Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in Christ. 25. In which later notion the word Brother is most usually taken in the Apostolical writings to signifie a professor of the Christian Faith and Religion in opposition to heathen men and unbeleevers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a later date taken up first at Antioch as we finde Act. 11. whereas believers were before usually called Disciples and no less usually both before and since Brethren You shall read very often in the Acts and Epistles of the holy Apostles How the Brethren assembled together to hear the Gospel preached to receive the Sacrament and to consult about the affairs of the Church How the Apostles as they went from place to place to plant and water the Churches in their progress every where visited the Brethren at their first coming to any place saluting the Brethren during their abode there confirming the Brethren at their departure thence taking leave of the Brethren How collections were made for relief of the Brethren and those sent into Iudea from other parts by the hands of the brethren c. S. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judg them that are without 1 Cor. 5. As if he had said Christ sent me an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and therefore I meddle not but with those that are within the pale of the Church as for those that are without if any of them will be filthy let him be filthy still I have nothing to do to meddle with them But saith he if any man that is within the Christian Church any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator or drunkard or rayler or otherwise stain his holy profession by scandalous living I know how to deal with him let the censures of the Church be laid upon him let him be cast out of the assemblies of the Brethren that he may be thereby brought to shame and repentance 26. So then Brethren in the Apostolical use of the word are Christians and the Brotherhood the whole society of Christian men the systeme and body of the whole visible Church of Christ. I say the visible Church because there is indeed another Brotherhood more excellent then this whereof we now speak consisting of such only as shall undoubtedly inherit salvation called by some of the ancients The Church of Gods Elect and by some later writers the Invisible Church And truly this Brotherhood would under God deserve the highest room in our affections could we with any certainty discern who were of it and who not But because the fan is not in our hand to winnow the chaff from the wheat Dominus novit The Lord onely knoweth who are his by those secret characters of Grace and Perseverance which no eye of man is able to discern in another nor perhaps in himself infallibly we are therefore for the discharge of our duty to look at the Brotherhood so far as it is discernable to us by the plain and legible characters of Baptism and outward profession So that whosoever abideth in areâ Domini and liveth in the communion of the visible Church being baptized into Christ and professing the Name of Christ let him prove as it falleth out chaff or light corn or wheat when the Lord shall come with his fan to purge his floor yet in the mean time so long as he lieth in the heap and upon the floor We must own him for a Christian and take him as one of the Brotherhood and as such an one love him For so is the Duty here Love the Brotherhood 27. To make Love compleat Two things are required according to Aristotle's description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Affectus cordis and Effectus operis The inward affection of the heart in wishing to him we love all good and the outward manifestation of that affection by our deed as occasion is offered in being ready to our power to do him any good The heart is the root and the seat of all true love and there we must begin or else all we do is but lost If we do never so many serviceable offices to our brethren out of any by-end or sinister respect although they may possibly be very usefull and so very acceptable to him yet if our heart be not towards them if there be not a sincere affection within it cannot be truly called Love That Love that will abide the test and answer the Duty required in the Text must be such as the Apostles have in several passages described it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfained love of the brethren 1 Pet. 1. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 28. Of which inward affection the outward deed is the best discoverer and therefore that must come on too to make the love perfect As Iehu said to Ionadab Is thy heart right If it be then give me thy hand As in the exercises of our devotion towards God so in the exercises of our charity towards men heart and hand should go together Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heate there will be action There is no life then in that Faith S. Iames calleth it plainly a dead faith Iam. 2. nor heate in that Love according to that expression Matth. 24. the love of many shall wax cold that doth not put forth it self in the works of righteousness and mercy He then loveth not the Brotherhood indeed whatsoever he pretend or at least not in so gracious a measure as he should endeavour after That doth not take every fit opportunity of doing good either to the souls or bodies or credits or estates of his Brethren That is not willing to do them all possible services according to the urgency of their occasions and the just exigence of circumstances with his countenance with his advice with his pains with his purse yea and if need be with his very life too This is the Non ultra farther then this we cannot goe in the expressing of our love Greater love
then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend and thus far we must goe if God call us to it So far went Christ for our redemption and so far the Scriptures press his example for our imitation Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 29. To recollect the premises and to give you the full meaning of the precept at once To Love the Brotherhood is as much as to bear a special affection to all Christians more then to Heathens and to manifest the same proportionably by performing all loving offices to them upon every fit occasion to the utmost of our powers A duty of such importance that our Apostle though here in the Text he do but only name it in the bunch among other duties yet afterwards in this Epistle seemeth to require it in a more speciall manner and after a sort above other duties Above all things have fervent charity among your selves Chap. 4. And S. Iohn upon the performance hereof hangeth one of the strongest assurances we can have of our being in Christ. We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 30. Now of the Obligation of this duty for that is the next thing we are to consider there are two main grounds Goodness and Neerness First we must love the Brotherhood for their goodness All goodness is lovely There groweth a Love due to every creature of God from this that every creature of God is good Some goodness God hath communicated to every thing to which he gave a beeing as a beame of that incomprehensible light and a drop of that infinite Ocean of goodness which he himself is But a greater measure of Love is due to man then to other Creatures by how much God hath made him better then them And to every particular man that hath any special goodness in him there is a special Love due proportionable to the kinde and measâ—re thereof So that whatsoever goodness we can discern in any man we ought to love it in him and to love him for it whatsoever faults or defects are apparently enough to be found in him otherways He that hath good natural parts if he have little in him that is good besides yet is to be loved even for those parts because they are good He that hath but good moralities only leading a civil life though without any probable evidences of grace appearing in him is yet to be loved of us if but for those moralities because they also are good But he that goeth higher and by the goodness of his conversation sheweth forth so far as we can judge the graciousness of his heart deserveth by so much an higher room in our affections then either of the former by how much Grace exceedeth in goodness both Nature and Morality Sith then there is a special goodness in the Brethren quatenùs such in regard of that most holy faith which they profess and that blessed name of Christ which is called upon them we are therefore bound to love them with a special affection and that eo nomine under that consideration as they are brethren over and above that general love with which we are bound to love them as men or that which belongeth to them as men of parts or as Civil men 31. The other ground of Loving the Brotherhood is their Neerness The neerer the dearer we say and there are few relations neerer then that of brotherhood But no brotherhood in the world so closely and surely knit together and with so many and strong tyes as the fraternity of Christians in the communion of Saints which is the Brotherhood in the Text. In which one brotherhood it is not easy to reckon how many brotherhoods are conteined Behold some of many First we are Brethren by propagation and that ab utroque parente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the one Eternal God the common father of us all and of the one Catholick Church the common mother of us all And we have all the same Elder brother Jesus Christ the first born among many brethren the lively image of his fathers person and indeed the foundation of the whole Brotherhood for we are all as many of us as have been baptised into Christ the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Therefore as Ioseph loved Benjamin his brother of the whole bloud more affectionately then the other ten that were his brethren but by the fathers side only so we ought with a more special affection to love those that are also the sons of our mother the Church as Christians then those that are but the sons of God only as Creatures 32. Secondly we are Brethren by education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foster-brethren as Herod and Manahon were We are all nursed with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere milk of the word in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which are ubera matris Ecclesiae the two brests whence we sucked all that wholsome nourishment by which we are grown up to what we are to that measure of stature of strength whatsoever it is that we have in Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle and common experience sheweth it so to be They that have been nursed or brought up together in their childehood for the most part have their affections so seasoned and setled then that they love one another the better while they live 33. Thirdly we are Brethren by Covenant sworn brothers at our holy Baptism when we dedicated our selves to Gods service as his Souldiers by sacred and solemn vow Do we not see men that take the same oath pressed to serve in the same Wars and under the same Captains Contuâ—ernales and Comrades how they do not only call Brothers but hold together as Brothers and shew themselves marvelous zealous in one anothers behalf taking their parts and pawning their credits for them and sharing their fortunes with them If one of them have but a little silver in his purse his brother shall not want whiles that lasteth Shame we with it that the children of this world should be kinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards those of their own generation then we are in ours 34. Fourthly we are Brethren by Cohabitation We are all of one house and family not strangers and forrainers but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God What a disquietness and discredit both is it to a house where the children are ever jarring and snarling and fighting one with another but a goodly sight Ecce quam bonum when they dwell together in love and unity Even so a sad thing it is and very grievous to the soule of every good man when in the Church which is the house of God Christians
reward Esay 45.13 but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing toward this great purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St Paul 1 Cor 6. and he saith it over again Chap 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome that is as much as to say a price of redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us and we by our sale could convey unto him no more right then we had our selves which was just none at all Our Redeemer therefore would not enter into any capitulation with him or offer to him any Termes of composition But thought good rather in pursuance of his own right to use his power And so he vindicated us from him by main strength With his own right hand and with his holy arm he got himself the victory and us liberty without any price or ransome paid him 34. But then unto Almighty God his father and our Lord under whose heavy Curse we lay and whose just vengeance would not be appeased towards us for our grievous presumption without a condign satisfaction to him I say there was a price paid by our Redeemer and that the greatest that ever was paid for any purchase since the world began Not silver and gold saith S. Peter which being corruptible things are not valuable against our immortall and incorruptible souls But even himself in whom are absconditi thesauri amassed and hidden all the treasures of the wisdom of God and even the whole riches of his grace treasure enough to redeem a whole world of sinners Take it collectively or distributively singula generum or genera singulorum this way or that way or which way you will in Christ there is copiosa redemptio redemption plenty and enough for all if they will but accept it Take all mankinde singly one by one He gave himself for me saith S. Paul in one place Take them altogether in the lump He gave himself a ransom for all in another 35. Now for a man to give himself what is it else but to give his soule for that is himself as we heard before and his life for vita in animâ the life is in the soule and these he gave He gave up his soule when thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin◠Esay 53.10 and he laid down his life the son of man came to give his life a ransom for many Mat. 10. More then this in love he could not give for what greater love then to lay down ones life And less then this in justice he might not give for Death by the Law being the wages of sin there could be no Redemption from death so as to satisfie the Law without the death of the Redeemer 36. Yea and it must be a bloody death too for anima in sanguine the life is in the blood and without shedding of blood there can be no remission no redemption All those bloody sacrifices of buls and goats and lambs in the old Testament all those frequent sprinklings of blood upon the door posts upon the book upon the people upon the tabernacle and upon all the vessels of ministry and all those legal purifications in which blood was used as almost all things are by the Law purged with blood Heb. 9. they were all but so many types and shaddows prefiguring this blood of sprinkling which speaketh so many good things for us pacifieth the fierce anger of God towards us purgeth us from all sins and redeemeth us from hell and damnation I mean the meritorious blood of the Cross the most precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish 1 Pet. 1.18 37. But can there be worth enough may some say in the blood of a Lamb of one single Lamb to be a valuable compensation for the sins of the whole world First this was agnus singularis a lamb of special note not such another in the whole flock All we like sheep have gone astray but so did this lamb never All of us like the encrease of Laban's flock speckled or ring-streaked but this lamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Momus himself were set to search he could not yet finde the least spot or blemish A cunninger searcher then he hath pried narrowly into every corner of his life who if there had been any thing amiss would have been sure to have spied it and proclaimed it but could finde nothing The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me That is something his Innocency But if that be not enough for the Angels also are innocent behold then more He is secondly Agnus Dei the Lamb of God that is the Lamb which God had appointed and set apart for this service by special designation so as either this party must do it or none There is no other name given under heaven no nor in heaven neither nor above by which we can be redeemed Him and him alone hath God the Father sealed and by vertue of that seal authoris'd and enabled to undertake this great work Or if you have not yet enough for it may be said what if it had been the pleasure of God to have sealed one of the Angels Behold then thirdly that which is beyond all exception and leaveth no place for cavil or scruple He is Agnus Deus This lamb is God the son of God very God of very God and so the blood of this Lamb is the very blood of God Act. 20. And it is this dignity of his nature especially and not his innocency only no nor yet his deputation too without this that setteth such a huge value upon his blood that it is an infinite price of infinite merit able to satisfie an infinite justice and to appease an infinite wrath 38. You will now confess I doubt not that this Redemption was not gratis came not for nothing in respect of him it cost him full dear even his dearest lives-blood But then in respect of us it was a most free and gracious redemption It was no charge at all to us we disburs'd not a mite not a doyt towards it Which is the very true reason why it is said in the Text Ye shall be redeemed without mony This work then is meerly an act of grace not a fruit of merit grace abundant grace on his part no merit not the least merit at all
what will do us good and how much and when and how long to continue c. and proceedeth in every respect thereafter 25. Thirdly whereas our earthly parents have a limited and that a very narrow power and cannot therefore do their children the good they would our heavenly Fathers power is as his wisdom infinite Not limited by any thing but his own blessed will quicquid voluit fecit as for our God he is in heaven he hath done whatsoever pleased him Not hindred by any resistance or retarded by any impediments quis restitit Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. Not disabled by any casualties occurrences or straitness of time adjutor in opportunitatibus Psal. 9. Even a refuge in due time of trouble That is his due time commonly dominus in monte when it seemeth too late to us and when things are grown in the eye of reason almost desperate and remediless The most proper time for him to lay to his hand is when to our apprehensions his law is even quite destroyed when men have fallen upon most cursed designes trampled all lawes of God and men under their feet and prospered And here indeed is the right tryal of our faith and whether we be the true children of faithful Abraham if we can hope beyond and against hope That is if we can rest our faith intirely upon the power and providence of God not staggering through unbelief at any promise seem it never so unlikely and continue stedfast in our holy obedience to the will of God not staggering through disobedience at any command seem it never so unreasonable Abraham did both and out of this reason as the Apostle rendereth it Rom. 4. because he was firmly grounded in this perswasion of the power of God that what he had promised he was able also to perform 26. The last attribute proposed is Gods Eternity Our Fathers and Mothers where are they and do Prophets or Princes or any sort of men live for ever They all pass like a shadow wither as grass and are driven away as the Grashopper When they must go they cannot help themselves and when they are gone they cannot help us They are mortal men he the immortal God they are dying men he the living God Life is one of his prerogatives Royall All other things that partake of life in any degree have but a derived life and â—uch as either shall have an end or at least had a beginning God alone hath life in and of himself and his life alone is measured not by Time but Eternity He is therefore said to inhabit Eternity He lifteth up his hand when he sweareth by himself having no greater to swear by and saith Behold I live for ever His remembrance endureth throughout all generations and his years fail not 27. And therefore when our Fathers and Mothers and friends forsake us because either their Love faileth or their skil faileth or their power faileth or their life faileth our heavenly Father who wanteth neither love nor wisdome nor power nor life but is infinite in all we may rest assured is every way accomplished to succour us at all assayes and to take us up And that he will engage all these for our relief if we will but cast our selves wholy upon him we have his gracious promise in the last place to fill up the measure of our assurance Whereby he hath obliged himself not only to give us all spiritual graces and comforts necessary for the everlasting salvation of our souls but also to provide and furnish us with all the good things and to preserve deliver us from all the evils of this life so far as in his excellent wisdom he shall see it conducing to his glory the weal of his Church and the salvation of his chosen 28. The particular promises are many and lie scattered every in the holy Scriptures whence every man may gather them for his own use as his occasions require I shall mention but that one general Promise which though delivered first to Iosua in particular yet was afterwards applied to other persons also and alledged Heb. 13. as a ground of such general duties as are common to all Christians and fitteth as properly as any other to the present argument namely this I will not fail thee nor forsake thee He promiseth that whosoever else faileth us yet he will not all one with what is here presumed in the Text by David And having promised it we were very Infidels if we should doubt whether he will perform it or no. It were to question his wisdom as if he had not considered what he promised when he passed his word to question his Love as if he would not be as good as his word to question his Power as if he could not be as big as his word 29. Having therefore such Promises dearly beloved it behoveth us to be very wary when troubles lie long and heavy upon us that we complain not too distrustfully as if God had quite forsaken us And the rather because it is an infirmity incident to very good men but yet an infirmity and so confest by them Hath God forgotten to be gracious c. Davids complaint in Psalm 77. But presently acknowledging it an Errour he correcteth himself for it in the immediate following words And I said it is mine infirmity We by his example early to silence all tumultuous thoughts and secret murmurings of our evil hearts which are so ready to charge God foolishly and to break out into unseasonable complaints against his most wise and holy dispensations and that by meditating effectually upon the Attributes and Promises aforesaid Who so confidently professeth himself to trust in God as almost all do and yet repiningly complaineth as if God had forsaken him as very many do either maketh God a liar or bewrayeth himself in some degree an Hypocrite He maketh God a liar if he say God hath forsaken him when he hath not and he bewrayeth some Hypocrisy in himself if he say he puteth his trust in God when he doth not 30. And as it becometh us not to be too querulous for the present so neither secondly to be too solicitous for the future I forbid not to any but require rather in every man a moderate provident care for the getting keeping and disposing of the things of this life in an industrious and conscionable use of lawful means still leaving the success intirely to the good pleasure of our heavenly father But sure did we firmely beleeve that his care over us is no whit lesser but rather infinitely greater then that of our earthly Parents we would not suffer our selves to be disquieted with perplexed thoughts nor our spirits to be vexed with distrustfull anxieties about the future successe of our affairs Children whilest they are in their fathers house and at their finding use not to trouble themselves with such thoughts as these What