the wicked lest we fall from our own stedfastness If Satan double his rage let us double our guard Doctor Taylor reports of a noble Lord who was wont to say That he would never go without a sword so long as there was a Papist about the Court Never let us lay off our spirituall weapons till Satan be taken from us by judgement or we out of his reach by death Let us even taught thus much by our adversary make the shortnesse of our time a motive to lay out our selves the more for God short seasons require speedy services The nearer we come to judgement the fitter let us labour to be for it Let the sweetest part of our lives be at the bottom and as Samsons let our last prove our greatest goodnesse To conclude this Let those poor soules who are daily buffetted by Satan consider that his judgement is approaching that all conflicts with him shall then be at an end and that the fury of his assaults prove not their success but the shortnesse of continuance Thus far of the first particular considerable in the punishment of these Angels at the Bar viz that to which they are reserved to Judgement The second follows the time when they shal be brought to judgement viz. at the Great day Two things for the Explication hereof 1. Explication How the word Day is here to be taken 2. In what respect it s called a Great day For the first There are three opinions 1. Some take the day here spoken of precisely and properly as if the day of the last judgement should not exceed that space and proportion of time 2. Some conceive that by the Day is meant a 1000 years because some are said to sit on thrones and have judgement given unto them that is power of judging and to live and raigne with Christ a thousand years Rev. 20.4 But I conceive that this judgment and raign of a thousand years cannot be understood of the last Judgement because death the last enemy shall in the Resurrection be destroyed now after the end of the thousand years mentioned by Saint John Satan shall be loosed out of prison and the nations deceived by him shall compasse the camp of the Saints about Isai 27.1.2 14.3 12.1 4.1.2 2.11.17 Per quot dies hoc judicium extendatur incertum est scripturarum more diem poni solere pro tempore nemo nescit Aug. l. 20. de Civ Dei cap. 1. Mat. 7.22 Luk. 21.34 2 Tim. 1 12.18 4.8 Joh. 6.39 40. 44.46 54. 2 Pet. 3.7.12 Rom. 2.5.16 Act. 17.31 Apoc 6.17 and the beloved City and fire shall come down from God out of heaven and devour them 3. Others seem more safely to apprehend that the day here mentioned is to be taken improperly for time indefinitely it being in Scripture very ordinary to put a day for time In an acceptable time have I heard thee in a day of salvation have I helped thee Isai 49.8 If thou hadst known in this thy day Luk. 19.42 Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day Joh. 8.56 c. There must be a day wherein that great work of judgement shall begin but the duration thereof is to be measured by the nature of the thing and the counsell of God With Augustine I determine nothing peremptorily concerning the continuance of the last judgment day For the second the greatnesse of this day The titles given it in the Scripture speak it great it being called that day the last day the day of judgment and perdition of all ungodly men The day of God the Lord The day when God shal judge the secrets of men a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God the day of the Lambs wrath the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6.10 c. More particularly this day of Judgement is called great in respect of the Judge Judged Properties of the Judgment 1. The Judge who is Jesus Christ And herein two particulars are considerable 1. That Christ shall be Judge 2 Wherein his being Judge shall make the day great The first is evident 1. From the frequent and expresse mentioning him as Judge in Scripture which assures us that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Heb. 10.27 Tit. 2.13 Act. 10.42 Phil. 3.20.4.5 1 Tim. 6.14.15 Rom. 2.16 that Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead 2 Tim. 4.1 that the Lord Jesus shall be revealled from heaven 2 Thes 1.7 that the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father Mat. 16.27 that they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 that the son of man shall come in his glory Mat. 25.31 that hereafter we shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven Mat. 26.64 that the same Jesus who is taken into heaven shall so come in like manner as he was seen to go into heaven Act. 1.11 that he cometh with cloudes and every eye shall see him Rev. 1.7 In which respect the day of Judgement is call'd The day of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1.8 so 1 Cor. 5.5 2 Cor. 1.14 Phil. 1.6.10 and Phil. 2.16 And the seat of judgment is call'd The judgment seat of Christ Rom. 24 10. 2 Cor. 5.10 And some understand that place Heb. 4.12 The word of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a discerner of the thoughts concerning the Hypostatical word c. Nor is the old Testament destitute of testimonies of this kind though somewhat more obscurely exprest Abraham speaks to the son of God when he said Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 And the Father spake to the Son when he said Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in peices like a Potters vessel Psal 2.9 And that of Isaiah chap. 45.23 By my selfe have I sworn unto me every knee shall bow the Apostle Rom. 14.11 applies to Christ and thence proves that we shall all stand before his judgement seat 2. By Gods appointment of him and giving him authority to judge He is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead Act. 10.42 He will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained c Act. 17.31 Humilitas carnis no strae throno judicator is honorata est Cypr. in ser deaf Sedebit judex qui stetit sub judice damna bit veros reos qui factus est falsus reus Aug. Homil. 150. Pater dedit ei potestatem facere quia filius hominis est cum magis quasi hoc expectaretur ut diceret quo niam filius Dei est sed quia filium Dei secundum id quod in forma Dei aequalis est patri videre iniqui non possunt oportet judicem vivorum mortuorum coram quo judicabuntur justi videant iniqui Aug. lib. 1. de trin c. 13. Patrem
and manifest There is nothing hid but shall be revealed Sinners shall be openly sham'd their secret sins their speculative impurities their closest midnight-impieties shall be publickly discovered and their feined hypocriticall appearances shall then be unmasked Then Saints shal be openly honour'd the good which they have done in secret shall be divulged from their sins against which they have mourn'd pray'd beleev'd secretly they shall be acquitted openly and honourably from all the censures suspicions aspersions and wrong judgements upon earth before all the world of men and Angels they shall be publickly cleared In a word As the Judge is righteous he will bee known to be so and therefore not onely his sentencing but the equity therof shal be manifestly known Every tongue shall confess to God the just proceedings of that day and Christ shall be clear when he judgeth and justified when sinners are condemned 6. This judgement shall be immediate Christ will not any more judge by man They whom he hath intrusted with Judicature have often miscarryed in the work acquitting where they should condemne and condemning where they should acquit now therefore he will trust others with the work no more but will take it into his own hands Judgement here among men is the Lords mediately but the great judgement shall be his immediately Sinners might hope to escape while sinners were their Judges Saints might fear cruelty while sinners were their Judges In a word when frail sinfull man is Judge he like the unjust steward in the Gospel who cut off fifty in the hundred punisheth malefactors by the halfs and with him wicked men can tell how to deal Ezek. 22.14 but can their hearts endure or can their hands be strong in the day wherein the Lord shall deal with them When Gideon commanding young Jether to slay Zebah and Zalmunna and he feared to draw his sword against them Judg. 8.20 being but a youth Gideon himselfe ariseth and fals upon them and as was the man so was his strength for hee instantly slew them And God commands those who should resemble him in righteousnesse to cut down sin and cut off sinners but alas they are oft either unwilling or afraid to draw the sword of Justice and therefore the Lord himselfe will come and take the sword into his own hands and as is he so will his strength be found and felt to be infinite The mountaines and hills will be but light burdens to fall upon sinners in comparison of this mighty God 7. This Judgement shall be the last Judgement The sentence that there shall be pronounced is the finall conclusive and determinating sentence The day of Judgement is frequently call'd The last day The last day Joh. 11.24.12.48 and the Great day are sometimes put together Joh. 7.37 Wicked men have had in this world many dayes of Judgement by the word by temporall troubles by the examples and warnings of the Saints but now their last day their last judgement is come after which there shall be no more tryall Former judgements might be reverst upon repentance but this last is irrevocable Repentance will not move the Judge to repent of his sentence Jer. 11.7 8 9. repentance will be hid from his eyes From his sentence there can be no appeal nor is there any Judicatory above or after it 8. This judgement is call'd Eternall How great are those dayes wherein an earthly Judge sentenceth to a temporal punishment of a few minutes Heb. 6.2 Judicium humanum est vix alphabetum illius ultimi Luth. But Christ sentenceth to an eternall state the effect of his judgement shall last for ever An earthly Judge allowes men to put the sentenced to death out of their paine at their execution but this shall be the bitter ingredient into the sentence of the great day namely that the sentenced shall be executed but never die Depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire Departure for losse and Fire for sense are the greatest punishments but this Everlasting is that which makes both insupportable Dreadfull sentence Without this everlasting departure hell would not be hell This Everlasting burnes hotter then the fire or rather is the heat of the fire in hell and oh the bottomelesse Ocean of sweetnesse in this word Ever when joyned with Being with the Lord this is that which like the faggot-band binds all the scattered parcells of heavens blessednesse together and keeps them from dropping out In a word This stability of happinesse is that which makes it happinesse Great day wherein there is a sentence to no estate shorter then Eternity OBSERVATIONS 1. Great is the vanity of all earthly greatnesse While we are in this world troubles and comforts seem far greater then they are Observ 1. the former we think too great to bear the other too great to forsake How do men groan under small burdens and how do they admire the poor enjoyments of the world but when this great day is come neither of these will seem great How smal will former disgraces be esteem'd by those who shall bee honour'd before all the world How contemptible shall then poverty be in the thoughts of those who shall ever be inriched with the satisfying enjoyment of God himself How slight yea forgotten will the few bitter drops of pains be to those who shall be filled with Rivers of pleasures What poor trifles will all the profits and revenues of the earth be esteem'd when all the stately edifices and the richest treasures upon earth shall be consum'd in the flames What a bubble a shadow will all worldly honour and dignities appear when the faint candle light of the earthly glory of the greatest Monarchs shall be swallowed up in the glorious sun-shine of the appearance of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords How will a sentencing to the everlasting flames of fire and brimstone blast those former dreams of pleasure in cool and pleasant Arbors costly Perfumes sumptuous Banquets c To those who so admire earthly injoyments I say as Christ to his Disciple Mar. 13.2 when he shewed him the buildings of the Temple Seest thou these great buildings There shall not be one stone left upon another the flame of that day wil devour them as easily as the fire from heaven did consume the stones and sacrifice of and lick up the water about Elijahs Altar 2. Boldnesse in sin is no better then madnesse The great Judgement day is by the Apostle call'd The terror of the Lord. Observ 2. Eccl. 12.14 Magna peccati poena metum fu turi judicii perdidisse Aug. ser 120. de Tem. And though it may be our sin to be afrighted at mens judgement days and to be afraid of their terror yet is it our folly not to fear this great day of the Lord and a great punishment of sin not to fear the punishment of sin What Judge would not be incens'd when the prisoners being warned of his solemn approach
run away from his Master When our enemies do us greatest hurt they remove us above hurt A servant of Christ may be sick persecuted scorned imprisoned but never unsafe He may lose his head but not one hair of his head perish 4. That he will provide for us He can live without servants but these cannot live without a Master Verily his Family-servants shall be fed The servants of Christ shall want no good thing If they be without some things there 's nothing they can want they shall have better and enough of better Can he that hath a mine of gold want pibbles can it be that a servant of Christ should want provision when as God can make his very work meat and drink to him nay when God can make his wants meat and drink how can he want or be truly without any thing whose friend hath and is all And no good thing shall they want nothing that may fit them for and further them in duty 'T is true they may be without clogs snares hinderances but these things are not good that hinder from the chief Good should God give them he would feed his servants with husks nay with poyson 5. That he will reward them The Lord gives grace and glory Mat. 5.12 Great is their reward in heaven nay great is their reward on earth There 's a reward in the very work but God will bestow a further recompence hereafter We should not serve him for but he will not be served without wages even such as will weigh down all our work all our woes Oh the folly of them that either prefer the cruel and dishonourable service of sin before the sweet and glorious service of Christ or that being servants to Christ improve it not for their comfort in all their distresses 4. Obs 4. I inferr We owe to God the duty and demeanour of servants 1. To serve him solely Matt. 6.24 not serving sin Gal. 1.10 Tit. 3.3 Rom. 6.12 13. Satan at all not man in opposition to Christ not serving our selves the times Who keep servants to serve others enemies Christ and Sin are contrary Masters contrary in work and therfore it s an impossibility to serve both contrary in wages and therfore it s an infinite folly to serve Sin 2. Christ must be served obediently submissively 1 in bearing when he correcteth A beaten servant must not strike again nor word it with his Master we must accept of the punishment of our iniquities 't is chaff that slyes in the face of him that fanneth 2 We must be submissive servants in being content with our allowance in forbearing to enjoy what we would as well as bearing what we would not the proper work of a servant is to wait stay thy Masters pleasure for any comfort All his Servants shall have what they want and therfore should be content with what they have The standing wages are certain and set the vails are uncertain 3 Submissive in not doing what we please not going beyond our rule our order Ministers are his servants and therfore must not make Laws in his house either for themselves or others but keep laws not of themselves lay down what they publish but publish what he hath laid down Ministers are not owners of the house but Stewards in the house Laws are committed to us and must not be excogitated by us No servant must do what is right in his own eyes Deut. 12.8 4 Submissive in doing whatever the Master pleaseth not picking out this work Ps 119.6 128. and rejecting that nothing must come amisse to a servant We must not examine what the service is that is commanded but who the Master is that commands 1 Tim. 5.21 We must not preferre one thing before another a service that most crosseth our inclinations opposeth our ease and interest A servant must come at every call and say Lord I hear every command Acts 10.33 5 We must serve Christ obediently in doing what is commanded because it is commanded this is to serve for conscience sake If the eye be not to the command the servant acts not with obedience though the thing be done which is commanded nay it s possible a work for the matter agreeable to the command may yet be an act of disobedience in respect of the intent of the performer Oh how sweet is it to eye a precept in every performance to pray hear preach give because Christ bids me Many do these works for the wages this is not to be obedient they sell their services not submit in service 3. Christ must be served heartily Ephes 6.6 Col. 3.23 Rom. 1.9 We must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-servants we must do the will of God from the heart Paul speaks of serving God in the spirit There are many complement all servants of Christ in the world who place their service in saying Thy servant thy servant Lord lip-servants but not life heart-servants such as the Apostle Gal. 6.12 speaks of that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a shew only but the heart of a service is wanting the heart makes the service sacrificium medullatum 't is the marrow of a performance Bodily service is but like the fire in the bush that appeared to burn but did not or like the Glow-worm in the night that shineth but heateth not these do but act service but are no servants servants onely in profession To these who would not profess Christ seriously Christ will hereafter profess seriously Mat. 7.23 I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity 4. Christ must be served cheerfully He Psal 40.8 Joh. 4.34 2 Cor. 9.7 as he was his Fathers servant delighted to do his will It was his meat and his drink God loveth a cheerfull servant in every piece of sorvice This makes the service pleasing to Master and servant too acceptable to the former easie to the later Nothing is hard to a willing minde willingness is the oyl to the wheel A servant cheerfull at his work is as free as his Master Si non possint à Dominis liberi sieri suam servitutem ipsi quodammodo li beram faciunt Aug. de C.D. l. 19. c. 15. Rom. 12.11 If his Master make him not free he makes himself free The preaching of the Gospel must be performed willingly 1 Cor. 9.17 Love to souls should make us cheerfull in that service not mourning at our own pains but at peoples unprofitableness not that we do so much but that they get no more 5 Christ must be served diligently These two fervent in spirit and serving the Lord are most properly joyned together Hence it 's most necessary that what-ever we do Eccl. 9.10 Gen. 24.33 should be done with all the might Abrahams servant was diligent when he went to procure a wife for Isaac he would not eat bread till he had done his errand when 't was done he stay'd not upon complements They whose service is in
God the Father Secondly the Observations follow 1. Even our holinesse administers matter of humility Obs 1. Our very graces should humble us as well as our sins as these later because they are ours so the former because they are none of ours Sanctity is adventitious to Nature Heretofore holinesse was naturall and sin was accidentall now sin is naturall and holinesse accidentall when God made any of us his garden he took us out of Satans waste ws are not born Saints the best before sanctification are bad and by nature not differing from the worst the members that God accepts to be weapons of righteousnesse were before blunted in Satans service when God sanctifieth us he melteth idols and makes of them vessels for his own use Before any becomes as an Israelites wife he is as a captive unpared unwash'd unshaven Sanctification is a great blessing but was this web woven out of thine own bowels the best thou didst bring to thine own sanctification was a passive receptivenesse of it which the very worst of heathens partake of in common with thee having a humane nature a rationall soul and was there not with that a corrupt principle of opposition to God and all the workings of God was not God long striving with a cross-grain'd heart how many denyals had God before he did win thee to himself How far was the iron gate of thy heart from opening of its own accord and if he had not wrought like a God omnipotently and with the same power wherewith Christ was raised Eph. 1.19 20. had thy resistence been ever subdued and when the being of grace was bestowed from whence had thy grace at any time its acting Didst thou ever write one letter without Gods guiding thy hand didst thou ever shed one penitentiall tear till God unstop'd thy spouts smote thy rock and melted thy heart didst thou hunger after Christ till God who gave the food gave the stomack also Was ever tentation resisted grace quickned corruption mortified holy resolution strengthened power either to do or will received from any but from God Doth not every grace the whole frame of sanctification depend upon God as the stream on the fountain the beam on the Sun when he withdraws his influence how dead is thy heart in every holy performance onely when he speaks the word effectually bidding thee go thou goest and do this or that thou dost it 2. Obs 2. The reason why all graces of a sanctified person are for God they are from him Gods bounty is their fountain and Gods glory must be their center He planted the Vineyard and therefore he must drink the wine We are his wormanship and therefore we must be his workmen All our pleasant fruits must be laid up and out for our well-beloved All things but particularly our graces are from him and for him we can never give him more or other then his own when we give all we can The streames will rise as high as the fountain head and so should our graces ascend as high in duty as he who gave them Where should God have service if a sanctified person denyes it 3. Obs 3. From this Author of Sanctification I note t s excellency and worth It s a rare work certainly that hath such a workman a beauteous structure that hath such a builder What is a man to be desired for but his sanctification if we see a beauty on that body which hath a soul how much more on that soul that hath the reflexion of God himself upon it Every Saint is a woodden casket fill'd with pearls The Kings daughter is all glorius within Love Jesus Christ in his worky-day clothes admire him in his Saints though they be black yet they are comely Did the people of God but contemplate one anothers graces could there be that reproaching scorn and contempt cast upon one another that there is Certainly their ignorance of their true excellency makes them enemies they strike one another in the dark 4. Obs 4. Great must be the love that God bears to Sanctification It s a work of his own framing a gift of his own bestowing God saw that the work of the first creation was very good much more that of the second Wonder no more that the faithfull are call'd his garden his Jewels his Treasure his Temple his Portion God hath two heavens and the sanctified soul is the lesser How doth he accept of Saints even in their imperfections delight in their performances pity them in their troubles take care of them in dangers He that hath given his Son for them promised heaven to them and sent his Spirit into them what can he deny them Jesus Christ never admired any thing but grace when he was upon the earth the buildings of the Temple he contemned in comparison of the faith of a poor trembling woman Certainly the people of God should not sleight those graces in themselves that God doth so value as they do when they acknowledge not the holinesse that God hath bestowed upon them Shall they make orts of those delicates that Jesus Christ accounts an excellent banquet 5. The love of God is expressive Obs 5. really and effectually in us and upon us even in sanctifying us Creatures when they love will not put off one another with bare words of bidding be clothed sed c. much lesse doth God If there be love in his heart there will be bounty in his hand Thou sayst that God is mercifull and loves thee why what did he ever do for thee work in thee hath he changed thy nature mortified thy lusts beautified thy heart with holinesse Where God loves be affords love-tokens and such are onely his soul-enriching graces No man knows love or hatred by what he sees before him but by what he findes in him If our heart moves toward God certainly his goeth out toward us the shadow upon the Dyall moves according to the motion of the Sun in the Heaven 6. Obs 6. We are to repair in our wants of Sanctification to God for supply He is the God of grace The Lord will give grace and glory He hath the key of the womb the grave the heavens but chiefly of the heart He that sitteth in heaven can onely teach and touch the heart How feeble a thing and unable is man whether thy self or the Minister to do this He hath the windes in his own keeping and till he send them out of his treasury how necessarily must thy soul lye wind-bound Whither shouldst thou goe but to him and how canst thou go but by him The means of grace are to be used in obedience to him Parum prodest Lectio quam non illuminat Oratio not in dependancy upon them A golden key cannot open without him and a woodden can open with him Man may with the Prophets servant lay the staff upon the fore-head but God must give life How many fat and rich Ordinances have been
The answer to the voyce of the Caller 1. The term from which we are called is a sinfull and damnable state of nature expressed in Scripture under terms of greatest terrour We are called out of darknesse Col. 1.13 Acts 26.18 Ephes 4.18 Ephes 5.8 1 Pet. 2.9 turned from darkness translated from the power of darknesse Man before his calling is dark in his understanding as a blind man is said to be dark he knows no truth savingly 1 Cor. 2.14 3 Joh. 19. Eph. 4.11 sees no commanding beauty in any of the ways of God accounts them foolishness being blind he loves darknesse and his works are the works of darknesse he falls every step sins in every action every comfort he useth is a stumbling-block he is afraid of the stirring of every leaf stirs not a foot in holinesse as the Egyptians who in darknesse sat stil never enjoying the light of Gods countenance alwayes full of grief and trouble of which darkness is the emblem and ready to fall into utter darknesse Col. 1.13 An uncalled person is under the power of darknesse Ephes 2.2 born in the kingdom and under the dominion of Satan walking according to the Prince of the power of the air led captive by him at his will In a word we are called from a state not of darknesse only and blindnesse but slavery rebellion poverty pain ignominy banishment nakednesse filthinesse deformitie sicknesse the company of lions and leopards death perdition and every thing that 's miserable all the woes of the world were they a thousand times greater being but a faint representation of the misery of wicked men they being miserable within without here hereafter in life in death after death liable to the loss of the glorious and soul-ravishing presence of God to all eternity and to be tortured with a fire to which ours is but painted 2. The term to which we are called is a state of all blessednesse the good of grace here and the good of glory hereafter Isa 42.7 Acts 26.18 2 Cor. 4.6 John 8.12 Luk. 16.8 1 Pet. 2.9 Called into his marvellous light the light of saving knowledge of the wil of God such a light as is influentiall like the light of the Sun not that of a Torch a commanding light to beleeve and love what we know this being a knowledge of things as they are a seeing divine beauty in every word and wil of God acounting the things of God foolishnesse no more A light that discovers the deeds of darkness and makes them loathsom that makes the called walk as children of the light and of the day which discovers heaven in every grace and hel in every lust Psal 97.11 This calling is also to the light of joy sown for the righteous and only bestowed upon them this oyl of joy being onely put into a viall clean and without cracks joy beyond the joy of harvest Psal 4.7 joy more then that of corn and wine spoyle treasures nay life this light coming from the Sun the face of God without which all the candles in the world could never make a day for a gracious heart In a word a light that leadeth to eternal light the inheritance with the Saints in light Col. 1.12 2 Tim. 1.9 Heb. 3.1 Ephes 1.18 1 Thess 2.12 2 Thess 2.14 Phil. 3. In which respect the faithfull are not onely said to be called with an holy but partakers of an heavenly calling and it s the Apostles prayer that they may know the hope of their calling they being called to a Kingdom to the obtaining the glory of Christ deservedly therefore termed a high-calling But why attempt I to give you an Inventory of the benefits by vocation when eternity shall be little enough to contemplate them 2 Thess 2.14 Who can think what it is to be called to sanctification to have of every grace the least dram or drop of any one whereof is infinitely more worth then an ocean a world of wealth and treasures to be called to the priviledges as well as the graces of a Christian justification of our persons freedom from the wrath of God and all those millions of mountains of sins that before lay upon us to be called out of a dungeon of wo as Joseph out of prison to be favourites of the King of glory to be called to the adoption of sons liberty of children comfortable enjoyment of all bessings admission with boldnesse to the throne of grace exemption from the least drop of curse in the greatest deluge of crosses in a word to be called to the full fruition of God in heaven from not onely corruption by and with sin world divel but even from their very company not onely from curses but even crosses too to have the perfection of all happinesse in our God Psal 16. ult in whom all delights are concentred and in comparison whereof the worlds ocean of pleasure is not a drop and to see and have all this to eternity without either intermission or amission This and ten thousand times more is not a shadow of that substantial happinesse laid up in the consideration of this terminus ad quem this term to which a Christian is called This for the terms of Vocation the first pair of parallels between mans calling man and Gods calling man The next pair is 1. The Caller 2. The Caller 1. The Caller is God 2 Tim. 1.9 1 Pet. 2.9 1 Pet. 1.15 1 Thes 5.24 2 Pet. 1.3 1 Pet. 5.10 Rom. 8.28 2 Tim. 1.9 He hath called us with an holy calling He that calleth us is holy Faithful is he that hath called He hath called out of darknesse The God of all grace hath called us Our calling depends 1. upon his purpose it being therefore said to be according to purpose he purposing the means with the end 2. Our calling depends upon his power He must draw otherwise we never follow He onely calls things that are not as if they were He onely can call so loud Joh. 5.28 Ephes 2.1 that the deaf the dead should hear He onely who creates can call and the work of creation is in effectual vocation 2 Cor. 4.6 he who created the light can onely make us see he who made onely remaking 3. The happy estate of our calling is onely from his bounty Gal. 4.6 1 Cor. 1.9 1 Pet. 5.10 exemption from death divel world condemnation the bestowing of grace fellowship with Christ and the kingdom of glory Eternal life is the gift of God 2. The Called are considerable in this doctrine of vocation and they fall under a double consideration 1. In respect of themselves and so they are sinners with others Paul tels us 2 Tim. 1.9 Praedestinavit nos Deus antoquam essemus vocavit cum aversi essemus justificavit cum peccatores essemus glorificavit cum mortales essemus Nemo dicat ideo me vocavit quia colui Deum Quomodo coluisses si vocatus non suisses
This is the mercy of that day crowning mercy 3. For the properties of Gods mercy 1. It s full 2. It s free 1. It s a full and unmeasurable mercy the unmeasurablenesse whereof is set forth 1. More generally when God is said to be plenteous in mercy Psal 86.5 1 Pet. 1.3 Ephes 2.4 Psal 108.4 Psal 51.1 Neh. 9.19 Psal 103.11 2 Cor. 1.3 Psal 145.9 Psal 33.5 Matt. 5.15 abundant rich in mercy his mercy great above the heavens his mercies unsearchable high as the heaven is from the earth multitudes of tender mercies 2. More particularly the unmeasurableness of his mercy is set forth 1. In that there is no creature in heaven or earth but tasteth of it His mercies are over all his works the very dumb creatures speak him mercifull The whole earth is full of his goodnesse he preserveth man and beast nay his enemies 2. In that resemblances to set forth his mercy are taken from the most tender-hearted creatures Hos 11.4 he drawes with the cords of a man He pitieth as a father nay more then the most tender-hearted mother doth her sucking-childe he gathereth people as a hen doth her chickens He hath bowels of mercy Isa 49.15 Jer. 31.20 Luke 1.78 and such as sound and therefore his mercy pleaseth him he delights to shew mercy he forgets not his mercy 3. He is the fountain of the mercy and mercifulnesse in all the creatures in the world toward one another the mercies of all parents to their children of every mother to her little ones of every Christian of every tender-hearted person of every beast and foul to their young ones are but drops that come from the sea of Gods mercy he is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 4. He can deliver from every misery Bread takes away hunger drink thirst clothes nakedness knowledge ignorance but no creature can take away every misery Phil. 4.19 2 Cor. 1.3 Psal 23.1 Psal 34.10 wheras God is the God of all comfort he supplyes all our wants comforts in every trouble he hath a plaister for every sore is a Physician for every disease inward and outward and so merciful is he that in the very not removing of miseries he is mercifull Were it not for trouble how should corruption be kill'd holinesse encreased 1 Cor. 11.32 Heb. 12.10 heaven be sweet eternal crowns and triumphs be injoyed 4. He is merciful to his enemies ful of patience and forbearance expecting their return many yeers together giving them rain and fruitful seasons Acts 14.17 Mat. 5.15 filling their hearts with gladness notwithstanding they sin and fight against him with all his goodnesse yea so merciful is he that in their greatest enmity to him Rom. 5.10 he hath often done them the greatest good changing their hearts and making them his friends 6. He bestows mercy with greatest frequency and reiteration he hath many manifold mercies Psal 51.1 Psal 40.5 mercies for thousands more than can be exprest innumerable are the sins of one man how innumerable the sins of the whole world how numberless then are those mercies of forbearance expressed every time sin is committed there being so many millions of sinners every one committing so many millions of sins innumerable are the morsels of food drops of drink the motions deliverances provisions received by one man what then are those received by a whole world and every such expression is a mercy 7. The mercy of God is eternall 1 King 8 2◠and therefore immeasurable he keepeth mercy for ever he will not take away his mercy from his servants Psal 89.2 Psal 23. ult Psal 103.17 Psal 136 it shall follow them all the dayes of their life his mercy shall be built up for ever It endureth for ever 't is from everlasting to everlasting He may hide his face for a moment though that is but according to our thinking but with everlasting mercies will he receive us Isa 54.7 10 The hils may be removed and the mountains may depart but Gods covenant of peace shall not be removed God never repented himself of bestowing his best mercies 8. Gods Mercy is so immeasurable that to help us out of our miseries he that was God sustained them himself It had been mercy to have help'd us by speaking comfortably to us more to have help'd us by the bounty of his hand but to help us out of misery by bearing our miseries by coming to man by becoming of man by suffering so much paine hunger ignominy griefs wounds nay death for man Oh immeasurable mercy Oh my soul acknowledge thine insufficiency either to conceive or requite it 2. The Mercy of God is not only full but free without desert on our parts We deserve no healing from his mercy unlesse by being sore and sick no riches from mercy unlesse by our poverty no deliverance from mercy unlesse by being captives no pardon from mercy unlesse by being guilty no preservation from mercy unlesse by being in danger no mercy unlesse by being miserable God is not tyed to one man more than another he hath mercy on whom he will he hath mercy on the beggar as well as the King on the Barbarian as well as the Grecian the bond Eph. 1.5 6 Rom. 11.5 2 Tim. 1.9 Phil. 1.29 Rom. 3.24 Phil. 2.13 Rom. 6.23 〈◊〉 43.25 as well as the free the Jew as well as the Gentile Election is the election of grace Vocatiou is according to grace Faith is said to be given Justification is freely by Gods grace every good motion is of Gods working Life eternal is Gods gift the putting away of every sin is for his own sake God is mercifull because he will be so his arguments of mercy are drawn from his own pleasure What can our works deserve that are not ours but his working that are all due to him if a thousand times more and better that are all maimed and imperfect Luke 17.10 1 Cor. 4.7 Rom. 11.35 Rom. 8.18 that are all vitious and polluted that are all unequall to the recompence This for the explication of the first benefit which the Apostle requesteth for these Christians Mercy 2. The Observations follow 1. Obs 1. How unbeseeming a sin is pride in any that live upon Mercy Mercy our highest happinesse calls loudest for a lowly heart He that lives upon the alms of Mercy must put on humility the cloth of an Alms-man Renounce thy self and thine own worthinesse both in thy receiving and expecting blessings 1. In receiving them If thou hast spiritual blessings Mercy found thee a bundle of miseries a sinner by birth Ephes 2.1 a sinner in life deserving to be a sufferer for both without grace nay against it by thy birth a poor out-cast Ezek. 16.22 in thy blood as naked of grace as of clothes The Apostle therefore speaks of putting on the graces of the Spirit Col. 3.12 Job 1.21 1 Chro. 22.16 Gen. 24.35 Gen. 33.5 11 the spots
godly with a love of complacency True Christians shall have a Benjamins portion of love Mark 10.21 it doth good especially to the houshold of faith Brotherly-love is set upon brethren Christ loved the young man a Pharisee by shewing loving respect toward him but he loved Lazarus a godly man with a dear intimate love John 11.3 5.11 the best men shall have the best love There 's a prudence also in the measure of expressing love so to love to day as we may love to morrow We sow not by the bushel but the handfull 8. It 's a mutual reciprocal love Hence 't is Joh. 13.34 Gal. 5.13 Col. 3.13 Gal. 6.2 Jam. 5.16 1 Thes 5.11 that there is so frequent mention of Loving one another giving and receiving benefits is by some compared to the Game at Tennis wherein the Ball is tossed from one to the other and if it falls it 's his forfeit who mist his stroke His disposition is very bad who if he will not provoke will not repay love where Affection there Gain is reciprocal The Pole sustains the Hop and the Hop adorns the Pole the Wall bears up the Roof and the Roof preserves the Wall from wet the wise directeth the strong and the strong protecteth the wise the zealous inflameth the moderate and the moderate tempers the zealous the rich supplyeth the poor and the poor worketh for the rich Love must have an eccho to resound and return 9. It 's a fervent burning love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Puritie and fervencie of love are joyned together 1 Pet. 1.22 and 1 Pet. 4.8 Have fervent charitie among your selves It must be a love to the utmost not remiss and faint not a love of courtesie and civil correspondencie but of intireness and holy vehemencie such a love as was between Jonathan and David surpassing the love of women The fervencie of it must be so great as that it may burn and consume all intervening occasions of hatred and dislike by bearing with infirmities covering of sins construing mens meanings in the better part condescending to those of lower parts and places 1 King 18. like the fire that fell from Heaven upon Elijahs Sacrifice which lick'd up a trench full of water A love that overcomes the greatest difficulties for the good of others and triumphs over all opposition 10. It 's a constant and unwearied love 1 Phil. 9. Joh. 13.1 15.12 A love that must abound more and more A love that must be like that of Christs who loved his to the end Love is a debt alway to be owed and alway to be paid 't is a debt which the more we pay the more we have And which herein differs from all civil debts that it cannot be pardoned When we have well chosen our Love we should Love our choice and be true Scripture-friends to love at all times not fawning upon our friends when high and frowning upon them when low not looking upon them as Dyals onely when the Sun of success shines upon them we should love them most when they want us not when we want them most This for the explication of the third and last blessing which the Apostle requesteth for these Christians Love 2. The Observations follow 1. Love to God flows not from Nature Observ 1. 1 John 4.7 God is not onely the Object but the Author of it From him for these Christians the Apostle desires it The Affection of Love is natural the Grace of Love is divine As Love is the motion of the will toward good ti 's in us by Nature but as it is the motion of the will toward such an object or as terminated upon God it is by Grace Love is one of the Graces to be put on Col. 3.14 Rom. 1.30 and we are no more born with it in us than with our clothes on us Wicked men are haters of God and that as the word signifieth with the greatest abhorrency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abhorreo unde Styx they so hate him as to desire he were not that so they might live without the limits of his Law the reach of his Justice God is onely by them look'd upon with fear Ps 139.21 2 Chro. 19.2 1 Joh. 3.13 Joh. 15.18.20 Rom. 8.7 as a Judge and whom men fear as hurtfull they hate and wish they were taken out of the way Mens hearts and Gods holiness are very opposite The carnal mind is enmity against God The very reason of it the best thing that is in Corrupt Nature even Lady-Reason her self is not an enemy onely but enmity and irreconcileable There is in it an Enmity against every truth preferring before it humane mixtures and Traditions and undervaluing Gods mercy and the way of obtaining it in his Sonne misjudging all his wayes as grievous and unprofitable accounting all his Servants base and contemptible An enmitie there is in Affection against his Word wishing every truth which crosseth its lust razed out of the Scripture quenching the motions of the Spirit refusing to hear his voice rejecting the councel of God against his people his Messengers hating them most that speak most of God either with the language of lip or life Enmity in conversation holding the truth in unrighteousness by wilful disobedience forsaking the waies of God to walk in those of Nature casting off his Yoke and refusing to be reformed And all this hatred is against God though man by it hurts not God but himself man being Gods enemy not by hurting his will but resisting it Non nocendo sed resistendo The consideration whereof should humble us for our folly and danger in hating so good and great a God It should also teach from whom to beg renewed inclinations Lord Whither should we go but to thee and how but by thee 2. Love is the best thing which we can bestow upon God Observ 2. 'T is our All And the All which the Apostle desires these Christians may return to God who had bestowed upon them mercy and peace Love from God is the top of our happiness and love to God the summe of our duty It 's that onely grace whereby we most neerly answer God in his own kind he commands corrects comforts directs pitties sustains c. in these we cannot resemble him but he loves us and in this respect we may and must answer returning love for love Love is the best thing that the best man did ever give his God Love is a gift in bestowing whereof hypocrites cannot joyn with the faithful there 's nothing else but they may give as abundantly as the most upright in heart they may give their tongue hand estate children nay life but Love with these or these in love they cannot give And the truth is not giving this they give to God in his esteem just nothing The best thing that an Hypocrite can bestow is his Life and yet Paul tels us That though
ibi desinis esse bonus Bern. Ep. 91. Nolle preficere deficere est Ep. 254. he that hath least grace hath enough to be thankfull but he that hath the most hath not enough to be idle We are never gotten far enough till we are gotten home he that is rich enough is nothing worth He was never good that desireth not to be better he is stark nought that desireth not to be as good as the best 10. Lastly the Apostle desireth the multiplication of grace even to the sense feeling and apprehension of those that were partakers thereof that those who had grace might know they had it The people of God do not ever know their own holinesse and happinesse these are true though not strong in grace The perceiving of our grace is an additionall happiness to our receiving it In the light of God we must see light It 's a double and a very desirable blessing to have the company and comfort of grace at the same time This of the first branch of Explication What the Apostle desired for these Christians when he pray'd for this multiplication The second followeth which was to consider Why he desired it 2d Branch of Explicat This he did 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of Others 3. In respect of Themselves 4. In respect of Himself 1. In respect of God The more grace is multiplyed the more God is 1. Honoured Mat. 5.16 Joh. 15.8 2 Cor. 4.15 Phil. 1.11 Herein is my Father honoured if ye bring forth much fruit If the servants of God do much work God will be accounted a good a bountifull Master 1. In respect of the great reward men will think there is in his service and some extraordinary benifit by it that his servants are so painfull in it And 2. In respect of the great ability that he bestows upon his to be and do good God will be admired in them that beleeve If poor servants are so rich and glorious Aestimari a Cultoribus potest ille qui Colitur Salv. what then will men say is the Master if his servants be so holy what then is he who keeps them if there be so much in a drop what is there then in the ocean if he imparts so much to others what then hath he in himself The plenty of the crop is the praise of the husbandman Luk. 15.7 Chrysostomus cxistimat glorificationem hìc poni pro exultatione Gerh. in Joh. 15.8 2. As God is honoured by the abounding of his servants in holiness so is he likewise pleased Fruitfulness upon earth is joy in heaven The Husbandman is not only praised but pleased by the fruitfulness of his grounds the barrenness whereof is both his shame and his sorrow The thriving of the child is the joy of the father If we rejoyce so much in holinesse that see it and love it so little Isai 5.6 what then must God do who is holinesse it selfe How angry was God with his barren vineyard If God be best pleased with holinesse he must needs be best pleased with them who are most holy 2. The Apostle desired this multiplication of grace in respect of Others that they may not only speak good of God but get good to themselves The whole Countrey fareth the better for a rich Christian he keepeth open house the more he hath the more he gives he labours to make all such as himselfe Acts 26.29 his bonds onely excepted Ther 's nothing more covetous or prodigall than grace A Saint ever loves to be receiving from God and imparting to others From Jerusalem round about to Illyricum Paul preached the Gospell Rom. 15.19 2 Cor. 6.10 He who was so abundantly rich himselfe made it his work to make others so What an encouragement is it to young beginners in grace to see that they who once were as poor and had as little to begin with as themselves have attained to such a plentifull spirituall estate What a joy is it to the strong Christian whose love of complacency is â—set upon the excellent Ones and whose Crown of Rejoycing it is to see the Honour of God propagated 3. The Apostle desired this Multiplication of grace in respect of Themselves and that 1. In respect of their duty they could never be too abundant in goodnesse for him from whom they were and had and did what ever was good How could God dwell too much in the house of his own building How could the Vineyard and Garden of his own planting be too fruitfull the Well of his own digging be too full In their creation they received souls bodies faculties senses with parts and members from him in him also they lived and moved and had their being and could they do him too much service In their redemption the delivery not onely from condemnation but from vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 and from the service and corruption of sin was aimed at by God and not only a preservation of them to Heaven but in holinesse In their profession they were Christians and followers of Christ And how could they walk too exactly that had such a guide They had in the word precepts promises threatnings examples and how could they be too precise that had such a rule 2. For their dignity Holinesse is a Christians greatest honour and therefore the greatest degree of holinesse the highest degree of honour Grace is called glory 2 Cor. 3.18 and the more grace the more glory It 's that which hath the most of Scripture-commendation What an honourable mention doth Paul make of the Romans for having their faith spoken of throughout the world Rom. 1.8 Our Saviour Mat. 8.10 15.28 that contemned the glorious buildings of the Temple when his Disciples shewed him them admired a strong faith more than once 3. For their further peace and comfort in this life There 's no abundance but that of grace which can content the possessour the more holinesse the more enjoyment of him in whose presence is fulnesse of joy Whence is a Saints trouble but from the deficiency of his graces what is it that pincheth him but the scantinesse of these spirituall garments the larger they are the greater is his ease He that hath true grace may go to Heaven certainly but he who hath strong grace onely goeth comfortably A weak faith a small degree of love patience humility will not carry a man joyfully through great troubles 4. For their future crown further felicity in the next life If any shall follow the lamb in whiter larger robes of glory than other they are those whom he hath adorned most with the robes of grace here If any shine brighter than others in heaven they shall be those who have been brightest in grace upon the earth Though glory be not bestowed for any merit in grace yet I see no inconvenience to hold that 't is bestowed according to the proportion of grace If the more grace a Saint hath
the more he be fitted for glory Col. 1.12 then the more grace he hath the more it is likely he shall be filled with glory The more the soul is widened with grace the more capacious will it be of glory the heaviest crowns are fittest for the strongest heads 4. Lastly The Apostle desired this multiplication of grace upon these Christians in respect of Himself The holinesse of the people is the crown of the Minister and the greater their holinesse the weightier and more glorious is his crown The Apostle John had no greater joy than to see his spirituall children walk in the truth The thriving of the child is the comfort and credit of the Nurse the fruitfulnesse of the field the praise and pleasure of the Husband-man the beauty of the building is the commendation of the Artificer the health fruitfulnesse and good plight of the flock is the joy of the Shepherd Ministers are Husband-men Nurses Artificers Shepherds in Scripture phrase Nothing more troubles a godly Minister than to see his multiplied pains answered with a scanty proficiency his double labour with scarce a single return of holinesse A gain-saying people is the grief of a Minister that all the day long stretcheth out his hands although it may be a sweet mitigation of that griefe to consider that God will not reward his Ministers according to their successe but their sincerity and industry This for the Explication of this second Particular in the Apostles prayer the measure in which he desireth these gifts and graces may be bestowed be multiplied The Observations follow 1. Observ 1. Great is thefolly of those whose whole contention is for worldly increase and multiplication of earthly blessings In worldly things their desires have an everlasting Et catera they will lay house to house field to field like the widow who when she had fill'd all her vessels with oil yet cals for another vessel Ahab to his Kingdom must adde Naboths vineyard the rich man Luke 12. had his barns full yet he must enlarge them Many live as if God had sent them a voyage into the world to gather cockles and pibbles whereas he imployed them to trade for pearls Where is the man that envies not him who hath more wealth and yet who is it that with an holy emulation looks upon him that hath more grace than himselfe Where doth the best sort of earth deserve to lie but at the Apostles feet What hath the man who goeth Christlesse What hath he laboured for all his dayes but that not only without which he might have gone to heaven but that with which he cannot get thither What folly to lose a Crown for a crumb a Kingdome a Soul a God for a trifle How vain is it to multiply that which in its greatest increase is but nothing The truth is earthly comforts are not capeable of multiplication Did men look upon the world with Scripture spectacles and not with Satans multiplying glasse it would appear in its greatnesse but a small thing The world hath two brests they who suck at the best of them draw nothing but winde and vanity they who suck at the other draw woe and vexation 2. Observ 2. Gre at is the impiety of those that hinder people from increasing in grace Who are the pul-backs damps and quench-coles of the companies where they converse The holiest men pray that grace may be multiplyed what then are they who labour to have it extinguished Elymas the sorcerer had one of the bitterest and severest expressions of detestation from the Apostle that we read was ever bestowed upon any by a good man the Apostle calls him One full of subtilty and all mischiefe Acts 13.10 a child of the divell an enemy of all righteousnesse and why but because he sought to turn away the Deputy from the faith They who take away the key of knowledge stop the mouthes of Ministers cause a dearth of spirituall food and cannot endure the preaching of sound doctrine and the spreading of holinesse would haply account such expressions as these of Paul to be bitter but I hardly see how they deserve milder 3. Obser 3. It 's the height of impiety to hate people because God hath multiplyed grace in them How hatefull is it to hate where and because God loves yet some there are who like Gardiners snip those most who are tallest sprouts in holinesse It 's observed by some that there 's most admiration and highest respect bestowed by the professors of all false religions in the world upon those that are most precise and exact in the observing of those religions What an amazement is it that professours of the true religion alone should most bitterly hate those that make the furthest progresse in it It 's a commendable thing among men for one to be excellent and exquisite in his trade and occupation which he professeth and must it alone be a disgracefull thing that men should excell in the best of mysteries and callings yet what more common than to see the most thriving Christian to become the obloquie nay prey of the times And those who are most illuminated to have that Aeolus of hell Heb. 10.32 sending out his winds of opposition most against them And who hath not observed the zealous and sincere Christian persecuted when the time-serving and luke-warm formalist is not only spared but preferr'd and what trees are so cudgel'd and battered as those who are most fruitfull If hatred be hellish because it is set against godlinesse then certainly that hatred is most hellish which is set against most godlinesse 4. Obser 4. They who are ashamed of being exact and forward in religion are ashamed of their greatest glory Men commonly love to excell in every thing more than in that which is true excellency they think that a little godlinesse is enough and that abundance of wealth is but a little In getting riches they love to lead in going toward heaven they will hardly follow So much religion as will preserve their estates and reputation so much as will not crosse their interest or hinder their preferment they will embrace but they love not to follow religion too close for fear of being dasht They herein resemble some Students of the Law that study that Science not to be exact in it but only so farre as they may be able another day to keep their estates Men commonly love that much which when they do so it 's hard not to love too much but they are but remisse in that in which 't is impossible to be excessive they making it their study to take heed of that of which there 's no danger viz. Too much precisenesse in the wayes of holinesse Christianity in our times is like our buildings much more slight than of old Till I hear of one man from the Creation of the World to this day that ever repented him when he came to die of being too holy while he lived
lesse beloved endeavouring to do people good though against their will As Job's record so such a Ministers recompence is on high This for the first reason of the Apostles sending the following Exhortation to these Christians they were beloved The second follows The carefull diligence of the Apostle to further their spiritual welfare When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation And in that 1. First of the first particular With what mind and disposition he endeavoured their good or how he was affected in endeavouring to do them good I gave all diligence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Explication whereof Explicat 1. I shall give the force and meaning of the words Diligence and all diligence 2. Gather from thence what kind of diligence and how qualified this of the Apostle here was The Apostle expresseth the forwardnesse of his minde and disposition in furthering their good by two words by his giving 1. Diligence 2. All diligence Diligence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Studium Solicitudo Diligentia Festinatio in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar here translates it solicitudinem solicitude or carefulnesse Beza studium study or earnest intention of mind Our new Translation renders it diligence as it doth also the same word Rom. 12.8 2 Cor. 8.7 Heb. 6.11 2 Pet. 1.5 Sometimes again it renders it carefulnesse as 2 Cor. 7.11 and forwardnesse as 2 Cor. 8.8 and earnest care as 2 Cor. 8.16 and haste as Mark 6.25 Luke 1.39 The Greek word comprehends all these significations for it signifieth an earnest and serious bending application and intention of the mind about the things which we are doing and this is study It importeth also such a serious bending of the mind as is with a fear of the future event and this is care carefulnesse or solicitude It also signifieth a speedy and chearfull putting of a thing in execution and this is diligence and festination forwardnesse hast The other word all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle useth to expresse his forward disposition to do them good increaseth and enlargeth the former He gave not some part of but all or his whole diligence For the Apostle doth here as the Scripture often else where put all for whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rom. 10.18 2 Tim. 3.16 his whole diligence was bent this way and other things in comparison of this he neglected In this channell did run as it were the whole stream of his diligence 2. From this force and meaning of the words it may plainly be collected what kind of diligence this of the Apostle here was 1. It was a solicitous carefull diligence He resented the danger of these Christians and feared their spirituall losse and hurt by Satan and his instruments The care of these faithfull ones was upon him as upon holy Paul was the care of the Churches Gal. 4.19 2 Cor. 8.16 2 Cor. 11.28 Paul was afraid of the Galatians of whom he travelled in birth till Christ was formed in them Love is ever solicitous doth its best and fears the worst Titus had an earnest care for the good of the Corinthians and among them none was offended but Paul burned 2. It was a studious and an intentive diligence It set his head and heart a working to do them good There was an earnest and vehement application of both to this imployment Faithfull Ministers are laborious they are peculiarly called labourers and they labour in the word and doctrine Paul laboured more abundantly than they all Timothy was to shew himselfe a workman All their titles as Fishers Souldiers Watchmen Labourers c. bestowed upon Ministers commend Jude's diligence 3. It was a chearfull willing diligence Studium est animi vehemens ad aliquam rem magna cum voluptate applicatio Bez. This he fully discovers both by the word diligence and giving diligence He was not forced to this imployment Paul 1 Cor. 9.17 tels us his reward came in a way of willing doing Jude had the constraint of love upon him his service was not like honey prest but of it selfe dropping His feeding the Church was his meat and drink This good worke was not done with an ill will 4. It was a speedy ready diligence it was with a holy haste The Seducers were already entred among these Christians There was now no room for delayes The beginnings of this mischiefe were to be crush'd While Ministers are lingring and doubting Satan is devouring They are souldiers and Victory loves to flie upon the wing of Expedition 5. It was his whole utmost entire diligence Such a diligence as Paul professeth he used when he said As much as in me is Rom. 1.15 I am ready to preach the Gospell This work he made his businesse and to it he gave himselfe in comparison of this his diligence for other things was but negligence For three years he warned every one night and day with tears Act. 20.31 Nay he was glad to spend and be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 He was fervent in spirit but in serving the Lord. 1. Observ 1. Greatest diligence is alway to be used about the best things about matters of greatest concernment The custom of the world is to use substantiall endeavours about circumstantiall and circumstantiall endeavours about substantiall imployments A holy remisnesse befits our care about the things of this life A Christian should keep his sweat and industry for the things of heaven when he useth the world it should be as if he used it not He should not pray or hear as if he heard or prayed not It 's madnesse to make as great a fire for the rosting of an egge as for the rosting of an oxe to follow the world with as much fervency as we do holinesse and about trifles to be imployed with vast endeavours It 's impossible to be too diligent for heaven and difficult not to be over diligent for the earth 2. Observ 2. All that Ministers even the best of them can do is but to be diligent to take pains and endeavour Paul can but plant Nostrum est dare operam Dei dare operationem Apollos waters God it is that gives the increase It is our part to be diligent it 's God that blesseth that diligence Aliud est docere aliud flectere One thing to preach another to perswade The organ-pipes make no musick without breath He that teacheth the heart sits in heaven God must have the praise in the successefulnesse of the Ministry Non scoundum profectum sed laborem non secundum quod valuimus sed quod voluimus his glory must not cleave to our fingers nor must Ministers be discouraged in the want of successe God never required that at their hands He accepts of their willing mind nor doth God reward them according to peoples proficiency but their own industry 3. Observ 3. Diligence in duty is the commendation of Ministers
monument of his love and their duty Words passe away and are forgotten when writing remains Every new tide blots out a writing on the sand and every new Sermon makes the former forgotten but writing deceives even death it selfe It 's a kind of image of eternity Some by idlenesse have been dead while they lived others by their labours have lived when they have been dead 2 Pet. 1.15 Peter endeavoured that the Christians might be put in remembrance even after his decease Psal 102.18 This shall be written saith the Psalmist for the generation to come 1. Observ 1. The desire of Ministers should be to benefit as many as may be To help in the way to heaven not their present but even their absent friends nor the age only in which they live but even succeeding generations they should like a great fire heat those who are a great way off The world should smell of the sanctity and holy labours of a godly Minister even when he is removed out of it He should like Zisca who commanded that a drum should be made of his skin to terrifie his enemies even after his death be serviceable Though the Prophets live not ever yet their labours should Zech. 1.5 Some of the ancient Worthies like Samson have thus done more good by their deaths than by their lives 2. Obser 2. Gods giving us the constant and standing rule of a written word shews our great readinesse to leave and swerve from him As we could not have found out so neither could we have kept in the right way without a written word We have ingenium erraticum we love to wander should without this light shining in a dark place In the Infancy of the Church and while it was contained in narrow bounds God manifested his will without the written word by dreams visions and audible voice But errour and prophanenesse increasing in after-generations men could not be without Gods will committed to writing without it we can neither find nor keep our way to heaven The Pope unwritten traditions the Sun Moon and Stars Reason and Revelations are all erring guides 3. Observ 3 Great is the goodnesse of God who would have his will committed to writing giving us a sure 2 Pet. 1.19 a more sure word of prophesie that upon which we may more safely build than upon the voice which came from heaven when Christ was transfigured How full of love is Christ to send Epistles to his Spouse the Church in his absence from her Great is his care who hath safely transmitted an uncorrupted canon to every age of his Church and set up a light which the rage and subtilty of Satan can no more blow out then can a man the Sun with a pair of bellows God provides not only light in heaven but light to heaven He teacheth us in the School of Scripture He hath not dealt so with every nation the Heathen have but the school of creatures Psal 147.20 the Jewes though our carefull Library-keepers yet understood not this written word 4. Observ 4. The great impiety of those who neglect and undervalue the written word I have written saith God the great things of my Law Hos 8.12 but they were accounted a strange thing The written word is undervalued by some practically their lives are visible as much as in them is confutations of it they live crooked lives though they have a strait rule They commit the sins of darknesse in a Land of light and they do their work worse under this glorious light than those who lived in darknesse Others disgrace the written word doctrinally Papists say Alb. Pighius Costerus in Euchirid Eccius Bailius p. 1. Bellar. de verb. Dei l. 4. c. 4. John Goodwin Yo. Eld. p. 32. Vid. Blind guide guided p. 47. it is not necessary for the Church calling it by way of contempt Atramentariam Theologiam a dead letter a divinity made of ink and paper preferring before it the scripture which is made in the Popes breast To these may be added the Sectaries of our times who peremptorily write That no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originals is the foundation of Christian Religion And to prove it they borrow the popish arguments whereof this is the prime Religion was founded before the Scriptures therefore the Scripture cannot be the foundation of Religion They never remembring what is truely answered by our Divines Chamier Rivet * Patribus olim Deus se familiariter ostendit atque iis per se voluntatem suam patefecit tum Scripturas non fuisse necessarias fatcor at postea mutavit hanc docendae Ecclesiae rationem scribi suam voluntatem voluit tum necessaria esse Scriptura coepit Whitak de perfec Scrip. cap. 7. Whitaker c. the later whereof tels them that though of old time when God familiarly made known himselfe to the fathers and by himselfe manifested to them his will the Scriptures were not necessary yet after God did change the course of teaching his Church would have his word written the Scriptures were a necessary foundation Obser 5. The misery of those times and places where writing is made an engine to advance the devils kingdom It 's pity so usefull an invention should be imployed for any but for God and that it should be used as a weapon against him Hereticall and prophane writings kill souls at a distance leaven a whole Kingdom with sin and propagate impiety to posterity Satan hath prevailed more with his pen than his sword against the Church Far be it from a Christian Commonwealth to suffer weekly Advocates to write for Satan to take away the pen from Jude and to put it into the hand of the Seducers against whom he desires to write We put not a sword into the hand of our own may we never put a pen into the hand of Gods exemies This for the second Particular in the second reason of the Apostles sending this following Exhortation namely by what kind of means he endeavoured the good of these Christians viz. by writing The third follows the excellency and weightinesse of that subject about which he was to write the common salvation Wherein he expresseth 1. The nature thereof it was salvation 2. It 's property it was common 1. The kind and nature of that subject about which he wrote Salvation The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explicat here render'd salvation properly signifieth a deliverance from danger and distresse as also a preservation of a thing in a condition of safety such a preservation or safety Chemnit Har. in Luc. 1. Cameron in Myroth Evang. without which a thing would be lost and destroy'd and by which it is perpetually preserved and kept safe from all danger and evill whatsoever But Salvation is taken in Scripture sundry wayes 1 Sam. 14.45 19.5 Isai 59.11 Jer. 3.23 1. First For deliverance from temporall miseries and calamities Exod. 14.13
salvation blown out here in this life salvation is in the bud Saints are here saved from the power of their corruptions they are here in the Suburbs of Heaven they here sit together in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 2.6 They here have salvation not only in their desires and expectations but in its Cause 2 Pet. 1.11 They have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdomof Christ They are by faith united to that Head which is already in heaven They are freed though not from the company of and contention with yet from conquest by all their enemies and there is alway the certainty of this salvation in respect of it selfe the object though not in respect of us the subject 4. The People of God are safe and saved Observ 4. even while they are in dangers Their enemies are but nominall The keeper of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps Psal 90. per tot Though they be tempted sick persecuted banished yet never unsafe and when ever God brings them into these conditions 't is because they are the safest for them Their graces are alway safe their souls their comforts safe because Christ their Head their hope their all is safe The poorest Saint hath his Life-guard He who provided a City of Refuge for those who kill'd men will much more finde out a City of Refuge for thee when men shall labour to kill thee Of this more before Observ 5. 5. Our dangers and enemies in this life should exceedingly commend heaven to us The Tempest commends the Haven the Pursuite of the Enemy the City of Refuge the Storms the Shelter We are never fully safe till we arrive at eternall salvation It 's strange that Saints should long no more to get into the bosome of Christ in glory that they should be so unwilling to leave the lions dens and the mountains of leopards Cant. 4.8 Mundus turbatur amatur We love to handle the world though God makes it a bundle of thorns what should we do if it were an heap of roses 6. Observ 6. God hath appointed the holy Writings for our salvation Jude writes to further the salvation of these Christians 2 Tim. 3.15 The Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation Gal. 6.16 Eternall peace is only upon those who walk according to this rule The Scripture tels us not only what we shall find heaven to be when we are there but how we should find the way thither They are the pillar and cloud in our wildernesse The light which shines in a dark place for our guidance Let us labour to have salvation further'd by them How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation How sad is it to carry these Letters of Heaven about us only as Vrijah carried Davids for his own destruction 7. The furthering of the salvation of others Observ 7. should be the end of our writing To write the same things to you saith Paul is sufe Phil. 3.1 2. 1 Pet. 5.12 1 John 2.1 Videtur quicquid literis mandatur id commendari omnium eruditorum lectione debere Cicero 2 Tusc quaest I have written saith Peter exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherin ye stand My little children saith John these things I write unto you that ye fin not We must not write to shew our learning much lesse to obscure the truth Nothing should be written but what the reading of the best should commend The best thing that many do by writing is to make paper dear but which is worse they make their reader worse it were well that either they would not write at all or else write a Book of Retractations But among us Sectaries after conviction write with more rage instead of retractation If these will not amend readers are to take heed of buying their books lest they imbrace their errours and rather to dig in the Mine of the Scriptures for gold than to wallow in the mire of the Books of Sectaries and Seducers This for the first the nature of that subject about which the Apostle was to write Salvation The second follows the property of it Common common salvation Wherein by way of Explication we may shew two things 1. In what respect Salvation is called common Explicat 2. Why the Apostle here in this place doth call it so Common cannot be here taken according to the usage of the word somtimes in the Scripture as 't is opposed to holy and as importing as much as prophane or that which every one may use or belongs to every one as 1 Sam. 21.4 that bread which was not consecrated to God or hallowed and of which any might eat is called common So Act. 10.14.28 and 11.8 Meats forbidden by the Leviticall Law are called common and unclean because the prophane Gentiles did commonly use those meats which the Jews being an holy people might not eat Heb. 10.29 And so those Apostates are said to account the bloud of the Covenant a common or unholy thing they esteeming the bloud of Christ no more then if it had been the bloud of some ordinary person or of some wicked or guilty one Nor is common here to be taken unlimitedly for that which is common universally to every one as if none were excluded from this salvation Mat. 7.14 Aug. de haeres cap. 43. Origen is charged as if he held that those who lived and died the most flagitious of sinners nay that the divell himselfe and his angels after a thousand years torments should be saved But Common is here taken in a limited sense this salvation being common only to the faithfull who all have an interest in the same it belongs to one of them John 17.12 Rev. 7.9 Acts 1.8 Rom. 1.16 Acts 10.35 as well as to another the meanest are not excluded it Christ loseth none of his It 's a salvation for Jewes and Gentiles rich and poor honourable and ignoble bond and free learned and illiterate And thus 't is common salvation sundry wayes 1. In regard of the meritorious purchaser of this salvation There is one common Saviour Ephes 4.5 Ephes 5.23 the Saviour of the body Every member thereof hath influence from this head There is one Lord 1 Cor. 10.4 1 Cor. 3.11 John 1.16 there is this one Mediatour between God and man They of old all drank of the same spirituall rock Christ Jesus Of his fulnesse we have all received He is the sun that gives luster and light to every star the Well that fill'd every pitcher the only foundation laid by all 1. It 's common salvation in regard of the rule and way by which we are guided thither There is but one faith called also Catholick God calls all his people with one voice Omnis unâ voce invitat Cal. in 4. Eph. There 's but one way to heaven the good old way there 's one rule prescribed to all somtimes it hath been more
plainly somtimes more obscurely discovered but yet the way hath ever been the same Our light now may be new for the degree not for the kind of it 3. It 's common salvation in regard faith both in the purchaser and doctrine of salvation is common to all true Christians They all have the same spirit of faith And faith Tit. 1.4 is called common 2 Cor. 4.13 They all build upon the same personall and doctrinall foundation and though like the boughs of a tree they crosse one another in some things yet they all grow upon the same root and agree in that Christ and Scripture is precious to all 4. It 's common salvation in regard of the earnest of it The holinesse of the spirit is common to all the faithfull Ephes 1.14 2 Cor. 1.22 They all have the earnest of the purchased inheritance some have more some lesse given them in earnest yet 't is in all of the same kind Heb. 12.14 2 Tim. 4.8 and all have some Without holinesse none shall see God 5. The waiting the longing for this salvation is common to all believers Tit. 2.13 They all love the appearance of Christ They all are made to look upwards Heaven hath ever been their Center 6. The profession of an interest in and the hope of this salvation is also common to all believers They have all profest themselves strangers here below Heb. 11.13.14 and they have ever shewn that they seek a Countrey above They have all had Heaven in their tongues in their lives they have not been ashamed to confesse Christ before men and have rather chosen to lose their lives than the end of their living to part with what they had in hand rather than what they had in hope with their possession rather then their reversion 7. It 's common salvation in respect of the term the place of blessednesse to which all the faithfull shall at length arrive In heaven there shall be a generall assembly not one missing whosoever believes John 3.16 shall have everlasting life God knows and loves all his children as if he had but one I will saith Christ John 17.24 ver 12. speaking of all believers that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Of all that thou hast given me saith Christ I have lost none Christs own glory would be incompleat in heaven if any one believer should be wanting The poor partakes of the same heaven with the rich Lazarus and Abraham met together in heaven 1 Pet. 3.7 The wife is an heir of the grace of life with the husband The servant shall reign in heaven as well as the Master One heaven shall hold Jew and Gentile Ephes 4.13 bond and free It 's the place where we shall all meet Explicat 2. 2. Why doth the Apostle here call this salvation common writing to these Christians 1. Some conceive that by shewing it was common to him as well as to others the surmise of his unfitnesse to write of so weighty a subject might be cut off Jude would according to this opinion shew that he writes to them of no other salvation but what he himselfe in part understood loved expected with themselves and therefore he being an experienced Doctour they ought the more readily to follow him 2. Others as I apprehend more fitly conceive that the Apostle cals this salvation common to prevent the self-exemption of any particular Christian from imbracing the following Exhortation and Directions which belong to the salvation of all q. d. I write of the things which all have followed that ever heretofore obtained salvation and all must follow who would not incurre their own ruine therefore let every one embrace them 1. God is most free of his best blessings Obser 1. He affords salvation in common to all his people He gives honour and riches but to few of them he gives Christ and heaven to them all God somtimes denies a crumb even to him on whom he bestows a Kingdom There are many things that a child of God cannot promise to himselfe but heaven he may reckon upon There 's no famine where there is bread though there be no plums and apples And if God give salvation though he denyeth these worldly toyes there 's no fear of famine God gives those things but scantily which often hinder from heaven He keeps nothing from his people but what they may well be without When the poorest Saint looks upon the greatest Emperour in the world he may say though I have not the same worldly glory and wealth yet I shall have the same heaven with him only with this difference I goe not thither with so much luggage on my back It 's reported of the Duke of Hereford when he was banish'd out of the Kingdom by Richard the second that he should say Well yet I shall have the same sun to shine upon me that he hath who banisheth me 2. Christ and heaven are full and satisfactory Observ 2. they are enough for all Salvation is imparted but not impaired the happiness of one is no diminution to the comfort of another Christus coelum non patiuntur hyperbolem Christ and heaven cannot be praysed hyperbolically they are common fountains and yet never drawn dry The world is conscious of its curtnesse when men are wary of having corrivals in any enjoyment Worldly comforts are like a narrow table-cloth upon a broad table those on both sides pull to themselves and on neither side have they enough Christ and heaven always call and invite and rejoyce in comers The world altogether denyes most satisfies none at all 3. None should be willing to be saved alone Observ 3. Heaven was made for a common good It 's angelicall to rejoyce when men are brought to heaven and as I may say hyper-angelicall to bring them thither Christians Ministers especially should be common goods like the Conduit that serves for the use of a whole City Blessings to a whole Nation compelling every one to the marriage Feast Our gifts should be called common not only because God commonly bestows them but because we commonly use them If heaven be large our hearts should not be straight How common a good was blessed Paul who wish'd that all who heard him Acts 26.29 were such as he was This is an holy honest covetousnesse 4. They who teach others the way to salvation Observ 4. should be in a state of salvation themselves He who hath sayl'd into forraign Coasts discourseth more throughly and satisfactorily than he who hath only map-knowledge Then is the word like to grow when the piety of the Preacher waters the seed of the Sermon He who loves not salvation himselfe can hardly make others in love with it Ministers must not only teach facienda Animum non faciunt qui animum non habent but faciendo They must teach by doing what they
enemies how can God want weapons to beat them when he can beat them with their own how impossible is it but God should prevail over them when he doth so by being oppos'd by them how should this encourage the afflicted Church of God! when his enemies most resist him they are against their wills compell'd most to serve him and his Church 13. Observ 13. God is most faithfull in keeping promise with his people God mis-reckon'd not his people one day nay not one hour in four hundred and thirty years All the pathes of God are mercy and truth Psal 25.10 Psal 89.33 Isai 55.3 2 Cor. 1.20 Josh 21.45 and 23.14 1 King 8.56 Jer. 33.20 Isai 54.19 The faithfulnesse of God never failes nor will he alter the thing which is gone out of his lips The promises of God are called the sure mercies of David sure unto all the seed of David that are in covenant with God as David was They are yea and amen There shall not fail one word of all the good which God hath promised to do for his people The promises of God are built upon the unchangeable purpose of God which is a sure and unshaken foundation 2 Tim. 2.19 Hence it is that God is said to have promised eternall life before the world began because the promises which are made in time are according to that purpose of God in himselfe And Hebr. 6.17 the Apostle grounds the truth of the promise upon the stablenesse of Gods counsell so that unlesse Gods counsell and purpose change the promise cannot faile Psal 89.3.35 Heb. 6.17 Heb. 9.16 17 To assure us of the certainty of his Covenant God hath given us the pledges of his oath his seal of the blood of Christ the Mediatour the earnest of his spirit 2 Cor. 1.22 Let the true Israelites hence gather strong consolation Christians you are not worthy to be beloved but God is worthy to be beleeved The promises are as sure as they are great Though all the world falter and deceive you yet the promises of God are firm and stable God will try your faith but never disappoint it Judge of his faithfulnesse not by his providences but by his promises Of this more in the last part of the verse 14. Observ 14. The great God hath all the creatures at his command He commands in chiefe and the creatures are his hosts even from the least of the lice that crept upon the poorest Egyptian to the most glorious Angell in heaven Psal 148.8 Psal 77.16 If he say to a plague Go it goeth if Come it cometh they all fulfill his word the unruly sea tamely stands still if God command it yea though of it selfe it be unkind and raging it lovingly opens its bosome to entertain the Israelites Hee can make the swift sun to stop its course yea to go backward Josh 10.12 Isai 38.8 The greedy and cruell Lions are muzled up and grow gentle at Gods command If God speak unto the fish it shall take retain and restore Jonas How should this relieve the faithfull in all their exigencies Their friend their father hath all the world at his command to supply their wants to deliver them from troubles to destroy their enemies Man roweth but God bloweth The Egyptians pursue but the wind the sea the chariot wheels shall all obey the God of Israel Never need a true Israelite fear who hath such a friend Never can an Egyptian be fafe that hath such an enemy 15. Observ 15. Wicked men grow not wise till it be too late Why could not the Egyptians as well refraine from the pursuit of Israel as endeavour a retreat It had been better for them not to have entred into the sea than to struggle to get out when once they were in it They might with more wisedome have said Let us not follow after than have said Let us flye from the Israelites Wicked men do not beleeve their danger til they feel it Satan suffers not their eyes to be opened till they be with the blinded Syrians in the midst of their enemies Oh sinner Labour to be wise betimes in this thy day know the things that belong to thy peace It s easier to be warned of the wrath to come than to wade out of it 16. Observ 16. God makes those conditions and imployments easie to his people when they are once in them which before seem'd impossible Israel rather thought that the wildernesse should have given them graves then that the sea should have given them passage They who feared that none could role away for them the stone of the sepulcher when they came found it roll'd away to their hands The workes of God are sweet in the performance which are unpleasing in their undertakeing the yoke of Christ is greivous to take up but easie to bear and undergo it s otherwise in the imployments of sin they are easie and delightfull in the beginning but bitternesse in the end The Israelites find the sea shut against them when they approach it but it was open in their passage through it The Egyptians found it open at their approach but shut when they would return The waies of God are narrowly broad The wayes of sin broadly narrow Israel hath nothing to do but to follow God and to beleeve For their way if mercy do not find it easie it will make it so The second part of this example of the Israelites is their destruction after their forementioned deliverance in these words Afterward destroyed EXPLICATION Two things may here be explained 1 What this destruction was which befell Israel afterward 2. Wherein the eminency and remarkablenesse of this destruction which was afterward did appear 1. For the first The Scriptures record sundry destructions brought upon the Israelites while they were in the wildernesse after their deliverance from Egypt As 1. Some were destroyed after their idolatrous worshipping of the Golden Calfe Exod. 32.28 〈◊〉 by the command of Moses to the number of three thousand men 2. There was a destruction by fire which the Lord kindled mentioned Num. 11.1 2 3. whether this fire brake out of the earth or came from the Pillar of fire which went before the Israelites or was poured upon them from heaven it is not expressed certain it is that it was a grevious burning and therefore the place where it burnt was called Taberah 3. Another destruction by the plague wee read of in the same chapter ver 33. at Kibroth Hataavah after the people had impatiently and discontentedly lusted for flesh 4. There 's a destruction by fiery serpents recorded Num. 21.6 Where after their murmuring for want of water it 's said much people of Israel dyed 5. Many of the Israelites were destroyed about the conspiracy of Corab and his complices related Num. 16.31 Where besides the swallowing up of sundry in the earth and the consuming by fire of two hundred and fifty who offered incense fourteen thousand seven hundred more
in They beleeved God too little and man too much by their unbelief making God as man and man as God Gen. 12.7 13.15 15.18 17.7.8 26.4 Deut. 1.8 Exo. 3.17 and 6.8 2. God had afforded many helps and antidotes against the unbeleef of the Israelites God had given promises first to their Fathers and afterwards to these Israelites their posteritie of his bestowing upon them the land of Canaan for an Inheritance His promises like himself were faithfull and true and impossible it is that he who made them should lie These promises were often repeated to their fore-fathers and themselves and the very land of Canaan is called the Land of Promise Heb. 11.9 1 King 8.56 And afterward Solomon professed There hath not failed one word of all Gods good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses All his promises are yea and Amen The promises of giving to Israel the land of Canaan Gen. 22.16 Gen. 26.3 Psal 105.9 1 Chr. 26.26 Gen. 17.10 God had sundry times confirmed by oath the oath God followed with his seal of Circumcision whereby was confirmed the promise of the earthly and heavenly Canaan To all these God had added the abundant examples of those their holy fore-fathers who openly professed their beleeving of the promise that their Seed should inherit Canaan Heb. 11.9 Act. 7.5 Hence Abraham sojourned contentedly in the land of promise where he had not so much room as to set his foot on without borrowing or buying Hence also he purchased a burying place in that land In terra promissâ sibi emit sepulchrum ut spem suam vel mortuus testaretur Rivet Exerc. 119. in Gen. of which though living he had not possession yet dying nay dead he shewed his expectation How holily solicitous was Jacob and Joseph that their bodies after their deaths should be carried out of Egypt into that Canaan where their hopes and hearts had been while they lived To all these Examples God had given them to prevent unbeliefe their own multiplyed and astostonishing Experiences of his former Power and Love Could not he who by the lifting up of the arms of one Moses destroyed an Armie of Amalekites as easily overthrow the Armies of the Canaanites by the hands of six hundred thousand Israelites Could he who commissionated the very lice and flies to plague Egypt and at whose command are all the hosts of heaven and earth want power to deal with the sons of Anak Could not he who made the weak and unsteady waters of the red Sea to stand up like walls as easily make the strongest walls of the Canaanitish Cities to fall down Psal 78.32.42 But they believed not for his wondrous works they remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemie 3. Their unbelief most of all robb'd God of his though not essentiall yet declarative glory It was a bold sin it rifled his Cabinet and took away his chiefest Jewel Isa 42.8 1 Joh. 5.10 Rom. 4.10 even that which he saith he will not give to another 1. It takes away the glorie of his Truth it no more trusting him then if he were a known Lyer and as we say of such a one No further than we see him It endeavours to make God in that condition of some lost man whose credit is quite gone and whose word none will take now to discredit is to dishonour a man Unbeleevers account it impossible that he should speak true for whom to lye it is impossible After all the promises of giving them Canaan though repeated sworn sealed Israel beleeved not God 2. The Israelites by their unbelief obscured the glory of Gods Goodnesse They did not onely labour to make their miserie greater then Gods Mercy but even his very Mercy to appear Tyranny They often complained that he had brought them into the wilderness to slay them Num. 14.3 Psal 106.24 and they despised that pleasant land which God had promised them yea as some note in regard that the land of Canaan was a type of the heavenly Canaan See M. Perkins on the place they beleeved not that God would bring them to heaven and give them inheritance in that eternall Rest by means of the Messiah So that they rejected at once both the blessings of the foot-stool and the throne the earthly and the heavenly Canaan at the same time 3. Their Unbelief did blemish the glory of his Omnipotency Psal 62.11 They proclaiming by this sin that He to whom power belongs and nothing is too hard who can do all things but what argue impotencie as lying and denying himself who made heaven and earth with a word Isa 40.15 and before whom all the nations of the world are as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance could not crush a few worms nor pull down the height of those Gyants whom by his power he upheld 4. Of all sins the Unbelief of the Israelites most crossed their own Professions They voyced themselves to be and gloryed in being the people of God and they proclaimed it both their dutie and priviledg to take God for their God They sometimes appeared to beleeve him but the unbelief of their hearts gave both God and their own tongues the lye they professed that they beleeved the power of God and remembred that God was their Rock Psal 78.34 35 36 37. but at the news from Canaan they shewed that they beleeved that the Anakims and the walled Cities were stronger They professed that they beleeved the Mercy of God and that the most high God was their Redeemer but at the very supposall of danger they thought that they were brought into the wilderness to be slain They professed that they beleeved the Soveraignty of God They returned and enquired after him and promised obedience to him but upon every proof they shewed themselves but rebells So that by reason of their unbeleef and unstedfastnesse of heart in Gods Covenant they did but flatter God with their mouth and lye unto him with their tongues How hainous a sin is it for Gods professed friends do distrust him How shall a stranger take that mans word whom his most familiar friends yea his own children will not beleeve Thine own Nation said Pilate to Christ have delivered thee unto me Thine own people may heathens say to God wil not trust thee and how should wee 5. Of all the sins of the Israelites unbeliefe was that which properly did reject the mercy by God tendred to them Canaan was by him frequently in his promise offered and though all the sins of the Israelites deserved exclusion from Canaan yet they did not as unbeleef by refusing the offer of it reject the entrance into it As the faith of the Ninivites overthrew a prophesie of judgement Psal 78.32 33 so the unbelief of the Israelites overthrew the promises of mercy The brests of the promises were full of the milk of consolation and
as the Angels Shall we there cease to be true substances This for their Essence 2. The consideration of the Office of angels follows and this the word Angels properly denotes Angelus nomen officii spiritus naturae Aug. in Psal 104. Luk. 7.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nuncii legati Mat. 11.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex co quod est spiritus est ex eo quod agit angelus est Aug. ubi sup Mal. 3.1 Dan. 4.17 which is not a word expressing the nature but the office of angels and the words both in the Hebrew and Greek intend the same they importing messengers or such as are sent The word Angels or messengers is applyed in Scripture both to good and bad angels 1. To good angels most frequently who are those ministring spirits spoken of Heb. 1.14 and are in Scripture more commonly called by a name of office than of nature because God delights in their service and they themselves are more glad of obeying God than of their very being In regard of office that Christ himselfe accepted the name and is called the Angel of the Covenant They are by God sent forth for the good of his people Hence they are called watchers ministring spirits c. And for those who shall be the heirs of salvation they minister three wayes 1. In their life 1. By defending them from their enemies Their angels saith Christ always behold the face of my Father Matt. 18.10 Apoc. 12.7 2 Kin. 6.16 Psal 91.11 Dan. 10.20 Psal 34.7 Isai 37.36 Act. 12.23 Michael and his angels fought in defence of the Church and the prophet Elisha spake of the angels when he told his fearfull servant that there were more with them then against them The angels of the Lord pitch their tents about them that fear him An angel it was that slew the army of the Assyrians that delivered Peter out of prison as also preserved Lot 2. By comforting them Thus an angel encouraged Jacob Gen. 32.5 when he feared his brother Esau an angel it was who bid Mary not to fear Luk. 1.30 and who stood by Paul and bid him be of good chear Act. 27.24 when Daniel had fasted an prayed and angel it was who said O Daniel greatly beloved c. And afterward fear not Dan. 9.13 10.19 Luk. 22.43 Mat. 28.5 The women at the sepulchre meet with an angel who comforted them Yea an angel appeared unto Christ and strengthned him The servant comforted the master 3. By inciting and stirring them up to holinesse and in furthering their salvation they suggest nothing but what is agreeable to the will of God they can no more suggest a doctrine contrary to that which is revealed in the Scripture Gal. 1.8 Rev. 22.16 Act. 7.53 Gal. 3.19 Luk. 1.31 Act. 1.11 Rev. 19.10 Act. 8.26 Act. 10.5 Act. 12.7 than they can be accursed The law was revealed by the disposition of angels in respect of their service and attendance in the giving thereof by an angel was the incarnation of Christ foretold to the virgin and by a multitude of angels was it proclaimed afterward These instruct the Apostles concerning the coming of Christ to judgement and forbid the worshipping of themselves as idolatrous An Angel leads Philip to expound the Scripture to the Eunuch sets Peter at liberty to preach the Gospel bids Cornelius send for Peter to be instructed by him Act. 16.9 and prayes Paul to come over to Macedonia to help them namely by preaching the Gospel 2. In and after their death An angel strengthned Christ when he was in his great heavinesse of soul Angels conveyed the soul of Lazarus into Abrahams bosom Luk. 16.22 he who living was lick'd by dogs is now dead attended by angels The glorious angels are as forward to carry the souls of the faithfull to heaven as every one is to share in the bearing the body of a great prince to the grave The good angels in this work of conveying souls are thought to watch for prevention of the bad who alwayes seek to devour the Saints living and dying At the end of the world the angels shall be the glorious attendants of the great Judge shall cite all to appear and shall separate between the good and the bad gathering the elect from the four winds Mat. 24.31 from one end of the heaven to the other so that there shall not one be lost 2. The term Angels or Messengers is also in Scripture bestowed upon the wicked and unclean spirits Thus it s said Diodat Annot. Psal 78.49 1 Cor. 6.3 that God sent evill angels among the Egyptians and of this the Apostle speaks in that Scripture Know ye not that we shall judge the angels and 2 Pet. 2.4 He spared not the angels that sinn'd And these evil angels are imployed 1. In exercising the faithfull with tentations which God alwayes turns to their good Job 1. Luk. 22.31 these angels stir up terrors against the faithfull inwardly and troubles outwardly Satan sent his messenger to buffet Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 Apoc. 2.10 He casts the faithfull into prison He casts his fiery darts sometime tempting and alluring at other times affrighting and dismaying 2. In being the executioners of Gods displeasure against the wicked whom for their wickednesse 2 Cor. 4.4 Gal. 3.1 God delivers up to these wicked angels to blind harden and bewitch them with sin and then to drive them to despair for sin Satan imployes them as slaves in the basest of work and rewards them as slaves with the smartest of stripes often in this life as in the case of Saul and Judas and Abimilech alwayes after it both by dragging away those soules to punishment who have followed him in sin and by being a tormentor afterward of those of whom first he was the tempter OBSERVATIONS 1. Observ 1. How glorious a majesty is the God of Angels If the lowest of earthly creatures if a spire of grasse a worme an ant speak his wisdome and power how much more do those glorious spirits who excell in strength and understanding How pure and simple a being is that God who is the father of all these spirits How glorious he whom angels adore and before whom principalities fall down How strong is he who with one word of his mouth made so many thousands of those angels one of whom overthrew an hundred fourscore and five thousand men in one night How wise he who is the father of all that light which angels have and which is but one ray of his sun Infinitely greater is the disproportion between one God and all the angels than between all those glorious hosts and the least ant upon the molehill How can that king of glory want forces who hath such a militia so many thousands of such Chariots to ride upon Psal 68.7 such a heavenly host as all the millions of angels Wonder O man that this Majesty who is furnish'd with the attendance of angels should
accept of the services of worms That he the beholding of whose face is the heaven of those blessed spirits and who hath their beuties constantly before him to look upon and the sweetnesse of the exactly skilfull and melodious musick of a consort a chore of angels to delight him that this God should accept of the chatterings of cranes the blacknesse of Ethiopians the stammerings the lispings of infants the jarrings of our poor broken instruments the bungling services of which even poor we our selves are ashamed What a word of condescension is that of Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely and Joh. 4.23 The father seeketh such to worship him Lord thou dost not seek thus because thou wantest servants but because we want work not because thou art defective in attendants but abundant in grace and rewards and delighted with that of thy selfe which thou seest whereever thou findest it 2. How highly advanced is he who is God and man Observat 2. The excellency of angels speaks the greater excellency of him who is above all principalities and power Eph. 1.21 Phil. 2.9 and might and dominion who hath a name above every name Heb. 1.4 6.1 Pet. 3.23 who is made better than the angels whom all the angels are to worship and unto whom angels and authorities Mat. 4.11 and powers are made subject When Christ was upon earth the angels were his ministers angels proclaimed his entrance into the world Yea not only at his incarnation but tentations resurrection ascension angels attend him serve him woship him Our King hath not a guard of men as the great princes of the earth but a guard of princes and not of princes only but even of principalities and powers Christ is the Lord of the holy angels Exod. 25.20 The eyes of the Cherubims are fix'd upon the Mercy-seat the angels look upon Christ as their Master expecting his commands The vail of the tabernacle which covered the most holy Exod. 26.31 expresly signifying the flesh of Christ which hiding his divinity made way for us to heaven was made of broydered work with Cherubims there being hereby noted unto us the service which the angels give to Christ as man They are called Mat. 16.27 the angels of the Son of man Christ tooke not upon him the nature of angels and yet they undertake the service of Christ Blush O man that angels should obey him and that thou shouldst rebell against him Oh since he is come to his own let them receive him Let not Christ suffer for his condescension If submission to Christ be the grace of angels contempt of Christ is the sin of divels Oh kiss the Son subject your selves to him and so stoop to your own blessednesse And take heed of disgraceing that nature by sin and of making it lower than divels which Christ hath advanced above Angels 3. Observat 3. Psal 8.3 How much below angels is poor mortall man When David saw the Moon and Stars he had selfe-debasing thoughts how much more should wee when we contemplate angelicall excellency Angelus si cum anima rationali comparetur dici potest anima perfecta quemadmodum a nima dici potest angelus imperfectus Angelus est integr a perfectáque substantia spiritualis anima human a dimidiata imperfecta quia est forma corporis ac pars hominis Angelus est totus spiritus homo partim spiritus partim caro vel partim Angelus partim bestia Bell. de ascensione grad nov Even the best part of man his soul is lower then angels An angell is a perfect soul and a soul but an imperfect angel for the angel is an intire perfect spirituall substance but the soul is a spirit but imperfectly and by halfs because it is the form of the earthly body and hereby a part of a man An angel is all spirit man part spirit and part flesh partly like an angel and partly like a beast an angel is all gold a man partly gold partly clay How childish yea brutish and dull is our understanding in comparison of that of angels What great pains doth man take for a little knowledge how is he beholding for it to his senses and discouse from the effects to their causes and after all industry how doubtfull superficial and staggering is he in his apprehensions but angels behold things with one view at once discern things both effects and causes and pierce into the substance as well as the accidents of things As much difference between the knowledg of men and of angels as there is between the sight of an Owl and an Eagle an illumin'd Doctor and a sucking child How weak and impotent are the operations of the soul of man in comparison of those of an angel the soul by the command of its will can only move its own body and that too how slowly how creepingly and with what a dull progressivenesse upon the dunghill of this earth nor can it bear up this upon the water in the aire and carry it whithersoever it will whereas these spirits with their alone force can carry vast and heavy bodies upward and whither they please One angel wants no weapons nay no hands to destroy a whole army How far below the angels are we in habitation The poorest pigeon-hole is not so much inferior to the ivory palaces of Solomon or the blackest under-ground dungeon to the most magnificent mansions of a king as is mans habitation to that of the angels How glorious is that court which is adorned with the presence of the King of glory and how blessed those attendants which ever behold his face therein Poor man hath no better lodging for his noble heaven-born soul than a cottage of clay and that too so frail and crazy as were it not once or twice every day daub'd over it would fall about his ears and whethersoever he goes he is forced to carry to drag this clog this clay this chaine with him whereas angels free from the shackels of flesh can move from heaven to earth from earth to heaven even as swiftly as can our very thoughs Poor man wilt thou yet be proud Oh that we were as low in heart as in condition How uncomely a garment is pride for those who imbrace the dunghill when the glorious angels are clothed with humility But alas as the height of heaven cannot make an angel proud so neither can the lownesse of earth no not of hell make sinners humble Oh that we might only have high thoughts of that condition Luk. 20.36 wherein we shall be equall to the angels Lord though I beg that I may be more thankfull for the metcies which I enjoy than dejected for the troubles which I endure in this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet grant till I come to be like the angels in the full enjoyment of thy selfe that about the sweetest of
And custome without truth is at the best but the antiquity of error The old path and the good way are put for the same Jerem. 6.16 If the removall of the ancient bounds and landmarks which our fathers have set be a sin so frequently prohibited how heinous is the violation of the ancient boundary of holinesse which at the first was fixed by God himself 3. The depravation of nature Observ 3. introduceth all disorder in practice When these angels had left their originall purity they soon forsake their originall employment and Mat. 7.18 the divel abiding not in the truth becomes a murderer All the irregularities of life are but derivations from unholy principles The corrupt tree yeelds not good fruit Luk. 6.45 Out of the evill treasure of the heart are evill things brought forth The wheels of the Clock going wrong needs must the hand do so the Translation will be according to the Original We see at what door to lay all the prodigious impieties in the world which are but the deformed issues of corrupted nature How foolishly are men angry with themselves for outward and visible transgressions in their lives when they tamely and quietly endure an unchanged nature like men who dung and water the roots of their trees and yet are angry for their bearing of fruit How preposterous and how plainly begun at the wrong end are those endeavours of reformation which are accompanyed with the hatred of renovation If the tree be bitter and corrupt all the influences and showrs of heaven cannot make the fruit good When these angels had lost the integrity of nature even heaven it self did not help them to it How miserable lastly is he who hath no better fountain than corrupted nature for the issuing forth of all his services Even the best performances of an unrenewed person cannot be good coming not from a pure heart Phil. 1.11 Eph 2.10 a good conscience and faith unfained they are but dead carcasses embalmed and at the best but hedg-fruit sowre and unsavoury till they who bear them are ingrafted into Christ and partake of his life 4. Corrupt nature cares not for the joyes Observ 4. joyned with the holinesse of heaven As soon as these angels had left their first estate of integrity they forsook even that holy though most happy habitation Heaven it selfe was no heaven to them when they became unholy A sinner may not unfitly be compared to a common beggar who had rather live poorly and idly than plentifully in honest imployment How great is the antipathy of corrupt nature to heavenly performances when they will not down though never so sweetened The enmity of sin against God and holinesse is not to be reconcil'd How little are we to wonder that heaven is a place only for the pure in heart and that Christ at the last day will say to the workers of iniquity Mat. 7.23 Job 22.17 Depart from me since they not only in this life say to God Depart from us Job 21.14 but should they be admitted into that habitation of blisse with unholy hearts they would be unwilling there to continue with him Let it be our care to be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light if we expect to have nay to love the joyes thereof 5. Observ 5. How irrationall is every sinner There 's no person in love with any sin but is indeed out of love with his owne happinesse These angels for a meer supposed imaginary happinesse of their own contriving part with the reall blessednesse of enjoying the satisfying presence of the blessed God None can become a divell till first he become a beast A sinner can with no better plea of reason yeeld to any tentation of sin Jud. 16.6 then could Samson to that motion of Delilah Tel me where thy great strength lieth and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee Wicked men are rightly call'd unreasonable 2. Thes 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jud. 10. Psal 49. ult or absur'd such whom no reason will satisfie and brute beasts led with humour and sense against all reason Who that had not laid aside even reason would lose his soul for a trifle a shadow and die as Jonathan said for tasting of a little hony He who accounts it unreasonable to part with the poorest worldly commodity without a valuable consideration much more to exchange a conveyance of a thousand pound per annum for a painted paper is yet much more absur'd in sinning against any command of God which is back'd with the very height of reason both in respect of our duty to the Commander and benefit by the command 6. It s a sin for any even the highest Observat 6. to exempt himselfe from service Angels have their tasks set them by God which they must not leave There 's no creature but hath an allotment of duty Though we cannot be profitable yet must we not be idle God allowes the napkin to none upon whom he hath bestowed a talent nor hath he planted any to cumber the ground and only to be burdens to the earth If wee are all of him we must be all for him It s not consistent with the soveraignty of this great King to suffer any subject within his dominions who will be absolute and not yeeld him his homage nor to his wisdome to make any thing which he intends not to use The first who adventur'd to cease from working was a divel and they who follow him in that sin shall partake with him in the sutable punishments of chains and darknesse It s a singular mercy to have opportunities of service abilities for it and delight in it at the same time It s the priviledg of the glorious angels to be confirmed in their work as well as in their happinesse God never is so angry with any as those whom he turns out of his service 7. The glorifyed are in heaven as in an habitation Observ 7. Luk. 16.9 Joh. 14.2 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 11.10 16 Heb. 13.14 Heb. 4.9 Omnis homo est advena nascendo incola vivendo quia compellitur migrare moriendo Aug. in q. 91. sup Lev. Heaven is in Scripture often set out by expressions importing it to be a place of stability setlement and abode as Everlasting habitations a Fathers house Mansions a building of God an House not made with hands eternall in the heavens A city a city which hath foundations a continuing city a Rest How sutable are fixed and immovable affections to this permanent and stedfast happinesse everything on this side Heaven is transitory The fashion of this world passeth away here we have no continuing city Our bodies are tabernacles and cottages of clay which shortly shall bee blown down by the wind of death * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pelus l. 1. ep 65. yea their falling begins with their very building and this whole world is an habitation which ere long will be
what continuance hath the reflection in the glass if the man who looks into it turn away his face The constant supplies of the spirit of Jesus Christ are the food the fuel of all our graces The best men shew themselves but men if God leave them He who hath set them up must also keep them up It s safer to be humble with one talent then proud with ten yea better to be a humble worm than a proud angel 2. Nothing is so truly base and vile as sin Observat 2. 'T is that which hath no proper being and is below the lowest of all creatures It 's very nature stands in the defection of nature and privation of goodnesse what is it but the deflowring and fall the halting and deformity of the creature So obscure is its extract that there can be no being properly assigned to it as its originall cause It came not from nature as it was but as it was of nothing Sin alone debaseth and disennobleth nature What prodigious folly is it to be patient under it much more to be proud of it what generous princely spirit can contentedly be a servant of servants A slave to sin is guilty of a more unsutable condescention sin alone is the souls degradation We never go below our selves but in sinning against God Omnis elongatio ab altissimo est descensio Parisiens They who glory in sin glory in their shame they who are ashamed of holinesse are ashamed of their glory Sin removes from the highest and therefore it must needs be a descending 3. Observ 3. In defection from God there is an imitation of the divel He was the first who left his first estate Every backslider followes Satan though every one goeth not so farre as hee all decayes in holinesse are steps towards his condition Satans chiefest industry is to pull others after him he loves to have followers and not to be sinfull and miserable alone if he can make men to decline in grace Luk. 22.31 he can be contented to let them thrive in the world he cares for no plunder but that of jewels and being the greatest enemy he studies to deprive us of our greatest happinesse Christians of all decayes take heed of those that are spirituall Better to lose thy gold then to lose thy God to be turned out of thy house then to part with holinesse and heaven He that loseth all the comforts in the world can but be a beggar but he who forsakes God becomes a divell Of this largely before 4. Observ 4. 'T is hard to be high and not to be high-minded to be adorn'd with any excellencies and not unduly to reflect upon them It s a naturall evill to make our selves the centers of our own perfections 2 King 18.33 34 45. Rom. 10.3 Phil. 3.6 9. Ezek. 38.2 6. to stay and rest in our excellencies Men of power are apt to deify their owne strength men of morality to advance their own righteousnesse and to rely on their merits men of wisdome to set up their own reason How just is it with God to hinder the creature from inchroaching upon his owne prerogative to make those low Humiliatio humilitatis mater Psal 9.19 20. who otherwise would not be lowly and to let them know that they are but men God singles out such to be the most notable monuments of his justice and their own folly who vie with him in divine prerogatives Act. 12.23 If God hath appointed that we should go out of our selves unto things below for a vitall subsistence to bread for food to clothes for warmth c. much more will he have us to go out of our selves for a blessed and happy subsistence more being required unto blessednesse then unto life Psal 10.14 Zeph. 3.12 Hos 2.7 It 's the poor who commits himselfe to God Nothing will make us seek for help above our selves without an apprehension of weaknesse in our selves The vine the ivine the hop the woodbind are taught by nature to cling and to wind about stronger trees Men commit themselves to the sea naked and do not load themselves with gold treasure and rich apparel How fearfull should poor worms be of that sin which God allowed not in angels and whereby they became divels Let us be cloathed with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 The adorned with this grace are only meet to attend upon the King of Glory Quis sicut Deus even an Archangel Michael hath humility imprinted on his name Humility is the ornament of angels and pride the deformity of divels If heaven will not keep a proud angel it will keep out a proud soul In all conditions of highnesse we should take heed of highmindednesse As 1. in the highnesse of worldly advancements poverty and disgrace are the food of humility Riches and honour are the fuel of pride I have read of a bird that is so light and feathery that it alwayes flies with a stone in its mouth lest otherwise the winds should carry it away In high conditions we shall be carryed away with pride unlesse we carefully keep our hearts David and Asa were both lifted up in their outward greatnesse It s hard to walk in slippery places of prosperity and not to slip by pride we commonly most forget God and our selves when he remembers us most 2. In the highnesse of raised endowments abilities and performances It s said of Nazianzen that he was high in his works and lowly in his thoughts a rare temper our very graces and good works not seldome occasion pride I have heard of a man who having kill'd an Elephant with his weapon was himselfe kill'd with the fall thereof And nothing is more ordinary than for high services possibly the conquest of some corruption or tentation to usher in that pride which may hurt the performers Sciendo bona opera nesciamus illa Magna rara virtus manifestam omnibus tuam te solum latere sanctitatem We should know our good works as if we knew them not It 's a rare and noble temper when that worth which all others observe is only hid to him in whom it is How few are there who hide their beautifull endowments by humility as Moses's parents did their beautifull son for safety and with Moses when hee spake with God pull off their shoos and hide their faces Uncover and acknowledge the lownesse the infirmities and cover the beauty and comelinesse of their services When Satan spreads our gifts and graces let us spread our sins our weaknesses before our eyes and so the soul may have its ballast evenly proportioned and on both sides There 's no poyson hurts so dangerously although delightfully as the contemplation of and reflexion on our seeming deservings Scotus dist 6. q. 2. art 2. Scotus calls the sin of the angels Luxuriam spiritualem a kind of spirituall luxury whereby they were too much delighted in their own excellencies It s only a
cast into utter darknesse i. e. without the Kingdome of God which is light and a Kingdom of light In this phrase of utter darknesse according to some is an allusion to the darknesse which God sent upon Egypt Metaphoricè per tenebras scriptura horrendum maerorem designat Cal. in Mat. 8.12 Tenebrae exteriores domesticae luci opponuntur quum antiquitus nocturnae ut plurimum coenae essent quas plurimae faces lampades illustrabant qui ejiciuntur è regno Dei Christus eos dicit extra in tenebras ejici in tenebras Cal. in Mat. 25. Comprativus superlativi est loco ut sit in tenebras extimas Luc. Brug in Mat. 8. Exod. 10.23 that Egyptian darknesse being without the habitations of the Israelites in all which was light Or as Reverend Calvin conceives to the darknesse wherein they are who are excluded in the night time from places in which are suppers or feasts where they set up many lights and lamps or as others to the darknesse of prisons which were oft wont to be without the City Acts 12.10 Whatever the allusion is by this utter darknesse is intended a state of the greatest remotenesse and distance from the light of Gods presence the joy yea the heaven of heaven for as Brugensis well notes by the comparative note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outer may well be intented the superlative utmost or most without furthest or most distant from the Kingdom of light as 1 Cor. 13.13 the greater i. e. the greatest of these is charity This eternall darknesse which stands in the withdrawing of the light of Gods pleased and pleasing countenance wherein is fulnesse of joyes and pleasures for evermore is that here by the Apostle intended to be the portion of these angels in their prison of hell And most fitly is this their wofull estate of separation from Gods presence called darknesse because as the though but deficient cause of darknesse is the departure of the light so the separation from the favourable presence of God is the greatest misery of the damned as the face and comfortable presence of God is the heaven of heavens so absence from God is the hell of hell It is not heaven to be in the place of heaven but to be with God in heaven and it is not hell to be in hell but to be without Gods loving and gracious presence in heaven The misery of which condition of darknesse or separation from Gods presence is in the second place to be explained and it may be amplified two wayes 1 Considering from what this separation shall be 2 How the misery thereof shall be further heightned 1 There shal be a separation from the favorable presence of God which is 1 A full good comprehending all good that wherein all good things are assembled and combined He who hath him who is all things must needs have all things To him there can be made no addition of goodness in parting with him the damned part with whatsoever is good 2 A filling satisfying good enough and sufficient for himself and that which can fill the Ocean can undoubtedly fill the vessell God satisfies all the wants and exigences of the soul My God shall supply all your wants The favour of God is better then life The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want Every good besides God is but of a limited nature answering but to this or that exigency but one God answers to every want Bread relieves hunger water thirst cloaths nakednesse mony poverty God relieves in every want Summa mors animae est alienatio à vita Dei in aeternitate supplicii Aug. lib. 6. de civ Dei c. 12. and hath infinitely more oyl then we have vessels Deservedly therefore is this punishment of loss frequently expressed in the Scripture as the great woe of the damned Matth. 7.23 Luke 13.27 Mat. 25.10 41. The throne of iniquity shall have no fellowship with God Psalm 94.20 Needs must hell be a dismal dungeon where the sunshine of Gods presence never comes But 2. The misery of the loss of this blessed presence of God is further heightned aggravated and made intolerably tormenting Considering 1. The damned in hell know the incomparable worth of what they have lost Their Understandings are cleer though they are not changed Their knowledg increaseth their sorrow How happy comparatively would they be if their Understandings were taken from them if they could but put out their eyes Though they see not God so fully and cleerly as do the blessed in heaven yet they see enough of him to rend and grinde them with inexpressible vexation for losing him A company of wretched beggars who in a dark night stand at the door of that house where there is a Wedding feast though they see not the stately preparations the furnished tables the costly ornaments of the married Couple and Guests so fully and clearly and though they hear not the sweet Musick within so distinctly as do the guests themselves who sit at table yet by lights in the windows the voices of mirth and Musicians with the confused sound of instruments the passage to and fro of attendants with their chear they cannot but observe enough to think themselves being excluded very miserable in comparison of those who are attended at the table and in the midst of all their mirth and plenty Christ makes the Application Luke 13.25.28 Where he speaks of those who stand without and knock c. and shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and they themselves thrust out The rich man sees Abraham and Lazarus but a farr off see them he must though he would not get to them he must not though he would never so fain And certainly the large vessel of an Angels understanding holds more matter of this torment then can more shallow capacities 2. These damned spirits remember that this loss of the presence of God was a rod of their own making a woe of their own most wilfull procuring The door which shuts them out of heaven was pull'd to with their own hands How much will it sharpen the edg of their horror to consider that none forced them to sin that the forsaking of God was the choice of their own will that they had no enemies but themselves The treasures of glory were not stollen from them but voluntarily dissipated and prodigally mis-spent with their own hands How easily could they have prevented that losse which now is irreparable and have kept their foot out of that snare out of which they can never wind themselves The arrow which falls down upon their heads was shot up with their own hands and as it s said of birdlime that it s made of the dung of birds the destruction which hath caught them was spun out of their own bowels 3. They consider how poor a trifle and contemptible a toy it was for which they have lost the blessed presence of God How doth
nemo videbit in judicio quia filius hominis est ut possit ab impiis videri August lib. 1. de trin cap. 13. Talis apparebit judex qualis possit videri ab iis quos coronaturus ab iis quos damnaturus est Prosp The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son he hath given him authority to execute judgment Joh. 5.22.27 And all power is given him in heaven and in earth 3. By his former estate of humiliation As he emptyed and humbled himself according to his humane nature so in that hee is to be exalted He humbled himselfe and became obedient to death c wherefore God hath highly exalted him Phil. 2.9 And as Christ in his humane nature was unjustly judged so in that nature shall he justly judge Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and he shall appear the second time without sin Heb. 9.28 4. By reason of the necessity of the visibility of the Judge and judiciall proceedings at the last day He executes judgement because he is the Son of man Joh 5.27 and every eye shall see him The Judge is to be beheld and heard by the Judged God will judge the world by that man c. In respect of the judiciall process a man must be our Judge for God is invisible and the Judge shall so appear as to be seen both of those whom he shall crown and of those whom he shall condemn Nor can it be but that God will be the more justified and men without all excuse having one who is bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh to be judge between God and them Notwithstanding all which immediate audible visible administration of the last judgement by the second Person this judgement belongs to the other Persons in Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Authority Dominion and judiciary power though to the Son only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of dispensation and office and externall exercise 2. For the second viz. Wherein the Judge makes the day of Judgement great 1. He makes it a great day 1. As he is considered in himselfe 2. As he is attended and accompanied by others 1. As we consider him in himselfe and that either 1. as God or 2. man 1. As God He who shall be the Judge is the mighty God It is Jehovah to whom every knee shall 〈◊〉 Isai 45. Hence the Apostle cals the appearance of this Judg who is God glorious in those words Tit. 2.13 The glorious appearing of the great God If the great God be Judge the day of Judgement must needs be a great day How great is the day of an earthly Judges appearance a man a worme dust and ashes one who though hee can give yet cannot avoid the sentence of death and one who hath scarce a faint reflection of that majesty with which this King of glory is adorned think then and yet thoughts can never reach it what it is for God before whom the whole world though full of Judges is as nothing and less then nothing and vanity to come to judge the word God is a judge Omnipotent and therefore one whose voice as the living who are distanced so many thousands of miles shall hear and obey so even the dead shall hear being quickned and shall at his beck come and stand before his judgment seat He shall come with great power 2 Thes 7.9 and the wicked shall be punish'd with everlasting destruction from the glory of his power Nor shall he use the ministry of Angels for necessity but Majesty God is an omniscient Judg infinitely onely wise his eyes are clearer then ten thousand suns one who will in the day wherein the brightnesse of his omniscience shall shine in its full lustre bring every hidden work to light and tell to all as the woman of Samaria said all that ever they did one who doth not as earthly Judges onely know what to ask but what every one will answer who wants no witnesses nor needs he that any should testifie of man for he knows what is in man God is a true and a just Judge The Apostle 2 Tim 4.8 cals him The Lord the righteous Judge hee will render to every one according to his works The Apostle proves the righteousnesse of God from his judging the world Rom. 3.6 and Abrahams question asserts it strongly Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Other Judges may do righteously but God cannot do otherwise The wils of other Judges must be regulated by righteousnesse but so righteous is God that righteousnesse it selfe is regulated by his will which is the root and rule of all righteousnesse 2. This Judge shall make the day great as he is Man greatly amazing and dismaying must his appearance as Judge in mans nature needs be to sinners who have denyed him persecuted crucifyed and put him to an open shame all whose designes have been to crush and keep him under With what horror shall the Jews then see their delusion who would not heretofore beleive him to be the Messiah Needs must they and others who would not have this man to reign over them to whom he was a stumbling stone when low and small contemptible in his former discoveries upon earth now find and feel him a rock to fall upon them from heaven and crush them to powder Greatly comforting and refreshing must the appearance of this man be to beleevers who shall not onely behold him to be the great Judge of the whole world who hath taken upon him their nature but who hath also given to them his spirit whereby through faith they are mystically united unto him as their head their husband and upon whom they have fixed all their hopes and expectations of happinesse for and with whom they have so long suffered from the world whom they look upon as their treasure their portion and for whose coming they have so long'd and sigh'd and groan'd In a word How greatly glorious shall his appearance in our nature be both to good and bad when in it he shall be deck'd and adorn'd with Majesty and clothed with unspeakeable glory above all the Angels he being to come in the glory of his father Mat. 16.27 with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 The glory of a thousand Suns made into one will be but as sack cloth to that wherein Christ shall appear in mans nature that great day The glory of the Sun scatters the clouds but from the glory of Christs face the very earth and heaven shall flie away Rev. 20.11 The beames of his glory shall dazzel the eyes of sinners and delight the eyes of Saints The wicked shall be punish'd with everlasting destruction from his presence and the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 and when his glory shall he revealed the Saints shall be glad with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4.13 2. The Judge shall make this day of judgement great considering him not
the generall are persons of an holy conversation To him who ordreth his conversation aright will God shew his salvation Christ will blesse people not by the voice when they shall say they are Christians but by the hands he will handle and feel them And more particularly it is a Good day to those only who have done good to the afflicted friends of Christ No good duty is acceptable to Christ if we reject works of mercy Psal 16.3 2 Thes 1.5 6 7. How chearfully may he look upon the Judge that hath saved the lives of the Judge his wife and children The Saints are tyed to Christ in both relations Phil. 4.5 Si tanta percussione digna est pietas non impensa perpende quid mercatur injustitia illata What can cruelty and oppression expect from Christ at that day but the measure which Zebah and Zalmunnah found from Gideon who wereslain by him for slaying his brethren If the not relieving of the Saints deserve a curse what shall the robbing of them do 6. Observ 6. Great should be the consolation of every friend of Jesus Christ in thinking of this great day It shall be to them a Good day A day of clearing from all undue imputations Moses being charged with ambition in taking too much upon him comforted himself with the thoughts of the morrow Numb 16. 1 Cor. 4.4 To morrow saith he shall the Lord shew who are his When the counsells of the heart shall be manifest every one shall have praise of God When a Christian is call'd a dissembler and an hypocrite he may say at the great day the Lord shall shew whether it be so or no. All slanders defamations shall fall off from the Saints as do drops of water from an oyled post The weight of their glory shall weigh down all their light slight disgraces In all the wants and losses of the faithfull for Christ in this life how great may be their consolation Great shall be their reward in heaven Mat. 5.12 none shall be losers by Christ that are losers for him The day of Judgement shall be the day of restitution of all their comforts God takes away nothing but what he gave and what he will again restore yea for which he will restore a thousand fold This great day should relieve us against the length of our troubles and the slownesse of deliverance Though God asks day for the rewarding of his children yet the greatnesse of the recompences of that Great day shall infinitely more then countervail for the slownesse of the bestowing them In all obscurity and contempt how may the Saints rejoyce to consider that at the great day they shall appear with Christ in glory and shine as the Sun in the Firmament When a Master is absent from a School the Scholers are mingled together those who are of the highest Form are perhaps standing amongst those of the lowest but when the Master comes into the School every Scholer takes his right place so at the last day every one shal have their due place allotted to them though now there be nothing but confussion This great day may comfort Saints in their greatest distances In this world they are oft far from one another Eph. 4.13 both in respect of places opinions affections at this great day they shal all meet yea and in the unity of the faith of the Son of God In all the cruelties and unkindnesses of wicked men It s the duty of the Saints in this life to be patient among it shall be their priviledge hereafter to be freed from the company of the wicked * Quomodo Christus eum damnabit quem propriamors redemit Ambros lib. de Jacob. cap. 6. Quis venturus est judicare te nisi qui venit judicaripro te Aug. in Psal 147. they shall neither be troubled with sin nor sinners nor sorrows the day of Judgement shall be a day of redemption Luk. 21.28 Eph. 4.30 of refreshment Act. 3.19 the thoughts of this day may support them in their absence from Christ At that great day they shall meet with their Redeemer their Spouse their Head how shall not Christ save those from death for whom he hath suffred death Who shall come to judge the Saints but he who came to be judged for them VER 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternall fire THis Verse containes the third example of Gods severe displeasure against the sinners of former times and it is that of Sodom and Gomorrha c. which the Apostle sets down by way of comparison noted in these words Even as the former part or proposition whereof is in this verse and the reddition or second part in the two next following In this example I observe four parts 1. The Places punished Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them 2. The deserving cause of their punishment In like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh 3. The severity of their punishment Suffering the vengeance of eternall fire 4. The end and use of their punishment they are set forth for an example For the first The Places punished Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them EXPLICATION Four things may be by way of Explication inquired into 1. What places these cities of Sodom and Gomorrha were 2. What were these Cities about them 3. Why Sodom and Gomorrha are rather named then those Cities about them 4. Why these places are rather named then the persons and inhabitants thereof 1. For the first concerning the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha to reserve the speaking of their sin and punnishment unto the two following parts of the text Wee read Gen. 13.10 upon occasion of Lots choice of the plain of Jordan for the place of his habitation that all that plain was well watred every where before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha even as the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt * Hoc cave cum Lyrano referas ad proxime dictum de Egypto quasi Aegyptum veâ—it esse feracem maxime qua ex ea venitur ad Segor Id non vult sed cum remotiori jungendum Erat inquam illa Jordanis planicies irrigua qua itur in Segorem Mercerus in locum Hanc Lectionem amplectuntur Musculus Mercerus Pererius Willetus as thou comest unto Zoar. The River Jordan taking beginning from the mountain Libanus and arising say some out of two fountaines call'd Dan and Jor which joyned together make the name Jordan after it hath run saith Pererius about fifteen miles falleth into the lake Samechonitis the same that is call'd the waters of Merome Josh 11.7 then it passing along by Chorazin and Capernaum falleth into the lake Genesareth and so it having continued a current of an hundred miles in length till it falleth
both advanceth the honour of his owne wisdome and provideth for the good of humane society Observ 2. Bona gens mala mens Babylon irrigua fertilis Aegyptus irrigua amaena tamen utra que quasi carcere usus est Dominus ad castigandum Israelem Sic exposcit humani ingenii corruptio ut locis amaenioribus utatur Deus non ad delicias sed ad tristem servitutem castigationem populi sui Musc in Gen. 13. 2. God often affords the richest habitations and the greatest earthly plenty to the greatest sinners Sodom for wealth and fertility is compared to the Garden of God and yet God bestowes it upon the worst of men Egypt and Babylon abounding with waters and plenty are given not onely unto those who are without the Church but who are enemies of the Church In these countries God made his people slaves and captives and truly it's safest for Israel to meet with most woe in places of most wealth God gives his enemies their heaven their portion their all in this life Psal 17.14 they here receive their good things and have all in hand nothing in hope all in possession nothing in future reversion By this distribution of earthly plenty God would have us to see how slightly and meanly he esteems it He throws the best things that this world affords upon the worst and as Daniel speaks the basest of men Who but the Nimrods the Nebuchadnezzars the Alexanders the Caesars have ordinarily been the Lords of the world These have fleeted off the cream of earthly enjoyments when the portion of Saints hath been thin and lean and poor Some observe that Daniel expresseth the Monarchies of the world by sundry sorts of cruel Beasts to shew that as they were gotten by beastly cruelty so enjoyed with brutish sensuality The great Turkish Empire is but as a crust which God throws unto an hungry Dog Luther God sometimes indeed lest riches should be accounted in themselves evill gives them to the good but ordinarily lest they should be accounted the chiefest good he bestowes them upon the bad oftner making them the portion of foes then of sons What is it to receive and not to be received to have nothing from God but what he may give in hatred to have with Sodomites a Garden of God upon earth with the losse of the true Paradise In a word To have no other dewes of blessing but such as may be followed with showrs of fire 3. The plenty of places oft occasions much wickednesse and impiety Commonly where there is no want Observ 3. there is much wantonnesse The ranknesse of the soyl occasions much ranknesse in sin Sodom which was watred with Jordan and fatted with prosperity was a nursery of all impiety She had fulnesse of bread and therefore abundance of idlenesse Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor And they were haughty and committed abomination before me Ezek. 16.49 50. Jesurun waxed fat and kick'd Deuter. 32.15 The drunkards of Ephraim were on the head of the fat valleys Isai 28.1 Wealth unsanctified is but as oyl to nourish the flame of lust How deceitfull an Argument of Gods love is worldly abundance Not the having but the holy improvement of wealth is the distinguishing mercy God cuts his people short of bodily supplies in much love to their souls His Daniels thrive best with the diet of Pulse I never yet heard or read that prosperity occasioned the conversion of one soul Cyrus they say would not suffer his Persians to change a barren soyl for a fruitfull because dainty habitations make dainty inhabitants Rich cities have ever been the stoves of luxury Men have naturall inclinations according to the Genius of their country and it 's rare to see Religion flourish in a rich soyle In the scantinesse of earthly injoyments want restrains and stints our appetites but where there 's abundance and the measure is left to our own discretion we seldome know what moderation means Ilands are the richest soyls and Ilanders are held the most riotous people we in this City lie in the bosome and at the dugs of an indulgent mother we live in as dangerous a place for prosperity as Sodom and as the fattest earth is most slippery for footing we had need of speciall grace at every turn and of that watchfulnesse whereby in the midst of abundance we may not want temperance How hard is it with holy Paul to know how to be full and to abound How holy is that man who can be chast temperate Nullos esse Deos inane Coelum affirmat Selius probatque quod se factum dum negat haec videt beatum Mart. l. 4. Epig. 21. heavenly in Sodom Let us not only be content to want but even pray against those riches which may occasion us being full to deny God Prov. 30.8 9. It 's a most unwise choice with Lot to leave Abraham to inhabite Sodom and an ill exchange to go with Jacob from Bethel the house of God to Bethlehem though an house of bread and plenty They who for worldly advantages betake themselvs to places only of outward accommodations soon find with Lot the recompence of their inexcusable error How much more commendable was the choice of holy Galeacius who forsook all the wealth and honours of Italy to enjoy God in the purity of his ordinances in a poor Geneva It 's much better to travell to Zion through the valley of Baca then to pitch our tents in the Plains of Sodom 4. Observ 4. Sinners are not better'd by premonition They commonly remaine unreformed notwithstanding the bitter fore-tastes of judgments How soon hath Sodom forgot that shee was spoyled and wasted by Chedorlaomer and the other Kings But sinners grow worse by afflictions as water grows more cold after an heating If that wicked City had been warned by the sword it had escaped the fire But now this visitation hath not made ten good men in those five cities And as they leave not sinning so God leaves not plaguing them but still follows them with a succession of judgements There 's no greater sign of finall overthrow then a mis-improving of judgements Oh that the time which we spend in an impatient fretfulnesse under them because they are so great we would more profitably imploy in a humble mourning for our unprofitableness under them lest they be the forerunners of greater 5. The greatest Observ 5. the strongest Cities cannot keep off judgement Nor are they shot-proof against the arrowes of vengeance Great sins will overturn the foundations of Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them Nothing can defend where Gods justice will strike as there is nothing can offend where his goodnesse will preserve The height of a Cities proud Towers may hold the earth in awe but they cannot threaten heaven and the closer they presse to the seat of God the nearer they lie to his lightning The bars of our gates cannot keep