preparing them to receive the command by various Arguments which are aptly couched in this oratoricall Proaeme I write not a new but an old Commandment And Again a new Commandment I write to you which is true in him c. Having dispatched the Compellation and the first branch of the Commendation we are now to proceed to the second which is drawn from that conformity this duty hath to Christs pattern intimated in those words Which thing is true or a thing which is true in him I am not ignorant that some learned men refer all that followeth in this Verse to those words in the beginning of it A new Commandment I write to you as if it were only a Confirmation of that part of the commendation and so those words Which thing is true are thus to be Paraphrased which thing Namely That this Commandment of Love is a new Commandment is true both respecâ—u Christi nostri in regard of Christ who hath himself fulfilled it and so given us a new pattern of it and in respect of us Christians who by reason of the true light shinining have a new grace enabling us to performe it our selves But I rather incline to take these words as affording new Topicks for the commendation of love and so the laudatory Character we are now to handle is that this grace which is enjoyned to Christians is no other then what was true in Christ The Clause as it is set down in the Greeke carrieth with it no small difficulty Gagneius upon this place ingeniously professeth that he could not find out the true sence and meaning of it Some Expositors render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it self as if the sense of these words were only to assert the verity of the thing concerning which he discourseth but this to me seemeth jeiune and unbeseeming the fullness of Scripture Expressions besides if we observe the phrase of this holy Apostle and that in this Epistle we shall find it very usuall with him to speak of Christ under those phrases of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we may observe in the latter end of this and the beginning of the next Chapter look as Mary Magdalen having her own thoughts so full of Christ conceived there was no need of nameing him only to say Tell me where thou hast laid him so St John burning with love to Christ not doubting but that he was well known to them to whom he wrot and therefore supposing they would easily guess of whom he wrote thinketh it enough to say only him so that we may very well expound this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Translators readit in him to wit Christ But the greatest difficultie of construing this Clause lyeth in the first particle â— since being of the neuter Gender it cannot agree with the feminine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Substantive immediately preceding but it is no strange or unusuall thing for an Adjective of the neuter gender to be taken Substantively and so quod which is as much as quae res which thing Thus it is rendred in our Translation and is not unfitly expounded by Grotius to be that thing namely Love which is the matter of the old and new Commandment and indeed though the phrase may seem somewhat harsh yet the sense is most fitly thus expressed since the Commandment it self referrs to us not Christ but the thing or matter of the Commandment was true in Christ himself and so layeth a greater obligation upon us to performe the Commandment nor need we stick at this Construction when we find the same in the former Chapter where in the second and third Verses after the feminine substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put a neuter Adjective â— as that forementioned Author observes And now according to this interpretation the plain sense of the words appeareth to be this A thing which is true in him that is This grace of love which I enjoyn you is no other then what was verified in Christ himself So that as before he lets them see it is a Commandment both old and new so here he acquaints them further it was such a Commandment as had Christ himself an Example of it Ipse enim prius charitatem ostendit saith Ferus For he himself did practice Love ratum ac reipsa invenitur primum quidem in illo ut capite saith Beza In him as being the head of the Church and having received the Spirit without measure was this primarily accomplished And this interpretation I so much the rather assent to because it so aptly suiteth with what our Apostle had before delivered when he calleth upon them to express the reality of their interest in Christ by keeping his Commandments and walking as he walked whilst he lets them see that the duty of Love which he was about presently and did intend chiefly to inculcate upon them was the only way to performe both these By Love they should keep the Commandments for it is both the old and the new Commandment and by Love they should walk as Christ walked for it is a thing which was true in him And now That this was true in Christ is a truth so clear that there will be no need to prove it Indeed it is tanquam radio solis scripta written as it were with a Sun beam so that he which runs may read it It is a Subject I might very well dilate upon but that I shall have more full occasion to discuss both the Love of Christ and God to us in the following Chapters That it is so cannot be denied yea should we be so ungratefull as to deny or doubt it the Manger and the Cross would testify against us If either confering benefits on us or suffering injuries for us can assure his love to us our Apostle she weth it to be true in both when he saith To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his Blood and made us Kings and Priests to God the Father How legible are the Characters of his love in his Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Intercession and all those advantages of Redemption Remission Adoption Justification Salvation which by those accrue to us Which who so knowingly considers must needs say with St Paul The love and kindness of God our Saviour hath appeared with St Peter The Lord is gracious and with St Bernard his love to us was dignitatis nescius dignatione dives affectu potens suasu efficax full of condescention and affection Indeed that it should be so though it cannot be gainsaid may well be admired especially when we look upon our selves What were we the rebellious off-spring of degenerate Parents Slaves of Satan Servants of sin Children of wrath that Christ should cast an Eye towards and place his Love on us The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is manifest that he loved us and you if he ask the
brought in 1. It may at first view seem somewhat strange that this qualification of doing Gods will should be here inserted as seeming to have little or no affinity with what precedeth had the Apostle said but he that loveth the Father or had he said but he that denieth these worldly lâ—sis it would have been very congruous but how this cometh in â—e that doth the will of God is not so obvious Yet iâ— you please to looke into it a little more narrowly you shall finde it very sutable to the Apostles scope and farre more Emphaticall then if he had used either of the above mentioned Phrases For 1. In saying not He that loveth the Father but He that doth the will of God the Apostle sets down that which is the most reall Character of a true lover of the Father There is nothing wherein men more deceive themselves then in this grace of loving God there is scarce any man but layeth claime to it and is ready to say I love God with all my heart so that if St John had only said He that loveth God abideth for ever every man would have flattered himself with the hopes of this eternity But in saying he that doth the will of God he hereby puts our love of God upon the triall and that by such a Character as if we impartially examine our selves by it I am afraid the love of most Christians towards God will be found base and counterfeit 1. True love is not only affective but active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as fire is the most active element so love is the most working grace Amor si non operatur non est saith St Gregory If love act not it is no love so that what St James saith of faith may as truly be applied to love shew me thy faith thy love by thy workes 2. Again True love conformeth it selfe in will affection action to the Object loved How fearfull are we to offend carefull are we to please whom we love If a mans Beloved bid him come he cometh go he runneth do this or that he doth it In which respct Isidore saith truly Qui Dei praecepta cantemnit Deum non diligit neque enim regem diligimas si odio ejus leges habemus he that contemneth Gods Precepts doth not love him no more then â—e doth his King who hateth his Laws The voice of love is I am my beloveds wholly at his command and that not only in a complement but reality What wilt thou have me to do is loves Question be it never so difficult love accounts it easie and the very labour is beloved Would we then know whether we love God Here is the triall what do we where is our obedience to his Laws our conformity to his will is it possible we should love him and yet offend grieve dishonour him and cast his commands behind our backs If you love me saith our blessed Saviour keep my Commandements and again You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you I love my Master and I will not go free saith the Servant in the Law Oh let us approve the sincerity of our love by the reality of our obedience For which cause no doubt it was that our Apostle saith Not he that loveth God but he that doth the will of God 2. In saying He that doth the will of God our Apostle saith as much as He that denieth the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and somewhat more so that as in the former consideration it appeareth to be a discriminating so in this we shall finde it a comprehensive Character For 1. Sui Repudium Christiani praeludium The first step in doing Gods will is denying our own and these lusts are the ebullitions of our own corrupt wills To do Gods will is to obey his prohibitions and these lusts are the principall Objects of those prohibitions so that the renouncing worldly lusts is plainly implyed in this of doing Gods will 2. To do Gods will is of a larger extent Inasmuch as it super addeth the practice of the graces contrary to these lusts Sobriety and chastity justice and charity modesty and humility are but severall branches of Gods will and these are manifestly opposite to the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and therefore in saying he that doth Gods will he saith he that is temperate and mercifull and humble and calls not only for a forsaking evill lusts but a performance of the contrary graces So that hereby our Apostle teacheth us that to attaine eternall felicity it is not enough to be free from these lusts but we must exercise our selves to virtue to cleanse our selves from filthiness but we must perfect holinesse and the reason is plaine since we cannot be happy but by doing Gods will Gods will is expressed not only by prohibitions of evill but prescriptions of good and therefore we cannot do Gods will unless we act what is commanded as well as shun what is forbidden So that whether you take this qualification as in opposition to those lusts mentioned in the sixteenth Verse or as an explanation of the love of the Father mentioned in the fifteenth Verse it appeareth to be very fitly made choice of 2. But that in which the connexion chiefly lyeth and which will more easily appeare is the remuneration that enduring for ever which is promised to him that doth Gods will And doubtless there was a double reason why our Apostle having spoken of the worlds transitâ—riness addeth by way of amplification this clause of eternall felicity The one in regard of the world that it may appeare so much the more transitâ—ry the other in regard of the worldly lover that his fâ—lly in setting his heart upon the world may appeare so much the more foolish yea abominable and of each a word 1. The world considered absolutely is transitory but if compared with eternity it is momentany Surely as St Paul speaking of the afflictions of this present time in comparison with that exceeding eternall weight of glory affirmeth them to be light and but for a moment so may we upon the same ground of all the enjoyments of this life As all the splendor of this world in respect of that felicity is but as the light of a Gloworme to the Sun so the longest continuance of this world in regard of that eternity is but as the drop of the Bucket to the Ocean Suppose the time of the worlds continuance to last a Million of yeares yet that Million is but a Moment to Eternity Indeed a Million of yeares is farre lesse in comparison of eternity then an houre is in comparison of a Million of yeares and the reason is plaine because eternity infinitely exceeds a Million whereas a Million doth but finitely exceed an houre you may easily count how much longer a Million is then an
doth not tend to and end in Obedience And so much for the Antithesis by which the Thesis is illustrated Proceed we to the Last particular in this first proposition Namely The Argument by which it is proved laid down in these words Who so keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Calvin indeed conceiveth these words to be annexed as a description of Obedience so that if we would know what it is to keep the Commandments the answer is It is to have the Love of God perfected in us to this purpose is it that Moses saith What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love him And Christ summeth up all the Commandements in those two precepts of love towards God and our Neighbour yea St Paul saith expresly That love is the fulfilling of the Law not only effectivè because it inableth us to keep it but reductivè because the whole Law is reducible to that of love But though this Construction be true yet I conceive it is not so genuine and congruous to the Apostles scope And therefore I rather look upon these words as a confirmation of the preceding clause he that knoweth God will keep his Commandments because he that knoweth him loveth him and he that loveth him cannot but keep his Commandements The strength of this Argument will the better appear if we put it into a Syllogism which we may take briefly thus The Love of God is perfected in all and only those who keep his Word In whomsoever there is a right knowledg of God the Love of God is perfected Therefore Whosoever knoweth God aright will keep his Word And now acording to this Interpretation here are two positions to be insisted on The one whereof is the Minor the other the Major in the Syllogism the one tacitely intimated and the other positively expressed 1. That which is here implyed is that where there is a Knowledg there is also the Love of God and Christ The Love of God may admit of a double reference either Charitas quâ amat or quâ amatur actively the love whereby God doth love or passively the love whereby he is beloved Illyricus understandeth the former and no doubt it is a truth that Gods love is fixed on him who keepeth his Word He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them saith Christ my Father will love him Yea whereas God vouchsafeth a generall love to all men he hath a more speciall favour to obedient persons but if we thus understand the Love of God in this place the phrase of perfected will sound very harsh since there is nothing in God but it is absolutely and infinitely perfect and therefore I reject it More generally and probably Expositors here understand that love which we have to God and so it is an undoubted truth they who know him cannot but love him The truth is therefore is divine knowledg effective because it is affective it commands our actions because it commands our affections and if we know him we keep his Commandements because if we know him we love him It is a rule among the Hebrews that verba notitiae connotant affectus the phrase of knowing noteth such an act of the understanding as carrieth the affections along with it And indeed it is impossible but the affections should be carried on toward the Object when it is rightly known It is a saying of St Austin Qui vult habere notitiam Deâ— amet he that will know God must love him since love causeth acquaintance and it is as true Qui vult habere amorem Dei noscat he that will love God let him know him The necessary connexion between these two appeareth upon a double ground 1. The one in respect of Gods Nature which is good and goodness it self The proper Object of love is good and it is impossible Vt quis bonum cognitum non amaret that good known should not be beloved Be a thing never so good if the goodness of it be not known to us it cannot be loved by us and if our understandings are fully and clearly convinced of its goodness it cannot but draw our love towards it now God is good the chief good a full Universall Originall good There is no goodness in any Creature which is not from him and after a more eminent way in him and therefore he that knoweth him apprehending him infinitely good cannot but be enamored with him Indeed he that rightly knoweth God knoweth him to be justice it self and therefore cannot but fear him Truth it self and therefore cannot but trust him Goodness it self and therefore cannot but love him 2. The other in respect of the Spirits efficacy and operation Idem spiritus qui illuminat inspirat conformem affectum the same spirit is both a spirit of Knowledg and Love Like the fire which giveth both light and heat and wheresoever the spirit worketh savingly there is not only an illumination of the minde but a sanctification throughout whereby the will is inclined to the love as well as the judgment enlightned with the knowledg of God Content not thy self then with a sapless heartless Knowledg Though Christ as God knoweth all persons and things yet he knoweth not them whom he loveth not and therefore he saith himself to the workers of iniquity I know you not and though a man as St Paul specifieth in his own person have all knowledg yet if he have not Charity it is nothing to wit in Gods account and though it may be profitable to others yet it can neither be acceptable to God nor beneficiall to himself 2. But further that which is here expressed and therefore chiefly to be insisted on is that whoso keepeth his Word in him verâ—ly is the love of God perfected The Subject of this clause whoso keepeth his Word is the same for substance with that in the third verse If we keep his Commandements and therefore need not be again handled only the different term of Word would not be passed by The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath especially a double signification both of which may be here made use of to wit ratio and sermo reason and speech According to the former acception Christs Commandements are so called because in them is set before us ratio vivendi the way to order our Conversation aright And there is nothing in them but what is rectae rationi consonum most agreeable to right reason According to this Notion it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St Peter is rendred by the Vulgar Latin Lac rationale and that for this reason quia rationem tradit credendi rectè vivendi because the word set down a just rule but of a right belief and a good life and this by the way may be a strong Obligation to the keeping of what Christ requireth because he requireth nothing but what is just and reasonable According to the latter construction Christs
Commandements are so called because they were first uttered by himself vivâ voce with his own lips in those Sermons which he preached to the people that especially upon the Mount and it is that which doth both advance the dignity of the Commandement and engage our duty in keeping them When a King shall not send his Herald to proclaime his pleasure but declare his will himself and give his Commands with his own mouth to the people ought this not to be received with the greater reverence and performed with a more ready Obedience These Commandements they were first Gods Words for so runs the Preface of the Morall Law God spake these words and said they were afterwards Christs Words for so begins the Sermon on the Mount he spened his mouth and spake so that whereas all the Scripture is Christs Word because dictated by his spirit the Commandements are his Word because immediately spoken by him And in that it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words but word perhaps our Apostle might have respect to a particular command given by Christ namely the Law of love of which he chiefly treateth in this Epistle To let this goe pass we on to the predicate of the Clause as being that which here is eminently considerable In him who keepeth his word verily the love of God is perfected It is that which is true both wayes and so may very well admit of an Inversion 1. On the one hand in him who loveth God the keeping of his word is verily perfected It is the excellency and perfection of Obedience when it springs from Love There is a threefold Obedience to wit Necessitatis Cupiditatis Charitatis Of Compulsion when a man obeyeth no further then he is forced that is the Slaves whom nothing but feare enduceth to the performance of his Masters Command Out of expectation when a man obeyeth for the hope of reward that is the servants who serveth his Master for his Wages Out of affection when a man obeyeth because he loveth him who commands that is the Sons whom deare respect to his Father engageth to serve him and this last is the most ingenuous and perfect Obedience Indeed it is love that enlargeth the heart not only to creep but go nor go but run nor run but flye at Gods call It teacheth us to obey not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grudgingly but chearfully nor is any Obedience more free then that to which the Love of Christ constraineth The truth is Malus miles qui imperatorem gemens sequitur he is a base Souldier that followeth his Generall with tears Malus est ager cum quo Dominus luctatur that is bad ground which bringeth forth nothing unless it be forced that Obedience is not worthy the name which is only extorted from us and such is all service where love is absent In this respect it is that St Ambrose saith Plus est diligere quam custodire it is more to love God then keep his Word since this may spring from force and feare but that only from Charity Indeed this Charity is that which perfects all graces and duties nudae sine Charitate omnes virtutes said Leo truly all even our best actions are naked if not done in love 2. And as thus it is our love that perfects our Obedience so withall it is our Obedience that perfects our love I will lift up my hands saith David to thy Commandements which I have loved It is not the lifting up our eyes to the reading no nor of our ears to the hearing but of our hands to the doing of the Commandements which argueth our love Hearing may be a means to perfect our knowledg the Eare being the Bucket whereby we draw the water of spirituall knowledg out of the Well of Gods Word Hearing may be a means to perfect our Faith and therefore the Apostle saith Faith cometh by Hearing both the inchoation and the perfection the rise and growth of it but still the keeping of Gods Word is that which perfects our love whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfect But it may be here objected What meaneth our Apostle to use this phrase of perfecting nay to use it in the Preterperfectence For so the word Grammatically is to be rendred in him the Love of God hath been perfected Can any grace which we have in this life be perfect The measure of the Arke was an imperfect measure two Cubit and an half was the length a Cubit and an half the breadth and a Cubit and an half the height of it Such is the measure of all our graces in this life One qualification of Christs blessed men is that they hunger and thirst after Righteousness alwaies in desiring because never in full fruition This then being true of all graces is in particular verified of love to God which shall never be perfected till we come to Heaven and therefore whilst we are here is perfecting but not perfected For the solution then of this doubt be pleased 1. In generall To distinguish with the Fathers of a double perfection Alia absoluta alia quae competit fragilituti nostrae so St Hierom Alia media alia plenos numeros habens So St Ambrose the one absolute and compleat the other limited and comparative in which sense he that attaineth to great measures of grace yea far above others is said to have grace perfected in him to wit such a perfection as man in this life can attain unto or again we may distinguish of a perfection of parts and of degrees the one whereof refers to the sincerity the other to the exactness of grace We call a child which hath all the essentials and integrals of a man a perfect man though he is not grown up to the strength and stature and wisdome of a man It were easie to instance in many Scriptures where perfect is put for upright and according to this notion grace may be said to be perfected in them in whom it is found to be sincere 2. In particular Concerning this grace of love it will not be amiss to distinguish with Lorinus of four degrees of perfection 1. To love God is to love him quantum ipse est diligibilis as much as he is worthy to be loved and so he only loveth himself neither in viâ nor yet in patria here nor hereafter can we attain such a degree of love and the reason is plain because the love which is worthy of himself must be like himself infinite 2. To love God Quantum Creatura diligere potest as much as any Creature can possibly love him and this we shall have in Heaven where we shall know and knowing love God to the utmost that a finite nature is capable of 3. To love God Quantum mortalis potest Creatura so much as a Creature cloathed with frailty and
mortality can and this is that which all ought to aspire after yea some do attain to and may be called a perfection of proficiency 4. Lastly To love God Quantum nulla alia res diligitur so much as no other thing besides is loved by us to love God above all and all in and for God This is that to which every true Christian attaineth even in this life and is called a perfection of sincerity In this last notion Interpreters generally and rationally expound it here So among others Beda and Beza Charitatem perfectam videtur Apostolus eam intelligere quae est vera sincera saith the one the Apostle understandeth by perfect sincere love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc in loco non declarat aliquid perfecte consummare sed mendacio simulationi inani opponitur saith the other perfected doth not here signifie to make a thing compleat but is opposed to lying and hypocrisie In this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to be a corrective of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not say in him the love of God is fully but verily or truly perfected In this sense he that keepeth Gods Word is said to have the love of God perfected in him upon a double account 1. Because he that keepeth Gods Word doth reipsa praestare really performe love to him Look as a tree is then said to be perfected when it hath not only buds and leaves but fruit so is the love of God perfected when it is not only in desire and profession but practice Indeed love begins at the judgment by a surpassing estimation of God as the chiefest good from thence it acts in the will by ardent desires after and frequent delight in the enjoyment of him but still the reall part of love is that by which the integrality of it is as it were consummated is obedience in doing what he requireth from us 2. Because he that keepeth Gods Word doth hereby plenè manifestare fully declare and manifest that his love to God is sincere in this respect the Greek Scholiast renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and giveth this as the reason because by our good works our love appeareth to be perfect nor is this an unusuall acceptation of the phrase When Gods strength is said to be made perfect by weakness it no doubt intends no more but that it is discovered to be perfect and when Abrahams Faith is said to be made perfect by works Aquinas giveth this as the reason because these were the Operations and so the manifestations of his Faith Thus the keeping of Gods Word perfects our love because it doth discover the perfection of it By this it appeareth to be true and not fained since though fained love may shew it self by words it is only sincere love that expresseth it self by works and were not love deeply rooted in the heart it would not bring forth good fruits in the life Nay indeed by this it appeareth to be strong as well as true look as it argueth nature to be strong in a man when he can perform with vivacity the operations of nature so it manifesteth grace to be strong when a man doth readily performe gratious actions The fire which flameth forth is not only kindled but is fervent and our love manifesteth it self not only sincere but strong when it breaketh forth in our observance of Gods Word throughout the course of our Conversation And now what remaineth but that every one of us approve our love to God by keeping his Word Love to God is that which we all pretend and which is the riddle even profane wretches are ready to say He that loveth not God is not worthy to live but in vain is love to God professed by us in our words whilst it is not perfected in us by our deeds How canst thou say thou lovest me said Dalilah to Sampson since thy heart is not with me It may no less truly be objected how can we say we love God whilest our hands are not lift up to his Precepts The truth is amori cedunt omnes affectus all the affections attend on love it is full of fear of grief of joy of desire He that loveth God cannot but be grieved when he offends him glad when he pleaseth him fearfull to do anything which may provoke desirous and carefull to do whatsoever may delight him and no wonder if where these affections are active there be an endeavour to avoid what he forbids and perform what he requireth I end all let every one of us conceive that Christ saith to us in those words which he is pleased to ingemminate to his Disciples If you love me keep my Commandments and again If any man love me he will keep my word and therefore let us at once both testifie and justisie the truth of our love by the reality of our service ever remembring what this blessed Disciple asserts in conformity to his Masters lesson Who so keepeth his Word in him verily and none but him is the love of God perfected THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. the lat part of the 5 and the 6. Verse 5. Hereby know we that we are in him 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk as Christ walked IT is an amiable excellency in any superiour to become a precedent of that whereof he giveth a Precept and shew himself an Acter in that whereof he is an Exacter from others It was the praise of Caesar that his Word to his Souldiers was not Ite but Venite go but come Nor much unlike was that of Gideon to the people Look on me and do likewise Indeed by this means a Governour layeth a double and so a strong obligation upon the Inferiours whilst he doth at once both enjoyne by his commands and invite by his pattern For this reason no doubt it is that the Captain of our Salvation as he hath prescribed us Laws so he hath given us an Example not imposing that on us to which he did not some way or other expose himself To this purpose are those phrases which are used by him in the Gospel of coming after him and learning of him and for this reason his beloved Disciple here enjoyneth these two together and as in the former verses he calleth upon us to keep his Commandments so here to walk as he walked Hereby we know c. The second principall position is that which cometh now to be handled wherein we have two things observable The Christians being and his operation his state and his work his dignity and his duty The being state and dignity of a Christian is expressed in those phrases We are in him and he abideth in him The Operation Work and Duty of a Christian is signified in those ought himself so to walk as he walked both which we shall consider apart in themselves and then joyntly in the dependance
assured he keepeth them may know and be assured that he knoweth Christ I shut up all with one Caution In your indeavours after the reflex forget not the direct acts of Faith Look upon Christ as he who is your righteousness to justifie you and then look upon your Obedience as that which may testifie to you that you are justified by him even then when you cannot clearly discover inherent qualifications cast not away wholly your confidence in Christs Merits and when you do discover them rest not in them but only in Christs Merits ever remembring that it is the being in Christ by Faith which intitleth you to justification and salvation and your keeping the Commandments and walking as Christ walked is that which manifesteth the truth of your Faith by which you are in Christ by whom you are justified and shall at last be saved THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 7 8 9 10 11. 7. Brethren I write no new Commandment unto you but an old Commandment which you had from the beginning the old Commandment is the Word which ye have heard from the beginning 8. Again a new Commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth 9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now 10. He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him 11. But he that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes IT was St Pauls sage and sacred advice to Timothy Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Where these words Faith and Love are by some and not unfitly referred to the manner of holding these being the two hands by which we hold fast the truth but by others and no less probably they are refered to the forme of sound words which he heard of him the matter of the form the substance of those words being reducible to those two heads suitable hereunto is that Paraphrase of Theophilact in Faith and Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is My words and discourses are conversant about Faith and Love what he saith concerning St Pauls we may concerning St Johns words in this Epistle all of which tend either to the enlightning of our Faith or inflaming of our Love the latter of which our Apostle beginneth with at these Verses Brethren I write no new Commandment c. Which words consist of two generall Parts A Preamble inviting in the 7 and 8 Verses A Doctrine instructing in the 9 10 and 11 Verses Our Apostle intending to spend a great part of this Epistle in a discourse of Love doth not unfitly begin it with a Preface especially considering that the end of an Exordium is captare benevolentiam to gain love both to the Orator and his matter In this Preamble there are two things considerable The kind Appellation our Apostle giveth those to whom he wrote in the first word Brethren The large Commendation he giveth of the Doctrine about which he was to write in the rest of the words That which first occureth to be handled is the kind Appellation Brethren The vulgar Latine following the Syriack read it Charissimi dearly Beloved and Grotius finds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Greek Manuscript Indeed either is very suitable To shew that he himself was not a stranger to that love he would teach them he might fitly call them dearly Beloved and being to treat of Brotherly Love he no less aptly useth the stile of Brethren so that it is not much materiall which way we read it but because the other phrase of dearly Beloved is used afterward and the most Greek Copies here read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall handle that reading which our Translation following renders Brethren It is a title that is very considerable upon severall accounts especially these foure Inasmuch as it is a word of Verity of Humility of Charity of Dignity There was really such a relation between St John and those to whom he wrote The mentioning it by the Apostle argueth in him a Spirit of love and lowliness and much advanceth the honour of those to whom he wrote 1. It is a word of verity indeed it is somewhat strange how this should be true If you cast your eyes on the first verse of this Chapter you find him calling them children and how is it possible they should at once be his brethren and his children If they were his brethren he and they must be children of one Father if they were his children he must be their Father and these two cannot consist together The truth is these relations in a natural way and a proper notion are altogether incompatible between the same persons and yet this hinders not but that in a spiritual and Scripture-sence both these are verified of S t John in reference to those to whom he wrote Know then that the sacred penman of this Epistle may be considered under a three-fold latitude as an Apostle as a Christian as a Man 1. Consider him as an Apostle invested by Christ with authority to publish the Gospell whereby they were converted to the Faith so he was their Father and might therefore call them his Children But 2. Consider him as a Christian embracing the same Faith with them which he Preached to them so he and they were Bretheren They who have the same Father and Mother are undoubtedly Brethren now the Apostles as Christians had God to their Father and the Catholick Church to their Mother and therefore Brethren to all even ordinary Christians In this respect it is that St Peter giving thanks to God for this mercy of Regeneration useth a Pronoune of the first person Plurall Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten not me or you or me and you but us again to a lively Hope thereby intimating that he and they were all the Children of God and that by the same meanes of the new Birth and St Paul writing to the Corinthians maketh himself one of the number when he saith We being many are one body and again By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body thereby implying that he and they stand in the same relation to the Church This Relation is that which is not between every Minister and his People On the one hand sometimes the Minister himself is not a Brother because a prophane wicked Person yea in this respect he may be able to say my Children and yet not my Brethren for since the Spirituall Birth dependeth upon the energie of the Seed which is the Word accompanied with the Spirit not at all upon the goodness of him that dispenseth it it is not impossible for
in that respect the command of love as delivered by Christ seemed no doubt to the Jews and was as it were a new Commandment But there are two other interpretations which seem more genuine then the former And therefore know 3. That this Commandment of love is a new Commandment not substantially but circumstantially not in the essence of the doctrine but the manner of patefaction not in respect of the thing delivered but the way of delivering it It is the same command of love which is now and was in the law enjoyned but the example is different in the law our love to our selves in the Gospel Christs love to us is made the pattern of this duty Indeed this variety of example maketh no difference at all in the matter of the precept when Moses saith thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self he requireth as much as when Christ saith love one another as I have loved you That of St Paul concerning the love which ought to be between man and wife sully illustrateth this truth for whereas he useth both these examples exhorting husbands to love their wives as Christ loved his Church and every one to love his wife as himself yet he commands no more by the one then the other only presseth it hereby with the greater energie Not are we to conceive any new addition to the general precept of love but only a fuller enforcement of the same precept from this new example Look as the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath are both dayes to be kept holy but on a different account the one of the creation of the world and the other of Christs resurrection so the Jewish and the Christian command of love are of the same nature but the one urged by the example of self-love and the other of Christs and because the Gospel-command is enforced with a new argument and so delivered in a new manner it may therefore be stiled a new Commandment Nor is it unlikely that St John having before in general exhorted to walk as Christ walked here particularizing in this walk of love might call it a new Commandment in this respect as it is an imitation of Christs pattern 4. But there is yet another interpretation which wants not good authority and reason to back it and would not be passed by and that is to take new not in opposition to antiquity but antiquation new because it waxeth not old is never out of date but alwaies in force There are some commands which are new and not old such are the Sacraments of the new Testament others which are old but not new because abolished such are the Ceremoniall services of the old Testament and there are others which are old and yet new such are the Precepts of the Morall Law St Paul compareth Love to a Debt when he saith Owe nothing to any man but Love and indeed it is such a Debt that is ever paying the Bond being never Cancelled It is the usuall cry of this age when Preachers deliver these morall Doctrines he Preacheth old and common things but my Brethren they are so old that they are new and must continually be inculeated upon the people And therefore let us all learn so to look upon this command that taking it as new we may the more carefully observe it It is well noted by Arnoldus Solent homines leges novas studio sius observare paulatim verà lege inveterascente de studio remittunt Men are wont to be very observant of a Law whilst it is fresh and new but as it groweth old their Obedience becometh remiss and therefore it is Maldonates note upon the Gospell that this newness is to be refer'd Non tam ad mandatum ipsum quam ad studium obediendi not so much to the command it self as to our indeavour of obeying it and since as some trees are green all the year so this is alwaies in force we should with all care and conscience perform it To draw to an end There is one acception of novum for rarum new for that which is rare and unusuall which I would to God might not be too true as to the practice of this Commandment it is rare and unusuall especially in this frozen age But however let us remember the command is new that is excellent and new that is renewed and new that is refined and new that is perswaded by a new and urgent example and therefore let our desires and indeavour's be still new and vigorous in the observance of it so much the rather considering that as some of the Ancients glosse it is novum quasi innovans this new Commandment by our obedience to it will transform us into new Creatures and new Men in Christ Jesus And that we may be enabled to this obedience what other course should we take then to pray for a new Spirit for that is another reason given of this phrase novum quia novo spiritu impletur it is therefore called new because it requireth the new grace of the new Testament which is given by a new Spirit to fullfill it for this new grace let us be daily Orators so shall we be of this new Commandment daily practisers To end all They say of wine it is best when old of Honey it is best when new behold this command of love is as wine and to commend it it is an old Commandment as Honey and to commend it it is a new Commandment some men are plodding antiquaries and delight in old things old Evidences old Monuments old Gold old Coines old Proverbs and the like others curious novelists and delight in new here is that may allure both and therefore which way soever we are bent our Apostle hath as it were fitted our humour God grant it may affect our hearts so as we may all be in love with this Commandment of love which is both an old and new Commandment THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. part of the 8 VERS Which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth AMong the many observables in sacred writ it would not be passed by what frequent use the Penmen make of those two Arts Logick and Rhetorick by the one proving strongly and by the other perswading sweetly It were easie to discover in these Divine Books the severall Topicks of Argumentation Tropes and Figures of Elocution and Forms of Oratory True it is it had been enough for the divine Majesty whose Penmen these were only to assert and enjoyn without either proving or perswading But such is his Mercy that knowing our dulness and perversness he is pleased to convince us by undeniable reasons and allure us by loving insinuations A pregnant instance hereof we have in these words the scope whereof is to make way for the command of love which our Apostle was about to give them friendly bespeaking them with the title of Brethren and sweetly
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why he loved us there can no reason on our part be given of it And surely since his love was not deserved no nor so much as desired by us fit it is it should be acknowledged with admiration and retaliated with gratulation and followed by imitation This last our Apostle here aimeth at in which respect he fitly addeth and in you it being most rationall that what was true in the Head should be true also in the Members what was true in the Root should be true in the Branches that as Christ loved us so we Christians should love one another Before I proceed to this which is the next part I shall in a few words mind you of one reading of these words in which they have reference to this second part Grotius tels us that in one Manuscript it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St Hierom in his translation reads it nobis A thing which is true in him that is Chriâ—t and in us that is his Apostles who write and publish this Commandment to you The Originall Copy was drawn by Christ his Disciples transcribed it in their own practice and have commended it to all Christians to write after both him and them This Cup of Love was begun by Christ his Apostles pledged him and it must go round all Christians are to drink of it And here I cannot but take notice of that which I would to God were seriously laid to heart by all who succeed the Apostles in the work of the Ministry Namely that as St John in the behalf of himself and the other Apostles saith I write to you a Commandment concerning a thing which is true in us so we may be able to say that that which we enjoyn the people is verified in our selves This is according to Isidores phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to joyn living with dead instruction when our life as well as our tongue preacheth this is according to Primasius his Exposition rightly to divide the word of truth when we confirme our Doctrine by our practice Finally This is according to Playfers allusion to lift up the voice like a Trumpet which must be held with the hand as well as blown with the mouth when we not only report the truth by a lively Preaching but support it by a Preaching life Indeed then only can Ministers publish commands with authority so as to gain belief with boldness so as not to be ashamed with efficacy so as to perswade when they joyn patterns to their Precepts 1. Men are very apt to question the truth of that Dectrine to which the Preachers practice giveth the lye the way to imprint an instruction upon the Hearers heart as well as ear is to speak by our works as well as words It is said of our blessed Saviour He spake as one having authority and St Gregories morall is Cum imperio docetur quod prius agitur quam docetur he only Preacheth with authority who doth what he teacheth 2. When a Ministers Conversation confuteth his instruction blushing may well sit upon his cheeks and his ears tingle to hear that of St Paul Thou that teachest another shall not steal dost thou steal The Leper in the Law was to cover his lips which one morally applyeth to Leprous Ministers who may well stop their mouths for shame 3. A speech not accompanied with action saith Isidore truely for the most part is liveless and ineffectuall if the Heavens that is the Preachers are as Brass only tinckling with sound of words no marvell if the Earth to wit the People are as Iron obdurate to all their counsels since Cujus vita despicitur restat ut ejus praecatio contemnatur his Preaching is usually despicable whose life is contemptible in which regard St Bernard saith truly of such an one Verendum ne non tam nutriat doctrinâ verbi quam sterili vitâ noceat It is to be feared his vitious life more infects then his pious Doctrine instructs That Preacher wi ll both find most comfort in himself and do most good to others who can say in the words of a devout Abbot Nâ—n aliquem docui quicquam quod ego prius ipse non fecerim I never taught any man any lesson which I did not first learn my self as here St John saith of this Commandment it is true in us And so much for this second commendatory Character of this grace of Love its conformity to the pattern of Christ and as you see by some readings his Apostles I now hasten to the 3. Last That conformity which this duty hath to the state of the Gospell and the truth of Christianity in these words And in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth In these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in you is implyed a Substantive Verb which may be put either Indicatively or Imperatively is or let it be true in you according to a different construction of the following words Whilst some by darkness and light understand the Legall and Evangelicall administration so the Imperative rendering best suiteth Let this Love be true in you because the darkness of the Law is past and the light of the Gospell shineth And others by darkness understand the state of unregeneracy and by light the state of regeneracy and so the Indicative best fits this thing which is commanded the duty of Love is true in you because you are brought out of the darkness of nature into the light of grace Each of these constructions are consonant to the Analogy of Faith agree well with the scope of the Apostle want not the concurrence of judicious Expositors and therefore I shall neglect neither 1. In handling these words according to the first interpretation we shall loook upon them two waies as an Assertion and as an Argument 1. As an Assertion we have considerable in them A double Subject darkness and light A double predicate of the darkness that it is past of the true light that it now shineth 1. It would in the first place be here considred that the Gospell is set forth by light and the Law by darkness Suitable to this it is that St Paul as some expound those words The night is far spent the day is at hand compareth the one to the day and the other to the night and St Ambrose interprets these words of the Psalmist Day unto day uttereth speech and Night unto night sheweth knowledg the one of the Christian and the other of the Jew 1. That the Gospell is most fitly described by light is out of question and the Analogy may easily be demonstrated in severall parables The Fountain of light is the Sun and Christ the Son of righteousness is the Author of the Gospell in which respect it is called the word of Christ The nature of light is pure the Doctrine of the Gospell is holy in which regard it is called the mystery
by him are very imperfect in comparison of the Gospell Revelations 3. If you like to retain the common signification of true as opposite to false you must take in the Verb shineth and so the sense will be clear the true light shineth only in the Gospell and therefore the Law is called darkness True there was a light a true light in the Law but it did not shine forth it was as it were hid under a Bushell and so a state of darkness in comparison of the shining light in the Gospell It is very observable to this purpose that all things were covered and wrapt up to the Jews when they carryed the Brasen Altar in the wilderness they covered it with a Purple Cloth when they carryed the Ark it was covered with three coverings a Vail a Badgers skin and a Cloth of blew the Table of the Shew Bread had three coverings and except the laver every thing was covered in the Temple Yea the Temple it self had a Vaile When Moses came from the Mount his Face was vailed the Priests bare the things which they might not see and all this to signifie what a concealment there was of divine knowledg under the Law To this purpose St Gregory allegorizeth these words of the Psalmist Tenebrosa aqua in nubibus Dark water in the Clouds that is Occulta scientia in Prophetis the darkness of knowledg in the Law and Prophets It is true Eternall life Salvation by Christ and those other sublime truths are to be found in the Law but as a Face under a Mask as a Sun in a Cloud Heavenly wrapt up in Earthly promises Christ involved in Types and Figures There were but few that knew any thing of these truths in comparison of the multitudes now and that they did know was but obscurely in comparison of the clearness now Divine knowledg was then as an Oyntmennt kept close in an Alablaster Box now the savour thereof perfumeth the whole house Then it was at best but as the dawning of the Day now it is full Noon and those Doctrines which were velata inveteri folded up in the Old are revelata in novo unfolded in the New Testament To this tends that expression used by St Paul concerning Christians We all with open face behold the glory of the Lord. The Jews faces were vailed ours are open they according to the Apostles phrase elsewhere saw afar of and so darkly we as it were near hand and so clearly To summe it up Look as the true shining light of the Gospell in comparison of that beatificall Vasion so the typicall instruction of the Law in comparison of Evangelicall teaching is but darkness or at best a shadow Indeed the Triumphant Church is in intimis the holy of holies The Christian Church Militant in atrijs the holy place But the Jewish in extimis the outward Court When God gave the Law the second time he commanded the people to stand at the foot of the Mount Aaron Nadab Abihu and the Seaventy Elders of Israel to worship afar off in the middle of the Mount and Moses ascends to the top of the Mount even within the Cloud by which three one hath represented the three states of the Church By those who stood at the bottome the Jewish By them who worshipped in the middle the Christians And by Moses the glorified Church In one word to use St Ambrose his phrase Umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in Cael◠the Truth is in Heaven the Image in the Gospell but in the Law only the shadow 2. The just fitness of those Metaphors darkness and light in reference to the Law and Gospell being manifested that which next is more briefly to be considered is that which is predicated concerning both Namely That the one is past and the other now shineth Indeed the word for passing is in the Present Tence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it doth pass away for when St John wrote this Epistle it was only in fieri passing not past those Legall Ceremonies began to dye at Christs Passio◠then in signification thereof was the Vail of the Temple not only perforatum or attritum or laceratum worn or torn a little but rent in twain from the top to the bottome but they were not dead and buried till the destruction of the Temple it self so that during the space between Christs Passion and Jerusalems desolation they were passing away and the Evangelicall Administration did more and more display it self Thus as when the house is built the Scaffold is pulled down when the Sun ariseth the Starrs disappear when the Prophet himself came the staffe was taken off and when Christ increased John the Baptist decereased so when the Gospell was published the Legall Administrations vanished away And surely the Consideration hereof should teach us on the one hand to bewaile the hardned Jews who though the darkness be past and the true light now shineth shut their eyes against the light and love to abide in darkness St Hierome very aptly compareth the Jews before Christ to those that eat the flesh Christians under the Gospell to those who eat the Marrow but the Jews now to the dogs that gnaw the bone Indeed those Legall observances at the best were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shadow but now they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darkness exitiall to those who still embrace them Oh let us pitty and pray for the blinded Jews that the vaile may be taken from their faces and they may behold the light which shineth so brightly nor is there less cause of gratulation in respect of our selves then lamentation in regard of the Jews It was a great benefit to learning when the obscure hyeroglyphicks of the Aegyptians were changed into letters and Platoes dark writings were brought down to more easie conceptions by Aristotle but surely farre greater is the benefit which the Church hath now the Evangelical Administration suceeding in the room of the legall Oh how fitly may that expression of the Psalmist be taken up by us Christians God is the Lord which hath shewed us light a clear full glorious light let us be glad and rejoyce in it To winde up this first Interpretation by considering the words in this sense as an argument why this command of love ought to be true in us Namely Because we live under the Christian dispensation Indeed hatred and malice were not tollerable in the Jews but they are abominable in us Christians who should live in love if not we to whom the love of God and Christ is so clearly revealed Oh my brethren how sad is it to think though the shadow as some read it the darkness as others be past and the true light now shineth yet we may too truly complain that the shadow remaineth nothing but shadows of grace fancies of godliness found among us nay the darkness of envy and hatred and all uncharitable walking prevaileth among us Oh be we exhorted since we
some measure of strength to performe this command darkness is hatefull but light is lovely the darkness of sin causeth hatred but the light of grace love if the wild Beast of envy and malice range abroad in thy Conversation it is a plain argument that as yet it is might with thee For a close of this particular I have already told you that according to this sense these words true in you are to be read Affirmatively and so they are a commendation of those to whom our Apostle wrote and intimate that this command which he was to impose on them was already true in them and his designe hereby no doubt was to encourage them the more in the practice of this duty Since according to that of the Oratour Trabimur omnes laudis studio all men love to be commended and praise is a spurre to Virtue This is that policy which our blessed Saviouâ— himself is pleased to use in all his Epistles to the Asian Churches except that of Laodicea owning and praising those graces which he saw in them The like we may find practised by all the Apostles in their Epistles St Paul writing to the Corinthians Now I praise you Brethren to the Galathians you did run well St Peter Whereunto you do well that you take heed It were easie to instance in each and surely this practice is deservedly imitable by Ministers towards their People Superiours towards Inferiours Yea all men one towards another Render to all their dues honour to whom honour belongeth saith St Paul It is a breach of that justice which is due from man to man not to give due commendations Indeed flattery is abominable and therefore there must be Salt as well as Honey in our praises commendations are then commendable when they are done with fidelity and exceed not verity having just ground and ayming at a right end we may we ought to acknowledge and declare the good which we see in others as here St John doth But perhaps you will say if this were true in them already what need our Apostle write this Commandment to them is it not in vain to bid a man do that which he already doth I answer No and that upon a double account 1. That which was true must be still true and so a command may be given to enjoyn the continuance in as well as the entrance upon any duty As the Devill diverteth some from so he interrupteth others in the performance of what is good we had need to be called upon once and again least we faint in the race 2. That which was true ought to be more true in them we fulfill no command so exactly but we may complain of manifold defects nor do we ever so well but still we may do in all better the truth of Love and every grace is in whom the true light shineth and on whom regeneration is confer'd but the strength of grace may still be deficient and therefore there is continuall need of writing and Preaching this Commandment even to those who practice it To end all What remaineth but that this large and excellent Preface with which our Apostle ushereth in his discourse of love have an effectuall influence upon our hearts and lives to prepare us for the Doctrine and excite us to the practice of it It is a command and that not antiquated but still in force it was practised by Christ himself and all his holy Apostles it is most suitable to the Gospell Administration under which we live yea if we have the true light of grace in us this cannot but be in some measure exercised by us And therefore that we may obey this old and new Commandment which God hath given us that we may follow that choice and excellent pattern which Christ and his Apostles have set us that we may walk worthy of the Gospell which shineth among us Finally That we may declare our selves to be indeed what we profess brought from darkness to light let us attend to and set upon the performance of the following instruction which should now be handled but that the time prevents and therefore must be referred to another opportunity THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness hath blinded his eyes WHat humidum and calidum the naturall heat and radicall moisture are to the body that are repentance and love to the soul nor are those more necessary to the conservation of our temporall then these to the sustentation of our spirituall life Indeed the principall grace is Faith this brings as it were the copula that which knits Christ and the Christian together in Union with whom consists our life but the maintaining of this life is by the moysture of godly contrition for our sins and the warmth of holy affection towards God and Man no wonder if we find as Faith and Repentance so likewise Love frequently inculcated in holy writ upon all Christians Indeed this latter is one of the principall Subjects of this Epistle so that though our Apostle minds us of Repentance in confessing our sins and Faith in believing on the Name of Jesus Christ yet he chiefly insists on loving and that as God so our Brother which is the design of the Verses I have now read He that saith he is in the light c. Having dispatched the preamble inciting contained in the two former Verses I am now to procced to the Doctrine instructing laid down in these three for whereas before he had mentioned a Commandment concerning which he did now write to them and withall adorned it with very amiable Characters he now plainly and expresly declareth what this Commandment is Namely That of loving our Brother for so Interpreters well observe these Verses to be an Exposition of the generall commendation in those and having by his large praises endeavoured to inflame them with desires after the knowledg and practice of it he goeth on to informe them what it is and wherein it consists Nor would it be passed by that our Apostle in handling this Doctrine of Love pursueth that Metaphor which he made use of in the former Chapter where he layeth down the generall scope of his Epistle hereby no doubt intending to intimate to us that this duty of Brotherly Love is a primary step of that walking in the light which intituleth to fellowship with God and so on the contrary hatred of our Brother a chief step of that walking in darkness which depriveth us of that communion so that we are now come to the fourth step of that divine walk which St John designeth to chalke out in this Epistle The first whereof is Repentance
it If thy enemy hunger saith St Paul feed him if he thirst give him drink the Hebrew word in the proverb whence St Paul borroweth it is rendred by Vatablus Propina ei aquam not only give him drink but drink to him as a token of love that it may appear however he is towards thee thou art reconciled to him Excellent to this purpose is that advice of Gregory Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must say brethren unto them that hate us and accordingly express brotherly love to them And thus in this construction of brother we have beheld the extension of love how farre it reacheth in regard of the objects about which it is conversant 2. But besides this carnal fraternity between all men there is a spiritual brotherhood between all Christians they have all the same Father even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who begetteth them again they have the same Mother the Church Jerusalem from above which bringeth them forth they all are washed in the same laver of regeneration baptisme partake of the fame immortal seed and are nourished by the same sincere milk of the Word Finally they are all begotten to the same undefiled inheritance heirs of the same glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus we call them brethren who are born anew of the same Word yea quanto dignius fratres dicuntur habentur saith Tertullian how much more deservedly then other men are they called and accounted brethren who acknowledge one Father God have drank of one spirit of holiness and are brought forth of the same womb of ignorance into the glorious light of Evangelical truth A brother in the sense above-mentioned is only so by nature but in this by grace that 's only a brother on the left hand but this on the right hand that of the earth earthly but this from heaven heavenly In this sense some Expositors and as I conceive most rationally take the word here this name brother being by the Apostle and afterwards in the primitive times in common language given to all and only those who did embrace Christian Religion and which maketh this interpretation more manifest is that our Apostle in the next Chapter phraseth it love the brethren which seemeth to indigitate a certain society of men so called yea in the fifth Chapter at the beginning he describeth him whom here he calls brother to be one that is begotten of God According to this construction that which is here required is called by the Apostle Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brotherly kindness and is distinguished as a particular species from its genus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is presently annexed charity As then there is a general love which belongeth to all men so a special love which belongeth to all Christians and as we must do good to all men so especially to the houshould of faith indeed seeing the Christian brother hath a double cause of love in him that is Gods image as a man and Gods graces as a Christian we ought to deal by him as Joseph did by his brother Benjamin whose mess was five times greater then the rest of his brethren If any shall yet further enquire why our Apostle speaking of this love to a Christian calls him by the name of a brother I answer for these three reasons because this name of brother carrieth in it an obligation to a specification and modification of that love which is here required since we must love a Christian quia quatenus qualis because he is a brother inasmuch as he is a brother and with such a love as is among brothers 1. This word Brother carryeth with it a strong Obligation to Love In fratris voce ratio so Danaeus It is an urgent reason why we should Love a Christian because he is our Brother all relation is a ground of affection and hence it is a man loveth any thing that is his the nearer the relation the greater tye to love and therefore the more reason why a Brother should be beloved the nearest relation is that which is spirituall and therefore yet greater reason to Love a Christian who is ours our Brother yea our Brother in Christ When Moses saw two Israelites Countrey men strugling together he said to them Sirs you are Brethren why do you wrong one another when Abraham and Lot kinsmen were likely to fall out saith Abraham Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we are Brethren when Socrates saw two Brethren striving one with another he told them they did as if the two hands which were made to help should beat each other so that since Christians are Brethren in the highest and closest relation this should be a great ingagement upon them to love 2. This word Brother intimateth a specification of this love in regard of its Object which is then rightly placed when it is upon a Brother as he is a Brother that is a Christian as he is a Christian One that is a Brother in this spirituall notion may be my naturall Brother or Kinsman and then to love him is what nature dictates or he is my Friend and Benefactor and so to love him gratitude teacheth or he is able to do me either an injury or a courtesie so that I have cause to fear the one and hope the other and in this respect to love him self love prompts me or once more he may be a man of rare naturall and acquired endowments and to love him for this ingenuity moves me but to love him because he is a Brother in a spirituall sense this is that which Christianity inciteth to and this only is a right Christian love Indeed thus to love him is to love him in reference to God and Christ because he hath the grace of God in him the Image of God upon him To love him as a Brother in this sense is to love him as a Son of God a Member of Christ and as St Hieromes phrase is Diligere Christum habitantem in Augustine to love God and Christ dwelling in him And now if any shall say it is hard nay impossible to know any man to be such a Brother and therefore how can I love him as such when I cannot know him to be such I answer that there is a great deale of difference between the judgment of certainty and charity love doth not need nor require infallible but only probable signs and therefore whosoever doth profess the true faith of Christ and doth not by a flagitious conversation give that profession the lye love taketh him to be a Brother and to love one because he atleast seemeth to be such a one by his externall Profession and Conversation so as the more Christian graces we discover in him the more we are affected towards him this is that which most especially falleth under the Precept of loving our Brother 3. Yet once
more there is in this word Brother implyed a modification of that love which we must express towards Christians to wit that it must be such as that which is between Brethren and that more properly in two things the instancy and the constancy the fervency and the permanency of it 1. Brotherly love is fervent it is a relation of the greatest indearment partly as its naturall not founded in choice as it is between Man and Wife and between Friends and partly as it is between Equals not like that between Parents and Children whose love towards their Parents hath more of neverence then sweetness in it hence it is that as no discord so neither is any love like to that which hath been found among Brethren such ought our love to be towards Christians a bright shining an hot flaming love That exhortation of St Paul is very observable to this purpose Be you kindly affected one to another with Brotherly Love where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by Tertullian affecâ—uosâ— both which note an eminent measure and degree of affection such is Brotherly such ought to be Christian love very affectionate Memorable in this respect was the example of the Primitive Christians of whom that forementioned Father saith they did love one another ad stuporem Gentilium to the astonishment of the Heathen so much that the Heathen cryed out with admiration Vide ut invicem se diligunt see how they love one another 2. Brotherly love is lasting it is naturall and therefore perpetuall it is a relation that ceaseth not till death and therefore the affection may well remain A Brother if not very unnaturall will own his Brother in rags and love him in his lowest estate such must Christian love be towards a Brother of low as well as high degree in persecution as well as prosperity when he wants us not we him nor must our love cease to act towards him till he cease to be amongst us This was that no doubt which the Apostle aimed at when he saith Let Brotherly love continue thereby minding what the love of Brethren is and what the love of Christians ought to be a continuing and enduring love And now what other use should we make of all this discourse upon the nature of this grace but hereby to examine our selves whether our love be of the right stampe to wit such a love as is ready to every good word and worke as extendeth it self to our very enemies as is chiefly fixed upon Christians and that because they are so and so much shall suffice to bespoken of the first part the Subject of the Thesis I now proceed more briefly to the 2. Praedicates Which are plainly two describing the benefit of this grace the one in regard of the condition and the other of conversation of such a person his condition is happy for he abideth in the light his conversation is sweet for there is no occasion of stumbling in him 1. He that loveth his Brether is said to abide in the light it is not unfitly here taken notice of by Zanchy that as in the Eighth Verse our Apostle argueth à causa ad effectum from the cause to the effect this thing is true in you namely the pracâ—ice of love because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth to wit of grace so in this Verse he reasons ab effecto ad causam from the effect to the cause He in whom this is true that he loves his Brother is brought out of that darkness and abides in the light Light is a Metaphor variously applied in Scripture we may here take it three waies 1. This Metaphor of light is sometimes attributed to Christ so by our Apostle in his Gospell when he calleth him the light of whom John the Baptist did beare witness by himself when he saith I am the light of the world and thus abiding in the light is the same with that of abiding in him Thus it is an undoubted truth He that loveth his Brother abideth in Christ that Branch which participateth of the juyce and sap of the root must needs abide in it Love is the sap that was in Christ and therefore he that partaketh of love from Christ must abide in him that Member which suffereth with the rest of the Body declareth it self to be in the Body he that by loving sympathizeth with his Brother manifesteth himself to be a Member of Christ 2. Sometimes by this Metaphor of light the Gospell together with the saving knowledge of it are represented Both these we meet with in one Chapter whilst St Paul expresly mentioneth first the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ and presently the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Indeed in the one is the light without and the other is as the light within and he that loveth his Brother adideth in this light hereby declaring that he hath indeed learned and is rightly acquainted with Evangelicall Doctrine to this purpose is Justinians note Eo lumine dignum se ostendit qui luminis ductum sequitur by following the conduct of this light he sheweth himself in some measure worthy of it because answerable to it 3. But lastly This Metaphor of light is used to set forth grace and holiness in this sense no doubt St Peter is to be understood when he saith of Believers that they are called by God out of darkness into his marvelous light and thus the light in which he that loveth his Brother is said to abide is the same with that in the former Chapter where we have the phrase of walking in the light and the meaning of the word is briefly this He that loveth his Brother is in a state of grace Charity is an evident demonstration of sanctity St Paul reckoning up the fruits of the spirit placeth love in the front as if there were no clearer fruit of the spirits residence in us then the exercise of this duty of love Indeed there is a love which only argueth good nature such is that of a Kinsman a Friend but to love an enemy and that because it is an Evangelicall injunction and to love a Christian because he is a Christian is such a Flower as groweth not in natures garden but is a fruit of the Spirit and so a Testimony of grace But because I shall have more full occasion of discussing this in the next Chapter I pass on to the 2. Next benefit which attends upon Brotherly love as it is expressed in those words and there is none occasion of stumbling in him Not to insist on the severall acceptions of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is used by the 70. in the Old Testament and by the sacred Writers in the new this being already done by the late learned Annotator It may suffice to know that here according to its derivation
which followeth upon all the former for since he neither justly giveth nor quickly taketh offence and keepeth himself from gross sins in the course of his Conversation no wonder if he enjoies a serene calm in his soul and though wicked men may be offended at him yea raise storms of persecution against him yet he is at peace within Excellent to this purpose is that of St Ambrose Charitas pellit omnes tribulationes non ut non eveniant sed ut non nâ—ceant quia licet exterius tribulationes insurgant tamen vir justus interius non turbatur Charity driveth away all troubles not that they do not come upon but that they shall not do hurt to him because though tribulations arise outwardly he is not molested inwardly That Adage of the Wiseman No evill shall happen to the just the Vulgar Latine reads Non contristabit justum quicquid ei acciderit what ever happen to the just shall not vex and grieve him and to use Hugo's Philosophicall comparison as an accident is present and absent without the corruption of the Subject so tribulation when present as well as when absent doth not perplex and disturbe the just Indeed there is nothing occasions offence to such a man but sin and therefore abiding in the light he is not stumbled at affliction If you cast a sparke of fire into the water how soon is it quenched so are all fears cast into a good Conscience when the Skie is black with Clouds the Stars though they seem to be obscured yet retain their proper lustre and good men when they seem in affliction to be clouded with sorrow saith St Chrysostomâ— are not sorrowfull but rather rejoycing And now what other use should we make of all that hath been said then to press upon us that Apostolicall exhortation walk in love Indeed what way better for us to walk in then this which is so bright and lightsome so plain and cleare so pure and pleasant It is Solomons assertion The way of the righteous is made plain it is no less true of the charitable in the way of love there is nothing to offend or molest whilst purity is the track and tranquillity our companion you then that have not experienced this begin and you that have begun go on I think I need not bid you your own experience cannot but encourage you in this sweet way till you come to that Countrey whither this way leads you where the Law is Charity the League Unity and the life Eternity THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even untill now He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because the darkness hath blinded his eyes OPposita juxta se posita magis illucescunt saith the Logician things of greatest distance set near in place do one illustrate the other The Sun never appeareth so gloriously as when breaking through a Cloud A Freeman most prizeth his liberty when he seeth the Prisoners Fetters and captives chaines and Sara becometh doubly beautifull when surrounded with the swarthy Aegyptians The dolorous noise of War is the best language to proclaim the sweetness of peace Health is never so acceptable as when it brings letters of commendation from sickness and virtue becometh more amiable when the contrary vice is represented For this reason no doubt it is that as Painters draw black shadows to set off their Pictures with a greater lustre and some I feare proud Ladies are wont to wear black patches that their faces may seem the more lovely So do Orators frequently set virtues and vices together that the evill of the one may the more advance the good of the other This way of illustration is that which is very observable in the Penmen of sacred writ especially those two whom I may well call Heavens darlings Solomon who is stiled Jedidiah and John the beloved Disciple the one you may observe in his Parables very often setting prudence and folly with such like contraties one by the other and the other in this Epistle and more properly in these Verses that he might the more commend the goodness of love enlargeth his discourse in discovering the badness of hatred He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother c. It is that part of the Text I am now to handle The Antithesis or Opposition set down in the 9 and 11 Verses But before I enter upon the severals in this part it will not be amiss once for all to take notice of that which we shall find very usuall in this Epistle Namely the Repetition and Ingemination of the same sense yea sometimes of the same sentence This indeed is the first time we have fully met with this for though in the first Chapter we finde the Subject of one proposition if we say we have no sin and the predicate of another cleansing from all sin yet we meet not with one entire proposition twice mentioned till now where these words He that hateth his Brother is in darkness is both in the 9 and 11. Verses Indeed this repetition is not without some variation In the 9. Verse there is an enlargement of the Subject it is not barely He that hateth his Brother but He that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother and in the 11. Verse there is an amplification of the predicate not only he is in darkness but he walketh in darkness c. Yet still it is for substance the same thing which is intended and the same words are repeated in both the Verses And indeed it is that which is easily observable not only in this but the rest of the sacred Bookes That of David the sweet singer of Israel is remarkable who twenty six times warbleth over the same note For his mercy endureth for ever and of Christ that unparallel'd Preacher who as probably appeareth by comparing the two Evangelists preached the same Sermon twice Nor are these Repetitions vain Tautologies It is not without good reason that the Penmen of sacred writ do sometimes take this course in respect of themselves the matter of their writing and those to whom they wrote 1. Those holy Penmen by these Repetitions did declare the zeale and vehemency of their spirits in pressing what they wrote upon the people What was it which caused Solomons Father as himself relates it to multiply expressions to the same purpose yea to iterate the same expressions in dehorting him from evill company enter not go not avoid pass by turne from pass away but his sense of the danger and desire that he might avoid it And again what moved his Mother to amplifie her appellations in the beginning of her counsell to him What my son and
that our Apostle useth it in a Metaphoricall construction and his design in it is double Namely that this Appellation might be both a testimony of his affection towards them and a monitor to them of their duty and in both these considerations there was a great deale of reason why our Apostle should use this title of little Children 1. He calls them little Children to testifie that Fatherly affection which he did bear to them and this no doubt that hereby he might gain a filiall affection from them towards him and an affectionate regard to his Doctrine It is no small piece of policy in an Orator to make way for his instruction by giving evidence of his affection what appeareth to be spoken is commonly taken in love no wonder then if St John Ad majorem benevalentiam induâ—endam filiolos appellat as Justiuian appositely for the gaining of their good will to him declareth good will towards them by calling them little Children And truly so much the more cause had our Apostle to endeavour this in respect both of what he had and was to deliver He was now about to disswade them from loving the world a lesson to which they might probably be very averse it being so hard for us while we are in the world not to be intangled with the love of it nay perhaps they might think he was an enemy to them in requiring them to be enemies to the world it being strange he should will them to contemn that whereof they had continuall use Now by calling them Children and thereby insinuating that he spake to them as a Father they might justly perswade themselves that he advised them to nothing but what was for their good Our blessed Saviour strongly argueth from the Love of a Father If his Son ask bread will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he give him a Serpent A question intending a negation doubtless he will not nay rather if he ask him stones or a serpent he will give him bread or â—â—sh Fathers do not use to give nor yet to advise their Children what is hurtfull but usefull for them and therefore by calling them little Children he would let them know that how prejudiciall soever this counsell of not loving the world might seem to them it was given by him as a Father and that which he knew would be beneficiall to them Again He had but now sharply reproved those among them who did hate their Brethren and least they should account him guilty of the sin he reproved as if his reprehension of them proceeded from hatred he presently manifesteth his love by this sweet appellation little Children There is never more need of insinuating into Auditors an opinion of our candid affection towards them then when we use bitter invectives against their sins men being very apt to misconstrue our hatred of their sins as if it were malice against their persons and truly what expression could more represent affection then this of Children Solomon saith The wounds of a Friend are better then the kisses of an enemy and good reason since there is more love in the ones wounds then the others kiss and if the wounds of a Friend much more the reproofs of a Father are from love if it be a rod the Childe must kiss it because it is virga Patris the rod of a Father and surely then though it be a sharp rebuke the Childe must embrace it because it is verbum Patris the word of a Father amor saith the old man in the Poet est optimum salsamentum love is that sauce which giveth a relish to things that are otherwise most distastefull and loathsome Brotherly love saith St Austin and it is no less true of Fatherly Sive approbet me sive improbet me diligit me whether it approve or reprove me it still loveth me and where love is the sweet spring though the waters be the waters of Marah I may chearfully drinke them That therefore our Apostle might render his severe reprehension the more acceptable he would have them know it was from that sincere and tender respect he bare to them and that he might convince them of this cordiall respect he bespake them as a Father with this affectionate title little Children 2. He stileth them little Children to minde them of that duty which concerneth all Christians in becoming as little Children and according to his masters Precept whose language he much delights to follow Indeed it is that which is not to run parallel in all respects and therefore saith Jansenius the imitation of little Children is either good or bad according to the things wherein we resemble them St Paul in one place bids us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew our selves men not women by cowardize no nor yet Children by inconstancy nay he expresly forbids Be not Children in understanding and again Be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine we must then be unlike and like to little Children We must not think like little Children for they only minde what is present whereas wisdome teacheth to look afar off and think of hereafter and yet we must think as little Children for their thoughts are not carking and distrustfull about what they should eat or drink or wherewith they should be cloathed we must not desire as little Children do for they ofttimes desire things that may prove hurtfull and destructive to them and yet we must desire as little Children for their desires are earnest and important after the dug we must not understand as little Children for they are but weak and defective in knowledg and yet we must understand as little Children for they are docile and facile to learn we must not speak as little Children for they speak rashly and yet we must speak as little Children for they speak truly we must not like them speak all we think and yet like them we must speak nothing but what we think In few words would we know wherein especially we ought to be as little Children look backward and forward to the sins here forbidden and we shall finde little Children fit monitors of avoiding both and perhaps therefore our Apostle maketh choice of this appellation as very sutable to these instructions 1. Little Children are innocent and harmeless free from hatred and malice they do not plot nor act mischief to others they seek not revenge upon others and this is that wherein chiefly we must resemble little Children To this purpose St Jerome Christ doth not require of his Apostles that they should be little Children in years but innocency and Theodoret on that in the Psalms Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained strength asking the question Who are those Babes and Sucklings answereth Qui lactentium puerorum innocentiam imitati sunt they who imitate the innocency of Sucking Children what need we a better Expositor
this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write as a Preface to the following dehortation it implyeth the generall concernment of avoiding worldly Love 1. It concerneth all sorts of Christians the first part of that duty which the grace of God teacheth is to deny all ungoâ—â—â—iness and worldly lusts Self-deniall which includeth a renouncing of the world is the first step in the ladder of Christianity which Christ hath erected and yet withall it is that which even young men and fathers grown perfect Christians have need to be minded of It is very hard to walk upon snares and not be intangled nor have the best Christians their conversations so in Heaven but they are apt to be enamoured with earth and whilst they find strength to deny ungodliness they still find cause to complain of worldly lusts no wonder if St John write to all sorts Love not the world 2. It concerneth all ages Love of the world is that which begins betimes to take hold of our hearts little Children no sooner begin to know any thing but they are taken with these present visible sensuall Objects young men that are as it were entring upon the world have much to do in it and no marvell if they be too much taken with it nay which is both strange and usuall old Men though they are going out of the world do yet cling in their affections about the world herein their minds resemble their bodies which the older they grow still they bow down more towards the earth one wittily compareth them to the Rivers which the nearer they come to the Sea which is their end the broader they are and the more water they suck oh how greedy are many old Men of this world as if they were to run a new race of fourscore years longer when they are ready to drop into the Grave Quo minus viae restat eo plus viatici quaerunt the lesse way they have to go the more provision they crave for their journey Good reason then had our Apostle writing about this sinne to admonish all ages to beware of it And thus I have given a dispatch to the second Generall part of this Scripture the Act performed The last and greatest part yet remaineth to be diseussed in the following discourses THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 12. I write unto you little Children because your sinnes are forgiven you for his Names sake IT was the peculiar prerogative of the Disciples that they were fellows of Christs Colledg It is the common priviledg of all Christians that they are Students in Christs Church The studies wherein they are chiefly to be conversant are two namely of Faith and Repentance how to obtain pardon of sin past how to attain strength against sin for the fature These studies are each of them very choice and excellent and withall of that nature that they cannot be severed in vain doth he study for pardon who striveth not against sin and yet it is not future Obedience will satisfie for former guilt As therefore we must be solicitous for grace that sin may be prevented so we must be studious for mercy that guilt may be absolved To help us in both these studies namely To quicken our Repentance and to strengthen our Faith is the great designe of our Apostolicall Tutor in this Epistle in reference to the former he saith in the first Verse These things I write to you that you sin not and in regard of the latter he saith in the twelfth Verse I write to you little Children because your sins are forgiven The Reasons of our Apostles writing to all Christians in generall and each age in particular are now to be handled 1. That with which I am to begin is the Reason of his writing to the little Children the Christians in generall as it is expressed in the close of the twelfth Verse Because your sins are forgiven you for his name sake For the further discussion whereof I shall consider it two waies As a Consolatory Assertion Your sins are forgiven you for his names sake As an Hortatory Reason enducing them to observe what he wrote to them in the word because These words Your sins are forgiven you for his name sake contain in them an excellent comfort a singular blessing concerning which we are to take notice of its Quality sins are forgiven Propriety your sins Efficiency for his name sake Of each in order with all perspicuous brevity beginning with 1. The Quality of the blessing here assured forgivness of sins it is the Subject which I have already had occasion to discourse of in the former Chapter but considering both the sweetness and the largeness of it I could not here pass it by Remission of sins is so sweet a comfort that like a pleasant tune it affects the more by the iteration and yet withall it is a Doctrine of such ample extent that notwithstanding what hath been already said there is somewhat still remaining to be said yea when I have said all I can I must confess my self unable fully to explicate the nature of it That I may give you a further account concerning this excellent benefit you must know that sin is to be considered three waies in it self in reference to God and to the sinner 1. There are two things observable to our present purpose in sin absolutely considered to wit its essence and its property the one whereof is constitutive and the other consecutive if it be allowable to make use of those phrases when we speak of a privation That wherein sin doth primarily consist is the breach of the Laws prescription that which doth inseparably attend upon it is its desert of the Laws curse now neither of these are properly the Object of forgiveness and the reason is plain because it is impossible ex naturâ rei and such as implyeth a contradiction that a sin should not be a breach of the Law or being a breach should not deserve the curse Indeed it is with the forgiven person in some respects and as to some accounts quasi as if his sin were no sin as if the Law had never been violated nor the penalty deserved the breach shall not be imputed to so as that the penalty shall be inflicted on him but the forgiven sin is in it self as truly a sin and as deserving punishment after as before it is one thing to acquit a malefactor as not guilty and another thing to absolve him from the punishment due to him for his guilt when God forgiveth a sinner he cannot be it spoken with an holy reverence peccatum non peccatum facere make a sin to be no sin and therefore those phrases which express forgiveness to be a taking away iniquity so as though sin be sought for it cannot be found yea a making Crimson Scarlet sins to be white as Snow and wooll are not to be pressed too rigidly but construed with a tanquam sin forgiven is as if it
guess at Gods love by Christs respect who commanded little Children to be brought unto him and blamed those that kept them from him It was Davids comfort When my Father and Mother forsooke me then God tooke me up it may be yours my little Children if you endeavour to know and love the Father when your Parents either cannot or will not help you he both can and will provide for you Once more your dear Redeemer and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ began himself betimes and was so well skild at twelve years old that he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple hereby giving you an example which though it cannot be expected you should equalize yet it is required you should follow we finde in the Gospell little Children going before Christ and following after him with Hosanna's and it is the praise of Jereboams Childe That there was found in him some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel Oh little Children write after these coppies so much the rather because with Jereboams Childe you may dye early and what a comfort will it be to your selves and Parents if then there shall be found in you some knowledg and love and fear of your Father which is in Heaven To end all What remaineth but that all of all ages Fathers young Men little Children make use of this Scripture as a looking glass whereby they may see what they are at least what they should be that they may be all according to the gracious promise taught of God from the greatest to the least eldest to the youngest And then the Psalmists exhortation will be readily embraced young Men and Maids old Men and Children let them praise the name of the Lord from this time forth for evermore Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16 17. Love not the world neitherr the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth forever THe Subject of this Scripture is one of the chiefest and most needfull lessons in all practicall Divinity since it is Removens prohibens a document of removing that which is one of the greatest hinderances in the exercises of Christianity Indeed what the stumbling block is to th Traveller in the way the weight to the runner in his race or to use St Austins comparison limetwigs are to the Bird in its flight that is the love of the world to a Christian in his course either wholly diverting him from or greatly entangling him in or forcibly turning him out of it This is one of the fetters which keepeth so many from entring into the path of piety This is one of those suckers which hinder others from growth in godliness Finally This is that which like a contrary winde to the ship beateth back many from their former profession The truth is as Calvin well observeth on this place Till the heart be purged from this corruption the eare will be deafe to divine instructions Hercules could never conquer Antaeus Donec â terrâ matre â—um levasset till he had lifted him up above his Mother earth no more can the spirit of grace subdue us to the obedience of the Gospell till he hath lifted up our hearts from earthly Love Heavenly truths glide of from carnall mindes as water from a sphaericall body No wonder then if the Apostle Paul exciting the Hebrews to run he race which is set before them adviseth them to lay aside every weight to wit of worldly care And here the Apostle John intending chiefly in this whole Epistle to advance a Christian conversation indeavours in these words to take men off from worldly affections Love not the word nor the things of the world c. The discourse of these words moveth upon two principall wheels namely A command peremptorily inhibiting which is Propounded in the beglning of the fifteenth Verse Love not the world nor the things of the world Expounded in the sixteenth Verse All that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life An Argument strongly enforcing which is drawn from two considerations The one in regard of worldly love its direct contrariety to that which is divine as it is Asserted in the end of the fifteenth Verse If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Proved in the end of the sixteenth Verse For it is not of the Father but of the world The other in regard of the world it self its fleeting instability which is Affirmed in the begining of the seaventeenth Verse And the world passeth away and the lusts thereof Amplified from its contrary the permanent felicity of the religious in the end of the Verse But he that doth the will of God abideth for ever So that though the grand wheels of this period are but two yet we finde many lesser wheels yea Rotam in rotâ every wheel having another within it The first main wheel is the prohibition and in that is another wheel the exposition The second wheel is the argument and in that two wheels the double motive each of which hath a wheel within it whilst the first motive is backed with a probation and the second with an illustration May that blessed spirit of grace vouchsafe to drive the Chariot of my discourse which shall run in order upon these wheels and then I doubt not but we shall attain that which is I trust the Goale of my Preaching and your hearing namely our reformation and salvation The prohibition is that which I am to begin with and that 1. As propounded in these words Love not the world nor the things that are in the world This is in order the sixth step of that walking in the light which I have heretofore told you is the chief design of this Epistle to delineate The first whereof is a sorrowfull confession of sin past The second a cordiall forsaking it for the time to come The third an obedientiall keeping the Commandment The fourth a sedulous imitation of Christ The fifth a Christian Law of the Brethren and now The sixth is an alienation of our head from the world Love not the world c. What the intent of this prohibition is will best apapear by inquiring what is the proper notion of the word world in this place Not to trouble my self and you with giving an account of its severall acceptions in sacred writ Be pleased to know to our present purpose That to use St Austins similitude as an house is taken sometimes for the wals and roomes which constitute the house and sometimes for the family which inhabiteth the house so by
the world is meant sometimes the things and sometimes the persons of the world and both these constructions Expositors make use of here Some by the world understand the men of the world and so conceive that which followeth the things of the world to be distinct from the world and that this Act of Love is here forbiden about a double Object Others by the world understand the things of the world and accordingly conceive the latter to be an explication of the former that whereas when he said love not the world it might have been inquired What oh blessed Apostle is this world which we must not love to prevent this Objection he presently addeth nor the things of the world 1. The former of these interpretations is neither improbable nor unprofitable and therefore I shall not wholly pass it by Love not the world that is Love not the Men of the world for the right understanding of which prohibition observe these three things 1. Though world be here taken for the men in it yet this must be construed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generally for all men but with restriction to wicked and ungodly men for in this sense it is frequently used by this Writer as it were easie to instance in severall places of his Gospell and in some of this Epistle especially the first Verse of the next Chapter wherein I shall God willing enlarge upon this appellation as given to the wicked for the present it may suffice to know that if we here interpret the world of persons it must be confined only to the unregenerate and ungodly of the world 2. This world of the wicked men which we are not to love is not to be understood of the men but their wickedness when the Devill is said to be the Prince of this world by our Saviour and the God of this world by St Paul it is no doubt intended as only of the wicked of the world so in regard of their wickedness and in the same restraint it must be here taken when we are enjoyned not to love them Look as when the Apostle Paul forbids us to be conformed to the world his meaning is that we should not conforme to their sinfull manners vitious practises so when the Apostle John forbids us to love the world if we refer it to men it is to be unnerstood as intending to forbid a love to their sins not to their nature The truth is as men they are the works of Gods hand and so to be loved on his score they are our own flesh and so to be loved upon our own account only as wicked they are the Devils Children and so not to be loved but hated Very observable to this purpose is that expression of St Paul to the Ephesians Have no fellowship with the unfruitful workes of darkness he meaneth have no fellowship with the workers but yet he very aptly saith the works since it is in reference to their works that we ought to avoide fellowship with the workers 3. Once more we must distinguish of a double love to wit Amor benevolentiae complacentiae a love of benevolence whereby we wish well to and a love of complacency whereby take delight in another The love of benevolence is commanded and that in regard of wicked men toward whom we must exercise compassion for whom we must make supplication desiring and endeavouring their eternall wellfare But the love of complacency is forbidden since we ought to avoid nay abhorre all familiar society with the ungodly and so this love not may very fitly be expounded by that have no fellowship not that all kinde of commerce and communion with the wicked is prohibited but that this commerce must be a matter of necessity not of choice we cannot but live among them but we must not delight in them we may upon just occasion have society but we must not love the company of the wicked This is that Precept whereof holy David hath set us a pattern when he saith All my delight is in the Saints and the excellent of the earth again I am a companion of all them that feare thee and again Depart from me you evill doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God Upon which the gloss well Abigit tanquam muscas molestas He driveth them away as so many troublesome flies Thus must we keep at a distance from wicked men and shun all familiar intimacy with them And surely would we seriouslyâ—onsider â—onsider the great danger of loue to and familiarity with the wicked not only in regard of suspition that we are as they which brings a scandall upon our names but of infection and destruction since we can hardly escape without being involved in their iniquities and calamities it could not but be a strong inducement to the observation of this Apostolicall Canon Love not the world that is the wicked men of the world But not to insist on this exposition proceed we to the other which to me seemeth more genuine and that because both the distribution of this worlds love into severall sorts of lusts and likewise the arguments by which it is disswaded especially that of the worlds passing away with its lusts are most congruous to this latter construction Love not the world that is not the things of this world In the unfolding whereof I shall plainly proceed by these five steps 1. When we are forbidden to love the world and the things of it it is to be restrained to this sublunary and terrestiall world Mundi nomine intellige quicquid ad presentem vitam spectat So Calvin aptly By the things of the world we are to understand those things which belong to this present life We cannot have a better expositor of St John then St Paul and then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elsewhere the things of the world that is the things which are upon the earth those things which appertain to our animall and sensitive life in opposition to Heavenly and Spirituall things and if you please to distinguish the world and the things of it you may with one upon the place by the world understand this life or our abode in this world and by the things of it all those contentments which this life can afford to us 2. It is not unfitly taken notice of by Ferus that the Apostle doth not say Exite mundo but Nolite diligere mundum Leave the world but do not love it Excellent to this purpose is that of St Gregory Sic teneamus ea quae sunt hujusmodi ut tamenper ea non teneamur We must so possess the things of this world that we be not possessed by them Indeed for the leaving of the world and the things of it we must have a just and speciall call or else it becomes sinfull we must not go out
of this world at our own pleasure but waite Gods leisure saying with good old Simeon Lord lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace Sapiens non debet fugerè vitâ sed exire said Seneca A wise man must not breake prison doores only be willing to go forth when they are set open We cannot stay longer in and we must not go sooner out of this world then God pleaseth We must not needlesly devest our selves of those comforts which God affoards us in this life since it were both unthankfulness to the giver whom we basely undervalue by casting away his gifts and an injury to our selves the receivers who hereby should be difinabled from being so seruiceâ—ble as we might in our generation That forsaking of House Brethren Sisters Father Mother Wife Children Lands to which Christ promiseth an hundreth fold and eternall life is when it is for his names sake So that either we must deny his name or lose life and leave these secular injoyments otherwise the generall prohibition is not possess not but love not 3. It is very aptly observed by St Austin that the Apostle doth not say Nolite uti mundo but Nolite diligere mundum do not use the world but do not love it He that not loving the world useth it useth it as not abusing it Inasmuch as he useth it not for it selfe but in order to that which he loueth as the Father excellently enlargeth So long as we live in we cannot but have use of the world and the things in it we stand in need of them we cannot subsist without them and consequently not only may but must make use of them But as â—eda well glosseth Vtamur mundo ad necessitatem non ad volnntatem Use the world for the supplying your necessities but not for satisfying your lust With Gideons three hundred Souldiers we may lap the waters of this world with our tongues but we must not with the rest bow down our bodies to drinke of them One hath wittily observed of the three ages of man that Children â—reep on all soure being unable to stand of themselves young men go on two legs and old men on three being necessitated to use their staffe it may be here applyed wicked men are wholly carryed downwars to this world the Saints in Heaven trample upon the world the godly whilst in this world use it only as a staffe for their necessary support Excellent to this purpose is that of St Austin concerning these temporall things His tanquam tabulâ in fluctibus bene utendo cavebimus We must looke upon them as so many plankes in the waves which we neither rest upon as firme nor yet cast away as needless but use as helps to carry us to the shore 4. It is observed by Suidas that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word in the Text hath two significations the one whereof is generall and the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting only an ordinary affection the other speciall amounting to as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be so pleased with any Object that we desire nothing else according to this that note of St Austin upon the Text is very apposite Non te prohibet Deus amare ista Sed non diligere ad beatitudinem It is not every kinde of love which is here prohibited but so to love them as to make them our chiefest good For the further explicating of which be pleased to know That 1. Love as an Ancient hath well defined it is Delectatio cordis ad aliquid per desiderium currens per gandium acquiescens the enlargement of the heart toward any Object so as to run to it by desire and rest in it by delight So that indeed love is a compounded mixt affection made up of desire in craving and joy in having the Object we love and accordingly some Criticks observe of the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used that it is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very earnest after and pleased with that which is beloved 2. It is not unlawfull to look upon the world and the things in it as Objects of our love both in regard of desire and delight When our blessed Saviour command us to pray Give us this day our daily bread by which Syneâ—doâ—hically all temporall conveniences are intended He doth hereby plainly intimate that we may desire them prayer being an expression of desire When Solomon saith and that not in the person of an Epicure There is nothing better for a man then that he should eate and drinke and that he should make his soul injoy good in his labour What doth he but insinuate that to delight our selves in earthly things is allowable Indeed whatever is good may justly be the Object of love and consepuently when absent of desire when present of delight so that inasmuch as there is a goodness and that originally implanted by God in those things which are the works of his hands they cannot but rationally attract our love 3. But then lastly There is a great deale of difference between ordinata Charitas and inordinata cupiditas an ordinate charity and an inordinate love and though that is commendable this is to be condemned so that the true meaning of this prohibition will best appear in two propositions 1. Love not the world nor the things of the world that is When you want them desire not inordinately after them Desire them we may but not 1. In an unjust way so to covet these things as to seek them perfasque nefasque by indirect and unlawfull meanes that we choose rather to breake the rules of the word then to want the things of the world is sinfull and abominable the streames of our affection may move towards the world but then it must be in the right channell in Gods way only in the use of those meanes which he alloweth us 2. With an undue measure so to long for any thing in this world as that we will not be content without if like Rachell that cryed Give me Children or I die nor yet content with it like the Horse Leech that still cryeth give give is immoderate and consequently inordinate the streame of our affections after this world must not rise too high so as to overflow the bankes 3. To an unfiting end when we crave the things of this world upon base and sordid accounts Asking as St James saith to consume them upon our lusts our love is exorbitant the streame of our affection toward the world must not turn aside into by creeks but run into the maine Ocean of Gods glory 2. Love not the world nor the things of it that is When you have them delight not inordinately in them Delight in them we may but not Sine Deo without God so as if we enjoy them it matters not for Gods presence Supra
them is not to be one among them men seldome imagine till they finde it by woefull experience what an infectious breath there is in evill society to corrupt their mindes and manners 3. Poure out water even the water of the penitent tears for thy former impurities The heads of Dragons are broken in the waters Draconum capita vitia capitalia the heads of Dragons are capitall sins among which incontinency and intemperance are the chief and look as the greater the flamâ— the more water must be poured on it is not drops but buckets nay flouds of water must quench the raging fornace So according to the greatness of thy sins proportion the multitude of thy tears and if thou hast been a notorious offender in this kinde thou must be a dolorous mourner 4. Lastly Strive to blow out this fire of lust by the breath of thy Prayers solicit the throne of grace for chastity sobriety vigilancy temperance those virtues which are directly opposite to this lust yea beseech the Spirit of God that he would breath into thy soul and thereby extinguish the flame of thy lust Indeed the breath of the evill spirit maketh this fire the hotter but a blast of the good spirit will put it out at least much slacke it and therefore laying hold on the gracious promise of giving his spirit to them that aske give not over Praying till thou hast obtained the spirit of grace whereby thou maist mortifie this lust of the flesh Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world THat God of this world Prince of darkness and arch enemy of mankinde the Devill as he wants not virulency so he is full of subtilty Indeed it is his most usuall practice to take sinners in the snares of temptations nets of circumvention and ambushes of destruction No wonder if St Paul mindes the Corinthians of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devices as well as strong holdes Among all his cunning stratagems none more politique and prevalent then those by which he taketh advantage from our selves against our selves To this purpose it is that he observeth the age of our lives quality of our outward condition the complexion and constitution of our bodies the abilities and endowments of our mindes dispositions and inclinations of our hearts and accordingly fits his temptations whereby too often he overcometh us The last of these and not the least St Basill taketh notice of where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he useth our own lusts and desires as weapons to fight against us And no wonder if the winde of his temptations blow us on amain when it joyneth with the tide of our own desires Good reason had St John having encouraged young men and in them all Christians to battle with and a victory over the wicked one to warne them of those lusts which if not mortified would be prejudiciall unto them and serviceable unto him The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life We are now in order to proceed to a second Daughter of worldly love namely the lust of the eyes but what St John meaneth by this expression admits among Expositors of severall constructions Illyricus conceiveth that our Apostle intendeth Potissimum libidinosos aspectus chiefly lust full lookes uncleane aspects wanton glances This was that with which St Peter charged the false teachers that they had eyes full of adultery and of which our Saviour affirmeth that to looke on a woman so as to lust after her is a committing adultery with her in the heart But since this more properly is referd to the forementioned lust of the flesh and withall is too narrow a restriction of the Apostles meaning I shall pass it by There are two interpretations the one whereof is St Austins and venerable Bedes the other most generally received by ancient and modern Authors both of which being probable I shall reject neither Indeed I think we shall do best with Aquinas to look upon them as two members of one exposition and so if you would know what this lust of the eyes is the Answer is curiositas and cupiditas a desire of knowing and of having curiosity and covetousness the latter of which I shall insist upon because it is that which I incline to as most genuine 1. By this lust of the eyes We may very well understand curiosity or an inordinate desire of knowledge and whereas there is a double knowledg to wit intellectuall and sensitive both which may be inordinately desired this lust of the eyes may very well include both inasmuch as the minde hath its eyes as well as the body and so this lust is both of the mentall eyes after intellectuall and of the corporeall after sensitive knowledg 1. There is a lust of the eyes after intellectuall knowledge not but that knowledg is sutable to and consequently desâ—rable by the minde of man nor yet is every earnest desire after knowledg to be charged with curiosity Indeed it is such as cannot be had without and therefore must be â—ought for with diligence but if you would know when it is a lust of the eyes I answer the inordination of this desire is discovered severall waies 1. When it is a desire after knowledg for a bad end St Bernard observed in his time and it is still true Sunt qui scire volunt tantum ut sciant Some desire to know that they may know and such a desire is irregular because it maketh knowledg and end whenas it is designed to be a meanes of a furrher and better end Aquinas observeth that there are two accidentall effects of knowledge which are very evill namely to puff us up with pride and make us expert in wicked-ness and when those accidentall effects of knowledg are the intentionall ends of our desire it is a lust of the eyes the truth is knowledge is desirable chiefly in order to practice and that of good and therefore to desire it only as fuell for our self conceit or which is far worse as an help to wicked devices that we may be wise to do evill it is deservedly censured as exorbitant 2. When it is a desire after knowledg by magicall Arts and diabolicall Helps It is far better to be ignorant then to go to Schoole to the Devill That knowledg we gain by him is far fetcht because from Hell and deare bought because with the hazard of our souls 3. When by desires and endeavours after the knowledge of the things that are less needfull we are hindred from the knowledg of what is more needfull thus when men preferre
heart he hath a foule dirty soule he is a mourner but it is only when his trading doth not thrive and riches increase he careth not for poverty of spirit but fullness in his purse all his mercy is to pitty and spare his Gold he is so farre from being a Peacemaker that he will go to Law for a penny and he resolveth to suffer no persecution but what is from his own fretting and raging lust Indeed the one of these qualifications is true but it is only in part men revile him and speak evill of him but it is not falsely but justly for Christs sake but his Monies sake and therefore his reproaches are so farre from rendring him blessed that they make him the more cursed and however this wretched catiffe like him in the Poet applaude himself while the people point and hisse at him yet the time will come when God shall upbraide him with his folly laugh at his calamity and then though too late he shall bewaile and abhorre and condemne himselfe What now remaineth but that since the denying this worldly lust appeareth so reasonable we resolve upon it and for our better execution of this resolution remember these Lessons 1. Get a contented minde The Author to the Hebrews hath aptly joyned them together Let your Conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have Requiring no doubt the latter in order to the former what are all of us in this world but as so many strangers and Pilgrims why should we care for more then Money to defray our charges we are under the providence of a gracious Father why should we not be content with what he seeth convenient for us Certainely that Shooe is not best which is the greatest but which is fittest for the Foote nor that Garment which is longest or most gorgeous but that which sets closest to the Body let our portion content us and then the lust of the eyes will not domineer over us 2. Labour for a charitable Heart make not the Mammon of unrighteousness your friend by loving it but make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness by giving it one desire will thrust out another the good lust of giving and distributing will expell the bad lust of getting and keeping St Austins counsell concerning riches is excellent Si absint ne per mala opera quaerantur in terra si adsâ—nt per bona opera serventur in â—aelo If they be wanting seeke them not in earth by evill workes if they be present lay them up in Heaven by good workes if you will needs be laying up of riches let it be in the safest place in Heaven as our Saviour directeth us and that is by laying them out for the poores relief if you must needs see your riches let it be upon the backs of the naked and the tables of the hungry this is the only commendable lust of the eyes 3. Judge righteous judgement concerning those things with which you are so enamoured to which end shut the eye of your sense and open the eye of your reason Tully writeth of a people who when they went to the field were wont pugnare clausis oculis to fight with their eyes shut it might be cowardize in them it would be wisdome in us to shut our eyes not to look too much on those Objects least they ensnare us When the Devill thought to tempt Christ to the utmost he shewed him all the kingdomes and glory of the world it is ill looking on the world especially when it putteth on its Holy-day apparell No wonder if David when he desireth that his heart may not be inclined to covetousness prayes also Turn away mine eys from beholding â—anity or if you will looke upon these things let it be with the eye of reason or rather faith to see the vanity and vexation of them looke not upon ther pompous outside but their rotten inside and then you will finde them like hangings which on the one side have pictures of Kings and Queens curiously wrought but on the other side rags and patches 4. Finally Lift up your eyes to Heaven by a due meditation of things above Anatomists observe that there is a muscle in mans eye more then in any other Creatures by which he is able to looke up Man in the Greeke language is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that lifts up his countenance to which agreeth that of the Poet Os homimi sublime dedit Oh let our bodily constitution minde us of an Heavenly disposition Terram despicit qui Coelum aspiciâ— he will have Earth under his foote who hath Heaven in his eyes In one word As Moses so let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looke off from this land we possess to the promised Land that having respect to that recompense of reward we may disrespect the treasures of Aegypt and taking daily walkes upon Mount Sion all these things silver gold houses lands goods riches may be little and vile in our eyes so shall we be delivered from this second venemous corruption The lust of the eyes THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world AMong those many excellent rules which belong to the divine Art of Preaching this is not of least concernment that Ministers should not content themselves with Generalities either in disswading evill or perswading good Virtues and vices are then rightly handled when our Sermons are not like shadows which represent obscurely and confusedly but as glasses or rather Pictures setting them forth in their distinct lineaments It is a known maxime in Logick Latet dolus in universalibus There is a great deale of ambiguity and consequently deceit in universall propositions And though exhortations at large to serve God mortifie the flesh and contemne the world are in themselves true and good yet if not more particularly discussed the Auditors will be too apt to deceive themselves by imagining they have learnt those lessons to which perhaps they are meer strangers For this cause it was that Sâ— Paul exhorting the Colossians to mortifie their earthly members proceeds to a punctuall enumeration of those members and not only those of the grossest and worse sort but those which seem at least in mans eye of less guilt and to instance no further for this very reason no doubt it was that our Apostle contents not himself in generals to dehort worldly love but annexeth a speciall discovery of the severall lusts by which it reigneth in the hearts and lives of the wicked Love not the world for all that
word had we only to do with men it might suffice to have a care of our words and workes but since we have to do with God there must be a regard of thoughts and desires 3. Lastly It is not the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes but and to intimate to us that any one of these denominate a man a lover of the world and therefore it is not enough that we are free from one but we must be without any of these lusts to wit raigning and ruling over us I have read a story of an holy man to whom an Angell came with this message Veni ostendam tibi operva hominum Come and I will shew thee the workes of the sonnes of men To this end he leads him first to a field where he shewed him a man gathering sticks making a bundle and taking it on his shoulder to carry it but finding it too weighty he layeth it down and gathereth more but then he could not so much as stirre it Then he leads him to a river where he shewed him a man taking up water and pouring it into a leaking vessell which let it out as fast almost as it was put in Then he led him to a Temple where he findes two men carrying a piece of wood cross whereby neither could get into the Temple whereas if one would have permitted the other to have gone before both might have entered in In these three sights we have a representation of these three lusts the springs of those workes The first of the voluptuous who continually gather sticks of the Tree of pleasure and are so bewitched that they leave not gathering till the burden of them become at last intolerable The second of the covetous whose insatiable desire is like a vessell full of holes which yet he is still endeavouring to fill The third of the proud who whilest they will not suffer another to go before them hinder each other from entring into that caelestiall Temple Some there are who prostitute themselves so farre as they are consistent one with the other to all these lusts It is observed of the Swanne that he hath a threefold habitation the Water the Earth the Aire a fit Embleme of many sinners who swim in the water of sensuall pleasure walke upon the earth by the feet of covetous affections and flye in the aire with the wings of pride Others there are who are only addicted to one of these lusts whilst they are free from nay haters of the other Thus the voluptuous Epicure hateth to be covetous the covetous Mammonist abhorreth to be voluptuous and some proud men hate both we all saith the Prophet Like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way Though all naturally go in a bad way yet not in the same some in the path of pride and others of curiosity others of avarice and others of sensuality But if the Enemy enter in at any one of these gates he gets the Castle â—e that goeth in any of these paths is in the broad way and he that is caught by any of these nets is the Devils Slave It will little availe the sensuall man to say I am not proud or covetous or the proud man to say I am not covetous or sensuall nor the covetous man to say I am not sensuall or proud That threatning against Israel Him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay may be here fitly alluded to and is too often verified Him that escapeth the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes slayeth and him that escapeth the lust of the eyes the pride of life slayeth It is ofttimes in this case according to that of the Prophet Amos As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Beare met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Many a man that abhorreth the lust of the flesh is ensnared by the lust of the eyes and some as St Ambrose observeth Quos nulla potuit vincere luxuria nulla avaritia subruere ambitio facit criminosos whom neither luxury nor avarice could overcome pride hath surprized and subdued and therefore let our abstinence be universall or else it cannot be effectuall Thus did Moses when he chose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne which are but for a season when he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then all the treasures of Aegypt when being come to years he refused to be called the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter Thus did Christ when to satisfie his hunger he would not command stones to be bread when he would not fall down and worship the Devill to gain all the Kingdomes of the world when he would not vain gloriously cast himselfe down from the Pinacle to shew himself the Sonne of God Thus must every Christian do in some measure then and not till then are we good Schollars in the Schoole of grace when we have learnt to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts namely the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him WHat was the saying of those Jews upon the hearing of Christs discourse I doubt is the thought of many Christians upon the reading of this Scripture This is an hard saying who can heare it Promises of mercy tickle but precepts of duty such especially as are contrary to our lusts grate the ears the very hearing is irksome but the practising much more This is an hard saying who can hear it It is harder doing who can performe it True the worke is excellent but withall difficult it is a matter of moment but not acted in a moment To divert our corrupt natures from worldly love is no less then to turne a streame and that will aske no little time and paines No wonder then if our Apostle contents not himself with the bare mention of this duty but withall annexeth strong inducements to the performance of it that hearing not only what we are to do but what great reason there is why we should do it we might with the stronger resolution set about it Love not the world for if any man love the world c. It is that part of the Text I am now come to namely the Argumentation which our Apostle adjoyneth to his Dehortation which consists of two parts or rather presents us with two Arguments 1. The first whereof is drawn from worldly love its contrariety to that which is divine and this is both asserted in the end of the fifteenth and proved in the end of the sixteenth so that in this part there are two things offer
you I hate nay do I not love God But oh vaine man do not deceive thy self whosoever is the worlds friend is at least virtually Gods enemy and so farre from loving that he doth in effect hate him and all his servioes are no better then a mocking as much as in him lieth of the sacred deity 2. The love of the Father is not nay not only is not but cannot be in him our blessed Saviour is express concerning obedience you cannot serve God and Mammon and it is no less true of love you cannot love God and the world much less the world and God The impossibility of the consistency of these two will appear if you consider 1. The nature of love It is an ingrosser appropriating the heart to the Object love saith to its beloved I am thine to wit wholly soly and therefore it cannot be anothers when the streame runs into one channell then it runs violently vehement affection admits not of division It is as possible for a direct line to terminate in two points or for one member to serve two bodies as for love intensively at once to minde two Objects 2. The contrariety of the Obiects God and the world in the very next Verse they are set one in opposition to the other The Father is above the world is below so that to use a comparison of an Ancient the same eyes may as well at the same time behold Heaven and Earth as the same affection be carried towards God and the world God is light and the world is darkness Fieri non potest saith Damascen It cannot be that divine and worldly love should cohabit no more then that light and darkness should reside together Two contrary formes may as soon at once informe one and the same matter and two contrary intense qualities meet together in the same Subject as the love of the world and the love of the Father dwell in the same heart If I love another mans enemy and that as he is his enemy I must needs be an enemy to him the worldling loveth the world not as in subordination to but competition with and therefore he can be no other then an enemy to God so true is this of our Apostle If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him That it may yet more plainly appear that there neither is nor can be any true love of God in the worldling take notice of these ensuing particulars 1. Can there be any love of the Father in him who hath no love to his name especially his word which God hath magnified above all his name and yet this is evident in worldly lovers their lusts like thorns choak the good seed of the word that it can take no root in their hearts their proud necks will not stoop to put on this sacred yoake the voluptuous mans eare is deafe to this Heavenly charme and when the spirituall fishers would catch the covetous he slippeth with the Eele into the mud of the world and so renders all their pains useless 2. Can there be any love of the Father in him who doth not cleave to him with full purpose of heart and will renounce his Religion rather then suffer persecution If any man draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him and it is as true his soul hath no pleasure in God Now the love of the world causeth men to grow lukewarme nay at last quite cold St Paul observeth it as the ground of Demas his Apostacy he hath forsaken me and with him Christ having embraced to wit with the armes of love this present world What made Judas so frozen so false hearted to so gratious a Master but the love of money had not Moses instead of loving despised the pleasures and honours of Pharaohs Court he had left the People of God Danger and nakedness want and penury reproach and infamy will quickly affright that man from his Christian Profession in whom the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life raign 3. He that hath any true love of the Father will call the Lords day a delight loves to converse with God by Prayer and other holy ordinances but the worldly lover either wholly casts off holy duties holy daies holy things or else he takes no joy in the performance of them no time being worse spent in his esteeme then that which is in Gods courts Worldly men in Heavenly duties are like a fish upon the shoare they faint and gaspe and are never well till they returne to the muddy waters When will the Sabboath be gone that we may sell and get gaine saith the covetous that we may take our pleasure saith the voluptuous that we may pursue our politique designs saith the ambitious Nay it is not seldome seen that every one of these will not stick to fulfill their own lusts even when they should be imployed in Gods service 4. It is impossible that the love of the Father should consist with sacriledge No man ever looked upon a thief as his friend to live in any sinne much more in such a sinne as reflects upon God must needs be repugnant to the love of him Now worldly love puts men upon the commission of this great wickedness Every proud man is a sacrilegious thief robbing God of his glory which he will not give to another and it is not seldome seen that covetous and voluptuous men rob God of his Revenues Belshazzer prostitutes the vessels of the Temple to the lust of the flesh by quaffing in them Achan through the lust of the eyes alienateth the devoted gold and garment wicked worldlings will not stick to be not only sellers and buyers in but of the Temple taking the houses of God into their possession 5. Finally He that setteth up any thing in the roome of God cannot have a sincere affection towards him The cursed Idolater as much as in him lieth dethroneth the divine majesty which surely cannot consist with amity And yet it is an undoubted truth every worldling is an idolater to wit in a spirituall sense bowing down though not with his knee to an Idoll yet with his heart to the world St Paul speaking of Epicures who are given over to the lust of the flesh giveth them this brand whose belly is their God and consequently their Kitchin is their Temple Table their Altar and Cooke their Priest The same Apostle mentioning covetousness presently addeth which is Idolatry Indeed with a covetous man seulpture is his Scripture Bills and Bonds are his Bible the Exchange his Temple and Gold his God as he saith to it thou art my love so likewise thou art my hope my trust The proper acts of naturall worship which are due only to the Deity He dealeth with it as the two Giants sometime did with Mars first he looks it fast and then worships it Finally The proud man worshippeth though not images yet his
ergo vult audita intelligere festinet ea quae jam audire potuit opere implere Whosoever therefore will understand let him first make hast to do what he heareth 2. Again Would we keep his Commandements let us know him These two Knowledg and Practice are necessary attendants the one upon the other Those two Sisters Leah and Rachell are fit Emblems of Contemplation and Action Contemplation like Rachell is Beautifull Action like Leah is Fruitfull And as those two sisters were Marryed to Jacob so are these two Graces concomitant in every Christian Those Cherubims which the Prophet Ezekiel speaketh of are described to have hands under their Wings The Wings saith St Gregory are an Embleme of Knowledg whereby we flye in our thoughts to Heaven the hands of Practice whereby we do good on Earth and all true Christians like these Cherubims have hands under their Wings That is Operation attending Meditation This that Father looketh upon as resembled by those two sisters of whom we read in the Gospell Martha and Mary whereof Vna intenta operâ— altera contemplatioâ—â— the one was intent upon doing the other upon hearing Indeed these two are not only as two sisters but as the Mother and the Daughter Divine Knowledg both engaging and inabling to Obedience so as it doth not only follow upon but flowe from it The true Knowledg of Divine things is not otiosa but officiosa a loyterer but a labourer As her principall Object Christ is Incarnate so is Shee having Eyes of Charity Bowels of Mercy Hands of Bounty and Feet of Obedience Indeed you may as well sever the Beams from the Sun heat from the fire motion from life as practice from a right Knowledg to which purpose is that note of Calvin upon the Text. He admonisheth us that Christian Knowledg is not idle but active by its efficacious vertue producing Obedience So that they who know him really will nay cannot but keep his Commandements To illustrate this Truth the more clearly I shall briefly resolve these two Queries what it is to know him and what it is to keep his Commandements whereby we shall learn both why a right Knowledg of Christ enableth to keep the Commandements and what keeping the Commandements floweth from this Knowledg 1. The full Explication of this Knowledg and its Influence upon keeping the Commandements will best appear by considering both the Object whereabout it is conversant and the Acts which it puts forth 1. The Object of this Knowledg is insinuated in that Pronoune Him and if you ask whom the answer is to be given from the first Verse where we read of the Father and Jesus Christ the Advocate According to this it is that our blessed Saviour maketh the Object of saving Knowledg to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent It is not then that Knowledg we have of God by his Works by his Law but by his Gospell whereof St John here speaketh So Beza upon the Text. Agitur hic de cognitione Dei in Evangelio The Apostle here speaketh of Evangelicall Knowledg which must needs engage to Obedience Inasmuch as it is a Knowledg of the Love of God and Christ towards us and those choise benefits he hath wrought for us and certainly he that knoweth how much Christ hath done for his Salvation cannot but be ready to do whatever Christ requireth for his Service Indeed that naturall knowledge we have of him as a Creator carrieth in it an Argument of Obedience It is the acknowledgment of the Elders Worthy art thou O Lord to receive glory and honour for thou hast created all things It being most equall that to him we should return service from whom we receive our being Yet further that legall knowledg we have of him as our Law-giver and Judge is an enducement to obedience Inasmuch as the breach of his Law cannot but provoke him to inflict the curs but still the knowledg we have of God as a Father of Christ as an Advocate and propitiation is both the sweetest and the strongest Obligation nothing being more rational then that our Father our Redeemer should be our Lord and that we should be wholly devoted to him who is so dearly affected to us Especially considering this is the very end of his delivering us out of the hands of our enemies that we should serve before him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the daies of our lives 2. The Acts of this knowledg will the better appear by observing that various acceptation of this word know which may fitly be accomodated to our present purpose Among others there are three constructions of this word 1. To know is sometimes as much as to acknowledg When we read of a Pharaoh risen in Aegypt which knew not Joseph Of God complaining concerning Israel that she did not know he gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl And again of Christs answer to many at the last day I know you not It is plainly manifest that to know is as much as to own acknowledg And in this sense that Latin word is used by the Poet Cognoscere for Agnoscere Dominum cognoscite vestrum This acceptation is here made use of by Tirinus and not unfitly If we know him that is acknowledg him as our Lord and Jesus and own him as our Prince and Saviour And thus knowing him we cannot but account our selves obliged to keep his Commandements It is very observeable to this purpose what Christ saith in St Johns Gospel concerning his Sheep They know my voice and they follow me True Believers acknowledging Christ to be their Shepherd and owning it to be his voice which they hear in the Scriptures follow him by an active conformity to his Precepts It is Gods own reasoning in the Prophecie of Malachy If I be a Father where is my honour If I be a Master where is my fear And therefore Christians acknowledging him to be their Father their Master cannot but give up themselves to the honour fear and service of him 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know the same with to believe It were easie to multiply Instances of this kind but one may suffice instead of all where God saith concerning Christ By his knowledg shall my righteous servant justifie many Which is no doubt to be construed by Faith in him he shall justifie according to that of St Paul being justified by Faith And believing is called knowing upon a double account 1. Partly Because Knowledg is a necessary ingredient of Faith It is the Apostles assertion concerning himself I know whom I have believed and his question concerning the Heathen How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard thereby asserting it impossible and the reason is because they cannot believe on him whom they have not known Indeed Faith formally considered is an assent
I have kept the Faith he meaneth no doubt his constancy in the profession of the Faith and where Christ saith Because thou hast kept the Word of my patience he intends a perseverance in their Obedience to Christs Word notwithstanding persecution And thus to keep Christs Commandements as well by suffering as doing to lose any thing rather then not keep them and patiently to continue in well doing though we may suffer ill is that Obedience which a right Knowledg of Christ produceth I cannot leave this without annexing one Caution that this Universall Obedience is not to be understood in respect of an exact execution but a cordiall endeavour Indeed the punctuall observation of the Commandements is in this life impossible not absolutely and in it self for God doth not command such things as are in themselves impossible to be done but respectively and accidentally because we are by the fall disinabled and that ability we once had is not for the present perfectly restored The truth is in the best there is both defectus privans affectus obstans a defect of that measure of grace which should strengthen to full Obedience and besides a continuall lusting of the flesh against the spirit conflict between sin and grace whereby it is that grace cannot perfectly produce its acts Hence it is that as we cannot keep them collectively so neither distributively we cannot observe all no nor any so perfectly in every title as that there should be no deviation But still there may be a sincere purpose of heart inclining us to observe all whereby it is that as Hypocrites may be said to break the Commandements when they keep them because with the observance of the outward act there is no concurrence of the minds delight so that the good they do they would not do So true Christians may in a qualified sence be said to keep the Commandements when they break them because when they fail in the outward act they have an habituall purpose in their regenerate part to performe and so the evill they do they would not Nor is this kind of Obedience unfitly called universall because it hath respect to every Command nor doth it suffer a man willingly to allow himself in the breach of any of the Precepts To summe it up there is a knowledg of God and Christ which is true and perfect and there is a knowledg which is true but imperfect the perfect knowledge is that which we shall have in that other life which is said to be perfect not in respect of Comprehension since it is impossible that our finite understandings should fully comprehend an infinite Object but in regard of apprehension because it shall be the fullest degree of apprehensive knowledge which humane nature is capable of But the knowledg which we have in this life is imperfect according to that of the Apostle we know in part and according to this different knowledg so is our keeping the Commandements since the effect cannot exceed the energy of the cause when therefore our knowledg shall be perfect our obedience shall be compleat But in the meane time as our knowing Christ so our keeping his Commandements is defective though withall it is sincere and as to the intention illimited the soul that rightly knoweth Christ being ready to observe and resolved to do whatsoever Christ revealeth as his Will and imposeth as a command What now remaineth but that every one of us indeavour to expresse the truth of our knowledg of Christ by our Obedience We have all of us my brethren heard much and often of Christ but have we yet learned to know him We many of us are able to speak much of but have we any spirituall acquaintance with Christ If so where is our Obedience to his Commands True knowledg is such as may not only be heard but seen Sheep saith the morall Philosopher do not bring their fodder to their shepheards and shew them how much they have eaten but they inwardly digest and outwardly shew it by the goodnesse and quantity of the fleece upon their backs if we will shew the reality of knowledg in our hearts it must be by the fleece of holiness in our lives Indeed how can it be otherwise but that he who knoweth Christ the authority he hath over him the mercy he hath wrought for him and accordingly experienceth any Communion with him and dependeth for salvation on him should account himself infinitely obleiged to the observance of whatsoever is injoyned by him Lord what wilt thou have me to do is the voyce of Saul when Christ is pleased to discover himselfe to him They that know thy Name saith the Psalmist of God will put their trust in thee They that know thy Nature oh blessed Jesus will yield obedience to thee Indeed we many of us so know Christ as that we are willing to trust in him but yet not to serve him believe his promises of mercy we do observe his Commands of Duty we will not but in vain is that confidence which is not attended with obedience and therefore let our consciencious keeping the Precepts give evidence of our Faith in our knowledg of Christ so shall we be found reall Christians and if our knowledg of Christ here inable us to keep his Commandements our keeping the Commandements shall bring us to the knowledg of Christ hereafter when we shall behold him face to face in glory for ever Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 4 and part of the 5. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a lier and the truth is not in him 5. But who so keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected KNowledg is very amiable in the eyes of all rationall Men since as the Understanding is that faculty which ennobleth Man so Knowledg is that excellency which ennobleth the Vnderstanding Of all Knowledg none more precious then that of God and of Christ Other Knowledge may ennoble but this spiritualizeth the mind Other knowledg is needfull for us as Men but this concerneth us as Christians Indeed to use Lactantius his expression this is that Knowledg without which he that seeth is blind heareth is deafe speaketh is dumb and I adde liveth is dead So much our blessed Saviour implyeth when he saith This is life eternall to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent But as all shining glasse is not Crystall nor all lightsome apparitions Stars so neither is all Knowledg of God and Christ that which intituleth to life eternall And therefore our Apostle is here pleased to prevent deceit by giving us its most genuine Character drawn from its inseperable attendent yea necessary effect to wit Obedience to the Commandements the willfull neglect whereof argueth the absence of this Knowledg for he that saith I know him and keepeth not c. The first principall Proposition as it is asserted hath been already
more do we plead for the Baptizing of Infants Is it not because as Origen and Austin assure us it is a practice which the Church received from the Apostles and so an Apostolicall tradition which the more plainly appeareth because in St Cyprians time though there was a Controversie about Baptizing Infants upon the Eight day yet the thing it self is supposed as a practice then in use and though we do not read totidem verbis in the Scripture that the Apostle Baptized Infants yet it is very probable when as St Paul cald the Children of a believing Parent holy if he do not by the very phrase intend as the Learned Dr Hammond not improbably conceiveth yet that he did allow Baptism to those Children and where we read that whole Families were Baptized the Children might be among the number In one word It is the glory of the Church of England that her Doctrines are exactly consonant to Universall and Primitive antiquity nor do we desire any other rule to examine them by then this which here is laid down by our Apostle The old Commandment is the word which we have heard from the beginning 2. To let this go That which is chiefly to be considered is the Minor of the Syllogisme That the Commandment of love was from the beginning Now that which would here be enquired into is whence this beginning taketh its date Indeed haec vox pro materiâ substratâ varié accipi potest this word beginning may admit of a several reference and I find no less then four several expositions of it here all of which are not repugnant to but consistent with each other from the beginning of their conversion of Christian Religion of the Mosaical administration and of the Creation 1. Some Interpreters render the sence of the words thus from the beginning that is from the time you became Christians and first gave up your names to Christ and were called to the faith according to which sence our Apostle seemeth to assert that one of the first lessons of Christianity is love St Paul speaketh of milk for babes and meat for strong men intimating that there are some Commandments and Doctrines which are only fit for grown Christians but this Commandment of love as it is meat for the strongest so it is milk for babes 2. Others give this construction of the words from the beginning that is From the beginning of the Gospels Publication ever since the Faith of Christ was made known to the world Soon after Christian Religion was revealed there were many who endeavoured to bring in other Gospels but this Commandement which St John wrote of was as old as Christianity and what he delivered to them he received from Christ himself In that Sermon of Christ which is first mentioned by the first of the Evangelists St Matthew this Precept of love is expressed and in the last Sermon that ever he preached this lesson of love is commended to them and being taught by Christ himself it must needs be from the beginning of Christianity 3. Many take the date of this beginning a great deal higher even as high as Moses That which you Israelites had of old in the writings of Moses delivered to you So that we now give no other Commandement in charge to you then that which God cmmanded Moses and the Prophets to preach It is the exposition which I most incline to For since it is not improbable as hath been already suggested that those to whom this Apostle wrote were if not only yet principally the Jews and the design of St John by these words being to prove that what he wrote was no new but an old Commandement it is improbable that he would prove it by a date of not much above sixty years nor would it especially to the Jews have been any conviction of the antiquity of his Doctrine that it was from the beginning of Christian Religion when as in their opinion Christs Religion was a new Doctrine Upon this ground it seemeth a more rationall construction to referre this beginning to Moses and our Apostle could not use a more prevailing Argument to the Jews then by letting them know that the command he gave them was as old as Moses and before enjoyned by him There is only one Objection to be Answered that if this from the beginning be taken so far of how doth the Apostle say not only which you had but which you heard whereas this beginning was many hundred years before they were But the learned Grotius hath framed a fit Answer to my hand interpreting vos by majores vestri you that is your Ancestours according as it is to be taken where it is said whom you slew and did not Moses give you the Law That then which according to this construction is here asserted is that the Commandment of Love was from the beginning of Moses and required in the Law as well as in the Gospell This is that which in some sence is granted by all even the Socinians but so as that they assert something to be added to it by Christ and that upon that account it is called in the next Verse a new Comandment In what sence this Epithete of new belongs to it shall be by and by discovered In the mean time that which the Orthodox assert and I shall endeavour to make good is That the Evangelicall command of Love was from the beginning of the Law and so nothing new enjoyned by Christ which was not before by Moses To this end Be pleased to know that the command of Love may be considred either Extensivè or Intensivè Extensively in regare of the Object or Intensively in respect of the Act. In both these respects say the Socinians Christ hath added to the Law for whereas say they the Law requireth the Jews only to love their Countrymen their Friends the Gospell requireth us to love our enemies and so the extent of the Object is larger And whereas the Law required only of the Jews an Active Love the Gospell requireth a Passive so far as to lay down our lives for the Brethren The chief ground on which they build the former is that of our Saviour You have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say to you love your Enemies and the foundation which they lay of the latter is that the Law commanded only to love their Neighbours as themselves but the Gospell To love one another as Christ loved us which is in effect to love others better then our selves by laying down our lives for them which is more then the Law required To enervate both these Arguments and establish the truth of the Orthodox Assertion Be pleased to know 1. That Neighbour which is set down as the Object of Love in Moses his Law includeth Enemy as well as Friend To clear this I shall propose a double demand
with that of Cassian Quid diutius Evangelicis atque Apostolicis praeceptis immoramur cum etiam vetus lex haec eadem praecepit This Precept of Love is not only Apostolicall but Propheticall Evangelicall but Legall and in that respect truly said to be from the beginning 4. Lastly There is one Interpretation more which looketh backward as far as Adam and so this command of Love is from the beginning not only because commanded by Mosâ—s but Imprinted in nature The Law of Love was written at first in the mind of man and though it be much obliterated yet some Characters still remain and as by ruinous walls we guess how stately the buildings once were so by these remaining Impressions we may easily gather what goodly Characters of it were once stamped upon us Thus as before Christ made it Gospell Moses gave it as a written Law so before Moses made it a written Law God made it a branch or rather the root of the Law of nature To wind it up therefore Tell me I beseech you how inexcusable shall we be if having so manifold obligations we shall be negligent in the practice of this duty Even the Gentiles that have only the remainders of natures Law are obliged to love and not observing it will be found justly blameable much more the Jews who besides nature had the Law of Moses to guide them but most of all we Christians who have nature and Moses Law and the Law of Christ to direct us A threefold cord saith Solomon is not easily broken behold a threefold obligation lyeth on us Christians Christ Moses Adam all Preaching this Doctrine to us upon which account St John cals it the old Commandment which was from the beginning 2. There is yet another branch of this first particular in the commendation remaining which we find in the beginning of the eighth verse Again a new Commandment I write unto you That our Apostle by this new Commandment intends the same which before he cals not a new but an old Commandment is most probable partly because the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth and is here rendered again which therefore seemes to look back on what precedes and intimateth that he continueth his discourse upon the same subject chiefly because this very command of love is called by our blessed Saviour in the Gospel a new Commandment nor is this phrase used any where concerning any other then this command and therefore it is most rational so to understand it here though Socinus most ab surdly contends that those words the darkness is past and the true light now shineth are a command and that which here is called a new Commandment This being premised the chief work is to reconcile St John to himself for if he speak of the same Commandment how is it that he cals it in one verse not new and in the next a new is it not a contradiction to affirm and deny the same thing of the same subject That of St Ambrose concerning the Cherubims Si stabant quomodo movebant si movebant quomodo stabant If they did move how did they stand and if stand how move may be here alluded to If it is old how is it new if new how is it old But surely it is not to be imagined that this holy Apostle should as it were with one breath give himself the lie Had it been at a great distance though an humane Author might forget himself yet surely this divinely inspired Apostle could not and much less being so near as the next verse And therefore we must necessarily conclude that though he speakes of the same subject yet not in the same respect Now it is a known maxime in Philosophy That contraryes and contradictions may be attributed to the same subject in divers respects the same snow may be called white as it falleth and black in its melting the same person may be in one part hot and cold in another Not to multiply instances the same Commandment may be old and yet in some respect not unfitly be called new To illustrate this give me leave briefly to set before you those several notions in which this term new may fit this old Commandment of love 1. Appellant Haebrei novum quod praestantissimum it is usuall with the Hebrews to call those things new which are excellent He hath put into my mouth saith David a new Psalm and again Oh sing unto the Lord a new song that is say interpreters an excellent song In this sense it is true here the command of love is an excellent command our Saviour cals the love of God the first and great Commandment and the love of our neighbour the second which is like to it St Paul speaking of this grace of charity and comparing it with preferres it before faith and hope That Apologue is very fit to this purpose of a consultation among the vertues which should have the preheminence whilest one was for chastity sister to the Angels another for justice which giveth every man his due a third for prudence Solomons choice not agreeing among themselves they made Reason the Vmpire who passing by all the rest set the Crown upon the head of Love But this interpretation though in it self true is not so congruous to our Apostles meaning 2. That exposition is doubtlesse more suteable which expounds new in opposition to the long received tradition of the Pharisees concerning this command for whereas this command had been corruptly taught for many years by those Doctors of the Law it was now refined from the drâ—sâ—e and purely taught by Christ and his Apostles and so this Commandment though old in it self yea older then their false glosses yet being but newly freed from them is fitly said to be new It is well observed by Heinsius that those things are said to be new which though they were long before yet are denuó restituta newly restored to their pristine purity Look as an old house repaired may be called a new house and a rusty sword fourbished a new sword look as an old book new bound up is as it were a new book and a defaced picture refreshed with colours a new picâ—ure so is this command a new Commandment For whereas they who sate in Moses his chair had perverted this doctrine Christ was pleased by himself and his Apostles a new to revive and restore it to its primitive integrity Indeed it was at this time with Moses law as it was in the beginning of our Reformation with Christian Religion The primitive doctrine and worship had for some hundred of yeares been buried under the ashes of Romish superstition whereby it is that the Reformed Religion though farre older then Popery might be accounted and was as it were a new Religion The Moral law in Christs time as to the both intensive and extensive meaning of it had been long hid under the corrupt opinion of the Jewish Doctors and
have the light to walk in it to walk worthy of it to walk as children of it by walking in this path of love And so much for that Exposition The other interpretation renders these words assertively is true in you and expounds the darkness and light of sinne and grace an Exposition which I incline to as most rational it being very probable that our Apostle as in the following verses he useth the same metaphors so here intends the same things and that there his primary scope is to describe by darkness and light mans corrupt and regenerate estate will appear in the handling For the better prosecution of these words in this sense be pleased to proceed with me by these steps and observe 1. What is the state of all men before conversion Namely a state of darkness darkness is in our minds the darkness of ignorance and infidelity we neither do nor can know aright either God or our selves The naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God is St Pauls generall Doctrine asserting our ignorance of God and the particular charge against Laodicea That she knew not she was wretched and miserable poor blind and naked may justly be extended to all mankind in regard of self-ignorance Indeed there is so much light left in us as may render us inexcusable but not as can lead us to Heaven we neither of our selves can find out nor yet discern divine truths though they are set before us how quick sighted soever reason may be in naturals it is dimme yea blind in spirituals and as our blessed Saviour argueth If the eye be darkness the whole body must needs be darke the eyes of our understanding being darkned no marvell if our will and affections be clouded yea a darkness of sin overrun our whole man so that what St Paul saith to the Ephesians is true of all unregenerate persons they are not only in the concrete darke but abstract darkness it self 2. What the state of all regenerate persons is The darkness is past and the true light of saving knowledg and heavenly grace shineth in their hearts Regenerate Christians are called in the new Testament new Creatures and indeed not unfitly since as it was in the old so is it in this new Creation We read in the beginning of Genesis That darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said let there be light A fit Embleme of the Spirits work in a sinners Conversion Whereas darkness covereth the soul before a glorious light ariseth in and diffuseth it self through it To this no doubt the Apostle alludeth when he saith God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts and for this reason it is that very often the turning of a sinner is set forth by this Metaphor so Pauls conversion of the Gentiles is called a turning them from darkness to light the converted Colossians are said to be delivered from the power of darkness and of the Ephesians it is said You who were sometimes darkness are now light in the Lord. Suitable to all which is this phrase in my Text The darkness is past and that true light now shineth Nor is it unworthy the observation how fitly these two clauses are ioyned together since the one cannot be without the other nay indeed one is the cause of the other In every convert there is not only a passing away of darkness but a shining of the true light yea the shining of the light is the cause of the passing away of the darkness in which respect Zanchy noteth that Conjunctio copulans pro causali posita videtur the Copulative Conjunction and is put for the Causall for This will the more appear if we consider what St Austin hath observed Namely That darkness is nothing else but the non residency of light and therefore that which expelleth darkness must needs be the presence of light thus the grace of the Spirit infused into the Soul is that which prevaileth to the expulsion of sin Look as the taking of an antidote driveth out the poyson the putting of a new Seal upon the Wax defaceth the old stampe and the return of the Sun causeth the darkness to vanish so is it the donation of the Spirit and his grace which dispossesseth Sin and Satan of the Soul Hence we may take notice what it is that maketh the difference between a Convert and a naturall Man namely the shining of the light of grace We that are converted were once involved in the same state of darkness with the rest of the world and as unable to deliver our selves from it had not Gods free grace caused the light to shine upon us which he denieth to others in which regard St Peter saith to the converted Christians to whom he wrote You are a chosen Generation a royall Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that you should shew forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light But yet it must withall be considered that the words in this sense are better read according to the Greek the darkness passeth away then that it is past since so long as we are here though our light be true yet it is not perfect but shineth more and more to the perfect day Now according to the increase of the light is the decrease of the darkness and therefore because it is not full noon perfect day whilst we are here the darkness cannot be said to be wholly past but rather is still passing if then we are sensible of the remainder of darkness in our hearts let it trouble but not too much dismay us light and darkness in remiss degrees may be together nor must we expect the darkness of sin to be wholly removed till we participate the light of Glory 3. In whomsoever the darkness passeth and the true light shineth this is true of which our Apostle here speaketh this grace and duty of love will shew it self in all regenerate persons it is a clear maxim where there is the cause there will be the effect such as is the root such will be the fruit now goodness which is a companion of love is called by the Apostle Paul A fruit of the Spirit or as some Greeke Copies read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fruit of light this light which here is said to shine which is no other then the grace of the Spirit no wonder if where this light shineth there this beam and fruit of it appear indeed glowe worm light and star light is such as hath no beat at all to accompany it but Sun light which is the true light expelling darkness wanteth not heat which is the Embleme of this grace of love whereby the soul is warmed yea enflamed Examine we then our selves by this Character if we be brought from darkness to light this is true in us who so experienceth this change will find
him 2. To the several kindes of good which concerne this life and that which is to come Thus love 1. willeth and endeavoureth chiefly the spiritual good of his soul instructing his ignorance rebuking his wickedness exciting his negligence supporting his weakness resolving his doubtfullness laying forth readily what gifts God hath vouchsafed to her yet still within the compass of her calling for the edification of others 2. Next she wisheth well to and taketh care of his temporal advantage in body name estate feeding the belly cloathing the back of her brother and so making the one her barn and the other her wardrobe and both her treasury concealing those secret faults which might and confuting those false slanders which do impair his credit finally seeking the things of another his outward welfare gain prosperity as well as her own yea when need requireth throwing the fat dung of her wealth upon the barren soyl of her brothers mean estate By this time you see both the intent and the extent of the aâ—â— of love which is here required Pass we on to the object whereabout it ought to be conversant and so to a resolution of the second Question Who this brother is whom we ought thus to love To this end you may please to take notice of a double fraternity to wit carnal and spiritual the one is by the bloud of man the other by the bloud of Christ 1. Carnal Brotherhood in its utmost latitude reacheth very farre nor can we too farre extend the meaning of brother in the Text according to this notion For the clearing whereof observe these particulars 1. Brother in the strst and strict acception is predicated of those who have the same immediate parents the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uterus intimateth as much one that cometh out of the same womb the same loynes hath the same Father and Mother with another is most properly a brother 2. Brother is sometimes enlarged further to affinity and so kinsmen are in Scripture phrase called brethren The Jewes say concerning Christ Is not this the Carpenter the sonne of Mary the brother of James and Joses and of Juda and Simon and are not his Sisters here with us whenas yet we rationally conceive that the blessed Virgin never had child besides him and as he is caled her first born because none before him so we read not of any she had after him and therefore He her only one So that his kindred and aâ—â—yes are called his brethren and sisters according to the usual form of speech among the Jewes 3. Brother is sometimes yet more largely applied to all those who are of the same countrey thus where the Jewes are forbid to take usuâ—y of a brother and required to set him King over them whom the Lord their God should choose from among their brethren brother is manifestly taken in opposition to a stranger one of another nation so that not only cognatione but natione by kindred but countrey there cometh in a Brotherhood 4. Brother is yet capable of a farre greater extension and so taketh in all men inasmuch as there is not only identitas naturae a specifical identity of nature but originis a numerical identity of original He is in strict sense a brother who hath the same immediate parents well may he be a brother in a large sense who hath the same mediate parents thus all men came from the loynes of one man Adam and from the womb of one woman Eve in which respect the Apostle saith he hath made of one bloud all the nations of the earth Indeed all Angels have the same intellectual nature one with another but they did not all come from one Angel but were severally and immediately created whereas God though he could have created millions made but one man and ordained that out of him all the race of mankind should proceed in which regard every man is brother to another And therefore â—ertullian writing to the Heathen saith Fratres etiam vestri sumus jure naturae matris unius we Christians and you Heathen are brethren in a natural way as having the same original Thus as Circles in the water do enlarge themselves one greater then the other so do the acceptions of this word If now you shall ask me in what acception brother is here to be taken I answer with Augustine Estius and Danaeus Hoc loco fratrem omnem hominem debemus accipere in the largest as including every man St Gregory speaking of this duty of love well observeth Aliud est quod sponté impenditur naturae aliud quod praeceptis divinis ex charitate debetur obedientiae there is doubtless something more intended by the precept then what we are prompted to by nature to love our countrymen our friends our brother is that which we are naturally enclined to so that they who do not performe it are justly branded as without natural affection whence by the way we may see what an unnatural age we live in wherein Englishmen are so cruell to one another kinsmen worry each other yea one brother betrayeth and supplanteth another But surely the contrary to those horrid acts I mean natural affection is not all that is here intended it is the love of all men which is required of us According to this notion frater and proximus brother and neighbour are of equall extent and so the mandate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of our neighbour or brother which is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of every man True it is our love must be regular and orderly and therefore caeteris paribus other things being alike we must preferre a brother before a kinsman a kinsman before a countryman a countryman before an alien but yet so that as farre as we are able the beames of our love may seaâ—ter themselves throughout the world And thus to love our brother is to love every man 1. Sive bonum sive malum as well the bad as the good God causeth his Sunne to shine and his rain to fall upon the unjust no less then the just and we must express our love to the wicked as well as godly 2. Sive amicum sive inimicum as well enemy as friend it is Christs express precept Love your enemies and as S Austin truly Hâ—c est vera germana charitas this is right Christian-charity To wish well to those that wish well to us to do good to them that do good to us is no more then what Publicans do so out blessed Saviour nay then what Thieves Dragons Wolâ—â— and all sort of Beasts do so that fore-mentioned Father But to wish well to them that wish us ill and do good to them that do us hurt this is that which Christians ought to practise yea as Tertullian truly solorum Christianorum only they can do
of darkness yea it is the strict charge he layeth upon the Thessalonians Now we command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly we ought as much to hate familiarity with the wicked as to dread upon burning coals or go into an infected house and therefore this kind of hatred is not here intended 4. Once more All hatred of enmity in respect of others is not to be condemned if they be enimies not so much to us as to the Church yea God himself and this not out of ignorance but malice and so implacable we may we ought to be enemies to them Holy David hath set us a pattern hereof when speaking to God he saith Do not I hate them oh Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee I bate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Hence no doubt are those imprecations and curses which we meet with in the Psalmes wherein we finde that holy man wishing not only disapointment to the hopes inâ—atuation to the counsels but destruction to the persons of Zions adversaries And surely thus far we may and ought to imitate him as in generall to pray against and wish the ruine of all the Churches irreconciliable adversaries though as to particulars we must take heed of going too far in this way it being difficult if not impossible for us determinately to assert concerning any one that he is an implacable enemie of God and Religion and yet when we see one who with Julian hath professed himself to be a Christian Brother and so far Apostatizing as openly to prosecute Christianity with utmost fury notwithstanding manifold convictions or who still pretending to be a Brother oppugneth with no less virulency though more subtilty the Christian Religion in its Orthodox profession swallowing up her revenues forbidding her publique services stopping the mouths of her Preachers suffering blasphemies and heresies to obscure her plucking up the pillars which should uphold her and persecuting all that embrace her and all this against clear convictions which he either hath or might have did he not shut his eyes together with frequent and multiplyed admonitions since we can have very little or no hopes of such a mans conversion we may and ought to desire of God if he will not please to convert him to confound not only his devices but his person and to cut him off from the land of the living only we must take heed to the frame and temper of our spirit that this our hatred of and wishing ill to him purely proceed from a love to Gods Church and a zeal for his glory not out of any personall or private respect to our own revenge 2. Having thus dispatched the first way â— proposed to tread in Namely the restriction and exclusion I shall now step into the other path and let you see the extent and enlargement of this sin in these following assertions 1. There are two sins namely envy and malice which are as it were the ingredients of this hatred St Paul seemeth to intimate so much when he first mentioneth malice and envy as the species and then hatred as the genus living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another And indeed since hatred being opposed to love is both a nilling good and willing evill to our Brother it must needs include in it both these For 1. Envy is as Aquinas from Damascen well defineth it Tristitia de alienis bonis a sorrow for the good of another To this purpose Gregory Nyssen putting the question what is the cause of this disease answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Brothers prosperity for which reason Plutarch compareth it to a bleare eye which is offended with the light and the envious man is fitly resembled to an Archer who hath still some white paper or cloth for his marke at which he shooteth now whence doth this sorrow arise but from the act of hatred which consists in nilling since because I nill the good to my Brother which he hath therefore I am troubled that he hath it and hence it is that the Aegyptians envying the Israelites multitude in Aegypt is called their hating them when it is said He turned their heart to hate his people Indeed envy is an affection made up of griefe and hatred griefe for the thing and hatred of the person and the hatred of the one is the cause of griefe at the other Malice is as Justinian well expresseth it Improba adversus proximum cogitatio a wicked thought against our Neighbour or if you will have it in fewer yet fuller words it is nocendi desiderium a desire to hurt and injure our Brother in any kinde and this is the proper act of hatred which as it doth connote a nilling good so it doth principally note a willing evill This is observable in Esau of whom the Text saith he hated Jacob and if you will know how that appeareth the end of the Verse tels you I will stay my Brother Jacob. In this regard the Fish among the Aegyptians is made an Hieroglyphicke of hatred because of all Creatures it is most greedy to devoure and hatred fils the minde with injurious and devouring desires 2. Though the speciall Object of our love be our Brother by the second Adam yet the prohibition of hatred extends to our Brother by the first Adam we must not think that if we be kind to those of the Christian Religion we may exercise hostility towards Turks and Pagans It is true the Jews were enemies to the Nations round about them yea did puâ—sue them to an utter extirpation but they had an express warrant from Heaven for it and therefore their practice is no pattern till we can shew the like warrant we cannot without breach at once both of equity and charity under any pretences whatsoever invade the possessions or destroy the persons of the most barbarous Savages But yet still in this as in other sins the quality of the Object addeth to the quantity of the offence and though it be a sin to hate any man it is a greater sin to hate a Christian and the more of Christianity there is in him the more malignity there is in our hatred since the better the Object the worse the act and yet further though it be an haynous sin to hate a Christian upon any account yet to hate him because he is a Christian or because he is a more exact and conscientious Christian then our selves is the highest degree of this hatred and that which borders upon the unpardonable sâ—n against the holy Ghost 3. This hatred of our Brother which is here forbidden is not only of him whilst he is our friend but when he becometh our neâ— Indeed it is an high aggravation of our hatred when it is of oâ—â— that loveth us but it is no
question their Faith you shall find them very strong in confidence of being saved by Christ and yet if you examine their knowledge you shall finde them ignorant of that Christ by whom they believe to be saved Solomon saith A poore wise Childe is bâ—tter then an old and foolish King will not many knowing Children rise up in judgement one day against ignorant Fathers whilest a Childe of ten years old shall give a better account of Christian Religion then some old men of sixty I know not whither I shall chide or weep declaime against the folly or bewaile the misery of such old Men when I consider the dismall threatning uttered by St Paul That God will come in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know him not and which will certainly render the account of these old men the greater and vengeance hotter who live within the Pale of the Church in that they have not only had time but meanes and opportunity of gaining this Heavenly knowledge but they neglect them Oh then you Fathers receive a word of admonition though whilest you were young men you were careless of divine things yet now surely it is time to look after them it is one of St Cyprians twelve horrid abuses Si sine religione senex esse inveâ—iatur for an old man to be irreligious and a stranger to Heavenly things you are almost at the end oâ— your daies on labour to know him which is from the begining your naturall life through Gods goodness is prolonged I but it must at length be ended let nothing content you without the knowledge of the true God and his Sonne Jesus Christ which is eternall life Why should you be as bad Apprentices that having served seaven years are still to learne their Trade heare so much and so long and yet know so little of Christ Assure your selves the only comforts of old age are Conscientia bene peractae vitae scientia Christi experimentalis the conscience of a well lead life when you are able to reckon not only daies and years but good workes done in those daies and filling up those years and chiefly the experimentall knowledge of Christ whereby as good old Simeon you embrace him in your armes This will be both your comfort and your honour An hoary head being a crown when it is found in a way of righteousness and knowledge As then God is pleased to adde to your daies do you adde to your knowledge And though old age cause your strength of body to cease yet strive that souls may more and more increase in this and all other graces of the holy Spirit 2. There is yet another fitness which would be considered in this Character and that is in reference to the matter about which he writeth especially the praecedent and subsequent Doctrines that thereby we may see what influence the right knowledg of Christ hath upon those excellent duties of contempt of the world and Love of the Brethren 1. Because you have known him which is from the begining love not the world It is that which may very well be urged upon a double account by an argument drawn 1. Ab Indecoro It is a very unbeseeming thing for you who have known him that is from the begining and have been so long Scholars in Christs Schoole to love the world That they who know no better should soare no higher it is no wâ—nder and therefore if Heathens Pagans Infidels should be earthly minded it is no more then what is to be expected but for them who know Christ and knowing him cannot but know what an excellency there is in him and what a vanity there is in the world to dote upon it is very incongruous A Bristol stone is very glorious in his eyes who never saw a Diamond but he would deservedly be accounted stupid who should prefer a Bristol stone before a Diamond all Christians especially Aged ones cannot but experimentally know Christs fulness and the worlds emptinesg and therefore it must needs be a very irrationall affection in them to Love the world 2. A Cantrario The knowledg of him that is from the begining and the Love of these things that have both begining and ending are contrary to and so inconsistent one with another and the reason is plain because as hath been already intimated the true knowledg of Christ is inseperably attended with Love to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loving is caused by seeing where the Object is amiable Christ is altogether Lovely so that it is impossible to see him and not to Love him The Orator saith of virtue that it is so desirable that if men could with bodily eyes behold it they would be ravished with it sure I am he that with spirituall eyes beholds Christ cannot but be enamoured with him Now the world must needs be vile to him to whom Christ is precious if the knowledg of Christ attract us to him it cannot but weane us from the world so that whosoever professeth to know Christ and loveth the world he giveth his profession the lye and plainly discovereth his knowledg to be such which though it have light hath no heat and is none of that knowledg which Christianity cals for 2. Because you have known him which is from the begining loue the Brethren and this likewise is that which may be strongly pressed by a double enforcement 1. Ab Objectâ— The knowledg of him who is from the begining carryeth with it a knowledg of that Love which he had from the begining toward us and did manifest in the fulness of time to us and no such obligation to Love as Love of our Love to the Brethren as Christs Love to us It is very observable how St Paul perswading to walk in this path of brotherly love doth not only direct but incite to it by Christs example But walk in Love as Christ hath loved us Indeed he that knoweth the Love of Christ cannot but be in some measure sensible how free and how full it is and surely that Love which is both sine merito and sine modo to use St Bernards phrase both undeserved and unmeasurable may well engage to a return of Love in whatsoever way he who hath so loved us should expect and direct iâ— 2. Ab Effecto Inasmuch as Brotherly Love is though not an immediate yet a genuine effect of the knowledg of Christ the account whereof take briefly thus Our Brethren to wit by grace are Christs Brethren and if we love Christ we cannot but love his relations All Christian Brethren have the Image of Christ stamped upon them and if we love Christ we cannot but love his Image where then there is a true and sincere affection to Christ there cannot but be a love of the Brethren and where there is a saving knowledge of Christ there as hath been already manifested cannot but be a sincere love to him That therefore it may appeare our knowledge of
Deum above God so as to give the pith the marrow the cream of our affections to them only propteâ— Deum in and for God Delight in them we may but as the Cisterns not the Fountains of our good as they may be meanes not as the chief end wherein our bliss consists In one word All the things of this world as they are benefits conferd by God on us and as they may be helps leading us to God may be loved by us but not under any other notion for then it is irregular and cometh within the compass of this prohibition 5. Lastly This of St John Love not the world nor the things of the world may very well be expounded by that of St Paul The world is crucified to me and I to the world and if so then there is more intended then expressed this Negative will include an Affirmative love not that is contemn disdaine scorne hate the world and the things of it when they would alienate thy heart from God Indeed then is the world crucified to a Christian when it is to his heart what a crucified dead carkase is to his eyes to wit odious and loathsome Then is a Christian crucified to the world when he is as unwilling to move according to the solicitations of the world as a crucified man is unable to stirre hand or foot and he that is thus affected is so far from being in love with the world or addicted to that he is altogether estranged from yea enraged against it and thus I have given you a short and yet a just account of the design and latitude of this prohibition To winde it up in a brief Application You see the sin forbidden now view your practice I would to God that all even the best of us had not just reason to charge the guilt of this sin upon our selves Worldly love is an Epidemicall disease and such as good men sometimes fall sick of even they who would not enjoy this world with the loss of a better are yet unwilling to enjoy the other world with the loss of this gladly they would have the honey and milke of Canaan and yet loath they are to part with the Onions and Garlick of Aegypt Indeed some there are who raile upon this world as a place of trouble and disquietment but yet still they love like the buyer who saith It is naught it is naught but when he is gone he boasteth to wit how good a penyworth he hath got If you aske any man whom he loveth best his answer will be God and yet if many nay most men would put the question seriously to themselves the answer must be the world yea he that hath made the best progress in learning this lesson will finde upon due search that he loveth the world too much The better to help you in this inquiry be pleased to observe these ensuing particulars 1. Would you know your delectation take notice of your meditation David affirmeth of the blessed man His delight is in the Law of the Lord and he confirmeth it by this Medium and in his Law doth he meditate day and night it is his assertion concerning himself O how I love thy Law and the proof followeth It is my meditation all the day The truth is Ubi amor ibi oculus where there is fervency of love there is frequency of thoughts Oh then consider what is it your thoughts most run upon what are your morning and evening Meditations do not the things of this world lye down in the evening and rise up with you in the morning nay walk with you all the day whilest your minds are still busied either about getting or keeping or increasing them and if so can you acquit yourselves from this inordinate love 2. Would you discern your affection view your election our love saith St Austin is never so fully tryed as when two Objects are proposed whereof the one must be embraced and the other refused the one taken and the other left whilest two men walk together you cannot tell whom the Dog followeth but when the time of parting cometh then the Dog manifesteth who is his Master Put the case oh Christian to thy self what if the absence of Gods love and the enjoying of the worlds comforts come in competition which wouldst thou cleave to Certainly eligere and diligere go together that which is thy choice is thy love Oh how many with Demas forsake the faith that they may embrace this present world 3. Would you finde out the Mistresses haunt trace her Handmaids fear and grief are the two attendants upon love The Poet saith Res est soliciti plena timoris amor Doloris will stand in the Verse too and is as true of the thing Love is full both of feares and teares afraid least it should loose and troubled when it hath lost its beloved Object How solicitous was David for Absoloms safety and how perplexed at the news of his ruine and whence this but from his indeared affection towards him When Christ wept for Lazarus the Jews presently cryed out See how he loved him and when we see men so fearfull of death which taketh them out of this world and if all those evils which spoile them of these present contentments yea when we behold them so exceeding sorrowfull and heavy under outward crosses and losses may we not justly say concerning them see how they loved this world and the things of it 4. Would you know the frame of your hearts observe the language of your lips Vbi amor ibi lingua as well as oculus not only the eye but the tongue are guided by the heart Out of the abundance of the heart saith our blessed Saviour the mouth speaketh and may it not be said to many as the maid did to Peter Thy speech bewrayeth thee whilst their communication is earthly and sensuall chiefly nay only about inferiour Objects Surely the things we are most frequent in talking of we take most delight in How great lovers must they be of the world whose discourse tends to nothing else yea even upon holy daies when they rest from servile workes yet they will not cease from secular words Indeed the worldlings breathâ—avoureth â—avoureth of earth you may trace his tongue from the Market to the Exchange thence to the Key or Wharfe thence to the Custome-house and thence to the Ware-house but seldome to the Church And doth it not plainly argue the vessell of the heart is full of the liquor of worldly love when it runs so constantly over in worldly language 5. The fervour of our contention clearly manifests the intension of our love it is St James his Question and Answer Whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even from the lusts that war in your members and St Austin is positive Qui de mundo contendit perspicue ostendit quod illum diligit men do not use to contend about
what they care not for whilest your emulations strifes quarrels are so great and fierce one with another about worldly matters it strongly argueth they have possession of your hearts she for whom the gallant adventures his life in the field is very probably concluded to be his Mistris surely the world commands thy heart when it engageth thee in litigious quarrels 6. Lastly You may very rationally judge of your affections by your actions your love by your care your delight by your service When we read that Jacob served an hard Apprentiship to Laban and that no less then fourteen years for the gaining of Rachell we may certainly infer that he loved her greatly men would never lay out their time and strength so uncessantly in the worlds drudgery were she not Mistris of their affections yea which doth the more fully proclaime their love their labour is a pleasure they are never in their element but when like the fish they are swiming in these waters or like the mole they are digging in the earth By all these considerations we may be able to discern whither our love be not inordinate towards this world and the things thereof and therefore such as we ought to be deeply sensible of affected with and humbled for And now what remaineth but that to this word of Conniction I annex a word of Dehortation that we all endeavour to wean our hearts from the love of this world Oh hearken and again I say hearken to this sprituall and Heavenly voice as it is called by St Cyprian Love not the world nor the things of the world Indeed as Seneca saith of sorrow I may say of love I do not require that you should not love it at all but I earnestly intreat take heed that you love it not too much the truth is our affections in regard of worldly matters are very prone to excess in Heavenly things it is impossible to exceed in Earthly things it is difficult not to exceed our grief quickly degenerateth into anguish our fear into trembling our desire into impatience our delight into jollity and our love into dotage Oh therefore be wise to watch the out goings of your hearts after worldly Objects and remember that as it is of the two best when brotherly kindness erreth on the right hand by louing too much so when worldly love offends on the left hand by loving too little Oecumenius upon the Text conceiveth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle writeth these things as to Children who are most apt to be taken up with ensuall Objects but doubtless as one well glâ—sseth Optimè omnibus congruit there are none of any age but stand in need of it Beware that you be not engaged and fettered with worldly love we read concerning the living Creatures mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiell that the Soles of their feet were like the soles of a Calves foot The Caldee paraphrase readeth it like round feet the feet are an emblem of our affection and it is observed of Sphaericall bodies that if you set them upon the ground they only touch it in one point so should our affections touch this world not too much cleaving to or leaning on it Dioscorides maketh mehtion of an Herh which he calleth the Indian leafe and observeth that it groweth in moorish fenny places Aquae sine ullâ radice â—nnatans swimming in the water without taking any root in the bottome Let this Herb be our emblem whilst we live in let us not love the world and though we make use of it to swim in for a time let not our hearts take root by an inordinate love The main disswasives from this sin we shall meet with in the Text only consider for the present that this worldly love is unreasonable injurious ingratefull and unchristian 1. It is unreasonable There are two eminent laws of love which are directly broken by this practice the one is simili gaudere the other is diligentem diligere like loveth like and love requireth love but alas when we love the world we love that which is unlike there being no proportion between our noble souls and this worlds good Indeed our souls were made after the divine image and similitude and therefore not made for the love of this inferiour world Besides when we love the world we love that which as it doth not give so neither can it repay love at the best it is only capable of serving not of loving us and why should we so pervert the nature of love as to love the world But further 2. It is injurious to our selves as well as incongruous to love since by loving the world it becometh our enemie it seems strange yet it is a truth the world is only a â—oe to them that love her if we use her she is an obsequious servant but if we love her she is a malicious enemy it is observed of the shadow Sequentem fugit fugientem sequitur if you follow it it flyeth from you if you flye from it it followeth after you It is proportionaby true of the world if you contemn it it will fear you if you love it it will domineer over you and that known Proverb of fire and water may justly be applied to the things of the world they are good servants but bad masters Adde to this 3. It is ingratefull to God as well as injurious to our selves all these things of the world are the largesses of Gods bounty the streames of his goodness and is it not an odious ingratitude to dote upon the gift and neglect the donor Very apposite to this purprse is St Austins similitude If an Husband being in a far Country should send a Ring to his Spouse out of his ardent affection to her would he not might he not justly take it ill at her hands if she should forget her Husband and fall in love with the token Thus do we when we cast God behind our backs and set our eyes upon this world Finally It is unchristian there being nothing more unbeseeming a Christian profession then a worldly conversation being Christians we profess the Faith and hope of a better world and shall we fall in love with this we intitle our selves the Children of God and shall we live and love as the Children of this world It is our Saviours argument to his Disciples After these things do the Gentils seek and because they do we should not at least wise not as they do it with such immoderate affection and therefore whilst Mammonists like Ravens feed on garbage like the Lapwing make their nest in order or like Beetles never sing but in a bed of dung let us have higher thoughts nobler desires purer joyes learning of this holy Apostle not to Love the world nor the things of the world THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the
own imaginations and sets up himself in Gods roome admiring and adoring his own though but sometime fancied excellencies nay which is yet worse he so sets himself above that he sets himselfe against God for so the Prophet accusing Mâ—aâ— of pride and haughtiness proveth it by this Medium Thou hast magnified thy self against God In this respect it is enquired and resolved by the Schooles that pride is the greatest of sâ—ns for whereas in other lusts there is directly a conversion to the Creature in this there is a direct aversion from the Creator by all which it appeareth how injurious these lusts are to the Father and therefore incompatible with the love of the Father To what hath been already said concerning the express and positive truth of this clause I must not forget to adde that there is another implicite and consequentiall truth wrapped up in it namely That if any man love the world the love of the Brethren is not in him Indeed the sâ—nse of these words the love of the Father may be rendred the love which the Father requireth and so it extends to Botherly love Besides the Connexion seemeth to intimate that loving the world is forbidden as an enemy to Brotherly love which is discussed a little before Finally Omne majus continet in â—se miâ—â—s the less is involved in the greater so that as Eâ—ius well notes since the love of the Father which is the greater the love of the Brethren which is the less is also to be denied of him who loves â—he world S Paul speaking of charity saith shee seeks not her own whereas the worldling is altogether for himself and therefore hath no affection to others though to speake truth as he is nomini bonus good to no man so he is sibi nequam worse to himselfe To enlarge upon this a little Consider the worldly lover in reference to his Superiours Inferiour Equals and you shall finde he hath no love to any 1. He is so farre from loving that he envieth those that are are above him in place in wealth in power To use the phrase of the Text The love of the Father is not in him not of the politicall Father against whom he will not stick to rebell when opportunity is offered The proud man grudgeth Subjection the Covetous man Tribute and the Epicure Obedience to his Laws Not of the Ecclesiasticall Father whom worldly lusts prompt him to undervalue yea if he reprove him to spurne against nay ofttimes not of the naturall Father whilest they who are tainted with these lusts like Esau wish The daies of mourning for their Father were at hand nay some like Absolom consult their Fathers ruine that they may enjoy their honours and estates 2. As for those who are under him he is very apt to trample them under his feet and if they be in want very backward to reach forth an hand of succour to them The Voluptuous layeth out so much upon his pleasures the ambitious wants so much for the maintaining of his honours and the covetous layeth up so much for the satisfying of his eyes that they have little or nothing to spare for the needy nay that too often they oppress and grinde the faces of the poore 3. Instead of loving his equall he is apt to contend and quarrell with them Whence come wars and fightings among you saith St James and answering his Question he addeth Come they not hence even of the lusts that war in your Members Omnia perfecte in pace consisterent si hominem imperandi cupiditas non teneret said Valerius truly It is the desire of being above others that hindreth us from living in peace with others and speaking of covetousness he asserts Hinc pullulare odiorum causas amicitiarum faedera dissipari it to be the breaker of amity and begetter of enmity amongst men nor is it less true of sensuall lusts which very often blow the fire of discord into a flame In one word what wrong will not men do to their Neighbours in their relations names estates by fraud and treachery by violence and cruelty in words and works for the base love of wealth of honour or pleasure all which are directly repugnant to brotherly love To close up with some usefull inferences from the consideration of what hath been handled Learne we 1. How desperate and dangerous a sin is worldly love One upon this clause hath well observed Lenis oratio sed plena aculeo it is seemingly a gentle speech but carryeth a sting with it For in saying there is no love of the Father and consequently not of his Brother in him that loveth the world he saith in effect he is one that breaketh all the Commandement for if love be the fullfilling of the Law to wit love to God of the first and love to our Neighbour of the second he that neither loveth God nor Men must needs breake both It is very observable that David praying God to incline his heart to his Testimonies presently addeth and not to covetousness thereby implying that if he were inclined to covetousnes he could not love or keep Gods Testimonies Moses brake the Table in pieces out of a zealous anger at the golden Calfe and the worldling will breake the Laws written on those Tables for the Gold upon the Calfe The love of money I and of honour and pleasure is the rot of all goodness and the root of all wickedness the Moath of sanctity the rust of virtue the breeder and the feeder of vice Ungodliness and worldly lusts are coupled together by St Paul Abstaine from fleshly lusts and having our conversation honest are joyned together by St Peter there is neither honesty nor piety to be found where worldly love raigneth 2. How great is the folly of Hypocrites who thinke to joyne what here St John hath opposed the love of the world and the love of the Father together Many there are saith Isidore Hispalensis truly who will flye to Heaven by a divine conversation but yet they are loath to leave earthly contentments Provocat eos amor Christi sed revocat amor seculi The love of Christ puts them a little forward but the love of the world pulls them backward and so as Erasmus is painted by the Romans they hang between Heaven and Earth There is a City in Germany which belonging to two Governments was called Mindin which is according to the sâ—gnification of it in the Germane language mine and thine Thus the Hypocrite saith to God thou art mine and to the world I am thine in which respect he is called a double minded man and is said to have an heart and an heart like the Samaritans who feared the Lord and served Idols the Israelites who halted between God and Baal those in the Prophet Zephany who did sweare by the Lord and Malchom and those lukewarme Laodiceans who were neither hot nor cold But alas how vainly do such
command whither it be to avoid or do This is evident in the prohibition here given by St John concerning worldly love which he contents not himself barely to propound but strongly presseth as necessary because else we cannot love the Father and as just because this world is of a short continuance For all that is in the world c. And the world passeth away c. In handling the Argumentation we have dispatcht the maine of the first Reason to wit the principall confirmation which is drawn from the incompossibility of the love of the Father with the love of the world and now because this may seem a very strange assertion our Apostle doth not only assert but prove it in the close of the sixteenth Verse which I am in order to discuss And it is that which I call The Collaterall Conformation as it is set down in those words is not of the Father but is of the world for the fuller handling whereof I shall consider it both Absolutely and Relatively 1. If we look upon this clause absolutely we shall finde the design of it to discover the principle and originall of the All that is in the world and that both Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively The All in the world is not of the Father Indeed if we understand this All of those things which are the Objects of our lusts this Negation must have a limitation 1. Pleasures Riches Honours must be considered either in themselves and their own nature or as they allure through their externall beauty to inordinate lust in which latter respect they are not of God since they were never made by him for that end to be as it were the baâ—ds of lust 2. Either as lawfully or unlawfully acquired in the latter notion they are not of the Father except that it is by his permission they are enjoyed which is no less true of all wickedness that is acted in the former they are blessings of God yet of his left not his right hand and so are dona Dei the gifts of God but not Patris of the Father There are some things which God giveth as a Father in speciall love only to his Children such are grace and glory There are other things which he giveth as a God out of common bounty to enemies as well as Children and such are food and rayment wealth and preferment in which respect at best in a strict sense they are not of the Father But I rather conceive that this Negative is to be understood of the lusts after these things to which agreeth that of St Austin We know that the Apostle did not meane this world the Heavens and the Earth with the things in them when he saith All that is in the world is not of the Father Indeed the poyson is not in the flower but in the Spider which sucketh it nor are the things themselves but the lusts after them evill and consequently not of the Father nor yet is all lust after those things to be denied to be of the Father There is implanted in every living Creature an appetite after those things which are sutable to its nature Now the nature of man being partly Angelicall and partly Bestiall Spirituall in its upper and sensuall in its lower faculties there could not but be in man as created Inclinatio ad sensibilia an inclination to sensible Objects But withall This lust was such as was neither in it selfe evill nor did of it selfe incline to evill I know I am here fallen upon a Controverse whilst it is affirmed by the Romanists with others that man in puris naturalibus in his pure naturals had ex necessaria materiae conditione from the condition of his matter such a concupiscence which rendered him prone to evill and did need supernaturali quodam fraeno a golden Bridle of supernaturall grace to restraine it It being here urged upon them that this concupiscence being naturall is of God and if it need a bridle it is apt to be irregular and exorbitant which exorbitancie must needs reflecâ— on God himself who made man of such a temper their only evasion is that it is from the condition of the matter praeter intentionem divinam besides the intention of the Maker by which means whilst they endeavour to vindicate Gods purity they calumniate his wisdome it being no other then the voice of folly to say non putaram I did not thinke of or intend such an event I cannot therefore but look upon it as most safe to assert with the Orthodox that mans naturall concupiscence was not apt to be irregular Nec fraenum nec calcar desiderabatur There was no such tardity in the sensitive part as should need a spurre nor yet any such impetuousness as should require a Bridle For the clearing whereof know that the sensitive appetite of man being borne sub regne under the dominion was to be governed sceptrotionis by the command of reason so that whereas it is ranaturall in a bruit to be carried towards sensuall Objects juxta impetum in a way of violence it is naturall to man to bend towards them juxta imperium according to the dictate of reason Upon this account even by the Philosopher sensuality in man is asserted to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasons servant and accordingly Damascen is express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rationall part doth naturally rule the irrationall so that though in man there be a necessary desire of things sensible yet it is as Aquinas well Secundum modum ordinem rationis in that measure and order which reason prescribeth the sensitive powers being not factious or rebellious but readily subject to the higher powers that is the intellectuals The Proneness therefore of the sensitive appetite to extravagancy is not naturall but contranaturall not from the Creation but by transgression and of those lusts which the vitiated concupiscense in fallen man doth send forth is it here affirmed that they are not of the Father Indeed that any sinfull lust should be of the Father is inconsistent with the. 1. Purity of his nature which cannot endure must less effect the least in 2. Verity of his word which prohibiteth and threatneth all sin and either those threats are not the declarations of his reall intention which is Blasphemy to imagine or he cannot be the Author of any wicked inclinations 3. Equity of his punishments it being as Fulgentius excellently most unjust for God not to cleare the guilty if he made them so And therefore for the preventing Objections and further evidencing of this truth be pleased to know 1. It is one thing to make use of mens lusts and another to stirre up those lust in men It pleased God to accomplish his own ends by Pharoahs proud lust in punishing Israell and Judas his covetous lust in betraying Christ but he was no way the cause of these lusts Thus whilest the holiness of the Father abhorreth evill the wisdome
before If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him it is as true the love of his Mother the Church is not in him Indeed in the Primitive times it so fell out that by reason of Persecution they could not cleave to the Church unless they were willing to leave the world and no wonder if the love of the world caused many of them to leave the Church 2 But more particularly 1 The lust of the flesh was a special cause of their Apostacy the Churches bounds were too narrow her Lawes too strict for those licentious Antichrists Indeed it is frequently observable that the great Rabbies against the Church are extraordinary Chaplaines to the Trencher St. Paul describing those false Teachers saith they were such as did serve their owne bellies nay more whose God is their belly St. Peter characterizeth them to bee such as did count it a pleasure to ryot in the day time having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin such as did allure through the lust of the flesh through much wantonnesse in a word hee compareth them to Doggs and Swine and calls them the Servants of corruption Finally St. Jude affirmeth of those Separatists that they were sensual so great affinity hath Epicurisme with Antichristianisme and Sensuality with Heresie 2 The lust of the eyes and that in both notions is no less an incentive of this sinful departure For 1 Curiosity hath ever been a nurse of error Prurigo sciendi scabies ecclesiae the itch of knowing more than wee should proveth too often an Heretical scab when men are not content with truths revealed no wonder if they wander into by-paths and lose themselves in a maze of folly Melior est fidelis ignorantia quam temeraria scientia was a good saying of the Master of the Sentences a modest ignorance is better than a presumptuous knowledge as we must not be too credulous in receiving what is delivered so neither curious in prying into what is concealed it is not seldome seen that as Thales gazing on the Starres fell into a pit so men that meddle with Divine secrets fall into the pit of errour 2 But that which hath ever proved the most usual source of Apostacy is Avarice observe the Apostolical character of the Antichristian Teachers and you shall still finde this to be one they are destitute of the truth saith St. Paul to Timothy supposing that gain is godlinesse and again the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith They teach things which they ought not saith the same Apostle to Titus for filthy Lucres sake Through covetousnesse they with feigned words make Merchandize of you saith the Apostle Peter and again an heart they have exercised with covetous practices which have forsâ—â—k the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the Son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse Thus Ignatius St. Johns contemporary complained of some that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather Merchants of Christ than Christians indeed carrying about the name of Christ fraudulently handling the Word of Christ deceitfully mingling with smooth words poysonous errours Thus St. Cyprian accused that Apostatizing Heretick Novatus of whom he saith that hee was avaritiae inexplebili rapacitate furibundus not only covetous but ravenous and insatiably greedy of gain And Isidorus observing that the Novatians stiled themselves the pure saith Mundams se potius quam mundos vocarent they should have called themselves not Puritans but Mammonists And however the Antichristian Apostates of our age have other pretences to wit of purity and godlinesse yet who so diveth into the bottome of their departure from the Church shall finde it to be the enriching themselves especially with the Sacrilegious spoyls of her Lands and Revenues It is a notable saying of Salust concerning avarice that it subverts fidelity and honesty it teacheth men to neglect God and make sale of every thing and what he found true in the Common-wealth we may in the Church that the love of gain causeth men to renounce the faith and they stick not to sell their Religion their Consciences their Souls for money 3 Adde to the two former that which must by no means in this case be left out as having a great hand in it namely The pride of life and that double 1 An arrogant self-conceit too often causeth men to depart from the Church one sort of the Hereticks in the Apostles time were the Gnosticks who were so called from their vain affectation and opinion of their owne knowledge no wonder if St. Pauls advise is not to think of our ownselves more highly than wee ought It is the observation of the Reverend and Learned Hooker that the chief cause of those Heresies which infected the Easterne Church was the restlesse wits of the Graecians ever more proud of their owne curious and subtile inventions which having once contrived they knew how plausibly to vent and Eusebius informeth us of that fore-mentioned Heretick Novatus that he was a man blown up with pride and self-conceit and Vincentius Lyrinensis of Nestorius that such was his scelerata presumptio daring boldnesse as to boast himself the first and only man Thus doe Hereticks and Schismaticks go out from because they account themselves above others above Fathers Councils Antiquitie Authority Church Scriptures all according to that proud speech of Abailardus Omnes alii sic ego autem non sic All others think thus but I think not so 2 An haughty desire of Honour and greatnesse which because they cannot obtain in the Church they seek after by going out of it That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius calls him ring-leader of Heresy Simon Magus would bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one and therefore broached those hellish doctrines Diotrephes loved the preheminence and that opens his mouth in prating against S. John It were easy to instance in Donatus Arrius and others who aspiring after dignities and being discontented the one that Cecilian Bishop of Carthage the other that Alexander Bishop of Alexandria were preferred into those seats which they aimed at did thereupon desert the Catholick Church look as through ambition it was that the Devil himself stood not in the truth so hee still carrieth his instruments to this pinacle whence hee throweth them down into errours And thus I have given you a brief portraicture both of the crime and its causes of which these Antichrists are accused They went out from us This heinous charge is that which the Papists at this day draw up against us because wee have deserted them condemning us as Hereticks Schismaticks Apostates and such as have forsaken the communion of the Christian Catholick and Apostolick Church But how causless and unjust thâ—s accusation is hath been both of old and
making or stones and Images of their own making but the Mahumetans and the Jews who worship the Great Creator inasmuch as those onely worship him as revealing himself in their fanatick opinion by Mahumet and these worship him onely as he was pleased to reveal himself of Old by Moses but not as now hee hath manifested himself in his Son Jesus nay both of them denying his Son Jesus are therefore most justly looked upon not onely as false Worshippers of a true God but in some sense as Worshipers of a false God because they have not that is they know not neither do they beleeve and worship the Father of Christ to wit not formally though materially adoring him who is but not as he is the Father 2 That phrase of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have the minde of Christ may serve as a paraphrase upon this To have the Father is to have the minde of the Father which is else where called his good acceptable and perfect will This will or good pleasure of the father is the redemption of the World which he sent his Son both to accomplish and reveal in this respect St. Basil upon these words Hee that hath seen mee hath seen the Father thus glosseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the figure or form of the Fathers essence which is most simple and uncompounded but the goodness of his will and therefore hee who denieth the Son cannot have but is either altogether ignorant of or Apostatized from the Doctrin of the Father of which latter the Apostle especially speaking the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so it is many times used to hold and accordingly Grotius glosseth Non tenet quae sit voluntas patris hee doth not hold fast the good will of the Father which is published in the Evangelical Doctrin And no wonder for hee that hath not holdeth not the foundation cannot have the Superstructure Now this Thesis That Jesus is the Christ is the very foundation of that Gospel-truth which the Father hath by Christ imparted to us and consequently the denial of this cannot consist with having the father that is with holding the will and minde of the Father declared in the Gospel 3 Lastly that Glosse of St. Cyprian would by no means bee left out Non habet patrem benevolum he hath not the father benevolous and propitious to him and so wee may construe this phrase by that in the first chapter of having fellowship with the father and whereas it is said in the former verse hee denyeth the father this carrieth more in it namely That the father denyeth him Indeed all that love the father hath to us and fellowship we have with the father is through his Son Whence it followeth that every one who hath not the Son but much more hee who denyeth the Son hath not the Father yea the Father is highly displeased and enraged against him When Theodosius would not bee intreated by Amphilochius to suppresse the Arrian Hereticks who denyed Christ to bee the eternal Son of God that Godly Bishop saith Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found out a memorable stratagem to convince him of his fault for going into the Palace when Theodosius and his Son Arcadius were together hee saluteth the Emperour with his wonted reverence but giveth no Honour to the Son the Emperour supposing it was a forgetful neglect puts him in minde of it to whom his Answer was it was enough that hee had done obedience to him at which the Emperour being greatly offended the good Bishop thus bespoke him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see O King how ill you take it that your Son should bee dishonoured how angry you are with mee for not giving him Reverence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beleeve therefore that the great Lord of the universe cannot but abhor those who blaspheme his onely begotten Son Of this number were these Antichrists concerning whom St. John plainly asserteth that denying the Son they have not the father no true knowledge of him nor of his Doctrin nor can they expect his love and favour towards them What now remaineth but that wee take heed least we bee found among the number of them who deny the Son nor is this Caution unseasonable for 1 There want not among us such the Socinians I mean who affirm with those Hereticks of old Christ to bee onely man and these however they pretend to acknowledge yet consequentially deny him to be the Son of God for saith the Author to the Hebrews Vnto which of the Angels said hee at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and if not to the Angels surely not to a meer man who is lower than the Angels It would not bee passed by that a little after in that very Epistle Jesus whom the Apostle had proved to bee far higher than the Angels and that in this very particular of being Gods Son is said to bee little lower than the Angles and that this is to be understood in respect of his man hood appeareth by the Scripture just before quoted what is man that thou art mindful of him thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels the litteral sense whereof is to assert the humane nature inferiour to the Angelical surely then in respect of that nature wherein hee is below hee cannot bee far above the Angels and therefore to assert him a meer man though never so highly honoured is to deny him to bee the Son of God in the Apostles sense that is so as by reason of that Sonship to bee higher than the Angels for to allude to S. Pauls expression though they are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there bee Gods many and Lords many but there is but one God the father so though there bee that are called the Sons of God whether Angels or men yet there is but one who is the begotten Son of God which is so high a dignity that hee must bee more than Man or Angel who is capable of it and consequently to assert him a meer man is to deny him to be Gods Son 2 Besides wee may bee Orthodox in our Judgement concerning the Son of God and forward in our confession of him and yet interpretatively deny him and that especially two waies 1 When wee detract from the al-sufficiency of his merits upon what is it that the infinite vertue of our Saviours death did chiefly depend but this that hee is the Son of God so that hee that doth not relye on the virtue of his death denieth him to bee Gods Son and yet how apt are many to offend in this kinde by either a total despairing of salvation through Christ or a part al-joyning of other Saviours with him and to say that either Christs blood cannot at all or that it cannot alone to wit as a meritorious cause expiate sin is to
here we have something supposed and something proposed that which is supposed is his presence The annoynting which you have received of him that which is proposed is his residence Abideth in you 1 That which is here supposed concerning this unction cometh first to be considered and shall be dispatched in three Propositions 1 That this annoynting is not in us of our selves but received by us from another It is St. Pauls Question and though it be occasioned by a discourse of those extraordinary gifts yet it holds true in reference to all What hast thou that thou hast not received the sins which wee commit are our own but the grace to subdue them is received though wee are sometimes subdue into errour yet wee are apt to fall into them our selves but the unction which armeth us against those errours is received It is a meditation which should keep the best Christians lowly in their own eyes Hast thou this annoynting whilest others want it or hast thou it in a greater measure than others be not proud but humble for though it be in thee subjectively yet it is not from thee effectively and therefore no just cause of Self-exaltation it is St. Pauls inference upon the fore-mentioned question If thou doest receive it why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Where the manner of proposal by way of question intimateth as Musculus well glosseth the impudence of this arrogance Ridiculum planè est de alienis bonis superbire It is a ridiculous thing with Aesops Crow to bee proud of borrowed feathers in one word as to boast our selves of what wee have not is abominable so it it little less odious to boast of what wee have as if it were our own when as it is only received 2 That this annoynting is received of him that is Christ it was at first received by Christ himself to wit as man in his Human nature but he received it not so much for himself as us Voluit accipere ut potuit tribuere he would as Man receive that as Mediator hee might convey it to us Indeed it hath pleased the Father saith St. Paul that in him should all fulnesse dwell to wit as water in the Fountain light in the Sun Wine in the Grape and oyl in the Olive and accordingly saith St. John of his fulnesse wee all receive and that grace for grace What the Head is to the Body that is Christ to the Church and as the members receive sense and motion from the Head so doth the Church this unction from Christ Learn hence 1 How greatly we are beholding to Christ of whom it is that we receive whatsoever measure wee have of this Spiritual unction the truth is whatsoever Spiritual benefit we receive it is only in and through Christ The Remission of sins and Adoption of Sons the Justification of our persons and Sanctification of our natures the Donation of his Spirit and acceptation of our services the Redemption of our bodies and Salvation of our Souls are all received through Christ so justly doth St. Paul say He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus 2 What need wee have to bee ingrafted into Christ since as wee can receive nothing but of him so neither can we unlesse we first receive him To as many as received him saith the Evangelist to them he gave power to become the Sons of God and to as many as receive him it is that hee giveth his Spirit no wonder that St. Paul praying for the Ephesians that they might be strengthened with the spirit of Christ prayeth also that he might dwell in their hearts by faith since it is by our faith in Christ that wee receive him and consequently his Spirit which is this annoynting 3 Lastly This receiving of the unction from him is by way of gift Indeed receiving in its largest extent is the correlative both of debitum and donum a debt and a gift what is duly paid and what is freely given both are said to bee received But when it is used in reference to God and Christ it cannot relate but onely to a gift since whatever wee receive of him and much more the annointing of the Spirit is given of his meer mercy Indeed in respect of himself it may bee called a debt hee having pleased by his Promise to make himself a debtor and accordingly it is that the Spirit is called the Spirit of Promise because promised both by the Father and the Son for so wee finde the expressions varyed the Comforter whom my Father will send and I will give you But still in respect of us it is a free gift it was love moved him at first to promise this unction to and since to confer it on us in which respect it is called the gift of the holy Ghost True it is this annointing was received by Christ from his Father as purchased by his pretious blood but it is received by us from Christ as bestowed by his free grace It is a consideration which should so much the more oblige us to thankfulnesse for this unction it being but reason that when wee receive wee should acknowledge the Donor and that what is received freely should bee acknowledged the more gratefully wee have received the Spirit of God saith the Apostle that wee may know the things which are freely given us of God among which the Spirit himself is not the least and who so knoweth them to bee freely given cannot but bee greatly thankful Holy Jesus wee could do nothing that is good nor avoid what is evil did wee not receive this Unction from thee nor do we receive this Unction as a reward of our merit but a fruit of thy bounty Wee are unworthy to receive the annointing from thee but thou art worthy to receive from us glory and honour and praise now and for ever 2 That which is next in order to be discussed and is more directly expressed is the Residency of this Schoolmaster the abiding of this Unctioâ— Things that are â—â—id in Oil are most lasting this sacred annointing is prmanent It is that which is true in respect of the Church in general and each Christian in particular 1 This Annointing abideth in the Church That Holy Spirit who is here set forth under the notion of a Teacher is by our Saviour described as a Comforter concerning whom hee tells his Disciples that hee shall abide with them for ever which Promise was made to them as the then representatives of and so in them to the whole Church accordingly it is that the Spirit hath been resident in all Ages with the Christian Church to teach and comfort and perform all other Offices whereof shee stands in need Christs presence with his Disciples was temporary in which respect St. Johns word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee dwelt among us so our Translation reads it but as in a Tabernacle
1 Upon the Antichrists which then abounded in which respect there was so much the more need at that time to take heed they were not with-drawn from Christ and therefore saith the Apostle now abide in him Here is the faith and patience of the Saints saith St. John of persecuting times Here is the faith and constancy of the Saints may wee say of Heretical times then to abide in when many goe from Christ cannot but be very acceptable to him for this he commended the Angel of the Church of Pergamus I know thy works and where thou dwellest where Satans seat is and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith it is a small matter to be faithful to Christ in those dayes and places where Christianity flourisheth but the trial of our faithfulnesse is when we are in the midst of Apostates and Seducers He is the loyal Subject who is true to his Prince in Rebellious times and hee is the sound Christian who abideth in Christ in antichristian times where Heresie and Tyranny prevail there is Satans seat or rather throne and to adhear to Christ as our King where Satan hath his throne is constancy indeed Surely what is said of Pergamus may too truly bee affirmed of England at this day it is the place where the Devil playeth Rex mis-leading by Heretical Seducers multitudes into damnable errours and now beloved to abide in Christ and cleave to the truth will be both his and our honour 2 Upon the Christians who had already embraced and hitherto adhered to him whom therefore the Apostle bespeaketh now abide in him that is still continue faithful and hold out to the end Hee had told them before it is the last hour and hee would not have them fail at last That Coat which Joseph had from his Father is called by St. Gregory Talaris tunica a Coat down to his heels such must the coat of perseverance bee not to the knees or legges only but to the very heels Hee that begins a race nay that runs three parts of the way will yet lose the prize if hee give over before hee come to the goal as St. James saith of patience so say I of perseverance let it have its perfect work Oh my brethren I fear it may bee said to too many amongst us in the language of St. Paul to the Galathians Have you suffered so many things in vain if it bee yet in vain Have you so long maugre all opposition adhered to the truth and will you now by a cowardly faintnesse lose the glory and reward of all your former services Know you not that the grace of the Theater is the last Scene and it is the evening that crowneth the day cast not away therefore your confidence but as you have hitherto so now abide in him and which would not be passed by it was not long that this time of trial should last it was but for an hour and since they had been faithful so long he would have them hold out a little longer Could you not watch with me one hour said Christ to his Disciples shall wee not abide in Christ one hour I have served my Jesus said Polycarpus these many years shall I now desert him it is but for a while a very little while as here in St. Johns phrase a moment in St. Pauls and therefore now abide in him To bring this Part of the Text to a period 1 That wee may bee enabled constantly to abide in Christ there is need especially of two graces namely a strong faith in and an ardent love to Christ Hee that is fully assured that Christ and Christ alone is the root of all graces the fountain of all happinesse the foundation of all good and that as St. Peter expresseth there is no salvation in any other will certainly abide in Christ whatever befall him Hee that hath an endeared affection to Christ whose soul cleavâ—th to him as the soul of Jonathan did to David will not leave him nor suffer himself either by fair or foul means to bee withdrawn from him Where there is a voluntary separation between man and wife wee may safely conclude there is want of affection to each other in both or either since love being a desire of union cannot admit of a dis-junction and therefore let our prayer indeavour be that our faith may be strengthened our love inflamed and thereby our perseverance lengthened 2 Of how great concernment it is that we should abide in Christ himself hath told us in that fore-mentioned place of the Gospel where hee fully sets before us the advantage on the one hand and the damage on the other If we abide in him he will abide in us if we abide in him we shall abide in his love if wee abide in him we shall be enabled to bring forth the fruit of good works to his Fathers glory and consequently our own foelicity But if wee do not abide in him wee shall bee barrâ—â— and unfruitful cast out and withered and our end at last will be to be burned But what need I go further than the Text wherein wee meet with a very strong and pressing motive which is the last part and cometh now to be handled as it is laid down in those words That when hee shall appear c. In which there is something Supposed namely the comming and appearance of Christ when hee shall appear and again at his comming Implyed namely our appearance at that day in that it is said Before him Expressed namely the confident appearing before Christ of those who abide in him that we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his comming 1 That which is here supposed by our Apostle is that There is another comming of Christ when hee shall appear That the Hee here spoken of is Christ is so evident that it needs no discussion and that you may know of what comming and appearance St. John speaketh take notice of a threefold comming of Christ Virtual Spiritual Personal of his Power of his Spirit of his Person 1 Whensoever our blessed Lord is pleased to make known his Power in the deliverance of his Church and vengeance on his enemies Hee is then said to come and appear and of this comming wee finde mention both in the Gospels and Epistles many places there are which may and some which must bee so understood Thus when Christ saith There are some here standing which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man comming in his Kingdome and again concerning the beloved Disciple If I will that hee tarry till I come what is that to thee it cannot bee rationally construed of any other than his comming to destroy the Jews that crucified him and deliver the Christians that Worshipped him 2 Whensoever our blessed Jesus is pleased by his holy Spirit to manifest himself to the soul of a beleever inlightening the minde
especially that of Hereticks 681 Confidence whence that ariseth which persevering beleevers shall have at the last day 748 Self-Conceit see Arrogance Concupiscence see Lust Confession of Christ when called to it necessary and why 627 629 630 Constancy see Perseverance Contempt of the world required of Christians 328. Contentation with our condition a choice virtue 385 Covetousnes why called a lust of the eyes in what it consists 374 to 378. an universal disease 378 379. insatiable 380 381. enslaving 382 opposed to all the Beatitudes 383. breaketh all the Commandements 424 425. a cause of Heresies 509 Creatures all of them may be our teachers 201. b. Curiosity of knowing of seeing condemned 364. c. one cause of Heresy 509 D. DEath puts an end to all worldly lusts 449. befalleth the righteous as well as the wicked 467. ought to bee daily meditated on and that by the youngest 491 Delights the difference between spiritual and carnal 448. they end in misery 456 Denial of Christ how many waies 617 614. it is a denial of the whole Trinity 618. how denied as the Son of God 626 627 Desire after the things of this world when inordinate 326 The Devil is subtil as well as malicious 362 363. his aim is to hinder us from the word 293. hee taketh advantage against us from our selves 363. hee stirreth up evil lusts in men 437. hee is the wicked one how hee came to bee so and in what respects hee is so 277 c. wee ought to fight with him 287. our best weapon against him is faith 289 Doctrines must bee examined in their consequences 620 621 Drunkenness a lust of the flesh wherein the sin consists 350 351 E. ENvy see Hatred Epicures please all their senses 366 Epistle the first of St. John a Touch-stone 1 2 Eternity puts a value upon things 477 704. this world so much the more transitory when compared with it 475. Christians of all others obliged to seek after it 478 Eternal Life two fold 657. why that life must bee so 658. it is the choice excellency of that life 659. it is the promise 665. made by Christ most clearly 665. to them that persevere 670 Examination of our selves is that in which wee ought to bee very serious 75 Examples we are apt to follow bad ones 437 Excelling when the desire of it is sinfull 794 795 F. FAith why called knowledge 8 9. it uniteth us to Christ 41. it produceth three sorts of effects 72. in exercising its reflex act wee must not neglect its direct 77. of great use in resisting the Devil 290 opposed by the Devil 634. it cometh by hearing 638. Falling away see Apostacy Father God cannot bee now rightly worshiped but as the Father of Christ 622. in denying the Son the Father is denied 616. several sorts of Fathers 208. perfect Christians compared to Fathers 204 b. Flesh a three-fold acception of it 343. several lusts of the flesh 344 to 358 Forgiveness of sin taketh off the obligation to punishment 241 242. may bee considered three waies 244. a special mercy 245. a great honour to God 248. hee is engaged to it by promise 249. it is for Christs sake 250 251. an obligation to repentance and love 252 to 254 Fornication a sinful lust of the flesh 348 G. GLuttony a sinful lust of the flesh 349 God from the Beginning 260 Gospel hath Law in it 88 89. the true light and why 122 123. the Truth 580 of Divine Original 583. leadeth us to Christ and by him to God 649 Grace if true cannot consist with the dominion of any sin 544. it is of great worth 545. to bee preserved and imployed by us 552 557 705. wee must concur with it 7â—7 it is not alwaies discerned by them who have it 76. it may be known whether true or counterfeit 71 72. all graces are connexe 60 61. wee must not bee proud of it 405. a little must not content us nor yet discourage us 213. wee must grow in it 217 218 H. HAppiness of that other life cannot bee expressed 654 Hatred of our Brother an hainous sin wherein it consists 166 to 178. he that is guilty of it may yet think his estate good 180. but hee is really very bad 184 Heresy the cause of it 509. those which are fundamental are to bee most opposed 600 Hereticks being erroneous themselves seduce others 679. they are cunning to seduce 682 683. very tenacious of their errours 645. they are lyars and Antichrists 597 Hearing the sense of knowledge faith 637. it must be with our heart and foot as well as eare 639 Humility wee are obliged to it both as men and Christians 405 Hypocrites pretend to great measures of illumination 21 22 I. IDleness a sinful lust of the flesh 355 Jesus that such a person there was 601. that hee is the Christ 602 to 612 Ignorance several kinds of it 588 589. the causes of it 591. most odious in old men 269 Illumination of the mind no less needful than the outward Revelation 568 570 Imitation of Christ hath a Limitation 45 46. how far extended 52. it cannot bee exact 53. ought to bee endeavoured 54 55. our relation to and union with Christ obligeth to it 56 57 Imputation of Christs righteousness to us how it cometh to pass 42 Incest a sinful lust of the flesh 346 Inconstancy in Religion bemoaned Interpretation of Scripture not to bee attempted by every men 236 Joy three things concur to it 68 Judgements God giveth warning of them before he sends them 501 K. KIngdoms have their periods 388 Knowledge very amiable 19 590. especially that of Christ 20 266. what it imports to know Christ 7 8. twofold 265 24. how differenced 25. if onely speculative it is not right and will but aggravate our condemnation 25 27. it must bee joyned with obedience 23 24 463. if right it is the mother of obedience 5. puts us on love to Christ 23 273. in what sense Christians know all things and with what knowledge 564 565. the means of attaining it 592. wee still need instruction 593 L. LAst Times those from the first to the second comeing of Christ 484 485. we must look upon every day as our last 491 Law in comparison of the Gospel darkness 124 Life why that future bliss so called 653. that far excels this 659. this transitory 450. too much doted on 659. three-fold 256 Love the nature of it in general 325 Love of God twofold 28. the effect of a right knowledge 29 30. it renders our obedience acceptable 32. what perfection of it is attainable 33 34. hee is to bee loved chiefly as a Father 415. it cannot consist with but casts out the love of the world 416 417 Love of our Brother the old Commandment 89 94. nothing added to it by Christ 105 to 110. in what sense a new Commandment 110 to 114. it prevents many sins and scandals 153 to 155. he that loveth is in the light 151. wherein Brotherly love
The second Obedience The third Imitation of Christ And now the fourth which we are from these verses to discourse upon is The love of our Brethren He that saith he is in the light c. In these three Verses we have two generall parts considerable A Grace proposed The Vice opposed The proposition is in the 10. Verse The opposition in the 9 and 11. Verses And inasmuch as the grace is in order of nature before the vice and according to that Geometricall maxime Rectum est Index sui obliqui the way to know when we commit the sin is to understand the nature of the grace and yet further since the opposition is intended as an amplification of the proposition I shall therefore in handling these Verses begin with the middlemost wherein is contained The Thesis or grace proposed He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him In the discussion whereof be pleased to observe two things the nature and the benefit of the grace the former in the Subject the latter in the praedicate of the proposition 1. The Subject of the proposition He that loveth his brother So that the grace here set before us is the love of our Brother St Austin speaking of love hath observed a foure fold Object whereabout it is conversant Quod supra nos quod nos sumus quod juxta nos quod infra nos The first above us namely God The second our Selves The third about Vs The fourth beneath us our Bodies and as he well observeth two of them are so naturall that there is no need of a Precept to wit our selves and especially our bodies and therefore the command of love is expressed in these two the Love of God and of our Neighbour the latter of which our Apostle here calls for If you look backward upon the 5. Verse of this Chapter you find the Apostle speaking of the Love of God that being indeed the primary Object of Love and here he adviseth to the love of our Brother these two being not contrary but subordinate a little after he speaketh of two Loves which are inconsistent the Love of the Father and the Love of the World but it is not so with the Love of God and our Brother nay Indeed the former is a â—ause of the latter and the latter a testimony of the former Love to our Brother is effected by our love to God and our Love to God is perfected by love to our Brother and therefore very fitly doth our Apostle here speak of the latter having before mentioned the former because he is now about to describe the word or Commandment the keeping whereof perfects that is declareth our love to God to be perfect or sincere which is no other then Brotherly love For the better unfolding of which I shall briefly resolve these two queries What that Love is which we owe to our Brother Who that Brother is whom we are so to Love Not to discourse of Love at large be pleased to know That to Love our Brother as Zanchy well defineth 't is To have our mind so inclined towards him as that we will and to the utmost of our power conferr good upon him Suitable hereunto is that description of the Philosopher Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To will that which is good to and as far as we are able to do that which we will for another If then you ask what is the formal act of this love I answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benevolence If what is the proper effect of it The answer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beneficence nor can love be where either of these is wanting on the one hand if there be beneficence and not benevolence it is not love When St Paul saith Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity it profiteth me nothing he intimateth that it is possible for a man to bestow his goods on the poor and yet want love liberality being sometimes a fruit rather of vain glory then charity On the other hand if there be benevolence and not beneficence it is not love since it is only vellâ—â—tas not voluntas a wishing and woulding not a serious willing Trahit secum animorum propensio omnem beneficentiam saith Gualter a cordial propension carrieth with it a vigorous prosecution In this respect St James chideth those who when a Brother or Sister is naked and destitute of daily bread say to them depart in peace be you warmed be you filled notwithstanding they gave them not those things which were needfull for the body that is not charity which only expresseth it self in words not works love being an emanation of the will in a way of adhaesion to its object cannot but will all good to the object loved and since the will is the Queen Regent of the whole man in which regard the actions of all the other faculties are called the imperate acts of the will commanding the execution of its inclination it must needs follow that he who seriously wills cannot but really endeavour his brothers good and therefore that velleity which like an empty cloud vanisheth away without efficacy is not an act of love in which respect some not unfitly give the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to move every â—â—one and use all meanes for accomplishing the good we will only that caution according to our ability must be here inserted for as S Paul saith in this very case If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not where there is want of ability benevolence though it cannot be profitable to our Brother yet is acceptable to God and ought to be to him without beneficence The one then namely a good will is absolutely and alwayes necessary The other to wit good works conditionally and with this limitation so farre as they are within the sphere of our activity and compass of our ability Besides this general definition of love it will not be amiss somewhat more particularly to enquire into the several wayes of exercising it that we may see how many lines meet in this centre of love which may both fully and briefly be delineated by a double reference 1. To the present condition of our brother who Either hath the good already and then love first blesseth God and next congâ—atulateth him rejoyceing him at the presence and willing the continuance yea encreasing of it so farre as may be good and expedient for him Or else he wants the good and is distressed by some kind of evil and then love beareth a part with him in his sufferings by sympathie wiping away his teares with the spunge of her compassion yea not only so but endeavoureth to relieve him in and deliver him out of his affliction above all praying with earnest prayer and supplication to God for
world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world THe passions of the soul in their own nature are neither in their exercise are either morally good or bad Look as a Painters Colours according to the severall Pictures which they draw represent a chast Matron and a wanton Strumpet or as the winds according to the severall corners whence they blow serve to drieve the ship forward and backward so the affections according to the Object whereabout they are conversant become either helps or hinderances virtues or vices yea what the Astrologers say of the Planet Mercury in the Horoscope of mans nativity if it be in conjunction with a fortunate Planet it is the better if with an Ominous the worse is more truly affirmed of the passions when they are joyned to good Objects they advance virtue and when to bad they increase vice No wonder then if the holy Scripture take so much care about regulating our affections Indeed the Stoicks would banish and extirpate them and therefore say to them as Abimelech to Isaack Go from us for thou art much mightier then we but the Christian Religion would only confine or rather refine them by defining their proper Objects There is no need of draining up these waters only of diverting them into their right channell of plucking them up only planting them in a good soile We must not use them as Joshuah was to deale with the Amalekites wholly cut them off but as he did by the Gibeonites make them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House of God Indeed as one wittily man fallen is the Anagram of man created his affections like letters misplaced so that there is no need of blotting them out only placing them in their right order Upon this account it was that we finde in sacred writ both precepts and prohibitions commands and caveats exhortations and dehortations in reference to the same affections sometimes in the same Verse So Christ to the Disciples Feare not but feare to the Women at the Cross Weep not but weep ofttimes in the same Chapter as in this concerning the affection of love if you cast your eyes in the foregoing Verses you shall finde those two Objects which we are to love God and our Brother and here in this Verse that single though comrehensive Object which we must not love Love not the world nor the things that are in the world c. Having dispatched the generall proposition in the begining of the fifteenth Verse we are now according to the proposed method to descend to the particular exposition as it is set down in the former part of the sixteenth All that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life This clause which I call the Exposition you see is a distribution intended no doubt for a further and fuller explication of that prohibition but whether of the Object or the Act is somewhat questionable since on the one hand the word world refers to the Object and on the other the word lust refers to the Act. Interpreters conceive that lust is taken metonymically for the Object lusted after and so account it a distribution of the Object but withall it is of the Object in reference to the Act. And when I observe that this all is positively denied to be of the Father I thinke it more rationall to construe this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all to be every lust that is in the world and so take it as a distribution of the act discovering the severall channels in which worldly love runeth It is inquired by the Schoolmen whither this distribution do compleatly enumerate the causes of all sin and it is affirmatively resolved Calvin upon the Text conceiveth it not much materiall whether it be exact or no no doubt these are the principall and all sins may some way or other be reduced to one of these If you please take a short view of the severall references of these lusts whereby they are differenced one from another Serrarius upon the Text hath thus ranked them that good which is immoderately desired is either such as is really received into us about which is conversant the lust of the flesh or which is only transmitted by species to the sight and so the Object of the lust of the eyes or which is neither received by it self or by species into us but is altogether without us and to this tends the pride of life Alexander Hales out of St Austin goeth another and in some respect a contrary way asserting exorbitant lust to be either about bonum inferius some inferiour sensuall good which is the lust of the flesh or exterius some externall visible good which is the lust of the eyes or interius some inward opinionated good which is the pride of life Aquinas distinguisheth the inordinate appetite of man to be after good either as considered absolutely or as it is attended with difficulty the former is the inordination of that which is called the concupiscible appetite and this is either in respect of those things that please the body which is concupiscentia naturalis the naturall desire but in the excess the lust of the flesh or of those things which by sight delight the imagination which is concupiscentia animalis an animall desire and in the excess the lust of the eyes the latter is the irregularity of the irascible apetite and is the pride of life Some not unfitly allude to that distinction of sins into carnall spirituall and of a mixt nature those sins which take sensible delight in sensible Objects are purely carnall and these belong to the lust of the flesh those which take mentall delight in mentall Objects are purely spirituall sins and belong to the pride of life those which take an inward delight in outward Objects are of a mixed nature and belong to the lust of the eyes The most plain and usuall reference of them is of the lust of the flesh to sensuall pleasures of the lust of the eyes to riches and of the pride of life to honours and so the voluptuous covetous and ambitious are the sinners guilty of these lusts This Grotius looketh upon as the genuine meaning and so much the rather because he conceiveth this sentence to be borrowed from the ancient Hebrews whence Pythagoras received it and from him Clynias who mentioneth these three as the cause of that unjustice among men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correspondent to which is that of Philo on the Decalogue asserting it is the Fountain of all wars among men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evill lust either of wealth or honour or pleasure But what the large extent and withall the principall intent of these