Hearts and affections with Peace that when he shall return to make inquisition for blood transgression and sin we may by him and that league and Covenant of Peace concluded with thee in him be delivered from wrath to come and for him receive forgivenesse of sins and Inheritance among them who are sanctified by Faith in him O let us not have our portion with unbeleevers nor our part with the disobedient for then we shall certainly perish but think upon us O Lord for good that we may be saved with that remnant who have their Robes washed and whitned in the blood of the Lambe who have separated themselves from the children of Belial and Table of Devills and keep themselves unspotted from the World and so both they and we may be presented in our Bodies our Soules and Spirits holy blamelesse and undefiled at the comming of our Lord. Holy God keep as from the contagion of sin and sinners preserve us in thy truth and love in the Vnity and Communion of thy one true holy Catholique Church that having the Seale of Gods Servants in our Forcheads we may cry and sing eternally Salvation to our God who fitteth on the Throne and to the Lambe Amen The CONCLUSION Heb. 11. from the 32. verse to the end of the Chapter And what shall I say more for the time would faile me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Iephthah of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousnes obtained promises stopped the mouthes of Lyons c. THe Apostle now coms to a Conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a preâ—â—â—on cutting short his Discourse and cursorily casting up the residue of the Faithfull which were to be inserted in this Catalogue even all the Succession of Beleevers who lived from the time of the Judges ruling under God in Israel till that present Age wherein he Wrote to these Hebrews nominating onely some shortly touching their works and patience intimating onely and hinting at others by their acts and sufferings by which we may guesse and conjecture at their Names and Persons And having thus compleated his Designe and Canon he gives a full Testimoniall and Certificate of approbation in the two last Verses both of these thus in the close either expressed or alluded to and of those foregoing whom he had honoured with a larger Narrative and more distinctly and aithfully insisted on and more amply commended I shall therefore here leave my former Method in the respective Observance of the Apostle and summarily and briefly run over these subsequent Examples and Presidents of Faith as they lye here in their severall order contracted and so follow his Abridgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words following in course And what shall I more say If these Hebrews be of tractable and teachable Spirits enough is said already to establish and strengthen them in the holy Faith and what needs more then enough sufficient is said what is more is ex abundantia The time would faile me c. An Hyperbolicall expreson importing thus much So numerous is the company of the Faithfull Ancients and so many their Faithfull Actions in the holy Registery that a full enumeration of them and what is Recorded of and concerning them would exceed the bulk of an Epistolar Exhortation and Remonstrance and rise into a large and exact History These here mentioned will serve strongly to make good the Induction and thereby prove the Position Faith is the substance of things hoped the evidence of things not seen c. and therefore it is unnecessary altogether to enlarge further and therefore also take them more succinctly and compendiously Thus your Painters being to deliniate a Croude or a Thronged Multitude doe not take them whole and in full but draws them out by the Pole and presents you nothing but the tops and crowns of their Heads amassing their bulks altogether Gideon whose faithfull expedition is Recorded Judges 6. and 7. whose stratagem with the number of three hundred men struck a Panick fear into the numerous Mideanitish Army that they Fled and killed each other Baracks Prowesse and Faith was manifested That with a small inconsiderable Body he durst encounter and did totally Rout the vast and well-provided Army of Sisera King Iabins Captain Generall Iudges 4. and 5. Samson follows whose Faith was greater then his admired and renowned strength admired it was because it lay in those excrescences of his Body his Heires which in other Men are of the least use and most weaknesse Renowned it was to a Proverb and deservedly for without any offensive or defensive Weapons by his bare Arme of Flesh he tore in pieces a Lyon like a Kid Iudges 14.5.6 when his Hands were bound he brake the Cords like scorched Flax and being loosed with the law-bone of an Asse flew a thousand Men Iudges 15.14 c. when he was Beseiged and immured by the Philistines he carried away the Gates of the City with the two Posts Barr and all Iudges 16.3 and by leaning upon the two middle Pillart of the House the whole Fabrick dissolved Iudges 16.30 Iephthah is the last mentioned of the Iudges though he was before Samson as Barack was before Gideon who notwithstanding was first here nominated You may finde the History of his Resolution and Noble Attempts against the Ammonites in the defence of Israel Iudges 11. I shall referre you to the Text and leave them after a not very impertinent Digression and two Practicall Observations The Digression aimes at a Fact of Samsons and Iephtha's and depends on these following Quaeries 1. Whether Samson in that his last mentioned Enterprize was not Felo de se guilty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of selfe-murder which not onely the Rule of Faith but reason it selfe condemns as sinfull and unnaturall Arist lib. 5. Eth. cap. 11 But to wave some mens conjectures Saint Augustines Answer seems to me most cleare who accounts this inter beroica an extraordinary act proceeding from an extraordinary motion of Gods Spirit in no wise or case imitable For saith he lib. 1. de Civitate Dei cap. 21. Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat he had a secret or private Order for it And more fully cap. 26. of that Book Non humanitas deceptus sed divinitus jussus nec arrans sed obediens It was not a crime but duty in him And he adds this reason Cum Deus jubet seque jubere sine ullis ambagibus intimat quis obedientiam in crimen vocet quis obsequium pietatis accuset If God command and clearly intimates his command this supersedes the guilt and absolves it from disobedience 2. Concerning Iephtha's Vow Whether it in it selfe were rash Whether he executed this rash Vow and in the Execution thereof did sin against the Law of God This in Saint Augustines judgement is Magna ad dijudicandum difficilima Quaestio Tom. 4. quaest sup Iud. lib. 7. cap. 49. a great
endearments be either inconsistent with or prejudiciall to our holy profession any lets or hinderances to us in the discharge and performance of the duties of Piety or Charity the love of God and Man then we are by all means to quit and dis-own them we must come out of Babylon though our Interests be there if we cannot stay but we must partake of their sins we must forsake Egypt if she distresse the People of God and our precious Faith for we cannot serve God and Mammon Christ and Belial Q. But what is there such a power and faculty in man to refuse or choose what he will And if so then doth not this power necessarily inferr a freedom in the will of man A. Certainly man is a free Agent in all his exercises and operations and what he doth not freely he doth not as a man but as a horse and mule which have no understanding and we are forbidden to be such Psal 32.10 for it is naturall for the will of man to move freely rationally and deliberately and this freedom or liberty of the will is an essentiall of humanity and the proper act of that freedom is Election which is exposed both to coaction and compulsion Voluntas non cogitur for that which is compelled is against the will and that which is against the will is not willed It is true the will may be letted changed and the commanded actions thereof compelled that is those inferiour faculties which are moved by the will but the immanent actions of the will that is to deliberate will and choose cannot be so and also to necessitation and determination to one For if the will be determined by the Physicall and speciall influence of outward causes then morives were in vain reason in vain deliberation in vain all perswasions and threats in vain but therefore are these used because man hath a power of Election that he may deliberate and act indifferently and either doe or not doe or doe this or the contrary For what exercise have we of our wills if we act not voluntary And how act we voluntarily if we be necessitated absolutely And to what end and designe are those terrors and promises of the Lord the danger we shall incurr by our disobedience and the reward we shall reape by our obedience if they be not as rationall motives and have not with them a persuasive efficacy It is true indeed that the will often mistakes and errs in her choyce putting bitter for sweer evill for good and one the contrary But this proceeds not from any forfeiture of what was naturall to the will and all or certainly very few excepted confesse that Adam had true and entire liberty but from the corrution of nature or the naturall faculty depraved which is a contracted contagion whereby we are averse and indisposed to good we are refractory and rebellious to the very Laws of Nature as well as of Grace of right Reason as holy Religion and we are prone and strongly enclined to observe and follow the desires and delights of the carnall sensitive appetite and to satisfie the lusts of the flesh for the understanding is full of ignorance and darknesse during this state of corruption of pride and contradiction against all sacred and saving truth the will is full of enmity and opposition against that which is good the conscience full of impurity and sophystry the heart of folly and madnesse of infidelity and hypocrysie and therefore no wonder if every imagination fancy and conception of the heart be unto evill and that continually Yet even in these aptnesses inclinations and prejudices the will moves freely and acts by choyce For as Angels and good Spirits by a most free agency doe good and nothing but good because their understandings are taken up with the contemplation and satisfaction and their affections with the desires and delight of good onely So Devills and wicked men long and thirst pursue and prosecute sin by chusing the evill and refusing the good having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Ephes 4.18 and so allowing and approving of sinne and wickednesse So that whether the object be chosen good or evill the will acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by deliberation and with indifferency though that the good is chosen be from the causality of Faith and influences of spirituall Grace that evill from the corruption of Nature either transmitted and passed over to us by carnall propagation or contracted by vitious habits customes and education and this properly concerns not the liberty of the Agent but onely expresseth the reasons causes and motives for which he thus exerciseth and manageth his liberty It was from Nature that Moses chused or made a choyce it was by Faith he made this choyce He chused rather to suffer affliction c. Q. But what doth Faith Catechise and direct men rather to suffer affliction Can sufferings be the objects of our desires and longings Or are afflictions in numero eligibilium matters worthy of our election and complacency A. Doubtlesse they are in some degree and measure though not of themselves yet secondarily in respect of their uses as they relate either to the prevention of a greater threatned and demerited impendant evill or as they conduce to some present or future good For sometimes they are Fatherly corrections to avoyd the wrath and severity of dis-inheriting When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 and that is an happy temporall judgement which barrs an Eternall a desireable chasticement which wards off future condemnation Sometimes they are Instructions It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Psal 119.71 and to receive Instruction is highly appetible and that with the most ingenuous and noble as well as holy and religious spirits Sometimes they are preparatives for Glory having not onely a purging but also a purifying quality 2 Cor. 4.17.18 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of Glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall Sometimes they are discoveries of the truth of the inward parts of our sincerity That the tryall of our Faith being much more precious then of Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be found unto prayse and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 that though they be sharp and biting yet have they in them somewhat of the bonum jucundum but indirectly and by consequence For we are to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations Knowing this that the trying of your Faith worketh patience James 1.2.3 much of
life they begun not till they had well-nigh finished their course when the negotiations and transactions of State was a burden when the multiplicity of businesses had tyred them or the variety of pleasures surfetted or spent them But Moses was now in his prime most able both to undertake and under-goe weighty employments as after he did and to receive what content any worldly delight could afford at his best both to endure hardnesse and enjoy softnesse 4. From this Observation let us learn this Instruction to be wise in time to employ our choysest opportunities our best strength and vigor of body and spirit for the purchase and possession of the Eternall Inheritance God will have the prime of our years devoted to his service while we have marrow in our bones and life in our senses and clearnesse in our spirits Mal. 1.8 If ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evill and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evill offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts and then also to encrease in knowledge and spirituall understanding not to be children carried away with every wind of Doctrine or with the togish garish vanities of the world but to be men approving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.18 the things that are excellent that we embrace not Nubem pro Junone a vain empty shadow of comfort for reall solid substantiall happinesses gaudy fantastick appearances like Caligula's Banquet to please the Eye not to satisfie Nature in stead of the Heavenly Reward that so we may fix our desires there where true joyes are to be found being skilfull in the word of righteousnesse that we endeavour to be as Moses was of full age that is perfect such as by reason of use have our senses exercised to discern both good and evill Heb. 5.13.14 For every one that useth milke is unskilfull in the Word of Righteousnesse for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth unto them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill For this commended and approved his Faith that he did this when he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great in years and discretion great in knowledge and learning great in temper and moderation great in fame and favour at Court and therefore it was an act of great Faith to refuse to be called the Son of Pharâ—ohs Daughter 5. He refused 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or denied and he refused not in complement and civility to gain the reputation of being modest humble and moderate an Art which self-seeking ambitious spirits have learned and exercised seeming to decline that which they most passionately fancy and labor for and by under-hand and secret contrivances most greedily prosecute neither in cunning and policy that he might be more earnestly follicited to accept what he had plotted and gaped for another Art which ambition also hath found out to deceive the World neither was it an humour of discontent or desire of change accompanied with an overgrown troublesome Zeale for then this act had been either designe or pretence an handsome piece either of hypocrifie or civility But he refused as upon serious and sober consideration so in truth and singlenesse of Heart a direct proper work of self-deniall and so a clear evidence of his Faith True piety and contempt of this World is not a bare naked pretence set forth in a demure look or holy language but an effectuall mortification of all Worldly motions contrary to justice and charity a not daring to venture on any unlicensed artifice a serious fixed endeavour of exact walking not to value any transitory thing at an higher rate then the Rule of Faith and Law of Christ hath set upon them that they be currant to us not upon the old vulgar account of interest or self-preservation to purchase or preserve an Estate with an evill Conscience but upon the new reformed account of love to God and our Neighbour Indeed men may usurpe and assume the Title and Appellative of Saints to themselves and yet be so far from observing the self-denying Ordinance of Christ Mat. 16.24 that they strictly lay hold on every advantage which shall fall in their way and if none be tendered they will cast about all wayes to find one and upon any discovery chase and follow the wayes of unrighteousnesse with all passion and eagernesse by all indirect and unlawfull wayes some of these pretenders following the way of Cain some of Balaam some of Corah some of Achan some of Gehazi some of Ahab some of Judas c. whereas indeed there is no surer Title to Heaven then contempt of the World no better assurance that we are in the Faith then our overcomming the World 1 John 2.15.16.17 Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the World And the World passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever And 1 John 5.4 For whatsoever is born of God overcommeth the World and this is the Victory that evercommeth the World even our Faith No stronger proof that we are true Israelites indeed then that we forsake Egypt and come out of Babylon that we are Disciples then that we deny our selves the advancement of our interests the satisfaction of our passions and take up our crosse unite our selves to the body of Beleevers and persevere in their Communion in despight of all temptations and follow Christ as a Law-giver in his Precepts and a Leader by his example both for obedience unto and patience under his Fathers will 6. For a season the pleasures of sin are short the punishment is long Sin may be sweet for a while but it is sharp for ever And who would hazard a lasting pain for a little pleasure or be tickled either into a Disease or unto Death An optares malam scabiem quod scalpendi sit altqua voluptas Eras Epic. It were madnesse to be in love with a Leprosie or Itch for the pleasure of scratching to lose everlasting pleasures and the fulnesse of joy for a transitory delight nay a meer out-side formall delight without all inward content and satisfaction for the whole World and every thing in it is but a Scheeme a shadow an appearance an empty nothing in two Apostles judgements 1 Cor. 7.31 And they that use this World as not abusing it for the fashion of this Word passeth away 1 John 2.17 And the world passeth away and the lust there but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 7. Of Christ Moses then was a Christian and then God had a People God had alwayes a Church and
and hard Quaestion And therefore I shall not be Magisterially affirmative determining positively either in the negative or affirmative But I shall declare my thoughts and grounds thereof and unusquisque abundet sensu suo and let every one chuse what he judges most probable The Answer if most Voyces carry it will I suppose passe in the affirmative Yet Iunius upon this place argues That Iephthah did not Sacrifice his Daughter but onely emanicipated her and consecrated her a Nazarite vnto the Lord and so he reads the words dis-junctively Erit Iebovae aut offeram illud holocaustum it shall be Lords not and but or I will offer it c. that is as he himselfe expounds I will consecrate it to God and if it be proper or legall for a Sacrifice I will offer c. And agreeable and with consonancy hereunto he reades what we commonly render lament ad confabulandum to talke with But I conceive with submission to better judgements and with leave of that great Person in the Church of God that this exposition doth not at all acquit Jephthah from the suspition of temerity and rashnesse in his Vow but rather deeply charge and accuse him For his Vow was in generall Quodcunque as he himselfe reades it whatsoever and if so how could he have performed either part of the dis-junction if an uncleane Beast had first been represented to him after his returne not the former part of it in any sense Erit Iehovae for in his sense he could not have devoted it to God to be a perpetuall Nazarite Neither according to some others sense or rather fancies could he have immured and Cloystered it up that it should not Marry and be a perpetuall Votary of Virginity and much lesse could he performe the latter part of the dis-junction offer it for an Holocaust And the exception Si aptum fuerit is gratis dictum there is nothing in the Text to ground that conditionall clause and so by this Word whatsoever In injuriam Dei aliquid non solum illicitum verum etiam conremptibile socundum legem immundum vovisse videtur as Aug. if it be to be taken in the large extent as nothing appears to the contrary For that reason which is alledged Nobis persuadet vera illius fides c. Heb. 11. he is Recorded a Beleever and therefore we are not to beleeve any sush grosse fault of him The same Saint Augustine fully answers loco cit assuring the holy Scriptures not onely Records the Faith but the Faults of Beleevers as he instanceth and proveth also in Gideon whose fault was certainly inexcusable and yet he as well as Iephihah is in the List and Roll And thus then he resolves it Quia sancta Scriptura quorum sidem atque justitiam veraciter laudat non hinc impeditur eorum etiam peecata si qua notit oportere judicat notare veraciter For that other Reading of the Word in the fortieth Verse grant that it signifies as is pretended to parlee or to talke yet it may signifie to speake or talke of as well as talke with And so Iunius applyes it Iudges 5.11 confabulentur de justis operibus or justitias our Translation with Hieromes Narrentur justitia rehearse the righteous acts or as others Celebrate and then as the sense is good and clearer they shall speake or talke of the righteous acts not with so the construction here will be currant also they went to talke of not with that is they went Annually to celebrate and performe solemnly those Rites and Ordinances which were appointed for her Memoriall That such there were appeares from the 39. Verse and that Clause seems to declare it a perpetuall established Right or Ordinance which was not to determine with her life but was to continue after However this will mar some mens conjectures from this Reading that we never Reade in the Old Testament of any Cloystered for Virgins or that Virginity was a more Honourable or more Religious state then chast Wedlock And so I marvaile whence some of the Jewish Doctors affirme That Iephthah made his Daughter an House out of the City where he kept her recluse and shut up from all Society when as the Targum Reades it as we doe to lament and so they Interpret the Lethannoth and somtimes they Interpret the Word to speake of or report concerning and somtimes transitively to celebrate and confesse Others Reade the words joyntly as by a Conjunction copulative and. thus it shall surely be the Lords and I will offer c. or more plainly it shall be Lords I will offer c. or rather for an Offering And if this hold which is the most received Reading then we may consequently with the Targum render the Lethannoth in the 40. Ver. to lament And according to this construction it is most evident that the condition of the Promise or Vow was to offer it for a burnt Offering to the Lord Now a burnt Offering did necessarily require the Death of the thing or subject matter so offered Levit. 1. in severall Verses of that Chapter and that Iephthah did accordingly performe this Vow and observe the condition expresse termes carry it beyond all exception in the 39. Verse where it is said He did with her according to his Vow But that which to me most strongly confirmes this Opinion is Iephtha's own Declaration in the 35. ver and Profession I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot goe backe which was as much as to say My Vow is irrevocable I cannot commute it I cannot avoyd it For to take away all doubts let us remember there were two sorts of Vowes There was a singular Vow without an Anathema or Interdict and what was thus Vowed might be redeemed by an apprizement or valuation either according to the worth of the thing vowed or according to the ability of the Person vowing as you may Reade Levit. 27.1.2 c. till 13. c. And there was a more solemne strict Vow with an Anathema or Interdict seconding and attending it and for such as this there was no Redemption every such devoted must die ver 28.29 Like our Law of Mortmaine in some respects it cannot revert or returne to the first Donor or Vower upon any account And that this Vow of Jephtha's was of this latter sort is plaine for the words of the Vow Erit Jehovae the forme of Devotion by Anathema They who desire the question more fully canvassed let him consult Ludovici Capelli diatrib de vot Iephthe The Observations now follow 1. Hence we Learne how farr we are to imitate these Patternes The holy Scriptures holds forth the Faith of Gods People for our imitation yet withall shewes their faults for our caution The holy Spirit is that faithfull witnesse who approves their good deeds but will not in any wise justifie their evill Be ye followers therefore of them yet onely as they are followers of Christ Iesus In the same Mapp
winning flatteries and seducements with faire words and large promises Thus the Derill tempts and so he tempted Christ by giving him in overture the Publique Faith of his Kingdome Matthow 4.9 and then thus they were tempted this Tyrant Antiochus besides his menaces torments and arts of violence endeavoured by flattering perswasions and proposalls to seduce them to a desertion of and defection from their Laws and Religion a method which proves very successefull and never misseth when directed to worldly meane and vulgar tempers Tell them but of great Estates and Revenues for their revolt c. then per saxa per ignes every obstacle shall be removed and then too as Lalius in the Poët they are fit for any enterprize Pectore si fratris c. Luc. Phars lib. 1. And this way was attempted by Antiochus his Executioners with that good old Iew and their old acquaintance Eleazar a Maccabes 6.22.23 and this sraud Antiochus himselfe practised upon the seventh Brother 2 Maccabes 7.24 promising him both honour and profit both tempting baits and this acception of the Word I take to be most proper Yet by the way let me give you notice of two conjectures of this word by two eminent Modernes Calvin and Iunius the former he supposeth this Word to be superfluous added to the former from their similitudes and sound by some unskilfull Reader who mistook the Word as such mistakes are ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in processe of time both crept into the Text and he tells us Erasmus also did thus conceive For the latter whom Piscator also approveth he thinketh the Word should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were burned a peculiar and distinct kind of Death from the former mentioned And this seems more probable then the former But I shall adde nothing but this that Bernardus non vidit omnia and that either this latter Criticall mutation of the Word by Iunius or the latter Nozation of the Word in the sense delivered seems to be the clearest Interpretation thereof But now if neither mockeries nor miseries torments nor temptations frownes nor favours will prevaile to seduce or affright them from their duty Then They were slaine with the Sword Decollation or beheading was then in use and it was cryme enough to be either good or great that was the punishment of them that remained Yet others took another course For They wandered about in Sheep skins and Goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented or punished for vagrants because destitute out-lawed having no Law or Ruler to protect them They then that escaped the severity of the Sword were Exiled and forced to fly as excepted Persons some of them perhaps in an holy jealousie of themselves suspecting their strength was not sufficient either to hold out against the Tyrants rage or to resist their Friends and Countries temptations and so fearing lest their infirmities might betray them to an unworthy complyance Others in true Christian policy endeavouring to preserve themselves from this storme and to reserve themselves till God shall be pleased to cause a great calme in the meane time to be Fugitives and endure all the inconveniences thereto subsequent And this was the condition of those Maccabees or Chaschmauneans who either hid themselves as in the 38. verse in holes or else took themselves to the wide but mercilesse hard World as you may finde 1 Maecabees 1.53 for their words imports they fled to any place of succour as Beasts of the Game hotly pursued Certainly it is not onely lawfull to fly in time of Persecution but if the flying be Christian upon such prementioned motives it will passe for a lower kind of Martyrdom Otherwise Christ would never have permitted it much lesse preseribed it to his Disciples Both Ancient and Moderne Authors have fully writ of this Among the Antient Tertullian and Cypryan Of the Moderne Abbot hath Writ a particular Tract By the way let us before we proceed pause and breath and from the whole let us see and observe the qualities and conditions of wicked men The state and condition of holy Persons The wicked persecute the godly with deadly hatred and ' it s often their lot to fall into the snares and to be under their Rod Therefore the unworthy world hateth and that causelessely too them of whom the world was not worthy the Heires of Heaven Pilgrims on Earth that 's their best condition often it is worse with them they are fugitives designed Associates for Saints and Angels and Christ are present companions with Owles and Foxes in Deserts and Cavarns those for whom Christ dyed are in this life destitute c. who have an Estate of Glory have no Portion nor mansion in the Earth the Children of Light fly here to dismall and dark recesses and they who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ and are cloathed with the Garments of Salvation are necessitated now to be covered with the un-dressed Skius of Beasts And yet here let us not take a superficiall survey of this their condition and passe a suddain censure of them and it but rather let us remember and consider what the Spirit saith and determineth concerning them and that is high and Honourable Of whom the World was not worthy they are too good to be well thought on or well used by a had World though worthy for an unworthy World worthy the testimoniall and approbation of the all-glorious and graclous God the Worlds fugitives are his favourites its loathing Gods love its scorne Gods delight whom it brands God observes whom it condemnes he honours and therefore here bestowes a note of honour worthy of our strict observation the World was not worthy of them The World saith Away with such fellowes from the Earth it is not sit they should live Acts 22.22 And that is the consure of the World 1 Cor. 4.9 For I thinke that God hath set forth us the Apostles lest as it were appointed unto Death For we are made a spectacle unto the World and to Angele and to Men. But God otherwise orders the case if they suffer in all their afflictions he is afflicted if they Fly he is present with them Solus non est cui Christus in fuga Comes Cyprian lib. 4. Epist 6. if they be hence removed it is to prefer them to Heaven or rather they were unworthy their company and the advantages might be received thereby and therefore taken away from them As those who received not the Disciples they were to depart from them as unworthy persons lest they should participate of any comfort or benefit from them Marth 10.13.14 And as Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles because the Jewes demeaned themselves unworthily Acts 13.46 they were not worthy of Paul and Barnabas in the judgement of the Holy Spirit The result of what hath been thus largely deduced and explained is to discover unto us the signall conquests of Faith A Beleever