Explication of Psalm 110, Verse 1 (2 of 3)

Explication of Psalm 110 · Verse 1 (2 of 3)

p. 43Now farther touching this sending of the Holy Spirit (which together with Christs intercession was one of the principall ends of his ascending up unto the right hand of power) it may be here demanded, why the Holy Spirit was not before this exaltation of Christ sent forth in such abundance upon the Church? The maine reason wherof, next unto the purpose and decree of God into which all the acts of his wil are to be resolv'd, Eph. 1.11. is given by our Savior, Ioh. 14.16. Ioh. 16.7. Because he was to supply the corporall absence of Christ, and to be another comforter to the Church. Of which Office of the Spirit, (because it was one of the maine ends of his mission, and that one of the chiefe workes of Christs sitting at Gods right hand) I shall here, without any unprofitable, or impertinent digression, speake a little.

First, then the Spirit is a comforter, because an Advocate p. 44to his people; for so much the word signifies, and is else where rendered, 1 Ioh. 2.1. Now he is called another comforter or Advocate, to note the difference betweene Christ and the Spirit in this particular. There is then an Advocate by Office, when one person takes upon himselfe the cause of another, and in his name pleads it. Thus Christ by the Office of his Mediation, and intercession is an Advocate for his Church, and doth in his owne person in heaven apply his merits, and further the cause of our salvation with his Father. There is likewise an Advocate by energie and operation, by instruction and assistance, which is, not when a worke is done by one person in the behalfe of another, but when one by his counsell, inspiration, and assistance enableth another to manage his owne businesse, and to plead his owne cause. And such an Advocate the Spirit is,Interpellare dicitur pro nobis, quia nobis gemendi & interpellandi imponit affectum. August. Quod dicitur Spiritus Sanctus intercedere pro nobis, hoc non est ita intelligendum ac si ipsa persona spiritus immediate intercederet. Intercedit enim per gemitꝰ: porro non gemit spiritus, sed nos gemimus; itaque docendo hoc facit, efficiendo ut gemamus. Cameron. de Eccles. pag 98. who doth not intercede, nor appeare before God in person for us, as Christ doth: but maketh interpellation for men in and by themselves, giving them an accesse unto the Father, emboldning them in their feares, and helping them in their infirmities, when they know not what to pray, Eph. 2.18. Heb. 10.15.19. Rom. 8.26. Eph. 3.16.

First then, the Spirit as our Advocate justifieth our persons, and pleadeth our causes against the accusations of our spirituall enemies. For as Christ is our Advocate at the tribunall of Gods justice to plead our cause against the severitie of his Law, and that most Righteous and undeniable charge of sinne which he layeth upon us: so the Holy Spirit is our Advocate at the tribunall of Gods merciemercy, enabling us there to cleere our selves against the temptations, and murtherous assaults of our Spirituall enemies. The world accuseth us by false and slanderous calumniations, laying to our charge things which we never did; the Spirit in this case maketh us not onelyonly plead our innocencie, but to rejoyce in our fellowship with the Prophets which were before us, to esteeme the reproaches p. 45of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world, to count our selves happy in this, that it is not such low markes as we are which the malice of the world aimeth at, but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us, who is on their part evill spoken of, 1 Pet. 4.14. Satan, that grand accuser of the brethren, doth not onelyonly load my sinnes upon my conscience, but further endeavoreth to exclude me from the benefit of Christ by charging me with impenitencie and unbeliefe. But here the Spirit enableth me to cleere my selfe against the Father of lies. It is true indeed I have a naughty flesh, the seeds of all mischiefe in my nature; but the first means which brought me hereunto was the beleeving of thy lies, and therefore I will no longer entertaine thy hellish reasonings against mine owne peace. I have a Spirit which teacheth me to bewaile the frowardnesse of mine owne heart, to denie mine owne will & workes, to long and aspire after perfection in Christ, to adhere with delight and purpose of heart unto his Law, to lay hold with all my strength upon that pla…ck of salvation, which in this shipwrack of my soule is cast out unto me. These affections of my heart come not from the earthly Adam, for whatsoever is earthly, is sensuall and devillish too. And if they be holy and heavenly, I will not beleeve that God will put any thing of heaven into a vessell of Hell. Sure I am, he that died for me when I did not desire him, will in no wise cast me away when I come unto him. He that hath given me a will to love his service, and to leane upon his promises, will in mercy accept the will for the deed, and in due time accomplish the worke of holinesse which he hath begun. Thus the Spirit like an Advocate secureth his clients title, against the sophisticall exceptions of the adversarie, and when by temptations our eye is dimmed, or by the mixture of corruptions our evidences defaced, he by his skill helpeth our infirmities, and bringeth those things which are blotted p. 46out, and forgotten, into our remembrance againe.

Secondly, an Advocate admonisheth and directeth his client how to order and solicite his owne businesse, what evidences to produce, what witnesses to prepare, what offices to attend, what preparations to make against the time of his hearing: so the Spirit doth set the hearts of beleevers in a right way of negotiating their Spirituall affaires, maketh them to heare a voyce behinde them, furnishing them with wisedome and prudence in every condition. How to grapple with temptations, how to serve God in all estates, when to reprove, direct, counsell, comfort, when to speake and when to be silent, when to let out and when to chaine up a passion, when to use, and when to forbeare libertie, how to prosecute occasions, and apply occurrences unto Spirituall ends, every where, and in all things strengthning and instructing us to mannage our hearts unto the best advantages of peace to our selves, and of glory to our Master, Esai. 30.21. Col. 1.9, 10. Phil. 4.12, 13. Eph. 4.20, 21.

Thirdly, an Advocate maketh up the failings of his client, and by his wisedome, and observation of the case, picketh out advantages beyond the instructions, and gathereth arguments to further the suite which his client himselfe observed not. So the Spirit, when we know not what to pray, when with Iehoshaphat we know not what to doe, when it may be in our owne apprehension the whose businesse of our peace and comfort lieth a bleeding, doth then helpe our infirmities, and by dumbe cries, and secret intimations, and deepe, and unexpressible gronings, presenteth arguments unto him who is the searcher of hearts, and who knoweth the minde of the Spirit, which we our selves cannot expresse. Thus as an infant crieth and complaineth for want of sleepe, and yet knoweth not that it is sleepe which he wanteth: as a sick man goeth to the physitian, and complaineth that some physick he wanteth, but knoweth not the thing p. 47which he asketh for: so the soule of a Christian by the assistance of the Spirit is enlarged to request things of God which yet of themselves doe passe the knowledge and understandings of those that aske them, Rom. 8.26, 27. Eph. 3.19. Phil. 4.7. 1 Cor. 14.15.

Secondly, the Spirit is a comforter by applying and Representing Christ absent unto the soule againe. For first, the Spirit carrieth a Christian heart up to Christ, in heavenly affections, and conversation, Col. 3.1, 3. Phil. 3.20. as a piece of earth when it is out of its place, doth ever move to the whole earth: so a sparkle of Christs Spirit will naturally move upward unto him who hath the fulnesse in him. A stone, though broken all to pieces in the motion, will yet through all that perill and violence move unto the center: so though the nature of man abhorre, and would of it selfe dec…ine the passages of death, 2 Cor. 5.4. yet the Apostle desired to be dissolved, and to be taken asunder, that by any meanes he might be with Christ, who is the center of every Christians desire, Phil. 1.23. Secondly, the Spirit bringeth Christ downe to a Christian, formeth him in his heart, evidenceth him, and the vertue of his passion, and resurrection, unto the conscience in the powerfull dispensation of his holy ordinances. Therefore when our Savior speakes of sending the holy Spirit, he addeth, I will not leave you comfortlesse, I will come to you when the world seeth me not, yet ye see me. This noteth the presence of Christ by his Spirit with the Church: but there is more than a presence, there is an inhabitation, At that time you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you, Ioh. 14.18, 20.

Thirdly, the Spirit is a comforter by a worke of sweet and fruitfull illumination, not onelyonly giving the knowledge, but the love and comfort of the truth unto a Christian, making him with open face behold as in a glasse the glory of God, and therby transforming him into the p. 48same image from glory to glory. The light of other sciences is like the light of a candle, nothing but light: but the knowledge of Christ by the Spirit is like the light of the Sun…e, which hath influences and vertue in i…. And this is that which the Apostle cals the Spirit of Revelation in the knowledge of God, for though there be no Propheticall, nor extraordinary revelations, by dreames, visions, extasies, or enthusiasmes; yet according to the measure of spirituall perspicacie, and diligent observation of holy Scriptures, there are still manifold revelations, or manifestations of Christ unto the soule. The secret and intimate acquaintance of the soule with God, the heavings, aspirings, and harmony of the heart with Christ, the sweete illapses and flashes of heavenly light upon the soule, the knowledge of the depths of God and of Satan, of the whole armor of God and the strong man, of conflicts of Spirit, protection of Angels, experiences of merciemercy, issues of temptation, and the like, are heavenly and constant revelations out of the word manifested to the soules of the faithfull by the Spirit.

Lastly and principally, the Spirit is a comforter in those effects of joy and peace which he worketh in the heart. For joy is ever the fruite, and Companion of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. Act. 13.52. and the joy of the Spirit is like the intercession of the Spirit, unspeakable and glorious, 1 Pet. 1.8. not like the joy of the world, which is empty, false, and deceitfull, full of vanity, vexation, insufficiency, unsu…eablenesse to the soule, mingled with feares of disappointment and miscarriage, with tremblings and guilt of conscience, with certainty of period and expiration: but cleere, holy, constant, unmixed, satisfactory, and proportionable to the compasse of the soule, more gladnesse than all the world can take in the increase of their corne and wine, Psal. 4.7.

And this joy of the Spirit is grounded upon every passage of a Christian condition, from the entrance to the end. p. 49First, the Spirit worketh joy in discovering, and bending the heart to mourne for corruption. For it is the Spirit of grace and supplications which maketh sinners mourne, and loath themselves,foreign. Arist. Rhet. Zech. 12.10, 11. Ezek. 36.27.31. and such a sorrow as this is the seed, and the matter of true joy; our Iosephs heart was full of joy, when his eyes powred out tears upon Benjamins neck. As in wicked laughter the heart may be sorrowfull, so in holy mourning the heart may rejoyce, for all Spirituall afflictions have a peaceable fruite. This was the first glimpse and beame of the Prodigals joy that he resolv'd with teares and repentance to returne to his Father againe. For there is a sweete complacencie in an humble and Spirituall heart to be vile in its owne eyes, as to the hungry soule every bitter thing is sweete. Sacrifices we know were to be offered up with joy, Mal. 2.13. and of all Sacrifices a broken heart is that which God most delighteth in, Psal. 51.16, 17. there is joy in heaven at the repentance of a sinner, and therefore there must needs be joy in the heart it selfe which repenteth, in as much as it hath heavenly affections begunne in it. Therefore as the Apostle saith, Let a man become a foole that he may be wise, so may I truly say, let a man become a mourner, that he may rejoyce.

If it be objected how one contrary affection can be the ground and inducement of another, and that he who feeleth the weight of sinne, and displeasure of God can have little reason to boast of much joy. To this I answere, First, that we doe not speake of those extraordinary combates, and grapplings with the sense of the wrath of God, breaking of bones, and burning of bowels, which some have felt, but of the ordinary humiliations and courses of repentance, which are common to all. Secondly, that such Spirituall mourning and joy are not contrary in regard of the Spirit, nor doe one extinguish or expell the other. As black and white are contrary p. 50in the wall, but meete without any repugnancie in the eye, because though as qualities they fight, yet as objects they agree in communi conceptu visibilis: so joy and mourning though contrary in regard of their immediate impressions upon the sense, doe not onelyonly agree in the same principle the grace of Christ, and in the same end the salvation of man, but may also be subordinated to each other; as a darke and muddie color is a fit ground to lay gold upon; so a tender and mourning heart is the best preparation unto spirituall joy. Therefore our Savior compareth Spirituall sorrow unto the paines of a woman in travell; other paines growing out of sicknesse and distempers, have none but bitter ingredients, and anguish in them; but that paine groweth out of the matter of joy, and leadeth unto joy: so though godly sorrow have some paine in it, yet that paine hath ever joy both for the roote, and fruit of it, Ioh. 16.21. and though for the present it may haply intercept the exercise, yet it doth strengthen the habit and ground of joy: as those flowers in the spring rise highest and with greatest beautie, which in winter shrinke lowest into the earth. I trembled, saith the Prophet, in my selfe, that I might rest in the day of trouble, Hab. 3.16.

Secondly, the Spirit doth not onelyonly Discover, but heale the corruptions of the soule, and there is no joy to the joy of a saved and cured man. The lame man when he was restored by Peter, expressed the abundant exultation of his heart, by leaping, and praising God, Act. 3.8. for this cause therefore amongst others the Spirit is called the oile of gladnesse, because by that healing vertue which is in him, he maketh glad the hearts of men. The Spirit of the Lord, saith Christ, is upon me, because the Lord anointed me to preach good tydings to the meeke, he hath sent me to binde the broken hearted, Esai. 61.6. and againe, I will binde that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick, Ezek. 34.16. Now this healing vertue of p. 51Christ is in the dispensation of his word and Spirit; and therefore the Prophet saith, the Sunne of Righteousnesse shall arise with healing in his wings, Mal. 4.2. where the Spirit in the word, by the which he commeth, and preacheth unto men, Eph. 2.17. 1 Pet. 3.19. is called the wing of the Sunne, because he proceedeth from him, and was sent to supply his absence, as the beame doth the Suns; and this Spirit the Apostle calleth the strengthner of the inner man, Eph. 3.16.

Thirdly, the Spirit doth not onelyonly heale, but renew, and revive againe: when an eye is smitten with a sword there is a double mischiefe, a wound made, and a faculty perished: and here though a Chirurgian can heale the wound, yet he can never restore the faculty, because totall privations admit no regresse or recovery: but the Spirit doth not onelyonly heale, and repaire, but renew, and reedifie the spirits of men. As he healeth that which was torne, and bindeth up that which was smitten, so he reviveth and raiseth up that which was dead before, Hos. 6.1, 2. and this the Apostle cals the Renovation of the Spirit, Tit. 3.5. whereby old things are not mended and put together againe, (for our fall made us all over unprofitable, and little worth, Rom. 3.12. Prov. 10.20.) but are done quite away, and all things made new againe, 2 Cor. 5.17. The heart, minde, affections, judgment, conscience, members, changed from stone to flesh, from earthly to heavenly, from the image of Adam to the image of Christ, Ezek. 11.19. 1 Cor. 15.49. Now this renovation must needs be matter of great joy. For so the Lord comforteth his afflicted people, Esai. 54.11, 12, 13.

Fourthly, the Spirit doth not renew and set the frame of the heart right, and then leave it to its owne care and hazards againe; but being thus restored, he abideth with it to preserve, and support it against all Tempests and batteries. And this further multiplieth the joy and comfort of the Church that it is established in Righteousnesse, so p. 52that no weapon which is formed against it can prosper, Esai. 54.14.17.foreign. Arist. Victory is ever the ground of joy. Esai. 9.3. And the Spirit of God is a victorious Spirit. His judgment in the heart is sent forth unto victory, Matth. 12.20. and before him mountaines shall be made a plaine, and every high thing shall be pulled downe, till he bring forth the head stone with shoutings, Ezek. 4.6, 7. To Stephen he was a Spirit of Victory against the disputers of the World, Act. 6.10. To the Apostles a Spirit of liberty in the prison, Act. 16.25, 26. To all the faithfull a Spirit of joy and glory in the midst of persecutions, 1 Pet. 4.13, 14.

Fifthly, the Spirit doth not onelyonly preserve the heart which he hath renewed, but maketh it fruitfull and abundant in the workes of the Lord, Gal. 5.22. Rom. 7.4. And aaforeign. Arist.fruitfulnesse is a ground of rejoycing, Esai. 54.1. bb1 Iohn 3.8, 9.1 John 3:81 John 3:9Therefore they which are borne of God cannot commit sinne, that is, they are not ccMatth. 7.23. Luke 13.27. The whole phrase foreign is as much as the Latine Opera…ius Iniquitati…, one that maketh a trade of sinne, or professeth iniquity, whose service is altogether incompatible with the profession or hope of a Christian. Doctor Iackson of …stif faith. sect. 2. c. 8.Matt 7:23Luke 13:27foreign, workers or artificers or finishers of iniquity, because they have the seed of God, that is, his Spirit in them, which fitteth them (as seed doth the wombe or the earth) to bring forth fruite unto God. Partly, by ddIohn 14 26. 1 Iohn 2.20. Esay 54.13. Ierem. 31.33. 2 Cor. 3 3. foreign. Arist.John 14:261 John 2:20Isa 54:13Jer 31:332 Cor 3:3teaching the heart, and eeVid. Beza Annotat. in Rom. 6.17. ler. 32.39, 40. Ezek. 36.27. Rom 8.14. Ephes. 4.30. Gal. 4.5, 6. Ephes. 1.14. 1 Pet 1.3.Rom 6:17Ezek 36:27Rom 8:14Eph 4:30Gal 4:5Gal 4:6Eph 1:141 Pet 1:3casting it as it were in the mould of the world, fashioning such thoughts, apprehensions, affections, judgements in the soule as are answerable to the will and Spirit of God in the word, so that a man cannot but set his seale, and say Amen to the written Law: partly by moving, animating, applying, and most sweetly leading the heart unto the Obedience of that Law which is thus written therein.

Lastly, those whom he hath thus fitteth, he sealeth up unto a finall and full redemption by the Testimony of their adoption, which is the hansell and earnest of their p. 53inheritance; and thereby begetteth a lively hope, an earnest expectation,Rom. 8.19, 23. Rom. 9.23. 2 Cor. 5.4. Phil. 4.7. 1 Pet. 1.8. Ioh. 16.22, 24. foreign. Arist.Rom 8:19Rom 8:23Rom 9:232 Cor 5:4Phil 4:71 Pet 1:8John 16:22John 16:24 a confident attendance upon the promises, and an unspeakable peace and security thereupon; by which fruits of faith and hope there is a glorious joy shed abroad into the soule, so ful, and so intimately mingled with the same, that it is as possible for man to annihilate the one, as to take away the other. For according to the evidence of hope, and excellencie of the thing hoped, must needs the joy there from resulting receive its sweetnesse and stability.

By all this which hath been spoken of the mission of the Spirit in such abundance after Christs sitting at the right hand of God, wee should learne with what affections to receive the Gospel of salvation, for the teaching whereof this Holy Spirit was shed abroad abundantly on the Embassadors of Christ; and with what heavenly conversations to expresse the power which our hearts have felt therin, to walke as children of the light, and as becommeth the Gospell of Christ, to adorne our high profession, and not to receive the grace of God in vaine▪ Consider first, that the word thus quickned will have an operation, either to convince unto Righteousnesse, or to seale unto condemnation; as the Sunne, either to melt, or to harden; as the raine, either to ripen corne, or weeds; as the Scepter of a King, either to rule subjects, or to subdue enemies; as the fire of a Goldsmith, either to purge gold, or devoure drosse; as the waters of the sanctuary, either to heale places, or to turne them into salt pits, Ezek. 47.11. Secondly, according to the proportion of the Spirit of Christ in his word revealed shall be the proportion of their judgment who despise it. The contempt of a great salvation, and glorious Ministery shall bring a sorer condemnation, Heb. 2.2.4. If I had not come and spoken unto them (saith our Savior) they had not had sinne, Ioh. 15.22. Sins against the light of nature are no sins in comparison of those against the Gospell. The earth p. 54which drinketh in the raine that fals often on it, and yet beareth nothing but thornes and briars, is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, Heb. 6.7, 8. Thirdly, even here God will not alwayes suffer his Spirit to strive with flesh, there is a Day of Peace, which he calleth our day, a day wherein he entreateth and beseecheth us to be reconciled: but if we therein judge our selves unworthy of eternall life, and goe obstinately on till there be no remedy, he can easily draw in his Spirit, and give us over to the infatuation of our owne hearts, that we may not be cleansed any more till he have caused his fury to rest upon us, Ezek. 24.13.

We see likewise by this Doctrine wherupon the comforts of the Church are founded; namely, upon Christ as the first comforter, by working our Reconciliation with God: and upon the Spirit as another comforter, testifying and applying the same unto our soules. And the continuall supply and assistance of this Spirit is the onelyonly comfort the Church hath against the dominion and growth of sinne. For though the motions of lust which are in our members, are so close, so working, so full of vigor and life, that we can see no power nor probabilities of prevailing against them; yet we know Christ hath a greater fulnesse of Spirit than we can have of sinne, and it is the great promise of the new covenant, that God will put his Spirit into us, and thereby save us from all our uncleanesses, Ezek. 36.27, 29. for though we be full of sin, and have but a seed, a sparkle of the Spirit put into us, and upheld and fed by further, though small supplies, yet that little is stronger than legions of lust; as a little salt or leven seasoneth a great lump, or a few drops of Spirits strengthen a whole glasse full of water. Therefore the Spirit is called a Spirit of judgment and of burning, because as one Iudge is able to condemne a thousand prisoners, and a little fire to consume abundance of drosse: so the Spirit of God in and present with us, though received p. 55and supplied but in measure, though but a smoaking and suppressed fire, shall yet breake forth in victory and judgment against all that resist it. In us indeed there is nothing that feeds, but onelyonly that which resists and quencheth it. But this is the wonderfull vertue of the Spirit of Christ in his members, that it nourisheth it selfe. Therefore sometimes the Spirit is called fire, Esai. 4.4. Matth. 3.11. and sometimes Oyle, Heb. 1.9. 1 Ioh. 2.27. to note that the Spirit is nutriment unto it selfe, that that grace which we have received already, is preserved and excited by new supplies of the same grace. Which supplies we are sure shall be given to all that aske them, by the vertue of Christs prayer, Ioh. 14.16. by the vertue of his and his Fathers promise, Ioh. 16.7. Act. 1.4. and by the vertue of that Office which he still beares, which is to be the head, or vitall principle of all holinesse and grace unto the Church. And all these are permanent things, and therefore the vertue of them abideth, their effects are never totally interrupted.

Fiftly and lastly, this sitting of Christ at the right hand of God noteth his intercession in the behalfe of the whole Church, and each member thereof. Who is he that condemneth? saith the Apostle, it is Christ that is dead, yea rather that is risen againe, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us, Rom. 8.34. But of this Doctrine I shall speake more fitly in the fourth verse, it being a great part of the Priesthood of Christ.

I now proceed to the last thing in this first verse, the continuance and Victories of Christs Kingdome, in these words, untill I make thy foes thy footstoole: Wherin every word is full of weight. For though ordinarily subdivisions of holy Scripture, and crumbling of the bread of life, be rather a loosing than an expounding of it; yet in such parts of it as were of purpose intended for models and summaries of fundamentall Doctrine, (of which sort this Psalme is one of the fullest and briefest in the whole p. 56Scriptures,) as in little maps of large countries, there is no word wherupon some point of weighty consequence may not depend. Here then is considerable the terme of duration or measure of Christs Kingdome; Vntill. The Author of subduing Christs enemies under him; I, the Lord. The manner thereof, ponam, and ponam scabellum; Put thy foes as a stoole under thy feete. Victory is a relative word, and presupposeth enemies, and they are expressed in the text. I will but touch that particular because I have handled it more largely upon another Scripture, and their enmitie is here not described, but onelyonly presupposed. It shews it selfe against Christ in all the Offices of his Mediation. There is enmity against him as a Prophet. Enmity against his Truth. In opinion, by adulterating it with humane mixtures and superinducements, teaching for Doctrines the traditions of men: In affection, by wishing many divine truths were razed out of the Scriptures, as being manifestly contrary to those pleasures which they love rather than God. In conversation, by keeping downe the truth in unrighteousnesse, and in those things which they know, as brute beasts, corrupting themselves. Enmity against his Teaching, by quenching the motions, and resisting the evidence of his Spirit in the word, refusing to heare his voyce, and rejecting the counsell of God against themselves. There is Enmitie against him as a Priest, by undervaluing his Person, Sufferings, Righteousnesse, or Merits. And as a King; Enmity to his Worship, by profanesse neglecting it, by idolatry communicating it, by superstition corrupting it. Enmity to his wayes and service, by ungrounded prejudices, mis-judging them as grievous, unprofitable, or unequall wayes; and by wilfull disobedience forsaking them to walke in the wayes of our owne heart.

And this is a point which men should labour to trie themselves in, for the enemies of Christ are not onelyonly out of the Church, but in the midst where his kingdome p. 57is set up. v. 2. Esay 8.14. And indeed by how much the more dangerous it is, by so much the more subtil wil Satan and a sinfull heart be to deceive it selfe therein; for this is a certaine truth, that men may professe and falsly beleeve that they love the Lord Iesus, and yet be as reall enemies unto his Person and Kingdome, as the Iewes that accused, and the Heathen that crucified him: Hee was set up for a signe to be spoken against, for a rocke of offence, and a stone of stumbling, which the very builders themselves would reject. False brethren amongst the Philippians there were, who professed the name of Christians, and yet by their sensuall walking and worldly mindednesse, declared themselves to bee enemies to the crosse of Christ, Phil. 3.18, 19. To honour the bodies of the Saints departed with beautifull sepulchres, is in it selfe a testimoniall of sincere love and inward estimation of their persons and graces; and therefore the Holy Ghost hath recorded it for the perpetuall honour of Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, that they embalmed the body of Iesus, and laid it in a new sepulcher, Ioh. 19.38-41. yet our Saviour pronounceth a woe against the Scribes and Pharisees, because they built the tombe… of the Prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous, Matth. 23.29. The fault was not in the fact it selfe, but in the hypocrisie of the heart, in the incongruitie of their other practices, and in that damned protection, which by this plausible pretext of honour to the Prophets, they laboured to gaine to their persons, and approbation to their attempts against Christ, in the mindes of the people, who yet ordinarily esteemed Christ (whom they persecuted) a Prophet sent from God. They professe, If we had beene in the dayes of our Fathers, wee would not have done as they did: But our Saviour reproves this hypocriticall perswasion, by shewing first, that it was no strange thing with them to persecute Prophets, but a nationall and hereditary sinne, and therefore they had p. 58no reason to boast of their descent (as their manner was, Luke 3.8. Ioh. 8.39.) or to thinke that Gods mercies were entail'd unto them, since, by their owne confession, they were the posteritie of those that had killed the Prophets; and secondly, that they did fulfill the measure of their Fathers, that is, that which their Fathers had beene long and leasurely a doing, they now did altogether in one blow; for it was the same Christ whom they persecuted in his person, and their fathers in his Prophets; and therefore though they seemed to honour and revive the memory of those holy martyrs, yet upon them should light the guilt of all the righteous bloud which had ever beene shed in the Land, inasmuch as their malice was directed against that fulnesse, of which all the Prophets had but a measure: If by severall enemies a man be severally mangled, one cuts off a foot, another an hand, another an arme, and after all this, there come one who cuts off the head, and yet bestows some honourable ceremonies upon those members which the rest had abused, he shall justly suffer as if he had slaine a whole man, inasmuch as his malice did eminently containe in it the degrees of all the rest, and that pretended honour shall be so far from compensating the injury, that it shall adde thereunto an aggravation of base hypocrisie. Thus, as the Iewes, when they thought they did honour and admire the Prophets, did yet harbour in their brests that very root of fury, and had that selfe-same constitution of soule, which was in their fore-fathers who shed their bloud: so in our dayes, men may say and thinke that they love Christ, and court him with much out-side and emptie service, may boast that if they had lived in the dayes of those unthankfull Iewes, they would not have partaked with them in so execrable a murther, and yet interpretatively and at second hand shew the very same root of bitternesse, and rancorous constitution of heart against him in his Spirit and ordinances, which was in p. 59those men when they cried, Away with him, crucifie him, crucifie him.

Many grounds there are of this grand misperswasion of the heart in its love to Christ, which I will but touch upon. The first is the generall acceptation and continuance which the Gospell of Christ receiveth amongst the Princes of this world, who in Christian Commonwealths doe both by their owne voluntary and professed subjection, and by the vigour of their publike lawes establish the same. Now this is most certain, that as in all other sciences there cannot be transitus à genere in genus, the principles of one will not serve to beget the conclusions of another: so here especially, if a spirituall assent and affection be grounded upon no other than humane inducements, it is most undoubtedly spurious and illegitimate. That reason which the Pharisees used to disswade men from beleeving in Christ, Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees beleeved on him? Ioh. 7.48. is one of the principall arguments which many men have now why they doe beleeve him, because the Rulers, whose examples and lawes they observe more upon trust than triall, doe lead them thereunto: and therefore wee finde amongst the Iewes, that those very men, who when the Government of the whole twelve Tribes was one, did all consent in an unity of religion; upon the distraction of the kingdome under Ieroboam, were presently likewise divided in their observance of Gods worship; and they who before were zealous for the Temple at Ierusalem, were after as superstitious for Dan and Bethel: the Prophet giveth the reason of it, They willingly walked after the commandement, namely, of Ieroboam, Hos. 5.11. no sooner did the Prince interpose his authoritie, but the people were willing to pin their opinions and practices upon his word: If Omri make statutes, and Ahab confirme idolatrous counsels by his owne practices; the Prophet shewes how forward the people are to walke in p. 60them, Mich. 6.16. Therefore it is that our Saviour saith of the best sort of wicked men, Those who with gladnesse (and that is ever a symptome of love) received the Gospell, that yet in time of persecution they were offended and fell away, Matth. 13.21. To note unto us that when Christ is forsaken because of persecution, the imaginary love which was bestowed upon him before was certainly supported by no other ground than that was, is contrary to persecution, namely, the countenance and protection of publike power.

Secondly, a great part of men professe faith and love to Christ meerely upon the rules of their Education. The maine reason into which their religion is resolv'd, is not any evidence of excellencie in it selfe, but onelyonly the customes and traditions of their fore-fathers, which is to build a divine faith upon an humane authoritie, and to set man in the place of God: certaine it is that contrary religions can never be originally grounded upon the same reason; that which is a true and adequate principle of faith or love to Christ, can never be sutable to the conclusions of Mahumetisme or idolatry: now then when a professed Christian can give no other account of his love to Christ, than a Turke of his love to Mahumet; when that which moveth an Idolater to hate Christ, is all that one of us hath to say why he beleeveth in him, certainly that love and faith is but an empty presumption, which dishonoureth the Spirit of Christ, and deludeth our own soules. There is a naturall instinct in the minde of man to reverence and vindicate the traditions of their progenitours, and at first view to detest any novell opinions which seeme to thwart the received doctrine wherein they had beene bred: and this affection is ever so much the stronger, by how much the tradition received is about the nobler and more necessary things. And therefore it discovereth it selfe with most violence and impatiency, in matters of Religion, wherin the eternall welfare p. 61of the soule is made the issue of the contention. We finde with what hea…e of zeale the Iewes contended for the Temple at Ierusalem, Ioseph. Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 6.and with how equall and confident emulation the Samaritans ventured their lives for the precedencie of their Temple on mount Gerazim; and took an oath to produce proofs for the authority therof, and yet all the ground of this will-worship was the tradition of their Fathers. For our Savior assures us that they worshipped they knew not what, Ioh. 4.20 22,John 4:20and onelyonly tooke things upon trust from their predecessors. The Satyrist hath made himselfe merry with describing the combate of two neighbor townes amongst the Egyptians in the opposite defence of those ridiculous idoles,Immortale Odium, et nunquam sanabile vulnus; Ardet adhuc combos & tentyra; summus u…rin que Ind. furer vulgo, quod … v…morum Odit …ter que locus, cum solos cr…d…t hab…n…os Ess Deos, quos ipse col…t. I…venal. Satyr. 15. the severall worship of which they had been differently bred up unto: And surely, if a prophane Christian, and a zealous Mahumetan should joyne in the like contention, notwithstanding the subject it selfe, on the one side defended, were a sacred and pretious truth, yet I doubt not but the selfe same reasons might be the sole motive of the Christian to vindicate the honor of Christ, and of the other to maintaine the worship of Mahomet. I meane a blinde and pertinacions adhering to that Religion in which they had been bred, a naturall inclination to favor domesticall opinions, a high estimation of the persons of men from whom by succession they have thus been instructed, without any Spirituall conviction of the truth, or experience of the good which the true members of Christ resolve their love unto him into. And this we finde was ever the reasons of the Iewes obstinacy against the Prophets, they answered all their arguments, with the practice and traditions they had received from their Fathers, Ier. 9.14.11.10.44.17. Act. 7.51.

Thirdly, the heart may be misperswaded of its love to Christ, by judging that an affection unto him, which is indeed nothing but a selfe love and a desire o… advancing private ends. The rule whereby Christ at the last day p. 62will measure the love or hatred of men unto him, is their love or hatred of his brethren and members here,A…ro paricies, au…o laquearia, auro fulgent capita co…mnarum, & … atque …suricus ante sores nos…ras Christus in paupere moritur. Hieron. ad Gaudentium. Mat. 25.40, 45▪ for in all their afflictions Christ himselfe is afflicted. Peter lovest thou me? feed my sheepe; make proofe of thy love to me by thy service and compassion to my people. And how many are there every-where to be found whose love unto themselves hath devoured all brotherly love? who take no pitty either upon the soules, or temporall necessities of those with whom they yet pretend a fellowship in Christs owne body? who spend more upon their owne pride and luxury, upon their backs and bellies,foreign. Iust. Martyr. Apol. 2. Qui Christiano vocabul… gloriantur & perditè vivunt, non absurdè possunt videri medio Noe filio figurari; passionem quippe Christi, quae illius hominis nuditate significata est, & annunciant profitendo, & male agendo exhonorant. August. de Civit. Dei, lib. 16. cap. 2. foreign, &c. Ignat. epist. ad Tral. their pleasures and excesses, yea bury more of their substance in the mawes of hawkes and dogs, than they can ever perswade themselves to put into the bowels of the poore Saints? surely at the day of judgment, how-ever such men here professe to love Christ, and would spit in the face of him who with Iustin Martyr should say, they were not Christians, it will appeare that such men did as formally and …properly denie Christ, as if with Peter they had publikely sworne, I know not the man. The Apostle plainly intimates thus much, when he sheweth that the experiment of the Corinthians ministration to the necessity of the Saints was an inducement unto the Churches to praise God for their professed subjection to the Gospell of Christ, 2 Cor. 9.13. Againe, as Christ is present with us in his poore members, so likewise in the power of his ordinances, and in the light and evidence of his Spirit shining forth in the lives of holy men; If then we are as impatient of the edge of his word, when it divides betweene the bone and the marrow, when it discerneth and discovereth our secret thoughts, our bosome sinnes, our ambitions, uncleane, and hypocriticall intents: if the lives and Communion of the Saints be in like manner an eye-sore unto us in shaming and reproving our formall and fruitlesse profession of the same truth, as Christs was unto the Iewes; p. 63certainly the same affections of hatred, reproach, and disestimation which we shew unto them, we would with so much the more bitternesse have expressed unto Christ himselfe, if we had lived in his dayes, by how much that Spirit of grace, against which the Spirit which is in us envieth, was above measure more abundantly in him than in the holiest of his members. If you were of the world (saith our Savior) the world would love their owne, but now I have called you out of the world, I have given to you a Spirit which is contrary to the Spirit of the World, therefore the world hateth you. And this is evident when men hate another meerly for that distinction which differenceth him from them, they much more hate him from whom the difference it selfe originally proceedeth. We see then that they who openly professe Christ, may yet inwardly hate him, because the ground of their profession is not any experimentall goodnesse which they have tasted in him (for by nature men have no relish of Christ at all) but onelyonly selfe-love and private ends, aaSi quis Christo …emporalia p…eponat, no… esl in cofundam…ntum Christus. …ug, de civit Dei, lib 21. cap. 26. Mu… …missâ … prop… …anon …, & … quaere. …es, … quae Iesu Christi, non à Christi unitate, sed à suis commodis …. Aug de Baptismo cent. Donat. lib. 4. cap. 10.wherby Christ is subordinated to their owne commodities. Men are herin just like the bbforeign. &c. l…s. Antiq. lib. 12. c. 7. foreign, &c. Ioseph. Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8.Samaritans, of whom Iosephus reports that when Antiochus persecuted the Iewes, they then utterly disavowed any consanguinity with them, denied their Temple on mount Gerosim to be dedicated to the great God, and declared their linage from the Medes and Persians: but when before that, Alexander had shewed favour unto the Iewes, and remitted the tribute of every seventh yeare, they then claim'd kindred with that people, and counterfeited a p. 64descent from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasse, that thereby they might enjoy the cc…uos vi…es petulanter & …iocac…er insul…re … Chri…, … in e…s … que non evasissent, nisi se…vos Christi se esse finxissent, et nunc ingratâ superbia, at que im…itssimá insaniá ejus nomini resistunt corde perverso, ut sempiternis tenebris pu…iantur, ad quod …omen, ore vel subdola consugerunt, ut temporali luce …rucrentur. Aug. de civ. Dei, lib. 1. cap. 1.priviledges of those people whom otherwise they mortally hated. And so we finde that in the Vastation of the Citie of Rome by the Gothes and Barbarians, when there was but one onelyonly refuge allowed the Romanes for the safety of their lives, namely to fly unto the Christians Churches, those very enemies of Christ and his profession, who before had persecuted him, and after returned to their malice againe, were yet then as hasty to fly unto his Temples, and to assume the Title of his Servants, as they were after ungratefully malitious in reproaching Christian Religion as if that had been the provocation of those calamities. And may we not still observe amongst Christians at this day many men who contrary to the evidence of their judgment, and peace of their consciences, conforme themselves unto the vanities, courses, & companies of this evill world, and like cowards are affraid to adventure on a rigorous and universall subjection to the truth of Christ, dare not keepe themselves close to those narrow rules of S. Paul, to abstaine from jesting which is not seemly, to avoid all appearances of evill, to reprove the unfruitfull workes of darknesse, to speake unto Edification that their words may minister grace unto the hearers, to rejoyce alwayes in the Lord, to give place unto wrath, to recompence evill with good, to be circumspect and exact in their walking before God, and all this meerly out of suspicion of some disrespect and disadvantages which may hereupon meete them in the world, of some remoraes, and stoppage in the order of those projects which they have contrived for their private ends? Now if such purposes as these doe sta…tle men from a punctuall and rigorous profession of the Gospell of Christ and his most holy wayes (notwithstanding our vow in Baptisme doe as strictly binde us therunto, as unto the externall title of Christianity) suppose we that the same or greater p. 65disadvantages should now (as in the primitive times) attend at the naked and outward profession of Christ; would not such men as these fall into downright apostacy, and deny the Lord that bought them? certainly our Savior hath so resolv'd that case in the very best sort of unregenerate men, noted in the stony ground; when times of persecution happen, that they are brought to the triall who it was whom in their profession they loved, Christ or themselves, the excellencie of the knowledge of him, or the secure enjoyment of secular contentments, they will then certainly fall away, and be offended, Matt. 13.21. so profound and unsearchable is the deceitfull heart of man, that by that very reason for which men contend for the outward face and profession of Religion, because they love their pleasures and profits which without such a profession they cannot peaceably enjoy, they are deterred from a close, spirituall, and universall obedience to the power thereof, because thereby likewise those pleasures and profits are kept within such rules of moderation as the nature of a boundlesse and unsatisfiable lust will not admit. This is a certaine rule in love, that the motions and desires thereof are strong, and therefore in any thing which the soule loves, it therin strives for excellency and perfection; and this rule holds most true in religion, because when the so…e loves that, it loves it under the apprehension of the greatest good, and therefore by consequence sets the strongest and most industrious desires of the soule upon it. Therefore the Apostle saith, that the Love of Christ, 2 Cor. 5.14, 15.2 Cor 5:142 Cor 5:15namely that love of him which is by the Holy Ghost shed abroad in our hearts, constraineth us to live unto him, and to aspire after him who died for us and rose againe. Love is as strong as death, it will take no deniall. It is the wing, and weight of the soule, which fixeth all the thoughts, and carrieth all the desires unto an intimate unitie with the thing it loves, stirreth up a zeale to remove all obstacles p. 66which stand betweene it, worketh a languor or failing of nature in the want of it,Amor concupiscentiae non requiescit in qua cunque extrinsecâ aut superficiali adeptione amati, sed quaerit amatum perfectè habere, quasi ad intima i…ius pervenieus &c. Aquin. 12ae. qu. 28. art. 2. vid. ibid. art. 4. & 5. Cant 2.5. Psal. 119.20. Esay 26.8. Psal. 42.2. Rom. 8.23. Psal. 119.5.10.31.47.54.81. &c.Song 2:5Ps 119:20Isa 26:8Ps 42:2Rom 8:23Ps 119:5Ps 119:10Ps 119:31Ps 119:47Ps 119:54Ps 119:81 a liquefaction and softnesse of nature to receive the impressions of it, an egresse of the Spirits, and as it were an hast of the soule to meet and entertaine it. Whence those expressions of the Saints in holy Scripture, Comfort me with apples, stay me with flagons, for I am sick of love, my soule breaketh for the longing which it hath unto thy judgments at all times. The desire of our soule is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. My soule thirsteth for God, yea for the living God, when shall I come and appeare before God? We that have the first fruit of the Spirit groane within our selves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our Bodies. O that my wayes were directed that I might keepe thy commandements, with my whole heart have I sought thee, I have stuck unto thy testimonies, I will delight my selfe in thy commandements, thy statutes have been my songs; my soule fainteth for thy salvation, &c. By all which we see that a true love of Christ doth excite strong desires, and an earnest aspiring and ambition of the soule to walke in all well-pleasing, and to be in all things conformable unto him. What the Apostle saith of Spirituall hope, we may truly say of love, (which is the fundamentall affection, and root of all the rest) He that hath it indeed in him, purgeth himselfe even as Christ is pure. The Love of the World, and the things and lusts of the world may indeed consist with the formall profession, but no way with the truth or power of a true love to Christ or his government. For love is ever the principle and measure of all our actions,Quodlibet agens propter amorem agit quodcun que agit. Aquin. 12ae. qu. 28. art. 6. such as it is, such likewise wil they be too.

Fourthly, something like love there may be in naturall men unto Christ, grounded upon the historicall assurance and perswasion of his being now in glory, attended by mightie Angels, filled with all the treasures of wisdome, knowledge, grace, power, and other excellent p. 67attributes, which can attract love even from an enemie; and that he hath and still doth procure such good things for mankinde, in their deliverance from the guilt of sin, and from the wrath to come, as of which, might they but have an exemption from his spirituall government, and a dispensation to live according to their owne lusts stil, no man should be more greedily desirous. As Sampson met the Lion as an enemie, when hee was alive, but after he was slaine, he went unto him as to a table; there was onelyonly terrour while he lived, but honey when hee was dead: so doubtlesse many men, to whom the bodily presence of Christ, and the mighty power and penetration of his heavenly preaching, whereby hee smote sinners unto the ground, and spake with such authoritie as never man spake, would have beene unsufferably irkesome, and full of terrour (as it was unto the Scribes and Pharisees) can yet, now that he is out of their sight, and doth not in person, but onelyonly by those who are his witnesses torment the inhabitants of the earth, pretend much admiration, and thankfull remembrance of that death of his, which was so full of hony for all that come unto him;Securus licet Aeneam Rutilum que ferocem Committas, nulli gravis est percussus Achilles. Quid …fert dictis ignoscat Mutius, annon? Pone Tigillinum, taedâ lucebis in illà Qua stantes ardent qui fixo gutture fumant, &c. Iuvenal. Satyr. 1. for as particular dependencies and expectations may make a man flatter and adore the greatnesse of some living Potentate, whose very image notwithstanding the same man doth professedly abominate in other tyrants of the world who are dead, or upon whom he hath not the same ends: so the selfe-same reason may make men in hypocriticall expressions flatter & fawne upon Christ himselfe who is absent, and yet hate with a perfect hatred the very image of his Spirit, in the power of his Word, and in the lives of his people. The very Scribes and Pharisees, who blasphemed his Spirit, and contrived his death, could yet be contented to be gainers thereby; for see they confesse, It is expedient for us that one die for the people.

Lastly, a false love to Christ may be grounded upon a p. 68false conceit of love to his ordinances: For as it is certaine that he who loves the Word and worship of Christ, as his, doth love him too who is the Author of them: so it is certaine likewise that that love which is sometimes pretended unto them, may indeed in them fix upon nothing but accidentall and by-respects. This people, saith the Lord to his Prophet, come, and sit before thee as my people, and they heare thy words, but they will not doe them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse. Here is love in pretence, but falshood in the heart: what then was it which in the Prophet they did thus love? That presently followes, Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, Ezek. 33.31, 32. that is, it is not my will which in thy ministery they at all regard, but onelyonly those circumstantiall ornaments of gracefull action and elocution which they attend with just alike proportion of sensuall delight, as an eare doth the harmony of a well tuned instrument: for as a man may be much affected with the picture of his enemie, if drawne by a skilfull hand, and yet therein love nothing of the person, but only the cunning of the workman who drew the peece: So a man who hates the life and Spirit of the Word of God it selfe, as being diametrically contrary to that spirit of lust, and of the world, which rules in him; may yet be so wonderfully taken with that dexteritie of wit, or delicacie of expression, or variety of learning, or sweetnesse of speech, and action, or whatsoever other perfection of nature or industry in the dispencers of that Word are most sutable to his naturall affections, as that he may from thence easily cheat his owne conscience, and ground a misperswasion of his love to Gods Word, which yet indeed admireth nothing but the perfections of a man. Nay suppose he meete not with such lenocinia to entice his affection, yet the very pacification of the conscience, which by a notorious p. 69neglect of Gods ordinances would haply be disquieted, or the credit of bearing conformity to Ecclesiasticall orders, and the established service of God in his Church, or some other the like sinister respect may hold a man to such an externall faire correspondence, as by a deceitfull heart may easily be misconstrued a love of Gods ordinances. Nay further, a man may externally glory in the priviledge of Gods oracles, hee may distinctly beleeve, and subscribe to the truth of them, he may therin heare many things gladly, and escape many pollutions of the world, and yet here hence conclude no cleerer evidence of his love to Christ in his word, than the unbeleeving Iews, or Herod, or Ahab, or Simon Magus, Ier. 7.4. Rom. 2.17.20. Hos. 2.2, 3. Mark. 6.20. 1 King. 21.27— 29.Jer 7:4Rom 2:17Rom 2:20Hos 2:2Hos 2:3Mark 6:201 Kgs 21:27or the foolish Virgins and apostates (all which have attained to some of these degrees) could have done.

For the cleering then of this great case touching the evidence of a mans love to Christ, wee must first know that this is not a flower of our owne garden,Act. 8.13. 2 Pet. 2.20.Acts 8:132 Pet 2:20 for every man by nature is an enemie to Christ and his Kingdome, of the Iews minde, wee will not have this man to raigne over us; and the reason is because the image of the old Adam which we beare, is extremely contrary to the heavenly image of the second Adam, unto which wee are not borne, but must bee renewed. And this is certaine, our love is according to our likenesse, he who hath not the nature and Spirit of Christ, can never love him or move towards him. For love is like fire, congregat homogenea, it carrieth things of a nature to one another. Our love then unto Christ must bee of a spirituall generation: and it is grounded upon two causes; First, upon the Proportion which is in him unto all our desires or capacities, upon the evidence of that unsearchable and bottomlesse goodnesse which is in him, which makes him the fairest often thousand, even altogether lovely. For that heart which hath a spirituall view of Christ,Ephes. 3.18, 19.Eph 3:18Eph 3:19 will bee able by faith to observe more dimensions of love, and sweetnesse in him p. 70than the knowledge of any creature is able to measure. In all worldly things though of never so curious and delicate an extraction, yet still even those hearts which swimme in them, and glut upon them, can easily discover more dregs than Spirits; nothing was ever so exactly fitted to the soule of man, wherein there was not some defect, or excesse, something which the heart could wish were away, or something which it could desire were tempered with it. But in Christ and his kingdome there is nothing unlovely. For as in man the all that is, is full of corruption, so in Christ the all that hee is, is nothing but perfection. His fulnesse is the center and treasure of the soule of man, and therefore that love which is therupon grounded must needs be in the soule as an universall habit and principle, to facilitate every service whereby we move unto this center, for love is the weight or spring of the soule,Amor meus pondus meum, eo feror quocun que feror. Aug. which sets every facultie on worke, neither are any of those commandments grievous which are obeyed in Love. And therfore it is called the fulfilling of the Law. True love unto Christ keepes the whole heart together, and carries it all one way, and so makes it universall, uniforme, and constant in all its affections unto God (for unstedfastnesse of life proceeds from a divided or double heart, Iam. 1.8.) As in the motions of the heavens, there is one common circumvolution which ex aequo carrieth the whole frame daily unto one point from east to west though each severall spheare hath a severall crosse way of its owne, wherin some move with a swifter, and others with a slower motion: So though severall Saints may have their severall corruptions, and those likewise in some stronger than in others, yet being all animated by one and the same Spirit, they all agree in a steddy and uniforme motion unto Christ. If a stone were placed under the concave of the moone, though there bee fire, and aire, and water between, yet through them all it would hasten to its owne place; so bee the obstacles never so p. 71many, or the conditions never so various through which a man must passe, through evill report and good report, through terrors and temptations, through a sea and a wildernesse, through firy Serpents and sons of Anak, yet if the heart love Christ indeed, and conclude that heaven is its home, nothing shall bee able totally to discourage it from hastning thither, whither Christ the forerunner is gone before.

Secondly,Cant. 2.16. Ioh. 14.23. Ioh. 1….21.23.Song 2:16John 14:23John 1:21John 1:23 the true Love of Christ is grounded upon the evidence of that Proprietie which the soule hath unto him. And of that mutuall inhabitation and possession which is between them. So that our love unto him in this regard is a kinde of selfe love (and therefore very strong) because Christ and a Christian are but one. And the more perswasion the soule hath of this unity, the more must it needs love Christ. For wee love him because hee loved us first, 1 Ioh. 4.16.19. And therefore our Saviour, from the womans apprehension of Gods more abundant love in the remission of her many and great sinnes, concludeth the measure and proportion of her love to him. But saith he, To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little, Luke 7.47.

Now True Love of Christ and his Kingdome thus grounded will undoubtedly manifest it selfe, first in an universall extent unto any thing wherin Christ is present unto his Church. First, the soule in this case will abundantly love and cherish the Spirit of Christ. Entertaine with dearest embraces, as worthy of all acceptation, the motions, and dictates, and secret illapses of him into the soule; will bee carefull to heare his voice alwayes behinde him, prompting and directing him in the way he should walke, will endevour with all readinesse and pliablenesse of heart to receive the impression of his seale, and the testimonie which hee giveth in the inner man unto all Gods promises; will feare and suspect nothing more than the frowardnesse of his owne nature, which daily endevoureth p. 72to quench, grieve, resist, rebel against this Holy Spirit, and to fling off from his conduct againe. Secondly, the soule in this case will abundantly love the Ordinances of God (in which by his Spirit hee is still walking in the midst of the Churches) for the Law is written in it by the finger of God, so that there is a suteablenesse and coincidencie betweene the Law of God and the heart of such a man. He will receive the word in the puritie thereof, and not give way to those humane inventions which adulterate it, to that spirituall treason of wit and fancie, or of heresie and contradiction, which would stampe the private image and superscription of a man upon Gods owne coine, and torture the Scriptures to confesse that which was never in them. Hee will receive the word in the power, majestie, and authority thereof, suffering it like thunder to discover the forrest, and to drive out all those secret corruptions which shelterd themselves in the corners, or deceit of his heart. He will delight to have his imaginations humbled, and his fleshly reasonings non plus'd, & al his thoughts subdued unto the obedience of Christ. Hee will receive the word as a wholsome potion, to that very end that it may search his secret places, and purge out those tough and incorporated lusts which hitherto hee had not prevailed against. Hee will take heed of hardning his heart that hee may not heare, of rejecting the counsell of God against himselfe, of thrusting away the word from him, of setting up a resolved will of his owne against the call of Christ, as of most dangerous down-fals to the soule. Lastly, he will receive the word in the spiritualnesse thereof, subscribing to the closest precepts of the Law, suffering it to clense his heart unto the bottome, hee will let the consideration of Gods command preponderate and over-rule all respects of feare, love, profit, pleasure, credit, compliancy, or any other charme to disobedience; hee will bee contented to bee led in the narrowest way, to have his secretest p. 73corruption reveal'd and remov'd, to expose his conscience with patience under the saving, though severest blowes of this spirituall sword. In one word hee will deny the pride of his owne wit, and if it bee the evident truth of God which is taught him, though it come naked, and without any dressings, or contributions of humane fancie, hee will distinguish betweene the author and the instrument, betweene the treasure and the vessell in which it comes, and from any hand receive it with such awefull submission of heart, as becommeth Gods owne word. Thirdly, the soule in this case will most dearly love every member of Christ. For these two, the love of Christ, and of his members, doe infallibly accompany one another. For though there bee a farre higher proportion of love due unto Christ than unto men, yet our love to our brethren is quoad nos and à posteriori, not onelyonly the evidences, but even the measure of our love to Christ. He that loveth not his brother whom hee hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seene? (saith the Apostle) 1 Ioh. 4.20. hee that hath not love enough in him for a man like himselfe, how can hee love God whose goodnesse being above our knowledge requireth a transcendency in our love? This then is a sure rule; He that loveth not a member of Christ, loveth not him, and hee who groweth in his love to his brethren, groweth likewise in his love to Christ. For as there is the same proportion of one to five as there is of twenty to an hundred, though the numbers be farre lesse: as the motion of the shadow upon the diall, answereth exactly to that proportion of motion and distance which the Sunne hath in the firmament, though the Sunne goeth many millions of miles when the shadow it may bee moveth not the breadth of a hand: so though our love to Christ ought to be a far more abundant love, than to any of his members, yet certaine it is that the measure of our progresse in brotherly love is punctually answerable p. 74to the growth of our love to Christ.

Secondly, a true grounded love unto Christ will shew it selfe in the right manner or conditions of it. Which are principally these three: First, it must bee an incorrupt and sincere love. Grace bee upon all those that love the Lord Iesus foreign, in incorruption or sincerity, saith the Apostle, Eph. 6.24. that is, on those who love not in word or outward profession and stipulation onelyonly, but in deed and truth, or in the permanent constitution of the inner man; which moveth them to love him alwayes and in all things, to hate every false way, to set the whole heart, the studie, purpose, prayer and all the activity of our Spirits against every corruption in us which standeth at enmity with him and his Kingdome. Secondly, it must be a principall and superlative love, grounded upon the experience of the soule in it selfe, that there is ten thousand times more beautie and amiablenesse in him, than in all the honours, pleasures, profits, satisfactions which the world can afford; that in comparison or competition with him, the dearest things of this world, the parents of our body, the children of our flesh, the wife of our bosome, the bloud in our veines, the heart in our brest, must not onelyonly be laid downe and lost as sacrifices, but hated as snares when they draw us away from him. Thirdly, it must bee an unshared and uncommunicable love, without any corrivals; for Christ as he is unto us all in all, so he requireth to have all our affections fixed upon him: As the rising of the Sunne drowneth all those innumerable Starres which did shine in the firmament before; so must the beauty of this Sunne of righteousnesse blot out, or else gather together unto it selfe all those scattered affections of the soule, which were before cast away upon meaner objects.

Lastly, true love unto Christ will shew it selfe in the naturall and genuine effects of so strong and spirituall a grace: some of the principall I before named, unto which p. 75we may adde, First, An universall, cheerefull, and constant obedience to his holy Commandements: If a man, saith Christ, love me, he will keepe my Commandements; and my Father will love him, and wee will come unto him, and make our abode with him, Iob. 14.24. There is a twofold love, a love which descends, and a love which ascends, a love of Bounty and beneficence, and a love of Dutie and service: so then, as a father doth then only in truth love his childe, when with all care he provideth for his present education and future subsistence; so a childe doth then truly love his father, when with all reverence and submission of heart he studieth to please and to doe him service: And this love if it be free and ingenuous, by how much the more not only pure and equall in it selfe, but also profitable unto him the commandement is, by so much the more carefully will it endevour the observation thereof. And therefore since the soule of a Christian knowes that as God himselfe is good, and doth good, Psal. 119.68. Psal. 19.7-11. Mic. 2.7. Esay 45.19. Psal. 119.140.Ps 119:68Ps 19:7–11Mic 2:7Isa 45:19Ps 119:140so his Law (which is nothing but a ray and glimpse of his owne holinesse) is likewise good in it selfe, and doth good unto those which walke uprightly, it is hereby enflamed to a more sweet and serious obedience thereunto, in the keeping whereof, there is for the present so much sweetnesse, and in the future so great a reward: Thy Word, saith the Psalmist, is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.

Secondly, A free, willing, and cheerefull suffering for him and his Gospell. VntoUnto you, saith the Apostle, it is given in the behalfe of Christ, not onelyonly to beleeve on him, but also to suffer for his sake, Phil. 1.29.Tertul. Apolog. cap. ult. We see how far a humane love either of their countrey, or of vain-glory hath transported some heathen men to the devoting and casting away their owne lives: How much more should a spirituall love of Christ put courage into us to beare all things, and to endure all things (as the Apostle speakes, 1 Cor. 13.7.) for him, who bare our sinnes, and p. 76our stripes, and our burdens for us, which were heavier than all the world could lay on? And this was the inducement of that holy martyr aaforeign. Euseb. hist. Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 14.Polycarp, to die for Christ, notwithstanding all the perswasions of the persecutors, who by his apostacie would faine have cast the more dishonour upon Christian Religion, and as it were by sparing him, have the more cunningly persecuted that; This eightie six yeares, saith he, I have served him, and he never in all that time hath done me any hurt, why should I be so ungratefull as not to trust him in death, who in so long a life hath never forsaken me? I am perswaded, saith the Apostle, that bbforeign. Ignat. ep. ad Rom. foreign, &c. Ibid.neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord, Rom. 8.38, 39. Nothing able to turne away his love from us, and therefore nothing should be able to quench our louelove to him. Many waters, that is, by the usuall ccPsal. 69.1, 2. Psal. 124.4, 5. Esay 8.7.Ps 69:1Ps 69:2Ps 124:4Ps 124:5Isa 8:7expression of the holy Scriptures, many afflictions, persecutions, temptations, cannot quench love, neither can the flouds drowne it, Cant. 8.7.

Thirdly, A zeale and jealous contention for the glory, truth, worship and wayes of Christ: wicked men pretend much love to Christ, but they indeed serve onelyonly their owne turnes; as Ivie, which claspes an Oake very close, but only to sucke out sap for its owne leaves and berries; but a true love is full of care to advance the glory of Christs kingdome, and to promote his truth and worship, feares lest Satan and his instruments should by any meanes corrupt his truth, or violate his Church, as the Apostle to the Galatians professeth, the feare which his love wrought in him towards them; I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vaine, Gal. 4.11-16. So we finde what contention, and disputation, and strife of spirit the Apostles and others in their ministery used, when Christ and his holy Gospell was any p. 77way either injured by false brethren, or kept out by the idolatry of the places to which they came, Act. 15.2. Act. 17.16. Act. 18.25. & 19.8. Gal. 2.4, 5. Iude v. 2.

Lastly, A longing after his presence, a love of his appearing, a desire to be with him which is best of all, a seeking after him, and grieving for him, when for any while he departs from the soule, a waiting for his salvation, a delight in his Communion, and in his spirituall refreshments, a communing with him in his secret chamber, in his houses of wine, and in his galleries of love. By which lovely expressions the Wise-man hath described the fellowship which the Church desireth to have with Christ, and that abiding and supping of Christ with his Church, feasting the soule with the manifestations of himselfe and his graces unto it, Psalm. 42.3. & 105.4. 2 Cor. 5.2. 2 Tim. 4.8. Phil. 1.23. Cant. 3.1, 2. Cant. 5.6-8. Gen. 49.18. Psal. 119.131. Cant. 1.4. & 2.4. Cant. 7.5. Ion. 14.21-23. Revel. 3.20.

Having thus by occasion of the enemies of Christ, spoken something of the true and false Love which is in the world towards him: we now proceed to the particulars mentioned before. And the first is the terme of Duration, or measure of time in the Text, Vntill. It hath a double relation in the words, unto Christs Kingdome, and unto his Enemies. As it looks to the kingdome of Christ, it denotes both the Continuance and the Limitation of his kingdome. The continuance of it in his owne person, for it is there fixed and intransient. He is a King without successours, as being subject to no mortality, nor defect which might be by them supplied. The kingdome of Christ (as I observed) is either Naturall, as he is God, or Dispensatory, and by Donation from the Father, as he is Mediator, and not onelyonly of the former, but even of this likewise the Scripture affirmes that it is Eternall. It is a kingdome set up by the God of heaven, and yet it shall never be destroyed, but stand for ever, Dan. 2.44. I have p. 78set my King upon my holy hill of Sion, that notes the unction and donation, Psalm. 2.6. and in mount Sion where God hath set him, hee shall reigne from henceforth even for ever, Mic. 4.7. Though hee be a childe borne, and a sonne given, yet of the encrease of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon his Kingdome, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and justice, from henceforth for ever and ever, Esay 9.6, 7. unto the Sonne hee saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, Heb. 1.8. And here wee must distinguish betweene the substance of Christs kingdome, and the forme or manner of administring and dispencing it. In the former respect it is absolutely eternall, Christ shall bee a head and rewarder of his members, an everlasting Father, a Prince of peace unto them for ever. In the latter respect it shall be Eternall according to some acception, that is, it shall remaine untill the consummation of all things, as long as there is a Church of God upon the earth, there shall be no new way of spirituall and essentiall government prescribed unto it, no other Vicar, Successour, Monarch, or Vsurper upon his office by God allowed, but he onelyonly by his Spirit in the dispensation of his ordinances shall order and over-rule the consciences of his people, and subdue their enemies: yet he shall so reigne till then, as that hee shall then cease to rule in such manner as now hee doth, when the end comes hee shall deliver up the kingdome to God the Father, and when all things shall be subdued unto him, he also himselfe shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. 15.24-28. He shall so returne it unto God, as God did conferre, and as it were, appropriate it unto him, namely, in regard of judiciary dispensation and execution, in which respect our Saviour saith, that as touching the present administration of the Church, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement, and hath given authority p. 79to execute it unto his Sonne, Ioh. 4.22, 27. Now Christ governeth his Church by the ministery of his Word and Sacraments, and by the effusion of his Spirit in measure and degrees upon his members; by his mightie, though secret, power he fighteth with his enemies, and so shall doe till the resurrection of the dead, when death, the last enemie shal be overcome, and then in these respects his kingdome shall cease, for he shall no more exercise the offices of a Mediator in compassionating, defending, interceding for his Church; but yet he shall still sit and reigne for ever as God, coequall with his Father, and shall ever be the Head of the Church his body. Thus we see though Christs kingdome in regard of the manner of dispensation, and present execution thereof, it be limited by the consummation of all things; yet in it selfe it is a kingdom which hath neither within the seeds of mortality, nor without the danger of a concussion, but in the substance is immortall, though in regard of the commission and power which Christ had as Mediator to administer it alone by himselfe, and by the fulnesse of his Spirit, it be at last voluntarily resigned into the hands of the Father, and Christ as a part of that great Church become subject to the Father, that God may bee all in all.

Now the grounds of the Constancy of Christs government over his Church, and by consequence of the Church it selfe which is his kingdome, are amongst others these: First, the Decree and promise of God sealed by an oath, which made it an adamantine and unbended purpose,Iames 1.17. Non mutat voluntatem, sed vult mutatati… nem, Aqu. part. 1. qu. 19. art. 7. Aug. Confess. lib. 12. c. 15. deciv. Dei, lib. 14. c. 11. lib. 22. cap. 1. de Trin. lib. 5. c. 16.Jas 1:17 which the Lord would never repent of nor reverse. All Gods Counsels are immutable (though he may alter his workes, yet he doth never change his will,) but when he sealeth his Decree with an oath, that makes their immutability past question or suspition. In that case it is impossible for God to change, because it is impossible for God to lye, or deny himselfe, Hebr. 6.18. Now upon p. 80such a Decree is the Kingdome of Heaven established. Once have I sworne by my Holinesse that I will not lye unto David, saith the Lord, Psal. 89.35. Once, that notes the constancie and fixednesse of Gods promise; By my Holinesse, that notes the inviolablenesse of his promise; as if he should have said, Let me no longer be esteemed an Holy God than I keepe immutably that Covenant which I have sworne unto David in my truth.

Secondly, the free gift of God unto his Sonne Christ, whereby he committed all power and judgement unto him. And Power is a strong argument to prove the Stability of a kingdome, especially if it bee on either side supported with wisedome and righteousnesse, as the power of Christ is: And therefore from his power hee argues for the perpetuitie of his Church to the end of the world, All power is given mee in heaven and earth; Goe yee therefore and preach the Gospell to all nations; and loe I am with you alwayes to the end of the world, Matth. 28.18-20. And the argument is very strong and emphaticall, for though kingdomes of great power have beene and may be subdued, yet the reason is, because much power hath still remained in the adverse side; or if they have beene too vast for any smaller people to root out, yet having not either wisdome enough to actuate so huge a frame, or righteousnesse to prevent or purge out those vitious humours of emulation,Vid. Arist. Polit. lib. 5. In se magna ruunt, laetis hunc numin… rebus Crescendi posuere modum, Lucan. sedition, luxury, injustice, violence and impietie, which like strong diseases in a body, are in states the preparations and seminaries of mortalitie, they have sunke under their owne weight, and beene inwardly corrupted by their owne vices. But now first, the power of Christ in his Church is universall, there is in him all power and no weaknesse, no power without him or against him; and therefore no wonder if from a fulnesse of power in him, and an emptinesse in his enemies, the argument of continuance in his kingdome doth infallibly follow; for p. 81what man, if hee were furnished with all sufficiencie, would suffer himselfe to be mutilated and dismembred, as Christ should, if any thing should prevaile against the Church, which is his fulnesse. Againe, this power of Christ is supported with wisdome, it can never miscarry for any inward defect, for the wisdome is proportionable to the power; this, All power, and that, All the treasures of wisdome; Power able by weaknesse to confound the things which are mighty, and wisdome able by foolishnesse to bring to nought the understanding of the prudent; and both these are upheld by righteousnesse, which is indeed the very soule and sinewes of a kingdome, upon which the thrones of Princes are established, and which the Apostle makes the ground of the perpetuitie of Christs kingdome, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a scepter of righteousnesse is the scepter of thy kingdome, Hebr. 1.8.

Thirdly, the quality of Christs kingdome is to be a Growing kingdome, though the originals thereof be but like a graine of mustard-seed, or like Eliahs cloud to a humane view despicable, and almost below the probabilities of subsistence, the object rather of derision than of terrour to the world; yet at last it groweth into a widenesse, which maketh it as catholike as the world. And therefore that which the Prophet David speakes of the Sunne, the Apostle applies to the Gospell, Rom. 10.18. to note that the Circle of the Gospell is like that of the Sunne, universall to the whole world. It is such a kingdome as groweth into other kingdomes, and eats them out. The little stone in Nebuchadnezzars vision (which was the Kingdome of Christ, for so Ierusalem is called a stone, Zech. 12.3.) brake in peeces the great Monarchies of the earth, and grew up into a great mountaine which filled the world, Dan. 2.34, 35. for the kingdomes of the earth must become the kingdomes of the Lord, and of his Christ, Revel. 11.15. Therefore p. 82the Prophets expresse Christ and his kingdome by the name of a Branch, which groweth up for a standard and ensigne of the people, Esay 11.1.10. Zech. 3.8. A branch which growes, but never withers. It hath no principles of death in it selfe; and though it be for a while subject to the assaults of adversaries, and forren violence, yet that serves onelyonly to trie it, and to settle it, but not to weaken or overturne it: The gates of hell, all the powers, policies, and lawes of darknesse, shall never prevaile against the Church of Christ: he hath bruized, and judged, and trodden downe Satan under our feet. He hath overcome the world; he hath subdued iniquitie, hee hath turned persecutions into seminaries and resurrections of the Church; he hath turned afflictions into matters of glory and of rejoycing; so that in all the violence which the Church can suffer, it doth more than conquer, because it conquers not by repelling but by suffering.

And this shewes the sacrilege and sawcinesse of the Church of Rome, which in this point doth with a double impiety therefore pervert the Scriptures, that it may derogate from the honour of Christ and his kingdome: And those things which are spoken of the infallibility, authority, and fulnesse of power which Christ hath in his body, of the stability, constancie, and universalitie of his Church upon earth, doth arrogate onelyonly to the Pope and his See at Rome. As the Donatists in S. Augustines time from that place of the Spouse in the Canticles, Aug. Epist. 48. & to. 7. de unitat. Eccles. c. 16.Sir 16Tell me, O thou whom my soule loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocke to rest in Meridie, excluded all the world from being a Church, save onelyonly a corner of Africa, which was at that time the nest of those hornets: So because Christ sayes, his Church is built upon a rocke, and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it; therefore the Romanists from hence conclude all these priviledges to belong to them, and exclude p. 83all the famous Churches of the world besides from having any communion with Christ the Head.B. Iewels Defence of the Apologie, part 4. page 360. That scornefull expostulation which Harding makes with that renowned and incomparable Bishop (under whose hand hee was no more able to subsist, than a whelpe under the paw of a Lion) shall wee now change the song of Micheas the Prophet, Out of Sion shall come the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem; and sing a new song, out of Wittenberg is come the Gospell, and the Word of the Lord from Zurich and Geneva? may most truely and pertinently be retorted upon himselfe and his faction, who boldly curse and aaIdem à Romano pontifice dividi, quod ab universa Ecclesia separari, Baron, to. 2. A. 254. §. 100.exclude all those Christian Churches from the body of Christ, and the hope of salvation, who will not receive lawes from Rome, nor esteeme the Cathedrall determinations of that Bishop (though haply in himselfe an impure, diabolicall and intolerable beast, as by their owne confessions many of them have beene) to be notwithstanding the infallible Edicts of the Spirit of God, and as undoubtedly the Word of Christ, as if S. Peter or Saint Paul had spoken it; an arrogancie than which there is scarce any more expresse and characteristicall note to discerne Antichrist by. It is true that Christs regal power doth alwaies shew forth it selfe in upholding his Catholike Church, and in revealing unto it out of his sacred Word such necessary truths as are absolutely requisite unto its being and salvation; but to binde this power of Christ to one man, and to one See, (as if like the Pope he were infallible only in S. Peters chaire) is the meere figment of pride and ambition without any ground at all, raised out of a heape and aggregation of monstrous presumptions of humane and some most disputable, bbCrantzius in Metropol. l. 5. c. 1. in Bonifacio 6. Stephano 6. Theodoro, Christophoro, Ioanne 12. Sylvestro 2. Sigon. de Regno Italiae, lib. 7. Anno 964. Guicciard. de Alex. 6. lib. Hist. 1. pag. 3, 4. Pet. Bembus de eodem in Hist. Venet. lib. 6. Platina in Christophero 1. Ioan. 13. Sylvestro 2. &c. Vid. Mornaeum de Ecclesia, ca. 9. Reynol. Conser. c. 7. divis. 1. & 5. B. Carleton of Jurisdict. cap. 7. B. Vsher de statu Ecclesiae, cap. 3, 4, 5.others most false conceits, of which though there be not the least vestigia in sacred Scriptures, yet must they be all first wrested in for indubitate principles, and laid for sure foundations before the first stone of Papall authoritie p. 84can bee raised. As first, that the externall and visible regiment of the whole Church is ccBellarm. lib. 1. de Pontif. Rom. cap. 9.Rom 9Monarchicall, and that there must be a predominant mistresse Church set over all the rest, to which in all points they must have recourse, and to whose decisions they must conforme without any hesitancie, or suspition at all, whereas the Apostle tels us that the unity of the Church is gathered by many Pastors and Teachers, Eph. 4.11, 12, 13. for as if severall needles bee touched by so many severall Loadstones (all which have the selfe-same specificall vertue in them) they doe all as exactly bend to one and the same point of heaven, as if they had beene thereunto qualified by but one: so in as much as Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, come all instructed with one and the same spirituall truth and power towards the Church, therefore all the faithfull, who are any where by these multitudes of Preachers taught what the truth is in Iesus, doe all by the secret sway and conduct of the same Spirit of Grace (whose peculiar office it is to guide his Church in all necessary and saving truth) with an admirable consent of heart, and unitie of judgement incline to the same end, and walke in the same way, acknowledging no monarch over their consciences but CHRIST, nor any other ministeriall application of his regall power in the Catholike Church, but onelyonly by severall Bishops and Pastours, who in their severall particular compasses are endowed with as plenary and ample ministeriall power, as the Pope and his Consistorie within the See of Rome. Secondly, that Peter was Prince and Monarch, Rocke and Head in this Vniversall Church, and that hee alone was custos clavium, and all this in the vertue of Christs promise and commission granted unto him. Thou art Peter, and upon this Rocke will I build my Church,Baron. An. 33. sect. 17. Bellar. de Pontif. Rom. lib. 1. c. 10. feed my sheep, feed my Lambs, unto thee will I give the Keyes of the kingdome of heaven: In which respect Baronius calleth p. 85him **Quod non audet Bozius. Praeter Christum (inquit) non potest aliud fundamentum poni, quod sit itemprimarium design. Ecclesie, l. 18. c. 1. ob. 5.Lapidem primarium, the chiefe stone; and againe, though Christ, saith hee, bee the Author and moderator of his Church, yet the Princedome and Monarchie hee hath confer'd upon Peter aaSicut (quod certum est) nemo potest aliud ponere fundamentum, prae…erid quod positum est, quod est Christus; ita etiam nec aliud quispiam ponet, quam quod posui… Christus, neque convellet quod ipse firmavit, dicens, Tu es Petrus, &c. Baron. An. 33 sect. 20.; and therefore as no man can lay any other foundation than that which is layd, namely Christ, so no man can lay any other than that which Christ hath layd, namely Peter. And it is wonderfull to consider what twigs and rushes they catch at to hold up this their monarchy. bbBaron. A. 34. sect. 247. Bozius de fignis Ecclesiae, lib. 18. cap. 1.2. Bellarm. de Roman. Pontifice, lib. 1. cap. 17.25.Because Peter did preach first, therfore he is Monarch of the Church. By which reasō his monarchie is long since expir'd, for his pretended successors scarce preach at all. And yet if that may bee drawen to any argument, it proves onelyonly that hee was Lapis primus, the first in order and in forwardnesse to preach Christ (as it became him who had three times denied him) but not Lapis primarius, the chiefe in dignity, and jurisdiction over the rest… and why should it not bee as good an argument to say that Iames had the dignity of precedence before Peter, because Paul first names Iames, and then Cephas, and that in a place where hee particularly singles them out as pillars and principall men in the Church, as to say that Peter hath jurisdiction over Iames and the rest, because in their Synods and assemblies hee was the chiefe speaker? ccBaron. An. 34. sect. 264.Because Peter cured the lame man that sate at the gate of the Temple, therfore hee is universall monarch. By which reason likewise Paul who in the selfe same manner cured a creeple at Lystra, should fall into competitiō with Peter for his share in the monarchie. But the people there were not so acute disputants as these of Rome, for though they saw what Paul had done, yet they concluded the dignity and precedence for Barnabas, they called him Iupiter and Paul Mercury. Againe, because Peter ddBaron. Ibid. sect. 269.pronounced sentence upon Ananias, therfore hee is monarch of the universall Church: and why Paul should not here likewise come in for his share, I know not, for hee p. 86also passed judgment upon Elimas the sorcerer (and we no where finde that hee derived his authority, or had any commission from Peter to doe so.) And surely if by the same Apostolicall and infallible Spirit of Christ, (which they both immediatly received from Christ himselfe) S. Paul did adjudge Elimas to blindnesse, by the which S. Peter adjudged Ananias to death, I see not how any logick from a parity of actions can conclude a disparity of persons, except they will say that it is more monarchicall to adjudge one to death, than another to blindnesse. Againe, because Peter healed the sick by his shaddow,Baron. Ibid. sect. 274. therefore Peter is monarch of the universall Church: and even in this point Paul likewise may hold on his competition, for why is not the argument as good that Paul is Monarch of the Church because the handkerchiefs and aprons which came from his body did cure diseases, and cast out Divels, as that Peter is therefore monarch because by the overshaddowing of his body the sick were healed? But the truth is there is no more substance in this argument for Peters principality, than there is for their supposed miraculous vertue of images and relicks of Saints, because the shaddow (which was the image of Peter) did heale the sick, for that also is the Cardinals great argument. Againe, because Peter was sent to Samaria to confirme them in the faith,Ibid. sect. 275. An. 35. sect. 9.25. and to lay hands on them that they might receive the holy Ghost, and to confound Simon Magus the sorcerer, therfore hee is primate of the Catholike Church, and hath monarchicall jurisdiction. And yet the Pope is by this time something more monarchicall than Peter, for he would thinke skorne to bee sent as an Ambassador of the Churches from Rome to the Indians, amongst whom his Gospell hath been in these latter ages preached; and doubtlesse they would bee something more confirmed than they are by the soveraigne vertue of his prayers and presence. But alas, what argument is it of monarchie p. 87to be sent by others in a message, and that too not without an associate, who joyned with him in the confirmation of that Church? and if the confuting, or cursing of Simon Magus were an argument of primacy, why should not S. Pauls cursing of Elimas, and Hymeneus, and Alexander, and S. Iohns of Cerinthus be arguments of their primacie likewise? Againe,Baron. An. 39. sect. 6. because Paul went up to Ierusalem to see Peter, therefore Peter was monarch of the Catholick Church. And why should not by this argument Elizabeth bee concluded a greater woman than the virgin Marie, and indeed the lady of all woman, because the blessed Virgin went up into the hill countrie of Iudea, and entred into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth? but wee finde no argument but of equality in the Text, for hee went to see him as a brother, but not to doe homage to him, or receive authority from him as a monarch, else why went he not up immediately to Ierusalem, but staied three years, and preached the Gospell by the commission hee had received from Christ alone? and how came S. Paul to bee so free, or S. Peter to bee so much more humble than any of his pretended successors as the one to give with boldnesse, the other with silence and meeknesse to receive so sore a reproofe in the face of all the brethren as many yeares after that did passe betweene them. Certainly S. Paul in so long time could not but learne to know his distance, and in what manner to speake to his monarch and primate. By these particulars wee see upon what sandy foundation this vast and formidable Babel of Papall usurpation and power over the Catholike Church is erected (which yet upon the matter is the sole principle of Romish religion, upon which all their faith, worship and obedience dependeth.) But wee say that as Peter was a foundation, so were all the other Apostles likewise, Eph. 2.20. Revel. 21.14. and that upon the same reason. For the Apostles were not foundations of p. 88the Church by any dignity of their persons, as Christ the chiefe corner stone was, but by the vertue of their Apostolicall office, which was universall jurisdiction in governing the people of Christ, universall commission in instructing them, and a Spirit of infallibility in revealing Gods will unto them throughout the whole world. And therefore as Peter had the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven to remit or retaine the sinnes of men; so likewise had the other Apostles, Ioh. 20.23. That Christs charge to Peter, feed my sheepe, feed my lambes, is no other in substance than his commission to them all, goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Sonne and the Holy Ghost. And that the particular directing of it unto Peter, and praying for him, was with respect unto his particular onelyonly by way of comfort and confirmation, as being then a weake member, not by way of dignity, or deputation of Christs owne regall power to him in the visible Church. For all the offices of Christ are intransient and uncommunicable to any other, in as much as that administration and execution of them dependeth upon the dignity of his person, and upon the fulnesse of his Spirit, which no mortall man or immortall Angell is capable of. But all this is not enough to bee granted them for the raising their authority. But then thirdly, we must grant them too that Peter, thus qualified, was Bishop of Rome, for proofe wherof they have no Testimonie of Holy Scriptures, but onelyonly humane tradition, Cui impossibile non est subesse falsum. So that in this which is one of the maine principles they build upon, their faith cannot bee resolved into the word of God,Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 12. Baron. An. 39. sect. 16.26. and therefore is no divine faith. Fourthly, that hee did appoint that Church to bee the monarchicall and fundamentall see to all other Churches; for hee was Bishop as well of Antioch as of Rome, by their owne confession. And I wonder why some of his personall vertue should not cleave to his chaire at Antioch, p. 89but all passe over with him to another place. Fifthly, that hee did transmit all his prerogatives to his successors in that chaire. By which assertion they may as well prove that they all (though some of them have been sorcerers, others murtherers, others blasphemous atheists) were inheriters of S. Peters love to Christ, for from thence our Savior inferres, feed my sheep, to note that none feed his sheepe, but those that love his person. Lastly, that that long succession from S. Peter untill now hath ever since been legall, and uninterrupted. Or else the Church must sometimes have been a monster without a head. Wee grant that some of the Ancients argue from succession in the Church; but it was while it was yet pure,Tertull. depraescript. cap. 19.22. Aug. Epist. 165. de dissidio Donatist. and while they could by reason of the little space of time betweene them and the Apostles, with evidence resolve their Doctrine through every medium into the preaching of the Apostles themselves. But even in their personall succession who knoweth not what Simonies and Sorceries have raised divers of them unto that degree? and who is able to resolve, that every Episcopall ordination of every Bishop there hath been valid, since therunto is requisite both the intention and Orders of that Bishop that ordained him. These and a world of the like uncertainties must the faith of these men depend upon, who dare arrogate to themselves the prerogatives of Christ, and of his Catholike Kingdome. But I have been too long upon this argument.