more there is in this word Brother implyed a modification of that love which we must express towards Christians to wit that it must be such as that which is between Brethren and that more properly in two things the instancy and the constancy the fervency and the permanency of it 1. Brotherly love is fervent it is a relation of the greatest indearment partly as its naturall not founded in choice as it is between Man and Wife and between Friends and partly as it is between Equals not like that between Parents and Children whose love towards their Parents hath more of neverence then sweetness in it hence it is that as no discord so neither is any love like to that which hath been found among Brethren such ought our love to be towards Christians a bright shining an hot flaming love That exhortation of St Paul is very observable to this purpose Be you kindly affected one to another with Brotherly Love where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by Tertullian affecâ—uosâ— both which note an eminent measure and degree of affection such is Brotherly such ought to be Christian love very affectionate Memorable in this respect was the example of the Primitive Christians of whom that forementioned Father saith they did love one another ad stuporem Gentilium to the astonishment of the Heathen so much that the Heathen cryed out with admiration Vide ut invicem se diligunt see how they love one another 2. Brotherly love is lasting it is naturall and therefore perpetuall it is a relation that ceaseth not till death and therefore the affection may well remain A Brother if not very unnaturall will own his Brother in rags and love him in his lowest estate such must Christian love be towards a Brother of low as well as high degree in persecution as well as prosperity when he wants us not we him nor must our love cease to act towards him till he cease to be amongst us This was that no doubt which the Apostle aimed at when he saith Let Brotherly love continue thereby minding what the love of Brethren is and what the love of Christians ought to be a continuing and enduring love And now what other use should we make of all this discourse upon the nature of this grace but hereby to examine our selves whether our love be of the right stampe to wit such a love as is ready to every good word and worke as extendeth it self to our very enemies as is chiefly fixed upon Christians and that because they are so and so much shall suffice to bespoken of the first part the Subject of the Thesis I now proceed more briefly to the 2. Praedicates Which are plainly two describing the benefit of this grace the one in regard of the condition and the other of conversation of such a person his condition is happy for he abideth in the light his conversation is sweet for there is no occasion of stumbling in him 1. He that loveth his Brether is said to abide in the light it is not unfitly here taken notice of by Zanchy that as in the Eighth Verse our Apostle argueth à causa ad effectum from the cause to the effect this thing is true in you namely the pracâ—ice of love because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth to wit of grace so in this Verse he reasons ab effecto ad causam from the effect to the cause He in whom this is true that he loves his Brother is brought out of that darkness and abides in the light Light is a Metaphor variously applied in Scripture we may here take it three waies 1. This Metaphor of light is sometimes attributed to Christ so by our Apostle in his Gospell when he calleth him the light of whom John the Baptist did beare witness by himself when he saith I am the light of the world and thus abiding in the light is the same with that of abiding in him Thus it is an undoubted truth He that loveth his Brother abideth in Christ that Branch which participateth of the juyce and sap of the root must needs abide in it Love is the sap that was in Christ and therefore he that partaketh of love from Christ must abide in him that Member which suffereth with the rest of the Body declareth it self to be in the Body he that by loving sympathizeth with his Brother manifesteth himself to be a Member of Christ 2. Sometimes by this Metaphor of light the Gospell together with the saving knowledge of it are represented Both these we meet with in one Chapter whilst St Paul expresly mentioneth first the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ and presently the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Indeed in the one is the light without and the other is as the light within and he that loveth his Brother adideth in this light hereby declaring that he hath indeed learned and is rightly acquainted with Evangelicall Doctrine to this purpose is Justinians note Eo lumine dignum se ostendit qui luminis ductum sequitur by following the conduct of this light he sheweth himself in some measure worthy of it because answerable to it 3. But lastly This Metaphor of light is used to set forth grace and holiness in this sense no doubt St Peter is to be understood when he saith of Believers that they are called by God out of darkness into his marvelous light and thus the light in which he that loveth his Brother is said to abide is the same with that in the former Chapter where we have the phrase of walking in the light and the meaning of the word is briefly this He that loveth his Brother is in a state of grace Charity is an evident demonstration of sanctity St Paul reckoning up the fruits of the spirit placeth love in the front as if there were no clearer fruit of the spirits residence in us then the exercise of this duty of love Indeed there is a love which only argueth good nature such is that of a Kinsman a Friend but to love an enemy and that because it is an Evangelicall injunction and to love a Christian because he is a Christian is such a Flower as groweth not in natures garden but is a fruit of the Spirit and so a Testimony of grace But because I shall have more full occasion of discussing this in the next Chapter I pass on to the 2. Next benefit which attends upon Brotherly love as it is expressed in those words and there is none occasion of stumbling in him Not to insist on the severall acceptions of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is used by the 70. in the Old Testament and by the sacred Writers in the new this being already done by the late learned Annotator It may suffice to know that here according to its derivation
that our Apostle useth it in a Metaphoricall construction and his design in it is double Namely that this Appellation might be both a testimony of his affection towards them and a monitor to them of their duty and in both these considerations there was a great deale of reason why our Apostle should use this title of little Children 1. He calls them little Children to testifie that Fatherly affection which he did bear to them and this no doubt that hereby he might gain a filiall affection from them towards him and an affectionate regard to his Doctrine It is no small piece of policy in an Orator to make way for his instruction by giving evidence of his affection what appeareth to be spoken is commonly taken in love no wonder then if St John Ad majorem benevalentiam induâ—endam filiolos appellat as Justiuian appositely for the gaining of their good will to him declareth good will towards them by calling them little Children And truly so much the more cause had our Apostle to endeavour this in respect both of what he had and was to deliver He was now about to disswade them from loving the world a lesson to which they might probably be very averse it being so hard for us while we are in the world not to be intangled with the love of it nay perhaps they might think he was an enemy to them in requiring them to be enemies to the world it being strange he should will them to contemn that whereof they had continuall use Now by calling them Children and thereby insinuating that he spake to them as a Father they might justly perswade themselves that he advised them to nothing but what was for their good Our blessed Saviour strongly argueth from the Love of a Father If his Son ask bread will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he give him a Serpent A question intending a negation doubtless he will not nay rather if he ask him stones or a serpent he will give him bread or â—â—sh Fathers do not use to give nor yet to advise their Children what is hurtfull but usefull for them and therefore by calling them little Children he would let them know that how prejudiciall soever this counsell of not loving the world might seem to them it was given by him as a Father and that which he knew would be beneficiall to them Again He had but now sharply reproved those among them who did hate their Brethren and least they should account him guilty of the sin he reproved as if his reprehension of them proceeded from hatred he presently manifesteth his love by this sweet appellation little Children There is never more need of insinuating into Auditors an opinion of our candid affection towards them then when we use bitter invectives against their sins men being very apt to misconstrue our hatred of their sins as if it were malice against their persons and truly what expression could more represent affection then this of Children Solomon saith The wounds of a Friend are better then the kisses of an enemy and good reason since there is more love in the ones wounds then the others kiss and if the wounds of a Friend much more the reproofs of a Father are from love if it be a rod the Childe must kiss it because it is virga Patris the rod of a Father and surely then though it be a sharp rebuke the Childe must embrace it because it is verbum Patris the word of a Father amor saith the old man in the Poet est optimum salsamentum love is that sauce which giveth a relish to things that are otherwise most distastefull and loathsome Brotherly love saith St Austin and it is no less true of Fatherly Sive approbet me sive improbet me diligit me whether it approve or reprove me it still loveth me and where love is the sweet spring though the waters be the waters of Marah I may chearfully drinke them That therefore our Apostle might render his severe reprehension the more acceptable he would have them know it was from that sincere and tender respect he bare to them and that he might convince them of this cordiall respect he bespake them as a Father with this affectionate title little Children 2. He stileth them little Children to minde them of that duty which concerneth all Christians in becoming as little Children and according to his masters Precept whose language he much delights to follow Indeed it is that which is not to run parallel in all respects and therefore saith Jansenius the imitation of little Children is either good or bad according to the things wherein we resemble them St Paul in one place bids us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew our selves men not women by cowardize no nor yet Children by inconstancy nay he expresly forbids Be not Children in understanding and again Be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine we must then be unlike and like to little Children We must not think like little Children for they only minde what is present whereas wisdome teacheth to look afar off and think of hereafter and yet we must think as little Children for their thoughts are not carking and distrustfull about what they should eat or drink or wherewith they should be cloathed we must not desire as little Children do for they ofttimes desire things that may prove hurtfull and destructive to them and yet we must desire as little Children for their desires are earnest and important after the dug we must not understand as little Children for they are but weak and defective in knowledg and yet we must understand as little Children for they are docile and facile to learn we must not speak as little Children for they speak rashly and yet we must speak as little Children for they speak truly we must not like them speak all we think and yet like them we must speak nothing but what we think In few words would we know wherein especially we ought to be as little Children look backward and forward to the sins here forbidden and we shall finde little Children fit monitors of avoiding both and perhaps therefore our Apostle maketh choice of this appellation as very sutable to these instructions 1. Little Children are innocent and harmeless free from hatred and malice they do not plot nor act mischief to others they seek not revenge upon others and this is that wherein chiefly we must resemble little Children To this purpose St Jerome Christ doth not require of his Apostles that they should be little Children in years but innocency and Theodoret on that in the Psalms Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained strength asking the question Who are those Babes and Sucklings answereth Qui lactentium puerorum innocentiam imitati sunt they who imitate the innocency of Sucking Children what need we a better Expositor
guess at Gods love by Christs respect who commanded little Children to be brought unto him and blamed those that kept them from him It was Davids comfort When my Father and Mother forsooke me then God tooke me up it may be yours my little Children if you endeavour to know and love the Father when your Parents either cannot or will not help you he both can and will provide for you Once more your dear Redeemer and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ began himself betimes and was so well skild at twelve years old that he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple hereby giving you an example which though it cannot be expected you should equalize yet it is required you should follow we finde in the Gospell little Children going before Christ and following after him with Hosanna's and it is the praise of Jereboams Childe That there was found in him some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel Oh little Children write after these coppies so much the rather because with Jereboams Childe you may dye early and what a comfort will it be to your selves and Parents if then there shall be found in you some knowledg and love and fear of your Father which is in Heaven To end all What remaineth but that all of all ages Fathers young Men little Children make use of this Scripture as a looking glass whereby they may see what they are at least what they should be that they may be all according to the gracious promise taught of God from the greatest to the least eldest to the youngest And then the Psalmists exhortation will be readily embraced young Men and Maids old Men and Children let them praise the name of the Lord from this time forth for evermore Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16 17. Love not the world neitherr the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth forever THe Subject of this Scripture is one of the chiefest and most needfull lessons in all practicall Divinity since it is Removens prohibens a document of removing that which is one of the greatest hinderances in the exercises of Christianity Indeed what the stumbling block is to th Traveller in the way the weight to the runner in his race or to use St Austins comparison limetwigs are to the Bird in its flight that is the love of the world to a Christian in his course either wholly diverting him from or greatly entangling him in or forcibly turning him out of it This is one of the fetters which keepeth so many from entring into the path of piety This is one of those suckers which hinder others from growth in godliness Finally This is that which like a contrary winde to the ship beateth back many from their former profession The truth is as Calvin well observeth on this place Till the heart be purged from this corruption the eare will be deafe to divine instructions Hercules could never conquer Antaeus Donec â terrâ matre â—um levasset till he had lifted him up above his Mother earth no more can the spirit of grace subdue us to the obedience of the Gospell till he hath lifted up our hearts from earthly Love Heavenly truths glide of from carnall mindes as water from a sphaericall body No wonder then if the Apostle Paul exciting the Hebrews to run he race which is set before them adviseth them to lay aside every weight to wit of worldly care And here the Apostle John intending chiefly in this whole Epistle to advance a Christian conversation indeavours in these words to take men off from worldly affections Love not the word nor the things of the world c. The discourse of these words moveth upon two principall wheels namely A command peremptorily inhibiting which is Propounded in the beglning of the fifteenth Verse Love not the world nor the things of the world Expounded in the sixteenth Verse All that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life An Argument strongly enforcing which is drawn from two considerations The one in regard of worldly love its direct contrariety to that which is divine as it is Asserted in the end of the fifteenth Verse If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Proved in the end of the sixteenth Verse For it is not of the Father but of the world The other in regard of the world it self its fleeting instability which is Affirmed in the begining of the seaventeenth Verse And the world passeth away and the lusts thereof Amplified from its contrary the permanent felicity of the religious in the end of the Verse But he that doth the will of God abideth for ever So that though the grand wheels of this period are but two yet we finde many lesser wheels yea Rotam in rotâ every wheel having another within it The first main wheel is the prohibition and in that is another wheel the exposition The second wheel is the argument and in that two wheels the double motive each of which hath a wheel within it whilst the first motive is backed with a probation and the second with an illustration May that blessed spirit of grace vouchsafe to drive the Chariot of my discourse which shall run in order upon these wheels and then I doubt not but we shall attain that which is I trust the Goale of my Preaching and your hearing namely our reformation and salvation The prohibition is that which I am to begin with and that 1. As propounded in these words Love not the world nor the things that are in the world This is in order the sixth step of that walking in the light which I have heretofore told you is the chief design of this Epistle to delineate The first whereof is a sorrowfull confession of sin past The second a cordiall forsaking it for the time to come The third an obedientiall keeping the Commandment The fourth a sedulous imitation of Christ The fifth a Christian Law of the Brethren and now The sixth is an alienation of our head from the world Love not the world c. What the intent of this prohibition is will best apapear by inquiring what is the proper notion of the word world in this place Not to trouble my self and you with giving an account of its severall acceptions in sacred writ Be pleased to know to our present purpose That to use St Austins similitude as an house is taken sometimes for the wals and roomes which constitute the house and sometimes for the family which inhabiteth the house so by
what they care not for whilest your emulations strifes quarrels are so great and fierce one with another about worldly matters it strongly argueth they have possession of your hearts she for whom the gallant adventures his life in the field is very probably concluded to be his Mistris surely the world commands thy heart when it engageth thee in litigious quarrels 6. Lastly You may very rationally judge of your affections by your actions your love by your care your delight by your service When we read that Jacob served an hard Apprentiship to Laban and that no less then fourteen years for the gaining of Rachell we may certainly infer that he loved her greatly men would never lay out their time and strength so uncessantly in the worlds drudgery were she not Mistris of their affections yea which doth the more fully proclaime their love their labour is a pleasure they are never in their element but when like the fish they are swiming in these waters or like the mole they are digging in the earth By all these considerations we may be able to discern whither our love be not inordinate towards this world and the things thereof and therefore such as we ought to be deeply sensible of affected with and humbled for And now what remaineth but that to this word of Conniction I annex a word of Dehortation that we all endeavour to wean our hearts from the love of this world Oh hearken and again I say hearken to this sprituall and Heavenly voice as it is called by St Cyprian Love not the world nor the things of the world Indeed as Seneca saith of sorrow I may say of love I do not require that you should not love it at all but I earnestly intreat take heed that you love it not too much the truth is our affections in regard of worldly matters are very prone to excess in Heavenly things it is impossible to exceed in Earthly things it is difficult not to exceed our grief quickly degenerateth into anguish our fear into trembling our desire into impatience our delight into jollity and our love into dotage Oh therefore be wise to watch the out goings of your hearts after worldly Objects and remember that as it is of the two best when brotherly kindness erreth on the right hand by louing too much so when worldly love offends on the left hand by loving too little Oecumenius upon the Text conceiveth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle writeth these things as to Children who are most apt to be taken up with ensuall Objects but doubtless as one well glâ—sseth Optimè omnibus congruit there are none of any age but stand in need of it Beware that you be not engaged and fettered with worldly love we read concerning the living Creatures mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiell that the Soles of their feet were like the soles of a Calves foot The Caldee paraphrase readeth it like round feet the feet are an emblem of our affection and it is observed of Sphaericall bodies that if you set them upon the ground they only touch it in one point so should our affections touch this world not too much cleaving to or leaning on it Dioscorides maketh mehtion of an Herh which he calleth the Indian leafe and observeth that it groweth in moorish fenny places Aquae sine ullâ radice â—nnatans swimming in the water without taking any root in the bottome Let this Herb be our emblem whilst we live in let us not love the world and though we make use of it to swim in for a time let not our hearts take root by an inordinate love The main disswasives from this sin we shall meet with in the Text only consider for the present that this worldly love is unreasonable injurious ingratefull and unchristian 1. It is unreasonable There are two eminent laws of love which are directly broken by this practice the one is simili gaudere the other is diligentem diligere like loveth like and love requireth love but alas when we love the world we love that which is unlike there being no proportion between our noble souls and this worlds good Indeed our souls were made after the divine image and similitude and therefore not made for the love of this inferiour world Besides when we love the world we love that which as it doth not give so neither can it repay love at the best it is only capable of serving not of loving us and why should we so pervert the nature of love as to love the world But further 2. It is injurious to our selves as well as incongruous to love since by loving the world it becometh our enemie it seems strange yet it is a truth the world is only a â—oe to them that love her if we use her she is an obsequious servant but if we love her she is a malicious enemy it is observed of the shadow Sequentem fugit fugientem sequitur if you follow it it flyeth from you if you flye from it it followeth after you It is proportionaby true of the world if you contemn it it will fear you if you love it it will domineer over you and that known Proverb of fire and water may justly be applied to the things of the world they are good servants but bad masters Adde to this 3. It is ingratefull to God as well as injurious to our selves all these things of the world are the largesses of Gods bounty the streames of his goodness and is it not an odious ingratitude to dote upon the gift and neglect the donor Very apposite to this purprse is St Austins similitude If an Husband being in a far Country should send a Ring to his Spouse out of his ardent affection to her would he not might he not justly take it ill at her hands if she should forget her Husband and fall in love with the token Thus do we when we cast God behind our backs and set our eyes upon this world Finally It is unchristian there being nothing more unbeseeming a Christian profession then a worldly conversation being Christians we profess the Faith and hope of a better world and shall we fall in love with this we intitle our selves the Children of God and shall we live and love as the Children of this world It is our Saviours argument to his Disciples After these things do the Gentils seek and because they do we should not at least wise not as they do it with such immoderate affection and therefore whilst Mammonists like Ravens feed on garbage like the Lapwing make their nest in order or like Beetles never sing but in a bed of dung let us have higher thoughts nobler desires purer joyes learning of this holy Apostle not to Love the world nor the things of the world THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the
doth not tend to and end in Obedience And so much for the Antithesis by which the Thesis is illustrated Proceed we to the Last particular in this first proposition Namely The Argument by which it is proved laid down in these words Who so keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Calvin indeed conceiveth these words to be annexed as a description of Obedience so that if we would know what it is to keep the Commandments the answer is It is to have the Love of God perfected in us to this purpose is it that Moses saith What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love him And Christ summeth up all the Commandements in those two precepts of love towards God and our Neighbour yea St Paul saith expresly That love is the fulfilling of the Law not only effectivè because it inableth us to keep it but reductivè because the whole Law is reducible to that of love But though this Construction be true yet I conceive it is not so genuine and congruous to the Apostles scope And therefore I rather look upon these words as a confirmation of the preceding clause he that knoweth God will keep his Commandments because he that knoweth him loveth him and he that loveth him cannot but keep his Commandements The strength of this Argument will the better appear if we put it into a Syllogism which we may take briefly thus The Love of God is perfected in all and only those who keep his Word In whomsoever there is a right knowledg of God the Love of God is perfected Therefore Whosoever knoweth God aright will keep his Word And now acording to this Interpretation here are two positions to be insisted on The one whereof is the Minor the other the Major in the Syllogism the one tacitely intimated and the other positively expressed 1. That which is here implyed is that where there is a Knowledg there is also the Love of God and Christ The Love of God may admit of a double reference either Charitas quâ amat or quâ amatur actively the love whereby God doth love or passively the love whereby he is beloved Illyricus understandeth the former and no doubt it is a truth that Gods love is fixed on him who keepeth his Word He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them saith Christ my Father will love him Yea whereas God vouchsafeth a generall love to all men he hath a more speciall favour to obedient persons but if we thus understand the Love of God in this place the phrase of perfected will sound very harsh since there is nothing in God but it is absolutely and infinitely perfect and therefore I reject it More generally and probably Expositors here understand that love which we have to God and so it is an undoubted truth they who know him cannot but love him The truth is therefore is divine knowledg effective because it is affective it commands our actions because it commands our affections and if we know him we keep his Commandements because if we know him we love him It is a rule among the Hebrews that verba notitiae connotant affectus the phrase of knowing noteth such an act of the understanding as carrieth the affections along with it And indeed it is impossible but the affections should be carried on toward the Object when it is rightly known It is a saying of St Austin Qui vult habere notitiam Deâ— amet he that will know God must love him since love causeth acquaintance and it is as true Qui vult habere amorem Dei noscat he that will love God let him know him The necessary connexion between these two appeareth upon a double ground 1. The one in respect of Gods Nature which is good and goodness it self The proper Object of love is good and it is impossible Vt quis bonum cognitum non amaret that good known should not be beloved Be a thing never so good if the goodness of it be not known to us it cannot be loved by us and if our understandings are fully and clearly convinced of its goodness it cannot but draw our love towards it now God is good the chief good a full Universall Originall good There is no goodness in any Creature which is not from him and after a more eminent way in him and therefore he that knoweth him apprehending him infinitely good cannot but be enamored with him Indeed he that rightly knoweth God knoweth him to be justice it self and therefore cannot but fear him Truth it self and therefore cannot but trust him Goodness it self and therefore cannot but love him 2. The other in respect of the Spirits efficacy and operation Idem spiritus qui illuminat inspirat conformem affectum the same spirit is both a spirit of Knowledg and Love Like the fire which giveth both light and heat and wheresoever the spirit worketh savingly there is not only an illumination of the minde but a sanctification throughout whereby the will is inclined to the love as well as the judgment enlightned with the knowledg of God Content not thy self then with a sapless heartless Knowledg Though Christ as God knoweth all persons and things yet he knoweth not them whom he loveth not and therefore he saith himself to the workers of iniquity I know you not and though a man as St Paul specifieth in his own person have all knowledg yet if he have not Charity it is nothing to wit in Gods account and though it may be profitable to others yet it can neither be acceptable to God nor beneficiall to himself 2. But further that which is here expressed and therefore chiefly to be insisted on is that whoso keepeth his Word in him verâ—ly is the love of God perfected The Subject of this clause whoso keepeth his Word is the same for substance with that in the third verse If we keep his Commandements and therefore need not be again handled only the different term of Word would not be passed by The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath especially a double signification both of which may be here made use of to wit ratio and sermo reason and speech According to the former acception Christs Commandements are so called because in them is set before us ratio vivendi the way to order our Conversation aright And there is nothing in them but what is rectae rationi consonum most agreeable to right reason According to this Notion it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St Peter is rendred by the Vulgar Latin Lac rationale and that for this reason quia rationem tradit credendi rectè vivendi because the word set down a just rule but of a right belief and a good life and this by the way may be a strong Obligation to the keeping of what Christ requireth because he requireth nothing but what is just and reasonable According to the latter construction Christs
mortality can and this is that which all ought to aspire after yea some do attain to and may be called a perfection of proficiency 4. Lastly To love God Quantum nulla alia res diligitur so much as no other thing besides is loved by us to love God above all and all in and for God This is that to which every true Christian attaineth even in this life and is called a perfection of sincerity In this last notion Interpreters generally and rationally expound it here So among others Beda and Beza Charitatem perfectam videtur Apostolus eam intelligere quae est vera sincera saith the one the Apostle understandeth by perfect sincere love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc in loco non declarat aliquid perfecte consummare sed mendacio simulationi inani opponitur saith the other perfected doth not here signifie to make a thing compleat but is opposed to lying and hypocrisie In this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to be a corrective of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not say in him the love of God is fully but verily or truly perfected In this sense he that keepeth Gods Word is said to have the love of God perfected in him upon a double account 1. Because he that keepeth Gods Word doth reipsa praestare really performe love to him Look as a tree is then said to be perfected when it hath not only buds and leaves but fruit so is the love of God perfected when it is not only in desire and profession but practice Indeed love begins at the judgment by a surpassing estimation of God as the chiefest good from thence it acts in the will by ardent desires after and frequent delight in the enjoyment of him but still the reall part of love is that by which the integrality of it is as it were consummated is obedience in doing what he requireth from us 2. Because he that keepeth Gods Word doth hereby plenè manifestare fully declare and manifest that his love to God is sincere in this respect the Greek Scholiast renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and giveth this as the reason because by our good works our love appeareth to be perfect nor is this an unusuall acceptation of the phrase When Gods strength is said to be made perfect by weakness it no doubt intends no more but that it is discovered to be perfect and when Abrahams Faith is said to be made perfect by works Aquinas giveth this as the reason because these were the Operations and so the manifestations of his Faith Thus the keeping of Gods Word perfects our love because it doth discover the perfection of it By this it appeareth to be true and not fained since though fained love may shew it self by words it is only sincere love that expresseth it self by works and were not love deeply rooted in the heart it would not bring forth good fruits in the life Nay indeed by this it appeareth to be strong as well as true look as it argueth nature to be strong in a man when he can perform with vivacity the operations of nature so it manifesteth grace to be strong when a man doth readily performe gratious actions The fire which flameth forth is not only kindled but is fervent and our love manifesteth it self not only sincere but strong when it breaketh forth in our observance of Gods Word throughout the course of our Conversation And now what remaineth but that every one of us approve our love to God by keeping his Word Love to God is that which we all pretend and which is the riddle even profane wretches are ready to say He that loveth not God is not worthy to live but in vain is love to God professed by us in our words whilst it is not perfected in us by our deeds How canst thou say thou lovest me said Dalilah to Sampson since thy heart is not with me It may no less truly be objected how can we say we love God whilest our hands are not lift up to his Precepts The truth is amori cedunt omnes affectus all the affections attend on love it is full of fear of grief of joy of desire He that loveth God cannot but be grieved when he offends him glad when he pleaseth him fearfull to do anything which may provoke desirous and carefull to do whatsoever may delight him and no wonder if where these affections are active there be an endeavour to avoid what he forbids and perform what he requireth I end all let every one of us conceive that Christ saith to us in those words which he is pleased to ingemminate to his Disciples If you love me keep my Commandments and again If any man love me he will keep my word and therefore let us at once both testifie and justisie the truth of our love by the reality of our service ever remembring what this blessed Disciple asserts in conformity to his Masters lesson Who so keepeth his Word in him verily and none but him is the love of God perfected THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. the lat part of the 5 and the 6. Verse 5. Hereby know we that we are in him 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk as Christ walked IT is an amiable excellency in any superiour to become a precedent of that whereof he giveth a Precept and shew himself an Acter in that whereof he is an Exacter from others It was the praise of Caesar that his Word to his Souldiers was not Ite but Venite go but come Nor much unlike was that of Gideon to the people Look on me and do likewise Indeed by this means a Governour layeth a double and so a strong obligation upon the Inferiours whilst he doth at once both enjoyne by his commands and invite by his pattern For this reason no doubt it is that the Captain of our Salvation as he hath prescribed us Laws so he hath given us an Example not imposing that on us to which he did not some way or other expose himself To this purpose are those phrases which are used by him in the Gospel of coming after him and learning of him and for this reason his beloved Disciple here enjoyneth these two together and as in the former verses he calleth upon us to keep his Commandments so here to walk as he walked Hereby we know c. The second principall position is that which cometh now to be handled wherein we have two things observable The Christians being and his operation his state and his work his dignity and his duty The being state and dignity of a Christian is expressed in those phrases We are in him and he abideth in him The Operation Work and Duty of a Christian is signified in those ought himself so to walk as he walked both which we shall consider apart in themselves and then joyntly in the dependance
of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us Thus did St Ambrose love his charge when he declareth how much he was troubled at his absence from them though upon just occasion It were easie to multiply instances of this nature Oh let all Pastors take fire at these flames and learn by these examples indeed there is no relation in which Ministers stand to their people but it cals for this duty if they look on them as their Sheep their Schollars their Children their Brethren all ingage them to Love And surely Magnes amoris amor Love is the Loadstone of Love if we love you you must love us as Brethren so did those converts who bespake the Apostles with this very title Men and Brethren Tell me I beseech you why should we be accounted as your enemies who watch for your souls If you think scorne to honour us as Fathers yet however own us as Brethren In a word Since we are Brethren let us sweetly live and love as Brethren Oh how pleasant a thing it is for Ministers and People like Brethren to dwell together in Vnity Oh that both Priest and People when any contentions arise between them or when their love to each other begins to faile in them would remember this relation so should the meditation hereof be both as water and fire as water to coole the heat of contention as fire to kindle and cherish the heat of affection 4. It is a word of dignity That he who was in the highest office belonging to the Christian Church should call the despised Christians to whom he wrote his Brethren as it is a dignation in him so it must needs be an exaltation to them The greater the Persons to whom we are related and the nearer the relation is the greater is the honour To be a Servant a Kinsman but much more to be a Brother of a Lord or Earl but much more of a King is a very great Dignity such honour have Christians they may claim Brotherhood to the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the Noble army of Martyrs the sacred Hierarchy of the Apostles yea the head of the Church Christ himself for so saith the Author to the Hebrews concerning him He is not ashamed to call us Brethren Oh let us walk worthy of these high relations which Christianity confereth upon us and so much the rather because by our unanswerable behaviour to these relations we shall not only dishonour our selves but them to whom we are related If one that is Brother to a King should make himself a companion of Thieves doth it not redown to the dishonour of the King to whom he is so nearly allyed And if we who by our Christian profession pretend at least alliance to the Apostles yea Christ himself shall live no better nay worse then Turks Pagans Infidels how must they suffer to whom we pretend so near a relation And therefore to imitate the Apostles exhortation Let our Conversation be such as becometh the Brethren of those holy Apostles who were the first Publishers of the Gospell of Christ And so much be spoken of the Compellation given to the Persons Pass we on to the commendation which our Apostle here giveth the matter whereabout he was now to write which is drawn from three heads The Authority of it as being a Precept both old and new in those words I write no new but an old Commandment c. and Again a new Commandment I write to you The Conformity of it to the Pattern which Christ hath set in those words A thing which is true in him The Congruity of it to the state of the Gospell the truth of Christianity in those words And in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth The Authority of that which our Apostle here commendeth is that which we are to begin with And that inasmuch as it is 1. An old Commandment This is that which is both propounded and proved the former in those words I write not a new but an old Commandment to you the latter in those Which you heard from the beginning the old Commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning 1. The proposition is set down with a great deale of Emphasis not only Positively but Oppositively Affirmatively but Negatively The Apostle doth not content himself to say I write to you an old Commandment but knowing as Calvin well noteth how suspected novelty is and deservedly hatefull and because as Didymus observeth the brand of novelty both by Jews and Pagans was cast on Christianity and withall because many things are old which yet in truth are but old Innovations as I shall hereafter discover he doth expresly vindicate his Doctrine from any such aspersion by this addition not a new but an old Commandment It is somewhat debated by Interpreters what our Apostle intends by this old Commandment whilst Some understand it generally of the whole Evangelicall Doctrine Others referre it to the preceding Verse where is a speciall command of walking as Christ walked Others to that particular command of Love which immediately followeth This last I incline to and so much the rather because I find St John himself so expounding it in the Eleventh Verse of the next Chapter wherein he cals loving one another the message from the beginning and at the Fifth Verse of the next Epistle where he saith Not as though I wrote a new Commandment and this concerning the precept of loving one another That I may the better dispatch this clause be pleased to proceed with me by these steps â— The Doctrine which our Apostle was now about to propose is called a Commandment whence observe 1. Generally That as the Law had Gospell so the Gospell hath Law in it and as it publisheth promises so it obligeth by Precepts It is the difference between promises and commands that the one importeth some good to be done for us and the other some good to be done by us the one informeth us what God will do and the other what we should do Now though the principall end of the Gospell be to declare the one yet so as that it teacheth the other For this reason it is no doubt that the Gospell is sometimes called by the name of Law as where we read of the Law of Faith and the Law of Christ and the Law of Liberty and the Law of the Spirit of Life and upon the same account the Apostle Paul cals it a Canon or a rule to which our lives must be conformed and by which our waies are to be directed and St Peter stileth it the holy Commandment from which Apostates turn and the grace of God which many interpret by a Metonymy of the Object to be the Gospell is said to teach being as well a Schoolmaster as a Comforter Finally In this respect it is that we read not only of believing the Gospell which layeth hold
preparing them to receive the command by various Arguments which are aptly couched in this oratoricall Proaeme I write not a new but an old Commandment And Again a new Commandment I write to you which is true in him c. Having dispatched the Compellation and the first branch of the Commendation we are now to proceed to the second which is drawn from that conformity this duty hath to Christs pattern intimated in those words Which thing is true or a thing which is true in him I am not ignorant that some learned men refer all that followeth in this Verse to those words in the beginning of it A new Commandment I write to you as if it were only a Confirmation of that part of the commendation and so those words Which thing is true are thus to be Paraphrased which thing Namely That this Commandment of Love is a new Commandment is true both respecâ—u Christi nostri in regard of Christ who hath himself fulfilled it and so given us a new pattern of it and in respect of us Christians who by reason of the true light shinining have a new grace enabling us to performe it our selves But I rather incline to take these words as affording new Topicks for the commendation of love and so the laudatory Character we are now to handle is that this grace which is enjoyned to Christians is no other then what was true in Christ The Clause as it is set down in the Greeke carrieth with it no small difficulty Gagneius upon this place ingeniously professeth that he could not find out the true sence and meaning of it Some Expositors render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it self as if the sense of these words were only to assert the verity of the thing concerning which he discourseth but this to me seemeth jeiune and unbeseeming the fullness of Scripture Expressions besides if we observe the phrase of this holy Apostle and that in this Epistle we shall find it very usuall with him to speak of Christ under those phrases of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we may observe in the latter end of this and the beginning of the next Chapter look as Mary Magdalen having her own thoughts so full of Christ conceived there was no need of nameing him only to say Tell me where thou hast laid him so St John burning with love to Christ not doubting but that he was well known to them to whom he wrot and therefore supposing they would easily guess of whom he wrote thinketh it enough to say only him so that we may very well expound this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Translators readit in him to wit Christ But the greatest difficultie of construing this Clause lyeth in the first particle â— since being of the neuter Gender it cannot agree with the feminine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Substantive immediately preceding but it is no strange or unusuall thing for an Adjective of the neuter gender to be taken Substantively and so quod which is as much as quae res which thing Thus it is rendred in our Translation and is not unfitly expounded by Grotius to be that thing namely Love which is the matter of the old and new Commandment and indeed though the phrase may seem somewhat harsh yet the sense is most fitly thus expressed since the Commandment it self referrs to us not Christ but the thing or matter of the Commandment was true in Christ himself and so layeth a greater obligation upon us to performe the Commandment nor need we stick at this Construction when we find the same in the former Chapter where in the second and third Verses after the feminine substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put a neuter Adjective â— as that forementioned Author observes And now according to this interpretation the plain sense of the words appeareth to be this A thing which is true in him that is This grace of love which I enjoyn you is no other then what was verified in Christ himself So that as before he lets them see it is a Commandment both old and new so here he acquaints them further it was such a Commandment as had Christ himself an Example of it Ipse enim prius charitatem ostendit saith Ferus For he himself did practice Love ratum ac reipsa invenitur primum quidem in illo ut capite saith Beza In him as being the head of the Church and having received the Spirit without measure was this primarily accomplished And this interpretation I so much the rather assent to because it so aptly suiteth with what our Apostle had before delivered when he calleth upon them to express the reality of their interest in Christ by keeping his Commandments and walking as he walked whilst he lets them see that the duty of Love which he was about presently and did intend chiefly to inculcate upon them was the only way to performe both these By Love they should keep the Commandments for it is both the old and the new Commandment and by Love they should walk as Christ walked for it is a thing which was true in him And now That this was true in Christ is a truth so clear that there will be no need to prove it Indeed it is tanquam radio solis scripta written as it were with a Sun beam so that he which runs may read it It is a Subject I might very well dilate upon but that I shall have more full occasion to discuss both the Love of Christ and God to us in the following Chapters That it is so cannot be denied yea should we be so ungratefull as to deny or doubt it the Manger and the Cross would testify against us If either confering benefits on us or suffering injuries for us can assure his love to us our Apostle she weth it to be true in both when he saith To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his Blood and made us Kings and Priests to God the Father How legible are the Characters of his love in his Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Intercession and all those advantages of Redemption Remission Adoption Justification Salvation which by those accrue to us Which who so knowingly considers must needs say with St Paul The love and kindness of God our Saviour hath appeared with St Peter The Lord is gracious and with St Bernard his love to us was dignitatis nescius dignatione dives affectu potens suasu efficax full of condescention and affection Indeed that it should be so though it cannot be gainsaid may well be admired especially when we look upon our selves What were we the rebellious off-spring of degenerate Parents Slaves of Satan Servants of sin Children of wrath that Christ should cast an Eye towards and place his Love on us The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is manifest that he loved us and you if he ask the
The second Obedience The third Imitation of Christ And now the fourth which we are from these verses to discourse upon is The love of our Brethren He that saith he is in the light c. In these three Verses we have two generall parts considerable A Grace proposed The Vice opposed The proposition is in the 10. Verse The opposition in the 9 and 11. Verses And inasmuch as the grace is in order of nature before the vice and according to that Geometricall maxime Rectum est Index sui obliqui the way to know when we commit the sin is to understand the nature of the grace and yet further since the opposition is intended as an amplification of the proposition I shall therefore in handling these Verses begin with the middlemost wherein is contained The Thesis or grace proposed He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him In the discussion whereof be pleased to observe two things the nature and the benefit of the grace the former in the Subject the latter in the praedicate of the proposition 1. The Subject of the proposition He that loveth his brother So that the grace here set before us is the love of our Brother St Austin speaking of love hath observed a foure fold Object whereabout it is conversant Quod supra nos quod nos sumus quod juxta nos quod infra nos The first above us namely God The second our Selves The third about Vs The fourth beneath us our Bodies and as he well observeth two of them are so naturall that there is no need of a Precept to wit our selves and especially our bodies and therefore the command of love is expressed in these two the Love of God and of our Neighbour the latter of which our Apostle here calls for If you look backward upon the 5. Verse of this Chapter you find the Apostle speaking of the Love of God that being indeed the primary Object of Love and here he adviseth to the love of our Brother these two being not contrary but subordinate a little after he speaketh of two Loves which are inconsistent the Love of the Father and the Love of the World but it is not so with the Love of God and our Brother nay Indeed the former is a â—ause of the latter and the latter a testimony of the former Love to our Brother is effected by our love to God and our Love to God is perfected by love to our Brother and therefore very fitly doth our Apostle here speak of the latter having before mentioned the former because he is now about to describe the word or Commandment the keeping whereof perfects that is declareth our love to God to be perfect or sincere which is no other then Brotherly love For the better unfolding of which I shall briefly resolve these two queries What that Love is which we owe to our Brother Who that Brother is whom we are so to Love Not to discourse of Love at large be pleased to know That to Love our Brother as Zanchy well defineth 't is To have our mind so inclined towards him as that we will and to the utmost of our power conferr good upon him Suitable hereunto is that description of the Philosopher Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To will that which is good to and as far as we are able to do that which we will for another If then you ask what is the formal act of this love I answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benevolence If what is the proper effect of it The answer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beneficence nor can love be where either of these is wanting on the one hand if there be beneficence and not benevolence it is not love When St Paul saith Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity it profiteth me nothing he intimateth that it is possible for a man to bestow his goods on the poor and yet want love liberality being sometimes a fruit rather of vain glory then charity On the other hand if there be benevolence and not beneficence it is not love since it is only vellâ—â—tas not voluntas a wishing and woulding not a serious willing Trahit secum animorum propensio omnem beneficentiam saith Gualter a cordial propension carrieth with it a vigorous prosecution In this respect St James chideth those who when a Brother or Sister is naked and destitute of daily bread say to them depart in peace be you warmed be you filled notwithstanding they gave them not those things which were needfull for the body that is not charity which only expresseth it self in words not works love being an emanation of the will in a way of adhaesion to its object cannot but will all good to the object loved and since the will is the Queen Regent of the whole man in which regard the actions of all the other faculties are called the imperate acts of the will commanding the execution of its inclination it must needs follow that he who seriously wills cannot but really endeavour his brothers good and therefore that velleity which like an empty cloud vanisheth away without efficacy is not an act of love in which respect some not unfitly give the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to move every â—â—one and use all meanes for accomplishing the good we will only that caution according to our ability must be here inserted for as S Paul saith in this very case If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not where there is want of ability benevolence though it cannot be profitable to our Brother yet is acceptable to God and ought to be to him without beneficence The one then namely a good will is absolutely and alwayes necessary The other to wit good works conditionally and with this limitation so farre as they are within the sphere of our activity and compass of our ability Besides this general definition of love it will not be amiss somewhat more particularly to enquire into the several wayes of exercising it that we may see how many lines meet in this centre of love which may both fully and briefly be delineated by a double reference 1. To the present condition of our brother who Either hath the good already and then love first blesseth God and next congâ—atulateth him rejoyceing him at the presence and willing the continuance yea encreasing of it so farre as may be good and expedient for him Or else he wants the good and is distressed by some kind of evil and then love beareth a part with him in his sufferings by sympathie wiping away his teares with the spunge of her compassion yea not only so but endeavoureth to relieve him in and deliver him out of his affliction above all praying with earnest prayer and supplication to God for
him 2. To the several kindes of good which concerne this life and that which is to come Thus love 1. willeth and endeavoureth chiefly the spiritual good of his soul instructing his ignorance rebuking his wickedness exciting his negligence supporting his weakness resolving his doubtfullness laying forth readily what gifts God hath vouchsafed to her yet still within the compass of her calling for the edification of others 2. Next she wisheth well to and taketh care of his temporal advantage in body name estate feeding the belly cloathing the back of her brother and so making the one her barn and the other her wardrobe and both her treasury concealing those secret faults which might and confuting those false slanders which do impair his credit finally seeking the things of another his outward welfare gain prosperity as well as her own yea when need requireth throwing the fat dung of her wealth upon the barren soyl of her brothers mean estate By this time you see both the intent and the extent of the aâ—â— of love which is here required Pass we on to the object whereabout it ought to be conversant and so to a resolution of the second Question Who this brother is whom we ought thus to love To this end you may please to take notice of a double fraternity to wit carnal and spiritual the one is by the bloud of man the other by the bloud of Christ 1. Carnal Brotherhood in its utmost latitude reacheth very farre nor can we too farre extend the meaning of brother in the Text according to this notion For the clearing whereof observe these particulars 1. Brother in the strst and strict acception is predicated of those who have the same immediate parents the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uterus intimateth as much one that cometh out of the same womb the same loynes hath the same Father and Mother with another is most properly a brother 2. Brother is sometimes enlarged further to affinity and so kinsmen are in Scripture phrase called brethren The Jewes say concerning Christ Is not this the Carpenter the sonne of Mary the brother of James and Joses and of Juda and Simon and are not his Sisters here with us whenas yet we rationally conceive that the blessed Virgin never had child besides him and as he is caled her first born because none before him so we read not of any she had after him and therefore He her only one So that his kindred and aâ—â—yes are called his brethren and sisters according to the usual form of speech among the Jewes 3. Brother is sometimes yet more largely applied to all those who are of the same countrey thus where the Jewes are forbid to take usuâ—y of a brother and required to set him King over them whom the Lord their God should choose from among their brethren brother is manifestly taken in opposition to a stranger one of another nation so that not only cognatione but natione by kindred but countrey there cometh in a Brotherhood 4. Brother is yet capable of a farre greater extension and so taketh in all men inasmuch as there is not only identitas naturae a specifical identity of nature but originis a numerical identity of original He is in strict sense a brother who hath the same immediate parents well may he be a brother in a large sense who hath the same mediate parents thus all men came from the loynes of one man Adam and from the womb of one woman Eve in which respect the Apostle saith he hath made of one bloud all the nations of the earth Indeed all Angels have the same intellectual nature one with another but they did not all come from one Angel but were severally and immediately created whereas God though he could have created millions made but one man and ordained that out of him all the race of mankind should proceed in which regard every man is brother to another And therefore â—ertullian writing to the Heathen saith Fratres etiam vestri sumus jure naturae matris unius we Christians and you Heathen are brethren in a natural way as having the same original Thus as Circles in the water do enlarge themselves one greater then the other so do the acceptions of this word If now you shall ask me in what acception brother is here to be taken I answer with Augustine Estius and Danaeus Hoc loco fratrem omnem hominem debemus accipere in the largest as including every man St Gregory speaking of this duty of love well observeth Aliud est quod sponté impenditur naturae aliud quod praeceptis divinis ex charitate debetur obedientiae there is doubtless something more intended by the precept then what we are prompted to by nature to love our countrymen our friends our brother is that which we are naturally enclined to so that they who do not performe it are justly branded as without natural affection whence by the way we may see what an unnatural age we live in wherein Englishmen are so cruell to one another kinsmen worry each other yea one brother betrayeth and supplanteth another But surely the contrary to those horrid acts I mean natural affection is not all that is here intended it is the love of all men which is required of us According to this notion frater and proximus brother and neighbour are of equall extent and so the mandate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of our neighbour or brother which is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of every man True it is our love must be regular and orderly and therefore caeteris paribus other things being alike we must preferre a brother before a kinsman a kinsman before a countryman a countryman before an alien but yet so that as farre as we are able the beames of our love may seaâ—ter themselves throughout the world And thus to love our brother is to love every man 1. Sive bonum sive malum as well the bad as the good God causeth his Sunne to shine and his rain to fall upon the unjust no less then the just and we must express our love to the wicked as well as godly 2. Sive amicum sive inimicum as well enemy as friend it is Christs express precept Love your enemies and as S Austin truly Hâ—c est vera germana charitas this is right Christian-charity To wish well to those that wish well to us to do good to them that do good to us is no more then what Publicans do so out blessed Saviour nay then what Thieves Dragons Wolâ—â— and all sort of Beasts do so that fore-mentioned Father But to wish well to them that wish us ill and do good to them that do us hurt this is that which Christians ought to practise yea as Tertullian truly solorum Christianorum only they can do
age whereas in secular matters every man followeth his particular occupation Tractant fabrilia fabri as the Poets expression is The Smith meddleth with his Anvill the Carpenter with his Rule the Shoomaker with his Last Sola Scripturarum arâ— est quam sibi omne vendicant The profound art of opening Scripture is that which all sorts presume to assume to themselves Every pratling Gossip and doting Foole and malapert Boy will be medling with the Scriptures and instead of deviding mangle it expounding wrest it taking upon them to teach whilst yet they have more need to learn Politicians say that Anarchie is worse then Tyrany and it were better to live where nothing then where all things are lawfull and truly in the Church it is hard to determine which is worse the Papisticall Tyrannie of forbidding all to read or the Anabaptisticall Anarchie of allowing all to expound the Scriptures To clâ—st up this How great is our happiness did or would we know who live in the bosome of such a Church which as she denyeth an unjust so she indulgeth to us our just liberty and how great is both our unhappiness and wickedness whilst some boldly intrench upon the one and more carelesly neglect the other Let it then be the practice of all both old and young to read these holy writings thinke it not enough to hear them read in the Church but In domibus vestris aut uos legite aut alios legentes requirite at home either read them your selves or cause them to be read to you let not any excuse themselves saying Non sum monachus I am no monke seculars are bound to this duty Non novi literas I am not book-learned the greater thine and thy Parents negligence and however thou maist obtain to have them read to thee And when in reading or hearing these sacred Books you meet with difficulties repaire to the Priest whose lips preserve knowledg knock once and again by Prayer for the spirit of illumination and in this case make use of Solomons counsell leane not to thy own understanding These things are written to you Fathers be not you strangers to them exercise your selves in these Books make them with David your delight and your counsellers they are written unto you young Men follow the Psalmists counsell and by taking heed to this word learn to clense your waies They are written to you little Children do you begin to acquaint your selves with them It is recorded for the praise of Timothy that from a Childe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his first years wherein he was capable of learning and instruction he knew the holy Scriptures It is observed that the 119th Psalm is disposed according to the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet perhaps to intimate that Children when they began to learn their Alphabet should learn that Psalm The Jews as a learned Popish Bishop hath noted Filios suos quinquennes ad saera Biblia adaptabant began to acquaint their Children at five years of age with the Bible and pudeat Christianos what a shame is it for Christians not to begin as early as the Jews It was the charge Ignatius gave to the Parents that they should bring up their Children in the nurture of the Lord and to that end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should teach them the holy Scriptures What if Children cannot for the present understand yet they can remember what they read in the Scriptures and the reading of them maketh such impressions upon their minds which are of singular use to them afterwards nor is it any prophanation of those holy writings for Children to take them into their mouths though they cannot read them with that knowledg and consequently devotion as is required in and expected from young Men and Fathers It is very unlikely that those Children knew the meaning of Hosanna whom yet Christ forbade not to utter it It is both piety and prudence to deal with little Children according to their capacity let them first be accustomed to read and then to remember and by this meanes in due time they will be brought to understand and affect those holy writings Though withall prudence adviseth that in reading there be a graduall order observed beginning with such parcels of holy writ as are most necessary and easie to be known The Lords Prayer The Commandments The Sermon of Christ upon the Mount many of the Psalms of David Proverbs of Solomon and such like Portions of Scripture would first be taught to Children and young Men would be advised to be conversant in not attempting to look into the more darke and mysterious parts of Scripture till they have attained by being Catechized by hearing Sermons and other godly helps some good measure of divine knowledg and then in reading what they cannot understand with humility to admire and modesty to enquire into the sense and meaning of such Scriptures 2. But further If we refer this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write to that command of Love which is prescribed in the preceding Verses that which is here intimated is that Love is such a command as belongs to all sorts of Christians and ages of Men. 1. It belongs to all sorts of Christians little Children weake Christians are obliged to Love patience under the Cross joyfullness in tribulation spiritualness in duty and such like qualifications are not attained till we come to be young men nay Fathers but Brotherly Love is to be Practised by and is expected of them who are but little Children in Christianity Indeed this is one of the first graces which discovers it self in a Saint and even then when a weak Christian cannot say I beleeve in Christ yet he can say I Love my Brother Nor is this duty to be laid aside when we come to be young Men yea Fathers strong yea perfect Christians since as we abound in other graces so especially we must abound in this and the perfecting of a Christian consists much in the perfecting of his Love Indeed when many other graces shall cease Love shall remain the great employment of glorified Saints being to praise God and Love one another 2. It belongs to all ages of Men none but ought to practice and have need to be admonished of it The poyson of anger and hatred is apt to creep into us betimes little Children are prone to fall out and quarrel and fight one with another and young Men being in heat of blood very often boyle over with rage yea old Men are apt to be peevish and froward so that every age stands in need of this bridle of Love to restrain their passion one of the first lessons a little Childe is capable of learning is Love and old Men when they can do nothing else yet may Love it is that grace which is never out of season it is that grace which will fit all Sexes all sizes all Ages and is never out of fashion 3. Lastly If we take
forgiven for his names sake Indeed it is that which this argument presseth in three severall waies 1. In a way of imitation the Brethren are Gods Darlings he loveth all men so far as to forbear them but he loveth them so as to forgive them and surely fit it iâ— that where God forgiveth we should and whom he loveth we should Besides God loveth us so as to forgive us and forgiving to give all blessings to us and shall not we be mercifull and kind and loving to one another after his pattern 2. In a way of Gratulation Thus Naâ—gorgeus urgeth it So great a benefit as forgiveness Facilè persuadet ut eâ— benefaciamus strongly perswadeth that we should returne somewhat to him who and for whose sake we are forgiven Non Christo quidem sed membris this we cannot to him in himself but in his Members Quibus ille jussit To whom he hath commanded us to shew our affections Indeed the good Christian cannot but thus reason with himself If God hath at my request forgiven me pounds and given me Talents shall not I at his command forgive my Brother pence and give him Mites That love he hath shewed to me is infinitely surpassing that love which he expected I should shew to my Brother So that it is impossible for him who is truly affected with his Fathers goodness not to be inflamed with Brotherly kindness as therefore the cold stone or iron being warmed by the â—ire casts forth and reflects that heat which it hath received upon that which is adjacent to it So doth the sincere Christian reflect the heat of Gods Love which is shed abroad in his heart and sheds it abroad in Love to his Brethren 3. In a way of Impetration The comfort of this benefit of forgiveness lieth in the knowledg of it Indeed whosoever hath his sins forgiven is Really but he only who is assured that they are forgiven is sensibly blessed A well grounded assurance cannot be obtained but by finding those graces wrought in us which accompany Remission amongst which this of Brotherly Love is not the least If I can justly say That I Love my Brother for his names sake then and not till then I can comfortably say My sins are forgiven for his names sake When therefore we finde these passions of hatred envy â—â—lice and uncharitableness to boyle in our hearts against others for thoâ—e injuries which either they have or at least we conceiâ—e they have offered to us What better Antidote can we use then a serious meditation of Gods free and full underserved and unmeasutable Love towards us notwithstanding our manifold sins against him Which that we may duly imitate for which that we may be truly thankfull and of which that we may be comfortably assured it concerneth us and accordingly St John writeth to us to Love the Brethren THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. 13 14. VERS I write unto you Fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you young Men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father I have written unto you Fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning I have written unto you young Men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have over come the wicked one PHilosophy not unfitly distinguisheth of a threefold naturall Life Vegetative Sensitive Rationall The first discovereth it self by growth and Augmentation The second by Motion and Sensation The third by Discourse and Ratiocination The first is only in Plants the first and second in Beasts all three in Man nor would it be passed by how Man doth as it were gradually put forth these severall Lives living in the Wombe the life of growth so soon as he cometh into the World the life of sense and after the expiration of some years beginning to live the life of reason And as thus there are three Lives so there are three Ages of Mans life which are to be reckoned from that time he begins to act as a man and make use of his reason Namely Childehood Youth old Age Our life is a day whereof Childehood is the Morning Youth the Noon and old Age the Evening After which succeedeth the night of death our life is a journey which consisteth of three Stages Childehood wherein we go up hill Youth in which we run forward and old Age in which we run down hill to the Grave Finally Our Childehood is as a budding Spring our Youth as a flourishing Summer our old Age as a withering Autumn after which followeth the Winter of death With all these our Apostle hath here to do and as every one of them is capable of instruction he directeth his writing to them not only joyntly buâ— severally in the words now read I write to you Fathers because ye have known c. The particular Reasons why our Apostle wrote to every one of these Ages do yet remain to be discussed and before I enter upon them in particular there are two things I will briefly premise 1. That two of them are repeated namely that which respects Fathers and young Men whereas that to little Children is only once mentioned and if we well view it we shall finde there might be good cause for the Iteration of them and so no need to blame the Scribe as if the fourteenth Verse were beedlesly added Besides that one namely that which concerneth young Men is not a naked Repetition but withall an Amplification there is a double reason maybe assigned why he writeth to Fathers and young Men twice and but once to Children 1. Because his discourse was principally intended for Fathers young Men look as in our Preachings though sometimes occasionally we instruct little Children yet we must frequently direct our discourse to those who are drawn up to years of discretion so no doubt our Apostle designed this Epistle for and therefore directeth his writing to the young and old Christians 2. Because the things about which our Apostle writeth are such which young Men and Fathers have more need to be minded of then little Children There is not so great danger of little Childrens being infected with the world because they know not what belongs to it whereas young Men having so much imployments in are apt to be entangled with the world and old Men having been so long acquainted with cannot easily weane their affections from it Little Children are not so sensible of injuries and therefore not so apt to be enraged with hatred as young Men and Fathers are No marvell if he write again and again inculcating the argument by which he would perswade them to Love their Brother and disswade them from the Love of the World 2. That all of them are laudatory Characters commending that good which he observed in them the Fathers for their knowledg of Christ the young Men for their victory and spirituall
word as the Farme and the Oxen kept them in the Gospell from coming to the Feast or if not so it keepeth us from loving and conforming to it as the thornes in the parable did choake the good seed Herods lust of voluptuousness Judas his lust of covetousness would not let the word take place in their hearts though it entred into their ears indeed it is impossible that the heart which is clogged with the weight of worldly Love should be lift up to Gods Commandments 2. Again If we will overcome the Devill we must not Love the world there being no stronger engine by which the Devill gets and keeps possession of our hearts When he would allure us to any sin what are his enchantments but the pleasures of the world when hee would affright us from any duty what are his weapons but the reproaches and persecutions of the world so that in order to this victory nothing is more needfull then the alienating of our affections from the world 2. Love the Brethren because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one Where there is strength of grace there cannot but be fervent Love as to God so to the Brethren it is for weake and sickly persons to be froward none are more prone to contention and faction then those that are weak in grace and knowledge strong Christians are ever studiouâ— of amity and unity Indeed this is the way to increase our spirituall strength and therefore when St Paul adviseth to be strong he presently addeth Let all things be done in love and charity is called by him the bond of persection Again If the word of God abide in us we cannot but love one another Charity is one of the principall fruits which this seed produceth a lesson which this Schoole Master teacheth Excellent to this purpose is that saying of Lactantius Da mihi hominem iracundum uno verbo Dei reddam placidum ut ovem This word turns Leopards into Kids Lions into Lambes and sweetly cements hearts together in one Once more If we overcome the wicked one we cannot but love our Brethren the Devill is that envious one who soweth the Tares of dissention though he preserveth unity in his own Kingdome yet he endeavoureth to create and frame discord among men so that as we cannot more gratifie the Devill then by malice so neither can we better overcome him then by charity The truth is every envious and malicious person is the Devils slave but the charitable Christian is his conquerour 3. Having thus run through the reasons which our Apostle alledgeth why he wrote to Fathers and young Men it now remaineth that we give a brief dispatch to the last which is the reason why he wrote to little Children as it is expressed in the close of the thirteenth Verse in those words Because you have known the Father In the handling whereof I shall briefly consider three things The Quality specified to know the Father The Energy intimated knowing the Father is that which engageth not to love the world but to love the Brethren The Congruity to the persons mentioned little Children you have known the Father 1. Having had occasion already once and again to insist upon this grace of divine knowledg it will not be needfull to enlarge only know in brief that 1. It is no other then an Evangelicall knowledg of God which our Apostle here intends to know the Father is to know God to be the Father of Christ and in and through him a mercifull Father to all true Christians It is one thing to know God as a Creator or as a Law-giver and another to know him as a Father so only the Gospell revealeth him and accordingly we come to know him 2. It is less then an operative knowledg so to know the Father as to depend on him for Fatherly protection from all dangers and provision of all necessaries as to give him filiall love fear service subjection to all his Fatherly commands and submission to all his Fatherly chastisements They that know thy name saith the Psalmest will trust in thee and not only trust but serve and honour thee 3. It is not a graduall but initiall knowledg It is not unworthy our observation that the knowledg of God and Christ is a qualification attributhd both to the Father and the Children Indeed God is both the â— and the â— the first and last and therefore he must be known by us in our first and last age but yet these two knowledges differ in degrees old Christians have a deep draught whereas little Chidren have but a taste of this Heavenly nectar and therefore the expression is varied Fathers are said to know him that is from the begining as being well versed in the misteries of Christian Religion whereas little Children are only said to know the Father as having but some generall apprehensions of God reconciled in Christ 2. This knowledg of the Father among many others cannot but produce these two choice effects to wit contempt of the world and the love of the Brethren On the one hand as the twinkling stars are obscured by the light of the glorious Sun and therefore they disappear in the day time so the beames of this Heavenly knowledg darken all Creature excellencies in our apprehension and consequently our estimation of and affection towards them must needs be diminished on the other hand this fountain of celestiall knowledge cannot but send forth streams of love and that as chiefly towards the Father so secondarily to all who are the Children of this Father and so our Brethren 3. This Qualification of knowing the Father is very congruously attributed to the Children Infantibus pueris nihil magis necessarium quam ut patrem habeant cognoscant saith Ferus well nothing is more needfull for Infants and Children then that they should have and know the Father The weakness of little Children needs the conduct and government of another they cannot consult for their own safety and benefit and therefore their Parents undertake it for them By this means it is that the Childe first taketh notice of his Father and Mother according to that of the Poet Incipe parve puer risu cognsocere Matrem and hence those pretty Monosyllables by which Father and Mother are exprest are first taught and learnt by their Children so soon as they can speak And surely as it becometh little Ones so soon as they are capable to know and own their Parents so is it an amiable excellency in them to attaine some knowledge of God as their Father nothing more naturall to Children when once reason begins to act in them then to defire knowledge no knowledge to which a Childe sooner taketh then that of the Father but oh how joyfull and happy a thing is it when through instruction they begin to apprehend him who is the Father of us all and this is the
of this world at our own pleasure but waite Gods leisure saying with good old Simeon Lord lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace Sapiens non debet fugerè vitâ sed exire said Seneca A wise man must not breake prison doores only be willing to go forth when they are set open We cannot stay longer in and we must not go sooner out of this world then God pleaseth We must not needlesly devest our selves of those comforts which God affoards us in this life since it were both unthankfulness to the giver whom we basely undervalue by casting away his gifts and an injury to our selves the receivers who hereby should be difinabled from being so seruiceâ—ble as we might in our generation That forsaking of House Brethren Sisters Father Mother Wife Children Lands to which Christ promiseth an hundreth fold and eternall life is when it is for his names sake So that either we must deny his name or lose life and leave these secular injoyments otherwise the generall prohibition is not possess not but love not 3. It is very aptly observed by St Austin that the Apostle doth not say Nolite uti mundo but Nolite diligere mundum do not use the world but do not love it He that not loving the world useth it useth it as not abusing it Inasmuch as he useth it not for it selfe but in order to that which he loueth as the Father excellently enlargeth So long as we live in we cannot but have use of the world and the things in it we stand in need of them we cannot subsist without them and consequently not only may but must make use of them But as â—eda well glosseth Vtamur mundo ad necessitatem non ad volnntatem Use the world for the supplying your necessities but not for satisfying your lust With Gideons three hundred Souldiers we may lap the waters of this world with our tongues but we must not with the rest bow down our bodies to drinke of them One hath wittily observed of the three ages of man that Children â—reep on all soure being unable to stand of themselves young men go on two legs and old men on three being necessitated to use their staffe it may be here applyed wicked men are wholly carryed downwars to this world the Saints in Heaven trample upon the world the godly whilst in this world use it only as a staffe for their necessary support Excellent to this purpose is that of St Austin concerning these temporall things His tanquam tabulâ in fluctibus bene utendo cavebimus We must looke upon them as so many plankes in the waves which we neither rest upon as firme nor yet cast away as needless but use as helps to carry us to the shore 4. It is observed by Suidas that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word in the Text hath two significations the one whereof is generall and the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting only an ordinary affection the other speciall amounting to as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be so pleased with any Object that we desire nothing else according to this that note of St Austin upon the Text is very apposite Non te prohibet Deus amare ista Sed non diligere ad beatitudinem It is not every kinde of love which is here prohibited but so to love them as to make them our chiefest good For the further explicating of which be pleased to know That 1. Love as an Ancient hath well defined it is Delectatio cordis ad aliquid per desiderium currens per gandium acquiescens the enlargement of the heart toward any Object so as to run to it by desire and rest in it by delight So that indeed love is a compounded mixt affection made up of desire in craving and joy in having the Object we love and accordingly some Criticks observe of the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used that it is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very earnest after and pleased with that which is beloved 2. It is not unlawfull to look upon the world and the things in it as Objects of our love both in regard of desire and delight When our blessed Saviour command us to pray Give us this day our daily bread by which Syneâ—doâ—hically all temporall conveniences are intended He doth hereby plainly intimate that we may desire them prayer being an expression of desire When Solomon saith and that not in the person of an Epicure There is nothing better for a man then that he should eate and drinke and that he should make his soul injoy good in his labour What doth he but insinuate that to delight our selves in earthly things is allowable Indeed whatever is good may justly be the Object of love and consepuently when absent of desire when present of delight so that inasmuch as there is a goodness and that originally implanted by God in those things which are the works of his hands they cannot but rationally attract our love 3. But then lastly There is a great deale of difference between ordinata Charitas and inordinata cupiditas an ordinate charity and an inordinate love and though that is commendable this is to be condemned so that the true meaning of this prohibition will best appear in two propositions 1. Love not the world nor the things of the world that is When you want them desire not inordinately after them Desire them we may but not 1. In an unjust way so to covet these things as to seek them perfasque nefasque by indirect and unlawfull meanes that we choose rather to breake the rules of the word then to want the things of the world is sinfull and abominable the streames of our affection may move towards the world but then it must be in the right channell in Gods way only in the use of those meanes which he alloweth us 2. With an undue measure so to long for any thing in this world as that we will not be content without if like Rachell that cryed Give me Children or I die nor yet content with it like the Horse Leech that still cryeth give give is immoderate and consequently inordinate the streame of our affections after this world must not rise too high so as to overflow the bankes 3. To an unfiting end when we crave the things of this world upon base and sordid accounts Asking as St James saith to consume them upon our lusts our love is exorbitant the streame of our affection toward the world must not turn aside into by creeks but run into the maine Ocean of Gods glory 2. Love not the world nor the things of it that is When you have them delight not inordinately in them Delight in them we may but not Sine Deo without God so as if we enjoy them it matters not for Gods presence Supra
themselves to our discussion An eminent point An evident proofe or if you will here is a double confirmation The one Principall which is the reason of the dehortation in these words If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him The other Collaterall which is a reason of the reason and is expressed in those words Is not of the Father but of the world At this time of the first the principall confirmation If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him which words are so a proofe that they are withall a point well worthy my discussion and your attention They are an universall negative proposition wherein we are to take notice of the subject and the praedicate of whom and what it is that is here denied 1. The Subject of this proposition is every lover of the world it is that I shall not need to insist upon as having been already handled at large in the prhibition only give me leave to minde you in a few words That 1. On the one hand this is to be restrained to the immoderate lovers of the world who wanting excessively desire after or having unmeasurably delight in it Indeed it cannot be denied but that the very having of this world is dangerous and therefore our Saviour asserts its difficult for rich men to enter into Heaven and St Paul saith not many mighty are called A large portion of worldly things is like a long garment which reaching to the foot retards men in their walking nay sometimes maketh them stumble But still only the loving not the having of this world no nor yet the love of the world which is subordinate but only that which is co-ordinate and so inordinate is inconsistent with the love of the Father It is an excellent saying of St Bernard Sic vult amari Deus ut cunctae res simul amâ—nâ—ur cum ipso sic vult amari ut nihil praeter ipsum ametur God will be so loved that all things else may be loved with him and yet so loved that nothing be loved besides him that is as he fully explaineth it he will have every Creature to be loved as from him and it is himself he will have to be loved in every Creature and only such a love of the world as is in and for God consists with the love of God 2. On the other hand This is to be enlarged to all those severall lusts which grow out of this root of worldly love to wit Gluttony Ebriety Luxury Rapacity Tenacity and Curiosity self Conceitedness Ambition and vain Glory all of which where ever they are entertained whither joyntly or singly will not suffer divine love to have any roome in the heart so that these words If any man love the world may be thus Paraphrased and are accordingly to be understood If any man inordinately lust after and take delight in the pleasures riches or honours which this world affords or if you will more particularly If any man live in Gluttony and drunkenness chambering and wantonness sloth and idleness rapine and covetousness pride and ambition 2. But that which is here especially to be unfolded is the predicate which is denied concerning all worldly lovers to wit the love of the Father The better to make way for the handling of this Be pleased to know That the love of the Father may be construed either Actively or Passively Actively the Father is the Subject of this love and him the Object Passively the Father is the Object and him the Subject and so here is a double Negative in this one 1. The worldly lover hath no intrest in the Fathers love he may be in the warme Sunshine but it is without Gods blessing or rather he may have the Moon light of outward comforts but he wants the warme Sunshine of Gods favour St Paul saith of the widow that liveth in pleasure that she is dead whilst she liveth so are all voluptuous Epicures as so many dead nay loathsome carkases in Gods account The Psalmist mentioning the covetous fasteneth this brand upon him whom the Lord abhorreth he that sits in the Heavens spurneth at them who creep upon the Earth Finally St James speaking of the proud asserts That God resisteth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a military phrase he setteth himself as it were in Battle-array bidding open defance and proclaiming war against the proud In a word he that will be the worlds Darling looseth a Friend of God A sad truth and such as may justly strike terror and horror into the heart of every worldling Indeed however men sooth up themselves in their present prosperity not regarding Gods favour whilst they enjoy the worlds treasure yet the day is coming when they shall know and acknowledge how infinitely miserable their condition is for want of a smile from Heaven yea when they would purchase a beame of Gods love were it possible with a totall and finall abdication of all secular contentments Alas poore wretches notwithstanding all the comfort they have for present it is but night with them and when the time comes that the Moon and Stars shall hide their heads lose their light methinks they should tremble to consider in what a black night of worse then Aegyptian darkness they shall be for ever involved and that because the Sun will deny his golden beames God will eternally withhold his favour from them 2. But though this be a very usefull meditation yet I conceive it is not here intended since it is not said The love of the Father is on but in him and so the Negation here asserted is That the worldly lover hath no love of the Father in him Before I proceed further in the discussion of this point it will be needfull to take notice of the fitness of the phrase which our Apostle useth when he saith the love of the Father That by the Father is meant God I suppose is obvious to every eye nor would it be passed by that God is emphatically called the Father Look as though there are other lives yet the life to come is sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called life so though there are other Fathers yet here God is stiled the Father as he to whom this primarily belongs Other Fathers are but the instruments he is the principall efficient of our being They are the Fathers of our flesh he is the Father of our spirits they are but earthly he is our Heavenly Father Finally They provide for us only for a time he taketh care for our eternall wellfare and therefore eminently the Father Again It would not be passed by that our Apostle saith not your but the Father since though he is a Father yet not to them who love the world Indeed they are ofttimes so presumptuous as to call him Father but they are none of his Children These lusts where-ever they rule are not the spots of Gods Children But that which would be
here especially observed is that our Apostle speaking of the love of God calls it the love of the Father nor is it without good reason and that upon a double account 1. To informe us under what notion chiefly God is the Object of love True indeed in himself he is good nay goodness which is loves Object but yet this goodness is known to us by its communication and it is good as known which causeth love so that we love God chiefly under those mercifull relations in which he stands to us nor is there any relation of greater goodness towards man then that of a Father He is our King our Master our Judge but under these notions he is especially to be feared as he is our Father principally he is to be loved 2. To insinuate how greatly we are obliged to love God rather then the world The world at the best is but a servant at the worst our enemy as our servant it is to be used not loved at least not with a choice love as our enemy it is to be not loved but hated and trampled on Now God is our Father and there is a naturall affection due from Children to their Parents whom should we love if not our Father so that to love the world before God is as if one should preferre his Servant nay his enemy before his friend his Lord his Father then which what can be more monstrous And when I find the Apostle here disswading from worldly love upon the account of its inconsistency with the love of God I am apt to believe that he purposely phraseth it the love of the Father to render the love of the world which is so repugnant to the love of God so much the more odious to us But to let go the phrase The design of this proposition is manifest there is no positive love of God in him in whom there is a Superlative love of the world he that loveth the world chiefly doth not love God truly he that is a lover of pleasure or wealth or honour more then God is not at all a lover of God Indeed a worldling may be in shew a Saint and as farre as words will go a friend of God so may an Harlot seem kinde to her Husband but as she who giveth her heart to another beareth no reall love to her Husband so he who loveth the world hath no sincere affection to God Upon which account St James calleth worldly sinners Adulterers and Adulteresses so that to speak after our Apostles phrase elsewhere He that saith he loveth the Father and yet loveth the world is a lyar and there is no truth in him It is that indeed which holds true both waies as it is with a paire of scales the one goeth up the other goeth down so it is with these two Loves 1. On the one hand The Negation holds firme the proposition being inverted If any man love the Father the love of the world is not in him Moses rod swallowed up the Magicians so doth the love of God all other loves It is observed of the Sun beames that if they shine bright and hot upon the fire they put it out so do Heavenly affections extinguish Earthly Postquam Amarillis nos tenuit Galatea reliquit When divine love enters in carnall goeth out The command of love to God is of a large extent Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy might and if the love of God take up the whole there is not so much as a corner for left worldly love St Bernard commenting upon that precept thus expounds it and that aptly to our present purpose thou shalt love God withall thy heart soul might that is dulciter prudenter fortiter sweetly wisely strongly and where this love is predominant as that Father hath excellently observed there is no roome for worldly lusts he that loveth God sweetly withall his heart tasteth no sweetness in carnall things which is the lust of the flesh he that loveth God wisely with all his soul is not curicus or covetous of temporall things which is the lust of the eyes he that loveth God strongly so as to indure all things for him regards not honours which is the pride of life Nor is it less true in the direct then in the inverted notion If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Indeed one who hath been a lover of the world may be won to be a lover of God yea he who loveth the world in the second may love God in the first place but as St Gregory hath pithily and aptly exprest it Utraque sâ—mul aequaliter amari non possunt both cannot together be equally loved when the inferior sensitive powers of the soul are vehemently affected the superior rationall faculties are hindred in their operations so is spirituall love by carnall The trees which spread in breadth grow not in height those who extend their love to the things below ascend not in love to the things above Pharaohs leane Kine did eate up the fat so doth the pining love of the world devoure the love of God which is the Fat and Marrow of the soul It is very observable that St Paul describing the wicked conversation of false teachers brands them with these three lusts whose belly is their God the lust of the flesh who glory in their shame or as some read it whose glory is their shame the pride of life who minde earthly things the lust of the eyes to all which he opposeth that one character of himself and the rest of the teachers but our conversation is in Heaven thereby intimating that they who give themselves to worldly lusts are strangers to an Heavenly conversation and consequently to divine affection by which especially we climbe to and converse with God in Heaven To give you yet more fully the sense of this proposition if you compare it with parallel Scriptures you shall finde it will admit of a double enlargement to wit in regard of the predicate and the copula the thing denied and the manner of denying it 1. The love of the Father is not in him nay The hatred of the Father is in him so St James his assertion runs Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God and that he might bring the charge home to their consciences he repeats it with the change of the Abstract into the Concrete Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God It is true as hath been already intimated he may be a seeming friend but he is a reall enemy and so much the worse enemy because a seeming friend I know if this Question were put to many lovers of the world Do you hate God they would say in Hazaels language Am I a dead Dog that I should do this thing I say my Prayers frequent the Church and thinke
choice setting before us vanity and verity instability and premanency nay in effect perishing misery and abiding felicity And now to use St Austins Interogation Quid vis what wilt thou Whither wilt thou love the temporals and pass away with time or not love this world and live for ever with God The truth is as that same Father elegantly Talis est quisque qualis est dilectio every man is such as his love is if he loveth earth earthly if Heaven Heavenly if the perishing world thou shalt perish if the eternall God thou shalt live eternally Love is an uniting mingling affection and according to that with which it is mingled it is either pure or impure so that look as silver if mingled with lead is debased if with gold advanced so thy soul if by love mingled with the world must perish but if united to God for ever happy Oh therefore let it be the serious purpose of every one of us from henceforth to leave the world and cleave to God to abhore the lust of the one and do the will of the other that so in the end of this life we may have the inchoation and in the end of the world the consummation of that happiness which though it have a beginning shall know no ending And thus I have at length through divine assistance finished this golden period worthy to be engraven upon the Tables of Epicures the Chests of Mammonists and the Palaces of great Ones And though I have done with handling yet I trust you will not with reading remembring and pondering it yea I would to God that every Morning before you go about your worldly affairs you would revolve this Scripture in your minde with a Prayer to God to imprint it on your hearts Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. 18 19. VERS Little children it is the last time and as yee have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us THis present World is not without just cause branded as one of the greatest enemies of our Salvation and that especially upon a double account in as much as the things of this World by alluring our wills lead us into vice and the men of this world by perverting our judgements draw us into errours Both of these are so dangerous that it is hard to determine which is the worst St. Pauls Epithites of lusts are foolish and hurtful St. Peters character of Here sie is damnable these as well as those drowning men in perdition and destruction no wonder if this holy Apostle caution those to whom he wrote of both these Rocks and as in the fore-going verses hee warneth them of being defiled with the mud of worldly lusts so in these he taketh care that they might not be infected with the venoâ—e of Antichristian doctrins Little children it is the last time c. The subsequent part of this Chapter from the eighteenth verse to the nine and twentieth hath a special reference to and dependance on the exhortation which is mentioned in verse the four and twentieth iterated verse the eight and twentieth and is in order the seventh step of that light some walk which our Apostles chief design is to delineate in this Epistle namely a stedfast perseverance in the Doctrin and faith of Christ in order to this it is that here are three things discussed 1 Periculum the great danger they were in of being with-drawn from the truth by reason of the many Antichrists which this being the last hour were now among them who taught abominable lyes denying both God and Christ and this is handled in the eighteenth nineteenth and again in the two and three and twentieth and again in the six and twentieth verse 2 Auxilium the chief help which God had afforded them against this danger that sacred unction which did inform them fully of the truth and thereby was able to preserve them from errour and this is in the twentieth and one and twentieth and again inculcated in the seven and twentieth verse 3 Motivum The strong inducements to perswade their constancy in the faith that hereby their fellowship with God and Christ might bee continued the promise of eternal life obtained and their confidence at the comming of Christ strengthened and this is enlarged in the four five and eight and twenty verses In these two verses which I have now read the scope of our Apostle is double namely To discover a danger that they might not be ensnared by To prevent a scandal that they might not he offended at those false teachers which were among them the former in the eighteenth and the latter in the nineteenth verse In handling the eighteenth verse which is the discovery of the danger that we may proceed according to the order of the words be pleased to observe these three parts An Appellation Little children An Affirmation It is the last time A Confirmation in the rest of the verse And as you have heard c. A word of the first the Appellation or Title here used Little children It is sometimes used as a word of imperfection whether in regard of age denoting such as are not come to maturity of years or in regard of grace such as are weak in faith and in this sence Beza here construeth it indeed this Caveat is very needful for such who being children are apt to bee tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrin but yet not only for such and when I finde the Apostle commending and that doubtlesse without flattery those to whom he writeth for their knowledge of the truth I cannot imagine that he intends the word Children in this notion Rather with Danaeus as I conceive Omnes cujuscunque atatis hic monet he speaketh to all of all ages in Christianity not only to children but young men and Fathers and so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is of the same notion with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of the Chapter Suitable whereunto it is that the Syriack useth the same word in both places and as Grotius well observeth it is blanda appellatio a word of affection by which our Apostle would let us see that Parents are not more desirous of their little childrens safety and studious of their
Commandements are so called because they were first uttered by himself vivâ voce with his own lips in those Sermons which he preached to the people that especially upon the Mount and it is that which doth both advance the dignity of the Commandement and engage our duty in keeping them When a King shall not send his Herald to proclaime his pleasure but declare his will himself and give his Commands with his own mouth to the people ought this not to be received with the greater reverence and performed with a more ready Obedience These Commandements they were first Gods Words for so runs the Preface of the Morall Law God spake these words and said they were afterwards Christs Words for so begins the Sermon on the Mount he spened his mouth and spake so that whereas all the Scripture is Christs Word because dictated by his spirit the Commandements are his Word because immediately spoken by him And in that it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words but word perhaps our Apostle might have respect to a particular command given by Christ namely the Law of love of which he chiefly treateth in this Epistle To let this goe pass we on to the predicate of the Clause as being that which here is eminently considerable In him who keepeth his word verily the love of God is perfected It is that which is true both wayes and so may very well admit of an Inversion 1. On the one hand in him who loveth God the keeping of his word is verily perfected It is the excellency and perfection of Obedience when it springs from Love There is a threefold Obedience to wit Necessitatis Cupiditatis Charitatis Of Compulsion when a man obeyeth no further then he is forced that is the Slaves whom nothing but feare enduceth to the performance of his Masters Command Out of expectation when a man obeyeth for the hope of reward that is the servants who serveth his Master for his Wages Out of affection when a man obeyeth because he loveth him who commands that is the Sons whom deare respect to his Father engageth to serve him and this last is the most ingenuous and perfect Obedience Indeed it is love that enlargeth the heart not only to creep but go nor go but run nor run but flye at Gods call It teacheth us to obey not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grudgingly but chearfully nor is any Obedience more free then that to which the Love of Christ constraineth The truth is Malus miles qui imperatorem gemens sequitur he is a base Souldier that followeth his Generall with tears Malus est ager cum quo Dominus luctatur that is bad ground which bringeth forth nothing unless it be forced that Obedience is not worthy the name which is only extorted from us and such is all service where love is absent In this respect it is that St Ambrose saith Plus est diligere quam custodire it is more to love God then keep his Word since this may spring from force and feare but that only from Charity Indeed this Charity is that which perfects all graces and duties nudae sine Charitate omnes virtutes said Leo truly all even our best actions are naked if not done in love 2. And as thus it is our love that perfects our Obedience so withall it is our Obedience that perfects our love I will lift up my hands saith David to thy Commandements which I have loved It is not the lifting up our eyes to the reading no nor of our ears to the hearing but of our hands to the doing of the Commandements which argueth our love Hearing may be a means to perfect our knowledg the Eare being the Bucket whereby we draw the water of spirituall knowledg out of the Well of Gods Word Hearing may be a means to perfect our Faith and therefore the Apostle saith Faith cometh by Hearing both the inchoation and the perfection the rise and growth of it but still the keeping of Gods Word is that which perfects our love whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfect But it may be here objected What meaneth our Apostle to use this phrase of perfecting nay to use it in the Preterperfectence For so the word Grammatically is to be rendred in him the Love of God hath been perfected Can any grace which we have in this life be perfect The measure of the Arke was an imperfect measure two Cubit and an half was the length a Cubit and an half the breadth and a Cubit and an half the height of it Such is the measure of all our graces in this life One qualification of Christs blessed men is that they hunger and thirst after Righteousness alwaies in desiring because never in full fruition This then being true of all graces is in particular verified of love to God which shall never be perfected till we come to Heaven and therefore whilst we are here is perfecting but not perfected For the solution then of this doubt be pleased 1. In generall To distinguish with the Fathers of a double perfection Alia absoluta alia quae competit fragilituti nostrae so St Hierom Alia media alia plenos numeros habens So St Ambrose the one absolute and compleat the other limited and comparative in which sense he that attaineth to great measures of grace yea far above others is said to have grace perfected in him to wit such a perfection as man in this life can attain unto or again we may distinguish of a perfection of parts and of degrees the one whereof refers to the sincerity the other to the exactness of grace We call a child which hath all the essentials and integrals of a man a perfect man though he is not grown up to the strength and stature and wisdome of a man It were easie to instance in many Scriptures where perfect is put for upright and according to this notion grace may be said to be perfected in them in whom it is found to be sincere 2. In particular Concerning this grace of love it will not be amiss to distinguish with Lorinus of four degrees of perfection 1. To love God is to love him quantum ipse est diligibilis as much as he is worthy to be loved and so he only loveth himself neither in viâ nor yet in patria here nor hereafter can we attain such a degree of love and the reason is plain because the love which is worthy of himself must be like himself infinite 2. To love God Quantum Creatura diligere potest as much as any Creature can possibly love him and this we shall have in Heaven where we shall know and knowing love God to the utmost that a finite nature is capable of 3. To love God Quantum mortalis potest Creatura so much as a Creature cloathed with frailty and
walked or else he is a lyar and saith he is what he is not In which respect Leo excellently Falsae professionis imagine utimur si cujus nomine gloriamur ejus instituta non sequamur If we conforme not to his precepts and pattern in whose name we glory and of whose relation we boast all our profession is in vain nay a meer lye To end therefore Explora teipsum infaelix qui baptisatus es in Christum whosoever thou art that being Baptised into Christ professest to put him on and calling thy self a Christian faist thou art in him try thy self by this mark dost thou walk as he walked nay rather dost thou not walk contrary to him He was holy thou art profane he was humble thou art proud he was meek thou art contentious he was charitable thou art malitious thou saist thou art in Christ and yet thou livest like a beast in sensuality nay like a Devill in hatred and envy but let no man deceive himself with such a vain profession Nec quisquam se Christianum judicet nisi qui Christi doctrinam sequitur imitatur exemplum nor let any man esteem himself a Christian who doth not resolve to follow Christs Commands and Example Indeed what Alexander said to one of his name who was a Coward Aut depone nomen aut fortiter pugna either shew thy self valorous or do not call thy self Alexander that Christ saith to all loose Christians either live according to my pattern or renounce my name let then every one that nameth the name of Christ expresse the nature and do the works of Christ Pythagoras instructing the women in a grave Oration told them that many of the Names which were given to them in their conditions both before and after Marriage were the Names of Goddesses and thence exhorted them to imitation of those Goddesses The Name beloved which we all have taken upon us is the Name of Christ and therefore let us account our selves engaged to conforme to him This This is that which will both justifie the truth of our present profession and make good our future expectation There are many as St Bernard observeth who would Christum consequi and yet not sequi be where Christ is sit down in his Throne as he is in his Fathers and yet will not go where he went and walk as he walked but alas it cannot be There is no coming to the same place but by the same path sequi servatorem est participare salutem saith Ireneus elegantly The way to partake of Salvation is to follow our Saviour and therefore he that saith he is now in Christ and hopeth hereafter to be with him must so walk as he walked In a word live as Christ lived holily justly soberly dye as Christ dyed believingly charitably patiently so shall you raign as Christ raigneth gloriously triumphantly eternally Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. Verse 3. part former Hereby we know that we know him Verse 5. part latter Hereby we know that we are in him THat rule of Divines concerning Precepts Tota lex est copulativa the whole Law is copulative may no lesse truly be applied to graces which as so many links in a Chain of Gold are knit one to the other The mother and root grace of all is Faith here called Knowledg as being that which ingrafts us into Christ of whose fullness saith the Evangelist we receive grace for grace This Faith whereever it is is attended with Charity â—or Faith saith St Paul works by love This love cannot reside in any soul but it will manifest it self by Obedience So much our blessed Saviour expresseth If any man love me he will keep my Commandments This Obedience is then best performed when we are conformed to Christ in our lives and therefore calling upon us to take his yoake he biddeth us learn of him Finally by this Obedience to and imitation of Christ we gain our assurance of our interest in him whence the Apostle Peter requiring us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure presently addeth if you do these things that is practice those graces whereof Christ hath given us a pattern Thus there is not only a concomitancy but an efficiency of graces a connexion of one with but a dependance of one upon the other whilst Knowledg begets Love and Love keeping the Commandments and keeping the Commandments we walk â— Christ walked and by all these we come to know that we know him and are in him all of which are succinctly and distinctly laid down in these four Verses Hereby we know c. In these Verses there are two clauses yet remaining to be discussed the one in the beginning of the third and the other in the end of the fifth the former of which referrs to the keeping of the Commandments and the other though it may look backward yet most rationally is conceived to look forward to walking as Christ walked both for substance the same and contain in them two collaterall propositions the one whereof asserts the attaining a comfortable knowledg of our knowledg of and interest in Christ We know that we know him we know we are in him and the other an especiall means whereby that knowledg is attained Namely hereby that is by keeping his Commandments and again hereby that is by walking as he walked of both which in their order 1. St John here affirmeth of himself and other Saints We know that we know him We know that we are in him It is that indeed which not only here but elsewhere he asserts in the next Chapter We know that we are translated and again in the fourth Chapter We know that we dwell in him and in the fifth We know that we dwell in God For the better opening of it take notice of these ensuing Considerations 1. There is a threefold Object whereabout this knowledg is conversant Namely what was before all time what shall be after all time and what is in this present time This knowledg looketh backward and that as far as eternity to the decree of election which was before the foundation of the World in this respect it is St Peters advice make your election sure This knowledg looketh forward at the future estate of felicity upon which account St Paul in the name of himself and others saith We know that we have a building in the Heaven Finally This knowledg looketh upon our present estate of Vocation Justification and Sanctification our Union with and faith in Christ and of this our Apostle here speaketh to which I shall therefore confine my discourse 2. There is a double knowledg attainable by a Christian to wit direct and reflexe The direct knowledg is terminated in Christ who is its Object The reflexe in the knowledg itself which is the act both these kinds of knowledg our Apostle here expresly speaketh of when he saith we know that we
not cannnot be troubled at any evils who knowing that he is in Christ knoweth all things shall work for his good nor can the separation which death maketh be terrible to him who is assured of that Union with Christ which admits of no separation no not by death it self yea which death is so far from hindering that it hasteneth to a fuller perfection To end this therefore Let our first care be to knâ—w Christ and by knowing to get into him and then let our next endeavour be to know that we do know him and are in him The former will give us a right to but it is the latter will give us the comfort of all those glorious priviledges and benefits which Christ hath purchased and if we would know how to attain this reflexive knowledg pass we on to the 2. Next and last Proposition which discovereth the means of attaining it Namely hereby by keeping the Commandments we know that we know him and by walking as Christ walked we know that we are in him Look as if the question be put how we shall know the true Church the answer is by its essentiall marks so if you ask how shall we know that we are true Christians our Apostle answereth hereby by the Characteristicall properties To elucidate this Assertion observe these following Particulars 1. That knowledg which we have of our being in Christ and knowing him by these Characters is not à priori but à posteriori not by the causes but by the effects our Obedience is not the root but the fruit of Faith and we are not in Christ because we walk in him but we walk in him because we are in him To this purpose is that note of Beza upon the Text. Bona opera nos non inserunt Christo sed insitos consequuntur good works do not ingraft us into Christ but our being ingrafted into Christ enableth us to performe good works As therefore the Tree is known by its fruit and life is known by breathing and motion which are the effects of it So we know our Faith in and Union with Christ by our Obedience to and imitation of him 2. That knowledg we have by these Characters is safe and sure yea such as cannot deceive us For 1. Inasmuch as the commands which Christ requireth us to keep and the waies wherein he walked which we must follow are clearly set down in the Word if we faithfully compare our actions with the rule we may know whither we keep the Commandments and walk as Christ walked or not True it is many are cheated with Alchymie instead of Gold think themselves to have those graces which Christ did shew forth whenas they are counterfeit but this is not for want of an exact rule discovering but because of a deceitfull heart misapplying so that were men but faithfull to themselves they might be able to pass a right censure in this Particular Hence it is that whilst the Hypocrite deludeth himself with a partiall Obedience and a counterfeit imitation the regenerate Christian being in some measure enlightned discovereth what is sincere and what is fained and so judgeth righteous judgment To this purpose is that of St Austin Qui diligit fratrem magis novit dilectionem quâ diligit quam fratrem quem diligit He who loveth his Brother more surely knoweth the love whereby he loveth him then his Brother whom he loveth and hence it is that the same Father saith Est modus gloriandi in conscientia ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram ut noveris spem tuam esse certam ut noveris charitatem tuam esse sine simulatione this is the rejoycing yea glorying of a Christian whilst his conscience regulated by the word and illuminated by grace giveth in evidence that his Faith is sincere his hope firme and his love unfained 2. Inasmuch as this Obedience to and imitation of Christ are the necessary and particular effects of our Knowledg of and being in Christ he who findeth the one may undoubtedly inferre the other To unfold this briefly know That the effects of a lively Faith are of three sorts Some which so flow from a true Faith that they are likewise the effects of other causes such are all acts of morall Virtue and extenall duties of Religion Hence it is that Heathen who have no Faith at all have performed the former Hypocrites who have no true faith the latter So that though from hence we may conclude Negatively he that doth not these things hath no Faith yet we cannot Affirmatively because we do such things therefore we are in Christ and believe in him Others which are only the effects of a right faith but yet such as faith produceth not but when in strength of this sort are the sence of Gods Love peace of Conscience joy in the holy Ghost magnanimity in afflictions and desires of dissolution From these we may conclude Affirmatively but not Negatively he that can act these duties doth know Christ but every one that knoweth Christ cannot act these duties Finally Other effects there are which flow from Faith only and alwaies which it is as naturall for Faith to produce as for the Sun to shine or the Fire to burn such are these my Text speaketh of a sincere Obedience and a consciencious imitation of Christ from whence we may infer both waies and so the proposition will be recipocrally true Every one who keepeth the Commandments knoweth Christ who walketh as Christ walked is in him and every one who knoweth Christ keepeth the Commandments is in Christ and walketh as he walked Put then both these Considerations together we may know that we keep the Commandments and if we keep the Commandments we may assure our selves that we know Christ no wonder if our Apostle say Hereby we know we know him We may perceive whether we walk as Christ walked or no and if we walk as Christ walked we may be confident we are in him no marvell if our Apostle say Hereby we know that we are in him The strength of this Argumentation will the better appear if we reduce it to a Syllogism which may be thus framed Whosoever keepeth the Commandments knoweth Christ Who so walketh as Christ walked is in him But I keep the Commandments and walk as Christ walked Therefore I know Christ and am in him The first of these which is the Major we know by a certainty of faith as being expresly asserted in this and other Scriptures The second which is the Minor we know by a certainty of experience finding these qualifications wrought in us and thus knowing the premises we inferre the Conclusion and so by a certainty of Faith joyned with experience we are able to assert our interest in Christ 3. This Knowledg which we have hereby doth not exclude the Testimony of the Spirit It is St Pauls assertion That the Spirit beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God Yea St John in
more do we plead for the Baptizing of Infants Is it not because as Origen and Austin assure us it is a practice which the Church received from the Apostles and so an Apostolicall tradition which the more plainly appeareth because in St Cyprians time though there was a Controversie about Baptizing Infants upon the Eight day yet the thing it self is supposed as a practice then in use and though we do not read totidem verbis in the Scripture that the Apostle Baptized Infants yet it is very probable when as St Paul cald the Children of a believing Parent holy if he do not by the very phrase intend as the Learned Dr Hammond not improbably conceiveth yet that he did allow Baptism to those Children and where we read that whole Families were Baptized the Children might be among the number In one word It is the glory of the Church of England that her Doctrines are exactly consonant to Universall and Primitive antiquity nor do we desire any other rule to examine them by then this which here is laid down by our Apostle The old Commandment is the word which we have heard from the beginning 2. To let this go That which is chiefly to be considered is the Minor of the Syllogisme That the Commandment of love was from the beginning Now that which would here be enquired into is whence this beginning taketh its date Indeed haec vox pro materiâ substratâ varié accipi potest this word beginning may admit of a several reference and I find no less then four several expositions of it here all of which are not repugnant to but consistent with each other from the beginning of their conversion of Christian Religion of the Mosaical administration and of the Creation 1. Some Interpreters render the sence of the words thus from the beginning that is from the time you became Christians and first gave up your names to Christ and were called to the faith according to which sence our Apostle seemeth to assert that one of the first lessons of Christianity is love St Paul speaketh of milk for babes and meat for strong men intimating that there are some Commandments and Doctrines which are only fit for grown Christians but this Commandment of love as it is meat for the strongest so it is milk for babes 2. Others give this construction of the words from the beginning that is From the beginning of the Gospels Publication ever since the Faith of Christ was made known to the world Soon after Christian Religion was revealed there were many who endeavoured to bring in other Gospels but this Commandement which St John wrote of was as old as Christianity and what he delivered to them he received from Christ himself In that Sermon of Christ which is first mentioned by the first of the Evangelists St Matthew this Precept of love is expressed and in the last Sermon that ever he preached this lesson of love is commended to them and being taught by Christ himself it must needs be from the beginning of Christianity 3. Many take the date of this beginning a great deal higher even as high as Moses That which you Israelites had of old in the writings of Moses delivered to you So that we now give no other Commandement in charge to you then that which God cmmanded Moses and the Prophets to preach It is the exposition which I most incline to For since it is not improbable as hath been already suggested that those to whom this Apostle wrote were if not only yet principally the Jews and the design of St John by these words being to prove that what he wrote was no new but an old Commandement it is improbable that he would prove it by a date of not much above sixty years nor would it especially to the Jews have been any conviction of the antiquity of his Doctrine that it was from the beginning of Christian Religion when as in their opinion Christs Religion was a new Doctrine Upon this ground it seemeth a more rationall construction to referre this beginning to Moses and our Apostle could not use a more prevailing Argument to the Jews then by letting them know that the command he gave them was as old as Moses and before enjoyned by him There is only one Objection to be Answered that if this from the beginning be taken so far of how doth the Apostle say not only which you had but which you heard whereas this beginning was many hundred years before they were But the learned Grotius hath framed a fit Answer to my hand interpreting vos by majores vestri you that is your Ancestours according as it is to be taken where it is said whom you slew and did not Moses give you the Law That then which according to this construction is here asserted is that the Commandment of Love was from the beginning of Moses and required in the Law as well as in the Gospell This is that which in some sence is granted by all even the Socinians but so as that they assert something to be added to it by Christ and that upon that account it is called in the next Verse a new Comandment In what sence this Epithete of new belongs to it shall be by and by discovered In the mean time that which the Orthodox assert and I shall endeavour to make good is That the Evangelicall command of Love was from the beginning of the Law and so nothing new enjoyned by Christ which was not before by Moses To this end Be pleased to know that the command of Love may be considred either Extensivè or Intensivè Extensively in regare of the Object or Intensively in respect of the Act. In both these respects say the Socinians Christ hath added to the Law for whereas say they the Law requireth the Jews only to love their Countrymen their Friends the Gospell requireth us to love our enemies and so the extent of the Object is larger And whereas the Law required only of the Jews an Active Love the Gospell requireth a Passive so far as to lay down our lives for the Brethren The chief ground on which they build the former is that of our Saviour You have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say to you love your Enemies and the foundation which they lay of the latter is that the Law commanded only to love their Neighbours as themselves but the Gospell To love one another as Christ loved us which is in effect to love others better then our selves by laying down our lives for them which is more then the Law required To enervate both these Arguments and establish the truth of the Orthodox Assertion Be pleased to know 1. That Neighbour which is set down as the Object of Love in Moses his Law includeth Enemy as well as Friend To clear this I shall propose a double demand
in that respect the command of love as delivered by Christ seemed no doubt to the Jews and was as it were a new Commandment But there are two other interpretations which seem more genuine then the former And therefore know 3. That this Commandment of love is a new Commandment not substantially but circumstantially not in the essence of the doctrine but the manner of patefaction not in respect of the thing delivered but the way of delivering it It is the same command of love which is now and was in the law enjoyned but the example is different in the law our love to our selves in the Gospel Christs love to us is made the pattern of this duty Indeed this variety of example maketh no difference at all in the matter of the precept when Moses saith thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self he requireth as much as when Christ saith love one another as I have loved you That of St Paul concerning the love which ought to be between man and wife sully illustrateth this truth for whereas he useth both these examples exhorting husbands to love their wives as Christ loved his Church and every one to love his wife as himself yet he commands no more by the one then the other only presseth it hereby with the greater energie Not are we to conceive any new addition to the general precept of love but only a fuller enforcement of the same precept from this new example Look as the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath are both dayes to be kept holy but on a different account the one of the creation of the world and the other of Christs resurrection so the Jewish and the Christian command of love are of the same nature but the one urged by the example of self-love and the other of Christs and because the Gospel-command is enforced with a new argument and so delivered in a new manner it may therefore be stiled a new Commandment Nor is it unlikely that St John having before in general exhorted to walk as Christ walked here particularizing in this walk of love might call it a new Commandment in this respect as it is an imitation of Christs pattern 4. But there is yet another interpretation which wants not good authority and reason to back it and would not be passed by and that is to take new not in opposition to antiquity but antiquation new because it waxeth not old is never out of date but alwaies in force There are some commands which are new and not old such are the Sacraments of the new Testament others which are old but not new because abolished such are the Ceremoniall services of the old Testament and there are others which are old and yet new such are the Precepts of the Morall Law St Paul compareth Love to a Debt when he saith Owe nothing to any man but Love and indeed it is such a Debt that is ever paying the Bond being never Cancelled It is the usuall cry of this age when Preachers deliver these morall Doctrines he Preacheth old and common things but my Brethren they are so old that they are new and must continually be inculeated upon the people And therefore let us all learn so to look upon this command that taking it as new we may the more carefully observe it It is well noted by Arnoldus Solent homines leges novas studio sius observare paulatim verà lege inveterascente de studio remittunt Men are wont to be very observant of a Law whilst it is fresh and new but as it groweth old their Obedience becometh remiss and therefore it is Maldonates note upon the Gospell that this newness is to be refer'd Non tam ad mandatum ipsum quam ad studium obediendi not so much to the command it self as to our indeavour of obeying it and since as some trees are green all the year so this is alwaies in force we should with all care and conscience perform it To draw to an end There is one acception of novum for rarum new for that which is rare and unusuall which I would to God might not be too true as to the practice of this Commandment it is rare and unusuall especially in this frozen age But however let us remember the command is new that is excellent and new that is renewed and new that is refined and new that is perswaded by a new and urgent example and therefore let our desires and indeavour's be still new and vigorous in the observance of it so much the rather considering that as some of the Ancients glosse it is novum quasi innovans this new Commandment by our obedience to it will transform us into new Creatures and new Men in Christ Jesus And that we may be enabled to this obedience what other course should we take then to pray for a new Spirit for that is another reason given of this phrase novum quia novo spiritu impletur it is therefore called new because it requireth the new grace of the new Testament which is given by a new Spirit to fullfill it for this new grace let us be daily Orators so shall we be of this new Commandment daily practisers To end all They say of wine it is best when old of Honey it is best when new behold this command of love is as wine and to commend it it is an old Commandment as Honey and to commend it it is a new Commandment some men are plodding antiquaries and delight in old things old Evidences old Monuments old Gold old Coines old Proverbs and the like others curious novelists and delight in new here is that may allure both and therefore which way soever we are bent our Apostle hath as it were fitted our humour God grant it may affect our hearts so as we may all be in love with this Commandment of love which is both an old and new Commandment THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. part of the 8 VERS Which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth AMong the many observables in sacred writ it would not be passed by what frequent use the Penmen make of those two Arts Logick and Rhetorick by the one proving strongly and by the other perswading sweetly It were easie to discover in these Divine Books the severall Topicks of Argumentation Tropes and Figures of Elocution and Forms of Oratory True it is it had been enough for the divine Majesty whose Penmen these were only to assert and enjoyn without either proving or perswading But such is his Mercy that knowing our dulness and perversness he is pleased to convince us by undeniable reasons and allure us by loving insinuations A pregnant instance hereof we have in these words the scope whereof is to make way for the command of love which our Apostle was about to give them friendly bespeaking them with the title of Brethren and sweetly
have the light to walk in it to walk worthy of it to walk as children of it by walking in this path of love And so much for that Exposition The other interpretation renders these words assertively is true in you and expounds the darkness and light of sinne and grace an Exposition which I incline to as most rational it being very probable that our Apostle as in the following verses he useth the same metaphors so here intends the same things and that there his primary scope is to describe by darkness and light mans corrupt and regenerate estate will appear in the handling For the better prosecution of these words in this sense be pleased to proceed with me by these steps and observe 1. What is the state of all men before conversion Namely a state of darkness darkness is in our minds the darkness of ignorance and infidelity we neither do nor can know aright either God or our selves The naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God is St Pauls generall Doctrine asserting our ignorance of God and the particular charge against Laodicea That she knew not she was wretched and miserable poor blind and naked may justly be extended to all mankind in regard of self-ignorance Indeed there is so much light left in us as may render us inexcusable but not as can lead us to Heaven we neither of our selves can find out nor yet discern divine truths though they are set before us how quick sighted soever reason may be in naturals it is dimme yea blind in spirituals and as our blessed Saviour argueth If the eye be darkness the whole body must needs be darke the eyes of our understanding being darkned no marvell if our will and affections be clouded yea a darkness of sin overrun our whole man so that what St Paul saith to the Ephesians is true of all unregenerate persons they are not only in the concrete darke but abstract darkness it self 2. What the state of all regenerate persons is The darkness is past and the true light of saving knowledg and heavenly grace shineth in their hearts Regenerate Christians are called in the new Testament new Creatures and indeed not unfitly since as it was in the old so is it in this new Creation We read in the beginning of Genesis That darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said let there be light A fit Embleme of the Spirits work in a sinners Conversion Whereas darkness covereth the soul before a glorious light ariseth in and diffuseth it self through it To this no doubt the Apostle alludeth when he saith God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts and for this reason it is that very often the turning of a sinner is set forth by this Metaphor so Pauls conversion of the Gentiles is called a turning them from darkness to light the converted Colossians are said to be delivered from the power of darkness and of the Ephesians it is said You who were sometimes darkness are now light in the Lord. Suitable to all which is this phrase in my Text The darkness is past and that true light now shineth Nor is it unworthy the observation how fitly these two clauses are ioyned together since the one cannot be without the other nay indeed one is the cause of the other In every convert there is not only a passing away of darkness but a shining of the true light yea the shining of the light is the cause of the passing away of the darkness in which respect Zanchy noteth that Conjunctio copulans pro causali posita videtur the Copulative Conjunction and is put for the Causall for This will the more appear if we consider what St Austin hath observed Namely That darkness is nothing else but the non residency of light and therefore that which expelleth darkness must needs be the presence of light thus the grace of the Spirit infused into the Soul is that which prevaileth to the expulsion of sin Look as the taking of an antidote driveth out the poyson the putting of a new Seal upon the Wax defaceth the old stampe and the return of the Sun causeth the darkness to vanish so is it the donation of the Spirit and his grace which dispossesseth Sin and Satan of the Soul Hence we may take notice what it is that maketh the difference between a Convert and a naturall Man namely the shining of the light of grace We that are converted were once involved in the same state of darkness with the rest of the world and as unable to deliver our selves from it had not Gods free grace caused the light to shine upon us which he denieth to others in which regard St Peter saith to the converted Christians to whom he wrote You are a chosen Generation a royall Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that you should shew forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light But yet it must withall be considered that the words in this sense are better read according to the Greek the darkness passeth away then that it is past since so long as we are here though our light be true yet it is not perfect but shineth more and more to the perfect day Now according to the increase of the light is the decrease of the darkness and therefore because it is not full noon perfect day whilst we are here the darkness cannot be said to be wholly past but rather is still passing if then we are sensible of the remainder of darkness in our hearts let it trouble but not too much dismay us light and darkness in remiss degrees may be together nor must we expect the darkness of sin to be wholly removed till we participate the light of Glory 3. In whomsoever the darkness passeth and the true light shineth this is true of which our Apostle here speaketh this grace and duty of love will shew it self in all regenerate persons it is a clear maxim where there is the cause there will be the effect such as is the root such will be the fruit now goodness which is a companion of love is called by the Apostle Paul A fruit of the Spirit or as some Greeke Copies read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fruit of light this light which here is said to shine which is no other then the grace of the Spirit no wonder if where this light shineth there this beam and fruit of it appear indeed glowe worm light and star light is such as hath no beat at all to accompany it but Sun light which is the true light expelling darkness wanteth not heat which is the Embleme of this grace of love whereby the soul is warmed yea enflamed Examine we then our selves by this Character if we be brought from darkness to light this is true in us who so experienceth this change will find
it If thy enemy hunger saith St Paul feed him if he thirst give him drink the Hebrew word in the proverb whence St Paul borroweth it is rendred by Vatablus Propina ei aquam not only give him drink but drink to him as a token of love that it may appear however he is towards thee thou art reconciled to him Excellent to this purpose is that advice of Gregory Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must say brethren unto them that hate us and accordingly express brotherly love to them And thus in this construction of brother we have beheld the extension of love how farre it reacheth in regard of the objects about which it is conversant 2. But besides this carnal fraternity between all men there is a spiritual brotherhood between all Christians they have all the same Father even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who begetteth them again they have the same Mother the Church Jerusalem from above which bringeth them forth they all are washed in the same laver of regeneration baptisme partake of the fame immortal seed and are nourished by the same sincere milk of the Word Finally they are all begotten to the same undefiled inheritance heirs of the same glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus we call them brethren who are born anew of the same Word yea quanto dignius fratres dicuntur habentur saith Tertullian how much more deservedly then other men are they called and accounted brethren who acknowledge one Father God have drank of one spirit of holiness and are brought forth of the same womb of ignorance into the glorious light of Evangelical truth A brother in the sense above-mentioned is only so by nature but in this by grace that 's only a brother on the left hand but this on the right hand that of the earth earthly but this from heaven heavenly In this sense some Expositors and as I conceive most rationally take the word here this name brother being by the Apostle and afterwards in the primitive times in common language given to all and only those who did embrace Christian Religion and which maketh this interpretation more manifest is that our Apostle in the next Chapter phraseth it love the brethren which seemeth to indigitate a certain society of men so called yea in the fifth Chapter at the beginning he describeth him whom here he calls brother to be one that is begotten of God According to this construction that which is here required is called by the Apostle Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brotherly kindness and is distinguished as a particular species from its genus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is presently annexed charity As then there is a general love which belongeth to all men so a special love which belongeth to all Christians and as we must do good to all men so especially to the houshould of faith indeed seeing the Christian brother hath a double cause of love in him that is Gods image as a man and Gods graces as a Christian we ought to deal by him as Joseph did by his brother Benjamin whose mess was five times greater then the rest of his brethren If any shall yet further enquire why our Apostle speaking of this love to a Christian calls him by the name of a brother I answer for these three reasons because this name of brother carrieth in it an obligation to a specification and modification of that love which is here required since we must love a Christian quia quatenus qualis because he is a brother inasmuch as he is a brother and with such a love as is among brothers 1. This word Brother carryeth with it a strong Obligation to Love In fratris voce ratio so Danaeus It is an urgent reason why we should Love a Christian because he is our Brother all relation is a ground of affection and hence it is a man loveth any thing that is his the nearer the relation the greater tye to love and therefore the more reason why a Brother should be beloved the nearest relation is that which is spirituall and therefore yet greater reason to Love a Christian who is ours our Brother yea our Brother in Christ When Moses saw two Israelites Countrey men strugling together he said to them Sirs you are Brethren why do you wrong one another when Abraham and Lot kinsmen were likely to fall out saith Abraham Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we are Brethren when Socrates saw two Brethren striving one with another he told them they did as if the two hands which were made to help should beat each other so that since Christians are Brethren in the highest and closest relation this should be a great ingagement upon them to love 2. This word Brother intimateth a specification of this love in regard of its Object which is then rightly placed when it is upon a Brother as he is a Brother that is a Christian as he is a Christian One that is a Brother in this spirituall notion may be my naturall Brother or Kinsman and then to love him is what nature dictates or he is my Friend and Benefactor and so to love him gratitude teacheth or he is able to do me either an injury or a courtesie so that I have cause to fear the one and hope the other and in this respect to love him self love prompts me or once more he may be a man of rare naturall and acquired endowments and to love him for this ingenuity moves me but to love him because he is a Brother in a spirituall sense this is that which Christianity inciteth to and this only is a right Christian love Indeed thus to love him is to love him in reference to God and Christ because he hath the grace of God in him the Image of God upon him To love him as a Brother in this sense is to love him as a Son of God a Member of Christ and as St Hieromes phrase is Diligere Christum habitantem in Augustine to love God and Christ dwelling in him And now if any shall say it is hard nay impossible to know any man to be such a Brother and therefore how can I love him as such when I cannot know him to be such I answer that there is a great deale of difference between the judgment of certainty and charity love doth not need nor require infallible but only probable signs and therefore whosoever doth profess the true faith of Christ and doth not by a flagitious conversation give that profession the lye love taketh him to be a Brother and to love one because he atleast seemeth to be such a one by his externall Profession and Conversation so as the more Christian graces we discover in him the more we are affected towards him this is that which most especially falleth under the Precept of loving our Brother 3. Yet once
from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Claudic◠it signifies any rub or block cast in a mans way which may indanger halting or falling and therefore is fitly here rendred occasion of stumbling In what sense this is true that there is no occasion of stumbling in him that loveth his Brother Expositors somewhat vary yet so as that they are all consistent with the Analogie of Faith and scope of the place 1. Some understand scandall in an active sense and thus render it there is no occasion of stumbling given by him he taketh care that neither by opprobrious language injurious action or vitious example he give a just offence so as may occasion the fall and ruine of his Brother St Paul writing to the Philippians exhorts them to be blameless and harmless where the former word according to its derivation signifies that we must not be as beasts who push with their horns and thereby do much harme and the latter word signifies one de quo nullus queri potest of whom none can justly complain and they are well put together since as St Austin aptly quis de illo just è queritur qui nemini malè vult he that is harmless must needs be blameless nor can he be justly complained of by who doth no injury to another such is every one who loveth his Brother Love nec reti◠tendit nec laedere intendit neither doth nor desireth anothers wrong it worketh no ill saith the Apostle and again in another place it thinketh not evill wisdome avoideth the snares which are laid by love layeth no snares for others yea so cautelous is charity that shee will rather abridg her self of liberty then do what may offend her weak Brother and therefore St Paul expresly saith to him who did grieve his Brother with his meat which yet was in it self lawfull to eat now walkest thou not charitably Indeed this is that which floweth from the very nature of love for since it is as hath been already shewed a willing of good it must needs infer a nilling of evill to my Brother it being impossible that I should at the same time will and nill the same thing to the same person and therefore since if I will good I must nill evill no wonder if by him that hath a true love there be no occasion of stumbling given to his Brother 2. Others interpret scandall in a Passive sense there is no scandall or occasion of stumbling given to him not but that there will be blocks laid in the way but he passeth over them and so falleth not at them according to that of Solomon It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression To this purpose is Zanchies note upon the Text it is not Non est illi scandalum but Non est in illo scandalum finding an Emphasis in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius conceiveth to be a Pleonasm there is no offence to him but not in him that is though it may be given by others yet it is not taken by him in which respect are those expressions of St Paul Charity suffereth long is not easily provokt beareth all things and St Austin observeth upon this place Qui diligit fratrem tolerat omnia propter unitatem he that loveth his Brother for unities sake beareth with all things the back of love will sustaine a load of wrongs and when it is moved with violence it is not removed from patience It is St Peters phrase and he borroweth it from the Wiseman Love covereth a multitude of sins and as it covereth them from others by concealment so which is especially intended from her self by connivence and forgivness and this she exerciseth in respect not of a few but many injuries herein being to use St Chrysostoms comparison like to fire which burneth up not only a few sticks but a great wood thus whilst faith is a resolute grace having cedo nulli for her Motto love is a yielding grace and so passing over is not offended those wrongs which like stumbling blocks are thrown in her way 3. But there is another construction of these words which as it is of no less verity so is of greater latitude by scandall to understand transgressions these being those stumbling blocks which cause us to fall and hurt yea ruine our selves and thus the sense of the clause is He who loveth his Brother escapeth those hainous sins into which others fall walking in the Commandments of the Lord blameless This is that which taketh in the other constructions for inasmuch as he doth not willingly give offence therefore he avoideth those sins by which his Brother is offended and since he doth not easily take offence he avoideth those sins to which others are provoked It were easie to instance in the severall Commandments how the love of our Brother prevents the breaches of them he that loveth his Brother because he is a Brother much more loveth his Father God and loving God abborreth those prophanations of his Worship Name Day which ungodly men wound themselves by Again he that loveth his Brother will reverence him if his superiour dare not injure him in his Wife Estate Name or any thing that is his And if you please to put these two together abiding in the light and no occasion of stumbling you shall find the one a manifest reason of the other By the opposition of being in darkness and walking in darkness to abiding in the light it appeareth that abiding in the light implyeth being and walking in the light whereby he escapeth what ever might be a stone of offence or stumbling block in his way If any man saith our blessed Saviour walketh in the light he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world and thus he that loveth his Brother having the light of saving knowledg and grace to shine before him nunquam imping it so Grotius never fals but inoffenso gradu pergit so another goeth on inoffensively in the path of eternall life Indeed we must take this with some restriction not as if he that loveth his Brother did not sometimes fall into sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not into scandalous and injurious sins and this too with reference to his abiding in the light it is possible for a charitable Christian to step-out of the light and then he may fall foulely but so far as he is regenerate and abideth in the light he is free from such sins 4. Once more Grotius conceiveth that the Apostle in these words hath some reference to the 70. reading of the 165. Verse of the 119. Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them and so it intimateth the inward tranquillity which as they that love the Law so he that loveth his Brother doth enjoy so as that what soever befals him he is not disturbed nor distracted by it it is that indeed
should you if any doctrine have had a kindly influence upon your spirits entreat the reiteration of it who knoweth what a second birth may bring forth and if at any time you hear the Minister beating upon the same anvil pressing the same doctrine or rebuking the same sin reflect upon thy self and say surely I have not yet sufficiently learned this lesson I have not enough repented of this sin and therefore I will give new attention though it be an old instruction And thus much I have thought fit to discourse of this Subject by way of Apology not for St John whose divinely inspired writings need none but for my self if in the handling of this Epistle I should sometimes have occasion to discuss the same things and perhaps use the same expressions More particularly in this ingeminated opposition be pleased to observe The sin specified in these words He that hateth his Brother The state of the sinner described in the rest of the words and that Imaginary wherein he supposeth himself to be He saith he is in the light Reall in which indeed he is set forth in severall Characters in the end of the 9th and the greatest part of the 11th He is in darkness even untill now and again He is darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes 1. The first of these is the hinge upon which the Antithesis turneth and therefore I shall be the more large in unfolding it To which end I shall discuss it two waies by way of Restriction and by way of enlargement and accordingly discover exclusively what hatred is not within the compass of this sin and then extensively how far this hatred reacheth which is here declamed against The exclusive restriction of this hatred will appeare in these insuing propositions 1. There is a Positive and there is a Comparative there is an Absolute and there is a Relative hatred It is very observable That Jacobs loving Rachel more then Leah is called in the very next Verse hating Leah That which we less love then another we are said to hate in comparison of that love we bear to the other and thus it is not a â—â—n but a duty to hate our Brother to wit in comparison of Christ It is our Saviours own assertion If any man câ—me to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea his own life also he cannot be my Disciple an expression seemingly very harst but easily understood if compared with the other Evangelist St Matthew where he brings in Christ saith He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me We ought then to hate our nearest relations that is not love them more nay which is the meaning of the phrase love them less then Christ Hence it is that when Christs glory and truth cometh in competition with the dearest of our relations we must neglect Children cast off Parents reject the Wife of our Bosome rather then deny Christ yea we must be averse to them if they go about to direct us from Christ Thus that devout Paula as St Hierome saith Nesciebat se matrem ut Christi probaret ancillam that shee might approve her self Christs Handmaid forgot that shee was a Mother and that same Father else where asserteth it Pietatis genus est impiumesse pro domino it is a part of piety to be in some sense impious and out of love towards God to hate our Brother and therefore this is not here to be understood 2. It is one thing to hate our Brother and another thing to hate the sins of our Brother it is solidly determined by Aquinas Love is due to my Brother Secundum id quod a Deo habet in respect of that which is communicated to him by God whither nature or grace or both but it is not due to him Secundum id quod habet a seipso diabolo according to that which he hath from himself and the Devill to wit sin and wickedness and therefore it is lawfull to hate my Brothers sin but not his nature much less his grace Laudabile odium odisse vitia faith Origen to hate evill is a commendable hatred and that where ever we finde it not only in the bad but the good the enormities of the one but the infirmities in the other not only in strangers and enemies but kindred and friends spying beames nay motes in these as well as those and abhorring them we must hate this serpent where ever we find it though in a garden nay though in our own habitations indeed as Aquinas excellently Hoc ipsum quod in fratre odimus culpam defectum pertinet ad fratris amorem this hatred of the vice is an effect of love to the person so much is intimated when it is said Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebvke him and not suffer siâ— upon him by shewing hatred to his sin in rebuking we shew our love to him and if we wish good to him we cannot but hate what we see evill in him This hatred is so farre from being sinfull that it is not only lawfull and laudable but excellent not a wicked but a pious yea a perfect hatred according to that of St Austin Perfectio odij est in Charitate cum nec propter vit a homines odeâ—imus nec vitia propter homines amemus it is at once the perfection of hatred and an argument of love when we neither hate the man for the sins sake nor yet love the sin for the mans sake but fixe our love on the man and our hatred on the sâ—nne 3. There is odium abominationis and odium inimicitiae an hatred of aversation and an hatred of enmity by the one we flye from by the other we pursue after look as in love there is a benevolence whereby we will good to and a complacence whereby we take delight in another so in hatred there is a strangness whereby we avoid the society and an enmity whereby we seek the mischief of another the former of these is not forbidden but required and practised godly David saith of himself I hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked and that of his practise was justifiable and imitable since we must not only flie from the sin but the sinner yea that we may shun the one we must avoid the other Timon was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man-hater because he kept not company with any man save Alcibiades and we should all of us be hatres of wicked men shunning all needless converse and much more familiar acquaintance with them It is St Pauls counsell to the Ephesians Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull wâ—â—kes he meaneth workers
an open enemy and ex magno appetitu â—â—â— mâ—â—tat modum loquendi it is the greatness of hatred which puts him upon this pretence of love 4. Yet again are there not some whose hatred is so deadly to their brother that they will be content to do themselves a loss so they may do him a great Injury That Apologâ—e of Cupidus and Invidus the covetous and the envious man is very observable to this purpose Jupiter promised that whatsoever the one asked the other should have double whereupon they much strove one with the other who should ask first the covetous man refused because he was desirous of the double portion and the envious man was no less unwilling as repining that the other should have more then himself At length the envious man resolveth to be the first in asking but what did he ask That Jupiter would 〈…〉 of his eyes because he then knew the other must lose both Such malicious men there are and that among Christians who care not to deprive themselves if they may disappoint their brother This is that hatred which is fetcht from hell witness Dives who desireth not that he might come to Lazarus but that Lazarus might come to him as if he had rather Lazarus should be miserable with him then he happy with Lazarus But if there be as I hope there are many who can acquit themselves from these effects of hatred at the height yet I feare we may observe those Symptomes in the most which discover them to be somewhat sick of this disease When the eye is evill because God is good doth it not discover that besides the black which nature hath put in the eye as the seat of its perfection there is another black which envy hath put into it as a seat of corruption What doth the smoake of detraction stander calumnie cursing rayling scoffing back-biteing which cometh forth at the lips of many men but argue a fire of malice burning in their hearts whence cometh betraying quarrelling fighting plundering yea killing one another but from this lust of hatred in mens minds Indeed who can consider the hatefull practices which are continually acted among us and not acknowledge the great predominancy of this sin Drop down ye Heavens and let the Skies poure down righteousness saith the Prophet Drop down ye Heavens and let the Skies poure down charity and love may we say for it hath left the earth yea instead thereof the smoake of hatred ascending out of the bottomless pit hath filled it What calling or profession of men is free from this vice I would to God the black Coate were not besmeared with it What state and condition of men is not guilty of it Oppressours plainly tread in the footsteps of hatred and I would to God sufferers did not harbour the lust of revenge How needfull then is a dehortation to disswade you from this sin and indeed this very name Brother if it be as you have already heard an argument of love may well be a disswasive from hatred if he be a Brother in the highest notion he is Christs Brother as well as thine and wilt thou hate him whom Christ loveth if in the lowest degree he is flesh of thy flesh and wilt thou hide thine eyes in contempt and haired from thine own flesh St Paul saith No man ever yet hated his own flesh and wilt thou be so unreasonable But if this consideration be too weake go on and view the description which followeth of the state of such a sinner and that is the next generall which God willing the next time shall be set before your eyes that if possible this sin of hatred may be eradicated out of your hearts THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness hath blinded his eyes AMong the manifold excellencies of Gods Law this is not the least that it is according to St Pauls phrase a spirituall Law and that not only effective because dictated by Gods Spirit but Objective because extending to Mans spirit Indeed it is one of the differences between humane and divine Precepts that those only reach the outward these the inward man those only order the conversation these our cogitations Finally those take hold of words and works these of thoughts and desires This is evident in matters of Religion towards God Man requireth the externall observance but Gods internall devotion Man forbideth prophane Oaths but God blasphemous Imaginations nor is it less true in regard of our duty towards Man Humane commands inhibit the gross acts of uncleanness but Divine lustfull affections and to instance in no more whereas only actuall injuries of our Brother come within the compass of Mans cognisance God prohibits the very hatred and enjoyneth the contrary affection of love to him as here we see in the words He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother c. Having discussed the first generall part of the opposition Namely the sin briefly specified He that hateth his Brother we are now to go on to the other which is the state of the sinner as it is largely described in the 9th and 11th Verses 1. That which first occurreth in this description is the sinners own imagination what he fancyeth himself to be He saith he is in the light What is meant by this phrase of being in the light needs not again to be insisted on It is as much as to say he is in Christ he savingly knoweth Christ or he is in a state of grace This is that which he that hateth his Brother may say Indeed this cannot be in truth for St John saith of him He is in darkness and to be at once in the light and in the darkness is impossible but yet he may say so though it be not so and that two waies namely in opinion and profession 1. He that hateth his Brother may think himself to be in the light and so say it in his heart For 1. He may be acquainted in a great measure with the mysteries of Christian Religion and much conversant in divine speculations and for this reason imagine himself in the light The Pharisees though a generation of Vipers for their venemous nature say it of themselves we see and no doubt as to the letter of Moses his Law did see and know much so may Hypocriticall malicious Christians be versed in the Theory of Christianity 2. He may be frequent in Religious performances and upon this account fancy himself to be in the light Those Israelites whose hands were full of blood and therefore their hearts full of malice made many Prayers and offered multitudes
Children incourage Schoolmasters to the discharge of their calling which though conversant about little Children is of great use and benefit Finally Advertise Ministers to take care for Catechizing the little Children as well as instructing young Men and Fathers Our blessed Saviour had so great a respect for little Children that he blamed those who would have kept them from him embraced them in his arms and blessed them David though a King disdaineth not to be a teacher of Children many of the Ancient Fathers Clemens Origen Cyrill of Jerusalem Gregory Nyssen were Cathechists whose office is to instruct little Children yea here this holy Apostle leaveth not out in his writings little Children and so much for the second The last reference of this act is to the Obâ—ect whereabout this writing is conversant It is that which is not expressed in the Text and therefore is supplyed by Expositors yet not without some differenâ—e I â—inde among Interpreters a threefold construction of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write as to the matter of it 1. Some enlarge it as extending to the whole Epistle and so these Verses are a digression from the prâ—ceding matter and they may well be called the Epistle Dedicatory wherein St John giveth an account to whom his Epistle is written all Christians in generall and in particular to Fathers young Men and Children 2. Others refer these Verses to the duty of Brotherly love before mentioned and having commended the worth he here showeth the fitness of it to all ages of men I write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Commandment of Love to you Fathers young Men Children according to which construction these Verses look backward and are a close of the preceding discourse That which strengthens this reference is that it manifestly appeareth a great part of this Epistle insisteth upon the duty of Love and therefore no wonder if our Apostle when first he speaketh of it both prefixeth a proaemium declaring its antiquity and affixeth a peroration discovering its congruity to all sorts of Christians Finally Others refer these Verses to that prohibition of worldly Love which followeth in the fifteenth sixteenth and seaventeenth Verses and so it looketh forward and is as it were an exordium to make way for that inhibition which he knew would be so unwelcome to the most though it concerned them all And now though by what is already said I conceive the middlemost of these most rational yet since none of them are either improbable or unprofitable I shall handle each 1. If we extend this writing to the whole Epistle that which would be observed is the community of the holy Scriptures This Epistle was written by St John not only to strong but weak Christians to old but young men nay little children and if it was written certainly it was intended that it should be read to them publikely and by them privately for their edification Nor is this less true of the other writings of this Apostle of the writings of the other Apostles and of the Prophets and therefore Vorstius layeth it down as a general doctrine from this Text Sacra Scriptura â—mnibus fidelibus cujusconque aetatis aut conditionis dummodo capaces doctrinae est destinata The Holy Scripture is written for all ages and conditions of Christians who are capable of instruction It is very observable to this purpose what care Saint Paul took for the publike reading of his Epistle to the Colossians and not only to them but the Laodiceans what a solemn charge and adjuration by the Lord he gives that his first Epistle to the Thessalonians be read to all the holy Brethren This practice of publike reading was used by the Jewish Church who had Moses and the Prophets read in their Synagogues on the Sabbath day and accordingly it was followed by the Christian Church in the primitive times Justin Martyr assureth us that in the publike Assembly on the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of the Apostolical and Prophetical writings were read to the people and Tertullian saith Convenimus ad literarum divinarum commemorationem one end of our meetings is the commemoration of the Holy Scriptures Rhenanus quoting this passage in his Annotations upon another Book of that Fathers breatheth forth that pious wish Utinam redeat ad nos ista consuetudo Oh that this custome were in use among us That note of St Hierome upon those words of the Psalmist The Lord shall count when he writes up the people as translated by him would not be passed by Dominus narrabit in Scriptura populorum The Lord shall declare in the writings of the people so he renders it that is in Scripturis sanctis in the Holy Scriptures so he glosses it and presently adds Quae Scriptura populis omnibus legitur hoc est ut omnes intelligant The Scripture is read unto all the people to the end all may understand it Nor are the sacred writings only to be read to but by the people of what age and condition soever It is very observable to this purpose how the Psalmist inviteth every man and as St Basil notes upon the place he doth not exclude the woman to meditate day and night which supposeth reading on the Law of God by a promise of blessedness Nay St John in the beginning of that obscure Book of the Revelation asserts Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophesit as if by that assurance of bliss he would invite every man to the reading of it Indeed there want not express precepts in this kind it is our Saviours command concerning the Old Testament Search the Scriptures and saith St Cyrill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ gives this charge to the people of the Jewes nor is his assertion without plain proof For those to whom Christ speaks these words were they who sent to John and they who sent the Priests and Levites to John were the common people of the Jewes nor are we to imagine this as a peculiar indulgencâ— to the Jewes at that time because of their incredulity unless a preceding prohibition can appear denying the search of the Scriptures to them which since it is not to be found we truly affirm it to be a general mandate And Origen inferreth thence an affectionate desire concerning Christians Utinam omnes faceremus illud quod scriptum est scrutamini scripturas I would to God we would all follow that command Search the Scriptures Sâ— Paul speaking of the New Testament which is most peculiaaly the Word of Christ adviseth the Colossians and in them all sorts of Christians Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdome and Sâ— Hierome notes on that place In hoc ostenditur verbum Christi non suffitienter sed abundanter etiam Laiâ—os habere debere Hereby is asserted that the Laity ought to have the Word of Christ in them not only
Lord and blessed be the Lord by blessed be the name of the Lord. When St Peter saith there is no name under Heaven but the name of Christ he explaineth it in the preceding clause of the person neither is there salvation in any other and when Christ speaketh of for saking houses land for his names sake of being hated of all men for his names sake of receiving his little ones for his names sake it is as much as for his sake In this sense we may take it here and it lets us see in and through whom remission is vouchsafed namely â—n and through Christ commission of sin came in by the fâ—rst Adâ—â— and remission by the second so St Paul expresly In whom we have redemption even the forgivness of â—â—â— sins and again God for Christs sake hath forgiven you 2. Name is very frequently taken for power and strength In thy name that is by thy power we will tread down our enemies saith the Church I come against thee in the name that is in the might of the Lord of Hoasts so David to Goliah In the name that is in the strength of Jesus Christ of Nazareth arise and walk saith the Apostle to the â—â—ipple Finally In my name that is in my might saith Chrisâ— tâ—â— shall cast out Devils In this sense it may well be â—â—â—-â—red here and so the meaning is that through the virtue and power of Christ this benefit of remission is obtained so Carthusian glosseth virtute merito Christi by the virtue and merit of Christ Indeed there is a double power in Christ procuring forgivness the one of merit and that is in his Passion which satisfied Gods justice for our sins the other of intreaty and that is in his Intercession which pleadeth with God for sinners By the one remission is purchased for and by the other it is applyed to us For his names sake for the Merit of that Blood which he shed by the efficacy of that Intercession which he ever maketh our sins are forgiven both which I have already had occasion to discusse To winde it up therefore 1. In a sorrowfull sense of our manifold sins learn we 1. To call on to aske in the name of Christ for this mercy of forgiveness it was the assurance our Saviour gave his Disciples and in them us That whatsoever they did aske the Father in his name should be given to them When ever then we put up any Prayer to God and especially this petition for Remission let us be sure to present it in Christs name it was in Esaus name that Jacob got the blessing so must we this blessing of pardon in Christs name 2. To trust in this name of Christ as that which will undoubtedly procure our pardon The name of the Lord saith Solomon is a strong tower the righteous run unto it to wit for protection and are safe The name of Christ may I say is a strong tower and the sinners penitent sinners run to it to wit for remission and are glad Through his name saith the Apostle Peter concerning Christ whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive Remission of sins All other props are bruised Reeds only the name of Christ is a strong Buckler to them who trust on it Indeed whatever confidence is placed on God himself his mercifull and gratious nature for Remission of sins if it be not with reference to Christs name and merit it will prove but a vain hope since there is no mercy to be expected from God but only through Christ and surely much more vain will all that confidence prove which is built upon the rotten foundation of our own righteousness which is so far from being available to procure the forgiveness of our sins that it self hath those sins accompanying it which need to be forgiven 2. In a comfortable sense of the Remission of our sins learn we to give unto Christ the glory due to his name Per cujus nomen saith the Father upon the Text Through whose name are your sâ—ns forgiven Through the name of Austin or Donatus no who is Augustin or who is Donatus nor yet through the name of Paul or Peter but only the name of Christ and therefore not to us not to us oh blessed Jesus not to our Prayers or tears not to our confessions or good works but to thy name and merit be the glory of this grace whereby our sins are forgiven Having given you this account of the first consideration of the words to wit as they are a consolatory assertion it remaineth that I now proceed in a few words to the other which is As they are an Hortatory reason for so much the causall particle implyeth I write to you because your sins are forgiven you for his names sake and here we shall take in the threefold reference of the Act. 1. I write this whole Epistle the chief scope whereof is to perswade holiness of life because for Christs sake your sins are forgiven Gods mercy in remitting sin should not make us the more licentious in committing sin because our old score is wiped off far be it from us to encourage our selves to run upon a new one no rather since God for Christs sake is so gracious as to wash away our former sins we should be the more watchfull least we defile our selves again What servant will not in reason think himself obliged to serve his Master so much the more faithfully when he hath passed over his former negligence riot and dishonesty and is not the case the same between God and us it is true with ill minded and perverse natures the forgiving of past injuries is an invitation to another but that which clemency leads to and works upon an ingenuous spirit is a care not to offend any more 2. I write to disswade you from the love of the world because your sins are forgiven you for his names sake Pudeat quod factum infectum reddere so Beza Why should you ungratefully undo what God hath mercifully done Those sins are remitted to you which whilest you loved the world were admitted by you Oh take heed that you do not forfeit your pardon by runing into the same sins again Vos amâ—te dimissorem iniquitatum vestrarum so St Austin You are bound to love him who hath forgiven you your sâ—ns So our Saviour saith of Mary Magdalen Much was forgiven her for which is no doubt there as much as therefore shee loved much and Quomodo poterimus amare Deum si amaâ—us mundum How can we love God if we love the world Can the world do that for us which Christ hath done It draweth you into many sins but it cannot obtain the pardon of one sin Oh then shall we not adhere to Christ for whose sake our sins are forgiven and forgo the world 3. Lastly and principally I write to you this Commandment of loving your Brother because your sins are
question their Faith you shall find them very strong in confidence of being saved by Christ and yet if you examine their knowledge you shall finde them ignorant of that Christ by whom they believe to be saved Solomon saith A poore wise Childe is bâ—tter then an old and foolish King will not many knowing Children rise up in judgement one day against ignorant Fathers whilest a Childe of ten years old shall give a better account of Christian Religion then some old men of sixty I know not whither I shall chide or weep declaime against the folly or bewaile the misery of such old Men when I consider the dismall threatning uttered by St Paul That God will come in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know him not and which will certainly render the account of these old men the greater and vengeance hotter who live within the Pale of the Church in that they have not only had time but meanes and opportunity of gaining this Heavenly knowledge but they neglect them Oh then you Fathers receive a word of admonition though whilest you were young men you were careless of divine things yet now surely it is time to look after them it is one of St Cyprians twelve horrid abuses Si sine religione senex esse inveâ—iatur for an old man to be irreligious and a stranger to Heavenly things you are almost at the end oâ— your daies on labour to know him which is from the begining your naturall life through Gods goodness is prolonged I but it must at length be ended let nothing content you without the knowledge of the true God and his Sonne Jesus Christ which is eternall life Why should you be as bad Apprentices that having served seaven years are still to learne their Trade heare so much and so long and yet know so little of Christ Assure your selves the only comforts of old age are Conscientia bene peractae vitae scientia Christi experimentalis the conscience of a well lead life when you are able to reckon not only daies and years but good workes done in those daies and filling up those years and chiefly the experimentall knowledge of Christ whereby as good old Simeon you embrace him in your armes This will be both your comfort and your honour An hoary head being a crown when it is found in a way of righteousness and knowledge As then God is pleased to adde to your daies do you adde to your knowledge And though old age cause your strength of body to cease yet strive that souls may more and more increase in this and all other graces of the holy Spirit 2. There is yet another fitness which would be considered in this Character and that is in reference to the matter about which he writeth especially the praecedent and subsequent Doctrines that thereby we may see what influence the right knowledg of Christ hath upon those excellent duties of contempt of the world and Love of the Brethren 1. Because you have known him which is from the begining love not the world It is that which may very well be urged upon a double account by an argument drawn 1. Ab Indecoro It is a very unbeseeming thing for you who have known him that is from the begining and have been so long Scholars in Christs Schoole to love the world That they who know no better should soare no higher it is no wâ—nder and therefore if Heathens Pagans Infidels should be earthly minded it is no more then what is to be expected but for them who know Christ and knowing him cannot but know what an excellency there is in him and what a vanity there is in the world to dote upon it is very incongruous A Bristol stone is very glorious in his eyes who never saw a Diamond but he would deservedly be accounted stupid who should prefer a Bristol stone before a Diamond all Christians especially Aged ones cannot but experimentally know Christs fulness and the worlds emptinesg and therefore it must needs be a very irrationall affection in them to Love the world 2. A Cantrario The knowledg of him that is from the begining and the Love of these things that have both begining and ending are contrary to and so inconsistent one with another and the reason is plain because as hath been already intimated the true knowledg of Christ is inseperably attended with Love to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loving is caused by seeing where the Object is amiable Christ is altogether Lovely so that it is impossible to see him and not to Love him The Orator saith of virtue that it is so desirable that if men could with bodily eyes behold it they would be ravished with it sure I am he that with spirituall eyes beholds Christ cannot but be enamoured with him Now the world must needs be vile to him to whom Christ is precious if the knowledg of Christ attract us to him it cannot but weane us from the world so that whosoever professeth to know Christ and loveth the world he giveth his profession the lye and plainly discovereth his knowledg to be such which though it have light hath no heat and is none of that knowledg which Christianity cals for 2. Because you have known him which is from the begining loue the Brethren and this likewise is that which may be strongly pressed by a double enforcement 1. Ab Objectâ— The knowledg of him who is from the begining carryeth with it a knowledg of that Love which he had from the begining toward us and did manifest in the fulness of time to us and no such obligation to Love as Love of our Love to the Brethren as Christs Love to us It is very observable how St Paul perswading to walk in this path of brotherly love doth not only direct but incite to it by Christs example But walk in Love as Christ hath loved us Indeed he that knoweth the Love of Christ cannot but be in some measure sensible how free and how full it is and surely that Love which is both sine merito and sine modo to use St Bernards phrase both undeserved and unmeasurable may well engage to a return of Love in whatsoever way he who hath so loved us should expect and direct iâ— 2. Ab Effecto Inasmuch as Brotherly Love is though not an immediate yet a genuine effect of the knowledg of Christ the account whereof take briefly thus Our Brethren to wit by grace are Christs Brethren and if we love Christ we cannot but love his relations All Christian Brethren have the Image of Christ stamped upon them and if we love Christ we cannot but love his Image where then there is a true and sincere affection to Christ there cannot but be a love of the Brethren and where there is a saving knowledge of Christ there as hath been already manifested cannot but be a sincere love to him That therefore it may appeare our knowledge of
commendation of these Children that they know the Father To winde up this 1. It is that which should be in the first place an item to Parents that they be carefull to traine up their Children in the knowledge of the Father Oh Parents you are industrious to provide wealth and riches for your Children but why are you not more solicitous to obtain grace and knowledge for them You take a great deale of care to enrich their bodies but why so little for the adorning of their souls what is this but to use Plutarchs comparison as if one should be very curious about the shooe and neglect the foote or exact id triming the glove whilst the hand is foule perhaps you endeavour that your Children may attaine some kinde of knowledge to wit in the tongues or arts and sciences in a trade and calling and herein you do well learning being a far better portion then riches without which the wealthiest heire is but an Ass laden with gold but oh Parents why stay you here there is one thing more needfull then either of the other and that is the knowledge of the Father what difference is there between a Pagan and a Christian Parent if your only care be to acquaint Children with secular affairs or educate them in Philosophicall studies oh let it not suffice that your Children are instructed in humane whilst they are ignorant of divine learning Tell me I beseech you is it not a sad thing and yet I would to God it were not too common that little Children through your negligent education should swear so soon as they ean speak and learn to blaspheme that God whom yet they have not been taught to know such Parents saith Sâ— Chrysostome are worse then Homicides nay then Parricides for these take away only the bodily life of their Parents but those do what in them lyeth to cast the souls and bodies of their Children into Hell and whilst by generation they were the instruments of their temporall life through neglect of good education they become at least the occasion of their eternall death It is a dolefull story which is reported by Gregory the great to this purpose of a Childe of five years old which being carelesly or rather wickedly brought up was given to blaspheming Gods holy name and being a little after smitten with death the poore Childe cryeth to the Father Help help the Moors are come to take me away and so blaspheming God it died no doubt to the horrour and perplexity of the wicked Father It is a sad thing when Children in their old age shall have cause to complaine that their Parents had no care to bring them up in learning but is it not far more sad that Children in Hell shall cry out against their Parents because they had no regard to instruct them in the knowledg of God Let then all Parents be admonished of this necessary duty which they owe to their Children Children are sometimes called pignora pledges so they are of Gods love to us in bestowing them on us so they ought to be of our love to God in consecrating them to him They are compared to Arrows as they are at first directed so afterwards they flyâ— Oh let it be your endeavour that they may be directed upwards towards Heaven by divine knowledg It much conduced to Alexanders prowess and victory in his wars that his Father Philip caused him to be brought up as it is were from his radle in Military discipline Oh let it be the prudent piety of all Parents to teach their Children betimes the knowledge of the Christian warfare and to that end to begin with the knowledg of the Father 2. But secondly Let me turn my counsell from the Parents to the Children whom I cannot better bespeake then in Davids words Come ye Children hearken unto me and I will teach you the knowledg and fear of the Lord. You know your earthly Parents I but labour to know your Heavenly you know the Fathers of your Flesh ey but strive to know the Father of your Spirits you are expert it may be in Homers Odes Virgils Eclâ—gs Cicero's Orations oh but strive to get understanding in Davids Psalms Solomons Proverbs and the other plaine Books of holy writ Manna was to be gathered in the morning the Orient pearl is generated of the morning dew Aurora musis amica the morning is a friend to the muses Oh remember thy Creator know him in the morning of thy Childehood When God had created the Heavens and the Earth the first thing he did was to adorne the world with light and seperate it from the darkness happy is that Childe on whom the light of saving knowledg begins to dawn early God in the Law required the first born and the first fruits so he doth still our first daies to be offered up to him They are Wisdomes own words They that seek me early shall finde me Where a Rabbin observeth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to the Verb more then usuall which in numbring goeth for fifty with this note that early seeking hath not only twenty or thirty but fifty nay indeed an hundred sold recompence attending on it He that is long before he seeketh God I will not say he shall not at all but it may be long ere he finde him oh begin early whilst yet you are Children to seek the knowledge of God The better to enduâ—e you hereunto consider my good Children 1. You were in your very Infancy almost as soon as born dedicated to the Father being baptized in the name of the blessed Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost and will you not now that you begin to have the use of your understanding endeavour to know the Father you are already his sworne servants and souldiers will you be ignorant of him to whom you are sworne 2. If you do not now begin to know the Father you will be less docible hereafter alas how hard is it to instill knowledg into old years Can it be imagined that that tree which doth not bud nor blossome in the spring should bring forth fruit in Autumn or should flourish in Winter Now in your Childhood your wits are fresh your apprehension quick oh imploy them in studying and gaining the divine knowledg so much the rather because hereby you shall put to shame those ignorant old ones who have lived long and yet with the Ninivites know not the right hand from the left 3. Your Parents may prove unnaturall and forsake you however they are mortall and when death comes must leave you but your Father in Heaven liveth for ever and if you know and serve him he will love you and take care for you he will never leave you nor forsake you The Hen is not more tender of her Chickens nor the Sheapheard of his Lambes then this universall Father as Clemens Alexandrinus cals him is of his little ones towardly and hopefull Children You may
the world is meant sometimes the things and sometimes the persons of the world and both these constructions Expositors make use of here Some by the world understand the men of the world and so conceive that which followeth the things of the world to be distinct from the world and that this Act of Love is here forbiden about a double Object Others by the world understand the things of the world and accordingly conceive the latter to be an explication of the former that whereas when he said love not the world it might have been inquired What oh blessed Apostle is this world which we must not love to prevent this Objection he presently addeth nor the things of the world 1. The former of these interpretations is neither improbable nor unprofitable and therefore I shall not wholly pass it by Love not the world that is Love not the Men of the world for the right understanding of which prohibition observe these three things 1. Though world be here taken for the men in it yet this must be construed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generally for all men but with restriction to wicked and ungodly men for in this sense it is frequently used by this Writer as it were easie to instance in severall places of his Gospell and in some of this Epistle especially the first Verse of the next Chapter wherein I shall God willing enlarge upon this appellation as given to the wicked for the present it may suffice to know that if we here interpret the world of persons it must be confined only to the unregenerate and ungodly of the world 2. This world of the wicked men which we are not to love is not to be understood of the men but their wickedness when the Devill is said to be the Prince of this world by our Saviour and the God of this world by St Paul it is no doubt intended as only of the wicked of the world so in regard of their wickedness and in the same restraint it must be here taken when we are enjoyned not to love them Look as when the Apostle Paul forbids us to be conformed to the world his meaning is that we should not conforme to their sinfull manners vitious practises so when the Apostle John forbids us to love the world if we refer it to men it is to be unnerstood as intending to forbid a love to their sins not to their nature The truth is as men they are the works of Gods hand and so to be loved on his score they are our own flesh and so to be loved upon our own account only as wicked they are the Devils Children and so not to be loved but hated Very observable to this purpose is that expression of St Paul to the Ephesians Have no fellowship with the unfruitful workes of darkness he meaneth have no fellowship with the workers but yet he very aptly saith the works since it is in reference to their works that we ought to avoide fellowship with the workers 3. Once more we must distinguish of a double love to wit Amor benevolentiae complacentiae a love of benevolence whereby we wish well to and a love of complacency whereby take delight in another The love of benevolence is commanded and that in regard of wicked men toward whom we must exercise compassion for whom we must make supplication desiring and endeavouring their eternall wellfare But the love of complacency is forbidden since we ought to avoid nay abhorre all familiar society with the ungodly and so this love not may very fitly be expounded by that have no fellowship not that all kinde of commerce and communion with the wicked is prohibited but that this commerce must be a matter of necessity not of choice we cannot but live among them but we must not delight in them we may upon just occasion have society but we must not love the company of the wicked This is that Precept whereof holy David hath set us a pattern when he saith All my delight is in the Saints and the excellent of the earth again I am a companion of all them that feare thee and again Depart from me you evill doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God Upon which the gloss well Abigit tanquam muscas molestas He driveth them away as so many troublesome flies Thus must we keep at a distance from wicked men and shun all familiar intimacy with them And surely would we seriouslyâ—onsider â—onsider the great danger of loue to and familiarity with the wicked not only in regard of suspition that we are as they which brings a scandall upon our names but of infection and destruction since we can hardly escape without being involved in their iniquities and calamities it could not but be a strong inducement to the observation of this Apostolicall Canon Love not the world that is the wicked men of the world But not to insist on this exposition proceed we to the other which to me seemeth more genuine and that because both the distribution of this worlds love into severall sorts of lusts and likewise the arguments by which it is disswaded especially that of the worlds passing away with its lusts are most congruous to this latter construction Love not the world that is not the things of this world In the unfolding whereof I shall plainly proceed by these five steps 1. When we are forbidden to love the world and the things of it it is to be restrained to this sublunary and terrestiall world Mundi nomine intellige quicquid ad presentem vitam spectat So Calvin aptly By the things of the world we are to understand those things which belong to this present life We cannot have a better expositor of St John then St Paul and then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elsewhere the things of the world that is the things which are upon the earth those things which appertain to our animall and sensitive life in opposition to Heavenly and Spirituall things and if you please to distinguish the world and the things of it you may with one upon the place by the world understand this life or our abode in this world and by the things of it all those contentments which this life can afford to us 2. It is not unfitly taken notice of by Ferus that the Apostle doth not say Exite mundo but Nolite diligere mundum Leave the world but do not love it Excellent to this purpose is that of St Gregory Sic teneamus ea quae sunt hujusmodi ut tamenper ea non teneamur We must so possess the things of this world that we be not possessed by them Indeed for the leaving of the world and the things of it we must have a just and speciall call or else it becomes sinfull we must not go out
world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world THe passions of the soul in their own nature are neither in their exercise are either morally good or bad Look as a Painters Colours according to the severall Pictures which they draw represent a chast Matron and a wanton Strumpet or as the winds according to the severall corners whence they blow serve to drieve the ship forward and backward so the affections according to the Object whereabout they are conversant become either helps or hinderances virtues or vices yea what the Astrologers say of the Planet Mercury in the Horoscope of mans nativity if it be in conjunction with a fortunate Planet it is the better if with an Ominous the worse is more truly affirmed of the passions when they are joyned to good Objects they advance virtue and when to bad they increase vice No wonder then if the holy Scripture take so much care about regulating our affections Indeed the Stoicks would banish and extirpate them and therefore say to them as Abimelech to Isaack Go from us for thou art much mightier then we but the Christian Religion would only confine or rather refine them by defining their proper Objects There is no need of draining up these waters only of diverting them into their right channell of plucking them up only planting them in a good soile We must not use them as Joshuah was to deale with the Amalekites wholly cut them off but as he did by the Gibeonites make them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House of God Indeed as one wittily man fallen is the Anagram of man created his affections like letters misplaced so that there is no need of blotting them out only placing them in their right order Upon this account it was that we finde in sacred writ both precepts and prohibitions commands and caveats exhortations and dehortations in reference to the same affections sometimes in the same Verse So Christ to the Disciples Feare not but feare to the Women at the Cross Weep not but weep ofttimes in the same Chapter as in this concerning the affection of love if you cast your eyes in the foregoing Verses you shall finde those two Objects which we are to love God and our Brother and here in this Verse that single though comrehensive Object which we must not love Love not the world nor the things that are in the world c. Having dispatched the generall proposition in the begining of the fifteenth Verse we are now according to the proposed method to descend to the particular exposition as it is set down in the former part of the sixteenth All that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life This clause which I call the Exposition you see is a distribution intended no doubt for a further and fuller explication of that prohibition but whether of the Object or the Act is somewhat questionable since on the one hand the word world refers to the Object and on the other the word lust refers to the Act. Interpreters conceive that lust is taken metonymically for the Object lusted after and so account it a distribution of the Object but withall it is of the Object in reference to the Act. And when I observe that this all is positively denied to be of the Father I thinke it more rationall to construe this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all to be every lust that is in the world and so take it as a distribution of the act discovering the severall channels in which worldly love runeth It is inquired by the Schoolmen whither this distribution do compleatly enumerate the causes of all sin and it is affirmatively resolved Calvin upon the Text conceiveth it not much materiall whether it be exact or no no doubt these are the principall and all sins may some way or other be reduced to one of these If you please take a short view of the severall references of these lusts whereby they are differenced one from another Serrarius upon the Text hath thus ranked them that good which is immoderately desired is either such as is really received into us about which is conversant the lust of the flesh or which is only transmitted by species to the sight and so the Object of the lust of the eyes or which is neither received by it self or by species into us but is altogether without us and to this tends the pride of life Alexander Hales out of St Austin goeth another and in some respect a contrary way asserting exorbitant lust to be either about bonum inferius some inferiour sensuall good which is the lust of the flesh or exterius some externall visible good which is the lust of the eyes or interius some inward opinionated good which is the pride of life Aquinas distinguisheth the inordinate appetite of man to be after good either as considered absolutely or as it is attended with difficulty the former is the inordination of that which is called the concupiscible appetite and this is either in respect of those things that please the body which is concupiscentia naturalis the naturall desire but in the excess the lust of the flesh or of those things which by sight delight the imagination which is concupiscentia animalis an animall desire and in the excess the lust of the eyes the latter is the irregularity of the irascible apetite and is the pride of life Some not unfitly allude to that distinction of sins into carnall spirituall and of a mixt nature those sins which take sensible delight in sensible Objects are purely carnall and these belong to the lust of the flesh those which take mentall delight in mentall Objects are purely spirituall sins and belong to the pride of life those which take an inward delight in outward Objects are of a mixed nature and belong to the lust of the eyes The most plain and usuall reference of them is of the lust of the flesh to sensuall pleasures of the lust of the eyes to riches and of the pride of life to honours and so the voluptuous covetous and ambitious are the sinners guilty of these lusts This Grotius looketh upon as the genuine meaning and so much the rather because he conceiveth this sentence to be borrowed from the ancient Hebrews whence Pythagoras received it and from him Clynias who mentioneth these three as the cause of that unjustice among men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correspondent to which is that of Philo on the Decalogue asserting it is the Fountain of all wars among men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evill lust either of wealth or honour or pleasure But what the large extent and withall the principall intent of these
heart he hath a foule dirty soule he is a mourner but it is only when his trading doth not thrive and riches increase he careth not for poverty of spirit but fullness in his purse all his mercy is to pitty and spare his Gold he is so farre from being a Peacemaker that he will go to Law for a penny and he resolveth to suffer no persecution but what is from his own fretting and raging lust Indeed the one of these qualifications is true but it is only in part men revile him and speak evill of him but it is not falsely but justly for Christs sake but his Monies sake and therefore his reproaches are so farre from rendring him blessed that they make him the more cursed and however this wretched catiffe like him in the Poet applaude himself while the people point and hisse at him yet the time will come when God shall upbraide him with his folly laugh at his calamity and then though too late he shall bewaile and abhorre and condemne himselfe What now remaineth but that since the denying this worldly lust appeareth so reasonable we resolve upon it and for our better execution of this resolution remember these Lessons 1. Get a contented minde The Author to the Hebrews hath aptly joyned them together Let your Conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Requiring no doubt the latter in order to the former what are all of us in this world but as so many strangers and Pilgrims why should we care for more then Money to defray our charges we are under the providence of a gracious Father why should we not be content with what he seeth convenient for us Certainely that Shooe is not best which is the greatest but which is fittest for the Foote nor that Garment which is longest or most gorgeous but that which sets closest to the Body let our portion content us and then the lust of the eyes will not domineer over us 2. Labour for a charitable Heart make not the Mammon of unrighteousness your friend by loving it but make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness by giving it one desire will thrust out another the good lust of giving and distributing will expell the bad lust of getting and keeping St Austins counsell concerning riches is excellent Si absint ne per mala opera quaerantur in terra si adsâ—nt per bona opera serventur in â—aelo If they be wanting seeke them not in earth by evill workes if they be present lay them up in Heaven by good workes if you will needs be laying up of riches let it be in the safest place in Heaven as our Saviour directeth us and that is by laying them out for the poores relief if you must needs see your riches let it be upon the backs of the naked and the tables of the hungry this is the only commendable lust of the eyes 3. Judge righteous judgement concerning those things with which you are so enamoured to which end shut the eye of your sense and open the eye of your reason Tully writeth of a people who when they went to the field were wont pugnare clausis oculis to fight with their eyes shut it might be cowardize in them it would be wisdome in us to shut our eyes not to look too much on those Objects least they ensnare us When the Devill thought to tempt Christ to the utmost he shewed him all the kingdomes and glory of the world it is ill looking on the world especially when it putteth on its Holy-day apparell No wonder if David when he desireth that his heart may not be inclined to covetousness prayes also Turn away mine eys from beholding â—anity or if you will looke upon these things let it be with the eye of reason or rather faith to see the vanity and vexation of them looke not upon ther pompous outside but their rotten inside and then you will finde them like hangings which on the one side have pictures of Kings and Queens curiously wrought but on the other side rags and patches 4. Finally Lift up your eyes to Heaven by a due meditation of things above Anatomists observe that there is a muscle in mans eye more then in any other Creatures by which he is able to looke up Man in the Greeke language is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that lifts up his countenance to which agreeth that of the Poet Os homimi sublime dedit Oh let our bodily constitution minde us of an Heavenly disposition Terram despicit qui Coelum aspiciâ— he will have Earth under his foote who hath Heaven in his eyes In one word As Moses so let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looke off from this land we possess to the promised Land that having respect to that recompense of reward we may disrespect the treasures of Aegypt and taking daily walkes upon Mount Sion all these things silver gold houses lands goods riches may be little and vile in our eyes so shall we be delivered from this second venemous corruption The lust of the eyes THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world AMong those many excellent rules which belong to the divine Art of Preaching this is not of least concernment that Ministers should not content themselves with Generalities either in disswading evill or perswading good Virtues and vices are then rightly handled when our Sermons are not like shadows which represent obscurely and confusedly but as glasses or rather Pictures setting them forth in their distinct lineaments It is a known maxime in Logick Latet dolus in universalibus There is a great deale of ambiguity and consequently deceit in universall propositions And though exhortations at large to serve God mortifie the flesh and contemne the world are in themselves true and good yet if not more particularly discussed the Auditors will be too apt to deceive themselves by imagining they have learnt those lessons to which perhaps they are meer strangers For this cause it was that Sâ— Paul exhorting the Colossians to mortifie their earthly members proceeds to a punctuall enumeration of those members and not only those of the grossest and worse sort but those which seem at least in mans eye of less guilt and to instance no further for this very reason no doubt it was that our Apostle contents not himself in generals to dehort worldly love but annexeth a speciall discovery of the severall lusts by which it reigneth in the hearts and lives of the wicked Love not the world for all that
you I hate nay do I not love God But oh vaine man do not deceive thy self whosoever is the worlds friend is at least virtually Gods enemy and so farre from loving that he doth in effect hate him and all his servioes are no better then a mocking as much as in him lieth of the sacred deity 2. The love of the Father is not nay not only is not but cannot be in him our blessed Saviour is express concerning obedience you cannot serve God and Mammon and it is no less true of love you cannot love God and the world much less the world and God The impossibility of the consistency of these two will appear if you consider 1. The nature of love It is an ingrosser appropriating the heart to the Object love saith to its beloved I am thine to wit wholly soly and therefore it cannot be anothers when the streame runs into one channell then it runs violently vehement affection admits not of division It is as possible for a direct line to terminate in two points or for one member to serve two bodies as for love intensively at once to minde two Objects 2. The contrariety of the Obiects God and the world in the very next Verse they are set one in opposition to the other The Father is above the world is below so that to use a comparison of an Ancient the same eyes may as well at the same time behold Heaven and Earth as the same affection be carried towards God and the world God is light and the world is darkness Fieri non potest saith Damascen It cannot be that divine and worldly love should cohabit no more then that light and darkness should reside together Two contrary formes may as soon at once informe one and the same matter and two contrary intense qualities meet together in the same Subject as the love of the world and the love of the Father dwell in the same heart If I love another mans enemy and that as he is his enemy I must needs be an enemy to him the worldling loveth the world not as in subordination to but competition with and therefore he can be no other then an enemy to God so true is this of our Apostle If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him That it may yet more plainly appear that there neither is nor can be any true love of God in the worldling take notice of these ensuing particulars 1. Can there be any love of the Father in him who hath no love to his name especially his word which God hath magnified above all his name and yet this is evident in worldly lovers their lusts like thorns choak the good seed of the word that it can take no root in their hearts their proud necks will not stoop to put on this sacred yoake the voluptuous mans eare is deafe to this Heavenly charme and when the spirituall fishers would catch the covetous he slippeth with the Eele into the mud of the world and so renders all their pains useless 2. Can there be any love of the Father in him who doth not cleave to him with full purpose of heart and will renounce his Religion rather then suffer persecution If any man draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him and it is as true his soul hath no pleasure in God Now the love of the world causeth men to grow lukewarme nay at last quite cold St Paul observeth it as the ground of Demas his Apostacy he hath forsaken me and with him Christ having embraced to wit with the armes of love this present world What made Judas so frozen so false hearted to so gratious a Master but the love of money had not Moses instead of loving despised the pleasures and honours of Pharaohs Court he had left the People of God Danger and nakedness want and penury reproach and infamy will quickly affright that man from his Christian Profession in whom the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life raign 3. He that hath any true love of the Father will call the Lords day a delight loves to converse with God by Prayer and other holy ordinances but the worldly lover either wholly casts off holy duties holy daies holy things or else he takes no joy in the performance of them no time being worse spent in his esteeme then that which is in Gods courts Worldly men in Heavenly duties are like a fish upon the shoare they faint and gaspe and are never well till they returne to the muddy waters When will the Sabboath be gone that we may sell and get gaine saith the covetous that we may take our pleasure saith the voluptuous that we may pursue our politique designs saith the ambitious Nay it is not seldome seen that every one of these will not stick to fulfill their own lusts even when they should be imployed in Gods service 4. It is impossible that the love of the Father should consist with sacriledge No man ever looked upon a thief as his friend to live in any sinne much more in such a sinne as reflects upon God must needs be repugnant to the love of him Now worldly love puts men upon the commission of this great wickedness Every proud man is a sacrilegious thief robbing God of his glory which he will not give to another and it is not seldome seen that covetous and voluptuous men rob God of his Revenues Belshazzer prostitutes the vessels of the Temple to the lust of the flesh by quaffing in them Achan through the lust of the eyes alienateth the devoted gold and garment wicked worldlings will not stick to be not only sellers and buyers in but of the Temple taking the houses of God into their possession 5. Finally He that setteth up any thing in the roome of God cannot have a sincere affection towards him The cursed Idolater as much as in him lieth dethroneth the divine majesty which surely cannot consist with amity And yet it is an undoubted truth every worldling is an idolater to wit in a spirituall sense bowing down though not with his knee to an Idoll yet with his heart to the world St Paul speaking of Epicures who are given over to the lust of the flesh giveth them this brand whose belly is their God and consequently their Kitchin is their Temple Table their Altar and Cooke their Priest The same Apostle mentioning covetousness presently addeth which is Idolatry Indeed with a covetous man seulpture is his Scripture Bills and Bonds are his Bible the Exchange his Temple and Gold his God as he saith to it thou art my love so likewise thou art my hope my trust The proper acts of naturall worship which are due only to the Deity He dealeth with it as the two Giants sometime did with Mars first he looks it fast and then worships it Finally The proud man worshippeth though not images yet his
own imaginations and sets up himself in Gods roome admiring and adoring his own though but sometime fancied excellencies nay which is yet worse he so sets himself above that he sets himselfe against God for so the Prophet accusing Mâ—aâ— of pride and haughtiness proveth it by this Medium Thou hast magnified thy self against God In this respect it is enquired and resolved by the Schooles that pride is the greatest of sâ—ns for whereas in other lusts there is directly a conversion to the Creature in this there is a direct aversion from the Creator by all which it appeareth how injurious these lusts are to the Father and therefore incompatible with the love of the Father To what hath been already said concerning the express and positive truth of this clause I must not forget to adde that there is another implicite and consequentiall truth wrapped up in it namely That if any man love the world the love of the Brethren is not in him Indeed the sâ—nse of these words the love of the Father may be rendred the love which the Father requireth and so it extends to Botherly love Besides the Connexion seemeth to intimate that loving the world is forbidden as an enemy to Brotherly love which is discussed a little before Finally Omne majus continet in â—se miâ—â—s the less is involved in the greater so that as Eâ—ius well notes since the love of the Father which is the greater the love of the Brethren which is the less is also to be denied of him who loves â—he world S Paul speaking of charity saith shee seeks not her own whereas the worldling is altogether for himself and therefore hath no affection to others though to speake truth as he is nomini bonus good to no man so he is sibi nequam worse to himselfe To enlarge upon this a little Consider the worldly lover in reference to his Superiours Inferiour Equals and you shall finde he hath no love to any 1. He is so farre from loving that he envieth those that are are above him in place in wealth in power To use the phrase of the Text The love of the Father is not in him not of the politicall Father against whom he will not stick to rebell when opportunity is offered The proud man grudgeth Subjection the Covetous man Tribute and the Epicure Obedience to his Laws Not of the Ecclesiasticall Father whom worldly lusts prompt him to undervalue yea if he reprove him to spurne against nay ofttimes not of the naturall Father whilest they who are tainted with these lusts like Esau wish The daies of mourning for their Father were at hand nay some like Absolom consult their Fathers ruine that they may enjoy their honours and estates 2. As for those who are under him he is very apt to trample them under his feet and if they be in want very backward to reach forth an hand of succour to them The Voluptuous layeth out so much upon his pleasures the ambitious wants so much for the maintaining of his honours and the covetous layeth up so much for the satisfying of his eyes that they have little or nothing to spare for the needy nay that too often they oppress and grinde the faces of the poore 3. Instead of loving his equall he is apt to contend and quarrell with them Whence come wars and fightings among you saith St James and answering his Question he addeth Come they not hence even of the lusts that war in your Members Omnia perfecte in pace consisterent si hominem imperandi cupiditas non teneret said Valerius truly It is the desire of being above others that hindreth us from living in peace with others and speaking of covetousness he asserts Hinc pullulare odiorum causas amicitiarum faedera dissipari it to be the breaker of amity and begetter of enmity amongst men nor is it less true of sensuall lusts which very often blow the fire of discord into a flame In one word what wrong will not men do to their Neighbours in their relations names estates by fraud and treachery by violence and cruelty in words and works for the base love of wealth of honour or pleasure all which are directly repugnant to brotherly love To close up with some usefull inferences from the consideration of what hath been handled Learne we 1. How desperate and dangerous a sin is worldly love One upon this clause hath well observed Lenis oratio sed plena aculeo it is seemingly a gentle speech but carryeth a sting with it For in saying there is no love of the Father and consequently not of his Brother in him that loveth the world he saith in effect he is one that breaketh all the Commandement for if love be the fullfilling of the Law to wit love to God of the first and love to our Neighbour of the second he that neither loveth God nor Men must needs breake both It is very observable that David praying God to incline his heart to his Testimonies presently addeth and not to covetousness thereby implying that if he were inclined to covetousnes he could not love or keep Gods Testimonies Moses brake the Table in pieces out of a zealous anger at the golden Calfe and the worldling will breake the Laws written on those Tables for the Gold upon the Calfe The love of money I and of honour and pleasure is the rot of all goodness and the root of all wickedness the Moath of sanctity the rust of virtue the breeder and the feeder of vice Ungodliness and worldly lusts are coupled together by St Paul Abstaine from fleshly lusts and having our conversation honest are joyned together by St Peter there is neither honesty nor piety to be found where worldly love raigneth 2. How great is the folly of Hypocrites who thinke to joyne what here St John hath opposed the love of the world and the love of the Father together Many there are saith Isidore Hispalensis truly who will flye to Heaven by a divine conversation but yet they are loath to leave earthly contentments Provocat eos amor Christi sed revocat amor seculi The love of Christ puts them a little forward but the love of the world pulls them backward and so as Erasmus is painted by the Romans they hang between Heaven and Earth There is a City in Germany which belonging to two Governments was called Mindin which is according to the sâ—gnification of it in the Germane language mine and thine Thus the Hypocrite saith to God thou art mine and to the world I am thine in which respect he is called a double minded man and is said to have an heart and an heart like the Samaritans who feared the Lord and served Idols the Israelites who halted between God and Baal those in the Prophet Zephany who did sweare by the Lord and Malchom and those lukewarme Laodiceans who were neither hot nor cold But alas how vainly do such
men deceive themselves Indeed the false Mother of the Childe would have it parted between them but the true Mother would have all or none The world is content to have a corner in thy heart but God will have thy whole heart The Arke and Dagon cannot stand together in one Temple and therefore when the Arke is brought in Dagon falls down no more can God and the world in one soule and therefore if we will set up God in the throne the world must be cast down nay out The Spouse in the Canticles is said to wound Christ with one eye Quia alterum non habebat because she had no other Christ calls upon us in the Gospell to cut off one foot one hand and to pluck out one eye the heart in all languages is a Monasyllable unum uni the one heart must be dedicated to the one God In the meat offering God required all the Frankincense and in the sacrifices all the fat to teach us that the intention of our minde and affection of our heart must be wholly carryed towards God Among the Pythagoreans the Duall number was infamous sure I am the double minded man is odious to God so odious that he threatneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut him asunder a punishment very sutable to his fault like that which the King of the Albines inflicted on the King of the Romans when he caused him to be tied to two horses who by drawing contrary waies tore his body in two pieces 3. Lastly How just and necessary it is to cast the love of the world out of the hearts in order to the entertaining of the love of the Father Indeed as St Gregory and Leo have both well observed The reasonable soul cannot be all together without delight and void of love Aut infimis delectatur aut summis so the one Aut Dei amator est aut mundi so the other Our delight must either ascend or descend our love must either be set upon God or the world How impossible it is for these two to dwell together you have already heard so that either we must hate the one or love the other or hold to the one and despise the other as our Saviour tells us And now as Eliah said to the Israelites If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal be God follow him so let me beseech you If the Lord be God love him if the world love it If the world have as much excellency in it as God hath if the world have as much right to you as God hath if the world can do as much for you as God can and will then love it But alas whatever good is in the world is but a ray of that Sun a drop of that Fountaine derived from and infinitely inferiour to the goodness of God in which respect saith St Austin excellently Pulcher est mundus sed pulchrior à quo factus est mundus The world is beautifull surely then he that made it so is farre more beautifull Besides The world was made for us and therefore only to be used whereas God is our Creator Master Father and therefore to be feared and honoured and loved Methinketh the Father saith to us concerning the world as Saul to his Servants concerning David Will the Son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards will or can the world do that for you which I will do give you grace and glory felicity and immortality Nay let me adde a word more The world would infect and infest us instead of doing us good bring us into temptations and snares and tell me then whither the Father be not to be preferred in our estimation and affection before the world Infine that God should have our love we cannot but acknowledge most reasonable and therefore what remaineth but that every one of us take up firme resolutions of rejecting the world love both we cannot one we will God we ought and to that end we must leave the world that we may cleave to God No doubt the world is and will be a very earnest and importunate suiter to us for our love and too often she so far prevaileth that we consent but remember I beseech you our Father forbids the banes and shall we match against our Fathers consent nay let me tell you if we marry the world the Father will disclaime and disown us as none of his Children and therefore if we call on the Father let us renounce the world Believe it an ill match is better broken then carried on and so much the rather because whatever promise we make to the world it is a breach of the first vow we made to God in our Baptism and therefore to be disannulled as inconsistent with our former obligation To end all I cannot better press this then in St Austins language who calls these words Verba extirpantia words of extirpation if you finde a weed you grub it up that you may sow good corn so must we pluck up worldly that we plant Heavenly love Vas es saith that Father si plenum effunde quod habes effunde amorem saeculi ut implearis amore Dei Thy soul is a vessell if it be full as indeed whose is not empty it poure out the love of the world that thou maist be filled with the love of God which otherwise is impossible For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 16 17. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth forever A Naked command from God is a sufficient ground of obedience from man no doubt St Paul so accounted it and therefore exhorting the Thessalonians to abstaine from fornication useth this as a strong inducement for this is the will of God The truth is obedience is most ingenious when least discreet it being very reasonable that we should obey God without asking a reason of his Precept It was the praise of Caesars Souldiers Quod imperium potius quam consilium sequebantur that they executed their Generalls injunctions without inquiring into his consultations It is the Character of a good Christian to believe because God asserteth and obey because he requireth But see the condescention of our mercifull God who is pleased not only to command by his authority but teach by his grace so St Paul saith The grace of God teacheth us to deny worldly lusts not only to require but to intreat so St Peter Dearly beloved I beseech you abstain from fleshly lusts Finally Not only to prescribe but perswade and therefore as he enjoyneth a duty so he adjoyneth a Motive and that drawn from the necessity equity and utility of observing the
command whither it be to avoid or do This is evident in the prohibition here given by St John concerning worldly love which he contents not himself barely to propound but strongly presseth as necessary because else we cannot love the Father and as just because this world is of a short continuance For all that is in the world c. And the world passeth away c. In handling the Argumentation we have dispatcht the maine of the first Reason to wit the principall confirmation which is drawn from the incompossibility of the love of the Father with the love of the world and now because this may seem a very strange assertion our Apostle doth not only assert but prove it in the close of the sixteenth Verse which I am in order to discuss And it is that which I call The Collaterall Conformation as it is set down in those words is not of the Father but is of the world for the fuller handling whereof I shall consider it both Absolutely and Relatively 1. If we look upon this clause absolutely we shall finde the design of it to discover the principle and originall of the All that is in the world and that both Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively The All in the world is not of the Father Indeed if we understand this All of those things which are the Objects of our lusts this Negation must have a limitation 1. Pleasures Riches Honours must be considered either in themselves and their own nature or as they allure through their externall beauty to inordinate lust in which latter respect they are not of God since they were never made by him for that end to be as it were the baâ—ds of lust 2. Either as lawfully or unlawfully acquired in the latter notion they are not of the Father except that it is by his permission they are enjoyed which is no less true of all wickedness that is acted in the former they are blessings of God yet of his left not his right hand and so are dona Dei the gifts of God but not Patris of the Father There are some things which God giveth as a Father in speciall love only to his Children such are grace and glory There are other things which he giveth as a God out of common bounty to enemies as well as Children and such are food and rayment wealth and preferment in which respect at best in a strict sense they are not of the Father But I rather conceive that this Negative is to be understood of the lusts after these things to which agreeth that of St Austin We know that the Apostle did not meane this world the Heavens and the Earth with the things in them when he saith All that is in the world is not of the Father Indeed the poyson is not in the flower but in the Spider which sucketh it nor are the things themselves but the lusts after them evill and consequently not of the Father nor yet is all lust after those things to be denied to be of the Father There is implanted in every living Creature an appetite after those things which are sutable to its nature Now the nature of man being partly Angelicall and partly Bestiall Spirituall in its upper and sensuall in its lower faculties there could not but be in man as created Inclinatio ad sensibilia an inclination to sensible Objects But withall This lust was such as was neither in it selfe evill nor did of it selfe incline to evill I know I am here fallen upon a Controverse whilst it is affirmed by the Romanists with others that man in puris naturalibus in his pure naturals had ex necessaria materiae conditione from the condition of his matter such a concupiscence which rendered him prone to evill and did need supernaturali quodam fraeno a golden Bridle of supernaturall grace to restraine it It being here urged upon them that this concupiscence being naturall is of God and if it need a bridle it is apt to be irregular and exorbitant which exorbitancie must needs reflecâ— on God himself who made man of such a temper their only evasion is that it is from the condition of the matter praeter intentionem divinam besides the intention of the Maker by which means whilst they endeavour to vindicate Gods purity they calumniate his wisdome it being no other then the voice of folly to say non putaram I did not thinke of or intend such an event I cannot therefore but look upon it as most safe to assert with the Orthodox that mans naturall concupiscence was not apt to be irregular Nec fraenum nec calcar desiderabatur There was no such tardity in the sensitive part as should need a spurre nor yet any such impetuousness as should require a Bridle For the clearing whereof know that the sensitive appetite of man being borne sub regne under the dominion was to be governed sceptrotionis by the command of reason so that whereas it is ranaturall in a bruit to be carried towards sensuall Objects juxta impetum in a way of violence it is naturall to man to bend towards them juxta imperium according to the dictate of reason Upon this account even by the Philosopher sensuality in man is asserted to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasons servant and accordingly Damascen is express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rationall part doth naturally rule the irrationall so that though in man there be a necessary desire of things sensible yet it is as Aquinas well Secundum modum ordinem rationis in that measure and order which reason prescribeth the sensitive powers being not factious or rebellious but readily subject to the higher powers that is the intellectuals The Proneness therefore of the sensitive appetite to extravagancy is not naturall but contranaturall not from the Creation but by transgression and of those lusts which the vitiated concupiscense in fallen man doth send forth is it here affirmed that they are not of the Father Indeed that any sinfull lust should be of the Father is inconsistent with the. 1. Purity of his nature which cannot endure must less effect the least in 2. Verity of his word which prohibiteth and threatneth all sin and either those threats are not the declarations of his reall intention which is Blasphemy to imagine or he cannot be the Author of any wicked inclinations 3. Equity of his punishments it being as Fulgentius excellently most unjust for God not to cleare the guilty if he made them so And therefore for the preventing Objections and further evidencing of this truth be pleased to know 1. It is one thing to make use of mens lusts and another to stirre up those lust in men It pleased God to accomplish his own ends by Pharoahs proud lust in punishing Israell and Judas his covetous lust in betraying Christ but he was no way the cause of these lusts Thus whilest the holiness of the Father abhorreth evill the wisdome
3. Be pleased then to remember what I have already told you that world may be either understood of persons or things and accordingly both constructions may here not unfitly be made use of 1. Of the world that is saith St Austin Ab hominibus mundi dilectoribus of those men who are the worlds darlings and thus these lusts are said to be of the world as a pattern or exemplary cause inasmuch as to walke in them is according to the Apostles phrase To walke according to the course of the world The truth is we are very apt to learn of and conforme to the corrupt lusts and practises of the world We do not with the Pelagians farre be it from us say that sin came in only by imitation but yet withall it is an undeniable truth that imitation is a cause of much sin that corrupt nature which is with in us rendring us prone to follow others in their evill waies This is that which those Dehortations both of St Paul and St Peter plainly intimate This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye henceforth walke not as other Gentiles walke so St Paul For the time past of our lives may it suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles So St Peter Both imply that we are very ready to walke in the way do the will of the wicked among whom we live 2. But that interpretation which I look upon as most genuine is by the world to understand the things of the world and therefore these lusts are said to be of the world because by reason of our inbred corruption these worldly things become occasions and inciters of lust To this purpose it is that St Paul calls these lusts worldly lusts not only because they are conversant about the world but because the world is in some sense a cause that is an externall moving cause of them The Father of these lusts is the Devill their Mother the flesh the world is a Midwife to bring forth and a Nurse to bring up these monstrous brats no wonder if upon this account it is reckoned as one of the three grand enemies of mans salvation Learn we then that excellent admonition of St James To keep our selves unspotted of the world The truth is mundus immundus the world is uncleane and filthy and if we take not heed it will defile and besmeare us if we be not very carefull where we tread we shall soon step into a dirty puddle if we be not very wary where we walke we shall quickly be caught in a snare Oh how hard is it to looke upon these things and not long after them to use them and not love them to have them in our eye or hand and yet keep them out of our heart Oh therefore watch and be sober so often as you are engaged about worldly things keep a godly jealousie over your hearts least they go out too much after them for the world is very insinuating and too often creepeth into our hearts the presence Chamber of the King of glory in which respects these lusts are most truly said to be of the world And so much for the two branches of this clause Absolutely considered 2. Pass we on now to a Relative view and thus it may have a double reference 1. Some conceive it as an Argument why we should not love the world and the things of it and truly whither we understand the Subject of this proposition All that is in the world is not of the Father but is of the world of the things themselves or the lust after them it will hold good 1. Love not the things of the world because these things are not of the Father but of the world Qualia sunt haec saith Zanchy aptly how low poor things are these how unworthy of a Christian love These are from an earthly extraction an inferiour principle Set your affections saith St Paul on the things that are above and not on the things that are upon the earth if you will love let it be those things above that are of the Father of a noble divine originall not these earthly things which are of the world 2. Love not the things of the world because those lusts which are conversant about those things are not of the father but of the world the strength of which argument will better appeare if we consider who they are namely Believers such as are not of the world but of the father to whom this dehortation is given it being very unreasonable that they who are not of the world but of the father should harbour those lusts which are not of the father but of the world When therefore oh Christian any desires arise in thine heart put these two questions to them whither tend they and especially whence are they if they be of the father and so consequently tending upwards embrace them but if of the world and so necessarily bending downwards refuse them 2. But though I do not reject these Interpretations yet I rather adhere to that exposition which looketh upon this clause as a reason of the reason preceding why the love of the world and the love of the Father are inconsistent and the strength of the Argument may be drawn out two waies 1. These worldly lusts are not of the Father and therefore not to the Father Things move in a circle where they begin there they end Rivers come from and return to the Sea These lusts the being not of the Father cannot be toward him nay indeed are against him and therefore cannot consist with the love of him The love of the Father carrieth the heart towards him these lusts being not of the Father turn away the heart from him how can they agree together 2. Where there is a love of the Father only that which is of the Father will finde acceptance yea whatever is not of the Father the soul that loveth him cannot choose but abhorre he that loveth God truly hath a sympathy and antipathy correspondent to his what God loveth he loveth what God hateth he hateth and therefore since these lusts are so far from being of the Father that they are of the world yea the Father instead of an Authour or an Abettour of them is an abhorer and opposer of them no wonder if there be no sincere love of the Father where the love of the world is predominant And this shall suffice to have been spoken of the first branch of the Argumentation drawn from the love of world its repugnancy to the love of God It now remaineth that we proceed to The other branch which is taken from the world it self its short continuance as it is set down in the seaventeenth Verse For the world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God indureth for ever where there are two generall parts occurre to our observation to wit A Thesis or proposition For the world passeth away and the
lust thereof Antithesis or opposition added by way of Amplification but he that doth the will of God endureth for ever 1. Begin we with the proposition into which if you please to looke narrowly you shall finde these three Assertions Of each in order The world passeth away The lust after the world passeth away The worldly lover passeth away 1. The world passeth away In severall places of Scripture we finde a division of worlds into that which now is and that which is to come as for that which is to come the Author to the Hebrews plainly intimateth that it is a continuing City where he saith We have no continuing City but we seek one to come of this present world therefore is this assertion to be understood And thus if we take this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its largest and most comprehensive notion for the whole Fabrick of the visible Heavens and the Earth it is true the world passeth away yea as Grotius noteth upon the Text Eâ lege factus ut aliquando pereat it was created corruptible and is as sure to perish as that it once began to flourish This is affirmed by the Psalmist Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the worke of thy hands they shall perish yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed By our Saviour himself Heaven and Earth shall pass away and by St Peter both the things and the meanes of accomplishing it are indicated The Heaven and the earth that nâ—w is are reserved to fire and yet more fully The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up This Witch for so shee is indeed to the greatest part of men shall be burnt up with all her baggage This world to use Isidore Pelusiot as comparison 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reeleth to and fro like a Drunken man till at last it falldown So true is that of St Cyprian Haec sentent in mâ—ndâ— data ut omnia orta occidant This doome is inevitably passed upon the world that as it had a beginning so it shall have an end I am not ignorant that there is some contrarierty among Divines about the nature of this passing away whither it shall be substantiall or accidentall Some expounding this of St John the world by that of St Paul The fashion of this world passeth away affirme the passing away to be only accidentall and to this purpose S t Gregory is express Vtraque haec speaking of the Heavens and the Earth Per eam quam nunc habent imaginem transeunt sed tamen per essentiam sine fine subsistunt Both these pass away as to their present shape but in their essence they shall endure for ever Others conceive That since at the last day the wicked shall be banished into everlasting flames and the godly received into the Kingdome prepared for them this present world will be useless as an house wherein there is no inhabitant it shall be puld down and the very materials of it annihilated But after all debates upon this Question it will be a presumption to determine it because the Scripture is silent I could wish as this so many other disputes of the like nature were either wholly silenced or more calmely discussed Why should we contend one with another about the manner so long as we all believe the thing But that to which I rather incline is to understand the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a morall notion for those things of the world which are the Objects and Allurements of these lusts it being most rationall to take the world in the motive in the same sense in which it is understood in the Dehortation so that the plaine scope of our Apostle in this clause is to assert that All these things of the world with which the Children of Men are so apt to be in love are of a fading transitory nature Indeed the Greek word here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admits of severall acceptions each of which may very well be admitted in this place 1. If we look to the derivation of the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is most properly rendred transversum agit the world carrieth its lovers headlong contrary to the dictates of Gods word and right reason We are all Travellers the world is an Horse which whilst a man rideth with the bridle of moderation it serveth to carry him on his journey but when through too much love he layeth as it were the reines upon its neck it carrieth him into cross waies over hedg and ditch till at last it throweth yea overthroweth him We are all Saylers this world is as the Sea and our affections as the windes which being set upon the world like a contrary blast drive the ship of the soul upon rocks and sands till it split and sinke into ruine Sutable to which is that of St Austin Ama saeculum absorbebit te amatores suos novit vorare non portare Love the world and it will drown thee it knoweth how to swallow not to beare its lovers 2. The Greeke word among prophane Authors is used sed to signifie as much as to deceive or seduce by faire promises and in this sense it is true of the world which by its specious shews and subtle insinuations deceiveth the fond lover The world pretends to be a kinde Nurse to her Children but if you draw her two Dugs instead of milke you shall finde nothing but the water of vanity in the one and the winde of vexation in the other No wonder if St Hierome compare it to Nebuchadnezzars golden Image into which whosoever looketh will finde only an empty hollowness and St Gregory to a rotten Nut which how faire soever it seemeth if you open it with the knife of truth you shall finde it only full of Wormes One being invited to a covetous mans house who had a stately gate and an empty Hall wondred that there should be so much without and so little within a fit embleme of these worldly things which promise much and performe little very fitly saith Seneca alluding to the stage Omnium personata est faelicitas all the comfort of these worldly enjoyments is only personated not reall They seem to be what they are not and to do what they cannot In one word The world is the greatest bankrupt and at best doth but compound with its lovers not satisfying the halfe of what it promiseth 3. But the most usuall signification of the word especially in sacred writ is to pass away that it is so to be taken here appeareth in that it is opposed to abiding in the next
brought in 1. It may at first view seem somewhat strange that this qualification of doing Gods will should be here inserted as seeming to have little or no affinity with what precedeth had the Apostle said but he that loveth the Father or had he said but he that denieth these worldly lâ—sis it would have been very congruous but how this cometh in â—e that doth the will of God is not so obvious Yet iâ— you please to looke into it a little more narrowly you shall finde it very sutable to the Apostles scope and farre more Emphaticall then if he had used either of the above mentioned Phrases For 1. In saying not He that loveth the Father but He that doth the will of God the Apostle sets down that which is the most reall Character of a true lover of the Father There is nothing wherein men more deceive themselves then in this grace of loving God there is scarce any man but layeth claime to it and is ready to say I love God with all my heart so that if St John had only said He that loveth God abideth for ever every man would have flattered himself with the hopes of this eternity But in saying he that doth the will of God he hereby puts our love of God upon the triall and that by such a Character as if we impartially examine our selves by it I am afraid the love of most Christians towards God will be found base and counterfeit 1. True love is not only affective but active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as fire is the most active element so love is the most working grace Amor si non operatur non est saith St Gregory If love act not it is no love so that what St James saith of faith may as truly be applied to love shew me thy faith thy love by thy workes 2. Again True love conformeth it selfe in will affection action to the Object loved How fearfull are we to offend carefull are we to please whom we love If a mans Beloved bid him come he cometh go he runneth do this or that he doth it In which respct Isidore saith truly Qui Dei praecepta cantemnit Deum non diligit neque enim regem diligimas si odio ejus leges habemus he that contemneth Gods Precepts doth not love him no more then â—e doth his King who hateth his Laws The voice of love is I am my beloveds wholly at his command and that not only in a complement but reality What wilt thou have me to do is loves Question be it never so difficult love accounts it easie and the very labour is beloved Would we then know whether we love God Here is the triall what do we where is our obedience to his Laws our conformity to his will is it possible we should love him and yet offend grieve dishonour him and cast his commands behind our backs If you love me saith our blessed Saviour keep my Commandements and again You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you I love my Master and I will not go free saith the Servant in the Law Oh let us approve the sincerity of our love by the reality of our obedience For which cause no doubt it was that our Apostle saith Not he that loveth God but he that doth the will of God 2. In saying He that doth the will of God our Apostle saith as much as He that denieth the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and somewhat more so that as in the former consideration it appeareth to be a discriminating so in this we shall finde it a comprehensive Character For 1. Sui Repudium Christiani praeludium The first step in doing Gods will is denying our own and these lusts are the ebullitions of our own corrupt wills To do Gods will is to obey his prohibitions and these lusts are the principall Objects of those prohibitions so that the renouncing worldly lusts is plainly implyed in this of doing Gods will 2. To do Gods will is of a larger extent Inasmuch as it super addeth the practice of the graces contrary to these lusts Sobriety and chastity justice and charity modesty and humility are but severall branches of Gods will and these are manifestly opposite to the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and therefore in saying he that doth Gods will he saith he that is temperate and mercifull and humble and calls not only for a forsaking evill lusts but a performance of the contrary graces So that hereby our Apostle teacheth us that to attaine eternall felicity it is not enough to be free from these lusts but we must exercise our selves to virtue to cleanse our selves from filthiness but we must perfect holinesse and the reason is plaine since we cannot be happy but by doing Gods will Gods will is expressed not only by prohibitions of evill but prescriptions of good and therefore we cannot do Gods will unless we act what is commanded as well as shun what is forbidden So that whether you take this qualification as in opposition to those lusts mentioned in the sixteenth Verse or as an explanation of the love of the Father mentioned in the fifteenth Verse it appeareth to be very fitly made choice of 2. But that in which the connexion chiefly lyeth and which will more easily appeare is the remuneration that enduring for ever which is promised to him that doth Gods will And doubtless there was a double reason why our Apostle having spoken of the worlds transitâ—riness addeth by way of amplification this clause of eternall felicity The one in regard of the world that it may appeare so much the more transitâ—ry the other in regard of the worldly lover that his fâ—lly in setting his heart upon the world may appeare so much the more foolish yea abominable and of each a word 1. The world considered absolutely is transitory but if compared with eternity it is momentany Surely as St Paul speaking of the afflictions of this present time in comparison with that exceeding eternall weight of glory affirmeth them to be light and but for a moment so may we upon the same ground of all the enjoyments of this life As all the splendor of this world in respect of that felicity is but as the light of a Gloworme to the Sun so the longest continuance of this world in regard of that eternity is but as the drop of the Bucket to the Ocean Suppose the time of the worlds continuance to last a Million of yeares yet that Million is but a Moment to Eternity Indeed a Million of yeares is farre lesse in comparison of eternity then an houre is in comparison of a Million of yeares and the reason is plaine because eternity infinitely exceeds a Million whereas a Million doth but finitely exceed an houre you may easily count how much longer a Million is then an
houre but you can never reckon how much Eternity is longer then a Million so that our Apostle could not have found out a fitter way of illustrating this truth then this There are many things which he might have compared the world to we meet with them often in Scripture and indeed they are very significant but this that he compareth the present world with that to come serveth farre more clearly to represent it Indeed as a Dwarfe placed by a Gyant seemeth exceeding little or as a Mite weighed in the Ballance with a Talent is exceeding light so these worldly when set by Heavenly things appeare exceeding base vile and transitory Oh then let it be our frequent practice to meditate on the things above deliberately to ponder their excellency eternity that so the things below may seem so much the more perishing and contemptible in our eyes The first thing God made in this circular world was the Heavens and the last was Man in a Circle the beginning and the end meet and close together so should Man and Heaven and as to him that stands on an high Hill Giants seem Dwarfes so to the Man whose conversation is in Heaven the greatest things of earth cannot but appear small It is observed of Abraham that addressing himselfe in Prayer to God he calleth himselfe Dust and Ashes no doubt in consideration of the divine glory and majesty and to him who duly considereth that incorruptible inheritance immarcessible Crown and never fading Paradice all the riches honours and pleasures of this world must needs seem of a short very short continuance such indeed as is not worth the naming 2. And as the worlds fugacity so the worldlings folly becometh hereby the more manifest To build upon the Sands is foolish but to preferre the Sands before the Rock is yet farre more foolish to settle upon that which is flitting argueth want of wisdome but to do it with the contempt of that which is lasting argueth most desperate folly yet thus doth the worldling an happy eternity is offered to him upon the termes of doing Gods will and yet to fullfill his own lusts he maketh choice of this temporall prosperity Like that wretched Duke who would not change Paris for Paradice he had rather have a short life and as he calleth it a sweet one on Earth then an happy and everlasting life in Heaven In one word to use Gregory Nazianzens comparison he fixeth upon that which is transient and passeth by that which is permanent and can there be a greater madnesse Indeed it discovereth him void not only of grace but reason that whereas the Apostle saith a little before If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him we may adde If any man love the world the reason of a man is not in him And more truly may every such man take up that concerning himselfe which Agur said I am brutish and have not the understanding of a man Angustum est cor saith Gillebertus that heart is too narrow which confineth it selfe within the bounds of temporall pleasures but that is too narrow an expression it is an Argument not only of a narrow heart but a frantick braine to dote on toyes and neglect Pearls Oh then learne we at last to be wise and set a right value upon things Seneca saith excellently it is a matter of no small concernment Pretium rebus imponere to put a just estimate upon things and one nay the chief rule by which the worth of things is to be measured is their durance Id bonum cura saith the same Author pithily quod vetustate fit melius covet that good which the older it is the better it is Who would not prefer golden and silver before earthen and glassie vessels and that as for others so this reason that these are soon broken in pieces but those are little the worse for using Oh that this reason might sway with us to take off our affections from Earth and place them in Heaven Whenas Lysimachus being very thirsty had parted with his Kingdome for a little water he cryeth out Ob quam brevem voluptatem summam amisi faelicitatem how great a treasure have I lost for a short pleasure Could you but lay your eares to Hell you might heare the like despairing moanes from those damned spirits What an eternity of bliss have we lost for a momentany contentment fools mad men that we were to pursue those delights which are now ended in torments and neglect those joyes which we might now have possessed for ever But oh how much better were it for us now to be convinced of and reclaimed from this brutish simplicity Excellent to this purpose is that of St Bernard Ne casuri gloriam mundi quasi stantem aspiciatis verè stantem amittatis c. Oh you mortals do not look upon the glory of the world as abiding and in the mean time lose that which abideth for ever Let not your present prosperity so far bewitch you as not to regard that future felicity nor yet to take notice of that endless misery which is the end of it That Bruits which are led only by sense should minde nothing but what is before them is no wonder but God forbid that men whose reasonable souls are capable of seeing a far off should only regard what is present That Pagans who know little or nothing of the future eternity should busie their thoughts desires and endeavours about these perishing comforts is no wonder but as Leo well Ad aeterna prae electos peritura non occupent far be it from us Christians to regard these Objects who are not only acquainted with but ordained to eternall bliss When Alexander heard of and was resolved for the riches of India he divided Macedonia among his Captaines and shall not we who hear of and hope for a glorious mansion contemne these worldly cottages When Serapion read in the Bible of the joyes of Heaven he left his earthly possessions saying hic liber me spoliavit this book hath spoiled me In that his zeale was too rash but the assurance we have of those eternall joyes should engage us though not wholly to relinquish yet not to love these temporall contentments Quis alius noster finis saith St Austin quam pervenire ad regnum cujus non est finis What is our ultimate end but to come to that Kingdome whereof there is no end And shall we so live in this world which shall have an end as if the world were to be our chief end farre be it from us So often therefore as the vanities of earth affect us let our meditations flye upwards to the glories of Heaven and according to the Fathers counsell Let us begin to be there now in our thoughts and desires where we hope at last to be in our Persons To draw to an end In this Scripture our Apostle seemeth to put us to our
wooden vessels of which sort were Hymineus and Philetus To end this therefore It is a consideration which indeed may bee matter of sorrow that there should bee such chaff among the Wheat such Canaanites among the people of Israel such vipers in the bowels of the Church but yet it is no more than what hath been in all ages God in wisdom permits it the Devil in malice contriveth it that Antichristian teachers should grow up among the Christians non mirandum quod exurgant sed vigilandum ne noceant is St. Austins excellent advice wonder not that they do arise beware that they do not hurt and though they are mingled with us let us take heed wee bee not partakers with and so infected by them 2 But that which is here expressed and would chiefly bee considered is that these Antichristian teachers went out from the Apostles for the unfolding whereof I shall discuss these two things What this going out imports Whence it comes to pass 1 The first Question to be resolved is what this going out imports to which end observe 1 It is one thing to go out by vertue of a Commission and another to go out in a way of desertion Wee read of the King that hee sent his servants and bid them go out into the high waies to wit to invite guests to the wedding thus did the Apostles go forth from Christ as being sent by him to Preach the Gospel but in this sense it cannot bee here understood as if these Antichrists went forth Commissioned from the Apostles because that to these words they went out from us are opposed those They would have continued with us Now continuing with the Apostles if taken in opposition to going out from them with Commission had been a crime and would have deserved that check why stand you idle whereas nothing clearer than that this continuing with them is here intended as that which was their duty to have done and consequently the going out can bear no other sense than their forsaking the Apostles 2 It is one thing to bee cast out and another to go out the former is a punishment or censure of the Church consisting of various degrees according to the quality of offences some being â—ast out è coetu participantium of the number of the communicants others not only so but è coetu procumbentium from prayers as well as Sacraments others è coetu audiâ—ntium nay fidelium not suffered so much as to hear the Word or to converse with the faithful These Censures though none more deserve them than those my text speaks of may for some gross mis-demeanours be inflicted on those who yet are true members oâ— the Church indeed this judicial casting out is that which is done by the governours of the Church not onely as an act of Justice but mercy with charitable and compassionate intentions that the casting out may prove the casting down of the delinquent and that casting down may tend to the raising up and receiving in again of the penitent But this going out is the act of wicked Apostates a sin of a very deep dye and hainous nature nor can they who thus cast themselves out ever call themselves in yea they are seldome if ever called in again 3 This sin of Apostacy in going out from the Church is committed two waies viz. by Heresy and Schism a going out from the faith and from the fellowship of the Church Indeed Heresy and Schism like abortive twins in many particulars are coincident and like Jacob and Esau one holds fast by the others heels Haeresies in point of faith do easily produce a separation in the use of Ordinances and formes of worship So the Arrian Heresy brought in a different doxology and schism in point of communion frequently induceth into Heretical Doctrins ut rectè ab ecclesiâ discessisse videantur as St. Hierom excellently that the Schismatick may thereby the better maintain his unlawful separation and by both these waies did the Antichrist go out 1 They went out that is they Apostatized from the faith which was once delivered and had been by them professed That expression of the Apostle The door of Faith intimateth that faith is the door of the Church so that by embracing we enter in by deserting the faith we go out of the Church Thus St. Paul saith of Hymeneus and Philetus that concerning the faith they made shipwrack that is as Marriners in a storm cast their wares over board so did they cast away the Orthodox Doctrine of Christianity such were those whom the Apostle Peter chargeth for bringing in damnable Heresies destructive to the foundamentals of Religion and the salvation of the people against whom therefore the Apostle Jude exhorteth sincere Christians to contend earnestly 2 They went out that is they departed from the fellowship of the Apostles with whom they had held communion before Having endeavoured to deprave the Churches Truth by Heresy they disturb the peace by schism rending themselves from that body of which they professed themselves members such were those some whose manner St. Paul tells us was to forsake the assembly and this is one of those brands which St. Jude marketh the false teachers with that they did separate themselves not willing to bee confined within the limits and bounds of the Churches Communion 4 Once more this phrase they went out from us is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more being intended than is expressed not only that they went out from but that being gone out they did set themselves against the Church and therefore hee calls them in the former verse Antichrists which is far more than Apostates their separation was not onely negatively a nen-communion but positively a direct opposition gathering to themselves parties erecting as it were a Church against a Church an Altar against an Altar they did not onely forsake their colours but did fight under the enemies banner and charge desperately in their forlorn in one word not onely a falling from the doctrine and communion but a rising against both through an internal malicious dâ—testation is that which is the extent of the accusation which our Apostle intends by these words They went out from us 2 The next question which would bee resolved is how this came to pass that these schismatical Hereticks went out from the Church nor need we goe further for an answer than the fore-going verses where the Apostle first dehorts in general from the love of the world and particularly from the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life all of which wee shall find to have a great influence upon Antichristian Apostates 1 They went out from the Church because they loved the world it was St. Pauls charge against Demas hee hath forsaken us having loved this present world That heart which is tenacious of the world will easily let goe its hold of truth Our Apostle saith a little
is of quality by way of Analogy is that which wee finde as in Threatnings so in Promises between the Service and the Reward and this expressed two waies 1 Sometimes one contrary is promised as the recompense of another To the Mourners is assured comfort to the Hungry fulnesse to the Humble exaltation to the Poor a Kingdome and to them that sow in tears a joyful Harvest in all which how great a congruity there is is obvious at the first view 2 Sometimes Like is promised as the reward of like thus wee read of Honour to them that Honour God and Love to them that Love him of Giving to them that Give Forgiving to them that Forgive and Mercy to them that are Merciful of Eternal life to them that continue in well doing and here of eternal life and continuing in the Father and the Son to them that continue in what they have heard 2 How pretious is the benefit considered in it self you shall continue in the Son and in the Father that is saith the Greek Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the same in substance with that in the former Chapter Our fellowship is with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ onely the manner of expression is somewhat more â—mphatical whilest the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in noteth the Propinquity and the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the permanency of this fellowship That Question why the Holy Ghost is not mentioned is thus resolved by Estiuâ— Quia de eo non erat oborta questio because as yet there was no controversy raised and so no need of mentioning him If it bee asked why the Son is put before the Father the answer is well returned because the Apostle had just before inveighed against those who though they pretended to acknowledge the Father yet deny the Son Though withall there may besides bee a double reason assigned The one to insinuate that the Son is not lesse than the Father but that they are equal in essence and dignity upon this account most probable it is that the Apostolical benediction beginneth with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and then followeth the love of God the Father The other because as Beda well glosseth No man commeth to or continueth in the Father but by the Son who saith of himself I am the way the truth and the life To draw it up lo here Eximia laus doctrinae an high commendation of Evangelical Doctrin that it leads up to Christ and by him to the Father the water riseth as high as the spring from whence it floweth no wonder if the Gospel which commeth from God through Christ lead us back again through Christ to God and as by hearing and beleeving this Doctrin we are united to so by adhering to and persevering in it wee continue in the Son and the Father Suitable to this is that promise of our blessed Saviour If any man love mee hee will keep my Word and my Father will love him and wee will come to him and make our abode with him if wee not onely receive but keep Christs word he and the Father will not only come but continue with us They who never heard nor received the Gospel are without God and without Christ so St. Paul saith of the Ephesians whilest they were in their Heathenish condition They who having heard the Gospel and for sake it are far from God and Christ God himself saith If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but if that which wee have heard abide with us wee shall continue in the favour and affection of in â—nion and communion with Christ and the Father And now beloved if the Psalmist said Blessed are they that dwell in thy house much more may I. Blessed are they that continue in the Son and in the Father if S. Peter said of being on Mount Tabor with Christ at his Transfiguration it is good for us to be here much more may we say It is good for us to be with the Son and the Father If hee that was asked where his treasure was answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Cyrus was his friend well may the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place his wealth in the friendship of and fellowship with the Son and the Father Let me then be speak you in those words of St. Jude keep your selves in the love of God which though it be chiefly understood in the active sense keep in you a love to God yet withall it may admit a Passive Interpretation keep your selves in Gods love not is there any better way than by keeping Gods word in our selves if Christs word dwell in us he himself will dwell with us the Ark was a blessing to Obed Edoms house so is the Gospel to the place where it is Preached much more to them who so hear as to receive and so receive as to retain it Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard that you may continue in the Son and the Father so much the rather when we consider what Followeth in the next verse an assurance that this continuance shall know no end but being begun on earth it shall be perpetuated in heaven to all eternity for this is the Promise which he hath promised â—â— eternal life which God willing in our next discourse shall bee unfolded THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. 25. VERS And this is the Promise that hee hath promised us even eternal life AS there is in bad men an aversnesse from so there is in the best a backwardnesse to their duty The one through wickednesse have an Antipathy the other through weaknesse an inability to what is good corruption is so prevalent in those that they will not receive and so remanent in these that they have much ado to retain either Truth in their minds or grace in their hearts For this Reason no doubt it is that Almighty God is pleased by his sacred Pen men not onely to impose services but propose rewards and to enforce his commands by arguments Among those many Arguments by which our duty is perswaded none more effectual than those which concern our selves there being in us all such a principle of self-love as puts us upon seeking our own advantage and of all those advantages which allure to the doing our duty none equal to that recompence of reward that eternal life which is laid up for promised to and shall be conferr'd upon us How fitly hath our Apostle here coupled together a difficult duty and an excellent motive perseverance whether in well beleeving or well-doing is no easy task the hands of our Faith and obedience like those of Moses are apt to grow heavy and have need of the stone of a Promise to bee put under them that they may bee steady to the going down of the Sun of our lives and a sweeter fuller Promise there is not in the whole book
not cannot bee the meaning of this clause it now remaineth that I indeavour to unfold the Quid est what is the genuine sense of it and since by what hath been already said it appeareth that it must bee interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with limitation that which is to bee inquired and resolved is in what respects this is true that hee who is taught by the unction need not be taught by any man For the unfolding whereof there is a double way proposed both of which are very rational and satisfactory 1 The Particle of denying Not is not to bee taken absolutely but comparatively not that they did not need any man to teach them at all but they did not need it so much as others For the further clearing of this it would bee observed that in several Scriptures this particle not is a note not of irrespective but comparative negation When God saith by his Prophet I will have mercy and not sacrifice hee cannot mean that hee would not have Sacrifice at all for then it was a part of his Worship but yet then hee would not have it in comparison of mercy When St. Paul saith I am sent not to baptize but to Preach hee cannot mean a denial for hee was sent to baptize his Commission was the same with the rest of the Apostles which was to Baptize all Nations but hee was rather sent to Preach than Baptize That of our blessed Saviour Labour not for the meat that perisheth if taken Negatively will contradict St. Paul where he saith He that will not work let him not eat and therefore no doubt onely meaneth that wee should chiefly labour for the meat that indureth to eternal life and yet once more that saying of his in another place my doctrin is not mine but his that sent me should we take it as a direct denial would be contradictory to it self my Doctrin and yet not mine and therefore is to bee construed it is not mine so much as his whose I am and whose my Doctrin is his that sent mee Agreeable hereunto it is that wee expound this of S. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you have no need that is not so much need that any man teach you According to this Interpretation it would further bee inquired in comparison of whom this negation is to bee understood to which a double Answer may bee returned 1 In comparison of the Jews before the comming of Christ it is true of all Christians they need not so much as those Jews did That any man should teach them This is that which I look upon as the most genuine construction of Jeremiahs Prophecy concerning the Church of the New Testament for though the Precepts are expresse in several Epistles of Teaching and admonishing one another of Exhorting one another and of provoking one another to love and to good works yet the Christians need not Teach one another as the Jews of Old needed for whereas the Worship of God under the law was so Ceremonial obscure that Children needed to ask their Parents and every man his Neighbour what was the meaning of this or that Rite that so hee might know the Lord the Precepts of the Gospel are so plain and rational that every one may understand them and whereas this unction was then but sparingly given both in regard of latitude as to the subject and fulnesse as to the degree some few extraordinary persons excepted it is now so universally poured out and that in so far a greater measure that in respect of them the Christians now need not that any man teach them A Consideration which should lay upon us Christians so much the greater obligation of gratitude Time was when the Jews could say Hee hath not dealt so with any Nation as hee hath done with us neither have the Heathen the knowledge of his Law but now wee may say he did not deal so with the Jews as hee hath with us neither had they either such clear Prescripts for Gods Worship or such a plentiful effusion of his Spirit and oh that wee would so thankfully consider this as withall to remember that to whom much is given of them much shall bee required 2 More Congruously to this present Scripture These Christians to whom St. John wrote did not need that any man should teach them in comparison of these who either were but newly initiated into or had been seduced from the Doctrin of Christianity To this purpose is that Glosse of Beza's Haâ— res non tanquam ignot as proponit sed tanquam cognitas inculcat The Ignorant must be taught what they knew not before and the seduced must be taught to return from whence they have Apostatized but these Christians being neither Ignorant nor seduced had no need so bee so taught though still as to their confirmation and growth in Grace and the knowledge of Christ they needed instruction Wee may very well construe this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in opposition to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Paul As hee chiding the Hebrews saith When for the time you ought to bee Teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God So our Apostle commending these Christians saith You need not that any man teach you So that as Cameron well glosseth it is Hyperbolica locâ—tio an Hyperbolical Expression in way of Commendation and so the design of it the same with that Complement hee useth a little before I have not written to you because you know not the Truth but because you know it Very Observable to this purpose is that of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians where hee saith Touching Brotherly Love You have no need that I write unto you for you your selves are taught of God to love one another yet in the very next verse there followeth Wee beseech you Brethren to increase more and more By which it plainly appeareth hee did not intend that there was no need at all to write to them but that they did not need it so much as others having in a good measure learned that lesson already Suitable to this is that of the same Apostle to the Corinthians where hee saith as touching the Ministring to the Saints it is superfluous for mee to write to you when as in that very Chapter hee useth many Arguments to incourage them to that very duty and therefore cannot bee supposed to mean that it was altogether superfluous And surely as the design of St. Paul in bespeaking the Thessalonians and the Corinthians after this manner was to stir them up to a ready performance of those duties by taking notice of and commending them for what they had done in that kinde already so no doubt the scope of our Apostle was to animate them against Antichristian Seducers by praising them for their proficiency in the Orthodox Faith That which wee may learn from hence is that
of our peace yet wee are very apt to bee with-drawn from them especially by the cunning of Seducers but blessed bee God this Unction abideth with us and enableth us to abide Oh let us herein rejoyce that the wisdome of our Saviour hath so fully provided for our safety and let it bee our daily prayer that this holy Unction would still vouchsafe to remain with us so as wee may bee instructed confirmed and preserved by it to everlasting life Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 28. And now little Children abide in him that when he shall appear wee may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his comming MAny are the Diseases to which the inward as well as the outward man is subject The Feaver of Luxury the Surfet of Gluttony Meagrom of Drunkennesse Lethargy of Sloath and Ague of Idlenesse all which are involved in the Lust of the flesh the Itch of Curiosity and the Dropsy of Covetousnesse which are the lusts of the Eies the Tumor of Arrogancy and the Timpany of Ambition which are the Fride of Life are not more common than dangerous sicknesses no wonder if our Apostle being a spiritual Physician cautioneth us and prescribeth in this Chapter an excellent Antidote against them of not loving the World and the things of the World But besides these the Consumption of Envy the Frenzy of Malice the Giddinesse of Inconstancy and Falling-sicknesse of Apostacy are no lesse deadly and farre more spreading for this cause it is that our Apostle throughout this whole Epistle very much insisteth upon brotherly love the only cure of malice and envie and in the latter part of this Chapter earnestly perswadeth a firm adherence to the Christian Faith the proper remedy of inconstancy and Apostacy the close of which Discourse is in the words of the text And now little children abide in him c. In which verse there are three things offer themselves to our observation â—â—e Manner the Matter the Motive The manner â—â—â—â—et The matter serâ—us The motive strong The manner Rhetorical The matter Theological The motive Logical The manner vehement The matter important The motive urgent Finally The manner in the Compellation Little Children The matter in the Exhortation And now abide in him The motive in the Incitation That when hee shall appear we may have confidence and not bee ashamed before him at his coming of each of which with brevity and perspicuity 1 Begin we with the Compellation which having had occasion once and again to handle shall bee quickly passed over only I cannot but with Ferus take notice of the excelleat Artifice of our Apostle who calleth them to whom he wrote Little Children Ut oftensione affect us sui fortius moveat thatby discovering the dearness of his love towards them they might bee the more easily perswaded by him St. Paul writing to the Romans concerning false Teachers saith they did deceive the simple by fair and smooth words Surely the Ministers of Christ should be no lesse artificial in perswading than they are in deceiving and to that end use smooth and fair words Me thinketh those words of our Saviour to his Disciples when so many forsook him carry in them a great deal of passion Will you also goe away and no doubt they made a suitable impression on them witnesse Peters answer Lord whither shall wee goe what affectionate straines are those of St. Paul and St. Peter I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God so St. Paul Dearly beloved I beseech you so St. Peter and if wee well weigh it wee shall finde as much nay more in this of St. John And now little children the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is not only an adverb of time but a particle of beseeching and this title Little children seemeth to intimate that our Apostle beseecheth them Per eam Paternam benevolentiam by the love of a Father yea by the bowels of a Mother You that are Parents know with what tender affections you speak to your Children when you disswade them from evil or perswade them to good the same Spirit was in this holy Apostle Mira sollicita de suorum salute cura it was a strange solicitous care and desire which he had of their Salvation which put him upon this earnest way of exhorting them to perseverance Oh that all the Ministers of the Word would learn to fellow this pattern I told you in the last Lecture it is only God that can speak to the heart inwardly and effectually but certainly that Minister shall soonest convey as it were his words into the heart who speaketh with his heart yea rather speaketh his heart whose expressions manifest his affection as to the things concerning which so to the persons to whom he speaketh and this shall suffice for a brief account of the Compellation 2 Proceed we to the Exhortation in those words And now abide in him Before I discusse the nature of the duty it will not be amisse to observe that what is assured in the end of the former verse You shall abide in him is prescribed in the beginning of this abide in him Abiding in Christ is the matter of both a promise and a precept it is that which wee shall finde verified in other duties as well as this I will put my fear in their hearts so runs the Promise Fear the Lord so frequently the Precept A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you so God promiseth make you a new heart and a new spirit so hee commandeth The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love him is the promise and in the same Chapter I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God Indeed there may seem some kind of incongruity in this at the first view for what need is there of commanding us to doe what God promiseth hee will enable us to doe but in truth there is a sweet harmony between precepts and promises of this nature whilst these serve to strengthen our confidence and those to quicken our diligence when on the one hand we are exhorted to abide in Christ wee may be ready to say but How shall I bee able to perform this duty my enemies are so strong and grace so weak that I fear I shall let goe my hold and as David once said I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul so the weak though willing Christian is apt to say I shall one day fall by the power and policy of the Devil and notwithstanding all my resolutions and endeavours I fear my deceitful heart will bee with-drawn from Christ But loe for our comfort and encouragement here is a promise that by the vertue of this Unction wee shall abide On the other hand when we meet with these and such like promises of perseverance we may be ready to flatter our selves
especially that of Hereticks 681 Confidence whence that ariseth which persevering beleevers shall have at the last day 748 Self-Conceit see Arrogance Concupiscence see Lust Confession of Christ when called to it necessary and why 627 629 630 Constancy see Perseverance Contempt of the world required of Christians 328. Contentation with our condition a choice virtue 385 Covetousnes why called a lust of the eyes in what it consists 374 to 378. an universal disease 378 379. insatiable 380 381. enslaving 382 opposed to all the Beatitudes 383. breaketh all the Commandements 424 425. a cause of Heresies 509 Creatures all of them may be our teachers 201. b. Curiosity of knowing of seeing condemned 364. c. one cause of Heresy 509 D. DEath puts an end to all worldly lusts 449. befalleth the righteous as well as the wicked 467. ought to bee daily meditated on and that by the youngest 491 Delights the difference between spiritual and carnal 448. they end in misery 456 Denial of Christ how many waies 617 614. it is a denial of the whole Trinity 618. how denied as the Son of God 626 627 Desire after the things of this world when inordinate 326 The Devil is subtil as well as malicious 362 363. his aim is to hinder us from the word 293. hee taketh advantage against us from our selves 363. hee stirreth up evil lusts in men 437. hee is the wicked one how hee came to bee so and in what respects hee is so 277 c. wee ought to fight with him 287. our best weapon against him is faith 289 Doctrines must bee examined in their consequences 620 621 Drunkenness a lust of the flesh wherein the sin consists 350 351 E. ENvy see Hatred Epicures please all their senses 366 Epistle the first of St. John a Touch-stone 1 2 Eternity puts a value upon things 477 704. this world so much the more transitory when compared with it 475. Christians of all others obliged to seek after it 478 Eternal Life two fold 657. why that life must bee so 658. it is the choice excellency of that life 659. it is the promise 665. made by Christ most clearly 665. to them that persevere 670 Examination of our selves is that in which wee ought to bee very serious 75 Examples we are apt to follow bad ones 437 Excelling when the desire of it is sinfull 794 795 F. FAith why called knowledge 8 9. it uniteth us to Christ 41. it produceth three sorts of effects 72. in exercising its reflex act wee must not neglect its direct 77. of great use in resisting the Devil 290 opposed by the Devil 634. it cometh by hearing 638. Falling away see Apostacy Father God cannot bee now rightly worshiped but as the Father of Christ 622. in denying the Son the Father is denied 616. several sorts of Fathers 208. perfect Christians compared to Fathers 204 b. Flesh a three-fold acception of it 343. several lusts of the flesh 344 to 358 Forgiveness of sin taketh off the obligation to punishment 241 242. may bee considered three waies 244. a special mercy 245. a great honour to God 248. hee is engaged to it by promise 249. it is for Christs sake 250 251. an obligation to repentance and love 252 to 254 Fornication a sinful lust of the flesh 348 G. GLuttony a sinful lust of the flesh 349 God from the Beginning 260 Gospel hath Law in it 88 89. the true light and why 122 123. the Truth 580 of Divine Original 583. leadeth us to Christ and by him to God 649 Grace if true cannot consist with the dominion of any sin 544. it is of great worth 545. to bee preserved and imployed by us 552 557 705. wee must concur with it 7â—7 it is not alwaies discerned by them who have it 76. it may be known whether true or counterfeit 71 72. all graces are connexe 60 61. wee must not bee proud of it 405. a little must not content us nor yet discourage us 213. wee must grow in it 217 218 H. HAppiness of that other life cannot bee expressed 654 Hatred of our Brother an hainous sin wherein it consists 166 to 178. he that is guilty of it may yet think his estate good 180. but hee is really very bad 184 Heresy the cause of it 509. those which are fundamental are to bee most opposed 600 Hereticks being erroneous themselves seduce others 679. they are cunning to seduce 682 683. very tenacious of their errours 645. they are lyars and Antichrists 597 Hearing the sense of knowledge faith 637. it must be with our heart and foot as well as eare 639 Humility wee are obliged to it both as men and Christians 405 Hypocrites pretend to great measures of illumination 21 22 I. IDleness a sinful lust of the flesh 355 Jesus that such a person there was 601. that hee is the Christ 602 to 612 Ignorance several kinds of it 588 589. the causes of it 591. most odious in old men 269 Illumination of the mind no less needful than the outward Revelation 568 570 Imitation of Christ hath a Limitation 45 46. how far extended 52. it cannot bee exact 53. ought to bee endeavoured 54 55. our relation to and union with Christ obligeth to it 56 57 Imputation of Christs righteousness to us how it cometh to pass 42 Incest a sinful lust of the flesh 346 Inconstancy in Religion bemoaned Interpretation of Scripture not to bee attempted by every men 236 Joy three things concur to it 68 Judgements God giveth warning of them before he sends them 501 K. KIngdoms have their periods 388 Knowledge very amiable 19 590. especially that of Christ 20 266. what it imports to know Christ 7 8. twofold 265 24. how differenced 25. if onely speculative it is not right and will but aggravate our condemnation 25 27. it must bee joyned with obedience 23 24 463. if right it is the mother of obedience 5. puts us on love to Christ 23 273. in what sense Christians know all things and with what knowledge 564 565. the means of attaining it 592. wee still need instruction 593 L. LAst Times those from the first to the second comeing of Christ 484 485. we must look upon every day as our last 491 Law in comparison of the Gospel darkness 124 Life why that future bliss so called 653. that far excels this 659. this transitory 450. too much doted on 659. three-fold 256 Love the nature of it in general 325 Love of God twofold 28. the effect of a right knowledge 29 30. it renders our obedience acceptable 32. what perfection of it is attainable 33 34. hee is to bee loved chiefly as a Father 415. it cannot consist with but casts out the love of the world 416 417 Love of our Brother the old Commandment 89 94. nothing added to it by Christ 105 to 110. in what sense a new Commandment 110 to 114. it prevents many sins and scandals 153 to 155. he that loveth is in the light 151. wherein Brotherly love
1. Whither is not Neigbour to be taken in the same latitude when it is said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as when it is said Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour and again Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours If this be denied that will be enough to evince it that the particular commands of the second Table are but severall Explications of the generall command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and therefore it is the same Neighbour to whom we must express our Love by not bearing false witness against him and the like and if it be granted then certainly Neighbour must include Stranger nay Enemy Since the Jews were not to bear false witness against their Enimies or to covet unjustly what belonged to them To this purpose is the note of a Rabbin upon these words of the Psalmist He that doth no evill to his Neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour understanding it of enemies as well as friends 2. When our blessed Saviour repeateth this Law of Moses whither did not Christ understand it in the same sense with Moses If he did noâ— then he affixed another sense to Moses his words then what he intended which is not to be imagined if he did then either Moses meant them universally or else Christ did not and so Christ hath added nothing in this particular to Moses As for that passage in our Saviours Sermon Thou shalt love thy neighhour and hate thine enemy it is doubtless to be understood as Abulensis hath well noted only as a Tradition of the Scribes and Pharisees Indeed St Austin and St Hilary seem to be of opinion that hatred was allowed in the Old Testament Yea Oecumenius in this place harpeth upon the same string but by the leave of those Reverend Fathers upon what ground it doth not appear since it is no where written in the whole Body of the Law Thou shalt hate thy Enemies and therefore it is well observed that our blessed Saviour doth not say You have heard that it hath been said by Moses or in the Law but You have heard that it hath been said to wit by the Scribes and Pharisees those corrupt Interpreters of the Law To all this for the further Confirmation I may add That Solomon expresly requireth in his Proverbs and St Paul from him enjoyneth in his Epistle If thine Enomy â—e hungry give him Bread to Eat And if he be thirsty give him water to drink so shalt thou heap coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward thee That God in the Law gave strict charge concerning the beast even of our Enemy If thou meet thine Enemies Oxe or his Ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him Again If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help him And certainly he that required them to assist their Enemy in rescuing his beast did not allow them hatred and malice to his Person Nay yet once more in the forementioned place where Moses saith Thou shalt love thy Neighbour is prefixed Thou shalt not avenge nor bear grudge which refers to an Enemie that hath done one an injury As for that lex talionis Law of retaliation though as appeareth by our Saviour it was otherwise construed by the Pharisees yet doubtless it was only intended by God as a rule for the publique Magistrate in his Administrations of justice and is no less in this sense allowable now And though they were to exercise acts of Hostility towards the Nations about them in making no peace with the Ammonites casting out the Cananites and cutting off the Amalekites yet this was by a speciall command from God which both then and now may dispence with a generall Precept and withall their being the Instruments of Gods vengance upon the Heathen did not hinder but that they might be free from any private revenge and so fulfill the generall Precept as well as any Headsman who notwithstanding he is the Executor of Justice may yet love that Person whom he doth execute 2. That Love which the Law requireth may very well in some cases be raised up to that heighth of suffering death Briefly to clear which know That laying down our life in reference to our neighbour is only required in one of these two cases the one when the publique the other when the spirtuall good of others necessitateth to it To lay down a mans life for the publique good is so far from being purely Christian that even Heathens have done it and therefore is no doubt included in the Mosaicall Precept which we may the rather believe because we find himself willing to be blotted out of the Book of Life for the preservation of the People and if it be said that this is to love our Neighbour more then our selves I answer It is not if we take Neighbour Distributively and if we take it Collectively for the Generality even nature teacheth us and surely then Moses his Law did require to prefer the puhlique before the private Wellfare a Generall before a Particular good 3. But that dying which is especially an act of Love is when we are willing to lose our own temporall life for the eternall good of others An example of this we have in the Old Testament What else meant Davids wish in regard of his Son Absalom when he said Would God I had died for thee Desiring no doubt to prevent that eternall death into which he had reason to think his Son dying in Rebellion against his King his Father was now plunged by the loss of his temporary life And in truth though this be to love our Neighbours Souls better then our Body yet it is not to love our Neighbour better then our selves and therefore exceeds not the Mosaicall Precept Caeâ—eris paribus let there be an equality every way and a Christian is as much bound now to prefer himself before his Neighbour as a Jew was and in way of inequality a Jew was bound to dammage himself for his Neghbours good as well as a Christian I am not to love my Neighbours Soul more then my own Soul nor his Body more then my Body nor his Estate more then my own Christian charity in this respect as well as Jewish begins at home only when it is my Estate or Body and my Neighbours Soul which come in Competicion this must be valued above those and this is required by Moses as well as Christ In one word That addition as thy self was certainly intended not as a Limitation or Restriction but rather as an Amplification and Inlargment of this duty of love that look how dear and entire and cordiall that love is which men bear to themselves the same they ought to have towards their Neighbours And therefore I shut up this
exhortation Begin betimes to acquaint yourselves with Gods word and ingage in the war with this wicked one To this end ponder a while on these ensuing considerations 1. Possibly nay probably you may not live to be old old age is that which none can assure himself of and comparatively few do partake of it if the first death overcome us before we overcome the Devil we must needs be hurt of the second death and if we overcome not whilest we are young death may prevent our being old and so cut us off while we are in the Devils jawes Oh who would run so desperate an hazard considering to how many diseases casualties the young are subject 2. If you do live to be old yet consider 1. The conquest over this wicked one will be the more difficult by how much the longer it is delayed the Proverb saith a young Saint an old Devil but I am sure it is hard for a young Devil to become an old Saint Dost thou think it will be so easie to cast out this strong man when he hath had so much time to fortifie himself Wilt not thou every day become weaker and the enemy stronger and must not then the victory be harder It was much saith St Chrysostome that Jonah after three dayes imprisonment escaped out of the Whales belly but it is much more to see an habituated sinner extricate himself out of the Devils snare Sin and Satan are not like Tenants at will to be gone at a Quarters warning the best wisdome is to crush the â—ockatrice in the egge Oh take heed of accustoming thy self to the Devils yoak since then it will not be a facile work to throw it off Nay further 2. God may hereafter deny that grace to thee which now thouâ— denyest to thy self and then it will not be only difficult but impossible to overcome him It is a sad doom which God uttereth concerning Ephraim He is joyned to Idols let him alone what if God say so of thee He is addicted to the Devils service let him alone it is but just when men give themselves over voluntarily God should give them over judicially to Satans power and then there is no possibility of escaping out of his hands Me thinks it is very observable that only he who first stepped into the poâ—l after the moving of the waters by the Angel was cured Post est occasio calva time must be taken by the fore-lock Oh then make hast to list thy self a souldier under Christs command least if now thou maiest thou wilt not when perhaps thou wouldst thou shalt not 3. If through divine grace thou shalt hereafter prevaile against this wicked one yet oh what grief and anguish of heart will it be then to thee that thou wast so long bewitched with the Devils temptations How bitterly doth David deprecate Allmighty God Remember not against me the sins of my youth No doubt out of the deep sense he had of and sorrow for them Quae fuerunt inania Juventutis gaudia haec sunt acerba senectutis gravamina the vanities of youth will be the vexation of old age and if the one be a comedy all upon pleasure the other will prove a tragedy of sorrow 4. Finally The only â—â—t and most acceptable time for this spirituall conflict and conquest is the time of youth It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth saith the Church Indeed then he is most able to bear it This yoke as St Hilary excellently Non expectat frigescentis senectatis annos nec emortuam jam aetatem pro vitiorum cousuetudinâ— is not for the weake shoulders of old men who are so much the weaker because sin through custome is become stronger yea as St Ambrose truly Quid potest habere laudis what thanks is it if when our body is enervated through pleasures and the cold frost of old age hath seased on it we should then offer it to God as a Sacrifice It is St Basils note that whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an inscription prefixed before many Psalms it is omitted before the fifteenth which is a breviary of morall Precepts the practise whereof must not be defer'd till the end of our lives Indeed Mane as one wittily observeth is the Devils Verb who tempts us to continue still in his service but Gods Verb who expects the morning of our youth to be devoted to him What the fat was in the sacrifice that is the strength of youth in Gods service very acceptable to him oh let it be offered by us The truth is a young Christian Souldier is both most terrible in the Devils and amiable in Gods eyes The figtree putteth forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell they are Christs words to his Church Indeed no smell so sweet in his nostrils as that which comes from the tender grapes and withall as St Bernard observeth Hic odor serpentes fugat venimous Creatures cannot endure the sent but so soon as the vines put forth they remove Quod volo attendant novitij nostri a comfort to young Saints who pertake of that spirit whose first fruits the Devils abhorre In one word as it is Gods honour and the Devils terror so it will be our comfort Assure thy self oh young man it will be no grief of heart to thee in thy old age that thou didst begin in youth to engage thy self in this sacred war against the wicked one Temporis preteriti bene impensi suavis est memoria Oh how sweet is the remembrance of youth well spent What a joyfull Harvest doth the old man reap from the seedtime of a Religious youth and with what abundant contentment doth he gather those ripe fruits of virtue which budded forth in his youthfull daies Oh then be wise you young mâ—n and instructed you that are of tender years for Gods sake nay for your own sake for his glory and for your own comfort and saâ—ety give no place to the Devill resist him speedily resolutely so shall you overcome him gloriously And now if you be such young Men as my Text describeth the instructions here given cannot but be welcome to you no wonder that our Apostle by these quâ—lifications as by so many arguments inciteth to the practice both of the precedent precept and the subsequent prohibition 1. Love not the world because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one He that is given up to the world is wicked and he that is entangled with it is weake a strong Saint is so far from loving that he contemneth it having his conversation in Heaven they that by waiting on the Lord renew their strength Mount up with wings as Eagles and so are free from deaths snares Worldly love will not suffer the word of God to abide in us This diverts us from hearing and reading the
welfare than he was of theirs and that tender love and parental care which hee had over them induced him to warn them of those Antichrists which would infest and infect them but having once and again handled this Title in this notion I shall insist no longer upon it but passe on to the 2 Affirmation as it followeth in the text It is the last time The only Question here to be resolved is in reference to what our Apostle asserts the time in which hee lived to be the last 1 The general opinion of Divines referre it to the world and so this clause seemeth to bee a proof of what is asserted in the former verse The world passeth away for even now is the last time of the worlds duration beyond which it shall not continue In this sense the whole space of time from Christs first to his last coming is the last time those are the last days concerning which Joel prophesieth that in them God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh for in the very beginning of the Evangelical times the Apostle telleth us that Prophecie was fulfilled these are the last days in which the Author to the Hebrews saith that God who spake to the Fathers by his Prophets hath spoken to us by his Son who coming in our flesh revealed his Fathers will to the world and in this notion the assertion is true that even in St. Johns days it was the last time of the world This being taken for the meaning of the clause it would rationally be enquired upon what account this space of time which hath already continued so long and when it shall expire is unknown may be called the last Oecumenius giveth a double answer but neither satisfactory 1 He saith it is called the last because the worst as lees and dreggs are in the bottom of the liquor but though possibly the last time may be the worst yet is it not therefore the last because the worst or the worst because the last 2 He addeth that if we divide time into the first the middle and the last whatsoever time is after the middle is the last and accordingly all the time before Christ may be called the first and since his coming the last But though we read that God sent his Son into the world in the fulnesse of time yet not that it was in the middle of time and whether the world shall not last longer after than the time of its continuance before the Messiahs incarnation is a question which though some have rashly undertaken yet I am sure none can justly resolve As for that opinion that as the world was six days in making so it shall be only six thousand years in lasting it is but a Rabbinical conceit and a groundless dream nor doth St. Peters assertion that a thousand years is with the Lord as one day at all favour this opinion since it seemeth rather to bee uttered on a contrary design namely to let us know that how many thousand years soever the world shall last yet God is not therefore slack since with him they are but as so many days That indeed which seemeth the most rational account of this phrase in this notion is that it is the last time because it is the last period of time and the Messiah being come there are now no more changes or alterations of the external administrations in Religion to be expected The life of man the little world is a fit embleme of the duration of this great world and look as there are three ages of mans life Youth Manhood and Old Age so the world hath three periods from Adam to Moses from Moses to Christ from Christs first to his last coming and as Old Age though it many times be as long as either nay it may be as both is called the last age because death is that which next succeeds after it so this period of the Evangelical time how long soever it may bee is the last time because that which closeth it is the Day of Judgement in which respect St. Austin saith truly Ipsa novissima hora diuturna est sed tamen novissima hora the last time is long but yet it is the last time Look as the time of Jobs continuance upon earth after his restitution to a prosperous estate which was an hundred and forty years and so a large part of his life is yet called the latter end of Job so may this of the Evangelical administration though of a long durance be stiled the latter end of the world And upon this account it may serve to discover the folly of that Generation of Seekers which among the numerous brood of Heresies hath sprouted forth amongst us in vain doe they expect a new Church new Ordinances new Administrations when as this is the last time St. Paul plainly tells us that the Christian Church by administring the holy Sacrament must shew forth the Lords death till he come that is to judge the quick and the dead and surely by way of Analogy it holds true of all the Evangelical institutions there is nothing to be expected but the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ in the end of the world 2 But though this interpretation may be true it is very harsh especially considering that the word which we translate Time signifieth that which is one of the shortest durations of time an hour and it may be very well looked upon as incongruous that so large a space of time should be called an hour I know Expositors endeavour to salve this by telling us that it is but an hour Comparatione futuri saeculi so Carthusian in comparison of the duration of the other world and to the same purpose Calvin Siregni Dei â—ternitas c. If we revolve in our minds the eternity of Gods Kingdom the longest continuance will seeme but a moment but though this be in it self an undeniable verity yet it is not any more a reason why the time from Christs first to his last advent should be called an hour than why the whole time of the world from the first to the last man should be so called Upon this consideration perhaps it was that Cajetan conceiveth St. Johns meaning might be that the time wherein hee lived was like to the last hour and as it should be at the end of the world so it was then but this construction is too forced nor is it rational to imagine that when St. John saith it is and again by this wee know it is the last hour he meaneth only a resemblance If then there be something else to which this last hour may upon a more just account bee referred doubtlesse that must needs be the most genuine interpretation and this we shall finde to bee not the world but the Jewish Church and state whose end was then at hand I confesse Socinus is the first in whom I