Commentary on the Minor Prophets

SECT. I. Reason 1.

[Reas. 1] ANd that's indeed (since we are here fallen upon it) the first and chief ground of the point. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people (or, a Jewell) to himself above all people, his mere mercy making the difference. Thou canst not say as that proud heretic did in answer to the Apostles query, who made thee to differ? Ego meipsum discerno. For lest any should dream of foreseen faith, or previous merits, the Lord, saith Moses, did not love or choose you because ye were more or better then others, but he loved you because he loved you: And out of this preventing love, he chose you for a peculiar treasure to himself above all people Exod. 19.5. The Original word there used is the same with that in our text, and the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds it by another word, that signifies beloved ones. For as his love first moved him to make us his own, so being now his own, he cannot but love us. He chose whom he would love, and now loves for his choice. For ownenesse makes love. Having loved his own, to the end he loved them, John. 13.1. and therefore loved them because his own, because the people of his good pleasure, as the Angels call them Luc. 2.14. and as Gabriel had before called Daniel a man of desires, or greatly beloved of God. Dan. 9.23.

SECT. II. Reason 2.

[Reas 2] 2. A She hath elected us to this high honor of old, so he created us to it in his own due time by a new and wonderful creation. For we are his workmanship, his artificial curious exquisite workmanship, whereon he bestowed like skill and industry as he did in making man's body Psal. 139.15. or the third heaven, whereof he is called the Artificer, Heb. 11.10. and it is called not the work of his hands, but of his fingers, Psal. 8.4. Lo thus are we his facture or workmanship, created unto good works in Christ Jesus, who is not ashamed to style himself the beginning of this creation, and to say that he planted the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth that he might say to Zion, Thou art my people. St. Paul also testifieth that God putteth forth the same almighty power in the working of saith in us, as he did in making the world for us: that being as great a wonder as this, and the analogy is very excellent. The first God creates here also is light of knowledge: next (as on the second day) the firmament of faith. 3. seas and trees, repentant tears, and worthy fruits. 4. the sun, heat of zeal with light of knowledge. 5. fishes to play, and fouls to fly: so to live and rejoice in a sea of troubles, and to fly heavenward by prayer and contemplation. 6. And, these things performed, man is made a new creature, advanced to a dominion over all the works of God's hands, yea to a blessed fellowship with God's only son, who rejoiceth in this habitable part of God's earth, and his delights are with the sons of men.

SECT. III. Reason 3.

3. HE hath bought us with a price: the church is an Acheldama a field of blood, a field purchased with blood, [Reas 3] not with that goodly price the Jews valued our Savior at, the price of a slave; but with the blood of God, Act. 20.28. For we are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold (poor things to purchase a soul with, more likely a fair deal to drown it desperately in perdition and destruction) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb undefiled, and without spot: who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us to himself (by that blood of sprinkling, that saved us from the Destroyer) a peculiar people, and present us to himself a glorious church not having spot, wrinkle, or any such thing Eph. 5.27.

SECT. IIII. Reason 4.

4. HE hath effectually called us with an high and heavenly calling. Heb. 3.1. [Reas. 4] Whereby we that in times past were not a people (as St. Peter, after the Prophet, hath it) or if any, a disobedient and gainsaying people Rom. 10.21 a people laden with iniquity Isaiah 1.4. a people of Gomorrah, ver. 10. a naughty people, Ier. 13.10. good for nothing, but to be cast off as a rotten girdle (ibidem) and therefore the people of God's wrath, Isa. 10.6. and of his curse Isaiah 34.5. are now by a gracious calling, and special privilege become the people of God, a righteous people Isaiah 60.21. a holy people Isaiah 62.12. wise and understanding above all people Deut. 4.6. a people in whose heart is God's law Isa. 51.7. the epistle of Christ written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, known and read of all men 2 Cor. 3.2. whiles we walk, as examples of the Rule, harmless and blameless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and corrupt nation, amongst whom we shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life (as an ensign or badge of our high and honorable vocation) and as an holy nation, a peculiar people, showing (or preaching) forth the virtues of Christ that hath called us out of Egypt into Goshen, out of palpable darkness into his marvelous light. And this the rather, because not many wise, mighty, or noble are called: 'tis a wonder that any. But God hath made known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called according to purpose, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people which were not my people, and clepe her beloved which was not beloved Rom. 9.23, 24. yea, I will betroth her unto me in faithfulness, and marry her in mercy forever. Now marriage in itself is honorable among all men: How much more when to such and such an honorable personage as the Heir of all things? Especially since to make her a fit spouse, he purifies her, as they did Esther, and beautifies her as Abraham's servant did Rebekah: for he puts a Jewel upon her fore-head, earerings in her ears, and a crown royal upon her head, Ezek. 16.12. he decks her as a bride-groom, and as a bride adorns herself with Jewels Isa. 61.10. thus is her beauty perfect through his comeliness put upon her. And herein the Lord Christ goes beyond all earthly bride-grooms whatsoever. Moses married a blackmore, and could not change her hue, Solomon an Egyptian, and could not convert her to the truth. But Christ's conveys and communicates his beauty to his bride (every grace in that chain about her neck wherewith Christ is ravished Caent. 4.9. being as a costly Jewel set in fine gold) and whensoever he calls a man to an heavenly kingdom (as once Saul to an earthly) he makes him to be of another spirit then before, and to walk worthy of God, and worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called. Eph. 4.1.

SECT. V. Reason 5.

LAstly, God hath already glorified his people (so the Apostle doubts not to deliver himself of sanctification begun here, [Reas. 5] and to be perfected hereafter) set them together with Christ in heavenly places, given them the earnest of their inheritance for a pawn of the whole bargain, the first-fruits of the spirit as a foretaste, a pledge of the whole harvest, garnished them with that grace that will one day be glory, nay is so already: for what is grace but glory begun? and what is glory, but grace perfected; They differ not in kind: but degree only: whence it is that grace is in scripture put for glory; and glory again, is used for grace: yea that God's people, for their graces, are called, the Glory, Isaiah 4.5. & 46.13. as having the spirit of glory and of God resting upon them. Indeed there is a natural glory stamped upon the very persons of true Christians ( Colos. 2. ult. ) such as those that are but mere civil men cannot choose but honor, as the Hittites did Abraham; Thou art a Prince of God among us: nay the wicked and worst of men, as Jehoram did the Prophet Elisha, over whom, when sick, he wept out, O my father, my father, the horsemen of Israel, and chariots thereof: And Master Bradfords death is said to have been bewailed of many Papists also that knew his piety in his life, and patience in his death: so much honor God did him, in the consciences of his very enemies. Wisdom maketh the face to shine, as it did St. Servens. They saw his face as the face of an Angel: such was the goodness of his conscience, his cause, and his courage. And could they have seen his inside, they should have discerned and admired a far greater glory; that new man, I mean, that new world above-mentioned, that after God (or according to the likeness of the heavenly pattern) is created in righteousness and true holiness. The transcendent beauty and bravery whereof is such, that the Lord Christ himself, who was nothing moved with an offer of the glory of the whole world, professeth himself ravished, and lost, in love toward a sanctified soul. For albeit we are sanctified but in part, and there be yet many flaws, and blemishes in the best, whiles here, yet he considers us as we are in himself, and as we shall be in the state of perfection, (like as we do kings children, whiles yet in their nonage.) For when Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. Israel, in the mean-while, is his glory, Isaiah 46.13. a crown and a diadem in the hand of Jehovah, actually possessed of heaven aforehand, as it were by turf and twig, Joh. 5.24. 1 Joh. 3.14. And albeit the Saints have not yet attained to the full degree of the shining brightness of their immortal happiness, yet from glory to glory they shall be transformed and translated, till at length they become like the Ancient of days. It doth no • yet appear, saith Saint John, what we shall be, (hence the world so much mistaketh, and misuseth us) but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, in the quality of our glory, though not in an equality, 1 Joh. 3.2. For we shall shine as the most radiant Jewels and Jaspers Rev. 21.11. Nay that's not all: we shall shine as the firmament, with its glittering furniture, Dan. 12.3. nay as the Sun in his strength, Mat. 13.43. nay like Christ the Sun of righteousness, Col. 3.4.

And this 1. In regard of our souls, which shall be filled with knowledge, wisdom, purity, as the air is with light, 1 Cor. 13.11. Moses and Elias appeared in the transsiguration, and conferred with Christ, concerning his death: the mystery whereof they understood far better now, then when they were in the flesh. 2. In regard of our bodies, which though now muddy and massy, shall then shine as transparent-glass, or clearest crystal: partly from the glory about them, and partly from the spirit within them, (as a lantern shines from the candle put into it) being clarified from all dregs, fashioned like Christ's most glorious body the standard) in respect of incorruption and immortality, beauty and brightness, grace and favor, strength, and nimbleness, majesty, and such Angelical excellency, as shall render them rather like heavenly spirits then earthly bodies, for the surpassing glory that shall be put upon them. Lastly, for our totum compositum, the whole person together considered; Every true Christian is the spouse of the Lamb, and so actually invested into his dignity, and made partaker of his glory. For Uxor fulget radiis mariti (it's a Maxim in the civil law) the wife shines with the beams of her husband; and whatever he hath, she hath; all is in common between them: so that as Luther saith, there is nothing differenceth man and wife but sex only. Think the same to be true in the mystical marriage betwixt Christ and his people. All is yours, because you are Christ's: His treasures, riches, beauty, glory, power, kingdom, all is yours, so far as you are capable. For you shall be next unto Christ, Luk. 22.30. yea one with Christ, Joh. 17.21. even as He and the Father are one: and so above the most glorious Angels: for are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation, Heb. 1.14? This (according to some) the devil and his black guard (once bright Angels) could not brook, or bring their hearts to, and therefore fell (through envy and malice to the known truth, Joh. 8.48.) from their first estate, and left their own habitation to dwell in darkness, rather then they would endure to honor such a Mordecai as man, a clod of clay: a bag of wind, so poor a thing, merely made up of soul and soil, of breath and body (a puff of wind the one, a pile of dust the other) nay now since the fall, a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin. But whether the devil will or no, the Church shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions also shall be brought, unto him. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the kings palace, and be set on his right hand (a place of dignity and safety) in whose presence is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. For quality, there's joy and gladness: for quantity, a fullness of both: for certainty at God's right hand, and for perpetuity, for evermore.

SECT. VI. It shall be far otherwise with the wicked.

NOw for Application: this in the first place, [Use. 1] is no good news to the wicked that persecute God's people, and cast dirt on his Jewels, to hear that they shall one day be so dearly acknowledged, and highly honored by the God of heaven. For as in a pair of buckets, when the one is at well top, the other is down at bottom, as when David grew stronger and stronger, the house of Saul waked weaker and weaker: and as Mordecai's rise was Haman's downfall: so when God shall make up his Jewels, he shall put away the wicked of the earth as dross and ofscouring, and whensoever he doth best to his chosen, then doth he worst of all to reprobates. This is so constant a thing with God, that could we but go as far back with the feet of our minds as God's decrees, and then come hand in hand with him again, and view all his particular acts of Execution, we should soon see, that when he is choosing the one, he is refusing the other, when he is redeeming one, he is renouncing another, when he is comforting one, he is terrifying another, when he is converting the one, he is hardening the other, when he is rewarding one, he is revenging another, when he is quickening one, he is killing another, when saving one, he is damning another. And yet all his works are holy, and just and good, though he do not always (as often he doth) give a reason of his proceedings. Job. 33.13. This day of the Lord, here mentioned in the text, wherein (God shall mercifully make up his Jewels) as it shall be to them a day of light, life, liberty, prosperity, and victory Chap. 4.1, 2, 3. so shall it be to the wicked, a day of blackness and darkness, for it shall burn them as an oven, and themselves shall be as stubble, whereof neither root nor stalk shall be left untou ht, but all turned to ashes, (in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord) under the feet of those that fear my name. Then shall the sinners in Zion be afraid, horror shall surprise the hypocrites, who shall run away with those sad words in their mouths. Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? But whither alas will they run from him that is everywhere? If to the creature, a horse is a vain thing for help, the Egyptians are men and not God, their horses flesh and not spirit &c. If to the creator, he doth utterly disclaim and disown them: for if any have not the spirit of Christ, the same is none of his, be he whose he will be. These indeed, shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts &c. such a good man I know, and such a godly woman I know, but who are ye? Then shall they say unto him, Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and eat and drunk in thy presence, that is communicated at thy table, and heard thee teaching in our streets. But he o' to'there side will as deeply disavow them, as they do boldly lay claim to him: for then will I profess to them I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. And if they shall offer yet to make request for their lives with Ham •• , and to speak for themselves, as once those Israelites, we have sinned, do thou unto us, whatsoever seemeth good unto thee, deliver us only, we pray thee, this day; he will answer them according to the idols of their hearts, as he did those of old, and say, Ye have forsaken me, and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no more, go and cry to the gods that yourselves have chosen, let them deliver you in the day of your tribulation: than the which I know not what more dreadful or direful sentence can possibly fall from God's holy mouth, unless it be that last irrevocable doom of damnation, go ye cursed &c. At the first hearing whereof, their very heart strings shall crack, and their hearts fall asunder in their bosoms, like drops of water. Well were it with the wicked in that day, if they might trudge directly on to damnation, and not be forced to see the face of the Judge, that they have buffeted, and to hear his voice that they have despised. But (alas for their misery!) it may not be. For after that all in vain, they have tired out the deaf rocks and mountains, with their continuate cryings, Fall upon us, cover us, hide us, dash us, and quash us to pieces, grind us to powder, do anything to dispatch us, they must perforce, in person, measure the place and race of judgment. It is appointed for all men once to die and after death judgment. Not a man that sleeps in the dust of death, but must needs awake, some to everlasting life, and preferment, and some to shame and everlasting contempt; as those that have all their evil deeds, as it were written in their fore-heads, so that all shall see and say, Behold the man, and behold his works. These and these things hast thou done, will the Judge then say, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as thyself, but I will set thee down, and set them down in an order before thee to thy perpetual confusion. As the word goeth forth of the kings mouth their faces shall gather blackness, and be covered as Haman's, and themselves shall be speechless. They shall be confounded, and troubled forever, they shall be put to shame and perish. That men may know that he, whose name is Jehovah, is the most high over all the earth. Psal. 83.17, 18. Enoch foretold this day of judgment before Noah foretold the flood. That day is longer ere it comes, but shall be more terrible when it is come.

SECT. VII. Terror to those that set themselves against the Saints.

Secondly, [Use. 2] Doth the Lord graciously own and honor all that fear his name? how should this terrify and take off all those dogged dogs, and bedlam Belialists, that offer any manner affront or offense to such? since how mean soever and miserable in the worlds eye, they are dearly beloved of God as Daniel, highly favored inheaven, as Mary, dearlings to the Almighty, as David, fair to God as Moses, and not only faithful as he in all God's house as servants, but such as have a nail & a name there, better then of sons and of daughters Isaiah 58.5. For they are the first-born whose names are written in heaven, as free denisons: yea, they are heirs of God, and coheirs with Christ, who is not ashamed to call them brethren, fellows, friends, favorites, anything, everything that may evidence the dear respects he bears unto them. Now were it a wise-man's part to fall out with the Kings favourite? to lowre upon his son and heir? to deface his picture, to tread underfoot his Jewels, to spit upon his royal robe, or imperial diadem? How as Balaam slain by the Lord, for but wishing evil to his Israel? Goliath for but defying his host? Nabal for reviling his David, which was scandalum Magnatum, and in the New Testament termed blasphemy? How was Cain schooled for but scowling upon Abel? and Laban threatened for but following after Jacob? and Abimelech plagued for but an unwittingabuse to Abraham? Thus he suffered none to do them wrong, yea, he reproved even kings for their sakes Psal. 105.14. will ye know the reason? he remembered his covenant to Abraham, and his oath to Israel, ver. 8.9. There is a straight league betwixt God and his people, such as was that betwixt Jehoshaphat and Ahab, nay such as passed betwixt David and Abiatbar. Look what David said once to him, the same saith god to his. Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life, but with me shalt thou be in safeguard. He is a Sun, saith the Psalmist, to refresh his people, and a shield to shelter them. As the shield is betwixt the body and the dart, so is God betwixt his people and their hurt. He carrieth them on his wings, as the Eagle doth her young; so that there is no wounding of them but through his sides, nay no touching of them, but ye touch the apple of his Eye.

As the eye is vexed with the least mote that gets into it, so is he with the least indignity done to his people. If Saul tread upon the least toe in Christ's my sticall body, the head will try out from heaven, why hurtest thou me? If Rabshakeh rail upon Hezekiah, Against whom hast thou railed, saith God, and whom hast thou provoked to wrath? even the Holy one of Israel. In pushing at any of these lively stones in God's temple, men spurn at the corner-stone itself, and so kick against the pricks. In offending the least of Christ's little ones, they presently proclaim open war against Him; who keepeth all their bones, bottles up all their tears, yea numbereth all their hairs, not one of them is diminished, but he accounts himself damnified. You know how dearly the proud Ammonites paid for the hair they shaved off from David's servants. And shall not the son of David avenge his own elect, though he bear long with them? He keepeth the very feet of his Saints, saith holy Hannah, and chargeth his angels with them, to bear them in their hands, lest at any time they dash their feet against a stone. If they stumble and fall, yet they shall get up again: for the Lord puts under his hand Psal. 37.24. Yea the everlasting arms are underneath Deut. 33.27. They that swear by God and Malchom shall fall (as old Eli did) and never rise again: but the Saints of God, though Joseph -like, they fall into a pit, yet, as prisoners of hope, they shall come forth, by the blood of the covenant. Zach. 9.10. Good Mordecai, a Jew, may fall before a Persian and get up again; yea prevail and prosper. But if wicked Haman begin to fall before a Jew, (that is in covenant with God) he can neither stay when he stumbles, nor rise when he is down. God himself is so far interested and engaged in the quarrels of such (as I was saying erewhile) that who so toucheth them, toucheth the ball of his Eye. The eye is a tender part we know, and a small matter offends it. God is every whit as choice and as chary of his people, as a man is of his eyes. Now a good thump on the back is better borne then a light touch on the eye. Take heed, I advise you, how you meddle with God's Eye, lest you hear of him to your cost. For although we must turn toother cheek also, yet he will not take a blow on the eye for the proudest of them all. No man will stand still while his eyes are pecked out, much less will God. Thou knowest, saith dying David to his son Solomon, what Joab did to me. He meaneth it of the slaugher of Abner and Amasa, which David appropriats, and makes it his own case. The sovereign is smitten in the subject, neither is it other then just, that the arraignment of mean Malefactours runs, in the style of wrong to to the Kings Crown and dignity. God's people are his crown, let none presume to attempt against it: his dignity, his glory, let none turn it into shame Psal. 4.3. His pearls, let no swine trample them, his holy things, let no dogs profane them, by holding their lives madness, and their ends without honor, by speaking basely of their persons, actions, sufferings, as if they were vile and inglorious. It was an heavy indictment doubtless Psal. 14.6. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. Thus those miscreants, that mocked and railed at Christ upon the cross, upbraided him not with any evil, but only for the good he had done in saving others, for his trust in God, and prayers to God. Thus also they deal with David, they that render evil for good, are mine adversaries (or hate me like devils) and why? Because I do the thing that good is. And the very truth is, that were wicked men's insides turned outward, it would well appear, that when they disgrace those that make conscience of their ways under the infamous names of puritans, singularitans, zealots, and the like terms of reproach, it is for the good that is in them, and for the true glory that God hath stamped upon their persons and performances. This savors strongly of the Devil of hell, whose property it is to hate and persecute any footstep of God's holy image, where-ever he finds it (as the Tigre if he see but the picture of a man, he flies upon it and tears it to pieces) And it proves men to be the posterity of Cain, the devils Patriarch, as one calls him, who was of that wicked one (of the serpents seed) and slew his brother, And wherefore slew he him, but because his own works were evil, and his brothers good? That was all the quarrel then, and is still. All that viperous brood bear an aking tooth to the better sort, they do maliciously and mortally hate all holy impressions of grace wrought upon any by the sanctifying spirit, though they restrain sometimes the expression and exercise of this hatred for advantage and in policy, by accident, and for by-respects, it may be.

SECT. 8. 9. 10. Exhortation to honor them that fear the Lord: and what great cause men have and shall have so to do.

LEt us that know and profess better things approve ourselves to be of the family of heaven, [Use. 3] , and followers of God, as dear children by contemning a vile person, though never so glorious a magnifico in the worlds eye and esteem, but honoring them that fear the Lord, though never so much under-prized and vilipended by the wicked of the earth. This is a note of God's household-servant Psal. 15.4. and of one that hath share in Christ's kingdom, wherein the vile person shall no more be called liberal, nor the churl bountiful. Isaiah 32.5. Further, would we have boldness in that last and great day, and be able to lift up our faces before the son of man, let love be perfect in us toward the brotherhood, loving them in truth, and for the truths sake, and being ready to serve the saints in love, to wash, yea to kiss their very feet, and to lay down our lives for the brethren if called thereunto. And because this can never be done, except men see more in them then ordinary to move them; labor and learn to know the price of a saint, and to esteem them very highly in love, for their worths sake. The Jews tell us, and truly, that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy Nations of the world besides. It is not for nothing (sure) that the saints are called All things Coloss. 1.20. and Every creature Mar. 16.15. and the salt of the earth, that keep the rest from putre fying the substance and support of the earth, that keep the rest from shattering, I bear up the pillars of it, saith David, and the Innocent delivereth the Island, saith Eliphaz. Job. 22.30.

For their sakes it is that God spares and prospers the wicked as he did Laban for Jacob's sake, Potiphar for Joseph's, Sodom for Lots, when they were carried captive by Kederlaomer. Whereas else he would make a short work upon the earth, Rom. 9.28. If the mourners were once marked, and set safe out of harms way, he would soon say to the Angel, Smite and spare not. Look what Elisha once said to Jehoram King of Israel, the same saith God to all ungodly persons. Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the good king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. Add hereunto, that God not only spareth, and blesseth, but also graceth and gifteth the wicked with excellent abilities and endowments for his people's behoof and benefit: as Saul with a spirit of government for Israel's sake, and of prophecy, for David's safety: the Egyptians with Jewels for the use of the sanctuary, and those that shall hear, Depart ye, with the power of prophesying and doing miracles for the Churches use and benefit: Nay more, the wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright. Thus God gave Egypt, for Israel's ransom Isa. 43.3, 4. I gave Ethiopia and Seba for thee. And why? Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Thus is the righteous delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead. Prov. 11.8.

SECT. IX.

OH but we see it otherwise often, that those you call righteous are not delivered. And what more sure then sight?

First, sight (though the most certain sense) may be deceived about its own object, if it want a clear middle. For example: A man beholds a staff, part through the clear air, and part through the dark water, and so deems it crooked, when indeed it is straight: So the purblind world beholding the Christian life thorough the dark middle of prejudice, judgeth it miserable and disconsolate: not knowing that to the righteous there ariseth light out of darkness, joy out of grief, good out of evil, comforts out of crosses, and those equivalent to deliverances. Those mentioned in that little book of Martyrs Heb. 11. though tortured and tympanized, yet they would not be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurrection. It was never merrier with the three children then in the midst of the furnace where the son of God was walking with them. Jacob's heart was never so light as when his head lay hardest.

Secondly, there is a double deliverance: One keeping us from the evil, and another keeping us under it, that it shall not hold us, much less hurt us. And this later way, at least, every of God's Jewels is made up and delivered. For, though ye have layne among the pots, all burnt and swooty, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers of yellow gold. Delivered then the righteous are, we see, though not delivered. That they are not here fully freed from trouble, they may thank themselves in a great measure. For as the subjection of the creature to us depends upon our subjection to God; and our peace with men upon our keeping peace with him, Job 5.23. So our subjection to God, and peace with him here being only inchoate and imperfect, we recover our safety from the creatures and peace with men, but in part, and unperfectly. But look what is wanting therein, is recompensed with spiritual peace even here, John. 16 • 3. how much more hereafter?

And say that God suffer his Jewels to be killed all day long, and counted as sheep to the slaughter: yet precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints, and neither life, nor death, shall sunder them from God's love in Christ Jesus. So that if they 'scape not his sword without, yet they shall 'scape the terror within, which is that that sets an edge upon the sword, and makes it enter into the soul. The godly man shall be able in the worst times to call his soul to rest with David, and to comfort himself in the Lord his God in a common combustion, then when others shall be at their wits ends, and even mad again for the sight of their eyes, and perplexity of their spirits. Death, he knows is the worst that can befall him, and that (ever since it ran through the veins of Christ crucified) is so sweetened unto him, that he is little or no whit amazed at the fore-going gripes, which are but as the throws of Child-birth, by which the soul is borne out of this loathsome body into endless felicity. Oh therefore the safety and dignity of a true Christian, whom very pain easeth, whom death reviveth, whom dissolution uniteth, whom lastly his very corruption preserveth, and sin glorifieth!

As for our full deliverance from all annoyances, we groan within ourselves and with patience wait for it, even the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.23, 24. And when that happy day once begins to shine forth, then look up if ever, for your redemption draweth nigh, Luc. 21.28. The Lord Christ will then lift up your heads as Pharaoh did his Butlers, take you from the prison to the palace, and restore you to your ancient honors and offices loft in Adam: as to be Kings, Priesty, Judges, Benchers &c. He shall say unto you then as once to Israel, Behold I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you then at your beginnings, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. This meditation settled David •• eedingly Psal. 17. where having spoken of the men of this world, which have their portion here, he presently subjoins, As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake (that is, out of the dust of death) with thine image. This also kept Jobs head above water, when else he had been overwhelmed with floods of affliction. I know that my Redeemer liveth, &c. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Daniel 12.1, 2. Though things be otherwise darkly delivered, yet when the Jews were to lose land and life, then plainly the Resurrection is named. And Heb. 11.35. we read of some that were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. I know, saith Martha, that my brother shall rise at the Resurrection, at the Consolation, saith the Syriac Translator. And well he might call it the Consolation to the righteous, for these prerogatives and privileges that shall befall all such in that day.

SECT. X.

FIrst, [ 1] a glorious resurrection of their dead bodies, by virtue of the mystical Union they have with Christ. The bodies of the Saints, though sundered from their • ouls for a season, are not separated at all from Christ, as neither was Christ's body sundered from his Deity, when laid in the grave. A substance there is still preserved, by a secret influence, proceeding from Christ as a head. This substance is (by rotting in the grave) refined, and shall by the same influence be raised incorruptible. This rotting of the body is but as the rotting of corn under the earth, that it may shoot up into an harvest, or as the melting of a battered piece of plate in the fire, that it may be brought forth of a better fashion. Hence they are said to sleep, and to sleep in Jesus, and to be dead in Christ, who shall raise our vile bodies, and make them like unto his glorious body, &c. like unto the Angels in heaven, Mat 22.30. nay like unto God himself, whom they shall resemble as children do their father. Hence they are called, children of the resurrection, in a like sense, as when God raised up Jesus again, he said, (as the Apostle Paul applies it) Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, Act. 13.3. Reprobates also shall rise again (though some of the Ancients, grounding upon that, Psal. 1.5. thought otherwise) but after another manner, by another mean, and for another end. They shall be dragged, as malefactors out of the prison of the grave, and driven before Christ's tribunal, by virtue of his judiciary power, and of the curse of the law, to be tumbled thence into torment, Rev. 1.7. but the Elect shall be raised, as members of Christ's body, by virtue derived from his Resurrection, 1 Cor. 15.20, 22, 45.

A second privilege they shall then have, [ 2] is priority in the Resurrection: for the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those that are alive and remain shall be caught up, together with them, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thes. 4.16, 17.

Thirdly elevation, [ 3] or lifting up the head for joy, when all the wicked shall wail for woe, and look gastly: their hearts failing them for fear of what will follow. The godly shall then stand before the Son of man, with much courage and confidence, Rom. 8.33, 34. Luk. 21.36.

Fourthly, [ 4] Collection by the Angels, who shall easily discern them from the rest, as the servants of the house do their masters harvest, or as the corn from the tares: their lively looks also shall distinguish them.

Fifthly, [ 5] Assumption, to meet the Lord in the air, and ascension in a cloud, in manner as Christ himself ascended. For as birds being hatched do fly lightly up into the air, which being eggs were a heavy and slimy matter: so the bodies of God's Elect (which by nature are massy and ponderous) being hatched, as it were, by the Resurrection, shall be made pure, powerful, nimble, and able to mount up into the heavens.

Sixthly Aggregation, or gathering together to the sign of the Son of man, that flag, not of defiance, but of deliverance, that he shall then hang out, those colors that he shall then display for an ensign or royal standard, that his people may repair unto, not to give battle to the enemy, but to share with the Conqueror, to divide the spoil, and take part in the triumph. 2. Cor. 2.14.

Seventhly, Collocation, or placing them at his right hand, as Solomon did his mother for honor-sake, when the goats shall be on the left. Math. 25.33. [ 7] where our Savior seems to allude to that in Deut. 29.11. where the six free-born tribes bless the people from mount Gerizim on the right hand, and the six other curse from mount Ebal on the left.

Eighthly, Inchoation, or taking beginning of the judgment from them. For the separation being made, then shall the king say (first) to them on the right hand, Come ye blessed, &c. glad to see them, as Jacob once to see Joseph, or as ever any father to see his child, that had been long absent. Thus, as judgment here began at God's house, insomuch as the righteous scarcely were saved: so there, the judicial sentence shall take beginning from the righteous, who shall thenceforth be saved with a mighty salvation: to the utmost Heb.. 7.25.

Ninthly, Commemoration or an honorable recital of all their good parts, and practices (as once of that good woman's that washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head) together with an open declaration of all their righteousness desired or done 2 Cor. 5.10 and that with such fervency of affection in the judge, that he will see and set forth nothing but their goodness, not so much as once mentioning their faults and frailties Math. 25.34 to 41. For in this day of making up his Jewels, he will spare them as a man spares his own son that serveth him: their good works only shall follow them. Rev. 14.13.

Tenthly Pronunciation of that sweetest sentence of absolution, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world. A speech that breathes out nothing else but crowns, scepters, kingdoms glories, beauties, Angelical entertainments, beatifical visions, unutterable exstasies, sweetest varieties, felicities, eternities.

Lastly, Execution of the sentence, and first upon the wicked. [ 11] For although the godly shall first be sentenced, yet the wicked shall first be executed, and all for the saints sake.

1. That they may rejoice when they see the vengeance, being wholly swallowed up with a zeal of God's glory Psal. 58.10. and 79.10.

2. That they may more fully acknowledge the greatness of their own felicity, in the sight of the others remediless misery. For these shall go away into everlasting punishment, into eternity of extremity, but the righteous into life everlasting Mat. 25.45. They shall not only sit with Christ as Assessours and approvers of this righteous sentence, but the judgment once ended, they shall triumphantly ascend with him into heaven, and there enjoy the most exquisite and unmixed pleasures, the highest pitch of preferment, plenty without want, and fullness without satiety. For their apparel it shall be long white robes (washed in the blood of the lamb) such as betoken perfect purity, clarity, dignity, and festivity. For their habitatition, they are stately Mansions in a lightsome city. For their company, the sacred Trinity, the glorious Angels, the crowned Saints. And if it be such an honor to converse. familiarly with kings, and great personages, what is it then with the King of glory, and all those heavenly courtiers, to enjoy the company of the blessed Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, our dearest friends and acquaintance, whom it is probable we shall know, as Adam did his wife upon the first sight in paradise, and as Peter and John did Moses and Elias in that glimpse of heavens glory they had in the monnt? Sure it is, we shall perfectly love them as ourselves, and rejoice in their happiness, as much as in our own, whereby our joys shall be according to their innumerable number, multiplied and increased.

Next for their dignity, and glory, they shall sit upon Christ's throne with palms in their hands, and crowns on their heads. Now beyond the excellency of a crown mortal men's wishes extend not. But the crown we are speaking of is a crown of glory 1 Pet. 5.4. A crown of righteousness. 2 Tim. 4.8. A crown of life I am. 1.12. an incorruptible crown 1 Cor. 9.25. A crown not consisting of some precious thing without us, but of royal excellency, such as wherewith our souls and bodies bedight and adorned shall out-shine the sun in his strength: what shall I say more? but indeed why do I say so much? For as one being asked what God was, answered, Si scirem, Deus essem. So if I should undertake to describe heaven, it were requisite, that I should have been at heaven. And yet he that had been there (St. Paul I mean) could say no more then that he had heard there wordless words, words unspeakable, not possible to be uttered. And when he doth speak of heavens happiness, he commonly useth a transcendent kind of expression, as finding words too weak for such a purpose.

Lo thus shall it be done to the man whom the king immortal will honor in the day when he makes up his Jewels. Consider him well, as God bad the devil do Job, and know that there is none like him in the whole earth again. Go forth (saith the spouse) and behold King Solomon, with the crowns wherewith his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals. So say I, behold the godly Christian as crowned with all the forenamed privileges and prerogatives: look upon him as once the city of Shushan did upon Mordecai when the king would do him honor, and then tell me whom you have to esteem and account of, to set up and side with, to prize and prefer in your best affections and expressions: Not the rich, but the righteous, not the great, but the gracious, not the worlds minions, though never so accomplished with all the ornaments of nature, art, policy, preferment, but God's Jewels and darlings, righteous and religious persons, those excellent ones of the earth, in whom was all David's delight, and should be ours also. Despise them not for their outward meanness: the true treasure is carried in earthen vessels, and there may be a precious pearl in a leathern purse: John the Baptist had a girdle of skin about his loins, and Elias was a rough hairy man, for his outward habit it was course and homely. Those ancient worthies went about the world in shipskins and goat-skins, but they were like the Ark whose outside was of goats-hair, and badgers skins, but the inside pure gold. Christ himself whom that Ark typified, was hid for awhile under the carpenters son. The carnal Capernaites could see nothing in him more then in another man, how can this man, said they, give us his flesh to eat? he had no form, nor comliness, saith that Evangleical Prophet, and when we shall see him, there is no such beauty that we should desire him. And yet in him the God-head dwelt bodily, that is, personally: and in him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and worth Colos. 2. And the like may be said of many a poor Christian cast out by the world as unworthy their company or countenance, but readily received, and highly honored by God himself the blessed spirit, and all men that have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. But as the root of Jesse was rugged and unsightly, so are his branches, many of them. Howbeit the kings daughter is all glorious within, that's her comfort, black she is, but comely as the curtains of Solomon, as the tents of Kedar which were rough, but rich, as pitched in the deserts of Arabia. God's servants are called his Hidden ones. According to the fashion of the wealthy, he pleaseth himself in hidden treasure. It is enough that his own eyes behold his Jewels, and such to whom the father shows them. The idiots of the world set a very low rate, a light price upon God's precious ones: but its all the wit they have, for wisdom is above to the foolish, saith Solomon, he cannot skill of it. It sufficeth to wisdom that she is justified of her children, who know how to do her reverence, in what garb soever she please to show herself. I know thy poverty saith Christ to one of the seven churches, but that's nothing. God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of his kingdom in Christ. Who can have the face to despise any one for his outward wants and indigence, when Abraham the father of the faithful, and heir of the world, had not a foot of land, that he could call his own, more then a burying-place? when Christ's mother was not wealthy enough to bring a lamb for her purification? when Christ himself had not twenty pence at hand to pay the tribute money, nor a pillow to rest his head on, when tired out with hard toile and travel? And who oit'other-side would admire any for his worldly wealth, and outward magnificence, when Pharaohs horses had costly trappings Cant. 1.8. and the Midianites camels had chains of gold about their necks? Judge. 8.26. when Dives ruffles in his silks every day, and Herod glitters in his cloth of silver: who yet to the eye of heavenly wisdom were no better then so many stinking carcases stuck over with flowers, magnified dung, guilded rottenness, golden damnation? who knows not how sharply St. James takes up the partial Christians of his time, for admiring men's ease, wealth, and pomp, rather then grace, and true spiritual worth? This, saith he, is to despise Christ's poor, and to be judges of evil thoughts. Virtue is a thousand Escucheons saith one, and it is grace alone that animateth and ennobleth, all other good parts and abilities, which else are but as a glassy bugle, saith Jerome after Tertullian, to the pearl of price, or as gold to brass, saith Barnard; and a little of the palest and counterfeit gold, is far better then much of the finest and brightest brass: so is the meanest of God's servants better then the most magnificent glorious worlding that ever trod upon earthly mould, and so let us esteem them.

Mr. Fox, when he was asked whether he knew a certain poor man who had received succor from in time of trouble, answered, I remember him well: I tell you, I forget Lord's and Ladies to remember such.

SECT. XI. Exhortation to practice holiness, that is so honored.

FOurthly, are those that are sound faithful so highly honored in heaven? [Use 4] This, methinks, should much raise the price of religion, and bring godliness into greater request amongst all those that would be of any reckoning, or repute with God at that day. It will go to the hearts of ungodly men, I wot well, to see some of all sorts sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, and themselves shut out amongst dogs: to see such as they would have disdained to have set with the dogs of their flocks, to be set then upon thrones judging their judges, and having power over the Nations, to bind their Kings with chains, and their Nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgments written, and yet this honor have all his Saints ( Psal. 149.8, 9.) For know ye not, saith the Apostle, that the Saints shall judge the world? yea the angels. Who would not therefore rule with God, as Judah, by laboring to be faithful with his Saints? Hos. 11.12. We see with what a deal of eagerness, honors and offices, rich prizes and great places are sought and pursued after. Balaam's asse never gallops fast enough to fetch in profit and preferment. Set but a wedge of gold in sight, and Joshua that could stop the course of the Sun, cannot stay Achan from courting and catching at it. And yet what are riches, and honors, but golden gyves the Noble miseries of this wretched life? And what do they that are so set upon them (with the neglect of heavenly honors, and that wealth of a better world) but prefer the onions of Egypt, before the bread of angels, paltry pibbles before precious pearls, thick clay before pure gold, counterfeit coin before true treature? Oh see and bewail this so great a folly in yourselves and others: and (for future) learn to covet spirituals, to be greedy of grace, to encroach upon God for more and more of his favor and fellowship as Moses did. Exod. 33.12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19. & chap. 34.9. To be ambitious of peace 1 Thess. 4.11. And of pleasing God 2 Cor. 5.9. To seek for honor and glory by well-doing Rom. 2.7. To be zealous of the better things 1 Cor. 12.31. To pursue after the perfect knowledge of Christ, having it as it were in chase (as St. Paul had Philip 3.4..) as the hunter hath his prey, or as the persecutor hath him that he persecuteth. He had once been mad in persecuting the saints Acts 26.11. And breathed out threatenings, lay panting, as it were for breath, like a tired wolf. Acts 9.1, 2. Now when God had turned the stream, he was judged by some as mad the other way. 2 Cor. 5.13. Whilst, knowing the terror of the last day, he persuaded men, and in the mean-while, he laid his policy and bent his best wits (as the word there signifies) to keep a good conscience, that richest treasure, and most precious Jewell, that ever the heart of man was acquainted with.

SECT. XII. Why.

TO quicken you to the pursuit and practice of this duty. Consider that Grace is the only thing that God looks after in this world. God looked down from heaven saith David, upon the sons of men, to see, not who were wealthy, witty, mighty, magnificent &c. but to see if there were any that did understand or sought God And he bids the Prophet Jeremy run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, to s • e • f he could find a man, that is, a righteous man that feareth God and kept his commandments: Hoc est enim torus homo, for this is the whole man, saith Solomon. And it is as if he should say, He is not a complete man that's void of God's holy fear, framing him to obedience, though otherwise never so west accomplished. This is that whereby one man doth as far excel another, as any man excels a beast, saith Bernard and Boetius. The righteous is more excellent then his neighbor, laith Solomon, let him dwell where he will. He is of better birth and breeding, of better alliance and atendance, of better place and office, of higher degree and dignity. The Holy Ghost styleth such the Nobles of the earth Ps. 16.3. honorable personages Psal. 45.9. plants of renown, Isaiah 5.3. privy-councellours to the great King Psal. 25.14. Princes in all lands Psal. 45.16. Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1.5. yea higher then heathen kings Psal. 89.27. and better then those mighty Monarks Dan. 7.37. Where it is very remarkable, that the Prophet having set forth the greatness and glory of the Princes, Potentates and mighty states in the four Monarchies, comes to speak at last of a kingdom which is the greatest under the whole heaven, and that is the kingdom of the saints of the most High.

Hence is it that God himself makes a challenge to all the world besides in the behalf of his Israel Deut. 33.29. Happy art thou O Israel: who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord! meaning mdeed, that no Nation under heaven, how happy so ever, was comparable to them. And hence it is also that the kings of the earth shall bring their glory to the church (as Constantine did) and coming to see, (as Theodosius did) an excellency in grace, a beauty in holiness above any outward trappings, they shall leave the throne and palace to seek the sweet delights of the faithful, and to sing their songs, Psal. 138.4, 5. Aencas Sylvius relates of Ingo King of Draves and Veneds, that making on a time a stately feast, he invited thereunto all his Nobles (at that time Pagans) together with a multitude of poor Christians. His Nobles he set in his hall below, and those poor Christians with himself in his presence-chamber, giving them all royal entertainment and attendance. At which when his Nobleswondred and stomacked, he told them this he did, not as he was King of Draves, but as King of another world, wherein these poor ragged people should be his compeeres and fellow-Princes. These HeathenNobles might haply stumble hereat, as the Saracen Prince once did at a like speech of Charles the great His custom was to have ever at his meals a board of beggars, feeding not far from his table. This Prince Aigoland (for so was the Saracens name) coming gallantly accompanied to the French Court, pretending that he would be baptized, and become a Christian, and being feasted by King Charles, asked what those Lazars and poor people were? Answer was returned, that these were the friends and servants of our God, whom we Christians worship. Whereupon he speedily depatted, desperately protesting, that he would not serve that God which could keep his servants no better. This man knew not that God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of his kingdom of glory. Smyrna the poorest of the seven Churches hath the richest price set upon it. The poor man indeed speaks supplications, and the rich man answereth him roughly. The world despiseth the poor though never so ve • t • ous, as the Prodigalls elder-brother did him, This thy son saith he, not this my brother, he disdains to call him brother, because of his poverty. So doth not the Lord Christ. Of Queen Elisabeth it is said, that she hated no less, then did Mithridates, such as maliciously persecuted virtue forsaken of fortune. The poorest bondslave (if a free-man of Christ) when he suffers hard words, and ill usage from his master for well-doing, doth herein find acception with God. 1 Pet. 2.19, 20. Be a man never so poor in estate, if withal he be poor in spirit, and pure in heart, the kingdom of God is his, Mat. 5.3. God's kingdom indeed is not of this world, cometh not by observation, neither consisteth in meat and drink, in pomp and outward splendor, but in righteousness and peace (as did that of Melchizedek ) and joy in the holy Ghost, unspeakable and glorious joy, concerning which hear him that had felt it, and spoke by experience: Certain it is (saith a late Reverend Writer) that if a man were crowned with the royal state and imperial command of all the kingdoms upon earth: if his heart were enlarged to the utmost of all created capacity, and filled with all the exquisite, and unmixed pleasures that the reach of mortality and most ambitious curiosity could possibly devise, and might (without interruption and distaste) enjoy them the length of the worlds duration, they were all nothing to the precious and peerless comforts of the kingdom of grace, but even for an hour. I speak the truth in Christ, and use no hyperbole, the spirit of all comfort, and consciences of all true Christians bearing me witness. Hitherto He and I cannot better conclude this discourse, then he doth that, with a little alteration. Be we all entreated with a proportionable zeal and fervency to incline and enlarge our affections to the pursuit and practice of so excellent and glorious a happiness, that God may guide us with his counsel, and afterwards receive us to his glory Psal. 73.

SECT. XIII. Let the Saints see their dignity, and be thankful.

LAstly, let God's Jewels be hereby excited to a double duty. [Use.]

1. Let them be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword be in their hands Psal 149.5, 6. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted (to that Christian parity spoken of Colos. 3.11.) but the rich in that he is made low: that is, that he is taken off from that high esteem he once had of outward honor and excellency before his conversion: whereas now he seeth they are but fading flowers, things not worth the while: and is therefore called upon here to rejoice in that true treasure, that fellows him with his poor brother, poor in purse but rich in faith, before him haply in the best things, though far behind him in worldly wealth and worship. The best is, that in God's kingdom money bears no mastery, (as that Martyr said) neither is there respect of persons with God, but in every rank and degree of people, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is highly accepted in heaven. One such shall stand before him to turn away wrath, as Abraham and Lot, when ten thousand Sodomites shall not be looked upon. And this is that that may stay up the heart of a poor despised Christian against all the contempts and oppositions of the ungodly. God is his gold and his portion forever Job 22.25. Neither doth any covetous person so entirely love his gold (his god) and so set by his hid treasure, as God doth by his dear children: He will surely see to his own (will not every Infidel do as much?) and makes up his Jewels safe in the golden Cabinet of his gracious providence; as he did Noah in the Ark, Jeremy in the prison-court, Luther in his Patmos, as he called it &c. God will one day right their wrongs, and clear thir innocence, bring forth their righteousness as the light, and their judgments as the noon-day. The Church in the Canticles was wounded by the watch-men as an evil-doer, judged as a dishonest woman, whose feet would not abide in her house, no not in the nightseason: they beat her, and took away her veil, branding her thereby with a note of infamy and disloialty to her Lord, and husband whom she went to look out Cant. 5.7. All which notwithstanding the daughters of Jerusalem, the truly religious, discetned her beauty in the dark night of her tribulation, and confessed that she was fair and glorious, Chap. 6.1. Christ also passing by her former remissness, and unworthy usage of him, professeth that she was as amiable in his eyes as ever: her hair, teeth, temples, all, as fair and well featured, yea that she was fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun, that Sun of righteousness, having blotted out all her sins, as a cloud, Isa. 44.22. so that none of her transgressions could be found: though looked for, Fer. 50.20. but every tongue that rose up against her should she condemn, Isa. 54.17. Further, he hath provided that everybody do love and honor his people, he hath given a charge to that end in diverse scriptures. Now what is wanting in men, himself will make up, honoring & pleading for them in the hearts of their very enemies, who cannot but be confounded many times, and stand amazed at the height of spirit, and resolution that possesseth their hearts, and at the sober and undaunted majesty that shines in the faces of those that fear the Lord. Now if he say, Grace, Grace unto us, it should suffice to encourage us in building the tower of godliness. Yea it should make us hold out, to lay the very last stone thereof with joy, Zach. 4.7. being vexed at nothing more then at the vile dullness of our hearts, that are no more affected with there indelible ravishments.

SECT. XIV. Let the Saints see their duty and be careful.

2. Next, as God's servants must see their dignity, and take comfort in it, so must they also look to their duty, and take care about it. And thisis to walk worthy of the high and heavenly vocation wherewith they are called: remembering always, that they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, the light of the world, the salt of the earth to season the rest, a city seated on an hill, conspicuous to all the country. The Sun may go as soon unseen, as they unobserved: there are that watch for their halting, and snatch at anything, whereat they may snarl and cavil; be it but an indiscreet speech that falls from such, it's enough to break down the banks of blasphemy. Oh labor to silence these absurd men, to stop an open mouth, to cut off all occasion of obloquy. Any spot is spied in white apparel, and the least stain doth evil upon a royal robe. A small flaw in a jewel is a great blemish, and so is a small defect in a Christian. His heart is made pure by the blood of Christ, and fine white linen is sooner and deeper stained then course rags. Therefore are such worse, saith Salvian, though they be no worse then others, because they ought to be better. Add hereunto, that it is some singular thing that God requires of his servants. He will take that from Philistines, that he will not brook from Israelites; who thought they might carry God's Ark in a new-cart, as those Pagans had done before them, but they paid for their presumption. Greatest States afford least liberty. His Saints are round about him, and, like good Angels, they stand always in the presence of their heavenly Father. All holy circumspection therefore and exact walking is required of them, even an excellency above ordinary. Every Calling hath a comeliness appertaining to it. The Scholar behaves himself otherwise then the clown, the Courtier then the carter, the Prince then the pesant: so should a Christian otherwise then an unbeliever, then a profligate professor, a carnal Gospeller. He should walk nobly, bravely, gallantly, worthy of God, and as becometh a Saint, considering that of Bernard, in every enterprize of his, an liceat, an deceat, an expediat: whether the thing be lawful, seemly, suitable to his state. Not stretching always to the utmost of his chain, lest he break a link, but beating off a solicitation to sin, as Nehemiah did to cowardice, Shall such a man as I do it? God forbid that I should part with my patrimony, said Naboth: that I should leave my fat, and my sweet, said the Vine in Jotham’s parable: that I should look back with Lots wife, having set my hand to Christ's plow: that I should flinch from my colors, having taken his pressemoney, disgrace his house, being received into his retinue. Great things are bestowed upon me, great things are expected from me. Every mercy calls for duty: every deliverance commands obedience. God hath elected me for a vessel of honor, shall I defile myself with the kitchen-stuff of uncleanness? He hath bought me with a price shall not I yield myself up to his service? He hath adopted me for his child, shall not I carry myself as a child? he hath sanctified me by his spirit, shall I pollute his temple? He hath inrighted me to a kingdom, and keeps a crown for me, shall I lay it to gage forever trifle? shall Isaiah with Esau, what is this birth-right? Oh let there be no root of bitterness, no profane person amongst you, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right, and is therefore so often branded for it with this is Edom.

SECT. I. Reasons hereof drawn from the causes.

IN which heavenly Text, [Reas. 1] we have the first and chief ground of this doctrine, drawn from the causes of our spiritual sonship.

1. The fundamental and original cause, God's decree of election by grace; we have an act for it in God's eternal counsel. According as he hath chosen us in Christ before the soundation of the world &c. For which cause also the predestinate are called the Church of the first-born who are written in heaven. Heb. 12.23, And whom he did foreknow, saith Saint Paul, them he did predestinate also to be conformed to the image of his son: like him in glory, as well as in sufferings, like in being sons, as he is a son, that he might be (even according to his humanity) the first-born among many brethren.

2. The meritorious and procuring, or working cause of our adoption, is here set forth to be the Lord Christ, in whom he (as a father) hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephe. 1.3. but all in Christ, and all in this order. A Christian by the Gospel is made a believer. Now faith afteran unspeakable manner engrafteth him into the body of Christ the natural son, and hence we become the adopted sons of God: it being the property of faith to adopt as well as to justify, ration objecti by means of the object Christ, up whom faith layeth hold. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26. Children, I say, not by creation as Adam is called the son of God Luk. 3. because he was produced in the similitude of God; but by marriage and mystical union with Christ the fecond Adam, the heir of all, who hath

1. Laid down the price of that great privilege Heb. 9.15. even his own most precious blood, redeeming us thereby that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons Gal. 45.

2. He hath sealed it up to us by his spirit, that earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.13. called therefore the spirit of adoption, and the spirit of God's son (as springing out of his death, and procured by his intercession) For because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba, father.

3. Here is the motive and impulsive cause: and that is the good pleasure of his will, his absolute independent grace and mercy was the sole inductive. He giveth us this dignity, saith St John in his Gospel. And what more free then gift? he showeth us this love, saith he in his epistle, because it was the time of love, that we should be called the sons of God. So that our Adoption is not a privilege purchased by contract of justice, but an inheritance cast upon us of free grace and goodness. The Lord show mercy to Onesiphorus in that day when our adoption shall be crowned with its full accomplishment. Lastly here we have the final cause of our adoption,: • hepr •• ise of the glory of his grace. This is the end God propounds to himself in this, as in all other his works, as having none higher then himself, to whom to have respect, for he is the most highest. God hath made all things for himself, yea the wicked also for the day of evil: viz. for the glory of his Justice and power (as he told Pharaoh Rom. 9.17.) but especially of his grace: since all that his justice doth in the Reprobation of some, tendeth to this ultimate end of all, that the riches of his grace may be the more displayed in the election of others.

SECT. II. Reasons from the effects of his father-hood.

A Second reason followeth from the effects, and those are no less demonstrative of the point then the causes. [Reas. 2]

These are 1. God's fatherly affections. 2. His expressions, both which speak him a father to all his.

For his affection, first, to his people: Albeit they be but his Adopted children, yet he loves them more then any natural father doth his own bowels. Hence he is called the father by an eminency, as if there were no father to him, none like him, none besides him, as indeed there is not originally and properly. Called he is the father of all mercies, the fountain of all that mercy; that is found in any father: all is but a spark of his flame, a drop of his ocean, Yea he is styled the father of all the fatherhoods in heaven and earth. Whence also our Savior, Call no man, saith He, your father on earth, for one is your father, even God. To enter comparison in some few particulars.

First a father loves freely, not so much for that his child is witty, or wealthy, or well-favor'd, as for that he is his. There needs no other argument to a father but that, this is my child. So is it with God. Deut. 7.7. Ezek. 36.32.

Secondly, a father loves hugely: there is an ocean of love in a fathers heart: he loves his child as well if not better then himself; as Joab twitted David with his excessive love to his unnatural Absalom. There is also an immense, incomparable, incomprehensible love in God toward his children, an hyperbole, an excess of love, a love passing knowledge Eph. 3.19. And that passeth all the dimensions. It is higher then heaven Psal. 36.5. deeper then hell Psal. 86.13. longer then the earth, and broader then the sea Psal 98.4. & Psal. 104.24. a transcendent, boundless, bottomless love, truly exalted above the love of natural parents, which yet is wondrous great. Psal. 103.13. Isaiah, 49.15. But infinitely short of God's love, it makes not the tithe of it.

Thirdly, a father loveth constantly and unchangeably, yea though his child be never so untoward and disobedient, as David did his Amnon, and his Abs • • em, even to the last of them did he love them. So, and much more then so doth God his children. For as himself is an everlasting father, so is his love everlasting. Isaiah 9.6. & 49.14. His compassions fail not. Lam. 3.22. He cannot grow out of kind, nor be weary of loving. Having loved his own, saith the evangelist, to the end he loved them. John. 13.1. Frown he can, if need be, hate he cannot: hide his face he may for a while, but his heart is ever earning towards them, his bowels are turned within him, his repentings are kinled together: sco •• e them he doth (other-whiles) with the rods of men, but the sure mercies of David he will never take from them. Natural parents may prove unnatural: not so our heavenly father, he is all bowels: they may hate where they loved, they may loath whom they liked; but he rests in his love. Zeph. 3.17. He hates putting away. Hos. 2. David's father and mother may cast him out, but then God will gather him. Father Abraham may forget us, and Israel may disown us. Isaiah 63.16. But God hath said, I will not leave thee. I will not not not forsake thee. The Fathers and governors of the Church may, under a fair pretence of zeal, cast us out, and say, let the Lord be glorified: but then shall God appear to our joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66.5. The fathers of our flesh are mutable, and fickle-minded, but with the father of light is no shadow of change, his love lasteth to all eternity without any alteration.

SECT III. Other reasons from the effects of his fatherhood.

NExt, as God's affection to his children is more then fatherly, so are his expressions and provisions for them too.

For, 1. Besides his eternal electing them to the adoption of children Eph. 1.4. It was he that took us out of the womb Psal. 22.9. that we might not ( Ephraim -like that unwise son) stay over-long in the birth, and die before we saw his marvelous light. It was he that baptized us into his own name, whereby we are called as a child by his fathers.

2. He loves the very places they first breathed in the better for their sakes Ps. 86.7. and the very ground they tread upon. Hence Judea, the seat of the church, is called a delightsome land Mal. 3.12. the glorious land, the land of desires or ornaments Dan. 11.41. yea Canaan, for this, is called the whore world, and Tabor and Hermon is put for the East and West of the world.

3. He chargeth all sorts, as they love him to love his lambs, his little ones, to handle them gently for his sake. He feeds them with sincere milk streaming from those fullstrutting breasts of consolation, the lively oracles, he brings them forth butter in a lordly dish Judge. 5.25. he makes them ready and unready, as new-borne-babes, lulling them asleep in a holy security, shifting them in their scapes by the clean water of his spirit in their sanctification, and the clean linen of Christ's righteousness in their justification. He keepeth them from fire & from water, the fire of temptation which the Dragon spers, and the water of persecution which he spews out of his mouth, as a flood, to drown the • t avelling church, and to devour her babe as soon as it was borne.

All this God doeth for his children as soon as they are anything. Afterwards, as they grow up to any bigness, he bears them in his bosom as a nursing-father bears the sucking child Num. 11.1 • . carries them in his arms till such time as they can go Esa. 46.4. guides them with • is eye when they begin to find their feet (I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms Hos. 11.3. leads them in his hand, as a horse in the wilderness Es. 63.13. If the way be too rough for their tender feet, or too long for their short legs, he lifts them over by his spirit, he chargeth also his angels to bear them in their hands, who are as glad of such an office as the servants are to get their young master in their arms. It's certain that no young Prince goes better guarded and attended then a child of God. Heb. 1. ult.

Next for their diet and apparel: God feeds his children with the kidnyes of wheat, with the hidden Manna, with the bread of life, with the best of the best, fat things full of marrow, wines on the lees well refined Isa. 25 6. Thus he nourisheth them (as Joseph did his fathers family in Egypt) as a little child is nourished. And for appa • rell they have it of the finest. Bring forth the best robe, and the best ring &c. the righteousness of the saints, even the red upper-coat of Justification, and the white under-coat of sanctification. They are ever in their holy-day clothes, their festival apparel every day-being the Christian man's holy-day, and he having within him a continual feast.

6. For their teaching and tuition, they are all taught of God Isaiah 54.13. who 1. by his word makes them wise to salvation, gives subtlety to the simple, and to the youg man knowledge and discretion. 2. by his spirit of revelation convinceth them of their false principles, refells their fallacious reasonings, unteacheth them the devils learning, and then leads them into all truth and goodness: for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. And of this teaching speaketh St. Paul 1 Thes. 4.0. and St. John 1 Epist. 2.27.

7. Next for their delight and recreation, he allows them his garden to walk into, his wine-cellar to go down into. He pleaseth himself wondrously in their company, be they but two or three of them, he is in the midst: as once he made the third with those two going Emmaus. He sets them between his legs (as it were) so some read that text Deut 33.3, He loved though people and (as an effect thereof) they sat down at thy feet, or, they were set between thy feet, as the fathers darlings. Moreover, when he hath them there, he rejoiceth over them with joy, yea he rejoiceth over them with singing. Zeph. ^p 3.17. like as earthly parents dandle, dance, and sing their little ones upon their knees.

Further, he is wondrous choice and chary of his children, so that he cannot abide the cold wind should blow upon them. The sun must not smite them by day, nor the moon by night, and what wind soever blow, whether North or South (and what more contrary then those?) they must blow good to God's children Cant. 4. ult. In a word, he thinks nothing good that he hath to himself, except they may share a part. And is not this the part of a loving parent?

8. Lastly, for matter of maintenance, and outward subsistence, your heavenly father knows that ye need these things also Mat. 6.32. and it's enough for you that he knows it. He holds them to hard-meat sometimes, but then they have it of free-cost, when the wicked pay dear for their tid-bits, and dainty morsels. Their meat is sawced, and their drink spiced with the wrath of God, Job 20.14. their very table is a snare to them. The Inn-keeper gives his guests the bests dishes, but reserves the inheritance for his children: so here, God gives his people money in their purses, so much as will serve turn to bear their charges home, to buy them necessaries, and to keep them true men at least; though they have not to lavish and riot, because he knows their weakness that way; and therefore holds them (mostly) to straight allowance. Not out of niggardice, I must tell you: for he could beteem them more means, and so he doth also to some of his better children, that have grace to use it, and make them friends with it. But the less he allows them here, the more he lays up for them in heaven. Psal. 89.28, & 31, 19. And when they are once come to the full stature of a man in Christ (for now they are in their nonage) the whole inheritance shall be given them of the father Rom. 8.16. They shall have power over all creatures Rev. 2.26. and possession of that new heaven and new earth. 2. Pet. 3.13. And if these be not the expressions and provisions of a bountiful father, pray y' what is?

SECT. IIII. God no Father to the wicked, what ever they pretend to him.

NOw for Application, Doth God the Lord look upon such as sons and daughters as sincerely serve him? [Use 1] How then (think we) doth he look upon all such as serve not God but Mammon, as serve not the Lord Christ but their own bellies their base lusts, this present evil world, nay the God of this world, whose works they do, and will do, and are therefore of their father the devil. This, saith St. John, entitles the devil to a man; for he that commits sin is of the devil, that's flat. And again, In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil, He that is borne of God doth not commit sin. Well he may slip into it of infirmity, and at unawares Gal. 6.1. A sheep may slip into a slough, but delights not to wallow in it. He doth not work iniquity on set purpose, he doth not sell over himself to sin with Ahab, he doth not hire out his members as weapons of wickedness, working all uncleanness with greediness. No, this is not the guise of a child of God, but of an imp of hell, of a brat of fathomlesse perdition. They have corrupted themselves, saith Moses, their spot is not the spot of his children, they are a perverse and crooked generation. And yet who so forward as these to claim kindred of the Almighty, to fawn upon God, and call him father? Wilt thou not from this time (saith He to Idolatrous Israel, that had in this behalf an whores forehead, a wainscot face hatched all over with impudence) wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, my father, art thou not the guide of my youth? Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Here were good words: Sed quid verba quaero, facta cum videam? How canst thou say, thou lovest me, when thy heart is not with me? Behold, saith God in the same place, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest, thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and wickedness, and hast thou yet a sace to call me Father? Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God 2 John. 9. He that walketh not in the steps of Abraham's faith, [Obj. Sol.] hath not Abraham to his father Rom. 4.12. whatever he pretends to him with those braving Jews. John. 8. Tell me not here that God hath blessed you, as a father, sustain'd you with corn and wine Gen. 27.37. given you of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven &c. for Esau had as good a portion as this, and yet a cast-away: and Abraham gave the moveables to the children of the concubins, whom he less respected, but Isaac had the inheritance.

Oh but we are children of the free-woman, [Obj. Sol.] borne and bred in the bosom of the church, and enjoy many outward privileges. So did Esau, and yet was hated of God, so did Judas, and yet a firebrand of hell. [Obj. Sol.]

Neither is it any such business, as many make of it, that they have had their Christendom. For unless they be withal baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire, with the spirit of judgment and of burning, whereby they have so put on Christ, as that they are become the children of God, by faith in him, Gal. 3.26, 27. Its pity that ever Font-water was spilled upon their faces. Saul was circumcised, and yet David calls him Cushite, or Ethiopian; and unregenerate Israel is to me as Ethiopia, saith God, Amos 9.7. and as Gomorrah, Isaiah 1.10. notwithstanding all their external services, and sudibrious devotions. Christ shall one day rid his house, and wash his hands of all such unworthy hang-byes, and powerless pretenders. Depart from me, shall they hear, to their everlasting amazement. Go, get ye to the gods whom ye have chosen. Look to the rock from whence ye were hewn, and to the hole whence ye were digged: see what your father the devil will do for you, for I will take no further charge of you: his work ye have done, and his wages ye shall have. And since ye have run out with the Prodigal, and loathing such wholesome fare as my house afforded, ye have fed hungerly on those murthering morsels of iniquity, the devils husks, therefore shall they stick in your throats, like the envenomed arrows of the Almighty, throughout all eternity.

SECT. V. Terror to those that malign or misuse God's children.

BUt secondly, [Use 2] is God a Father to all faithful Christians? how ill-advised then are all such as either by their violent hands, or virulent tongues, misuse or malign them? yea, that offer them the least affront or offense, despite or displeasure? For know they not whose children they are, and to whose charge they belong? Shall not God avenge his own, though he bear long with them? Very Infidels and worse will defend their own. Very beasts will see to the safety of their young ones, and spend their lives freely for their rescue. Amongst fowls, the Phoenix is famous, and the Pelican much more, for reviving her dead birds, with her heart blood. Now, is there mercy and good nature in a man, in a bird, in a beast, in the creature, in the unreasonable creature also, and can we without blasphemy, or extreme injury, imagine worse of God? It's more then evident to him that hath but half an eye, or doth observe anything at all in God's word, or works, that as he taketh notice of smallest curtesies, even to a cup of cold water, to requite them, so of their least or lightest indignities, and injuries to repay them, be it but a frown or a frump. Cain shall answer it before the Lord, if he but lowre upon Abel. Miriam shall be a leper seven days at least, and stand ashamed of her fathers spetting in her face, if she but mutter against Moses. An Ammonite, or a Moabite shall be bastardized, and banished the beauty of holiness, the threshold of the Sanctuary, to their tenth generation, merely for an omission, because they met not God's first-born Israel with bread and water in the wilderness: How much more because they hired Balaam to curse him, Deut. 23.3, 4. which when he could not do, God turning his curse into a blessing unto his children, because he loved them, verse 4. yet for that he shown his good-will to have done it, and moreover taught Balac to lay a stumbling-block before God's Israel, to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication, Rev. 2.14. therefore was he slain by the sword of the Lord. For is she not our sister? should be make our sister a whore? said those two brethren in iniquity: which if it seemed a sufficient plea to them, (as likewise to Absalom, in the behalf of his sister Tamar ) for that barbarous and bloody massacre, how shall the Lord drench and drown the sword of his justice in the bowels of such as wrong his children to his face, and do them all the despite that may be? what will they force the Queen also in the house? will they offend God's little-ones, rake into his bowels, pollute his presence with the slaughter, or but misusage of his children? Had Zimri peace that slew his Master? Hath ever any waxed fierce against God and prospered? Look to it, all ye that smite any child of his, either with hand or tongue. 'Twere better a millstone were hanged about your necks, and yourselves drowned in the depth of the Sea, then that ye offend one of these little-ones, if a believer. For I tell you (Christ tells you) that in heaven their Angels do always behold the face of their heavenly Father, waiting for a commission to do speedy execution on the enemies of his children.

SECT. VI. Try your title to God as a Father: Marks.

EXhortation, and first, to try our title to God as a loving Father, [Use 3] by our care to serve him as obedient children. There be sundry distinctive notes of a child of God sparsed here and there, up and down the Scriptures: but that in the Text shall suffice for the present, and it is infallible. I will spare them, as one spares his own son that serves him. Every son then of his serves him, we see, and not as a slave his Lord, but as a son serves his father. How's that?

First, cheerfully and willingly: Everyone that is born of God, [ 1] serves him with gladness, Psal. 100.2. loves to be his servant, takes hold of his covenant, counts it his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father, in whose house therefore he hath a name better then of a son or daughter, Isaiah 56.6.

Next, reverently, with a filial fear and awful respect to God as his father, [ 2] whose favor he finds better then life, and whose displeasure he fears, and hath felt more bitter then death, Heb. 12.27. 1 Pet. 1.17. Psal. 2.11. How fearful is this place, said Jacob? where yet he had seen visions of love.

Thirdly, confidently and with an humble boldness, [ 3] as well assured of his Fathers both assistance and acceptance: treating with him ever and anon by affectionate prayer (as God hath no dumb children) and making his requests known unto him with affiance of access, and success in all his suits: which the phrase of crying Abba, Father, also importeth. See Heb. 4.16.

Sincerely, and entirely, both 1. For subject, not having a heart and a heart, (as that desperate Neapolitan said, he had one for God, [ 4] and another for the devil) not carrying two faces under a hood, (as one wittily saith of Haymo and Remigius: ) which double-dealing is most detestable in a child toward his father, (we say of an arrant dissembler, He would not spare to cozen even his own father) and no good child will offer it. But serving him with singleness of heart; yea with all the heart, and all the soul: presenting our bodies also, as a whole burnt sacrifice, which is our reasonable service, yea glorifying him with both our spirits and bodies, which are the Lord's: Not offering to detain from him that hath bought us with a price, any part of his purchase; for why should we lie to the Holy Ghost? All God's children are such as will not lie, Isaiah 63.8. but obey from the heart that form of doctrine, whereunto, denying themselves, they have been delivered, rather seeking to be good, then seeming to be so. 2. For object: Every true child of God obeys his father in all, as well as in any part or point of duty. He is a doer of righteousness, 1 Joh. 3.10. a fulfiller of all righteousness, Mat. 3. something (at least) he is doing at it, as he is able (and this distinguisheth him from a child of the devil, saith St. John ) he follows after it (as Solomon's expression is) as a man follows his trade, wherein use makes mastery: he lifts at the latch, though he cannot do open the door: he shows his good will, and is humbled for his failing: when either he misseth of his work, or mars it in the manner. So purifying himself by the practice of mortification, as God is pure, in some truth of resemblance, and all out of a right hope, that he is his child, 1 Joh. 3.2, 3.

Constantly, and unweariably. A good child will be serviceable to his father, in whatsoever he can, so long as they two shall live together. Semblaby, [ 5] God's children serve him in righteousness and holiness, all the days of their lives. Thus David, as he swore himself to God's service, and promised to dwell in his house forever, without shifting his service, so he performed it accordingly: for he served out his whole time, as an Apprentice to the trade, Act. 13.36, 22. and spent all his days (after he was once bound) in doing all the wills of God, one as well as other.

Lastly, unanimously with the rest of his fellow-servants, with one consent, [ 6] and one shoulder, as the scripture speaketh, Zeph. 3.9. observing our Lord's last charge, the same in effect with that of Joseph to his brethren: Fall not out by the way, but be at peace among yourselves, loving one another out of a pure heart fervently. For, by this shall yourselves know, that ye are my children, 1 Joh. 3.10, 13. and by this shall all men know, that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another: and seal up this love by stirring up yourselves, among yourselves, to love and good works.

Lo, These are the signs of such a servant of God as he will own for a son, and account of as a Jewell to be made up in his Magazine. If ye be such, ye are made forever: As if otherwise

SECT. VII. Settle this, that ye are God's children, and how.

MY second Exhortation is, that ye give no rest to your eyes, nor sleep to your ey-lids, till you have secured and settle this to yourselves: it being a matter of that moment, that without nothing can be safe, nothing comfortable. Now to become children of God there is no other way under heaven, then to pass thorough the narrow womb of repentance, and be born again. For flesh and blood cannot inherit: and all unrighteous persons are utterly excluded from the benefit of Adoption, 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. And yet such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. And how justified? but by the name, that is, by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended by faith, which adopts as well as justifies? And how sanctified? but by the spirit of our God, whose office and operation it is, to transfuse the divine nature into us, and to erect that fair fabric of the new man in our hearts for a temple to himself; that he may dwell in us, and walk in us, yea secretly and sweetly say to us, being now separated from all il I courses and companies, I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

SECT. VIII. Let all God's children know their Father: and how.

INstruction to all such as are received into the number of God's children, [Use 4] as ever they expect his blessing, or respect their birth-right, to discharge that duty that this dignity calls for.

And first to know their father: So to know God as a child doth his father, not only with an apprehensive but an effective knowledge, that unites the heart unto him, labors not only after an union, but a unity with him. We are all by nature like runagate children, who would never have kept near their parents house, but assembled themselves by troops, in harlots houses, with the prodigal, where whoredom and wine, and new wine hath taken away our hearts: the things of this life are so near and natural to us, so present and pleasant, that we cannot ascend into heaven to learn wisdom, to get the knowledge of the Holy One, Prov. 30.3, 4. The spirit of fornication hath so besotted us, that we have not so much as a mind to look toward God. Hence that complaint. I have brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the asse his masters crib, but Israel doth not know; my people doth not consider. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father &c? But there is none that understandeth, and seeketh God, none that stirrith up himself to take hold of God &c. Gracelesse and heedless imps we are all, that will not once take knowledge our of father, or cry after him though lost, as Micah did after his lost idols: albeit we have so tasted of his sweetness, and he hath said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by his name. But thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy fathers, yea God thy father: for, I will be his father and he shall be my son, said the Lord to David. 2 Sam. 7.14. We use to say (and we have it from the Greeks) that he is a wise child that knows his father. But he is no child of God, that knows not him for his father. I write unto you babes, saith St. John, because ye have known the father. Loe he is not yet a babe in Christ that hath not some knowledge of this, that God is his father. True it is that the most gray headed, and most experienced Christian knows but in part, and imperfectly, because he is taught but lamely, we prophecy in part 1 Cor. 13.9. we see here but as in a glass obscurely, we see but God's back-parts, the later end of his train: we hear of him here by the hearing of the ear, but it is no more then as the later end of a sentence, or so much only as the Echo resounds. But we must be getting and growing in this grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the brightness of his fathers glory, and the express image of his person. The beam of the Sun is not so like the body of the Sun, the character on the wax is not so like the seal that imprints it, nay milk is not so like milk, as Christ is like his father. He is up and down the self-same that his Father is: they differ in nothing, but that the one is the father, and not the son, the other is the son, and not the father. Hence that of our Savior to Philip, when he said, Lord show us the father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us the Father?

The very same All-powerful God, who in fellowship of his sacred person hath a soul and body glorified, the same spiritual nature is the nature of the Father: As if the same soul and body that is in you, were communicated with the person of your child. Well might our Savior therefore say, If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also. John 14.7. Oh learn and labor therefore to profit more and more in the mystery of Christ, to know him better in his natures, in his offices, in his works both of Abasement and Advancement, of Humiliation and Exaltation: but especially to know him as St. Paul did (for the other you may easily know out of every Catechism) to know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.10. This is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus ver. 8. this is life eternal John. 17.3. We know no more of God and his will, then we practice, and have experience of: Christ is said to know no sin, because he did none: and Eli's sons knew not the Lord; (though priests) because they feared him not: they detained the truth, they knew, in unrighteousness, as those Philosophers did Rom. 1.18.

SECT. IX. Let them thankfully acknowledge his free grace in their adoption: and why.

A Second duty we owe to God as his children is thankful acknowledgement of that never-enough adored depth of his singular love in our Adoption. The absolute and independent freedom of his grace herein was such, that without any the least color of cause, or show of reason in us, without any defect on his part or desert on ours, He drew us out of the most vile and servile condition that could be, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. David was to be gathered to his fathers, and it was therefore a singular favor to him that he should have children to sit upon his throne after him. But God is the King immortal, as St. Paul stiles him, the everlasting Father, as Isaiah, and therefore needs no son to succeed him. But if he did, he had a son of his own as like him as is possible, whom also he hath set as King upon his holy hill of Zion. Amongst men, those that have children of their own, if they adopt another man's child, it is commonly because their own are unfit for succession either from some bodily weakness as not likely to leave issue, or for baseness of spirit, and badness of behavior, as uncapable and unfit for government. Now none of all this can without horrible blasphemy be said of the Lord Christ. But admit the case had so stood with God, that it had been requisite he should have adopted any for his sons, and heirs, the good Angels might have drawn away his affection from us by their holiness, or the evil angels his compassion, for their wretchedness: or he could, for a need, of very stones have raised up children to himself, to be heirs of his kingdom in Christ. It was his will only, and nothing else, that moved his will to set his love upon us, as we may see both in the type Deut. 7.7. and in the truth E • h. 1.5. Surely as there was no defect or need in him, so there was as little merit or desert in us. For whereas in the civil adoption (as when Pharaohs daughter adopted Moses, Mordecai adopted Esther, Jacob the two sons of Joseph ) there is something in the Adopted that moveth the Adoptant: cither some outward inducement, as kindred, beauty, favor &c. or some inward, as the gifts of the mind, understanding, ingenuity, hopefulnes &c. there was nothing at all in us to move God to such a mercy. For outward respects, there was neither kindled to m •• te him (for our father was an Amorite, our mother a Hittite: we were the sons of the perverse rebellious woman, as Saul reproached Jonathan ) nor yet beauty to entice him, for we were in our blood, in our blood, in our blood, when he spread the skirt of his garment over us, and said unto us, Live. Blood is so many several times there named, to note our extreme filthiness: so little amiable were we when he set his love upon us.

And for any inward motive, grace (which is the only thing that God looks after Psal. 14.2.) is not at all to be found in the natural man. Nay he stands acrosse, and is quite contrary to it; as being acted and agitated by the devil, and held captive, as a slave by him, at his pleasure. Loe this was our estate, thus the Lord found us when he came to adopt us. And indeed Adoption (to speak properly, as it is a borrowed term from the civil law) imports as much. For it is the raking of one fo • a son, who is, for present, in some servitude to another. And so Lawyers distinguish it from Arrogation, which is, say they, the choosing of one for a son that is free, his own man, & not under the command of another. But such (alas) was not our case: for both Jews and Gentiles were shut up under sin, fist shut up close prisoners in the devils dungeon, whose works we did, as slaves, and could not but do them, whose image we bear, as sons, and could not but resemble him: being as like the devil, as if we had been sp • tout of his mouth, and had perished together with him in our own filth and blood like that forlorn infant, Ezek. 16. had not he of his mere grace and goodness, when it was thetime of loves, said unto us, Live, yea when we were weltering in our blood, he said Live. Oh let the deep and due consideration of this matchless mercy and free favor ravish and affecti ••• hearts, to greatest cheerfulness and thankfulness: let it swallow up an •••• o • tents, and make us send up many an humble, joyful, and praisefull heart to him.

SECT. X. Let them honor their father: and how.

A Third duty we are to perform to God as a father is Reverence, according to that in the Prophet, A son honoreth his father. If then I be a father, where's mine honor? and that in the Decalogue, Honor thy father and thy mother, which, saith St. Paul, it the first commandment with promise. Promise, I say, of long life to him that (by honoring them) lengtheneth his parents life. Reverence and loving respect to parents never went unrecompenced, as in Japheth, Isaac, Ruth, others: much less shall that to God: for, them that honor him he will honor.

Here then we are 1. to have an high and honorable esteem of God in our hearts: lifting up, and laying open those everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in, and come in state, in his own likeness. Ignorant people cast him into a dishonorable mould as it were: they have bald and base conceits of God: they think him altogether such a one as themselves, or worse: they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man &c. they dishonor him, and therefore he gives them up to passions of dishonor, or vile affections. For as a king will take it ill to be entertained no otherwise by his subjects, when he comes amongst them, then if he were some Knight or meaner man: so will God, when we have low conceptions of him, when we glorify him not as God, when we enlarge not his room, and let him in-dwell richly in us, when we conceive not of him as the only potentate; represent him not to our thoughts in the apprehension of one that is in and of himself All-sufficient, Omnipotent, only wise, and in Christ our most merciful father, yet still our father in heaven; who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works: whom therefore if we call father we must pass the whole time of our sojourning here (till he send for us home) infear. Lo this is to honor God in our hearts. And this is that. that is required so often in scripture, under the term of magnifying God, or making him great, and of glorifying God, or making him glorious: so he is pleased to account of it, when we get so far, as to conceive of him above all creatures: and that is when he comes into our hearts as a king of glory, far above all the glory that can be found in earthly princes.

2. We must honor him in our speeches, both to him, and of him.

1. In our prayers to God, we must take unto us words, neither too curious, nor too careless, we must speak supplications, with the poor publican, we must address ourselves unto him in lowliest manner, as the Prodigal did, Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am no more worthy to be called thy child. A servants place in thine house is too good for me. Briefly, our words to God in prayer must be, as the words use to be of a child to his father, humble, earnest, and direct to the point, avoiding vam babblings This is to be sober in prayer 1 Pet. 4.3. when considering that God is in heaven, and we on earth, considering the infinite distance, and disproportion between him and us, therefore our words are few. We are allowed to parle with God by prayer, to use an holy and humble familiarity, and to come boldly unto the throne of grace; but yet we must so couch our petitions, that all needless heartless repetitions, superfluous endless digressions, tedious and unnecessary prolixities be carefully avoided. Humble and pithy prayer finds freer access to God, and returns with better success to us.

2. As we must thus honor our heavenly father in our speeches to him, so in our speeches also of him to others. Take heed, that we take not up that great and terrible name of his, unreverently, lightly, loosely, disrespectfully: for he hath vowed that he will hold none guiltless, he hath sworn that no vain swearers, or other dishallowers of his name shall ever enter into his kingdom. Reviling of parents was banishment by Plato's laws, death by God's laws Exod 21.17. How shall they escape that bore thorough the glorious and dreadful name of God, tossing it in their common talk as filthy dogs do stinking carrion; that swear in •• st and not in judgment; that play with oaths as apes do with nuts, not considering that there is a large roll of ten yard; long and five yards broad full of curses against the swearer, and that shall rest upon his house, which he calls his castle, and where he thinks himself most secure. Zach. 5.2. Oh what will become of those hellish mouths that belch out blasphemies against him. (whom yet they daily call Our father which art in heaven ) so ordinarily and so openly, that some of them are become very inter ections of specch to the vulgar, and other-somemere phrases of gallantrey to the braver, as one complaineth. How should we grieve at this, as those good men did when David was reviled by Shimei, how should our hearts rise to hear our heavenly father thus dishonored? surely good blood will not belie itself.

3. God is to be honored as a father in our whole conversation, remembering that we are ever in his eye: and should therefore walk before him in an holy bashfulness, as ashamed and afraid to do anything unworthy of his presence, or that may give him discontent. It was ordered in Moses law, that when any went forth of the camp to ease nature, they should dig a hole with a paddle, and cover their excrements: And why? For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, therefore shall it be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee Deut. 23.13, 14. Now there was more in this law, then every man looks unto. Sin is the souls excrements: St. James therefore calls it the superfluity of naughtiness, in reference to the dung of the beasts that were slain in sacrifice. Now God is of purer eyes then to behold sin with patience, in his own especially: for can two wall • together and they not be agreed? David is grievously threatened for despising God his father, that is, for daring to do that before him, that he would not have done before a child of a dozen years-old. Cornelius and his company set themselves as in God's view, looked him full in the face, and carried themselves accordingly: so must we, remembering that all things are naked and open before the eyes of him, with whom we have to do. Jacob feared to displease his father; lest he should get himself a curse, and not a blessing: yea that profane Esau would not offer to attempt anything against Jacob his brother during his fathers days, for fear of displeasing him. Epaminondas rejoiced in nothing more, then that he had done noble exploits, and attained great victories: whiles his parents were yet alive, that they might share with him in the comfort and credit thereof. Oh let it be our constant care so to carry ourselves, that we may not shame our fathers house, as Solomon's fool, but to get him honor from others Mat. 5.16. that they may see and say that we are the seed that the Lord hath blessed Isaiah 61.9. It is not for noble men's sons to be lingering and lodging in the stable or gate-house, (that's a place for grooms and hinds) much less to be found filling muck-cart. the No more doth it suit with the sons of God to be loading themselves with thick clay, to have their hands elbow-deep in the world, to busy themselves about many things with neglect of the one thing necessary, to run sqeaking up and down the world, as rats and mice good for nothing but to devour victuals. This is not to walk worthy of God their father, and of Christ their elder brother.

SECT. XI. Let them resemble their father, and wherein.

GOds children must resemble him, as well as reverence him. The child is but the father multiplied; the father of the second Edition, as One speaketh, like him ordinarily, both in countenance and condition. The Pharisees were so like their fathers they were the worse again. Isaac trod in his fathers foot-steps, and heyred him, even in his infirmities, Gen. 26.7. Constantine's sons exactly resembled their father in his good parts and practices. We must also be followers of God as dear children. 1. In light, 1 Joh. 1.5. being transparent as a crystal glass with a light in the midst of it. 2. In love, Ephes. 5.1, 2. for have we not all one father, Mal. 2.10. Ephes. 4.5, 6. love therefore as brethren, 1 Pet. 3.8. fall not out by the way, Gen. 45.24. let there be no difference, for we are brethren, and the Canaanite is in the land Gen. 13.7, 8. How can we look our father in the face, or expect his blessing, when we know that he knows there is dissention amongst us? Oh how happy and pleasant a thing it is, brethren to be at unity; there surely it is that God commands the blessing Psal. 133.1, 3. He never came at Abraham that we read of till the breach betwixt him and Lot was made up again; live therefore at peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 3. In mercy Luk. 6.36. loving them that hate us, blessing them that curse us, doing good to them that persecute us: for so shall we be the children of our heavenly father, who doth good both to the just, and to the unjust, causeth his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, not only upon flowers, and fruit-trees, but also upon briers and thorns of the wilderness, such incarnate devils, as march up and down the earth with hearts and hands as full as hell, with all manner of malice and mischief. Such a child of God was Elisha that feasted his enemies, & Steven that prayed for his persecutors, and that Martyr, that when he could not obtain a fair hearing before Steven Gardner, cried out. Send me to my prison again among my frogs and toads which will not interrupt me, whiles I pray for your Lordships conversion. 4. In sanctifying the Sabbath, Exod. 20.11. Isaiah 56.5.6. by resting not only from corporal labor, but spiritual idleness: as God rested on that day from creating, and yet works hitherunto in preserving and upholding all things by the word of his power. The baser sort of people in Sweth-land do always break the Sabbath, saying that its only for gentlemen to keep that day. And in many places amongst us God's sabbaths are made the voyder and dunghill for all refuse businesses. But the Pharisees (taking it for granted that Christ had done that he could not justify on that day, (where in they were mistaken) rightly conclude: If this man were of God he would not have broke the Sabbath day: this not the guise of God's children. 5. Lastly, in all holy life and pure conversation, according to that, Be ye holy as I am holy, pure as I am pure, perfect as I am perfect. Our lives should be as so many visible commentaries upon Christ's life: we should preach forth his virtues, and express him to the world in all his imitable praises, and practices. Then we are said to walk in Christ, yea, to walk as Christ walked, when we resemble him; not as an image doth a man in out-ward lineaments only, but as a son doth his father in nature and disposition, in affection and action. Our utmost good consists in communion with God, and conformity to him: in keeping inward peace with him that he abhor us not, because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters Deut. 33.13. and in seeking and keeping (if it be possible, and as much as in us lies) peace with all men, and holiness; for such shall both see God (which is not every man's privilege,) and be counted and called the sons of God Math. 5.10. they shall have both the comfort and credit of divine Adoption.

SECT. XII. Let them love their Father: and how to express their love.

IF God be our Father, it's but fit we should love him; God having tied parents and children together with cords of love, saith Nazianzen. Love, I grant, though of a fiery nature, yet (contrary to the nature of fire herein) descends rather then ascends. Hence, grandfathers oft love their grandchildren better then their own. But love should (and in good children doth) ascend also. It is but reason they should reciprocate, and return their parents love for love: do not publicans the same, Mat. 5.46? Do not our clothes warmed by us, warm us again? That God loves all his with a love more then Fatherly, hath been abundantly proved above. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. This is a sic without a sicut: there is no sufficient similitude in nature to express it by. Herein, if ever, he made naked unto us the bowels of his Fatherly affection, as in an anatomy. God so loved his Son, as he gave him all the world for his possession, Psal. 2. but he so loved the world, that he gave Son and all for its redemption. Thus (ô ye sinful sons of men) God's bowels are open unto you, his heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in him, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same, (he speaks unto you as unto his children) be ye also enlarged. Amate amorem illius, saith St. Bernard. Oh love, that love of his, who for love of thee coupled his love to thy love, by abasing himself, by advancing thee, by uniting the light of his eternity to the mire of thy mortality. Whom therefore having not seen, ye love, saith Peter, 1 Epist. 1.8. and My love was crucified, said Ignatius. And, I love thee dearly, O Lord my God, saith David. And again, O how I love thy law! O how amiable are thy Tabernacles! he even wondereth at his own love, and vents himself by an exclamation. For, Amor Dei est extaticus, nec se sirit esse sui juris, saith One. There is a twofold love, (and both due to him in whom there is a concurrence of all attractives, and retentives of our love) 1. Of Desire; this is an earnest longing after that which we believe would do us much good, if we could attain to it. 2. Of Delight, or complacency, when having attained that which we desired, we hug and embrace it, and solace ourselves in the fruition of it. Now Christ, (the Everlasting Father, Isaiah 9.6.) must have both these, and that in the highest degree: For he is white and ruddy, white in his life, and ruddy in his death, the chief of ten thousand, or the standard-bearer of ten thousand. For as the tallest and goodliest men use to carry the Ensign, to display the Banner, or Standard: such is Christ: All excellency is invested in him, all good is conveyed unto us by him, all love is therefore due from us to him. We say that Majesty & love cannot dwell together, because love is the abasing of the soul to all services. But its otherwise in Christ. Majesty and love could cohabite in his heart, & hereof he gave us the best assurance, when the Lord of life was crucified to death. Love is most seen in suffering: as itself is a passion, so it is tried rather by passions then actions. He sealed up his love both by doing and dying for us: leaving us a Copy to write after, (as St. Peter hath it) to do whatsoever he bids us to forbear whatsoever heforbids us, and to lay down our dearest lives for his sake, if called thereunto, according to that: For thy sake are we slain all the day long, we are in deaths often. Ye were every hair of my head a man, (said Ardely the Martyr, to bloody Bonner ) I would suffer death in the opinion and faith I am now in. The heavens shall sooner fall, then I will forsake my Christ, said William Flower. My wife and my children are so dearly beloved unto me (said George Carpenter burnt at Munken ) that they cannot be bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the Duke of Bavaria: but for the love of my Lord Christ I will willingly forsake them. He that loveth father or mother more then me, is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more then me, is not worthy of me Math. 10.37. If a man hold not the Lord Christ worthy of more love then his dearest friends, he hath no part in him. All our love must be bestowed upon him as most worthy, there is not one particle of it to be bestowed on any other thing. But then he gives us our love again, and then we may disperse it here and there, and love other things: but no otherwise then as they convey love to us from Christ, and may be means of drawing up our affections to Christ. My love unto my Savior (saith one) although it came occasionally and impulsively from my love of myself, yet it is terminated principally in his glory, though accessorily likewise, as he is contented it should, in mine own happiness. But it is a kind of miracle (saith another) in evil, when we love other things besides God; or better then God, baser then ourselves: It is as much as if a river should turn backward. What a base thing is it for a man to suffer such a sweet stream as love, to run into such a sink? And a little after, It was a miracle, saith he, that the three young men should be in the midst of the furnace, and be there as if they were in another place, no hotter. And it is as much a miracle, that men should be in the midst of all encouragements to love God, and yet love anything more then God. He is absolutely good, and so is to be loved absolutely and for himself, but all other things in him, and for him, as our friends are to be loved in the Lord, and our foes for the Lord. This is childlike indeed.

SECT. XIII. Let them depend upon their Father, both for prevention of evil, and provision of good.

LAstly, learn we to depend upon God as a father, for both prevention of evil and provision of good. In nothing be careful, but in all things make your request known to God with thanksgiving, saith Paul. And mark, that he bids us bring our thanks together with our request, to have the one as ready as the other, for we are sure to speed. Why art thou then pale and lean from day today with carking cares, and disquieting fears of this or that danger? Art not thou the Kings son? and will he deny thee anything thou askest? Cast all thy care upon God, for he cares for thee. Roll both thyself upon him, and thy Gift upon him, saith David: that is, whatsoever thou wouldst that God should bestow upon thee, cast it first upon him by faith and it shall be effected: he shall bring it to pass. Away with the spirits of bondage to fear again: we have now received the spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba father: yea, for an unquestionable pledge of his infinite love, he hath given us his son: how shall he not then together with him, give us all things also? That's St. Paul's argument. If ye which are evil can give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give to them that ask of him? that's our Savior's argument. Whereunto let me add this.

God made himself known to be our gracious and provident Father, before we could know ourselves to be his children. He formed us in the womb, curdled us there like cheese, curiously wrought us in those lowermost parts of the earth, (as an Artificer, when he hath some special piece of work to do, retires into some private room out of the sight of others) whilst we were there, he filled two bottles of milk for our entertainment into the world: whereinto we no sooner came, but he entered into covenant with us, to be our God and Father: he signed and sealed this covenant by the Sacrament of Baptism, the solemn seal of our adoption: And all this before ere we knew what was done unto us. And will he now forget to do us good, when we know and acknowledge him, when we pray unto him, and by faith depend upon him? It is not possible. He feeds the fowls, and clothes the lilies, to whom he is no father: And will he not much more do so for you, Oh ye, mall faiths. A child whiles he hath his fathers favor cares for nothing; never troubles himself to think where he shall have his next meal, or a new suit of clothes: let him but please his father, and those things shall be provided to his hand. Again, let a child walk in dark and dangerous places, so long as he hath hold of his father he fears not. Did we but stir up ourselves to take hold of God, we should be secure, yea though we walked in the vale of the shadow of death, with David: we should never be heard to say, (as Heathens that have no interest in God) What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewith shall we be clothed? so long as our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things, and will not fail to provide them in a competent measure. The men of God's hand, it may be, shall have more then we, because they have their portion here with the prodigal. But we need not envy them that: for it is but an estate for life, granted them in the utmost and most remote part of our inheritance. Will a child think much a father should give a pension for life, out of this, or that, whiles he hath far greater things left him; yea the inheritance also of that, out of which an annuity is granted for a time to some other? Children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children, saith the Apostle. And, Oh how great things, saith the Prophet, hast thou laid up in store for them that fear thee! Now, will he give us a crown, and deny us a crust? provide heaven for us, and with-hold earth from us? Ask only and it shall be given you: the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. In your Fathers house is bread enough. Shall the prodigal call so confidently for his child's part? shall Esau go so roundly to his father for the blessing? And do we stand doubting whether we were best speak, or hold our tongues? and not fall down with Esther before Ahasuerus, or with Achsah before her father Caleb, and beg the upper-springs of spiritual blessings, and the nether-springs of temporal comforts? which he with-holds, haply, for a time, with an unwilling willingness, that he may hear of us, and have our prayers: which, though never so poor and imperfect, yet he is much taken with, as a natural parent is with the prattling, and stammering of his own, above all the plain speech of all the children in the Town besides.

SECT. XIV. Comfort of Adoption: where are shown the Privileges of sons, privative, and positive.

COmfort to all God's faithful servants: [Use 5] they are sons and daughters to the Almighty: and count you that a small matter? Is it nothing to be son-in-law to a king, saith David? What pains did Jacob take night and day to be but son-in-law to Laban, who changed his wages ten times, and ever for the worse: Joseph and Daniel were for their good service highly advanced, but not adopted. But every servant of God is a son, and every son an heir. Great was the glory of our first Parents in Paradise, had they held it: and yet if they had, what had they gotten, more then a confirmation of their present estate, or at most, the reward of their service, wages for their work? they could never have attained to this honor, to be the sons of God. This St. John in his gospel calls a dignity, an eminency, a royalty. And in his first epistle, he stands and wonders, as transported with an ecstasy of admiration at it 1 John. 3.1. And well he might: For this (saith the psalmist) is to be set above the Kings of the earth, it interesteth and inrighteth a man to the inheritance of heaven and earth. The possession of the earth is as yet detained from God; children by the wicked for a time, as the promised land was from Israel by the Amorites: but they have great things meanwhile in reversion, even heaven with all its happiness, whither they may comfortably look up and boast, on better ground then Nebuchadnezzar did of his Babel, Is not this mine inheritance? Am I not kept by the power of God to that salvation reserved for me in the heavens? Yea they may comfortably lift up their eye (as God b • d Abraham, toward heaven, and tell the stars if he were able) so they their glorious privileges. This, Moses well understood, and therefore chose rather to suffer as a son, then to scape as a bastard, he prefer'd the reproach of Christ before the honor of being the son of Pharaohs daughter, and the possibility of being heir to two kings, as Josephus relates it. He was faithful in all God's house as a servant: but that was not all. For the servant abideth not in the house forever, as the son doth. Moreover, the kings of the earth take tribute of their servants and subjects, but their children go free Mat. 17.26. Behold, God's children are all manumitted by Christ, and possessed of a twofold freedom.

1. Privative from the dominion, and damnation of sin, from the rigor and irritation of the law, from the captivity and cruelty of the devil, from the danger of death, and horror of hell &c. This is a privilege far beyond that of a citizen of Rome, which yet might neither be suffered to beg, nor be bound with thongs Act. 22.29. And this is that the Apostle calls the glorious liberty of the sons of God, as elsewhere he couples Adoption with glory Rom. 9.4. includes it in glory Rom. 8.30. and puts it for glory Rom. 8.23. Freed God's children are not (I confess,) of crosses and corrections, for then were they bastards and not sons. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, but he never leaveth them orphans, helpless, comfortless. In the midst of desertion (the sorest kind of affliction) they may, nay they must call him Father, and ask him blessing. Isaiah 64.7, 8, 9. and he knows not how to say them nay, coming unto him in that name, and under that notion. Should a parent see his sick child pant and look pitifully, cry out (as once the Shunamites son to his father) O my head, my head! my heart is sick, my head is heavy. I am weary with pains: what shall I do? where shall I rest? &c. He could not turn his back upon him and neglect his moans: much less could he continue to strike him, lifting up his feeble hands for mercy, and looking upon him with watery eyes; but would rather set himself to seek out, and to do him all possible ease and comfort. And shall not the God of all mercy, and the Father of all consolation pity his poor children that are distressed, or diseased, and send deliverance? Will he not melt over his child, and burn his rod (Will he not hold him up with one hand as he did Jacob, when he beats him down with the other? will he not look through the chinkers to see how we do, when he hath shut us up close prisoners? will he not deal by us as the mother deals by her littleone, makes him believe she will cast him away to the puttock, or pitch him headlong into the pool, when yet she keeps fast hold on him?

2. Positive, and so he is made a free-denison of Jerusalem that is above, and possessed of all the privileges of that supernal city. See a brief extract of them in that 1 1 Cor. 3.22, 23. All things are yours? A very large charter; All illuminations, inspirations, gifts and graces of the spirit, gifts of God's ministers and the abler sort of Christians, all these are not more their own then yours to use; you have title to them, and interest in them, and may claim them for your own: Whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, you are heirs of it together with faithful Abraham: Or life, grace to spend it well, or death, to the wicked a trap-door to hell, but to the saints an inlet into eternal happiness, or things present, all occurrences are sanctified to you, or things to come, heaven waits for you, hell hath nothing to do with you. Thus all is yours, as the Apostle there reiterates it, though not in possession (unless it be in our Head) yet in use, in right or by way of reduction, as we say, the worst things are God's children's: they are heirs of the kingdom saith James, heads destinated to the diadem, saith Tertullian. Their privileges as sons, are fitter to be believed, then possible to be discoursed. And this should make them hold up their heads, but not too high, and be cheerful, but not, withal, scornful.

SECT. 1.2.3.4. Reasons from God, out of Micah. 7.18, 19.

THis is no new doctrine for (besides that the Text is for us in so many words almost) the man whose eyes are open hath said it, He hath said, who heard the words of God, who saw the visions of the Almighty; God seeth no iniquity in Jacob, nor transgression in Israel. See he doth ('tis true) for he is all eye, and all things are naked and open before him. Yea he seeth enough in the best to provoke the eyes of his glory. For though the crow think her own bird whitest, and some parents can see nothing amiss in their children, as David in his Adonijah: yet he charged his Angels with felly, and the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm &c. He is neither so blind as not to behold, nor so fond as not to mislike the least fault in his best child. For he is of more pure eyes then to behold evil in whomsoever, with approbation: he cannot look on iniquity, and not show his displeasure. All which notwithstanding, the truth of this point is irrefragable, and the text alleged is no less firm then plain for us: God seeth no sin in his children. For, besides that, he will never throw them to hell, (which is the just hire of the least sin) it's often seen, that he never so much as corrects them, no not with the rods of men, for innumerable failings and infirmities.

But winking at small faults, as we say, nay passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage, like as a father pitieth his children, (and pardoneth them their childishness) so the doth lord pity them that fear him. Lo, he pitieth them, not punisheth them. Or if he do proceed to correction (as he must other whiles, such is our frowardness) yet amidst all, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth we are but dust, a peace of earth neately made up, that we carry our souls as a light in a paper-lantern, that our breath in our nostrils, is every moment ready to puff out, and that therefore if he should always chide, the spirit would fail before him, we should soon faint, and swoon under his hands; wherefore he deals not with us after our sins, nor rewards us according to our iniquities. But as a man chasteneth his son (saith Moses, and he would have us wisely to consider of it too) so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Deut. 8.5. Break their stomachs he will, but not their bones: their hearts but not their heads. And albeit they, (such is their peevishness under the rod) give up all for lost, and make desperate conclusions upon their corrections, as Gideon did, yet the foundation of God remaineth sure, The Lord knoweth who are his, he knows their souls in adversity. I said in my haste, I am cast out of thy sight. Here was a poor prayer. And yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer (poor though it were) when I cried unto thee Psal. 31.22. So Zion (when under the lash) sud, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, she may forget, and some Tigresses have done it, yet I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands &c. Look how a natural mother turns her child out of doors for dabbling himself, or some other shrewd turn, and with a thump on the back bids it be gone a begging, yet when the child begins once to make a lip, whimper and set up his lure, she takes him in again, and puts him in her bosom: the very like dealing we may read of in God with Ephraim, his dear son, his pleasant child Hos. 13.1, 2, 3. &c. Ephraim of trembling and tender conscienced became a flagicious offender, a desperate idolater. Ver. 1.2, And was not it high time then to take him in hand? therefore, they shall be as the morning cloud, as the early dew, as the chaff before the whirl-wind, as the smoke out of the chimney. No less then utter desolation is threatened against them. But the Lord soon repents him concerning his servants, witness the words following. Yet I am the Lord thy God, from the land of Egypt: I am thy sole savior. Here's now mercy in the midst of judgment. Oh but they abuse mercy, forget their God and sin again: Ver. 6. Why therefore God threateneth them again with a more terrible judgment, Vers. 7, 8. Behold I will be unto them as a Lion, and a leopard, as a bear bereft: I will rent the kell of their hearts, and devour them. Oh fearful condition! who would ever think of such, but as of deplored and desperate, yet see the sequel. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. Ver. 9. Thou hast done thy utmost utterly to undo thyself, but yet I have thought of a way for thy help, I will be thy king: where is any other that would save thee (as I do) in all thy cities? And albeit thou art an unwise son, yet I will bind up thine iniquity (as a cancelled bond) and hide thy sin Ver. 12. And although the travels of a sorrowful woman be upon thee, such is thy dullness in not coming off roundly with God work (with those lively Israelitish women, Exod. 1.19.) but staying too long in the birth, which might justly be thy death, as it was Rac • else, yet I will ransom thee from the power of the grave, I will redeem thee from death. Ver. 14. Ey but for how long? might they say: I shall be (likely) breaking out again, and then thou wilt undo me, after thou hast done me good. No, saith God, repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. He will not cast away a perfect man, saith Bildad Job 8.20. The Lord will not cast off forever, saith Jeremiah, but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, according to the multitude (or, the magnitude) of his mercies. And this was that miracle that amused, so and amazed the Prophet Micah, chap. 7.18. who is a God, saith he, like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever. And will ye know a reason? That text supplies us with two, (for failing) and both from God. 1. He delights in mercy. 2. He provides for his own glory; as occasioning hereby his pardoned people to praise him, for present, saying as here who is a God like unto thee &c. and to trust him for future. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us &c. Thou wilt perform thy truth to Jacob. &c. ver. 19.20.

SECT. II. The reasons are of two sorts. First respecting God.

[Reas 1] FIrst, God will, father-like, pity and pardon his poor people, because he delights in mercy. Now delight will do anything as we say. If the sun delight to run his race, who shall stop him? If Solomon delight to search out the secrets of wisdom, what shall be hid from him? If Somson delight in Daliance, what will h not dare to do for it? if Ahashueroh delight in Esther, what may not she have of him? If the Lord delight in us saith Caleb, then be will bring us into this land of giants, and give it us. As, if he hath no delight in me, said David, behold here I am, let him do to me, as seemeth good to him. But now the Lord doth delight in every David, and will show him, yea, seal up unto him the sure mercies of day. He delights in mercy saith the Prophet: yea, such a mercy, saith the Apostle, he rejoiceth against judgment, and glories over it, as over his adversary whom he hath subdued. Hence it was that he erected himself of old, not a judgment-seat, but a mercy-seat in the midst of his people, as one that settled himself to show them mercy. When the Judge sat him down in the gates of Israel, it was to do justice. When the scorner sits him down in the chair of pestilence, he will scoff to some purpose: so now that God sits in his mercy-seat, he will surely show mercy with ease, yea a multitude of mercies. When a man hath settled himself in his seat, it's supposed he is at ease, and a small matter shall not raise him. God is never more at ease, (as I may say) and better pleased, then when he is in his mercy-seat, in his throne of grace. Hence he is said to rise out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Isaiah 26.21. and to do his work his strange work, when he is to do justice. Isaiah. 28.21. It is an act neither so proper to him, for it is his strange work, nor so pleasant to him, for he riseth out of his place to do it, which is a kind of diseasement, and a pain, to him especially, from whom mercy flows as freely and as naturally as light from the sun, honey from the comb, water from the well-spring. He quits himself in it, as well apaid thereof, he rests in his love, and will seek no farther Zeph. 3.17. This mercy-seat was the cover of the Ark, where the two tables of the Law lay: to note the blessedness of those that receive mercy, their iniquity is forgiven, their sin is covered. Again from this mercy-seat, scituate not between the Seraphim, (those flaming executioners of justice Isa. 6.) but between the Cherubims, as ministers of mercy, the Lord shown himself, and gave forth the lively oracles, as St. Steven stiles them. Once he spake from the burning bush, or smoking mountain, so terrible that Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake; This was mount Sina in Arabia. But we are come to mount Zion &c. and upon all the glory now there is a covering, or mercy-seat Isa. 4.5. The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, Rev. 21.3. Jerusalem (which is from above) is now called the throne of the Lord, and all nations flock unto it, Jer. 3. God puts them among the children of his love, and saith to each of his, Thou shalt call me, my father, and shalt not turn away from me. Therefore are they before the throne of God (answerable to the ancient mercy-seat) serving him day and night in his temple. Rev. 7.15. Where the Angel of his presence Jesus Christ offers their services, pouring in of his incense with the prayer of all Saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne Rev. 8.3. And hence it is, that the good Lord pardoneth everyone that prepareth his heart to seek God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary: that he winks at small-faults, shall I say? and spares them as a man spares his own son that serves him? nay that he pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by transgression or treason: he retaineth not his anger forever (seem he never so much displeased) and all because mercy pleaseth him: which puts the prophet to his pathetical exclamation by way of wonderment. Who is a God like unto thee &c.

SECT. III.

ANd that is the rise of our second Reason from God, [Reas. 2] who therefore spares his people, as a father his child, that they may 1. praise him for present, yea forever: that he may fill their mouths with laughter and their tongues with triumph: that they may say among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them: that they may say among the saints, Their Rock is not as our Rock, our enemies themselves being judges. Oh who is God like unto thee • The God's of the Nations are idols. And we know that an idol is nothing, and that of nothing, nothing comes: of such dung-hill deities no mercy is to be expected, they cannot work beyond the sphere of their activity. But our God is in the heavens, and as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. He is a great God, and a great King above all God's. And as himself is great, so is his mercy, and so also is his glory. For, according to thy name O Lord, so also is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Now what is God's name? Hear it from his own mouth. Jehovah, Jehovah, God, merciful and gracious &c. forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, that is, all sorts of sins though never so heavy, never so heinous: Natural pollution, actual transgression, stifneckt presumption; all sins, and blasphemies shall be forgiven to the sons of men, saith our Savior: how much more the involuntary slips of the saints, their unavoidable infirmities, their sins of daily incu • sion, for which also there is provided a pardon of course, it needs no more but suing out. It is the glory of a man to pass by a transgression, saith Solomon Prov. 19.11. And it makes no less for the glory of God, that he pardons the iniquity of his people, that he multiplieth pardons, as they multiply sins Isaiah 55.7. that where grace aboundeth, then doth grace superabound, or abounds to flowing over, as the word there signifieth: that they cannot commit more, then he will remit. Surely hereby the power of our Lord appears to be exceeding great, and, as true as he liveth, all the earth is thereby filled with the glory of the Lord, as it is Num. 14.17, 19, 21. He maketh his wonderful works to be remembered, saith the Psalmist, and that, in nothing more then this, that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion Psal. 111.4. This makes his people sing and shout Hallelujah, O praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

SECT. IIII.

NExt, [Reas. 3] as they praise him for the present, so they trust him for the future (which is the greatest honor they can do him, as the thistle in Jonathan's parable could tell Judge. 9.15.) since every former mercy is a pledge of a future, and every old mercy draws on a new (as the links do one another in a chain) if we break not off their course by our unbelief and diffidence. O continue thy loving kindness, saith David. It is in the Hebrew, O draw out thy loving kindness to the full length. God's mercies to his are a continued series, there is a concatenation, a connection between them. As a spring runneth after it hath run, so doth God spare his, after he hath spared them. The eye is not weary of seeing, nor the ear of hearing, no more is God of showing mercy. Hence God's servants have usually argued from what they have had, to what they should have: as David, Paul, and the church here in Micah. She had praised God for his clemency in pardoning her sins, and there hence confidently concludeth for power against sin: If God will cover it, certainly he will cure it. The same mercy that moved him to pass by the transgression of his heritage, will make him turn again, and have further compassion upon us (say they) in subduing our sins, and casting them all, as a stone into the mighty waters, so that we shall see them no more, any otherwise then the Israelites saw the Egyptians, dead on the shore. And all this he will do for his truth and mercies sake to Jacob and Abraham, for his promise and covenants sake to our fathers of old. Our fathers trusted in thee, they hoped in thee and were not confounded. Oh who is a God like unto thee &c? All nations will walk everyone in the name of his God, we also will trust in the name of the Lord our God forever, and ever. And these are the reasons respecting God.

SECT. V. 6. Reasons respecting the Saints themselves, weo are 1. pure in heart. 2. perfect in Christ.

A second rank of Reasons respect the Saints, who are 1. Pure in heart 2. Perfect in Christ, and therefore spared, as a man spares his own son that serves him.

[Reas. 1] First, God's people are pure in heart: they are washed, they are justified, they are sanctified by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God. Now: Yet God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart, Psal. 73.1. Yet for all the sorrow: Yet for all their faults and frailties: which, forasmuch as they disallow, and disclaim, bewail and out-grow, therefore they are not laid to their charge. Job was a patient man, yea he is set forth as a pattern of patience, notwithstanding all his frowardness, notwithstanding he made so many knots, and brake his thread so oft as he did, God accounts of him as if he had spun an even thread of patience all the time of his temptation. David had his faults as great as another; and yet because he was upright in the main, God testifieth of him, that he had followed him with all his heart, and done only that that was right in his sight. 1 King. 14.8. Solomon at Gibeon climbs those disallowed hills, the high-places, and yet loves the Lord, and is loved of him. God will not see weaknesses, where he seeth truth: so pleasing a thing to him is sincerity in his service. With one breath doth God report both these: The high-places were not removed (that was a great fault no doubt) nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect all his days. Such is the mercy of our Gd to the pure in heart, to those that study purity, that he will not suffer our well-meant weaknesses to bereave us of his favor: he rather pitieth then plagueth his children for the infirmities of upright hearts. A slender service, a small chare, though but bungled at by child, is much set by of the father. And a bridegroom thinks nothing the worse of his bride, for a little dirt she hath got, being about some foul chare, it being such especially as she may wash off at pleasure. We have a fountain always open where we may wash and be clean, and a daily propitiation for daily transgression, even Jesus Christ the Righteous: in whom

SECT. VII. The Saints are perfect in Christ.

SEcondly, our wants are covered, and our works perfected and refined from all the filth and flesh that cleaves unto them. [Reas. 2] For although the Saints are not so pure in heart, but that their sanctification is still spotted and imperfect, yet their justification by Christ's righteousness imputed, is absolute, and without blemish: According to that, He hath made him to be sin, or sin-offering, for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Not that essential righteousness of God (as Osiander vainly dreamt) but that perfect obedience both active and passive, of the Son of God, performed unto his Father: by whom he is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, &c. yea, Jehovah our righteousness: Which one Name of his would answer all our doubts and objections, had we but skill to spell all the letters in it. This righteousness of Christ (made ours by imputation and acceptation) is that white raiment,