sins whereof as St. Iude intimates the supream Iudge will take special notice in that day and the harborers of it without repentance shall have a large portion of the wo or curse denounced by Enoch There is no sin for its quality more opposite to Iustice or that can more provoke a just gracious Iudge then intrusion into his Office without Warrant or Commission and yet so they all do that without warrant will become Magistrates or Censurers or Judges of others Such as affect the name of Zealous Professors in our times cannot more directly impeach themselves of gross Hypocrisie then by nursing this censuring humor in themselves orr applauding it in others whilest they profess to believe this Article of appearing before the Judgement seat of Christ The Belief whereof were it true or sound would not suffer this censorious humour of all others whatsoever to lodge in the same brest with it as being most directly opposite unto it most incompatible with it Nor did our Apostle St. Paul himself know any other Medicine or possible cure of this Malady then the pressing this Article upon such as were tainted with it Who art thou saith he Rom. 14. 4. that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth What more would you have said or have left un-said to such as take upon them to judge or censure their lawful Magistrates and Pastors And again ver 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother seeing we shall all stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ and ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God As for the Magistrate or such as have taken the charge of souls upon them they must give an account to God not of themselves onely but of others committed to their charge but their flock or inferiors are not bound to give account of them and for this reason should in conscience be more ready to be directed or censured by them then to direct or judge their Actions 8. The former Point might pass without further Addition or Annotation were it not that a late Divine of deserved note seems to deny the place avouched Dan. 7. 13. to be literally meant of a final Judgement of which if it were not literally meant our Saviors Allegation of it was not concludent nor should the conviction of the High Priest for giving wrong Judgement upon our Savior be so notorious and manifest as we suppose it to be and at the last day it will appear The prejudice of one modern Divines authority in a Negative of this nature cannot be great especially seeing this Negation is grounded onely upon an inconsiderate or careless Inference This place of Daniel saith he is literally meant of Christs ascending to his Father and of his investiture in the Kingdom of Heaven This no man denies And necessary it was that he should ascend into Heaven and be established in his Throne before he came to the accomplishment of Jurisdiction Royal such is the exercise or execution of final Judgement The Argument then will hold much better Affirmatively then Negatively The forecited place of Daniel is literally meant of Christs Ascension and Enthronization Ergo it is principally meant of the execution of final Judgement of such a Judgement as is to reverse or rectifie whatsoever hath been wrongfully done or adjudged by the most potent Monarchs or supream Tribunals of the earth So it is expresly foretold Dan. 2. 44 45. That this Kingdom whereof the Son of Man did take possession should destroy or break in pieces the Babylonian the Persian the Macedonian and the Roman Monarchy with all their appurtenances and attendances or reliques And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the Iron the brass the clay the silver and gold the great God hath made known to the King what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure To omit all Question how Christs Kingdom here foretold being not erected till the Roman Monarchy was at the height should destroy the Babylonian the Persian or the Macedonian Monarchy all which three were in the wane before the Roman was Crescent Certain it is that the Roman Monarchy being at the height when Christ ascended was to be destroyed by him yet not destroyed at his Ascension The Case then is clear that the forementioned Prophecie of Daniel cannot be terminated by the time of our Saviours Ascension but is to be extended to all succeding ages yea after time shall be no more If the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession be for duration everlasting for power most Soveraign so absolute and independent that all other Kingdoms which have been are or shal be depend on it and are responsible to it the execution of all Judgement whether past or to come whether temporal or eternal must either be ratified or reverst or immediately awarded by This everlasting King Polanus himself the principal Author or Abettor of the former Opinion viz. That the place of Dan. 7. 13. is not literally meant of Christs coming to Judgement grants That the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession shall be consummate in the life to come and not before And in granting thus much he is concluded to grant withal that the former places are principally or consummatly meant of Christs coming to Iudge the World and to translate the Kingdom of God begun here on earth into the Heaven of Heavens in which so translated all shall be Kings all shall be Judges all shall be perpetual Laws unto themselves there shall be no place for after Judgement especially for any sentence of condemnation 9. To let the former mis-interpretation of the Prophet Daniel pass as a private error or oversight rather which wants the general consent as well of the Roman Church as of the Reformed it is now God be praised on all hands agreed on and acknowledged by the best learned of both Churches that many places of the Old Testament are literally and truly meant both of Christs first coming in humility to be judged of men and of his second coming in glory to give Iudgement upon the world And not of these two Periods of times onely but of all the times intermediate or interjacent Howbeit of these times onely Inchoativè consummately finally or punctually of the life to come which takes beginning from the last Iudgement That this place of Dan. 7. is Inchoativè meant of Christs first coming that is that it first began literally to be verified then but shall not be consummated or
never dieth which is the chief part of the second Death as heaviness of spirit or grudgings are of Fevers or other diseases which without preventing Physick or diet do alwayes follow them 4. But this Prognostick of the second death or this fear of hell pains which the Sting of Conscience alwayes exhibits must be warily taken and weighed with Judgment The right observance of them as every other good quality or habit is beset with Two contrary extremes The one in defect The other in excess The defect is Carelesnesse The excesse Despere or too much dejection of mind The intimations or Prognosticks which the Sting of Conscience exhibits of death spiritual are often mistaken for the effects of bodily melancholy and the best medicine for melancholy is pleasant society or mirth Out of this mistaking most men prevent that Compassion which is due to their own souls after such a manner as Jewish parents did prevent their natural pity towards their children when they sacrificed them unto Molech by filling their ears with the loud sound of wind Instruments lest the shrikes of the Infants whom they inclosed in an Image of hot glowing brass by entring in at their ears might move their Jewish hearts to pity And most men lest they should be stung with grief of spirit or conscience seek to stifle their first murmurings and repinings either with unhallowed or unseasonable mirth Others by seeking to avoid this common extreme often fall into the contrary which is of the Two the worse to wit dispere or too much dejection of spirit That which the Heathen observed of grief in General is most true of this Particular the grief of a Wounded Spirit Dolori si fraena remitt as nulla materia non est maxima If we let loose the reins to grief or sorrow the least matter or occasion of either will be more weighty then we can well bear Mans unbridled fancie is as a multiplying Glasse which represents every thing as well matter of sorrow as of pleasure in a far greater quantity then it really hath And unless our Cogitations or sad remembrances of sins past be moderated with Judgment and discretion they will appear to our fancies like Cains transgression greater then can be forgiven or then we can hope that the God of mercy will forgive For holding the right mean betwixt these Extrems Carelesnesse and despere there is no means so effectual as to be rightly instructed in the hope of everlasting Life and Fear of everlasting death Immature or unripe hopes of the One ingendereth carelesnesse or presumption so doth erroneous fear of the other bring forth despere He that is perswaded that every one always is in the Estate of the Elect or of the Reprobate cannot avoid the one or other extreme And the only remedy to prevent despere or being swallowed up with grief either in the consciousnes of grosser sins lately committed or whiles we reflect upon sins past is to purge our selves of that Erroneous Opinion concerning Absolute Reprobation or irreversible ordination to death before we were born or from the time of our second birth by baptisme 5 To purge our brain or fancie of this opinion let us take the form and Tenor of the Final sentence into consideration which we may do without digression or diversion Both branches of this sentence we have Mat. 25. The first branch ver 34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world he doth not say before all worlds though this in a good sense is true most true if we speak of Gods designe or Act for all his Acts or designes are as he is Eternal without beginning so are not the things designed or enacted by him they take their beginning in time or with time The Kingdom prepared for Gods people was prepared when the world was made not before so good and gracious was our God that he did not make man or Angel untill he had prepared a place convenient for them take them as they were his creatures or workmanship and they were all ordained to a life of bliss Paradise was made for man and it may be after man was made but the Heaven of Heavens was prepared for man before he was made and made for the Angels if not before they were made yet when they were made But the Sentence of death ver 41. runs in another Tenor Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire he doth not say prepared for you from the foundation of the world but prepared for the Divel and his angels Those immortal spirits which now are divels were sometime Angels God made them so They made themselves divels Now hell fire was not prepared for them whilst they were Angels not from the foundation of the world but from the time wherein of Angels they became Divels Nor are men at all ordained to it untill of men they become Satans angels And as Satan and his angels the spirits which fell with him continue the self same individual substances which they were when God first created them yet are no way the same but quite contrary for qualitie and disposition so the place whereto they are confined may be for substance space and dimension the same it was at the first creation but not the same for quality it became a prison or place of torment when Satan and other spirits which fell with him of Angels made themselves Divels Satan as some think brought that fire wherein he and his Angels shall be tormented into the bowels of the earth when he fell like lightning from heaven However if the Angels had not sinned there had been no hell no tormenting fire and unless men become the Divels Angels they shall not be cast into hell fire God doth not ordain men to be Satans angels but men continuing his sons or servants God ordaines them to take their portion with him So that if we remove the opinion of Absolute-Reprobation or of irreversible ordination of mens persons unto death before they were baptized or born or if men would be confirmed in faith that no such Sentence or Decree is gone out against them whilst they have either will desire or opportunitie to call upon God through Jesus Christ for remission of sins whether by confession of them or by absolution from them upon such confession or by receiving the Sacrament of Christs body and blood no danger can accrue from the frequent meditation of everlasting death or from such representations of the horrours of it as the often reflecting upon our sins past and the working of the Sting of Conscience upon such reflections will present unto us 6. Another excellent Use and that a Positive One there is of these meditations For no man ordinarily can have a true Tast or rellish of Eternal Life but he which hath had some Tast or grudging of everlasting
cruel for out of this compassionate affection towards dumb creatures they will be ready to kill a Christian man if he chance to wrong or harm them It is a good thing then to be zealous of good works but unless this zeal be uniform that is unless it proportionably if not equally respect good works of every kind partial or deformed zeal will bring forth compleat Hypocrisie 10. But it is an easie matter to tell men that their zeal must be uniform and unpartial the point wherein satisfaction will be desired is this How this uniformity of zeal in good works must be wrought and planted in men This men must learn from that fundamental Rule of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you so do to them for this the Law and the Prophets All of Us desire or wish that not this or that man only but that every man should deal justly friendly and kindly with us should think or speak well of us whilst we do or intend well should Judge charitably of us when they know nothing to the contrary and censure us charitably if we chance to do amisse The Rule of practise then in brief is this that we make payment by the same measure by which we borrow that is do good as occasions or abilities serve to every man as he is a man or our fellow creature though in more abundant measure unto such as are our Christian brethren and of the same Church and Religion To be charitable in word indeed in thought towards all even towards such as deserve punishment or censure Another branch of the same Rule is this If any have really shewed themselves kind unto us to do unto them as they have done If any have dealt rigidly or unkindly with us not to do as they have done but as we desired they should have done unto us for our desires to be well dealt withall are just but so were not their dealings with us And why should we make other mens unjust dealing with us rather then our own just desires of being friendly dealt withall the Rule of our future actions or dealings with the same men For God will judge us by the former Rule the Tenour whereof is this not to do as we have been done unto specially if we have been unjustly dealt withall but to do to every man as we desire they should have done unto us The same Rule may be yet further extended thus we must do to every man not only as we desire that every man should do to us but as we desire that God should do to us or for us So when we pray that God would forgive us our trespasses we must be ready to forgive them that have trespassed against us If we desire that God would relieve us in distress comfort us in sorrow or succour us in need we must be ready to relieve our neighbors in their distress to succour and comfort them as we are able in time of need not thus in some good measure qualified we do not pray in faith our prayers are not truly religious For as St. James tels us Chap. 1. verse the last Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world CHAP. XXX MATTH 25. 34 c. 41. c. Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Then shall he say also to them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger sick and in prison c. Two General Heads of the Discourse 1. A Sentence 2. The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Conclusions in order to the Decision of those Controversies 1. The Sentence of Life is awarded Secundum Opera not excluding Faith 2. Good works are necessary to Salvation necessitate praecepti Medij And to Iustification too as some say quoad praesentiam non quoad efficientiam The Third Handled in the next Chapter Good works though necessarie are not Causes of but the Way to the Kingdom Damnation awarded for Omissions St. Augustines saying Bona Opera sequuntur Justificatum c. expounded St. James 2. 10. He that keeps the whole Law and yet offends in one Point c. expounded Why Christ in the final Doom instances only in works of Charitie not of pietie and sanctitie An Exhortation to do good to the poor and miserable and the rather because some of those Duties may be done by the meanest of men 1. THis portion of Scripture is divided by our Saviour himself into These two Generals the first A Sentence which for the matter is Two-fold Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you verse 34. c. And again ver 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But many Sentences are given which are not put in Execution Yet this being the Final Sentence that shall be given upon all men and upon all their works there is no question but it shall be put in Execution If reason grounded upon Scripture be not sufficient to inforce our belief as well concerning the Execution of the Sentence as the Equitie thereof we have an Expresse Testimonie of the Judge himself for the certaintie of this Execution ver 46. And these to wit the Goats which were placed on his left hand that is all workers of iniquitie or fruitless hearers of the word of life shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal The Sentence it self hath by the perversness of mans will or by the curiositie of some wits been made the matter of many controversies especially in latter times Of which we shall deliver our Opinion as it shall fall out in the prosecution of the Positive Truth which we are bound to believe The Positive Truthes which I would commend unto the Readers meditation are Three The First That Life everlasting shall be awarded Secundum opera or that all men shall receive their final doom according to their works The second which will necessarily follow upon this That good Works are necessarie to salvation or to the inheritance of this Kingdom here promised The third That good works are necessarie to our admission into this kingdom Non tanqnam Causa regnandi sed quia Via ad regnum not as meritorious Causes for which this kingdom is by right due to us or to any but as the necessarie Way or path by which all such as seek to enter into this Kingdom must passe To begin with the First Point That the Final reward or retribution shall be Secundum opera according to mens works
meaning if I render it thus Israel that very day committed seven deadly sins at once that is without interposition or intervention of any good work or thought First They allege Zechariah was their High Priest and to kill a Priest though of inferior rank was a sin amongst all Nations more then equivalent to the killing of a meer secular Potentate A sin sometimes more unpardonable then any sin could be committed within this Kingdom besides the making of Allom. Secondly As these Jews allege Zechariah was a Prophet and to kill a Prophet was the next degree of comparison in iniquity unto the laying of violent hands upon Kings and Princes for he which forbid To touch his annointed did also forbid to do his Prophets any harm both are given in the same charge Thirdly Zechariah was a second Magistrate among his People and to kill a prime Magistrate is more then murther or at least a mixture of Murther and Treason Fourthly This Priest and great Magistrate by the Testimony of their sons who murthered him was upright and entire in the discharge of all his Offices and a man unblemished for his life and conversation Fifthly they polluted the Courts of the Lords House within whose precincts Zechariahs bloud was shed without such reverence to the place as Jehoiada his Father upon a farre greater exigencie for the preservation of Ioash and his Kingdom did observe For he would not suffer Athaliah though guilty of murther of the Royal Seed and of high Treason against the Crown of David to be put to death within the Courts of the Temple but commanded her to be killed at the Gates of the Kings House Chap. 23. 14. Sixthly As these Iewish Rabbins observe Their fore-fathers polluted the Sabbath of the Lord for on a Sabbath day as it is probable not from their testimony only but from the Text Zachariah was thus murthered That which makes up the full number of seven and the measure of their unexpiable iniquity the Sabbath wherein this unexpiable murther was committed was the Sabbath of the great Feast of Attonement All these transgressions or deadly sins for every circumstance seems a transgression or principal sin not an accessary were committed in one day or at once Another circumstance these later Iews charge their fore-fathers withal That they did not observe the Law of the * Deer or of the Hart after they shed Zachariah's innocent blood for they did not so much as cover it with dust But this Circumstance will fall into the discussion of the Third General proposed The sins or circumstances hitherto mentioned were enough to sollicitate the Execution of Zachariah's dying prayers or imprecations Lord look upon it and require it Another circumstance for aggravation of this sin specially on King Io ash his part omitted by the later Iews might here be added For that this good man this godly Priest and Prophet of the Lord Zachariah was by birth and bloud of nearest kindred as we say Cousin Germane to Ioash as being the Son by lawful descent of Iehoshabeath daughter of Iehoram sister to Ahaziah and so Aunt to King Ioash whom Iehoiada the Priest had to wife 2 Chron. 22. 11. 7. But did these Aggravations or curious Commentaries of later Jews upon this and the like sins of their fore-fathers any way help to prevent the like diseases in such as made them Rather their Exclamations against them and Rigid Reformation of them and their affected Zeal unto the Prophets whom their Fathers had murthered did cast them into farre worse diseases of pride and hypocrisie whose symptomes were fury madness and splenctical passions which in the issue brought out more prodigious murther as will better appear in the Second General proposed which was The Emblematical portendment of this cruel and prodigious Fact against Zechariah or the accomplishment of his imprecations according to the mystical sense For proof of our last Assertion or Conclusion of the Literal sense no better Authority can be alleged or desired then the authority of our Saviour Christ No better Commentaries can be made upon the mystical sense of the former History then he who was the Wisdom of God made upon it Matth. 23. verse 29. Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites so he had indicted them seven or eight times in this Chapter before But the height or rather the depth of their hellish hypocrisie was reserved unto this verse and the original thus expresseth it Because ye build the tombs of the Prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets wherefore ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets What if they were so What will follow Must the children be punished for their fathers sins or for the acknowledgment of them Surely no! if they had repented of them But to garnish the Sepulchers of the Prophets or the righteous men whom their Fathers had killed was no good Argument of their true Repentance So farre was this counterfeit Zeal unto the memory of deceased Prophets from washing away the guilt of blood wherewith their fore-fathers had polluted the Land that it rather became the nutriment of hatred and of murtherous designs against the King of Prophets and Lord of life And to this effect the words of the Evangelist St. Luke chap. 11. ver 48. would amount were they rightly scann'd and fully express'd Truly ye bear witness and allow the deeds of your fathers for they killed them to wit the Prophets and righteous and ye build their sepulchres In building the Sepulchres and acknowledging their fathers sins which killed the Prophets they did bear Authentick Witness that they were their sons And in not bringing forth better fruits of Repentance then the beautifying of their Graves they did bear witness against themselves that they were but as Graves as our Saviour saith in the 44. verse which appear not or do not outwardly shew what is contained in them and the men that walk over them are not aware of them 8. That the Scribes and Pharisees who were respectively Priests and Lawyers did more then witness that they were the sons of them which killed the Prophets that they did though not expresly yet implicitely more then allow their Fathers deeds and were at this instant bent to accomplish them is apparent from our Saviours fore-warnings or threatnings against them Matt. 23. 32 33. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell or the judicature unto Gehennah That the Scribes and Pharisees and the People misled by them were now prone to make up the full measure of their Fathers sins is apparent from Matth. 23. 34 and 35. Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and Wisemen and Scribes and some of them ye shall or will kill crucifie and some of
shall live Hence it is that this people of God in their distress make The Confession of their fore-fathers sins as Essential an Ingredient or Condition of their prayers as the confession of their own Dan. 9. Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. Psal 106 6 7. For this the Lord himself had expresly taught them Levit. 26. For your transgressions the Land of your enemies shall eat you up And they that are left of you shall pine away for their iniquitie and for the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them also Then they shall confess their iniquity and the wickedness of their fathers Ver. 38. Thus doing I will remember saith the Lord my Covenant with Jacoo and my Covenant also with Isaac and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember and will remember the Land You see then it is evident that as Adam's-sin remaines in his Posterity until it be taken away in Christ so doth Gods wrath abide upon a Land for the former Inhabitants sins and passeth from the Dead unto the Living unless the Attonement be made by the sweet incense of prayer and fervencie of spirit which is to be in every Christian and spiritual Priests heart as ready upon this occasion as fire from the Altar was in Aarons hand when he stayed the Plague by standing betwixt the dead and them that were alive Numb 16. 46. It is not the sacrifice though of the calves of mens lips without an humbled and contrite spirit and fervent zeal of blessing Gods Name by Contrary good deeds that can stay the plague and divert the wrath gone out from God against a Land for her former Inhabitants their Predecessors sins 3. From these Principles we may easily gather How Gods Mercies may be abridged towards a Land or People less sinful perhaps then others formerly have been for actual transgressions if we consider the sins only of the present time From the same Principles we may likewise clearly discern how the full measure of any Lands or Peoples iniquity may be accomplished then when to mens seeming their out-rages be nothing so greivous as others before them have been or when their Princes or Rulers are more then ordinarily religious First Where the transgressions of Predecessors have been many and greivous and the Reformation of their Successors but slight or imperfect the wrath of God procured by the former may remain still and light heaviest upon the Third Generation following who shall procure it further if they follow their Grandsires sins notwithstanding their immediate Parents or Predecessors did in part repent or in some sort renounce their Fathers wayes For the fruits of such repentance seeing it is not Total and proceeds not from a perfect and unfeigned heart do but as it were for a time put off the Fit or Extremity of Gods wrath they take not away the disease it self which therefore returns to its course again As the Psalmist excellently describes the effects of such repentance When he stew them they sought him and they returned and sought God early And they remembred that God was their strength and the most high God their Redeemer but their heart was not upright with him Neither were they faithful in his Covenant The fruit of this was that oft-times he called back his anger and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise This stayed the Course or Motion of his wrath It did not minish the Inclination or Propension of the same But when the former sins burst out again either in them or their posterity His judgments drew nearer unto them then before and his vengeance was more fierce and sudden Secondly Where the Reformation of Religion and turning unto the Lord is on the Princes parts perfect and compleat yet the people do not inwardly repent and with a perfect heart abjure their fore-fathers wayes the wrath of God due unto their fathers sins comes upon them and is executed by taking away their good and giving them Princes alike minded to themselves And so by little and little they fulfil the iniquity of their fore-fathers 4. To give you a view of these General undoubted Truths in the succession of this Kingdom Righteous David had left Gods Mercie towards this Land and People so farre over-ballancing his Justice that all the Idolatry which Solomon his son had set up albeit idolatry be a most greivous sin did not any more then bring his Mercie to an Equipoize with it again But Rehoboam following his Fathers footsteps in evil not his religious Grandfathers paths in good puls down Gods judgments upon his head and first bears the rod of his transgression having more then one half of his Kingdom rent from him by his servant Jeroboam and afterwards both he and Judah which had remained with him bear the strokes of their iniquity by the hand of Shishak King of Egypt who forraged the Land and took away the treasures of the Temple of the Lord. But in this God did but shake his sword over their heads These beginnings of plagues and judgments are but the Motions of His wrath which abides not for his Mercie presently retired unto the same Point where it stood at Jeroboams revolt Of an unwise father there sprung up immediately an unrighteous son Abijam who though he had sometimes good success against his enemies yet as the sequel of this Story intimates 1 King 15. 3. he had almost brought Gods fierce wrath upon the Land by following his fathers footsteps but that the Lord as yet drew back his punishing hand for Righteous David his great Grand-fathers sake For David 's sake did the Lord his God give him a light in Jerusalem and set up his son after him and established Jerusalem ver 4. This was Asa in whose dayes the Land had peace for he followed the footsteps of his Father David yet was there no perfect Reformation wrought in his raign for the High places were not taken away And he himself after good success in victory was infected with the Fatal disease of Kings and Princes To begin to trust too much to secular Policie and grew impatient of the Lords Prophets reproof But by his carriage and good example such as it is and the righteous reign of his son Jehosaphat is the Current of the Lords former wrath stopped yet so as it is ready to overflow the Land with greater violence in the next succession wherein the like iniquity as had reigned in former times should burst out afresh again Although Jehoshaphat's heart was upright yet did he work no perfect Reformation For the high places were not taken away And as it is 2 Chron. 20. 23. The people had not yet prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers Neither so penitent as that they could recal Gods wrath or bring his mercie back again unto its former stay Nor yet so extream bad and forward in sin as that the Lord would not spare the Land and be merciful to
fulfilled until the last Judgement or in the life to come is acknowledged and well observed by a late learned Jesuit And this Interpretation being proffered by a man of that profession I entertain the rather because it affords us a facile and commodious interpretation of all or most of those places whether in the Old Testament or in the New which the Romish Church the Iesuits in special insist upon for the glorious Prerogatives of the visible Church and of the visible Roman Church above all Churches visible How many instances soever or places they bring whether general for the visible or militant Church or for the glory of the Roman Church in special this One Answer will give satisfaction to all They are meant of the visible or militant Church Inchoativè but of the Church triumphant Consummativè They are meant of the visible or militant Church indefinitely that is some particular members of the visible Church have undoubted pledges or earnests of those glorious promises in this life which notwithstanding shall not be either universally punctually or solidly accomplished save onely in the members of the Church triumphant Christs Church whether we consider it as militant or triumphant is an essential or integral part of his Kingdom and as his Kingdom so his Church hath its first plantation or beginning here on earth Both have a right or interest in the glorious promises made to the Church universal neither Church nor Kingdom here on earth can have entire possession of the blessings or prerogatives promised until it be given them by the Great King at the day of Final Judgment Of this rank is that prophecie Jer. 31. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more This Place no man denies was literally verified in the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon our Saviours Ascension But shall not be punctually and solidly fulfilled until the day of Judgment be past Then the true members of Christs Church shall neither need Tradition nor the written Word they shall be all immediately taught of God and have his Laws most perfectly and indeliblely written in their hearts The gates of hell shall not then in any wise prevail against them not so far as to annoy their bodies or interrupt their peace and happiness Of this intire happiness and perfection the Church Militant had a pledge or earnest in the effusion of the Holy Ghost and all that be true Members of Christs Church have a superficial draught or picture of this entire happiness in their hearts But Christ at his Ascension was so far from annulling the use of preaching or teaching one another that as the Apostle tels us Eph. 4. 11 12 13. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers more extraordinary then any had been during the time of the Law for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith c. 10. Thus to interpret the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Church indefinitely taken can be no Paradox seeing the predictions of our Saviour himself concerning his Kingdom must of necessity be thus interpreted witness that Prediction to omit others Matth. 16. 27 28. The Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Verily I say unto you there be some standing here that shall not tast of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom The later part of this Prediction or the Experiment answering unto it was exemplified in Peter Iames and John within seven dayes after For these Three were Spectators of his Transfiguration in the Mount And his transfiguration was but a representation or exemplification of that glory wherein he shall appear in the day of Judgment when he shall give these Apostles and all that shall obey his precepts full possession of the Kingdom of God prepared for them But albeit these three Apostles had not onely their eyes but their ears true witnesses of his glory as of the glory of the onely begotten Son of God for so it is said Matth. 17. 2. His face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light and ver 5. A bright cloud over shadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear him Yet miserable men had they been for all this if their hopes or expectations had been terminated or accomplished with this transient glorious spectacle or voice Both the voice and the spectacle were but earnests or pledges of that everlasting joy or happiness which they were to expect in the perpetual fruition of the like sights or sounds in the life to come Of this sort or rank is that Prophecie of Esay 2. 4. And he shall judge among the Nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into Plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more There was at the birth of this great Judge a glimps exhibited of this Universal Peace which shall not be universally established before the last and final Judgement All the Nations of the Earth were quiet and free from any noise of War when he came first into the World For Janus his Temple was then shut And after he shall be revealed again unto the World from Heaven there shall be neither Death nor Famine nor the Sword Howbeit even the dearest of his Saints which have lived since his first Birth were to endure a perpetual War in their Pilgrimage here on earth and the end of their War is to make them capable of this everlasting peace 11. Another Prediction of his coming to Judgement there is which must be interpreted according to the former Rule that is Inchoativè or in part of his first coming to visit us in humility and to instruct the World but Completivè or fully of his second coming to Judge the World Mal. 3. 2 3. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner or purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness So certain and so general is the former Rule of interpretation that not this prediction of Malachi's onely and the like of other Prophets but the fulfilling of them related by the Evangelists cannot rightly be interpreted without the
mother as it is likewise plain by our Saviours Reply and his Interrogation ye know not saith he what ye ask To drink of the cup whereof he did drink and to be baptized with the baptisme where with he was baptized he grants was possible for them though perhaps in another sense then they conceived when they answered his Interrogatory However to sit on his left hand or on his right hand as he finally concludes was not his to give but was to be given to them for whom it was prepared by his Father But hence ariseth A Dilemma Captious at the first sight for If the Kingdom of heaven were prepared for these two Apostles then it was his to give them for he must give it to them for whom it is prepared and so he gave it to the Thief upon the Crosse Or if the Kingdom of heaven were not prepared for them from the beginning of the world they might not they could not enter into it What shall we say then that James and John did never enter the Kingdom of heaven God for bib the very phrase and Character of our Saviours Speech and the circumstance of the Text should me thinks call that Logical Distinction to any mans mind that had ever learned it or known it before if not teach such as knew it not to make it The Distinction I mean of Sensus divisus and compositus which indeed is the only Distinction for resolving many difficulties in Divinitie for the Resolution of which many other impertinent and unartificial ones have been and are daily sought out The meaning of the Distinction in this particular is this If we consider James and John with their present Qualifications it is true that the Kingdom of Heaven was not prepared for them they could not enter in at the strait gate that leads unto it until their present swelling humour of secular ambition or pride was asswaged for God from eternity had excluded pride and ambition from any inheritance in the Kingdom of his Son But this bad habit or disposition being laid aside and the contrary wherewith as yet they were not invested to wit true humilitie being put upon them the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared for them and prepared for them thus qualified from the Foundation of the world Our Saviours Answer unto them imports no more then Saint Peter doth when he saith Deus dat gratiam humilibus sed resistit superbis God giveth grace to the humble but resisteth the proud and so our Saviour repels their Petition for the present because it did proceed from secular pride and from this particular took occasion not only to teach James and John but the other Ten also the necessitie of humility as a qualification without which no man shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven either into the Kingdom of Grace in this life or into the Kingdom of glory in the life to come 7. For albeit the other Ten did much mislike this ambitious humour of James and John yet as one observes that Diogenes Calcavit fastum Platonis cum majori fastu So the Ten Apostles bewray more then a spice of the like ambitious humour in themselves by the manner of their mislike or indignation at the Petition of James and John Unwilling they were to give place and precedence unto them albeit they were their Lord and Masters kinsmen when the ten heard it saith Saint Matth. 20. 24. they were moved with indignation against the two brethren but Jesus called them unto him and said ye know the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authoritie upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant Even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many The same Lesson had been taught them twice before As Mark 9. 34. by the way they had disputed amongst themselves who should be greatest and he sate down and called the twelve and saith unto them If any desire to be first he shall be the last of all and servant of all and he took a child and set him in the midst of them and when he had taken him in his arms he said unto them whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth me and whosoever shall receive me receiveth not me but him that sent me This admonition you see doth equally concern all the Twelve not James and John alone The Tenor of the admonition is this that no man is fit for the Kingdom of heaven unless he become as a child unless he receive it as a child that is unless they better affect a humble and childish disposition as well in themselves as in others then any pre-eminence or worldly dignity Thus much our Saviour expresly taught them Mark 10. 13. They brought yong children unto him that he should touch them and his disciples rebuked those that brought them But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased and saith unto them Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Verely I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein and he took them up in his arms put his hands upon them and blessed them Thus he treated them not with reference to their Individual Persons but to their Qualifications hereby giving his disciples to understand that all such as seek to be actually blessed by him whatsoever their Parentage or other Prerogatives be they must be so qualified as these children were not so qualified they are not capable of the Kingdom of Heaven We must so demean our selves towards our heavenly Father out of knowledge and deliberation as little children do themselves towards their earthly parents out of simplicity or instinct of nature In respect of malice towards God or man we must be as little children but in knowledge of our own infirmities or more then childish impotency we must be men 8. To parallel the Conditions or properties of little children by nature with the properties of the children of God by supernatural Grace The very Impotencie of little children whilst they learn to go includes a power at least a proneness to fall though it be in the sink or channel but no power at all either to raise themselves or to make clean their garments from such stain or filth as they have contracted by their fall In this property we agree too well with them for as St. Austine saith Sufficit sibi liberum arbitrium admalum adbonum non We have a Liberty or Freedom of Will to defile our garments by falling or back-sliding after Baptism but no Freedom of will no power of our selves to rise again unto newness of life The Knowledge wherein we
the widdow These indeed are works of iniquity and deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven But is it a Work of iniquity not to work at all As not to give meat unto the hungry Not to give drink unto the thirstie Not to cloath the naked or lodge the harbourless Yes even these Omissions deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven Either by their connexion with sins of oppression because it is scarce possible that any which hear Christs promises should be barren of good Works unless they were too fruitful in the works of impietie and oppression or rather because as our Saviour elsewhere infers that Not to save mens lives when means and opportunitie is offered is to kill Not to feed the hungrie is a bloody sin Not to cloath the naked is as the sin of Oppression The Doing of some Good Works cannot excuse men for the Omission of others which be as necessary To prophesie in Christs name is a Gracious Work to cast out Divels is a Work of Greater Charity and comfort to the possessed then to visit the prisoners and yet such as have done these and many other wonderful Works shall not be admitted at the Last Day Besides the Goodness of the Works which we are bound to do there must be an Uniformitie in them Otherwise they are not done in Faith Now the same Faith and belief which inclines our hearts to works of one kind will incline them to the practise of every kind which we know or believe to be required at our hands by our Lord and Master That even the best Works of mercy or most beneficial unto others are not acceptable unto God unless they be done out of Faith obedience to our Masters Will is clear from our Apostles Verdict of Enoch Heb. 11. 5. Before his translation saith our Apostle he had this testimonie that he pleased God For so it is said Gen. 5. 24. that he walked with God the way by which he walked was his Good Works and Conversation but The Guide of this way and his works was his Faith So the Apostle infers without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ver 6. As God is the Author of goodness yea goodness it self so we cannot come unto him by any other way then by doing good to others yet that which must make even our best Works pleasing to him must be our Belief in him and in his goodness and that he is A bountiful Rewarder of all that do good The good Works even of the Heathen and of such as knew neither him nor his Providence of such as in stead of him worshipped false gods were rewarded by him but with rewards and blessings only Temporal He was their Rewarder but not himself their Reward This was the Peculiar of Abraham his friend and of Abrahams children that is of all such as do the works of Abraham out of the Faith of Abraham that is out of a lively apprehension and true esteem of his goodness Unto all such he himself shall be merces magna nimis or valdè magna Their exceeding great Reward Unto men thus qualified and only unto them it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world This Kingdom shall be a Kingdom of everlasting bliss and yet the greatest blessedness of this Kingdom shall consist in the fruition or enjoying of the presence of this Everlasting King who is goodness it self the participation of whose goodness is the very Life and Essence of that happiness which all desire but none shall attain besides such as do His Will by well doing To be separated for ever from his presence is the source of all the miserie which shall befall the damned or accursed But from this place of our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. The Romanist alwayes ready like the spider to suck poison from such flowers in this garden of God as naturally afford honey to such as seek God labours to infer as he doth out of the words of the text That the Everlasting Kingdom here promised is the just Reward of our good works and is as properly merited as everlasting death is by the Omission of the works here mentioned or by the Positive Works of inquitie So that I should here according to my proposed method proceed unto the third point That these good works how necessary soever they be are necessary only Tanquam via ad regnum non tanquam causa regnandi only as the Way and Means which lead unto this Kingdom not as the causes of its preparation for us or of our admission unto it But for the present I chuse rather to make some use or Application of what hath been said concerning the necessity of Good Works then to dispute of their Efficacie or Causality for attaining this Kingdom intending to touch that a little more in the next Chapter though with reference to what I have spoken in the 27. and 28. Chapters 6. You see that Good Works done in faith or which is all one a Working Faith are absolutely necessarie unto salvation But are they as necessary to Justification If they be how is it said by St. Austine and approved by the Articles of the Church of England Bona opera sequuntur hominem justificatum non praecedunt in homine justificando Good works follow Justification they do not go before it This Orthodoxal Truth only imports thus much That no man can do those works which are capable of the promises before he be inabled by God to do them and that this ability to do them is from the Gift of Justifying Faith Now every one that hath this Faith in his heart is said to be Justified that is absolved from the Guilt of sins past and freed from the Tyranny and Dominion of sin by receiving this pledge or earnest of Gods mercie and in this sense is Justification taken by St. James when he saith a man is justified by works that is He is not to be accounted the Son of faithful Abraham nor may he presume upon his own Actual Justification or estate in Grace until he be qualified and enabled to do the Works of Abraham In the same sense is Justification taken by St. John Rev. 22. 11 Qui justus est justificetur ad huc Let him that is righteous be righteous still or more justified And in this sort Children or Infants are said to be Justified by the Infusion of Faith The practise of Good Works is not required to their Justification before they come to the knowledge of good and evil But neither is the apprehension or actual Belief of Gods mercies in Christ required of them Though they be justified and saved for the Merits of Christ and through his blood as we are Yet is not the Rule for Application of these Merits the same in them and
deep touch of Pity or Compassion would raise our spirits to an higher point of service unto Christ then any relief or supply of their bodily wants can amount unto You may if you will for Christs sake be pleased to do it distribute so unto their bodily necessities as you may lay a necessity upon their souls of coming to the ordinary knowledge of Christ and of Gods mercies in him towards man You may by authority put the Precept of our Apostle in execution Such as will not work let them not eat or such as will not work the ordinary works of God that will not labor to be instructed in his fear and in his Laws let them not be partakers of your Bounty and Pity To constrain the poor the halt and lame to enter into the Lords house were a matter easie if as the Law of God and man requires none were permitted to remain amongst us but such as were confined to some certain dwelling or abode where they might live under the inspection or cure as well of Civil as of Ecclesiastick Discipline And consider with your selves I beseech you how either the Civil or Ecclesiastick Magistrate will be able to answer the great King at the last day through whose default whether joyntly or severally many children have been by Baptism received into Christs Church and yet permitted after to live such a roving and wandring life that no Tie can be laid upon them to give an account of their Faith or Christian conversation to any Church or Embassador of Christ But as Bodies while they are in motion are in no place though they pass through many so these wandering Meteors are of no Church though they be in every Church If I should in private perswade You Magistrates to seek some Redress of this Enormitie and blemish to the Government of this place I doubt I should be put off with the Exception to which I could not easily replie That you have better experience then I or others of my opinion or profession have And out of that experience see greater difficulties then we can discern But now having express warrant from our Saviour's words and this Fair opportunitie of Time and Place You must give me leave to reply unto you as an ingenuous and learned Scholar once did to a Christian Emperour which pretended greater difficulties in a good work which he commended to his Princely care then you can do in this Yet a work not all together so necessary nor so acceptable unto God as this work would be In rebus pijs aggrediendis nefas est considerare quantum tu potes sed quantum Deo fidis qui omnia potest Think not when you are about works of Pietie so much of your own Abilitie or weakness but examine how much you relie and trust in Almightie God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we conceive or think CHAP. XXXI MATTH 25. 34. 41. Come ye Blessed of my Father FOR I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie Go ye Cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie Jansenius his observation and disputation About merit examined and convinced of contradiction to it self and to the Truth The definition of Merit The State of the Question concerning Merit Increase of Grace no more Meritable then the First Grace A Promise made Ex mero motu sine Ratione dati et accepti cannot found a Title to Merits Such are All Gods promises Issues of Meer Grace Mercy and Bountie The Romanists of kin to the Pharisee yet indeed more to be blamed then He. The objection from the Causal Particle FOR made and answered 1. AGainst such as denie the merit of humane works Thus much saith Jansenius an ingenuous and learned Bishop though a Papist is diligently to be observed That Christ in this place deputes this Kingdom to the righteous FOR their works sake hereby giving us to understand that Life Eternal is bestowed upon them FOR their works by which the righteous Merit Life Eternal even as the wicked by their evil works Merit everlasting punishment The only ground or reason of this Assertion is For that our Saviours Form of speech in both Sentences is the same and Causal in both As he saith unto the wicked Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat c. ver 41 42. So he saith unto the righteous or them on his right-Right-hand v. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Yet least any man should except against him as dissenting from the Doctrine of Christ elsewhere delivered and from the Apostolick and Catholick Church By which Our salvation is ascribed to Gods Grace and mercy he adds this salve to the wound which he had made Non tamen Sic merit is nostris putetur dari vita aeterna c. Let no man think that life eternal is So bestowed upon our merits as All may not be given to the mercie of God from which we have our good works or merits He grants withal That the salvation of the Righteous depends upon Gods Blessing and Predestination upon which likewise their Good works depend Lest any should glory in himself A sin forbidden by Gods Prophet Jer. 9. ver 23. That All then is to be attributed to Gods mercie that no man may glorie in himself or in his works is true Our enemies in this Point being Judges is confessed by our Adversaries even in this place from which they seek to establish Merits And This we may conclude is A Point of Catholick Doctrine taught by Christ Prophets and Apostles stedfastly imbraced by all Reformed Churches and expresly in words acknowledged by the Romish Church With this Point of Catholick Faith we mingle no Doctrine no Opinion which may but questionably pollute or defile it We avoid all occasions of incurring the least suspition of contradicting it and for this cause We abandon the very name of Merit as now it is used or rather abused by the Romish Church Although in some Ages of the Church it were an indifferent and harmlesse Term Mereri importing no more as was shewed Chapter 27. then to Get or Obtain But Merit in the language of the modern Romish Church Est actio cuijustum est ut aliquid detur is An action or work to which something or any thing is due by Rule of Justice Yet doth the Romish Church not only Enjoyn the Use or Familiarity of this Name in this Sense or signification but Require the Assent of Faith unto the Reality Expressed by it 2. The Points then which lie upon that Church to prove if she will acquit her self from polluting the holy Catholick Faith are Two The One That this Doctrine of meriting heaven by works doth not contradict the former part of Catholick doctrine acknowledged by her to wit that
and Last consists of Thirteen Select Sermons the fittest I could chuse out to aid and accompany the precedent Discourses especially to attend the Tracts Of Christs coming to Judgment Of the Resurrection Of Life and Death Eternal which as they most flagrantly set forth THE TERROR OF THE LORD so are they most likely by startling and amateing the Conscience to prepare mens minds that the Impressions of those Sermons may be most penetrative and permanent As in the last mentioned Tracts me-thinks I find A Particular Summons directed to my self Prepare to meet thy God Give an Account of thy Stewardship So in the annexed Sermons I find peculiar and proper Remembrances of several things wherein I have done very foolishly deeds that ought not to be done For this cause I bow my knees and pray the Reader to lift his heart up in my behalf to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for Pardon and Peace and that what I have here printed in this Book may so be written in the Table of my heart not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God that I may not only wait for but haste to the Coming of the Day of God Having transferred these things unto my self and thus far made the Reader yea the World it self my Confessor I hope none will offend if I shew what respective parts of the ensuing Work may by others be usefully applyed to themselves And first of all The Sorrowful and rightly suffering soul if his actings be according may reap harvests of Comfort from what Our Author hath written About Judgment Resurrection and the Life to Come Whereas he that adds sin to miserie and wrath may certainly presume all the Desolations and Destructions God hath brought upon the Earth as so many Tastes and pledges of Greater to ensue The Woes past are but Schiographies and portendments scarce beginnings of future evils And I earnestly beseech all of the former sort as to fortifie themselves with Arguments to Charitie and forgiving injuries out of Chap. 32. So to regulate their Conversation and Demeanour by the Directions to be sound Chap. 35. The Section Of Christs coming to Judgment is very useful for such as take upon them places of Judicature and most useful for such as judge in matters of Highest Nature and Difference The Precept of Deborah Judg. 5. 10. Meditate ye Ye that sit in Judgment is the same with that of David Psal 2. 10 12. Be Wise Kiss the Son And the Question which David puts in that Golden Psalm Ne perdas will again be put to the Question by the Son of David when he comes to judge the Judges of the Earth Are your minds set upon righteousness O ye Congregation And do ye judge the thing that is right O ye sons of Men Whether ye do or no will then be justly and finally judged The Tract Of the Resurrection who can express the use of it An astonishing Meditation it is to think I now see as surely the eyes of some shal see those Christian brethren that fel in any late Battail were buried where they fell rising out of their places of Burial whether impleading or forgiving one another and with haste marching into the Valley of Jehoshaphat to see the day won or lost there and whose Heads shall then be crowned with Glory Yet is this but as the drop of a bucket to the Ocean of that days Terrors The Sermons upon that Precept of Christ I might say of Noah and Tullie Do as you would be done to are worth their weight in Gold of Ophir and useful for all Christians of what condition soever There came out a Book some sixteen years ago intituled Autocatacrisis Ladensium To the Partie or Persons that Composed or applauded that Book wherein Our Author is named I would especially recommend His Discourses upon Rom. 2. 1. presuming that that those with the Verifications of them exhibited in these late Revolutions will convince Him or them sufficiently That it is no difficult matter to compile a Larger Volume of Particularities wherein they that have judged others have by doing over and over again and again the same things or things more then equivalent condemned themselves and justified those whom they have condemned The Sermons upon 2 Chron. 24. and Matth. 23. contein very sound reproof of the Pharisaical Duplicitie of such as built the Sepulchres of ancient and yet persecuted the present Prophets and therein of such as in our dayes commend the Lives and condemn the Authors of the Deaths of Bishop Cranmer Hooper Ridley Ferrar Father Latimer c. And yet destroy their successors in Order Discipline and Doctrine I call heaven and earth to Record this day not to condemn such but to convince them that they may be saved That Those Men whom they have cast out as enemies to the Church of England and in Effect by driving them out from the Inheritance of the Lord tempted saying Go serve other Gods are The Men that bear the Burthen and heat of the day in all Contests betwixt parties of the English and Romish Churches and that preserve their undoers from being overborn with Romish Errors And this they do upon disadvantages unimaginable save only to such as have experimented them for want of their own Libraries Their former accommodations of Secessus Otia c. Besides Those Sermons will shew That the guilt of Blood will lye long upon a Nation That it justly may and certainly will be required of late Posterity unless A Signal Repentance of the same and especial abstinence from the like sins intervene I appeal to the meekest Moses upon earth what Degree of Guilt he would apportion to that Communitie suppose it in any Forrain Kingdom or the Posteritie thereof which being not only A Pretender to Christianitie but to the Puritie thereof did Sit as a Spectator whilst a Tumultuous Tempest of People for divers hours together did hunt and chase an Aged man were he good or bad unto the Death Yet was this thing done in our Metropolis which is a kind of standing Representative of the whole Nation some thirtie yeers ago Or what censure he would pass upon three Kingdomes the Generality whereof did though but ex-post-facto only by rejoycing at the deed consent to the Assassination of A Prince the man whom the King had honoured Yet was this also done about the same number of years since It is true Justice did treatably overtake the Partie that did this Fact But Who ever sorrowed for the Joy conceived at it These two seem to have been Portentuous Aboadments of Calamities ensuing as the daily visible desolation and Profanation of Gods House is of future woe And I remember them not as making Intercession against Israel or as things I have whereof to accuse mine own Nation with delight but upon the same account that I call mine own sins to remembrance that God may be intreated for the Land to blot them out of His.
John 6. 56. Of Communion in one Kind and receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollet's Exposition of Christs words Except ye eat And drink by Disjunction turning And into Or Confuted And Rules given for Better Expounding like places How Christ dwels in us and we in him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper John 6. 56. He that eateth my Flesh and Drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him Or abideth in me and I in him 1. SEeing these words contain the Grand Mystery of godliness not only of God manifested in the Flesh but of God still with us yea dwelling in us and seeing they are withal the Conclusion or Centre of our Saviours long dispute with the murmuring Jews It will be necessarie to unfold the chief Contents of this Chapter At the tenth verse you may read how our Saviour had satisfied five thousand hungry souls with five barley loves and two fishes and filled twelve baskets with the fragments upon the Experience of this strange wonder this great multitude sought to make him their King A good Project I must confesse if we value it onely by the usual measure or aime of popular Elections What people would not be willing to have such an one for their King as were able to feed a whole Armie without Contribution Tax or Toll from them without any further toil and care either on their part or his then giving of thanks and distribution of extemporarie provision by his Ministers But besides this politick motive they had a Prenotion that their expected Messias or King should enter upon his Kingdom at the Feast of the Passover a little before which time this Miracle was wrought And it was a received Opinion as Tacitus telleth us that there should a great King about this time arise in Judah Nor did this people err much in the circumstance of time wherein their Messias should be enthron'd in the Kingdom of David for so he was at or soon after the Passover following But they utterly mistook the nature of his Kingdom and the manner of his Reign Yet in that they sought to make this man for so and no more then so they conceived him to be their King it is more then probable that they took him for their expected Messias And indeed upon sight of the Miracle which he had wrought they expressly confesse so much ver 14. This is of a truth That Prophet which should come into the world But seeing neither his Kingdome was of this world nor was he to be instated in it by the voyces and suffrages of men he who knew all times and seasons knew this was not the time of his Coronation and therfore when he perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King he departed again into a mountain himself alone ver 15. And his Disciples being for the present discharged of their attendance crost the sea without him to Capernaum which was the place of his and their abode ver 16 17. The people which had been more then eye-witnesses of the former miracle having observed that he could not come to Capernaum where the next day they found him by ship or boat demand of him ver 25. Rabbi when camest thou hither The strange manner of his coming thither before them did it seems no lesse affect them then the former miracle though neither did affect them as was fitting for so our Saviour plainly tells them ver 26. Verily verily I say unto you ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled These were the same men which saw the miracle but in seeing it they did not see it that is they did not in heart consider that he had fed their bodies with corporal bread to no other end save only to stir up the appetite of their souls after celestial food So our Saviour testifies unto them ver 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed that is he was to be a King of Gods appointing not of theirs 2. Now albeit the former miracle of five loaves and two fishes had extorted that confession from them before mentioned Of a truth this is that Prophet which should come into the world yet this reproof of our Saviour's provokes them to question the validitie of their former verdict for they demand a further sign of him before they will acknowledge that he was indeed the Great Prophet or one whom they might believe was sent from God for so they say ver 30 31. What sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee What dost thou work our Fathers did eate Manna in the desert as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eate The question at last comes to this issue Whether the Manna which their Fathers did eate in the wildernesse were the true bread of life or bread from heaven better then which they were not to expect Our Saviour maintaines the negative ver 32 33. Verily Verily I say unto you Moses gave you not that bread from heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world All this they can well brook in Thesi or General for so they reply ver 34. Lord evermore give us this bread But when our Saviour comes from the Thesis to the Hypothesis or from the general Doctrine which they so well approved to make this particular Application I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst ver 35. They leave their questioning and fall to murmuring taking a sudden occasion or strange hint of offence at his person or Parentage Whereas before they were forward to make him their King they now reply Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know How is it then that he saith I came down from heaven vers 42. 3. Thus their fathers had murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wildernesse one while for want of bread Exod. 16. 2. accounting their estate in Egypt much better than their present condition in the wildernesse Another while they murmur for water Exod. 15. 24. And again Exod. 17. 3. Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our Children and Cattle with thirst Thus they murmured against Moses whom they had seen to work so mightie wonders And thus their foolish posteritie murmured against Him whom for the former miracle they had acknowledged the great Prophet whom God had promised to raise up unto them like unto Moses in all things and therefore like unto him in this in that he endured their murmurings against him with greater patience
gracious words of others in his behalfe will not suffice unless God by their praiers do frame his heart to beleive and move his tongue if God have given him the use of the tongue to Confess that Iesus Christ is the Lord. Corde creditur ad justitiam ore fit confessio ad salutem If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt beleive in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man beleiveth unto righteousnes and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 9 10. The Universalitie or extent of this Belief or Confession in respect of the parties whom it concernes is most fully exprest in the verse following For the Scripture saith Esa 28. 16. Whosoever believeth on him shall not make haste or not be ashamed And again Joel 2. 32. Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord whether he be Jew or Gentile shall be saved Thus you see that there is an universalitie of the parties or persons which are bound de Jure to make this Confession and an Universalitie of comfortable promises unto all such as make it as they ought that is not in tongue only but with the Heart not in heart only if God have given them the use of the heart and of the tongue or his blessings of memory and understanding 4. That besides this universality of persons confessing Christ with their tongues to be the Lord there is an Universalitie or Totality of duties to be performed by every one that confesseth Christ to be the Lord is evident from Iesus Christ our Lords own mouth Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say This speech infers thus much at least That though all other both Jews Gentiles even every tongue throughout the world had confessed as much as these his present Disciples of which some were temporary some perpetual Professors did yet this would not suffice to make them capable of the reward universally promised to his true Disciples and servants That this confession though made by every tongue besides was not sufficient to make any particular man capable of the reward promised to all his true servants that are capable of his words and sayings which was not ready and willing to do them That every one which heard his sayings and was willing to do them was truly capable of all the blessings which he promised is clear from his words following ver 47 48 49. Who so cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doth them I will shew you to whom he is like He is like a man which built an house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a Rock And when the flood arose the stream brake violently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a Rock But he that heareth and doth not is like unto a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruine of that house was great But our Lord and Saviours mind is by himself more fully exprest to this purpose Math. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven The limitation of these words as well for their negative as affirmative extent is this That neither every one nor any one of them which shall confess onely with their tongues that he is the Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This limitation of the Negative or rather our Assurance of Faith that this negative is thus far to be extended is manifest from the verse following For to prophesie in the Name of Christ is more than to confesse with the tongue only that Christ is Lord. To cast out Divels in the Name of Christ is more then to prophecie in his Name To do many works of wonder in Christs Name is more than to cast out Devils in his Name For to cast out Divels indeed is a wonderful work and yet but One of those wonderful works which then and for many years after were done in Christs Name by such as although they did call Christ Lord Lord as he truly is the Lord of all were not Christs true servants not such as Christ will take notice of or approve as better but rather reject as worse then Infidels in that last and dreadful day when he shall call his servants whether de jure or de facto to a final account For so it is expressed in the words following ver 23 23. Many will say unto me in that day and the more the better so their plea were good Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works And then will I professe unto them I never knew you that is I never approved of you but rather disapproved you and your works as worse then the works of heathens or heathenish workers For unto the Heathens as Heathens he hath not said that he will say in the last day Depart from me Ye Workers of iniquity That the Affirmative extent of his words to such as shall not only with their tongues confess but in heart and practice acknowledge him to be the Lord is as large and ample as his former threatnings to such as either indeed and facts deny him or with their tongues and lips do not confess him to be the Lord his promise in the next words ver 24. will give us full assurance Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock And thus you see The words of our Lord and Savior confirmed by the mouthes of two Authentick witnesses St. Matthew and St. Luke do warrant the truth of these two Universals That never a one of such as onely with the tongue confess him to be the Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That every one which in heart confesseth him though with tongue he cannot confess him to be the Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven For every one which doth the will of his Father which is in heaven and the doing of this his heavenly Fathers will here is not an act of the Tongue but of the heart and of the affections shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which is the place and seat appointed for all Christs true Servants and onely for them The onely question then remaining is What this Will of his heavenly Father is what it is to do it 5. This will of His heavenly Father is either General whatsoever is expressed in the Ten Commandements in the moral Law or in the Prophets or more Special as it is revealed in Christ or by Christ Did Christ then give us a New Law or other precepts then God by Moses had done
consists in the Fruition of God as he is Love although super-abundant yet are they not superfluous There is no wast there is nothing poured out from one which shall not be received in the same measure or manner by another But wherein do these Concomitant or Accidental Joyes consist Especially in these Two Particulars First In the Glorious Beautie of the Place which is called Sedes Beatorum the Seat or Mansion of the Blessed Secondly In the Society or companie of such as are so seated and made partakers of that Essential Blessedness which consists in the sight and vision of God as he is Happinesse it self For Visio amati est fruitio This is that which the Schools call The Fruition or enjoying of Gods presence Now that either the Place or the Societie of Saints and Angels can add or conferre any thing to our happiness this proceeds from Gods special presence in Both. 2. To begin with The Place or Seat of the Blessed How pleasant soever our Seat on earth may be yet this world it self is but Vallis lachrymarum A Valley of tears wherein some ruful spectacles are daily presented to our eyes wherein some woful news or unpleasant sounds possess our ears To hear and see what we now daily hear and see though we were Spectators only but no Actors would abate our Joy would be an Alloy to our present happiness Hence it is that St. John describing the Accidental Joys of the life to come saith Rev. 21. 1. I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more Sea And again verse 4. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are past away His meaning is not only That no man there shall have occasion to cry or that no sorrow or pain shall breed there But that there shall be no sorrow no cry there by way of Sympathie that is no ungrateful sound or spectacle shall approach their dwelling in the holy City which he describes at large in the same Chapter verse 11. unto the end The Compass and Form of it you have verse 16. It lyeth four square the length as large as the breath twelve thousand furlongs and the building of the wall of it was of Jasper and the City was pure gold like unto clear glasse Verse 18. c. Thus he describes The Beautiful Materials of the Place by the most glorious and most precious materials which this world affords And yet that is true of this Description which the Apostle saith of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law The gates of pearl and the streets of gold transparent as glasse are no better then shadows of the good things to come which are treasured up in that heavenly Kingdom for all such as love Christ Jesus and the glory of his coming Now though it be true that in Gods house there be many Mansions Yet is not the Beautie or Glorie of them appropriated to one nor divisible amongst some few but alike Common to all One hath not the less comfort There because another hath more Those Two quarrelling Pronounes Meum and Tuum shall be excluded thence as common Barretters One cannot say to another This part of this glorious Kingdom is mine That is yours for every one that shall be accompted worthy to be an heir of that Kingdom shall be as Intire an Heir as if he were sole Heir So it is not amongst the Kings of the earth the greater Dominions one hath or the further he extends them the less he leaves unto his neighbors There is some small Resemblance of the Condition of the Blessed Ones in Heaven to be found in our Hearing sight and knowledge of things which we have here on earth A great multitude may hear a speech and every one hear all No man hath less comfort from the light or heat of the Sun by anothers injoying it unless he purposely stand between the Sun and him No man is prejudiced but rather furthered by another mans extraordinary knowledge specially of matters heavenly and not divisible into parts Howbeit here is a vast difference whilst we live on earth even when there is no matter of prejudice to any other but rather of benefit or advantage to many yet there is matter too much of envy for that breeds within mans self it comes not by infection from without But so it is not in the place of blisse in the heavenly City into which no unclean thing no unclean thought specially no envie no uncharitablenesse shall enter 3. As is the Place so is the Company or Societie Every one is Loving Every one is Lovely All be Sons of Peace their Love and Peace is mutual Ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the heaveniy Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12. 22. c. There is no Question at least there ought none to be but that the Essential Ioy or blessedness of the life to come shall not be Arithmetically Equall that is the measure of it shall not be one and the same in all for every man shall be rewarded according to his wayes The Eternal Life which is the Gift of God is the Award not of Commutative Justice nor of Distributive though if so it were it should be awarded according to Geometrical Proportion But it is an Act of mercy or bountie and being such there is no Question but he that loved God more in this world then others shall have a greater proportion in his love No Question but he which hath received a greater Talent and hath imployed it as well or better then he that hath received lesse shall have a greater reward And he which hath been more faithful in his Masters service or he in whom the Kingdom of Grace hath entred further in this life shall enter further into his Masters Ioy shall partake more fully of the Kingdom of Heaven And according to the lesser or greater measure of Essential happiness shall the measure of their expressions of joy or thanksgiving be And yet the Joy which amounts from their mutual expressions shall be equal and the same to all For though every one cannot so fully expresse his joy or thanksgiving as another doth yet he that comes short of others in this expression shall joy even in this that God is more or better glorified by another then by himself and such is the disposition of these heavenly inhabitants that so Gods name be truly glorified by all they respect not by whom it be comparatively most
death The sense or Tast or Overture of the second death doth make the least rellish of the second resurrection unto Life to seem more sweet and pleasant Now it is the rellish or secret intimation of Celestial joyes which must animate and incourage us to undertake all the dangers or discontents wherewith the way unto the heavenly Canaan the land of promise and of our rest is beset The most forcible Reasons which the Divinest Orator can use or the best words wherewith he can apparel his reasons or perswasions are but vain unless he can with them or by them instill this secret tast or rellish into mens souls All the descriptions which the Leaders of the Gaules could make of the pleasures or Commodities of Italy all the newes or reports which they could devise or cause to be made in their publique meetings as it were upon our Royal Exchange could not so much animate their followers to adventure upon the strait and difficult passages over the Alpes as did the tast of the Italian Grape And that which did especially aggravate the Israelites Dastardy for not undertaking that sacred warre whereunto God had called them against the Canaanites the Amorites and the Hittites c. was the sight of those Grapes which such as were sent to discover that good Land had brought from Eschol Their unusual greatness which all the host might have seen and their extraordinary rellish which many did or might have tasted was a pledge or assurance of the truth of Gods promises concerning the fertility or pleasantness of that Land For as we say Ex ungue Leonem The terrour of the Lion which we never saw may be taken from his paw Or as Pythagoras did take the just quantity of Hercules his body by the print of his foot so might the Israelites have taken the true estimate of the Land of Canaan from the unusual quality and extraordinary quantitie of that bunch of grapes which their mutinous spies or Intelligencers could not deny to be the native fruit of that soil But of the Israelites disobedience and dastardy and what both these and the slanderous reports which their spies or intelligencers did raise of that good Land mystically import we shall take occasion if God permit hereafter to handle 7. Such a pledge as these Israelites had of Gods promises concerning the Land of Canaan we may have and must have of the pleasures of the Celestial Canaan before we become valorous in our undertakings for it And if we once attain to a true Tast or rellish of its goodness the least portion of it will serve as a true measure to notifie the incomparable excess of those joyes in comparison of any earthly pleasures or annoyances the one or other of which and nothing besides them can occasion our diversion from the wayes which lead unto them The force or efficacie which experienced pleasures or contentments have upon mens souls or affections Mahomet and his successors too well foresaw and so by a known representation of a counterfeit heaven and by a reall and experienced tast of imaginary or feigned pleasures in the life to come did make their followers more zealous and confident in propagating their Empire and Religion then either Christian Preachers or Magistrates can make their Christian people The obedience of Turkish children to their parents of their greatest Nobles to their Soveraign of their souldiers to their Commanders of inferiour Commanders to their Superiors or Generals far exceeds any obedience which we Christians usually perform to our Superiours in what kind soever One Erroneous principle notwithstanding they have That all things are so decreed by God as nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth and from this prejudicate conceipt when opportunitie suggests fair hopes unto the son of obtaining his fathers Crown they account it no sin but a religious Act for the Son to depose the Father as presuming it is Gods Will thus to have it whensoever he offers opportunity But when there is no hope to gain a Crown by rebellion no intimation given by the signes of the time that God will prosper their attempts against their Superiors there is no subject in any Christian Kingdom that will accept the greatest dignity whereto his Soveraign Lord can advance him with such Loyal respect and submission as the sons or grand-children of their Emperours will imbrace the sentence of death though no way deserved only in obedience to his designes and pleasure There is no malefactor amongst us though openly convicted of capital crimes that will submit himself to the sentence of the Law with that cheerfulness of mind or unregreting affections as their inferiour Commanders or common souldiers will surrender their lives into their Superiors hands be the service whereunto they appoint them never so dreadful or desperate 8. Now the great motives by which Turkish Priests or their Magistrates work this absolute submission and compleat obedience in inferiors is either fear of Hell or torments after this life in case they shall disobey or hopes of Heaven if they continue loyal and obedient and yet the hell which they fear is no way so terrible as that Hell with whose torments we dayly threaten the disobedient Their hopes of heaven are nothing so glorious as those hopes which God promiseth and we professe we believe them to be the reward of our obedience to our God to our Prince and to his just Lawes whether Ecclesiastick or Civil Whence then doth this great difference or odds arise between their obedience and ours From no other root then this They propose unto their followers such an heaven such contentments after this life as they may have a true tast or rellish of in this life by whose multiplication the incomparable excesse of future contentments in respect of present may by ordinary capacities be easily taken There is no delight or pleasure which men in this world can take in the dayes of plenty security and peace no pleasures of the outward senses of touch or tast which they do not hope to enjoy in far greater measure in heaven without annoyance interruption or disturbance then their Emperour or Grand-Segnior in this life can do The meanest amongst them perswades himself he shal have more consorts or concubines then their Luxurious Emperors have all more beautiful then any earthly creatures can be There is no delight again in War or feats of arms which their Common souldiers hope not to enjoy without danger or defatigation of their bodies in far greater measure then the greatest Commanders or Generals of their Armies do And being thus possessed with this Two fold perswasion First That Obedience to Superiors doth merit heaven Secondly That the joyes of heaven are for nature and quality the same with such earthly pleasures and contentments which they have tasted but infinitly exceed them for quantity and duration To perswade them to lay down this life in hope of attaining the life to come by obedience to their
of sense into the Vine as it might continually tast the sweetness of that fruit which it beareth and wherewith as the Scripture saith it cheereth the heart of man How full would it be of gladnesse both root and branch would be as full of mirth and gladness as they are of life and sap How much more graciously doth God deal with those that hearken to his Word and obey the motions of his Spirit We being by nature more dead unto the Fruit of holinesse and more destitute of spiritual Life then the Vine or Fig-tree is of the Life sensitive he infuseth a new sense or Tast into our souls and makes them more fruitful then the Fig-tree which is never without fruit either ripe or green and makes us withall sensible partakers of the sweetness of all the Fruit which his Spirit bringeth forth in us and from the Tast of this Fruit of Holinesse ariseth that Joy and Gladnesse of spirit which is the pledge and earnest of Eternal Life 10. But have we this Joy whilst we sojourn here on earth in our selves or in our own souls or in Christ only So we be fraught with the Fruit of Holinesse we have this Ioy as truly in our selves as we have the Fruit Though we have neither of our selves or from our selves We have Both in our selves in such a manner as the Vine branch hath both Life and sap in it self though both originally from the Root So long as the Vine branch continues in the Vine it is really partaker of the Life and sweetness of the Root The similitude is our Saviours John 15. 1. c. I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman Every branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you for it is The Word which purgeth us and maketh us apt to bear fruit in our selves so long as we are in Christ For so he addeth ver 4. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit in it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me For I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit ver 5. And where there is Much Fruit there is Plenty of Joy For contrary to the custome of other husbandmen or Vine dressers the sweetness of the Fruit redounds not to the Vine-dresser but to the branches that bear it The fruit is wholly Ours The glory is only Gods For so he adds ver 8. Herein is my Father glorified he doth not say profited that ye bear much fruit The more we bear the more we are benefited the more God is glorified by us for no man can truly glorifie God until his heart and spirit be cheered with that joy which is the fruit of peace and holiness God as the Apostle tels us did never leave himself without a witnesse All the good things which the Gentiles received even whilst they walked in their own wayes were so many witnesses of his Goodness though they perceived not it was he that did them good that gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladnesse Acts 14. 16 17. He doth not say with Food and Ioy for Joy properly taken hath its seat in the mind and spirit of man nor is it there placed without the spirit of God whereas the gladnesse whereof the Apostle there speakes may harbour in the inferior or affective part This difference which we now observe between joy and gladnesse in our English The Greek writers curiously observe between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do the Latines between Laetitia and Gaudium Every blessing of God though but a blessing temporal is matter of gladnesse even to such as know not or acknowledge not God to be the Author of such blessings but True Ioy alwayes presupposeth the knowledge of God in Christ and some acquaintance with the spirit 11. As it is said in this 22. verse that the End or issue of the fruits of Holinesse is Eternal life so our Savour tels us Iohn 17. 3. that the same Eternal Life is the effect or issue of the Knowledge of God and of Iesus Christ whom he hath sent These two then do reciprocate without the knowledge of God and of Christ there is no peace of Conscience no fruit of Holinesse no Joy in the Holy Ghost and yet the greater measure of such fruit we have the more we shall abound in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ in the knowledge of whom this Ioy in the Holy Ghost which can be had in this world and Life Eternal in the world to come doth consist So that the only way to attain unto this Ioy wherein the Kingdom of God doth consist is to be rightly instructed in the knowledge of God whose the Kingdom and glory is and of Jesus Christ who is Our King even the King of glory There is a kind of secret Joy in the knowledge or contemplation of every truth or true principle though of secular and humane Arts. And no marvel for as God is Righteousness and Holinesse it self So He is Truth it self The truth of all sciences is as truly derived from that Truth which He is as that Righteousnesse and Holiness whereof his Saints are made partakers is from his Holiness and Righteousness Now that Ioy which some heathen Philosophers or Artists did reap from contemplation of some Truths and Principles in themselves but dry and barren did oft-times more then counterpoize that inbred delight or pleasure in other secular vanities which usually missway us Christians to folly and lewdnesse yea this Joy did sometimes bring their souls into a kind of Rapture or forgetfulness of life natural or sensitive with their contentments Many of them in hope to find out the Causes of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon of other appearances in the heavens and the like have been more abstemious and moderate in their dyet and spent more time and hours in observing the motion of the Stars and in perusing Every leaf of the Book of Nature or of Gods visible creatures then we bestow in fasting and praying or in meditation upon The great Mystery of godliness God manifested in the Flesh and if they hapned to satisfie themselves in these points of truth which they most sought after the Expressions of their Joy and sometimes of their thankfulness to their Gods were oft-times more hearty and cheerful then most of us can give any just proof of for all the benefits which God hath bestowed upon us by his Gospel So * one of them having found out that Mathematical Principle concerning the equalitie between the Square of the base and of the sides
to be our Redeemer No Act or work of God no not the first work of Creation was of more free Gift or bounty as the Romanists grant or less merited either de Condigno or de Congruo by any work of ours then the work of our Redemption So that the word Merit how often soever it be used by the Antient Latine Fathers carries no weight to sway us to any conceipt of True Worth in our Works for the purchasing of eternal life 3 But what if the Holy Ghost speak thus in Formal or Equivalent Terms as that Eternal life is the wages or stipend of our Works or that our Works are worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven or of the life to come Shall we not subscribe unto him Yes we will if the Romish Church can prove unto us that He thus spake or meant Now that he thus speaks or means they endeavor thus to prove First from all those places of Scripture in which Eternal life is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces that is a reward or stipend Now our Saviour himself thus speaketh Matth. 5. 11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you From this and the like places they labor to infer that the patience of Martyrs is meritorious of Eternal Life To this and the like places the Answer is easie The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Latin Merces imply no more in the Language of the Holy Ghost then our English word Reward And hence the fruit or issue of our paines so it be grateful to men though no way deserved is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So our Saviour saith that the very Hypocrites which do all their works to be seen of men if they gain applause have their Reward Yet no man will say that a dissembler or hypocrite doth deserve or merit this Reward but rather punishment And Rewards we know are sometimes given freely out of meer bountie and liberalitie as well as by way of desert or merit Yea it is not properly a Reward unlesse it be a Gratuitie or Largesse That which a man works for upon Covenant or that which he receives by way of hire is not a Reward but a just Pay or Stipend and though it be most true that God renders to every one according to all his wayes yet in proprietie of speech he is said to reward none but those whom he remembers in mercie and bountie For so it is said Heb. 11. 5. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him not so of such as seek him not for them he punisheth and no branch of punishment is any branch of Reward This then we learn from our Apostle That the first thing to be believed in all ages is this That there is a God The second That this God is a Rewarder of those that seek him This truly infers That His Reward is worth the seeking after whether it be bestowed upon us in this or in the life to come but it doth not infer that our seeking after it is meritorious or worthy of the least of his Rewards And though Eternal Life be the Best and Last Reward of such as seek God yet it is not the Only Reward that he bestowes on them that seek him yea he bestowes Eternal Life or the Life of Glorie upon none upon whom he doth not first bestow the Reward of Grace The Kingdom of Grace is but the Entrance into the Kingdom of Glorie And when we teach new Converts to pray in the first Place for The Kingdom of Grace and to pray for it as the Reward or Gift of God Yea and the Romanists themselves do grant that no man can merit the Kingdom of Grace which is properly the Reward of such as seek God so that all their Arguments which they draw from this Topick that Eternal Life is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces and may therefore be merited by us are altogether groundless All of them conclude Aut nihil aut nimium either nothing at all or a great deal too much As That the First Grace may be merited which they themselves deny 4. Their next chief Topick is that Our works or endeavors are said to be worthy of Eternal Life and that in Canonical Scriptures To this purpose Cardinal Bellarmine citeth that of our Saviour Luke 10. 7. Dignus est operarius mercede sua The Laborer is worthy of his hire But I am perswaded that he took this upon trust from some idle or ignorant Scholler whom he had imployed to rake testimonies for his present purpose If his leisure had served him to look upon the Circumstances of the Text with his own eyes he might clearly have seen that our Saviour there speaks not of Eternal Life or of the Reward or Gift of God but of that Hire which is due unto the Preachers of the Gospel from such as are instructed in the Gospel The other Testimonies alledged by him are more Pertinent though not Concludent And they are in number Three The First is Luke 20. 35. But they that shall be accounted Worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage The second is 2 Thess 1. 4. We our selves saith he glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous Judgment of God that ye may be counted Worthy of the Kingdom of God For which ye also suffer The third is Revel 3 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are Worthy This last Testimony affords them A new Topick or Frame of Arguments which they draw from this and the like places wherein The works or righteousness of the Saints are assigned as True Causes Why they enter into the Kingdom of heaven So our Saviour saith in the Final Sentence Math. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me This is as much saith Bellarmine as if he had said Ye are Therefore blessed of my Father ye shall Therefore enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Because ye have done these and the like good Works out of your Love and Charitie towards me Now if these works be The Cause Why they enter into the Kingdom of
for God to Elect or not to Elect us and so eternal Life should not be the Award of Gods Free Merrie and Grace as now present but an Act of his Fidelity or promise past before we had any being before the world was made But if God had not the same Free Power at this day to Elect or not to Elect any man now living or not the same Free Power to shew mercie on whom he will and to harden whom he will which it is supposed once he had he should not have the same Power over us which the Potter hath over his Clay which is at his free disposal not only before he works it but while it is in working I may conclude this Point with Cardinal Bellarmines Tutissimum est It is the safest way the only way absolutely to rely all our life time upon Gods Free mercie and Grace and to make continual supplications unto God the Father through Christ that as he hath prepared a Kingdom for us from the foundation of the world so he would prepare and fit us for it For without preparation or fit Qualification we are not capable of it and thus we come unto the Second Point proposed 4. The Second Point to which the Third is annexed or sub-joyned was That the Absolute Freedom of this Gift doth not exclude all Qualifications in the parties on whom it is bestowed but rather requires better qualifications in them then can be found in others which exclude it or make themselves uncapable of it The Truth of this Assertion you may easily conceive by this one Instance or Example Suppose you that are Governors of this Corporation should Found as God put it in your hearts to do a Goodly Hospital or Almes-house at your own proper cost and charges the Gift would be most Free a Gracious Gift or Foundation and yet no man would conceive that the doors of that house though most Freely Founded should be as open or the good things belonging to it as Free for theeves and robbers for Bands or Panders for sturdy and lazie Beggars as for the halt and lame for the aged and impotent or as for men of decayed estate by Casualties as for Widdows or Orphans not so free or open for persons so qualified but otherwise haughty and proud as for Widdows or for decayed persons that were pious humble modest and ingenuous He should wrong you much that should conceive that you did intend only to have the number filled up though it were by such as the Poet describes but in a verse somewhat better Qui numeri essent fruges consumere nati That is by persons good for nothing but only to devour Gods Blessings To admit all sorts of people promiscuously into such a Foundation without respect of any Good Qualification would be an Act of Prodigality or impiety rather then of Free Bounty or Gracious Charity And can you imagine or suspect that the most just and righteous Judge the only wise immortal God who requires no more of us then that we should be perfect as he is perfect that we should be bountiful as he is bountiful and merciful as he is merciful doth not more constantly observe the Rules of his eternal Equity Bountie and Mercie then we can observe our Saviours Rules which are but the Copy of them albeit we made this our chief care and only study Thus to do is natural unto him not so unto us we cannot imitate the paterns which He sets us without much difficulty and many interruptions We may Freely bestow our Alms or Rewards but we cannot qualifie the parties that are to receive them we may prepare good things for them but we cannot prepare their hearts to receive them well or worthily But God doth not only prepare the Kingdom of Heaven for us but must also prepare us for it otherwise as our Apostle speaks Heb. 4. 1. We shall come short of the promise which is left us for entring into his rest And no man can come short of the promise or of the blessing promised but he that had a true Interest in the promise or he for whom the blessing promised was prepared 5. What shall we say then That any for whom the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared from the Foundation of the world shall finally miss of it or be excluded from it at the end of the world so our Apostle in the fore-cited place evidently supposeth Was it then prepared for all or for a Certain number A curious and ticklish Question Yet about which if any Contention have grown or may grow this cannot arise but only from the malice ignorance or incogitancie of the men which dispute and handle it For between these two Propositions themselves The Kindom of Heaven was prepared for all The Kingdom of Heaven was not prepared for all there is no Contradiction if men would not look upon them through some imperfect Logical Rules which hold true only in some Cases or Subjects If we should say That the Kingdom of heaven was prepared for the self same man Saint Peter for example from Eternity And The kingdom of heaven was not prepared for the same Saint Peter from Eternity we should say no otherwise then the Holy Ghost hath taught us There is no more Contradiction between the Affirmative and the Negative then if one should say The inhabitants of this town are rich The Inhabitants of this town are not rich but poor The Rule is generall that Betwixt an Indefinite Affirmative and an Indefinite Negative there is no Contradiction Now though Saint Peter were all his life time One and the same Individual man for Person if we consider him only as he stands in the Predicament of substance yet he was not all his life time One and the self same Object in respect of Gods decree of mercy or Judgement or for the preparation of Eternal life To affirm this were to contradict the Holy Spirit whose unquestionable Maxim it is that God renders to every man according to all his wayes Now if Saint Peters wayes and works were not at all times the same he was not at all times the same individual Object of Gods Decree God had One Award for him whilst he denied his Master or disswaded him from under-going the Crosse for us and Another Award for him whilst he resolutely confest Christ before Princes though certain to undergo the Crosse himself for so doing 6. But where doth The Spirit of God teach us this Logick or thus to distinguish Matth. 20. ver 23. Mark 10. 40. The story is plain save that the one Evangelist saith It was the mother of Zebedees children The other saith that the sons themselves to wit John and James came with this Petition unto our Saviour that The one might sit on the right hand the other on his left hand in his Kingdom And it is plain out of Saint Matthew that the Petition was as well exhibited by the sons as by the
Reformation and Refining was that they made The Church which in their Language was the bodie of the Clergie A body Politick or kingdom distinct from the body of the Layetie holding even Christian Kings and Emperours to be Magistrates meerly Temporal or civil altogether excluded from medling in affairs Ecclesiastick Now this being granted the Supream Majestie of every kingdom State or nation should be wholly seated in the Clergie The greatest Kings and Christian Monarchs on earth should be but meer vassals to the Ecclesiastick Hierarchie or at the most in such subordination to it as Forraign Generals and Commanders in chief are to the States or Soveraignties which imploy them who may displace them at their pleasure whensoever they shall transgresse or not execute their instructions or Commissions For this reason as in the handling of the first verses of the 13. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath been declared unto you before All the disputes or Lawes concerning the Supremacie of Kings or Free States within their own Dominions were to no purpose unlesse this Root of mischief and Rebellion be taken away which makes the Clergie a body politick or Common-weal Ecclesiastick altogether distinct from the Layetie-Christian Now this erroneous Root of mischief hath been well removed by the Articles of Religion established in this Church and Land Article the 37. wherein The same authoritie and power is expresly given to the Kings of this Realm and their successors which was in use and practise amongst the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors when kingdoms and Common-weales did first become Christian The Law of God and of nature will not suffer the Soveraign Power in Causes Ecclesiastick to be divorced from the Supream Majestie of any Kingdom or free Soveraigntie truely Christian But what be the contrary Errors into which such as take upon them to be Reformers of the Reformation already made have run headlong Or how do they the same things wherein they judge the Romanists The Romanists as they well observe deserve condemnation by all Christian States for appropriating the Name or Soveraign Dignitie of the Church unto the Clergie and by making the Prerogative of Priests and Prelates to be above the Prerogatives of Kings and Princes The Contrary faction of Reformers not content to deprive the Clergie of those civil Immunities and priviledges wherewith the Law of God the Law of Nations and the Fundamental Law of this Kingdom have endowed them will have them to be no true members of the Common-weale or Kingdom wherein they live Or at the best but such Inferior members of the Common-weale as the Papists make the Layetie to be of the Church men that shall have no voice in making those Coercive Lawes by which they are to be governed and to govern their flocks yea men that shall not have necessary voyces in determining controversies of Religion or in making Rules and Canons for preventing Schisme I should have been afraid to beleeve thus much of any sober man professing Christianitie unlesse I had seen A book to this purpose perused as is pretended in the Frontispice by the Learned in the Laws But the Author hath wisely concealed his own name and the names of those learned in the Lawes which are in grosâ—â— pretended for its Approbation And therefore I shall avoid suspition of ayming at any particular out of mis-affection to his person in passing this general Censure No man could have had the heart to write it no man the face to read it without blushing or indignation but he that was altogether unlearned and notoriously ignorant in the Law of God in the Law of nature and in the Fundamental points of Christianitie 6. All Errors in this kind proceed from these Originals First The Authors of them Charitie may hope by Incogitancie or want of consideration rather than out of Malice seek to subject the Clergie unto the same Rule unto which the Church was subject for the first 300. years after Christ during which time the Kings and Emperours under which the Christians lived were Heathens And whilst the chief Governours were such no Christians could exercise Coercive Authoritie as to Fine imprison or banish any that did transgresse the Lawes of God or of the Church The Apostles themselves could use no other manner of punishment besides delivering up to Satan Excommunication or inhibition from hearing the word or receiving the Sacraments Secondly the Authors of the former Errors consider not That whilest the Church was in this subjection to meer Civil and not Christian Power the Lay-Christians of what rank soever though noble men by birth were as straightly confined and kept under as were the Clergie Yea the Clergie in those times had greater authoritie over Lay-Christians then any other men had Authority much greater over the greatest then any besides the Romish Prelates do this day challenge over the meanest of their flocks But after Kings and Emperors and other supream Magistrates were once converted to the Christian Faith their dignities were no whit abated but gained this Addition to their former Titles that they were held supream Magistrates in Causes Ecclesiastick That is they had power of calling Councils and Synods for quelling Schisms and Heresies in the Church power likewise to punish the Transgressors of such Laws or Canons as had been made by former Godly Bishops or Prelates which lived under Heathen States or of such as the Bishops or Clergy which lived under their Government should make for the better Government of Christs Church Unto punishments meerly spiritual which the Apostles and Bishops had formerly only used Christian Emperors added punishments temporal as imprisonment of body loss of goods exile or death according to the nature and qualitie of the transgression But that any Laws or Canons were made by Christian Kings or Emperors for the Government of the Church or that any Controversies in Religion were determined without the Express Suffrages and Consents of Bishops and Pastors though all wayes ratified by the Soveraigntie of the Nation or State for whom such Canons were made no man until these dayes wherein we live did ever question 7. And of such as question or oppose Episcopal Authoritie in these Cases I must say as once before out of this place in like case I did If Heathen they be in heart and would perswade the Layetie again to become Heathens their Resolutions are Christian at least their conclusions are such as a good Christian living under Heathens would admit But if Christians they be in heart and profession their Conclusions are heathenish or worse For what Heathen did ever deny their Priests the chief stroke or sway in making Lawes or ordinances concerning the Rites or service of their Gods or in determining Points Controverted in Religion To conclude this Point The men that seek to be most contrary to the Romish Church and are most forward to judge her for enlarging the Prerogative of Priesthood beyond its ancient
place it where he list But if the inordinate desire of gain do mis-sway men by profession Christians to use deceit in bargaining to over-reach their Neighbors or to work their own advantage out of their brethrens miseries or necessities they transgresse the second great Commandement as grievously as the Heathen did the sum whereof you know is to love our Neighbors as our selves to do to all as we desire to be done unto And by the manner and measure of transgressing these two great Commandements on which the whole Law and Prophets hang the true measure as of Idolatry so of all other sins must be taken 10. If we should take an unpartial survey of all the several sorts or conditions of men throughout this Land and of their demeanors in their several callings What root or branch of goodness is there wherein we can be imagined to overtop many Heathen Nations unless it be in point of Faith and Opinion But these we know without correspondencie in practise of good life will be so farre from justifying us in respect of the Heathens or Infidels that they will more deeply condemn us Covetousness deceit and violences were not more rife amongst private Heathens then they are with us If opportunity serve Homo homini fit lupus every one is as a snare or gin unto his neighbor The Remedy which God hath appointed for this enormitie are publick Laws and Courts of Justice And yet if the greivances which private men suffer from one another were put in one scale and the greivances which befal them from the corruptions of Courts appointed to do them right whether these be Civil or Ecclesiastick were put in the contrary Scale it would be hard to determine whether sort of greivances would overpoize others And if the remedie prove worse then the disease what hope of health As for drunkenness ryot and other prophaneness these were not so rife in many Heathen Nations as they are now in most Christian States because for the most part more severely punished amongst them then they are with us and yet I pray God that the sins of the Pulpit and of the Printing-house may be found much lighter then the sins of the Play-house or the Tavern c. when the great Moderator of Heaven and Earth shall weigh them in the Balance of his un-erring Justice This is certain that notorious delinquents almost in every other kind are ashamed to justifie themselves when their facts come to light their very Consorts will not be their Advocates when they are proved against them Whereas many popular Sermons and Treatises albeit ful stuft with Characters of more then Heathenish pride hatred malice sedition and scurrilitie pass for currant amongst the factions Consorts as containing rare expressions of fervent zeal in Gods cause and of sincere love to true Religion And if the light of the body be dark how great must the darkness of that body be 11. In drunkenness in gluttony in wantonness and other branches of licentiousness some Heathen Nations in former ages haply have exceeded us But in this publick and farre spreading licentiousness of tongues and pens in bitter invectives against their brethren in audacious libelling against lawful Superiors no Age before the Art of Printing was invented could no State or Nation since the invention of that Art hath exceeded or may compare with those times wherein and those people with whom we live But admit the faults or delinquencies of our time were but equal to the delinquencies of the Heathen yet as that ancient and religious Writer Salvianus well observes Though the vices of the Heathens and the Christians were but equal yet the same vices are more criminous and scandalous in Christians then they can be in the Heathen If the Heathens were prophane were covetous were dissolute licentious or disobedient what great matter is it they never heard of A Redemption from this vain conversation to be purchased at so high a rate as with the pretious blood of the only Son of God They never were called solemnly to vow integrity of life and conversation as a service due unto that Lord which had redeemed them All this we have done and yet have left our Masters will which we vowed to do altogether undone yea continue to do the will of his Enemie with as great alacrity and fidelity as the Infidels or Heathens do Again the Heathens had no expectation of any gratious immortal reward for well-doing they feared no dreadful doom or sentence after death for the errors or mis-doings of this mortal life But we ever since we learned the ten Commandements and our Creed have been hedged in on the right hand and on the left on the right hand with hopes of a most blessed everlasting life on the left hand with fear of an endless and never-dying death and yet have transgressed these bounds have on both hands out-rayed as licentiously as the Heathens did Surely one special reason why after so long so much good preaching there is so little practice of good life so much licentiousness in the wayes of death is because we Preachers do not maintain that double hedge which Christ hath set us for keeping us in order that is we do not press the fear of death and hope of life everlasting so forcibly and seasonably as we ought and might Now these meditations of everlasting life and everlasting death are the points whereunto these discussions upon this Text have been praemised God grant you docile hearts and me the Spirit of Grace and Understanding for rectifying your hopes and fears of your final reward in that last and dreadful Day CHAP. XLI 2 CHRON. 24. 22. The Lord look upon it and require it 1. THe Sayings of men in perfect health of mind are then most pithy and their Testifications most valid when their bodily limbs and senses are at the weakest pitch And the Admonitions or Presages of wise Governors whether Temporal or Ecclesiastick sink deeper into sober hearts being uttered upon their death-beds then if they were delivered upon the Bench or Throne These few words amount unto an higher Point of Consideration then these Generalities import For They are the last words of a great High-Priest and a great Prophet of the Lord of a Prophet not by General Calling only but uttered by him whilest the Spirit of Prophesie did rest upon him They are the words of Zechariah the Son and lawful Successor to that Heroical High-Priest Jehoiada who had been the chief Protector of the Kingdom of Judah A Foster-Father unto the present King The Restorer of Davids Line when it did hang but by one slender thred unto its Antient Strength and Dignity 2. The Points most considerable in the survey of this Text are Three First The Plain and Literal sense which wholly depends upon the Historical Circumstances as well precedent as subsequent Second The Emblematical Portendment of that prodigious fact which did provoke this dying Priest and Prophet of the
Secondly There lies open a spacious field for such as affect to expatiate in Common Places or dilate upon that Old Maxim Laici semper sunt infensi Clericis to tax the inveterate enmity of secular men against the Clergie Whose violent out burstings into Prodigious Outrages did never more clearly appear then in the wicked suggestions of the Princes of Iudah unto infortunate King Joash against this Godly High-Priest Zechariah for his zeal unto the House and service of the God of their Fore-fathers But however the like prodigious cruelty had not been exemplified before this time yet in many later ages the Prelacie or Clergie have not come an inch short of these Lay-Princes in working and animating Kings and supream Magistrates to exercise like tyranny and oppressing cruelty not upon Laicks only but upon their Godly and religious Priests or inferior Clergie The Histories almost of all Ages and Nations since the death of Maurice the Emperor unto this last Generation will be ready to testifie whensoever they shall be heard or read more then I have said against the Romish Hierarchy whose continual practises have been to make Christian Kings the Executioners of their furious spleen against their own Clergie or neighbor Princes or to stirre up the rebellion of Lay-subjects against all such of their Leige-Lords or Soveraigns as would not submit themselves their Crowns and Dignities or which is more their Consciences unto Peters pretended Primacie The sum of all I have to say concerning this Point is This As there seldom have been any very Good Kings or extraordinary happy in their Government whether in the line of David or in Christian Monarchies without advice and assistance of a Learned and Religious Clergie so but a few have proved extremely bad without the suggestions of covetous corrupt or ambitious Priests So that the safest way for chief Governors is to keep as vigilant and strong Guards upon their own brests and consciences as they do about their bodies or palaces Now the special and safe guard which they can entertain for their souls and consciences is to lay to heart the Examples of Gods dealing with former Princes with the Kings of Judah especially according to the esteem or reverence or the dis-esteem which they did bear unto his Laws and Services 5. Another special meanes to secure even Greatest Monarches from falling into Gods wrath or revenging hand is not to hearken unto not to meditate too much upon or at least not to misconstrue a Doctrine very frequent in all Ages to wit That Kings and supreme Magistrates are not subject to the authority of any other men nor to the coercive authoritie of humane Laws The Doctrine I dare not I cannot in conscience deny to be most true and Orthodoxal And for the truth of it I can add one Argument more then usual That Gods judgments in all Ages or Nations have not been more frequently executed by Counter-passion or Retaliation upon any sort or state of men then upon Kings or Princes or greatest Potentates which pollute their Crowns and Dignities with innocent blood as King Joash did or with other like out-crying sins As if the most Just and Righteous Lord by innumerable Examples tending to this purpose would give the world to understand That none are fit to exercise Iurisdiction upon Kings or Princes besides himself and withall to instruct even Greatest Monarchs that their Exemption from all Controulment of humane Laws cannot exempt or priviledge them from the immediate judgement of his own hands or from the contrivance of his just punishments by the hands of others as by his instruments though his Enemies Agents I forbear to produce more instances of Divine Retaliation upon most Soveraign Princes besides this one in my Text which a bundantly justifieth both parts of my last Assertion or Observation Ioash as you heard before and may read when you please did more then permit did authorize or command the Princes of Iudah to murther their High-Priest Zachariah in the Court of the Lords House A prodigious liberty or licence for a King to Grant and more furiously executed by the Princes of Iudah his Patentees or Commissioners for this purpose And yet the most righteous Judge of all the world did neither animate nor authorize the Prophets Priests or Levites or other cheif men in this Kingdom to be the avengers of Blood or to execute judgement upon the King or Princes of Iudah This service in Divine Wisdom and Justice was delegated to the Syrians their neighbor Nation And the Hoast not by their own skill or contrivance but by the disposition of Divine Providence did Geometrically and exactly proportion the execution of vengeance to the quality and manner of the fact The Princes of Iudah who had murthered Zechariah in the Courts of the Temple of the Lords House were all destroyed by the Syrian Hoast in their own Land and the spoil of their Palaces sent unto the King of Damascus And King Ioash by whose authority Zechariah was stoned to death in his Pue or Pulpit after the Syrians had grievously afflicted him was slain in his own Palace upon the bed of his desired or appointed rest by the hands of two of his own servants yet neither of them by birth his native Subject the one the son of an Ammonitess the other of a Moabitess both the illegitimate off-spring of two of the worst sort of aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel In all this appears the special finger of God But though all this were done by Gods appointment yet may we no way justifie the conspiracy of Ioash his own servants against him though both aliens unless we knew what speciall warrant they had for the execution of Gods judgments which are alwayes most just However we have neither warrant nor reason to exclaim against them or their sins so farre or so much as by the warrant of Gods Word we might against the Princes of Iudah for the instigating of their lawful King or Liege-Lord to practice such prodigious cruelty as hath been exprest upon Zechariah the Lords High-Priest or against the disposition of the stiffe-necked Jewish Nation in general most perspicuous for the Crisis at that time 6. But to exclaim against the Princes or People of that Age we need not for their posterity hath amplified the cursed Circumstances of this most horrible Fact and charged these their fore-fathers with such a measure of iniquity as No Orator this day living without their directions or instructions could have done Septies in die cadit justus The just man fals seven times a day was an ancient and an authentick Saying if meant at all by the Author of it of sins and delinquences rather then of crosses and greivances which fall upon them or into which they fall was never meant of Grosser sins or transgressions But of that dayes work wherein Zechariah was slain these later Jews say Septem transgressiones fecit Israel in illo die I shall not over-English their
them for religious Jehoshaphat and the Righteous sakes that lived in it After Iehoshaphats death Iehoram his son reigns in his stead a successor to the Kings of Israel in all wickedness and Idolatry And as his life was wicked so was his estate unfortunate his end terrible and his death ignominious In his dayes did Edom make his final revolt from Iudah 2 Chron. 21. 10. and Libnah at the same time because he had forsaken the God of his fathers And ver 14. Behold saith Elijah to him by a letter with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people and thy children and thy wives and all thy substance And so Gods judgments came upon him and his Children He himself dies of a lingering loathsom disease without the wonted solemnities of Funerals And Ahaziah his youngest son all the elder being slain by the Arabians 2 Chron. 22. 1. is about a year after killed by Jehu executing judgment upon the house of Ahab After all this were All the Royal Seed of Judah destroyed by Athaliah Ioash son of Ahaziah only excepted whose beginnings were good The reformation of Religion was perfect for the external form so long as Iehoiada the Priest did live but not compleat for the number or quality of such as turned to the Lord their God For the Princes hearts were wholly set upon idolatry And the King himself is drawn upon his own destruction by them after Iehoiada's death As his beginnings were good and godly so were his later dayes idolatrous and cruel and Zachariah's blood was recompensed upon his head and upon the head of Amaziah his son who though he were not like his father guilty as principal of actual murther in putting a Prophet to death yet thus farre by Participation guilty of his fathers sin that he is impatient of the Prophets just reproof As his father killed so he threatens the Prophet for reproving him for his sins for taking the gods of Edom for his gods 2 Chron. 25. 14. Have they made thee the Kings Counsellor Cease thou why should they smite thee And the Prophet ceased but said I know the Lord hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not obeyed my Counsel His doom is read and judgment followes For he is shamefully foyled 2 Chron. 25. 23. by Ioash King of Israel and led captive home to his own good Town of Ierusalem four hundred cubits of whose wals were broke down to make entrance for his triumphant enemies in the sight of his own people And after his freedom bought with his own treasure and with the treasure of the Lords house his own Subjects conspire against him and pursue him unto death where he dies his fathers death by the hands of his Servants 2 Chron. 25. 27. As Amaziah from good beginnings grew idolatrous so Uzziah his son after good success became in his later end sacrilegiously presumptuous For intermedling with the Priests Office he becomes liable to the Priests Tribunal He is judged a Leper and removed from administration of the Kingdom for the leprosie wherewith the Lord had smitten him 2 Chron. 26. 5. Thus in process of time is still the increase of sin either their Kings are wicked as but two from David to Hezekiah's time which continued in good Or if their Kings be vertuous and religious as Iehoshaphat had been and Iotham son to Uzziah now is yet in his dayes again the peoples hearts are not prepared to serve the Lord 2 Kings 15. 35. But the high Places were not put away for the people yet offered and burnt incense in the high places and so kept in the fire of Gods wrath which had been long kindled against Judah but not suffered to burst out into any flame in the dayes of righteous Jotham and such as by his example followed righteousness Nay to encourage others to follow him the Lord gave him victory over the enemies of Judah and He grew mighty because He directed His wayes before the Lord His God 2 Chron. 27 6. 6. But neither did he nor any Prince of Judah since Righteous David so perfectly direct as Ahaz his son did pervert his wayes before the Lord. This is the first that adds stubbornness to infidelity and drunkenness to thirst as the Spirit tels us 2 Chron. 28. 22. In his tribulation did he yet trespass more against the Lord this is King Ahaz saith the Text you must expect a remarkable monster in his dealings For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus which plagued him and he said Because the gods of the Kings of Aram helped them I will sacrifice unto them and they will help me yet they were his ruine and of all Israel ver 23. This people was alwayes prone to wickedness even during the reign of most religious Kings but are now so violently carried to all mischief having got this preposterous Monster for their Governor that as a ship sailing with advantage of wind and tide and help of oares continues motion when sail is stricken and Rowers cease so Jerusalem and Judah after Ahaz their Commander in mischief ceased from his wicked labours held on still their mischievous courses even in good King Hezekiah's dayes 7. Whereas God 's threatnings had been but particular heretofore either to the King alone or to his Line and House or of some momentary desolation upon the Land Now God thunders out a General Deluge of Calamity to the City and Temple by the Prophet Micah Sion shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall be an heap and the mountain of the house shall be as the high places of the forrest Here the scattered clouds of Gods judgments which had long soared over Judah are gathered as it were into one shower ready to fall upon her as it were an Hawk stooping to her prey but that good King Hezekiah and the people by his example laid fast hold upon his mercies and averted his fierce wrath from them by hearty and unfeigned prayer They feared the Lord and prayed before him and the Lord repented him of the evil that he had pronounced against them Whiles I behold the Compleat Reformation which Hezekiah wrought and the peoples will to accord with him therein Me thinks I hear the Lord wishing from heaven as he did sometimes to their fathers in the wilderness Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my Commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever But Hezekiah did not render according to the reward bestowed upon him For his heart was lifted up and wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 32. v. 25. Not that it did seize upon them but that it was ready to smite For as it follows ver 26. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself after his heart was lift up he and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the wrath of the Lord came not upon
the words of the Text. ☞ What it is to punish Children for their fathers sins What it it is to visit the sins of fathers c. Two particulars hastening and justifying the visiting of the Fathers sins upon the children Note here 1. That God made this Covenant with them and their Posterity in successive Generations as with one man or one aggregate Body or Corporation 2. It was not only a Covenant of Life and Promises but of Threatnings and Death also God left Israel a Register of Good and Evil How neglect of Gods Forewarnings past hastens judgements See this Author's second Sermon upon Ier. 26. How Children are bound to repent of Fathers sins See this Authors second Sermon on Jerem. 26. A short Application This referres to the third Question propounded Fol. 3729. handled Fol. 3733. See Fol. 3341. and Book 8. in quarto pag. 142. Luke 23. 34. They know not what they do Doth God punish men for what they would have done in such and such Cases Quaye According to this opinion Matth. 12. 32. may have a very commodious Interpretation This relates to the fifth Question This relates to the third Question After the Citation of Levit 26. 14 c. and multiplication of the plagues by seven This followed relating to the fourth Question Le. 26. 38. ☞ See one example in the next Sermon ☜ See St. Chrysost upon the fifth of Isaiah Judahs Climacterical Seasons 1. at the death of Zechariah Second Climacterical of Judah at the carrying into Babylon This Referres to the sixth Question The Third Climacterical Period of Judah at Christs coming Though there be a Sermon upon Matth. 23 37. yet I thought it best to intersert This here before it Levit. 26. Deut. 7. 14. and 28. Amos 3. 2. Confession of fore-fathers sins a necessary Ingredient of Repentance ☞ Reasons why a people lesse actually sinful is more plagued Psal 78. ver 34. ☜ A view of the Kingdom of Judah through out David Solomon Rehoboam 1 Kin. 14. 25. Abijam Asa Vid. Ecclus. Cap. 49. 4. All except David Hezekias and Iosias committed wickedness for even the Kings of Iudah forsook the Law of the most High and failed Iehoshaphat Ahaziah Athaliah Ioash Amaziah Uzziah Iotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasses 2 King 21. 16. Amon. Good Iosiah See this Auchor's Sermons on Jer. 26. Ezek. 14. 14. Ier. 15. Francis Sforza It is significantly added He should be put in his grave in peace because he is the last King of Judah whose Funeral Rites are not at their enemies disposing See the foregoing Sermon upon Jer. 45. fol. 3668. ☞ 2 Chr. 35 22 Iohanan or Iehoahaz Iehoiakim * Quaere See 1 Chr. 3. 15 where Johanan is called the first-born yet Josephus l. 10. c. 5. in english sayes that Eliakim who is also Jehoiakim was elder brother to Iehoahaz ☜ See the foregoing Sermon on Matth. 23. 34. See Signs of the Times pag. 24. Two Points propounded God earnestly desires the conversion of such as perish The former Point Isai 56. 4 About this distinction see Book 6. or Attributes chap. 15. and Book 9. chap. 5. An odd Glosse refuted Luke 11. 39 The 2 d Point How is it possible they should not be gathered if God so earnestly will c. as fol. 3 769. Quare whether he mean not Jer. 44. 22. Three Objections against this Doctrine Answer to the first Second Objection and Answer The third Objection Answer Another Objection with the Answer thereto See this Authors 6 Book or Attributes Chap. 16. and Chap. 20. See Book the 6. The whole Use of this Doctrin See Fol. 3341. See Book 8. cha 6 7. c. See Fol. 3412 c. a Discourse upon this Subject The Question What Word is here meant Verbum Domini or Verbum Dominus Paraeus his Reason why he denies it to be meant of God the Word Yet doth S. John 1 Ep. 1. 1. call Him The Word of Life and Rev 19. 13. The Word of God Two Points proposed Iustin Martyr expresses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Ratio Rationem reddere S. Chrysostom Theophylact