ioineth these 4 together 1. to edifie our selues in our most holy faith 2. to pray in the holy Ghost 3. to keepe our selues in the loue of God 4. to looke for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to eternall life Iud. 20. and 21. The first 3 pertaine to the purging of our selues the last is a plaine description of this hope Finally for conclusion of all let vs remember that the Apostle Paul hauing plentifully proued the doctrine of the resurrection no lesse eloquently laid forth the maner thereof and the future similitude likenes of our bodies to the body of Christ doth from the expectation thereof shut vp all with this graâ—e exhortation tending to this purging of our selues Therefore my beloued brethren be stedfast and vnmoueable abounding alwaies in the worke of the Lord knowing that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. 1. Cor. 15. 58. Here the first word therefore secretly insinuateth and the last sentence added for confirmation plainly expresseth this hope that hither to we haue spoken of and the exhortation it selfe betwixt both inserted doth as euidently intimate this purging of our selues in regard of that hope which here also the Apostle commendeth I shall not neede to enlarge this point any further Onely let vs consider thereof by this familiar similitude that euery one prepareth himselfe and house and all according to the person whom he looketh for What seruant that is in continuall expectation of his masters returne home but will prepare himselfe and all things belonging vnto him accordingly what meane man looketh for the comming of a Noble man especialle what subiect looketh for the comming of his Prince but that hee will prepare himselfe for apparell and for all other things beseeming the entertainement of such a person Shall wee then looke for the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ and at his appearing to be made like vnto him and so to see him in all his glory and maiestie and shall we not purge our selues and cast away al filthines of the flesh of the spirit and put on the robes of he lines and righteousnes that so we may be the fitter to intertain him and to be intertained of him into his glory Let no man deceiue vs with vaine words neither let vs deceiue our selues It is not possible for vs to haue this hope and to looke for these things but that wee will thus purge our selues If we do not thus purge our selues then certainly wee haue not this hope neither do we look to be made like vnto Christ Iesus at his appearing and to see him as he is Would we be like vnto him in glory and will we not be like vnto him in holinesse Would we see him as he is now in heauen with our bodily eies and will we not see him as he offereth himselfe to be seene in earth in his word and sacraments with the eies of our mind and by faith Let vs remember and let vs not forget what the Apostle saith follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Yea let vs consider what our Sauiour saith Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. 8. For doe not these sentences plainly shew that without the former holinesse and purity of heart none shall see the Lord But sith many things before spoken may be referred to this argument I will therefore insist no longer thereupon If we doe thus purge our selues as heere the Apostle speaketh then let vs assure our selues that our hope of being made like vnto him and seeing him as he is shall not by any thing whatsoeuer be frustrated Earthly Princes may shake vs out of their Courts as Mordecai might not enter within King Ahashuerosâ— his gates because hee was clothed with sackcloth Ester 4 2. but Iehouah the Lord of Lords and King of heauen and earth will receiue vs into his euerlasting palace of heauen there to behold all his glory and riches Heauen and earth shall rather perish then Gods word in this behalfe shall fall to the ground But if we doe not so purge our selues our hopeâ—s altogether a vaine hope and shall deceiue vs in the end The diuels themselues shall as soone be made like to Christ and see him as he is as that man or woman that is not here purged But in what measure must euery one that hath this hope in him purge himselfe First according to his measure of the said hope For this purging being an effect of that hope it cannot bee but that the more the hope is the more he that hath that hope will purge himselfe Secondly according to the meanes before mentioned of purging himselfe viz. according to his hearing reading of the word meditation company of the godly praiers c. For all these meanes being the ordinances of God for a maÌ„ to purge himselfe it cannot bee but that the more any man doth in truth vse the said meanes the more blessing God will giue vnto them for effecting this purging Thirdly according to other meanes that God himselfe doth vse towards them that haue the said hope for the purging of them viz. according to the mercies which he bestoweth vpon them and according to the chastisements wherwith he doth exercise them For these doth the Lord vse as before hath beene mentioned to kill the weedes of sinne in men and to make them the more plentifull in the fruits of righteousnes What is this but to purge them as here the Apostle speaketh and as our Sauiour himself speaketh in the very same case Ioh. 15. 2. Gods mercies are as it were the marling and manuring or to speake more plainely as the mucking and dunging of our barren hearts and Gods chastisements and corrections are as it were the ploughing of them after they are so marled manured mucked and dunged or as the harrowing of them to breake their hard clods and both are to make them the more fruitfull in all goodnes As men therefore doe looke that their grounds should bee the more freed from weedes and bring forth the better crops of good corne the more they dung plough and harrow them so the more that God doth multiply his mercies vpon his children and exercise them with his corrections the more he looketh they should be purged of sinne and bring forth the fruits of righteousnes Vnder this 〈◊〉 comprehend the purging of our selues according to any dignity whereunto God hath aduanced vs. As wee doe more wash our face then the inferiour parts of our body so the more eminent that any is in Church or common wealth the more he ought to be purged from all vice and the more also to shine in all vertue Moreouer â—uery child of God is to purge himselfe and to be so much the more holy by how much the more impure filthy vnholy he seeth other to be Therfore the holy ghost by the examples of such as haue been idolaters fornicators tempters of
our enemies compassing vs about like mighty bulls of Bashan and like dogs Psal 22. 12. and 16 and as thicke as bees Psal 118. 12. and albeit in that respect whiles we thus hue amongst our enemies wee are subiect to many dangers yet we are as safely kept and as it were garded euen walled round about not by Angels alone but by God himselfe yea the better to assure vs that we shall be as safely kept here in earth notwithstanding all our enemies for that inheritance as that is kept for vs he saith that we are kept by the power of God So saith our Sauiour that he will giue his sheepe eternall life and that they shall not perish neither that any man shall plucke them out of his hands because the father that hath giuen them vnto him is greater then all and no man shall plucke them by any violence out of his hand Ioh. 10. 28. 29. So then the sheep of Christ and children of God are in the hands and custody of God the Father and God the Sonne They may therefore as well doubt of the power of God as of their preseruation for the inheritance now spoken of O inseparable happinesse Without the former preseruation of this inheritance for vs it is small comfort to heare it to be immortall vndefiled and not withering yea the more excellent that this inheritance is noted to be by those three attributes the more would be our griefe if it were not safely kept for vs. What comfort also should we haue by all the foure former commendations if we our selues might in the meane time perish and miscarry Alas what comfort had king Edward the fift by this great kingdome when himselfe was in the custody of his most wicked vnkle Richard the third that most vnnaturally and horribly murthered him and his yonger brother Besides all before written of this inheritance the excellency thereof is laid foorth further in Scripture by phrases of such things as are in greatest regard here vpon earth and chiefly by such things as belong to kings and kingdomes Therefore it is said as before we heard that we shall be cloathed in white that we shall haue crownes vpon our heads and that we shall sit vpon thrones yea on the throne of Christ Iesus himselfe Because kings also fare daintily therefore it is said that the children of God shall eat of the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God Ren. 2. 7. and of the Manna that is hidden Reuel 2. 17. As also in the Courts of Princes there is the voice of singing men and women 2. Sam. 19. 32. so in heauen all the Saints and all the Angels shall sing a new song and the song of Moses and of the Lamb Reuel 5. 9. 10. 11. and 14. 3. where there is mention of harpes and of a new song yea such a song that no man could learne but the elect bought from the earth Whereas Princes also dwell in stately and princely palaces lift vp thy eies to heauen behold the beauty and glory thereof and consider whether the inside of the greatest and most sumptuous palaces in all the world with all their rich and sumptuous furniture be comparable to the outside of heauen If the outside be so beautifull and glorious are not the inner parts where God himselfe with all his Angels are in all glory much more beautifull and glorious How doth Dauid oft times commend the house of God vpon earth Doth he not speake of the tabernacle before the temple was built by way of admiration O Lord of hosts how amiable are thy tabernacles Psal 84. 1. Doth not he therefore pronounce them Blessed that might dwell in his house verse 4. yea doth he not say that a day in the courts of God is better then a thousand elsewhere and that for his part though hee were then annointed heire apparant to the crowne and diadem of the kingdome of Israel yet he had rather bee a doore-keeper in the house of his God then to dwell in the tabernacles of wickednesse verse 10. If he thought the house of God so amiable vpon earth which is as it were but the gatehouse of heauen how amiable thought he heauen it selfe to be Glorious things saith the Prophet are spoken of thee thou citie of God Psal 87. 3. what city of God The earthly Ierusalem What glorious things are spoken of that city That it is built as a city compact together in it selfe that thereunto the tribes of the Lord goe vp according to the testimony to Israel or of the Israelites to praise the name of the Lord and that there are thrones set for iudgement the thrones of the house of Dauid Psal 122. 3. 4. 5. Were these and many other the like glorious things spoken of the city of God and of Ierusalem vpon earth What then may be said of the City of God and of the Ierusalem of God in heauen That was but a type this is the thing signified That was corruptible and is now destroied this abideth for euer That was an habitation for a time for corrupt and mortall men this is an euerlasting habitation of God himselfe in his glory for all the Angels and for all the Saints purged of all their sinnes and made glorious without any spot or wrinkle That was made by men and with hands this was made by God himselfe without hands That had goodly towers almost past numbring Psal 48. 12. this likewise hath many dwelling places more artificially compact together then all the gorgeous palaces of Ierusalem or of all the Princes in the world Thither the tribes of Israel did goe vp but hither all tribes of all nations vnder heauen are and shall be gathered to praise the name of the Lord by singing those songs before spoken of There were the thrones of Dauid but here is the throne of Christ Iesus for the iudgement of all the world What shall I say more When we shall come to this inheritance though the happy state thereof be described by such things as are vpon earth in greatest price for our better capacity yet for all that no such things are sufficient to set forth and fully to expresse the thousandth part of the excellency thereof The eie of man hath not seen neither hath the eare of man heard neither can the things enter in to the heart of man which God hath prepared for them that loue him 1. Cor. 2. 9. What tongue then of man by any thing or by all things in the world is able to expresse them Yea the truth is that albeit the future condition of the children of God be described by white raiment by eating of the fruit of the tree of life c. and of the Manna that is hidden c. yet we shall neither haue apparrell nor food for our bodies in the world to come As man before his fall liued by corporall food without apparell and after his fall had need as well
made knowen by the Church the manifold wisdome of God Ephes 3. 9. 10. By this place we plainly see that the Angels haue the benefit of more knowledge then before they had Of the fellowship of the foresaid mysterie and that by the Church What is the Church but the companie of Gods children This is the more manifest by that that there is said of that mysterie to haue beene before hidden in God himselfe and not so to haue beene opened to the sonnes of men in other ages as now it is vers 5. and to haue beene kept secret since the world began Rom. 16. 25. For doe not these phrases intimate that the said mysterie had beene hidden so in God himselfe from the beginning of the world that the very Angels themselues did not fully vnderstand it till it was made knowen by the Church The same is to bee thought of many mysteries contained in the Reuelation because it is said of the booke in the right hand of him that sate vpon the throne written within and on the backe side sealed with many seales whereby the Chapters in the Reuelation following seeme especially to be vnderstood because I say it is said of that booke that none in heauen nor in earth nor vnder the earth was able to open the booke or to looke thereon but only the Lion of the tribe of Iuda that is Christ Iesus Reu. 5. 2. This Lion of the tribe of Iuda doth not only vnderstand the same booke himselfe but also by his spirit maketh it knowen to the Church by whom also the Angels attending thereupon in all assemblies thereof seeme likewise to come to know it and not by any immediate reuelation thereof vnto them in heauen neither as some doe weakly imagine by contemplation of God himselfe in whom all things past present and to come are as it were ingrauen For so they should know the secrets of mens hearts and the day of iudgement which none knowes but God himselfe For are not all those things ingrauen in God as well as others I grant the Angels to know much more of their owne nature and of the nature of God himselfe then the Church knoweth yea then perhaps is reuealed in the written word yet this letteth not but that the Angels may bee ignorant of the meaning of some things contained in the word concerning Gods pleasure towards the Church till the same by the spirit of Christ be reuealed to the Church I will not so inlarge this point in this place as Isee it handled in some late printed bookes but I will content my selfe with this thus generally spoken thereof Another benefit of the Angels by the children of God is that they haue great iov of their conuersion and repentance This our Sauiour teacheth plainly by a double parable Luk. 15. 3. c. one of the lost sheepe the other of the lost groat for the finding whereof there was great ioy the application of bâ—th which parables is thus made by our Sauiour hin selfe I say vnto you that likewise ioy shall bee in heauen ouer one sinner that repenteth c. and againe I say vnto you there is ioy in the presence of the Angels of God for one sinner that conuerteth 7. and 10. And indeed there is a great reason of this their ioy for doe men reicice in earth for the birth of a sinner and shall not the Angels in heauen reioice for the regeneration of a christian Doe men reioice for the birth of one of Gods enemies and shall not the Angels reioice for the birth of one of Gods children Doe the true subjects of an earthly prince reioice and declare their ioy by some testimony at the birth of a child to such an earthly Prince how much more should the Angels in heauen Gods perfectest subjects reioice at the birth of a child to God himselfe the king of heauen and earth euen of one that shall it selfe be and is as soone as it is borne not only a Priest but also a king as before we heard Is there ioy in earth for the birth of one that shall die againe and perhaps a miserable death how then should the Angels not reioice in the birth of one that shall neuer die more but shall liue for euer a life of grace here till the time of translation from hence do come and then a life of glory with themselves yea with Christ Iesus Did the Angels reioice when Christ was borne a man vpon earth and shall they not reioice when men are borne partaker of the diuine nature from heauen and for heauen yea wherefore did the Angels so reioice at the birth of Christ was it not because by his birth in the world many should afterward be borne vnto God As soone as euer Christ had taken the book before spoken of out of the hands of his Father to open the same to the Church how did the Angels reioice and sing for ioy as wel as the 24. Elders Reu. 5. 8. 9. Did they so reioice at the taking of the book to be opened to the Church how much more cause haue they to reioice and sing when by the opening of mysteries in the same book contained men shall be enlightned with true sauing knowledge of God and of his Sonne Iesus Christ and be also new borne children vnto God As the Angels doe thus reioice in the first regeneration of the children of God that is when men first begin to be the children of God so it is not to be doubted but that their ioy is increased as such graces are increased in men whereby they are the more declared both to men and Angels to be so regenerated and new borne vnto God I might amplifie this point much more but hauing been large in other things it shall be sufficient thus briefly to haue spoken of this matter So we see what great benefits both men and other creatures the inferior creatures of this inferior world and the superior creatures euen the blessed Angels in heauen haue by the children of God Is not this therefore a great increase of their dignity Is it not an high commendation of their state and condition That the wicked are hurtfull to all and beneficiall to none doth make their estate the more base and vile abiect and contemptible Therefore that the children of God are hurtfull to none and so beneficiall and helpfull to many it must needs make their condition more honorable and noble CHAP. XXIX Of diuers similitudes and comparisons setting foorth the dignity of Gods children TO omit diuers other arguments whereby the dignity of Gods children might bee furthered enlarged and illustrated let vs now come to certaine comparisons Herein I will a little transgresse the order of Logicians as I haue not hitherto been curious therein and therefore I will begin with some similitudes whereby the holy ghost in respect of some things before handled doth set forth the excellency of the children of God From these similitudes I will
eldest brother and of the second brethren so of a king and his subiects so of the chiefe corner stone and of the other stones in the building As for other reasons of this our similitude and likenes vnto Christ they are also many Christ is the first fruits we the other Should not the first fruits and the other fruits be like Christ is the vine we are the branches Are not the branches like to the vine Christ is our husband we are his spouse and wife Is it not fit that the spouse and wife should be somewhat sutable and answerable to her husband Otherwise certainly they will not draw well together in one yoke Moreouer as Christ was made like vnto vs in all things sinne only excepted so is it meet we should in some things be made like vnto him As Christ was made base by taking vpon him the forme of a seruant for vs and in this respect was made like vnto vs in our basenesse so it is meet that wee should bee made by him like vnto him in glorie yea this is iust and righteous because Christ by his basenesse and by those things which he did and suffred for vs in his basenesse did purchase this our likenesse to himselfe in dignity and glory If hee therefore haue purchased it for vs and giuen the full price therof in our behalfe how can it be denied vnto vs As in this world wee are made like vnto Christ in ignominies reproches and suffring of other indignities so in the world to come we shall be made like vnto him in glory Rom. 8. 17. 2. Tim. 2. 12. This similitude and likenesse is in soule and in body In soule first in the perfection of the knowledge of God in the three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost secondly in the perfection of holinesse and righteousnesse Notwithstanding this holinesse and righteousnesse is not only of the soule and inner man but also of the body and outward man as afterward wee shall heare in the next verse yea as wee haue heard before Of this similitude of soule touching knowledge the Apostle speaketh 1. Cor. 13. viz. first of it in this life verse 9. We know in part and we prophecie in part and secondly both of that and of the other which shall be in the life to come Now we see thorow a glasse darkly but then wee shall see face to face Now I know in part but then shall I know euen as I am knowen By the same place also may be gathered our similitude to Christ inwardly in holinesse and righteousnesse inasmuch as by distinguishing in that place loue which is the perfection of the law from faith and hope hee seemeth to insinuate that our faith and hope shall in the resurrection haue an end but that our loue shall continue and that therefore in this respect our loue is greater then either faith or hope Of our inward similitude and likenesse vnto Christ or rather both of our inward outward likenes in all holines and righteousnesse the Apostle speaketh saying If wee be grafted with him to the similitude of his death euen so wee shall be to the similitude of his resurrection Rom. 6. 5. Of our likenesse vnto Christ in our bodies the Apostle speaketh briefly Philip 3. 21. where he saith that Christ shall change our vile bodies vile here by sinne by the naturall frailty thereof and by the manifold calamities whereto it is subiect by sinne and make it like to his glorious body c. and more largely he speaketh of it 1. Cor. 15. 42. where most excellently he laieth it forth by comparing the seuerall points of the likenes of our bodies to the body of Christ by opposition of the contrary properties of our bodies in this life therunto It is sowen saith he in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sowen in dishonor it is raised in glory It is sowen in weaknesse it is raised in power It is sowen a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body Afterward he proceedeth by similitude saying The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord from heauen As is the earthly such are they that are earthly as is the heauenly such are they that are heauenly verse 47. 48. Then he concludeth this point As we haue borne the image of the earthly so shall we beare the image of the heauenly verse 49. And afterward againe This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortalitie verse 53. So then this is the likenesse of our body hereafter to the body of Christ that as Christs body is now incorruptible glorious powerfull spirituall heauenly and immortall so our bodies shal be like incorruptible glorious powerfull spirituall heauenly and immortall Of our likenes vnto Christ both in our bodies and in our soules Christ seemeth to speak iointly when he saith The glory that thou gauest me I haue giuen them that they may be one as wee are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in me c. Ioh. 17. 22 23. Although this place of the Apostle touching our future similitude to Christ may be vnderstood of our through perfect likenes both in soule and in body yet it seemeth the Apostle Note speaketh especially of our likenes vnto Christ in our bodies because that especially is most hidden from the world of that especially it may be said that it doth not appeare what we shall be For our future likenes in soule and in our inner man touching the perfect knowledge of God and touching our holinesse and righteousnesse begun here and to be made absolute and complete like to the knowledge and holinesse of Christ himselfe in the resurrection is here much more eminent perspicuous and manifest then the foresaid future likenes of our bodies vnto the body of Christ For that our likenes of knowledge and holines and righteousnes is apparantly begun in this life so is not our likenes in body touching the properties before mentioned incorruptible glorious powerfull spirituall heauenly and immortall For our bodies seem no more qualified touching these things after regeneration then before yea rather the regenerate by yeeres and sicknesses c. seem to be and do indeed grow daily more base more weake and impotent bodies as well as the vnregenerate Againe that the Apostle here especially intendeth the similitude of Gods children in body to the body of Christ seemeth to be insinuated also by the proofe following from the effect viz. that we shall see him as he is For this being spoken chiefly of the bodily sight it followeth likewise that our likenesse vnto Christ confirmed thereby doth signifie chiefly our bodily likenes vnto him This our future likenes vnto Christ Christ in part shewed in the mountaine when not only himselfe was transfigured before Peter Iames and Iohn his face shining as the Sunne and his clothes being as bright as the light Mat. 17. 2. and as white as
Loc. 1. and answering the 11. obiection of Gardiner thus he writeth If you doe beleeue that Enoch and Elias doe yetliue you doe beleeue it without the Scripture Elias was taken away after an admirable sort and withdrawen from Elizeus in a firie chariot but that his spirit was not stript from his body by what testimonie of Scripture will you prooue it Then immediately concerning Enoch hee acknowledging that which is written Heb. 11. 5. to haue beene done that God might testifie by his said extraordinary kinde of translating his loue towards him for the better prouocation of other to the imitation of his goodnesse hee demandeth of Gardiner But how know you that afterward viz. after his taking from the Common sight of men he dyed not when he was safe and out of danger of sinne you will say that the epistle to the Hebrewes bath that he might not see death A man may vnderstand that that he might not feele death whiles he was in the world that he might not die a common and an ordinarie death But that hee died not after his translation how will you make vs belieue And there want no Hebrew writers which expounding the second booke of the Kings doe say that Elias his body and all his garments except his cloake or mantle were consumed in the whirlweinge but that the Spirit of the Prophet went vnto God Oecolampadius in Heb. 11. 5. citing the words of Genesis translated by the Septuagints And Enoch pleased God and was not found because God translated him Notwithstanding saith he by these words it is not prooued that hee did not die Because if hee were of the seede of Adam it must be that hee was mortall And truely this is most agreeable to truth and consonant to the analogy of faith For Christ alone is the first begotten of the dead and hath opened paradise to them that beleeue And that which moueth me more so long time as Christ had not payed the price of our redemption so long also a long sword or a fierce and shaken sword did stop all passage into paradise If also he were translated into paradise how did Christ bold safe his dignitie But if you will make here a miracle then he must yet looke for death and a change But if any will obserue the maner of the Apostle bee will not meruaile that he hath said that he did not see death For as wee haue seene him to doe before touching Melchisedech hee would affirme nothing besides the testimonie of the Scripture and because that he saith not expresly that he died therefore he did not endeauour to set downe so much In the meane time notwithstanding he denyeth him not to haue died as likewise he doth not Melchisedeth c. Thus much Occolampadius Martinus Borrhaus a learned writer about the yeare 1539. in his commentaries vpon Genesis Chap. 5. 24. doth so interpret that place as I doe That worthy and famous man M. Doctor Fulke also is most plainly of my side and agreeth fully with me For confuting the marginall note of the Rhemish translators of the new testament vpon Heb. 9 8. he saith that heauen was not opened by the sacrifices of the first tabernacle c. and that our Sauiour was the first that entred into perfect glorie of heauen So to their marginall note vpon Heb. 11. 5. that there it appeared that Enoch yet liueth and is not dead against the Caluinists he briefly answereth thus It appeareth not that Enoch yet liueth in bodie more then Moses or Elias but that hee was translated by God out of the world and died not after the common maner of men So he insinuateth that he died but not after the common maner of men To their notes at large vpon Reu. 11. 3. he answereth thus You will saith he proue that they that is Enoch and Elias are aliue in paradise But what place is paradise but heauen as the Apostle declareth 2. Cor. 12. 2. and 4. for earthly paradise either by the flood or before was defaced Now what doctrine it is to affirmâ— that men in mortall bodies ascended into heauen I leaue to the learned to consider And presently after It is euident indeed saith he that Elias was taken vp aliue but not that hee continueth aliue Yea because it is said expresly that he was taken vp into heauen it is certaine that his body was not carried into heauen for Christ was the first that in whole humanity ascended into heauen Master Samuel Bird likewise a learned and godly minister late of Ipswich in Suffolke writing vpon Heb. 11. 5. saith thus It is said that he was taken vp that he might not see death the meaning is that he did not die after the common maner of men he was exempted from the violent separation of the soule from the body which nature doth abhorre not but that his bodiâ— did wast away and did not ascend into heauen For Christ is the first that entred in his body into heauen to take possession of it for vs. Heb. 9. 12. With the former testimonies affirming that Enoch and Elias are not bodily yet in heauen but that their bodies were dissolued as well as the bodies of other though after an extraordinary maner I may ioine the testimonie of Doctor Downam For in his second booke of Antichrist chap. 6. page 59. though he doe not plainely affirme as much as the former Authors haue done yet he maketh it so doubtfull of their bodies yet being in heauen that a man may easily perceiue that he rather inclineth to the former writers then otherwise The obiections to the contrary are of no moment and be answered before Onely where it is said that Elias was carried vp in a whirlewinde into heauen first wee must vnderstand that some read this word heauen in the genitiâ—e case thus carried vp in a whirlewinde of heauen Secondly the word heauen in the scripture is often vsed for the aire or for all aboue the earth Let the foule flie vpon the earth in the open firmament of the heauen Gen. 1. 20. so the foules of the heauen verse 26. and in diuers other places And that it is so here to be taken it is the more probable because it is not to be thought but that Elias had other garments besides his mantle Except therefore his said other garments were carried vp into the high heauen we must grant that the word heauen doth only signify the aire in the which his body might as well waste as his other garments besides his mantle which fell from him did consume Some man perhaps may thinke all this discourse of Enoch and Elias to bee altogether idle and impertinent vnto my present treatise of the dignity of Gods children and a meere digression from the same But if it be well considered it maketh much for it as much amplifying the said dignity of Gods children For sith Enoch and Elias were so rare and excellent men for their times as the Scriptures
THE DIGNITIE of Gods children OR AN EXPOSITION OF 1. IOHN 3. 1. 2. 3. Plentifully shewing the comfortable happie and most blessed state of all Gods children and also on the contrarie the base fearefull and most wofull condition of all other that are not the children of GOD. PROV 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent then his neighbor but the way of the wicked will deceiue them IOHN 1. 12. 13. As manie as receiued him to them he gaue prerogatiue to be the sonnes of God euen to them that beleeue in his name Which are borne not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man but of God LONDON Printed by Thomas Haueland for Thomas Man and are to be sold at his shop in Paternoster Row at the signe of the Talbot 1610. TO THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY OF GREAT BRITAINE Grace and Peace RIGHT Honorable and right Worshipfull to you all and to euery one of you am I bold to present and dedicate this my treatise of the dignity of Gods children not so much searing the same to be offensiue to any of you either by the meannesse obscurity of my person or by the plaine and homely manner of writing thereof as hoping it will be acceptable to you all for the argument and subiect matter therein handled For to whom more fitly appertaineth the dedication of a treatise of the dignitie of the sonnes of the Psal 29. 1. Almighty in heauen then to those who are called the sonnes of the mighty in earth Although also it behooueth all well to consider and to make good vse of the whole treatise yet the same especially belongeth to all that are of highest honor and dignity in the world For to whomsoeuer much is giuen of Luk. 12. 48. him shall be much required And the more eminent that any are in place the more excellent ought the same to shew themselues in grace Our dread Soueraigne writing to his most princely Sonne by many golden sentences teacheth that as any 1. 〈◊〉 pag. 4. in dignity be erected aboue other so they ought in thankefulnesse towards God that hath aduanced them goe as far beyond all other and that the highnesse of any dignity doth not diminâ—sh but rather much increase the faults of such as are in such dignity The same also is grounded vpon the commandement of the Soueraign of all soueraignes euen of the mighty God and Lord of heauen and earth touching a greater sacrifice for the ruler of the people offending of ignorance then for a priuate person in like manner transgressing 〈◊〉 4. 22. â— â—7 Is not the same much more to be said of the ruler of the people that offendeth of knowledge As in these respects I was the bolder to dedicate these my labors to your Honors and Worships so not fearing any imputation of presumption I thought it more fit to dedicat the same to you all generally then to any one or to some few particularly that so none might think himselfe excluded and that euery one might accept them as dedicated to himselfe and so vouchsafe to read them the more diligently and to make the better vse of them according to his place The rather also did I take incouragement so to doe that yee especially might by these my labors the more cleerly see that without this dignity in this treatise set sorth and the right vse of the same all nobility honor and dignity in this world is of no value of no price of no account As age is a crowne of glory being found in the way of righteousnesse Prov. 16. 31. and no otherwise so may it be said of nobility and of all other dignities of the world The description of the sonnes of Nobles by eating in time for strength and not for drunkennesse this sobriety in eating and drinking for Eccles 10. 17. the rarenesse of it in great persons of the world being synecdochically put for all vertues This description I say of the sonnes of nobles doth plainly teach them only to be truly worthy of the said honorable title which by the foresaid vertue and all other accompanying the same do shew themselues to be the children of God Doth not the same Salomon also say without exception of any degree in the world that the righteous is more Prov. 12. 26. excellent then his neighbor Elsewhere also he preferreth not a great name but a good name aboue great riches and Prov. 22. 1. Ecces 7. 3. before precious ointment both which commonly are apurtenances and ornaments of nobility and other worldly dignity What is a good name but such a name as is gotten by doing of those things which belong to the children of God The former point is further euident by diuers reasons For all honor and dignity according to this world is only in this world But the dignity of being the sennes of the most High is also in heauen For ye shal afterward see in the treatise that the children of God doe sit with Christ Iesus in the heavenly places euen while they are here in the earth All worldly honors and dignities doe end with this life For as in the resurrection men shall neither marry wiues nor women shall be giuen in mariage so then Mat. 22. 30. there shall be neither Gentlemen nor Esquires nor Knights nor Barons nor any such degree of men but all shall be as one in Christ Iesus But the dignity of the children of God after this life is inlarged and in the resurrection shall be made greater then it was Euen then I say shall the dignity of adoption be increased when all worldly dignity shall be vtterly ceased As men are noble honorable or worshipfull in this world they are but in fauor with men but as they be the children of God they are in grace with God himselfe Worldly dignity doth but giue accesse to worldlie Princes but the dignity of adoption hath accesse with assurance of preuailing to the throne of him that is Lord of heauen and earth As here men are Dukes Marquesses Earles Vicounts Barons c. they haue but men to attend vpon them but the treatise following will shew that as any bee the children of God the glorious Angels of heauen do wait vpon them and continually guard them for their safety and further good As here men be in great place they haue but earthlie inheritances whereof they or theirs may be dispossessed and cleane disinherited But as they bee the children of God they haue an inheritance in heauen far passing all the kingdomes of the world and the which all the power of hell shall neuer take away Many other the like prerogatiues shall ye find in this treatise of the children of the Almighty in heauen far excelling the honors of the sons of the mighty in earth Of the which prerogatiues I do here giue you but this tast thereby the more to quicken your appetite and the better to incourage you to
vouchsafe the reading of those more largely handled and of many other contained in the treatise it selfe Pleaseth it your Honors and worships further to see the former point in the glasse of a few examples Behold then I beseech you Moses Ioshua Othniel Ehud Deborah Gideon I phtah Sampson and all the other good Iudges of Israel before the kingdome of Israel established For were they so honourable by being kings fellowes and hauing kingly authority as they were by doing those things which testified their adoption Behold Dauid and Salomon two mighty kings of al Israel with Asa Iehoshaphat Hezekiah and Iosiah all good Kings of Iuda For were these so honorable by being great and mighty princes as they were by being the children of God Behold Ester Mordecai Shadrach Meshach Abednego and Daniel For were they so honorable the one by being a Queene and the wife of a most mighty monarch that had 127. prouinces vnder him the other by beeing in great grace fauor with the like mighty monarchs as they were by shewing themselues the children of God Yea behold Cyrus Artashasht Darius and Ahasbuerosh all heathen Emperors For were they so honorable by being such Emperors though some of them had 127. pro. uinces vnder their gouernment as they were by doing some things for the Church and people of God whereby they did only resemble Gods children and were not so indeed May not the like be said of Iehu King of Israel For was he so honorable by being King of Israel extraordinarily annointed so to bee by the appointment of God as he was by his zeale though only temporary against Baal and his Priests and seruants Behold further Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus For were they so honorable in that the one was a rich man and an honerable Mat. 27. 17. Mark 15. 45. Ioh. 3. 1. 10. counsellor and the other a great Pharisee a ruler of the Iewes and a teacher in Israel as they were in that the one went to Pilat and begged the body of Iesus and the other ioined with him in the honorable buriall thereof Behold the Eunuch of Ethtopia For was he so honorable Actâ— 8. 27. by being the Queen of the Ethiopians chiefe gouernor and her Lord treasurer as hee was by comming out of his owne country a long a chargeable and a dangerous iourny to worship the Lord at Ierusalem by reading the scriptures as hee rode in his chariot whereas such great men for the most part spend such times in vaine sports or in some idle discourses and by his meeke acknowlegement of his ignorance of the Scripture which he did read by his courteous speech to Philip a poore trauelling footman neuer before nor after seen of him and by his like kind taking him vp into his chariot to himselfe to be further instructed by him and by his humble submitting himselfe to bee examined of his faith and to be baptized of him The like may bee said of many Christian Emperors Constantine and other of our late most noble King Edward the sixt and of our more late Queen Elizabeth of most happy and blessed memory To produce the examples of any Princes or nobles liuing would not perhaps bee so well approued as suspected of flatterie or some other sinister meaning What now right Honorable and right Worshipfull shall I say more As Noah said God perswade Iaphet that he may dwell in the tents of Shem so say I If any of Gâ—â—es 9. 27. you to whom I doe in all humilitie present and dedicate these my labours haue not yet receiued the spirit of adoption God perswade such to dwell in the tents of his such children as whose dignitie I doe in this treatise lay foorth as likewise to thinke it a woe vnto them to vemaine in Meshech and to dwell in the tents of Kedar Psal 120 5. The same God also of power maiestie and glory who hath the hearts of all Kings and Nobles and of all other great persons in his hand as the riuers of waters to turne the same whither it pleaseth him euen this God that Father of our Lord Iesus Christ so incline all your hearts Prov. â—1 1. both to consider of the reasons whereby the dignitie of his children is here declared and also to apply the vses of the doctrine thereof to your selues according to your seuerall states and places in this world that as some of you doe sometimes here in earth sit in Parliament with our most gratious Soueraigne King IAMES so yee may all at the last sit with Christ Iesus in heauen euen in his throne as himselfe sitteth Rev. 3. 21. in the throne of his Father and that for euer and euer Much Totham in Essex Aprill 16. 16 10. Your Honors and Worships Most humble in the Lord to be commanded THOMAS STOVGHTON To the inhabitants of those places where at any time especially last of all I haue had a setled MINISTERIE AS in this treatise I speake generally to euery Christian reader so now my deere brethren in the Lord that haue sometimes heard me preach these things which now I haue printed let me more particularly intreate you to vouchsafe the buying and reading of them because in the printing of them I haue had a speciall respect vnto your good I am not able to beslow vpon euery one of you one of these bookes of as small price as they be The most of you do know how truely I amy say with Naomi I was full but the Lord hath made mee emptie and the Almightie hath brought me vnto aduersitie Ruth 1. 21. euen in my latter age requiring most comfort I suppose also that my willing minde for a greater kindnesse is not doubted of by you if my ability were according If I were as I haue beene yet were it easier for the least of many of you to buy one then for me to giue many I shall not neede to tell you for further perswasion in this behalfe that the fruit of well and aduised reading this Treatise will abundantly recompence your cost Ye haue not so learned Christ in whom all of vs haue our adoption as so lightly to esteeme a treatise setting forth the excellencie of the said adoption neither I am sure haue yee forgotten that Esau is pronounced a prophane person for making more account of one portion of meate euen in his extremity of hunger then of his birthright Heb. 12. 17. a pledge and a kinde of Sacrament of this adoption For me also first to gather all these things together then to write afterwards to correct them and last of all to write them againe for the presse is much more then for to lay out a little money and to spend a few howers in reading of them In your loue therefore towards me accept them as a testimony of my vnseined loue towards you and of my like desire of your welfare in the Lord. Such of you as are best able I desire to buy and to
haue as it were broken foorth thorow all the clouds of ceremonies and other things whereby before it was obscured and so to haue shined more clecrelie and brightly now then euer before it did Tit. 2. 11. so God doth make himselfe knowen by this blessed sweet and gratious name of Father more now in the time of the Gospell then euer he did before This is the reason why the Apostle heere rather saith Behold what loue the Father hath giuen vnto vs c. then Behold what Ioue God hath giuen vnto vs And although the name God bee in the very next words vsed that wee should bee called the children of God yet this is only to teach vs that we are to consider and apprehend God not onely in his diuine Maâ—estie which consideration is enough to swallow vs vp and to make vs feare and tremble but also in the person of a Father and as hee is our Father Notwithstanding this that I haue hitherto said of this word the Father is not so to be restrained to the first person in the Godhead but that therein also is included the Sonne As in the former Chapter vers 22. 23. and 24. the Apostle had ioined them together making the deniall of the Sonne to be the deniall of the Father and the continu ince in the Sonne and in the Father to be all one And as our Sauiour himselfe doth the like saying that He that honoureth not the Sonne the same honoureth not the Father that hath sent him Ich. 5. 23. so in this place the word Father is not personally to be vnderstood but rather essentially as comprehending the Sonne as well as the Father Therefore as there it is said Behold what loue the Father hath giuen vnto vs that we should be called the Children of God so it is also said by the same spirit that directed the pen of this Apostle euen of the Sonne that he came to his owne and his owne receiued him nâ—t but as many as receiued him to them hee gane power to be made the children of God Iohn 1. 12. Therefore the spirit of God which is the immortall seed whereby we are begotten againe vnto God and made the children of God as afterward we shall heare Rom. 8. 9. c. and 1. Pet. 1. 11. and often elswhere is called the spirit of Christ as well as the spirit of the Father and therefore also Christ in that respect may be as well said to beget vs againe vnto God to make vs the children of God and to giue vs this loue that wee should be called the children of God as the Father and the first person in the Deitie To conclude this point as when we pray and say Our Father which art in heauen we direct our praiers immediately to the person of the Father by a kinde of excellencie because he is Principium Deitatis not in time but in order the beginning of the Deitie and yet in the Father we pray also to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost so in this place this word the Father is to be vnderstood as well of the Sonne as of the Father Theresore in the very next verse without any further expresse mention of the Sonne vsing only a relatiue and thereby making a relation to that before spoken in this verse the Apostle saith that we know that when hee shall appeare or be made manifest we shall be made like vâ—to him These words must needs bee vnderstood espâ—câ—ally of the Sonne because the Father shall not appeare or be made manifest but in the Sonne But so neere is the coniâ—â—ction or rather vnion betwixt the Father and the Sonne that heere and elswhere the holy Ghost meaneth both by vsing a continued speech of one for both Furthermore the addition of this word serueth to teach that we are not made the children of God by the gifts labour and industrie of any man or Angell but onely by God himselfe Therefore our Sauiour forbiddeth this name Father to bee attributed to any other then to God alone Call no man saith hee your Father vpon the earth for there is but one your Father which is in heauen Matth. 23. 9. The Apostle Paul according with our Sauiour saith there is one God and Father of vs all Ephes 46. and so by ioining these two words God and Father together and vniting them in one hee teacheth that it is as absurd in religion to say there are diuers fathers as to say there are diuers Gods and that we may as well say there are diuers Gods as diuers fathers Whereas the Apostle calleth himselfe the father of the Corinthians saying Though ye haue ten thousand instructers in Christ yet haue yee not many fathers for in Christ Iesus I haue begotten you through the Gospell 1. Cor. 4. 15. he speaketh of himselfe only as the instrument of God in their regeneration He derogateth nothing from God neither arrogateth that to himselfe that was proper to God but sheweth only that God had vsed him as his instrument of their first conuersion to him Therefore before he had sharphe rebuked them for saving I am Pauls I am Apollos his I am Cephas his and I am Christs Chap. 1. 12. And againe Who is Paul who is Apollos 〈◊〉 but the Ministers by whom ye beleeued and as the Lord gaue to euery man I haue planted Apollos watered but God gaue the increase 1. Cor. 3. 5. 6. Doe wee not heere plainly see that hee maketh God all in all in our regeneration So doth the Apostle Peter in the place before alleged 1. Pet. 1. 3. So doth the Apostle Iames not only generally saying of all good and perfect gifts that they come from the Father of lights but also adding immediately touching the worke of our regeneration Of his owne will begat he vs c. Iames 1. 17. 18. I might confirme this against Papists and also other Patrons of mans free will by many other testimonies and proue our regeneration to be wholly the worke of God by shewing euery part thereof in our soule and in our body to be attributed vnto God and by diuers other arguments but because I shall I trust doe this in another place and deale with this point againe in this Treatise afterward therefore this shall suffice thereof in this place And thus much also for the fourth particular word in this text The fift followeth hath giuen This word is added for two Hath giuen conâ—iderations The first is to preuent an obiection and to take away all conceit of our worthinesse of this honour of being Gods children and that no man might thinke God so to hâ—â—â— loued him for any goodnesse that was in him This I say hee preuenteth by shewing the manner of Gods loue in making vs his children It is indeed an vnproper phase to say that God or any other doth giue loue It is more apt to say that he sheweth loue and therefore some Translators have so turned this woâ—d in this place But
moued vpon the waters or sate vpon the waters and vpon the whole matter of all things before created euen as a bird sitteth vpon her egs to bring the said first matter into forme and fashion and so did immediatly execute that in the first creation which God the father had decreed and which God the sonne had spoken concerning the said creation so in our second creation and adoption God the father and God the sonne work not immediatly but by God the holy ghost The same holy ghost also is he by whom the comming of Christ into the world his death and other things he suffered euen the whole price which hee gaue of his actiue and passiue obedience for vs is applied vnto vs. Our Sauiour likewise attributeth our regeneration to the spirit as well as it is elsewhere ascribed to the father Except a man be borne of water and of the spirit c. That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that that is borne of the spirit is spirit c. and againe The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it commeth nor whither it goeth so is euery man that is borne of the spirit Ioh. 3. 5. 6. 7. 8. Yea the spirit of God seemeth to be that very immortall seed of our new birth whereof Peter speaketh 1. Pet. 1. 23. I know that other doe interpret the word to be that immortall seed there spoken of because it is said not of mortall but of immortall seede by the word Notwithstanding to me it seemeth otherwise because the Apostle changeth the first preposition of vsed in the first place into another viz. into by vsed in the second place in speaking of the word And therefore I doe rather thinke the word there to be noted as the instrument onely whereby that immortall seed of our new birth before spoken of is conueied into vs. This I say I doe the rather thinke because of the change of prepositions the Apostle not saving being borne anew not of mortall but immortall seed of the word but saying in this last clause by the word Yea I am and shall be the more fully perswaded of this interpretation to be the right till I shall heare or see better reason then I haue done for the former because of the places before alleged to proue our regeneration to be of the spirit of God as well as of the father and of the sonne and because the preposition of first vsed in that place of Peter is so constantly vsed in all the former places concerning the spirit viz. Ioh. 1. 13. and 3. vers 5. 6. and 8. I acknowledge the word to be called seed in respect of the fruits of righteousnesse Luk. 8. 11. but for the reasons before alleged I cannot yet thinke it to be there vnderstood for the seed of our regeneration any otherwise then it is the instrument of conueying the spirit of God into vs. Moreouer the spirit is called the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father that is whereby we call God our father and whereby we are called the children of God Yea it is further said that the same spirit beareth witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8. 15. 16. So then the holy ghost doth both immediatly beget vs to God and is also a witnesse of that our begetting again to God and of our being the children of God But I will stay no longer in this point To conclude therefore all the former arguments hitherto vsed for the dignity of Gods children sith they haue so honourable a father and sith their adoption is thus honored with the worke of all the three persons in the Deity and sith the originall cause of the said adoption is both the free loue of God the father in sending his owne and onely sonne and of the sonne in comming so willingly and submitting himselfe so cheerfully to so base a condition for the effecting of the said adoption and sith also he gaue so great a price for it it cannot be but the worke it selfe is very honorable Thus we see that they that be againe so regenerated of him and by him by whom they were at the first made haue obtained a new state and condition and are not as they were of the world worldly of the earth earthly and of flesh fleshly but of heauen heauenly of God the father of whom the whole family in heauen and in earth is named Ephes 3. 15. called his children of Christ denominated Christians Acts 19. 26. and of the spirit said to be spirituall 1. Cor. 2. 15. So they are not only humane by the humane nature but also diuine by participation of the diuine nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. not touching their substance but touching diuine qualities and operations Such therefore and only such may truly speake of nobility For only they may most truly say they are borne of God as we haue seen before chap. 2. 29. and as the Apostle speaketh afterward chap. 4. 7. And they onely may most truly also say further that they are the generation of God Acts 17. 28. and that in such maner as that thereby they are citizens of heauen and inhabitants together with the glorious Angels as afterward we shall heare more at large In respect of this nobility and without this all other nobility is nothing in Gods sight Yea that which our Sauior speaketh of the Iewes particularly may be said generally of al that are not the children of God They do the works of their father the diuell and the lusts of their father they will doe Iohn 8. 41. 44. Not much vnlike also is that description of the King that is the sonne of nobles that eat in time for strength and not for drunkennesse Eccles 10. 17. For what doth Salomon by this description teach els but that such kings are most renowned and noble which doe adorne their kingly descent with true piety and sobriety And though Salomon speake but of eating in time for strength and not for drunkennesse yet by this one vertue hee meaneth all other And of this vertue he maketh choice aboue other because it is in a manner the rarest of all other especially in kings It is hard to find any man that hath abundance to be sober and moderate in the vse of meats drinke and to eat both only in time and also for strength not for excesse and pleasure I may also apply to this purpose that which is said by the Prophet which confoundeth them that are excellent or noble in the earth with the Saints and the Saints with them Psal 16. 3. thereby teaching that the Saints onely haue the best excellency and nobility and that none may rightly be called excellent or noble but such as are Saints And indeed seeing all that are not sanctified cannot but be of the diuell as doing his works what greater basenesse vilenesse and ignobility can there be then to be such Seeing
therefore these things are so who seeth not but that the state of Gods children is much dignified thereby For who doth not highly account of nobility what striuing what labouring sometime also what offering and paying is there for it For it For what Euen for names and titles of nobility which earthly Princes haue in their power to bestow what striuing then what laboring and what praying in stead of paying ought there to be for that nobility which only commeth from the God of heauen and earth Nobles here of the world sit with Princes of the world in their Parliaments to make lawes for the gouernment of other But it is better to receiue lawes from God then to make lawes for men and it is much better for a man to gouerne himselfe then without that to prescribe and giue lawes for the gouernment of other Last of all we shall heare afterward that the least of Gods children shall sit in greater place with Christ Iesus euen to iudge the world in his heauenly Parliament then the greatest nobles that euer were in the earth did euer sit with any earthly Prince in their earthly parliaments Thus much for this point CHAP. VII Of the excellent instruments that God vseth in the work of our regeneration viz. the minister of the word and the word it selfe HAuing hitherto spoken of the excellency of the authors of our regeneration and of the principall motiues of them thereunto c. let vs in the next place consider what instruments the sayd authours haue vsed to effect our regeneration This point I will dispatch very briefly that I may the more hasten to other things Touching this therefore though God himselfe I meane Father Sonne and holy ghost bee the onely authors of our regeneration yet we heard before that men are the instruments of God whereby the immortall seed of our new birth is conueied vnto vs for the effecting of our sayd new birth These are chiefly the ministers of the word touching whome as wee haue heard the Apostle saith that some plant and other water but that God giueth increase so hee also saith of himselfe and all other that they are labourers together with God Now touching the ministers of the word especially of the gospell it is said for their commendation and honour How beautiful are the feete of them that bring glad tidings of peace c. Rom. 10. 15. out of Isa 52. 7. Where the word of admiration how is to be noted as teaching as before hath beene insinuated chap. 2. that indeede the calling of the ministers is more honorable then well can be expressed The synecdoche also of their feete put for their whole man importeth that if the feete of them that bring glad tidings bee so beautifull how much more beautifull should their faces be For what doth the glad tidings of peace there meane but the preaching of the Gospell which is the doctrine of our reconciliation to God and of our peace made with God by Iesus Christ by whom it pleased the Father to reconcile all things vnto himselfe and to set at peace through the bloud of his Crosse both the things in earth and the things in heauen Col. 1. 20. that is both the elect liuing stil vpon the earth and also elect whose soules before that time had beene translated into heauen For as touching the Angels of heauen what neede they any reconciliation or how could they be reconciled that neuer had offended God or were alienated from him Therefore the gospell is called the ministerie of reconciliation 2. Cor. 5. 18 and the word of reconciliation verse 19. It is also called the Gospell of peace Ephes 2. 15. As the ministery of the Law may be called the ministery of wrath because it discouereth our sinnes whereby we deserue the wrath of God and so it testifieth the wrath of God in which respect Iosias at the finding of the book of the Law that had bin long hid is sayd to haue rent his clothes 2. Kings 22. 11. as perceiuing thereby the transgressions of the people and the wrath of God hanging ouer their heads for the same as I say the Law in that respect may ie called the ministery of wrath because it testifieth and sheweth the wrath of God prouoked by mens sinnes against the Law so the gospell may be and is called the gospell or the glad tidings of peace not only because it maketh peace here below betwixt man and man betwixt man and other creatures Isa 11. 6. c. and in man Note likewise towards God making them as meeke as lambes that were before as fierce as Lions Tigers but also because it testifieth God to be at peace by Iesus Christ with mē In this respect therfore wel might the Apostle wel might the Prophet say in commendation of the ministers of the gospell How beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of saluation And if their feet are to be thought so beautifull much more their faces The face of Moses hauing receiued that law that is as wee heard the ministery of wrath was so beautiful and did so shine that the people could not indure the sight thereof Exod. 34. 30. Wherefore did the Lord put such glory vpon the very face of Moses was it not to make him in respect of his ministery the more honorable with the people What then is to be said of the ministers of the Gospell in the former respect Before the comming of Christ prophets that were sent to call men to repentance the first step of the children of God and the beginning of their regeneration prophets I say so sent to call men to repentance by denouncing the iudgments of God against them were so honorable that both God himselfe ioyned the regard of them with the regard of kings saying Touch not mine anointed and doe my prophets no harme Psal 105. 15. and also that kings were glad of their company for the honoring of them before their people 1. Sam. 15. 3. And therfore they accounted them as their fathers 2. Kings 6. 21. and 13. 14. yea wicked kings did so account of them as appeareth by the two former places speaking of the kings of Israel who after the falling away of the ten tribes from the house of Dauid were all euill In the time of our Sauiour such Prophets beeing in some sort ceassed Iohn Baptist raysed vp betwixt such prophets and Euangelicall ministers is commended by our Sauiour in this manner What went ye out into the wildernes to see A reed shaken with the wind but what went ye out to see a man clothed in soft raiment Behold they that we are soft clothing that is such as flant ruffle it out in silkes veluets and be georgeously aparrelled are in Kings houses But what went ye out to see A Prophet yea I say vnto you and more then a Prophet c. So our Sauiour magnifieth Iohn Baptist not onely aboue gallant and gorgeous
is to be found The silly Cock doth sometimes find an earthly pearle of great price in an earthly dunghill and a foole may as soone as a wise man find a great iewell in the mire of the street but this heauenly pearle and iewell of loue whereby we doe most resemble God and shew our selues to be borne of him 1. Ioh. 4. 7. and whereby all men doe know vs to be the disciples of Christ Ioh. 13. 35. This I say is not to be found in the dunghill and myry heart of naturall and vnregenerate men that are only of the earth earthly It is only to be found in the children of God that are borne from aboue and by their regeneration are from heauen heauenly as he is into whom they are incorporated whose hearts are sanctified by the word Ioh. 17. 17. and purified by faith Acts 15. 9. as before we haue heard Thus much of the loue of God and men peculiar only to the children of God and so consequently of the further dignity of the said children of God thereby CHAP. XIII Of a further degree of the freedome of Gods children THus we haue heard of the precious freedome of Gods children in that they are not only discharged from the seruitude of sinne but are also made the seruants of God and may serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse from whence it commeth that they are sober watchfull and louing as before we haue heard There remaineth yet a further degree of the said liberty and freedome of Gods children as one special part as it were of the matter of their new birth and as one speciall point wherein as well as in other things consisteth their being as they are the children of God This is that besides that before mentioned they are also enfranchized and made free of a most excellent of a rich and of a glorious city euen of the heauenly Ierusalem wherof many glorious things are spoken in many places of the scripture as the Prophet speaketh of the old Ierusalem in the same respect viz. as it was the Church of God Psal 87. 3. especially in the 21. Chapter of the Reuelation where it is most excellently and diuinely described not only as it is in heauen with God and in the presence of God and of his holy Angels but also as yet it is and shall be vpon earth Of this excellent and glorious city are all the chilldren of God made free beeing released from their naturall seruitude and bondage vnto sinne This freedom of the new Ierusalem seemeth to be noted by the Apostle to the Hebrews where after the opposition of many and diuers things whereunto they were not come as vnto the mount that might not be touched to the burning fire to blacknesse and darknesse and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words c. by all which hee meaneth their deliuerance from the Lawe which consisted in the letter not in the spirit then hee addeth that they were come vnto the mount Sion and to the city of the liuing God the celestiall Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the assembly and congregation of the new borne which are written in heauen and to God the iudge of all and to the spirits of iust and perfect men and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament and to the bloud of sprinkling which speaketh better things then that of Abel Heb. 12. 22. c. This is a most pregnant and noble testimony not only setting forth the excellency of that City whereof all the children of God are made free but many other points also before more largely handled To speake yet a little more of this freedom As apprentices that serue in Cities in London Canterbury Yorke Norwich and other when they haue serued a certaine time according to the custome and order of such Cities or other townes corporate then they are not only released from their seruice but they are also themselues made free of the Cities and do enioy diuers priuileges and benefits belonging to such Cities so they that are released from the bondage of sinne and satan are made free also of the heauenly Ierusalem before spoken of and do enioy the priuiledges and benefits thereof such as do not belong to any forrainers but are proper only to the children of God and to those that are discharged of their masters whom by nature they serued Yet here this difference is not to be forgotten betwixt the priuileges of this heauenly City and the priuileges of all earthly cities For the priuileges of earthly cities are intended towards such as haue serued their times in some trade or other as rewards of their said seruice supposed faithfully to haue been performed by such seruants but the priuileges of the heauenly city now spoken of are no rewards of our seruice to sinne and satan for the reward or wages thereof is nothing but death Rom. 6. 23. but only benefits belonging to the children of God only of Gods free grace and goodnesse yet the more to comfort them against their former hard seruice of sinne and against the daily reliques of sinne in them and the manifold stormes and tempestâ— whereuâ—to by the meanes thereof they are subiect Now the more excellent this heauenly city is the greater needs must be the benefits and priuiledges belonging thereunto and therefore also the greater benefit is the freedome thereof The freedome of Rome was wont to be so highly esteemed Note that Claudius Lysias a chiefe captaine for the Romans at Ierusalem acknowledged that freedome to haue cost him a great summe Acts 22. 28. Paul also himselfe being free borne of that city pleadeth his said freedome in that behalfe against those iniuries that were offered vnto him vers 25. and so by pleading thereof he found the more fauor at least they feared the more to wrong him as they had done The freedom of many Cities in this land especially of London and of the â—inque ports in Kent is such that many great men are content both that their sonnes being of good yeers and growth shall serue seuen eight or nine yeeres yea and to giue likewise good summes of mony right out with them that they may haue the benefit of the freedome after their time expired and also to procure the said freedome for themselues in diuers respects What then is the freedome of this heauenly Ierusalem whereof now we speake and for which Christ hath giuen a greater price then all the cities in the world yea then ten thousand such worlds are worth Truly it is this that whereas we are here pilgrims and strangers 1. Pet. 2. 11. yet beeing free of the heauenly Ierusalem wee haue our conuersation in heauen Philip. 3. 20. that is that we behaue our selues as citizens of heauen liue according to the lawes which we haue from heauen and do that which we doe as cheerfully and willingly as the Angels in heauen Is this all No we haue liberty
also to trade for heauenly wares yea necessity lieth vpon vs and we are bound and as it were by our baptisme the seale of Gods couenant sworne so to doe at our enrolment yea daily wee may and we ought to trade euen for heauen it selfe As many free of London by vertue of their said freedome do trade in other countries for such commodities as will be most vendible in London and for the most benefit either of Londoners themselues or of such as resort to London so is it with all the children of God that being released from their seruice of sinne are made free men of heauen For by this their freedome they may trade and do trade for heauen and for the daily increase of that heauenly stock which in their regeneration their heauenly father doth giue them to occupy withall and wherwith as it were to begin the new world euen the world to come whiles they liue as strangers in this present world From heauen and from the father of lights in heauen commeth euery good and perfect gift Iames 1. 17. And this father of lights being sole and absolute gouernour of heauen and earth will not admit any to trade for any merchandise of his chiefe city heauen but only such as can as it were shew by their Indentures that they are freed from their seruice and that they had their names also enrolled in heauen book If they can shew this they shall be suffered to trade for any merchandise of the city yea they shall be sure neuer to be bankrupts but that they shall gaine well for themselues and their Ioh. 7. 37. but of this afterward This freedome is such that there is none so poore but may occupy frankly for he may haue the best commodities of the city freely and for nothing Isai 55. 1. This freedome is the greater because the commodities of that city are better then all other and no where else to be had According to the worth of any commodities of any country so is the freedome for trading to such countries esteemed especially if such commodities be not to be found in other countries This freedome is such that as free men of London haue certaine priuileges as well out of London as in London euen wheresoeuer they dwell so likewise haue all that are free of heauen whatsoeuer part of the earth they do inhabit By this freedome all partaker thereof haue this singular benefit be they neuer so poore that if any man how mighty soeuer do them any wrong especially by infringing their liberties any way they may haue their action against him in the Court of heauen where they shall haue a good aduocate Christ Iesus the righteous 1. Ioh 2. 1. where they shall be at no costs of suit and where they shall be sure to haue so good audience so vpright iustice and so large dammages against the defendant that hath wronged them yea against any aduersary that he shall neuer be able to satisfie the same but shall be forced to lie by it for euer except the submit himselfe and be reconciled Mat. 5. 24. 25. For shall not God auenge his elect which crie day and night vnto him yea though he suffer long for them I teâ—l you saith Christ he will auenge them quickly Luk. 18. 7. 8. Is not this a great priuilege for poore men to haue such iustice against their mighty aduersaries and to haue it speedily without such delaies as are often too vsuall in the courts of earthly Iudges vpon earth Lastly this freedome is such that it can neuer be lost it can neuer be forfeited No man can euer put vs by it No man yea no pâ—weâ—â—â—â— all the power of hell As the sonne himselfe that maketh vs free â—oh 8. â—6 〈◊〉 for euer Hob. 1â— 8. As the truth whereby he maketh vs free Ioh. 8. â—2 abideth for euer Psal 19. 9. As the spirit by whom our names are enrolled in the book of heauen and we are sealed to be made free Ephâ—s 4. 3â— is an eternall spirit Heb. 9. 14. As the city whereof we are made free is not as earthly cities subiect to conquests to fire to mundations of seas or other waters or to any desolation but is an abiding continuing city Heb. 13. 14. and an euerlasting habitation Luk. 16. 9. so whosoeuer is once free of this city shal be free for euer this freedome is an euerlasting freedom Heb. 9. 12. But touching all earthly freedomes they may be lost either by too long absence or by not paiment of some yeerly summe of mony or by not obseruing some other rites and customes of the cities whereof such freedoms are or else they that haue such earthly freedoms may be so imprisoned in their own country or so captiued abroad or so by sicknesse deteined in their own house or otherwise in such condition that although they haue their freedome yet they shall not be the better thereby yea neither the children of any Princes nor any Princes themselues are so free but that they may come iâ—to captiuity and bondage But the children of God once made free are free for euer in all countries in all conditions in prosperity in aduersity in wealth in pouerty in prison out of prison in health in sicknesse yong or old vnder the tuition of other or at their own hands in life and in the houre of death Yea they alwaies haue the benefit of this freedome and liberty and may as well trade for the commodities of heauen in one condition as in another Oh who would not haue such a freedome How sweet how pretious and how honorable ought the name of this freedome to be And how great how ample and how excellent is the dignity of Gods children in respect of this freedome CHAP. XIIII Of true hope proper onely to the children of God and therefore much making for their further dignity and of some speciall points belonging to all before said of their life wisedome c. ONe thing yet remaineth concerning the matter of being the children of God This is true hope of all things promised either for this life or for the life to come And although this hope be the daughter and companion of faith yet I haue reserued my speech therof till this place because it ariseth from all the former points of the matter of our new birth and because it doth support and nourish them by the obiect thereof as the oile maintaineth and nourisheth the fire in the lampe Although also Peter saith that we are regenerated or begotten againe to this hope 1. Pet. 1. 3. and so doth seem to make this hope the end of our regeneration yet because it is wrought in vs as soone as the former things therefore I may without any absurdity here speake of it also as one of those things wherein our being the children of God doth consist This hope agreeth with faith in that it hath the same author is wrought and increased by the same meanes is in the same
subiect and continueth the same time but herein it differeth that the obiect of faith is the whole word of God but the obiect of hope is only the promises in the word By faith we beleeue all things written in the word of things past present and to come as hath been said in chap. 8. But by hope we â—â—e expect and looke for onely those things that are in the word promised to be performed her easter either generally concerning the Church or particularly concerning our selues So all the good promised hereafter to be performed is beleeued by faith and expected or looked for by hope Euery truth therfore of God reuealed in his word written is the obiect of faith For by faith we beleeue the word touching the creation of the world by the word Heb. 11. 3. but hope hath only relation to the promises of God Therefore the Apostle exhorting the Hebrews to keepe the profession of their hope without wauering confirmeth the same by the faithfulnesse of him that hath promised Heb. 10. 23. So he restraineth hope only to the promises of God As by faith we beleeue as well the promises of this life as of the life to come and therefore the iust man doth liue by his faith as well touching this life as touching the life to come so by hope we doe expect or looke for the performance as well of the promises of this life as of the life to come Notwithstanding as the things of the life to come are the principallest obiect of faith so also be they of hope This hope is as proper to the children of God as faith it selfe because it is an handmaid only of faith looking only for the performance of those things which faith beleeueth shall be performed Therefore it is ioined with faith 1. Cor. 13. 13. T it 1. 1. 2. 1. Pet 1. 21. and Iude 20. and 21. Therefore also these words Faith and hope to beleeue and hope are often confounded and are vsed one for another This faith and hope are immortall they shall neuer perish The seed of saith is immortall Christ Iesus the obiect of faith is the sâ—me yesterday to day and for cuer By faith we ouercome all things and all things are possible vnto vs. How then can faith decav By faith â—e are also kept vnto saluation 1. Pet. 1. 5. How then can faith itselfe perish It faith perish whereby we are kept vnto saluation where is our safety Peter proueth faith o be better then gold because gold perisheth though it be neuer so well tried and refined in the fire 1. Pet. 1. 7. How is this argument good if faith may perish as well as gold If faith do thus continue then also doth hope for these are twinnes borne together liuing together and lasting one as long as the other The hope therefore of Gods children shall neuer be frustrated it shall not be confounded Those things that proue the perpetuity of faith proue also the perpetuity of hope The same is also euident by the attribute liuing wherby Peter deseribeth the hope of them that be begotten againe 1. Pet. 1. 3. Paul saith it maketh not ashamed Rom. 5. 5. Salomon saith The patient abiding that is the hope of the righteous shall be gladnesse Pro. 10. 28 In this place and in that of Peter let it be obserued that hope is limited only to them that are begotten againe and to the righteous This is the more because we are as often taught that the hope of the wicked shall perish When Salomon had said in that place before alleged The hope of the righteous shall be gladnesse presently he addeth but the hope of the wicked shall perish Bildad saith that As the rush cannot grow without mire or moisture so the hypocrites hope shall perish Iob 8. 13. Zophar saith The eye of the wicked shall faile and their refuge shall perish and their hope shall be sorrow of mind Iob 11. 20. The Psalmist saith The desire of the wicked shall perish Psal 112. 10. If their desire shall perish can their hope continue Who doth not desire that which he hopeth for Salomon saith againe when a wicked man dieâ—h his hope perisheth and the hope of the vniust shall perish Pro 11. 7. Examples hereof are many How vaine was the hope of the mother of Sisera and of her wise laâ—â—es touching the safe returne of Sisera with great so â—ile Iudg 5. 28. How was the great boasting hope of great Goliah decerued 1. Sam. 17. 44. The like may be said of Ahâ—b touching good successe against Ramoâ—h Gilead 1. Kings 22. 6. and of the hope of Saneherib touching the like successe against Ierusalem 2. Kings 18 28. So also of the hope generally of all Papists and particularly both of the Spaniards in the yeer 15 88 and also of many of our own Papists here at home here to fore and of late in the powder treason and of many other What an excellent priuilege then is this of the children of God that their hope grounded vpon God word for things either of this life or of the life to come shall not be frustrated but certainly accomplished yea that we may be the better assured that our hope shall not deceiue vs it is called the helmet of saluation 1. â— hes 5. 8. whereby we are taught that as the helmet or an head peace defeÌ„deth the head from all wounds so likewise hope is a principall part of the spirituall armor for the defence of a spirituall man from spirituall dangers and for keeping him from despaire of saluation If hope bee a speciall preseruatiue against despaire of saluation then also must it be against despaire of things promised for the comfort of this life Feare not little flocke saith our Sauiour it is your Fathers pleasure to giue you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. By the assurance therefore of a kingdome hee strengthneth them against all feare of want of things for this life Can we rightly hope that God will giue the greater and doubt or feare that he will not giue the lesse viz. the things of this life yea therefore hope is compared to a sure and sted fast ancre of the soule fastened to that which is with in the vaile Heb. 6. 19. This is a sweete and most comfortable comparison viz. of hope not to an ancre only but to a sure ancre to a stedfast ancre not fastened in the bottome of the sea in sand or in any earth but in heauen euen in God himselfe or in Christ Iesus more firm then any rocke How soeuer therefore the children of God be here as it were vpon the midst of the seas tossed with mighty stormes and tempests yet as a ship by a strong ancre with a cable sutable well fastened is the more safe in great stormes and tempests so according to the words of the same Apostle in the same place verse 18. the children of God by their hope well fixed and fastened vpon the things especially within the
not this then a great dignity For this is one of the specialest promises that God hath made vnto his people namely that he will set his tabernacle among them and that his soule shall not loath them that also he will walke among them c. Leuit. 26. 11. 12. So then they with whom God hath such communion as to set his tabernacle among them and dwell with them may assure themselues that God will neuer loath them nor leaue them Yea we doe thereby further see that he promiseth not only his presence but also his gratious presence by his power to vphold them by his grace to direct them and by his goodnesse to giue them euery good thing For hee is greater then all Ioh. 10. 29. both in power and wisedome Who therefore can destroy or hurt them whom he will preserue In a strange country and in places of danger oh how great a comfort is it to haue some companie In such a place the truth of that is most apparant that Two are better then one because if they fall the one will lift vp his fellow Eccles 4. 9. 10. But alas what is all the company of man in respect of the society of God They that haue God so with them may truly say If God be with vs who can be or what skilleth it who be against vs God is light and in him is no darknesse 1. Ioh. 1. 5. If therefore we haue him alwaies with vs we shall be sure of light whereby so to see our waies that we may not erre Yea God is the father of lights from whom commeth euery good and perfect gift Iames 1. 17. Therefore they that haue him their shepheard may assure themselues they shall want nothing but that he will make them to rest in green pastures and lead them by the still waters of life restoring their soules and guiding them into the paths of righteousnesse Psal 23. 1. c. Yea they that haue thus God their shepheard shall be sure not only of green pastures and water but also that he will giue them that wine and milke and bread c. whereby their soules may liue and be made fat to eternall life Isai 55. 1. 2. What a priuiledge is this It is a great prerogatiue of the children of God to be garded by an Angel as afterward wee shall heare But alas smal cōfort is there in the presence of an Angel if God himselfe be not with vs. When the Israelites had so offended God and prouoked his wrath against them by making a molten calfe that he denied to go himselfe with them vnto the land which he had promised them and yet at the praier of Moses was content to send an Angell before them to cast out the Canaanites the Amerites the Hittites c. How I pray you did they take this It is said that when they heard this tidings they sorrowed and no man put on his best raiment Exod. 33. 1. c. There is therefore no comfort in the presence of any creature whatsoeuer if God himselfe be not graciously present with the eies of his fauour to behold them and their slate with the eares of his grace to heare their crie Psal 34. 15. and with the right hand of his power to support them Psal 144. 7. and to fill them with good things Psal 104. 28. and 145 16. Therefore Moses himselfe in the three and thirtith of Exodus before alledged vpon Gods deniall of his going in person with the Israelites offering notwithstanding to send an Angell before them Moses himselfe I say reasoneth the case with God in these words saying Wherein shall it be knowen that I and thy people haue found fauour in thy sight Shall it not be when thou goest with vs So I and thy people shall haue preheminence before all the people that are vpon the earth vers 16. As the former sorrowing of the people in the beginning of the Chapter sheweth how heauy a thing it is to want Gods companie though we haue the company of Angels so what can be more plainly spoken then these words of Moses to shew how great preheminence there is in that gratious presence of God wherof now we speake This priuiledge is the more because as all the points before handled so this is both common to all the children of God and also peculiar to them only For it is apropriated to them that are elected called instified and which shall be glorified Rom. 8. 31. and therefore before our calling as wee haue heard we are said to be without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. and it is before obserued that the promise of Gods dwelling with men and making them his tabernacles and temple is ioined with another of making them also his sonnes and his daughters 2. Cor. 6. 18. as noting that it is both common to them all and also proper to them only Therefore the wicked haue no more part in this priuiledge then in the former As the children of God may say that when they are alone they are not alone because God euen the fafather sonne and holy ghost is alwaies with them so whatsoeuer company else the wicked haue yet they may truly say they are alone because God euen the father Sonne and holy Ghost is absent from them As God is infinit and filleth all places so he cannot but be wheresoeuer the wicked are But cold is the comfort of this his presence only For if their eies were opened to see him they should see him no otherwise then Dauid saw the Angell of the Lord between the earth and the heauen with his sword drawen in his hand and stretched out toward Ierusalem 1. Chron. 21. 16. What to do had the Angell of the Lord his hand so stretched out toward Ierusalem euen to destroy it 2. Sam. 24. 16. Neither any otherwise should the wicked see the Lord to be present if their eies were opened then Balaams Asse saw also the same or another Angell of the Lord stand in the way and a sword drawn in his hand at the sight whereof the Asse being stricken with feare flung the first time out of the way into the field and the second time dasnt her masters foot against the wall and the third time lay down vnder him not daring to go in the way Numb 22. 23. Thus I say and no otherwise should the wicked see the Lord present with them not to do them any good but to be reuenged of them for all their wickednesse Thereby they should be so filled and possessed with feare that they should be ready to fly if it were possible and to run away from his presence But whither should they flie from his presence If they should ascend into heauen be is there If they should goe down into hell or make their bed in the graue hee is there If they should take the wings of the morning and dwell in the vttermost parts of the sea yet thither should his hand follow them and
his mercy towards them that feare him As farre as the East is from the west so far hath he remooued our sins from vs. Ps 103. 11. 12. As therefore the heaueÌ„ and the earth shall neuer come together and as the East and the West shall neuer meete so the pardon of sinnes once graunted by the Lord to his children shall neuer be reuoked called backe The same is more plainly testified in the prophecy of Ieremie If the heauens can be measured or the foundations of the earth be searched on beneath then will I cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they haue done saith the Lord Ier. 31. 37. The first of these things is impossible to wit the measuring of the heauens and searching of the bottome of the earth therefore also impossible is the second viz. that the Lord should cast off his people and children for their sinnes Can a woman saith the Lord also forget her child and not haue compassion on the sonne of her wombe note that hee vseth the singular number to teach that he compareth him not to a woman that hath many children but to a woman that hath but one child and that a sonne Though they should forget yet will I not forget them Bebold I haue grauen thee vpon the palmes of my hands thy walles are euer before me or in my sight Isai 44. 15. 16. Is this only spoken of the whole body of the Church No It is also to be vnderstood of euery part and member thereof especially of them that by regeneration are indeed made the children of God as here we speake and for their sakes only and no otherwise of the body of the visible Church The same is yet further testified Isai 63. 16. Doubtlesse thou art our father Though Abraham be ignorant of vs and Israel know vs not that is though if these were liuing they would perhaps renounce vs and cast vs off as hauing transgressed their precepts and not walked in the steps of their faith yet thou O lord â—â—t our father and our redeemer thy name is for euer that is hough our sinnes be great and many whereby we haue proâ—oked thee and haue made our selues vnworthy to be called thy â—hildren Luk. 15. 21. yet thou hast pardoned our transgressiâ—n and so redeemed vs that thou wilt still continue thy merâ—y towards vs. The same did Samuel teach the Israelites when they feared â—eath because of their sinne in asking a King besides all their other sinnes Feare not saith he The Lord will not forsake his people for â—â—s great names sake because it hath pleased him to make you his â—â—ople 1. Sam. 12. 72. If the Lord for his names sake will not forâ—â—ke his people then for his names sake also the Lord will not euoke any pardon of sinnes once granted by him to his children regenerated What an happy state and condition therefore is this of the children of God so to haue all their great and manifold iniquities pardoned that none of them shall euer be laid to their charge as it is written Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods chosen whom before in the same Chapter he had called Gods children It is God that iustifieth Rom. 8. 9. Therefore Iob being assured that God would so iustifie him and pardon all his sinnes triumphantly saith Who is he that will pleade with me Iob 13. 19. I might further amplifie this benefit of forgiuenesse of sinnes because the Lord therein hath passed ouer the Angells that haue forsaken their standing and vouchsafed this grace onely to his children adopted amongst men But because I haue had the like argument before therefore it shall not now be needfull to repeat the same Thus much of this point touching the forgiuenesse of sinnes proper only to the children of God and therefore also of their greater dignity thereby CHAP. XVIII Of the dying more and more of the children of God vnto sinne and of their preseruation from many great sinnes which the wicked doe daily commit and of their liuing more and more to righteousnesse NExt to the forgiuenesse of sinnes let vs further consider that as before we heard concerning the matter wherein consisteth the being of the children of God they were restored from the death of sinne to the life of righteousnesse so being thus altred and changed they neither go backward neither stand at a stay but doe daily die more and more vnto sinne and doe daily likewise liue more and more vnto righteousnesse And thus to proceed from the forgiuenesse of sinnes to these things is the method of the holy ghost in the scriptures For Dauid doth not only pray to be clensed from secret faults that is to haue such sinnes pardoned vnto him and therefore much more to be pardoned of his open sinnes but also that hee might bee kept from presumptuous sinnes Psal 19 12. 13. Our Sauiour also teacheth to pray not onely for forgiuenesse of sinnes but also not to bee led into tentation and to bee deliuered from euill Mat. 6. 12. 13. Therefore the Apostle Peter preacheth repentance and forgiuenes of sinnes together Acts 2. 38 Touching this present point as before we heard the children of God by their incorporation into Christ in their new birth to be reuiued again and made aliue to God in true knowledge and wisedome and in true holines and righteousnesse so now let vs vnderstand that the longer the said children of God continue so incorporated into Christ the more sap and vertue they receiue from him and that therefore that which is natural in them doth more and more decay and that that is of grace and by the new birth of the spirit doth more and more grow and encrease So it is with plantes grafted into any stocke the longer they continue in the stocke the more they are incorporated therinto and the more they thriue and grow and beare fruit First therefore for dying more and more vnto sinne or for the dying more and more of sinne in vs this phrase may seem somwhat harsh strange because in natural things that that is once dead indeed cannot properly be sayd to die any more There cannot bee a continuall dying or a dying by piece-meales but where there is a remnant of life To this I answer first that euen in naturall things that may be said to be killed that receiueth such a deadly wound that from the day of receiuing thereof it neuer thriueth or ioyeth as we speake but pineth wasteth away euery day more and more till it perish So both man and also vnreasonable creatures vpon some wounds giuen them by other creatures or taken by their owne vntulines doe many times consume vnto death it selfe So many trees being either blasted aboue or canker-eaten in the midst or hauing the strings of their rootes cut beneath do from that day wither till they bee altogether dead aboue in the midst and beneath Secondly let vs remember the comparison vsed before chap 8. of sinnes
state O singular priuiledge O honorable condition The wicked indeed make great mirth They laugh and shout in the midst of their wickednesse that all the place where they are rings of them But alas miserable men this is but painted ioy It is but like the cracking of thornes c. But of this more afterward And againe as touching ioy in any good thing they are so far from it that to heare any thing that way is a death vnto them yea when they are vrged by christian authority to do any thing that good is they do it so against the haire so murmuringly so grudgingly with such griefe moiling and fretting that their said worke is altogether abominable in the sight of God For if God loueth a cheerefull giuer or doer of any thing 2. Cor. 9. 7. then he must needs hate and abhor him that giueth or doeth any thing vnwillingly and grudgingly Thus much for this matter CHAP. XIX Of the dignity of Gods children by the word as it is a rule of faith and life and a speciall part of our christian armor IN the next place let vs consider the benefit of the children of God by the word and Sacraments The word indeed seemeth to be common to the wicked and to Gods children Notwithstanding it is effectuall to saluation only in the children of God If our Gospell be hid saith the Apostle it is hid to them that perish 2. Cor. 4. 3. As whatsoeuer euill we haue we haue it by Adam so whatsoeuer good we haue we haue it by Christ Therefore by Christ we enioy the benefit of the word which is likewise the more euident because by Adam and in Adam we were without the word Ephes 2. 12. They therefore that haue not Christ cannot claime any benefit by the word or any interest into the word Now although the word be the meanes of dying more and more vnto sinne as also of growing more and more in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ 2. Pet. 3. 18. yet because I haue spoken of the word before as of that mighty instrument whereby God beginneth our regeneration at the first and because that before spoken in that behalfe may be vnderstood of the word as a meanes of the things handled in the last former Chapter therefore I will not so speake of it here but in other considerations viz. first as it is a perfect rule of faith and manners containing all things necessary to saluation either to be known and beleeued or to be done and practised Secondly as it is a principall part of that christian armor whereby the children of God are to defend themselues against the enemies of their saluation Thirdly as it is their speciallest consolation and comfort in any affliction Concerning the word as it is a rule of faith and of life or manners two things are to be noted first the perfection of it secondly the perpetuity of it The perfection thereof is expresly commended and prooued by diuers effects viz. the conuersion of the soule the giuing wisedome to the simple c. The law of the Lord is perfect conuerting or restoring the soule c. Psal 19. 7. c. We are also forbidden either to adde any thing thereunto or to detract any thing therefrom Deut. 4. 2 â—â— 12. 32. Pro. 30. 6. Reuel 22. 18 19. It is said to be the power of God to saluation Rom. 1. 16. to be able to saue the soule Iames 1. 21. And lest these things should be mistaken as spoken partly of the word written and partly of a word vnwritten deliuered by tradition from hand to hand as the Papists vrge and that the word only written were not so perfect or powerfull therefore the very Scriptures that is the word only written are said to be able to make a man wise to saluation and to make the man of God perfect vnto euery good worke 2. Tim. 3. 15. 16. 17. If the man of God that is the minister of the word so often times called for excellencies sake then euery child of God els For no child of God is bound to know to beleeue or practise more towards saluation then the minister of God is bound to teach Yea whatsoeuer is vrged more for saluation is abomination It is further said that those things that are before written are written that we might beleeue that Iesus is the Christ the sonne of God and that beleeuing they might haue life through his name Ioh. 20. 31. God giueth vs this faith and life by the scriptures and let the Papists take any thing els by their vnwritten verities and traditions Paul repeateth this twice If wee or an Angell from heauen should preach vnto you otherwise then that which we haue preached vnto you let him be accursed Galat. 1. 8. 9. But Paul preached or said no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come Acts. 26. 22. and he preached no other Gospell then that which God had promised before by his Prophets in the holy Scriptures Rom. 1. 1. 2. So perfect is the word of God that when the learnedst man in the world by long study of any one sentence hath spoken all that he can yet another may come after and adde somewhat which the former neuer spake nor vnderstood concerning that place It is like a bottomlesse well that will neuer be drawn drie yea like the sea it selfe that will neuer be emptied As the Prophet speaketh of the righteousnesse and iudgements of God Thy righteousnesse is like the mighty mountaines and thy iudgements like a great deep Psal 36. 6. so may it be said of the scriptures for the height and depth of them The Apostle by exclamation speaketh thus of the wisdome knowledge iudgement and the way of God O the deepnesse of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How vnsearchable are his iudgements and his waies past finding out Rom. 11. 33. May not this be spoken of the word of God Where is that wisedome and knowledge of God Where are those his iudgements and waies declared but in the word All the writings of all men in the world are but shallow in respect of the word of God All the books in the world not handling the word of God and doctrine thereof do not containe so much and deep matter as is in one of the least canonicall Epistles An heathen man meeting with the Gospell written by Iohn and reading but the first verse thereof could say that that rude fellow so rudely he termed the Apostle had comprehended more matter in that one sentence then was in all the bookes of all Philosophers How much matter then is contained in that whole Gospell Especially in all the Scriptures All other books whatsoeuer are so much more excellent the more they agree with and the neerer they come to the word of God contained in holy scriptures How excellent then is the said word of God it selfe When all the chiefe wise men
downe that is when through weaknesse of body he could not continue the holding them vp in praier then Amaleck preuailed Ezod 17. 11 So his praiers were of greater force then all the host of Israel besides So mighty were the praiers of the said Moses afterward and such power had they with God when he praied for the Israelites hauing greatly prouoked Gods wrath by making them a golden calfe that the Lord both as it were intreated him to let him alone that his wrath might wax hot against them and also promised that if he would so let him alone that is if he would hold his peace and not sollicit God with his praiers for the Israelites he would make of him a mighty people Exod. 32. 10. c. insinuating notwithstanding thereby that if hee would for all that hold on in praying for them and would not be hired by the former great promise to hold his peace then hee could not proceed in his wrath against them as they had deserued but must needs yeeld to Moses intreating mercy for them What can bee more powerfull then to ouercome and as it were to withhold him that is of all power from doing of that which otherwise he would haue done So mighty were the praiers of Ioshua and so did he preuaile with God by them that after an imperious and commanding manner they made the Sunne and the Moone whose course is swifter then the weauers shettle or then the flight of the swallow or of the arrow to stand still in the firmament till hee and the rest of the Israelites had auenged themselues of their enemies Iosh 10. 12. 13. So the very celestiall bodies are as it were at the command of the praiers of Gods children So mighty were the praiers of Elijah that he praying earnestly that it might not raine it rained not on the earth at least in that country for three yeeres and six moneths and that praying againe for raine the heauens gaue raine and the earth gaue foorth her increase Iames 5. 17. 18. out of 1. King 17. 1. and 18. 42. c. So the children of God by their praiers can make the clouds to forbeare raine or to giue raine as shall make most to Gods glorie So mighty were the praiers of Elisha and such power had hee with God by them that they obtained of God a sonne for the Shunamite that was barren and recouered life againe for him when he was dead 2. King 4 16. and 35. and that also after that praying the Lord to smite the armie of the Aramites with blindnesse they were smitten with such blindnesse that albeit they could see other things yet they could not see to discerne their way but as men stone-blinde were led by Elisha till they were brought into the midst of Samaria and were there in the hands of their enemies 2. Kings 6. 18. c. So mighty were the praiers of Hezekiah and such power had they with God that whereas he was sicke vnto the death that is so sicke that he was vnrecouerable either by strength of his own nature or by the art and skill of any Physitian and God also by his Prophet had told him he should die and had therefore also willed him to put his house in order that is to make his last will and Testament because hee should die and not liue yet the Lord reuoked that his owne word and contrary in some sort thereunto as also aboue the strength of nature and the art of man did restore him to health and added fifteen yeers vnto his life 2. Kings 20. 2. 3. c. So mighty were the praiers of Ester Mordecai and the rest of the Iewes and such power had they with God by their praiers that the Lord turned the wrath of Ahashuerosh from them against Haman and other their enemies albeit Haman had before that so far preuailed with Ahashuerosh that he had written his letters and sealed them with his ring and sent them by his Posts into all prouinces for the destruction of the said Mordecai and all the rest of the Iewes yong and old Ester 3. 12. compared with 4. 16. and 17. and 7. 5. and 8. 1. c. So the praiers of Gods children haue had power with God for children for them that are barren for life for them that are dead for blindnesse vpon them that see for health for them that are sicke euen vnto death and past all hope and for the changing of the hearts of men from extreame wrath to exceeding loue and fauour So mighty were the praiers of the Church for Peter by Herod committed to prison and such power had they with God that the Angell of the Lord came with great power and glory into the prison and brake off Peters chaines opened the prison dores brought him out and made the yron gate open of it owne accord c. Acts 12. 7. So the praiers of Gods children are stronger then any yron So mighty were the praiers of Paul and Silas in prison that at midnight suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundation of the prison was shaken and by and by all the dores opened and euery mans bonds were loosed c. Act. 16. 25. 26. So though the earth be set vpon her foundation that it shall neuer moue viz. wholly out of her place Psal 10 4. 5. yet we see it to haue been shaken by the praiers of Gods children Neither are the praiers of Gods children so effectuall for other only of their own sort but also sometime for the wicked reprobate How did the Lord heare Abraham for Abimelech king of Gerar Gen. 20. 7. Moses praying often for Pharao and the Prophet praying for the restoring of the withered hand of Ieroboam 1. Kings 13. 6. Do not all these mighty effects of praier besides many other the like both old and new plainly testifie in what grace and fauour the children of God are with God Verily they doe for all the praiers before mentioned whereof we haue heard those mighty effects were not the praiers of any wicked men but only of the children of God For indeed none can pray so by praier to haue power with God but only Gods children For how shall they call on him in whom they haue not beleeued Rom. 10. 14. This question how shall they c. noteth it an impossible thing for them that haue not faith to call vpon God But such are all the wicked as before we haue heard therefore none of the wicked can call vpon God Therefore all the commandements of God for praier are only to the children of God and to such as are godly When the Prophet had set downe the commandement of God for calling vpon God in the day of trouble with promise of deliuerance c. Psal 50. 15. presently by way of opposition he addeth But vnto the wicked God said What hast thou to doe to declare mine ordinances and to take my couenants in thy mouth c.
verse 16. He teacheth hereby first that the former commandement for calling vpon God in the day of trouble was giuen only Note to the godly because by way of opposition God immediatly speaketh otherwise to the wicked Secondly that if the wicked for all that will pray yet the Lord is so far from approuing them in such praiers that he reproueth them rather for vsing that his ordinance not belonging vnto them and for taking his couenant in their mouth without which all praiers are without grace without good successe So the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah also reproueth the Iewes and all their sacrifices with their obseruation of new moones and appointed feasts and with their praiers all which notwithstanding he had commanded his people the Lord I say reproueth all those things in the Iewes for their wickednesse and saith Who required this at your hands to tread in my courts Isaiah 1. 12. and therefore afterward he biddeth them if they will haue their such seruice accepted of him to wash and make cleane themselues to take away the euill of their workes from before his eyes to cease to doe euill to learne to doe well to seeke iudgement c. vers 16. 17. So by the Prophet Ieremiah he saith to the Iewes of that time Will ye steale murder and sweare falsly and burne incense vnto Baal c. and come and stand before me in this house whereupon my name is called c. Iere. 7. 9. c Doth not the Lord thereby teach vs that the wicked should not without repentance so much as once enter into the house of praier In the seuenth of Matthew and words of our Sauiour before alledged If ye that are euill can giue good things to your children that aske them how much more shall your father in heauen giue good things to them that aske them and in the preface to the forme of praier prescribed by our Sauiour Our father which art in heauen Mat. 6. 9. doth not our Sauiour teach vs that praier belongeth only to the children of God that may call God their father doth not the Apostle likewise teach the same when he saith that We haue receiued the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father Rom. 8 15. We may also obserue that the Apostles doe seldome command Note praier but in the latter end of their Epistles after they haue taught God to bee the Father of them to whom they write and them to behaue themselues like children towards God as Rom 15. 30. Ephes 6. 18. Colos 4. 2. 1. Thess 5. 17. 2. Thess 3. 1. Heb. 13. 18. So also the Prophets do seldome exhort to praier but after their exhortations to repentance and to the honoring of God as a father Hose 14. 2. Ioel 2. 13. and 17. At the least the Prophets and Apostles do ioine seeking of God whiles he is neere and calling vpon him whiles hee may be found with exhortations for the wicked to forsake his waies and the vnrighteous his owne imaginations and to returne to the Lord c. Isa 55. 6. 7. and drawing neere to God with hearts sprinkled from an euill conscience and bodies washed with pure water c. Heb. 10. 22. and with cleansing of hands and purging of hearts Iames 4. 8. So it is also said Let euery one that calleth on the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2. Tim. 2. 19. As all commandements for praying doe thus belong onely to the children of God so all commendations of praier are only of the praiers of faith and of the righteous Iames 5. 15. and 16. and of the Saints Reu. 5. 8. Therefore also the blinde man whose eies Christ had opened saith of the praiers both of sinners and also of the worshippers of God We know that God heareth not sinners but if any man bee a worshipper of God and doe his will him heareth he Ioh. 9. 31. The Prophet saith If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not heare me Psal 66. 18. Salomon saith The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but the praier of the righteous is acceptable vnto him Prou. 15. 8. And againe The Lord is farre off from the wicked but he heareth the praier of the righteous vers 29. And againe He that turneth away his eare from hearing the Law euen his praier shall be abominable Pro. 28. 9. As I haue shewed by diuers examples before how acceptable the praiers of Gods children are vnto him so I might by diuers examples shew how the Lord hath reiected the praiers of the wicked from time to time not only of the Iewes as before we heard at Isaiahs first prophecying and in the daies of Ieremiah but also afterward as appeareth Isa 58. 3. c. and 59. 1. and Ier. 14. 12. Eze. 14. 1. c. and 20. 3. c. and of the Israelites long before Iudg. 10. 10. c. That sometimes God hath heard the praiers of some wicked men it is either because some of his children haue ioined in such praiers or because the things granted by the Lord haue as much concerned some of his children as them that haue made such praiers or that by hearing so the wicked he may either breake their hearts or make them the more inexcusable Furthermore let vs vnderstand concerning praier that thereby the children of God haue not onely a priuilege in that they may come themselues to make their owne praiers vnto God but also in that they are likewise partaker of the praiers of one another Euery child of God through the world is partaker of all the common praiers of all the children of God liuing vpon the earth wheresoeuer dispersed No man at any time in faith and truth praieth according to the forme of praier prescribed by our Sauiour but that therein he commendeth vnto God all the members of Christ liuing vpon the earth and that may as well as any other call God their Father which is in heauen They that are dead as before wee haue heard haue no need of the praiers of the liuing neither any benefit by such praiers yet the liuing haue very great neede of the praiers one of another and haue also great benefit by such praiers Especially such as are specially and particularly by name so commended to God by other haue the more speciall benefit by such remembrance Yea not onely haue the meanest of Gods children much benefit by the praiers of them that are of the greatest faith zeale and godlinesse but they that haue the greatest measure of faith zeale and godlinesse haue helpe also and benefit by the praiers of the meanest and weakest Therefore as all the Israelites fearing death both for their owne sinnes and also for their asking a King did earnestly intreat Samuel to pray for them lest according to their feare they died 1. Sam 12. 19. So Paul himselfe doth often very instantly craue the praiers of all those to whom he did write of poore and rich of
did Absalom take this Truly as bad as he was yet he took it so heauily that he neglected no meanes vsuall with carnall men for the recouering againe of the Kings fauour that he might see the Kings face as he had done And therefore when he had sent diuers times for Ioab to intreat him to be a mediator for him to the King his father in that behalfe as he had before for bringing him againe into the kingdome and that yet Ioab would not come at him then he caused his men to set Ioabs corne on fire vpon which occasion Ioab came to him and then Absalom vsed him for recouery of Dauids fauor that he might see his face vers 29. Doth not all this argue that Absalom though a wicked man tooke it as a great punishment so to be banished from his Princes court and from his fathers house Yea it is a great punishment for any child to be banished from his Fathers house though his father be far inferior to a Prince Was it not much for Hagar with her sonne Ishmael to be thrown out of the house of Abraham and to be sent into the wide world they could not tell whither to shift for themselues they knew not where nor how Genes 21. 14. How great a thing this was their misery afterward doth declare For as the prodigall sonne said How many hired seruants at my Fathers house haue bread enough and I die for hunger Luk 15. 17. to note that in the house and presence of God there is plenty enough for the meanest person therein but out of the Note house of God there is all want and extreme misery so whereas Hagar and Ishmael had sufficient of all things in Abrahams house which then was the house and Church of God being cast out of the same they were in a short time ready to dy for want of water Gen. 21. 15. If then it be so great a matter for a subiect to be banished from his Prince-Court and presence and for a child to be thrust out of his earthly fathers house to see his face no more oh how great a thing is it to be excluded from the Court of God and from the most comfortable light of his countenance in heauen It is an heauy thing to be banished from the house and presence of God as he reuealeth himselfe in his word vpon the earth Before the law it was the greatest punishment almost that could be in this world Gen 3. 23. and 4. 14. and 17. 14. and euen vpon the giuing of the law Exod. 12. 15. 19. and after the giuing of the law Exod. 30. 33. and 38. as also in the time of the Gospell 2. Thess 3. 14. 1. Cor. 5 3. c. 1. Tim 1. 20. In which two last places the heauinesse of this thing I meane to be shut out from or throwen out of the house and presence of God here vpon the earth is much aggrauated by this phrase of deliuering ouer or giuing vp to satan For doe we not therby plainly see that they that are so cut off from the house and shut out of the presence of God are immediatly in the hands of satan himselfe and so doe continue whiles they continue in that separation from God and from his house For this cause Dauid by the tyranny of Saul and by the malice of his other enemies being banished out of the land and forced to be absent from the tabernacle of God took nothing so grieuously as that He neuer lamenteth his absence from his country from his friends from his other commodities which before he had enioied at home but oft times doth he most heauily bewaile the other It is the whole argument of the 84. Psalme wherein he lamenteth his misery in that behalfe by consideration of the beauty of Gods tabernacles by laying forth his vehement desire thereunto by preferring the condition of the sparrowes and swallowes before his owne because they might sing and build their nests neerer to Gods altar then he could come and by laying forth the happinesse of them that had daily accesse thereunto though it were with much labor much charge and much wearinesse So it is a good part of the 143. Psalme where he professeth that his soule did as much thirst after the Lord meaning his presence by his word and Sacraments and other meanes in his tabernacle as thirsty lands did in summer gape as it wâ—â—e for showres of rain vers 6. In the two and fortie Psalme he vseth he same metaphor of thirsting but with comparison of himselfe therein vnto the Harrs desire of water being chased with hounds in summer verse 1. c. yea he professeth in the next verse that in regard of the reproches of the wicked which vpbraided him with his banishment from the tabernacle as though he had trusted in God in vain and therfore in scornefull manner had said vnto him where is thy God as the Iewes did the like to Christ Mat. 27. 43 he professeth I say that in regard of these reproches his heart was so filled with sorrow that his teares had been his meat day and night yea so abundant and vehement was his grief in that behalfe that he found his soule euen to melt and as it were to swoone within him in which respect he was faine to comfort the same as it were with aqua composita and to say therunto twice in that Psalme Why art thou cast down my soule why art thou so disquieted within me Is it so heauy a matter to be separated here from Gods presence in his house and Church vpon the earth How heauy then will it be to be separated from his presence and dwelling place in the heauens and from all communion with the triumphant Church in the heauenly places Did Dauid find such sorrow such griefe such wo and such pangs in his soule by his absence from Gods earthly tabernacle Alas then what shal be the woe the gripes of griefe and the howling of those that shal be or are already separated from heauen it selfe in the world to come Thus much for the second degree of condemnation wherby the better appeareth how great the priuilege of Gods children is in their freedome and discharge from the same The third degree of condemnation is that the wicked are not banished only from the comfortable presence of God but also from al other good coÌ„pany yea from euery thing that is good A subiect that is banished from the court and presence of his Prince and a son that is banished from the house and presence of his louing Father may notwithstanding haue some comfort either at home in his own house or in any other place whither he is banished or within which he is coÌ„fined either by some other good company or by the vse of some other commodities for the better vpholding supporting of himselfe But if besides banishment from his Princes Court and presence or from his fathers house and countenance a man be
children there is but one amongst them all accounted the heire But the children of God though they be many euen as the starres of heauen and the sand by the seashore Gen. 15. 5. and 22. 17. yet they are all heires Yea whereas great men hauing both sonnes and daughters diuide their inheritance for the most part onely amongst their sonnes though also of many sonnes they make but one heire and doe but giue portions of mony to their daughters here the daughters of God shall be heires as well as the sonnes of God The reason of this community of inheritance of all the children of God is from the like communion betwixt Christ himselfe and them The children of men are all and euery one children in themselues they are not children by the eldest or by the heire but the children of God are not children in themselues but only in Christ as before hath been shewed in whom all are one both male and female Galat. 3. 28. There is yet another difference viz. that whereas the children of men do inherit only when their parents die by whom their inheritance commeth vnto them sometimes the Father somtimes the mother all the children of God do inherit their father God himselfe liuing with them for euer Againe whereas somtimes the children of men may indeed be all said to be heires yet the inheritances of them are distinguished one from another the eldest hauing his inheritance by himselfe and euery one of the other hauing his seuerall inheritance the eldest being somtimes heire to all the freeland and the yongest to all the copy hold c. But the children of God are all heires of one and the same inheritance yea they are heires as I sayd annexed with Christ Iesus the only sonne of God by nature Euen by him are they heires through adoption in him of the same inheritance whereof he is heire in which respect their inheritance is called the kingdome of Christ and of God Ephes 5. 5. Neither can it be otherwise sith before we heard they are made one with Christ and in Christ c. This is a great dignity This is a wonderfull prerogatiue and such as is the perfection of all other and wherein all the former or the most of them doe cease Yea this is such that the very Angels of heauen are said as it were to put forth their necks and in some sort to stretch out themselues to behold it 1. Pet. 1. 12. It is much that before we heard that many of Christs titles are communicated to the children of God but this is much more namely that the inheritance of Christ euen the kingdome of God in heauen is theirs For herein especially doth that their kingly dignity before handled consist as before hath been shewed This inheritance was typically fore-signified and shadowed out to the Israelites by the land of Canaan and therefore it is called by this name of an inheritance which properly signifieth a diuision made by lot So is the future condition of Gods children called that it might the better appeare to haue been before represented by the land of Canaan which according to the commandement of God Numb 26. 55. and 33. 54. was indeed by Lot diuided when the Israelites came to the possession of it Iosh 14. 2. c. So would the Lord haue that land to be diuided that the bestowing therof vpon the Israelites might be imputed only to Gods goodnesse not to any merit or worthinesse of their own For The lot being wholly disposed according to the pleasure of the Lord Pro. 16. 33. what merit can there be imagined for any thing that falleth thereby So the Lord would much more teach them that if the type were without respect of any worthinesse in them much more the kingdom of heauen shadowed out by the type was to be imputed to the only free and gratious gift of God Rom. 6. 23. where the word translated the gift of God signifieth the free gift of God or a gift of the free grace of God This doth not a little amplifie and increase the dignity of the children of God The greater gifts that a Prince giueth freely vnto any subiect the more doth such a Prince honor such a subiect How great a grace then and dignity is this for the children of God to be heires of the kingdom of God only by the grace and free gift of God without any price giuen for it without any merit desert and worthinesse of it As the Apostle Peter doth appropriate this inheritance onelie to them Whom God the Father of his rich mercie hath begotten againe 1. Pet. 1. 3. 4. so doth our Sauiour by one sentence twice with great vehemency repeated to Nicodemus Verely verely I say vnto thee except a man bee borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God and the second time Verely verely I say vnto thee except a man be borne of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God Ioh. 3. 3. and 5. And againe our Sauiour saith not Feare not little flocke it is the Fathers pleasure to giue a kingdome but he putteth in the Pronowns your and you saying It is your Fathers will to Note giue you a kingdome Luke 12. 32. Where the words your Father haue also relation onely to them that are his children and which may call God their Father Therefore also they that are so borne againe are called by our Sauiour the children of the kingdome Matt. 13. 38. As it is high treason for any man to say that hee is heire apparant to an earthly king if he be not of the blood royall so and much more is it high treason against the king of heauen and earth for any man to boast that hee hopeth for the kingdome of heauen which is not of the blood royall that I may so speake of God himselfe that is which by regeneration is none of Gods children As in the time of Ezra after the returne of the people from captiuitie some that would haue beene priests sought their writings of the generalogies and could not be found and were therefore put from the priesthood or rather they were kept from it Ezra 2. 62. So whosoeuer they be that would haue this inheritance if by searching and examining their euidences by the word of God they shall not find themselues to bee new borne of God they shall be sure to be kept from the kingdome of God This inheritance is Crowne-land euen such as is annexed to Christs owne crowne and cannot bee alienated from it no not by lease or for any tearme of yeeres therefore none can haue it but such as are members of Christ and made one with Christ As it is said that God cannot lie Tit. 1. 2. so it may be said that neither God nor Christ can giue this inheritance to any but onely to them that beeing incorporated into Christ and so made members of Christ are also the children and heires of God When the
of the Lamb that is which are clensed of all their pollution and are become vndefiled then he addeth as an appendix and consequence of the former They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more neither shall the Sunne light on them nor any heat viz. to scorch or hurt them for the Lambe which is in the midst of the throne shall gouerne them and shall lead them to the liuely fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eies Reuel 17. 13. 14. 16. 17. So we are taught that in this inheritance there is no defect no sorrow or griefe What kingdome in the world is comparable What King euer was there that sometimes hath not wanted and that sometimes hath not mourned and wept Touching labour both of sinne it selfe and of all afflictions and misery by sinne another voice likewise from heauen said vnto Iohn Writ◠Blessed from hencefort or presently are they which die in the Lord for they rest from their labors Reuel 14 13. In this inheritance therefore there shall be no sorrow no griefe no paine not so much as a tooth or a little finger shall ake All shall be ease and comfort Sinne the cause of all want griefe and paine being taken away all effects also must cease Is there any other such inheritance in all the world What a singular priuiledge therefore is this of this inheritance to bee so vndefiled and whereof likewise the heires themselues shall be vndefiled The third attribute not withering is added as for further direct commendation of the inheritance it selfe so likewise to amplifie the first attribute immortall by a comparison of the lesse For it signifieth that this inheritance shall not only be immortall but that also it shall not so much as wither or rather according to the naturall signification of the word that it cannot be made to wither As the originall word is somtime taken for a kind of flowre which will neuer wither like to that amongst vs which is called semper viuens or the euerlasting flowre because it being gathered and kept in the house euer without water or any other moisture it retaineth the beauty it had at the time of gathering so the beauty glory of this inheritance shall neuer fade wither or decay but continue the same for euer in the whole and in euery part that it was at their first entrance that shal be heires therof It shall not lose so much as one leafe neither shall any leafe growe lithe and so hang down from the fellowes What an excellencie is this What kingdome was there euer in the world but that was in time impaired and blemished either by losse of some part thereof or by not retaining the glory it had at the first How was the glorious kingdome of Israel immediately after Salomons time maymed by the falling away of ten tribes at once from the house of Dauid How was the kingdome Iudah afterward defaced partly by often giuing the treasure of the Lord to make peace with forraine nations and partly and principally in the captiuity by the Babylonians when their city Ierusalem before the glory of the world was sacked and destroyed their noble and most famous temple burnt with fire and their princes and nobles partly slaine and partly in most slauish manner carried into a strange land I alleadge no particular Scriptures for proofe of these things because the whole booke of Ieremiahs Lamentations doth most lamentably describe them The same may be said of the kingdome of Babel of the kingdome of the Medes and Persians of the kingdome of Greece of the great empire of Rome all which are not onely wasted and decayed but also vtterly consumed the stampe onely of the Romane empire yet remaining The fourth and last attribute reserued or preserued noteth the safetie of this inheritance illustrated or confirmed by the place in heauen For all things in heauen are out of danger and gun-shot of any enemies whatsoeuer Matth. 6. 20. That attribute reserued beeing so illustrated or confirmed by the place is also amplified by the persons for whom it is so reserued viz. for vs that is for them whom before he had said God the Father had begotten againe and made his children The attribute it selfe reserued noting the safetie of this inheritance is of the time perfectly past so insinuateth that this inheritance hath Note bin kept a long time for the childrē of God according to the words of our Sauiour saying it was prepared from the foundation of the world for them that were blessed of his Father Mat. 25. 34. and according to the words of the same Apostle in the end of the very next verse where he calleth the said inheritance the saluation which is prepared to be shewed in the last time Sith therfore this inheritance hath been so long kept for the children of God they may the better assure themselues of it For the long keeping of any thing for another doth the better testifie the full purpose of the keeper that such shall haue it as for whom he hath kept it so long Daily experience confirmeth this that it needeth no other proofe The place in heauen doth not onely further confirme the said safety but is also a reason of the former three attributes For as all things in earth are mortall defiled and do daily wither so all things in heauen are immortall vndefiled and free from all withering Yea it further commendeth the excellencie of this inheritance as shewing that as high as the heauen is aboue the earth so and much more excellent is this heauenly inheritance then all earthly inheritances The pronoune vs referred to the worke of regeneration before spoken doth plainly note as I said a speciall reseruation and preparation long before euen before all worlds of the said inheritance only for them that are regenerated and so made the children of God What a great benefit is this that we shall haue it all of vs and not any other euen wee that are the sonnes of the free woman borne by promise and that none comming of the bond woman and borne after the flesh Galat. 4. 23. shall be heires or haue any part of this inheritance with vs Genes 21. 10. The which is also manifest by the constancy of Isack in blessing Iacob without any reuocation or diuision afterward of the said blessing betwixt Iacob and Esau without any repentance I say either as touching the whole blessing or touching any part thereof though Esau sought the repentance of his father in that behalfe with teares Heb. 12. 17. But of this propriety of this inheritance to the children of God only sufficient hath been said before Now that our comfort may yet be the more touching the said inheritance let vs obserue that the Apostle saith not only that that inheritance is so kept for vs but that also in the very next verse viz. 5. he saith that albeit we are here in earth in the middest and thickest of
of apparell to couer his nakednesse as of meat to nourish him so â—n the resurrection the children of God shall liue without either of both without meat and without apparell As concerning mariage it is said that In the resurrection they neither marry wiues nor wiues are bestowed in mariage but that they shal be as the Angels of God in heauen Mat. 22. 30. so shall it be for meat and apparell The children of God shall liue foreuer without both There shall be neither cold nor hunger nor thirst Their bodies that are sowen naturall bodies shal be raised spirituall bodies They shall stil be bodies the same bodies in substance that they were before otherwise how could it be said that they are raised againe but touching their qualities as they shall be changed many other waies so also this way that they shall be spirituall bodies that is such as shall not liue by naturall meats as vpon the earth they did but altogether by the immediat vertue of the spirit euen as the Angels do now liue in heauen This then in the life to come shall be the perfection of the children of God that they shall need no outward meanes for their euerlasting maintenance and preseruation as here they did for their maintenance and preseruation for a time yea for a short time which for the shortnesse thereof is not worthy to be called halfe a time So hauing nothing they shall be ten thousand times more happy then they were here hauing many things Men are not so happy here by hauing many things as they shall be in the world to come by needing nothing I meane no such outward things as without which before they could not liue To illustrate this by a familiar similitude As a man being in poore state and in a meane calling here in this world as a shoemaker a tailer a husbandman or such like caÌ„not liue without such things as appertain to such trades as the shoemaker cannot liue without his last cutting-knife awle the tailer without his sheers and pressing yron the husbandman without his spade mattock flaile plough hedging bill c. but yet the same man being aduanced to welth higher calling amongst men hath none of the former things and yet is not the worse but the better because he needeth no such things now as without which before he could not liue so the children of God in the life to come being in full possession of their inheritance shall be neuer a whit the worse because they shall haue no meat nor apparell nor any other such outward thing for maintenance and preseruation of their state as here they had but they shall be so much the more happy and blessed because they shall need no such thing Besides all hitherto spoken of the happy and blessed inheritance of the children of God in the world and life to come whereas here they had the company of men yea oft times of wretched wicked men such as of whom they might cry out as we heare Dauid did Woe is to vs that we haue them in our company Our soules haue too long dwelt with them in the life to come in stead of such company they shall haue the society fellowship of the blessed Angels the least wherof is more glorious then euer was Salomon in al his roialty or then are al the kings Princes in the world when they shew themselues most in al their kingly and princely robes glory yea then as before we heard they shall haue perfect communion with God himselfe Father Son and holy ghost and they shall see Christ Iesus God and man in all his glory be also themselues in their own persons partaker therof as we shal hear more at large vpon the second verse following they shal I say see Christ Iesus in al his glory be themselues partaker therof according to the praier of Christ himself for them in that behalfe Ioh. 17. 22. 23 24. How sweet happy comfortable a thing is this when Peter Iames and Iohn saw Christ but a little transfigured in the mountain and Moses Elias in some glory talking with him how were they affected how were they rauished How did Peter say in the name of the rest Master it is good for vs to be here If thou wilt let vs make here three tabernacles c Mat. 17. 4. were they thus affected were they so rauished did they so desire stil to dwell in the mountain and to enioy the sight only of Christ and of two of his Saints themselues being yet clogged with their sins and cloathed with corruption mortality Oh how happy then shall that day be when the children of God shall see Christ Iesus in his perfect glory accompanied and attended vpon with millions and many millions of most glorious Angels and when themselues also shall haue put on incorruption and immortality and according to their degree and measure be also crowned with a crowne of the same glory The Prophet amongst diuers other arguments wherby he prouoketh all the seruants of the Lord to praise the name of the Lord setteth downe this for one that The Lord raiseth the needy out of the dust and lifteth vp the poore out of the dung that hee may set him with the Princes euen with the princes of the people Psal 113. 1. c. Was it and is it so great a dignity so great an honour so great an aduancement to make poore men to sit with Princes in this world What then is the dignity honor and aduancement of the children of God to sit with God and with Christ Iesus and with all the holy Angels in the heauens It is here also to be considered that this inheritance is so ample and so excellent that how few soeuer shall enioy the same they shall haue neuer a whit the more and how many soeuer Note shall be admitted thereunto none shall haue any whit the lesse In all earthly inheritances it is far otherwise yea cleane contrary The fewer they are amongst whom any inheritance is diuided the greater is the portion of euery one And the more the heires of any inheritance are how ample soeuer the same be the lesse is the portion of euery one All hitherto said or which can be said yea more then any tongue can speake or then any heart can conceiue is the more in respect of the certainty thereof Nothing in this world though it be in present possession is so certaine as all spoken before of this inheritance For the certainty of faith is much greater then the certainty of sense and humane reason This certainty of this inheritance and of the things before spoken thereof doth not only depend vpon that before written of the safety both of the inheritance it selfe and of the children of God to whom the same inheritance belongeth but also vpon diuers expresse scriptures and vpon diuers other reasons Touching scriptures consider these that follow and many other the
first combination of man and wife there is exceeding benefit of the one by the other where both parties ioined together are the children of the Lord. For there the husband loueth the wife euen as Christ loueth his Church accounting her as flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone cleauing only vnto her protecting her from all wrong instructing her where she is ignorant touching her saluation increasing the knowledge which shee hath bearing with her in her weaknesse prouoking her to all good duties belonging to her sex and calling So the wife reuerencing the husband is in all things in the Lord subiect vnto him and ordered by him gouerning the things wisely that are committed to her charge for the good of her family not onely bringing foorth children as the Lord blesseth the mariage bed vnto them but much also helping her husband in the Christian education of them in the feare of the Lord. So Bethsheba helped Dauid in the instructing of Salomon Pro. 31. 1. Dauid himselfe being imploied in the publike affaires of the kingdome So Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother of Timotheus were great helpes or rather more then helpes doing all themselues alone for the instructing of Timothie in the Scripture from his childhood Furthermore the Christian wife is an helpe to her husband by ouerseeing the waies of her seruants and seeing them to doe their worke early and late Both such parties also are comfortable one to another in prosperitie reioicing together in aduersity mourning together and so bearing one anothers burdens that betwixt both it is the lighter This mutuall helpe and benefit that the man and wife being both the children of God haue one by another is more apparent by the great hindrance that the one hath by the other either where they are both wicked or where they are vnequally yoked tâ—e one striuing vpward towards heauen the other drawing downewards euen to hell Yet where there is such an vnequall match sometime the beleeuing wife saueth the vnbeleeuing husband sometime the vnbeleeuing wife is saued by the beleeuing husband the one conuerting the other 1. Cor. 7. 14. Touching the children of such parents oh in how happie state condition be they in respect of the children of other For first of all they are within the Couenant of God made with their parents for this life and for the life to come whereby God doth bind himselfe to be their God and the God of their seed Gen. 17. 78. and to blesse them that blesse them and to curse them that curse them Gen. 12. 3. Yea though but one of the parents be the childe of God and the other none of Gods children yet the children of two such so vnequally yoked are within the Couenant by vertue of that party which is the childe of God 1. Cor 7. 14 Is not this a singular benefit to be within the Couenant of God It was a great honour to Abraham that Abimelech king of Gerar came to him and made a Couenant with him Gen. 21. 27. How great then is this honour that the Lord of heauen and earth the king of kings vouchsafeth to looke downe from heauen yea as it were to come down from heauen and to make a Couenant with man yea with poore miserable man that would neuer so much as once haue looked toward heauen but onely to make warre with heauen and with God that dwelleth in heauen euen with euery man I say and woman that feareth him yea not only with them but also with their posteritie Verily this Couenant is the more because by vertue thereof it is said The children of thy seruants shall continue and then seed shall stand fast in thy sight Psal 101. 28. And againe Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandemenâ—s his â—â—ed shall be mighty vpon earth the generation of the righteous shall bee blessed Psal 112. 1. 2. If children receiue not benefit by this Couenant it is because they themselues doe breake Couenant with God and doe not honour the God of their Fathers and serue him with a perfect hart and willing mind as Dauid exhorteth Salomoâ— 1. Cron. 28. 9. and in this respect the children of God may be said to fall away from God and to goe backe albeit they themselues neuer had any grace of God neither euer walked with God because by their wickednesse they doe in a manner disclaime and renounce the couenant of God made with their fathers So Manasses at the beginning of his raigne and long before he had repented or entred into the way of walking with God euen when he did euill in the sight of the Lord like the abomination of the heathen c. is said to haue gone backâ— 2. Chro. 33. 2. 3. viz. because he had transgressed the couenant which God had made with his father Ezekiah and walked not in the waies of his said father Notwithstanding although some of the next children of the children of God or the whole next posterity of such do fall away and so renounce the couenant of God yet this doth not altogether abrogate and disanull the said couenant of God made with the good parents of the said children because the efficacy thereof doth not appeare in their next generation For the couenant of God is made to thousands of them that loue him and keepe his commandements Though some boughs of a good tree be broken off and so wither and come to nothing yet the stock and root remaining there may other spring out as good as any at the first so is it with the children of God with whom God hath made his couenant One or two yea many whole generations may be cut off or fall away yet the couenant of God remaineth with the stock or root and first parents This Paul doth excellently handle by this very similitude touching the Iewes Rom. 11. 16. This is further manifested if we consider that after the daies of Salomon there was often succession of euill kings to good kings and yet the couenant made with Dauid remained firme and inuiolated Yea after the daies of Iehoshaphat the kingdome of Iudah continued by succession for many yeers together in the hands of wicked kings none other of the house of Iehoshaphat being mentioned to haue feared God For first succeeded Iehâ—ram 2. Kings 8. 16. and 2. Chro. 21. 1. then Ahaâ—â—ah 2. Kings 8. 24. 2. Chro. 22. 1. then Hathaliah 2. Kings 11. 3. 2. Chro. 22. 10. or rather because she was but an vsurper Ioash 2. Kings 12. 2. 2. Chro 23. 4. Fourthly Amatziah 2. Kings 14. 2. 2. Chro. 25 1. Fiftly Vzziah or rather Azariah 2. Kings 15. 1. 2. Chr. 26. 1. Sixtly Iotham 2. Kings 15. 33. 2. Chr. 27 1. â—â—uenthly Ahaz 2. Kings 16. 1. 2. Chro. 27. and then Hezekiah 2. Kings 18. 1. 2. Chro. 29. 1. So between Iehoshaphat and Ezekiah two good kings of Iudah there were seuen wicked kings all succeeding one another besides
before heard that the regeneration or new birth or second creation of the children of God is a greater and more excellent worke then the first creation of all things and sith the Angels haue their part onely in the first creation why may not this also bee thought to bee some prerogatiue of the children of God aboue the Angels Last of all Christ promiseth that the children of God shall sit with him in his throne as himselfe sitteth in the throne of his Father and that by them hee will iudge the world yea the Angels that are fallen Hath hee promised any such thing to the Angels that doe stand or hath hee saide anie such thing of them they are indeed said to stand before him and about his throne c. but they are neuer said to sit in his throne To stand before him and round about his throne importeth onely seruice But to sit and that in his throne importeth authoritie and maiesty But some man against all before spoken of the preeminence of the children of GOD in earth aboue the Angels in heauen may perhaps obiect that our Sauiour speaking of the state of Gods children in the world to come doth set it foorth by their similitude to the Angels in heauen saying when they shall rise againe from the dead they are as the Angels of God in heauen Matth. 22. 30. If in the resurrection they shall bee but like to the Angels how can they here be said to haue any preeminence aboue them To this I answer that it is but a sleight and weake obiection for our Sauiour doth not simply say that in the resurrection the children of God shall be like the Angels but onely that as touching mariage where of the question was propounded by the Sadduces they shall be like and therefore he saith In the resurrection they neither marrie wiues nor wines are bestowed in marriage but they are as the Angels of God in heauen So then this comparison of likes is not in all things but only as touching marriage and this is more manifest by that which followeth in the second verse of this present text where we read and shall afterward by Gods grace heare that at the appearing of Christ we shall not only bee like to the Angels but also to Christ himselfe which is likewise more then euer we read of the Angels Now though I haue hither to thus written of their preeminence of the children of God aboue the Angels in respect of their communion with Christ and by vertue thereof yet we must neuer forget that as there is that preeminence so also in some other respects the Angels for the present time especially haue great prerogatiue aboue the children of God Namely first that they dwell in heauen the children of GOD in earth Secondly that they are altogether spirit the children of God flesh and spirit Thirdly they are free from all sinne and consequentlie from all miserie the fruit of sinne the children of God whiles they are clothed with corruption are subiect to sinne and doe sinne daily and by sinne they are also subiect as to many other calamities so at last to death it selfe So in these respâ—cts they are inferior to Angels but in the former they haue a great prerogatiue What a dignitie is this what an honour what a glorie to all the children of God to be so aduanced was it not a great honor for Daniel to be one of the three rulers that were by Daniel to be one of the three rulers that were by Darius set ouer all the one hundred and twenty gouernors whom hee had before set ouer all his whole kingdome How greate then is the honour of all the children of GOD in that they haue a preeininence aboue Angels who in respect of other creatures vnder GOD are principalities powers mights and dominions What was Darius himselfe yea what was great King Salomon in all his earthlie pompe in all his honor in all his roialtie and glory in respect of the least Angell If any man notwithstanding all before written of this point touching the preeminence of the children of God aboue Angels shal differ in iudgement let him vnanswerably and plainlie without cauilling answer my former reasons and shew better for his iudgement and I will easily change my former opinion I affect not any noueltie I am not delighted with singularitie neither am I so peremptorie in any thing that I hold differing from other the true seruants of God but that I am ready in al humilitie to submit my spirit to the Prophets which shall speake according to the ancient holy Prophets and Apostles In the meane time let not this point be thought a curious or vnnecessarie paradox but let it rather be regarded as a point of great vse to prouoke vs to more thankfulnesse vnto God and to be so much more zealous of his glorie by how much the more he hath aduanced vs and finally the more to comfort vs and the better to assure vs of the continuance of Gods fauour towards vs the more highly he hath exalted vs. CHAP. XXX Of the promises of God to them that shall shew kindnesse to any of the children of God and of the threatnings to the contrary c. HAuing hitherto beene thus large and plentifull in laying foorth the dignity of Gods children I will now inlarge the same but by one argument more viz. by the promises of God to them that shall doe any thing for his children by his threatnings against those that doe them any hurt and by the performance from time to time of the said promises threatnings For heereby it doth the more manifestly appeare in what price and reckoning they are with God Touching the promises and threatnings of God in behalfe of his children they are first of all ioined together For when God first made a speciall couenant with Abraham and his seed this is one speciall article as before vpon other occasion wee haue heard of the said couenant that God would blesse them that should blesse him and curse them that should curse him Gen. 12. 3. Was this promise made to Abraham as one man Not so but as he was the root and father of the faithfull Therefore all the faithfull children of God haue right to the said promise and it doth belong to euery one of them as well as it did to Abraham himselfe so that whosoeuer shall blesse or doe any good to any of Abrahams children by faith hee may as well looke for a blessing from God as any that blessed Abraham or did any good to Abraham himselfe and whosoeuer shall curse or doe any hurt to any of Abrahams children by faith he may as well feare a curse from God as any that euer did curse or doe any hurt to Abraham himselfe Touching promises in particular If hee bee blessed that is vnder many blessings which generally iudgeth wisely of the poore Psal 41. 1. and that generally likewise is mercifull because he shall
all maiestie accompanied with his holy Angels and comming to iudge the quicke and the dead as at his former comming in the forme of a seruant he came to be iudged and not to iudge This is called his appearing because as the Gospell or grace of God which bringeth saluation vnto all men is said now to haue appeared Tit. 2. 11. in respect it had beene kept secret before since the world began and had not beene so opened as it is now reuealed vnto the sonnes of men c. Rom. 16. 25. Ephes 3. 5. so Christ Iesus being ascended into heauen and there sitting at the right hand of his father is not now so manifested at least to the bodily sight as hee shall manifest himselfe at his second comming This time of this his appearing is his mariage day whereas all time before is but as it were the time of his and our betrothing and of the preparing of vs for that mariage day to be the fitter spouse for him All this sentence of our certainty and knowledge of our being Note made like vnto Christ at his appearing is not to bee taken as spoken in the person of the Apostle onely and of them to whom he did write but of all other the children of God whatsoeuer None must looke for this perfection and likenesse vnto Christ before this time of his appearing What then will some man aske doe you say of Enoch and Elias Of the one it is said that he walked with God and was no more seene for God tooke him away Genes 5. 24. And againe that By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death neither was he found for God had translated him Heb. 11. 5. Of the other of Elias that he went vp by a whirlewinde into Heauen 2. King 2. 11. Concerning therefore the two former examples of whom the question is mooued whatsoeuer men haue thought or doe thinke and whatsoeuer the former words may seeme to insinuate which their insinuated sense shall be opened afterward this I thinke that they are not yet bodily in heauen Enoch and Elias not bodily yet in heauen neither shall be till the resurrection of all flesh when all the rest of Gods elect shall receiue their consummation and perfect blisse My reasons for this opinion are briefly these First Heb. 11. 13. after the mention as well of Enoch as of 1. Reason Noah Abraham and Sara it is expresly said All these died in faith It were absurd to restraine the generall word all onely to the three last and not to extend it also vnto Enoch and Abel Therefore it is manifest that these two died as well as the other three If it be obiected that it is said before that Enoch was translated that he might not see death and that therefore if here this verbe died bee as well vnderstood of him as of the rest then there shall be contrarieties in one and the same place I answer that the reconciliation of this doubt is very easie namely by interpreting the former phrase that hee might not see death of not feeling death after the common painfull manner of men And so the word to see for to feele or to discerne or by experience to perceiue is often taken in the Scripture The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee c. that is they did as it were feele and by experience perceiued thy power Psal 77. 16. So the Apostle saith I see another Law in my members c. that is I feele Rom. 7. 23. There might bee many other the like places alleged but these are sufficient That also of being translated signifieth nothing els but he was taken away in an extraordinary manner not seen of men but so secretly that no man knew or by any outward thing could iudge otherwise of him but as if God tooke him immediatly into heauen And so would God in that euill and sinfull age take him away so gently and extraordinarily dissoluing the soule and the body that men might thinke him to goe body and soule into heauen for the better honoring that holy life which he then liued the rather because all other liued so wickedly To any but very meanly exercised in the Scripture it is well knowen that many things are spoken according to the opinion of men according to that which they seemed vnto men So Samuel is said to haue been raised after death by the witch and to haue spoken vnto Saul 1. Sam 28. 11. c. Not that it was Samuel For they that die in the Lord rest from their labors Reu. 14. 13. and are not therefore at the call or command of witches but onely because he appeared in the likenesse of Samuel as Satan can change himselfe into the likenesse of an Angell of light 2. Cor. 11. 14 and because Saul and his company tooke him so to be My second reason is out of the same Chapter For of all the former and of diuers other examples afterward mentioned it is written thus All these through faith obtained good report and receiued not the promise God prouiding a better thing for vs that they without vs should not be made perfect verse 39. 40. If Enoch had beene taken vp in body into heauen then had hee beene made perfect without vs. My third reason is out of the same Epistle also Chapt. 9. 8. where the Apostle by the entrance or going once yeeâ—ely of the high Priest alone into Sanctum Sanctorum into the most holy place doth teach that vnder the Law and whiles the first Tabernacle was standing the way into the holiest of all was not yet opened What meaneth the Apostle by the holiest of all but heauen especially for the bodies of men to enter thereinto For howsoeuer God had prepared heauen to be the common receptacle of the soules of the righteous after death yet Christ was the first that entred in body And this seemeth to bee the stronger argument because in the description of heauen in the same epistle afterward Chap. 12. 23. it is called the city of the liuing God the celestial Ierusalem which hath the company of innumerable Angels the assembly of the congregation of the first borne which are written in heauen and God the iudge of all and the spirits of iust and perfect men and Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament Heere therefore is mention of Angels of God of the spirits of iust men and of Iesus the Mediator heere is no mention at all of any bodies or of any men altogether in heauen If any will reply that this is a description of the whole Church in heauen and in earth both gouernours children and seruants I answer that then the words the congregation of the first borne must comprehend the Church militant in earth and so there will bee none found in heauen but God Iesus Christ the spirits of iust and perfect men and the Angels So all bodies beside the body of Christ are yet excluded Fourthly
where there is no fruit and whereof after recouery of health and true knowledge wee are ashamed Rom. 6. 21. As sicknesse continued and not recouered causeth death at the last so sinne when it is finished and as it were thoroughly ripened bringeth forth death Iames 1. 15. Sinne is likewise compared to an heauy and intolerable burden Come vnto me all ye that are weary and heauy laden viz. with your sinnes and I will refresh you Mat. 11. 28. Therefore Cain complained that his sinne was greater then hee could beare Genes 4. 13. And alas so heauy was the burden of sinne vpon Iudas that to ease himselfe of that burden hee did not onely cast away or deliuer againe to the cheefe Priests and Elders the thirty peeces of siluer which he had taken as wages of vnrighteousnesse to betray the innocent bloud of Christ but that also departing afterward in most dolefull sort he went and most desperately hanged himselfe Mat. 27. 3. The like fearefull euent of the heauy burden of sinne we do too often see by too many examples Wee heard also before that the very imputation onely of our sinnes to Christ Iesus the sonne of God God himselfe made him not only exceedingly to feare and in his feare to offer vp praiers and supplications with strong crying teares vnto God Heb 5. 7. but also to sweat water and bloud Luk. 22. 44. and lastly to cry out most bitterly vpon the crosse vnder the burden of our sinnes My God my God why hast thou forsaken me ' Mat. 27. 46. That some men feele not the sicknes and waight of sinne it is because of another comparison also of sinne viz. vnto death itselfe O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee out of this body of death Rom. 7. 24. And you that were dead in trespasses and sinnes c. Ephes 2. 1. As men therefore that are dead though they died with an hundred plague-sores about them not healed or hauing the waight of a great Church vpon them doe feele nothing either of such sores or of such waight euen so is to bee sayd of them that feele not either the sicknesse or the heauinesse of sinne namely that it is because they are dead in their sinne By these things we see that all whose sinnes are forgiuen are rid and healed of so many diseases Psal 103. 3. and released of so many burdens as they haue sinnes and finally that they are translated from death to life 1. Ioh. 3. 14. Is not then the forgiuenes of sinnes a singular benefit Moreouer the greatnes of this benefit doth further appeare by another comparison of sinne viz. vnto debt Mat. 18. 24. c. In which respect Christ teacheth vs to pray Forgiue vs our debts Mat. 6. 12. Yea he whose sinne is least is more in Gods debt then he is able any way to discharge Therefore in the parable of two debters he that owed but fifty pence is sayd to haue beene as vnable to pay as he that owed siue hundred pence Luke 7. 41. 42. Is it not a great misery yea a kind of hell tormenting a man to be in greater debt then he is able to fatissie Indeed some men are so desperate that they bid their creditors take care how to come by that that is owing vnto them for they will take no care to pay any man therefore they borrow of euery man and pay almost no man so that it is half a wonder what becommeth of all the mony they doe borrow But though some be thus leaudly minded yet most men haue so much ciuill honesty at the least by the light of nature that they finde it very greeuous and troublesome continually to their minds to owe more the they can pay Al debt also aboue ability to pay is the more grecuous the greater and mightier the creditor is to whom the same is owing How great then is the debt of man vnto God by sinnelyea by the least sin The danger of the least sinne much more of many and great sins is the curse of God and euerlasting condemnation of body soule euen an infinit punishment according to the infinit maiesty of God that is by sin offended Who the can expresse the greatnes of the benefit of forgiuenes of sinnes It is a great benefit to be out of debt with men so that a man may walke go any where securely without danger much more then is the benefite of the discharge of all our debt with God Last of al sinne against God is compared vnto treason and rebellion against a prince 1. Sam. 15. 23. Lamon 3. 42. Dan. 5. 9. As therefore it is a great benefit for a traitour and rebell to bee pardoned by his Soueraigne so is it not so much the more to be pardoned by God himselfe of all our treasons and rebellions against him by how much hee is greater then all earthlie princes Verily this is not only more then any tongue of man can expresse but also then any heart of man or wisedome of Angels can comprehend The same benefit of forgiuenes of sinnes is yet the greater because to whom God remitteth one sinne to him hee remitteth all and whose sinnes he doth once forgiue his sinnes hee doth forgiue for euer whom once he doth acquit discharge and iustifie them hee wil neuer condemne or cal to account By all sinnes I meane al the sinnes of Gods children both originall and actuall before baptisme and after baptism before conuersion and after conuersion of knowledge and of ignorance and once or often yea as wel deliberately as vnaduisedly committed Therefore Dauid in the place before vsed Psal 32. 1. 2. speaketh of sinne indefinitely without exception of any and in the other place praiseth God expressely for forgiuing al his sins The Apostle saith that Christ hath not redeemed vs from sin but from all iniquity Tit. 2. 14. So likewise in the other places before mentioned the Apostles speake of sinnes indefinitely c. Ephes 1. 7. Colos 1. 14. not of sinnes before or after baptisme or conuersion c. If by Christ wee haue forgiuenesse onely of originall sinne or of sinnes before baptisme and that wee or some other must make satisfaction for our actuall sinnes or for sinnes after baptisme as the Papists teach then hath Christ satisfied onely for the lesse and left the greater to vs. For who knoweth not actuall sinnes to be greater then originall and sinnes after baptisme to bee more at least for most part then sinnes before baptisme But of the vniuersality of the forgiuenesse of sinnes I hope to speak more to the further comfort of such as are heauy loaden with theyr sinnes in another treatise The second point that whose sinnes are once remitted they are remitted for euer is as certaine as the former Because the couenant of the Lord is an euerlasting couenant and his mercies are the sure mercies of Dauid Isa 55. 3. As high as the heauen is aboue the earth so great is