sought not himself neither did he mind his own will or his own glory And certainly the higher the Office is the greater will thy account be and thy condemnation the heavier Oh the dreadfull account that is to be made at that day concerning this talent 2. Of laziness and idleness For the work is of great consequence The bloud of souls will speak more terribly than the blood of Abels body How severe was the master in that Parable of our 〈◊〉 to him who hid his talent in a napkin Luke 19. 20. he is called an unprofitable servant and must be cast into utter darkness Use 2. To you that are the people If we have our Commission from Christ then take heed how you reject the Word we speak from him The Apostle makes a comparison between him that refused Moses speaking and Christ speaking and saith How much forer punishment shall he be thought worthy of Heb. 10. 29. Every Sermon your condemnation will rise higher upon you Think not that our words will passe away No God saith by the Prophet They shall not return in vain for if it be not a saving and converting word it will be an hardning and condemning one No wonder if our Saviour spake one Parable to this very purpose and concludeth Take heed how you hear Mark 4. 24. The second thing observable from this relative consideration is That the Apostle intending to beget awe and esteem in the hearts of those he wrote unto he mentioneth his Office and from whom he had it An Apostle of Jesus Christ This was a greater glory saith Chrysostome then if he had styled himself any temporal Officer in the Civil State For he doth saith the same Father as if one next to the Emperour should write to a certain people giving himself that title of honour which was next to the Emperour Thus doth Paul The Apostle of Jesus Christ. This could not but astonish and startle all his opposers and enemies yet if you do consider with a worldly respect what Christ himself was and so any Officer under him you must judge it the most contemptible and despicable thing that can be that which a carnal man would have been ashamed to own for Christ himself was called The Carpenters sonne and bred up at Nazareth a most despicable place and his outward condition was so low that he saith He had not where to lay his head And as for his Apostles what repute they had in the world Paul himself telleth us when he saith They were accounted the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 13. Yet see how the Apostle glorieth in this title as that which might justly awe the consciences of those to whom he wrote From this observe That those things are of high account and respect in the Church of God which in the world are very despicable and despised As That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abominable before God Luk. 18. So that which is abominable and loathsom before men is highly esteemed with God We might instance in many things First Christ who is the Head of the Church and the chief corner-stone yet he was rejected by those who by their Office was builders Yea Christ crucified was accounted foolishness to the Gentiles Insomuch that had not God promised Christ To give him the Nations of the Earth and had actually lifted him up above all principalities and powers We should have thought there would not have been one City much lesse one Nation especially not so many Nations adoring him as God We may truly say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Christ is called by the Apostle The King of Kings and Lord of Lords which 2 Tim. 5. 16. Drusius saith was the Title and Style of the great Kings of Persia but who except the Christian would admire Christ more than the Persian King Therefore it was a wonderfull work upon those Wisemen of the East that they should come and bring such presents and worship Christ though an Infant whom they found in a mean place at Bethlehem and in the meanest place there but where God giveth spiritual eyes there is a spiritual excellency discovered where the world seeth nothing but contemptibleness Secondly For the Officers of Christ In worldly considerations how low and despised are they But to those who are spiritual and acknowledge the Order and Institutions of Christ they esteem them as the Stewards of God and the Ministers of Christ insomuch that it 's the cause of contemning Religion when their Office is despised Paul was so received by the Galatians as if he had been an Angel from Heaven Yea Christ himself They would have pulled out their eyes to have pleasured him And we see in the after ages of the Church how much the Ministers of Christ were had in esteem insomuch that it greew unto an excesse Now though the carnal worldly man beareth no such respect to them yet those who are led by Scripture doe highly esteeme them and that for their workes sake Thirdly The Duties prescribed by Christ they are such as the world condemneth either for folly or pusillanimity as Faith in Christ alone for salvation self-denial readiness to take up our Crosse To love our enemies to do good to those that hate us Are not these such things that the magnanimous and gallant spirits of the world do disdain Fourthly The priviledges and encouragements which Christ also inviteth with they are not such baits as will take in the world Psal 4. Who will shew us any good that is the vote of the world As for the light of Gods countenance justification and assurance of Gods grace these things they do no more esteem than the Swine doth Pearl Lastly The due execution of the Censure of the Church upon just grounds to cast out the impenitent sinner This the world contemneth but yet you see how powerfully it wrought upon the Incestuous person And Matth. 18. when our Saviour had said He that would not heare the Church must be like a Publican and Heathen lest they should despise this he saith Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Use of Exhortation To admire the power and wisdom of God who hath kept up Church-officers Church-ordinances in the world when there are no outward pompous motives to perswade thereunto SERM. VIII In what sense Paul saith of himself He was an Apostle by the will of God Shewing likewise how all Church-Offices and Priviledges come meerly from the will and good pleasure of God 2 COR. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God c. VVE are now to consider the last particular in this Inscription as it is divided to us and that is the impulsive Cause or rather the Manner how Paul obtaineth this Apostleship which is said to be by the will of God Here is much comprehended in this expression for hereby is declared That it was
confession is a sign although Hereticks pretend thereunto As true Miracles were a sure Argument to prove the truth although others have done and Antichrist will pretend to true Miracles And indeed though all Sects as the Socinians especially pretend much to the Scripture yet it is not the words only but the sense of it that is by the Context and Scope to be discovered that is the word of God Therefore Irenaeus of old said elegantly That Hereticks making the Scripture to speak what sense they pleased did as if a man should take the Statue or Image of a King and so transpose the parts of it as to make it the image of a Dog or some other vile thing These things concluded on let us draw some Uses by way of Corollaries As 1. In that the holy Ghost is pleased to appropriate this Word in the New Testament to his people which among the Heathens signifieth the meaner sort of people for that they called Ecclesia and it was opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Senate which consisted of more noble men Hence we may see who they are that are most commonly called to be of his Church even the meaner sort Not many rich not many noble hath God called 1 Corinth 1. We should not despise the Church of God if it be not so externally pompous and glorious as Kingdoms and States For Christ is more peculiarly present with his Church and shed his bloud for that 2. That if we speak properly the Church is not a material place not this building of stones and wood but the people of God meeting there Indeed it may tropically be well enough called a Church as Synagogue is applied to the place He built us a Synagogue whereas properly it signifieth the people meeting together as you heard Thus Concio amongst the Latines signifieth both the place and the company met together Bellarmine would have the word to signifie a place 1 Cor. 11. as also where it is said Let the woman keep silence in the Churches And those learned men Fuller and Mede expound it so in 1 Cor. 11. But there is no necessity of such Interpretation But though the Scripture doth not call it so we may by a Trope give it that name and use must authorize in these things Though Ifidore Pelusiota in one of his Epistles sharply reproving a Bishop that adorned the material place with Images and Ornaments but neglected the Church of God the true professours he persecuted doth call the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly Is it a Church a company called by God Then this sheweth of what consequence Unity and Concord is amongst all the Members thereof How can a body be kept together without ligaments and nerves How can the building stand if the wood and straw be not aptly fastned and cemented together How can the Church subsist if there be not Love Union and Concord It 's observable Phil. 4. 2. that the Apostle thought it not too low a thing even in canonical Scripture to intreat two women that were at difference to be of the same mind I beseech Euodias I beseech Syntyche that they be of one mind Two godly women differing the Apostle doth passionately intreat reconciliation and agreement how much more then would he have intreated the Pastors and Officers in the Church to take heed of discord SERM. XV. Why Paul writeth to the Church not the Churches of Corinth What is implyed in the Churches being called the Church of God 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth c. THe Nature of a Church hath been considered with the Marks thereof from the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given here to the society of believers at Corinth So that we might dispatch this only in that the word Church is used in the singular number The Church at Corinth not Churches It 's disputed What one Church it was whether one single Congregation exereising all Church-government within it self or a combined and collective Church united into one but consisting of particular Congregations and it may seenâ— probable that this Church of Corinth was a combined or associated Church partly because Act. 18. we may read of much people that God had in that place and therefore Paul staid above a year there which argued a multitude of converts The plenty also of their Teachers and Officers with the diversitie of tongues And lastly in that 1 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned with the Church in their house It is true what is meant by the Church in an house is controverted we find the expression four times in Scripture Rom. 16 15. where Aquila and Priscilla are saluted with the Church in their house So 1 Cor. 16. 19. these persons are mentioned again with the Church in their house Col. 4. 15. There one Nymphas is saluted with the Church in his house Phil. 2. There likewise Philemon is mentioned with the Church in his house Mr. Mede doth from hence inferre That even in the Apostles dayes and so in the primitive times that the Christians had publick places fixed and setled being set apart for the publick Assemblies to worship God in answering those places of Arnobius and others who told the Heathens they had no Templa nor Aras he saith these mentioned in the Texts named did set apart some piece of their house for that end But it should seem by other passages that in the Apostles dayes there were no fixed places for to meet in Therefore sometimes they meet in one house and sometimes in another yea They went from house to house Others they think by the Church in their house is meant many believers For they say Whereas when other families are saluted only some are named sometimes the Master of the house is omitted as Salute the houshold of Narcissus because he was thought to be an infidel Yea Calvin thinketh it is that infamous and wicked Narâ—issus so notorious wicked and great with Nero of whom Historians speak Now when the Apostle salutes the men and the Church in their house it was because there were no unbelievers but all were of the Church Howsoever it be it 's plain there were many believers in that family more than ordinary and therefore called a Church which should argue That the Church of Corinth was a combined Church That passage also makes it likely 1 Cor. 14. 34. Let your women be silent in the Churches Your women therefore he speaks of the Corinthians there who are said to have Churches and yet here it is called a Church This will still appear the more likely if we consider that here were believing Jews as well as Gentiles in this Church of Corinth as Estius observeth in the Preface to the first Epistle Therefore when the Apostle speaketh of some who said they were of Cephas that relateth to the believing Jews yet because they were few comparatively to the Gentiles therefore the Apostle
that the most genuine answer is That Paul doth here speak of his trouble according to the sense and apprehension of his flesh even as afterwards he saith It was above his strength that is his humane natural strength as will appear afterwards If therefore flesh and blood be consulted with then Paul saith It is an affliction above measure but then at vers 17. of the 2 Cor. 4. as also in other places he speaketh according to the workings of faith and the operations of Gods Spirit within him So that a godly man speaketh one thing according to the flesh and another thing according to the Spirit That is bitter and heavy to the flesh which may be sweet and welcome to the Spirit From whence observe That godly men judge otherwise of their afflictions by the principles of sense and flesh in them then they do by the principles of grace and reason in them Paul calleth it An affliction above measure in the lower sphere of nature but again he calleth it A light one in the higher sphere of grace Even as an Astronomer beholding the Sunne with his bodily eye judgeth it lesse than the Earth but then again beholding it with the instruments of Art doth conclude that it is many degrees bigger than the Earth Thus the godly man while he thinketh and speaketh according to the law of the flesh within him he cryeth out of his burdens he is discontented at them he look-at them as destructive but then again when the same man considereth them by the principles of faith and Scripture-grounds then he seeth that those stones may be turned into bread and from these thorns he may gather grapes Even as we see in Christ because he had two distinct Natures in a personal Union therefore we say Christ died Christ was in agonies and that because of his humane Nature yea it is called The blood of God And again on the other side Christ is said to be God to create the world to raise himself from the dead and that because of his Divine Nature As he was Sonne of God so he was full of power and might upon the earth As he was the Sonne of man so he was subject to weaknesse and infirmity Now here was no impossibility or repugnancy that it should be thus different with Christ under several respects Thus also it is with every member of Christ As he is born of God so he puts forth divine and gracious operations but as he doth still retain some reliques of his old birth So there are sinfull and infirm actions coming from him Therefore when a godly man doth any thing we must consider from what fountain it is either the sweet fountain or the bitter fountain that it sloweth from To discover this truth First We must know That in every regenerate man there are two selfes as it were the carnal self and the spiritual self From which issue all the works we do Galat. 5. 17. and also Rom. 7. For although Amyraldus Expos in cap. 7. ad Rom. yet professing both against Socinians and Arminians doth industriously labour to understand it of a man only legally wrought upon and that it would be a dishonour to Paul and injurious to the work of Sanctification to affirm That Paul speaketh those things in his own person while regenerated yet by that Text in the Galatians Chap. 5. 17. it is plain That those who are godly like Rebeccah have these two twins struggling in their womb and that as a man consisting of soul and body we may say he is mortal and immortal visible and invisible in different respects mortal and visible in respect of his body but immortal and invisible in respect of his soul Thus also it is with a godly man in a theological consideration he hath both corruption and grace he hath both flesh and spirit Now although this be so yet a godly man is not to be called an unregenerate person as well as a regenerate a sinner and a wicked person as well as holy Because denominations are alwayes from the more noble part and this corruption though remaining yet is to be subdued and conquered Even as Canaan might be called the possession and inheritance of the Israelites although many Jebusites did still continue therein and could not be cast out Let not then any godly man look for such perfection in this life as to have only one principle within him and that of grace Do not look that it should be altogether as the Spirit will have it in thee not finding the least opposition or renitency from the flesh No this estate is to be enjoyed onely in Heaven Secondly As these two selfes or principles are in a man that is regenerate so they doe actually oppose and contradict one another Hence cometh that Christian combate and conflict which the godly find within themselves Not like that of the Heathens Aristotles incontinent person or the Poets Medea a conflict between reason and their lusts only But this opposition is universal and diffusive in every part of the soul The carnal part in the mind opposeth the spiritual The carnal part of the will contradicteth the spiritual So that they have heart against heart affections against affections We are not therefore to conceive of these two principles as dormant and latitant in the soul but they are as fire and water in the same subject labouring to expell each other and according to the three-fold estate or degree that we may conceive in persons regenerate so is this fight and congress more or lesse vehement The first degree is of such who are newly converted These although in Regeneration they have the seed and root of all grace yet because of their former custom in evil wayes cannot so immediately conquer and subdue their lusts and therefore like children that begin to walk because of their feebleness they get many fals A second degree is of those who are in some measure proficients and have obtained much victory over sinne And although in such there be many combates yet grace hath the possession of the whole man notwithstanding the many assaults made against it And then Lastly There are such whom the Scripture calls perfect not absolutely but comparatively to others because they are as Gyants when others are but Dwarfs these are said To have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil Now such although they do overcome the world and the Devil by faith yet they are not free from this combate within It is true some think that though it be granted that Paul Rom. 7. speaketh in the person of a regenerate man yet it is of one in the lowest forme that is but newly come into the state of Christianity And Amyraldus doth therefore think Paul cannot mean those things of himself because he had attained to an higher degree of grace Insomuch that he inviteth others to follow him and to take him for an example Hence he is said to know nothing
by himself Whereby the same Authour concludeth That there would be no blame or fault to be found with that man who should say Paul had as much grace here in this life as some shall have in the world to come But although we grant Paul to be among other Christians like Saul among other men higher by the shoulders yet that he did find the rebellion and corruption of the flesh debasing his best duties appeareth by his accounting all things drosse and desiring to be found in the righteousnesse of Christ Phil. 3. 8. So that while these endeavour to exalt the sanctifying grace of God in Paul they eclipse his justifying and while they advance his inherent righteousnesse they obscure his imputed righteousnesse Whether Paul then or any other eminent servant of God They all find a law of sinne within them rebelling against the law of the mind by which they look upon themselves as miserable captives and do groan for a perfect and full redemption by Christ Thirdly These two principles therefore not onely residing in them but acting contrarily it is very necessary in a Christian exactly to observe to what mother as it were the child doth belong To which principle thou art to attribute thy actions For the not duly dividing and separating here doth many times cause great confusion in the godly soul We see it many times in David's Psalmes that there are such different expressions sometimes of faith and joy and then again of diffidence and dejection that we would not think the Psalme was made by the same man we would think there were contradictions and all because sometimes it is the voice of Esau and sometimes the voice of Jacob as I may so say Sometimes grace speaketh and sometimes the filth speaketh In the Disciples also our Saviour taketh notice of this and thereby excuseth them saying The Spirit is willing Matth. 26. 41. Now although it is very necessary in all our practicals to go to the bottome to know what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit yet in the matter of afflictions and our bearing of them there we are much more to attend to it For afflictions being grievous to flesh and blood draweth out the corruptions thereof very much So that the voice of the flesh is many times farre louder than the voice of the Spirit which maketh the godly ready to conclude that they are nothing but flesh that they have not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them because they feel so much distrust so much diffidence and disquietness of heart within them More usefull particulars are to be insisted upon only for the present let those who truly fear God make this Use of the Doctrine viz. Not to conclude concerning their estate as if it were wholly carnal because they feel the struglings and motions of sinfull flesh within them let them not despair if they feel that they cannot alwayes keep up spiritual apprehensions about their afflictions if they cannot say I bless God for these chastisements I see the great advantage cometh to me by them Though they appear like anger yet they are indeed the effects of love If this be not alwayes the blessed and serene disposition of thy soul but thy flesh like Job's wife provoketh thee to charge God foolishly to be impatient and diffident remember that you have a two-fold self a carnal self and a spiritual self one saith one thing and another saith another thing It is as impossible to have a mans own heart free fâ—om divisions as it is for the Church of God That which faith saith is light flesh saith is heavy That which faith rejoyceth at flesh repineth at Thus it hath been and thus it will be with the generation of those that seek God SERM. LXII How the voice of the Spirit and the voice of the Flesh differ in Afflictions And why it is necessary a man should know them asunder 2 COR. 1. 8. That we were pressed above measure FRom the Explication of this passage we have observed That it is one thing what a godly man speaketh according to the principle of flesh and blood within him and another thing what he saith according to faith and the principle of grace And because this truth is of perpetual practical use let us a little more dilate upon it And First Let us instance in some discoveries whereby we may know when flesh speaketh and when the Spirit doth For these though contrary one to another yet are not discerned without spiritual illuminations and senses exercised to know things that differ And First The voice of flesh and blood in such kind of troubles is to make a final conclusion and sentence upon our selves That God hath forsaken us that we are cast out from his love Insomuch that did not the principle of grace in some measure withstand and at some times overcome these temptations the soul would be swallowed up in this whirlpool but let the godly know that this is not the voice of Jacob but of Esau The regenerate principle will not dare not give in such false testimony Isai 49. 14 15. Zion hath said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But in the next verse we see God expresly denying it and that not only he had not forsaken her but that he could not forsake her for his affections were more to her then any mothers to her sucking child The Church then was too hasty and precipitate she should have considered Gods Word before she passed such a peremptory sentence concerning her self Therefore when God saith one thing and thy heart another when the Scripture speaketh one thing and thy flesh another thing which is more to be regarded See this distemper likewise in Jonah Chap. 2. 6. Then I said I am cast out of thy sight Here the corrupt part in Jonah made quick his desperate work He was cast out of Gods sight but Nubecula fuit cito transivit it was a little storm it was presently over for immediately he doth as it were contradict himself and saith I will look again toward thy holy Temple So that it was with corruption and grace at this time as it was with Rebeccah in her child-bearing the first came out red and hairy but the second came out smooth and holding Esau by the heel Thus the first motion of Jonah's heart cometh forth red and hairy bloody and rough but then faith like Jacob followeth this Esau immediately and supplants it When therefore the godly do at any time find such motions and workings of heart as if their troubles were a demonstration of Gods desertion of them that if he loved them he would never let it be so with them rebuke these immediately and be as much affected as Hezekiah was when he heard Rabshakeh blaspheme God For indeed such thoughts do highly dishonour God and represent him otherwise than he is For the Apostle directed by the Spirit of God which searcheth the deep things of
God speaketh far otherwise making these troubles to be an effect of his love and that if he did not deal thus with us we might then conclude we did not belong to him Heb. 12. 6 7 8. If ye be without chastening ye are bastards and no children for whom he loveth he chasteneth It behoveth thee to make this difference in thy self else thy destruction will come upon thee suddenly Secondly The voice of flesh and blood also speaketh after this manner in heavy troubles That they will unto thee that there can never come any good out of this to thy self that it would have been farre better for soul and body if the Lords hand had not been in this manner upon thee Here also that false and corrupt principle is a liar within thee For David who at sometimes is apt enough to be cast down and exceedingly troubled yet upon his recoveries can say Out of very faithfulnesse thou hast afflicted me and before I was afflicted I went astray Psal 119. 75 67. Thou shouldest therefore do as the Apostle in another case making objections against Gods dispensations Rom. 3. 5. saith Is God unrighteous And then correcteth his speech I speak as a man Thus art thou also bound in all the unsavoury workings and discontents of thy soul to rebuke thy self saying I think now as a man I speak as a corrupt sinfull man Yea David getting some power against these sinfull motions within him abhorreth himself in an higher degree Psalm 73. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant even like a 〈◊〉 before thee Hearken not then to those tumultuous thoughts and reasonings within thee which would perswade thee that there can never any good come to thee out of the present evil upon thee that God cannot create light out of this darkness For as Adam was undone by hearkning to Eve and yeelding to her temptation Thus flesh is like an Eve within thee that will betray and destroy all at last Thirdly Flesh and blood under these heavy troubles doth also speak sinfully about the Perpetuity of them as if after such a black night there would never arise a fair day This froward and peevish corruption within thee saith It will never be otherwise Thus it spake in David when he said I shall one day perish by the house of Saul Yea in several Psalms the Church complaineth As if God had cast off for ever and that he would remember her no more Thus the corrupt principle lieth continually in thy bosome not like a Dalilah enticing and deceiving but like a thorn in thy side daily vexing and tormenting of thee David being experimentally exercised both in the sense of corruption and also in the sense of grace we find him sometimes speaking this voice within him Psal 31. 22. I said in my haste I am cut off from thine eyes Psal 94. 18. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up Psal 116. 11. I said in my haste all men are liars By these instances we see what an hasty principle a man hath within him under troubles For who can expect to have a better heart than David that was after Gods own heart and yet we hear him often complaining that in his haste he was ready to speak such and such things especially that there would never come any help to him and that the Prophets of God were but liars deceiving him with vain hopes But the voice of Gods Spirit speaketh farre otherwise in a more calm and sweet manner As it was in the vision to Elijah God was not in the fire nor in the tempest but in the still voice So commonly grace is not seen in those hasty boisterous impetuous thoughts but in a more serene and calm way Now I say if we sit still and hear what God speaketh to his people in such great pressures it is the clean contrary Isa 54. 7. As it were for a little moment have I forsaken but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee We see the holy practice of Harbakkuk likewise notably to this purpose Habak 2. 1 3. Because God did delay he would stand upon the Tower and watch to see what God would say to him Thus do thou in thy expectations of deliverance Fourthly The principle of flesh and blood doth notoriously presse to do any sinfull action neglect any duty so that we may come out of such troubles And this affection or sense within a man hath a most immediate opposition to the work of grace within him It is with the flesh in this case as it was with Peter to our Saviour Master saith he save thy self But with what indignation did Christ rebuke him saying Get thee behind me Satan Mat. 16. 23. for thou savourest not the things of God but of man Such a Peter such a Satan is the flesh to thee that saith Save thy self do any thing to escape these troubles It is not any matter for righteousness or holiness but look to thy safety When these whisperings are within thy heart then rise up in an holy zeal against them Say Get thee behind me Satan This is not to savour the things of God Had David been filled with such holy zeal as he was sometimes against his wife Michol despising him for his adoration of God then he had not used so many unlawfull shifts as he did to escape danger his counterfeiting himself mad his pretending to joyn with Achish and to fight against Israel These were sad snares that he fell into because he did not ask counsel of the Lord but consulted only with flesh and blood Do thou then in thy troubles as Paul in his extraordinary Call Obeying immediately the heavenly vision and not consulting with flesh and blood In thy troubles wait on God take his way put not forth thy hand to any sinne Say it is better to have misery upon thee then the guilt of sinne It was Abrahams defect of faith though he was the Father of the faithfull and though his faith staggered not in the trial about offering up of his sonne yet in a farre more inferiour and less temptation there he began to reel out of the way and from carnal fear did use sinfull equivocation to Abimeleoh saying Sarah was his sister when she was his wife This unlawfull shift he used to prevent those things he feared But as Jonah could observe by his own experience Jon. 3. 8. So it will always prove true Those that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies when we take not Gods way we forsake that mercy we might have had and so make ous selves miserable for fear of misery Raynardus the Jesuite Lib. de Mart. part 1. cap. 21. reckoning up several kinds of Martyrs that may be called so in a large and an improper sense doth out of Austin and more profusely out of Chrysostome shew That those Christians who lay in great pains and extream diseases and yet would not use such superstitious and magical remedies
when an adult person so did God with his Church But then if we come to the Doctrinals we shall finde that the same truths necessary to salvation were in the Old Testament as the New Abraham David and all the Godly were justified by faith in Christ as well as the Believers in the Gospel This indeed is that which the Socinians pertinaciously deny they think that the Godly in the Old Testament did not believe in Christ that this is a peculiar new duty required under the Gospel and never before viz. to believe in Christ But the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews doth admirably open the mysterious signification of those Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices shewing that Christ was represented therein and that it was not the blood of Rams and goats but of Christ that did take away sin Hence Abraham is said to see Christs day and rejoyce 1 Cor. 10. they are said to drink of the spiritual rock which was Christ and Act. 15. 10 11. Peter and the Councel speaking of the yoke laid upon our fathers addeth But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they The Doctrine then of Jesus Christ of the Trinity of eternal Life were in the old Testament as well as the New only more implicitely and obscurely the Old Testament being the New hidden and covered the New being the Old revealed and explained so that the Old and New Testament do not contain old and new Doctrine essentially but gradually as we say the old and new moon not meaning two moons but distinct discoveries of light therein 2. We are to distinguish between progress and growth in the same truth and the alteration or change of truth into errour And truly this is of great consideration for this very particular will obviate all the calumnies of the Papist Let it be granted that the first Reformers did not did not at first view see all the truths of the Christian Religion but that by degrees they had scales fall off from their eyes and some things that at first they thought true or tolerable afterwards they rejected as false and abominable And thus Calvin de scandalis answereth the Papists who calumniate us saying If you had the spirit of God why did ye not see all truth presently Why was it that some things did appear false to you afterwards which did not so at first This saith he is to envy us proficiency in the truth and to expect that the Sun in the morning should shine as gloriously as at noon day So that it is one thing addere aedificium fundamento as Austin calleth it and another thing to make a new Foundation Thus Lyrinensis when he made this Objection To what use are Doctors and Officers of the Church if so be they must only receive the Doctrine delivered and not excogitate new by their own wit He answereth There is profectus but not permutatio allowed a growth but not a change The work of the Ministers of the Gospel is not to finde out new real fundamental truths no more than a new Christ or a new Bible he that cannot see by one Sun would not by twenty and he that will not be convinced by one Bible would not if there were more Yet they are not useless for these Fundamentals they are dayly to confirm to explain to polish and affectionately to improve for Sanctification more and more so that as he saith they must not deliver nova yet they may nova not new things but in a new manner When a childe groweth up into a man he still retaineth his humane nature though there be an increase in his stature but if this childe should grow into a horse or a bear then this would be a change of his species and his naâ—uâ—e Thus the Church and her Officers they are to grow in more light in more knowledg in more faith but still in the same truth whereas if they degenerate into Errors and false Doctrines then the species is altered now it is not hony but gall it is not gold but dross not meat but poyson So that if we see eminent men growing out of those errors and those Superstitions they were once intangled in you must not call this yea and nay but a laudable duty for we see the spirit of God communicating it self by degrees Even as the Sun doth not presently arise to its vertical point so neither doth the spirit of God reveal all things at once It cometh in by degrees he could perfect our understandings even in this life as much as they shall be in heaven so that we shall no longer know in part but he is pleased to work gradually even as he did make the world not in an instant but successively Thus we see he did to the very Apostles they were under his Instruction and Government a good while and yet were ignorant in many particulars till at last he confirmed them from his spirit from above The Protestants then are not guilty of yea and nay though they did not at first dâ—scover all the abominations of Popery Neither may we charge any particular Minister for yea and nay if out of error he proceed to truth if from darkness he attaineth to more light For although many Heretical persons may shrowd themselves under the serious name of new light yet it is plain that both Pastors and people are to grow in new light gradually though not specifically Thus the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 19. commendeth the believers for attending unto the word of God as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-starre arise in their hearts not as if ever they could come to light enough that they need not to attend to Scripture any further that they may throw away the Bible as useless having light enough within them No but that donec that until is continual and alwayes as sometimes it is used 3. We are to distinguish between Yea and Nay indeed and a seeming yea and nay between 〈◊〉 constant new Doctrines indeed and those that are apparently so We grant that such corruptions such darkness may cover the face of the Church that the true Doctrines of Christ may seem new and be condemned for novelllsm and the Doctor who preached them be thought to come with his yea and nay And thus again Luther and Melancthon with many others are condemned for their inconstancy They were once ours say the Papists they did once believe as we believed worship as we worshipped but now they are a nay to their yea This calumny will easily vanish if you distinguish between new things indeed and new things appearingly so The Protestant Doctrine was not new indeed if you look to the Scripture and Christ it is old as they are but then we grant that if we consider the Chaos the Church was in at that time what superstitious abominations did then prevail we grant what the Reformers