distinguish of three kind of lyes according to the several ends at which they aim to wit jeasting for mirth and pleasure officious for profit and advantage pernitious tending to injurie and hurt all of these are condemned but the latter is justly accounted the most abominable and of this sort is this lye my text speaketh of a pernitious hurtfull lye That you may see the injury which commeth by it consider it in reference to God and his Gospell to others and to our selves 1. To say we have fellowship with God and wâ—lk in darknesse is such a lye as tendeth much to the dishonour of God and disgrace of Religion St. Paul speaking to the hypocritical Iews tells them the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you the like may be said to licentious Christians the name of God is blasphemed among Turks and Pagans through you when the Indians were so barbarously used by the Spaniards who called themselves Christians they cryed out quis malum Deus iste what God doth these men serve when the enemies of the reformed Church hear what perjury oppression bloodshed they who would pretend to the strictest profession of it commit are they not ready to say what a Religion is it these men profess that can dispence with such wickedness It was no small though a just disgrace to the Pope when the King of Hungary having taken a Bishop prisoner in battel sent his armour to him and onely this in writing Vide num haec sit vestis filii tui Is this your Sons coat And it is a sad though unjust reproach which the bad lives of Christians cause to fall on God himself whilest profane wretches are apt to say These are your Saints and thus by our wicked conversation our being called Christians brings a reproach to Christ and Christianity 2. Besides this which is the highest injury to Religion it is hurtfull to others when they who pretend to have communion with God lead wicked lives how are strong Christians grieved the weak staggared and they that are without kept back from embracing Religion yea encouraged in their licentious actions nay if these that say they have fellowship with God do such abhominable things what need we trouble our selves are profane wretches ready to say our lives are little worse than theirs why should not our condition be as good 3. This lye will prove no less pernitious to our selves he who is the eternall truth cannot endure lying lips vident rident demones Devils see and rejoyce God seeth and is incensed against such dissembling wretches every such hypocrite may well think God bespeaketh him in the Psalmists words What hast thou to do to take my name into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and refusest to receive instruction and must expect no other answer at that day when they may plead their outside devotion and large profession but depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Brethren you may for a time cozen men but you cannot deceive God and as St. Cyprian excellently it is a meer madness not to think and know that lyars will at last be found out Diogenes seeing a vitious young man clad in a Phylosophers habit plucked it off as conceiving that it was defiled by him and God will one day pluck off the hypocrites vizor of piety that he may appear in his colours and in that day how far more tollerable will it be for professed enemies of God and religion than for such persons It is very observable that other sinners are doomed to have their portion with hypocrites as if hypocrites were the tenants and the rest as it were inmates of hell certain it is the fornace of torment shall be seven times hotter for a carnall Gospeller loose professor then for licentious Pagans since their condemnation shall be so much the greater by how much their profession hath been the holier and the higher they have lifted themselves up to heaven in their religious pretences the lower they shall be cast down to hell for their impious practices Let then every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity it was St. Cyprians advice to those who took on them the name of Confessors that they would keep up the honour of their name it is mine to all who take upon them the name of Professors For shame let us not so palpably give our selves the lye quid verba audiam cum facta videam what avail good words when our works are bad tace linguâ loquere vitâ either say less or do more In one word let our actions speak what our expressions pretend to and our conversation be answerable to our profession so shall we be found true men and not lyars and not onely knowers and professors but doers of the truth and so be blessed in our deed THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. IOHN CHAP. I. Ver. 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin RIghtly to divide the word of truth is the charge St. Paul gave to Timothy and a special part of every Ministers office To give every Auditor his due and proper portion as a Master of a feast doth to every guest is according to some expositors the right dividing the word of truth for which reason no doubt it is that among other similitudes Ministers are compared to Stewards whose work is to provide for and distribute to every one in the family their convenient food What St. Paul requireth of all Christians in respect of their neighbours and Superious Render to all men their due Tribute to whome Tribute custome to whome custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour belongeth That by way of analogy is required of all Ministers in regard of their people to give to every one their due reproof to whom reproof threatning to whom threatning instruction to whom instruction and comfort to whom comfort appertaineth A manifest example hereof we have given by this holy Apostle in this place expressely reproving and implicitly threatning in the former verse those to whom it belongs such as walk in darkness and here sweetly comforting those to whom promises belong such as walk in the light in this verse But if we walk in the light c. This is that room on the right hand into which we are now to enter wherein if you please you may take notice of three Partitions here is the Christians Practise to walk in the light Pattern as he is in the light Priviledge we have fellowship c. Or if you please to reduce the three to two here is considerable The duty required and the mercy assured Or The qualification premised walking in the light as he is in the light The Collation promised of Communion with God we have fellowship one with another Iustification by Christ
is a great mysterie therefore it hath never been without controversie nor hath the Devill been wanting to blow this slame raise these commotions At the very first he strove to strangle this Babe in the cradle nip this blossom in the bud and devour Christianity in its infancy whilest he stirred up the Iews and Pagans without various false teachers within the Church to oppugne true Religion for this reason no doubt it was that this holy Apostle endeavoured to confirm those to whom he wrote in the verity of Christian faith to which end he beginneth this Epistle with discovering both its antiquity and certainty in these words That which was from the beginning c. The antiquity of the Gospels origination is that part I am next to handle as it is expressed in the very beginning That which was from the beginning I am not ignorant that a great part of Expositors refer these words to the person of Christ as if St. Iohns meaning were thus to be construed The word of life which was from the beginning A special argument moving them to this interpretation is the fit correspondence between the Epistle and the Gospel which begins with those words In the beginning was the word and is no doubt to be understood of Christ signifying his eternal subsistence Indeed these words was from the beginning do very fitly and fully represent that divine truth to us For 1. The verb was being a verb substantive is peculiar to God and so belongs to Christ as God the being of all creatures is determined to some species as it is an Angel or it is a man and the like onely of God we say he is without any additament for that is the name God gave himself I am hath sent thee and Christ applyeth to himself before Abraham was I am Indeed the Tense is very improper since eternity admits not of prius or posterius nor knoweth any succession but yet as St. Austine observeth because of the mutability of time in which we subsist we best conceive of eternity by referring to those distinctions of time past present to come affirming of Christ as God that he was is and shall be since there was no time wherein he was not there shall be no time wherein he shall not be and there is no time wherein he is not in which respect he is said to be yesterday to day and the same for ever 2. These words from the beginning serve yet more clearly to express the eternity of his God-head whether we understand by beginning eternity it self or the beginning of the Creation some construe beginning by eternity for though it is true eternity hath no beginning yet in as much as it is no less true that there was nothing before eternity this word beginning may though improperly be applyed to it and so was from the beginning is was from eternity The most I conceive most rationally understand by beginning rerum omnium initium the beginning of all things that time when all creatures began to have a being and so this from is the same with the Gospels in and both as much as before the beginning in this respect it is that St. Austin observeth it is not said God made him in the beginning as it is of the heaven and the earth and the things in both but he was in the beginning even then when other things began to exist he had a personal subsistence and therefore eternal because whatsoever was before the beginning of time must be eternal And if in this sense we construe these words they are praefixed no doubt on purpose to prevent a mistake which might arise from the following words for whereas they might have been apt with some Hereticks to think that this word did not begin to be till he was heard seen handled he first acquaints them that he was from the beginning Indeed then it was he began to be man but not to be then he was made flesh but he was the word before even from all eternity the word of life which was from the beginning But when I observe the Grammar of the Text I must crave leave to receed from this Exposition for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he which was or the word which was but that which was from the beginning concerning the word of life by which it appeareth that the most proper reference of these words is not to the person of Christ but to the doctrine which the Gospel revealeth concerning him and this exposition no less agrees with the Logick then the Grammar of the Text since in this sense as Oecumenius Theophilact and Athanasius have observed the words are an answer to that objection which was made against Christian doctrine by its enemies as if it were a new doctrine that therefore he might take off this aspersion which both Iewes and Greeks did cast upon Christianity he assureth us that it is no novell fancy but an ancient mysterie that which was from the beginning And now according to this Interpretation we are further to enquire in what respect this is verified of Christian Religion Evangelicall doctrine that it was from the beginning The answer to which will be dispatched in three considerations each of which exceedeth the other 1. That which was from the beginning that is which was preached from the very first that Christianity was published to the world That this phrase from the beginning is so to be understood in some places both of the Gospel and Epistle is not to be denyed and Vorstius is positive that it must be so understood here nor will I reject this sense though I shall not confine the words to it Take it then thus briefly soon after the Gospel was preached there arose up some who broached another Gospel and filled the Church with damnable heresies now St. Iohn in these words acquits his doctrine from partaking with heresies and lets them know that what he declared to them was not what some Hereticks had lately invented and privily brought into the Church but what was taught by Christ to his Apostles and by them to the world from the very beginning 2. But besides this we may very well carry the expression a great deal further and look backward as far as the fall of man which was in the beginning of the world and so that which was from the beginning that is the doctrine which soon after the world began was preached to man for indeed the promise made by God to Adam the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head what is it but an abridgement of the Gospel an epitomy of Christianity a summary of Evangelical truths nay this doctrine is that which stil along was umbris praefigurata vaticiniis praedicta praefigured in the types and foretold in the prophecies upon which ground St. Paul saith expressely of the Gospel of God it is that which he had
promised afore by his Prophets in the holy Scriptures and Zachary saith the raising up of Christ an horn of salvation is that he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began the truth is as God would never have man destitute of a way to come to him so the way for fallen man to come to him hath been one and the same for substance in all ages of the Church and the New Testament is nothing else but the unveiling of Moses his face a breaking of the Old Testament shell a more clear discovery of what was though darkly made known from the beginning 3. And yet to go one step further beyond which we cannot go that which was from the beginning that is before the beginning of the world to wit in the eternal purpose and counsell of God indeed as the permission of mans fall which was in the beginning of time so the effecting of mans redemption which was in the fulness of time was fore-ordained by God before all time so as the Gospel is nothing else but as it were a Copy of that writing which was in the mind of God from all eternity in this respect it is that the Gospel is called the everlasting Gospel and Christ is said to be the Lambâ—slain from the foundation of the world and yet more clearly this eternal life is said to be that which God which cannot lye promised that is purposed before the world began From whence we may profitably infer a double conclusion True Antiquity is a sure mark of verity That Antiquity is true which is from the beginning 1. Would Ministers know what doctrine they ought to declare and the people what they are to receive this is a good rule let it be that doctrine which hath been anciently embraced and maintained by the Christian Church a very seasonable Item in these dayes wherein to use Vincentius Lyrinensis his expression Bene fundata antiquitas scelestâ novitate subruitur well grounded antiquity is overturned by fanatick novelty the cry of the AEgyptian Priest in Plato cited by Clemens Alexandrinus Oh Solon Solon you are alwayes children may fitly be taken up of the men of this Generation they are children pleased with every novell toy and tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine Not content with the antient Apostolical government universally continued in the Christian Church for many hundred years we have endeavoured to erect new formes which Proteus-like change into several shapes and about which the contrivers cannot tell how to agree Not knowing indeed themselves what they would have not satisfied with nay much offended at the antient devout Liturgie of our English Church which the first compilers extracted as a quintessence out of the several praeceding Liturgies both of the Greek Latine Church we have erected a new or rather no way of worship leaving every Minister to the dangerous liberty of an extemporary devotion and the people to the sad slavery of hearing those vain Tautologies nay many times horrid blasphemies which are vented in those kind of prayers And yet once more not willing to be regulated by those ancient doctrinal truths which the Church from and with the holy Scriptures hath delivered to us how many are there amongst us who seek another Gospel vent strange opinions the people heaping up to themselves teachers and the teachers heaping up to themselves auditors who have an itch after novelty not onely in discipline but doctrine Oh my brethren take we all heed lest we be infected with this itch which is the sister of superstition mother of rashness and the daughter of inconstancy rather let the Prophet Ieremy his words take place with us Thus saith the Lord stand ye in the wayes and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls let St. Pauls counsel to Timothy be acceptable serva depositum Hold fast the form of sound words non a te inventum sed tibi creditum which was not invented by thee but committed to thee and according to St. Iudes exhortation let us contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Finally let St. Hieroms practice be our pattern Meum propositum est antiquos legere a side ecclesiae catholicae non recedere my resolve is to read the ancients and not recede from the faith of the Catholick Church Indeed however it may now be made one of the marks of the well-affected godly party to follow new wayes yet I am sure Lyrinensis sets it down as a continued practise in the Church that the more religious any man was the more zealous he was against factious novelties 2. But further as we must assert antiquity so that antiquity is what was from the beginning for though error may be old yet still that which is from the beginning is truth indeed as crookedness is no other but a deviation from a straight rule so error an aberration from truth and therefore as a crooked line supposeth a straight so error supposeth truth and upon this ground it is that the Fathers rule is veritate manifestâ cedat consuetudo veritati when truth appeareth custome must give way because indeed be the custome never so ancient truth was before it With this it is we must justly answer the Romish plea of antiquity for many of their erroneous assertions that though they have been some of them of many hundred years standing yet they were not known in the pure and primitive times of the Church and therefore as our blessed Saviour in the point of divorce reduceth the Iews to this consideration it was not so from the beginning true indeed it hath been long permitted you for the hardness of your hearts but it was not so from the beginning the first institution giveth no such allowance so we in those points of controversie between us and the Church of Rome reduce them to the beginning of Christian Religion it is true many of their doctrines have been long published but they were not from the beginning they were not taught by Christ or his Apopostles or their Successors in the first Centuries of the Church Whilest therefore the Papists scoff at our Religion as a novell faction as those Athenians did at Pauls doctrine we have this in readiness to retort and are able blessed be God to make it good against them ours is no other than that which was from the beginning and that even at Rome it self preached and professed nor do we differ from them but only in those opinions which since the golden foundation of Christianity was laid by Christ and his Apostles hath been by Babel builders superstructed as hay and stubble fit onely to be cast into the fire The last branch of the Gospels commendation is from the utility of the end Now the end which is here mentioned is double to wit proximus