The Autumn Part from the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Letter 15
The Epistle.
IEREMY 23. 5.
Behold, the time commeth, saith the Lord, that I will raise vp the righteous branch of Dauid, &c.
THe Church ends, as she began, with hir onelyonly Lord and Sauiour: which nPetrus Machado ord. ff. praedicat. prouinc…al.occasioned one to call his postil annulus Christianus, as it were the Christians round, or ring. oSarcerius in epist. Dom. 22. post. Trinit.For all the Gospels are fraught with excellent doctrines of holy faith in Christ, and ordinarily the Epistles are nothing else but earnest exhortations vntounto the fruite of faith, a godly life; that we may pCo…oss. 1. 10.walke worthy of the Lord and please him in all things. As then on the first Sunday, the Gospell intimating that Christ is come [behold thy King commeth, &c.] and the Epistle teaching that wee must imitate our King being come, [put on the Lord Iesus, &c.] are in stead of a Preface: so this Epistle and Gospell on the last Sunday (the one prophecying that the Lord our righteousnesse shall shortly come, Behold, the time commeth, &c. and the other preaching that he is already come, this of a truth is the same Prophet that should come into the world) may serue for a qFerus ser. 3. in euangel. Dom. 26. post. Pentecost.conclusion or epilogue to all the rest of the whole yeere.
The Gospell is expounded Sunday 7. after Trinity. The Epistle containeth an abridgement of all the chiefe doctrine deliuered in the Church, euen from the first in Aduent vntounto this present day; shewing that Christ is God, and man, and so participating of both natures in one person, is the sole Mediatour betweene God and man. Our rHiero. trooem. in lib. 1. Com. Ierem.euangelicall Prophet as another Matthew proues here Christ to be man, in that he was a branch of Dauid. And yet not a meere man, in that the righteous, in whom is sEsay 53. 9.no guile: whereas the scripture witnesseth of other men that they were tPsal. 5…. 5.conceiued in sinne, and borne in iniquitie, that uPsal. 14. 4.all are gone out of the waies of the Lord, and that none doth good, no not one. Christs high stile, the Lord our righteousnesse, is an euident demonstration of his Godhead, as Interpretors hauehave noted against Arians and Iewes out of this place. Uide Caluin. Instit. lib. 1. cap. 13. §. 9. Galatin. de arcanis, lib. 8. cap. 3. Melanct. proposit. de eccles. propos. 25. Tom. 2. fol. 320. Bellarm. de Christo lib. 1. cap. 7. Indeed there be x1. Cor. 8. 5.many Lords, and yet but yEphes. 4. 5.one Lord, which is the Lord: and many righteous comparatiuely, but none zAug. ep. 54.simply good, or righteousnesse it selfe, but only aMark. 10. 18.God the most holy.
Now Christ as God-man, or Man-god, is the King of his redeemed ones, in whom obserue three royall vertues especially,
Wisedome, verse 5.
Iustice, verse 5.
MercieMercy, sauing Iuda, verse 6. and deliuering Israel, verse 7. 8. bHieron. in loc.Not as by Moses out of Egypt onelyonly: but out of the hands of cLuke 1. 74.all their enemies, and calling them out of all countries and corners of the world, to dMatt. 8. 11.sit downe with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen, being our righteousnesse eTheophylact. Aquin. Piscator in 1. Cor. 1. 30. Idem Bellarm. de Iustificat. lib. 2. cap. 10.efficienter, as author of eueryevery good and perfect gift in vsus: and sufficienter, in giuing himselfe a ransome for all men, 1. Tim. 2. 6. and obtayning eternall redemption for vsus, Heb. 9. 12. a Iesus immediatly sauing vsus himselfe, not by giuing vsus power to become our owne Sauiours. And so the righteousnesse whereby we are saued, is not the righteousnesse which we by him act for ourselues, but that which he in his owne person hath wrought for vsus; an imputatiue, not an inherent iustice, fAugust. de Ciuit. Dei, li. 19. c p. 27.consisting not in the perfection of vertue, but in the free pardoning of our sinnes. According to that of gPsal. 32. 1.Dauid, Blessed is hee, whose vnrighteousnesse is forgiuen, and whose sinne is couered.
The words of this text, as Hierome notes are well interpreted by Paul, 1. Cor. 1. 30. Christ is made to vsus wisedome, and righteousnesse, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that reioyceth, let him reioyce in the Lord. As if he should hauehave said, hDr. Fulke in loc. ad Cor. ex Chrysest. Oecumen. Beda.If these graces are our owne, we may vaunt in our owne. But for as much as Christ is made to vsus from God, not onelyonly the beginning of holinesse, wisedome, righteousnesse, &c. but the perfection of all these: let not flesh boast it selfe in his presence, but he that doth glory, let him glory in the Lord. As Christ was made i2. Cor. 5. 21sinne for vsus, euen so are we made the righteousnesse of God in Christ. He was sinne through imputation onelyonly, k1. Pet. 2. 22.for hee did no sinne, neither was there guile found in his mouth. And so we are made righteousnesse, in that our vnrighteousnesse is not imputed vntounto vsus, Rom. 4. 8. As lLoc. Com. tit. de Iustitia Christiana & remissione peccatorum.Martin Luther is bold to speake, Christiana sanctitas non est actiua, sed passiua sanctitas, extra nos est iustitia, non in nobis. It is a righteousnesse in God, whereby we stand righteous afore God. It is true that we worke righteousnesse according to the proportion of grace bestowed vponupon vsus in this life: but for as much as wee mMatt. 5. 6.thirst after the full righteousnesse in another world, and hauehave receiued onelyonly the nRom. 8. 23.first fruites of the spirit heere; to say that wee are now throughly cleane oEphes. 5. 27.without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is to iustle Christ out of his iustice, and to take from him his due title of honour, which is giuen him in our text, the Lord our righteousnesse. See Gregor. apud Magdeburg. Cent. 6. col. 681. Luther. vbi supra in margine. Melancton in Cat. & loc. Com. & exam. tit. de Iustificatione & bonis operibus. Caluin. Instit. lib. 3. cap. 11. §. 11. Dr. Morton Apolog. lib. 1. cap. 2. §. 11. & 1. 7. 2. & lib. 2. cap. 11. Dr. Abbots answer to Bishops Epistle to the King, pag. 138. 139. &c.
Wherefore learne to sing with pPsal. 4. 1.Dauid: O God which art my righteousnesse: and to say with qVbi sup.Luther, Tues Domine Iesu, iustitiamea, ego autem sum peccatum tuum: tu assumpsistimeum, & dedisti mihi tuum: assumpsisti quod non eras, & dedisti mihi quod non eram, &c. I conclude with a meditation of rSerm. 61. in Cant.Bernard: Thy righteousnesse, O my deare Sauiour, is not a short cloake that cannot couer two, but being a sApocal. 7. 9.long robe, and a large righteousnesse, it will wholly couer thee and mee: a multitude of sinnes in mee, but in thee what shall it couer, O Lord, but the treasures of thy goodnesse? To thee, (sweet Iesu) the beginning and ending, which hast out of the riches of thy superabundant grace blessed my studies hitherto, guiding, as I hope, my penne with thy finger, euen from the first lesson vntounto this last line: be giuen all honour, power and praise, now and for euer.
Glorie be to God on high, and peace to men in earth.
Amen▪
FINIS.
End of the text · John Boys, The Autumn Part from the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (1613)