may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. Inspir'd purposely by this Spirit to be a way to guide us into all truth and goodness But this may all pretend to and every one turns it how he lists We must adde a second And the second is the Church for we must know this says St. Peter know it first too 2 Pet. i. 20. That no Scripture is of any private interpretation There are some things so hard to be understood both in St. Pauls Epistles and also other Scriptures says he that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction 2 Tim. iii. 16. and therefore presently his advice follows to beware least we be led away with that error the error as he calls it of the wicked and so fall from our own stedfastness ver 17. When men unlearned or ungrounded presume to be interpreters or even learned men to prefer their private senses before the received ones of the Church 't is never like to produce better The pillar and ground upon which truth stands and stays is the Church if St. Paul may be allowed the judge 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pillar and ground of truth In matters of discipline when a brother has done disorderly tell it to the Church says Christ St. Mat. 18. 17. and if he neglect to hear that let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican He is no Christian. In matters 2. of doubt and controversie send to the Church to Hierusalem to the Apostles and Elders there conven'd in Counsel and let them determine it so we find it done Acts xv 2 28. In a lawful and full assembly of the learned Fathers of the Church such shall be determined that 's the was to settle truth In matters 3. of Rites and Ceremonies the Spirit guides us also by the Church If any man seem to be contentious about them St. Pauls appeal is presently to the Churches Customs We have no such custom neither the Churches of God that 's answer enough full and sufficient thinks the Apostle 1 Cor. xi 16. If the Churches custom be for us then 't is good and true we think or speak or do If against us 't is all naught and wrong whatever purity or piety be pretended in it Nay so careful was the Apostle to preserve the publick Authority of the Church and beat down all private ways and fancies by which ways only Schism and Heresie creep in that he tells Timothy though a Bishop and one well read and exercised in the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. iii. 14. of a form of sound words he would have even him hold fast to 2 Tim. i. 13. and the Romans he tells of a form of Doctrine to be obeyed Rom. 6. 17. so far was that great and eloquent Apostle from being against forms any forms of the Church though he could have prayed and preached ex tempore with the best had tongues and eloquence and the gift of interpretation to do it too so far from leaving truth to any private interpretation or sudden motion whatsoever Nor is this appeal to the Fathers any whit strange or in Christian Religion only first to be heard of it was Gods direction from the first For ask now says Moses of the days that are past that were before thee Deut. iv 32. Stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way says God Ier. vi 16. As if he had said Look about and see and examine all the ways you can yet the old way that 's the good one For enquire I pray thee of the former Age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Iob viii 8. See how slightly things of yesterday new interpretations new devices new guides are accounted of And indeed in it self 't is most ridiculous to think the custom and practice and order and interpretation of all times and Churches should be false and those of yesterday only true unless we can think the Spirit of truth has been fifteen or sixteen hundred years asleep and never wak'd till now of late or can imagine that Christ should found a Church and promise to be with it to the end of the World and then leave it presently to Antichrist to be guided by him for above fifteen hundred years together Nor can I see why the Spirit of truth should now of late only begin to move and stir except I should think he were awak'd or delighted with noise and fury Nor is it reasonable to conceive a few private Spirits neither holier nor wiser than others for ought appears nor arm'd with Miracles to confirm their Doctrines should be more guided by the Spirit of truth than the whole Church and succession of Christians and Christian Fathers especially wherein at any time they agree Yet 3. not always to go so high Thou leadest thy people like sheep says the Psalmist by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal. lxxvii 20. Moses and Aaron were the Governours of the Church the one a Priest the other a Prophet by such God leads his People by their lawful Pastours and Teachers The one the Civil Governour is the cloud to cover them from the heat The other the Spiritual is the light to lead them in the way The first protects the other guides us and we are bid to obey them those especially that watch for our souls Heb. xiii 17. Such as labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. v. 17. By such as God sets over us in the Church to teach and guide us into truth we must be guided if we will come into it In things unlawful nor one nor other is to be obeyed In things indifferent they always are In things doubtful 't is our safest course to have recourse to them provided that they be not of Corahs company that they exalt not themselves against Moses and Aaron nor draw us to it If they do we may say to them as Moses did to those Ye take too much upon you you Sons of Levi. God leads his People like a flock in peace and unity and by the hands of Moses and Aaron Thus 3. the Spirit guides into all truth because the Spirit is God and God so guides You have heard the way and means the first part of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Spirits guiding The Second follows his act and motion 1. He leads or guides us only he does not drive us that 's not the way to plant truth by force and violence fire and fagots not the Spirits sure which is the Spirit of love 2. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is we told you in it Some Act of the Spirit He moves and stirs up to it enlightens our understandings actuates our wills disposes ways and times occasions and opportunities to it that 's the reason we hear the truth more willingly at some time than other Paul
with reverence welcome him with Prayers and Praises present him with holy vows and resolutions and so every way demean our selves with that humility and devotion that care and diligence over all our ways and steps that nothing appear in us distasteful or offensive to him now he is come and say we to him in the words of Elizabeth to his Mother Whence is this to me that my Lord himself is come unto me to me a sinner to me the chief of sinners Thus if we will entertain him when he comes thus if we will receive him now he is coming towards us he will not only come unto us but tarry with us till he take us with him to himself make us his world to be in till he remove us into a better where the soul that humbly here confesses it self the chief of sinners shall be sav'd and set among the chiefest Saints when he shall come again in glory THE FIFTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day PSALM xlv 3. Thou art fairer then the Children of men full of grace are thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever MY heart is inditing a good matter and I could wish my tongue were the pen therefore of a ready writer that I might speak the things I have made touching the King this days new-born King as I ought to speak as they ought to be spoken But Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Had I a hundred mouths and as many tongues and they the tongues of Angels too I could not yet sufficiently set forth the Beauty of this Fair one the Majesty of this King the grace of his Person or the comfort of his Day this day wherein he came to be first reckoned among the children of men Yet something must be said both for the days sake and the persons 'T is a day of good tidings so the Angel tells us and then we must not hold our peace the very Lepers that are to hold their hands upon their mouths cannot hold them at this Say we do not well if we do some mischief will come upon us 2 Kings vii 9. And lips so full of grace will require the return of the lips at least We can do little if we cannot speak again when we are spoken to when God speaks to us as the Apostle tells us by his Son if we will not render a word in answer to this eternal word speak of the beauty and grace and blessing that we see in him and find by him God hath blessed him for ever blessed us to day will bless us too hath already blessed us in blessing him will bless us more and more in him too day and for ever good reason then we bless him to day who from this day began to bless us for ever All this while you understand me who I mean who is so fair so gracious so blessed The question is whether the Psalmist means the same Indeed they give it out for an Epithalamium or Marriage-Song at Solomons Espousals with Pharaohs Daughter And in such Songs the praise and commendation of the Bridegroom and the Bride and good wishes to them are the usual subjects It is so here Solomon and his Bride commended blessed well-wisht to in it but yet behold a greater than Solomon is here a fairer graciouser blesseder than he Christ married to his Church or rather the Divinity contracted to the Humanity Christ made the fairest of the children of men 〈◊〉 as well as prae more gracious words out of his mouth than ever out of Solomons more truly ever blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than he the Song sung in a fuller key the words more punctually appliable the Prophesie more exactly fulfilled in him than in Solomon himself The Fathers have so expounded it before us the Church has added authority to it by the choice of the Psalms for a part of the Office of the Day nay S. Paul has so applied it Heb. i. 8 9. So I am no ways singular Indeed I love not to be in such points as these I tread the antient track though I confess I think I can never take occasions enough nor I nor any else to speak of Christ of his beauty and grace and blessedness either to day or any day though every day whatsoever And though I must say with St. Hilary Filium mens mea veretur attingere trepidat omnis sermo se prodere I can neither think without a kind of fear nor speak without a kind of trembling of a person of that glory yet because 't is our eternal Solomons the Words wedding-day and the Text part of the Wedding-Song and in such days and Songs the very children all comers bear a part and if they did not the stones would do it indeed the stones and walls should this day all ring of it and if they I must not be the only sensless stone to hold my peace Indeed here is a beauty would make any man an Oratour lips that would make the dumb man eloquent grace would make the most ungratious full of good words and holy language were they well conceived and considered That so they may the words are now to be considered as a part of an Epithalamium or Marriage-Song wherein Christ our eternal Bridegroom is set forth in all his lustre Now in a Bridegroom the chief things we look at are good parts and a good estate Our Bridegroom here has both Fair fac'd and fair spoken full of grace and beauty for his parts and a fair estate he has too God be thanked for it a blessed lot a goodly heritage in a fair ground blessedness it self enstated upon him and that for ever both far above the parts and portions of the children of men the Sons parts above the parts of the children of men and the Fathers blessing above the blessings of the fathers of men and neither the one nor the other to be conceal'd but even spoken and sung of while you will By us as well as David as loud too and in as high a key Run this division upon it if you please and take these parts to sing of in their order 1. His Beauty Christs excellent beauty Thou art fairer then the children of men 2. His eloquence Christs infinite grace in speaking Full of grace are thy lips 3. The original whence they come from Gods blessing Eo quod in one way of rendring Because God hath blessed thee for ever because he hath blessed thee therefore art thou so fair so full of grace 4. The effect of them what they cause Gods blessing again so the other rendring the word by Propterea therefore that is because of this excellent grace and beauty therefore has God blessed thee for ever 5. The end whether they move and tend the great business they aim at even to the blessing of God again for so the Hebrew Writers supply the sense with a dico ego Therefore say I and so say we or are to say
to nothing For certainly did they either seriously think him true God or true man we should see it by their bodies especially seeing we cannot see any thing by their spirits to the contrary Even men us'd to be thus worshipped 1 Kings i. 31. and Prophets 2 Kings ii 15. So that did they confess him any thing they would certainly fall down and worship him not deny it to be sure whether do it or no. For all falling down is not adoration It is the mind that makes that the intention of the soul that turns this outward expression of the body into adoration that makes it either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either a religious or a civil worship as it pleases This is the reason together with the Authority of the Fathers St. Augustin St. Leo St. Bernard and others that I make adorârunt here this word worship to relate to the soul as procidentes falling down to the body Though I am not ignorant that both in the School and Grammar sense it is seldom or never found without the interest and posture of the body yet must it of necessity most refer to the soul that being able only to specifie the worship and give it both its nature and its name by either intending it religiously as to God or civilly only as to a creature where it gives it the outward posture being oft the same indifferently to God and man That these Wise men intended it as an act of Devotion and Religion as to an incarnate God not a meer carnal man is the general opinion of the Church and not without good ground For first Wise men who ever propound some end to all their motions would not have undertaken so long and tedious and troublesom a journey to have seen a child in a Cradle or in the mothers lap no not a Royal babe they were Kings themselves so the Antients delivered them to us and the 72 Psalm foretells them by that name and they had often seen such sights in as much pomp and glory as they could expect it in Iudea At least cui bono what good should they get by it that 's a thing Wise men consider by any King of Iudea what was such an one or his child to them who had nor dependance nor commerce with him or if they had needed not make such a needless journey themselves to no more purpose than in a complement to visit him But 2. They tell us they had seen his Star now we and they knew well enough that the Kings of the earth though they have the Spangles of the Earth have not the Spangles of the Heaven at their command though they have Courts and Courtiers beset with sparks of Diamonds and Rubies they have not yet one spark of Heaven in their attendance No King of Stars but the King of Heaven none under whose command or dominion they move or shine none that can call them his but God that made them to worship one then who not only can alone call all the Stars by their names but by his own too is certainly in any Wise mans language to worship God Our very Star-gazers who confess no King and for ought we can see worship no God will yet confess that in the Latin they have regit Astra Deus that the Stars are only Gods and though a Wise man may by his wisdom divert their influence he can in no wise either command or direct their motion 3. They tell us too they came to worship their whole business was nothing else and we would think they had little indeed if they came so far only to give a complement to a child that could neither answer them nor understand them We must certainly take them not for Wise men but very fools to do so And if worship be the end of their coming we may quickly understand by the phrase of Scripture that it is divine worship that is meant Of worship indeed and adoration we may read in other senses there but it is never made a business said to be any ones aim or purpose but when it is referr'd to God and his House The Eunuch is said to come to Ierusalem and worship Acts viii 27. David invites us to fall down and worship Psal. xcv 6. St. Paul comes to Ierusalem to worship Acts xxiv 11. and certain Greeks are said to come up to worship St. Iohn xii 20. but all this while it is to worship God never made a work to worship man To fall down before or bow or reverence to any man how great soever is but an occasional piece of business on set purpose never When we come before Kings and Princes we do it but never come before them to this end only for to do it 4. Had they conceived no other of him than as man or a Child of man that poor contemptible condition and unworshipful pickle they found him in the rags of poverty the place they saw him in would have made them have forborn their worship quite they would have been so far from procidentes adorârunt that it would have been dedignantes abiêrunt instead of falling down and worshipping they would have gone their ways disdaining at him But so powerful was his Star and so had the day-Star risen in their hearts so had the eternal light shined to them that they could see what others could not in carne Deum God in the Child He that led them without taught them within both whom they worshipped and how to worship And indeed he that knows and considers whom he worships will worship both in Spirit and in truth with his soul and with his body in truth else he does not worship Adorare adoration consists of both nay cannot be well conceived if you take away either the one or the other The word it self in its primitive signification is manum ad os admovere concerns the body and is no more than to kiss the hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is just the same So was the fashion of the Greeks to worship and it seems ancient through the East for it is an expression of holy Iob chap. xxxi 21. If I have beheld the Sun when it shined c. or my mouth hath kissed my hand that is if he had worshipped any other God But it falls out with this as with other words they enlarge their signification by time and custom and so adoration is come to be applied to all worship of the body bowing the head bending the knee falling on the face kneeling at the feet according as each particular Country perform their reverence Time yet hath enlarged it further and our Saviour that eternal word and therefore the best Expositor of any word hath applied it also to the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Iohn iv 23. nay more calls them the truest worshippers that worship in Spirit And indeed the Spirits the Souls part is the chiefest the worship
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
Word that I thy servant may have utterance this thy people give thee audience all of us obedience and all our hearts and tongues be so thorowly heated with thy holy fire that they may be filled with thy praise and honour all the day long That we may do so here are tongues given in the Text ver 3. Cloven tongues as it were of fire there we left there we begin again at the second Way and Manner of the holy Spirits coming down to day And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them Where 1. of the Order 2. Of the Appearance 3. Of the Manner it self And lastly of the Continuance of it For the Order 't is the second way of the Spirits coming here first in the wind then in the fire The holy fire within us is not kindled but with a mighty wind The divine spark or soul cannot be blown up into a fire till some mighty wind has shaken all our powers blown off the dust and ashes those earthly worldly affections that choak'd and cover'd it till it has rais'd a tumult in all the corners of us dispers'd the vanities and irregularities of all our motions and scatter'd every thing that hinder'd it from the obedience to the Spirit then and not till then the fire bursts forth and as the Psalmist we speak with our tongues For the Order 2. is the same between the sound and the tongues The Sound first the tongues second We are first to hear before we speak so the Spirits order tells us here Not turn Teachers at the first dash not presume to teach others before we are thorowly taught our selves that 's none of the Spirits way of teaching how spiritual soever they think themselves that do so that speak what they have neither seen nor heard their own fancies and imaginations the divisings of their own hearts such as the Christian world never heard before whereof there is not so much as the sound or any thing sounding like it in all the Writings of the Church The sound too 3. before the fire The Spirit manifests it self by degrees first more obscurely to the ear then more evidently to the eye I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear says Iob Chap. xlii 5. that was a favour but now mine eye seeth thee that 's a greater The Spirit comes by degrees Gods favours rise upon us in order There comes first a great and strong wind that rends the mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks before him that throws down our mountainous thought and projects breaks them all in pieces crosses our designs thwarts them with some great affliction or some strange thing or other breaks our very hearts our stony hearts then follows an earthquake in all our faculties we begin to shake and tremble with the fear of the Almighty then comes the fire and burns up all the chaff scorches our very bones and warms us even at the heart whereupon presently there issues out a still small voice out of our lips the tongues follow upon the fire or are even with it This was signified to us thus by Gods appearing to Elijah 1 Kings xix 11 12. and the same order the holy Spirit of God uses here to the Apostles the same method still he keeps with us For he thrusts not in upon us unprepared he makes himself a way into us gives us not so clear an evidence as seeing him at the first not till the sound has well awaken'd us and the wind well brush'd and cleans'd our houses for him Yet then appear he does For we now presently hear of his appearance There appeared tongues The manifestation of the Spirit says St. Paul is given to every man to profit withal 1 Cor. xii 7. Not the Spirit only but the manifestation too No Spirit without some manifestation If the Spirit be an extraordinary Spirit the manifestation will be so too If it be but ordinary the manifestation will be no more 1. If God sends any with an extraordinary commission to preach or teach he enables them with an extraordinary Spirit appears with them after some extraordinary fashion tongues or miracles or some high heavenly fires come with them They but blaspheme the Spirit and usurp upon the Office who take it upon them without such a warrant they run without sending says God Ier. xxiii 21. their tongues are but their own and however those perverse fellows in the Psalm infer they are they that ought to speak who is Lord over them Psal. xii 4. they ought not to speak there is a Lord over them what ere they think that will one day call them to accompt and make them know it their fire they bring is but Nadabs and Abihu's their zeal without knowledge they have no tongue but what their mother taught them the holy Spirit has taught them none made no appearance to them either by fire or by tongues they are filled with some other Spirit the Spirit of Pride of Division or Rebellion or somewhat worse where the Spirit sends with an extraordinary commission it will appear by some gift extraordinary and miraculous somewhat will appear But 2. if our mission be but ordinary the ordinary way that the Spirit has now left in the power and authority of the Church will be sufficient yet that must appear too our authority appear thence our tongues serve to it too to the edifying of the Church 1 Cor. xiv 12. to the building of it up not to the pulling of it down Every gift of the holy Spirit is to have its manifestation tongues and interpretation and prayer and Prophesie and all the rest yet all in order Every one to employ not hide his talent he who has a ministery to waite on that he that is to exhort to attend to that he that is to teach to busie himself in that though all according to proportion Rom. xii 6 7 8. all to appear to the glory of God Yea even those saving graces of the Spirit are not always to be kept within they are to appear in tongues or fire so shine that others may glorifie so speak and act that others seeing our good conversation may be affected with it and perswaded to grace and vertue by it The Spirit is not given to be hid under a bushel the wind cannot the fire will not the tongue is not usual to be kept in so They all appear'd here after their way the wind after its way the tongues and fire after theirs in this verse to the fight the most certain of the senses that we might not be deceived by pretended Spirits might have somewhat manifest to judge by to tell us that the graces of the Spirit whether those for edification of others or sanctification of our selves are for manifestation to appear to others as well as to our selves we receive them to that purpose to profit others and to approve our selves These may serve for reasons why
for the business of Christ. 3. Yet cloven they must be too 'T is not a single tongue will do it The Apostles were to preach to the world and in the world there were a world of tongues that they might therefore so preach as to be understood as many tongues were necessary to be given them as there were people with whom they were to deal Behold the greatness of Gods goodness here Tongues were divided for a curse at first lo he turns them into a blessing then they were sent to divide the world now they are given to unite it then they wrought confusion now they are given to unite it Thus God can turn our curses into blessings when he pleases And fit it is that we then should turn our tongues to his praise and glory This we may do with one tongue alone But they who would be Preachers and teach others had need of more Tongues though they come not now suddenly like the wind yet come they must as they can come by our industry and Gods blessing God would not have sent so many tongues if more then one had not been necessary for his work though not now perhaps to preach yet to understand surely what we preach 'T is a bold adventure to presume to the office of a Teacher with a single tongue He is not able to teach children to spell true that knows no more much less to spell the mysteries of the Gospel to men who understands not so much as that one tongue he speaks if he understand no more Unless we be wiser than Christ and his Holy Spirit we cannot think any sufficiently endued to preach them but such as have received the gift of tongues more then one or two the gift I say for though to speak with tongues be not given now miraculously as it was here yet given it is to us it is the gift still of the Holy Spirit as a blessing upon our labours But there are other tongues besides which come from this days mercy The tongue that speaks right things the tongue that comforts the afflicted soul the tongue that recals the wandring step the tongue that defends the fatherless and widow the tongue that pours it self out in prayers and praises the tongue that speaks continually of holy things the tongue that speaks no evil nor does no hurt the tongue that speaks nothing but a meek and humble and obedient spirit these are the tongues of the Holy Spirit and even from this day they have their rise these are for all orders and sorts of men and if those men who now take to themselves to be Teachers had but learnt to speak with these tongues they would have spoke to far better purpose and more to Gods acceptance than now they do in speaking as they do they had not thus blasphemed the Holy Spirit to entitle him to the extravagancy of their tongues Yet fire and tongues and tongues of fire are not all the wonders that this day produced These fell not only like a flash of Lightning upon the Apostles but they sate upon them or rather It sate upon them says the Text. All these tongues as divided and cloven as they were like so many flames or tongues of fire at top they were all united in one root below with one mouth Rom. xv 6. with one voice Chap. iv 24. they spake all but the same thing They are not the tongues of the Spirit that speak now one thing now another that agree not in the foundation at the least Nor is that fire of the Holy Ghosts enkindling that cannot sit for to the fire we may 2. refer this It. The holy flame is not like the fire of thorns that are always crackling making a noise it can sit quietly in the heart and on the lips and on the head sometimes in the one and sometimes on the other it sits upon the heads and singes not a hair it sits in the heart and scalds it not at all it sits upon the lips yet makes them not burst out into a heat the firy zeal that is so much cried up for spirit in the world is too unquiet too hot too raging to be of this days fire Yet 3. we may refer this It to the Holy Spirit it self That sate upon each of them too It sate first upon each of them as a crown of glory so St. Cyril The Apostles were the Crowns and Glory of the Churches and so this install'd them It sate 2. upon them as in a Chair of State to fix authority upon them to set them in their Chairs to give them power to govern and guide the Church It sate 3. upon them so to call into their mind the promise of their Master that he would send one to sit in counsel with them and be with them always to the end of the world for sitting is a posture to denote constancy establishment and continuance It sate 4. as it were to teach us to be setled and constant too to be establisht and grounded in our faith not to be wavering and carried about with every wind of doctrine There is no greater evidence against error then that it is not constant to it self no greater argument against these great pretended spirits then that they cannot sit know not where to fix are always moving as if the Psalmists curse had taken hold upon them as it does and will do without doubt upon all that take the houses of God in possession Psal. lxxxiii 12. that usurp upon the office or portion of the Church as if God had made them like a wheel and as stubble before the wind that can sit no where rest at nothing but turn about from one uncertainty to another The Holy Spirit is a Spirit that will sit still and be at peace continue and abide It sate 5. upon each to teach each of us peace and quiet in all our passions constancy and continuance in truth and goodness and a setled and composed behaviour in all conditions blow the winds never so high burn the fires of persecution never so hot against us It were well now if we could say as it follows next concerning the Apostles that we were filled with this Spirit that we were filled with the Holy Ghost that we might arrive at that point within our selves though we cannot now arrive at that particular in the Text. The only filling now that I have time to tell you of is that before us and 't is a good one the filling us with the body and bloud of Christ which is a signal filling us with the Spirit Go we will then about it so to fill our our souls The tongues and fire in the Text we may well apply to it we may have use of there For tongues are not to speak with only but tast with two O tast we then how good and gracious the Lord is there that vouchsafes so graciously to come under our roofs to come upon tongues And Tongues 2. are to help
to be left and what followed in them that we may learn how to bear our happiness the great favours of the Almighty the extraordinary dignations and discoveries of Christ and besides also all temporal felicities how to proportion them to others benefit as well as our own how so to regulate our judgments counsels expressions and affections upon any such occasions come they when they will upon us that we may safely say with St. Peter here in any of them Master it is good for us to be here let us now build Tabernacles this condition is good we now are in let us still be here and yet not incur St. Luke's censure that we know not what we say The Sum then both of the Text and Sermon will be but this St. Peter's and our common judgments advice affections and expressions in any kind of extraordinary content and happiness spiritual or temporal what they are usually they are we know not what and are therefore so branded here by the Evangelist that we may henceforth consider and know what judgments counsels affections and expressions pass from us in any such conditions before we pass them So that our work is to be this to examine all these in St. Peter's speech and shew you how far it may be said by any of us and how it must not and that in these Particulars 1. How far his judgment may pass that good it is to be here how we may say It is good for us to be here think and say so and how we may not 2. How far his advice is good to build Tabernacles how we may say Let us build three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Mose and one for Elias and how far it is not good to say so wherein we may not say so 3. How far his affections to his own or his Masters ease and safety and present glory may be allow'd how we are to rellish Moses and Elias their departing or desire their staying and how we may not as they departed Peter said unto Iesus as if he would needs be staying them that he might stay where now he was 4. How far expressions sudden and unwary such as for hast or passion and amazement slip sometimes from us as this did here from St. Peter may be born with how far we may be tolerated to say sometimes we know not what and when we may not be allowed it Not c. By this limiting and dividing the particulars of the speech and Text and giving the several ways and senses it may be spoken in we shall neither wrong St. Peter nor St. Luke but give both their due St. Peter's saying and St. Luke's censure his saying Master it is good for us to be here Let us build c. and that St. Peter's speech was not altogether to be disapproved and that yet notwithstanding some fault there was in it and that therefore St. Luke's censure just and St. Luke's saying upon it that he knew not what he said Say with St. Peter and say with St. Luke both and yet say well with both when we know what they both said and in what sense to say it St. Peter's authority will not in this point bear us out against St. Luke's but if we say it as St. Peter did with all the circumstances St. Luke will say of us what he said of him that we know not what we say But if we say the words as they may be said he will not say so Begin we then to sift the saying and the first part first Master It is good for us to be here St. Peter's judgment of the condition he was in and how we may judge and say so And it may be good to be so and good to say so good really in several senses a right judgment and a right saying For first This here was in the Mount a place of solitude and retirement a part by themselves says St. Mark ix 2. And 't is good sometimes times to retire our selves from the World and worldly business to think and meditate upon Heaven and heavenly things especially having lately tasted of those dainties that we may chew and rellish them nothing so good and convenient then presently as some retirement to sit down a little and bethink our selves of the sweetness we have so lately tasted the Covenant we have so lately renewed the resolutions we have so lately taken up and the ways to perform them 2. It was a high Mountain too says St. Matthew xvii 1. Nothing henceforth should serve our turn but high thoughts and resolutions we must do nothing mean after so high favours and dignations fix our thoughts set our affections now henceforward upon things above good to be here 3. It was the Holy Mountain too so styled ever since from the authority of St. Peter 2 Epist. i. 18. And 't is good to be holy better then to be high High contemplations of God and Heaven are not so good as holy conversations 'T is good indeed very good to be also in the holy Mount in holy places at holy work where Christ is to be seen or heard in beauty and glory in the Church at his Word and Sacraments 4. For into a Mountain to pray says our Evangelist ver 28. So To be here is to be here praying Christ went up to that purpose as he tells us there often went up to that purpose as we find it so it must needs be good nothing does us so much good at heart as praying It fills it with joy and gladness fills our mouths with good things fills our hands and our barns and our coffers all our filling comes from thus opening of our mouths Be we in sickness or be we in health be we in prosperity or be we in adversity be we full or be we empty nothing does us so much good in any of those conditions as our prayers Prayer Why in sickness it cheers us in health it strengthens us in prosperity it fastens us in adversity it comforts us in our fulness it keeps us from oppression in emptiness from fainting in all it does us some good or other 'T is good indeed to be here that is to be praying especially to give our selves to it to go aside on purpose for it to ascend the Mountain in it to go to it with raised thoughts and elevated attentions take good how you will for honest profitable or pleasant Prayer is all of them To be with Abraham in the Mount entitles us to be called with him for it The friends of God and there 's honestum honest even in the honourable sense To be with Moses in the Mount is profitable against Amâ—lek to beat down our Enemies To be here with St. Peter in the Mount gives us the most pleasant prospect that mortal eyes ever beheld or saw gives us a prospect of heavenly glory Bonum est esse hic 't is every way good thus being here 5. To be here is to be with Christ and Moses
Isa. i. 21. Et quà m facta est desolata How is she become desolate Remember that What becomes of her for it I have done with the Rechabites obedience and Gods dicit to it I come nearer home and I cannot tell you but I must change my phrase into dicit homo Men talk abroad there 's no such matter here If it be otherwise you have the better on 't And I shall say no more than what Iotham Iudg. ix 19 20. to the men of Shechem when they had made Abimelech King If you have then dealt truly and sincerly with Jerubbaal and with his house this day then rejoyce you in Abimelech and let him rejoyce in you But if not let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and the house of Millo and devour Abimelech I will not say so much with an imprecation but thus If you have now dealt truly and sincerely with King and Church in setting up your own profits priviledges and humours to reign over you by preferring them before their Precepts then rejoyce you in them and may they prosper with you But if not fire will come out of them those very Priviledges and profits and devour you and fire will come out from you to devour and ruine them as sure as you thought once to be happy by them 'T is true and I think I may justly quit some of you before God and man say for you You have obeyed but as it is enough for the whole man to be thought guilty when only one part sins so it is enough for a punishment upon a Kingdom that there be among us those though hands and feet that disobey Though make no doubt of it you who have obeyed but however the world look on you as certainly it looks but scurvily upon such God from above will one day see it and reward it give you the blessing of the Text. His word is past go on and believe there shall not want a man of your seed to stand before him for ever You are not all then of the same practices I shall but mind you therefore of my Text in a double sense as it implies the punishment of Disobedience as it expresses the reward of obedience and I have done The Rechabites that obeyed shall want no length of days no posterity nor they no heavenly grace or honour You will thence infer They that do not shall want all And have they not so in all generations What got Iannes and Iambres by withstanding Moses but non precedent ultra they should proceed no further neither in their Projects nor in their Posterity 1 Tim. iii. 8. What got Korah and his company by rising up against Moses and Aaron but a death that amazes us to read of They and their wives and their children went down quick into hell The grave was not low enough nor could they die soon enough to receive their punishment What got Absalom by his rebellion but an ignominious cruel death in the heat and fervor of his sin and no Posterity to survive him What got the Ten Tribes by their discession in matter of Taxes but the loss of their Religion and their God a perpetual successive Idolatry and a thousand calamities No in conspectu meo left them that Gods presence taken from them for ever Lastly What got Iudas that rose in the days of the Tribute all upon fair pretences you see with the people but Ipse periit omnes dispersi he perish'd the rest made rogues and runnagates upon the face of the earth And can we after all this look for better success either in Church or State when we rise up against them both Any thing but an utter desolation Lay it home Non deficiet in the Text will prove deficiet here nor Posterity nor Honour nor Government nor Religion continue with you The very setting light by our Superiours has brought a doom somewhat like it Michol scoffing at King David had no child for ever lost vir de stirpe The little Children that did but taunt the Prophet as he passed by were at deficiet streight in their childhood could go no farther The very savage Bears out of the wilderness rebuked the incivility of the children If children found so sharp a punishment what may men expect In a word God the God of mercies who holds out beyond our hopes or thoughts could hold out no longer when they came once to despise his Ministers 2 Chron. xxxvi 16. And let me tell you too You shall find it home in your own bosoms be paid in kind in your children and servants For with what face can you expect obedience from your children who disobey by your example How can you but expect rebellion from them who see you in all your actions resolute to disobey Where should they learn it From your example Alas they cannot You obey nor spiritual nor temporal Fathers From your words They will not because your actions contradict them From Gods commandments Why do not you Thus while you study by disobedient practices to stand you and yours fall down for ever But I dwell too long upon so harsh a Theme I shall lead you to Obedience by sweeter thoughts by Example by Reward By Example shall these Rechabites their wives and children give aside at no inconvenience and must we Christians startle at every thing that is not just as we would have it Shall they hear and hearken and submit and rest upon their Fathers will and must we alway prefer our own scarce read or mind a command which we first prescribe not Shall they fail in nothing not a circumstance do according unto all And are not we ashamed to question all so long till we do nothing I appeal to your selves Would you be so used in your own houses Have your commands disputed questioned denied done by parts and pieces by your children and servants With what conscience then can you deal so with your Superiours Do as you would be done by is the Law of Nature Out of this only Principle 't is probable the Rechabites at first obeyed in one man the Carnal Spiritual Temporal Authority and does our Christianity serve us to no better use than to contemn them If Example will not will Reward prevail 'T is a Reward to be approved by God But he rewards us not with words What would you have Your City your Companies your own Families cannot subsist without obedience and can you desire it of others when you will not pay it your selves This the way to keep your City from destruction You labour for succession this is Gods way to obtain it You travel for Lands and riches this is his means to gain and keep them You desire honours thus you may have for you and your Posterities You strive for Priviledges they are surest obtain'd and held by Obedience You endeavour all for perpetuities here