till he had Isaac So that he cannot inherit his Fathers lands unlesse he be made legitimate by act of Parliament 2 A bastard may be advanced to no Office in Church or Common-wealth without speciall license favour and dispensation If we be without correction we are bastards Seest thou a man that hath no crosse in himselfe wife children cattell his little finger doth never so much as ake thou mayest safely say yonder goes a bastard he is none of Gods childe Iob 21.9 Psal. 73.4 Here we see the lot of all Gods children not one is exempted The Grammarians say From this generall rule are excepted these that follow Here we have a rule in Divinity that admits no exception All are partakers of correction all that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution There is not any one that can claime a priviledge This is Christs cup and we must all drinke of it hee hath begun in it and we must all pledge him If thou beest Gods childe thou must be corrected Whatsoever thy place bee in the world whether thou beest Magistrat or Subject Minister or people high or low rich or poore yea Kings themselves have their afflictions Mariage is a sweet state the best Wine that ever was was at a Mariage even Wine of CHRIST's owne making yet maried folkes must looke for their afflictions This Rose hath many pricking thornes about it bona vincula nuptiarum sayes S. Ambrose de Virg. l. 3. sed tamen vincula bonum conjugium sed tamen à jugo tractum nubit plorat parturit agrotat de Virg. l. 1. Such
sayes S. Paul shall have troubles in the flesh Sometimes the wife hath a churlish Husband as Abigail had of Nabal Somtimes the Husband hath a crosse Wife as Iob had of his Sometimes they have both untoward children as Isaac and Rebekah had that made them weary of their lives We must looke for our afflictions in all conditions If we be not Bastards but Sonnes we cannot be without correction Let us intreat the LORD to give us faith wisdome and patience religiously to beare all his fatherly chastisements in this life that wee may have the inheritance of children in his eternall kingdome in the life to come Now follow two other arguments 1. From the lesse to the greater 9 10. 2. From the event and end of afflictions Verse 11. The first argument is 1. Propounded 2. Enforced Verse 10. it is propounded 1. Quoad terrestrem 2. Quoad coelestem patrem 1. If wee have quietly endured the chastisements of our earthly Fathers then much more should wee endure the castigations of our heavenly Father But wee have quietly endured the chastisements of our earthly Fathers Ergo. The assumption is set downe Verse 9. Then the force of the consequence is urged Verse 10. VERSE 9. FVrthermore Besides the consolation out of the Scripture even reason may move us to it Of our flesh the flesh is put for the body because it chiefely consisteth of flesh 1 Cor. 5.5 flesh and spirit are opposite Which corrected us when wee were Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 13.24 And we did not only take it patiently at their hands but wee reverenced them stood in awe of them were more loath to displease them revereri est cum timore honorem impendere Commonly those Parents are most reverenced of their Children that have wisely and orderly corrected them they that have layd the reynes on their neckes and suffered them to goe without correction are most despised and contemned of their Children afterwards Adonijah whom David would not displease displeased David afterwards Hee doth not say the mothers of our bodies they for the most part cocker their Children seldome or never correct them in wisedome and discretion but Fathers The Fathers are the greater correctours Shall wee not much rather subject our selves quietly to his castigations Father of Spirits From whom wee have the more principall part which is the soule or spirit We have our bodies also from him Thou hast fashioned me beneath in my mothers belly Yet these mediately by the seed of our Parents our spirits wee have immediately from God Num. 16.22.27 16. Zac. 12.1 Arist. l. 2. de gener animal c. 3. sayes that the soule comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrinsecus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one God did not make the soule and another the body as the Manichees said He is the Father of our spirits ratione adoptionis regenerationis salvationis but here ratione creationis There is no comparison betweene these two Fathers 1. These are Fathers of one family of him is named the whole family Eph. 3.15 2. The name of earthly fathers are drowned in him Matth. 23.9 Children have no wit wisdome or experience therefore they submit themselves to their Fathers no more have we but from our heavenly Father Therefore let us subject our selves unto him Children are subject to many inordinate affections which makes them the more quietly to yeeld to the ordering of their Parents so are wee This is amplified by the benefit we reape by it and live Namely in his eternall kingdome being fitted for it by afflictions Though we submit our selves to the chastisements of our earthly Fathers wee cannot but live a while in this miserable world if wee beare his chastisements wee shall live for ever therefore let us doe it Soules are not a parcell of the Substance of God but created of God not traduced by the seede of our Parents Eccles. 12. Verse 7. Genesis 2.7 and 23. As the first mans soule came so doe all others 2. If they proceed from mortall seede they must be mortall and perish with the body Saint Augustine hath foure excellent bookes of it to Barnabas Petrus proselyt to Vincentius Victor 3. It comes either of the body of our Parents or of their soule if from the body it is mortall as that is if from the soule then either the Father conveieth his soule to his Sonne and hath none left himselfe or a part of his soule then the soule should be partible which a spirit is not Object Gen. 46.26 Exod. 1.5 There soules is put for persons Object Hebr. 7.9 Levi was in Abrahams loynes in respect of his body and soule too Christ only in respect of his body But Christ in this place is comprehended under Melchizedec not under Abraham Levi was there in respect of father and mother too Christ only in respect of his mother Object Then GOD should worke with fornicators and adulterers Sol. In the act of generation which is naturall not in the sin and violation of his Law A man steales seede and sowes his ground with it God sends him a good harvest yet God worketh not with his stealing When it is infused and how is scrupulous The soule is good when it is infused by God it is infected by the conjunction of it with the body As good wine put into a bad vessell A cleane man is infected if he come among Leapers VERSE 10. HEre he shewes the equity of the consequent by three dissimilitudes betweene our earthly and heavenly Father 1. They chastened us for a few dayes whyle we were Children during the time of our nonage when we come to mans estate they leave us to our selves they carry no longer such a strict hand over us as before Whereas the father of spirits hath a continuall care over us and holds us under his fatherly rod all the dayes of our lives Therefore we must never exempt our selves from his Chastisements 2. They doe it according to their owne pleasure which oftentimes is corrupt they erre in judgement and affection too Sometimes they correct for that they should not and leave that uncorrected which deserves correction oftentimes they correct in anger and fury doing that they repent of afterwards but Gods pleasure is alwayes good hee is most wise and knowes how to correct hee is not passionate and affectionate as these fathers are 3. They in chastening us oftentimes respect their owne ease and quietnesse their owne credite and commodity more than ours or if they correct us for our profit yet it is but for a temporall profit that we runne not into outrages in the world that we may lead a civill honest life among men that is the marke most Parents aime at Whereas the Father of spirits chasteneth us for our profit he himselfe standeth not in neede of us not only to make us civill men secundum moralem quandam honestatem but that we might be partakers of his holinesse that we might be holy in soule and body in
profit of affliction is so great lift up the hands Manus sunt organa organorum they that be faint and of a feeble courage hang down their hands and have weake knees The knees sustaine the weight of the body he would have them to take heart to them to lift up their hands and to strengthen their knees that they may run the race set before them Runners stretch out their hands legs and knees too So must wee in this spirituall race VERSE 13. STagger not but goe firmely like stoute men make straight steps goe not awry rectos gressus facimus rectè credendo confitendo patiendo Now yee halt but ye are in the way if yee looke not to it ye may be carryed quite out of the way There is triplex obliquitas In intellectu affectu actione The people in Elias time halted betweene two opinions 1 Reg. 18.2 So some of the Hebrewes began to halt betweene two Religions Iudaisme and Christianisme The false Apostles and persecuting Iewes made them as it were to halt The ceremoniall law the Temple are of Gods institution shall we forsake them and believe in Christ crucified they that bee Christians are hated of all the world spoyled of their goods and lives too Wee will pause a little on the matter wee will consider with our selves whether it were best for us to be Christians or not This halting hee would have removed and wishes them to make straight steps to goe on manfully in the profession of the Gospell that no afflictions make them to halt As for us GOD be thanked for it we live not in the time of persecution as the Hebrewes did wee are not spoiled of our goods cast into prison constrained to flye our native Country carryed to the stake to be burnt for the name of CHRIST we have a Vertuous and Religious King that is a nursing Father to the Church yet the chastisements of the Lord are ryfe among us because wee are not bastards but Sonnes When the first borne were destroyed in Aegypt there was not one house of the Aegyptians but one dead in it There is scant one house among us but there is one sicke or afflicted in it A man can travell almost into no Country but hee shall finde a number sicke sometimes the man and Wife Children and servants downe at once Neither are they of the worser sort drunkards adulterers atheists c. but many of the better sort good professours sober godly and religious men that are thus visited Our heavenly father sees something amisse among us which causeth him to send forth his rods into so many places The Church of Corinth was an excellent Church yet St. Paul sayes for this cause namely a negligent and disorderly receiving of the Lords Supper many are weake sicke and sleepe among you The Lord sees us to bee rocked asleepe in security to bee negligent in prayer reading of Scripture comming to Church he sees the heavenly Manna of his Word the food of our soules to be loathed in all places men waxe too nise and dainty in hearing he sees the Sacraments not to be regarded men make small reckoning of these seales of faith For these causes many are weake and sicke among us yet let us not faint under these afflictions Let us lift up our hands that hang downe c. Let us consider who it is that striketh us it is the LORD said Eli c. It is not an unlucky conjunction of Planets they be not the dogge dayes which are the cause of these diseases they are not simply to be imputed to the weather or the time of the yeere It is the Lord that smiteth us and let him doe what seemeth him good Hee is our loving and mercifull Father in Christ Iesus hee will lay no more on us then hee will enable us to beare to our everlasting comfort in the end We are chastned by the Lord that wee should not bee condemned with the world Hee suffers the wicked oftentimes to live in jollity the rod of God is not upon them they are not in trouble as other men but hee Schooles his owne Children they shall seldome bee without some affliction or other least they should bee drowned in the pleasures of the world Therefore let us beare the chastisements of the LORD patiently for a short time in this life which is but a spanne long that wee may live with our heavenly Father in the life to come Hitherto he hath given a precept touching our selves how we our selves are with patience to runne the race set before us quietly enduring such chastisements as our father imposeth Now hee doth further enjoyne us to bee as trumpets to waken others to it that they may run together with us in the race of Christianity Where 1. An admonition 2. A reason for the enforcing of it Verse 18. In the admonition 1. A generall propounding of it Verse 14. 2. A particular unfolding of it In the generall propounding of it 1. The vertues commended to us peace and holinesse Then the reason for the enforcing of them of the latter especially VERSE 14. HE doth not say embrace peace when it comes to you and offers her selfe to you but though she runne away follow her lay hold on her and bring her whether she will or no. We must seeke peace instanter follow it generaliter with all prudenter in holinesse Not with some but all not with your friends alone but with your enemies too not only with them of the same Religion but with those that be of another Religion Bee at peace with their persons though not with their vices bee at peace with all what in thee lieth especially holinesse that is of absolute necessity bee not so greedy of peace that yee should forget holinesse holinesse of soule and body 1 Thes. 4.3 2 Cor. 7.1 Hereunto he inviteth us by the danger of the want of it without which no man be he never so wise learned honourable though he be a King he cannot be saved without holinesse shall see the Lord in his blessed and glorious kingdome in the life to come as a Citizen of the same kingdome Our Saviour was at peace with the Pharisees hee went to many of their houses to dinner hee was at peace with Caesar though he were a persecutor of the Church and payd tribute to him and wee may be at peace with all men throughout the wide compasse of the world with Atheists drunkards adulterers c. 1 Cor. 5.10 Yet here two cautions are to be observed 1. Wee must distinguish betweene peace and familiarity wee may bee at a generall peace even with the enemies of God but wee must not bee familiar with them There is danger in that All our delight must be on the Saints that be on the earth they must be our familiars 2. Wee may bee at peace with the persons of all but with the vices of none Bee at peace with a drunkard but not with his drunkennesse reprove that
If Moses quake how shall Ahab quake if St. Peter how shall Iudas Let us labour before hand to bee reconciled to GOD by IESUS CHRIST that wee may stand without trembling before the Son of man Yee see their condition in the time of the Law there was blacknesse and darkenesse all things were then obscure We have the cleere light and bright Sunne shine of the Gospell All things were terrible to them all things are comfortable to us God the Father speakes to us sweetly from heaven this is my beloved Sonne heare him They could not abide the voice of God it sounded with such terrour in heir eares GOD the Sonne speaketh amiably to us come to mee all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest therefore f much holinesse were required of them how much more of us At the delivery of the Law they were to sanctifie themselves from the highest to the lowest they were to wash their garments they might not come at their Wives all the while then how holy ought wee to bee with whom GOD deales so lovingly in the time of the Gospell If a servant that hath a sower Master that lookes fiercely on him and speakes angerly must obey how much more obedient ought hee to bee that hath a kind and loving Master that lookes on him alwayes with a cheerefull countenance and speakes friendly to him God in the time of the Law was terrible master hee is most kinde to us now in Christ Iesus Therefore let us serve him with all cheerefulnesse We have had a view of the terrible estate of the Church in the time of the Law Now let us see the comfortable estate of the Church whereunto we are come in the time of the Gospell What Saint Basil speakes of the Scripture in generall may be avouched of this in speciall Hexam Hom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERSE 22. THe estate of the Church in the time of the Gospell is set forth 1. By a narration of the places to the which we are come 2. By an enumeration of the persons to whom we are come The places are two one a Mountaine the other a City Every word is to bee observed We must not pretermit the adversative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but. Yee have heard how it was with them they were in a pittifull case nothing but feare and terrour it is otherwise with you the case is altered with you You are in a more blessed condition illi procul stabant they stood afarre of they might not touch the bottome of the Mount if a beast touched it he dyed for it Vos prope est is you are come neere Not to Mount Sinai full of smoake blacknesse darkenesse and tempest but to Mount Sion a sweet and amiable Mount Sion speculatio dei as Gregory doth interpret it Moral l. 33. c. 1. GOD is to bee seene by manifest tokens in the Church contemplatio Dei nos fortes reddit The contemplation of God in Christ Iesus infuseth courage into us all it makes us more strong and valiant Thus God hath beene more gracious to you if yee can make a good use of it The Church is resembled to a Mountaine not to a valley 1. Propter altitudinem for the height of it a Mountaine is higher than the ordinary earth the Church is high it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above Gal. 4.26 and they that be of the Church must carry high and regall mindes they must not bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10. not Crowes that hover below on the earth but Eagles that Mount up into heaven Whereupon Saint Hierome Epist. 17. hath a witty observation of the blessed Virgin Mary When she saw her wombe to be domum Dei the house of the Son of God relictis campestribus ad montana perrexit leaving the low Champion Countries she went up into the hill Country Luk. 1.39 So after we begin to beare Christ in the wombe of our soules by faith we must leave earth and mount up in our affections into heaven wee must seeke the things that be above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God 2. The Church is compared to a Mountaine propter securitatem for the security of it A City seated on an high Mountaine furnished with munition and victualls within it selfe strongly fenced against blustering windes and stormy tempests cannot easily be overcome no more can the Church the gates of hell may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valere avayle for a time but they cannot praevalere 3. Propter ascendendi difficultatem for the difficulty of ascending to it A man may not goe up an high hill but it must cost him paines sweat and labour so it is a laborious thing to get to heaven Labour for the meat that endureth to life everlasting strive to enter in at the strait gate if by any meanes sayes S. Paul I may attaine to the resurrection of the just 4 Propter immobilitatem for the immobility of it mons à movendo by Antiphrasis quia minimè movet The Church is as Mount Sion that standeth fast for ever and cannot be removed Happy are they that be of the Church When S. Peter was on Mount Tabor where he saw but a glimmering of the joyes of heaven he was so ravished with it that he cryed out Master it is good for us to bee here let us here make our Tabernacles That was unadvisedly said of him But let us all be earnest suitors to GOD Almighty that wee may make our Tabernacles in Mount Sion for ever and ever The second place unto which wee are come in the time of the Gospell is a Citie The Church in the time of the Law was in the wildernesse now it is a Citie and that a most worthy and famous Citie Where is to be considered 1. Cujus sit civitas whose Citie it is 2. Quae qualisue sit what Citie it is It is the Citie not of a Man but of God Rome was Romulus's Citie Philippi was Philips Citie Alexandria was Alexanders Citie Constantinople was Constantin's Citie but this is GOD's Citie Not the Citie of a dead and forged God of Iupiter Apollo Mars Mercurie but the Citie of the living God Therefore as he never dyes but lives for ever so that Citie shall abide for ever And if ye will needs know what Citie it is not to hold you in suspence it is Ierusalem Visio pacis the vision of peace Here is all peace no warre in this Citie Not earthly Ierusalem which was a renowned Citie in her time but Heavenly Ierusalem the Mother of us all Theodosius the Emperour was wont to say Solus Ambrosius dignus Episcopi nomine Only Ambrose is worthy of the name of a Bishop We may better say Solum Coelum dignum civitatis nomine only Heaven is worthy the name of a Citie These Cities may be overturned by earthquakes Simeon a little
of condemnation This Iudge is rather the Father than the Son for of him hee entreats in the next Verse Though Christ be the sole Iudge secundum executionem Iohn 5.22 yet judiciaria potestas is in the whole Trinity chiefly in the Father There was an unrighteous Iudge Luke 18. but this is the righteous Iudge of the whole world Gen. 18. These Iudges are wise and learned it is meet they should be so Lactantius writes of a Iudge that was very learned and set forth divers bookes but they are all fooles to him the onely wise God These Iudges are subject to partiality for that cause the Iudges of Mars street were wont to sit in judgement in the night that they might not bee moved with the contemplation of the party This Iudge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day and night These are mutable there is not a shaddow of turning in him These Iudges dye this remains for ever and ever this is He to whom we are come The name especially the sight of a Iudge is terrible especially to a malefactor The Great Men the Kings of the Earth cry out Apoc. 6. O ye hils fall on us hide us from him that sitteth on the Throne When Ahasuerus held forth his golden Scepter Q. Hester went boldly to him The King of Kings hath held forth the Scepter of his favour to us by his Sonne CHRIST IESUS Therefore wee may come with all cheerefulnesse to him because this Iudge now is become our Father 1 Pet. 1.17 When Foelix did but heare Saint Paul preach of the judgement to come he trembled We shall stand without trembling before the Iudge himselfe It is Gods office to judge There is one Lawgiver and one Iudge There be Iudges under God and the King for civill matters and wee must all judge and try the spirits whether they be of God or not Of apert and manifest things we may judge Wee may call a spade a spade a knave a knave a drunkard a drunkard c. but of secret things we may not judge The heart is a secret thing judge not rashly of that the number of GOD's elect is secret judge not then who shall be saved and who damned true sanctification is a secret thing many may be holy without that are not within as the Pharisees some holy within as the Kings daughter is all glorious within If a man or woman follow not the bent of thy bow if he make not as great an outward shew as thou shall he by and by be an unsanctified person This is too great rashnesse Who art thou that judgest another mans servant Shall one fellow-servant judge another Let us referre that to the Iudge of all Let us judge our selves throughly and we will not be such severe judges of others The next persons to whom we are come are certaine speciall members of the Church the Saints triumphing in heaven These quoad essentiam are spirits as yet they have no bodies quoad qualitates they are just and perfect To the spirits of just men Not to the pulling spirits in purgatory for there be none such Purgatorium sayes Erasmus est tertius locus quem ignorat catholica ecclesia Nor to walking spirits in Church or Church-yard they be figmenta or ludibria either the devises of politique Priests or the delusions of the devill that lying Spirit nor to the damned spirits in hell they be the spirits in heaven Not to the Angels of whom he spake before but to the soules of the godly assumed into heaven to the spirit of Adam Abel Patriarcks Prophets Apostles of all that have departed in the faith of Iesus 1 They are just clothed not foliis ficulneis but with the robe of Christs justice and righteousnesse while they were here and now covered with the white robe of immortality for ever They have primam stolam the first robe for their soules and they shall have the second for their bodies in the resurrection 2 They are perfect We are a perfecting they are perfected the body of sin is wholly abolished and the graces of the spirit perfected in them perfect in knowledge affection and life without spot and wrinckle We must not imagine to finde absolute perfection in this life Diogenes came with a Candle at noone-day to seeke for a Man neither by Sun-light nor Moone-light shall we finde a perfect Man Absoloms body was without blemish so is no Mans soule in this life In many things we sin all The just man fals seven times a day I doe not utterly dislike that commendation that is so frequent among us if it were not to the disgrace of another indeed hee is a good man a good woman but they have these blemishes these imperfections as Nazianzen observeth of them that were famous among the Heathen Solonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 covetousnesse Socratis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loving of boyes Platonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gulosity Diogenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scurrility So may we of all Christians they have one blemish or other Noah had a staine of drinking Abraham of dissembling David of adultery and murther S. Peter of deniall of Christ S. Paul and S. Barnabas of contention As the Psalmist sayes there is none good no not one so there is none perfect no not one If ye will have perfect men and women ye must goe to heaven for them there be none on the face of the earth Nostra siqua est humilis justitia recta forsitan sed non pura The vertue that is in a just Man hactenùs perfecta nominatur ut ad ejus perfectionem pertineat etiam ipsius imperfectionis in veritate agnitio in humilitate confessio S. Aug. cont duaes Epist. Pelag. l. 3. c. 7. Our perfection is an unfained acknowledgement of our imperfection and an humble confession of the same Indeed Hezekiah lying on his death-bed as he thought was bold to put God in remembrance that hee had walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart 2 Reg. 20.3 The Seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the Hebrew it is Lebab shalom with a peaceable heart because there was no hypocrisie in him but a sincere desire to please God Yet he came short of that perfection which the Law requires There may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plenitudo but not perfectio Apoc. 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Weaver may fill his cloth yet there may be defects in it Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandements of God without reproofe A wonderfull commendation 1. They did not goe but walked on without ceasing 2. Not in their owne phantasies but in Gods Commandements not in some but in all and so as they could not be reproved for it They walked in all yet in all imperfectly There is perfectio partium graduum An infant hath all the parts of a man but not the breadth and stature of a man So they walked
that comforts us with the promises of the Gospell Therefore our righteousnesse should exceed theirs I beseech you by the mercies of God sayes S. Paul not by the terrours of GOD. Gods mercies have beene wonderfull therefore let us serve him more cheerfully than they have done the love of Christ ought to constraine us As he hath died for our sins and shed his bloud for them so let us dye to them continually Let us serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life that when this life is ended wee may raigne with Christ for ever They had short winter dayes that were full of shadowes we have summer dayes the Son of righteousnesse shineth forth brightly to us they had the bloud of Goats Lambes Calves Oxen as a representation of the bloud of Christ we have Christs bloud actually shed on the Crosse for us they saw Christ afar off Your Father Abraham saw my day and was glad we see him already offered on the Altar of the Crosse for our sinnes and crucified before our eyes in the preaching of the Gospell Happy are the eyes that see that which we see Many Kings and Prophets desired to see them and could not Let us walke worthy of this kindnesse of the Lord. Now followes the use we are to make of it which is double the one negative that we despise not our Saviour Christ the Mediator of the New Testament the other affirmative that we serve and honour him Vers. 28. He disswades us from despising him by two arguments the one from the worthinesse of the person 25. the other from the dignity of the Gospell the thing it selfe VERSE 25. FOr the caveat hee doth not simply say despise him not but with a watch-word looke to it the danger is great if ye doe Christ is despised two kinde of wayes openly and secretly openly by refusing to heare him at all as they in the Gospell wee will not have this man to raigne over us How often would I have gathered you together and ye would not some will not come to Church to heare CHRIST they had rather heare a Fidler than heare a Preacher 2 When as men heare yet contemptuously as the Pharisees did Luke 16.14 these are open despisers of Christs speaking The other are close and secret despisers They doe not peremptorily say they will not come but they make excuses for not comming I have bought a yoke of Oxen sayes one a Farme sayes another I have burling in hand spinning in hand I have a journey to take on that day I cannot come This is a despising of Christ speaking as the word importeth The other secret despisers are carelesse and negligent hearers we will give him the hearing but if we were out of the Church we would not thinke of it againe They looke themselves in the glasse of the Word see many spots but have no care to wipe them away This is a kinde of despising the voice of Christ and it shall be required at our hands despise not him that speaketh any kinde of way but heare him with all reverence He is worth the hearing 1 He speakes vera nothing but the truth for he is the Truth it selfe 2 Suavia that which is sweet and comfortable to us all sweeter than the honey or the honey combe Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavie laden I will give you rest 3 Vtilia that which is profitable he tels us of a Kingdome prepared for us 4 Manifesta he speakes plainely evidenter that any may understand him there be no aenigmata no riddles in his speech 5 Efficacia he speakes efficaciter powerfully with authority never did any man speake as he doth 6 Sublimia heavenly things therefore despise not him that speaketh but receive the honey drops of his speeches to the joy and comfort of you all Why what though we despise him the matter is not great yes there is great danger in it If they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth namely Moses yet tanquam ex divino Oraculo which revealed the Oracles of God to them on the earth They that rejected him were severely punished The man that with an high hand gathered sticks on the Sabbath-day contrary to the Law of Moses was stoned Corah Dathan and Abiram that murmured against him were swallowed up by the earth they that tooke their parts were destroyed Num. 16.49 Some vengeance or other wil light on us if we turne him away and refuse him that speaketh from Heaven But how doth Christ now speake from heaven Surely by the mouthes of his Embassadours he that heareth you heareth me Will ye have an experiment of Christ speaking in me When a learned Ezra standeth up in the Pulpit to speake to the people Christ speaketh The wicked will reply on Christ at the day of judgement and say Lord when saw wee thee hungry and gave thee no meat So some will say O if we might heare Christ speaking from heaven we will sit with reverence and heare attentively When any of his Stewards and Ministers speake He speaketh therefore beware how ye despise him that Moses's ministery and shall they escape that despise Christs ministery Many heavie judgements will light upon the contemners of Gods Word Manasseh though a King was carried into captivity for it Pelatiah died Ierusalem that would not heare Christ when he clocked to her as a loving Hen heard the cry of the Romanes to their destruction If we at this day turne away our eares from hearing Christ speaking to us from heaven the sword of the enemie famine pestilence tedious Agewes not heard of before some plague or other will fall on us If they escaped not that despised Moses shall they escape that despise Christ speaking from heaven VERSE 26. THE second reason is taken from the dignity of the Gospell Then at the delivery of the Law The voice of God did but shake the earth Exod. 19.18 Now at the exhibition of the Gospell It shooke earth and heaven too The which he proveth out of Hagge where we have 1. an Allegation of the Text then a Commentary on the Text. The people mourned that the second Temple was not so glorious as the first GOD comforts them promising to make it more glorious not in sumptuous building but by the comming of the Messiah into it Before he did shake but the earth when the Law was given now he will shake heaven and earth heaven and earth was moved with the comming of Christ when he was borne Herod and all Ierusalem was shaken Wise-men directed by a Starre came out of the East to worship him At the Passion of Christ the earth shooke the graves opened many dead Saints came out and appeared Heaven also was shaken at his comming the Angels in great multitudes came from heaven and sung for joy at his comming the voice of the Father was heard from heaven at his Baptisme This is my beloved Son c. At the passion of
come into the haven Runners lose the gold unlesse they runne to the end of the race So runne that ye may obtaine hold that which thou hast that another take not thy crown Ibi tu christiane fige cursus tui metā ubi christus posuit suam saith Ber. There O christian set down thy staffe where Christ set down his factus est obediens usque ad mortem he was obedient to the death so bee thou remember Lots wife she turned backe and was turned into a pillar of salt ut nos omnes condiret that she might be as a salting tub to season us all In Iacobs ladder the Angels were ascending and descending none were standing They that traveile by a wood full of theeves had neede to looke to themselves least they lose their purses we are among many spirituall theeves that will rob us if they can of the precious pearle of celestiall doctrine therefore let us looke to our selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought The second argument à praemio from the reward Let us looke to our selves not onely that we be no losers but that we may be gainers too that we may receive a full reward Why then they that begin well and continue not shall have some reward halfe a one though not a full one Resp. 1. They may have a reward among men in this world for a season the praise of men but they shall misse of that eternall reward in the world to come 2. the particle full hath reference not to the workers but to the reward it is a compleat a full reward fulnesse of glory in soule and body At his right hand is fulnesse of joy for ever the rewards wee have here are Semiplena halfe full this is plenum wholy full Hic jugulantur haeretici saith Catharinus qui mercedem bonorum operum negent here the heretiques throate is cut which deny the reward of good workes he fights with his owne shaddow he seekes a knife where there is no throate to cut for we that be Protestants acknowledge a reward for good workes and wee embrace that Axiom of Bellermines It is lawfull to doe good workes intuitu mercedis aeternae with an eye to an eternall reward reposed for them Moses chose rather to suffer adversitie with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season why because he had respect to the recompence of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he looked from the aflictions to the reward Our Saviour for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame so may the members of Christ doe yet not tantum praecipuè yet not onely for that nor chiefely for that but that God may be glorified by our workes Nolo ad praemium diligere Deum saith Saint Augustine doe not love God onely so farre as thou mayest be rewarded and no further Ipse sit praemium tuum let him be thy reward I am thy exceeding great reward Neverthelesse we disclaime that Axiom of Bellermines that merces meritum are relatives Merces opus be relatives a reward and a worke but not merces meritum a reward and a merit God rewards our workes yet not for any merit in them but for his owne mercy For when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants for we have done no more than we ought to doe a debt can be no merit all that we doe is a debt Thou hast entred into a bond to pay an hundred pound thou payest it dost thou merit by it An Apprentise serves his master well during his Apprentiship doth he merit by it he was bound by obligation to doe it 2. No free gift is a merit eternall life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the free gift of God feare not little Flocke it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome it is given we doe not merit it let every one of us say with Berniard meritum meum misericordia tua my merit is thy mercy But there is a reward even from our lame weake and imperfect workes in keeping of them there is great reward not onely a reward but a great reward too wherein God dealeth with us as a kinde father with his children hee allures us with rewards and that makes the worke more easie as Basil speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the consideration of the end of his journey refresheth the travellour the expectation of gaine that encourages the merchant and the spoyle the souldier Let us looke up with the eye of faith to this reward and it will be a Noah to comfort us in all our labours in this vaile of miseries VERSE 9. THe third argument ab incommodo from the great discommodity that ensueth upon it Whosoever of what quality and condition soever Transgresseth that holy commandement of persevering in the truth which we have received from the Father This is my beloved Sonne heare him and none but him And abideth not firmely and unmoveably In the doctrine of Christ the sole Saviour of the world For there is Salvation in no other and this doctrine is conteined in the Scripture Search the Scriptures they they be that testifie of me Hath not God that is his favour in this life nor shall he partake of his glory in the life to come he hath not God and so consequently he hath the devill therefore is in a most lamentable case The fourth from the commoditie He that abideth constantly to the end in the doctrine of Christ revealed in the Word he hath both the Father and the Sonne for they are inseparable they goe together hee that seeth the one seeth the other and he that hath the one hath the other neither is the holy Ghost excluded for the Father and the Sonne dwell in us by him therefore it standeth us all in hand to shut up our eares against false and erronious teachers and to persist in the doctrine of Christ delivered unto us Be no more children wavering and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the deceit and craftinesse of men What went ye out into the Wildernesse to see a reede we must be stones not reedes and ye as living stones saith Saint Peter There be 4 principall pulbackes from the Doctrine of Christ the 1. is the glosing tongues of heretiques by their faire speeches and flattering they deceive the hearts of the simple The second is ease master pittie thy selfe it is good sleeping in a whole skinne now thou goest whether thou wilt if thou embrace Christ and his Gospell thou shalt be shut up in prison now thou eatest and drinkest of the best and farest deliciously every day then thou shalt bee fed with bread and water now thou lyest soft in fine bedding but then thou shalt endure more hardnesse for thou shalt lye in straw or on the bare boards