them in these a little before he was to be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no When one told him that if he truly repented he should surely not perish he brake out into this speech Nay if your Christ be so easie to be intreated indeed as you say then I defie him and care not for him Horrible blasphemy desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it The next degree of impiety is when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning because he with whom they have to do is a long-suffering God A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But let such fear and tremble at what followeth Though a sinner doth evil Eccles 8 11 12 13. an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance as in the parable Behold these three years I come seeking Luke 13. 7. fruit on this fig-tree and finde none Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience as in the Canticles Open to me for my head is filled with Cantic 5. 2. dew and my locks with the drops of the night Take we heed of sleighting that which God and Christ value Know and consider that patience may be tired that however the Lord be long-suffering yet he will not suffer for ever but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou Jerem. 15. 6. art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting EXERCITATION 3. Exerc. 3. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end Joh. 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect § 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause making use of the generical term have it Abundant in goodness I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation and to reade it Abundant in bounty because the word as Zanchy and others have observed most properly signifieth that kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat benignitatem seu liberalem beneficentiam Zanch. de Natur Dei l. 1. câ— 18. Vide Fulleri miscellan lib. 1. c. 8. goodness which we call Bounty or Benignity and which maketh a fourth branch This God is abundant in witness the greatest of his gifts by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactours I shall instance in some of the chief He bestoweth upon us First His son to free us from hell God Joh. 3. 16. so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son He did not grant him upon Non concessit sed purissime dedit Stella the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures but freely gave him unasked not a servant but a Son not an adopted son such as we are but a begotten begotten not as Saints are of his Jam. 1. 18. will by the word of truth but of his Nature he himself being the Word and the Truth not one of many but an onely Son thus begotten and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance but that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world Majesty and love have been thought Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majâ—stas amoâ— hardly compatible Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love and that to the world the undeserving yea ill-deserving world of mankinde Herein is love saith St John elsewhere let me say herein is bounty not that we loved 1 Joh. 4. 10. God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Loved and So loved that particle is most emphatical and noteth the transcendency of a thing either good or evil Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus Him that hath so 1 Cor. 5. 3. done this deed so impudently so abominably so unchristianly The officers being astonied at our Saviours doctrine cried out Never man spake so as Joh. 7. 46. this man so excellently so powerfully so incomparably Here God so loved the world that is so freely so infinitely so unspeakably The Apostle himself who had been rapt up to the third heaven and there heard things not to be uttered wanteth words when he cometh to utter this and useth an accumulation of many because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently Not content to have styled it love mercie grace as not having yet said enough he calleth it great love glorious grace rich mercy yea exceeding riches Ephes 2. 4 5 7. of his glorious and mercifull grace in his second chapter to the Ephesians § 2. Secondly His Spirit to fit us for heaven Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. him The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit and that real holiness Joh. 3. 5. 6. concerning which the Apostle saith without it no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. So preparing us for that place which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare Joh. 14. 2 3. for us A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there The Spirit by enabling us hereunto first bringeth heaven into the soul then conducteth the soul to it Whence it is that Nehemiah recording the acts of Gods bounty to Israel reckoneth this as one of the principal Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct Nehem. 9. 20. them Thirdly His Angels to guard us on earth After David had said The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that Psal 34. 7 8. fear him and delivereth them he addeth immediately O taste and see that the Lord is good herein good in bestowing such a guard upon us It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahashuerus to make Haman the favourite his attendant as he rode through the streets Lo here a
far greater the holy Angels those favourites in the Court of heaven are all ministring spirits Hebr. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation A task which they perform without grudging although in themselves more noble creatures then we are both out of love to their younger brethren of whom they have a most tender care and out of obedience to God their Father and ours Psal 91. 11. Mittis Unigenitum immittis Spiritum nè quid vacet in coelestibus ab opere solicituelinis Angelos mittis in ministerium who hath given them charge so to do as it is in the Psalm He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Lay this to the former as Bernard did and we shall see the whole heaven at work for our preservation God the Father sending his Son to redeem us the Fathet and Son sending their Spirit to guide us the Father Son and Spirit sending their Angels to minister for us O taste and see that the Lord is good bountifully good § 3. Fourthly Large provisions in the way We consist of body and soul he provideth plentifully for both giving 1. Tim. 6. 17. us richly all things to enjoy as one Apostle phraseth it yea as another giving unto Jam. 1. 5. all men liberally and not upbraiding Whereas ordinary benefactours by reason of their stinted abilities give either but a few things or to a few persons onely or if to many but sparingly and are besides apt to corrupt and blemish their good turns by casting them in the Authores pereunt garrulitate sui Martial receivers teeth and making their boast continually of them all these are here removed from God whilest he is said to give unto all men and that liberally yea and so as not to upbraid although whatever men receive yea whatever they are sin excepted be wholly his That of the Psalmist is very emphatical and well deserveth our consideration The earth is the Lords Psal 24. 1. and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein The house wherein a man dwelleth may be his landlords but the furniture his own Here we are told that not the earth onely but the fulness of it is the Lords Both house and furniture may be anothers but he that inhabiteth it his own man Here they that dwell therein are the Lords the inhabitants themselves as the room and the stuff To which agreeth that of St Paul ye are not your own 1 Cor. 6. 19. and that of an ancient writer cited by Heinsius Our very being is none of Nostrum non est quod sumus multò minùs quod habemus ours much less the things we have in possession As for spiritual provisions his people use not to be scanted in them Another particular reckoned up by Nehemiah when he set himself to celebrate the acts of divine bounty towards Israel◠was the institution of Ordinances Thou camest down also saith Nehem. 9. 13. 14. he speaking to God upon mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gavest them right judgements and true laws good statutes and commandements and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath One way whereby great Princes are wont to manifest their royal bounty is the making of great feasts as Ahasuerus and Solomon did we may safely allude to the Prophets expression though the place have another meaning and say of the Church in that respect In this mountain doth the Lord of hosts make Isai 25. 6. unto all people a feast of fat things of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Good Sermons and Prayers are like well refined wines and as Christ himself is a Saviour full of merits so is his Gospel a doctrine full of promises his Supper a Sacrament full of mysteries his Sabbath a day full of opportunities all his Ordinances fat things full of marrow § 4. Fifthly Full satisfaction at our journeys end Now indeed as the natural so the spiritual eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the spiritual ear with hearing because we see but as through a 1 Cor. 13. 12. glass darkly not face to face and know but in part that of which we hear Then shall eye and ear have enough when we shall see God as he is and hear Christ 1 Joh. 3. 2. saying Come ye blessed of my Father inherit Matth. 25. 34. the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Here although beleeving souls have fellowship with Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in patria God in Christ sufficient to stay their stomachs as at a breakfast yet that degree of fruition is wanting which should satiate them fully as at a feast beyond that of Ordinances What shall there be enjoyed will replenish every chink of rational appetites the first Truth filling up our understandings and the chief Good our wills to the very brim Then shall that be to the utmost verified which David once said of regenerate persons They shall be abundantly Psal 36. 8. 9. satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light § 5. For improvement hereof As our Saviour once said Be ye mercifull so Be ye bountifull let me say as your father is bountifull St Paul having praised the Macedonians for their deep poverty abounding unto the riches of their liberality urgeth the grace and benignity of Christ as a principal motive to excite his Corinthians to a like exercise of bounty towards the poor Saints at Jerusalem For ye know saith 2 Cor. 8. 2 9. he the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be-rich More especially let us all learn from hence not to deal niggardly with God himself but to think no pains too great no expence too much no time too long that is spent in his service Not as the manner of some is who so manage the profession of religion as if their main care and study were how to serve him with most ease and to come off with the cheapest performances David Paul and Luther were men of another spirit The first as he delighted in the commemoration of divine bounty to him saying I will Psal 13. 6. sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me And again Return Psal 116. 7. unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee so he was no niggard in his returns but ever and anon enquiring what he should do to testifie his thankfulness What shall I Psal 116. 12. render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And as providence offered occasion laying himself out for God witness that his resolution testified to
faithfull and true witness when speaking of those whom the Father had given him he uttered that remarkable assertion This John 17. 3. is life eternall that they may know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Also when he made his followers that promise of rest Come unto me all ye that labour Matth. 11. 28 29. and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you c. and ye shall finde rest to your souls God would not rest from his works of creation till man was framed Man cannot rest from his longing desires of indigence till God be enjoyed Now since the fall God is not to be enjoyed but in and through a Mediatour Therefore when any man closeth with Christ and not till then he may say with the Psalmist Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee That which the King of Saints testified will be most readily attested by all his loyall subjects Enquire of such as are yet militant upon earth wherein their happiness consists the answer will be in their having fellowship with 1 John 1. 3. the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Let those who are triumphant be asked what it is that renders their heaven so glorious their glory so incomprehensible ye shall have no other account but this it is because they have now attained a complete fruition of that alsufficient alsatisfying ever-blessed and ever-blessing object God in Christ § 4. Nor can it easily be denied by such as consider that in this object there is found a threefold fulness opposite to the threefold vanity in the creatures which I discoursed of before First a fulness of utility opposite to their unprofitableness Infinite goodness extends it self to all cases and exigents without being limited to particulars as created bonity is Hence in the Scripture God and Christ are compared to things most extensive in their use and of most universall concernment Philosophers look at the Sun as an universal cause Christ is called the Sun of Malac. 4. 2. righteousness by the Prophet and The Psal 84. 11. Lord God saith the Psalmist is a Sun and shield In a Tree the root beareth the branches and the branches fruit Christ is both root and branch A root in Isaiah In that day shall there be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of Isa 11. 10. the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious A branch in Zechariah Behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch In a building the Zech. 3. 8. foundation and corner-stone are most considerable in point of use Christ is both Thus saith the Lord God behold I Isa 28. 16. lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a pretious corner-stone a sure foundation In military affairs what more usefull for offence then the sword for defence then the shield The Lord is both Happy art thou O Israel who is like Deut. 33. 29. unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thine excellency In civill commerce money is of most generall use for the acquiring of what men need of which Solomon therefore saith It answereth all Eccles. 10. 19. Quicquid nummis prasentibus opta veniet clausum possidet arca Jovem Petron. Arbit things whence it is that worldlings look at a full chest as having a kinde of Deity in it able to grant them whatsoever their hearts desire of God in Christ it is most true He onely can answer all the desires all the necessities of his people and is accordingly said to be their silver and gold as Junius renders the place in Job To him a soul may not onely say as Thomas did My Job 22. 25. Erit Omnipotens lectissimum aurum tuum argentum viréâ—que tibi Lord and my God but as another Deus meus omnia My God and my all § 5. Secondly a fulness of truth and faithfulness opposite to their deceit The creatures do not cannot perform whatsoever they promise but are like deceitfull brooks frustrating the thirsty travellers expectation We reade of Semiramis that she caused this Motto to be engraven upon her tomb If any King stand in need of money let him break open this monument Darius having perused the inscription ransacks the sepulchre finds nothing within but another writing to this effect Hadst thou not been unsatiably covetous thou wouldest never have invaded a monument of the dead Such are all the things of this world They delude us with many a promising Motto as if they would give us hearts ease but when we come to look within instead of contentment afford us nothing but conviction of our folly in expecting satisfaction from them With God it is otherwise He is faithfull that promised saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 23. And again Faithfull is he that 1 Thess 5. 24. calleth you who also will do it I am the way saith Christ of himself the truth John 14. 6. and the life In him beleevers finde not less but more then ever they looked for and when they come to enjoy him completely are enforced to cry out as the Queen of Sheba did The half was 1 Kings 10. 7. not told me § 6. Thirdly a fulness of unchangeableness opposite to their inconstancy This God challengeth to himself I am Malac. 3. 6. the Lord I change not And Jesus Christ is said to be the same yesterday and to day Heb. 13. 8. and for ever Another Apostle speaking of the father of lights from whom descends James 1. 17. every good and perfect gift therein alluding as Heinsius conceives to the Heinsius in locum High Preist his Urim and Thummim that is lights and perfections to Urim in these words father of lights to Thummim in these Perfect gift tells us that with him is no variableness neither Exerc. 3. shadow of turning The metaphor is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pareus in loc thought by some to be borrowed from the art of painting wherein pictures are first rudely shadowed then drawn to the life In the creatures we finde a full draught and lively pourtraiture of mutability but not so much as the rudiments of a draught as the least line or shadow of it in God and Christ EXERCITATION 3. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein § 1. FRom that patheticall passage in one of the Psalms Whom have Psalm 73. 25 26. I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is
Christ his Divinity shining as fire his Humanity darkening as a cloud yet but one person As that pillar departed not from them by day or by night all the while they travelled in the wilderness So whilest the Churches pilgrimage lasts in this world the safe conduct of Christ by his Spirit and Ordinances shall be continued But as at their entrance into Canaan a type of heaven the pillar is thought to have been removed because not mentioned in the sequele of the story and because when Israel passed over Jordan we reade not of the pillar but the Ark going before them So when the Church shall arrive at heaven her resting place the mediatory conduct of Christ is to cease and the Ordinances which are here of use to disappear § 2. Mean while this infallible counsel of God hath been most effectually administred by the Prophets and Apostles especially by Christ himself whose words were such as led directly to everlasting bliss Insomuch as when Jesus said to the twelve will John 6. 67 68. ye also go away Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life As if he had said Go whither we will to other teachers we shall be sure not to meet with words of eternal life any where else Such are proper to Christs school taught onely by himself and his under-officers whereof one hath left this profession upon record That which we have 1 John 1. 3. seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ So the Disciple whom Jesus loved in his first epistle Another this I take you to record this day Act. 20. 26 27. that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God So Paul in his valedictory speech to the Elders of Ephesus Which he could not have said had not the doctrine he preached among them been sufficient to have led all his hearers to the fruition of God in Christ and therein to complete happiness That by the counsel of God he intended to decipher Christian Religion is manifest because that was the sum of all his ministery as we finde him declaring elsewhere Having obtained help of Act. 2â— 22 27. God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead c. § 3. Counsel it is and therefore styled sometimes mystery and that a great one Without controversie great is 1 Tim. 3. 16. the mystery of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion as others render it meaning the Christian an epitome whereof followeth God manifest in the flesh and 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. sometimes wisdome and that not among punies and novices who see not into the depth of things but among them that are perfect Sometimes The wisdome of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Maâ—t Expos fidei God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which made an ancient writer affirm that the mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our understanding above the discourse of humane reason above all that any creature can comprehend Yea it will be found the Counsel of God himself and not of man if we do but consider a few of its materials viz. principles above the reach of mans wit A resurrection of the dead a mysticall union of all beleevers among themselves and to their head A Trinity of persons in one Essence two Natures in one person God reconciled to men by the bloud men to God by the spirit of Christ with others of the like elevation Doctrines contrary to the bent of mans will As that of original sin which represents him to himself as a childe of wrath worthy before he see the light of being cast into outer darkness And that of self-deniall which taketh him off from confidence in his own abilities whereas proud Nature challengeth a self-sufficiency and will hardly be content with less Lastly Promises and threatnings beyond the line of humane motives and dissuasives exhibiting to the sons of men not temporal rewards and punishments onely but the gift of eternal life and the vengeance of eternal fire Things which not any of the most knowing Law-givers and Princes of this world did or could hold forth till the onely wise God was pleased to reveal and urge them in the sacred authentick records of Christianity § 4. Now Christian Religion promotes our guidance to the fruition we treat of these two ways viz. by discovering God in Christ and by uniting to him the former it performeth as Christian the latter as Religion First as Christian it discovers God in Christ which other Religions do not No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the John 1. 18. Father he hath declared him So the Evangelist or as others think the Baptist All things are of God who hath reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ c. So the Apostle The poor Pagan knoweth neither God nor Christ but ignorantly turneth the truth of God into a lie worshipping creatures and in stead of Christ is directed by his Theology to the service of a middle sort of divine powers called Daemons and See M. Mede his Apostasie of the latter times pag. 9 10 sequent looked at as Mediatours between the celestial Sovereign Gods whom the Gentiles worship and mortal men The modern Jew acknowledgeth the true God of his fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob but owneth not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ yea disowneth him so far as not onely to expect another Messias but if writers deceive us not to blaspheme and curse him and his followers The deluded Mahometan confesseth one God the Creatour of heaven and earth yea conceiveth so well of the Lord Jesus as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ yet will neither acknowledge his satisfaction upon which our salvation is founded nor his Divinity by vertue whereof that satisfaction is meritorious Whereas the true and pious Christian is by his Religion taught to say with Paul in direct opposition to all the three forementioned sects We 1 Cor. 8. v. 4 5 6. know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one For though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father of whom
are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him § 5. Secondly as Religion a term which both Austine and Lactantius derive à religando because by the true Religion improved mens souls are tied and fastened to the supreme Being it unites us to God and to Christ The graces of union are especially Faith and Love Christian Religion is made up of these two Kiss the Son saith David Psal 2. 12. which implyeth the affection of love Blessed are all they that put their trust in him which holds forth an expression of faith Hold fast the form of sound 2 Tim. 1. 13. words saith Paul which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Love is the fulfilling of the Law faith the fulfilling of the Gospel both the fulfilling of Christian Religion These two pipes being rightly laid from a Christians soul to the fountain of living waters fetch in from thence a dayly supply of such grace as will certainly end in a fulness of glory whereas worldlings all the pipes of whose spirits are laid to cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water must needs continue empty still and for want of Christ who is not seen but by those two eyes nor embraced but by those two arms fall short of happiness how eminent soever they may be in the pursuit of by-ways Thus to discover and to unite are acts of prerogative not communicable to other professions For to maintain as some do that a man may be saved in an ordinary course I meddle not with extraordinary dispensations but leave the secrets of God to himself by any Religion whatsoever provided he live according to the principles of it is to turn the whole world into an Eden and to finde a Tree of life in every garden as well as in the paradise of God EXERCITATION 2. The insufficiency of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshiped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in Natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks § 1. IT hath appeared already in part by what hath been hitherto discoursed that as the other Patriarchs sheaves made obeisance to Josephs so other Religions must bow down to Christianity by name those three grand competitours Paganisme Judaisme and Mahometisme as also those other leading books by name the Talmud the Alcoran and the much applauded writings of heathen Philosophers must all do homage to the Bible Yet will it not I suppose be unworthy of my pains and the Readers patience further to clear the insufficiency of all exotick doctrines by an argument taken from divine worship to which I proceed by certain steps Exerc. 2. I. Religion is a thing which distinguisheth men from beasts more then reason it self doth For some brute beasts have appearances of reason none of Religion Man is a creature addicted to Religion may perhaps be found as true a definition as that which is commonly received Man is a living creature indued with reason II. Some kinde of Deity is acknowledged every where throughout the world and wherever a Deity is acknowledged some kinde of worship is observed Should a Synode of mere Philosophers be convented to consult about the matters of God I make no question but in the issue of their debates they would pronounce one Anathema against Atheisme and another against Irreligion Among the Romanes Parcus Deorum cultor infrequens Horat. lib. 1. Ode 34. to worship sparingly was accounted the next door to being an Atheist III. None but the true God can discover what the true worship of God is As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper Desine cur nemo videat sine Numine Numen Mirari Solem quis sine sole videt light A million of torches cannot shew us the Sun so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is or what worship he expects without divine and supernatural revelation from himself § 2. IV. Before the settling of Christianity and spreading the Gospel throughout the world many every where were unsatisfied concerning the worship they performed and inquisitive after some teacher who might help them therein by his advice This may be gathered not onely from that which was said by the woman of Samaria in that dispute of hers with our John 4. 25. Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui fontem veritatis aperiat c. Marsil Ficinus in vita Platonis Vid. Livium Galan praetar pag. 8. Saviour about worship I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But also by what Ficinus reporteth concerning Plato to wit that being asked by one of his scholars how far forth and how long his precepts were to be obeyed he returned this answer Untill there come a more holy one by whom the fountain of truth shall be opened and whom all may safely follow V. The precepts and practise of such as teach and profess other Religions are inconsistent with those Gospel-rules which Christ and his Apostles have given for the regulating of divine worship Two whereof I shall instance in The first is that which fell from our Saviours own mouth God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Where Spirit in the latter clause seems to stand in opposition partly to the formality of the Jews who did so wholly addict themselves to outward observances in a spiritless way as to give our Saviour occasion of saying well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me In vain do they worship Mark 7. 6 7. me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Partly to the Idolatry of the Gentiles who in stead of tendring service sutable to a spiritual Being worshipped God in and by representations and images of this or that visible creature The word Truth in like manner may probably seem to be opposed partly to the typical worship of the Jews in which there were many resemblances and shadows of things to come as sacrifices incense and other rites the truth whereof was exhibited in Christ and in Gospel-service partly to the perfunctory worship of the Gentiles who for want of Scripture-light framed to themselves sorry forms of devotion which the wisest among them were altogether unsatisfied with yet as knowing no better and being loth to give offence observed them onely for fashions sake so worshipping in shew rather then in truth § 3. Doubtless what Seneca profest in his time was a principle which the most judicious Heathen walked by both in that and the ages foregoing He speaking of their religious observances plainly said A wise man
at that perfection of glory which is also the image of God as David hath it As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness EXERCITATION 5. Exerc. 5. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providentiall dispensations the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects Crosses how to be considered § 1. THe vicissitude of divine dispensations which I am to treat of next is exactly recorded by Solomon saying In the day of prosperity Eccles 7. 14. be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him It is most clear from hence that there is an intermixture of dispensations adverse and prosperous in the course of divine Providence and that we may see much of God therein It will appear in six particulars There are times I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs yet well with the publick which keepeth him from sinking into despondency Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands yet Let him take all said he 2 Sam. 19. 29 30. for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house The woman of Sparta whom we reade of And. Camerar cent 3. pag. 174. in Plutarch being told that all her five sons were slain in the battel but withall that the enemies were worsted and her countreymen victours uttered this Heroick speech Lugeant ergò miserae Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico Let such as are miserable lament I cannot but account my self happy now that my countrey hath had the better II. Wherein a mans personal comforts are multiplied but the Churches misery damps his mirth Nehemiah was much in favour at the king of Persia's Court yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard that the city Nehem. 2. 3. the place of his fathers sepulchres lay waste and the gates thereof were consumed with fire We read of Terentius an orthodox captain under Valens an Arrian Emperour who having done some eminent Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 2. 8. service was willed by the Emperour who intended him a just recompence to ask of him what he would He preferred a petition in behalf of the orthodox Christians that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in Valens displeased tore the petition and threw it away He gathered up the scattered pieces and profest that seeing he could not be heard in the cause of Christ he would make no suit for his own advantage That of Esaias Rejoyce ye with Isa 66. 10 11. Jerusalem c. that ye may suck and be satisfied is both preceptive and argumentative Jerusalem is compared to a nursing mother beleevers to her sucking children If the Nurse be in health the Childe hath cause to rejoyce in that and shall fare the better for it If she be distempered the childe will go near to suck the disease from her § 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity as in Josephs case He had been envyed sold imprisoned His feet were hurt in Psal 105. 18. the stocks the iron entred into his soul Yet afterward Pharaoh giveth him his own Gen. 41. 42 43. ring arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen putteth a gold chain about his neck maketh him ride in the second chariot he had caused the people to cry before him Bow the knee and appointed him Ruler over all the land of Egypt in which height of honour he lived and died IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels of long prosperity as in Jobs case The candle of God had long shined upon his head and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle His children then were about him he had washed his steps with butter and the rock poured him out rivers of oyl His Vers 3 4 5 6 19 20. root was spread by the waters and the dew lay all night upon his branch His glory was fresh in him and his bowe renowned in his hand which are his own expressions Job 29. But ere long his servants are slain with the edge of the sword his castle taken away by the enemy all his children killed at once vvith the fall of an house in vvhich they vvere feasting he himself afflicted in body vexed in spirit grieved by his comforters in a vvord brought from the throne to the dunghil so as to give just occasion to the proverb As poor as Job Fifthly Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns so as a man goes out of one into another in a succession of vicissitudes Thus it fared with Ezechiah After his comming to the Crown for divers years the Lord was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went forth But in the fourteenth year of his reign the tide of prosperity begins to turn Sennacharib comes up against him with a most formidable host and took his fenced cities He betakes himself to prayer and the Lord delivers him by a miracle sending an Angel to destroy one hundred eighty five thousand of his enemies in Chap. 20. 1. c a night But the next news we hear is that Ezechiah was sick unto death yet he dies not but had fifteen years added to his life and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery Yet presently after all this he receives a sad message from thence concerning the loss of all his treasure and the wofull condition of all his posterity See what a strange succession is here after glorious victories comes the loss of his fenced cities and an alarm given to Jerusalem it self After that a miraculous deliverance then a mortal sickness then a cheering sign but e're long a Message of very sad concernment § 3. VI. Wherein pleasure and sorrow joy and grief are so interwoven one with another as a man may seem happy and miserable both at once Jacob is at once scared with hearing of Esau's four hundred men and cheered with the sight of an host of Angels sent to gaurd him He doth at once receive an hurt in the hollow of his thigh and a blessing from the Angel that wrestled with him David at once is hated by Saul and loved by Jonathan Ahashuerus at once enjoys the glory of an absolute Monarch and is sleighted by his own wife Haman at once swims in an ocean of Court-delights and is tormented for the want of Mordechai's knee As one the one side Out of the strong comes sweetness 〈◊〉 Pet. 4. 14. when the spirit of glory and of God rest upon a suffering Saint because he is a Saint and a sufferer so on the other Even in laughter the heart is sorowfull Prov. 14. 13. Medio de fonte leporum Lucret. l.