Sect. 2.

THis is a part of the dialogue betweene Christ and Iohn: Iohns Re­pulse of Christ. For Iohn seeing Christ come to him, and his Baptisme, would haue hindred him in his pur­pose, [...], verbis vrgendo ob­nixè prohibebat; forbad him, that is, instantly vrged him to for­beare, and refused to admit him, and that with some contention.

Why did he so?Quest.

First, in respect of Christ.Answ. 1 1. Hee considered his Maiesty and greatnesse aboue himselfe, the Lambe of God, the Sonne of God, into whose name and faith all others are baptized. [Page 38] 2. Hee considered the purity of Christ, who had no need of the Baptisme of repentance; he not onely had no sinne to be washed away, but also was the Lambe that tooke away the sinnes of the world: where there is no sinne (thought Iohn) there is no need of repentance, nor remissi­on, nor the sacrament of it.

2 Secondly, in respect of him­selfe: 1. He considered his owne basenesse, I am not worthy to loose his shooe. 2. His own vnclean­nesse, and that hee was a sinner, and needed to be baptized of him; and thought it vnmeet, that a sinner should wash him that was no sinner, and more fit, that him­selfe should be washed by him.

3 Thirdly, in respect of the people, lest (seeing him bapti­zed) they should mis-conceiue of him: as, to be a sinner, and as [Page 39] one of the multitude, needing the Baptisme of repentance, es­pecially seeing before the peo­ple were baptized, they came confessing their sinnes: for this (in Iohns conceit) might both wrong Christ, and the people, and weaken the testimony that himselfe had giuen of him.

Whether did Iohn erre inQuest. prohibiting Christ, or no?

He did:Answ. for 1. well might he know, that Christ would not haue offered, or attempted, or made so tedious a iourney for any thing, either vnlawfull or inconuenient, but what was most holy, most necessary, both in respect of his owne calling, as also others saluation. 2. Our Sauiour in his answere impli­eth, that Iohn knew not all that belonged to his owne vocation. 3. In suffering Christ, hee reuo­ked [Page 40] his errour.

Whence we see,Doct. that men of great vertues and excellency may erre, and be good men for all that. Iohn was an excellent Baptist, of admirable holinesse; of whom Christ gaue testimo­ny, that he was not a reed sha­ken, but more than a Prophet; than whom a greater was not borne of women; and yet he er­red in that, which was neerly ioyned with his calling. This we see in Moses, the seruant and friend of God, Exod. 4. 13. who being called by God, at first (in humility) disabled himselfe; and not that onely, but after God had giuen him satisfaction to all his doubts, vpon his foure refu­sals: 1. His owne insufficiency, and the greatnesse of the busi­nesse, chap. 3. 11. 2. Because they might enquire after Gods name, [Page 41] ver. 14. 3. The incredulity of the people, who would not beleeue him. 4. His owne imperfecti­on of speech: yet after all this he refused, and shewed so much infirmity, as God was very an­gry, euen so angry as a father could with a child. How did the Apostles at the Ascension of Christ still dreame of an earthly kingdome, Act. 1. 6. Whē wilt thou restore the kingdome to Israel? And Peter, Act. 10. 14. being bid to rise and eate of things ceremoniall forbidden, said, Not so, Lord; for no vncleane thing hath entred into my lips.

1. Because God reueales not all at first to his children,Reason 1 who must of weake ones grow stron­ger; wee know but in part till that perfect come; God wil haue his strength knowne in weake­nesse.

[Page 42] 2. That being stil in combat, they might watch so much the more, awake out of drowsinesse, shake off security, not triumph before victory, nor suffer their weapons to rust, as fearelesse of the enemy, but still be in sub­duing naturall corruption. Paul himselfe needed a prick in the flesh. This is the reason why all the Canaanites were not pre­sently subdued, Deut. 7. 22.

3 3. To humble vs, and keepe vs lowe in our owne eyes, when we see what a gulfe of iniquitie we are wholy drowned in by na­ture, that euen the best by the best meanes and watch cannot be free; and consequently, seeing herein the greatnesse and foule­nesse of sin, we might also behold the infinite grace of God for his, Christ remitting it.

4 4. That neither themselues [Page 43] should be puffed vp with their owne great gifts, nor that others should entertaine too great an opinion of the best, as being a­boue the nature of man: nor yet bee discouraged too much by indwelling corruptiō, seeing the best are in the same conflict a­gainst it as we are: nor lastly to feare the preuailing of it, or our finall falling away by it, seeing the best haue been preserued by the power of God to saluati­on, notwithstanding their owne weakenesse.

5. That it might make for 5 Gods greater glory, and Satans greater confusion, by reseruing some enemies against the day of triumph.

But seeing the best & dearestQuest. Saints haue erred, how may we trust their writings? &, doth not this call the truth of the Scrip­ture [Page 44] into question?

No:Answ. for the Penmen of Scrip­ture, while they were in their worke, were directed by infalli­ble assistance of the Spirit both in speaking and writing. 2. Pet. 1. 21. The holy men of God spake, as they vvere moued by the Holy Ghost: though the same men as men, & out of that vvork, did faile in iudgmēt & practice. Ionas in his prophecy could not erre, but as a man vvas impotēt in anger, vvhen he savv Niniue vvas not destroyed. Nathan, 2. Sam. 7. as a priuate man vvas de­ceiued, in giuing Dauid aduice touching the building of the Temple. Peter erred as a man, and went not with a right foote, and vvas vvorthy to be blamed, Gal. 2. 11.

First then,Vse 1. seeing in the best, who vvere mirrors in the world, [Page 45] we haue a mirrour of our frail­ty, let vs denie our own strength as being priuie to our owne weaknesse, and acknowledge that as farre as we be exempted in any thing from errour, it is by the grace of God, by which wee stand: and hence will follow, that wee must apply God by prayer, that he would not leade vs into tentation.

Secondly,Vse 2. beware of abusing this doctrine, which wicked men peruert to their owne destructi­on: Oh (say they) the best man aliue may erre:Prou. 24. 16. The iust mā sin­neth seuen times a day. And so they make light account of foule sinnes: but 1. the place in the Prouerbs is abused: The iust falles seuen times a day, namely, into affliction, as the other part of the opposition sheweth. 2. The godly indeed doe fall in­to [Page 46] sinne, but keepe not a course in it, they goe not on as profane ones doe. 3. Wee must looke both at their falles and rising, as they doe not: Iohn continued not in this errour.

Thirdly,Vse 3. wee see that there is no iust cause to refuse the word, because man shewes weaknesse in any thing; for then Christ might haue refused the Bap­tisme of Iohn, and we the Scrip­tures, because of our Ministers frailties: but wee must consi­der, that many good Ministers know not all poynts, and none haue all perfections: what Iohn saw not at first, hee saw after­ward; and so may they.

I haue need to bee baptized of thee.]Iohn knew Christ, whom he had neuer seene be­fore. Some haue thought, that Iohn did not know Christ to bee the Sonne of God, and the Mes­sias; but onely by his speech, [Page 47] gate, and habite, tooke him to bee some worthy and excellent man. But 1. it is vnprobable,1 that this worthy Witnesse of him, who in the wombe sprang at his presence, as if then he had knowne him, who had immedi­atly before preached him to be so farre aboue himselfe, as that hee was not worthy to vnloose his shooe, that hee should not now know him to be him whom he preached. 2. If he had con­ceiued 2 him to haue been onely some worthy man, hee would haue thought him fitter to haue been numbred among Gods people in their Baptisme, ra­ther than haue forbidden him. 3. He must needs know him in 3 his greatnes of Deity: for none could bee greater than not to need Baptisme, except the Son of God. 4. He confesseth that 4 [Page 48] he knew him to bee more, and greater than a meere man, euen the Sonne of God, the King and Sauiour of his people, who only washeth them with the holy Ghost, and giueth them life e­ternall, I haue need to be baptized of thee.

How is it then,Obiect. that Iohn saith, chap. 1. 31, 33. that he knew him not, but by that signe giuen him by him that sent him, Vpon whō thou shalt see the Spirit rest, that is he: the which signe was not yet accomplished, vntill after the Baptisme of Christ?

Iohn was filled with the holy Ghost,Answ. and by the same Spirit which caused him to acknow­ledge him in the wombe, before he had seene his face, was admo­nished that this was hee whom he preached. But in that he said, hee knew him not but by that [Page 49] signe, hee must bee thus vnder­stood: 1. He knew him not by face before; for hee had neuer seene him, for the reason before alleaged. 2. Though hee had in some sort knowne him when hee came to Baptisme, yet hee knew him not so fully and cleer­ly as hee did afterward by that signe: yea, that former know­ledge compared with the latter, is scarce worthy the name of knowledge, but of ignorance: for as it was with the fathers and beleeuers of the old Testament, so is it heere; Christ was after a sort known to that ancient peo­ple, but yet so obscurely, as compared to that knowledge in his appearing, it still carryeth the name of ignorance, Ephes. 3. 9. Paul speaking of Christs manifestation in the flesh, saith, that now that mysterie was [Page 50] brought to light, which was hid frō the beginning of the world. The former was a darke know­ledge, as in a glasse or picture, this is face to face, at lest a know­ledge by present. 3. Though Iohn knew him before the signe by a speciall reuelation, whereby he was after a sort manifested vn­to himselfe, yet was he not so in­wardly confirmed, as that hee durst preach him to be the man, though he had preached much of such a one; and therefore, Ioh. 1. 34. As soone as hee had seene the Spirit rest on him, hee saith, I saw and bare record, that this is the Sonne of God, & ver. 36. pointed at him with his fin­ger the next day, saying, Behold the Lambe of God: for now hee was openly manifested by this signe & others at his baptisme, not to Iohn only, but to all Israel.

[Page 51] Out of this knowledge of Christ and himselfe, hee giueth this worthy testimony of him, I haue neede to be baptized of thee: I came of Adam, and con­tracted pollution: thou didst not, but wast sanctified of the holy Ghost to be a sanctifier of all; Thou art Spirit, I am flesh: can flesh wash the Spirit? I am a sinfull creature, thou who hast power to create, hast also the power of sanctifying; Why do­est thou that art Lord of all, rich ouer all, seeke wealth at my hands a poore and needfull crea­ture, who should rather begge it of thee? hath a sound man any neede of a Physician, or a cleane man of cleansing? what spot is there in the immaculate & spot­lesse Lambe of God?

I haue neede to be baptized of thee:] in which worthy profes­sion, [Page 52] 1.Obser. 1. Note his humility; hee acknowledgeth his neede and wants, yet a man risen to great perfection, then whom a grea­ter was not borne of woman, so holy in his life, and so powerfull in doctrine, that all men held Iohn for a great Prophet; yet he confesseth his neede of Christ, and of his baptisme.

The greater gifts and graces a man hath,The more grace, the more is the sense of want of grace. the more hee seeth his wants, and will be humbled for them. Iohn was priuiledged aboue all men, to be not onely a witnesse to Christ, but also one, to whom Christ himselfe see­keth for baptisme: now the more hee is exalted, the more doeth he abase himselfe, and in the presence of Christ thus ho­nouring him, he makes himselfe of no reputation. Gen. 18. 27. Abraham cōming neere to God [Page 53] to intercede for Sodome, and hauing preuailed with God in sundry suites, was so farre from swelling in conceit of his fami­liarity with God, as that most modestly in sense of Gods pre­sence and his owne basenesse, he saith, I haue begun to speake, and am but dust and ashes: and the neerer the Saints come to God, and are more graced by him, the more is their sense of their owne wants. Iob hauing heard of God by the hearing of the eare in the ministry, now more familiarly and fully, euen by the sight of the eye, in the signes of his speciall presence, breaketh out into these words, I abhorre my selfe, and repent in dust and ashes, chap. 42. 5, 6.

Luk. 5. 8. When Peter saw the dignity and diuinity of Christ in that miraculous draught of [Page 54] fishes, hee said, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinfull man. Why would Peter cast off his Master, or be cast off? No, (for he fell at his knees:) but the maiestie of Christ forced him to descend into himselfe, and to see him­selfe vtterly vnworthy of the cōpany or fellowship of Christ: Besides, the sight of his sinne made him feare, lest, if hee should be so neere Christ, hee might reuenge his sinne.

1 1.Reasons. As a man, the more hee looketh vpon the body of the Sunne, the more shall hee dis­cerne the weakenesse of his own sight: so the bright beames of Gods grace and glory lets a man see his owne impotency and no­thing.

2 2. As in all other plants the roote groweth according to the encreasing of other parts: so [Page 55] in this plant of grace in the ground of mans heart by Gods finger, the roote of grace, which is true humility, groweth with euery other grace.

First then,Vse 1. he that would see himselfe in the truest glasse, must draw neere to God and Christ, and he that would be something in himselfe, let him stand neere God a little, and he shall see his error. Isa. 40. 15. All nations are before him as the drop of a bucket, and as the dust of a bal­lance; all nations are before him as nothing, and counted to him lesse then nothing, and vanity: Yea, the Angels themselues are comparatiuely powerlesse and impure in his sight;Iob 4. 18. how much more those that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust?

Secondly,Vse 2. examine thy selfe; [Page 56] if thy grace be sound, it lets thee see thy wants and weakenesse, and keepes thee vnder, & leades thee into the practice of humi­lity, thou wilt see some prickes in thy flesh humbling thee. Christ himselfe who was anoin­ted aboue all his fellowes, what a lowly and humble course of life liued he in? Paul before his conuersion,Rom. 7. 9. was a iolly fellow, aliue and able to stand alone: but, when grace tooke footing, then could he confesse himselfe the chiefe of sinners.1. Tim. 1. 15 The pro­digall sonne in his prodigality thought none so good as he,Luk. 15. 21. he had no company fit for him in his fathers house: but, when he came to himselfe, and returned home, oh then hee was scarce worthy the place of a seruant. Let this curbe the pride and ful­nesse of spirit, in such as seeme [Page 57] to themselues to be aduanced in grace aboue others. Much am­bition is in the best; and the Dis­ciples in Christs schoole, at his elbow,Math. 20. 20. and in his presence, will be contending who should be greatest, one cannot yeeld to another: what trifling follies driue euen Professors, who should haue first denied them­selues, into comparisons, into contentions with violence, and all to obscure one another? one will haue the praise of vnder­standing, another of speech, another of memory, another of iudgement; and one must rise by anothers fall. Now would I like him of all Professors, who will striue for the praise of hu­mility: and this man is (by Christs determinatiō) the grea­test of all, who is in regard of himselfe the least of all, and in [Page 58] respect of others seruant to all. I know, great corruptions will thrust in vpon beautifull graces, but yet know thy grace to bee much blemished by such cour­ses, and if this corruption grow and raigne, thou maist suspect the soundnesse and truth of it.

2.Obser. Obserue, Iohn acknowled­geth his need to be baptized.

2 Why? did not he preach the doctrine of repentance?Obiect. did not he seale the grace of the Coue­nant to beleeuers by baptisme? what need then had he of it?

Hee meanes heere that bap­tisme,Answ. of which formerly he had spoken, by the holy Ghost and by fire: well hee knew, that hee could neuer apply to himselfe that grace, which was offered in the Word and Sacrament, vn­lesse he were baptized with the holy Ghost, which was proper [Page 59] vnto Christ to doe.

But what needed Iohn the bap­tismeQuest. of the Spirit? he was san­ctified from the wombe, and had receiued the spirit of regenera­tion and holinesse alreadie, and was a most gracious man.

True it is,Answ. that Iohn had re­ceiued grace, and possessed the benefits of the new Testament, and merit of Christ by faith, but yet 1. because he had them only in part, he sees his neede to haue them encreased and perfected: grace was rooted, but without the Spirit of Christ it could not grow. 2. Although he had re­ceiued grace, yet hee knew it must needes lye idle, vnlesse Christ did by his Spirit conti­nually quicken and moue it: therefore he needs still the bap­tisme of the Spirit, to inspire him with new life, and set him [Page 60] on worke in spirituall duties. 3. He knew, that though he had receiued grace and beginnings of saluation, yet hee could not perseuere in grace, and retaine those graces, vnlesse Christ did still by his Spirit worke power­fully in him, and finish the good worke hee had begun: for it is not in the nature of grace, that the Saints perseuere in it, or that it cannot be lost,1. Pet. 1. 5. but by the po­wer and promise of God, who preserueth his to saluation.

The Saints of God in Scrip­tureDoct. The saints ascribe all their good vnto grace from first to last. ascribe the whole matter of their saluation from first to last vnto God, acknowledging that it is God, who worketh the will and the deed, that he is the au­thor and finisher of their faith and saluation. 1. Pet. 5. 10. The God of all grace; namely, both of that first and eternall grace of [Page 61] election, and also of all secondary and consequent graces, where­by such as are elected, are in due time called, iustified, sanctified, and led vnto glory and salua­tion. Isa. 45. 24, 25. In the Lord I haue righteousnes & strength: the whole seed of Israel shall be iustified, and shall glorie in the Lord.

1.Reasons. The true knowledge of God brings in knowledge of a 1 mans selfe, the godly thereby see their owne righteousnesse to be as stained clouts, they see their owne nothing and beggerie, being desperate banquerupts, who haue not one farthing to pay; which the Lord Iesus see­ing, hee dealeth as hee did with those two, who had nothing to pay, Luk. 7. 42. he forgiueth vs all.

2. They know, that to come 2 [Page 62] by blessing, they must cast away their owne ragges, and then put on the garment of their elder brother, which being a long white robe, it needeth neither eeking nor patching; a garment of Gods making, as Iohn here acknowledgeth Christ, and eue­ry way fit.

3 3. Euery good and perfect gift is from the Father of lights; and if we haue not a bit of bread of our owne, but by prayer, how haue we of our selues any thing of higher straine?

Wee must therefore in the whole matter of saluation,Vse 1. ac­knowledge with Paul, By the grace of God I am that I am; and, I laboured more than all, yet not I, but the grace of God that is in me: faith is the gift of God, and so is continuance in faith; for he that is the Author, [Page 63] is the finisher of it, Heb. 12. 2. Euery new act and motion of faith is Gods: In him wee liue, moue, and haue our being, Act. 17. 28. Oh say with that holy Martyr,John Lam­bert. liue and dye with it in thy mouth, Onely Christ, Onely Christ.

Secondly, abhorre all Popish religion,Vse 2. which ioyneth the doctrine of free-will, merits, and humane satisfactions with Christs merit. Iohn saw nothing in himselfe, being a man iusti­fied, but still needs Christs bap­tisme; hee giues testimony to Christ, that it is hee alone that washeth from sinne, giueth the holy Ghost, and life eternall; and all contrary doctrine heereto, abolisheth the death and merit of Christ. For this coniunction and hotch-potch of theirs, wee must for euer disioine our selues [Page 64] from them, vnlesse wee will be disioyned from Christ as they are, Gal. 5. 2, 4, 11. Oh but the difference is not so great. Yes that it is, wee differ not in cir­cumstances onely, but in sub­stance and foundation; and if the Apostle may iudge it, one of vs must needes be falne from Christ, and haue no part in him. As good ioyne with Turkes as with Papists.

Thirdly,Vse 3. the best had need be baptized of Christ, and there­fore let vs neuer content our selues, till we finde in vs the po­wer of Christs baptisme, which where it is, there is the presence of the Spirit, who is as water to cleanse vs, and fire to purge vs.

And commest thou to me?

It was a good Antecedent, that hee needed Christs bap­tisme, but it was an ill conse­quent, [Page 65] that therefore Christ should not come to him. Our corrupt nature is ready to in­ferre vpon good grounds false consequents; vpon free iustifi­cation by faith, a neglect of good workes; vpon the doctrine of predestination, a carelesnesse and leaue to doe what wee list; vpon the doctrine of Gods mer­cie, a boldnesse and licentious­nesse in sinne; vpon the doctrine of care for our family, a coue­tous earthlinesse.

Sect. 3.

SVffer now; Let it be so now for the time of my abasement,Christs perswasion of Iohn. and for the time of my office and ministery, and for the dayes of [Page 66] my flesh, wherin I haue volunta­rily laid aside my greatnes; I aym now at another thing; there is a righteousnes, which I must per­forme, for which I haue descen­ded frō heauen, & must descend, & be further abased thē thus yet vpon earth: therfore suffer now.

By righteousnesse here is meant, not any speciall vertue, but ge­nerally perfection of all vertues, namely, whatsoeuer the Law of God requireth; for that is the rule of all righteousnesse. The fulfilling of all righteousnesse is perfect and absolute obedience vnto all Gods holy constitutions and ordinances, according to those many precepts in Scrip­ture, as Deut. 11. 32. Take heed that yee doe all the commaunde­ments and lawes that I haue set before you this day: and 6. 1, 2, and 4. 6, &c. This fulfilling of [Page 67] righteousnesse the Law looking for at our hands in our owne persons, but being now impossi­ble because of the flesh, Rom. 8. 3 God sent his owne Sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh, that the righteousnesse of the Law might bee fulfilled in vs, not by way of inherency, but of impu­tation, not by doing, but by be­leeuing. And this fulfilling of righteousnesse our Sauiour here speaks of, wherby as a most obe­dient seruāt of God, & our sure­ty, he was voluntarily subiected to all Gods ordinances. Thus to satisfy the law, he must be circū ­cised; for that Moses his law re­quired: he would bee presented in the temple, Luk. 2. 21, 22. As it is written, &c. At 12. yeeres he came vp to Ierusalem after the custome of the feast, vers. 42. He was after this subiect to his [Page 68] parents, vers. 51. for so the Law required: and hee that hitherto had fulfilled all legall rights and obseruances, now at this time must vndertake another, which was yet wanting.

But what law or ordinance was there for baptisme,Quest. to which Christ must be subiected?

It was decreed by the wholeAnsw. Trinity, 1. That Christ should bee initiated by this ceremony; wherein also hee must manifest himselfe the author of all purity and cleanenesse. 2. Iohn had preached it, and shewed the ne­cessity of it by diuine authority. 3. Hee would not onely subiect himself to his Fathers ordinati­on, but also for our sakes, the vertue of whose baptisme de­pends vpon his, as also giue vs helpe by his example, and there­fore would himselfe doe that [Page 69] which he commaunded others to do. 4. Christ as Mediator and in our stead, was to be made our righteousnes, 1. Cor. 1. 30. three vvayes: 1. In being made an offering for vs, by vvhich hee vvas to abolish our sin and curse, and by his most perfect obedi­ence satisfy the vvhole Lavv for vs. 2. By applying that righte­ousnesse purchased by his blood, vvhich els vve could neuer haue had benefit by. 3. By appoin­ting and sanctifying meanes and instruments for that applicatiō, called the ministery of the Spirit, 2 Cor. 3. 3. vvhereof one branch is the la­uer of water in the Word. And thus as in our stead, hee stood in the general, bound by the wil and ordinance of God, in him­selfe to sanctifie baptisme for vs.

But why doth Christ say,Quest. It behoueth vs to fulfill, and not, [Page 70] me, seeing neuer any but he ful­filled all righteousnesse?

In the righteousnesse,Answ. where­with we stand righteous before God, are two things: 1. The merit of it, and whole perfor­mance; and thus by his satisfa­ction and obedience, he alone procureth perfect righteousnes to his people: he trod the wine­presse alone, Isa. 63. 3. He looked for an helper, & there was none. 2. The application of it in the meanes: and thus he takes in hel­pers, that is, the ministery of the Word & Sacraments, whose la­bour he vseth in the worke of re­conciliation: and in this second consideration he takes Iohn in with himselfe, who he also puts in minde of his duty, and so speakes in the plurall number.

Our Sauiour seeth Iohn in an error,Doct. 1. because of his ignorance [Page 71] and want of consideration, hee suffers him not to lie in it, nei­ther doth he imperiously checke and reproch him, nor stand vp­on his will, Sic volo, sic iubeo,— but vouchsafeth him a meek and modest answere, whereby 1. he labours to roote out his error. 2. To leade him into his dutie. 3. To leade vs into our dutie in dealing with weake offenders.

1. He answers him, to roote I out his error: so hee dealt with Peter, The right manner of helping our bre­thren out of their errors. Ioh. 13. 37. I will lay down my life for thy sake. Nay verily (saith Christ) I say vnto thee, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. The like with Nicodemus, Ioh. 3. when he spoke most grossely and carnally of the high poynt of Regeneration: so Matth. 20. 21. to the two sonnes of Zebede, who would sit at his right and left hand, and be a­boue [Page 72] all the rest, It is not mine (saith he) to giue: and when the other ten heard this and disdai­ned, vers. 26. how doth hee call them and teach them, not to make this vse of the others weaknesse, but learne to bee humble in themselues, and be­come each others seruant? In whose steps we must tread, and bring our brethren our of their errors, by exhorting one ano­ther, and restoring one another by the spirit of meeknesse, Gal. 6. 1. for 1. hereby we testifie our hatred of the euill, which wee seeke to suppresse. 2. It is a to­ken of true Christian loue to helpe our brethren out of sinne, whereas to let them runne on in error, not seeking to reclaime them, or restraine them, is a part of hatred and crueltie. Leuit. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy bro­ther, [Page 73] nor suffer sinne vpon him: as wee would not suffer our neighbour to runne into bodily harmes. 3. It is the right vse and dispensing of our gifts, whē we lay them out to the profit of our brethren.

2. Christ leads Iohn into his II dutie most gently, which was to looke to his calling, and not pretend modestie, or reuerence to hinder him in the same. This was Peters error, Ioh. 13. 8. hee would not in modestie haue Christ wash his feete, till Christ tolde him that then hee must haue no part in him. Oh then (said Peter) not my feete onely, but my head and hands and all. God had called Abraham to kill his sonne: he must not now pretend nature or pitie, or the promise, &c. to hinder him; Gods will and calling must bee [Page 74] 1 his square: Teaching 1. Mini­sters to haue respect more to their calling, than to the great­nesse of any mans person: for 1. God sends them equally to all. 2. In the ministrie all are one. In the kingdome of God there is no difference: herein Moses fai­led, Exod. 3. 11. saying, Who am I, that I should goe to Pharaoh, &c? his calling should haue bin in his eye, not Pharaohs great­nesse. 2 2. Again it teacheth, that whatsoeuer God commandeth, no respect of man must hinder vs from it. Gal. 1. 16. When God called Paul to reueale his Sonne among the Gentiles, immediat­ly he communicated not with flesh and bloud: So in our mini­stery we may not cōmune with flesh and bloud, but goe reso­lutely to worke, and say as Na­than did to Dauid, Thou art the [Page 75] man; nor forecast issues and successes, but doe our dutie, and leaue all vnto God. 3. In our 3 religion for holding or not hol­ding it, we may not eye man or the lawes of man, or goe by the perswasioe of man, but tread all that vnder our feet, as the three Children and all the Martyrs haue done. 4. In our common 4 courses of administring iustice and equitie we must not respect persons, fauour or disfauour, but what Gods word and a good conscience informed thence tels vs is our dutie, especially if a man haue taken an oath to a corporation so to doe.

3. Our Sauiour in the man­ner III of his speech with Iohn leads vs into our dutie, namely,Meeknesse necessary in infor­ming and reforming when we are to deale with persons of­fending of ignorance, to vse all moderation and meeknesse, in [Page 76] informing and reforming them: wherein,

1. Wee frame our selues to the commandement,Reasons. Gal. 6. 1. Restore such as are falne, by the spirit of mecknesse: and 2. Tim. 2. 25. Instructing with meeknesse the contrary-minded, waiting if at any time they may be pluckt out of the snare of the diuell.

2. We tread in the steps of our Sauiour Christ, of whom it was prophecied, that he should not crie, nor cause his voyce to be heard in the streets; a bruised reed he should not breake, Isai. 42. 2. & 53. 7. When he was op­pressed and afflicted, he opened not his mouth. How meekely answered hee him, that smote him vniustly, Iohn 18. 23. If I haue euill spoken, beare witnesse of the euil? and how meekly did he call Iudas friend, comming to [Page 77] apprehend and betray him?

3. Wee manifest a notable fruit of the spirit, called the Spirit of meeknesse, & hath in it the pith of loue, which when it accōpa­nieth a reproofe, it is that oyle, euen the precious oyle which breaks not the head, Psal. 141. 5.

4. We take the course to doe good by reproofe; whereas to reprooue with rancor and ma­lice, seeking rather to disgrace, than to reforme the party, hath no promise, no good effect, Pro. 15. 1. A soft answere puts away wrath, but grieuous words stirre vp anger: and 25. 15. A soft tongue breaketh the bones: and Rom. 12. 20. A meeke and gentle behauiour heapes coles on the enemies head. See the example of Gideon appeasing the men of Ephraim, Iudg. 8. 1, 2, 3. and Abigail Dauid, 1. Sam. 25. [Page 78] But if Iohn had sinned of ob­stinacy or wilfulnesse, Christ would haue been plainer and rougher with him, as Matth. 23. hee denounced many woes a­gainst the Scribes and Pharisies. For this is a rule of all reproofes, They must bee so tempered, as that the party reproued may be brought to a true sight of his sinne, and to be pricked in hart, if it bee possible: God himselfe doth so reproue, as he sets mens sinnes in order before them, Psalm. 50. 21. If a man will still winke and shut his eyes, or goe on in contempt of God and his ordinances, hee must bee dealt plainly withall: a cold and per­functory reproofe, such as Eli vsed, will doe no good; yet in this plaine reproofe there must bee such carriage, as the party may see himselfe rather repro­ued [Page 79] by God, than by vs: See 2. Cor. 13. 2.

Againe, in that Christ affirm­eth,Doct. 2. that he was to fulfil all righ­teousnesse, learne, that whatso­euer the Law of Moses required to perfect righteousnesse,Mat. 5. 17. that Christ fufilled in most absolute perfection, I came not to de­stroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law, for righteousnesse to e­uery beleeuer.

How did Christ fulfill y^e Law?Quest.

He fulfilled,Answ. 1. the ceremoni­all Law by his one oblation of himselfe vpon the Crosse: for then all of it had his end; then the vale was rent. 2. The mo­rall, two waies: First, in his owne person; partly by his doctrine, in deliuering the perfect doctrine of the Law, and clearing it from corruption: partly by his obedi­ence; [Page 80] both actiue, performing the whole, and euery duty con­cerning the loue of God, or our neighbour; and also passiue, sa­tisfying the curse due to trans­gression; and partly by the con­formity of his nature with the Law, which onely hee (since the fall) hath, or can haue. Secondly, in the persons of others he fulfil­leth the morall Law:

1 1. Of the godly, 1. by imputa­tion, Rom. 5. 19. By the obedi­ence of one, many are made iust: and this is by giuing faith to the Elect. 2. By inchoation, and re­nouation of their nature by the Spirit, writing the Law in their hearts, Ier. 31. 33. and making them to walke in his waies, E­zech. 36. 27. But this fulfilling is weake, and onely begun in this life, wherein the best (in their minds) serue the Law of God, [Page 81] but in their flesh, the Law of sin, Rom. 7. 22.

2. Of the wicked, by execu­ting 2 the curse vpon them, and so they fulfill it in the condition of it, because they doe not in their conformity yeeld vnto it.

But by what bond was Christ tyed to fulfill the righteousnesseQuest. of the Law?

Galath. 4.Answ. 4. When the ful­nesse of time was come, God sent his Sonne made of a wo­man, and made vnder the Law: made of a woman: that is, not begotten; and made vnder the Law, not borne vnder the Law. For Christ was, and is, the Lord of the Law, as the Sonne of man is the Lord of the Sabbath, and by his nature (as Lord of the Law) is not subiected vnto it, but by meere and voluntary condition of will, abased him­selfe, [Page 82] and subiected himselfe vn­to it; and not as a priuate per­son, but as a pledge and surety, and that in our stead represent­ing the persons of all the Elect: Thus saith the Apostle,Phil. 2. 7. he made himselfe of no reputation, and was made sin for vs, and a curse, &c. All which shewes, that it was a voluntary subiection, and a free-will offering of himselfe; for else could it not haue been acceptable.

Neither may any man stum­ble at that common obiection, wherby they would make Christ merit for himselfe, and all this fulfilling of righteousnesse to be necessary for himselfe; because his flesh and man-hood was a creature, and ought homage to God as Creator. I answere, The man-hood of Christ is conside­red two wayes: 1. as seuered [Page 83] from the Deity, and in it selfe; and thus it owes all obedience to God: but 2. as from the very first conception, it was receiued into the vnity of the second per­son, and became a part thereof; and thus it hath an eternall righ­teousnesse from the first mo­ment, and is exempted from the common condition and obliga­tion of all other men, and freed from the common bond of o­bedience. Thus our comfort is euery way enlarged, in that Christ did all for vs; not by any such necessity of nature as wee, but by free choyce and election of will, by which his whole o­bedience was a free-will offer­ing.

Heereby Christ is concluded to bee perfect God:Vse 1. for hee can­not be a naked man, that can per­fectly fulfill all righteousnesse; [Page 84] and y^t not for himselfe directly, but for all the Elect: he is not on­ly iust, but a iustifier, Isa. 53. 11. by his knowledge. Who could obserue all the precepts of the Law? Who could vndertake vpon himselfe, and foile and o­uercome all the curses of the Law, due to the sinnes of the E­lect? Who could merit all the promises of the Law, that they should be yea and Amen to be­leeuers; but this second Adam, our Emmanuel, God with vs, and in our nature, as well as in our stead? Ier. 23. 6. The name wher­by they shall call him, is, The Lord our righteousnesse: and 35. 16. He that shall call her, is The Lord our righteousnesse. And hee that can thus iustifie beleeuers, is God; because hee can both merit, and impute a perfect righ­teousnesse, and by renewing [Page 85] their nature, and donation of the Spirit, begin, and accom­plish the same in themselues.

Secondly, obserue the good­nesse, perfection,Vse 2. perpetuity, and strength of the Law, seeing Christ must come from heauen to fulfill it; not a iot of the Law shall passe away, when heauen and earth passe away. How lit­tle doe men thinke heereof, that let passe the precepts, promises, and threats, as if they were things not at all concerning them? Whereas, if a man could ouerthrow heauen and earth, he could not diminish one tittle of the Law. The wickedest wretch that liues, and sets his face against heauen, and glo­ries in his defiance of the Law, shall fulfill it in the curse and plagues of it; as hee that will transgresse the Lawes of the [Page 86] King by felony, shall fulfill the law in the penalty of death.

Thirdly,Vse 3. if Christ haue fulfil­led all righteousnesse, and satis­fied Gods iustice, then haue wee found comfort: 1. Our whole debt is paid, hee hath payed the vttermost farthing for euery be­leeuer: here is a stay to him that sees his insufficiencie & banque­rupt estate. 2. If Satan set vp­on the beleeuer, and come vp­on him for the breach of the law, which God will stand so strict for, here is a full answere, Christ hath fulfilled all righteousnesse.

Fourthly,Vse 4. heere is a Cannon and battry: 1. Against all Po­pish merit, and humane righte­ousnesse and satisfaction; it must be Christs righteousnesse that must be meritorious and satis­factorie; his, who can fulfill all righteousnesse, which we cannot [Page 87] doe, neither neede to doe after him. 2. Against all workes of hypocrites and vnregenerate ones, who being without faith in Christ, all they doe is sinne, no fulfilling of righteousnesse. 3. A­gainst loose Christians, who, be­cause Christ hath fulfilled all, will doe nothing: for, to whom Christ fulfilleth all righteous­nesse for iustification, he renueth their hearts, and giueth them his Spirit, that they shall ende­uour to fulfill the Law; not to satisfie for, or to iustifie them­selues, but to testifie their thank­fulnesse for such a free and vnde­serued grace.

Further,Doct. 3. Christians must aime at vniuer­sall obedi­ence. as Christ our Lord had respect to fulfill euery duty that God had commanded him in his place and calling: so must euery Christian Housholder en­deuour to do all the things that [Page 88] God hath enioyned him by ver­tue of his calling, generall or particular. Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were such an hart in them, to feare me, & keepe all my cōman­dements! and ver. 32, 33. You shal not turn aside to the right hand, or to the left: you shall walke in all the wayes, which the Lord your God hath cōmanded you. Phi. 4. 8. Whatsoeuer things are ho­nest, iust, true, of good report, thinke on these things, and doe them.

1 1. The whole Word of God calls for it:Reasons. the Law, whereof euery iot must be fulfilled, and the fragments of it gathered vp, curseth euery one that continu­eth not in all things; and the Gospell teacheth to obserue all things, Math. 28. 20.

2 2. The worke of grace dispo­seth the heart and soule equally [Page 89] to one good thing as well as to another: the sound grace of Re­generation changeth the whole man, and reneweth the whole nature with all the powers there­of. And indeede heere lyeth a maine difference betweene a sound heart and an hypocrite: one will seeme to doe many things with Saul, but Agag shall be spared; yea, and can doe ma­ny things with Herod, but will hold his Herodias; the other hath respect to all the Commaunde­ments,Psa. 119. 6. & 128. and hateth all the wayes of falshood. Giue thy selfe li­berty in some things, and in the end thou wilt take liberty in all.

3. The eye of the Lord is vp­on 3 euery man, to watch him how farre hee is wanting in any good work, which he hath giuen him calling & meanes vnto, and as he is ready to commend the [Page 90] presence of any true grace, to encourage it: so taketh he notice of that which is wanting, partly to reprooue the want, and partly to prouoke vs to the purchase of it. Thus he testifieth of many of the Kings of Iudah, who were highly commended in some things, but failed in others; ei­ther the high places were not ta­ken away wholy, or some league was made with Gods enemies, or some forgetfulnesse ouertook them: So the Spirit in the new Testament, writing to the Chur­ches,Reu. 2. & 3. Chap. speaketh plainely, I know thy workes, &c. but this I haue against thee, This thou hast, and this thou hast not.

4 4. As it yeelds thee comfort of soundnesse here, so it aduan­ceth and furthereth thy recko­ning, and prepareth a comforta­ble account for hereafter. How [Page 91] rich might a man be in good workes? what an Haruest might hee make account of? what a crowne of righteousnesse might he expect, that were carefull in this endeuour to looke to doe one duty as well as another?

5 5. This was the commenda­tion of sound Christians in time past: Zacharie and Elizabeth walked in all the ordinances of God without reproofe; first, they framed their liues to all Gods commandements, and then they are said to keep them, or to walk in them. 1. Because Christs kee­ping of them was imputed to them. 2. Because themselues were renued by the Spirit to keepe all, not legally in the per­fect act, but euangelically in the endeuour to keepe them, and griefe in failing. Thus Paul en­courageth and commendeth the [Page 92] Romanes, chap. 15. 4. that they were full of goodnesse; and Dorcas, Act. 9. 36. that she was full of good workes.

Wee must therefore account the whole word of God our rule of life,Vse 1. as well as the ten Com­mandements, and so respect greater duties in the first place, as we neglect not the least: for, is not euery word of God a bin­der of conscience to obedience or to punishment? No man can be an imitator of Christ herein, that is not diligent to know the whole will of God in the Scrip­ture, and conscionable to subiect himselfe as well to one precept as to another: the Word bids thee, Thou shalt not kill, steale, commit adultery; the same word bindes thee to all particular du­ties of mercy, of iustice, of so­briety; the same Word bindes [Page 93] thy eyes from vnlawfull lookes, thy tongue from guilefull or corrupt speech; yea thy thoughts are not free, but ought to bee kept in full conformity with the will of God.

Secondly,Vse 2. this serues to re­prooue lame and cripple Chri­stians, hauing at most, but one leg to walke vpon, and that very impotent. Some content them­selues with opinion of religion, and hope they walke with God, in publike and priuate duties, which care they are to be set for­ward in; but in dealing with men iustly, discreetly, and con­scionably, heere they faile: they separate those things which God hath ioyned. Others, so they walke ciuilly and honestly, so as man cannot reprooue them, are safe enough; the care of Religi­on is wholly cast off, as if the du­ties [Page 94] of religion and ciuility were at warres, and could not both lodge in one house, or heart. But this lesson binds on thee a care of all duties, both as a man, and as a Christian. The Magistrate must be both a good Magistrate, and a good man: if hee admini­ster iustice, and neglect religion, he may bee a tolerable Magi­strate, but a vile man: if he shall thinke that he is onely a patron of equity, and not set out as a pattern of piety, and a fore-man in all good exercises, hee hath not yet learned to tread in the steppes of godly Magistrates, whose chiefe care was to leade others the way to the Temple: If he shall thinke, that the buil­ding of the Church, the dis­countenancing of sinne, the en­couragement of the godly, be­longs onely to the Minister, and [Page 95] he will haue no hand in this bu­sinesse; we may with the Scrip­ture conclude him to be neither a good Magistrate, nor a good man. The Minister must not on­ly be a good Preacher and dili­gent, but a good man, mercifull, sober, watchfull, heauenly-min­ded, humble: for, hee that teach­eth another, should not hee teach himselfe? And as his gifts are aboue ordinary mens, so his care must bee in them all, to te­stifie himselfe both a good Mi­nister, and a good man. Priuate men, who professe the teaching of grace,Tit. 2. 12. must learne to liue so­berly, iustly, and godly in this present world.

It were infinite to shew the particular duties in their seue­rall rankes, all which must haue place in Christian life: onely consider, that there is no man, [Page 96] which is not bound, 1. to all duties of religion and godly life. 2. To all duties concerning outward righteousnesse, which all men claime. 3. To all spe­ciall duties charged vpon him by vertue of that society, wher­of hee is a member, whether Church, Common-wealth, or family. And for the better per­formance of them all, obserue these rules:

1. Make conscience of this duty, as knowing that omission of duties, and failing in them, shall receiue sentence against them, as well as commissions: Depart from mee,Mat 25. 42 for yee haue not done these and these things.

2. Looke what thou art cal­led vnto; and in thy calling, what is most needfull and necessary, and that doe; wisely preferring [Page 97] the generall calling, before the speciall, and heauenly things be­fore earthly: as for other mens matters, meddle not vncalled; and for things lawfull, if not so necessary, bee not so conuersant in them.

3. Keepe thy selfe in a readi­nesse to euery good worke, both in respect of thy selfe, and o­thers: Know that thou hast al­wayes one iron in the fire, a soule to saue,2. Pet. 1. 10. an Election to make sure, which requireth all diligence: and now is thy day, thy tide, thy tearme-time; thou maist not slacke thy opportunity: And for thy brethren, if thou canst doe them good to day in soule or body, delay not till to mor­row. Say not vnto thy neigh­bour, Goe, and come againe, and to morrow I will giue, when thou hast it by thee, Prou. 3. 28. [Page 98] This may be the last day of do­ing thy selfe, or others good, and therefore accept it.

4. Hee that would fulfill all, must not onely take occasions offered, but euen seeke them, and watch them, as being glad to obtaine them. So did the Patriarkes, they watched at their gates, to whō they might shew mercy, and ran a farre off to force them to accept it: so should the sonnes of Abraham seeke out to relieue Christ in his members, those that are truly poore indeed: heere is a note of a cheerfull Christian, when loue and mercy flow from him, and are not forced.

5. So contriue thy course and businesse, that neither du­ties of piety hinder the duty of thy calling, nor these stand in the others way. God is a God [Page 99] of order, and hath not appoin­ted one duty to destroy and eate vp another, but to feed and strengthen one another. Eccl. 8. 5. The heart of the wise knowes time and iudgement; knowes how to subordinate duties, and not make them opposite: the heart of the wise will forecast for the Sabbath afore-hand, and so order the weekes businesse, as the Lords Sabbath bee not en­croched vpon. The heart of the wise will so husband opportuni­ties, and manage the affaires of his calling, that the priuate ser­uice of God in the family shall not be interrupted: as prayer, reading, &c. which is often o­mitted through want of proui­dence, which would haue allot­ted time for it, which some do­mesticall distraction hath de­uoured. The heart of the wise [Page 100] will order times and seasons, as there shall bee place for euery good worke in the weeke day, and especially for the best workes; as if there bee a publike exercise of religion, it were hard if a good heart could not gaine one houre in the weeke-day to watch with Christ; if it were any thing else, which went with the streame of corruption, as to any gaming, sporting, or some vnwonted occasion, twice as much time would either bee re­deemed, or insensibly lost. Doc as you doe in your trades, in this trade of godlinesse: many seue­rall businesses belong to euery trade, yet a wise man so casts them, as one crosseth not, but helpeth forward another.

6. See that no time passe thee, of which thou canst not make a good account: hast thou so ma­ny [Page 101] things to doe, and lettest precious time slip and doe none of them? 1. Pet. 1. 17. Passe the whole time of your dwelling heere in feare, and, Redeeme the time, because the dayes are euill. There is no time, wherein God and thy neighbour, or thy selfe, the Church or Cōmon-wealth, or thy family, or the Saints a­broad call not for some dutie from thee; and canst thou stand idle in the vineyard, hauing so much worke before thee? Hast thou all righteousnesse to fulfill in endeuour? and canst thou finde an idle time to intend no whit at all? Oh lay vp these rules, and they will be excellent helpes to set thee forward after Christ, till in the way that himselfe hath appointed, thou commest vnto him to receiue the fruit of righ­teousnesse.

Sect. 4.

IOhn hearing Christ giue such a sound reason for his fact,Iohns per­mission of Christ. he disputeth no longer, nor resisteth, but cheerfully admits him to his baptisme: for 1. Now he knoweth that whom he be­leeued firmely to be the Sonne of God and Sauiour of the world, all his commaundements and preceptsmust needs be iust, wise, and onely good. 2. His spirit could not but reioyce, that he would vouchsafe him to bee the minister in his fulfilling this part of righteousnesse. 3. He is now in expectation of that pro­mise to be accomplished, Ioh. 1. 33. and to see the Spirit visibly descend vpon him, which was as glorious a sight, as any mortall [Page 103] eye could euer behold, & there­fore vndoubtedly he now most willingly permitted him.

Whence note the singular modesty of this holy man,Obser. A godly heart easi­ly yeldeth vp an er­ror. hee yeeldeth vp his error at the first; so soon as Christ letteth him see it, and teacheth vs, that it is a point of Christian modesty to be willing both to see our error, and to forsake it vpon the sight of it. Iob was so desirous to see his error, that he would learne it of his seruant and maid, Cha. 31. 13. And seeing his error, chap. 39. 38. He professed thus of himselfe: Once haue I spoken, but I will answere no more, yea twice, but I will proceed no further. The like we see in Dauid, when Abigail met him and perswa­ded him from his purpose, 1. Sam. 25. 32. Blessed be the Lord that sent thee, and blessed bee [Page 104] thy counsell, and blessed bee thou that hast kept mee from bloud. Thus did the Israelites at at the counsell of Obed the Pro­phet, concerning the spoiles and captiues, 2. Chron. 28. 13, 14.

1.Reason 1 This is a signe of humili­ty, to be ready to acknowledge humanity and weakenesse: pride will not giue ouer a conceit.

2 2. It is a note of the loue of truth, which a man magnifieth in his iudgement and practice with denying himselfe.

3 3. Continuance in a knowne error, addeth wilfulnes to igno­rance, and when men see and wil not see, God giues them vp to hardnes of heart, Isa. 6. 9, 10. and to strong delusion, 2. Thess. 2.

4 4. The Lord noteth it for the way of the foole,Pro. 26. 16. to bee wise in his owne eyes, and that there is more hope of a foole then of him [Page 105] that will leane to his owne counsell.

First then,Vse 1. in hearing the Word, bring teachable hearts, which is the way to profit in Gods wisedome: for, hee teach­eth the humble in his way, Psal. 25. 9. and the wise in heart will receiue commandements, Prou. 10. 8. and he that heareth coun­sell, is wise. Consider how dan­gerously Moses replied vpon God againe and againe, till the Lord was very angry: and so did Peter once and againe, Ioh. 13. 6, 8. till Christ told him in ear­nest, that if he washed him not, he should haue no part in him. Therefore let all flesh stoope to the wisedome of GOD in his Word.

Secondly,Vse 2. this conuinceth the obstinacie of men, who hold it a poynt of wit and lear­ning, [Page 106] to defend euery nouell opi­nion they take vp, and not yeeld an inch to any man what euer bee brought to the contrary. And indeed if a man bee resol­ued to hold and maintaine an error, hee will be hardly ouer­come: for the diuell and his own wicked heart will suggest words and colour; as for substance and soundnesse they care not, the contention is for victory, not for truth: but all this is the way of one wise in his owne eyes: a proud folly, an ignorant lear­ning, leading into strength of delusion. This folly is now set on horsebacke, as the numbers of strange questions (not in cere­mony or circumstance) but in the substance of religion, daily forged out of conceited braines, doe witnesse: and it is the vn­happinesse of many a man; that [Page 107] he cannot rise into request, but by the fall or foyling of some truth or other.

Thirdly,Vse 3. priuate persons espe­cially must take heed of stifnesse in opinion; a spice of pride, and the mother of schisme: not to be reeds shaken with the winde in fundamentall and more ne­cessarie poynts grounded in Scripture, but in things contro­uerted and of lesse consequence to beware of vngrounded con­ceits, to suspect their iudgemēts and be of the yeelding hand to better reason: and for this let Iohn be an example. But alasse! many are so stiffe and wedded t [...] [...]nions, as neither priuate [...] [...]ublike persons can stirre [...] out of them.

Sect. 5.

NOw followeth the solemne inuesting of Christ into his office by three wonderfull and admirable effects: first,Christs prayer be­ing come out of the water. the ope­ning of the heauens: secondly, the descēding of the holy Ghost in a visible shape vpon him: thirdly, his Fathers voyce con­cerning him.

But first it is said, that Christ, so soone as hee was baptized, came straight out of the water, and this not without iust rea­son: for 1. whereas Iohn in his baptisme of others preached vn­to [Page 109] them, and admonished them to looke to their faith and re­pentance, and before they came out of the water, instructed thē in the doctrine of Baptisme, and exhorted to bring forth fruites worthy repentance, vers. 8. so as they were stayed awhile (as it seemeth) after their baptisme, Christ presently ascēded; where Iohns wisedome is commended in putting difference betweene the person of Christ and others: he knew, that though Christ must be baptized with his bap­tisme, yet he needed not his in­struction: and teacheth Mini­sters wisely to see into the estate of their people, that they per­forme duties to them according to their seuerall necessities.

2. It sheweth the willingnes of Christ to vndertake his office; he staied no longer than he must [Page 110] needs: and indeed all his obe­dience was most voluntarie, teaching vs also to make haste, & not delay in doing the worke which God hath committed to vs. Psal. 119. 60. and ver. 32. I will runne the way of thy comman­dements when thou shalt en­large my heart: we loue quicke seruants, and so doth God.

3. Christ stayed not in the water, but hasted to receiue the Spirit promised in his baptism, and teacheth vs not to stay in outward washings, but hasten our selues to the Spirit, without which, all externall washings a­uaile nothing: it is meet to vse the outward meanes as Christ did, but not to stay in them: for, further than the Spirit accom­panies them, they are but dead and powerlesse.

4. This speedie comming [Page 111] out of the water, was a type of his rising from vnder our sinne, which his baptisme washed a­way, and of ours in him. Againe, the Euangelist Luke hath ano­ther circumstance, chap. 3. 21. That Christ as he was baptized, did pray. It is vndoubted,Why Christ prayed at his bap­tisme. that Christ both before, and in the time of baptisme, did lift vp his heart in requests vnto his Fa­ther; but now the Euangelist recordeth, that so soone as hee was baptized, hee composeth himselfe vpon the banke of Ior­dan, to solemne and humble prayer, both in respect of that which he had done, and that hee was further to doe.

For the first, he was now bap­tized,1 and in regard of that hee prayed, and teacheth vs, 1. in that hee first was baptized, and then prayed, that wee must be [Page 112] first cleansed and sanctified, and then pray: men must lift pure hands with pure hearts in euery place, God will not heare sin­ners; hands full of blood, and an heart full of hypocrisie, make prayer abominable: therefore wash you and make you cleane, and then come, and we will rea­son together, saith the Lord, Isa. 1. 16. 2. In receiuing the Sacrament, a holy heart knowes that hee hath to doe with God, and lifteth it selfe aboue sensible elements; it labours to approue it selfe to God, and lookes not at men, but at God and his coue­nant, and renewes it selfe with faith, repentance, & inuocation. 3. In that Christ goeth to God for a blessing vpon the Sacra­ment receiued, we learne that all the grace, holinesse, and efficacie of any Sacrament is to be obtai­ned, [Page 113] continued and encreased by the meanes of prayer.

For the second, Christ pray­ed II in respect of that hee was to doe.

1. Hee was now to be de­clared that great Prophet of his Church, Deut. 18. 18. And the whole ministry of the new testa­ment was now to be deliuered and consecrated in him, & ther­fore vndertaking this great worke, he goeth to his Father for blessing and successe in it.

2. He was now in a solemne manner by sundry testimonies from heauen, to be set apart for the worke of Redemption, and the saluation of man being lost, a ministry which men and An­gels were all too weake for: and no maruaile if he pray to his Fa­ther for sufficient strength and grace to vndergoe the same.

[Page 114] 3. He knew that the heauens were to be opened, and there­fore he will be in prayer, to shew the power of prayer, that it pier­ceth the heauens, and entreth the presence of God, and preuaileth for blessing.

4. The Spirit was to descend vpon him, and therefore hee would be in prayer, to teach vs, that the prayers of Gods chil­dren are of that force, that they bring downe the holy Ghost with all graces vpon earth; as else-where it is said,Luk. 11. 1 [...]. If you that are euill, can giue your children good things, how much more will your heauenly. Father giue the holy Ghost to them that ask him?

5. God the Father was to te­stifie of him as hee neuer did of any: Christ would be apart at prayer, not only that the people [Page 115] should not mistake the person, on whom the Spirit descended, and the voice was vttered, but also that wee might note, that faithfull prayer doth cause God to giue some euident testimony or other vpon those, with whom hee is well-pleased: for prayer from time to time hath procu­red Gods louing fauour to his children, and the fruites of it in all necessary blessings, spirituall and temporall.

Now, in that Christ here vn­dertaketh his office, and the Sa­crament with prayer, we learne, that

Whatsoeuer we take in hand,Doct. wee must reuerently and religi­ously vndertake it with prayer, but especially two things aboue other: 1. The parts of Gods holy worship. 2. The duties of our callings: in both which our [Page 116] Lord goeth here before vs in ex­ample. Shall Christ doe this, and haue not we more need?

First, the parts of Gods wor­ship. 1 1.Parts of Gods wor­ship to be entred with pray­er. We are to come into the glorious presence of God, who is of pure eyes, and cannot behold wickednes, Habak. 1. 13. but requires holinesse and puri­ty in the worshippers of him: for, what hast thou to doe with my law and ordinances, who ha­test to be reformed? he will glo­rifie himselfe in all that come neere him; and therefore wee ought not to come without leaue, reuerence, preparation, 2 and prayer. 2. If wee consider the vanity and profanenesse of our nature, the wandring of our hearts, and thereby our vnfit­nesse and disability in Gods ser­uice, we shall plainly see, that we haue neede to looke to our feet, [Page 117] and to get grace by prayer, that we may be pleasing in his sight.

Secondly,So are the seuerall duties of our special callings. the duties of our callings. Col. 3. 17. Whatsoeuer yee shall doe in word or deede, doe all in the name of the Lord Iesus, giuing thankes to God: a generall rule for all the actions of thy calling, yea, of thy life, and for all the words of thy mouth, is this: Be­gin with Christ, and end with him, that it may be to his glory. This prayer hath two parts: 1. Petition before, whereby espe­cially in the beginning of the day, & the work of it, a Christian craues Gods assistance, blessing, & acceptance. 2. Thankesgiuing at the end of the day, & of his la­bour, for his calling, for the free vse of it, and Gods blessing in the successe: Both are necessary;

1. Because euery creature of God,Reasons. and euery ordinance, is [Page 118] sanctified by the word & prayer, 1. Tim. 4. 4. the word sheweth the lawfulnesse of the duty to be done, and directeth vs in the right manner, meanes, and ends in performance: Prayer serueth to obtaine blessing and successe; for nothing can further be bles­sed vnto vs, then we receiue the blessing thereof from GOD; and wee can looke for no bles­sing which wee pray not for. Consider well, and you shall see all Gods promises runne with this condition: Whatsoeuer we would haue God to doe vnto vs, our Sauiour tels vs we must aske it in his name; Whatsoeuer yee shall aske in my name, it shall be done vnto you: Whatsoeuer we would haue God to giue vs, wee must not expect it out of the same condition,Math. 7. 7. Aske and it shall be giuen you. Psal. 50. 15. [Page 119] Call vpon me: there is the com­mandement: and I will heare thee: there is the promise.

2. Such is our weakenesse, as when we doe any thing the best we can, we had need to pray to doe it better, and for pardon that we haue done it no better: which if it bee true in externall things and duties, wherein we are better acquainted, much more in spirituall, wherein our ability is much lesse.

3. We neuer receiue so much fauour from God, but we still stand in need to craue more, nor neuer so little, but that we haue much to be thankefull for.

This doctrine serues to re­proueVse 1. such as content them­selues with the worke of Gods worship, that come to the word and Sacraments, but beg not a blessing of God before-hand, [Page 120] whereas Christ himself conten­ted not himselfe with the out­ward meanes, but prayed for a blessing: And this is the very cause why men find so litle taste, strength, and power in these or­dinances, because Gods blessing goes not with the meanes; and therefore it is sundred from his own ordinances, because it is not asked. Is it any maruell, that whē mē come carelesly, carnally, and profanely, without reuerence & religion to the exercises of reli­gion, that they goe away as bru­tishly as they come, and the lon­ger they thus profane Gods ho­ly things, the more senslesse and incurable they grow by them, more hardned and hopelesse? What good hath many a man gotten by customable comming to the Word and Sacraments many yeeres together? for their [Page 121] knowledge, babes may pose them in principles; for their conscience, we may as soone pre­uaile with children of three yeeres old, to sit reuerently and attentiuely, as some of three or foure score, who in the mor­ning are so sleepy, as it were fit­ter they were at home in their beds, or take order to bring their beds with them; and for their profitablenesse in their places, or reformation of any thing in publike, or in their pri­uate families or their owne per­sons, God nor man can see no such thing. Now would I aske these men as old as they be, how often they can remember they haue humbled themselues be­fore God, that he would blesse the Word vnto them, and them to vnderstand it, and make con­science of it, to reforme their [Page 122] wayes, to comfort their consci­ences. Alas dead men! this is a strange motion to them, and now wee conclude, No bles­sing asked, none obtained, but a curse accompanied them fur­ther to harden them: whereas humble & feeling prayer would haue opened the heauens, and fetched downe the Spirit to haue accompanied the ordi­nance; and so some testimony would haue bin seene, that God had been better pleased with them and their worke.

They may likewise see their errour and reforme it,Vse 2. that at­tempt the ordinary duties of their calling, without calling vpon God for a blessing; where­as it is prayer whereby all need­full things are obtained, both publike and priuate, for our selues and for others, belonging [Page 123] to this life, and the life to come; and the neglect hereof is the cause why many men thriue not, but rise early, goe late to bed, and eate the bread of careful­nesse, either in vaine, or else get money and put it in a broken bagge: and all is, because they humble not themselues morning & euening with their family, for a blessing on their labours, and neuer pray but coldly, and for custome, and that in the Church onely. If some mans conscience now tell him, that although hee hath neuer v­sed this course of prayer with his family, and yet hee thriues, and prospers, and his worke go­eth well enough forward: to him, I say, 1. That he holdeth nothing that he hath, by any speciall fauour of God, but by the generall prouidence where­by [Page 124] he feeds the bruit creatures; and all this while God hath no more respect of him than of them. 2. He holds nothing by vertue of any promise, not be­ing in Christ: for whatsoeuer God hath promised, he applieth it in this meanes of prayer, and not otherwise. 3. Wealth and prosperity beeing not had, or held by vertue of any promise of God, nor yet in the meanes of God, is so farre from being a blessing vnto him, that the curse of God abides him and it; hee by it corrupts himselfe, hardens his heart, withdrawes it from God, drownes it in the things of this life, and is to be drawne to a reckoning for his vniust vsur­pation.

Thirdly, let this example of Christ,Vse 3. vndertaking all his acti­ons with prayer, somtime pub­likely, [Page 125] sometime priuately; yea his whole Passion, as in the gar­den often and feruently, mooue vs to accustome our selues to this duty: for,

1. Heerein lies a difference betweene the child of God,Motiues to feruent prayer. and a worldling, betweene a sound Christian, and an hollow hypo­crite: the one walketh with God, lifting vp his heart to God in holy meditations and prayers continually, as iust occasion is offered; and therefore by this title the Scripture describeth true Christians, Act. 2. 41. And Paul saluteth all the faithfull that call vpon the name of the Lord, 1. Cor. 1. 2. The other are noted, Psal. 14. 4. by this marke, They call not vpon God. Prayer is as the breath, whereby wee know whether a man liue the spiritu­all life or no: a child that cries [Page 126] not, is dead and still-borne, as we say; no prayer, no breath of the Spirit, & no breath, no life.

2. Our owne benefit calleth for this duty; all good comes vnto vs by reason of the great power of prayer, which auaileth to set heauen open, to bring down the Spirit, to pacific God, and appease him being offen­ded. We see what great and ex­traordinary things the Saints haue obtained by prayer; Mo­ses, Elias, &c. And lest we should thinke that these examples ap­pertaine not to vs weake and silly men, the Apostle Iames vr­geth this as an argument to force vs to prayer, by the pra­ctice of Eliah, who prayed that it might not raine,Iam. 5. 17. and it rained not in three yeeres, &c. Not that we should pray so, that it may not raine for so many yeres [Page 127] together; but, if the power of prayer bee so preuailing with God, that therefore wee should be much and often in this duty: and surely he that can pray well, can want no good thing, needs feare none euill.

3. It is a notable fence a­gainst sinne: for, as the more sin preuailes, the lesse can a man pray; so, the more he prayes, the lesse is he ouertaken with sinne. When the true man is assaul­ted, if he cry for helpe, the theefe runnes away; and so doth sinne, (a theefe which euer doggeth and besetteth vs to rob vs, and steale away grace) if we can cry mightily to God.

4. Acquaint thy selfe with God; for the times come when nothing will stand by thee but his helpe; and therefore vse prayer, to be familiarly acquain­ted [Page 128] with him: know him now in the time of thy prayer, that he may know thee in the day of thy distresse.

Sect. 6.

NOw it followeth, that wee speake of those three admi­rable euents, which followed the PrayerThe open­ing of the heauens vpon him in his prayer. of Christ: 1. The sensi­ble opening of the heauens. 2. The visible descending of the holy Ghost. 3. The audi­ble voice of God the Father, witnessing to many, both eye and eare-witnesses, the solemne instalment and induction of Christ into his office and worke of mediation and ministery: Wherein wee must know, that as there neuer was in all the [Page 129] world so high and excellent an office as Christs was: (for, the greatest of Kings, and the high Priest, who yet were with great state and obseruation anoyn­ted and deputed to their offi­ces, were but shadowes of this:) euen so God would haue Christ entred into it with such magni­ficence and glory as neuer man was, nor creature is capable of. As the Coronation of a Prince, with what glory, pompe, and sumptuousnesse, euen to admi­ration, is hee brought foorth with his Nobles and subiects? But all this is but earthly glory, from earthly men, to an earthly King: But now at the Coronati­on of the Prince of peace, God sets himselfe from heauen to ho­nour it; and for this purpose he doth more familiarly, and yet more gloriously reueale him­selfe [Page 130] vnto all mankind, then he had euer before done from the creation of the world; and ne­uer was any ceremony in all the world so honoured, as this Bap­tisme of Christ was. The ancient sacrifices of Gods institution were honoured by manifest signes of his gracious presence, as by the fire which came from heauen continually to consume them: the Arke was honoured with speciall signes of his glori­ous presence, sitting betweene the Cherubims, answering by Oracle and voice, vnto cases propounded: the Temple it selfe at Ierusalem, at Salomons prayer and dedication, was fil­led with the glory of God, ma­nifested in that cloud that filled the House of the Lord, 1. Kin. 8. 10. and this cloud still watched ouer the Tabernacle, Exod. 40. [Page 131] 34. But these were all but sha­dowes to this, wherein the Lord did not cloud and vaile his pre­sence, or reueale his presence in some signe, but the Diuine Ma­iesty manifested it selfe distinct­ly, as we may say, in person, yea in the distinction of all the three Persons, the Father testifying his delight in his deare Sonne, the Sonne standing in Iordan, and receiuing his Fathers testimo­ny; and the holy Ghost descen­ding in the visible shape of a Doue.

From whence is notably grounded the doctrine of the blessed Trinity of persons,Obser. in the Vnity of diuine essence, because they be so really distinguished, although they cannot bee sepa­rated.

But the word Trinity,Obiect. is not to be found in the Scriptures.

[Page 132] Yet the doctrine is,Answ. if not ac­cording to the letter, yet accor­ding to the sense. Mat. 17. 5. In the transfiguration of Christ, the Sonne standeth, the Father by his voice witnesseth, and the holy Ghost ouershadowes him in a cloud, as heere by a Doue. So Matth. 28. 19. Bap­tize them in the name (not names, to note the vnity) of the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost. And 2. Cor. 13. 14. The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, and the loue of God, and the communi­on of the holy Ghost bee with you all. Besides, there is expresly the word three, frō whence Tri­nity comes, 1. Ioh. 5. 7. There be three that beare witnesse in hea­uen, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost, and these three are one. So also Gal. 4. 6. God sent the Spirit of his Sonne in­to [Page 133] your hearts.

Which is worthy to be by the way obserued,Vse. as against sundry other damnable Heretikes, so especially against the Iewes at this day, who hold an indistinct essence in the Deity, without distinction of persons: and se­condly, against the wicked Ar­rians, who deny the Sonne of God to bee begotten of the es­sence of the Father, and to bee coeternall and coequall with him; they hold him to be meere man, onely borne without sin, and receiuing the Spirit be­yond measure; and in all those places, where he is called God, they vnderstand it God by of­fice, not by nature, as the Magi­strate is called God; and by this equiuocation they can deceiue the Magistrate, and professe (namely in this their sense) that [Page 134] they verily beleeue him to bee God, and yet meere man. But this place, and many other as­sume him into equall digni­tie with the Father and holie Ghost, as wee shall further see in the Fathers testimonie of him.

In the opening of the heauens consider 1. how they were ope­ned: 2. why they were opened. For the former; not the whole heauens, but a part, and that part ouer the earth where Christ prayed in the banke of Iordan, and not to all the people of the earth, but to those onely that were present with Christ, were the heauens opened: and there­fore it is said, The heauen was opened vnto him, not (as some say) to Iohn, but to Christ: for so the phrase is vsed, Act. 2. 3. [...], visae eis linguae, i. su­pra [Page 135] eos. The difficultie is in the manner.

Some think it was but an ap­parition in the aire,How the heauens were ope­ned. because the densitie of the heauens (as Philo­sophie teacheth) cannot admit of any diuision in the same. But this is vnlikely: for in appariti­ons the eye is easily deceiued by thinnesse or thicknesse, neerenes or remotenes, light or darknesse of the parts of the heauens and clouds: now God would not haue so notable a confirmation of Christs calling stand vpon the credit of a thing so liable to de­ceit as apparitions be. Againe, this was a miracle, by which Christs office was exalted, and therefore goes beyond nature, and it is absurd to limit so tran­scendent a power within the rules and hedge of nature.

Others of the Fathers, whom [Page 136] some Schoolemen follow, think that there was no alteration in the heauēs to the bodily eye, but it was a meer vision, which none but Christ saw, and that not with the eyes of his body, but of his minde, such a vision as Eze­kiel and Steuen saw. But this is not so: for first, to the eyes of Christs minde heauen was ne­uer shut. Secondly, Mark. 1. 10. hee saw the heauens [...] clo­uen, a word vsed in things real­ly done, and vsed of the rent gar­ment, Luk. 5. 36. and of the vaile of the Temple, which was rent in twaine. Thirdly, the other signes were really and sensibly done, the Spirits descending vi­sible, and the Fathers voyce au­dible and sensible, which are things of greater difficultie to conceiue as wee shall see: and, visible and sensible were they [Page 137] not so much for Christs, as for Iohns and the peoples confirma­tion that stood there.

It seemeth therefore to bee true, that the heauen was sensi­bly diuided and rent in twaine, euen as the earth was when Ko­rah and his company were swal­lowed vp. This is not vnreaso­nable to conceiue, if wee consi­der that the Lord might well doe as much for his Sonne, as he had formerly done for his ser­uants. Henoch, in his body as wel as in his soule, was taken vp into heauen: here either the heauens must diuide themselues, or one body must pearce and penetrate another, which euen glorified bodies cannot doe. Eliah, when Elisha prayed him that his spirit might be doubled on him, an­swered thus, Thou askest an hard thing, yet if thou see me when I [Page 138] am taken from thee, thou shalt haue it so, 2. King. 2. 11, 12. and Elisha saw him when he was ta­ken vp into heauen by a whirle­winde, and consequently saw the heauens diuided to receiue his body now glorified in the act of translation.

When Christ had accompli­shed his whole ministery, Act. 1. 9. while his Disciples beheld, he was taken vp into heauen; they did see the heauens opening themselues to receiue his glo­rious body: and shall we think it absurd, that according to the letter of the Scripture, his Fa­ther should enter him into that ministery by a sensible opening of the heauens? As easie it must bee for God to doe this, as to make the Sunne stand still, the Sea runne backe, yea the Sea to diuide it selfe and stand like a [Page 139] wall for the defence of his peo­ple. And, that he thus did, it is plaine, because this serueth for the greater confirmation, and glorie of the businesse in hand, which aboue all other the Lord set himselfe to aduance & com­mend to the world.

Now in the second place,Why were the heauēs opened. the reasons why the heauens were opened, were sundry.

1. To manifest the truth and certaintie of the other signes which followed, that seeing the heauens opened, they might not conceiue, that either the Doue or the voyce came from any o­ther place.

2. To shew that howsoeuer Christ stood there as a weake man, and in similitude of sinfull flesh, yet he was the Lord from heauen heauenly, of whom was verified, Ioh. 3. 31. Hee that is [Page 140] come from heauen, is aboue all.

3. That as his person, so like­wise his doctrine was diuine and heauenly, ver. 34. He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God: and this was the speciall worke of his doctorall office, to reueale the will of his Father. And Io. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time, the onely be­gotten Sonne, which is in the bosome of the Father, hath de­clared him. The power also and grace, whereby he wrought mi­racles, was not from Beel-zebub, but from heauen.

4. To shew that his office, into which he was now entred, was and is to open heauen again for vs, who by sinne had shut it against our selues; he hath made our way vnto y^e throne of grace. And thus this second Adam [Page 141] standeth in opposition with the first; he shut vs out of Paradise: a token that we were shut out of heauen: but this lets vs into the Paradise of God againe.

The heauens are opened byObiect. his passion, not by his baptisme, Heb. 10. 19.

They are opened by his deathAnsw. as by a common cause, which must be specially and singularly applied, and that is by baptisme: therefore it is said, Rom. 6. 3, 4. We are baptized into his death; that is, to haue benefit by his death.

1. Note hence, that Christ by fulfilling all righteousnesse, hath set heauen open vnto vs, and consequently, the iustifica­tion of a sinner, is not onely by the obedience of his passion, but also by his actiue obedience in fulfilling the Law: for, 1. the [Page 142] whole summe of the Law, is, to loue God with all the heart, &c. which if we performe not in our selues, or in Christ, then the whole Law is abolished, where­of euery iot must be accompli­shed, Math. 5. and Christ came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. 2. The sanction of the Law (Cursed is euery one that abideth not in all things) cannot be auoided, if all those things be not done in our selues or our surety. 3. There are two parts of iustification: 1. Remission of sinne, which is by the blood of Christ, which takes away all sin. 2. Imputation of Christs righ­teousnesse: neither can the one stand without the other, as 1. Cor. 5. 21. Hee hath made Him sinne that knew no sinne, that we should be made the righteous­nesse of God in Him. And this [Page 143] meetes with their maine obiecti­on, that when sin is taken away,Christ hath fulfil­led actiue righteous­nesse for vs as well as passiue. the Law is fulfilled, and the sin­ner acquitted and iustified: for that is not true; for a sinner is not iustified when sinne is abo­lished, vnlesse iustice be added. Sinne must be couered indeed, but that is but fulfilling of halfe righteousnesse, vnlesse righte­ousnesse be imputed, Rom. 4. 25. He was deliuered for our offen­ces, and was raised againe for our iustification: where iustifi­cation is farre more then remis­sion of sinnes. 4. The words of Scripture are plaine, Rom. 5. 18. By the obedience of Christ ma­ny are made righteous: and 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse; and not only to remoue vnrighteousnesse. As for all those places, wherein it is said, that Christ hath purged all [Page 144] sinne with his blood, &c. they are to be meant exclusiuely, in respect of the blood of beasts or any meritorious workes of men out of Christ, but not to ex­clude the meritorious actiue o­bedience of the Sonne of God. 5. Hee that is circumcised, is bound to keepe the whole Law.

Obiect. That was to make him a fit Sauiour.

Answ. No, but that hee might redeeme them that were subiect to the Law, and that they might receiue the adoption of sonnes, vers. 5. Hee speakes plainely of Christs actiue obedience. We will conclude with Bernard, To­tus mihi datus, totus in meos vsus expensus est. When I can haue too much of Christ, I will re­nounce his actiue obedience; but if by fulfilling all righteous­nesse, he hath opened heauen, I [Page 145] will lay fast hold vpon all his righteousnesse to bring mee thither.

Secondly, hence wee note what we are to thinke of the do­ctrine of Christ, who came from heauen, and spake from heauen. Heb. 1. 1. In these last dayes God hath spoken to vs by his Sonne, and therefore our meanes of sal­uation are great and glorious; the onely begotten Son, which is in the bosome of his Father, hath reuealed the Fathers will vnto vs. Naturall light hath ma­nifested much of God to many men; supernaturall light hath made him more manifest, both by the deliuery of the Law, and the promises of the Gospell con­cerning Christ to come, where­by the Iewes saw God after a sort through the vaile of types and shadowes, but did not see [Page 146] him clearely and perspicuously, till Christ was manifested in the flesh, who was in his person the brightnes of his Fathers image, and in his office the chiefe Do­ctor and Teacher of his Church.

Whence it followes, Heb. 12. 25. That if they escaped not, who refused him vvhich spake on earth, much lesse shall we, if we turne from him that speaketh from heauen: and 2. 2. If the vvord spoken by Angels was stedfast, &c. how shal we escape, if wee neglect so great saluati­on, which was first begun to be preached by the Lord, and is confirmed to vs by them that heard him?

Obiect. Oh, if we should heareHeauen opened it selfe, to confirme our do­ctrine to be from heauen. Christ speake from heauen, wee would obey.

Answ. The doctrine that we bring, is from heauen, heauen [Page 147] opened it selfe to giue confirma­tion to it, the same it is which Christ taught, which the Apo­stles receiued from him, and we from them; and of vs, holding our selues to the Apostles do­ctrine, our Sauiour saith, Hee that heareth you, heareth mee. With how great danger there­fore doe men refuse and turne away from our doctrine? how shall they escape, that refuse do­ctrine from heauen? A iust thing it is, that they be giuen ouer to Satanicall and hellish delusi­ons, who refuse doctrine from heauen.

3. This opening of heauen being a signe of that which Christ had done, affoordeth spe­ciall comfort to all the mem­bers of Christ, in that heauen being shut against vs by our sin (for into it shall no vncleane [Page 148] thing enter:) Christ hath set the gate of it open vnto vs againe; hee hath made a way, and as it were a thorow-fare betweene heauen and earth.

By him (saith the Apostle) all things in heauen and earth are gathered into one, Ephes. 1. 10. and Col. 1. 20. He hath reconci­led to himselfe through him all things, which are in earth and in heauen; that is, all elect and be­leeuing men on earth, and the blessed Saints and Angels in heauen: and this followes, that in the former verse, where Christ is called the head of all things; being the head of his body, hee hath made a passage both for himselfe and his members.

How doth Christ open hea­uenQuest. for vs? oh that we could see such a sight!

Christ openeth heauen: 1. byAnsw. [Page 149] the merit of his obedience vnto the death; so saith S Paul, Col. 1. 20. By the bloud of his crosse he hath set at peace all things.Christ o­peneth heauen for vs 3. wayes. Me­ditate on his death. 2. By the donation of his Spirit, who wor­keth faith in the heart of Gods child; which is as an hand wher­by Christ with all his benefits is receiued, and a mouth whereby he is eaten; so is it an eye clee­red to see thorow the clouds God sitting in his glory, vpon the Propitiatorie and Mercy-seate, and sometimes vpon the throne of his iustice. Heb. 11. 27. By faith Moses departed Egypt, and feared not the fiercenesse of the King, but endured as one that sawe him that was inui­sible. By faith Henoch walked with God, hee had him euer in his eye, heauen was euer open and vndrawne vnto him. Iose [...]h [Page 150] saw on the throne of his iustice, and said, Can I sinne and doe this great wickednesse against God? Thus the godly in this life haue heauen after a sort opened, so as they haue God euer present with them. Steuen being full of the holy Ghost, saw heauen o­pen; get faith, and thou shalt see it open too. 3. By the be­nefit of his intercession, Ioh. 17. Father, I will, that where I am, they also be to behold my glory. Now he was heard in all that he prayed for, so as by vertue of the merit of his intercession, all the elect shall be gathered in soule and body into heauen after this life. This same key openeth hea­uen to our prayers, and per­sons.

Heere is the comfort of the godly, that whereas the first A­dam hath shut heauen on them, [Page 151] and set hell wide open, and ar­med all the creatures against them: this second Adam hath opened heauen againe and re­conciled all things; there is now passage from man to God, from earth to heauen, by the prayer of faith: and betweene God and man, while hee heareth prayer and bestowes heauenly blessings: a passage for the Spirit, and for Gods helping hand in trouble; there is a beaten way betweene heauen & earth, in which Gods Angels are continually mouing as diligēt ministers to the heires of saluation. Here ye may see Ia­cobs ladder, which reacheth from earth to heauen, on which the Angels are continually as­cendingGen. 28. 1. and descending: this ladder is Christ himselfe, who by his humanity toucheth earth,Ioh. 1. 51. and by his diuinity reacheth vp [Page 152] to the heauens, and so hath made heauen & earth meete together.

And as this comforteth vs through our whole life, so espe­cially in the houre of our death it is of exceeding vse; then hap­pie is he that can see the heauens opened by Christ for him, as Steuen did; he shall lay himselfe downe in rest and assurance, that though his body shall be inclo­sed in the earth for a time, yet his soule shall ascend to God, and both soule and body in the Iudgement day shall partake of the glory, vnto which Christ the Head is already ascended; and the same power, which made the heauens themselues now at his baptisme set themselues open to strengthen & encrease the grace of his Saints, shall then set them wide open to confirme them for euer in glory.

Sect. 7.

THis is the second diuineThe Spi­rit descen­ding vpon Christ like a Doue. testimony, whereby God the Father would make euident to all the world, that Christ the Sonne was the Messiah, anoin­ted with the gifts of the holy Ghost for this purpose: Where, for the meaning of the words, must be knowne; 1. What is heere meant by the Spirit of God. 2. How the Spirit could descend, or be seene so to doe. 3. The manner of his descen­ding, like a Doue. 4. Why hee lighted vpon Christ. 5. Why it is said, Iohn saw all this.

1. By the Spirit of God is meant sometimes the whole essence of [Page 154] the God-head, as it is com­mon to all the three Persons: as Ioh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit. Som­times the gifts and graces of the Spirit, as Luk. 1. 15. Iohn was fil­led with the Spirit; that is, spi­rituall gifts, by a Metonymie of the cause for the effect. And Act. 6. 5. Steuen, a man full of faith and the holy Ghost. Som­times the third Person in Trini­ty, as 1. Ioh. 5. 6. and that Spirit is truth: and thus is the word here vsed; not the gifts and graces of the spirit, nor taken essential­ly or commonly for the whole Trinity; but personally, for the third Person in Trinity, who is distinct from the Father and the Sonne, equall vnto the Father and the Sonne, and the same God in Nature and Essence with the Father and the Sonne, though not the same person. [Page 155] And the third person is cal­led a Spirit, because he is that essentiall vertue, proceeding and as it were spired or breathed from the Father and the Sonne; or from his effect, who bloweth where he listeth, and inspireth holy motions and graces into the hearts of the elect.

2. How can the holy Ghost II be said to descend,How the holy Ghost can be sayd to descend, seeing hee filleth heauen & earth. `who is God omnipresent, and filling heauen and earth? Psal. 139. 7. Whi­ther shall I goe from thy Spi­rit?

Answer. True it is, that this descending of the Spirit, was a locall motion from heauen, where it was opened, vnto earth to the very head of Christ, and yet wee may not conceiue any locall motion in God or any of the persons: but in one word, The signe or siymbol wherein [Page 156] the holy Ghost pleased to testify a speciall presence or efficacy, doth take the name of the thing signifiyed; the Doue, a signe of the Spirit is called by the thing signified, the Spirit it selfe; not that the blessed Spirit was chan­ged into a Doue or any simili­tude, (whose nature were it not immutable, he could not bee God:) but because it pleased him, retaining his owne vn­changeable nature, to appeare vnder this forme and likenes: and thus Iohn also, seeing this shape and appearance descend frō heauen, is said to see the Spirit which is inuisible; the Doue sig­nifying, called y^e Spirit, signified by a figuratiue kinde of speech, common in the Scriptures. The Ark was called The Glory of God, because it was a speciall signe of it.Gen. 18. 3. Three Angels came to Abra­ham; [Page 157] one of them, seeming to be more glorious then the other, is called by the name Iehoua; a name proper to God, and not agreeable to any Angel, further then he representeth the Sonne of God as that did.

The right interpretation and vnderstanding of such phrases, would cut off infinite quarrels about the reall presence, which is onely held vp, because by this same figure the bread signifying is called the body signifyed; which if it necessarily imply a change of the bread into the ve­ry Body of Christ, then because the Spirit of God is called a Doue, hee must necessarily bee turned into a Doue, & of a cre­ating God become a creature; which is high blasphemy.

3. The manner or forme of the Spirits descending, was in [Page 158] the shape of a Doue.

Quest. Whether was this a true materiall Doue, or an ap­pearance of a Doue only?

Answ. It is enough to con­ceiue the presence of the ho­ly Ghost vnder the forme of a Doue, and it is no article of faith whether it was or no: But yet I thinke it was a true reall body and corporal Doue; 1. Be­cause Luke addeth (in a bodily shape) implying that there was a body. 2. Because none of the other signes were imaginary or appearances, but reall things: whence some of the Fathers con­clude, that it was as true a Doue, as the Spirit was a true Spirit.

Obiect. But if it were so, how came it into heauen?

Answ. He that created of no­thing all things, created it at this time, not for common vse, [Page 159] but for this vse and purpose; which when it was accompli­shed, hee could bring it to no­thing, or resolue it into the first matter whereof it was made, as it was with those bodies in which the Angels appeared.

Obiect. But the text is, [...], like a Doue; therefore it was but a similitude, and ap­pearance, not a true body.

Answ. The word [...] is not to be referred to the Doue, but to the Spirit, who manifested his presence in this likenesse. 2. The phrase doth not alwayes note likenesse and similitude onely, but verity and identity, as Ioh. 1. 14. Wee saw his glory, as the glory of the only Sonne of God; and Phil. 2. 7. Christ was in the shape of man, and like man: shal we thence conclude, that he was not a true man, but one in ap­pearance [Page 160] onely?

Why did the holy Ghost ap­peareQuest. in this shape? For some­times hee appeared in mighty winds, as to the Apostles; some­times in burning fire, wherein he seemes to be contrary to him­selfe.

These diuers symbols and te­stimoniesAnsw. of the presence of the Spirit, argue diuers, but not con­trary effects; all of them his wisedome made choyce of, ac­cording to the occasion and present vse. There was great dif­ference betweene the ministery of Christ, and Moses; betweene the Law, and the Gospell, and accordingly the Spirit manife­steth himselfe. The Law was confirmed with terrour & feare; but to ratifie the Gospel, the Spi­rit appeares in the shape of a Doue. Act. 2. 2. Hee is noted to [Page 161] come like a mighty rushing winde, to shew the mighty po­wer of the Gospell in the mini­stery of the Apostles, who were now to bee sent out: so in the shape of tongues, to shew the vtterance giuen by the Spirit to the Apostles: in the shape of clouen tongues, to note the va­riety of tongues and languages, wherewith they were indued: in the shape of fiery tongues, to shew the fruit and efficacie of their ministery and doctrine, which should bee as fire to seuer betweene drosse and pure me­tall. So heere the Spirit would appeare in the shape of a Doue,Why the Spirit ap­peared in the like­nesse of a Doue. to note, 1. what kind of Spirit Christs was: 2. what kind of gifts they were, which were collated and bestowed vpon him: and 3. what was the fruit of those gifts.

[Page 162] For the first, in the Doue ob­serue two things: 1. Of all fowles it is the most mild, without gall. 2. It is most innocent and harm­lesse, not rauening and hurtfull. Which signifieth, that Christ should be indued with a mild, meeke, and gentle spirit: so it was prophesied of him, Isa. 42. 2. That he should not cry nor lift vp his voice in the streets, a bru­sed reed hee should not breake; and how it was accomplished, the whole story of the Gospell witnesseth, Math. 12. 19. So al­so, that he should be most inno­cent, blamelesse, of a most pure spirit: In him was no guile, no deceit in his lips. Who could accuse him of sin, being the spot­lesse Lambe of God?

2. As the Doue hath many excellent properties; patience, simplicity, sincerity, tendernesse [Page 163] to her young, faithfulnes to her mate, &c. Euen so God the Fa­ther hath fitted Christ with all profitable and necessary gifts; humility and patience, holinesse and integrity, loue and tender­nesse, constancy and diligence in working out the good of his members.

3. The fruit of these gifts is the appeasing of his Fathers dis­pleasure, conceiued against the sinne of man: for looke as the Doue which Noah sent forth out of the Arke, returning with an Oliue branch, which argued the ceasing of the deluge, brought newes that Gods wrath was now asswaged and decreased with the waters: so the Spirit of the Lord is vpon Christ in the form of a Doue, sending him out to preach the acceptable yeere of the Lord, and good tidings of [Page 164] liberty to captiues, & the open­ing of the prison to them that are bound, forgiuenesse of sin, and conferring of grace, & life, &c. Isa. 61. 1. Now this being the end of the Spirits appearing in this shape, separating and sen­ding Christ to his ministery, & that onely for this time, and not reserued out of this time and vse, it is not now lawfull for any man to represent the holy Ghost by this shape, or make an image thereof: for this is to make an Idoll, as the Papists doe, not onely in this, but in painting God the Father like an old man, because he is called the Ancient of dayes, Dan. 7. 22. Both of them flat Idolatry. God is a­boue his Law, if he make shapes, Cherubs, or bodies, it is iust be­cause hee doth it: but wee are borne vnder the Law, which ex­presly [Page 165] forbids the making or hauing of any Image of God in any vse, or any at all in religious vse, and enioynes vs to worship God in spirit and truth, onely in the Image of his Sonne.

And it will strongly follow, that if wee may not reserue the shapes which God himselfe hath vsed to manifest his presence, much lesse vpon any colour, any Images or Idols deuised and beautified by Idolaters, abused in times past, and in present, and for time to come, subiect to be abused to the maintenance of Idolatry. Heere come all Po­pish pictures to bee defaced, whose Idolatry is as grosse as euer the Heathens was: a la­mentable thing, y^t any Christian can feed and please his senses in the cōuicted instrumēts of Gods dishonour in so high a kinde.

[Page 166] A chaste heart will make a IV chaste eye.Why the Spi [...]it lighted vpon the head of Christ.

The 4. point is the Spirits descending vpon Christ, for these reasons: 1. To shew that 1 Christ was set apart to his great work, not onely by the ministe­ry of man, but by the holy 2 Ghost. 2. That hee was now en­dued with gifts fit for such a worke: for this was the vnction or anoynting of Christ to bee the King, Priest, and Prophet of his Church, as Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is vpon mee, hee hath anoynted mee to preach.

Obiect. But Christ was filled with the holy Ghost from his infancy.

Answer. He was endued with such a measure of the Spirit, as was fit for his priuate estate; yet now entring vpon a publique office, and a worke after a sort [Page 167] infinite, he needeth more grace, and receiueth according as his calling required.

Obiect. But then Christ had imperfection in him, if hee wan­ted some grace.

Answ. It implies a degree, but not imperfection: hee was perfectly graced so farre, as his youth and priuate estate requi­red, yea, as much as that was ca­pable of; it being with him as with the Saints in heauen, a­mong whom are degrees of glo­ry, but not want nor imperfectiō. And 3. to shew that the Spirit 3 did perpetually rest with Christ, therefore Ioh. 1. 32. the Spirit abode vpon him. This was pro­phecied, Isa. 11. 2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest vpon him, the Spirit of counsel and vnderstan­ding, of wisedome and strength, the Spirit of knowledge, and the [Page 168] feare of the Lord.

Obiect. But the Spirit of God dwels in the Elect, therefore this was no priuiledge.

An. Neuer did or can the spirit rest with Saint or Angel, as hee did with Christ. 1. In respect of his humanity, the Spirit is euer with that, working in y^t nature all diuine vertues, graces, & glo­ry, both in nūber & degree per­fect, as fitting the Head; wheras the members haue some, not all, and in some small degree, not in all perfection of degrees, as hee was, being anointed with y^e oyle of gladnes aboue al his fellowes. 2. In respect of his Deity, the spi­rit, the third person, is perpetual­ly present with the Son, as ioy­ned vnto him in the admirable vnity of one & the same nature; yea, so ioyned, as he proceedeth from the Son as frō the Father, [Page 169] and hath his subsistence from the Son, as frō the Father, by the vn­speakable cōmunication of one and the selfe-same nature. In which respects, the Spirit neuer lighted, nor did rest with any but with Iesus Christ alone. 4. Some adde a fourth reason of the Spi­rits lighting on Christ: not on­ly to designe Christ, but to di­stinguish him by an apparent signe from Iohn, lest any should thinke that the voyce following, This is my well-beloued Sonne, was vttered of Iohn, and not of Christ himselfe.

The fifth point is, Why it is V said that Iohn saw all this: this was, 1. that the Word of the Lord might be accomplished, who had promised Iohn, that he should certainely know Christ by this signe, Ioh. 1. 33. 2. That Iohn might beare record of the [Page 170] trueth heereof, not onely in his age, but to all succeeding ages: so it is said, Ioh. 1. 32. Iohn bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit, &c. Hence was it, that it did so openly appeare, because it was not onely for Christ, who as hee was man, and had taken vpon him our infirmities, had need of assistance, but for Iohn also, and the people of God: see Iohn 12. 30.

1. Note, that the Spirit of God is no quality or created motion in the minde of man: for then hee should not exist without the mindes of men, (for the accident cannot be without the subiect, to which it clea­ueth:) and much lesse could the Spirit appeare in a visible and distinct forme, as he did heere, and in the feast of Pentecost. 2. Hee is here a distinct person [Page 171] from the Father and the Sonne, and yet ioyned with the Father and the Sonne. 3. He is called God. Act. 5. 3, 4. To lye to the holy Ghost, is to lye vnto God: and 1. Cor. 12. 11. Hee giueth gifts to euery one according to his will, as heere hee anointeth Christ the head, & consequent­ly, is the Author of all good gifts with the Father of lights, and not the gifts themselues.

2. Note, as Christ was set a­part both by the ministry of man, and by the Spirit, by the visible appearance of which, God would manifest, that hee was fitted thereunto: so in all those that are set apart by man to the ministry, must be an ap­parant descending of the Spirit, though not in visible shape, yet in euident gifts and graces. The reason is sound: if Christ him­selfe [Page 172] must not take this honour vpon himself, but the spirit of the Lord must be vpō him to preach, much more must it be so with those that come in his name. Adde hereunto these arguments:

1. If God, when hee had set down the frame & parcels of the materiall Tabernacle, did set a­part a Bezaleel, and fill him with the Spirit of God, in wisedome & vnderstanding, in knowledge and all curious workmanship, and ioyned an Aholiah vnto him, into whom he put wisedome, to make al after his draught, Exod. 31. 3, 6. And, if when Salomon is to build the material Temple, he must haue his Hiram sent for, a man full of wisedom, vnderstan­ding, and knowledge to work all manner of worke in brasse, 1. King. 7. 14. much more the true Salomon, in building his spiritual [Page 173] Temple, makes choice of men filled with the spirit, &c.

2. If the Prophets & Apostles performed euery thing by vertue of their extraordinary calling by God, then must Pastors & Tea­chers also, by vertue of their or­dinary calling by God: They spake & wrote, as they were mo­ued by the holy Ghost, 2. Pet. 1. vlt. they reuealed and fore-told things by the Spirit, 1. Pet. 1. 10, 11. The Spirit of Christ in the Prophets, searched and signified the time, and passion, & glory of Christ: the Spirit was promised to teach the Apostles what to speake, and to leade them in all trueth, Ioh. 14. Yea, the Spirit shall teach you in that houre, Luk. 12. so must we be furnished by the Spirit to our duties. 1. Cor. 17. 7. The manifestation of the Spirit is giuen to euery one [Page 174] to profit withall, to one a word of wisedome, to another a word of knowledge. Whence the Spirit is said to send Pastors, Act. 20. 28. Pastors at Ephesus were made ouer-seers by the ho­ly Ghost; because he fitteth them to the Church, and commen­deth them by gracing them to the vse of it.

3. This sitting of the Spirit, giueth a mans selfe much com­fort: 1. That hee is lawfully cal­led of God, who sendeth not his message by the hand of a foole, (for this is as he that cutteth off the feet:) but he sendeth a lear­ned tongue, an Ezra, an Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures. This was signified by the consecrati­on of Aaron and his sonnes, who must be, 1. washed, purged from whatsoeuer might blemish their calling. 2. Arrayed with new [Page 175] garments, signifying their fur­nishing, and instructing with graces, of wisedom, knowledge, &c. 3. Perfumed with a sweet smell of the holy oyle, noting the sweetnesse, the sweet sauour by holy doctrine and life, which they were to diffuse into the Church. This when it was done, then were they set apart by the Lord, and not before, Leu. 8. 3. 2. That God, who hath graced him, will protect him, and carrie him thorow the troubles of his calling, which Satan and the wicked of the world (whom hee is to encounter with) will raise against him: which promise of speciall protection, while the sonnes of Sceua wanted, Satan (who easily spied their want of commission) mightily preuailed against them, Act. 19.

3. That God will blesse his [Page 176] labour, and the workes of his calling, and make it powerfull and fruitfull, because it is his owne worke; whereas such as haue not their commission sea­led from the Lord, finde not their sacrifices burnt by God, but often labour all day and night, and catch nothing.

A caueat not to runne vponVse 1. mans calling without Gods, as the false apostles did, against whom the Apostles opposed themselues: see that the chiefe Bishop of soules send thee, that he hath laid his hands vpō thee, that hee hath bid thee receiue the holy Ghost; as for the order and ordination of the Church, it is onely a manifestation and declaration of him, whom God hath fitted. Let euery Minister be able to say as Christ himselfe did, Isa. 48. 16. The Lord God [Page 177] himselfe, and his spirit hath sent me, namely, to declare what Cy­rus in his time was to performe to the Church.

And here he that would haue good and assured comfort of his commission, must examine what kinde of gifts they be which he hath receiued of the Spirit: for they be of two sorts: 1. Com­mon to good and bad, as those of knowledge, tongues, inter­pretation, eloquence, to which if working of miracles (if a man haue no more) were added, while he might much benefit o­thers, himselfe might remaine a reprobate. For, Saul and Iudas had the Spirit of God.

2. Proper and peculiar to the elect, as iustifying faith, true loue, inuocation, repentance, vnspeakable groanes, and mour­ning of the Doue, innocencie, [Page 178] meeknesse, sinceritie, and such like testimonies, that God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into the heart, purifying it, making it cry Abba Father. These are gifts worth hauing, making all the former not onely profitable to others, but truly comfortable to himself, and acceptable to God. Now shall a man speake power­fully, feelingly, and consciona­bly, and resemble those holie men of God, who wrote the Scriptures, in interpreting thē; they shall speake and do as they are moued by the holy Ghost; men shall perceiue, and after a sort see a fiery tongue vpon their heads; such shall be the efficacie and power of their ministerie in separating the precious from the vile.

3. Note, wheresoeuer the Spirit descendeth on any Chri­stian, [Page 179] it descendeth like a Doue, that is, maketh a Christian re­semble the Doue. Whence it is, that the holy Church or com­pany of beleeuers is called by Christ, his Doue, Cant. 2. 14. 1. Because the same sweet oynt­ment (as that of Aaron) runnes downe from the head to all the mēbers: the same graces, which this Spirit in the shape of a Doue did fill Christ withall a­boue measure, hee doth also be­stow in measure vpon Christi­ans: Thus are we said to receiue of his fulnesse. A fountaine sends the same water into the streames that it self hath. 2. The Spirit of God is euery-where like to himself, both in the head and members, as the same iuyce is in the roote and branches, in the tree and fruites: looke what were the fruites of the Spirit in [Page 180] Christ, the same also are in the members, Gal. 5. 23.

To examine whether we haueVse. receiued this Spirit or no, by the properties of a Doue.Foure properties of y^e Doues of Christ. 1. Meek­nesse is an essentiall mark of one of Christs Doues, and on whom the Spirit of Christ is descēded, as himselfe witnesseth, Learne of me, for I am lowly and meeke: 1. He in heart neuer conceiued fierce or reuengefull thought. 2. In word, being reuiled, he re­uiled not againe. 3. In action, hee was led as a sheepe to the slaughter, and was dumbe be­fore the shearer, 1. Pet. 2. 23. Moses was the meekest man on earth, but not like him. If any be a rough Esau, of a froward and peruerse disposition, the Spirit of Christ hath not sate and ligh­ted vpon him: for, in the king­dome of Christ, the lyon and the [Page 181] lambe shall feed together. Let vs therefore put on, and decke our selues with meeknesse, Col. 3. 12. A most beautifull grace, much set by of God. How glo­rious a sight was it, and how de­lightfull to God his Father (as the voyce witnesseth) when the Doue sate vpon Christ? and euen so the Apostle commen­deth this grace to women, as a most precious garment to set them out to God, and make him set by them, as their most costly garments doe set them out to men: neither is it a garment proper to the women, as distin­guishing the sexe (which the cloathing of our bodies doe or ought to doe:) but the condi­tion between a naturall and spi­ritual man, an old and new crea­ture: for this makes difference before God, when none is be­tweene [Page 182] male and female. And though we take little notice of a meeke-hearted Christian, yet God doth so account of it, as he doth denominate the righteous by it, and maketh it a speciall ti­tle of the iust, Zeph. 2. 3. Seeke the Lord, ye meeke of the earth: as though none were fit to seeke him, and he would be found of none else.

2 A second qualitie of those, on whom the Spirit is lighted like a Doue, is simplicitie, innocen­cie, commended to vs also by Christ, Be wise as serpents, but innocent as Doues; enforcing it plainly to be a qualitie of those who are baptized with the Spi­rit of Christ: To which purpose he knitteth these two together, Cant. 5. 12. and 6. 8. My Doue, my vndefiled. Elsewhere he calls the Church faire as the Sunne, [Page 183] pure as the Moone, the Lords holy ones, vndefiled in their wayes, Saints, pure; not only in regard of their iustification by the bloud of Christ clensing them from all sinne, but also of their endeuour in sanctifica­tion.

These Doues of the Lords Culuer-house are cleane fowles, not of the vncleane birds, Vul­tures, Crowes, and Hawkes that can smell a carrion a farre off, to flye to it, and feede vpon it: the Spirit neuer tooke such a shape. Let vs be carefull of our wayes, not to foule our selues with sin, which is the most filthy vnclean­nes: but rather when the Spirit sate vpon Christs head, make knowne that it sate like a Doue on our head, by purging our selues, euen as he is pure, 1. Ioh. 3. 3. as it is a marke of our adop­tion [Page 184] in that place. He is not ca­pable of any grace, that ende­uoureth not in this: wil the Spi­rit of God dwell in a stye? or will hee powre his gracious li­quors into fustie and filthie ves­sels? What may wee thinke the hire of those that moyle them­selues in all filthie lusts, and tumble like swine in their sinnes, and in the meane time scorne at those who desire to bee more free and innocent from the riots of the world; seeing GOD is good to none but the pure of heart, heareth none pray but such as lift vp pure hands, accep­teth no seruice but a cleane offe­ring and from a cleane offerer, admitteth none to the blessed vision of God, but the pure of heart, and much lesse to stand in his Holy place, but hee that is of innocent hands, and a pure [Page 185] heart? Psalme 24. 3.

What other spirit hath ligh­ted vpon them, then the spirit that beareth rule in the world? The spirit of lying, railing, swea­ring, slandering, hath light vpon their tongues: the spirit of re­uenge, wrong, and wickednesse vpon their heads: the spirit of fornication, vncleannesse, wan­tonnesse vpon all their parts and members: and the spirit of errour, delusion, & desperate im­penitency hath settled vpon their hearts: all this, because they haue grieued this holy Spi­rit, and made this Doue betake himselfe to his wings, and left them to bee haunted with an e­uill spirit, as Saul was, when God had forsaken him.

A third quality of such on 3 whom this Spirit of Christ hath lighted, is chastity, sincerity [Page 186] and singlenesse in heart and life, in body and soule: the Doue is a most chast bird, truly keeping her to her mate; and this is re­quired in all the members of the Church, Cant. 4. 1. Thine eyes are like the Doues, that is, single, chast, beautifull. This eye of faith beholds Christ and him a­lone, acknowledging all perfe­ction of beauty and sufficiency in him: it keepes the heart into him alone in the purity of his worship; it keepes the affecti­ons vnto him as the chiefe of ten thousand: it watcheth a­gainst all vnchast lusts, and a­bandoneth all vnlawful, strange, and stolne pleasures, called in 1. Cor. 7. 34. The holines of bo­dy and spirit. Of spirit, when it is not tempted to vncleannesse; or being tempted, yeeldeth not; or hauing yeelded, reneweth it [Page 187] selfe to repentance. Of body, when, as a fit instrument to a chast soule, it neuer exciteth, nor being excited, executeth vn­cleannesse. Whence it follow­eth, that those that goe a who­ring from God, as all Idolaters that seek to many louers; or are bawds to their owne lusts and sinfull pleasures of any kind, or prostitute their bodies to any vncleannesse; or their members as seruants of vnrighteousnesse, are not possessed with the Spirit of Christ. Idolatrous eyes, adul­terous eyes, couetous eyes, euill or enuious eyes, blind eyes, or wanton eyes, are not the eyes of Doues.

A fourth quality in Isa. 60. 8.4 is this, They al fly to the Church of God, and ioyne together in his pure worship. Who are these that fly like the Doues to the [Page 188] windowes? A prophesie of the Gentiles conuerted, that shall in such flockes come into the Church, as if a whole flight of Doues driuen by some Hawke or tempest, should scoure to the columbary, and rush into the windowes. The Church is com­pared to Gods culuer-house; thi­ther the Doues fly together, feed together, roost together: which signifies the Communion of Saints, who are of one heart and soule, and which worship God purely with one shoulder: It is no receptacle of Eagles and ra­uenous birds, which deuoure one another: and the reason is, because the Spirit lighting vp­on Christians, tyes them toge­ther with fast bands of peace, called The bond of the Spirit. And hence it followeth, that whosoeuer neglecteth the mi­nistery, [Page 189] which is the chariot of the Spirit, the Spirit lights not vpon him: whosoeuer ioyneth not in this society of Saints, and carryeth not himselfe as one li­uing with other the children of God, vnder the same roofe of one Father, he hath not the Spi­rit of God, and consequently is none of his. What may wee thinke of him that is an enemie to the Church, that malignes the members of it, that oppo­seth the pure worship and wor­shippers, that flies from the cul­uer-house, but to be an vncleane bird, no Doue?

This is one speciall note of the presence of the Spirit, which I would not omit, because many may come to see themselues bet­ter by it.

Sect. 8.

HEre is the third sensible te­stimony of Christs most so­lemneThe voice from hea­uen testi­fying vnto Christ. setting into his office, and that from heauen also, as the other were, and that by an audi­ble voice: wherein are two things;

1. The circumstances, three: 1. Whose voice it was, The Fa­thers. 2. The place whence it came, From heauen. 3. The man­ner, It was a sensible and audi­ble voice.

II. The substance, in which are three particulars: 1. That Christ is the Sonne of God: to note the relation between God [Page 191] and Christ. 2. That hee is his beloued Sonne; to note the neer­nesse of that relation. 3. The fruit of it, in whom I am well plea­sed.

1. The Person whose voice it was, is God the Father: for he saith, Thou art my beloued Sonne. Euery testimony receiues vali­dity and authority from the Te­stator, therefore this must needs be sound and good. God had giuen testimony to Christ by many famous men, euen all the Prophets, and now lately by Iohn Baptist, who was greater than a Prophet, that Christ was greater than he; yea more, had giuen testimony of him by a multitude of heauenly Angels, Luk. 1. 30. and 13. But not con­tent with all this, he giues from heauen his owne testimony of him.

[Page 192] 1. To strike vs with reue­renceWhy God the Father giues te­stimony to his Sonne 4. Rea­sons. in receiuing this testimo­ny, which hath this priuiledge aboue other parts of Scriptures, that it was vttered by Gods owne mouth, not by men or An­gels.

2. To confirme vs in the truth of the testimony, proceeding from him who is prima veritas, Truth it selfe (not onely true) in his Essence, and much more in his words and workes, who can­not bee deceiued, nor deceiue vs.

3. To shew the necessity of beleeuing this testimony, being the first and onely principle in Christian Religion, without which foundation laid, can bee no religion, nor saluation, as we see in the Iewes and Turkes: That we might more firmly be­leeue in the Sonne of God for [Page 193] life, Gods owne mouth testifieth so honourably of him. 4. That such a glorious commendation of this testimony might stir vp our best attention and affecti­ons in the vnfolding of it, wee haue heere the word of a King, which was neuer stained, and that not vttered by any Herald, or a Lord Chancellor, but from his owne mouth, which carryeth more waight with it: if God speake, woe to him that heares not.

2. The place whence, from Why the testimo­ny con­cerning Christ was from heauen. 4. Rea­sons. heauen: for these reasons:

1. For more authority to the Person of Christ, whom God from heauen doth honour: and if God thus honour him, how ought we to honour him? 2. Pet. 1. 17. Hee receiued of God the Father honour and glory; when there came such a voice to him [Page 194] from the excellent glory, This is my beloued Sonne: which was ve­rified not onely in the time of his transfiguration, but here also.

2. Because the testimony containes the summe of the whole Gospell, to declare that the doctrine of the Gospell, which Christ deliuered to the world, was from heauen, because God from heauen so testifieth it to bee: wherein it differs from the doctrine of the Law, which although God renewed from heauen in the Tables of stone, yet was it written in the heart of man by nature; so was not the Gospell: but as after y^e fall it was immediately deliuerd by God to Adam in the promise: so here, by the same voice from heauē con­firmed to be diuine & heauenly.

3. In respect of vs, that wee should more carefully attend to [Page 195] the testimony it selfe, proceed­ing from the excellent glory, and that from the mouth of the God of glory, sitting in his chaire of Estate, seeing the word of a King in that place is more regarded. The contempt of the Law, giuen vpon Mount Sinai, in the hand of Angels, was re­quired at their hands: how shall they then escape, that despise him that speaketh from heauen? Hebr. 2. 2, 3. The Law being transgressed, the Gospell from heauen moderateth and pardo­neth a man: but the Gospell frō heauen being despised, what can pleade for him?

4. To shew the extent of the Gospell, that it is to bee prea­ched, and binds to the faith of it all the people vnder heauen: and herein it was not to bee in­feriour to the Law, which God [Page 196] would haue acknowledged his owne by vttering it from hea­uen, and that not before he had sent Moses downe, lest it should haue been thought to be his, al­though it was so loud and pier­sing, as it could not possible bee but diuine, not humane.

3. The manner of the testi­mony, by an audible and sensi­ble voice: How the Father vt­tered this voice, is needlesse to enquire, seeing we know, that he who made the tongue, can ei­ther speake without a tongue, or by secret inspiration and re­uelation, as to Isaiah, 2. King. 20. 4. or frame a tongue and organs of voice at his pleasure, to vtter and make knowne his will and good pleasure to his creatures: or speake by creatures, as An­gels in humane shape, or other creatures, sensible as Baalams [Page 197] Asse; or insensible, as the bush of fire. It is much more material to enquire into the end and vse of it, which was, to make the Sonne of God knowne vnto the world, that the faith of men might be fixed on him for salua­tion.

Hence note, in that the LordObser. 1. from heauen teacheth by voice, his wonderfull care, that will not suffer vs to want any means to helpe vs in the knowledge of the meanes of saluation: he had taught them and vs before, by the sense of sight, seeing the heauens opened, and the Spirit visibly descending; and now hee teacheth the eare by a voice: for, he knowes our dulnesse, securi­ty, slownesse of heart to beleeue, and applies himselfe euery way to helpe vs: hee setteth out his glory by his workes and crea­tures, [Page 198] he addeth his Word con­firmed by many powerfull mi­racles; to his audible word he hath annexed his visible word the Sacraments; hee hath set vp a constant ministery in his Church, and euery way fitted it to the edification of his peo­ple, so as he may now say, What could I doe more for thee, O Israel?

Is God thus carefull of our profiting euery way?Vse 1. then how damnable and excuslesse shall the carelesnes of the most bee in the matter of their saluation? in which regard it had beene good for many a man, that God had neuer made his will knowne to him, that he neuer had heard the word, or receiued the Sacra­ments: for, all tends but to his deeper condemnation, because of his neglect and formall vse. [Page 199] When our Sauior said of Iudas, It had bin good for him he had neuer bin borne: did not hee in effect say the same, It had bin good for him he had neuer bin a Disciple of Christ, neuer had heard Christ, or preached Christ, because the more excel­lent meanes he had, the greater was his sin and iudgement?

Againe,Vse 2. hereby God cleareth his righteous Iudgement, in the iust damnation of the wicked and vnbeleeuers: O Israel, thy destruction is of thy selfe: say not, What can I remedy it if God will not saue me? nay, what can God do more then he hath done? He hath giuen thee strong and excellent means, & preach­ed the Gospell from heauen by his owne mouth, and sent it to all nations vnder heauen in their owne language, in an audible [Page 200] and intelligible voice: if thou wilt now wilfully refuse the meanes, thy blood be vpon thy owne head, that which will dye, let it dye; thou art in the sea of thy sins, ready to bee drownd, good helpe is offred, but thou refusest it & must dye in thy sin: thy case is that of Ierusalem, How oftē would I haue gathred thee, and thou wouldest not?

2 Note,Obser. 2. Theodo­ret, out of the like ground, gathereth the same doctrine, and notably vrgeth it against Images, on Deut. quest. 1. that it is Gods plea­sure that wee should bee taught the matter of saluation by voice, and attend to that: Here was a visible openning of the heauens, a glorious presence of the Spirit in the shape of a Doue resting on Christ: but when the Lord will haue Christ published and proclaimed the Messiah, this must be done by voice. Deut. 4. 12, 14. Thou heardest a voice, but sawest no image, therefore [Page 201] take heede to thy selfe, and cor­rupt not thy selfe by any image.

1.Reasons. Herein his mercy hath ap­pointed a familiar and fit instru­ction,1 meet for our weakenesse, not comming to his Church in his owne Maiesty.

2. Herein he aduanceth our 2 nature, teaching vs great myste­ries by such as our selues, sancti­fying the tongues of men, and not Angels.

3. Herein he magnifyes his 3 power, who by so weake meanes worketh saluation: earthen ves­sels are vsed, that the power may be seen to be of God, 2 Cor. 4. 7. The voice of men by Gods power conquers the world.

4. Hereby he tryes our obe­dience,4 whether we vvill yeeld to a vveake voice, vvhereas he might force vs by povver.

This makes against the Pa­pistsVse. [Page 202] position, that images are Lay-mens bookes:Melius do­cet interdū pictura, quàm Scriptura, Bellarm. de Imag. Cap. 10. for 1. The people of Israel were as rude and elementary as any, yet God permitted them no such bookes, but straightly forbade it. 2. Ima­ges are dumbe, and how can they teach? they haue mouthes, and speake not: If they teach, it must be by an interpreter, and an interpreter can teach better without them. 3. Let them be Lay-mens books, what doe they teach? Hab. 2. 18. They are teachers of lyes, and Zach. 10. 2. The Idols speak vanity. If a man would learne lyes, let him gaze vpon these bookes.

And 1. whereas Bellarmine saith, that the Image of God and the holy Trinity is a teacher of truth: I answere, The Scripture saith it is a teacher of lyes, and so I will proue it.

[Page 203] 1.E [...]ce à te cogitatio­nem mini­mè decen­tem Mag­nitudinem Dei: nè paruum reddas eum qui magnus est, &c. Basil. in Hexam. Homil. decima. God is a Spirit and inuisi­ble: now how can this be payn­ted or carued? he that saith hee can do it, must needs lye.

2. God is infinite and incir­cumscriptible, wants beginning and ending: he that saith he can paynt such a thing, is a lowd ly­ar: his image or idol is made by man, and moth-eaten, and con­sumed by wormes and rotten.

3. God is a working act, neuer idle: but the Image neuer stirres vnstirr'd: therefore it is a lye.

4. God hath beeing of him­selfe, and all things are sustai­ned in him: the image hath be­ing from the hands of man, and is not able to vphold it selfe no more then Dagon was, if it bee not strongly vndershored: there­fore it is a lye to say it resembles God.

[Page 204] 5. It is a lye and idolatry, to conceiue or fixe the name of God vpon a picture, that hath nothing but what man will giue it: and doeth not the Lord ac­cuse the Israelites by common sense, in the example of one that goes into the Wood and hewes a tree, then makes a fire of one end to warme him, and a God of the other to worship? Are there not as good blockes and stones, lying vpon the floore and paue­ment, as they be that are set vp for idols?

II. As for the picture of the Trinity, which is most horrible idolatry, painting God either a man with three heads (making him a monster:) orBut here your owne Aquinas leaues you. Ipsi Deo, cū sit incorpo­reus, nulla imago cor­poralis pote­rat poni: quia, vt Da­mascenus dicit, insipi­entiae sum­mae est, & impietatis, figurare quod est di­uinū, Part 3. quaest. 25. art. 3. So doth Durandus, speaking of the ima­ges of the Trinity, Fatuum est imagines facere, vel eas venera­ri: [...]n 3. sent. d [...]st. 5. quaest. 2. [...]. 15. So also doth your owne Ro­mane Ca­techisme, Diuinum numen vio­lari, si quis conetur di­uinitatis formam ali­quo artisi­cio effinge­re: Part. 3. cap. 2. quaest. 11. the Father like an old man with a childe at his knee, and a Doue betweene them. Bellarmine himselfe fain­teth, when he saith, it is not cer­taine, [Page 205] but an opinion of the Church, whether any pictures of the Trinity be to be made: And further, that those images must not be multiplied, because they giue occasion of blasphe­ming. Besides, these pictures are as senslesse as wicked: 1. To picture the Father, as a man with the whole world in his hand, to note his creation and prouidence (which the Rhe­mists, in Act. 17. 5. commend so highly, as whence the people may take much good:) is a teacher of lyes, because it re­straines creation and gouern­ment to the Father. 2. To pi­cture the Father as an old man, and the Sonne (who is as old as he) like a child, is a lye, and not footed, in the 7. of Daniel, where the ancient of dayes is the whole Deity. 3. To adde to these two [Page 206] the image of a Doue for the ho­ly Ghost, is (as it is said, Rom. 1. 23. 25.) to turne the whole glo­ry of God into a lye, and to transforme most heathenishly the glory of the immortall God, into the similitude of a mortall man, or feathered fowle. 4. If the Diuinity can be pictured, then may the three Persons: but hee that will say he can conceiue ei­ther the Trinity, or expresse the Diuinity, hee is a lyar; much lesse carue or paint any thing like them.

III For the picture of Christ: though I know sundry of the learned are of another minde, yet I thinke it neither can nor may be pictured, and the reasons to the contrary are none, or weake: And I haue thought of these grounds, which sway with me till I heare or see stronger:

[Page 207] 1. Christs Diuinity cannot be expressed in an image, and it is dangerous in a picture to se­parate them which God neuer disioyned: to diuide his natures, sauoureth of the Nestorian he­resie; to offer to paint the God­head of Christ, as they haue, who to expresse it, haue made a Rainebow, &c. This is to fall in­to the heresie of Eutyches, con­founding the natures, and cir­cumscribing the Godhead; both wayes it must be a lying image, no way speaking trueth.

2. Make an image of Christ, as man, it is but of his bodily shape; and as (D. Fulke saith) an image of his bodily shape, is no more his shape then another mans: make such an image, and what difference betweene his & the thiefes that was crucified with him?

[Page 208] 3. The Scriptures, which speake so much of his doctrine, workes, and all other circum­stances, speake not a word of any lineament and portrayture of his body, wherein Gods wisedome preuented the true painting of his body, which if any goe a­bout to doe, it must be a lying image.

4. Hee neede not be pain­ted on a Table, being so liuely described in the Word and Sa­craments,Gal. 3 1. and crucified before our eyes; We hold the image of Christ more dan­gerous then any other, be­cause of the excel­lency of his person, Pet. Mart. loc. com. class. 2. cap. 5. sect. 26. there is the length of the Lord, there is the Crucifix; and in euery Christian thou hast an image of Christ: looke vpon him and loue him, for the image hee beares of Christ.

5. Such a picture or image cannot safely be made, in respect of the dignity of the Person, whose very humanity in composi­to, [Page 209] as vnited vnto the Deity, is to be adored & worshipped aboue all men and Angels: for it is a true position, Totus Christus ado­randus. And I maruaile the more, that P. Martyr, In 1. King. 7 so iudi­cious a Diuine, and learned, should permit the painting of Christs humanity, and yet after­wards confesse how prone the men of our age are vnto ido­latry, that they adore stockes, stones, reliques of Saints, reuer­sions of the Sacrament, &c.Omnino er­rare merue­runt, qui Christum et Apostolos eius non in sanctis co­dicibus, sed in pictis parietibus quaesierunt, August. de consensu E­uangelist. lib. 1. ca. 10. bow downe before them, light Can­dels, burne Incense, inuocate and call for that at their hands, which better creatures cannot giue: surely these things stand not well with the former. For images of Saints, it is a lye to pray to them in earth, that are in heauen, a lye to giue them mouthes, and they cannot speak, [Page 210] eyes and they cannot see.

But though we haue not ima­ges of God,Obiect. or Christ, or the Saints in religious vse, may wee not haue them in ciuill vse, sup­pose for an ornament or hi­story?

Whatsoeuer image hath bin deuised or beautified by Idola­ters,Answ. which hath serued, or may hereafter serue in idolatrous vse, the same we must either de­stroy; or if wee reserue them for priuate vse, wee must so deface them, as their honour and good opinion be vtterly laid in the dust. The reasons heereof are these:

I 1. It is Gods commaunde­ment, Exod. 23. 4. Thou shalt vtterly ouerthrow and breake in pieces their images: and 34. 13. Thou shalt ouerthrow their Al­tars, breake their images, and cut [Page 211] downe their Groues. Deut. 7. 5, 6. and 25. 26. The images ye shall burne: Couet not the gold and sil­uer, lest yee be ensnared there­with. Ezek. 20. 7. Let euery man cast away the abominations of his eyes, and defile not your selues with the Idols of Egypt. If the Le­prosie had once taken a gar­ment, or vessell, the garment or vessell must be burnt with fire, Leuit. 23. 51. Which what did it signifie other, then that all in­struments of idolatry (which is a farre more hatefull leprosie then that of the body) ought to be destroyed, and that wee should haue nothing to doe with them; but rather then they should re­main to be prouocations to ido­latry, to burne them with fire?

II 2. In regard of the idoll or image it selfe, whether of Christ, Saints, &c.

[Page 212] 1 1. In respect of what it hath beene: it hath beene an instru­ment and an obiect of idola­try, a signe of God despised, a conuicted instrument of Gods dishonour, an alluring harlot that hath drawne the glory of the Creator vpon it selfe. Can that man be thought chaste, that cannot forbeare the picture and iewels of an harlot? for a subiect to keepe a monument of the enemies conquest, argues a trea­cherous minde.

2. In respect of what images are, mens deuices, not named by any Prophet or Apostle, but in despight and detestation of them, abominations, Ezek. 14. 6. teachers of lyes, dung to God, and so called, such things as ought not to be named among Christians. Now if an idoll be as dung to God, ought it not to [Page 213] be so to vs? If God haue pollu­ted them, shall wee count them cleane? and do we account them dung, when we garnish our best roomes with them?

Againe, they be Idolothytes, things sacrificed to deuils; and no Corinthian, no Christian may eate an Idolothyte, for any ciuill vse or commodity: Say not then, The creature is good, and beautifull, and vtterly chan­ged in the vse: this plea will not preserue it by the Papists do­ctrine it selfe: for thus the Rhe­mists (in Reu. 2. Sect. 8.) describe an Idolothyte; Though the crea­ture be good by creation, it doth become an Idolothyte, and is made execrable by the prophane blessings of heretiques and ido­laters. Shall not wee yeeld as much? nay, the image is no crea­ture of God (though the matter [Page 214] be) nor good, and therefore by Popish doctrine it selfe, we may not reserue it: for Aquinas him­selfe saith, In rebus infructuosis we may not communicate with Gentiles, though in fructuosis we may.

3 3. In respect of what these images may be: they are snares, and may be the occasions of grosse idolatry to posterity: it is as a iewell borrowed frō Egypt, and may in time prooue matter to make a Calfe of. It is a ruled case, Hee that doth not hinder idolatry when hee may, doth commit it; Qui non prohibet cùm potest, facit, yea iubet; and hee partakes in idolatry, that rootes not out, where hee may, all re­liques & monuments of it. Nay, suppose a superstitious person come into thy house so swept and garnished for him, and fall [Page 215] downe, or vncouer his head, or make secret prayers (as they must by the principles of their do­ctrine) to the images thou hast set vp, art not thou now an ac­cessary, nay a principall? didst not thou lay this snare & stum­bling blocke before thy brother? wast not thou the bawd to his spirituall fornication? Thou oughtest to haue remoued this stumbling blocke, and gotten the harlot punisht: for the image tempteth to spirituall fornica­tion, as the scandalous presence of a woman doth a light minde to bodily. The Law pronoun­ceth a curse on him that layes a stumbling blocke before the blinde. Finally, such a one is farre from seeking to propagate the purity of Gods worship to posterity.

3. In respect of thy selfe, to III [Page 216] shew thy selfe zealous for Gods pure worship, and bewray thy vtter detestation of idolatry: thou must destroy euery such Agagite, which God hath pro­nounced sentence of death vp­on: shall thy eyes spare, nay, thy eyes feede themselues vpon such brokers of idolatry? shall thy hands aduance, and thy care beautifie such abetters of super­stition? how doest thou destroy their memory? Dauid would not once mention their names, Psal. 16. 4. And how darest thou? Those things, which by our do­ctrine of Homilies and Statute-lawes of the land, are swept out as dung out of our Churches, how is thy house a little church, if thou there take them vp, and nourish them?

I esteeme them but as an or­nament.Obiect.

[Page 217] An ornament is an indiffe­rent thing,Answ. and must be ruled by the squares of Gods glory, edi­fication of men, thy owne sober and faithfull vse, by vertue of a word: this ornament fights with all these.

I honour it not,Obiect. it is but a pi­cture in ciuill vse.

Hezekiah honoured not the brazen serpent,Answ. which was of an other manner of institution, nor himselfe was in danger so to do: but because there was danger of abuse in others, hee brake it in pieces. Againe, to expresse the dalliance of adulterie vpon a stage, is vtterly vnlawfull, by Ephes. 5. 4. It will not serue a Player for excuse, to say, I haue no purpose to commit the act of adulterie; therefore hee may bring adulterous dalliances vp­on the stage: so this is one of [Page 218] the things which must not bee named, though thou doest not meane to vse it as a Popish pi­cture.

I may vse the gold of it in someObiect. other ciuill vse, why not in this?

I know not whether a manAnsw. can account it a ciuill vse of an image, though the grosse cor­ruption be taken away, or rather a secret kinde of worship, at least too much reuerence & respect, to set them vp, to cloath or co­uer them with precious things, to praise the curious workman­ship of them, and commend them to others so to bee. Se­condly, whatsoeuer a man may doe with the gold in other vses, sure I am, the gold of an image is abominable, euen in priuate vse, when the idoll is countenan­ced and not disfigured. Deut. 27. 15. Cursed is hee that shall [Page 219] make an image, the worke of the hands of the craftsman, and set it in a secret place: and all the peo­ple shall say, Amen. Thirdly, the Iewes might not vse them in priuate vse, but burne them, Deut. 7. 25. But yet we, defacing and dismembring the images, may vse the gold, &c. For as Au­gustine, P. Martyr, and Caluine thinke, that Law is Iudiciall, though the ground of it be mo­rall, and the vse of it to back the morall.

Lastly, looke vpon the exam­ples of holy men, after Gods ex­ample taking away the names of Baalim; Iacobs zeale, not onely burning the bodies of Idols, but abolishing their eare-rings, which were costly; Elias abhor­ring Baals altar as wel as himself; Iehu destroying not onely Baal himselfe, but his Temple also, [Page 220] Vestry, and all his trinkets; Da­niel detesting Bels meate, as well as Bel himselfe; Ioshua razing all the monuments of idolatry of the Canaanites that hee could finde, chap. 23. 7.

If any say (which is the last shift) that those were heathenish idols, and worse than these: I answer, that Popish idolatrie is as base as euer the Heathens was, and as odious to God, more pernicious to vs. For the origi­nall of it, Bucer saith, Insiciari non potest vsum idolorum à gentibus in ecclesiam irrepsisse, It cannot bee denied but that the vse of idols crept into the Church from the Heathens: And that Romish idolatry is as base and foule as theirs, I prooue by these argu­ments:

I. To giue diuine worship to base, dead, and rotten crea­tures, [Page 221] is as base idolatrie as any the Heathens could commit: But the Papists giue diuine wor­ship to such creatures: there­fore, &c. For the assumption, the scope of D. Reynolds his second booke, De idololat. Rom. eccles. is to proue that they giue diuine worship to fiue such things, as 1. Saints, dead men. 2. Relikes, rottē bones. 3. Images, painted blockes. 4. Consecrate things, oyle, salt, spittle, waxe, creame. 5. Breaden hosts. And in the same booke he affirmes, that to worship a woodden crosse and a piece of bread, is as grosse idola­trie as euer was.

Obiect. The Papists doe not thinke their idols to be gods.

Answ. Few or none of the Heathens did so, as it is well proued by Master White in his booke called, The way to the [Page 222] Church, pag. 398.

II. Pezelius, answering the Iesuites Catechisme, in sundrie places, proues at large, that there is no difference between Popish and Heathenish idolatrie, nomi­nibus mutatis, onely the names changed. Pag. 225. Eadem est ra­tio idololatriae apud Papistas, quae olim apud Gentiles fuit, siue ipsa si­mulachra, siue vsum & cultum consideres: and proues it by rea­son, and the testimony of Au­gustine and Athanasius: And af­ter, Prorsus eadem idololatria, and, Imò grauius peccant Papistae quàm Ethnici, pag. 230. pag. 152. 153. &c. Inter idololatriam gentium, & cul­tum sanctorum apud Pontisicios, ni­hil interest: and he concludeth, Nec ouum ouo, neque lac lacti simi­lius, quàm cultus sanctorum apud Pontisicios, & idolorum apud Eth­nicos. And Master White in his [Page 223] booke forenamed, sect. 5. parag. 7. 8. prooueth, that the Papists worship stocks and stones as the Gentiles did.

III. Master Perkins, in a book of his owne setting forth, not in few places, hath the very words, Refor. Cath. 9. point: Papists vn­der new termes maintaine the idolatrie of the Heathen. Po­pish idolatrie is a grosse as e­uer any was among the Hea­then. In the practice of a refor­med Catholike, Popish idola­trie exceeds the idolatrie of the Heathen, In his Aduertisement to Romane Catholikes. And, the Popish Host is as abomi­nable an idoll as euer was. To whom Bucer in Psal. 115. accor­deth, saying thus of the Popish Church in worshipping of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, En omnia facit, quae olim idolis suis in­sana [Page 224] gentilitas.

IV. Adde one thing out of the Scriptures: If Rome be cal­led Egypt, Sodom, and Baby­lon, then the idolatry of all these Heathenish places runs into it: But the first is true, therefore al­so the second. Againe, If it be a cage of vncleane birds, and an habitation of diuels, if any worse can be said of any Heathens, Ro­mish idolatrie shall not be the worst.

3. Note,Obser. 3. that God the Fa­ther, vttering so audible a voyce concerning his Sonne, he will be knowne of vs, not so much in his owne substance, as in his Sonne; nor by curious prying into the excellencie of his Ma­iestie, as by sober attending to his voyce and Word. And the many manners of Gods spea­king vnto men, all confirme the [Page 225] same: sometimes hee is said to speake out of fire that none dare approach; sometimes out of a darke cloud (a cloud, because out of mans reach; and darke, because if it were not so, none might satisfie their curiositie in seeing any thing:) sometimes out of a whirlewinde, a fierce creature which men are afraid of; and sometimes out of the light, but such as is inaccessible. And good reason, that such high and diuine knowledge should bee thus deliuered, be­cause, being matters of faith, they must be insensible, and hee that commeth to God, must be­leeue, not see; neither is the eye of the body of such capacitie and piercing brightnes, as to be­hold things of infinite and in­uisible nature. God, in giuing the Law, made a law against [Page 226] pryers and gazers, and seuerely punished those that pryed into the Arke.

Those that despise the still voyce of God in the ministery,Vse 1. shall neuer see God in Christ; see him and feele him they shall in his power and iustice, neuer in his fauour and loue, who re­fuse the tender of his loue and gracious calling.

Againe,Vse 2. no maruell if igno­rance and Egyptiacall darknesse raigne in Popish countreyes, where the voyce and Word of God must not be heard, read, or knowne: Satan and his lims know where their strength ly­eth, and that the strength of his kingdome of darknesse standeth in ignorance and darknesse.

Sect. 9.

THe first thing in the sub­stance of the Fathers testi­mony,Christ that belo­ued Son. is, that relation which the Father acknowledgeth between himselfe and his Sonne. And first, whereas there seemes to be some difference in the Euange­lists, (for Marke and Luke, chap. 3. 22. reade it in the second per­son, Thou art my Sonne:) to o­mit other answeres, for recon­ciliation it is most probable, that this voice was twice vttered: first, for Christs confirmati­on to his office, in the second person, which Marke and Luke record; and after for the confir­mation of Iohn, and the faith of beleeuers, in the third person, This is he, Take notice of him. [Page 228] And this answere not onely sa­tisfies the Text, but the prophe­sies formerly wherein this voice was foretold, which runne in both persons. Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Sonne: and Isa. 42. 1. Hee is my Elect, in whom my soule de­lighteth. By the Sonne of God is meant, 1. Sonnes by Crea­tion, framed & made after Gods Image, in perfect holinesse and righteousnesse. Thus Adam was the sonne of God, Luk. 3. vlt. and the Angels, Iob 1. and Psal. 89. 6. 2. Sons by Profession only, who outwardly worship y^e true God, but not in truth: as Gen. 6. 1. The sons of God saw the daughters of mē, &c. 3. Sons by Adoptiō, who be­ing the children of wrath by na­ture, are by grace & fauour takē in to be the sons of God: thus e­uery true beleeuer, led by the spi­rit, is the Son of God. Ro. 8. 14. [Page 229] As many as beleeue, to them hee gaue power to be y^e sons of God. Christ is none of these waies the son of God: for although Christ, as the fountaine and head of our adoption, is called the chiefe a­mong many brethren, yet is hee not adopted as we be. But he is the Son of God two wayes:

1. By nature, as God, begotten from all eternity of the substance of God, by an vnspeakable gene­ration, (for who can tel his gene­ration? Isa. 53. 8.) whereby God the Father communicated his whole Essence vnto him: & thus hee alone is the Son of God, the onely begotten Son, Ioh. 1. 14. We may adore this Son-ship, wee cannot search it out.

2. By grace of personall V­nion: and thus the man-hood of Christ, or Christ as man, is after a speciall manner the Sonne of [Page 230] God, because his man-hood was inseparably vnited to the Per­son of the Sonne of God. Luk. 1. 32. That holy thing which is borne of thee, shall bee called the Sonne of God. Neither had Christ (as man) any man to his Father; but the humane nature being framed of the holy Ghost, subsifted in the Deity, and so makes but one Person. And thus Christ both in respect of both his natures, and the Vnion of them, is the Sonne of God.

How is he begotten of the Fa­ther?Quest.

After an vnspeakable manner,Answ. much differing from humane generation, wee may conceiue no humane thing in it: 1. It was without any alteration of the Father, or passion in the Sonne. 2. Without any pro­pagatiō of any part of the God-head, [Page 231] but by communication of the whole God-head of the Fa­ther to the Sonne. No naturall father communicates his whole Essence. 3. The Father begets the Sonne in himselfe, not forth of himselfe, as earthly Parents doe. 4. Naturall fathers are before their children in time; but the Father so begets the Sonne, as hee is not before in time, but in order, both being eternall.

Obiect. Psalm. 2. 7. This day begot I thee; therefore in time.

Answ. In the Sonnes beget­ting are two things to be consi­dered: 1. The generation it selfe, which is eternall. 2. The manifestation of it, and this is in time, at his Incarnation and Re­surrection. Of this the place is to be vnderstood, not of the for­mer.

[Page 232] But Christ is [...],Obiect. God of himselfe, and therefore not by generation.

Consider him in respect of his God-head,Answ. and he is God of himselfe as the Father and holy Ghost: but consider him in his Person, and so hee is the Sonne begotten of the Father, and not of himselfe: for the Father is a beginning to the rest of the Per­sons. And whereas the Athana­sian Creed confesseth him God of very God; and the Nicen, Light of light, and very God of very God: the word (God) in both places must bee taken not essentially, but personally, name­ly, the Sonne of God begotten of the Father.

But the God-head of the Son is from the Father,Obiect. because the Sonne is God?

The God-head of the SonneAnsw. [Page 233] is not begotten of the Father, but the Person of the Sonne is begotten: for the God-head of the Sonne is without beginning as the Father is; but the Person of the Sonne is of the Father.

But the Son hauing the same Essence with the Father,Obiect. then the Father begetting the Sonne, the Sonne begets himselfe also.

Person begets Person,Answ. not di­uine Essence begets diuine Es­sence: the Person of the Father begets the Person of the Sonne, but not the God-head of the Sonne.

If the Father and Sonne be one in Essence,Obiect. then the Sonne being incarnate, so is the Father also.

It is a weake argument,Answ. be­cause Incarnation belongs not properly to the Essence, but to the person; or the diuine Essence [Page 234] of the Person of the Sonne be­came incarnate and tooke flesh, or if to the Essence, yet not abso­lute, but limited.

The whole diuine Essence isObiect. the Father: the Sonne is the whole diuine Essence; therefore the Sonne is the Father, not di­stinct or begotten.

There is an Homonymie inAnsw. the word (whole diuine Essence) which is taken either essentially and absolutely, as in the Propo­sition; or personally, limited to the second Person, as in the as­sumption: and therefore the reason is faulty, because of foure tearmes in it.

But if the Father beget theObiect. Sonne, then hee communicates either a part of his Essence, or the whole: but hee can doe nei­ther; not a part, because it is in­diuisible; not whole, for then he [Page 235] leaues none for himselfe.

The Father begetting,Answ. com­municates his whole Essence, and yet retaines it wholly; as a candle giuing light to another, retaineth it wholly to it selfe.

If the Father begot the Son,Obiect. then either when the Son sub­sisted, or when he did not: if he did subsist, how could hee beget him? if he did not subsist, then he had a beginning.

The Father begot the SonneAnsw. subsisting: for generation and subsisting are in time together, or rather both from eternity; and in the Trinity there is nihil prius, or posterius in time. And thus also that obiection is stopt, that the Father begetting, must be before the Sonne begotten: for the Father is not in time be­fore the Sonne, but in order.

But Christ is the first begot­ten,Obiect. [Page 236] and the first borne of many brethren, Rom. 8. 29. and Col. 1. 15. therefore he is not the onely Sonne of God.

1.Answ. The word (Primogenitura) is sometimes a word of dignity, and not of order.

2. Christ is called▪ The first borne of euery creature, because hee was begotten eternally be­fore any creature.

3. He is called First borne, by a Metaphor and resemblance, being shadowed by the first borne in the old Testament, who were Heires and Priests in the family, and had double por­tions, &c. All which types were verified in Christ, who was first borne not of a few brethren in one family as they, but of many brethren in all Tribes and Fa­milies.

Christ was the Sonne of theObiect. [Page 237] holy Ghost, because he was con­ceiued by him.

No, because he was concei­ued,Answ. not of the substance, but po­wer of the holy Ghost. Againe, consider him either according to the flesh, so he was of the sub­stance of the Virgin Mary, not of the holy Ghost: or according to his Deity, and so hee was of the substance of his Father, not of the holy Ghost. But the Arti­cle (he is that my Sonne) is not to be omitted, namely, that pro­mised seed & Messias, on whom all the fathers eyes haue been fixed, whose day Abraham desi­red to see, on whom all the Pa­triarkes cast their hopes, whom all the Prophets with one mouth haue declared and poyn­ted at, as with one finger: This is that my Son, whom ye haue already seene borne of a Virgin, [Page 238] Isa. 7. 14. Come out of Bethleem. Mic. 5. 2. Called out of Egypt. Hos. 11. 1. Out of Egypt haue I called my Sonne. This is he be­fore whom Eliah hath prepared the way, Mal. 3. 1. that is, Iohn Baptist in the Spirit of Eliah. And as ye haue seen these things already, so expect the accom­plishment of all other predicti­ons concerning him, till he hath finished his course, & the whole worke of mans Redemption.

Is Christ thus peculiarly the Sonne of God?Vse 1. then note the wonderfull loue of God and of Christ: God the Father setting his onely Sonne separated from sinners, and higher then the hea­uens, among sinners, to receiue among them not only the badge of sin, but the curse of sin, where­in hee was cast lower then earth, and hell it selfe; that we might [Page 239] by him become the adopted sons of God: for this was the Fa­thers end, that we might be vni­ted to his naturall Son, and so to himselfe by him, and receiue our title of Son-ship. And what father that loued his son, would so debase him, that hee might take in some strāger, yea an ene­my to be heire with him? And yet the loue of God hath done thus for vs.

Againe, the loue of Christ is surpassing, and appeareth in his voluntary and extreme abase­ment, that he would be pleased from the height of his Glory, being Gods naturall Son, to be­come not onely like, but lower then all other men in his life and death.

No man liuing euer was or can be so abased: for hee that is lowest of all, can fall but from [Page 240] one degree in earth to another: but Christ falls from the highest degree of the glory of heauen, to the very bottome of hell. What doth this infinite loue call for at our hands, but returne of loue for loue? Shall we thinke any of his Commandements grieuous? shall we think much of any con­ditiō which God seeth fit for vs, and Christ hath sanctifyed, be it neuer so base? shall we refuse the lowest abasement for his sake, seeing we cannot bee brought so low for him, as hee for vs? Who art thou that professest loue to Christ, and wilt not en­dure a word, a frowne of a supe­riour, a checke and rebuke for his sake and good conscience? Was Christs loue such to thee? or, if it had, where had thy hopes and saluation been? Had he dis­dayned the frownes of his Fa­ther [Page 241] for thee, the rebukes and shame of the world, the cursed death to which hee voluntarily subiected himselfe, thou hadst bin layd for euer vnder the frownes of God the Father, and the curse of thy sin: and though thou seest that all the good of his abasement came to thee, thou wilt endure nothing for him: Ah, conforme henceforth thy loue to his.

Secondly,Vse 2. heere is an excel­lent ground of comfort, that we haue a most perfect and all-sufficient Sauiour, not onely the son of man, but the Son of God almighty. Ioh. 3. 16. God so lo­ued the world, that he gaue his onely begotten Son, that who­soeuer should beleeue in him, should not perish, but haue e­uerlasting life. All other sauiours were meere sonnes of men, Io­shua, [Page 242] the Iudges, Iephte, Samson, &c. And their deliuerances but temporall from the sonnes of men: but heere is an eternall Sonne of God, an heauenly Sa­uiour, and Saluation from all spirituall enmities, worthy the Sonne of God.

Hereupon, namely, the excel­lency and dignity of his Person, ariseth the excellency, price, and merit of his obedience, both actiue in fulfilling the law, and passiue, in satisfying the breach. For, being the naturall Sonne of God, he cānot but be very God, of the same substance and God­head with the Father; vnto which Diuine nature the hu­mane being vnited, it receiueth an excellency and dignity aboue all created natures of men and Angels: for, to which of the An­gels did he at any time say, Thou [Page 243] art my Sonne, Heb. 1. 5? And hence all his obedience must needs bee of infinite merit, the Person being so infinite: else could he not haue sustained the infinite burden of mans sin, nor appeased the wrath of his Father infinitly offended, nor in so short time haue made so full and per­fect satisfaction, which must be of infinite worth and desert, nor haue vanquished so infinite ene­mies as sin, death, hell, and the deuill, nor haue purchased for vs that infinite and eternall Crowne of righteousnes, vnlesse he had been Immanuel, God with vs, and for vs, blessed for euer.

Thirdly,Vse 3. If Christ be that true Sonne of God so declared by the Prophets, then wee are instructed,

1. To beleeue in him: for [Page 244] this is the Commaundement of GOD,1. Ioh. 3. 13. & Ioh. 14. 1. that we doe beleeue in the Name of his Sonne. Ye beleeue in God, beleeue also in me. And the reason is, because the Father and the Son are one. Besides, no creature can be the obiect of faith, which fixeth it selfe vpon God, as Mar. 11. 22. Haue faith in God: which word (God) in the Creed is but once named, to note the vnity of es­sence, yet in vnderstanding is to be referred to all the three per­sons, in whome we beleeue, and in nothing else. And because we must beleeue in him, wee must pray not onely by him as a Me­diator, but vnto him as God e­qual with the Father, into whose name we are baptized. Thus the Apostles prayed to him, Lord, increase our faith: and a Leper came and worshipped him, say­ing, [Page 245] Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me cleane, Math. 8. 2. And often it is made a marke or note whereby all Christians are de­scribed, that they are such as call vpon the name of the Lord Iesus Christ, Act. 9. 14. 1. Cor. 1. 2. In one word, whatsoeuer diuine worship is due to the Father, is due to this Sonne of God: Rom. 15. 12. In him the Gentiles shall trust, euery knee shall bowe vnto him: and Ioh. 5. 23. That all men might honour the Son, as they honour the Father.

2. We must esteeme and af­fect him as the Sonne of God, accounting him the chiefe of 10000. as the Church doth, to loue and reuerence him aboue all other,Psal. 45. 2. saying, Thou art fayrer then the sonnes of men: If any man loue not the Lord Iesus, let him be accursed, 1. Cor. 16. 22. [Page 246] Yea, account all things as losse and dung in comparison of him, hate father and mother, if need so require, in respect of him, and be so farre from being ashamed of him and his profession, as to acknowledge it the greatest ho­nour to suffer in his cause, 1. Pet. 4. 13.

3. If Christ be the onely na­turall Sonne, then kisse the Son of God, Psal. 2. 12. 1. In token of subiection, as a kisse is if it be of an inferiour to a superiour: so Pharaoh said to Ioseph, All my people shall kisse thee, Gen. 41. namely, in token of subiection: so Idolaters are said to kisse their Idols, that is, to be subiect and deuoted vnto them, 1. King. 19. 18. 2. In token of loue & good will, if from a superiour or equal: thus the Saints must kisse one another with an holy kisse. And [Page 247] thus must euery Christian kisse the Sonne of God, both in token of their homage and subiection, as also as a sure pledge of their loue and faithfull affection to­wards him; especially wee must take his yoke vpon vs, stoope vnder his Scepter, and obserue whatsoeuer hee hath comman­ded vs. Doe as the people pro­mised Ioshua, chap. 1. 16. All that thou commandest vs, wee will doe; whither thou sendest vs, we will goe; whosoeuer rebell and will not obey thy words, let him die the death: and as Mary his mother said to the seruants, Whatsoeuer hee shall bid you doe, that doe.

Beloued Sonne.]

The English is too short for the Greeke, where we finde two articles, and it soundeth thus: This is that my Sonne, that my be­loued, [Page 248] and such a beloued one, as on whom all a mans loue is cast: for the word [...], is common­ly vsed of that which is but one, as of Isaac, Take now thy [...] (not [...]) thy onely Sonne, thy beloued Sonne.

Christ is the proper obiectDoct. of Gods loue, on whom all his loue is cast, figured not onely in Isaac, but in Salomon, 2. Sam. 12. 25. The Lord also loued him, and called his name Iedidiah, that is, the beloued of the Lord: Christ is the true Iedidiah, pro­phecied of Isa. 42. 1. Behold my Elect, in whom my soule deligh­teth. The Apostles expresse this loue in sundry phrases: Ioh. 1. 18. The onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father, hath declared him; that is, who is in­tirely and inwardly loued with such affection, as is due onely to [Page 249] her who is to be layd in the bo­some, who is thy best-beloued, thy heart, thy selfe. And hee is called Gods deare Sonne, Col. 1. 13.

1.Reasons. God loues him as him­self, as being one with him: The 1 Father & I are one, saith Christ; in nature, in essence, in will, in operation: looke with what loue he loues himselfe, with the same he loues his Sonne, the on­ly begotten of the Father, full of grace and trueth.

2 2. Christ is capable of per­fect and infinite loue, as no crea­ture is, and therefore is perfectly and infinitely loued of his Fa­ther: hence is it that the Father giueth him all that euer he hath, Mat. 28. 18. All power in heauen and in earth: hence he reuealeth and declareth his whole counsell to him, who from eternity hath [Page 250] coexisted and layd in the bo­some of his Father, whereas all creatures are not capable of this knowledge.

3 3. Christ as Mediator, is most deare to his Father, and beloued as a sea or fountaine, from whose fulnesse loue must be deriued to all other. Eph. 1. 6. He hath made vs accepted in his Beloued: the head of the body must be filled with sense, and spi­rit, and life, because it must send these into all the members; so the Head of the Church. As the Apostle therefore saith, In him are the treasures of wisedome, so he is Gods store-house of loue, whence all our supplies must be fetched.

Of consolation,Vse 1. 1. In respect of Gods affection. 2. Of Christs intercession. 3. Of our owne acceptation. The first, if God [Page 251] thus dearely loue Christ the Head, he must needes dearely loue the mēbers: whence Christ prayeth thus, Ioh. 17. 23. That the world may know, that thou louest them, as thou hast loued me, namely, with a fatherly and free loue. What then if the child of God be in want, distresse, dan­ger, death it selfe? God looking on him in Christ, cannot but pitty him: the wife and children cannot so pitty and helpe vs, when they can weepe about vs. Psal. 103. 13. Secondly, Christs intercession for vs, must needes be powerfull and preuailing, be­cause he therefore euer liueth to make requests for vs: and being also euer loued, it must needes be fruitfull for vs: he was heard in all things in the dayes of his flesh, and much more now in his glory. We see what great suits [Page 252] a Kings fauorite can carry away, as Ahashuerosh, because Hester found grace in his sight, would not deny her to the halfe of his Kingdome, and shee easily got her suit for her selfe, and all her people: But Christ shall not be denied the whole Kingdome, if he aske it for his Elect. Thirdly, hence comes in our boldnesse to come to God, in the name, and for the sake of Christ, in whom our persons and prayers finde acceptance: we in our selues be­ing enemies to God, strangers from God and his couenant, ha­uing forfaited all, are by his me­diation receiued into such fa­uour, as,Ioh. 16 23, 24, 26. Aske what wee will in his name, in faith and vnder­standing, and wee shall be spee­ders.

Of instruction,Vers. 2. in two things: 1. If God thought not his [Page 253] deare Sonne too deare for vs,We must thinke no­thing too deare for God, who thought not his Sonne too deare for vs. but, although his whole loue was cast on him, would not spare him, shall wee thinke any thing too deare for him? If benefits will binde, search heauen and earth, you shall not finde such a loue, which is left with an admi­ration, Ioh. 3. 16. God so loued the world, &c. And oughtest not thou to giue vp thy soule, body, and life it selfe as a reasonable sacrifice for him? Oh the ingra­titude of men, that are so farre from this, as that they will not part with a grain of their wealth, with a dram of their credit, nor with their base lusts! The proud will not depart from his pride, nor the drunkard with his drun­kennesse, nor the froward with his malice and reuenge, for Christ, and much lesse from li­berty, life, &c. And what is the [Page 254] reason? Men loue their liues, their lusts, &c. and did not God loue his Sonne more than thou canst loue these? he set his whole loue, euen an infinite loue vpon him, and yet hee gaue him to death for thee; and wilt thou doe nothing, suffer nothing for him? Wilt thou loue hatefull things better than God, who lo­ued not his dearest Sonne too well for thee?

2. If God so dearely loued Christ his Sonne,Motiues to stirre vp our loue to Christ. so must we; we want no reasons or motiues thereunto: for first, hee loued vs first not existing, yea resisting. Secondly, he hath declared his loue by innumerable gifts of bo­dy and soule, yea by that inua­luable gift of his owne bodie and soule. Thirdly, hee hath more to declare to vs hereafter in greater things, which eye hath [Page 255] not seene, eare hath not heard: for hee will not be in heauen without vs. Fourthly, God can­not loue vs, if wee loue not his beloued Sonne. Can a father, who hath cast his whole affec­tion on his childe, and worthily, endure that hee should be con­temptuously entreated and de­spised? The sentence is passed, If any loue not the Lord Iesus, let him bee accursed. Fifthly, the greatest reason of all, is the strait vnion and band between Christ and the Christian; he the foun­dation, wee the building cou­pled; he the roote, we the bran­ches ingrafted; he the Head, we the body vnited; he the Hus­band, we the wife married: and hence is the communication betweene vs in natures, goods, estates: he puts on our nature, to cloath vs with his diuine na­ture; [Page 256] he put vs in state of all his goods, wisedome, righteousnes, sanctification, and Redemption, yea giues vs right to heauen, to earth, and the creatures; he takes on him our low estate, to ad­uance vs to his glory; yea our troubles are his; in our wrongs he is wronged, and whatsoeuer is done to vs of well or woe, hee takes it as done to himselfe, ei­ther to recompence or reuenge it. Now what an vnseemly and confused sight were it to behold the building falling off of the foundation, the branches seue­ring from the roote, the mem­bers cutting themselues from the head, and the wife suing for a diuorce, or at daggers with her husband?

Notes of our loue to Christ are these:5. Notes of the loue of Christ.

1. Often to thinke of him, [Page 257] and these thoughts bee deepe, large, frequent, which argues a­bundant affection in the soule: Often out of that abundance to speake of him, and neuer but to his glory: for, where we heartily loue, we can willing­ly praise. Thus the loue of God in Dauids heart filled his mouth and pen with often praises, Psal. 119. 164. Seuen times a day doe I praise thee. Thus the Spouse in the Canticles loued much, and praised much; My beloued is white, and ruddy, the fairest of ten thousand, chap. 5. 10. Yea, by this meanes bring others to be in loue with him, as wee doe with our deare friends. Psal. 31. 23. O loue the Lord; all ye his Saints. Cant. 5. 16. His mouth is as sweet things, he is wholly de­lectable: this is my welbeloued, and this is my louer, O daugh­ters [Page 258] of Ierusalem.

2. To bee carefull to please and content him in all things: the man I loue I will doe any thing wherby I may please him, I will abstain from y^t which will offend and incense him. 2. Cor. 5. 9. We couet both at home and from home to be acceptable vnto him. I will not forget his desire, his word, I will thinke the time short and well spent to do his requests. I will not impri­son his loue in my heart or mouth, but expresse it in my whole course and calling, as Peter was thrice enioyned to ex­presse his loue to Christ in fee­ding his sheepe and lambes, Ioh. 21. 16.

3. Loue is bountifull: I will spare nothing for my friend; all I haue, is his to command and vse, because my selfe am: sincere [Page 259] loue is communicatiue, and will be at cost for Christ: those that loue Christ, first giue themselues to Christ, and then their gifts, their graces, their goods to the vse of Christ and of his mem­bers: sincere loue is diligent, and will refuse no paines to please or pleasure the partie lo­ued: what infinite paines will men (that loue the world) take for an handfull of it? and such as loue Christ, will refuse no paines to enioy, to glorifie him, as the Apostles and Martyrs, in whom we see how loue ouercommeth all things, and the hardest paines is pleasure to it.

4. This Christian and holie loue is ready to defend Christ: no man can endure to heare or see his friend abused; loue car­ries a sympathy with it, that is, a fellow-feeling, causing ioy or [Page 260] griefe, to see his glory, Word, or Kingdom aduanced or hindred: it carries a godly zeale to Gods house, which consumed Dauid, Psalm. 69. 9. Paul and Barnabas, when GOD was dishonoured, were mooued, and rent their cloathes; and loue to Christ makes a mā take to heart things against his name and honour: nay, it makes the Christian rea­dy to suffer with Christ and for Christ, and accept of neuer so hard a conditiō with him. Much water cannot quench loue, nor the flouds drowne it, Cant. 8. 6. Yea if all the world should for­sake Christ, and sincere profes­sion of him, sincere loue would loue the more, and die with him rather than deny him.

5. Now in his absence to loue him in his image, in his ser­uants, because they loue him; in [Page 261] his Word & Sacraments, which are his letters and pledges; in his gifts and graces, which are his loue-tokens, and long to ob­taine his presence: for the Spi­rit saith, Come: and the Bride saith, Come, yea euen to be sick of loue after him, Cantic. 5. 8. Thus may wee trie our loue of Christ, and shame our selues for want of it, and stirre vp our selues to grow vp in the image of God, who hath set his whole loue vpon him, and long after the day when wee also shall set our whole loue vpon him as he vpon. vs.

Sect. 10.

HEre is the fruit of this neere relation,The Fa­thers de­light in that his Sonne. declaring to vs, that God is not onely pleased [Page 262] with Christ, his person, his ac­tions and perfections: (for hee saith not, with whom:) but that in him whatsoeuer is presented is accepted, and hee is pleased with that also.

Neuer is God appeased with any man,Doct. but in and through his Christ, whom hee so loueth, as that all his wrath is appeased with all that are in him. Eph. 1. 6. We are accepted in his Welbe­loued. Col. 1. 20. In him are all things reconciled, and set at peace through the bloud of his crosse, both in earth and in hea­uen; that is, the whole bodie of the Church, which is partly in earth, and partly in heauen, by Christ vnited to God. Luk. 2. At his birth the Angels sang, Glory to God, peace on earth, & good wil to mē; teaching vs, that now by Christ, Gods good will was [Page 263] turned towards men. Add here­to, that all the fauors we receiue from God, are ascribed vnto him. Ephes. 1. We are elected in him, adopted in him, called with an holy calling, iustified, but all in him: and vers. 3. He hath bles­sed vs with all spirituall and hea­uenly blessings in Christ.

For 1. If God look on vs in our selues,Reasons. & in the common masse,1 wee are so couered ouer with sin, as he must needs pronounce of vs, as once hee did of man­kinde, It repenteth me that I haue made man: he must needes bring the curse of the Law vpon our neckes: But looking on vs through Christ, he changeth his voyce, that as when wee behold a thing through a red or greene or coloured glasse, euery thing looks as the colour of the glasse; so God beholding vs through [Page 264] Christ, we receiue the dye and tincture of his bloud and obe­dience, and so are iustified and accounted innocent and pure. And thus, as it is said of the Church, Ezek. 16. 14. we recouer our former beautie, which is made perfect through his beau­tie.

2 2. This was shadowed in the old Testament, Ge. 8. 21. When the earth was destroyed, and Noah came out of the Arke, hee offered burnt-offerings to the Lord, and the Lord smelled a sauour of rest, and said, I will no more curse the earth, &c. A no­table type of Christ, the Media­tour and maker of atonement betweene God and man, from whose meritorious sacrifice God only smelleth a sauour of rest. So likewise in Aaron the high Priest, Exod. 28. 38. Aaron must [Page 265] beare the iniquitie of the offe­rings of the children of Israel, and [Holinesse to the Lord] shall be alwaies vpon his forehead, to make them acceptable to the Lord: here (saith Caluine) must all our senses bee fixed vpon the forehead of the only high Priest, from whom all holinesse floweth foorth to his Church: neither could the Priest make the peo­ple acceptable in his owne per­son, but as hee stood a type of Christ.

3 3. Consider Christ 1. in him­selfe: God was so pleased in him, as hee was neuer displeased, no­thing was euer found in him displeasing, no guile in his lips, no spot in his person, but was e­uer a beloued Sonne: it is not so with vs, who were before, the sonnes of wrath, and Lo-ammi, Lo-ruhamah. 2. Consider him [Page 266] as Head of the Church and Me­diatour, his obedience was so voluntary, and satisfactory, so full and meritorious, as must needs appease his fathers wrath; in him the Father hath his Law wholly fulfilled, euen all righte­ousnes; in him he hath the curse borne & carried away; in him he hath a new righteousnes of faith restored to beleeuers, and a new image repaired vpon them: so as now beholding them, not in the first Adam, but in the second; not in the old roote, but in the new plantation; he loueth the members, because he loueth the Head, & accepteth them as sons through his beloued Sonne.

To note the miserable condi­tionVse 1. of all them that are without Christ, because they are as the Gentiles, without God in the world, without hope: for no­thing [Page 267] else in the world can put backe the wrath of God, there is no name else vnder heauen in which a man can be saued. How fearefully is the wrath of God come vpon the Iewes to the vt­termost, who reiect this Corner stone, and yet expect a Messiah of their owne making? Neither the cleere testimonies of the Prophets, nor of Iohn, nor Heare this voyce of the Father, nor his own mighty works, haue moued them, because hardnesse is come vpon them till this day, and the vaile is vpon their hearts, which wee must pray that God would in his time remooue. Those mightie kingdomes of Turkes and Heathens, who refuse the Sonne of God, and will not ac­knowledge him more than a man, lye vnder Gods wrath, and in the power of the diuell, and [Page 268] reiect the onely meanes where­by they should come into fauor with God: which when we con­sider, as we are to pitie and pray for them, so with praise and gladnesse wee are to acknow­ledge Gods goodnesse, whose prouidence watched ouer vs to be borne in the places and times wherein Christ rideth most glo­riously in the chariot of his Gos­pell, that vnlesse we will wilfully shut our eyes, and make our condemnation heauyer than theirs that neuer heard of him, we must needs see the light shi­ning so brightly.

The like may bee said of all those damnable heretikes, who haue denied Christ either in his natures or offices: and here wee must for euer renounce the dam­nable heresie of the Church of Rome, who, though in word [Page 269] they hold the doctrine of faith, yet in deed and by expresse con­sequent deny both the natures and all the offices of Christ, and so professe a false christ, in whom they cannot meete with saluation. The case of worldly and carnall gospellers is no bet­ter, who professe Christ their Ie­sus, not their Lord, denying him their hearts and liues, and yet with their mouthes say, Lord, Lord.

Againe,Vse 2. seeing God hath pro­fessed, that Christ is that his Be­loued in whom he is onely well pleased, away with other medi­atours, other intercessors, none can be [...] but he, He onely was found worthy to open the booke, Reuel. 5. 5. God neuer professed himselfe well pleased in any but he, though with ma­ny hee hath been. Away with [Page 270] those fond deuices of merits, and workes of supererogation; away with Popes pardons, vn­lesse wee can bring such a voyce from heauen for any other man: away with foreseene faith and foreseene workes, with which some men say God was plea­sed, and so moued to elect his people. No, no, onely Christ is the delight of God, hee is de­lighted in nothing but him, and that which he sees through him: giue him the honour of a suffi­cient Sauiour, able to appease and please his Father, able to tread the Wine-presse alone; or else giue Gods testimonie the lye, as all they doe, that dote vpon any other meanes of plea­sing and appeasing God than Christ alone.

Lastly,Vers. 3. seeing our selues out of him can finde no acceptance, [Page 271] let vs labour to be found in him, and to know that we are in him, which must be our onely com­fort both in life and death; then let the law curse, the deuill ac­cuse, sin stand vp against vs, hell­gates set themselues wide open for vs; if wee can say Christ is ours, wee shall be vpheld, while other Iusticiaries fall.

But how shall wee know that we are in Christ?Quest.

By these rules: 1.Answ. If wee be led by his Spirit, Rom. 8. 9. 2. If wee crucifie the affections and lusts, Gal. 5. 24. 3. If we be new creatures, 2. Cor. 5. 17. 4. If we perseuere in the obedience of faith, Heb. 3. 14.Obser. 1. Filius pro­nūciat quae Deus pater dictat, Iob. 8. 26. et spi­ritus san­ctus obsig­nat, Ioh. 16. 26.

The generall vse of this whole testimony, is set downe, Math. 17. 5. Heare him: for by this voice Christ is now appointed both, 1. The Doctor and chiefe Pro­phet [Page 272] of the Church, more excel­lent then Moses; for He is faith­full as the Sonne in all the house of God. 2. The high Priest of our profession, whose lips must preserue knowledge, infinitely aboue Aaron, a most mercifull high Priest, able to saue them that come vnto God by him, see­ing he liueth for euer to make intercession for vs. 3. The only King of his Church, a greater than Salomon, of whom all the Kings of Israel were but sha­dowes; who only maketh Lawes for his Church, and of such po­wer as they binde conscience, which no King nor Lawes can doe.

1.Reasons. Hee is the Angell of the 1 great counsell, the chiefe Doctor and Interpreter of holy Scrip­ture, the Iudge of all controuer­sies and interpretations, and [Page 273] therefore onely to be heard. What? is not the Church to be heard? the Preachers of the Word to be heard? yea, the one as the Spouse of Christ, the o­ther as Ministers of Christ: only Christ himselfe as receiuing this dignity,Mat. 23. 8. to be the onely Master of his Church; they had streams, but hee the fountaine of wise­dome, hee had treasures of wise­dome hid in him.

2 2. This is a note of the true Church, both of Iewes and Gen­tiles. Ioh. 8. 47. He that is of God, heareth the words of God: my sheepe heare my voyce: and Ioh. 10. 16. Other sheepe I haue, which are not of this fold, that is, the Gentiles not yet called; these must be brought vnto me, for they shall heare my voyce.

3 3. Christ the Lord of the ho­ly Prophets, hath put an end to [Page 274] all prophecies, ceremonies, re­uelations, and dreames, & these many, extraordinary meanes whereby he taught his Church of olde: and now God hath spo­ken vnto vs by his Son, to whom all they made way, Heb. 1. 1. He is that Messiah of whom the Sa­maritan woman said, Ioh. 4. 25. I know that the Messiah will come, and when he shall come, he will declare all things. They that liued before him, made ac­count to heare him, because hee was expected from the bosome of the Father, to reueale all the will of God, and all necessary trueth concerning saluation; how much more should we, who haue heard all things, all his do­ctrine, and seene his miracles, as the Samaritans did, Ioh. 4. 42. We haue heard him speake our selues?

[Page 275] 4. If wee consider our owne 4 naturall blindnesse, and grosse ignorance in the things of God, how apt wee be to seduction, schisme, heresie, delusion, wee shall see how necessary it is to heare him: nay, seeing God hath of mercy set him out to preserue vs from these euils, great and de­testable shall our vnthankful­nesse be, to turne away from him.

Now if it be asked how wee must heare Christ, the answere is this:

1. Hee must now be heard in the voyce of his Ministers, to whom he gaue gifts at his ascen­sion, and of whom he said, Hee that heareth you, heareth mee: so farre as they can prooue that which they teach, to be his voice, they must be heard, and further we must not heare Fathers, Do­ctors, [Page 276] Councels, nor the Pope of Rome: for himselfe is still the chiefe Doctor, and chiefe Inter­preter of the Scriptures, and Iudge of all controuersies in Re­ligion.

2. To heare him, is not one­ly to lend him our eares in the ministry, (for many Iewes, Pha­rises, wicked Romans, &c. heard his owne gracious words, and yet heard him not:) but, to heare him, is, 1. to repent and beleeue the Gospell: for this was the be­ginning and summe of Christs preaching, Math. 4. 17. and Ioh. 12. 36. Beleeue in the Light, that yee may be the sonnes of the Light. 2. To loue one another. This is the new Commaunde­ment, That we loue one another, Ioh. 15. 12. and is most expresse, 1. Ioh. 3. 23. This is the comman­ment, That wee beleeue in the [Page 277] name of his Sonne Iesus Christ, and loue one another. 3. To obey him in whatsoeuer he com­mandeth:Ioh. 10. 27. His sheepe heare his voyce, and follow him: and, Math. 28. 20. Teach them to obserue, and to doe all things that I haue commanded you.

Heereby many sorts of menVse are reproued, that heare not the voyce of Christ: Papists heare the voyce of the Church, and of traditions, reuelations, false mi­racles, yea the voyce of Anti­christ: the Atheist heares the voyce of reason, Lawes of men, and perswasions of fleshly wise­dome; but the Apostles thought it fitter to obey God then man, Act. 5. 29. The naturall man heares the voyce of the serpent, as Adam did, though Christs voyce be neuer so loud against the touch­ing of the forbidden fruit: Yea, [Page 278] men that professe better things, may heare the voyce of wiues, children, parents, yea, the voyce of profit and vnlawful pleasure, before and aboue Christs voice; Salomon himselfe heard the voyce of his idolatrous wiues, till GOD rent the Kingdome from him: so as the best of vs had neede be stirred vp by this voyce from heauen, Heare him.