another end the supream which will be acquired Gods glory and their salvation The head and the members agree in continuity So man and wife single themselves out from all the world and by an indissoluble conjunction until death according to the Divine Ordinance of God the first instituter of this Order are made one one in body one in affection by a loving consent on both sides Ephes 5.3 They two shall be one flesh saith Saint Paul and he that hateth his wife hateth his own soul which in nature is most monstrous No earthly unity is comparable to this Where whom God doth thus joyn together let none attempt to put asunder it was never the intention of the prime efficient of this sacred Ordinance that who were lawfully knit together hand-fasted and heart-fasted should be ever parted or really dis-joyned but should continue one and the same unto their dying day Ephes 5.23 Sic equidem ab initio so I am sure it was from the beginning Thus the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church And thus much for the first point in what respects the man is the head of the woman The second part of my discourse shall be concerning the Offices mutually to be performed by man and wife I will begin with the wife it is the Apostles exhortation unto them Wives submit your selves to your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Colos 3.18 Ephes 5.24 And in another place as the Church is subject unto Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing This submission this subjection doth import three things 1. An internal act of the heart conceiving and acknowledging their inferiority to their husbands albeit for nobility of birth and honourable descent for riches or vertue or prudence they may perhaps excel Hence doth proceed as from its proper fountain outward subjection which cannot be without the former but either forced or feigned This disposition of the heart discovered by outward expressions the Apostles speech seems to reflect upon And the wife see that she reverence her husband For wives to be in subjection to their own husbands Ephes 5. last was the fashion in the old world thus Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord 1 Pet. 3.6 Let it O let it ye that are the daughters of pious Sara as long as ye do well be the fashion now So shall not the resolute combination of your faithful hearts admit an interruption nor your hearty harmony the least jarring 2. This subjection of wives imports an endeavour of conforming themselves to their husbands humours in all lawful and different matters It is indeed a difficult task but so much the more laudable when the work consummated An ingenuous nature will quickly effect it Hence saith the Apostle She that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband The principal way to attain present felicity and undisturb'd contentation in this life for a woman is 1 Cor. 7.34 to be industrious in framing her disposition and composing her affections in that manner as that her actions may be correspondent to her good mans desires When the rib whereof Eve was made was taken out of Adam Adam was in a deep sleep free from perturbation or pain intimating as one wittily observes that women must be neither troublesome nor painful unto their husbands but ever good and pleasing 3. This subjection hath this importance that the love wives ought to bare their husbands ought to be entire The care of their estates and children perpetual their bearing with their infirmities patient their application of comfort in every condition Sicut in ligno vermis ita perdit virwn suum uâ—or malefica Hierom. constant And if any husband be of dissolute behaviour it is the part of a pious Matron by prayer and sweet conversation to endeavour a reformation A woman thus vertuous is a crown unto her husband Prov. 12.4 Contrariwise she that maketh ashamed is as rottennesse in his bones Wherein the wise man expresseth the mischief of an evil wife by an apt similitude And that of Hierom is not much behind it As the worm eats into the heart of the tree and destroys it so doth a naughty wife her husband Now secondly ye men whom God hath blest with the happinesse of a wife and ye that intend this holy estate observe your duties also It is an Apostolical Edict dictated by the Spirit of Truth husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them A twofold Precept the one commanding love the other prohibiting bitternesse Your love must be pure and upright according to the example of our Saviour urged by the Apostle Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lov'd the Church there 's the affection of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave himself for it there 's the effect of that affection First then you must love and bestow your hearts upon them and because that the demonstration of your love doth consist in the exhibition of effects there must be secondly an expression of the inward affection in outward acts which may be reduced to these three A joyful and contented cohabitation with your Consorts your presence unlesse necessity force your absence is much desired Christ promised that He would be with his Church unto the end of the world Inter utrunque ardor amoris summus ut Opianus de cervis agens scribit Prov. 5.18 19. So be ye with your espoused wives until death shall work a seperation Rejoyce saith Solomon with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving Hind and pleasant Roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravisht with her love Velut extra sis rerum aliarum obliviscare saith Mercer An instruction of them in all things that tend either to the procuring of temporal felicity in this life or the compassing of eternal glory in the suture If they learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home 1 Cor. 14.35 You are their Tutors and Supervisors whose directions are not limitted to secular affairs wherein they are your co-partners but extend also to religious employments and the divine matters of a more glorious and everlasting Kingdom Vxoris vitium aut tollendo aut tollerando Varro whereof with you they are co-heirs Dwell with them saith Saint Peter according to knowledge giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 There is for further expression of love in man required a careful and sollicitous provision of all things necessary for their wives He that provides not for those of his houshold is worse than an infidel Our Saviour supplies his Church which is his Spouse with what conduceth to the happinesse thereof So do
who are of the day be sober 1 Thes 5.8 Luxurie Luxuria negligentia mores sunt hominum non temporis vitia Seneâ— Epictetus may say semper aliquid discâ—ns senesco But Polixenus semper aliquid bibens nihil ex timesco Seneca speaks of some that singulis auribus bina aut terna dependent patrimenia hanged two or three Lordships at their eares And such are those amongst us as one saith that turn their lands into laces and rents into ruffs c. Usually such persons spend all till they leave themselves nothing at all Preter celum canum M. Livius but ayr to breath in and earth to tread upon as a certain Roman prodigal boasted That 's for the back Quid enim majore Chachinne Excipitur vulgi quà m pauper Apicius Iuv. Sat. 11. Valer. now for the belly It is reported that the expences of Apicius his kitchin amounted to more than two Millions of gold He having eaten up his estate and finding by his account that he had no more then 200000. Crowns remaining thought himself poor and that this sufficed not to maintain his luxurie whereupon he drank down a glasse of poyson Some say he hanged himselfe The glutton Philoxenus is said to inveigh against nature for making his neck so short and to wish himself a Cranes neck that the pleasure and tasâ— of meat might be longer in rellishing To such a one neither water land nor air is sufficient Suttan Solyman was so given to it Turk Hist fol. 144. that when his brother Musa drew neer unto the place where he lay as his manner was banqueting with great pleasure in his camp and full of wine he was not sensible of the danger Nay when newes was brought unto him that his brother was at hand with a great power he in his drunkennesse caused the messenger that brought the newes to be beaten and when he had with greater earnestness than was to his liking affirmed that his report to be true he commanded him to be slain for troubling his mirth But Strabo writes of the Gaules Grimst p. 58. the ancient inhabitants of France that they were so temperate as that they did avoid by all meanes to be fat and big-bellied and if any young man were biggar than a certain measure he was blamed It was said of Ninias second King of the Assyrians Summum bonum in ventre aut sub ventre posuit that he was old excellent at eating and drinking And of Sardanapalus one of the same line Tully tells us that his gut was his God And Plutarch that he hired men to devise new pleasures for him What mines are able to maintain the expences of Prodigality It was usually said of Henry Duke of Guise that he was the greatest usurer in France because he had turned all his estate into obligations These three saith one B. B. B. Back Belly and Building fine clothes sumptuous feasts and over-stately structures like the daughters of the horse-leech suck out the blood of mens substance The Prodigal makes his own hands his Executors and his own eyes his overseers drawing much of his Patrimony through his throat and spending the rest upon harlots who usually leave him as bare as crowes do a dead Carcass Ruine follows riot at the heeles Luxurie is attended by beggery A famous and ample instance we have in that Parable Luk. 15 And daily experience shews it to be a plain truth But behold a worse mischief As the clouds darken heaven so intemperate banqueting the mind Chrysologus As the violence of winds and waves sinkes a ship so luxurie our soules and bodies in the depth of Hell He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich Prov. 21.17 We to them that are at ease in Zion Amos 6.1 4 6. That eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall That drink wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chief ointment c. Zeal It is the Extream heat of all the affections when they are seething or hissing hot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we love God and his people out of a pure heart fervently He loveth not at all in Gods account whose love is not ardent desires eager hopes longing Non amat qui non Zelat Aust hatred deadly anger fierce grief deep fear terrible voyce eyes hands gestures actions all lively Unto true Christian Zeal there be these six things required Will. Dict. 1. A desire after something which is truly good or against something which is evil indeed 2. That in this desire there be earnestness and vehemency 3. That there be a grief for this good thing we desire or for some abuse done to it 4. That this desire and grief be tempered with charity and discretion 5. That we seek not our own but Gods glory 6. Lastly that all this do proceed and come from sincere and distinct knowledge of the word Gal. 4.18 Rom. 10.3 1 Cor. 10.31 Zeal without knowledge is dangerous as appeared in the Jews and doth in many others It makes men proud and having drunk in an opinion they cannot be removed with reason As a man cannot write in a paper already written nor plow in a ground over-runne with bushes so it is hard to fasten any reason upon a mind prepossest with fancy Zeal is such a thing which if it be well ordered is most beautiful in a Christian but if not a thing of exceeding danger as fire in moderation is most comfortable in extremity most fearful Seperate Zeal and knowledge and they become both unprofitable But wisely join them and they perfect a Christian being like a precious Diamond in a Ring of Gold For Zeal without knowledge is like a little ship without ballast and fraught but with a great many sailes which is soon either dasht against the rocks or topped over And knowledge without Zeal is like a goodly great ship well ballasted and richly fraughted but without any sailes which quickly falleth into the hands of Pirates because it can make no speed It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good matter but Zeal misplaced how dangerous is it It is better to creep in a good way than to run in a wrong way Even idleness is better than such dillgence Yet they who misplace their Zeal are commonly more in diligence than they who place it aright and they who are in a false way make more hast than they who are in a true The nature of man will carry him two miles at his own bidding rather than one at Gods Zeal without knowledge is as wild-fire in a fooles hand it is like the Devil in the Demoniack that casts him sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water Examples of holy Zealots were Bucholcer Luther Laurentius Athanasius Ignatius Paul Baruch of whom it is said Nehem. 3.20 Seipsum accendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
And therefore we will begin with Civil Peace The Heathen Philosopher tells us that man by nature is a sociable creature Arist Polit. because reasonable who indeed is rather so when guided by Religion for that labours to preserve unity which being broken society is dissolved Hence it is the speech of a Father Debemus ut corpori sanitatem puritatem cords sic fratri pacem We are indebted as to our bodies for health to our hearts for purity so for peace to our brother The noblest weapon man can conquer with is love and gentlest courtesie it gets the victory without ere a blow given Geometricians teach that Sphaerical bodies touch not but in puncto in a point Ram. Geomet and therefore more subject to fall Thus haughty spirits sweld up with over-weening self-love when they meet together by a proud touch soon over-turn one the other Whereas all of us great and small should be like hollow spheeres the one within the other the greater in love embracing the lesser Without peace the frame of nature cannot stand Mundus amissa pace Gregor Nazian mundus esse desinit saith Gregory Nazianzene the world which is chain'd together by intermingled love would all shatter and fall to pieces if charity would chance to die if peace were alwayes disturbed by discords Monarchies degenerate into Anarchies or Tyrannies Cities lie level with the ground Kingdomes are depopulated Nations wasted whose memories lie buried in the dust families consumed whose names are perished and glory rotted Whereas Peace that bringeth prosperity Salustius would have preserved all Concordia res parv◠crescunt discordia res magnae dilabuntur saith Salust It is the inscription of the Dutch coin verified in them little things by concord increase and grow great by discord great things become little and decline apace Scylurus the Scythian lying on his death-bed knew well the power of Peace by giving unto his sons a bunch of arrows to break which being bound fast together they could not do but being taken asunder they did with ease a witty Emblem of the strength of Peace wherewith the Gentiles were so much enamoured Cicero as that the Heathen Orator could say Iniquissimans pacem justissimo bello antefero in his opinion the unjustest Peace is to be prefer'd before the justest warre But I am not of his mind I know the Apostles limiting condition Rom. 12.18 If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men There must be nothing wanting that 's good on our part whereby either to procure or preserve Christian Peace Herein the Serpents wisdom and the Doves innocencie are to be inseperable We may not consent with any wherein they dissent from God for in so doing we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fight against God and work our selves to nothing Wherefore the Apostle writing to the Hebrews Heb. 12.14 joyns in his holy exhortation Holinesse and Peace follow peace with all men and holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord. Melior est talis pugna quae Deo proximum facit Gregor Nazian quà m pax illa quae separat à Deo infinitely better is that dissention which makes a man near to God than that Peace that separates from God for ever It is not the Peace the world giveth but that sacred Peace that God giveth we must embrace Wherefore saith the Apostle let the peace of God rule in your hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sit certaminis Moderator to the which also ye are called in one body Colos 3.15 Out of which words we may collect That a godly Peace is to be entertained Where we have the office of Peace to which we must submit our selves and that is to rule in our hearts and the motive thereunto which is twofold Gods Ordination and our spiritual affinity to which we are called in one body First It must rule in our hearts The heart is the proper seat of the affections Arist de Generet Corrups and if the Philosopher be to be credited it is the Metropolis of the soul If there be any combustion in man raised by the tumultuous passions of anger hatred malice and revenge it is begun in the heart there they have their habitation To aswage therefore the impetuous sury of these rebellious humours and to prevent the fearful mischief that comes by their unrulinesse the peace of God must bear sway there the whole man will be the better brought into good order when the heart is well governed and never till then Many may make a fair pretence of friendship but it is never unfeigned unlesse hearty the words of their mouth may be Psal 55.21 as the Psalmist speaketh smoother than butter but warre may be in their hearts their words may be softer than oyle yet may they be drawn swords Erasmus that cut smoothly Aliud corde aliud ore hypocritically and basely they think one thing they speak another Of this smooth-fac'd malice Nazianzene complains in his twelfth Oration Pax ab omnibus laudatur à paucis servatur Orat. 12. all praise peace but few keep peace Wherefore did peace but rule in the heart all heart-burnings and sullen contention would soone come to a final Period and all outside dissimulation would be quickly all out of fashion As we have seen the office of Peace note now the motive thereunto You are called unto it in one body When Christ came into the world he became the corner-stone that joyns Jew and Gentile together who before were divided for now both by him making up one mystical body according to that Ephes 2.14 He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partion between us so that by this act Christ hath bound us all to the peace and to good behaviour that so we may keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace There is no member of the body that will do any ill office to any of his fellow-members so we being called to be members of the Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.25 should make no division in the body but should all have the same care one of another This was Prophetically foretold by a pithie Embleme by beating of swords into ploughshares Isa 2.3 and spears into pruning-hooks in the time of the Gospel And it is notably prefigured by the peaceable habitation of wild beasts and tame together Isa 11.6 as the Wolfe and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid the Calfe and the young Lion the Cow and the Beare It is a sweet harmony that the sympathy of affections and peace begets in us whom the Spirit unites together And in whom this sympathy and peace is not Aut stupida sunt membra Daven in Colosens aut ne omnino quidem membra hujus corporis cujus caput Christus saith Reverend Davenant either they are senceless and stupid members or no members at all of that
the ordinance of God for He did all things well Wherefore to shew that God keeps his word and that the truth of his promises is infallible He rose again from the dead In regard of us the end of his Rising is threefold Viz. 1. For our Example 2. For our Justification 3. For our Faith c. First for our Example tending to the information of us in the ways of righteousness in the paths of life That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that the body of sin might be destroyed Resurectione Domini configuratur vita quae hic geritur and that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6.4.6 The Resurrection of Christ from the dead should be a pattern for us wherein there is some effective vigor to raise us from the death of sin to a gracious life The power of effecting both is in God A Dâ—o est quod unima vivat per gratiam corpus per Animam That the soul lives by grace and the body by the soul comes from God Aquinas who is the Author of life And saith Ames Christ rising from death is tum demonstratio quam initiatio as well a demonstration as the initiation or beginning of our Rusurrection by whom we pass from death unto life Secondly for our Justification They are the express words of the Apostle He was raised again for our justification Rom. 4. ult For now that he hath gotten the victory over death by reviving he applies by the vertue thereof all the benefits of the Gospel unto us to the exceeding great consolation of our souls Lastly for the establishment of our faith concerning the obtaining of life everlasting For indeed if the Head be risen the members may be sure to rise too and if the Head receive life and glory doubtless the members which have their proper dependunce of him shall receive the like perfection for a glorified Head cannot be without a glorified body Now Christ is the head of the body the Church Col. 1.18 who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he may have the preheminence Of the fulness of whose glory in the day of our perfect redemption we shall all receive a full measure For a Conclusion Communi naturae lege moriuntur homines The sons of men composed of dust and ashes die by the common law of nature Eternity is proper to another world not to this to this Inconstancie The Son of the most High himself when he became the Son of man was subjected to Mortality He pleaded no Prerogative royal to be exempted from that end which God setled in the course of nature Our times upon the Earth may be said to be lasting but not everlasting though in the hands of God Heaven decreed a period to our Lives which we cannot prevent and to which Christ at the appointed houre did submit himself with all obedience not able to avoid it Necessity was laid upon him to pay the dubt to Nature which might serve for a payment of our debt to God yet not respectu peccuti Wâ—ems Protralcture of Gods image in man pag. 43. but respectis poenae this necessity was not in respect of sin He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot but in respect of that punishmenâ— which he did oblige himself to undergo for the sins of men Est illata necessiaâ— Adamò innata necessit as nobis assumpta necessitas in Christo Necessity of death was laid upon Adam for his sin necessity of death is imbred in us and by a voluntary assumption there was a necessity of death in Christ A man willingly gives his word for such a summe for his friend but when he hath willingly given it he must of necessity pay it So Christ willingly took this debt upon him and in the fulness of time when 't was exacted paid it down even his life to God and nature But albeit he thus parted from the world yet God hath raised him up Etiam animalula quaedam typâ— Resurrectionis sunt Lavat in Job 14.12 having loos'd the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it So though the hand of fate by Natures unconfused order reduce us to our first principles yet shall we rise again by the mighty power of our eternal Maker The Judge of all the word hath appointed a day wherein to judge the world to which all must rise And as all must die and after death come to judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the â—ius of many and unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time without sin unto salvation THE BLESSED AMBASSADOR OR THE Best sent into the Basest GALATH. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father GODS love wherewith he hath embrac'd the sons of men in his onely Son is of such large extent as cannot be limited as cannot be measured the breadth and length and depth and height thereof Eph. 3.18 19. doth passe our knowledge Doth passe our finding out The length the breadth the depth of the earth the sea the heavens Mathematicians by their speculations do conjecture but the love of God the most ingenious and judicious cannot it so exceeds so much as conjecture much lesse perfectly know because infinite Would a man part with his only son and alone darling and he content he should die a most ignoble and ignominious death to ransome his servants his cantives his slaves rebels that would cut his throat I cannot be perswaded the world affords such a man such a Phenix there was but one in all the world Abraham found willing to slay his son to rip up his bowels that spruug out of his own when God commanded it Yet the Lord of heaven and earth whose mercies are over all his works sent his only Son to save sinners to dye that by his death we may live Though servants Cantives slaves rebels yet by his Son made Kings Priests Prophets sons and heirs of an eternal inheritance O the depth the height and length and breadth of Gods love He sent his Son forth from him to bring us to him he freely gave him to redeem us from the insulting power of Sathan from the captivity and dominion of sin from the oppressing tyranny of the world to bring us into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God This liberty this sonship is obtained by faith for to as many as beleeve in his name hath he given power to become the Sons of God All ye then that beleeve are no more servants but sons not sons of wrath but sons of God not sons by nature but sons by grace And because sons behold the Lords bounty is enâ—arged toward you the treasures of his graces are open for you the store-house of his riches is
Christianity it is compared to things made for strength defence Timor nihil aliud est quâ—m murus munimentum turris inexpugnabilisâ— Chrysest Cypr. It is only a wall a bulwark an invincible tower To descend lower Cyprian makes it fundamentum firmamentum spei fidel the basis the stability of hope of faith There is good ground for this assertion Take but it away faith and hope fall I appeal to Bernard Omne virtutum aedificium c. Let the building that consists of all Vertues want it and ere long 't will shatter into pieces Airship without an anchor on the Ocean Bern. is in danger of being overwhelmed with the proud waves so the soul without this fear If a Pope's word be of any value aâ—iâ— is when he tels truth Gregor 22. then shall that of Gregory pass Anâ—hora mentis est pendus timoris The souls anchor is the weight of fear Wherefore Sirach's son did not amiss in allotting the highest place to them that fear God Oh how great is he that findeth wisdom yet there is none above him that feareth the Lord. I know not how true it is that fearful-natur'd men are the most witty But I am sure the filially-fearful are the best religiously affected the most wise for they walk surely to the height of Heaven where they are crowned Kings without end Here Jacob is to be found to his immortal praise who while he lived lived in awe of God like a son now being dead hath a sons portion in a better countrey And thus Jacob was afraid Aquinas Rome's Angelical Doctor gathereth out of Philosophical traditions Aquin. two causes of fear Amorem Defectum love and weakness Love in it self is strong where true but withal fearful if fix'd upon an object not yet obtained but hoped for though upon good presumptions 't is in fear of being croft If fully possest of what it did greatly desire 't is in fear of losing it The more violent this affection is upon the least appearance of a succeeding cross the more perplexities it raiseth and worketh the soul into many rending and jealous cogitations Infomuch that good men because somewhat inclin'd to evil are afraid of missing their he avenly purposes wherewith they are deeply enamored and when they have found God here beneath whom above all they love yet because they are not free from provocations they fear to be deprived of him Never did Heathen Poet sing any thing more truly than did he that left this behind him in this Ovid. Res est solliciti plena timoris amor Love is a thing full of vexatious fear Hence issue those careful thoughts wherewith the heart is cumbred in plotting a perpetuity of that union love hath wrought Weakness again and inability to resist and overcome what may hurt us lays us open under sundry fears Infinite are the events which because not usual prove inductions unto error And such is the impotency of frail man that through the consciousness of his natural defects he is soon dejected Let him have what his heart can wish on earth yet is he heartily afraid he shall not keep it long The thought of a greater Power than is in him raiseth such a dusky cloud of doubts that he is not so well pleased with the sight of his present happiness as troubled with the expectation of a dismal change So variable are our earthly courses that as they afford us no sure footing so neither can they establish unto us any permanent content 'T was the royal word of a wise King inspired of God Eccles All is but vanity and vexation of spirit And the King his father delivers it as the property of the wicked to fear where no fear is Psal 53. When the understanding is infatuated with carnal delights when the judgment fascinated with sinful pleasure what marvel though man become pusillanimous This is the condition of transgressors A glimpse of danger is able to make them stagger like a drunken man or like a Prodigie put them to an amazed stand with a Ne plus ultra The regenerate themselves are subject to the same passion though not in the like measure nor the like manner They commonly stand upon their keeping into whose hearts fear enters not so suddenly yet enters but daunteth not deads not clear Reason and sure Religion preserve them from astonishment Let Satans fiery darts of temptations flie in their face they fear but little flesh and blood will a little tremble but their hearts are not wounded Hence therefore are they so ready to encounter them Zanch. because confident of a glorious issue Let the Chiefest good God appear to them in unaccustomed forms and manifest his propitious presence in an unwonted manner they cannot but fear so awful is his Majesty so weak their nature But when once well acquainted with the ways and courses of the most High grace fortifieth their hearts and maketh passages extraordinary proceeding from him seem familiar at least to them not so full of dread as to others Briefly to be more distinct Love and weakness beget fear The love of God sear initial filial the love of our selves and weakness fear natural weakness and love of the world fear carnal humane servile So then Jacob being strong in love with God which was the act of grace weak in himself which was the propriety of his nature was naturally initially filially afraid Tender is the disposition of men sanctified their affections thoughts actions are for the most part carried in a constant motion within the verge of a religious Providence If peradventure things though good happen out of course beyond expectation they suspect their own indignity in a fear of offending The issue at first sight they see not yet hope the best and in that â—ope are afraid Just Jacobs case He was afraid Musculus faith Musculus because he lodged there that night without a religious regard He dreamed not of the sanctity of the place before he was in it Little did he think that God was there as he was but as he was there Jacob knew that honour was due to him which was not vouchsafed him whence proceeded his fear Which may warn us that wheresoever we are we be religiously behaved as in Gods eye more especially where in token of his love he favourably sheweth himself Calv. in loc This demeanour of this holy Father as one saith condemns him of rashness if not why should he fear but extolleth the goodness of his gracious God who was found of him where he sought him not One renowned for learning judg'd that Jacob hereby modestly intimates more was got than in modesty his hope durst to aspire to which as I take it was the judgment of ingenious Bernard Bern. in dedic Eccles Miratur Jacob dignationis magnitudinem expavescit Jacob admires in his admiration is abasht at the greatness of Gods loving kindness 'T was strange to
Mat. 27. I ought never to despair of the grace of God Quia semper inveniam Deum benigniorem quà m me culpabillâ—rem Bern. Deserentes se non desâ—rit sed impios quaeritqui eum non quaerebaut Ambros Origen Hom. 1. In Genes Calv. lib. cui titul de Fr. Spira Geâ—vae in prefat let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression Desperation Despair is Sathans Master-piece it carries men headlong to hell as the Devils did the herd of swine into the deep Non tantos peccatum quantos desperatio perdit My punishment saith Cain is greater than I can bear Or mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven In either sense he sins exceedingly and worse perhaps than in slaying his brother whether he murmer against Gods justice or despair of his mercy Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven Mentiris Cain saith an Auncient Cain did not say so because it was so but it was so because he had said so Nemo desperet videns similitudinem suam magis esse cum Diabolo quà m cum Deo Posse se iterum recuperare formam imaginis Dei quia non venit salvator vocare justos sed peccatores in panitentiam Fraciscus Spira beeing in a deep despair for renouncing the Gospels Doctrine which he did once so stoutly profess said he would willingly suffer the most exquisite tortures of hell fire for the space of 10000 yeares upon condition he might be well assured to be released afterwards He further added in that hellish and horrible fit That his dear children and wife for whose sake principally he turned away from the Gospel to embrace this present world appeared now to him as hangmen hags and torturers In fine that his abominable fault had deserved Non modò damnationem sed etiam aliquid gravius damnatione acerbius Unhappy Spira denied his Lord but once but many there be that have not only denied him often but in some sort desied him also Like Pilate crucifying the Lord Jesus to give life unto Barabbas a Murtherer that is to Sin which slayeth the soul Mention is also made of a covetous Oppressor that made this Will viz. I give my goods to the King my body to the grave and my soul to the Devil Thus the timorous are carried to more precipitate resolutions through despair than the temerarious through inconsideration so violently are they tost in the sea of dangers that have lost their anchor of hope Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence Psal 94.17 Vers 18. Vers 19. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Charity Charity may fitly be compared to the precious stone Pantarb Philostr in vit Apoâ—onii l. 3. c. 14. spoken of by Philâ—stratus a stone of great beauty and of strange property so bright it is and radiant that it gives light in the darkest midnight and that light is of such admirable vertue that it bringeth together the stones which it reacheth into heaps as if they were so many hives of bees But nature lest so precious a gift should be undervalued hath not only hid this stone in the secret bowels of the earth but hath also put into it a property of slipping out of the hands of those that hold it Nisi providâ— ratione teneatur unless they hold it fast indeed Charity is accepted and uncharitableness condemned in the smallest matter Non ex munere animus munâ—rantis est aestimandus sed ex animo munus Buxt Epist It is not the quantity of the gift but the affection of the giver it is not the quantity of that which is denied to be given but the heart of him that denies it which the Lord takes notice of For there is both 1. Charity in the heart viz. that affection of love which makes us to hold our neighbours dear and to desire and seek their good in every thing which is dear unto them and that for Christ his sake according to the will of God 1 Cor. 13. where are the properties of Charity at large described 2. And Charity in the hand viz. the actions and duties of love as 1 Tim. 1.5 according to that 1 Joh. 3.18 Now therefore when it troubles us to part with the least imaginable benefit as too much for them who have nothing when crums of bread which fall from our table are denied when a cup of cold water is denied how told is Charity is it not crumbled into a lesser nothing than those crums Charity believeth all things Not that it is so credulous as to take up every thing for truth upon a common and ungrounded report that 's no commendation in any man much less in a godly man Therefore the meaning is De quolibet praesumendum bonum nisi constet de contrario Dav. Charity interpreteth every thing in the best sense that it will bear and makes the fairest construction which every mans case and condition will admit It is a rule in the Civil law Supponitur esse bonns qui non probatur esse malus He is supposed to be an honest man who was never proved otherwise Exuberat charitas saith Ambrose Charity overfloweth It is Puteus Rehoboth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Puteus platearum vel latitudinum puteus latitudinis the Well of breadth which name we read to be given by Isaack to a Well which his servants digged Gen. 26.22 For Charity doth spread abroad her waters wheresoever is need of them Alexander Quintus Pope of Rome said of himself That when he was a Bishop he was rich when he was a Cardinal he was poor and when he was Pope he was a beggar And plainly so it is with many who the richer they are still are the poorer in respect of their charity It were a vain thing to fear when a child is conceived lest the spirit should not find the way into it and lest the bones should not grow in him And no less vain is their fear who are troubled lest by giving to the poor their estate should decay that either themselves or theirs should be brought to misery But well said he Non timeatur in his expensis defectio facultatum Leo Serm. 10. de Quadrag quoniam ipsa benignitas magna substantia est nec potest charitati deâ—sse materies ubi Christus pascit pascitur In omni hec opere illa intervenit manus quae panem frangendo auget erogando multiplicat That is In these expences let not a failing of means be feared because bounty it self is great wealth neither can the matter of bounty be wanting where Christ himself feedeth and is fed In every such work that hand is a fellow-worker which increaseth bread by breaking it and by giving multiplieth A small charity shall not want a reward De gradib
a sweet savour behind it Wheresoever it comes it will procure favour of God and men When the name that the wicked have gotten shall rot the faithful shall be had in everlasting remembrance Therefore let us be all Zealous this way so shall we be renowned in this world Quà m magnus mirantium tam magnus invidentium populus est Senec. and eternally famous in the world to come Plato was once in such esteem that it was an ancient Proverb Jovem grecè loqui si vellet non aliter loquuturum quà m Platonem But the common people are apt to praise and dispraise with one breath Fame followes desert as the sweet sent doth the rose A man shall be sure to have both the comfort and credit of his worthy parts and practises In the Olympick games those that overcame Dignum laude virum Musa vetat moriâ— Hòâ—at did not put the garlands on their own heads but stayed till others did it for them That which had been much to a mans commendation if out of another mans mouth sounds very slenderly out of his own It is an hard thing to recover a mans good name if once lost It happened Lauâ— proâ—rlo sordescit in â—re that upon a time Fire Water and Fame went to travel together but before they set forth they consulted that if they lost one another how they might meet again Fire said where you see smoke there you shall finde me Water said where you see marsh or moorish low grounds there you shall find me But Fame said take heed how you lose me for if you do you will ran a great hazard never to meet me again Still the Euge of a good Conscience and Gods approbation is principally to be sought after Whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. â— 29 Merâ—t Caelum gratis non accipiam said the Jesuite before grace I had free will to it and when I had grace I deserved glory Satan had perswaded the Scottish Knox he had merited by his Ministery but that God brought to his mind those scriptures What hast thou that thou didst not receive And yet not I but the grace of God which was in me The Jewes of old did seek to be justifyed by their own works and these latter Jewes being asked whether they beleeve to be saved by Christs righteousness or not Answer that every Foxe must pay his own skin to the flear The Church of Rome seekes to be justified by her own righteousness and the righteousness of Christ They hold that Christs righteousness merits that our works should merit And Bellarmine saith De Iustif Opera sanctorum tincta sanguine Christi merentur that is the works of the Saints dipped in the blood of Christ do merit And truely that 's a slie and nice distinction of the Jesuites which they invented of late to make us beleeve that by the doctrine of merits they derogate nothing from the glory of Christ Indeed they say that we make satisfaction for sin and merit heaven yet it is not we that do it but Christ by us not our works simply in themselves but as dyed in the blood of Christ Our Merits are Christs merits and therefore they may deserve heaven I but Christ hath purged our sins by himself not by our selves he hath done it by his own blood immediately not mediately by our works dyed in his blood Therefore that is a meer delusion to mock the world withall Upon those word Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love The Jesuites say It is a world to see what wrything and wringing the Protestants make to shift off this place whereby it is cleer that good works are meritorious and causes of salvation If it be an unrighteous thing with God not to give heaven to our works then we have it not on meer mercy but of justice But we say It is just with God so to do not in regard of our merit Justum est ut reddat qui debet debet autem qui promisit but of his own promise They that came into the vineyard at the last hour had as much as the first yet not of merit but of Covenant It is an unrighteous thing for one to break his promise God hath promised to reward our works with eternal life therefore he should be unrighteous if he did it not yet we must not depend on our merits but on Gods promise ratified by an oath as he sheweth in the following words And for Opus operatum it is not sufficient so much as to acceptance with God because it is not enough to do a good work which God requireth at our hands but we must perform it in such a manner as the Lord requireth We must not only do bonum but bene Besides Merit is a meer fiction sith there can be no proportion betwixt the work and the wages It is well observed Coâ—â—on on Cant. Certum est nos facere quod faimus sed ille â—acit ut faciasmut Aug. Like as Roma is become Amor inversus that the Church in the Canticles is no where described by the beauty of her hands or fingers Christ concealeth the mention of her hands that is of her works 1. Because he had rather his Church should a bound in good works in silence than boast of them especially when they are wanting as Rome doth 2. Because it s he alone that worketh all our works in us and for us We do what we do but it is he that causeth us so to do St Paul is so directly against Popish justification by works that one saith both wittily and well The Epistle of Paul to the Romans is become the Epistle of Paul against the Romans Certainly those misled and muzled soules did worse than lose their labour Act. Mon. fol. 1077. that built religious houses Pro remissione redemptione peccatorum pro remedio liberatione animae pro salute requie animarum patrum matrum fratrum sororum c. These were the ends that they aimed at as appears in stories The Papists think that as he that standeth on two firm branches of a tree is surer than he that standeth upon one onely so he that trusteth to Christ and works too is in the safest condition But 1. They are fallen from Christ that trust to works 2. He that hath one foot on a firm branch and another on a rotten one stands not so sure as if he stood wholly on that which is sound But let them be Moses disciples let us be Christs set not up a candle to this sun of righteousness mix not thy puddle with his purple blood thy rags with his raiment but detest all mock-stayes And account accursed for ever that blasphemous direction of Papists to dying people Conjunge Domine obsequium meum cum omnibus quae Christ us passus est pro me Join Lord mine obedience with all that Christ hath
school so so should Gods Word all carnal reasonings The Word hath a twofold working 1. Proper to convert confirm quicken grace and save 2. Accidental through Satan and our corruption to harden and make worse 2 Cor. 2. We must labour to keep Gods Word 1. In memory Pro. 4.21 Deut. 4.9 In cujus corde est lex Dei imaginatio mala non habet in eum dominium Eaten bread is soon forgotten 2. In affection Psal 119.11 As the Pot of Manna in the Ark. The Rabbines have a saying He who hath the law of God in his heart is armed against evil lusts 3. In practice A special help against forgetfulnesse yea this is the best art of memory The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 Confession of Faith Ambrose calls the Creed the Key of the Scriptures The word Simbolum amongst other significations signifieth a ring and well may it be so called the matter whereof is digged out of the rich mines of the Bible refined with the fire of Gods Spirit and accurately framed by the blessed Apostles or rather so called because it is the summe of the Apostles Doctrine yea the wedding Ring as I may say wherein the Minister at our baptisme wedds us to Christ The Creed Presents us mainly with The act of faith I Beleeve wherein note the 1. Particularity I we speak particularly in the Creed I Beleeve whereas in the Lords Prayer we speak plurally Our Father because charity doth require us to pray one for another but we cannot beleeve nor confess one for another Hab. 2.4 For Spiritually as well as corporally each one must live by his own and not by anothers food and Physick As also because no man knows what is in anothers heart 1 Cor. 2.11 2. The formality I beleeve in for there are distinctions viz. Credere Deum to beleeve there is a God Deo to beleeve God In Deum to beleeve in God The very Devils do the first Multi mali do the second But onely a true beleever doth the last Credendo amare Credendo in eum ire credendo ei ad haerere The Object of faith God 1. Essentially in name God in attributes Almighty maker of heaven and earth 2. Personally the Father Son and Holy Ghost Further in this Creed are observable 1. The Articles which are twelve that is in common account though not a like distinguished and expressed by all men in the total number or the particular enumeration In all which there is both the confession of one God in three Persons and of the Church with her Prerogatives 2. The assent in the word Amen which is a setting to of our seal in point of beleeving because it is a word not onely of wishing but of assurance Of which in the next place Fables are not without Moralls A man must have a Personality of Faith as well as of devotion There is an old Legend of a Merchant who never would go to Mass but ever when he heard the Saints bell he said to his wife pray thou for thee and me Upon a time he dreamed that he and his wife were dead and that they knocked at Heaven-gates for entrance St Peter the feigned Porter suffered his wife to enter in but shut him out saying Illa intravit pro se te As she went to Church for thee so she must go to heaven for thee also With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse Rom. 10.10 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Amen This word is taken in Scripture three wayes Viz. 1. Nominaliter 2. Verbaliter 3. Adverbialiter As a noun and so 't is as much as true or truth thus it is taken in the end of the Gospels and elsewhere Rev. 3.14 As a Verb and then is as much as So be it in which sense it is taken in the end of the Lords Prayer and in divers other places Deut. 27.15 c. As an Adverb signifying verily and so often used by our Saviour Nec Graecum est In Joh. tract 41 nec Latinum saith Aug. It is neither a Greek word nor a Latine but an Hebrew word Et mansit in interpretatum and by the Providence of God remaines uninterpreted ne vilesceret nudatum lest haply being unfolded it should be lesse esteemed As Hallelujah Hosanna c. It is Particula confirmantis In Psal 40. Signaculum orationis Jerom a Particle of confirmation as Ambrose well observeth So be it So be it The Lord grant it may be so It must in a fervent Zeal be the shutting up of all our prayers It was doubled by the people Neh. 8.6 when Ezra praised the Lord the great God all the peeple answered Amen Amen With lifting up their hands and no doubt their hearts too Lam. 3.41 As the Church saith We mill lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the Heavens If the hand be lifted up without the heart it is an hypocritical Amen and unacceptable unto God Dictio est acclamationis approbationis confirmationis The Rabbines say that our Amen in the close of our Prayers must not be 1. Hasty but with consideration 1 Cor. 14.16 2. Nor mained or defective we must stretch out our hearts after it and be swallowed up in God 3. Nor alone or an Orphan that is without faith love and holy confidence The spirits of the whole prayer are contracted into it and so should the spirit of him that prayeth It is either prefixed or preposed to a sentence Christus Amen utitur quinquagies Gerrard and so it is a note of a certain and earnest asseveration Or else it is affixed and opposed and so it is a note either of assent or assurance Of assent and that either of the understanding to the truth of that that is uttered as in the end of the Creed and Gospels or of the will and affections for the obtaining of our petitions Of assurance next as in the Lords Prayer and many other places It is the voice of one that beleeveth and expecteth that he shall have his prayers granted And then it is as much as So be it yea so it shall be It is used in all languages Aâ—nsw to betoken unity of faith and spirit The poor misled and muzled Papists are enjoined not to join so far with a Protestant in any holy action Specul Europ as to say Amen Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting Amen and Amen Psal 41.13 Preaching Praedicatio verbi est medium gratiae divinitùs institutam quo res regni Dei publicè explicantur applicantur populo ad salutem â—â—ifitatiâ—nem Melanchton said the work of three sorts of persons was very difficult Viz. Regentis Parturientis Docentis A woman may not teach in the publique Assemblies be she never so learned or godly I do not render you Chrysostoms reason The woman taught once In 2 Tim 1.12 and
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Divine Worship The Serpents Grammar first taught Deum pluraliter declinare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eritis siâ—ut Dii Ye shall be as Gods And here is the first broaching of plurality of Gods which since this time hath multiplied to an innumerable rabble of false gods Of Divine powers adored by the heathens Hesiod reckons up thirty thousand that were in his time What an Army may we think there were of them in after ages It is said that in China are no fewer than an hundred thousand Idols See Mr. Fullers Pantheon But all religious service done to any but God is manifestly condemned as impious Be the gods of the Heathens good fellows the true God is a jealous God and will not share his glory with another Read 1 Cor. 8.5 6. Worship is either 1. Civil Or 2. Divine The former may be given to men and it is twofold 1. A civil worship of duty from inferiours to their Superiors as from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from subjects to their Magistrates 2. A civil worship of curtesie which is from equals when one equal will bow to another or when a Superior bows down to his inferiour But the latter is Gods peculiar For nothing but God or that which we make a God is or can be worshipped Either he is a God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one Whatever creature shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more than a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship Indeed Papists have worship for creatures and they have distinction for it but no Scripture for it They tell us of their Latria worship onely proper to God and Dulia which is for Saints and Huperdulia which is for the Virgin Mary and for the signe of the Crosse Thus they make vain distinctions which God and the Scripture make not They that invent a worship must invent a doctrine to maintain it by And indeed vain distinctions are good enough to maintain vain superstitions This divine worship of God is twofold 1. Internal and 2. External The former is to love God fear God and trust upon him These are acts of inward worship The latter is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his own institution Dâ—o serviendum ell non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio Tert. in those several wayes wherein God will be honoured and served by humble adoration supplication c. God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together but internal worship is the chief External worship honours God most but internal worship pleases God most The external worship may be compleat in it self but is never pleasing to God without the internal Internal is compleat in it self and pleasing unto God without the external But in both we must be zealous The Lacedemonians though sore assailed by the Peâ—sians would not resist till their sacrifices to their gods were fully ended God is a Spirit John 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth To these we oppose the profane person he hath no gods at all in matters of Religion his heart is a piece of dead flesh without feeling of love of fear of care or of paines from the deep strokes of a revenging conscience custom of sin hath wrought his senselesness which hath been so long entertained that it pleads habitation we are born sinful but have made our selves profane at the first he sinned and cares not now he sins and knows not appetite is his Lord and reason his servant when ought succeedeth to him he sacrificeth to his nets and thank either his fortune or his wit and will rather make a false god than acknowledge the true His conscience would fain speak with him but he will not hear it and when it cries aloud in his ear for audience he drowns it with good fellowship He never names God but in his oaths never thinks of him but in extremity The inevitable necessity of Gods decree makes him desperately carelesse so with good food he poysons himself his usuallest Theme is the boast of his young sins which he can still joy in though he cannot commit He cannot think of death without terrour which he fears worse than Hell because this he is sure of the other he but doubts of He comes to the Church as to the Theatre but not so willingly for company custome recreation perhaps for sleep He is hated of God as much as he hateth goodnesse and differs little from a Devil but that he hath a body The Law is made for the unholy and profane 1 Tim. 1.9 Look diligently lest there be any profane person as Esau Heb. 12.16 Servant of men There is a service due from man to man but comparatively to our service of God we must not be the servants of men We ought to serve men heartily but we must serve none but God with all our hearts He is a servant of men in the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 7.23 that subjects himself to their lusts either for hope or fear labouring to please men though it be with sinning against and provoking God That Rule holds good in Rhetorick but not in Divinity Cicero Non ad veritatem solùm sed etiam ad opinionem corum qui andiunt accommodanda est oratio This was a Principle held very fast by the Heathens Magis ob temperandum est Diis apud quos diutius manendum erit quà m hominibus Witnesse Antigoua in Sophacles quibuscum admodum brevi tempore vivendum est Better obey God with whom we must ever live than men with whom we have but a while to continue Men-pleasers that curry favour with all they lose a friend of God neither do they long hold in with those whom for present they do so much please Whether it be right in the sight of God Acts 4.19 to hearken unto men more than unto God judge ye Servant of sin Every man till regenerate is a servant to sin and overcome by it Quot vitis tot domiâ—i till the grace of regeneration do renue him and set him at liberty All unregenerate men have put their neck into sins yoke and are unwilling to have it taken off again Sin may have a twofold prevalency or dominion over a man 1. Either with a full and plenary consent 2. Or else unwillingly with reluctancy and contradiction As Josephus saith of Herod that he raigned over the Jews for many year by meer force they opposing and resisting of him but afterwards they willingly consented to him By this distinction Divines use to resolve that case of conscience whether a godly man may be said to be under a reigning sinne for as we understand the word reigning as aforesaid so it is true or false c.
some times Better to be counted proud saith Luther than be sinfully silent Epist ad Staup. So that there is a time to speak and as sometimes Dixisse culpa sit quae fuerunt retinenda so at another time Tacuisse noceat quae dicenda fuerant Such as love to vaunt themselves and out of ostentation to set forth their good parts to publick view may be compared to a vessel without a cover touching which the Law saith that it shall be counted unclean But to utter a mans knowledge for the benefit of others is not pride but zeal however the world censure it And they have doubtlesse an heavy account to make who hide their Talents Vile latens virtus and having a great treasure of rare abilities will not be drawn to impart them The canker of these mens great skill shall be a swift witnesse against them Silence in some cases is a crying sin Taciturnity is sometimes a vertue but not at all where it tends to the beâ—raying of a good cause or the detriment of the Church Meam injuriam patienter tuli c. Hierom to vigilantius Whiles the wrong thou didst reached onely to my self I took it patiently but thy wickedness against God I cannot bear with The like Hest 7.4 Isa 62.1 Divines observe there are seven seasons of speaking 1. When we may bring glory to God and do good to our brethren 2. When we have an opportunity to vindicate the honour and truth of God 3. When we may relieve the credit of a brother that is wronged 4. When we may instruct or direct those that are ignorant 5. When we may comfort or support those that are weak 6. When we may resolve and settle those that are in doubt 7. When we may duly reprove and convince those that do evil There are also seven special seasons of silence 1. Till we have a call 2. Till we be rightly informed about the state of the matter or thing to which we must speak 3. Neither may we speak rashly without sutable preparation either actual or habitual 4. Nor when what we speak is like to be a snare unto our selves Amos 5.10 12. with verse 13. 5. So likewise nor when our own passions or corruptions are up 6. Nor when men are not capable of what we speak 7. Nor to burthen or grieve the spirits of any especially of those that are already afflicted I conclude then it is a great part of prudence to know when to be silent and when to speak when it is a time to speak silence is our folly and when it is a time to keep silence speaking is our folly A time to keep silence and a time to speak Eccles 3.7 Prolixity O quà m multa quà m Paucis Tertullus knew full well that Prolixity was troublesom when he uttered that insinuating expression That I be not tedious unto thee hear us of thy clemency a few words Acts 24.4 Wish To wish that a thing had been or not been out of a tendernesse that God should be offended by sin is not onely lawful but very commendable But to wish things otherwise than they are as murmuring against and misliking Gods administration or out of a tendernesse to our selves because we suffer is not onely sinful but abominable because our wills rise up against the Will of God But what a zeal to God and love to his countrey-men had Paul I could wish that my self were separated from Christ Rom. 9.3 for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh Vow God it is to whom a vow belongeth Vota sunt promissiones solennes Dâ—o factae de iis quae in nostrâ sunt potestate Deo gratae ad fidem in precibus confirmandam And therefore Aquinas saith Quòd voâ—um soli Deo fit sed promissio etiam potest fieri homini And therefore a Vow is properly an act of Religion and of Divine worship One main use of a religious Vow is to tye our selves thereby to the better abearance that we slip not collar that we detrect not the yoke of Gods obedience Broken bones must have strong bands to close them Tottering houses must be crampt with iron bars or they will soon down If the Vows of God be upon us it will help against the ficklenesse of our false hearts which cannot but know that if God be alsufficient to us we must be altogether his His is a Covenant of mercy even the sure mercies of David Ours is a Covenant of obedience to him in every part and point of duty Wicked men break these bonds as Sampson did the green withes and cast away these cords from them And the best are too sâ—ack though in their affliction they are wondrous apt to promise great matters Us tales esse perseveremus sâ—ni quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi if they may but be delivered Pliny in an Epistle to one of his friends that desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will saith he give you one rule that shall be instead of a thousand That you be sure to be the same when well that you vowed to be when you were sick However that was not right of Hierom * If that holy father be not wronged Melius est vovere quà m votum non Praestare For Isidorus better by Davids example towards Nabal In male promissis rescinde fidem in stulto voto muta decretum quod incaute vovisti ne facias impià enim est promissio quae scelere adimpletur neque debet votum esse iniquitatis vinculum Vow Psal 76.11 and pay unto the Lord your God Covenant The old Romans had a great care to perform alwayes their word whatever it cost them insomuch that the first Temple built in Rome was dedicated to the Goddesse Fidelity In after times indeed Romanis promittere promptum erat promissis autem quanquam juramento firmatis minimè stare They were forward to promise but careless to perform Many such degenerate Romanes we have that can dispence with promises at pleasure slipping them off as Monkies do their collars and Peacock-like all in changable colours as often changed as moved But a good man will rather suffer losse than forfeit his honest word He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not Psal 15.4 Oath Against the Anabaptists It is not unlawful to swear For 1. God never forbids an Oath simpliciter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. He doth not say in the third Commandment Non assumes nomen Dei omnino sed non assumes in vanum 3. It is commanded as a part of Gods worship And by an Oath God is glorified we professe that is God present every where that he sees the heart that he is a just revenger of untruths Besides humane society is thereby benefited strifes are ended and love is preserved Object But I say unto you swear not at all Answ It cannot be Christs meaning simply to forbid
up in victory We may easily perceive Mille modis laethi miseros mors una fatigat Et tum quo que cum crescimus vita decrescit Sencc how all this our Contexture is built of weak and decaying pieces Tully writeth of Hortensius that after his Consulship he decayed in his rare faculty of Eloquence though not so sensibly that every auditor might perceive it yet in such sort that a cunning Artist might observe that he drew not so clear a stroke in his pieces nor cast on them so rich and lively colours as before Mors hominis pecudum differt In pecudibus perit anima cum corpore redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil Non verò ita homines anima rationalis non perit cum corpore sed corpori tandem adjungetur anima unde domicilium templum aeternum Dei erit Death Serpent-like meddles with nothing but a godly mans dust When death takes hold of the Body as Potipher's wife did of Joseph's cloak the Soul leaves it as he did that and flies to God One reason of dying is God will have our Bodies to be new cast and come out beautiful and bright This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Under the Law persons were unclean till the evening so are we till death because we shall never utterly lay by our body of corruption till we lay aside our earthly body Omega nostrorum mors est Owen Epigram Nec dignus est in morte accipere solatium qui se non câ—gitavit esse moriturum Cypr. mors alpha malorum is true of wicked men And sad it is for any to say at death Omnia fui nihil sum Yet as the Vipers flesh is made a preservative against her poyson so from the bitter cup of Death ariseth to a child of God health joy salvation Who is afraid to die said Bradford but such as hope not to live eternally Death once a curse is now turned into a blessing as Levi's curse of being scattered better fitted them to teach the Tribes in every City The godly Cautator Cygnus Funcris ipse sui at their death knowing that out of their labour they must receive a plentiful harvest they rejoyce to see the troops of Angels and are so much the more ravished with joy as they draw nearer to their death by which they are delivered from the prison of the flesh the floods of misery and the deceits of the Devil drawing nearer to the Crown of glory and fruition of eternal rest and felicity with the Saints of God Bolton said on his death-bed He hoped none of his Children durst meet him at the great Tribunal of Christ in an unregenerate estate Satan tempts forest at death The Coward when we are at weakest when entring into Heaven though he cannot hinder us yet he will be treading upon our heels and troubling us But be of good comfort Serpens nunquam nisi moriens in longum est Meeting two Boats on the water we think the other moves ours stands still Even so we are usually more mindful of the mortality of others than our own But there are two rules never to be forgotten That the Son of God died for thee And that thou thy self though thou livest long must die nay art shortly to die Nihil sic revocat hominem à peccato quà m frequens meditatio mortis Aug. If thou shouldest live in the utmost part of Ethiopia where men so long live as are called Macrobians yet die thou must nor canst thou know where when or how The death of the Son of God who did acquit thee from eternal death and thy own death being so certain must be as two spurs of love to drive thee through the short race of this momentany life unto the goal of eternal happiness Consider 1. The time we have to live is less than a Geometrical point 2. How wicked the Enemy is who promiseth us the Kingdom of this World that he might take from us a better 3. How false Pleasures are which only embrace us to strangle us 4. How deceitful Honors are which lift us up to cast us down It is the sublimity of wisdom to do those things living Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons Let every man in the address to his actions consider whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions and then let him proceed accordingly Austin with his mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Practor to see the Tomb of Caesar Himself thus describes the Corps It looked of a blue mould the bone of the nose laid bare the flesh of the nether lip quite fallen off his mouth full of worms and in his eye-pits two hungry toads feasting upon the remanent porâ—ion of flesh and moisture and so he dwelt in his house of darkness This meditation might be a means to allay our sinful appetites make our spirits more sober and desires obedient But some are as unwilling to meditate of Death as a child to look into the dark If they make their Will they think they are nearer to it But let us acquaint our selves with Death as when a horse boggles we ride him up to the object Yea as Christ said when the Disciples were afraid let us handle it and see Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum And let us always be ready in what corner soever we are that when God calls we may with Abraham say Behold my Lord here I am Death like the stream of Jordan between us and our Canaan runs furiously but stands still when the Ark comes Blessed is the death of those that have part in the death of Christ Death every where expecteth us If thou therefore be wise Mors. ubique nos expectâ—â— tu fi saplens cris ubique illam expectabis Senec. Heb. 9.27 do thou expect Death every where To this end remember Austins admonition Be afraid to live in such an estate as thou art afraid to die in It is appointed unto men once to die Purgatory Lo say some quoting Heb. 9.8 Heaven was not opened in the time of the Law till the passion of our Saviour Christ therefore the Patriarchs and others that died then went not to Heaven but were in a place of Rest distinct from Heaven This is their Limbus Patrum which they have forged But quickly to stop their mouths It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A gate in the Kings Pallace may be opened though not known The way to the Holiest of all that is to Heaven prefigured by their Sanctum Sanctorum was not yet manifested it was obscured under Types and Figures darkly revealed to them That one place of Scripture following puts out the very Fire of Purgatory For if
he is as man in heaven so he is as man higher than the heavens O praeclarum diem cum ad illud animorum concilium caetumquae proficiscar et cum ex bâc turbd et colluvione discedam Cicer. de sencetute Hebr. 12.24 higher than the heavens which are visible to the eye of man yet in part of the heavens where the God of glory is pleased to make the most ample and immediate manifestation of his glory 't is called the habitation of the highest a new world the new heaven Paradise the heavenly Jereusalem the City of the living God where there are an innumerable company of Angels the general assembly and Church of the first-borne and God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect There is I say Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant and the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel There our high-Priest presents to the Father the propitiatory sacrifice of himself and sprinkles upon us his purifying blood that is by his powerful mediation he applies unto us who are faithful the saving merits of his never to be forgotten passion by which our mortal sins are freely remitted and we destin'd to a Crown incorruptible that never fades away in the highest heavens Thus are we through him had in perpetual remembrance and accepted of God in the beloved as righteous as if we had never offended When a man indeed looks on things directly through the aire they appear in their proper forms and colours as they are but if they be look't upon through a green glasse they all appear green So when God beholds us as we are in our selves we appear vile and squallid but when as presented before his throne in heaven in the person of our Mediatour our high-Priest after the order of Melchisedeck approved of for his merits then we appear before him as Christ himself holy harmlesse undefiled seperate from sinners and in some respect and measure made higher than the heavens for those that overcome by faith and a good conscience being Kings and Priests by him shall be so honourably esteem'd of Revel 3 21. as to be made sit down as coheirs with him in his throne as he sitteth down with his father in his throne As he vouchsafes us to partake of his merits so of his glory Cap. 5.10 making us unto our God Kings and Priests In lieu whereof let us in all humility with the four and twenty Elders fall down before him thut sitteth on the throne Cap. 4.10 and worship him that liveth for ever and ever And with those ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands celestiall spirits Cap. 5.11.12 13. let us say for of him 't is said worthy is the Lambe that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Vnto thee therefore O our loving Saviour Christ Jesus our high-Priest who art holy harmless undefiled seperate from sinners and made higher than the heavens be ascribed by us as by every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen GLORIA IN ALTISSIMIS OR THE ANGELICAL ANTHEM LUKE 2.14 Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will towards men THis is the sacred Anthem which by the heavenly quire of Angelical spirits was most melodiously sung as a pregnant expression of exceeding joy conceived in them at and for the so much desired nativity of our blessed Saviour These ministring spirits I propose as the fittest and compleatest pattern for our pious imitation to whom seeing we are made but little inferiour in regard of the lively image of God imprinted in our soules so be we also but little inferiour to them in expressing the joyes conceived in our hearts I may safely averr without the least smack or touch of Popery that the Angels of God in heaven rejoyce at the good of Gods Church whereof they themselves are apart for such is the spiritual sympathy of their holy affections with ours whose conversation is in heaven though our selves on earth that they bear a part with us in solacing themselves for our happiness The heavens could not hold these Angels from coming to the earth in hast upon the wing to bring the glad tidings of peace and great joy that shall be to all people the sun was anticipated in his course for the Angels proclaim a Saviour ere the sun the worlds eye did discover him That we therefore may not come short of affection if it be possible of them let us in a joyful sense of felicity Psal 103. Incipit à superieribus sinlt in infinis coming unto us by our Saviours coming unto us sing Hallelujah unto God and with David call upon all creatures from the highest to the lowest to publish the praises of the highest Blesse the Lord ye his Angels that excell in strength that do his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his word Blesse ye the Lord all ye his hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Blesse the Lord all his works in all places of his Dominion Blesse the Lord Kimchi O my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy name Elevate your hearts and voices good Christians in harmonical strains with these blessed spirits setting forth in some measure the exceeding greatness and glory of the love of God extended unto us without all measure Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men This Song doth consist of three parts viz. 1. Glory 2. Peace 3. Mercy The 1. is Glory be to God on high there is the honor the reverend obedience the admiration and the divine worship which we ought to give to God The 2. is And on earth peace this is the effect of the former working in the hearts of men whereby the world appears in its most glorious splendor and transporting beauty being an entire chain of intermutual amity The 3. is Good will towards men this is Gods mercy reconciling man to himself after his perfidious apostacie and ungrateful dissertion from his Creatour Glory peace and mercy then must be the welcome subject of my discourse Glory to God Peace to the Kingdomes of the earth and mercy unto sinful men Gods mercy appears in our Saviours appearing to the world which brought peace on earth for which men and Angels glorify the Lord of glory Glory be to God on high The first part comprehends what ought to be the first and principal aim both of our Christian intention and pious execution wherein if we behave our selves well we shall have a part and portion in that inheritance which Christ with his blood purchased for us Glory be to God on high Gods glory is either divine or humane Gods divine gloty is that which is proper to the divinity incommunicable to any creature Which
Our creation our preservation do both plead for and challenge it at our hands a regular conformity to his will for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture but much more our redemption the end whereof is that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Luke 1.74 75. in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This obedience is 1. Internal wrought and seated in the heart 2. External profest and made conspicuous by outward expressions For the former it is internal wrought in the heart for the outward motions of our service and observance to God have their proper dependance upon the good operations of the heart as it is affected moved and ruled by the Spirit of grace In nature the heart is primum vivens the first part in man that lives and communicates natural life and motion to the rest So in grace the heart is the very first that receives new life from above according unto which all the other parts become instruments of righteousness and Gods glory from being instruments of sin and Gods dishonour The heart then once subdued to the obedience of God the rebellion of our nature being suppressed and the love of God shed abroad in them by the holy Ghost which is given unto us there is by the effectual working of the power of the most High begotten in us an ardent love of God which is that spiritual flame of pure heavenly fire that makes us zealous of good works that actuates the whole man in piety putting us awork in the serious disquisition of the affairs of heaven and making us fiery hot in the Christian pursuit of Gods glory and our eternal quiet The Apostle defines it to be the fulfilling of the Law so that upon it depends our obedience there being no obedience without it Wherefore to conclude this with S. Bernard on the Canticles Dilexit nos Deus dulciter sapienter fortiter dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter Bern. quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit Sic nos diligamus Deum dulciter ne illecti sapienter ne decepti fortiter ne compressi deficiamus God loved us sweetly wisely sirmly Sweetly because he assumed our nature wisely because he eschewed and declined our sin firmly because he sustained death for us In like manner let us love God sweetly lest allured wisely left intrapped and firmly lest constrained and fore urged we revolt and apostatize from him Let our affections then be once heartily endeared unto him as they ought to be and the whole world shall not remove our standing nor make us forsake our obedience due to God For the latter This honour consisting in obedience as it is internal wrought in the heart and seated there by love so it is external profest by outward expressions It must not be lockt up in perpetual silence nor buried in endless obscurity but our lips must be open to shew forth his praises and our light must so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven This honorable obedience is exprest two ways 1. By good language 2. By good actions First it is exprest by good language The heavenly host of Angels be assembled together to give the good time of the early day to the Son of God now made the Son of Man Sing and rejoice not only because the vacant places of Apostate Angels were to be filled up and supplied with the redeemed Israel of God but also because we are by his most happy Incarnation made most happily the sons of God of the sons of wrath and partakers of their happiness of being partakers of great misery Wherefore joy was proclaimed from Heaven in the sweetest dialects by the Divine Heralds of Honor because the Author and Giver of Joy was come then into the world which was the best day that eâ—er than beheld made more glorious by the glorious rising of the Sun of Righteousness Joy again is commanded because enmity betwixt God and man the just cause of sorrow is removed Questionless Glory in the highest degree and largest extent is to be rendred unto God which our first Parents by their unlawful transgression would have taken away And if the Angels thus sing and rejoice how much more are we engaged in the performance of the like since he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of Man since unto us that Child was born and for us that Son was given Sing and fear not then as the Angels said because he was born who hath taken away all cause of fear The Israelites did lift up their voices with Jubile 2 Sam. 〈◊〉 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought unto them which was but a shadow or figure of the Lords Incarnation how much more ought we to rejoice unto whom the Lord himself is come and hath honored us with the assumption of our flesh unto him Abraham rejoiced when he saw by faith the day of the Lord afar off how much greater ought our rejoicing to be now that he was Immanuel God with us He rejoiced when he saw the Lord in an humane shape assumed for a time appearing unto him what should we do now that Christ hath coupied unto himself our nature by an everlasting covenant and inviolable union Our souls ought to magnifie the Lord our God and our spirits to rejoice in God our Saviour A new song is expected of us being the old things are passed and all things become new With the Heavens ought we in a more special manner to declare the glory of the God of Heaven and sound forth in the choifest language and with most chearful heart from generation to generation the everlasting praises of our God for the wondrous work of our Redemption God commands us Good Angels invite us all things prompt us to make our tongues as pens of ready writers to set forth that good matter is indited in and by our hearts concerning the King of Kings Psal 45. whereby we may make his name to be remembred in all ages and the people to praise him for ever and ever Secondly This honorable obedience is exprest by good actions To speak well and do ill is simulata sanctitas counterfeit sanctity deliverâ—d by some to be duplex iniquitas a double iniquity Being that the true Light is gone into the world from the Father of Lights who dwelleth in that Light which is unaccessible We who are the Children of Light by profession ought not to be imployed in the works of Darkness by dissimulation Our behaviour and conversation must be candid and unstain'd if our souls have received the true stamp and character of goodness For this purpose God gave Christ and Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Enoch walked with God and Abraham pleased
the hearts of all that should read those stories Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Now if any Anabaptistical Humorist who hath a company of Phanatique toyes whiffling about his understanding should censure me for inforcing Bowing and Kneeling I have no more to say to him than this Being that God is the Creator and Redeemer of soul and body that therefore as well with the body as the soul we are to worship him by kneeling bowing and that especially when the act of our Redemption is presented unto us by visible signs as it is in the Lords Supper I conclude this with the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King eternal immortal invisible and onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen I follow still the Angels strain and pitch my thoughts on the second part the words are these And on earth peace From the time of Mans capital apostasie effected by the cunning project of the subtile Serpent all the creatures of God were at odds with Man affected with reciprocal enmity The fiery Dragon had set the world on fire Combustion and Confusion the two extremities of distempered Passion came on after Hence by reason of the perpetual opposition of the creatures Iniquity did abound and the love of many waxed cold The burden of these disturbances was so ponderous that all things did groan under it So many blustering storms did succeed one upon the neck of another as that the world seemed to despair of peace Mans wicked disobedience was taken so ill at Gods hands as well he might as that he was incensed against him and his posterity and for their sake cursed the earth Here then we find Man in hostility with God with himself with his brethren with all Gods creatures both in heaven and in earth So that he is excluded felicity whereof he was before possessed inviron'd with that deplorable misery which he then could not and we now cannot without Christ Jesus avoid His rebellion against God caused the creatures to rebell against him He neglecting his Creator is both by the Creator and creature neglected His falling from the Lord made the Lord and the servants fall out with him Because the sons of Adam had such aspiring minds as to seek after that which is proper unto God Peace is therefore departed from the sons of Adam Now there was no peace within none without until the Prince of peace Jesus Christ by grace put a period to the mutinous disposition of ill-affected humors until he had so salved the matter betwixt God and us as that all things might work together for the good of us that are the elect of God Wherefore as the Dove after the â—sswaging of the waters of the Deluge brought an Olive branch into the Ark of Noah so Christ as innocent as a Dove came unto the world and brought Peace and Reconciliation with him into the Ark of God which is his Church floating in a restless Ocean of intestine troubles Who was no sooner come but the Heavenly Courtiers invite us men on earth to give glory unto God in Heaven because that the God of Heaven did by his own Son send peace on earth to men For when he came he brought peace to us when he departed Zanch. he left his peace with us Qui pacem dicit dicit uno verbo omnia bona saith Zanchius Who names but peace comprehends in one word all that 's good And indeed all that 's good did in and through Christ descend to us from the Infinite Good out of the inexhaustible treasures of whose uncomprehended fulness we have all received Since then O my God that my soul and discursive faculty must now be fixt upon all that 's good refine I beseâ—ch thee my diviner thoughts and let not all that 's good be in any wise tainted by any unhallowed imperfections of mine Assist with thy Divine power in setting out this Olive-branch of Peace fetcht from Heaven that may in time spring up unto eternal life Our Saviour the Everlasting Son of the Father and blessed Peace-maker of Heaven and Earth wrought for believing men such as shall receive him by faith for whose sake he came into the world a foursold inviolable Peace Viz. 1. Peace with our God 2. Peace with our selves 3. Peace with one another 4. Peace with all the creatures First he wrought our peace with God What befell Adam for his insolent behaviour and disobedience against the Author of his life no son of Adam that hath but the least sense of misery can be ignorant of Upon the apprehension of the transgression he found himself and we since our selves miserably plung'd in a depth of inselicity for by the offence of that one man that first man all became enemies to God and God an enemy to all Thus God and man stood off at a distance never to come together but by a mediation Whereupon the God of mercy that delights not in the death of a sinner unwilling to see so noble a creature perish everlastingly provides and sends a Mediator that Son of his who was in his own bosom to reconcile us unto himself to bring us unto the bosom of his Father ratisying such a league as may if it were possible outlast Eternity Hence it was he took our flesh upon him whereby being God and Man he might bring man to God Oh the hardness of my stony heart saith Bernard in a heavenly extasie Bern. Vtinam Domine sicut Verbum caro factum est ita cor meum carnem fiat I would to God my God and Lord that as the Word was made flesh so were my heart hereby to be seelingly apprehensive of thine infinite mercy in granting pardon to my sin and peace unto my soul through the Lord Jesus It is the Apostles speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is Christ is our Peace Eph. 2.14 our Peace in the very abstract By him our eternal quiet is procured Gods consuming wrath appeâ—sed and by his light are our feet guided into the way of peace A Jesuite spake it and to speak truth 't is Gods received truth Ex inimicis amicos ex servis filios ex filiis irae haredes regni fecit nos per Christum Deus God the God of peace hath made us through Christ that of being his enemies his friends of being his servants his sons of being sons of wrath heirs of a Kingdom not subject to mortality Buâ—lest an headstrong credulity arising out of a flattering misconceit should draw some into a precipitate presumption of concluding themselves to be reconciled to God and restored to favour though they persist in sin and infidelity Learn this Orthodox truth grounded on that of the Apostle That they only who are justified by faith and sanctified by his Spirit have peace with God Rom. 5.1 through our Lord Jesus Christ Happy is that soul alone that hath faith it hath Christ Happy
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Oh the unsearchable depth of my loving Saviour's love and the infinite value of my Redeemer's death upon whom fell the chastisement of our peace and on whom the Lord laid the iniquity of us all Oh who would not in a full eareer run and leap out of himself into the bosom of my crucified Lord in whose arms we may receive the solacing embracements of his infinite love None but he can bring us unto God for none but he can grant rest unto our souls As I live I will never seek any other Peace-maker among Angels or Saints in heaven or earth to make my peace with Heaven than him that is the King of the Saints Who though he accounted it no robbery to be equal with God yet for our sakes for my sake did humble himself to death even to the death of the Cross whereby having made our peace be hath freed us from all that 's ill and hath made us partakers of all that 's good He hath freed us from all that 's ill The blessed fruit of an happy peace is a well grounded security which whosoever is at peace with God enjoys Num. 17.23 enjoys a safe protection under his wings Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel Subtilty cannot prevail against those whom the Lord hath resolved to bless nor power overcome whom the Lords stretched out arm will support What forces of arms of the mightiest man can resist the powerful arms of the Almighty or what wisdom of the wisest worldling can oppose the wisdom of the wisest God And if all these fail what can the Accuser of the brethren invent whereby to bring us into condemnation The Serpents head is bruised by the Womans Seed and Sin hath lost its sting for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Condemnation nor separation from the love of God Satan and the world may assault but with little good success The flesh and sin may labour to entice us but to little purpose Death and the grave may seise upon us but 't is but for a short time In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us And thanks be to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Forasmuch then as that the Lord hath troden the wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone to free us from all ill Be ye oh be ye who are the Lords redeemed cautelous and circumspect in your conversation that by the errors of your ways and continual transgressions you incense not his wrath against you nor provoke the eyes of his glory Sudden destruction will assuredly surprise that soul that sin keeps at odds with God and Hell gapes wide open for such as will not be reclaimed It was Joram's proposition to Jehu Is it peace And it was Jehu's reply to Joram What peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jesabel and her witchcrafts are so many Out of doubt while we persist in wickedness adultery idolatry pride avarice sacriledge extortion oppression bribes perjury I might be endless we cannot be at peace with God and therefore lie ever open to the shot of general dangers As we are unfit through our obliquities to press into Gods presence here so is it impossible for us keeping the same path to be admitted into his glotious presence hereafter or to escape that deserved vengeance that comes swiftly from him to whom vengeance belongeth that driveth more furiously than did Jehu the son of Nimshi Break off then your sins to be at peace with God and Gods peace be with you So shall you receive large immunities as to be free from all ill so to be partakers of all good which is the second effect of this peace The largeness of my Gods bounty and my Saviours merits are not to be comprehended by humane capacity it is infinite Ponder the Apostles reason for this ample favour extended unto us and then let our souls rejolce Gods liberality is propounded in this wise He that spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things It cannot enter into my head to conceive how that the Lord will withhold what tends to our felicity being he gruâ—g'd not to give us what he loved best his onely Son He gave him without our demand and will therefore give all things without our desert What Paul said to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3. I say to you that are reconciled to God All things are yours whether things present or things to come and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's The Lord giveth grace and glory saith the Psalmist Grace here Glory elswhere In a peaceable Commonwealth all things flourish men do plentifully enjoy themselves and plenty of all things without interruption whereas the discord and dissentions of factious Licentiates by rebellion against their Prince lays a gap open for ruine to enter upon them So when upon our address to God we have obtained a peaceable condition when we have laid down our arms or weapons intending no more to sight against Heaven when the Mediator of the New Testament by interposing himself betwixt God and us hath concluded an everlasting and unchangeable peace then then in very deed no good thing will be denied us There is no want to them that fear him Psal 34. This is most true For by this peace we are adopted the sons of God and heirs of glory whereby there is conveyed unto us by the eternal constitution of the Possessor of all things a just title to all things to blessings both temporal and eternal the treasures of his graces are conferred upon us the storehouse of his riches is ever open to us and the pure crown of immortality and royal diadem of glory is laid up for us For us who shall depart in peace according to Gods word and whose eyes shall see his salvation One word to you to whom a sinful life is far more pleasing than that that befits a Christian's Your iniquities separate between your God and you and deprive you of all that 's good I call you from Isaiah what he did from the Lord Children of transgression and a seed of falshood whose end cannot be good whilst you walk in those crooked paths wherein whosoever goeth shall not know peace Rectifie your ways alter your wild courses conform your selves to the will of God your Creator accept the Covenant of peace and live accordingly so shall your souls live Isa 55.7 Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Then blessed shall ye be in the city and blessed shall ye be in the field blessed shall ye be in the
body whereof Christ is the head Be we then exhorted as sensible of being in the presence of God to the love one of another which as learned Scaliger defines it Appetitus unionis Scaliger Exercitation a desire and inclination to a quiet union Charity is the soveraign preservative of peace and nothing makes us more like God than it saith one As all things are fill'd with his goodness so the universal is partaker of the good mans spreading love Let me also dehort from malice and envie which is a grand enemy to peace Invidia siculi non invenere Tyranni majut tormentum the Sicilian tyrants never invented a more cruel a more cursed torment Give it no countenance no harbour for it ever thirsteth after revenge and attributes to it self what belongs to God vengeance It is like Vipers wine which being drunk will never leave working until it discover it self and those intestine humours that depend upon it by stirring up strifes for hatred stirreth up strifes Prov. 10.12 Pliny Nat. Hist lib. 8. cap. 28. Mark the monstrous nature of this unnatural humour whereas all plants and other creatures have their growth and increase to a period and then their declination and decay except only the Crocodile Dalington in his Aphorism who ever groweth bigger and bigger even till death as Plinie did observe So saith ingenious Dalington have all passions and perturbations in the mind of man their intentions and remissions increase and decrease except only malicious revenge for this the longer it lasteth the stronger it waxeth and worketh still even when the maligne humour of avarice and ambition are setled or spent And would you know how this Crocodile-like sin growes bigger and bigger I will tell you It is Galens observation Galenus ' that when a humour is strong and predominant it not only converteth his proper nutriment but even that which is apt for contrary humours into its own nature and quality Of like force is this strong and wilful vice it not only feeds upon agreeable motions but makes even those reasons which are strongest against it to be most for it and so swells immeasurably big If therefore any one be troubled with this malady whereby this peace of Christians is disquieted I will give him a receipt of a medicine taken out of St. Cyprian which will cure him Venena fellis evome Cypr. lib. de Zelo livere discordiarum virus exclude purgetur mens quam serpentinus livor infecerat amaritudo omnis qua intus insederat Christi dulcedine leniatur Disgorge thy self of the poyson of thy gall cast out the venome of discords purge thy mind which is infected with serpentine envie and let all bitternesse which setled in thy heart be gently mittigated with the sweetnesse with the meeknesse of Christ Jesus It is the voice of God Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart Levit. 19.17 1 Joh. 3.15 Eph. 4.31 32 Homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec minum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tremelius of Cranmer he that hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him This may somewhat satiate and allay the boiling heat of a revengeful mind Lest then this sin kill your souls following the Apostles counsel let all bitternesse and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even at God for Christs sake hath forgiven you For Christs sake then in the bowels of compassion forgive and forget all offences Cyprian 1. Forgive Demittentur tibi debita quando ipse dimiseris accipientur sacrificia cum pacificus ad Deum veneris saith Cyprian Thy sins shall be forgiven thee of God when thou forgivest other thy sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving shall be acceptable to the Almighty when thou shalt come peaceably before him Xenophon No mercy shall be shewed to them that shew no mercy 2. Forget Xenophon reports of Trasibulus that after he recovered his countrey he ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgetfulness of all injuries as indeed not worth keeping in mind the part truly of a generous spirit and heroick disposition which may well befit the best Christian to imitate O let Abrahams speech to Lot beget in every one of us ever hereafter a well grounded resolution of preserving peace Let there be no strife between me and thee for we be brethren saith he Religion tyes us beside reason to keep and maintain the Kings peace on earth if we will have the peace of Kings in heaven I have read of one Archidamus being chosen to decide a controversie between two that disagreed being sworn to stand to his judgment I lay this injunction upon you that neither of you depart this place until ye be reconciled to each other The like charge I lay on all Chistians by authority from heaven that at least ye depart not this life but in peace having your hearts cleansed from the leaven of malice and hypocrisie and filled with Christian amity and brotherly love I charge you as Joseph did his brethren at their departure from him see that ye fall not out by the way Ye are in the way to heaven go close together as hand in hand so heart in heart until you come to your journeys end heaven Now for a conclusion of the point I will use the same prayer for you which Paul did for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 3.12 The Lord make you to encrease and to abound in love one towards another and towards all men And thus much concerning Civil peace The second is Ecclesi astical the peace of the Church which is interrupted either by Heresie or Schisme Gal. 1.8 9. the one breeding dissention in Doctrine the other disorder in Discipline Against the authors and upholders of the first Saint Paul hath pronounced an Anathema If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed Against the abettors of the second it is his judicial and Apostolical sentence seperate them from among you As faction divides so infection devours the Church of God if not prevented We who are Messengers of peace ought to walk like Paul and Titus Eodem spiritu iisdem vestigiis in the same spirit touching faith in the same steps touching good life Acts 4.32 It was reported of the Beleevers that they were all of one mind and one heart Oh! I would to God that all of us that bring the message of peace in our mouths who should be the sons of peace and brethren of unity were so affected as to suppresse all pragmatical dispositions in us Beleeve me my brethren fiery spirits apter for innovation than administration become not the servants of Christ Jesus The principles of Religion which Hereticks call into question are infallible grounds where on we should build our faith not disputable points
heartily cry in a low straine of humility Pecoav◠against thee thee 〈◊〉 O Lord have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight If we can confidently set up our whole rest in our Redeemers alsufficiency we may presume that according to his promise he will extend his mercy and his favour unto all of us For this very purpose did he send his Son unto us that he might be well pleased with us in him in whom alone he is well pleased and was content from all eternity with the death of his Son to manifest in the fulness of time his good will towards men This is the reason why the Prophet Isaiah cals the year of Christs Nativity Isa 61.2 or the whole time of the Gospel The acceptable year of the Lord for the Lord accepts of us in him and no otherwise than as we are in him and being in him he gives us of his good will a secure conduct through all the various casualties of mortality wherefore saith the holy singer Thou Lord wilt blesse the righteous Psal 5.22 with favour wilt thou compasse him as with a shirld To make good this his good will further unto us he hath together with his Son made us a deed of gift of all things Rom. 8.32 For he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all would not but with him also freely give us all things Should I go about to describe the immense amplitude of my Gods liberality my words would rather extenuate than enlarge it not being able to reach to so holy a slrain as the excellency and worth thereof requires His love beside his gifts is boundless without all limits of time from eternity to eternity I use the Apostles words as wanting of mine own for a fit expression he did praedestinate us before the foundation of the world unto the Adoption of Children Eph. 1.5 6 7. by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Whereupon it is to be infer'd that without Christ there is no hope of mercy God in him expresses his good will to us in him we are elected by him called through him saved In solo dilecto suo Jes◠Christo Robertus Stephous in glos Deus charos sibi reddit quotquot in hoc selegit faith Stephanus in his gloss as many as God hath selected out of the world to be a peculiar people to himself are indeared unto him in his dear Son So that every one that belongs to the election of grace according to the dispensation of his immortal riches may truly say as Abraham did to Sarah it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee The Lord when he looks upon his Son and on us in him remembers mercy You may be pleased to call to mind what use the rain-bow serves for which is a pregnant figure of Christ our Saviour whereby we are inform'd to use the words of a reverend Prelate that when either the dark blackness of ugly sin Dr. Babington Bish of Worcester in Gen. 9. or the thick clouds of grief and adversity do threaten unto us any fearful overthrow we should clap our eyes upon our rain-bow Christ Jesus and be assured that although that blacknesse of sin be never so great yet in him and by him it shall be done away and never have power to undo us Although those mists and fogs of adversity be never so thick yet shall they by him as by a hot and strong sun be disperst and never able to drown us The greatest rain we know shall end ere it come to such a flood again and so shall these things before we fall Ecce signum behold Christ is put for a sure signe and token of Gods good will towards men But now I will close neerer and shew what in his good will he hath done for our souls I can pass by Gods sending of his Son as presupposed being the occasion of this blessed ditty but I can never pass by our restitution unto grace by him the greatest act of good will that ever was for when sin had overblackt us with such deformities as left no part cleare when we stood in direct point of diameter to his holyness and could not avoid the sentence of condemnation through his tender mercy the day-spring from on high did visit us and the light of his countenance did shine upon us to give light unto us that sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the wayes of peace Whereby we now stand on firmer and fairer terms of happiness and prosperity than before our first declination There is a more established safety in the condition we have by Christ in Christ than in that first wherein we were lest unto our selves For we fell from that first from this last we cannot and being fallen from that a better a surer cannot be compassed but by him Soul and body were so debilitated through the corruption of our degenerated nature and we so desperately praecipitate in sinful deliberations as that we could not help our selves in this time of need Potui per me sancte Pater offendere sed non valui per me placare saith Aug. in his Manual O my God I could easily offend thee Aug. Manuale cap. 8. by my self but by my self never appease thee nor expiate my offence God therefore unwilling to strive with man for ever who for ever without his mercy he found inclin'd to mischief in a relenting affection remembring we are but dust Pathetically pities our case and in his good will sends us a Redeemer for which the Angels sing Beleeve me O ye servants of my God beleeve me my God can as soon cease to be God which is impossible as cast away his eyes of pity and mercy from us but like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103. so doth the Lord the Workmanship of his hands Blesse the Lord O my soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Boys Postil Ephes 3. The love of God saith one in his Postils is like a Sea into which when a man is cast he neither seeth bank nor seeleth bottom Accordingly saith the Apostle The length the breadth the depth and the height of this love passeth all humane knowledge And as his love is thus without all measure greater by infinite degrees than that of Jonathan to David so are his favours innumerable It was a Martyrs speech worthy registring to posterity To
with the thought of his dwelling in our hearts whereby whatsoever Satan or our own corruption hath erected there is pulled down and whereby all cursed temptations and suggestions are powerfully vanquish'd When I consider how of impure he makes us pure how of the sons of wrath heirs of an incorruptible crown and how that he takes delight in our imperfectly holy actions wherein if he do but mark what is done amiss they can never endure the trial Our lame and limping Holiness goes for the currant with God in Christ Jesus who in his good will to us accepts the good will for the deed the sincere desire for the pure act Wherefore it was a devout Soliloquy of a retired man Aug. Soliloq cap. 15. turning himself to his gracious God in this meditation Quod cecidi fuit ex me quod surrexi ex te My falling from thee O God proceeded from my self but my rising again to newness of life from thee My unlucky sins make me partaker of great misery but thy mercy and good will of unvaluable felicity The children of Adam after the fall deserve no more to be called the children of God than that famous weather-beaten Bark of Athens to be called Theseus his Ship which at first was built by him but in process of years was so often repaired that it had never a plank the same remaining which it had at first So when God did create us upright we were his whilst we so continued but when our iniquity did compass us about and changed our good disposition into an execrable studiousness to work wickedness when the importunate instigations of the Tempter did set our hearts on fire with the impetuous fury of following sinful resolutions then ceased we to be Gods children But seeing the same hand doth repair us that first made us and the same power make us new creatures that made us creatures we again receive the title of Gods children whose inheritance of his good will is Heaven whose attendants here and companions there blessed Angels whose glory God the glory of his Israel Oh then that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and his mercy towards the sons of men I have something to say yet touching some particular acts whereby God doth express his good will towards men His good will is expressed in matters Temporal Spiritual In Spiritual by a twofold act 1. By preventing us We never minde the Author of our good until himself work us to it As we are gone out of the way so do we run on until the Lord convert us To seek Christ or in his name to call on the Father of mercy and God of all consolation never came into our thought until the Son of God came to seek and to save those which were lost neither now doth come until he by the gracious call of his blessed Spirit invite us by the strong vertue of his magnetical love draw us Aug. Soliâ—â—q eap 33. Idem in Psal 59.10 It was the confession of a religious man to God in private Non te quarebam tu me quasivisti non te invocabam tu me vocasti I sought not thee O Lord thou didst seek me I called not upon thee but thou on me My merciful God will prevent me faith David that is saith Austin of unwilling he will make me willing to do his will Sic semper Domine sic semper gratia tua pravenit me liberant me ab omnibus malis salvans à prateritis suscitans à praesentibus muniens à futuris Thus alwayes saith one O Lord thus alwayes doth thy grace anticipate me freeing me from all mischiefes saving me from dangers past upholding me against dangers present protecting me from all future Again 2. By following us After that God hath altered the perversness of our wills and restrained the corruptions of our inordinate nature his Spirit leaves us not there but prosecutes what he hath begun in us not only inclining us to what may win his favour but directing us and as it were leading us by the hand to Christ Psal 23.6 and in him to do righteous things Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life saith David it followes us close being willing lest we should will in vaine saith Austin on that Psalme It is by the activity of the holy Ghost that new hearts are created in us whereby we will good and new strength confer'd upon us whereby to walk in righteousness This following or subsequent good will of God is spiritually discerned by 1. Preparing of us 2. Working in us 3. Coworking with us By preparing of us Disobedience is so engraffed in our very nature that none but a metaphysical and transcendent power can moderate our head-strong humors To temper us to Gods hand whereby to obey the holy Ghost there is requisite and necessary a superior agency that must keep us in from breaking out without fear or wit into exorbitant abominations In our natural generation there are many proevial and antecedent dispositions and alterations so there are many in our regeneration to be born of God there is a restriction of our unbridled appetites from pursuing things unlawful and prohibited an illumination of our dark minds in things mystical a flexibility of our obstinate hearts to the love and practice of piety and an inclination of our rebellious wills and affections to embrace all that 's good as the Spirit shall direct all which proceeding from the good will of God following us for ever are in them in whom they are discernable and discernable to proceed alone from Gods good will above the course of nature By working in us Of all Agents as God is the most orderly in proceeding so is he the most perfect in working He brings us not into a possibility to be his children by adoption to be holy to be new creatures and so abruptly breaks off but makes us in time actually to be so He doth dwell in us and there works a reformation What in his good will he doth begin in his good will he finisheth He gives us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Our freedom then from the dominion of sin the renewing of our minds wills affections and actions and our assiduous and indefatigable endeavours in Gods services are the peculiar works of the chiefest good without whom we can do nothing and are special expressions whereby to discern Gods following good will towards men By coworking with us Philosophers do ascribe the motions of inferiour bodies to the heavens motion Alsted Physick Inferiora moventur ad motum superiorum saith Alsted these bodies which are below are moved according to the motion of those above Insomuch that if they should cease to move so would these Even such if not greater is our reference to God God sets us a moving in the way to heaven Acti agimus yet such is the debility of our weak and mortal frame insufficient for matters
the Christ the Son of God is most forward to deny him his former protestations were forgotten his present commodity only thought upon And when the rascal multitude came forth with swords and staves and brought him to the Council all his friends forsook him the Shepherd smitten the sheep were scattered Friends and foes Jews and Gentiles men and women high and low rich and poor Prince and people added something to his Passion to augment his woe The Kings of the earth took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed The Elders of the people the chief Priests and the Scribes beat their brains together to take away his life They send him to Pilate Pilate sends him to Herod Herod sends him to Pilate again and Pilate sends him to his death Thus was he tossed from post to pillar In all these places he suffered in his good name by blasphemous speeches uttered against him in numbring him amongst transgressors placing him betwixt two thieves In his honor and glory by opprobrious terms and scandalous irrisions and mockings In his substance in that they took away his garment In his soul he suffered sorrow and anguish and great fear surprised his heart In his body he suffered wounds and stripes Insomuch that it may be said Was ever any sorrow like his sorrow Were you present to behold the whole passage of his Passion you might see his head compassed about with a crown of sharp thorns instead of a crown of pure gold you might see his glorious Visage which the very Angels admired contemptuously spitted upon and his cheeks smitten with the palms of their hands You might see his hands and feet fast nailed to the Cross which he himself did carry and his sides thrust thorow with a spear You might see his blood trickling down to the ground and himself through the pangs of death and apprehension of the Fathers wrath lighting upon him for our sins crying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Hereupon saith Bernard O bone Jesu quid tibi est nos peccavimus tu luis opus sine exemplo gratia sine merito charitas sine imo O blessed Saviour what ails thee We sinned and thou by thy blood dost expiate our sins here is a work without example grace without merit and love beyond all measure He felt the wrath of God upon his soul he felt the hand of a sin revenging Judge taking vengeance for the sins of the world upon him then taking away the sin of the world Where you might see also no sense free from passion As for his Touch he was smitten and nails thrust through his flesh as for his Taste he drank unpleasant vinegar and gall as for his Smell he was in an infectuous place the place of dead mens skuls as for his Hearing he was vexed with the uproars and hideous blasphemies of those that blasphemed and derided him as for his Seeing he beheld with grief his Mother and the Disciple that loved him shedding tears for him and observed no noubt in the anguish of his spirit the madness of the actors of his death Hence proceeded that heavenly prayer Father forgive them they now not what they do This was the lamentable case he was in until he gave up his Ghost They gave him no rest no rest in his body nor in his soul until his soul departed Thus he suffered and thus in suffering he died died the most ignominious and cursed death 2 Cor. 5. ult God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for cursed it every one that hungeth on a tree Gal. 3.13 Nothing could appease the wrath of the Father but the death of his Son Who died First to satisfie the justice of God for the sin of mankind for he once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 being put to death in the flesh 2. To manifest the truth and reality of the nature assumed to wit his manhood that he was true man and no phantasme 3. That by his death he might free us from the fear of death Forasmuch then as we are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage 4. That by dying corporally for sin and unto sin he might give us an example of dying spiritually to sin for in that he died he died unto sin once Heb. 2.14 15. but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.10 11. Crux pendent is Cathedra docentis Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow is steps 1 Pet. 2.21.5 That by rising from the dead he might make known the power whereby he overcame death and give unto us a lively hope of our resurrection from the dead And thus much for the sufferings of Christ generally exprest and specially implied The next point is the necessity of the sufferings and death of Christ Christ must needs have suffered It was necessary that Christ should suffer and in suffering die Necessitate decreti by the necessity of Gods Decree and infallible prescience Truly Luke 22.22 the Son of man goeth as it was determined Which determination is more plainly exprest Acts 2.23 Him that is Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain In which respect it was inevitable And albeit he prayed Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me yet he submit shiâ— will to the will of his Father in saying yet not my will but thy will be done It was the eternal will of God and his unchangeable Decree that Christ should suffer for us it was foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 And although his will was that that cup might passe over him that so his life might be prolonged yet consider this vitam appetit ut homo saith Theophilact Theophil in Luke 22.42 he desired life as he was man yet as an obedient child ever correspondent to his Fathers desire adds this withal not my will but thy will be done which is not seperate from my divine will saith the same Father It was necessary necessitate obligationis by the necessity of a promise whereby God was obliged and bound to see it actually performed Promises are a due debt Promissa cadunt in debitum That God promised this it is apparant by that speech of his the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head and
John 12.31 1 John 3.8 for this purpose the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil The works of the Devil are sin and death for by him came sin into the world and death by sin Again we are hereby freed from the punishment of sin which is death He did bear our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his striper we are healed He poured out â—is soul to death and bare the sin of many Now we are freed from the punishment of sin two wayes 1. Directly because his passion was a sufficient and superabundant satisfaction for the sins of the whole world Wherefore Thomas-Aquin Exhibita satisfactionâ— sufficienti tollitur reatus paenae saith Aquinas upon the exhibition of a sufficient satisfaction the punishment is quite taken away So that God cannot punish that again in his servant that he hath already punisht in his Son 2. Indirectly Ambros super Beati immacalati in as much as the passion of Christ is the cause of the Redemption of sin which is the cause of punishment Ille suscepit mortis servitutem ut tibi tribueret aternae vitae libertatem Moreover by the sufferings of Christ our reconciliation with God is wrought and our peace is made with him for ever We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 and that two wayes 1. By removing of sin whereby we were made his enemies Ephes 5.2 2. By offering up himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Lastly hereby the gate of heaven is open for us We have boldness to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus Hebr. 10.19 for he went before us to prepare a place for us that where he is we might be also So that now he hath obtained for us eternal salvation By way of desert he hath deserved that by him we should be saved By way of satisfaction for the greatness of his love out of which he suffered for the dignity of his life which he laid down for us it was the life of God and man and for the generality and weight of sorrows and paines that he suffered for us hence he is a sufficient satisfaction called the Propitiation for our sins Heb. 9.26 Verse 15. At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus cogi posse negat Hor. Epist 1. 1 Joh. 2.2 By way of sacrifice which was meritorious deserving life for whom he suffered death In the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And by way of redemption for he was engaged for us and paid the utmost farthing for which end he was sent into the world God sent not his Son into the world to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved Joh. 3.17 Saved from sin from the power of Satan from death Hence called our Redemption and we come to be at peace with God and in that peace we enter into heaven to be partakers of those joyes that are at Gods right hand for evermore Having waded thus farre I seale up this discourse with a pathetical conclusion in way of application O how far is the love of God extended to us miserable sinners He was provident before our fall to find out away whereby to be saved after we fell His Son must die to save us from death He must fall into the hands of sinners that we may not fall into the hands of Satan And if he have thus given us his Son how shall he not with him give unto us all things We may conclude for certain we shall want nothing for the furtherance of our salvation since that he with-held not his onely Son from us Let this love of God to us extract love from us to God As he bought us dear with the losse of his Son so must we think nothing too deare to part withal to gain our God We must be content to lose our life and all than to lose our God who is all in all for the gaining of life and all Seeing that Christ ought to have suffered for our sins we may well grieve that we should be the authors of his death and yet rejoyce that we have escaped Gods fearful vengeance by his sufferings Grieve then my beloved for your sins for which Christ died Royard in Postill and go and sin no more And let your soules magnify the Lord and rejoyce in God your Saviour Non gaudere ingratitudinis est non dolere crudelitatis saith Royard not to be glad for Gods mercy and Christ's love in redeeming us is a point of ingratitude not to grieve that we gave occasion of his death is a point of the greatest cruelty Let us then grieve together with him that we may reigne and rejoyce together with him Gods decree is unutterable he ordained that Christ should die and Christ did die He promist it and 't is fulfill'd He revealed it and 't is so come to passe He is as good as his word Heaven and earth shall passe away but not the least tittle of his word shall go unfulfilled What therefore soever God hath determined concerning any one shall certainly fall out so there is no avoidance What he hath denounced against sinners let them expect it for they shall surely have it Our God is a God of truth You may collect out of this discourse that Christ is a perfect and sufficient Redeemer Heb 10.14 on whom alone dependeth our salvation For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified As Moses said to the children of Israel the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace So I may say that Christ onely fought for us we did nothing whereby to acquire a life that is endless Wherefore if we will be perfectly saved rely upon the Redeemer of Israel for he is onely the Captain of our salvation Look up as sometimes the Israelites on the brazen serpent upon him stretched out upon the crosse where he is ready to receive all that come unto him and beleeve in his name Caput Christi inclinatum ad osculandum cor apertum ad diligendum brachia extensa ad amplexandum totum corpus expositum ad redimendum August lib. de virginit he hath his head bended down to kisse you his heart opened to love and affect you his armes stretched forth to embrace you his whole body exposed to redeem you Consider of what great consequences these things are that Christ hath done for your soules weigh them in the ballance of your hearts Vt totus vobis figatur in corde qui totus pro vobis fixus fuit in cruce that he may be wholly fastned to you in your hearts who was wholly fastned for you on the crosse Let us go forth therefore unto
not shut against you his fatherly providence is tendred to you he withholds no good thing from you he sent first his Son and now that his Son is ascended to him he sends the Spirit of his Son to you into your hearts that by that meanes he may abide with you for ever But why compared â— the love of God to the love of man mans love in respect of Gods not being so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the whole earth or the whole earth to the vast heavens or the smallest drop of water to the whole Ocean I answer for my 〈◊〉 thus that by the marvellons defect and straitness of the one you may in some though in the smallest measure conceive survey you cannot the infinite greatness of the other He sent his Son but his Son return'd in his presence was joy in his absence griefe wherefore God bereaving us of his Sons bodily presence in his tender love sent the Spirit of his Son to raise our dead spirits to comfort us without him comfortless he adopted us sons being his enemies by his Sons coming now for farther confirmation and stronger assurance he signs it he seals it by sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Because sons Not natural but elected adopted sons such as many justly challenge the prerogatives and liberty of sons God That is the Father Hath sent forth As Kings do their Ambassadours to signify their pleasure and desires they neither adde nor diminish from their Commission so the Holy Ghost what he receives from the Father shows to them to whom the Father sends him he speaks not of himself but what he hears he speaks what he receives he delivers The Spirit That is John 16.13 14 the Holy Ghost the third person in Trinity Of his Son To wit of the natural Son of God Jesus Christ Gods Son begotten by eternal generation time out of mind 〈◊〉 your bear tsâ— Into your 〈◊〉 Crying Making you with confidence and assurance to cry the Spirit properly cryes not for then it should cry and pray to it selfe Sic ipse Spiritus postulat i.c. ad postulandum cos quos replevit inslammat but it is said to cry when it works that effect in us according to that Rom. 8.15 Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abbâ— Father We are said to cry by the Spirit as a man to see by the eye Abba Father Abba it is an Hebrew word derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyes to be willing here it is translated Father and the reason of that name is rendred to be because of the propensity of the will and desire of a father towards his children being their chiefest wel-willers and wel-wishers The intention then of the words is this The adoption and free election thorough Jesus Christ into the right and liberty of sons pertains not to the Jews alone but to the Gentiles also to the Galatians by the redemption wrought by the Son of God for this purpose annointed by the Father ye receive the adoption of sons God thus making you sons sent his Spirit to you his Spirit sent to you dwells in your hearts and dwelling in your hearts makes you cry with an assurance of his good will Abba Father Of the words there are these parts 1. A person sent the Spirit of the Son 2. A person sending God 3. The sending it self sent 4. The place whither God sends the Spirit of his Son into your hearts 5. The office or effect of the Spirit Crying Abba Father 6. The reason moving and prevailing with God to send his Sons Spirit into your hearts because sons Of the first the person sent the Spirit of the Son the Holy Ghost It will be judg'd in me to be but a labour in vain to endeavour to prove that there is such a Spirit except there be some as I hope there are none so grosly ignorant as those disciples spoken of in the 19. of Acts who profest they did not so much as hear whether there were an Holy Ghest or no. This is a Principle of Religion to be taken of all for granted not to be call'd in question not to be proved to spend words and time in the demonstration hereof is to no more purpose than to prove 't is day when the sun shines this being sufficiently manifest in the works of nature that sufficiently apparent in the effects of grace Divine truth contained in the sacred Word of God stops all gainsaying proceedings in this point None but who will oppose God will oppose it if any man teach otherwise or doubt of the verity hereof he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words he is a man of a corrupt mind and destitute of the truth carried away with the spirit of giddiness and of error I will therefore spare my pains in convicting such rude and giddy-headed spirits for I direct my lines to Christians well instructed in this Article of our faith not to Turks and Mahumetans and by Gods assistance teach and write what shall be more fit all things well weigh'd for them to learn and me to deliver 1. Why the Holy Ghost is called a Spirit 2. Why he is called the Spirit of the Son The third person is called a Spirit because 1. He is a spiritual incorporeal and invisible essence whose being is not like that of Angels though spirits they are but ministring spirits of Almighty God finite but he is infinite whom the world cannot contain whom the most piercing eye cannot see whom the most sublime wit cannot conceive The reâ—ulgene glory of those heavenly spirits dazzles our understanding in our meditations and discourses of them our imaginations cannot reach their transcendent and Metaphysical nature far distant from our spheare much more are we unable to fix our bodily or intellectual eye upon that spiritual being whose being and glory is absolutely in comprehensible dwelling in that light to which there can be no accesse and in that height to which no created nature can aspire He is called a Spirit 2. Nescis torda mâ—li â—â—ina gratiá Spiritus Sancti Ambros In regard of the mighty power and unresistible efficacy it hath in operation implyed in the rushing wind on the day of Pentecost and the fiery tongues His wonderful activity is made sufficiently manifest by the creation of the world and well known in the hearts of sinners by their conversion and new creation a work not of small importance Act. 2. a concurrence of all the powers of nature cannot effect it Men and Angels can do much but not so much let men of the rarest parts most eminent endowments and of the best quality laying grace aside do what they may say what they will they shall find themselves scanted of ability to begin much lesse to go thorough with so great a work The wind blowes strong and fire is very active so the Holy Spirit blows down the strong
holds of Sat an erected in the hearts of sinful men disperseth all chaffy cogitations of wickedness and filleth every corner of the soul with heavenly inspiration with transporting thoughts and meditations of an higher than an earthly nature and as fire it inflames the heart with the love of God whence proceeds zeal of Gods glory that fire of heaven and a fixt resolution as in Martyrs to suffer fire and fuggot for the profession of his name By reason or the working thus of his mighty power the Scripture stiles him by the name of the power of the most high Eâ— operante creabatur homo eo operante recreatur As by his working power man was created by the same renewed and born again As by his power he gave life Luk. 1. so he gives newness of life by his power Spiritus est qui vivificat it is the Spirit that quickens us before dead in sins and trespasses He is called a spirit 3. Because he is breathed from the Father and the Son that is he is that person by whom the Father and the Son do immediately work heavenly motions and saving graces in the hearts of the elect Spiritus à spirando wherefore when Christ breathed on his Disciples he said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Job 20.22 These I conceive to be the reasons why the third person in Trinity is called a Spirit Now must I shew the reasons why he is called the Spirit of the Son they as I Imagine are these First because he proceeds from the Son by an eternal procession and intelligible emanation the essence of the Son is communicated to him hence coeternal coessential consubâ—antial with the Son he is called the Spirit of Christ Contra Arianos Rom. 8.9 not as one saith by way of allenation nor by way of multiplication of the divine essence which can be but one but by communcating the very same numericall essence wherein the Father and the Son subsist unto him in an incomprehensible manner whence he is term'd also the Spirit of the Father Galat. 3. for the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son and the essence of them both the essence of the Spirit he proceeds from both not simply as from two persons but in that they are one in essence not more principally from the Father lesse principally from the Son as Lombard and the schoolmen of this age affirm but from the person of the Father and the son in the unity of essence without any such distinction for upon the admission of this distinction we may justly infer an inequality of the persons of the Deity a thing without blasphemy not to be admitted the Spirit of holyness equally proceeds from both as from one beginning against the definition of the Greek Church but non voluntate sed natura seu necessitate naturae licet secundum voluntat is modum not by the act of the will but by the act of nature or by the necessity of nature according to the manner of the wills working which I cannot conceive in other terms than these that is God willing it He is called the Spirit of the Son 2. Because he is in the Son and the Son in him as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son to wit by their eternal essence And besides this the Spirit dwelt in him in the dayes of his flesh inriching his humane nature with all fulness of grace And at his baptisme the heavens opening Mat. 3.16 John saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him He is called the Spirit of the Son 3. Because the Son sends him to seal our adoption to us Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of me He sends that which is his and gives it too Joh. 20.22 receive ye the Holy Ghost And not onely the Son but the Father also sends him but in the Sons name whom the Father will send in my name saith Christ Joh. 14.26 Which shall testify of me Royard in Joh. 14. saith he Joh. 18.26 the Father sends him in his Sons name that is saith Royard to the glory of his name in which respect he is term'd the Spirit of the Son He is called the Spirit of the Son 4. Because he receives the wisdom and knowledge of the Son who is the wisdom of the Father and reveals it unto us He guides us into all truth Joh. 16.13 for as it followeth he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come Verse 4. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Verse 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you All saving knowledge and divine graces coming from the Son in whom the hidden treasures of pure wisdom do rest are confer'd upon us the sons of God by adoption by the Spirit of the Son of God by eternal generation From which discourse may be deduced three conclusions 1. That this Spirit of the Son is a Person he proceeds from the Father and the Son not as an accident but as a Person It was the grosse conceit of some heretical mistaken spirits erroneous in their judgments that this Spirit of the Son is only a motion or quality wrought by God in the hearts of his children or some divine inspiration infused from above by divine grace into the soules of them whom God had chosen out of the world to be more eminent than others Those conceits may seem plausible to corrupted reason not discerning the things of God which are spiritually discerned yet they contradict that which by Infallible consequence may be deducted out of the sacred truths of Gods word and right reason Laying therefore these two Gods word and right reason as two sure foundations and uncontrolable Principles which may justly sway our judgments I will presse the truth of this conclusion against all opposites The Spirit of the Son is a person Because he appeared in a visible shape The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon Christ and he appeared like cloven tongues of fire and sate upon each of the disciples and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance What motion what quality what inspiration can appear in such or any visible similitudes or bodily shapes or give utterance to men He is a person because called God When Peter taâ—t Ananiâ—s of his double dealing he told him he had lyed to the Holy Ghost and in lying to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. thou hast said he to him not lyed unto men but unto God The Essence of God is Tota in qualibet personâ Deitatis whole
in us not for a time but for ever for the Word dwelling noteth a perpetuity and is opposed to sojourning And also that he hath the full disposition and absolute command of the heart as a man of that house whereof he is Lord. Which disposition consists in these six notable benefits which are sure evidences of the Spirits being and dwelling in our hearts every one whereof is worthy our serious speculation The first is the illumination of our understandings with a certain knowledge of our reconciliation to God in Christ Jesus This is obtained by the special information of the Spirit he shall teach you all things he shall guide you into all truth John 14.26 16.13 saith the Saviour of the world This knowledge is not of Generals but of particulars that God is our Father Christ our Redeemer the holy Ghost our Sanctifier the Spirit of God faith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 Beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the sons of God Worketh in us a sure knowledge of the remission of our sinnes of our reconciliation and peace with God of our adoption into the liberty of the sons of God and faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.12 now have we received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are given to us of God that is the righteousnesse of Christ assuredly It is not in man to know assuredly what great things God hath done for his soul without the special instruction of the Spirit called the Spirit of truth And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 the Spirit of knowledge The second benefit of the Spirit which discovers his being in our hearts is regeneration wherby our hearts are renewed by receiving newnesse of life and grace The coruptions of our nature are expell'd by the Spirits infusion of supernatural qualities into us whereby we are made new creatures and of the servants of sin and limbs of Satan are made the members of Christ and sons of God Hence he is called the Spirit of life Except a man be born again by water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven saith our Saviour Ezek. 36.25 and Ezekiel doth Prophecy that God would sprinkle clean water upon them and they should be clean and from all their filthinesse would he cleanse them It is the Spirit that doth regenerate us who is here compared to clean water for these two causes 1. As water mollifies dry wood and puts sap into dry trees so doth the Spirit supple and mollifie our hard hearts and put sap of grace into them whereby we are made trees of righteousnesse and bring forth fruits of eternal life Christ saith John 7.38 39. that he that believeth in him as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this saith the text spake he of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive 2. As water doth purifie the body from all filth so doth the holy Ghost wash away our sins and our natural corruptions John 4.14 hence called a Well of living water springing up to everlasting life Again John the Baptist saith that Christ baptizeth with the holy Ghost and with fire where the Spirit is by consent of Interpreters compared to fire and that 1. As fire doth warm the body being benum'd with cold so doth the spirits our hearts frozen in sin and though dead in sins and trespasses yet by his reviving heat he quickens our hearts and brings us to life again 2. As fire doth purge and take out the dross from the good mettal so doth the holy Ghost separate and eat out the putrifying corruptions of sin out the canker'd and drossie heart of man And thus regeneration is wrought by the Spirit and therefore said to be born of God The third benefit of the Spirit in them to whom he is sent is an union or conjunction with Christ whereby we are made his members Hine baptismus dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and partake of his benefits hereby his graces are in a plentiful manner and an abundant measure distill'd upon us which were in him above all measure hence it is compared to effusion Joel 2.1 John 3.24 I will pour out my Spirit hereby we know saith Saint John that we dwell in him and he in us because he hathi given us of his Spirit The Spirit is the bond of our conjunction descending from Christ the Head to all his members and begetting Faith that extraordinary vertue whereby Christ is apprehended and made our own by special application The fourth benefit whereby the Spirit is known to be sent of God into our hearts is the Spirits governing of our hearts For in whom he is be is Master ordering and disposing the understanding the will the memory the affections and all parts of the body according to his good pleasure for as many as are the sons of God Sam 8.14 Certum est nos facere quod sacimus sed illi 〈◊〉 ut faciamus are led by the Spirit The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal 37.23 in token whereof they that are of the Spirit do savor the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.5 that is they affect and prosecute those things that are good And this called spiritual regiment it consists in two things 1. In repressing all evil motions arising either from within as from evil concupiscence corruption of our nature or from without us by the inâ—icement of the world or suggestion of Satan 2. In stirring up good affections and holy motions upon every occasion hereto belong those excellent titles given to the holy Ghost the Spirit of the Lord Isa 11.2 the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and of strength the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord he hath these several attributes because he stirs up in the godly these good motions of wisdom of knowledge of strength of understanding of counsel and of fear of the Lord. In Galat. 5.22 the fruits of the Spirit are recorded there to to be love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance where oever these be the Author which is the holy Gost of necessity must be As for love whose object is God and man God for himself man for God it is a testimony of the Spirits presence in us and rule of us he is sent into our hearts saith Lombard when he is so in us as that he makes us to love God and our neighbour whereby we remain in God and God in us As for joy it is a main work of the Spirit making us to rejoyce for the good of others as for our selves whereas carnal men pine away and grieve expressively for others prosperity As for peace it is that concord which must be kept in an holy manner Immane verbum est ultio Senec. with all men
as much as possibly may be If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Rom. 12.18 hereby are we known to be the happy subjects of the Prince of peace As for gentlenesse it is that whereby we behave our selves friendly and courteously to every man shewing all meeknesse unto all men Tius 3.2 whether they be good or bad It standeth in these points 1. To speak friendly and lovingly to every man 2. To salute courteously without dissembling not according to the common fashion of the world full of curtesie full of craft 3. To be ready upon all occasions to reverence and honour every man in his place Non mentiâ—ntis astu sed compatientis assectu non quiâ— fallâ—t illum sed qui se cogitat illum Aug. to which God shall call him As for goodnesse it is when a man is serviceable to all men at all times upon all occasions thus Job was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame a father unto the poor Job 29.15 Thus good Paul was made all things to all men that by all means he might save some 1 Cor. 9.22 Observing his own rule delivered to the Galatians cap. 5.13 By love serve one another hereby condemning that profane perverse and gracelesse practice of the world every one for himself and God for us all As for faith or fidelity it performs these two duties 1. It maketh conscience of a lye and speaketh not one thing and thinketh another like Machiavels scholars but uttereth the truth without the least dissimulation 2. It makes a man keep his lawful promise though it be to his own hurt For mine own part I shall never desire a firmer obligation of an honest man so reputed than his lawful and serious promise which if he do not perform he cracks his credit before men and sins before God As for meeknesse it is when by injurious and rash dealing a man is provoked and yet he neither intends nor attempts a revenging requital As for temperance it is a bridling of our appetite in meat drink or apparel 1. Our eating and drinking must be joyned with fasting not riot lest with overmuch pampering our selves we prove unfit for Gos service 2. Our attire must be decent both for fashion and matter as that it may expresse the graces of God in the heart as sobriety Zeph. 1.8 gravity humility we must not be strangely attired for faith the Lord I will punish all such as are cloathed with strange apparel Consider this O ye daughters of Jerusalem and men of Israel that ye fashion not your selves strangely according to the world and incurr the heavie displeasure of the most just God such covering is a discovering of your nakednesse whereby it is made most apparent to the world that instead of sobriety intemperance instead of humility pride instead of graviâ—y wantonnesse doth reign among you so that you are not led by the Spirit of God whose government and direction ye should follow but rather by the spirit of error Expostulate then can you find in your hearts an utter dislike of sin because it is sin and a godly sorrow for it Can you find in your hearts a forsaking of sin seconded with a fixt resolution of yielding obedience to the Divine Ordinances of God Can you find in your hearts an avoiding of all occasions that may minister matter of offending God with an unsatisfied desire to be at peace and unity with him then the Spirit of his Son is sent into our hearts The fifth benefit confer'd on those on whom the Spirit is confer'd is that unspeakable comfort which none can take away from them conceived in them in the time of their greatest extremity hence the Spirit is called the Comforter John 14.16 Our Saviour told his Disciples that he would send them another Comforter that should remain with them for ever Hence again he is call'd Oleum laetitiae the oyle of gladnesse he cheareth the heart of man by raising up his dead spirits and making him to rejoyce in the Lord. The causes of our sorrow are either outward calamities or a troubled conscience in both which the Comforter takes away our sorrow and begetteth joy We read of the Apostles that after Christ ascended they fled from place to place and hid themselves for fear of the spiteful Jews But as soon as they received the holy Ghost they were as bold as Lions they preach't Christ crucified in publick they impartially reproved sin to the full and taking heart of grace did rejoyce that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ Hence did proceed that heroick spirit that History reports to be in those Martyrs which spilt their blood for him that spilt his blood for them 'T is not the face of man could daunt them their inward comfort did far exceed their outward tribulation and though their bodies perisht by external violence yet so great was their spiritual consolation that they felt no pain In like manner when any of the faithful are through extreme poverty brought low and thereby brought into contempt in the world yet they comfort themselves in the providence and promises of God that can never fail insomuch as that all calamities he what they will cannot deprive them of their inward comfort Nor yet a troubled conscience altogether though an unsupportable burden for then when their consciences are troubled the Spirit labours to restore them to the joyes of their salvation by stirring up faith in them apprehending Christ and with him the remission of sin purisying their hearts and consciences from dead works assuring them that their reconciliation is made in heaven and that there is now no condemnation unto them than which there cannot be a greater comfort in this world Physitians have observed in the heart two motions the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dilatation or enlargement of the heart the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a constriction or closing up of the heart Spiritual Physitians may observe the same in their hearts where the Spirit of God takes up his mansion My heart saith David is enlarged enlarged with those comforts and joyes which the Spirit that inhabits there begets there and none else And the heart is closed up again against the receiving or entertaining all worldly sorrow which as the Apostle saith causeth death and keeps within it self the joy of the holy Ghost hence the hearts of the faithful may be said to be full full of joy full of the holy Ghost full of life for God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts The last benefit whereby the Spirits presence is noted in our hearts is the strength valour and livelihood whereby we go on in the Spirit fighting a good fight against the enemies of our salvation and finishing our course with joy We hear of an order of Knights called Knights of the holy Ghost of this order are all the faithful that undertake Christian
stand ye idle So say I Quid stamus otiosi To what end stand we idle as if we had nothing to do Let our first time be our worst time our last the best Think that time lost wherein we do not think on God Thus may we carry an upright Conscience made able and at all times ready to yield a good account of our years moneths days and hours to friend or soe If to friend to comfort them if to foe to confute them as Paul did here the false Apostles And thus much for the first part of these words Then after three years It follows I went up to Jerusalem This is his journey He grants here that he went up not commanded not sent for but of his own accord unbidden Here the moral and natural action agree together in the intent of the Agent He went to Jerusalem not to learn any thing but to see Peter That which Luke makes mention of in the 9. of the Acts when Barnabas presented him to the rest of the Apostles acquainting them with Pauls passages in and since his conversion how he saw the Lord in the high-way to Damascus and how he had spoken with him and that he had preached in the name of Christ with audacity there unto them whom he went with letters to apprehend shews plainly that he received not the Gospel of the Apostles neither was he compelled to teach the Gospel according to prescript of the Apostles They were afraid of him at the first sight until after a further and more deliberate trial I will not insist hereon but I proceed to the intent or the impulsive cause of this his Peregrination which was to see Peter Actions of reasonable creatures are to be allowed or disallowed according to the intents of the Agents Therefore I join all three in commission I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter The whole marrow of the matter lies in these words to see Peter shewing most expresly that he came not to Jerusalem to better his knowledge for he had before received the Gospel fully from Christ Peter was not his master nor he Peter's scholar he onely came to see him to salute him or congratulate him as his Coadjutor in the Gospel as also to manifest unto the company of Apostles what he was and to clear himself for a false opinion that some put of him Hierom. and how for the matter of doctrine there was no disagreement between them and him And here Hierom wittily flouts at the flim-flams of Pope Clement who said that Paul went to Jerusalem to behold Peters eyes cheeks and countenance to see whether he were macilent or fat whether his nose were crooked or even set whether his forehead were covered with hair and whether he had a bald pate or no. Certainly saith Hierom he thought to find Peter a God not a man This is but bald stuff all Popish foppery But here we see what love should be betwixt the Ministers of the Gospel to be careful of one anothers health The love he had to the gospel made him to visit Peter Religion and love joins hearts together and that is a religious love And where Religion makes an opposition hearts must not admit a conjunction Both in this are fearful aspects I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter This wâ—s a good deed of him therefore I make this collection That some kind of Peregrination or Pilgrimage is lawful So Jacob with all his family went down to Egypt to see Joseph So the Israelites through fire and water to take possession of Canaan So the Queen of Sheba went to see King Solomon So Paul Peter to Jerusalem The reasons may be these Because that their love may be seen by greeting with a holy kiss And because it increaseth joy Hearts meet with mouths at the meeting of friends It dispels all mists of conceived sorrow John leapt in his momothers womb at the salutation of the Virgin because Christ was there And without all doubt this bred a great comfort in Peter to see Paul converted to Now in that I said that some Peregrination is lawful it follows that there is another unlawful and that is Popish Pilgrimage by Vow or imposition of Popish Impostors Papists out of these words collect a twofold doctrine viz. 1. That Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other such devoted places is a religious work and merits heaven They ground upon this example of the Apostle I went up to Jerusalem Their second doctrine a main pillar of their Religion is this That Peter had the supremacie of Paul Their reason is because Paul here went to see Peter But I hope it was not as one saith to kiss his feet as if he were Pope The first argues but a piece of poor Papistical Logick out of one particular act of one man to draw a general rule Secondly to make a rule of Religion in a thing where there is no such thing intended Here Papists take their mark amiss and therefore miss the mark of truth I confess in the Old Testament there was an appointed place whither the Israelites were bound to resort to worship God as we may see Deut. 16. They were to hold three feasts they were to go to one certain place three times in the year at these three feasts ver 16. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse In the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tabernacles that is the feast of the Passover the feast of Weeks and the feast of Tabernacles Now this place was first where the Tabernacle of Moses was and so we read how Elkanah with his two wives went out of his city to Shiloh where the Tabernacle then was to offer sacrifice 1 Sam. 1. This continued for the space of four hundred seventy eight years or thereabouts unto the time of King Solomon Then after the Temple was built at Jerusalem Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord all came thither Yea Josephus saith that they came from all places to the feast of Unleavened bread then all of them were killed to the number of Eleven hundred thousand Jews they came when they should not come But now the Sun is come to the Meridian there is no shadow that Law is abolished the places then appointed are quite brought to ruine these were only types of Christ Again God commanded that for his honor the Pope in his own and Papists conceit a little diminutive god but a great man commanded this for his profit But God gave an Item for this Deus non superstitione coli vult sed pictate Mat. 15. In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Frustra me colunt In vain do they worship me It is not commanded in any part of the New Testament and therefore no part of Gods honor More than this It is against the Scripture being meer
was only guided by an ordinary providence as men now a dayes undertaking journeys stay with their friends at their pleasure guided ordinarily by Gods hand Holy Fear THE FENCE OF THE SOUL GEN. 28.17 And Jacob was afraid AS Esau was coming into the world Jacob had him fast by the heel Rebecca received blows within her by their struglings which that acted ended But here ended not their strife that presaged as a future supplanting so a more inveterate quarrel Esau was first born so he obtained the birthright of nature Jacob came after yet got the birthright of grace The mother was glad to be well rid of both she was much joyed to see them set at liberty who inclosed in the prison of her bowels pain'd her As these agreed not in the womb so not in the world There the division began when together in restraint here it continued and by their enlargement was enlarged The divine Oracle told Rebecca that the elder should serve the younger 't was his love to the one his hate to the other both free This prediction must have been accomplish'd but not without some difficulty First Jacob upon an advantage buyes the Birthright which Esau in a necessity scornfully deem'd unprofitable Grace made Jacob lay about to purchase what Nature denied him It was inevitable the God of Nature determin'd it that way not the other Thus Jacob though a plain man got the start of Esau though a cunning hunter A gracious simplicity ever outstrips worldly craft in the affairs of piety Now having got thus far there wanted nothing to make good his bargain to confirm his interest but his Fathers blessing which he by his Mothers direction hunting after obtained by subtilty whilst Esau hunting after venison came short of through his pleasure The Mother saith Reverend Hall shall rather defeat the Son and beguile the Father than the Father shall beguile the chosen Son of his blessing Jacob must have been blest God decreed it and was Who no sooner went away full of the joy of his new blessing but in comes Esau who sweating for his reward finds nothing but an unexpected repulse Hereat Esau's blood is up and storms he hates Jacob in his heart as Cain did Abel in his hate vows his death nothing hinders it but lack of opportunity Yet Jacob needed not to fear the wrath of an earthly brother whilst sure of the love of his Heavenly Father None needs to be terrified by Man that is in league with God However it behoved the Mother to be as sollicitous in preventing mischief from falling on her beloved Darling as in surreptitiously procuring him a blessing Had he miscarried all her hopes had perish'd Jacob therefore must go one way or other if he stay till his Father die he must die with him and go the way of all flesh 't was Esau's resolution If he go whither his Parents would he is secure this way as well it might is preferr'd To this purpose a new project is set on foot Jacob must have a wife not of the daughters of Heth as Esau these made Rebecca weary of her life but of his own kindred Isaac forthwith calls Jacob to him blesseth him gives him a charge and commands him away to Laban his mothers brother where the Lord did destine him a mate meet for him Away he hyes doubtful and comfortless in the way the earth he made his bed the stone his pillow after this fort he rested his wearied limbs The sun was set his eyes were bound up in the chains of sleep yet there a Vision of Angels is presented to him through the glass of his imagination and Gods promise renewed in a true dream Never was Jacob's heart so light with joy as when his head was heaviest with sleep At length he awakes his thoughts are summon'd up together fear creeps apace on him the place seems dreadful the presence of Divine Majesty whereof he was sensible adds lustre to the place which adds affrightment to his heart The premisses considered his conclusion of the Place is this This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven Hitherto have I followed Jacob in his way and with him here will I rest a while This holy Patriarch upon mature deliberation could not but conceive himself happy that he hapned on this holy place Here the demonstration of Gods joyful presence with him and gracious providence over him together with the free promise of safe conduct to him abated the swoln discontents of his suspitious thoughts it never came into his head he should have here that familiar manifestation of the God of Isaac as was vouchsafed him But Gods goodness ever was ever is beyond mans expectation How easie were it for Jacob to miscarry in his way did not the Supreme Power protect him how open did he lie to infinite dangers lying in the open field did not the Lord secure him 'T was the work of that same Mercy that guided him to that place to preserve him safe there where although he was afraid at the first sight after his sleep was over Musculus Buxtorf Heb. Radix yet was his fear without distraction The clearness of his judgment discerning Gods intention in that mystical vision sentenceth the place venerable So Musculus renders the Hebrew text Quà m venerandus est iste locus and Buxtorf How reverend is this place Here I might treat 1. Of Jacob's Fear 2. Of the Dreadfulness or reverence of the place where he was partaker of the Heavenly vision 3. Of the Titles Jacob assign'd the place All meriting points but the first is only intended The Soul which by nature is disfurnished of grace is exposed to dangers as disposed to evil by reason whereof it is subject to fears within to fears without Perils like a circle compass us about we stand tanquam in centro as in the centre of this world every line drawn from the circumference strikes us to the heart and so affrights us Turn which way we will terror meets us fears encounter us Hereat the naked soul appal'd yields unless informed of a better friend than our own wits which always are not about us But Gods gracious presence apprehended in our deepest agonies of fear brings us off undaunted by the light of whose grace we discover things in their native colours which whilst unknown amaze us disturb us Some things trouble us more than they ought to do some which not at all for the anticipating or avoiding whereof that rule holds infallibly true Rebus est demenda persona pull off the masque of things then we shall not so fear them To be quite rid of this passion while we live is impossible Christianity or regeneration qualifieth its force takes it not away Some impression will be left in the mind yet not so deep as will make us despair of succour For all the variety of Creatures Casualties Changes that appear dreadful there is variety of Aid flowing
from One unchangeable God on whom if we rest contented not overruled with prejudicate opinions never shall fear distract us Plura sunt quae nos terrent Senec. ep 13. saepius opinione laboramus quà m re I borrow this from Seneca Many things terrifie us and we are oftner vext and pain'd in opinion by furmises than in very deed by truth But it is otherwise with the well-inform'd Christian who ponders all events and examineth the causes the defect whereof sets some at their wits end 'T is ignorance and rashness that makes way for misprision and misprision for fear The best things sometimes scare us Gods merciful goodness not understood puts us to a stand his very favourable presence which should move joy did and shall move fear in some I do not think there lives that man this day on earth so resolute did God appear not in flaming fire in thundering and lightening to render vengeance but in a soft wind as to Elijah or as here another way to Jacob in every respect full of respect but would be sore afraid Devout Jacob whose dream portended nothing but happiness at the end of his Divine rapture was afraid What he saw and fear'd was no other but a welcom prediction of his future glory and perpetual safety and yet was afraid That magnificent greatness and blessed eminency to which the Lord promised to advance him left him not undaunted Yet this must I needs say he was more afraid than hurt 'T is a certain truth though God terrifie his children yet he harms them not No disadvantage is taken to undo them by it but to raise their spiritual fortunes After the fall of their courage one way at the brightness of his Majesty he puts spirit into them another way to further their exaltation thorugh a sense of his mercy Thus he doth with this religious man whose fear gave the occasion of my writing Here men may admire so good a man would be taken napping and then fear when he had most reason to rejoice The Father of Heaven did from Heaven look upon him with a benigne aspect yet he trembles Observe what ensues and cease to wonder Religious hearts are in a continual awe of God yet not bereft of comfort 'T is their blessedness Pro. 28.14 that they always fear Happy is the man that feareth always So it is to be referr'd the well ordering of our conversation aright Piety puts all things straight in us that rectifies all the passions of the soul directeth our hearts to the fear of the Lord which brings in time a crown of rejoycing Hence he requires it of us upon our Allegiance to his Supremacie Royal which should we deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 timor were no less than Rebellion than Atheism The Greeks therefore derive the Name of God from a word that signifies fear intimating that God above all must be feared of all as well as acknowledged Hereupon the Heathen Latine Poet grounded his invention Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor Fear first made Gods on earth Divine Truth sometime calleth God by the name of Fear Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac Gen. 31.53 that is by that God whom his father Isaac feared If any desire to know what kind of fear this of Jacob's was I dare not entangle better thoughts in the perplexing briars of School-niceties sprung out of the rank grounds of acute Philosophers but will use my endeavours to satisfie expectation by painting out a smoother way of far less danger and of more profit This holy Pilgrim as he was deckt with the ornaments of Grace so was he clogg'd with the infirmities of Nature As he was of a good heart so withal without disgrace of a timorous disposition His fear might well consist with his goodness It was not carnal or worldly arising out of an afflicting distrust of Gods providence Nor yet humane begotten by an excessive desire to this fugitive life Nor servile as proceeding from self-self-love so from the threatned judgments of an angry God for the violations of his pure sanctions This with the rest is sever'd from grace Gregor Mag. Ignorat mens gratiam libertatis quam ligat servitus timoris saith Gregory in his Pastorals The grace of liberty proper to the sons of God is unknown to the mind tyed to the slavery of a base fear A Divine calls it Esau's with which Jacob had no medling he bought his brothers birthright not his vices Jacob's fear was natural initial filial Natural whereby he declined hurtful objects when presented to him initial whereby for the love of God he rejected all desire of sinning filial whereby his obedience to the Highest Power was kept sound and entire None of the sons of men are exempted from the first since the first man The first man had it not actually in his Integrity because there was nothing to hurt him his Apostacie gave it a being in time Our blessed Saviour the Lord Jesus had it but without sin 't was long of sinful men he was so weak so infirm Who foreseeing the bitter Cup he was to drink to the Worlds health Aug. Enchir. cap. 24. his heart drew back his soul was heavy even unto death Austin defines it Fugitantis animi motum the motion or passion of a yielding mind which is no more separable from us than our nature This makes good that expression of it in the Book of Wisdom A betraying of the succours which Reason offereth Wisd 17.12 So powerful is our weakness above the strength of Reason that the very suspition or conceit of approaching evil puts us oft out of heart Nothing almost lays open our imperfections to the worlds eye more than it Faintness of heart at the sight of unavoidable mischiefs seifeth upon our choicest metallâ—d men upon our most heroick spirits Wherefore Origen upon the Book of Judges notes it to be Humanae fragilitatis indioium Orig. in cap. 7. lib. Judic Hom. 9. a bewraying note of humane insufficiency Take it in the excess it unmans a man and makes him like a Sword-fish to which Themistocles compar'd a Coward which hath a weapon but wants a heart Take it in the mediocrity and just temper it subscribes to what Reason dictates and then doth us good If Religion moderate it as it allays the â—orce of its corruption so it gives it a purer essence and brings us off with a greater grace This I believe in part was Jacob's case who frightned with the suddenness of such an unaccustomed spectacle as was presented to his view gave place to fear which be knew not speedily how to shun Yet without doing Jacob wrong we may not say this was his onely fear but as he was by nature thus inclin'd so was he by a spiritual emanation of grace above nature indued with initial fear All that are born of God have by the transcendent working of his Almighty power all that is old in them renewed and
their defects out of the largeness of his bounty copiously supplied with a proportion of grace Old things are past behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 Among which All there is a new Fear by the secret influence of Mercy at the conversion of a sinner diffused into the heart that Fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom Psal 111.10 By it all our desires are cast into a new mould so we frame our dispositions to a corâ—eâ— spondency to the rule of justice Gods will whereof as there is some part reserved in his own bosom from the knowledge of man not to be prayed into so there is aâ— much as concerns us both for faith and fact in acquiring a future everlasting blessed state Divino afflatu by Divine inspiration reveal'd lest to us in writing To this an hearty obedience is expected at our hands which is effected in us by us not by the strength of Nature that 's corrupted but by the power of the Holy Ghost that 's purely vigorous When we are thus wrought upon we become so fâ— in good that worldly persâ—sions be they never so plausible cannot without much reluctation work us to evil Gods elect when called are so altered by spiritual irradiations in their intellectual part by unresistible motions in their concupiscible that the whole bent of their desires of their thoughts through begun fear looks directly at the glory of their Maker Heavenly considerations do so affect them and an actual sense of Gods goodness doth so transport them that the Serpent like insinuation of the World the Flesh the Devil fastens not on them without oppugning what disple seth God Sin is loathsom as making them abominable to him Piety delectable as procuring favour from him His love rightly conceived of them and their expectation of highest preferment in the Heaven of heavens makes them fear lest they should lose both to offend him that dwelleth there So zealous is their care through a sense of misery so affectionate their fear through a sense partly of mercy and of justice partly that they become Argot eyed to look about lest they be foully overtaken with the pollution of sins running source What through infirmities which make them uncapable of perfection in this life they cannot accomplish they through this holy fear compass in desire which of God is graciously accepted accepting the good will for the good deed After this manner was Jacobs mind first moved with a multitude of ambiguous thoughts surprised fearing he had offended through an unreverend incivility His rushing into that place without requisite preparation where he received an heavenly Oracle and of which he held a reverend opinion as being the House of God begat in him such a strong suspicion of respassing that he was afraid Yet not so as to have been diffident of Gods mercy or in an academical suspence of his favour to have grown desperate but his fear was prudently tempered with three pure Ingredients growing in the Paradise of God Faith Hope and Love That fear therefore which was in him at first imperfect and initial by the mixture of these graces with it acquired perfection in him and became filial Comparatively alone are things on Earth perfect Absolute perfection is not here no not in cases spiritual to be aspir'd unto that 's for Heaven What the Apostle writ to the Corinthians cometh to pass as well here below as there above When that that is perfect is come 1 Cor 13.10 then that which is imperfect shall be done away So initial fear which by multiplicity of acts proves in time habitual comes to that height of excellency that it is made filial which also usher'd in by servile and initial causes them to cease and does all it self Not unlike the Dictator in Rome who ruling 1 Joh. 4.18 Timorem sciliceâ— servitem illum non amicalem other Officers did nothing Divine John seeing the Saints love to be full of confidence concludes it perfect and that perfection to exclude fear Perfect love casteth out fear This perfect love is coincident with filial fear which is of the children of the Free-woman The fear that it expels is servile proper unto vassals and is but of Hagars brats Rom. 8. We have not received saith the Doctor of the Gentiles the spirit of fear to bondage but of freedom They that are the freeborn of Heaven Denizens of the New Jerusalem are free from pannick terrors whereunto through the thundring threats of the Law slaves alone are subject and for which Devils tremble That ignoble brood of the Bondwoman who have no heart to serve God have no heart to come boldly to him base spiteful fear captivating their senses makes them flinch and decline his presence who allotteth to the slavishly fearful Rev. 21.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their part as the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death But whose hearts are planted in a noble height being descended from the most High ravish'd with a loving fear of Divine Majesty scorn baseness and through fire and water neglecting themselves run to do him service Glorious are those attributes where with this above all other Fear is honored It is said to be filial where of Bernard gives the reason Quia non timet Deum quasi servus crudâ—lem dominum Rernâ— de timore Dei sed quasi filius dulcissimum patrem Because who hath it fears not God as an offending servant a severe master but as a gracious son a most indulgent father Not without Apostolical authority is it reputed Evangelical because wrought by the Gospel the law of liberty and subject to the Spirit of freedom For good cause it is reported chaste as is observed by learned Zunchy Zanch. lib. 1. de Relig. Quia qui sic timent castum habent cor For who are so given have a chaste heart toward God they fear him as a good wise her loving husband only out of love faith one Weemse In Psal 18. Hierom graceth it with the title of holy for that it is a sacred quality peculiar unto Saints through the propitious infusion of the Most Holy One of Israel Spiritual vigilancie over all our ways in our Christian deportment toward God and toward man springing from it moved a conceited Friar to call it Ostiarium anima the soul's Door-keeper As it admits not the Malignant spirit to break into the soul as it expelleth all unruly motions and unmannerly behaviours in the sight of God as it beats back and shuts the doors against all importunate suggestions of the black Prince of darkness and impious practices of malecontented sinners so it opens the everlasting gates of the immortal soul for the King of Glory to come in to take possession 'T was truly spoke of Siracides They that fear the Lord will keep their hearts to wit to receive him To express what happy security we enjoy by it in the state of
ye use the best means by an honest vocation to acquire what may be communicated to your wives necessity And thus much for the precept commanding love As love is enjoyned so is bitternesse prohibited The obligation that women have on men in wedlock is that they are bound to good-behaviour towards them Their conversation and society must be ever sweetned with the best delights that pious souls and affectionate hearts can afford This bitternesse that is to be abandoned doth discover it self in the 1. Affections 2. Speeches 3. Actions In the affections when men grounding an advantage on trifling matters take occasion to grow exasperate and harsh to the weaker vessels which frequently ends either in a deadly hatred or in a languishing and remisse love whereas our love ought to be the same still rather more than lesse like Christs love to his Church ever nourishing and cherishing it In speeches when mens words aim at the reproach and contumely of their wives A thing repugnant to peaceful content and wounds a tender nature worse than a sword and strikes deeper into the heart than poisoned arrowes to which reproachful language is by the Psalmist compared Rather than be of another temper moderate your passions and your tongues Pleasing words best befit those lips that often greet one another with an holy kisse Good words if there be but the least spark of grace extant in the heart will make them pliable to the utmost of your desires and their loves reciprocal In action there is a discovery of bitterness And that is when men shall bear an heavy and tyrannical hand over to their wives either by removing them from their oeconomical government or subjecting them unto their vassals or withdrawing from them what their necessity pleads for or the support of their dignity requires These are symptomes of no candid dealing And yet there is a worse expression of bitterness than all this which is when men through impatience shall lay violent hands upon them But for a man to use her discourteously with blowes whom he hath selected out of all the world to be his familiar causing her to forsake all friends for his sake is flat opposite to reason to amity to nature to civility To beat her is to beat himself than which there cannot be a more unreasonable unfriendly unnatural uncivil part Beside Eve was not made of the foot of man to be troden under but of the rib of man that he might hold her as dear as himself Right dear therefore unto you ought to be your wives upon whom the principal part of your temporal felicity hath certain dependance Love your wives and be not bitter unto them And thus much for the second head the head of the woman which is the man Having thus run over the reciprocal duties of man and wife a word and but a word of the third head And the head of Christ is God God is the head of Christ in regard of his 1. Divinity 2. Humanity In regard of his Divinity and that by eternal generation because he is the generative principle of the Son according to that nature he is God of very God being consubstantial and coessential with the Father So that here is a kind of subjection whence the Arrians assume an inequality of essence whose assumption is most blasphemously untrue for here is only a subjection in regard of order which imports no inequality of nature as the woman is not inferiour unto man in nature which is the same in both but in order only by divine constitution so neither Christ to God God is the head of Christ in regard of his humanity and that foure wayes 1. In respect of perfection the perfection of God is infinite the perfection of Christ as man proceeding from the Father is finite 2. In respect of eminency so God is above Christ as man as the Creator above the creature 3. In respect of influence all the divine graces in the humane nature of Christ were originally derived from God from whom every good and perfect gift doth descend 4. In respect of government for he was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellowes whereby with the more alacrity he did the will of him that sent him He was fill'd full with the Holy Ghost and so fulfilled all righteousness And thus much concerning these three heads the head of the woman which is man the head of man which is Christ and the head of Christ which is God THE ROYAL REMEMBRANGER OR PROMISES Put in Suit PSAL. 132.1 Lord remember David and all his afflictions AS for the Penman of this Psalme who he should be Expositors aâ—e at variance notwithstanding we may with them are soundest safely Father it on the Father or the Son David or Solomon If on David as Lyra doth the Son put the Fathers work to the Fathers use Faelicis faelix filius ille patris if on Solomon he was thereby his own Fathers Son following his steps happy father happy son David loved God 1 King 2.3 so did Solomon David had a care to instruct his son in the wayes of God Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of his father A president for Kings and their sons For Kings to bring up their sons in the fear of God 1 King 3.3 for Kings sons in the fear of God to obey the King their father Few Kings and few Kings sons are now adayes of this nature happy therefore are these Kingdomes of great Britaine and Ireland that have such a King the son of such a King witnesse daily experience God grant us to make good use of it Well then whether it be David or Solomon the father or the son which was the Author of this Psalm it matters not he was a King and inspired by God yet it seemes rather to be Solomon As for the title of this Psalme it is called Shir Hamagnoloth a song of degrees There is a new song Psal 33.3 there is a song of triumph or thanksgiving for deliverance past such as Moses song after the Israelites had passed through the red sea Exod. 15. Such a song was Deborah's and Baraks after they had delivered Israel from Jabin and Sisera Judg. 5. There is a song of mourning Such a song was Davids for Saul's death 2 Sam. 1. Such a song if we may call it a song is Jeremies Lamentation There is a song of loves whereof we may read Ezek. 33.32 there is a song of joyes such was Hannah's 1 Sam. 2. Such was Elizabeth's John's Mother such was Maries the Mother of Christ such was Zacharies Luk. 1. such was the Angels to the shepheards in the field such was old Simeons Luk. 2. There is Shir Hashirim 1 King 4.32 a song of songs which is Solomons Cant 1. this is but one of a thousand and five which he composed So here is Shir Hamagnaloth a song of degrees Here are fifteen songs of degrees following one the other which are so named
would not stick to exact the thing promised therefore whensoever God makes a promise either to King or people they must not be so coy as not to take hold of it and to challenge God of his promise For he promiseth to the end they should remember him and thereby he them Fear not then it is his delight Again Gods promise is the strongest argument a man can use it is a sign of an invincible faith to apply it the remembrance whereof should drive us to God And is the best comfort to a Christian man in this life It was here Solomons chiefest joy which made him come thus to God Lord remember David It should seeme by this speech that God was asleep or forgetful of his promise But the speech is not proper for he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep Psal 121.4 God cannot be said to remember or forget properly but by a metaphor not Theologicè but Oeconomicè as the Fathers speak or per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Logicians call ambignum ex analogiâ conceptus because we cannot otherwise conceive by reason of our natural imbecillity God is said then to remember when he shews himself to have a respect unto us for his promise sake So Tremelius expounds it Tremel demonstra te meminisse Lord declare by a plain demonstration that thou forget'st not thy promise made to thy servant David by performing it or being as good as thy word in me I will not enter into any Philosophical speculation concerning this And what should he remember Aâ—â— Vt impleatur quod promisit saith Austin To whom promised To David Lord remember David That is that he would fulfil in him what he promised to David his father that his seed should sit in his throne for ever that he should plant his Church and true worship there and dwell among them that the ministery should be pure and powerful the arme of God to salvation that he would give them food sufficient that the glory of his Kingdom should never come to decay This is the Summa totalis In these words we may perceive as in a Perspective-Glasse who it is that is the first raiser of a State and who the puller down States are not guided by blind fortune as the Poets feign nor by Angels appointed thereto in every Kingdom as the Platonists imagine nor by the Starres as some Star-gazers affirm but God alone guides all by his Providence The heavens doth rule saith Daniel by a Metommy of the subject for the adjunct Dan. 4. None can stay his hands or say unto him What doest thou saith Nebuchadnezzar A lesson for Kings and Magistrates that they sollicite none but God for the welfare of Church and Common-weale as here Solomon did But what is this all No they must do it of necessity therein to acknowledge his Supremacie and their Allegiance but this I toucht already They must also have as great care of Religion as of the Commonweale and more for that was the end why Commonweales were ordained without the Commonweale will but be a common poverty it is the soul of the Politick State it gives life unto it Whereupon it being without Religion is compared to a dead body without a soul but both being joyned together the one may say of the other Parsque tui latitat corpore clausa meo Both must be minded as in promise here meant by David So in Prayer Solomon is our example And as their care for the planting of Religion must be great so must they have a watchful eye for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Lastly they must commit all to God Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Prov. 3.5 Victo iâ— mihi crede non hominum disciplinis aut industriá comparatur sed Dei O.M. benignitate arbitrio c. Ferdinand K. of Arragon He is the Watchman of Israel he it is that in the night and in the day discovers all plots and conspiracies that bringeth the rebellious to confusion It is he that giveth salvation unto Kings Psal 144.10 Thus they may assure themselves that if God be on their side they need not fear what man can do unto them If they cast their care upon the Lord he will care for them This was Solomons way to the throne when as he said Lord remember David Now let us come to know what David was in himself without any respect to the promises He was as his name imports beloved amiable or a friend true indeed for he was the beloved of the Lord for God was with him he was the son of Jesse Ruth 4.22 by profession a Shepherd but chang'd from a Shepherd to be King of Judah 2 Sam. 1.4 King of Israel cap. 5.3 God we see hath not respect of persons outwardly he chooseth poor David before any in Israel to be King for thus saith the Lord to Samuel Arise anoint him this is he 1 Sam. 16. David provided Ministers to serve the Lord 1 Chron. 16.4 He provided matter for the building of a Temple he appointed Solomon to build because God did for bid himself 1 Chron. 22.3 He gave Solomon the pattern and sound out the place 2 Sam. 5. He followed the Lord with all his heart 1 Kings 14. save in the matter of Vriah cap. 15. These are parts of the Acts and Monuments of David Thus we see Gods love to David and Davids zeal to Godward he did as much as he could more if he could do he would have done God denied David would not resist A doctrine for Kings and Governours not to counter-check Gods commands And when he heard he should not do it he sate not idle as many would have done but prepared materials for the building Let all of all degrees learn hence to provide all things for the setting forward of a good work What work better than the building of a house for God wherein to call on his name But in this age men scarce vouchsafe to repair nay some rather have pulled down and instead thereof erected stables Which indeed hath proved the way to bring an old house on their heads Contrary to this was Davids practice therefore saith Solomon Remember David or thy promise made to David my Father It follows and all his afflictions Some translate these words cum totâ or cum omni afflictione ejus some adâ— and and then we read it thus as in our Bibles And all his afflictions The reason of this diversity lies in the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometimes beareth the force of the Article of the Accusative case and then they adde and to make up a perfect sentence it is called by the Grammarians Asyndeton when a conjunction is wanting Sometime the force of the Proposition cum then Remember David with all his afflictions the matter is indifferent the sense is the same There is a greater difference
one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel With one mind as the Apostles Act. 2. All were of one mind striving together not one against another but all together against their opposers for the faith of the Gospel And this is concors discordia an agreeing discord musical frets Hence then Union of minds makes fellows of the Gospel Union in vertue which is threefold is a badge of the union of minds Union in vertues intellectual in vertues moral in vertues spiritual In vertue intellectual there is heavenly knowledge in vertue moral there is honesty and goodness in vertue spiritual there is Religion faith and obedience A threefold cord of this making is hard to break saith the Wise man Therefore what the Apostle exhorts to all the faithful I restrain to my present matter Eph. 4.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Ministers endeavour to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Worthy memory is the story of him that had Eighty sons who ready to breathe his last gave each of them a bundle of Arrows commanding them to break it But they conscious of their own imbecility ingenuously confess'd that it was a task impossible to be performed by them which taken he singled out the arrows and broke them every one by themselves with ease Thus saith he O my sons if ye hold together in brotherly love ye are invincible but if the cursed seed of discord be once sown in your hearts ye are gone ye are broken expect nothing but destruction I leave the application of this to you my Brethren Only remember this saying Let brotherly love continue Peace-makers must not be Peace-breakers for Septimum abominatio animae illius the sowing of discord is one of the seven things that God hates Pro. 6.19 with 16. God is love therefore Ministers of God must be Ministers of love like-minded having the same love of one accord of one mind Phil. 2.2 Animo animâque inter se miscebantur Act. 4.32 saith Tertullian of those Primitive Christians yea they were una anima one soul so Tremellius rendreth that text out of the Syriack all informed with one and the same soul all as one man Poets tell us of Theseus and Perithous of Achilles and Patroclus of Orestes and Pylades of Damas and Piphias of Aeneas and Achates faithful lovers sworne friends Holy Writ tells us of Abraham and Lot of David and Jonathan of Solomon and Hiram of Christ and John of Paul James Peter John true hearts all To shew of what nature their love must be I instance only in David and Jonathan David and Jonathan's souls were knit as if there were but one soul in two bodies And Jonathan loved David as his own soul 1 Sam. 18.1 Hence amicus quasi animi custos Far were they and ought ye to be from that execrable answer of Cain Am I my brothers keeper Far be from us all private grudgings Gen. 4. gilded over with fair words all publick contentions in matters of little consequence The first is a main trick of the Devils invention Mel in ore verba lactis fel in corde fraus in factis Their tongue is here in the West while their hearts stray in the East far enough asundea These are double-hearted as the Prophet speaks Facta est fides Evangeliorum fides temporum cùm fides una esse debeat eò pene ventum est ut nulla sit Hilary an heart and heart Monsters of men they are The other the Devil fathers too the root of it is pride But remember what the Apostle writes to Timothy The servant of the Lord must not strive 2 Tim. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ne rixando amittatur veritas ut fere fit Whence so many Schisms in the Church of God whence so great havock of Religion whence so many Paradoxes and Chimera's of Opinions whence the first raising of that Antichristian Idol of Rome whence proceeded those Locusts that came out of the infernal pit I mean Jesuites and others of their disordered Orders whence so many murthers and poisoning of Kings whence the damnable â—ots invented by those Rake-hels I leave to name Is it not from contention founded on ambition A contentious spirit is a proud spirit Pro. 13. Only by pride cometh contention Is it not from private emulation Is it not in a word from the Devil for had not he been in them all had been well Hate then ye children of the most High harted and enmity See ye love one another but avoid these enemies of the Gospel as serpents They pretend to be servants of Christ yet they serve Antichrist Have no fellowship no peace with that painted Whore of Babylon shake not hands with her kiss her not She offers a golden cup but beware Mors in olla touch not taste not handle not it is full of poison full of abomination But rather hearken to the heavenly voice Depart ye depart ye go ye out from thence Come out of her come out of her Isa 52.11 Esto procul Roma qui cupis esse pius my people 2 Cor. 6.17 Rev. 18.4 How can they possibly agree with you who cannot agree among themselves And here I impose a task upon you and a blessing if ye perform it Pray for the peace of Jerusalem let them prosper that love thee Peace be then to thee and peace be to thine helpers for thy God helpeth thee as Amasai said to David 1 Chr. 12.18 And now to end this point I beseech you brethren with the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.10 I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment speaking the truth in love There must be the same mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same judgment Eph. 4.15 So be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 And now I pass to the second part of the Text The Separation without breach of the Vnion whereof a word and away That we should go unto the Heathen and they unto the Circumcision Christs charge unto his Disciples was Ite praedicate Go and preach to all Nations to all the parts of the world East West North South A figure hereof might be those twelve Oxen that supported the molten Sea three looking towards the North three towards the West three towards the South three towards the East Mark 6. And our Saviour having gathered these Twelve together he sends them forth by two and two or by couples They go therefore they fulfill his command Take my yoke upon you Matth. 11. I may compare them thus coupled unto the two Milch-kine that carried the Ark from the Philistims unto Kiriath-jearim And the rather to Milch-kine because they being full of the sincere milk of
of such difficulty that if he withdraw the supporting assistance of his active Spirit from us we cannot hold out Do we preach 't is as the Spirits gives us utterance do we pray the Spirit helpeth our infirmities do we beleeve he increaseth our faith and helps our unbelief do we live the life of grace Christ liveth in us by his Spirit Are we constant in our profession and holy exercises of Religion that constancy cometh from above by the effectual working of the divine power In all these his grace is sufficient for us and in doing them his Spirit worketh with us Thus much concerning Gods good will towards men expressed in spiritual matters As for his good will in temporal it is as clear as the sun we need no demonstration But because the extraordinary favours of God may not slip out of our memories think upon our deliverance from that intended invasion in eighty eight how that part of the invaders became as weak as water and part were over whelmed in the depths of the sea alive like Pharaoh and his host Think upon that horrid work of darkness the Gunpowder plot how vain the conspiratours were in their imaginations The Lords stretched out arme overcame the one his all-seeing eye discovered the other See thy RegÃna Dierum and by his Providence were both brought to nothing Think upon the Stupendious works of Divine Providence in the wonderful safegarding and happy restoring of our gracious King to which I have abundantly spoken upon occasion Without doubt all these and infinite more are sensible tokens of Gods good will in Christ toward us Wherefore 1. We may with comfort confidently approach to the throne of grace where we may receive of the Father whatsoever we ask in his Sons name for for his sake he will deny us no good thing seeing that in him he beares good will toward us Thus much the occasion of this text may assure us of which is the incarnation and birth of our Saviour It being the foundation of all our joyes and all good things we enjoy By it God comforts Adam the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Jacob is comforted by the vision of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth and the Angels ascending and descending by it the mystery whereof may be this The ladder is Christ the foot of it on earth noteth his humanity man of the substance of his mother born in the world the top reaching to heaven noteth his divinity Job 19.25 God of the substance of his Father begotten before all worlds perfect God and perfect man by which union of natures he hath joined earth and heaven together that is God and man The going up and down of Angels by the ladder sheweth how by Christ the service of Angels is purchased unto us all which accordeth with that in Joh. 1.51 Verily verily I say unto you faith our Saviour hereafter ye shall see the heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Job again comforts himself in this that his Redeemer of his own flesh as the word signifieth liveth In the Old Testament they which sought to God came to the Ark or Propitiatory and there were they heard and received Gods blessing Now Christ God and man is instead thereof his Godhead being the fountain of all good things and his flesh or Manhood a pipe or conduit to conveigh the fame unto us Wherefore let us rejoyce in God our Saviour and comfort our selves in his good will towards men Moreover 2. We may the better bear temptations and afflictions and slight the assaults of the world That which in Spaniards deserveth the greatest commendations is an unmoved patience in suffering adversity accompanied with a settled resolution of overcoming them This if we attain unto in Christianity will shield us from despair and distrust for we may be well assured that God to his distressed servants is the neerest when he seemeth furthest then sweetest when he seemeth sowrest and then up in wrath to revenge our wrongs when the world doth think he hath forgot us For still he beares goad will towards us Lastly we must acknowledge Gods good will through Christ to be the sole cause of all our happiness It is a true Maxime in Divinity Publisht in Austins time Vniversa salus nostra Aug. Ned. Cap. 34. magna miserecordia tua Our safety on earth our salvation in heaven proceed from thy abundant mercies O Lord. Thus the Father the Son and the holy Ghost do all join together in one immutable resolution to prove their good will towards men The issue whereof cannot be but exceeding good For as Astronomers do well observe that when three of the superiour lights do meet in conjunction it bringeth forth some admirable effects So now seeing that these three infinite lights of the world three persons of the Deity are met together in one good-will towards men this benevolous aspect produceth this admirable effect that all true beleevers shall be hereby exalted into glory For which with thankful hearts we ought ever to pay the tribute of obedience And in assurance whereof to rest in Gods promises which can never faile In his name I end as I did begin To whom as the Angels did before us and duty ever binds us be rendred all honour and glory both now and for ever Amen The Necessity of CHRISTS PASSION AND Resurrection ACTS 17.3 Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead I Am induced by these words to relate the greatest wonder of the world wherein is comprehended the profoundest Mystery of our salvation That the Son of God should become the Son of man that the Lord of glory should come in the forme of an humble and dejected servant that the Sun of righteousnesse should be deprived of light and then that the sole Author of our life should be put to death Weigh but the reason and the wonder is the greater It was for our redemption all this was effected and can there be a greater wonder then that he that knew no sin would putting on mortality suffer unutterable tortures both in soul and body and be content to die to save those that knew nothing but sin certainly there cannot be a greater wonder The most professed enemy to sinners herein did become to sinners the most professed friend He is ready to save who might be more ready to destroy But mercy binds the hands of justice and justice is overcome of mercy The eternal wisdome beholding from above with the gracious eye of pay the forlorne estate of mankind after their apostasy and treacherous violation of the sacred Covenant contrived a project not to be contrived by the Art of man whereby our Redemption should be wrought and liberty obtained Gods love to us did exceed our sins Our sins are not so great are not so many but his love can cover them and his mercy pardon them And where men come
short of an invention how to scape his sury and obtain his favour how to satisfy his justice and redeem our lives from hell and death Behold before the foundation of the world was laid he resolved to send his own only Son begotten by an eternal generation who should quell the power of our afflicting enemies stop the mouth of the roaring lyon overcome the world sin death the grave and hell and lay open a plain passage into the Kingdom of heaven Which eternal resolution was in the fulness of time perfectly effected for God then sent forth his Son into the world to assume our nature that we might assume his grace to suffer for our sins what we should of merit suffer to be obedient to the cursed death of the crosse that we might escape the curse of God and not be subject to the second death And albeit hereby he made himself of no reputation who thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet by this meanes he did make way to be highly exalted to get a name which is above every name and to be glorified with the glory which he had with the Father Ne Jesum quidem aâ—ias gloriosum nisi videris crucisixum Luther to Melanchton before the world was This he himself in a conference with some of his Disciples after his resurrection wherein doubtless he did recapitulate his several sufferings certified to the world Ought not Christ to have suffered those things and to enter into his glory Luk. 24.26 This Scripture points at Christ considered in part of his twofold state 1. His state of humiliation quoad mortem as touching his death Christ's suffering or passion 2. His state of exaltation quoad resurrectionem as touching his resurrection In his humiliation we find him ignominiously crucified and made a curse for us In his exaltation gloriously raised that he might be supereminently glorified and our selves blest in him for ever In this he shall judge as in the former he was judged My pen is now conversant about the first part Wherefore assistance O my souls Saviour and Soveraign I intreat thee that in all humility of soul I may declare what for our salvation thy Majesty didst suffer in all humility And first of my Saviours humiliation in general Of all the works of God done for and to the children of men Some are Opera potentiae works of power Some opera pietatis works of mercy Some opera justitiae works of justice all righteous works Yet if we seriously fix our thoughts upon the humiliation of our alsufficient-Redeemer we shall find it to be a work of 1. Power 2. Mercy 3. Justice All these that otherwise are disperst in his several works are compacted and meet together in this one First then it is a work of power 1. In it self 2. Towards us In it self 't is a work of power God was made man but not sinful man which none could bring to passe but God that first made man without sin The Creator of all made himself a creature which none could do but the Creator of all Whereupon it was that at the conception of the Son of God in the Virgins womb Luk. 1.35 the holy Ghost came upon her and the power of the most high did overshadow her Hence saith one after God had made man he left nothing but to make himself man A dignity to which the Angels are not call'd wherewith our nature above all is blest Tom. 10. Pag. 595. It is Austins speech In creatione mundi homo factus est ad imaginem Dei in nativitate Christi ipse factus est ad imvginem hominis when the world was created man was made in the image of God when Christ was born God was made in the image of man Both which are to be refer'd to divine Omnipotencie For that God and man might be one in Covenant Lib. 2. Institut Ood used his power to make himself and man both one in person Non communicatione gratiae fed naturae veritate non consusione substantiae sed unitate personae saith Trelcatius not by communication of grace Epiphanius but by reality of nature not by an undistinct confusion of substance but by a personal unity So that as Epiphanius speaks Christ was homo in veritate natus Isa 7.14 Deus in veritate existens true God and true man in one and the same person which is implied by the Prophet calling him Immanuel that is God with us or God in our nature Luk. 1.35 Exprest by the Angel calling him the Son of God that should be born of the Virgin Mary And manifested by the Apostle averring him to come of the Fathers as concerning the flesh Rom. 9.5 and yet to be over all God blessed for ever This might seem exceeding strange yet it proves not more strange then true God and man who stood at an infinite distance are now everlastingly linkt together in one person according to the mighty working of his power Thus Christ's humiliation in being incarnate is a work of power in it self It is likewise a work of power towards us Since Adams rebellion we were all captives unto sin and Satan untill God incarnate did vindicate our liberty We were extremely weakened our spirits fail'd us until the Lords anointed the mighty God of Jacob did infuse into our hearts the strength of his Spirit His Incarnation made way for our salvation and his taking unto him our humanity makes us by faith to partake of his Divinity Anselme moves three questions Anselm Meditat c. 8. to which he gives one solid resolution the questions are these 1. What offence could man commit which the Son of God made man could not exprate 2. Who could be so much swell'd up with that uncharitable vice of pride which so great humility could not pull down 3 What dominion could death have over us which the death of the Son of God could not destroy for us The answer 's this Certainly if the iniquity of sinful man and the grace of my unspotted Lord were wigh'd in an even ballance the East is not so much distant from the West nor the lowest hell from the highest heaven as my Redeemers goodnesse in his humility doth exceed the wickednesse of a sinner To this I adde he hath shewn greater power in this act for our redemption than the malice of all the Devils in hell could put in practice for our confusion Thus Christ's humiliation is a work of power towards us And so much the rather he being after this sort humbled was once offered to bear the sins of many Again it is a work of mercy Deus propter hominem sactus est homo ut esset redemptor qui est Creator ut de suo ridimeretur homo saith Austin Aug. Manual c. 26. God for mans sake was made man that he might be our Redeemer who is our Creator and so we have of our own wherewith to be redeemed