it self to be God 2. Against those who imagine the Creatures either all or some to spring from the very Essence or Nature of God deriving it self as they speak into others by propagation 3. That all prophane unworthy and idolatrous cogitations of God may be excluded 4. Because there can neither be nor be imagined any similitude between a finite and an Infinite Nature 6. Incomprehensible or Immense for 1. He cannot be comprehended in the cogitation of any creature 2. The Deity cannot be comprehended or circumscribed in place in space or any limits that is his Essence is Immense neither to be extended nor divided nor multiplied Therefore it is all every where one and the same 7. Most perfect in himself 1. Because he onely hath all things which may be desired to perfect felicity and glory 2. Because he receiveth no part of this most absolute felicity from any other but hath all things in himself and of himself and is alone sufficient to himself for all things 3. Because he is not for himself onely but also for the creating preserving guiding and furnishing of all and every Creature so sufficiently that he alone doth give to all of them all good things meet and necessary for them as well eternal and heavenly as terrene and temporal neither yet doth depart from any part of his power or his happiness 8. Unchangeable 1. His Essence and whatsoever is proper thereto cannot be augmented or diminished 2. His Nature and Will cannot be changed 3. Himself hath no need to transport himself from place 9. Omnipotent 1. That whatsoever he will or whatsoever not impairing his Nature or Majesty he is able to will he is also able to perform 2. That he is able to perform all those things without any difficulty or labor even with his onely beck and will 3. That all the force and power of working and effecting any thing is so in God onely that there is not the least ability or efficacy of any Creature but what he continually imparteth and preserveth at his pleasure The five Properties of God which ought to stir us up to obey him contained in the Exhortation to obedience annexed to the second Commandment 1. He calleth himself our God that is our Maker and Savior and the Author of all good things hereby advertising us what execrable unthankfulness it is to revolt from the true worshipping of him unto Idolatry 2. Mighty that is in power as well to punish the obstinate as to reward the obedient 3. A jealous God that is a most sharp defender of his own Honor wonderfully displeased with such a revolt from him or violate and impair his Worship and Honor. 4. He calleth himself A God which visiteth the sins c. whereby he encreaseth his anger to take vengeance of the Ancestors sins in their Posterity even to the fourth degree and descent if they partake with the sins of their Ancestors 5. He saith that He is a God which sheweth mercy unto Thousands c. here he extendeth his punishments unto the fourth Generation but his mercy unto Thousands thereby to signifie That he had rather shew Mercy then Anger and so by this means to allure us the more to love him and worthily excluded is that man who abuseth such Infinite Mercy The use we are to make of the description of God 1. As God is a Spirit let us worship him in Spirit and abhor Images and Idols 2. As he is a Spirit let us not be offended or stumble at this That we never see him calling it therefore into question whether he be or not when we are Spiritual we shall see him as he is Joh. 3.4 3. Let us acknowledge from whence we have our being and life Acts 17.28 4. As he is Infinite let us in no place adventure to sin on any vain conceit because it is secret for wheresoever we be God is present 5. As he is most Holy let us prefer Holiness as the greatest excellency without which no man shall see God 6. As he is onely wise let no man use his wit secretly and closely to contrive evil against his brother or by any unlawful policy to circumvent him 7. As he is most Just let no man presume to go on in sin hoping for mercy without repentance 8. As he is most Merciful let no man that is cast down for his sins despair 9. As he is Almighty let us fear him and put our whole trust in him in all times of danger and distress 10. As of whose days there is no beginning nor ending let us be humbled in the Consideration of Gods Eternity seeing our selves are so momentary The Attributes of God are the main Supporters of our faith as thus 1. His Holiness makes the believer approach before him in an utter abnegation of himself and in the mediation of Christ knowing that in himself he is all over polluted and defiled with sin 2. His Wisdom makes the Believer subject to God in all estates of prosperity and adversity even against his own sense and natural Reason knowing that God is wisest and best knoweth what estate is fittest for him 3. His Truth makes the Believer judge him who hath promised that which he believeth to be faithful and true he that believeth hath sealed that God is true Joh. 3.33 4. His Power makes the Believer assent to the possibility of performance of those Promises which God hath made to his children of things which seem impossible 5. His Mercy makes the Believer believe the pardon of his sins being fully perswaded that he is infinite rich in mercy otherwise he could not believe the pardon of his sins When we read in Scripture of eyes ears mouth face hands heart head arms and feet ascribed to God we must not imagine that God is like unto us or hath a bodily shape whereas he is a Spirit or that these parts are ascribed to him properly but only for our better capacity and understanding signifying unto us his gracious Attributes as by his eyes his Omnipresence by his mouth his Word by his hands his Providence by his arms his Power and by his face 1. The invisible Nature and Essence of God Exod. 33.23 which no mortal man can see and live 2. The Favor of God as also all his Benefits Deliverances and Graces Dan. 9.17 Psal 80.3 3. Revenge and Punishment and the signs of his Anger Lev. 20.3 4. The place of Gods Worship where his face and favor is perceived through delivery of the Doctrine of Godliness From this was Cain banished Genesis 4.14 Hereof David complains 2 Sam. 26.49 Now to believe in God Almighty is to be believe in such a one 1. Who is able to do whatsoever he will 2. Who doth all things even with his beck and word onely without any difficulty 3. Who alone hath power to work all things and is Author of that power which is in all his Creatures 4. Who is also unto me Almighty and both can and will
same 2. By the rightly pacified Conscience which is done by Faith in the heart And the Peace here meant is such a Peace as cometh after War after conflicts for sin after knowledge of Gods displeasure with thee after the sense hereof and after all this a knowledge of Reconciliation again Now many in an evil estate live and dye peaceably but deceive not thy self that is onely because they were never acquainted with the Doctrine of Justification and Sanctification because they never saw the danger for to be sure that I am free from a danger and not to know a danger is all one and doth breed a like confidence and security Thus as it is a great mercy to have a true and sound Peace so to have a Peace not well grounded and bottom'd is the most dangerous Judgement in the world That thou mayest therefore the better judge whether thou hast this Sign of the forgiveness of thy sin know That this Peace is threefold 1. With God properly called Reconciliation God in Christ at one with Man Man through Christ at one with God 2. With our selves when the conscience sanctified ceaseth to accuse and the affections subject themselves to the enlightened minde 3. With our Christian Brethren Arguments to perswade us of the forgivenes of our sins if we come unto Christ 1. By the Scripture-expressions so frequently ratifying this Truth 2. By Christs Practice when he was on earth 3. Otherwise Christs Blood should be shed in vain 4. By the Example of others pardoned 5. Else no flesh should be saved 6. God should not else be worshipped and served 7. By the infiniteness of Gods Mercy The universality of Gods Promises touching the forgiveness of sins is threefold 1. Without exception of Time for At what time soever a sinner shall repent him of his sins I will put away his iniquity saith the Lord. 2. Without exception of sins for Albeit your sins were as scarlet they shall be made as white as snow Isa 1. 3. Without exception of person for Whosoever shall depart from his wicked ways and turn unto God he will receive him The Duties to be performed of us in believing the forgiveness of sins to the faithful viz. 1. To pray unto God earnestly every day above all things of this world for the pardon of our sins because this is so great and wonderful a grace 2. To love the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ with all our hearts and with all our might because God is the Author of this great grace Christ Jesus hath merited the same for us 3. To break off all our sins by Righteousness and not continue any longer therein because we have been enough endangered through sin and are still in the same danger if we continue in it 4. Not to have in any account the Popes Indulgence for sins but to abhor his Blasphemous Pardon for them seeing this is in Gods power onely Four Grounds of possibility of Pardon be the sin never so great 1. That the Mercy of God is infinite yea above all his Works 2. Men of years living in the Church of God and knowing the Doctrine of Salvation shall not be condemned simply for their sins but for continuing and lying in them 3. It pleaseth God many times to leave men to themselves and to suffer them to commit some sin that woundeth Conscience but yet we may not hence think that he is the Author thereof but our own depraved Nature 4. The Promises of God touching Remission of sins and life eternal in respect of Believers are general and in regard of all and every man indefinite This Doctrine of forgiveness of sins doth teach us 1. To acknowledge our selves before God to be grievous sinners to have godly sorrow for them and to seek pardon by daily Prayer for the forgiveness of them 2. To have a circumspect care and fear not to offend God at any time yea a most earnest desire to please him better then we have done Psal 103.3 4. Joh. 5.14 3. To return all praise and thankfulness to God for this so infinite Mercy which appeareth in nothing more then in the forgiveness of our sins 4. To shew back again our love toward our heavenly Father according to the measure of his love towards us the greater sins he hath pardoned the greater love should be returned 5. That the receiving of this Mercy from God must work in us mercy towards our brethren Luke 6.36 Eph. 4.32 Col. 3.13 The sum of this Article may be this Remission of sin is Gods Will not imputing to the Elect to all of them and to them onely their sins but Christs Righteousness which Remission of sins is the work of all three Persons of the Deity granted for Christs Intercession and Merit but freely in respect of us and is received by Faith through the working of the Holy Ghost upon our Conversion and Repentance You that are skill'd in Physiognomy Have ye observ'd in men Condemn'd to dye How to the life they do resemble Death Or 's if they liv'd by Artificial breath But travelling to their Execution say A Pardon overtakes them in the way How then the Scene is alter'd they survive Themselves and seem to be now twice alive Draw the Curtain Reade The Gospel saith The Pardon 's seal'd and it is ours by Faith §. 12. The Resurrection of the Body THe Resurrection of the Flesh is a restoring of the substance of our Bodies after Death even of the same matter whereof they now consist and a reviving and quickning of the same bodies with life incorruptible by the same Immortal Soul whereby they now live which God will work by Christ in the end of the world by his Divine Vertue and Power which restoring also shall be of the Elect unto the Eternal Glory of God but of the Reprobate unto Eternal Pains Thus although the body after death lie rotting in the Grave yet at the last day it shall be raised again by Gods great Power and being joyned to the Soul shall stand before Gods Judgement Seat to give account of all it hath done whether good or evil and be rewarded accordingly When Christ as Man for thus onely he can remove from place to place his Godhead ever filling all places shall come down visibly and openly with great Glory and Troops of Angels about him to Judge those that shall be then living for the world shall be full of people even to the hour of his coming and then the Dead being raised out of their Graves even all from the first Adam shall be joyned with the living who shall onely in stead of dying be changed and thus all people together of all Countreys and Nations shall be presented before his Tribunal to receive Sentence according to the Equity yea and Justice of his Gospel whether of Absolution to pass into the Kingdom of his Father or of Condemnation into the Kingdom of Hell with the Devil and his Angels for ever Now though amongst those
of Christ and then they will come in and be glad they have Christ though on Christs conditions Thus as the children of Israel being stung with fiery Serpents and that unto death were healed by looking unto the brazen Serpent erected by Moses so when we are stung by the old Serpent Sin and Death we must ever remember by Faith to look upon Christ Now we are said to Take Christ when we so take him as to bring him into our hearts to dwell there when we are knit to him and he to us But some men cleave to Christ not because they have any good ground but because they want Temptations to a contrary way therefore it is Gods usual maner when men seem to Take Christ and to believe in him to put them to the tryal to see what they will do whether their Faith will work or no For when to such as take Christ for love of the good things by him and not for love of his person other commodities are presented that are present and sensible and in their apprehension greater then those by Christ then they let Christ go again and their Faith proves uneffectual like those that marry not for Love but for Wealth the maner of these men is to seek mercy and not grace yet may we look upon our own advantages by Christ but not on that alone Thus when a man is drawn from God it is either by some offer of some great benefit or some great evil which he is put in fear of in both which Faith is that Vnum Necessarium to keep thee from sinning for it is Faiths office to guide our lives so as that we be not overcome by Adversity nor drawn aside from God in Prosperity Now that Faith that saves must be effectual Faith it is the effectualness of Faith onely that God requires that is if there be any effectualness in man that comes not from Faith God requires it not but if we labor to grow in Faith we shall be enabled to do the duties of New Obedience but if we have not the ground all that we do is but in vain Therefore when we finde any coldness weakness or languishing in the Graces we have encrease Faith and all other Graces will grow This effectual Faith is wrought or our Faith is made effectual by the Spirit of God it is not in our own power of our selves we are not able to believe if God himself put not his hand to the work no man is able to believe because naturally man hath a hard heart So for an holy life when we have believed and accepted the Righteousness that is offered us in Christ when that is done it is Gods part to frame and fit us for an holy life for after that a man is Justified by Faith Christ Sanctifieth him and it is he that carries him afterward thorough his whole life in a holy conversation And as Christ is thus made unto us Justification and Sanctification so is he made unto us Redemption also for he delivers us from the least evils as well as from Death Eternal and Hell it self yea there is no evil that the Saints are freed from but it is purchased by the Blood of Christ which is over and above some general works of Gods Providence that all men taste of Now though there be sufficiency in Christ to save all yet none have benefit by it but those that receive it as they ought that is as a Lord as well as a Savior We must therefore come to God as with a full heart so with an empty hand for Faith doth its work best alone for all that Faith hath to do is onely to Take from Christ that Righteousness which we want our selves And without this Faith God regards not the best Moral Vertues the Moral man what he doth he doth it of himself and through himself and for himself but he that doth what he doth by Faith doth it of Christ and through Christ and for Christ for we must receive all from Christ and do all for Christ and all by Faith Faith worketh in us a love to God and presenteth to him a perfect Righteousness and this Faith is the sum of the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles Now God requires no more but a Willingness in Earnest to come and take Christ he will make thee able afterward to do the rest for God never gives his Son to any but he gives them the Holy Ghost the Spirit of his Son also And we must know That Faith admits degrees and that every Christian ought to grow from degree to degree Rom. 1.17 for though the weakest Faith may be a true and so a Saving Faith yet if this small measure of Faith be not edged on with a longing fervency after fulness of perswasion and seconded with an assiduous serious endeavor after more perfection it is no sound and saving Faith but onely a counterfeit shew or deceiving shadow The least Assent to the least Belief of the Promises so it be sufficient to over-ballance the Scale of Doubting which is called the least degree of Faith brings us to Christ and make us willing to Take him and is Faith though it come not to the full degree though it hath some doubting some fears And afterward we shall be more fully and better perswaded which addes to the degrees For Faith though it be mingled with some doubtings and fears may be effectual though not perfect for there is a Doubting mingled with the best Faith so it be but such a Doubting as does not overcome it may stand with true and sound Faith If a man hath so taken Christ that still he is growing still his Faith is prevailing still overcoming these doubts and fears from day to day he is better and better resolved if it be thus still on the growing hand it is a saving and effectual Faith yea it is not Faith except it hath some Doubting except there be some fears some troubles within that resist this Faith and strive against it for there is no man that hath perfect Faith especially at the first or afterward so as to set his heart fully at peace So that it is said of Doubting in this case as we say of Thistles They are ill Weeds but it is a sign the ground is fat and good where they grow So Doubting as it is a thing that resists Faith is bad but it is a sign the heart is good where it is so that where there is no Questioning there is all Flesh And a man may have a saving Faith though he want the comfortable Assurance thereof in his own knowledge which is the reflect act of Faith For as some men have a perswasion of the forgiveness of their sins yet not savingly believe so a true Believer may have but a weak perswasion of the forgiveness of his sins but that Faith which is joyned with Love is infallibly true but disjoyned thence is false and the smallest Faith yea the weakest may
laying hold on those things which were not instituted for them but for the Disciples of Christ 2. Because they prophane the Covenant and Testament of God by taking to themselves the Signs and Tokens of the Covenant and so would make him the Father of the wicked 3. Because they tread under foot the blood of Christ by not receiving his benefits by faith when as they profess they do and so mock God 4. Because they condemn themselves by their own judgement for they accept of this Doctrine yet are conscious to themselves that they are hypocrites and so condemn themselves All deadness and hardness of heart must not keep us from the Lords Table for it is twofold viz. 1. Sensible which is in Gods children which they bewail this may not discourage the Communicant from approaching the Table 2. Insensible which is a great and dangerous Judgement and one proper to the Reprobate They onely are to be admitted to the Supper of the Lord who by their confession and life profess faith and repentance and the Reason is 1. Because the Church should prophane Gods Covenant if it should admit unbelievers and men impenitent for he that doth a thing and he that consenteth to it are both guilty 2. Because if such should be admitted the Church should stir up the anger of God against her self as of whom wittingly and willingly this should be committed The Supper of the Lord is often to be celebrated for these Reasons viz. 1. Because of the words of institution 2. Because in respect of the end and purpose of the institution for it must be done in remembrance of Christ The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is not to be omitted when it is administred in the Congregation whereof we are members for they were to be cut off from the people who neglected the Passover but this Sacrament is greater then it in two respects viz. 1. This Sacrament is more clear because it doth more lively represent Christ exhibited in the flesh but the Passover onely represented Christ which was to come 2. Because the mercy we are now to remember is greater then that of the Passover the one being our Redemption from Sin and Hell the other our deliverance out of Egypt though that was not all The resemblances between the Passover and the Supper of the Lord viz. 1. As one is called the Lords Passover Exod. 12.12 so this is called the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 2. God calleth the Lamb the Paschal Lamb because the Angel in the common destruction passed over the houses of the Israelites so Christ calleth the Bread by the name of his body that was broken for us Luke 22.19 3. In the Passover the Lord saith This shall be for a memorial Exod. 12.14 so Christ saith Do this in remembrance of me Luke 22.19 4. God saith of the Lamb Take ye Exod. 12.5 Christ saith of the Bread Take ye Mat. 26.26 5. God saith of the Paschal Lamb Eat ye Exod. 12.11 Christ saith of the Bread Eat ye of the Wine Drink ye c. Christ would at the last Supper of the Passover institute this his Supper for these Reasons 1. That now an end was made of all the old Sacrifices and he did substitute a new Sacrament which should succeed and be observed that Paschal Sacrament being abolished 2. That the same thing might be signified difference of time onely excepted the one signifying Christ to come and to be sacrificed the other come and sacrificed 3. That he might stir up in his Disciples and in us greater attention and marking of the cause for which he did institute it doing nothing before his death but what was of most weight and moment The absurdities following upon and Reasons against Popish Transubstantiation of the bread into the body of Christ in the Supper of the Lord some wherof are also against Consubstantiation 1. If the bread and wine be turned into the very body and blood of Christ then shall be no Signs in the holy Supper and then no Sacrament for Sacraments cannot be without visible Signs Thus it overthroweth the Sacrament consisting of two parts a visible Sign and an invisible Grace signified but if bread were really the body of Christ then there could be no outward Sign to represent the inward Grace 2. Christs blood should be seperated from his body which can never be 3. The body of Christ should be infinite and therefore he should not be a very man nor truly ascended for by making the body of Christ to be in more places then one at the same time the nature of a true body is destroyed 4. That then the wicked and hypocrites as well as the godly coming to the Supper should then receive Christ and be indeed partakers of the body and blood of Christ yea irrational creatures which is horrible Blasphemy to imagine and determine 5. It maketh two Christs one that giveth another that is given one at the Table another in the mouthes and stomacks of the Disciples 6. The Apostle calleth it Bread oftentimes even after consecration 1 Cor. 10.16 11.26 27 28. and Christ instituted this Supper before he was crucified 7. If the body and blood of Christ had been really in the bread and wine Christ should have eaten himself even his own body and drank his own blood and have given his dead body with his living hands 8. This communion is common to the Fathers and us but the Fathers could not communicate any otherwise with Christ then by faith in the Word and Old Sacraments 9. Christ is ascended really with his body into heaven which must contain him until his coming again Acts 3.21 1.11 John 16.28 Matth. 26.11 The great wide difference between the Lords Supper and the Popish blasphemous idolatrous Mass 1. The Supper of the Lord testifies to us that we have perfect forgiveness of all our sins for that onely Sacrifice of Christ which himself once fully wrought on the cross Heb. 7.27 But in the Mass it is denyed that the quick and the dead have remission of sins for the onely Passion of Christ except also Christ be daily offered for them by their Sacrificers 2. The Supper of the Lord testifies also that we by the Holy Ghost are grafted into Christ who now according to his humane Nature is onely in heaven at the right hand of his Father Heb. 1.3 and there will be worshipped of us John 4.21 22 23. But the Mass teacheth that Christ is bodily under the forms of bread and wine and therefore say they is to be worshipped in them So that the very foundation of the Mass is nothing else then an utter denyal of that onely Sacrifice and Passion of Christ Jesus and an accursed Idolatry 3. The Popish Mass changeth or rather abolished the Rite instituted by Christ for it taketh away the cup from the people and most presumptuously addeth many toys 4. The Mass transformeth the Sign into the thing signified for it denyeth that there
adversity because it cometh unto us by the will of God 5. That God would turn the hearts of all men from sin and bring them every where to the obedience of his will 6. That Events such as are not contrary to Gods will that is that such things may come to pass which so please him 7. That God would bless and prosper our actions and counsels that no other Events may follow them but such as himself knoweth may most serve for his glory and our salvation 8. That God would hasten that time and state unto us wherein we shall perfectly do the will of God that is our state of glory Rules of obeying Gods will 1. Obey Gods will absolutely and for himself obey man onely in God and for God 2. Obey God in the maner as well as in the matter which he commandeth 3. In doing the works of piety let them give place if unfaigned necessity require and calleth to a work of Charity 4. Let the works of thy private Calling give place to works of the publike calling and general as if thou be laboring on the six days the Lord calling to his House by his worship there thou must attend it Lev. 23. 5. The works of a general common calling must give place to the works of a special undoubted calling being contrary if a man at any time hath such That all our obedience to Gods will may be the better accepted of him it must have these three properties 1. Chearfulness and readiness God loveth the chearful giver 2. Sincerity which is heartily and from the Spirit approving our selves to God and not affecting the applause and praise of men 3. Universality which is in all and every particular thing thus Job is approved obediently professing his subjection to God though he should aggravate his misery and kill him The way how to become chearful doers of the will of God or the duties required by this petition to be practised by us that Gods will may be done 1. We must prove what is the good and acceptable will of God Rom. 12.2 that is we must by often tryal of our actions by the Word of God become expert in Gods will and esteem highly of it be it never so contrary to carnal Reason Thus Abraham did Gen. 22.3 2. We must lay aside our own wills and be possessed with a base conceit thereof not leaning thereon 3. We must labor for a true perswasion of Gods mercy in the pardon of our sins and for the salvation of our souls whereby we may shew our selves thankful to God for so great a mercy 4. We must consider that we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is a wonderful dignity to sinful men and in regard hereof we must stir up our selves so to live that we make not sad the Spirit of God which dwelleth in us 5. We must consider the blessings of God bestowed on us both in soul and body one by one and this will move us to love God which love we shall shew in doing his will 1 Joh. 5.3 6. Let us consider the threatnings of God against sin and his Judgements upon them that live in sin and these will help to restrain our corruptions that they break not forth into action 7. We must be strict in the matter of sin making conscience of every evil way yea even of the first motions unto sin that never come to consent for this Petition for obedience respects not onely our words and deeds but also our secret thoughts for even they must be brought to obedience unto God 2 Cor. 10.5 8. We must seek to cut off all things that hinder us from doing Gods will we must use Spiritual means and pray for the Spirit to mortifie and crucifie the lusts of the flesh Rom. 8.13 which makes us rebels against God in transgressing his will Now the ground of this work is the death of our Saviour Christ applyed by true Faith to our corrupt hearts 9. We must not live inordinately but in that sort which God hath enjoyned Christians in his word every one godly in the general calling of a Christian and faithfully and conscionably in his particular calling whether of Church State or Family 10. We must endeavor to subject our selves patiently to the will of God in all afflictions whatsoever for it is the will of God that through manifold afflictions we should enter into his Kingdom This Petition teacheth us to bewail 1. Our natural disposition whereby we are prone to rebel against the will of God 2. Our natural hypocrisie even that which remaineth in us after grace received 3. Though we have never so much grace yet to lament and bewail our want of obedience in all good duties because the best of us all fail in the maner of doing them 4. Our impatience that when God layeth any crosses upon us we cannot as we ought endure them patiently and thankfully 5. Our slack and imperfect obedience yea privy pride proud presumption deadness of Spirit secret hypocrisie and other weaknesses incident to us even in our best services 6. The sins of others whereby they disobey the will of God and so rebel against him whereby he is dishonored and therefore must we be passionately grieved for the sins of others and labor to reclaim them In the supplication of this petition we pray 1. For grace to deny our own wills and ways 2. For understanding of the will of God which without it we cannot perform 3. For faith whereby to believe that the will of God revealed unto us is the will of God 4. For power to obey the holy whole will of God which is both active in doing and passive in suffering In the deprecation of this Petition we pray against 1. Rebellion or an obstinate offending against the known will of God 2. Prophaneness which is an undervaluing estimation of holy duties 3. Hypocrisie which is a drawing near to God with the lips but estranging the heart from him 4. Natural Corruption which draweth away to disobedience enticing to evil 5. Wea riness in well-doing a refusing to go forward and a turning back again 6. Impatience murmuring at crosses and discontent at Gods Providence The thanksgiving of this Petition is 1. For disobedience and sin in any measure mortified 2. For the knowledge of Gods will for faith and desires in truth to obey the will of God in all things all the days of our life In this Petition we are taught to frame our lives to an holy imitation of the blessed Angels which will not stand with their humor who account zeal in Religion affected preciseness But such as call God Father in sincerity must set before them the obedience of the holy Angels as a patern for their imitation to a like resemblance although not to a like equality of perfection Now in them we may observe these things for us to follow 1. They desired before Christs Incarnation to look into the mystery of our Redemption wrought by Christ 1
3. That we might be advertised of the fulfilling of the Prophesie Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Judah c. 4. For that his innocency might appear he was not to be privily taken away by the Jews nor to be drawn to death by tumult or disorderly In the sufferings Death Passion of Christ these things are specially to be considered 1. The History it self of Christs Passion agreeing with Gods Sacred Oracles and Prophesies 2. The cause of his Sufferings 3. The fruit or effects of Christs Passion 4. His example that we are also to enter into eternal life and heavenly glory by death as did Christ 5. The due Meditation in the whole The History of Christs passion runs thus 1. They apprehend him as they would a Varlet that had done some outrage coming unto him with swords and staves in the night time 2. They carry him first to one High Priest then to another then to Pilate then to Herod and back again to Pilate amongst whom he is mocked laughed at scornfully intreated and buffeted questioned withal spitted on and crowned with Thorns 3. They compel him to carry his heavy Cross till he nigh fainted under the burthen being without all pity and compassion towards him 4. Though they could not charge him justly with any fault at all worthy the least punishment insomuch as Pilate that Heathen Judge would have acquitted him yet they cryed out Crucifie him Crucifie him and had rather one Barabbas a Traytor and a Murtherer should be released then he 5. They hung him up between two Thieves the most harmless and innocent man in the world is numbred amongst the wicked and evil doers 6. Not content to pierce his hands and feet with nails by fastning him to the Cross but like hard-hearted wretches they gave him vinegar mingled with gall to drink in his great heat and thirst and upbraided him with scoffs when he was on departure 7. Not astonished at the wonderful darkness The renting of the Temples vail The opening of Graves The coming forth of the Dead their malice expired not with him but even after he was dead they pierced him with a spear even to the heart Joh. 19.34 In the cause of Christs Death and Passion consider these four 1. The object moving that is Mans Misery and the Devils Tyranny 2. The efficient cause 1. Impellent Internal being the love of God towards his creatures 2. The Obedient which was the very Son of God obedient to his Father 3. The Instrumental as the Devil the Scribes Pharisees and the rest 3. The Formal cause being the Passion it self historized by the Evangelists 4. The Final cause 1. That God might be glorified for his Justice and Mercy 2. That Salvation might be purchased for Man who was lost by reason of sin 3. That Christ might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. The fruit or effect of Christs Death is twofold 1. General Christ by his Passion conquered The Devil whom he hath bound Hell which he hath spoiled Death which he overcame The World which he despised The Punishment which he hath suffered Heaven which he hath opened 2. Special 1. Obedience is performed to God 2. The Devil is vanquished 3. Man is freed from sin and justified 4. An Equalification of Jew and Gentile 5. Death is disannulled The Meditation of our Saviors Passion consists chiefly in these six particulars viz. 1. How great was the Wrath of God for sin which could not be appeased but by the death of his onely begotten Son 2. How infinite was the Mercy of God the Father who would rather his Son should undergo the most ignominious death then that Man his creature should perish 3. How unconceiveable was the Love of the Son of God who for Mans sake took upon himself the wrath of his Father 4. We must apply the Merit of Christs Passion to our selves by faith his Obedience being made our Righteousness whereby through faith we appear to God not as sinners but justified 5. What the Lot of the Righteous is in this world who must suffer with him that they may be glorified with him Rom. 6. 6. That our future life may be formed into a better mould Rom. 6. being dead unto sin by the power and efficacy of his death The Reasons why Christ suffered so ignominious a death 1. That we might know the curse due for our sins to have layen upon him and so should be stirred up to the greater thankfulness considering how detestable a thing sin is that it should call for so ignominious a death 2. That it might be an exasperating of the punishment and so we so much the more confirmed in a true faith 3. That the Truth might answer to the Types and Figures and so we might know that they are all fulfilled in Christ The causes of Christs Burial viz. 1. That we might know that he was dead indeed 2. That the last part of his Humiliation whereby he did debase himself for our sakes might be accomplished 3. A certain Type was thereby to be fulfilled it was foretold by the Type of Jonas 4. He would be Buried that we might not be afraid of the grave but might know that our Head Christ Jesus had laid open the way unto us by Death and the Grave to celestial Glory 5. That we might know how we are indeed delivered from death for in his Death a testimony and record whereof is his Burial consisteth our Salvation 6. That it might be manifest That he was able indeed to rise again and that his Resurrection was not imaginary but the real and true Resurrection of a reviving corps 7. That we being Spiritually dead that is to sin might rest from sin The duties required of us to set forth our Faith in Christ crucified are these viz. 1. Godly sorrow in bewailing our sins the onely cause of these great sufferings of our dear Savior 2. The mortification of our fleshly members and sinful concupiscences and that for three special causes 1. By continuing in sin we make our selves accessary's of Christs death 2. Because all such as unto whom Christs death is effectual to do away their sins are conformable unto him in his Death and Burial 3. Because no man following the trade of sin can be Christs Disciple 3. Patience and joy in suffering any thing for Christs sake and the Gospel and that chiefly for two causes 1. By suffering we are made like unto him Mat. 10.25 2. Because in suffering for his Truth he doth grace us forasmuch as he doth take us for his Martyrs and Witnesses 4. To remain unterrified with the pangs and approaching of death unto us because Christ in dying overcame death and took away the sting thereof 5. For this infinite love of Christ toward us to love him most earnestly again and all his members the Faithful for his sake That Christ descended into Hell all found Christians acknowledge but in the interpretation of this Article there is not that
we presently fall a committing the contrary Vice Hope is a sure and certain expectation of Everlasting Life Hope freely to be given for Christs sake and of a mitigation or asswagement of present evils and of a deverance from the same evils of this life and an expectation and looking for all Blessings necessary unto Salvation according to the Counsel and Will of God which Hope springeth from Faith for it is an expectation of such good things to come as God hath promised and Faith believed In expectation especially consisteth the very nature of Hope Rom. 8.24 If we hope we wait The proper object of Hope consisteth in good things herein it differeth from Fear These good things are not past nor present but to come neither are nor have been seen for Hope which is seen is no hope Rom. 8.23 They are such good things as God hath promised for true Hope is termed The Hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 And such as Faith believeth for Faith is the ground of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 And By Faith we wait Gal. 5.5 Faith is the Mother Hope the Daughter Faith brings forth Hope and Hope nourisheth Faith for except a man hopes and waits for that which he believes his Faith will soon decay and according to the quality and quantity of Faith is the quality and quantity of Hope Thus Hope distinguisheth the Faith of Christians from the Faith of Devils and Reprobates and from Temporary Faith A man hath never Faith to believe but he hath Hope which makes him expect what he believes yet true Hope may be mingled with Fear for if there be nothing but Hope it is a sign that Hope is not good This lively Hope makes us labor for the accomplishment of what we believe it keeps our heads above the waves of Adversity without which of all men a Christian is most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 it being simply and absolutely necessary to Salvation for where no Hope is there is no Faith And as it is true That no man can hope except he first believe the Promises so it is as true That Faith is necessarily upheld and nourished by Hope Faith is Hopes Foundation Hope Faiths Nourishment Faith believes the Promises Hope waits for the fulfilling of them Faith believeth and is perswaded of life Eternal Hope looketh when it shall be revealed for this cause Paul saith We are saved by Hope Rom. 8.24 The Love of God is a holy Disposition of the heart arising from Faith Love whereby we cleave to the Lord with a purpose of heart to serve him and to please him in all things which Love is so Necessary to Salvation as he that hath it not is in a cursed and damnable condition he is not in Christ if he do not love for there is a tye between all these Faith Repentance Love therefore they are used promiscuously And indeed if we Love not God we rob him for he bought us to be his that is to love him otherwise we rob God of our selves Now the way to Love God is To pray earnestly to acknowledge the power of the Holy Ghost to go to him and say Lord of my self I am not able to do it This acknowledgement of the power of the Holy Ghost is the way to prevail for unless the Holy Ghost kindle this fire of Love in us from Heaven we shall no more have it then cold water is able to heat it self Though the Preachers speak with the tongues of Angels yet shall we not be brought to love the Lord till he shew himself to us till he opens the cloud and shews us the Light of his countenance It was Moses his Prayer Shew me thy Glory that is thy Excellency which is exceeding glorious Moses asked not this to no purpose to satisfie his fancy for then the Lord would not have heard him but that by the better knowing the Lord he might love him the more for a principal means to the love of God is the knowledge of God and indeed therefore we love him not because we know him not This is the reason the Angels and the Saints love him most because they know him most and why in heaven when we shall be present with him shall we love him so abundantly but because we shall then know him face to face The Fear of God Fear is To acknowledge the infinite Anger of God towards sin his great Power to punish sin his Wisdom and Justice and that Right and Dominion which he hath over all Creatures which Fear is a great part of the Worship of God and one infallible Sign of the true Religion for that Religion is true wherein God is truly worshipped and that is but one and in it onely men shall be saved Which true Christian Religion is a Spiritual Band whereby men in a certain holy Reconciliation are made one with God and are kept in his Love and Fear that at length they may be made partakers of his heavenly Glory and of blessed Life And though all grant that to be the true Religion which hath been delivered by God himself yet which may be that Religion delivered from above will never be agreed on amongst men till our Lord Jesus returning to Judgement decide the Controversie Now we must not understand this Fear to be a servile Fear arising from a knowledge and an accusing of sin and from a feeling of Gods Judgement and Anger against sin and is a shunning and hatred of God and Punishment not of sin and is so much the greater how much the more certain expectation there is of everlasting Damnation and how much the greater despair there is of the Grace and Mercy of God But the Fear required in this Commandment is a Filial Fear such as Sons bear towards their Parents who are sorry for the anger and displeasure of their Father and yet notwithstanding are always perswaded of the love and minde of their Father towards them So that the Fear of God in the Regenerate in this life is an acknowledging of sin and the wrath of God and an earnest grief for the sins committed for the offending of God and for those calamities which by reason of sin both we and others sustain with an earnest desire of avoiding those evils by reason of the knowledge of that Mercy which is shewed unto us through Christ Mat. 10.28 Thus God alone is the proper object of Fear for what fear is due to man is due to him onely in and for the Lord whose Image he beareth more eminently by vertue of some Authority or Dignity pertaining to him which is to be feared And the extent of this Filial Fear of God is so large as without it other holy Duties cannot be well performed yea the whole Worship of God is often comprised under it Thus Mat. 4.10 Christ expresseth the Text Deut. 6.13 And thus Mat. 15.9 Christ expresseth the Text Isa 29.13 The Vices contrary to the Vertues in general contained in this Commandment
the wicked 1. The Impellent Cause is sin because it is an evil merit and deserveth evil 2. The Principal Efficient Cause is the Justice of God inflicting punishment for sin 3. The Instrumental Causes are divers Angels and Men both good and bad and all other Creatures 4. The Final Cause is That the Justice of God may be satisfied The Causes of the Cross of the godly viz. 1. The Acknowledging and purging out of sin 1 Cor. 11.32 Psa 119.71 2. The Hatred of the Devil and wicked men Joh. 15.19 1 Pet. 5.8 3. The Tryal and Exercise of Godliness Eccl. 34.10 4. Particular Defects and Failings in the Saints as in David and others 5. The Confirmation of the Truth by their Martyrdom Joh. 21.18 6. Their glorious Delivery that is the Manifestation of the immeasurable Wisdom Power Mercy and Justice of God in their wonderful deliverance 1 Sam. 2.6 7. The making of a Conformity between the Members and Christ their Head both in Affliction and Glory 2 Tim. 2.12 8. A Testimony and Confirmation of the Judgement and Life to come because Gods Justice and Truth requireth that in the end it go well with the good and ill with the bad but this cometh not to pass in this life In all Chastisements how sharp soever God is alway to be acknowledged just in laying them upon us 1. Because his Punishments though many times very grievous yet are alway less then our deserts and offences Psal 103.10 2. Because our sins are the procuring Causes of all the Evils we suffer Mic. 7.9 3. Because in all his Corrections and Judgements he remembreth Mercy Hab. 3.2 The Comforts and Consolations which are to be opposed to Afflictions to invite us to Patience viz. 1. Remission of Sins and Reconciliation unto God in Christ Rom. 5.1 8.3 2. The Necessity of Obeying God and the love which we owe him Job 2.10 Psal 3.9 3. The worthiness of Vertue that is of Obedience towards God the true Vertue Mat. 10.37 16.25 4. A good Conscience the godly being assured of Remission of sins purpose to obey God being confident of pardon in Christ resolve to suffer any thing 5. The Final Causes thereof as Gods glory Psal 119.75 Our Salvation 1 Cor. 11.32 The Salvation of others Acts 5. 6. The comparing together of Ends and Events it is better to suffer now then hereafter 7. The Hope of Recompence for the Reward is great in Heaven Mat. 5.12 8. The Example of Christ for the Servant is not above his Master Joh. 15.20 and of his Saints who have suffered before us 9. The Certain presence and assistance of God in all cases and chances of this life 1 Cor. 10.13 Psal 19.15 10. The final and full Delivery whereof are three degrees contrary to those of punishment 1. In this life when we have the beginning of eternal life 2. In our Bodily Death when the Soul is carried into Abrahams bosom 3. After the Resurrection when we shall be perfectly blessed both in Body and Soul The way to comfort our selves in trouble 1. It is our duty to acknowledge Gods Mercy to be great who might lay a heavier burthen on us 2. We must with boldness come by Prayer unto the Throne of Grace that we may put him in minde of his Mercies 3. We must thereby be drawn unto Repentance acknowledge our sins to have deserved far greater Judgements then yet we suffer and turn unto God with all our hearts 4. We must praise the goodness of God in sparing us and not pouring out the full Vials of his wrath upon us 5. We must remember That we think not our selves hardly dealt with taking heed that we murmure not nor complain against God 6. We must be patient and not discouraged under the Cross As the hand of Gods particular Providence is in all our Afflictions these three ways 1. He decreeth and fore-appointeth them 2. He effecteth them 3. He ordereth and disposeth them So his presence with us in Affliction hath these three ends or effects viz. 1. To work our deliverance from the Cross so far forth as it shall be for our good 2. To temper and moderate our Afflictions 3. To give us strength and power to bear his Affliction The fruit of Affliction viz. 1. Consideration they make men to see and consider their sins 2. Humiliation they serve to humble men in their Souls before God 3. They serve to work Amendment of life 4. Abnegation they cause men to deny themselves and relie wholly on the Mercy of God 5. Invocation they make us cry heartily and fervently unto God 6. Patience Affliction brings forth Patience Patience Experience 7. Obedience whereof we have an Example even of Christ himself Heb. 5.8 Prosperity worketh in us effects contrary to those of Affliction 1. It maketh us proud and insolent 2. It stirreth us up to serve our own wicked lusts fed by it 3. It hardneth us against the affection of Mercy 4. It maketh us cold negligent and distracted in prayer 5. It provoketh us to impatience wrath and self-confidence 6. It besots us with the love of the world and our selves alienating our thoughts from the heavenly life For what causes God humbleth his servants by Affliction 1. That all glory and praise may be given to him alone 2. That we may put away the vain confidence which naturally is in us and cleave to him alone 3. That we may be the better fitted for Mercy the better prepared to receive his gifts 4. That we may humble our selves pray repent pity others renounce the world and desire life Eternal Why the Lord sometimes defers deliverance from Affliction 1. To humble us throughly and to bring us to an utter denyal of our selves 2. That we may acknowledge from whence our Deliverance comes 3. To make us distrust the World and draw our thoughts to the life to come 4. To prevent greater evils and dangers wherein we might run God is said to deliver us two ways 1. By preservation and keeping us that we shall not come into danger 2. By freeing us from the trouble into which we are faln And this is 1. By taking the misery from us 2. By takingus from the misery Directions to arm us with Patience and to keep us from despising Gods corrections 1. In all Afflictions look as David did 2 Sam. 16.10 unto him that smiteth and know that they come not by chance but by Gods wise-disposing Providence and that purposely to breed in us true remorse 2. Consider that the Lord can adde Cross to Cross till he pull down our proud stomacks break our stiff necks and bring us to utter confusion yea that his Wrath is as his Greatness Infinite 3. Take notice of the Judgements which other men by despising the Lords corrections bring upon themselves 4. Make use of the least Cross and begin speedily to humble thy self if thy heart begin to be touched suffer it not to be presently hardned again but more and more humble
his Benefits 2. By the good that we shall get by it 3. That he shall not lose his labor if he do attempt it Now Faith onely applies the Promises with boldness but we are not affected with Spiritual Priviledges because we look on them with a general eye as matters of fancy and speculation because we see no such thing we have no feeling of them And the Promises of God are always to be understood with an Exception of the Cross of the godly and of the punishments and chastisements of such as depart from God and Sin or with a condition of perseverance in Faith and godliness When thou seest that thou hast put thy Seal to the Truth that thou believest the Promises and hopest in them then consider whether God hath put his Seal to thee Now we must know that there is a double Seal 1. Secret that is the Secret Witness that God gives to every mans heart as a Privy-Seal that God sets on it 2. A more Open one in life and conversation whereby he enables us to depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.29 Hope and Faith differ 1. In their Order Faith is first for it bringeth forth Hope Faith is the ground of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 2. In the kinde of Object Faith is of things past Heb. 11.3 and present Joh. 20.19 Hope onely of things to come 3. In their Nature Faith believeth the very Truth of Gods Promises and sealeth that God is true Hope waiteth till God manifest and accomplish his Truth In like maner Hope and Presumption differ Now Presumption may be these four ways 1. When men live in their sins without Faith and Repentance presuming of the Mercy of God and because God is merciful they take occasion to sin more freely 2. When men perswade themselves they hope in God when indeed they do not perswading themselves upon no ground That they live in expectation of the life to come being destitute of saving Knowledge Faith and Repentance 3. When men live in sin thinking afterwards to convert themselves when they list 4. When men presuming too much on their own power and strength even after Conversion think they stand so fast they cannot fall The Signs of found Hope 1. A purging of our selves to resemble God in purity 1 Joh. 3.3 2. True filial fear of God Psal 147.11 3. A weaning our selves from the most desireable outward things of this life and that for these Reasons viz. 1. They cannot possibly fill the unlimited desire of the Soul 2. They cannot secure the Conscience distressed with the apprehension of the Wrath of God or prevent his Judgements 3. They cannot stretch themselves unto Eternity 4. A Rejoycing for the Salvation in the last day and in this Joy a Delight in the means as the Word and Sacraments Prayer good and godly men c. Motives to labor for true Hope viz. 1. The Commandment of God and the Admonition to Hope so frequently multiplied in the holy Scripture Psal 42.5 43.5 37.34 7. 27.14 2. The Excellency of Hope for God himself is called The God of Hope Rom. 15.13 it is also called Blessed Hope Tit. 2.13 3. The Profit of this Grace of Hope as Piety 1 Joh. 3.3 Comfort in affliction Phil. 1.21 23. Blessedness Psal 146.5 4. The Necessity of it for without it we Christians were of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 The means to attain unto Hope viz. 1. Diligent and fervent prayer to God Eph. 1.18 2. We must labor for a full perswasion of the Goodness Truth Fidelity and Power of God towards us Rom. 15.13 3. We must labor to have a true experience of Gods love and favor towards us 1 Sam. 17.31 unto 51. 4. We must put upon us the whole Armor of God Eph. 6.11 12 c. 5. We must be often conversant in Reading Hearing Conferring and Meditating on the Scripture Rom. 5.4 The Vices repugnant to Hope and forbidden in this Commandment viz. 1. Despair which is to esteem our sins to be greater then the merit of the Son of God and to refuse the Mercy of God offered in his Son the Mediator and therefore not to look for those Blessings which are promised unto the godly but to be tormented with an horrible sense and feeling of Gods wrath and with a fear of being hereafter cast away into everlasting pains and to stand in horror of God and to hate him as if he were cruel 2. A Doubting of the Blessings to come which are expressed in the Word as of everlasting life and of final perseverance This Doubtfulness neither stedfastly assenteth to the Doctrine of God nor altogether gainsays it but being floating and wavering hath a weak inclination now to one part and now to another 3. Carnal Security which is To live without thinking of God or his Will or of our own infirmity and dangers and without acknowledging or bewailing of our sins and without the fear of God and yet to promise unto our selves an indempnity from the anger of God and from punishment without Faith or Repentance Suppose the World a Sea on whose uneven Tempestuous Waves sails Man that 's bound for Heaven Whose Vnderstanding at the Rudder stands To dictate to the Will what she commands Th' Affections who Vsurper-like do sway Command and Rule that Power they should obay Whereby the Vessel oft miscarries and The Fraught of Graces swallowed in the sand When Romes Euroclidons from Hell are sent Faith's shipwrack'd ' less Hopes Anchor doth prevent §. 6. Of Love THe Love of God is a most upright affection of the Minde by which God is loved for himself and our Neighbor for God which Love is grounded on Gods love to us 1 Joh. 4.19 Indeed Love is nothing else but a disposition of the Will whereby it cleaves or makes forward to some good that is agreeable to it self yea all the Affections are nothing else but the diverse motions and turnings of the Will Now Love is that act of the Will whereby it turns it self to a thing as Hatred is that whereby it turns it self from a thing And the object of Love is somewhat that is good not that is True or that is Beautiful for this is onely the object of the intuitive understanding So that to love the Lord is not onely required That we be perswaded that he is well-affected to us That he is willing to receive us but also that we look on him as one that is suitable and agreeable to us And indeed that is the main the other will follow easily Hence men may have a perswasion of their sins forgiveness and yet want true Faith for that which begets not Love is not Faith Now a man may have that perswasion of Christ yet not love Christ as a Prisoner may of the Judge yet not love the Judge for love comes from some suitableness some agreeableness between the parties but when a man is humbled and looks on Christ and again is perswaded that Christ looks
seasoned with some taste of his Wrath and Indignation This indeed is the true Tryal of our Faith even when above and against Reason we relie on the Mercy of God in the Apprehension of his Anger In which time of Temptation men are unfit Judges of themselves and of their condition how it stands between God and their Souls even the faithful themselves at such time may cry out and complain as if they were without both Faith and feeling of any favor of God who yet even then is not absent from them neither hath forgotten them The hour of Temptation with the Faithful is the time of winter wherein their Faith and Graces seem as it were benumm'd but when the Rejoycing Beams of the Sun of Righteousness break forth dissipate and chase away from the poor bemisted Soul the thick cloud of false and forged Suggestions his Faith appears the spring of Graces approacheth they shew forth by lively effects That they still retained life and were not dead to the present operation of unspeakable comfort in the late clouded Soul In such Distresses let no man think the Weight of his sins can over-ballance the Merit of his Savior The Celestial Lights may suffer Eclipses and we must walk by Faith not by Feeling Now the true Application of Life Everlasting promised in and by the Blood of Christ is the general Remedy for all Distresses But note That the distressed in minde are not fit for comfort till they be humbled for their sins for till then the Word of God is misapplied and so abused Despair is a sin whereby a man makes shipwrack of all Hope of the Mercy of God in Christ arising from a false consideration of his sins which he hath committed or the good which he hath omitted with a perswasion that God is neither able nor willing to forgive him Thus the Desperate man believeth not that God is either good true faithful or powerful he may indeed have some conceit that he is so in general but that he is so to him in particular and for his good this he will not be perswaded of but with Judas conceits that God is not willing to pardon him or rather that he will not pardon him Mat. 27. or with Cain That he is not able to forgive him Gen. 4.13 Thus Despair impeacheth the most glorious Attributes of God his Power as if he were not able to make good his Promise his Truth as if he were unfaithful his Mercy as if it were dryed up with the heat of mens sins his Omnipresence as if he were not ever by us Thus it stops the currant of Gods Mercy barreth up the gates of Heaven against men and openeth the mouth of Hell for them which if thou wilt avoid beware of Infidelity for that is the Mother of Despair And thus Despair ariseth partly from too deep an apprehension of the power of the Devil as if he were Infinite and he able to do whatsoever his Malice would or unlimited God letting the reins loose and permitting him to do what himself pleased and partly from too light an esteem of that power which is to be had in God as if he were not sufficient to keep us safe and of the Mercy of God as if it were not Infinite Temptations to draw us to doubt of that help we have in God and to Despair are properly termed The fiery darts of the devil which he shoots into our thoughts to poyson the Soul with their venomous heads thereby to draw us into Perdition These Temptations where they light and fasten pierce deep showers of them did the Devil shoot at poor Job David complains much they were let fly at him yea he flung some even at Christ himself in the wilderness Mat. 4.3 in the garden Mat. 26.37 c. and on the Cross 27.46 He that Despairs sucks fiery burning poyson into his Soul hath the Brimstone of Hell sulphering in his very bowels not a drop of the gracious Promises of God to quench it because he thinks the Puddle-pool of his sins greater then the Ocean of Gods Mercy This fire either stupifies the Spiritual Senses and dries up the life of the Soul or torments him like Cain Saul and Judas intolerably without all hope of redress Whosoever therefore by reason of their weakness or through the violence of some Temptation have so let fall their shield of Faith as that Satans fiery darts have touched their Conscience and pierced their Soul let them not thereupon utterly despair and give themselves up to the power of Satan but know That a Renewing of Faith by a speedy recourse to the Promises of God in Christ is a liquid Balsam to quench the flame Virtual to draw out the fire and Soveraign to cure the wound Faith applying the Vertue of Christs Sacrifice to a perplexed and troubled Soul dispelleth the inward anguish thereof but he that after some failings and spiritual wounds puts off all Hope as if Death and Destruction without all Remedy must needs follow thereupon is like him that will rather dye then take Physick murthers his Soul because it was sick hastens his own Damnation and by a Blasphemous prejudice to the unvaluable Merits of Christ through Infidelity becomes the wilful Destroyer of that Soul which might have lived for ever had he had the grace of Faith to apply the Remedy The special distresses of the Minde are five and arise either 1. Of a Divine Temptation 2. From outward Affliction 3. Of the Temptation of Blasphemy 4. From a mans own Sins 5. From a mans own Body Distress in minde is when a man is disquieted and distempered in Conscience and consequently in his Affections touching his estate before God which hath two Degrees 1. The less which is a single fear grief suspence or doubt touching his Salvation 2. The greater which is Despair when a man in his own sense and apprehension is without all hope of Salvation All distresses of the Minde ariseth from Temptation either begun or continued therefore according to the divers kindes of Temptations must the Distresses of the minde be distinguished which as formerly may be all reduced to these two Heads viz. 1. Of Tryal which is twofold 1. Combat of the Conscience directly with the wrath of God called a Divine Temptation 2. Of the Cross whereby God proves and makes tryal of the Faith of his children 2. Of Seducement which is threefold 1. Immediately from the Devil called the Temptation of Blasphemy 2. From a mans own sins both Original and Actual 3. From Imagination corrupted irregulated and depraved Despair is of three sorts of men viz. 1. Of Epicures Prophane men and Atheists who rejecting all Hope and refusing to wait for Mercy their Conscience convicting them that there is nothing to be expected but damnation give themselves over to all maner of wickedness laboring to extinguish out of their hearts That there is a God a Heaven or a Hell Jer. 18.12 2. Of those men who are overcome with
of God 2. The Flesh striveth to follow its own pleasures and wicked affections but the Spirit giveth it self to this one thing That it may obey God and set forth his Glory 3. The Flesh is full of distrust and impatience but the Spirit humbleth it self under the mighty hand of God resteth in his Mercy and fashioneth it self unto his Will 4. The Flesh holdeth us down in these earthly things but the Spirit lifteth us up into heaven The Spirits defensive weapons to fight with the Devil in the combat of the Flesh viz. Eph. 6. 1. The Girdle of Verity that is Constancy in the Doctrine and Truth of God 2. We must stand fast having our loyns girt about with Verity which is to be grounded in the setled Truth of Gods Word without inconstancy 3. We must put on the Breastplate of Righteousness which is a setled purpose not to displease God in any thing though never so seeming good in it self 4. We must have our feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of peace which is a constant resolution to profess the Truth should it cost us all the world can yield us 5. Above all to take the shield of Faith which is such a Faith as relieth wholly on God in Christ with particular application which will quench the fiery darts of the wicked 6. To take the Helmet of Salvation which is to stand assured that our Salvation is sealed up unto us which assurance will enable us to withstand all the assaults of the Devil The Spirits offensive weapons to fight with the Devil in the combat of the Flesh viz. 1. We must get the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God wherewith our Head and Captain Christ did repel the Devil 2. We must Pray with all maner of Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watch thereunto with all perseverance The maner how we must behave our selves in this combat of the Spirit with the Flesh viz. 1. Kill sin in the very conception otherwise it will grow from motion to liking from liking to consent from consent to action from action to custom from custom to hardness of heart and thence to the heighth of all impiety 2. Be sure to put no confidence in thine own strength 3. Believe not the Devil though he bring Truth in his mouth 4. Be careful ever to make resistance to it either by weakning the ability of sin by taking away all occasion to sin and by making a holy Covenant with every Member and Faculty of Soul and Body never to admit it or else by opposing the contrary vertue to sin 5. That thou be careful never to compare the pain of Resistance with the pleasure of Sin but rather the gripings of Conscience with the pain of Resistance 6. Thou must be careful to finde out the subtilties devices and sleights of the Devil by which he doth assault thee very cunningly 7. When once thou hast given the Devil the foil the Flesh will be the less able to assault thee and thou the more able to resist it but then be sure still to stand well upon thy guard and keep diligent watch The weapons whereby Satan labors to wound our fervency and faithfulness in the duties of Holiness and to hinder the entire exercise of the Graces of Sanctification viz. 1. Prosperity and freedom from discomforts and misery thereby to beget in our hearts worldliness and security the two great and dangerous Consumptions of Spiritual Life the one makes us insensible of Gods Mercies and our own Happiness the other of Gods Judgements and our own Misery 2. By fasteniug upon us unchearfulness and unprofitableness in the means of the preservation of Grace by making us cold and negligent or onely formal or cursory in the daily examination of our Consciences and in the exercise of holy duties whereby there ever follows a languishing and decay of the Life of Grace 3. By casting us upon ungodly and prophane company which hath a secret bewitching power to transform others into their own fashions and conditions yea to make them sometimes to condemn their former forwardness and zeal in the service of God 4. By putting into our heads some inordinate plot and forecast for preferment and greatness and then farewel zeal farewel Gods children yea his Service yea and himself too for we then think we mis-time our imployment if we make bold to borrow any from Policy to bestow it on Religion The Signs whereby the Son of God may be discerned from a childe of the Devil 1. Truly to believe in the Name of the Son of God 2. An hearty desire and earnest endeavor to be cleansed of his corruptions 3. The love of a true Christian because he is a true Christian The true Testimony of our Conscience may be discerned thus viz. 1. By the grief of heart for offending God called Godly Sorrow 2. By a resolute purpose of the heart and endeavor of the whole man to obey God in all things 3. By savoring the things of the Spirit that is by doing the works of the Spirit with joy and alacrity of heart The working and property of saving Grace vouchsafed peculiarly to Gods Children which doth translate them from the corruption of Nature to a state of supernatural Blessedness may be thus conceived understood viz. 1. It seats it self in the heart 2. It is dispersed over all the powers and parts both of Soul and Body over all the actions and duties whatsoever that are required of man 3. It softneth and changeth the heart and purgeth the inmost thoughts 4. It awakes the Conscience and makes it tender and sensible of the least sin 5. It sanctifieth the Affections and conforms the Will unto the Will of God 6. It illightens the Understanding with Saving Knowledge 7. It stores the Memory with many good lessons for Comfort Instruction and Direction 8. It seasoneth the speech with Grace 9. It so rectifies and guides all a mans Actions that they proceed from Faith warrantable out of Gods Word accomplished by good means and wholly directed to Gods Glory 10. It kindles in us a desire and zeal for the Salvation of the Souls of others especially of all those that any way depend upon us The Signs of the Sanctified or the Signs whereby all men may certainly know whether they are Sanctified Regenerated and shall be saved viz. 1. A Separation of themselves from wicked and prophane men and a purging themselves from the sins of the Times 2 Tim. 2.21 2. The Integrity of Soul sincerity and uprightness in heart in the whole course of Gods Worship Job 1.8 3. A reverent hearing and careful practising of Gods Word and a keeping of his Covenants Exod. 19.5 4. A Soul-ravishing delight in his Word with often and fervent Prayer 5. A Love to Gods Children and a zeal of his Glory 6. A Denial of our selves and a patient bearing of the Cross with profit and comfort 7. Faithfulness in our Callings with a just and
Object represented unto it 4. The Will doing one of the two upon former deliberation 5. The Will doing it of her self or having the cause and beginning of her motion internal this is to do by her own proper motion 6. Not being constrained by any external Agent This Faculty or Power of the Soul is called Free in respect of the will for these Reasons viz. 1. The Will doth of her own accord follow the judgement of the Minde and Understanding 2. Because it is by Nature equally fit to receive or refuse 3. Because it moveth her self by its own proper motion 4. In this Election or Rejection it suffereth no impediment or constraint of any external Agent There are four degrees of Free-will in Man which are distinguished according to the diverse states and conditions of mans nature viz. 1. In Man not fain before sin when man had perfect liberty to continue good or to fall and though most free yet not so strong but he might fall God not assisting him which denial of Gods Grace was no cruelty but a way to greater Mercy nor any compulsion to make man fall for he had Free-will to stand 2. After the Fall in man not Regenerate in which state it is a proneness in man to chuse onely evil which evil necessity came from man voluntarily and by his own will 3. In Man Regenerated in this life wherein the Will useth her liberty not onely to do evil as when the work is not done according to Gods Commandment but partly to do evil partly to do well as when it does it as God hath commanded his Spirit working by the will giving him power to will what he commandeth and approveth 4. In Man perfectly Regenerated after his Glorification in this state the will shall be onely free to chuse good and not to chuse evil and this liberty is greater then the first before his Fall because this excludeth all possibility of falling the other did not The disterence between the liberty of Gods will and ours viz. 1. God knoweth all things of himself perfectly and perpetually but the Creatures know neither of themselves neither all things neither the same at all times but at such or such a time and onely so much as is revealed unto them 2. In the VVill the will of God is governed or moved or depending of no other Cause but it self our wills are depending of him 3. In the Understanding and the VVill God determined all things which he will from everlasting and wills them unchangeable we determine what we will in time and many times change from that which we first determine In the Will are two things common both to Angels and Men with God viz. 1. To do things upon deliberation and advice 2. To will without coaction those things which they have considered and thought of that is their will being by Nature fit to will the contrary or diverse from that which it doth will or also to defer and forbear the action doth encline to the other part of its own accord The use of the doctrine concerning the diversities of liberty of the will in God and in Man and of the diverse degrees of the liberty of Mans Will viz. 1. That this glory may be given to God That he alone is the most free Agent whose liberty and wisdom dependeth on no other 2. That we remember That they who wittingly and willingly sin or have cast themselves into a necessity of sinning are not at all excused and so not God but their own wills declining of their own accord from Gods Commandments to be the true and onely Cause of all their sins 3. That we may know God alone to be of himself and unchangeably good and the Fountain of Goodness but no creature to have more then God works and keeps in him 4. That remembring what we are faln from we may deplore our unthankfulness and magnifie Gods Mercy in restoring us 5. That knowing the naughtiness of our disposition if God leave us to our selves we may be humbled in his sight and crave his Assistance 6. That knowing the liberty into which the Son of God restoreth us we may the more desire his Benefits and be thankful unto him for them 7. That knowing we alone are severed from them that perish we be not lifted up with a any conceit of worthiness in our selves but magnifie the free Bounty of God to us more then others 8. That acknowledging the weakness and corruption that still remain in the Regenerate we may seek for Justification in Christ alone 9. That knowing of our selves we are not able to withstand Temptations we may ardently and daily desire to be preserved and guided by God 10. That understanding we are not preserved against our wills but with our wills we may wrestle with Temptations and endeavor to make our Calling and Election sure having received the Grace of Conversion whereof we now again proceed in a word or two Conversion is twofold 1. Passive which is an action of God whereby he converteth man being as yet unconverted In this Man is but a subject to receive the impression of Grace and no Agent at all for in the creating setting and imprinting of Righteousness in the heart and Holiness in the inward man Will can do nothing 2. Active which is an action whereby man being once turned of God turns himself in all his thoughts words and actions This Conversion is onely of Grace for Grace is the Principal Agent and Will but the Instrument of Grace for being first turned by grace we can then move and turn our selves And thus there is a co-operation of Mans Will with Gods Grace He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee In the Conversion of a Sinner there be three works viz. 1. The Holy Ghost who is the principal Agent enlightning the Minde with true knowledge softning the Heart and changing the Will from evil to good 2. The VVord which is the Instrument of the Holy Ghost for now he worketh not by Revelation or special instinct but ordinarily in and by the VVord 3. Mans VVill which though by Nature be evil and dead unto Grace yet being renewed by the Holy Ghost in the very first act of Conversion moveth and striveth to be turned It is not like wax onely passive but as fire so soon as it is fire doth burn and so soon as it burneth it is fire So the VVill though by Nature it move not yet being renewed by Grace it moveth and so soon as it moveth it is renewed There is a fivefold Grace bestowed in the true Conversion of a sinner viz. 1. Preventing Grace whereby God inspireth into the Minde of the sinner that is to be converted good thoughts a good purpose and a desire of supernatural Grace 2. Preparing Grace whereby it is given us to consent unto God offering Grace or whereby the Minde and VVill are prepared that they may yield Assent and Obedience to the Holy Spirit 3.
God Levit. 18.24 Ezek. 20.18 Matth 15.19 20. Jam. 1.21 Zeph. 3.1 Rev. 21.27 It is compared to an unclean cloth Isa 64.6 to the Blood of pollution Ezek. 16.6 Levit. 15.19 It polluteth and prophaneth the actions of greatest Devotion in the Service of God Hag. 2.13 It defileth the Land and places where sinners are conversant Lev. 18.24 25. And as the Dropsie man the more he drinks the dryer he is and the more he still desires to drink So a sinner the more he sins the apter he is to sin and the more desirous to keep still in a course of wickedness Custom in sinning breeds hardness of heart Hardness of heart brings Impenitency and Impenitency Condemnation that men of years living in the Church are not simply condemned for their particular sins but their continuance and residence in them and though every sin be mortal yet are not all equally mortal but some more some less nor do sins committed utterly take away Grace but rather sometimes do make it the more to shine and shew it self Thus can God turn every thing to the best to those that are his yea so as we may say we gained by Adams Fall whence descended unto us that Original Sin which the Papists say is not Sin properly so called but onely because this Original Corruption in all men at their conception is an occasion or cause of Sin but as for the Sin it self which was in this corruption of Nature they say it was taken away by Christ Rom. 5.18 And herein the Anabaptists agree with the Papists for they also hold that Original Sin was taken away by Christ yet David as righteous man as any Anabaptist or Papist confessed that he was conceived in sin and born in iniquity Psal 51.5 For Christ taketh not Sin away but as he saveth viz. from all such as truly believe in him to whom it is no more imputed Nor is God as some blasphemously imagine the Author of Adams Fall for the unchangeable Decree and Will of God takes not away the liberty of mans Will or of Second Causes but onely enclineth and ordereth the same as the first and highest Cause So that Gods Decree went before Adams Fall onely as an Antecedent not as a Cause thereof and though Adam fell not without Gods general permissive Will yet without his special approving Will and he having full power and liberty to stand God can no way be said to be the Author of his Fall nor consequently of Sin And now when man is punished for Sin other Creatures suffer with him though had not man faln it had been otherwise but now as Instruments of evil man oftentimes doth horribly abuse them to the dishonor of the Creator therefore do the Creatures groan as weary of wicked men and yet to this ungrateful Creature Man doth the Goodness and Mercy of God appear infinite like himself in that the Air doth still yield man breath and not poyson him in that the Water so variously accommodates him and not drowns him that the Fire comforts and not consumes him that the Earth bears and sustains him and not through drought prove barren parch up and cleave asunder to swallow him that his Food doth nourish and not choak him that Death doth spare and not strike yea that Hell is conquered for him O the depth the depth the depth of the Goodness of God to this faln restored yet ungrateful Creature Man yea there had not been any such thing at all as Death had not man disobeyed for God made not Death in the beginning nor should it have been except of our selves for it ensued on the voluntary Sin of man God forcibly inflicting it as a most just Punishment and the present Punishments of this life are but the beginning of Everlasting because they are not sufficient here to satisfie Gods Justice and though God doth not so punish the sins of the godly yet is not his Justice impeached thereby because he punished them in Christ with a punishment Temporal yet equivalent to Everlasting which equability doth the Gospel adde unto the rigor and severity of the Law Now the Judgements of God are not onely Punishments to the Sufferers and Offenders but also Documents and Instructions to all others that behold them know them and hear them they are as Sermons to Repentance for this very end and purpose he worketh them and therefore they must be Instructions to us to avoid the occasion of them which is Sin The Sin against the Holy Ghost is when any after that he hath by the Holy Ghost been lightned with the knowledge of the Truth of the Gospel doth stand against that Truth not for fear or through infirmity but on wilful Malice for this Sin is a spightful resistance of the Gospel against the knowledge and light of Conscience after the Spirit hath perswaded the heart of the Truth and Benefit thereof and when a man sinneth out of malice and spight against God himself and Christ Jesus which is not every sin of Presumption or against Knowledge and Conscience but such a kinde of presumptuous Offence in which true Religion is renounced and that of set purpose and resolved malice against the very Majesty of God himself and Christ Heb. 10.29 This Sin against the Holy Ghost is said to be unpardonable not that it exceedeth or surmounteth the greatness of the Merit of Christ but because he that commits it is punished with a final Blindeness and without Repentance there is granted no Remission of Sins neither is it unpardonable because it is greater then Gods Mercy or as Cain thought Greater then can be pardoned Gen. 4.13 but because the heart of him who committeth it is uncapable of Mercy As if a ventless Vessel be cast into the Sea it cannot take in one drop of water not because there is not water enough in the Sea to fill it but because it had never a vent to receive water In every Sin these four things are to be considered viz. 1. The Fault whereby God is offended in the Action which is the Root of all the rest 2. The Guilt whereby the Conscience is bound over unto Punishment 3. The Punishment it self which is eternal Death the wages of Sin 4. A certain Stain or Blot which it imprints and leaves in the offender The Seat of Sin in man is threefold viz. 1. Reason whereof Some are of Knowledge Others of Ignorance 2. The Will whereof Some are from the Will immediately Others are somewhat beside the Will Some are mixed partly with the Will partly against it 3. Affection whereof Some are of Infirmity Others of Presumption In respect of the Law Sin is twofold viz. 1. Of Commission but if we carry a constant purpose not to sin and endeavor to resist all Temptations our Concupiscence will not be imputed to us 2. Of Omission which obliges us to Punishment as much as Sin of Commission Again Sins are either 1. Immediately against God as all the Breaches of the First
By Consent or Assistance so Saul in keeping the garments of them that stoned Stephen 4. By Provocation this Paul forbids Eph. 6.4 5. By Negligence or Silence of this too many Ministers are guilty 6. By Flattery when men sooth up others in Sin 7. By Connivance or slight Reproof so Eli in rebuking his Son 8. By Participation so such as are Receivers of Thieves are guilty of Theft 9. By Defending another in his Sin Why the Infirmities of the Saints are recorded in Scripture viz. 1. Not to disgrace them but to keep us from a vain opinion of our selves that we presume not on our own strength 2. To make us the more careful to look to our steps that we slip not as they did for fear we cannot rise as they did it is easie to fall but hard to rise 3. Having faln as they did we should by their Example learn to rise as they did having like Sins we should have like Repentance that we may have like Forgiveness Now the Sin against the Holy Ghost whereof he is the object not in regard of his Essence or Person but in regard of his Office or Operation consisteth of these Degrees viz. 1. A rejecting of the Gospel Heb. 8.29 2. A spightful rejecting thereof under which are comprised Malice and Hatred of Heart Blasphemy of the Tongue and Persecution 3. A spightful rejecting of the Gospel against Knowledge Heb. 10.26 4. A spightful rejecting thereof after Knowledge against Conscience 5. A wilful Gainsaying and Opposition against the inward Operation and supernatural Revelation of the holy Ghost 6. A despighting of the Spirit in such things as he revealeth to them for their own good This unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost is distinguished differeth from many other sins which come very near unto it viz. 1. From many things against Knowledge yea and against Conscience also for they may be without malice of heart which this cannot be the Elect may fall into them but not into this David and Peter sinned against Knowledge and also against Conscience 2 Sam. 11. Matth. 26.70 2. From many sins committed on Malice against Christ and his Gospel which may be done out of Ignorance 1 Tim. 1.13 As Paul did before his Conversion 3. From Blasphemy and Persecution which may be done also in Ignorance or in Passion 2 Cor. 16.10 4. From Denial of Christ which may be done out of Fear like Peter or other like Temptations 5. From Apostacy from the Faith and Profession of Religion which also may be done not out of Malice but through the Violence of some Temptation like Solomon 1 Kings 11.4 5 6. And the Levites in Captivity who though barred from the Holy Things yet were admitted to do other Services in the Temple Ezek. 44.10 c. whereby it is manifest they fell not into this unpardonable Sin 6. From Presumption and Sinning with an high hand as Manasseh did 2 Chro. 33.13 7. From Hardness of Heart from Impudency and committing Sin with Greediness for so did the Gentiles which had not the Gospel Supernaturally revealed to them 8. From Infidelity and Impenitency yea from final Infidelity and Impenitency whereinto all the Reprobate fall which is not perfectly committed till Death but the Sin against the Holy Ghost is sooner otherwise in vain had Saint Johns Caveat been concerning the not praying for them 1 John 5.16 This Sin against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable not simply in regard of the Greatness and Hainousness of it as if it were greater then the Mercy of God and Sacrifice of Christ but rather in regard of that Order which God hath set down and that fixed Decree and Doom which he hath both established and revealed And though God is not bound to render man a Reason of his Orders and Decrees yet it hath pleased him to make known some reasons thereof in his Word for the better satisfaction of mens mindes and justification of his own proceedings 1. Because it is impossible that they who sin against the Holy Ghost should be renued again unto Repentance Heb. 6.4 5. 2. Because they utterly renounce and quite reject the onely Means of Pardon which is Christ Jesus offered in the Gospel Heb. 10.29 3. Because they have wittingly so wholly cast themselves into Satans power and utterly renounced to have to do with God having as it were subscribed to be Satans and ever to be with him and on his side being certified in their hearts that they are wholly forsaken of God and shall be damned And thereupon they like the damned in Hell blaspheme God whom they have renounced and with spight oppugn the Gospel through an inward hatred of God the Author of Christ the Matter and of the Holy Ghost the Revealer thereof Seeing this Sin against the Holy Ghost is not committed without malice of the Will we must know that of this malice of the Will there be two Degrees viz. 1. Particular when a man wittingly and willingly sinneth against some particular Commandment as Acts 7.51 The Jews were stiff-necked and always resisted the Holy Ghost that is the Ministery of the Prophets in some things not in all 2. General Malice when a man is carried wittingly and willingly to oppugn all the Law of God yea Christ himself true Religion and Salvation by Christ and so reverseth all the Commandments This is the sin against the Holy Ghost And this being a general and universal Apostacy of this degree the Apostle saith If we sin willingly after we have received the Knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins Heb. 10.26 The chief Points considerable in this Sin against the holy Ghost viz. 1. The Name it is called a Sin against the Holy Ghost not because it is done against the Person or Deity of the Holy Ghost for so he that sinneth sinneth also against both the Father and the Son but it is so called because it is done contrary to the immediate Action namely The Illumination of the Holy Ghost 2. The Efficient Cause of it which is a purposed and obstinate Malice against God and against his Christ 3. The Object namely God himself and the Mediator Christ Jesus for the Malice of this Sin is directed against the very Majesty of God himself and against Christ Heb. 10.29 4. The Subject in which it is This Sin is found in none at all but such as have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the Gift of God Heb. 6.5 6. 5. The Elect cannot commit this Sin and therefore they who feel in themselves a sure Testimony of their Election need never to despair 6. This Sin cannot be forgiven not because it is greater then Christs Merit but because after the Commission thereof it is impossible for a man to repent 7. It is very hard to know when this Sin is committed because the Root thereof lurketh inwardly in the Heart That we may ever abhor the very thought of sin consider feriously these two most cursed
object according to the nature of the offence and party offending 1. Admonition or Exhortation to amendment which also is joyned with reprehension and denunciation of Gods judgements against the party not repenting but persisting in his evil way Gen. 3.11 4.6 7. 2. Suspension whereby the offenders for a time are barred from the Lords Supper This is not a Separation from all holy things but some onely till clearer evidence produce either farther punishment or absolution 2 Thes 3.14 15. 3. Excommunication which is a Separation from all holy things and the Priviledges of the Church and the Communion of Saints because to their sin they adde this obstinate contempt of the Admonitions given unto them Gen. 17.14 Ezra 10.8 Matth. 18.17 There is a twofold Communication or Communion from which an excommunicate person may be said to be excluded viz. 1. Inward and Spiritual which every Faithful one hath by Faith and Love first with God and then with the Saints of God 1 Joh. 1.3 7. From this Fellowship can none be excluded but by sin which is it alone can separate any man from the Grace of God and from Communion with him The Church Excommunication can bar and shut out no man from this Communion 2. Outward and Corporal which standeth in a common partaking together in the Word in Prayers and in the receiving of the Sacraments and in familiarity and friendship one with another from all which Excommunication separateth The Bands or Duties which no Excommunication doth dispence withal viz. 1. Natural if any Excommunicate person be in want or any distress we must minister unto him such things as are necessary for his preservation 2. Domestical as the duties of Wives Children and Servants may not be shaken off under any colour or pretence of Excommunication Provided that they cease not to pray for them to admonish them to hate their sins and see they defend them not in their wicked courses or joyn with them in opinion 3. Civil or Politique it is lawful to buy of him or to sell unto him yet we ought not to converse and commerce with him as with a Friend The Duties which are to be performed to Excommunicate persons viz. 1. We must love the Persons of the Excommunicate in the Lord and thirst after their souls health and for their conversion 2. We must exhort and rebuke them so that albeit we love them we must take heed that we do not flatter them and so harden them in their sins 3. We are bound to pray for those that are bound by the Church Censures we are not to pray with them but it is required of us to pray for them 4. We are to assure them that upon their Repentance we are ready to embrace them and to receive them as Brethren forasmuch as there is joy in Heaven for one sinner that is converted from the error of his ways The fearful estate and condition of Excommunicated persons viz. 1. Their Names whilest they persist in their obstinate Impenitency are cancelled out of the number of the people of God Gen. 1.7 2. The Sentence that is pronounced on Earth is ratified in Heaven Matth. 18.18 c. for Christ is the Author of it 1 Cor. 5.4 3. They are barred from the Word and Sacraments and from Prayers with the Congregation the Word prevailed not to do them good the Sacraments would do them hurt 4. They are infamous for they are to be called and accounted as the Heathens and Publicans Matth. 18.17 5. Such as thus contemn the Admonition and Reprehension of the Church lose the Communion of Saints and become the bondslaves of Satan 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5. 6. Being cast out of the Church they are banished out of all Churches the Churches of God have all cast them out whom one hath cast out And if we be not of the Church of God we are of the Synagogue of Satan 7. The sundry Decrees and Constitutions established by Humane Laws do much aggravate and set forth the hideous condition of such as are worthily cast out of the Church The ends of Excommunication are these viz. 1. The good of the person Excommunicated that if it be possible he may be won 2. The Salvation or preservation of the whole Church 1 Cor. 5.13 lest others be infected 3. That the rest may fear and be kept within the bounds of their duty 1 Tim. 5.20 4. That those Punishments which hang over the Church for sin may be kept off and avoided Josh 7.11 Numb 25.7 5. The Glory of God and if this be before their eyes that are Governors of the Church it will keep them from declining either to the right hand or the left from winking at the sins of great ones and censuring the faults and infirmities of those of low degree too sharply from winking at great beams in some and from having Eagles eyes to pry into the motes of others The use of Excommunication ought to be perpetual and universal in the Church because the causes of this power of the Church are perpetual and universal As 1. The Commandment of Christ Matth. 18.18 1 Cor. 5.5 2. That obstinate Sinners being made ashamed may be brought to Repentance 3. That no others should be infected by their evil life and corrupt example 4. Because it is the ordinary Office of the Church to judge them that are within 1 Cor. 5.12 Obstinate Sinners are to be cast out of the Church which ought not to Tolerate open Offenders for these Reasons viz. 1. Because it is a comely thing for the Saints of God to purge themselves of them that as they differ from Heathen men so they may differ from Heathen Meetings for They are a holy people Deut. 2.14 2. Because for the neglect of this Duty the Wrath of God falleth upon the Sons of men Col. 3.6 3. Because it is a cause of great Mercy and wonderful Blessing from God when such as transgress are resisted and punished Joh. 7.13 8.1 2. 4. Because it would be reproachful to God and his Son Jesus Christ if they who lead wicked and wretched lives should be admitted freely to his Table as if his people were a company or conspiracy of prophane persons whereas the Church is the Body of Christ Col. 1.24 5. By continual company of the wicked the godly are corrupted 1 Cor. 5.6 7. it is better that one Member be cut off then that the whole Body of the Church should perish 6. They are to be cut off to the end that such as are wicked livers may begin to be ashamed of themselves and their wickedness who by winking at their sin would grow the more obstinate but by this chastisement may be reclaimed and preserved 1 Cor. 5.5 We must have no company with scandalons livers that they may be ashamed 2 Thess 3.14 Excommunication described by its several parts viz. 1. It is a Sentence of the Church Mat. 18.17 2. It must be executed upon him that is a Member of the Church 1