church of Christ in Ephesus yet I presume on good grounds that most or the greatest part of Ephesus cryed up Great was Diana of the Ephesians and though there were churches of Christ in Rome Corinth Smyrna Pergamus and other places mentioned in Scripture yet we know by good history that the National Worship and Religion was Ethnick unto Jupiter Mars Sol Venus c. yet indeed I confess a Church may be called the National church as that of Ephesus of England of France of Scotland c. in respect of the church constituted and made up of members or persons of that Nation but herein we have no difference the controversie is not about words but things really differing among themselves as when they affirm every individual and singular parochial church of England to be particular churches of Christ as parts of the whole and the whole to be the National church of England constituted of its singular parts If all England Scotland France be the church what room is left for the world and the profane therein The church may be denominated of England Scotland France c. but not all England Scotland France to be the church there is great difference in those expressions but of this I shall say no farther at present Having done with the Inscription or direction To the Angel of the Church of Ephesus the next thing is write for the better observation of the things that follow These things saith he that holdeth the seven Stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks That the church of Ephesus and the rest may know from whom this subsequent message comes tell them that it is from him that holdeth and keepeth in his fatherly hand of protection his faithful Ministers and Pastors which are as stars in the Firmament of his churches for glory Peruse the sixteenth verse of the first chapter more fully to this purpose And who walketh that is is in active posture ready to observe all the doings whether good or evil of all his churches and therefore he is said to walk in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks consult more at large with v. 13. 20. of c. 1. From Christ's posture of walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks or the seven Asian churches note That Christ is very intent with an eye of providential observation and that for their good over all his faithful churches This is not the time of his sitting on the Throne of judging the world but of walking in the midst of his golden candlesticks viewing the order of his churches and to see whether they are proficients under the means of grace according to that of the Canticles cap 6. 11. I went down into the garden of Nuts to see the fruits of the Valley and to see whether the Vine flourished and the Pomgranâ—tes budded Christ is now viewing his churches graces taking delight therein and to encourage them to perseverance that the crown may be unto them that overcome and also takes a special notice of their backslidings and lays them before their eyes in the deceitfulness thereof that they may loath them and return unto their God by a holy repentance And this is but a confirmation of his promise at his departure left as his last comforting Legacy with his afflicted church Matth. 28.20 That though he was ascended into the highest heavens yet in his providential eye over them and by his Spirit teaching directing counselling supporting and comforting them he would be ever with them unto the end of the world Verse 2. I know thy works and labour and thy patience and how thou canst not forbear them which are evil and hast examined them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them Lyars Verse 3. And hast born and hast patience and for my names sake hast laboured and hast not fainted In the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have seen thy works for the better and more perfect taking knowledge of them Our knowledge is mixt and joyned with much imperfections and at best is but a mixt act of our understanding and affections and so to know a thing by a human capacity is to understand it and the nature thereof in the highest notion that its capable of comprehension and often by reason of the darkness in the understanding the affections or will are misplaced and so become erroneous and sinful for a mind not well informed or an ignorant soul can very hardly be a good or a godly one for without this light the judgement and affections will be often led astray to that which is only good in appearance and to contemn that which in it self is really good and perfect but here is no fear of imperfection of knowledge in this person Christ who is one with the Father God from everlasting and therefore all our works are patent and open before him his judgement or affections cannot be misled to approve of things and works that should not or disapprove of works that are worthy to be approved He is God and cannot be deceived on any false pretences he sees our works as they are in themselves and in the very nature of them with all their circumstances We see and know things by mediums mixtly weakly and imperfectly He sees and knows things simply absolutely and most perfectly the eye it self cannot want sight nor the Sun want light neither can the Creator of all things in this present temporal world or his church this spiritual world be ignorant of any of his or their handy works Christ sees and knows the works of the church of Ephesus fully what are approvable and what are disapprovable in them Hence Note That Christ is a most just and equal censurer of his churches works He forbids to call darkness light or light darkness he tells the church of Ephesus that he knows their works of travel patience and sufferance for his Name sake and so places his favourable aspect and complacency thereon and yet what is evil in them he cannot bear without a reproof as 't is defection or failure in its first love and ardent affections which the church of Ephesus bore to Christ and his Truths at their first conversion or entertainment of the Gospel amongst them vers 4. Christ also tels the church of Sardis and Laodicea that he knows their works but in another tone not of approbation but of reproof and censure he said to Sardis cap. 3. 1. I know thy works for thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead and in verse 15. he falls upon Laodicea and tells them I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot Christ will not palliate or lay cushions under great ones elbows and prophesie smooth things unto them nor to the churches that bears them whilst they are most rotten in the root and heart Had not God a controversie of old with his Israel for this
Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. This is the terrible and unknown name of Christ which no man knoweth but Christ himself which one day he will manifest when all his enemies are made his footstool and takes the Kingdom unto himself O let this thy Kingdom come and blessed is he that shall sit down with Christ in his Kingdome Observ 2. Christ is very zealous and intense on the punishment of delinquent Churches Christ comes all in a fiery posture against Thyatira and withall tels her ver 22 23. that for suffering Jezabel within her Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great Tribulation except they repent of their deeds And I will kill her children with death c. Christ when he whipped out of the Temple the buyers and sellers Jo 2. did it so zealously that for that very act it was formerly prophesied of him The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up How zealous was Christ in his carriage and ready to punish all those delinquent Asian churches He tels Ephesus in the first place Except she repent and recover her first love and do her first works he will come quickly and remove her candlestick out of its place To Pergamus he saith Repent or I come quickly against thee with the sword of my mouth How zealous was Christ against the zeal-fallen church of Laodicea cap. 3. 15 16. I know thou art neither hot nor cold I would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm I will spew thee out of my mouth You see Christ will not spare his delinquent churches but come quickly against them except they repent And this proceeding of Christ with his Churches answers to this apparition of his to Iohn who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and feet like burning brass cap. 1. 14 15. Vers 19. I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first All those graces here mentioned by the Spirit and found in the church of Thyatira are to be understood of true â—eal graces not only so in appearance and opinion but in truth and sincerity and therefore Christ before he fals on the charge against her first he gives an approbation and an encouragement to her graces and in effect tels her 'T is true O church of Thyatira I must acknowledg thy works of grace as thy true love towards me which hath produced and brought forth in thee the happy fruits of thy zealous service and thy faith enlivened by love together with thy constant patience under sufferings for my names sake and by this it appeareth that thou hast received the truth in the love thereof and withal I must add unto thy praise that there is a growth and improvment in those gracious works and the last to be more then the first That is Though thy first works were done out of much zeal yet the latter were done on more certain and sober grounds of knowledg and sincerer ends then the first and therefore as thou hast made an improvement of thy graces so thou art more in esteem and thy works also then at the first By the way here Observ We may Observe Though the Church of Thyatira be never so blame-worthy yet Christ will give her her due and set too his Seal of approbation to all that is sound and righteous in her It seems there were graces sufficient in Thyatira to denominate her a golden candlestick and a church of Christ notwithstanding Christ had a few things to say against her it savors not of the Dove-like spirit of Christ and love when any shall be so rigid as will not acknowledg such societies to be churches of Christ because some imperfections in them either in doctrine or manners though otherwise abounding in works of holiness as love to God and his Saints and faith towards Jesus Christ zeal towards God's worship and service and in suffering for Christ's sake Doubtless with some rigid persons in these days the churches of Pergamus and Thyatira would be unchurched and anathematized by them had they but authority over them though Christ had set his Seal upon them and marked them as golden candlesticks As in a natural body some members may be rotten and dead and yet a lively body So in those spiritual bodies politiques there may be som members rotten and dead at the root yet the body still an organical body and no great hinderance to the whole And again in a natural body there may be a catholique disease seasing upon every part and member of the body which may render it very uncapable for its seruices and yet still a lively body So it may be in a church a body politique it may be catholiquely sick and infected with some venomous disease some pestifferous doctrine or other and yet a church still though a decrepid infirm and lame one but when the disease comes to be mortal leaprous or incurable it is time then to cry out Sum impurus sum impurus Procul hinc procul ite For the words I know thy works and thy loue c. Here we see the good works that God does approve of in his people and does also render them as approved Saints both unto themselves and the whole world Christ alone is the publique approved person in the room of all his members in the sight of God as unto justification and perfect righteousness yet before these graces does appear in the Saints to evidence their calling they are but the children of wrath as well as others Election does secure our eternal estate but before the spirit of grace comes to evidence it by faith that worketh by love sin and death hath dominion over us And though we are heirs of all in God's predetermination yet differ we not at all from servants in the state of unregeneracy yea therein we are slaves and captives to sin and Satan These gracious works are called thy works though they are the gifts of God and wrought by his spirit in us yet God's goodness does call them ours because they are acted by the instrumentality of our souls as passing through our wils affections and understandings and here love or charity is put in the first place among all the graces of the Spirit Whether love in order of nature is before faith I shall not here dispute only thus much I say that all generally grant that faith's first act is an assent to the truth as unto a proposition now unless love come in to ingrediate the affection unto the truth proposed it will only be but a bare opinion and never come to a lively faith Secondly I say love is here proposed as first in order as being the most excellent Gospel grace 1 Cor. 13. throughout Now abideth faith hope and charity but the greatest of
the more glory it will be capable of and filled with hereafter Every Vessel shall have his fulness in glory but every one acording to its capacity as there is a glory in the Stars Moon and Sun and one differing from another in glory yet every one hath their fulness So in the Kingdom o◠glory when God giveth to every one according to his works every one shall have the reward of their works eternal happiness but some shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel all shall be shining Stars but some of a greater Magnitude then others But to proceed For I have not found thy works perfect before God It was not a legal perfection that Christ could not find in Sardis he did never seek for that absolute perfection in them that would be in vain seeing they were so full of Imperfections But yet this intimates that the faithful christians and their works may be perfect before God although they are not found perfect in Sardis yet may be found perfect in others that are more sound and godly For the clearing of which understand that sometimes in Scripture perfection is taken for sincerity and uprightness as Gen. 17.1 Walk before me be thou perfect that is upright sincere as Iob 1.1 he was a man that was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil he was a plain simple man honest at the heart in this sense the works of Sardis were not perfect before God they were not honest sincere and upright according to his will they were Hypocritical in name shew and appearance only not in truth and sincerity Secondly Perfection may be taken 1. As respecting our justification Or 2. Our sanctification The first of these in a strict sense is a compleat perfection for the Saints are compleat in Christ their head as unto justification and from all sin and the guilt thereof there is not one sin left which is not washed away by his blood in this respect they are perfect By one offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Then Secondly There is a perfection of sanctification and holiness And that is 1. In the respect of the beginnings and parts thereof 2. In respect of the prevailing degree thereof 3. In respect of the aimes thereof 4. In respect of the duration and perseverance of it 5. In respect of others First the Saints in this life have a perfect beginning of holiness as to its parts because it begins in every part they are sanctified throughout in soul body and spirit 1 Thes 5.23 though every part be not throughout sanctified by reason of the imperfection of mediums by which they are sanctified yet they are sanctified in every part throughout in understandings wills affections desires memories thoughts and hearts Secondly They have every grace in their souls not only in the truth thereof but in the prevailing degree thereof as when faith love patience humility c. overcome infidelity hatred impatience pride and other their opposite vices and evils So when this work of sanctification is begun in all parts thereof it may be said a perfect work in beginning and when it comes to the prevailing degree thereof it may be called a perfect work having prevailed against its contrary Thirdly They are likewise perfect in respect of their aims and desires God accepts the will for the deed and he that aims and strives for perfection God accepts as perfect though mixed with much imperfections Christ could not find the works of Sardis perfect in this sense neither Fourthly They are likewise perfect in respect of their duration Apostacy from the faith and truth will loose the honor of perfection and makes their crown to wither when a righteous or perfect man turneth to iniquity all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned Ezek. 18.24 Fifthly In respect of others the Saints are perfect souls compare them unto the guilded out side formal christians and they are gold and perfect in respect of them and so Christ could not find the works of Sardis perfect before him as those of Ephesus Smyrna c. Hence Note first Observ 1. The great cause that our works are not perfect but defective before God is for want of honest sincerity in them Sardis was blamed for this very thing and for want of this grace she carried a fair name that she lived in her pretended graces but she was dead there was no sincerity and truth in them If we suppose a man to worship God in all his Ordinances and avoid all outward evil yet if there be double-heartedness in his spirit all is cast off by God as abominable Sincerity is that that gives perfection to every grace it is the very truth and spirit of every grace as when we believe we must believe sincerely when we love we must love sincerely and cordially when we sorrow or repent it must be done sincerely that is truly fully without any mixture or hypocrisie for a double minded man God doth hate Sincere quasi sine cera without wax without composition and as the word here beares it in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not found thy works full there was somwhat wanting within to make them compleat and perfect without this ingredient grace of sincerity all our duties are but as sounding Brass and a tinckling Cimbal But add sincerity unto the least and most imperfect of our duties and they will become in the esteem of God most perfect God accepts a Lamb from Abel offered in sincerity rather then clouds of Incense and thousands of Sacrifices from a wicked and profain Cain Yea if it be but a widdows mite or some Goats hair coming from one that is sincere God looks upon it as a rich present and calls the presenter thereof perfect Truth of grace and sincerity is our perfection here but in the world to come we shall have perfection in the highest degree as well as the perfection of sincerity and truth of grace in this life therefore let us so walk before God as becometh perfect ones Observ 2. It is the Saints duty that they aim and press after perfection in all their graces works and duties The church of Sardis was worthily blamed for want of this perfection her works were not full and entire there was somwhat wanting and therefore blame-worthy and imperfect First They are to press after the perfection of justification by faith and evidenced by love and works and so make their election and justification sure unto their own souls and manifest it unto others also Secondly To seek after perfection in all graces and parts of christianity in souls bodies and spirits to be perfect intire wanting nothing Ja. 1.4 as ye abound in every thing in faith and utterance and knowledg and all diligence see that ye abound in this grace also to wit charity 2 Cor. 8.7 There must not one necessary grace be wanting in true Saints though
utter overthrow chap. 31. v. 3. c. It is also somwhat against reason that Saul should be all the precedent night at Endor and on his way coming and going and that under great dejection trouble and consternation by reason of his hard fate foretold him and yet notwithstanding he should the immediate morrow joyn Battel with the Philistines is in my apprehension a very unlikely conceit I shall only add and conclude with that of the Psalmist O teach us O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom that both God and the creature may have their dues Vers 11. I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven Churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna unto Pergamus and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea After John was set by a spiritual rapture in a fit frame and posture to receive those divine and excellent Revelations he in this verse makes an entrance into his first vision which was the effect of that great and mighty voice that he heard as of a Trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega c. This was Christ as is manifested in verse 8. compared to the 9. who is the beginning and last of all things and who is the giver out and author of this Revelation unto John and gives him this vision concerning the seven Churches by way of an admonitory Epistle unto them and what he sees and shall be represented unto him in those visions he is commanded to write them down and send them to the seven famous Churches which then were in Asia minor at Ephesus Smyrna e. Hence Note Observ That the true Ministers of the Gospel must deal very faithfully with their churches in their doctrines and prophesies they must come with real visions of God not feigned ones Paul did profess unto those he wrote that he kept nothing back for their good but discovered the whole mind of God unto them They are to observe God's motions and directions when he moves they must move when he stands still so must they If God commands them to come with the doctrines of peace and consolation they are not to come with the doctrines of judgements and if God proceeds in anger wrath and judgments against a people for their sins the Ministers ought not like the false Prophets in Jeremiah preach peace peace and sew pillows under their elbows to build them up in security and so make them ripe for destruction neither are they only in a perfunctory way to preach the mind of God unto their churches but they must follow John's example here whatsoever vision or burden is made known unto them from the Lord they must for the more certainty and better observation thereof write it down and send it and commit it to their churches keeping this rule the Apostles kept in committing their doctrines unto writing a sure way of preserving it for the churches of Christ to the end of all Vers 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven golden Candlesticks Verse 13. And in the midst of the seven Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girt about the paps with a golden girdle John having heard this great and terrible voice he turned to see the voice that spake unto him Either this is to be taken metonimocally where seeing is put for understanding that is he turned rightly and distinctly to understand the voice he heard or else to be taken per Synecdochen part for the whole that is he turned to see the voice that is the person that uttered the voice From hence note Observ That God's faithful ones are very intent to know the mind of God in all the discoveries of his Will They are not those that desire to know their master's will darkly and in part they are willing to know it fully that they may fully obey it It is but a fruitless hearing to hear the voice only in the ministery of the Word of God and not be intent upon the intendment and substance of it The word of God though it be the power of life unto all that believe yet without this is but as a meer voice and a dead letter Those with Paul Acts 9. when he was strucken down when he was going to Damasco heard the voice but saw not him that spake unto him so many in our days do hear the same voice of God that strikes thorow other souls unto conversion whiles they neither see nor understand the meaning of God in the voice either to their comfort or conversion No sooner was John turned to comprehend more distinctly this voice that spoke unto him but presently he had a vision presented him of the seven golden Candlesticks and one like unto the Son of man in the mids of them what is meant by the seven golden Candlesticks I refer to the last verse of this chapter where the Spirit it self is Interpreter But by the way this Note ariseth Observ That God reserveth his choisest discoveries for the most diligent and enquiring souls John when he turned to see the voice and being turned he saw seven golden Candlesticks c. When souls turn to God and enquire carefully after his will God will be found of them they are the Treasurers of his mind The secrets of the Lord are with those that fear him They shall know the intendment of God in all the revolutions and providential percussions of the Nations of the world If the Statists of the world would know what would be the event of things their best counsellors would be such as are the wise and diligent observers not of Stars flying of Birds the bowels of Beasts and such Ethnick fopperies but of the voice of God in his holy Word Observ 2. The things contained in this book of Prophesies are most certain John saith not he heard only a voice but he saw seven golden Candlesticks c. The sense of sight is the most certain most evidential of all the senses 1 Iohn 1.3 And indeed this whole book is a book of visions presented unto Iohn and which he saw in Patmos Now in all visions there are some representations made either to the eye of the body externally or to the eye of the minde internally Secondly In every vision there is somthing that is Future and therefore it is somtimes called prophesie or prediction Isa 1.1 Thirdly The party to whom it is made hath a strong irradiation of Spirit and mighty light over-powering him to make him obedient unto that heavenly vision and so is put out of all doubt of the truth of it Fourthly It is in great evidence when the party is awake Dreams are but obscurer visions when men are asleep and therefore visions are the more evident and excellent discoveries of the truth In this
be praised cherished and followed as having the impress of the Spirit on them Christ having given his approbation of the sufferings constancy and patience of the church of Ephesus for his names sake and taking notice thereof as their works catexochen I know thy works that is I take notice of these your graces and works of suffering patience and zeal against such workers false Teachers and false Apostles and these are your good works worthy of commendation and imitation in you Now in all our actions observe there must be many circumstantial ingredients to denominate them by the name of good works according to that old rule A Quo cui quomodo quando First They must proceed from a true Fountain God's Spirit must be the first Mover and Author of them corrupt Nature can produce nothing higher then it self Rom. 3.9 10. God can look upon none of our duties or works with an eye of complacency unless they have in the first place his stamp upon them Secondly Cui You must examine to what ends and to whom to whose name and glory they are directed if we sacrifice to our selves for our own ends and advantages our sacrifice is in vain an abomination and as the cutting off a dogs head in as much as we do it unto our selves and not unto the Lord consider Isa 1. A good action or work may lose its crown for want of a right end If we pray repent mourn for sin c. which are necessary duties yet if we only respect our selves and our own ends to wit to be freed and delivered only from wrath to come not having an eye to the sanctifying of God's name thereby we may lose much of the comfort of those duties if not the duties themselves become sin unto us for all must be done unto the glory of his Name Thirdly You must consider the Quomodo In what manner works are to be done to denominate them good they must not be done Pharisaically to be seen of men so they lose their reward The sufferings and patience of the church of Ephesus for the name of Christ were highly commendable graces in them yet if they should affect them as the popelings do to attain to themselves the glory and name of Martyrs they had their rewards The Familistical Quakers of these days do most perversly walk in the same steps highly affecting sufferings and rushing thereinto not considering the Cui nor the Quomodo neither to what end they do it nor the manner how they do it Indeed persons may suffer justly for their pertinacy and obstinacy against Magistrates but not for the name of Christ unless in his providence he calls them to it Therefore Fourthly The Quando is also to be considered the time when they are to be performed To bestow a beneficence on a rich person or one that wants it not it cannot be called an act of charity for they are able to make retribution for it but to do it towards Christ's poor afflicted members when their wants and necessities call for it then it is truly a good work Secondly To draw sufferings on ones self for ones pertinaciousness in opinions not relating as necessaries or fundamentals unto salvation and so disturbing the peace of Commonwealths in the promotion thereof this cannot be termed a suffering for Christ's name But it must be clear and real Truths that justifies a soul in his sufferings for it that the soul and conscience be kept undefiled thereby and so become a faithful witness unto Christ and the Truth when God calls him to it in clear dispensations of providence See more hereon in v. 9. of the former chapter Fifthly in the last place understand That the best and choicest of our works though they are all rightly circumstantiated as aforesaid yet strictly and simply in themselves according to the rules of Justice they are not to be called good works for so and in that sense God is only good Mark 10.18 and our best works being mingled with much weakness and imperfection in the production of them though the agency of God's Spirit is manifestly in them yet passing through corrupt conduits and the hands of sinful instruments they receive a tincture of the vessels and defilement from the sinful Agents that do produce and effect them and so singly in themselves are sinful and imperfect But as our persons are accepted in Christ our works though otherwise weak sinful and imperfect in themselves being performed in the sincerity of our souls God accepteth as good holy and perfect as being done and presented in the name of Christ and upon that altar that both sanctifies the gift and the giver In vain to seek for an acceptation of our works before our persons be in Christ then he accepts the will for the deed and our works though weak and imperfect in themselves yet in Christ and as flowing from his divine efficiency they are accepted of God as most holy good and perfect I shall in the next place consider more especially what was commendable in the church of Ephesus which was the labour and patience they under-went for Christ's sake which did manifestly appear in their zeal against evil doers and false Apostles which they could not bear From hence Note Observ That it is equally burdensome troublesome and grievous to Christ's faithful churches to have evil doers and false teachers amongst them The one doth corrupt their manners the other their judgements the one is pernicious in their examples the other in their doctrines the one destroyeth the life of godliness the other the truth of God and where the one is tolerated the other follows also for if evil workers are forborn in the churches their judgements will be soon corrupted to endeavour to uphold their more corrupt practises for such as keep not to the commands of God he gives them over judicially to embrace and follow false Teachers and to believe lies and vanities And secondly When false Teachers are tolerated quickly follows evil practises When in the time of the late Bishops in opposition to the godly it was asserted that the Law that required the observation of the Sabbath was not moral but only humane and Ecclesiastique what followed that false teaching but most profane and wicked practise of carding bowling sporting revelling drunkenness and all sort of profaness upon that day Uprightness in life and doctrine are the two pillars of a church and where one fails the other will soon fall to ground after they are as inseparable twins the corruption of the one will be the death of the other It is to be observed as soon as these primitive churches entertained false Apostles amongst them we presently hear of the obscene Sect of the Nicholaitans following the divel will not be contented to corrupt the head only but the heart also and if in the first place he corrupts the heart the evil affections will soon fume into the judgement and darken the understanding wherefore a use of caution
they in this particular witness the Jesuitish Sect with their many pretended miracles voluminous interpretations of Scriptures Councels Fathers Traditions super-numerary Sacraments c. I confess it is the common trade with all new and false doctrine-mongers to amuse the vulgar with their intricate Scriptural glosses that so thereby they may the better swallow down the hook or poison undiscovered within the artificially composed bait and pill and as the fish Sepia darkens the water with its inky humour to avoid the hand of the Fisher so do these serpentine Fry so cloud the truth with their polemical discourses that unawares they have brought many heretical Syncretismes upon the church of God under the pretence of Scriptural truths and reasons but notwithstanding their high pretence to Scripture and Reason both are undermined by them and have endeavoured the overthrow thereof by their strange conclusions which are both false and opposite to the truth as it is in Jesus Now understand that I hold not that every difference of opinion about the externals or accidentals of Religion is sufficient to denominate the holder thereof a heretique or false Teacher for then which of the Fathers would go clear nor but few if any of their Successors But that truly and really denominates a heretique or false teacher is the holding and maintaining such errors as directly strike at and will subvert the foundation Now this is the foundation article That ye believe in God and in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for this is life eternal John 17 3. And that doctrine that strikes at this either directly or consequentially is heresie and false doctrine and therefore justly were they called false Apostles that went about to add Circumcision unto the Gospel and said they could not be saved without it Acts 15. This was to nullifie Christ's sacrifice and satisfaction and to make Christ of none effect as the Apostle Paul tells the Galathians That hereby they hearken to a new Gospel Therefore it is of plain and easie discernment for a competent spiritualized Christian to make discovery of a false Apostle Prophet false Teacher or Heretique by the doctrine he brings For first If it strike at the root or tends to the subversion of the true fear of God and godliness it is of Satan and from hell Next If it strikes directly or consequentially at the subversion of Christ in any of his offices be sure that doctrine is not of God for there is no name way or practise under heaven whereby we may be saved but in the name and faith of Christ who is the alone way unto the Father and none cometh unto him but in and by the Son all other ways are not only broken reeds but dangerous this only in the Son is eternal life 2. In the next place false Apostles and Teachers may be discerned from their false calls or missions and this will the better be evinced by first considering its contrary the right Call of true and faithful Teachers and Apostles of Christ and their Call was either first from God or secondly from the church God's call is by giving abilities gifts and affections sutable to the work and office that he ordains him for He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists c. and so when God sent Moses he furnished him for the great work he appointed him to Moses pleads his unaptness and slowness of speech but God said Go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee c. Exod. 4.12 and so unto all the Prophets of old God came with his Spirit upon them and filled them with a sufficiency thereof before they were sent upon their errands God calls Apostles of Fishers and makes them Fishers of men and so spirits them and enables them that they fear not the faces of men nor the learned of the world for he tells them Go preach and lo I am with you to the end of the world that is by a peculiar assistance by his grace strength comfort direction Spirit Those that Christ calls and sends he gives them a full supply of all gifts and graces necessary to discharge their respective services Secondly God's call gives affections and heart unto the work he moves strongly by a secret impulse of Spirit on the soul that he sends on his employments it will not consult with flesh and blood but will on as Paul did in the work of the Lord without hesitating or securing his carnal interests Yet secondly This call must proceed orderly unto the exercise thereof since extraordinary Gifts and Calls are ceased the mediate call must concur to set the seal and authority upon the first God's giving to a man the call of abilities parts and affections to an office do not really and ipso facto invest him in that office it maybe said that he hath jus ad rem but not jus in re he hath a potential right thereunto but not a right of possession for Christ hath delegated that power unto his church of setting their publique Signature upon all Officers for his service for whom God qualifies with a call of abilities he is only judged and deemed fit for the Ministry of Christ but not really a Minister or Officer of Christ before he is ordained thereunto by the church by the first call only he may perform many good duties and services unto the church as an able and faithful Disciple or member but by the conjunction of the other he can do it ex officio and authoritatively Therefore such as pretend their call to publique offices as Apostles Teachers Pastors c. only as from God and contemn the other from the church surely I am of judgement as unto their mission they are false Apostles and are neither called of God nor man for if their call of abilities was from God as they boast of then it would manifest it self to be of God by a submitting to the wisdom of God in the order of the dispensation of his Ordinances in his word Therefore both conjunct together makes up a compleat officer and shining star within the church In the next place Those that boast of their callings from the church and want the first call of God of abilities they are good for nothing but as unsavoury salt to be cast unto the dung useless to any service they will not serve so much as to make a pin in the house of God such are false Apostles to the purpose fit to be spewed out of all Christian churches in the world Wherefore all faithful christian assemblies should have a special care not to admit of such who can only manifest their call from man and not from God in competent gifts and parts fit for so high a calling They cannot work at all to edification in the Lord's house for they want supplies to that end We know an Artificer can do little work without his tools or instruments but unto those who should be employed about spiritual buildings if God hath
wherein sin is but not in the sinfulness of the action as the Sun that emits his efficacious beams upon a dunghil yet it self is undefiled from the corruption of the dunghil so God that has his hand and efficiency about sin is far from mixing with the obliquities of the creature neither can he be said to be the direct author of it nor the next proper cause thereof sin is only a moral being or entity and it hath subsistence alone in our corrupt natures but all our physical actions are good wherein God hath a concurrence and they become ill or sinful by our own depravities and so the divel and our own lusts are the mixt proper authors and fountains of all sin So let God be justified and all men lyars Secondly Yet I say God hath his hand and efficiency about sin several manner of ways and for distinct method sake I shall briefly set them down 1. God foresees and pre-ordains it else as I said it could not come to pass seeing God is omniscient and omnipotent to hinder it if he would Acts 2.23 Christ was delivered by the fore knowledge and determinate counsel of God What was a greater sin then the betraying the innocent and that too the Saviour of the world Yet this was pre-ordained of God and he meant to draw excellent good out of it and Gen. 15.19 20. Joseph tells his brethren As for you ye thought evil but God meant it for good to bring it to pass as it is this day to save much people alive 2. God permits it God's Decrees imply a necessity that sin shall be but do not impel or enforce thereunto We being left to our free choice God is not bound to hinder us he suffered them to walk in their own ways Acts 14.16 and we being left unto our own choice without God's special grace we are sure to chuse the worser part 3. God hath his concurrence in every action wherein sin is but not in the obliquity of it all our actions and motions are from God but the sinfulness thereof is from the lusts of the heart of man 4. God withdraws his preventing Grace or suspends it from a sinner for God is not bound up to Laws and conditions unto us and he may do it out of Soveraignty and he will do it somtimes in wisdom to try us and see whether we will seek after him and keep close unto him as he did to Hezekiah 2 Chron. 33.31 God left Hezekiah that he might know what was in his heart So somtimes he withdraws his grace in Justice and Judgement Psal 81.12 I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels 5. God gives a concession and permission to wicked Instruments to stir up and move to evil as 1 Kings 22.22 I will go forth and be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Abab's Prophets And God said Go forth 6. God wisely disposes his Providences that they become a snare unto the sinner and yet no dishonour to God for his acts of Providences are in themselves good and are rather motives to holiness and duty if our hearts were sound then temptations to sin yea his very mercies will become unto them a snare Psal 69.22 Let their Table become a snare and their Welfare a Trap. A sinner like the Sea will make all it receives brackish though ever so sweet that runs into it 7. God's hand is conversant about sin as some of his judiciary punishments that he afflicts the sinner with as Rom. 1.26 2 Thes 2.11 God gave them up to vile affections and gave them strong delusions When we leave God and his ways justly may he give us up to our own lusts and perverse ways in a Judiciary way and to a reprobate sense 8. God limits sin Thus far thou shalt go and no farther Psal 76.10 The wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder thereof shalt thou restrain So far as God gets glory by the permission of sin God will let the sinner take his swing but it shall not exceed its bounds but can presently destroy it or stop the current of it in an instant And so the remainders of wrath thou wilt restrain 9. God disposes the events and ends of all sin to his glory God would never permit sin if he could not bring good out of it Rom. 3.7 Adam's sin as one wittily said was a happy sin because it made way for the grace of God to be more clearly manifested unto the creature Many of God's attributes would never be so clearly advanced if it were not for sin to wit his mercy in pardoning justice in punishing wisdom in ordering power in over-ruling it Let us never therefore murmure against God for pre-ordaining and permitting sin for though the wages thereof be death yet thanked be God we have Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Observ 4. Another Note from the words The Divel shall cast some of you in prison is That it is the Saints great comfort to know that their imprisonments and afflictions comes from Satan and his wicked instruments Saint Peter's rule was 1 Pet. 4.15 Let none of you suffer as an evil doer The comfort of sufferings will be quite abated by the guilt of sin neither must the Saints sufferings be voluntary and out of choice for unto such it may one day be said Who required these things at your hands There must be a just call unto afflications that must make them comfortable to us It is but a fond presumption to cast our selves upon imprisonments and tribulations Satan and his wicked instruments will be apt enough to do it and in that we may truly rejoyce that Christ hath thought us worthy to be Martyrs to his Truth Acts 5.41 Matth. 5.12 and hath given us so sure and strong a token of our Interest in him together with a sight of that glory of our interest which we then under that condition must virtually and strongly enjoy in him by faith but such are very fond that will desire to fall into imprisonments and tribulations out of an affectation to Martyrdom as many of the Quakers of these days do and Christ hath taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation and this had not been taught us had it not been grievous and evil to fall into it whether it were either the temptation unto sin or temptation of affliction or the cross for Christ himself prayed when his soul was troubled within him Father save me from this hour and Let this Cup pass from me John 12.27 though Christ submitted to the will of his Father and freely chose death and sufferings as our Mediator yet as a private person he would manifest the same affections that are in us and deprecate the evil of sufferings if possibly he could Therefore for us to desire or rush into them would be a mad zeal and irregular and not according to sound knowledge but if we desire to wait on God sincerely and live godly
cap. 18. The Beast and false Prophet joynt companions in evil the one upholding and confirming the other the one by an unrighteous and tyrannical Sword the other by false doctrines and miracles till at last both are caught by Christ and his Armies and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Rev. 19.20 And if common tribulations were not enough for false teachers and their folowers Christ will cast them into a bed wherein they shall roul themselves in grief cover themselvs in grief and with great tribulation and if all this will not do to bring them to repentance for their wicked deeds and practises Christ hath another bed to cast them into a bed of death and destruction in the next verse And I will kill her children with death except they repent of their deeds Repentance is the only remedy against divine judgments turning from sin and turning to God will turn God's wrath from us and his love towards us See more hereon about repentance ver 5. and 16 of this cap. Vers 23. And I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reines and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works As the true church of Christ hath her children begotten and fostered up by the immortal seed of the word so false Teachers and Heretiques have their children also begotten by the spirit of deceit and falshood and nourished by errors and wickedness So this false Nicolaitish Prophetess had her children followers of her Fornication and Idolatry In the former verse we read of her Adulteries that doth commit fornication with her and promote her doctrines of Idolatries equally with her self and that Christ would cast them together into great tribulation except they repent and here we find their Issue children of the same cursed stock which Christ will aso shew no mercy to but kill her children with death that is will sweep them away in judgment not only with a violent and precipitant deatnh â—ut will also slay them with a death eternal Hence Note Observ 1. That children that tread in the steps of their wicked parents are envolved under the same judgments with themselves If we be partakers of our Father's sins it is just that we should be partakers of their punishments If we follow the steps of our faithful parents we shall have the same reward with them of our faithfulness in the latter day God giveth to every one according to his works the child shall not dye for the sin of his parent nor shall the child be saved for the faith or obedience of his parent For the Soul that sinneth shall dye And he that believeth shall be saved But as for the little ones that are uncapable of actual sin or faith their salvation or damnation is according to his will that sheweth mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens Rom. 9. Quest. But if it be demanded How will it stand with the justice of God to cut off little children which are innocent nor ever yet done good or evil together in judgment with their parents Answ Little children that had never committed actual sin even babes new born or in the womb doubtless perished in the floud and many in Sodome and yet without impeachment of or derogation to divine Justice First God can do it out of Soveraignty and absolute dominion which he hath over his creatures He is the Potter he that made the Vessel can break it he that gave life to babes can take it away and who can say why dost thou this Secondly all Infants are defiled with original sin and as the wages of sin is death so God can justly inflict death on them both temporal and eternal as the due wages thereof together with their parents Thirdly Little children are part of their parents substance and family and God may justly punish the living parent in his child by death as well as any others of his stock and substance as by a temporal punishment Fourthly Though God may often sweep away in his temporal judgments many little innocent children as by the Sword Famine c. and yet they not perish eternally for violent or sudden death is no Argument of God's hatred to them for many precious souls expire by a more terrible and violent death then that of the Sword Pestilence or Famine Fifthly and lastly For the comfort and the better support of the hopes of faithful parents for the well being of their little innocent dying infants whether they are taken off by God either by an ordinary death or in a common judgment let them understand for their comfort that God hath made an everlasting covenant of grace and salvation with Christ for all his Elect ones Gal. 3.16 Isa 53.11 12. and though the Infants of believers die before they can receive the promise of the Spirit by faith yet the chosen ones in Christ are secure by virtue of God's eternal love towards them in Christ being chosen in him from all eternity Ephes 1.14 and let me with reverence speak it Christ may as soon perish as one of them he being the head they the members making up one mystical church Had God ever cloathed himself with flesh in the person of the Son had it not been to lay down a sufficient price and ransom to divine Justice for all his ever beloved chosen ones And where there is such a predeterminating love as God's is towards his Elect and such an inestimable and compleat price paid for them as Christ's death is how can any such possibly perish without violation and impeachment both of divine Love and divine Justice This is a surer ground of the salvation of some dying Infants of believing parents then that that some Arminianising persons of these days do make to wit the parents faith the condition of the Infant 's salvation Dying Infants with those of that perswasion I leave these few following considerations First They should do well in the first place to produce that grant which they pretend to be in the Gospel covenant that the parents faith is the condition of their Infants salvation dying so but this will be done ad Graecas Calendas it savors too much of works of Supererrogation and Popery to be true Secondly If some dying Infants of believing parents are saved on the condition of their parents faith then all are so saved that dyes so before they have forfeited their condition by their own actual transgressions and if all of them are saved dying so then happier would faithful parents be to see all their children dy whilst Infants and innocent for then they should be sure of their salvation then to see them live for some of them must become reprobate and wicked for few godly parents have ever had all godly children Abraham had Ishmael as well as Isaac Isaac had an Esau as well as a Jacob Jacob had a Reuben Simeon and Levi. brethren