Bondage of Corruption in-the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God AMong the Children of Men there are some Children of God These Words speak something concerning them and their Condition The Prophets speak much of Multitudes to be brought in to be Sons of God Esay xliii 6 I will say to the North give up and to the South keep not back Bring my SONS from far and my DAUGHTERS from the ends of the Earth And Ch xlv 11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker ask me of things to come concerning my SONS Hos. i. 10 And it shall come to pass that in the Place where it was said unto them Ye are not my People there it shall be said unto them Ye are the SONS of the living God And Caiaâ—has that prophesied but once John xi 51 Propâ—â—sied that Jesus should die for that Nation And not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together iâ—to one the CHILDREN of God that were scattered abroad Therefore the Holy Ghost in the New Testament sets himself to speak to this thing and to shew who these Sons of God are John i. 12 13. shews who are and who are not But as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God As many as received him those were Sons of what Nation Quality or Rank whatsoever Not born of Blood nor of the Will of Man The Holy Ghost sets the Regeneration in Opposition to natural Generation In natural Generation Men are born of Blood and of the Will of Man but 't is not so in this Or else he sets the true Begetting and Birth of the Sons of God in Opposition to those fancied Ways the Jews thought Men were made Children of the Godly They concluded none were Children but of Israel And if they came to be of Israel then undoubtedly Children So Christ speaks according to their Sense It is not meet to take the Children 's Bread and cast it before Dogs And the Apostle confutes this Arrogant and Erroneous Opinion Rom ix 7 Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called that is they which are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God Now they thought they became the Sons of God or Israelites these Ways I. By being born of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bloods that is long Descent of Blood of Ancestors even to Abraham or by Bloods of Sacrifice and Circumcision II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Will of the Flesh As they took many Wives and desired many Children accounting all Children of Promise III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Will of Man as the Consessus or Sanhedrin did bring in Proselites and make them Israelites Not this nor that nor that makes a Son but he that is born of God and he is so that receives Christ and believes on his Name The Apostle is speaking of the same Subject in this Chapter ver 14 15 17. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And if Children then Heirs c. And then he comes on to shew whence these Sons especially should come ver 19. The earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God c. By Creature here and whole Creation ver 22. is meant nothing but the Gentiles or Heathen World A Phrase among the Jews ordinarily put so to signifie Mark xvi 15 Col. i. 23 Now this whole Passage is to this Purpose God had prophesied of Sons to come from the Heathen and the earnest Expectation of the Creature that is of the Heathen waited for this Manifestation of the Sons of God Two or three things there were that might awaken the Heathen World a little to consider of their wretched Case 1. It may be they had the Greek Bible 2. Howsoever the Jews scattered abroad among them might something convince them of their Condition 3. We may conceive that against their Call God had stirred up their Hearts by way of Preparative to be weary of Idolatry and groping in Darkness As against the Reformation by Luther all Christendom desired some Reformation and as against the Coming of Christ the People were in Expectation of the Messias Observe that John iv 35 Lift up your Eyes and look on the Fields for they are white already to Harvest By which Words he hinteth at that Multitude of Samaritans and under them of Heathen that were ready to be reaped by the Gospel So the Earnest Expectation of the Heathen World waited now for the Manifestation of the Sons of God Ver. 20. For the Creature was made subject to Vanity c. Not a few understand this of the Frame of the World made subject to Vanity by Sin But the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vanity means Vanity of Mind So Rom. i. 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gentiles become vain in their Imaginations Eph. iv 17 The Gentiles walk in the Vanity of their Mind So the meaning is that the Heathen were given up to the Vanity and Folly of their own Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made subject put under such a Condition by the just Judgment of God as the Apostle handles it Chap. i. But they are put under in Hope that in time it should be better with them For the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption c. By Corruption is signified here as generally in Scripture sinful Corruption not natural Corruptibility or fading away 2 Pet. i. 4 Having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. And Ch. ii 19 Servants of Corruption And elsewhere evil Men are stiled Men of corrupt Minds and corrupt Communication Meaning that the Gentiles shall be delivered from their sadly sinful Condition into the Evangelical and Spiritual Liberty from Sin that the Sons of God partake of Some understand it of the Change of the Frame of the World at the end of the VVorld and think Peter speaks of the same thing 2 Pet. iii. 13 He does indeed in some Sense but far from theirs viz. A new State of Affairs in the Church when the Gentiles shall be called This is the new Heaven and the new Earth that they looked for of their Calling the Text speaks which was now in Agitation And of that let us first speak a little partly for the observing of Providence in so great a VVork and partly for the understanding of some Passages in Scripture I. The casting off of the Gentiles was at Babel Gen. xi where there were four Punishments inflicted on them 1. Destroying their Building
our own Course and have our own Will And this desperate Wilfulness was the Cursed Stumbling-Block that they laid in their own Heart at which they stumbled and fell and were ruined and must never rise more II. Hitherto we have seen these Angels Sinning and Rebelling against God Now let us see them Punished and Rewarded as they deserved God spared them not but cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment It is Related in the Story of the Witch of Endor that when she saw Samuel appear in his Mantle she cried out for fear And her reason was Because I see saith she Gods Ascending out of the Earth Are Gods arising out of the Earth such a terror to Her What terror may Devils falling from Heaven be to Men Satan like Lightning falling thence and his Angels with him Thousands and Ten Thousands a Number numberless Such another passage is Rev. xii 9 and forwards The Dragon the Old Serpent the Devil is cast ouâ— of Heaven to the Earth and his Angels with him and this Voice follows them Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth because the Devil is come down among you having great Wrath. And it hath been VVo to the Earth ever since he came down upon it Their Punishment you see is expressed in several Particulars and all Dreadful The first Word God spared them not is the General which includes all the rest of the Particulars and which may give a reason of all the rest VVhy did God cast them into Hell Because he would not Spare them VVhy did he deliver them into Chains of Darkness Because he would not Spare them And upon the same reason he reserves them to Judgment because he will not Spare them The Expression he spared them not is like the Trumpet and Voices of Sinai from lower and milder growing louder and louder and becomes as a Thunder-clap out of which came all the Thunder-Bolts following viz. That they were cast into Hell into Chains because God spared them not 1. It signifies in its mildest and lowest Sense and Degree that he let them not go unpunished tho' they were what they were Though Angels though in Heaven though Attendants upon him and so nearly related to him yet he suffered them not to escape Scot-free He spared them not from Punishment when they Sinned But 2. The signification of the Expression riseth higher and it means not only that he would not let them go unpunished but that he punisht them home sorely and severely And so you have the Expression signifying in several other Places Deut. xxix 19 20. The Man that saith I shall have Peace though I walk after the imagination of mine own Heart the Lord will not SPARE him VVhere the meaning is not only the Lord will not let him go free and unpunished but the punishment of the Lord shall light sore upon him as it follows in the next VVords But the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall Smoke against that Man and all the Curses c. Job xvi 13 His Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my Reins in sunder and doth not SPARE His meaning is not only he lets me not be in quiet but he pays me home with sad Affliction Esa. xxx 14 He shall break it as the breaking of a Potter's Vessel which is broken all to pieces He shall not SPARE And so in our common Language when we incite any one to vex or beat another Oh! spare him not Which in our Meaning is not only Let him not go free but lay on Load and pay him home And so we may very well understand nay indeed we cannot but understand the Expression herâ— He spared not the Angels that sinned that is he let thâ—m not escape tho' they were Angels but paid them home with severe Indignation for he cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness c. The first Lash that God's Severity whipt them with is not expressed in plain Terms but included in the Terms that follow There is no mention of his casting them out of Heaven and yet that is plainly enough intimated when 't is said He cast them into Hell And there is no mention how speedily this was done and yet the Quickness of the Words intimates and all reason confirms the Quickness of the thing They sinned and he spared not but instantly cast them out of Heaven into Hell For would God suffer such abominable ones to dwell any more with him They sinned in Heaven but Heaven was no Place to hold Sin and Sinners It is a Country where no Venemous thing can live and subsist and when they are Sinners they must be there no more The Case minds me of King Uzziah's Case when he was struck Leprous in the Temple the Text tells us that the Priests thrust him out yea that he himself hasted to go out For they knew and he knew very well that the Temple was too clean and holy a Place to hold Leprosie and a Lepeâ— Heaven cannot hold a Sinner no not a Moment But as soon as ever even the Angels are become Sinners away with them there is no staying for them there Nay could Heaven have been Heaven to them if it might be supposed they might have stayed there where they could see God only angry and frowning on them and the Angels that stood loathing them and abhorring their Company There they could see nothing that could be pleasing and contentive to them when God and the Holy Angels were become their Enemies and they had lost their Interest in them both and they had lost their own Purity and Glory It was time for them to pack out of Heaven even of themselves when now it was become another kind of thing than Heaven to them But God packs them out and when they had forfeited Heaven the Severity of the Lord takes the Forfeiture and away with them out of Heaven Israel in the Psalm despised the pleasant Land and therefore God excluded them for ever coming there These Rebels despised that which the pleasant Land signified and therefore they must be hurled thence that they be no longer there It is the Opinion of some that there were so many of these Angels that fell that their Number equalled the Number of all the Men Women and Children that must be saved And that God elected so many for Salvation to supply and fill up the room of these Angels that had lost Salvation Not to insist upon the just Number it is without all question that it was a vast Number of them that fell And do but imagine you saw such an infinite Company of Morning Stars not so much falling from Heaven as thrown from Heaven and not lighting upon Fountains and Rivers of Water as the Star Wormwood doth in the Revelations but lighting in Hell and Chains of Darkness And the very Imagination may reasonably read to you the dreadful Signification of the Expression God
WERE and cannot Now we are So in this Case God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin that it may be said Ye were but that now ye are not But II. Since there is mention of Servants take a Parallel viz. an Israelite saying thus God be thanked that ye were Bondmen in Egypt His meaning is especially to thank God for their Delivery out of Egypt and what accrued to them upon their being Bondmen there They had never seen so great Wonders never seen so great Deliverance had they not been Bondmen And he thanks not God barely for their Bondage but for the Good and Mercy that followed it So God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin Else ye had never known the Riches of the Grace of God else ye had never come to prize the Infiniteness of his Mercy in your Deliverance Ye had never been so careful to be Servants of Righteousness but that ye have known what Slavery it is to be Servants of Sin So that he gives not God Thanks barely for their Slavery to Sin but especially for what was come to pass with them upon their Sinfulness He would not say to any upon Earth God be thanked that ye ARE so sinful but he says God be thanked that ye VVERE and are not That God made your great Sinfulness his Opportunity to shew you Mercy X. The Papists the Millenaries and the Traditionary Jews confuted from that Place Whom the Heavens must contain until the Times of Restitution of all things c. Act. iii. 21 HE shall send Jesus Christ to you Act. iii. 20 And yet the Heavens must contain him A Paradox unless Christ could be in many Places at once VVhich the Papists would fain justifie that they may have his Body in every Sacrament And yet there is a great Truth in this Paradox if we distinguish 'twixt the very Person of Christ and the Influence that proceeds from him As God dwelleth in the highest Heaven and yet dwelleth in an humble Heart As the Sun is in the Firmament and yet the Sun in his Influence is on the Earth also So Christ in his Body and Person is in Heaven and the Heaven must contain him till the Restitution of all things and yet Christ is among Men in the Vertue of his VVord and Influence of his Spirit As the Prince is on his Throne and yet the Diffusion of his Power Justice Clemency is thro' his whole Kingdom The Presence of Christ is everywhere as he is God and his VVord and Spirit everywhere where he pleaseth to send them But that the BODY of Christ should be everywhere is utterly against all Philosophy Divinity Scripture and the Nature of a Body And the Doctrine that Christ's very Body is received by every one that receiveth the Sacrament is clean against all these and against the very Nature of a Sacrament But the thing is not worth insisting on tho' an Argument is commonly taken hence to confute that Doctrine Restitution This is a VVord of Difficulty and requires some Resolution and which being resolved will help the better to understand the rest of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Restitution or Restoring of all things Times of Restoring of all things Restitution To what To their old Estate Or to a new and a better Estate This Expression breeds the main Difficulty in this Place And this encourages the Millenary to dream of Christ's reigning here on Earth a Thousand Years before the final End of the VVorld For then they conceive the Jews shall be restored to be a People again universal Peace to be restored to all the VVorld and Swords beaten into Plow-shares and Spears into Pruning hooks Then an universal Peace Concord and Tranquility to be restored to the Church and all the Glorious Things the Prophets have spoken of to come to pass and be settled I. The VVord indeed in Greek Authors commonly signifies Restoration to a former Estate Hence Circuitus Solis the Course of the Sun from the Vernal Equinox to that Point again is called the Restoration of the Year And so is that to be understood Acts i. 6 Lord wilt thou at this Time restore the Kingdom to Israel That is that Israel shall have a Kingdom as heretofore But how does this Sense agree here The restoring of all things in the Prophets to their former Estate What former Estate can here be meant to be the Pattern of another to come And the Millenary will not agree to this Interpretation who dreams not of restoring to any former Estate but to such an one as never was before II. Therefore there may be Restoration or Restitution to a better Estate As Mat. xvii 11 Elias truly shall first come and restore all things Now Elias in the Baptist restored not all things to the former Estate but to a new and better And it is said He restored all things Yet here all things are to be restored still and the Restoration not yet effected Therefore that Restoration cannot be the Restoration here meant neither Therefore III. The meaning is Making good Accomplishing all things So Elias Baptist made good all things written of him and that concerned his Office And the Times are coming when there shall be an accomplishing and making good all Things in the Prophets And so the Arabic reads Until the Times which shall confirm the fulfilling of all those things God hath spoken by the Prophets And the Syriac not much unlike But it will be demanded then When are those Times when all things spoken by the Prophets shall be fulfilled Truly Reason it self may answer At the end of the World For have not the Prophets spoke of the end of all things and of the Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust and of the Eternal Reward of both Till that time then the Heavens must contain Christ. And where should we look for Christ at any time in any Generation but in Heaven All things that God hath spoken by the Mouth of his Holy Prophets The Apostle in so saying seems to face the saying of the Jews Traditions in this Case To give you a brief Story of their Traditions 1. Before the Captivity they had Prophets Urim Visions of God Apparitions of Angels So that in Matters of Doubt they resorted to a Prophet as Saul and his Servant to Samuel In Matters of State to Urim as David did 2. After the Captivity these ceased viz. After the first Generation No Vision no Prophet more So that in how changed a Condition were they now How destitute of their great Priviledge 3. Then the Devil saw his Opportunity and stirred up some Instruments to foist Traditions upon them instead of Oracles And they taught that God gave a written Law but an unwritten Exposition of it And some Glosses that they had invented themselves they imposed as the very Words of God to Moses at Sinai So that every fond Invention of Men now went current as the Oracles of God And this is
of Justification lay before the Divines having under their Hand the Consideration of the Homily of Justification Palmer moved that to meet with the Antinomians Repentance might go into the Definition of Justification but it would not pass But a Clause in the Homily was thought good to be inserted Viz. Which though it do not exclude Repentance and Conversion to God c. Yet doth it not include them as Parts of the Works of Justification And this Clause was voted affirmatively But Lightfoot thinking it not sufficient shewed that the Phrase Doth not exclude Repentance did not reach to meet with the Antinomians and Profane ones who abused this Doctrine And therefore he tendred the Word Required and that it should run though it do REQUIRE Repentance and Conversion c. But it was feared that word might be doubtful and therefore they rather inclined to the former Phrase Not excluding And as he shewed his Zeal against this Sect in the Assembly so his Doctrine in his Sermons was to the same Import These words he spake in one of them with much earnestness I have observed and cannot but observe again to you how much is laid in Scripture upon our discharging of our Duty towards our Neighbour upon dealing in Truth in Righteousness in Charity and Integrity with Men as if this were the very ALL we had to do The Jews say that all the Six Hundred and Thirteen Commands of the Law are summed up in those Eleven Psal. xv Reckon up those Eleven and how many of them refer to our upright and righteous dealing with our Neighbour Who shall abide in the Lord's Tabernacle Who shall dwell in his Holy Hill He that works Righteousness and speaks Truth to his Neighbour that takes not up a Reproach against his Neighbour that keeps his Oath though to his own Hurt that takes not Vsury that takes not Reward against the Innocent He that doth these things shall never be moved One would think said he the Answer to this Question Who shall abide in the Lord's Tabernacle should have been such an one as this He that is Devout and Constant in Prayer He that is a constant Hearer and much in Meditation of the Word of God He that is careful to keep the Sabbath and so to relate to the Duties of the First Table But ye see here all referrs to our dealing Fairly Truly Uprightly with our Neighbour And so Mat. xix 18 If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments He saith unto him Which Jesus saith Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not bear false Witness c. So that if you ask the Way to Sion If you enquire which Way shall I go to the Lord 's Tabernable to dwell in his Holy Hill Why Friend you must begin at a perfect and good Heart toward Men an so go along to a perfect and good Heart toward God and so to Sion God calls for such Duties towards our Neighbour as it were to set us to our ABC and Primer to learn the first Elements and Lessons of Religion Thus would he sometimes meet with the Antinomian and pull down the high-flying Religionists that were above these low Dispensations of Morality Truth Justice and upright Dealing with Men. These Doctrines therefore and such like broached by Men of unquiet Spirits he liked not and especially when they led Men away from that true Heavenly-mindedness Meekness and Humility which are the great Laws of the Gospel This was one Reason made him no Friend to the Millenary Opinion which taught Men to look for an Earthly Paradise and Reward in this World For these that dreamt of Christ's Personal Monarchy here on Earth imagined themselves also to be some of those that must reign with him and had the Best Right to the Possessions of this World Which was a Doctrine that opened a Door to Violence Rapine and all kind of Injustice to the high Disparagement also of Christ's Holy Religion On that account also he was no Friend to it but as he had occasion confuted it Those that embraced this Opinion concluded that place in the Revelations Chap. xxi 2 I John saw the Holy City the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned c. for a Description of the Times when Christ should come and reign on Earth But our Divine shewed no more to be meant by it but the State under the Gospel And that the New Jerusalem there meant nothing but the Christian Church as might be shewed at large When the Old Jerusalem in Canaan at he spake in one of his Sermons is destroyed John sees a New Jerusalem When the Old Church of the Jews is cast away he sees a New Church And this Church is said to come down from Heaven A Saint is Heaven-born and is Heavenly while he is here upon Earth From Heaven he comes and to Heaven he must return He is born from above Adorned and Drest from Heaven and in a Heavenly Dress And he is Drest for Heaven The Millenaries made use also of that Expression of the Apostle in the Acts Chap. iii. 21 That the Heavens must retain Christ till the Restitution of all Things Against whom thus he Armed his Auditors This encourageth the Millenary to Dream of Christ's Reigning here on Earth a Thousand Years before the Final End of the World and Swords must be then beaten into Plowshares and Spears into Pruning-Hooks Then an Universal Peace Concord and Tranquility is to be restored to the Church and all the Glorious Things the Prophets have spoken of to come to pass and be settled But as to that Place the Doctor shewed there were two manners of restoring things viz. to their old Estate or to a new and better The Millenary himself dreamt not of restoring to any former Estate And if it be meant of restoring to a new and better that is done already when Elias came and restored all things Mat. xvii 11 And our Divine shewed that this Restoration or Restitution signified no more but that all things in the Prophets should be made good or accomplished This is learnedly treated of in the last Discourse of the Third Decad. To which I refer the Reader The Perfectionists that pretended to live without Sin he saw wanted that Humility and Modesty and constant dependence upon God's Grace that was necessary to the Christian State and therefore by no means approved of them neither And endeavoured to Arm his People against that Doctrine And what his Thoughts were of it may be seen in the first Discourse of the Third Decad. Where to pull down the Plumes of this Vain-Glorious Generation he shewed that a Saint of God in his imperfect Condition did exceed Adam himself in his unsinning Condition in divers respects 4. He was in fine one that had a mighty Concern for the Honour of God and Religion That God might be served in Spirit and Truth Which was
And so they maintain it is lawful to Excommunicate Depose Murder Princes out of Zeal to Religion And so they made it lawful nay laudable to murder so many innocent Souls in that Massacre in France Against Transubstantiation I hope every one laughs at the Doctrine of Transubstantion that will fetch Christ from Heaven at every Sacrament The Master-piece of Delusion Satan shews here how much Delusion he can practice in the greatest Ignorance For a Man against Sense and Reason Philosophy and Divinity to believe a Priest can calâ— Christ out of Heaven and turn a piece of Bread into his very Body The strangest Madness in the World I see it feel it Bread and yet must believe it Flesh. I know it was made yesterday by the Baker yet now I must believe it turned into my Creator I know Christ is in Heaven and yet must believe that he is here on Earth The Heathen were never more blind And against the immoral Doctrine of Equivocation Whereof he thus vehemently express'd himself I cannot but admire the Impudency as well as abhor the Wickedness of the Jesuits Doctrine of Equivocation A Doctrine that hath put on a Whore's Forehead a brazen Face and the Devil's Impudency it self before Men as well as it hath clothed it self with horrid Abominableness before God It is a Doctrine that teacheth Men to Lye and yet will maintain they Lye not And by their Doctrine there can be no Lying Forswearing or Deceiving in the World though they Lye Forswear and Deceive never so deeply A Trick beyond the Devils He turns Truth into a Lye These can turn a Lye into Truth A Popish Priest or Jesuite is brought before a Protestant Magistrate He puts him to his Oath Are you a Popish Priest or a Jesuite They will Swear NO roundly and make no Bones of it having this Reserve in their Mind I am not a Priest to you or I am not a Priest of the English Church or I am not a Jesuite to tell you or be your Confessor or some such lurking reserved Thought in his Mind This Man hath not told a Lye tho' he speaks not a Word true He hath not taken a False Oath though he hath Sworn Falsly As the Devil changeth himself into an Angel of Light so these a Lye into a Truth But as he is a Lyar still and is most dangerous when he seems a good Angel so is their Lye when they thus Cloath it with the pretence of Truth Into their secret let not my Soul come and with their Counsil my Glory be not thou united Finally He shewed them the Preference of the Protestant Religion before that of the Papists This is the Reason saith he that so many Protestants turn Papists This he spake in the Year 1674. Because Popery opens an easier way to Heaven a Thousand fold than the Protestant doth Add to this the Viciousness of the Times And the more Viciousness abounds the more will such Apostacy abound according to the intimation of our Saviour Matth. xxiv Because Iniquity shall abound the Love of many to God and his Truth shall wax cold Men would fain enjoy their Pleasures here and yet go to Heaven too They would fain have their Paradise here and have Paradise hereafter This Popery helps them too almost with a wet Finger Hath a Man committed Whoredom Adultery been Guilty of Deceit Luxury Uncharitableness let him go and Confess himself to a Priest and the Priest absolves him and those Sins are gone and there is no more danger of them Or Oh! For how many Thousand Sins for how many Thousand Years can the Pope Pardon him How may Pilgrimage to such a Saint fetch him off How may so many Fastings so many Ave Maries so often lying in Hair-cloth so many Masses make all well and out of Danger That it is as easie almost with them to get to Heaven as for a Man to do his ordinary Days Work But the Protestant Doctrine makes obtaining Salvation a harder Task according to the Truth of the Scripture John vi you read of divers that went away from Christ because they thought his Doctrine a Hard Saying So doth the poor Protestant Religion lose Followers upon the same account None is of poor Michaiah's side because he speaks Truth and Home But let Ahab have the Four Hundred false Prophets for they will be sure to make all well for him let him do what he will There are Four Hundred and Four Hundred false Prophets in the Popish Cause that will warrant the veriest Ahab that ever was Heaven If he have but Money to fee them well will Pray him to Heaven Sing him to Heaven Pardon him to Heaven and he shall never see Hell and it may be not Purgatory It is easie to see by this Comparison which is the truer and better Religion of the Two By these and such like sound and sober Discourses he built up his People committed to his Charge in Truth and Godliness So that it is reported he had not a Dissenter in his Parish The People of his Flock Honest Quiet and Industrious his Church constantly and conscientiously repaired to every Lord's Day with due Devotion And thus I have at length dispatched what I had to say both of our Author and these Remains of his which are now made Publick And I who have once more revived the Memory of this great Ornament of Literature and of our Church of England shall I hope not only be Pardoned but merit some Thanks from the Piously Learned and Sober-Minded Rank of Men. I had some inclination to have added a Fourth Tract of this Author's Namely A Chronicle of Events and Occurrences in the World under the Kings of France and the Ottoman Emperour made by one Joseph a Priest who lived about the Times of Henry VIII Being a Fair Translation out of Hebrew into English done by the Doctor 's own Hand Which he seemed to have taken all this pains about because the History is interspersed with what befel Jerusalem after the Destruction of it by Titus the Emperor and with the Wars waged by divers Kings and Princes for the Gaining and Possession of that Place once so famous for being the Spot of all the Earth appointed for God's Holy Temple to be built on and for the Son of God to Converse and Die and Redeem the World in And also because here is set forth by the Pen of a Jew himself the State and Condition of the Jews in the latter Times and particularly the sad Persecutions and Calamities that befel them by the just Judgment of God in these Western Parts of the World as well as in other Parts by the German and French Nations Whereby might be seen some History of that Desolate Forsaken People and of the Scourge of God upon them in successive Generations ever since they Rejected and Crucified their Messiah and took the Guilt of his Blood upon themselves and their Children The State of which People from Age to Age
And in one and the same Year both Father and Son dye Divers such Passages as these you will find in this Story of the Kings if you will but cast it into Annals after this manner as be these Ahaziah Two Years older than his Father 2 Chron. xxii 2 Baasha fighting Nineteen Years after he is dead 2 Chron. xvi 1 Jotham reigning Four Years after he is buried 2 King xv 30 Joram crowned King in the Seventeenth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King i. 17 compared with 1 King xxii 51 And in the Two and Twentieth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King viii 16 And after Jehoshaphat's Death 2 Chron. xxi 1 Variety of such strange things are to be found by taking this course which otherwise you can never see nor doubt of For Resolution of such Ambiguities when you have found them the Text will do it if it be well searched Conference with some Man or other learned and practiced in this way will soon resolve and remove all Scruples One Month or two spent thus with a living Guide will profit more than Seven Years Study spent according to the common way of reading the Bible This way attained to will guide you it self in what else is agreeable to profitable reading As in marking those things that seem to be Contradictions in the Text or Slips of the Holy Ghost in which always is admirable Wisdom Parallels of Times Places and Persons c. Which if you once fix sadly to make a Scripture-Chronicle you cannot slip unmarked and it will be enough to me to see you Doubt I know your Doubting will not rest till resolved I have here briefly run before you the Order of Scripture as I conceive the Continuance of the History requires it to lye If you will but settle to make a Scripture Chronicle this is needless for that will search out the Order for you So that you may spare your Labour of reading this that I have written and then I need not to excuse my Confusedness in it for haste Yet if you do read it it may shew you the Necessity of that that I so instantly urge viz. Skill in the Chronicle For if there be whole Chapters and Books laid out of their Places and the reason thereof commonly most sweet what may we expect in smaller Bulk of things as Genealogies Names Speeches Years Quotations c. but strange Variations yet always Divine Admirable it is to see how the Holy Spirit of God in Discords hath shewed the sweetest Music. But few Men mark this because few â—ake a right course in reading of Scripture Hence when Men are brought to see flat Contradictions as unreconciled there be many in it they are at amaze and ready to deny their Bible A little Pains right spent will soon amend this wavering and settle Men upon the Rock whereon to be built is to be sure SECT II. THE Canonical Books of the Bible are Seventy if the Psalms be parted into Five like the Seventy Souls that built up the House of Israel The Apocrypha speaks for it self that it is not the Finger of God but the Work of some Jews Which got it so much Authority among Christians because it came from them from whom the lively Oracles of God indeed came also But the Talmud may be read to as good Advantage and as much Profit and far more Leviathan reserved to be eaten 2 Esdra vi 52 is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. R. Sol. Elias 〈…〉 of all tastes in Wisd. xvi 20 21. is Jewish R. Sol. in Num. xi Paradise created before the World is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. ii Pirke R. Eliezer R. Nephtali Bel and the Dragon is a Jewish Parable from Jer. li. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon and I will bring forth out of his Mouth that which he hath swallowed up c. 〈◊〉 blessing Simeon for the Slaughter of 〈◊〉 is worse than Jewish Jud. ix 2 c. flat against Jacob who curseth the Fact and against Moses who for it leaves him out of his Blessings Deut. xxxiii Tobit's Chronology is worse than Heathenish Tob. xiv 4 and 15. making the Ruin of Nineveh by Nebuchadnezzar to depend upon Jonah's Prophecy Whereas since Jonah's Prophesie that City had been deâ—â—royed by Arbaces and Belosus and built again and stood the Succession of Seven or Eight Kings and near about Two Hundred Years before it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar So might one censure the rest but Verbum Sapienti Believe not every Spirit SECT III. GENESIS CHAP. I. THE Law begins with the Creation because by the Creature is our first Step to the Knowledge of God Rom. i. 20 Ps. xix It teacheth the end from the beginning the Resurrection from the Creation For if God made Man of Dâ—st he can raise him our Spiritual Union with God in Glory even in our Body by the Union of our Spirit and Body in Creation God not named Jehovah till the Creation be perfect for special Reason The second Days Work not approved but the third twice Heaven and Earth created in one and the same instant as Center and Circumference The First Day The Heavens are made perfect and move as soon as ever they are made and with them are created the Angels But the Earth is unformed and vast all covered over with Water And the Spirit of God by the Motion of the Heavens cherisheth the inferior Creature of Earth and Waters Twelve Hours did the Heavens move in Darkness and then by God's Appointment Light appeared in that Hemisphere in which God had decreed that the Light of Religion should first shine And there it gave Lustre for Twelve Hours more declining by degrees with the Motion of the Heavens to the other Hemisphere where it also shone Twelve Hours So that the first Day to that part of the World was †So long was Joshuah's Day when the Sun stood still and so long was Christ under Death Six and Thirty Hours long The Second Day As soon as ever the Light was gone off from this upper Horizon God commanded that instead of that Vacuity which was between the Waters that covered the Earth and the Clouds which were created full of Water in the same instant with the Heavens the Air should be spread abroad throughout the Universe And in Four and Twenty Hours the Command is accomplished The Third Day The Waters that cover the Earth at God's Command recoil Westward into those Channels which God had appointed them And still as they go away and dry Land appears Herbs Plants and Trees with their ripe Seed and Fruit upon them grow instantly out of the Earth This Day God plants the pleasant Garden of †The Story of Eden Gen. 11. ver 9 10 11 12 13 14. in proper Order should lye between ver 12 and 13. of this Chapter But Moses hath reserved the History of that to be handled at Adam's being placed in it Because he would dispatch his Treatise of Generals before he come
the Public Congregation on the Sabbath-day it is these Men's Custom not to come there He never absented himself from the Public Meeting these Men account it Religion to absent themselves ever Is our Public Service more corrupt than theirs was then If it be let them shew it If it be not let these Men give a reason why they go so directly cross to our Saviour's own Practice VIII A Meditation and Explanation of the HOPE of Christians according to the Apostles Account of it Heb. vi 17 18 19 20. THAT there is such a thing the Apostle confirms and what a thing it is he illustrates by two Particulars apiece I. The Sureness of this HOPE he confirms especially by these two things First It is made certain by God's Promise and his Oath Two immutable things in which it is impossible God should lie Secondly That Christ is gone into Heaven before as an undoubted Pledge of the Hope for us that is laid up there II. The Nature or Quality of this Hope he sets out especially by two things also First That it is an Anchor of the Soul Sure and Stedfast Secondly That it entreth into that which is within the Vail The Hope that is here spoken of the very VVords in which it is mentioned do shew what it means viz. not the Hope in us but the Hope set before us To lay hold of the Hope set before us Not the Acting of our Hope but the Object of it or what is hoped for As the Scripture when it mentions Faith frequently means the Object of Faith or the thing believed This Distinction of Hope in us and Hope set before us see by comparing 1 Pet. iii. 15 with the VVords we have in Hand Be ready always to give an Answer to every Man that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you That they might do but of the Hope set before them it was not so ready to give a Reason Because it is above all Humane Reason that such Hopes should be set before poor sinful Men therefore the Socinians that would have all things believed to be measured by Humane Reason alledge that Place of S. Peter to little Purpose For it speaks not of giving a Reason why such things were to be hoped for for that is alone to be resolved into God's Grace and Goodness which is unfathomable to our Reason but to give a Reason and Account what Ground they had to hope for such things Which Reason must be fetched from their own Conscience and Conversation as well as from God's Grace and Promises Now what these things hoped for are I need not spend time to reckon They are whatsoever God affordeth for the Blessedness of the Soul here or hereafter Grace and Glory Redemption and Salvation the Spirit of God here and the full Enjoyment of God for ever And accordingly this Hope is called The Hope of Eternal Life Tit. i. 2 The Hope of Salvation 1 Thess. v. 8 The Hope of Glory and the Hope of the Gospel Col. i. 23 27. That is whatsoever the Gospel holds out as declared for and of Man's Blessedness As Col. i. 4 For the Hope which is laid up for you in Heaven whereof ye heard before in the Word of the Truth of the Gospel One peculiar Hope which indeed is the Cause of all the rest we shall observe by and by So that to speak of this Hope I might Discourse of the Excellency Dignity and Certainty of these things hoped for But I shall but touch the Nature of them as the Apostle gives a Character of it Viz. That this Hope is an Anchor of the Soul that it is sure and stedfast that it entreth into that within the Vail Every one of which Particulars hath its Worth and Weight I. The Expression that it is the Anchor of the Soul supposeth that a Soul in this World is as a Ship at Sea ready to be tumbled and tossed and carried with every Wind if it do not anchor upon the Hope that is set before us within the Vail And blessed be the God of all Hope that hath provided such an Anchor for poor Souls That he hath not left us to the Mercy of the Merciless Sea and Blasts of this World but hath shewed us where we may lye at Anchor and be safe II. This Anâ—hor is sure and stedfast in it self and no Moveableness or Weakness in it but like him that laid it up there without any Change or Shadow of turning And here I might shew that it is sure in regard of him that laid it up in regard of it self and in regard of the certain Promises that he hath made of it I shall cite but this one Place for all Tit. i. 2 In Hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began It is most sure because God hath promised because God that cannot lie hath promised and because he hath promised before the World was that is before the Law III. This Hope that is set before us entreth into that within the Vail You see there is a plain Allusion to the High Priests entring into the most Holy Place within the Vail once a Year And that very Hint doth intimate what the Apostle mainly aims at when he speaks of the Hope set before us Viz. The Blood of Christ or the Merit of his Blood in Heaven As the High Priest went into the most Holy Place with Blood And that was the great Day Time and Manner of Atonement for the Sins of the People So that indeed the Blood of Christ or the Merit of his Death is the HOPE we have in Heaven And that is the proper Cause of all the other things that I mentioned Grace Glory Redemption Salvation all purchased for his People with his Blood The Blood of Christ was shed on Earth but the Merit of it is with God in Heaven One Deep calleth to another through the Noise of the Water-Pipes The Deeps of his Sufferings and Sorrows here speak and have their Claim above in Heaven As the Prophet Esay speaks I have laboured in vain and spent my Strength for Nought but my Reward is in Heaven This that our Hope hath to anchor in is the Blood of Christ brought in within the Vail the Merit of Christ placed before God to answer for us to plead for us to pay for us So that we may have strong Consolation and a sure Hold if we cast Anchor there IX An Inquiry why the Jews were so importunate with Christ for Signs and Wonders And why he was so backward to gratifie their Curiosity therein THE Apostle tells us The Jews require a Sign 1 Cor. i. 22 And the Evangelists attest it when they give a particular Account of their so doing from our Saviour in divers Places And he himself confirms it John iv 48 Jesus said Except ye see Signs and Wonders ye will not believe The Person there consider'd to whom he spake it may be may illustrate the
thing the more Our English in the Text calls him A Noble Man in the Margin A Courtier ver 46. And the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that he was one that belonged to the King one of Herod's Courtiers Now in that Court time was when John Baptist was heard reverenced and followed Mark vi 17 But John did no Miracles shewed no Signs John x. 41 therefore at last John's Head goes to the Block Now the reason why the Jews were so requiring of Signs and Wonders besides their Hardness of Heart that would not believe without a Miracle was because they had not had a Prophet among them of so long a time It was full Four Hundred Years since the Spirit of Prophecy departed from the Nation For since the Death of Zachary and Malachi there had been no Prophet among them till these times no nor any that had taken upon him to be a Prophet therefore it is no wonder if when Christ came among them in the Evidence of a Prophet they require him to shew some Wonders that they might thereby be confirmed that he was a true Prophet and not a false Here now at his first coming into his Temple after his entring into his Publick Ministry by his Baptism he reforms and refines as the last of the Prophets before Prophecy ceased had foretold Mal. iii. 1 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple And he shall sit as a Purifier and Refiner of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi. He overthrows the Tables of the Money-Changers and whips the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple in the Authority of a Prophet or Messias I say the Jews Dost thou these things so authoritatively I pray thee what Sign shewest thou to prove that thou art either Messias or Prophet Nay Secondly they were so urgent in requiring Signs from him that they require a Wonder when they had newly seen a Wonder nay Wonder after Wonder like him in the Poet's Fiction that stood Chin deep in Water and was still thirsty and seeking after Water Observe but two Passages 1. In Mat. xii 22 there is a Man blind and dumb and possessed with a Devil and Christ heals him Three Miracles in one And to have done any one of them either to have given Sight to the Blind or Speech to the Dumb or to dispossess one possessed had been enough and enough again to have convinced any much more when he wrought all these things at once And yet at ver 38. Certain of the Scribes and Pharisees say to him Master We would see a Sign from thee 2. In John vi at the beginning of the Chapter he feeds Five Thousand Persons with Five Loaves and Two Fishes Who that had seen such a Sign and Miracle but would have said as they do ver 14. This is of a Truth that Prophet that should come into the World And yet some of those very Men that had seen that Miracle eaten of that Miracle and confessed him that of a Truth he was that Prophet c. yet are at it ver 30. What Sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee c. Why What would these Men have Can they tell themselves Yes and I will tell you Their foolish and blind Traditions had taught them to look for these two Signs and Wonders from the Messias when he came First That he should raise the old Prophets and the old Holy famous Men from the Dead Secondly That he should bring down Manna from Heaven for them In their old Writings and Records they speak much of these two things of their Expectation And I might shew some Hint in the Gospel that they expected such things Therefore let Christ do never so many Miracles yet they will not be satisfied unless they see him do one or both these things but are still urging and requiring What Sign shewest thou Now they are not so urgent to ask a Sign as our Saviour is backward to satisfie their Curiosity in such a thing And to observe what Return he made to their Demand of a Sign which was a second thing I mentioned to speak to let us consider these two things First That he never did nor never could be brought to shew them a Sign as a meer Sign You remember his own Words A Wicked and Adulterous Generation require a Sign but no Sign shall be given them Mat. xii 39 I call that a meer Sign which is barely a Sign and nothing else A Wonder shewed â—owaâ—d confirming the Doctrine or Authority of him that shews it and it proves no moâ—â— The â—urning of Moses Rod into a Serpent and thâ— Serpent into a Râ—d again was a bare Sign or Wonder to confirm Mâ—seâ— Authority and it was no more Bâ—t the Signs and Wonders that he wrought after in turning Water into Blood bringing Frogs c. were more than Signs for they were also Plagues on 〈◊〉 as well as Miracles So the Miracles and Wonders which our Saviour did healing the Sick cleansing Lepers casting out Devils were more thâ—n meer Signs for they were for the Bodily Benefit of those upon whom they were wrought But meer Sign which was barely a Sign and no more he never shewed never could be brought to shew among them And I remember not more than one meer Sign spoken of in all the New Testament and that was Paul's shaking the Viper off his Hand into the Fire and feeling no Hurt by her Which the Church of Rome might have done well to have considered of before they had made Miracles so great a Sign of their Church as they do Secondly To their requiring of a Sign our Saviour once and again returns an Answer about his own Resurrâ—ction Mat. xii 39 There shall no Sign be given unto it but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas Meaning as Jonas was Three Days and Three Nights in the Whale's Belly and at last cast out of his Belly on the Shoar again so Christ should be Three Days and Three Nights in the Grave and then should be restored to Life again And John ii when they require a Sign he returns a like Answer Destroy this Temple and in Three Days I will raise it up That is this shall be an undeniable Sign to you that I am he that is to come that when you have destroyed this Temple of my Body and put me to Death in Three Days I will raise it up again Which was to be the great Proof and Sign whereby he evidenced himself to be the Son of God or the Messias namely by his Resurrection from the Dead Rom. i. 4 X. An Explanatory Discourse of the Fall and Punishment of Angels WE look not now upon these Creatures in their Brightness and Lustre in the Perfection of their Nature and Nobleness of their Creation Angels Morning Stars Courtiers of Heaven Attendants in God's own Chamber of Presence But are to see them in a clear contrary dismal and dreery Condition
Wilfulness to have their own Will contrary to the Will of God 2. Now in what particulars this their Wilfulness centered and what it was in which they would have their own Minds contrary to the Mind of God may be the better conjectured by tracing them a little from their Creation to their Fall They were Created as is most probable at the very first bâ—ginning of the Works of God when he laid the Foundation of the Earth the very first instant of the Creation Moses indeed does not mention their Creation at all because he would treat only of things Visible The Great Book of Nature and the Letters of that Book which Men see and from them read the Invisible things of God His Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20 Upon their first Creation they break into Singing and Praising God upon the Sight of the Glory of him that Created them upon the Sense of the Gloriousness in which themselves were created and upon Observation of the Infinite Power of the the Creator From that first instant they were Spectators of God's proceeding in the Six Days Creation They see him make the Firmament and the Sun Moon and Stars of Heaven They see him command the Waters that covered the Earth into their Bounds and Channels and they Obey him They see him lay the Earth dry and plant it with all manner of Trees and Vegetables and Beasts They see the whole Progress of the Creation and Sing and Praise and Shout for Joy all along For no cause why they should rebel hitherto can be imagined But at last and the last of his Creation God makes Man in his own Image in as Happy a Condition as an Earthly Creature could be capable of He makes him Lord of all the Creatures Nay he chargeth the Angels themselves to attend upon him and to be Ministring Spirits to him for his good As the Apostle tells us their Charge and Employment Heb. i. ult This some of them embraced with all willingness of Mind partly out of most ready Obedience to God for whom they saw they could never do too much who had done so much for them and partly out of pure love to Man whom they saw God had made their Brother having stamped him with his own Image as well as themselves Now as to the others that fell what can we imagine to have been the reason of their Fall more probably and properly than that they envied this Honour and Dignity of Adam and scorned to obey the Command and Charge that God had laid upon them to attend upon him What Must a Piece of Clay be so Honoured as to be Lord of the whole Creation Must a lump of Earth be waited on by Angels And he that is but Dust and Ashes must he be attended on by such Morning Stars the Attendents of Heaven No they scorn this Service They account themselves too good to do it It is a business below their Dignity And so for this Malice against Man and his Honour and their Pride against God and his Command from Angels they become Devils and from Heaven they are cast into Hell and Reserved there in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the last Day For a more proper Reason and Means of their Fall I suppose can hardly be given And their continual Malice and Hate to Mankind doth very much confirm it And I believe Eliphaz Job v. 2 doth speak something home to it He had said Ch. iv 18 That God put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with Folly Much less might he put trust in poor Man that dwelleth in a House of Clay c. And then he comes on and says Call now if there be any that will answer thee And to which of the Saints wilt thou look For Wrath Killeth the Foolish and Envy Slayeth the Silly one The Papists would fain wrest this passage to prove the Invocation of Saints Departed because there is mention made of Calling and Looking to the Saints But the meaning of the Holy Man looks clean another way viz. to this Tenour Call and look about to all the Saints and Holy Ones whatsoever And where can you find any that God may put trust in For Wrath killeth the Foolish and Envy slayeth the Silly One. Wrath against God and Envy against Man Killed the Foolish and Silly Angels So that God did justly charge them with Folly And very justly indeed take Folly in its most common acceptation And let this that we have mentioned be their Sin and Fall or be it something else as some other Reasons are given they were Fools to purpose to forsake Heaven when they might have kept there To leave their own Habitation saith the Apostle Jude and might have inhabited there still To be in so Blessed Company God and Holy Angels and would forsake it In so Blessed Employment as Praising and Singing and would leave it off In the Blessed Presence of God in his Favour in his Enjoyment and weary of these things Have I been a Wilderness to Israel saith God and a Land of Darkness Is Heaven become a Wilderness a Land of Weariness and Tyring that they that are there should be weary of it What could be in these Creatures Minds to make them so Mad and Desperate so Foolish and Besotted The Raze-brain'd Prodigal to forsake his Father's House where it was so well with him and to go to wander he knew not whither Had he been asked a Reason why he would do so he could have given no better than this Because I will do so And these could be moved by no other Reason than this unreasonable one they were desperately bent to have their own Will though to the defiance of the Will of God Be that their Sin that we have spoken of or be it what else it will it was without all doubting their crossing of the Will of God to have their own Wills and violating some of his Commands upon some wilful bent to have their own Mind It was not Ignorance of what he would have them to do For they knew his Will as well as those Angels that stood in Obedience but they would not do what he would have them It was not of Weakness or Disability to do what he would have them for there is no Reason to think otherwise but that they had the same ability of Obedience that the other had But it was a desperate Wilfulness and a sturdy Resolvedness to have their own Wills let the Will of God be what it will Had one been there to have questioned these Rebels when they first set upon their Rebellion what do you think to do Do you think to better your Estates by crossing him that set you in your happy Estate Or do you think to cross God that made you and he not to meet with you Or do you think your Malice to Adam will any whit abate God's Favour to him Well be it what it will in event we will take
to be esteemed Evangelical Holiness or Absolute Perfection THERE is a Generation among us that talk of their Perfection and Pharisaically Boast that they are perfect In which you can hardly tell whether they bewray more Arrogance and Pride or more Ignorance and Folly Folly in that they think they pay such absolute Perfection which it is impossible for poor sinful Man to pay and Ignorance in that they do not know that God does not require such Perfection as they dream of and talk of in their Dreams Well what then is it the Lord requires I might give the Prophet's Answer Mic. vi 8 To do justly and love Mercy and walk humbly with God But I may give it in one Word HOLINESS It is Holiness that the Lord requires and not such Perfection of Pharisee or Quaker that the Lord requires It was Holiness to the Lord that was written in the Forehead of Aaron in a Plate of Gold and it is Holiness that God would have his to be marked with Need I to cite Scriptures that speak his Mind Levit. xi 44 Ye shall sanctifie your selves and ye shall be Holy for I am the Lord Lev. xix 2. Ye shall be Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy 2 Cor. vii 1 Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God 1 Thes. iv 3 For this is the Will of God even your Sanctification or Holiness And this his requiring Holiness abates much of requiring absolute Perfection For perfect Obedience is one thing and holy Obedience another It is utterly impossible to pay absolute Perfectness but it is not impossible to pay Holiness Thousands of holy ones that have done it are a Cloud of Witnesses And hereupon this Point I may propose to you one or two things that may seem Paradoxes and strange things but yet which carry with them Truth and Soberness I. That Holiness tho' cheaper than absolute Perfection yet is more precious than the absolutest Perfection that ever Man attained to here and that was Adam's in Innocency It is cheaper because it may be attained to here which absolute Perfection here cannot be and yet it is more excellent because being attained to it will never fail which Adam's Perfection did in three Hours God aimed Man at an absolute unchangeable Perfection in Heaven and in Tendency hereunto he created Man in a Perfection on Earth but changeable And his Perfection was so soon changed that it lasted but about Three Hours And it so sore changed that it became most absolute Imperfection And where is poor Man now What is now become of that most absolute Perfection to which God aimed him in Heaven Who will bring me into the strong City Who will bring me into Edom What will now bring him to Heaven What will now bring him to his unchangeable Perfection The poor Man that is travelling 'twixt Jerusalem and Jericho and fallen among Thieves and wounded and left half dead how will this poor Man get home or to his Journeys end A Priest passes by and he helps him not His Natural Perfection in which he was created can help him nothing for that is quite lost and gone A Levite passes by and helps him not The natural Faculties and Abilities that are left in him they can help him little For they are grown now but â—nfirmities and Imperfections But it is the good Samaritan that must do the Work It is Holiness that we speak of that must heal and recover For in it is the Work of Christ and the Holy Ghost as well as any Work of the Saint himself Whereas in the greatest Perfection of Adam in Innocency there was only the Strength of created Nature I might in many things shew the excellent Estate of a Saint endued with Holiness above the State of Adam in Innocency but I shall only briefly mention these two things 1. That a Saint of God in the State of Holiness that we speak of hath a better Will toward God than Adam had in Innocency and a better Obedience toward God than Adam had in Innocency This you will say is strange since Adam then had no Mixture of Sin in him and a Saint of God be he never so holy hath Do but consider this A Saint of God desires with all his Soul to keep in with God labours with all his Endeavour to obey God If Adam would have done so he could have done it If he had desired with all his Soul to have kept in with God he could have kept in with God If he had used his Endeavour to have obeyed God and not to have sinned against him he could have done it So that his Will clave not so close to God as a Saint's endued with Holiness doth And a Saint tho' sinful yet sins not so wilfully so willingly as Adam when he might have stood He sins because he cannot help it Adam could have helped it and yet he would sin Now guess whose Will and Mind was in better Condition 2. How much more desirable the State of a Saint in Holiness is than the State of Adam in his Perfection in Innocency guess but by one Particular to spare more And that you may take up from those Words of the Apostle 2 Pet. i. 4 Whereby we are made Partakers of the Divine Nature And so Adam was not He was made Partaker of the Divine Workmanship but not of the Divine Nature He was not made Partaker of the Holy Spirit in the VVork of Sanctification as a Saint of God is But all his Holiness all his Perfection was rooted and grounded only in his own excellently created Nature So that by this you see the Truth of the Paradox I proposed that tho' Holiness is cheaper to come by than absolute Perfection for it may be come by and the other cannot yet it is more Excellent Precious and Advantageous II. A second Paradox I have to propose upon this Point is That God in requiring Holiness doth not require that we should be sinless for that he knows is impossible but he requires that we should not sin Go and sin no more is what Christ required of the Man healed at the Pool of Bethesda and of the VVoman taken in Adultery And it is the All he requires from us Go and sin no more I and it is enough and enough again you will say for who can do it Sin no more Is not that impossible while we are sinful And in many things we sin all as the Apostle tells us Jam. iii. 2 Sin no more that is the State of Heaven where the Saint is got above all Corruption and Temptation But little one may think to find any such thing on Earth But I will not be afraid to say that the Meaning of sinning no more in a Gospel Sense is to sin no more wilfully to sin no more knowingly customarily habitually to leave off to be a Sinner and to be Holy He that cloths himself with Holiness sins no more But doth not Holiness suppose Sinlesness For the
Particulars 1. Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it What for all that make an outward Profession Adulterers Fornicators Drunkards and the like Doth he love such Doth he give himself for such Many and many better Professors shall be refused of Christ at the great Day because they were not sincere in their Profession tho' not so abominable in Conversation Mat. vii 22 23. Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name done many marvellous Works And then I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that Work Iniquity We cannot think that such were so abominable in their Conversation but Christ found they were not sincere in Profession The foolish Virgins we cannot imagine that they were Whores for they were Virgins Or that they were abominable in their Lives but they were foolish drowsie and negligent Now if Christ is so far from owning such as are so fair-carriaged think you he owns loves and gave himself for horrid Wretches that despise him 2. The true Church is cleansed sanctified without Spot or Wrinkle Look on the most nay almost all in the visible Church that make an outward Profession and do they carry such a Mark How few are there upon whose Conversation is Holiness to the Lord As Tit. i. 16 They profess that they know God but in Works deny him At Christ's Table there was One Devil to Eleven Saints in the visible Church it is well if there be one Saint to many Devils One of a City and Two of a Tribe like a few Berries after beating the Olive-Tree I may use the Stile of Eliphaz Job xxii 15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked Men have trodden Mark the way of the World which most Men walk in Observe how unsuitable it is to the Gospel to the Example of Christ and the Discharge of a good Conscience And then look upon these Marks of the true Church of God And then judge whether it be not true that the Church of God is the least part of the VVorld and the least part of the Church visible Our Saviour asserts the former in Fear not little Flock c. Also the latter in Many are called but few are chosen Many in outward Profession in the visible Church but few truly the Church of God And so we may answer that Cavil of the Papists we spake of before Where was your Religion all the time of Popery Answer In the Scripture Had a Jew questioned a Heathen at his first Conversion Where was your Religion heretofore He might have answered In the Scriptures We profess nothing but what is in the Scripture As Acts xxvi 22 Saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come But where was our Church It was but invisible Some there were that worshipped God according to Scripture that he saw and knew tho' invisible and unknown to Men. That then that we are to believe in this Article is I. That God ordinarily hath had hath and will have a visible Church for the glorifying of his Word and Name But II. Tho' the Church be not visible yet God hath always some that belong to him and serve him And this is the Church of God tho' not to be discerned of Men. These most properly are the Church as Ecclesia signifies that is Called out A People called out of the World tho' in the World yet called out of it so that they are not of it Called off from the Course Way Doings of the World as it were into another Climate Many are called that is Have the Call held out to them but they follow it not called to but not called out But these as the Apostles did follow the Call of Christ and forsake the World Called to be Saints and they become Saints or Holy Now for further Explication and Illustration of this Article I shall descend to enquire into two Questions I. Whether every Christian who is bound to believe that there is a Church is bound also to believe that he is of this Church II. How far Christians are obliged to believe the Church that is Councils Synods or Primitive Fathers I. Whether every Christian is bound to believe that he is of this Church For certainly it seems strange for Men to believe as Standers by only as if they were not concerned in the thing believed I believe that there is a holy chosen number to be saved that God delights in them that they faithfully serve him and that they have Communion with God Forgiveness of their Sins But what is all this to thee What art thou the better for it And therefore certainly the Article hath further aim than to intend only a bare Belief But doth it reach to this I believe I am of this number To proceed gradually first let me observe two things by the way 1. That nothing is to be believed as a necessary Point of Faith but it concerns the Soul therefore believing of it must be to benefit the Soul Corde creditur ad justitiam With the Heart Man believeth to Righteousness It is not all to believe the thing is true but fâ—rther to believe so as the Soul may have Advantage Take an Instance One of the first things in Religion to be believed is That the Scriptures are the Word of God and divinely true This who believes not The Devil himself cannot deny it Nay he cited Scripture as the Word of God to our Saviour And there are Thousands in Hell that never made doubt of this Therefore the believing of this must have a further reach that the Soul may receive Benefit upon so believing 2. The believing the needful Points of Religion is not an Act of the Understanding only but of the Will and Conscience also It is a Question Whether Faith be an Act of the Understanding or Will And it is concluded of both especially the latter I believe that there was a Julius Caesar an Alexander Magnus Here is only an Act of the Understanding because I have no more to do with it but only to believe it But I believe that Christ was born died rose again that there is Forgiveness of Sins that there is a God an Heaven a Day of Judgment And in reference to these I have something more to do than barely to satisfie my Understanding that the things are true For I have to work my Will and Affections upon my Belief that my Soul may be benefited to Eternity These things premised let us apply to the thing in Hand Then I am not only barely to believe that there is a Church but my Soul is to be working upon this Belief for its Good to be affected in Heart according to the Import of the thing believed And this may be upon a twofold Reflexion When I say I believe a Holy Catholick Church that there is always a Company of
Holy Men that truly fear God Sursum corda then lift up your Hearts First To be affected with the Goodness and good Providence of God that picketh out and preserveth such a Company to himself Not to think of the Church on Earth but to have such a thought also towards Heaven hereat to observe admire and be affected with God's wonderful Goodness in that regard Such are the Apostle's Thoughts upon the Thoughts of the Church He looks on the Church of Corinth once such a People as he describes 1 Cor. vi 9 10. Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners But now Washed Sanctified Justified And where are his Thoughts Up toward God 1 Cor. i. 4 I thank God always on your Behalf for the Grace of God which is given you So he looks on the Church of the Ephesians Chap. i. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings c. So on that of the Philippians Ch. i. 3 I thank my God upon every Remembrance of you And so to the Thessalonians 2 Thess. i. 2 We give Thanks to God always for you all And so should a Christian presly thinking of the Church of God have his Heart in Heaven blessing the infinite Goodness for chusing and preserving such a People to himself In the Inundation of Sin and Damnation to pick out a Number for himself to escape Sin and Damnation and in all the Tumblings and Storms of the World to keep a Church undrowned and unoverwhelmed an Handful in Noah's Ark in the midst of the Deluge of Sin and Troubles Secondly To be affected with the Condition and Estate of the Members of the Church He that truly knows that and them cannot but take up that of the Psalmist Psal. cxliv. 15 Happy are the People that are in such a case yea happy is that People who have the Lord for their God When you rehearse this The Holy Catholick Church in the Creed let your Thoughts first recoyl to your Bibles and see how the Holy Ghost pictures them there Lam. iv 2 The precious Sons of Zion comparable to fine Gold Mal. iii. 17 And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the Day when I make up my Jewels Then that Psal. lxxxiii 3 They have consulted against thy hidden ones They are the Treasure of the Lord's Cabinet laid up with him tho' not minded of Men. Nay yet the Divine Limner lays on more precious Colours Joh. xv 15 I have called you Friends Nay 2 Pet. i. 4 Partakers of the Divine Nature Nay further 1 John iii. 4 We are the Sons of God And that is not all but more if more may be We shall be like to himself Now Christian when thou repeatest this Article write this Exposition of the Word Church in the Margin These are the Lord 's precious Ones His Jewels His Friends His Sons His own Similitude These are His Delight His Portion His Chosen and the very Apple of his own Eye Deut. xxxii 10 And art thou not affected with their happy Condition And affected for thine own Soul's Interest I believe the Holy Catholick Church that is such a Happy Blessed Glorious Company and dost thou not stir O my Soul No Life no Holy Emulation no striving to be like to these A poor miserable Beggar sees the Wealth and Bravery of the great Ones and he may haply envy it but he cannot emulate or hope to equal it But God hath shewn thee a Way that thou mayest be like to these and Partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and art thou not moved Alexander weeps because He was not so famous as Achilles Julius Caesar because not so famous as Alexander And hast thou not a holy Emulation in thee O Christian Such and such Holy Blessed Dear to God and hast thou no Emulation to be so too Ponder but that Title Friend of Christ and that Title Child of God and do we profess Christ and God And are we not moved at it To be a Child of God carried in the Bosom of his dearest Affections To be a Friend of Christ always in his tender Affections and Remembrances and smiled on by him at the great Day and Heart art thou so lumpish as not to be warmed with such Thoughts This very Hint may answer the Question before us viz. Is every one to believe that he is of the true Church Answer Every Heart here is he not to believe that he should be of this Church that it is not well if he be not so Nay further that he is to strive with all his Endeavour to be of it or else he is not what he should be Set this Church before you in the Picture of it Mat. xxv 33 standing on the Right Hand and Christ smiling upon it Do you not believe you should be of that number Do you not believe you ought to give all Diligence to be of it This it the thing the Article calls to you for when you repeat it And let me be a little further its Interpreter to shew you yet this Church its Meaning I. It would mind you that that is the Church that is a Church for ever The Church of God is that that shall be the Church of God when the World shall be no more I may compare the Church visible and invisible to the Body and the Soul The Body is visible and at last shall come to Dust. But the Soul is invisible and is immortal Visible Churches have died Generation after Generation Where are the visible Churches of Asia Judea c. and time will come when all the visible Churches of Europe must come to nothing But still there was an immortal Soul in those Churches a Company of Holy Ones that go to be a Church of God in another World to praise glorifie and have Communion with God for ever This Church in the World is like the Heart in the Body of Man Primum vivens ultimum moriens The first that lives and the last that dies It began to live in Adam and Eve when they embraced Christ and when it dies the World must die with it When the last Saint is gathered then even the Soul of the World and of the visible Church is gone and they die too The Life of the visible Church is the Word and Sacraments and Ordinances Wheresoever these are there the Church is alive But if these are not rightly administred the Candlestick is removed it hath but a Name that it liveth but is dead And how hath God or may God remove these But the Life of the invisible Church is the Word and Spirit and neither of these are ever to be removed For both are settled in Heaven Observable is that Phrase Jam. i. 21 The ingrafted Word It is fast joyned and growing in the Heart In the visible Church it is in the Hands but to the true Flock of
is in Truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe They received it as the Word of God How knew they that From the Scriptures themselves Therefore it is said that they are the Formal Object of Faith as well as the Material They contain what is to be believed and the reason why to believe them And that is especially twofold I. The Majesty of the Spirit of God speaking in them II. Their powerful Working I. The Majesty of the Spirit of God speaking in them such things as Man cannot speak 1 Cor. ii 10 The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And we may say the deep things of Man yea and the Depths of Satan as Rev. ii 24 1. How impossible is it for Man to reveal the deep Mysteries of Salvation i. e. the Mind of God 1 Cor. ii 16 Who hath known the Mind of the Lord that he may instruct him But we have the Mind of Christ. In Scripture we have it And ver 7 8 9. of that Chapter But we speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our Glory Which none of the Princes of this World knew For had they known it they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory But as it is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard c. The hidden Wisdom of God Let all the Wits in the World have conspired together could they have told the secret Wisdom and Mind of God about Salvation God Christ and the Divine Operation of his Spirit the Fruits of Grace and the Weight of Eternal Glory How blind was the Wisdom of all the World to these Mysteries So far that when they were revealed they were accounted but Folly 1 Cor. i. 25 Because the Foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the Weakness of God is stronger than Men. That is as they took them And that Opinion is transplanted into Papacy which will find out a wiser Way to Salvation than the Scriptures have directed Herein the Majesty of Scripture shews it self because it speaks of those sublime Divine hidden things that Men's Wisdom could never find out As they John vii 46 are convinced that Christ was more than other Men because he spake as never Man spake so the Majesty of the Scriptures declares that they are the Divine Word of God because Men never spake Men cannot speak as they speak 2. The Majesty of the Spirit in Scripture appears in that it reveals the very Thoughts and commands the very Heart of Man Heb. iv 12 The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a Discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart And 1 Cor. xiv 24 25. But if all Prophesie and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest and so falling down on his Face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a Truth It can discover a Hypocrite can make an Atheist tremble can pierce to the very Thoughts and Imaginations of the Heart That as the Woman of Samaria said because Christ had told her the secret Wickedness of her Life John iv 29 Come see a Man which told me all things that ever I did So we must conclude of this it is able to discern check regulate the very Thoughts of the Heart Therefore not the Invention of Men but the Powerful Divine Searching Word of God 3. The Majesty of the Scriptures appears in that it discovers the very Subtilties of Satan We are not ignorant of his Wiles saith the Apostle How come we to know them This Divine Light hath shewed them It would have been hard to have known that there is a Devil had not this discovered it And it would have been impossible to have discovered his Plots and Malice and Temptations else This Divine Word hath done it in despite of Satan Would he ever have had his Plots discovered if he could have hindred That Men should know his Mischief and Malice and Subtilty He would gladly have walked as an Angel of Light that Men might not suspect his Delusions but this Divine Word hath pulled off his Vizar and shewed his Designs in open Light It madded the King of Syria that all his secret Stratagems against the King of Israel were discovered by the Prophet Elisha 2 Kings vi 11 12. It vexeth this King of Darkness that his private Policies and Actings should be laid open But this Sacred Word doth it and he cannot prevent it Thus doth the Scripture reveal it self to be the Word of God by its Divine Majesty wherein it speaketh and by the Wisdom wherein it shews it self II. In its powerful Working breaking Hearts converting Souls conquering the Kingdom of Satan How have the Scriptures gone through the World and made Nations bow before them and have cast out Satan and his Power So that if we should say as they did What Sign shewest thou that thou art Christ So what Sign shew ye that ye are the Word of God They may answer Look through the World how many Thousands have been converted and saved how is the Idolatry and Blindness of the Heathen cast out how hath Satan been bound and many poor Souls taught and armed to resist all his Power Papists talk much what the Sign of the Cross and Holy Water can do for mastering the Devil Fabulae aniles But Thousands of Experiences have shewed what the Divine Word of God in Scripture can do against him And thus do they evidence themselves to be the Word of God and so to be believed for themselves because they are the VVord of God Then is no Man no Company of Men to be believed but as what they say is agreeable to Scripture No Council Father Church If they speak not according to Scripture it is because there is no Light in them and not to be believed Let God be true and every Man a Lyar saith the Apostle So we are to say in this case VVhosoever speaks not according to the Truth of God in Scripture he is but a Lyar and the Truth is not in him You understand that I speak of things of Faith and Religion In Historical Natural Civil Moral Things we deny not but that they speak much Truth But that is to be tryed by our Reading and Reason But in the things of Divine Concernment there is no Truth but that of Scripture or what speaks agreeable to it Gal. i. 8 Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed I might instance how the Fathers themselves harp upon this String Non quid Augustinus nec quid Hieronymus sed quid Scriptura Not that which
Communion III. This Communion is twofold Doctrinal and Spiritual 1. Doctrinal As they do communicate in one and the same Faith or Profession of one and the same Religion So all Protestant Churches hold Communion in one and the same Doctrine of Faith and in regard of that Disunion with the Church of Rome Holland and We tho' so disunited in regard of civil Converse yet we are at Communion as Christians in the Profession of the same Religion But this is not the Communion the Article means It speaks of Communion of Saints Now every prophane carnal Protestant may hold such Communion in outward Profession of the same Religion Thousands of prophane Persons in England hold Communion thus even with the preciousest Saints viz. That they acknowledge the same Articles of Religion and yet are far from the Communion of Saints here spoken of Therefore the Communion of Saints is II. Spiritual A hidden Manna a Communion that the World knows not a Spiritual Interest and Communicating which they only partake of and which they only are sensible of Which we may discern the better by observing these things 1. That there is one and the same Spirit in every true Saint of God in the World 1 Cor. xii 4 There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit True there are Diversities of Degrees of Grace and of Operations but one and the same Spirit that worketh all in all As Kinsmen have Communion in Kindred because the same Blood runs in all their Veins so Saints have Spiritual Communion because the same Spirit dwells in them all As in that Comparison that they are Members of the same Body because the same Spirit of Life is in every one of the Members It was the Custom with the Jews to enter into Communion by eating of the same Bread To which the Apostle alludes 1 Cor. x. 17 For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all Partakers of that one Bread And hereupon they might not eat with those with whom they might not have Communion So Christ feasts all his with the same Spirit 1 Cor. xii 13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit That it is that that gives their Souls Life and Growth because they are all fed with the same Spirit This is the Hunger and Thirst of a Child of God to be filled and refresh'd with his Spirit And this is the feeding and refreshing God affords them John vi 55 63. For my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The Words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life And John vii 37 39. If any Man thirst let him come unto me and drink But this spake he of the SPIRIT which they that believe on him should receive This was David's Hunger and Thirst when his Soul was almost starved by his great Fall Psal. li. 11 12. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thine Holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And this is a Trial whether a Soul be alive and healthy and whether a Person be a Saint or no by his longing and hungring for the Spirit of God Examine your Stomach what craves it Lord give me Corn and Cattel After these things the Gentiles seek not the Saints of God But Lord give me thy Spirit fill me with thy Grace support my fainting Soul with the Spirit of Grace This is a blessed hungring and thirsting which shall be blessedly satisfied Matth. v. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Thus in the first place Saints have all Communion in the same Spirit of Christ drink of the same Fountain eat and feed upon the same Manna 2. Thus all communicating of the same Spirit of God they have by that Spirit Communion with God himself 1 John i. 3 And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. A high Saying blessed Apostle Fellowship with God and Christ Let Haman brag of his great Friendship with Ahashuerosh Let Men bâ—â—st of their accompanying with this and that great Man their Friendship and Acquaintance with this or that noble Person it is enough if I can say I am acquainted with God I have Friendship and Fellowship with God and his Son Jesus Christ. Acquainted with God Communion with Christ Brave Company That Man can never be alone never want excellent Company Ah! poor Paul how dost thou do for Company in a dark lonely Prison Daniel how solitary art thou in a Den of Lions when thou hast no Company but those cruel Creatures Oh! nunquam minus solus quam cum solus I have God and Christ with me they keep me Company and I can have no better And so God himself hath promised When thou goest thro' the Waters I will be with thee Observe that Promise Matth. xxviii ult I will be with you always even unto the end of the World Alas we shall be in Prisons in Stocks Ay but then ye shall not be alone for I will be with you to the end of the World What mean such Expressions but that God is present near to his own People in an extraordinary manner different from common Providence That Expression Walking with God doth hint special Intercourse and Converse 'twixt God and the Saint as 'twixt two Friends walking together Observe a feeling Exposition of it Psal. lxxiii 23 24 c. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy Right Hand Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward receive me to Glory Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Here let us stay and we may stand amazed that poor sinful Men may have the Honour and Happiness of Communion with God Will God dwell upon Earth It was Solomon's Wonder So may we wonder at this that God should Converse be in Fellowship and in Familiarity with Men. If God should take Advantage of that Be not unequally yoked how far may this speak contrary to such Communion For what infinite Inequality is thâ—â—e 'twixt God and Man Creator and Creature Dust and Glory An Expression of this Communion you have Rev. iii. 20 If any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me And another Es. lxvi 1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Where is the House that ye build unto me And where is the Place of my Rest For all those things hath mine Hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord. But to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite
it You know the hot Disputes that have been about this And for the Divisions of Reuben there are great Thoughts of Heart Hence mainly are our Separations and Divisions in Religion As in Jephtha's Case his dear Daughter was his greatest Trouble Judg. xi 35 Alas my Daughter thou hast brought me very low and thou art one of them that trouble me So this precious Sacrament of Communion is unhappily proved the great Occâ—sion of Division but in the same Notion that Christ was a Stumbling-block Which was not of any Fault of his but of Men in faultering about him 'T is true receiving of this Sacrament is a Communion but it is most especially external in the Profession of the same Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel And the Communion of Saints in this Article aimeth further I have formerly observed to you the Phrase This is the New Testament in my Blood 1 Cor. xi 25 Not only My Blood of the New Testament nor only A Seal and Sanction of the New Testament but the New Testament That is A new Administration of the New Covenant terminating Judaism and binding over Receivers to the Profession of the Evangelical Doctrine and Religion So this properly is the Communion that Receivers have in this Sacrament one with another viz. That they join in the Profession of the same Christian Doctrine and that not only among themselves but even with the whole Church that professeth the same Truth And hence it was that in the Infancy of the Church they received the Sacrament almost daily that those new Professors might thereby be held to constant Profession against revolting to their Judaism So that in this there is indeed something of the Communion of Saints all professing the same Truth and Religion but we must still look further for a Communion among Saints to take up the full meaning of the Article before us For the Inquiry after which we are first to consider that Christ's Mystical Body the Church consists of all the Saints that are or shall be in the World from the beginning to the end of it And so it includes the Saints in Glory jointly with these that are yet on Earth Those in Glory Members already above Water as their Head also is yet in the Waves of this troublesome World and not got above them As it is said of Christ himself Luke ii ult That he grew in Stature so is the Mystical Body of Christ growing in Stature till it shall be consumate at the last Day Observe that Eph. iv 13 Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ or the measure of the full Stature of Christ. Some fondly hence conclude that all Saints shall be raised as at the very Age and Stature of Christ when he was raised which was at his very Prime viz. Two and Thirty years and an half of Age. That Elect Infants shall not be raised Infants but as of that Age and Stature That the Aged shall not be raised as Aged but as at their Prime of that Age and Stature Which as it breeds confusion in the understanding of the Article of the Resurrection of the Body so it is clean besides the Apostles intent there He speaks not of our Bodies but of Christ's Mystical Body viz That God had given Apostles and Teachers for the building up that Body the Church by degrees till it came to its full Stature and Perfection in the Salvation of all that belong to it So Saints are building up daily and those that are gone to Glory so much of that Body is compleated and the rest growing on to the same Perfecting till all be Compleated and the whole Body Perfected So that those compleated in Glory and these compleating toward Glory here are the same Body though at present of a different condition The Church Militant and Triumphant are not two Churches not two Bodies but one whole Church and Body of Christ consisting of Members some already Perfected and some Perfecting As Israel at the Temple in the two Courts were not two Congregations and Churches but one Congregation in two divers places two Companies of one Congregation The Apostle in Heb. xi ult saith God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect When some say the Saints under the Law are not perfected in Glory till Christ's coming but in Limbo Whereas the Apostle speaks in the sense we are upon viz. That those Holy Ones without us under the Gospel are not the perfect Body of Christ but the Body was to consist of Gentiles as well as Jews Of some yet to be saved as well as of them that are saved already Now is there any Communion 'twixt these two parts of the same Body Saints on Earth and Saints in Glory I mean is there any imparting of the one to the other as there is 'twixt two Parties in Communion Some will tell you Yes We are to Pray to them and they Pray for us As he in the Prophet makes a God and then falls down to it So it is common in the Church of Rome to make whom they think good Saints and then to Pray to them that they would Pray for them to God Whereas they can never clear the Praying to Creatures from Idolatry and can never prove that it is possible for a Saint in Heaven to hear one Speaking and Praying on Earth much less to know the Heart with which he Prays So can they ever prove that there is Praying in Heaven at all The Church here is called the House of Prayer but it is hard to prove that Heaven is so There is Praising and Thanksgiving and Glorifying God and Adoring the Lamb But where do we ever read of Praying in Heaven Nay Can any prove that Christ Prayeth there for his People But he exerciseth his Mediation some other way He offereth up the Prayers of his Saints Rev. viii 3 And another Angel came and stood at the Altar having a Golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer it with the Prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne But that he offers them he Praying also cannot be cleared But I shall not insist on this The Article aims at the Communion of Saints upon Earth according to David's Style Psal. xvi 3 To the Saints that are in the Earth Saints scattered in the Earth and yet have they Communion We may think of that Ezek. xxxvii 3 Can these dry scattered Bones come together and Live Yes ver 7. Bone came to his Bone and Lived So Son of Man can Men dispersed in Europe Asia Africa and America have Communion They know not one another never saw one another and they have Communion Yes There is an invisible Vein of Communion runs betwixt all Saints on Earth Which we consider in these
Particulars I. There is a Communion of Converse and Communion of Affection There may be the former where there is not the latter English Merchants have Communion of Converse with Outland Merchants when they come among them Buy Sell Eat Drink together When the Communion 'twixt them is meerly of Civil Converse rather than of near Affection And there may be Communion of Affection where there is no Converse Nay there is as it were planted in Morality an Affection of one Excellent Person to another A Valiant Man loves a Valiant Man though he never came near him A Scholar loves a Scholar that he hath only heard of Much more is such an Affection planted in true Christianity in an Heart truly Religious be he who he will where he will though he never saw him As Psal. xvi 3 My delight is in the Saints and Excellent on the Earth be they far off or near II. There is Communion in Common Interest where it may be there is not Communion in Common Converse Those that never saw or heard of one another to Converse together yet may have Communion in Common Interest Englishmen meeting beyond Sea that never saw each other before yet will take parts and side together as in the Common Interest of being Countrymen There is a Common Interest of all the Saints in the World though at their never so great Distance and Separation viz. Glorifying God and Loving the Lord Jesus As the Apostle saith 1 John i. 3 Our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. So the Fellowship of the Saints among themselves meets in this Centre of Loving the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. And ask the same Apostle the Exposition of his Words in the same Epistle Cap. ii 14 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren He would tell you It is a sign we Love God and so are passed from Death to Life because we Love the Brethren that Love God This is the special Centre in which Saints meet be they never so far asunder And in this Sense Their Gathering together is to be understood of which there is so frequent mention not into one place but into this one Circle of Loving Fearing Serving God Zeph. iii. 9 That they may call upon the Name of the Lord and serve him with one Consent In the Hebrew it is With one Shoulder As if many were together shouldring up the same weight or burden All in their places jointly putting to their endeavour to bear up the Name Glory and Honour of God East West North South every Saint joyning in this great Work and Meeting in this Holy Point As the Twelve Oxen under the Brazen Sea their Faces to the Four Quarters of Heaven but their Bodies all Meeting to bear up the Weight Now III. They that are all of the same mind all meet in this Common Interest toward God cannot but love one another though they knew not one another Judg. v. 9 My Heart saith Deborah is toward the Governors of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the People Did she know all their Faces and Persons Could she call them by their Names No but she could not but Love them be they whom they would that put to their Hands and Shoulders to that Common Cause We see how Men are ready to Affect any that they hear to be of their Opinion Humour and Mind though they never saw them Much more does a Saint love a Saint that is Partner with him in this Holy Work Though he knew not where to find him or Name him yet if he be for God he must have his Heart and loving God he cannot but love whosoever loves him IV. Accordingly they sympathize one with another 1 Cor. xii 26 Whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be Honoured all the Members rejoice with it They weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice They bear one another's burdens It grieves a Saint if it be ill with any Saint in the World and he rejoiceth if it go well with him His Heart is touched with his Case as with his own As we are affected with the well or ill doing of any Englishman in any part of the World for Common Interest of Country sake Neh. i. 4 And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain Days and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven Why Nehemiah thou art well enough thou art in place of Honour Pleasure Preferment Oh! but it is ill with the People of God And Psal. cxxxvii 5 6. saith the Psalmist If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my Right Hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the Roof of my Mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy I can never forget Jerusalem V. Answerably they have one another's Prayers There is not a Saint in the World but hath the Prayers of all the Saints in the World Any Child of God makes it Conscience to Pray for every Child of God on Earth One Member cannot but do its best for another Gal. vi 16 And as many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God Pray for thy self Paul and for thine own Churches Nay but every Saint where-ever is a Member of the same Body that I am of and therefore I must Pray for them also So Ephes. vi 24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity Why pray so for them Because of that Common Interest that is betwixt all Saints I love Christ and cannot but love and pray for all that love him We may say as Psal. cxxxiii 1 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity So how blessed how happy to be thus joyned together in this Common Union If thy Prayers be weak all the Saints in the World pray thee if thy Estate be miserable if thou beest tempted still thou hast the Prayers of all good Men through out the World Oh! happy condition of a true Saint Christ mediating for him in Heaven and all the Saints on Earth Praying for him as Acts xii 5 Peter was kept in Prison but Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church of God for him Chear up poor Child of God why walkest thou so heavily Why The Children of Belial curse me revile me Oh! but all the Saints of God pray for thee And this is the true Communicating of Saints one to another And so much for the Communion of Saints with God and one with another FINIS Advertisement There are in the Press and will all be Published about Midsummer EXpository Notes with Practical Observations upon the Four Holy Evangelists wherein the Sacred Text is at large Recited the Sense Explained Doubts Resolved seeming Contradictions Reconcile and the Instructive Example of the Holy Jesus to our Imitation Recommended Designed for the Instruction of Private Families By William Burkitt M. A. Vicar of Dedham in Essex Folio A Catechetical Course of Sermons for the whole Year Being an Explanation of the Church-Catechism in 52 distinct Discourses on so many several Texts of Scripture wherein are Briefly Contained the most necessary Points of Christian Doctrine Recommended especially for the use of Famimilies By Peter Newcome M. A· Vicar of Aldenham in Hertfordshire In 2 Volumes in Octavo As also the Works of William Bates D. D. in a large Folio and good Paper containing all he Printed in his Life-time To which are now added two Discourses never before Published viz. 1. On Divine Meditation and 2. On the Fear of God Price 25 s. a single Book Unbound They that will Buy Six shall have a Seventh Gratis provided they send in the first Payment some time before Midsummer next