Apostles and Teachers the Devils disciples which pen Books stuffed with Errors either under the Names of the Apostles that so they may the sooner beguile and get credit to their Lyes or else without Names lest being found out by their Names they should suffer and be brought to punishment for their Errors or their infamous Names being seen in the forefront of their Book should cause any judicious and honest Reader with indignation to cast it away The Apostle I say contrariwise having the sound and holy Oracles of God from Heaven to deliver unto them puts to his Name There are many worthy Works I confess which have no Names put to them those especially which were written in the times of Persecution whereof the Authors howsoever desirous to spread the Truth of God hated and persecuted hereby notwithstanding shunned the hands of cruel tyrants This is not for any fault in the matter but only avoiding danger in speaking of the truth This is no disgrace to them but to their times and their enemies for men need not cast themselves into peril till God call them This condemns the vile practice of the wicked which hide themselves in the dark and in corners lewdness not abiding the light We must do nothing but that we dare put our hands to it and our Names We must do as the Angel did that rolled away the stone and sate upon it when he had done as if he should have said Let me see who will control that which I have done We must do so as we may bid our Adversary write a Book against us for any gross or unlawful thing we have done and stand in Alas what a folly is this you flee mens eyes but can you flee the eyes of the Almighty And if you cannot abide mens censure how shall you be able to stand before the Judgement seat of Almighty God who is a consuming fire An Apostle of Jesus Christ The word is general and signifieth one sent but here as elswhere often it is taken specially for one and the principal sort of Ministers differing from all others in these particulars 1. They were immediately called by Christ own mouth and sent abroad Many were called by him for Disciples and out of those he chose his Twelve Apostles 2. They had a larger measure of the Spirit then others so that they could not erre in their writings 3. They had also a larger Commission Go ye saith our Savior and Teach all Nations They were to preach to all the world but this Calling is ceased This notwithstanding it hath communion with all other sorts of Ministers that they were called and sent No man saith the Apostle takes this honor to him but he that is called of God as was Aaron and so were also the Prophets There are two things required in a Minister 1. That he be lawfully called and 2. That being in he discharge his duty faithfully Touching a Ministers Calling it must be both inward and outward 1. He must have an inward Calling from God which appears 1. By an aptness and competency of Gifts to teach and edifie the Church of God 2. By a willing minde to employ the same seeking not his own advantage and ease but the glory of God This makes the Minister As when God calls a King he gives him the heart of a King So if he appoint a man to be a father of Souls he fits him for it 2. He must have an outward Calling from the Church and those that are in place to alow and disalow Ministers whose approbation they must have which is not to make them but to approve of them for their further comfort that they may more boldly go forward The Brownists call us Bishops-Ministers because they call us to this Office but they do but alow and approve whom God hath made Both must necessarily concur the one go along with the other He that wants the inward though he have the outward is not a true Minister of God yet his actions are not to be esteemed nullities and void and he that in ordinary times having the inward wants the outward goes not to work humbly as he ought Well did Peter declare himself an Apostle one sent from God a Messenger who was to deal faithfully in his Message For he publisheth not here his own Inventions Poets Fables Heathen Stories Philosophers Conceits or mens Devices and Opinions but the holy Oracles of God from Heaven So must every Minister of God speak as the words of God What is the Chaff to the Wheat either ones Opinion to establish anothers Conscience But why doth he call himself by this great Name of his Office and put this high stile before his Epistle Not for vain ostentation or for his own sake but for the peoples good even to procure with them the more authority to that which he was to write for who should dare to refuse that which comes from the Lord Jesus the eternal Son of God the Light of the world the Savior and Judge thereof Nay who should not with all high reverence submit himself thereunto So did the Prophets begin The word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord whereby they set their peoples faith on work to look to God and not to men Hence let the Ministers of God learn to procure what credit and authority to their Ministery they can signifying often that it is Gods will thereby drawing their peoples mindes upward from the instrument They must deliver such soundness of Doctrine as may be food it self not froth which accordingly they must deliver in a grave and religious maner adding thereunto as Prayer so also a godly life and all little enough considering the prophaneness of our hearts that so little regard what we hear yea hear without preparation or reverence being of us no sooner gone then forgotten But how dares he call himself an Apostle that had deserved by his most shameful threefold denial of his Master to be utterly discarded of his Office and utterly cast away for ever By the grace of God he doth this by Faith apprehending the mercy of God towards him and he doth it to publish his grace and favor who had upon his true Humiliation and Repentance not only forgiven his sin and received him to mercy but restored him to his Office again Go your way said the Angel unto the Women tell his Disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee And afterward our Savior by a threefold Commission restored him to his Office from which by his threefold Denial he had shut himself Hence note That Repentance will wipe away our sins and make them as if they had never been Joel 2. 12 13 14. Mic. 7. 18 19. 1 Joh. 1. 9. which 1. Shews Gods unspeakable mercy towards penitent Sinners 2. Is a matter of endless comfort to us which through our corruption fail and sin daily
we be aware as David Judah 2. Seeing this is a part of Gods Counsel and he that bids we should not steal should keep the Sabbath c. bids us watch let us know it s not safe for us to neglect it when God hath made known the same to us Is it not pity that such a blessed mean to further us so sweetly to heaven through this world should be so little known and so few have help by it O if we would once enter upon it it would save us from many dangers it would make our life fruitful it would bring us so much unwonted peace as we would be so far from being weary of it that we would be grieved that we have been strangers from it so long and came to the acquaintance and use of it no sooner O let us grieve and crave pardon for neglecting such a necessary and profitable duty so long and for the time to come be careful to redeem the season Unto prayer We must adde prayer to watchfulness else what if we spy temptations coming and setting upon us of our selves we have no power to resist the least of them We must therefore upon every occasion have recourse unto God by prayer as Watchmen if there come enemies in the time of War that be too strong for them they raise the City for help and in our ordinary watches if naughty wretches come and set upon the watch and be like to beat them down they cry out for help and so subdue them so must we Temptations at some times come so strong as that we cannot deal with them and therefore must cry to God for help O that we could be much exercised in this duty of prayer It keeps us in sobriety helps our watchfulness turns away evils furthers us in good is the onely mean to supply our wants whether for soul or body O what a priviledge is this O the force and fruit of prayer They that be much in Prayer obtain much grace and peace here and shall finde a large entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter Vers. 8. And above all things have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins THe Apostle proceedeth to other duties for Christianity is a Tree that hath many branches and a true godly man must have respect to all As a Tradesman must have a care of every part of his Trade and every point thereof though haply he may be more expert in some particulars then in others Above all things Not above the duties of the first Table for that is the first and great Commandment but above all duties of the second Table have a care of love which is a main and most necessary duty without which there 's no society or living have a care of it as of a mother-duty from whence others will arise as upon the wanting thereof they also will be wanting or thus Above all things that is Of all the loves that we owe have a care of the main namely Love to the Saints for though we must love Strangers Wicked men our Enemies c. yet must we must love the Saints above all Here we have 1. An Exhortation to love 2. The maner of it 3. A Reason to enforce the same The Exhortation affords us this note that Love is a most excellent and necessary duty Hereof I have spoken at large on the 22 Verse of the first Chapter where was shewed both what love is the high commendation thereof by its several properties with the means whereby to attain the same c. Fervent The maner or kinde of love required a large continued stretched-out constant love As a cloth folded up is in a little room but when it comes to be cut is stretched out into many mens uses so our love must be stretched out to many persons to many duties as in giving and doing good to body soul goods good-name and that not sparingly but liberally so in forgiving both much and often neither must this be onely when we can well do it or when we have nothing else to do but when it s against our profit pleasure ease c. so as we neglect not our selves too much and thereby more pleasure may be done our neighbors then hinderance come to us Reasons hereof may be these 1. Gods love towards us is fervent and reacheth out into innumerable favors for our bodies souls goods good-name c. and that continually forgiving also our daily offences and bestowing his own Son on us 2. A little love will be easily quenched and hindred by the Devil and his instruments whereunto our brittle nature most readily yieldeth This is not such a love as that whereby the fornicator loves his harlot one enemy to goodness loves another This is not grounded upon any transitory thing or common gifts but is for grace We love thus not for any by-respects but because God requireth of us so to love this is agreeable to the Word of God and therein we must principally aym at the good of our neighbors souls to perswade ones friend to that for preferment which he cannot do with a good conscience or being sick to perswade him to send for a Cunning-man or woman or to disswade him from suffering for a good conscience c. is rather hatred then love Had our Savior followed Peters advice and not gone up to Jerusalem for to suffer we had all perished eternally But of this before For charity shall cover the multitude of sins The Reason There will be through our corruption and frailty of nature many offences one against another therefore must we labor for love to cover them The Papists interpret the words thus That our love to our neighbors will merit at Gods hand forgiveness of our sins but we are justified before God by Faith in Christ Jesus before we can do any good work neither can we love God or our neighbor for his sake till we be assured of his love to us in pardoning our sins True the more we love our brethren the more we may be assured of Gods mercy to us and that we be pardoned and that he will still shew us mercy but not by desert That opposition Prov. 10. 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes but love covereth all sins sheweth plainly that this is not the meaning Faults that love covers be of two sorts namely sins against God and wrongs against our selves Against God whether they be natural infirmities or others so they be not notorious acts or continued wicked courses of bad men as love will not be suspitious but hope the best till it know an evil committed and interpret things charitably so those that be faults yet love will not blaze them abroad but keeps them in and admonisheth the party it utters them not where they be not known to his disgrace and so uncovers his shame and rejoyceth therein as Cham. Against our selves for
Gods love is no want of any thing needful worldlings indeed do greatly seek after wealth for their children and rejoyce to see them wealthy and healthy though in the mean time they see in them no true tokens of Gods favor but alas what are these It should more glad us to see an humble godly heart turned from sin and embracing righteousness though sickly and poor then to flow in all the wealth of the world and be ungracious and to come home in a Gold chain or to hear that our childe were like Joseph the second man in the Kingdom without grace But men do for their children as for themselves labor more for goods then grace But what shall we say to those Ministers that check their people for forwardness and seek to discourage them what also to those Parents that are so far from desiring grace for their children as they check and discourage them for their forwardness thereunto such would like them rather if they saw them jolly as the world Oh a hard part of Parents Be multiplied He desires not that they be once taken into Gods favor and his other graces begun in them but that they be continued and daily encreased more and more He was covetous to have his spritual children thrive apace and grow very rich in grace Such covetousness even a desire to joyn grace to grace is both for our selves and others commendable So should a Minister desire that his people may not be a little better then the worst but to exceed others by far that they may answer the time and means and to this end as to pray so to call upon them continually and they not to think amiss of this but to rejoyce in it as a special fruit of his Love so must Parents to their Children God gives us leave to be covetous in these things and to joyn grace unto grace as men do house unto house so shall we honor him much for a little grace will go but a little way Thus shall we benefit our Neighbors much when our branches spread far and our lips feed many Thus shall we have a large Testimony to our selves of our Salvation while we live and make a wide entrance for our selves into the glorious Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead NOw followeth the substance of the Epistle consisting of Doctrine and Exhortation Doctrine to the thirteenth Verse Exhortations in the Verses following The Exhortations are to continue constant in the profession of the Gospel of Christ and to stick close to that Salvation purchased by Christ and revealed therein and that they would lead an holy and and godly life answerable to this profession and Gospel both in their general and particular callings yea now in their present troubles and notwithstanding any other they might meer with hereafter Now this being a very weighty building therefore he had need lay a foundation fitting for the same and so he doth which is this namely The singular benefits that we receive by Jesus Christ his Death and Resurrection viz. Assurance of Salvation Hope Joy Peace c. and at last everlasting life in the Kingdom of Heaven all which are revealed and wrought in us by the Gospel which is no new Doctrine but that which of old was revealed to all the Prophets though now more clearly and fully manifested Therefore seeing God hath done so great things for us by Christ Jesus and these things are revealed in the Gospel which is very ancient good reason they should cleave to Christ and be carried after no other way of Salvation accordingly walking worthy of the benefits they have both already reaped hereby and may further hereafter The Doctrine setteth forth the great benefit that we reap by Jesus Christ namely That we are begot to a lively hope of Salvation and of being partakers of such an inheritance as is without comparison which is every way set forth according to its excellency where we have 1. The benefit That we are begotten to a lively hope 2. The moving cause The abundant mercy of God 3. The means whereby namely The Resurrection of Jesus Christ 5. The end That we may partake of Salvation which he calls an Inheritance and describes it by several properties Blessed be God For the maner of speech we read of three kindes of blessing in Scripture 1. God blesseth man when he bestoweth upon him his favors and good things earthly and heavenly 2. Man blesseth man and that either ordinarily when he prayeth to God to bless him Thus Moses is appointed to bid Aaron bless the people and the form of prayer is set down Thus Parents bless their children and we are to bless them that curse us or extraordinarily when by the Spirit of Prophecie the Prophets of God have not onely prayed to God for a blessing on their posterity but have pronounced a blessing upon them foretelling what their state should be in time to come As Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau Iacob also his Sons and Moses the twelve Tribes at his death 3. Man blesseth God when he ascribeth that honor praise and thanksgiving which is due to him for his Mercy Wisdom Justice Truth not when we give him any thing he hath not that cannot be but when we ascribe and give that to him which is most justly due to him already Thus understand we the phrase here as elswhere often For the matter Being to repeat the great benefits that come to us by Jesus Christ he doth it not barely but begins with praise and thanksgiving for the same Blessed be God c. saith he as if he should have said For these unspeakable and great benefits bestowed on us unworthy ones Oh my soul Spirit and all that is in me come forth to render thanks to God Teaching us That When we speak or have any occasion to think as we ought often to speak and think of Gods mercies especially his special mercies that concern our Salvation we should do it with admiration and setting forth his praise Thus both David and Paul Even his outward benefits ought to stir us up unto thankfulness how much more ought we to be stirred up for spiritual favors and deliverances from the bondage and thraldom of Sin Satan and Hell how can we do any less All creatures Sun Moon Fouls praise God in their kinde and yet they have onely been created what we then that have been redeemed when we were lost They that have felt their bondage and finde themselves delivered cannot but break out into his praise Indeed the common sort that have those things but in their brain onely and never had the feeling of the one or of the other they can speak
so did he that quickly which we could never have done Therefore let every man trust to this if this be not a sufficient way thou mayest say I am content to perish thou mayest well enough and I with thee for company 1. This confoundeth all other false and devised satisfactions by any other and sheweth the most fearful state of all that know not nor embrace Christ as 1. The Jews that look for another Christ 2. The Turks that trust in Mahomet and do not acknowledge Christ so the Pagans that are utterly ignorant of him The Papists also that make him but half a Saviour and adde a number of other Merits and Satisfactions with their blasphemous Idol of the Mass their Pilgrimages Penances c. yea not onely say they are the sufferings of the Saints meritorious for themselves but even to put something into the common treasury to help others These also among our selves that hope to be saved by their good meaning good prayers and civil life and either do not at all look to Christ or but to halves being as good as not at all So those that make God an Idol all of mercy and no justice when as they are both essentially in him and he could not be God without both and the one is infinite in him as the other yet by crying God mercy they think to escape never considering how his justice should be answered but he should not be just nor God if he should let thy sins go unpunished 2. This sheweth the fearfulness of sin such was our case that as if one had committed a fault and there were no way to scape unless he could obtain the Kings son to dye for him we could not but perish unless the Son of God had dyed for us 3. This should much grieve and humble us to think what our sins have done even that they occasioned all the torment our Savior was put to It was not Judas nor the Jews Pilate nor the Soldiers that crucified Christ but our sins they being but our servants and executioners How should this go to our hearts that our lying swearing whoredom pride profaneness c. was the cause that put our Savior to all those indignities Shall he be pierced yea to the very heart for our sins and shall not we be pierced with grief for our own sins Shall he shed Tears of Blood and shall we have dry eyes Shall he say his soul is heavy to the death and shall not our hearts be heavy could we having a friend that loved us so dearly as he would take our room to endure much for us could we I say stand by and see him tortured for our cause and look on it with dry eyes 4. This should make us take heed of sin for the time to come and avoid it above all things in the world look upon every sin in blood no sin but hath a bloody face when we have committed it all the world cannot satisfie for it it must be blood the blood of the Son of God one drop of which was of more worth then Ten thousand worlds if it were but the blood of a man must be shed for every sin were 't not fearful but it s Christ Blood therefore how careful should we be But O Lord How small account is made of sin How doth the world make a May-game thereof How do men think they can appease Gods Wrath with a broken sigh or a Lord have mercy upon us for we are all Sinners or by making some counterfeit shew in their sickness or on their death-bed And do not the Papists think that it may be done away by auricular Confession Penance Pilgrimages Holy-water Popes Pardons the saying over of so many Ave-maries Paternosters c. But those that set so light by sin are such as never knew the weight of it nor have part in the remedy and therefore in vain do such say they hope to be saved by Jesus Christ and he dyed and shed his Blood for their sins and yet they still live in sin What is this but to make a light account of Christs blood a treading of it under foot an accounting of it an unholy thing a despiting of the Spirit of grace Yea if even Gods Children did so weigh this unspeakable price as they should they would be more afraid to offend then they are This also should awaken those that know no part in their Redemption that they have the greatest matter in the world to seek Such should never be quiet till they finde themselves discharged for without this there 's nothing but eternal destruction they shall bear their own burthen 5. This setteth out the unspeakable love of God and Jesus Christ that when we had plunged our selves into this miserable estate and could not onely not help our selves out but not so much as devise a way out that he did both finde out the way and was content to bestow his Son on us to suffer the curse and death that we had deserved that so we might be freed What man would beat his Son to spare his Servant What man would kill his Son to save his Enemy What Prince would give his onely Son and Heir for a base Subject nay to redeem a Traytor and that not to bondage but to death yet all this hath the Lord done God so loved the world O wonderful that the Father did not rather suffer all the world to perish then that his most blessed Son should suffer the least of those indignities that he indured And was not the love of Christ infinite that for us gave himself and did willingly lay down his life for us which could do nothing to deserve or requite it nay which were his very enemies so to endure such base and cruel dealing from men who himself was Lord of the world and could have commanded the earth to swallow them so to be spitted on mocked scourged nailed to the cross c. but above all that he would undergo his Fathers displeasures for us Rake-hells that had so provoked him 6. And what doth this call for at our hands again but admiring at the infiniteness of the price we study all our life how to walk thankfully before him giving our Bodies Souls Lives and Labors to him again most zealously faithfully serving him in all obedience yea if he should call us to lay down our lives for his Names sake to do it chearfully as he did for us we are not our own but the Lords who hath bought us and paid dearly for us and so must have neither Wit nor Will Body nor Soul Hand nor Foot but for him and which we are to employ in his service If one should redeem us with a great sum of Money we would ever be thankful and count our selves his if one should give all his Substance more if one should give himself to serve and be bond for us yet more but to lay down his
he confirms out of Isa. 28. 16. which accordingly he applies as well for the comfort of the godly as the terror of unbelievers For this foundation consider what he is and how esteemed What he is A stone so compared for his firmness stability and continuance his nature a living stone whereby he differs from all other foundations How esteemed of men namely wicked ones disallowed but of God elect and chosen to be Mediator and to the godly precious To whom coming The first priviledge he gives us leave to come to him which is to believe in him and is indeed a very great priviledge He might scare us from him as Adam was kept out of Paradise by the blade of a sword but doth not and this is the beginning of all good from Christ till which we are never the better for him Hence observe That if ever we would receive good by Christ we must come to him But how can we come to him he is in Heaven and we on Earth Not with our bodily feet but with the feet of our minde and heart when we seeing our misery and finding our selves wholly lost come to him to seek for Salvation and relie on him and are ruled by him This is to come to him Such as go on Pilgrimage from this place to that and seek him bodily in the Sacrament do but deceive themselves being thus void of Faith when they think themselves nearest him they are as far off as ever To come to Christ and to believe in him are all one and then we come to him when we go out of our selves as being utterly undone and go to him as an All-sufficient Savior and relie on him and are willing to take up his yoke and forsake all other Saviors and Lords and this we must do because 1. Of our own utter misery in our selves by sin punishment and inability to help our selves out whereof if people were perswaded it were as easie to perswade them to come to Christ as to perswade a sick man to the Physician one overloaden to be eased of his burthen an hungry man to take meat 2. In Christ there is sufficient to make us as truly happy as we be utterly miserable in our selves Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption The sinner cannot complain of any thing but there is help for it in Christ do but ask the thing and it s to be had Oh I have deserved the wrath of God and Damnation but I saith Christ have dyed for thee and paid thy debt But how shall I come into the favor of God and be saved Oh saith Christ I have obeyed for thee and purchased it But I have no power to do any good but I have enough saith Christ to make thee a Sanctified man 3. Christ is willing to have us come to him and therefore also doth earnestly call us If one know himself poor and that such a rich man is both able and willing to help him and is also invited of him to accept hereof will he not thereupon go to him so is Christ to us and accordingly we must come to him 1. For those that are come to Christ and do believe in him with their hearts and are guided by him they may be of good comfort having done what God requires of them they shall finde fruit and benefit thereby more then they can express This serves to provoke on those that are coming and coming and yet draw back set one foot forward and pull the other back again fain would believe and yet cannot but fear Oh it s not for me and cannot be perswaded that they be of the number of such whom Christ will save Why what would you have Christ say to you He bids all without exception that are weary and heavy laden with their sins to come to him that is believe in him it s also the end of his coming into the world You stand in great need of mercy do ye not O yes above all the world and cannot indure to think but that I should have part therein and Christ hath need of some to shew his mercy on and therefore calls thee Therefore as in a Market one having need of a Commodity another that hath it of money me thinks these two should quickly agree the Buyer and the Seller who both come for that end so is it between Christ and the poor sinner wherefore else doth Christ set forth his stall of so rich mercies and call people to them to send them away empty no verily Christ hath said the contrary and so can assoon deny himself as not save thee therefore believe which is the great Commandment of the Gospel Oh but I am so unworthy If it be so thou art the more fit for Christ he came for such he accepts such Oh if I could weep as much as some or had been so long or so much humbled or could repent and serve God as I would What God doth he doth freely and when thou canst do nothing but feel thy misery then believe Christ will save thee What was the Jaylor when he did believe believing will break thy heart and bring Repentence O that we should so much so often and so earnestly be perswaded to believe and yet do not If a King shall call a poor Subject and reach him a handful of gold will he draw back and say I am unworthy that he should call me or I should come to him What am I I never deserved any such thing c. If it be great great gifts become a great God and seeing he will do it hinder not thy self thou shalt be the more bound to love and praise him here and for ever yet is it no easie matter to believe If a man had this Church lying upon his back it were not so easie a mater to rise and stand upright so when any have the wrath of the infinite God lying upon their Souls what can they do howsoever do your endeavor strive against unbelief discern between temptations that come from the Devil and the promises of God those how many soever reject as lyes but these apply diligently stand even upon one word of Gods mouth and let that comfort thee more then ten thousand temptations to dismay thee 3. This Rebuketh the most part of men that will not come at Christ though he call them and offer them wonderful fair He bids them come confess their sins seek to him for Salvation and be ruled by him and he will take all their burthen on him and save them But how few give ear to this gracious voyce and offer how many go on and are not at all moved though Christ be preached daily though they need him he be sufficient for them and willing to do them good and why few can be perswaded of their danger Civil persons Ignorant ones and a number of Worldlings are
the Spirit without measure he was made and fitted our King Priest and Prophet and not so onely but to make us so so that every one that believeth in him he gives him the honor to be so As we partake of the benefit of his Priesthood and its parts Satisfaction and Intercession so of him we also are made Priests 2. As we are to rejoyce in this priviledge so we must use it and improve it carefully in offering Sacrifices What else becomes a Priest he were not worthy the name that did not delight to offer Sacrifices to God Now the Sacrifices of the New Testament for Christians to offer are these 1. The offering up of our Bodies and Souls and all that is in us to serve God having neither Wit Will Memory nor any thing else but for the Lords use It s meet we should offer this Sacrifice for its his by right of Creation Redemption and continual Preservation we owe neither it nor any part of it to any other all to him and when we give it to him we provide best for it It s not onely never the further from our selves but that is the happiness of it we should give it and thank him he will take it of us and this is the first Sacrifice to be offered Till this be no other will be accepted of Prayer Praise or whatsoever first the person must please God then the work as in Abel And thus every man may try his Cristianity Do you give up your bodies and souls for his Service and would not with your good wills that any the least part should be withdrawn from him no not one thought if you could help it thou art a good Christian this is a good Sacrifice continue it still But how few do thus how few which give not their Hearts and Bodies to Profits and Pleasures to Sin the World and the Devil How many Sacrifice to these all day long Christians in name not in deed They that give themselves wholly to sin are monsters as they that give themselves partly to God and partly to their lusts are like Ananias and Sapphira Oh but though we do not thus yet we offer other Sacrifices Fie upon thee and them they are abominable in Gods sight as is the Sacrifice of the wicked O give them no more as weapons of sin to serve the Flesh the World and the Devil that were too too base but employ them for Gods service not some part but the whole all too little and wish it were better for his sake 2. The Sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart that is an heart grieved and crush'd for sin past comforted in Christ afraid to offend careful to please God touch'd and grieved at the smallest offence They that offer this scape Gods Judgement fearing alway they are happy fearing small sins they escape great ones being troubled at the least they rise and fall not into security Such as offer this and would it were softer grieving and complaining of their hardness of heart let such know that there may be hardness as they complain but not such hardness as they conceive as who could not feel the same But there are few broken hearts in any measure most are not troubled for their sins past nor afraid to offend nor careful nor humbled after they have offended being neither melted by mercies nor moved by the Word and Afflictions O the fearful state of an hard heart all have not alike tender heart but assuredly he is no Christian that hath it not in some measure 3. Prayer and Praise for Christ Jesus and all benefits by him past present and to come for Soul and Body O what a favor is it that we worms on earth may come to the glorious Lord of Heaven and Earth but where are our morning and evening Sacrifices What a Priest without a Sacrifice They that pray not at all it s a sign they are prophane persons as they that pray onely in misery are hypocrites Hath God honored us to make us Priests by Jesus Christ and do we neglect the Office not appearing with our Sacrifice 4. Alms mercy to all in hunger thirst sickness prison especially to the houshold of Faith This we ought to do whensoever God prepares an Altar of the necessity of a poor Saint or Church that then we Priests lay on our Sacrifice God requires it it s an honor he counts it as done unto himself therefore he promises that he will requite it and that not as we a peny for a penyworth but as Kings that use to reward a house largely where they have found kindeness therefore it s compared to sowing God and his poor Saints are the best ground can be sown in O that we had Faith enough in this Point If we did believe that we should have peny for peny it would make us forwarder then we be but he will do more The world savoreth not this at all and Believers fall too short in this Sacrifice but the more we offer it and the better the better Christians are we To offer up Spiritual Sacrifice He calls them Spiritual 1. In comparison of the carnal and bloody Sacrifices of the Law 2. Because they must be done with the Soul Heart and Spirit 3. Because they must be done by the help of Gods Spirit Our services then to God must be done in a Spiritual maner else they please not God They that give God their bodies and keep their hearts to sin perform a carnal and wicked no Spiritual service and sacrifice So we must pray and praise in a Spiritual maner with our souls and best affections not with labor of the tongue or knee True he will have the Body but especially he will have the Spirit which condemns the cold idle wordy Prayers of men wherein there is no Spirit So our alms and liberality must be done not out of ostentation for company no nor for a natural kinde of pity but for love to God because he requires it and to them because they are the Lords Acceptable to God It being a great favor to do any thing that may please God they might object as any weak Christian would Alas I would go and offer these Sacrifices but doth the Lord regard what I do will he once look to such a one or such service as mine Yea saith the Apostle we may offer up Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God Gods Servants shall not then need doubt but being once Believers their services done Spiritually are accepted of the most High God of Heaven yea of the meanest true Believer for he that vouchsafed to bring thee to Christ to unite thee to him to make thee a lively stone a Spiritual house an holy Priest to offer Sacrifice he will also accept of the same Let this encourage us much to these duties what a spur is this True it is if one knew he
ordained most men to destruction then is his justice greater then his mercy We must not measure his justice and mercy by the number of the one or of the other for if there had been but one onely saved it had been as great mercy as his justice in condemning the rest for if but one had been saved it must have cost the death of the Lord Jesus such was our misery Now what a mercy it was that the eternal Son of God equal with the Father and in whom he was well pleased should not onely abase himself to our nature but to our infirmities yea to sorrows and great indignities nay to death yea a cursed death O who can express this love It was a wonder he did not rather suffer us all to perish then his Son to endure the least of these Then he hath ordained the means of their condemnation namely sin and so is the Author of sin True he ordained and decreed that there should be sin in the world as he did of the fall of Adam but not as is sin and evil but as whereby and out of which God draws glory to himself and it was necessary that there should he evil in the world as well as good that a way might be made for setting out Gods mercy in pardoning some and his justice in punishing it in others but so as the Lord is no way faulty He ordained willingly to permit it as it hath respect of good in it but as no actor of it He put no evil in Adam nor any man but onely willingly permitted his fall c. 2. This should and may stay our mindes when we see any great Professors and men of excellent parts fall away It s no other then that an Hypocrite and one that never was sound nor elect of God is now discovered and let none that can prove their election be overmuch troubled onely walk reverently but never be dismaid with deadly fear They fell because they were not elect and you being elect shall be therefore sure to stand and thus our Savior comforts his Disciples That none was lost but Judas who was the son of perdition so did Paul the Christians notwithstanding the revolting of Hymeneus Philetus Alexander c. If it were not for this what a deadly fear might this breed in weak Christians to see those so far their superiors in knowledge and gifts to fall away Thus of the first The second is this That This was of his own will and for no cause out of himself for the Lord infinite in wisdom and holiness needs not as man to fetch the reason of his purposes forth of himself He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth He doth all things according to the counsel of his own will Is it not said O Israel thy destruction is of thy self and He that beliveth not is condemned and Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Cursed be the mouth that saith not so even that every mans destruction is of himself and his own just desert but we must put a difference between the decree of God and the execution of it God condemneth no man upon his bare will but his own just desert Sin comes in between the decree of God and the execution of his Decree as the cause of Damnation If then it be asked Why is any man condemned For his sin But why did God decree to condemn any Because he would As no man is saved but by Faith in Christ and Sanctification of life which yet is not the cause why God appointed him to Salvation but because he would so there 's none condemned but for his sin yet God ordained him not thereto because of sin but because of his own will If any ask further and why would he That a note too high for man or angel to sing but there in humility we must rest and not put the Lord to render a reason of all his decrees or doings which even princes will not do to their subjects he raised up Pharaoh c. even because he would get glory out of him and by his means This condemneth the Opinion of foreseen works good or bad as of this because he foresaw some would be bad and refuse grace he therefore Reprobated them c. but God loved Jacob and hated Esau not onely before the had done good or evil but before there was any thinking of good or ill If foreseen sin be the cause of Reprobation then on the contrary foreseen grace of Election but the Epistle to the Ephesians sheweth the contrary hereof Faith and Sanctification followeth upon Election as fruits thereof therefore go not before as any causes so do Infidelity and impenitency follow after Reprobation If foreseen sin had been the cause of Reprobation then we should all have been refused for he could not see us but all sinners But as the blinde man was not so born for his own or Parents sin but that the work of God in curing him by a Word might be seen so was it in this business Thus of the second The third is this That The Lord hath done this most justly His will is a rule of Righteousness and he can do nothing but most holily and justly Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Though we cannot see into the justness of it yet we ought to acknowledge it The Sun may shine and that brightly too though a blinde man see it not Man was made holy and having free-will by his willing sin lost his state and still sins willingly It seems cruelty in the Lord to appoint most part of mankinde to Destruction He did it not as ayming at their Damnation but at his own glory which is more to be regarded then all the World And shall the Clay say against the Potter Why hast thou made me thus and thus may not he do as he list So may not the Lord get glory by his own creatures which way he will And do men for their pleasure hunt the Hare and Partridge or kill not onely Flyes and baser creatures but also Fowls with their grins in like maner appointing Sheep Oxen c. for the slaughter and shall not the Lord have as much Soveraignty over men the work of his hands we cannot make a Fly or Flea yea it s more reason that the Lord should be glorified if he would with the Damnation of all mankinde then that the killing of a Hare nay a Fly should serve to the honor or pleasure of the greatest Potentate of the world What if he had ordained none to Salvation who had had cause to complain Besides with what patience bears he with them and their blaspheming of him every day What marvellous benefits and comfortable good things bestows he upon them houses lands wealth health peace who might destroy and send them to
making the world of nothing and we our selves have no power but lie dead in sins no all the means in the world cannot do it without God but we go on and on in the Devils service and hasten to destruction and when we are thus going God saith I will go visit yonder poor creature who will else perish We are Patients Convert thou me and I shall be converted No Minister the best in the world hath any power of himself O see how they labor and sigh to do good to their own Wives and Children and yet see no good thereof they onely save as the Lords instruments not otherwise Let them therefore which have felt this work acknowledge God in it and give him all the glory They that be yet without it let them not defer it as a small matter to the last as if they could couvert themselves when they list as most mens behavior is but that they humbly seek it of God in attending on his Ordinances appointed to that end 2. That its Gods great mercy to convert a sinner Oh it s the greatest mercy that can be bestowed a mercy to be delivered from sickness into health from Prison into liberty from poverty to riches from death to life as of Israel out of Egypt Joseph out of Prison c. But alas these be but toys to this To be delivered out of the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son to have his eyes opened that was blinde raised out of the grave of sin delivered out of the slavery of Satan and bondage of sin from being a limb of Satan to be a member of Christ O the most happy change that can be expressed This is the happy day for a man then Salvation comes to his house where none was before Thus was Zacheus thus three thousand at one time thus the Jaylor thus many among us are visited O happy visitation and day to be remembred We never see good day till this day come we may see merry days sinful days but never good day till this without this undone Let those that have felt it and obtained it for ever give glory to God 3. That a man can never glorifie God till God thus visit and convert his Soul for so saith the Text That they may glorifie God When when God shall visit them Therefore labor for this for what can we do without it nothing but dishonor him do not at all glorifie him O that this were considered 4. That when a man is converted then he will glorifie God yea he cannot chuse but in heart admire Gods goodness and love him in tongue break out into his praise of his truth and service and in his life seek to glorifie him Then will he also do all he can to gain others as Christ to Peter as good hide fire in straw from breaking out and hold oyl in your hand as not thus glorifie him when once converted They see their case so happily altered as they never took so much pleasure in sin but now it vexeth them as much and they are as desirous to glorifie God Therefore when men in heart are not moved have no tongue to praise God speak of his Truth call upon others nor in lives study to please God let such know they are yet in their sins and not in the number of converted persons 5. That even such as have been ill speakers of the Truth and Gods servants may yet be converted and prove good Christians for why God draws his number out of the Devils rabble for so we are all by nature So was Paul yet proved an excellent Christian so no question there are some in this company that would not now do that they have done for all the world 1. Never despair of them that be very bad but pray for them give them good counsel Who knows what God will do especially being come of good Parents Above all lead an innocent life before them which may so work with them as in Gods good time they may be happily changed 2. This may be an exceeding provocation to the worst that they may prove good and be saved as unlikely as it is Me thinks it should wonderfully move vile wretches to fall down and humble themselves before God and never cease till the Lord do as much for them as for the Jaylor and others seeing it is a thing that may be and God hath set down such examples to that end Thy disease though grievous yet is not irrecoverable so thou seek to the Physitian of thy soul in time therefore dispare not They that seek earnestly labor strive give all diligence study call for wisdom cry for understanding and that early to day while it is called today and when God call men to repentance and points no time he means the time present as in writings between man and man They that thus seek shall finde 3. Yet let none in stead of good take hurt by this and heart to go on in sin seeing vile persons and the worst may become converts and saved ones so they may as they may handle the matter seeking the Lord humbly and speedily for if any think they have not done enough already and therefore will go on to adde new sins unto their old and that it s too soon and will put off and presume that they may repent when they will and so shall at last let such know they shall finde God a just and severe revenger of all such proud contemners and presumptious persons O many such shal rounce at Gods mercy-gate that shall never come in as the five foolish Virgins and Esau that sought the blessing though with tears how many be now in Hel that had thought to have repented before their death and so enjoyed Heaven No men shal know they shal not despise his mercy at their pleasure and yet have it at command Then shall they call upon me saith the Lord but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not finde me Therefore Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Verse 13. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the king as supreme Verse 14. Or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well NOw followeth the second part of this Chapter containing Exhortations to certain kindes of men according to their particular and special callings and places as the former have been Exhortations to duties of Sanctification belonging to all Christians and chiefly of the duties of Inferiors towards their Superiors namely of Subjects to their Magistrates Servants to their Masters and in the beginning of the following Chapter of Wives towards their Husbands These Verses
arguments from the Word to be assured thereof Is not this fearful It s time for us to awaken our selves and to ransack our Evidences weak holds will vanish when strong temptations come O get we the shield of Faith which will quench all the fiery darts of the Devil He is such an adversary that we had need be throughly armed being to encounter with him And not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness Here 's the abuse of Christian liberty They were freed indeed but he would not they should stretch their liberty further then was meer or abuse it any way as a cloak and cover for any licentiousness or naughtiness whatsoever Here note That Through the evil heart and corrupt nature of man not onely the creatures of God but even his holy Ordinances and the very best things are subject to be abused The Gospel was foolishness to the world and Christ Jesus himself a stone whereat many did stumble Thus the Doctrine of Predestination many turn to a desperate course of doing what they list The Doctrine of Gods great mercy most take as an emboldening to sin so is the Doctrine of Justification by Faith onely and of Christian liberty abused unto licentiousness Even the Apostles writings were by some wrested to their own condemnation 1. Seeing our nature is so apt to abuse such things it behoves the Ministers of God to pray to God for wisdom that they may deliver wisely and warily as all points of Doctrine so especially those that are most apt to be abused They must so handle the Doctrine of Gods judgements against the wicked that the godly humble be not dismaid and so comfort the godly that the wicked be not emboldened but each have his portion that 's due to him 2. This rebuketh as in general all such as shall thus abuse any holy things of God so in particular all abusers of Christian liberty whether such as turn it into carnal licentiousness as the Familists and Libertines and too too many in this Land in solemnizing the Feast of our Saviors Nativity or such as turn it into civil liberty and freedom from civil subjection as of old the Jews which looked for earthly priviledges and immunities by Christ and of late the Anabaptists How many hearing that we are freed by Christ from the rigor of the Law make no more account of it as though a believer freed from the curse and rigor of it were not yet under it while he lives How many make Religion a cloak for their naughtiness and whoredoms being very diligent at Sermons and outwardly very devout that they might be the less suspected as the Scribes and Pharisees which devoured widows houses and under colour made long prayers How many hearing that the Ceremonial Law is abrogated by Christ will not therefore read any part thereof nay scarce any of the Old Testament shaking off the Testimonies cited out of it ignorantly saying O the old Law is abolished How many now hearing that we be not under the bondage of any thing indifferent rush out into all excessive and vile abuse of the same without keeping any bounds or going by any rule They will eat and drink excessively at all times wear what apparel they list without respect of their degree for the matter of it or the fashion for the maner So for recreations they dare run unto those that be unlawful and use those that be lawful without all bounds of moderation But of the use of things indifferent there be three restrainers Gods Words The Laws of Magistrates and the rule of Charity Gods Word where are rules whereby to guide us in the use of things indifferent as that they be decent of good report done to edifying used in sobriety and modestly tend to the glory of God and to make us fitter for duties The Laws of Magistrates whether Civil or Ecclesiastical for if they command in things indifferent and be so in their use also as well as their nature and be according to the rules of the Word then they are by the Magistrates commandment made necessary as for abstinence from flesh not for Religion but civil respects So if they forbid men to wear silk upon some special causes or to hunt within such a compass these were before indifferent but now necessary The rule of charity we must not use indifferent things to the offence of our weak brother or to cause him stumble or hinder him any way in the course of his Salvation Indeed for obstinate ones that will not be perswaded we are not bound to respect them as Paul that was content for the week Jews to circumcise Timothy would not after because of their obstinacy consent that Titus should be circumcised Our Christian liberty is an holy thing precious indeed and dear O let 's not abuse it let 's not suffer our selves to be intangled again with sin or the works of the Devil and fashions of the world from which Christ hath freed us Neither let us suffer our selves to be made the Servants of men or to be brought into subjection of mens Traditions or the superstitious use of things indifferent as the Papists thus hold poor people in bondage it cost Christ a dear price to purchase our freedom Contrarily Take heed we abuse it not to wantonness and licentiousness but use it to the glory of God our own good and the benefit of our Brother Remember we also that our freedom by Christ doth not exempt us from subjection to Magistrates Christian liberty and civil subjection may well stand together Even Christ himself and his Apostles were subject unto the higher powers neither hath he purchased liberty for any to do hurt or cross his Fathers order But as the servants of God Here 's the right use of Christian liberty we must use it as Gods servants that are freed from sin to serve him in obedience to all his commandments and this of subjection among the rest A Christian though he be free yet is he a Servant still He is freed from Sin Hell Damnation and the Devil to serve the Lord of Heaven and Earth an happy service a most blessed change A Christian is of all others the most free and yet the greatest Servant The greatest Christian the greatest Servant He that will be greatest let him be servant of all We must serve God in the duties of his worship both privately and publiquely and that zealously and we must serve men to the good of their souls and bodies by Admonition Exhortation Consolation Example and Prayer This is no bondage but the happiest liberty that may be Comfort and joy accompanies this service for the present whereof the end will be life everlasting Not to serve thus but to be under the service of sin is of all others the basest bondage As therefore we would serve the Lord with all our might and shake