therewith rest contented Secondly having store of this worlds good if wee doe not set our hearts upon them then we will be content to leave them whensoever God the supreme and soveraigne Owner calleth againe for them and not excessively mourne for them when they leave us And as we will not refuse and reject them when we have them seeing they are the gifts of God so when they betake them to their wings and flee away we will looke after them with a quiet minde as it was with Iob who because hee rejoyced not when his substance was great Iob 31.25 1 21. and when his hand had gotten much therefore he did not much grieve when his wealth was taken away but in his greatest losse praiseth the Lord. So also it was with Paul who because he used this world as not abusing it and esteemed the best things thereof no better then dung in comparison of Christ and his benefits 1 Cor. 7.31 Phil. 3.7 8. 4.11 12 13. it was no great paine to him to take forth a farther lesson in what state soever he was therewithall to be content he could be abased and abound every where in all things he was instructed both to be full and to be hungry to abound and to have want yea hee could say I can doe all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Thirdly if worldly riches be wanting we will not seeke them by evil meanes nor glory in them when we have them to make us high minded or to put our trust and confidence in them Lastly it will make us keepe a vigilant eye over them that through our abuse they doc not degenerate from their owne nature and become Satans baits to allure us nor his snares to intangle us nor his thornes to choke us that the seed of the Word cannot prosper neither the graces of God grow in us Hence it is that I goe about to perswade to lay hold on Gods speciall providence watching over his children to succour and relieve them out of hopelesse and remedilesse troubles when they appeare destitute of all succour and in a manner in a desperate estate without all meanes left unto them When the Sonnes of Iacob stood gazing one upon another that is Gen. 42.1 they fared as men amazed and at their wits end that they know not what to doe for themselves their wives and their children then the Lord by his good hand opened a way for their reliefe that there was plenty of Corne in Egypt when there was none in the Land of Canaan verifying his gracious promise Gen. 8.22 So when the poore widdow in time of a great famine was brought to that extremity 1. King 17.12 13. that shee had but an handfull of meale in a barrell and a little oyle in a cruse and was now going purposely to gather a few stickes to dresse it for her selfe and her sonne that they might eate and die when she was in this great perplexity necessity and extremity the Lord that never leaveth his by his good providence directed the Prophet Elijah who immediately before had himselfe beene fed by Ravens that brought him bread and flesh in the morning verse 6. and bread and flesh in the evening to tell her good newes that the barrell of meale should not waste verse 14. neither the cruse of oyle faile until the Day that the Lord sendeth raine upon the earth Thus it was with the widdow of one of the sonnes of the Prophets she was left so farre in debt that her children were to be sold to satisfie the griping and greedinesse of the mercilesse Creditor and she had nothing to discharge it 2 Kings 4.2 but a little pitcher of oyle yet she was provided for by wonderfull meanes all which examples as a cloud of witnesses doe verifie the saying of the Psalmist Psa 33.18 19. and 37.25 Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soule from death and to keepe them alive in famine and Psal 37. I have beene young and now am old yet have I not seene the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread But if there were no other reasons or considerations then such as are handled in this Scripture to be as a preservative or counterpoison against diffidence and distrust touching earthly things which doe more disquiet disturbe not onely the naturall man but even the Regenerate themselves oftentimes then any thing in the world besides herein we may finde matter sufficient to take from us the carnall feare of future wants first because we are his Flocke and he is our Shepheard Will the good Shepheard starve his Sheepe and not make them lye downe in greene pastures This confidence in God doth the Prophet shew and concludeth from this ground the point in hand The Lord is my Shepheard Psal 23.1 therefore I shall not want how then can they assure themselves to be in the number of the Sheep of Christ that doe not rely upon the care of this great Shepheard As then the Prophet saith in another case Esay 40.11 Ezek. 34.2 Should not the Shepheards feed the Flocke So we may be assured that the Shepheard of Israel that leadeth Ioseph like a Flocke will never be wanting to his sheepe that call and cry unto him Secondly because the Title given to God assureth us hereof he is called a Father Psal 80.1 2. Will the father give over the care of his children and forsake or forget the fruite of his owne body nay doth not the Prophet say Esay 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee whom I have graven upon the palmes of my hands And Christ our Saviour speaketh to the same purpose What man is there of you Matth. 7.9.10.11 whom if his sonne aske bread will he give him a stone or if he aske a fish will he give him a Serpent If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that aske him Lastly because we have the promise of a Kingdome and of the glory of heaven which is unspeakeable incomprehensible and everlasting He that hath promised us a Kingdome will he with-hold from us food and raiment nay Rom. 8.32 as the Apostle teacheth us to reason He that spared not his owne Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things So should we cōclude that seeing he hath called us to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 He will never leave us nor forsake us in this life but if we first seeke the Kingdome of God Matth 33. all other things shall be added unto us He
that promiseth and provideth the greater can he faile us and not performe the lesse He that maketh us Kings unto his Father and hath promised a Crowne August de verb. Domini Qui dabit regnum non dabit viaticum will he deny us a bit of bread and a cup of drinke These points are more particularly discussed and opened in the ensuing Treatise which I have presumed to dedicate to your Lady-ship and not without good and waighty reasons You heard the publike preaching of them with speciall attention though many yeeres since and therefore I must needs acknowledge you among my best hearers and friends and withall consecrate vnto you some part of my labours which I have bestowed in writing Besides considering your earnest desire to know that God whose goodnesse you have alwaies tried your zeale to glorifie him on whom you have alwaies called your care to walke in his waies whom you have alwaies served and the fruits of a lively faith that have plentifully flowed from you whereof there are so many eye-witnesses among us the hearts of many distressed Ministers and the loynes of many poore people being ready to blesse you and God for you I cannot but beseech your Lady-ship to accept of this small testimony of my unfained observance of your many praises in the Gospell and as a pledge of my thankefulnesse which I leave behind me to the world being now ready to goe out of it The God of eternall glory the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ make you abound yet more and more in all the riches of his saving graces in this life and fill you with the inward comforts of the blessed hope of the appearance of Jesus Christ Your Lady-ships in all Christian duties to command WILLIAM ATTERSOLL PHISICKE AGAINST FAMINE LVKE 12.32 Feare not little Flocke for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give unto you the Kingdome THe occasion of these words is to bee taken from the 15. The occasion of the words verse of this Chapter wherein our Saviour exhorteth to take heed beware of covetousnesse for as much as no mans life standeth in the abundance of those things he possesseth True it is this lesson is short and set downe in few words howbeit it is not so soone learned and easily practised as it is spoken and delivered Wherefore he propoundeth a parable and telleth what hapned to a certaine rich man who in the plentifull encrease of his goods and fruits of his ground blessed himselfe the possessor but not the Lord the giver of all for he said to his soule Luke 12.19 20. Soule thou hast much goods laid up for many yeeres take thine ease eate drinke and be merry But what said the Oracle of God unto him Thou foole this night thy soule shall bee required of thee then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided This example hee applieth to all Verse 21 so is he a starke foole that layeth up treasure for himselfe but is not rich toward God Then he goeth forward to lay before us the care that God hath over his Children both toward their lives and their bodies Verse 24 who feedeth the Ravens that cry unto him and clotheth the Lillies of the Field that cannot cry unto him Verse 27 so that Salomon in all his royalty was not arayed like one of them But what is all this if we make not use thereof if we doe not apply it unto our selves doubtlesse it is no better then the covetous mans hidden treasure which he heapeth and hoardeth together but doth neither to himselfe nor to other any good Wee have therefore the direction of Christ himselfe who draweth and deducteth sundry conclusions from hence Verse 31 One use is taught in the verse 31. First of all seeke the Kingdome of God and then all these things shall be added unto you Another use is in these words of the text feare not for you have a Kingdome prepared and provided for you Thus we are come to the words that are to be handled The interpretation of the vvords being the use that the best Teacher and Master maketh of his doctrine he had delivered Now let us see the meaning and interpretation thereof Feare not This is to be restrained according to the circumstances aforegoing the generall being put for the speciall We are sometimes commanded to feare Psal 34.9 O feare the Lord yee his Saints and Rom. Psal 34.9 Rom. 11.20 Matth. 10.26 28. 1 Pet. 3.20 Psal 2.11 Luke 1.74 11 Be not high-minded but feare And againe sometimes not to feare Matth. 10.26 28. 1 Pet. 3.20 Sometimes wee are charged to serve the Lord in feare and to rejoyce in trembling Psal 2. Likewise sometimes to serve him without feare Luke 1.74 These phrases may seeme the one contrary to the other But they are easily reconciled if the words going before and following after be diligently marked In this place hee meaneth the feare of want of earthly things as if there were none in Heaven above to provide nor promise made in the Word to strengthen nor example of the godly to direct or as if every one were left to shift and scamble for himselfe So then hee meaneth a corrupt and carnall feare whereby a man feareth lest he lacke such things as are needfull for the maintenance of this life and thereby is so distracted in the service of God that he employeth all his time in the businesse and affaires of this present world Flocke That is my people whom I have undertaken to maintaine nourish keepe preserve and feed as a good Shepheard doth his Flocke for these are as it were the sheepe of his pasture Little Gods heritage is called little in three respects first in regard they are few in number because the multitude of the wicked world is the gnats and replenisheth all palces of the earth Secondly in regard of the small account and estimation wherein they are there is little reckoning made of them Matth. 10.42 1 Cor. 4.13 for in the judgement of the ungodly they are as the filth of the world and the off-scowring of all things unto this day Hence it is that Christ saith Matth. 18.14 Matth. 18.14 It is the will of your heavenly Father that none of these little ones should perish Thirdly they are little in their owne eyes and thinke more lowly of themselves then any other or then of any other 2 Sam. 6.22 1 Chron. 29.14 Fathers That is God the Father of his Church whom he tendreth as the apple of his eye and loveth as a Father doth his Children and therefore cannot see nor suffer them to want any thing that is good Kingdome That is the Kingdome of Heaven the Kingdome of glory for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18.36 Touching the good pleasure of God see more afterward In these words observe two points The division of the vvords first the counsell or commandement of Christ which is delivered Secondly
18.24 1 Cor. 3.6 yet Aquila and Priscilla tooke him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly It was an evident signe that Job was humble in his owne eyes Iob 31.13 15. in that he did not despise the cause of his Man-servant or of his Maide when they contended with him but considered with himselfe that he which made him in the wombe fashioned them also and that one formed them all Thirdly if we submit our selves to bee governed by the wisedome of God revealed in his Word This submitting and subjecting of our selves maketh simple men become wise yong men to be wiser then their Elders and such as have beene taught Psal 119.98 99. 19.7 Prov. 1.4 wiser then their Teachers and such as have enemies to goe beyond all their deepe policies and to prevent all their cunning devices On the other side if wee reject the Word and will not bee obedient unto it making it a lampe unto our feet and a light unto our pathes Psal 119.105 Ier. 8.9 2 Tim. 3.15 there is no true wisedome at all in us Jer. 8.9 The Word is able to make us wise to salvation 1 Tim. 3.15 which is the greatest wisedome that can be He that is not wise for his soule is a foole let him be never so wise and wary for the body and let him have never so great reputation for a wise man in the world yet is his wisedome disprooved Fourthly if we deny our selves and our owne naturall and fleshly wisedome It is a very hard matter to deny our selves and our carnall wisedome but it must of necessity bee done if ever wee desire to come to the Kingdome of Heaven Therefore the Apostle saith Let no man deceive himselfe 1 Cor. 8.13 2 Cor. 10.32 If any man among you seeme to be wise let him become a foole that he may be wise For our high thoughts must be cast downe that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and bee brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ Lastly let us study to decke our selves with humility as with a precious robe and to crowne our selves with humblenesse of minde as with a garland And so much the rather because this adorneth all other graces yea without this grace is no grace This is the direction of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5.5 6. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that hee may exalt you in due time and cloathe yourselves with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 6. And we have sundry motives to stirre us up unto it First no good thing dwelleth in our flesh Rom. 7.18 but evill dwelleth in us abundantly and plentifully All the thoughts of mans heart are onely evill Gen. 6.5 and that continually The water can arise no higher then nature will give it leave so there is an impotency and disability in our nature to ascend above it selfe to that which is good as unpossible as for the streame to climbe up to the top of an high mountaine or for a stone by its owne strength to mount into the aire For that which is of the flesh is onely flesh Our natur is stained and defiled with all manner of sinne and a pronenesse to all sorts of sinnes from our birth Iob 14.4 15.14 Psal 51.5 nay from our conception which hath over-spred us as a filthy leprosie The minde and understanding the will and affections the memory and conscience the whole soule and body are infected Rom. 8.7 so that the naturall man understandeth not the things of God for they are foolishnesse unto him and are spiritually discerned Secondly God resisteth the proud and professeth himfelfe to be an enemy to them Iam. 4.6 Prov. 3.34 1 Pet. 5.5 but hee giveth grace unto the humble Iam. 4.6 Thirdly our best gifts are wonderfully tainted and defiled We know nothing if wee be ignorant hereof What is our faith our repentance our sanctification our love our temperance our patience our hope our knowledge but as it were the foundation or beginning of a great building or the seed of grace sowne in our hearts rather then grace it selfe being compared with perfection We know nothing as we ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 howsoever wee may thinke wee know all things Our faith is little and soone shaken with many doubtings and with much unbeleefe Lastly Marke 9.24 such onely as are humble shall be exalted and lifted up in due time Luke 1.51 As the proud are scattered in the imagination of their hearts so the humble shall be advanced It is a common saying of Christ oftentimes uttered by him and repeated by the Evangelists Matth. 23.12 Luke 24.11 18.14 Hee that lifteth up himselfe shall be cast downe and he that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted As pride goeth before destruction and an high minde before the fall Prov. 16. so on the other side humility goeth before exaltation and leadeth the way before it All are desirous to passe into the house of glory but they are unwilling to enter in at the gate of humility By this gate Christ himselfe entred and this way he hath consecrated to all his children For it is your Fathers These words containe the reason which is the promise of a great and wonderfull blessing greater then all the world besides For what is this world without respect and reference to the World to come or what is all the glory of this life without the glory of the next Life or what is an earthly Kingdome without the Kingdome of Heaven Now touching the force and strength of this reason see afterward in the last branch This promise which is a promise of promises or the perfection of all promises as a spring or fountaine hath many streames or chanels issuing out of it as hath beene observed before in the beginning The first is the Author of the promise not Man not Angels not Princes not any creature for this is greater then all the Angels of Heaven and all the Kings and mighty men of the earth are able to promise and performe it is God that hath promised who also will accomplish whatsoever he hath spoken And to the intent this promise might take the deeper root in our hearts Christ Iâ—sus doth not call him the mighty Lord the righteous Iudge the God of revenge or such like but a mercifull Father For as before we shewed that God sheweth himselfe a Shepheard to teach that his Sheepe shall not want so here the Lord Iesus calleth him a Father 2 Cor. 12.14 to shew that as a Father provideth for his Chlldren so God loveth his and will provide for all of them He were a bad Shepheard that would feed himselfe but starve and famish his Sheepe so he were an evill father that would bee carefull for himselfe but carelesse altogether for his children The meaning of the word Father Now touching the meaning this word Father so farre as it is ascribed to God is
the body to see one eye lifted vp to heauen and the other cast downe to the earth It choketh the Word as a rancke Thorne and stoppeth yea stuffeth the mouth so full with earth that it cannot be opened to pray to God Psal 14.4 Ezek. 33.31 Psal 119.36 The third is broken because it draweth men to cursing and swearing and forswearing in buying and bargaining and that sometimes to get a penny Hence proceed false waights and false measures making the rules of Iustice to be the meanes of iniustice Such oftentimes take the name of God in vaine The fourth is trangressed because it thrusteth men headlong to the breach of the Sabbath they thinke it commeth too soone they iudge that it beginneth too earely they suppose that it lasteth too long they imagine that it is urged too strictly being ready to ioyne with those in the Prophet Neh. 13.20 Amos 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth wheat c The fifth Commandement maintaineth the dignity of our person which the couetous man defaceth If wee should see Kings and Princes or the children of Kings and Princes that are heires to a Kingdome busie themselues in base Trades or handy-crafts and occupations Turk History in the life of Aemet as the Turkish Emperours doe what a reproch would wee thinke it to their high calling God hath made his children Kings and prepared for them a Kingdome shall we therefore be so base bad-minded as to follow after this world and forget the things of the World to come The sixt Commandement is pulled vp by the rootes because this sinne is often a bloody sinne and taketh away life from the owners thereof as we see in Ahab and in Judas When a man is once couetous it cannot be but he shall giue himselfe to hatred malice cruelty violence rage and reuenge It causeth the breach of the seuenth Commandement for when whoredome hath taken away the heart of many to maintaine their unbridled lusts they oftentimes oppresse rich and poore small and great without difference so that sometimes whoredome is the cause of covetousnesse and sometimes covetousnesse of whoredome The eigth Commandement is principally broken by this sinne aboue the rest Here the couetous are as it were in their proper element and make shipwracke upon it as upon a rocke They devise all mischiefe they regard no Contracts nor Couenants their word is yea and nay as standeth most with their owne profit They rush against the ninth Commandement because they are faithfull to no man they are voyd of all true dealing they sticke not to lye and beare false witnesse as appeareth in Gehazi 2 King 5.25 and in those that were hired for mony to dissemble deny the resurrection and to make report that the Disciples came by night Matth. 28.13 15. and stole away the body of Iesus out of the Sepulchre while they slept The tenth Commandement striketh at the root of all these evils and forbiddeth the couetousnesse of the heart before consent which is throughly setled therein All these things considered what a blot is it to our holy profession that wee should professe our selues Christians and yet live as the Gentiles Infidels and Pagans as Christ himselfe speaketh Matthew 6.32 After all these things doe the Gentiles seeke whereas our heauenly Father knoweth that wee haue need of all these things If wee should see a young man rake and scrape all he can together shifting for himselfe and no other upon the earth prouiding for him or looking after him or mindfull of him wee would presently conclude Doubtlesse his father is dead Even so when wee see men in this world bestow all their thoughts studies endeauours and practices reaching and ouer-reaching day and night for the things of this world it argueth plainely that they take God no longer for their Father but imagine in their unbeleeving hearts that he hath cast away the care of them and will no longer provide for them otherwise they would not thus shift and shave for themselues Hitherto of our duty respecting our selves Our duty toward our brethren learned out of this Title now we have somewhat to learne from hence in respect of our brethren For if we have all of us one Father are wee not to demeane and behave our selves uprightly and lovingly toward those that are his Children and our owne brethren Wee must be like our heavenly Father if we beare his Image and not as bastard-children that carry but the Image of his Image And first wee must imitate him and walke in his steppes that hath gone before us 1 Ioh. 4.11 Ioh. 13.34 15.12 loving them heartily that are his Children as well as our selves Jo. 4.11 Beloued if God so loved us we ought also to love one another And againe This is my commandement that yee love one another as I have loved you This duty must appeare especially in two points first in loving them that hate us and in doing good to them that persecute us Math. 5. That thereby we may shew our selves to be the Children of our heavenly Father Matth. 5.45 Luke 6.32 For if wee love them onely that love us what reward have we or what singular thing doe we for sinners also love those that love them And if we doe good to them onely which doe good to us what thanke have we for sinners also doe even the same And if ye salute your brethren onely what doe ye more then others doe not even the Publicanes so Wee must therefore labour to goe beyond them and to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect who maketh his Sunne to shine upon the good and bad and the raine to fall upon the godly and ungodly Secondly wee must doe good and shew mercy to the poore and impotent Luke 6.76 that we may also be mercifull to others as our heavenly Father is mercifull unto us who is a Father of the Fatherlesse of the Stranger and of the Widdow Lastly hence ariseth much comfort to all the Children of God that he is become their Father Consider first from hence the dignity and prerogative of all true beleevers Is it not a great honour to be the Sonne and Heire of a great King an honour doubtlesse that belongeth and befalleth to a few Thus doth David debate the matter with Sauls servants 1 Sam. 18.23 Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a Kings Sonne in law seeing that I am a poore man and lightly esteemed howbeit it is a thousand times greater honour to be the Sonnes and Daughters and consequently Heires of the King of Kings the eternall God This Christ our Saviour sheweth Joh. 1.12 Ioh. 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave prerogative to be the Sonnes of God So the Apostle saith and speaketh it with admiration 1 Ioh. 3.1 Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us that we should be called the Children of God! This preeminence
all meanes save not all but some 1 Cor. 9. And what some this is in comparison of the rest the Actes of the Apostles sufficiently declare sometimes one sometimes two Obiect and sometimes none at all But did God create any man to be damned If not then they shall be saved To say he did maketh him unjust I answere Answ He created all for his owne glory yea Prov. 16.4 even the wicked for the day of evill as Salomon teacheth So it is said of Pharaoh Ro. 9. For this same purpose I have raised thee up Rom. 9.17 18 that I might shew my power in thee and that my Name might be declared thorowout all the earth therefore He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy and whom He will Hee hardneth Secondly God doth consider man as fallen and thereby having lost the happinesse wherein he was created This befell him for his owne grievous sinne Gen. 3. The more grievous by how much the goodnesse of God toward him was the greater and the power whereby he was inabled to stand the stronger Besides by the sinne of our first Parents we all were defiled no lesse then if Satan had tempted us in the Garden and we in our persons had harkened to his voyce had tasted of the forbidden fruit actually and had stretched out our hand to receive the same as Rom. 5.12 By one man sinne entred into the world Rom. 5.12 15 17. and death by sinne and so death went over all men for as much as all men have sinned Thus also afterward By the offence of one the fault came on all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners as by the obedience of One many are made righteous Obiect But it will be further objected that the Apostle saith God hath concluded all in unbeleefe that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11.32 If upon all then none no Rom. 11.32 not one shall be condemned I answere Answ The purpose of the Apostle is not to teach that it is Gods purpose to save every particular person but some of all sorts some Iewes some Gentiles even all the faithfull of every Nation Tongue and Language Rom. 10.12 13. Gal. 3.22 as appeareth by comparing of other Scriptures as Rom. 10 12 13. He is rich to all that call upon him and Gal. 3. where all is limited and restrained to all beleevers to all the Elect and to them onely Secondly woe to all impenitent persons the whole company of the Reprobate for they shall be shut out of the Kingdome as the foolish Virgins were out of the Bride-chamber As the Kingdome of heaven is the hight of happinesse so to be shut out of it is the greatest misery that can be It had beene better for such that they had never beene borne It is a sore punishment to be banished out of a mans Country Our Country soyle is pleasant and welcome to all men therefore to be exiled from it is worthily accounted a great Iudgement how much more to be cast forth of the City which hath foundations Heb. 11.10 whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11 It is a sore punishment to have judgement to bee burned notwithstanding that the fire quickely consumeth the body to dust and ashes how much more to be cast into the fire that never goeth out Who knoweth not what a fearefull judgement it was to be cast into the Denne of Lions Dan. 6.16 as Daniel was how much more to be cast into the darke Dungeon and Den of the Devils which are Lions alwaies roaring after their prey A sore judgement to be committed to perpetuall imprisonment and to lye there with bolts of iron as many as he can beare and to have none suffered to come to comfort him how much more to be cast into the prison of hell 1 Pet. 3.19 Revel 20.7 in which there is no release out of which there is no recovery nay all these punishments if they could be put together what are they but as painted fires painted dennes painted prisons painted paines in comparison of the everlasting punishment in hell and those unspeakable torments It is a grieuous punishment to be thrust out of the visible Church in this life Gen. 4.14 21.10 as Cain was out of the house of Adam as Hagar with her sonne Ishmael out of the house of Abraham but a thousand times more fearefull to be thrust out of the house of God in heaven from the glorious presence of God and his Angels Alas what benefit or comfort shall these have to know that God hath prepared a Kingdome and an Inheritance immortall and undefiled and that fadeth not Matth. 8.11 12. 1 Cor. 6.9 and to see Abraham Isaak and Iacob and all the Prophets and people of God in the Kingdome of heaven and themselves shut out of dores Math. 8.11 1 Cor. 6.9 This cannot but be a terrour nay a terrour of all terrours to consider that God hath appointed a certaine day Acts 17.31 Rom. 2.5 Iude 15. in which he will iudge the world in righteousnesse Act. 17. He will rebuke the ungodly of all their wicked deedes which they have ungodly committed This terrour will be acknowledged the greater for these causes First they shall heare the dreadfull thunder of Christs fearefull voice summoning them to Iudgement 1 Cor. 15.52 For the Archangell shall blow the Trumpet so shrill that the dead shall heare the sound thereof and hearing it 1 Thes 4.16 shall arise and come to Iudgement Secondly they shall be all compelled though sore against their wills to appeare before the Iudgement Seate of Christ being gathered and assembled from the foure winds of heaven If malefactors bee hardly drawne before Magistrates to receive worthy punishment for their offences how much more will the Reprobate strive and struggle to keep themselves if it might be from the presence of him that sitteth upon the Throne and rather say to the mountaines Fall upon us and to the hills Cover us Thirdly Luke 23.30 they shall stand as poore caitiffes at the left hand of Christ as a signe of miserable disgrace especially when they shall behold the Righteous on his right hand in token of their honour and advancement whom they in their life time have despised For as the right hand hath bin taken for a token of acceptation and receiving into favour 1 King 2.19 So on the other side the left hand hath beene accounted ominous and a token of rejection Psal 50.3 2 Thes 1.8 Exod. 19.18 19 16. 20.18 Fourthly a fire shall devoure before him and it shall bee tempestuous round about him Psal 50. So it was at the giving of the Law in mount Sinai which was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a Furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly there were thunders and lightnings and the voyce of the Trumpet
of sinne then the former This is the sinne of our time the common sinne of every place yea almost of every person The light is come among us but we love darknesse more then the light and are luke-warme Revel 3.16 as retchlesse men that care not which end goeth forward God will spew out such out of his mouth as evill humours out of the stomacke Salomon teacheth us in the Proverbes that he which is sloathfull in his worke Prov. 18.9 is brother to him that is a great waster so is it with such as are sloathfull in the Lords worke and in their owne duty they are companions and brethren with such as are open and obstinate contemners of the Word and make haste a pace after them they follow them close at the heeles and in short time will overtake them There is such carelesnesse and security every-where in the matters of God among us as if every man were left to doe what he list as if the soule were the least matter of a thousand as if Religion were last of all to be regarded or as if there were no day of account to come hereafter Among those that come to the place of Gods worship many indeed are kept in awe and in order but how and wherefore Is it by any conscience of their duty or by love to the Word Nay nay but for sinister ends some by force of the Law because they feare to be presented some by awe of their Superiours because they would not be thought stubborne some come for custome and fashion sake because it is Sunday some for company of others because they would doe as their honest neighbours doe and love not to be singular some for that they would not be accounted Papists because the State fauoureth them not some lest they should bee esteemed Atheists and so be pointed at with the finger some to please their Parents because they should leave them a better portion some to content their Masters lest they should be thrusted out of their dores or because they hope to gaine by them some to passe away the time because they have nothing else to doe some to meet with their friends and acquaintance because they are loth to spare another day some to meete with their debters because they would demand their money but the fewest number to meet the Lord in his owne Ordinances because they love the habitation of his house and the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 26.8 who hath promised to be in the middest of them that are gathered together in his Name Matth. 18.20 Happy are we if we be in the number of these few If such retchlesse men were left to themselves without any bridle of Law or feare of Superiour and authority of whom we spake before and suffered to doe what they pleased without any checke or controlment we should have our thinne Assemblies a great deale thinner and our streets and fields and houses and Ale-houses fuller-stuffed and thronged then our Churches And this may appeare hereby that notwithstanding we have Lawes and Magistrates and Officers and good examples of the chiefest and principall among us yet they are few a very few in comparison of the rest that are constant and conscionable in their hearing some if their presence and absence were ballanced together the waightier scole would be given to their absence and would waigh downe their presence as being found too light Others albeit they dwell neere enough are starting away at every turne and when they make shew of going to the Churche turne aside another way Others are more carefull to fill the body then to feed the soule who take every even the least occasion to feast with their friends forgetting the feast that God hath prepared in his house and not regarding it though they even starve their owne soules Others are gadding yea madding in a manner after every vanity and doe delight much more in the pleasure of the body then in the profit that commeth to the Spirit Others are weary of the Word as the Israelites that loathed Manna Numb 11.6 Others have hired ground and they must needs goe see it others have bought five yoke of Oxen Luk. 14.18 19. Matth. 22.5 and they must goe to prove them others must visit their Farmes or attend their Marchandise and yet every one must be holden excused though all set light by the Word and runne after their owne wayes like the guests in the Gospell that were bidden to the wedding and to the great Supper God sendeth out his Servants to invite them Come for all things are ready I have prepared my Dinner my Oxen and my fatlings are killed but they neglect the Lords sending to them and his calling of them But what followeth The Lord pronounceth Luke 14.24 I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper These are they that are araigned as guilty of the neglect of heavenly things who will sometimes seeme to beare some affection to the house of God but partly their profits and partly their pleasures carry them another way of all which the Prophet speaketh Ier. 48.10 Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently or deceitfully All these stand under this heauy curse of the Lord and therefore I counsell them to looke to it betimes to seeke the Lord while he may be found and to meet him by unfained repentance while he is here Lastly Contempt of the Word another hinderance to the Kingdome touching the contempt of the Word who seeth not how common it is which notwithstanding is the top of impiety and that many have filled the measure of their sinnes till it be full that the cry of them is come up to heaven If any aske the cause I answer Our great negligence and generall coldnesse have brought this evill upon us and God doth hereby in his deepe and yet just Iudgement revenge our carelesnesse in his Service by giving us over into all prophanenesse The Word of the Lord by which wee shall all be judged at the last Day is so farre from holding men in awe and from having their lives and hearts in subjection that they reject it from them as a needlesse thing and regard it no longer The Minister may teach what he will and threaten as long as he list but these Gallants like Gallio in the Actes of the Apostles Acts 18.17 care for none of those things The time hath beene when the Word hath beene reverenced even by such as were not converted by it nor transformed into the obedience of it yet it hath held them in some awe but now in these our dayes loosenesse and licenciousnesse have generally prevailed in every place and sinne is growne to such an head and height as if the Word were but a Scare-crow and all Religion but a fable We are come to this passe to mocke at zeale and Religion and to contemne the
make mention and yet it was not priviledged from the judgements of God This teacheth that the sinnes of a nation or people or kingdome when they are growne to an hight both in the manner measure Doct. 3 doe cause the Lord to bring desolation and destruction upon that land When sinnes grow generall the judgements are generall When sinnes are generall and overspread a kingdome as a Leprosy doth the body then Gods judgements also are generall See this Gen. 6.5.7 and 18.20.21 and 19.24 Deut. 9.4.5 For the wickednesse of the nations the Lord did drive them out from before thee and 2. Samu. 24.15 2 King 21.12.13.14.15 Hos 4.1.2.3 The reasons Reason 1 First because the justice of God requireth that the punishments of sinne should be answerable to the sinne it selfe If the sinne once become common it is just with God that there should come a generall judgement also And albeit haply some few should repent and bee free yet it is no reason this should priviledge and exempt the rest and keepe away the generall judgement from them for hee that doth repent shall have a recompence for himselfe when notwithstanding a generall judgement as a violent flood shall sweepe them all away Againe when sinne is extreame it is reason that judgemēt also shoud be extreame when sin is at the highest it is reason that judgement should be at the highest and a generall defection of sinne must of necessity have a generall waight of judgement that when we have filled up the measure of the one God may fill up the measure of the other Gen. 15.16 Vse 1. Seeing this is true that God will bring desolation upon a land for sinne then have we cause to feare that the day of our desolation and of our mourning is not farre off For seeing it hath beene proved that wee are growne to the hight of wickednesse both in the manner by breaking all the bounds that God hath set to keepe us and also in the measure by adding sinne unto sinne then certainely in the next place what can be expected but that our land should mourne and destruction come upon us Hos 4.1.2 as paine upon a woman in travaile because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land but by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they breake out and blood toucheth blood And if God destroy his owne people and other nations and roote them out for the same sinnes that sway and swarme among us filling all places and abounding in all persons every where what can we looke for but that wee having the same weight of sinnes should also have the same waight of judgement God hath made us to drinke of as bitter judgements as ever any nation did onely this remaineth that as yet wee have not drunke the dregges we have not yet tasted the cup of utter desolation and destruction Now if God have gone thus farre with us and our sinnes are heaped up to a full measure pressed downe and running over why should not wee feare to drinke of utter desolation as well as any other seeing the same sinnes are to be found among us So then we see that the day of Gods visitation cannot be farre off by his course of Iustice and certainely it is the nearer because all feare is so farre from us and the land so full of security which being added to our former sinnes will be a great meanes to hasten his judgements Secondly it teacheth us notably who are the greatest enemies of a land and bring wrath upon it certainely the greatest enemies are those that bring the daies of ruine and desolation and mourning upon it It is not simply such as sinne for there is no man that sinneth not daily but such as commit sinne with an high hand breaking all the bounds and bankes that God hath set unto them continuing in sinne and adding one sinne to another These certainely are they that pull downe destruction upon a land It is true such persons are ready to accuse the Ministers of God and the faithfull of the land as Ieremy was charged to weaken the land and to hasten the desolation thereof and to be the troublers of the state howbeit they may answer these as Elijah did Ahab 1 King 18.18 I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that ye have forsaken the commandements of the Lord. Is the physition the troubler of the patient or the disease that is within him Is the law the cause of strife and contention or the malice and envy and emulation that is in men Is the watchman the cause of the approch of the enemy or the armour and munition and fortifications the weakning of a Citty No doubtlesse these strengthen the same and serve to keepe him out The Ministers of God are the physitions of the soule to cure the diseases thereof and the horsemen and Charets of Israel to defend it 2 King 2.12 13.14 and the word is the meanes to beate downe sinne which weakneth and wasteth the land till it come to destruction Lastly this serveth for instruction and admonition for all and every one of us If we have any love to our Countrey if we long after the peace and prosperity thereof or desire the florishing of our kingdome if we would not destruction to come upon us and it and if we would live in quietnesse the way is to take heede of adding sinne to sinne and prophanenesse to prophanenesse We account him an enemy and that justly that combineth and conspireth with another to bring him to destroy the land and undermine the state thereof so is he the greatest spirituall enemy that a State can have that followeth sinne with greedinesse and multiplieth one iniquity upon another The way therefore to prevent such judgements is to breake off our sinnes by true repentance which turne upside downe kingdomes Citties Families private houses and particular persons We wish to have our Citties flourish and our families prosper and our children to continue our names and memories after our departure but what availeth all this unlesse wee set our selves to worke holinesse and righteousnesse This is the onely way to keepe our State our Citties our townes our villages our families and our children from mourning and misery and to prevent the desolation and finall destruction of them To conclude let no man blesse himselfe because wickednesse overspreadeth the land as water doth the sea neither thinke that we may with more safety and security commit sinne because the land is generally wicked but let every soule and sinner repent him of his sinnes and not harden his heart because of the wickednesse of the times 5. So the people of Nineveh beleeved God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them Hitherto of the preaching of Ionah now followeth the effect thereof wherein consider two things both what the
are truly turned unto God True it is repentance taketh not away all fayling and falling neither freeth us from all sliding and slipping of the foot and albeit we stumble and fall we walke not from God but toward him and rise againe The penitent person is like to a man that walketh up an high hill though he have many fals slips yet still he is said to go up the hil because his face is toward the top of the hil nay his falles make him more wary and heedfull so it is with the faithfull he may take a fall The faithfull make profit by their falles with the fall defile himselfe yet he taketh profit by it and becommeth more circumspect and every fall helpeth him one step toward the kingdome of heaven Thirdly marke how repentance changeth us and altereth our hearts from time to time how sinne weakneth decayeth and dieth in us on the other side how grace and Godlinesse encrease and strengthen in us Philem. 10.11 and how we grow in love with righteousnesse that we may say as Paul doth of Onesimus once unprofitable now profitable and of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified But if we find no steppes no degrees or proceedings in good things we may justly suspect our selues that we are not yet truly turned This is a certaine and infallible rule repentance and continuance in sinne in our old wicked courses cannot possibly stand together Lastly whether it have wrought a through change in us 1 Thess 5.23 2 Cor. 7.1 that our spirit and soule and body be presented blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ Many content themselves to give the halfe turne like Agrippa Act. 26. These turne up and downe as the dore upon the hinges so these are here and there but it is in their sinne and are as farre from God as before Or they turne from sinne as Lots wife did go out of Sodome she went forward for a while but shee had an eye still looking backe toward Sodome Or else they turne as the wheele that ever is in motion but at night it abideth where it was before for they are ever the same men their turning is without turning they are alwayes the same without any change 9 Who can tell if God will turne and repent and turne away from his fierce anger thas we perish not In these words we have the reason wherefore they fasted prayed and repented It is not a speech of infidelity for then it should not be said before they beleeved and doubtlesse they would here have concluded God will not returne though we returne to him and he will not repent of the evill threatned though we repent of our evill practises and if they had fallen into utter desperation they would not have cryed at all unto God much lesse mightily as they are commanded to do This verse containeth three things feeling feare and faith First a feeling or sense of sinne Secondly a feare of judgement Thirdly hope of deliverance It is to be supposed that albeit they doubted of the issue of the sentence as a thunder-bolt throwne out against them yet not of the favour of God toward them neither of his receiving of them to mercy in the next life albeit they should perish according to the flesh yet their soules should be saved in the day of the Lord. For if they had beene overthrowne and destroyed though it had been with fire and brimstone from heaven as Sodome and Gomorrah were yet had it beene no argument of their eternall condemnation and dying out of Gods favour because punishment suffered cannot prove a man to be rejected no more then it did Moses who never came into the land of promise because he had provoked God to wrath Numb 20.12 and sanctifie him not in the eyes of the children of Israel Besides no man can be eternally condemned which hath truly repented he may be chastised but he cannot be accursed So then here was faith and feare mingled together in the same persons as it were wine and water in one vessell A true faith but a little and weake faith which they found and felt in themselues like the father of the possessed who professed his faith but withall confessed the weaknesse of his faith Mark 9. Lord I beleeue helpe thou mine unbeleefe Mark 9.24 Math. 6.30 and 8.26 and 14.31 Rom. 4.19 2 Cor. 10.15 Rom. 4.20 Col. 1.23 and 2.7.5 Heb. 10.27 Act. 6.5.8 There are degrees of faith a little faith a doubting faith a weake faith the Apostle also speaketh of an encreasing faith 2 Cor. 10 We read of a strong faith Rom. 4.20 of growing in faith 2 Thess 1.3 Or of abounding in faith 2 Cor. 8.7 of a faith grounded and setled Col. 1.23 rooted built up and established chap. 2.7 of the stedfastnes of faith 5. of the assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 and of the fulnesse of faith Act. 6.5.8 But whatsoever titles it hath the strongest faith and deepest rooted is mingled with doubtfulnesse like the ayre overcast with cloudes or a ship beaten with stormes and tempestes Luk. 22. Such was the faith of these Ninevites doubting but not despairing shaken but not cast downe tossed with waues but not suffering shipwracke because as they feared his judgements so they hoped for his mercies and beleeved that their sinnes were pardonable which is the first step and degree of faith This was in the Prodigall sonne when he resolved to goe to his father Luk. 15.18 and confesse he had sinned against heaven and against him and was no more worthy to be called his sonne when as yet he felt not his offences already pardoned This was in the Ninevites in this place The meaning of the words they conceive a good hope of God albeit he threatned them and beleeve that his wrath may be appeased when they say Who can tell if God will returne and therefore some doubting was joyned with it as Ioel. 2.14 Ioel. 2.14 Who knoweth if he will returne and leave a blessing behind him 2 Sam. 12.22 and 2 Sam. 12.22 Who can tell whether God will have mercy on me that the child mâ—y live So likewise Ester Ester 4.14 4.14 Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdome for such a time as this So then this phrase is used in matters not fully certaine and manifest unto them but in such as are doubtfull Object Againe when the Prophet saith God will repent the question may be asked how repentance can agree to God Tit. 1.2 who is by nature unchangable and cannot lye Tit. 1.2 Especially considering we find Scripture to affirme 1 Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent 1 Sam 15.29 yet before it was said it repented him that he had set up Saul to be king how are these things to be
being borne in a forraine land are willing to forsake it to come and dwell where the word of God is truly and plentifully preached being peacable to the state and proselytes to the same religion and serue the same God with us doubtlesse God will be avenged of such as hurt or oppresse them for he will not have such vexed wrenged This was forbidden to the Iewes Exod. 22. Exod. 22.21 Levit. 19.33 Thou shalt neither vexe a siranger oppresse him for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt Levit. 19. If a stranger sojourn among you ye shal not vexe him he shal be as one borne among you thou shalt love him as thy selfe for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt so Deut. 24. Deut. 24.18 Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence therefore command thee to doe this thing This was often remembred and repeated to the Iewes But what may some say doth this belong to us who were never in Egypt Ioh. 8.33 much lesse strangers in Egypt or any other land as the Iewes said We were never in bondage to any man I answere though we were not yet we know not whether we shall be neither how soone we may be Pro. 27.1 Math. 7.12 we know not what hangeth over our heads neither what a day may bring forth Besides the common rule leadeth us to this homanity Whatsoever ye would that other men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them for this is the law and the Prophets Our forefathers have for the truths sake beene driven from house and home and beene constrained to forsake wife and children lands and goods and have received comfort and releefe in a strange land where God inclined the hearts of the magistrates to favour them is it not then reason that we now should doe the like and shew mercy But how many wicked and envious men are there among us which murmure and grudge that such should come over and dwell among us who have left their countrie for their conscience sake and the Gospels They pretend and plead that they grow rich and wealthy they see it and grudge and grieve at the fight of it For answere unto these 1 Sam. 2.8 observe these few points First who made them so 1. Tim. 4.8 Is it not God he maketh poore and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up and doe we envy them and repine at them Or shall our eye be evill toward them because his is good Secondly it is Gods blessing upon them no doubt for the faiths sake because they have preferred the Gospel of God before their owne goods And indeed godlinesse is profitable to all things and hath the promise of the things of this life and of that which is to come To this purpose our Saviour teacheth Every one that hath forsaken houses Math. 19.29 Luc. 18.29.30 or bretheren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake and for the kingdome of Gods sake shall receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting Thirdly Is it not better they should be rich then poore better I say not for them onely but even for others If they were poore they must be releeved for we are debters to Iew and Gentile even to the Turkes and infidels so farre as we doe not helpe them against Christ and Christianity If they be rich they will not be chargable to any of us but will rather be helpfull unto others Fourthly What is the cause they grow so rich because they are painfull and industrious And wherefore are many poore and in need among us but because they are idle and will not labour nor use the meanes that these do Lastly I am perswaded that God blesseth us and the land the better for giving entertainment to the distressed members of the Churches scattered abroad We have done some good to them but much more to our selves as the Shunamite that entertained the Prophet of God did him and his servant good but she did more to her selfe and her owne house Thus we see what sundry branches there are of cruelty all which as we should alwayes consider so most especially in these dayes of our publike humiliation when we make solemne profession of our unfained repentance Secondly judge by this note and property of the religion of the Church of Rome Such as have not understanding to judge of the doctrine let them open their eyes and behold their practises for by these fruits ye shal know them Whom have they in their fury spared What age what sexe what person Surely neither high nor low infant nor suckling no not such as never saw the light neither living nor dead neither distressed nor distracted sheading the blood of the Saints as water spilt upon the ground and making themselves drunke with the blood of poore Christians a thousand times better and more righteous then themselves Never did the Turkesand savages shew themselves so beastly and barbarous as these counterfeit or bastard-Christian-Papists who boast they serve Christ but serve Antichrist They can suffer the Iewes that daily blaspheme Christ Iesus our blessed Saviour to dwell among them but they will not suffer those to buy or sell or abide among them that professe Christ as wel as themselves nay better and looke for salvation and eternall life wholly through his merits and not their owne The soules that lye under the Altar cry unto God without ceasing day and night for vengeance against such blood-suckers saying Revel 6.10 How long Lord holy and true doest thou not judge avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth Their king-killing doctrine is of the same stampe that Princes have forfeited their crowne and Scepters their subjects discharged of the duty of alleageance whensoever the Pope pleaseth to pronounce them heretickes and to thunder against them his Excommunications The Gun-powder treason shall remaine for ever as a monument of this unmatchable cruelty It is and hath beene ever otherwise with the true Church of God there shal no such murtherings and massacres be found and commited in all the mountaine of Lord Esay 11.9 but the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe they shall not hurt nor destroy in all mine holy mountaine saith the Lord. Lastly let us earnestly and often desire of God to preserve us from such unreasonable and wicked men Object nay wild beastes in the outward shape of men 2 Thess 3. It wil be objected touching those of the Romish religion though they be enemies to the Gospel and to our profession yet we see no such matter in them they live as peaceable men and the quiet of the land they meddle not with others or against others Answ But what is the reason or where is the cause doubtlesse not in the persons but in the times Charge the times and the persons will
soone be changed the difference wil soon be espied They are now as a Lyon within a grate or a Wolfe kept in a chaine Let the Lyon loose set the Wolfe at liberty ye shall soone see him as fierce and cruell as ever he was Remember what they were when they bare sway such as they were then such they are now in heart affection such as the fathers were such are their children a cruell a barbarous a bloody generation ever delighted with shedding blood Blessed be God the father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath not given us as a pray unto their teeth and let them fulfill the measure of their sinnes that upon them may come all the righteous blood which they have shed upon the face of the earth Above all the Galileans c. or those eighteene c. The examples of others and the miserable event upon them are propounded to teach the Disciples and all others to turne o God these men judging these punishments to be the wages of unrighteousnesse Doct. Examplesf Gods judgments upon some are profitable to others This teacheth that the example of Gods judgements which he useth and executeth upon nations kingdomes cities families houses and particular persons are profitable meanes to stay from that euil which God hath chastised in others In the glasse of others wee may looke upon our owne faces We see this Deut. 24. Remember Miriam Deut. 24.9 what the Lord thy God did upon her by the way 2 Sam. 11.20 21. after ye were come forth out of Egypt the Like is noted 2 Sam. 11. Wherefore approched ye so nigh the City when ye did fight knew ye not that they would shoote from the wall who smote Abimelech the sonnes of Ierubesheth 2 King 9.31 did not a woman cast a piece of a Mil-stone upon him from the wall that he died c. Math. 24.37 The words of Iezabel are grounded upon this foundation Luc. 17.27.32 Had Zimri peace that slew his master Christ our Saviour chargeth all to beware of excesse propounding the examples of Noah and Lot to tye up their hearts to looke after the appearance of Christ in glory and to draw them from the love of the world and afterward he addeth to the same end Remember Lots wife So that we see Dan. 5.20.22 the examples of Gods judgment in former times are profitable to them that come after to hold them in the wayes of righteousnesse and to keepe them from the pathes of death This is proved plainely from the unchangable nature of God Reason 1 he is one and the same now as he was in former times his words are not yea and nay but yea and amen he is not variable and unconstant Mat. 3.6 Iam. 1.17 like a reed shaken with the winde hither and thither but remaineth ever the same Psal 102.27 With him is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning he is the Lord he changeth not and his hatred against sinne is no way diminished 1 Cor. 10.11 6. Secondly from the end of Gods chasticements which is to respect others as well as those that are chasticed for they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come Rom. 15.4 and these things are our examples to the intent we should not lust after evill things as they also lusted Now let us apply these things Behold here the great kindnesse of God who teacheth and instructeth us many wayes Vse 1 not onely by his word by his mercies by his present judgments by his promises by his threatnings but even by examples of things recorded that have fallen out all of them were written for our good The moe wayes we have the moe meanes God hath used the more inexcusable we are We are giuen to looke upon examples and to behold what is done by others and to follow them even in evill but as we see the examples so let us beleeve the punishments that befell them also Woe unto them and wretched is their estate that are not moved by examples of Gods judgements What will move and peirce our stony hearts if these things will not move us to turne unto him neither the hammer of his word nor the iron rod of his judgements Nay while we lye under a grievous visitation are we any whit softned or do our hearts relent What teares have we shed or what hath our behaviour beene or what sinnes have we forsaken O what can be said of us but that we are brasse and iron a stubborne and stiffe necked generation a people that are secure and senselesse and have our consciences as it were seared with an hote iron God hath executed sundry judgments upon us he hath given us cleannesse of teeth and want of bread in all our places Amos. 4.6.9 yet we have not returned unto him he hath smitten our great Gardens and the fruits of the earth with blasting and mildew yet we have not returned unto him he hath sent among us the pestilence after the maner of Egypt and now threatneth us with the sword of the enemie yet we have not returned unto him what marveill then when we profit by none of them and nothing will doe us good if he make us fearefull examples to others This we read Deut. 29. When God hath brought all the curses of the law upon the land the generation to come of their children that shall rise up after them when they see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it made like the overthrow of Sodome and Gomorah shall say Deut. 29.24.25 Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land what meaneth the heat of this great anger then men shall say because they have forsake the Covenant of the Lord God of their fathers c. The Lord God setteth former examples before our eyes to teach us and he will teach our posterity by the examples of his judgments before our eyes to teach us and he will teach our posterity by the examples of his judgements fallen upon us When the generation to come shall read and heare of his great judgments upon us that he hath smitten downe many thousands of us in his great wrath and heavy displeasure so that the former plagues will be forgotten in comparison of this if yet we will not returne and repent he will double and trebble his strokes and encrease his plagues yet seven times more and cause this to be forgotten in comparison of those to come and when any shall aske wherefore hath the Lord done this unto his people shall not men say as the truth is because they were warned and they would not be warned Is it not for the raigning sinnes in it that cry to heaven He hath spoken unto us and besought us by innumerable his mercies but they will not enter now he is constrained to send his destroying Angel and to scourge us with furious mortality and yet our dul
made his servants and cattell fly into he houses Exod. 9.20.21 but he that regarded not the word of the Lord left them in the field and there they all both man and beast perished Is it any better with the most sort no doubtlesse for why hath God executed his judgements and doth daily cast them abroad as the firebrands of his wrath is it not because we regard neither his promises nor his threatnings doubtlesse if we had taken his word he had never drawne his sword and had we beleeved his threatnings we had not felt his punishments if we had hearkened to his mouth to heare his voyce he had not stretched out his hand to smite with his rod. So it was with the Iewes when the Prophet denounced the 70. Ier. 25.12 29.10 yeares captivity they would not beleeve it till the Babylonians came indeed and carried them away It is a great mercy of God to open our eares and to give us beleeving hearts before his plagues fall upon us whereas others runne on and are pâ—nished Thirdly seing our God is thus patient and gentle even towards us that provoke him every day what ought we to be one toward an other As he is not soone provoked so we should be kind toward those that provoke us and disturbe our peace and patience forgiving one another as God hath forgiven us and as he is called the God of patience sowe should approove our selves to be the children of patience It is our duty therefore to learne meeknesse and mercy toward our brethren As we are exhorted to be perfect Math. 5.48 because our heavenly father is perfect and to be mercifull because he is mercifull so we should be patient because he is the God of patience This is the exhortation of the Apostle Luc. 6.36 put on the bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of minde meekenesse long-suffering Rom. 15.5 forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against any Col. 3.12.13 even as Christ forgave you so also doe ye Eph. 4.31.32 But on the other side if we be given to hatred and revenge and doe not put away all bitternesse wrath and anger and evill speaking let us take heed we doe not make a law against our selves and so finde the same measure at the hands of God which we shew toward our brother Cut it downe c. Hitherto of the patience of God now followeth his Commandement directed to the dresser of the Vineyard to cut it downe When once the dayes of his patience are expired at the last he executeth judgement Dcto and chargeth him to cut downe the Fig-tree And wherefore Patience abnsed causeth destruction he had waited for fruit three yeares and yet findeth none now the time approched that it must be hewen downe For where the acceptable time of grace is neglected there judgement is most worthily called for This reacheth that patience neglected bringeth forth destruction If we make not his patience to worke in us repentance he will cause his patience to worke out his judgements He doth desire our amendment that we should not deserve revengement As then Gods patience tendeth to this end to bring forth repentance so his patience and kindnesse abused and despised bringeth forth utter confusion Thus the Prophet speaketh Esay 5. Esay 5.5 I will tell you whâ—â— I will doe to my Vineyard that bringeth forth no fruit I will take away the hedge thereof it shall be eaten up troden downe and laid waste This doth Nathan preach to David in the name of God 2 Sam. 12. 2 Sam. 12.9.10 I have given to thee the house of Iudah and Israel c. if that had beene too little I would have given unto thee such and such things Wherefore then hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to doe evill in his sight thou hast killed Vriah with the sword c. now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house c. We have examples hereof in the old world in Sodome and Gomorah in Pharaoh and the Egyptians yea in the Israelites themselves Rom. 2.5 of them all we may say with the Apostle Thou after thine hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heapest up wrath against the day of wrath c. behold here a sharpe and severe threatning of most heavy vengeance to come at the last upon such as abuse the great lenity and long-sufferance of God and are not bettered but hardned thereby and not made wiser but worser by them And wherefore shall this abuse cause destruction Reason 1 First because God will take vengeance and execute judgement upon every man according to his workes It is justice to give to every one that which is his owne and of right belonging unto him but destruction is as due to such as neglect his patience as wages is to the labourer Gen. 18.25 Thus doe such deserve to be proceeded against for shall not the judge of all the earth doe right This is the reason rendred by the Apostle where the doctrine hath his confirmation Rom. 2.6 He will render to every man according to his deedes Rom. 2. Secondly there is no respect of persons with him it skilleth not whether we be rich or poore Iew or Gentile bond or free all that neglect his patience ly with all under his punishment as it is concluded vers 11. of the same Chapter Thridly sinne is thereby encreased for the longer he waiteth by his patience the more heavily will he pursue us by his vengeance Luc. 12.48 as our Saviour teacheth To whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will aske the more This reproveth the fond perswasion of such as imagine Vse 1 that albeit all other mens sinnes should be punished yet they alone may escape Gods judgements as if they had made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell We promise to our selves impunity even in those sinnes for which his wrath hath lighted upon other the children of disobedience Marveilous have beene the mercies of God toward us in this kingdome we have had peace within our walles and plenteousnesse within our dwellings he hath made us hitherto the head and our enemies the taile defeating their policies and turning their mischeivous plots devises upon their own heads and what could he have done that he hath left undone But what hath all this bountifulnesse of God wrought among us and what effect have his blessings taken in us but a blessing of our selves in our wickednesse and an adding of one sinne to another as it were drunkennesse unto thirst and running up and downe from one extreme to another Have we not nay doe we not for the most part heape up our sinnes without measure or conscience of turning to God If we would behold with a single eye the state of Church and common-wealth as now it
speake aright and repent him of his wickednesse saying what have I done This reproveth the boldnesse and rashnesse of such as dare take upon them to enter into the secrets of God Vse 1 without any warrant or commission from him 2 Sam. 6.19 as they that adventured to pry into the Arke were punished 1 Sam. 6. so such as presume to read what is written in the booke of life and presume to open the booke that is clasped and sealed with many seales may happily never finde their owne names registred therein For the farther reproofe of such as dare pronounce the sentence of damnation upon any and judge others reprobates and the directing of our selves herein let us observe these few rules for the cleering of the point and the keeping of us in the meane betweene two extremes Deut. 29.29 First it is a good rule which Moses giveth The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may doe all the words of this law But the sentence of reprobation is one of the secrets of God or rather the secret of secrets the most hidden secret of all the rest Secondly it is noted of charity it thinketh no evill 1 Cro. 13.5.7 it beleeveth all things it hopeth all things it endureth all things Such then as despaire of the conversion of others doe plainely declare they are destitute of love which covereth a multitude of sinnes Thirdly we must notwithstanding learne the great folly of many men in the world that build awry or amisse upon a good foundation For seing we must not be as men without hope of Salvation of others much lesse of our selves we see how diverse are deceived that give an easie passage entrance to commit sinne till they be so caught and intangled yea so enwrapped and fettered with it as a fowle in a snare or as a prisoner in chaines that they cannot easily breake it off againe neither ridde themselves of it as the wise Salomon speaketh of the strange woman Pro. 2. Pro. 2.19 None that goe unto her returne againe neither take they hold of the pathes of life True it is this is an excessive and hyperbolicall speech often used in Scripture as Esay 59 4. 64.7 Ier. 8.6 and sundry examples teach the same 2 Sam. 12.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Heb. 11.31.32 Iam. 2.25 But the meaning is few come to repentance to reforme themselves or take a better course of life that they might be saved And this is another folly of the sinner who being rebuked and threatned for sinne doe by and by answer Tush we can leave sinne when we list we will repent at leysure and helpe all But Salomon will teach these fooles that few or none compassed with the continuall practise of sinne amend their wayes Pro. 6.22.27 but goe as the Oxe to the slaughter or as a foole to the correction of the stockes because they have set themselves in the way to hell Ier. 13.23 going downe to the Chambers of death For custome is as strong as nature or rather much stronger It is as the Ethiopians skin and the Leopards spotts which cannot be changed It is hard for a man to forget his naturall language and his mother tongue but it is harder for the sinner to forsake his sinfull course For a man by nature or birth is indifferent to any language and inclined to no one more then to another because he hath it by hearing and imitation of others as appeareth in such as are borne deafe but we doe not only sucke in sinne with the mothers milke but as the Prophet confesseth Psal 51.5 We were shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did our mothers conceive us which is a great deale more then can be spoken of the language which we learne in our youth Besides it is a great pollicy of Satan to cover his purpose at the first as the fisher doth the hooke to deceive us the sooner he beginneth with lesser sinnes until he have wrapped us in the greater and our consciences be hardned and as it were seared with an hote iron Fourthly A tvvo fold favour of God to the sinner this sheweth the wonderfull love and favour of God which he vouchsafeth to any both when he preventeth sinne that we doe not fall into it and when he breaketh off the course of it when we are overtaken with it This is a twofold grace We are by nature prone to sin and ready to yeeld to every tentation as we see in Peter that denied his Master at the word of a seely damsell when therefore the Lord putteth his hand under us and stayeth us up that we doe not stumble and fall is not this a wonderfull grace to keepe us from sinning against him and wounding our owne soules As this is a great blessing so the other is yet greater to pull us out of the snare when we have one foot in hell as it is a greater worke to stay a man that is running downe a steepe hill then to perswade him not to runne at all The truth of both these we see in David a man after Gods owne heart for when he was purposed to shed blood 1 Sam. 25.22.33 and to destroy all that pertained to Nabal by the morning light he blessed God that had kept him from comming to shed blood and from avenging himselfe with his owne hand Loe here the preventing grace of God to stay him that was running and making haste to commit sinne Againe when he had given himselfe over to commit one sinne after another Luc. 11.22 as it were to adde drunkennesse unto thirst the strong man bagan to possesse the house but a stronger then he came and overcame him and tooke from him all his armour wherein he trusted and so recovered him out of the snare of the Devil which he laid to entrap him He had as much as lay in him cast himselfe into the mouth of the roaring Lyon that gapeth after his prey it was therefore the speciall mercy of God to reclaime and recover him out of the snare of the devill who after a sort was taken captive by him at his will Lastly we must labour that sinne may not raigne in our mortall bodies For albeit we cannot be without sinne because we carry about the flesh yet we must take heed it exercise not a kingdome in us it hath an easie entrance an easie continuance but it is hard to get out and to ridde our selves from the tyranny thereof as we may see in Esau Gen. 26. in Saul 1 Sam. 14 15. and in Iudas who passed from one degree to another till at last they filled up the measure of their sinne It is an easie matter to pull up the bankes and throw downe the walles whereby as by fenses or bulwarkes the sea is kept out from overflowing the land and so to let in the water but it
name of good workes which neuerthelesse are neither the onely good workes nor the chiefest good workes For we looke upon our selves in the glasse of the law and try our selves thereby These workes are of two sorts some generall and others speciall The generall are such as concerne all among which the workes of the first Table being the first and great Commandements Math. 22.38 must have the first place to love God above our selves to feare him to beleeve in him to trust in him to pray unto him to serve and worship him to reverence his name and to sanctifie his Sabbath and the workes of the second Table are like Gal. 5.22.23 for the fruits of the spirit are manifest love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse faith meekenesse temperance and such like These belong to all and must be practised of all persons high and low rich and poore none may excuse themselves The speciall workes are such as belong to every man in his particular calling For as we have all a generall calling as we are Christians so we are set in severall callings such as are superiors and inferiors as the Magistrate and subject the husband and wife father and sonne master and servant we must labour to be found faithfull in these how low so ever our place be if we be found carefull and conscionable even the meanest servant that drudgeth in the Kitchin if his calling be nothing but to scoure spittes Eph. 6.6.7 or to wipe shooes yet if he be obedient to his Master as unto Christ not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servant of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men he is no lesse accepted of God in his place then he that preacheth the word or he that ruleth a kingdome Well or thou shalt let it alone These words are expresly mentioned but they or some such like must necessarily be understood as if it were said let it stand and continue in the Vineyard that it may bring forth more fruit as Ioh. Ioh. 15.2 15. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Doct. This teacheth us that the fruits of repentance obtaine the pardon and forgivenesse of all sinnes and offences Repentance obtaineth forgivenesse of sinnes and the favour of God and prevent Gods wrath and judgements and procure his love and favour He hath made a sure promise of remission of former offences to all such as truly turne unto him Thus the Prophet hath Wash you make you cleane take away the evill of your workes from before mine eyes c. then though your sinnes were as crimsin Esay 1.16.18 55.6.7 they shall be as wooll and though they were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and chap 55. Seeke the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neere let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous his owne imaginations c. let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Ezek. 18.23 And the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18. I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live where he coupleth these two together The truth of this point is farther confirmed by sundry examples as 2 Sam. 2 Sam. 12.13 12.13 When David had acknowledged his sinne against the Lord the Prophet said for his comfort The Lord also put away thy sinne The like we see in Manasseth when he was carried away captive and clapt up in prison being in great tribulation prayed unto the Lord 2 Chr. 33.12 and humbled himselfe greatly be fore the Lord God of his fathers and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him backe againe to Ierusalem and set him upon the throne of his fathers The Publican smote his brest saying Lord Luk. 18.13.14 be mercifull to me a sinner I tell you this man went downe to his house justified rather then the proud Pharisee The like I might say of Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 he obtained mercy and forgivenesse when he was converted so the penitent theefe upon the Crosse said to the Lord Iesus Lord Luk. 23.42.43 remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome and Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Mar. 1.4 Hence it is that the Evangelist witnesseth that Iohn did baptise in the wildernesse and preach the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes where we see he knitieth repentance and forgivenesse of sinnes together The reasons first Reason 1 all penitent persons shall have the blood of Christ Iesus to wash clense their soules from all their sinnes a singular benefit This reason the Prophet vrgeth Esay 1.17.17.18 For to speake properly nothing can clense us but Christs blood so foule and filthy we are and therefore it is called cleane water Ezek. 36.25 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 I will powre cleane water upon him and thus the Apostle Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne clenseth us from all sinne Secondly such shall have right to carthly blessings and to a right use of them to their everlasting comfort as Esay 1. Ye shall eate the good things of the land Esay 1.19.20 but if they refused and rebelled they should be destroyed for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Let us apply these things First conclude Vse 1 that all impenitent persons are out of Gods favour and protection and lye under all the plagues and punishments that God denourceth against sinners This is a fearefull estate and condition Deut. 28.16 to be cursed in the whole course of our life at home and abroad in the City and in the field in all that we put our hand unto Deut. 28. The curse of God bringeth with it all miseries of this life and of the life to come If then we repent not we die Secondly they that are truly penitent are truly happy for that man is blessed Psal 32.1.2 38.4 whose transgressions are for given and whose sinne is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity There cannot be a greater blessing befall us in this world then to get pardon of our finnes for all the burdens that we can beare are not to be compared to the burden of sin and therefore to be lighted of it is one of the greatest blessings of all the spottes staines that can sticke unto us Iam. 1.21 sinne is the filthiest and therefore to be clensed and washed from it maketh us cleane in his sight Lastly hence ariseth matter of comfort to all such as earnestly endeavour this worke of clensing and purging of themselves The vvay and the meanes to attaine
God therefore feed it for hee maketh the Church of God and the Flocke of God all one So when the Lord Iesus ascended and led captivity captive hee gave gifts to men and appointed Vnder-pastors and Vnder-teachers Ephes 4.11 for the worke of the ministery and the edification of the whole body This is the charge hee gave to Peter To feed his Sheepe as if he should say Feed them because they are my Sheepe 2 Tim. 2.2 Now as Paul speaketh to Timothy The things that thou hast learned of me the same commit to faithfull men who shall bee able to teach others also so Peter having received so earnest a charge himselfe is carefull to deliver the same to others himselfe an Elder to the Elders 1 Pet. 5. 1 Pet. 5.2 Feed the Flocke of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde c. And that we may performe this the better we must consider that we are sundry wayes provoked to our duties by this title For as wee have shewed that the people must resemble the Sheep Wherein the Minister is to resemble a Shepheard Matth. 18.12 so we must remember that spirituall Pastors and Teachers must be like to other Shepheards bestowing great labour and paines among the sheepe for that is not an idle calling First the Shepheard overseeth the whole flocke in generall and every part in particular forasmuch as to overlooke one and overslip another is the part of a loose and carelesse Shepheard Thus must the Minister of God looke to all and exempt himselfe from instructing of none that are of his fold For as the soule quickneth every member of the body from the highest to the lowest from the greatest to the least so must he seeke the good of all both high and low great and small one and other so farre as lyeth in him to the utmost Hence it is that Paul willeth the Elders to take heed to all the flocke Whosoever scorneth in his deeper skill to stoope downe to teach the least the lowest the poorest the simplest to be familiar with them to win them to God serveth not his Master Christ neither savoureth of his Spirit Comment on Numb pag. 699. but rather of the spirit of Antichrist But of this more at large elsewhere Secondly the Shepheard looketh to the lambes as wel as to the sheep which are as the hope of the flocke as we see in Jacob Gen. 33.13 So is the Minister to teach the youth that he may have comfort of them in their age as Moses would not goe out of Egypt without their little ones to offer sacifice to the Lord Exod. 10.9 Exo. 10.9 As Christ willeth the Disciples to suffer little children to come unto him Mark 10.14 because to such belongeth the Kingdome of God Mark 10.14 And he willeth Peter to feed his Lambes as well as his Sheepe Ioh. 21.15 Prov. 22.6 Joh. 21.15 If a child bee taught what trade to take when he is young he will not forget it when hee is old as a vessell retaineth the taste of that liquor wherewith it was seasoned when it was new Thirdly wee see that as the Shepheard feedeth the flocke so it feedeth him againe whereby the Minister of the Word hath warrant to live of the Gospell as he preacheth the Gospel This similitude is pressed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. Who goeth a warfare any time at his owne charges 1 Cor. 9.7 who planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof or who feedeth a flocke and eateth not of the milke of the flocke If we feed the flocke we have warrant to be fed therewith but we have no power and authority given us from God to eate thereof if we labour not 1 Thes 3.10 For he setteth us to worke he calleth us not to idlenesse Fourthly the Shepheard looketh to the sheepe that are weake and feeble and laboureth to cure them and therefore is never without his remedies and medicines to heale them so the Minister of God must receive the weake restore such as are fallen warne them that are unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the tender-hearted and be patient toward all men 2 Tim. 2.26 proving if God at any time will give them repentance that they may come out of the snares of the Devill of whom they are holden captive to doe his will These doe especially stand in need of the helpe of the spirituall Shepheard Fiftly as the Shepheard preserveth the sheepe from the violence and invasion of the Lyon and the Beare 1 Sam. 17.34 of the Wolfe and the Fox that would prey upon both the sheepe and lambes so must the Minister keepe his hearers from the infection and contagion of seducers and false teachers who oftentimes come in sheepes clothing Matth. 7.15 but inwardly are either crafty Foxes or ravening Wolves To this purpose it is said Cant. Cant. 2.15 2 Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoile the vines for our vines have tender grapes Thus wee must give all diligence earnestly contending for the faith Iude 3. which was once delivered to the Saints Sixtly as the Shepheard is to give an account of his sheepe Gen. 31.39 as appeareth in Jacob so is the office of the Minister an office of account and therefore woe unto us if we preach not the Gospell because a necessity is laid upon us 1 Cor. 9.16 Ezek. 34.2 1 Cor. 9. Eze. 34. Thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepheards Woe bee to the Shepheards of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Sheepheards feed the flockes On the other side if wee feed the flocke willingly and readily wee shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Dan. 12.3 when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare in glory If this great Day of the Lord were alwaies before us it were suâ—ficient to make them that are idle to be diligent and such as are diligent to be yet more diligent and such as are faithfull to bee yet more faithfull Lastly conclude from hence that the faithfull cannot want any thing that is good for them The title given to the faithfull that they are Christs Sheepe belonging to their All-sufficient Shepheard serveth to assure them of his never-failing care toward them For albeit they be simple and innocent yet their Shepheard is wise and full of discretion to search and see into their wants as Esay 40.11 Esay 40.11 He shall feed his flocke like a Shepheard he shall gather the Lambes with his arme and carry them in his bosome and shall gently lead those that are with young They are his chiefe treasure a royall Priesthood a chosen generation they are chosen of him to life and distinguished from all people of the world Revel 2.17 graven in the palme of his hands They have a new name set upon them which no man knoweth
not feare the lacke of lesser blessings But the faithfull have a Kingdome promised unto them Therefore the faithfull need not feare the lacke of lesser blessings The power and strength of this reason is good and exceeding great Christ our Saviour doth never argue weakely who ministreth strength to all his that are weake In this reason the giving of heavenly things to us is made an argument to prove the not with-holding of earthly things from us Wee may not feare or faint in our faith and profession as though God would quite forsake us or give us over And wherefore Because he hath promised to us the Kingdome so that there is nothing so great that he will sticke at or doubt to bestow upon us Doct. 12 The force of this reason layeth before us this instruction that the consideration of the Kingdome of Heaven and of the eternall joyes prepared for the faithfull ought to be a strong and sufficient reason to stay us up in all trials and troubles whatsoever True it is the righteous have many troubles and we have likewise many promises fitted to every estate as it were medicines applied to the diseases but among them all there is none more forcible and effectuall then this promise in this place which is the accomplishment of all promises to wit the Kingdome of Heaven Doe we finde our faith at any time weake and faint fearing tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword or to be separated from the love of God and his Sonne Iesus Christ Rom. 8.35 â— Cor. 11.27 or to be oppressed and overburdened with wearinesse and painfulnesse with hunger and thirst with fastings with cold with watchings with poverty with reproaches with feare of death and such like behold the promise here set before us let us lay fast hold upon it Let us with joy and comfort lift up our eyes or rather our hearts to Heaven and remember that wee have the reversion of a Kingdome promised unto us by him that did never falsify his Word in regard whereof we are more then Conquerers through him that loved us whereby we may easily see an issue out of the former tentations Hence it is that Abraham Moses and all the Prophets in the middest of all their afflictions wherewith they were afflicted did comfort themselves hereby they had respect to the great reward they knew to be laid up for them in the Heavens The Hebrewes tooke joyfully the spoiling of their goods while they were made a gazing-stocke by reproaches and calamities This is no easie thing to beare but hard for flesh and blood to doe For no doubt their goods and good names were as precious unto them as ours to our selves or to any other What then was the cause that made them able to beare all these injuries and indignities Surely this they knew in themselves that they were Heires apparent to a Kingdome and had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10.34 Heb. 10.34 11.9 10 24 35. then they knew that what teares soever they shed he would not onely keepe them in his bottle of remembrance but then he would wipe them away from their eyes that they should shead them no more Revel 7.17 21.4 Here is their time of weeping but then shall be the time of their rejoycing here is their time of sowing but then shall be the time of their reaping as Lazarus while he was here was distressed but after this life he was comforted Luke 16.25 Ioh. 16.20 21 22. 1 Ioh. 3.2 Then there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine for the former things are passed away Revel 21.4 the sorrow of the Saints shall bee turned into joy and their joy shall no man take from them The reasons follow First Reas 1 the greatest blessings assure the lesser and take away all doubt from us that might any way stay or stagger us in our obedience No man having a promise of a greater benefit from an honest man that he knoweth hath ever beene wont to bee as good as his word can or will make any doubt of his performance of the lesser so ought wee to learne to strengthen our faith against the feare of earthly wants by consideration of the heavenly promises that are found in the Word of God none of which did ever fall to the ground Rom. 8.32 as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 8. He that spared not his owne Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Secondly all the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 Rom. 8. Let the meditation of this glory be once thorowly laid up as a treasure in our hearts and we have thereby a soveraigne preservative against all dangers whatsoever which beset us round about whereas such as are daunted and distressed with every blast or bruit of danger like men that are at their wits end it is plaine they were never well grounded in the Article of everlasting life Thirdly all calamities and troubles how many and great soever are short temporall and momentany they endure but a little season as Christ comforteth the Church Revel 2.10 Psal 30.5 Esay 54.7 8. Yee shall have tribulation ten dayes And the Prophet Psal 30. His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but ioy commeth in the morning But the Kingdome of Heaven is not for a night nor for one yeere nor two yeeres nor five yeeres neither ten yeeres nor twenty yeeres nor as a flower that flourisheth for a season and suddenly fadeth away but it is unchangeable incorruptible and everlasting 2 Cor. 4.15 18. as the Apostle sheweth 2 Cor. 4. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh in us a farre more exceeding and eternall waight of glory while we looke not at the things which are seene but at the things which are not seene for the things which are seene are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall Lastly this is as a staffe of sufficient force put into our hands to uphold us and stay us up because the Kingdome of Heaven is the end of all sorrowes and miseries whatsoever 1 Cor. 17.54 for then this mortall shall put on immortality and death the last enemy shall bee destroyed and swallowed up in victory The Traveller that hath a great way to goe and to passe thorow many troubles not without much labour and sweating oftentimes comforteth himselfe with the remembrance of the end of all his journey Wee are Pilgrims and strangers in this world and we passe our dayes in travelling toward the Kingdome that is everlasting Wee should make this reckoning and account that our life from our birth day to our dying day is nothing else but as a pilgrimage thorow the wildernesse
to the Land of Canaan that is our journey and passage toward Heaven Here we must resolve with our selves to meet with many enemies and crosses as it were rubs and stumbling blockes to hinder us and turne us out of the way Except therefore wee often call to minde our heavenly Canaan the end of all our labours when all our sorrowes shall bee finished we shall never be able to goe forward but we shall be discouraged in the middest of our race and sit still as a wearied man that is quite tyred and out of heart First conclude from hence Vse 1 that Gods Kingdome is certaine It is no deceivable promise neither doe we runne as uncertainely or as one that beateth the aire but as we runne for an uncorruptible Crowne so wee doe runne that we are sure to obtaine For wee have a sure Word of Christ surer then the Heavens because they shall passe away as a scrowle 2 Pet. 3.10 and the elements shall melt with heat but his Word shall never passe but it must be fulfilled and accomplished It is not the manner of Christ neither of the Apostles of Christ to use deceitfull reasons like subtill Sophisters to blinde or bleare the eyes of the simple they builde the soules of men upon the strong rocke that cannot be shaken Let us therefore bee well grounded in this article of our faith which should never have beene applied to drive away feare except it had beene in it selfe certaine and infallible For a certaine disease cannot be expelled by an uncertaine remedy Secondly let us walke before the Lord in feare and trembling who being privy to all our infirmities and knowing whereof we stand most in need hath provided this as an effectuall remedy against all distracting thoughts and troubles that arise in the world God hath not left us without comfort nay hee hath ministred the greatest comfort where the greatest discomfort remaineth He knoweth what tentations arise in our mindes touching worldly wants he sendeth us not therefore naked and unarmed into the field to buckle and wrastle with enemies that would be too strong for us For whereas he might have ministred unto us a thousand other comforts he singleth this out as armour of proofe which is able to withstand all the fiery darts of the Devill For as the Hushandman is carefull to make the fence strongest and the hedge highest where the beasts are most busie and ready to enter so Christ our Saviour understanding that wee lye most open to assaults of feares and cares and to have our faith battered by the engines of our spirituall adversary reacheth how to resist him by keeping this in remembrance that it is our Fathers good pleasure to give unto us the Kingdome And doubtlesse nothing in this world will more provoke us to stand in awe of God and to get grace in our hearts then this Heb. 12.28 as Heb. 12. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdome which cannot bee moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare What will move us to submit our selves unto him and to walke in obedience before him if the consideration of this promise of a Kingdome to banish feare of want from us cannot doe it If an earthly Prince should thus comfort any of his people Feare not poverty I will promote thee to honour and glory how would it refresh his soule how would it revive his spirits and how would it provoke him to doe him the best service he could Take an example hereof in David toward Mephibosheth the sonne of Jonathan When the King after inquisition for some left of the house of Saul that he might shew him kindnesse for Jonathans sake had called him unto him and said Feare not 2 Sam. 9.7 8. for I will shew thee kindnesse for thy Fathers sake and will restore thee all the Land of Saul thy Father and thou shalt eate bread at my Table continually Hee had no sooner heard these gracious words and received this comfortable promise but by and by hee bowed himselfe before him Thus ought it to be with every one of us when we consider what promise of honour and advancement we have received we should in all humility cast down our selves and walke in reverence and godly feare all the daies of our lives before him The driving out one feare should worke in us another kinde of feare If we have not this grace here we deceive our selves if we looke for glory hereafter The Kingdome of grace goeth before the Kingdome of glory If wee belong not here to the Kingdome of grace we shall never enter into the Kingdome of glory hereafter Lastly learne from hence that we are saved by hope by hope I say which is a gift of God whereby wee wait with patience for good things nay the best things to come For seeing we are armed and strengthned against feare of wanting worldly wealth by the consideration of a Kingdome to come where there is no want wee are taught in all waves and stormes of this life to put our trust in God and to cast anker in heaven Whereby behold by the way a great difference betweene the godly and the ungodly The godly man hath the best things to come it is worst with him at the first and in the beginning the farther he goeth the better it is with him and the best of all is after this life Eccles 7.1 This made the Wise man say The day of death is better then the day of ones birth And the Apostle testifieth Rom. 13.11 Now is our salvation neerer then when we beleeved It is not so with the ungodly his best is in the beginning True it is it was never good with him nor never will be but he is best at the first the longer he liveth and the farther he proceedeth it is worser and worser with him for he heapeth up sinne upon sinne untill it come to the full and withall treasureth up wrath against the Day of wrath and the worst of all remaineth for him in the world to come So then we must acknowledge that we hold our salvation by hope and therefore it is not present Rom. 8.24 but to come for hope that is seene is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for it as the Apostle sheweth We have it not therefore in possession but in expectation and therefore he addeth afterward If we hope for that which we see we doe with patience wait for it Wee must all doe as Abraham is commended to have done Rom. 4.18 19. beleeve above hope being strong in faith Rom. 4. we have so many hindrances of our salvation It is with us as it was with David he had a Kingdome promised and he was anoynted unto it yea in the end had full possession of it But in the meane season he found many stormes and tempests going over his head and ready to drowne him and sinke his ship in
the very Haven so have we a Kingdome promised of another nature not earthly but heavenly and we have an vnction from the Holy one also 1 Ioh. 2.20 that perswadeth us of the certainty of the promise to be performed neverthelesse Hos 2.6 Acts 14.22 the way to it is hedged with thornes and we must through manifold tribulations enter into the Kingdome of heaven and wait with patience the Lords leisure till we may enioy it in the meane season let us say with the Prophet Why art thou cast downe Psal 42.11 O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me hope in God for I will yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God The summe of that which wee have shewed is this Christians have not their perfect estate in this present life This is their property and the voyce whereby they are knowne they say My conversation is in heaven my hope is in the next life I looke for better things For albeit God often blesse them with honour with riches with friends and all that heart can desire yet doe they not place their happinesse in these they looke still for better things then these They cannot find any contentment in the world to rest in their greatest profits and pleasures have their satiety they alwaies ayme at higher things even when they are at the highest The worldly man thinketh he is well enough here hee accounteth a bird in hand better then a thousand in the bush he saith Give me things present let them that list take things to come let us eate and drinke while we may for to morow we shall die I give me to day let him that list take to morrow A most prophane speech of prophane men whereby they may be knowne what they are if there were nothing else Worldly men deride the faithfull and laugh them to scorne for contemning earthly things but on the other side the faithfull which hope for things not seene mourne for these worldly-minded men because they set light by heavenly things Give you the Kingdome Thus much of the strength of the reason the ruth of the words followeth as they are set downe without reference to the point that is argued Doct. 13 Now as they are taken in themselves they teach us this point that God will bestow upon all his Children after all their labours sighs and sorrowes the Kingdome of glory God promiseth not to every one an earthly Crowne and Kingdome nay this befalleth to a very few howbeit that which is better is assured them to wit an heavenly even to all that are his Children Iam. 5.7 Neverthelesse with the Husbandman we must labour before wee can bee partakers of the precious fruits of the earth 2 Tim. 2.3 6 11 12. as good Souldiers we must fight the Lords battels before we can get the victory we must here weare a Crowne of thornes before we can weare a Crowne of glory we must dye with Christ before we can live with him and we must suffer with him before we can raigne with him For as it was with the Head so it must be with the members Luke 24.26 the servant must not be above his Master he first suffered and so he entred into his glory It is an honour unto us to be made conformable unto his image He was made like unto his brethren that he might make them like unto himselfe This truth of doctrine that is here delivered is confirmed unto us by all the testimonies and consents of holy Scripture alleadged before Luke 23.43 Besides which observe the words of Christ to the penitent theefe Luke 23. Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise This is the promise made to the Disciples and to all that cleave unto him Rom. 2. Matth. 10.42.32 So Rom. 2. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seeke for glory Ioh. 10.27 28. and honour and immortality eternall life And Christ teacheth the same John 10. My sheepe heare my voyce and I give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any plucke them out of my hands This is an Article of our Christian faith set downe indeed in the last place because it is last of all to be accomplished that eternall life shall be given to us and to every true member of the Church and is therefore firmely to be holden and beleeved of us without any doubting or wavering Reas 1 For first of all Christ Iesus is ascended and gone up into heaven farre above all Principalities and Powers and hath taken possession of the Kingdome in their names as he saith to his Disciples Ioh. 14. â— In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I goe to prepare a place for you Joh. 14.2 Secondly it is a just thing with God to give deliverance to his Servants peace for their trouble joy for their sorrow and glory for their shame But wee see not this in this present life 2 Thes 1.6 7. for here they are troubled and the ungodly are exalted as 2. Thess 1. It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels Thus Abraham answereth the rich glutton Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evill things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Thirdly if our happinesse were in this life we were of all other men the most miserable 1. Cor. 15.19 1 Cor. 15.19 32. For what were our happinesse but a very unhappinesse It were better we joyned with the world and said with the Epicures Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye And the life of the rich man were rather to be chosen who was clothed in purple and fared deliciously every day then of the begger that lay at his gate full of sores and desired to be fed with the crummes onely that fell from the rich mans table Howbeit the future estate of them both altereth the case for the rich man after all his pompe and glory was cast into torments Luke 16.19 20 22 23. and the poore man after all his want and misery was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome Luke 16. True it is the Infidels Pagans Epicures and such like that live without Christ are wretched and miserable that have no hope of eternall life howbeit of all others Christians should bee most miserable for whereas the other enjoy the profits and pleasures of this present life and suffer not hatred banishment persecution and martyrdome for Religion but florish in the wealth honour power and estimation of the world these are hated of all men for Christs sake and live in continuall disgrace and affliction wayting patiently for the hope of reward to come
Professors of it And who are they Verily not onely such as are wise in their owne eyes but also such as cannot themselves give the meaning of one Precept of the Law or of one Petition of the Lords Prayer such as cannot render any account of their faith neither an answer to any that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them through want and contempt of knowledge yet have they knowledge enow to deride such as labour earnestly after knowledge Every base and deboshed fellow full of prophanenesse and impurity hath learned to upbraid such with purity that any way love Religion so that we may see with our eyes and heare with our eares such as are truly religious no lesse scoffed and scorned even at home among their owne brethren neighbours acquaintance and friends then if they lived among the very Savages It is well knowne to those that are but little conversant in History how the Christians are taunted and reviled that live among the Turkes and Sarazins for the Christian Religion and what an heavy burden they beare But is it much better thinke you with many poore Christian soules though they live among their owne people if they be any whit zealous in the Truth and will not runne riot with the multitude if they will not sweare commonly and be drunke for company if they will once fall to reprove sinne in others what is this reckoned but flat or ranke Puritanisme and such are no lesse hated and persecuted no lesse taunted and traduced then if they lived among the Infidels and Barbarians the Paganes and open professed enemies Nay I would this were all For Religion it selfe to set aside mens persons becommeth in very many places a very by-word and a matter of reproach True it is the Iewes sinned with an high hand against God they loved not the Oracles of God neither walked they worthy of his calling and chusing of them before other Nations and therefore worthily deserved to be forsaken of God who had first forsaken him howbeit they never proceeded to this top of sinne to make a mocke of their Religion it selfe they never scorned the Word of the ever-living God But we have learned to sticke at nothing wee are come thus farre to treade under our feete like Dogs and Swine the precious Iewell of the Gospell as if it were a curse rather then a blessing unto a Kingdom O how happy were it for these men that God would give them eyes to see these their sinnes and hearts to bewaile them betimes which now are hidden from them before the time of Iudgement come which doubtlesse cannot bee farre off from every one of them Thirdly let us all account that our happinesse standeth above not beneath in heaven not upon the earth in being partakers of the Kingdome and enjoying the blessed presence of God not in riches or abundance not in honour or worldly dignity Such as will have true comfort in this life must learne to looke beyond this life Heb. 11.27 that he may see him that is invisible as the Scripture speaketh of Moses Heb. 11. For albeit a man flow in wealth so much as heart can wish albeit he abound in honour and glory and estimation that the world esteeme him the onely happy man yet shall he finde in the middest of all sundry discontentments perplexities crosses and vexations and himselfe far from true happinesse so that he must not onely behold the things present and before his feete but must looke further then this life Hee that will not feare death the king of terrour Iob 18.14 as Job calleth it must looke beyond death and see the Land of Canaan before he come into it as Moses did from the mount Death is dreadfull and fearefull to the flesh when we see no more in it but the dissolution of the soule and body but if we have the eyes of faith to looke further and consider both from what evils it freeth us and to what good it bringeth us we have great comfort and consolation in it so that we may triumph over it So he that will have true and sound joy in this world must looke beyond it to the joyes of the World to come He that would have comfort in trouble must cast his eyes beyond trouble and looke up to this Kingdome which Christ Iesus promiseth in this place like the Mariner who being tossed in the Sea comforteth himselfe with the remembrance of the desired Haven where he would be Now this point to wit of esteeming our happinesse to consist in heaven hath many particular branches First we must long earnestly for it If the Saints account them blessed that dwell in the house of Prayer and of his worship how much more to dwell in the house of his glorious presence He that loveth the Kingdome of Heaven will long for it he that loveth it not longeth nor for it The Crowne of righteousnesse is laid vp for such as love the appearance of Christ For whiles we are at home in the body 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 5.2 we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. He that is from home longeth greatly to be at his house This body is but a poore cottage that must shortly be dissolved and laid downe our chiefe mansion and habitation is above in the heavens Secondly we must pray for this Kingdome of glory It is the meaning in part of the second Petition Thy Kingdome come For we pray therein not onely for the Kingdome of grace but for the Kingdome of glory also This is the prayer and request of all the Saints Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.20 1 Cor. 15.25 Heb. 1.13 Acts 2.35 The Kingdome is as yet come onely in part we see not all things put under his feete sinne and Satan are not yet subdued many oppositions are made against it have we not just cause therefore to crave both the enlarging of the territories and stretching the Curtaines thereof and likewise the finishing of these dayes of sinne Thirdly let us endure with joy all sorts of afflictions whereunto we are called and which it shall please God to lay upon us and to try us withall considering that they are no way comparable to the glory that shall be revealed to the sonnes of God We are all that will be the Disciples of Christ forewarned of troubles and afflictions that abide us and that we shall be hated for his Names sake howbeit the next life will make amends for all we shall have a super-abundant recompence for all our sufferings It is our Fathers pleasure to bestow upon us the Kingdome He that loseth his life for his sake shall finde it Fourthly let us rejoyce and comfort our selves daily in the expectation of our full and finall deliverance and Redemption at the last day Many defects and many sinnes doe yet hang about us many wants and workes of darknesse compasse us on every side all these together with the remnants of sorrowes shall quickly be