he is likewise rewarded according to his Faith We may extend that Saying of our Saviour though spoken then but to one man unto all and every man According to their faith so shall it be done unto them And our Saviour in the Parable next before This Sentence expresly avoucheth that the Final Award or retribution shall be according to Faith Matth. 25. 23. Well done thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. No man shall be rewarded for any Works unless they were the Works of Faith or done in Faith To speak properly it is the Fidelity of our Works or our Fidelity in Working which shall be rewarded As for those Hypocrites against whom St James disputes and from whose Notion or Conceit of Faith the Romish School-men for the most part take their Description of Faith they had altogether as little of Abrahams Faith as they had of Abrahams Works For if they had been partakers of Abrahams faith then as our Apostle infers Gal. 3. 7 They had been the sons of Abraham and if they had been the sons of Abraham they would by our Saviours Inference have done the works of Abraham Such faith as they made brags of could not justifie them because it was a dead and fruitlesse faith devoid of works Such works as the Romish Church doth magnifie in opposition to faith can neither justifie nor receive any Reward because they are no faithful Works but rather like seeming fruits without any Root They put their works upon their faith as we do sweet flowers upon dead Corpses Neither can give life or perfection to others The best Censure that Christian Faith or Charity will permit us to give of their doctrine Concerning the nature of faith and works is This That albeit they all profess to believe that which their Church believes yet the most of them do neither believe nor practise as the Church in these points teacheth Their ignorance in this particular is much better then their knowledge of most of the rest But to conclude the first Position Because some of our Writers exclude all works from the work of Justification some Roman Writers I dare not say all sought to be even with them by excluding faith from sharing with works in the Final Award or retribution For besides this Eagerness of extream Opposition or desire to be contrary unto us it is not imaginable what could move any learned Writer amongst them to Affirm that this final Retribution shall be according to VVorks and Deny it According to Faith 4. About the Second Position there is no Controversie betwixt us and the Romish Church we hold Good works to be as necessary to salvation as they do As necessary according to both Branches of Necessity Necessarie they are Necessitate praecepti and necessarie likewise Necessitate medii necessarie by Precept or duty for God hath commanded us to do them he hath redeemed us to the end that we should serve him in righteousness and holiness But many things which are in this sense necessary in that their Omission doth necessarily include a breach of Gods Commandement and by consequent a sin do not alwayes induce or argue a Forfeiture of our Estate in Grace or utter exclusion from the' Kingdom of heaven For this Reason we say That Good works are necessary not only Necessitate praecepti by way of Command but Necessitate medii as the way and means so necessary to salvation that without the practise of them no man can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven Through the Omission of Good works many do forfeit that Interest which they truly had in the promises of everlasting Life In the promise it self all that are partakers of the Word and Sacrament all that acknowledge the Word revealed to be the way unto everlasting life have A true Interest Of the pledge or earnest of the blessing promised that is of justifying or sanctifying Grace none are partakers but such as are fruitful in Good works according to the means or abilities which God hath bestowed upon them Whether it be possible for such as are once estated in Grace to give over the Practise of Good works that here we leave to such as desire to exercise their wits in the controversies about Falling from Grace and the rather because we have spoke a word of that Point in the 26. Chapter of this Book Let them determine of the Categorical Affirmative or Negative as they please This Conditional is most certain If it be possible for him that hath Grace or Faith in what measure soever inherent to give over the practise of Good Works he shall thereby forfeit his present estate in Gods promises and defeat his hopes of inheriting the Kingdom of God Whosoever saith our Saviour shall break one of these Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven For I say unto you that except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. Yet did these Scribes and Pharisees many Good Works and made conscience of many Duties which many Precise Ones in our dayes do not trouble their Consciences withal This notwithstanding These Scribes and Pharisees did exclude themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven as here established on earth by leaving other Good Works altogether or for the most part undone which the Law of God did no lesse require at their hands Even the Good Works which they did were not well done by them because they were not done in Faith they never came so near unto the Kingdom of Heaven as to acknowledge Christ for their Lord much lesse to be partakers of those Gifts and Graces of the Spirit which after his Ascension were bestowed on men Nor shall all they which were partakers of those Gifts and which did still acknowledge him for their Lord enter into the Kingdom which is here prepared for such as continue in well doing So saith our Saviour Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth c. Many will then say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out divels and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquitie Matth. 7. 21 22. 5. But in this place We see the Sentence is not awarded for Positive Works of iniquitie but for Omission of the duties of charitie He saith not Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Because ye have oppressed the poor and stranger or for that ye have robbed the Fatherless and made a prey of
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
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
execution according to the Rule of Justice unless he know the transgressor and the quality of his transgression And for this reason even those States which have comparatively the best Laws and the wisest Magistrates admit or rather require and authorize Informers And after the Information given the Magistrate must proceed secundum allegata probata according to the information given by legal and competent witnesses Now to make the Informers and Witnesses alwayes sincere the best Laws and Magistrates are not able The Law of God indeed is a Law most perfect most infallible but no living Rule to see and discern every transgression against it no speaking Rule to give information or testimony against the transgressors of it much less a living Judge to reward or punish every observer or transgressor of it But all the perfections that can be imagined in any Law in any Informer in any Witness in any Judge or manager of Justice are eminently and most perfectly contained in This Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom we have to do or to whom we are to render our accompt without any tincture or admixture of their imperfections And thus they all are in Him most perfect not by way of Union or Unition but according to most perfect and indivisible Unitie As all things were made by him without help or instrumental service So all the thoughts all the words and works of men are immediatly known unto him without any Prompter or Informer and every man shal be judged by him according to all his works without any Advocate or assistant As he is the expresse Image or full expression of his Fathers Person and himselfe as truly God as his Father is so he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mensura omnium the exact measure of every thing that can be known that can be done spoken or thought and the just recompence of all deserts He containes an exact proportion or disproportion to every thought word or action that hath proceeded from the heart or mind of man an exact proportion of every thought word or deed that held consort with the Law of the mind or of the spirit an exact disproportion to every rebellious motion that hath been conceived by the Law of the flesh against the Law of the mind and even in this respect he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Original word oft times imports as much as proportion or an exact measure by which all proportion or consonancy all disproportion or dissonancy may be known or notified As if the Base or Diapason be sound and good every Note or sound of the same instrument doth notifie the measure of its consonancie or dissonancie to it by its own sound And in this sense he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living measure or proportion And every thought or secret inclination of man that is consonant to this living Rule or Law hath more then a Geometrical proportion a live proportion or Sympathie with him And we shall need no other bliss and happines then a true Sympathie and consort with him Every thought or inclination of the flesh that is dissonant to this living Rule or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includes more then a dead disproportion a live Antipathie to his puritie and according to the measure of every mans disproportion or Antipathie to this living Rule shall the measure of his wretchednes or infelicitie be In all these and many other respects is the Son of God enstyled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is the Judge of quick and dead 16. But doth the Intent or Inference of the Apostle in that fourth Chapter to the Hebrews lead us unto any such apprehension or construction as hath been made of his Attributes It doth if we look not as the Jews did only into the dead Letter but dive into the live sense or meaning of the Spirit or of the Apostle himself His principal scope or aim was to admonish his hearers and in them all that confess Christ to be the Son of God and their Redeemer to be vigilant and careful whilest it is called to day that they do not incur Gods high displeasure or provoke his sentence of utter exclusion from that Eternal Rest whereof that Rest which Joshuah brought the Israelites unto when he gave them possession of the land of Canaan was but the Map or shadow The Israelites without exception had a promise of entring into the land of Canaan and under it a promise of entring into a better Rest But the word preached saith the Apostle vers 2. did not profit them not being mixed with Faith The foolish posteritie of those rebellious Fathers which were excluded by oath from entring into the land of Canaan and were consumed in the wildernes misdeemed that Gods promise of bringing that Nation into the land of their Rest had been accomplished in the conquest of it by Ioshuah or in continuance of like victorious success unto themselves And by this conceit and by the dissobedience which this conceit brought forth against the Son of God revealed the most of this Nation since his manifestation in the flesh have lived and died in a more miserable estate then their Fathers did which died in the wildernes For neither Christian charitie nor the Analogie of Christian faith will permitt us to say or think that all the Israelites which were excluded by Oath from entring into the land of Canaan or of their promised earthly Rest were also utterly excluded from entring into the Kingdom of heaven They as well as we were to render an accompt unto This Eternal Word for he it was which spake to Moses in Mount Sinai but was not then manifested in the flesh nor was the Article of his incarnation expresly or explicitly known to all or most that received benefit by it The accompt which they were to make was not so punctuall nor their examination so strict For that which St. Paul saith of the antient heathens holds true in proportion of the ancient Israelites God saith he winked at these times of ignorance Act. 17. 30 31. but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousnes But was not this day appointed in these times of ignorance at which God winked Yes before them but not so fully declared nor the manner of it so distinctly known as since Christs resurrection it hath been From this difference of times and from the different condition of men living since Christs Resurrection and from the diversity of the account which they must render in respect of them which lived before it St. Paul makes that inference Hebrews 4. 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief or disobedience The Israelites fell in the wildernes for their disobedience to Gods word written or spoken they did not so immediatly trespasse against this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
it is then a continuance or Overplus of this abundant mercy to increase this Grace of Adoption in us yearly dayly and hourly Lastly to crown this continuance of his Grace and mercy towards us with an Everlasting Kingdom is but an abundant excess of the same mercy and loving kindness out of which he first promised the Grace of Adoption and dayly increased it Si merita nostra aliquid facerent ad damnationem nostram veniret Non venit ille ad inspectionem meritorum sed ad remissionem peccatorum Non fuisti et factus es Quid Deo dedisti malus fuisti et liberatus es Quid Deo dedisti Quid non ab eo gratis accepisti merito et Gratia nominatur quia gratis datur Briefly in that Gods Mercie and Goodnes is absolutely infinite it can admit of no External Motive or inducement either for bestowing the First Grace upon us or for increasing it or for the perpetuation of it we may deserve or merit the withdrawing of his mercies from us or the decrease of his blessings but deserve or merit their increase we cannot for merit supposeth more then a motive or inducement it necessarily includeth a Tie or Obligement whereas no obligement or inducement can be laid upon infinite goodness whose continuation and increase is likewise successively infinite without all period or restraint unto all such as do not merit or provoke the substraction or diminution of it 8. Difference in this point of merit between the doctrine of the modern Romish Church and the doctrine or rather the conceipt of the Pharisee I for my part could never conceive any save only secundum magis et minùs A difference of defect and Excess The nature and qualitie of their opinions and conceipts is the same The excess of pride or self conceipt of their own works and of their worth is on the Romanists part not on the Pharisees The Pharisees mere wen of more strict life then most either of the Romish or Reformed Churches now living be They abstained from many Enormities in which the Publicans with whom they lived did wallow They were zealous followers of many Good works which the Publicans did not so much as approve much less practise least of all practise with zeal and constancie But were they therefore nearer to the Kingdom of heaven here promised or were they more justified by their works then the Publicans were which did not work The Parable of the Pharisee and Publican Luke 18. doth witness the contrary I tell you saith our Saviour verse 14. this man went down unto his house rather justified then the other to wit the Pharisee What was it then that made the Pharisee more uncapable of justification then the Publican want of works No! As he alledgeth and no man could disprove his allegation He fasted twice in the week and gave Tithe of all that ever he possest What then Only The opinion of merits or over-weening conceipt of the worth of these his Positive works or of his abstinence from grosse and mortal sins But it may be he ascribed all this to His own Free-Will not to the favour and grace of God Not so For if we compare him with the modern Papists in this Point we are bound in conscience to pronounce the same sentence of them that our Saviour did of the Pharisee and the Publican The Pharisee that very Pharisee which our Saviour said was less justified then the Publican is more justifiable then any modern Romanist which beleeves the doctrine of merits as now it is taught or despiseth our Church as less holy then the Church of Rome for denying the merit of works For even this Pharisee albeit he thought himself a great deal better then the Publican yet did he not ascribe this to himself or to his Free-will for so he makes his confession ver 11. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican In saying thus he did acknowledge not only his Positive good works as fasting and paying tithes but his Abstinence from evil as from extortion c. to be from God For he thanks him that he was not an extortioner and his solemn Thanks include an acknowledgment that it was his gift whom he thanks that he was no extortioner no unjust or adulterous person That the Pharisee did conceive as the Romanist doth that the First Grace by which he began to be more observant of Gods Lawes then the Publicans or other men were was only from God and that the increase of this Grace or his proficiencie in good life and works was from himself or the effect of his Free-will this is more then can be laid unto his charge For he saith not God I thank thee that thou hast converted or reclaimed me from so sinful paths as this Publican walks in To have said thus much and no more might have left a suspition that he did acknowledge the First Grace of his conversion to be Gods meer Gift not so the Second or Third Grace or the increase of Grace or his proficiencie in good Life But now he saith God I thank thee that I am not as other men are nor as this Publican This includeth an acknowledgment that all the Perfection whereof until this very day he deemed himself possest was from God was his Free Gift So that it would be very hard to fasten any part of the doctrine of merits which is now stiffely maintained by the Romish Church upon this Pharisee Seeing then he boasts of nothing which he doth not acknowledge that he had received from God wherein doth his pharisaical pride or conceit or as the Evangelist stiles it his Trust in himself consist Only in that he Glories in Gods Graces as if he had not received them in that he was not humbled by that Grace which by his own acknowledgement he had received from God therefore is he lesse justified then the Publican So then the true End and use of all our works of all the Graces which God bestows upon us in this life is to teach us true humility and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as men that seek for the Kingdom of Heaven not by Works much lesse as due to our works but by acknowledgement of Gods Meer Mercie and our own unworthiness Many which in words disclaim the doctrine of Merits as for ought I know this Pharisee did may secretly trust in themselves or in their Merits but none which make the doctrine of Merits a point of Belief as the Romanists do but must of necessity trust in themselves and in their merits as this Pharisee did Hence saith St. Augustine Vis excidere a gratia jactes merita Wouldst thou fall from Grace Boast of thy merits 9. All that they have to Object against us from this place is from the Form of our Saviors Speech Inherit the Kingdom of God prepared for you FOR I was an
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
one with another nor with their own Consciences which should command in chief may be safe or free from any present evil from any wound as yet given by this adversary But no man living can be secure from future danger or misery until he be thus far at least entred into the Kingdom of God as that he hath some impression or rellish of that Peace His soul and spirit must be brought in subjection to the Spirit of God so must his affections or desires be subject to his reasonable soul or spirit before he can know this Peace by experience or taste the fruit of it which is Ioy in the Holy Ghost 7. But Wherein doth this Ioy in the Holy Ghost consist Seeing it is the issue or fruit of Spiritual Peace The nature of it cannot be better exemplified specially to such as know it not by experience then by that known joy of heart or gladness which is the fruit of civil or temporal Peace And the fruits of this Peace are pithily described by the Prophet When every man may sit under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree that is to give you the importance of this Proverbial speech in plain English When every man may reap the fruits of his own labors or imployments or of the labors imployments or increase of other Creatures which God hath put in subjection to him when he may so reap them without molestation without danger of annoyance It is not the Possession of Lands of Wares or other good things whatsoever we are lawfully entitled unto but the quiet Fruition or enjoying of them which fills our hearts with gladness To have a full Flock and to be deprived of the milk and of the increase of it to have a goodly Vineyard and to be debarred from gathering the grapes of it is matter of sorrow and grief A principal calamity of War But to enjoy these and the like commodities without danger or molestation is a special Comfort of temporal or civil Peace And in as much as no man can truly injoy those good things which he possesseth or hath right unto but in time of civil Peace Hence it is that under the name of this Peace all good things Temporal are contained for without Peace we cannot enjoy them And this is the Prerogative of man above all visible Creatures that the fruit which other such Creatures do bring forth they do not bring it forth unto themselves but unto man and for his use either mediately or immediately The Fields yearly bring forth grass or other wilde herbs for the food of other living Creatures but even those Creatures with their fruits or increase serve for the use of man Quicquid acquirunt acquirunt Domino The Sheep being nourished by the grass of the Field yields his yearly fleece not so much for his own use as for the use of Man The Bees in Summer gather honey but Man is principal partaker of the sweetness of it These and other like sensitive Creatures how much soever they multiply and increase are never their own but their owners that is some one or other Mans yet not their Owners unless it be in time of Civil Peace Contention whether it be by open Hostility of War or by course of Law always deprives men of the fruition or enjoyment of those good things which are their own though not always of the possession of them By Peace onely we enjoy those things which are our own by right of Title and Possession so that Civil or temporal Peace is the onely noursing Mother of civil or temporal joy or gladness 8. But albeit every one the meanest amongst us could not only quietly possesse but peaceably enjoy this whole visible world such as it is or another as great as this is and all the good things contained in them yet as our Saviour tels us Our life doth not consist in these And what gain or profit could there be in possessing the whole world in enjoying all the good things contained in it if we should lose the enjoyment or possession of our own souls To possesse and enjoy the fruit of all other creatures labours is the Prerogative of man the only remainder of that Dominion which the Lord gave him over all other creatures in his first creation But to enjoy himself is mans peculiar and is the effect of his reconciliation to his God and the well spring of true Joy Other creatures may by mans permission reap the fruits of their own labours as the Bee in winter may eat the honey which it makes in the Summer though perhaps not so sweet unto it self as it is unto man for whose use and service he unwittingly makes it But no visible creature besides man can possibly enjoy it self or its own soul and faculties Sense and feeling many other creatures besides man have Sed non sentiunt se sentire The fowls of the Air the fishes of the Sea the Beasts of the field and the Bee which best resembles man as he is A sociable creature do respectively at least hear and see feel and tast but yet have no true sense or estimate of their own senses as wherein they exceed Grasse Trees or vegetables or wherein they come short of man So that man only is capable of enjoying himself and his own soul and faculties and yet not qualified for injoying himself and his own faculties until the former Peace the peace of conscience be in some measure wrought in his heart His sensitive affections desires and passions must be first subjected to Reason and Conscience his reason his conscience and spirit must be subjected unto the spirit of God before he can possesse his soul in patience and he must possesse his soul with patience before he can Tast of that joy which is in the Holy Ghost before he can bring forth the fruit of holinesse whose End is everlasting Life The Tast of this fruit or Joy is the only pledge or assurance of that endless Joy which is prepared for such as love God in heaven 9. The Vine bringeth forth much pleasant fruit So do the trees of the Garden but they enjoy it not when it is ripe it falleth from them or their owners reap it But this Joy which amounts from the quiet or peaceable possession of our own souls it growes within us it ripeneth within us it multiplieth and it sweetneth within us no man can and God will not take this joy from us How fruitful soever we may be yet we are but unprofitable servants less profitable to our Lord and Owner then the Trees of the Garden or Forrest are to us yet how unprofitable soever we are to him he continues most gracious unto us and permits us to reap and enjoy the fruits of all these good things which he himself alone doth sow and plant doth water and cherish and give encrease unto within our hearts and souls Were it possible for the husbandman or Vine-dresser so to infuse the life
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
imports the Real Cause of the thing it self which is known But oftentimes the Cause only of our knowledge of it Again such Causal Particles do not alwayes import some Efficacious Causalitie but only Causam sine qua non some necessarie means or condition without which the prime and principal Cause especially if it work freely doth not produce its intended effect To give you Examples or instances of these Observations If a stranger coming into a Citie should say surely yonder Gentleman is the chief Magistrate because the sword is born before him No wise man would hence collect that the bearing of the sword before him is The Cause why he is the chief Magistrate For his lawful Election is The Cause of that and that is the Cause why the sword is born before him Yet may we not for this reason deny that the former speech doth necessarily import a Cause for the bearing of the sword before him is the true True Cause of his knowing him to be the chief magistrate And in as much as we oftentimes come to know the Cause by the Effect this word For or other Conjunction Causal doth oft-times point out the Effect rather then the Cause of the thing it self So it doth in the speech of our Saviour Luke 7. 45. Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much However some Romanists whose delight it is to set Christian Charitie and faith at odds would hence collect that Charitie is the Cause of the forgiveness of sins yet their greatest Scholars acknowledge their error or oversight and ingenuously acknowledge their understanding being convinced by the evidence of truth that This womans Love was not the Cause why her sins were forgiven but that the Free forgiveness of her sins which were many was the True Cause why she loved so much however her extraordinary love being testified in such solemn sort was a true Cause or reason by which all that saw her might know both that her sins had been many and that she had an internal feeling or apprehension of their forgiveness And the true reason why the Pharisee did neither bear such love unto our Saviour nor exhibit the like signes of respect unto him was because he did not feel himself sick much lesse did he feel or apprehend the cure of his sickness as the woman did For if he had known either the measure of his own sins or that our Saviour was the Physician of his soul he would have given better Testification of his love and respect unto him then he did by a Complemental Invitation of him 12. To instance again If of two parties equally suspected of Felonie a man admitted to hear their examination or tryal should say This is the thief For Two competent witnesses have given evidence against him no man would hence infer that the evidence given in against him by two honest men was the Cause why he was a thief and yet was it the true Cause why he knew him to be the thief Every Revelation or authentick Declaration of any truth before unknown is the true Cause of our knowledge of it but not of the Truth it self for that is the Cause why the Declaration or our knowledge of it is true Now amongst such as professe Christ and call him Lord it is unknown to us who be the true heirs of this heavenly kingdom who be not but in the day of Final Judgement in which all shall be judged by their works the sheep shall be known from the goats and the first certain knowledge which we shall have of this difference shall be from The Declarative sentence of the Judge who cannot erre and his Declaration as you see shall be made according to their works The ones performance of the Good works here mentioned declared and testified by the Judge shall be the True Cause by which men and Angels shall know them to be heirs of the everlasting Kingdom the others Omission of the like works testified likewise by the same Judge shall be the true cause by which we shall know them to be altogether unworthy of Gods favour or mercy most worthy of everlasting death We shall then truly know that the one sort are crowned as Saint Cyprian saith according to Gods Grace and that the other are condemned according to Justice That the ones omission of Good Works is the true Cause of condemnation and that the others performance of Good works is not the Cause of their salvation but the Declaration only or a Testimonie that they are the Sons of God and that they did Good works by the secret Operation of the spirit of Grace in them And thus much if you observe it is implyed in the Reply or Answer of them that be saved to their Judge Lord When saw we thee an hungred c So farre they shall be from conceiting their works to be meritorious or worthie of eternal bliss that they shall be ready to disclaim them as not worthie of it ready to blame their sluggish backwardness or want of chearfulness to have done much better seeing what they did unto their poor brethren as now they perceive shall be so graciously accepted that Christ in his Throne of Majestie will acknowledge that he takes them as kindly as if they had been done unto himself The Case is the same as if a Gracious Prince of his own free motion and goodness should proclaim a general Pardon to a multitude of Rebels Thieves and Traytors so they would accept of it and make their peace with their honest neighbors whom they have wronged All of them in shew accept the Pardon but some of them in the Interim secretly practise treason or disturb the publick peace If at the general Assize or at their Arraignment the Judge upon certain notice of their several demeanors should say to the one sort I restore you to your former state and dignity Because since the Proclamation of your Pardon you have demeaned your selves as becomes Loyal Subjects and thankful men And to the other you I condemn to death Because you have abused your Soveraigns Clemency No man would ascribe the restauration of the one unto their good demeanor in the Interim betwixt the getting of their Pardon and their Arraignment but unto the Princes Clemencie Albeit the condemnation of the other were wholly to be ascribed unto their misdemeanors not unto any want of Clemencie in the Prince towards them The good demeanor of the one could but be at the most Causasine qua non A necessary Condition without which the Princes Clemencie in his Pardon exprest could not profit them And so we say of Good Works They are Causae sine quibus non necessary Conditions or means without which no man shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but no Positive or meritorious Causes of our inheritance in it To conclude If any one should ask me Why all men that profess they beleive in Christ shall not be saved Albeit Christ
quivis Speret idem sudet multum frustraque laboret Ausus idem Hor. De Arte. P. This as the Great Rhetorician saith is the surest token of a perfect Orator 6. For this Reason He that knew what was in man better then man did what was in himself He that spake as never man spake and taught as never man taught doth ground his Doctrine of good Life and Manners upon such Evident Principles as his very Adversaries could not deny whereunto any civil natural man would assent albeit he could not have found them out and illustrates it by such plain and natural Similitudes as every man of ordinary capacitie might conceive As here in this place This Rule it self Whatsoever ye would c. is a Principle of nature at least the Negative of it Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris is so The Use or Consequence of the Rule though That to observe this should be the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets none could have drawn unless our Saviour had first told us so And yet the Deduction or derivation of all moral Precepts as I hope will appear is easie to find since he hath taught us to seek it Seeing then He that spake as never man spake and taught as never man taught doth ground his Doctrine upon such Principles as were in us by nature I shall take leave to imitate Him quantum Deum mortalis possum and to shew the Equitie and Truth of this Precept First as it binds us by Nature and Secondly as it binds us in Christianitie Or First as far as the equitie of it may be gathered by natural Reason Then Secondly as it is set down in holy Scripture 7. That This is a Dictate of the Law of Nature is evident from the confession of the Heathen and meer natural men Severus the Emperor albeit no Christian yet as some report of him did like best of the Christians for their good Life because they most practised this Rule And the Negative of it VVhat you would not have others do unto you do not you to them seemed such an excellent Ground of Civil Justice and honest dealing that he caused it to be written in the places of Civil Justice or Courts of Judgment as we do the Sentences of the Law or Commandments in our Churches which he would not have done or should have done to small purpose unless he had known the Rule had been written before in every mans heart so men would look into them And such amongst us I am perswaded as know not whether this sentence be in the Law of God or in the Gospel of Christ or no or such as little think whether it be there or no if they see one insult over another in distress deal hardly with a stranger or laugh at anothers miserie or the like will naturally use this or the like Reason to disswade him If you were in their case you would not be well pleased with this Usage Do in Gods name as you would be done unto The force of which and other like Reasons is grounded upon this Rule or Principle of Nature Nor is there any man that hath as we say any good nature in him albeit ignorant in most points of Religion but will in his sober mood be much moved with such Reproofs and however he may seem little to be affected with them whilst he is in the heat of passion yet his own Conscience after his passion ceaseth will secretly condemn him for so doing 8. The Grounds of Equitie in this Rule are two though the one be subordinate to the other First The Actual aequality of Nature in all men For though there be difference or distinction of men by place pre-eminence or dignitie yet in Nature all men are equal all alike subject to corruption and Calamitie Secondly The possible equalitie of condition amongst all men For seeing the Best men are but men what is one mans Case may be anothers because his Nature much more his Estate or Condition is subject to change No Prince was ever so firmly established in his Throne but might be pulled down thence to lie with Beggars in the Dust Antient Times yielding more frequent examples of the Circumrotation of this Sphaere or Wheel of mutabilitie their observations to this purpose were Rife Quod cuiquam contigit cuivis potest Whatsoever hath befaln any man good or bad might befal any one of all Et subito est Irus qui modo Croesus erat One turn as the Heathens would have said of Fortunes Wheel might raise up Beggars or Servants to the Throne and bring down Monarchs to the Dust From this Actual Equalitie of all men by Nature and this Possible Equalitie of all men in Condition was it that even among the Heathen he was thought inhumane no natural man but a Monster that would not be affected with anothers extraordinary misery The Former of these two in natures not extreamly depraved doth work a Sympathie or Fellow feeling of others miserie and the Latter that is Possibilitie of suffering the like doth work Fear of doing the evil intended or Penitencie after it be done Likeness or Identity of nature causeth Sympathy or Fellow-feeling in bruit Beasts if one pant for Grief others of the same kind will be affected with it Ignorant and simple men do many things by instinct of nature whereof Philosophers only know the Reason And even in such as did not expresly know this Rule Nature her self did oft-times work and shew by the Effects that it was hidden in their hearts Thus Cyrus when he had condemned Croesus his conquered Enemy to be burnt only calling to mind what a Potent Prince he had sately been and as unlikely to have come to that end as himself was before the victorie gotten was afraid as the Historian notes least some like plague might have come upon himself and so pitying himself rather then the other he recalled the Sentence From the same Reason did that noble Roman weep amain when he saw Carthage the Enemie Citie of Rome set on fire though by the Senates Decree as if he could have wished that her flames might have been quenched with his and other Romans Tears The present Calamitie of that late famous and mightie Citie put him in mind That Rome her self though then sitting as a Queen that knew no sorrow might one day be as bright with fire as for the present she was with Glory Yet was the difference betwixt Cyrus and Croesus's estate as great betwixt Rome and Carthage greater then can ordinarily be found between man and man Cyrus was Conqueror and had gotten the strength of a mighty Kingdom to his former by his Enemies Fall And Rome had never the like occasion to be secure as she had by Carthages destruction which standing would never suffer her to be quiet being the only City of all the world that was able to give Her check Thus could we but consider That whosoever we
little ado as their Example may seem a just Temptation unto braver spirits to dis-esteem the proffer here made to Baruch as scarce worth the acceptance unless the conditions were more ample then have been intimated 2. But if that be true whereof some of Natures Principal Secretaries have given us notice In ipso mortis articulo sumus vitae avidissimi Many such as have rusht upon extream danger without dismay or outward sign of fear could their tongues have been their hearts interpreters whilst their souls did take their farewell or whilst their heads were severed from their bodies as Homer relates of his Heroicks their last Ditty I am perswaded would have been Dulce bellum inexpertis It was well observed by the younger Plinie Impetu quodam instinctu procurrere ad mortem commune cum multis deliberare vero causas ejus expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere ponere ingentis est animi For his sick friend to weigh life though laden with grief and death not fully apprehended but approaching in steady calm and quiet cogitations not suffering his mind to be so farre byassed or cast with the conceit of the one or other but that the voice of Physician or Friend should sway his choyce to accept of either did in this Romans judgment argue a truly resolute and noble spirit God sometimes in mercy in justice often so appoints that death shall fully attach men before they apprehend the least Terror of it which without the special Assistance of his Spirit is one time or other terrible to flesh and blood without exception That many are never heard expresly to recal their stubborn resolutions for abandoning discontented or disgraced life doth not sufficiently argue they did not finally mislike their choice They might mislike it when it was too late the door of repentance being shut upon them whilest with the foolish Virgins they sought for the oil of mercie to renew the decaying lamps of life For albeit the unwieldy desires of lofty minds may overturn the very foundation whereon they are built ere notice can be taken which way they sway yet at the very moment of dissolution on which the Conceits of what they are and what they must be move upon equal terms as upon an indivisible Centre they will relent And although they had formerly been perswaded that souls might be annihilated by death yet to live although with never so little yea even to live because life is something must needs seem better then to be utterly nothing He that can see no mean betwixt the members of that division Aut Caesar aut nihil is questionless subject to some strange suffusion of his internal eye-sight or hath his hopes hoysted with wine the usual bellows to enflame the heart with rash and desperate resolutions Many for true valour better able to win an Empire and for wisdom more fit to manage it then Caesar Borgia either first Author or chief Practitioner of this false Logick have been content to beg life and liberty at their insolent enemies hands whose presence they never did nor ever would have feared in Battel 3. To give you A full Induction in One Instance It shall be in that Famous Spanish Leader which had Italy France Germany unpartial Witnesses and his professed Enemies professed Admirers of his heroical Worth Alvares de Sande under whose Colours not one of his Country-men but was more afraid to play the Coward then to encounter the fiercest Enemy that durst affront him Or least this his courage might be suspected to be of Cravons kind or the Sohaere of his valor terminated within the bounds of Europe his Africane Exploits against the Moors would hardly be credited by modern Souldiers unless Lanoue a man without the reach of suspition either for Ignorance or vulgar Credulity in matters Martial had given them undoubted Credence and used this Great Spanish Commanders Performance as an Experiment or Probatum to evince the truth of the seeming Paradox Concerning the use of the Pike in warre For what Captain almost since the ancient Romans times would have undertaken to maintain that in the Schools as possible which this Noble Spaniard proved by practise To conduct four thousand pikes over a plain of four or five miles length in despight of eighteen thousand horse appointed of purpose to prevent their passage Yet after six fierce encounters upon the best advantage that so great distance could afford unto his barbarous enemies He brought his company all save 80. safe unto the place intended leaving seven or eight hundred of his assaylants dead on the field the rest repulsed I should not have given so much credence unto La-Noue's reports or discourse unless that Noble English Generall Sir John Norice who intitled Lanoue to the Father of modern Wars had put in execution the rules prescribed by Lanoue for use of the Pike and harquebuse or musket with better success then either Alvarez de Sandè or that well trained Spanish band which slew that Noble Peer of France Guaston de Fois in that uncelebrated yet most famous Retreat at Gant never be forgotten by the English Nation Or if some yong Gallant or hard-bred souldier should here except against Sandeus as the Aramites did against the God of the Israelites It may be he was a man of an intrepid spirit in the field but perhaps more faint hearted then many others of his time to endure a lingering siedge I will refer such to his Defence of Gerbis where having brought himself to the common souldiers stint as well for the qualitie as for the quantity of his meat he perswades the feeble remnant being but one thousand left of many which had been consumed by famine and such languishing diseases as scarcitie or homeliness of diet usually breed to honour their death with the enemies blood rather then to yield themselves into their hands Albeit the successe did not answer his Resolution yet the attempt was on his part so valorous that the Turkish General whose Tent he sought to surprize by night being stricken with admiration of his worth did wooe him upon honourable Terms to become servant to great Solyman his master as Solyman himself afterward did upon the Fame But he whose carriage for any terror or calamitie of Warres was thus invincible was by a short captivitie though not half so miserable as the Princes and nobles of Judah were now to suffer brought to deprecate death in humble sort and afterward to esteem of life as a more welcome prey then the richest spoils of all his former victories then the greatest Kingdom that could have been offered him in the dayes of his prosperitie How easily the Almighty can teach the haughty stomack or intrepid heart to esteem his favour here profer'd to Baruch as they ought we need no better testimonie for no better can be brought then Busbequius his relation of this Noble Spaniards miserable perplexitie during
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
Lord to utter these words Or which is all one The fulfilling of his imprecation according to the Mystical sense Third The discussion of such Cases of Conscience or controversed Divinity as are naturally emergent out of the Mystical or Literal sense and are useful for this present or future Ages To begin with the Circumstance of the time wherein they were uttered That apparently was the dayes of King Joash Heir and Successor unto Ahaziah King of Judah who was next Successor save one unto good Jehoshaphat by lineal direct descent but no Successor at all to him in vertue or goodness or happiness of Government For Ahaziah was Pessimi patris haud melier proles a very wicked son of a most wicked father and too hard to say whether he or his Father Jehoram were the worse King or more unfortunate Governour But Joash the Orphan Son of Ahaziah hath the Testimonie of the Spirit of God That he ruled well whilst Jehiiada the High-Priest did live 2 King 12. 2. And his zeal to the House of the Lord recorded at large in this chapter as also in the 2 Kings 12. 4. was so great as more could not be expected or conceived either of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah or good Josiah And thus he continued from the seventh year of his Age until the five or six and thirtieth at the least A competent time a man would think for a full and firm growth in goodness But amongst the Sons and Successors of David we may observe that some begun their Reign very well and ended ill Others being extream bad in their beginning did end better then the other begun So Manasses in the beginning and middle of his Reign filled the City with innocent blood and died a Penitentiary This present King Joash begun and continued his Reign for thirty years or thereabouts in the spirit but ended in the flesh or rather in blood leaving a perpetual stain upon the Throne and Race of David This strange Apostacie or Revolt argues that his fore-mentioned goodness and zeal unto the House of the Lord was Adventitious and not truly rooted in his own brest That the fair Lineaments of a pious man and noble Prince were drawn not by his own skill but by the manuduction of Jehoiada the High-Priest as Children oft-times make fair letters while their Tutors guide their hands but spatter and blot and dash after they be left to their own guidance Jehoiada saith the Text waxed old and was full of dayes an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died and they buried him in the City of David among the Kings because he had done good in Israel both towards God and towards his House The solemnization of his death was a strong Argument of the respect and love which both Prince and People did bear unto him whilst he lived and much happier might both of them have been had they continued the same respect unto his Son and Successor But they buried their love unto Jehoiada and which was worst the zeal which he had taught unto the House of God in his Grave For so it followeth verse 17 18. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princes of Iudah and made obeysance to the King Then the King hearkened unto them and he left the House of the Lord God of their Fathers and served Groves and Idols Yet Gods love to them doth not determine with the beginning of their hate unto the House of God and to his faithful Servants For notwithstanding that wrath came upon Iudah and Ierusalem for this their trespasse yet he sent Prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord and they testified against them but they would not give ear And the Spirit of the Lord came upon or cloathed Zechariah the Son of Iehoiada the Priest who stood above the people and said unto them Thus saith God Why transgress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the Commandment of the King in the Court of the House of the Lord. Thus Ioash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done unto him but slew his Son and when he dyed he said or inter moriendum dixit The Lord look upon it and require it 3. But did the Lord hearken to him or require his blood at the Kings and Princes hands which slew him Yes that he did oftner then once For it was required of their posterity But for the present he did visit both the King and his Princes most remarkably by an unexpected Army of the Syrians unto whose Idolatrous Rites they had now conformed themselves complying too well with them and with their neighbors the Heathen in all sorts of wickedness But here the Polititian will reply That the Syrians did upon other occasions intend to do some mischeif to the King the Princes and People of Judah For it was never unusual to that Nation to vex or molest Israel or Judah Nunc olim quocunque dabant se tempore vires As often as opportunity served as often as they could spy advantage And to assign the Probable or meritorious Causes of such Plagues as befal any Nation by their inveterate enemies unto the Judgment of God for this or that sin is not safe specially for men not endued with the Spirit of Prophecie In many Causes I confess it is not yet in this particular we need not be afraid to say as much as the Spirit of God or sacred authority of his Word hath taught us We say no more as indeed we need not for the point is so plainly and punctually set down by the pen-man of this Book from verse 23. to the 26. as it needs no Comment no paraphrase or marginal conjecture any of which would rather soyl then clear the meaning of the Text. And it came to passe at the revolution of the year that the hoast of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Ierusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people from amongst the people and sent the spoyls of them to Damascus c. 4. The Observations or plain Uses which these Literal Circumstances of this Story afford are many I shall touch upon some principal ones As First To admonish Kings or other supreme Magistrates to reverence and respect their Clergy seeing Ioash did prosper so well while he followed the advice and counsel of the High-Priest Iehoiada but came to this fearful and disastrous end first by contemning the warning of Zechariah the Cheif-Priest and afterward by shedding of the innocent blood of this great Prophet of the Lord. But this will be a common place not so proper to this time and place wherein we live wherein there is such happy accord between the supream Majestie and the Prelacie and Clergie of this Kingdom as no good Patriot can desire more then the continuance of it
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
times seven generations as many several successions of men or families as have lived since Abels death unto this present day All this being supposed or admitted yet the Expression of Gods mercies in the same Commandement unto the children of such as love him and keep his Commandements is a lively Character of that Truth which we must believe to wit That Gods Mercie as farre exceedeth his Justice towards men as a thousand doth three or four unless they desperately make up the full measure of their own and their fore-fathers sins either by positive transgressions or by slighting or not repairing in time unto the out-stretched wings of his Mercie In this Case they provoke or pull down the heavy stroak of his out-stretched Arm of Justice 3. This difficultie in the Entry into or Barre of this narrow passage being cleared we may safely proceed by the former way proposed that is by searching the Mean or sounding the difference between these two Absolute Truths 1. God never punisheth the Children for their Fathers sins Secondly God usually visiteth the sinnes of the Fathers upon the Children c. The most punctual difference of these two undeniable Truths to my apprehension and Observation is this To punish the Children for their Fathers sins implies a punishment of some persons be they more or few without any personal guilt in them or actual transgressions committed by them And thus to do in awarding punishments temporarie whether Capital or Corporal for with punishments everlasting or in the world to come I dare not meddle or interpose my verdict were open injustice The sons of Traytors or Rebels against the Crown and dignitie of the State wherein they live are not by humane laws obnoxious to any Corporal or Capital punishment unless they be in some degree guilty of their Fathers treason or rebellion not by misprision only but by Association And however Good Laws do deprive guiltless Children of the Lands and Titles of honour which their Fathers enjoyed yet are they oftentimes upon their good demeanor restored to their blood and to the lands and dignities of their Ancestors even by such Princes as are no fit paterns of that Clemencie which becometh Princes Not so much as good foyls to set forth or commend the clemencie and benignitie of God if we consider it as it is avouched by Ezekiel in the eighteenth Chapter However earthly Princes may demean themselves towards the guiltless or well-deserving sons of Traytors or Rebels the reason or intendment of severest publick Laws in this Case provided was not to lay any punishment upon the Children but rather a Tye or bond upon their Fathers not to offend in this high kind so often as otherwise they would do save onely for the love they bear unto their Children and posterity or for the fear of tainting their blood or dishonouring their Friends and Families Of the equity or good intendment of such Laws we have the fairest patern in the fore-cited place of Ezekiel chap. 18. 31 32. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit For why will ye die O ye house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live ye 4. To visit the sins of the Fathers upon their Children alwayes supposeth some degree of personal guilt in the Children yet such a guilt or such transgressions as would not be punished so greivously either for measure or manner as usually they are unless their Fathers had set them bad Examples by sinning in the same or like kind But the Circumstances or Conditions which most aggravate or bring the heaviest visitation of Fathers sins upon the Children are these First if their Fathers have been punished citra condignum that is in a less measure or lower degree then their personal transgressions had deserved The Second if their Fathers punishments have been upon Register or Record so remarkably suited unto their sins that their Children might as they ought have taken notice of the occasions of Gods displeasure against them or punishing hand upon them To draw these Generals more close unto the Hypothesis or to joyn them together by annexing some particular Instances unto them Few here present can be so ignorant either of domestick or publick Statutes amongst us but may easily observe that the same offence being re-iterated or often committed by one and the same party is or ought to be more greivously punished for the second Turn then for the first more greivously for the third time then for the second more for the fourth then for all the three former This manner of proceeding in Colledges or Academical Societies is most agreeable to the Ancient Constitutions of this Kingdom for the manner of Processes in Courts Ecclesiastick The not appearing upon lawful Summons in Courts Ecclesiastick was for the first neglect but a mulct of Twenty pence according to the Rate of money in those dayes The second mulct for not appearing upon like Summons did double the first and so did the third the second The mulct for the fourth neglect did more then double or treble all the former For the party thus offending the fourth time in the same kind became liable to the Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo without more ado And this was an heavie punishment if it were executed according to William Rufus his Constitutions Now the Covenant of Life and Death which God made with the Seed of Abraham or with the Sons of Jacob upon their deliverance out of Aegypt afterwards in more express words with the house of David or tribe of Judah throughout their generations is the true Patern or Authentick leading Case of all Just and Legal Proceedings with One and the same Partie for often committing the same Offence especially in Case he had been solemnly fore-warned whether without any punishment at all or with some light punishment annexed for the first time Every fore-warning makes the following offence though in it self not so great a great deal more hainous and liable to more greivous punishment 5. To take a more particular view of the peculiar Aspect which these heavenly Lights Gods Laws I mean had to the Seed of Jacob or Kingdom of Israel and Judah For in respect of other Kingdoms or Nations their aspect admits some variation To keep the seed of Jacob upright in the wayes of Faithful Abraham the God of their fathers left them a Twofold Register to be perpetually continued by his Prophets or other sacred Writers The One containing their fore-fathers Good deeds and the prosperity which alwayes did attend them The Other of their Fore-fathers grossest sins or transgressions and of the calamities which pursued them The former Register was to encourage them to do that which was good and acceptable in his sight The other to deterre them from evil from turning aside from him and his Laws The
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his
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