heart so that such men seldom Repent So long as men have any thing to trust in they will not care for God when people are grown to be Lords they will not come near God nor be ruled by him Ier. 2.31 therefore the Lord outs his of their creature-confidences and makes them sensible of their lost and fatherlesse condition before he shewes them mercy Hos. 14.3 other sins which are carnal and sensual are more easily discovered and conquered but covetousnesse is a more close cloaked 1 Thes. 2.5 spirituall sin and so is more hardly discerned and more hardly cured And this amongst others is one Reason why for one covetous person which returnes there are twenty prodigals which brings me to that Question Whether a Covetous man be worse then a prodigal Answ. We must distinguish of prodigals 1. Some are compounded ones and have many other foul enormities mixt with them as Idleness Whoredom Drunkenness c. and these aggravated by long continuance in them now there 's more hope of a Temperate young Worldling then of such a compounded Prodigall 2. There is a single and simple prodigal one that only spends beyond his estate and wastes his means excessively now caeterisâ—paribus there 's more hope of such a one then of a covetous man and that for these Reasonâ— 1. The prodigal man doth good to many but the covetous man is not good to himself 2. He gives though he gives too much and so comes nearer to liberality whose act is giving is nearer to blessednes according to that of our Saviour Acts 20.35 't is a more blessed thing to give then to receive But the Covetous man will part with nothing willingly 3. The prodigall hurts himself yet benefits others but the Covetous misâ—r defrauds both himself and others 4. The prodigall is more tractable and sooner reclaimed by reason of his poverty misery and affliction his eare is opened to discipline and he more ready to hearken to good counsell Luke 15. But a covetous man the more he hath the worse he is and the older he growes the harder 't is to reclaime him other sins age may bereave a man off the acting them but covetousness increaseth by age How long may we preach to such before we can stir them we speak to stones and call to dead men Hence our Saviour tells us that a Camel may sooner go through the eye of a needle then a rich man because so apt to trust in his riches can enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mark 10.24 25. 9. It unfits a man for any employment whether it be Magistraticall Ministeriall Martiall or Domestical 1. He 's an unfit man to be a Magistrate such a one will transgresse for a morsell of bread any base reward will byas him and therefore Iethro describing a right Governour tells us Exod. 18.21 that he must be 1. A man of Courage a magnanimous man one that fears not the faces or frownes of any be they never so many or mighty else he 'l soon be daunted and discouraged The want of this made fearful and faint-hearted Rehoboam to be branded for a child viz. in heart and courage 2 Chron. 13.7 though he were then above 40. yeares old as appears 1 Kings 14.21 therefore God commands Ioshua 1.7 to be strong and of good courage and the like counsell David gives to Solomon 2 Kings 2.2 2. He must fear God or else he will fear the face of man Deut. 1.17 the great fear of God will devour all base inferiour feares Micajah fear'd not two great Kings sitting on their Thrones in Pompe because he saw a greater then they 1 Kings 22 10.14.19 no man can be truly valourous but he that is truly Religious as we see in Ioseph Nehemiah Daniel The feare of God is the Foundation of all Vertue without it non sunt verae virtutes sed Vmbrae they are meere shadowes 3. He must deal justly and truly sifting out the truth that the poor be not opprest 4. He must â—ate covetousnesse Publick persons must have publick spirits not seeking themselves but the common good else he 'l take bribes which blind the eyes of the wise so that they cannot discern betwen a good cause a bad it makes them partial perverts judgement making men passe sentence on his side from whom he received the bribe Hence the Lord so oft condemnes it Exod. 23.8 Deut. 16.19 27.25 1 Sam. 8.3 Isai 5.23 and 't is made a note of a wicked man Psal. 26.9 his right hand is full of bribes These stop the eares tye the Tongue and manacle the hands No Vice so foul as this in a Magistrate the bottle and the basket will make him to do any thing So that if a Iudge should aske me the way to Hell saith B. Latimer I would shew him this way First Let his heart be poysoned with Covetousnesse Secondly Let him then take bribes and at last pervert judgement there lacks a fourth thing to make up the Mess which so God help me saith he if I were Iudge should be Hangum tuum a Tyburne Typpet to take with him if it were my Lord chief Iustice of England or my Lord Chancellour himselfe to Tyburne with him As birds are caught with bird-lime so are men with gifts and therefore men deale with such as we do by dogs throw them a crust that they may not bark or bite This was one of those sins that helpt to ruine Jerusalem Ezek. 22.12 Micah 3.11 12. Isai 1.23 24. many build them brave houses with their bribe but God threatens to bring a fire on those houses Iob 15.34 though bribes may build them yet bribe-takers cannot protect them for God hath said it who is able to performe it that the Tabernacles of Bribery shall be consumed This hath made Gods servants carefull to keep themselves pure from this sinne 1 Samuel 12.3 Acts 20.33 and the Lord hath promised Life and Happinesse to such Psalm 15.5 Prov. 15.27 Isai 33.15 Quest. Are all gifts unlawfull and may a man never take a gift Answ. We must distinguish of Gifts There are six sorts of gifts 1. Gifts of Piety to promote Gods worship 2. Gifts of Charity to the Poor 3. Gifts of friendship to preserve amity 4. Gifts of duty and gratitude from inferiours to superiours to testify their Obedience and Thankfullnesse 5. Gifts of bounty and favour from superiours to inferiours to testify their love to them Now there is no danger in such gifts because they increase love and help to preserve humane society 6. There are Gifts of iniquity that tend to the destruction of our Brethren and the perverting of Iustice and this is that Bribery and those Gifts which Gods word condemns It doth not simply condemn the taking of a Reward but the taking of a Reward against the Innocent Psal. 15.5 So that 't is not sinfull by way of Gratitude either to send a gift or to receive a gift but
betray the son too 4. Here is the Reason of this Caution why he should shun the society of Alexander viz. because of his desperate condition he being one that openly and maliciously opposed the Truth of God and greatly withstood Pauls words Alexander the Copper-smith c. There is a great Controversie amongst Interpreters who this Alexander should be and it is conceived by the most judicious that it was that Alexander mentioned Acts 19.33 Who was a Jew and dwelt at Ephesus who was on Pauls side at the first and sought to appease the tumult stirred up at Ephesus against him where he had like to have lost his life for appearing on his side yet now he maketh shipwrack of the Faith and opposeth the People of God revileing and traducing them which the Apostle calleth blasphemeing 1 Timothy 2.20 The Copper-smith A man of a mean Condition one that got his living by his hammer and hard labour in an inferiour Calling He was sometime Pauls Disciple and profest the Truth but now the scales are turned and of a Professour he is become a persecutor Hath done me much evil The word which we render hath done in the Original signifieth to shew It is an Hebraism they put shewing for doing Psal. 4.6 Who will shew us any good .i. who will effect our desires in that kind so Psal. 60.3 thou hast shewed thy people hard things .i. thou hast caused them to see and endure hard things probably he might by his agents and friends stir up Nero against him as a seditious person a broacher of strange doctrine and and enemy to the Jewish religion which was then tolerated at Rome What this evil was he shewes in the next Verse He resisted our words and opposed the truth which Paul delivered The Lord reward him according to his works which he hath done and still endeavours to do against me and the truth of God which I profess He now delivers him up to the Justice of God who is a righteous Judge and will reward every man according to his works The Vulgar to mollify this Imprecation have put the word in the future Tense and so would make it a Prediction and not an Imprecation The Lord shall reward him but the word is Optative in the Original and implyes a heavy Imprecation The Apostle by a prophetical Spirit saw manifest signes of reprobation in this man and thereupon denounceth this curse against him Quest. But how doth this Imprecation agree with that Apostolical sweetness and mildness which was in the Apostle Answ. The Apostle spake not these words out of any private spleen but oâ—t of Prophetical zeal he desires the Lord to execute his justice on this incurable Apostate So that it was an Imprecation darted by a particular motion of the Holy Ghost and so not to be imitated by us who have not that extraordinary measure of the Spirit as Paul had Of whom be thou ware also Observe him and take heed of him for he goeth up and down stirring up the Jews against the Gospel q. d. The reason why I mention him at this time is that thou maist shun him as an excommunicate person and one delivered up to Satan Since then he is an incurable Apostate avoid him as the Pest and Poysener of humane Society For he hath greatly withstood our words much more will he withstand thine q. d. He hath not onely resisted us but which is worse he hath Violently and Vehemently resisted the truth which I have preached to the world The one is but a personal persecution against charity the other is a doctrinal offence against piety and so far more hainous Observations 1. Great Professors may become grievous Persecutors This Alexander was a noted Professor and within the pale of the Church else the Apostle could not have excommunicated him and cast him out of the Church if he had never been in and if he had not profest the faith he could not have made ship-wrack of it 1 Tim. 1.19 20. Yea this man was neer to Martyrdom as Calvin conceives yet now he turns a desperate opposer of the truth The best things when corrupted become the worst The most generous wine makes the sharpest vinegar and the finest flesh when putrified becomes most fulsom These Apostates know the state of the Church better then others and so are able to do it more mischief besides God in judgment gives them up to a reprobate sense and the Devil comes with seven worse spirits and re-enters which makes the latter end of these men worse then their beginning Nicholas a great professor and one of the seven Deacons yet at last fell into foul errours pleading for community of wives and the lawfulness of adultery hence came the Sect of the Nicolaitans Rev. 2.6 Iudas went far yet at last sells his Master Be not then offended when you see Professors turn Blaspemers and Preachers Persecutors it should grieve us but not discourage us It was so in the Apostles time it is so now and it will be so to the end of the world There will be some such Tares mixt with Gods wheat and a Iudas amongst the very Apostles We must look to be hooted at as signes and wonders as mad-men and Monsters and that in Israel Isay 8.18 Quest. But doth not this prove the Apostasy of the Saints since Alexander is said to make ship-wrack of the faith Answ. Not at all There is no arguing from the shadow to the substance from the Meteor to the fixed Star because Hypocrites temporary beleevers and carnal professors fall away therefore real Saints and such as are effectually called may fall away is a manifest Non Sequitur 2. Observation 2. It is lawful sometimes and in some cases to name men Alexander a malicious incorrigible enemy is named that every one may shun him But of this before in Verse 10. 3. Observation 3. The enemies of Gods people many times are sordid men Alexander a Smith a man of no learning of mean education by professing not a Gold-Smith nor a Silver-Smith but a Copper-Smith and by disposition an open enemy to the truth This contemptible man opposeth the Preaching and Practice of chosen vessels an eminently learned Paul Thus it pleaseth God to exercise and humble his choicest servants by vile and worthless men Iob complains of such Iob 19.10 and 30.1 David complains that the abjects and dregs of the people made head against him Psal. 35.15 16. So Acts 17.5 And this was prophesied longe since by Isay 3.5 that such disordered times should come that every boy should behave himself proudly against the Ancient and the base against the Honourable and men of worth It is a trouble to ingenious natures to be molested by such disingenuous ones who want common humanity To fall by the hand of an Achilles or some eminent person for Learning and Valour is some honour But to be vext by such How 's and
and resolute we dis-hearten them in their attempts and dismay that great Belzebub the Prince of these Flies Let therefore this salt season all our services Christ calls for such Worshipps Matth. 22.37 38 39. Christianity is a work of activity we must ask seek knock strive wrastle run and work out our salvation with the greatest accuratness care and diligence Philip. 2.12 We must not rest content with the beginnings of grace but we must work it up and increase with the increasings of God Colos. 2.19 We must be filled with the Spirit and with the fire of zeal we must have fiery-heads and fiery-hearts fiery words and fiery works that what in us lyeth we may set the whole world on fire with the love of Christ. If we be to hear the Word we should be swift to hear and gladly embrace the opportunity flying as the clouds and flocking as the Doves to their windows When we come to the Sacrament we must earnestly desire it as Christ did Luke 22.15 With a desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you i. I have earnestly and heartily desired it Hezekiah kept the Passover with joy 2 Chron. 30. If we be called to Covenant with God we must do it with joy and with all our hearts as Asa and the people did 2 Chron. 15.12 15. If we be to Pray it must be fervent operative energetical praying Iames 5.16 We must strive in our prayers Rom. 15.30 and stir up our selves that we may lay hold on God Cant. 3.4 Isai. 27.5 and 647. That 's the way to have peace with him When we see a man angry those that are friends lay hold on him to prevent a danger so when we see God angry with his People we should compass God about like an Army one lay hold on him and another lay hold on him till he be pacified with his people But then we must be holy men else if a Rebel or Traitor should come to the Princes Chamber and lay hold on him it would be accounted Treason before we come to reason with God we must wash our selves and then come and welcome Isai. 1.16 17 18. We must get a spiritual induration and holy impudency let God do what he will with us let him oppose delay deny us yet we will not let him go till he bless us As Pharaoh had a cursed Induration and a plerophory of hardness so that no plagues could work on him so we should get a blessed induration and fulness of assurance resolving though God should crush and kill us yet that we will trust in him Iob 13.15 And when we find our spirits flat then cry because thou canst not cry and be in an agony because thou canst not be agonized Formality in duty is the bane of duty and Religion There 's little difference between a careless performance of duties and a total omission of them since men loose both wayes Let us then rouse up our selves remembring that the more zealous any are here the more glorious they shall be hereafter Let us all in our several callings be active for God Let Magistrates and Rulers rule for him as Nehemiah did Let them not bear the sword in vain nor tolerate such things as are intolerable There 's no Precept or President in the whole Book of God for any Toleration of one Error much less of all but promises that God will give us one heart and one way If Magistrates suffer Gods Name to be despised he 'l make them to be despised 1 Sam. 2.30 Ahab lost his life for not punishing blasphemous Benhadad with death 1 Kings 20.42 I Plead not for Cruelty but Iustice as Magistrates must be clement and merciful when occasion requires so they must be just sharp against incorrigible incurable offenders If Abishai out of love to David would have slain Shimâ—i who reviled him saying Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the King let me goe to take off his head 2 Sam. 16.9 and shall the Magistrate be silent when the King of Kings is blasphemed and reviled to his face if men will still bear with such yet God will not Objection If we punish them we shall loose a partie Answer Such a partie as I now speak against are better lost then found They cannot long prosper with them who ever hath them But by punishing such we shall make God our friend who hath promised to defend those that defend his Truth We have a notable instance in the City of Geneva which from the beginning of the Reformation to this day have punished Sectaries and Hereticks and yet God hath kept them safe and sound Many create to themselves needless fears 2. Governours of Families should be zealous against sin in all their Relations hate it in father mother wife children Asa punisheth his own mother for her idolatry 2 Chronicles 15.16 The Lord taketh notice what every man doth in his Family he observes who prayes who reads who supresseth sin in his Family who acts for him and who for themselves Mal. 3.16 Our zeal is the best thing we have and therefore to be given to God who is the best of beings But yet there is nothing that the world so much opposeth as zeal the Devil and his Agents can bear with any man save the zealous man The Hypocrite Formalist Civilian Temporizer c. All pass through the world with praise 'T is onely these Zelots that oppose the sins of the time which are counted the troublers of the places where they come though they be never so peaceable To discourage men from this course the world hath raised many Cavils 1. Objection I am but one and what good will my zeal doe Answer One zealous man may yea and hath done much good to a whole Land One Phinees by executing Justice turned away Gods wrath from all Israel Numbers 25.6 7 11. One faithful Hushai by his Counsel spoyled Achitophels policy 1 Samuel 17.14 One poor man saved a Citie Eccles. 9.15 and the Prayers of One righteous man availeth much Iames 5.16 When Gods judgements were falling on Ierusalem he sought but for a man that he might spare it Ieremiah 5.2 A carnal man dares not stir without company especially the company of great ones they enquire whether any of the Rulers and learned Pharisees have gone that way Iohn 7.47 Jades will not go unless some lead them the way and Cowards stand still to see who will go first but a gracious soul is content to fit alone Lam. 3.28 and go alone in the way to Heaven 1 Kings 19.10 He stayes not for company but if the cause be good rather then it shall fall he will endeavour to uphold it himself Hester will venture all for Gods people and if she must perish she will perish in this cause Let nothing discourage you if God have called thee to a good work and none will joyne with thee in it yet remember he that called thee alone will bless
Haggards such Coppingars and Colliars as are famous for nothing but Ignorance and Impudence but malice and wickedness is a great burden But it may comfort us that Christ himself was thus exercised before us He endured the contradiction of sinners Heb. 12.3 If we be contradicted by wise men we can the better bear it but to be contradicted by foolish rebellious sinners goes hard yet such is the vanity of the Vulgar that one such an ignorant and brazen faced sot especially if he have liberty and a little success is cryed up by them as the onely man and one such a Demetrius though but a Smith pleading for gain shall be heard before a Paul pleading for Christ and Heaven Acts 19.24 25. Hath shewed me much evil 4. Observation 4. Wicked men that oppose Gods truth and people do but labour in vain They do but Shew what they would do they cannot bring their wicked desires into acts according to their intents Their intent is to root up the Name of Israel and to destroy the Gospel and by opposing them they increase the one and spread the other Acts 8.1 Wicked men serve Gods will though against their own wills Their designs Accidentally though not Intentionally fulfil Gods will Iosephs brethren little thought to have advanced him by selling him yet God had so decreed it their selling him furthers it Pharaohs daughter thought little to Nurse up one that should be so signal an opposite to her father Thus God catcheth the wise in their own craft he makes their Plots to become their plagues and their own doings to become their undoings he snares them in the work of their own hands Iob 5.12 13. Psal. 9.16 The Lord reward him according to his works 5. Observation 5. Imprecations against the malicious and incurable enemies of the Church are lawful David a man of Prophetical Spirit frequently used them against such men Psal. 69.22 to 29. and 10.9 6. to 22. So did Moses and others Deut. 27. Iudg. 5.23 Ier. 17.18 Lam. 3.64 65 66. So did Paul 1 Cor. 16.22 Gal. 5.12 These men had a Prophetical Spirit and saw into the final estate of those whom they cursed and so might better do it then we who want that extraordinary gift of the Spirit Object Christ commands us to bless our enemies and not to curse them Matth. 5.44 and so doth Paul Rom. 12.14 Answ. We must distinguish of enemies 1. Some are Private enemies and onely wrong us 2. Others are Publick enemies and such as oppose the truth of God of these also there are two sorts 1. Some are Curable and they are such as persecute the truth and people of God out of Ignorance and blind superstition for such we must pray so did Christ Luke 23.34 and Steven Acts 7.60 Many have been converted by such Prayers as those Iews Acts 2. and Paul by Stevens Prayers 2. There are malicious and incurable enemies who wittingly and wilfully oppose the truth of God out of malice so did Alexander here and therefore the Apostle curseth him and such we may pray against Yet least any should offend in Imitating the Saints in their Imprecations these Rules must be observed 1. Imprecations against particular persons must be rarely used We must not with the men of the world fly presently to curses 1. Because we now want that Spirit of Prophesy to discern who are incurable enemies which the Saints then had 2. It is very hard to keep a right measure in these Imprecations and not to mingle our own private affections with them 3. It is safer to pray Indefinitely against the enemies of truth in general as against Antichrist the Turk and those profest enemies of Gods truth and people 4. It is safer praying against the Plots of wicked men then against their persons So did David 2 Sam. 15.31 he prayes against the plots and counsel of Achitophel so Peter and Iohn pray against the threatnings of wicked men Acts 4.29 Now Lord behold their Threatnings 5. Pray not absolutely but conditionally 1. That if they belong to Gods Election he would be pleased to call them 2. If this will not do but they persevere in their persecuting the people of God then beseech him to correct them and to lay some temporal chastisement on them for their amendment so David Psal. 83.17 Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy Name 3. If it appear to us that they are incorrigible and incurable enemies to God and his truth then we may desire as Paul doth here that God would glorifie his Justice in their destruction It is not for us by open force and violence to resist them Prayers and Tears are our best Weapons and therefore Paul goeth to God by Prayer for aid The Lord render to him according to his works This is the best revenge when we call on God and bring him in to our help committing our cause to him who judgeth Righteously 6. Observation 9. God observes all the wayes of wicked men and first or last he will reward them according to their works So much is implyed in this Apostolical Imprecation He eyes all the wayes of men and they shall have according to their doing Psal. 28.4 5. Ier. 32.19 2 Cor. 11.25 Rev. 18.6 Be not then offended at the prosperity of wicked men for though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet in the end it shall not be well with him Eccles. 8.12 13. VERS 15. Of whom be thou ware 1. Observe WE must shun the society of incurable sinners Whilest men are hopeful and curable we must try all means to win them But when we perceive that men are obstinate and incurable we must leave them least we be infected by them Rom. 16.17 Tit. 3.10 2 Iohn 10. But of this at large on 2 Tim. 3.5 For he hath greatly withstood our words 2. Observation 2. Opposing of the truth is very grievous to a gracions Soul Paul doth not complain of any personal trouble though he were now in Prison but that which afflicted him was that Alexander should thus maliciously resist the truth and hinder the Gospel God hath but two things which are dear to him in this world viz. His Truth and his People and these should be dear to us Our Zeal for them should consume us as it did Christ Iohn 2.17 Gods people are baptized with fire as well as with water and must be hot and not luke-warm or indifferent in the things of God 3. Observation 3. Wicked men do not so much oppose our persons as our Preaching They hate us not as men but as Ministers because we publish the truth that condemns their wicked practises The truth hath many opposers 1. Sometimes Learned men oppose it by their wit disputing and writing against it 2. Tyrants labour to suppress it by cruelty and great men by their authority Never was power yet in the hands of men but for the most