neglect the body catch after the shadow they straine at a gnat and swallow a Camell Math. 23 24. Fourthly it behoveth us to looke first of all to the heart and to clense the inside Ier 4.14 Iam. 4.8 that so the outside may be cleane also Math. 23.26 or else it is no zeale but hypocrity Fiftly Math 23.4 We must be more strict and precise to our selues then to others and give more liberty to them then we will take to our selues Let not us be as the Pharises who bound heauy burdens and greeuous to be borne and laid them upon other mens shoulders but themselues will not move them with one of their fingers Math. 23.4 Let us rather follow the example of Abraham Gen. 14.23.24 and of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 4.12 1 Thess 2.9 with 1 Cor. 9.6.14 1 Tim. 5.18 Sixtly true zeale condemneth and reproveth sinne without respect of persons in their acquaintance as well as in strangers in their friends as well as in foes in the higher as well as in the lower sort Math. 16.23 Gal. 3. â— Iob. 29.8.9 But many offend and are partiall against this rule and are afraid of the face of the mighty Seventhly we are to be most fervent in Gods causes This was the commendation of Moses though he were as meeke as a lain be in his own cause the meekest upon the face of the earth Numb 12.3 but in case of Idolatry and worshipping the golden calfe his wrath waxed hote he cast the Tables out of his hands he brake them in pieces he burnt the Calfe in the fire he ground it to powder and being strewed upon the water he made the Israelites drinke of it Exod. 32.19.20 This is otherwise in the greatest number who practise the quite contrary They are as hote as fire in their owne private matters but as cold as ice in things pertaining to the honour and glory of God Let a seruant offend his Master in the least trifle and neglect his businesse any way how is he moved and his rage kindled but if he transgresse the Commandement of God and neglect his worship he is never touched or troubled at it Maâ—h 15.6 â— he never reproveth him for it what is this but to make the commandement of God of none effect by their tradition Lastly albeit zeale be requisit and necessiry for all Christians yet it must be alayed and tempered with mercy and compassion considering our selues least we also be tempted Gal. 6.1.2 being humbled in our selues for those sinnes which we espy and censure in others It is noted of Christ our Saviour when the Pharisees murmured because he would heale on the Sabbath day Mark 3.5 that he looked angerly about him and yet he sorrowed for the hardnesse of their hearts Here anger and sorrow meet together and so they ought to doe in us Cry unto God Hitherto of the second point the manner of their prayer they cried mightily now we come to the third point the object of prayer to God that is the true God Ion. 1.5 The Mariners mentioned in the first Chapter cryed every man to his God but none of them to the true God Doct. and therefore they laboured but all in vaine This teacheth us Prayer must be made to God onely that prayer must be directed unto the true God only Gen. 4.26 Psal 50.15 107.6 Math. 6.9 Dan. 9.4 2 Chro. 20.6 Act. 8.22 The reasons are apparently drawne from the nature of God For first he onely is able to heare and to helpe Reason 1 He is infinite in power and nothing is to hard for him nothing unpossible to him Secondly In regard of his knowledge he searcheth the heart who made the heart and understandeth our thoughts and imaginations a farre off Thirdly He only is present in all places Ier. 23.24 Esay 66.1 that none can hide himself in secret places that he shall not see him he filleth heaven and earth the heaven being his throne and the earth his foot stoole Esay 66.1 Fourthly Faith and prayer go together and therefore it is called the prayer of faith Iam. 5.15 We beleeve only in God therefore we must pray onely to him The Apostle therefore having shewed that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13.14 he addeth but how shall they call upon him in whom they have not beleeved First of all Vse 1 this reproveth the sacriledge of the Church of Rome that robbe God of the honour due to his name and give that to the Saints departed and to Angels which is proper unto him To him all the faithfull Patriarkes Prophets and righteous men have prayed been heard and we have ten thousand places by which we are warranted and willed to doe the like Our Saviour cammandeth us to go to our Father which is in heaven Math. 6. The contrary practise hath neither Precept nor example nor promise nor threatning against any that refuse it nor punishment upon any that hath neglected the performance thereof Thus the Prophet speaketh Thou Esay 63.16 O Lord art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us David freely confesseth Psal 63.25 that he had none in heaven but God and none upon earth that he desired beside him The Church of Rome hath gotten more knowledge then ever this Prophet had and they are not ashamed to professe that they have â—no in heaven then God other mediators in whom they put their trust besides him Such lye under an heavy curse Ier. 17.5 â— 17. for cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. What do these but forsake God the fountaine of living waters and hew out to themselues broken cisternes that can hold no water Into both these mischeifes the Romish Synagogue falleth by praying to Saints and Angels If the blessed virgin the Apostles and Saints in heaven did know what these Idolaters and Saint-worshippers doe to them on earth doubtlesse they would abhorre this detestable derogation from the glory of God as much as Paul and Barnabas did the peoples offering to doe sacrifice to them Act. 14.14 nay much more as their knowledge being glorified was greater and their zeale of Gods glory more fervent then before in the dayes of their flesh Secondly it reproveth such as neglect wholly or for the most part this duty as not belonging unto them or as not necessary or as if God had never required it or spoken word of it or as if his faithfull servants had never practised it Whereas the Lord presseth no duty more earnestly the Scripture expresseth no duty more commonly and the Godly have performed no duty more constantly But from whence commeth this retchlessenesse in so plaine a matter and the disregarding of so holy an exercise so often commanded and so profitable to our selves Surely it proceedeth either from ignorance to make the best of it which yet excuseth not or
conceale a thing secret Nay in this many miracles on an heape concurre together Is it not a miracle in the body to open the eyes of the blind Math. 10.8 11.5 Act. 26.18 2 Cor. 7.1 Eph. 2.1.5 to restore hearing to the deafe to raise the dead to clense the Lepers The penitent person hath received all these in his soule his eyes are opened his eares are boared he is clensed from his filthinesse and restored to life for being naturally borne dead in sinnes and trespasses he is quickned O how great a change and alteration is this But here a question may be asked Object whether this be a worke and effect of the Law are the threatnings thereof able to do it Answ or is it a fruit of the Gospell I answer the Law helpeth it forward it cannot worke it or bring it forth It prepareth to repentance but produceth it not so that the law is not excluded or quite shut out Rom. 3.20 Gal. 3.24 It serueth to bring us to the knowledge of our sinnes and miseries and thereby fitteth us to receive grace and mercy like eating salues that make way for curing medicines or like the sharpe needle that maketh way for the threed But it is the Gospell that hath the promise of pardon and forgivenesse and worketh repentance from dead workes and therefore it is a fruit of the Gospel The Law knoweth no remission of sins but is a letter that condemneth it promiseth no mercy but threatneth the curse against the transgressors Gal. 3.13 Vse Vse 1 1. This condemneth such as forsake and forget the ordinary way that God hath left to bring us to saluation and gape after miracles or revelations This is all one as if when the Lord heareth the Heauens and they heare the earth Hos 2.21.22 and the earth heareth the corne and the corne the people they will not feed thereof as base food but looke for Manna and bread from heaven are not such worthy to perish Hence it is that Abraham is brought in Luk. 16.31 answering the rich man that would have the dead sent to his brethren to reclaime them and bring them to repentance If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead How vainely then and idlely doe they prattle who to disgrace the Ministery of the word and the high ordinance of God to teach man by man alledge that they know not whether men speake the truth because all men are lyars and they are not able to try their doctrine but if they should heare the Lord himselfe speake or an Angel from heaven they would beleeve Iudg. 6 2â— 13.22 Gen. 16.2 Esay 6.3 These men neither know their owne weakenesse nor the power of God Not their owne weakenesse that are not able to endure the glory of him that speaketh from heaven nay this was the common voyce of such as heard an Angel We shall surely dy alas because I have seene an Angel of the Lord face to face not the power of God because he is infinite the Angels cover their faces before him the heavens are not cleane in his sight the earth trembleth when he sheweth his glory When the Israelites saw the lightnings and heard the noise of the thunder and sound of the Trumpet waxing lowder and lowder in the mount Exod. 20.18.19 so that Moses himselfe said I exceedingly feare and quake they sayd unto Moses Speake thou unto us and we will heare Heb. 12.21 but let not God speake unto us lest we die Deut. 5.25.26.28.29 If we heare the voyce of the Lord our God any more then we shall die for who is thereof all flesh that hath heard the voyce of the living God and lived This they spake and the Lord said They have well spoken all that they have spoken O that there were such an heart in them that they would feare me and keepe my Commandements alwayes that it might goe wel with them and with their Children for ever If this were wisedome in them to call for Moses to speake to them and not God what a foolish choise doe they make that call for God to speake to them and not Moses But of this also else where Secondly their case is fearefull and dangerous that are without the word there is no vision and therefore the people must needes perish Pro. 29.18 There the sheepe are without a sheepheard See examples Exod. 32.1 2 King 12.2 and none to have compassion upon them Math. 9.36 Neither is their state any better who albeit they are not without it yet regard it not but despise it in their hearts These are both alike saving that the latter is worser and more fearefull then the former The one are without the ordinary meanes the other without the use of the meanes and therefore without hope to come to repentance It was a fearefull judgement when our Saviour commanded the twelue saying Go not into the way of the Gentiles Math. 10.5 and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not And when the Apostles went through the Cities to preach the Gospel Act. 16.6.7 they were forbidden by the holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia and afterward when they assaied to goe into Bithynia the Spirit suffered them not Was not this in effect as much as if the Lord had sayd give them no bread let them be famished I will not have these converted and consequently saved He that taketh away the meanes of life it is plaine he would not have that man live Woe then to all such retchlesse and carelesse persons as set light by this high ordinance of God that neither have it nor desire it but doubly wretched are they that despise it and wish in their hearts to be without it Can these perswade themselues they have attained to repentance What without the meanes but such is the necessity of repentance that without it we must perish for ever I may therefore say to such as the Apostle doth to the Iewes Well spake the holy Ghost unto our fathers Esay 6.9 Act. 28.26 Go unto this people and say hearing ye shall heare and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive for the heart of this people is waxed grosse and their eares are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed least they should see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heale them Thirdly behold the happy condition of such if they knew their owne happinesse to whomsoever God hath vouchsafed the preaching of the Gospell It is a manifest proofe he hath a people there whom he would have converted For as he shewed the Disciples to whom they should not goe Math. 10.6 Act. 18.9.10 so he sent them to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel Thus also he spake to Paul Act. 18. Be not afraid but speake and
Thirdly continue in prayer supplication without ceasing and never give over to be his remembrancers such praier evermore hath mercy joyned with it This doth our Saviour teach Luk. 11 8. 18.1.5 Math. 15.22.24.26 I meane this perseverance by sundry parables of the poore widow of the vnjust judge Luk. 18. of the friend that did lend three Loves Luk. 11. by the example of the woman of Canaan who followed our Saviour and would not give him over till she had obtained Math. 15. And the rather ought we to do so because sometimes God will proove our faith patience obedience and constancy sometimes to make us more earnest in prayer for we are to dull cold must be stirred up sometimes to teach us the value and price of the graces of his spirit because such as are soone and easily obtained are oftentimes dispiced or at least lesse regarded and not so carefully preserued sometimes to make us more watchfull and heedfull that we might not easily loose them when we have them The Prophts themselues complaine oftentimes that God heareth them not that they have called day and night and are weary of their crying Wherefore not that he will not heare much lesse that he cannot heare but that his mercy might the more appeare for the greater our necessity is the more is his power and mercy seene sometimes he delayeth us Iudg. 7.2 to teach us to renounce all confidence in the flesh as Iudg. 7. the Lord said to Gideon The people that are with thee are to many for me to give the Midianites into their hands least Israel make their vaunt against me and say mine hand hath saved me so would it be with us if we had alwayes helpes at hand 2 Cor. 1.9.10 and 2 Cor. 1.9.10 that we should not trust in our selues but in God which raiseth the dead Lastly sometimes we are differred that our danger being the greater wherein we are his glory might be the greater in our deliverance As the skill of the Phyfition is most seene in most desperate diseases and of the Surgeon in the deepest woundes for what great knowledge in his art doth he shew in curing the scratch of a pin or a little razing of the skin so the power of God is most of al seene in delivering of us from troubles dangers wherein we have lienand languished a long time and from thence also ariseth his glory Lastly it is our duty to give thankes to God when he hath heard us as Psal 50. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Our owne wants and necessities constraine us oftentimes to remember the former precept Call upon me but our deliverances cannot make us remember the latter clause thou shalt glorifie me We are ready with the Lepers to opon our mouthes for mercy but our mouthes are soone shut when we should give him the glory Luk. 17.12 and we quickly forget his goodnesse with the same Lepers There is no triall of our selues by prayer in our wants for it is often forced not free wrested not voluntary but rather by our thankesgiving whether we make conscience of our duties to God or not Forced prayer is no prayer As he loueth a cheerefull giver so he loveth a cheerfull prayer O how often was the Prophet David in praising God! how doth he provoke his owne heart not to forget his benefits and others O that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Psal 116.12.103 107.8 and for his wonderfull workes to the children of men Cry mightliy Hitherto of the first point the matter or substance of the Kings coÌ„mandement they must all zeale The pray Doct. from the highest to the lowest the second point solloweth Prayer must â—e seruent the maner of their pray mightily this noteth their danger was certaine in a manner present therfore their prayer must not be cold Hence we must obserue that it is not enough to pray but prayer must be earnest fervent Hereunto commeth the double and trebled commandement of Christ to aske to seeke to knocke which repetition importeth and imposeth upon us this fervency True it is that prayer joyned with fasting ought to be earnest too fold but though it go alone without fasting yet it must not go alone without fervency of spirit The Apostle Iames speaking of ordinary prayer teacheth that the prayer of a righteous man prevailâ—th much Iam. 5.16.17 if it bâ—forment not otherwise This he proveth by the example of Elias â—e prayed earnestly that it might not raine and it rained not on the earth by the space of three yeares and sixe mâ—â—â—thâ— c. And least any should pretend that he was a great Prophet and in high favour with God no marveil therfore if his prayer prevailed who raised the dead to life and brought fire from heaven as also he obtained that the heaven should be as brasse and the earth as jron but all cannot be like to him every Christian cannot be an other Elias besides his prayer was extraordinary The Apostle answereth that notwithstanding his great graces yet he was a man subject to the same passions infirmities that others are and yet God heard him And true it is his prayer was extraordinary in regard of the manner we caÌ„not pray that the heaven should not give rain nor the clouds senddown their shewres because we have not that spirit which he had but we must have the spirit of Sanctification to pray â—erveÌ„tly as he did or else we shal never be heard as he was The reasons Reason 1 first God looketh not onely what we do when we come before him but how we do it he regardeth the maâ—ner as well as the matter not only that we do good things but that we do them well For as we must take heede not only what we hearâ— Mar. 4.24 Mark 4.24 Luk. 8.18 but likewise how we heare Luk. 8.18 so we must looke to our selues that we pray what we pray but withall how we pray seeing we must faile neither in the one nor in the other Secondly the Lord only loveth zealous servants that â—erue him faithfully and servently as he is sayd to love a cheerfull giver 2 Cor. 8. Thirdly cold suiters among men teach them to deny such suites If a man come to our dores and bâ—g coldly as if he cared not whether he speed oâ— not who will take any pittie or have compassion on such persons and shall we thinke that God will regard those that regard not in what cold and carelesse manner they present themselves before him Lastly he is cursed that doth any worke of the Lord negligently yea such as are luke-warme shall be spâ—â—ed onâ— of his mouth Rev. 3.16 Râ—â— 3. Such are they that caâ—e not which â—â—dge for wâ—rd whether they obtaine or not obtaine These are dead prayers without life as of dead men without breath This reproveth such Vse 1 as come negligently to the throne of
taken sometimes personally and sometimes essentially Personally when it is restrained to one of the Persons as to the first Person in the holy and blessed Trinity Matth. 28.19 Ephes 2.3 2 Cor. 13.13 to wit God the Father begetting the Sonne and sending forth the holy Ghost whensoever mention is made of any of the other Persons also Thus likewise it is taken when it is limited to the second Person in Trinity to wit God the Sonne begotten of the Father before all worlds â—say 9.6 as Esay 9.6 Vnto us a Childe is borne unto us a Sonne is given his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father And in this sence the holy Ghost the third Person proceeding from the Father and the Sonne may also be called Father because he together with the Father and the Sonne giveth being to all things Sometimes the Word is taken essentially without consideration of any personall relation and then it is referred simply to God and is extended to all the three Persons Deut. 32.6 as Deut. 32.6 Doe yee so reward the Lord Mal. 2.10 Iam. 1.27 O yee foolish people is not he thy Father that hath bought thee and Mal. 2.10 Have yee not all one Father and thus it is taken in this place for the whole God-head the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost who have a Soveraigne Father-hood over the Church loving it defending it delighting in it caring for it bestowing all blessings upon it and withholding nothing that is good from it Doct. 7 This title teacheth us that God is the Father of his Church and Children As a Father loveth his Children to whom hee hath given breath and being as he feedeth and clotheth them nourisheth and layeth up for them so God loveth his Children to whom he hath given their first life their second life and to whom he will give a third life The first life is in the flesh the second in grace the third in glory The first is a naturall life the second a spirituall life the third an eternall life The first is their generation the second their regeneration the third shall be their glorification and therefore he loveth them with a love infinitely above the love of all Parents toward their Children whose love must needs be as finite as themselves when it is at the highest What the love of Parents is toward their Children the Scripture setteth downe by sundry examples 1 King 3.26 2 Sam. 18.23 1 King 3.26 Esay 66.13 Zach. 12.10 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 49.1 1 King 14.2 Esay 49.15 Psal 103.13 17. 68.5 Esay 63.16 69.8 2 Thes 2.6 2 Sam. 18 23. they rejoice at their good Prov. 101. they moutne for their trouble and evill that befalleth them Zach. 12.10 they comfort them in sorrow and anguish Esay 66.13 they procure them what good and preferment they can 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 they provide for the time present and to come Gen. 49.1 they tender them in sicknesse and in health 1 King 14.2 they prevent dangers that doe hang over their heads and may befall them Gen. 27.43 28.2 they regard them in prosperity and adversity in wealth and in poverty so that they cannot leave them nor forget them nor forsake them Esay 49.15 All these being onely in part and unperfectly in men are fully infinitely and perfectly in God as his nature and essence and therefore he commendeth his love to us above all this Esay 49. Matth. 7. of which places before The Prophets and Apostles are full of such testimonies as Psal 103. As a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him and as the Heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that feare him And 68.5 A Father of the Fatherlesse and a Judge of the Widdowes is God in his holy habitation So Esay 63.16 Doubtlesse thou art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting And 64.8 Thou O Lord art our Father we are the clay and thou our Potter and wee all are the worke of thine hand Thus the Apostle 2 Thes 2.6 The Lord Iesus and God even the Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts This title is indeed proper to God alone Reas 1 that albeit there be that are called Fathers as indeed there be many upon the earth Magistrates Ministers Masters naturall Parents Exod. 20.12 and all Superiours Exod. 20.12 Yet to us as there is but one God and one Lord so there is but one Father as we heard before out of the Prophet to whom this name is properly and peculiarly belonging Matth. 23.9 This Christ himselfe teacheth Matth. 23.9 Call no man Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven neither be yee called Masters for one is your Master Obiect even Christ But is it unlawfull to call any Father the Apostle calleth himselfe the Father of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.15 1 Cor. 9. Though yee have ten thousand Instructours yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell Answ I answer He doth not simply forbid the appellation but restraine them from ambition neither condemneth he properly the title but absolutely the affecting of the title We may not therefore imagine that Christ would utterly abolish from among Christians the name of Father or Master or Teacher as if it were unlawfull for Children to call those their Fathers of whom they received their beeing or for Servants to call any their Masters to whom they owe their service forasmuch as the Scripture willeth Children to honour their Fathers and Servants to be obedient to their bodily Masters but his purpose is to forbid these names in such sort as the Pharises were called by them who loved or desired to be called Rabbies Fathers and Masters and challenged the names as proper and peculiar to themselves It is not therefore the bare title but their vaine glory that is condemned Againe so to be called Rabbi Father or Master that the people of the Lord should wholly and absolutely depend upon their mouthes 1 Cor. 7.23 to become servants of men and rest slavishly in their opinions and traditions as the onely true Teachers and Fathers of the Church as the Iesuits would be accounted in these dayes may not be admitted in any case or that their doctrines were not subject to triall and examination by the Scripture is wholly to be rejected forasmuch as the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 Thus to be called Father or Master agreeth to no mortall man but God is the onely true Father and Christ Iesus the onely true Master as the onely Law-giver that is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4. whose Precepts we must receive and are bound to obey though all the world should teach otherwise God then must be held to be supreme others are
of all of our owne disability to give any ransome or recompence unto him for then his gifts should not be free Secondly God offereth and propoundeth his gifts to such as have nothing to give and pronounceth the poore in spirit to be blessed Matth. 5.3 Esay 55.1 so that our buying of him is without any money nay the offering of him money and tendering any paiment to him is like Simons offering money to buy the gifts of the holy Ghost which is such a barre lying in our way that we may be sure never to attaine unto them True it is the graces of God are many in number excellent in value and great in measure yet if they were open and offered to none but to such as can well deserve them and thorowly recompence them what profit should wee have thereby Thirdly his grace is set forth and magnified by our want and weaknesse 2 Cor. 12. 2 Cor. 12.9 Rom. 6.20 and where sinne aboundeth his grace much more aboundeth Rom. 6. Fourthly we must bee humble in our owne eyes considering that wee have nothing which we have not received 1 Cor. 4.7 and therefore why should we boast as if we had not received the same He that hath nothing at home must seek abroad as Jacob that wanted corne was glad to send far for it to the King of Egypt Salomon saith Prov. 18.23 The poore useth intreaties or maketh supplications If we could thorowly be brought to know to feele and to sigh for our own barrennesse and emptinesse it would constraine us to go out of our selves and to have recourse to God for the supplying of our wants Lastly we should freely yeeld him our obedience as he freely yeeldeth to us a plentifull measure of his grace We have all of us freely received let us therefore likewise freely give to him the honour that is due to his name If we will not doe this we will doe nothing Fourthly let us goe to God the Author of grace and pray to him to give us his graces Ioh. 6.68 who giveth liberally and reproacheth no man For as the Apostle saith To whom shall we goe thou hast the words of eternall Life so I may say The Well-head is in Heaven whither then shall we goe but to God that dwelleth in the Heavens This doth the Apostle teach If any man want wisedome let him aske of God Jam. 1. True it is God hath a treasury of his graces and he is also by nature full of bounty and his hands alwayes open and extended to bestow somewhat but what shall this helpe or further us if we doe not duely and daily make suit and supplication unto him The graces of God are offered and bestowed but to whom are they offered and upon whom are they bestowed doubtlesse upon them and to them onely that aske after them Matth. 7.7 that seeke for them and knocke at the Gate of God to receive them as poore men do for an almes at rich mens doores If then we be destitute of them where is the fault of our emptinesse but in our selves that never desire them or if we doe it is so coldly as if wee cared not whether we obtaine them or not If wee did in that manner crave any thing at the hands of mortall men we should teach them to deny us that which we crave The treasures of God being precious are kept locked up prayer is as the Key that openeth the Closet that we may take up so much as we need Againe they are in Heaven and therefore we ought to be more in Heaven then we are and to carry our soules thither with us and not ever lye groning and groveling upon the earth Prayer is a familiar communication and conference with God and that with boldnesse yet with reverence as it were to binde him to his owne word that is gone out of his owne mouth The greatest enemy thereunto is the Devill Zach. 3.1 that standeth as it were at our right hand to resist us when wee would call upon God Acts 16.16 When Paul and the Disciples prepared to goe to prayer the Devill that had possessed a Damosell stirred her up to call and cry after them and so to disturbe and destroy that holy action And no marvaile For he knoweth as well as if hee were of our secret counsell what we desire and demand and what wee ayme at namely to gather strength and get supply against him and therefore Christ saith to the seventy Disciples returning from preaching and praying Luke 10.18 I beheld Satan as lightning fall downe from Heaven as the Amalekites at the prayer of Moses were discomfited Exod. 17.11 So he teacheth us to pray daily Not to be led into tentation but to be delivered from evill and thereupon hee bestirreth himselfe not onely to corrupt the doctrine but to hinder the practice and performance thereof And if he can draw us to live in some open and knowne sinne he thereby stoppeth our mouthes and stifleth our prayers and shaketh our confidence to obtaine that which wee desire forasmuch as God heareth not sinners as we noted before Lastly from hence we are stirred up to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving unto God For as he sendeth downe his gifts upon us so ought we to send up our prayers and praises to him and as his blessings descend to the earth so should our blessing of him ascend to the Heavens Wee are oftentimes ready to ascribe too much to men Ioh. 3.26 Acts 10.25 14.11 as Johns Disciples did to their Master as Cornelius to Peter and as they of Lycaonia to Paul and Barnabas and to forget God the Author and Fountaine of all good things This made the Apostle say 1 Cor. 3.7 Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease God is all in all and let him have the glory for all This the Prophet teacheth Psal 103.1 As then the former use directeth us to aske such things as we want so this teacheth us to returne praise and glory when they are obtained Psal 50.23 forasmuch as he that offereth praise glorifyeth him hee that offereth him not praise glorifieth him not The Prophets and Apostles seldome mention the great workes of God the Father and of his Sonne Iefus Christ wrought for our redemption and salvation but they breake out into the praises of God Esay 12.1 2. Gal. 1.5 Ephes 3.21 Revel 1.5 6. 1 Tim. 1.15 16 17. It is a fearefull signe of little or no grace received or regarded that we are so cold and seldome in thanks-giving whereas he that hath received much will also be much in offering to God the calves of his lips If we can open our mouthes to pray for our owne good and then presently shut them againe so soone as we have obtained our suit like the unthankefull Lepers and should render thankes to him for them we are unworthy either to
Professors of it And who are they Verily not onely such as are wise in their owne eyes but also such as cannot themselves give the meaning of one Precept of the Law or of one Petition of the Lords Prayer such as cannot render any account of their faith neither an answer to any that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them through want and contempt of knowledge yet have they knowledge enow to deride such as labour earnestly after knowledge Every base and deboshed fellow full of prophanenesse and impurity hath learned to upbraid such with purity that any way love Religion so that we may see with our eyes and heare with our eares such as are truly religious no lesse scoffed and scorned even at home among their owne brethren neighbours acquaintance and friends then if they lived among the very Savages It is well knowne to those that are but little conversant in History how the Christians are taunted and reviled that live among the Turkes and Sarazins for the Christian Religion and what an heavy burden they beare But is it much better thinke you with many poore Christian soules though they live among their owne people if they be any whit zealous in the Truth and will not runne riot with the multitude if they will not sweare commonly and be drunke for company if they will once fall to reprove sinne in others what is this reckoned but flat or ranke Puritanisme and such are no lesse hated and persecuted no lesse taunted and traduced then if they lived among the Infidels and Barbarians the Paganes and open professed enemies Nay I would this were all For Religion it selfe to set aside mens persons becommeth in very many places a very by-word and a matter of reproach True it is the Iewes sinned with an high hand against God they loved not the Oracles of God neither walked they worthy of his calling and chusing of them before other Nations and therefore worthily deserved to be forsaken of God who had first forsaken him howbeit they never proceeded to this top of sinne to make a mocke of their Religion it selfe they never scorned the Word of the ever-living God But we have learned to sticke at nothing wee are come thus farre to treade under our feete like Dogs and Swine the precious Iewell of the Gospell as if it were a curse rather then a blessing unto a Kingdom O how happy were it for these men that God would give them eyes to see these their sinnes and hearts to bewaile them betimes which now are hidden from them before the time of Iudgement come which doubtlesse cannot bee farre off from every one of them Thirdly let us all account that our happinesse standeth above not beneath in heaven not upon the earth in being partakers of the Kingdome and enjoying the blessed presence of God not in riches or abundance not in honour or worldly dignity Such as will have true comfort in this life must learne to looke beyond this life Heb. 11.27 that he may see him that is invisible as the Scripture speaketh of Moses Heb. 11. For albeit a man flow in wealth so much as heart can wish albeit he abound in honour and glory and estimation that the world esteeme him the onely happy man yet shall he finde in the middest of all sundry discontentments perplexities crosses and vexations and himselfe far from true happinesse so that he must not onely behold the things present and before his feete but must looke further then this life Hee that will not feare death the king of terrour Iob 18.14 as Job calleth it must looke beyond death and see the Land of Canaan before he come into it as Moses did from the mount Death is dreadfull and fearefull to the flesh when we see no more in it but the dissolution of the soule and body but if we have the eyes of faith to looke further and consider both from what evils it freeth us and to what good it bringeth us we have great comfort and consolation in it so that we may triumph over it So he that will have true and sound joy in this world must looke beyond it to the joyes of the World to come He that would have comfort in trouble must cast his eyes beyond trouble and looke up to this Kingdome which Christ Iesus promiseth in this place like the Mariner who being tossed in the Sea comforteth himselfe with the remembrance of the desired Haven where he would be Now this point to wit of esteeming our happinesse to consist in heaven hath many particular branches First we must long earnestly for it If the Saints account them blessed that dwell in the house of Prayer and of his worship how much more to dwell in the house of his glorious presence He that loveth the Kingdome of Heaven will long for it he that loveth it not longeth nor for it The Crowne of righteousnesse is laid vp for such as love the appearance of Christ For whiles we are at home in the body 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 5.2 we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. He that is from home longeth greatly to be at his house This body is but a poore cottage that must shortly be dissolved and laid downe our chiefe mansion and habitation is above in the heavens Secondly we must pray for this Kingdome of glory It is the meaning in part of the second Petition Thy Kingdome come For we pray therein not onely for the Kingdome of grace but for the Kingdome of glory also This is the prayer and request of all the Saints Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.20 1 Cor. 15.25 Heb. 1.13 Acts 2.35 The Kingdome is as yet come onely in part we see not all things put under his feete sinne and Satan are not yet subdued many oppositions are made against it have we not just cause therefore to crave both the enlarging of the territories and stretching the Curtaines thereof and likewise the finishing of these dayes of sinne Thirdly let us endure with joy all sorts of afflictions whereunto we are called and which it shall please God to lay upon us and to try us withall considering that they are no way comparable to the glory that shall be revealed to the sonnes of God We are all that will be the Disciples of Christ forewarned of troubles and afflictions that abide us and that we shall be hated for his Names sake howbeit the next life will make amends for all we shall have a super-abundant recompence for all our sufferings It is our Fathers pleasure to bestow upon us the Kingdome He that loseth his life for his sake shall finde it Fourthly let us rejoyce and comfort our selves daily in the expectation of our full and finall deliverance and Redemption at the last day Many defects and many sinnes doe yet hang about us many wants and workes of darknesse compasse us on every side all these together with the remnants of sorrowes shall quickly be
drinke but to cease from sinne as the Prophet speaketh August super Iohan. Esay 58.6 Chrysost suâ— per Math. Hee that sinneth and yet withall fasteth saith Chrisostome doth not fast to the glory of God but spareth his owne substance onely This is handled at large in these Treatises wherein is noted what the true exercise of fasting is what are the outward and inward parts thereof the one answering to the other together with the severall abuses of the counterfeit fastings True it is the Church of Rome complaine against us and accuse us as enemies to fasting even as the Pharisees sometimes condemned the Disciples of Christ Math. 9.14 whom he excuseth and defendeth but were we worthy of this reproch and reproofe yet are they the unfittest to upbraid us with it who beside the bare name and naked title of fasting have nothing remaining of the true nature and right practise thereof but the end they ayme at is to set up their owne merits and to puffe up them selves with pride as it was with the blind Pharisees their predecessors whom in this and in sundry other points they follow These things thus laid open J presume to offer to your Worship whose good affection to our Tribe so much scorned and scoffed at in the world and carefull frequenting the exercises of religion many wayes appeareth and as a token and testimony of my thankfull remembrance of your love to me in that you disdaine not but upon every occasion of passing by to come under the roofe of my poore cottage remembring the words of our blessed Saviour Mar. 6.4 A Prophet is not without honour save in his owne Countrey and among his owne kinne and in his owne house The God of heaven and earth encrease your zeale to the truth and finish that good worke which he hath begunne in you unto the day of Jesus Christ Your Worships at command William Attersoll THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTISE OF FASTING and PRAYER of FAITH and REPENTANCE IONAH 3.4 And Ionah beganne to enter into the City a dayes iourney and he cryed and said Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrowne THis Prophecie is wholly Historicall as the other prophecies are dogmaticall It containeth the History of Ionah relating what happened to himselfe when he was sent of God to the great Cittie Nineveh Gen. 10.12 to denounce unto the Ninevites their utter overthrow Who this Prophet was and when he prophecied may be gathered sufficiently out of the Scripture where we reade that Ieroboam the second restored the coast of Israel from the entring of Hamath unto the Sea of the Wildernesse according to the word of the Lord 2 King 14.25 which he spake by his servant Ionah the sonne of Amittai the Prophet which was in Gath Hepher And it seemeth that he was the first of all the Prophets whose writings are extant and remaine in the Church for the instruction thereof in faith and obedience For he lived before the battell of Ioash King of Israel with the Syrians about the end of the dayes of Elisha 2 King 13.14 and 14.25 Neither let any object the Prophecy of Micah as though he were before in time the same that prophecied in the daies of Ahab 1 King 22. Because these two were not both one but different neither doe their names accord in the Originall as may appeare to every one that readeth True it is this prophet hath this end and yssue of his writing with the rest to set forth the judgements and mercies of God toward mankind but this he hath proper and peculiar that he is not here sent unto the Church and people of Israel but onely unto prophane unbeleevers and uncircumcised persons that we should understand thereby that God hath rule over all nations and is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Iewes Rom. 3.29 and an avenger of sinne in whomsoever he findeth it Rom. 2.12 according to the saying of the Apostle As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.12 For then the Prophets were sent to the Syrians 1 King 17.9 19.15 2 King 8.7 and to them of Damascus and to the Tyrians howbeit extraordinarily at the will and pleasure of God And doubtlesse by his sending of his Prophets to strangers out of the promised land God would reprove and condemne the desperate stubbornnesse of the people of Israel who would not be moved and perswaded by so many of his holy Prophets that were sent and dwelt among them and by so many threatnings as were brought upon them where as these poore infidels and unbeleevers did by and by beleeve and obey the voyce of one Prophet Math. 12.41 Luk. 11.32 that the Lord might say of them as he doth in an other case Matth. 8.10 I have not found so great faith no not in Israel I will not stand to discourse at large the vaine conceit and idle speculation of Epiphanius Epiphan of the life of the Prophets touching this Ionah For he telleth us that Elias gat himsalfe into the Wildernesse by reason of a great famine which hee had called upon the land where being nourished by Ravens he quenched his thirst with the water of the brooke and when the brooke was dryed up hee was an hungred and removed into Sarepta a Citie of Sidonia 1 King 17.9 Luk. 4.26 unto a poore woman a Widdow the mother of Ionah and entred into her house now the woman left nothing undone of that which he commanded her and he did eate and blessed her for he could have no abode with the uncircumcised And when as Ionah the sonne of the woman was deceased God raised him up by Elias and restored him alive unto his mother because of the entertainement which she gave unto him and that when Ionah was come to full age he was sent unto Nineveh to the Assyrians Where we have some truth mingled with much falsehood and therefore he deserveth to be credited no farther then he hath the warrant of Gods word being deceived with the tales of the Iewes that are masters of such lyes I know the common sort are most of all delighted with such new tangled devises that have no substance in them howbeit we should not please such itching eares nor feed them with empty winde in stead of wholesome food but avoid prophane bablings and oppositions of science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith 1 Tim. 6.20.21 In this prophecy observe a twofold calling or sending of Ionah the first in the two former chapters which he rejected the second in the two latter which he executed In this third chapter is set forth the execution of his calling together with the fruit and profit thereof in the Ninevites whereby we may see his errour and oversight in flying from his function and supposing that he was sent in vaine when
holinesse or doe we bridle and restraine our selves from such things wherein wee have offended No doubtlesse these are farre from us and therefore we from repentance A fast and put on sackcloth Thus much generally is to be obserued from the practise of the Ninevites that revenged themselues of their excesse and superfluity by fasting and sackcloth now we are to speake of fasting in particular But first of all let us set downe the doctrine We learne Doct. that publike fasting was alwayes wont to be sanctified and appointed among Gods people in times of dangers either present or imminent Publike faster were alwayes called and sanctified in times of danger This is confirmed by sundry precepts as Levit. 16.29 This shall be a statute for ever unto you in the seventh mouth on the tenth day of the moneth ye shall afflict your soules by a statute for ever So the Prophet Ioel chap. 2.15.16 Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctifie a fast call a solemne assembly gather the people sanctifie the Congregation assemble the Elders gather the Children and those that sucke the breast c. see how he heapeth sundry commandements together binding the Priests the people the Congregation the Elders the children the married that is all sortes high and low young and old one and other The truth of this farther appeareth by sundry examples of such as have gone before us in this practise Ezra the good Scribe of the Lord and Nehemiah the religious governour of the people fasted and all that were under their charge Ezr. 8.21 Neh. 9.1 2 Chron. 20.3 So Iehoshaphat ordained a fast throughout all Iudah when the enemies upon a suddaine had broken into the borders of his kingdome hee knew no way better how to resist them and drive them backe than this which he found stronger than the sword of the mighty and so shall we find praying and fasting stronger to withstand the infection and to call the heauy hand of God gone out against us and striking downe many thousands of us than all the rules and receites the meanes and medicines which the wisest Physitions can prescribe if we performe it aright Exod. 17.11 1 Sam. 7.9.10 as Exod. 17. the sword of Ioshua was not so forcible as the praier of Moses for while he held up his hands Israel prevailed and when he let downe his hands Amalek prevailed True it is good meanes are neither to be despised nor neglected for that were to tempt God and to strengthen the enemy howbeit of themselues they profit little the greatest power and strength lyeth in prayer which sanctifieth our fasting Now that we may understand the doctrine of fasting aright What we must do to understand the doctrine of fasting aright what a fast is and so be directed the better in the practise thereof let us consider these fiue points what it is what be the kindes thereof the parts the reasons and lastly the uses The first point is what it is Fasting is an abstinence from all meates and drinkes from euen to even commanded of God to testifie our solemne repentance and to make our praiers more effectuall I call this an abstinence from all meates and drinkes as appeareth plainely in this Chap. Let neither man nor beast taste any thing let them not feed nor drinke water 2 Sam. 3.35 vers 7. The same speakth David when he fasted for the murthering of Abner who was slaine by the sword of Ioab God doe so to me and more also if I taste bread or ought else til the sunne be down Many there are that pretend a solemne fasting when indeed they doe nothing lesse such dissimulation there is with God man Better it were never to keepe a fasting than to obserue such a mocke fast for their fasting is eating and drinking Let us not fast in shew and feed in secret neither make profession of one thing and practise another I adde in the description from even to even that is for an whole day This we saw in the example of David before who fasted till the Sunne went downe And 1 Sam. 14.24 they must not eate bread untill evening So the Israelites having received two great losses doe humble themselues and gather themselues together into the house of the Lord. They wept and sate downe before the Lord Iudg. 20.16 and fasted that day untill the evening and the next day they prevailed against their enemies Thus for the death of Saul and Ionathan and the slaughter of the people 2 Sam. 1.12 they likewise wept and fasted untill the evening 2 Sam. 1. because they were fallen with the sword And Ioshua after the discomfiture of Israel by the men of Ai rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the Arke of the Lord Iosh 7.6 untill the eventide he and the Elders of Israel and put dust upon their heads Thus we see the time how long we are restrained to keepe as in a meane between too much and too little The next point is that it is commanded of God This we saw before and this maketh a difference betweene humane fastes of which we shall speake in the next point and this that is a Divine institution So then fasting is not a will-worship nor devise of man but an Ordinance of God The next point is that it serueth to make profession of our repentance and so to be a meanes to worke in us the greater humiliation Hence it is that it is called the humbling of the soule or an afflicting thereof Levit. 23.27 Numb 29.7 to seeke of him a right way for us Ezr. 8.21 and it was evermore joyned with praier 1 Sam. 7.6 Numb 29.7 they fasted on that day and said there Luk. 2.37 We have sinned against the Lord and Luk. 2. it is said of Anna the Prophetesse she departed not from the Temple but serued God with fasting and prayers night and day This is the life of our fasting when we make it as the wing of prayer wherby more swiftly we make it fly up to heaven and pierce the cloudes and enter into the presence of God Therefore the last part of the description is that it serueth to maks our prayers more earnest and effectuall as verse 7. Let neither man nor beast feed nor drinke water but cry mightily unto God For as fulnesse maketh us more unfit dul heavy sleepy and consequently untoward to every good worke so this abstinence quickneth our zeale feeling faith and every good worke So then touching the nature of Fasting Fasting hath the nature of a Sabbath from all these points joyntly considered we learne that it hath the nature of a Sabbath because at such time seasons we are bound to abstaine not onely from meates and drinkes but no lesse from our ordinary labours profits and pleasures even such as at other times are lawfull become now unlawfull Wherefore as the Lord commandeth to sanctifie the Sabbath so he commandeth to sanctifie
of fasting he that hath restrained sonne and daughter man seruant maid seruant and the stranger that is within the gates from labour on the Sabbath hath also forbbidden to every one all manner of worke whether it be one of your owne Country or a stranger that soiourneth among you Finally he that hath called the seventh day a Sabbath hath also entituled the day of Fast a Sabbath of rest by a statute for ever If then we be ashamed to follow the workes of our hands and the course of our ordinary businesse upon the Lords day we ought also to be afraid to give up our selues to the labours of our callings upon our fast-day which ought with no lesse religion to be obserued then the other But hereof more afterward These are common abstinences belonging to all there is one proper to the married couple that they abstaine from the otherwise lawfull company one of an other Heb. 13.4 and the bed otherwise pronounced to be undefiled The Prophet enioyneth the bridegroome to goe forth of his Chamber Ioel. 2.16 and the bride out of her closet who notwithstanding might iustly if there were any chalenge the greatest priviledge The wise man teaching that to every thing there is a season Eccl. 3.5 and a time to every purpose under the heaven mentioneth a time to imbrace and a time to refraine from imbracing And the Apostle prescribeth that they withdraw themselues with mutuall consent for a time 1 Cor. 7.5 that they may give themselues to fasting and prayer True it is Salomon saith Eccl. 4.9 that two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour but all this holy time of separation one is better then two and he hath a better reward for his labour It is the Apostles Precept not to defraud one an other Piaefraudes licita but now defrauding is both lawfull and laudable This and all the other outward obseruations howsoever they may seeme childish or at least of small importance to the naturall and carnall man because the Lord is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 and will be worshipped in spirit and truth and being in their owne nature indifferent neither good nor evill they can make us neither better nor worse Neverthelesse The use and benefit of the outward parts these outward parts have their singular use and benefit that in three respectes for first they are the ordinances of God who hath commanded them and therefore they are not lightly to be esteemed by the judgement of the senses or outward man that can go no farther then to the ceremony it selfe but according to the Scripture and institution of God which teacheth that God will blesse his own ordinances and thereby worke his owne will being undertaken in a lively faith and in his holy feare What may seeme more simple and unsufficient to throw down the strong walles of Iericho then the trumpets of Rammes hornes Iosh 6.4 5. and the shout of the people with a loud voice yet because this was Gods owne ordinance it prevailed What may seeme more weake then the washing of Naaman in the waters of Iordan 2 Ring 5.12 to clense his Leprosie were not Abana and Pharphar the rivers of Damascus as good Yet was it Gods appointment to heale him thereby Iohn 9.6 Exod. 15.25 2 King 2.21 Christ our Saviour made spittle and clay to annoynt the eyes of the blinde and bad him goe to wash in the poole of Siloam a man might have thought this would rather have put out his eyes then restored his sight Yet he went and washed and received sight God oftentimes worketh by weake meanes and sometimes by contrary that the glory may not be of men 2 Cor. 4.7 Exod. 14.28.31 Iosh 6.21 Iudg. 7.4 Dan. 3. Ion. 2. as he conveieth heavenly treasures in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God So then it is the manner of God to work sometimes without meanes sometimes by weake meanes sometimes against meanes and sometimes above meanes as pleaseth him This we see evidently in the Sacraments Secondly they that come to runne and wrestle for a game were wont to abstaine from all such lettes as hinder their exercise 1 Cor. 9.25 and every one that striveth for mastery though it be to obtaine a corruptible Crowne is temperate in all things that may disable them to performe the same with praise and commendation and shall we thinke that the children of God by abstaining from such things as he hath interdicted them shall not have a singular fruit and benefit toward the obtaining of an incorruptible crowne Lastly the mouthes of the enemies are hereby stopped if there were no other profit For they chalenge the Gospell to be a doctrine of liberty licentiousnesse in eating and drinking and that it cannot stand with the practise of fasting why then should we not strive to stoppe the mouthes of such as watch for our halting and take away all occasions from such as seeke occasions to speake evill of our doctrine and profession Hitherto of the outward parts the inward follow Rom. 14.17 For the kingdome of God standeth not in these outward things it is not meate and drinke but righteousnesse and peace and ioy in the holy Ghost and therefore except we bring with us more then the externall exercises before mentioned our fasting may be matched with the fasting of the beastes of Nineveh for both they did eate nothing and they were covered with sackcloth and if we doe no more what priviledge have we above them Wherefore we must consider the inward vertues helped forward and furthered by the outward and bodily exercises as it is in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper Ioel. 1.13 2.17 Math. 9.15 1 Sam. 7.6 The inward parts and manner of fasting consisteth in foure things humiliation repentance prayer and confidence The first is humiliation never more necessary then at such times which consisteth in the sight of our sinnes in the feeling of our misery in a bewayling of our vile estate and an humble and particular confession of all knowne sinnes without any reseruation of any one 2 Sam. 12.22 Gen 21.17 Psal 147.9 109.27.28 145.15.16 We must poure out the inward mourning of the heart witnessed and signified by the outward teares of the eyes If this be wailing and lamentation be found in us certainely he which heard the moane and mourning wrung from Ismael and Hagar in their extremity he which heareth the cry of the young Ravens the roaring of the Lyons that call upon him will much rather heare the sorrowfull lamentation of his owne deare children which they make unto him in their misery This humiliation answereth with good proportion and agreement to the outward parts for thereby we confesse our selues unworthy of food of rest of apparell of life it selfe or of any helpe comfort of this life The second part is
sorts of the Ministery of our selves of our families Dan. 9.3.7.8 of our fathers of our Princes of our people and of our whole land For all our fasting is nothing worth without this Fasting is no part of Gods worship but onely joyned to prayer to be an helpe unto it or as a wing to mount is up toward heaven and make it ascend into the presence of God Prayer is avaylable without fasting because it is a lifting up of the heart to him but fasting never without prayer because it goeth not beyond the outward man Prayer is a spirituall exercise of our faith wherein as in an acceptable sacrifice God delighteth but fasting is a bodily exercise which in it selfe pleaseth not God who is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth God being of a spirituall nature requireth a spirituall service and agreeable to his nature And cry mightily vnto God This is the life and the very quintessence of all the great abstinence before commanded For what had it availed to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and to abstaine from food had they not used prayer to God to crave mercy and forgivenesse at his hands Yea this is the end of private or publike fastes that we should call upon God the more fervently and effectually They are not prescribed as hath beene shewed as parts of Gods seruice for whether we eate we are never the worse or whether we abstaine we are not at all the better in respect of any religion or holinesse that consisteth in them but onely as they are meanes to further us in his seruice Now in these words we must observe three things the matter the manner and the object that is their prayer their zeale and the person to whom they prayed their prayer is noted by their crying their zeale by doing it mightily the person to whom they prayed unto God Let us consider these in order The first is the matter they prayed they cryed the end is that thereby God might turne away from his fierce wrath Doct. This teacheth us that prayer is a principall meanes appointed and sanctified of God to remove his judgements Prayer is a meanes to remove Gods judgments This is as it were the tongue or voyce of repentance The prayer of this people was more worth a thousand times than the crying of the beasts and the loud noyse of men women and children They cryed they cryed mightily they cryed to God This the heathen by the light of nature have confessed The Marriners acknowledged this to be the only meanes to obtaine mercy at the hands of God Ion. 1.6 and to remoove his judgement when they were like to perish So did Pharaoh he was glad to fly to it in his misery and calamity Exod. 8.28 Pray for me and for my people to the Lord that this plague may depart So it was with Ieroboam little better than the former 1 King 13.6 1 King 13. So it was with Simon the forcerer they all thought it was the readiest way to remove his judgments from falling upon them Behold sundry examples of this truth in traveilers in captives in sicke men in sea-men and sundry other troubles of which the Prophet saith They cryed unto the Lord in their troubles Psal 107.6.13 19.28 Amos. 7.2.3 4.5.6 and he delivered them out of their distresses We see this oftentimes in Moses the servant of the Lord when he praied for the Israelites Exod. 32. Numb 14. Yea so forcible were his prayers with God that they after a sort tyed up his hands that he could not smite but said Exod. 32.10 Let me alone that I may destroy them So Gen. 19. he said to Let I can doe nothing till thou art gone and Exod. 17. Gen. 19.22 the prayer of Moses prevailed more for the overthrow and destruction of the Amalekites than the sword of Ioshua and the people The reasons are Reas 1 first it hath a promise of blessing to such as use it a right Math. 7. Psal 50. We do not beat the aire nor build upon the sand our labour in the fire Psal 50.15 when we pray unto him but we lay a sure foundatiō upon the certaine rocke of his promise Math. 7.7 which shall never faile us who hath said Aske and ye shall receive Secondly our sinnes cry up to heaven pierce the cloudes Gen. 18.20 4.10 come into Gods presence and call for vengance Gen. 18. Our prayers cry to God for mercy and drowne the noise of our sinnes that the cry of them cannot be heard though they cry never so loud Thirdly we obtaine not because we aske not aright Iam. 4. We aske and receive not Iam. 4.3 we seeke and find not but the cause is not in God the fault is in our selves Vse 1. This reproveth such as pray not at all Vse 1 nor desire to have conference with God as if they stood in no need of him as if they enjoyed all things by their owne labour as if they did not live and move by his blessing as if it were not in his power to stoppe our breath when we must goe hence and be no more and as if any thing could do us good without a sanctifying of the creature to our use Psal 14.4 whereas he can take away the staffe of bread whensoever it pleaseth him All these should be motives to move us to paryer Rom. 10.13 The Prophet maketh this the note of Atheistes they call not upon the Lord. If a man should be waighed in this ballance alas how many would be found to light and if whosoever would be saved must call upon the name of the Lord how many are there that stand not in the state of salvation because they know not what prayer meaneth it is a stranger to them and they unto it Secondly it is our duty to practise this duty to call upon his holy name But it may be said what needeth prayer God hath foreappointed what to do and our prayer cannot altar Gods purpose decree which is unchangable I answer we do not pray to chage Gods decree but to shew our obedience faith toward God It pleaseth him to try them this way whether as his children they will depend upon him or not Again it may be said He knoweth what we need what need we then to put him in mind as if he had forgotten to shew mercy I answer we do not pray to teach God any thing that he knoweth not neither to bring to his remēbrance what he hath forgotten yet this ought to be farre from discouraging of us in prayer and from stopping our mouthes Math 6.8 9. that it rather openeth them wider for asmuch as therefore we ought to be encouraged in prayer because our heavenly father knoweth whereof we have need and thus our Saviour reasoneth your father knoweth your necessities after this manner therefore pray ye
grace never considring how they pray neither before whom they pray neither have any feeling at all of their owne wants and necessities and therefore no mar veil if they receive nothing â— Ier. 47.10 but go away empty as Ier. 48. Cursed be he that doth the worke of the Lord deceitfully such do most of all deceive themselues These are they that draw nigh to God with their mouthes and honour him with their lippes but their hearts are farre removed from him Causes of cold prayers in vaine doe such worship him Math. 15. If any desire to know what are the causes of such could and livelesse prayers they are these especially first ignorance of the nature of God of his piercing eye and of his powerfull hand and of his glorious presence filling all places and searching all hearts and beholding all persons how they stand before him Secondly want of faith the root of all evill Heb. 4.2 for our prayers do not profit because they are not mixed with faith in them that make them as the Apostle speaketh of hearing the Gospel Heb. 4. For faith is the life of every part of Gods worship Thirdly confidence in the flesh and not trusting in the living God and looking for all good things from him Such are they that trust in their wealth and boast themselues in the multitude of their riches which as ranke thornes do so choke them and as heavy burdens do so presse and oppresse them that they cannot lift up their hearts to God Eph. 5.5 from whence our helpe cometh A covetous man which is a worshipper of Images can never make a fervent prayer he is so taken in the snare of his owne substance whereby he is drowned in perdition and destruction Fourthly the corrupt iudgement of the sinful world that hate zeale to the death and cannot abide such as are zealous but as the frendship of this world is enmity with God Iam. 4.4 so whosoever will be a friend of the world maketh himselfe the enemy of God Iam. 4. So the beholding of the prosperity of the wicked men that either pray not at all or else if they pray are neither hote nor cold but are newters or indifferent men who if they prospeâ— here regard not what become of them hereafter that say 1 Cor. 15.32 let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dy 1. Cor. 15. But our hope is not in this life onely but we must looke to the recompense of reward and cast a sure and steadfast ancre in heaven Lastly to lye in some knowne sinne This either stoppeth our mouthes that we cannot speak or powreth water upon our prayers that our praiers have no heat in them but are frozen with the cold of our corruptions Our daily prayer therefore must be to God the searcher of all hearts to clense us from our secret sinnes Psal 19.12 Secondly learne from hence what it is that seasoneth every worke of God preaching hearing receiving the Sacraments prayer and the rest without zeale they are nothing worth Prayers are not commended for their length nor for often repetitions of one and the same thing Math. 6.7 for the heathen thinke to be heard for their much babling neither are they accepted because they are cunningly and curiously compiled as if we were Orators not Christians pleaded at the barre for our fâ—e not shewed the fruit of our faith sought to please the eares of ignorant men not to pierce the eares of the eternall God The Apostle would not preach to men in the entising words of mens wisedome 1 Cor 2.4 but in demonstration of the spirit and power and shall we dare to speake unto God in a florishing and foolish stile to tickle the eare as if we ment to shew our skill in Rhetoricke rather then commend our suites to God That which giveth a grace to our prayers is the spirit of zeale without this they are as sounding brasse they can profit us nothing neither ascend to the presence of God Lastly in every duty labour to be zealous For as it is in prayer so it is in the worship of God zeale is the salt that seasoneth the same and without it every worke hath lost his Savour It is strange to consider how in worldly duties the more earnest a man is the better he is accounted and accepted He that is earnest in his masters businesse is judged a good seruant he that is earnest in his Prince affaires is rewarded as a good subject he that is earnest in his fathers cause is esteemed as a good child onely in the matters of God wherein we should be most forward who should be master and Father and King and all unto us I wot not how his servants children and subjects are reviled and reproched for their zeale Neverthelesse we must not be offended nor discouraged for the taunts and evill reports of the world but be ready to walke through good report and evill report that we may please him who hath set us in his seruice Onely we must learne how to direct our zeale aright for there are extremes on both sides As it may be too cold so it may be too hote and fiery the meane is best that we may be aright zealous of good workes Tit. 2.14 There is an ignorant zeale Ioh. 16.2 Gal. 1.14 there is an idolatrous zeale Phil. 3.6 such was theirs that cut and mangled themselues till the blood gushed out Act. 26.11 1 King 18.28 and that would burne their children in fire and offer them in honour of their devilish goddes Ier. 7.31 here is an hypocriticall zeale such as was in the Pharisees that did compasse sea and land to make one a proselite that is one of their owne sect Math. 23.13 There is a zeale more damnable and vile than all the rest of such who contrary to their own conscience and knowledge do violently resist and maliciously oppose themselves against the Gospel and the professors thereof this was in the cursed and proud Pharisees that opposed themselues against our Saviour committed the sin against the holy Ghost which shal befor given neither in this life nor in the life to come Math Math. 12.32 12.32 That our zeale therfore may be good Rules to be observed to make our zeale good first the matter must be good Gal. 4.18 our zeale is good if the thing be good otherwise if the matter be evill the more earnest it is more sinful it is his indeed rather choler then zeale SecoÌ„dly true zeale beginneth with our selues and in our selues froÌ„ thence proceedeth to others They are the most skilful Physians and best able to heale others who have wrought a cure upon themselues Luk. 6.42 against this rule do all hypocrites offend Thirdly we must make greatest account of the greatest matters Math. 23.23 Such do erre herein that are hote hasty in matters of ceremony but altogether cold in matter of substance these
promised to heare us Ob. we obey and yet we are not heard I answer God never commanded thee to pray Answ God never commanded a wicked man to pray he never made promise nor halfe a promise nor peece of a promise to a wicked mans prayer so long as he continueth so Search the whole booke of God and tell me where the Commandement or promise is to be found I can produce a thousand curses against the soule of the ungodly and where he expresâ—y threatneth he will not heare them and that his prayer is abominable but I cannot find either Commandement for the ungodly to pray or comfort for them that they shall be heard and helped in their prayer He that bringeth his gift to the Altar and there remembreth his brother hath ought against him Math. 5.23.24 must leave his gift before it and goe his way to be first reconciled to his brother and ought not they when they come to pray before the Lord the searcher of all hearts and remember the Lord hath a controversie against them leave his worship for a time and go first to be reconciled to him and that much more before they presume to call upon him with their wicked hearts How many are there that thinke it enough to come to the house of prayer as if there were some vertue or inherent holinesse in the place but be not deceived when we tread in the Lords Courts if we leave not our sinnes behind us we were better leave our selues behind also forasmuch as he that maketh prayer without repentance is as if he mingled wholesome meat with ranke poyson Secondly it behoveth us to love the righteous and esteeme well of them because such God heareth and they are much beloved of God For though they be little in their owne eyes yet are they highly regarded of him and much in his favour And though they be never so poore in the sight of the world they are in truth and in Gods account greater then any worldling nay one of them the least the lowest the simplest is in more estimation with him then all the world of the ungodly Heb. 11.38 These are such as the Apostle speaketh off Heb. 11. The world was not worthy of them They are the favorites of the king of heaven the King of Kings and have free accesse to him at all times which no man can have to earthly Princes How great an honour is it in Princes Courts to have an easie entrance to come into their presence and to be in their favour that they hold out their golden Septer unto them but how much grearer dignity is it to have recourse to the Almighty and whensoever we will to put up our petitions before him with assurance to be heard As therefore we have benefit by the prayers of the faithfull whom God accepteth so we are bound to love them by whom we have such benefit Lastly from hence comfort and encouragement ariseth to the Godly to pray often and as the Lords remembrancers to give him no rest seeing they have promise of good successe He will not be wanting unto us if we be not wanting to our selues Let us joyne repentance unto our prayer and he will joyne helping to his hearing but if we separate our repentance from our requestes he may well heare us but we may not looke for deliverance or acceptance at his hands If then we turne unto him we may be well assured he will turne unto us Great is the force of true prayer but it must be seasoned and sharpned with repentance if both these go together like a bird that flyeth with both winges they ascend up to heaven and his blessings descend to the earth and fall upon our heads as a shower of raine that falleth upon the ground and maketh it fâ—uitfull Prayer without repentance is like a Dove that flyeth with one wing or like a cripple that halteth with one foote happy are they that joyne them together as it were to draw in one yoke Hence it is that the Apostle knitteth them in one Act. 8. Repent of wickednesse and pray unto God What had his repentance availed him without prayer or his prayer without repentance as therefore both are commanded so both of them must be practised of us Let them turne every one Doct. Marke in the next place the generality of the Commandement Repentance belongeth to the naturall man who must turne to God Repentance is shewed to belong to all of them These men were meere carnall and naturall men such as were not regenerate by the Spirit of God This teacheth us to whom repentance belongeth that the naturall man not yet called must repent and turne unto God True it is the regenerate must repent also because he hath many corruptions remaining in him and he sinneth daily the image of God in which man was created was lost in a little space yet to repaire it againe perfectly requireth the whole time of mans life as houses may be overturned in an instant as the house that fell upon Iobs children Iob. 1.19 which are long in building againe The regenerate man therefore must still exercise repentance howbeit properly this is renewed repentance rather then the first act of repentance and a proceeding in it unto perfection then the first beginning of our conversion The point then to be considered in this example is that the naturall man hath need of repentance Math. 3.2 This Iohn the Baptist preached Act. 2.23.38 Repent for the kingdome of God is at hand Thus Peter exhorted the Iewes that with wicked hands had taken and crucified the Lord of life to repent and to be baptized in his name 2 Tim. 2.25 So the man of God is charged to instruct with meekenesse the contrary minded if God peradventure will gâ—ve them repentance The reasons hereof are plaine Reas 1 First the naturall man cannot enter into Gods kingdome Ioh. 3.5 except he be borne again It is as unpossible for a man unregenerate to possesse the joyes of heaven as it is for a Camell to goe through the eye of a needle The penitent person hath the gate of the kingdome set wide open to him but no other For such as have not the spirit of God are none of his Secondly such are nothing else but a lumpe of sinne no one part good in them their consciences are impure Tit. 1. Repentance is the life of a sinner without this we are as a dead man that can stirre neither hand nor foot Eph. 2.1 By nature we beare the image of Satan and are more like to him then any child is to his father or can be Let us come to the uses This teacheth us that this present life is the time of our repentance Vse 1 Let us make peace with God and be reconciled unto him while we are yet in the way It had been to late for these Ninevites to think of repentance when desolation had come upon them as a
of his Angels Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish We have heard before that the scope of Christ in these words to which the examples one going before the other following after are referred is to perswade men to repentance This we must lay as the foundation of our weekly meeting together to make profession before God before men and Angels of our repentance to renew our Couenant with God and to seale to it with our hearts and to cry unto him to remove his judgements that lye heavy upon us Consider in this threatning farther an other doctrine to wit what danger it is to omit and reject repentance such persons are subject to death and destruction thâ—â— repent not Doct. This teacheth Such as continue in sinne without repentance shall certainly perâ—â— that howsoever God for a time spare and forbeare the Church and do not alway strike upon every occasion as he might do yet it is a sure and certaine thing concluded with him that such as continue to walke and wallow in evill without repentance their end is confusion their reward and wages is to perish See the truth of this in the Prophet remembred in a parable answearable to that which followeth of the Vineyard he had pruned trimmed and hedged about it he had digged and dunged done all that he could Esay 5.4 he looked for grapes but it brought forth wild grapes the conclusion is this I will take away the hedge and it shall be troden downe I will command the clouds and they shall raine upon it I will lay it waste and there shall come up briers and thrones This will farther appeare by sundry examples and by the wofull experience of many desolations made in all ages of the Church through default of repentance When the Lord had heaped his mercies upon the old world Gen. 6.3 and given them 120. yeares the dayes of his patience as the time of their repentance he sent the Patriarkes that called upon them and appointed Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 who confirmed his doctrine by building the Arke which was a figure of the destruction of the world of the ungodly yet they continued their evil wayes Luc. 17.27 eating and drinking c they never though of the day of the Lord they never considered the day of their visitation the flood come and destroyed them all a small remnant reserued and a few soules saved The like we might say of the Sodomites Gen. 13.13 19.25 Gen. 19. They were exceeding sinners before the Lord and were overturned with fire from heaven because they repented not And was it any otherwise with the Israelites themselues 2 Chro. 36. he sent to them by his messengers rising up betimes because he had compassion on his people and desireth not the death of a sinner 2 Chro. 36.16 Math. 23.37.38 but that they should turne vnto him but after all this they mocked his messengers and despised his word and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord in the end arose against his people till there was no remedy So then howsoever God sometimes spareth the sonnes of men yet such as continue in sinne and wholly delight in the workes of the flesh the end of them is fearefull they repent not and therefore they must perish Reason 1. Reason 1 He hath pure eyes and cannot like or allow that which is evill For can two walke together Amos. 3.3 except they be agreed but the Lord hath no agreement with evill neither have the evill any agreement with him He is holy in all his wayes but impenitency is contrary to his wayes and hath all sinnes following after it and attending upon it and consequently also all plagues Ier. 5. Secondly he taketh away his mercy and louing kindnesse from such What is it then that turneth away his heavy wrath and displeasure from us Is it any worthinessein our selues we are alas an uncleane thing Doth any deserve life or can he plead with his maker we are all corrupt and abominable The world the Church the Common-wealth our selues our owne Consciences know it and witnesse against us Lam. 3.22 It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not His mercy is not reserved for the impenitent that proceed and goe forward in their sinnes this were to confound heaven earth nay heaven and hell God and the devill Therefore the Prophet Ieremy declareth that God had taken away his mercies from them Ier. 5. If then he will not shew mercy to such as walke in the stubbornnesse of their euill hearts conclude with me this point for a certaine truth that howsoever God forbeare the children yet wearying him by vrging and provoking him by our sinnes destruction is reserued for such impenitent persons Seeing such as have hearts that cannot repent Vse 1 doe heape up wrath as a treasure against the day of wrath and iust declaration of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 let us put farre from us the wayes of the impenitent let them not clea◠〈◊〉 as pitch unto our soules lest if we follow their workes we be partakers of their Plagues Let us be grieved for our former evils and returne to the Lord that be which hath sâ—ricken us may heale us againe But alas while we goe forward in our wicked wayes doe we hold this point that the impenitent are reserved to wrath So many of us as hold and beleeve this truth let us depart from our old courses and labour to heape up mercy upon mercy Iob. 21.30 being assured that the wicked is reserved to the day of wrath and destruction O how many things have we neede to repent of the dayes of our ignorance the sinnes of our youth our presumptuous sinnes If the Lord call us to an account who shall be able to abide Secondly let no man mocke at his judgements or set light by them let no man thinke himselfe safe and secure and no danger to be neere him because he seeth not his judgements at hand or upon him or evermore to fall out O how deepe are his judgements how neere oftentimes when we suppose them to be farthest off how unsearchable are his Counsels and his wayes past finding out Esâ—y 28.15 2 Pâ—t 3 3. Carnal men promise peace and have made a covenant with death and with hell and make a mocke of all judgements They see the wicked prosper and the ungodly florish but they cannot mealure him that is not to be measured there is no measure of that which is infinite God hath more workes to worke then one he will not speake peace for ever Esai 28.24 The husbandman doth not plough al the yeare long neither reap or gather into his barne all the yeare and God hath given to man this wisedome and understanding to observe the times and seasons and shall we not thinke that the Lord also hath his times of his judgements and of
the immediate hand of God rather then endure these manifold miseries that are upon them and those that belong vnto them Secondly it leadeth us to thinke that our hope and comfort is not heere upon the earth Our happinesse and the time or place of our resting and refreshing is not heere We must not looke for an heaven in this life but make our selves ready to take up our crosse and follow our Master Our Saviour never promiseth his Disciples to live ever in prosperity and be free from all adversity O how many followers should he have if the profession of his name were coupled accompanied with honour and temporall glory as appeareth by the Shechemites that would be circumcised for gaine Ioh. 6.26 Gen. 34. and by those that sought him because they did eate of the loaves and had their bellies filled Ioh 6. but he forewarneth them in all places of grieuous troubles he sent them out as sheepe in the middes of Wolves he telleth them that they will deliver them up to the Councils and scourge them in their Synagogues and the Apostle was assured by the holy Ghost Act. 20.26 that bands and afflictions did abide him It shall not be thus in the life to come when the Lord shall wipe away all teares from our eyes 1 Cor. 15.19 therefore the Apostle saith If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable This is the description of such as are wicked men Psal 17.14 their portion is in this life Psal 17. they lay up for themselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt where theeves breake through and steale and where their treasure is there is their heart also Math. 6.19 Math. 6.19.21 they say let us eate and drinke for to morrow we dy 1 Cor. 15. The happinesse of a godly man is heereafter Phil. 1.23 to be dissolved and to be with Christ is best of all Phil. 1. When this earthly house of this his Tabernacle is dissolved he hath a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil. 3.20 2 Cor. 5. his Conversation is in heaven and from thence looketh for a saviour Phil. 3. Col. 3.1.2 he seeketh those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Col. 3. he setteth his affections on things above not on things on the earth Thirdly seing be oftentimes chastiseth his children while worldly men feele nothing at all it behoveth us to beare his chastisements cheerefully humbly and patiently and not faint under the crosse as men out of heart Heb. 12.6 veing he correcteth every son whom hereceiveth and loveth and with this we should comfort our selves and strengthen the feeble-minded support the weake and be patient toward all men This condemneth all murmuring and complaining under the Crosse which causeth the Lord oftentimes not to remove but rather to double his strokes upon us When Parents perceive their children grow stubborne and wayward froward and foolish under the rod doe they not rather encrease their punishment then let them alone Lam. 3.33.36 Thus doe we constraine the Lord to deale with us true it is he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feete and to subvert a man he approveth not but when we are impatient and fret against him this is not the way to stay his hand and to call backe his judgements but rather to provoke him against us to strike againe and againe Motives to patience and to double and treble his strokes upon us Now there are sundry motives to move us to this patience and to stay us from all impatience First God useth bodily afflictions to cure spirituall diseases Every paine preventeth the paines of hell by drawing us to Christ We may learne more by adversity then we can doe by prosperity Manasses learned more in Babylon then in Ierusalem and profited more in prison then in his palace 2 Chro. 33. In prosperity David said I shall never be remooved but in adversity he confessed Psal 30.6.119.71 it was good for him to have beene afflicted that he might learne the statutes of God whereas before he was afflicted he went astray but now he kept his word Secondly the sorrowes and anguish we endure alas what are they if they be compared to those dolours and paines which Christ our saviour suffered for us for he might say more truly then any other Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me Lam. 1.12 wherewith the Lord afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Thirdly our sorrowes are a thousand times lesser then our sinnes have deserved Let us enter into our owne hearts and consciences to try and find out this point and we shall easily discerne our sinnes and offences to exceed all our paines Fourthly nothing commeth upon us but that which the Lord hath sent and laid upon us affliction springeth not out of the dust though dust and ashes judge after that manner We looke too much to second causes to finde the cause of our visitations as also we trust too much in outward meanes and remedies to remove the same The Prophet saith Psal 39.9 I was dumbe and opened not my mouth because thou didst it This consideration wrought patience in him And our Saviour teacheth us to lift up our eyes higher then the earth Math 10.29 and to rest in his providence Are not two sparrowes solde for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father Fiftly God hath not given us ouer into the hands of our enemies to be chastened but he correcteth us with his owne mercifull hand When David had his wish to chuse his owne chasticement either warre famine or pestilence all sharpe weapons able to wound to death he chose rather to be corrected by the hand of God then by men or other meanes 2 Sam. 24.14 2 Sam. 24. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man for the very mercies of the wicked are cruelty For if we stood at the discretion of mercilesse men as sundry our bretheren at this day in other places doe and heard the alarme of battel sounding in our eares when mourning is in our streets Amos 5.16 and we should heare crying in all our high wayes Alas alas and all places be filled with weeping and wailing when the blood of the Saints shall be powred out like water that cannot be gathered up againe when so many widowes and fatherlesse children are left to lament we would confesse it a great mercy to fall into the hands of God and not of men if we considered aright these things Sixtly all the afflictions of this life are not worthy the glory laid up for us in the life to
met with him in the end for he perished and no man lamented for him saying The fourth reproofe Ah my brother Fourthly such are convinced who breath nothing but threatnings as it were fire and flames out of their mouthes and thinke upon nothing but revenge against their enemies never considering the shortnesse of their owne lives and that vengeance may first meet them in the way and fall upon their owne heads Such never marke nor meditate with themselves Psal 7.16 9.15 Eccl. 10.8 what danger may lye at their owne doores and hang over their heads as they that dig a pit for others and fal into it first themselves or spread a nett to ensnare others and their owne foote is taken therein We see an example hereof in Haman Ester Est 7.10 7. He builded a paire of Gallous for an other more righteous then himselfe and himselfe was hanged thereon as also the adversaries of Daniel cast him into the denne of Lyons to be devoured Dan. 6.24 but themselves were destroyed for the Lyons had the mastery of them and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottome of the denne Lastly The fift reproofe this meditation reproveth such as are unmercifull toward those that are in misery and necessity and will part with nothing never regarding what mischiefe may hang over their owne heads and in what wonderfull uncertainty they hold their lives their estates their goods and all that they have For what store and plenty soever we have present we do not know what want and penury we may suffer Many that have had abundance and superfluity of all things have also had lamentable experience of great misery before their last end Eccl. 11.1.2 This doth Salomon teach Eccl. 11. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evill shall be upon the earth Where he exhorteth to liberality and bountifulnesse toward the poore and not thinke we have done enough when we have given to one or two yea he stirreth up thereunto from the uncertainty of things which we dreame to be certaine All earthly things are uncertaine in sundry respectes and not to measure things by our present fruition and possession of them All earthly things as life it selfe are uncertaine and that in divers respects For first it is uncertaine whether we shall prolong our dayes to shew our bounty toward other as Eccl. 9. Whatsoever thy hand shall find to doe doe it with thy might Eccl. 9.10 for there is no worke in the grave whither thou goest VVe must walke in the light while we have it Gal. 6.10 the darkenesse commeth wherein no man can worke as we have therefore opportunity let us doe good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith Gal. 6.10 Secondly whether our substance which we have in present shall continue and abide with us or not It is not with the world and worldly things as with spirituall and heavenly things Math. 6.19 For the moth and rust may corrupt the former and theeues breake through and steale them away but they cannot deprive us of the latter Therefore Salomon warneth us that riches are deceitfull that we should not lay up our treasure upon earth but in heaven Pro. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves winges and fly away as an Eagle doth toward heaven So the rich in this world are charged not to be high-minded 1 Tim. 6.17 nor to trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enioy Thirdly we know not whether our selves or at least some of ours how surely soever we may thinke we have feathered our nestes may be driven to pouerty and misery and compelled even to begge our bread and crave an almes of others and happily of those whom we have despised and derided as much as now we have and as rich as now we seeme to be and how setled soever we suppose our estate to remaine when happily we may finde others as hard-hearted and streight-laced toward our selves as we have beene toward them And it is the just judgement of God that they find no mercy who have shewed no mercy Besides among all uncertainties this is not the least of all whether our heire sonne or daughter or other shall waste consume all that we have gotten and gathered and whatsoever we have heaped and hoarded together or a stranger possesse all or if we were sure to leave our substance to the heire of our bodies Eccl. 2.19 Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a Fools that shall have rule over all our labour Let us therefore follow the counsell of our Saviour Luc. 16. Luc. 16.9 I say unto you make you friends of this earthly Mammon that when ye faile they may receive you into everlasting habitations he meaneth that our good workes will give a friendly testimony to our consciences that we are the elect of God and have not beleeved in vaine To conclude let us remember the saying of the Prophet after that he hath brought in the counterfeit fasting of the hypocrites of his time complaining that they had fasted God regarded it not and pleasing themselves in the outward worke Esay 58. saying Is this such a fast as I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soule to how downe his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him wilt thou call this a fast an acceptable day to the Lord He proccedeth to teacheth them and us by them what to doe Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickednesse to deale thy bread to the hungry lo bring the poore to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy selfe from thine owne flesh Hereby we make our fast acceptable to God otherwise covetous and miserable persons may like of it thereby to save somewhat both to pinch their servants at home and to defraud their owne bellies but if it be performed aright then shall our righteousnesse goe before us and the glory of the Lord shall be our reward Secondly glory not of the time to come Pro. 27.1 neither ascribe any power to our selves let us not resolve and appoint what we will doe we know not what God hath decreed and determined concerning us The Apostle Iames concludeth this Iam. 4.13 chap. 4. Goe to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will goe into such a city and continue there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine whereas ye know not what shal be on the morrow for what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away for that ye ought to say If
these sticketh deeply in us it must be the labour of our whole life to pull it out Fiftly whatsoever a man would do when he is dying and departing out of this world let him doe the same every day while he is living and what he would doe when he sicke let him doe it while he is in health The most wicked Exod. 8.8 1 King 13.4 when he is dying will pray and desire others to pray for him So I haraoh did in his troubles so did Ieroboam that made Israel to sin when his hand was withered and dried up that he could not pull it into him againe Sixtly he that would live when he is dead must die while he is alive namely to his sinnes If we would die the death of the righteous we must have the conversation of the righteous otherwise it shall goe no better with us then it went with Balaam Num. 23.10 he would have his soule dy the death of the righteous but he would not live the life of the righteous A profitable meditation in these dangerous times we know not how soone we may be called to give an account of our stewardship Lastly let us begin our eternall life here upon earth Phil. 3.20 and even now have our conversation in heaven Col. 1.13 and seeke those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God So the Apostle describing the estate of the faithfull saith God hath delivered us from the power of darknesse Col. 3.1 and hath translated vs into the kingdome of his deare sonne It behoveth us therefore to be watchfull and in a readinesse like the wise Virgins against the comming of the bridegroome lest we be taken unawares and swept away from his presence as the chaffe which the winde driveth away To this purpose Christ exhorteth Mar. Mar. 13.35.36 13. upon this ground to watch pray to take heed lest he comming suddainly to us or calling us suddainly to come to him doe find us sleeping Of that houre and that day knoweth no man no not the Angels that are in heaven neither the Sonne but the Father onely take ye heed therefore watch and pray for ye know not the time when the master of the house commeth at even or at midnight or at the cocke crowing or in the morning lest comming suddainly he find you sleeping and what I say unto you I say unto all watch thus heteaceh thus to apply generall commandements particularly to our selves and this was never more necessary then in these present daies of affliction Whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices Doct. The vvicked are by nature cruell and bloody See here the violent practise of Pilate behold a matter of great impiety without having respect to persons to time place or action whereabout they went that offered sacrifice He was the governour and judge in Iudea he should have preserved peace and prohibited others from such outrage This teacheth us that wicked and ungodly men are bloody and cruel without mercy or naturall affection See this at large Amos 1. Amos. 1.3 Obad. ver 12.13 describing the enemies of the Church They have threshed Gilead that is the inhabitants of Gilead with threshing instruments of iron they pursued their brethren with the sword and cast off all pitty they have ript up women with child c. This is to be noted in the Edomites against their brother Iacob they rejoyced in the day of his destruction and laid hands on his substance in the day of his calamitie and stood in the crosse way to cut off those of his that did escape c. Behold the truth of this farther confirmed in the examples of Caine of Nimrod of Esau of Pharaoh of Saul of Hazael of Agag of Herod of infinite others whose tender mercies have beene terrible cruelties as Salomon speaketh Pro. 12.10 The reasons are evident for first who ruleth in them Reason 1 and who carrieth them with might and maine and hath the sway and swing of their whole life Doubtlesse they are led by the spirit of Satan Ioh. 8.44 who was a murtherer from the beginning 1 Pet. 5.8 and the great Dragon that persecuted the woman that brought forth the man-child the roring Lyon that walketh after his prey and seeketh whom he may devoure For that which is said of Caine is true of all the company of the ungodly he was of that wicked one and slew his brother because his owne workes were evill and his brothers good This our Saviour also teacheth Revel 2. Behold the devill shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried not that Satan was incarnate and become a layler in his owne person but he understandeth the instruments of the devill such as obeyed him as the servant his master Secondly by the names given to them in holy Scripture we may see and judge of their natures For they have the names of such beastes given unto them as are given to spoiling and ravening as Lyons Beares Bulls Dogs Leopards Psal 22.12.13.16 Wolves such like of which the Scripture is full in every place that we should not be ignorant of them This serveth to reprove all such as are guilty of violence and cruelty Vse 1 Severall sorts of cruelty of oppression and unmercifulnesse toward others and hereof there are sundry sorts and herein we may offend sundry waies First when we goe beyond the bounds of justice For extremity of justice is injustice or a kind of cruelty so that we offend by exercising heinous tyranny in inflicting punishment even against offenders and malefactours If too much mercy be a kinde of cruelty much more over much rigour of justice There is mercy to be shewed in justice there is justice to be shewed in mercy In the law of Moses the Iudge is charged to iustifie the righteous and to condemne the wicked and if he be worthy to be beaten he shall receive according to his fault Deut. 25.3 fortiâ— stripes he may give him and not excâ—ed So then these are to be punished but not with cruelâ—y Secondly by fighting and quarelling beating or maiming our neighbour in his body reprooved by Moses Levit. 24. Levit. 24.19.20 if a man cause any blemish in his neighbour as he hath done so shall it be done to him c. as he hath caused a blemish in a man so shal it be done to him againe True it is many carnall men of this world know no other valour or vertue then hurting laming quarelling and desire of revenge which breath forth cruelty are often times the forerunners of bloody murther Such as have neither hand nor heart to fight against the enemies of their soules and against spirituall wickednesse in high places to fight the battels of the Lord against sinne Satan and the world but are ready as cowards and dastards to yeeld unto them the field yet are never well but when they are
strong servants of God strong in faith that send up many strong cries to the throne of grace nay the strong God that hath commanded this duty to pray one for another hath also promised to heare them This no doubt was a comfort even to Peter himselfe put in prison that he knew Act. 12.5 Heb. 12.5.12.13 Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him and for his deliverance Let us not therefore faint under the Crosse when we are rebuked of him neither despise the chastening of the Lord who aymeth at our profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse but rather lift up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees and not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward And let this be our comfort in these rerillous times that God heareth us for our brethren and our brethren for us and our elder-brother Christ Iesus our mediatour for us all who for his mercies sake for his truthes sake for his promise sake for his sonnes sake will in his good time send an happy deliverance that albeit for a season we be kept in affliction 2 Cor. 1.5.12 yet as our sufferings have abounded in us so our consolation should abound through our restoring when we had in a manner the sentence of death in us that thankes also may be given by many on our behalfe Secondly seeing Gods children for our comfort and consolation make request and intercession for us and are heard O how much more ought we to remember the sweet mediation of Christ Iesus our Lord and Saviour and comfort our selves and one another therewithall True it is we may and ought not a little to comfort our selves with the prayers and intercessions of other weake men our fellow servants like to our selves and subject to the same passions we are especially seing we know our whole Church at the same time assemble together to pray for us and to turne away his wrath from us and to call backe his destroying Angel that he may at length say It is enough 2 Sam. 24.16 stay now thy hand and so repent him of the evill upon our repentance and humiliation if I say we have much matter of comfort offered unto us by the publike prayers of the Church often as it were with one mind and with one mouth made and renewed on our behalfe how much more doth peace and consolation arise unto us by the mediation and intercession of Christ our Saviour the head of the Church the beloved sonne of God Heb. 1.2.3 Math. 17.5 the sonne of his love the heire of all things the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person in whom the father is well pleased Herein consisteth our cheefe comfort that we rest and repose our selves in him as our Advocate and rely upon the merit of his passion Ioh. 11.42 whom the father alwaies heareth Indeed he commandeth that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thankes be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 and that we pray one for another that we may be healed Iam. 5.16 But if God at any time vouchsafe to heare any of his children it is for his sonnes sake not for any worthinesse or merits in them but for the Lords sake that is for Christs sake Dan. 9.1.7 for he is the Angel of the Covenant Revel 8.3 to whom was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the throne Therefore also the Apostle saith Heb. 5.16 In the dayes of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares was heard in that he feared because he prayed to him that was able to save him from death Lastly it is our duty to performe this duty our selves toward others and to require this duty to be performed for us by others Thus did Daniel a man greatly beloved of God who had many deepe mysteries by vision declared unto him he spake to his Companions Dan. 2.18 that they should desire the mercies of the God of heaven to reveale his secret to him that they might not perish So the Apostle prayed the Church of the Thessalonians 2 Thess 3.1 to pray for him and the rest of his fâ—llow-labourers that the word of the Lord much hindred by the opposition of potent adversaries might have a free passage As then he prayed before for the Thessalonians so here he prayeth the Thessalonians to pray for him that he might be comforted together with them by the mutuall prayers both of them and of him The use of mutual praier To this duty we should be stirred up in regard of the mutuall profit that proceedeth from the practise and performance thereof For first it serveth as the ordinary meanes ordained and sanctified of God to prevent judgments threatned and to remove judgments already inflicted Remember the devout and zealous prayer of Salomon 2 King 8.33.35.37.44 when the people of Israel be smitten downe before their enemies because they have sinned against thee when heaven is shut up and there is no raine c. if there be in the land famine if there be pestilence blasting mildew locust or caterpiller c. whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse there be heare thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive the sinne of thy servants c. Secondly it is a cordiall to preserve and strengthen us in all spirituall graces as we see that by Christs prayer Peters faith was kept from failing Luc. 22.32 Luc. 22. and thus he prayed not onely for the rest of the Apostles but for all them that should beleeve on him through their word Ioh. Iob. 17.20.24 17. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me c. Prayer therefore is a notable preseruative to keepe the precious treasures and iewels of grace in the Closets of our hearts and serveth to strengthen and encrease good things in us For as it obtaineth blessings at Gods hands so it procureth the encrease of them and it is no lesse vertue to keepe and continue to enlarge and encrease what we have obtained then at the first to obtaine it Thirdly to bring remission of sinnes to subdue in us the power of sinne Iam. 5.15 Psal 19.13 Iam. 5.15 The prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him For the cause of sicknesse and all diseases is sinne and therefore our Saviour healing the man sicke of the Palsie said unto him Math. 9.2 Sonne be of good cheere thy sinnes be forgiven thee dealing like a good Physitian who removeth the cause that he may remove the effect So then faithfull prayer and a purpose or resolution to continue in sinne cannot poffibly stand together Lastly it
and are called with an holy calling by the voice of their Shepheard and set apart by the power of the Word as the Nazarites were by their vow To this purpose it is said of the Church Loe the people shall dwell alone Numb 23 9. and shall not be reckoned among the Nations If then we joyne our selves with the world we disjoyne our selves from the Church Secondly true holinesse is begun in their nature Wee beleeve this in our hearts and wee must practise it in our lives Tit. 3.5 Tit. 3.5 2 Pet. 1.10 Matth. 5.16 Hereby we make our election and calling sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Matth. 5.16 No sanctification no salvation Thirdly the holinesse of Christ and his righteousnesse is imputed unto them Heb. 10.10 being washed and bathed in his blood Heb. 10.10 These rely wholy upon his merits for their righteousnesse and salvation not upon themselves Fourthly they cleave unto such as feare God and worke righteousnesse with unchangeable affections as the onely people in the world with whom they become one body Rom. Rom. 12.5 12.5 For as they are one in Christ so they are one among themselves and love one another in deed and in truth as fellow servants of the same family as fellow berthren of the same Father and as fellow Citizens of the same City with all meeknesse patience gentlenesse lowlinesse long-suffering love concord and unity As sheepe will not be alone so neither will they sort with Swine or Beares or Lyons or Wolves Let all our delight therefore be in the Saints Psal 16. 2 Cor. 6.16 2 Thes 3.14 Heb. 10.39 On the other side let us avoid the society of the wicked Come out from among them and touch no uncleane thing separate from them and have no familiarity with them Fiftly they strive with might and maine by sanctification and holinesse of life to exceed and outstrip the deeds and practices of Turkes Papists and prophane persons of the world 1 Pet. 2.9 Phil. 2.15 that these may see their good workes and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven For except our righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises Matth. 5.20 wee cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Our workes not our words onely must speake for us and witnesse with us that we are of this one Church And let us take heed lest by our sinfull lives we slander our profession blaspheme the Name of God our Father dishonour Christ our Head and disgrace the Church our Mother Ephes 1.4 Lastly wee must acknowledge our selves to be Pilgrims and strangers in this world Heb. 11.9 10. as the Patriarkes and holy men of God did For albeit we are in the world yet we are none of the world and albeit we live on the earth yet we must not be earthly-minded Phil. 3.20 but have our conversation in Heaven and from thence looke for our Saviour to change our vile bodies and to fashion them like to his glorious body We live here as in a strange Country but we looke for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God We must therefore use this world as though we used it not 1 Cor. 7.31 And thus being members of the Church militant in this life wee shall be parts of the Church triumphant in the life to come there to remaine with Christ Iesus our Head for ever Little flocke The third point of the division followeth which is the limitation it is little Though it be a flocke yet it is but a little flocke It is a company yet but a small company Touching the company or compasse of the Church we are to consider two things First the errors that stand on both sides and the strength of the reason that Christ maketh against all carnall feare of want and famine Touching the errors on both hands as well on the right hand as on the left some goe about to shrinke up the sinewes of this little flocke and so contract it into a lesser roome then Christ himselfe hath folded it into True it is hee hath shut it up into a narrow fold but many have gone about to pin it up and to tye it shorter then he hath done Thus the Iewes that were of the Circumcision offended who went about to gather it into a shorter summe then they ought to have done for they contended with Peter and tooke it grievously Acts 11.2 3. that he went in to men uncircumcised and did eate with them They falsely perswaded themselves that the promises concerning the Messiah pertained to themselves alone because they heard in the Scriptures that they were called the peculiar people to whom pertained the adoption Rom. 9.4 5. the covenants the giving of the Law and the service of God and so they dreamed that the Gentiles were quite excluded from salvation and severed from the Church of God Howbeit this is contrary to the ancient promise and prophesie that God will enlarge Iaphet Gen. 9.27 that hee shall dwell in the Tents of Shem and hereunto doe other Prophets accord Thus also did the Donatists shut up the Church into a corner of the world onely to wit in Africk August De Haeres cap. 69. as if it had beene utterly perished out of the whole earth besides Thus doe the Anabaptists and sundry of the Separation as if there were no true Church upon the earth but among themselves who in truth are the true Donatists of our time as whosoever knoweth the history of them will easily acknowledge For these Sectaries were Separatists who had their Conventicles apart under colour of great corruptions in other places persons and Churches and they imagined contagion and infection to arise by communicating with all others This is a generation that say as it is in the Prophet Esay 65.5 Stand by thy selfe Come not neere to me for I am holier then thou But here good and evill are mingled together as cleane uncleane in the Arke as wheate and chaffe in the floore and must so continue to the end of the World So likewise doe the Romanists abridge it who fasten the Church to the sleeve of the See of Rome and therefore define it to bee a company of men under one Pastor Bellar. lib. 3. De Eccles cap. 2. and subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome so that let men beleeve never so orthodoxally and soundly otherwise yet they hold them out of the account of the Church and brand them to bee no better then damnable Heretikes who doe not acknowledge their lord god the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ the head of the Church and their chiefe nay universall Pastor Thus Catholike and Romane with them generall and particular shall be all one which Church when it was at the best Rom. 1.8 and their faith spred abroad thorowout the whole world was never taken to be the Catholike Church but a part thereof which now is no sound part or
the Rod should shake it selfe against them that lift it up or as if the Staffe should lift up it selfe as if it were no wood Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsheard strive with the Potsheards of the earth Wherefore albeit he shewed no mercy on Cain Esau Saul Ahab Judas and sundry others yet is he not herein unjust for hee was indebted unto them nothing at all Nay more then all this had he denyed mercy to all mankinde and appointed all the sonnes of Adam of whom they come as out of a corrupted masse to endlesse torments as he did the Angels that fell yet had he done them no wrong but executed upon them just judgement and their deserved punishment so that no man can justly utter a word of complaint against him Rom. 11.51 Hence it is that the Apostle saith Rom. 11. Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him againe This reprooveth two sorts First Vse 1 such as set up mans free will and make the beginning of our salvation to come from our selves This crosseth the doctrine of the holy Scriptures which teach that in our will is no good at all untill God from above give it and graft it in us as the earth is dry and barren the dryest of all the elements untill it receive the showres from Heaven to make it fruitfull This error setteth up mans nature and puffeth up flesh and blood It abolisheth the grace of God and derogateth much from the glory of his mercy because we are no more able of our selves to doe good then the stone can of it selfe mount up aloft If you take it and throw it into the aire it flyeth upward so if the Sonne take us and make us free Cant. 1.4 then we will and worke freely and if wee bee drawne Obiect wee runne after him What then may some say Are we stockes and stones without will without life without motion I answer Not so Answ wee are not utterly as blockes or stones without understanding For our will is capable of good when once it is wrought in us whereas stones sencelesse creatures and bruit beasts are not Nay we have a certaine freedome and liberty in naturall and civill things and some Ecclesiasticall so farre as both sence and reason may guide us But to any thing that is simply good and well-pleasing to God before he make us willing that are unwilling wee are worse then stocks I meane to doe good in a good holy and sanctified manner For not onely wee have stony hearts but also we rebell against God and lift up our selves against him which stockes and stones never doe against their Maker Ioh. 15.5 Ephes 2.1 so that Christ saith Without mee yee can doe nothing And the Apostle Wee are borne dead in sinnes and trespasses Whosoever therefore shall tell us and perswade us that we have power of our selves to doe that which is good and that wee stand in need of nothing but to be gently holpen with the hand to walke in his waies and need not to be wholly assisted and prevented by grace they are lying spirits and false prophets beleeve them not bid them not God speed neither receive them to house What a stirre hath there beene heretofore and is yet in the Church of Rome and among other Sectaries and who is ignorant of it about the matter of free will Were he not a fond man who being fast bound in chaines and irons would talke of nothing but of his present freedome and liberty Yet this is the case with us we are bondmen and yet we hold our selves to be free men wee have just cause therefore utterly to abolish this name of Free-will and learne to reason of our bond-will another while For we are as unfit to begin any good in our owne selves as the greene wood is to kindle in it selfe and of it selfe any fire or heat which being kindled it is rather apt to be put out againe These never knew the greatnesse of the fall of man and the deadly wound that nature hath received for it is God that worketh in us the will and the deed And if both the deed and will it selfe be Gods gifts I would gladly know what good gift we have left unto us in nature or what we can rightly challenge to our selves God is Alpha and Omega the first and the last the beginning and the ending and therefore all power and ability is taken from us quite and cleane of doing any thing that is good True it is the first man Adam before his transgression had free will to chuse the good and to refuse the evill but by his fall hee lost both it and himselfe both his liberty and his innocency Mans freedome is a very bondage For now our freedome is onely to be free to sinne too free alas we are to it if that may be called a freedome which indeed is the most miserable and slavish bondage while wee can doe nothing else but sinne lying as it were fast bound in chaines and fetters hand and foot O but a man that is fettered hath at least a will and desire to be loosed It is true of bodily captives and prisoners but it is not so with the naturall man that is unregenerate For as he is fettered so of himselfe he is willing and desirous to be so he doth evill and he will doe it he loveth his chaines as if they were of gold or silver Ephes 5.14 2 Tim. 2.26 and hath no will to bee raised from the dead sleepe of sinne Hee thinketh himselfe at liberty and as free as the best when he is faster holden then the worst Gally-slave He is the servant of corruption and yet hee is offended with him that moveth him to shake off those heavy bolts and fetters and to come out of that bad and bond condition The Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 2.14 that the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Secondly it reprooveth such as teach that faith and workes foreseene are the causes of our election to life and salvation This were for us to choose God Faith foreseene is not the cause of our salvation and not for God to choose us whereas he witnesseth the contrary This is to reject all infants from Gods Election who are taken away by untimely death as corne that is reaped downe in the greene blade This maketh election to be uncertaine and to depend upon the will and pleasure of men This teacheth that grace is not the totall cause of faith This is as much as to begin our spirituall life at our selves and to give the praise to our selves at least in part and not to God for the blessings that we receive from him This is to be afraid lest we should bee too much beholding to God for our salvation and too little
receive any new blessings or to retaine the old having justly forfeited them into his hands Vnto you In these words we have a description of the object of the promise You that is the little Flocke mentioned in the words before In the former words we heard of the Donor or Giver of the promise to wit the Father now of the donee or persons to whome the Kingdome promised is given and for whom it is prepared for the Sheepe of Christ Wherein observe that our Saviour saith not The Father will give to all men the Kingdome without any limitation or exception without any difference or distinction This were an happy matter and joyfull newes to heare that all shall inherit the Kingdome that all shall bee made Kings and weare Crownes of gold but such are divellish Teachers and spreaders of false newes who will have this Kingdome equally prepared for all and equally propounded to all For Christ hath made an inclosure and separated it as with an high wall from the world as he did the Garden of Eden from the rest of the earth wherein the beasts abode that it lyeth not open for the uncleane and prophane This reward shall be given to the Sheepe of Christ and to them onely To you it shall be given Doct. 11 This reacheth that the Kingdome of heaven is not given to all persons whatsoever but onely to his owne as Dan. 12. Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake Dan. 12.2 3. some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt All indeed shall arise but all shall not arise to everlasting life but some onely And Revel 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Revel 21.27 Matth. 19.28 29. Ioh. 10.28 17.22 24. neither whatsoever worketh abomination c. So Christ speaketh John 20.28 My Sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish and Chap. 17. Christ praying for all that shall beleeve in him saith The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as we are one And afterward Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me And Matth. â—5 46 They which doe not cloath nor feed nor visit poore distressed Christians Matth. 25.46 shall goe into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternall See more 1 John 3.2 Colos 3.3 2 Tim. 2.19 John 3.16 1 Pet. 1.3 4. This will farther appeare by reason Reas 1 First it is given to none but for whom it is prepared But it is prepared onely for the Sheepe of Christ For when the Sheepe shall be set on the right hand of Christ he shall say to them Matth. 25.34 Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world So then such onely as are Elected shall be glorified but all are not Elected because a generall election is no election For he that taketh all doth not make any choyse of any and many are called but few are chosen Hence it is that the Apostle saith Rom. 8. Whome he predestinated Rom. 8.30 them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified But all are not glorified because all are not justified all are not justified because all are not called and all are not called because all are not predestinated Secondly such as are Goats shall be set on the left hand and then shall Christ their Iudge say unto them Depart from me ye cursed Matth. 25.45 into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his angels Matth. 25. Seeing therefore everlasting destruction is prepared for all the Reprobate it cannot be that the Kingdome of heaven should be given unto all men Thirdly such onely are saved as have faith because that giveth us entrance into the Covenant and openeth the Kingdome of heaven unto us But all men have not the grace of faith 2. Thess 3. He would have the Thessalonians pray that he might be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men 2 Thes 3.2 because all men have not faith And if we cannot please God without it doubtlesse we cannot be saved without it Fourthly onely such are saved as have the mystery of the Kingdome revealed unto them For the Lord will teach the meeke his way and the secret of the Lord is with them that feare him but this mystery is not knowne to any that are without Marke 4.11 but all things are done to them in Parables Mar. 4.11 Conclude from hence the damnable heresie of such as hold That all men shall be saved Vse 1 yea even the Devils themselves These dreame of such a mercy of God overflowing all bankes and bounds as the Scripture alloweth not nor establisheth nay overthroweth utterly Besides this is such a fantasticall mercy as pulleth up his Iustice by the rootes If a man should imagine such a Magistrate and set him up to rule a Kingdome as is whole composed of mercy would he not be laughed to scorne and bring both himselfe and the Common-wealth to ruine We may not therefore so extend the mercy of God at large that wee shrinke up the sinewes and cut short the cordes of his Iustice Heaven is commonly presumed by these to be as a common Inne in which all shall stay and rest that list without difference or exception or as the earth which is a common mother in the wombe whereof all must take up their lodging This is a notable illusion of the Devill who being damned himselfe and deprived of the glory of God seeketh to deceive men and to draw them into that estate into which he himselfe is fallen If he can once bring his disciples and followers to this folly nay impiety nay the top of all impiety to perswade them that they may doe what they will and live as prophanely as they list because forsooth all shall be faved he hath gotten full possession of them they are become his owne hee hath them fast bound to him in chaines and fetters that they cannot breake away from him For who will regard godlinesse of life that is perswaded that all men must be saved as if the punishment of hell so often threatned in the holy Scriptures were old wives fables to make men merry or an idle scare-crow to make them afraid or else a poeticall fiction to delight the reader But while such men dreame of salvation in heaven let them take heed they have not their portion in hell The Apostle Paul laboured more abundantly then the rest yet after all his labours and sufferings and care of all the Churches he gained not all he submitted himselfe to the condition of all both Iewes and Gentiles yea 1 Cor. 9.22 he became all things to all men that he might by
exceeding loud and sounding long so that all the people trembled But the fire and the feare shall bee much greater at the last day when the Lord Iesus shall appeare in great glory when the Elements shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.10 the earth also and all the workes therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Fiftly they shall have shame and perpetuall contempt powred upon them so that they shall be shamed for ever before many witnesses before men and Angels even before all the world Dan. 12.2 Forasmuch as there is nothing secret that shall not be evident and come to light This the Lord teacheth by the Prophet These things hast thou done Psal 50.21 and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Lastly they shall have the Sentence of death and damnation pronounced against them the misery whereof standeth in three points First in feeling paines intolerable unspeakable and unsupportable not to be uttered by the tongue of man We see how terrible and tedious many diseases are and what torments they bring to the body in this life but what are they to the torments of hell For as all the comforts and pleasutes of this life are nothing in comparison of the joyes of heaven 1 Cor. 2.9 the eye hath not seene them the care hath not heard them the heart cannot comprehend them So I may say of the punishments of damned soules Neither hath the eye of man seene them neither the eare of man heard them neither can the heart fully conceive of them as they are indeed Onely the Scripture expresseth them by things most bitter and violent that we might in some sort attaine to the knowledge of them and therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 2. Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soule of every man that doth evill Secondly in a separation from God from Christ from the Angels from all the righteous from all comfort and from eternall glory A paine and punishment no lesse then the former to see the Saints whom they thorowout their whole life have mocked and misused and judged to be fooles and mad men now honoured and advanced to the Kingdome of God and themselves in greatest disgrace for ever The sight doubtlesse of the felicity of others shall aggravate and encrease their owne misery Thirdly in the fellowship that the Reprobate shall have with the Devill and his angels They that now will seeme to shake and tremble at the very naked naming of the Devill and cannot abide to heare of him they that are ready to defie and denie and detest him in words yea to blesse themselves when any mention is made of him alas alas now they must be constrained to abide this as a part of their cursed condition to have the continuall fellowship of the Devill and the rest of the damned crue and of none other but of them David complaineth of it as of a great misery and a woe much to be bewailed and lamented that he did soiourne in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar but woe woe woe againe and againe to those that must not sojourne for a season but dwell for ever and ever not in Mesech or Kedar but in the house of darkenesse with the Devill the Prince of darkenesse where they shall be cast into utter darkenesse Mitth 8.12 there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly acknowledge the wonderfull mercy of God toward his Children who hath loved them with a speciall and unspeakable love True it is the Reprobate have many blessings in this life because they live among the godly and for their sakes because God would leave them without excuse and stoppe their mouthes for ever because he would teach his owne servants not to place any happinesse in them but to looke for greater blessings in the other life howbeit they have not such among them all Gen. 25.5 6. as doe accompany salvation For as Abraham gave sundry blessings to the sonnes of the Concubines but he made Isaak the sonne of the free woman to be his heire so God bestoweth common gifts Matth. 5.45 and many temporall blessings upon the Reprobates hee maketh his Sunne to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth raine upon the just and unjust howbeit he maketh them not his heires for as much as spirituall and eternall graces are communicated to none but to the Elect which shall be inheriters of Salvation and for them he hath prepared the Kingdome Why may wee not therefore cry out with the Prophet Psal 144.3 8.5 3 4.8 9. Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest account of him who is like to vanity and his daies are as a shadow that passeth away Psal 144. And else-where O taste and see for the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him O feare the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that feare him If God must have praise for the least of his blessings how much more for this that is the greatest of all wherein the Lord hath enlarged his love towards us and without which our faith had beene in vaine yea Christ Iesus had dyed risen againe and ascended in vaine and all the worke of our Redemption were frustrate so that without consideration of the Kingdome of heaven of which we come now to consider in the last place blessings were no blessings and graces were no graces at all The Kingdome This is the last but not the least branch of the promise which containeth the highest staire and top of our felicity and happines The ungodly thinke faithfull men unworthy to breathe or whom the earth should beare but behold God even the Father vouchsafeth of his grace and good pleasure to account them worthy of heaven The ungodly deeme them not to be worthy to live in the world but the Lord esteemeth not the world worthy of them Heb. 11.38 and therefore he will translate them out of the world that they may enjoy his presence Now as before we heard of the object of the promise the Flocke of Christ so now we come to consider of the subject or principall matter of the promise the Kingdome of heaven And in this word we have the substance of the reason used by Christ our Saviour to keepe us from feare of falling away from him for feare of future wants and therefore we have deferred to consider of the strength thereof to this place The reason may be thus framed and put into forme that we may see the force of it If God will bestow upon us the Kingdome then feare not the lacke of earthly things But God will bestow upon us the Kingdome Therefore Feare not the lacke of earthly things Or more plainely after this manner Whosoever have a Kingdom promised unto them need
laid up for them Now if this hope should faile them and deceive them were they not doubly miserable being destitute of the happinesse of the present life and of that to come also Lastly God beginneth their salvation in this life He maketh them here Kings and Priests Revel 1.6 1 Pet. 2.5 and therefore he cannot but hereafter give them a Kingdome And he beginneth their salvation and entreth them after a sort into the Kingdome partly by giving them a lively taste and joyfull feeling of that heavenly glory wherewith they are ravished and partly while hee blesseth them with such spirituall blessings in heavenly things as accompany salvation Ephes 1.14 which are as a pawne or earnest-penny to assure them of his true mind and meaning toward them We may learne from hence to reason from the greater to the lesser Vse 1 from the better to the baser from the Heaven to the earth If he have given us a greater blessing we may be assured he can and will much more give us the lesser and lighter If hee can give us the Kingdome of Heaven he will not with-hold from us food or raiment neither any thing which is good for us It is a rule among the Civilians Lib. 2. ff De Iurisdictione To whom the principall is granted to him the accessory that dependeth upon it seemeth to be granted also If a Prince make any of his servants Governour of his Kingdomr hee granteth to him by vertue thereof all rights and priviledges and meanes which are needfull to that office and for the managing of the State So the Lord hath appointed his to be Heires of eternall life he giveth them therefore all things belonging to this present life and things necessary to bring them to his Kingdome If then wee have the more noble assured unto us how can wee without great infidelity and impiety doubt of the performance of the lesser and baser For what are all the blessings of this transitory life better then trifles being valued and prized with immortality Let us therefore evermore have before our eyes this promise It is your Fathers good pleasure to give unto you the Kingdome and certainely being mingled with faith it will give us assurance of his helpe in all time of need how great soever our assaults and afflictions shall be Let us call to remembrance what the Prophet speaketh to Amaziah King of Iudah when he had hired a great Army of Israel to helpe him against the Edomites and given them an hundred talents of silver when he was charged to dismisse them and was in danger to lose the money which they had received for their pay when the King said What shall we doe for the hundred talents the man of God answered 2 Chron. 25.6 7 9. The Lord is able to give thee much more then this Was this spoken for that King alone No it was written even for us also upon whom the ends of the world are come For as when he was in doubt and feared to lose his money the Prophet casteth him upon Gods providence and calleth upon him to wait upon God in an holy obedience to his Commandement to receive a greater blessing at his hands so if we shall rely upon him by faith in all our troubles without murmuring and grudging this heavenly consolation is written for us and to us as well as to the King The Lord is able to give us much more then this If wee suffer any losses or spoiling of our goods he can restore whatsoever hath beene taken away and make us recompence to the full as we see in the example of Iob. For as hee submitted himselfe to His good pleasure in all his crosses Iob 1.21 42 â—0 and said The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord and sinned not against him with his lips so having tried his faith his patience and obedience the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before And this is his promise which he will performe Marke 10.29 30. Yea what can be more forcible to worke in us patience in troubles and contentment in poverty submitting our selves humbly to God in all losses and wants whatsoever then to consider that God hath laid up for us treasure in Heaven and will bestow upon us a Kingdome If then at any time wee be carried into strange thoughts and cares for the things of this life it is certaine wee were never well grounded in the doctrine of everlasting life For how can wee looke for heavenly things from him when we doubt of earthly How can we looke for the life to come when we feare to lacke for this life or how shall wee depend upon him for our soules when wee dare not trust him with our bodies Whatsoever therefore we may seeme to others or to our selves to doe it is certaine wee deceive both our selves and others also to thinke that we rely upon him wholy for the greater and better things when we rest not upon him for the slightest and smallest matters Secondly use the meanes carefully that may further us in our journey toward this Kingdome All men are willing to bee at their waies end but all men are not willing to know the way or if they know it it is death to them to walke in it But if any say as Thomas did to Christ How can we know the way I answer Ioh. 14.5 Wee are brought in to the Kingdome by the meanes of the Word as the Traveller is to the place of his lodging by his Guide Christ Iesus is the Way the Word of God is our Guide and it is the Rule by which we must walke The Carpenter is no body without his square his worke can never be right if it be not laid unto it so it is with the faithfull he can doe hee will doe nothing without his rule which is so excellent that it is called the rod of Gods mouth and the breath of his lips Esay 11.4 2 Thes 2.8 The Gospell of the Kingdome Esay 11.4 2 Thes 2.8 Matth. 9.35 Marke 1.14 Heb. 1.8 Psal 45.6 Matth. 9.35 and the Scepter of righteousnesse Heb. 1.8 Christ is the King of his Church to rule it and give Lawes unto it howbeit he is not our King except we suffer him to raigne in us outwardly by his Scepter and inwardly by his Spirit All men will seeme desirous to come to Heaven but they will chuse their owne way and their owne guide they will not submit themselves to the wisedome of God 1 Cor. 1.25 as if the foolishnesse of men were wiser then God or the weakenesse of men were stronger then God They would gladly attaine eternall life and with him in the Gospell they account him happy that shall eate bread in the Kingdome of Heaven Luke 14.15 but they regard not the Gospell of the Kingdome These dreame of a Kingdome without the Word but this is an imaginary Kingdome of their