man that by no means it can be conceived how God at any time can be the cause of any sin because seeing sin is a defect it can have no other cause but a deficient one and God seeing he is perfection it self can no ways nor ever be deficient Use Of Direction that in all our speeches and thoughts we may keep Gods glory untouched and unspotted and confesse that all the good we have comes alwayes from him but that all the evill that either we doe or suffer ariseth not from him but from our selves Doct. 2. Through Adams first disobedience sin passed upon all his Posterity Nor did this happen onely by way of imitation as the Pelagians teach but also by way of propagation or natural descent This is proved by this Argument If this had onely come to pass by imitation then the Apostle might as properly have said that Adam with all his Posterity sinned in the Angels who first fell from God as to have said that all men sinned in Adam because they as much follow the example of the Angels as of Adam For it is expressely said vers 14. That death and so also sin reigned over them that sinned not after the similitude of Adam that is by the imitation of Adam therefore vers 19. men are said to be made sinners by Adams disobedience it self The manner of this propagation is taken up and understood 1. To stand in imputation because that first transgression was held as the transgression of the whole nature of mankinde For as in the receiving of the benefits and endowments that belonged to all mankinde Adam bore the place and person of all men so also it was but right and reason that he should maintain their place either in their conservation by obedience or losse by disobedience untill they were capable of standing to or falling from their primitive condition in their own persons Herein he was as it were the Surety of all mankinde so that what he did in this businesse was to be held valid by all as done in their names 2. The second degree of this Propagation stands in the derivation or traduction of that corruption which by our first transgression seised upon the person of Adam himself This corruption is usually called the languishing of nature the seed or tinder of sin the law of our members the law of the flesh lust and sin that dwels in us but most usually originall sin because it cleaves unto us even from our first original and is some way natural unto us to wit as in our nature corrupted also it is the original of all other sins for all actuall sins flow from this as from their fountain This corruption first and principally consists in the privation of original righteousness the absence whereof so far as it is penall is inflicted by God but as it is a privation having the nature of a fault to wit the losse of that rectitude or right constitution which we should have kept and preserved entire it depends upon that relation that all men have to Adam and to his first sin Now that such corruption naturally is found in all men is not onely proved from Scriptures but seems also to be confirmed by experience it self Reas. 1. For in all men there appears a manifest perversion of our wils and inward appetite as much as spirituall and truly good things are of no good relish to all animall and naturall men but the contrary evils which of their own nature have no good rellish seem to them most sweet Now as the perversion of the sensitive appetite doth denotate bodily sicknesse so the perversion of the inmost most spiritual appetite doth point forth unto us sicknesse that is inward and in the spirit The same also may be observed of the perversion of the judgement and understanding from whence come so many and shamefull errours whereby good is esteemed evill and evill good Reas. 2. It is manifest that there is in all men a certain rebellion of the inferiour and animall faculties and appetites against the superiour and most spiritual faculties of the soul which shews the ficknesse of the upper part as not having strength enough to govern the lower and again a disorder and confusion of the inferiour faculties whereby they will not be subject to their Superiour For as as every infirmity debility and perturbation in the body so also in the soul hath its cause of sicknesse disease or certain corruption from the depravation of other parts Reas. 3. There may be observed in all a certain natural crouching of our selves to things that are below us and a certain aversion and turning away from those that are above us and for which we were made so that there are few amongst men that live not more like beasts stooping naturally to their belly-food and bowing towards the ground than according to the nature of man whose body was erected to look up to heaven and seek after God Now as a crouching in the constitution and fashioning of the body is a sign of a bodily sicknesse so also this soul crouching of the spirit doth manifestly declare some foul sickness of the spirit Reas. 4. There appears manifestly in all men a certain insensibleness from nature it self in discerning of things truly good and truly evill howbeit there is a far greater sweetness in true spiritual good things than in corporall and a far greater bitterness and sowreness in spiritual than in carnall evils Now this insensibleness and spiritual blockishnes is a manifest defect and vice cleaving to us from our very original even as the want of any outward sense is a great defect and fault of the body Reas. 5. Experience teatheth with how great difficulty and slowness men are stirred up to things that are truly good therefore as it is the definition of a good habit that makes a man ready and quick unto good works so must it be an evill and corrupt habit whereby the contrary comes to passe because slowly and with difficulty men set themselves to any good endeavours Reas. 6. It is well enough known to all that man hath not the power to do so much good as he knows should be done and as he desires to doe Wherefore when one hath not the power to move the members of his body it is a manifest disease that hinders its motion so where one hath not the power to move himself spiritually it is a manifest spiritual disease as when there is difficulty of corporal motion and one moves his body with great pains it discovers a great weaknesse of his body even as this other doth a weaknesse of the spirit Use 1. For Humiliation by reason of this misery 2. Of Exhortation that we rest not till we perceive that by the grace of God we are freed from this misery 3. For Direction that in our Prayers before God and in all parts of our care for amendment of our life we may chiefly go about this that not onely in
our outward words and works as being but the rivulets and branches of our sin we be reformed but that in the fountain and root of this sin dwelling in us we may be cleansed and renewed The Fourth Lords Day Ephes. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience IN these words is contained an argument whereby the Apostle labours to perswade all the faithfull that they may keep themselves from those sinnes whereof he had made mention a little before The Argument is drawn from an adjunct that follows upon sin to wit the wrath of God of which sinnes are not onely the antecedents but also meritory causes certainly procuring it as is intimated in these words For these things The connexion of this effect with its cause is limited and confirmed 1. It is limited by a description of the subject wherein Gods wrath doth alway pursue sin in these words upon the children of disobedience 2. It is confirmed by rejecting of all vain shifts in these words Let no man deceive you The Explication by the wrath of God 1. Is understood Gods vindicative justice 2. His will to inflict punishment according to that justice 3. The punishment it self that is so inflicted And in this place most properly the punishment is understood which in other places is often called death distress severities hot anger and the like This wrath of God is said to come against or upon men because as it were coming down from Heaven it suddenly fals upon and overwhelms and holds as intangled in a net the sinners so that by no means they can escape it In the same sense that not unlike phrase is used Rom. 1. 18. by the expression of the children of contumacie or stubbornness upon whom this wrath comes those sinners are understood which can by no means be perswaded to leave their sins and seek God by true faith and repentance where this is to be marked that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be turned both children of incredulity and children of disobedience but it agrees better to this place to be turned children of disobedience and of rebellion because we read not this phrase the children of saith but of obedience 1 Pet. 1. 14. Doct. 1. Such mens condition is most desperate because they are not onely sinners but also stubborn in their sins It s gathered out of these words Upon the children of disobedience or stubbornnesse So they are named here as men whose condition is much to be abhorred and whose example and company is most to be shunned as appears from vers 7. be not therefore partakers c. Reas. 1. Because such men serve a most miserable servitude to a very base Master that is to sin for sin exercises a spiritual Kingly power and dominion over them because they do all that the lusts of sin commands them and can by no means be perswaded to shake off that slavish yoke and so much the lesse as they perceive that slavery by so much are they the more fully under its command because by this means it comes to passe that their very will it selfe and the spirit of their minde is possessed by this slavery and oppressed For as a brute or a man that comes neer to a brute serving some cruell Master takes no thought for that his condition because of his stupidity neither cares nor wishes for a better is a more full and perfect slave than some free-born and free-minded man who is by force constrained to serve one but yet under such servitude and force keeps a free minde even so it fares in this matter Reas. 2. Because such men are furthest off from repentance and so from the kingdome of God and from salvation For repentance doth most consist in the turning of the heart from sin to God by perswasion of the Word and holy Spirit And to this temper the obstinacy and unperswasibleness of such men is flat opposite who are not onely not perswaded to turn to God but are perswaded to the contrary that such perswasion of converting is not to be embraced or regarded for such are properly called the children of rebellion or disobedience As therefore those diseases are most mortal which admit of no cure and are but the more exasperated the more they are dealt with even so also is it with such kinde of men Reas. 3. Because these men do most grievously encrease their guilt in this that they withstand the means that God hath sanctified for procuring their salvation For while they will not suffer themselves to be perswaded to that conversion unto Faith and Repentance they directly fight against God and not onely so but in this very thing that he would and is some way striving as it were to save them Use Of Admâ—…nition That most of all we be carefull of this stubbornnesse or rebellion which is not onely to be understood in common of that conâ—…umacy whereby men refuse altogether to be converted but also specially and in every part of obedience For if we perceive that God calls us to this or that special duty t is then our part mainly to take care that even in that we present our hearts to God flexible and perswasible whereunto we are invited Doct. 2. Upon the children of disobedience certainly and unevitably the horrible wrath of God comes This is clear in the Text without any collection made from it That this wrath is horrible and altogether intolerable the Scripture every were testifies as Heb. 10. 27. Apoc. 6. 16 17. and elswhere And the thing it self doth sufficiently shew it if we consider Gods anger as to its intensness extensness and duration as to its intensnesse it is called in Scripture a consuming fire Heb. 12. 29. Now this fire of the wrath of God consumes not lightly or light things onely as in the superficies but as it is said Deutro 32. 22. Gods wrath set on fire will burn down to the grave c. Nahâ—…m 1. 6. Where there is a most likely pithy description By all which descriptions is signified that the wrath of God doth throughly peirce not onely into the body but into the soul and inward part of the spirit for which reason in many places of Scripture it is compared unto sharpe arrows peircing into the heart its self and consuming the spirit and life As to the extension this wrath of God contains in it all sort of evils whether corporal or spiritual whether in this life or at the end of it and in death or at death â—…ither belong those catalogues or inventories of curses that are found Deutr. 28. and Levit. 26. 3. As to the duration it remaineth upon impeâ—…ient sinners Iohn 3. 36. not for some short space but unto all eternity and without end For as that obligation whereby we are bound to render God all obedienees without end so consequently the transgression whereby sinners break that obligation is in a
agents and was against Christs internal natural inclinations and in some sort natural also as it was wrought by external causes naturally producing such an effect Yet it was voluntary not onely as to the willing disposition and choice of it whereby Christ set himself to suffer it but also as he suspended his own power of hindering it and averting death and so gave way and power to the enemies inflicting it in which respect also his death may be called miraculous or wonderful because he himself who was dying ordered his owne death and willingly admitted the same So that by doing he suffered and by suffering he acted and had his owne action in it all without which he could not have suffered by any creature whatsoever Reas. 1. Because it became him to dy so that was God For since the humane nature subsisted in the f◅me person with the divine nothing could befall the humane nature either in doing or suffering but as the divine willed and ordained it Reas. 2. Because otherwise Christ in his death had not been together both Priest Sacrifice and Altar For though it be the part of a Sacrifice to be passive and to be offered up to the Father yet it is the part of the Priest by being active about it and ordering the whole to offer up the Sacrifice Use 1. Is of Information for arming our faith against tentations and scandals which use to arise hence in that Christ in whom we believe as our God was subject to death For Christ died not of weakness and coaction but by certain resolution and of his own proper will and power so that the divine nature and power of Christ appeared not onely in his resurrection but if the thing be rightly considered had as great a hand and was as evident in his death also Use 2. Is of Direction for our preparation to undergo death in whatsoever way God would have it come to pass For from these two things that were in Christ that he both willingly underwent death and then also ordered it himself the first of these lies upon us all out of duty that we be ready at such time and such manner to dy as God is pleased we should The other though it cannot be performed by us because we have not the power of laying down our lives and ordering our deaths yet by faith and holy desire to our comfort we ought to seek this of God and look for it that in Christ who ordered his own death for us he would order our death unto our salvation and unto his own glory Doct. 3. Christ underwent this death by his Fathers command It is in the Text This command I received of my Father And this command was neither any of the law of nature nor of the moral ceremonial or judicial but it was a peculiar condition of the mediatory office that was laid upon Christ by the Father and of his own free consent It was therefore a command to the Messias alone as he was our Mediator Reas. 1. Because as by disobedience of the first Adam sin and death entered into the world so by the obedience of the second Adam righteousnesse and salvation shoud be brought us and as the disobedience of Adam was the breach of the command given to him so also the obedience of Christ was to be in the keeping of that command that was given him with his office of mediatorship or whereby the office it self was also imposed upon him Reas. 2. Because in Christ we were to have such an example of obedience as was most perfect in keeping the commandments of God Use 1. Of Resutation against the superstition presumption of popish Monks who have devised a kind of perfection in obedience of councells beside and beyond that which stands in keeping of the commandments of God when yet Christ himself that hath given us the whole pourtraict and pattern of perfect obedience confesses that he went no further than to obey that which the Father cōmanded him Use 2. Of Admonition that we may set our selves to follow Christ in this point that we may even unto death it self cleave fast unto the commandements of God Doct. 4. God the Father loveth Christ for this obedience This is in the Text Therefore the Father loveth me that is is delighted with this obedience and so delighted that he commends it to be looked upon by every Christian and all such as are Christ's Reas. 1. Because by Christ's death God was most glorified by Christ Ioh. 12. 18. and 17. 4. Reas. 2. Because by that death of Christ the counsell of God was fulfilled whereby he had from eternity appointed in himself to communicate his grace and glorious good will unto men Ephes. 1. 5 6 7 9. Use 1. Of Resutation against such as use to conclude from such phrases whereby God is said to love men for this and not for that that such mens works were the first causes of Gods love For Christ was the Son of God beloved of him from all eternity and yet the Father is said to have loved him also for his obedience Use 2. Of Consolation to all such as are in Christ by Faith For as the Father loveth Christ so will he also love them that are in Christ. Use 3. Of Exhortation that with all chearfulness we stir up our selves to obey God because God loveth such as obey him The seventeenth Lords day Joh. 10. 17 18. 17 I lay down my life that I may take it up again 18. None taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have authority to lay it down and I have authority or power to take it up again This commandment received I of my Father SEeing the Text is the same that it was before the same analysis that was there may here also serve and be made use of Doct. 5. Christ rose again from the dead For this is it that is understood in the Text by taking up his life again For this taking up again is a reunion of things that were separated before And in this reunion of the soul and body there was a change or motion from an inferior condition to a superior of that which was before in a better also or superior to this from which the change is now And therefore it is properly called a reassumption or taking again and not barely a resurrection The forme then from which this change was made was from his state of humiliation and the forme to which was the state of exaltation and glory the subject of this transmutation or motion was Christs humane nature which had fallen unto the lowest and abjectest condition of his humiliation Christ's own body arose again from true death and from the grave And his soul also is said to have risen again as it was now restored and reunited unto the body and so delivered from the state and dominion of death or as delivered from the privation of its act in the body wherein there was some
the godly look desiring nothing more than still to apprach nearer and nearer unto God The ungodly on the contrary shunne nothing more than God and such things wherein God hath appointed to shew and impart his gracious and singular presence Reas. 2. Because man's happiness not coming of man himself is therefore to be sought from without himself and that from his union or conjunction with the greatest good and that is the cause and fountain of all good Therefore of necessity it consists in communion with God and from deprivation of this communion greatest misery must needs follow Reas. 3. Because the perfectest act of our life is that which is most closely and intimately carried towards God as all that we do well consists in this that therein we live unto God and the privation of such acting its want and absence all misery must accompany Use Of Direction that even in this life we may wholly be taken up with this to seek communion with God and shun and take heed of all separation from him Doct. 7. The certaine signes and tokens of this blessing are good workes and of this curse are evill workes This is largely and clearly laid open in the Text. Reas. 1. Because good works came from the same grace or favour of God from which the blessing it self comes upon them and evill workes joyned with obstinacy and impenitency comes from that same malice and malignancy which God hath cursed and adjudged Reas. 2. Because God of his free grace hath promised the blessing unto good workes and of his unspotted justice hath appointed the curse unto evill workes Reas. 3. Because in good works there is a certain disposal and preparation of the way to obtain the blessing and in evill workes there is not onely the proportion of a way but of deserving or a mertitorious cause even unto the curse Use Of Admonition that we have great care of our actions through every part of our life because according to them men are either condemned or saved For such as the life is such is the end The twentieth Lords day 1 Cor. 6. 19. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own IN the words of the Text are contained a most powerfull argument against Fornication and the like sinnes and it is taken from the contrary end because the end of Christian's bodies is quite opposite to this sin And that end is declared from the subject possessed and possessor and indweller of it the Holy Ghost The subject is again explained by a Metaphor of a Temple because namely our bodies are as it were houses consecrated to him And that this argument may be made the clearer and stronger the Apostle ads that so the holy Ghost is the possessor of this Temple or house that he himself also is the indweller of it And both these relations that we have to the Holy Ghost are illustrated from their efficient cause to wit that they are of God and from their consequent effect and adjunct to wit faith and certain knowledge of these relations between our bodies and the Holy Spirit in these words Know ye not brethren c. Doct 1. The Holy Ghost is true and coeternal God with the Father and eternal Son The Text doth give many reasons for this Doctrine Reas. 1. Because to have one and the same spirit with God is all one as to be glewed or joyned to God vers 17. Reas. 2. Because a Temple is not lawfully consecrated to any but to God much less could it be lawfull that a man in stead of or for a Temple should be consecrated to that which is not God But here such a Temple which is most sacred is said to be consecrated to the Holy Ghost Reas. 3. Because the Holy Ghost is so said to be in us as that we become his of right and of duty that is God's rightfull possession as the scope of the words clearly demonstrate Use 1. Of Information for directing our faith arightly not onely unto the Father and Son but also unto the Holy Ghost as the same one and true God Use 2. Of Admonition that we diligently take heed to our selves that we neither contemne nor neglect any holy thing that comes or is breathed from the Holy Spirit as the whole Scripture is said to have come from the inbreathing or inspiration of the Holy Spirit and all the motions of godliness are onely attributed to the Holy Spirit as to their Author Likewise all the gifts of grace are bred in us from and by this Spirit of grace In these all therefore we must take heed that in no wise we resist the Holy Ghost or wittingly and willingly sin against him Doct 2. The Holy Ghost himself is given unto the faithfull This appears in the Text. Reas. 1. In that our bodyes are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost Reas. 2. In that he is said to be in us Reas. 3. In that we are said to have him or to get him from God Now the Holy Ghost is said to be given unto us when he hath a singular relation unto us and that for our good that is for our sanctification salvation of our soules moreover because he powerfully works these things in us that are agreable to his most holy nature and which can no way be derived to us from flesh and blood And hence it is also that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are called the Holy Ghost also by that trope or borrowed kinde of speech whereby the cause is put for the effect which Schollers call a Metonymie Use 1. Of Exhortation as well to thanksgiving to God that gives so divine a gift as to religious prayers and calling upon God's name that he would keep unto us and more and more communicate to us this divine gift Luk 11. 13. Use 2 Of Admonition to take heed of all such things whereby the Holy Spirit is said either to be grieved or extinguished that is from the grievousness of all such sin as fights against the holiness of this divine Spirit so that he cannot delight to dwell in us but wholly or in great measure withdrawes himself from us Doct. 3. The Holy Spirit is not communicated to our soules onely but to our bodies also It is in the Text when our bodies are also called the Temples of the Spirit Reas. 1. Because as Christ redeemed not our soules onely but the whole man so also the Holy Spirit ought to bring into subjection and possession the whole man to God and to Christ. Reas. 2. Because many duties of a spiritual life must be performed by the body also and therefore the body ought to be subject to the Holy Spirit and as a vessell or instrument be wholly in his power Reas. 3. Because our bodies are made liable to sin and by sin to death from which we must be freed by the Holy Spirit dwelling
politick as is found in worldly Cities or Commonwealths but unto a natural body such as is that of man Now it is called the body of Christ for its most neer union that it hath with Christ as being as it were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone as it is in the Text. Reas. 2. Because of that dependance it hath from Christ as its head For as all sense and motion of a sensitive creature is derived from the head into every particular member so also all spiritual vertue is derived by influence from Christ into his Church Reas. 3 Because of the union and communion that the faithfull have amongst themselevs in Christ which is the communion of Saints and the joynts whereby these members are coupled together The bonds also of this conjunction are the Spirit Faith and Charity By the spirit they are properly conjoyn'd with God in Christ and also amongst themselves but by Faith they are properly conjoyn'd to God in Christ onely and by Charity most properly they are conjoyn'd amongst themselves Use 1. Of Consolation to all believers because they are made partakers of so great dignity as to be assum'd to the body of Christ on which behalf they may also certainly expect all good things from Christ. Use 2 Is of Admonition that we dishonour not this most holy body of Christ with our life and manners but with all our care and diligence may go about this that our conversation may be such as is worthy of them that have so neer a conjunction with Christ and his most holy servants Doct. 3. The Church in that acception of the word as she is mystically considered is one onely holy and universally Catholike These things are understood of her mysticall estate because in her visible or external estate she is neither one nor Catholike nor altogether holy These things are thus gathered from the Text she is one because she makes but up one body of Christ neither hath he more bodies but one She is holy because she is said to be sanctified and purified by Christ to wit by separation from the world by pardon of her sins in justification by renovation of our inherent righteousness in sanctification of this life and perfecting of it in the life to come She is lastly Universal or Catholike because all the elect or faithfull of all Nations and of all times and places make up but one and the same mysticall body of Christ. Use 1. Is of Resutation against Papists who wrest all that are proposed to be believed and spiritually understood of Christs mystical body unto the Popish state of their Romane visible Church which is neither one because not now the same that she was when the Apostles wrote to her neither holy because by their own confession many Popes that is heads of the Romane Church were most wicked beasts nor is â—…he Catholike or Universall because it implies a contradiction that one particular Church as the Romane properly is should be Universall in any propriety of speech Use 2. Is of Consolation to all believers because in this very thing that they are actuall believers they are members of this Church that is proposed to us to be believed and they are in the same condition as to the main business in which the Patriarches Prophets and Apostles and all the Saints were that ever lived or shall live hereafter in any place or time of the world Doct. 4. Unto thâ—…s Church all those benefits relate and belong that Christ hath procured for men by his death It is gathered from hence because Christ is said to have done all that he did out of love to his Church Reas. 1. Because it was the wise purpose and intention of God gloriously by Christ to communicate his grace unto certain men For else the whole dispensation of Christ's incarnation life and death had been of uncertain success or event Reas. 2. Because Christ not onely promerited this but also brings it to pass and that to perfection by his efficacy or power Use Of Consolation chiefly to all true believers For whatsoever is said of the whole Church in common is extended unto each member of the same because the Church is nothing else but a collection of believers or believers considered as gathered together or conjoyned in one body or multitude The two and twentieth Lords day Phil. 3. 20 21. Verse 20 For our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. 21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself A Reason is given in these words why believers should rather follow the true Apostles than false Teachers and it is taken from the comparison of unlike things The unlike qualities are a care for the things of the world in false Teachers and a care for things heavenly in the true Apostles This care of the Apostle is illustrated by a double argument 1. From the adjunct manner which is set out to us by the similitude of Burgesses 2. From the efficient cause of this care which is faith and hope of the glory that is to come This glory again is illustrated 1. From its principal cause which is Christ Jesus 2. From the subject of it which is extended also to the body and not to the soule alone 3. From the quality of the body which is pointed out to us by a similitude with the body of Christ. 4. From the virtue and power of that efficient cause aforesaid for producing such an effect which is no other than omnipotency according to that mighty power whereby c. Doct. 1. The resurrection of mans body is certainly to be This is taught in the Text 1. In that a transmutation of our bodies is determined on 2. In that it is said they shall be made conformable to the body of Christ which by its resurrection was raised unto glory The foundations or grounds of that article are two The power of God and the truth of the Scriptures as Christ himself teacheth in his answer to the Sadduces Ye erre to wit about the resurrection now knowing the Scriptures and the power of God By the power of God the raising of our bodyes again is possible it being as easie to God to do that as at first to make all things out of nothing yea as to make man out of the clay of the earth For it is easy to conceive that the same efficient cause can again joyn the same principles which once before he did conjoyn and moreover made them all out of nothing As for the Scriptures the truth and certainty of this resurrection is expresly declared by its testimony Reas. 1. Because man was created for eternity and therefore must be set free from death which assaults the whole race of man kind against its nature that so it may again attain to eternity Reas. 2. Because
the soule cannot come to its perfect and compleat glory by its reunion with the body because it would be as it were maimed as to such faculties the operations whereof it exerciseth by the body and so in some sort it should remain as it were blind deaf dumb c. Reas. 3. Because the equity of divine dispensation requireth this that those bodies which had their own share in the labours and workes that belong unto this life should also have their share in such rewards as belong unto the end of this life Use Is to establish our faith about this truth which is one of the principal articles of the Christian faith Doct. 2. The same bodies that we had as to their essences and natures shall arise again though not the same as to their dispositions and qualities This is hence gather'd that in the Text our bodies are not onely said that they shall be transfigured by which phrase we are to understand that the substance of our bodies shall remain the same and that the outward figure or fashion or manner of its disposition and complexion shall onely be changed But also that they are said that they shall be transfigured after the manner of Christs body For Christ had the same flesh and bones which he had before and this he made manifest unto his Disciples Reas 1. Because neither reward nor punishment would have any place in the body after its resurrection unless the very same bodies were restored to men whereof they made use here upon earth before either for doing evill or doing good Reas. 2. Because otherwayes after the resurrection the party should not remain the same man determinately this man that man or that he was before Reas. 3. Because it is as easie to God to glorifie the same bodily substance that he had before as any other Use Of Resutation against such Hereticks who having almost blended their own dogmatical fictions and phancies with the true Doctrine would also have our bodies after the resurrection not to be the same but new ones even as to their substance Doct. 3. Perfection glory and eternal happinesse shall be given to believers after that in the resurrection they shall be clothed with their bodies again It is in the Text. This glory is partly in the soul and partly in the body but in both there shall be a removal of all imperfection and a communication of all perfection which shall be thought fit for every one to receive In the soul shall be the fruition of God whereby all desire of desirable things shall be in a certain eminent way satisfied There shall be also an abundantly heaped perfection of all gifts and virtues as is in the blessed Angells This glory shall also so stream forth unto the bodies that they shall be like unto heavenly bodies which is the point chiefly expounded in the Text Our body shall be made conformable c. Reas. 1. Because it is God's purpose singularly to glorify himself in that supernaturall blessednesse that is to be given unto us Reas. 2. Because Christ already glorified is not onely the efficient cause but the pattern of our glory We shall not therefore have onely such a likenesse to Christ as is between any effect and its cause according to that maxime as the cause is such is the effect But also that proportion which is between the pattern and its pourtraict Reas. 3. In order of dignity by the bountiful appointment of God believers shall next after Christ have their place together with the blessed Angells Use Of Direction that we may often set before our eyes in our meditation the greatnesse of this glory unto which we are called that so we may both stirre up thankfulnesse in our selves to God and a certaine holy contempt and neglect of all things in this world Doct. 4. This resurrection of our bodies from the dead and the glorification of them shall be by the most powerfull operation of Christ. From these words According to that mighty power of working he should transforme c. And this agrees to Christ as he is one and the self same God with the Father Reas. 1. Because it is the work of that supereminent greatnesse of power that is proper unto God 〈◊〉 1. 19. Reas. 2. Because that most wonderfull quickening of our bodies should come from the living and alive-making God who is the fountain and source of all life Therefore in the same manner it is not attributed onely to the Father but also to the Son and Holy Spirit Rom. 8. 11. This agreeth also to Christ as he is Mediator but still as united unto God essentially also as he submits himself together with the humane nature in one person to be mediator Ioh. 5. 26. and 6. 40. Reas. 1. Because it belongs to the Mediatory office of Christ not onely that by his merit he should procure life eternal to us but also by his powerfull working actually bring the same to pass Reas. 2. Because Christ as Mediator is the head of his Church from whom is derived and communicated to us the Spirit of life whereby as well our soules as our bodies are quickened our soules especially in this life and our bodies in the day of the resurrection Reas. 3. Because Christ as Mediator and as the Son of man but as united pesonally in the Godhead in the Son of God shall judge the world Ioh. 5. 27. Now this belongs to the power of the Judge that he can bring before himself and make the parties to be judged to appear Use Of Direction that by all meanes we do this as in our prayers so in our meditations and other our spiritual exercises to wit that we may behold this supereminent power and greatnesse of Christ's might as the Apostle wisheth to the Ephesians and to us as one of the greatest gifts of God Ephes. 1. 17 18 19 20. For by this meanes 1. Our faith and confidence in Christ is established 2. We will be forearmed against all terrours of this world and of Hell it self 3. With all cherefulnesse we shall recommend our soules to Christ in well-doing because he is able to performe all that he hath promised all that we seek of him and above all that can come into our thoughts Doct. 5. We should so look for this glory to come in this present life as that we lead in some sort an heavenly life â—…ven here upon earth This is it which is said in the beginning of the Text We behave our selves as Burgesses or Citizens of Heaven Reas. 1. Because where our treasure or chief good is there will our hearts be also and where the â—…cart is there will the whole man be if therefore we have our treasure and chief good in Heaven our heart will be in Heaven also and our conversation will be heavenly Reas. 2. Because all these worldly things whereabout men are busied and most are drowned in can never come in competition with the blisse of Heaven
his minde which he attained to by this means and of that in the rest of the verses This confirmation is declared by a double reason First By an adhortation which he useth towards his enemies vers 2 3 4 5. Secondly By a profession of his confidence that he had in God from the sixth verse to the end of the Psalm In this profession of his confidence the Royal Prophet sheweth that he places his chief felicity in Gods favour towards him And this profession is first illustrated from a comparison with a very unlike and vanishing care of worldly men that they have concerning their owne happinesse or felicity verse 6. Secondly From the effect of Gods favour to wit that it brings with its self wonderfull gladnesse to the mindes and consciences of those that have received it verse 7. In which words the reason and cause is given of the former confession And then this gladness is illustrated by a comparison of a less joy or gladness which yet by the world is taken for a full joy and that is the joy that arises from the plenty and abundance of the goods of this life verse 7. Lastly this profession of the Prophet is illustrated from another effect that it brings with it to wit security and safety from fear and all cause of fear the true cause whereof is placed in Gods protection verâ—… 8. That all these things may be the better understood we must know and observe for the explication of the words that by many in this place all are understood because what is here attributed to many 〈◊〉 to all Secondly That by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not heer understood properly an externall and vocall spâ—…ech but the inward affections desire and endeavour because this saying is affirmed of such also as abstain from outward speech and perhaps cannot speak Thirdly That by this exclamation Who will shew us any good a vehement desire is imported Fourthly That by good all and every thing is understood which appeares delectable whether it seem profitable pleasant or any other way desirable Fifthly That by lifting up of Gods countenance upon us by a constant phrase of Scripture is understood the communication and manifestation of Gods gratious presence and favour for it is a metaphor or speech that seems to be borrowed from the Sun arising and spreading abroad the beams of his light whereby he brings a certain lifâ—… and gladness to all creatures here below Doctrines from hence arising Doct. 1. Our chief felicity and happiness ought above all other things to be regarded and sought after and that throughout our whole life This Doctrine is thus raised and gathered In that David proposeth this as his onely comfort which he regarded in the time of his affliction and which he would regard all his life time Now by the chief good that properly is to be understood wherein our felicity consists in which felicity is contained an affluence or fulness of all desirable good things And this chief good as it is imperfectly here attained to and possessed in this life is properly called our consolation or comfort It is called Comfort because it is that which as it were strengthens and comforts the minde and makes it strong and firm against all oppressing pains griefs and terrours for consolation or comfort is properly a mitigation of pain and grief or a remedy against sorrow and fear Reason 1. The first reason of this Doctrine is because in this chief good the end of our life doth consist and the end in all things is chiefly to be looked on because whosoever doth any thing not in order to a fixed end he doth it but rashly and without reason So he also who lives without having his eye still fixed upon his chief good lives but rashly and at randome and like unto a brute and unreasonable creature Reas. 2. Is because from the regard we have to this end all our actions are to be governed whereof these onely can be called right which as it were in a right or streight line tend to this end and all others are wrong and like crooked lines or by-pathes turning out of the right and streight way He therefore that lives without regard to this chief and last end doth just as he that intending to shoot at a Butte would not yet look at the mark but let his Arrow loose at randome or as he that would commit his Ship to the wind and waves never looking to the load-starre or having any care of the haven whereunto he would arrive Reas. 3. Because the chief good is of chief excellency and worth and therefore also deserves to have the chief place in our thoughts studies and cares Whoso therefore neglecting this suffer themselves to be taken up with other things are like unto children who misregarding commonly things of 〈◊〉 worth busy themselves altogether with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The use of this Doctrine is for reproof against such as seldome or never think of the end and mark whereunto their life should tend and are not carefull about that perfection and chief good whereunto they ought mainly to contend and such mens lives are neither Christian nor rational but rather brutish and bestial Doct. 2. Is this That a mans chief good or happiness cannot be found in the goods of this life And this is gathered from verse 6. where this opinion of worldly men that it may be found in such things is rejected as vain The meaning of the Doctrine is that a mans happiness consisteth not either in riches or in honours or in renown or in power or in any goods of the body nor yet in pleasure nor in any perfection of the minde nor in any other the like created good Reas. 1. Because such goods do not make the man himself good and therefore neither can they make him happy but they are common to the worst of men as well as to good men 2. Because such goods are oftentimes the instruments and means of sin and misery 3. Because there is none of them which ought not to be referred to a further good therefore in them cannot consist the last chief and perfectest good 4. Because none of them can perfect the soul and spirit of man 5. Because most of these goods are common to beasts with men and yet beasts are not capable of happiness 6. Because oftentimes it is a mans vertue and perfection to neglect and contemne such goods so that such are the best and perfectest men that make least account of these outward and worldly goods Use. The use is of reproof against such who esteem as much of these goods seek after them as lawfully keep them with as great care when acquired and are as loath to leave them as if they placed their true and onely bliss and happiness in them Doct. 3. Is That our true and chief good consists in our union and communion that we have with God This is gathered from these words Lift up the light of thy countenance
upon us O Lord. The meaning is that God himself is our true chief good as well effectively as objectively because he alone makes us happy as the efficient and makes us happy in himself as the object that is by communicating himself unto us according to that modell of the Covenant I will be thy God I will be thy rich reward And that our communion with God is our formall or inherent happiness which is wont to be called the vision oâ—… seeing of God and the beatificall vision Now to see God in Scripture-phrase signifies not either the sight of the eyes or the bare speculation and beholding with the understanding but the full fruition and enjoyment of God as farre as 〈◊〉 makes for our blessedness And to this fruition and communion we attain by Jesus Christ our Lord and therefore this consolation must be referred to Christ as to its cause and all that belongs to our happiness must be acknowledged to come by him Reas. 1. Because there is nothing else that can bring 〈◊〉 solid quiet peace to our soules or satisfie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the nature of man for all other things 〈◊〉 well noted by Isa. 35. 2. to be things unsatisfaâ—… where also on the contrary the fat and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our soules is said to consist in this 〈◊〉 communion And this same in like manner is preached unto us in severall places of the Psalms That 〈◊〉 the Lords House that is in the communion that we have with God our soules are filled as it were with fâ—…t and marrow Psal. 83 6. and 65. 5. And as any naturall body out of its own place hath never that kindly and naturall rest which it desireth So also man standing without God is as it were out of his own place and so cannot rest with true and solid contentment Also as nothing which is less can fill up the whole capacity of a vessell that is bigger so nothing that is worldly can 〈◊〉 up the capacity of our soules and that because our soules are of an higher and larger capacity than 〈◊〉 whole world is Reas. 2. Because there is no other thing without or besides God which for its self is in the last place to be desired For all things ought always to be referred to God because he is the first efficient and last end of all things Therefore as one going a journey can never perform it so long as he stayes at half the way but ought to proceed to the end thereof So they that stick either at any creature or at any worldly matter which are but parts of the way whereby we ought to be led unto God can never arrive at the end and perfection of their life Reas. 3. Because there is no other independent good for he that trusts in him that depends on another is not sure in his trust because the other is uncertain in that he depends upon anothers pleasure Reas. 4. There is no other good that can be imparted to all and every man together and at once that are heires of happiness For that which is wholly communicated to all and every one at once and together ought to be infinite Reas. 5. Lastly There is nothing else which either in it self is free from all mixture of imperfection or can keep us free from all kinde of evill or make us partakers of all sorts of good Use 1. Of Exhortation to seek God and his face and favour above all things else whatsoever Use 2. Of Comfort for the faithfull who have God for their God in Christ for they are partakers of that chief good and so are truly blessed or happy whatever otherwayes befall them in this world Doct 4. Is That joy that the faithfull have from the commiâ—…ion that they have with God in its sweetnesse surpasses all other humane delights and Joyes This is gathered from vers 7. and from 1. Pet. 1. 8. from these places this Doctrine may be illustrated and cleared as from the place cited and such like Reas. 1. Because this joy is about the true and chief good and other worldly joyes are either about false and counterfeit goods or about such as in comparison of the chief are but light and of no great value There is a great difference between these joyes as is between the phansie and affection of a childe that is moved by the picture or resemblance of meat or drink or of some other delightfull thing and that affection that men feel in themselves arising from the use of convenient 〈◊〉 meat drink after great thirst hunger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the conjunction and presence 〈◊〉 this good is â—…ost intimate and inward to our 〈◊〉 for it doth not onely tickle the senses whether external or internal but it also seizes upon and possesses the soul it self and spirit of our mind Hence it is also that in Scripture Ps. 103. not onely the soul but all that is in a faithfull man is said to 〈◊〉 in God In this respect there is as much difference between this spiritual joy and that worldly gladness that arises from other things as is between the small besprinkling of the earth with the Morning or Evening dew and the through wetâ—…ing of it with a plentifull and seasonable rain Reas. 3. Because all other worldly joyes are â—…ding temporary and but for a moment and doe often end in mourning and sorrow Whereas that spiritual joy endureth to eternity as doth the good from whose possession it ariseth In this regard also there is as much difference between this spirituall joy and gladness and that of this world as is between the flame of straw or of thorns burning under a Pot and the light of the Sun it self Reas. 4. Because worldly joy is overcome and interrupted by the travails and afflictions of this life and much more by terrours and anguishes of Conscience but this spiritual joy doth so overcome all other afflictions and swallow them up that not onely it makes a man to rejoyce while he is in them but also to rejoyce of them and for them Act. 5. 41. Iam. 1. 2. Use 1. Of Admonition That we suffer not our selves to be deceived by the pleasures and delights of this world so that they may not in the least take us off from seeking of God as the Apostle saith That the afflictions of this world are not worthy that eternal weight of glory which we expect in heaven For indeed we ought to think of the pleasures of this world as not worthy to be compared with that spiritual joy whereunto we are called in Christ and in our God through Christ. For such as are led away by the pleasures of this life from seeking that solid joy in God do as if they should rest in the smell of meat or drink and should so think to feed themselves neglecting the solid food it self untill they perish for â—…inger Use 2. Of refutation against that carnal imagination of the world whereby many think
suffering was the perfecting of all his obedience Reas. 2. Because Christ by his suffering made satisfaction to divine justice and repayed God as much of his honour in our name as he had suffered in it by our sins Therefore Gods justice is now appeased the grace of God hath had its free course that it may derive all good upon us Reas. 3. Because that Christ now by virtue of his passion and consummate obedience as it were of his own right that he acquired makes intercession with the Father for us that we may be and live with him Ioh. 17. 24. Use 1. Of Consolation to the faithfull against the guilt of their sin and terrors of their conscience that arise from sin For in Christ and his sufferings we have a remedy against these wounds that are otherwayes deadly Use 2. Of Admonition that we would detest all sinnes as things that brought our Saviour to death and would wave brought a thousand deaths upon us unless he had turned them away from us The sixteenth Lords day Joh. 10. 17 18. Therefore the Father loveth me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again None taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This commandment received I from my Father CHrist in these words expounds what he had said before of the duty effect and signe of a good Shepherd to wit that he layes down his life for his sheep This he had applied to himself verse 15. where two things were propounded 1. The Object to which this laying down of the life is referred or which be those sheep of Christ 2. The manner of this laying down the life This is explained in the 16 and these two following verses The death of Christ or laying down of his soul or life is explicated from the efficient cause which is Christ himself I lay down my life 2. From the manner of doing of it that Christ is a cause voluntary and doing it from a counsell and deliberation not of coaction None taketh it from me but I lay it down 3. From the adjunct of this efficiency that he did it not of weakness but from power I have authority to lay it down This is shewn from another effect that followes this to wit from his resuming it again or his resurrection I have authority to take it up again as if he would say he that so layes down his life that with power he takes it up again he layes it not down out of coaction with weakness but voluntarily of his own accord he doth it But I so lay downmy life ergo Which is illustrated here from the impulsive cause the Fathers commandment This commandment I received of my Father 4. From the end and effect to wit the Fathers love and delight or complacency in this Therefore my Father loveth me because c. Doct. 1. Christ so far humbled himself for us that he underwent death it self for us I lay down my life c. Now he underwent a double death for us a spiritual and a corporal death The spiritual is about Christ's descent into Hell This consisted in the separation of God's favour from the soul of Christ for a time not really but as to sense and feeling and that influence from which comfort useth to be felt as also in impressions of divine wrath which with horror did strike all the faculties of the soul so that for the time the soul was at so low an ebbe and concussion of all its happiness as any creature could be that was without sin formally inherent in it self The death of the body is that which consists in the separation of the soul from the body the confirmation and continuance was in the burial of Christ. Now such was the separation of the soul from the body in Christs death that the conjunction and union of both of them with the divine person remained the same that it was before as if one drawing a sword held the scabberd in the one hand and the sword in the other there would be there a separation between the scabberd and the sword but of neither of them from the man that so held them So also in this mystery there is a separation of the soul from the body but neither of them was separated from the divine nature nor person but the person still sustained both in the unity of it self as one person with him The reason is because if there had been any such separation from the di vine person then the second person had ceased to be God-man and so could not for that time have been our Priest or Mediator Also a new incarnation or assumption had been made again in the resurrection of Christ. It is most true therefore which is in the mouthes of many Divines and used proverbially almost That what the Son of God assumed he never laid aside again Reas. 1. Because the perfection and consummation of humiliation is in undergoing death Phil. 2 8. And this also was the first reason why he did not onely undergo death but the most vise contemptible and contumelious death that is the death of the Cross as in that place is more especially set down Reas. 2. Because his charge of redeeming us required this to wit that he should pay that price to divine justice which we did ow and so be subject to the same punishment that we were liable to And this was also the reason why he chose the death of the Cross that he might shew that he did not barely sustain death but that cursed death that was due to us and that in our place or for us Gal. 3. 12. Reas. 3. That by the most convenient way he might procure the death of sin in us by assimiliation and making us conform to himself Rom. 6. from verse 1. to the 8. Use 1. Is of Information for directing of our faith â—…o wit that while we seek remission of our sins and reconciliation and salvation in God we so have our faith in Christ that we may be specially united to him in his sufferings blood-shedding and death Rom. 3. 25. Use 2. Is of Consolation to all those as have such true faith because they are out of all hazard of death or condemnation according to that of the Apostle Rom 8. 34. Use 3. Is of Direction 1. In the study of Sanctification that with Christ we may dy to sin 2. In the study of all obedience love and humility according to the example of Christ in whom all the perfections of these vertues we have marvelously shining to us in a most eminent and excellent way Doct. 2. Christ ordained his own death from certain wise deliberation and power to dispose of it as he pleased I have power to lay down my liâ—…e From which words it appears first that the death of Christ was voluntary For though it was violent also as it came from external
diminution in its ralative perfection There were two parts of this resurrection revivification or a quickening again of the humane nature by the renewed union of soul and body and its going out of the grave to make it manifest that it was restored This resurrection was confirmed moreover by Angells by the Scriptures by Christ himself and by the assent and eye-witness or experience of many witnesses in divers apparitions reiterated from time to time during the space of forty dayes Reas. 1. Because it was unbeseeming and impossible that the Son of God and author of life could be long detained by the power of death Acts 2. 24. Reas. 2. That by this means Christ himself might be justified in the spirit or according to the spirit of holiness that is by the power of his God-head justified to be God as well as man in one person justly and fully declared and proved to be God by his raising of himself again from the dead Rom. 1. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 16. and might shew that we were justified by him from our sins for which he died and rose also again to shew that he had overcome for us and delivered us from them Rom. 4. 25. Reas. 3. That being now alive he might powerfully apply to us what before he had purchased by his death Rom. 5 10. Reas 4. That he hereby might be the cause foundation and sign of assurance and earnest to us of our resurrection as well spiritual as bodily Rom. 1 Cor. 15. 12 13 14. Use Is of Information for the direction of our faith that believing in Christ unto justification and salvation we may so lay hold on Christ's death that we still also look upon his resurrection wherein his victory for us was shewn and his power over death and efficacy to work in us appeared and which renders his death full of comfort to us Rom. 5. 34. 1 Pet. 3 2. Doct. 6. Christ's resurrection came to pass by his own proper vertue and power It is clear in the Text I take it up again and I have power of taking it up again For this is the difference between Christ's resurrection and that of others that they rise again by the power of another to wit of Christ as many as are his But Christ by his own power as Lord of life and death and therefore hath the disposing of both as he sees good Neither doth it make any thing against this truth that it is often said that God raised him again from the dead and the Spirit of God For the works of the Trinity from without are undivided common to all the three Persons Reas. 1. Because what is thus attributed to God is therefore also attributed to the Son together with the Father and Holy Spirit and is not taken from him as is clear by our Text. Reas. 2. When Christ is said to be raised by God or the Spirit of God then properly his humane nature is considered as raised by Father Son and Holy Spirit though not alwayes all three expressed but now one now another But when he is said to have raised himself his divine nature and person is spoken of and considered as raising his assumed humane nature together with the Father and the Spirit Reas. 3. Because by the Spirit and glory of God whereby Christ is said to be raised no other vertue or power can be understood than that of the divine nature which was in Christ. Use 1. Of Information to confirm our faith about the person of Christ. For he that by his own power â—…rose from death can not be a bare man onely but must of necessity be acknowledged to have been God also For the raising of a dead body is no less divine a work than the creation of a live body He that raised himself from the dead at the same time while he was dead in one of his natures yet had life and the fountain of life in his other nature to wit the divine at his command whereby he did so great a work as to raise his other nature to life again As Christ therefore by his death proved himself to be true man so also in and by his resurrection he proved himself to be the eternal and natural Son of God and true God especially not by office onelie and that most manifestly Use 2. Of Consolation to all such as are in Christ. For they are in him who hath vertue and power to raise them again from the dead and to give them eternal life Iohn 6. 39 40 Doct. 7. Christ's resurrection was for us or to do us good This is hence gathered because in the Text the common end of laying down his life and taking it up again for all is mentioned For for such as he laid down his life for such also he took it up again Now the resurrection of Christ turnes to our good in another way than his death doth For his death hath the account of satisfying and deserving for us But his resurrection not so but it hath the place and account of a samplar and efficient cause and some way of an efficacious and powerfull applier and perfecter Reas. 1. Because Christ in his resurrection represented some way all the elect of God and by a virtuall containing had them all in himself and brought them all back from death Reas. 2. Because the same Spirit that raised Christ again from the dead by a certain sort of communicating the same resurrection quickened as well the soules as bodyes of the faithfull that they may be made conforme to the likenesse of his resurrection Rom 8. 11. Reas. 3. Because that same Spirit quickens us by the power and vertue of the resurrection of Christ. Reas. 4. Because the whole reparation of our nature will be after the image and pattern of the resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. 5. Use 1. Of Consolation because in the resurrection of Christ as brought to pass for us or for our good we have our victory over Death Devill Sin and Hell and all our Enemies ready purchased and prepared for us It is not therefore left to us to fight that we may overcome but onely in sincerity that we may mind this to lay hold on the victory already acquired by Christ for us and that in the same manner we may strive to keep it prosecute it and more and more put ourselves in perfect possession of it by faith in Christ. Use 2. Of Admonition that by no means we suffer sin to reigne in our mortal bodies but that we may spiritually imitate such as arise from the dead The eighteenth Lords day Mark 16. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God HEre is explicated a singular act of Christ after his resurrection Where mark 1. The motion wherein the act is designed And 2. The thing brought to pass by that motion The motion is but the means The thing done by the motion was
rewards and punishments were more justly and equally to be distributed where it should be ill with evill men and not well at all and should go well with good men and not ill at all Which reason seems also to be confirmed by our Lord himself Luke 26. 15. and the Apostle Paus 1 Cor. 15. 19. Now after this life while the Soul remaines separate from the body the judgement of God is not compleat nor fully accomplished because it is not passed upon the whole man in his full being as he was in this life while he committed the things that were to be judged Therefore another and fuller â—…udgement than that on the souls departed onely followeth to be looked for which is this last judgement and shall be certainly in its own time Reas. 2. It is most convenient agreeable to Gods glory that God in by Christ in a most glorious manner should make manifest before all as well Angels as men as well his mercy as his justice that he might have the publick and solemne glory of both mercy and justice and this is the thing that at that time is topass come in that universal and last judgement Reas 3. This belongs also to the glory of God the joy of the faithfull and just confusion of the unfaithfull that before their faces they may see the promises and threatenings of God almost perfectly and accurately fulfilled not onely particularly on their own persons now in the body as before death but universally upon all others both men and Angells Which shall then onely be when this last and universal judgement shall be held Use 1. Of Information that we take care to have our faith and hope solidly confirmed and strongly rooted about this article least we be any wayes troubled with prophane blasphemies and mockings of Infidells and Heathens who first cast downe and trample upon the profession of this article by their life and manners and then also by words and speeches fight and dispute against it Concerning whom we are admonished by the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. c. Use 2. Of Admonition that with all fear and trembling we watch over our wayes as those that certainly mind and look for the day of this judgement 1 Pet. 1. 17. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12. Doct. 2. Our Lord Iesus Christ will be Iudge in this judgement Reas 1. Because it belongs to his Kingly office and power whereby he was made Lord and King and had all judgement committed to him Reas. 2. Because Christ is he from whom and by whom the faithfull have salvation adjudâ—…ed unto them even in this life and from whom also unbelievers have death adjudged unto them Now it is the same judgement that in this life both wayes is begun and in the last judgement shall be fully manifested and perfected Reas. 3. Because at that time it is that Christ should fully and actually triumph over all enemies and opposite power and crown all his own servants souldiers and adherents And this is most conveniently and gloriously done in forme of publick and solemne judgement Use Is of Consolation chiefly to the faithfull because they shall have him for their Judge whom they received for their Redeemer Justifier Sanctifier and Intercessor or Advocate from whom therefore they may with all confidence expect all good Doct. 3. Christ's glory at that time shall be incomparable It hence appears from the Text that if the Angells so glorious shall then be his Ministers of State and attendants and his Throne with all the rest of that procedure shall be so glorious it mmst needs be that Christ himself be excellent in glory above all that we can think of Reas. 1. Because the exercise of this judgement belongs to the manifestation of Christ's highest exaltation Reas. 2. Because the very end of his coming was to give glory to such as sought God in him It is fit then that Christ appear in greatest glory Reas. 3. The majesty of the supreme Judge of the world and the terror and confusion of his enemies that they must be put to require that he should come clothed in the greatest glory Use Of Consolation to the faithfull against the crosses and contempts they are liable to in this world together with Christ because as now they are partakers of the cross of Christ so then they shall be partakers of his glory Doct. 4. In this judgement the condition of the godly and ungodly shall be quite unlike and opposite one to another This is taught in the Text by the separation of the sheep from the goats by the right hand and the left by â—…ome ye blessed and go ye cursed Reas. 1. Because there is a great unlikeness and opposition in the lives and wayes of the godly and ungodly while they are in this world Reas. 2. Because there is a great dissimilitude or opposition between the promises that belong to the godly and the threatenings that belong to the ungodly Reas. 3. Because there is great disparity and opposition between the manifestation of greatest mercy and of greatest execution of justice Use Of Admonition that we separate our selves from ungodly men as much and in such manner as we can that is if we cannot separate in places yet in internal affections as well as external conversation we should be as unlike unto them as can be in that wherein they are ungodly Doct. 5. The cause of any blessing to the godly is the mercy of God but the cause of any caâ—…se to the ungodly is their own sault This is clear in the Text when the godly are called blessed of the Father But the ungodly barely are called ye cursed not of the Father nor from the Father nor from God because though it is God that curseth them yet the first cause of this curse is in their sins Reas. 1. Because all good is from God who is the greatest good and chiefly good in himself But all evill of punishment ariseth from evill of fault and this evill of fault is from the creature it self breaking the Law and Order that God hath set to it Reas. 2. Because the blessing of life is the meer free gift of God but the curse of death is the reward or wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Reas. 3. Preservation from the curse which is by Gods favour is necessary for our blessing but to incur the curse there is nothing more needfull but onely to neglect or contemne that way that leads unto the blessing Use Of Direction that we may alway give God the glory in every good thing that we either have or seek or look for and alwayes blame our selves for any evill that befalls us Doct. 6. The blessing of the godly consists in the communion that they shall have with God in Christ and the curse of the ungodly in the separation of them from such communion This is plaine in the words come ye blessed and go ye cursed Reas. 1. Because this is the end whereunto all
are made partakers of this mystery by eating and drinking 2. Is about the manner of this action which is specified to us in the word 〈◊〉 And this manner is again contained in three acts whereof the 1. is that which is set in the last place that every communicant discerne the Lord's body 2. Is that he try himself 3. Is that he furnish himself with such a disposition as is worthy of so great a mystery And these three acts are set down in these three words discerning the Lord's body let a man examine himself and he that eats 〈◊〉 drinks unworthily Doct. 1. All our work that is ours onely in the Lord's Supper is to eat and to drink the body and blood of Christ. It is gathered from these words Let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup and not discerning the Lord's body Reas. 1. Because this is the Sacrament of our spiritual nourishment in and by Christ. Reas. 2. Because in the very institution of this Sacrament no other thing is prescribed but that we should take eat and drink to wit as the signs with our bodies so the body and blood of Christ spiritually or by faith to the nourishment of our soules Reas. 3. Because nothing else is represented in the external signes and actions but this nourishment on Christ which by the institution of Christ is in this Sacrament used Use Of Refutation against Papists What the difference is between the Supper and the Popish Mass because Papists have taken away the Sacrament that was instituted by Christ and have set up in its place the Sacrifice of the Mass that was devised by men And this is the difference between a Sacrament and a Sacrifice that the formal reason of a Sacrifice consists in this that in it men offer something to God and God receives something from men But the formal reason of a Sacrament is in this that God offers something to men by visible signes and men receive it from God on the conditions and manner that he offers it In this Supper God offers Christ unto us for our spiritual nourishment and we receive Christ as the food of our soules by eating and drinking of him by faith Hence the popish Mass is a meer stranger to Christ's institution while they make its principal use to be a Sacrifice for the quick and the dead and while they officiate their private Masses wherein the people neither eat nor drink while in the publick Masses they take away the cup from the people so that though they eat in some sort yet they drink in no manner while they hold up the Host or Sacrifice that is the consecrated bread and wine rather to be adored and worshiped than to be eaten or drunk while lastly they do all this in an unknown tongue so that the people cannot understand either what or how they should eat or drink Doct. 2. That we may rightly partake in the Lords Supper it is chiefly required that we rightly discerne the Lords body By this discerning of the Lords body is understood an act of the understanding whereby we observe the difference between this bread thus consecrated to be a signe and exhibitive seal of the Lords body that is of all his benefits and graces to our faith and common bread Or it is that judgement of our mind whereby we have a right apprehension and pronounce right sentence concerning this whole mystery or business The want of this discerning is that which is reproved here by the Apostle Reas. 1. Because without judgement and prudence agreeable to the thing undertaken nothing can be rightly or perfectly done or performed Reas. 2 Because in the Sacraments where the external appearances are bodily and gross and yet a spiritual mystery or secret as to sense lies hid in them there is need of spiritual heed and judgement that we may rightly pierce and dive into that spiritual secret it self Reas. 3. Because the want of this discerning brings with it a prophanation of this holy feast as appears by the example of the Corinthians For who so discerne not what it is about which they are busied can never fit themselves so as to behave themselves arightly in handling of such a business Use Is both of Direction and Exhortation together that every one earnestly set his mind and iudgement arightly to discerne before he come to the table of the Lord what it is that is there done and what it is that himself should there do Now the special points that ought by all communicants to be discerned are these 1. The occasion and necessity that there was that Christ should be broken and given for us and to us which was no other but the deepest guilt of our sin heaviest punishment due to it and the misery that to us would thence have followed 2. The proper cause and reason of this donation which was the infinite mercy of God towards us 3. The manner in which Christ was given for us which was both in body and soul to the sufferance of death though they were the soul and body of God personally that by this his obedience we might be both freed from death and the consequent of its misery and made partakers of all the blessings of grace and glory and happiness which were in him prepared for us and he had deserved to us 4. The meanes by which Christ is thus applied unto us and made ours as in this Sacrament externally by the signes of eating of bread and drinking of wine and internally by the operation of the Holy Ghost and our faith stirred up by him to rely upon Christ for life and nourishment and growth unto life eternal and all the blessings aforesaid Doct. 3. The second duty required unto a right communicating or partaking of this Sacrament is that we seriously examine or try our selves The object of the former duty was the Supper it self instituted of God The object of this is our selves wherein by a reflex act we behold and consider our selves that we may understand how our disposition and condition agrees or disagrees with the nature and use of this institution And this inquiry should be made with greatest care and diligence as the word used for it doth sufficiently express wherein is properly expressed the Goldsmiths pains in diligently trying of silver and gold that he may know true coyne from false Reas. 1. Because it would be in vain to discerne the Lords body unless we discern aright also how our selves agree with or disagree from the Lords body and whether we have such requisites as necessarily we must for the saving participation of his body For in the Sacrament there is a mutual relation between the gift offered and our receiving of it nor doth it bestead us at all to know of what sort and how precious the gift is unless we know also that our selves are such as to whom this gift doth belong Reas. 2. Because great is the deceit of mans heart whereby men
of life and death over us not of the body onely but of the soul or that which is eternal 3. That we believe all and rest in them by true faith which he witnesseth and proposeth unto us because otherwayes we cannot give him the glory of his omnis◅ience truth c. 4. That with certain hope we look for all that he hath promised because also we cannot give him the honour of the truth of his promises unless with belief of them we be so affected with them as to desire and hope for the accomplishment of them 5. That with greatest love we cleave to him as the chief good because as the quidditative notion of God doth its self denotate the Fountaine and Author and so the possessor of all highest and most perfect goodnesse so the honour due to God contains in it that affection that is raised up by the meditation and apprehension of the chief good which is pure and perfect love 6. That we expresse all these duties and exercise them by a devout hearing of his Word and calling upon his name with the like exercise of divine worship because we can neither powerfully be affected about the honour of God without such operations wherein such affections are put forth neither is the honour we owe to God contained within the bounds of individual disposition or affection Nor lastly can a lively affection of honouring God be cherished or kept in our minds without such means whereby it is as well begotten in us as preserved and improved Use 1. Is of Reproof against such as think they have God for their God and keep this command well enough if they deny not God with their mouths though they never rouse up themselves to give God this honour before spoken of Of which sort of men are all such as 1. deny not themselves that they may be wholy subject to God and his will 2. All such as rest in their ignorance 3. Such as endeavour not to build up themselves in true Faith Hope and Love 4. Such as contemn or neglect the exercise of Piety publick or private of all these it may truly be affirmed that while they endeavour not thus to give God his due honour they have him not really for their God Use Is of Exhortation that by such considerations we stir up our selves to a greater care of Piety unlesse we would be like such as are without God in this world and so can look for no other than to be separated from God in the world to come Doct. 7. Who so giveth this honour or any part of it to any other than God they set up a false God to themselves and so are Idolaters It is gathered from this Ye shall have no other God That is give not this honour to another that is not true God by nature or essence For against this cōmand men sin three manner of ways 1. If we give not this honour to God 2 If we give it to another that is not God 3. If we fight or dispute against God or this honour of his Who so sin against God in the first way they are prophane in the second they are Idolaters in the third they are enemies to God Use 1. Is of Refutation against Papists who give a great part of this honour to creatures Use 2. Of condemnation against such as have their minds so fastned to worldly things that it may be truly said of them that they have their affiance hope and love chiefly placed in them concerning whom the Apostle warns us that they have their belly for their god and their substance riches and the like The thirty fifth Lords dayes Exod. 20. 4 5 6. Verse 4. Thou shalt not make to thee any graven image or the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth 5 Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor worship them nor serve them for I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments VVE have here the second Command and the sanctification of it It concerns the means of worshipping God It is expressed by Negation and Distribution of means and description of the use that is wont to be exercised about such means The Distribution is taken from the places of the means Heaven Earth Waters The Description is from the Adjunct of Adoration or bowing down to them The Sanction consists in a threatning and promise the nature and ratifying power whereof is expounded from the nature of God I am Iehovah thy strong God This command is distinguished from the former in that there essential and natural worship of God was commanded but here accidental and of free institution And this instituted worship as to the Negative par◅ is declared Synecdochically by an image because by the abuse of images this worship of God useth most to be violated Doct. 1. In such way and by such means God is onely to be worshipped as he hath commanded himself to be worshipped by his word This is gathered from this Precept in that by image is to be condemned all will worship brought in by men so that no other is approved but that which himself hath prescribed This Doctrine seems also to be clear in these words Thou shalt not make unto thy self that is at thine own pleasure and as thou likest best thou shalt bring no worship to God For although this phrase hath sometimes the sense thou shalt not make any thing so as to have it for thy self alone yet both the short and comprehensive manner of speech in the Decalogue and the matter it self that is here handled perswade us that it should be here taken in the former sense This Doctrine is expressed Exod. 23. 33. Deut. 12. last verse Reas. 1. Because God alone knows what is acceptable to him and sutable to his nature and will Reas. 2. Because the whole blessing and fruit of our worship that we owe to God depends on him and it is not for us to prescribe to God by what means he should work on us or we blesse him Reas. 3. Because worship not commanded hath not the nature of obedience in it But it is Gods will and it belongs to his honour that by obeying we worship him and by worshipping we obey him Reas. 4. Because such is the vanity and futility of mens imaginations in things divine that if it had been left to us to choose unto our selves the means of divine worship it would have been turned all into traditions and vain observations as experience witnesseth that the Devill by this way hath led away men into empty superstitio◅s almost through all the world Use 1. Is of Refutation against Papists who have defiled all parts of Divine-worship with their Will-worship traditions of mens devising and
men and as it were a spiritual or City oâ—… Commonwealth wherein every one is bound to procure the common good and advance it as much as he can Reas 3 Because God in such duties is glorified and according to the power and occasion given us there ariseth to us a calling and a divine allowance whereby we are in special manner to perform this duty Use. Of Exhortation to all sorts of duties whereby the life of our Neighbour may be cherished as â—… To a care of peace and love 2. To patience 3. To courtesie 4. To pitty mercy and bounty 5. To spiritual almes of Instruction Exhortation Admonition Consolation as occasion shall require Hither also are such sinnes to be referred as we commit against our owne lives as drunkennesse surfet the evills of whoredomes and uncleanness and the like and contrarily those duties whereby we ought to procure and further our owne comfort both of life and health as also of body and soul The forty first Lords day Exod. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit Adultery IN this seventh Commandment are handled such duties as belong to the begetting propagating of humane life For these have place next after such as belong to preservation of life which were ranked in the sixth Commandment which takes care for continuing the life of this and that party in particular but this seventh Commandement of all men in general By name then one special impurity and dishonesty is onely forbidden but by the usual Synecdoche or comprehensive sort of speech all others of that kinde are understood whether disordered actions like unto this or whether such as tend either of their owne nature or of the intention of the doer to the furtherance of such impure acts Doct. 1. We ought out of conscience towards God to keep our selves from all impurity and unchastity Reas. 1. Because sins of this kind bring disorder into such things as belong to the propagation of mans life and so tend some way to the corrupting of mankind Reas. 2. Because from such sins a sort of most inward uncleannesse followeth in the person or body of man whence it is that the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 18. distinguisheth this sin from all others in that others are without the body this in and against the body it self though there be some other sins that seem to be in and against the body as drunkennesse surfet c. yet they neither so inwardly arise from the body nor so directly affect it and primarily as these lustfull dishonesties Reas. 3. Because from this kind of uncleannesse followeth that dishonouring of our owne bodies the contrary whereof is naturally due to them and to our persons as appears â—… Thes. 4. 4. Reas. 4. Because these impurities in a special manner withstand inward holiness as appears both from that place of the Thessalonians where holinesse is conjoyned with the honour of the body in opposition to this uncleannesse and from that to the Corinthians where our bodies by these faults are said of temples of the Holy Ghost and of members of Christ to become the members of an Harlot Use Of Admonition that with the greater care and conscience we shunne all such uncleannesses which ought so much the more to be called to mind by us as the depravednesse of mans nature useth most to appear in these kind of sins because they are most common most prevalenr and keep strongest dominion in him possessing the whole man in whom they are and that most deeply and with a kind of violence and force Hence it is that in Scripture they are called a burning because they burne up all in their way and by little and little consume the whole man as fire doth the thing that it burnes more especially we ought to keep our selves 1. From that lust which is properly called carnal that we be not subject to or obey the affections and dispositions of it 2. From all outward conversation whereby such lust is cherished and furthered in our selves or in others as are 1. Such thoughts as with pleasure and delight are taken up and used about unchast matters 2. Wanton apparel and behaviour or which savour of wantonnesse or cherish it 3. Filthy and unclean communication either in common discourses or songs 4. Unclean company and wanton representations as are commonly in Stage-playes and interludes pictures and rooms hung with such c. 5. All occasions and provocations to lust as idlenesse drunkennesse surfetting and the like 6. Most of all the acts themselves of unchastnesse in whordome adultery fornication and the like Doct. 2. By vertue of this command we are bound to study all cleannesse of soule and body that belongs unto procreation This is commanded in the same words that the contrary faults are forbidden by according to the constant use of speech in the decalogue Reas. 1. Because this cleannese is a part of our inward sanctification Reas 2. Because from this part of our sanctification a special sort of honour ariseth 1 Thes. 4. 4. While our bodies are not made drudges for the fulfilling the base and vile affections of the flesh but are applied unto nobler uses Reas 3. Because this purity is needfull that we may be fit to worship God as we should For carnal impurity where it prevailes and gets the dominion it not onely presses downe and burthens the minde so that it cannot raise up it self unto spiritual thoughts and affections but also it infecteth with contagion and pollutes those very thoughts and endeavours whereby we seek after and breath for spiritual life Use Of Admonition that we indulge not nor allow the inclinations of our corrupt natures in these things nor suffer our selves to be carried away with the evill manners and examples of the vulgar sort who in this kind are more beasts often than Christians but let us alwayes be thinking how we may keep our selves clean as well from these lusts of the flesh as from other sins This cleannesse is maintained by modesty and temperance Modesty is herein kept if neither by words nor by gestures nor by any other such way we uncover as it were without reverence what nature tells us should be covered and hid and be ashamed of the uncovering Temperance or sobriety consists in the keeping a moderation or measure in the pleasures of the flesh or body especially in meat and drink The cleannesse or chastity as to the diversity of manner is divided into chastity of single life and chastity of mariage For mariage is appointed now since the fall by God to be a meanes of keeping this cleannesse or chastity in things that belongs to the generation of mankinde We ought therefore to have a care 1. That we so marry as that it be in such cleannesse that is with such a person in such a manner for such an end that from a good conscience it may be said that the contract or bargaine was made in the Lord and in his fear 2. That it be used and exercised