salvation 4. 2 Pet. 3. Obs 4. Great is the hainousnesse of sin that can provoke a God of much mercy to expresse much severity That drop of gall must needs be bitter that can imbitter a sea of honey How offensive is sin that can provoke a God to whose ocean of pity the sea is but a drop Ephraim saith the Prophet provoked God to anger most bitterly Hos 12.14 or with bitternesses God afflicts not willingly he gives honey naturally but stings not til provoked Every sufferer coyns his own calamities There is no arrow of judgment which falls down upon us but was first in sinning shot upwards by us no showr of miseries that rains down but was caused by the ascent of the vapours of sin no print of calamity upon the earth but sin was the stamp that made it What a folly is it in our sufferings to be impatient against God and to be patient towards sin to be angry with the medicine and in love with the disease Let us justifie God in all our sufferings and condemn our selves God commands that if a man were found dead the City that by measure was found to be neerest to the place where he was found Deut. 21.2 should offer up a sacrifice In all our deaths and woes would we measure impartially we should finde sin neerest let us sacrifice it 5. Obs 5. It should be our care to obtain the best and choycest of mercies God hath mercies of all sorts wicked men are easily put off with the meanest their enquiry is Who will shew them any good But O Christian let nothing please thee but the light of Gods countenance so receive from God as that thou thy self mayst be received to God Desire not gifts but mercies from God not pibbles but pearls Labour for that which God alwayes gives in love There may be angry smiles in Gods face and wrathful gifts in his hand the best worldly gift may be given in anger Luther having a rich present sent him profess'd with a holy boldnesse to God That such things should not serve his turn A favourite of the King of heaven rather desires his favour than his preferment We use to say when we are buying for the body that the best is best cheap and is the worst good enough for the soul The body is a bold beggar and thou givest it much the soul is a modest beggar asketh but little and thou givest it less O desire from God that thy portion may not he in this life Psal 17.14 that what thou hast in the world may be a pledg of better hereafter that these things may not bewitch thee from but admonish thee what is in Christ The ground of Pauls thanks-giving was Ephes 1.3 that God had blessed the Ephesians with spirituall blessings in Christ. 6. Obs 6. How little should any that have this God of mercy for theirs be dismayd with any misery Blessed are those tears which so merciful a hand wipes off happy twigs that are guided by so indulgent a father Psal 25.10 All his severest wayes are mercy and truth to those in covenant if he smiles 't is in mercy if he smites 't is in mercy he wounds not to kill thee but sin in thee the wounds of mercy are betthan the embraces of anger if sicknesse poverty dishonour be in mercy why dost thou shrink at them Wrath in prosperity is dreadfull but Mercy makes adversity comfortable It s the anger of God which is the misery of every misery Peter at the first was not willing that Christ should wash his feet but when he saw Christs mercifull intent therein feet and hands and head are all offered to be wash'd A child of God when he sees the steps of a father should be willing to bear the stripes of a child God will not consume us but onely try us He afflicts not for his pleasure but for our profit Heb. 12.10 Psal 89. God visits with rods yet not with wrath He takes not away his loving-kindnesse Mercy makes the sufferings of Gods people but notions It would do one good to be in troubles and enjoy God in them to be sick and lye in his bosome God gives a thousand mercies to his people in every trouble and for every trouble He burdens us but it is according to our strength the strokes of his flail are proportioned to the hardnesse of the grain Is◠28.27 and merciful shall be the end of all our miseries There 's no wildernesse but shall end in Canaan no water but shall be turn'd into wine no lions carcass but shall be a hive of honey and produce a swarm of mercies The time we spend in labouring that miseries may not come would be spent more profitably in labouring to have them mixt with mercy nay turned into mercies when they come What a life-recalling cordial is the apprehension of this mercy of God to a fainting soul under the pressure of sin Mercy having provided a satisfaction and accepted it nay which is more it beseeching the sinner to beleeve and apply it That fountain of mercy which is in God having now found a conveyance for it self to the soul even Jesus Christ through whom such overflowing streams are derived unto us as are able to drown the mountains of our sins even as easily as the ocean can swallow up a pibble O fainting soul trust in this mercy Psal 33.18 and 147.11 If the Lord takes pleasure in those that hope in his mercy should not we take pleasure to hope in it Mercy is the onely thing in the world more large than sin It s easie to presume Exod. 34.7 Psal 77.7 but hard to lay hold upon mercy Oh beg that since there is an infinite fulnesse in the gift and a freenesse in the giver there be a forwardnesse in the receiver 7. Obs 7. It s our duty and dignity to imitate God in shewing mercy Obs 7. 1 Pet. 3.8 Matth. 5.45 Luke 6.36 Col. 3.12 Rom. 12.15 Plus est aliquando compati quà m dare nam qui exteriora largitur rem extra se positam tribuit qui compassionem aliquid sui-ipsius dat Gr. Mor. 20. A grace frequently commanded and encouraged in the Scripture Mercy we want and mercy we must impart As long as our fellow-members are pained we must never be at ease When we suffer not from the enemies of Christ by persecution we must suffer from the friends of Christ by compassion When two strings of an instrument are tuned one to the other if the one be struck upon and stirred the other will move and tremble also The people of God should be so harmonious that if one suffer and be struck the other should be moved and sympathize Jer. 9.1 Luke 19.41 2 Cor. 11.29 Holy men have every been tender-hearted Grace not drying up but diverting the streams of our affections Christ was mercy covered over with flesh and blood his words his works
by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those among the Latine by the word Genii It properly is a word which intends the office of angels and signifieth no more than messengers or those who are sent at the command and by the commission of their superiours And yet it comprehends and recalls to mind the essence of Angels which is considerable before the office and without which the office is but a meer notion Briefly therefore for the explaining thereof I shall consider 1. The nature and essence 2. The office and imployment of Angels 1. For their essence Angels are spirituall and incorporeall creatures subsisting by themselves 1. By the name of spirits the Scripture useth to expresse the essence and nature of angels Nomen spiritus nomen est naturae Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 104.4 Heb. 1.14 and it s used both to denote good and bad angels of the former its said he maketh his angels spirits a place cited in the New Testament Heb. 1.14 Of the later 1 Kings 22.21 22. its said There came forth a spirit to perswade Ahab to go to Ramoth Gilead Who afterward proved a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets And Mat. 8.16 when they brought to Christ many who were possessed with divels the Evangelist immediately subjoyns that hee cast out the spirits with his word And our Saviour plainly expresseth that such persons who have not flesh and bones and such are angels are spirits Luk. 24.39 Nor is it imaginable but that those are spirits of whom a legion that is at least six thousand according to Hierom may be in one man but this is clearly asserted concerning the divels or evill angels Luk. 8.30 Where it s added that many divels were entred into the man Nor can any but spirits get entrance into bodies without moving or hurting them and into prisons and other places when closely shut up and most narrowly watch'd 'T is true angels have often appeared in humane bodies and shapes The Son of God before his incarnation as also the holy Ghost afterward did so and yet it followes not hence that their essence is corporeall as neither can it be evinc'd that soules are corporeall because Moses appeared to the Disciples in an outward shape These their bodies might either be such only in shew and appearance or if they were true bodies they were only joyned to them for a time by Gods power and afterward resolved againe into their own principles as also were their garments which the angels did wear while they conversed with men And whereas * Tertul. lib. de carne Christi et contra Praxeam Aug. de Trin. lib. 2. c 7. lib. 3 c. 1. De div Daem cap. 3 5. l. 15 c. 23. de Civ Dei Bern. ser 5. in Cant. Angeli compa ratione nostrorum corporum sunt spiritus sed comparatione summi et incircumscripti Spiritus sunt cor pora Greg. Mor. l. 2. c. 2. Angeli non sunt absolutè simplices compouuntur ex actu potentiâ ex subjecto accid eutibus ex esse essentia Polan Synâ—ag 1779. pag. sundry of the Fathers have asserted that the angels are corporeall and have bodies of their own they are to be understood commonly as speaking of them in comparison of God as if though being compared with us they are spirits yet compared with God they are bodies And certain it is that angels are not spirits purely and altogether simple as God is who only is that most simple Spirit and yet it s conceived by learned Zanchy that their bodies are more refined subtil and pure than either bodies aeriall or celestiall which were created out of the first matter and that the substance of the bodies of the angels is very like to the substance of the heavens of the blessed or the Empyrean wherein he saith they were created and which are of a corporeall substance but far more excellent for their purity than the other heavens From this spirituall nature of the angels flowes their immortality incorruptibility or immutability for since they are immateriall and free from all contrary qualities composition of matter and forme and the contrariety of qualities being the causes of intrinsecall corruption they are rightly termed incorruptible Indeed only God is simply immutable who is a being of himselfe and not by participation and every creature is mortall mutable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and may be brought to nothing by him who made it of nothing should he only withdraw his sustaining power Easi in angelorum naturg nul la propriè est potentia passiva propter quam possunt dici corruptibiles propter potentiam tamen Dei activam à qua illorum esse dependet simpliciter dici incorruptibiles non possunt Zanc. de op Dei But a thing may be said to be mortall and corruptible two ways either by a passive power which is in it self or by an active power which is in another and upon whom it depends now although in the nature of angels there be no passive power wherby they are corruptible yet in respect of the active power of God upon which their being depends they cannot simply be termed incorruptible because if God withdraw his power they would instantly perish though denomination being from the nearest and internall cause they may properly be call'd incorruptible 2. Angels are true subsistences or substances by themselves and separately subsisting The Sadduces of old and the Libertines of later ages have held that angels are only certaine inspirations motions and inclinations of the mind and that the good of these are the good angels and the bad of these the bad angels But that they are Vera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they are substances and truly subsist by themselves is most clearly evinced 1. From their creation Accidentia sunt concreata Psal 104. Actiones sunt suppositorum God created no accidents separately from their sustances accidents were concreated in and with their substances But angels were created by themselves and not in any subject 2. From their actions they praise God they worship the Son they are heavenly messengers they assume bodies defend the faithfull they have wrastled eaten been received as strangers had their feet wash'd c. they shall gather the Elect from the four corners of the earth they shall come with Christ to judgement none of which actions could be done unlesse they were substances 3. From their endowments they have life power understanding wisdom they are immortal they are excelling in strength some things they know not as the day of judgement Some of them sinn'd others abide in the truth 4. From their happinesse and misery Some of them behold the face of God and are blessed and glorious Mat. 18.10 Mat. 25.41 Mar. 12.25 others are punish'd in everlasting fire prepared for the divell and his angels 5. From that likenesse which we shall have to them in heaven where we shall be
as the Angels Shall we there cease to be true substances This for their Essence 2. The consideration of the Office of angels follows and this the word Angels properly denotes Angelus nomen officii spiritus naturae Aug. in Psal 104. Luk. 7.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nuncii legati Mat. 11.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex co quod est spiritus est ex eo quod agit angelus est Aug. ubi sup Mal. 3.1 Dan. 4.17 which is not a word expressing the nature but the office of angels and the words both in the Hebrew and Greek intend the same they importing messengers or such as are sent The word Angels or messengers is applyed in Scripture both to good and bad angels 1. To good angels most frequently who are those ministring spirits spoken of Heb. 1.14 and are in Scripture more commonly called by a name of office than of nature because God delights in their service and they themselves are more glad of obeying God than of their very being In regard of office that Christ himselfe accepted the name and is called the Angel of the Covenant They are by God sent forth for the good of his people Hence they are called watchers ministring spirits c. And for those who shall be the heirs of salvation they minister three wayes 1. In their life 1. By defending them from their enemies Their angels saith Christ always behold the face of my Father Matt. 18.10 Apoc. 12.7 2 Kin. 6.16 Psal 91.11 Dan. 10.20 Psal 34.7 Isai 37.36 Act. 12.23 Michael and his angels fought in defence of the Church and the prophet Elisha spake of the angels when he told his fearfull servant that there were more with them then against them The angels of the Lord pitch their tents about them that fear him An angel it was that slew the army of the Assyrians that delivered Peter out of prison as also preserved Lot 2. By comforting them Thus an angel encouraged Jacob Gen. 32.5 when he feared his brother Esau an angel it was who bid Mary not to fear Luk. 1.30 and who stood by Paul and bid him be of good chear Act. 27.24 when Daniel had fasted an prayed and angel it was who said O Daniel greatly beloved c. And afterward fear not Dan. 9.13 10.19 Luk. 22.43 Mat. 28.5 The women at the sepulchre meet with an angel who comforted them Yea an angel appeared unto Christ and strengthned him The servant comforted the master 3. By inciting and stirring them up to holinesse and in furthering their salvation they suggest nothing but what is agreeable to the will of God they can no more suggest a doctrine contrary to that which is revealed in the Scripture Gal. 1.8 Rev. 22.16 Act. 7.53 Gal. 3.19 Luk. 1.31 Act. 1.11 Rev. 19.10 Act. 8.26 Act. 10.5 Act. 12.7 than they can be accursed The law was revealed by the disposition of angels in respect of their service and attendance in the giving thereof by an angel was the incarnation of Christ foretold to the virgin and by a multitude of angels was it proclaimed afterward These instruct the Apostles concerning the coming of Christ to judgement and forbid the worshipping of themselves as idolatrous An Angel leads Philip to expound the Scripture to the Eunuch sets Peter at liberty to preach the Gospel bids Cornelius send for Peter to be instructed by him Act. 16.9 and prayes Paul to come over to Macedonia to help them namely by preaching the Gospel 2. In and after their death An angel strengthned Christ when he was in his great heavinesse of soul Angels conveyed the soul of Lazarus into Abrahams bosom Luk. 16.22 he who living was lick'd by dogs is now dead attended by angels The glorious angels are as forward to carry the souls of the faithfull to heaven as every one is to share in the bearing the body of a great prince to the grave The good angels in this work of conveying souls are thought to watch for prevention of the bad who alwayes seek to devour the Saints living and dying At the end of the world the angels shall be the glorious attendants of the great Judge shall cite all to appear and shall separate between the good and the bad gathering the elect from the four winds Mat. 24.31 from one end of the heaven to the other so that there shall not one be lost 2. The term Angels or Messengers is also in Scripture bestowed upon the wicked and unclean spirits Thus it s said Diodat Annot. Psal 78.49 1 Cor. 6.3 that God sent evill angels among the Egyptians and of this the Apostle speaks in that Scripture Know ye not that we shall judge the angels and 2 Pet. 2.4 He spared not the angels that sinn'd And these evil angels are imployed 1. In exercising the faithfull with tentations which God alwayes turns to their good Job 1. Luk. 22.31 these angels stir up terrors against the faithfull inwardly and troubles outwardly Satan sent his messenger to buffet Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 Apoc. 2.10 He casts the faithfull into prison He casts his fiery darts sometime tempting and alluring at other times affrighting and dismaying 2. In being the executioners of Gods displeasure against the wicked whom for their wickednesse 2 Cor. 4.4 Gal. 3.1 God delivers up to these wicked angels to blind harden and bewitch them with sin and then to drive them to despair for sin Satan imployes them as slaves in the basest of work and rewards them as slaves with the smartest of stripes often in this life as in the case of Saul and Judas and Abimilech alwayes after it both by dragging away those soules to punishment who have followed him in sin and by being a tormentor afterward of those of whom first he was the tempter OBSERVATIONS 1. Observ 1. How glorious a majesty is the God of Angels If the lowest of earthly creatures if a spire of grasse a worme an ant speak his wisdome and power how much more do those glorious spirits who excell in strength and understanding How pure and simple a being is that God who is the father of all these spirits How glorious he whom angels adore and before whom principalities fall down How strong is he who with one word of his mouth made so many thousands of those angels one of whom overthrew an hundred fourscore and five thousand men in one night How wise he who is the father of all that light which angels have and which is but one ray of his sun Infinitely greater is the disproportion between one God and all the angels than between all those glorious hosts and the least ant upon the molehill How can that king of glory want forces who hath such a militia so many thousands of such Chariots to ride upon Psal 68.7 such a heavenly host as all the millions of angels Wonder O man that this Majesty who is furnish'd with the attendance of angels should
meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
he live how close is he in duty how fruitfull in conversing But I alass how feeble how dead how unable I am held under by a tyrant oh that I could be his death 6. By recollecting its former folly in loving of sin thinking thus Formerly I loved that which now I see would have murdered me What a deal of pains care cost time laid I out to satisfie my lusts oh that I could recall these follies as I recollect them but since I cannot make them never to have been I 'll labour to hinder them for time to come Oh that my hatred might be greater then ever my love was to them A soul that hath been mad upon sin afterward is as vehement against it This is the Apostles argument As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleannesse Rom. 6.19 1 Pet. 4.3 so now to righteousnesse and The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles 7. By with-drawing those things that have been as fuell and fodder to corruption Fire is put out as well by taking away wood as casting on of water A sin-mortifying heart forbears the using of that which it hath heretofore abused it knows that often Satan lieth in ambush behinde lawfull enjoyments He that hath taken Physick in wine afterward is ready to loath that very sort of wine in which his loathed medicine was given him he that hath been sin-sick dreads those tentations in which Satan was wont to wrap sin up he considers that he that alway goeth as far as he may sometime goeth farther then hee should he feeds not without fear Jude ver 12. but trembles in every enjoyment lest it may be an in-let to sin and his own corruption get advantage by it he fears a snare under his very trencher and poyson for his soul in every cup of wine especially if he hath been formerly bitten therby Whereas a carnall heart engulfs it self in occasions of sin if in themselves lawfull sees no enemy and therfore sets no watch he makes provision for the flesh Rom. 13. he cuts not off the food which relieveth his enemy whereas a Sin-mortifier as an enemy that besiegeth a City hinders all the supplyes and support of lusts that so he may make himself more yeeldable to holinesse 8. By re-inforcing the fight after a foyl by gaining ground after a stumble by doubling his guard after unwarinesse strengthening the battell after a blow praying more earnestly contending more strenuously laying on more strongly after sin hath been too hard thus Paul was the more earnest with God against sin he besought the Lord thrice after the messenger of Satan had buffetted him 2 Cor. 12.8 9. By a holy vexation with the constant company and troublesom presence of sin Thus was holy Paul put upon opposing of sin he complains sin was always present with him Rom. 7.21 even when he would do good And sin is call'd Heb. 12.1 encompassing easily besetting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It dwells in us It s a leprosie not ceasing till the wall be pull'd down the house of our mortality dissolved it s as neer as the skin upon the back bowels in the body it goeth along with a saint in every duty Sabboth Ordinances like Pharaoh's frogs into the Kings chambers pestering a Saint at every turn the apprehension hereof puts the soul upon endeavouring sins ruine The neerer an enemy is the more hatefull he is the closer the conflict is the quicker are the strokes the fiercer the fight To conclude A holy insulting and rejoycing in God follows if at any time he hath given the soul victory and any fore-skins and heads of these uncircumcised it blessing God as Panl Rom. 7.21 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord going about duty more cheerfully and yet humbly A man may read the good news of a victory in a Saints countenance Doth he not say to Christ when some lust hath been smitten as Cushi to David I would that all the enemies of my Lord were as that one young man Lord When will there be a perfect riddance of these vermin Oh how sweet will heaven be when I shall trample upon every Goliah and see every Egyptian dead upon the shore when I shall have neither tear in my eye nor lust in my soul This for the first thing in the nature of Sanctification viz. Mortification 2. The second follows which is Vivification wherby we live a new and spirituall life The Scriptures proving it are abundant I live saith Paul Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 The life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 As the death of Christ is the death of corruption so the same power of God by which he raised Christ from the dead Eph. 1.20 doth frame us to the life of Christs holinesse Christ by the power of his Deity wherby he raised himself having derived spirituall life to all his members as life is derived from the head to the other members enableth them to manifest it accordingly As Christ was raised up from death by the glory of the Father even so we walk in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 and ver 11. Reckon ye your selves alive unto God through Jesus Christ Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Joh. 15.5 He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit These brief considerations may shew in what respects a sanctified person lives a new life a life of holinesse 1. A sanctified person liveth a holy life in moving and acting from a principle of holy life All vitall actions are from an inward principle A body without a soul lives not moves not naturally nor without an internall principle of spirituall life received from Christ doth any one live spiritually The body of every living creature hath a heart which is the forge of spirits and the fountain of heat Joh. 3.9 Jer. 32.40 Jer. 31.33 True holinesse proceeds from an implanted seed the fear of God in the heart the Law put into the inward man Sanctity unlesse Christ be in us is but a fable Gal. 2.20 Rom. 6.11 Joh. 15.5 Gal. 4.19 Col. 1.27 Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle and so he speaks of living to God by Christ Christ must abide in us he is formed and dwelleth in us The actions of a sanctified person are from a vitall principle the spirit within the holinesse of another is but from without beginneth at his fingers ends he is drawn by outward inducements his motions are not the motions of a living creature but like those of a clock Duceris ut nervis alienis mobile lignum Hor. Ser. l. 2. or some image that move not from within but from weights and plummets without when his weights are
down his work is done A person spiritually enlightned hath not onely Spiritum adstantem but assistentem should hee have all the incouragements of honour or profit from without he could never do any thing cheerfully but would ever be complaining unlesse he enjoyed inward quicknings and enlivenings of heart in duty by the Spirit of Christ the supplyes of the Spirit 2. A sanctified person lives a holy life as in acting from so according to a principle of holy life Now his actings are according to his principle of holinesse 1. In regard of their kinde they are of the same sort or nature with the principle of holinesse Water in the stream is of the same nature with that in the fountan He that is sanctified lives like himself his regenerated self A spirituall life produceth spirituall living the seed of God puts forth it self in the fruits of godliness if he be a fig-tree he bears no thistles the working of a Saint follows his being The Vnderstanding acts in a sound efficatious Eph. 1.17 18. Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.23 operative influentiall knowing both of God and our selves The Conscience acts in a holy tendernesse and remorsefulnesse for sin Psal 16.7 2 Chr. 34.27 and in a pious peaceablenesse and quietnesse giving witnesse of a persons reconciliation to Rom. 5.1 and walking with God sincerely 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing the testimony of a good conscience The Memory retaining heavenly things as a treasury Psal 119.11 repository or spirituall store-house of the Word an Ark for the two Tables The Will acts by a plyable yeelding to God in all things both to do what God enjoyns and to undergo what God inflicts in both its flexible Rom. 7.18 Psal 39.9 It desires to please God in all things though it find not alway to perform The Affections act in a holy regularity and order being streams not dried up but diverted 1 Tim. 1.5 Psal 18.2 Love is out of a pure heart a spark flying upwards set upon God principally and that for himself set upon man for God either because we see God in him or desire we may Psal 139.25 Hatred is now of those things that God hates and that hate God Joy is now spiritual in the Lord in communion with him in serving of him though in tribulation Sorrow is now for ours and others sin and the sufferings of the Church not for such poor things as worldly trifles the pearls of tears not being cast upon the dunghill Our Desires are now set upon the presence and pleasing of God pardon of sin a soft heart fruitfulnesse under the means the prosperity of Sion the appearance of Christ Our Zeal is not now hot for our selves and cold for God like fire well ordered burneth for the service not the consuming of the house Hope is now lively and well grounded not false and carnall This spirituall acting outwardly reacheth the body making it a weapon of righteousnesse fire within will break out The whole body is the souls instrument in all its members being obedient to effect good actions according to the dictate of renewed Reason and the command of sanctified Will the Eye is as it were a watch-man the Tongue a spokes-man the Ear a disciple the Arm a champion the Leg a lackquey all at the dispofall of God If the wares of holinesse be in the Shop those of the same kind will be on the Stall the life of a Saint is a visible Sermon of sanctification he who hath his heart ordered aright hath his conversation ordered aright Psal 50. the hand of the clock goeth according to the wheels Out of the good treasury of the heart he brings forth good things The body will be the interpreter of a gracious heart the law is written in the heart and commented upon in the life a clean stomack sends forth a sweet breath The matter of our actions shall be warranted by the word Psal 119.35 Mic. 6.8 Luk. 17.10 Act. 4.19 Psal 32.2 Psal 112.1 the manner humble cheerfull resolute sincere In a word glory ends are propounded and our workings if God require shall crosse our own interest ease profit Tohave a good heart and a wicked life is a walking contradiction A sanctified person is not as Ephraim a cake not turn'd only baked on one side 2. The actings of a sanctified person are conformable to his principle of Sanctification as that principle is extensive to and puts upon all the wayes of holinesse and as it is a seed of all the fruits of Sanctification A sanctified person embraceth every holy duty he fructifieth in every good work Col. 1.10 hath respect to every precept Ps 119.6 128 esteems every precept concerning all things to be right There 's a concatenation of all graces they are linked together in a divine league he hath not any grace that wholly wants any The instructions of the Law are copulative Jam. 2.10 he that would seem to make conscience of keeping all the Commandments of God save one Non est justa causatio cur praeferuntur aliqua ubi facienda sunt omnia Salv. de Pro. l. 3. observes none at all out of any obedience to God who hath alike commanded all A sanctified person preferrs not one Command before another 1 Tim. 5.21 his foot can endure to walk being sound in a stony as well as a sandy path he will do not many things but all even to the parting with Herodias and the putting down the Calves as well as Baal he is not double-diligent in some matters and negligent in others he is neither maimed to want any limb nor a monster one part excessively outstripping another 3. The actings of a sanctified person are conformable to the principle of spirituall life as it is the same a permanent abiding principle not somtimes in us and at other times quite gone from us but at all times remaining in us A sanctified person is holy in a continued course he walks with God Psal 119.112 he applyes himself to keep the Commandments continually He is not holy upon extraordinary occasions his duties are not like a misers feast all at one time nothing at another he is not holy by fits and pangs upon a rainy day reading only good in thundring and lightning or in a storm at sea moved passionatly with an affectionate sermon trembling for the present Acts 24.25 and presently after following bribery At the first coming on to profession seething hot after a while luke-warm at length key-cold slashing with Peter at the first and shortly after flying and denying His infirmities and falls are but for a fit but his holinesse is constant his goodnesse is not like the morning cloud and early dew Hos 6 4. not like the redness of blushing but the ruddiness of complexion his religion is not operative in company silent in secret he is not like water that conforms it self to the shape of every thing into which its poured or like
a picture that looks every way his religion leaves him not at the Church-doors he retains his purity where-ever he lives He hath a principle like a fountain in him that supplyes him in the time of drought not like a plash of water lick'd up with an hours heat of the Sun The musick allures him not the fournce affrights him not from God 3. As the actings of a sanctified person are from and according to a renewed principle of life so are they for it and that both in respect of preservation of life in himself and also the propagation of it to others 1. A sanctified person acts for his sanctified principle of spirituall life in respect of preserving it in himself which he expresseth 1. In shunning what-ever may prejudice and impair it much more then a man doth avoid that which would shorten a naturall life as sword poyson diseases c. that which parteth between God and the soul being more hurtfull then that which parteth 'twixt soul and body What shifts have some made to scramble from death throwing estates into the sea leaving them and sweetest relations running thorow rivers fire c. And have not holy men suffered more to keep from sin which tends to spirituall death have they not left goods lands children have they not run thorow fire water nay into them even embracing death rather then death temporall rather then spirituall A man would give all the world rather then lose one naturall life but a Christian would give a thousand lives rather then lose the life spirituall Lord saith he I desire but to live to keep Christ who is my life Psal 63.3 Col. 3.4 2. In a prizing his food that upholds life He loves what nourisheth him delights in the Law of God 1 Pet. 2.2 Psal 19.10 hungreth after the sincere milk of the word accounts it sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb hath a most ardent affection to uncorrupted Truths accounts a famine of the Word the sorest esteems the bread of life the staff of life When he was dead he had no hunger the Word was as food in a dead mans mouth found no savour or entertainment now though God give him never so much of other supplyes yet 't is a famine with him if he have not bread like an infant-King that preferrs the brest before his Crown though he be rich in grace yet he is poor in spirit he desireth grace having the grace to desire He never saith I have enough truth of grace ever puts him upon growth 3. A sanctified person labours to preserve his inward principle of life In using the means that may recover him Jer. 17.11 Psal 41.4 when his life is endangered by sicknesse desiring earnestly that God would heal him embracing the sharpest administrations the bitterest reproofs taking down the most loathed pill bearing the heaviest affliction being willing to be cut sawed seared so as to be saved His great request is that he may be whole walk holily that the pain and impotency of his disease the filthinesse and hurtfulnesse thereof were both removed 2. A sanctified person acts for his principle of spirituall life In labouring to communicate it to others as well as to preserve it in himself The life of a spiritually quickned soul is generative of it self All living creatures have a seminary for propagating of their kinde the spirit of life is fruitfull endeavouring to derive it self from one to another You never heard of a soul that loved to make a monopoly of Christ Grace may be imparted not impaired Samson when he had found honey gave his father and mother some with him John 4. The woman of Samaria calls others to Christ being called How diffusive of Christ was blessed Paul like the wall which reflects upon the passenger the Sun shining upon it How sutable was that wish of his to a sanctified soul I would to God that thou and all that hear me this day were almost and altogether such as I am except these my bonds Act. 26.29 Every Christian labours to raise up seed to his elder brother The great design of the soul is to set up Christ more in it self and others to leaven others with grace and this gaining of souls is a Christians greatest covetousnesse This for the explication of the sort or kinde of their first priviledge Sanctification The Observations follow in the second place 1. Obs 1. Grace whereby we are changed much excels grace whereby we are onely curb'd The Sanctification wherewith the faithfull were said to be adorned was such as cur'd sin as well as cover'd it not a sanctification that did abscondere but abscindere not onely represse but abolish corruption Psal 145. The former restraining grace is a fruit only of generall mercy over all Gods works common to good and bad binding the hand leaving the heart free withholding only from some one or few sins tying us now and loosing us by and by intended for the good of humane society doing no saving good to the receiver In a word onely inhibiting the exercise of corruption for a time without any reall diminution of it as the Lions that spared Daniel were Lions still and had their ravenous disposition still as appeared by their devouring others although God stop'd their mouthes for that time But this sanctifying grace with which the faithfull are here adorned as it springs from Gods speciall love in Christ so it is proper to the Elect worketh upon every part in some measure body soul spirit abhorrs every sin holdeth out to the end is intended for the salvation of the receiver it doth not only inhibit the exercise of corruption but mortifieth subdueth diminisheth it and works a reall change of a Lion making a Lamb altering the naturall disposition of the soul and making a new man in every part and faculty 2. From the nature of this Sanctification I note Obs 2. It changeth not the substance and faculties of soul and body but onely the corruption and disorder and sinfulnesse thereof it rectifies but destroyes not like the fire wherein the three children were it consumes the bonds not the garments it doth not slay Isaac but onely the ram it breaks not the string but tuneth it The fall of man took not away his essence but onely his holinesse so the raising of man destroyes not his being but his unholy ill-being Grace beautifieth not debaseth nature it repairs not ruins it It makes one a man indeed it tempereth and moderateth affections not abolisheth them it doth not extinguish the fire onely allay it that it may not burn the house It doth not overthrow but order thy love hatred sorrow joy both for measure and object Thou mayst be merry now thou art sanctified but not mad-merry thy rejoycing will now be in the Lord elevated not annihilated They are mistaken that think Sanctification unmans a man that he must now alway be sad and sowre solitary that as they said of Mary a Christian
God the Father Secondly the Observations follow 1. Even our holinesse administers matter of humility Obs 1. Our very graces should humble us as well as our sins as these later because they are ours so the former because they are none of ours Sanctity is adventitious to Nature Heretofore holinesse was naturall and sin was accidentall now sin is naturall and holinesse accidentall when God made any of us his garden he took us out of Satans waste ws are not born Saints the best before sanctification are bad and by nature not differing from the worst the members that God accepts to be weapons of righteousnesse were before blunted in Satans service when God sanctifieth us he melteth idols and makes of them vessels for his own use Before any becomes as an Israelites wife he is as a captive unpared unwash'd unshaven Sanctification is a great blessing but was this web woven out of thine own bowels the best thou didst bring to thine own sanctification was a passive receptivenesse of it which the very worst of heathens partake of in common with thee having a humane nature a rationall soul and was there not with that a corrupt principle of opposition to God and all the workings of God was not God long striving with a cross-grain'd heart how many denyals had God before he did win thee to himself How far was the iron gate of thy heart from opening of its own accord and if he had not wrought like a God omnipotently and with the same power wherewith Christ was raised Eph. 1.19 20. had thy resistence been ever subdued and when the being of grace was bestowed from whence had thy grace at any time its acting Didst thou ever write one letter without Gods guiding thy hand didst thou ever shed one penitentiall tear till God unstop'd thy spouts smote thy rock and melted thy heart didst thou hunger after Christ till God who gave the food gave the stomack also Was ever tentation resisted grace quickned corruption mortified holy resolution strengthened power either to do or will received from any but from God Doth not every grace the whole frame of sanctification depend upon God as the stream on the fountain the beam on the Sun when he withdraws his influence how dead is thy heart in every holy performance onely when he speaks the word effectually bidding thee go thou goest and do this or that thou dost it 2. Obs 2. The reason why all graces of a sanctified person are for God they are from him Gods bounty is their fountain and Gods glory must be their center He planted the Vineyard and therefore he must drink the wine We are his wormanship and therefore we must be his workmen All our pleasant fruits must be laid up and out for our well-beloved All things but particularly our graces are from him and for him we can never give him more or other then his own when we give all we can The streames will rise as high as the fountain head and so should our graces ascend as high in duty as he who gave them Where should God have service if a sanctified person denyes it 3. Obs 3. From this Author of Sanctification I note t s excellency and worth It s a rare work certainly that hath such a workman a beauteous structure that hath such a builder What is a man to be desired for but his sanctification if we see a beauty on that body which hath a soul how much more on that soul that hath the reflexion of God himself upon it Every Saint is a woodden casket fill'd with pearls The Kings daughter is all glorius within Love Jesus Christ in his worky-day clothes admire him in his Saints though they be black yet they are comely Did the people of God but contemplate one anothers graces could there be that reproaching scorn and contempt cast upon one another that there is Certainly their ignorance of their true excellency makes them enemies they strike one another in the dark 4. Obs 4. Great must be the love that God bears to Sanctification It s a work of his own framing a gift of his own bestowing God saw that the work of the first creation was very good much more that of the second Wonder no more that the faithfull are call'd his garden his Jewels his Treasure his Temple his Portion God hath two heavens and the sanctified soul is the lesser How doth he accept of Saints even in their imperfections delight in their performances pity them in their troubles take care of them in dangers He that hath given his Son for them promised heaven to them and sent his Spirit into them what can he deny them Jesus Christ never admired any thing but grace when he was upon the earth the buildings of the Temple he contemned in comparison of the faith of a poor trembling woman Certainly the people of God should not sleight those graces in themselves that God doth so value as they do when they acknowledge not the holinesse that God hath bestowed upon them Shall they make orts of those delicates that Jesus Christ accounts an excellent banquet 5. The love of God is expressive Obs 5. really and effectually in us and upon us even in sanctifying us Creatures when they love will not put off one another with bare words of bidding be clothed sed c. much lesse doth God If there be love in his heart there will be bounty in his hand Thou sayst that God is mercifull and loves thee why what did he ever do for thee work in thee hath he changed thy nature mortified thy lusts beautified thy heart with holinesse Where God loves be affords love-tokens and such are onely his soul-enriching graces No man knows love or hatred by what he sees before him but by what he findes in him If our heart moves toward God certainly his goeth out toward us the shadow upon the Dyall moves according to the motion of the Sun in the Heaven 6. Obs 6. We are to repair in our wants of Sanctification to God for supply He is the God of grace The Lord will give grace and glory He hath the key of the womb the grave the heavens but chiefly of the heart He that sitteth in heaven can onely teach and touch the heart How feeble a thing and unable is man whether thy self or the Minister to do this He hath the windes in his own keeping and till he send them out of his treasury how necessarily must thy soul lye wind-bound Whither shouldst thou goe but to him and how canst thou go but by him The means of grace are to be used in obedience to him Parum prodest Lectio quam non illuminat Oratio not in dependancy upon them A golden key cannot open without him and a woodden can open with him Man may with the Prophets servant lay the staff upon the fore-head but God must give life How many fat and rich Ordinances have been
devoured the soul after all remaining as lean as before for want of seeking God aright for a blessing 7. Obs 7. I observe How carefull we should be to maintain that which God hath set up in us and how fearfull lest it should be pul'd down by Satan Christ destroys the works of the Divel and Satan labours to oppose the work of Christ Every plant indeed that God hath not planted is to be pluck'd up but the plants that Gods own hand hath planted are to be nourished What God hath joyned together none should separate Grace and the Soul are of Gods joyning together Who laments not the destruction of mans workmanship the overthrow and demolishing of beutifull buildings the rooting up of corn-field and pleasant gardens by Swine But what are these to the destructions made by sin in the hearts and lives of people Who can give way to sin but it must be with a sinfull patience Keep thy heart with all diligence Pro. 4.23 the best endowment is to be most carefully preserved Who loves not to keep his body healthfull and yet who regards the keeping of his soul holy The whole Trinity of Persons adorn the heart with holinesse every of them is to have a corner in it nay the whole Let not Satan have wells which he never digg'd inhabit houses which he never built If the Philistims tread not on the threshold on which Dagon fell let not Satan lodg in the heart that God fanctifieth This for the first Branch considerable in the description of the parties to whom the Apostle wrote Sanctified by God the Father The second follows Preserved in Christ Jesus The second branch of the description of the faithful to whom Jude wrote Wherein I consider two particulars 1. A priviledge or enjoyment received viz. Preservation Preserved c. 2. The means or way of enjoying it and that was In Christ Jesus Of both these briefly 1. The Priviledge bestowed is Preservation To them that are preserved c. In the handling whereof I shall briefly give 1. The Explication of it 2. The Observations from it 1. For the Explication The word used by the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies solicitously to be kept as a thing lest it be lost or taken away by others 1 Joh. 5.18 it s spoken of a regenerate persons keeping himself from being touch'd by the wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keepeth himself as with watch and ward gardeth himself so accurately as he that watcheth a prisoner for fear of his escape So Act. 4.3 it s said the Apostles were put by the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hold So Act. 5.18 they put them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prison And of these preserved ones it s said They are kept by the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept as a Town is kept with a garison from the enemies praesidio circumvallati Conservati nè decepti à seductoribus pereant Estius in loc incircled with a military strength so are these Saints preserved by Christ lest being deceived by Seducers they should perish This preservation of the Godly is three-fold 1. Temporall and of the Body 2. Spirituall chiefly of the Soul 3. Eternall of both in heaven 1. The first though it be not here intended as indeed being frequently denyed to the faithfull yet it s often in Scripture bestōwed upon them and that severall wayes sometimes when their enemies want means to effect their desires upon them 2 Sam. 8.2 1 Sam. 24.27 Judg. 7.22 2 Sam. 17.16 though they have poyson yet no power no arms or instruments of force or when the enemies of the Church have outward strengths and forces but are diverted another way by reason of enemies coming against them from an other place or when the enemies spend their hatred and forces upon one another or when their forces are by the providence of God timely discovered so that the people of God taking refuge in some place of security strength or distance the enemy cannot at all come at them or when there is such a curb of restraint put upon the spirits of enemies as though they finde them and have them in their hand yet they shall not be able to put forth their inward poyson against them Dan. 3.26 thus even the naturall force of fire seas beasts shall be bridled up when God will from hurting his people 2 King 7.6 or when the enemes of the Church are discomfited either by their own preposterous fear or oversight Judg. 5.20 or the instrumentalnesse of the senselesse creatures against them or the puissance of the Churches forces not onely spirituall 2 Sam. 17.23 but even visible and worldly or when the faithfull being taken are delivered out of their hand by making escape Gen. 33. or when God makes an enemy of his Church to be his own destroyer to twist and use his own halter or when God enclines the hearts and dispositions of the haters of his people to pity tender and favour them though they be far from love to their grace or when God works a really sanctifying change upon their hearts Act. 16.31 making them to wash the stripes and lick the wounds whole which they have made or when God takes his people out of this life from the evill to come housing his flock against a storm taking down his ornaments when he purposeth to destroy the house and this he ordinarily doth by a natural death though he can translate his people and take body and soul immediatly into heaven as in the case of Elijah 2. But principally the care of God is in this life expressed toward his people in spirituall preservation This spirituall preservation of beleevers in this life is 1. From punishment The curse of the Law the wrath of God Gal. 3.13 Not from the Law of God as giving precepts but as being a Covenant Rom. 6.14 1 Tim. 1.9 exacting perfect obedience and condemning for a not perfect performance From the terrour of the law forcing for fear of punishment as bondslaves by the whip Rom. 8.15 the people of God being made a voluntary people Psal 110.3 and worshipping God without servile fear The faithfull also are preserved from the guilt and condemning power of sin Eph. 1.7 2 Cor. 5.19 God not imputing their trespasses Preserved from the curse of all externall punishments as they are the effects of vengeance Sin may be and may not be in the godly it is in them by habitation not by dominion so punishments are on them and are not on them on them as sensible pains on them as castigations to better them on them as consequents of sin and Gods expression of his dislike of sin not on them as curses not on them to satisfie wrath The wrath of God lies not upon them when the hand of God lies upon them Every affliction is medicina not laniena sent to kill sin not the man the
bears a cart begins with a tender film not able to bear a pibble the least enemy must not be neglected Presume not on thy own strength He that carrieth grace in a proud heart carrieth dust in the winde a proud man is arbor decorticata a tree whose bark is off humility keeps in the sap of grace Shun the occasions of sin it s easier to passe by the snare then to get out Lastly Pray to be preserved from God is it that we stand we are reeds tyed to a pillar The wicked go out of the way and they call not upon God Psal 14.3 4. This for the handling of the first particular in the second Priviledge viz. the kinde of it Preservation The second follows viz. The ground of this their preservation In Christ Jesus Briefly 1. To explain it 2. To collect Observations 1. For Explication The faithfull may be said to be preserved in Christ two wayes 1. Merito passionis by the merit of his suffering And thus he saves from the wrath and curse of God There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 He saveth from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1. ult The chastisements of our peace were upon his head and by his stripes we are healed Isa 53. He was as the brazen Serpent in healing the beholders All miseries as curses have left their stings in his side He was the true Passover for whom all the Judgments of God pass over us his Crosse is the tree cast into the waters of Marah to take away their bitternesse his ignominy our glory his poverty Paupertas Christi patrimonium meum Ambr. our patrimony 2. We are preserved in Christ Efficacia operationis by his effectuall working in us and bestowing upon us such supplies of grace as that we never fully and finally depart from God and this is effected two wayes 1. On Christs part He sending his Spirit to work in us 2. On our parts Faith is enabled by his Spirit to receive continued supplyes of strength from him 1. His Spirit of grace call'd the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. Gal. 4.6 v. 9. is bestowed upon us he interceding with his Father for that end I will pray the Father saith he and he shall give you another Comforter Joh. 14.16 If I depart Spiritus Vicarius Christi I will send him unto you And this presence of the Spirit working and continuing grace is the fruit of those prayers for proservation of his people I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not saith Christ to Peter Luk. 22.32 and I pray that thou wouldst keep them from the evill Joh. 17.15 And the Apostle Rom. 8.34 from the Intercession of Christ inferrs the certainty of perseverance Who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. Now this Spirit sent by Christ into the hearts of his people preserves them both by working and strengthening their union with Christ In the former Rom. 8.9 Rom. 6. conveying a life and bestowing a permanent principle of holinesse upon them 1 John 3.9 putting into them a seed that shall never dye infusing an habit of holinesse never to be lost In the later Phil. 1.19 Eph. 3.16 Phil. 4.13 affording daily supplyes and strengthening them with might to resist all tentations to bear all burdens to go thorow all conflicts to thrive by all Ordinances to rest upon all the promises to act their graces with vigour to mourn for sin committed Rom. 8. 2 Cor. 12.8 call and cry for grace which is wanting the Spirit directing in doubts quickning in deadnesse comforting in sorrows interceding in prayer c. 2. John 15.4 6. Eph. 3.17 On our part we are preserved in Christ by his operation when faith is enabled by the Spirit to adhere and cleave unto him to unite and fasten us unto him making Christ to dwel in our hearts incorporating us into him as the branches are in the tree or as the root is fastened in the soyl the member in the body or the house upon the foundation this grace joyning and making us adhere to Christ so strongly that having fastened upon him there 's no plucking of the soul from him And thus as Christ layes hold upon us and takes us by the hand with his Spirit so we lay hold upon him and take him by the hand with our Faith whereby the union is complete and reciprocall Our beloved ours and wee his And from this uniting and closing work of faith by the Spirit flows the preservation of a Christian as the weak branches of a Vine are upheld by fastning about the prop and the house by abiding on the foundation or a weak slender reed by being tyed to a pillar But yet faith resteth not here but improves this union and by vertue of it †Habemus sapientiam justitiam sanctitatem Christi non quatenus speculamur Christū quatenus longè à nobis existentem sed quatenus incorporamur Christo quatenus habemus Christum in nobis manentem De fonte hujus spiritualis plenitudinis accipere non possumus nisi in illo simus et boc discriminis est inter fontem naturalem spiritualem Dau. in Col. p. 248. John 1.16 drawes continuall supplyes of grace and strength from Christ as the root from the soyl or the branches from the root or the pipe from the fountain Hence it is that we live by faith Gal. 2.20 because our faith is the instrument that draws vertue from Christ to relieve and sustain us in all our wants Faith and Christ being well met Christ is very full and loves to be giving Faith very empty a covetous grace and loves to be receiving of his fulnesse It sufficeth not faith to be in the fountain unless it drink of the fountain to be in Christ unlesse it receive from Christ to unite us as members to the head unless it supplyes us as members from the head from the head all the body by joynts and bands hath nourishment ministred Col. 2.19 the Spirit on the part of Christ and faith on ours are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those joynts and instruments of connexion betwixt Christ and us whereby a Christian is not onely knit to Christ his head and a kinde of spirituall continuity between Christ and him is caused but hath nourishment ministred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is furnished or supplyed with all sutable furniture plentifully necessary to preservation of grace all things that pertain to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1.3 Rom. 8.10 2 Cor. 8.9 justifying grace to preserve us from the guilt of sin supplyes of sanctifying grace to preserve us from the filth of sin in us and the force of tentation without us 1 Joh. 5.11 in both respects faith drawing preservation from Christ in whom life is nay Col. 3.4 who is our life And faith makes use of the Ordinances but as conduit-pipes or water-courses to
Aug. ser 16. de verb. Ap. that we are called not according to works we are not called because of our good works but because we are called therfore are our works good When Abraham was call'd he worship'd other Gods Josh 24.2 Paul was called when he breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Church Act. 9.1 Gal. 1.13 Rich Zacheus when an extortioner nothing better by nature then the rich glutton in hell God calls those to his kingdom that are with Saul seeking of asses and running after worldly trifles Such were some of you saith Paul fornicators idolaters c. but yee are washed yee are sanctified c. 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Elijah and Elisha walk'd together before the fiery chariot separated them then one was taken up into heaven and the other left upon the earth so till effectuall vocation makes the difference there 's no differrence 'twixt persons but they all run to the same excesse of riot 2. Persons effectually called considered in respect of God are they and onely they who are elected this eternall decree and purpose of God being the foundation of election Whom he hath predestinated them also hath he called Rom. 8.30 And As many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Acts 13.48 and God hath called us with an holy calling not according to works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1.9 This purpose of God made the difference 'twixt Esau and Jacob Moses and Balaam David and Saul Jude and Judas 3. The third couple or pair of parallels 'twixt mans calling man and Gods calling man is the Voice of the Caller and the Answer of the Called 1. The Voyce the Lord makes use of is the Ministry of his word it being the ordinary means appointed by God as the Spirit accompanyeth it for this purpose in the preaching whereof the Law of God first convinceth of the sinfull distance we are in from God Rom. 7. manifesteth our misery by reason of sin and so tames a wild sinner that now he will stand still while God speaks to him although of late he was like the wilde Asse Jer. 2.24 snuffing up the winde the terrible convictions and consternations of the Law are not to commend us to God but God to us not deserving grace but preparing for it though that preparation be also from God nor are they alike in every one God comes to some as on mount Sina in thunder and lightning to others more stilly and sweetly yet to all in a way of conviction of sin and losse in themselves Joh. 16.8 remaining in this condition of distance from God To old sinners who have long liv'd in sin God makes conversion more painful as they say the pains of child-bearing are to women who are more then ordinary in yeers and they who have been famous for pleasure in sin are commonly made famous by their greater apprehensions of wrath for sins men of deep insight and perspicuity see sin more in its colours then those of duller capacity Those whom God intends most to comfort afterwards he often deals most sharply with at first as the ball which riseth highest is thrown against the ground hardest or as Land-lords that take a great fine of those from whom they are to receive but little rent How-ever the terrifyings of the Law are not intended to kill John 15.3 2 Thes 2.14 Rom. 1.16 John 1.13 and 3.6 1 Pet. 1.23 2 Pet. 1.4 but to prepare for curing him whom God is calling the wounds made by the Law but making way for the oyl of the Gospel the blood of Jesus Christ This Gospel inviting the poor soul to Jesus Christ is as it is actuated and used by the Spirit the power of God an efficacious organ a spirituall channel for the conveying grace into the soul it is the seed cast into the womb of the soul and blessed by the forming power of the Spirit for the begetting of grace in it imprinting the image of Chrst and bestowing the divine Nature upon it we being his workmanship by this through him efficacious instrument the Gospel 2. The Answering to the call stands in the effectualness and prevalency thereof in making the called obedient to the Caller's voice when the heart is so prevailed with that it s made what it 's invited to be Rom. 4.17 inabled to do what 't is exhorted to when the law is written in the heart which is cast into divine Doctrine Rom. 6.17 2 Cor. 3.18 as into a mould and comes forth bearing the stamp and figure of it when beholding the glory of the Lord in the glasse of the Gospel we are changed into the same image from glory to glory when the heart ecchoeth to that voice Psal 27.8 Seek my face thus Thy face Lord will I seek when the Gospel comes not onely in word 1 Thes 1.4 5. Psal 40.7 Acts 16.14 Ezck. 11.19 Jer. 31.33 and 32.39 Deut. 30.6 John 5.28 but in power and the holy Ghost and much assurance when the ear is bored the heart opened the heart of stone the uncircumcised heart taken away and the heart of flesh the circumcised heart is bestowed In a word God speaks to the dead heart which is made to hear his voyce and live being now inclined to embrace that will of God to which it was refractory against which it rebelled formerly being now made soft plyable receptive yeelding bowed and obedient This for the explication of the third Priviledge belonging to the faithfull viz. Calling The Observations follow * 1. They are mistaken who teach Obs 1. Joh. Arnold cont Til. pag. 397. That the reason of Gods calling of some rather than others by his Gospel is in regard of the greater worthiness of some to partake of it than of others We are all in a state of greatest distance from the Caller and opposition to his Call What worth above others was in the Corinthians when the Gospel came first to them The Apostle tels them 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Such were some of you namely fornicators idolaters adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankinde theeves covetous drunkards c. Commonly 't is the darkest time of ignorance and profaneness in places immediately before the dawning of the Gospel God washing us when we are in our blood most polluted perswading to reconciliation in greatest enmity calling in most open distance 2 Tim. 1.9 Rom. 9.18 Mat. 11.26 Rom. 5.6 10. Ex duobus aetate jam grandibus impiis Cur iste ita vocetur ut vocantem sequatur Ille autem non ita vocetur ut vocantem sequatur nolito judicare si non vis errare Inscrutabilia sunt judicia Dei Cujus vult miseretur Aug. de bon pers cap. 8. our calling is not according to works but according to purpose so resolved by Christ even so Father because it seemed good to thee Else why God calleth one
life death miracles were all expressions of mercy in teaching feeding healing saving men If there were any severity in his miracles it was not toward man but the swine and the barren-fig-tree Insensiblenesse of others miseries is neither sutable to our condition as men nor as Christians according to the former we are the same with others according to the later grace hath made the difference Mercy must begin at the heart Sic mens per compassionem doleat ut larga manus affectum doloris ostendat Greg. Luke 14.14 Gal. 6 9. but must proceed further even to the hand they whose hands are shut have their bowels shut also We are not Treasurers but Stewards of Gods gifts Thou hast so much only as thou givest The way to get that which we cannot part with is by mercy to part with that which we cannot keep Our good reacheth not to Christs person it must to his members Jonathan is gone but he hath left many poor lame Mephibosheths behinde him We must love Christ in his worky-day clothes We cannot carry these loads of riches to heaven It s best to take bils of exchange from the poor saints whereby we may receive there what we could not carry thither Especially should our mercy extend it self to the souls of others as soul-miseries so soul-mercies are the greatest They who are spiritually miserable cannot pity themselves though their words speak not to us yet their woes do Wee weep over a body from which the soul is departed and can we look with tearless eys upon a soul from which God is departed If another be not afflicted for sin grieve for him if he be grieve with him If thou hast obtained mercy thou dost not well as said the Lepers to hold thy peace Mercy must never cease till its objects do in heaven both shall Thus much for the first blessing which the Apostle prayes may be bestowed upon these Christians to whom he wrote viz. Mercy The second follows viz. Peace of which by way Of 1. Exposition Of 2. Observation Peace is a word very comprehensive and is ordinarily used to denote all kinde of happinesse welfare and prosperity And 1. I shall distribute it into severall kindes 2. Shew the excellency of that here intended 1. There 's Pax temporis or external among men 2. Pax pectoris or internal in the heart 3. Pax aeternitatis or eternal in heaven Or more distinctly thus 1. There 's a Peace between man and man 2. Between man and other creatures 3. Between man and or rather in man with himself 4. Between God and man 1. Peace between man and man and that is publick or private 1. Publick and that either Political of the Common-wealth when the politick State is in tranquility and free from forrein and civill Warrs 2 King 20.19 Jer. 29.7 There shall be peace in my dayes In the peace thereof ye shall have peace This is either lawful and so a singular mercy or unlawfull as when one People is at peace with another against the expresse wil of God as the Israelites with the Canaanites and Amalekites or joyn in any sinfull attempt as did the Moabites and Ammonites against the Israelites Or Ecclesiasticall and of the Church when its publick tranquility and quiet state is not troubled within by Schisms and Heresies or without by persecuting and bloody Tyrants Psal 122.6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Acts 9.31 The Churches had rest and Acts 4.32 1 Cor. 14.33 2. Private and that either between the good and the good or between the bad and the bad or between the good and the bad 1. Between the good and the good 1 Pet. 3.8 Love as brethren and Let brotherly love continue and Col. 1.4 The love ye have to all Saints 2. Hebr. 13.1 Between the bad and the bad 2 King 9.22 Is it peace Jehu And that either lawfully for their own preservation or wickedly against the people of God or to strengthen one another in some sinful attempt and to that end joyning hand in hand 3. Between the good and the bad which is either lawfull as Abraham's with Abimelech and commanded Rom. 12.18 Render to no man evil for evil but if it be possible have peace with all men So Psal 120.7 I am for peace And sometime caused by a work from God upon the hearts of wicked men as in the case of Daniel Chap. 1.9 and in Esan's love to Jacob according to that of Solomon Pro. 16.7 The Lord will make his enemies at peace with him c. Or unlawful when against the mind of God the godly make leagues with them or agree in any way of sin 2. There is a peace between man the faithful I mean and other creatures the good Angels are at peace with 2. Heb. 1.10 Ephes 1.14 and ministring spirits to them as Job 5.23 Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the earth shall be in peace with thee and Hos 2.18 Hujus foederis vigore mala hujus vitae sic laedunt pios ut non noccant non perdant sed prosint Ubi notandum est vocabulum foederis accipi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per similitudinem effectus Riv. in Hos 2.18 I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fouls of the heaven and with the creeping things of the earth The meaning is There shall be such a work of God upon the beasts and fouls c. for the good of the Church as if God had bound them to do them good by way of covenant There is mention Jer 33.20 of Gods covenant of the day and of the night that is the establishment of Gods decree upon the day and the night wherby they come to be in such and such a way from the creation to the end of the world so that although the beasts the fouls the stones c. may annoy them nay kil◠them the true safety of the Church shall not be hindred by them yea All things shall work together for their good neither nakedness nor sword nor death nor any of these things shall separate them from the love of God in Christ and if God sees it for their good all the creatures in the world shall be so far from hurting the godly that they shall all agree to advance their temporall good and welfare 3. There is a peace in man with himself and that is either false or sound False peace is when sinners thinking themselves free from the fear of dangers falsly promise safety to themselves 1 Thess 5.3 When they shall say Peace and safety c. Sound peace in man with himself is twofold 1. Of Assurance when sanctified conscience ceaseth to accuse and condemn us speaking comfortably in us and for us before God 1 John 3.21 This sweet quietnesse and tranquility of conscience being the immediate fruit of our attonement with God that peace of God which passeth all
the disturbing of their own unsound the accepting of him that deserves the true peace and the walking in the ways of holinesse But peace from God is never desired for men to continue in a state of warr against God 4. Rom. 5.9 10 Rom. 5.1 Eph. 1.6 Hebr. 2.15 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 15.20 21 Jude 19. Gal. 5.22 Ephes 2.12 Rom. 12.12 The faithfull onely have taken the right course to obtain peace They alone are freed from Gods wrath more dreadful then the roaring of a Lion or the wrath of all the Kings of the world it destroying body and soul in hell they onely have pardon of sin the other like guilty malefactors are in an hourly expectation of the worst of deaths through the fear whereof they dye before they dye The faithfull onely have Christ who is our peace and the Prince of Peace the Spirit of God of which peace is a fruit and effect they alone rejoyce in hope and live in expectation of a crown incorruptible an everlasting kingdom others live a hopelesse heartlesse life 2. The part of these parties in which this peace resides is the heart and conscience Col. 3.15 The peace of God rules in the heart Joh. 16.22 Your heart shall rejoyce and Psal 4.7 Thou hast put gladnesse into my heart and Phil. 4.7 The peace of God shall preserve your heart in which respect 1. T is a sustaining strengthening reviving peace so long as the heart is kept safe a man fals not faints not when the heart is relieved with a Cordiall a fainting man revives Now the peace of God keeps up the heart it brings aid and relief to it in all dangers when sin and Satan temptation and persecution lay siege to it It brings strong consolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.7 Act. 16.25 Act. 21.13 2 Cor. 1.3 4 Rom. 5.3.5 Heb. 10.34 Heb. 6.18 It s a Banner over us in warre a Cordiall an Antidote against all Poyson It makes Paul and Silas sing in Prison Paul to be ready to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus the faithfull to be comforted in all tribulation and consolation to abound as sufferings abound it making the faithfull in a cold winter of persecution to be warmest within making a Martyr to go as merily to a Stake as another to a Feast 2. The seat of this peace the heart notes as our sustentation by it so the soundnesse truth and reality of it 't is not in cortice but in corde in the heart not in the habit in the conscience not in the looks It 's in the breast not in the brow not suffering a man to be like some Prisons beautifull without but full of horror blacknesse chaines and dungeons within It 's a Peace not residing in the hall of the senses but in the closet of the heart A Saints peace is a silent calmnesse an unseen quietnesse meat of which those without know not like the windows of Salomons temple narrow without Pro. 14.10 broad within the worst the unbeautifull the black-side of his cloud is seen when the bright is hidden 3. The seat of this Peace the heart implyes it's seriousnes weightinesse Tu illum judicas gaudere qui ridet animus debet esse alacer Res severa est verum gaudiam caeterae hilaritates leves sunt frontem remittunt pectus non implent Sen. Ep. 23. Ego neminem posse scire arbitror quid sit nisi acceperit Bern in Cant. Melius impressum quam expressum innotescit In his non capt intelligentia nisi quantum attingit experientia Id. ibid. greatnesse that the ground of it is not slight and toyish but some great matter not lightly pleasing the fancy and superficially bedewing the senses but like a ground-showr soaking even to the heart-root The peace of a Saint is not like the mirth of a Child caused more by a gay or a toy then by a conveyance of a thousand pounds by the year or like our laughter which is more at a jest than at the finding of a bag of gold of ten thousand pounds No his peace is not idle frothy and ludicrous meriment but deep and affecting the heart with apprehensivenesse of an interest in the great things of eternity a peace that passeth understanding Light either griefs or contentments are easily exprest not so those which are deep and weighty these are joyes unspeakeable and glorious superabundant 1 Pet. 1.8 2 Cor. 7.4 4. The seat notes the safety of this peace the heart is too deep for a man to reach a Saints peace is laid up in a Cabinet that man cannot open Joh. 16.22 men may break into his house but not into his heart Your joy saith Christ no man taketh from you The power of adversaries is but skin-deep There is a three-fold impotency of man in reference to a Christians peace 1 Man cannot give this peace 2 He cannot hinder it from entring 3. He cannot remove it or hinder it from abiding It continues like a Fountaine in the hottest Summer and is warmest in the coldest Winter of affliction like a Candle which is not overwhelmed or quenched in the dismall darknesse of the night but is made thereby to give the cleerer light David in greatest straits comforted himselfe in God 1 Jam. 1 2. 2 Cor. 7.4 Rom. 5.3 1 Thes 5.16 2 Cor. 14.5 Phil. 4.4 Heb. 12.11 the faithfull glory in tribulation they are commanded to rejoyce evermore as the sufferings of Christ abound in them so their consolations abound by Christ The faithfull have oft drawne matter of joy from their sufferings they yeeld the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse A sick man may rejoyce at the coming of the Chyrurgeon though he knows he will put him to paine Phil. 1.19 2 Cor. 4.17 I know saith the Apostle that this shall turne to my salvation The light affliction that lasteth but for a moment procureth an exceeding excessive eternall weight of glory If we suffer for Christ 2 Thess 2.12 Rom. 8. we shall also reigne with him None can separate us from Christ and therfore not from peace the Spirit of peace by us may for a time be sinn'd away but he cannot by enemies be persecuted away The Sun may as easily be blown out with bellowes as true peace be driven away by sufferings 5. The seat of this peace the heart imports the spiritualnesse and sublimity of it it is not sensuall earthly and drossy the heart is no more relieved with worldly comforts then are the belly bags and barnes fill'd with grace and holinesse What is it to the soule that thou hast goods laid up for many yeares The rarest delicacies of the earth are not such food as the soule loves spirituall blessings of Communion with God Illud verum solum est gaudium quod non de terrâ sed de Caelo est quod non de creatura sed de Creatore accipitur Bern. Ep. 114. enjoying of Christ a view of our names as
whole it swims if broken it sinks he never droops in any trouble unless he apprehends a breaking between him and Christ He is like the marigold that opens with the shining and shuts with the setting of the Sun His heart is lockt up in sorrow when God hides his face and he cannot find another key fit to open it again among all the keyes in the house What 's all the world to him without the presence of God but as a sive pluckt out of the water His comforts are only full when God is in them What are companions to him in whom he sees nothing of God but objects either irkesome or pitied What are Ordinances unless with Christ but as candles that have no light put to them Nay what would the joyes of heaven it self be if it were not for the presence of God but as a funeral feast or banquet where is much provision but no chear 2 There 's a love of Complacency and delight Amor Complacentiae when the soul having ark'd it self in Gods embracements now with infinite sweetness and security reposeth it self in them saying then as David Psal 4.7 8. Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than when their Corn and Wine encreased I will lay me down in peace and sleep and with Peter Lord its good being here and with the Spouse I charge you stir not up nor awake my beloved And when Christ meets it sweetly in Prayer Sacraments or a Sermon breathing thus Oh that Lord this meeting might never end deer Jesus why comest thou so seldom and stayest no longer All the night long do thou lodge between my brests Psal 84.10 A day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere Cant. 2.4 My soul is fill'd as with marrow Thou hast brought me into a banquetting-house thou hast made me drink abundantly Thy left hand is under me thy right hand embraceth me How contented could the soul be in such an in-come of Christ were not his pleasure otherwise that it had no avocation to take it off no earthly employment no family feeding of body or relations to call it away from those secret enjoyments of such a beloved Oh thinks the soul what a blessed place will heaven be where I shall never be severed one moment from the embracements of Christ to eternity 3 There 's Amor amicitiae A love to be set upon God for the goodness and excellency which is in himself To love God for the creatures is not to enjoy but to use God To love him for another end than himself Medium quà tale et per se nullam boni appetibilis rationem possidet tota quippe ratio amandi medium est convenientia cum fine Aquin. Mat. 13.21 is to turn the ultimate end into a mean Love to God grounded upon humane inducements is but spurious When the inducement suppose profit preferment is removed that love will discover its falsness And by that very reason for which men contend for the outward appearance and profession of love to God viz. because they love their pleasures and profits which without such a profession they cannot peaceably enjoy By that very reason I say they will be beaten off even from that their outside appearing profession when thereby those profits and pleasures which they love so much shall come to be hazarded It s a dead love to God that cannot stand unless it be shored up True love will stand alone without politick props To shroud our own private ends under the name of love to God is not amicitia but mercatura not to love but to make merchandize of him The love that cannot be warm any longer than 't is rubd with the warm clothes of preferment is but the carkasse of love Then hath this love a soul when God himself is the object of it when 't is not of what he hath but of what he is when he is beloved though we beg with him or though all his Rings and Ornaments are pluckt off nay when he plucks off ours In a word all his wayes ordinances people will have our love drawn out to them for that of God which is imparted to them The word will be received in its purity and power most loved when least adulterated when it discovers most of God to us and most of sin in us when the dearest corruption is struck at the closest duty urged the secret corners of the soul searched when the spiritual sword is laid on with severest blows The persons also in whom most shines the beauty of Gods likeness we shall most be taken with and those shall have our love shine upon them who can reflect nothing back again but holiness 4. There 's Amor benevolentiae A love set upon God endeavouring to bring to him so far as creatures can to an infinite Creator Psal 16 to whom their good extendeth not all service and honour This love returns to God not only a heart but a tongue a hand of praises and obedience All its pleasant fruits are laid up for its beloved all it is and hath is accounted too little Lord saith the soul that I could love thee more and serve thee better how impure is my heart how poor and imperfect are my performances what I have is neither enough nor good enough for thee but had I something better than my self and Oh that I my self were a thousand times better for thy sake it should be bestowed upon thee A soul in love with God is boundless in duty The smalness of his obedience is the greatness of his trouble when another man observes his zeal and vehemency his tears and sobs and wrastling in prayer and sees him so strict and exact in living he thinks it a great matter and is ready as the Disciples who looked upon the beautiful buildings of the Temple to admire him but then the party himself that loves Christ thinks all this as nothing in comparison of what Christ deserves he looks upon his services as Christ fore-told of the Temple as if there were not one stone left upon another This love causeth an universal Joh. 14.24 cheerful constant obedience to the Commandments of Christ In it all our services are steep'd and with it made easie to us and coming from Faith acceptable to God Nor will love think it much to suffer much for Christ 1 Cor. 13.7 nay it accounts it little to endure all things for him who hath born our burdees and shed better bloud for us than any we have to shed for him Faith worketh by love Love is the instrument in the hand of Faith A hand alone can lay hold and receive and so the proper work of faith is to lay hold upon Christ but a hand without an instrument cannot cut any thing no more can faith practise any morall duties without love Faith in justification is alone but in the life of man it worketh by love 3 From this love to God floweth another
the perfection of Christ When Darius his mother had saluted Hephestion instead of Alexander the great who was Alexanders Favourite she blushed and was troubled but Alexander said to her It is well enough done for he is also Alexander The meanest Saint is to be beloved for what of Christ is in him he is an old Casket full of pearls But above all how destructive to brotherly love is oppression 1 Thess 4.6 defrauding and grinding our brethren Let no man saith Paul defraud his brother in any matter Even the Jew who might take usury of an Heathen might not take it of his Brother If Lillyes rend and tear Lillyes what may Thorns do Nor must a Christian content himself in not hurting a Christian his care must be to benefit him to do him good And that for his Soul All thy Spiritual gifts of knowledge utterance c. must profit thy brother 1 Cor. 12. 1 Cor. 14.26 Comfort him in his troubles of mind direct him in his doubts reprehend him gently for his faults Not to rebuke him is to hate him Levit. 19.17 To be angry with the sin of our brother is not to be angry with our brother To love the soul is the soul of love so to love thy brother as to labour to have him live in heaven with thee For his name not casting aspersions on him but wiping them off not receiving much less raysing accusations against him but laying hold upon the theif that pillaged his name as knowing that the receiver in this case is as bad as he For his body visiting and sympathising with him in his sicknesse helping him to utmost ability to find the jewel of health For outward necessaries pittying him in his low estate◠casting the dung of thy wealth on the barren soyl of his poverty making his back thy wardrobe his belly Psal 16.3 thy barn his hand thy treasury For body and soul praying for him calling upon God as Our Father not thine alone In the Primitive time saith one there was so much love Tert. Apol. c. 39. that it was ad stuporem Gentilium to the wonder of Gentiles but now so little that it may be to the shame of Christians That which was the Motto of a Heathen Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say something that we may he two must not belong to Christians It s best that dissention should never be born among brethren and next that it should die presently after its birth When any leak springs in the Ship of Christian society we should stop it with speed The neerer the union is the more dangerous is the breach Bodies that are but glewed together may if severed be set together as beautifully as ever but members rent and torn cannot be healed without a scar What a shame is it 1 Joh. 3.14 1 Joh. 5.1 1 Joh. 4.7 8 c. that the bond of grace and religion should not more firmly unite us than sinful leagues do wicked men A true Christian like the true mother to whom Solomon gave the Child may be known by affection As the spleen grows the body decayeth and as hatred increaseth holiness abateth In summ This love to the faithful must put forth it self both in distributing to them the good they want and in delighting in them and rejoycing with them for the good they have Both these how profitable how honourable how amiable are they Most honourable it is for the meanest Christian to be a Priest to the high God Heb. 13.16 to offer a daily sacrifice with which God is well pleased to resemble God in doing rather then in receiving good to be the hand of God to disperse his bounty to have God for his debtor to lend to the Lord of heaven and earth What likewise is more profitable than that our distribution to Saints like an ambassador by lying Lieger abroad should secure all at home that this most gainfull employment should return us pearls for pibbles jewels for trifles crowns for crumbs after a short seed-time a thousand fold measure heaped shaken thrust together and running over What lastly so amiable as for members of the same body children of the same father and who lay in the same womb suck at the same brests sit at the same table and expect for ever to lodg in the same bosom to be at union with and helpful to one another And on this side heaven Psal 16.3 Vid. doctiss Rivetum in loc where should our complacency center it self but upon the truly excellent noble illustrious ones who are every one Kings and more magnificent than ever were worldly Monarchs for their allyance having the Lord of heaven and earth for their Father the King of Kings for their elder Brother Psal 45.9 a Queen the Church the Spouse of Christ for their Mother having for their treasures those exceeding precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 more to be desired than gold yea Psal 19.10 than fine gold in comparison of which a mountain of gold is but a heap of dung For their guard having the attendance of Angels Psal 34.7 John 6.27 Cant. 1.2 Cant. 4.7 nay the wisdom care and strength of God For their food having bread that endures to eternal life drink better than wine and a continual feast For their apparel having the robes of Christs righteousnesse here which makes them as beautifull as Angels all fair and without spot and attire to be put on hereafter which will shine more gloriously then an hundred Suns made into one For their habitation a palace of glory a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Having thus first explained this love here desired by the Apostle in its several sorts I come in the next place to touch briefly upon those rare and excellent properties of this grace of love both as it is set upon 1 God 2 Man 1. This grace of love set upon God is true cordial and sincere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in word or outward profession but in truth and in the inward man not complemental but reall the inward purpose of the heart having an emphasis Of love that hypocrisie and expressions cannot reach And the truth is our loving of God Eph. 6.24 is not so properly said to be sincere as to be our very sincerity Then and then alone a dutie is done in sincerity when 't is done in love and herein stands hypocrisie when though there is much doing yet there 's no loving The love of an hypocrite to Christ like the shining of the Gloworm is without any inward heat and stands only in a glistering profession or like some spices which are cold in the stomack though hot in the mouth or like the fire in Moses his bush it burneth not while it blazeth it proceeds from humane inducements of education Countenance or Commands of Superiours Interest an apprehension of the love of Christ barely to mankind or from this that Christ is out
onely as they increase elevate it The very snuffers of death shall make it burn the more brightly It unconquered out-lives as opposition so its fellow-graces 1 Cor. 13. the faithful are rooted and grounded in love They love God for himself who fails not Ep. 3.17 1 Cor. 13.8 and therefore Love it self fails not Hypocrites are uneven in their love feigned things are unequal appearing friends cannot dissemble so exactly but that at one time or other their hatred will appear In some companies or conditions they will shew what they are In the time of persecution they fall away Mat. 13.21 like rotten Apples they fall off in a windy day True love to Christ Amor uescit ferias knows no holy-daies it ever hath a rest of Contentment never hath a rest of Cessation 2. I proceed to the Properties of love to man First Rom. 12.9 1 Pet. 1.22 1 John 3.18 It 's a love unfeigned without dissimulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love without hypocrisie Love indeed and in truth not in word and tongue a love from the heart 'T is not like the love of Joab and Judas that outwardly kiss'd and inwardly at that time designed killing It contents not it self in giving like Nephthali Gen. 49.21 Goodly words The Apostle speaks of Soundness in Charity Tit. 2.2 Unsound Charitie is Courtship not Christianity Of all things dissimulation doth worst in love as being most corrupting of and contrarie to the nature of it and appearing love is nothing but Christianity acted and Religion painted some sins scratch the face of love but hypocrisie stabs it at the heart Secondly It 's an expressive open-handed Love though it ariseth at the heart yet it reacheth to the hand Love is a fruitful grace it bears not onely the leaves and blossoms of words and promises 1 John 3.18 but the fruit also of beneficial performances If Love be in truth t' will also be in deed words be they never so adorned cloath not the naked be they never so delicate they feed not the hungry be they never so zealous they warm not the cold be they never so free they set not the bound at liberty our Faith must work by love Love must be seen felt and understood verbal Love is But painted fire Love is so beautiful a Grace that it 's willing to be seen The Apostle saith Rom. 13.10 Love worketh no ill it 's a diminutive expression there 's more intended even the doing of all the good the Law requires and therefore he adds Love is the fulfiling of the Law Thirdly It 's a forward chearful Love It is not drawn or driven but runs it staies not till the poor seeks it but it seeks for him Onesiphorus sought out Paul diligently Prov. 23.6 2 Tim. 1.17 Rom. 12.13 It relieves not with an evil eye It makes men given to hospitality the water of bountie flows from it as from a Fountain and goes not out as from a narrow mouth'd bottle with grumbling It is not like the spunge that sucks up the water greedily but gives it not out unless it be squeezed Hoc ipso amplius gaudent pauperes cum paupertati corum consultum fuerit pudori Leo. Serm. 4. Duplex Eleemosyna quia damus quia hilariter damus Ingenuous poverty rejoyceth in this forwardness of love as much as in the gift it self for thereby not only it's want but bashfulness is relieved It s a double beneficence when we give and give chearfully The mind of the receiver is more refreshed with the chearfulness of the Giver than is his bodie with the greatness of the Gift Fourthly It 's an extensive universal Love 1. Vniversal in respect of duties it shuns no performance that may benefit Bodie Name Mind Soul of another Love is a Pandora abounding in every good work and gift Rom. 13.10 it 's therefore called the fulfilling of the Law Love is the Decalogue contracted and the Decalogue is Love unfolded Love is a Mother the ten Commandments her ten children and she forgets none neglects none Gal. 6.10 2. It 's Vniversal in respect of persons It remembers the Apostles rule to do good to All even wicked men it loves though not as wicked yet as men the men not their manners Col. 1.4 Non peccatorem sed justum in paupere nutrit qui in illo non culpam sed naturam diligit Gr. 3. past 1 Pet. 2.17 Jam. 2.1 The Love of the Collosians was extended to all the Saints wherever there 's grace love will follow for grace is beautiful wherever it is The Oyntment of Love falls even upon the skirts of the garment as well as the head Love is set upon the Brotherhood the whole Fraternitie of Believers not here and there upon one Holy Love regards grace in its working-day clothes upon a Dung-hill in a Prison Grace in the Ideot as well as in the Scholar in the Servant as well as the Master As all our delight must be in the Saints Ps 16.3 so our delight must be in all the Saints 5. It 's a religious and a holy love It 's from in and for holinesse From it he that loves his brother first 1 Tim. 1.5 loves God 1 Tim. 1.5 first he gives his heart to God as a son before he reacheth out his hand to man as his brother His love is said to be out of a pure heart First he gives himself then his Secondly In holinesse and holy wayes It joynes not hands with any in a way of sin For this is not unity but faction it hath no fellowship with fruitfull works Ephes 5.11 but reproves them it makes a man most angry with the sin of him whom he loves most He fears not only to be fratricida but fideicida he doth not so love a man as to be an Enemy to religion Thirdly for holinesse this love is set upon holy ones because they are so not because they are great but good Gods Image in them is the Load-stone of our love 1 John 5.2 6. It 's a just and righteous love It bestowes gifts not spoyles it hurts not some to help others it buyes not a burying place for strangers with the bloud of Christ it is not bountifull upon any others cost The people of God must be blamelesse and harmlesse Phil. 2.15 not having in the one hand bread for one and in the other a stone for another We must not build Gods house with Satans tools the poorest Saint wants not our unrighteousnesse to help him 7. It 's a prudent discerning love It loves all yet with a difference it is most set upon those that are the fittest objects either for want or worth it beats not the poor from the door while it makes strangers drunk in the Cellar It is not like the Oak which drops its acorns to swine Gal. 6.10 It loves Gods friends best the wicked with a love of pity the
I shall desire to be no man of the times 5. God is most free of his best gifts Obser 5. he gives his people leave and command to multiply spirituals when often he impaireth their temporals he bestoweth a Crown where he sometime denies a crumb those whom he makes poor in the world he at the same time makes rich in faith He deals with his people when they are too heavy laden with the luggage of worldly enjoyments as men do that are weighing their commodities in a pair of scales they never leave taking and taking away from that scale which is too heavy till the other be as weighty or weightier than it And God doth justly and mercifully impoverish the body to enrich the soul There 's nothing good which hinders us from enjoying the chiefest good which is not vehiculum but vinculum not a furtherance but a fetter How gracious is God to chuse our comforts for us we should ever take the worst part should he leave us to our own skill he loves to relieve us for our profit not for our lust we naturally love the contrary The Christian whose grace multiplies Obser 6. is neither carelesse of the helps or fearlesse of the hinderances of grace he dares not omit any duty slight any ordinances which God hath appointed to make him spiritually prosperous He is rowing up a river that runs with a strong current and he knowes if he rest his Oares he shall fall down the stream 1 Thes 5.17 he delights to pray continually he who hath grace in plenty will have prayer in fervency Prayer woos grace to come and wins it to tarry Grace ever sets us upon praying for grace the almes of grace will be beg'd for James 4.6 and God gives it to the prayer of the humble Growing men have good stomacks It 's as possible at the same time to grow in the love of grace and decay in love to ordinances as to increase the fire by with-drawing the fuell The sprouting Christian sits under the dew of heaven they who forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10.23.25 will never hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering As grace is not given nolenti to him that continues unwilling to receive it so neither is it increased negligenti to him that doth not labour to improve it Apostles Pastors and Teachers were given by Christ for our growth up to the measure of stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.13 The forsaking of these is ever with a decreasing of grace As a Christian abates in his appetite he will decay in strength and with his strength his stomack will return They who have no spirituall hunger are far from spirituall health and never had God a working who was not a feeding servant He is but the picture of a Christian who growes not who feeds not Nor can growth in Christianity consist with the love of poyson any more than with the forbearance of food They who thrive hate the wayes of inordinate spending Sin is a waster of our graces and our comforts The Spirit of God is a tender and delicate thing nor will it stay with those that admit of company so contrary to it as is sin Every beloved lust is as a worm at the root of a flower He who hath so excellent a jewell as grace must keep it under the lock of the fear of sin while sin comes in at one door grace goeth out at the other the Ark could not stay with the Philistins nor grace with the love of the smallest sin the least sin is terrible to the greatest Saint he makes not light of it but well knowes that a long thread of iniquity may be let in with a small needle 7. Observ 7. Decayes in grace are most repugnant to a Christians welfare decreasing in spiritual blessings directly thwarteth the Apostles petition It 's uncomfortable to see the days grow shorter to see a man grow behind-hand in the world to see a wither'd and a blasted field a man in a lingring consumption Naomies condition moved pity when she went out full and returned empty but what pity doth a decaying soule require from us To consume heaven-ward to be plunder'd of grace to lose our first love to be declining from God is a misery indeed a soul-misery the misery of every misery It 's better for thee that God take away all than himselfe from thee Psal 51.11 David was more fearfull of losing Gods Spirit than his Kingdom It 's the sorrowfullest alteration in the world after the enjoyment of it to be forsaken by it 8. Observ 8. A Saint allowes not himselfe in any deficiency of grace He desires to be perfect in every good work Heb. 13.12 Eph. 4.15 Rom. 15.14 2 Tim. 3.17 to grow up in Christ in all things to be full of goodnesse and knowledge to be throughly furnished to all good works and to have grace in all the powers of the soul as his bloud is in every veine of the body 2 Cor. 7.1 to perfect holinesse in the fear of God His imperfection is a trouble to him as well as his pollution He sees no grace in another but he covets it no Ornament but he admires it no spot but he abhors it He ever wants as much of contentment as he doth of grace he never saith I have as much as another hath but I have lesse than I my selfe should have he labours to furnish his house all over he prizeth every command delighteth in every duty sees a beauty in every way of God and the weaknesse of his grace is the strength of his trouble They who needed nothing Rev. 3.17 were indeed defective in every thing 9. Observ 9. A fruitlesse Coversation is inconsistent with grace multiplyed A fruitlesse tree is little better than a log there 's small difference 'twixt a dead stock and a barren tree True Christianity suffers not Christians to content themselves with bare hearing the word or as one cals it with meer auricular profession Where ever grace growes others may see it Men cannot discern the growing of it or how it grew but they can discern that it is grown when it 's grown The profiting of a Saint with Timothy's 1 Tim. 4.15 appears to all Growing grace like corn will appear above ground The thriving of a child will be known by its looks its colour and complexion will speak it The thriving of Daniel and the rest was known by the looking upon their countenances He who thrives in holinesse will have his visage alter'd his outward carriage and complexion amended he is like a grown man who for some time hath been absent he is so grown that he can hardly be known The voice of a grown Christian is much alter'd from that which it was when he was a child 1 Pet. 4.4 he speaks now not vainly but profitably Hence it is that wicked men wonder at him as at a
not charity is as sounding brasse and a tinkling cymball though he have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and hath all faith though he bestow all his goods to feed the poor nay though he give his body to be burnt 1 Cor. 13. and have not charity he is nothing God will not reward Ministers according to what they have done but according to what they have done in loving to do Love is the marrow the soul of every service All performances without love are but cyphers without a figure in Gods account they stand for nothing they are sacrifices without fire 3. People should study to be fit for the love of their Pastor Observ 3. To encourage him to love them to be diligibiles such as these Christians were whom the Apostle called beloved A painfull Minister should not only be put upon loving his people by conscience of this duty but by encouragement to this duty Ministers are often wrongfully complain'd of for want of love All kind of love must not be afforded to all kind of people a love of intimacy and complacency must only be set upon the godly among his people If a faithfull Minister be not such to his offensive unprofitable hearer as he would 't is because this man is not such to God and his own soul as he should How unworthy a part in any is it to make a faithfull Minister spend that time in weeping complaining reproving which he had much rather spend in sweet complacency familiarity and commendation 4. The love of a Minister must not be slack and remiss Observ 4. but vehement and ardent Ministers are to imitate him in love whose love was the most earnest who was the chiefe Shepherd and had the chiefest care of his flock who purchased it with his own bloud Act. 20.28 who was nothing but love cover'd over with our flesh As he was the President of Ministers love so gave he earnest and frequent precepts to Ministers to testifie this love John 21.15 Love alone can facilitate the difficulties of a Ministers calling Many things must be born as the hatred frowardnesse dulnesse weaknesse of people There must ubera be given though verbera be returned Ministri proferant ubera non verbera Bern. the brest must give its milk though it be struck at Sometimes lawfull liberties must be forborn A Minister must be like indulgent Mothers or Nurses who forbear to eat such meats as they love for fear of hurting the child which they are breeding or giving suck to Paul was such an one who rather then he would offend a weak brother would eat no flesh while he lived A Minister must be lowly in doctrine and life patient laborious and nothing but love can make him be so Every thing will be difficult to him that loves not The object of a Ministers love is the soul the heaven-born soul the precious eternall soul What would it profit a Minister to gain the whole world and lose his peoples souls The beast the name the body of a man must be beloved much more his soul The winning of souls is the wisdome of a Minister Gen. 14.21 A Minister should say of his ease profit and pleasure as the King of Sodom to Abraham Give me the souls and take the goods to thy selfe 5. Observ 5. The Loving of a Ministers person hath a great influence upon the loving of his doctrine The Apostle knew this when he desired that these Christians should know that he loved them It 's the folly of people not to love the word who ever be the speaker The message hath not its commendation from the messenger but the messenger from the message Yet rare is it to finde that Christian who thinks well of that counsell which is given him by a Counseller who is not beloved and therfore it is Satans policy to asperse the Minister thereby to cause a dislike of his Ministry And great is their sin who by their un-amiable carriage often make their Ministry abhorred who either by prophanenesse or unfit austerity confute with their life what they perswade with their lip Some offend by prophanenesse preaching perhaps so holily in the pulpit as some may almost think it pity they should ever come out of it yet when they are out of it shewing so much levity sloth worldlinesse loosenesse as any would almost think it pity they should ever go into it Others offend by unmeet morosity not considering that a Minister must neither be all bait without hook nor all hook without bait as he must not by his flattery sooth so neither by austerity affright his people A Minister must not be a flashing Comet but an influentiall Star not a Storm or a Tempest but a sweetly dropping bedewing Cloud 6. The aim of a Minister in being beloved of his people Observ 6. should be the benefiting of their souls The Apostle desires to be beloved by these Christians that he might have the greater opportunity to further their salvation He robs Christ who improves not the interest he hath in the hearts of his people for the honour of Christ 'T is not service but sacriledge to desire the terminating of peoples loves in our selves It 's better could it be without sinne that all should hate us than that they should love us for our selves for if all should hate us we should have but what is our own if they should love us for our selves we should usurp what is Christs A Ministers designe in being beloved by his people should be but to raise up seed to his elder brother all his services must be but scaffolds to erect a building of glory to Christ Ministers should labour to be good for their own benefit and to be accounted good for the benefit of others They should not do good to get a good name but they should labour for a good name that they may be the more able to do good 7. The love of a Minister to his people Obser 7. should procure love again from his people The Apostle in professing of love to these Christians expected that they should love him again Love must be the eccho of love It 's often seen that they who love their people most are beloved of them least In a spirituall sense 't is likewise true that love descends more than it ascends And ordinarily beggary or at least poverty is all the requitall which is returned for the Jewell of Plain-dealing People love not an eradicative but a palliative cure of their spirituall distempers Spirituall flatterers are commonly more respected than spirituall fathers People and their lusts are so near together that a godly Minister cannot be an enemy to the later but he is esteemed such to the former It 's spirituall phrensie to rage against the Physitian of thy soul A Minister should requite such unkindness with the revenge of pity and prayer and a holy resolution still to love though he be the
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And 1 Sam. 11.13 To day the Lord wrought salvation in Israel 2. For the power and providentiall care of God wherby he lets not his people want what is fit for them Psal 78.22 When they desired food they trusted not in his salvation 3. For the garments of joy and feasting which they were wont to wear upon occasion of publick victories and deliverances Psal 132.16 Isai 61.19 I will choath her priests with salvation And Psal 149.4 He will beautifie the meek with salvation 4. For the Authour of salvation whether temporall or spirituall Isai 12.2 Psal 27.1 The Lord is my light and my salvation And Luke 2.30 Mine eyes have seen thy salvation 5. For the Entrance into the estate of blessednesse John 4.22 Heb. 2.3 2 Cor. 6.2 and so the means of salvation the Gospell as Act. 28.28 Salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it and the imbracing of those means by faith together with holinesse of life are called salvation Luke 19.9 This day is salvation come to thy house So Ephes 2.8 Rom. 11.11 6. For our blessednesse and glorification in heaven whereof there are two degrees The first At the time of our death Acts 16.17 Rom. 10.10 when the soul being loosed from the body is carried into the third heavens The second At the day of resurrection when body and soul shall be received up into heaven by Christ Rom. 13.11 Now is our salvation nearer then when we believed And Heb. 1.14 Heirs of salvation c. 7. For our blessednesse as comprehending both our entrance into it here and the perfection of it hereafter Heb. 2.3 Acts 4.12 Acts 13.26 If we neglect so great salvation Ephes 1.13 The Gospell of your salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation In this last sense I take it in this place The Apostle gave all diligence to write unto them so of the means way and entrance of salvation in grace that they might happily at length enjoy and partake of it in glory and so of the fulnesse thereof in glory that they may not neglect the entrance into it in grace And deservedly is the happy estate of the faithfull both in semine and in fructu in the first fruit and full crop in grace and glory called salvation For First It is an estate of deliverance from the greatest enemies Heb. 10.31 1 Thes 1.10 All the most cruell oppressive enemies in the world are nothing to the fury of the great God the wrath to come the defiling and destroying power of sin the curse of the Law slavery to Satan 2. It is a deliverance of the soul the precious eternal soul Mat. 10.28 What triumphs have been kept for deliverance of bodies from slavery What trophees pillars have been erected to those who have saved our Estates and Liberties and Countrey These were but the shadows of Saviours 3. It 's a deliverance from every Adversary to be sure from adversity by every Adversary A compleat deliverance Nothing hurts the delivered by Christ Luke 1.71 they are delivered from all that hate them No sin no divell nor crosse nor death shall hurt them They are all conquered enemies 4. It 's a deliverance from every enemy fully Luke 1.69 Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8. Christ is a horn of salvation and able to the full to save all them that come to him from the guilt and condemnation of sin They are fully justified in this life There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ their iniquities are blotted out as a cloud they are forgotten and forgiven thrown into the bottom of the sea and subdued Mic. 7.19 Though they be sought for yet can they not be found Ephes 5.27 And from the defilement and presence of sin they are fully saved in the next life no spot or wrinkle or any such thing shall there be in glory no mixtures of sin with grace Nothing that defiles shall enter into the new Jerusalem Here the people of God are perficientes perfecting there perfecti perfect They shall let their mantle of corruption fall when they go up to heaven 5. It 's a perpetuall deliverance everlasting salvation not for a few years as were the deliverances of Israel by their Saviours It is a happy security and a secure happinesse The saved by Christ shall never fall never fall totally into sin or for sin 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 6. It 's a positive deliverance a preservation not from evill onely but to good also a preservation in grace and unto glory 1 Tim. 4.18 1 Pet. 1.4 Paul cals it a preservation to an heavenly Kingdom to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away where the perfection of all delights in the fruition of a soul-satisfying good shall make us forget all our troubles Heaven is an eternall triumph over all our former adversaries and adversities 1. Observ 1. The faithfull have many enemies What need else of this salvation Satans designe is their destruction either for sin or by sin or both He lieth most in wait for the soul enriched with holinesse and like the thiefe in the house takes most care to find the Jewels Let not the faithfull be secure or discouraged not secure though Christ saves yet our hearts betray us And Satan is a waking enemy not discouraged for Christ is a waking friend a powerfull Saviour 2. Observ 2. They who are out of the way of salvation out of Christ and without holinesse are without safety Secure they often are but never safe Sometimes they are kept from bodily dangers and preserved by the generall providence and the universall care of God extended to all his works but alas this amounts not to Judes salvation it is rather reservation then preservation All the care of God toward the wicked is but as the provision that a Jaylour bestowes upon his prisoner to keep him alive against the day of execution so that a sinners preservation is not only common but cursed A sinners security is not from want of danger but discerning If the Command of God be not a hedge to keep thee from being a straying sheep his care shall be no hedge to keep thee from being a devoured sheep Was it dangerous for them of old to be shut out of the Ark and the City of Refuge and to be without bloud upon their door posts and is it not dangerous to be without a Jesus to deliver us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 They who will not be preserved from Satan as a seducer in their life shal never be preserved from him as a destroyer at their death Of this more before 3. Observ 3. The salvation of the faithfull is begun in this life Here they are Saints and here they are saved Heaven is but the flower of
suffering them to enter among them he saith They were before ordained to this condemnation he thereby teaching that God was neither regardless and unmindfull of the Church nor indulgent to the false teachers or their false teachings 2. In setting down the impiety of these Seducers 1. He expresseth it more generally saying They were ungodly 2. More particularly he shews wherein that ungodlinesse appeared 1. In their abusing the grace of God Turning the grace c. 2. In their opposing the God of grace Denying the onely Lord c. 1 The Apostle describes the entrance of the seducers among the Christians Explicat And 1. He describes it from the nature of the parties entring They are men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle seems for two reasons to note the nature of these seducers calling them men Riv. in loc Me. lius sentiunt qui per hominis funes intelligunt omnem humanam amabilem tractationem qualis solet esse hominum erga homines Homines hominum causâ generati sunt ut ipsi inter se alii aliis prodesse possint Cic. l. 5. Offic. 1. To aggravate the sin of the seducers One man should be helpfull not hurtfull to another Man is a word used to denote goodness I drew them with the cords of a man saith God Hos 11.4 to express his gentleness toward the people And in our ordinary expression humanity is used for kind and helpfull carriage Cruelty to the body is more beseeming beasts but cruelty to the soul is fitter to be used by Divels than by men The nearer any one is to us the more heinous is the hurt which he offers us or we him Natura nos cognatos edidit Senec. Nature hath made us near of kin To be cruel and hurtfull to others is to put off the man as well as the Christian 2. To amplifie the danger of these Christians Men like our selves may most probably prevail over us by their seducements Non lupi silvestres sed urbani specie humanâ lupinam vitiositatem tegunt Were they Divels or beasts they might affright but being men they allure As it 's the wisdome of God to send us holy men to instruct us and win us to himself so it s the subtilty of Satan to send wicked men to seduce and draw us from God None hurt so unexpectedly and unavoydably as those who are near and sutable to our nature Seducers are Satans dequoyes to fetch men in to him by multiiudes 1. Observ 1. Sin hath made even man a hurtfull creature Not onely man hurtfull to beasts and beasts to man but man to man Even man who should be in stead of God a keeper a defender is by sin made a wolf a destroyer of man Man till sinfull was never harmfull Before he sin'd he naked neither fear'd nor offer'd wrong His sinless state will ever be known by the name of a state of innocency or hurtlesness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine cornibus non feriens cornibus Phil. 2.15 and when the lost image of God is again restored he is made a Lamb a Dove a harmless or as the word in the Originall signifies a hornless creature But how much more than brutishly cruel hath sin made man become witness not only the vast multitude of men destroyed in all ages by men and the incredibly exquisite tortures as wrackings sawings burnings c. against man invented by man as if sin had set up an hellish inquisition in mans nature but even the murders committed by Seducers and Hereticks upon the souls of men it being now as much against corrupt nature to go towards hell alone as to walk in the wayes of heaven at all Oh that we could contemplate the odiousnesse of sin in this glass of it's harmfulness 2. Observ 2. We should not content our selves in being meer men He who is and continues no more but a man had better never to have been so much as a man A man altogether without grace though otherwise never so exquisitely accomplished is but a tame divell and often most hurtfull How restlesse should we be till the divine nature be bestowed upon us 2 Per. 14. The naturall man or the man who hath no more than a rationall soul naturall abilities and perfections as he cannot receive so he can and will oppose the things of the Spirit of God Satan can as easily enter as assault a man meerly naturall And many who have had religious education and made hopefull beginnings yet having never been by a saving change of heart more then men have soon shewn themselves as bad almost as divels Nature elevated to the highest pitch by its most exquisite improvements is still but nature it may thereby be coloured over but grace can only change it 3. Observ 3. We should beware of those who are but meer naturall men and have nothing more or more excellent then humane nature It 's the Command of Christ to beware of men Mat. 10.17 Beware of them 1. lest they betray your liberties lives or externall welfare Naturae bonitas nisi pietate confirmetur facilè illabescit Cartw. Harm Christ committed not himselfe to man because he knew what was in man and let not us commit our selves to them because we know not what is in them Nature is a slippery thing and unlesse back'd by grace will prove but unsteady How oft have I seen found I had almost said that the love of acquaintance meerly naturall ends upon change of times either in persecution or at the best in cruell compassion in perswading to self-preservation by wracking conscience and offending God! 2. Especially let us beware lest they betray our souls by seducing them from God and truth Follow no man further than he follows God Look upon every man as a rule ruled not as a rule ruling Captivate thy understanding to none but God Take equall heed of receiving the word of God as the word of man and of receiving the word of man as the word of God The errour of the Master is the tentation of the scholer Love no man so much as to follow that of his which is not lovely in that sense call no man Master We must never beleeve errour when he speaks it nor truth because he speaks it 4. Satan is wont to make use of such instruments as Observ 4. may most probably do his work He loves to put upon himself the most taking and insinuating shape when he comes to tempt us He imployed the most subtill creature to convey his tentations to our first parents Ordinarily he makes use of men and most commonly of the fittest either for parts or seeming piety to work upon men He also hath his Apostles and Ministers to pervert the world 2 Cor. 11.13.15 transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and the Ministers of righteousnesse But how unworthy is it for men to suffer Satan to use their parts and wits against their Maker
esset c. In adversis um braest vel similitudo non ipsares Ansel 2 Cor. 6.9 Put sin into its best dresse and it s but gilded condemnation 2 Spirituall judgements are ever the sorest In Gods withdrawing his grace and delivering up to a reprobate sense there is something of Condemnation The soul of a judgement is its seizing upon the soul The greatest misery which can befall the body is but for the soul to leave it and what proportion bears this to the misery of Gods leaving the soul The death in death is the miscarriage of the soul If a man be not heart-sick though otherwise distempered he is not feared and if not soul-sick and the union between God and him weakned there is no danger Bodily miseries are but appearing and opinionative and there is a vanity in outward troubles as well as enjoyments The Apostle makes the greatest suffering of the body to be but as such rather a dream then a reality of suffering The poorest Saint never had a drop of condemnation in a sea of calamity His affliction is not laniena but medicina not Butchery but Chirurgery nay the end of Gods chastning is that he may not be judged 1 Cor. 11.32 How different is the condemning of a Malefactour from the reprehension of a Son the Fathers rod from the Executioners axe Heb. 12.7 Ne timeas flagellari sed exhaeredari If we endure chastning the Lord deals with us as with sons Strive not so much to get the rod taken off thy back as to get it into a Fathers hand How madly merry is every obstinate sinner in all his worldly enjoyments How unsutable is thy musick when thou art sacrificing that which should be dearer to thee then thy dearest child celebrating the Funerals of thy precious soul Si doles condoleo si non doles doleo magis Who would not commiserate his mirth who goeth dancing to his own execution whose only strife is to double his misery by shunning the thoughts of that which he cannot shun Be not taken with what thou hast in gift but what thou hast in love In receiving of every mercy imitate Isaaks jealousie and say Art thou that very mercy that mercy indeed which comes in the blood of Christ Art thou sent from a Father or a Judge Satius est ut vim qualemcunque mihi inferas Domine quam parcens mihi me in meo torpore securum derelinquere Observ 3. What do I receiving if I shall never be received It 's infinitely better that God should correct thee so as to awaken thee then by prospering to let thee sleep in sin till it be too late to arise It was better for the Prodigall to be famish'd home then furnish'd out 3. These condemned ones should warn us that we incur not the like condemnation with them Saints should be examples of imitation and sinners of caution A good heart will get good even by bad men and take honey out of the carcasse of a Lion These Seducers were mentioned and stigmatized by Jude with this black mark not only to shew that God was righteous in punishing but that we might not be unrighteous and wretched in imitating them And that we may not 1. Neglect not undervalue not the truths of the Gospel Rom. 1.26 Shut not thy eyes lest God suffer Satan to blind them How severely did God punish the Heathens for opposing the light of nature and will not Christ when clearly discovered and unkindly neglected 2 Thes 2.9.10 much more heighten thy condemnation If Christ be not a rock of foundation hee will be a stone of stumbling Fruits which grow against a wall are soon ripened by the Suns heat and so are sins which are committed under the Sun-shine of the Gospel The contempt of the Gospel is the condemnation of the world John 3.12 2 Pet. 2.1 it brings swift destruction 2. Preserve a tender conscience Tremble at the first solicitations of sin which make way for eternall by taking away spirituall feeling This deluge of impiety in which these Seducers were drowned began with a drop Many knots tyed one upon another will hardly be loosed every spot falling upon the cloathes makes a man the more regardlesse of them and every sin defiling the conscience makes a man the more carelesse of it He who dares not wade to the ancles is in no danger of being swallowed up in the depths Modest beginnings make way for immodest proceedings in sin The thickest ice that will bear a cart begins with a thin trembling cover that will not bear a pibble As these Seducers crept in by degrees into the Church so did Satan by degrees creep into them 2 Tim. 2.16 They increased to more ungodlinesse They went down to this condemnation by steps and after they had begun they knew not where or whether they should stop 3. Take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonnesse of abusing his goodnesse either to soul or body to impiety Take not occasion to be sinfull because God is mercifull to be long-sinning because God is long-suffering to sin because grace abounds to make work for the blood of Christ to turn Christian liberty into unchristian libertinisme This must needs incense even mercy it self to leave and plead against thee and what then will justice do They who never enjoyed this grace of God go to hell they who have it and use it not run on foot to hell but they who abuse and turn it into wantonnesse gallop or go to hell on hors-back This for the first way in which the punishment of these Seducers was considerable viz. Its severity This condemnation The second followes namely its certainty they were before of old ordained to it EXPLICATION In this two things require Explication 1. What this ordination is of which the Apostle here speaks 2. In what respect it is said to be before of old For the first Metaphora sumpta ab tis qui in codicillis scribunt memoriae causâ qua statuunt agere Haec Metaphora inde sumpta est quòd aeternum Dei consilium quo ordinati sunt fideles ad salutem Liber vocatu◠Calv. De quibus olim praenuntiatum est in Scripturis quòd deventuri sunt in judicium Est in loc The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated Ordained properly signifying forewritten enrolled bill'd book'd or registred It seems say some to be a Metaphor taken from Records in Courts wherein things are set down for an after remembrance of them Or according to others from books of remembrance wherein for the greater surenesse of doing any thing men write down what they purpose to do and desire not to forget Calvin draws the allusion from Scrip ture in which the eternall counsell of God wherein the faithfull are elected to salvation is called a Book Sure we are 't is a Metaphoricall speech and by none of our Protestant Divines as I remember is that interpretation imbraced
wild buls in a net they had rather be able to tear then willing to kiss the rod. Like chaffe they fly in the face of and not like the solid grain fall downe before him that fans them They accept not of the punishment of their iniquity 2 King 6.33 not wait for deliverance from their punishment they either faint under or rage against or take no notice of the hand of God when 't is lifted up against them 7. Not to honour God by regarding of his worship The ungodly call not upon the Lord. Psal 14.4 Only the godly man is made like a man to looke upward The other in their wants go to Baalzebub the god of Ekron or the witch of Endor to earthly and sinfull shifts rather howling through the sense of their wants then praying in the beleefe of receiving the blessings they desire In their obtaining of comforts Hab. 1.16 they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drags and are as sensuall in their enjoyments as unsubmissive in their wants They can neither pray when they are afflicted nor sing Psalms when they are merry instead of praying they dispair instead of singing Psalms they revell when they are in want they are as distrustfull as if God could never help them when they abound they are as secure as if God could never hurt them In a word they account not the holy duties of prayer Isai 56.7 Isai 58.13 hearing sacraments c. to be their priviledges but their drudgery They are not joyfull in the house of prayer the Sabboth is not a delight the word of the Lord is a burden and when they are in holy performances they are like a fish upon the dry land 2. Ungodlinesse consists in giving of the honour which is due to God to somthing else beside God And this ungodly men do two wayes 1. Inwardly in the soul will and affections Jer. 17.5 and the whole inner man as 1. when they place their trust and confidence upon somthing besides God and so place it in the room of God making flesh their arm and support Thus one ungodly man depends upon his wealth Job 31.24 making it his hope and confidence another upon his strength resting upon man Psal 20.7 Prov. 3.5 putting his trust in horses and chariots another upon his wit and policy which in a moment God is able to turn into foolishnesse They will not take the word of a man who hath once or twice deceived them but they will relie upon the broken creature which alway faileth fond expectation Jon. 2.8 Josh 62.9 Psal 62.8 and is no other then a lying vanity hereby not only disappointing themselves but dishonouring him who alone requireth and deserveth our trust and affiance 2. When they set that love and delight upon other things which is due to God who is to be loved with all the heart and soul and thus sundry there are who love their pleasures more than God whose belly is their God 2 Tim. 3.4 Phil. 3.19 Ephes 5.5 others there are whose gain is godlinesse and who are fitly therefore by the Apostle called idolaters That which a man most loves is his God Psal 62.10 Ungodly men set their hearts upon that which was made to set their feet upon with unbounded eagernesse they follow the world Moderation holds not the reins of their earthly industry in which they are not carried with the gentle gales of indifferency but the furious winds of violence They will be rich 1 Tim. 6.9 though they lose their souls their God and are drowned in perdition 3. When they bestow that fear upon the creature which is only due to God Isai 8.13 when man not God is their fear and their dread If outward troubles or troublers approach Isai 7.2 they shake like the trees of the wood if man threaten a prison they tremble more than when God threateneth hell Isai 51.12 13. fearing him more that can kill the body than him who can throw both body and soul into hell whence it is that they are insnared by the unlawfull commands of Superiours willingly walking after the commandement Hos 5.11 Prov. 25.26 and falling down before the wicked become like a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring serving instead of the Lord the times 2. Outwardly ungodly men give the honour to the creature which is due to God and that they do by outward religious worship Rom. 1.25 Psal 95.6 when they worship and serve the creature more than the Creatour who is God blessed for evermore before whom religiously we must only kneel and bow down Mat. 4.10 How unlike are ungodly men to him who was God and man Christ refused to bow to the divel not only because he was a divel but a creature denying to him not only inward devotion but outward reverence And how unlike to the three godly men who tell the King Dan. 3.18 Isai 40.18.25 Isai 44.19 commanding them to bow to his image that they will not serve his gods What do they but make a lie when they make an image of an uncircumscriptible infinite God and shew themselves as blockish as the block they worship which is no better than that which even now they burnt Poor is their pretence who to exempt themselves from this ungodlinesse plead though they present their bodies at religious worship yet they preserve their souls for God for why could not Christ for a whole world with all his wisdome find out such a piece of policy and make not body and soul one man that must have but one God one worship Are not our bodies the Lords as well as our souls or can she be accounted a chaste spouse which gives the use of her body to a stranger upon pretence of keeping her heart to her husband 3. Ungodlinesse consists in the giving of honour to God after a false and an undue manner As 1. When it 's given unwarrantably and not according to his revealed will When tradition and humane invention put the Scripture out of place This is to worship God in vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 15.9 Nothing is more counterfeited and disfigured than religion Men through naturall unsubmissivenesse to the purity and simplicity of Scripture-commands through love of their own conceits novelty carnality are prone to make many golden calves People like the Lacedemonians who were wont to dresse their gods after the fashion of the City love to dresse their devotions after their own humours being zealous but not according to knowledge and like bats converting the humour of their eyes to make their wings large These give not God that reasonable service for the performance whereof Rom. 12.1 they must produce a word a Scripture-reason Mans work is to keep Lawes not either to be or make a Law for himselfe or others 2. Honour is given to God after an undue manner when 't is not given him obediently when
Mysteries of redemption and the free pardon of sin through Christ And this last way it 's taken Acts 14.3 20.32 where the Gospel is called the word of grace called also Acts 20.24 the Gospel of the grace of God and 2 Cor. 6.1 and Tit. 2.12 grace it self we beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain And the grace of God hath appeared c. In this last signification I take it in this place wherein what the Apostle had called the faith in the foregoing verse for which the Christians should Contend he calls the grace in this which Seducers did abuse and oppose 2. Why is the doctrine of the Gospel called by the name of grace 1. Because it is a gift of grace and it was onely Gods free good will that bestowed it These questions Why it was ever bestowed at all or why one age or place of the world should receive it rather than another why God should discover the mystery that was kept secret since the world began Rom 16.25 26. to those who were sinners of the Gentiles who served dumb Idols why God should be found of them who sought him not and made manifest unto them who asked â—ot after him Isa 65.1 Mat. 11.26 can only be answered by that reason which Christ gives of Gods hiding these things from the wise and prudent and revealing them to babes Even so Father because it seemed good in thy sight 2. Because the subject matter of the Gospel even all the benefits discovered in it flowed meerly from free-grace whether blessings without us or within us Without us Eph. 1.5 Election is the election of grace and according to the good pleasure of his will our vocation was according to grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Regeneration was of Gods own will Jam. 1.18 Faith the gift of God Justification is freely by his grace Phil. 1.29 Rom. 3.24 And a free gift Rom. 5.15 18. Forgivenesse of our sins according to the riches of grace Ephes 1.7 Eternall life is the gift of God Acts 15.11 Rom. 6.23 Even the life of glory is the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 Christ himselfe was a token of free love sent to mankind And as his whole work was to love so his whole love was free The portion which he expecteth is nothing but poverty Isai 55.1 Would we purchase any benefit of him we must be sure to leave our money behind us There 's not one soul that ever he loved but was poor and empty sick and impotent unamiable and filthy regardlesse of him and ignorant opposite to him and unkind and often unfaithfull to him and disloyall And may not the Gospel which discovers this goodnesse well be call'd grace 3. As the Gospel doth discover and reveal so doth it instrumentally impart and bestow these benefits of free-grace The Gospel is not only light to discover them but an invitation to accept them not only a story but a testament The language of the Gospel is Luke 14.17 Come for all things are now ready Nor hath it only an inviting but a prevailing voice with some It is made powerfull to overcome the most delaying disobedient sinner by him who doth not only ordain Rom. 1.16 Acts 6.7 2 Thes 1.8 but accompany it This grace bringeth salvation Tit. 2.12 it bringeth it to us not to look upon but to take 1. Observ 1. What an happy difference is between the Law and the Gospel The Law affords not a drop of grace it bestowes nothing freely The language of the Law is Do thou and live if not dye No work no wages but in the Gospel the yoke of personall obedience is translated from believers to their surety there 's nothing for them to pay all that they have to do is to hunger and feed Their happinesse is free in respect of themselves though costly to Christ who by his merits purchaseth for them whatsoever they would obtain and by his Spirit worketh in them whatsoever he requires 2. Observ 2. How shall we escape if we neglect the salvation which the Gospel of grace brings If they are unexcusable who pay not their own debts under the Law what are they who will not do so much as accept of free pardon and a surety under the Gospel Gospel-grace neglected is the great condemnation of the world How mindfull should we be of the Apostles counsell 2 Cor. 6.1 1 Thes 5.1 2 Cor. 3.6 2 Cor. 3.18 Receive not the grace of God in vain not only in word but in power as it is a quickning spirit or spirit and life not begetting only a form of profession but as changing and transforming into the image of God and altering the inward disposition of the heart If the grace of the Gospel make a stop at restraining it only advantageth men ut mitiùs ardeant not to save them 3. Observ 3. The sin and folly of those is great who though poor are yet so proud that they submit not themselves to the freenesse of the Gospel who will not feed upon the supper of Evangelicall benefits unlesse they may pay the reckoning who mix at least their own merits with Christs expecting justification for their own obedience Alas what is our rectitude but crookednesse what our righteousnesses but filthy rags How fond an undertaking is it to go about to establish our own righteousnesse Rom. 10.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is it but to endeavour to make a dead carcasse to stand alone How just is the issue that rich ones should be sent empty from the Supper A proud heart can no more be fill'd with Evangelicall grace then can a vessel with water poured upon its convex out-side It 's better to be an humble sinner than a proud justiciary 4. Observ 4. How chearfull free and forward should all their services be who partake of the grace of the Gospel Jugum Christi non deterit sed honestat colla Bern. If God have removed the insupportable yoke of legall satisfaction how willingly should we take upon us the easie yoke of Evangelicall obedience Though Saints be exempted from bondage yet not from service Christians though they serve not God by the compulsive power of the Law yet they ought by vertue of the Spirit renewing the soul Their spirits should be free and willing even when strength and power fail them They should delight to do the will of God Psal 110.3 Psal 40.8 If Gospel-grace be free then it 's most unsutable that Gospel-service should be forced The Evangelicall bond to obedience is strong though it be silken 5. Observ 5. Every one should covet to be interested in the benefits of the Gospel they are freely bestowed It is easie to know a house where alms are freely distributed by the crowding of beggers When money is freely thrown about the streets at the Kings coronation how do the poor thrust tread one upon another There 's no such crowding
first particular expression of the ungodlinesse of these seducers Their perverting of the grace of God The second followes viz. their denying of the God of grace Denying the only Lord God c. In the words I consider 1. The description of his dignity whom they opposed the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ 2. How they opposed him or wherein that opposition did stand They denyed him 1 The description of his dignity I conceive with Beza and the best interpreters that it is not to be understood partly of God the Father and partly of Christ but altogether of Christ and that not so much because it seems to be paralel with that place of Peter denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2.1 as because in the Original the prefixing of only one article to all these titles seems to require this reading The onely Lord who is God and or even our Lord Jesus Christ In this description of the dignity of Christ I shall not that I may avoid tediousnesse and repetition speak of his person and offices as they are held forth in these later words Jesus Christ but I shall principally consider from these words The onely Lord God Our Saviours dignity 1. In respect of his place and authority So hee is called the onely Lord. 2. In respect of his divine nature and essence and so he is called God 1. In our Saviours dignity in respect of his place and authority he is Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which title is set out by the peculiarity of it to himself The onely Lord. In the explication of Christs dignity in this first respect I shall briefly shew 1. In what respect he is called Lord. 2. Only Lord. EXPLICATION The title given to Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word betokening a private right to rule Herile Imperium such as is exercised in the guiding and governing of a family and it most properly signifieth a Master Ruler or governour over servants who are bound to him And such a Lord and ruler is Christ whether we consider 1 His Title to this rule and dominion 2 His exercise of this rule and dominion 1. His Title to it And a title hee hath to it 1. By a right of Creation Joh. 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made Col. 1.16 by him were all things created And this his Creation of all things the Apostle makes the argument of his dominion 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and wee by him 2. Joh. 5.17 Sicut vasis beneficio potiùs quà m suâ naturâ accidit ne percat aqua diffluendo sic Deus in se creaturae labilitatem continet ita ut ejus actione conservetur ne pereat in nihilum recidendo Gers de vit spir lec 1. Joh. 17.6 Psal 2.8 Mat. 28.18 Col. 1.15 Joh. 3.35 Act. 10.42 Of sustentation and preservation Col. 1.17 By him all things consist If he withdraw his divine power and manutenency they all fall into nothing Hee is a being by his owne nature but all others have their beings by their participation of essence from him and his continuation of that action whereby hee gave them being Heb. 1.3 He upholding all things by the word of his power 3. By a right of ordination designation and appointment from God Act. 2.36 God hath made him Lord and Christ God hath given his elect to Christ that he should be their Lord and head that they should be his possession God hath given him power over all flesh he hath the right and prerogative of the first born to be the Lord of all God hath given all things into his hand he hath ordained him to be judg he hath appointed him over his own house Heb 3.2.6 4. By a right of unction and reception of that furnishment and fulnesse of the spirit of grace whereby hee was abundantly meet to be the Head and Lord of his Church He had as much of grace as there was of grace All fulnesse dwelt in him Col. 1.19 and hee received not the spirit by measure Hee had not the fulnesse of the vessell but of the fountain all others had only a measured fulness Luk. 1.15 Act. 7.55 1 Cor. 12.11 1 Joh. 16. Isa 61.1 Luk. 1.74 75. Tit. 2.14 1 Pet. 1.19 2 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 14.7.8 and for themselves Christ had a fulness of redundancy for the whole Church 5. By a right of redemption Hee is our Lord because hee hath delivered us from the hands of our Enemies and when we were bond-slaves to sin Satan and death paid our ransome The ransomer of a bondslave was wont to be his Lord. No bondage so great as ours was no price so great as that which Christ paid and therefore no service so great as that which we owe. 6. Lastly by right of Covenant he is the Lord of Christians Wee promise to take him for our Lord both 1. By a marriage Covenant so we take him for our head guide governour and protector And 2. By a Covenant of hiring and binding out our selves to his service not only baptismally and visibly but by an effectuall and saving resignation of our selves to all the works of new obedience 2. Christ is a Lord if we consider his exercise of Dominion And this he puts forth 1. By giving Laws to binde his servants to obedience None but Christ can give lawes and there are none of Christs servants but receive lawes from him Onely Christ can ordain lawes to binde the conscience Mans lawes binde not as they are man's but as they are back'd by Christ nor can any beside Christ so give lawes to which we should be obedient as withall to make us obedient to the lawes which he gives Humane lawes can make men cover sinne but not make them cast off sinne Christ onely can write his lawes in the heart Nor are there any servants of Christ but so far forth as they are such receive lawes from him Christs servants are no sons of Belial Every one must have a yoke upon him though it be made by the spirit sweet and easie By becoming servants of Christ we do not cast off but only change our yokes 2. Eph. 4.11 12 Christ exerciseth his dominion by appointing officers in his house These he furnisheth with gifts sutable to their places He makes them able Ministers and appoints them to be his Stewards 2 Cor. 3.6 1 Cor. 4.1 Luk. 12.42 to distribute to every one in his family their due proportion by way of feeding and governing The carriage of these Stewards is not arbitrary but appointed They are all accountable to their Lord for and from whom they rule 3. By finding his family with all necessaries for body and soul Psal 23.1 Psal 84.11 His servants shall want no good thing They shall neither pine for want nor surfet with abundance they
shall never have so much or so little as to make them unfit for service Christ loves to keep them in working case Even of outward necessaries they shall have what they want if not what they would Christ gives them all things that pertain to life and godlinesse he encourageth them 2 Pet. 1.1 4. he assisteth them in their work he gives them exceeding great and precious promises hee feeds them with his own flesh and blood 2 Pet. 1.4 he cloathes them with his own righteousnesse he directs them with his own spirit 4. By protecting his family from all dangers There 's no safety but in Christs family never are his servants in danger but when they go out of it 1. Sam 2.9 He is the keeper of his Israel peculiarly Though he sometimes suffers evils to touch Psal 105.14 15. he never suffers evils to hurt them he visits them in and delivers from all their troubles he suffers not Kings to hurt any of his servants He takes the wrongs offered to his servants as offered to himselfe 5. 1 Pet. 4.17 By correcting it for its miscarriages Judgment commonly begins at the house of the Lord. His servants are safe but must not be secure he suffers the world to do that which he will not endure in his own family His servants will never be faithfull to him nor find him faithfull to them if he did not sometimes chastise them He judgeth them 1 Cor. 11.32 that they may not be condemned with the world And whensoever the chides he doth it not because he loves it but because they want it 6. By rewarding every servant according to his service He is indeed the only Lord but he hath sundry sorts of servants He is a good master but most that call themselves his servants are unprofitable and only titular and complementall wearing his badg but refusing his work using the name of the Lord and crying Lord Lord but shunning the rule of their Lord. The reward of these is to be cast into utter darknesse Mat. 25.30 who heretofore were unprofitable under light His good and faithfull servants shall be rewarded with the joy of their Lord even the presence of him whom they served faithfully in his absence Mat. 25.21 Their labour of love shall not be forgotten by Christ but all their former toyl shall bee forgotten Their work though never so great is but small to their wages nor is the weight of their labours comparable to that of their crown Jesus Christ will pay them for every work which they have forgotten Their services are all book'd He who formerly gave them abilities to work will now give them a recompence for working 2. In what respect is Christ called Only Lord 1. Not to exclude the Father and the Holy Ghost 2d Branch of Explicat to whom with the Son all outward works are common and frequently to the whole Trinity of Persons is this name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord given in Scripture Act. 4.24 Rev. 6.10 God the Father Joh. 17.3 is called the only true God not to exclude the Son and God the Son is called the only Lord not to exclude the Father who is represented in the naturall glory of the Deity as the Son in the voluntary office of a Mediatour But secondly in respect of all creatures is Christ called only Lord 1 Cor. 8.6 One Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 4.5 One Lord and that 1. To exclude the partnership of any other in the government with him The rule is not shared between him and other Lords In government he hath no copartner He is Gods only Vice-gerent There is no â—ther name under heaven given among men Act. 4.12 Mat. 28.18 Heb. 1.2 Isai 63.3 Isai 54.16 To him hath the Father committed all power in heaven and earth as Pharaoh did set Joseph over all the land of Egypt God hath appointed him heir of all things And as Christ had no co-adjutor in the work of redemption so hath he no partner in the glory thereof 2. 1 Tim. 6.15 To note his superiority and preheminency above all other Lords In which respect he is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords for 1. He is the only absolute Lord. All other Lords are subordinate to him dependent on him advanced by him receive authority lawes gifts from him are responsible for the use and abuse of these to him and are therefore punishable by him The supreme of earthly Lords are in respect of him inferiour Lords 2. Phil. 2.10 He is the onely universall Lord. To him every knee must bow The three kingdoms of heaven earth and hell never had any Lord but Christ In the first of these he doth eminently shew his glory and beauty in the second his power of ruling and directing in the third his strength and severity Angels and glorified Saints in heaven Saints sinners and every creature on earth the damned and divels in hel are all his subjects He is Lord of all Act. 10.36 3. Psal 110.3 He is the only Lord for power and might He is able to subdue all things to himselfe Philip. 3.21 and 1 Tim. 6.15 He is called the only Potentate He made and he can annihilate the world with one word He can kill the soul and throw both body and soul into hell Happy we that earthly Lords though never so tyrannicall cannot do this He can subdue the hearts of men even of his deadliest enemies unto his love and obedience Happy would earthly Monarchs think themselves if they could do thus But he who only made can only mend the heart 4. Hee is the only Lord for majesty and glory All the glory of all the Caesars Emperours Kings who ever were combined in one heap is but a black coal in comparison of the splendor of his glory Mat. 6.29 If Solomon in all his glory was not arraied like the lillies of the field how much lesse was he like the Lord of the world The glory of Agrippa and Bernice was but a great fansie Act. 25.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How easie and often doth Christ stain the pride of the glory of the greatest and even cause shamefull spewing to be upon it The glory of Kings is but a borrowed ray or spark from his Majesty When he shall appear in his glory all the nightly glow-worms of worldly splendor shall be put out and all worldly majesty shall be exstinguish'd Nay the poorest Saint shal appear with him in that glory of which all the splendor of Emperours is not so much as a shadow 5. He is the only Lord in respect of his deportment toward his servants 1. He is the most discerning Lord and Master no earthly Masters are so able to observe the wayes and workes of their servants as he is for the closest and subtilest among them cannot deceive him he spies them in every corner nay every corner of their hearts in them He now in some sort is absent
treasnre for a trifle a mountain of gold for an heap of dung the pure lasting fountain for the muddie broken cistern Eternity for a moment realitie for a shadow all things for nothing And therefore 4. The denyall of Christ is the height of folly and the forsaking of our own mercy Acts 4.12 Christ is the only remedie against death to deny the remedic is to perish unavoidably He who denies him who is the Saviour nay Salvation cannot be saved no not by Salvation it self No disease kils that soul who casts not away this Physick but he who refuseth the means of recovery concludes himself under a necessitie of destruction How shall wee escape if wee neglect this great salvation Hebr. 2.3 Other sins put men upon a possibilitie the deniall of Christ upon a necessitie of damnation They who deny Christ shall be denyed by Christ He often denies them in this life 2 Thes 2.11 Ps 81.11 12. by leaving them to serve and love those lords whom they have chosen in stead of him and by a denyall of any power to them ever to return to him whom they have renounced yea Apoc. ult 12. As in the case of Spira and Judas by a denying them to their own consciences which oft flash into their faces the flames of hell for the quenching whereof they sometimes relinquish though in vain those trifles for which they denyed Christ But most assuredly will Christ deny these Christ-denyers at the last day he will be ashamed of them not know them and banish them from his presence notwithstanding their calling Lord Lord Mat. 7.23 and hypocriticall claiming of former acquaintance with him He that denies Christ denies a Lord who will destroy all Rebels Luk. 19.27 he denies a Lord not weak titular and mortall but just everliving and omnipotent 5. The practical denyal of Christ discovers a most rotten and unsound heart What greater falsness imaginable than to professe and deny Christ at the same time to put on his cloak for securitie in sinning to speak service and live opposition to him to call him Master only to mock him and to do the work of his enemies not to serve him whom we do serve to be in the skin a Christian and in the coar an Heathen Certainly this meer outside complementall Christianity that bowes to Christ and yet buffets him shall one day be found to have had profession onely for an increase of judgment Oh how just will it be for those who never truly loved Christ notwithstanding their professions to hear Christ professing that he never-knew them The rotten professor is the fittest fuell for eternall flames 6. The denyall of Christ implies the greatest unthankfulnesse If it be an unkind wickednesse to deny a creature a servant that fears thee what is it then to deny that Lord whom thou shouldst fear If to deny a Father that begat the body what is it then to deny God that created the soul If to deny a wife with whom thou art one flesh what is it to deny the Lord with whom thou art one spirit What evill have any found in him to forsake to renounce such a Master How great was his goodnesse to take such unprofitable servants as we are into the family of his Church What saw he in in us more then in heathens to reveal to us the light of his truths and the mysteries of salvation What an honour did he put upon us when he took us for his by baptismal initiation Were not the imployments ever noble safe and sweet which he put upon us is not the reward rich and bountifull which he hath promised Must not our own consciences be our own accusers when he requires of us the reason of denying him OBSERVATIONS 1. Christ accounts a verball outside profession Observ 1. contradicted by an unholy conversation to be no better then a renouncing of him The profession of the lip without the agreement of the life most dishonours God How ready will the ignorant be to think that God allows the sins Ezek. 36.20 or that he cannot punish the impiety of those who professe profanely Deus non quaerit obsequiorum speciem sed affectus puritatem Ambr. in 9. Luc. How hatefull to the God who loves truth in the inward parts must he be who hath nothing but falseness in the inward parts God seeks none to serve him but such as serve him in truth The service of the soul is the soul of service The singlenesse of the intention is the sweet of a performance and makes it even a Sacrifice with marrow Sacrificium medullatum All our professions and speculations without holiness are but profanations And of him that hates instruction Psal 50.46 God justly requires the reason of his taking his Covenant into his mouth Profane professors are but wens upon the face of Religion which God will one day cut off The higher the building is raised which wants a foundation the greater will be its fall and the more eminent mens appearances of religion are the more shamefull will be their apostacie if they want the foundation of sinceritie A sincere Professor though he do not actually forsake all for Christ is habitually prepared so to do when Christ shall require A meer formall professor though he do not as yet openly renounce Christ yet is prepared to do so when his interest shall call him to it 2. The excellency of any way or person Observ 2. is not to be judged by the regard it ordinarily findes among men Christ himself cannot want a denyall by foolish men If it be put to the vote Barrabbas will have more voyces then Christ The wayes of Christ are never the worse because wicked men renounce them rather their rejecting of them speaks them holy Let us not be offended at Christ because he is by most denyed Blesse God if thou hast an heart to own him and remember 't is a signe of a gracious heart Psal 119.127 when the wicked make void the Law of God therefore to love his Commandments 3. Observ 3. It is the great Interest of Christians to take heed of denying Christ To this end 1. Deny your selves That man which sets much by himself will never reckon much of a Saviour He who hath not learn'd to deny himself when Christ and Self come in competition and meet on a narrow bridg will endeavour to make Christ go back Quando à me ipso alienabor me perdam Revelle te à teipso ut Deo inseraris Divide te à teipso ut cum Creatore uniaris Bern. He who doth not account himself nothing will soon esteem Christ so Let the heart be taken off from any thing which may take thee off from Christ Crucifie every inordinate affection Beseech God to alienate thee from thy self and to annihilate in thee what-ever opposeth Christ Reserve nothing in thee from his stroke although the lot fall upon Jonathan And resolve to
it be sweet or no. Jesus Christ hath given us no commission to study the pleasure but the preservation of our people It s better that our people should be angry for not pleasing their lusts than that God should be angry for not profiting their souls 6. Observ 6. The truths of the word are to be known unchangeably Gal. 1.6 Ephes 4.14 Si fidem scrutari haesitando caeperimus omnium patiemur jacturam Theophylact. in Rom. 1. Col. 2.2 Helps hereunto see pa. 238 239. stedfastly once for all Christians must not be removed from the truth they must labour to be men in understanding and not be children tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine They must be known by the truth as men say they will by the gift of a friend many years after 't is delivered Holy instructions must be entertaind with full assurance of understanding and look'd upon not as opinions but assertions more sure than what we see with our bodily eys A seepticall doubtfull staggering Christian will soon prove a falling an apostatizing Christian A Christian must be rooted and grounded in the love of the truth Ephes 3.17 Thus far of the first part of the verse viz. the Preface prefixed I come now to the second namely the Example propounded in these words How that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that beleeved not In the Example I consider 1. A famous deliverance The Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt 2. A destruction following that deliverance Afterward destroyed 3. The meritorious cause of that destruction Vnbeleef Those that beleeved not I. The deliverance is contained in these words The Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt EXPLICATION The greatnesse of this mercy in delivering the Israelites out of Egypt is frequently mentioned in Scripture Deut. 4.20 Lev. 26.13 Psa 77.15 16 19 20 Psa 78.12 13 14. and from ver 41. to 54. Psal 105. form ver 23. to 39. Psal 106. from ver 6. to 13. Psal 114.3 5. Isa 63.11 12 13 Psal 136. from ver 9. to 17. Acts 7.18 19 c. to 37. Besides the large historie thereof in the book of Exodus it 's prefixed briefly to the ten Commandments as a most prevailing motive to obedience and often set down as one of the most famous deliverances that ever God bestowed upon his Church And indeed so it was if we consider 1. What the Egyptians did to the Israelites in abusing them during their abode in Egypt 2. What God did both to the Egyptians and Israelites when he delivered the Israelites from the abuses of the Egyptians For the first 1. The Egyptians offered many cruell injuries to the bodies of the Israelites 2. By their heathenish idolatry they were great enemies to their souls The first of these the Scripture expresseth in setting down First The bondage and servitude of the Israelites whereby their libertie and ease were taken away Secondly The murderous Edicts which were given out for the taking away also of their lives First The cruel bondage of the Israelites was so great Exod. 20. that Egypt is call'd in Scripture the house of bondage and Egyptian bondage is even become a Proverb The Israelites were not more lovingly received by one Pharaoh Exod. 1.6 then they were cruelly retein'd by another They who of late were strangers are now slaves With Joseph died the remembrance of his love to Egypt Thankfulnesse to him by whom under God the lives and beings of the Egyptians were preserved is swallowed up in envie at the increase of his kindred and posterity The great fault of the Israelites is this that God multiplieth them To pull them down though by opposing of God and to make them as unfit for generation as resistance the Egyptians make them serve with rigour Exod. 1.13 14 and make their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick Every word notes Egyptian cruelty The word translated to make them serve signifies to oppresse by meer force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hanc habet vim praepositio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Frangere and it is a word noting properly a tyrannicall abuse of power and therefore translated by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies such a proud and cruel domineering as is used by tyrants Nor is the word translated with rigour without an emphasis it signifies saith Cajetan a making them to serve even to the breaking of their bones It is added that the Egyptians made their lives bitter a word transferr'd from the body to the minde to note the grievousnesse and unpleasingnesse of a thing The same word is used Lam. 3.15 where the Church saith Hee hath fill'd me with bitternesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath made me drunk with wormwood And as Lorinus thinks Miriam the sister of Moses had that name given her which signifies bitterness because she was born in those times The Seventy in their Translation expresse this imbittering of the Israelites lives by a word which signifies the most sharp and cutting pains in child-bearing And much doubtlesse was this bitterness increased by the nature of the work wherein the Israelites were imployed which was in mortar dirt and brick and all manner of service of the field they were put upon the most sordid and servile imployment Philo and Josephus with others report 2. Antiq. c. 5. that the works of the Israelites were meer drudgeries the most mean and dirty as scouring of pits the casting up of banks to keep out inundations the digging and cleansing of ditches and carrying the dung out of the Cities upon their shoulders And it 's said Psal 81.6 I removed his shoulder from the burden and his hands were delivered from the pots And that which yet made their servitude more extreme and bitter was that being in these dirty drudgeries of mortar and brick Exod. 5.10 the tale of the bricks is by the taskmasters laid upon the people though the straw wherewith to make brick be denyed them The poor Israelites now take more pains to please and yet please their cruell masters lesse than ever before They are commanded to gather straw and yet cruelly beaten because while they were gathering of straw they were not making of brick that is because they performed not impossibilities and did not make straw as well as brick Do what may be is tolerable but do what cannot be is cruell Hereupon the Israelites cry and complain to Pharaoh of their want of straw and their plenty of stripes In a word all that they desire is that they may but work as for wages they desire none In stead of relieving them he derides them and with a cruelly cutting scoff and a sarcasticall insultation he wounds their very wounds and tells them against hisown knowledg they are idle they are idle Hereupon
speaketh of his own according to his custome and disposition and when he speaks truth he borroweth that to the end he may deceive Satan cannot lay down his sinfull inclination he is totus in mendaciis delibutus saith Calvin stained and soak'd in sin In a word this chain of sin which he hath put on * Calv. in Joh. 8.44 he never can or will put off 2. These faln angels are in and under the chains of Gods power The strong man is bound by a stronger then himselfe The old Dragon was bound for a thousand years Rev. 20. and the chain which curbed him was the power of God this power hinders him both from escaping the evill which he undergoes and from effecting and causing that evill which he desires Satan shall for ever be miserable in sustainingwhat he would not and in not obtaining what he would The impossibility of his being happy Quòd aufertur nocendipotestas pro maximo tormento reputant Esti p. 60. in 2. Sent. necessarily followes his impotency to be holy purity being the path to blessednesse All the forces of hell cannot scale the walls of heaven There is a gulfe fixt between faln angels and happinesse which they can never passe over as they can never return to God so as to love him so never so as to enjoy him they are debarr'd from these joyes unavoidably which they forsook voluntarily nor is it a small matter of their punishment to be curbed against the bent and violent inclination of their own will from stirring an hairs bredth for the hurting any further then God lengthens out their chains How painfull a vexation is it to Satan that he cannot hurt the soul by affrighting alluring and seducing nor our bodies by diseases and pains nor our estates by losses nor * Luke 22.31 Tormentum diaboli erat exire ab homine nec posse ei diutius nocere Vid. Est in sent ibid. Quod abyssum deprecantur eo spectat quod ipsis volupe fit inter homines versari quò illos seducant ad se plures semper pertrahant id quod in abysso non possunt ubi sunt nulli quos seducant Luc. Brugens Dolet illis in abyssum demergi in qua ablata sit laedendi perdendi facultas our names by disgraces unless our God gives him chain Satan hath desired to have you c. saith Christ And when the divell besought Christ Luke 8.28 not to torment him it 's by many interpreted that the torment against which Satan prayed was that his ejection out of the possessed whereby he was to be hindered from doing that hurt which he desired it being immediately subjoyn'd by the Evangelist For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man And whereas ver 31. the divels further desired Christ that he would not command them to go out into the deep Calvin with others referre this petition to the great desire of the divels to continue among men to annoy and molest them They grieved saith Calvin to think of being cast into the deep wherein they could not have so much power and opportunity of doing harme to men the destruction of men being the delight of the divell And this seems further to be confirmed by the words of Mark Mark 5.10 who saith that the divels desired that Christ would not send them out of the Countrey whereby they should want opportunities of doing harme to the soules and bodies of men See Perkins on Jude Needs then must the chain of divine power which restrains the divell from hurting men be a considerable part of his torment whose work is to go about seeking whom he may devour 3. The faln Angels are in and under the chain of their own guilty consciences which by the tenour of God's justice bind them over to destruction they know they are adjudg'd to damnation for their sins Let them be where they will in the earth or air these chains of guilty consciences bind them over to judgement they can no more shake off these then leave themselves In these the divels are bound like mad-men and band-dogs they must endure what they cannot endure Jam. 2.19 The divels fear and tremble horrour is the effect of diabolicall assent Judicis sui prae sentiâ expavefacti de poenâ suâ cogitarunt Mala enim conscientia quid meriti essent ipsis tacente Christo dictabat quemadmodum enim scelerati ubi ad Tribunal ventum est c. Calv. in Mat. 8.29 How evidently did this guilty trembling appear when they ask Christ whether he was come to torment them before their time The sight of the Judge saith Calvin on the place made these guilty malefactours to tremble at the thoughts of their punishment their evill conscience told them Christ being silent what they deserved As malefactours when they are brought to the bar apprehend their punishment so did these divels at the sight of their Judge The faln angels shall ever contemplate what they have done and how they have finned as also what they shall undergo and how they shall suffer and hereby as God delivers the damned men into the hands of guilty angels so he delivers guilty angels over to themselves to be their own tormenters This fiery furnace of a tormenting conscience which of all others is the most scorching and scalding every divell shall carry in his bosome This inward and silent scourge shall torment him this arrow shall stick in his side Daemones quocunque abeant ubicunque degant suum secum circumferunt infernu◠Beda in c. 3. Jacobi Aquin. 1. p. q. 64. Art 4. ad ob 3. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sicut sempiternus à semper Though Lorinus upon the place mentions a conceit according to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the word should signifie not their own such chains as belonged not to them by nature but were put upon them after their sinning as a punishment Iren. l. 3. c. 33. Greg. l. 4. mor. cap. 10. Ansel l. 2. c. 21. Cur Deus homo Sicutceciderunt nullo alio nocente ut caderent itanullo alio ad juvante resurgere debent Aug. Enchir. c. 29. Quoniam non tota multitudo angelorum Deum deserendo perierat ea quae perierat perpetuâ perditione remaneret alia vero creatura rationalis quoniam tota perierat c. this vulture shall prey this worme shall gnaw and this hell shall he carry about him where ever he becomes though he may change his place yet he never changes his state As the happinesse of the good angels is not diminish'd when they come to us and are not actually in the heavenly place because they know themselves blessed as the honour of a King is not impaired though actually he sits not in his chair of State so neither is the misery of the wicked angels lessen'd
life and with that his estate and liberty and all that is dear and desirable granted unto him this his sentence and judgment I say is great and makes the day wherein it passeth deservedly to bee accounted such What are all the losses susteined by or fines imposed on any in comparison of the loss of Gods presence He who loseth God hath nothing besides to lose He who is doom'd to the pains of those fires prepared for the divell and his angels hath nothing left him more to feel The torments of the body are no more comparable to those of the soul then is the scratch of a pin to a stab at the heart nor can there possibly be an addition made to the blessednesse of those who shall be sentenced to enter into the joy of their Lord whose presence not only is in but is even heaven it selfe in a word there 's nothing small in the recompences of that great day great woe or great happinesse and therefore 't is a great day in either respect But of this at large before 3. This day of judgement is great in respect of the properties of it As 1. It s a certaine day were it doubtfull it would not be dreadfull were it fabulous it would be contemptible 1. Naturall conscience is affrighted at the hearing of a judgement day Act. 24.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Sua quemque fraus sua audacia suum facinus suum scelus de sanitate ac mente deturbat hae sunt impiorum furiae haeflammae hae faces Cicer. in Pison Eccl. 1.2 Hab. 1.13 Fâ—lix trenâ—bled when Paul preached of it and though the Athenians mocked when they heard of a Resurrection of the dead yet not at the hearing of the day of judgement The reason why men so much fear at death is because they are terrifyed with the thoughts of judgement after death were it not for that supreme and publick the inward Tribunall of conscience should be in vaine erected 2. The justice of God requires that every one shall receive according to his works In this life the best men are of all men most miserable and sinners oft most happy All things fall alike to all The wicked saith Habbakuk devoureth the man that is more righteous then himselfe There must come a time therefore when the righteous Judge will like Jacob lay his right hand upon the younger the more despised Saint and his left hand upon the elder the now prosperous sinner There is now much righteousnesse and oppression among Magistrates Gen. 18.25 Job 34.10 11 12. Isai 3.16 11. but it would be blasphemy to say that injustice shall take place to eternity Every unrighteous Decree in humane Judicatories must be judged over againe and from the highest Tribunall upon earth the Saints of God may joyfully and successfully appeal to a higher Bar. Jud. 14. Rom. 2.15 Eccl. 11.9 2 Thes 1 6 7. Mat. 7.22.25.41.10.15 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 14.10 Luk. 21.34 Luk. 9.26 2 Pet. 3.9 Tit. 2.13 1 Pet. 4.5 Omnia alia quae futura praedixerat Spiritus Sanctus in Scripturis evâ—nerunt ut de primo Christi adventu c. Cum ergo idem Spiritus Sanctus praedixerit secundum Christi adventum utique certo eveniet Aug. Ep. 42. Luk. 21.35 Mat. 25. The day of judgement shall set all things strait and in right order It is a righteous thing with God saith Paul to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed c. To conclude this The Scripture is in no one point more full and plentifull then in assuring us that this day shall certainly come and if the other predictions in Scripture particularly those concerning the first coming of Christ have truly come to passe why should we doubt of the truth of Christs second appearance and if the mercy of God were so great that he should repent of the evill intended against the wicked yet even that mercy of his would make the judgment so much the more necessary for the good of the Elect 2. The judgement of this great day shall be Sudden Christ will come as a thief in the night who enters the house without knocking at the door The judgement will come upon the secure world as the snare doth upon the bird The greater security is at that day the greater will the day and the terror thereof be to sinners the noise of fire is neither so usuall nor so dreadfull as in the night The approach of the Bridegroom at midnight increased the cry of the foolish and sleeping Virgins Sudden destruction or that which befals them who cry peace is destruction doubled 3. The judgement of this great day shall be Searching exact and accurate There shall be no causes that shall escape without discussion notwithstanding either their multiplicity or secrecy their numerousnesse or closenesse The infinite swarmes of vain thoughts idle words Psal 50.21 Mat. 12.36 Eccl. 12.14 2 Cor. 5.10 and unprofitable actions shall clearly and distinctly be set in order before those who are to be tryed for them God shall bring every work to judgement and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill 1 Cor. 4.5 He will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and make manifest the counsels of the heart But of this before 4. It shall be righteous As every cause shall be judged so rightly judged Christ is a righteous Judge 1 Tim 4.8 Psal 72.2 Act. 17.31 Rom. 2.11 2 Chron. 19.7 Psal 82.2 Job 34.19 In righteousnesse doth he judge Revel 19.11 The scepter of his kingdome is a right scepter he loves righteousnesse Psal 45.6 7 The day of judgement is a day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loyns it shall stick close to him This Judge cannot be byass'd by favour There is no respect of persons with God The enemies of Christ justified him in this particular that he regarded not the persons of men Mat. 22.16 Kindred Friend-ship Greatnesse make him not at all to warp and deviate from righteousnesse He is not mistaken with error he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes Isai 11.3 Joh. 7.24 2 Cor. 10.7 Jer. 17.9 10. Gal. 6.7 neither reprove after the hearing of his ears This Judg shall never be deluded with fair shews and out sides or misled by colourable but false reports as earthly Judges may be because they cannot pierce into mens hearts to discerne their secret intentions as Christ can do whom no specious appearance can deceive he shall never acquit any who is in truth faulty or inwardly unsound nor upon any flying report or forged suggestion proceed to the censure of any He shall never be in danger of being mis-informed through untrue depositions but he shall alwayes proceed upon certain knowledg in passing of his own sentence upon any 5. This judgement shall be open
secret which hath made so many publick examples 6. Behold examples in a way of particular application not with selfe exception but as bringing thee tydings of thine own ruine Without repentance never say What is this to me unless I repent I shall likewise perish Most hearing of examples of Gods judgment say to themselves as Peter to Christ These things shall not be to us Look not upon any outward thing as able to ward off the blow or priviledge thee from punishment Wealth cannot raise a ransome power cannot prevail wisdome cannot contrive secrecy cannot shelter one from wrath God hath as many arrowes in his quiver as he had before ever he began to shoot any We have no protection against the arrest of justice Outward priviledges nay saving grace it selfe can give thee no dispensation to sin 5. With an eye of prudent prevention Fly from that wrath of which thou art now warned it 's easier to keep out then to get out of the snare even beasts will avoid the places where they see their fellowes have miscarryed Happy would they who are thy examples think themselves had they the opportunities of preventing that which they now feel While the enemy is in the way agree with him while judgment is approaching consider whether thou beestable with thy ten to meet him that cometh against thee with twenty thousand Oh weak sinner while he is as yet through his forbearance at some distance send an Embassage and desire conditions of peace in the way of sincere turning to the Lord. All the armies and examples of vengeance which compasse thee about in the world shall retire from thee if thou wilt throw the head of Sheba over the wall the sin that God strook at in others 6. Lastly Look we upon examples with humble thankfulnesse Not as rejoycing in the sorrows of others but as blessing God for his mercy towards our selves How happy were we and how cheap our Schooling to have all our learning at the cost of another Admire that free grace which made a difference between us and the filthiest Sodomites our sins have some aggravations which neither these nor the sins of thousands in hell admitted It was the meer pleasure of God that Sodomites were not in our room and we in theirs and that we should not equalize those in punishment whom we have exceeded in sin VER 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominions and speak evil of dignities HEre Jude sets down the second part of the Second Argument which he brought to incite these Christians earnestly to Contend for the faith opposed by the Seducers The Argument was taken from their certain destruction In the managing whereof having first mentioned sundry Examples of Gods Judgement upon the Offenders of former times He now in the second place adds that these Seducers lived in those sins which God had punished in others and this he prosecutes in the eighth ninth and tenth verses In the eighth verse two parts are considerable 1. The faults with which these Seducers are charged 2. The Fountaine from which these faults issued 1. For the first the Faults c. We may consider 1. Their Specification 2. Their Amplification 1. Their Specification 1. Defiling of the flesh 2. Opposing of authority set down by the Apostle here in two branches 1. Their despising of Dominion inwardly 2. Their speaking evill of dignities outwardly 2. Their Amplification in these two words Likewise also They sinn'd both as the former sinners had offended and although they knew they were punished 2. The Fountain from which these their faults issued viz their spirituall security and delusion both contained in the word Dreamers EXPLICATION Concerning the Explication of the first fault specifyed in these Seducers their defiling the flesh which was the abuse of their bodies by Fornication and carnall unchastity even as Sodom had done before them I have at large spoken in the fore-going verse and therefore I shall here that I may forbear needlesse repetitions passe it over only three Observations I note and then shall proceed to their next fault OBSERVATIONS 1. Sins of carnall uncleannesse are peculiarly against the body or flesh of men In many if not all other heinous sins the thing abused is without the body as in murder theft c. but in this the body it selfe is abused More doth the body as concur to 1 Cor. 6.18 so suffer by this sin then any other both by dishonour and diseases Dishonour in the stayning and defiling that noble piece of workmanship curiously wrought by the finger of God himselfe By Diseases this lust being not only a conscience-wasting but a carcasse-wasting enemy Sensuall men kill that which they pretend most to cocker Wherein are the inslaved to this lust wiser then Samson in his discovering to Delilah where his strength lay though that impudent Harlot plainly told him shee desired to know it to afflict him I have heard of a drunkard that said having almost lost his sight by immoderate drinking He had rather lose his eyes then his drunkennesse And of an old Adulterer who was so wedded to and yet so weakned by his lust that he could neither live with or without his unclean companion Were not these boared slaves Truly such sinners are no better then the Divels hackneys meeting with nothing but stripes and drudgery and when they can no more the filthiest ditch even hell it selfe is their receptacle Our bodies did never cost the Divel any thing and he like the harlot who was not the mother of the child pleads indeed vehemently to have them for his own but yet withall cares not though they be cut in pieces The worshippers of Baal slash'd their poor carcasses for a God that was not able to hear them Idolaters have not thought their own dear childreen themselves repeated Sacrifices too dear for Moloch How do Papists tear and marcerate their bodies in their wil worship among them the Fratres flagellantes who once as Hospinian reports for thirty three days together went up and down slashing their carcasses with whips till they had almost whip'd themselves to death expressed more madnesse then mortification Superstition neglects and punisheth the body Col. 2. ult How different from these how gentle and indulgent even to the poor body are the services of God! he calls for honourable services Laxus et liber modus abstinen di ponitur cunctis Prud. Hymn post jejun and mercifull sacrifices nay mercy and not sacrifice Chastity Temperance c. are severe only to those lusts that are cruel to us even fasting it selfe which seems one of the sorest services furthers the health of the body God might and yet mercifully too have appointed since the body is such an enemy to the soul that like medicines given to those that are troubled with contrary diseases the services which are beneficiall to the one should have been hurtfull to the other But so meek and indulgent a master is the Lord
that his commands are profitable to both 3. Sins of unchastity are peculiarly defiling Besides that spirituall uncleannesse wherewith every sin defiles carnall chastity defiles with that which is bodily All sin in generall is called uncleannesse but fornication is the sin which is singled out particularly to be branded with that name Some think that Adulterers are especially compared to Dogs unclean creatures The hire of a whore and the price of a dog are put together and both forbidden to be brought into the house of the Lord Deuter. 23.18 And when Abner was by Ishbosheth reproved for defiling Rizpah he answers Am I a dog Weems on the seventh Commandment The childe begotten in adultery is Deut. 23.2 called Mamzer which some learned men derive from two words signifying another mans spot or defilement how foolish are they who desire to have their dead bodies imbalmed and their living bodies defiled There 's a peculiar opposition between fornication and sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication The Saints of God should have a peculiar abhorrence of this sin fornication and uncleanness c. let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 they should cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 A man who is of a cleanly disposition loves to wear clean garments The body is the garment of the soule and a clean heart will preserve a pure body Remember Christians by what hand your bodies were made by what guest they are inhabited to what head they are united by what price they are purchased in what laver they have been washed and to whose eye they shall hereafter be presented Consider lastly whether Delilah's lap be a fit place for those who expect a room in Abrahams bosome 3. Observ 3. The love of lust makes men erroneous and seducers They who make no conscience of ordering their conversation will soon be hereticall These Seducers who oppos'd the Faith were unclean and Flesh-defilers The fool said in his heart that there was no God Psal 14.1 and the true ground thereof immediately follows they are corrupt and have done abominable works They who put away a good conscience concerning faith will soon make shipwrack 1 Tim. 1.19 The lust of ambition and desire to be teachers of the Law makes men turn aside to vain jangling 1 Tim. 1.7 Diotrephes his love of preheminence puts him upon opposing the truth 3 Joh. ver 10. The lust of covetousness did the like They who supposed that gain was godliness quickly grew destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6.5 while some covered money they erred from the faith Mich. 3 5. 1 Tim. 6.10 They who subverted whole houses and taught things which they ought not did it for filthy lucres sake Tit. 1.11 The blinde Watchmen and the Shepherds which understood not were such as could never have enough and lookt every one for his gain and they were dumb because greedy dogs Esa 56.10 11. The lust of voluptuousness produced the same effect they who caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine which the Romans had learned were such as served their own belly Rom. 16.17 They who lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts resisted the truth were men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3. Wine and strong drink made the Prophets erre and go out of the way The Hereticks of old the Gnosticks Basilidians Epiph. adv haer c. 24 25 26. Aug. de haer c. 5 6. Perit judicium cum res transit in affectum Nicolaitans c. were so infamous for carnall uncleanness as Epiphanius Augustine and others report that a modest ear would even suffer by the relation thereof Nor have the Papists and Anabaptists of late come far short of them The lusts make the affections to be judges and where affection swayes judgement decayes Hence Alphonsus advised that affections should be left at the threshold when any went to Councell We are prone to believe that to be right and lawful which we would have to be so Lusts oppose all entrance of light which opposeth them Repentance alone makes men acknowledge the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 How can yee believe saith Christ who receive honour one from another Sensuall men taught that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 because it troubled them to think of it The consideration of a Resurrection an Hell an Heaven disturbs them and therefore they deny these If the light be too much in mens eyes they will either shut their eyes or draw the curtains Lusts will pervert the light which is brought in making men instead of bringing their crooked lives to the strait rule to bring the strait rule to their crooked lives and in stead of bringing their hearts to the Scripture to bring the Scripture to their hearts Hence it is that wicked men study the Scripture for distinctions to maintain their lusts and truly a carnall will is often helpt by the Devill to a carnall wit Lastly God in judgement gives up such who will not see to an inability and utter impotency to discern what they ought and to a reprobate minde they who will not be Scholars of Truth are by God justly delivered up to be Masters of Error And because men will not indure sound Doctrine God suffers them to heap unto themselves teachers after their own lusts to turn away their ears from the truth and to be turned unto fables because that when the very Heathen extinstuish'd the light of Nature and knowing God did not glorifie him as God professing themselves wise they became fools and God gave them up to uncleanness and vile affections much more may God send those who live under the Gospell and receive not the love of the truth strong delusions that they should believe lies 2 Thes 2.10 11. Wonder not therefore at that apostacy from the truth which abounds in these dayes and the opposing of those old precious Doctrines which heretofore men have imbraced in appearance some unmortified lust or other there was in them some worm or other there was of pride licenciousness c. in these beautifull Apples which made them fall from the tree of truth to the dirt of error in stead therefore of being scandalized at them let us bee carefull of our selves if wee would hold the mystery of faith let us put it into a pure conscience Let us keep no lust in delitiis love we no sin if we would leave no truth Let us love what we know and then we shall know what to love let us sincerely do the will of Christ and then we shall surely know the Doctrine of Christ I understand more than the Antients saith David Psal 119.100 because I keep thy precepts The Lord will teach such his way and guide them in judgment Evill men saith Solomon understand not judgement but they that seek the Lord understand all things Prov.
28.5 If we will turn from our iniquities we shall understand the truth Dan. 9.13 Who is wise and he shall understand these things This for the first specifyed fault wherewith these Seducers were charged viz. Their defiling the flesh The second followes their contempt of Magistracy and in that first of the first branch thereof viz. They despise Dominion inwardly EXPLICATION Three things I here propound by way of Explication 1. What we are here to understand by Dominion 2. What by despising that Dominion 3. Vpon what ground doth Jude here condemn them for that despising thereof In the first we may consider two things 1. To whom this Dominion is attributed 2. What it is and wherein it consists 1. The word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominion is the same with that mentioned in Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.10 2 Pet. 2.10 and tranflated Government And though it properly signifie Lordship Domination or Government in the abstract the Power and office of Magistracy or any ruling over others yet must it necessarily comprehend the persons themselves governing or in the place of Authority Government without Governours is but a notion and were it not for Governors there would be no hating of Government Paul Rom. 13.1 by Higher powers understands both the Power or Authority it self as also the Persons vested with that Power and Authority And when Peter 1 Pet. 2.17 commands the Christians to love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brother-hood he intends the whole company of the brethren as we understand by the Nobility of the Land the Nobles themselves and yet here Jude names in the abstract rather Dominion and Authority it selfe then those who were placed therein to shew what it was which these Seducers opposed and struck at namely not at officers so much as at their office not at Magistrates but at Magistracy they loved not this same ruling over others and such a difference among men They aimed at Anarchy as Calvin notes upon the place being proud they could not endure superiors and being licencious they were impatient of restraint So me by this Dominion of which Jude speaks understand the Dominion and Authority of the Lord Christ received from his Father and so refer this despising of Dominion to that sin of ungodlinesse mentioned ver 4. Dominaâ—iâ—nem contemunat i. e. Christâ—m qui non solum dicitur Dominus in Concreto sed etiam Deminatiâ— in Abstractâ— propter excellentians Domiâ—ii Lyran. where these Seducers are said to be ungodly and to deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Lyranus thus they despise Dominion that is saith he Christ himselfe who is not only called Lord in the concrete but even Dominion in the abstract because of the excellency of his Dominion But though it be true that Satan hath ever endeavoured to overthrow the Domination of Christ by Hereticks who have denyed his natures sometimes his offices at other times and have indeed shewed themselves Anti-christs 1 Joh. 2.4 Yet under correction I conceive that the Dominion and dignities whereof Jude here speaks are to be referred to the civill Magistrate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominion is never attributed to Christ in the New Testament but alwayes either to Angels Eph. 1.21 Col. 1.16 or Magistrates and it is only agreeable to the scope of this place to interpret it of the Magistrate Even they who by these words understand the Dominion of Christ yeeld that the next words despise Dignities are to be understood of Magistrates And the Apostle in this verse as is conceived compares these Seducers as for uncleannesse to Sodomites so for contempt of Government to the Israelâ—â—s who rebelled against Moses he most sutably also subjoining this sin to the former of uncleannesse in regard the love of their lusts and dissolutenesse of life made them hate that Government which was appointed to restrain them 2. For the second What this Dominion and Power is that is attributed to the Magistrate and wherein it consists 1. More generally it stands in Superiority Preheminency Supereminency above others as is evident 1. By those names by which it is set forth in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 20.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 20 25. Rom. 13.3 Luk. 12.11 Tit. 3.1 1 Cor. 15.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 27.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xen. as Power Authority Rule as Rom. 13.1 1 Timoth. 2.2 Tit. 3.1 2. By those Titles which are given to Magistrates as Kings and such as exercise Authority Luk. 22.25 They that are great Mat. 20.25 Rulers Rom. 13.3 Powers in the Abstract Rom. 13.1 Magistrates Luke 12.11 Governours Luk. 20.20 And elsewhere Nobles 2 Chro. 23.20 Jerem. 14.3 Dukes or Mighty ones Exod. 15.15 Ezek. 31.5 Great men 2 Sam. 3.38 Captaines 1 Sam. 9.16 Princes Psal 83.11 Ezek. 32.29 With sundry Metaphoricall Names also as Gods Exod. 22.28 Psal 82.1 Psal 138.1 Chrildren of the Most High Psal 82.6 The sons of the Mighty or of the Gods Psal 89.7 Fathers tender fathers as the word may be and according to Hierom is to be rendred Gen. 41.43 1 Sam. 24.11 David calls Saul Father Deborah is called a Mother in Israel Judg. 5.7 Heads Number 14.4 Judg. 11.7 Judg. 1 15. Mountains Mich. 6.7 Annointed 1 Sam. 24 7. Shepherds Numb 27.17 Isaiah 44.28 c. 2. More particularly this Dominion or Power consists in three things 1. In Ordinando in ordaining lawes for the good of the subjects This is called Potestas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Legistative Power Lawes are like the Line and Plummet of the Architect without which there is no right working and they are to a Common-wealth what the Sun is to the earth without them people would not see whither to go what to do and all places as is usuall in darknesse would be filled with filthinesse and violence they are the cords of the tent which being cut it fallls to the ground Lawes are the best walls of a City without them even walled cities want defence they are as Physick to the body both for preventing and removing Diseases nay they are as the soul to the body without them the Common-wealth would neither have beauty nor being Laws have been ever esteemed so necessary that no Common-wealth under any form could ever be without them Nor do these Positive lawes derogate at all from the perfection of the Law Morall or of Nature but only discover the depravation of mans nature in whose heart though that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that work of the Law be written which inclines all to some kind of naturall goodnesse yet by the fall is the knowledge of the Law of nature so obscured and the force of inordinate affection so prevalent over reason that there is need of Positive Lawes for directing restraining encouraging And indeed Positive Lawes are but rivulets derived and drawn from the Law of Nature and particular conclusions formed out of the universall principles thereof The