Christs Combat and Conquest, Title page – Dedication
CHRISTS COMBATE AND Conquest: OR, The LYON of the tribe of IVDAH, vanquishing the Roaring Lyon, assaulting him in three most fierce and hellish Temptations. EXPOVNDED, AND now (at the request of sundry persons) published for the common good, by THO. TAYLOR, Preacher of the Word of God, at Reeding in Barkeshire
HEBR. 2.18. ¶ For in that he suffered and was tempted, hee is able to succour them that are tempted.
Tentatus est Christus, ne vincatur à Tentatore Christianus. August.
PRINTED BY CANTRELL LEGGE, PRINTER to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. 1618.
❧ TO THE RIGHT Worthy and noble Knight, Sir FRAVNCIS KNOLLIS, and the vertuous Ladie LETTICE his Wife, all blessings of this life and a better.
SIR,
WHEN that great Prophet Moses, was to bee confirmed in the certainty of his vocation for the deliuerie of Gods people out of Egypt, aAct. 7.30.There appeared vntounto him in the wildernesse of mount Sinai, bChrist himself… so called, foreign Iust. Ma…t.an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in the bush: cExod. 3.….and he looked, and behold the bush burnt with fire, and the bush was not consumed. A sight at which Moses dAct 7.31.wondred; and so may we. But if you please with Moses, eExod. 3 4.to turne aside to see this great sight; that is, fAct. 7.31.drawe a little nearer to consider it, This it is:
I. The bush (which at that time betokened the people of Israel, gExod. 3.7.9.vnderunder the oppressions of Egypt) signifieth the Church of God: for, 1. As a bryar-bush is a base and despicable thing, made for nothing but the fire, or to stoppe a gappe, or some other base vse: so seemes the Church and members to bee in the eies of men; in so much as not the most eminent members, the blessed Apostles themselues, are h1. Cor. 4.10. & … foreign.despised, and accounted the filth of the world, and the off-scouring or out-sweepings of all things: but the Head of it, our Lord himselfe, was in the eyes of men without iI…a. ….2.3.forme or beauty, despised and reiected of men, who hid their eies from him, and esteemed him not. 2. As a bush pricketh & vexeth him that deales roughly with it; so shall the Church of God bee as a stiffe and prickly bramble, to vex, and wound at length, all the proud enemies of it, so as kZach. 12.3.all that lift at it shall be torne, though all the people of the earth should be gathered against it. 3. As the creatures for their owne safetie make their neasts and muses in a bush; so the mightie Creator (not for his, but the bushes safetie) vouchsafeth lDeut. 33.16.to dwell in this bush of the Church. This bush was in mount mExod. 3 1. Famous for sixe memorable things in Moses done there. 1. This vision. 2. Fasting there forty daies and nights. 3. Receiuing the law there. 4. Striking the rocke for water. 5 Lifting hi… hand… against Amalec. 6. Breaking the tables of stone.Horeb, and God was in the bush: euen so the Church is in the mountaine of the Lord, lifted vp (as a mountaine aboue the vallies) in holinesse and priuiledges aboue all the earth besides: for of this mountaine the Lord hath said, nPsal. 68.16.there will I dwell for euer.
II. The bush burnes with fire: In this resemblance is shadowed the oppressed estate of the Israelites in the Egyptian furnace: and by fire here is meant, the most painfull, and pitifull afflictions and miseries, which seaze vponupon the Church and members, as a raging and deuouring fire vponupon a drie bush: for, 1. Fire is a diffusiue and spreading element, catching whatsoeuer combustible matter is neere it: euen so not a sprigge of this bush of the Church, shall escape the flame of affliction, but whosoeuer will liue godly in Christ Iesus, o2. Tim. 3.12.shall suffer persecution: for either the fierie darts of Satan shall scorch them within; or they shall bee …inged with the fierie p1. Pet. 4.12.trialls of the worlds hatred; or at least, they must looke to bee be-smeared, and blacked in their names, with the colli… and smoake of odious, false, and scandalous imputations: and what are qQuid aliud sumus quam flamm… pabulum?Gods people (saith one) but the fe…el of the wicked worlds fierie indignation? 2. Fire shineth and enlighteneth: so the afflictions of the Church, as fire enlighten the minde, rPsal. 119.71.teach the statutes. The rodde and correction (saith Salomon) sProu. 29.15.giuegive wisedome: and the Lord tIob. 33.16. & 36.9.openeth by correction, (saith Elihu) the eares of man which he had sealed: in which vse, this fire of affliction becomes as an other uExod. 13.21.pillar of fire, to enlighten and guide the Israel of God, in the night of their wandring through the wildernes of this world, towards their land of promise that heauenly Canaan. 3. Fire giueth heate and warm'th: so the heat of this fire of affliction melteth and thaweth our frozen hearts, condensed and congealed by the pinching aire of cold securitie: this fire kindleth deuotion, enflameth our zeale, xIsa. 26.16. & Hos. 5.15.warmeth our praiers, and makes vsus hote s…tors for releefe. 4. Fire softneth and smodreth mettalls: yExod. 9.27.Pharohs steely heart will melt and soften while it is in this hote furnace: yea, in the same man it separateth drosse from pure mettall, and like that fire which burnt only the zDan▪ 3.…7. Ignis non perdit s…d purgat.bands of them that were cast in, but not their bodies▪ so it only consumeth the corruptions, but preserueth aliue the children of God, who onelyonly walke at more libertie and further enlargement in the fire, then they did out of it; and as gold, come forth more purified, more glorious. 5. Fire is a climbing and ascending element: so the fire of affliction marketh the heart to ascend, and raiseth the thoughts to heauen-ward. Miserie maketh the prodigall aLuk. 1….17.bethink himselfe of his Fathers house, when he is a great way from it: and this is the fire which Moses saw seazing vponupon the bush.
III. The bush burning is not consumed: bStabilitatē populi ex veritate promissionum dei adumbraui…. Iunius in analys.signifying the preseruation of the Church and members (as Israel in Egypt) in the hottest furnace of their afflictions. Well may we wonder, that so flaming and terrible a fire, falling vponupon so contemptible a bush, and so dry and despicable a shrub, should not presently turne it into ashes: for why? is the fire too weake; or is the bush so strong as to defend it selfe; or is it not disposed or apt to bee burnt and consumed by so fierce a fire? Certainly it is not from the impotencie of the fire, nor from the strength or constitution of the bush (which is in the matter of it as combustible as any chaffe, and as easily destroyed as any stubble) that it is not consumed. But, 1. This fire is not kindled against the bush, out of the sparks of Gods wrath, and indignation (which is indeed a cHeb 12 29.consuming fire) but of his fatherly affection and louelove, not for the hurt of the bush, but for the dHeb. 12.10.profit of it: not to destroy the persons, but the sinne for the persons sake. We hauehave indeed kindled, and blowne vp our selues aeHeb. 10.27. violent and deuouring fire, which God might send into our fLament. 1.13.bones, to burne vsus vp, as fire burneth the gPsal. 83.14forrest, and as the flames set the mountaines on fire: But the hLam. 3.22.merciemercy of God is as water to quench this fire, (for else would it burn to the bottome of hell) and in stead of a iEzec. 22.22.furnace of furie which melteth away his enemies, he setteth vp in Zion, a furnace of fauour, onelyonly to melt the mettall, kIsa. 27.9.consume away the drosse, and refine his chosen ones to become vessells of honour. 2. Because the fewell of the consuming fire of Gods wrath are slaues, not sonnes: those wicked brambles, which if they escape one fire (saith the lEzek. 15 7.Prophet) they fall into another, which shall consume them: but not this bush, which is onelyonly made brighter and better by the flame, but not blacker, not worser. The chaffe and stubble must feede the fire of wrath, neuer to come foorth more; but the pure mettall is cast into the furnace to come foorth so much the purer, as it hath beene the longer tryed. 3. Because the mExod. 3.2.Angell of God is in the bush. This Angell was Iesus Christ, the Lord of the holy Angells, and the great Angell of the Couenant. For Moses saith expressely of this vision,ver. 4. The Lord appeared vntounto Moses: and, God called vntounto him out of the middest of the bush: and S. Luke, nAct. 7.31. agreing with Exod. 3.6.recording the same vision; after that he had called him an Angell, bringeth him in, saying, I am the Lord of Abraham, &c. This same presence of the Sonne of God, was noted the cause why cast vponupon one kinde of serpent, they kill him: so much more … it is, that the lea…es of Gods word, which properly belong to the bush of the church, and opposed to Satans poysoned temptations, ouercome and master them. And thus as gDeut. 33.16.Moses requested that the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush, might come upon the head of Ioseph; euen so, the good will of him that dwelt in the bush, come vponupon your head, vponupon the head of your vertuous Lady, vponupon the heads of your children, to the sweetning,vers. 23. and crowning of your age: And blessed of the Lord be your portion, for the sweetnes of heauen, and for the sweetnes of the earth, vers. 23.till you be satisfied with fauour, and filled with the blessing of the Lord. Amen.
Reeding, Octob. 28. 1618. Your Worship… in the Lord to … ▪ THO. TAYLOR.