unto nay present with him by his universal care and providence he being not far from every one of us for in him we live c. Act. 17.27 28. 2 By assuming the nature of man into a personal conjunction with himself in the Mediator Christ 3 By conversing with man by signs of his presence extraordinary visions dreams oracles inspiration and ordinarily by his holy Ordinances wherewith his people as it were abide with him in his house 4 By sending his holy Spirit to dwell in man and bestowing upon man the divine nature 5 By taking man into an eternal habitation in heaven Psal 16. ult where he shall be ever in his glorious presence 2 There is a love of God to man considered as a love of benevolence or of good will or of willingness to do good to the thing beloved what else was his eternal purpose to have mercy upon his people and of saving them Rom. 9.13 but as it s exprest concerning Jacob this loving them And to whom can a will of doing good so properly agree as to him whose will is goodness it self 3 There is a lover of God to man considered as a love of beneficence bounty or actual doing good to the thing beloved Thus he bestoweth the effects of his love both for this life and that which is to come And the beneficence of God is called Love 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God And Joh. 3.16 So God loved the world that he sent c. By this love of beneficence bestowes he the good things of nature grace glory God doth good to every creature hating though the iniquity of any one yet the nature of none Gen. 1.31 for the being of every creature is good and God hath adorn'd it with many excellent qualities According to these loves of benevolence and beneficence God loveth not his creatures equally but some more then others in as much as he willeth to bestow and also actually bestoweth greater blessings upon some than upon others he makes and preserves all creatures but his love is more especially afforded to mankinde he stileth himself from his love to man Tit. 3.4 and not from his love to Angels or any other creature He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of man but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a friend of Angels or creatures without man His love is yet more peculiarly extended to man in creating him after his own image Psal 8.5 Heb. 2.16 Rom. 5.8 and in giving him lordship over the creatures in giving his Son to take upon him mans nature and exalt it above heavens and Angels to dye for sinning dying man offering him to man in the dispensation of the Gospel with wooing and beseechings Mat. 28.18 and yet of men he loveth some more especially and peculiarly than others Omnia diligit Deus quae fecit etinter ea magis creaturas rationales et de illis eas amplius quae sunt membra Unigeniti et multo magis ipsum Unigenitum Aug. T. 9. in Joh. namely those whom he loveth with an electing calling redeeming justifying glorifying love God loves all creatures and among them the rational and among them the members of his Son and much more the Son himself 4. There is a love of God to man considered as a love of complacency and delight in the thing beloved he is pleased through his Son with his Servants and he is much delighted with his own image wheresoever he finds it He is pleased with the persons and performances of his people He hath made us accepted in the Son of his loves the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him Psal 147.11 Zeph. 3.17 They reflecting his excellencies and shewing forth his vertues he rejoying over them with joy he resting in his love accounting a Beleever amiable his soul a lesser heaven his prayers melody his sighs incense his stammerings eloquence his desires performances 2 There is a love of Man to God which is when the Soul is moved Amor concupiscentiae non requiescit in quacunque extrinseca aut superficiali adeptione amati sed quaerit amatum perfectè habere quasi ad intima illius perveniens Aq. 1.2 ae q. 28. ar 2. drawn and called out to desire the participation of his presence yeelding up and conforming it self to his will as also quietly resting in the enjoying of him This love is considerable in its several kinds 1 It s a love of desire to enjoy him for ours as the source of all our happiness The Soul loves God under the apprehension of the greatest good and therefore puts forth it self in strongest desires toward him This love is as strong as death and can take no denyal It is the wing and weight of the Soul that carries all the desires into an intimate unity with the thing beloved stirreth up a zeal to remove all obstacles worketh an egress of the Spirits and as it were an haste of the Soul to entertain and meet it According to those expressions of the Saints in Scripture The desire of our soul is to thy name Es 26.8 Ps 119.10.81 119.20 Psal 42.2 Psal 84.2 With my whole heart have I sought thee My soul fainteth for thy salvation My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgements at all times My soul thirsteth for God I am sick of love c. Oh the vehement panting breathing and going forth of the soul of one toward God who is in love with him he contemns the most serious worldly employments when he is taken up with this and who so discourseth with him of earthly concernments speaks as with one not at home all the world not satisfying without the kisses of the lips of our beloved our desires being a thousand times more for one smile of his face than for all the wealth under the Sun No difficulty so great no danger so imminent nay no death so certain which this love carries not through for the obtaining of the thing beloved this love being a falling mountain that breaks down all that stands betwixt it and the place of its rest In a word no means shall be left unused that by God are appointed for the obtaining of our beloved enquiries of or from others how to find him letters of love sighs tears sobs groans unutterable are sent to win him desires to hear again from him in his promise of grace are expressed The soul is never gotten neer enough till it be in the arms the bosome of God in heaven It saith not as Peter of his Tabernacles Lord Let there be one for me and another for thee but let us both be together in one It s ever night with one who loves Christ till the Sun of his presence be arising He is like a certain kinde of Stone of which some report That if it be thrown into the water
of sight and troubles not his lusts or from some accidentall circumstantiall Ornaments which attend the Ministery and Truth as wit learning expression elocution or credit of visible conformity to them not from an inward apprehension of the proportionablenesse sutablenesse and fitnesse of Christ to all his desires and capacities Luke 7.47 1 Joh. 4.16.19 as being the fairest of ten thousand or from any reall interest and propriety in Christ which are the grounds of love when true and sincere 2. This love to God is superlattive it surpasseth all other loves the soule in which it abides seeing infinitely more lovelinesse in one God then in all the combined assembled excellencies of all worldly Objects loves him infinitely more than them all It often not only steps over them but kicks them away not only laying them down as sacrifices but hating them as snares when they would draw from Christ When Christ and the World meet as it were upon so narrow a bridge that both cannot passe by Christ shall go on and the World shall go back Christ in a Christian shall have no Corrivals as Christ bestowes himselfe wholly upon a Christian wholly upon every one as every line hath the whole indivisible point so a Christian gives himselfe wholly to Christ he shares not his heart betwixt him and the world all within him he sets on work to love Christ keeping nothing back from him for whom all is too little The greatest worth that it sees in any thing but Christ is this that it may be left for Christ ever rejoycing that it hath any thing to which it may prefer him To a soul in which is this love Christ is as oyle put into a viall with water in which though both be never so much shaken together the oyl will ever be uppermost or as one rising Sun which drowneth the light of a numberlesse number of Stars It loves the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it not as that for which it doth live but as that without which it cannot live The world hath not the top and strength of it's affection It loves nothing much but him whom it cannot love too much It lodgeth not the world in it's best room and admits not such a stranger into the closet of the heart but only into the hall of the senses 3. It 's a jealous or zealous love suspicious lest any thing should and burning in a holy heat of indignation against any thing that doth disturb the Souls beloved Love is a solicitous grace and makes the soul account it selfe never sufficiently trim'd for Christs imbracements never to think that any thing done is well enough done All the soul is and can is esteemed too little for him who is its optimus maximus its best and greatest the more brightly shining the beams of love to Christ are the more motes and imperfections doth the soule ever see in its services It s fear only is lest by sinne and unsutable carriage it stirs up Gal. 4.11.16 Act. 15.2 17.16 18.25 19.8 Jude 3. and awakes the beloved It cannot put up a disgrace expressed by the greatest against Christ It zealously contends for his Word Wayes Worship Worshippers Kingdome All it's anger is against those intercurrent impediments that would stop it in the advancing of Christ it labours to bear down those hinderances of Gods glory with a floud of tears if it cannot with a stream of power The meekest soule in love with God knowes how to be holily impatient and like Moses though when with God to pray for men yet when with men to contend for God Every sin by how much the nearer to it by so much is it more detested by it Of all sins therefore its own have the deepest share of hatred for what it cannot remove Rom. 7. Heb. 12. it mourns heartily crying out of the body of death the sin that doth so easily beset it as of the constant companie of a noysome carcasse endeavouring that every sin may be more bitter to remember then 't was ever sweet to commit looking upon the want of sorrow after sinne as a greater argument of want of love then was the sin it self 4. It 's a chast a loyall love not set upon what God hath so much as upon what God is not upon his but him not upon his rings but his person not his cloathes but his comelinesse upon a Christ though not adventitiously adorned his gifts are loved for him not he for them he is sweet without any thing though nothing is so without him Love desires no wages 't is wages enough to it selfe it payes it selfe in seeing and serving the Beloved A Nurse doth much for the child and so doth the Mother but the former for the love of wages the later for the wages of love Love carries meat in the mouth the very doing of Gods will is meat and drink to one who loves him A heart in love with Christ is willing with Mephibosheth that others should take all so it may behold the King Worldly Comforts shall not fallere but monere Nil dulcescit sine Jesu only they shall be used to admonish how much worth is in Christ not to bewitch the soul from Christ Si ista terrena diligitis ut subjecta diligite ut munera amici ut beneficia domini ut arrham Sponsi Aug. Med. as spectacles by which the soul may read him the better or as steps by which it may be raised up to him the nearer and no further shall they be delighted in then as they are pledges of or furtherances unto the injoyment of him Should God give all to one who loves him and not give himselfe he would say with Absalom What doth all availe me so long as I see not the Kings face Communion with God is the Heaven of him who loves God It 's heaven upon earth for God to be with him and the Heaven of Heaven for him to be with God 5. It 's an active John 14.24 Psal 119.68.140 Esay 45 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirring expressive love the fire of love cannot be held in 't will break out at lips hands feet by speaking working walking Love saith as Elijah to Obadiah as the Lord liveth I will shew my selfe the strength of love will have a vent The Love of Christ constraineth and as the word used by the Apostle signifieth hemmeth in shutteth up pinfolds the heart that it cannot winde out from service and cannot chuse but do for Christ Love is a mighty stream bearing all before it It cares not for shame or losse It carries away these as did Samson the other gates upon it's shoulders 'T is strong as death A man in love with God is as a man who is carried away in a crowd who cannot keep himselfe back but is hurried without his own labour with the throng Love
with ease dispatcheth great imployments The Commands of God are not grievous to it Love is the wing that weight and holy proclivity of the soul which if it finds not makes a way Nay 't is so speedy and present an affection that it endures no delayes It accounts not the least time little in which God is withdrawn It follows hard after God and puts not off it's pursuits of dutie or comfort till to morrow or a more convenient time 6. It 's an expensive Psal 16. bountifull costly love It will not offer that which cost it nothing even the meanest gift as alas how much below Christ is all we are or doe comes from a Kingly heart Love contends after excellency and perfection in attending upon that object which it loves under the apprehension of the greatest good How willingly did those Converts lay down all their goods at the Apostles feet and those afterwards burn their books of curious Arts 1 Chr. 22.29 2 Sam. 24.24 though of great value How great was Davids expence for the Temple and his desire that his purchase which he bought of Araunah should be being for his God costly Luke 7. How bountifull was that formerly sinfull woman in her expression of love to Christ How freely were her tears hairs kisses ointment imployed The greatnesse of the debt forgiven her made her love much and the greatnesse of her love made her spend much What save love made Zachâ—â— part with halfe of his goods to the poor Luke 19.8 John 1. Actâ—â—â— â—â— Gâ—n 43.34 and a four-fold restitution to the wronged by false accusation Love will make Peter willing to feed the sheep of Christ and Paul not to account his life dear to him to finish his Ministery Joseph loved Benjamin most and gave him a messe five times so much as any of the rest He that loves God most will lay out most for God 1 Thes 1.3 Heb. 6.10 More then once we read in the Scripture of the labour of love Love resteth in its labour and then resteth most when it laboureth most Nothing labours more or thinks it labours lesse then love I have heard of one that was ask'd for what sort of men he laboured most he answered for his friends He was again ask'd for whom then he laboured least he answered for his friends both answers were true for love made him think he did least for those for whom indeed he did most 7. It 's a submissive stooping patient love bearing from and forbearing for the Beloved any thing It puts us upon things below us for the pleasing of him whom we love it makes us to undertake that which another may esteem weaknesse and indecencie Davids love to Gods presence transported him to leaping and dancing thereby though Mical esteemed it basenesse to honour God Parents out of love to their children play and lisp and stammer Christ himselfe emptied and humbled himselfe for our sakes Love flies not like chaffe in the face of him that fans Rom. 8.38 39 The soule that loves is reconciled to God Cant. 8.7 though it sees not that God is reconciled to it It hath a child-like ingenuity to love and stay with a father that scourgeth it not a servile unsubmissivenesse to threaten presently after stripes departure It doth iratum colere numen follow a frowning father It lives contented with Gods allowance It will patiently be without what he thinks either fit to remove or not fit to bestow and all this not upon force but upon choice It loseth its own will in Gods and had rather will as doth God than understand as doth an Angel It taketh with joy the spoiling of its goods It ever thinks it hath enough left so long as God takes not away himselfe Omnia quae horribilia audis servire mori expiata sancta sunt amori Nier de art vol. It beareth the indignation of the Lord and accepteth the punishment of its iniquity and is willing to receive evill as well as good because from the hand of a God whom it loves For his sake it 's willing to be kill'd all the day long nor can the waters of death extinguish the taper of love 8. It 's a conforming love The Will of God is the Compasse by which it steers It fashions not it selfe according to the world It walkes not by example but by rule The heart will be set like a Watch which goeth exactly not by others but by the Sun It walks not by president but precept It regards not what is either its own or other mens but what is Gods will Its will and Gods are like two strings of an Instrument the one whereof being tuned to the other if the one be struck and sound the other also stirs and trembles when Gods will is declared the will of him that loves God moves accordingly It is much more solicitous to understand duty then to avoid danger It desires to have a heart according to Gods heart to be effigiated and moulded according to Scripture Impressions to love what God loves and hate what he hates to think and will the same with God 9. It 's a sociable love It moves to the full enjoyment of God as its Center Converse with God is its Element The soule where this love is debarr'd from prayer hearing is as the fish on dry land It restrains not prayer from the Almighty It walks with God It sings in the absence of Christ no more than did they in a strange land It loves to have its bundle of Myrh all the night between its breast It delights in every thing in which Christ may be seen Word Sacraments Conditions Soscietie Ministers and the more these have of Christs presence the more it loves them the closest purest powerfullest and most sin-discovering sin-disturbing preaching it loves best The holiest and most exactly walking Saints it loves best The Sacrament or Prayer wherein Christ smiles most sweetly it loves best The condition though outwardly bitterest wherein it sees the face of Christ most clearly it loves best 2 Tim 4.8 2 Pet. 3.12 Chiefly is the sociableness of love discovered in longing after the second coming of Christ in counting it best of all to be with him in loving his appearance in hasting to the coming of the day of God The unwillingness to have that day come proceeds from a Christians unrenewed part so much soreness as is in the eye so much lothness is there in a man to see the light proportionable to our love to sin is the disaffection to Christs appearance and the fear which is in a gracious heart of Christs second coming rather proceeds from a sense of its own unfitness to appear before Christ than an unwillingness to have Christ appear to it and more from a desire to be made meet for him than to remain without him 10. Lastly It s an uncessant Love A flame never to be quenched The Waters of affliction cannot drown it but
he gave his body to be burn'd 1 Cor. 13.3 Nucleus donorum animus and had not love he should be nothing nothing in Esse gratiae in point of truth worth and grace Love is the beauty of our performances their Loveliness is Love to God in doing them Love is the Marrow of every duty Love is the salt which seasons every Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the exquisitest service without it is but as a dead carcass embalmed God delights in nothing which we give him unless we give our selves first He more regards with what heart we give than what we give God accepts no duty when we do it because we dare not do otherwise but when we do it because we love to do it it is acceptable to God He who wants Love though he do the thing commanded yet he breaks the Law Commanding He who Loves keeps the Command Evangelically while he breaks it Legally 3. Observ 3. Love set upon other things beside God is wrong placed The world must often be left and loathed at the most but used never loved So to love it as thereby to lessen thy love to God so to love it as to be excessive either in grief for wanting it or joy for having it and to be over earnest in using it and injudicious in preferring it before thy God is to love it unduely and sinfully if at any time the creature be beloved innocently 't is beloved in and for God as a pledge of heaven as a spur to duty Among all the Creatures there cannot be found a helper fit for man Between the soul and them there can be no match with Gods consent He that is wedded in love to the Creature is married to one that 's poor base vexing false 1. Poor the whole world is but a Curt and unsatisfying good the sieve in the water hath something in it pull'd thence 't is empty the Creature apart from God is empty of all loveliness it 's a brest fill'd with nothing but wind Should the whole world be cast into our Treasury it would hardly be a Mite Hagar out of Abrahams house found nothing but scarcity and all plenty which is not God is but penury Earthly blessings like to numbers cannot be so great but still we may reckon and our desires reach some one beyond them Men in their contentions for the world prove it a scanty thing and that it cannot satisfie all A lover of the world can endure no rivals as knowing how scanty an object he contends for So large a good is God that he who loves him delights in company 2. Base ignoble Whatsoever is below a God is below our soul it s as unfit to rule our hearts as the bramble to rule the trees What we love subdues us it to it self and we are alway below it to love these earthly drossie comforts is to make thy soul a vassal to thy vassal a servant of servants Love leaves the impression of the thing beloved upon the soule if thou lovest the earth thou hast the impression of vilenesse upon a noble soule the impression gives denomination a piece of gold is call'd a Jacobus an Angel a Serpent a Lion according to the stamp it beareth If therefore earthly objects have by love set their impression upon thy soule what is that golden excellent heaven-born creature but a lump a clod of earth The earth should be under our feet not upon our heart 3. Vexing and unquiet Love set upon the world hath more of anguish than love it ever wrangles with us for not giving it enough Peace is the only product of the enjoyment of God If Christ be not in the ship the storms will never cease nor can any thing but his presence bring a calmnesse upon the sonle Rest is peculiar only to Gods Beloved Love never stings but when you disturb anger it and hinder it from resting in a God in him it's hive it is alway and only quiet and innocent 4. False and inconstant They are but lying and flying vanities A soul that loves the world is match'd to that which will soon break and run away none are so foolishly prodigall as the covetous who assures all to that which can assure nothing no not his own again to him The World is like to Absaloms mule that runs away when its lovers most want reliefe it s not able to love again those that love it most The love of that which is inconstant and weak is the strength of our misery The best of earthly blessings have their moth and their thiefe Mat. 6.20 Prov. 25.31 Observ 4. Plus bonitas quam benificientia Expiat infinita venustas omnem injuriam they make themselves wings they flee away as an Eagle towards Heaven 4. God is an Object very meet for our love to be set upon Much he deserves it even for whathe is His own lovely excellencies are so great that even for these our hearts should be set upon him although his hatred were set upon us Goodnesse is more than beneficience God is a bundle an heap of all worth and perfections all the scattered excellencies of the whole Creation Center and meet in him a flower he is in which meet the beauties of all flowers Suppose a creature composed of all the choycest endowments of all the men that were since the Creation of the World famous in any kind One in whom were a meek Moses a strong Samson all the valiant Worthies of David a faithfull Jonathan a beautifull Absalom a rich and wise Solomon all the holy men of God eminent for any grace Nay all the Angels of Heaven with their understandings strength agility splendor spiritualnesse holinesse and suppose this creature had never known us help'd us benefited us yet how would our hearts be drawn out towards it in desires and complacencies but this alas though ten thousand times more exquisitely accomplish'd would not amount to a shadow of divine perfection God had in himselfe assembled from Eternity all the excellencies which were in time and had not he made them they had never been If every leafe and spire of grasse nay all the stars sands atomes in the World were so many Souls and Seraphims whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity yet could not their love be enough for the lovelinesse of our God There is nothing in God but what is amiable Cant. 5.16 he is altogether lovely nothing to cause loathing fulsomness or aversation though we enjoy him to all Eternity And it should much draw out love from us to think what God doth for us Man doth but little and it 's counted much God doth much and it 's counted little and whence is this distemper'd estimate Must mercy therefore be under-valued because it comes from God Doth water lose it's nature because it is in the fountain or heat because 't is in the fire and not in some other subject Can we be thankfull to a thiefe
that spoil'd us not of what we have and not to a God that furnish'd us with what we have Can we love a man that spar'd and not a God that bestowed our life Can we love him that supply'd us when we had nothing and not him who made us when we were nothing Is any want so great as to be nothing or is any gift comparable to our very being Children love their parents from whom they have their body though they gave it not but God by them And what they did give was not for love of their children but pleasure and possibly they caused their childrens beings unwillingly 'T was not from any love in parents that these children were begotten rather than others because it was not in their choice but when 't was in Gods choice seeing innumerable men whom he could have made he made these rather than others What is it that shores and sustaines our beings but the prop of divine manutenency Did God make the house and then leave it to stand alone Hath not the same power that set it up held it up ever since hath he taken off that hand of sustentation one moment since he built thee Parents and friends have loved thee but was not all their affection a drop of Gods fountain would not else their bowels have been flint and marble and had not God bid them love thee might they not have been upon choice what some tender mothers are upon constraint butchers instead of parents The light of the Moon and Stars in the night is from the Sun though the Sun be not seen so every benefit afforded by man is from God though God be not observed And what save love it selfe was it that re-made thee when thou wert worse then nothing Surely the giving of Christ was the hyperbole of love the highest note that ever love reached A work that looks as if it were intended to draw out love from us Fire in its sphere burns not but in some solid matter so God though love it selfe inflam'd us not with love but by coming to and becoming of man What immeasurable love was that wherby he was debased to our vilenesse that we might be advanced to his Majesty and whereby he suffered even beyond measure and was never prodigall of any bloud but his own A mercy for contrivement so peculiar to Gods love that Angels could no more have invented it than Infants and for manifestation so appropriated to his love that had not he discover'd and tendred it it had been blasphemy and sacriledge saith one once to have desir'd it How great a condescention of love is it for him to become a Suter to thee for thy love to seek and beseech thee to be reconciled to him what 's thy portion but poverty Rom. 5.6 8 what gets he if he gain thy love what loseth he if he misse it what saw he in thy person but deformity what in thy affection but impotency and antipathy How long did Love contend before it conquer'd thee How witty wert thou to shift off happiness How unlike to mans carriage towards man was Gods carriage towards thee Who ever heard before that abused patience should be turned instead of fury into affection If the patience of him that unjustly offends drawes love from him that 's justly offended how much more should the patience of him that is justly offended draw love from them that unjustly offend 5. Obser 5. A Christians greatest service and work for God is most just and equall Why It is to love And what more righteous We are his Creatures if he had commanded a harder task as to Sacrifice our children or burn our bodies to ashes we ought to have done it But 1. He askes no more than this at our hands to Love him And now Israel what doth the Lord require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to Love him Love is a ready prompt willing affection which doth all with ease and is its own weight 2. Love is that which every one hath it 's implanted in every soul If God had required a child the Barren might have had a plea. If God had required our Lands and money the poor If Labour and Travail the sick might have had his plea of exemption but every one hath a Love that hath a Soul 3. This love which he requires he bestowed and he calls for no more than his own he doth but gather the grapes of his own Vine-yard the Waters of his own Fountain the fruit of his own Ort-yard he requires no more than he first gives 4. If it be bestowed on him he returns it much better than he received it He purifies and appeaseth it removes its pain and impurity he slayes nothing in it but the Ram he makes it like to the Rain which though the earth sends up in thick and foggy vapours falls down in pure and silver showers or like to the waters which though they come from the sea brackish and brinish yet return thither again in sweet and Christall streams God takes away the inordinateness unholiness and sensualness of our love he quiets and appeaseth it not emptying it of its honey but only pulling out its sting Love being never unquiet when in its center or stinging when in the hive or vexing the soul when set upon God 5. In loving him we do no more than we have tyed our selves to do We have chosen him for ours Deut. 26.17 for our Husband Father Master he may challenge our love we must not go back we are baptized in his name when we love not God we rob him of our selves we are Adultresses being married not to love 6. In loving we can but repay him though with no proportion not prevent him he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 Loved our souls in pitying and pardoning and renewing them loved the body in constant provision protection direction Loved us in giving himself loved us in giving his gifts 7. We must if we love not him love some thing else And where can we find any other upon whom to bestow it Exod. 15.11 who among the Gods is like to him and what among the Creatures is fit for us that can satisfie our exigences that will relieve us in distresse that will stay with us continually that will love us again 8. In loving him we love one another and love is the glue of the world the Cement of society it thinks nothing too difficult for a friend it makes us harmless and helpfull If twenty men love one another every one as himself every one is twenty every one hath twenty hearts forty hands eyes feet Love unlocks every ones Cabinet making the one take out cousnel another riches another strength all something for the good of one another 6. Observ 6. Wheresoever love to God is there will love to man appear The grace of love as hath been opened comprehends love to both from the Fountain of piety must flow the Stream of charity He
not charity is as sounding brasse and a tinkling cymball though he have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and hath all faith though he bestow all his goods to feed the poor nay though he give his body to be burnt 1 Cor. 13. and have not charity he is nothing God will not reward Ministers according to what they have done but according to what they have done in loving to do Love is the marrow the soul of every service All performances without love are but cyphers without a figure in Gods account they stand for nothing they are sacrifices without fire 3. People should study to be fit for the love of their Pastor Observ 3. To encourage him to love them to be diligibiles such as these Christians were whom the Apostle called beloved A painfull Minister should not only be put upon loving his people by conscience of this duty but by encouragement to this duty Ministers are often wrongfully complain'd of for want of love All kind of love must not be afforded to all kind of people a love of intimacy and complacency must only be set upon the godly among his people If a faithfull Minister be not such to his offensive unprofitable hearer as he would 't is because this man is not such to God and his own soul as he should How unworthy a part in any is it to make a faithfull Minister spend that time in weeping complaining reproving which he had much rather spend in sweet complacency familiarity and commendation 4. The love of a Minister must not be slack and remiss Observ 4. but vehement and ardent Ministers are to imitate him in love whose love was the most earnest who was the chiefe Shepherd and had the chiefest care of his flock who purchased it with his own bloud Act. 20.28 who was nothing but love cover'd over with our flesh As he was the President of Ministers love so gave he earnest and frequent precepts to Ministers to testifie this love John 21.15 Love alone can facilitate the difficulties of a Ministers calling Many things must be born as the hatred frowardnesse dulnesse weaknesse of people There must ubera be given though verbera be returned Ministri proferant ubera non verbera Bern. the brest must give its milk though it be struck at Sometimes lawfull liberties must be forborn A Minister must be like indulgent Mothers or Nurses who forbear to eat such meats as they love for fear of hurting the child which they are breeding or giving suck to Paul was such an one who rather then he would offend a weak brother would eat no flesh while he lived A Minister must be lowly in doctrine and life patient laborious and nothing but love can make him be so Every thing will be difficult to him that loves not The object of a Ministers love is the soul the heaven-born soul the precious eternall soul What would it profit a Minister to gain the whole world and lose his peoples souls The beast the name the body of a man must be beloved much more his soul The winning of souls is the wisdome of a Minister Gen. 14.21 A Minister should say of his ease profit and pleasure as the King of Sodom to Abraham Give me the souls and take the goods to thy selfe 5. Observ 5. The Loving of a Ministers person hath a great influence upon the loving of his doctrine The Apostle knew this when he desired that these Christians should know that he loved them It 's the folly of people not to love the word who ever be the speaker The message hath not its commendation from the messenger but the messenger from the message Yet rare is it to finde that Christian who thinks well of that counsell which is given him by a Counseller who is not beloved and therfore it is Satans policy to asperse the Minister thereby to cause a dislike of his Ministry And great is their sin who by their un-amiable carriage often make their Ministry abhorred who either by prophanenesse or unfit austerity confute with their life what they perswade with their lip Some offend by prophanenesse preaching perhaps so holily in the pulpit as some may almost think it pity they should ever come out of it yet when they are out of it shewing so much levity sloth worldlinesse loosenesse as any would almost think it pity they should ever go into it Others offend by unmeet morosity not considering that a Minister must neither be all bait without hook nor all hook without bait as he must not by his flattery sooth so neither by austerity affright his people A Minister must not be a flashing Comet but an influentiall Star not a Storm or a Tempest but a sweetly dropping bedewing Cloud 6. The aim of a Minister in being beloved of his people Observ 6. should be the benefiting of their souls The Apostle desires to be beloved by these Christians that he might have the greater opportunity to further their salvation He robs Christ who improves not the interest he hath in the hearts of his people for the honour of Christ 'T is not service but sacriledge to desire the terminating of peoples loves in our selves It 's better could it be without sinne that all should hate us than that they should love us for our selves for if all should hate us we should have but what is our own if they should love us for our selves we should usurp what is Christs A Ministers designe in being beloved by his people should be but to raise up seed to his elder brother all his services must be but scaffolds to erect a building of glory to Christ Ministers should labour to be good for their own benefit and to be accounted good for the benefit of others They should not do good to get a good name but they should labour for a good name that they may be the more able to do good 7. The love of a Minister to his people Obser 7. should procure love again from his people The Apostle in professing of love to these Christians expected that they should love him again Love must be the eccho of love It 's often seen that they who love their people most are beloved of them least In a spirituall sense 't is likewise true that love descends more than it ascends And ordinarily beggary or at least poverty is all the requitall which is returned for the Jewell of Plain-dealing People love not an eradicative but a palliative cure of their spirituall distempers Spirituall flatterers are commonly more respected than spirituall fathers People and their lusts are so near together that a godly Minister cannot be an enemy to the later but he is esteemed such to the former It 's spirituall phrensie to rage against the Physitian of thy soul A Minister should requite such unkindness with the revenge of pity and prayer and a holy resolution still to love though he be the
wild buls in a net they had rather be able to tear then willing to kiss the rod. Like chaffe they fly in the face of and not like the solid grain fall downe before him that fans them They accept not of the punishment of their iniquity 2 King 6.33 not wait for deliverance from their punishment they either faint under or rage against or take no notice of the hand of God when 't is lifted up against them 7. Not to honour God by regarding of his worship The ungodly call not upon the Lord. Psal 14.4 Only the godly man is made like a man to looke upward The other in their wants go to Baalzebub the god of Ekron or the witch of Endor to earthly and sinfull shifts rather howling through the sense of their wants then praying in the beleefe of receiving the blessings they desire In their obtaining of comforts Hab. 1.16 they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drags and are as sensuall in their enjoyments as unsubmissive in their wants They can neither pray when they are afflicted nor sing Psalms when they are merry instead of praying they dispair instead of singing Psalms they revell when they are in want they are as distrustfull as if God could never help them when they abound they are as secure as if God could never hurt them In a word they account not the holy duties of prayer Isai 56.7 Isai 58.13 hearing sacraments c. to be their priviledges but their drudgery They are not joyfull in the house of prayer the Sabboth is not a delight the word of the Lord is a burden and when they are in holy performances they are like a fish upon the dry land 2. Ungodlinesse consists in giving of the honour which is due to God to somthing else beside God And this ungodly men do two wayes 1. Inwardly in the soul will and affections Jer. 17.5 and the whole inner man as 1. when they place their trust and confidence upon somthing besides God and so place it in the room of God making flesh their arm and support Thus one ungodly man depends upon his wealth Job 31.24 making it his hope and confidence another upon his strength resting upon man Psal 20.7 Prov. 3.5 putting his trust in horses and chariots another upon his wit and policy which in a moment God is able to turn into foolishnesse They will not take the word of a man who hath once or twice deceived them but they will relie upon the broken creature which alway faileth fond expectation Jon. 2.8 Josh 62.9 Psal 62.8 and is no other then a lying vanity hereby not only disappointing themselves but dishonouring him who alone requireth and deserveth our trust and affiance 2. When they set that love and delight upon other things which is due to God who is to be loved with all the heart and soul and thus sundry there are who love their pleasures more than God whose belly is their God 2 Tim. 3.4 Phil. 3.19 Ephes 5.5 others there are whose gain is godlinesse and who are fitly therefore by the Apostle called idolaters That which a man most loves is his God Psal 62.10 Ungodly men set their hearts upon that which was made to set their feet upon with unbounded eagernesse they follow the world Moderation holds not the reins of their earthly industry in which they are not carried with the gentle gales of indifferency but the furious winds of violence They will be rich 1 Tim. 6.9 though they lose their souls their God and are drowned in perdition 3. When they bestow that fear upon the creature which is only due to God Isai 8.13 when man not God is their fear and their dread If outward troubles or troublers approach Isai 7.2 they shake like the trees of the wood if man threaten a prison they tremble more than when God threateneth hell Isai 51.12 13. fearing him more that can kill the body than him who can throw both body and soul into hell whence it is that they are insnared by the unlawfull commands of Superiours willingly walking after the commandement Hos 5.11 Prov. 25.26 and falling down before the wicked become like a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring serving instead of the Lord the times 2. Outwardly ungodly men give the honour to the creature which is due to God and that they do by outward religious worship Rom. 1.25 Psal 95.6 when they worship and serve the creature more than the Creatour who is God blessed for evermore before whom religiously we must only kneel and bow down Mat. 4.10 How unlike are ungodly men to him who was God and man Christ refused to bow to the divel not only because he was a divel but a creature denying to him not only inward devotion but outward reverence And how unlike to the three godly men who tell the King Dan. 3.18 Isai 40.18.25 Isai 44.19 commanding them to bow to his image that they will not serve his gods What do they but make a lie when they make an image of an uncircumscriptible infinite God and shew themselves as blockish as the block they worship which is no better than that which even now they burnt Poor is their pretence who to exempt themselves from this ungodlinesse plead though they present their bodies at religious worship yet they preserve their souls for God for why could not Christ for a whole world with all his wisdome find out such a piece of policy and make not body and soul one man that must have but one God one worship Are not our bodies the Lords as well as our souls or can she be accounted a chaste spouse which gives the use of her body to a stranger upon pretence of keeping her heart to her husband 3. Ungodlinesse consists in the giving of honour to God after a false and an undue manner As 1. When it 's given unwarrantably and not according to his revealed will When tradition and humane invention put the Scripture out of place This is to worship God in vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 15.9 Nothing is more counterfeited and disfigured than religion Men through naturall unsubmissivenesse to the purity and simplicity of Scripture-commands through love of their own conceits novelty carnality are prone to make many golden calves People like the Lacedemonians who were wont to dresse their gods after the fashion of the City love to dresse their devotions after their own humours being zealous but not according to knowledge and like bats converting the humour of their eyes to make their wings large These give not God that reasonable service for the performance whereof Rom. 12.1 they must produce a word a Scripture-reason Mans work is to keep Lawes not either to be or make a Law for himselfe or others 2. Honour is given to God after an undue manner when 't is not given him obediently when
It s a great shame if all that are prophets are not the Lords people but it s a grosse errour to think that all the Lords people are ministerially prophets Their being the Lords people makes them fit to hear but not fit to preach fit sheep not fit shepheards Suppose that which constant experience contradicts they have the fitnesse of gifts have they therefore a sufficient Call to preach by way of Office and Ministry Is this enough to be a Kings servant or a Noble mans Steward for a person to have abilities to discharge those places is there not required Commission or Call also and are not Ministers call'd servants and Stewards At this time I doubt it would hardly be accounted true doctrine that every one who hath military gifts courage and policy may be a Commander of a Regiment or Captain of a Troop and that he might gather his Followers without Commission Is it enough for a man to be a Princes Ambassador because he hath sufficient gifts for wit and good expression c. must not the King also give him the authority to be an Ambassadour Is every one that hath good legs or can run a Messenger must he not be sent likewise Besides whosoever hath a commission to preach hath a commission to baptize as is plain from Matth. 28.19 preaching and baptizing reaching alike the Ministery of all ages But hath every gifted-man such a Commission Further doth not our Saviour Mat. 10.41 cleerly distinguish between a righteous man and a Prophet if they had been all one why would he have done so And if gifts make a Minister is it not as true that gifts make a Manistrate and then every one that had understanding and other good governing parts were a Lord Maior nay then why might not women preach as lately they have done many of whom have better gifts then some men And how could that agree with the Apostolicall prohibition for women to speak in the Church 1 Cor. 14.34 Besides all who are called to preach are bound to increase their gifts by giving attendance to reading 1 Tim. 4.13 15. to doctrine and by giving themselves wholly to these things which cannot be done unlesse earthly occupations be laid aside But gifted men are not bound to this therefore they have not this Call which they pretend To conclude Every one that hath this Ministeriall Call hath that Pastorall care lying upon him mentioned Hebr. 13.17 To watch over souls as those that must give an account with joy and not with grief But this can in no wise be said of every one that is a gifted man and therfore gifted persons as such must forsake their pretended claim to a ministeriall call Nor can it be evinced that because the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 14.31 All may prophesie therfore every gifted person may preach For besides that the gift of prophesie was extraordinarily bestowed in that age of the Church not procured by studie and industry but immediately conferr'd by the Spirit upon some as were also Miracles the gift of healing and diversities of tongues all which are now ceas'd its most plain that the word all in that place is not to be taken in its full latitude as if all the men or every beleever in the Church of Corinth might stand up and prophesie for that 's expresly contrary to 1 Cor. 12.29 1 Cor. 12.28 where by an Interrogation the Apostle doth vehemently deny that all are prophets but it s to be taken restrictively to those that were in office and set by God in the Church for that purpose as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in his Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. Other cavils are weaker then to deserve a mentioning as to argue from that place 1 Cor. 14.34 that because women are forbid to speak in the Church therfore any man may speak What greater strength is in this argument then to reason thus Because no woman may be a Iustice of Peace therefore every man may Because no woman may speak publickly therfore some men must namely such as are in office had been a much better consequence Nor is there more strength in that allegation of Moses his wish Num. 11.27 that all the Lords people were prophets to prove that all might prophesie for in his desiring that all might be prophets he includes a required condition that they might be call'd by God to that employment 2. Obs 2. Allyance in faith spirituall relation to Christ is much dearer and nearer then allyance in flesh Iude might have call'd himself a neer kinsman to Christ or Christs Brother as indeed he was and was so accounted Mat. 13.55 Mark 6.3 as much as Iames who Gal. 1.19 is call'd the Lords brother but that which includes a spirituall relation is to him much sweeter to be a servant of Christ is more desirable then to be a Brother of Christ. To bear Christ in the heart much better then to bear him in the womb What had it profited to have been his kinsman unlesse his servant many that were his kinsmen according to the flesh wanted the honour of this spirituall affinity but such of them who had this honour bestowed upon them had all their other glory swallowed up in this as Christ expressed himself he is my brother Mat. 12.47 50 John 12.26 and mother and sister Blessed be God that this greatest priviledge is not denyed to us even now though we cannot see him yet love him we may 1 Pet. 1.8 though we have not his bodily presence yet we are not denyed the spirituall though he be not ours in house in arms in affinity yet in heart in faith in love in service he is 3 Obs 3. I observe A peculiar excellency and worth in the title of Servant which our Apostle with others before him was so frequently delighted withall It might furnish them and us with a five-fold Consideration full of sweetest delight Sumus Domini non tantum in genitivo singulari sed in nominativo plurali Luth. 1. That he much honours us To serve Christ is to reign It s more honour to serve Christ then to serve Emperours nay then to have Emperours serve us for indeed all things do so 2. That he will assist us in our works If he gives employment he will give endowments too if an errand a tongue if work an hand Phil. 4.13 if a burden a back I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me saith Paul And herein he goeth beyond all other Masters who can toyl and task their servants sufficiently but cannot strengthen them 3. That he will preserve us He will keep us in all our wayes and surely then he will so in all his own work Safety evermore accompanies duty His mercy is over all his works but peculiarly over all his workers Men are never in danger but when they leave working Jonah was well enough till he attempted to
God the Father Secondly the Observations follow 1. Even our holinesse administers matter of humility Obs 1. Our very graces should humble us as well as our sins as these later because they are ours so the former because they are none of ours Sanctity is adventitious to Nature Heretofore holinesse was naturall and sin was accidentall now sin is naturall and holinesse accidentall when God made any of us his garden he took us out of Satans waste ws are not born Saints the best before sanctification are bad and by nature not differing from the worst the members that God accepts to be weapons of righteousnesse were before blunted in Satans service when God sanctifieth us he melteth idols and makes of them vessels for his own use Before any becomes as an Israelites wife he is as a captive unpared unwash'd unshaven Sanctification is a great blessing but was this web woven out of thine own bowels the best thou didst bring to thine own sanctification was a passive receptivenesse of it which the very worst of heathens partake of in common with thee having a humane nature a rationall soul and was there not with that a corrupt principle of opposition to God and all the workings of God was not God long striving with a cross-grain'd heart how many denyals had God before he did win thee to himself How far was the iron gate of thy heart from opening of its own accord and if he had not wrought like a God omnipotently and with the same power wherewith Christ was raised Eph. 1.19 20. had thy resistence been ever subdued and when the being of grace was bestowed from whence had thy grace at any time its acting Didst thou ever write one letter without Gods guiding thy hand didst thou ever shed one penitentiall tear till God unstop'd thy spouts smote thy rock and melted thy heart didst thou hunger after Christ till God who gave the food gave the stomack also Was ever tentation resisted grace quickned corruption mortified holy resolution strengthened power either to do or will received from any but from God Doth not every grace the whole frame of sanctification depend upon God as the stream on the fountain the beam on the Sun when he withdraws his influence how dead is thy heart in every holy performance onely when he speaks the word effectually bidding thee go thou goest and do this or that thou dost it 2. Obs 2. The reason why all graces of a sanctified person are for God they are from him Gods bounty is their fountain and Gods glory must be their center He planted the Vineyard and therefore he must drink the wine We are his wormanship and therefore we must be his workmen All our pleasant fruits must be laid up and out for our well-beloved All things but particularly our graces are from him and for him we can never give him more or other then his own when we give all we can The streames will rise as high as the fountain head and so should our graces ascend as high in duty as he who gave them Where should God have service if a sanctified person denyes it 3. Obs 3. From this Author of Sanctification I note t s excellency and worth It s a rare work certainly that hath such a workman a beauteous structure that hath such a builder What is a man to be desired for but his sanctification if we see a beauty on that body which hath a soul how much more on that soul that hath the reflexion of God himself upon it Every Saint is a woodden casket fill'd with pearls The Kings daughter is all glorius within Love Jesus Christ in his worky-day clothes admire him in his Saints though they be black yet they are comely Did the people of God but contemplate one anothers graces could there be that reproaching scorn and contempt cast upon one another that there is Certainly their ignorance of their true excellency makes them enemies they strike one another in the dark 4. Obs 4. Great must be the love that God bears to Sanctification It s a work of his own framing a gift of his own bestowing God saw that the work of the first creation was very good much more that of the second Wonder no more that the faithfull are call'd his garden his Jewels his Treasure his Temple his Portion God hath two heavens and the sanctified soul is the lesser How doth he accept of Saints even in their imperfections delight in their performances pity them in their troubles take care of them in dangers He that hath given his Son for them promised heaven to them and sent his Spirit into them what can he deny them Jesus Christ never admired any thing but grace when he was upon the earth the buildings of the Temple he contemned in comparison of the faith of a poor trembling woman Certainly the people of God should not sleight those graces in themselves that God doth so value as they do when they acknowledge not the holinesse that God hath bestowed upon them Shall they make orts of those delicates that Jesus Christ accounts an excellent banquet 5. The love of God is expressive Obs 5. really and effectually in us and upon us even in sanctifying us Creatures when they love will not put off one another with bare words of bidding be clothed sed c. much lesse doth God If there be love in his heart there will be bounty in his hand Thou sayst that God is mercifull and loves thee why what did he ever do for thee work in thee hath he changed thy nature mortified thy lusts beautified thy heart with holinesse Where God loves be affords love-tokens and such are onely his soul-enriching graces No man knows love or hatred by what he sees before him but by what he findes in him If our heart moves toward God certainly his goeth out toward us the shadow upon the Dyall moves according to the motion of the Sun in the Heaven 6. Obs 6. We are to repair in our wants of Sanctification to God for supply He is the God of grace The Lord will give grace and glory He hath the key of the womb the grave the heavens but chiefly of the heart He that sitteth in heaven can onely teach and touch the heart How feeble a thing and unable is man whether thy self or the Minister to do this He hath the windes in his own keeping and till he send them out of his treasury how necessarily must thy soul lye wind-bound Whither shouldst thou goe but to him and how canst thou go but by him The means of grace are to be used in obedience to him Parum prodest Lectio quam non illuminat Oratio not in dependancy upon them A golden key cannot open without him and a woodden can open with him Man may with the Prophets servant lay the staff upon the fore-head but God must give life How many fat and rich Ordinances have been
life death miracles were all expressions of mercy in teaching feeding healing saving men If there were any severity in his miracles it was not toward man but the swine and the barren-fig-tree Insensiblenesse of others miseries is neither sutable to our condition as men nor as Christians according to the former we are the same with others according to the later grace hath made the difference Mercy must begin at the heart Sic mens per compassionem doleat ut larga manus affectum doloris ostendat Greg. Luke 14.14 Gal. 6 9. but must proceed further even to the hand they whose hands are shut have their bowels shut also We are not Treasurers but Stewards of Gods gifts Thou hast so much only as thou givest The way to get that which we cannot part with is by mercy to part with that which we cannot keep Our good reacheth not to Christs person it must to his members Jonathan is gone but he hath left many poor lame Mephibosheths behinde him We must love Christ in his worky-day clothes We cannot carry these loads of riches to heaven It s best to take bils of exchange from the poor saints whereby we may receive there what we could not carry thither Especially should our mercy extend it self to the souls of others as soul-miseries so soul-mercies are the greatest They who are spiritually miserable cannot pity themselves though their words speak not to us yet their woes do Wee weep over a body from which the soul is departed and can we look with tearless eys upon a soul from which God is departed If another be not afflicted for sin grieve for him if he be grieve with him If thou hast obtained mercy thou dost not well as said the Lepers to hold thy peace Mercy must never cease till its objects do in heaven both shall Thus much for the first blessing which the Apostle prayes may be bestowed upon these Christians to whom he wrote viz. Mercy The second follows viz. Peace of which by way Of 1. Exposition Of 2. Observation Peace is a word very comprehensive and is ordinarily used to denote all kinde of happinesse welfare and prosperity And 1. I shall distribute it into severall kindes 2. Shew the excellency of that here intended 1. There 's Pax temporis or external among men 2. Pax pectoris or internal in the heart 3. Pax aeternitatis or eternal in heaven Or more distinctly thus 1. There 's a Peace between man and man 2. Between man and other creatures 3. Between man and or rather in man with himself 4. Between God and man 1. Peace between man and man and that is publick or private 1. Publick and that either Political of the Common-wealth when the politick State is in tranquility and free from forrein and civill Warrs 2 King 20.19 Jer. 29.7 There shall be peace in my dayes In the peace thereof ye shall have peace This is either lawful and so a singular mercy or unlawfull as when one People is at peace with another against the expresse wil of God as the Israelites with the Canaanites and Amalekites or joyn in any sinfull attempt as did the Moabites and Ammonites against the Israelites Or Ecclesiasticall and of the Church when its publick tranquility and quiet state is not troubled within by Schisms and Heresies or without by persecuting and bloody Tyrants Psal 122.6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Acts 9.31 The Churches had rest and Acts 4.32 1 Cor. 14.33 2. Private and that either between the good and the good or between the bad and the bad or between the good and the bad 1. Between the good and the good 1 Pet. 3.8 Love as brethren and Let brotherly love continue and Col. 1.4 The love ye have to all Saints 2. Hebr. 13.1 Between the bad and the bad 2 King 9.22 Is it peace Jehu And that either lawfully for their own preservation or wickedly against the people of God or to strengthen one another in some sinful attempt and to that end joyning hand in hand 3. Between the good and the bad which is either lawfull as Abraham's with Abimelech and commanded Rom. 12.18 Render to no man evil for evil but if it be possible have peace with all men So Psal 120.7 I am for peace And sometime caused by a work from God upon the hearts of wicked men as in the case of Daniel Chap. 1.9 and in Esan's love to Jacob according to that of Solomon Pro. 16.7 The Lord will make his enemies at peace with him c. Or unlawful when against the mind of God the godly make leagues with them or agree in any way of sin 2. There is a peace between man the faithful I mean and other creatures the good Angels are at peace with 2. Heb. 1.10 Ephes 1.14 and ministring spirits to them as Job 5.23 Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the earth shall be in peace with thee and Hos 2.18 Hujus foederis vigore mala hujus vitae sic laedunt pios ut non noccant non perdant sed prosint Ubi notandum est vocabulum foederis accipi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per similitudinem effectus Riv. in Hos 2.18 I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fouls of the heaven and with the creeping things of the earth The meaning is There shall be such a work of God upon the beasts and fouls c. for the good of the Church as if God had bound them to do them good by way of covenant There is mention Jer 33.20 of Gods covenant of the day and of the night that is the establishment of Gods decree upon the day and the night wherby they come to be in such and such a way from the creation to the end of the world so that although the beasts the fouls the stones c. may annoy them nay kil◠them the true safety of the Church shall not be hindred by them yea All things shall work together for their good neither nakedness nor sword nor death nor any of these things shall separate them from the love of God in Christ and if God sees it for their good all the creatures in the world shall be so far from hurting the godly that they shall all agree to advance their temporall good and welfare 3. There is a peace in man with himself and that is either false or sound False peace is when sinners thinking themselves free from the fear of dangers falsly promise safety to themselves 1 Thess 5.3 When they shall say Peace and safety c. Sound peace in man with himself is twofold 1. Of Assurance when sanctified conscience ceaseth to accuse and condemn us speaking comfortably in us and for us before God 1 John 3.21 This sweet quietnesse and tranquility of conscience being the immediate fruit of our attonement with God that peace of God which passeth all
onely as they increase elevate it The very snuffers of death shall make it burn the more brightly It unconquered out-lives as opposition so its fellow-graces 1 Cor. 13. the faithful are rooted and grounded in love They love God for himself who fails not Ep. 3.17 1 Cor. 13.8 and therefore Love it self fails not Hypocrites are uneven in their love feigned things are unequal appearing friends cannot dissemble so exactly but that at one time or other their hatred will appear In some companies or conditions they will shew what they are In the time of persecution they fall away Mat. 13.21 like rotten Apples they fall off in a windy day True love to Christ Amor uescit ferias knows no holy-daies it ever hath a rest of Contentment never hath a rest of Cessation 2. I proceed to the Properties of love to man First Rom. 12.9 1 Pet. 1.22 1 John 3.18 It 's a love unfeigned without dissimulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love without hypocrisie Love indeed and in truth not in word and tongue a love from the heart 'T is not like the love of Joab and Judas that outwardly kiss'd and inwardly at that time designed killing It contents not it self in giving like Nephthali Gen. 49.21 Goodly words The Apostle speaks of Soundness in Charity Tit. 2.2 Unsound Charitie is Courtship not Christianity Of all things dissimulation doth worst in love as being most corrupting of and contrarie to the nature of it and appearing love is nothing but Christianity acted and Religion painted some sins scratch the face of love but hypocrisie stabs it at the heart Secondly It 's an expressive open-handed Love though it ariseth at the heart yet it reacheth to the hand Love is a fruitful grace it bears not onely the leaves and blossoms of words and promises 1 John 3.18 but the fruit also of beneficial performances If Love be in truth t' will also be in deed words be they never so adorned cloath not the naked be they never so delicate they feed not the hungry be they never so zealous they warm not the cold be they never so free they set not the bound at liberty our Faith must work by love Love must be seen felt and understood verbal Love is But painted fire Love is so beautiful a Grace that it 's willing to be seen The Apostle saith Rom. 13.10 Love worketh no ill it 's a diminutive expression there 's more intended even the doing of all the good the Law requires and therefore he adds Love is the fulfiling of the Law Thirdly It 's a forward chearful Love It is not drawn or driven but runs it staies not till the poor seeks it but it seeks for him Onesiphorus sought out Paul diligently Prov. 23.6 2 Tim. 1.17 Rom. 12.13 It relieves not with an evil eye It makes men given to hospitality the water of bountie flows from it as from a Fountain and goes not out as from a narrow mouth'd bottle with grumbling It is not like the spunge that sucks up the water greedily but gives it not out unless it be squeezed Hoc ipso amplius gaudent pauperes cum paupertati corum consultum fuerit pudori Leo. Serm. 4. Duplex Eleemosyna quia damus quia hilariter damus Ingenuous poverty rejoyceth in this forwardness of love as much as in the gift it self for thereby not only it's want but bashfulness is relieved It s a double beneficence when we give and give chearfully The mind of the receiver is more refreshed with the chearfulness of the Giver than is his bodie with the greatness of the Gift Fourthly It 's an extensive universal Love 1. Vniversal in respect of duties it shuns no performance that may benefit Bodie Name Mind Soul of another Love is a Pandora abounding in every good work and gift Rom. 13.10 it 's therefore called the fulfilling of the Law Love is the Decalogue contracted and the Decalogue is Love unfolded Love is a Mother the ten Commandments her ten children and she forgets none neglects none Gal. 6.10 2. It 's Vniversal in respect of persons It remembers the Apostles rule to do good to All even wicked men it loves though not as wicked yet as men the men not their manners Col. 1.4 Non peccatorem sed justum in paupere nutrit qui in illo non culpam sed naturam diligit Gr. 3. past 1 Pet. 2.17 Jam. 2.1 The Love of the Collosians was extended to all the Saints wherever there 's grace love will follow for grace is beautiful wherever it is The Oyntment of Love falls even upon the skirts of the garment as well as the head Love is set upon the Brotherhood the whole Fraternitie of Believers not here and there upon one Holy Love regards grace in its working-day clothes upon a Dung-hill in a Prison Grace in the Ideot as well as in the Scholar in the Servant as well as the Master As all our delight must be in the Saints Ps 16.3 so our delight must be in all the Saints 5. It 's a religious and a holy love It 's from in and for holinesse From it he that loves his brother first 1 Tim. 1.5 loves God 1 Tim. 1.5 first he gives his heart to God as a son before he reacheth out his hand to man as his brother His love is said to be out of a pure heart First he gives himself then his Secondly In holinesse and holy wayes It joynes not hands with any in a way of sin For this is not unity but faction it hath no fellowship with fruitfull works Ephes 5.11 but reproves them it makes a man most angry with the sin of him whom he loves most He fears not only to be fratricida but fideicida he doth not so love a man as to be an Enemy to religion Thirdly for holinesse this love is set upon holy ones because they are so not because they are great but good Gods Image in them is the Load-stone of our love 1 John 5.2 6. It 's a just and righteous love It bestowes gifts not spoyles it hurts not some to help others it buyes not a burying place for strangers with the bloud of Christ it is not bountifull upon any others cost The people of God must be blamelesse and harmlesse Phil. 2.15 not having in the one hand bread for one and in the other a stone for another We must not build Gods house with Satans tools the poorest Saint wants not our unrighteousnesse to help him 7. It 's a prudent discerning love It loves all yet with a difference it is most set upon those that are the fittest objects either for want or worth it beats not the poor from the door while it makes strangers drunk in the Cellar It is not like the Oak which drops its acorns to swine Gal. 6.10 It loves Gods friends best the wicked with a love of pity the
who hath not love enough for a man Eph. 1.15 where will he find it for a God Love is the pulse of faith and the breath of Christianity Faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 though love be not a hand to receive Christ yet is it a tool in the hand to work for Christ and that in working for Christians The flames of zeal never consumed the moysture of Charity he who loves God for his own sake will love his brother for Gods Add to your Godliness saith the Apostle Brotherly kindness 2 Pet. 1.7 1 John 3.17 He who shutteth up his bowels to a wanting brother how dwelleth the love of God in him The nearer the lines come to the Center the nearer are they to one another Our love to the godly increaseth with our love to God The Sun-shine upon the dyal moves though not so swiftly yet according to that proportion which the Sun in the firmament moveth and our love to the people of God though it be not so great as unto God yet is it according to the measure of our love to God 7. Observ 7. It 's a great discovery of Gods goodnesse in that with our loving of him he joyns our loving of one another He might have so challenged our love to himselfe as thereby we might neither have had time will strength or allowance to love one another But behold his love he will be served of us in our serving of man He accounts this pure religion Jam. 1. ult Gal. 5.13 to visit the fatherlesse and widow The serving of one another by love he requires as a token of our serving him by faith So gracious is he that he esteems what we do to our own flesh and bloud as done to himselfe Pro. 19.17 Pro. 21.13 Psal 112.9 Mat. 25.40 and accounts himselfe a debtor to us for what we do for our selves he remembers it long rewards it largely and doth both exactly he hath appointed charity as the most safe and gainfull invention in the world Ars quaestuosissima Heb. 13.16 Luke 12.33 It 's a payment to the poor Christian in this place who sends his bill of exchange his prayer to God and he accepts the bill and payes it for our use in heaven we keep nothing as a mercy but what we are willing and one way thus to lose Death robs us by the way if we think to carry our wealth to heaven with us but if we send it by bils we shall receive it safely He who hath laden himselfe with apples in the ortyard and is sure to be searched when he comes out of the gate throwes his apples over the wall to a friend who keeps them for him In this world we lade our selves with gifts death wil undoubtedly search us when we go hence but if while we are here we throw by charity our enjoyments into heaven we have there a friend that keeps them safe He that denyes to give this Interest of his gifts by charity forfets the Principall and he that takes in his worldly commodities without paying God this custome shall lose the whole 8. Prayer is a singular help to bring us to love God Obser ult it was here the Apostolicall Engine in the Text. When we cry for his holy spirit the spirit of love he cannot deny us he heal'd the lame when they cryed When thou cryest and sayest from the heart I would fain love thee but I cannot will he not give thee legs to run after him Prayer brings us into familiarity with God and by converse you know love grows between men God delights to shew himself in his own way and as he did to Moses to send us down from the Mount of Prayer with soules shining with love Prayer exerciseth our love it blowes up the sparkes of love into a flame Love is an especiall gift of the spirit We are taught of God to love one another Gal. 5.22 1 Thes 4.9 'T is he that must warm our hearts with this divine grace and he being sought unto and his power implor'd and acknowledg'd will not deny it Thus much of the first particular in this third and last part of the title the Prayer viz. the Blessings pray'd for mercy peace love The second followeth the measure in which the Apostle desireth these blessings may be bestowed in this expression be multiplyed For the Explication whereof two things would be opened 1. Explicat 1. Wherein stands the multiplication of these Blessings or what it is that the Apostle desireth when he prayeth for the multiplication of these gifts graces 2. Why the Apostle makes this request and prayeth not onely for the bestowing Multiplicari dilatari incrementum capere adimpleri Tum de multiplicatione in quantitate discreta tum de augmento in quantitate continua accipitar Mat. 24.12 Acts 6.17 7.17 9.31 2 Cor. 9.10 1 Pet. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.2 Jude 2. Gerh. in 1 Pet. 1.2 but the multiplying of these Blessings 1. What this multiplying is The word in the original signifieth as to be multiplied so to be increased fill'd enlarged and it is in Scripture indifferently usedto signifie the multiplication of things in their number and their augmentation in measure and greatnesse Whence it is that some render this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicetur be multiplyed others adimpleatur be fill'd or fulfill'd or fill'd up or increas'd It properly signifieth to increase in number and not in measure and when it is applyed to people and the Church as 't is oft in the Acts of the Apostles it 's only used for an increase in number but when 't is spoken of sin or graces as Mat. 24.12 Pet. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.2 in this place of Jude it may signifie an increase in measure onely And so the Apostle prayeth that the gifts graces which these Christians had already obtain'd Eph. 4.16 1 Pet. 2.2 2 â—et 3.18 John 2.5 Psal 84.7 1 Thes 4.1 11 2 Cor. 13.9 might receive a further degree of augmentation that believers might grow abound and increase in them more and more And thus though the mercy of God which was the first of the three blessings here desired by the Apostle as it is in it self and as in God cannot be increased it being infinite yet in respect of the effects and graces flowing from it upon believers it may be increased More particularly when the Apostle prayeth that these Christians may have this increase and augmentation of grace he comprehends in that his request these several blessings 1. That they may be sensible and observing of their wants and deficencies of Grace That they may often cast up their accounts and see as what they have gained so wherein they are defective that they may resent as their gains with thankfulness so their wants with humility They who see not can neither desire nor receive what they want A Christian must be like a covetous man totus in rationibus much imployed in searching
personally and as signifying some one person of the Trinity thus the Father is called God Mat. 16.16 Joh. 3.16 Rom. 7.25 c. thus the Holy Ghost is called God Act. 5.4 compared with verse the 3. Thou hast not lyed to men but to God Satan hath filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 6.16 compared with 1 Cor. 6.19 And thus the Son is called God Act. 20.28 The Church of God which he hath purchased with his blood 1 Tim. 3.16 Tit. 2.13 The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ c. and this is the person which is here called God To whom 1. Are given the same Titles which are given to God Isai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 14.22 Psal 95.8 9.6 He is called The mighty God and chap. 6.1 He is called Jehovah for there Isaiah is said to see Jehovah sitting upon a throne c. And Joh. 12.41 This is expresly by the holy Evangelist applyed to Christ of whom he saith that Isaiah saw his glory and spake of him Exod. 17.7 The people are said to tempt Jehovah and the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10.9 Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted It is said of Jehovah Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth Psal 102.25 and the heavens are the work of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure c. And the Apostle clearly testifies Heb. 1.10 that these words are spoken of Christ Zech. 13.7 Christ is called the Fathers fellow Joh. 1.1 The word which in the beginning was with God is expresly said to be God And Rom. 9.6 He is called God blessed for evermore And 1 Tim. 3. ult God manifested in the flesh And 1 Joh. 5.20 The true God 2. The same essentiall Attributes and properties of the God-head are ascribed to him as 1. Eternity Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old Joh. 8.58 Before Abraham was I am John 17.5 Glorifie me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was And ver 24. Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world Col. 1.17 He is before all things 2. Omnipresence Mat. 18.20 Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them And chap. 28. ult I am with you alway even to the end of the world 3. Omniscience Joh. 2. ult He knew what was in man Mat. 9.4 and 12.25 Luk. 5.22 and 6.8 Luk. 11.17 and 24.38 He is also frequently said to know the thoughts yea Joh. 21.17 to know all things 4. Omnipotency All power is given unto me Phil 3. ult He is able to subdue all things Joh. 5.19 What things soever the Father doth these also do the Son 3. The same works which are peculiar to God are ascribed unto Christ As 1. Election the Elect are Mat. 24.31 called his Elect. 2. Creation 1 Joh. 3. All things were made by him and ver 10. The world was made by him Col. 1.16 By him were all things created 3. The Preservation and sustentation of all things Col. 1.17 By him all things consist Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the word of his power 4. Remission of sins Mat. 9.6 The Son of man hath power to forgive sins 5. Working of miracles works either above or against the order of nature Joh. 9.32 He opens the eyes of the blind Joh. 11. He raiseth dead Lazarus Yea he both raiseth from the grave of sin Joh. 5.21 25 And raiseth all the dead Joh. 5.28 29. 6. The bestowing of eternall life Joh. 10.28 My sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternall life 4. The worship which is due to God alone hath been both given to and accepted by Christ First Inward worship as 1. Beleeving on him Faith is a worship which belongs only to God enjoyned in the first Commandment and against the trusting in man is there a curse denounced Jer. 5.17 But Christ bids us beleeve in him Joh. 14.1 Beleeve in me Joh. 8. ult He that beleeveth in the Son hath everlasting life 2. Loving him with all the heart commanded above the love nay even to an hatred of father mother wife children yea our own lives Luk. 14.26 and for the gaining of him Blessed Paul accounted all things but loss and dung Phil. 3.8 Secondly Outward worship is due to Christ 1. Dedication in baptism is in his name Mat. ult 19. 2. Divine Invocation is given to him Act. 7.59 Steven calls upon the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit 1 Cor. 1.2 All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ 1 Thes 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you Revel 5.9.12 Praises are offered to him 3 Divine adoration is also given to him Mat. 8.2 A leper worshipped him Mat. 2.11 Though the Wise men of the east who saw Herod in all his royalty worshipped not him yet they fell down before Christ Yea not men only but Angels are commanded to worship him Hebr. 1.6 OBSERVATIONS 1. Observ 1. As groundlesse as blasphemous are all the cavils against the deity of Christ For though he be from and begotten of the the Father by an ineffable communication of the divine essence to his person yet if we consider his deity and essence absolutely he is God of himselfe and hath being from none and he is only God of God as we consider the divine essence in the Son and as it is under a certain and distinct manner of subsistence Though the Father be greater than the Son in respect of his manhood Joh. 14.28 Joh 10.30 Phil. 2.6 yet the Son is equall with the Father in respect of his Godhead Though the Son be truly called the image of God Col. 1.15 yet he is as truly said to be very God For when the Apostle saith that he is the image of God this word God ought not to be taken essentially but personally and by it we are to understand not the divine nature but the person of the Father Christ is the image of the Father not of the deity and the person of the Son bears the image of the person of the Father but the divine essence in the Son is one and the same with that which is in the Father I and my Father are one 2 Vnconceivable was the wisdome Observ 2. justice love and humble condescention manifested in Gods becoming of Man 1. Wisdome None but a God could have contrived it and so far was Man from inventing this plot of Mercy that it had been blasphemie should it have entred into his thoughts before God had discovered it to him The hypostaticall union was purely a divine invention Poor short-sighted man cannot conceive it now since it was much lesse could he have contrived it before it was Infinite was that wisdome which found out a way for God to begin to be what he was not and to remain what he was
fire of zeal for God the more hotly burning by how much the cold of prophanenesse is the more increased but as this shews the strength of grace so yet doth that grace the greatnesse of Gods power Insteed of imitation let us bewayle the sins of the times and what we cannot bear down for the good of others with a stream of power let us for our owne overcome with a floud of teares 3. Corrupt greatnesse is very influentiall upon Observ 3. and into inferiors The lesser Cities sinn'd after the same manner with Sodom and Gomorrha Jeroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin Ephraim walked after the Commandment Hos 5.11 When the sin which we love is joynd with that greatnesse which we admire needs must it be very drawing Rev. 13.3 All the world wondred at the beast which had received power and authority Let those who are powerfull in place take heed lest they bee strong to sin Exod. 2.2 Dan 3.18 Amandus est generator sed praeponendus est Creator Tert. l. 1. de idol c. 12. Jussum est principis ore Galieni Quod princeps colit ut colamus omnes Aeternum colo principem dierum Factorem dominumque Galieni Prud. Hyrn 6 for if they improve their power against God they shall be powerfully punish'd by God Who so causeth the righteous to go astray in an evill way he shall fall himself into his own pit Prov. 28. Without the sins of others our own would be insupportable if unpardoed and 't is too much to be so much as a follower in sin The Examples yea the injunctions of the best the greatest are limitted and bounded by the pleasure of a greater The Midwives of Egypt and the three servants of God threatned with the fiery furnace are standing monuments of religious disoebdience Fear God is put before that of Honouring the King Our earthly is below our heavenly Father he who begat us is to be beloved but he who created us is to be preferred The greatest the richest cannot put in security to save us harmlesse at the day of Judgement for following their example even their followers shall be punish'd Admah and Zeboim the daughters of Sodom sinn'd and smarted in like manner with Sodom 4. Observ 4. How fitly is the title of Spirituall Sodom bestowed upon Rome Sodom hath now met with her match Not to speak of that cloystred crew of Sodomiticall shavelings Vid. Speeds History the Leprosie of whose sin had eaten so deeply into the wals of their Monasteries in England Bale de act Rom. Pont. Bishop Jewel defens Apol. p. 354. Sleid Commen ad annum 1550 Constans fuit opinio Casam Pauli secundi gratiam prae ce teris egregiè au cupatum sibi ad purpuratorum patrum decus aditum paravisse quorum in cortu clamà pontifice adnumera tus cum esset ac designatus invida mox sug gerentium ex prorbatione turpi lasciviae notâ culpatus c. Job Imperialis Musae um Historic pag. 27. Tolle de Ecclesiâ honorabile conjugium nonne reples eam concubinariis incestuofis masculorum concubitoribus Bern. Cant. ser 66. A lupanari ad missam unus tantum passus Rivet that the justice of God both pulled down them and pluck'd up their foundations but look upon their holy Fathers and their purple Cardmals their Mitred Prelates and you shall find a second Sodom raised out of the ashes of the former My pen is ashamed to write what I read concerning the two Juliusses the second and third Sixtus the fourth Paul the third Leo the tenth Prodigious was that impure Monster John Casa Arch-Bishop of Beneventum and Legat Apostolicall who wrote a book in commendation of the sin of Sodomy and printed it at Venice and by the license of Julius the third were other books set forth in praise of that villany Perpetuall will be the infamy of that Johannes imperialis a Popish Writer who published a book in commendation of this Arch Bishop Casa and others of the same stamp wherein he writes That when Pope Paul the second observe his Holinesse endeavoured to advance the said Casa to the dignity of a Cardinall he was by some persons enviously upbraided and blamed for lasciviousnesse Nor will Rome ever be or be accounted other then as Sodom a mother of Harlots and a stable of uncleanness a fit place for the seat of the beast so long as her lawes for prohibiting of Marriage and permitting of Whoredome are in force 5. Observ 5. How hellish black is the depraved nature of man The fountaine surely was filthy and poysonfull that sent forth such streams of Sodomiticall uncleanness Sodoms lake of Brimstone is not half so unsavoury as were their streams of Fornication nor were these so filthy as that springing puddle of polluted nature from which they issued Who reads not without horror and amazement the overflowing of this sin of Sodom into the lives of those accounted the best of heathen and the wisest of Philosophers Rom. 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. O. rat 1. Contra. Jul. pag. mini 78. Laert. in vita Platonis Lego partem semenâ—ae Atticae in Socraiem corruptorem a dolesâ—entium pronuntiatam Tert. Apol. cap 46. to whom that which might he known of God was manifest who professed themselves wise and yet burned in lust one toward another Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen charge this foul abomination upon Socrates himself and others upon Aristotle Zeno and Periander but most of all upon Plato how unworthy the name of divine Who might not be more then amazed to read that Solon and Licurgus should make laws as they did according to Chrysostome for the toleration of this sin To the fountain of this Heathenish filthinesse we are led by the Apostle when he declares that Rom. 1. this uncleannesse was Through the lusts of their own hearts What cause of humility have the best when they consider they were born with the nature of the blackest Sodomites And how greatly should they praise and admire that love whereby and laver wherein they were washed and sanctified To conclude this What is there in the world for which tears and blushing seem to be made but for the pollution of that nature which is the same with that of a Sodomite 6. Nor yet should the most deeply defiled Observ 6. Zech. 13.1 either in nature or practise despair Even Sodomites returning shal be accepted and washing in the fountain set open even for their uncleannesse shall be cleansed The blood of Christ can wash from the sins of Sodom Even a people as bad as Sodomites have been invited by and unto mercy for Isai 1.10 the Prophet calls the Jewish Princes the Princes of Sodom and their people the people of Gomorrha that is such Princes and people as matched Sodom and Gomorrha in wickednesse and yet he inviteth them unto repentance with proffer of mercy and promise of pardon and
meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
devoured the soul after all remaining as lean as before for want of seeking God aright for a blessing 7. Obs 7. I observe How carefull we should be to maintain that which God hath set up in us and how fearfull lest it should be pul'd down by Satan Christ destroys the works of the Divel and Satan labours to oppose the work of Christ Every plant indeed that God hath not planted is to be pluck'd up but the plants that Gods own hand hath planted are to be nourished What God hath joyned together none should separate Grace and the Soul are of Gods joyning together Who laments not the destruction of mans workmanship the overthrow and demolishing of beutifull buildings the rooting up of corn-field and pleasant gardens by Swine But what are these to the destructions made by sin in the hearts and lives of people Who can give way to sin but it must be with a sinfull patience Keep thy heart with all diligence Pro. 4.23 the best endowment is to be most carefully preserved Who loves not to keep his body healthfull and yet who regards the keeping of his soul holy The whole Trinity of Persons adorn the heart with holinesse every of them is to have a corner in it nay the whole Let not Satan have wells which he never digg'd inhabit houses which he never built If the Philistims tread not on the threshold on which Dagon fell let not Satan lodg in the heart that God fanctifieth This for the first Branch considerable in the description of the parties to whom the Apostle wrote Sanctified by God the Father The second follows Preserved in Christ Jesus The second branch of the description of the faithful to whom Jude wrote Wherein I consider two particulars 1. A priviledge or enjoyment received viz. Preservation Preserved c. 2. The means or way of enjoying it and that was In Christ Jesus Of both these briefly 1. The Priviledge bestowed is Preservation To them that are preserved c. In the handling whereof I shall briefly give 1. The Explication of it 2. The Observations from it 1. For the Explication The word used by the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies solicitously to be kept as a thing lest it be lost or taken away by others 1 Joh. 5.18 it s spoken of a regenerate persons keeping himself from being touch'd by the wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keepeth himself as with watch and ward gardeth himself so accurately as he that watcheth a prisoner for fear of his escape So Act. 4.3 it s said the Apostles were put by the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hold So Act. 5.18 they put them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prison And of these preserved ones it s said They are kept by the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept as a Town is kept with a garison from the enemies praesidio circumvallati Conservati nè decepti à seductoribus pereant Estius in loc incircled with a military strength so are these Saints preserved by Christ lest being deceived by Seducers they should perish This preservation of the Godly is three-fold 1. Temporall and of the Body 2. Spirituall chiefly of the Soul 3. Eternall of both in heaven 1. The first though it be not here intended as indeed being frequently denyed to the faithfull yet it s often in Scripture bestōwed upon them and that severall wayes sometimes when their enemies want means to effect their desires upon them 2 Sam. 8.2 1 Sam. 24.27 Judg. 7.22 2 Sam. 17.16 though they have poyson yet no power no arms or instruments of force or when the enemies of the Church have outward strengths and forces but are diverted another way by reason of enemies coming against them from an other place or when the enemies spend their hatred and forces upon one another or when their forces are by the providence of God timely discovered so that the people of God taking refuge in some place of security strength or distance the enemy cannot at all come at them or when there is such a curb of restraint put upon the spirits of enemies as though they finde them and have them in their hand yet they shall not be able to put forth their inward poyson against them Dan. 3.26 thus even the naturall force of fire seas beasts shall be bridled up when God will from hurting his people 2 King 7.6 or when the enemes of the Church are discomfited either by their own preposterous fear or oversight Judg. 5.20 or the instrumentalnesse of the senselesse creatures against them or the puissance of the Churches forces not onely spirituall 2 Sam. 17.23 but even visible and worldly or when the faithfull being taken are delivered out of their hand by making escape Gen. 33. or when God makes an enemy of his Church to be his own destroyer to twist and use his own halter or when God enclines the hearts and dispositions of the haters of his people to pity tender and favour them though they be far from love to their grace or when God works a really sanctifying change upon their hearts Act. 16.31 making them to wash the stripes and lick the wounds whole which they have made or when God takes his people out of this life from the evill to come housing his flock against a storm taking down his ornaments when he purposeth to destroy the house and this he ordinarily doth by a natural death though he can translate his people and take body and soul immediatly into heaven as in the case of Elijah 2. But principally the care of God is in this life expressed toward his people in spirituall preservation This spirituall preservation of beleevers in this life is 1. From punishment The curse of the Law the wrath of God Gal. 3.13 Not from the Law of God as giving precepts but as being a Covenant Rom. 6.14 1 Tim. 1.9 exacting perfect obedience and condemning for a not perfect performance From the terrour of the law forcing for fear of punishment as bondslaves by the whip Rom. 8.15 the people of God being made a voluntary people Psal 110.3 and worshipping God without servile fear The faithfull also are preserved from the guilt and condemning power of sin Eph. 1.7 2 Cor. 5.19 God not imputing their trespasses Preserved from the curse of all externall punishments as they are the effects of vengeance Sin may be and may not be in the godly it is in them by habitation not by dominion so punishments are on them and are not on them on them as sensible pains on them as castigations to better them on them as consequents of sin and Gods expression of his dislike of sin not on them as curses not on them to satisfie wrath The wrath of God lies not upon them when the hand of God lies upon them Every affliction is medicina not laniena sent to kill sin not the man the
whole it swims if broken it sinks he never droops in any trouble unless he apprehends a breaking between him and Christ He is like the marigold that opens with the shining and shuts with the setting of the Sun His heart is lockt up in sorrow when God hides his face and he cannot find another key fit to open it again among all the keyes in the house What 's all the world to him without the presence of God but as a sive pluckt out of the water His comforts are only full when God is in them What are companions to him in whom he sees nothing of God but objects either irkesome or pitied What are Ordinances unless with Christ but as candles that have no light put to them Nay what would the joyes of heaven it self be if it were not for the presence of God but as a funeral feast or banquet where is much provision but no chear 2 There 's a love of Complacency and delight Amor Complacentiae when the soul having ark'd it self in Gods embracements now with infinite sweetness and security reposeth it self in them saying then as David Psal 4.7 8. Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than when their Corn and Wine encreased I will lay me down in peace and sleep and with Peter Lord its good being here and with the Spouse I charge you stir not up nor awake my beloved And when Christ meets it sweetly in Prayer Sacraments or a Sermon breathing thus Oh that Lord this meeting might never end deer Jesus why comest thou so seldom and stayest no longer All the night long do thou lodge between my brests Psal 84.10 A day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere Cant. 2.4 My soul is fill'd as with marrow Thou hast brought me into a banquetting-house thou hast made me drink abundantly Thy left hand is under me thy right hand embraceth me How contented could the soul be in such an in-come of Christ were not his pleasure otherwise that it had no avocation to take it off no earthly employment no family feeding of body or relations to call it away from those secret enjoyments of such a beloved Oh thinks the soul what a blessed place will heaven be where I shall never be severed one moment from the embracements of Christ to eternity 3 There 's Amor amicitiae A love to be set upon God for the goodness and excellency which is in himself To love God for the creatures is not to enjoy but to use God To love him for another end than himself Medium quà tale et per se nullam boni appetibilis rationem possidet tota quippe ratio amandi medium est convenientia cum fine Aquin. Mat. 13.21 is to turn the ultimate end into a mean Love to God grounded upon humane inducements is but spurious When the inducement suppose profit preferment is removed that love will discover its falsness And by that very reason for which men contend for the outward appearance and profession of love to God viz. because they love their pleasures and profits which without such a profession they cannot peaceably enjoy By that very reason I say they will be beaten off even from that their outside appearing profession when thereby those profits and pleasures which they love so much shall come to be hazarded It s a dead love to God that cannot stand unless it be shored up True love will stand alone without politick props To shroud our own private ends under the name of love to God is not amicitia but mercatura not to love but to make merchandize of him The love that cannot be warm any longer than 't is rubd with the warm clothes of preferment is but the carkasse of love Then hath this love a soul when God himself is the object of it when 't is not of what he hath but of what he is when he is beloved though we beg with him or though all his Rings and Ornaments are pluckt off nay when he plucks off ours In a word all his wayes ordinances people will have our love drawn out to them for that of God which is imparted to them The word will be received in its purity and power most loved when least adulterated when it discovers most of God to us and most of sin in us when the dearest corruption is struck at the closest duty urged the secret corners of the soul searched when the spiritual sword is laid on with severest blows The persons also in whom most shines the beauty of Gods likeness we shall most be taken with and those shall have our love shine upon them who can reflect nothing back again but holiness 4. There 's Amor benevolentiae A love set upon God endeavouring to bring to him so far as creatures can to an infinite Creator Psal 16 to whom their good extendeth not all service and honour This love returns to God not only a heart but a tongue a hand of praises and obedience All its pleasant fruits are laid up for its beloved all it is and hath is accounted too little Lord saith the soul that I could love thee more and serve thee better how impure is my heart how poor and imperfect are my performances what I have is neither enough nor good enough for thee but had I something better than my self and Oh that I my self were a thousand times better for thy sake it should be bestowed upon thee A soul in love with God is boundless in duty The smalness of his obedience is the greatness of his trouble when another man observes his zeal and vehemency his tears and sobs and wrastling in prayer and sees him so strict and exact in living he thinks it a great matter and is ready as the Disciples who looked upon the beautiful buildings of the Temple to admire him but then the party himself that loves Christ thinks all this as nothing in comparison of what Christ deserves he looks upon his services as Christ fore-told of the Temple as if there were not one stone left upon another This love causeth an universal Joh. 14.24 cheerful constant obedience to the Commandments of Christ In it all our services are steep'd and with it made easie to us and coming from Faith acceptable to God Nor will love think it much to suffer much for Christ 1 Cor. 13.7 nay it accounts it little to endure all things for him who hath born our burdees and shed better bloud for us than any we have to shed for him Faith worketh by love Love is the instrument in the hand of Faith A hand alone can lay hold and receive and so the proper work of faith is to lay hold upon Christ but a hand without an instrument cannot cut any thing no more can faith practise any morall duties without love Faith in justification is alone but in the life of man it worketh by love 3 From this love to God floweth another
the perfection of Christ When Darius his mother had saluted Hephestion instead of Alexander the great who was Alexanders Favourite she blushed and was troubled but Alexander said to her It is well enough done for he is also Alexander The meanest Saint is to be beloved for what of Christ is in him he is an old Casket full of pearls But above all how destructive to brotherly love is oppression 1 Thess 4.6 defrauding and grinding our brethren Let no man saith Paul defraud his brother in any matter Even the Jew who might take usury of an Heathen might not take it of his Brother If Lillyes rend and tear Lillyes what may Thorns do Nor must a Christian content himself in not hurting a Christian his care must be to benefit him to do him good And that for his Soul All thy Spiritual gifts of knowledge utterance c. must profit thy brother 1 Cor. 12. 1 Cor. 14.26 Comfort him in his troubles of mind direct him in his doubts reprehend him gently for his faults Not to rebuke him is to hate him Levit. 19.17 To be angry with the sin of our brother is not to be angry with our brother To love the soul is the soul of love so to love thy brother as to labour to have him live in heaven with thee For his name not casting aspersions on him but wiping them off not receiving much less raysing accusations against him but laying hold upon the theif that pillaged his name as knowing that the receiver in this case is as bad as he For his body visiting and sympathising with him in his sicknesse helping him to utmost ability to find the jewel of health For outward necessaries pittying him in his low estate◠casting the dung of thy wealth on the barren soyl of his poverty making his back thy wardrobe his belly Psal 16.3 thy barn his hand thy treasury For body and soul praying for him calling upon God as Our Father not thine alone In the Primitive time saith one there was so much love Tert. Apol. c. 39. that it was ad stuporem Gentilium to the wonder of Gentiles but now so little that it may be to the shame of Christians That which was the Motto of a Heathen Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say something that we may he two must not belong to Christians It s best that dissention should never be born among brethren and next that it should die presently after its birth When any leak springs in the Ship of Christian society we should stop it with speed The neerer the union is the more dangerous is the breach Bodies that are but glewed together may if severed be set together as beautifully as ever but members rent and torn cannot be healed without a scar What a shame is it 1 Joh. 3.14 1 Joh. 5.1 1 Joh. 4.7 8 c. that the bond of grace and religion should not more firmly unite us than sinful leagues do wicked men A true Christian like the true mother to whom Solomon gave the Child may be known by affection As the spleen grows the body decayeth and as hatred increaseth holiness abateth In summ This love to the faithful must put forth it self both in distributing to them the good they want and in delighting in them and rejoycing with them for the good they have Both these how profitable how honourable how amiable are they Most honourable it is for the meanest Christian to be a Priest to the high God Heb. 13.16 to offer a daily sacrifice with which God is well pleased to resemble God in doing rather then in receiving good to be the hand of God to disperse his bounty to have God for his debtor to lend to the Lord of heaven and earth What likewise is more profitable than that our distribution to Saints like an ambassador by lying Lieger abroad should secure all at home that this most gainfull employment should return us pearls for pibbles jewels for trifles crowns for crumbs after a short seed-time a thousand fold measure heaped shaken thrust together and running over What lastly so amiable as for members of the same body children of the same father and who lay in the same womb suck at the same brests sit at the same table and expect for ever to lodg in the same bosom to be at union with and helpful to one another And on this side heaven Psal 16.3 Vid. doctiss Rivetum in loc where should our complacency center it self but upon the truly excellent noble illustrious ones who are every one Kings and more magnificent than ever were worldly Monarchs for their allyance having the Lord of heaven and earth for their Father the King of Kings for their elder Brother Psal 45.9 a Queen the Church the Spouse of Christ for their Mother having for their treasures those exceeding precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 more to be desired than gold yea Psal 19.10 than fine gold in comparison of which a mountain of gold is but a heap of dung For their guard having the attendance of Angels Psal 34.7 John 6.27 Cant. 1.2 Cant. 4.7 nay the wisdom care and strength of God For their food having bread that endures to eternal life drink better than wine and a continual feast For their apparel having the robes of Christs righteousnesse here which makes them as beautifull as Angels all fair and without spot and attire to be put on hereafter which will shine more gloriously then an hundred Suns made into one For their habitation a palace of glory a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Having thus first explained this love here desired by the Apostle in its several sorts I come in the next place to touch briefly upon those rare and excellent properties of this grace of love both as it is set upon 1 God 2 Man 1. This grace of love set upon God is true cordial and sincere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in word or outward profession but in truth and in the inward man not complemental but reall the inward purpose of the heart having an emphasis Of love that hypocrisie and expressions cannot reach And the truth is our loving of God Eph. 6.24 is not so properly said to be sincere as to be our very sincerity Then and then alone a dutie is done in sincerity when 't is done in love and herein stands hypocrisie when though there is much doing yet there 's no loving The love of an hypocrite to Christ like the shining of the Gloworm is without any inward heat and stands only in a glistering profession or like some spices which are cold in the stomack though hot in the mouth or like the fire in Moses his bush it burneth not while it blazeth it proceeds from humane inducements of education Countenance or Commands of Superiours Interest an apprehension of the love of Christ barely to mankind or from this that Christ is out
godly with a love of complacency True Christians shall have a Benjamins portion of love Mark 10.21 it doth good especially to the houshold of faith Brotherly-love is set upon brethren Christ loved the young man a Pharisee by shewing loving respect toward him but he loved Lazarus a godly man with a dear intimate love John 11.3 5.11 the best men shall have the best love There 's a prudence also in the measure of expressing love so to love to day as we may love to morrow We sow not by the bushel but the handfull 8. It 's a mutual reciprocal love Hence 't is Joh. 13.34 Gal. 5.13 Col. 3.13 Gal. 6.2 Jam. 5.16 1 Thes 5.11 that there is so frequent mention of Loving one another giving and receiving benefits is by some compared to the Game at Tennis wherein the Ball is tossed from one to the other and if it falls it 's his forfeit who mist his stroke His disposition is very bad who if he will not provoke will not repay love where Affection there Gain is reciprocal The Pole sustains the Hop and the Hop adorns the Pole the Wall bears up the Roof and the Roof preserves the Wall from wet the wise directeth the strong and the strong protecteth the wise the zealous inflameth the moderate and the moderate tempers the zealous the rich supplyeth the poor and the poor worketh for the rich Love must have an eccho to resound and return 9. It 's a fervent burning love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Puritie and fervencie of love are joyned together 1 Pet. 1.22 and 1 Pet. 4.8 Have fervent charitie among your selves It must be a love to the utmost not remiss and faint not a love of courtesie and civil correspondencie but of intireness and holy vehemencie such a love as was between Jonathan and David surpassing the love of women The fervencie of it must be so great as that it may burn and consume all intervening occasions of hatred and dislike by bearing with infirmities covering of sins construing mens meanings in the better part condescending to those of lower parts and places 1 King 18. like the fire that fell from Heaven upon Elijahs Sacrifice which lick'd up a trench full of water A love that overcomes the greatest difficulties for the good of others and triumphs over all opposition 10. It 's a constant and unwearied love 1 Phil. 9. Joh. 13.1 15.12 A love that must abound more and more A love that must be like that of Christs who loved his to the end Love is a debt alway to be owed and alway to be paid 't is a debt which the more we pay the more we have And which herein differs from all civil debts that it cannot be pardoned When we have well chosen our Love we should Love our choice and be true Scripture-friends to love at all times not fawning upon our friends when high and frowning upon them when low not looking upon them as Dyals onely when the Sun of success shines upon them we should love them most when they want us not when we want them most This for the explication of the third and last blessing which the Apostle requesteth for these Christians Love 2. The Observations follow 1. Love to God flows not from Nature Observ 1. 1 John 4.7 God is not onely the Object but the Author of it From him for these Christians the Apostle desires it The Affection of Love is natural the Grace of Love is divine As Love is the motion of the will toward good ti 's in us by Nature but as it is the motion of the will toward such an object or as terminated upon God it is by Grace Love is one of the Graces to be put on Col. 3.14 Rom. 1.30 and we are no more born with it in us than with our clothes on us Wicked men are haters of God and that as the word signifieth with the greatest abhorrency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abhorreo unde Styx they so hate him as to desire he were not that so they might live without the limits of his Law the reach of his Justice God is onely by them look'd upon with fear Ps 139.21 2 Chro. 19.2 1 Joh. 3.13 Joh. 15.18.20 Rom. 8.7 as a Judge and whom men fear as hurtfull they hate and wish they were taken out of the way Mens hearts and Gods holiness are very opposite The carnal mind is enmity against God The very reason of it the best thing that is in Corrupt Nature even Lady-Reason her self is not an enemy onely but enmity and irreconcileable There is in it an Enmity against every truth preferring before it humane mixtures and Traditions and undervaluing Gods mercy and the way of obtaining it in his Sonne misjudging all his wayes as grievous and unprofitable accounting all his Servants base and contemptible An enmitie there is in Affection against his Word wishing every truth which crosseth its lust razed out of the Scripture quenching the motions of the Spirit refusing to hear his voice rejecting the councel of God against his people his Messengers hating them most that speak most of God either with the language of lip or life Enmity in conversation holding the truth in unrighteousness by wilful disobedience forsaking the waies of God to walk in those of Nature casting off his Yoke and refusing to be reformed And all this hatred is against God though man by it hurts not God but himself man being Gods enemy not by hurting his will but resisting it Non nocendo sed resistendo The consideration whereof should humble us for our folly and danger in hating so good and great a God It should also teach from whom to beg renewed inclinations Lord Whither should we go but to thee and how but by thee 2. Love is the best thing which we can bestow upon God Observ 2. 'T is our All And the All which the Apostle desires these Christians may return to God who had bestowed upon them mercy and peace Love from God is the top of our happiness and love to God the summe of our duty It 's that onely grace whereby we most neerly answer God in his own kind he commands corrects comforts directs pitties sustains c. in these we cannot resemble him but he loves us and in this respect we may and must answer returning love for love Love is the best thing that the best man did ever give his God Love is a gift in bestowing whereof hypocrites cannot joyn with the faithful there 's nothing else but they may give as abundantly as the most upright in heart they may give their tongue hand estate children nay life but Love with these or these in love they cannot give And the truth is not giving this they give to God in his esteem just nothing The best thing that an Hypocrite can bestow is his Life and yet Paul tels us That though
and examining what he hath not as well as what he hath what he hath lost as well as what he hath gain'd what he hath laid out as well as what he hath laid up Whether he stand how he hath fallen how far he hath gone and though he must account no loss irreparable yet none contemptible and though no gain so small as to be unthankfull for it yet none so great as to be contented with or proud of it 2. That they may make use of the helps the food and fuel which God hath appointed for the increase of their Grace Luk. 17.5 Pet. 2.2 As Reading Prayer Hearing Sacraments Meditation and he that neglects these is not a strong but a sick Christian Nundinae aeternitatis These are the Marts and Fairs wherein we trade for Grace a thriving Christian must keep constant traffick with heaven sending thither hearing thence in the former telling in the later taking in what he wants We must make growth the end of our feeding and thriving of our trading we must not trade to trade pray to pray hear to hear but to grow better thereby 3. That they may proportionably answer the worth and length of those opportunities God afforded them for the increasing of Grace That they might not devour fat enjoyments having mean while lean and barren or indifferent hearts He is not an abounding thriving Christian who hath but an ordinary growth under rich opportunities we must abound in returning as well as in receiving we must not be like the kidney in the beast lean in the midst of fatness Heb. 5.12 not heaths and wildernesses under the showers of salvation nay not content our selves in being but as good as others who haply enjoy less They who enjoy much from God and yet are no better than those who enjoy less are therefore worse because they are not better 4. That they may forbear and avoid whatsoever hinders and keeps down the thriving and growing in Grace That they may take heed of secret waies of spending that they may not privily delight in any known way of sin or beloved lust which makes the most glittering Christian abroad to be but a bankrupt at home Christians must cut off the Suckers that draw away their nourishment Love of the world pride uncleanness c cannot thrive with grace in the same heart as the one goeth up the other goeth down as the spleen swels the body decayes 5. 2 Pet. 1.5 That they may have an impartial increase in every grace in one as well as another That to one grace they might add another Psal 119.101 loving of every duty and loathing of every evil All graces have a Concatenation and an inseparability Col. 1.10 a holy band a divine league and as every Christian hath so he grows in every part of the new Creature 1 Tim. 5.21 He fructifieth in every good work he labours to keep an equability in his courses not strict in some things and slack in others He prefers not one before another he hath a pulse of grace that beats evenly and equally he is neither a maimed person who wanteth any limb nor a Monster who hath one limb so big that others want but hath a comely symmetry of part with part No one of his graces stands at a stay while the other grows he doth not go richly apparell'd in some one piece of his apparell and beggerly in the rest All his nourishment is not conveighed to some one part to the starving of the rest 6. That they may multiply in grace to an exercise acting and laying out of grace That grace might be augmented into action that the fountain full inwardly might overflow outwardly that as it was so it might appear grace that they might be free as well as full and fructifie in every good work that the hand as well as the heart might be fill'd with the fruits of righteousnesse as grace will be increased in the pouring out so must it be poured out when it increaseth The running water and the active Christian are both the sweetest the more a musicall instrument is used the sweeter is its melody Graces like garments will be the more we use them the more free from the moth the more we can the more we should do the more we do the more we can we love to do 7. That they may obtain a measure of grace sutable to their severall and particular exigences and occasions That they may not only have grace more than others but enough for themselves i. e. in some sutable measure to their own severall conditions and imployments Some men have stronger temptations to resist corruptions to subdue greater burdens to bear imployments to go through and these want more abundant graces than others Some man may better keep house with an hundred pounds a year then another who hath a great family and familiarity can do with a thousand A man who hath great revenues may yet be poorer than he who hath lesse if he have greater expences 8. That they may constantly abide and continue in the grace they had received The further obtaining of what grace we want necessarily implies a retaining and an holding fast of what we have By the same reason that we desire to get more we shall keep that which we have already gotten Decay is ever inconsistent with growth A Christian must not go aside much lesse go backward not lie still with the stone nor creep with the snail much lesse go back with the Crab not be a golden Christian in youth a silver one in manhood and a leaden one in old age Our fals into sinne must be but for a fit not so our forwardnesse in Christianity our goodnesse not like the morning dew Hos 6.8 Psal 78.57 we must not turn back deal unfaithfully and turne aside as a deceitfull bow It s hypocrisie to pretend that we are gone or going further in religion than others who are eminent and yet be behind what our selves once were and that when we were beginners If grace be not preserved it cannot be augmented fire cannot be made to blaze out if it be not kept from going out If the life of grace be gone the growth will follow If we continue not rooted in Christ Col. 2.7 we cannot be built up in him 9. That they may be boundlesse and unlimited in the progresse of grace that they may be ever making additions to what they have 2 Pet. 1.5 Christianity knows no enough the degrees of a Christians gracemust be like numbers the highest whereof being numbred a higher than that may yet be named 1 Thess 3.10 Even those worthy Thessalonians had something lackingâ— in their faith We must never cease growing till we be grown into heaven we must forget what 's behind Phil. 3.13 and presse forward toward the mark If perfection be our pattern proficiency is our duty 'T is true Ubi incipis nolle fieri melior
teach to be done He who teacheth another should teach himselfe He who comforteth another should labour to do it with that comfort wherewith God hath comforted him 2 Cor. 1.4 5. The commonnesse of salvation to all believers Observ 5. should be a great inducement to every one to labour particularly for salvation and that they may not misse of it themselves It 's our trouble here upon earth when we see others obtain riches and preferments and we our selves go without them We urge our friends with this argument that they did such a kindnesse for such an one and such an one and therefore we hope they will not exclude us Hast thou said Esau to his father but one blessing blesse me even me also Oh go to God and say Lord thou hast salvation for such and such a friend have it also for me even for me also Oh my Father It may be thou hast a godly father or mother a brother or sister be not content that they should go to heaven without thee 6. There 's but one way to heaven Observ 6. There are many Nations more men only one faith The Jews shall not be saved by the Law of Moses Gentiles by the Law of Nature and Christians by the Gospel 'T is true The just shall live by his own faith but then 't is as true That the object of his faith is the object of every ones faith that is saved although the speciall application thereof be his alone The Apostle Peter calleth faith the like precious faith 2 Pet. 1.1 7. The partakers of this common salvation Observ 7. who here agree in one way to heaven and who expect to be hereafter in one heaven should be of one heart It 's the Apostles collection Ephes 4.3 4. What an amazing misery is it that they who agree in common faith should disagree like common foes That Christians should live as if faith had banished love This common faith should allay and temper our spirits in all our differences This should moderate our minds though there be in-equality in earthly relations What a powerfull motive was â—hat of Josepâ—'s brethren to him to forgive their sin Gen. 50.17 they being both his brethren and the servants of the God of his fathers Though our own breaths cannot blow out the taper of contention Oh yet let the bloud of Christ extinguish it This for the second reason why the A postle sends the following Exhortation drawn from his care and diligence to promote their happinesse 3. The third follows taken from their present need of having such an Exhortation in these words It was needfull for me to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explicat necesse or necessitatem habui I had necessity word for word or I held it needfull Here we translate it more agreeably to the English expression It was needfull for me elsewhere as Luke 14.18 I must needs and spoken of a third person Luke 23.1 Of necessity he must and 1 Cor. 7.37 having necessity The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated needfull signifieth in Scripture a threefold necessity 1. A necessity of distresse and tribulation as Luke 21.23 1 Cor. 7.26 2 Cor. 12.10 2 Cor. 6.4 1 Thes 3.7 2. A necessity of coaction or constraint such a force as opposeth ones liberty and which makes one do a thing against his will as Philem 14. it is opposed to willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willingly And 2 Pet. 5.2 Feed the flock of God c. not by constraint but willingly 1 Cor. 9.7 not grudgingly or of necessity 3. A necessity upon supposition of some cause ground or reason whereby it becomes necessary or needfull that such or such a thing should be or be done And thus Christ saith It must needs be that offences come namely Mat. 18.7 because of the power and malice of the divell the weaknesse and perversenesse of men Acts 13.46 Likewise Paul and Barnabas told the Jews It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you namely because of the Covenant which God had made with them above others In this respect he saith Phil. 1.24 To abide in the flesh is more needfull for you namely upon supposition of the benefit you may receive from me and the want you will have of me And 1 Cor. 9.16 Necessity is laid upon me and wo unto me if I preach not the Gospel And this was the necessity which Jude intends namely that whereby it became needfull and necessary for some weighty causes to write to these Christians And so it was needfull in three respects 1. In respect of his great care towards them His diligence for their good and desire of writing being so great as that it would not suffer him to be silent and so Erasmus interprets this necessity 2. It was needfull for him to write in respect of his own duty principally as he had the office of an Apostle which he received to further their spirituall welfare so Others 3. But thirdly as Calvin Beza and the most interpret this necessity It was necessary for him to write in respect of their danger their faith being in such hazard by false teachers and seducers of himselfe he was forward and diligent to do them good but he was further put upon this service of writing by the very exigence and necessity of their present condition they being so much hazarded by false Teachers and Seducers And their danger by Seducers made it needfull for him to write in sundry regards 1. In regard of the destructivenesse of those doctrines and practices which the Seducers brought in among them They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness they denyed the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ they despised dominions they walked after their own ungodly lusts These were not slight but pernicious evils Peter in 2 Pet. 2.1 2. calls them damnable heresies pernicious wayes not scratching the face but stabbing the very heart of Religion The eternal salvation of their precious souls was hazarded 2. Their danger by Seducers made it needful for him to write in regard of their subtilty and cunningness in propagating their impieties The Divel made not use of the Ass but the Serpent to tempt them The seducers had craftily crept in among them Eph. 4.14 2 Pet. 2.3 they did by sleight and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive they had feigned words to make merchandize of souls pretences of Gospel-liberty c. 3. In regard of the great readiness even of the best to give way to Seducers Our natures are like tinder ready to take with every spark There is in the best a corrupt principle that inclines to error in judgment and impiety in practice which were they not kept by the power of God to salvation would soon prevail One who is diseased may more easily infect twenty that are sound than
Ministers whom he hath appointed to be Stewards therof to the end of the world partly by qualifying them with gifts and Ministeriall Abilities and partly by appointing and setting them apart for the Ministry by those whom he hath authorized thereunto 2. To his people by the Ministry of his fore-mentioned servants who have instructed the faithfull sometime by preaching with a lively voice and afterward by committing the doctrine of faith to writing And Ministers shall to the end of the world be continued to deliver this doctrine of faith to the Church for their edification in holinesse And among those people to whom Ministers deliver this faith externally some there are to whom it is delivered also effectually by the internall revelation of the Spirit which so delivers this doctrine of faith to all the Elect that they themselves are delivered into it Rom. 6.17 their understandings being savingly enlightned to see that excellency in it which by the bare Ministry of it cannot be perceived and their wils perswaded to imbrace it as that rule of life according to which they will constantly walk 2. What need there was of the delivery of this faith 1. In regard of the Insufficiency of all other doctrines or prescriptions in the world to lead to life Only this doctrine delivered is the rule of faith and manners Peace internall and eternall is only afforded to them who walk according to this rule Gal. 6.11 God brings to glory only by guiding by these counsels All other lights are false are fools fires which lead to precipices and perdition This is the light which shines in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.20 to which who ever gives not heed can never find the way to heaven Learned Ethnicks never wrote of eternall happinesse in their Ethicks 1 Cor. 1.21 The world by wisdome knew not God 2. In regard of the totall insufficiency of man to find out this doctrine of himself The things delivered in this doctrine are mysteries supernaturall and depending on the meer will and dispensation of God The incarnation of the Son of God Col. 1.26 expiation of sin by his death justification by faith could never have entred into the mind of man unlesse God had revealed them They depend not upon any connexion of naturall causes Though there be a kind of naturall Theologie yet there 's no naturall Christianity Also the und erstanding of man is so obscured by the darknesse of sin that in spirituals it is purely blind The naturall man perceives not the things which are of God 1 Cor. 2.14 2. This delivering of faith comprehends the keeping and holding it by those to whom it was delivered This is done therefore 1. by Ministers 2. by every Christian 1. This duty is incumbent on Ministers who must keep the truth hold fast the faithfull word and be tenacious Tit. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holding it as the word signifieth against a contrary hold with both their hands with all their strength Jer. 10.27 Amos 7.14 holding it in their understanding in their affections in their preaching and delivery in their life and practice not parting with it for fear or favour either to Sectaries or Politicians rather parting with their lives than their sword 2. The faith is kept by every Christian by persevering in the knowledge love and practice of it Every Saint must keep it in his head in his heart in his hand this he must do though for keeping the truth he lose his life 'T is not the having but the holding the truth Rev. 2.13 which is a Christians crown He who lets it go never had it truely and effectually in the love of it nor shall ever enjoy it in the recompence of it Of this more afterward 1. God was the Authour of the doctrine of life Observ 1. though by men yet from him hath it alwayes been delivered it 's his word and revelation The word of the Lord and thus saith the Lord is the Scripture stamp and superscription When the Patriarchs and Prophets preach'd it it was from him when holy men of old time wrote it it was from him though he hath spoken in divers manners yet 't was he that spake When the doctrine of life was committed to writing he commanded it He moved and inspired holy men to write 2 Pet. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.16 Exod. 17.14 chap. 34.27 Isai 8.1 chap. 30.8 Jer. 36.2 They were his Organs and Instruments of conveying his mind to the world The Spirit of the Lord saith David 2 Sam. 23.2 spake by me and his word was in my tongue And Acts 28.25 The Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah Quicquid Chri. stus de suis dictis ac factis nos scire voluit ipsis scribendum tanquam suis manibus imperavit Aug. l. 1. de cons Evang. c. 35. And 1 Pet. 1.11 The Spirit of Christ in the Prophets fore-told his sufferings These and the other holy men were the Scribes the Pens the Hands the Notaries of the Spirit They wrote not as men but as men of God when any book is called the Book of Moses the Psalms of David the Epistle of Paul it 's in respect of Ministry not of the principall cause 2. Great is the necessity of Scripture The doctrine of life could never without a scripturall delivery have been found out without it indeed this doctrine was between two and three thousand years preserved by the delivery of a lively voice but afterwards when their lives who were to deliver the word grew short men numerous memory frail the bounds of the Church inlarged corruptions frequent and therefore tradition an unfaithfull keeper of the purity of doctrine as appears by Tharah's Jos 24.3 Gen. 35.2 Apostoli quod primum praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradi derunt fundamentum columnam fidei uostrae futurae Iren. lib. 3. adv haeres c. 1. and Abram's worshipping of other gods the idolatry in Jacob's family c. God appointed that the doctrine of life should be committed to writing and upon supposition of the will and pleasure of God whose wisdome hath now thought fit to give us no other rule and foundation of faith the written word is now necessary as the means of delivering faith to us Had not the faith therefore been delivered in Scriptures whence should it have been found how retained The written word is the cabbinet wherein lies the jewell of faith the starre which shews where the Babe lodgeth the light which discovers the beauty of salvation A Book of Apocalyps or Revelation of Christ 3. Strong is the engagement upon us to be thankfull for Gods discovering to us the doctrine of faith It was above the compasse of Reason and Nature ever to have found it out by their own inquiry Rom. 16.25 Ephes 1.9 Ephes 3.9 neither men nor Angels could have known it without divine revelation It was a mystery a great an hidden mystery which was
than the bereaving Job of his temporall estate namely Job 1.11 the denying of God and the blaspheming him to his face The excellency of the thing for which we contend should strengthen and quicken our resolutions in contending It should be a greater motive to our valour when Christ our Captain tels us we fight to preserve the faith than if he had told us we fight for our lands children wives lives For what are these to grace to glory to our souls to our God all which we lose in losing the faith What Satan in malice doth most assault we in wisdom must most defend 5. Of our selves we are too weak for spirituall conflicts Observ 5. All our strength is from another He who is barely by profession not really united to Christ will soon give in and turn his back in a day of battell he will be a souldier for shew Mat. 7.27 not for service He who is not built on the rock cannot oppose the floods Painted profession will not endure the washing Things which are not strongly joyned but loosly put together will part when thrown into the water so will Christ and the hypocrite in sufferings 6. Observ 6. Moderation is not alway commendable Moderation in bearing the chastisements of God Praedicare verbum Dei est derivare in se furorem totius inferni Satius est conturbari collidi coelum terram quam Christum non praedicari Maledict a sit charitas quae servatur cum jactura fidei in enjoying worldly comforts in enduring private injuries are all most Christian and commendable But moderation which hinders a reall and an earnest contending for faith is no better than lothsome lukewarmnesse I fear ther 's much time-serving neutrality sinfull halting and indifferency gilded over with the name of moderation accursed is that moderation whereby men will lose the faith to keep their estates and crack their consciences to save their skins The policy of these I never did admire and their happinesse I trust I shall never envy How soon learned is the wisdome of shunning troubles of self-preservation and tame silence when religion is endanger'd How easie is it to swim with the stream to hold with the strongest and how easily but alas how falsly is this called moderation 7. Observ 7. The War of Christianity is laborious and dangerous It will soon try our valour and not only the truth but the strength of our graces Religion is like cold weather good for those who are sound bad for rotten hypocrites They who go on to this sea for recreation will soon come back in a storm The more dangerous our conflict is the greater is that strength by which we are supported and the firmer should be our dependence upon it If Satan cease from fighting with us it 's a signe he hath conquered us It 's our wisdome when we have passed over light skirmishes to prepare for greater They who had endured a great fight of affliction Hob. 10.32.36 had still need of patience Though we must never despair of conquest yet also never presume of quietnesse nor expect to be delicate members under a thorny head 8. A Christian should be best when the times are worst Observ 8. and get good by others sins When others contend most against we should most contend for the faith Of the opposition of the truth by others we should make a spirituall advantage As God suffers nothing whereby he gets not glory so a Christian should observe nothing whereby he gets not some good As the faint and luke-warm assistance of friends so the fierce and furious opposition of enemies should make his contention for the truth the more holily vehement It was not only the expression of a gracious heart but of such an one in a very gracious temper Psal 119.127 That because the wicked had made void Gods Law therefore did he love his Commandements above gold 9. Observ 9. It 's the duty and wisdome of Christians to observe directions for their spirituall conflict Who contends with a potent Adversary without considering how to encounter him To this end 1. Let us get a love to the Cause and Captain for which and whom we fight not fighting for fear of his wrath or love of his wages but affection to his interest A souldier of fortune will turn to that side where he shall be best paid but one to whom love is wages will keep to one side The Christian who seems now to fight for but yet loves not the truth will soon either leave it or fight against it 2. Let us not entangle our affections in worldly enjoyments Bid earthly comforts farwell when you go your spirituall expedition It 's pity to lose a victory for regarding the bag and baggage yet the love of the world hath made many a Christian lose both his courage and his crown 3. Let us not go forth in our own strength against our enemies A proud Christian will soon turn a coward A limb though swollen and big to sight is but weak and lame for service If God breath not a spirit of valour into us we shall faint Spirituall souldiers must fight upon their knees 'T is from God we fight of our selves we can do nothing but flie 4. Let faith consider Encouragements Our Cause is righteous and honourable our Captain wise valourous bountifull our supplies great and near our friends in all places if fighting prevailing and if not fighting praying for us our victory certain and sudden our reward massy and eternall VER 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ HEre our Apostle enters upon the third main part considerable in the Exhortation viz. the propounding sundry Arguments or reasons to inforce the embracing of the forementioned Exhortation of Contending for the faith against Seducers The Arguments or reasons used by him are reducible to these two Heads 1. The first is the dangerousness of the company of these Seducers to the Christians to whom he wrote This is set down in this 4th verse 2. The second is the downfall and overthrow of these Seducers amplified and proved from the 4th verse to the 17th verse 1. The dangerousness of the company of these Seducers to the Christians expressed in this 4th verse In this the Apostle describes 1. The entrance of these Seducers into the company of the Christians 2. The impiety of these Seducers who had thus gotten entrance 1. He describeth their entrance into the society of the faithful and that four wayes 1. From their nature they were men 2. From their indefinite number certain men 3. From their subtilty and slyness in getting in they crept in unawares 4. By cleering and vindicating their entrance from the exceptions or objections which the Christians might have raised against Gods
though what is done be commanded yet it is not done because it 's commanded Oculus ad coelum manus ad clavum or in obediencee to a precept The hand must not only be at work but the eye must also be upon the word It 's very possible for a work commanded to be an act of disobedience in respect of the intent of the performer 3. When 't is not given him inwardly heartily when men are eye-servants and do not the will of God from the heart Col. 3.23 Rom. 1.9 nor serve him in the spirit Ungodly men rather act a service than yield a service they rather complement with God Mat. 15.7.8 2 Tim. 3.5 Ezek. 33.31 than serve him They bring a bone without marrow They glister but they burn not like some men who lifting with others at a burden make as loud a cry as the rest but yet they put to it no strength at all In Gods account they who do but appear godly are nothing at all but ungodly 4. When honour is not given to God impartially Ungodly men pick out one work and reject another chuse an easie and forbear a difficult work serve and honour God so far as they may not disserve and dishonour themselves engaging no further than they may safely come off Whereas nothing should come amiss to one who rightly serves this Mâ—ster Psal 119.6.128 1 Tim. 5.21 One piece of his service must not be preferred before another We must answer to every call We must not examine what the service is which is commanded but who the Master is that commands 5. When honour is not given him cheerfully Ungodly men do the will of God against their will Psal 40.8 2 Cor. 9.7 it is not their meat and drink it goeth not down as their food but as a potion not upon choice but constraint whence 't is that their services are neither easie to themselves nor acceptable to God whose service is as well our priviledg as our duty 6. When he is not honour'd constantly Ungodly men wil have their rest from labour before they dye The honour which they give to God is full of gapps Their heart is not stedfast with God Psal 78.37 Ungodly men want a fountain a principle from whence their services should issue and therefore like a standing water Hos 6.4 they will in time dry up They are not friends and therefore they love not at all times The honour they give to God is like the redness of blushing soon down not like the ruddiness of complexion abiding 7. When honour is not given to God fervently and diligently with all the might and strength Ungodly men honour not God as a God as the best the greatest but without cost slightly and coldly The heart hath no love and the hand hath little labour When the spleen swels all other parts decay and those who nourish any lust will honour God but with lean and thin services A divided heart will be a lazy heart 8. When honour is not given to God with single aims and sincere intentions Ungodly men propound not to themselves glory-ends God is not honoured by them for himself They love not the lesson wherein there is not some gay of pleasure or profit they seek themselves and not God 2 Kin. 10.28 29. and therefore they lose God and themselves too remaining ungodly here and unrewarded hereafter 1. Observ 1. It s possible for men to attain to highest estimation for godliness and yet to be inwardly at the same time ungodly Men may be accounted the godly party and yet not have a dram of true godliness in them Had not these seducers been seemingly godly they had never been admitted by the Church and had they not been really ungodly they had never been by the Spirit of God call'd so Ungodliness is a close a secret evill It may creep into our profession participation in ordinances and Church communion undiscerned An ungodly heart may be in a glistring professor 2 Tim. 3.5 even in those who have a form of godliness Judas Simon Magus the Corinthian teachers were not without their estimation from men for piety nor without detestation from God for hypocrisie Christians should not like some tradesmen live altogether upon credit Quid juvat bonum nomen reclamante conscentiâ What doth a good name help a rotten heart how poor an advantage to a dying man is it for one to come and say Sir I am glad to see you well Truth of grace is alone beyond the reach of hypocrites Shape may be pictur'd life cannot The Magicians imitated Moses till God discover'd his own finger in the miracles True godliness is Gods handywork of this the most specious pretender falls short Oh Christian put not off the soul alone with shadowes Labour to be what thou seemest and then seem to be what thou art 2. Vngodliness is the root of all lewd Observ 2. irregular and licencious practices The Apostle placeth the ungodlinesse of seducers in the fore-front of all that wickednesse wherewith he chargeth them A man who hath no care of Gods honour will make no conscience of any sin Where God is not served man will not be obeyed Abraham rightly collected Gen. 20.11 that they who fear'd not God would not fear to take away his life By the fear of God men depart from evill Prov. 16.6 Prov. 8.13 Religion in the heart is the best means to order the hand Education exigency of condition resolutions humane lawes shame fear c. may for a while curb but they cannot change a sinner They may cloake not cure sin They may work a palliative not an eradicative cure All they can do till the heart be changed is but to sow a piece of new â—loth to an old garment new expressions professions to an old disposition which will but make the rent the greater How imprudent are those parents who expect obedience to themselves from their children who are ever suffered to be disobedient to God! How little policy do those Magistrates express who only care to make men subjects to them willingly suffering them to be rebels to God! I confess Satan loves to lay the brats of wars treason and rebellion c. at the door of Religion But as truly may Politicians utter those words as ever they were uttered O Religion if thou hadst been here our nation had not dyed And if that death may be attributed to the absence of religion how little are people beholding to them who hinder it from coming to the Nation to cure it 3. Observ 3. Eminent if meer profession will end in eminent profâ—nenesse A fiery hypocrite will grow from being lukewaâ—m in religion to be stone-cold in irreligion The seeming piety and glorious appearances of these seducers in advancing Christ grace and Christian liberty was soon followed with the utter rejection of godlinesse What profane and even godlesse persons and how purely neglective of all
shall never have so much or so little as to make them unfit for service Christ loves to keep them in working case Even of outward necessaries they shall have what they want if not what they would Christ gives them all things that pertain to life and godlinesse he encourageth them 2 Pet. 1.1 4. he assisteth them in their work he gives them exceeding great and precious promises hee feeds them with his own flesh and blood 2 Pet. 1.4 he cloathes them with his own righteousnesse he directs them with his own spirit 4. By protecting his family from all dangers There 's no safety but in Christs family never are his servants in danger but when they go out of it 1. Sam 2.9 He is the keeper of his Israel peculiarly Though he sometimes suffers evils to touch Psal 105.14 15. he never suffers evils to hurt them he visits them in and delivers from all their troubles he suffers not Kings to hurt any of his servants He takes the wrongs offered to his servants as offered to himselfe 5. 1 Pet. 4.17 By correcting it for its miscarriages Judgment commonly begins at the house of the Lord. His servants are safe but must not be secure he suffers the world to do that which he will not endure in his own family His servants will never be faithfull to him nor find him faithfull to them if he did not sometimes chastise them He judgeth them 1 Cor. 11.32 that they may not be condemned with the world And whensoever the chides he doth it not because he loves it but because they want it 6. By rewarding every servant according to his service He is indeed the only Lord but he hath sundry sorts of servants He is a good master but most that call themselves his servants are unprofitable and only titular and complementall wearing his badg but refusing his work using the name of the Lord and crying Lord Lord but shunning the rule of their Lord. The reward of these is to be cast into utter darknesse Mat. 25.30 who heretofore were unprofitable under light His good and faithfull servants shall be rewarded with the joy of their Lord even the presence of him whom they served faithfully in his absence Mat. 25.21 Their labour of love shall not be forgotten by Christ but all their former toyl shall bee forgotten Their work though never so great is but small to their wages nor is the weight of their labours comparable to that of their crown Jesus Christ will pay them for every work which they have forgotten Their services are all book'd He who formerly gave them abilities to work will now give them a recompence for working 2. In what respect is Christ called Only Lord 1. Not to exclude the Father and the Holy Ghost 2d Branch of Explicat to whom with the Son all outward works are common and frequently to the whole Trinity of Persons is this name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord given in Scripture Act. 4.24 Rev. 6.10 God the Father Joh. 17.3 is called the only true God not to exclude the Son and God the Son is called the only Lord not to exclude the Father who is represented in the naturall glory of the Deity as the Son in the voluntary office of a Mediatour But secondly in respect of all creatures is Christ called only Lord 1 Cor. 8.6 One Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 4.5 One Lord and that 1. To exclude the partnership of any other in the government with him The rule is not shared between him and other Lords In government he hath no copartner He is Gods only Vice-gerent There is no â—ther name under heaven given among men Act. 4.12 Mat. 28.18 Heb. 1.2 Isai 63.3 Isai 54.16 To him hath the Father committed all power in heaven and earth as Pharaoh did set Joseph over all the land of Egypt God hath appointed him heir of all things And as Christ had no co-adjutor in the work of redemption so hath he no partner in the glory thereof 2. 1 Tim. 6.15 To note his superiority and preheminency above all other Lords In which respect he is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords for 1. He is the only absolute Lord. All other Lords are subordinate to him dependent on him advanced by him receive authority lawes gifts from him are responsible for the use and abuse of these to him and are therefore punishable by him The supreme of earthly Lords are in respect of him inferiour Lords 2. Phil. 2.10 He is the onely universall Lord. To him every knee must bow The three kingdoms of heaven earth and hell never had any Lord but Christ In the first of these he doth eminently shew his glory and beauty in the second his power of ruling and directing in the third his strength and severity Angels and glorified Saints in heaven Saints sinners and every creature on earth the damned and divels in hel are all his subjects He is Lord of all Act. 10.36 3. Psal 110.3 He is the only Lord for power and might He is able to subdue all things to himselfe Philip. 3.21 and 1 Tim. 6.15 He is called the only Potentate He made and he can annihilate the world with one word He can kill the soul and throw both body and soul into hell Happy we that earthly Lords though never so tyrannicall cannot do this He can subdue the hearts of men even of his deadliest enemies unto his love and obedience Happy would earthly Monarchs think themselves if they could do thus But he who only made can only mend the heart 4. Hee is the only Lord for majesty and glory All the glory of all the Caesars Emperours Kings who ever were combined in one heap is but a black coal in comparison of the splendor of his glory Mat. 6.29 If Solomon in all his glory was not arraied like the lillies of the field how much lesse was he like the Lord of the world The glory of Agrippa and Bernice was but a great fansie Act. 25.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How easie and often doth Christ stain the pride of the glory of the greatest and even cause shamefull spewing to be upon it The glory of Kings is but a borrowed ray or spark from his Majesty When he shall appear in his glory all the nightly glow-worms of worldly splendor shall be put out and all worldly majesty shall be exstinguish'd Nay the poorest Saint shal appear with him in that glory of which all the splendor of Emperours is not so much as a shadow 5. He is the only Lord in respect of his deportment toward his servants 1. He is the most discerning Lord and Master no earthly Masters are so able to observe the wayes and workes of their servants as he is for the closest and subtilest among them cannot deceive him he spies them in every corner nay every corner of their hearts in them He now in some sort is absent
Gospel even against the inward operation and supernaturall revelation of the holy Ghost This as I conceive is the unpardonable sin and was the sin of Alexander the copper-smith 2 Tim. 4.14 and of Julian 2. By an open and wilfull apostatizing from the faith and profession of religion haply for fear of persecution and out of too much love of this world This I conceive was the sin of Demas and Spira 2 Tim. 4.10 3. By a politick and terme-serving neutrality a lukewarmenesse and halting between two opinions for fear or shame when a man is oft on either side but truly on neither They on that side think him theirs we on this side think him ours his own conscience thinks him neithers To hold our peace when the honour of Christ is in question is to deny Christ even to a mistaking of the end of our redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 Yee are bought with a price therefore glorifie Christ in your body Joh. 1.20 and spirit Christ is not glorified when his name is concealed John Baptist confessed and denyed not Whosoever doth not openly confesse Christ Pet. 3.15 doth secretly deny Christ Christ is not to be hid as the woman hid the spies in the deep well of our hearts and covered over as she did the mouth of the well with corn for worldly concernments Rom. 10.10 Christum deseserit qui Christianum se non asserit If it be enough to beleeve in the heart why did God give thee a mouth He denyes Christ that doth not professe himselfe a Christian We are bound both consentire and confiteri both to consent to and confesse Christ If it be sufficient for thee to know Christ without acknowledging him for thy Lord it shall be sufficient for Christ to know thee but not to to acknowledg thee for his servant 2 Tim. 2.12 He who refuseth to suffer for dinies Christ He who is not for Christ is against him There may be a sinfull a damnable moderation The following Christ a far off in this life is no sign that thou shalt be near to him in the next No man will be afraid of being too professed a Christian at the day of judgment or will think that he hath lost too much for Christ when he is presently to lose all things by death If the time wherein we live be a night of profanenesse it s our duty the more brightly to shine as lights Phil. 3.15 4. By despairing of salvation offered through the merits of Christ in the promise of the Gospel This is a thrusting from us the hand that would and a casting away the plaister that should cure us 1 John 5.10 This sin makes God a lyar changeth his truth into a lye and Satans falsehood into a truth and justifies the divell more than God He that despairs of mercy what-ever he pretends practically denies the faithfulnesse sufficiency and sincerity of the Lord Jesus and asserts the faithfulnesse of him who is the father of lies 5. Lastly By a loose and profane conversation and this kind of practicall reall denying of Christ I conceive the Apostle particularly chargeth upon these seducers They walked after their own ungodly lusts their lives being full of earthlinesse and epicurism and their mouths of reproaches against holy obedience they encouraging themselves and others herein by perverting the sweet doctrine of the grace of God Ii qui sanguine Christi redempti fuerant diabolo se rursus mancipantes incomparabile illud pretium irritum faciunt Calv. in loc They professed the grace of Christ but led most gracelesse lives Their practice gave their profession the lye If they were not ashamed of Christ yet were they a shame to Christ their Lord who kept such servants they walked not worthy of their Lord. They had the livery of Christ upon their backs and the works of the divell in their hands The merit of his redemption they acknowledged but they denyed the efficacy thereof whereby he fanctifieth and reneweth the heart subdueth sin and quickneth to new obedience They acknowledged Christ a Jesus but denyed him as a Lord Christ they took for their Saviour but Satan for their master They like it well to come to Christ for ease but they will not take his though easie yoke upon them II. 2d Branch of Explicat Wherein appeares the sinfulnesse of this denyall of Christ 1. It plainly comprehends the sinne of Atheism There 's none who denies this only Lord God in his life but first denyed him in his heart and they who serve him not as the word commands apprehend him not as the word discovers They who are corrupt and do abominable works Psal 14.1 have said in their hearts there is no God Life-Atheisme is but the daughter of heart-Atheisme All outward actions are the genuine productions of the inward man they are as I may say the counter-panes of the spirit and so many derivations from that fountain Now think O Christians what an heinous sin it is to deny that being which thine own proves nay to hear to speak of God to plead for God to pray to God so frequently and in appearance feelingly and yet to deny that this God is 2. The denyall of this Lord as clearly contains the sin of unbeleife and distrust They who deny the service of this their Lord truly think what that wicked servant in the Gospel said namely that Christ notwithstanding all his promises Mat. 25.24 is as an hard man that reaps where he did not sow and that there is no profit in serving him Heb. 3.12 'T is this evill heart of unbelief that makes men depart from the living God When men see no excellencie in Christ 't is easie for them to be perswaded to reject him He who beleeves not a jewel is precious will easily part with it He who denyes Christ plainly shews that he hath no trust in him to receive any benefit from him And how great a sin is this unbelief whereby fulnesse it self is esteemed empty Mercy it self is reckoned cruell Gain it self deemed unprofitable and all because faithfulnesse it self is accounted false 3. The denyall of Christ is notorious and unspeakable profanenesse it evidently shews that a man preferrs other things before and loves other things more than Christ No man ever denies and leaves this best of Masters till he be provided of a Master whom he thinks and loves better But how great a disparagement and indignity do they who set up any thing above Christ offer to Him who hath sent and designed Christ Joh. 5.23 and 6.27 the master-piece of all his mercifull and wise contrivements and to Christ himself For there 's nothing which can come in competition with Christ but is infinitely below him All the combined excellencies of creatures put into the balance with Christ bear not so much proportion as doth a feather to a mountain To forsake Christ for the world or a lust is to leave a
part with thy dearest comforts for Christ rather then deny him Know nothing to be thine but himself 2. Make a right estimate of the comforts which are to be enjoyed in Christ 1. Account them realities not notions not imaginary though invisible Look upon them as substantiall and indeed John 8.36 2. Account them not as scanty but abundant so large that thou needest not go to other things for additions Look upon Christ only as having enough for thee and able to fill thy vast receptions to the brim 3. View them as sublime precious not as low and vile so excellent that a holy generosity may be kindled in thee and all these dunghill delights accounted unworthy thy stoop 4. Account them usefull and efficacious not idle and unhelping such as want not thee to uphold them but as are able in all distresses to relieve thee and will procure strong and strengthening consolations Heb. 6.18 5. View them as thine not anothers Christ is never good in the souls account till it hath a propriety in him Nor can a soul be contented when it sees a parting from other things unless it considers its propriety in Christ who is far better 6. View them as neer and at hand and alway prepared to relieve the souls exigencies Let faith as a prospective glasse make remote comforts appear hard by 7. Lastly view them as eternal not as finite such as are above the reach of theef and moth and which alone triumph over time and enemies and which shal live and last when all worldly enjoyments are dead and gone Oh who would deny such delights as these for a blast a bubble a nothing what poor nothings of comfort are the sweetest delights which would allure us what poor nothings of misery are the sorest sufferings that would affright us from Christ 3 Labour for an inward reall Implantation and rootednesse in Christ The advice of the Apostle is to be rooted in Christ Col. 2.7 A stake in the ground may easily be pluckt up but a tree rooted in the ground stands immovable They who are in Christ only by way of externall profession may be pull'd from Christ and outward troubles will overcome a meerly visible and outside professor but they who are in Christ by way of reall and internall implantation will keep their standing He who is but a visible Christian may in a short time cease to be so much as visible He who speaks for Christ only notionally will soon be won to speak against him From him who professeth not Christ truly may soon be taken away his very appearances Please not your selves with the form of religion Realities are only durable The colour of blushing is soon down that of complexion remains longer Si ista terrena diligitis ut munera amici ut arrham sponsi diligite 4. Let no wordly comfort be beloved but only so far as it is a pledg of Christs love to thee or an incentive of thine to him Let not Christ content thee with any thing without himself Love not thy enjoyments as gifts but as mercies and love-tokens Look upon every thing out of Christ as a sieve pluck'd out of the water as a coal without fire as a cypher without a figure Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat I would not look toward thee said Elisha to Jehoram and were it not for a taste of the love of Christ in our worldly comforts we should not much regard them Love nothing but as it is a step to raise thee up higher and more toward him onely as a Phylactery and a remembrancer of thy Friend as that which incites to him not as that which bewitcheth from him If Christians would studie thus by and in every comfort to taste Christ they would not for gaining these comforts be willing to part with Christ 5. Take heed of professing Christ for by-ends Serve him not to serve your own turns Make not Religion a design Let every interest be subservient to Christ Be willing to set up a building of glory for him upon your own ruines Learn to perish that the glory of Christ may live Let Christ be sweet for himself Love him for his beauty not his cloathes In serving him let nothing else be your scope and then nothing will divert you aim not at profit so gain will not allure you not at pleasure so ease will not corrupt you not at friends so favour wil not seduce you Let none but Christ be your end 6 Daily increase sweet acquaintance and humble familiarity with Christ Stand not at a stay in taking in his comforts Stint not Communion with him Oh labour to take in hissweetest consolations fresh and fresh every morning If communion with Christ be but a while intermitted the love of the world will soon be admitted When the people were without their wonted converse with Moses they began to think of a golden Idol The soul cannot live without some comfort or other If it finds no sweetnesse in Christ it will look out for it else where and if it tast nothing in his wayes to whet and keep it up it will be ready to go down as the Israelites went down to the Philistims to sharpen their instruments to earthly delights for relief But if Christ be sweet the world will be bitter And if thine eyes have but lookt stedfastly upon his Glory they will not suddenly behold beuty in any thing else VER 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance though yee once knew this how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that beleeved not AT This verse the Apostle begins the second Argument whereby he proves it the duty of these Christians Earnestly to contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints and now opposed by the seducers of those times The Argument is taken from the certainty of the destruction of those Seducers the Apostle by the zealous prosecution thereof declaring that these Christians must avoid their Doctrines if they would not be involved in their downfall The Apostle in the managing of this Argument doth these three things 1. He gives us severall Examples of Gods severe wrath upon others in former times for sundry heinous sins to the 8th Verse 2. He declares that these Seducers lived in the same sins which God had formerly punish'd in others to the 11th verse 3. He concludes that they practising the same impieties shall partake of the same plagues with those who were before them to the 17th verse For the first of these the Apostle propounds three Examples of Gods most severe displeasure against the sinners of former times The first is of the Israelites who were destroyed in the wildernesse The second of the wicked Angels who are reserved in everlasting chains under darknesse The third of the Sodomites who suffer the vengeance of everlasting fire The Apostle with admirable wisdom making choice of these Examples to prevent
in They beleeved God too little and man too much by their unbelief making God as man and man as God Gen. 12.7 13.15 15.18 17.7.8 26.4 Deut. 1.8 Exo. 3.17 and 6.8 2. God had afforded many helps and antidotes against the unbeleef of the Israelites God had given promises first to their Fathers and afterwards to these Israelites their posteritie of his bestowing upon them the land of Canaan for an Inheritance His promises like himself were faithfull and true and impossible it is that he who made them should lie These promises were often repeated to their fore-fathers and themselves and the very land of Canaan is called the Land of Promise Heb. 11.9 1 King 8.56 And afterward Solomon professed There hath not failed one word of all Gods good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses All his promises are yea and Amen The promises of giving to Israel the land of Canaan Gen. 22.16 Gen. 26.3 Psal 105.9 1 Chr. 26.26 Gen. 17.10 God had sundry times confirmed by oath the oath God followed with his seal of Circumcision whereby was confirmed the promise of the earthly and heavenly Canaan To all these God had added the abundant examples of those their holy fore-fathers who openly professed their beleeving of the promise that their Seed should inherit Canaan Heb. 11.9 Act. 7.5 Hence Abraham sojourned contentedly in the land of promise where he had not so much room as to set his foot on without borrowing or buying Hence also he purchased a burying place in that land In terra promissâ sibi emit sepulchrum ut spem suam vel mortuus testaretur Rivet Exerc. 119. in Gen. of which though living he had not possession yet dying nay dead he shewed his expectation How holily solicitous was Jacob and Joseph that their bodies after their deaths should be carried out of Egypt into that Canaan where their hopes and hearts had been while they lived To all these Examples God had given them to prevent unbeliefe their own multiplyed and astostonishing Experiences of his former Power and Love Could not he who by the lifting up of the arms of one Moses destroyed an Armie of Amalekites as easily overthrow the Armies of the Canaanites by the hands of six hundred thousand Israelites Could he who commissionated the very lice and flies to plague Egypt and at whose command are all the hosts of heaven and earth want power to deal with the sons of Anak Could not he who made the weak and unsteady waters of the red Sea to stand up like walls as easily make the strongest walls of the Canaanitish Cities to fall down Psal 78.32.42 But they believed not for his wondrous works they remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemie 3. Their unbelief most of all robb'd God of his though not essentiall yet declarative glory It was a bold sin it rifled his Cabinet and took away his chiefest Jewel Isa 42.8 1 Joh. 5.10 Rom. 4.10 even that which he saith he will not give to another 1. It takes away the glorie of his Truth it no more trusting him then if he were a known Lyer and as we say of such a one No further than we see him It endeavours to make God in that condition of some lost man whose credit is quite gone and whose word none will take now to discredit is to dishonour a man Unbeleevers account it impossible that he should speak true for whom to lye it is impossible After all the promises of giving them Canaan though repeated sworn sealed Israel beleeved not God 2. The Israelites by their unbelief obscured the glory of Gods Goodnesse They did not onely labour to make their miserie greater then Gods Mercy but even his very Mercy to appear Tyranny They often complained that he had brought them into the wilderness to slay them Num. 14.3 Psal 106.24 and they despised that pleasant land which God had promised them yea as some note in regard that the land of Canaan was a type of the heavenly Canaan See M. Perkins on the place they beleeved not that God would bring them to heaven and give them inheritance in that eternall Rest by means of the Messiah So that they rejected at once both the blessings of the foot-stool and the throne the earthly and the heavenly Canaan at the same time 3. Their Unbelief did blemish the glory of his Omnipotency Psal 62.11 They proclaiming by this sin that He to whom power belongs and nothing is too hard who can do all things but what argue impotencie as lying and denying himself who made heaven and earth with a word Isa 40.15 and before whom all the nations of the world are as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance could not crush a few worms nor pull down the height of those Gyants whom by his power he upheld 4. Of all sins the Unbelief of the Israelites most crossed their own Professions They voyced themselves to be and gloryed in being the people of God and they proclaimed it both their dutie and priviledg to take God for their God They sometimes appeared to beleeve him but the unbelief of their hearts gave both God and their own tongues the lye they professed that they beleeved the power of God and remembred that God was their Rock Psal 78.34 35 36 37. but at the news from Canaan they shewed that they beleeved that the Anakims and the walled Cities were stronger They professed that they beleeved the Mercy of God and that the most high God was their Redeemer but at the very supposall of danger they thought that they were brought into the wilderness to be slain They professed that they beleeved the Soveraignty of God They returned and enquired after him and promised obedience to him but upon every proof they shewed themselves but rebells So that by reason of their unbeleef and unstedfastnesse of heart in Gods Covenant they did but flatter God with their mouth and lye unto him with their tongues How hainous a sin is it for Gods professed friends do distrust him How shall a stranger take that mans word whom his most familiar friends yea his own children will not beleeve Thine own Nation said Pilate to Christ have delivered thee unto me Thine own people may heathens say to God wil not trust thee and how should wee 5. Of all the sins of the Israelites unbeliefe was that which properly did reject the mercy by God tendred to them Canaan was by him frequently in his promise offered and though all the sins of the Israelites deserved exclusion from Canaan yet they did not as unbeleef by refusing the offer of it reject the entrance into it As the faith of the Ninivites overthrew a prophesie of judgement Psal 78.32 33 so the unbelief of the Israelites overthrew the promises of mercy The brests of the promises were full of the milk of consolation and
should grow the more licentious and madly merry Against that servant saith Christ who shall say in his heart My Lord deferreth his coming Luk. 12.45 46 and shall eat and drink with the drunken shall his Lord come in a day when he looketh not for him and cut him in sunder c. Although Gaal and the Shechemites fortifying the City against Abimelech eating and drinking making merry and cursing him at the beginning of the approach of Abimelechs army were told by Zebul that they saw the shadow of the mountains as if they were men yet his army drawing neer he who had before deluded now terrifies them Where saith Zebul to Gaal is thy mouth wherewith thou saidst Judg. 9.26.28 Who is Abimelech that we should serve him Wicked men who now sport in sin and look upon judgment at a distance make a mock of it Adventum aeterni judicis tanto securiores quandoque videbitis quanto nunc districtionem illius timendo praevenitis Greg. mor. l. 14. c. 30. Bonum judicium quod illi districto judicio me subducit Bern in Cant. ser 55. and the Divel tels them that all the terrifying sermons they hear concerning the day of judgment are but the shadows of the mountains and the dark productions of the melancholy fancies of some precise minister but at the nearer approach of this great day when judgement is at the door and the armies of vengeance rushing in upon them how will their mouths be stop'd their confidences be rejected and how great will their folly appear in being so weak and yet presumptuous at the same time Oh sinner more fear of this great day would better become one that hath no more force to resist it The way to be fearlesse hereafter is to be fearfull here Happy is that fear which prevents future trembling 3 Our meditations of this great day should be deep and serious Great things are greatly observed Observ 3. and make deep impression Though feathers and cork being cast upon the water are wont to swim yet lead and iron sink into it though slighter thoughts become matters of lesse concernment yet serious things should be seriously regarded and throughly admitted into our meditations It 's said of the wicked Psal 10.5 that the judgements of God are far above out of his sight Let not trifles expel out of the mind the thoughts of the eternal judgment as the eye is sometimes hindred from viewing an object of the vastest extent by putting of that before it which is not bigger then a single penny 4. Observ 4. 2 Pet. 3.12 ◠Non potest esse verus Christianus nec recitare orationē dominicam qui non toto corde hunc diem desiderat Luth. Perversum est nescio utrum verum quem diligis timere ne veniat orare adveniat Regnum tuum timere ne exaudiaris Aug. in Euar Psal 147 Great should be our desires and longing after this great day Christians only sin in seeking those things that are falsly and appearingly great but the blessings to be enjoyed at this great day are truly great We should love the appearance of Christ and look for and hast to the coming of the day of God if we would approve our selves for the Spouse of Christ let our note be Come Oh why is his Charriet so long in coming Res dulcis mora molesta the sweeter the enjoyment the stronger the desire Be ashamed oh Christian that the day should bee so great and thy desires so smal that a spouse should so desire the day of her marriage a prisoner his liberty a Malefactor his pardon a labourer his rest an heir his inheritance and that thou shouldst be so sluggish and remiss in regarding that day which removes every sorrow supplies with every comfort 5. Observ 5. Judicandum se satis esse diffidit qui male vivit Chrys ser 59. Rom. 8. Phil 3.8 Our chief care should be that this great day may prove a good day to us even as good as its great The judgement day cannot be a good day to those to whom the Judge is not good There 's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus The comfort of a Christian at the judgement day will be to be one with the Judge and to be found in him by faith not having his own righteousness The Judge will not endure that they who are his own members should be cut off He who hereafter shall be the Judge is now the Advocate of beleevers It can never be a good day to those who are in love with that which makes it and every day evill They who love sin must needs fear judgement If sinners cannot endure the light of the Word in the Ministry how shall they endure the light of divine disquisition at the day of Judgement Men who have taken in uncustomed goods or prohibited commodities cannot desire the company of the searchers who are appointed to open their packs The fardels and packs of every sinner shall be opened at the great day the hidden things of dishonesty shall be discovèred and every conscience rip'd up Empty your hearts of the love of every secret sin if you would not fear a searching Sins unthought of will then seize upon the wicked unawares Multa peccata tum proruent ex improviso quasi ex insidiis Plus valebunt pura corda quam astuta verba conscientia bona quam marsu pia plena Bern. At this great day the purity of the heart will more profit then subtilty of words and a good conscience then a full purse How happy were it that men would be repenting here prevent repenting hereafter It cannot be a good day if the enjoyments of this world be accounted the chief good He who hath no other Paradise but his gardens no other mansions but his beautifull buildings no other God but his gold and possessions cannot delight to see those flames which shal consume them He will certainly cry out as a man doth who hath laid up all his treasures in an house set on fire I am undone I am undone Covetousnesse proclaimes as the worlds old age and its nearnesse to so the unwelcomnesse of its dissolution Wares laid up in a low moyst room will be corrupt and rotten but those laid up in a high loft will be kept fafe And if we lay up our treasures only in this world Mat. 6.20 they will corrupt and come to nothing but those which we treasure up in heaven will be ever safe and sound It cannot be a good day to them who are overtaken with it upon whom it comes as a snare upon the birds who are taken as the old world was with the Flood whose wine was turned into water Luk. 17.26 and whose drunken security was swallowed up in a devouring deluge Lastly it can be a Good day to none but to those who do good Psal 50.23 2 Pet. 3.11 Tit. 2.12 13. 1 Cor. 15.5 8 who in
to cover the sore If sin be impudent reproof and correction should not be bashfull If a Minister sees that error and profanenesse seek no corners he should not hide truth in a corner Publick offences are like a bag of poyson thrown into a common fountain serving for the use of a whole city And the end at which God aimed in the punishing of offenders Deut. 17.7 was that all Israel should hear and fear and do no more any such wickednesse The Syrians cared not to fight with small or great but with the king of Israel and Magistrates and Ministers should principally strike at reigning sins All the reproofs of the Prophet's and Christ were bent against the impieties of their times I verily beleeve that one main sin whereby God is provoked to make publick officers in Church and State so contemptible as they are is their fear to oppose publick and spreading sins so freely as they should 4. Observ 4. In this our present condition we want as well the affrightments of fear as the allurements of love to keep us from sin The burnt Sodomites should make us fear the fire The overthrow of the Israelites are examples to Saints under the New Testament And let us saith the Apostle therefore he means by the example of the unbeleeving Israelites fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it I am saith holy David afraid of thy judgements Psal 119.120 Jer. 10 7. Who saith Jeremy would not fear thee Oh King of Nations and Rev. 15.4 Who shall not fear thee O Lord c. for thy judgements are made manifest Fear him saith Christ who is able to throw soul and body into hell Faith is as truly due to Threatnings as Promises and Holy fear is the proper effect of that faith By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear c. Nor is it possible or profitable so long as we have such an eager pronenesse to sin to want a stoppage by fear So unwilling are we to be weaned from the forbidden breasts of sinfull pleasures that we daily need to fear the wormwood and alloes wherwith the Lord imbitters them all little enough only heaven perfects love and casts out fear 5. There is a pronenesse to sin in every age of the world Observ 5. Why should God make Sodom an example of Caution to succeeding ages if these were not forward to make Sodom an example of imitation Peter saith expresly that these overthrown cities were made an example to those who after should live ungodly The world alwayes was Mundus semper fuit est erit mundus Lutb is and will be the world saith Luther The severall ages of the world have differed in their other fashions but sin was never out of fashion Look over all times and places and it will be found true in both the whole world lies in wickednesse And of all times so true was that prediction of the Apostle the last dayes are the most perillous We now live in the sink the dregs of time Satan now labours to do much mischief and posteth the faster because he shall not long have day-sight Men likewise by long practising and by the sinfull experiments of former times are now grown as in other things so in sin greater Artists then heretofore How carefull should we be that God may have some the more for us even in these worst of times who may love holinesse when most leave it controul if not conquer sin who may shine as lights in the world and who if they can do no good to others yet may get no hurt from others To conclude this Though evill times should not damp our zeal yet neither should they make us impatient The tares and wheat will grow together till the approaching Harvest Mean while none is so much provoked as that God who is most patient Nor should we forget that all foregoing ages have abounded with those sins and difficulties which much imbittered the lives of holy men who lived in them in which respect we may wisely make use of that counsell of Solomon Say not thou What is the cause that the former times were better then these Eccles 7.10 The errours and impieties of these were in former times and are now but newly acted over and let us rejoyce that though the sins of the times should make us mourners for them yet they cannot make us followers of them 6. Observ 6 In all ages God is the same He hates the same sins in after times which he hated in the former Sodomy is now as abominable in his sight as heretofore He is the same yesterday and to day and for ever in him there is no shadow of change he loves the same holinesse now which he ever loved How great a terror is this to those who live in those sins against which God hath formerly declared his wrath God will not go out of his way to gratifie their lusts no it is the duty of the sinner to change Psal 7.12 If he turn not he will whet his sword c. Much may this comfort those who walk in the steps of former Saints 1 Tim. 1.16 Paul was a pattern to those who hereafter should beleeve They find God as ready to accept them as any heretofore Psal 22.4 This comforted the Psalmist Our Fathers saith he trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them We are forward to entertain hard thoughts of God if he continue not the same favours to us which he afforded to others we think he changeth whereas we alone are to be blamed It s not the shore which moves but the boat If we will turn to God we know where to have him our prayers and repentance will make a change in us and make us fit to be accepted they make no alteration in him at all as they who being in a ship and pull at a rope fastned to a Rock move not the Rock to them but themselves to the Rock 7. God is gracious even in his greatest severity Observ 7. Even when he was punishing of Sodom with fire and brimstone he had thoughts of preventing the like punishment upon others for the time to come He warns even when he wounds and punisheth a few that he may spare many he takes occasion by the sin and punishment of Sodom to do good to following ages his justice magnifies his mercy God layes up Manna with the rod and is not forgetfull to feed us even when he smites In his smiles he will be feared in his frowns he will be loved in the midst of judgement he remembers mercy If God be so sweet in his bitter administrations how sweet will he be when he is altogether imployed in the wayes of grace We should herein look upon the Lord as our pattern severity should not make us forget and throw off tender-heartednesse We should have mercifull ends in our
Judgement An unjust Judge is a Solecism a contradiction A Judge should be the Law enlivened To this end Judges must be godly Righteousnesse will not stand without Religion Jethro's advice to Moses was Chuse men fearing God Exod. 18.21 Let the fear of the Lord be upon you said Jehoshaphat to the Judges 2 Chr. 19.6 7. The Aethiopians apprehended that the Angels attended on all Judicatories and therefore as I have read of them they left twelve chairs empty in the judgment-place which they said were the Seats of the Angels but Judges must believe that a greater than the Angels is there 2. Impartiall He must not respect the person of the poor nor honour the person of the mighty Lev. 19.15 and Deut. 1.17 He must hear the small as well as the great There must no mans condition be regarded in judgement nor must the Judge behold the face of any ones person but the face of his cause Job 34.19 God accepts not the persons of Princes A Judge will be a sun of righteousness it shining as well upon the beggar as the noble 3. A Master of his affections Anger hatred pity fear c. the clouds of Affection will hinder the Sunshine of justice The Athenian Judges us'd to sit in Mars-street to shew that they had Martiall hearts Constantine is termed a man-childe Rev. 12.5 So Brightman for his courage He who wil go up to the mount of Justice must leave his affections as Abraham did his Asse and Servants at the foot thereof Love and wisdom seldome dwell under one roof and the fear of man is a snare A Coward we say cannot be an honest man nor will a fearfull and flexible Judge be able to say injustice Nay 4. Deliberate In the case of information about false Worship Deut. 17.3 Moses directs to this deliberation before sentence be given If it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and enquired diligently and behold it be true and the thing certain c. then shalt thou bring forth the man c. What plenty of words are here to prevent precipitancy in Judicature It much commended the integrity of Job who professeth Job 29.16 The cause which I knew not I searched out †See the example of the Heathen Festus Act. 25.16 Both sides must be heard the small as well as the great Though a Judges * Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita alerâ aequum licit statuerit haud aequus fuit Sen. in Med. sentence be right yet hee is not right in giving it if he give it before either party be heard 5. A lover of truth A man of truth Exod. 18.21 Hating lying executing the judgement of truth Zech. 8.16 His heart must love his tongue speak the truth Exod. 18.21.23.8 Deut. 16.19.27.26 2 Chron. 19.7 nor will the hand without go right if the wheels within go wrong 6. Incorrupt Hating bribes because hating covetousnesse A gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous Of whose hand saith Samuel have I received any gift to blind mine eyes therewith 1 Sam. 12.3 A Judge must neither take money to be unjust nor to be just Righteousnesse is its own reward The Thebeans erected the Statues of their Judges without hands the gaine of bribes is sum'd up Job 15.34 Fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery 7. Sober and Temperate He that followes the pleasures that attend on Majesty will soon neglect the paines which belong to Magistracy It was a prudent instruction of Lemuel's mother Prov. 31.4 5. It is not for Kings It is not for Kings O Lemuel to drink wine nor for Princes to drink strong drink lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgement of any of the afflicted Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart Hos 4.11 Some understand those words Jer. 21.12 Execute judgement in the morning properly as if they should performe acts of judgement early before they were indangered by abundant eating or feasting to render themselves less able to discerne of causes 2. The second branch of Jurisdiction which belongs to the Magistrate consisteth in the Dstribution of rewards and punishments 1. Of Rewards to those who keep 2. Of Punishments to those who break the Lawes 1. Of Rewards Of this the Apostle speaks Rom. 13. Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise Of this the Supreme Lord gives an example who joynes shewing mercy to thousands with visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children Exod. 20. Nor must a Magistrate be a Sun only for lustre of Majesty but also for warmth and benignity 2. Of Punishments These are of sundry kinds Some concern the name as degradations some the estate as pecuniary mulcts some the body and these are either Capitall or not Capitall as mutilation of some part c. Evident it is from Scripture-commands that it is the Magistrates duty to punish Deut. 19.21 the Judges shall make diligent inquisition c. And thine eye shall not pity but life shall go for life 2. From his Function Rom. 13.4 He beareth not the sword in vaine Governours are for the punishment of evill doers 3. From the Benefit of these punishments To the punished who may grieve for what they have done to the Spectators who may be warned from doing the like Prov. 19.25 Deut. 19 19r Indulgentia flagitiorum illecebra Exod. 21.12 Lâ—v. 24.17 c. Sinfull indulgence silently yet strongly invites to a second wickednesse Even Capitall punishments are injoyned by Scripture Gen. 9.6 Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed A Law which being before the erection of the Mosaicall Polity shews that the Lawes which afterward commanded Capitall punishments did not simply and absolutely but only in respect of some circumstances concern the Israelites The capitall punishment of Malefactors by the Magistrate was dictated by the Law of Nature And as the force of the foresaid command was before so did it continue after Moses Christ himself even from it drawing an Argument to disswade Peter from shedding of blood Mat. 26.52 Nor do I understand but that if all punishments of Malefactors by the sword be now unlawful as Anabaptists dream it must necessarily follow that all defending of the subjects by the sword against an invading enemy is unlawfull also the publick peace being opposed by the one as much as the other nay may we not argue That if the power of the sword belong not to the Magistrate to defend the Common-wealth that it belongs not to any private man to defend himself against the violent assaults of a murderer In sum Capitall punishments may be inflicted but sparingly slowly It is observed by some That God was longer in destroying Jericho then in making the whole world Satius est ut euret pharmacum quam sanet ferrum As many Funerals disgrace a Physician so many executions dishonour a Magistrate The execution of Justice should like Thunder fear many and
brats at her Neighbours doors In short the weak ground of this imputation of Rebellion to the Godly hath been their refusing to obey such commands of Magistrates as they apprehended sinfull And truly in this case Bene quod apposuit â—t quae sunt Det Deo hoc est imaginem Caesaris Caesari quae in nummo est imaginem Dei Deo quae in bomine est ut Caesari quidem pecuniam reddas Deo temetipsum Tert. lib. de idol c. 15. Extra territorium jus dicenti impune non paretur Observ ult when Christ calls another way I neither owe buriall to my dead nor obedience to my living though Politicall Father And as Tertullian holily descants upon those words of Christ Render to Caesar the things which are Caesars and to God c. It s well added And to God the things that are Gods that is give the image of Caesar to Caesar which is on his Coin and give the image of God to God which is in man so as Caesar may have thy money but God thy self And as according to the Civillians we must not give obedience to him that gives Law out of his own Territory so neither obey man when he goes beyond his bounds in commanding against the word and in this the Apostles Act. 5.29 and the three servants of God in Babylon have been our examples 7. Lust opposeth restraint is an enemy to Dominion loves not to be bridled Libertines despise Dominion and reject Magistracy because thereby their licencious humour is restrained The mad upon lust like the mad dog are the more inraged by the chain which curbs They who run to excess of riot in this their pouring forth if they meet with opposition like the stop'd stream swell the higher and overflow the banks Act. 19.28 1 Sam. 2.22.25 Judg. 20.14 This opposing of restraint goeth along with every lust but especially with that of carnall uncleannesse they who defile the flesh reject Dominion The sons of Eli were lustfull and withall disobedient to the command of the Magistrate The Gibeonites were as refractory to the message of Israel as they were addicted to filthinesse The Sodomites were at the same time both set upon their uncleanesse and enraged against Lots counsel The Anabaptists of Munster were grown to that heighth of uncleannesse that they openly taught men might marry as many wives as they pleased and John of Leyden their King upon a pretended revelation from Heaven presently marryed three and they who were most bold in this kind and took most wives were accounted the best men and most commendable But the fruit of this Doctrine was their teaching that before the day of Judgement Christ had a worldly Kingdome and in that the Saints only had Dominion that this Kingdom was that of the Anabaptists newly begun wherein Magistracy was to be rooted out and although Christ and his Apostles had no civil government yet that they had committed the same with the power of the sword to those who after them should teach in the Church Nor is it possible but that lust should vehemently oppose restraint considering its propensions and motions are naturall and therefore strong as also furthered by all the helps which a powerfull and impure spirit can invent and apply False then is the pretence of Libertines who would be thought only ro oppose the irregularities of Magistracy or Ministry when as it is clear that their lusts are most offended at the being of their ordinations and the consciencious discharge of them And much should this comfort those who are thus consciencious in the midst of all the rage and reproach with which they are followed for their faithfulnesse It is a sign they have disquieted mens lusts and as Luther once said that when Satan roars they have given him a full blow Nor yet should the unquietnesse and troubles of the world be laid at the door of restraint and Dominion If religious opposition drawes out mens rage it doth it by labouring to keep it in or rather to take it away From mens lusts are warres in that they will not stoop to God who will not lay aside his dominion to gratifie licenciousnesse In a word We may hence gather the insufficiency of humane laws nay any externall means to change the heart from a love of sin they may possibly restrein and curb and frequently they irritate and enrage sinners it s only the power of grace at once to take away the disobedience of the life and the despising of the heart To conclude We may hence learn the direct way to avoid the sin of these Seducers oppose lusts these put people upon opposing of Magistracy Such are 1. Covetousness when men desire to set the Nations on fire that they may steal away the goods and to have States wrackt that the goods may be cast upon their costs 2. Discontentednesse with our condition The trees in Jothams Parable pleased themselves in their own station of privacy and usefulnesse and she was a wise woman who contented her selfe with her abode among her own people 3. Ambition and affectation of superiority it s better to be fit to rule then to rule and not to be fit He is only worthy of honour of whom honour it self is unworthy and to whom it even sues for acceptance Absolom aspired to be high in his life and he was in his death as high as the boughs of the tree a fit reward for his ambitious climbing 4. Envy at the height of others whereby men look into the failings of Magistrates to blemish them and will not see the gifts and graces of their Superiors but only with repining grieving not because things go ill but because they go no worse A cursed temper 5. Selfe conceitednesse whereby with Absolom men think themselves fitter to sit at the stern then any placed there already 6. Implacablenesse whereby private injuries are retain'd with a watching of all occasions of revenge though to the involving of multitudes in the co-partnership of their own sedition and destruction In a word So long as we love lust we cannot conscienciously obey Magiserates and yet so long as we have luft we cannot be without Magistrates The Lord fit us for that condition wherein we shall not be troubled with the former nor stand in need of the later FINIS