IF ever the Hearts of the Fathers had need to be turned to the children, that need is now, and if ever the Disobedient had need to be redu­ced to the wisedome of the just, that need is now also: but where is the Spirit, and where the power? where an Elias, or [Page 2] where a Baptist to do the worke? For if ever those searching and trying times, which were spoken of so long agoe by our Saviour in the twelfth of Luk. and the three and fiftieth have overtaken any Na­tion, they have overtaken this of ours: Five in one house, and they divided, three against two, and two a­gainst three. The Father divided against the Sonne, and the Sonne against the Father; the Mother against the Daughter, Mat. 10. 36. and the Daughter against the Mother; the Mother in law against her Daughter in law, and the Daughter in law against her Mother in law. And a mans enemies are they of his owne houshold. And if ever those irregular and exorbitant behaviours, which were spoken of so long agoe, by the Pro­phet Esay, in the third of Esay and the fifth, have over-runne and forraged any people, they have done so by this of ours. The people oppressed every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child behaving himselfe proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. These are our sorrows, but where our remedy? this our misery, but where our redresse? For the divisions of Reuben, there are great thoughts of heart, but who can helpe them? for the divisions in the Church, for divi­sions in the State, divisions in families, divisions in opinions, divisions in affections, (the Lord keepe them out of your two Houses) divisions in every division, Antonio di Guevarra in Rel [...]x de los princip. lib. 1. cap. 2. but who can heale them? As the Hoste at Nola in the story, who when hee was commanded by the Romane Censor to go & call the good men of the City to appeare before him, went to the [Page 3] Church-yard, and there called at the graves of the dead, Oh yee good men of Nola come away, for the Ro­mane Censor cals for your appearance: for hee knew not where to finde a good man alive. So in these distractions and distempers of this our Land, if we would finde out a joyner of hearts and a moulder of humours, that could peece againe the disunited affections, and forme againe the unfashioned de­meanours of men towards men, we might goe and looke for the mansion of Elias, or go and knocke at the grave of John the Baptist, and call them to come to such a cure as this, for they once have wrought so great a cure; but who can doe it that is now alive? Oh how happy were the case with us, if the Spirit and power of Elias were as ready to be found in your two Houses as they were once to be found in John the Baptist, and as they are to be seene in the words of the text.

But as the Arke and the Ephod at the sacking of Nob, they which should alwayes have remained together, were by that dolefull accident parted asunder, and kept at distance: even so these two which God once joyned together in Elias and in the Baptist, and which the holy Ghost hath joyned together in the words of the text, some evill Counsell hath put asunder, so that the Spi­rit is with you, but the Power removed a great way off. What our Saviour saith concerning of­fences, It cannot be but offences will come, but woe to him by whom the offence commeth: so may wee dolefully concerning this, It is our misery that [Page 4] this divorce is come among us, but woe to that Counsell by whom the divorce first came, it had beene good for that Counsellour had he never beene borne.

How happy are those dayes which are spoken of by the Psalmist, when mercy and truth are met together, and Righteousnesse and Peace doe kisse each other? And how happily should we hope to see those dayes, and those things in this Land to meet, if we could but see these two to meete againe that are now so unhappily removed to distance? Well, all that we can doe is to seeke to drive them toge­ther with our prayers, and as Moses for the Vrim and Thummim upon Levi, so we for these united upon you to pray in publike, and to pray in private, to pray on the Lords day, and to pray on other dayes; and it is to be a maine petition on this so­lemne day of humiliation, that as the Lord hath put the Spirit of Elias into your hearts, so that he would put the Power of Elias into your hands, that as he hath made you willing, so would he also make you able, to turne the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisedome of the Righteous.

The words of the text are the last words of the old Testament, there uttered by a Prophet, here expounded by an Angell: there concluding the Law, and here beginning the Gospell: Behold, saith Malachi, Mal. 4. 5. I will send you Eliah the Prophet: And hee saith, the Angell, shall goe before him in the Spirit and power of Elias. And hee shall [Page 5] turne the hearts of the Fathers to the children, saith the one; And to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children, saith the other. Thus sweetly and neerely should the two Testaments joyne together, and thus divinely would they kisse each other, but that the wretched Apocrypha doth thrust in betweene: The Apocry­pha injurious to the two Te­staments. Like the two 1 King. 6. 27. Cherubims in the Temple Oracle, as with their outer-wings, they touch the two sides of the house, from In the beginning, to Come Lord Je­sus, so with their inner, they would touch each o­ther, the end of the law with the beginning of the Gospell, did not this patchery of humane inventi­on divorce them a funder.

It is a thing not a little to be admired, How the Apo­crypha came into request. how this Apocrypha could ever get such place in the hearts, and in the Bibles of the Primitive times, as to come to sit in the very Center of them both: But to this wonderment there may be some satisfacti­on given, namely because that these bookes came to them from among the Jewes, as well as the old Testament and the new. And because that the Jewes alone, and alone so long, had had the knowledge of Divinity and Religion among them, the converted Gentiles could not but give their writings extraordinary esteeme. And be­cause the Talmud not being yet written, the world was not acquainted with the vanity and straine of Jewish learning, those insuspecting times did swallow these bookes, as not tasting as yet how unsavoury that was, nor distinguishing these to be of the same tast. It is therefore more to be [Page 6] admired, How it conti­nued. that when the Talmud was written, and the impious and ridiculous doctrines and fables of the Jewish schooles laid open to the world, that then these bookes which shew themselves to be of the very same stampe in many things, should not onely not be refused out the Bibles and out mens good conceit, but also get better and further foot­ing in the same: but to this wonderment some sa­tisfaction also may be given: namely that super­stition begun then to grow in the Church every day more and more, and it became a Religion to doe as their forefathers had done before, and to retaine what they had retained, be it whatsoever it would, and of what ungroundlesnesse soever.

But it is a wonder to which I could never yet receive satisfaction, that in Churches that are re­formed, that have shaken off the yoke of supersti­tion, and unpinned themselves from off the sleeve of former customes or doing as their ancestors have done: yet in such a thing as this, and of so great import, should doe as first ignorance, and then superstition hath done before them: It is true in­deed that they have refused these bookes out of the Canon, but they have reserved them still in the Bi­ble: as if God should have cast Adam out of the state of happinesse, and yet have continued him in the place of happinesse. Not to insist upon this, which is some digression, you know the Counsell of Sarah concerning Ismael, and in that she out­stripped Abraham in the Spirit of Prophecy, Vid. R. Sol. & R. Menal. in lo. Cast out the bond-woman and her sonne, for the sonne of the [Page 7] bond-woman may not be heire with the sonne of the free.

In the words of the text you may see your owne worke and taske: and those two things that you have so long laboured under, and that we have so long longed after, Reconciliation and Reformation. You may behold in a part of the text, Reconciliati­on in these words, To turne the hearts of the fathers to the Children: and Reformation in the other, and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just. These are the two hands of our master which is in hea­ven, or rather the two good things in his hands, after which we his servants have looked so long, and doe looke this day, and cannot be taken off till he give them to us. These are the hands of your two Houses, or rather the two great gifts which we wait till God put into your hands to conveigh them towards us. These are the two pil­lars, 1 King. 7. 21. Jachin & Boaz, Firmenesse and Strength, that we long to see set up at the doore of that Temple that you are in building: And these are the two twins for which the Tamar of our England is in travaile and is pained to be delivered, if there be but strength to bring them forth.

These two things contained in the latter part of the text, are set forth and illustrated by two cir­cumstances in the former: First, by the party and the function of that party that must performe so great a worke, those included in these words, He shall goe before him: Secondly, the qualifications and indowments of that party for the function, and [Page 8] for the worke, that expressed in these; In the Spi­rit and power of Elias. The party rare, the functi­on honourable, his indowments singular, his worke divine, He shall goe before him, &c.

We will take up the words according to this Division, but not according to this order: for as in nature the agent is before the action, and as in the text, the workeman is named before the worke, so are they fit to be considered, and so will we take them into our handling, and so shall we take them as they lie in the text, and first of the first, He shall goe before him.

Who are meant by the He and the him in this part of the text the dimmest eye that is, will easi­ly judge and discerne, upon its owne reading, namely John the Baptist, and our Saviour Christ. Two that were in a very neere relation one to ano­ther by nature, for they were kinsmen according to the flesh, but of a neerer and of a higher relati­on in regard of their function, for they were they that began the Gospell, or the one begun & the o­ther perfected; & they were they that were the two great Prophets of the new Testament, or the one greater then a Prophet, and the other greater then a man. I cannot omit that which is not, nor can­not be omitted by any expositor it is so plaine up­on the him in this part: namely, that in the verse next before, he is called the God of Israel, He shall turne many of the Children to the Lord their God, and in this verse and in this whole passage hee is shewed to be Christ, of whom is spoken which gi­veth [Page 9] a pregnant and undeniable proofe that Christ is God, against the wicked Arius that held him for a Creature.

The Baptist went before our Saviour in divers parti­culars; in his conception, in his birth, in his preaching, in his death. For the miraculous conception and birth of John, went before the more miraculous conception and birth of Christ; his powerfull Preaching, before the others more powerfull; and his renowned death, before the others more renowned. But the words doe not meane so much his going before him in time, as his going before him in Ministery, nor his appearing before him in the world, as his appearing before him to do him service, as a servant doth before his Master to provide for his entertainement; and so the words following doe explaine it, He shall goe before him, To make ready a people prepared for the Lord: Luk. 10. 1. And so the seventy Disci­ples are said to be sent before our Saviour two and two before his face, that is, to prepare men for his receiving against that he himselfe should come.

All the Prophets went before our Saviour in their Ministery, in their divers generations, but John in a more speciall manner above them all. They like Balaam in the foure and twentyeth of Numbers, did behold him, but not now, did foretell him, but not neere; but he beheld him face to face, and he told of him standing by. And hence it is, that our Saviour cals him more then a Prophet, Mat. 11. 9. nay as much or more then any meere man that was naturally borne of a woman: More then a Prophet, because he went before Christ as his forerunner; and as great as any that was ever borne, because he was the beginner of the Gospell. The Mi­nistery [Page 10] of John the Baptist, The Ministry of Iohn the be­ginning of the Gospell. and the publishing of the Gospell, like time and the motion of the heavens, began together, and in one and the same instant. So hath Marke conjoyned them, in the very beginning of the Gospell, Mark. 1. 1. The beginning of the Gospell of Je­sus Christ, As it is written in the Prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thee. So likewise, in the first of the Acts and the two and twenty, Peter proposing a Disciple to be chosen in stead of Judaas, Of these men, saith he, which have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the Baptisme of John: And so in the tenth chapter of the same booke of the Acts, and the thirtie seventh. The word you know which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the Baptisme which John preached. And one place for all. Mat. 11. 13. All the Prophets and the Law Prophesied untill John, and from him began the Gospell. So that what some of the Fathers say concerning Mala­chi, That he was Limes Judeismi & Christianismi, we may not unfitly say, concerning him, that he was the bounds of Judaisme and Christianity, the limits from whence the Law and the Prophets tooke their conclusi­on, and the Gospell, and the kingdome of Heaven their beginning.

Now as the ministery of John consisted of two di­stinct and considerable parts, The Ministery of Iohn, of two parts. Preaching and Baptizing, [like as the gift of Prophecy had consisted in times be­fore, of a double spirit, or to speake more properly, of a double power of one and the same spirit, to foretell things to come and to worke miracles;] so by both these did he begin the Gospell, and by both these did he goe before our Saviour. These were, as it were the two [Page 11] hands with which he laid the foundation, and began to build up the Fabricke of the Evangelicall Temple. And these two hath Marke joyned together in his rela­tion, as John did in the exercise of his function, Mar. 1. 4. John did Baptize in the Wildernesse and preach the Bap­tisme of Repentance.

By both these he began the Gospell, and first by his Baptisme: for,

First, Baptisme used under the law. Baptisme was used in the times before and un­der the Law, but it was to admit Proselytes to the reli­gion of the Jewes: But the Baptist now commeth with a Baptisme to admit the Jewes to another Religion be­sides their owne. Jacob in Gen. 35. when he is to enter and admit the remnant of Sichem that escaped the sword into his family and Religion, he doth it by Baptisme. Put away, saith he, the strange Gods that are among you, and be cleane and change your garments, where, by the se­cond injunction, Ab. Ezr. in Gen. 35. Be cleane, Aben Ezra▪ well observeth is meant the washing of their bodies in water, and in­deed nothing else can so properly be meant, Tom. 1. p. 317. Asure blah. perek 13. which what was it else but a Baptizing? And so Rambam or Maimonides in his Epitome of the Talmud, relateth from thence, 1 King. 5. 15. 16. that in the times of David and Solomon, when Heathens came into the Jewes religion by thou­sands (for a hundred three and fifty thousand of them helped to build the Temple) they were admitted there­into by Baptisme, or by being washed, and not by cir­cumcision. Thus was Baptisme used in 49/8 Vid. R. Sol. [...]arch in Ex. 24. those ancient times, and used to induct the Gentiles into the Church and Religion of the Jewes: But now comes John with a baptisme of another [...]nd, namely, to enter the Jewes in­to another Church and religion then their owne, and so [Page 12] by his baptisme doth he begin the Gospell.

Secondly, And so also did he by his preaching: For whereas the law called for absolute and exact perfor­mance, and cryed a curse on him that confirmed not all the words of the Law to doe them, Deut. 27. 26. John com­meth in another tenor, like God in the still voyce, and instead of challenging the strict performance of works, he Preacheth the gentle doctrine of Repentance; that whereas they could not do what the Law required, they should repent for that they had broke the law, and thus is the rigorous and terrible tenor of the law, changed into the sweete and comfortable doctrine of Repentance, and thus both by Baptizing and Preaching, doth John begin the Gospell.

And so by both also did he goe before our Saviour: By baptisme to admit men into Christ against he should come, and by his Preaching to let Christ into men when as he came: By his baptizing to make way for Christ his comming among men, and by his Preaching to make way for men their comming unto Christ: And so much is intimated by the words that next and imme­diately doe follow the text, To make ready a people pre­pared for the Lord. This might be taken onely for an elegancy such as the Scripture useth, to quicken expres­sions, by repetitions, but it hath its proper vigour and significancy, and in the two severall words denoteth the two distinct fruits of the ministery of the Baptist in her two parts: His Baptisme, to make men ready to looke for Christ that was now in comming; and his Preaching, to have them prepared for his receiving when hee came.

The observation that we may take up from hence is this, Observ. That Christ when he came to shew himselfe in the world [Page 13] had need of a powerfull, and a Spirited forerunner: He was the expectation of the Gentiles. Gen. 49. 10. He was the expectation of the Samaritans. John 4. 25. He was the expectation of the Jewes. Luk. 19. 11. He was the expectation of all nations. Hag. 2. 7. And yet when he came that was so expected, he had need of a Harbin­ger to goe before him, and a strong forerunner to make his way; and all this too little too. For when he came amongst his owne, his owne received him not. Joh. 1. 11.

The Jewes sansie concerning the cloud of glory, that conducted Israel through the Wildernesse, that it did not onely shew them the way, but also plane it, that it did not onely lead them in the way in which they must goe, but also fit them the way to goe upon: That it levelled all the mountaines and smoothed all the rockes, that it cleared all the bushes, and removed all the rubs. No lesse preparatives were required for our Saviours com­ming to make way for him, in the entertainement of men, or to make way for men to the entertaining of him: And so hath the Scripture exprest it in termes not much different: Every valley shall be filled, and every mountaine and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made streight, and the rough wayes shall be made smooth: Esay 40. 4. Luk. 4. 5.

There were two maine things that lay betwixt the Jewes and Christ at his appearing, that were most like­ly to keepe them asunder, and to hinder the accesse of each to other, and so they did. And those were their corruption in manners, and in behaviour, and their corrup­tion in doctrine, and in religion; the former like rough wayes that must be smoothed, and the latter like crook­ed, that must be streightned; and both being such as [Page 14] must be helped, or little hopes they can come to Christ.

First. As for their corruption in manners, had we not evidence enough thereof in the Scripture, that layes it open, we have sufficient in their owne writers. They were a generation of vipers; so John cals them, Mat. 3. 7. Jews corrupti­on in manner. They were a wicked and adulterous generation; so our Saviour cals them, Mat. 16. 4. seeming to allude to the Phrase of Hosea, the children of fornications, Hos. 1. 2. They were a people stiffenecked and of uncircumci­sed hearts and eares: so Stephen cals them Act. 7. 51. And to spare more, our Saviour makes them as it were the common shore of all vengeance, and conse­quently the sincke of all iniquity, Mat. 23. 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abell, unto the blood of Zacha­rias.

To these Characters of their manners given by Scrip­ture, we may adde the confession of their owne Au­thours in their writings. The Talmud in Sanhedrim, in the eleventh chapter hath these words. Talm. Sanh. pag. 97. R: Juda saith, In the generation in which the son of David shall come, The house of the Assembly shall be a stews, the wisedome of the Scribes shall faile, they that feare sin shall be despised, and the face of that generation shall be like dogs. Saint Paul hits them with their owne title, Beware of dogs, beware of the concision, Phil. 3. 2. and so doth John seeme also to doe, R. Dav. Kimek on Isay 59. Without are dogs. Rev. 22. 15. Such another testimony doth David Kimchi give out of the Rabbins on Easy 59. 16. Rabbi Johanan saith, saith he, The Son of David commeth not, but either in a generation all holy, as it is written, Thy people shall all be righteous, and inherit [Page 15] the Land for ever: or in a generation all wicked, as it is written, He saw that there was no man, and wondred that there was no intercessor. Too pregnant and wofull expe­rience shewed that the latter was onely true, and their owne behaviour at our Saviours comming, confirmeth the glosse to prophesie truly, that their manners then should be most corrupt.

Secondly, and so was also their Doctrine: and that withall in a twofold relation. 1. In regard of the opi­nion that they held concerning the legall rites that were amongst them before: and 2. in regard of the opinion that they held concerning Christ, who was now in comming.

1. They were so glewed to the Ceremonies of Mo­ses, and so bewitched with the Traditions of the Fa­thers, that it was an impossibility in humane reason to thaw them asunder.

Paul speaking of his owne doting upon these, spea­keth the affection of his whole Nation in this particu­lar, Iews vehement addiction to their traditions and legall rites. I was exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of the Fa­thers, Gal. 1. 14. Stephen in Act. 6. 14. for but spea­king of the abolishing of the Customes of Moses, must lose his life, though he spake but what Moses himselfe had spoken before, and what an Angel had spoken after Moses, & though his face when he was to answer for these things, shone like the face of Moses, and was like the face of an Angel. But what need I to insist upon parti­culars? If you looke throughout all the Acts of the A­postles, you shall finde that almost in every place where the Gospel came among the Jewes, this was the maine obstacle that ever lay in the way to hinder the freedome of its passage, the fixednesse of that people and Nation [Page 16] to their Ceremonies and Traditions. Let one place suffice for many, Act. 21. 28. The Jewes of Asia laid hands on Paul, crying out; Men of Israel helpe, this man teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place.

The preaching of the Gospel goeth against their heart, because it goeth against their Customes, and he that speaketh against that people, law, and place, is sure to be spoken against himselfe, for they were so pin­ned unto the rites of those three, that there must be no­thinking of their removal. And thus were they most cor­rupt in opinion concerning the Ceremonies of the Law which they had used of old.

2. And so also were they concerning Christ when he should come. They expected him to appeare in the world as an earthly Conqueror, like Naaman the Syrian by the Prophet Elisha; 2 King. 5. 11. He thought he will surely come out and stand, Jewes miscon­ceit concerning the Messias. and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the Leper; and he only sent him this plaine and simple message, Goe wash in Jordan and be cleane: So they by Christ, they conceited, Surely he will come with great worldly pompe, and make his way with a conquering sword, he will destroy many people even as earthly Princes doe, and seate his people in Canaan againe in more prosperity and pompe then ever: Esay 53. 2. and he on the contrary, came in the forme of a servant, he had no forme nor comelinesse in the eies of men that they could desire him: he appeared in a posture of humility and lowlinesse, riding upon an Asse, and upon a Colt, Zech. 9 9. the Fole of an Asse. And how farre were they from intertaining such a Christ as this, when they expected one of a quality so infinitely different? [Page 17] Who could beleeve that the title over our Saviours head upon his Crosse, should be a stumbling blocke un­to the Jewes feete? And yet was it so at that very time when they fixt it there, and so it hath beene ever since, and so it is at this very day, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes. John 7. 42. They looked for the Messiah to come from Beth­lehem, and they knew him but for Jesus of Nazareth. And they expected a pompous King of the Jewes, and how farre was he from such a King. And thus they knew not him, Acts 13. 27. when he came from Galilee, nor the voices of the Prophets what they meant by his Kingdome, and thus were they very farre unlikely to receive him when he came.

These three things then being thus considered, and no­tice taken how farre this people of the Jewes were gone away both in life and doctrine, what corruption they had contracted in their manners, what doting upon their an­cient Customes, and what misprision concerning Christ, it is no wonder if he that came to reforme these things that were so farre amisse, had need of a spirited and a powerfull forerunner, to make some way for him against he came.

And as it was at our Saviours comming in the flesh, so also is it at his comming in the spirit: Whensoever Christ is to be brought in among a corrupt and irregular people, in the power and purity of his Word & Gospel, great hinderances doe ever offer themselves to stop the way, and they had need of great forerunners to cleare them thence. Dan. 9 26. A Jerusalem is never built street and wall, but those times are troublous: & a Reformation in a cor­rupted State is never wrought but with these opposals. The very same things doe make the waies rough and [Page 18] unpassable for Christs comming now, in his worke and power, that made it then when he came in the flesh. These three are as the net upon Mispah and the snare upon Tabor, Hos. 5. 1. as the ambushes that the Idolatrous Priests laid upon those Mountaines to catch up all the passengers that should go to Jerusalem to worship the true God, these catch up men that they come not at Christ. These are the Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, that are ever ready to oppose the Moses and Aaron that seeke to work good in the Congregation; and the Jannes, Jambres and Egyptians, that affront them in the worke of the Lord. And hence is it no wonder, that that worke of the same nature, that you have had so long in hand, hath gone so slowly and so heavily on. For,

1. How truly is the morall of that Story concerning Anomon in 2 Sam. 12. come to passe in these dayes of ours? First, he was sicke for love of his sister Tamar, and having used her at his pleasure, he was then as sicke for hate. So hath it beene with us of this Land: we were sicke but a while agoe for a Parliament, and nothing would cure us if we had not that, like David we longed and longed againe for this water of Bethlehem that is be­side the gate, and could not rest till we had got it, and yet when we have obtained it, and that not without the hazard of your lives, we now cast it upon the ground, and care not for it: We are now as weary of this Manna which God hath sent us, as we were desirous of it be­fore it came. What should be the reason of mens such crossenesse and contrariety in their affections, as to will and to loath, to desire and to detest the same thing, with the same earnestnesse, in so short a time? Why, that in the Prophet, Jer. [...]1. 9. You would have healed Babel, and she will not [Page 19] be healed. Men are affrighted I know not how at the ru­mor of a Reformation, because they are afraid to be stripped off their carnalities and corruptions. Like a simple Patient, that in an eating and corroding sore, if the Surgeon can abate his paine, he likes it well, but to cut out any proud dangerous and corrupting flesh, that he will not endure: Just so hath it been with us. Whilest you eased us of the paines of those pressures, that did pinch, and took off the yoke from off our neck that glad so sore, it pleas'd us well, and you had our liking; but to be restrained any whit from our former & beloved sen­sualities, to be straitned any thing of the extravagancies of our former wayes by the reines of a Reformation, oh this goes to the quicke, and we cannot indure it, Durus sermo, a hard businesse, who can abide it? Our Saviour hath told us long agoe, that parting with an old acquain­tance bosome sinne is as pinching to flesh and blouds, Matth. 5. 29. 30. as to pluck out an eye and to cut off a hand, and we see it true by too wofull experience, by mens unseparable­nesse from their delights, they carrying them, and they them, and will not be parted, to perdition. The Vine, Olive, Judg. 9. 9. and Figtree in Jothams Parable, will not leave their wine, fatnesse, and sweetnesse, to gaine a King­dome, Herod his Herodias to save his soule, nor men of corrupt manners, the corruption of their manners for a blessed Reformation.

This is the first adversary that you have in your way, that seeketh to crosse the glorious work that you have in hand. And there is a second which is like to this, as a twinne of the same wombe, and as bad as it, and that is corruption in opinion concerning ancient Customes, and a fixednesse to what our forefathers have used be­fore.

[Page 20] 2. Custome, as it is commonly said, is a second na­ture, and men cannot easily leave that which they have long used themselves, and they will not easily leave that which they have seene and knowne to be used by their Predecessors. The Ephraimites in the booke of Judges, that had beene brought up to say Judg. 12. 6. Sibboleth all their life, cannot say Shibboleth to save their life, but they perish two and forty thousand. Famous and fearfull is the sto­ry of Rabodus [some call him by another name] who when he was so farre perswaded from his Heathenisme into Christianity, that he had one foote in the water to­wards being baptized, and there asking whither his forefathers were gone that were not Christians nor baptized, whether to Heaven or Hell, and it being an­swered to Hell, he puls his foote back againe out of the water, with words to this purpose, That he would goe whi­ther his ancestors were gone, and so he resolved to be what his Ancestors had beene. This, the more is the pity, is the ultima Analysis of the Religion of too many thousands in this Land and time; men and women are too commonly and generally pinned in opinion and in practice of religious things upon the customes and usage of ancient times, and they are loth to be parted from them: The woman of Sychar was zealous for the Tem­ple upon Mount Gerizim, but the best reason she can give for that her zeale, is but this, because her, Fathers worshipped in that Mountaine, Joh. 4. 20. Laban in the marriage of his daughter Leah, will rather follow cu­stome▪ then either conscience, or his owne promise and covenant: He had agreed with Jacob for Rachel, and for Rachel had Jacob served, but when it commeth to the point of performance he suborneth Leah, and deceives [Page 21] him with her, and what is his reason? Why, it was not the custome of the Countrey, to give the younger before the elder, Gen. 29. 26. How the predominancy of this hu­mour in the diseased body of this Church doth cause us to cast up againe the wholesome Physicke of a Refor­mation, it is knowne too well. The confession of the Prophet may be taken up concerning us, and with ad­dition, We have sinned with our forefathers, nay we are resolved so to doe still. The errours that the ignorance and dulnesse of former times did admit into the wor­ship of God and profession of Religion, we are resolved to retaine because they were the Customes of former times.

3. And thirdly, a maine obstacle in the way of Christs powerfull comming among a people, and in the way of your worke that seekes thus to bring him, is a corruption of opinion that men have concerning Christ or Religion it selfe. Religion to carnall men must be a little gawdy, or else it cannot be a pleasing Religion: as the Virgin Mary must be a Lady, or she is not thought fit to be a Saint. The simplicity and plainenesse of the Gospel, spoiles its intertainment with sensuall minds. And Antichrist by putting his Religion in so gorgeous clothes hath gained so much upon them, and stollen mens hearts thorough their eyes. God did once indeed comply with the grosse dulnesse of the Jewes, that he might winne them, and because they could not goe fur­ther in Religion then they were led by the eyes, he gave them such a one as suited to them, and because it was so with them once, carnall men would have it so still.

These are the three sonnes of Anak with whom you have had so long to wrestle, and with whom you have [Page 22] to combate still, before you can bring our Israel to the desired Canaan. I may say againe, that it is no wonder that this worke in your hands goes so slowly on, when three such Giants doe seeke to hinder it. You have to fight not with flesh and bloud, but with principalities and powers, with the strong holds of Satan in the hearts of men. Oh that we could finde out some such powerfull forerunners to goe before you, as might cleare the way for your readier passage! Where might we get so skil­full a Mustian as could calme these evill spirits that thus disturbe all? It is farre from my skill to advise you what to doe in these respects: But to you others that sit by, and are spectators how these Worthies labour under these opposals, this may shew what need you have to drive on the great and weighty workes that they have in hand with the earnestnesse of your prayers. Their hands, like those of Moses, it is no wonder if they be weary with holding up so long in so great imployments, these must be the Aaron and Hur that must support them that they fall not quite. Me thinke we may even see written in the very things that they are in managing, they are so weighty, what Paul inserts to so many of his Epistles, Brethren pray for us; And Brethren pray for them. I will conclude all in the words of the Psalmist, Let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth: nay, let me change the number, for I know you will joyne with me in the saying, Let our tongues cleave to the roofes of our mouthes: if we forget the Parliament in our best devotions. And so have I done with the first part that I named, the Person and his function that must doe the worke; now I come to the qualification of that per­son for that worke and for his function, He shall goe be­fore [Page 23] him in the spirit and power of Elias.

We meete in this part with two severall parties, The second part. Elias and John, men exceedingly renowned in their genera­tions, and exceeding great reformers in their times. E­lias in the middle of the times of the Law, and John in the beginning of the times of the Gospel. We might deale with them as the Prophet Ezekiel doth with his two sticks with the names written upon them, Ezek. 37. 19. Judah and Joseph: First, we might take in either hand one, and treat of them severally, then might we take them both into one hand, and in our handling they might become one; but we will take up such things concerning them onely, as shall be most materiall to be considered, and most sutable to the present times.

And first, we may lay this position, and the text will warrant it, Observ. That Elias shall never come to live and continue upon earth againe. The Prophet Malachi indeed deliver­eth it in such termes as if he should come once againe. Behold, I will send you Eliah the Prophet: And the Septua­gint have driven the naile to the head to make this sense the surer, for they have added, Behold, I send you Elias the Tishbite: yet the Angel Gabriel in the text doth tell us, that Elias himselfe is not to come in his owne soule, but another in his spirit, nor he in his owne person, but it was John Baptist was to come in his power. And so our Saviour, De Elia praete­rito vid. R. Lev. Gersh in 1 Reg. 27. De vent. vid. R. Dav. Kimeh. in Mal. 4. Matth. 11. 14. And if you will receive it, this is Elias which was to come: and Matth. 17. 12. Elias, saith he, is already come, which his Disciples doe truely understand of John the Baptist. The Jewes, as they do erroniously hold that the Messiah is not yet come, so doe they hold also that Elias shall personally come before [Page 24] his comming: And it is no wonder that they erre that errour mistaking the meaning of Malachi, when so ma­ny Christians doe erre the same error with them, though they have an exposition by an Angel, and by our Savi­our upon that Prophecie. Jansenius, Maldonate, and o­thers of the same nest, Jesuites and Papists, explaining these words that we have in hand, doe resolve, that they are more fitly to be applied to Elias his second com­ming which is yet to be, then to his comming in the dayes of Ahab: and they glosse them thus, He shall goe before Christ at his first comming, Sic etiam Bed [...] in l [...]o & Amb. Epiph. &c. Haeres 70. in the spirit and power that Elias shall goe before him in at his second. A glosse much like that senselesse one of the Sect in Epiphanius, upon these words in Gen. 1. 27. God created man in his owne image, whereon they seemed to hold, that the body of man was made after the Image of God, and that Christs humane shape was the copy for the shape of A­dam, whereas Adam was not made a man after the like­nesse of Christ, but Christ was made man after the like­nesse of Adam. Even so is it with these expositors. They either make John Baptist his going before Christ, a pat­terne of Elias his doing the like, whereas Elias in the Prophet and in the text is a patterne of John: or else they make Elias who is to come (no one can tell when) the copy or paterne of the Baptist already come, which is more then ridiculous. Nor is it so much to be won­dred, that these men of corrupt judgements and minds, should erre this same errour with the Jewes, Vid. Cornel. à Lapide in Apoc. 11. 3. Aleazer, ibid. when we finde so many of the Fathers to have erred in the same opinion also, and to Elias they have added Enoch, and both these, they say, must come before the comming of Christ, for these they hold to be the two witnesses in the 11. of the Revelation.

[Page 25] It is true indeed that some ones shall come in the spi­rit of Elias toward the end of the world, The two wit­nesses, Rev. 11▪ according to that description in the Revelation, but no expectation of Elias himselfe, nor no description of Enoch at all. The two witnesses in that place are plainely charactered and decyphered forth by the emblems of Moses & Elias. They have power to shut up Heaven that there be no raine, vers. 6. Here is apregnant intimation of Elias: &, They have power over the waters to turn them into bloud, there is as pregnant a one of Moses. These two men doe meete more then once mentioned together in the Scriptures. They are named together in the conclusion of the Prophets, Mal. 4. 4. Remember the Law of Moses my servant, and in v. 5. Behold I send you Elias the Prophet. They appeared toge­ther and attended our Saviour at his transfiguration, Matth. 17. 3. They are thought on together in that de­scription of the two witnesses, as they also agreed toge­ther in this, that the one was the giver of the Law at the first, and the other the restorer of it when it was decay­ing: the one was the great Prophet of the Jewes, the other the great Prophet of the Gentiles, A ministery in the spirit and power of Moses and Elias at the Jewes conver­sion. as shall be touched anon. When therefore the Jewes and the Gen­tiles shall be knit together into one Church upon the fulnesse of the one and the conversion of the other, then shall God raise up a powerfull Ministery to them both united, as in the spirit of Moses and Elias, (the time of their preaching is alluded to the time of our Saviours, three yeares and a halfe) and Antichrist shall rise up against them, Tropicall phrases. and persecute some of them to the death.

By the way as we goe, it is not immateriall to be ob­served, how things signifying and things signified doe often in Scripture beare one and the same name: some­time [Page 26] the thing signifying is called by the same name of the thing signified. As at the making of the first Covenant Exod. 24. 8. Moses sprinkled the bloud of the Covenant upon all the people, Heb. 9. 19. That is, upon the twelve Pillars, which he had set up to represent the people, vers. 4. as he had set up an Altar also to represent God: For to besprin­kle so many hundred thousands severally, it was impos­sible in so short a time as he imployed in that worke. And so in the second Covenant in the bloud of Christ, the Bread and Wine that represent his body and bloud, are called by the very names of his body and bloud.

Sometimes the thing signified is called by the name of the thing signifying, as Hos. 3. 5. Afterward shall the chil­dren of Israel returne, and seeke the Lord their God and Da­vid their King, that is, Christ their King, which was sig­nified by David: And so in the matter that we have in hand, the Prophet Malachi cals the Baptist Elias, because he was so neerely represented and typified by Elias. To them that hold that Elias shall personally come againe indeed, we may justly propose these two or three queres. First, how shall a glorified bodie converse with bodies laden with corruption and mortality? Observe at the transfiguration of our Saviour, when the glorified bo­dies of Moses and Elias appeared to him, the Disciples were so uncapable and unfit for conversing with them, that some of them spake they knew not what. Luke 9. 33. Consi­der the disproportion that is betweene Angels and men, if I may so call it, in regard of converse, the one spirits, the other bodies, how can these two be familiar toge­ther, if an Angel take not on him a visible shape? There is not so much distance indeed betwixt bodies glorified and bodies mortall, yet is there so much as is sufficient [Page 27] to spoyle the converse of each with other.

Secondly, What should Elias doe in his person here? If to preach: our Saviour hath told us, that if men would not hearken to Moses and the Prophets, Luk. 16. 12. they will not be perswaded though one rose from the dead: And may we not inferre? If men will not hearken to Moses, the Prophets, the Evangelists, and the Apostles; they will not beleeve though Elias came from heaven, Gal. 1. 8. To Preach the Gospel? If another then what was preached by Christ and his Apostles, 2 Cor. 4. 7. then is he accursed though he be Elias. If the same: why, that treasure is carried in earthen vessels, and not in vessells already glorified. To destroy Antichrist? This indeed is the common opi­nion: 2 Thes. 2. 8. vid. Chald. Par­on Esay. 11. 4. in edit. Buxtorf. but Paul hath told us that the Lord shall doe it with the Spirit of his mouth, and the brightnesse of his comming. Such questions as these might be proposed to that opi­nion, that is indeed of much like nature with this, but of farre more strangenesse, namely that that would bring Christ from heaven againe, to live personally on earth a thousand yeares. First, what should Christ that is in heaven, blessed for ever, doe a thousand yeares upon earth that is cursed? The very first lesson that God taught Adam after he had taught him the lesson of Christ, was this, that he should not expect Christs kingdome upon earth, for that he cursed, Gen. 3. 17. Secondly, how strange and improbable is it to con­ceive, that Christ who in his humane frailty had a kingdome, which was called and was the Kingdome of Heaven, should now in his immortall glory come and possesse a kingdome on earth? An opinion according to the censure of Eusebius, raised upon the misconstru­ction of a place in the last booke of the New Testament, [Page 28] as this about Elias was of a place in the last booke of the old. Easeb. hist. Ec­cles. lib. 3. cap. 39. For thus speaketh he concerning Papias, the first father of this conceit: The same Author also, saith he, sheweth that other things came to him by unwritten tradition which containe certaine strange Parables of our Saviour and new doctrines of his, and some other things stuffed with le­gendary fables. Among which he averreth that the king­dome of Christ, after the resurrection of all flesh from the dead, shall continue and endure upon this earth, after a hu­mane and bodily manner, for a thousand yeares: Which opi­nions I beleeve that he did entertaine, because he misunder­stood the Apostolicall interpretations, which were delivered by them under hidden figures, and obscure Parables. For he was a man, as may be guessed by his writings of a very shal­low wit. Yet was he the Author of the like error to most Ec­clesiasticall men, who cited this mans antiquity for the defence of their part: as Irenaeus, and whosoever else is of the same opinion with him.

I will not censure nor condemne the opinion, but re­ferre it to superiour examination, onely this I cannot but say of it, that I doe not remember that ever I heard or read of an opinion of so extreame and monstrous strangenesse, that in so short a time, hath gotten so great a beliefe and so large an entertainment, and nei­ther tongue or pen hath stirred against it. It is our hope and prayer, that once you may have liberty and leisure from the great rent in the whole peece of the State to looke upon the rippings in the seames of the Church, that such opinions as this and others may be taken ei­ther by you or by your authority into examination, be­fore, like Joab and Abishai the sons of Zerviah, they grow too strong, and defie a tryall.

[Page 29] The Spirit and power of Elias is held by some to meane but one and the same thing, his powerfull Spirit. So indeed sometime runneth the sense of the Hebrew stile. As in that answer of our Saviour, Joh. 14. 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life, the scope of the question that occasioned it seemeth to call it to such a sense, I am the true and the living way.

Others distinguish the meaning with the words, and by the Spirit of Elias understand patience and tolerancy of persecution, and by the power, the prevalent and ef­ficacious virtue of his ministration. But we need not to goe farre for interpretations, when either the words are of no great difficulty, or what they be of, will easi­ly be explained by the Scripture it selfe.

By Elias his Spirit then are we to understand, not his owne within him, Joh. 10. 41. but the Spirit of the Lord or of Pro­phecy upon him: 2 King. 2. 15. And so his spirit is said to be upon John, as Moses his spirit was upon the Elders, and the spirit of the same Elias upon Elisha.

By the power of Elias upon the Baptist, is not meant the power of miracles, Num. 11. 25. for John wrought none, wher­as Elias did many, but his power of preaching for the conversion of many unto God. So that whereas the ancient Prophets of the Law, and among them Elias, had a double power of the Spirit upon them, To fore­tell things to come, and to worke miracles; so had John the first Prophet of the Gospell, a double power, but of another nature and a better. He foretold not things to come, but he explained those that had him foretold; and he wrought not miracles upon bodies, but he was miraculously powerfull upon soules.

Now, should we come to compare Elias & the Baptist [Page 30] ther we should finde them agree in many parallels: as that they both came in very corrupt times, that they both restored religion very much in that corruption, that they were both persecuted exceedingly for that re­storing, Elias by Ahab and Jezabell, and John by He­rod and Herodias; and divers other agreements, upon which not to insist, because they bee obvious to every eye, Observ. this collection may we take up from the words in hand, That Elias is a proper and pregnant patterne for Reformers.

As when Moses was making the Sanctuary and the appurtenances, Exod. 26. 40. & 26. 30. & 27. 8. Heb. 8. 4. 5. God often cals upon him to make all things according to the patterne which was shewed him in the mount: So in this like worke of yours which you have in hand can you platforme out a reformation by a better patterne then by Elias, since you will not doe it but by some patterne from the Mount? A man that in the text is a copy to John the Baptist in his reforming: And a man that in his owne time restored all things, as our Saviour saith of him, Mat. 17. 11. And fitly then may he be a patterne for these times of ours.

He restored perishing religion, & the decaying law: he restored forgotten Prophecy, and as the Jews hold, forsaken Circumcision: for of Circumcision doe they understand those words of Elias himselfe, They have for­saken thy Covenant, 1 King. 19. 14. And of Elias the re­storer of Circumcision they misunderstand those words of the Prophet, Vid. R. D. Rim­chi in Reg. & in Molach. The Angell or Messenger of the Covenant, Mal. 3. 1.

But I stand not here as a Surgeon over his Anato­my, to reade unto you a Lecture of reforming, upon the Sceleton of Elias, it were beyond good manners, as it is [Page 31] beyond my skill: Let me addresse my selfe to you that sit by and are spectators of these Worthies as they la­bour in their worke, in a word or two of application, and that according to the two words that are before us, the Spirit of Elias and his power.

1. By the Spirit of Elias, I told you, is understood the Spirit of God that was upon him: Now as the Apo­stle saith, x Cor. 12. 4. the Spirit was but one, but the gifts were diverse. For looke in the fourth of the Acts, and the thirty first, it is said of the Apostles there, that when they had prayed the place was shaken and they were fil­led with the Holy Ghost. And so they had beene some dayes before, namely on Pentecost day, Act. 2. 4. Now they having beene filled then, how can they be said to be filled againe? Why▪ then with the gift of tongues, and now with the gift of holy boldnesse, for, for that it was they prayed, ver. 29.

Among the diverse gifts then of the holy Spirit, Elias his zeale. that Elias had, this is not the last nor the least that made him renowned, His extraordinary zeale for the Lord of Hostes. So much expresseth he concerning himselfe, 1 King. 19. 10. 14. And so much seemeth our Saviour to aime at, in his answer to his two disciples that would have fire fetched from heaven, as Elias had done, Ye know not, saith he, what manner of spirit ye are of, Luk. 9. 55. of a zeale beyond your warrant, and you would be forward you know not how. The thing that you may take notice of from hence is this, That no true reforma­tion can be expected which is not carried on with a spi­rit of zeale. The workes of God must be wrought with his Spirit, & they that desire to forward his glory, must do it with a holy forwardnesse. It is the honour of Levi, [Page 32] Deut. 33. 9. that when he was about the imployment of the Lord, he was so zealous in it, that he forgot all ci­vill relations, and said unto his father, and to his mother, I have not seene him, neither did he acknowledge his bre­thren, nor knew his owne children. And so our Saviour in the third of Marke, when his mother and kindred would have taken him off from preaching, for they said he will faint, [...], he is besides himself, in the Syriack. Arab. vulg. Lat. Ital. of Deodate, the Spanish hath it, he go­eth out of his calling & estate, in marg. [...] in the Lxx. Gen. 45. 26. or he is beside himselfe, be it whether it will, for the originall word will beare both, he was so zealous in the worke in hand, that he would not owne them that came to hinder it. For he answered, saying, Who is my mo­ther, and who are my brethren? Marke 3. 33.

2. The power of Elias in Reformation was ex­ceeding much, and he did wondrous things in what he did, but yet he left exceeding much undone, which he could not helpe, and abundance of corruption, which he could not remove. He tooke away Baalim, but he could not take away the golden Calves, he destroyed the Prophets of the one, but he could not destroy the Prophets of the other. 1 King. 18. 19 40. Foure hundred and fifty Pro­phets of Baal perished by his meanes at Carmel, and yet are there foure hundred false Prophets left that seduce Ahab to goe to Ramoth. 1 King. 22. 6. Thus impossible is an utter exti­pation of all corruption out of a State and Church that is corrupt.

Lay these two now together in the two scales of an unprejudicate judgement, and they will helpe very well to ballance and to poize a right your thoughts and cen­sures concerning these Worthies that are toyling in our worke. Some thinke they have beene too forward, o­thers thinke they have beene too slow; some, that they have done too much, others that they have done too [Page 33] little; some complaine of too much zeale, and some of too little reformation. To the former may be answe­red, that Elias must be zealous if he will reforme; to the latter, that Elias cannot utterly purge out all corruption though he be Elias; and to both together, that in stead of murmuring against them, it were farre fitter to be thankfull to God for them, for that he hath put so much zeale into their hearts, and so much reformation already into their hands, as that we see more already then we ex­pected ever to have seene: The same Lord continue the same Spirit unto them, and increase the Power, that their hearts and their hands may hold up and grow strong, that we may see the salvation of the Lord exerted by them; for the reconciling of the disaffected, and the reducing of the disobedient. And so I passe to the third part of the text, the worke of the Baptist, to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children, &c. The case was wofull when father and sonne had need of a reconciler to make them friends, yet was it theirs then, and so is it ours now.

It was a very hard taske surely to John the Baptist, to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children, or to doe this worke, for I finde it a very hard taske and trouble to expositors to finde out and to resolve, who these fathers and children were.

Some by the fathers understand the Jewes, Vid. Carthis. and by the children, Christ and his Apostles, as Luke 11. 19. and that John turned the hearts of the fathers to the chil­dren, when he brought the Jewes to imbrace their Do­ctrine; but how can the other part be made good with this glosse, that he turned the heart of Christ and his A­postles to the Jewes?

[Page 34] Some render it thus, He shall turne the heart of the fa­thers to the Children by the right understanding of the Scriptures, and the disobedient to the wisdome of the righ­teous by the obedience of faith. An exposition that leaveth us as farre to seek who were the fathers and who the children, as we were before.

Others therefore come nearer the letter, Maldon. in Lec. and expound it from the difference that was at that time in opinions among the Jewes, the father it may be a Pharisee, and one sonne a Sadducee, and another an Essaean, and John by bringing them all to the entertainment of the Go­spel, extinguished that division which opinions had set betweene them. It is true indeed that these three Sects were among the Jewes at the Baptists comming, Joseph. Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 2. the three Shepheards which were to be destroyed in one moneth, Zach. 11. 8. but for any such division in Sect betwixt father and sonnes, it is but a conjecture, and it cannot be so certainly averred.

But furthest off of all other glosses, and the most im­proper, is that of Jansenius and others of his feather, which yet they hold to be the nearest and the proper­est of all, and that is this. That John turned the hearts of the children to the fathers, when he brought the Jewes to whom he preached, or those of his owne time, to im­brace the faith and doctrine of the Patriarchs that had beene before: and the hearts of the fathers to the children, when by reducing them thus to that faith, he occasioned that those holy men in Limbo did beginne to affect them, and take them to heart, which they had not done before. I will not stand to examine or convince this exposition, for it is not worth the labour, you your selves have confuted it in thought I know as soone as [Page 35] heard it. Fathers and Children, Jews and Gentiles. The most genuine and reall meaning of the words that we have in hand I conceive to be this. That by the Fathers are to be understood the Jewes, and by the Children the Gentiles; and by Johns turning each o­thers heart unto others, his winning them both joyntly and unanimously, to the knowledge and profession of Christ and of the Gospel, and by the tie of that to the joynt communion one with another. And I am made confident and imboldened to entertaine this exposition as the very meaning of the place upon these reasons.

1. Because the Church of the Gentiles is stiled by the name of the children of the Jews, cōmonly and constant­ly in the Prophets: as Esay 54. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and 60. 4. Thy sonnes shall come from farre, and thy daughters shall be turned at thy sight, and 62. 5. As a young man marrieth a Virgin, so shall thy sonnes marry thee. And in very many other places.

2. Because it was a speciall and peculiar worke and office of the Gospel to unite and tie the Jew and Gentile into one: so saith the Apostle, Ephes. 2. 14. Christ is our peace, who hath made both one, and the Gospel the meanes. And then must it be the worke and office of the Baptist who began the Gospel.

3. Experience and the History it selfe confirmeth this our exposition; for as the Gospel in its owne nature and promulgation belonged to the Gentiles as well as the Jewes, John 1. 7. and as John came for a witnesse that all through him might beleeve, the one Nation as well as the other, so did he baptize and convert some of the one as well as the other, Ioseph Ant. lib. 18. cap. 7. Romane Souldiers, as well as Jewish Pha­risees, and make them both according to the phrase which Josephus useth of him, [...], to con­vent or knit together in his Baptisme.

[Page 36] 4. This exposition maketh John the more fully to resemble Elias, who was a Preacher and a Prophet to the Gentiles as well as to Israel, nay the first Prophet of the Gentiles. This our Saviour toucheth, Luke 4. 25. Many widowes were in Israel, in the dayes of Elias, but to none was he sent, saving to one in Sarepta a City of Zi­don: and the men of Nazareth though but plaine and rusticke simple men, yet did they quickly understand it of preaching to the Gentiles, which put them into an anger, and our Saviour into a danger. Nor can we thinke that the holy and zealous Prophet, residing in that Heathen City two or three yeares together, as ap­peareth by the text, would live there idlely and doing nothing, but that he preached there as well as he had done to Israel whilest he was among them, for he was every where jealous for the Lord of Hosts. I would this were but seriously thought on, in mens expounding the prophesie about the two witnesses in the Revelation, which we touched before. For if they would but see E­lias there which is so plainely emblemed and pictured out, and withall but consider that Elias was the first Pro­phet of the Gentiles, it would helpe to settle an interpre­tation to that place, which now hangs exceeding loose in diversity of opinions.

This being then the proper and onely meaning of the words in hand, that John by his preaching should turne the hearts of the Jewes to the Gentiles, and of the Gentiles to the Jewes; and by his Baptisme should as it were tie them up together; the observation or collecti­on that we may take up from hence is this, That true Re­ligion is the truest reconciler: There is no peace-maker like the Gospel, but it is among them that are true pro­fessors of the Gospel.

[Page 37] Nor is there any breed-bate like the Gospel neither: And so saith our Savioar, Suppose you that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell yee nay, but rather division, Luke 12. 51. which he speaketh out more plainely by another Evangelist: I came not to send peace, but a sword, Matth. 10. 34. Gen. 3. 15. But this is betweene the two seeds, be­twixt whom God hath set enmity, and there can be no reconciliation, the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent: but to the children of the same father, God, and of the same mother, the Church, the Gospel is the sweet messenger of peace, and the sweete peace maker.

A deadlier hate could not be betwixt man and man, then was of the Jew toward the Gentile. They reputed them as Dogs, and so our Saviour useth their common phrase, Matth. 15. 26. It is not good to take the childrens bread and give it to Dogs: they reputed them as swine, and accordingly they render that verse of the eighteenth Psalme, the Boare out of the Wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of field doth devoure it: they abhorred their society, nay they abhorred the very mention of their conversion, Luke 4. 28. Act. 22. 22. And yet when true Religion commeth in, & seiseth both the Jew & Gentile, the hate is forgotten, Acts 11. 18. the feud is gone, and the deadly enemies are the nearest friends. Much like as it is reported con­cerning Cairo in Egypt, that if the Plague rage never so much over night, that they die by thousands, yet if the River Nilus come flowing in the next day, the mortali­ty is ceased, and there dieth not one: Even so is it with Religion: Be there never so much bitternesse and heart­burning betwixt man and man, never so much conten­tion and contestation betwixt neighbour and neighbour, [Page 38] if the power of Religion doe but once flow in and seise them both, the Plague is ceased, the malignity gone.

This is that that cries downe the partition wals of all divisions: this is the great tie of mens affections, yea, it is the greatest; this is the matrimony of soules, making two men to be of one spirit, as the other doth a man and a woman to be one flesh. It is Christ which is the tru­est cause of making men offended, to be reconciled in a good sense, as he was the occasion of Herods and Pilates being so in a bad. With what spleene and rancour did Saul set for Damascus against the professors there? yet when Christ comes into him by the way, no greater friend then Paul to them when he comes neare them. For,

1. Religion is a speciall and soveraine meanes to calme, Reas. 1. tame, and cicurate those exorbitant affections and extravagant humours that breed division and main­taine it. Esay 11. 6, 7. The Prophet Esay describing the power of the Gospel in the Christian Church saith, that it shall bring the Wolfe to dwell with the Lambe, the Leopard to lie downe with the Kid, the Calfe and the young Lion to feed together, and the Cow and the Beare to goe in company. His allusion is to the carriage of the beasts in the Arke of Noah: before they came in thither, the Li­on was ravenous, and the Lambe his prey, the Leopard and the Beare devouring, and the Kid and the Calfe a­fraid to come neare them: but when they were come within the Arke, there was no such thing, all bloodinesse and rapine was laid aside, and the Lambe and Lion couch together, and the Lion now as harmelesse as the Lambe. So is it in the Church, and so is it by the pow­er of Religion: those humours and passions of men [Page 39] which before have beene bloudy, cruell, proud, selfe­willed, dissentious, and rebellious, if once the power­full operation of Religion get in among them, it quels these Rebels, quenches these firebrands, reduces these extravagants, and like the dispossessed in the Gospel, makes him to sit calmely and quietly, and in his right mind, whom none might come within the compasse of before without a danger.

2. Religion doth center mens affections in the center of unity God himself, Reas. 2. and those things that concerne God, that they cannot separate: It is an old saying, Quae conveniunt in uno tertio conveniunt inter se; Those things that agree in a third thing agree among themselves: Then how many third things are there in which true Christi­ans meete as lines in a Center, that must needs hold them together and make them agree? S. Paul hath reckoned them to our hands in the fourth to the Ephesi­ans, the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses. They meet in one body, in one spirit, in one hope of their calling, in one Lord, one faith, one Baptisme, in one God and Father of all.

3. Religion maketh conscience of living in division and giving offence; Reas. 3. It dares not offer its gift at the Al­tar, till it and the offended be reconciled. It dares not suffer the Sunne to goe downe upon its wrath, nor will eate that meate that shall offend a weake brother: And as the Father in another sense, accounts it as desperate to sleepe in malice, as to goe to bed in a den of lions. The use that we may make of this may be double, and brief­ly thus, because I know not your houres and occasions and I feare to offend.

First, Use 1. this may direct us very well in the choosing of [Page 40] a friend. Would we have one that shall be true to us? let us look out such a one as is true to God: Would we have one that shall be faithfull in our little things, in our af­faires? let us seeke out such a one as is faithfull in the great thing, in Religion. As his Counsell was, to agree to Gregories Austen if he were humble, Acts and Mon. old edit. pag. 10 [...]. so be it our holy policy to tie to that man in friendship that is religious: and as Jehu to Jonadab, 2 King. 10. 15. If we light on a man whose heart is right towards the Lord as we de­sire a friends heart should be to us, let us fixe on that friend, and give him the hand.

Secondly, this also may shew us who cannot be our friend: and with whom it is impossible to have unity and amity, namely with the Church of Rome, which is cleane Antipodes to us in Religion.

Is there peace, Use 2. Jehu? saith Joram to him. No, there is no peace, where whoredomes and witchcrafts are so many. 2 King. 9. 22. No communion can be betwixt Christ and Belial, or betwixt Religion and Idolatry: Belial, i. e. an Idol. for so I conceive the word Belial signifieth throughout the Scripture. The children of Belial, i. e. Ido­laters. The enmity that God himselfe fixed at the very beginning betwixt the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Wo­man, must continue unreconciled to the very end: and as quos Deus conjunxit, whom God hath joyned toge­ther, no man whatsoever must put asunder; so what God hath parted and put asunder, no man must offer to joyne together: Who are the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent, so plaine to be seene, as Christ and Antichrist? and he that will seeke to make conjunction of Rome and us, will marry light and dark­nesse, God and the Devill, Christ and Antichrist toge­ther, and make a friendship betwixt those, betwixt [Page 41] whom God himselfe hath doomed an enmity while the world endureth.

We blesse God that hath brought us out of her fa­miliarity and friendship to be now her haters and hated of her: and we blesse the time when we first fell from the society and converse of Egypt, to be her enemies and at distance with her: And we blesse you and your endeavours, that strive so much and so constantly to keepe us cleare of re-ingagements. And may the worke prosper in your hands, and you in the worke, to hold us still at our proper distance to the feed of the Serpent, and to keepe us at enmity where God hath set it▪ but for turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the reducing of the disobedient to the wisedome of the just, it is our prayer still and still, as it was before, that you may have the power of Elias, or the Baptist, as you have the spirit: and so I come to the last part of the text, and the second part of Johns worke in his Ministration, To turne the disobedient to the wisdome of the just.

These words as they lie in our English Translation doe shew no great difficulties, but being examined in the Originall, they are not so very easie. A man scruple that appears in both, is this; That the Angel undertaking to quote the Prophet should so far now decline from his text: Difference of allegation. In the former part that we have newly handled, he followeth him punctually and verbatim, He shall turne the hearts of the fathers to the children, so saith the Pro­phet, and so the Angel; but now that he should have taken up the other part in these words, And the hearts of the children to the fathers, he changeth them into this clause, Reason of it▪ And the disobedient to the wisdome of the just. But to this may be answered. 1. That the Angel is not so [Page 42] punctuall to cite the very letter of the Prophet as to give the sense. And so we may observe it to be usuall in the new Testament, in its allegations from the old. And that he giveth the same sense, or a true interpretation of the Prophet, we shall see as we goe. 2. It was not very long after the Baptizing and Preaching of John, that the Jews ceased to be a Church and Nation, nay even in the time of him himselfe, they shewed themselves ene­mies to the Gospel, and to the Professors of the same, for the generall or greatest part of them; therefore he saith not that the hearts of the children the Gentiles, should be turned to their fathers the Jewes, which should cease to be fathers and to be a people, but to the wisedome of the just. And thus in the first part of his speech about turning the hearts of the fathers to the chil­dren, he intimateth the Jewes that should be reconci­led and united to the Gentiles in imbracing the Gospel: and in this latter, by omitting to call them Fathers, he giveth a touch of the hostility and evill minde that the others of the Jewes should beare both to it, and to the Gentiles that imbraced it. And now that we see the reason and difference in the allegation, let us take up the words that thus differ, every one single, and one after another as they lie in order; and would the time permit, every word would afford us matter profitably to insist upon, but I will onely hint it as we goe along, for I feare to offend in transgressing the time.

1. As in this clause he refuseth to use the terme of fa­thers, Disobedient. for the reason mentioned, so doth he also of the correlative children, because of his refusing of that. And yet he coucheth the sense of that title under the word disobedient, which in its most proper and naturall [Page 43] signification reflecteth upon untowardly children diso­bedient to their parents. For though there be a disobe­dience to any Superiour whatsoever, as to Kings, Ma­gistrates, Masters, and the like, yet is the obedience of children to Parents the Originall from whence it re­ceiveth denomination, and that appeareth in that those Superiours are called Fathers. As therefore the Angel omitting to call the Jewes Fathers, insinuateth their op­position against the Gospel, so by terming the Gentiles Disobedient in stead of Children, he sheweth what they were before they imbraced it.

The vulgar Latine in stead of Disobedient readeth In­credulous or unbeleeving: [...], Dis­obedient or unbeleeving. which though the Greek word doth sometime signifie, as might be evidenced in divers instances, yet that it doth not so in this place may be collected from these considerations. First, that the speech is concerning children and fathers, as is apparent in the clause preceding, and betweene them disobedi­ence is a more proper terme and notion then Inoredulity. Secondly, that he saith not, He shall turne them to the faith, which were the most proper if he spake of the un­beleeving, but to the wisdom of the righteous. And third­ly, Matth. 1. 4. that the preaching of the Baptist, was more especi­ally the doctrine of repentance as his Baptisme was the Baptisme of repentance, but the preaching of Christ was the doctrine of faith. Therefore John saith onely, Re­pent, Matth. 3. 2. but our Saviour, Repent and beleeve, Mar. 1. 15.

Now from this double signification of the Originall word, and indeed also from the proper cause of the Heathens disobedience, Observ. we might observe, that a chiefe and maine cause of disobedience is unbeliefe.

[Page 44] It is a saying of the Jewes in their Talmud in the Treatise Maccoth, Rab. Abhuhabh in Ner. 1. that all those sixe hundred and thir­teene Commandements that God gave to Moses in Mount Sinai, are reduced to this one in the Prophet Habakkuk, The just by his faith shall live: Hab. 2, 4. we may say something the like concerning sinnes; that those hundreds and thousands of transgressions that are committed in the world, and all those various and numerous causes and occasions from whence they proceed, they may all in fine be traced and reduced to this one Originall, from un­beliefe. From whence is it that men doe violate the com­mands of the Law? because they will not beleeve the threatnings upon the violation. And whence is it, that men refuse the promises of the Gospel? because they will not beleeve the certainty and excellency of those promises.

2. The word Wisedome in this place doth signifie Re­ligion, as it doth in divers other places of the Scripture, as Deut. 4. 6. Keepe therefore and doe the Statutes and commandements of the Lord, for this is your wisedome: that is, your Religion. And so likewise, Psal. 111. 10. The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome: that is, the feare of the Lord is the entry into Religion. And so may we finde the word to signisie in divers passages in the Proverbs. And to this sense me thinkes Eliphaz scoffeth religious Job in the fourth of that booke and the sixth verse if it be looked into in the Originall. [...]: Folly▪ Psal. 85. 9. Halo jireatheca chislatheca, Is not thy feare or thy Religion be­come thy folly?

Religion is the onely wisedome, Observ. and to be truly wise, is to be truly religious: (which is the observation that we might take up upon this word) But, where or what, [Page 45] saith this miserable comforter, is this religious wise­dome of thine become now? Thou hast beene thus and thus precise and devout, thus and thus pious and religious, and what is now become of all this great de­votion, but a fearfull affliction? Is not now thy Religion be­come thy folly?

But there is yet a double scruple, and those no small ones neither, in this small clause or parcell of [...], To the wisedome.

First, it is something harsh to translate the Greeke word [...], in this place to signifie To: for though it doe sometimes signifie so, as Commentaries quote certaine other places, to justifie that translation of it in this, yet 1. That is but rarely and but somewhat improperly wheresoever it is so used; and 2. It cannot be imagi­ned that if the Angel intended that very sense of To in this place, as to say, To the wisedome, but that he would have used the word [...], which he used immediately be­fore in the other clause, and say, [...], as he had said, [...], and not have betaken himselfe to a con­struction of the preposition [...], harsh, scrupulous, and unusuall. I conceive therfore that that little particle is to be taken here, in its most proper, genuine and generall sense, and as it is used millions of times in Greeke, Au­thors to signifie In: [...]. In the wisdome and to be interpreted in the wisdome. And the wisedome of the righteous is not here to be held the terminus ad quem, or the ultimate end to which these disobedient Gentiles were to be converted; but the medium per quod, the meanes or way through which they were to be converted to God. For let the two clauses of this speech of the Angel, or the parts of the worke of the Baptist be laid in Antithesis or opposition [Page 46] against another, as naturally indeed they lie, the one aiming at the Jewes as the proper subject, and the o­ther at the Gentiles, the subject as proper, and then will it appeare very plainely, that two severall acts were to be performed by the Baptist as concerning the Jewes and their conversion. First, that he should turne their hearts or affections to God, as it is laid downe in the verse preceding; He shall turne many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And secondly, that he should turne their hearts and affections also to the Gentiles, as it is in this, He shall turne the hearts of the fathers to the children. According therefore to this double worke of John upon the Jewes in that part of the Angels speech, must the like duplicity be looked for in this that concer­neth the Gentiles, and to be understood though it be not expressed. For the Angel in this part purposely changeth his stile, and neither calleth the Gentiles chil­dren, but disobedient, because they generally were so be­fore the comming of Christ, nor the Jewes fathers, be­cause they ceased to be so shortly after, as was touched before, nor mentioneth he the Gentiles turning to God, but includeth it, partly he had set that as the chiefest bent and worke of the Baptist, to turne men to God, and partly he involveth it in this phrase, in the wisedome of the righteous. So that this being the meaning of the Angel, as I doubt not but it is, it may afford us this Ob­servation, Observ. That there can be no true conversion unto God, but in the true Religion, or in the wisedome of the just.

Secondly, the word [...], which commeth next unto our handling, will afford a twofold consideration. 1. That it is not without divine reason, that the hearts of the Gentiles are not said to be turned to the Jewes, as on the [Page 47] contrary it was said of the Jews to the Gentiles, but that they should be turned in the wisedome of the righteous. For the enmity and feud, detestation and aversenesse that was betwixt Jew and Gentile, and Gentile and Jew, The cause of a Jews hatred of a Gentile. proceeded not from the same cause and Originall. The Jew abhorred the Gentile not of ignorance, but of scorne and and jealousie, partly because they stood upon their owne priviledge of being the people of God, which the other were not, and partly because they were provoked with suspition, that the other might be the people of God when they should not be. And there­fore when the reconciliation is to be wrought betweene them, it is said, that their hearts or affections should be turned to them, for they were pointblanke and diametri­cally against them before. But the Gentile abhorred a Jew out of ignorance, because of his Religion, hating him as a man separate from, and contrary to all the men in the world, accounting that to be but singular and senselesse superstition, which was indeed the divine com­mand and wisedome, whereby he sequestred that peo­ple for his owne from all other people on the earth. So that a Gentile did not so much detest the person of a Jew for himselfe, as for his Religion and profession, which, ignorant as the Heathen were, they understood not what it meant. Therefore when the Gentiles must be brought to knit and to unite to the Jewes, it must be in the wisedome of the righteous, or in the imbracing of that Religion, which the righteous ones among the Jewes professed, and which the Gentiles, till they knew and understood what it meant, accounted but vanity, singularity and folly.

2. It is remarkable that the Angel doth forsake the [Page 48] proper and common word used to signifie wisedome, which is [...]. and taketh up [...], which is of a some­thing stricter and stranger use. And so doth the Syriack relinquish Hhechmetho its ordinary word that it useth for wisdom, 1 Cor. 2. 2. 4, 5, 6 Rev. 13. 16. &c. and fixeth upon Jedhangro a word more sin­gular, and of more peculiar importance. The Originall word then that we have in hand, doth not onely import the wisedome or Religion of the Jewes, but also the Gentiles attaining to the knowledge, and apprehension of that Religion and wisedome with them. Not onely the theory and practise of the Jewish Nation in their religious profession, but the Heathens reaching to the understanding of those mysteries in that Religion and profession, which they had accounted such vanity and senselesnesse before. So that this word considerately looked into will afford us this collection: Observ. That it is not enough to imbrace the true Religion in outward profession, but we are to have understanding, and to be acquainted with the doctrine and principles of that Religion. For the Heathen to turne to the wisedome of the righteous Jewes in an outside profession, and an ignorant religiousnesse, was a poore conversion, as good as none, a worke un­fit the paines of the Baptist; but their true turning, and his powerfull worke is when they are brought to im­brace that Religion in the knowledge and understan­ding of the mysteries of it. Ignorance was never the mother of any devotion but of a Romish devotion, which is as good or as bad as none.

And lastly, there is some doubtfulnesse also in the last word [...], for it may be indifferently translated of righteous things, or of righteous men: But it is the more undoubted that persons and persons are rather [Page 49] here compared together then persons and things: in the former part of this work of the Baptist, there are fathers and children, and in this part it is most like that they are answered with persons againe, disobedient children and righteous fathers, and the meaning of the Angel to be this, that as the Jews the fathers in the imbracing of the Gospel, shall be turned to God, & reconciled to the Gen­tiles, so the Gentiles the children, in the wisdome of the righteous, or in the imbracing and understanding of the Religion professed by the righteous ones that had bin & were among the Jewes, should be turned to God and in affection to the Jewes. And hereupon might we take up this observation, Observ. that the faith of the holy Jewes un­der the Law, and of the holy Gentiles under the Gospel, was one and the same: They that went before Christ in the one, and they that followed Christ in the other, did both cry Hosanna to the Sonne of David, did both ob­taine salvation, by the same Saviour and by the same way.

And so have I gone with the words as farre as I dare be bold upon the time, your patience and occasions: I will but put this last clause together which I have thus taken peece-meale, and laid asunder, and so have I done. The disobedient to the wisedome of the righteous▪ the Hea­then to the knowledge of the true Religion: Me thinkes in these words we may behold the condition of this Land as it hath beene in ancient times, and as it is in these of ours. We were once Loammi, no people of the Lords, and utter aliens from his congregation: we sate, and that not very long agoe, in darknesse and in the shadow of death, and it is no wonder if we might be called Disobedient: But God who is good to all, and [Page 50] whose tender mercies are over all his workes, Psal. 145. 9. hath come in unto us and shone upon us. He hath discharged us of the name of Heathens, oh that we could discharge our­selves of the title of Disobedient! he hath brought us into the wisedome of the righteous, unto the knowledge of the Gospel, and of salvation, oh that we could drive on through that to God! He hath made us more Israel then Israel it selfe, and whereas we were once the furthest off of any Nation from this wisedome, he hath brought this wisedome to us, to no Nation nearer. Now what thank­fulnesse doth so great a mercy call for, for its bestow­ing? and what prayers for its continuance? Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which thus hath visited his peo­ple with his Gospel, and redeemed them out of the dark­nesse of superstition. And the blessing of the God of Israel be still upon his own gift, that it may continue and still flourish among us: Let not the Candle which he himselfe hath lighted be ever put out: Nor let the Can­dlesticke which he himselfe hath placed, be ever moved out of its place: Let scattered Popery never cloud us a­gaine, nor superstition overwhelme us. Let Religion and the Gospel be in all our borders, and peace and truth in all our times. And to these our prayses, and to these our prayers let all the people say Amen.

Amen and Amen.