A commentary vpon the Epistles of Saint Paul to Philemon, and to the Hebrewes together with a compendious explication of the second and third Epistles of Saint Iohn. By VVilliam Iones of East Bergholt in Suffolke, Dr. in Divinity, and sometimes one of the fellowes of the foundation of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge.

VERSE 7.

BEfore, hee gave morall precepts: now follow precepts of doctrine and Religion.

1 An exhortation to perseverance in true Doctrin. 2. A dehortation from false. He exhorteth to perseverance in the truth, by two Arguments. 1. From the example of their spirituall guides and Captaines, that have gone before them. 2. From the unity of the Doctrin of Christ, verse 8.

Touching their guides and rulers, there be two things 1. A re∣membrance of them. 2. An intimation of them.

Suffer them not to slip out of your remembrance: though they bee dead, yet let not their memory dye.

He stirs them up to a remembrance of them, by a lively descrip∣tion of them.

They are described, 1. By the authority of their place. 2. By the sincerity of their preaching.

The worthy Preachers and Martyrs that be gone, must not be banished out of our memories: we must often thinke upon them, that the recordation of their vertues may be as a whetstone to sharpen us to the like. The name of the wicked shall rot: but the righteous shall be had in perpetuall remembrance. If I forget thee ô Ierusalem, say they in the Psal. Let not us forget the holy men, that dyed in the Faith of CHRIST. I am as a dead man out of mind: Dead men are soone forgotten. Let us remember Isaiah, that was sawen in pieces for the trueth: remember Saint Peter, Saint Paul, the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that have layd downe their lives for the truth. A noto∣rious theefe, an infamous drunkard, like Falcidius, qui superavit to∣tam Asiam bibendo, an egregious whoremaster, as Hercules, shall be remembred: we will speake of them with a kinde of jollity. But good men, zealous and sober Christians shall soone bee forgotten: wee seldome remember them, and talke of the good things, of the excellent graces, wherewith GOD adorned them. It may be we will remember some Preachers that be dead, and talke of them to the disgrace of some that be alive, to cast them into the dish of the living, to upbraid them withall: but wee doe not remember them for our owne benefit, comfort and instruction, that they may be as bels to toll us to the like good things that were in them.

Remember Lots wife, said Christ: but that was to avoyde the backsliding that was in her. Remember your rulers, to embrace the vertues that were in them.

But how must we remember them? by following of their Faith. Whereunto hee inviteth us by a contemplation of their conversati∣on, from the beginning to the end: how sincere, how constant, they have beene in the whole course of their lives. Nothing could make them to starte, or to shrink from Christ and his Gospell, but they continued manfully to the end. Follow them in this.

Here wee may see how we are to honour the Saints departed.

Hee doth not say, Erect Churches for the memoriall of them: appoynt holy dayes to remember them by: worship their reliques: Saint Paul his napkins, Saint Peters crosse, the stone that hit Stephen on the elbowe, their bones &c. pray to them, visit their tombes and sepulchres, goe in pilgrimage to them: no, no, but follow their faith: as they have beene faithfull to the end, not regarding their owne lives: so be you. This is the best honouring of the Saints de∣parted.

If there have beene any slips and infirmities in them, as all of them have had some: let us not follow them in those, as Platoes Schollers followed him in his crooked back, in going, stooping, as he did, and as Alexanders parasites followed him in his defect of seeing. Let us not follow Noah in his drinking, Abraham and Isaak in dissembling, Lot in his incest, the Midwives and Rachel in lying, David in his adultery, Peter in his denyall, Paul and Barnabas in contention: but let us follow their Faith, their hope, zeale, continencie, their frequent and fervent praying, their enduring of all crosses for the Name of Christ, and their constancie in the profession of the truth to the last gaspe. Neyther famine, cold, nor nakednesse, im∣prisonment, banishment, sword, fire, fagot, could draw them from Christ. Let us follow them in these things, that wee together with them may follow the Lambe in the life to come.