a citie also and the best on earth are but shadowes of it And it may shame them that are drowned in the pleasures and delicacies of earthly cities and care not nor looke after the city of the liuing God the heauenly Ierusalem as it is called Heb. 12.22 But alas it seemes they care not for this shame for where is securitie wantonnesse profanenesse oppressions so coÌ„mon as in these great cities And as in the Apostles times the countrey towne Berea was more zealous and religious than the rich and stately citie of Thessalonica Acts 17.11 So is it generally to this day especially at such places in the countrey where teaching and knowledge is But let such cities know that as they haue better meanes more comforts and their very name should put them in minde and make them in loue with heauen so they shall receiue greater damnation Lastly Cities are places of freedome and all such great places haue some notable priuiledges therefore men desire to be free in such places as is to bee seene in London Rome Venice c. Euen the greatest persons will bee content to be free of them and many seeke it and pay deer for it or at least worke a long time for it But heauen is the City of cities the perfection of beauty and true happinesse therefore let euery one that desires either honour or happinesse labour and striue to be a free-man of heauen and neuer rest till he know hee be And let those that liue in cities when they are admitted free-men as daily some are remember what a blesâ—ednes it will be if they can bee admitted free-men of the glorious Citie which is aboue and how little that shall auaile them if they want this which was the hope and ioy of Abraham and all holy men To goe further This Citie which Abrahams faith waited for is described by two points 1. That it hath a foundation 2. That the maker and builder was God For the first Heauenly Ierusalem hath a foundation such a one as no city in this world hath by this phrase the holy Ghost insinuates vnto vs what be the properties of heauen which be two 1. The state of heauen is vnchangeable 2. Euerlasting and eternall First the state of the Elect in heauen their glory there is not subiect to corruption or the least alteration as appeareth in that notable and loftie description of the heauenly Ierusalem Apoc. 21.14 and from the 10. verse to the 21 It hath a great wall and high 12. gates 12. Angels for Porters and the wall had 12. foundations of 12. sorts of most excellent pretious stones and the wall it selfe was Iasper and the citie pure gold like crystall The state of it is shadowed by pretious stones and gold to signifie as well the durablenesse as the excellency therof And in the 15. Psalme vers 1. it is called the mountaine of Gods holines Hills are hardly remoued and therefore Dauid saith that Mount Zion cannot bee remooued but remaineth for euer Psal. 125.1 Now if that be true of Mount Zion in this world which must needes bee taken either literally for the state of the visible Church which cannot be vtterly ouerthrowen or mystically for the state of Gods grace which in this world cannot totally finally be lost I say if this Mount Zion standeth fast and cannot be remoued how much more true iâ— it of the state of glory in heauen and of the triumphant Church and of heauenly Zion that it is so vnchangeable so durable so vnremoueable that it cannot be shaken but standeth fast for euer And in this respect well may the Apostle say here It hath a foundation which the holy Ghost in the Reuelation saith to haue 12. foundations Secondly the state of the Elect in heauen is not onely sure but euerlasting that is without end Psal. 37.18 the Inheritance of holy men is perpetuall And therfore S. Peter 1.1.4 saith that the inheritance reserued in heauen for vs is immortall not fading away It fades not away there is the vnchangeablenesse It is immortall there is the eternity of it And this is meant by hauing a foundation for in this world so much the longer doth any thing endure as the foundation is stronger Therefore seeing the heauenly city hath such a foundation no maruell though it indure for euer Now put these two together and they shew the perfect excellency of that city which is both vnchangeable and eternall Where we learne the great difference betwixt the state of that world and this present world wherin we liue in the body For what is there in this world so excellent so pâ—etious so costly so artificiall but is subiect both to alteration and in the ende to dissolution The longest day hath his night and the longest life endeth in death after many miseries and tossings the longest Empires and mightiest Monarchies had their period after many mutations the stateliest and strongest cities ended in ruine after many ciuill broiles massacres and other miseries So that no glory no strength no happinesse nothing at all is there in this world that is either constant or perpetuall but subiect to vtter dissolution in the end and in the meane time to pittifull alterations So weake a foundation hath this world and the best things in it But contrariwise the glory of heauen hath such a foundation as it is both vnchaâ—geable and eternall The consideration of this difference hath manifold profitable vse First we may see how reasonable the counsell of the Apostle is 1. Tim 6. â—7 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded and put not their trust in vncertaine riches but in the liuing God For what a misery and vanity is it to trust in that that is vncertaine and therefore will deceiue them The Apostle tells them what to doe namely Doe good and be rich in good works and be ready to distribute laying vp in store for themselues a good foundatioÌ„ against the time to come that they may obtain eternal life that is that they so speÌ„d their riches in holines charity that they may 〈◊〉 the ende attaine heauen which is the Citie that hath a foundation and who would not spend riches which are so vncertaine for heauen which is so certaine a glory Secondly this must teach vs to followe the Counsell of Christ Iesus Math. 6.19.20 Lay not vp for your selues treasures on earth where moth and canker corrupt theeues steale but in heauen where is neither canker moth theefe nor any other corruption Euery man naturally must haue his treasure and that is it whereon hee sets his heart now that is vnworthy of a mans heart which will bee lost wee knowe not how soone But let vs make heauen our treasure the glory whereof is both eternall and vnchangeable Againe seeing nothing here is certaine wee must learne to seeke sound comfort where it may be had Seeke it in this world and it will faile
with his lusts and bee renewed in holinesse We must become penitent sinners for our liues past and newe men for hereafter or else let vs not looke to haue any part in heauen And good reason for God is the maker and builder of it But hee is not the maker of sinne but the diuell and our selues brought it out and thinke we the diuels worke shall come in heauen or that God will build a house for the diuels slaues to dwell in Let vs not be deceiued But contrariwise grace and holinesse is Gods worke as our soules and bodies were the worke of his hands so our regeneration is much more the worke of his owne power and mercie That man therefore who can say God as once hee made me a man so hee hath againe made and built me a new man and a new creature that man is he that shal be an inhabitant in that heauenly city whose maker and builder is the same God In this holy way of faith and repentance did the holy Fathers walke to this city as Dauid saith in the name of them all Thus I will waite for thee in holinesse Psalm And thus doubtlesse did the noble Patriarke Abraham who as hee was the father of our faith so was hee also a patterne of repentance holy life in that holines he waited for this city that hath a foundation whose maker and builder is God Hitherto we haue heard the holy practice of Abrahams faith in two examples There is much more spoken of the excellency of his faith but by the way the holy Ghost interlaceth a worthy example euen of a womans faith namely Sarah his wife The sixt Example in the order of the whole followeth in the words of the two next verses Sarahs Faith VERSE 11. By faith euen Sarah also receiued strength to conceiue seede and was deliuered of a childe when she was past age because shee iudged him faithfull which had promised NExt to Abraham who is called the father of our faith or of faithful meÌ„ followeth Sarah who was also mystically the mother of beleeuers next to the husband followeth the wife nay Abrahams faith is commended both before her and after her and hers inclosed in the midst By the way here obserue how God honours holy mariage and obserues the decorum and dignitie of it Hee not only allowes or commends the faith of Abel who it may be was vnmaried but as wee see of maried men also And it is worthy our obseruation that of all these whom the holy Ghost here records for their faith and holinesse they were all maried except Abel of whom it is not certaine whether he were or no. It appears therefore that God as he ordained holy mariage so he alwaies honored it both with his grace on earth and his glory in heauen as well if not better than any other state of life They therefore doe spit in the face of God himselfe who any way disgrace it and they especially who allow fornication or adulterie in any sort of men rather than it as some Papists doe But here wee may obserue further how God maintaines the dignity decorum of it he placeth Abraham and Sarah together and puts none betwixt them to shewe the inseparable vnitie that is to be betwixt them so farre as that eueâ— in storie they are to be set together and how hainous their presumption is that darâ— any way attempt to separate or part that vnitie He placeth Abraham first to shewe the dignitie and preheminence of the man whom for her sinne God hath set ouer her not only for her head but for her guide gouernour and to teach the man that he and his example should be first and should bee a light vnto her to shame them who come behinde their wiues in faith and holines He placeth Abraham both afore and after her and her in the midst to teach her that her glory and honour euery way is in the vertue and worthinesse of her husband her head vnder God who is to goe before her to giue her good example and to come after to ouersee her courses and on all sides to be a shelter and defence vnto her These things may not vnfitly be noted in this contextion Now let vs come to the words wherein are these points 1. Who beleeued Euen Sarah 2. What shee beleeued Gods promise to beare Isaac 3. The impediments of that faith which were two 1. Her age 2. Her barrennesse 4. The effects of this her faith which were three 1. Thereby shee conceiued seed 2. Brought forth Isaac 3. Had a great â—ssue and posteritie by him 5 The ground of her faith shee iudged him faithfull which had promised All these are laid downe in this verse or the next The first point is the person of whom this storie is Sarah a woman euen shee beleeued We haue heard some examples of notable men but he hold here a woman chronicled for her faith and holy obedience as well as men Where we learne that sauing faith and consequently saluation it selfe is not proper to one sexe but to both man woman The woman indeed was the first that brought in sin and beeing deceiued her selfe by the diuell shee deceiued man In which sense the Apostle saith 1. Tim. 2.14 The man was not deceiued but the woman and shee was in the transgression And for that cause grieuous calamities and much bitternesse was laid vpon that sexe in bearing and bringing vp children and in subiection In which regards they might thinke themselues forsaken of God for their fault For the preuenting whereof the Apostle here or rather the holy Ghost by him teacheth vs that true faith and saluation by the Messias belongeth to Sarah as well as Abraham to women as well as to men And Saint Peter also most plainely 1. Pet. 3.7 teacheth vs that they are heires together with their husbands of the grace of life The vse whereof as it discouereth the monstrous and vnnaturall madnesse of some men who haue called into question the possibility of their saluation yea some whether they haue soules or no so it giueth encouragement to women to serue that God in zeale and sinceritie which hath bin so mercifull vnto their sinne and who though he hath subiected them in body vnto their husdands yet hath made their soules partakers with them of the same hope of immortall life Yet withall we may obserue how few the holy Ghost here recordeth namely but one or two women amongst many men For so it hath beene in all ages those that haue beene good were excellent but they were fewe in comparison of men which as it is the more commendation to them that are good so it must stirre vp all women professing religion to labour in the imitation of the faith of their grandmother Sarah that so they may be some of those fewe But let vs enter into further and more particular consideration who this Sarah was especially seeing shee is the onely woman
sinnes from the world for this is one of the strongest and commonest encouragements that men take to liue in a sinne If they thinke it likely to be concealed But here they see how false a ground that is For if they can conceale it from men yet can they not from God and if God know it then can he reueale it to the world when it pleaseth him Againe whereas Abels bloud cried when he was dead It teacheth vs that God had a care of Abell both liuing and dead for it were nothing to say his bloud cried if God heard not that cry But it s apparant he heard it for he reuenged it and punished Cain when Abell was dead and could not reuenge it himselfe And this care God hath not ouer Abell alone but ouer all his children and as the Psalmist saith Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints that which is vile and of no regard in the world is pretious with God Tyrants make hauocke of the Church and kill them vp by heapes but God records vp euery one and will not faile to reuenge it when they are dead For if God haue bottles for the teares of his seruants surely much more hath he bottles for their bloud The vse whereof is to teach vs in all extremities of danger or distresse to learne patience yea though we be sure to die yet as Christ saith To possesse our soules with patience For we haue one wil heare the cause and reuenge our quarrell when we are gone So that if wee be patient wee loose nothing but if wee be impatient wee get nothing Let vs therefore hold our tongues for the wrong done to vs crieth loude enough to God for reuenge who will heare it as assuredly as he did Abels And thus wee see how Abell spake then euen after he was dead The second point is Hee speakes also yet and that three wayes First his faith yet speaketh because it admonisheth all men euery where who either heare or reade this story to become such as Abell was namely true worshippers of the true God for in Abels example it prouokes all men to be like him because it assureth them of the same regard and reward with God that Abell had and so Abels faith is a neuer dying Preacher to all Ages of the Church Here wee learne that the holy Examples of Gods children are reall teaching and loude preaching to other men For there is a double teaching namely in word or deede It belongs to the Minister to teach in word and to all men to teach by their deedes and good examples And if the Minister teach not thus also it is the worse both for him and his hearers It sufficeth not for him to teach by vocall Sermons that is by good doctrine but withall by reall Sermons that is by good life His faith his zeale his patience his mercy and all other his vertues must speake and cry call to other men to be like vnto him which if he practice carefully in his life as Abell did then shall his vertues speake for him to all posterities when he is dead Againe Abell though dead may be said to speake because howsoeuer his body be dead yet in soule and spirit hee liueth with God in heauen And thus the word speaketh may be vnderstoode because it is here opposed to death by which he being dead yet speaketh that is being dead in body yet liueth in soule which life with God was obtained vnto by his true and sauing faith Thirdly hee may be said to speake yet as all other Gods Martyrs are said to crie in the Reuelation from vnder the altar How long Lord holy and true doest thou not auenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth As this is true of all Martyrs so specially of Abell the first Martyr of all which words are not spoken neither by him nor them vocally with vttrance of voice but it is so said to signifie what feruent desire the seruants of God haue in heauen of the full manifestation of Gods glory in their bodies and of an vtter abolishment of sinne in the whole world Which their desire they doubtlesse vtter to God in a more excellent manner then in this world wee can vtter any thing with our voice and thus Abell speakes yet and shall speake till the worlds end Hitherto of the first Example the Example of Abell The second is of Henoch in these words By faith Henoch was translated that he should not see death neither was he found for God tooke him away for before he was translated he was reported of that hee had pleased God c. THe second example of faith is taken also out of the old world before the floud and it is of Henoch the seauenth from Adam to whom strange and miraculous things befell by reason of his faith Let the meaning of the words be first examined By Faith That is by his confidence in the Messias or his sauing faith he was taken away Taken away That is from earth to heauen not by an ordinary worke but miraculously as is euident by the next words That he should not see death That is that he should not feele death nor any dissolution of soule and body and therefore his taking away was miraculous For to be taken away by death is an ordinarie worke but to be taken away and yet not die that is miraculous and extraordinary and such was Henochs So then the substance of these words is thus much Henoch hauing this grace from God to beleeue stedfastly in the Messias to come was likewise honoured with this high prerogatiue To be taken into heauen without tasting of death further was taken away to the end that he might not die Thus we haue the meaning Now concerning this translation of Henochs there are two opinions Some thinke hee was translated in soule onely and not in body and they say he died in the translation so as his soule onely was taken vp into heauen and his body slept in the earth Though this appeares false at the first sight yet let vs see their reasons and what they can say for themselues Their first reason is this No mortall body vnglorified can enter into heauen but there is no mention of his glorification therefore his body could not come in heauen Answer It is certaine it was glorified ere it came in heauen If they reply it is not mentioned I answere it followeth not that therefore it was not for euery circumstance of euery action is not mentioned For many circumstances of actions must necessarily be supposed such a one was this Againe the glorification of his body is here plainly enough implied where it is said he was translated that he should not see death Now if his body sawe not death it was made immortall which is a speciall part of glorification Their second reason Christ was the first that euer entred into heauen both in
he proues it out of the old Testament so also did the Apostles and Christ himselfe all their doctrine Let this teach all men to giue due reuerence to the holy Scriptures let teachers alledge them let hearers receiue them farre aboue all humane testimonies seeing the holy Ghost himself vouchsafeth to confirme his owne words by the authority thereof Secondly hauing laide this ground the holy Ghost frames his argument to proue that Henoch was taken away by faith and it consisteth of many degrees of euidence For before he was taken away he was reported of that he had pleased God But without faith it is impossible to please God The degrees of the argument are these 1. God himselfe tooke Henoch away 2. Before he was taken away he pleased God 3. But without faith no man can please God Therefore Henoch by faith was taken away The first degree That Henoch was taken away and was not found any more in this world hath beene sufficiently spoken of already The second degree is that afore hee was taken away hee pleased God which is not barely affirmed but it is further added that hee was reported of or he receiued testimonie that he pleased God Now this report or testimonie is taken out of the storie of Genesis where it is affirmed of Enoch that hee walked with God which walking with God is an assured testimonie that hee pleased God for as the Prophet Amos saith Can two walke together vnlesse they be agreed therefore in as much as Henoch walked with God it is proofe sufficient that hee pleased God and because hee pleased God therefore God tooke him away So that here are two distinct points in this second degree First that Henoch pleased God Secondly that there is a report or a testimonie giuen of him that hee did please God In the first let vs obserue three speciall points of instruction First in that Henoch before hee was taken away pleased God let vs learne that whosoeuer lookes to haue his soule translated into heauen at his death and both body soule at the resurrection must before hand in this life learne to please God they must seeke to please God not when the time of the translation is come but before as here it is saide Henoch did If any man demaund How shall I please God My answere is this Adam pleased GOD by keeping the Lawe but now that is past that power is lost wee must nowe please God by direction from the Gospell namely by faith in Christ and true repentance together with a holy life which must necessarilie accompanie true faith and repentance thus God is pleased And this must we not deferre till our death but doe it in our liues nor can we looke to be inheritours of the kingdome of glory as now Henoch is vnlesse before hand wee be in the kingdome of grace by pleasing God as Henoch did It is lamentable to see men not care for saluation til death and then they begin to please God but alas God will not be so pleased They begin to learne how to please God when they haue so long displeased him as there is then feare they can neuer please him but that man liueth and dieth with comfort of whom it may be said as here of Henoch before hee was taken away hee pleased God Againe whereas hee came not in heauen till hee pleased God this discouers the madnesse of sinfull men who will looke for heauen and yet will leaue no sinne but flatter themselues therein But let all impenitent men here take knowledge that they come not in heauen till they please God let them therefore cease pleasing themselues and their corruptions by liuing in sinne and learne to please God by a holy life And further In this point marke how nothing brought Henoch to heauen but his pleasing of God Hee was rich for hee was one of the greatest on the earth hee was royallie descended for hee was the seauenth from Adam in the blessed line hee was learned for hee had the sixe first Patriarkes to teach him sixe such Tutors as neuer man had and it is likely hee had a comely strong and actiue body But see all these brought him not to heauen no he pleased God and was therefore taken away Let this teach vs not to rest in wealth beauty strength honour humane learning nor all these put together without the feare of God for some of them may please thy selfe and some may please other men but God must bee pleased afore thou come in heauen if thou wert as good as Henoch Therefore vnto all thy outward blessings adde this To please God by faith and repentance Then as thy pleasing of men may make thee happy in this world so thy pleasing of God shall translate thee from earth to heauen Thus wee see Henoch before hee was translated pleased God Secondly as hee pleased God and else could not haue beene translated so it is added hee was so reported of or there was such a testimonie of him That proofe or testimonie is here concealed but it is recorded in the storie of Genesis where it is said Henoch walked with God which as we heard before was an assured testimonie that God was well pleased with him But what is this hee walked with God how can a man â—e saide to walke with God The meaning is That Henoch liued a godly righteous and innocent life in this world â—or to liue in holinesse and righteousnesse is to walke with God And further his heart was possessed of two perswasions or resolutions which were the inducements drawing him to this holy life First that hee was alwayes in Gods presence and that God is alwayes readie to dispose of all thinges to his good Againe that God did see trie and discerne all his wordes and deedes yea his cogitations and thoughts and the whole course of his life These were the holy resolutions of Henoch and these made him lead a holy life This lesson is worth learning and this example worthy to be followed of vs all our dutie is with Henoch to walke with God in this life if wee purpose to liue with God in heauen and wee walke with God by leading holy and vnblameable liues in holinesse towards God and righteousnesse towards man But if wee thinke this hard to doe wee must labour to be resolued on these grounds First that God and his prouidence is euer present with vs to dispose of vs alwaies to his glory and of all other things to our good Secondly that as wee are in Gods presence so God seeth vs and all our thoughts words and workes bâ—rgaines and dealings and will iudge them all When these two perswasions possesse our hearts it cannot be but wee shall liue godly and feare to offend God for as a childe is dutifull and obedient in his Fathers presence so when a man is perswaded he is in Gods presence it cannot but make him dutifull When a man is perswaded that God seeth him
though they all haue their seuerall commendations in the word Yet of none of them all is it saide in the whole Scripture as it is heere said of faith that without it it is impossible to please God And no meruaile for it is the roote and ground of all other graces and giues them their life and being for therefore doth a man feare God therefore doth he loue God therefore is he zealous for Gods glory because hee beleeueth that God loueth him in Christ the redeemer Now then if faith be thus necessary then it followeth that those that liue in ignorance and so haue no sound faith but a foolish presumption are in a miserable case for how-euer they may flatter themselues with conceites of their deuotions and good meanings and good intents it is faith with which they must please God and nothing can without it It stands them therefore in hand to lay-off ignorance and presumption and labour for a sound and sauing faith and that will bring them to the fauour of God And againe as for such as haue receiued grace to beleeue seeing faith is of such necessitie and that they hauing faith must needes haue knowledge they therefore must looke and examine by their knowledge whether their faith be a sound faith or no for herein many that haue knowledge deceiue themselues and thinke they haue true faith when they haue not Now if any man would knowe whether his faith be sound and sauing or no It is knowne by this If it purifie the heart for so saith S. Peter That God by faith did purifie the hearts of the profane and filthy Gentiles If then thy faith doe not purifie thy heart and cleanse thy life and cause thee to abound in good workes it is no sound nor sauing faith it is but a generall faith it is but an historicall knowledge and cannot saue the soule hee therefore that vpon examination of his heart and life findeth his faith to be such let him not content himselfe but turne his generall faith into a sauing faith which in this world will purifie his heart and at the last day will saue his soule And this must euery man the rather doe because what knowledge or what other gifts of God soeuer any many hath without faith in Christ all are nothing for it is faith that seasoneth them all and makes both them and the person himselfe to please God Secondly if it be impossible without faith to please God then here wee see the fond and foolish hypocrisie of the world who will please God by other meanes some thinke if they be glorious in the world either for their wealth or their wit or their honour or their authority or their learning they presently bring themselues into a fooles Paradise and because the world makes account of them and they please themselues therefore they thinke it certaine they must needes please God But alas though all the world admire them and they be neuer so farre in loue with themselues He that sits in heauen laugheth them to scorne For not all the pompe and glory nor all the millions and mountaines of gold in the world can please the Lord for one of the least of their many thousand sinnes wherewith they haue prouoked him Let these men aske Nabuchadnezzer if his pompous pride or Achitophel if his actiue head and crafty wit or Absalom if his golden lockes or Iezabell if her painted face and courtly attire or Naball if his flockes of sheepe or the Philosophers if their naturall learning if all of these or any of these did euer please God Nay alas they all haue found and felt that without faith it is impossible to please God Thirdly it is the opinion not of the Turke alone in his Alcaron but of many other as ill that euery man shall be saued by his owne religion if he be deuout therein be hee Turke Iewe or Christian Papist or Protestant But this is a ground and rule of Atheisme and appeares here to be most false for no saluation without pleasing of God and without faith it is impossible to please God therfore no religion can saue a man but that which teacheth a man rightly to beleeue in Christ and consequently to please God But euery religion teacheth not to beleeue in Christ some not at all and some not aright and therefore it is impossible for such a religion to saue a man Againe be a man what hee can be vnlesse he be within the couenant of grace he cannot be saued But hee cannot be within the couenant but by faith therefore no man can bee saued by any meanes but by true faith nor in any religion but that which teacheth true faith Here therefore not onely Turkes and Iewes are excluded but this also sheweth many Papists and many carnall Gospellers in our Church how short they come of that religion which must saue their soules For this is the conceite of the most men that if they doe some good workes which carie a faire shew to the world as liberality to learning or charity to the poore straight they thinke they haue leaue to liue as they list and God is bound to forgiue their sinnes and to giue them heauen and this they imagine though they knowe not what it is to beleeue in Christ or to repent of their sinnes One of this religion came to the Prophet Micha in his dayes and asked him this question vttring that plainely which all such men thinke in their hearts Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bowe my selfe before the high God shall I come before him with thousands of Rams and tenne thousand riuers of oile Hee makes the question and would faine make answere himselfe nay hee goeth further and offers more Shall I giue my first borne for my transgression and the fruite of my body for the sinne of my soule But the Prophet answers him shewing him his follie and how little God regards such workes without a contrite heart Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee Surely to doe iustly to loue mercie to humble thy selfe and walke with thy God Marke how that answere fits this example of Henoch Hee pleased God he walked with God and was taken away So answereth the Prophet if thou wouldest please thy God and come to heauen by his fauour neuer stand vpon thousands of Rams and Riuers of oile vpon thy gay and glorious workes but humble thy selfe and walke with thy God No walking with God saith Micha no pleasing of God what is it but all one as if hee had said Without faith it is impossible to please God Here then is no disallowance of good workes but of workes without faith and true repentance which though they be neuer so faire and flourishing yet is it impossible that without faith they should please God Hereby it is also manifest that all the vertues of the heathen and the workes of such men as either knowe
to life euerlasting but this For thy soule cannot liue whil'st thy sinnes the olde man that is thy corruptions doe liue but they must die be buried and then thy soule liueth and whilst they liue thy soule is dead and farre from the life of grace which is in Christ Iesus All this is affirmed at large in Romanes 6.3.4 Where we may see apparantly that we must by baptisme die with Christ be buried with him else we cannot be saued by him our corruptions our sinnes which are the olde man must die and be buried that the new man that is the grace and holines of Christ may liue in vs and our soules by it he that thus dieth not neuer liues he that thus is not buried neuer riseth to true life Thus mortification of sin is the way to heauen and death the way of life eternall he that is not thus mortified in his corruption let him neuer looke to be quickned to grace or glory If this be so we may then see what a miserable world we now liue in wherin mortification of sin is a thing vnknown not a man of many that can tell what it is nay grace is dead and holinesse is mortified and I feare buried also but the old man raignes Corruption liues and sinne flourisheth Mortifying of Christ by our sinnes is common but mortifying of sinne is sildome seene For Christ is betrayed crucified and killed in a sort by the sinnes of men What a fearefull change is this Christ should liue in vs and we endeuour to crucifie him againe sinne should be crucified but it liueth in vs. But if wee will haue Christ to saue vs then must wee mortifie the body of our sinne For he that will liue when he is dead must die while he is aliue And he that will be saued by his baptisme must looke that baptisme worke this effect in him To make him die and be buried with Christ that afterwards hee may rise and raigne with Christ. And then shall Baptisme saue vs as the Arke saued faithfull Noah and his houshold And thus much for the first end vse of the Arke the second followed By the which he condemned the world Here is the second end why Noah prepared the Arke To the condemnation of the world that then was For by it not by his faith as some would reade it he condemned that wicked generation both to a temporall destruction of their bodies and to an eternall Iudgement in hell In the words there are two points to be considered 1. Who are condemned The world 2. Whereby By Noahs Arke For the first it may be asked what is meant by the world S. Peter answereth 2. Ep. 2.5 The world of the vngodly that is that generation of sinfull men who liued in the dayes of Noah whom also in the 1. Epistle 3.20 hee calleth disobedient and their more particular sinnes are disclosed and recorded by Moses Gen. 6.45 to be monstrous abuse of holy mariage vnnaturall lusts cruelties and oppressions an vtter neglect of Gods seruice and Sabbaoth and an extreame prophanenesse and dissolutenesse in euery kinde And this corruption was not priuate or personall but vniuersall through all estates sexes and ages This world of the vngodly this whole race of wicked and disobedient men were condemned But how was that world condemned by Noah Thus God vouchsafed them 120. yeeres to repent in and appointed Noah to preach vnto them during that time to call them to repentance But they beleeued not God nor Noah but continued in their disobedience and grew in their vngodlinesse therefore when that time was expired God performed his word spoken by Noah brought the floud vpon them destroyed them all and condemned in hell as many of them as died in impenitencie and vnbeliefe And thus that wicked world was condemned according as Noah in his Ministerie had foretold them Here we may learne First what the world of this age is to looke for vnlesse there be repentance For to speake but of our selues in this Nation Haue not we had the Gospell 30. yeeres and more and with it peace and much prosperity Haue not we had a goodly time giuen vs to repent What is our duty but with reuerence to see and acknowledge this goodnesse of God to take hold of this merciful opportunity this time of grace and this day of saluation If wee doe not and make no account of the Gospell what can we looke for but to be condemned as that world was Looke at the meanes and opportunities which these dayes affoord and they be as golden dayes as euer were since Christs or as euer can be expected till his comming againe But looke at the profanenesse and carnality and security of this age euen ouer all Christendome and this is the Iron age these be the euill dayes and so euill as nothing can be expected but a riuer of brimstone and a floud of fire to purge it The dayes of the comming of the sonne of Man which I take to be these dayes shall be like saith Christ Math. 24.37 vnto the dayes of Noah And surely in security and profanenesse they are like and therefore in all reason they must be like in punishment Wee must therefore take warning by them and shake off this security which possesseth all mens hearts and waite for the Lord in watching and prayer and thinke euery day may be the last day of this world at least the last day of our liues and let vs prepare for it and liue in the expectation of it Otherwise if our sinfulnesse growe on a little further nothing can we looke for but to be condemned in an vniuersall iudgement as that world was Let vs therefore be take our selues to a more serious seruing of God that the Lord when he commeth may finde vs so doing Secondly in that the whole world that then was was thus destroyed and condemned and as wee heard afore onely Noah and his houshold saued wee learne that it is not good nor safe to follow the multitude Noah was here a man alone he held and beleeued against all the world and yet his iudgement and his beliefe was true and all the worlds false and accordingly he saued when they were all condemned It is meruaile therefore the Church of Rome should so much stand vpon numbers and multitude for the gracing of of their religion For it euer was and euer will be a weake argument If multitudes might euer haue beene alledged then vnto Noah especially to whom it might haue beene said Who art thou that pretendest to be wiser then all men and to know more then all the world Thou that hast a faith by thy selfe and hast no man to beare thee company thinke not that all Adams posterity all the children of holy Henoch and Methusalem are all deceiued but thy selfe alone Would not these and such like obiections haue discouraged any man Yet behold the force of faith Noah had Gods word for it and therefore
not onely beleeues and obayeth but as God promised so he went to it and tooke possession and died in this faith that God would performe his promise and that his posteritie should inherite it all as afterward indeede they did euen from Moses to Christ. If it be asked how this could be the answere is that Abraham knew that God was King of Kings and had the world and Kingdomes of the world in his hand and disposition and therfore assured himselfe that hee could bring to passe what hee had promised and make good his word notwithstanding all such impediments to the contrarie And as hee beleeued it came to passe his posterity came to it entred as conquerers vpon this gift of God and by the power of God so amazed all these Kings and their people as some submitted as the Gibeonits and they that did not were all slaine and their Countries conquered as we may reade at large in the booke of Ioshua all the Stories whereof are briefly comprehended by Dauid in fewe words where he saith We haue heard with our eares our Fathers haue tolde vs how thou O Lord droue out the heathen with thy hand and planted them in how thou destroyed the people and made them grow Psal. 44.1.2 Out of which we learne two instructions First that the change of States and alteration of Kingdomes or common-wealths are in Gods hand and that he can turne them one way or other as it pleaseth him To this purpose saith Dauid in the fore-named Psalme verse the fourth They inherited not the land by their owne sword neither did their owne arme saue them but thy right hand and thy arme and the light of thy countenance because thou didst fauour them This must teach vs to pray earnestly in our daily prayers for the good estate of this Kingdome wherein we liue and of that worthy Prince and Queene vnder whose gouernment wee haue beene so long and so liberally blessed For the welfare and prosperity the certainty and security of it and her is not in our policie might munition ships not in the strength of our nauie nor in the power of our armour nor in the chiualrie of our people nor in the wisedome of our Councell though for all these we are a people honoured of our friends and feared of our enemies But in the mighty hand of our God who as Daniel saith beareth rule ouer the Kingdomes of the earth and giueth them to whomsoeuer he will Dan. 4.22 Seeing therefore the King of heauen in the giuer and establisher the remouer and changer of Kingdomes of the earth let vs assure our selues that the prayers of Elisha are the Horses and Chariots of Israell 2. Kinges 13.14 And surely if Elisha for his prayer was acknowledged by the King himself to be his Father then doubtlesse the godly Ministers and such other in our Church as pray daily for the peace of our Ierusalem are worthy to be accounted good children of our Church and worthy members of our State Secondly here we learne what is the ruine of Kingdomes and ouerthrow of estates namely sinne and vngodlinesse This is most apparant in the present example For why did God take this land from the Cananites and giue it to Abraham and his seede the Stories of the olde Testament answere nothing but sinne In Deuteronomie Moses chargeth the Israelites that they doe not after the abhominations of the heathen Cananites For saith he because of their abhominable sinnes God did cast them out before you Deut. 18.9.12 And why did not God instantly giue it to Abraham to inherite after the promise euen because the wickednesse of these Amorites was not then full Gen. 15.16 that is their sinnes were not then ripe For we must know that though God be the absolute and soueraigne Lord of all Kingdomes and may dispose them as hee will yet he rather exerciseth his Iustice then his power and neuer ouerturneth any State but vpon cause of their apparant sinfulnesse Nor can the Amorites or Cananites pleade herein any hard measure For the same God dealt afterward in the same Iustice with his owne people giuing the Kingdome of Iudah to the Chaldeans and Israel to the Assyrians and the cause is laid downe most memorably in the Storie When the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God and walked after the fashions of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before them and did secretly things that were wicked and made Images and serued Idols and though God warned them by his Prophets yet would they not obay but hardned their neckes and so finally left all the commandements of God then the Lord was exceeding wroth with Israel and cast them also out of his sight 2. Kings 17. from the seauenth verse to the 19. Thus sinne is able to ouerturne Kingdomes be they Cananites Israelites or whosoeuer Let this teach vs all to looke to our liues make conscience of all sin especially great capitall crying sins for the sinnes of a people are wormes and Cankers eating out the life and strength of a coÌ„mon-wealth And let our State and gouernment learne here to look to the reformation of our people especially for great sinnes For open profanenesse or vncleanenesse or oppressions or iniustice or extortions or cruelties and exactions all these or any of these sinnes raigning in a State are able to ouerturne the best established Kingdome on the earth and will at last doe power and policie what they can make the land spewe out her inhabitants and in the meane time let the wily wits of men iudge as they list it will proue true that the sinfull and profane man is the worst and the godly and conscionable man the best friend to a State and best subiect in a Kingdome Thus much for the second point in Abrahams obedience namely the end of it The third and last point is the manner of his obedience which followeth in these words And he went out not knowing whither he went The manner of this his leauing his Country in mans reason would seeme strange nay the world will condemne it for plaine foolishnesse for a man to leaue a certainty for an vncertainty But it may here be doubted how the Apostle can here say that he knew not whither he went seeing these words are not in the Storie of the olde Testament doth not that practice allow traditions beside Scripture I answer first We refuse no traditions which are agreeable to the Scripture and analogie of faith but such as are agreeable to one of these wee receiue them though not as Scripture Secondly if the Apostles in the new Testament doe adde any thing in any Story which is not in the olde as S. Paul doth the manner of the Sorcerers of Egypt Iannes and Iamâ—res 2. Timoth. 3.8 that circumstance by them so added is to be holden as Scripture and no tradition because they hauing the same spirit of God which the Writers of the olde Testament had haue inserted it
haue said little lesse But if the holy Ghost may moderate this disputation hee plainely tells vs here That God is the maker builder of it Therfore assuredly it is not God but one of Gods creatures Thirdly and lastly let vs obserue the description of heauen included in these two words maker and builder God made it that is it is one of his creatures hee made it as well as the rest and he builded it that is as the word signifieth made it with arte or he bestowed skill and wisdome vpon it For though we may not imagine any substantiall difference betwixt these two words for matter yet in signification they differ and so farre wee are to obserue it Here then wee learne that the third Heauen is like a peece of worke wherein an excellent workeman hath spent his arte and shewed his skill that is that the highest heauen is a most glorious place and surpasseth all other creatures of God in glory and excellency so farre as therein shineth the glory skill and wisedome of the Creator more than in any other creature In which regard it is no maruell though the Holy Ghost say in another place That the eie hath not seene nor the eare heard nor mans heart conceiued what God hath there prepared for them that loue him 1. Corinth 2.9 And Saint Paul himselfe though hee had the honour to be taken vp into this third heauen and to see and heare the glory which is there yet afterwards could not he expresse the glory hee had seene And this was figured in the Temple of Ierusalem which was the mirrour and beauty of the world for the building whereof God both chose the skilfullest men and endued them also with extraordinary gifts namely Bezaleel and Aholiab Now as thereby that Temple was the most excellent piece of worke that euer was in this world made by man so the highest heauen which was mystically prefigured in Salomons Temple is the most excellent of all the workes of God The vse of this doctrine is not to be omitted First if that bee so excellent and glorious a place wee must all labour to come thither for aboue all things it seemes worthy to be sought for People come out of all places of the countrey to dwell in great townes and rich cities and men labour to be free-men there and to haue their children free in them and euen the greatest men will haue their houses either in or neere them that so though they will not alwaies dwell in them yet they may soiourne in them at their pleasures now and then And why all this but because first they are places beautifull and many waies pleasant to the eie Secondly full and frequented with the best company Thirdly replenished with aboundance of all things needfull for mans life for necessitie comfort and delight Fourthly they enioy many priuiledges and freedomes And lastly all this is most true of such cities where the King keepes his Court. If this bee so then how is heauen to bee sought for Behold here a goodly citie a citie of God whereof London Paris Rome Venice nay Ierusalem are scarce shadowes the true Ierusalem the ioy of the whole earth nay the ioy of the world and the glory of all Gods creatures made immediately with the hand and built with the skill and cunning of God himselfe The Princes of the world euen of Rome it selfe wondred at the beauty and were amazed at the magnificence of Ierusalems city Temple yet it was but a type and figure hereof For that had indeed the glory of the world vpon her But the new Ierusalem hath the glory of God vpon her Reu. 21.4 Shall we then seeke to dwell in the cities of this world and not labour to come to heauen Are they any way excellent wherein heauen is not much more to be desired Are they beautifull and is not it the beauty of the world Read the 21. chapter of the Reuelation and suppose that the beauty of it were but outward and worldly and sensible to humane capacitie yet is it farre more excellent than euer any was in this world And is not there the company of the deitie of Christs humanity of the holy Angels and all good men And is not there aboundance of whatsoeuer belongs to perfect happinesse And is not there freedome from the diuell sinne and death And is it not the Court of God the King of glory Then why doe we not sigh and grone and long to be free-men of this glorious citie And though we cannot come to it as long as wee liue in this world yet why doe wee not striue to come as neere it as may bee In this world when a man cannot dwell in the heart of a Citie yet he will rather dwell in the suburbs than hee will not be neere it and beeing there he knowes he can soone steppe into the citie So let vs in this life come as neere heauen as wee may let vs get into the suburbs and dwell there The suburbs of heauen is Gods true Church on earth where his word is freely knowen and preached and his holy Sacraments administred and therein God truely serued Let vs associate our selues to this Church and liue according to the holy lawes thereof This is the suburbs of heauen so shall we be ready to enter into the glorious city it selfe when the Lord calles vs. And as this is for our selues so if wee loue our children or care for their aduancement let vs make them free-men of that citie whose maker and builder is God So shall we bee sure to haue comfort and ioy of them here and with them in heauen But if wee will haue them free-men in heauen wee must make them Gods apprentizes on earth they must serue out their time else they get no freedome This time is all their life Men are deceiued that let their children bee the diuels slaues here and thinke to haue them free in heauen let vs then binde our children prentizes to God that is make them his seruants here then assuredly as in their repentance and regeneration here they are borne free-men of heauen so after this life they shall inioy the freedomes and priuiledges of that heauenly citie which was made and built by the wisdome of God Lastly here wee see how true it is that Dauid teacheth Psalm 15.4 No vile person can come in heauen And no maruell for if men thus and thus defamed cannot be free men in the Cities on earth built by men is it likely that sinners and profane men that care not for repentance regeneration for they bee the vile men shall be admitted into that city whose maker and builder is God It is the holy citie no vncleane thing can enter into it Reuel 21. It is Gods holy mountaine how shall vngodlinesse ascend thither Psalm 15.1 It is the newe Ierusalem how shall the olde man that is sinnefull corruption get into it Wee must therefore cast off the olde man
either in soule or body but to remember him that of one made multitudes to spring out Therefore when thou art brought neuer so low either in soule or body by any miseries either inward or outward faint not but goe forward in the strength of the Lord thy God Particularly If God haue afflicted thee with pouerty that thou haue almost nothing to begin withall or for thy soule is thy knowledge in religion small thy meanes poore thy feeling of Gods fauour but weake yet faint not but lay fast hold on Gods power promise vse carefully the holy means God hath ordained remembring and relying on him who made millions grow out of one and assure thy self that as Iob saith Though thy beginnings be small yet thy later endes shall greatly encrease Secondly obserue here how old persons are called halfe dead or as good as dead that is true of them many wayes First their yeares and dayes limited them are as good as gone For suppose a man should be as sure to liue 100. yeares as the sunne is to runne all the day long his course and at night to goe downe Yet as when the sunne is past the height and drawing downward wee say it goeth fast downe and the day hasteth away So when a man is past his middle age when the sunne of his life is past the noonsteede he declineth daily and draweth fast away and the night of his life approacheth with hast and much horrour vnlesse he preuent it Secondly their strength vitall powers by which their life is continued and their soules and bodies kept together are so much weakened that they are almost extinguished whereby it comes to passe an olde man may feele a manifest defect in all powers of minde and body Thirdly sicknesses or diseases grow vpon them in olde age and as their strength faileth so the force of diseases is redoubled on them and looke what diseases haue lurked in their bodies which either naturally were bred in them or accidentally taken they now shew themselues more sensibly and the weaker a man is the stronger is his sicknesse In these three respects an olde man or woman is as good as dead The vse hereof is profitable First they must therefore be aduised to prepare themselues for death Euery man is to prepare I confesse then if euerie man especially they that be olde The young man may die the olde man must die the youngest cannot liue alwayes the olde man cannot liue long the aged mans graue is as it were made already his one foote is in it And this is not mans conceit alone but Gods own iudgement who as we see here calls an olde man as good as dead and that not so much in regard that he is sure to die as that he is neere it Therefore as euery man young or olde is to make ready because his time is vnknowne and no man is sure that hee shall liue to be olde and as the Psalmist singeth Euery man in his best estate is altogether vaenity Psal. 39.6 So especially he to whom God hath beene so gracious as to let him see olde age he should thinke of nothing but his end prepare euery day to die in the Lord. His gray haires his wrinkled skin his withered face his ill stomack his weak memorie his crooked body and the manifest most sensible alteration and decay of his whole state of minde and body should hourely all cry in his eares I am halfe dead I will therefore prepare to die in the Lord. It is therefore a miserable sight to see that those who of all men should be most willing to die are for the most part most desirous to liue And those who should be most readie to die are generally most ignorant most couetous and their hearts most of all wedded to the earth and earthly things Secondly olde persons must heere learne S. Pauls lesson 2. Corinth 4. That as the outward man perisheth so the inward man may be renued daily The outward man is the bodie the inward man is the soule and the grace of God in it They must therefore labour that as the strength of their bodies decay so the grace of GOD in their soules may quicken and reuiue But alas the common practice is contrarie For olde men haue generally so misspent their youthes and in their olde age are partly so backward partly so vnfit to learne religion that when they come to their death-beds they are then to be Catechised in the very principles of religion so that when as the body is halfe dead religion hath no being in them and when the body is a dying religion and grace scarce begins to liue in them such men cast all vpon a desperate point But let them that desire a ioyfull departure thinke of these thinges afore-hand and as yeares draw on and so draw life to his end and the body to the graue so let them weane their hearts from the world and lift them vp to GOD and so spend their last dayes in getting knowledge and in seruing God that when their bodies are weakest and fittest for the earth their soules may be the holiest and ripest for heauen To such men shall it neuer be discomfort to see their bodies halfe dead when for recompence thereof they finde their soules halfe in heauen Thus we see the roote or foundotion of this posterity how poore and weake it was Now let vs come to the greatnesse of it Thereof sprang as many in number c. This one olde couple Abraham and Sarah are made by Gods power the father mother of many nations and he and she of whom the world would haue pronounced they should not haue left a name vpō the earth haue now millions of childrē that sprang out of them Here we may learn That though GOD worke ordinarily according to the course of Nature which himselfe hath established yet that he is not bound to it nor will be hee bound it therefore there is no reason it should binde him Here we may see the power and prerogatiue of Gods Maiestie As in the beginning he made to be those things which were not so still he calleth things that are not as though they were Rom. 4.17 and turneth and altreth the state and nature of his creatures as pleaseth him He can take life from the liuing man and leaue him dead hee can giue life to the dead man make him liue againe So hath he dealt for the body and for the soule he hath beene no lesse wonderfull Saul of a bloudy persecuter he cā make a zealous Preacher Acts 9 euen a glorious instrument and a chosen vessell to carie his name vnto the Gentiles euen hee who thought to haue blotted out the name of Christ and all that call on that name from vnder heauen Acts 9.14 Rahab a harlot a cōmon woman yet by Gods work so far altred that her faith is here registred in the 31. ver amongst the most excellent
corporall presence it is sufficient if wee haue true faith for that makes him present much more comfortably then it might be his bodily presence would be vnto vs. If any man aske how this can be I answer The faith of the receiuer knoweth best and yet reason can say something in this case for suppose a man looke earnestly vpon a starre there are many thousand of miles betwixt his eye the star yet the starre and his eye are so vnited together as that the starre is after a sort present to his eye So if we regard locall distance we are as farre from Christ as earth is from heauen but if we regard the nature of Faith which is to reach it selfe to Christ where euer he be in that regard Christ is present and why should not this be so for if the bodily eye so feeble and weake can reach so farre as to a starre and ioyne it to it selfe and so make it present why should not much more the piercing eye of the soule reach vp to Christ make him present to the comfortable feeling of it selfe Thirdly here wee learne how to behaue our selues in a strange temptation whereby God vseth to exercise his children The Lord after that he hath receiued his children into his fauour coÌ„tinueth not alwaies to manifest that fauour vnto them but often times puls back the feeling of it for a time that afterward hee may shew it againe in more comfortable manner vnto them and that they may afterward more sensibly feele it and more earnestly loue it and more carefully labour to keepe it when they haue it Now for the time of this eclipse of the fauour of God he not onely darkeneth his loue but makes them feele also such a measure of his wrath as that they will often thinke themselues castawayes from the fauour of God Dauid and Ioâ— were often exercised with this temptation as appeareth by their most lamentable bitter coÌ„plaints yea Dauid doubts not Psal. 77.9 to chalenge the Lord that he hath forgotten to be gratious and hath shut vp his louing kindnesse in displeasure And Iob chap. 13.26 complaines to the Lord that He writeth bitter things against him and makes him to possesse the sinnes of his youth words as it may seem of men forsaken of God and indeed so for that time they thought of themselues If it please the Lord thus to deale with vs so as we feele nothing else but his wrath wrastling with our consciences neither can think otherwise by present feeling but that God hath forsaken vs what should we do in this pitifull case should we despaire as reason would bid vs no but take this course Call to mind Gods mercifull promises and his ancient former loue and cast thy selfe vpoÌ„ that loue though thou canst not feele it When thou hast most cause to despaire then labour against it When thou hast no reason to beleeue then beleeue with all thy power For remeÌ„ber the power prerogatiue of thy faith It beleeues not things that are manifestly appeare so much as such things that are not haue no being So then when Gods fauour seemes to be lost and to haue no being to thee then is Gods fauour a fit obiect for thy faith which beleeues those things that are not Let al the diuels in hell set themselues against thy poore soule and if thou holdest fast this faith they cannot all make thee sinke vnder it for when the diuel saith Thou hast lost Gods fauour by faith a man answereth though Gods fauour be lost vnto my feeling yet to my faith it is not My faith giues it a being so long say what thou wilt I will neuer feare that it is lost When God puls back his fauour and fights against thee with his wrath do as Iacob did Gen. 32.27.29 Wrestle with God though thou haue but one legge that is though thou haue but one little sparke of faith fight with that little faith lay hold by it on God and let him not go vntill he hath blessed thee in turning again vnto thee his fauorable countenance and say with Iob 13. euen in the very heate of thy temptation O Lord though thou kil this body and flesh of mine yet will I trust in thee for euerlasting life yea though Gods anger should seeme to encrease yet for all that take faster hold and faint not for faith will neuer faile thee it will restore Gods loue when it seemes lost it wil set it before thine eyes when it seemes to be hid For marke well but this one reason if faith will giue life euerlasting a being and make it present to thy soule which indeede yet neuer had being to thee how much more can it giue a being to Gods fauour and make it present to thy soule which once had indeed hath still a being and was neuer lost indeede but onely to a mans feeling Thus true faith is able to answer this temptaation whether it come in life or in the pangs of death Fourthly whereas faith is call'd an euidence hence wee learne that the nature of faith stands not in doubting but in certainty assurance The Romish doubting of the essence of faith is as contrary to true faith as darknesse to light for faith is an euidence of things hoped for that is it coÌ„uinceth the iudgemeÌ„t by vnfallible arguments knowing as certainly the truth of the promises of the things hoped for as that God is God But Rome wil needs ioin faith doubting which in deed fight like fire and water and can neuer agree together in euery respect but one wil in the end destroy the other Obiection But it seemeth doubting is a part or at least a companion of faith for we doubt as wel as beleeue who is so faithful that doubteth not Answer We do so but what then we should not for God coÌ„mands vs to beleeue not to doubt therefore to beleeue because it is commanded of God is a vertue and if it be a vertue then to doubt is a vice faith doubting are both in a good man but faith is a work of grace and of the spirit Doubting is a work of the flesh a piece of the corruption of the old man Fiftly if faith be a substance of things hoped for much more is it a substance to the beleeuer if it giue those things a being which aâ—e out of him much more doth it giue a permanent being vnto the beleeuer himselfe strengthning him to stand continue in al assaults So Heb. 3.14 Faith is that whereby a beleeuer is sustained vpholden so that indeed we may fitly say Faith is the spiritual substance and the spiritual strength of a Christian man and according to the measure of his faith such is the measure of his spirituall strength This coÌ„sideration hath diuers comfortable vses but especially two 1. When any of vs are out of the reach of a temptation so long are we confident of our
the way walke in it Our Elders obayed this commaundement of the spirit and walking in this way found the end of it euerlasting life If we would attaine the same end of the iourney we must walke the same way But the world will say this is a needlesse exhortation for we walke this way we deny our selues and looke to be approued of God onely by Christ but it is strange to see how men deceiue themselues Can a man walke in a way and not leaue marks steps behind him euen so he that walks in this way follow him you shal see steps of his continuall dying vnto sinne liuing vnto holinesse insomuch that a man that followeth him marketh the course of his life in this way may euidently say See where hee hath cast off left behind him this that sin see where he hath taken vp caried with him these those vertues graces of God Marke here is a print of his faith here is a print of his hope here are prints of his loue And thus may a child of God be followed traced all the way to heauen euen vntil he come to his death which is the gate of heauen How mightily theÌ„ are they deceiued which think they haue walked all their liues in this way and yet there is not one step to be seene for assuredly this way is so beatâ—n and troden that no man euer trode in it since the world began but he left behind him manifest visible steps that all men that would looke at him might see he had gone that way As therfore we all desire to come to heauen as we professe we walk in the way thither so let vs be as carefull to leaue behind vs our steps namely tokens prints of our faith our hope and loue which if we do then mark the excellent vse of those steps 1. They testifie vnto all that see them that we walked the right way to heauen and secondly they wil serue for marks directions for theÌ„ that shal walke in the same way after vs. By the 1. we shal leaue an honorable testimony of our selues behind vs by the 2. we shall moue other to magnify gods name to whoÌ„ our steps haue bin marks directions helps furtherances in the way to heauen Secondly for what were these Elders approued for their faith for nothing else Amongst these Elders Sampson was wonderfull in strength Salomon in wisedome Ioshua in courage Moses in learning many of them in the honour and pompe of the world in beauty riches and other externall gifts and the most of them all in long life yet not for one or all of these are any of them saide to be regarded of God but it is plainely said that for their faith God did approue them Here then learne what is the thing amongst all things that must make vs acceptable vnto God euen this To deny our selues and to rest vpon the mercy of God in Christ this wil do it nothing else Hast thou streÌ„gth so had Golias as wel as Sampson hast thou beauty so had Absalom as wel or more theÌ„ Dauid hast thou wisdom so had Achitophel thogh not like Salomon yet aboue ordinary men hast thou riches Esau was richer theÌ„ Iacob hast thou liued long so did Cain Ismael as wel as Isaak hast thou many childreÌ„ so had Ahab as wel as Gedeon hast thou learning the glory of nature so had the Egyptians as well as Moses for there Moses learned it All these thou maist haue yet be a vile person in the sight of God so far from being approued of God as that he wil not vouchsafe vnlesse it be in his anger once to regard or looke at thee hast thou therefore any of those outward gifts it is not to be contemned it hath his vse thanke God for it and and vse it well and vse it so as by it thou maist be approued amongst men but stand not to it before God for though it be wisedome or learning or neuer so excellent a gift it cannot purchase the fauour acceptation of God but true faith is able to please God both in this life and especially at the day of Iudgement This doctrine first confuteth the error of some grosse Papists who hold and write that many Philosophers for their good vse of the light of Nature for their deepenesse of learning and for their ciuill liues are now Saints in heauen a most manifest and shamefull vntruth and here as manifestly confuted for was Salomon not accepted for all his wisedome and shall Socrates was Moses not accepted for all his learning how then should Aristotle if faith made all of them accepted and nothing but faith how is it possible they should be accepted which neuer heard of faith nay I say more If many a man that liueth in the Church as deepe it may be in humane learning as they and of great knowledge also in the whole doctrine of Religion which they neuer knew and yet could not nor euer shall be accepted of God onely for want of this sauing faith How absurd is it 〈◊〉 imagine saluation for them which neither had sparke of faith nor knowledge of Christ Let vs theÌ„ hold that as there is no name whereby to be saued but onely the name of Christ so no meanes to be saued by that Christ but onely faith euen that faith for which these Elders were accepted of God Secondly this excellencie of faith aboue all other gifts shewes the vanity of the world so carefull earnest in seeking honour riches credit wisedom learning all which can but make them esteemed and approued to the world and so carelesse and negligent in getting true faith which will both approue a man vnto the world and make him honorable in the eyes of the Lord God Thirdly by this doctrine the Popish doctrine is iustly condemned which teacheth that a man is iustified by his works and that faith is not the most excellent of Gods graces Here we are taught other diuinitie for that for which a man is accepted by that he is iustified But for their faith onely were they accepted therfore iustification is only by faith Againe that which makes a man accepted of God that must needs be the most excellent thing of all For God which is goodnesse it selfe regardeth that that is the best but God esteemed theÌ„ only for their faith therfore it is the chief of all graces of God in regard of making a man accepted of God Fourthly here is a patterne and president for Gods children how to bestow measure out their loue estimation in the world God loued Salomon more for his faith then for all his glory and wisedome and esteemed more of Moses for his faith theÌ„ for all his learning So deale thou with thy wife thy child thy seruant thy friend with all men Hast thou a wife neuer so beautifull louing honest thrifty neuer so toward
of all creatures and according as he willed they presently were and that his will was his word here mentioned Here then first marke a speciall point that sets out the glorie of this Creator hee vsed no labour no motion no paines no seruants no instrument no meanes as men do He onely spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created Psal. 148.5 This shewes how glorious a God he is and his power how omnipotent it is who at his owne will and word produced such a glorious frame of heauen and earth so many 1000. sorts and kinds of creatures in their order and due place Dauid most seriously considered of this when hee made the 104. Psalme as appeareth if we reade it Wee ought also so deepely to meditate of this his glorious power manifested in this miraculous creation as that we seeing it may acknowledge with the Psalmist Psal. 115.3 Our God sitteth in heauen and doth whatsoeuer he will 2. Did the Lord make all things by his word learne wee then for our instruction thus much Euer when we see what is Gods will concerning our selues in any crosse or affliction whatsoeuer let vs subiect our selues to it and beare it because it comes from so mighty a God as whom there is no resisting For see he that commaunded all the world to be and it presently was so and nothing could disobay then if he commaund any crosse to seise vpon thee wilt thou resist him Nay rather take Saint Peters holy counsell 1. Pet. 5.5 Humble thy selfe vnder this so mighty hand of God that he may exalt thee in due time If thou then see his crosse comming towards thee meete it receiue it with both hands beare it with both shoulders if he will humble thee resist not thou for when againe he pleaseth to exalt thee all the diuels in hell are not able to resist him It followeth So that the things which we see are not made of things which did appeare The fourth last point is the matter whereof the world was made the Text saith The things that we see that is all the world were made of things neuer seene that is of a flat nothing which here is said not to be seene or not to appeare because how can that appeare or be seene which is not So the meaning is when there was nothing in the world then God made the world to be This is the strangest thing of all in this fourth effect For it is not so strange that the world should be created in excellent order or that God should make it by his word as that hee should make it of nothing Reason denies it Phylosophie disputes against it as absurd and neuer will yeeld vnto it but here is the power of faith manifest for it makes vs beleeue and know it is so Hence we learne 1. If he created the world and vs of nothing then he can preserue vs also by nothing that is without meanes or by weake meanes or contrary to meanes he that did the one can do the other for the same reason is of both This is a speciall point of our religion Not to tye Gods prouidence vnto meanes Men vse neuer to acknowledge it but with meanes but that is no worke of faith But wee ought not onely to see Gods prouidence when we see no meanes but euen when other meanes are against vs then to see it is a point of faith and that is our duty though it be hard Giue men health wealth liberty peace let them be guarded about with Gods blessings then they will magnifie the prouidence of God but take these away and lay vpon them penurie sicknesse or any crosse then they rage and raile and distrust yea blaspheme and say No prouidence no God And thus God is beholden to the meanes for else men would flatly deny him But this argues the want of faith For had we that faith in vs whereby we beleeued stedfastly that God made all the world without meanes that faith would also perswade vs that he can preserue vs being made though meanes be wanting or though they be against vs. This we may make vse of whether wee be in necessitie and would be relieued or in any perill and would be succoured or in what extremitie soeuer when meanes doe faile vs. Secondly if he made all things of nothing then he is able also in respect of his promises made in Christ To call such things that are not as though they were Rom. 4.17 As a man by nature is the childe of wrath and of the diuell he is able to make him a seruant of God and childe of grace This may teach vs 1. Not to despaire of any mans saluation though hee seeme almost past all grace for God can make any thing of nothing and therefore can put grace into that heart wherein afore was none And 2. this is a comfort to all them which through weaknesse of faith cannot perswade themselues of their election For suppose thou be full of wants and imperfections hast a rebellious and froward heart What then Remember God made thee once a creature of nothing hee can now againe make thee a new creature of nothing he created thee without meanes he can saue thee though neuer so many meanes doe seeme to be against thee And thus much of these three effects of faith and consequently Of the first part of this Chapter containing a description of faith in generall Abels Faith VERSE 4. By Faith Abell offred vnto God a greater sacrifice then Cain by which he obtayned witnesse that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts By which faith hee also being dead yet speaketh THe second part of the Chapter containeth an illustration and proofe of the former description by a rehearsall of the most excellent patternes and exsamples of faith which flourished in the Church of the old Testament These exsamples be of two sorts 1. Such as are set downe seuerally one by one from the 4. verse to the 32. 2. Such as are set downe ioyntly many together from thence to the end The exsamples set down seuerally are of two sorts 1. Such as were naturall Israelites and borne members of the Church visible 2. Such as were not naturally members but strangers from the Church of God till they were called extraordinarily Exsamples of such as were members of the visible church are also of 2. sorts 1. Such as liued about the flood or 2. After the flood First of such as liued afore or about the time of the flood there bee three faithfull men whose faith is here recorded 1. Abell before 2. Enoch before 3. Noe both before after All these three in order These excellent most worthy exsamples are all grounded on some place of the old testament and are continued from the beginning of the world almost to Christs incarnation for he beginneth with Abell which is so neere the beginning that he was the second good man that liued in the
world yea and the first of all that had this true faith as the onely meanes of his saluation For as for Adam he afore his fall had not this faith neither should it haue saued him but when the first meanes failed him then came this faith as the second and more effectuall meanes of his saluation But Abell was neuer in possibility to be saued by any thing but by this faith And therefore Abels faith hath the first place of commendation and that in this verse Abels faith is here commended for three things 1. In that hee offred by it a greater sacrifice then Cain 2. By it he obtained testimonie with God 3. By it dead Abell yet speaketh The 1. effect of Abels faith is thus set down by the H. Ghost By faith Abel offred vnto God a greater sacrifice then Cain The ordinary Exposition of those words is this that Cain and Abell comming to offer there was no difference in the matter of their sacrifice but onely in the manner of offring in that Abell offred by faith and so did not Cain This Exposition though it be good yet it fits not the scope of this place nor the fourth of Gen. The right sense therefore seemes to be this Abell hauing faith this faith moued him to testifie his thankfull heart to God This hee did by offring vnto God the best and costliest sacrifice that he could namely the first fruites and fattest of his sheepe Whereas vnbeleeuing Cain hauing no loue to testifie vnto God brought onely of the fruite of his ground not of the best as Abel did but whatsoeuer cam first to hand This being the true meaning of the whole let vs come to the particular points laid down in this effect and they are three 1. That Cain and Abell offred that is serued God 2. That they offred Sacrifices 3. That Abell offred a better then Cain The first point containes their seruice in generall the second their seruice in particular the third the difference of their seruice wherein especially will appeare the excellencie of Abels faith First Abell and Cain the two first brethren in the world offered sacrifice to the true God How learned they this for they had no Scripture it was penned many yeeres after namely by Moses first of all I answer When their Parents Adam and Eue had fallen God gaue them of his infinite goodnesse a couenant of grace that the seede of the woman should breake the serpents head Genes 3.15 Wee doubt not but our first Parents receiued this couenant and beleeued the promise and this their faith taught them how to worship the true God aright You wil say thus Adam Eue learned of God but how came this to Cain Abell I answer When they had beene thus instructed of God Adam as a faithfull seruant of God taught the same religion and deliuered the same doctrine to his children and by it they were taught what to whom and in what manner to offer sacrifice And thus they did it neither by Scripture nor reuelation nor their own inuention but by the instruction of their Parents Hence let all Parents learne a lesson of Adam the first parent that was in the world namely to procure the good of their children he nourtered his children excellently 1. He prouided for them til they came to age 2. Then he left them not but appointed them their callings For one was a husbandman and the other a Shepheard 3. Not thus onely but he taught them to worship the true God both in their callings in the practice of religion and therefore he taught them to offer sacrifice in way of thankfulnesse vnto God all this did Adam So must thou do with the children which God hath giuen thee 1. Prouide for them carefully till they be of age take â—eed they miscarie not any way for want of things needfull 2. So bring them vp as that they may be apt to liue in some godly calling whereby to serue God and to doe good in his Church and that calling thou must appoint him according to the fitnesse of his gifts Adam appointed them not both one calling but diuerse callings according to the diuersity of their gifts and thou must see it be a lawfull and honest calling for so are both these Then 3. the greatest matter of all these teach them religion and the true manner of fearing worshipping God that as by the two first thy child may liue well in this world so by this he may be made an heire of the kingdome of heauen Adam was the first father father of vs all let all then follow him in this practice if we follow him in one follow him in both Diuerse wil be as careful for their bodies for their callings as Adam was but how few are as carefull to teach them religion for the prefermeÌ„t of their soules to life eternall But parents must haue care of both these else they shal answer for their child at the day of iudgemeÌ„t though he perish in his own sin yet his bloud wil God require at the Fathers hands For God made him a father in his room and he discharged not the duty of a father vnto their child Secondly in that Cain offered as well as Abell Hence we learne diuerse instructions 1. It is a common opinion that if a man walke duly and truly in his calling doing no man harme but giuing euery man his owne and so doe all his life long God will receiue him and saue his soule but the truth is this If men do thus it is good and commendable and they must be exhorted to continue but if they stand vpon this for saluation they cast away their soules For mark here Cain was a man that walkt in an honest calling and more then that he tooke paines laboured in it which all men doe not which haue honest callings And more then all these when Abell offred hee came and worshipped God also and hee did outwardly in such sort as no man could blame him but onely God that saw his heart And for all this yet is he a wicked Cain and that is all that the word of God giues him 1. Iohn 3.12 Then it is manifest that to walke in a mans calling iustly and vprightly doing no man harme wil not serue the turne Cain did it and yet was cursed wee must then goe further then Cain else wee shall goe with Cain to the place where he is Reason not with thy selfe I worke hard and follow my calling I hurt no man thus could Cain reason and yet but cursed Cain Thou must then beside these get that that Cain did not Learne in thy conscience to see and feele thy sinne to be grieued for it so as thou maist say My sicknesse my pouerty my crosses grieue me but nothing so much as my owne sinnes these trouble me aboue all this griefe swalloweth vp all the rest And there is another thing which I seeke aboue all not
therefore go to God by earnest prayer to giue vs his spirit to worke true faith in our hearts and to make vs of a true beliefe And secondly seeing men may be Christians in profession and Atheists in practice let vs all looke narrowly to our selues and ioyne with our profession Conscience and obedience for else the more we know God the worse we are It may please God after to giue vs better mindes but as yet we are no better then deniers of God and though wee come neere God in profession and in his outward seruice yet indeede we are farre from him because wee want that true faith which must professe God not in iudgement alone but in practice and that will bring vs neere vnto God for hee that commeth to God must beleeue that God is And thus much for the first thing to be beleeued by him that will come to God and please him The second is And that He is a rewarder of them that seeke him It is a notable sentence and one of the most comfortable in the booke of God and containes the second thing to be beleeued The parts are naturally two 1. How a man doth seeke God 2. How God rewards them that seeke him For the first A man truly seeketh God by doing foure actions First a man must forsake himselfe goe out of himselfe and as it were loose himselfe in his owne iudgement when he intends to seeke God If any aske how that may be I answer Thus A man must labour to see his sinnes fully and distinctly and in sight thereof be cast downe in himselfe as a man is when hee seeth his debts then let him looke into himselfe and see if hee can finde in himselfe any ability to pay those debts or any meanes in the world to satisfie Gods â—ustice and purchase pardon And if vpon due examination he finde none at all no not the least nor any thing in himselfe but an accusing and raging conscience Let him then fall out of all loue with himselfe nay hate and abhorre himselfe and his owne basenesse and lastly let him despaire of his owne saluation in or from himselfe and thus doing he forsakes himself denieth himselfe and euen looseth himselfe And thus necessarily must he do to himselfe that will set his heart to seeke the Lord. For God will be found of none that hope to finde helpe at any hand but his they therfore that seeke God but will seeke themselues too do iustly loose both God and themselues Secondly he that will seeke God aright when hee hath lost himselfe must hunger in his heart and soule not after wealth and honours ease or pleasures but after the fauour and mercy of God in Christ for the forgiuenesse of his sinnes and one drop of Christes bloud to wash away the guilt and staine of his defiled and sinfull soule must be dearer to him then all the pompe and glory of tenne worlds Looke how a hungry soule hungers after meate and a faintie soule thirsteth after drinke so must his soule hunger after Gods mercy and thirst for Christs bloud and these are necessary For as a man that vndertakes a long iourney must be prouided of meate and drinke so hee that vndertakes the iourney to goe seeke the Lord must haue this prouision for the diet of his poore soule Gods mercies and Christes merits and he that seeks without a soule hungring after these may seeke long and finde nothing Thirdly if he will truly seeke God he must not goe in euerie path but take the true liuing way which Christ hath consecrated by his bloud nor take any guide but trust to Christs spirit alone to be his guide nor make many mediators or messengers to God but make Christ alone to God the Father Wee must therefore goe to him and yeeld vp our selues to be taught and guided by him leaue our sute to be preferred by him we must not looke to come to God by running on pilgrimages to this or that Saints picture or bones or to our Lady of Loreto Many haue sought God in these but who euer found him Nay alas thou maist lodge in her forged tabernacle at Loreto all thy life and lie in hell for all that when thou art dead and maist kisse all the Saints pictures and bones and haire and all their reliques in Spaine and Italy and all cannot get thee one sight of Gods fauourable countenance Nor againe must we looke to come to God by our good works though we are to doe them they are good markes in the way and good euidences of a right way but they cannot open heauen and let thee in And therefore when thou hast done all thou canst thou must forsake them all in matter of iustification and comming to God Onely thou must goe to God by Christ and cleaue to him alone hee is the doore the way the truth the life and certainly neuer man found God that sought him not in Christ alone And when Popish deuises and distinctions haue done all they can men will be found liers and Christ to speak truth saying No man commeth to the Father but by me Lastly when all these are done then must thou beleeue that God is become thy mercifull Father in Christ and is reconciled vnto thee in him for there is no feare but if thou seeke God in Christ thou shalt finde him and when thou hast done the three former things thou maist safely and assuredly beleeue that thou hast truly sought God And after all these if thou haue not firme and liuely faith thou doest not secke God For as it is impossible without faith to please God so is it impossible without faith to finde God Thus if a man lose himselfe long after Gods mercy take Christ alone for his guide and mediator and stedfastly beleeue his reconciliation with God by Christ then he seekes God aright and to this seeking belongs a reward and blessing Now then if this be to seeke God here is some light giuen to a great question Whether the Church of Rome be a true Church and their doctrine truely catholique or erroneous and failing in fundamentall points For answer Can that be a true Church which doth not bring her children to seeke God or that catholique doctrine which teacheth not her children to seeke God the right way but sends them into 1000. by-wayes Surely if this be to seeke God then search all the Popish Doctors and almost all their Writers and see whether a man be not taught to seeke God quite in another walke Which way of theirs whether is ordinarily bring the seekers to God or no we leaue to Gods mercifull iudgement But for our selues as we see we haue the true liuing way the sure and infallible way by Christ to God by the Sonne to the Father let vs reioice in the comfort of so rich a mercie and be thankfull to the Lord for reuealing himselfe vnto vs and opening vnto vs the true way to him and to his
wealth and pleasures are graunted them by from God as their portion reseruing the principall part of the portion of his children for a better life Therefore all the good things of this life which Diues receiued and all wicked men doe receiue in this life are not any rewards of Sathan but gifts of God so vnworthy a Maister is the diuell to serue Indeede he will promise his poore slaues any thing but can performe nothing but will lie vnto them and deceiue them He told Christ confidently when he let him see the glory and greatnesse of this world All this is mine and I giue it to whom I will but hee was a lier from the beginning so he is here He lied to the first Adam and no maruell that dare auouch so fond and loude a lye in the presence of the second Adam Iesus Christ. He promised the first Adam to make him God and heere the second Adam to make him King and Lord of all the world and the glory of it but he performed both alike he deceiued the first and so had the second also if he had trusted him Nor did euer any trust him but he deceiued him I meane euen for the base things of this life witnesse else all his witches his most deuoted and professed seruants of all other if euer he made anie one of them wealthy all ages are not able to shew one Whereas on the other side there was neuer man that serued God but had a competent measure of comforts for this life and some abundance and yet all that but the first fruits and beginnings of that reward which is laid vp for them in another world Which being true is it not a strange and lamentable case to see men for all this debase themselues to this base and slauish seruice of Sathan and to refuse this high and honourable seruice of almighty God A common seruant in this world hath more wit he if he cā heare of a better seruice a Maister who giues better wages and who better preferres his seruants will leaue his old Maister make meanes to get the other And shall not we be as wise for both soule and body as they for the body alone Shall they leaue a man for a man and shall not we leaue the diuell for God Let vs therefore abandon the base seruice of Sathan who neither can nor will reward them that serue him put away so ill a Maister who hath not so much as meate and drinke to giue vs for wee haue euen that from God but of his owne he hath nothing to giue vs saue in this world sorrow and shame and an ill conscience and in the world to come the torments of hell with himselfe And let vs all seeke the blessed seruice of God If wee know not how to attaine it goe to Christ by heartie confession of thy sinnes and earnest prayer and he will preferre thee to God his Father for neuer was any denied that with a good and true heart offred himselfe to Gods seruice Then shal we feele and finde what a blessed thing it is to be Gods seruant of whom it was euer true which the holy Ghost here saith and is and euer shall be that He is an honourable rewarder of them that seeke him And thus we haue in some part the meaning and vse of this notable sentence wherein wee haue stoode the longer because it is one of the most excellent principles of all Practicall Diuinitie Now put all together and we shall see how it proues Henoch to be taken away by faith which is the first ground and the maine matter of all this exsample and of these two verses God is a rewarder of all his children that seeke him by faith therefore it is faith by which Gods children please God and therefore holy Henoch who was taken vp by God from earth to heauen both pleased God by faith and by faith was taken away And thus much for the commendation of Henochs faith and consequently the exsamples of such as liued in the first world before the floud Now followeth the exsample of Noah who liued in both worlds both before and after the floud Noahs Faith HEBREVVES 11.7 By Faith Noah being warned of God of the things which were as yet not seene moued with reuerence prepared the Arke to the sauing of his houshold through the which Arke he condemned the world and was made heire of the righteousnesse which is by faith IN this verse is contained the third exsample and the last in order of those who liued afore the floud in the first and olde world namely of the renowned Patriarke Noah the tenth from Adam Of whom and whose faith great glorious things are spoken in this verse and that in a high and excellent stile full of maiestie and diuine eloquence Concerning Noahs faith two points are laide downe first the ground of his faith secondly the commendation of it The ground of his faith was a speciall reuelation frō God in these words Noah being warned of God The things reuealed wherof God warned him are laid down two wayes first generally to be things as yet not seene then particularly three in number 1. Gods Iudgement vpon the sinfull world that hee was purposed to destroy it by water 2. Gods mercie on Noah that hee would saue him and his family 3. That he would saue him by an Arke and therefore he must make one and these be the things whereof Noah was warned of God His faith is commended by three worthy effects or operations in him 1. It moued in him a reuerence or a reuerent regard of the warning sent him from God 2. It made him prepare the Arke of which Arke there are set downe two ends 1. It saued his houshold 2. It condemned the world 3. It made him heire of the righteousnesse which is by faith This I take it is the true resolution of these wordes and they containe manie excellent things concerning his faith By faith Noah being warned of God of the things which were as yet not seene By faith that is by a generall and historicall Faith and also by a true and sauing faith in the Messias to come Noah being warned of God of the iust Iudgement hee purposed to bring vpon the world by an vniuersall floud and of his mercifull prouidence to him and his family that hee would saue them by an Arke all which things were then to come and therefore vnseene hee beleeued these forewarnings of God and therefore in reuerence to this message from God he prepared the Arke and thereby saued his houshold and condemned the wicked world And so his faith by all these appearing to be a true and liuely faith did make him a iust and righteous man in Gods sight This is the summe and substance of Noahs exsample let vs speake of the seuerall parts in order The first point is the Ground of his faith A warning or an answere from God
be afarre off this is the worke of true faith This was in Noah wrought in him a reuerence and so would it in vs if it were in vs. When men crie fire fire wee stirre wee runne wee tremble but God crieth in his word the fire of hell the fire of his wrath and wee care not wee stirre not wee leaue not our sinnes wee are not moued with reuerence as Noah was therefore it is more then manifest that holy faith is wanting in the world which Noah had The second motiue stirring vp this reuerence in him was the consideration of Gods wonderfull mercie to him and his family in sauing them This mercy seemed so wonderfull to him both for that hee knewe it was vndeserued knowing himselfe a sinnefull man and therfore not able to merit Gods fauour and being priuy to himselfe of his owne manifolde imperfections and also vnexpected for he neuer thought to haue been spared alone in an vniuersall destruction therefore he wondred with reuerence at so great a mercy Thus Gods mercies doe not onely winne a mans heart to loue God but euen to feare him with much reuerence this Dauid proueth Psalm 130.4 There is mercy with thee O Lord that thou maist be feared as though he had said thy great mercies to thy children O Lord do make them conceiue a reuerent estimation of thee This made Dauid cry out in a holy passion How excellent are thy mercies O Lord Psal. And as Gods childreÌ„ wonder at the excellencies of Gods mercies vnto them so also at their owne basenesse and vnworthinesse Thus doth holy Dauid 2. Sam. 7.18 who as hee was a man of much faith so was he full of excellent meditations and reuerent speeches of God which are the true effects of faith when God had set him in his kingdome hee saith Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hither And 1. Chron. 29.14 But who am I saith he and what is my people that wee should offer thus vnto the Lord And doubtlesse euen so said Noahs blessed soule often vnto the Lord and to it selfe Who am I O Lord and what is my family that we should be chosen out of so many thousands and be saued when all the world perisheth Let vs apply this to our Church and State If any Nation haue cause to say thus it is England God hath deliuered vs out of the thraldome of spirituall Egypt and led vs out not by a Moses but first by a childe then by a woman and giuen vs his Gospell more fully and freely and quietly then any kingdom so great in the world and still deliuereth vs from the cursed plots of the Pope and tyrannous inuasions of the Spaniard who thought to haue marked vs in the foreheads with the brand of infamie and to haue done to vs as they haue done to other nations whom they haue conquered but God from heauen fought for vs and ouerthrew them in their owne deuises yea the Lord put his hooke in his nosethrils and his bridle in his lips and caried him backe againe with shame and reproach Wee are vnworthy of such a mercy if our soules doe not often say vnto God O Lord what are we and what is our people that thou shouldst be so wonderfull in thy mercies vnto vs And particularly this must teach euery Christian to be a carefull obseruer of the fauours mercies that God vouchsafes to his soule or body to him or his and the consideration of them must make him daily be moued with reuerence and reuerent thoughts of Gods Maiestie still as the Lord is more and more mercifull vnto him to beare still the more feare and reuerence vnto him for the same The last motiue of this Reuerence in Noah was the consideration of Gods power and wisedome both in the Iudgement vpon the world and in the mercy vpon him for first in the Iudgement it was wonderfull that God would chuse so weake an element as water to destroy vanquish the huge Giants of those dayes but therein appeared first Gods power that by so weake meanes can cast downe his enemies And againe his wisedome that as an vniuersall wickednesse had polluted the whole world so a floud of water should wash the whole world Secondly the mercy was also wonderful that God should chuse to saue Noah by so strange a meane as an Arke which should swim on the waters For Noah thought if the Lord will saue me he will either take me vp into heauen as hee did Henoch a little before or else make me build a house vpon the top of the highest mountaine But the Lord will saue him by no such meanes but by an Arke wherein appeared first Gods power that would saue him by so weake a meanes as might seeme rather to destroy him For Noah must lye and swim in the midst of the waters and yet be saued from the waters and the Arke mâ—st saue him which in all reason if the Tempests had cast it against the hard rockes and mountaines or vpon the strong Castles and houses of the mightie Giants would haue beene broken in pieces and so it had but that God himselfe was the Maister and Pilot in that voyage And secondly Gods wisedom shone cleerly in this means because God would haue him saued not in such sort as the world might not see it as it would haue beene if hee had beene taken vp into heauen or into the aire but would haue him saued in an Arke that so alâ— the wicked men as they â—ere a dying in the water or expecting death vpon the tops of the hills might see him liue and be saued to their more torment and to their greater shame who would not beleeue Gods word as he did For as the wicked in hell are more tormented to see the godly in the ioyes of heauen so doubtlesse were the wicked of that age to see Noah saued before their eies The view of this power wisdom of God herein made Noah giue great reuerence to Gods Maiestie And no lesâ—e ought it to worke in the hearts of all true hearâ—ed English men and faithfull Christians For did not the Lord restore establish the Gospell to our nation by a child and by a woman and in her time when all other Princes were against her coÌ„trary to the rules of policy and did not God in our late deliuerance ouerthrow our enemies not so much by the power of man as by his owne hand Did not he fight from heauen Did not the starres and the winds in their courses sight against that Sisera of Spaine Let vs therefore with blessed Noah staÌ„d amazed to see Gods mercies with reuerence feare magnifie his great and glorious name And thus we haue the three motiues that moued in Noah this Reuerence of God the consideration first of his great Iudgement on the sinfull world 2. Of his great mercy in sauing him 3. Of his admirable power and wisedome shewed both
righteous of our selues yet hauing Christs righteousnesse imputed to vs are made thereby partakers of Gods loue and for the worthinesse of that righteousnesse of his so made ours shall be glorified in heauen And thus now at last we haue found that true and that only righteousnesse which can make a man as it did Noah righteous in Gods sight Now it remaines to make vse of it First here wee learne how foulely our nature is defiled with sinne and stayned with corruption the staine whereof cannot be washed away with all the water in the world no nor with the bloud of all creatures no not couered with the righteousnesse of all men and Angels but onely with the righteousnesse of God And that sonne of God also if he will apply that righteousnesse vnto vs and make it effectuall must become man and liue and die and rise againe for vs. A meruailous thing is it and â—orthy of our often consideration that all the Angels and men in the world cannot make one sinner righteous but that Gods sonne must needes doe it And that our sinnes are so hideous as nothing can hide the filthinesse thereof from the eyes of Gods Iustice but onely the glorious mercy seate of Christs righteousnesse This may therefore teach vs how to esteeme of our selues and our owne natures Furthermore See here the great goodnesse of God to man God put perfect legall righteousnesse in Adams heart in his creation he receiued it for himselfe and vs and lost it for himself and vs. God in mercy purposing to restore man thus by himselfe lost and cast away giues him another and a better righteousnesse then before But because he saw man was so ill a keeper of his owne Iewels he trusts not him with it but sets that righteousnesse in the person of Christ Iesus and commits it to him to keepe Who as he truly knowes the full value and excellencie thereof and as he deerely loues vs So he will most safely keepe it for vs and clothe vs with it in his Fathers presence at the last day A point of vnspeakable comfort to Gods children to consider that their saluation is not in their owne keeping where it might againe be lost but in a safe hand where they shall be sure to finde and haue it when they haue most need of it and to remember that their righteousnesse being in Christ they cannot lose it For though they sinne and so lose often the comfort of a good conscience for a time yet they then lose not their righteousnesse which is then in Christ and to consider that when in this world they sustaine losses or iniuries or lose all they haue vpon the earth that yet their righteousnesse the riches of their soules is then in heauen full safe in Christs keeping and shall neuer be lost This should make vs learne to know Christ more and more and to giue him the loue and affections of our very hearts that so we may be able to say with blessed Paul 2. Timoth. 1.12 I know whom I haue beleeued and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I haue committed vnto him against that day Lastly if there be such a communion betwixt Christ and a beleeuer that our sinnes were made his and his righteousnesse made ours This may teach vs patience and minister vs comfort in all outward afflictions or inward temptations because it is certaine all our sufferings are his and hee is touched with all the wrongs done to vs. When hee was in heauen he calls to Saul Acts 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and at the last day Math. 25.45 Whatsoeuer either good or euill was done to any of his children he saith was done to himselfe and accordingly it shall be rewarded as done to him And thus wee haue taught that true righteousnesse which iustifies a sinner and made Noah righteous and we see the vse of that worthy doctrine And in this first point we haue the longer insisted because it is one of the fundamentall points of Christian religion Hetherto of the first point namely what that righteousnesse is which is here spoken of The 2. point to be coÌ„sidered in these words is that this righteousnesse is that righteousnesse Which is by Faith It is so called because faith is the proper instrument created in the soule of man by the holy Ghost to apprehend that righteousnesse which is in the person of Christ nor can it be any waies else either apprehended or applied and therefore it is worthily called that righteousnesse which is by faith that is which by faith is made a mans owne or whereunto a man hath title by his faith Here therefore two points offer themselues to our obseruation 1. That true faith apprehends properly this true righteousnesse 2. That onely faith can doe it For the first it is proued by apparant euidences of Scripure S. Paul tells the Galathians 3.14 They receiued the promise of the Spirit by faith And S. Iohn saith That as manie as receiued Christ to them hee gaue power to be called the sonnes of God And least any man should thinke that to receiue Christ is not to beleeue in Christ he addeth Euen to as many as beleeue in his name Iohn 1.12 And therefore faith is fitly compared to a hand that takes hold on a garment and applieth it to the body being naked or to a beggars hand that takes or receiues a Kings almes so faith in a mans soule takes hold on Christs righteousnes which is the mercifull and liberall almes of the King of heauen and applieth it to the poore and naked soule of the beleeuer If any man aske how can faith apply Christ to the beleeuer I answer as a man being in his corrupt nature hath nothing to doe with Christ So contrariwise when the holy Ghost hath wrought faith in his heart by a supernaturall operation then wee are to know that as faith is the proper instrument to apprehend Christ So is Christ and his righteousnesse the proper obiect for faith to work vpoÌ„ For though it apprehend apply all other promises which God makes to our soules or bodies yet most properly and principally and in the first place it apprehends the promise of saluation and the righteousnesse of Christ. Now for the particular manner how faith doth thus we are to know that though it be spirituall inuisible and so not easily expressed to sense yet is it done as properly by faith as a garment is by the hand taken and applied to the body or a plaister to a sore If any aske further But when may a man know whether his faith haue apprehended and applied Christs righteousnesse to his soule or no I answere when hee beleeueth particularly that Christes righteousnesse is his righteousnesse and hath reconciled him to God and shall iustifie him in Gods presence then doth faith worke his true and proper worke for this cannot be done but by faith and where faith is this must needes be done
goeth out The vse is to teach vs what a faith we haue For if wee measure all Gods commaundements by our naturall affections our faith is but a shadow and hypocrisie But if wee consult not with flesh and bloud but rest and rely on Gods word and giue absolute obedience to his coÌ„maundements then our faith is such as Abrahams was In the next place Some may meruaile why the Lord should commaund him so hard a matter and lay so straâ—te a commaundement vpon him as to leaue his Country and liuing which seemed vnreasonable his kindred which was vnnaturall I answer the reason is not that God delighteth in vnreasonable or vnnatural courses or in laying heauie burdens vpon his children But he did it for good and holy ends as First to proue Abraham and to see what was in him As a friend is noâ— tried in ordinarie but in great matters so it is knowne who is Gods friend in matters of difficultie Hereby therefore God made the faith and obedience of his seruant to shine more gloriously Againe to breake the corruption of his heart for our wicked natures loue peace and ease and welfare and hearts desire but God will crosse those courses and send vs troubles many wayes that so hee may pull downe the height of our corruptions and humble vs to his owne hand The vse is to teach vs to make true vse of our afflictions and of those many hard crosses that must fall vpon vs in our course of seruing God namely to know that they are sent from God not as a hard-hearted or cruell Iudge but as a wise and mercifull Father who wisheth our good and who will so blesâ—e vnto vs the hardest and heauiest crosses that befall vs in our liues if we receiue them in patience faith that we shall say with Dauid Psalm 119.72 It is good for vs that we haue been in trouble for thereby we haue learned to know God and our selues better Thirdly whereas Abraham at Gods commaundement goeth out of his Country into another we learne that it is not vnlawfull for a Christian man to goe out of his owne Country and trauaile into another and there to abide for some or for a long time Prouided his causes be good and iust as namely these which follow First if he haue a particular commaundement of God as here Abraham had Secondly if hee haue a lawfull calling of the Church or State whereof he is a member as if he be sent to a generall Councel or be sent as Ambassadour either to stay for a time or to stay there as Lieger Thirdly if it be for the safety of his life in a good cause So Moses Exod. 2.14.15 fled into the land of Midian and there stayed when Pharaoh sought his life And Christ himselfe fled with his Father and Mother into Egypt from the furie of Herod Math. 1. The like may be said for them that to preserue their liberty flie from the cruelty of their Creditors who will not take honest and reasonable satisfaction of a surety for another man or of a childe for the Fathers debts But in no case for them who trauaile in purpose to defeate their Creditors or thereby to deliuer themselues from payment of their due debts being able to pay Of both these wee haue example in Dauid his followers Dauid himselfe was faine to flie for his life from Saulâ— vniust cruelty and therefore went and dwelt amongst the Philistims 1. Sam. 27.1.2 And 1. Sam. 22.2 there cam to Dauid such as were in trouble and in debt and these were with him in all his trauaile and persecutions Now doubtlesse had they beene vngodly men who had not cared how they came into debt noâ— how they paid it Dauid would neuer haue beene their Prince as that Text saith he was Fourthly if it be for the maintenance of pure religion and keeping a good conscience This hath Christs warranty Mat. 10.23 When they persecute you in one Citie flie vnto another For this cause many of our fore-fathers in the former age were faine to flie into Germanie Swwitzerland to Geneua And for these causes diuers of other Nations doe repaire to this Nation and are here entertained Fiftly if it be for the getting or encreasing of any good learning and lawfull knowledge especially diuine knowledge for matter of religion Thus the Queene of Saba went ouâ— of the inmost parts of Africa to Ierusalem in Asia to see and heare Salomon 2. Kings 10. and for that cause shee is highly commended by Christ himselfe Math. 12.42 Thus may yong men trauell for learning or the tongues especially such as intend thereby to fit themselues for publike seruice so it be with safetie of religion and securitie of conscience Sixtly if it be for the practice of a mans lawfull calling as for trafficke and thus Merchants may and do lawfully trauaile into all Nations and haue their Factors there resident prouided they lose not their soules to gaine for their bodies their trauailing is allowed by Christ in the Parable where he saith The Kingdome of heauen is like a Merchant man that seekes good pearles Math. 13.45 Seauenthly if it be to receiue and take possession of any goods or lands lawfully descended or fallen vnto a man in another Nation as sometime it doth This seemes to be allowed by Christ in the Parable where he saith A certain noble man went into a far Country to receiue for himselfe a kingdome and so to come againe Luke 19.12 In a word if it be vpon any good and sufficient cause allowable in good reason and not contrary any part of Gods word But as for such as leaue their Countries and trauell into other Either vpon leuitie to see strange sights and fashions Or being malefactors flie from their due punishment Or being in debt go away to deceiue their Creditors Or being vaine-glorious to make themselues knowen Or being at enmitie to fight combats or to kill their enemie All these and all such like can haue no comfort in their trauailes for they send themselues God sent them not they are out of Gods protection because they goe without his warrant And as many of them as goe away to escape the hand of the Magistrate let them be assured they shall not escape the hand of God In the fourth place here is a comfort for all such as are banished from their owne natiue Countries for God and his Gospels sake For here Abraham the Prince of Patriarkes was a banished man and liued in a strange Country the greater part of all his life Let such men therefore take patiently what God laieth vpoÌ„ them for it is not their misery or mishap alone but hath beene common to Gods children in all ages Againe Christ himselfe pronounceth them blessed who suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for though they be exiles from their owne kingdome or tossed vp downe the kingdomes of the earth yet theirs is the kingdom of heauen Math. 5.10 Lastly though
into the body of Scripture euen as the three sentences of the heathen Poets alledged by Saint Paul Acts 17.28 1. Corinthians 15.33 Titus 1.12 haue now a diuine truth in them which they had not before But yet will some say the Apostles had these things from the olde Testament by tradition seeing they were not written I answer We may safely graunt it and yet our cause loseth nothing though it may be they had them by inspiration and not by tradition that being as likely or much more then the other Thirdly but for this particular I answere that the Apostle had the words or at least the matter out of the Storie in Genesis For thus goe the words Gâ—d said to Abraham Goe out of thy Country c. into the land that I will shew thee Hee named none to him but told him he would shew him one So then Abraham went out at Gods appointment and God knew but he knew not whither he went he knew well the land he left but he knew not the land he should haue But it may be againe obiected that this is not true for it appeares Gen. 12.5 that Abraham with Sarah his wife and all their substance departed to goe into the land of Canaan and to the land of Canaan they came therefore he knew whither he went namely to that land I answer It is true he went out with purpose and assurance to inherite a land promised him by God but not named to him And whereas it is there said He went out to goe into the land of Canaan that is spoken in respect of the performance when he was come thither not of the first promise made him at his departure or of the time when Moses wrote it not of the time when God spake it to Abraham And that he knew not what land God did mean vntill he cam thither is plain in the seauenth verse where it is said That when Abraham had passed through all the Country and wai come into Canaan then God appeared to him and said this land will I giue vnto thy seede But till then God neuer named it vnto him and therfore we read afore that he beleeued and obayed vpon the generall promise but now when God did particularly specifie and shew what land hee then shewed his thankfulnesse to God and did there build an Altar vnto the God that had appeared vnto him Thus it is cleare that Abraham went out not knowing whither he went Which being so it appeares that Abraham did that which the world would call plaine foolishnesse To leaue knowen friends for vnknowen certaine liuing for vncertaine is a simple course in mans reason at least the world will say he might first haue demaunded of God what land that was which he should haue before he left that which he had but Abraham makes no such questions moues no such doubts but belieueth and obayeth and goeth out of his certaine dwelling at Gods calling though he knew not where to lodge at night This practice of faithfull Abraham hath profitable vse First here we learne that though Gods Commaundements seeme foolish and vnreasonable yet wee must obay them Christ saith If a man will euer come in the Kingdome of heauen he must be borne againe Iohn 3.3 S. Paul saith If any man among you seeme to be wise let him be a foole that he may be wise 1. Corinth 3.18 Christ saith If any man will be my Disciple he must denie himselfe and follow me Luk 9.23 But how can these coÌ„maundements be beleeued or done how can reason beleeue them how can nature doe them So disputed the woman of Samaria with Christ Iohn 4.11 When Christ tolde her he would giue her of the water of life she replied Sir thou hast nothing to drawe with and the Well is deepe whence then hast thou that water of life Thus we obiect and reason against God with carnall obiections and waigh Gods Commaundements in the balance of reason thus God and his commaundements are much abused by vs. And this is the cause wee heare and reade Gods word and profit not by it because we ponder it in our reason and allowe nor follow it no further then it agreeth with our naturall affections As a man that will needs stand vnder a Pent-house hath no water falling on him though it should raine neuer so precious water from heauen So when the water of life out of the word of GOD should drop vpon our soules to comfort our consciences and to wash away our sinnes we haue our deuices out of wit and distinctions out of reason as pent-houses to keepe it from vs that it slides away and neuer hath any worke in vs. But contrariwise we must remember Abraham the Father of our faith and when we heare Gods word we must with him captiuate our reason and subdue our affections to it measure them by Gods word and not it by them and what we cannot yeeld to in the obedience of reason we must obay with the obedience of faith and so shall Gods word haue a gracious and powerfull worke in vs. Secondly here we must learne that though we see no profit come by obaying Gods Commaundements yet wee must obay them For what profit could Abraham see in leauing a certaine liuing for an vncertaintie yet he obayed and went vpon the bare word of God building vpon it that God being his guide he could not goe astray So must wee followe God sincerely and doe his Commaundements though no profit seeme can come thereby But some will say Shall godly men be led like blindefolde fooles shall they refuse all meanes of helpe by wit and policie this is the way to make them ridiculous and asses for the wicked world to ride vpon I answere let godly men vse all their wit and looke with all their eyes in their actions with men of this world But in the obedience of Gods commaundements let them doe as Abraham did Follow Gods calling though it seeme to be to no end In obedience to God we must doe as blindemen doe who followe their guides though it be through woods rocks hills or dales or dangerous places regarding nothing fearing nothing only following trusting their guides who haue eyes for them though they haue none for themselues So must we follow Gods calling and yeeld absolute obedience to his Commaundements fearing nothing but trusting to the faithfulnesse of his power and assuredly beleeuing that he being our blessed guide we shall not be mis-led thus to doe is true faith But alas how contrary is the practice of the world Men deale with God as we doe with loose Chapmen whom wee will not trust without a good pawne So we will not obay Gods Commaundements longer then his religion serues our turne nor will we trust and follow God without the pawnes of profit and pleasure Nay wee doe worse most men esteeme of God no better nor vse him any better then they doe theeues in their houses If a man come
to remoue from the earth to heauen the sooner the better And this did the Fathers of the old Testament not that they thoght it vnlawfull to build cities or dwell in houses but that they might testifie their religion and their expectation of another world in the midst of that profane age wherein they liued wherein there were almost none that either regarded remembred or acknowledged a world to come And this was not the particular or singular deed of Abraham alone All holy men in those daies liued in tents Gen. 9.21 It is cleere that Noah dwelt in tents though then he was king of all the world And so did Lot also as long as he liued with Abraham Gen. 13.5 Lot hâ—d sheepe and cattell and tents And thus they did because as the Apostle saith they had here no enduring city but they sought for one to come Heb. 13.14 And they thought they euer heard that voice sounding in their eares Micah 2.10 Arise depart for this is not your rest Contrariwise the wicked of the world because they set vp their rest in this world and cared for no other they began presently to build them houses nay cities as Cain did euen in the beginning Ge. 4.17 And the Sodomites had a citie euen walled as is likely for Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodome when the two Angels came to him Gen. 19.1 2. And the Canaanites had cities walled exceeding high Numb 13. But we find not that euer Gods children built them cities vntill they came to haue a settled Church of their owne But contrariwise it is worth obseruing that God promiseth his people that they shall come and dwell in cities which they built not namely which were built by worldly men to their hand And thus wee see the reasons why Abraham dwelt in tents Now let vs see the vse of it First here we learne frugalitie out of the ciuill vse of their tents that is to vse the blessings and comforts of this life as soberly and sparingly as may be and to bestowe as little cost as may be of our selues in such things as perish in the vsing namely meate drinke apparell and houses For what is spent herein is spent only on our selues and being spent is gone therefore the lesse the better alwaies prouided there be a discreet care had of our healths and of the credit of the places wee hold and of our inabling to the duties of our calling Which beeing sufficiently prouided for it is a Christian frugality to spare what further may bespared And he hath the lesse to answer for who spendeth the least in superfluities Again here we are taught contentation in the state which God hath appointed vs not to striue too fast to climbe to wealth These holy men can be content to dwell in tents and tabernacles thogh they might haue compassed much more for they were great and mightie men Abraham had 318. men able to beare a sword in his house daiely with them and a little helpe more hee ouerthrewe diuers kings and rescued Lot Gen. 14.14 He that durst encounter and did ouercome such an hoste How many inhabitants of the countrey could he haue beat out of their houses And how many tenants could hee haue put out of their Liuings And how much of that countrey could he haue inclosed to himselfe Surely euen as much and as many as hee had pleased Yet dooth hee no such thing but contrariwise considering himselfe to bee but a tenant vnder God hee is content to let euery man sit quietly by him and himselfe to dwell in tents rather than to incroach one foote further than God bade him though he had bin able This checketh the pride or couetousnesse or ambition or all of such as ioyne house to house Land to Land Lordship to Lordship Towne to Towne and care not how many mens houses they pull downe to build one of their own nor how many men want land and liuing so they haue their parkes and pastures gardens and orchards and all other delights they can deuise These are so farre from Abrahams minde who desired onely so much land as his tent might stand on might feed his cattell as they can inclose and make seuerall to themselues that which in common should be the liuing of many soules But what can befall such men but that that Esay prophecieth to them Esay 5.8 Woe be vnto them that ioyne house to house and land to land till there bee no place for the poore to dwell in Thirdly in that Abraham liued thus as ready euer to depart into any other countrey when God would call him It sheweth that true faith dooth neuer limit Gods hand either in the greatnesse or length of trialls but submitteth it selfe wholly to his will being resolued conteÌ„t to suffer all trials how great soeuer and how many soeuer God pleaseth to lay vpon a man Reason would haue said I haue left one countrey at Gods word if I must leaue another then I shall neuer knowe an ende nor haue any thing certaine to trust to But faith saith As I haue left one countrey at Gods calling so vpon his worde I will leaue twentie more For God hath as good reason to bid me the second time as the first and his loue cannot faile me he may stil trie me but can neuer leaue me Thus spake Abrahams faith And not he alone For Iob though hee crie out of the violence of his temptation The arrowes of the Almighty are in mee and the venime thereof doth drinke vp my spirits the terrors of God doe fight against me Chap. 6.4 Yet when faith comes to play his part he then protesteth that though God kill him yet he will trust in him he shall be his saluation Chap. 13.15 See Abrahams faith will lead him from countrey to countrey and Iobs will carrie him through life and death And noble Dauid is not behinde for his part for hee will lose his kingdome if God will haue it so 2. Sam. 15.26 If saith Dauid God say I haue no delight in thee loe here I am let him doe to me not what I in my reason could wish but what seemeth good in his eies Behold now in these holy men the practice and obedience of true faith It prescribes not God the measure ther and thus doing wee haue our conuersation in heauen though we liue on the earth And this wee should doe the rather because generally the world is full of such men who as the same place saith doe minde nothing but earthly things Now it is a hard thing for a man to be vnlike the world and to resist multitudes and generall examples but we must still remember wee are Abrahams children and children must labour to bee like their father and not the common multitude and it must more mooue a good child what his father alone doth than what is done by many other Thirdly let vs obserue how God promising Abraham only the Land of
Canaan that is a temporall inheritance hee lookes further for a City in heauen This he did out of his faith for hee knowing that Canaan was but a type of heauen therefore in consideration of the earthly Canaan hee arose to a consideration of the heauenly and in the promise of the earthly apprehended the heauenly This is the true and Christian vse of all Gods blessings giuen in this life in them to behold better things laid vp in heauen and shadowed in the other Men vse for their vse spectacles in reading but they take no pleasure in looking vpon them but at other things by and through them So should Christians through all temporall blessings looke at spirituall and eternall which are promised and shadowed vnder the temporall Thus doth Christ himselfe teach vs in the very order of the Lords praier directing vs to pray for temporall blessings first in the fourth petition and then for eternall in the fift and sixt as though that the one were introductions and passages to the other And this made the Prophets so ordinarily couer spirituall blessings vnder temporall and put temporall deliuerances for spirituall and confusedly oftentimes one for another because that the holy men of the olde Church did neuer rest in view of any temporall promise or blessing but ascended to the contemplation of higher things in them How pittiful then is the practice of worldly men who vse Gods blessings so as they daily abuse and peruert them vsing meate to gluttony raiment to pride learning to vaine-glory speech to flatterie wit to deceipt authoritie to reuenge callings to oppression whereas they are all giuen to be helps in Gods seruice and furtherances in religion and meanes to helpe vs towards heauen These men looke at Gods gifts with the eie of reason and no further but if they looked at them with the eie of faith as Abraham did it would teach them to make a heauenly and spirituall vse of them as he did Lastly in the generall state of the reason and of Abrahams practice obserue how he hauing promise of CanaaÌ„ waited for heauen Now no man waiteth for any thing but that which he hath hope of nor hopeth truly and properly for any thing but that which he hath assurance of for hope maketh not ashamed Rom. 5.5 Noâ— worldly hope for that hath deceiued no more than euer trusted it But Hope in God neuer deceiued man nor went any away disappointed that hoped in God Therfore here it is apparant that hope of heauen goeth with assurance and this assurance must be particular to the beleeuer as the beleefe and faith is But the Papists say This is true indeed of Abraham hee had not only hope but euen full assurance but that came by extraordinary reuelation So that this is a rare example his particular reuelation is no generall warrant to vs. We answer from S. Paul Rom. 4.11 that Abraham is the father of the faithfull and that his faith is a patterne for all Christians to follow for else why doth the Apostle so farre extoll set forth that faith of his aboue 1300. years after his death shall it be only for his commendation and not for our imitation also Therefore euery man that will walke in the steps of holy Abraham may come with him to that measure of faith that he may waite for heauen with assurance to enioy it Now let vs come to the particular description of that heauen which Abraham thus waited for A Citie hauing a foundation whose maker and builder is God The description hath three parts 1. It is said to be a Citie 2. That hath a foundation 3. That God made and built it For the first Abraham by his faith waited for heauen But for which For there are three heauens or differences of heauen in the scripture The first that wherein we liue and breath birds flie and clouds mooue The second that wherein the starres are The third is that that is aboue them both and is invisible the seat of Gods glory where God reuealeth his Maiestie in speciall manner to men and Angels This heauen Abraham waited for For as for the first he liued in it And for the second he knew it as well as most men for it is credibly thought he was a notable Astronomer So that it was the third and highest heauen hee waited for which hee knewe this world could not giue him and therefore expected it in another Now this heauen which was Abrahams hope is called a Citie A Citie properly is a place for the habitation of men compassed with walles and distinguished by streetes and houses Now properly heauen or the estate of holy men in heauen is not a city but as elsewhere in the scripture it is called a house a tabernacle a temple an inheritance a kingdome so is it here called a city namely for the resemblance it hath therunto which consisteth specially in foure points 1 A Citie hath many houses greater lesse and for all sorts So in heauen also there are many mansions Ioh. 14.2 Places of glory for all men none neede to feare that hee shall not haue fulnesse of ioy and perfect happinesse A Citie is built and at first was ordained to this end that many citizens might liue together in concord and amitie So the kingdome of heauen is a heauenly city where the Saints of God shall liue in perfect peace and loâ—e with fulnesse of ioy euery one in himselfe and each one in another 3 The goodnesse or excellency of a City consists in this To haue good lawes good Magistrates to execute them and good people performing subiection and obedience Therefore the kingdome of heauen is the most perfect Citie wherein Gods lawes are the onely lawes and they shall be written in mens hearts where each one is a sufficient gouernour of himselfe yet all subiect to God and their God vnto them all in all 4 A City is a place where generally are all necessaries and comforts for mans life one part of the countrey hath this commoditie another that but in the citie are all either brought into it or of it selfe So in heauen are all parts of perfection and all complements of happinesse to make the state of Gods children there infinitely blessed Such a glorious place is the Citie that was Abrahams hope Now for the vse hereof First Is heauen such a City Here is a notable comfort to the poore and plaine countrey-man who liues in the simplicity of the countrey life tilling the ground or keeping cattell and it may be neuer sawe or at the least neuer tasted of the pleasures and delights of cities If he serue God and keepe a good conscience here is his happinesse hee shall be citizen in the high and heauenly Ierusalem that City which was the hope of the holy men of God in all ages Secondly this may teach Citizens in the great populous and pompous cities of this world to labour also to be Citizens in heauen for that is
the fundamentall points of religion of God of the Creation the Fall the immortalitie of the Soule the two Couenants of workes by the Lawe of Grace by the Mediator and such other substantiall points touching God his Word Sacraments Law Gospel Praier good Workes c. as the Scriptures and the Creeds and Catechismes out of the scripture doe yeeld vnto vs. Herein the case of the common people of all nations is miserable In Poperie their Clergie is so fat and full they will not In our Churches the Ministerie a great part of it so poore and ill prouided for they cannot teach Betwixt both the people of the world do perish for lacke of knowledge for how can they but perish that die not in faith How can they die so that liue not in faith And how can they euer haue faith that haue no knowledge seeing knowledge is the foundation of faith Therefore it needes the helpe of those that may and the praiers of all that our Church may haue Teachers and our people Catechisers for without learning the Catechisme it is impossible to learne religion Secondly when wee haue got knowledge and so laid the foundation then must we learne the promises of God for saluation and we must hide them in our hearts as the Iewels of life and saluation We must beleeue them to be true and effectuall to all that will take hold of them and wee our selues must therefore take hold of them and apply them to our soules Thirdly after both these wee must conforme our selues throughout heart and life vnto the holy lawes of God we must leaue all bad waies and vngodly courses though they be neuer so deare vnto vs or so commoÌ„ in the world and must make conscience of all sinne and endeauour to doe all duties to God and man The first of these is the ground of faith the second is faith it selfe the last the fruit and effect of it and an assured testimony of it to God to his Church and to a mans owne conscience And to doe these three things is to walke in the olde and holy way consecrated by Christs blood and troden in by all the holy Fathers and Popery nor any other religion can appoint so â—aâ—e so sure nor so direct a way Thus liued Abraham Sarah Isaac and Iaacob and after this course they died in faith and now liue in glory and so shall we with them if wee will liue in faith as they did but else we may long looke for heauen before wee come there Indeed God can make a man that liued not in faith die in faith but the matter is not what he can doe but what is his ordinary course that is this They that liue in faith die in faith Therfore let vs take the ordinary course and repent and turne betimes and liue the life of faith and leaue late repentance to them that thinke it but a sport to venture a soule that course may speed but this course is sure to speed he that liues in sin may happe to die in faith but he that liues in faith is sure to die in faith and to liue in glory for euer Secondly obserue how it is said All these died in faith not some but all Abraham the father and the roote and with him the wife the child and the grand-child behold a true noble blood a holy kinred a blessed generation worthy is Abraham of all the honour hee hath who was the roote of such a noble and blessed brood And worthy are Isaac and Iaacob of so good a father who stained not their blood by forsaking their faith but held it as they receiued it and liued and died in it Let this teach vs first if we bee fathers to shine before our children in a holy religion true faith and good life and it is great hope that our wiues and children will follow vs in the same Secondly if wee be sonnes to looke which of our fore-fathers and auncestors imbraced the most holy religion and to choose and liue and die in their faith Most of our yong Papists can say no more for their religion but this my father and grand-father were of that religion But they must looke to all their fore-fathers Isaac and Iaacob would not be of their great grand-fathers Nahors or Terahs religion but of their father Abrahams and Abraham himselfe would not be of his father Terahs or his grand father Nahors religion but he went vp a great deale higher to his fore-fathers to the tenth generation Noah and Shem and imbraced their religion So that we see it is nothing to say I am of my fathers or grand-fathers religion vnlesse first I prooue that theirs was of God and then hee is a Noble Christian man which knowing that will not forsake it but will liue and die in it Thirdly see here true honour and gentry is to liue and die in the true faith and holy religion of our auncestors here is the fountaine of honour to doe as these did Abraham perceiues he is wrong and erred with his fathers hee therefore leaues his fathers and grand-fathers religion goeth vp higher and takes a better Isaac his sonne makes himselfe heire not of his land alone but of his fathers religion also Iaacob the grand-childe follows both and dieth in faith with them Behold here Iaacob a true gentleman in blood his holinesse and religion is in the third descent Let vs all learne to adorne our gentilitie and nobilitie with these ensignes of true honour And let all them that shame to staine their blood by treasons or misdemeanors shame also to let their forefathers religion holinesse or vertues faile in them but let them all so liue in them that with Iaacob they may die in their fathers faith Lastly obserue how it is said they died in faith they afore liued in it but now their principall commendation is they died in it Let vs learne here to hold on in a good course when we haue entred into it for constancy and continuance is the true commendatioÌ„ he that dieth in faith is he that receiues the crowne To this ende let vs stirre vp our selues with the Apostles exhortation Galath 6.9 Let vs not be weary of well doing for in due time we shall reape if wee faint not And further let this teach vs all to choose that faith to liue in with these holy Patriarchs that wee may boldly die in It is a true obseruation that Poperie is a good religion to liue in but ours to die in The Papists vsurpe this saying and turne it the contrary way but they haue as much right to it as the thiefe to the true mans purse The liberty the pardons dispensations sanctuaries the pompe and outward glory of their Church and their fasting outward austerities beeing fowle and fained hypocrisies and indeede open licentiousnesse these and many things more may allure any naturall man in the world to liue in their religion but when they come to die then
steward ouer them for the good disposing of them to the glory of God and the good of his Church alwaies remembring this rule of the Prophet Dauid Psal. 62.10 If riches increase set not thy heart on them He saith not If riches increase refuse thē but set not thy heart on them and thus much of these Questions Now this practice of the Patriarchs is as necessarie for vs in these dayes as euer it was for the cause why we profit little after much hearing of Gods word is this we haue not behaued our selues like Pilgrimes and strangers in this world but the cares of the things of this life haue choaked it vp Math. 13 2◠that it could take no ground nor roote in our hearts when we haue heard the word wee remember it not because our hearts and the affections thereof are set on the pleasures and commodities of the worlde Wee therefore must shake off this filthy sinne and learne to behaue our selues like Pilgrimes and strangers not intangling our selues with the things of this life but vsing them as though we vsed them not so as they be no hinderance to the growth of Gods graces in vs. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seeke a Country In the former verse was set downe the constancie of Abraham Sarah Isaac and Iacob in the faith Now in the 14.15 and 16. verses the holy Ghost proceedeth to amplifie and inlarge the commendation of their perseuerance in the faith for the scope of all these verses is to proue that all these particularly were constant in the faith vnto the end The proofe is made by one substantiall reason the summe whereof is this Abraham Sarah Isaac and Iacob sought for their Country which was heauen and therefore they were constant in the true faith But some may thinke that this reason is not substantiall for men may seeke for heauen that neuer had true sauing faith As Balaam desired that his end might be like the end of the righteous Numb 23.10 wherewith no doubt he desired the state of the righteous after this life I answere that this desire of Balaams was not grounded vpon any constant perswasion nor settled resolution but vpon some sodaine motion Secondly though he desired to die the death of the righteous yet he would not liue the life of the righteous hee had no delight to walke in the way to come to that end which they walked in without which no man ordinarily can come to it Yet further some will say Many shall seeke as our Sauiour Christ saith to enter in at the straite gate of the kingdome of heauen and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Therefore to seeke for heauen is no sufficient argument of true faith Answer True indeede many shall seeke to come to heauen and shall not be able to enter because they seek when the dore of mercy is shut and when the day of grace is past for there is a time of grace wherein the Lord will be found Now if men seeke him not in this time though they seeke him neuer so long after yet they shall not finde him But the seeking of these Patriarchs was a sound and constant seeking and so a notable fruite of their true faith For 1. they sought a heauenly Country 2. they sought it in due time not for a brunt but through the whole course of their liues 3. they went the right way denying themselues and their estate in this life as being strangers vpon earth and they were willing to forsake all things in this world to attaine heauen esteeming it as their true dwelling place and their eternall rest Now more particularly the holy Ghost diuideth this reason into two parts handleth the same seuerally 1. he proueth that they sought a Country in this verse and 2. that this Country which they sought was heauen it selfe verse 15.16 For the first part that they sought a Country is thus proued They which say they are Pilgrimes and strangers they shew plainly that they seeke a Country But Abraham Isaac and Iacob saide of themselues that they were Pilgrimes and Strangers Therefore they shew plainly that they seeke a Country The first part of this reason is euident in it selfe for hee that saith hee is a Pilgrime and a stranger in any place sheweth plainly that hee is forth 〈◊〉 his owne Countrey and therefore seeketh one The second part of the reason is assumed from their confession in the end of the former verse and confessed that they were Pilgrimes and strangers on the earth from whence the conclusion is laid downe in this 14. verse that therefore these Patriarchs sought a Country In this reason obserue first that the Author of this Epistle had diligently read the History of Abraham Sarah Isaac and Iacob penned by Moses in the booke of Genesis and in reading had obserued that which they particularly confessed of themselues in many places of that booke namely that they were Pilgrimes and strangers yea also hee gathered from their confession this most heauenly meditation that therefore they were not in their owne Country but sought another These three thinges then the Author of this Epistle vsed about the holy Scriptures Reading meditation and obseruation Whence we learne that all Gods Ministers and those which prepare themselues to the worke of the Ministerie are diligently to reade and study the holy Scriptures and to meditate therein No doubt the Author of this Epistle was an Apostle and had most notable giftes by vertue of his calling and yet hee bestowed paines in viewing the particular words of Abraham Isaac and Iacob recorded by Moses in the booke of Genesis Daniell also was an extraordinarie Prophet yet as wee may reade Daniel 9.2 hee studied with admirable diligence the prophecies of Ieremie and Ezekiel And Timothie though he were a Disciple Acts 16.1 and well learned yet Paul chargeth him to giue attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine 1. Timothie 4.13 And Ezekiel is commaunded to eate the role and to fill his belly with it Ezekiel 3.3 And Saint Iohn likewise is commaunded to eate vp the little booke Reuelations 10.9.10 which thing he did all which strongly inforce the former duty shewing that Gods seruant in the Ministerie must as it were eate vp Gods booke that in iudgement and vnderstanding he may digest as farre as is possible the deepe things of God and the hardest places of the Scripture here must he lay his foundation and hither haue recourse frō all other writing whatsoeuer in any matter of doubt This direction is most necessary for the Schooles of the Prophets and for all Gods Ministers and yet notwithstanding the contrary practice beareth sway in the world For in the Popish Vniuersities most of their diuines apply themselues to study the bookes of certaine schoole-men and the Expositors or Commenters thereupon These are applied day and night though they be both many and large and full of needlesse quiddities and oftentimes they be also
remember his sinnes but with dislike and detestation being grieued with them and angry with himselfe for them or else to teach others how to auoide them And as this kinde of Forgetfulnesse is a good vertue so there is also a vertuous and good Remembrance namely to be mindefull of that which may please God as of Gods Iudgements to be humbled thereby and of his Mercies to bee thankefull vnto Almightie God for them and of his Commandements to become obedient to his will These things therefore we ought to imprint by diligence in our memories Secondly here obserue God calleth them out of their owne countrie and biddeth them liue in the land of Canaan as strangers and pilgrimes and so they doe abiding there without any purpose to returne nay they are not mindfull of their former home Hence wee are taught to bee constant in that calling whereunto God hath called vs. It is a fearefull sinne for a man to goe backe from that calling in which God hath placed him When the Israelites abode not patiently and constantly with God in the wildernesse but desired to shake off the calling of God to returne to Egypt there to sit by the flesh-pots againe they had Gods hand vpon them grieuously as we may read at large Psalm 78. Lots wife for looking backe when shee was commanded to the contrary was fearefully and strangely punished beeing turned into a pillar of salt Gen. 19.26 And our Sauiour Christ saith Luk. 9.62 No man that putteth his hand to the Lords plough and looketh backe againe is apt to the kingdome of God As though he had said He that starteth from the plough is not fit for the field no more is he that shifteth from his calling fit for Gods seruice To apply this to our selues God hath called vs to professe Christian religion whence wee are called Protestants We therfore must professe the same constantly and hold it fast without wauering or doubting euen without beeing mindefull of that spirituall Egypt of darkenes and superstition whence we are deliuered much more without turning to any other this beeing the true religion which is grounded on Gods word Againe in this our calling of Christianitie wee haue vowed vnto God for our selues to renounce the flesh the world and the deuill Now this beeing our calling as wee haue promised and vndertaken it so wee must obey it in our liues fighting manfully euery day against the world the flesh and the diuell For if wee professe religion in word and doe not obey it in deed we make our selues vnfit for the kingdome of heauen But alas men are like to the Swine that returneth to the puddle thogh he be washed neuer so cleane and to the Dogge that returneth to his vomite for most men do but serue the flesh the world and the lusts thereof therein is their ioy and their hearts ease take away these things from them and take away their liues so farre are they from seeking the kingdome of heauen as these Patriarchs did Thus much for the first part of the reason Now followeth the second part which is this But they sought not a place in earth and therefore the conclusion followeth That they desire a countrey which is heauen in these words But now they desire a better But some will say the Patriarchs were dead many hundred yeares before this was written How then can they be now said to desire a countrey Answ. The Author of this Epistle here obserueth and followeth the manner of them that write Histories who speake of things past long agoe as though they were now present Now it is said they desired a better countrey These Patriarchs had laid before them two countries the Land of Canaan and the kingdome of Heauen and of these two they might choose whether they would to be their portion and inheritance vpon which they would bestow their hearts Now they esteemed heauen though it was to come better than Canaan though present and therefore made choice of heauen and longed for it Where we learne that as we must be thankefull to God for all his blessings so among them all wee should choose the best This Dauid doth for beeing put to choose whether hee had rather liue in safe-guard and in solace with the wicked and vngodly than in base estate and in great danger neere to Gods sanctuarie He saith Psal. 84.10 Hee had rather bee a doore-keeper in the house of his God than to dwell in the Tabernacles of wickednesse And Salomon is highly cōmended by the holy Ghost 1. King 3.10.11 for choosing a wise and vnderstanding heart before riches and honour Moses also as we shal see afterward had his choyce whether he wold liue gloriously at ease in Pharohs court or with the Church of God in aduersitie now Moses hauing the gift of discerning refused to bee called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter and chose rather to suffer aduersitie with the people of God than to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season Which holy examples doe all teach vs that when God setteth before vs diuers sorts of his blessings wee in spirituall wisdome must make choyce of the best On the contrary Esau had this choyce set before him his brothers red broth and his birth-right but he chose the worse therefore in the new Testament the holy Ghost noteth him with this marke to be profane Esau for his labour And the Gaderens also are branded with a note of infamie to all ages for choosing their hogs before Christ and his saluation And the like choyce is set before vs euery day for God of his mercy in the preaching of the word for his part doth set forth vnto vs Christ Iesus crucified and in him remission of sinnes and saluation Now on the other side commeth the diuell and setteth before vs all sorts of vaine pleasures and delights shewing to euery man those sinnes to which he is giuen and with them all the profits or pleasures that vsually accompany such sinnes Now most men hauing this choyce set before them doe leaue the true and substantiall blessings of God and come to Sathans painted Pageants and there make choyce of sin with those base companions that doe attend her This is too apparant to be denied for howsoeuer the word of God be preached vnto vs and we doe heare the same yet wee preferre the vanities and pleasures of the sinnefull world before Christ crucified making no account of him nor of our owne saluation by him in comparison of the present profits and pleasures of sinne But wee must pray to God to giue vs spirituall wisedome and the gift of discerning that now when God sets before vs thinges so farre differing we may haue grace to discerne betweene them and withall to preferre and make choise of the best and to refuse the worst But as for them that are so mad in their choise that they now preferre sinne before the blessings of God in Christ they shal see the day when they would
wish themselues to be Dogges Toades or Serpents rather then men and women and yet though they would be glad of that exchange of state they shall neuer compasse it but shall remaine woefull men and women for euermore because that once they made so profane a choise when the path of life was set before them they chose the way of death rather then of life and therefore when they would desire death they shall not haue it but shall liue a life more bitter for euer then any death in the greatest pangs Thus wee see in generall their choise was of the better Particularly the Text addeth That is an heauenly In which words is laid downe the last and chiefe point in this reason to wit that the Patriarchs desired a better Country then the Land of Canaan and that was an heauenly Country euen heauen it selfe the proofe whereof is principally intended in this place Now whereas the Patriarchs being our fore-fathers in faith and patternes whom we must followe did desire heauen by their example euery one of vs is taught the same duty to aime at another and a better Country then that in which we liue euen at the kingdome of heauen and not to thinke that this world is the Country we are borne for This better Country we must all seeke for whatsoeuer we be high and lowe young and olde learned and vnlearned if we will followe these godly Patriarchs And this wee must doe not at death onely seeking this world all our life long for that is to despise heauen but euen in the time of our youth strength of our daies must we set our hearts on heauen endeauouring so to vse this world and the things thereof that when we die we may come to heauen that blessed countrie which we desired and sought for in our liues And to perswade vs hereunto consider the reasons following First worldly wisdome teacheth this If a man dwell on his owne land and in his owne house he is carelesse But if in another mans house whereof hee hath no lease but contrariwise is certaine to be put out hee knoweth not when this man wil in time prouide himselfe of another that so he may remooue into it and not be destitute and if it be within his power he will prouide a better that so he may not remooue for the worse Beholde while wee liue in this world our bodies are tents and tabernacles wherein our soules doe dwell for a time and besides this time is vncertaine for there is no man that can say certainly he shall liue to the next houre Therefore we must euery one of vs prouide for himselfe a dwelling place in heauen where we may abide for euer in all blessednesse Again consider the state of all sorts of men in the world for sinne Atheisme and profanenesse abound euery where the blaspheming of Gods holy name and the breaking of his Sabbath besides daily sinnes against the second table Now all these crie continually for vengeance and for Gods iudgements to be inflicted vpon vs and we know not how God will deale with vs for owne sinnes whether he will take from vs our goods and good name our health friends or life it selfe and therefore it standeth vs in hand to prouide for our selues a resting place wherein we may abide for euer after this fraile life full of misery is ended Thirdly if we shall not doe this marke what followeth this and no other is our estate By nature wee are the children of wrath and of the deuill and by our manifolde sinnes we haue made our ease farre worse Now what is due vnto vs for this corruption and for these transgressions Surely not heauen but another place euen the contrary the place of eternall woe and destruction the bottomlesse pit of hell Now if this be our due by nature then let not sinne nor Sathan deceiue vs perswading vs that wee may come to heauen and still continue in the state of our corrupt nature but let vs labour by all meanes to eschew this place which is due vnto vs by nature that thorough the gift of faith in Christ we may come to the heauēly citie which these godly Patriarchs so seriously soght for But if we remaine in our sinnes and so die we are sure to goe to the place of destruction and there to remaine in woe and torments with the diuell and his angels for euermore so that it stands vs in hand to vse all good meanes to come to heauen or else our case will be the most miserable of all creatures for perdition and destruction will bee our portion world without ende This must awake and stirre vp our dead and drowsie hearts that are so besotted with sinne that though wee heare yet wee neither learne nor practice In worldly things we can take care and paines but if we will doe any thing for our owne euerlasting good let vs labour by all meanes to come to heauen for if wee misse of that citie it had beene good for vs we had neuer beene borne or that we had beene the vilest creatures in the world rather than men For when the vnreasonable creatures die there is an ende of all their miserie but if we die and be not prepared for that place our death will be vnto vs the beginning of all woe and miserie Wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called 〈◊〉 their God for hee hath prepared for them a citie In these words is laid downe a second reason whereby is prooued that these Patriarchs died in the faith seeking their countrie in heauen The reason is drawen from the testimony of God himselfe recorded by Moses in the booke of Exodus where God saith He is the God of their Fathers the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Exodus 3.16 The exposition Wherefore that is that this might appeare and be euident that these Patriarchs died in the faith and sought this Country of heauen God was cōtent to vouchsafe grant vnto them this fauour to be called their God Was not ashamed To be or not to be ashamed of one properly belongs to men and it cannot be affirmed properly of God that hee is ashamed or blusheth as the word signifieth but the meaning is that God vouchsafed vnto them this fauour and shewed them this honour and dignity Quest. What was this honour and dignity which he shewed vnto them Answer To be called their God By which is meant thus much that God accepted them in his mercy to be such with whom hee would make his couenant of saluation and not with them alone but with their seed after them Secondly that he chose them to make the couenant in their names for all the rest Thirdly he vouchsafed them a speciall and extraordinary fauour euen that himself would beare their names they should beare his making his glorious name renowmed to the worlds end by this title The God of Abraham Isaac Iacob Hereupon the reason is framed thus
that God so loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne that whosoeuer beleeued in him should not perish but haue euerlasting life This is Gods promise and it shall neuer be changed Now therefore howsoeuer my case be heauie and desolate yet God is able to comfort me and to bring my soule out of hell and from this case of desperation therefore though he kill me I will trust in him and I will vse all holy meanes whereby I may ouercome this hard and grieuous temptation So if it shall please God to call vs to suffer any thing for the name of Christ and his holy profession flesh and bloud we know is weake and Nature will make this obiection that life is sweete what course therefore shall we take we must doe as Abraham here doth vnto the certainty of Gods promise we must adioine his power and reason thus God hath made this promise that he will be with them that suffer any thing for his owne names sake and I knowe that hee is able to deliuer me and though he will not yet he can make me able to beare it therefore I will patiently suffer and abide whatsoeuer his holy hand shall lay vpon me Thirdly is a man so troubled with some sinne that he cannot get out nor ouercome it Then also let him set before him this fact of Abraham and vnfainedly endeuour to doe heereafter For that which is past let him labour to beleeue this promise of God At what time soeuer a sinner doth repent him of his sinne hee will put all his wickednesse out of his remembrance And for the time to come being first resolued that God can inable him to leaue his sinnes let him striue by good meanes to leaue his sinne auoiding the occasions of it and praying against it and this will be as a cable-rope to drawe him out of the pit of sinne This course wee must take and this doe in euery hard case that shall befall vs. And thus much of the meanes whereby Abraham induced himselfe to obey God The third and last reason whereby Abrahams faith is commended vnto vs is the issue and euent thereof in these words From whence he receiued him also after a sort From whence that is from death After a sort or as it may be read in some shewe This is said because Isaac in the thought and purpose of Abraham was but a dead man for Abraham was fully resolued with himselfe vpon Gods commaund to haue sacrificed him yea hee had gone so farre as to put the sacrificing knife vnto his sonnes throate and had slaine him indeede had not the Angell of God staid his hand and therefore when the Angell said Lay not thy hand vpon the childe neither doe any thing to him euen then did Abraham in some shew receiue Isaac from death Here we learne diuers points 1 That whosoeuer shall rest on Gods prouidence and good pleasure euen in cases of extremitie when he shall be out of all hope with himselfe shall at the last haue a good issue This wee see to bee true by Abrahams example in this place As wee said before he himselfe no doubt had rather haue died ten thousand times than to haue Isaac slaine in whom the promise was made but yet beleeuing Gods promise that that should neuer change hee rests himselfe on Gods good pleasure and prouidence and goes on in obedience and so in the end receiued a blessed issue This is very cleerely set downe vnto vs in the History recorded by Moses For when Abraham had gone three daies iourney in the wildernesse and had built an Altar then Isaac said vnto Abraham Gen. 22.7 Father here is the fire and the wood but where is the lambe for the burnt offering Then Abraham said My sonne God will prouide him a lambe for a burnt offering Vers. 8. And thus yeelding himselfe to Gods good pleasure and prouidence he receiued his sonne againe as a dead childe restored to life So when we are in cases of extremitie when all goes against vs and when we can see no hope of any good issue or ende and all good meanes seeme to faile vs if wee can then cast our selues on Gods prouidence and rowle our selues vpon God we shall haue comfort in the ende and a good issue out of all Wee doe all of vs in word acknowledge Gods prouidence but whē wee come to the pinch that wee fall into cases of extremitie then wee vse vnlawfull meanes and doe not with Abraham cast our selues vpon God but seeke helpe of the diuell and wicked men But all such persons must looke for a cursed issue They therefore that feare the Lord beeing put to any plunge or extremitie must cast themselues vpon God wholly and waite for his good time and pleasure and then will the issue be both ioyous and comfortable vnto their soules Here some circumstances of this fact are to bee considered out of the larger story The first is this What did God vnto Abraham at this time when he was about to kill his sonne Answ. God now gaue him a commandement to stay his hand and not to slay his sonne By vertue whereof Abraham staies his hand God before commanded him to goe three daies iourney in the wildernesse and there to sacrifice his sonne Hereupon Abraham goes but now beeing come to the place hauing bound his sonne and is ready to cut his throat God bids him stay his hand and then also Abraham obeyeth God and doeth not kill his sonne Here we see Abraham is at Gods commande and as wee say at his becke Hee doeth not follow his owne will and pleasure but when God calles he is wonderfull pliable to doe Gods commaund whatsoeuer it bee one way or other This practice of Abraham must bee a looking glasse for vs wherein to see what manner of persons wee ought to be Looke what God commaunds vs to doe that wee must doe and what hee forbids vs that wee must not doe But this is a rare thing to bee found in these daies our practice generally is contrary for in our liues wee followe our owne humors and affections neuer regarding what God doth either will or nill But if wee will be Abrahams children we must follow Abrahams practice in this place For the sonnes of Abraham will doe the workes of Abraham Iohn 8.39 Good seruants will come and goe doe and vndo at their Lords pleasure and forget themselues to obey their masters And so must it be with vs if we call God our good Lord and master Luk. 6.46 The second circumstance to bee considered is the time when Abraham receiued his sonne from death to wit at the very same time when his knife was at his sons throate and he himselfe ready to offer him vp for a sacrifice vnto the Lord at that same instant God spake vnto him by his Angell from heauen and said Abraham stay thy hand Gen. 22.10 This circumstance is worth the marking for God lets
during prime of his age is giuen to nothing but to his pleasure that is as good to him as Iacobs redde broth was to Esau take this pleasure frō him and take away his life herein is all his ioy and he delighteth in nothing so much as to spend his time in hunting hawking dicing gaming wantonnesse and drinking Now know for certaine this is a right Esau and yet many such haue wee among vs who thinke of themselues that they are they iolly fellowes and they onely carrie the braue minde but as for Iaacob and such as make conscience of their waies and words those alas are silly fellows Now what is to be said or thought of these Surely this if they doe not and that in time looke to their estates and to themselues it will cost them their liues euen the life of their soules Esau lost his birth-right by his profanenesse and so will these men doe if they continue in this estate they will blot their names out of the booke of life and roote themselues quite out of the kingdome of heauen Therefore let all yong men whatsoeuer they bee high or lowe take heede how they liue in sinne and goe on in their wickednesse for if they take Esaus course and continue in profanenesse doubtlesse they will haue Esaus end How wonderfully doth Satan bewitch them that while they goe on in sinne they should thinke so highly of themselues and so basely of those that make conscience of their waies Wherefore in the feare of God let such betime redresse their waies and courses lest when Gods curse is vpon them they crie too late for mercy And thus much of the parties blessed The fourth point to be considered is the nature or matter of this blessing in the ende of the verse Concerning things to come The meaning of these wordes is this That olde Isaac their father did pronounce blessings vpon his sonnes not onely for the time present but also for the time to come in blessings temporall and spirituall as wee may read Gen. 27. vers 28 39. where hee giueth to them both the fatnesse of the Land and plentie of wheat and wine and especially to Iaacob that he should be Lord ouer his brethren But some will say it may seeme to prooue otherwise for while Iaacob liued he was alwaies humble and subiect to Esau and when he came to his owne countrie from among the Aramites as he met with Esau he sent presents to him and when he saw him he went before and bowed himselfe to the ground 7. times vntill hee came neere to his brother Answ. That prophecie of Iaacob and Esau that the elder should serue the yonger must not be restrained to the persons of Iaacob and Esau but referred to their posteritie especially in the daies of Dauid and Salomon for then were the Edomites who came of Esau in subiection to the Israelites the posteritie of olde Ismael Whereupon Dauid speaking as a King saith Psal. 60.8 Moab shall be my wash-pot ouer Edom will I cast my shooe meaning thereby that hee would bring the posteritie of Esau into a base and lowe estate of subiection vnto him according as we may see verified 2. Sam. 8.14 But some will say that Isaac when he blessed Esau pronounced that he should haue a fertile soile and the fatnes of the earth should be his dwelling place Gen. 27.39 whereas in Malachie the Lord saith Mal. 1.3 he hated Esau. And a token thereof was this that hee had made his mountaines waste and his heritage a wildernesse for dragons meaning that he should dwell in a barren Land How can these two agree Answ. First wee may say thus That the land of Edom was a fertile land but yet in respect of the Land of Canaan but a barren and waste Land Secondly Isaac speaks here of Idumea as it was in his time not as it was afterward for it might be fertile in Isaacs time 〈◊〉 yet after become barren for God will curse a Land by turning fruitfulnesse into barrennesse for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein Psal. 107.34 And thus much for the example of Isaacs faith Now follow the examples of the faith of Iacob Iacobs Faith VERSE 21. By faith Iacob when he was dying blessed both the sonnes of Ioseph and worshipped on the end of his staffe IN these words the holy Ghost layes downe the notable and worthie example of Iacobs faith which is heere commended by two actions First his blessing of the two sonnes of Ioseph Secondly his adoring or worshipping of God In the first action consider these points 1. The blessing it selfe 2. The circumstances belonging to the same As 1. the time when Iacob blessed them that is when hee was dying secondly by what meanes did hee blesse them namely by faith thirdly the parties blessed Ephraim and Manasses Of these in order First for the blessing Of this kinde of blessing wee entreated in the former verse in the example of Isaacs faith and therefore neede not now repeate the same Onely this wee must remember that this blessing of Iacob is not the common or ordinarie blessing of a Father but the extraordinarie blessing of an holy Patriarch and Prophet of God The blessing it self stands in three things 1. Iacob makes the sonnes of Ioseph his own sonnes adopting them and taking them into his family And this is the meaning of those words in Genesis where Iacob saith as hee is blessing them Let my name be named vpon them and the name of my Fathers Abraham and Isaac Gen. 48.16 that is they shall be receiued into my family and be my children called after my name 2. He giues them two portions in the Land of Canaan for Iacob was made an instrument of God by way of prophecie to distinguish and diuide the Land of Canaan among his children 3. He doth as a Prophet by the spirit of prophecie foretell the condition and estate of Ephraim and Manasses in their posterity to wit that they should be great Nations and of them should come two great people in these three things doth Iacobs blessing consist Out of this blessing of Iacob we learne two things First that God alloweth this liberty to a master of a family to adopt and chuse for the vpholding of his house a childe or children in the want of issue from his owne body For here olde Iacob for the continuance of his posterity and the enlarging of the Church of God adopteth his sonnes sonnes into his own family to be his own sonnes And this he doth by faith And therefore a Lord and Master in his family may doe the like but yet with this caueat hee must euer take heede that in this adopting he doe not vniustly hinder his owne issue or kindred Againe whereas Iacob blesseth these two sonnes of Ioseph by fore-telling the particular estate of their posterity for their portion in the Land of Canaan here wee learne that in many things God doth vouchsafe to reueale his
did the Gadarens there was set before them Christ Iesus the Lord of life and their hogges and cattell Now they prefer their hogges before Christ A most miserable and senselesse choice And is it not as ill with vs There is set before vs on the one side heauen and on the other side hell but men for the most part chuse hell forsake heauen Ciuill worldly men whose delight is all in riches they prefer earth before heauen the seruice of sinne which is the greatest slauerie before the seruice of GOD which is perfect freedome and glorious liberty of the Saints in light and thus doe all men without Gods speciall grace Whereupon Paul prayes in his Epistles for the Churches that God would giue vnto them the spirit of wisedome that they may be able to iudge betweene things that differ And this wisdom we must labour for that when these different things are set before vs we may make a wise choise otherwise we shew our selues to be like brute beasts without vnderstanding do quite ouerturne our owne saluation In the Ministerie of the word we haue life and death good euill set before vs as Moses said to the people Deut. 30.15 19. Let vs therfore endeuour our selues to chuse life by embracing and obeying the word of God so shall we followe both his precept and practice To suffer aduersity with the people of God Heere wee may obserue what is the ordinarie state and condition of Gods Church and people in this world namely to be in affliction and vnder the crosse Hence Paul saith That we must come to heauen through manifold afflictions Acts 14.23 The Lord knoweth what is best for his seruants and children and therefore he hath set downe this for a ground that all that will liue godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution 2. Tim. 3.12 Thus the Lord dealeth with his children for speciall causes for first all crosses as losse of goods friends liberty or good name they are meanes to stirre vp and awake Gods people out of the slumbring fit of sinne for the godly are many times ouertaken this way The wise virgines sleepe as well as the foolish Now afflictions rouze them out of the sleepe of securitie See this in Iosephs brethren who went on a long time without any remorse for selling their brother But when they were stayed in Egypt then they are rowzed vp and can say Genesis 42.21 This trouble is come vpon vs for selling our brother Secondly afflictions serue to humble Gods children Leuiticus 26.41 So the Church of God speaketh I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I haue sinned against him Micah 7.9 Thirdly they serue to weane the people of God and to driue them from the loue of this world for if men might alwaies liue in ease they would make their heauen vpon earth which may not be And heerein GOD dealeth with his children like a Nurse when shee will weane her childe she layes some bitter thing vpon the pappes head to make the childe to loathe the pappe so the Lord to draw our hearts from the world and to cause vs to loue and seeke after heauen and heauenly things hee makes vs to taste of the bitternesse of affliction in tâ—is worlde Fourthly afflictions ferâ—e to make Gods children to goe out of themselues to seeke sincerely vnto GOD and to relie onely vpon him which in prosperity they will not doe This Paul confesseth of himselfe and others Wee saith hee receiued the sentence of death in our selues because wee should not trust in our selues but in God 2. Corinthians chapter 1. verse 9. So good King Iehosaphat when hee was compassed of his enemies Hee cried to the Lord and said Lord wee knowe not what to doe but our eyes are towards thee 2. Chronicles chapter 20. verse 12. Yea the rebellious Iewes are heereby driuen to seeke the Lord whom in prosperity they forsooke as wee may see at large Psal. 107.6.12.13.19 Lastly afflictions serue to make manifest the graces of GOD in his children The Lord saith Iob knoweth my way and trieth me Iob 23.10 Deuteronomie 8.2 Remember all the way saith Moses to the Israelites which the Lord thy GOD ledde thee this fourtie yeares for to prooue thee and to knowe what was in thine heart Hence Iames calleth temptations the triall of faith Iames chapter 1. verses 2.3 And Paul makes patience the fruite of tribulation Romanes chapter 5. verse 3. For looke as the showers in the spring time cause the buds to appeare so doe afflictions make manifest Gods graces in his children Patience hope and other vertues lie close in the heart in the day of peace but when tribulation comes then they breake forth and shew themselues Hence wee learne that it is not alwayes a token of Gods wrath To suffer affliction If any man or people be laden with crosses it is no argument that therefore they are not the children of GOD for as Peter saith Iudgements begin at Gods house 1. Peter chapter 4. verse 17 and any crosse vpon a people family or particular persons if it bring forth the fruite of grace in them is a true signe they belong to GOD. Yea when men wander from God by an euill way these afflictions are meanes to call them home to GOD. Psalme 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray And they that forsake their sinne and returne to GOD in the time of affliction are certainly Gods people for the wicked man fretteth and murmureth against God when a crosse commeth and he cannot abide it But the godly man is humbled therby and it makes him more obedient in all duties vnto God This wee should consider for by an outward profession wee beare the world in hand that we are Gods children and therefore wee come to heare Gods word and to learn how to behaue our selues as beseemeth his children But if we would be knowen to be Gods children indeede then when any of Gods iudgements doe befallâ— vs wee must make this vse of them namely labour thereby to be humbled for our sinnes and to forsake our sinnes and to make conscience of all bad wayes for euer afterward and then wee shewe our selues to be Gods children indeede but if vnder the crosse or after the crosse wee be as dissolute as euer wee were and still followe our olde sinnes then wee cannot be iudged to be Gods people and children but rather a wicked and stubborne generation which the more they are corrected the worse they are like a stithy the more it is beaten the harder it is Let vs therefore by the vse of Gods iudgements shewe our selues to be Gods children so shall wee say with Dauid with much ioy and comfort It is good for vs that wee haue beene in trouble Psal. 119.71 Thus wee see what Moses chose now come wee to the thing he refused To enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season By pleasures of sinne wee must vnderstand the riches and dignitie that Moses
suffer for Christs sake Blessed are you saith Christ when men reuile you and speake all manner of euill sayings against you for my names sake c. And S. Peter saith If yee bee railed vpon for my names sake blessed are ye And lest any should doubt how this can be Christ shewes wherein this blessednesse consists saying He that forsaketh houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or childrē or lands for my names sake shall receiue an hundred fold more and shall inherit eternall life A most worthy promise assuring vs that no man loseth by suffering for Christs sake for hee shall be rewarded an hundred fold ouer In stead of earthly friends and worldly comforts he shal haue the loue and fauour of God shed abroad in his heart which will bee an ouer-flowing fountaine of comfort for soule and body for euer farre more worth than the wealth and treasures of all the kingdomes in the world A smal springing fountaine we know is better to an house than a hundred Cisternes full because of continuall supply from the springing fountaine when the Cisterns will be spent Behold the loue of God in Christ with other spiritual graces shall be in all that suffer for the name of Christ as liuing streames flowing vnto life eternall when as the cisterns of all worldly pleasures and treasures shal be spent and dried vp 2 By suffering afflictiō for Christs sake wee are made conformable vnto him in his humilitie that so we may bee made like vnto him after this life in glory So Paul saith Our light affliction causeth vnto vs an eternall weight of glory 2. Cor. 4.17 And againe it is a true saying If we be dead with Christ we shall also liue with him If we suffer we shall also raigne with him 2. Tim. 2.11 12. This assurance can no worldly riches giue and therefore wee may boldly say that the suffering of reproach for Christ his sake is greater riches than the treasures of a whole kingdome 3 To suffer for Christ his sake is a token of Gods speciall loue and therefore S. Paul biddes the Philippians Not to feare their aduersaries which is a token of saluation vnto them and that of God because it is giuen to you saith he for Christ that you should not onely beleeue but suffer for his sake Wherfore if suffering for Christ haue a promise of blessednes if it make vs conformable vnto Christ be a signe of Gods special loue then is it to be esteemed aboue the riches and honours of the whole world Are afflictiōs for Christ to be esteemed aboue the treasures of a kingdome then we must all learne to reioyce in the troubles and wrongs which we suffer for Christs sake So did the Apostles Act. 5.41 They departed from the councell reioycing in that they were counted worthy to suffer affliction for his name And S. Paul brags hereof greatly saying I beare in my body the marks of the Lord Iesus Gal. 6.17 And looke as these seruants of God reioyced in their sufferings for Christ so likewise must we labour for the same heart and affections in the like case for who would not reioyce to be made partaker and possessor of the treasures of a kingdome Well the rebuke of Christ is greater riches than the treasures of a kingdome This lesson is of great vse for howsoeuer many among vs come to heare Gods word yet there be many also that scoffe and mocke at religion and at the Gospel of Christ and the professors thereof whereby the most are hindred in profession and many daunted and quite driuen backe But wee must here learne not to bee discouraged by these mockes Indeede we must take heed we giue them no iust occasion to mocke vs and then if we be scoffed at we shal neuer be hurt by it nay though that be farre from their intent yet in mocking vs they doe vs great honour For the word of God that cannot lie is this that to suffer affliction for Christ his sake is greater honour and riches than the treasures of a kingdome And if Moses his iudgement be good which God himselfe doth here commend then we are happy and blessed in enduring these mockes and scoffes for Christ. Secondly wee must here learne instruction for the time to come We haue for a long time through the great goodnesse of God enioyed peace and wealth with the Gospel of Christ but vndoubtedly these daies of peace will haue an ende they cannot last alwaies Gods people must passe through the fierie furnace of affliction Well when this is come vpon vs how shall wee be able to beare it Surely we must now learne to be of this opinion that Moses was of we must iudge it to bee the greatest honour and riches that can be to suffer affliction for Christ his sake and this will be the ground of all constancy courage and Christian boldnesse in the day of trial For he that is of this mind wil neuer feare affliction nor reproach for Christ his sake nay he will be so farre from fearing it that he will reioyce and triumph therein Further whereas it is said Esteeming the rebuke of Christ here marke the rebuke of Gods church and people is called the rebuke of Christ. The people of God in Egypt were laden with reproaches and rebukes and behold Christ accounts it his rebuke and the holy Ghost so calls it Where learne this That Christ esteemeth the reproach and affliction of his Church as his owne affliction When Saul went to persecute the brethren at Damascus Act. 9.2 4 Christ Iesus calls to him from heauen saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Saul went to persecute the Christians and yet our Sauiour Christ taketh it vnto himselfe And after his conuersion he saith 2. Cor. 4.10 Euery way wee beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Iesus And againe Let no man put me to businesse for I beare in my body the markes of the Lord Iesus Gal. 6.17 This is a point of speciall vse First hence we learne that Christ hath a speciall care of his Church and Children in that he iudgeth their afflictions to be his owne afflictions and therefore he can no more forget or leaue off to helpe them in distresse than deny himselfe Secondly here is a speciall comfort for Gods children that be in affliction their afflictions are not their owne alone but Christs also he is their partner and fellow sufferer This may seeme strange but it is most true Christ puts as it were his shoulders vnder our afflictions and takes them to himselfe as though they were his owne than which what can be more comfortable For though thou thy selfe cannot beare it yet trust vndoubtedly that Christ who beares with thee wil giue thee strength to vndergoe it vnto victory Thirdly if the afflictions of a Christian bee the afflictions of Christ then it is a fearefull sinne for any man to mocke or reproach his brother
set down vnto vs examples of faith more at large But from this verse to the end of this Chapter he heapes vp briefely together many examples of faith one vpon another The reason whereof is First because the number of true beleeuers which are mentioned in Scripture is very great and therefore he could not here stand to set them downe in order one by one Secondly by handling all the examples at large which the Author propoundeth in this short Epistle hee should haue seemed to haue restrained the name and title of faith to a very few for all that are here named and commended for their faith are but few in comparison of all that truely beleeued in the olde Testament And therefore hee heapes vp the rest together to intimate that the number of beleeuers was more than he could record And this hee doth by a Rhetoricall preterition or passing ouer called in Schooles Paralepsis whereby matters are briefly dispatched and passed ouer with the very naming only What shall I say more That is as if hee had said I haue propounded diuers worthy examples of faith and besides these there are also many more but the time of writing an Epistle will not suffer me to handle them all at large First in this particular quicke dispatch of beleeuers by our Apostle wee may obserue a difference betweene the infinite vnderstanding of God and the created vnderstanding that is in mans minde Man indeed vnderstands the things that are reuealed to him of God but yet in a manner and order farre different from that which is in God for man cannot conceiue in his minde all the things hee knowes at once by one acte of his vnderstanding but must haue distinct time to conceiue of them one by one distinctly For looke as he vtters them distinctly one by one as we see in this place so likewise doth he apprehend them in conceit and vnderstanding But with God it is not so for God at once by one acte of vnderstanding without distinction of time doth conceiue of all things at once both past present and to come and so could vtter and expresse them if any creature were able in conceit so to comprehend them Secondly whereas the holy Ghost saith The time would be too short c. Hee giues vs to vnderstand that the number of beleeuers is very great and that a long time would not serue to repeat them or to write of them This directeth vs vnto a good answer to a question which much troubleth our common people to wit How great is the number of them that shall be saued whether is it greater than the number of them that shal be damned Ans. We must consider the nūber of the elect 2. wais 1. in cōparison of them that shall be condemned secondly in themselues If we compare the elect with the reprobate the number of the elect is but a small nūber for in most ages the church of God hath beene but a handfull to the rest of the world And in the Church this likewise is true Many are called but few chosen in respect of them that are called But yet consider the elect as they are in themselues and they are a huge great number yea innumerable as Saint Iohn saith speaking of the elect among the Gentiles beside the chosen Iewes for all that doe truely beleeue shall bee saued Now beleeuers are innumerable This the Author of this Epistle would insinuate vnto vs by his phrase of speech What shall I say more c. In handling these examples wee must obserue the order here vsed by the holy Ghost for in this 32. verse hee sets down the names of the persons that beleeue all ioyntly together rehearsing them one by one And in the 33 34 45 verses he laies downe briefly the fruits of all their faith in number tenne most notable actions seruing all and euery one of them most worthily to commend their faith In the handling of them wee will follow the order obserued by the holy Ghost and first speake of the persons then of their actions The foure first are these Gedeon Barac Samson and Iephte These foure were Iudges in Israel the fift is Dauid who was both a Prophet and a King the sixt is Samuel both a Iudge and a Prophet lastly the Prophets generally by whom wee must vnderstand especially these three Elias Eliseus and Daniel In speaking of these persons here commended vnto vs first we will intreate of them generally and then in particular In generall let vs first obserue the order which the holy Ghost here vseth in naming them Gedeon for time was after Barac and yet here he is first named so Samson was after Iephte and yet here he is put before him This the holy Ghost would neuer doe without some special cause We therefore must knowe that the Scripture vseth a two-fold order in reckoning vp of persons to wit the order of time when as hee that liued first is first named and the order of dignity when the most worthy and excellent is named first though he were later in time Now the Scripture accounteth best of them that did excell in faith and in the fruits thereof so in this place whereas Gedeon is set before Barac Samson before Iephte the holy Ghost obserues not the order of time but the order of dignity according to the excellency of their faith naming them in the first place that were most famous for this grace of faith and did exceed the other in the fruits thereof Here we learne this speciall point That the more men excell in faith and other graces of God the more God will honour them for looke who most honour God shall be most honoured of him but the more a man excels in grace the more he honours God And for this cause is Gedeon preferred before Barac and Samson before Iephte because they were more plentifull in the fruits of faith This must mooue vs not onely to seeke to haue faith but to labour euery day more and more for the increase of faith and of obedience for the more a man abounds in grace before God the more will God honour him both here and in heauen And thus much for the order wherein they are propounded Secondly let vs consider what manner of persons these were Gedeon Barac and the rest They were extraordinary men in their time raised vp by God for the speciall good of his Church and the common wealth of the Iewes that they might help and defend them in distresse And therefore as their calling was extraordinary so God indued them with extraordinary gifts of wisdome strength zeale and authority for which they are here renowmed in this Catalogue of most worthy beleeuers In their example wee may obserue this point That whom God doth raise vp extraordinarily for some speciall good in his Church them he endues with extraordinarie gifts to discharge that calling and withall hee giues them the spirit of grace with a true and liuely faith
The same Dauid coÌ„fesseth Psal. 39.12 He is a stranger before God a soiourner as all his Fathers were therupon desireth God to heare his prayer hearken to his cry not to keep silence at his teares as though he had said Inasmuch as I soiourne with thee thou art to heare my complaint For as a Soiourner cares nor lookes for nothing but depends on them for all things with whom he soiournes so must we cast all our care on God for he careth for vs he is our Landlord wee are his Farmours and Tenants wee hold the earth from him by no lease for yeares but at his will and it is lent vs let vs therefore but haue care to please this our Landlord and care for nothing Fiftly wee must giue continuall thankes and praise to God for his good blessings wee receiue in this world for all are his and wee are but strangers Thus did all Gods Saints in olde time Iacob Hee was lesse then the least of Gods mercies But especially there is one memorable example of Dauid and the Church in his dayes 1. Chronicles 29.13.14.15.16 When hee had prepared abundantly for the building of the Temple hee prostrated himselfe before God and in his owne name and the peoples saide thus Riches and honour come of thee therefore our God wee thanke thee and praise thy glorious name But who am I and what is my people that wee should offer vnto thee for all is thine and of thine owne haue wee giuen thee for wee are strangers before thee and soiourners as all our Fathers were Thankfulnesse beseemes all men especially strangers Therefore as Pilgrimes doe thankfully accept the fauours shewed them in a strange Country So must we all the blessings God giues vs in this world where we are but strangers Sixtly and lastly we must hasten to the kingdome as a Pilgrime doth to his iourneyes end or to his owne Country and till he can is alwaies thinking of it and sighing after it So must we who are not dwellers but soiourners in these houâ—es of clay long after heauen and as S. Paul saith he did coâ—et to remoue from hence and to dwell with the Lord. Strangers â—re not to take such pleasure in foraine Countries as to forget their owne So Christians must not be so in loue with this world as to forget or neglect the world to come If they do â—hey are vnworthy of it and shew themselues not strangers â—s Abraham here was but men of this world who haue their â—ortion in this life Psal. 17.14 In performing these six actions men shew themselues â—rangers in this world And thus must we doe euen in the â—idst of all worldly prosperitie if wee looke â—uer to enioy the glory of a better And thus doing we shall be children of faithfull Abraham who dwelt in the land of Canaan as in a strange Country As one that dwelt in tents The second point for the manner how Abraham dwelt in Canaan is that he built himselfe no houses nor made Orchards or Gardens but dwelt in tents or tabernacles which were such houses as now are vsed in warre and are yet called by the same name Tents or Pauilions whose matter is not wood nor stone but cloth stuffe or skinnes and are easily reared and soone taken downe and when a man departeth he may cary his house with him That Abraham did thus appeares in the Stories written of him He came to Bethell and there pitched his tent Gen. 12.8 and Gen. 13.18 he remoued his tent and 18.1 God appeared vnto him as he sate in his tent dore and 18.9 being asked where Sarah was answered shee is within in the tent and these tents are called his place Gen. 18.33 and his house 24.2 Out of all which places it is plaine that he dwelt in tents and that not onely at his first comming when he had not time to build him an house but euen all the dayes of his life after his comming into the land of Canaan But why did Abraham dwell in tents and not in houses was it because then there were no houses Not so For there were Cities built euen afore the floud Gen. 4.17 Cain built a Citie no meruaile therefore if there were many after as Sodome and all her sisters And though it appeares not they digged into the earth for naturall stone yet had they Bricke which they made themselues Genesis 11.3 and surely the world which built the huge tower of Babell Gen. 11. would not stick to build themselues houses Nor can it be said that those Cities Sodome Gomorrah and the rest were nothing but a multitude of Tents together For we read Genes 19.3 that Lot dwelling in Sodome receiued 2. Angels into his house and in the 4. verse that the Sodomites came and enuironed his house round about to take them thinking they had been men and when Lot refused to deliuer them that they pressed sore vpon the house to haue broken vp the doore but all this might haue bin spared if it had bin nothing but a tent which a childe may cut in peeces with a knife It is manifest then that there were houses in those daies Why then did Abraham build none was it because he was poore could not Nor so for contrariwise Gen. 12.5 Hee carried with him from his owne countrey all the substance he possessed And what that was is particularized Gen. 13.2 He was very rich in cattell in siluer and in gold His riches were both great of the best So theÌ„ he could but would not But why would he not Was it vpon a prowd humour or in a conceited singularitie because he would not bee like other men but haue a singular way of his owne No Abraham was none of those who allow nothing but that that is done of themselues and who thinke nothing good if it be ordinarie for he was a holy man and famous for his faith So then none of these were the reasons of this his so doing The reasons then why Abraham and other holy Patriarchs vsed to dwell in tents and not to build them houses were of two sorts Ciuill and Holy The Ciuill or Politicke respect that they had was this They holding themselues Gods seruants did depende on his word and therefore did submit themselues to goe vp and down the world whither soeuer God did call theÌ„ Being then to remooue euery day they knew not when nor whither it was therefore both the fittest and cheapest to dwell in tents which were soone pitched vp and soone taken downe Neither neede it to seeme strange that they could liue for cold in those poore thin tents all the yeare long for the country and climate there was alwaies temperate enough for cold and rather inclining to too much heate The Holy or religious respect was this They held theÌ„selues but strangers vpon earth therfore would not build themselues cities or houses as looking or caring to liue vpon earth but dwelled in tents as seeming desirous
beleeuers that haue bin in the world Let this teach vs whē we see our own sins how hideous monstrous they be yet not to despaire And whē we see other men liue in extream dissolutenes yet not to iudge of them before the time but euen then with hope and comfort remember that God who quickneth the dead and calleth things that are not as though they were And in that hope let vs perswade our selues that he may quicken our dead hearts and reuiue vs by his grace And therefore in that hope let vs raise vp our selues to vse all holy meanes of Gods Word Sacraments and Prayer which if we carefully and continually doe wee shall see wonders wrought in vs that as they saide of Paul This man preacheth the faith which afore he destroyed and therefore glorified God for him Galath 1.22.23 So shall men say of vs This man hates the profanenesse that afore he liued in and loues the religion that afore hee mocked Such miracles will the Lord worke in vs if with faith and diligence wee vse the holy meanes that so all that see vs shall Glorifie GOD for vs. Thus wee see generally how great the issue and posterity of Sarah was But it is more particularly inlarged by two comparisons As many as the starres in the skie or as the sands by the sea shore which are innumerable His comparisons are two One taken from the heauens as many as the starres in the skie The other from the earth as the sands in the Sea And these two are vsed by the holy Ghost being things of incredible number to expresse the multitude of the Israelites that came all from Sarah Not but that other things also are of as great number as the drops of water dust of the earth hairs of mens heads c but these two are most common and prouerbiall phrases whereby to expresse a multitude And againe the starres of the skie are rather named then any other because God himself in the beginning pleased to vse it to Abraham when he had neuer a childe Gen. 15.8 God caried Abraham forth in the night and bad him count the starres if he could and said so shall thy seede be And Moses afterwards vseth the same comparison Deut. 10.22 Our Fathers went downe into Egypt 70. persons and now the Lord hath made vs as the starres of the skie in multitude Now because all men are not Astronomers as Abraham and Moses were and that ignorant men might say they can perceiue no such matter in the starres Therefore hee vseth another comparison which euery Country-man may discerne how innumerable they be namely the sands of the Sea-shore And least any should say I dwell in the mid-land Country and neuer saw the sea sand and am ignorant and so cannot iudge of the starres therefore to put him out of doubt the holy Ghost assures him in the end of the verse that they are both innumerable that is not in themselues or to God but in regard of man and mans skill vnable to be counted Concerning these two comparisons let vs obserue the manner or the phrase of speech in them vsed Secondly the matter in them intended For the first wee are to knowe that the speech is not proper but figuratiue For properly they were not as manie as the starres or as the sands neither are the starres or sands innumerable but it is a figure called by the Rhetoricians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an excesse of finenesse of speech or an excessiue elegancie And as it is ordinarie in all Writers and euen in common speech so it is not refused by the holy Ghost but vsed both heere and in the two forenamed places and the like also of the same nature but in other phrases in other places as Saint Iohn 21.25 I suppose saith hee if all the sayings and doings of Christ were written the world could not containe the bookes that would be written Meaning they would be exceeding many and more then would be needefull for saluation And Deuteronomie 9. verse 1. Moses saith That the Cities of the Canaanites were great and walled vp to heauen Meaning that they were very high and so high as was possible for Cities walles to be and as was impossible to haue beene scaled in all mennes reason had not GOD fought for them These and such like are common in the Scripture and seeing wee allowe that libertie to all Writers and to our selues in common speeche no reason to denie it to the Scripture which was written for all mens vnderstanding and therfore in such phrases as are vsuall and ordinarie with all men And the like liberty is heere taken also in another figure as many as the sands by the shore of the sea the word properly signifieth and soundeth the lippe of the Sea Now the sea hath no lippe but it is a speech taken or borrowed from man or beast who haue lippes and the sea shore resembleth a lippe For looke what a lippe is to them the shores are to the sea as the two lippes doe inclose the mouth so the two shores on both sides doe inclose the Sea which lieth as in a mouth betwixt them From hence we may learne profitable instructions First that therefore Rhetoricke is a warrantable good and lawfull Art and it ariseth thus That which the holy Ghost practiceth must needes be not onely not euill but good and warrantable But the holy Ghost vseth and practiceth Rhetoricke heere and in many places else of the Scripture Therefore it is a good and lawfull Arte. The proposition is vndoubted the assumption is cleare both by these places and almost the whole body of the Scripture many of Saint Pauls Epistles many of Christes owne Sermons Saint Iohns Gospell many of the Prophets especially Esayah haue as much and as elegant Rhetoricke in them as any VVriters in the vvorlde and beside all other vertue and Diuine power in them doe euen for figures and ornaments of Arte match any Oratours that haue vvritten in the Greekes or Latines Nor would it bee anie hard taske to vndertake to prooue and illustrate euery approued rule of Rhetorick out of some part of Scripture Now if it be lawfull to practice the rules of Rhetorick then is it lawfull also to collect those rules together to pen them and to make an Art of them They therefore that holding the contrary doe say or teach or write it is vnlawfull goe against the streame and common practice of the Scripture and rules of common reason Secondly heere it is apparant that in preaching Gods word it is lawfull and warrātable for a Minister to vse Rhetoricke and eloquence And the reason is good for that which the holy Ghost vseth in penning of the Scripture the same may Gods Ministers vse also in preaching the same They therefore that denie that liberty to Ministers are too rough and rugged and pull out of the hand of the Ministers one of his weapons out of the wings of the