proud either directly or indirectly 1. Directly when he simply preferreth himself above another 2. Indirectly and interpretatively when he will not submit himself to another to whom he ought to be subject In this last respect as it is pride against man not to be subject to Superiours and Magistrates whom he ought to submit unto which he is enjoyned to do and Rom. 13. 5. that for Conscience sake So also it brancheth it self out in the second place in reference to God 2dly Pride against God is shewed when men will not be subject to God's Will and refuse to hear and obey His Word Then spake all the proud men Jer. 43. 2. saying to Jeremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not said so To these the same Prophet in another place speaketh Hear ye and give ear be not proud for 13. 15. the Lord hath spoken There is another sort of pride also simply against God when a man is proud of his Gifts and Graces or of the performance of duties or any enlargedness therein which of all pride is most devilish O watch thy heart here-against for Satan will be apt to tempt thee lest thou fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the devil be humbled for it and Pray against it For what hast thou that thou hast not received wilt thou then boast or be puffed up with pride as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. But to speak a little more of pride towards men which we should have done before and then to proceed in speaking more fully of pride immediately towards God Pride in reference to men is toward Superiours or Inferiours or Equals 1. Toward Superiours when proud men will not be subject to them 2. Toward Inferiours when they will not behave themselves so towards them as is meet but scorn them and trample upon them 3. Toward Equals when they desire to be or seem to be higher than they This pride is either in heart or in speeches or in outward gesture 1. In the heart then it is called a lifting up of the heart so it is spoken of Amaziah when he had smitten the Edomites â— Chr. 25. 19. then his heart was lifted up So Ezech. 28. 2. of the King of Tyrus because thine heart is lifted up c. 2. In speeches then it is called boasting when a man 's own tongue Prov. 20 6. proclaimeth his own goodness 3. In outward gestures The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes walking and mincing as they go c. Isai 3. 16. To speak a little more of pride against God Oh this pride Some learned men do hold that it was this sin of Pride that did cast the Angels out of Heaven mistaking that place Isai 14. 13 14. which is meant of the King of Babylon The sin of the Angels comprehended pride envy and more too Being an utter falling away from God and that holy standing which God had placed them in especially to minister to man's good So also pride was a great ingredient in the sin of our first Parents though in general it was disobedience the degrees whereof were first infidelity then pride and lastly the disavowing of subjection to God Gen. 2. 16 17. 3. 6 7. by eating the forbidden fruit which they imagined should be the means to attain to a higher degree of blessedness but proved to be the sin that procured their fall Thus we see the rise and original of pride and how odious it is to God and the dreadful consequences of it It made the Angels become Devils and God spared them not but 2 Pet. 2. 4. threw them out of heaven and cast them down to hell and delivered them into Jude 6. chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment So also it cast our first Parents out of Paradise brought upon them and all their posterity sin guiltiness and punishment which three do always follow one upon another all manner of miseries death yea everlasting death and damnation without Christ's merits and God's mercies This is the fruit of pride and yet we are still so wicked and such fools to hug this serpent this viper of pride in our bosomes This was the iniquity of Sodom Pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her c. and they were haughty c. Therefore said the Lord I took them away as I saw good And Ezek. 16. 49 50. still this pride reigns in Sodom's children though God hath revealed His wrath from Heaven against it by such terrible vociferations Pride and arrogancy Rom. 1. 18. Prov. 8. 13. do I hate They that are lifted up with pride fall into the condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. of the Devil A man's pride shall bring him low Pride goeth before destruction Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 18. and a haughty spirit before a fall When pride cometh then cometh shame Only Prov. 11. 2. Prov. 13. 10. Oâ—ad 3. Isai 23. 9. by pride cometh contention The pride of their heart will deceive them when God shall stain the pride of all glory this shall they have for their pride they shall lye Zeph. 2. 10. Dan. 4. 37. down in sorrow Those that walk in pride God is able to abase them and will abase them This made the holy Prophet Jeremiah tell the Jews My soul Jer 3. 17. shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears yet the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek Psal 10. 4. after God God is not in all his thoughts Though their pride testifyeth to their face yet do they not return to the Lord Hosea 7. 10. nor seek him for all this but have their hearts lifted up and their minds Dan. 5. 20. Psal 31. 23. Prov. 15. 25. hardened in pride Though the Lord will plentifully reward the proud doer and will destroy the house of the proud Every one that is proud in heart is abomination to the Lord though hand joyn in hand though he use all outward Prov. 16. 5. means of prevention yet he shall not be unpunished Think upon what God said of Babylon heretofore She hath been proud Jer. 50. 29. 31 32. against the Lord behold I am against thee O thou most proud saith the Lord God of hosts for thy day is come the time that I will visit thee and the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his Cities and it shall devour all round about him Wherein they deal proudly God will be above them Dost Exod 18. 11. thou think to resist God when He sets Himself in battel-array against thee Who can stand before Him when He is angry If he doth but touch the mountains Psal 104. 32. and they smoke Assure thy self thou canst not contend with
Therefore Christ said Mat. 9. 12. the whole have no need of a Physitian c. As long as men think themselves well they will not seek out to a Physitian though then they may have need enough but when they are stricken with sickness The poor sin-sick Soul grieved and weary with the burden of sin comes to Christ the great Physitian Fear God are the words first read Q. But we read that the fearful c. Rev. 21. 8. Shall be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death A. That is spoken of those that faint in their spiritual combates who through carnal fear shall not dare to make profession of the truth or shall deny it Q. What is that fear of God which is here commanded A. 1. To reverence the Majesty and Power of God so as the chief reason of our fear is not any evil that may come to us but the excellent perfection of God 2. When we do most especially fear the offending of God and displeasing Him 3. When we are affected with fear and trembling by beholding the tokens of God's displeasure So Moses said Psal 90. 11. who knoweth the power of Thy wrath according to Thy fear so is Thy wrath Q. What are the special and principal marks of the true fear of God A. 1. Seriously to flee from all those things which are evil in the eyes of God A wise man feareth and departeth from Prov. 14 16. 14. 6. evil By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil 2. If out of Conscience towards God we abstain from those sins which are hidden from the eyes of men and safe enough in regard of man Thou shalt not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling-block Levit. 19. 14. before the blind but shalt fear thy God I am the Lord Now the deaf cannot hear and the blind cannot see any injury when it is done unto them but the fear of God should deter from it So Joseph though he had the importunities Gen. 39. 9. of his Mistress and the opportunity of secrecy yet the fear of God kept him from committing Adultery 3. If we do not only abstain from sins but also hate them and that because God hates them The fear of the Lord Prov. 8. 13. is to hate evil 4. If we are very careful about this thing that we depart not away from Psal 18. 21. God As David said I have kept the laws of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God 5. If we strive not only to abstain from evil but also to do good Eschew 1 Pet. 3. 11. evil and do good seek peace and ensue it Hold fast that which is good abstain 1 Thess 5. 21 22. from all appearance of evil 6. If we fear not men or any other creature so as to deter us from doing our duty Job when he would make a protestation of his uprightness said Did I fear a great multitude or did the Job 31. 34. contempt of families terrifie me that I kept silence c But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and 1 Pet. 3. 14 15. be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled but sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts c. 7. If we use the Name of God and all His holy attributes not lightly but with great reverence These things shew that we truly fear God Thou shalt always fear this glorious and fearful Deut. 28. 58. name The Lord thy God Q. What are the arguments to induce us to the fear of God A. 1. His Almightiness Fear ye not Jer. 5. 22. Me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at My presence which have placed the sand for the bound of thi sea c. Touching Job 37. 23 24. the Almighty we cannot find Him out He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice c. Men do therefore fear Him c. 2. Because of His Kingdom The Lord reigneth let the earth tremble Who Psal 99. 1. Jer. 10. 7. would not fear Thee O King of Nations for to Thee only doth it appertain c. I make a decree that men tremble and fear before God for he is the living God and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion is to the ends Dan. 6. 26. of the earth 3. Because of his powerful governing of all things Isai 25. 1. to 6. 4. Because of His particular and severe judgments against sins My flesh trembleth Psal 119. 120. for fear of thee and I am afraid at Thy judgments The just Lord is in the Habb 3. 1â— middest thereof every morning doth he Zeph. 3. 5. bring his judgments to light he faileth not c. When I heard my belly trembled c. 5. Because of the great and general judgment at the last day If ye call on Eccles 12. 13 14. the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here 1 Pet. 1. 7. in fear 6. Because of His threatnings and the punishments attending thereupon So God said to good King Josiah because thy heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self before the Lord when 2 Chron. 34. 27. thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof c. and hast rent thy clothes and wept before Me I have heard thee saith the Lord. So the repentant thief on the Cross said to the other thief Doest not thou Luk. 23. 40. fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation 7. Because of the benefits and mercies of God there is mercy with thee that Psal 130. 4. 72. 5. thou mayest be feared They shall fear thee as long as the Sun and Moon endure Wicked men say not in their heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth Jer. 5. 24. rain in his season he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest 8. We should fear the Lord because 2 Pet. 1. 3. of all those great and precious promises He hath made to all those that fear Him But of those we have given plentiful instances before Some Sentences more about the fear of God 1. When a good thing is done out of the fear of punishment and not out of the true fear of God it is not well done 2. Why do we fear man when we are placed in the heart and bosom of God and are sure we can never fall away there-hence 3. The fear of God is an especial antidote and preservative against the fear of man 4. Our present fear of God now will bring us everlasting peace rest and security 5. To fear God truly is to omit or neglect nothing willingly which He commandeth 6. In the wayes of the Lord begin with fear and then we shall come to confidence strength and courage 7. He is a
justice and judgment and so opened to him a way that he might run head-long to his own utter ruine and destruction So God confounds his implacable enemies two ways here 1. By hardness of heart which ariseth as we said before when God with-draweth His Grace from a man and leaveth him to himself so as he goeth on from sin to sin and never repenteth to the last gasp And we must esteem of it as a most fearful and terrible judgment of God for when the heart is possessed therewith it becomes so flinty and rebellious that a man will never relent or turn to God This was manifest in Pharaoh for though God sent most grievous plagues upon him and all the Land of Egypt yet would he not submit or humble himself save only for a fit while the hand of God was so heavy upon him for when the hand of God was removed he returned to his former obstinacy wherein he persisted until he was drowned in the red Sea And this judgment of God of hardness of heart is the more fearful because when a man is in the midst of all misery he feels no misery 2. God confounds His enemies as by hardness of heart so by final desperation I say final because all kind of desperation is not evil for a man may despair of himself and of his own power in the matter of Salvation which tends to his everlasting comfort But final desperation is when a man utterly despairs of the pardon of his sins and of everlasting life Examples we have in Saul that slew himself in Achitophel and Judas that hanged themselves c. This sin of desperation is caused thus so many sins as thou committest without repentance so many wounds thou givest to thine own soul and in life or death God will make thee to feel the smart of it and the weight of them all whereby the soul sinks down to the gulph of despair without recovery The sins which thou committest lye at the door of thy heart though thou feel them not as God said unto Cain Gen. 4. 7. sin lyeth at the door and if thou dost not prevent them by speedy and timely repentance God will make thee to feel them once before thou dyest and raise up such terrours in thy Conscience that thou shalt think thy self to be in Hell before thou art there They that were sent from the chief Priests c. to apprehend Christ though He had acknowledged I am He and they were astonished and fell to the ground and He had miraculously healed Joh. 18. 12. Malchus his ear yet for all though they had seen his wonderful power both in word and deed they proceed in malice against Him and bind Him as a Malefactor In this we note what a fearful sin hardness of heart is The danger whereof appears in this that if a man be possessed with it there is nothing that can stay or daunt him in his wicked proceedings no not the powerful words and deeds of our Saviour Himself And indeed among all God's judgments there is none more fearful than this of hardness of heart and yet how rife is it among us even in these our days For it is very evident that the more men are taught the Doctrine of Gods Law and Gospel the more hard and senseless are their hearts like unto an anvil the more it is beaten upon with the iron hammer the harder it is So that that denunciation against the Jews Acts 28. 26 27. is fulfilled in them It is such a terrible judgment of God into which when a man is fallen he feels neither pain nor grief Therefore we have cause with fear and trembling to look into it lest it take such hold of us that we be past all hopes of recovery Sin is a deceitful thing and custom in sin brings hardness of heart therefore read that Heb. 3. 13. and Rom. 2. 5. Let us bewail and be humbled for our hardness of heart whereby we are hindered from knowing and acknowledging God aright and from discerning His glory and Majesty from acknowledging God's judgments or our own sins dreaming we are safe from God's vengeance and such perils and miseries which arise from sin whereas all those out of Christ and in this estate have nothing stands between them and vengeance EXERCITATION THE TENTH Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holiness to the Lord. Whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath-day he shall surely be put to death Wherefore the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh He rested Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy HEre we have the Commandment of God for the strict observation of the Sabbath-day No one Commandment so often iterated or so much pressed This Commandment requireth at the hand of every man one day of seven in every week to be set a-part unto a holy rest and requireth all persons to separate themselves from their ordinary labour and all other exercises to God's Service alone on that day that so being severed from their worldly businesses and all the works of their Labours and Callings concerning this Nehem. 13. 15. 22. life they may wholly attend to the Worship of God alone wholly to separate themselves to the Worship and Service of God that they may with more freedom of Spirit perform the same If Adam in his perfection had need of this holy day as it was first enjoyned in the state of innocency much more Gen. 2. 2 3. have we To teach man from time to time on the Sabbath-day to withdraw himself from the cares and labours of this life to apply himself in freedom and tranquillity of mind to the meditations and actions of a spiritual life Q. But some will say this fourth Commandment is ceremonial and so it is taken away by the death of Christ A. I answer No but it is constantly and perpetually to be observed 1. For it is placed in the number of the ten Commandments which are perpetual otherwise the Moral Law should consist but of nine which is contrary to God's Word And He declared unto Deut. 4. 13. you His covenant which He commanded you to perform even ten Commandments 2. Because this fourth Commandment among the rest and in the middle of them as a Diamond in a ring was written
punishment did grow from the fall of our first Parents The punishment of sin which we now speak of is the wrath and curse of God by whose just sentence man is delivered over for his sin into the power both of bodily and spiritual â—eath begun here and to be accomâ—lished hereafter Bodily death is the separation of the â—ul from the body with all personal â—iseries and evils that attend thereon â—â— make way thereunto Spiritual death is the final separation â—f both soul and body from God together with spiritual bondage and all â—re-runners of damnation Or more particularly All the misery â—f man God in this one word Death â—â—th comprehended In the day thou Gen. 2. 17. â—â—est of the tree of knowledg of good and â—â—il thou shalt dye There are four degrees of death 1. There is a spiritual death which a privation of spiritual life whereby man is destitute of saving Grace and â— lives only unto sin So Christ of the â—hurch of Sardis I know thy works Rev. 3. â— â—ou hast a name that thou livest but thou â—t dead 2. The second degree is of afflictions â—d miseries So Pharaoh said to Moses â—d Aaron Pray ye to the Lord that He Exod. 10. 17. â—ay remove from me this death only 3. Corporal death which is a privaâ—on of natural life and a resolution of the body into dust and returning oâ— the soul again unto God Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and Eccles 12. 7. the spirit unto God that gave it 4. The fourth degree is everlasting death or the state of the damned Rev. 21. 8. which in respect of corporal death â—â— called the second death But it is the third of these corporal death which â—â— here meant Spiritual death hath three degrees 1. When a man who is alive in regard of corporal or temporal death lies dead in sins She that liveth in pleasures is dead while she liveth And this 1 Tim. 5. 6. is the case of all men by nature whâ— are children of wrath and dead in sinâ— Eph. 2. 1. and trespasses 2. The second degree is the very end of this life when the body is to be layed in the earth and the soul descendâ— to the place of torment 3. The third degree is in the day oâ— Judgment when the body and soul meâ—â— again and go both to the place of the damned there to be tormented for ever and ever But now we are to speak of temporaâ— or corporal death which is a punishment inflicted on man for sin Deatâ— passed upon all men for that all have Rom. 5. 12. â—inned This death is a miserable priâ—ation of life And yet this death is not so properly as by Gods appointment â—ut from God as revenging on Sin and so properly it is from Sin as the meritorious and procuring cause of it And so this death is not only a simple and a bare privation of life but joyned with a subjection unto misery Therefore it is not an annihilation of the Sinner because the subject of misery being â—aken away then misery it self should be â—aken away also Now sith we must all dye let us labour Heb. 9. 27. to dye well To dye well two things are requisite 1. A preparation 1. Preparation before death before death 2. A right behaviour and disposition in death 1. The preparation unto death is an action of a repentant Sinner whereby he makes himself â—it and ready to dye That which we can do but once how careful should we be to do it well sith there is no place after for amending of errours therein committed This preparation is a duty very necessary to which we are bound by God's Commandment Therefore we are bid to watch and pray As death leaves us so judgment finds us as the tree falleth so Eccles 11. 3. it lyeth This preparation is twofold 1 General 1. General preparation for death 2. Particular 1 General to prepare our selves to dye through the whole course of our life for we know not neither the time of our death nor the place of our death nor the manner how whether of a sudden death or of a lingring sickness Therefore all the days of my Job 14. 14. appointed time will I wait till my change shall come The best Art of living well is to learn the Art of dying well Balaam would dye the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. and that his latter end might be like to his but he did not care to live the life of the righteous I protest by our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our 1 Cor. 15. 31. Lord said St. Paul I dye daily That is in preparation for it meditation upon it and expectation of it This will keep us humble and further our daily repentance and help us to be contented in every condition and make us watchful over our selves to fly and avoid Sin careful to grow in Grace and to be frequent in Prayer to God that He would teach us so to number Psal 90. 12. our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom For if we would live for ever we must begin to live that blessed and everlasting life here before we dye to live the life of Grace here which is the life of Glory begun We all with open face beholding as in a 2 Cor. 3. 18. glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory aâ— by the spirit of the Lord that is we by faith contemplating the glorious light of God's mercy truth power c. by which means we are made like unto Hiâ— in the glory of holiness and newness of life by the Spirit of regeneration which hath its progresses in this life until such time as it cometh to its perfection in the life everlasting â— Of particular preparation before 2. Particular preparation â—oâ— death death this contains three duties 1. Concerning God 2. Our selves 3. Our Neighbour â— Concerning God to seek to be reconciled to Him in Jesus Christ This reconciliation is had by renewing our former faith and repentance To see and acknowledg that Visitation of sickness from God's hand and usually it is for sin 1. Therefore make we a new examination of our hearts and â—am 3. 3â— lives search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. 2. Confess we our sins to the Lord and He will forgive the iniquity of our sins If we confess our sins He is saithful and just to forgive 1 Psal 32. 5. Joh. 1. 9. us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Pray earnestly unto God with sighs and groans of the Spirit for pardon of sin and that God would assure us of it and that He is reconciled to us in Christ Jesus our Surety 2. Concerning our duties to our selves and that 1. In reference to the Soul 2. In reference to the Body 1. In
visibly seen of all shall pass sentence and execute it on all But the Saints are said to judg the world because they shall applaud approve and wholly subscribe to the righteous sentence of Christ Let us always live in expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus with Oyl in our lampâ— Grace in our hearts and so prâ—pared for it praying Come Rev. 22. 20 Luk. 12. 43. Lord Jesus come quickly Blessed it that servant whom his Master when He cometh shall â—ind so doing He shall say unto him Well done good and faithful Mat. 25. 21. servant enter into thy Masters joy But as for the wicked and ungodly they 2 Thess 1. 9. shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power Which brings us to the third head we mentioned at first which is Hell Having spoken to the first two 3 Hell Death and Judgment come we now to the execution of the sentence of Judgment which shall presently follow the sentence given the wicked shall go Mat. 25. 46. away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Whosoever is not found written in the book of Rev. 2. 15. life shall be cast into the lake of fire This place of the damned in Scripture is called by divers names 1. Hell as Mat. 5. 23. 2. A furnace of fire where shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42. 3. A place of torment Luk. 16. 28. 4. A prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. 5. A bottomless pit Rev. 9. 1. 6. A lake of fire Rev. 20. 15. 7. A lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Revel 21. 8. The place where Hell is we ought not to be too inquisitive to know sith it is not manifested in the Scripture But the extreme horrour and dreadfulness of the place is described unto us that we may use all the means which God hath prescribed in His word that we may never come there The word Hell in Scripture hath several acceptations 1. It is taken for the place appointed for the torments of the reprobates after thâ—â— â—ife So Luk. 16. 23 And being in hell in torments 2. For most deep and deadly sorrows Psal 18. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about 3. For Satan the Prince of Hell with the whole army of wicked Spirits Mat. 16. 18 The gates of hell shall no prevail against c A Metonymie signifying all the power and policy and strongest assaults of the wicked for heretofore they had their seats of Judicature in the gates of the City where the Elders the wisest and all the Sages met and these gates of the City were and still are the strength of the City 4. Hell is taken for the grave and the estate of the dead therein So we have it Psal 16. 10 Thou shalt not leave Acts 2. 31. my soul in Hell c. 5. For the belly of the whale wherein Jonah was shut up as in a grave Jonah 2. 2 Out of the belly of Hell cryed I c. By Hell-fire is signified the whole extream pain of the damned in Hell where 1. They are separated from the presence and glory of God 2. They are punished with eternal confusion and most bitter reproaches because all their secret wickednesses and sins are revealed 2 Thess 1. 9. Mat. 23. 41. 3. They have fellowship with the Devil and his Angels 4. They are wholly in body and soul tormented with an incredible horrour and exceeding great anguish through the sense and feeling of Gods wraâ—â— Isa 66. 24. to be poured out upon them for ever Hereupon is the punishment of the damned called hell sire a worm never dying but always gnawing on the Conscience weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth and utter darkness and such like By Hell-fire is not meant any bodily flame but these are Metaphors and resemblances for the weakness of our earthly and dull capacity that we may a little apprehend it and have a glimpse of it that so we may use our utmost endeavours to avoid it For as no tongue of Men or Angels can rightly set forth the joys of Heaven so no tongue can express the torments of Hell But these expressions of Hell c. signifie the seizing of the fearful and terrible wrath of the Almighty both on body and soul and all the powers and faculties parts and members thereof for ever For howsoever the body be subject to burning with bodily fire yet the soul being spiritual cannot burn and therefore Hell-fire is not a material fire A material fire yieldeth light but here is nothing but blackness of darkness for ever Hell-fire is a most grievous torment fitly resembled by fire which to our apprehension is the most direful and dreadful thing And torments by fire are of all others the most fearful and terrible Reasons Reasons for it 1. The quarrel with sinners is Gods own the controversie His own the injuries and indignities have been done to Himself and His own Son the challenges have been sent to Himself and His blessed Spirit And therefore no marvel if He take the matter into His own hands sith He hath been so provoked to revenge it by His own immediate Power 2. Revenge is His Royalty and peculiar Prerogative To Him belongeth Deut. 32. 35. 41. Heb. 10. 30 31. Jam. 2. 13. Rev. 14. 10. vengeance and recompence Thence the Apostle infers It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and that for these reasons 1. It shall be Judgment without Mercy there shall be a cup of pure wrath poured out upon them without mixture c. that is not a drop of sweetness and ease but all is poyson and bitterness there shall not be afforded â—â— drop of water to a Lake of fire a minute of ease to Eternity of torment 2. It shall be in fury without compassion that is in vengeance without any pity 3. It shall be in revenge and recompence in reward and proportion and a full and everlasting detestation For as the wicked did here hate God and set their hearts and courses against Him and His Laws in their eternity in all that time they lived and sinned here and so would have done if they had lived never so much longer So God will hate wicked men and set His face and fury against them in His eternity also and punish them there with everlasting destruction 3. The torments of wicked Angels whence can they come There is no creature strong enough to lay upon them a sufficient recompence of pain and punishment for their sins against Gods Majesty And for the disputes of School-men about corporal fire in Hell the degrees of it c. they are but the niceties of men ignorant of the terrour of the Lord Heb. 22. 29. who is Himself a consuming fire The Devils acknowledged Christ their tormentor when He did but rebuke them which wrang out from them Mat. 8. 29.
men in Adam as believers are in Christ which is by a foenant or Covenant agreement Q. How can God be said to Covenant or enter into promise with man A. It is of Gods great condescension so to do in regard of His Soveraignty over man And yet to give and to promise to give are acts of His dominion and liberality and so no ways repugnant to the great and glorious Majesty of God But it is to confirm us in our hope and confidence in Him and in our obedience unto Him Q. Why doth God deal with man in a Covenant way rather than in a meer supreme and absolute way A. 1. To sweeten and endear Himself unto us So that Adam could not but have thankful and loving thoughts of God that would thus far condescend unto him 2. To incite and encourage Adam the more to obedience and that to a willing and free obedience When our first Parents had broken this Covenant and were fallen God out of His infinite pity mercy and compassion to mankind made with them another Covenant a Covenant of Grace And because man was an ill-keeper when he had his salvation in his own hands he soon by Sin lost it and himself thereby Therefore our gracious God would not have our Salvation any longer in our own keeping but made this His Covenant with man in the hands of a Mediatour even the Lord Jesus Christ who Mal. 3. 1. is therefore called the Angel of the Covenant who will be sure to preserve and keep us by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. And herein Gods unspeakable mercy to manking appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but â—itus 3. 4 5 6 7. according to His mercy He hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by His Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Yea before God pronounced the Curse or Sentence of Judgment after Adam's fall He graciously shewed a way and a surer way of salvation in and through Christ the Mediator when He said the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head As this Covenant was first Preached by God to Adam the Lord shewed him his Sin and the curse due for Sin and then sets an enmity between him and the serpent they must fight it out whereof the issue will be thus A certain seed of the woman shall utterly overthrow Sathan even breaking the head of that Serpent but the Serpent shall only bruise His heel which signified light and temporary afflictions both in the Head and also in the members of Christ the head By virtue of which promise the Church continued until Abraham's time and then the Covenant is renewed In Gen. 22. 18. thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed The condition required of Abraham was to believe so Abraham believed in Gen. 15. 6. God and He counted it to him for righteousness Not that this was Abraham's righteousness before God but that habit that grace of faith chiefly looking to the Messiah promised that believing disposition whereby he was able to believe that promise this was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness Rom. 4. 2 3. which brings us to speak of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is a mutual agreement between God and men whereby God confirms unto men that He will be favourable unto them forgiving them their Sins and giving unto them new righteousness His Holy Spirit and everlasting life by and through His Son our Mediator And men oblige themselves unto God to receive so great benefits by lively faith and to yield to God all true obedience This mutual agreement between God and man is confirmed by outward signs and seals which we call Sacraments Sacraments are holy signs testifying God's good-will toward us and our gratitude and duty towards God This Covenant could not be made without a Mediator for we could never make satisfaction nor return into favour with God by and of our selves Neither could God admit us for His justice sake without sufficient satisfaction which we could never make For we were enemies to God and so there was no way open for us to come unto God but by that new and living way namely the blood of Christ So then this Reconciliation Heb. 10. 20. could never be made but by the satisfaction and death of the Mediator That on which all the promises now initially hang is nothing but believing Who so now believeth in God shall be put within the Covenant And there are these four reasons why all depends upon faith First Because true faith is never alone but draws with it all other Graces he that believes in God hath a good opinion of God and loves God and he that loveth God must needs be full of good works Jam. 2. 17 18. Secondly Only faith makes the promises sure unto us otherwise Christ and the Covenant of Grace had been spared Thirdly The Covenant consists of promises nothing but faith can answer this Covenant which is not a Commandment but a Promise Commandments are answered by obedience but Promises are answered by faith Fourthly It is by faith because God would have it go by free Grace and not of debt God dealeth with us as with Sons and not as with Servants He pays Rom. 3. 27. Rom. 11. us not wages but gives us an inheritance So all boasting is excluded The sum of the Covenant of Grace is this That God will be our God and give us everlasting life in Christ Jesus if we receive Him by faith being freely Joh. 1. 12. Jer. 31. 33. Acts 16. 30 31 by His Father offered unto us where hence will follow new obedience whereby the faithful walk worthy of the Grace received and this is also by the Grace of God This God's eternal love and free Grace towards us is the highest link of our salvation both in order of time nature and causality Whom He predestinated Rom. 8. 29 30. those also He called and whom He called those He justified and whom He justified those also He glorified God loved us when we were Sinners enemies to Him and that by wicked works If our wicked works could not Col. 1. 21. prevent the love of God to us why should we think they can nullify or destroy it if the mass guilt and greatness of Adam's Sin in which all men were equally sharers could not interrupt or frustrate God's counsel of loving us when we were His enemies why should any other Sins over-turn the stability of the same love and counsel when we are become His Sons and have a Spirit given us to bewail and lament our Sins It was God's promise flowing from this everlasting love that caused Him to make an everlasting Covenant with us that He would not turn away from us
must with delight apply Christ and His merits to all the necessities of our Souls spiritually feeding upon Him and growing by Him For the eating of the Bread to strengthen our nature betokeneth the inward strengthning of our souls by Grace through the merit of breaking Christ's body for us And the drinking of the Wine to cherish our bodies betokens that the blood of Christ shed on the Cross and as it were drunk by faith doth cherish our souls And as God doth bless these outward elements to preserve and strengthen the body of the receiver so Christ apprehended and received by faith doth nourish him and preserve him both body Joh. 6. 50 51. and soul unto eternal life 1 Cor. 10. 3. 11. 17 19. Q. Who are to be admitted to be partakers of this Sacrament A. 1. They who are of years of discretion and sound judgment able to discern the Lord's body ought to repair to it If they are able to prove and examine themselves and rightly to remember the Lord's death For so is the Commandment This do in remembrance of me And let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup for so ye shew the Lords death till He come 1 Cor. 11. 27 28. 2. They who are baptized and by Baptism made members of the Church For our Covenant with God made in Baptism is renewed in the Lord's Supper As formerly none might eat of the Passeover unless he were circumcised so none may partake at the Lord's table unless baptized 3. Who in word and deed profess their faith and repentance or who express the profession of their faith and repentance by the actions of their life For of occult and hidden things the Church judgeth not but she admitteth all those whom she can judge to be members of Christ that is those whom she hears and sees by their confession and by their outward deeds to profess their faith and repentance whether they be Godly or whether they be Hypocrites not yet made manifest Q. What is to be performed of every Christian that he may partake worthily of the Lords Supper A. Three things 1. A due preparation before receiving 2. Great heed in the whole duty of receiving 3. A thankful close and shutting up of it Of all these in order Q. What is the preparation requisite to this holy Sacrament A. Duly to search and examine their own souls if they can find in themselves those things which God requires in worthy Communicants This preparation is twofold 1. Inward 2. Outward 1. Inward which is spiritual and that consists in a man's examining of himself and so to try his own worthiness There is a double worthiness 1. A Worthiness of the person if thou hast faith and the righteousness of Christ imputed by faith to thee 2. A worthiness of the using which is true reverence inward and outward forgiveness love a serious bewailing of sins and repentance the meditation of the benefits of Christ the discerning the body of the Lord thanksgiving and the avoiding of all offences All these things be particularly discussed by many worthy writers and therefore I here wave them Briefly thus Such as will in a holy sort prepare themselves to celebrate the Lord's Supper must have 1. A knowledg of God of Man's fall and of the promised restauration into the Covenant by Christ 2. True faith in Christ for every man receiveth so much as he believeth Heb. 4. 2. 3. True repentance of all their sins past Isai 66. 3. Psal 26. 6. 4. Perfect love and charity forgiving as we would be forgiven true repentance purgeth out malice among all other sins and a sound faith worketh by love towards God and towards our brethren also Mat. 5. 22. Jam. 1. 19. 20. Gal. 5. 6. The holy Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29. placeth preparation in these three acts 1. Discerning the Lord's body 2. Examining of our selves 3. A worthy disposition To speak a little of all these distinctly 1. Discerning the Lord's body which consists in a good understanding and judgment of the nature use and necessity of the Sacrament Now because these things cannot be understood but out of the fundamentals of Christian Religion about sin and misery following thence the Grace of Christ and the blessings therehence slowing of our duty in thankfulness and obedience to God therefore the knowledg of the principal points of Christian Religion which are necessary to Salvation are needfully required to this discerning here spoken of 2. Examining our selves which consists in a serious trial if we are so disposed that we may use this Sacrament with profit The rule of this examination is the Word of God especially as it concerns the institution of this Sacrament Our dispositions to be looked into in this trial of our selves are our faith repentance charity a desire of new obedience 3. A worthy disposition which consists in an agreeableness of our affections with this sacred business And here is required 1. That we renew our repentance as for all our former sins so especially our late failings and for those sins we are most inclined unto and those committed since our last receiving 2. To stir up in our selves a hungring and thirsting after Christ and His Grace as for pardoning and mortifying our sins so to be enabled for better obedience and newness of life 3. To stir up our faith to lay hold on the promises of the Gospel 4. That with all humility reverence and devotion we receive this Sacrament as the Seal of the Covenant of Grace and of the promises of God Thus far of the first part to be performed by every Christian worthily to partake of the Lord's Supper which is Preparation Now for the second Heedfulness in the duty of receiving And that consists in these four things 1. Reverendly to attend the better to apply the whole action joyning with the Minister in his Prayers making use of all the Sacramental actions both in the Minister and also in the receivers whereof we spake at large before and so thankfully commemorating the Lord's death for the comfort and refreshing of our souls 2. According as it is commanded all must take the Bread and Wine into their hands 3. According to Christ's command to eat that Bread and drink that Wine 4. They must use thanksgiving offering up themselves both souls and bodies is a Sacrifice of thanksgiving In which Rom. 12. 1 respect this Sacrament is properly called the Eucharist As oft as we eat this bread and drink this cup we shew the Lords death c. The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare his profession of adherence to Christ and embracing of the death of Christ for remission of Sins and reconciliation of his person unto God Which although at all times
the body for our thoughts are before His face The easiest way of explaining or understanding the Commandments is by dividing the obedience due to every Commandment into its proper virtues as parts and then the vices contrary to those virtues will easily appear As there are these seven virtues or parts of obedience due to the first Commandment 1. The acknowledging of God 2. Faith in God 3. Hope 4. Love of God 5. Fear of God 6. Humility 7. Patience But here we are to speak only of the fear of God The true fear of God is to acknowledge the extream anger of God against sin and His power to punish it and to esteem our displeasing of God or offending Him and consequently an estrangedness from Him as the greatest evil and therefore extreamly to hate and detest sin and to be ready rather to suffer any evil than to offend in any thing Or thus The fear of God is from acknowledging of His Wisdom Power Justice and Right which He hath over all creatures and out of subjection unto Him not willing to offend Him Levit. 19. 14. Thou shalt fear thy God I am the Lord. God is feared as He is just and powerful to punish in regard of the evil of punishment which He can inflict So we stand in such a Godly fear as not to do any thing but that which maketh for God's glory and yet this is not a servile fear whereby one is afraid to be damned but an awful filial fear whereby we are afraid to offend our Maker and Heavenly Father So our Saviour bids Mat. 10. 28. us rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell So St. Peter bids us to pass the time of our sojourning 1 Pet. 1. 17. here in fear Let us have grace whereby Heb. 12. 28. we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For as a Father pityeth his Son so the Lord pityeth them that fear Him Whereas all carnal fear and especially the fearing of any thing more than God is here condemned Fear ye not their fear neither be afraid Isai 8. 12 13. but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread I even I am He saith the 51. 12 13. Lord that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker c. and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour Fear not them which kill the body but Mat. 10. 28. are not able to kill the soul but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell We should be more afraid to displease God than any other and this fear of God should be stronger to move us to do good than the fear of man to move us to do evil There is a twofold fear of God 1. Filial 2. Slavish 1. Filial which is from acknowledging of sin and the anger of God against it and from a serious grief for sins committed because of offending God thereby and in regard of calamities that we and others endure for sin and a fear of future sins and punishments with an ardent desire of avoiding those evils through the acknowledging of God's mercy shewed to us in and through Christ This is usually called filial fear because it is such a fear as dutiful Children have toward their Father grieving for the anger and displeasure of their father and fearing least they should offend him again and so be punished for it and yet are always perswaded of their fathers love and good-will towards them and therefore love him and through this love do grieve the more because they have offended him So we read of Peter that when he had denyed his Master he went forth and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. But servile and slavish fear is such as of Servants to their Masters to avoid punishment without faith and without a desire and striving to amend and is usually joyned with despair and a with-drawing from God and fleeing away from Him Filial and slavish fear differ in these three things 1. Filial fear proceedeth from our trust and confidence in God and love to Him But servile fear ariseth from a sight of sin and sins flying in the face with the sence of judgment and of the wrath of God 2. Filial fear principally turneth away from sin which displeases God but not from God Himself But servile fear is a fleeing from and a hatred not of sin but of punishments and judgments of God and so at length with a fleeing from and a hatred of God Himself 3. Filial fear is joyned with some assurance of salvation and everlasting life and so draws us nearer to God But a servile fear is joyned with an expectation of everlasting damnation and casting away from God and so drives farther from Him which is so much the more in them as their doubting or despair of the Grace and Mercy of God is more or less This slavish fear is in the Devils and wicked men and is the beginning of everlasting death which the wicked and ungodly do feel even in this life So said Cain to God My punishment is Gen. 4. 14. greater than I can bear Behold Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face I shall be hid and I shall be a fugitive a vagabond in the earth c. So Ahaz his heart Isai 7. 2. was moved and the hearts of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind And so Saul he was afraid 1 Sam. 28. 5. and his heart greatly trembled The Jam. 2. 19. Devils believe and tremble There are some things do oppose and resist the fear of God in defect and some in excess 1. In excess as servile fear and despair of which we spoke something before 2. In defect as 1. Prophaneness 2. Carnal security 3. Contempt of God 4. An Idolatrous fear The wicked are utterly devoyd of all fear and reverence of God they have Psal 36. 1. no fear of God before their eyes an idolatrous fear is not that fear alone which is from idols as the poor Heathen Indians worship the Devil because he should not hurt them but that fear also which is from men and from the world when a man fears them more than he fears God Some carnal security may be in the Godly yet it is otherwise with them than in the wicked It is so in the Godly that the fear of God is not altogether cast out of their heart but the 1 King 14. 9. wicked like Jeroboam cast God behind their back So God complains of the Ezek. 33. 35. Jews they had forgotten Him and cast him behind their
God He â—ob 38. 41. feedeth the young ravens when they cry unto Him If God feed the beasts and birds surely He will not suffer the soul Prov. 10. 3. Psal 37. 10. Isai 33. 16. of His people to famish In the days of fumine they shall be satisfied Bread shall be given them their waters shall be sure And as for rayment If God cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more cloath us Mat. 6. 30 31 32. Therefore take we no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithall shall we be cloathed for our heavenly father knoweth we have need of all these things Be we diligent and industrious in our places ever using lawful means that is our part for to do But the care of provision and maintenance is God's part which we must leave to Him Who hath promised to bless our lawful and honest endeavours subservient to His holy will and command 2. As for maintenance and provision so also my Expectation from God is that as I have committed all my ways to Him and trust in Him so He will bring them Psal 37. 5. Josh 5. 9. Rom. 8. 28. all to pass for the best That he will rowl away my reproach and cause all things to work together for my good He will plead my cause and execute judgment for me He will bring me forth Micah 7. 9. to the light and I shall behold His righteousness My Redeemer is strong Jer. 50. 34. the Lord of hosts is his name He shall Isai 51. 22. throughly plead my cause for He hath stiled Himself the God that pleadeth the cause of His people The Lord God of recompences will surely requite Jer. 51. 56. My expectation is higher than these temporal things as heroically and Christianly Luther once said Lord I have sworn and am resolved that I will not be put off with these lower things or to esteem them my portion c. 2dly But my expectation is higher my expectation from God is chiefly for spiritual and everlasting mercies That Acts 26. 18. as He hath opened mine eyes and turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God so that I Ephes 5. 8 1â— may walk as a child of light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Having respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119. 8. not allowing my sell in any onâ— known sin Denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously Godlily in this present word To grow Tit. 2. 12 2 Pet. 3. 18. Joh. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Eph. 3. 19. in Grace and in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus that of His fulness I may receive and Grace for Grace that so may make my calling and election sure being filled with the fulness of God that he will grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with all might by his Spirit in the inneâ— man that Christ may dwell in my hearâ— by faith c. that as he who hath begun 16. 17. a good work in me will also finish Phill. 1. 6. Heb. 12. 2. it For he is the author and finisher of my faith Who is able to build me up â— Acts 20. 32. and that He will settle strengthen and stablish me in every good word and work to do His will working in mâ— 1 Pet. 5. 10. Heb. 13. 21 that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ That I Phill. 1. 10 11. may approve those things which are excellent being sincere and without offence filled with the fruits of righteousness c. Pressing toward the mark Phill. 3. 11 14. for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead that is to such a measure of Grace and Holiness as I shall have 2 Tim. 3. 17. at the resurrection of the dead that I may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work And for my outward conversation that it may be as it becometh the Gospel Phill. 1. 27. Tit. 2. 3 10. of Christ as becometh holiness that I may adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things so that the Word of Verse 5. God may not be blasphemed nor the way 2 Pet. 2. 2. Jam. 1. 27. of truth evil spoken of through my default and that I may keep my self unspotted of the world walking so as 1 Joh. 2. 6. Christ walked while He was here upon the earth That after I have served my generation by the will of God and shall fall asleep and be gathered to my fathers Acts 13. 36. 2 Tim. 4. 7. and see corruption after I have fought a good fight here finished my course Heb. 12. 28. and kept the faith I may receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that 1 Pet. 1. 4. jude 1. fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me and to which I am preserved in Christ Jesus This is my hope this is my expectation for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to 2 Tim. 1. 12. keep that which I have committed to Him even the keeping of my soul and the crown of everlasting life against that day The Lord is the portion of my soul I am 3. 24 Prov. 23. 18. therefore will I wait for Him and my expectation shall not be cut off For they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary Isai 40. 31. they shall walk and not saint Now the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient 2 Thess 3. 5. waiting for Christ Be not weary in well-doing continue Addition 2 Thess 3. 13. to wait upon God Take heed of impatiency of spirit like Joram that wicked King of Israel in that dreadful man-devouring famine of Samaria who 2 King 6. 33. though he acknowledged this evil is from the Lord yet impatiently and wickedly added wherefore should I wait on the Lord any longer He was convinced of the hand of God in His judgments upon Him so rationally he should have concluded therefore will I wait upon Him and seek to Him for relief Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque feret the same hand that wounds the same hand must bring the cure It had been more rationally inferred this evil is from the Lord therefore upon Him will I wait to Him will I address my self for deliverance But he concludes as in the Hebrew it is Mah Ochil â—adonai Quid expectabo Dominum wherefore should I wait on the Lord why should I fast and pray or carry my self patiently as the Chaldee hath
uprightness Jer. 30. 21. and may engage my heart to approach unto God to walk before Thee to do every thing as in Thy sight and presence Lord help me to keep my heart with all diligence and to wash Prov. 4. 23. my heart from wickedness that I may be clean that although vain and evil Jer. 4. 14 thoughts will pass through me yet I may not give them entertainment or suffer them to lodge within me Take Thou away this stony heart from me and give me a heart of flesh a heart Ezek. 36. 26. pliable and flexible and capable of being governed and guided by thy Spirit Vnite my heart to fear thy name Let Psal 86. 11. 119. 80. my heart be sound in thy statutes That so when my heart is sound Christ may set me as a seal upon his heart and as a seal upon his arm keeping me nearly Cant. 8. 6. and dearly joyned unto Him and refresh me by the comfort of the presence of His Grace setting me as a signet upon his right hand to have me always Jer. 22. 24. in His eye and in His heart to be present with me to guide me in His ways to bless me and to do me good that at last He may present me glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish For holiness becometh thine house O Lord for ever as here in this life which is glory begun so especially in Heaven where Grace and Glory is consummate and made perfect into which place no unholy thing shall ever enter Holiness is the badge of Christs people Addition Isai 63. 18. they are called the people of his holiness Israel was holiness to the Lord Jer. 2. 3. The Spirit of holiness distinguisheth and setteth a mark upon the sheep of Christ they are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Eph 1. 13. Holiness setteth us apart for God and Psal 4. 3. Tit. 2. 14. for His Service to do His Will and to serve Him He hath set apart him that is Godly for himself to see and enjoy him for without holiness none shall see Heb. 12. 14. the Lord Our holiness is not the cause of our Salvation but it is the way thereunto Holiness hath none but gracious and honourable effects it filleth the soul with joy comfort and peace with joy unspeakable and full of glory with Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Isai 32. 17. peace and quietness and assurance for ever Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall Isai 35. 10. flee away God is glorious in holiness and glories most in the Attribute of holiness God stands upon nothing more than to appear to all the world to be a Exod. 15. 11. holy God therefore the Angels when they celebrate the glory of God cry out Holy holy holy is the Lord God of hosts Isai 6. 3. Let those therefore that draw nigh to God and make profession of his name labour to hold forth above all things the glory of his holiness in their lives and conversations EXERCITATION THE EIGHTH Jer. 23. 9. For because of Oaths swearing the Land mourneth IF the holy Prophet in his dayes cryed out as in the former Verse Mine heart within me is broken because of those cursings and oaths which do make the Land to mourn that is which draw down God's judgments upon the Land as it is evident in the following words the pleasant places of the wilderness are dryed up namely God did send drought and scorching heats and withheld the rain in its due season for those crying sins so it cannot be meant Metonymically the Land for the People of the Land but the Land mourned because the people had no hearts to do it Oh what cause have we now to break our hearts with sighting to have rivers Psal 119. 136. of water to run down our eyes because God's Laws are so broken and his name so highly dishonoured by hellish Oaths and Blasphemies by damned damning curses and execrations whose judgment 2 Pet. 3. 2. lingreth not and their damnation slumbereth not These as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed shall Verse 12. utterly perish in their own corruption These are raging waves of the Sea foaming Jude 13. out their own shame to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We read of a flying rowle which is interpreted a curse that goeth forth over Zech. 5. 2 3 4. the earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on that side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut as on that side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord of hosts and it shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsly by My name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Oh this dreadful denunciation O that prophane Swearers would consider it and lay it to heart hearing God's dreadful threatnings on themselves both Souls and Bodies and all that they have yea even their houses and habitations where they dwell and that for their sakes How many times doth the Lord God and how frequently forbid this horrid sin of Swearing Ye shall not falsly swear by My name Levit. 19. 12. neither shalt thou prophane the name of the Lord thy God I am the Lord. Where-ever in Scripture this is added I am the Lord it is to shew that God is faithful in revenging the breach of His Commandments and on the contrary that He is faithful in rewarding the observation or keeping His Commandments Our blessed Saviour biddeth us Swear not at all that is in our ordinary discourses but let your communication be Mat. 5. 34. 37. yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that evil one meaning the Devil who is the father of all lyes oaths and blasphemies Joh. 8. 44. So Saint James But above all Jam. 5. 12. things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth that is by nothing which is either in heaven or earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest ye fall into damnation No less punishment than everlasting damnation is here threatned against all prophane Swearers If of every idle word that we shall Mat. 12. 36. speak of the same shall we give account at the day of judgment how much more then of every horrid oath and wicked cursing Oh that the terror of 2 Cor. 5. 11. the Lord might awaken and perswade men The Lord is a Sin-revenging God a consuming fire a jealous God Who Heb. 12. 29. Isai 33. 14. can dwell with everlasting burnings who can dwell with devouring fire These even
their faith and troth to every trivial thing which is an evident sign that they have little faith or truth in them or know not the true worth and value of them else they would not so lightly lay such precious Jewels to pawn upon every slight occasion Let all such and every one also remember our blessed Saviour's rule afore-mentioned in all their ordinary speeches and communications Swear not at all but let your yea be yea and your nay nay for whatsoever is more cometh of evil But of this we shall have occasion to speak more anon Now to speak what an oath is the parts of an oath how an oath may be lawfully taken and other things An oath is the craving of God's testimony to confirm the truth of our testimony Men swear by the greater and an Heb. 6. 13. 16. â—ath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Deservedly is the testimony or witness-bearing of God called to confirm a truth for He is the truth who neither can deceive nor be deceived About an oath consider two things 1. How an oath is to be taken 2. How it is to be performed Q. 1. How to be taken In taking of an oath four circumstances are to be considered 1. The parts of an oath 2. The form of an oath 3. The end of an oath 4. The divers sorts or kinds of an oath 1. The parts of an oath and they are four 1. Confirmation of a truth 2. Invocation of God alone as a witness of a truth and a revenger of a lye 3. Confession that God is a revenger of perjury when He is brought in as a false witness 4. A binding over unto punishment if we use deceit 2. The form of an oath we must swear 1. In truth lest we forswear 2. In righteousness lest we swear to that which is wicked 3. In judgment lest we swear rashly or for a trifle So we must swear truly advisedly and rightly As it is commanded Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth and Jer. 4. 2. in righteousness and in judgment They who do not thus are reproved which swear by the name of the Lord and make Isai 48. 1. mention of the God of Israel but not in truth nor in righteousness 3. The end of an oath which is to confirm some necessary truth in question either for the ending of controversies or for the performing of promises So an oath for confirmation is among men an end of all strife 4. The divers sorts or kinds of an oath 1. Publick 2. Private 1. Publick when the Magistrate doth upon just cause exact a testimony under the reverence of an oath 2. Private which two or more take privately As Jacob to Laban Gen. 31. 53. Bodz to Ruth Ruth 3. 13. and Obadiah to Elijah the Prophet 1 King 18. 12. So also there is an assertory oath and a promissory oath 1. An assertory oath or a confirming oath which is to confirm the truth of a thing either past or present 2. A promissory oath which is about a thing to come So we see that an oath is the calling of the name of God the searcher of the heart to witness a needful truth for the ending of strife and controversies In a lawful oath lawfully taken there is a worshipping of the name of God When Joshua would cause Achan to confess the truth he saith to him My Son Josh 7. 19. give glory to the God of Israel c. meaning thereby that God is highly dishonoured if a man swear falsly by Him For he doth in a manner as much as lies in him prophane and pollute God's holy name with a lye and on the contrary if a man swears truly he honours God False swearing is called prophaning the name of God Ye shall not swear by My name falsly neither â—evâ— 19. 12. shalt thou prophane the name of the Lord thy God I am the Lord. This manner of Joshuah's speech was used among the Jems so often as any was called to take an oath as it appears by the like protestation of the Pharisees used to the blind man whom Christ had restored to sight they said to him Give God the Joh. 9. 24. praise we know this man is a sinner To this heedfulness the forms of oaths used in the Scriptures do advise and instruct us As the Lord liveth God do so 1 Sam. 14. 39. 44. to me and more also 2 Kings 6. 31. And the Lord be witness upon my soul 2 Cor. 1. 23. All which do prove that we cannot call God to witness of our sayings but that we call Him to take witness of our perjury if we speak falsly or deceitfully The name of God is made vile and common when it is used in superfluous speeches as in foolish admirations which is a manifest taking of God's name in vain Swearing was suffered and ordained not for lust or pleasure but for necessitie sake And there can be no necessity pretended but where it is to serve either religion or charity But now it is so licentiously and customarily used that men think it no sin at all But the Commandment of the Lord remaineth still in force the penalty abideth in strength and shall one day have its effect whereby there is a special revenge proclaimed against all those who take God's name in vain though they may here escape for a time the judgment of men The very Heathens will condemn herein those who are outwardly proâ—essed Christians for among the Heathen ex animi sui sententiâ according to the purpose of their mind was to them instead of an oath Did they who had but the glimmering knowledge of God from the book of the Creatures and the Law of Nature written in their hearts do such things and shew such truth and reality in their speeches and dealings How shall this rise up in judgment against us and condemn us who have the written Word of God the knowledge of the true God and the glorious Gospel of his Son shining as a light among us and yet to do such things whereas the Heathen sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of Mat. 14. 16 death Thus far about the taking of an oath now Q. 2. How an oath is to be performed A. If the oath be made about lawful things it must be performed whether it be of much difficulty or great dammage to us or extorted by force from us So it is said he shall dwell in God's tabernacle that sweareth to his Psâ—l 15. 4. own hurt and changeth not Yet the Magistrate hath in his power as may seem right and convenient either to annihilate or moderate such oaths But of this we shall treat farther anon An oath in Scripture sometimes is taken for the whole Worship and Service of God Thou shalt fear the Lord Deut. 10. 20 thy God Him shalt thou serve and swear by His name And five Cities in the Isai 19. 18. land of
do Q. But God is said in Scripture frequently for to swear A. God frequently addeth an oath to His promises but seldom to His threatnings which should make us to acknowledge the great good-will of God to men and His bearing with our infirmities He knows our incredulity and aptness to doubt of His promises especially when we are under afflictions and temptations Therefore He vouchsafeth so far to condescend to our infirmities that He joyns the sanctity of an oath to confirm and strengthen us Wherein God Heb. 6. 17 18. willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things viz. His word and oath in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation c. Q. But sith an oath is an invocation of God by which He is prayed to preâ—erve him that speaks the truth and to punish him that falsifyeth it how can an oath fall on God because there is none that He can wish to be punished by if He deceives A. That desinition of an oath agreeth with the creature and not with the Creator That it may agree with both the Creator and the creature we must define an oath more largely namely an obliging of himself to punishment if wittingly he doth deceive To swear therefore by another is to acknowledge and set him as the knower and revenger of perjury and to oblige himself to bear punishment inflicted by him that is to the loss of soul or body or life or goods or honour if he doth not so intend and mean as he speaks And therefore they that sweat by creatures commit idolatry Men can oblige themselves to bear punishment from men if they keep not their promise but to swear by any except by God cannot be without Idolatry and Sacriledge to the honour of God For they make him by whom they swear the knower of their hearts a witness of their mind and will and a judge and revenger of perjury Therefore it is said Men truly swear â—â—â— 6. by the greater and an oath given for confirmation is to them an end of all strife but when God made promise to Abraham because He could swear by none greater He sware by Himself c. Men have a higher and greater than they who can bring them to punishment whether they will or no however they may deceive men and either by force or fraud escape their judgment Therefore when the truth can be found out no way else then we have recourse to an oath Because men judge by natural consent that he that takes an oath is not so prophane and wicked a wretch of such desperate audaciousness and impudency and so prodigal of his own Salvation that of his own accord he would provoke God to punish and plague him or to think if he lies that he shall escape unpunished But God hath none greater than Himself that is conscious to or a witness 1 Cor. 2. 11. Job 9. 12. of His secret will or able to punish Him if He saith or thinketh otherwise Therefore God swears by Himself that is He obliges Himself and gives Himself this Law that if He deceives and is not found to do that is not seriously to will what He saith He willeth let Him then be accounted and declared by all His creatures to be vain a lier changeable weak or unjust which is not to be God But there is an unutterable zeal in God of His glory for which He created all things Here we may see as the wonderful great and inexpressible compassion of God towards men in respect of our weakness and diffidence to confirm His Divine truth and promises to us by an oath and what a horrid wickedness it is not to believe God when He swears to us For God by His oath layes His glory as it were to pawn unto us obliging Himself voluntarily to suffer the loss of His glory if he doth not perform His promises Therefore in the same sence the Scripture Gen. 22. 16. Isai 45. 23. saith that God sware by Himself By my Self have I sworn saith the Lord c. I have sworn by my Self c. And that God sware by His holiness Psal 89. 39 Once have I sworn by my holiness c. So Hos 4. 2 The Lord hath sworn by his holiness c. And we read also that God sware by his right hand Isai 62. 8. and by the arm of his strength and by Jeâ— 44. 26. his great name And by his soul or his life Isai 49. 18. As I live saith the Lord 22. 24. Ezek. 5. 11. 14. 16 c. His heart is harder than the nether-milstone and a self-condemned person who doth not believe God when He thus swears Hence may we gather how much comfort may accrew to all those pious souls who suffer affliction from their enemies for the testimony of a good Conscience and for bearing witness to the truth If God so solidly and faithfully hath fulfilled whatsoever He spake of His delivering His people from temporal and corporal afflictions how much more from hell and everlasting damnation from which we are redeemed by the blood of His only-begotten Son Now I will only set down what is required in the third Commandment and so close up this discourse though much more might have been written In the third Commandment is required Mat. 6. 9. Psal 111. 9. that we sanctifie God's name as it is holy and reverend and labour by all we can to extol and lift it up that others may be moved by us more to love serve and honour him That we use God's titles and proper names as Jehovah Jesus c. His properties and attributes His works and actions His Word Sacraments Prayer the whole Worship of God with all reverence and circumspection to such uses as they are appointed by God In a word that we have a careful watch to all things that may advance God's glory and use all sincere and diligent behaviour therein And to take heed of swearing falsly superstitiously or prophanely Lest God swear in his wrath that we shall never Heb. 3. 11. enter into his rest Six Corollaries 1. Let us be humbled for all our ungodly and unsavoury words and speeches and for our irreverend use of Gods holy name His attributes word works and of all His holy ordinances that we have not so sanctified Him therein as we ought and as He requires Levit. 10. 3. of us 2. Let us bewail and lament the great dishonour done to God in prophaning of His holy name by the oaths cursings and execrations of others as the Land mourns for them let us mourn also As Lots righteous soul was vexed from day to day as with seeing the wicked deeds of â—â—â— Sodomites so with hearing their 2 Pet. 2. 8. â—ilthy and ungodly speeches Like David also who said my tears have been my meat day and night
search wherefore the Lord hath done so unto us For God hath holy ends and purposes in all His dispensations towards us Hath God taken away a near Relation from me as a loving Husband tender Wife or a hopeful Child to instance in these which was the desire of mine eyes and the joy of my heart if God hath taken Ezek. 34. 16. them away with His stroke did not I dote or depend too much upon them did not my heart run out too much after them did I use them so as I should when I did enjoy them ask thy self these and the like questions Commune Psal 4. 4. with thine own heart and be still go to God in Prayer and say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto me what meaneth the heat of this great anger Deut. 29. 24. But be sure to fall out with thy sins and not with God So search and try thy ways and turn unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. with thy whole heart for He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children ver 33. of men Are they dead death hath passed and will pass upon all men for Rom. 5. 12. that all have sinned It is appointed to Heb. 9. 27. all men once to dye We must needs dye and are all as water spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14. 14. which cannot be gathered up again We are strangers and sojourners here as all our fathers were our days on the earth are but as a shadow and here is no abiding If we did not dye we should 1 Chron. 29. 15. always be subject to sin and misery death freeth the Saints from all for Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea so saith the Spirit for they Rev. 14. 13. rest from their labours and their works follow them But see if it be not for any particular sin of thine this affliction is befallen thee if upon serious search thou findest it so to be then be humbled for it repent and amend and walk more closely with God for the future That it may not be said of thee as formerly of Ephraim gray hairs are here and there Hos 7. 9. upon him yet he knoweth it not that is he considered not God's Judgments knew not nor was humbled for his sins waxed old in his wickedness yet did not he know it or lay it to heart God doth now empty thee from vessel to vessel Jer. 48. 11 and doth not suffer thee to be at ease to be setled upon thy lees O therefore let not the taste of thine old corruptions remain in thee to rellish of them and like them as formerly and thy scent not to be changed when thou art as worldly and wicked as ever Zeph. 1â— 12. For the Lord will surely search thee as with candles and punish thee and all those that are setled upon their Lees. Whatever was good and commendable in thy Deceased Relations that follow practice and imitate and make good use of This affliction of thine is a tryal Ezek. 21. 13. Isaiah 48. 10. God will try thee now in the Furnace of affliction This may be a sign unto thee that thou belongest unto God who hath his â—ire in Zion and his Furnace Isaiah 31. 9. in Jerusalem Although God may let some run on in outward prosperity and to have even more than heart can Psal 73. 7. Gen. 15. 16. Mat. 23. 32. wish and others to run on in sin till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities God would purifie thee Oh be thou purified and clensed hereby That the tryal of thy faith being 1 Pet. 1. 7 much more precious then of gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be sound unto praise and honour and glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ Thus we see that the afflictions of the Godly are for correction and for tryal Blessed are they whom thou chastenest O Psal 94. 12. Lord and teachest them out of thy Law When Instruction and Correction go together that is a happy and a blessed Correction Think also on the Saints of God who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6. 12. Labour to set Faith on Work yea let the tryal of thy Faith work in the patience and let patience have its perfect Jam. 1. 3 4. work that thou mayest be perfect and entire lacking nothing Thou canst not be a through-out and perfect and an accomplished Christian unless thou hast obtained this excellent grace of Patience see that thou abound in this grace also 2 Cor. 8. â— Q. But why are afflictions call'd temptations as blessed is the man that endureth Jam. 1. 12â— Jam. 1. 2. temptations And count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations I answer All temptations are not evil but some are tryals of our Faith and Hope in God if we can live by Faith and rest upon the promises and so they make much for our good And in this regard they are pronounced that fall into divers temptations Therefore ought we not simply to pray and without exception to be delivered from them but only from the evil of them As God led Israel 40 years in the Wilderness to humble them and to prove them to know what was in their Deut. 8. â— 13. 3. heart whether they would keep his Commandments or no. And to prove them whether they would love the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls So afflictions are called temptations because by them God tryeth our Obedience to notisie our faith and patience both to our selves and others whether we will follow him or not And therefore we may be assured that so often as we beat back or overcome the temptations we have so many undoubted testimonies of Gods love unto us So then Patience is from the acknowledging of Gods Wisdom Providence Justice and Goodness to be Obedient unto him in bearing all adversities and crosses or losses which the Lord hath brought upon us and through grief not to murmur or repine at any of his dispensations nor to do any thing against his Commâ—â—â—ements but in the midst of our grief to retain assured hope and confidence of Gods help and to crave aid and deliverance from him and in this confidence and acknowledging of Gods Will to moderate our grief Psal 37. 7 8 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil So we see that patience is a duty belonging to the First Commandement not only because it 's a part of that inward obedience which we owe to God and he immediately requires it to himself at our hands but also because that from our acknowledging of God our confidence in him and our love and fear of him do follow as necessary effects To this Christian patience impatience is contrary and opposed which impatience is when through ignorance or distrust of
their hearts God will rent the caul â—oâ— â—â— 3. of their hearts consume and destroy them Humility is to acknowledg that all the good things which are in us or done by us are not from any worth or excellency in our selves but meekly from the free-grace and goodness of God And so from the acknowledgment of His Divine Majesty and our own frailty and unworthiness to submit our selves wholly to God to give glory of all those good things in us to Him alone and so truely to fear God to acknowledge and deplore all our sins wants and weaknesses not to desire great things or high places but to contain our selves within our own place and callings not resting on our own endowments but wholly on Gods help not to despise others in comparison of our selves nor hindering them in the performance of their duties but to acknowledge that others are and may be as worthy instruments of Gods glory as our selves and so to give them honour and respect accordingly Not to affect excellency above others but to be content with our place and those gifts which God hath given us and to employ all our gifts and studies and parts to Gods glory and the good of our Neighbours not to murmur against God if we are frustrated of our hope if we are contemned and despised of some but in all things to give unto God the praise of His Wisdom and Justice This is the practice of an humble man Job 22 29. When men are cast down then thou shall say there is a lifting up and God will save the humble person He forgetteth Psal 9. 12. not the cry of the humble He will Psal 10. 17. hear the desire of the humble A mans pride shall bring him low but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit It is Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 19. better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud God said by Moses to Pharaoh How Exod. 10. 3. long wilt thou refuse to humble thy self before Me When he had so many Plagues and Judgments upon him yet he did not humble himself but his heart and the hearts of his servants were not humbled therefore they were utterly destroy'd and consum'd and sunk like a stone in those mighty waters of the Red-Sea So God brought them low Now these things are written for our 1 Cor. 10. 11. 7. 8. admonition that we should not be proud and stubborn haughty and rebellious c. as they were lest God pour down His vengeance and judgments on us likewise The humble shall see and be glad Psal 34. 2. and consider it their heart shall live that seek God O consider this ye that proudly forget God lest He tear you in pieces and Psal 50. 22. there be none to deliver yet there is hope for all this if thou wilt humble thy self and pray and seek the face of God and turn from thy wicked wayes then 2 Chron. 7. 14. Isai 55. 7. will the Lord hear from heaven and will pardon thy sins and will have mercy upon thee For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Humility makes men like to the holy Addition Angels but Pride made those become Devils that were Angels Pride was born in Heaven and as if it had forgotten which way it fell there-hence it can never return thither again Pride is the very beginning and end and cause of all Sin it is the root of all evil and Mistress and Queen of all other vices Other vices do only oppose and fight against those virtues which they are contrary unto as Drunkenness warreth against Sobriety Anger against Patience Wantonness and Whoredom against Chastity c. but Pride lifâ—eth up it self against all virtues and like a general and pestiferous Disease corrupts them all One said well there are four things draw the Chariot of Pride 1. Desire of Dominion 2. Love of ones own praise 3. Contempt of others 4. Disobedience And the wheels of this Chariot are boasting and arrogancy multitude of words and levity The Chariot-driver is the spirit of Pride and all they that are lovers of this present world are carried in this Chariot the horses of this Chariot are unbridled the wheels are very slippery the Chariot-driver very perverse and furious and they that are carried therein very infirm and weak persons Therefore this sin of Pride is to be cut down and grubbed up even at the very roots lest hiddenly and secretly it rising up it grow and increase by our allowing and bearing with it and so become stronger by use and custome much care and watchfulness is required against it Pride overthrew the Tower of Babel confounded our Speech prostrated Goliah hanged Haman slew Nicanor killed Antiochus drowned Pharaoh destroyed Sennacherib made Nebuchadnezar like a beast Herod to be eaten up with worms ruined stately Cities and Palaces and God sets Himself against all proud persons The Heathens could say Nosce teipsum è caelo descendit Know thy self is a saying or an Oracle from Heaven They that know themselves cannot be proud persons for they see so much sinfulness weakness ignorance and infirmities in themselves which kills Self-love that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and makes them even out of conceit with themselves seeing they have nothing but sin in and from themselves Every man of himself is a very Devil having nothing but wickedness in him All the imaginations and thoughts of his heart are only evil continually evil and extreamly evil If Gen. 6. 6â— he hath any good at all in him it is from God He cannot think a good thought as of himself much less speak or do that which is good all our sufficiency is 2 Cor. 3. â— of God Man by the fall of Adam was despoyled of all spiritual and supernatural gifts as faith love righteousness c. so also of all natural gifts as understanding judgment will c. which although they are not taken away yet the uprightness soundness and regularity of them is lost The understanding being filled with darkness and blindness the will with crookedness and perverseness c. yea and all things which belong to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished and lost until by grace of regeneration they are recovered Because Christ restoreth all these things to us therefore they are accounted from another and not from nature and therefore were once taken away Reason was not taken away by the fall but it was exceedingly corrupted and depraved that only foul ruines thereof do now appear The light shined in darkness Joh. 1. 5. and the darkness comprehended it not In the perverted and degenerate nature of man there shine yet some sparks which shew him to be a reasonable creature differing from brutes because he is endued with understanding and yet that light is choaked with great and thick mists of ignorance that it cannot effectually get abroad I might farther
reference to the Soul our duty is to arm our selves against the fear of death as not thinking on the paâ—gs of death which Christ hath sweetned and sanctified to all His but upon that blessed estate that is enjoyed after death And look upon death not as it is seâ— forth in the Law so it is a curse but as it is set forth in the Gospel so it is an entrance into Heaven consider also what God hath promised to the death of the Rev. 14. 13. righteous Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them As we die in the Lord both our Bodies and Souls are really joyned to Christ as it is expressed in the Covenant of Grace and though death make a separation of soul and body yet neither of them are sever'd from Christ our mystical union and conjunction with Christ our Head endures for ever c. God as He Isa 43. 2. is present with us in our sickness so especially will He be with us at our Death when the holy Angels are especially also present with us ready to carry the soul into heaven 2. In reference to the body our duty is To seek to preserve life to recover health as by Diet Physick that is such lawful means and worthy instruments called thereunto and this God requires of us to do 3. Concerning our Neighbour our duty is Reconciliation where any difference is forgiving all men and desiring to be forgiven by them serting our Families in order making our Will which indeed much rather should be in the time of our best health 1 Kings 2. 2. 1 Chron. 28. 9. Gen. 18 19. charging those of our Family to learn believe and obey the true Religion c. Thus let us strive to honour God dying as well as living Now Secondly of the second part 2dly bâ—haviâ—â— Death which is a right behaviour and disposition in Death which is a religious and holy behaviour especially towards God when we are nearer the agonie and pangs of death This religious behaviour contains Three especial duties 1. To Dye in or by Faith relying on Gods special love and mercy iâ— Christ As the Israelites stung with the Num. 21. 8 9. fiery Serpents looked to the brazen Serpent and were cured So we when we find death to draw near and his fiery sting to sting and pierce our hearts then let us fix the eye of a true and lively Faith upon Jesus Christ the true brazen Serpent lifted up and crucifi'd upon the Cross for our sins and for mine in particular and so by death we shall Joh. 3. 14 15 never perish but have everlasting life 2dly To dye in obedience to God As we must live in obedience to God's Cammandments so must we dye be ready willing to go out of the world whensoever God calls us and that withour murmuring or repining Imitating our blessed Saviour who said Father not my will but Thy will be Mat. 26. 39. done 3dly The last duty is To resign and render up our Souls into the hands of God as the most faithful keeper So did our Saviour in the very pangs of death when the dissolution of soul Luk. 23. 46. and body drew on He said Father into Thy hands I commit My Spirit and so gave up the Ghost So Stephen when he Acts 7. 59. was ston'd to death said Lord Jesus receive my spirit And so being dead Joh. 11. 11. Acts 7. 60. 1 Thes 4. 13. sob 7. 21. we are said to sleep which is by a Synechdoche part for the whole For the body only lyes in the earth Now I shall sleep in the dust that is my body only Let us then not fear death Christ hath taken away the sting of it from all true believers He hath sweetned it unto us and made it only a passage to our Fathers house And I saw the dead small and great stand before God that is all without exception shall personally appear before God and come to Judgment of what degree rank estate or condition soever whether Emperours Kings Princes or Beggars then there will be no distinction of persons we must all nakedly appear before this Tribunal we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ That every 2 Cor. 5. 10. one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Observe the placing of the words small and great the small are put before the great to shew that there will be then no distinction of persons as I said before but all must promiscuously appear before God Then the high and great wicked ones who here through the pride of their countenance will not seek after God God was not in Psal 10. 4. all their thoughts except to swear by His Name or to curse God dam me but rather they think on their father Joh. 8. 44. Psal 2. 3. Jer. 5. 5. the Devil whose works they do and drink healths to him and wish the Devil take them so running on in the practice of all wickedness that no cords or bonds will hold them They altogether break the yoke and burst the bonds All Laws both Divine and Humane they trample under foot But then when the holy Angels shall most powerfully gather together from all quarters of the Earth and Sea all men and set them before the Judg even Jesus Christ from whose faâ—e the heaven Rev. 20. 11. 6. 14 15. 16. and the earth do â—ly away c. denoting the terror and Majesty of the Judg Himself when there shall be such a conclusion of all things Then those high ruffing Gallants will strive to hide themselves in Caves and Rocks of the mountains and cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that setteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vain for there is no hiding-place but all must appear and Heb. 4. 13. that before Him before whom all things are naked and open and so must be judged according to their works Which brings us to the Second Head that is Judgment I need not prove that there shall be 2. Judgment a Judgment although there are several reasons for it besides the dictates of our own Consciences it is an Article of our Faith And many places both in the Old and also in the New-Testament confirm it For brevity sake I will only cite the Texts and leave them to be read out of the Bible Read Dan. 7. 9 10. Jude 14. 15. Christ's Sermon in Matthew 24 25 Chapters Acts 17. 31. and 1 Thes 4. 16. Heb. â— 27. Now next to speak what this last Judgment is In the end of the world Christ the What is this Judgment Judg shall descend from Heaven in the Clouds in the Glory and Majesty of His Father with His holy Angels and all men shall
air to meet the Lord But the Reprobate together with the Devil and his Angels shall with great horror and confusion be drawn into the presence of Christ then Rev. 6. 15. the Books shall be opened whereby we understand partly the Omniscience of God or His knowing of all things and partly the conscience of every man and woman And another book shall be opened which is the book of life Which is to shew that the salvation of the godly is not from their works buâ— from the eternal Grace of God whereby they are written in the book of life The wicked shall have their unbelief and wickedness so laid before their eyes by the testimony of their own consciences that they shall not be able to contradict or deny any thing at all I will reprove thee saith God and Psal â—0 21. Mat. 12. 3â— set thy wickedness before thy face The Act of Judgment shall be performed two ways 1. By examination 2. By pronouncing Sentence 1. By examination and that â— By 1. Examination the Law of God which hath been revealed unto men whether it be the Law of Nature only which is the remainder of the Law written in the hearts of our First Parents and conveyed by the Power of God unto all men to leave them without excuse for the Rom. 1. 20. invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse Or whether by the Law of God we understand that written word of God vouchsafed unto the Church in the Scriptures first of the Old and after of the New Testament as the rule of faith and life For as many as have sinned without Rom. 2. 12. Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law 2. This examination shall be by the evidence of every mans conscience bringing all his works to light whether they be good or evil his conscience bearing witness with him or against him together with the testimony of such who either by their doctrine company or example have either approved or condemned him Which Mat. 12. 27 41 42. shew the work of the law written in their Rom. 2. 15. hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another But there shall be a great difference in the examination of the elect and examination of the reprobates For 1. The elect shall not have their sins remembred Christ having satisfied for them All their transgressions that Ezek. 18. 22. they have committed they shall not be mentioned unto them Their transgressions are forgiven and their sins are covered Psal 32. 1. But their good works shall be remembred I was hungry and ye fed me c. their good works do follow Rev. 14. 13. them 2. Because they be in Christ therefore they and their works shall not undergo the strict Tryal of the law simply in its self but as the obedience thereof doth prove them to be true partakers of the grace of the Gospel Thus we have seen the first Act of judgment which is by Examination Now of the second Act which is by the 2. Pronouncing of sentence pronouncing of sentence The sentence shall be pronounced by the Judg Himself our Lord Jesus Christ according to the evidence and verdict of conscience touching works who shall adjudg the Elect unto the blessing of the Kingdom of God His Father And the Reprobates with the Devil and his Angels unto the curse of everlasting Fire So then men shall be adjudged to salvation or damnation for their works sake 1. The wicked shall be condemned for the merit of their works because being perfectly evil they deserve the wages of damnation For the wages of Rom. 6. 23. sin is death 2. The Godly shall be pronounced just because their works though imperfect do prove their faith whereby they lay hold on Christ and His meritorious righteousness to be a true Faith As Jam. 2. 18. Gal. 5. 6. working by love in all parts of obedience This last Judgment is administred by Christ as a King for the power of judging is a part of the Royal Function 1. In respect of the faithful this Judgment is from Grace and is a Function of the Kingdom of Grace essential to Christ as our Mediator 2. But in respect of the wicked From His Power and Dominion granted to Him by the Father Hence it is as I said before the sins of the Godly shall not come into Judgment for in this life by the Sentence of Justification they are taken away and coverd And this last Judgment shall be a confirming and manifestation of the same Sentence Therefore it is not consentaneous or meet that they should then be brought to light again Christ shall judg the world not according Isa 11. 3. to the sight of the eyes or hearing of the ears But He is the knower and searcher of all hearts who can discern the Hypocrites from the truly Godly and He will do no wrong to any The judg of all the earth will do Gen. 18. 25. right He will not acquit the wicked nor condemn the just He will manifest the secrets of all hearts and render to every one according to his works then shall the upright have praise of God Q Why must this last judgment be A. 1. Because of God's decree He hath decreed it and said it shall be 2. That God may obtain the end of creation of man God made all men for His glory if wicked men would not glorifie Him here He will judiciarily be glorified upon them in their everlasting confusion God shall be praised and glorified by His Elect to all eternity 3. That God may shew His perfect goodness and mercy to His Elect who were so excruciated troubled and afflicted here in this world that they may 2 Thess 1. 8. have rest 4. For His perfect Justice and Truths sake that He may shew His Justice in punishing the ungodly who do flourish in this world where they have all Luk. 16. 25. the good that ever they shall have Therefore it must be according to God's Justice and Truth in His Promises that the righteous shall have recompence in everlasting life both in body and soul Q. But it is said The Saints shall 1 Cor. 6. 2. judg the world And the Apostles shall sit upon thrones judging the twelve Luk. 22. 30. tribes of Israel A. I answer Christ alone in His humane nature shall appear judg and pronounce the sentence on all and execute it yet not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost God is invisible For this judgment is the work of the whole individual Trinity but according to the visible act promulgation and execution of the sentence so it is the judgment of Christ For Christ being
complaint for want of glory nor of envying others that have more Christ after the day of Judgment shall remain King for ever for He shall not so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. that He shall cease to reign But that He may represent to His Father that His Kingdom is compleat and shall remain so for ever The meaning of those words is thus when Christ as Mediator hath been established King of the whole World but especially of His Church to gather together govern and bring unto His Father all His Elect and to destroy His enemies shall have brought His work to an end and so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father that as verse 28. God may be all in all that is the Father with the Son and Holy Ghost in Unity of Essence and Glory shall begin to reign immediately over His Church in a manner altogether new namely by Himself without any outward means without the work of Angels or Men Ecclesiastical or Political Orders as it is in this world and likewise without any adversaries or oppositions filling all His with His light love life and glory Which indeed will not a whit disannul Christs Kingdom but only change the meaner form thereof into a more sublime majestical glorious and most perfect form That God may be all in all that is that God the whole blessed Trinity may immediately and absolutely work fully in all the Elect who shall then be perfectly united unto God and that He may Possess Govern and Rule them for ever Now to speak a little where these glorious mansions are in Heaven Philosophers speak of ten Heavens but we shall wave that and speak according to Scripture-phrase and so there are three Heavens 3 Heavens The first is all that whole space from the earth to the sphere of the Moon where the birds flie therefore they are called the folws of Heaven and whence Mat. 6. 26. the rain hail and snow thunder and lightning wind and other Meteors do descend So God opened the Windows Gen. 7. 11. Deut. 28. 12. of Heaven and poured down rain upon the earth The second Heaven is and consists of all those visible Orbs where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole expansion is called the Firmament Gen. 1. 14. 15. Gen. 1. 8. and God called the firmament Heaven and in this God hath placed the Sun Moon and other Stars which are called in Scripture the Stars of Heaven Num. 3. 16. The third Heaven is that where God is said especially to dwell whither Christ ascended whither St. Paul in a 2 Cor. 12. 2. rapture was caught up into this third Heaven and where all the blessed ones shall be for ever This is the Heaven whereof we now speak Objection But some may ask Where the Soul is when it goeth out of the body and in what condition the Soul lives being separate from the body until the day of Judgment The Papists feign a Purgatory that Solution they may be purged from their sins which is contrary to the Scripture For the Scripture teacheth us that not the sire of Purgatory after this life of which there is no mention made in Scripture but the blood of Christ laid hold on and applied by a lively faith while we are here in this life doth cleanse our souls from all sin And 1 John 1. 7. that the souls of the faithful after death are not thrust into a place of torment but that they are gathered unto Christ into Abrahams bosome The meaning Luk. 16. 23. of into Abrahams bosome is thus it is the gesture of a good Father towards his little and tender Children to cherish them in his bosome The souls of the faithful presently after their departure out of the body are carry'd by the Angels up into heaven into the communion of all true believers of whom Abraham was the Titular Father and therefore called the Father of the faithful Rom. 4. 16 I say That presently after death the soul appears before God to Judgment Eccl. 12. 7. either to be gathered into the Mansions of the blessed or to be cast into Hell into the state of the damned from whence there is no redemption and then truly are tormented in those infernal flames but yet are reserved for greater torments against the last Day when soul and body shall be joyned together again And for this the Scripture is very clear So our Saviour said Father into Thy hands I commit my Spirit Luk. 23. 46. Stephen at his death kneeled down and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7. 59. Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 8 Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Therefore not in Purgatory So the faithful are desirous and willing to be absent from the body that they may be present with the Lord. And this is the last Article of Faith as the Crown of all I believe the life everlasting or that there is an everlasting life which holds out these three things 1. I believe that after this life there shall be another life in which all the true members of the Church shall be glorifi'd and shall praise God for ever and ever 2. I believe that I am a member of this Church and so shall be a partaker of everlasting life 3. That in this life I have by Faith the beginning of everlasting life For Christ said He that believeth in Me Joh. 3. 36. hath everlasting life So this profit and comfort hence redoundeth unto me that in and through Christ I am justifi'd before God and am an heir of everlasting life Q. Shall we know each other and our Relations in heaven A. Mark the saying of the Apostle Henceforth know we no man after the 2 Cor. 5. 16. flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceâ—orth know we Him no more that is not with an affection meerly humane civil and natural but wholly with a Divine and spiritual affection befitting the state of glory Having premised this I answer in this Syllogism We shall enjoy in heaven every good thing and comfortable gift which may any way increase or add to our joy and happiness But meeting in heaven with our old dear Christian friends knowing of them and enjoying them never to part more either with them or all other the glorious Inhabitants in those heavenly Mansions will ravish us with sweetest delight Therefore we shall know one another in heaven nay our minds being abundantly enlightned with all wisdom and knowledg we shall be able to know not only those holy persons of our former relation or acquaintance but also such as we never knew before in the flesh even all the faithful which ever were are or shall be We shall be able then to say This was Abraham Isaac or Jacob Samuel David c. This was my Father Mother this was my child c. This was he