of them confess that Paul was peremptorily elected and that we are not to judge of mens ordinary conversion by that which was extraordinary Indeed we grant that many things were wonderfull and extraordinary in Paul's conversion It is not for men now to expect such a Vision and voice from Heaven immediately speaking to them but this we urge That if God could do thus on Paul's heart insuperably and irresistibly working on it making it of unwilling willing and yet not the natural liberty of Paul's will destroyed then God may still demonstrate the same efficacy of grace and yet man in conversion not be turned into a stock or stone as they charge the Orthodox As Paul then had been a sinner above measure so he had also grace exceeding gracious in an overflowing manner to him Therefore how frequently and joyfully doth Paul speak of the riches of grace and Gods unspeakable grace to him alwayes debasing himself as the greatest of sinners and the least of all Saints not worthy to be called an Apostle and magnifying grace alwayes running out like the Sea when he comes to speak of Christ and grace In the third place His serviceableness that was as wonderfull I laboured more than they The Heathens Hercules is not comparable to him To read how much he did and how much he suffered for Christ may make us stand amazed yet still he saith Not I but the grace of God 1 Cor. 15. 10. Chrysostome doth infinitely expatiate upon all occasions in the praise of Paul but Paul himself was like Moses whose face shined gloriously but he did not know it And thus Paul though above all others in doing and suffering for Christ yet accounts of himself as nothing and gives all to the grace of God as none preached more than he did so none wrote more Epistles than he did he took care of all the Churches Thus he who formerly did his utmost to root out the Church of God is now as zealous and active to establish and propagate it So that you see three wonderfull things in Paul his sinne his conversion and his godly life afterwards In the next place let us consider what Reasons there may be why God will choose such great sinners out of their high impieties especially to be Apostles and Officers in the Church of God seeing that the Scripture in those qualifications for an Elder requireth That he be without blame and one of a good report 1 Tim. 3. 5. Therefore in the Apostles who were the chief Officers called by the Ancient Otuli Dei Sedes Christi and Oculi Ecclesiae this was much more to be expected But there are these Reasons may be given First Hereby the power and strength of God is made evident If men of civility only and of ingenuous principles were brought home to Christ it might be thought something of men did promote our salvation but when there is a direct and violent opposition in a mans wayes yet to become converted and obedient this may make us acknowledge with Paul The exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe Ephes 1. 19. And if setting aside some extraordinary circumstances there is the same kind of power seen in every mans conversion that was in Pauls then it 's plain that God doth not onely use moral suasions as Arminians would have it but also efficacious operations So that we may bless God for this president of Paul's conversion we may all by that see what is done in the heart of every man when turned to God We do justly admire the power of God in Creation and in all the wonderfull deliverances the Church hath but the power of God upon mens hearts making them to love and delight in those things which formerly they hated This may make us to sing Psalms in the admiration of Gods great power about the new creation as well as the old creation of the world Secondly As Gods Power is hereby evidenced so also his Wisdom and that in a two-fold respect 1. Converting Paul at that very time when he was in the height of his spirit acting with the greatest violence against Christ. This season was most admirable for hereby it did plainly appear That it was not of Paul that willed or runned but of Gods good pleasure Hence Ephes 1. Paul speaking of Gods predestination doth over and over again resolve all into his good pleasure and that he doth all things according to the goodnesse of his will What then will become of that vocatio congrua so much boasted of by some as if men were converted because God did fore-see that if they were put into such a condition with such circumstances then they would readily consent to Gods Call But was Paul's conversion accompanied with a vocatio congrua Did God stay till he had a fit bait or snare to catch Paul in Now all was here the clean contrary Paul was never in higher opposition against God never were the doors of his heart more fastened up with iron-barres than at this time and then and never till then doth God convert him That as it is with Gods Church he never helps till all things be desperate therefore he is called The God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. and he that calleth things that are not as if they were Thus many times it falleth out when men are more treasuring up their sin and adding higher degree of opposition even then God takes off their hearts and thereby the Wisdome of God is the more seen of such crooked timber to make so excellent a building To raise up Lazarus when he is not only dead but buried and rotâ—ing in the grave this makes us astonished at Gods Wisdome And then in a second respect Gods Wisdome is seen Because such fire-brands pluckt out of the fire are fittest to kindle a fire in the hearts of others When we shall be able to say Lo here is a man as prophane as bitter and cruel a scoffer and enemy of all godliness as ever you were He was one of your company you took wicked counsel together you were often drunk or unclean together and now behold what a change is made upon him He prayeth he humbleth himself he cryeth out of his former conversation if he had the whole world given him he would not be such an one as once Certainly when God doth thus it doth wonderfully shame and confound all wicked men What a conviction was this to all other Pharisees when it could be said Behold here Paul a Pharisee one of your own Sect as desperately cruel and malicious as any of you Oh but behold how he is changed he builds up that way he once destroyed Now he counts all those things you dote on so much but dung and dross in comparison of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 3. In converting of such above all God sheweth the freeness and meer riches of his grace For what can Paul say to justifie himself with Where were
it saith he You see then orthodoxy is sooner received than godly and holy order but we are to know that though we have many things to glory in that we are a true Church that we have excellent preaching and many learned Officers in it yet if there be not an endeavour to take away all offences and scandals there is great matter of humiliation The Apostle speaketh notably in this matter to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 5. 6. Your glorying is not good c. The Corinthians they gloried and boasted in many things but as long as they did not cast out the old leaven or the wicked man but this leaven was in danger to leaven the whole lump therefore he telleth them Their glorying was not good there was greater cause to be deeply humbled because of such disorders amongst them Let us not then though we can and may prove our Church to be the Church of God therefore sit down and take our rest as if therefore reformation of corruptions were needless No the Apostle doth farre otherwise to this Church of Corinth though he call it the Church of God yet his Epistle is full of sharp reproof to them he is very zealous and lively in putting of them upon this that they became a new lump that they be made as it were a new Church and a new Congregation Farre be it therefore from us to excuse or connive at our publick impieties because Corinth though so polluted is a Church No we are to tremble and humble our selves under such disorders they are great provocations of Gods anger You see God did begin to judge and chasten this Church of Corinth God takes notice and is very angry with all these disorders and great neglect Therefore if you observe those Epistles of Christ from Heaven to the seven Churches of Asia where their works were not perfect where there were any decayes yea if Christ had any thing against them though there were other things commendable yet he will take notice and rebuke them therein yea to some he threatens to take away their Candlesticks that is their Ordinances and to unchurch them Oh then let us humble our selves under Gods hand for all our Church-sins all our Assembly-iniquities lest the wrath of God break out upon us The second extream we are to take heed of is That because of the corruptions that are in a Church we are not so farre transported with misguided zeal as to take no notice of the truth of a Church Some are apt so to attend to a true Church that they never matter the corruptions of it Others again they do so eye the corruptions that they never regard the truth of it but it is good to avoid both these extreams Whence cometh that impatiency in us to bear any evil in a Church Whence is it that we uncharitably rend from it Is it not because we do not consider it may be a true Church and salvation is there to be had yea conversion and regeneration though there be many things to be reformed There is no Church so pure but that there are some imperfections in it no Church so reformed but in some things it needeth a reformation Thou mayest go from Church to Church and be like Noah's Dove not know where to set thy feet if thou look for absolute perfection in any Church whether thou goest As there is no constitution of the body which hath an exact temperament ad pondus but some humour or other doth predominate so there is no Church that is of such a perfect frame but it hath its several grievances and though it may be freed from those evils they separated from yet they may be assaulted with others that are as destructive of a Church in a contrary way though freed from tyranny yet not from divisions and daily subdivisions amongst themselves So that in these things we are diligently to make the Scripture our Rule Thirdly Though that Church be a true Church where we live yet if many corruptions do abound therein we must take heed That we do not pollute our selves thereby or become partakers of any sinne indulged amongst them As we may not sinfully separate upon this ground because they are no Church so neither may we continue so as to pollute and defile our selves with any known sin The Apostles exhortation to the Corinthians under these manifold pollutions is that every one in their proper place should endeavour their new moulding So that under Church-pollutions thou art to consider what God cals thee to do to rebuke exhort admonish and if this will not do to complain to Church-Officers who are to guide and watch over the flock and if yet this will not do then to be the more earnest with God in prayer to bring about Reformation notwithstanding all the gainsayings of wicked men To mourn and sigh unto God as a Lot in Sodom vexing thy righteous soul continually as a lamenting Jeremiah among the apostatizing Israelites And certainly God doth in a special manner take notice of such who do mourn for those abominations that they cannot remove or take away Ezek. 9. 4. when thou canst appeal to God saying O Lord these corruptions these disorders they grieve me to the very heart I cry out daily Wo be unto me because I dwell with men of polluted lips This will much ingage God to thee Likewise we read Revel 3. 4. in what a special manner God takes notice of a few names in Sardis which had not defiled their garments To be therefore in the midst of a defiled Church and yet to keep thy self unspotted this is admirable as they record of the river Alpheus which though it runne into the Sea yet it keeps its own natural sweetness though we have communion with the Church in those things that are commanded by God yet we are not to partake with them in any evil way as those seven thousand in Eliâ—ah's time though they did not depart from the Church of Israel yet they would not bow their knee to Baul In the next place Let us demonstrate this that a Church may be Gods Church though it be greatly corrupted And First It may be seen from the induction of several Churches as for example the Church of the Jews they were Gods people and God did own them as his yet as appeareth by the Prophets complaints and daily reproofs they were full of Idolatries and all moral impieties and for all this there were many repentings and turnings in Gods bowels to speak after the manner of men before he would call them Lo-ammi a people no more to him But you may say That was in the Old Testament when the Spirit of God was not poured out so effectually Consider then besides this Church of Corinth the Churches of Galatia were not they farre infected with doctrinal pollutions and vicious lusts of the flesh That the Apostle mentioneth not any where such zeal and sharpness as he doth to them threatning them with Apostasie
be thus diligent in thy wayes What is it that is set most upon thy heart all the day long For although we cannot continually have actual thoughts upon our chief end yet we are to have an habitual and virtual inclination from whence all is to come that we do Even as a perfect Grammarian speaketh alwayes true Latine from the habit within him though happily he doth not actually think upon every rule in his Grammar In the next place we told you This acting and working for God in our whole life and callings is more eminently to be fulfilled in the Ministers of the Gospel The name of a Bishop is a name of labour and not honour The Ministry is Negotiorum negotium the work of all works which made Paul say Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. All the title and names they have denote diligence labour sollicitude and constant perseverance in the work of the Lord against all the cruel oppositions that the Devil and wicked men do raise against them Hence Timothy is commanded To endure hardship as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. and that he may discharge this faithfully He must not entangle himself in the affairs of the world All which sheweth that in a peculiar manner they are by their Ministry to dispossess Satan of his Kingdom They are clouds to refresh the dry ground and to make it fruitfull They are salt to season those who are corrupted by sinne But you may say What qualification is requisite that both private Christians and Ministers may lay themselves wholly out in their respective wayes for God For though Paul instance here only of his own travails yet the end of this is general and belongs not onely to all Ministers but all Christians We are to do in our way what Paul did in his way We may in the Apostles consider some things as commanded them in their proper personal capacity Some things again as Ministers which belong to all Officers in the Church Some things again as commanded them under the notion of believers and what they do in such a capacity we all are to imitate them in It was not the Apostles duties only to watch and pray to take heed their hearts be not overcharged with the cares of this world to strive to enter in at the streight gate but it is every believers duty we have all the same end though not the same way What Paul aimed at by preaching by travailing from one Countrey to another the very same thing art thou to aim at in thy buying and selling in thy trading from one place to another Now amongst the several qualifications to inable us thereunto there is required 1. A renewed Nature We must be made new creatures else the first stone is not yet laid in this foundation Paul never was busie in this spiritual merchandizing for God till he was converted while some men have their lusts their god others their god others the world their god others honour and greatness their god They cannot but toil and moil go farre and near only to satisfie these spiritual Idols that they worship in their hearts Oh but when God shall make this iron to swim shall convert this earth into fire then he beginneth to improve that first Commandment and to do all things in pursuance thereof even to have no other gods but God alone 2. There is required a publick Affection whereby we preferre Gods glory and the spiritual good of others above all our particular concernments If Paul could even desire to be an Anathema for Israel's spiritual good Rom. 9. 3. How much more then would he readily part with riches honour and his own ease to have procured it When we read in prophane Histories and see how much some of their Worthies have denied their profits pleasures and lusts to promote the publick good we may admire that publick spirit God gave them yet Austin observeth truly That corrupt aims and ends did prevail in all they did How much more then may we behold the glorious work of Gods Spirit upon many Christians in this very particular of giving them publick affections that had rather with Jonah be cast into the Sea then see the Church sink wherein they are If it be our duty To lay down our lives for the brethren 1 Joh. 3. 16. is it any wonder if we do the lesse things for the good of others 3. There must be Heavenly mindednesse Cold doth congregate heterogeneal things together the Earth is an heavy element and falleth downward If therefore a man would be active and diligent for God and his Church he must be of an heavenly frame he must be able to say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and in earth in comparison of thee Psal 73. 25. As fire assimilateth all things into its self Thus doth the godly man endeavour that all his relations may be godly all his friends all the world if it could be Hence it is that every godly man because of this heavenly affection is in some measure though not equal to Paul to say 2 Cor. 11. 28 29. The care of all the Churches is upon me who is weake and I am not weake Who is offended and I burn not It is said to be a kind of proverbial speech in the primitive times If an elect that is a believer hath sinned his neighbour hath sinned implying the great care Christians took of one anothers soul that if any did sinne they were to consider whether other mens sins were not made theirs some way or other Lastly Fervency and zeal is a choise ingredient in this precious ointment If you observe who ever did much in their places for God or his Church you will find they were alwayes men of zeal Hence Rom. 12. 11. you have those duties excellently put together Not slothfull in businesse fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Every Sacrifice must have this fire that it may be offered up to God It is the sluggard that hath this field grown over with briars and thornes want of zeale maketh a man stand like an unprofitable tree that cumbreth the ground It was Paul's zeal made him do and suffer so much for the good of the Church Thus zeal also will inflame thee and make thy heart which naturally is like a cold stone within thee to burn like fire and then as Solomon speaketh in another case It is an impossible to keep in thy godlinesse as to binde up the winde or to conceal the ointment thou bearest about with thee Zeal will make thee work for God speak for God These and the like qualifications will make us put this Doctrine into daily practice viz. To improve all we are and all we have for Gods glory and the good of others Let the Use be To examine our selves in this point Is all we do in reference to God Doe we live and move to glorifie God May we not
the Church but that is finaliter not originaliter because the end of their office is for the good of the people They have not these Offices for their own honour and dignity but meerly for the good of others So that although in respect of Christ they are meerly Ministers and servants yet in respect of the Church and the people they are Fathers and Pastors having a spiritual rule over them 3. Neither doth this expression encourage a licentious boundlesse questioning of the Doctrine that the Ministers of the Gospel do deliver because they are not infallible because they are not commanded absolutely to depend on them Therefore some runne into a disorderly extream cavilling and questioning every thing that is taught But you must know that although every Christian be allowed a judgement of discretion and he is by his own faith to be saved Hence the Bereans are accounted more noble because they compared the Doctrine delivered with the Scriptures yet withall they are commanded to hear the Ministers highly to esteem of them for the workes sake To obey them and to submit themselves to them So that the liberty a believer is allowed must not tend to the overthrow of the office of the Ministry It is true here is much wisdome and grace required in bounding the peoples liberty and yet asserting their dependance upon the Ministers whom God hath set over them and from whom they are to seek direction and guidance but this work is not to be done here It is certain they may mutually stand together yea they were appointed by God for the mutual good of each other and therefore it 's nothing but corruption that maketh a contrariety herein sometimes by the Ministers pride and affectation of power and sometimes by the peoples pride and conceitednesse whereby they refuse humbly to submit to such order and officers as God hath commanded them But this deserveth a large Tractate For all evil ariseth in the Church because these bounds are transgressed In some ages the officers tyranny in other ages the peoples licentiousness have much hindered the power of godliness and the beauty of Ordinances Lastly By this is not excluded that duty whereby Ministers ought with holy zeal and courage reprove sinne and that in the greatest of men Yea and whosoever are obstinate and impenitent sinners to refuse the administration of the seals of Church-communion unto them When the Apostle commanded this incestuous person whom some think to be a man of great place among the Corinthians to be cast out when he delivered Hymenaeus and Philetus up to Satan when he commands If any walk disorderly to withdraw from such 2 Thess 3. 6. Yea and if any obey not his word to note or signifie such a man All these are demonstrations of power but not lordly dominion yea where reproof admonition and excommunication are rightly administred to a spiritual heart awakened they become more dreadfull than civil or bodily punishments because what is done this way God bindeth in Heaven God casteth such out of his communion and commands them as David to Absolom not to come in his presence Thus the Apostle doth not exclude these necessary ministerial duties although distastfull to flesh and blood Yea though corrupt persons account them nothing but the expression of lordlinesse Even as when Lot reproved those wicked Sodomites they replied He would be a Judge over them Gen. 19. 9. and Moses when he rebuked the Hebrews striving one with another How scornfully did the injurious person answer him Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us Exod. 2. 14. By this we see how imbred a thing it is in all sinners if they be reproved and controlled in their wickednesse to account all nothing but dominion and lordlinesse Even the holy Government of the Church appointed by Christ for spiritual and supernatural ends and so wholly for the good of those that go astray yet by evil men hath been complained of as worse than Turkish slavery How little do such men consider what their Christianity obligeth them unto What it is to be baptized into the name of Christ and to acknowledge him the Head Lord and Governour of his Church For if they did they would not say Let us break his bends and cast his cords away from us Is not the Discipline of Christ to be received as well as his Doctrine Did not the Apostle rejoyce to behold the faith and order of the Colossians Col. 2. 5. Thus you see what is not excluded Let us then consider in the next place What the Apostle doth positively shut out by this negative expression Not that we have dominion over you And 1. It doth exclude all abuse and excesse even of lawfull power For those who are true officers of Christ having a lawfull power committed to them may yet abuse it they may shew much rashnesse too much austerity in the exercise of it Therefore in the next Chapter we see this holy Apostle though zealous to have this incestuous person cast out yet when truly humbled and repenting he is no lesse carefull to have him received again requiring them to confirm their love to him lest he should be swallowed up with too much grief Some learned men have thought that the primitive Bishops did exceed in their austerity herein as appeareth by many Canons made against some sinners who for two or three years were not to be received into Church-communion though truly repenting yet some excuse them because the condition of the times did then they say require it that the Churches zeal against sinne might vindicate her against those abominable calumnies cast upon her by the Heathens as if she did secretly nourish all impiety And although she was thus severe yet the Novatians did refuse communion with the Church as being too remisse in that she would at any time receive such who through fear apostatized in time of persecution though never so sincerely manifesting their humiliation Thus all unlawfull austerity even in lawfull power is excluded 2. By this the Apostle doth disclaim all civil and political Government Hence the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth one in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Varinus and one that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Budaeus The Apostles did not invade the Magistrates office neither would Christ the fountain of all Church-power be a divider of an inheritance A civil power is coactive and compelling by force which Church-power is not And although Bellarmine say Ecclesiastical power is ridiculous and in vain if it may not civilly compell Yea a prophane Papist saith Our Lord Christ had been indiscreet if he had not given this temporal power also Yet they speak this according to their humane apprehensions transforming Christs kingdome into an earthly and external one 3. Hereby he excludeth a magisterial power though in an ecclesiastical way over consciences That is he doth not assume to himself to be Lord in the Church but
then though they are allowed to improve their gifts in a mutual edifying way and may if they will find matter enough to exercise themselves therein yet they may not usurp this Authority and Office in the Church without a lawfull Call thereunto 2. Learning whether in the arts and tongues is an excellent qualification in men and the chiefest of Gods gifts in a common way For as Popery like a thick darkness did then cover the face of the whole earth when all learning was buried so when there came a Reformation in that kind the Arts and the Tongues being more generally known then also began the Reformed Religion to be so eminent So that if we consider man as he is rational learning is his proper and peculiar perfection and therefore far above wealth or beauty or strength or any natural perfection whatsoever In the times after the Apostles when extraordinary things ceased then they were learned men that God did for the most part raise up in his Church both to govern the members thereof and to profligate Heretiques such were Tertullian Origen Austin and Cyprian of whom Austin said That he came with the Aegyptian spoil one of Aegypt and enriched Israel by humane learning he did adorne the Church of God 3. It cannot be denied but where learning hath been in any high degree there through the corruption of man it hath been sometimes made a weapon against and an engine to promote the Devils kingdom Insomuch that the learned men of the world have done the Devil more service than any other men For the Devil at first did not use an Asse or any such dull creature to seduce Eve but the Serpent Because he was more subtill than any other beast upon the earth Gen. 3. 1. Thus still the Devil loveth to appear in Serpents in wise men in great learned men and plausible Scholars knowing that such are like Samson That can destroy many at one blow Thus all the Heathen Philosophers they were great enemies unto the wayes of God Who disputed for their Idolatry and against the Christian Religion but their Sophisters their learned men For that word was used in a good sense at first and the reason is because man being naturally corrupted and the wisdome thereof being enmity to God Rom. 1. 8. The more wisdome and the more abilities a man hath the greater adversary he is to God as the stronger or greater the toad is the more poisonous he is So that learned men if not godly they come out like so many Goliah's against the people of God Austin wrote to a learned Heathen Ornari à te diabolus quaerit Learned men they adorn the Devils way and make his Kingdom and Laws to be accepted and withall it 's hard to have this talent of gold and not to make an Idol o◠it It 's hard to be learned and not to be puffed up with it So that whereas the way of the Gospel and the Scripture is in a plain but solid and majestical way they are apt to deride and contemn it witness Austin's confession of himself That he loved Tully ' s works better than the Bible And Hierom tells us That he was so addicted to humane learning that in a vision he was terribly beaten and afflicted hearing this voice Ciceronianus es non Christianus So that we grant That many learned men are kept off from the humble and low way of Christ they cannot stoop to his yoke and all because of their learning But yet 4. This is not from the nature of learning it self it 's from the abuse of it As the Apostle saith Not many noble men not many rich men hath God called 1 Cor 1. 26. But this is not because nobility or wealth are in themselves sinne but because such things do many times become a snare to us Learning therefore of it self and in its own nature hath no such poisonous quality and therefore it 's a most irrational thing to say That learning can be no more sanctified than sinne For was it not in Paul who as Tertullian expresseth it did sanctifie the Poets verses he alledged And are not learned men if Orthodox and loving of the truth more able to convince the errours of the learned gain-sayers Have not the eminent Lights in the Church of God in all ages been learned men Was not the Aegyptian learning sanctified to Moses And now learning is more necessary since the Apostles times then formerly For in those dayes they were endowed with miracles which were a strong demonstration of the infallible Doctrine that was preached and they could speak in Tongues and some had the gift of interpretation and prophesying by immediate workings of Gods Spirit but none can now pretend to any such thing What private man could have been able to have read so much as one verse in the Bible had there not been men learned in the Original Tongues who translated it into our known Language Neither can those Ministerial qualifications which the Apostle requireth in every Elder That he be able to teach to divide the Word of God aright to be able by sound Doctrine to convince the gainsayers be performed without learning Yea Doth not the Apostle Peter charge the wresting of Scripture to their own destruction upon unstable and unlearned men 2 Pet. 3. 16. 5. This must also be acknowledged That all the learning in the world cannot help us to a sanctified and holy understanding of the Scripture no not so much as the true interpretation of it without the Spirit of God and if learned men cannot do it without Gods Spirit much less unlearned Therefore we must not oppose learning to grace or to Gods Spirit For how many have written Comments upon the Bible that have been very learned men yet from that sweet flower they have turned all to poison and through the corruption that was in their hearts have made it a Book to vent all their heretical and damnable opinions So that there must necessarily be the Spirit of God besides learning First to lead us into all truth And then secondly to sanctifie it to our own hearts in an experimental and powerfull manner For men may be very Orthodox and yet know nothing of the work of grace upon their own souls These things explained concerning a two-fold consideration of Paul as a sinner and as a learned man Let us make some practical Use of it And First We see our duty when God makes use of such great sinners not to upbraid and revile them with their former impieties but rather to admire the wisdome and power of God not to reproach Peter for his Apostasie or Paul for his persecutions as the Donatists did Austin for his former miscarriages but to bless God that giveth us such real testimonies of his grace When some Papists upbraided Beza with his youthfull verses he made Isti homines saith he invident mihi gratiam Dei These men envy me the grace of
largely for one that is sent and so in an eminent manner is applied to Christ himself Heb. 3. 1. Yea some say it 's used generally for any Messenger and they instance in Phil. 2. 25. where Epaphreditus is said to be the Philippians messenger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it seemeth by the Translation our Translators understood it but Salmasius doth vehemently contend pleading also the consent of the Ancients that it 's to be understood of an Apostle and that Paul never useth the word but of eminent and chief Officers in the Church so that he is called the Philippians Apostle because he was a special fellow-labourer with Paul in planting of that Church Therefore he distinguisheth of Apostles making two kinds of them and indeed the Scripture plainly insinuateth it The primary-Apostles those who were immediately called by Christ being twelve in number Or secondary and these were sent by the Apostles They were the Apostles Apostles For seeing that many came in at the Apostles preaching insomuch that they were not able to manage all things themselves they therefore assumed as assistants others whom they called Apostles Therefore 2 Cor. 11. 5. and Chap. 13. 11. we read of some that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefest Apostles So that the name was given to others besides the eminent twelve And of these Salmasius and Illyricus understand that place Ephes 4. 11. where the Apostle saith God had set in his Church some Apostles c. that is say they some choice and eminent Teachers But Salmasius by these secondary Apostles seemeth to mean the Evangelists whereas those are distinguished in that enumeration It 's enough that others were called Apostles besides the twelve and that they were Coadjutors with them in the planting and propagating of the Gospel Now the Apostle Paul though he was none of the twelve immediately called by Christ yet because he had such an extraordinary Call afterwards by Christ while glorified in Heaven which none else had but he therefore is justly reckoned with the other and so accounted as the thirteenth Apostle Thus that which was of such exceeding rich grace and so extraordinary a priviledge to Paul yet he was not pussed up with it but 1 Cor. 15. 9. makes a new Greek word He was less than the least and looks upon himself as an abortive and one born out of due time Observe That Christ in the first planting of the Christian Church did appoint extraordinary Officers which he called Apostles That as God in the first plantation of the people of Israel when he brought them out of Aegypt and imbodied them together did guide them and provide for them in an extraordinary way which did wholly cease when they came to be setled in Canaan Thus did the Lord Christ in the beginning of his Church use many extraordinary things as Officers and Miracles which now have no more continuance though the advantage of these doth still belong to us For those very miracles though wrought long since and those extraordinary Officers are yet of spiritual influence That Christ did appoint Apostles and how appeareth in their first Institution of them Luke 6. 13. and Matth. 10. 2. and this he did of large bowels and compassions to those whom he would save They were sent as so many Embassadours to woe and beseech people in Christs stead to be reconciled with the Father He did not take a way by immediate inspiration and efficacy upon mens hearts as he might have done For he that could cure the dead though he were distant from them could also have poured his Spirit upon all flesh though bodily absent from him yet he was pleased to use this mediation of man as being more suitable and fit instruments for to work upon us To improve this Doctrine consider First That it is observed by learned men That our Saviour in the edification and building of the Christian Church did not follow the Jewish Church Government which was formerly appointed by God viz. by an high Priest and chief Priests with the Levites under them Therefore the Officers of Christs Church are not to be called Priests or Levites though sometimes the Ancients call the Elders and Deacons so but that is by allusion onely For as was said our Saviour did not propound that form in the Old Testament to follow So that all those endeavours which have been used to conforme the Church of Christ to the Jewish in Government and Ceremonial Worship as to have a Pope because an high Priest to have glorious vestments in the Worship of God because the Priests had this is to go contrary to Christ For indeed if our Saviour did follow any thing it was the Synagogues and their Orders Hence learned men shew That the chief Ruler of the Synogogue he had his Messengers to go up and down to the several Synagogues upon special imployment and these were called Thelichin Apostles So they had two sorts of Elders which were made by imposition of hands and they had Excommunication in their Synagogues Yea some say both Baptisme and the Lords Supper were taken as Rites from the Jews then in use for they had such an initiation of all Proselytes and when they took such in they took in their children also And so for eating of bread and drinking of wine Onely they adde That when Christ took up these he changed the nature of them They were Rites and Ceremonies before but Christ made them Sacraments But let the learned debate these things This is enough to us That Christ he did as the chief Head of his Church choose some whom he called Apostles for to beginne and propagate his Church Therefore in the second place consider That these Properties go to make an Apostle so that he could not be an Apostle who had not these qualifications As First It was necessary that he should have an immediate Call from Christ So ye read they all had Therefore when Judas was fallen from that Office the other Apostles did not presume to choose one in his room by themselves but they did solemnly call upon God who by lot gave direction who should be the man and then Paul as you heard he was immediately called by Christ from Heaven and therefore often saith He was not an Apostle of men or by men but wholly and solely by the will of God Thus as there were Prophets in the Old Testament and so also some in the New who were immediately inspired by God so there were such who also had an immediate Call from God and it was the consideration of this Call that did so imbolden them especially against all traducers and false accusers as appeareth by Paul himself in this Epistle But now you must know That though the Pastors and Teachers which in after ages have ruled in the Church had not such an immediate Call from God but mediate by man yet even they also are truly appointed of God Even
a two-fold Kingdome attributed unto Christ The one as he is God having the same Essence with the Father and so ruling over the whole world The other as he is Mediatour and Head of the Church and so the chief Governour and Shepherd thereof in a peculiar manner The first is called his Essential and natural Kingdom The second his Dispensatory and Donative The Sacinians have occasioned this distinction For when we bring those places where Christ is said to be King and Lord to be exalted above all principalities to prove his eternal God-head They answer This is a constituted God-head Christ was not thus King till after his resurrection and therefore say they it was given him in time whereas if it were an essential attribute of God it must he had from all eternity To this it is answered That Christ as God had right to all that glory and honour which was given him in time but then as Mediatour so it was a reward at least a consequent of his obedience and humiliation So that they grant Christ did in time receive a Mediatory Kingdom and glory whereby he was made Head of his Church and to rule in with supream power and authority though from the Father neither doth this derogate from his Deity to say it was given him for it was not given him to make him more perfect only to perfect his Church and it 's a gift of such a thing which only can be attributed to God for none but he that is God can be Mediatour and Head of his Church because he that is so must be the cause of all the grace and spiritual benefits which are in the Church Secondly Christ being thus exalted as Head of the Church all Church-power is radically and fâ—â—tally seated in him So that the power to make Church-officers doth not arise originally from the people as they say civil power doth and is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on humane ordinance but it cometh from the Lord Christ. Hence Matth. 28. 18 19. when Christ had said All power is given me in heaven and earth then from this power he appoints them to go teach and baptize Thus in another place he saith John 20. 21 22 23. As my Father hath sent me so I send you whosoever sinnes ye remit c. From his Mediatorship ye see he giveth the Keys of Government to his Officers This also in a lively manner is affirmed Ephes 4. 10 11. where Christs ascension is spoken of and his glorious exaltation That he might fill all things that is appoint all things in his Church whereupon he enumerateth all Offices and sheweth that they have all their Commission from Christ and that both the ordinary as well as the extraordinary Therefore in the third place The Officers in the Church are properly servants to Christ and receive their power and commission from him It 's not the Church but Christ that hath set Officers in his Church The Church indeed may apply the person to the office but Christ institutes and applieth the office to the person The Church cannot make a Minister in this sense viz. to institute the office for then it might appoint other offices then Christ hath only it may design the person For Christ is the fountain of all Church-power and officers receive their authority from him It 's true that the Apostle saith to the Church of Corinth All things are yours 2 Cor. 4. 5. And in another place We are your servants for Jesus sake but the meaning therof is ministerially their office and the execution that was wholly for the Churches edification not that they had their power from the Church For who can think that Paul had his authority from men when he disclaimeth it so often yet he reckoneth himself in the number of those that are servants for their spiritual benefit Thirdly Although it be disputed Whether the power of appointing Officers and Laws in the Church belongeth to Christ as a Prophet or a King Some say as a Prophet he doth thus govern his Church yet it is more probable that be doth this as a King So that Christ as a spiritual King over his people doth appoint what officers what Ordinances and Orders he pleaseth so that you must know that this is part of Christs Jus regale and they come equally from the same fountain both to appoint an Officer and an Ordinance The Church can no more appoint a new Office than it can a new Ordinance a new Sacrament This is greatly to be observed because the Governours in the Church or the civil Magistrate for politick considerations have instituted new Offices and many times made the Government of the Church sutable to that of the Commonwealth equalizing spiritual Officers with Civil but this may be no more done then to appoint a new Ordinance and the reason is because both Offices and Ordinances are for supernatural effects to convert to build up in grace Now none may appoint any thing for such high ends but those only who are able to accomplish them Christ only can convert therefore he only can appoint an Officer or Ordinance for conversion Besides to appoint new Officers would redound to Christs dishonour as if he were not either wise or able enough to appoint all things in the Church necessary to attain salvation whereas the Apostle preferreth Christ above Moses That he was but as a servant but Christ as a son in the house Heb. 3. Use of Exhortation first To the Church-officer Doth he come with Christs Commission Doth he appear in his Name Then let him be sure to improve his Office according to Christs command If Paul be an Apostle of Jesus Christ then his work will be to exalt Christ our power saith he is not for destruction but edification 2 Cor. 13. It 's a capital crime for an Embassadour to vary from his Cossimission to go contrary to that This should daily lie upon our hearts To what end have I this Office from Christ Is it not to labour in his vineyard Is it not to convert souls Do not all the names which Church-officers have imploy labour work and diligence Especially these things they must take heed of 1. That they turn not the Office of Christ into matter of pride dominion and earthly interest Even the Apostle himself said Not as having dominion over your faith but helpers of your joy 2 Cor. 1. ult And the Apostle Peter forbids the lording over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5. 3. This tyranny in the Church by the Officers thereof hath been a fatal destruction thereunto When the Sunne hath been in the Eclipse sad alterations must needs follow say Astrologers As not into pragmatical domination so neither may they turn it into earthy and worldly advantages setting up their own name their own greatness or their own worth thereby which the Apostle often disclaimeth But we are to walk even as Christ himself in his office who
minds of men alike that he would bless the Church with this Unity Oh how greatly would godliness flourish errours be discouraged if it could be said of all believers which is spoken of the primitive Christians often That they met together with one accord and with one heart Oh how blessed is it to see the whole Church of God rather than one family or City to dwell together in Unity The next thing observable is in that Timothy who is here called a Brother is at other times very often called a Sonne And besides the Reasons insisted on the last day there is another mentioned Phil. 2. 22. that Paul was as a Father to him instructing of him about his Ministerial Office and therefore had two Episties wrote to him for the managing of Ecclesiastical affairs in a godly manner This great help and tuition as it were Timothy had from Paul being made a Church-officer while he was young Observe That it is of great consequence to such who in their young years are set apart for the Ministry to have the guidance of those who are more solid and experienced Thus Christ himself though he could have immediately furnished his Apostles with admirable and sufficient abilities for the great work of Apostleship yet kept them two years as the Harmonists gather under his peculiar charge and information In the Old Testament likewise though the gift of prophesie was by immediate inspiration yet we read that even then there was the Colledge of the Prophets and the sons of the Prophets 2 King 2. 7. So we read 2 Chron. 34. 22. of the Colledge of the Prophets Hence it is also in the New Testament that the Apostle directing of Timothy how to keep up the sound Doctrine of Christ after his departure giveth this notable instruction 2 Tim. 2. 2. That what Doctrine he had heard from Paul he should commit to faithfull men that should teach others That is a very full and pregnant Text. For the usefulness of Universities that there should be Nurseries wherein young ones should be trained up to deliver the sound Doctrine to their Posterity after them Though in those primitive times there was such a plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God in the gifts thereof yet he there commands that faithfull men should be chosen who should commit to posterity one age after another the true Doctrine of Christ and therefore in the primitive times before there were Universities the Bishops house was a Nursery to train up young Disciples And in Origen's time he began to be a Catechist and to set open a School in reference to the Christian Religion If there be in such publick Nurseries and Universities gross abuses men degenerating into laziness and not fulfilling the general intention of the Founders the abusers are to be purged away but not the order or manner of education it self If it be said The the Spirit of God is that which alone inableth a man to such Offices and Imployments We grant that the Spirit of God is the alone Sanctifier of all gifts and abilities but yet now the Spirit of God doth not work in an immediate and miraculous manner else why is there not working of Miracles Why do they not speak in all Tongues Why do they not understand Hebrew and Greek which are the original Languages the Scripture was written in If therefore we must not look for the Spirit of God in such an immediate way it must be in a mediate and acquired way And this ordinary way doth not exclude Gods Spirit but supposeth it For if in those days when miraculous gifts were ordinary yet see what charge Paul layeth upon Timothy to give himself to reading and studying of the Scriptures especially that is observed by Calvin 1 Tim. 4. 13. Till I come give thy self to reading he would not have him so much as neglect that little time No wonder if in these later days such duties are more vehemently to be pressed Use of Exhortation to you that are people to be of more publick spirits in your prayers not only regarding your present age but that the truths of God may be handed from age to age that the Universities may be pure fountains and hopefull Nurseries from whence may come such who shall be able to propagate the pure Doctrins of Christ Peter was carefull that after his decease the pure Doctrins of Christ might be preserved And so for your children and childrens sake that they may not live in times of ignorance and darkness importune God earnestly that he would keep up such faithfull men and good wayes that may propagate the Gospel to the worlds end SERM. XII Of the Name and Nature of a Church 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth c. FRom the Persons inscribing we come to the Persons inscribed or to those to whom this salutatory Preface and so the whole Epistle is directed and that is set down 1. More particularly and then more generally More particularly and they are described by the relative condition and estate they are in viz. a Church To the Church which is further described topically from the place where it is At Corinth Let us consider this particular first And for the opening the word Church we might spend much time therein but I shall briefly explicate it The word is used and that only in Act. 19. for a Civil Assembly Yea it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Assembly was confused The Athenians called their publick meetings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is used in Thucidides as the learned observe The Hebrew hath two words Cohel which is for the most part translated Ecclesia by the Septuagint and Gnedeth which is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church doth rather answer Cohel than Gnedeth because under the New Testament it is not fixed As for such who would understand that place Mat. 18. Tell the Church of a Senate or Civil Power it 's so improbable that it 's not worth time to confute it The word therefore is most frequently used in the New Testament for an holy Society gathered together in an holy manner for holy ends And thus it is used either for the Catholick invisible Church which is the whole body of Christ that shall be saved as when he is said Ephes 5. To give himself for his Church and the Church is made the wife of Christ And Col. 1. 24. it 's called the body of Christ This Church is meant in the Creed when we believe there is an holy Catholick Church and so a Communion of Saints though some would have it a communion in holy things To this Church belonged all the godly that lived in the Old Testament For that is a dangerous errour of the Socinians that make the Church in the Old Testament specifically distinct from that in the New as if they were not saved by the same Christ and the same faith as we are under the Gospel Now it
's very necessary to distinguish this Catholick invisible Church from a visible particular one The Papists confounding these and making their Roman particular Church a Catholick one and applying such Texts of Scripture as are spoken of the Universal invisible Church to their particular do thereby grosly mistake in pleading for the infallibility and perpetuity of their Church But Secondly The Scripture doth use the word Church for a visible company of persons professing faith in Christ and then it hath several acceptions For sometimes it is used for the general Company of believers Act. 8. 3. Thus Paul is said to persecute the Church Or else more particularly and for a Church at such a place as the Church at Jerusalem the Church at Corinth Again the word Church is sometimes used more strictly for the People onely as distinct from Pastors Thus the Epistles of John are directed To the Angels of the seven Churches Thus the Elders are exhorted Act. 20. 28. To feed the Church of God over which they were set And in this sense the Remonstrants speak confidently That the word Church is most commonly used and that never or very seldom it comprehends the Officers also But this is not so for Mat. 18. Tell the Church by the Church must needs be meant Officers at least with the Church for they are said to bind and lose which power is given to Officers only It 's true they and so Grotius by Church understand a multitude or more in opposition to those two or three witnesses that were required before But the Context may easily be improved to overthrow that 1 Cor. 12. 28. God is there said to set in his Church some Pastors and Teachers that is as part but the chief part of the Church Even as the Starres are set in the firmament but as parts of the Heavens though the more noble and fulgent parts Again when the Apostle here writeth to the Church of Corinth he must needs comprehend the Officers as well as the People because he writeth about such duties wherein the Officers were interested as the censuring of the incestuous person he speaks also of Prophets which were extraordinary Officers in that Church and they are blamed for male-administration about the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper So that although Grotius thinketh that abuse was because they had no constituted Officers yet it 's plain they had some because they had the administration of the Sacraments Lastly The word Church is applied sometimes to an essential Church as it is called for a company of believers simply as such believing in Christ of which often in Scripture sometimes for an organized Church that is formed and stated in that godly order by a Ministry Government and Discipline conjoyned together So that they make a particular flock being bound to submit to their Pastors as their peculiar Pastors and Pastors bound to watch over them as their peculiar flock Whether indeed this Church of Corinth was one Congregational Church or one Church aggregated of several Congregations is disputed But of this in its time This Church of Corinth was formed and stated in some order though there were great abuses in it As for our common use of the word Church taking it for a place or the material building that is an improper speech but allowable by a Synecdoche as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both the place and persons therein convened And although one or two learned men from 1 Cor. 11. would have the word used there for a place yet the arguments are not cogent for the people are properly the Church it 's they that Christ hath redeemed they are to be built up by Pastors and Teachers whereas the material Church is built by manual Artificers not needing an Apostle but a Carpenter This may suffice for Explication only let this be added that the Greek word relates to Gods calling it signifieth a Society called by God So that the Apostle directs his Epistle to that Society or company of persons that did come our from the Heathenish Idolatries and abominations that the other Corinthians lived in and did profess their faith in Christ with obedience to him From whence observe That a Church is a company called of God by the preaching of the Word to the profession of faith in Christ and an observation of all that solemn worship and Ordinances which Christ hath appointed with a life in external conformity thereunto This is a Church When you read of a Church at Jerusalem a Church at Corinth the seven Churches of Asia you are to understand such a company And this Doctrine about a Church is much to be insisted on People are generally carnal ignorant and prophane And although they would think it an high reproach to have the name of a Church denied them or to be cast out of the Church as so many Heathens yet they do not attend to the nature of a Church nor to the properties of those who are to be members thereof It is true there are vast and infinite Disputes about a Church and every sect or party is ready to monopolize and appropriate that name to them That they are only the Church But these great Disputes about it argue we should be more carefull to distinguish lest we take Babylon for Jerusalem lest we take that for Gods Temple which is indeed a den of thieves Doth not the Popish party glory in the name of a Church Do they not make it necessary to salvation to come into communion with it and yet it is the place that Gods people are called to come out of lest they partake both of her sins and punishments But let us examine the chief particulars in the Doctrine which is a popular deseription of a Church And First We say It is a Society or Company So that one man cannot be called a Church It 's absurd in the Papists that when they have lifted up the name of a Church like a Gorgons head to turn all men into stones that they must not mutter a word against it when you come to examine what this Church is at last it is but one man and that is the Pope What number goeth to make a Church is not defined To a formed organized Church there must be so many at least that Church duties which are essential may be performed and a distinction between Governours and governed maintained otherwise where two or three are there is a Church said Tertullian Again In that it is a Company we see That it is not lawfull for a man to think of serving God alone by himself when there is an opportunity of joyning to a Church You read Act. 3. and 4. as any persons were converted presently they joyned themselves to the Church It is true there may be such persecutions or other impediments that Christians have wandered up and down and could not enjoy publick or private meetings but this absence from Church-communion was an heavy burden on their spirits And
them and to give them daily food watching over their souls and therefore their title of Shepherds and the people being called a Flock do evidently demonstrate the necessity of a Ministry not only at first as miracles were but perpetually even to the coming of Christ Thirdly There is in the Description the Formal Cause to which also may be reduced the Final Cause The Formal Cause is in the publick and solemn observation of that Church-communion which God hath required I shall only mention that formal and external Communion wherein it consists And that is 1. In the solemn assembling and meeting of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. The Apostle doth there reprove the neglect of this duty which is the seminary and fountain of all holiness while the coals lie together they keep their heat and inflame one another Thus it 's our communion in the Assemblies that is the means to keep up grace and holiness How much did David bewail his banishment from the Ordinances as you heard And is it not the highest censure and most dreadfull punishment that can be for a Christian upon just grounds to be cast out of the Church Is not this to fall into the Kingdom of Satan Is it not to be delivered up to him Now then if it be next to hell it self thus to be cast out of Church-communion and the publick Ordinances Why doest thou wilfully bring this upon thy self Thy own slothfull and prophane careless heart makes thee neglect the publick Assemblies This is a sinne of an higher nature than thou art aware of for God is present in Church Assemblies you have the benefit of the prayers then poured forth the Ordinances are of enlightning and quickning efficacy Now for thee voluntarily to deprive thy self of this spiritual advantage is a sinne of an high degree Indeed when want of health or other just impediments keep us from the Assemblies God can then make up the publick benefits in private But I speak of a voluntary wilfull omission of such publick Communion Oh little do such men consider that they have but a day Their life is but a day and the season of grace is but a day and doest thou neglect that day when it may be thou shalt never have such a day again never have a Sabbath any more That carnal plea also of getting as much good at home and they can edifie themselves as well with reading books in private unless in case of necessity as I said is ungodly and unjustifiable excuse for this is to make Church-communion and holy Assemblies to be of no necessity and so wholly to overthrow them 2. In this solemn meeting there are these publick duties wherein the Church is to imploy her self 1. Publick prayer to God This in the primitive times was done so servently and zealously that they did even seem to besiege Heaven and to take it by force Oh what prevailing power must the Church have with God when they are so many wrestling Jacobs If the effectual servent prayer of one righteous man prevaileth much how much mâ—… joyned together If it were a Congregation of Joâ—…s how mightily should we prevail with God But we mâ—… Chrysostome How are all the grave and holy things of Goâ—… formality and a shew How many in our Congregatioâ—…end to this publick duty of prayer They fear not lest â—…any Aâ—… in the Congregation So that for thy deadnâ—… the sinnes â—…est in God be angry with our Assemblies and â—…t be graciously â—…ent with us Thou art a dead flie in this box of ointment The prophane man little thinketh what obstructions he makes in our publick petitions by his wickedness unrepented of 2. There is the publick preaching of the Word And this necessarily supposeth a formed and stated Church wherein are Governours and governed Those who by Office preach and those who by duty hear This publick Ministry in the Church of God is not for convenience or good order meerly but it is an institution of Christ and hath several effects attributed to it as conversion of such who are in their natural condition the edifying of those who are converted for instruction that men be not led aside with errours and strange Doctrine for rebuke and reproof of such who walk disorderly c. And therefore because of the necessity of it those who have commission to do it have manifold directions about it To preach in season and out of season and the reason seemeth strange Because there are many who will not endure sound Doctrine 2 Tim. 4. 2. Yea there is a wo to them if they be negligent herein 1 Cor. 9. 16. And in all this they are to be instant and industrious it being a cursed thing to do the work of the Lordnegligently The matter they preach must be holy savoury and nourishing compared therefore to food You are to come to a Sermon with an hungry stomack Yea as new born children ye are to swallow down the sincere milk of the Word And therefore to preach froth and meer fancifull things is as absurd as if a man should invite another to a dinner and provide him nothing but the pictures of some meat It 's compared to seed the Husbandman will not sow his ground with chaff Yea it 's compared to a two-edged sword that is quick and piereing into the very secret thoughts of mens hearts It is for want of such soul-piercing and soul-saving preaching that people are lulled or sleep in their sinnes that there is nothing but formality and customariness in most men The word of God is to flash in your faces like so much lightning and to make even the proudest and the most scornfull to tremble within them They must speak as the Oracles of God What is that but as men filled with the Spirit of God breaking out like fire from them And with such proportionable affections are you to hear This is to meet as the Church of God no man sleeping no man drousie or wandering and roving in his mind but to say with the Centurion We are all here to hear what God will say to us 3. The Administration of Sacraments according to Gods order and such holy wayes as he hath appointed The Sacraments are of infinite consequence to the Church of God and when people through their ignorance and prophaneness make themselves unfit subjects they are enemies to their souls For though God be present in the Word and prayer yet his sacramental presence is in a more indeared and peculiar manner Lastly There is that godly Discipline and holy Order in Church-communion which is as the hedge to the field of corn Take away this holy order the Church will become a gangrened body either with heresies or prophaneness Hence is that binding and losing of sinners Hence is that command of casting out wicked obstinate persons of pirging out the old leaven because a little leaven will quickly sour all 1 Cor. 5. Hence also are those duties of admonishing and noting such
as go astray and the turning from those that walk disorderly 2 Thess 3. These several acts of Church Discipline commanded in the Scripture are very evident And although there are a generation of men who would with scorn and pride cry it down as lordly and Popish and I know not what yet at last it will be found that that it was only their lusts and love to sinne their hatred of sinne their hatred of powerfull godliness which provoketh them hereunto What would they have said if they had lived in Tertullians Cyprians Chrysostomes and Austin's dayes when there was such zeal in Church Discipline against all prophaneness that in some things they were immoderately severe If then this be the external form of Church-communion if in these things Church Assemblies are to be exercised let us mourn for our general Apostasie that in some sense our Church Assemblies have been like the world at first a meer chaos and confusion Not that ever any Church will be so reformed as that it will not need further Reformation But only let us endeavour to attain what degree of purity may be had SERM. XIV Of the Notes and Signes of a true Church 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church at Corinth c. YOu have heard what is to be vnderstood by this expression of a Church The true Doctrine about this being so necessary I shall further inlarge my self not entring into the whole Common-place of a Church for that would be too prolix and ere this Epistle be ended we may happily meet with more Texts that may afford further knowledge in this point Only I shall after the popular definition of a Church give you the Notes or Marks whereby we may come to know what is or where is the true Church For this hath been a great controversie between Papists and us There are indeed some of late as the Remonstrants Episcopius c. who say This dispute and enquiry about the marks of a Church is wholly uselesse and needlesse For say they either we have to do with an Infidel or a Believer if with an Infidel it is absurd to tell him of the Notes of a Church who doth not believe there is any such thing as a Church at all And for a Believer he is in the Church already and so they are uselesse to him But this is meerly frivolous For 1. When we have to do with an unbeliever we must not in the first place deal with him about a Church to prove that we are the true Church but that there is a God who is to be worshipped as natural light will convince of this Then that this God hath made known how he will be worshipped Next that the Scriptures do contain this revealed will of God And when this foundation is â—aid then out of Gods Word we are to inform him of a Church So that in order there is first The Word of God to be discovered 2. What is the true sense and meaning of it Lastly That what society hath this there is a true Church And Secondly Even Heathens by hearing of the Word preached have by the Grace of God been converted and so the Word preached which was at first instrumental to convert them doth afterwards by way of a sign or mark confirm them therein The Apostle tells us of an unbeliever coming into Church-meetings who is so wrought upon that he crieth out Verily God is here 1 Cor. 14. 25. And as to the Believer the notes of a Church are necessary for the further confirming and establishing of him For seeing that every Party or Sect saith They are the true Church and with them onely is Communion to be had condemning other meetings as false as the Synagogue of Satan and as necessarily damning all those that continue in that Communion different from them It is thereby of great use that we should have such Notes or Marks to conclude that where such are certainly there is a Church for we are not to be Scepticks or Seekers When the Scripture commands us To tell the Church Mat. 18. To conjoyn our selves to the Church of God it plainly intimateth that such a Society may be known Even as there was a Star to guide the Wisemen unto Christ In the second place There are three things necessary to make a Note or a Mark of a Church 1. It must be more known than the thing it self 2. It must be proper and peculiar to that thing alone of which it is a Note For if it be common to others it cannot be a Note Sense is not a Note of a man because it 's common to a beast And Lastly It must be inseparable For if it doth not alwayes agree to it then we cannot tell how to discern that we look for Now for such Notes of the Church the Protestants say there are these three only 1. The pure preaching of the Word with the publick receiving and professing of it 2. The right and orderly administration of the Sacraments 3. The due use of holy Order and Discipline Where these things are there we may conclude that certainly Gods true Church is and with such a Society we may lawfully joyn Thirdly Only when we give these three Notes we do not make all of the same equal necessity Discipline and holy Order is for the well-being of a Church This Church of Corinth was a Church though that was neglected It is true this is greatly to be pressed for and the introducing of Christs order into a Church is like the bringing of the Ark into Obed-Edoms family So that without this manifest impiety being suffered God will be so highly provoked as to give a Bill of Divorce to it and take away his Gospel from such an unworthy people yet this is not made essential to the being of a Church So also the administration of Sacraments There was a time when the Church had none viz. before Circumcision was appointed but since Christs appointment of them there they ought to be used where the way and manner he hath appointed can be attained For the dispensers of those holy Mysteries must take heed That they give not pearl to swine nor encourage prophane men in their impieties by giving them the testimonies of Gods love whom yet he abhorreth Therefore that which is infallibly necessary and alwayes accompanying a true Church is the preaching of the Word in a right manner with the publick receiving and profession of this I adde the publick profession because the Word may be purely taught to a people who yet are not the Church because they do refuse and reject the Gospel tendred to them as the Jews did and many Heathens so that there must be a manifest and publick profession of it And besides the true preaching of the Word is only a sign of a true Minister not of a true Church unless they give their consent thereunto So that when our Divines say The pure preaching of the Word is a Note
of the Church They include and suppose the publick receiving of it by the people yea some do clearly expresse it By this pure and true preaching of the Word we may discern the true Church from Jewes and Pagans as also from Heretical and Idololatrical Societies yet pretending to a Church Fourthly When these Notes especially the former are said to be proper and inseparable to the Church of God You must alwayes remember here is a latitude in the application of these Notes For some Churches may have the Word more soundly preached and the Sacraments more dispensed than another and yet for all that not to be denied to be Churches This Church of Corinth was foully out of order And so most of those Churches in Asia were sharply reproved yet they did not cease to be a Church Yea the Church of Israel had many corruptions both in worship and life yet it was a long while ere God did cast her off So that we must not for some defilements either in the Doctrine Worship or Manners of a Church presently deny her to be a Church and separate from her for this is against Scripture information Yea there is no Church so perfect but needeth some Reformation They may build hay and stubble though they keep the foundation So that he must go out of the world that would live in a Church where nothing is amiss Even that Church of Smyrna the Apostle mentioneth Revel 2. 8. that was as her Name signifying sweet smelling and fragrant like a Garden or bed of Spices yet she was troubled with some who said They were Jews but were not but were of the Synagogue of Satan But of this more when we come to the next Doctrine Fifthly These then being the visible Marks of a visible Church we must not confound them with the properties of the Church invisible The Church of God hath as it were a two-fold Form one Internal and Essential which consists in their Union with Christ and communion with his benefits Now none but those that are truly godly are of the Church in this invisible manner he must be regenerated and graffed into Christ that can have any saving benefit by Christ But then 2. The Church of God hath an External and outward Form which consists in the external profession of faith and observance of Christs Ordinances Now a man may be of the Church in respect of this outward standing though he be not truly godly Therefore Dr Ames said well That it was a false thing which Bellarmine objected to us about the constitution of a Church as if we required internal graces to the making of a man a member of the Church in respect of the visible state of it We read in the New Testament that upon the outward profession of their faith they were baptized and received into the Church though it 's plain all of them had not true internal grace So then when the Question is put Whether may a man that is not truly godly be of the Church or no You must distinguish between the inward form of the Church which is union with Christ the Head and so he is not no more than a wooden leg is a member of the body that is not animated by the soul and the External visible state of it and so he is of the Church till by his obstinacy in wickedness he be cast out as unworthy We must not therefore give those Notes of the Church as visible which belong to it only as invisible viz. Election Vocation and Justification c. Sixthly The Papist to avoid this extream he giveth such Marks of a Church as savour rather of worldly ambition and pride Yea the true Church of God many times is known by the contrary Marks they give amplitude and universality as also temporal felicity Now this is rather a Description of some worldly Monarchy than Gods Church For as for the Churches amplitude though absolutely in it self it may be sometimes numerous yet at other times it hath been brought into a narrow compasse Elijah thought none was left and God speaks of but seven thousand that did not how the knee to Baal which was a very inconsiderable number to the Idolaters Therefore respectively to the wicked of the world even when they are most ample they are but a little flock And as for any glorious felicity though the Church of God hath sometimes had her respite and halcyon dayes yet for the most part a crown of thorns hath been on her head and therefore she is justly called the Militant Church while in this world because of her spiritual conflict with all sorts of enemies So that the Church of Christ may sometimes say as Christ once did The Foxes have their holes and the Birds of the air their nests but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head Thus the Foxes of the world the crafty subtil men have great abundance many times when the Church hath hid her self in the wildernesse And Fowls of the air men of proud and lofty minds have their nests when the Church like Noah's Dove hath not where to set her foot Seventhly I shall not enlarge my self to prove these only to be the proper Notes of the Church only consider that place Act. 2. 41 42. where you have all of them conjoyned together 1. They received the Word gladly There is a solemn profession of it 2. There is the administration of the Sacraments They were baptized and continued in breaking of bread with prayers There is the solemn calling upon God And as an epitomizing of all this it 's said Then were added unto the Church about three thousand souls Thus 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Church is called The pillar and foundation of the truth that is by the Ministeries preservation of it and the peoples submitting unto it Lastly If to this it be objected as Socinians do who hold this way of Notes to find out a Church to be useless and vain That true Doctrine cannot be a sign of the Church because it 's the Form and Essence of it Now that which notifieth the essence of a thing must be distinct from it To this it is answered That the form as it giveth being to a thing so it giveth to distinguish from others Forma dat esse distingui Although we do not say True Doctrine is the Note of a Church but the external preaching and receiving of it that is a Note incurring into our senses Even as Reason though it give a man his rational being yet speaking is the proper and true sign that manifests this So let true Doctrine or a true faith be the soul and life of a Church yet the external profession is the outward Note and Sign of it And if further it be said That every Sect doth claim to it self the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of Ordinances Therefore these cannot be a sign It 's answered The consequence is denied for true preaching and
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
writeth to them as if all were Gentiles as Chap. 12. 2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away to dumb Idols c. Hence the same Author saith That it was one Church collected of all the believers in that place Licet esse potuerint in eadem civitate distinctae ut it a dicam parochiae As for the notion of a learned man That the Jewish believers and Gentile believers did make two distinct Churches and had two distinct Bishops which he thinketh would salve some seeming contradictions in Ecclesiastical History that being of an heterogeneous nature to my purpose I passe it by Thus also the Church of Jerusalem is called a Church which yet by many probable Arguments seemeth to be more than one Neither may we think that Christ hath invested one single Congregation ordinarily with all Church power For that president and example of a Councel or Synod mentioned Act. 15. doth inform That there are to be Synods not only by way of advice but by power and that over particular Churches We proceed to the next thing considerable in this description of the Church and that is the efficient Cause the Church of God This distinguisheth the Church from all civil and meer political Assemblies For though the Earth be the Lords and the fulness thereof yet the Church is the Lords in a more peculiar and appropriated manner Sometimes the Church is named absolutely without any addition as when Paul is said to persecute the Church Sometimes it 's restrained to the place Thus the Church of Ephesus the Church of Laodicea but most commonly it is the Church of God or the Church of Christ Sometimes both are put together as 1 Thes 1. 1. To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in Jesus Christ So also 2 Thess 1. 1. And certainly if so be the Apostle considering us meerly as creatures maketh use of and sanctifieth that of the Poet For we are his off-spring how much more is it true of us as members of a Church Observe That a Church is Gods people in a more peculiar and special manner Though he be the God of the world yet in a more special manner he is a God of his Church The consideration of this truth may tend much to our spiritual edification For if we are of God how much should it humble us to see any thing amongst us that is of sin or the Devil Is ignorance or prophaneness of God so are humane superstitions of God But to open this let us consider what is implied in this when a Church is said to be the Church of God First therefore this sheweth That a Church is a supernatural Society it 's spiritual company of men So that a Church is not like a civil Corporation or like Kingdoms and Commonwealths which are by meer humane Institution and agreement though Magistracy it self it be of God but are supernatural and therefore it 's called the Kingdom of Heaven and Jerusalem which is from above so the Church is called Gal. 4. 26. even while it is here on Earth before it is triumphant in Heaven Now the Church is a supernatural Society many wayes in which respect it may be called the Church of God in a more eminent manner For in respect of its Efficient so God alone is the author of it called therefore Ecclesia because God by his Word calls them from their Heathenish Idolatries and practises making of them a Church Thus the people of Corinth when they were securely indulging themselves in all manner of impieties having no thoughts or desires to be a Church God by Paul calls them to be one Even as God by his breath caused the dry bones to gather together and to live or as at the day of Judgment God by the voice of an Arch-angel will raise the dead in the grave who have no life or sense in them Thus it 's the Lord that made Churches every where in the preaching of the Gospel It was the gracious work of God that found us out in Britain and made a Church to himself so that we are loca inaccessa to the grace of God and his Spirit though to humane power It is true indeed God is the God of the world he created Heaven and Earth with all therein yet though God did thus immediately create the world at first we do not say the creatures therein are Gods grace or that they have a supernatural being For it 's not enough to make a thing grace or supernatural that God doth immediately create it but that his power be in a peculiar and extraordinary manner and that for supernatural effects and ends Oh therefore how greatly should we be affected with the grace and power of God in creating to himself a Church out of the world He might have no more made a Church here or there in the Earth then he did in Hell and he that at first planted a curious Garden and put man therein is much more wonderfull in making of a Church to himself yet how bruitish and earthly are we We can bless God for the world and the comforts thereof that the Earth brings forth food for us that we have the Air to breath in the glorious Sunne to be a daily light to us yet we are not thus affected with Church-mercies and Church-ordinances David indeed upon the former consideration cried out Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him c But we may much rather from these supernatural respects Secondly It 's supernatural in respect of the purchase given for them the price paid to make them the Lords For you must know upon Adams fall all mankind was excommunicated unchurched as it were and therefore cast out from Paradise and Gods gracious presence and hence it is that we are said naturally to be without God yea the Devil is said to be the god of the world Thus untill God makes us a Church we are under the power of Satan wholly and therefore to be cast out of the Church is to be delivered to Satan Thus then being fallen off from the Lord and now become the Devils in whom he reigneth we could not be purchased from this thraldom but by the death of Christ and therefore we are called the Church of Christ as well as of God because though conquered by Gods Spirit yet we are bought by his bloud and this the Apostle urgeth That therefore we are none of our own but are to live to him We are to be his peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 15. Thus it cost more to be Gods Church then to be the world at first for he spake and it was made but here Christ died and so it was purchased What a powerfull ingagement is this for all of a Church to walk holily What did Christ die that you should wallow in the filth of your sins What will you deny the Lord that bought you If thou wilt be ignorant and prophane
Why doest thou not go out from the Church of God Why doest thou not turn Heathen and Pagan again For certainly the Churches of Christ have no such prophane customs Thirdly It 's supernatural and of God in respect of the Order Laws Rule and Government it is to walk by The Doctrine believed is revealed by God The Worship practised is to be appointed by God The Government and Order is to be commanded by God And thus Beloved we might at large shew you That all things that are essential in the Church are to be of God No Doctrine no Worship no Administration of Sacraments but what is of God We might shew you what God hath appointed in the Credendis and Agendis Ecclesiae Oh that this were well understood by us What makes men so wilfull for their lusts for their superstitious customs but because they consider not the Church is a spiritual house and the Laws and Orders thereof are appointed by Christ himself If the Church be of God all things therein must be of God likewise Hence our Saviour saith Every plant that is not of my Fathers planting shall be rooted out Mat. 15. 13. What makes men rage and fret if things in the Church be not according to their own humours and lusts Is it not because they do not attend to this That it is Gods Church It 's not the Popes Church nor the Magistrates Church but Gods Church Surely this truth would make us in all things ask as Christ did in another case Whose image and superscription hath it Give unto God the things that are Gods Fourthly It 's supernatural and of God even in respect of the manner of doing all things in the Church Every solemn duty is to be done as from God and through him even in an holy and divine manner The Minister must preach as inabled of God The hearer must hear as strengthened thereunto of God The Apostle praiseth the Thessalonians That they received the Word not as the word of man but of God As the Apostle speaks of his administration of the Gospel 2 Cor. 2. 17. As of God in the sight of God so ought all our Church-assemblies to be performed What Jeremiah then hath his head full enough of water to make lamentation for the formality customariness and meer external service that is done to God in our Assemblies Men are become like Idols having eyes they see not ears they hear not hearts they understand not whereas our praying our hearing our approachings in these Assemblies should be as of God not Nature or Custom or the Laws of men but the Spirit of God mightily working in us should put us upon these things Whereas now we see people in Church-assemblies finding no more of the gracious power and presence of God then if they were in their markets or other civil meetings As the Apostle said Do ye seek an experiment of Christ in me So ought it to be here we are to demonstrate in our Church-assemblies experimental works of Christ upon us As the duty is of God the Ordinance is of God so should the frame and disposition of our hearts be of God Fifthly The Church is of God in respect of his protection and gracious presence God promiseth his presence and delights to be in the Assembly of his Saints Matth. 18. 20. When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them It 's the gracious presence of God that blesseth Ordinances Hence Christ is described Revel 1. 13. VValking in the midst of the golden Candlesticks that is the Churches and the Ordinances therein We are apt to complain if Gods blessing goeth not along with us in outward undertakings We can say as Moses to God If thy presence go not along with us we will not go up When it may relate to our outward advantage but we do not take notice of Gods presence in the Assemblies why God is not amongst us to hear our prayers why God is not present with the Word to make it an enlightning a converting Word It should affect your hearts more than it doth if in every Sermon the Spirit of God hath not fallen upon thy heart like fire if it hath not melted quickned enlivened thy soul Oh say why did God withdraw himself if he visited the hearts of others yet not mine I was dead luke-warm and found no efficacy come from Christ What sins am I guilty of What have I done that makes God thus absent himself from the publick Ordinances at least to me Sixthly The Church is of God in respect of all the supernatural Effects and benefits which alone are communicated there In the Church of God alone is Justification Sanctification Assurance of his favour In the pool of Bethesda onely did the Angel come in In the waters of Jordan only could Naaman be healed In the Ark only could there be external safety from the waters And thus in the Church only there are those soul-mercies to be obtained Lastly The Church is of God finaliter Because the enjoyment of God is the proper end of all Churches It 's true all civil societies are to make the glory of God their ultimate end but yet the immediate end is to acquire a temporal and political blessedness but the end of Gods Church is more transcendent and spiritual for therefore are preaching hearing therefore are Sabbaths and our solemn Assemblies that we might have more enjoyment of God that our doubts may be answered our corruptions mortified our graces made more fervent and zealous This made David so esteem the Tabernacle of the Lord and desiring rather to be a door-keeper there then to have any earthly greatness What was it the material Tabernacles that David so longed for No it was the enjoyment of God in those Ordinances But as little children admire the fine out-side of some excellent Book when they understand not the excellent matter contained therein so saith Chrysostome many regard the out-sides and externals of religious duties not knowing at all what the spiritual effects thereof mean Oh then let ignorant and wicked men tremble If the Church be of God how comest thou to be of the Devil and to do his works SERM. XVI Of the City of Corinth God sometimes gathers a Church amongst the most prophane people A Church though many wayes defiled may be a Church still as it was with the Corinthians 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth THe next thing to be treated of is the Description of this Church by the place where it is viz. at Corinth And that we may understand the great grace and power of God in gathering a Church to himself out of this City it 's good to observe what the Learned speak of it It was called so they say from Corinthus the sonne of Orestes or of Pelops but when they had in a dishonourable manner abused some Roman Embassadours they were destroyed by a Roman named Lucius Mummius
freed from it Thus you see many of them were rather beasts than a Church Lastly For Godlinesse or Religion there were also sad disorders about that There were some that denied the Resurrection that said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die these were Atheists And certainly had this been the Assertion of the whole Church and not some few only amongst them if it had been their Catholick and Universal Doctrine maintained by all they had ceased to be a Church they had degenerated into meer Atheism but it was some only that were thus infected Again Another offence in Religion was their great Church-divisions some exalting Paul some Apollo insomuch that in stead of edifying and building up one another they were divided into as many Sects almost as they had Teachers And then lastly There was horrible confusion and ungodliness in respect of Church-order All godly Discipline was laid aside the administration of the Sacraments was promiscuous come who would come though in their unworthiness they might receive it And although Gods judgment was upon them either the Plague or some general disease and that because no better order was about the Sacrament yet for all that they did not judge or condemn themselves Thus this Church was like a very Chaos and yet a Church still SERM. XVII A further Discovery of the truth of this Assertion that a Church may be a true Church though much defiled both in Doctrine and Manners 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth c. THis Church of Corinth is dignified as you heard with this glorious Title of the Church of God notwithstanding those manifest and notorious depravations that were amongst them and that of all sorts This truth we entred upon and before we give you some demonstrations to evidence it it is good to take notice of some observable particulars which tend to the clearing of it Only this must be premised that whereas a Church may be denied to be so either from its constitution or from its conversation We are speaking of the later way and so consider First That the soundness and purity of Churches doth admit of degrees That as one Starre doth excell another in glory yet both Starres So one Church may greatly transcend another in orthodoxy and purity and yet both be Churches In those seven Churches of Asia there were some reproved more than others We cannot expect that all Churches should be of the same measure in knowledge and grace no mor than particular Christians and therefore we are not to conclude such a Church is no Church because not so pure as another Church no more than such a man is not a godly man because he hath not such a measure of Illumination and Sanctification as another And to say in the general That it is a Christians duty to find out the purest Church in the world and there to associate himself with it must needs fill a Christian with infinite perplexities of conscience as also to expose him to insupportable outward inconveniencies Let us not therefore do with a Church as a godly tender heart is apt to do with himself because he finds many failings and great imperfections therefore he is ready to judge that he hath no grace at all Thus because there are several disorders and distempers in such a Church which are deservedly daily matter of groan and sorrow to thee therefore thou beginnest to sentence such a Church as no longer Gods Church Again seeing that there are gradual differences of soundness and purity in Churches this should also make every Church take heed of appropriating the glorious name of a Church or Saints or Christians to themselves only as if none were Saints or Christians but what are members of their Society This is and hath been a most uncharitable proud disposition of some Churches The Popish Church saith There is no sanctity or holiness but with them Inter Catholicos saith Bellarmine multi quidem sunt mali sed inter haereticos ne uniu quidem est bonus What a censorious condemnation is this Not one good Protestant whom they call Hereticks not in all our Churches Thus they only appropriate the name of Church and sanctity to themselves So the Donatists did of old they inclosed the Church only amongst themselves they called none Christians but themselves To become a Donatist was to become a Christian with them So that we see it 's very hard for Churches not to admire their own wayes and constitutions thinking that none are Churches but themselves there may be pharisaical Churches that may condemn other Churches as Publicans as well as it is so in persons whereas it is good to observe that the Scripture doth describe Christians by such names as do not at all relate or distinguish by any Government or external constitution to be a believer to be a Saint to be a Christian These titles denote either some inward qualification or external profession but do not at all insinuate what kinds of order or way they are in yet this is not so to be understood as if Christs order and way his Government and Discipline were an indifferent or arbitrary thing only it is to shew that we are not to monopolize godliness amongst our selves meerly because of a Church-constitution although we are not to receive any form or spiritual order in our Churches but of Christs appointment There is a great difference and latitude in the soundness and purity of Churches Secondly When we speak of a Church being Gods true Church though greatly corrupted we must take heed of two extreams the first of those who therefore would have no Reformation though there be never so many disorders but say It 's wisdome and prudence to let all things be as they have been for it may be Gods Church though there be divers abuses Take heed of such carnal indulgence as this because it 's the Church of God therefore make no more stirre let errours and prophaneness alone let disorders continue and this many times is palliated with fair specious pretences that such indeavours to reform will breed great discontents and divisions in stead of having a pure Church it may be made no Church at all especially this is the more difficulty obtained if it be a Reformation in worship and manners for we are more willing to sit down under an Orthodox Church then a pure Church We can more easily endure to have sound Doctrine established then pure and holy Order because this doth so directly contradict our lusts and pleasures Hence Malachy prophesieth of Christs repurgation of his Church as a very dreadfull time even like the day of judgement Mal. 3. 2 4. Christ is there said to sit as a refiner and as a purger to take away droâ— but who shall abide the day of his coming Christs coming being thus like the Refiners fire and the Fullers sope was as terrible as the day of judgment to them Who may abide
from Christ and that having begun in the Spirit they would end in the flesh We might instance also in several other Churches But as the Father said elegantly We need not drink up the whole Sea to know whether the water be saltish a drop or two will suffice Secondly This may be demonstrated from the relation and comparison the Church is adorned with in reference to Christ It 's often compared to Christs wife now the wife continueth a true wife and is not to be deserted unless for Adultery which breaketh the conjugal knot otherwise though she have many sad infirmities which may make the relation bitter and uncomfortable yet it doth not unwise her The Church is also Christs body now a body is not forsaken by the soul though it be a sore body a leprous body a leper is a man though a leper It 's Christs â—arden now this may have many weeds in it and many things defile it yet it is not presently made a waste wilderness Thus it is with the Church of God she may have many failings in Doctrine and manners yet not be quite unchurched Thirdly From a godly man A true child of God may have sad falls as we see in Peter and David yet for all this not be quite excluded out of the Covenant of grace they did not lose their sonship even in those sad transgressions and will God be more severe to a whole Church than to one person Use of Instruction what a deal of prudence and wisdome is required in every godly man under Church-pollutions To know what to do to understand how to deport himself for this he must be guided by the Word and the advise of those that are faithfull on the one hand not to be stupid or careless much less complying and communicating with the Church defilements and on the other side not to be so transported with misguided zeal and impatiency against evil as there by to rend the Church causlesly and to sin our selves because others sin SERM XVIII The Preheminence of the Church of God above all Civil Societies As likewise concerning Paul's writing this second Epistle to the Corinthians how hard a thing it is for Churches to keep within their proper bounds and what great care Ministers ought to have to use all means lawfull to promote the Churches which they have relation to 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth THis clause hath been fruitfull for much spiritual and edifying matter I shall conclude it at this time There are three things more which are to be deduced from this subject And First Whereas you see that the Epistle is not directed to the Magiâ—â—â— or Civil Governours of the City neither is the least notice taken of their wealth oâ— external pomp We may observe That the Church of God as it is a Church doth farre surpass all Civil Societies and temporal Dignities The Apostle owneth nothing in this famous City but their faith their profession of Christ and subjection to him A Church is a supernatural Society for supernatural and spiritual ends where God is in a more special manner present and therefore though the civil Magistrate be also of God and civil Societies they are of him yet not in that peculiar relation as a Church is Thus the Psalmist saith Psal 87. 2. The Lord loveth the 〈◊〉 of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jerusalem that is the Assemblies of his people met together in holy Ordinances above all other their civil meetings though never so pompouâ— and magnificent Therefore it 's good to consider that in all the inscriptions which the Apostle 〈◊〉 to any Churches he doth not at all speak of any civil or temporal Dignities that the places where the Churches were had but only â—…on of their spiritual titles as a Church Saints Believers Beloved of God And certainly if we do truly consider things these Titles do as farre transâ—â—nd all civil glory as the Heavens do the Earth The Apostle writing to the 〈◊〉 in all that Epistle takes no notice of the glory of that City which was the Orbis Domina and which they usually called aeterna Urbs he mentioneth their faith which was known to the whole world Rom. 1. 8. not the Roman and warlike power whereby they were so terrible to all Nations It is good to consider this for how few Churches do esteem of or judge themselves by their Church consideration but by their civil respects As they are such a City such a Corporation glorying in their Liberties and Charters whereas the consideration of themselves as a Church should far more possess their hearts Briefly to understand this consider First That the Church and Commonwealth or any civil Society are two distinct things the Church is one thing and the State another thing In the times of Heathen Magistrates and while there was outward persecution by the civil Powers which then ruled it 's plain for the City of Rome and the Church of Rome in Paul's time were wholly different So at Corinth the civil Magistracy of the Town did not seem to be Christians the Corporation of the Town was not as I may say made a Church The Christian Religion was not at this time established in Corinth by the City-Laws and Government only many in Corinth were become believers So that it 's plain The same Corinthians as they were a Church lived by other Laws and by different principles then as members of the City of Corinth As he was a Citizen so he met in their civil Judicatories so he acted according to the Laws of the City provided nothing was against Gods command but as a member of the Church there so they meet with others in spiritual communion for holy and spiritual ends Thus it is in a State while they are generally Heathenish But some have doubted Whether if a Commonwealth become Christian then there is any difference there between the Church and such a Christian State Whether then they are not all one But certainly by the first Institution and plantation of Churches by Christ and the Apostles Churches were founded and imbodied their Officers imploiment and the end of their Society appointed without any relation to the civil State and Government where they lived And therefore a Christian State doth not civilly govern nor bear the Sword punishing with death neither are there supream Governours Lords or Noblemen in it as a Church for then these should be Church-officers and instituted by Christ a Justice of Peace is not of Christ as a Pastor in the Church Neither on the other side are the preaching of the Word the administration of Sacraments the exercising of Church-censures the effects of a Christian State but as a Church So that it 's necessary by Scripture to acknowledge these two a Church and the State as two distinct Societies though the same men may be members of the same Secondly It 's a most blessed thing when the civil State and Church are
from the Apostles writing a second time to the Church of Corinth which he seldom did to any Church but to that of the Thessalonians and to Timothy a single person One reason whereof amongst others was because that his former Epistle had taken some good effect and whereas they had been too remiss before about their indulgence to that incestuous person it seemeth this Epistle had now so awakened them that they began to be too severe to him though repenting and humbling himself as appeareth Chap. 2. 6 7. whereupon he exhorteth them To comfort him lest he be swallowed up with too much sorrow It 's true there were other reasons why he wrote this second Epistle but this is one amongst the rest From whence we might observe That it 's very hard for the Churches of God to keep within their proper bounds about Church-administrations Nothing is more ordinary than to fall from one extream to another These Corinthians that were so negligent in good order that many pollutions were suffered amongst them insomuch that Gods judgements had surprized them for their default herein Now when awakened to do their duty they are ready to overdo and from too much remisness to fall into too much severity Thus in many other things we might instance how the Churches of God have fallen from one extremity to another but this subject especially as it relateth to Church-Discipline will be more sutably treated of in Chap. 2. I therefore briefly raise a third Observation and that is from the Apostles care and zeal to build up the Church of God For whereas he could not come to the Corinthians as yet lest any Church-corruption or disorders should arise thereby he endeavours by writing to do that in his absence which he would not do by his presence From whence we may gather That it 's the Ministers duty not only by personal preaching but by all other lawfull wayes to promote that Church he hath any relation unto When Paul cannot preach he will write This zeal in Paul drew out those many Epistles that now we have recorded in Scripture Our Apostle speaketh notably to this 1 Thess 2. 17 18. and Chap. 3. 1. where he sheweth his cordial affections towards that people with what violence he was kept from them and because Satan hindered him he saith He could no longer forbear but would be left at Athens alone without any comfort or solace rather than not to send to them that so they might not be moved from the Gospel Thus at other times we see this glorious Apostle when present yet not contented with his publick preaching did from house to house as occasion served with tears beseech and testifie every one to cleave unto the Lord. From this example of Paul who though an Apostle and so not bound to attend on particular Churches yet did by letters confirm and quicken those Churches he had planted We see how great and grievous a sinne a voluntary and unnecessary non-residence is in those Pastours who by their Office are bound to a particular Flock and to watch over them For though in some weighty cases for the good of the whole Church they may be detained from their Flock yet voluntarily and slothfully to do this will at last be found a grievous soul-murdering sin Use 2. To reprove that people who complain of too much preaching and too much ministerial imploiment thinking it needless SERM. XIX Of the Name and Nature of a Church-Saint 2 COR. 1. 1. With all the Saints which are in all Achaia WE are now arrived at the last clause in this verse which containeth a more general Description of those to whom he directs this Epistle Some Epistles are called Catholick because not inscribed to any particular Churches or persons but to the whole Church of God Others are more particular and local as this to the Corinthians yet we see it 's not so inscribed to them but that also all the adjacent Saints are comprehended in it Yea though Paul and others wrote their Epistles to certain Churches and persons yet they are in some sense Catholick for they all were written as a perpetual Rule to the whole Church of God in all ages So that this Epistle doth concern even the Churches of God in other Nations as well as that of Corinth when guilty of such disorder So that in the Inscription which is more general than the former clause we may take notice 1. Of the Persons to whom Paul writeth and they are described by their qualifications Saints 2. By a Note of Universality All the Saints There is none so mean or inconsiderable but the Apostle writeth as well to such a poor contemptible Saint as well as to the greatest and most eminent 3. There is the place where Which are in all Achaia I shall first consider the Qualification Saints He giveth this title to all that were of this Church even as in the former Epistle he saith They were sanctified in Jesus Christ Now the Question is How the Apostle could give the title of Saints to to all the Corinthians with those in Achaia for they both seem guilty of the same sins and therefore from this Epistle directed to them when yet they were so foully polluted Was the incestuous person before he repented Were those unclean persons that had not humbled themselves for their sins and Paul was afraid he should find them such when he came Were those Saints Were such who denied the Resurrection yea that had no knowledge of God as Paul said of some to whose shame he spake it were these Saints To this Austin of old answered and so some of late That the Apostle speaks this generally of the whole body because some amongst them were Saints The denomination being from the most worthy part So that they conclude of this as a Rule to interpret Scripture by To understand that of some parts which yet is attributed to to the whole And for this reason they say it is That the Apostle writing to some Churches as to this of Corinth doth sometimes speak of them as if they were all godly and at another time he reproveth them so as if they were all blame-worthy Thus because some were Saints indeed therefore he writeth to the whole Church as if Saints as we call a field of corn by that name though there may be many weeds and bryars amongst it This hath some truth but yet this is not all Secondly It may be thought that the Apostle calls them Saints in the judgment of charity because they did outwardly profess their faith and obedience in Christ even as Paul saith of Sylvanus 1 Pet. 5. 12. A faithfull brother as I suppose but a judgement of charity must be according to truth and he knew that all in Corinth were not truly Saints And as for that expression of Pauls concerning Sylvanus Calvin Estius and others do not relate the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a faithfull brother but to
true Saints in gifts and graces despise and contemn such as are below them to judge them no Saints or not godly at all That there is such a disposition even in grown Saints appeareth Rom. 14. where the Apostle giveth several Rules to strong Christians especially That they judge not or despise him that is weak and one reason amongst others is Because God hath received him If therefore he be one whom God hath received for whom Christ died though subject to many weaknesses and infirmities take heed of contemning him Such a supercilious censorious spirit is farre from the Spirit of Christ who when he saw one not farre from the Kingdom of Heaven though not yet in it yet it 's said He loved him and encouraged him Hence in the second place This real Saintship is alwayes growing and ought to be more and more proficient continually It is an high delusion to dream of such a perfection that they are above Ordinances that they are of so full a stature in grace that one cubit cannot be added to them This is to let the Devil get thee up to the pinacle of the Temple and then to throw thee headlong into hell yet such sad delusions have been on some that coming to the Sacrament they have said They have had as perfect love as Christ himself But this is against the continual current of the Scripture which presseth to grow in grace to bring forth more fruit And 1 Cor. 7. to perfect holinesse in the fear of God Paul himself though a Gyant to us Dwarfs yet Phil. 3. Accounted not himself to have apprehended but forgat what was behind and pressed forward to the mark Cloppenburge a learned man thinketh That even Christ himself did feed and nourish his soul by meditating on Gods Word and that in the use of the Sacraments his faith was more confirmed for to go through that work of redemption for us This may seem hard to affirm of Christ who had the Spirit without measure But it is very true of every Saint on Earth though never so exalted and enabled by grace that he needeth the Ordinances that he is to perfect and fill up that vacuity and emptiness which is in him so that he may say with Ignatius when going to be sacrificed for the truth Nune incipio esse Christianus I do even now begin to be a Christian to be a Saint I am but a babe yet I am but a beginner yet Thirdly This Church-Saintship therefore doth consist with many imperfections and weaknesses so that we need a constant and daily remission of sinne through the bloud of Christ This is greatly to be observed because some have dreamed of such a perfection in this life that if not alway yet for some time we may be without any sinne at all and therefore they tell us of Saints in the Church which need no pardon or forgiveness as if to be a Saint in the Church and a Saint in Heaven were all one but our Saviour in directing all to pray for the forgivenesse of sin I say all that are to pray are to pray so doth plainly confute this And the Apostle John saith That if we say we have no sinne in us we deceive our selves and indeed we sinne in saying so And this is the more to be observed because the dear children of God think this title of Saint too glorious and great to apply to themselves who are compassed about with such infirmities How can I be called a Saint and yet so dull so sluggish so froward earthly and often disordered in heart But you are to know that though Saints yet we are not to be justified by our Saintship we need the imputed righteousness of Christ to cover the imperfections of our Saintship yea some have not lost their Saintship and yet have fallen into foul sins for a season David Peter and others did not cease to be Saints in those sad falls though their holiness was drawn inward and as the juice of the Tree in the Winter was hid in the root under ground but these Suns were not alwayes in an eclipse at last they did recover to their greater advantage in holiness and to be a pillar of salt to all other Saints Nor to be high-minded but fear Fourthly To be a Saint is a denomination from our conformity to the will of God as a rule of our lives So that if you ask What is it to be a Saint It is to be one born again by the Spirit of God making the word of God to be the rule of all his actions So that Gods Word must try whether thou art a Saint or no not thy own thoughts or the applause of others can make thee a Saint but thy life regulated by Gods Word The Papists cry up their Saint Francis whom they equallize to Christ in many things but his Saintship must be tried not by his voluntary poverty or strict observance of humane traditions but by a consonancy to Gods Word Thus who ever is cried up for a Saint still we must examine How doth the Word and his life agree Is he as it were a walking Bible Doth he will what that wils and nill what that nilleth And this further also may inform us That we are not to make a man a Saint because of a particular opinion in some way of Church-Government as if none could be Saints but of such an opinion For the word Saint denoteth One made holy by the Image of God restored in him though he may differ from another Saint in a Church-way For although it be our duty to study out the mind and will of Christ concerning Church-order and with his Institutions only we may expect his gracious presence yet such is the corruption and weakness upon the understandings of the best that though Gods Spirit will lead them into all necessary truth yet they may fail in some accessories and so one Saint may differ from another yea and write against another though such things do prove as Calvin said of Melancihons difference from him Pessimi exempli of very evil example and confirm the adversaries of godliness in their dangerous prejudices against it These things thus laid down let us consider Why all the fore-mentioned steps of a Church-Saint are nothing without the latter To be a Saint by the outward Covenant by dedication to God by outward profession and vocation Yea to be a Saint having some works of Gods Spirit on us unless we be born of God and so have holy Natures holy affections and an holy conversation it 's to be like the foolish Virgiâ—s who have lamps and those lighted but want oyl Let us therefore consider What may provoke us to be Saints indeed And 1. What matter of shame and reproach is it to have the name of a Saint only and nothing else Thy life not the life of a Saint thy words thy actions not the expressions of a Saint Is not this ridiculous even as
when they called the Blackmoors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silver white Thou art a Saint in that sense he said Auri sacri fames indeed thou art most accursed and art but a mockery in respect of God and man As it is a shame so it is an horrible reproach even as Revel 2. there is the blasphemy of some who said they were Jews and were not Thus it is a blasphemy in thee to be externally a Saint and not really as the Apostle Rom. 2. 24. speaking of such saith The Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you The mischief of the scandalous prophane lifes in the Church hath been the cause not only of Gods eminent judgements upon it even at last to unchurch them but also hath been like winds in the bowels of the earth making a dreadfull earthquake Heresies in Doctrine have not more molested the Church than prophaneness in life The troubles of the Donatists made in the Church for many years together was it not because of the prophaneness of Christians lives In our dayes What is the great argument against our Churches that they are no true Churches that they are the Synagogue of Satan Doth not this arise wholly from the ungodliness of most mens lives Call such Saints you may as well name darkness light Yea what is the cause that the bringing in of any good Order in a Church the purging out of the old leaven is such a grievous tormenting matter Why do generally people dislike and rage at it Is not all this because though men are contented with the name of a Saint yet they cannot endure the practical power of it So that we may say the real ungodliness of such who are in the Church is the cause of all the evil that comes in the Church Thou blamest this and that way of Government thou sayest Such or such a thing is the cause of all our evil No it 's the love to mens lust men would be of the Church and yet live the life of beasts and Devils And it is for this general impiety that even Heaven and Earth may be astonished Thou cavillest How can this or that Practice or Order be proved Jure Divino But where canst thou prove thy oaths thy lusts thy drunkennesse thy contempt of Godlinesse to be Jure Divino 2. Real Saintship is so acceptable unto God in his Church that let men have 〈…〉 eminent places and esteem therein yet if they walk contrary to this Rule of sanctity and that obstinately Christ hath commanded such to be cast out as utterly unfit to be of such a Society The incestuous person in this Church of Corinth is thought by Chrysostome to be a man of chiefest place and note amongst them yet for all that till he repent and humble himself they are commanded to cast him out from amongst them As the Apostle to this Church saith What communion is there between light and darknesse Christ and Belial The Pythagoreans were so strict about the manners of those who were in their sect that as Origen against Celsus relates when any of their society had fallen into a foul sin they did cast him out of their company and commanded a Coffin to be placed by him as being a dead man But the Lord Christ hath commanded That such who live in the Church obstinately against the manners of a Saint should be thrown out from his people and so delivered up to Satan as being more properly of him and his way But because more may in time be said of the nature of this Church-Saintship I passe it by for the present concluding with a severe Reproof even like thunder and lightning against all such who deride at sanctity and purity Are there not too many sonnes of Belial who make a scoff at such glorious names of a Saint of a Christian of a Brother of a Believer Wherein canst thou demonstrate thy self to be of the Devil more than in this one thing Thy heart rageth thy tongue foameth at sanctity and purity What is this but to blaspheme the Scripture yea God and Christ himself Why do not such cast off their Christianity and live with Pagans and Heathens SERM. XXI Wherefore 't is a Christians Duty to joyn himself to Church-society And in what cases he may be excused What are the false Grounds why some neglect this Duty The Soul of the poorest Saint is to be regarded as well as of the richest 2 COR. 1. 1. With all the Saints that are in all Achaia IT is now full time to conclude this Text. There remain two things more which deserve some consideration The first is occasioned by Calvin's Question upon the place How is it saith he that he distinguished Saints from the Church Did not these Saints imbody themselves that lived in the Province of Achais Was it lawfull for them to live dispersed and single lives not entring into Churchcommunnion To which he answers That the times might be then so turbulent and persecution so hot that they could not gather into a Church nor have any such publick meetings Now this Interpretation is not necessary For the Apostle writing to the Church at Ephesus and Colosse yet doth not use that name but speaks in the general To the Saints and faithfull Brethren when yet without question they were in a Church-state there Yea in his Epistle to the Romans he makes no mention of them as a Church but styleth them Saints which puts Salmeron upon his guesses Why he doth not give the name of a Church to them As also Why he doth not salute Peter their supposed Bishop Neither may we think that when James and Peter inscribe their Epistles to the Believers scattered in several Regions but that they might have occasionally their publick meetings to worship God in Yet though this Exposition be not necessary we may well receive Calvins conjecture as probable For there have been times when the Saints have been forced to hide themselves in Dens and Caves not having opportunity to meet together though even that was an heavy burden and trouble to them This being granted we may observe That although it be a Duty for Saints to joyne themselves in a Church-way yet there may sometimes fall out such just reasons that may excuse them Indeed voluntarily to keep off from the Assemblies and to think a private worshipping of God is enough and that he requireth no more is both against Scripture-command and the example of primitive Christians but when there is some unavoidable necessity than there is a lawfull excuse That it is a duty for Saints to joyn themselves in a Church-way may be made evident from these Grounds briefly First From the name Church ordinarily given to â—olievers Now a Church is a Society or Company met together and therefore it is not lawfull for thee to live alone or be a Minister of Sacraments and all things to thy self Even as Aristotle said of him that would live alone not joyning
himself to any humane Society he must be aut Deus aut Bestia It is applicable here he must be made even like God that needeth no growth of grace yea that is above all duty or homage to God or else a very beast one that hath no sense or feeling about a God and his Worship The syonymous names also to a Church doth evidence this They are called Christs body now it 's necessary for the members of the body to be joyned together else there cannot be that mutual help and furthering of one another They are also called an House and a spiritual Building wherein they are to be as living stones and such must be close and well compacted together Secondly From the communion of Saints which is a duty so often prescribed in Scripture such as to watch over one another to provoke one another to comfort and rebuke if need be Now how can this be if Saints be dispersed from each other Thirdly From the Officers and Ordinances which Christ hath commanded that do necessarily inferre Church-Assemblies For Pastors and Teachers are appointed to preach the Word to be constant therein And how can that be if there be not publick meetings Fourthly The Sacraments likewise do not they seal not only a communion with Christ but also with one another So that it would be a sacrilegious violation of Christs command for a man to receive the Sacrament alone The Protestants do justly condemn those Private Masses in Popery as ridiculous and contrary to the Institution of that Sacrament Fifthly The examples of Christians who upon their conversion are recorded to joyn themselves to the Church and they continued together praying and breaking of bread Yea in the Old Testament we see still there was a constant publick meeting to worship God and David professeth his joy in those solemn meetings as also his resolutions To praise God in the great Congregation And certainly as by these solemn meetings God is more honoured therefore the glorified Saints in Heaven are said to be a Church Heb. 12. 23. so God hath promised to such meetings an higher degree of his presence He delights to be in the Assembly of his Saints So that these publick meetings are for our spiritual good as well as Gods glory Though this be so yet there may be some Cause that may justly excuse us As First Publick and violent persecutions as have been many times in Gods Church then they have not been suffered to have either publick or private meetings Heb. 12. The Apostle mentioneth such times when he speaks of some Of whom the world was not worthy of yet were not allowed a place in the world but were as so many beasts chased up and down living in dens and holes of Rocks Thus it was also once with David when banished out of Judea though this was a sad affliction and he doth in several Psalms bewail his exile from the Ordinances more than any temporal mercy whatsoever neither his countrey or outward accommodations do sit so upon his heart as that I cannot enjoy God in his Ordinances as I have done So then though they were not actually in any Church-communion yet because of their desire and wish they were to be as accounted of it Secondly It may so fall out that there be such a malice and poison in the hearts of those that do govern and rule in the Church that they will excommunicate and cast out those that are true believers from the Church and will not let them have any Church-society Now in such cases if the godly cannot obtain any publick Church-priviledge which yet they desire this will lie on those that cast them out Luke 6. 22. John 16. 2. Our Saviour tels the Disciples it shall be their portion They shall be cast out of the Synagogues separated from company even as they did a blind man healed confessing Christ whom yet Christ met and encouraged This then is no new thing Yea Bernard complained in his time Heu Domine qui sunt in Ecclesiâ primi sunt in persecutione primi Thirdly If there be such a general and universal pollution that a Christian at least for the present knoweth not what Church to joyn to where he can have communion without partaking of gross Idolatry It 's a Rule avouched in the Canon-Law Causa non separatio facit Shisma Those that would not bow their knee to Baal in Elijah's time were not Schismaticks for there was a just cause to refuse such Idolatry if then it be truly with a man as it was in supposition with Elijah that he is left alone Idolatry hath filled the whole Church visibly in such a case though that be hardly to be seen he is to abstain from Church-societies till God make way for it For then it is as if a Christian should by some accident be cast upon a Countrey of Infidels and Pagans as some Christians have been there cannot be had any Church-society at all Lastly The Church of God in the primitive times when many Heathens and Infidels were converted had this custome which I find commended by most and that was before the Church would receive such converted Heathens into an actual Communion with the Church they took time to instruct them and to try whether they were fit for that Sacrament or no and when they were prepared then they received them These were called Catechumenoi and Competentes They were truly members of the Church as the Protestants maintain against Bellarmine only they had not as yet the actual admission into it This custom in Antiquity of admitting none to Baptisme but such as were instructed doth hold by proportion for the Lords Supper likewise Seeing now that all are baptized in their Infancy and whether Parents have done their duties or that they have sufficient knowledge to come to a Sacrament may justly be questioned when we see so much gross ignorance in the Christian Religion abounding every where Therefore in Antiquity there was Ecclesiastical Confirmation which was to make search and trial about the knowledge and sufficiency of such who had been baptized and if found duly qualified then they were confirmed Such care did they use in Antiquity about those that were admitted to Church-society insomuch that Casaubon a man of famous learning saith It had been well in the Church of God if men had laid aside many unnecessary disputes and endeavoured to bring in that holy and godly order the primitive Church had especially about the Lords Supper And Calvin speaking of this custom of Confirmation before it was so horribly depraved by after ages and made a Sacrament wisheth it were brought into the Church of God again as that which would make parents more diligent who now think the institution of their children doth not belong to them neither would there be such ignorance and rudeness in people as now thereis Insti◠lib. 4. c. 19. Sect. 13. In these cases a Saint without Church-communion may be excused But then
there are sinfull and unjustifiable grounds of some persons who do not joyn themselves to any Church-society and that may be either from a Corrupt Opinions or a Corrupt Heart though they seldom be separated from one another First From a Corrupt Opinion As 1. Of those who call themselves Seekers confessing they cannot yet find a Church to which they may joyâ—… For they affirm That since the Apostles dayes there are no Churches and therefore till they can see Apostles Apostolical gifts and miracles with the like effusion of the holy Ghost upon persons they cannot own any Church But this is against those Texts of Scripture which speak of a perpetuity of the Ministry and the duty of receiving Sacraments till the coming of Christ which could not be if there were no Church 2. Another corrupt opinion is of those who call themselves high Attainers These make themselves above the Church-ordinances they need them not yea some Anabaptists in Germany made themselves above the Bible living wholly upon spiritual revelations and called those who would leave to the Scripture as a Rule Creaturistae as depending upon a creature But the Scripture and Ordinances are necessary to quicken grace in the most holy and there are none so spiritual but they need them daily to comfort or instruct them yet such have their publick Assemblies wherein they deliver their opinions to be received But if people ought to be above all Ministry and teaching then also above theirs And certainly if those places of being taught of God and having an unction which teacheth us all things be against our Ministry it is also against theirs 3. There may be a corrupt opinion which though it be not against Church-communion absolutely yet they judge it Arbitrary and not necessary Of this opinion Grotius seemed once to be for he is thought to be the Author of that Book which asserts Quod non semper communicandum per symbola and Rivet in his Dialysis against him chargeth this upon him that he was not a member of any Church acknowledging it a just hand of God upon him that at his death when a Minister was brought to him he was wholly sensless So that he who in his life time cared not for Church-communion could not have any benefit by a Minister of the Gospel at his death 4. The last corrupt opinion by which men may not joyn to a Church may be from a superstitious conceit whereby men thinking it impossible to have salvation in the world have imprisoned themselves as it were in Cells and holes of Rocks thereby to give themselves wholly to divine Contemplation Thus the Monks Eremites and Anchorites of old For though some of the most ancient are excused as being driven thereunto by persecution yet the latter seemed to be transported wholly with superstition and therefore in that they lived solely not coming to the publick Ordinances of God in a Church way it was not justifiable by Scripture Indeed if they took their times to come to publick Societies and receive Sacraments as Rivet affirmeth against Grotius Dialys pag. 106. pleading their example for being of no Church then they are to be excused à tanto though not à toto The second unlawfull ground of keeping from Communion with Church-assemblies is A prophane Atheistical disposition that look upon a Church and a Church-assembly as humane devices to keep men in awe or if they be not so eminently Atheistical yet their love to their lusts and pleasures to the world and contents thereof make them weary of the Sabbaths and publick Ordinances as those in Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat to sell How many are there that comes as seldome as ever they can to these publick Assemblies and when they do come it 's but for custom and fashion not that they ever found any spiritual good or expect and desire any Therefore let the Use be of Instruction that as ye are not to rest in any Church forms or external Communion to think that the very bodily doing of them will save you So on the other side Take heed of voluntarily and wilfully neglecting the publick Assemblies How have the godly when banished and driven from them bewailed their misery whereas thou dost voluntarily absent thy self Think how it may lie upon thee at thy death when thou shalt remember the many Sabbaths the many Ordinances thou hast neglected and now if God would give thee but one day or one hour to make thy peace with him thou wouldst judge it a great mercy The second Observation is from the Universality All the Saints There are none so mean so inconsiderable but this Epistle is directed to them as well as the most eminent From whence observe That the soul of the poorest and meanest Saint is not to be neglected That as the rain falleth upon the least spire of grass as well as the choisest flowers so ought all ministerial planting and watering to be to the meanest plant in Christs garden as well as the chiefest Though Christian Religion doth not abolish civil Polity nor the distinctions and relations of Magistrate and Subject of Master and Servant but strictly enjoyneth their respective duties yet in respect of religious considerations all are but as one Thus the Apostle notably Gal. 3. 28. There is neither bond or free male or female but all are one mark that in Christ Christ looketh upon all as one man And certainly if Christ in shedding his bloud for his people had an equal respect to the meanest with the greatest he died for the godly servant as well as the godly master the godly poor man as well as the godly rich man Then it behoveth all Christians to imitate him in this Whosoever is a Saint though he be never so contemptible do thou own and imbrace such else we do not love the brotherhood we do not love a godly man because he is godly but because he is great or rich or may advantage thee in the world Paul will not except or leave out one of the Saints in all Acbaia SERM. XXII How Grace and Peace and such like spiritual Mercies and Priviledges are to be desired before any temporal Mercies whatsoever 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ HItherto we have considered the Inscription we now come to the Salutation which is in these words and it containeth matter of prayer It is not any earthly or temporal mercy he prayeth for but what is heavenly and spiritual The Apostle Paul doth constantly use this Salutation only in both those Epistles to Timothy and Titus which were Church-officers he interposeth Mercy between Grace and Peace Calvin thinketh he putteth it in his Salutation to Timothy because of his dear affection and love to him but why should he do it to Titus also Certainly it ought to be considered that only to Church-officers he useth
commanded in the Old Testament We see by this Text that if Christ be the fountain of grace and peace as God the Father is then are we to pray to one as well as the other or to the Father in the Name of Christ The heretical exception against this place is That because the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in the original therefore he would have the word Father relate to Christ as well as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our as if the sense were From God our Father and the Father of Jesus Christ Indeed our Saviour doth say I go to my Father and your Father John 20. 17. But then he saith my Father in the first place whereas here in the Text it 's said Our Father and afterwards in the heretical opinion should follow The Father of Christ but that Christ in these salutations is meant as a conjoyned cause is very evident John 2. 2. where the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expressed from the Father and from the Lord Christ the Sonne of the Father A second cavil that needeth a vindication may be in that Christ is said to be Lord as distinguished from God Therefore it may be thought that Christ is not God To this it 's answered That it 's true in the New Testament though Christ be sometimes called God yet the more common title given to him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially when God the Father and Christ are mentioned together but as when Christ is called Lord it doth not exclude God the Father from being the Lord also So neither when God the Father is called God doth it exclude Christ from being God But you may say Why doth the Scripture if Christ be God and the fountain of grace as well as God the Father alwayes put Christ after God The answer is That though absolutely as God there be an equality yet when personally considered so that divine order is attended unto whereby the Father is of himself alone but the Sonne of the Father especially if we consider Christ as Mediatour so although God yet because in that work he is God-man and in that office inferiour to the Father hence it is that the Scripture speaks of him as the fountain and Christ as the stream or rather second fountain That of God are all things and by Christ are all things It is good to understand these mysteries so farre as the Scripture is a guide to us that we be not involved in those damnable Socinian Doctrines which overthrow these fundamentals That which I shall observe is from the relation attributed to Christ Lord viz. That Jesus Christ is a Lord. Thus he is often called in the Scripture yea Revel 19. 16. he is said to have on his thigh this name King of kings and Lord of lords So 1 Tim. 6. 15. The blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords It 's observed that these titles were given to the Persian Monarchs because of their transcendent dominion but here it is applied to Christ transcendently even to them also for he is said to be the only Potentate as if none were Lord but him Hence it is noted of Augustus as a providential thing That the year Christ was born in he refused to be called Dominus and so some Christian great men would not be called Domini but Domini diminitively out of reverence to Christ but the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so Lord may be attributed to men as well as King and head so that still it be acknowledged he is Lord of lords and that none is Lord like him But let us briefly open this Doctrine that thereby our hearts may be more raised up with this greatness of Christ for he is a Lord not only for his own great dominion and glory but for the believers good and benefit it is matter both of great comfort and encouragement to know that Christ is Lord. And. First We are to consider That Christ hath a two-fold Lordship Kingdom or Dominion The one Divines call Natural and Essential The other Dispensatory and Mediatory The former he hath as God and so is Lord in the same sense that the Father is Lord. The second he hath as he is Mediator God-man and therefore it is in some respects distinct from the former God the Father is not Lord in that peculiar and proper respect as Christ is For although that be true which Divines say That Christs natural or essential Kingdom doth virtually and eminently contain all that his Mediatory doth yet there is some formal respect to be made Now as Christs former Lordship and Dominion was natural and necessary so this may in some sense be said to be given him or as the Scripture saith Act. 2. 36. He was made by the Father both Lord and Christ appointed to be the Lord and the Head of his Church Not that this doth any wayes evacuate his Divine Nature as if because he were made Lord that therefore he was not so essentially for nothing was given Christ to perfect him what he received of his Father in time did only manifest that he was God for none can be Lord and Head of his Church but he who is truly God If therefore as he is Mediator it be said to be given him to be Lord and to have a Name above all Names yet this doth not deny but prove his Divine Nature because none but God can have such power and do such things Secondly This Official or Mediatory Kingdom hath its degrees it is militant and triumphant Militant and so the Lord Christ hath not as yet subdued all his enemies under his feet it doth not follow that Christ is not Lord because every thing is not wholly conquered because there is sinne and the Devil working still For as David was King although still there was a great part to be conquered by him he was King at Hebron when he was not made King over Israel yet he had a right to all before he was in actual possession So it is with our Lord Christ he is made Lord over all only there is time required to bring all things in subjection to him And as for his Triumphant and consummate Kingdom or Lordship that will be at the Day of Judgement when having saved all his people and overcome all their enemies then he shall take the triumph of all his victories And here we may take notice how to understand that difficult place 1 Cor. 15. 24 25. where Christ is said After all enemies are subdued to deliver up his Kingdom to the Father The Socinians urge that to shew that his Dominion and Kingdom will be but for a season whereas the Scripture in many other places maketh his Kingdom to be without end Luk. 1. 32 33. To reconcile this therefore you must know That the Apostle doth there speak of Christs Kingdom as it is militant and in respect of that Dominion and Government which now Christ
useth in his Church not in respect of the Lordship and Dominion it self Christ shall never cease to be the King and Lord of his people only that manner of Government which now Christ exerciseth shall cease all Ordinances and administrations the Ministry and Sacraments yea all Magistracy and Civil Power that God might be all in all fot then we shall not mediately by Christ approach unto God as we do here but immediately yet so as all glory and honour will redound to Christ Thirdly Christ was thus a Lord in the state of his humiliation even in his very Infancy as well as after his exaltation and resurrection And here again the Socinians blaspheme denying That Christ was thus a Lord till his resurrection But although indeed the Scripture doth often attribute this glory and great name to him after his sufferings and upon his resurrection yet that is not because he was not so before but partly because then there was a glorious manifestation of his Dominion The Sunne did not appear so admirable in his eclipse Christ in the state of his humiliation did not so fully and palpably discover this his greatness yet for all that he was endowed with it and Christ doth acknowledg himself to have a Kingdom to Pilate even before his sufferings Yea at his birth the Wisemen came to worship him as Lord and King and when he rode in triumph into Jerusalem that Prophecy was fulfilled Behold thy King cometh to thee And certainly if then he was a Saviour and the Messias he must needs be also Lord and King Yea in the greatest expressions of his humane weaknesses as in his birth and death there was also powerfull demonstrations of his Divine Majesty Neither is Vorstius his Objection of any value That because Christ in his Infancy had not that wisdom required to govern which afterwards he did grow up into therefore he could not be Lord For in Christ while an Infant were hidden the treasures of all wisdom though these were not actually to be put forth but when there was an occasion to do so There was no defect in Christ to be Head of his Church while a child because even then he could put forth whatsoever was required at that time to govern the Church with And indeed to argue that he was not Lordor King because he did not actually put forth himself in that way is absurd for kingly or lordly actions did not make him to be a King or Lord but because he was Lord and King therefore he did as he pleased put forth such actions Certainly the Apostle cals him the Lord of glory even while they crucified him 1 Cor. 2. 8. And the Socinians themselves acknowledge him upon his ascension to be Lord of glory when yet the greatest instance of his lordly power is still to be accomplished which is the judging of all mankind at that dreadfull Day of Judgment Christ then was always Lord both in his state of humiliation and also of his exaltation Fourthly This lordly power which Christ hath extends to all things in the world he is Lord over the whole world He is the universal Monarch for God hath given him all the kingdoms of the world Rev. 11. 15. The kingdoms of this world are there said to become the Lords and of his Christ Yea in some sense this great Dominion is given to every Saint Revel 2. 26. To have power over all Nations even as he hath received of the Father Hence it is said John 5. 22. That the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Sonne not that the Father hath wholly abdicated himself from the government of the world as the Socinians say but because Christ as Mediator is subordinate unto him in this administration Christ therefore hath an universal power over the whole world And whereas learned men say One man cannot be universal Governour over the whole world much lesse over the Church because no man can have those qualifications fit for to discharge that Government yet in Christ this doth not hold because he is God as well as man but this Dominion of Christ in respect of his Church is of another nature than that of the world for he rules the world with a rod of iron breaking every thing to pieces that shall prejudice his Church So that this power over them is wholly coactive as they do not willingly own or submit to him as a Lord so he doth by his omnipotent power keep them under and makes them servants and vassals for his work and to bring about such glorious ends which they never intended or shall have any benefit by as those that built Noah's Ark were not preserved in it But to his Church there he holdeth out a Scepter of grace For as they do willingly own him as their King submitting to his order and laws so he taketh special care over them and they may more safely lay themselves down under his protection than under the greatest Potentate in the world More might be said Doctrinally about this Dominion of Christ but let us consider what comfortable and usefull improvement is to be made of it And 1. Is Christ thus a Lord and that above all Lords Then what ground is here for our faith under all discouragements and affections How little doest thou posfess thy heart with this Lord of glory Doest thou doubt about the pardon of sinne conquering of corruptions preservation under temptations Is not all this because thou doest not remember Christ is Lord of Lords Will not he bear thee up Doth he want either knowledge or power Especially this should encourage us in any work for him Thou fearest the frowns of man the oppositions of man thou doubtest thy cause will sink and is not all this because thou lookest upon earthly power as greater than Christs power Was ever any temporal lord able to do such things as the Lord Christ Never than saint or be discouraged under his work Use 2. If he be our Lord then here is ground for duty as well as for comfort Joh. 13. 13. Ye call me Master and Lord ye do well saith Christ but from that consideration he puts them upon duty And certainly iâ— Christ be our Lord where then is our honour our obedience to him May not he impose what duties injoyn the Church what Laws and order to walk by he pleaseth Shall we be our own lords Our tongues our hearts are not our own but our Lords Take heed of being in the number of those who shall deny the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2. 1. for such as do so bring upon themselves swift destruction if he be not thy Lord in grace and favour he will be thy Lord in wrath and in thy confusion They that said Psal 12. 4. Who is Lord over us found that God would be above them SERM. XXIX Of the Duty of Thankefulness Blessing and Praising God for all his Mercies 2 COR. 1. 3. Blessed be God even the
matter of comfort enough here is more oyl then we have vessels to receive This the Scripture doth frequently insinuate Matth. 5. Your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of But especially Heb. 12. 9 10. the Apostle declareth at large That because we are sons because God loveth us and is a Father therefore he doth chasten us and so if we give reverence to earthly parents because they correct us as the Apostle implieth How much more ought we to bless God for his fatherly love to us in correcting of us Out of very faithfulness saith David thou hast afflicted me for before that came he went astray So then he who is taught by Scripture he seeth as much of love as much of a Father in these tribulations as in any outward mercies Whereas therefore they said If thou art the Sonne of God come down from the crosse the godly man saith on the contrary because he is the Son of God he will ascend up to the Cross when his Father commands him hence afflictions are spoken of by way of gift To you it is given to suffer and they are called The precious trial of our faith Say then as Christ Shall I not drink of the Cup which my Father hath given me And because he is a Father and he makes his afflictions medicinal therefore they are stinted and measured by him both for the time when they shall begin thy tribulations fall not out when the Devil and thy enemies would bring them upon thee but when Gods time is come as you see they could never touch Christ till he said His time was come So that as God is said to determine the bounds of mens habitations so he hath also of the afflictions of his children they come not sooner or later than thy Father in wisdome had appointed Now as winter and cold is necessary in its season as well as Summer in its season and the night hath its use as well as the day Thus a time of tribulation is as necessary as a time of rest and quietness There is a great deal of mercy to thee in the very time of thy trouble unless the grain of Corn fall in the earth and die it cannot be fruitfull this Christ applied to himself and is also true of every Christian As the time is thus prefixed so the kind of it with the measure and degree of it Revel 2. 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into prison The Apostle also Heb. 11. speaketh of the several sorts of tribulations the Saints were exercised with and if Gods providence reacheth to the Sparrows fall on the ground yea to the hair falling from the head how much more to the head it self to man himself Is not this then a true solid ground of comfort to think that thy heavenly Father knowing thy temptations and what will do thee most good hath appointed thee to drink of this cup of an affliction rather than another Know that that very tryal upon thee how contrary soever to thy flesh and bloud yet is the best and most profitable affliction of any in the world to thee other afflictions would be like contrary physick to a disease do more hurt than good Lastly This heaveuly Father hath not only appointed the time the kind the degree of thy tribulation but also the time of deliverance from it And this is also a great comfort to know that the tribulation shall not stay an hour longer then while it may do good to thee he will not take one drop of blood more from thee then is necessary to prevent thy disease or abate it So Rev. 2. 10. Some should be cast into prison for ten dayes You see here God had determined the time Even as the Artificer knoweth how long the gold must be in the fire to take away the drosse and will not suffer it to abide any longer This the Psalmist made use of in his Prayer for the Church The time to favour her yea the set time is come So thou art to know that the time of favour the time of deliverance yea the set time will come So that this may adde much comfort to the godly that their afflictions shall be as the horsleeches set to the body to stick no longer then the corrupt bloud is taken away Thus Job though he had many gloomy and sad temptations yet sometimes again he was refreshed with this That he should come out of that affliction like gold out of the fire Chap. 23. 10. How wonderfully was Habakkuk comforted in his exercises for being informed Chap. 2. 3. That the vision was for an appointed time that God though he did tarry would surely come see how he breaketh forth Chap. 3. 17 18. Although the fig-tree doth not blossom c. yet I will rejoyce in God I will joy in the God of my salvation Well may God be called the God of consolation who can make Habakkuk so greatly rejoyce when all earthly props are taken away A second Scripture-cordial by which God comforts his people in all tribulations is from Christ with all the fulness that is in him Certainly Christ received by faith and improved Evangelically is able to make us gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles He that hath this Sunne cannot be in the dark night What makes Paul Rom. 8. so triumph and boast in all manner of tribulations challenging as it were every one of them to do their worse Is not the foundation of all this Christ dead and Christ risen again And if he hath given us Christ how shall he not with him give us all things Thus the presence of Christ the spiritual influence of Christ into the soul taketh away the bitternesse of all troubles Thus it was with the Martyrs Thus it is with Gods children while by faith they lay hold on Christ As the light of the Sunne puts out the light of the fire Thus the presence of Christ putteth out all other comforts yea and all troubles also Hence Isa 9. Christ is promised to the godly by way of comfort to them when the outward condition of the Nation was like to be very miserable Micah also Chap. 5. 5. promiseth that Christ should be the peace when the Assyrian should come into the Land But what Peace was Christ he did not bring temporal peace neither was he to have a temporal Kingdom But to the godly who looked for a spiritual Messiah this was the comfort of comforts to have a Christ as a spiritual Saviour If then thy tribulations be heavy and irksome Oh desire more knowledge and enjoyment of Christ for he will be in stead of all things to thee he is Wisdome he is Righteousnesse he is wealth he is honours he is husband friend So that he who hath fellowship and communion with Christ finds him to be as those three Worthies cast into the fiery fornace having the company of one who is said to be in form like the Sonne of God a defence against
Lastly Here are Consolations And although these are of greater concernment in the particular to every Believer because the joy of the Lord is his strength hereby also he walketh thankfully and fruitfully yet let him take heed of being narrow and sparing in using them for others comforts For if thou art a Minister of the Gospel then thy work is not only to convert but to comfort not only to bring out of sinnes but out of fears and dejections Thus the Apostle at the last verse in this Chapter We are helpers of your joy Consider that not only what is acquired by study but what also is inspired by God into thy soul may be of admirable efficacy to others Though Christs Sermons and Parables were like a two-edged sword mightily dividing between true grace and hypocrisie yet Isa 50. 4. he expresseth his Ministry by this to speak a word in season to the weary and this he calleth the tongue of the learned We call it Learning to alledge the Ancients to be full of Greek and Hebrew to empty out the bowels of School-learning yea some are so simple as to account studied words and composed language rare Learning whereas speech is like the Arrow that is not commended for studs of gold or Jewels on it but if it hit the mark Thus that is Oratory which is most proper to effect the end of our speech To make the sinners weep the hard heart to tremble and the sad to be comforted You see it 's the tongue of the learned to do this Doth then God give thee comfort be not thou wanting then to support and comfort the feeble-minded It may be thou art a kind of a spiritual Dives full of consolations and thinkest thou hast store enough laid up for thee both to live and die with take heed lest some poor Lazarus would be glad of thy crums and thou dost not give to him SERM. XLII That those only can make fit applications of Spiritual things to others who have an Experimental knowledge of them in their own souls 2 COR. 1. 4. That we may be able to comfort those that are in any trouble THere remaineth a second Doctrine contained in the final cause why God comforts his people viz. That they may be able to comfort others From whence there is this Observation obvious That those only are able to make fit applications to the souls of others who have had the experimental working of Gods grace upon their own souls That we might be able implying otherwise there would not be that sufficiency and fitnesse in us which ought to be To discover this consider First That there is a two-fold knowledge of divine and spiritual things The one is speculative and meerly Theoretical when we know them yea and it may be give a sound and firm assent to them And such are all those learned men who are very Orthodox and wonderfully able to maintain the truths of Christ against all opposers whatsoever Such as these are God raiseth up many times as eminent Pillars in the Church But because this is not enough to salvavation therefore in the second place there is a saving affectionate practical and experimental knowing of truth whereby we do not only believe such things but by believing we do love and embrace the truths we know We do credendo amare we have a faith which worketh by love Now it must be confessed that the condition of those who are only Orthodox and no more is much to be pittied and lamented To write against Arminians and others about the work of Gods grace in Conversion and yet never experimentally to have this upon their own souls So to treat of Justification and Christ yet not at all to have the saving and sweet operations of these things upon their souls is greatly to be bewailed To be like the builders of Noah's Ark that proved a place of rest and refuge in the time of the deluge for others when they themselves had no advantage by it But it is no wonder that such excellent knowledge and of such admirable lovely use in the Church be not saving while it goeth no further because practice and doing is the end of all Theological knowledge If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Joh. 13. 17. So that this experimental and practical knowledge of divine things is that which compleateth the former To know Christ so as to have him to know regeneration so as to be born again this is the glory of all knowledge Hence is that Commandement 2 Cor. 13. 5. To examine our selves to try our selves whether we be in the faith and in Christ or no. The latter word signifieth to make an experience or an experimental tryal of grace in us So that if you had a man who could speak like an Oracle in all the points of Divinity who was a very Miracle in respect of learning yet he is but a tinckling cymbal and speaks in the matters of Religion like a Parrot not rightly or fully apprehending of them till he hath inwardly tasted of the sweetnesse of them Secondly This saving experimental knowledge doth differ in its whole kind and is of another nature in a moral consideration from a meer Orthodox or bare speculative knowledge I shall not enter into a large dispute concerning the difference between illumination in a temporary believer although now we are not so much speaking of the habitus fidei as Theologiae which may be in learned knowing men and that which is in a true convert We shall suppose it for a truth from Heb. 6. That those who were inlightned yea and had some experimental workings of which a non yet they had not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had not the things that hold fast salvation and therefore the Apostle hoped for better things They therefore so differ that take a man who doth only know divine things by Books by Sermons by reading of Authours and was not at all acquainted wih the Spirits effectual teaching by the Word and let him at last come to have these things set home upon him by an effectual demonstration of Gods Spirit let him know these things as the truth is in Jesus which the Apostle mentioneth Eph. 4. and he will then cry out acknowledging that he never knew any thing till then That he was in the dark that he had but a learned kind of folly that he spoke of these things as men do of Countries which they see in Maps only by a general knowledge having never travelled to see the Countries themselves There is such a fuller power accompanying this practical knowledge that the former was but a shadow to this substance Observe many men Do they not read the Scripture Do not they go from Chapter to Chapter But till it be the ingrafted Word in them they have the images and pictures of things not the things themselves In the third place That is not to be called
one way or other Every Abel will have a Cain every Isaac an Ismael What though you do not suffer from the Pagans or heretiques without yet how greatly do ye suffer from the prophane and ungodly within Every prophane man though he shrowd himself under the name of Christ yet he is of an Antichristian spirit if not doctrinally yet practically and in deed Bernard speaking of the bitter times by Paganish persecution and then of more bitter by hereticall maketh the third and most bitter of all to be in the evil and ungodly manners of those who are within the Church Heu domine saith he qui sunt in Ecclesiâ primi sunt in persecutione primi There is then a suffering for Christ though not to blood and if every godly man do not thus suffer let him fear whether he be not a man pleaser whether he fear not man more then God whether therefore he be not applauded as a wise man as a moderate man because he is not indeed a zealous godly man against sinne in his place The very Heathen could say How is he a good man who is not trouble some to and hated by an evil man Therefore saith our Saviour Wo be to you when all men speak well of you Luk. 6. 26. Some observe the connexion the Apostle useth 1 Pet. 4. 11 12. for having in the 11 verse exhorted to a faithfull and diligent discharge of those Offices we are betrusted with presently exhorts to patience about afflictions because one will necessarily cause the other So Mat. 10. when Christ giveth his Apostles Commission to preach he doth withall admonish them of the hatred they shall meet with Light will be offensive to sore eyes and salt will make wounds to smart Thirdly To suffer for Christs sake is very tedious and grievous to flesh and blood It 's because of those reproaches and many times dangers which accompany the way of Christ that it is such a stumbling block to many They like the Crown of Glory well but they like not the Crown of Thornes If Christs way was a broad way they might have Christ and their honours Christ and their lusts Christ and their advantages then they would be as forward to runne out and meet Christ as they did from Jerusalem crying Hosâ—nna to him Therefore howsoever men have thousands of pretences to keep off from the way of godlinesse and the faithfull owning of Christ they have many wide gates of distinction to go out at when danger is at hand yet it is fear of suffering that keepeth most off their duty They like Christ well till it cometh to be said as she did to Moses Thou art a bloody husband to me So Christ will have thy good name thy estate thy life this makes thee prove an Apostate and turn hypocrite Oh the gulf of misery yea sometimes of despair that this fear of suffering hath put men upon Therefore afflictions for Christs sake are so often called temptations because they will discover whether a man be â—ound for God or not whether they love Christ more then the creatures Oh then pray to God that he leave thee not to this snare to be afraid to suffer for doing what is good This will prove bitter at the latter end Do you not see among Officers how fearfull to punish the drunkard the Sabbath-breaker they shall loose their good word they will do them despite and malice afterwards Art not thou all this while afraid to suffer for Christ He that suffers for doing that which is righteous for punishing offenders he suffers for Christ as is to be shewed Remember then it 's better suffering for Christ which is our Crown and Glory then suffering in Hell for ever because thou wouldst not do the will of God SERM. XLVI The same Doctrine prosecuted shewing the Object for which Christians are to suffer if they would suffer for Christ 2 COR. 1. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us c. THe Doctrine that hath in part been treated on is That a true and faithfull owning of Christ is accompanied with sufferings and persecutions Some Particulars have been given in to clear this We proceed to adde more and the first in order shall be That although it is very difficult to flesh and blood to own Christ so farre as to suffer for him yet the Scripture represents it as a most blessed and glorious thing howsoever the world judge it reproachfull I shall not here enlarge my self about the encouragements to suffer when Christ calls for it it is enough at this time in the general to inform That God will not honour every one with persecutions for himself It is a great expression of his grace and favour Hence some Confessors have desired to be Martyrs but God by his providence preserved them they have been greatly humbled and dejected under this as if it were for some special sinne and unworthinesse in them that God would not in that manner dignify them These are not words and meer oratory the Scripture is clear in proclaiming this for a title of favour to be a sufferer for Christ Act. 5. 41. The Apostles rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name That they might have shame and reproach for Christ this they rejoyced in as a great matter of honour Who were they that the Lord should so exhalt them So Phil. 1. 29. To you it 's given not only to believe but to suffer By this you see that every one to whom God doth give to believe he doth not also give to suffer for him It 's a gift then and where this is bestowed they ought to rejoyce and to be exceeding glad Yea 1 Pet. 3. 14. They are happy And 1 Pet. 4. 16. Thy are to goorifie God in that behalf If we could believe these Scripture truths so much sinfull fear and pusillanimity in the cause of Christ might not be charged upon us as too often it may be we would not run from a duty accompanied with sufferings as Moses did from the rod turned into a Serpent neither should we with Simon the Cyrenean be compelled to bear the crosse That is observeable 1 Pet. 2. 19. If a man suffer for conscience towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We translate it this is thankworthy But happily that is not so proper for if a man should suffer all the Martyrdomes that have been in his own body yet God is not to thank him he hath not suffered more then he ought to do Neither do I know that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in such a sense Therefore it 's better translated This is a favour this is grace if God bring us to suffer for a good conscience towards him If then thou art to suffer either verbally by mocks and slanders or really by miseries and persecutions set the Crown of Glory to the Crown of Thornes set the honey to the gall set the honour with God to
high rebellions and treasons So that this alwaies falleth out as men are perswaded of their way so they judge it true persecution or false Hastia did truly call the Donatists persecutions Persecutiones steriles â—barren and fruitlesse as losing the crown of glory though they boasted of them On the other side the rigid Lutherans did condemn our Martyrs in Queen Maries daies because they dyed against that error That Christ was bodily present in the Sacrament yea and called them Martyres Diaboli The Devils Martyrs This I confesse is more grievous many times then all the persecutions of the adversaries when those who are of the same general profession yet for some particular differences shall so uncharitably censure one another But this is no new thing in the Church of God The Socinians though they blaspheme the Deity of Christ and their doctrine is not simply heresie but blasphemy also yet they will admire their sufferings as if for Christ also The Polonian Gentleman that writ Socinus his life would preferre him above Luther and Ignatius As for Ignatius the Father of Jesuites we have nothing to do with him but that he should preferre him above Luther for the greatnesse of his faith Because saith he Luthers Doctrine at the first had many to applaud it but Sociâ—ius had few or none to encourage him Though we might say Luthers was universally hated the whole world being then subject to the Pope yet that can be nothing with that writer who confesseth that pride and vain-glory may make all a mans sufferings to be fewel to it Thus you see how that all suffering parties in Religion will pretend to Christ and plead they suffer for him but as Christ is Christ though there have risen many false Christs so suffering and persecution for Christ is truly so and some there are and they only who can claim this honour though others do gloriously pretend to it It is a true rule of Austins Causa non paena facit Martyrem Not the punishment but the cause makes a Martyr Even as Causa non separatio facit schismaticum It must be indeed the Doctrine of Christ not our opinions and presumptions we suffer with Thirdly The Scripture expresseth this Suffering for righteousnesse sake He that suffereth for doing that which is righteous suffereth for Christ Mat. 5. 10. If ye be persecuted for righteousnesse sake blessed are ye This is made the same with suffering for Christs sake This is good to observe lest we should think that then we only suffer for Christ when the matter we are troubled for is either Christ himself or his truth and ordinances something that is immediately terminated upon Christ No this is to be extended farther For when a Magistrate is zealous to rebuke sinne and put it to shame if he be maligned for this he suffereth for Christ So if a private Christian set himself in a lawfull way against all the impieties that abound where he liveth and thereupon all his neighbours hate and oppose him he suffers for Christ And all because it 's for righteousnesse Insomuch that thou maiest take much comfort herein as one Martyr did That it is not for any wickednesse of thine any wrong or injury thou hast done them only because thou hast had a zeal for God and his glory therefore it is that they rise up with such malice against thee And let this encourage all such who desire to have all ungodlinesse and dishonour to God by sinne be wholly rooted out though in this labour they have many oppositions and much hatred yet remember it is for Christ It is true indeed that besides meer righteousnesse there must be also a knowledge of Christ For without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 3. And therefore though Aristides the just was banished for righteousnesse and Socrates put to death for maintaining there was but one God yet these cannot be said to suffer for Christ because they had no knowledge of him Seeing Christ is only in the Church therefore there cannot be any true suffering for him but in the Church Lastly In respect of the object matter Then we suffer for Christ when we are persecuted for keeping a good conscience and will not break the peace thereof for all the advantages in the world Thus the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3. 16. maketh the having of a good conscience to be equivalent to suffering for righteousnesse sake and also for the Name of Christ This good conscience consists in this That whereas the enemies and persecutors speak all evil of us as evil doers they may at last be ashamed for such false accusations Here you see none ever persecuted the Church of God but they laid foul things to their charge That as they did put the Christians sometimes in Bear-skins to make the dogs tear them with the greater rage so also they have turned their names into Heretiques Schismaticks and every odious title that so they might be the more justified in their cruel waies Now then to suffer with and for a good conscience is to be innocent from all these calumnies that we dare appeal to God as Christ said For which of the good works do ye stone me So for what good is it that I have done you reproach you revile and persecute me But when we say a good conscience we mean that which is truly so and informed out of Gods Word otherwise as Paul said he had a good conscience while he was a Pharisee and thought he was bound to do against Christ what he did So many deluded consciences may indure much misery yea death it self with a good conscience thus farre that they do not go against any light thereof They are not as some Heretiques 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-condemned as it is commonly expounded No they may think they are bound to suffer as they do Yea if they should recant their errors though never so damnable while their conscience is perswaded to the contrary they would sinne against God not because they renounce an error materially but because they do that which formally appeareth a truth to them and it may be bring much horror and teror upon their own consciences It is not enough therefore to make a man a sufferer for Christ if in a false way because he is perswaded so his conscience doth not tell him to the contrary he hath much comfort doing as he doth whereas if he should do otherwise he should have no peace For conscience is but an inferiour Judge and is no further to command then guided by the Word of God and when it is so then whosoever will not please men but indure all hardship rather then wound this conscience this man suffers for Christ Thus you see what it is to suffer for Christ in the Scripture expression and let it be thy earnest prayer to God to have a preparednesse of heart thus to suffer Oh consider how much Christ suffered for thee both from God and
comparatively to the cause and glory of Christ And this makes it so difficult to suffer This hath made the Apostates that have many times been in the Church This hath filled the hearts of many with woe and wounds implacably For their childrens sake for their lives sake they deny Christ and a good conscience and how can it be otherwise while Earth is dearer than Heaven when we esteem the favour of men more than the favour of God This hath proved bitter wormwood to many at last Lastly To suffer for Christ there is required pure and holy motives To lose all for Christs sake out of meer conscience that this is the only cause why we are in any trouble We may read both in sacred and prophane Histories how men have suffered even death it self only for vain-glory All Aristotles vertuous men they were ambitious and vain-glorious men The very Heathen could make it Laudum immensa cupido as well as Amorpatriae We would think it a madnesse to lose comforts and life for an airy bubble of windy glory yet many have been thus transported not only Philosophus but Haereticus est animal gloriae vanissimum If then it 's not Scripture-grounds but ambitious vain-glorious principles that make thee to suffer Christ doth not will not provide sugar for thy bitter pils Thus have we seen what is required to suffer for Christ Oh the difficulty of this duty No wonder so much seed hath withered away when the scorching Sunne of persecution did arise No wonder Christ hath many Swallow-friends that endure with him the Summer time onely No wonder few are lovers of Christ for Christs sake As Alexander had more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the Bees that follow for the honey-pot only Now to all these we must adde this Caution A Christian that suffereth for Christ though he have not those qualifications in a perfect degree but find corruption opposing every one of them He must not therefore cast away his confidence for we can no more suffer perfectly for Christ then do perfectly for him and if our gracious works cannot justifie us no more can our gracious sufferings Martyrdom is not meritorious Though we shed our bloud for Christ yet the blood of Christ must cleanse that duty also The Martyrs died only in resting upon Christ for salvation and no wonder the godly heart finds more imperfections in his sufferings more carnal fear and impatience then in other duties because this is the hardest service Christ doth ever put his upon What else is to be said in this point will come in in the next particulars SERM. XLVIII How many wayes and by what means Christ comforteth those who suffer for him 2 COR. 1. 5. So our consolation aboundeth by Christ THe second absolute Proposition in the Text is That our comfort aboundeth by Christ. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by some Exhortation but more generally and fitly Consolation Though this be spoken in the singular number and afflictions in the plural yet this is to be understood collectively as a treasure that hath all kind of comforts in it not one or two but all Therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here repeated again aboundeth which is to be understood partly repletively it filleth the hearts of those that do suffer for Christ and partly diffusively it extends also to the comfort of others And then you have the cause of all this By Christ Christ who is the cause of their sufferings is also the cause of their comfort As from the same root proceedeth both the Rose and its pricks Thus from Christ the same Fountain cometh both bitter and sweet Were not this added who would suffer for Christ who would lose all for him but Christ hath so ordained it that these sufferings are advantagious to us and though we lose in the retail yet we gain in the bulk and whole Observe That as our sufferings are for Christ so by the same Christ are our comforts Though he strike with one hand yet he supporteth with the other If David said to the Priest who fled to him many of them being slain at No◠by the bloudy cruelty of Saul Stay with me I am the occasion of your deaths thou shalt fare as I fare How much more will Christ own such who suffer for him saying Depend upon me for I am the cause of all the reproaches and cruel usages you meet with in the world But to explain this Let us consider In what respects comforts may be said to abound by Christ And First Efficiently He being the same with God is therefore a God of all consolation Yea Christ as a Mediator he is sensible of our temptations knoweth our need and wants and therefore the more ready to comfort Christ that wanted comfort himself and therefore had an Angel sent to comfort him is thereby the more compassionate and willing to comfort us Thus you may read Christ and God put together in this very act 2 Thess 2. 16 17. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts Paul here prayeth that both Jesus Christ and God the Father would comfort them Christ therefore not only absolutely as God but relatively as Mediator is qualified with all fitnesse and fulnesse to communicate consolation he is the fountain and head as of grace so of comfort Secondly We are comforted by Christ Meritoriously he hath merited at the hands of God our comfort for without Christs death and atonement we were no more subjects prepared for comfort then the damned Angels Had all mankind with Dives begged but for a drop of comfort such was the gulph between God and us that it could not be obtained So that by Christ a way is made for our consolation Christ did not only obtain the communication of the holy Ghost in the gifts and graces thereof So that as by Christ the Spirit of God is given to the Church as a guide to teach and lead into all truth as the sanctifying Spirit and use of all holinesse So he is also as the Comforter who giveth every drop of consolation that any believer doth enjoy Though therefore joy and comfort be in Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost as the appropriated and applying cause thereof yet this is wholly because of the merits of Christ And therefore we may pray for comfort upon the same grounds as we doe for holinesse They are both the fruits of Christs death Lastly We are comforted by Christ Objectively that is in him and from him we take our comfort As Christ is called Our righteousnesse because in and through his righteousnesse we are accepted of in him we are compleat So Christ is our comfort because in him we find matter of all joy though there be troubles and vexations from the creatures though the Sunne and Moon be turned into bloud all powers
Christ though I have no comfort at all it is not my ease so much as thy glory I look at This will greatly indear thee to God Fifthly God may deny thee comfort to inform thee how much thou art beholding to Christ He suffered for thee and that without comfort He was willing to be deprived of it that so he might accomplish thy Redemption Now as Christ would be tempted like us so God will have us tempted like Christ that we might be the more thankfull to him Certainly all the paines on his body all the disgrace and reproach he went under was not equall to his being without comfort yet this he indured for thee Lastly Conclude on this That if comfort were absolutely necessary for thee at this time thou shouldst have it Rom. 8. How can he not but give us all other things who hath given us Christ Is comfort equall to Christ SERM. L. The Saints Sufferings are for the Churches good 2 COR. 1. 6. And whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the induring the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation THis Verse is acknowledged by many Learned Expositors to be very difficult not so much from the matter for that is easie as from the grammatical disposition of the words there being several conjectures and divers adventures about the transposing of them In most of the Latin Copies there are three members in the disjunction whereas the Greek hath but two after this manner Whether we be afflicted whether we be comforted and whether we exhort But according to the Greek word which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this would make a tautology therefore no doubt this was inserted in the Latin Copies by some not diligently attending to what they did Then as for the Greek Chrysostome doth transpose the words otherwise then we do putting off the second member of the disjunction viz. Whether we be comforted c. to the next Verse Knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings c. and then reduceth all the rest to the former part Some also blame Erasmus for adding in the Original it is Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation which way our Translators also render And indeed the sense would runne well enough without it relating to those words Our hope of you is stedfast But this is not material for the sense is still the same Not therefore to trouble you with these grammatical difficulties seeing the scope and meaning of the Apostle is evident which is That whatsoever did befall him in his ministerial Office it was for their good and therefore they were to be so farre from being discouraged at his sufferings or to despise him for them as the false Apostles laboured to make them do that they ought rather to honour him and they themselves to be more animated in their sufferings for Christ And in this the Apostle doth so overflow with words that Erasmus absurdly giveth this prophane censure Intempestivae copiae affectatio as if he could teach the Spirit of God how to speak But no wonder at this presumption of his seeing in his Epistle to Barbirius purging himself from being a Lutheran much more from holding every thing that Luther wrote he addeth he would not be so addicted to Austin or Hierome vix etiam ipsi Paulo scarce even to Paul himself Whether this vix would preserve him from blasphemy let others judge But come we to the first member in this distribution wherein we have the condition supposed the consequent and effect of it with the amplification thereof I shall begin with the condition supposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether we be afflicted squeezed or pressed for the word signifieth such afflictions as are like the â—â—ail to the corn that doth bruise it The end of this in the general is for the good of the Church more particularly for their consolation and salvation From whence Observe That the afflictions and sufferings we indure for Christ do not only turn to our own good but to the good of Gods Church That they are for our own good hath been partly spoken to Yea every dispensation of God to those that fear him is a benefit and an advantage For if it be a mercy it is bonum Dei consolantis if an affliction it is bonum Dei admonentis as Austin But I am now to speak of the diffusive good by afflictions in respect of others That sufferings for Christ are of publique edification to the Church appeareth by two or three notable texts concerning what Paul speaketh of himself Phil. 1. 12. I would ye should understand that the things which hapned to me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel I would ye should understand It is a truth that Believers should possesse themselves with For indeed it is a ridle that out of this strong one should come honey that out of darknesse should arise light from death come life The not understanding of this hath made so many Apostates thinking that the Kingdom of Christ and his waies would never hold because all the power of the world conspire to oppresse it but the Apostle would have them know that persecutions do not hinder but further the Gospel The treading and trampling on this Camomile makes it thrive the better Another remarkable text is 2 Tim. 2. 10. where the Apostle having shewed that though they did cast him into bonds yet the Word of God could not be bound no more then a man as Chrysostome observeth that cutteth off a branch from the tree can cut off the Sun-beams also from the Sun that may shine upon that branch he addeth that he doth indure all things for the elects sake that they may obtain salvation Oh wonderfull expression you might think Paul goeth too high these words become Christ rather Who can say this but Christ He suffereth for the elects sake that they may have salvation But Paul speaks this only as a Minister not a Mediatour as is more particularly to be urged His scope is to shew that it is not for any sinnes of his own any wickednesse that he hath committed but it is for the good of the Church that he thus suffereth So that Paul doth not only propagate the Gospel by preaching but by suffering when he cannot preach he doth most preach when his person is bound in chains then the Gospel is more enlarged As Herod by cutting off John Baptists head did in effect make John's tongue more speak and witness against him The last instance is Col. 1. 24. which place is the more famous because abused by the Papists to uphold a treasure or overplus in the sufferings of the Saints that they suffer more than they deserve and therefore the overplus is to be dispensed by Papal authority for the relief of such who want merits And here cometh in their doctrine
them So that their sufferings were not for the salvation but the destruction of many through the sinne and indiscretion of after ages It is true there is a lawfull and due honouring of God for his graces bestowed on those Worthies yet they were but the pens Gods Spirit was the ready writer they were but the vessels God poured that curious ointment in them It was not they so much as God in and by them for they were men like us subject to carnal and worldly fears they were reeds of themselves ready to be shaken by every wind but God established them So that it is our duty to blesse God who gave such power and grace to men yea and we are in a civil way to honour and love them to desire to imitate them to make them examples for us to follow If the Papists had gone no further we and they should have been at concord in this point but from imitation they fall to adoration And although they heap up as many distinctions as Samson did men by his slaughter Heap upon heap to clear themselves in this matter yet it is but vitreum acumen these glasses are quickly broken That the name of such who suffer for Christ should be like a precious ointment and an honourable esteem of them be had alwayes in the Church none can deny Therefore those moral respects vouchsafed to them in the primitive times are not to be blamed as the regarding of the judgement of a Martyr as much or more than any Bishop or Doctor As also when any had fallen by infirmity in times of persecution such repenting did first go to the Confessours in prisons that were Candidates or designed Martyrs intreating their favour and desiring liberty of admission into Church-communion from them which the Church received they making publick satisfaction in respect of scandal by serious humiliation but this afterwards began to be greatly abused and Cyprian complaineth of it therefore it was at last justly abrogated howsoever such respects as were meerly moral are to be allowed but for religious considerations to do any thing to them that is unjustifiable A learned man thinketh that the Prophecy spoken of by Peter 2 Tim. 4. 1. which tels of an Apostasie bringing in Doctrines of daimons as he explains it is the worshipping of these Saints departed and that this was the great Apostasie of the Church Whether that be the intent of the holy Ghost is not here to be disputed Certainly there was great Apostasie in the Church from primitive simplicity when they began to worship such who had been Martyrs yea their reliques they would in a religious manner preserve and adore praying also unto them and expecting both soul-mercies and body-mercies from them Here this wine did begin to turn into vinegar and contrary to Christ they turned wine into water that which was only for example and imitation they turned to Adoration and worship wherein they did not only derogate from the glory due to Christ but even those Confessors and glorious Martyrs themselves were they corporally present would with Paul and Barnabas rend their cloaths and refuse such worship Certainly if the Angel did forbid John from worshipping him saying He was his fellow-servant and therefore he must worship God How much more would the Martyrs who were subject to like passions as we are Though therefore the godly are afflicted and persecuted for our comfort and salvation yet take heed of superstitious excesse about them turning imitation into religious adoration Thirdly Those that suffer may be very usefull to encourage us but then we must be sure they be such who do indeed suffer for Christ. For no doubt all those who have suffered in any false way The Heretick for his heresies the Papist for his Idolatry and superstition have greatly confirmed those that were of that perswasion They did greatly comfort and animate others that did believe them to be the true Martyrs of Christ So that we may say of such contrary to that in the Text They are afflicted for the destruction and damnation of others Others are hardened in their Idolatries and Heresies by their sufferings Look we then that we do propound right paterns to our selves that we be not deceived as sometimes in Popery they have worshipped the bone of an Asse or an horse for a Saints relique for the Devil hath his Martyrs Heresie hath her Martyrs yea vain-glory hath had many Martyrs And Austin saith It is possible for a man who dieth for the truth yet to have no other motive but vain-glory The Apostle affirmeth it also 1 Cor. 13. when he supposeth a man may give his body to be burnt and yet for want of charity be a tinkling cymbal or it will profit him nothing This is so secret a sinne and we are so prone to it that the Heathens did charge it upon all the Christians though falsly and maliciously that they suffered only for vain-glory being the more induced to think so because the Christians did in such an excessive manner give honour and praise to them These things premised let us consider how the afflictions of others for Christs cause work to our comfort and salvation First We shall have the greater assurance and perswasion of those Divine Truths upon our souls that they are not the meer inventions of men or delusions of our own souls For how can it but greatly assure us that if this were not the truth of God they could never have that comfort that courage that evidence and demonstration upon their hearts the presence of God with them in those exquisite sufferings do demonstrate that the truths are of God as well as the power and comforts to be of him It is true indeed the meer suffering and that with some joy the most exquisite torments For a religious opinion doth not presently argue that it is a divine truth that it hath Gods superscription upon it For many heretical and deluded spirits have demonstrated much confidence and comfort yet on the other side there cannot be an external greater sign of our love to the truth and that it is of God then by patient suffering for it And therefore though Hereticks die though Papists die for their Religion as well as the true Martyr yet the frame of their spirits and concomitant dispositions are greatly different For as their minds are corrupted with error so also are their hearts and affections unsanctified and therefore discover not the sweet and gracious workings of Gods Spirit upon them as the true sufferer doth So that it was not meerly suffering it was not meerly torments but the patience faith and heavenly mindednesse their love even to their very enemies that did draw out others to love them So that when we see others can be imprisoned executed for such Doctrines and they be full of an heavenly mortified gracious heart at that time this must needs work in us a greater assurance of the truth especially this doth confirm the
Church and so it must be understood indefinitely not determinately of this or that person It is true indeed there was in the primitive times among other extraordinary gifts that of the discerning of spirits if by Spirit we are not rather to mean Doctrines pretended to be of the Spirit as 1 John 4. 1. rather than the hearts and frames of mens spirits For although absolutely originally and independently it be Gods only prerogative to know the hearts of men yet in some cases as in Elisha with Gehezi God may reveal the thoughts and secret motions of heart to others but this is extraordinary not constant no more than working of miracles So that it is a very absurd opinion of those that are called Quakers who say That light within them discovers what is in other mens hearts abusing that place The spiritual man judgeth all things whereas the Apostle there informeth us 1 Cor. 2. 11. That no man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is within him The perswasion then or hope Paul had of these Corinthians was not divine and infallible in which he could not be deceived but of an inferiour nature yet not light and foolish neither for he saith It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firme and stedfast Hesychius renders that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unshaken that is not like the waves of the Sea So that Pauls hope did not fluctuate about him and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abiding continuing It was not hope at sometimes and fear at another but it did abide and dwell in him Observe That it is a great encouragement to a godly Minister to see good grounds for the hope of true grace and stedfastnesse in Gods wayes in the people committed to his charge This was that which did here refresh Paul that though he was put to many exercises and temptations about them yet his hope was that as it is said of Lazarus his sicknesse was not unto death but that the glory of God might be manifested So those failings and decayes amongst the Corinthians were not for their destruction but by their recovery and repentance to manifest the truth of grace more in them In most of Pauls Epistles you may see this spiritual and publick affection in him where any are decaying or falling off there his heart is wounded within him where any flourish and continue stedfast in holinesse there he rejoyceth and triumpheth How notably doth he speak 1 Thess 3. 7. We were comforted over you in all our afflictions by your faith for now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. Here we see Paul did not so much regard his own afflictions and distresse as the grace of the Thessalonians and because they did not abate in their faith by the afflictions they met with therefore this comforted him in all his distresse Yea he professeth he liveth if they stand fast as if their Apostasie would be worse than all his troubles to him yea would break his heart and be his death The Epistle also to the Galatians who began to decay and to end in the flesh after their beginning in the Spirit doth abundantly declare what agonies he was in about them Galat. 4. 19. Little children of whom I travail again in birth he compareth those troubles and exercises of his mind about them to the pangs and groans of a woman in travail Who hath bewitched you Galat. 3. 1. By this you may gather that the joyes of Paul did ebbe or flow according to the increase or decrease of the graces of these he had spiritual inspection over To discover this truth Let us consider What things made Paul have such hopes about these Corinthians and apply these things to our selves And First Their amendment and repentance by the former Epistle wrote to them in that you may see the body of the Church of Corinth was almost like Jobs or Lazarusses body full of spiritual loathsomnesse corruptions in Doctrine and practice and some of them in a very high nature for which our zealous Apostle as the Lord Christ once did maketh a rod to drive these corruptions out he is both a light shining and burning he keepeth to that rule which he giveth Timothy Rebuke sharply and reprove in all Doctrine He is salt to these Corinthians Now these sharp reproofes do not provoke them to discontent to impatience but it had a savoury and spiritual operation upon them If he said Genus quoddam est Martyrii reprehensionem patienter ferre It 's a kind of Martyrdome to suffer reproof patiently then these Corinthians were Martyrs in this sense for they did not onely take these rebukes well but are thereby put upon a zealous and powerfull repentance So that when this spiritual Physician saw his medicines kindly operate then he began to hope well of them On the other side we se the Prophets complaining of Jerusalem as incurable Because she slighted the Prophets and stoned them so that there remained no more remedy for them The Prophets complained They stretched out their hands all the day long to a rebellious people and that the bellows were consumed yet the drosse was not purged away This then is a very hopefull symptome about a people when we see by the Word preached that their hearts are broken that they are counvinced and ashamed of what they have done and reforme for the future The Apostle speaketh fully to this 2 Cor. 7. 8 9 10 11. This self same thing that you were made sorry after a godly manner what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what zeal what revenge c. In all things you have approved your selves to be clear in this matter Oh the carefulnesse and zeal that was in the Corinthians after Pauls admonitions to repent and reform So that he had good grounds to say Our hope of you is stedfast Oh then let our Congregations be examined and tried in this very particular What repentance and reformation hath the prophane man shewed after the many admonitions to him What Reformation is there made about the holy and strict observation of the Sabbath What carefull performances of holy duties in thy family concerning which thou hast heard so much Oh that we had cause to say of such persons of such families though once we fear'd for them though once we mourned and grieved for them yet now we rejoyce and our hope of them is very stedfast But may we not cry woe woe and again woe to our Congregations that are like Golgothaes places not of dead mens skuls but dead hearts yea dead men according to that of our Saviour Let the dead bury the dead Have not the Ministers of God been many yeares laying the Axe of the Word to the root of prophanenesse and ignorance which is in most families in most Congregations Yet how greatly doth it abound Surely of such families of such Congregations we may with grief of heart say As yet we have no hope Secondly This is more particularly
observable in the Corinthians repentance that they repair and set up that good and holy order which was collapsed amongst them And therefore as Paul said to the Colossians Chap. 2. 5. He did rejoyce to behold their order So might he here In his former Epistle he severely taxeth them for want of Church-Discipline that they neglected good order there was a scandalous sinner suffered amongst them and they did not mourn and humble themselves because of it they did not cast him out and free the Church from that contagion therefore with many arguments he presseth them to gather together and to execute Church-Discipline to cast out this wicked person from amongst them 2 Corinth 5. which accordingly they did or were about to do yea they seem to fall into too much austerity from their laxe indulgence and connivence at sinne to too much severity against a penitent humbled sinner as appeareth 2 Cor. 2. where the Apostle exhorts them To confirm their love to the incestuous person now deeply sensible of his sinne lest he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow When therefore Paul saw that those who had such disorders in their Church no zeal against sinners no endeavours to purge out the old leaven to be so greatly changed that they are hardly perswaded to moderate their zeal this may well provoke him to say His hope was stedfast of them For if they would have been remisse and negligent in any thing it would have been about Church-order For we see sound Doctrine is sooner received into any Church than holy Discipline There were but few Kings among the Jewes that did endeavour a Reformation of the disorder which was about Ordinances and it is noted as a peculiar work of God upon those mens hearts who were ready thereunto as for the other they mocked and derided at such a pious endeavour 2 Chron. 30. 10 11 12. There was the hand of God upon some in a special manner to induce them thereunto The Church of Ephesus Revel 2. 2. is commended Because she could not bear those that were evil It argueth the strength of the stomack to exonerate it self of burdensome humours So that by this we see That the hopes of those who are faithfull Guides in the Church are greatly quenched concerning such who are refractory and adversaries to that holy order which would deliver the Congregation from the ignorance and prophanenesse abiding there The very Heathens will rise up in judgement against them who would admit no prophane sinner to their Heathenish Rites witnesse that known acclamation Procul ô procul este prophani The Priest also about to sacrifice asked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who was there And answer was retuened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good and honest men Origen also justifying the Christian Discipline that did shut out from their communion prophane persons instanceth in the Sect of Pythagoreans who when any of their company had fallen into grosse sinnes they ejected him and sent a Coffin to him made for that purpose signifying thereby that he was no better than a dead corpse Yea the Socinians though blaspheming the Deity of Christ will condemn such carnal Gospellers For this is one argument they use against the Evangelical Reformed Churches that there is not such holy order against prophane and impenitent sinners as ought to be Yea some of them go so farre as to say That that is not a Church which hath not Discipline If then Heathens and damnable Hereticks have been zealous for purity about their religious Rites how hopelesse are they who had rather with the Gadarens have Christ go out of their Countrey then be deprived of their swinish lusts Thirdly Lastly Pauls hope was therefore stedfast concerning the Corinthians Because of that which followeth in the Text they did communicate with Paul in a patient suffering for Christ and therefore being sufferers with Christ they should also reign with him Christs friends are tried in the time of adversity It 's an hopefull sign of an honest and sincere heart when thou canst cleave to Christ and confesse his Name in the midst of all persecutions Then Christ saith Now I know thou lovest me because thou hast not withholden thy dearest comforts for my sake When under persecutions for Christs name thou canst rejoyce and not as Bonaventure expresseth it be like the Cart-wheel which while it beareth its burden doth sometimes make an harsh and unpleasant noise Christ hath both his Summer and his Winter for his Church and therefore this Garden Habet Lilia sua rosas suas Her Lilies in time of peace and her Roses in time of persecution Now those that love Christ more than father or mother or life it self and then as it followeth Matth. 10. 37 38. take up his crosse for this can never be done without the former these do give great hopes of the truth of grace in them Now the ground of this encouragement to a godly Minister is the state of grace here and of glory hereafter For his flock is both the end of his work and the end of him that worketh It is both finis operis and operantis As then Christ whose death was for the salvation of believers is said to see the travail of his soul and to be satisfied So it is with every true Pastor What a joyfull thing would it be to have good hopes of the work of grace in every one that belongeth to his charge So that thy ignorance dissolutenesse and such damnable wayes are the grief and trouble the thorns in the sides of those who are to give an account for thee Oh let not the contrary be true that such is the ungodlinesse the prophanenesse of thy life that our fear of thee our grief about thee is continual SERM. LVII Of our partaking with others in their Suffering for Christ and how this is a way to interest our selves in the Joy and Glory which such Sufferers enjoy 2 COR. 1. 7. Knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation IN these words we have a Declaration or Specification wherein or wherefore the hope of the Apostle was thus stedfast concerning them it is because they did not wholly cast off Paul and contemn him for his afflictions as the false Apostles endeavoured The Apostles hope was stedfast as you heard not like the hope that we sometimes have which is mutable and uncertain For how many are there with Pharaoh and Abab under some judgements of God or under some exquisite agonies of the soul which complain of their sinnes cry out of their impieties So that we have some buddings of hope concerning them till at last they dash all and disappoint all expectation by their Apostasie but such is not the Apostles hope concerning these he hath a surer foundation and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowing not guessing or opinionating by slight conjectures but knowing It should according to the rule of Grammar be 〈◊〉
manner how thou bearest it Thirdly These truths about suffering for Christ are usefull even to such who enjoy all freedom and abundance because there is a two-fold Martyrdom Martyrium cordis and Martyrium corporis a Martyrdome of the heart and a Martyrdom of the body If therefore thou art not called to suffer bodily it is certain thou must suffer spiritually Habes quod in te occidas if others do not martyr thee thou art to martyr thy self Hence is that duty Of offering up our selves as a Sacrifice to God Hence it is we are commanded To deny our selves to take up our crosse to pull out the right eye to cut off the right hand and the constant practice of Christianity is To mortifie the flesh to crucifie the flesh Insomuch that the ancient Writers do frequently compare this soul-mortification to the bodily Martyrdom He that doth abstain from the seeming pleasures and profies of slane this man is a spiritual Martyr He that doth crucifie his will that doth subdue and conquer his corruptions it is as much from the grace of God as he that is enabled to lay down his life for Christs sake all these come from the same principle There is required an insuperable divine and efficacious power of grace to bring the heart to any holy duty to avoid any sinne from pure and holy motives It is therefore of consequence to hear of the consolations which God giveth in sufferings for if thou hast not corporal sufferings thou hast spiritual ones and therefore God he will proportion thy comforts to thy exercises Fourthly It is good to understand and possesse our souls with the afflictions of others that hereby we may acknowledge the mercy of God to us if he give us Sun-shine dayes when others have lived in trouble some times Say not then What are these Sermons of suffering to us who are not exercised for they greatly concern thee seeing that hereby thy heart is to be raised up to more thankfulness to more joy in blessing and praising of God Is it not a mercy that thou didst not live in Queen Maries dayes That thou art not one of those mentioned by the Apostle Who wandered in sheepskins and goatskins who had no setled aboad or quietnesse in any place They did eat their bread with trembling and drink with fear and astonishment flying from one place to another parents bereaved of children husbands of wives Now when thou shalt consider what sad times many of the people of God have lived in and thou hast daies of peace and abundance Is not this like fire in thy bosome to inflame thee with the love of God and constantly to blesse him Fifthly It is good to know the sufferings of others though thou art freed because none knoweth when the time of thy trial may come The times of the Churches peace and of her troubles are in Gods hands and these times are only known to himself Thou knowest not what heavy sufferings thou mayest be put upon ere thou diest and therefore it is good to be providing the whole armour of Christ before the day of fighting doth approach The Mariner hath not his instruments to provide in the midst of the storm but he doth prepare for it so neither is the souldier then to furnish himself with weapons when the enemy is approaching to him Do thou therefore hear much know much and be instructed much about the patience and sufferings of the Saints that when God shall call thee to it it may not seem a strange and a new thing to thee Use of Instruction not to be afraid to hear of and know all the difficulties and calamities which will accompany the powerfull way of owning Christ How carnal and self-seeking are our hearts with the Disciples to flee from Christ when he is carried to the Crosse We would receive good from Christ but not evil whereas if thou doest consider it thou shalt find the earthly and the worldly man is more afflicted and troubled in getting the things of the world then thou in obtaining of Heaven and what a shame is it that they shall be more patient and enduring for these worldly goods then thou art for heavenly Doth not the earthly man say to his gold what shall separate us from the love of it Doth he not say for the love of thee I am killed all the day long This is the golden Image that every one fals down and worships Oh then shame thy self saying How much can these suffer How much can these bear and for that which will damn them at last But my carnal fearfull heart is afraid to suffer for Christ who will give me eternal glory Shall the Devil have his martyrs the world its sufferers and shall not Christ have such as will leave all to have all by him again SERM. LIX The Ministers of the Gospel find much opposition from the carnal and worldly Professors Who are these carnal and worldly Professors 2 COR. 1. 8. Of our trouble which came to us in Asia THe next thing considerable in the Text is the description of that tribulation which did fall upon the Apostle which was so necessary and usefull to be known In which we have 1. The Nature of this exercise expressed in the name it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. There is the place where in Afia 3. There is the aggravation of it Of which in its time The exercise it self is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza in Annotat. in Cor. cap. 13. saith this word is properly rendred affliction not tribulation for that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence he sheweth out of Tully that Affligo is properly to throw a thing to the ground so as to presse it down and therfore is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word then signifieth not an ordinary trouble but such as doth most strictly constringe and bind pressing a man to the ground and this he saith did come upon him in Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that it came by chance or fortune or by the meer malice and power of men no it came by the special appointment of God in much wisdome and mercy thereby propagating the Gospel For afflictions are so many arrows delivered out of Gods quiver which are sure to hit the mark they are destined unto Here is no more difficulty in the words only Expositors question What this trouble was he met with in Asia Where may we find any thing about the particulars of it Cajetan on the place acknowledgeth That concerning this trouble in Asia he could read nothing in any Book that was authentick yet it seemeth not to referre generally to all the troubles he met with in publishing of the Gospel but to some eminent singular one and therefore he saith the trouble not troubles in the plural number Some learned men therefore referre this to those passages mentioned in the former Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor.
the Gospel when they cannot have Christ and their Mammon any longer when their Dagon and Ark will consist no longer together then you shall see all that poison vomited at the mouth which before lay close up in the heart then they will desire no Ministry no Gospel rather than be deprived of their gain SERM. LX. A further Discovery of such who take up Religion meerly from carnal motives and worldly respects 2 COR. 1. 8. Of our trouble which came to us in Asia THe word of God purely preached with the faithfull Ministers thereof meet with no greater opposition in the world then from such who regard Religion no further than it maketh for their carnal interests This truth hath been in part opened and because every Christian unregenerated doth upon some false and carnal motive or other take up the profession of Christ whereby when he is put to the denial of that earthly respect he can then no longer hold but breaketh out in opposition to the pure wayes of Christ Therefore it is very usefull to give further Characters of such who regard Religion only upon inferiour and worldly respects And First Such are led with corrupt respects and in time of temptation will prove adversaries to the Ministers of the Gospel who are not of a ready and prepared spirit to take up the Crosse and to follow Christ in whatsoever condition he shall command such who are Christs Disciples onely in the Summer time while there are Halcyon dayes and times of plenty and encouragement to be a Christian These when they are urged to part with all to suffer and to be undone for Christ then they turn into any thing they will oppose and contradict that way which once they did imbrace and admire yea they will become persecutours of such instruments of Gods glory which once they did honour and all this ariseth from the earthly and carnal heart which made them at first look to Gods wayes Phil. 3. 18. Paul did with tears and even weeping speak of such Who were enemies to the crosse of Christ who minded earthly things So that by Pauls example we see it is a thing to be bitterly monrned about when we see men hopefully professing the true way of Christ and then when adversity and persecution doth arise they presently can change and turn their faith again They can withstand and contradict what once they pleaded for and all because they are resolved to save themselves They think Gain is godlinesse Such an one as this is an object greatly to be pitied and mourned over he loveth his ease his liberty his advantages more than Christ and so is no wayes fit to be his Disciple And for this reason it is our Saviour doth so oft-ten plainly and in Parables urge all to consider upon what termes they take up the profession of his name he foretelleth them of all the hardship and difficulties they must encounter with that so they may not prove enemies at last who in the beginning seem'd to be friends Wonder not then to see this fall out often in the Christian Church that those who were once friends and went with us unto the house of God afterwards to become like so many Hazaels to those who fear God Alas their earthly advantage and the present world hath made them change their opinions and affections They never at first did own Christ upon sincere and pure motives and therefore not being able to suffer for Christ they set against him and this alwayes falleth out that he who is an Apostate from the true profession of Christ doth become a cruel and bloudy enemy of that way he once walked in Omnis Apostata est osor sui ordinis All Apostate persons whether in Doctrine or Practice are implacable adversaries to truth and holinesse This hath been experimentally proved in all ages and one reason is because hereby they would be revenged upon those from whom they have departed for their guilty conscience telleth them they have justly incurred the censure of the godly They have lost their repute and esteem their good name is blasted and this maketh them study all opposition and malignity that may be Look then to thy motives at first to those termes thou didst professe Christ at the beginning if it was any humane or false motive if it was not such an entire and enduring principle that will not make thee stand upon a Rock immovable Let any winds or tempests arise as great a friend and as forward a well-wisher as now thou seemest to be for good things Had we a propheticall discerning we might with the Prophet look stedfastly upon thee as he did on Hazael and weep to think what enmity and mischief thou mayest create to such as fear God This man taketh up the old Rule Ama tanquam osurus He loveth this way of Christ so as thinking his outward advantages may sometimes or other make him hate it Secondly Such regard Religion only in a carnal way Who though they may acknowledge some principles of the Christian Religion yet at the same time maintain some damnable or heretical Doctrines that doe overthrow the very foundation Such as these take up Religion with carnal motives and so in time become cruel enemies to the faithfull Guides that are in Gods Church Wonder not that I make an Heretick to regard Religion after the flesh for Galat. 5. 20. Heresies are reckoned a fruit of the flesh Insomuch that Austin made it an ingredient into the definition of an Heretick that he either beget or propagate false opinions Alicujus temporalis commodi causâ for some temporal advantage And although we cannot say thus of all because God in just judgement doth deliver up some who receive not the truth in the love of it to efficacy of errour to strong delusions that they should believe a lie 1 Thess 2. 10 11. yet this very delusion upon their judgement this errour and blindness upon their mind is of the flesh For you must know that the flesh or to be carnal doth not in the Scripture signifie the pollution upon the sensitive and bodily part only but also upon the intellectual and rational It 's a fleshly mind as well as fleshly affections Thus all such who though they do retain some principles of the Christian faith doe yet believe other damnable Doctrines these are Religions only in a carnal respect and thereupon when occasion serveth do manifest the rancour and malice that is in their heart against the truths of Christ Ecclesiastical History informeth us of the bloody cruelty which the Arrians exercised against the Orthodox when they had power in their hands The Paganish persecutions were not much superiour to the Heretical Yea as it is said amongst brethren discord is the more vehement and flaming than any other So it is amongst those that pretend to be of the same Church of God So that we ought to walk humbly and to pray earnestly unto God to keep our hearts to
dead can be proved possible by naturall reason but whether it can or no we are sure the Scripture doth so positively and plainly affirme it that it must be bold Atheisme to deny it Now do but consider how great a matter it is to exercise faith in this particular how improbable yea and impossible doth it seem to naturall reason All those who have dyed ever since Adam so many thousand yeares ago who have been for so long a time consumed into ashes All such bodies which have been eaten with fish or beasts yet God will raise the same body again the same bones and flesh again What amazement and astonishment may this raise in thee yet it is clear by Scripture God can and will do this Oh then that the godly did more vigorously exercise their faith in this fundamentall point of Religion What canst thou believe in God concerning this great and admirable truth yet doubtest whether he can raise thee out of those petty and minute troubles thou art exercised with When was news brought to the Pope of the murther of Henry the fourth of France he was exceedingly affected with it in his speech in the conclave blaspemously aggravating the mercie as he thought and among other particulars said the fact was so incredible that had he not used himself to believe the high and mysterious points of Religion he could not have believed this fact Thus he in a wretched manner but thou maist in a true and godly sense say Oh Lord this temptation is so great this trouble is so pressing I am so greatly overwhelmed that did I not believe those wonderfull Principles of Religion were I not used all the day long to things above humane reason and expectation I could not be able to beare up my self in these extremities 2. This Doctrine is metaphorically true also God raiseth from the dead and that again in a twofold extremity externall and internall externall troubles the Scripture doth delight to represent the great and extreame troubles of the Church when it hath visible help or deliverance under the name of death Isaiah 26. 19. We have the Prophet comforting the Church in her desolate estate Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise It is true many Interpreters expound this as if properly and immediately spoken of the Resurrection and it should seem our Translators understood it so when they render it together with my body but the context maketh it cleare God speaketh of their deliverance from captivity wherein he calleth his people Cadaver meum my dead body because in outward appearance so now the reason of this may be because Gods power would be to them as the dew to herbs ready to perish which doth revive them Thus their deliverance out of their calamity is described Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight This Text is literally and immediately to be understood of the Jewes yet by consequence it may be applyed to Christ so that it argueth the calumniating spirit of Hunnius who would make Calvin to jadaize because he doth not expound it as a promise of Christs Resurrection God will do with his Church as he did with the body of Christ he would not suffer it to see corruption but within three dayes raise it again Thus saith the Church though we be in a dead condition yet he will within two or three dayes within a short time revive us again But above all you have a most evident allusion to this Ezek. 37. Where the Prophet in a vision saw a Valley full of dry bones and breath from the Lord brought sinews and flesh upon these bones and the bones came together and lived Now what the meaning of this parabolicall vision is appeareth Verse 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say our bones are dryed up our hope is lost we are cut off from all parts but saith God I will open your Graves and you shall come out By these expressions you see how true the Doctrine is that in the Churches extreame calamities God raiseth the dead neither was this opening of the graves and making dry bones to live once done by God only for that people of that time But such hath been the condition of the Church in severall Ages It hath been the dry bones and God hath breathed life into them Now the Child of God should daily meditate upon these great workes of God to his People and then he will be ashamed to see himselfe so much dejected about his own particular What thou art but one dry bone and cannot God restore thee when he doth help so many Can he deliver his whole Church and not a particular Member therein More faith in the generall affaires of the Church would facilitate thy particular Come we then to internall extremities and exigences and there in a two-fold sense likewise we shall find it is God that raiseth the dead In the first place If you consider man in his state by nature he is wholly dead in sinne and therefore when God by his grace doth correct him then he raiseth the dead Thus every godly man in this spirituall change wrought upon him can experimentally say God who raiseth the dead I was senselesse in sinne I was stupid I felt no burden I desired no deliverance but God raised me from the dead Even as the Father said of his Prodigall Sonne converted this our Sonne was dead but is alive This expression in a spirituall sense the Scripture doth much delight in Ephes 2. You who were dead in sinne hath he quickned and therefore the work of grace is compared to a Resurrection and from this similitude we justly urge against the Arminians that man hath no active power to prepare himselfe for grace or to turne himselfe to God no more then a dead Lazarus did dispose himselfe to a Resurrection Thou then who labourest under many temptations about the weaknesse of thy graces that bewaile thy dead heart thy dead duties thy dead Religion Oh thou art withered and hast no life in thee Remember it is God that raiseth the dead And certainly if he did infuse the life of grace into thee at first when thou wast wholly dead can he not much more now thou art quickned recover thee out of thy decayings and swounding fits he that hath spirituall life at first can much more recover thee out of thy consumptions he that delivered from death can much more from sickness 2. There is another internall exigency upon the soul which may be called a spirituall death and that is the sad desolations and terrible blackness that may cover the soul because of desertions God may have forsaken thee thou maist not only look upon thy selfe as a dead man but as a damned man Oh this temptation when God sets himselfe against a broken soul shootes his arrowes into his heart
and carnal interest not that all glory and honour may be given to Christ alone So that by this fleshly wisdome we are to understand all crafty false and deceitfull wayes yea and all that pride and swelling in humane learning and oratory which the false Apostles gloried in From whence observe That the Ministers of the Gospel are to carry on their work without any fleshly wisdome or sinfull policy Gods truth doth not need mans lie The Gospel doth not want for its propagation the craft and fraud of ungodly policy Howsoever Politicians take up many rules about worldly greatness as Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare c. And with Plato to say That a lie is as necessary in a Common-wealth as physick to a diseased body Yet as Christ himself so all the Ministers of Christ are to be without guile in their mouth The Gospel of Christ is preserved and propagated onely by such heavenly and holy meanes that God will own and give a blessing unto Christ compareth his Disciples to Sheep not to Foxes It is true there is a Serpentine wisdome commended by Christ And our Saviour commissionating his Disciples to preach the Gospel biddeth them To beware of men Mat. 10. 17. but an offensive or a deceitfull way of walking that is not beseeming the Ministers of Christ And therefore Paul doth frequently disclaime it especially 1 Thess 2. 3 4 5. There are two false wayes of propagating Religion as Gerhard observeth Cathol confess parte prim Media violentiae and Media fraudulentiae The means of violence may be either in external temporal punishments or in tyrannical unreasonable Church impositions which later the Apostle doth also renounce vers 24. Both which wayes the Antichristian party are notorious in And there are Media fraudulentiae wayes of hypocrisie and deceit using subtil and unjustifiable wayes to bring about their religious designs Now although it be the Gospel that we would extoll though the holy truths and pure worship of Christ yet we must not make use of fleshly wisdome herein but walk by Scripture-rules For it 's Gods grace not mans policy gives successe to the Gospel Of this latter we are to treat And we are the more to consider this point for three Reasons First Because it is the nature of all enemies to the truth and holinesse of Christ to charge the godly and innocent defenders thereof with hypocrisie and policy that they do onely seek themselves that they drive on politick designes under religious pretences That whereas it is the property of heretical persons to broach new opinions Alicujus temporalis commodi causâ as Austin putteth in the definition of an Heretick these judging of others by themselves do think that even the faithfull servants of God do only seek their own earthly greatnesse and advancement Hence we see even our Saviour himself so diligent to remove this charge from him I seek not my own glory but the glory of him who sent me John 8. 50. So John 7. 18. where our Saviour giveth the character of a false teacher of one that speaketh of himself that he seeketh his own glory Thus the Popish party charge lies and calumnies upon the Protestants as if they had used all politick and crafty wayes to disseminate their Doctrines Therefore Lessius the Jesuite among his reasons why the Protestant Religion is not to be imbraced maketh this one That Religion saith he which useth lies and falshoods to propagate it self cannot be of God which he applieth to the Protestant Churches But as for the Major we grant it as a sure truth True Religion is only advanced by truth and sincerity whereas errours being in themselves lies are increasing by the father of lies But then we say the Church of Rome is notoriously guilty in this way from them first came that expression of Piae fraudes applied by some to indulgences It is the Church of Rome that hath Revel 17. 5. upon her forehead written Mystery she is the harlot that like Solomons doth wipe her mouth and speak of vows pretending Religion when she hath been acting her leudnesse But by how much the more the enemies of Gods Church are apt to charge the guides therein with policy and deceitfulnesse the more are they to watch to their wayes and to walk with all sincerity For these accusations are believed by many And withall there is a generation of Atheistical politick men in the world that hereby are hardened in their impiety as if Religion were but a politick devise of men and therefore matter not any further than their advantages are served thereby Whose damnation sleepeth not if they do not awaken betimes Secondly The second Reason why this is to be attended is Because all pretenders to any Religion in the world they would all be thought to be sincere None will own and justifie hypocrisie and guile to be lawfull Indeed the Jesuites they go high this way when they defend mental reservations and make equivocation Prudens defensio rei as Valentia These are not onely deceitfull and use fleshly wisdome but also plead for it yet at other times would be thought very free from all such carnal policy and way of lying As Bellarmine in a Sermon of his Conc. 9. deâ—probitate doct Eccles inveigheth against Protestants whom he calleth Hereticks Although saith he their Doctrine were true yet ought they to confirme it with lies Nonne satius esset millies obmutescere quam semel mentiri Were it not better suffer to be a thousand times silent then once to lie What is the worke of the Devil if this be not Thus a great Champion of the Romish Church which you would think did all things in great candour and ingenuity And yet in that very Sermon reporteth forged lies against eminent men continuing the same bitterness in Conc. 10 11 12. as if his tongue were set on fire from hell But there are two famous places in the Scripture which may abundantly confirm us of the deceivable and false wayes in the Romane Church The first is 1 Tim. 4. 2. where they are said To speake lies in hypocrisie forbidding to marry c. who are therefore said To have seducing spirits yea and a conscience seared with an hot iron that is because they can so abominably dissemble both with God and man The second place is 2 Thes 2. 9. where the coming of that wicked one is said to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders in all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse Here you see that fraud and impostures are as it were the true note of their false Church But though this be so yet they would wash their Blackmoor skin and charge that crime upon those Churches who departed from them Seeing then that this cousening deceiving way is charged mutually by all parties upon one another with what integrity and fidelity doth it behove those to walk who are indeed the faithfull Ministers of Christ But Thirdly
putting on the new man Austin wrote much against this way of lying And certainly seeing that words are appointed to signifie our mind to another if we pervert them to the contrary end to deceive them we doe overthrow the foundation of spiritual and civil societies It is one thing indeed not to reveale all the truth when not required or commanded this may sometimes be done but to deny the truth or equivocate this doth no wayes become those who with sincerity and not with fleshly wisdome are to propagate the Gospel If you say for all the Church of Rome hath used such carnal policy yet she continueth in her externall prosperity she is not blasted and crossed in her designes and therefore Bellarmine would take advantages of the Protestants by this If saith he the Church of Rome be so vile and impure as you say she is if she use all those unlawfull and ungodly wayes to keep up her glory then it 's the greater argument that her constitution is of God that all her craft and wickednesse hath not yet ruined her But to this doubt it is easily answered That by the Scripture we know it is foretold that he must prevaile for a long time in the Church and therefore their successe notwithstanding all their cruelty and craft is not to be any stumbling block to such who believe the Scriptures The third instance of fleshly wisdome to propagate Religion by is To indulge men in their lusts and sinnes that so the party which followeth them may be the more numerous This is fleshly wisdome in an high degree of impiety and yet in this also the Church of Rome hath beene notorious when other Churches have by their good Discipline cast out some offenders for scandalous impieties They have appealed to the Church of Rome in that case and she craftily laying hold on the opportunity hoping thereby to establish her Supremacy would like Absolom say to every one that came that his cause was good and by this policy in indulging and encouraging such licentious offenders whom other Churches would not endure as members At last with other politick devises she arrived to that amplitude of power she now glorieth in We might instance in other subtil forgeries as the corrupting or denying some Canons made in the Council of Nice thereby to translate the chief Patriarchship to her self a famous cheat and discovered most palpably to the shame of the Romane party of which there is much in Ecclesiastical Authours as also the pretence of Constantines donation a forged he like the rest This I shall insist upon as greatly considerable The indulging of people in prophanenesse as also in horrible ignorance that so they may rule without controll And how well were it if this fleshly wisdome were inclosed in the Romane Conclave Are there not too many in the Protestant Churches that out of a desire either to please men or increase their earthly advantages promote a promiscuous admission of all to the Lords Table making no difference betweene the clean and unclean This I confesse is the way to be applauded by the most This is that which will give best content to all This is accounted wisdome and moderation but Wisdome is justified of her children and the holy institution of Christs will be owned by those who worship God in Spirit and truth But this fleshly wisoome whereby we please all and indulge men in their lusts is seldome successefull but fire will come out of the Bramble when it doth not out of the Fig-tree to consume I meane even prophane and wicked spirits are many times stirred up by God to oppose such corrupt Teachers when the godly meddle not at all For God doth many times make use of the wickednesse of one ungodly man to torment another Yea Luther's first stirrings against the abuses of Popery were not so pure and sincere as afterwards when the light and grace of God came more upon him It is therefore a great duty incumbent upon the Ministers of the Gospel to walk sincerely by Christs rule in their pastoral exercises avoiding this fleshly wisdome which though it may seeme sometimes to prevent a mischiefe yet as it did to David doth afterwards plunge in a greater calamity And indeed going to carnal policy in Church-administrations is but like going to witches and wizards forsaking Gods way which never bringeth a perfect cure Fourthly Then is carnal wisdome used to propagate Religion When by it we propound carnal and selfish ends to our selves not the glory of God and advancing the power and purity of his Ordinances This is that which Paul doth principally disclaim I seek not you but yours saith he in this Epistle 2 Cor. 12. 14. And that they might be perswaded hereof he would take no maintenance of them but made use of other Churches that he might spare them yea sometimes working with his own hands How farre this is imitable by the Ministers of the Gospel now as many do upbraid them with this example of Paul will be clearly and fully evidenced God assisting in its time for we shall meet with this part of Paul expresly mentioned and insisted on by him in this Epistle But it is worth the observation that Paul by no way he took could escape the slander of a self-seeker For if in that case he had burdened the Church of Corinth the false Apostles would have calumniated him as using a cloak of covetousness and seeking himself But now because he will not do so see how this is interpreted as a carnal designe also for so he bringeth in their objection vers 16 Be it so I did not burden you but being crafty I tooke you with guile This was suggested against Paul they made this construction of Paul's not burdening them that he did this out of craft that they should think themselves the more ingaged unto him and so by this means he get the more dominion over them Thus what shall Paul do if he doth not take maintenance it is his craft and if he doth it is his craft By this instance we see how much we are to avoid all fleshly wisdome for do what we will it shall be charged upon us Only when we have this sincerity of conscience within to comfort and support us this will be a means to make us bear the slanders of enemies with greater alacrity Now as we said then we may certainly conclude we are guided by fleshly wisdome when our aimes in our ministerial way is either glory and applause which was the poison of the Pharisees duties or earthly wealth and external pomp which motives do easily creep in unlesse grace be the porter to keep the door of the soul We see even the Disciples themselves and that twice contending about superiority and once this was done when our Saviour was fore-telling them of his sad sufferings and how they should be scattered And truly this should much prevail with us to walk by sincere rules because nothing doth
more awe peoples hearts nothing doth more erect a throne of fear and reverence in mens hearts so much as integrity Even Herod did fear John because he was a just man he saw he was not carried by carnal pinciples and that made Herod reverence him Mark 6. 20. And thus it was with Christ himself also this made the people so greatly flock after him because the hypocrise and self-seeking of the Pharisees began to be made clear to them And thus the integrity of our Reformers was precious whereas the luxury pride and ambition of the Roman Clergy began to be apparent Yea before Luther's time the Church generally groaned under them which made Berengarius call them Romanos Pompifices and Pulpifices as regarding their pompe and belly more than their ministerial duty Lastly For the differences I promised to speak to between fleshly wisdome and heavenly wisdome as also civil prudence may be considered in the next particular Fleshly wisdome is seen In glorying and boasting of humane eloquence and philosophical demonstrations This some make to be a great part of if not the only sense of fleshly wisdome And certainly this is that which Paul renounceth 1 Cor. 2. 1 3 4. the end whereof was that their faith might not stand in the wisdome of men but the power of God And therefore the Thessalonians are commended 1 Thess 2. 13. That they received the Gospel not as the word of men but as of God which effectually worketh in those that believe That there may be no use made of humane learning much lesse that it is not lawfull to improve the gifts and abilities of learned men in our Ministry I think is scarcely in an absolute sense denied by any orthodox But then they give this Caution That such things must not be done out of ostentation but edification and conviction neither must we so preach that our auditors should be more affected with the oratory or learning than the matter the gifts and parts of a Minister more than the holy truths which are delivered for information and conversion And therefore as we the Ministers of the Gospel are to take heed of all fleshly wisdome especially this latter which is so subtil a thief ready to steal away our treasure So ought you the hearers to take heed of all fleshly wisdome For it is this only maketh you go away unconverted unhumbled unreformed your conscience your mind condemns you for it but only fleshly wisdome will not let you obey As I say we are to take heed of this universally so especially that you do not regard the parts learning and oratory of a Minister more than holy matter You must hear from a sincere heart you must come to our Ministry with godly simplicity as well as we are to preach so and it is hard to say whether is more difficult to preach without fleshly wisdome or hear without it Do you desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified Are ye not like children that look upon Books more to see the gayes and gaudy flourishes than the matter contained therein Do ye not mind more what may tickle your ear please your fancy then what may wound your heart Aristotle even to his Lecture of moral Philosophy doth require one who is purged from his lusts How much rather is the word of God to be received with a pure and mortified heart Oh this flesnly wisdome will prove cursed folly at last In the flames of hell thou wilt cry out of this Oh wretch that I was I thought to be wise for my self and how unspeakably am I undone thereby SERM. XCV Of the Grace of God which Paul exalteth above Fleshly Wisdome and ascribeth all unto 2 COR. 1. 12. But by the grace of God THe third particular which qualifieth the Apostles conversation in this world cometh in order to be treated on which is set down Oppositely But by the grace of God This is added partly to exclude all pride and presumption in himself For having declared his integrity lest it might be thought that though he did not confide in carnal wisdome yet he might in his own integrity he addeth The grace of God shewing thereby that he trusted in that alone And then partly it is spoken in opposition to fleshly wisdome For seeing it might be demanded If Paul did not use the wisdome of the world How could it come about that he should have such success in his preaching that the Gospel should have such a full and glorious course by his Ministry He resolveth it into the grace of God that did go along with him it was neither his gifts or his graces but the power and grace of God directing and protecting of him in his ministerial imployment Thus Paul and Barnabas Acts 14. 26. are by the brethren recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled So that whereas the word Grace in the New Testament hath several significations the principal whereof is the favour and meer mercy of God without us The lesse principal is the Effects thereof and the Effects of this Grace are either of sanctification or administration and service We may comprehend all these in the word Grace but especially the latter the effects of grace and of those effects chiefly those ministerial gifts with the successe thereof that Paul was enriched with What is this grace of God saith Chrysostome It is saith he the wisdome and power God bestowed upon him whereby through miracles and other wayes especially that coming without humane learning and oratory of the world he did overcome the greatest Philosophers and Rhetoricians whom the world did admire This was the grace of God upon Paul which he also mentioneth as the original of all the fruit of his labours not attributing any thing to himself 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Now although by grace is meant principally the grace called Gratiis data common ministerial gifts and favours of God yet because it is opposed to fleshly wisdome and carnal policy There is also necessarily contained heavenly wisdome whereby Paul did avoid all sensual and deceitfull wayes walking closely according to the Word the fountain of all spiritual wisdome For as the Scriptures are a farre surer Rule even to Civil Governours and Magistrates then Tacitus Machiavel or others cryed up by humane worldly wise men even in their civil administrations So much more is it a sure Starre for all the spiritual Officers of the Church to manage their affaires by if they do look for successe From the Scripture both Magistrates and Ministers may learne wisdome for their respective administrations Paul therefore what ever it be that goeth on prosperously in his ministerial worke doth not attribute it either to his sincerity much lesse to any humane policy which he renounceth but wholly to the grace of God assisting of him and going constantly along with him Observe That it is
can such pretend to a godly conversation Who onely with Herod doe sometimes gladly or with Saul obey in some things but rebell in other If it were godlinesse for godlinesse sake then thou wouldst zealously set upon all the duties of godlinesse great as well as little self-denying as well as more gratefull and pleasing Yea the more godlinesse still the more desire and delight after it If a drop be so precious what would more plentifull drinkings of it By what reason I am godly thus farre Iam bound to proceed further In the next place let it be an Use of Exhortation to look to godlinesse in your conversation it lieth there as well as in your hearts in duties in professions By this the Gospel is adorned by this Religion is honoured by this many others may be brought home to God and glorifie him for beholding thy pure holy and unblameable conversation It is a signe grace hath deep rooting in thy heart and affections when it 's made palpable and visible in operations It 's by these fruits that we must judge of trees The hypocrite would be applauded as much as the godly Gifts and parts would be exalted as grace were not our conversations to be the true touchstone herein but above all things look to the purity of thy intentions in thy whole life that alone maketh regular and uniforme without this thou wilt cry Hosanna to Christ at one time and crucifie him another It 's observable that though a multitude did leave their own Towns and houses outwardly shewing much affection towards him yet our Saviour chargeth them with carnal motives in all that they did Iohn 6. 26. Verily verily I say unto you ye seeke me not because ye saw the miracles bus because ye did eat of the loaves and were satisfied Verily verily This sacred asseveration Christ useth in matters of high concernment and here it is because the Capernaites did not perceive this carnal frame in themselves therefore doth he expresse it the more vehemently Thus Austin complained in his time Vix quaeritur Jesus propter Jesum Jesus is scarcely sought for Jesus sake So difficult is it to be sincere in our conversation SERM. XCVIII Of Gods Presence with the Ministry how it renders the People inexcusable 2 COR. 1. 12. And more abundantly to you-wards WE are now arrived at the close and last particular of this verse wherein is contained the ground of Paul's comfort from the testimony of his conscience As the former particulars did declare his conversation with the manner of it universally without restriction or limitation to times persons or places so this last clause is added to affect the Corinthians the more who listened too much to false Apostles from his peculiar conversation to them it was more abundantly towards them then to any other in the world Not that Paul was lesse sincere or lesse faithfull in other places but only there were more outward effects and demonstrations of it towards them then to others So that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth denote the abundance and overflowing evidences of the power of God in his Ministry towards them And this comparative may be taken both intensively his carriage towards them was fuller of love and compassion fuller of care and diligence to them then others because they were in greater danger and under more temptations As also extensively there he had laboured more continued longer and the power of God had been more successefull in his Ministry amongst them In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some render amongst you for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Beza sheweth the phrase used so out of Demosthenes Others render it towards you for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Apostle hath this expression 2 Cor. 2. 4. That ye might know the love which I have more abundantly towards you The like is also applied to Titus in reference to them his inward affection was more abundantly towards them 2 Cor. 7. 15. If you ask Wherein this greater abundance of Paul's sincere conversation was seen to the Corinthians more than to others Expositors give in several particulars Chrysostome and others following him make it to be in this that he preached the Gospel freely to them Here saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went beyond his bounds condescending to their infirmity Now concerning this fact of Paul's receiving no maintenance from these Corinthians though he did from others and pleadeth he might also by right take off them alledging the plain Ordinance and Institution of Christ 1 Cor. 9. 13. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel There is a two-fold controversie the former is started by the Papists who from hence held the Doctrine of Counsels as also of supererogation that a man may do more than he is commanded as they say Paul did in this case The later is from others who from hence decry the maintenance of Ministers and that they are with Paul to continue in some vocation to maintain themselves and family with but because here it is supposed only and afterwards in the Epistle it is professedly owned by the Apostle and insisted upon we shall referre it till God give opportunity to consider it in its proper place 2 Cor. 11. 7 8 9. Others they understand this greater abundance in respect of the length of that time he continued amongst them For ye may read that Act. 18. 10 11. Paul continued there a year and an half at Corinth which was a great space of time considering how his Apostolical Office required of him the visiting of other Churches and planting also the Gospel where yet it was not received They had therefore time enough to see his whole deportment to observe that he was no fraudulent impostor that he did all things for their own good not seeking himself 3. Some referre it to the great successe and wonderfull power that God did put forth in and with his Ministry for so God telleth him that vision he had there Act. 18. 9 10 Be not afraid Paul for I am with thee no man shall hurt thee for I have much people in this City So that this was a great conviction that Pauls Ministry should work such a mighty change among a people so proud so rich so glorying in parts and humane learning as they did This was the hand of God Lastly It may referre to his love towards them which he seemeth to expresse to them more than others and therefore speaketh of it 2 Cor. 2. 4. yea he reproveth them for their ingratitude herein 2 Cor. 12. 15. I will very gladly be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the lesse I be loved Now the reason why Paul was thus affectionately carried out towards them more than others was because of the dangerous temptations they were in by false Apostles these came with enticing words pretending much love and also observed strictly every
most beastly men Thus it is said of Herod though a King who had command over John Baptists life as the event shewed yet he feared John because he was a just man Mark 6. 20. As the lustre of the Sunne-beams do dazle the Owls and the Bats eyes Thus doth the lively expression of holiness even amaze the most profligate sinners neither is this the lesse true though wicked men rage blaspheme and raise all manner of calumnies against such who walk uprightly for in the midst of this madness their conscience is still awed and convinced So that this doth discover the excellency of a godly life that it breedeth a reverential awe it maketh the consciences of men secretly to own such and to wish that they were as such and that their latter end might be like theirs Secondly Although a godly life be thus necessary in every Christian and especially in a Minister yet the efficacy of the Ministry and sacramental administrations doth not depend upon the holy life of a Minister no more than the Papists say it doth upon a Ministers intention This was a Donatistical errour of old so much opposed by Austin that the wickedness of a Ministers life did frustrate the work of the Sacraments Certainly Christs promise is made to the Office and to the right administration of the Ordinances neither can the evil life of the Minister make void Gods promise of presence to his own Ordinances where people come in a prepared and holy manner This our Saviour seemeth fully to confirm Mat. 23. 23. where he directed his hearers To hear the Pharisees and Scribes because sitting in Moses his chair and to observe what those teachers should bid them observe and do but saith he do not after their works for they say and do not This Text doth confute two sorts of men first Those of the Romane party who make use of this against the Protestants as if it were their sinne to depart from their Bishops and Pastors though it be granted they superadded many superstitious and corrupt doctrines which we would easily yeeld unto if as the Pharisees sate in Moses his chair so they did in Christs chair For this phrase denoteth two things 1. A lawfull Call and Office 2. True and sound Doctrine our Saviour did not mean they were to do every thing the Pharisees said For at another time he bid them Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which was their doctrine Mat. 16. 6. But his universal expression is to be limited to the subject matter while they did teach what Moses commanded But we deny that the Roman Bishops have Christs chair either in respect of their Office or their doctrine Again the second errour which this Text doth confute is the extremity of those who because of some corruption in the Ministers do wholly cry down the Ministry it self or out of their opposition to what is bad will not receive that which is wholsome and good Our Saviour being to reprove the Pharisees in a most sharp way as hypocrites and blind guides knowing how apt people are to runne from one extremity to another doth therefore advise them that so farre as they keep to Moses his doctrine so farre they are to be attended unto though by their ill lives they destroy all Thus hungry men will eat the meat provided for them at the feast not considering whether the Masters of the feast do eat or no Yea though they do not yet they will not forbear or as Chrysostom Men that dig for gold will gladly take their fulness of that although the ground that yeeldeth it be barren and unfruitfull in respect of grass and flowers But I cannot say all that is to be said on this point Therefore In the third place Though the efficacy of Ordinences dependeth not upon the godlinesse of him that doth administer yet all such dispensers can have no comfort from God neither may they expect acceptance from him while they live in their iniquities Mat. 7. 22. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils Yet you read of that terrible denunciation towards them Depart from me I know ye not It is a very sad thing to consider how much Christians will rest on titles and names vpon Ordinances and external duties thinking these will carry them to Heaven though otherwise full of impiety The Apostle James argueth against this position that faith without a holy conversation will save as if it were a Doctrine plausibly received Certainly in Austin's time it was so universally entertained that a right faith would save though separated from a godly life that he doth warily though sincerely sit himself against it As it is thus with Christians so also with Ministers and Officers of the Church how apt are they to be confident and to be pussed up because if they have a true Call Church-government and Order according to Christs Institution not so diligently attending to the strict and holy practice of godliness as they ought to do The Apostle speaketh notably to this point 1 Cor. 5. 6 7. where he taxeth them for their boasting in many Church-priviledges when impiety was not censured amongst them Your glorifying is not good They gloried in their teachers they magnified their abilities and gifts but saith the Apostle This is not good All this is vanity as long as wicked men are suffered amongst you So that you see neither parts or gifts nor divine Institutions and Officers in the Church of God without godly and holy lives are matter of any true and solid comfort Therefore we cannot passe by that serious and holy observation which Musculus hath upon this passage of Paul's encouraging himself not from his Apostolical office not from his miraculous and extraordinary gifts but his sincere conversation The Catholical corruption of the Church came in when this pestilence had infected the Officers of the Church that they did not think it so much material how they had their conversation in the world so that they kept faithfull to the Roman Sea And would to God as he goeth on these vanities did not prevail in those Churches which are freed from Antichristianism and this poisonous root saith he is not a little watered of those who cannot speak of the dispensation of the mysteries of God unlesse they often inculcate that it is not so material how the Minister liveth so that Christs Institutions are exactly observed Thus he adding more also to this point This is enough to shew That the Reformed Churches are not to rest upon their Reformed Doctrine Reformed Discipline unless also the lives of all in their respective places be commensurated to the rule of God In the fourth place When we speak of a convincing holy life that may be understood two wayes either 1. Potentially such as is apt to convince and of its own nature tendeth thereunto Or 2. Actually and eventually which doth so
Ministers of the Gospel before we well consider what we do For thou who receivest a man to be the Pastor of thy soul thou must not look that he should come down to thee but thou to him I mean you must not expect that he should comply with you in your lusts in your sinnes in your superstitions But on the contrary that you will readily submit to whatsoever he shall from the word of God make known to you It is unreasonable to look that a Minister should go from his Commission he hath not a magisterial but ministerial Authority he cannot make virtue vice or vice virtue he cannot make the way to Heaven broader than it is he may not dispense Ordinances otherwise than according to the order of Christ and if so judge whether is more reasonable that you yeild your selves to Christs commands or we comply with your unlawfull wayes Certainly we cannot come off to your principles we shall be damned if we do If I please men viz. in sinfull things I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. said Paul And we must with Elihu profess Job 32. 21 22. We know not to give flattering titles in so doing God our maker would soon take us away If it be thus with us that we are bound up and you on the contrary are commanded to come out of all evil wayes and receive the good word of God from out hands then it ought not to be any offence or staggering unto you if you find us out of Gods word enjoyning those things which the corrupt nature of man is against But this many times maketh a great change in a people they expected that the Ministers of God should comply with their ends their lusts and then they would never alter their affections from them but when it proveth otherwise then they did never so much advance and exalt as they will afterwards condemn and vilifie This was plain in John's hearers his strict life and unusual conversation made them come into the wilderness to see him they rejoyced to see such a Prophet that was of their own and therefore they flocked after him John 5. 35. They did for a while rejoyce in his light but when they saw he gave testimony to Christ and would not be a Prophet to serve their ends then they railed on him and said He had a Devil 3. Curiosity and an itching affection after new things doth make us very changeable An ill stomack must have variety of sauces and what we are used to is apt to breed contempt It is a brand upon the Athenians Act. 17. 21. That they spent their time in nothing else but to tell or hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some new thing This is a dangerous disease in a mans soul not to love and delight in sound and known truths but to affect things that were never heard of before some new Religion some new expression some new notion Oh pray to God against such a sinfull distemper 〈◊〉 it hath been the undoing of many souls Do you lik the Sunne the worse because every day it riseth upon you It is the same Sunne and yet you are not weary of it no more ought ye to be of divine and holy truths 4. Sometimes mistakes about the Doctrine they deliver maketh them change their affections Some speeches are hard speeches they take offence at some expressions and this hath altered many when the fault was in their understandings not in the Doctrine delivered Thus it was with Christ himself Joh. 6. 34 35. when he said My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Many of his Disciples said This was an hard saying who can bear it and from that time many went back from him and walked no more with him 5. A faithfull and conscionable discharge of their duties in reproving admonishing or setting up the pure wayes of Christ do many times cause men to flie off and from friends sometimes to become enemies and opposers This did in part so enrage the Galatians which made Paul say Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth Gal. 4. 16. What made the Israelites of old oppose and persecute the holy Prophets of God Was it not because they reproved them for their sinnes and false worship and endeavoured the restoring of his Ordinances accorning to his own primitive and pure institution This maketh men acknowledge their Ministers but in part some things they will praise but other things as much dispraise and all is because we are unwilling the Officers of Christ should faithfully and sincerely discharge their duty Lastly Many times the members of Christs Church are alienated from their Pastors by the importunity of such men who lie in wait to deceive All the mischief that was done to Paul in this point it was by false teachers Nothing hindered so much the comfortable progress of his Ministry as the subtil stratagems of such wolves in sheeps cloathing they hod a more pleasing taking way with them they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 16. 18. their sweet fair speeches their insinuating orations and by this means these glistering serpents crept into them Again they pretend much love and compassion to them it grieveth them to see how Paul seduceth them how self-seeking and severe he is as for them they have tender bowels towards them and thus by this loving pretence they catch them in their snares Thus Paul Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude us that ye might affect them Thus you see what their design was to take them off wholly from Paul to exclude him that so they might have all the love and honour Thus you see causes that may make people abate or decay in their affections to their spiritual guides Let the Use be 1. Of Instruction to the Ministers of God To expect such ingratitude in the world to look for such ebbings and flowings of mens affections in the faithfull discharge of their Ministry every man is a liar every man is a reed shaken with the wind if they be not throughly consolidated by grace Only do thou look thou givest no just occasion of such a change either by thy negligence in the Ministry or indiscreet rash actions and then if they will leave thee thou hast no more to say than Christ himself Will ye also go away John 6. 67. Use 2. Of Exhortation To you that are people Is there such a mutable disposition in your nature so much inconstancy curiosity and love to your selves as to make you hate what you once loved Then take heed to your selves watch against such a disposition It is an excellent sign to love and delight in old known truths and not to be weary of them yea the more thou hearest the longer thou livest under a Ministry the more thy heart is affected with it SERM. CII Of the mutuall rejoycing which ought to be betwixt Minister and
Further the place into which they must depart is terrible beyond all expression into fire and everlasting fire Fire Is not that most dreadfulll Do not your hearts ake and tremble Do not your ears tingle at the naming of this punishment But if it be fire it may be quickly over the pain may be presently gone it may quickly consume to ashes No it is everlasting fire after thousands and millions of years it is still the same as hot to burn as at the first moment If God had said thou shalt lie roaring in hell flames till a thousand years are over for such and such a sinne not repented of might not this have prevailed with every man to leave the most pleasant and the most profitable sinne that is How much more when it is everlasting when there is no end Oh the change thou wilt then find upon thy self Then thou wilt cry out saying Was my hours pleasure my moments profit equal to these eternal torments Now say Whether it is better to sinne then to be damned Are thy lusts equivalent to all the torments of hell Lastly That is no little aggravation Prepared for the Devil and his Angels You see what companions you must have As much as you now defie the Devil you and he must lie down in the same flames The Devils will have no worse place than thou hast Now if this be so What a mighty alteration is here made The man that like Dives fared deliciously every day would have a drop of water to cool his tongue and cannot Oh that the Spirit of God would convince and assure you of these things Say now I am merry proud confident Now I follow my lusts my pleasures but will not the day of judgement then make a change Will not there be a sad difference between my present estate and that then Thirdly As to the godly man there will be a most happy and blessed change To see a Lazarus wiping his sores taken up into Ambraham's bosome What a blessed change is here The godly man hath his exercises from many considerations The world derideth and opposeth him afflictions from God crush him and press him down The Devil because he shall not have an hell hereafter laboureth he may have an hell here and from within there are lusts there are molesting motions to sinne which make him cry out Oh miserable man that I am But when this day shall come what man though he had the tongue of Angels is able to declare his happiness This man that was scorned is now blessed and honoured by all the wicked damned ones of the world Now they cry Oh that our case were like his Oh that our souls were as his shall be Now the Devil is trampled under feet and thrown into the Abysse into the deep where he was so unwilling to go to receive the full of his torments Now the spiritual warre within is put to a period and he doth all the good in as perfect and full a manner as he can desire to do his will and his power have the same bounds he can do what he would and he can will all that God would have him to will We read of blessed changes in this world of Joseph from a poor prisoner in the dungeon and in danger of his life to be exalted in the highest place of honour in Aegypt next to Pharaoh himself Of Mordechai who was designed to death and immediately made the man whom God would honour Of David from following the sheep and afterwards driven as a Bird from the mountain to be made a great King Yet none of these come up in the least manner to this great change Hence it is called The day of redemption Matth. 24. The day of refreshing and restoring of all things Act. 3. 19. for we must not limit that time to the destruction of the Iews only as some do Yea the godly are to look for and hasten his coming 2 Pet. 3. 12. as being the marriage time between Christ and his Church Therefore the Spirit and the bride say Come Revel 22. 17. It is for want of a lively meditation about this that the godly at any time sink under any temptations Is there any evil thou art exercised with that this day will not deliver thee from Is it not a day of redemption never to be in bondage any more either to sinne or misery Especially the Church under afflictions and persecutions is to fetch all her comfort from thence God will turn her sackcloth into robes of honour her dungeons into heavenly mansions Should not then the Church sit expecting his victorious coming more affectionately then Sisera's mother Iudg. 5. 28. did his return saying Why is his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Luther speaking of this hopefull expectation that ought to be in the godly of Christs coming endeavoured to affect his hearers from the condition they were in at that time The Popish party did triumph over the Reformed boasting That Caesar was coming with a great Army that he would presently and speedily vanquish all the Lutherans Now saith he as you see they rejoyce and fill themselves with hopes of the Emperours coming so should the Church under all her pressures with the coming of Christ Fourthly There will be a mighty change as to mens judgements and apprehensions over what they have now There is never a wicked man would for an hour go on in his sins if he could have such thoughts as he will have at that day Oh that we could look upon sinne as we will then look upon it when God shall bid us Depart into everlasting fire And certainly if part of that terrour did work so much upon Iudas that he throweth away his silver crieth out He had sinned in betraying of innocent blood No wonder if when all the gall of Gods wrath be poured into a mans conscience he then crieth out of his sins gnasheth the teeth at them remembreth them with horrour which were once so full of sweetness and delight Go on then presumptuously thou prophane wretch believe no Scripture deride at all good counsel Say Give me my sins though I be damned yet remember this perswasion will not hold alwayes there will come a day when thou wilt as much loath and abhorre these lusts as ever once thou didst love them Oh that men could now behold their sins with that horrour and indignation as they will when they shall stand trembling at Gods tribunal Again men will have other thoughts 1. About the wayes of Godlinesse 2. About Godly men And 3. About Christ For false principles and mis-judging about these is that which maketh so many damn themselves To begin with the first about Godlinesse they think it is an hinderance to man if he were not so just and conscionable he might swallow down many a sweet morsel which he lets go Thus men are ready to think they fare the worse for godliness Oh but
complain of such a dull and liveless Ministry yet how little do people think that many times they give the cause so that its Gods punishment upon them in that very thing yea though Ministers be never so faithfull and godly yet as Calvin observeth they cannot go on in their Ministerial work with that vigor and alacrity they ought to do when their hearts are bound up with sorrow and discouragements about their people All cannot attain to Pauls excellency who could have enlarged bowells to that people who had streightened ones towards him SERM. CVII Of the Necessity of a constant Ministry not only for the constituting but to an establishing the Church 2 COR. 1. 15. That you might have a second benefit IN these words we have the End of Pauls purpose to come to them It was wholly spiritual It was not for any advantage any earthly respects but but wholly for their good to encrease and confirm their graces The End is expressed in these words That ye might have a second benefit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some as Chrysostome interpret for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea their are some who would have that to be the word in the Original It is no doubt but that much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or joy did follow upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All spiritual effects and heavenly exercises are apt to breed much joy Hence none have true joy but those that are godly and so by consequence none are blessed but they for Joy is a great ingredient to Happiness Hence Aristotle maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly to rejoyce yet is more consonant to other places of Scripture to read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus Rom. 1. 11. He desired to see them that he might impart to them some spiritual benefit The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is chiefly used in the New Testament for the free grace of God towards us in reference to our Eternal Happiness so that the very name ought to be sweet and precious to such who labour under the sense of their unworthiness and see no power or works of their own any wayes able to save them It is of grace therefore that doth not onely exclude merit but supposeth thee unworthy for such mercies of thy own self It is sometimes in Scripture applyed to such Almes as were freely given for the use of distressed Churches 2 Cor. 8. which is therefore called Grace partly because it is of Gods special goodness to give us such a free and liberal Disposition as the first Verse in that Chapter implyeth I do you to wit saith Paul of the grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia and that was to be liberal to the other afflicted Saints and partly because it cometh from the bountifull disposition of a man to such as are in want In this Text it is to be applyed to spiritual bounty that is to be willing and ready in all serviceableness to promote the spirituall good of others for there are spiritual almes as well as temporal which lieth in reproof in Admonition and frequent Exhortation to what is good Now this Grace or Benefit is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some translate iterated and repeated though it be more than the Second or third time Chrysostome referreth it to his Epistles and his presence for by both these he communicated spiritual benefit unto them But it is most probably and generally referred to his first and second coming whether Paul did come a third time to those Corinthians is disputed by Commentators because of some passages in the 12 and 13 Chapters of this Epistle of which in its time It is enough that by the first grace or benefit we mean the first work upon them by Pauls Ministry when they were converted from their Paganism and planted a Church of Christ And the second benefit was to confirm them in the same Faith and also to quicken them up unto further degrees of Holiness and this was the second Benefit Paul desired to impart unto them For it appeareth that though this Church of Corinth was a garden planted by Paul yet many weeds and some poysonous ones began to grow up amongst them There were both in Doctrine and Manners many things amiss which needed Pauls presence to reforme Observe That it is not enough to be a Church planted and gathered from out of the world at first but there needeth a constant and dayly Ministry to be tilling and dressing of it That Garden which God planted and put Adam into yet was to be dayly dressed and so it is still with the best Churches even those that are of the Apostolical Plantation yet needed the Apostles care and diligent visitations which was one main cause of writing those several Epistles to several Churches They were not written to convert them or make them Churches but to admonish instruct or confirm and comfort as occasion did require and upon this ground it is that though the office of Apostles and Prophets as also the gift of miracles are now ceased because the Church is now planted yet the office of Pastors and the Ordinances Christ hath instituted are perpetual and must be continued to the end of the world So that the opinion of the Socininians about the Ministry as it were only a thing of order and not of Divine Institution is grosly repugnant to Gods Word as also their Doctrine about Baptism That it was but a temporary Ceremony instituted for the beginning of the Church is full of falshood Churches though constituted yet must be dayly watered neither is it enough for a people once to be brought home to the Faith but they need a second and a third yea a continual benefit For though the Apostle haply did come but the second time to these Corinthians yet he appointed Officers in an ordinary residence amongst them as wel as in other Churches which were continually to watch over them The particulars wherein the Ministry is necessary for perfecting work as well as foundation work for progress as well as ingress for consummation as well as imitation are these First To inform against those Errors which false Teachers do easily insinuate into the hearts of people No sooner hath God sowed his field with precious wheat but the envious one commeth and soweth his tares As the April showers that make grass and flowers to come cause also weeds to grow Thus at the same time God is building the Church the Devil and his instruments are raising their Babel No sooner have the Ministers of God with Isaac digged up Wells but the Philistines have been ready to throw their earth and mud therein If then Errors and damnable Heresies may so quickly infect a Church formerly pure no wonder if there be such necessity of Pastors and Guides who are to lead the people into all truth by their Ministry as the spirit of
go rather than peace and quietness of a good conscience A Second Principle of the flesh which maketh men inconstant is An inordinate desire of Greatness and Honour above others They that walk by this must be black and white now say and than deny according as those are affected from whom they exspect Advancement This secret Ambition is accompanyed with a vehement heat and drought of the soul making a man restless till their desires be accomplished Neither may we think the Heathens onely to be blamed for these proud affectations We see even the Apostles twice contending about Primacy and Superiority which is the greater wonder if we consider the meanness of their own condition they were in as also of Christ their Master and yet more wonder it is if we remember how frequently our Saviour did inform them of Persecutions and saddest Calamities for his sake We read likewise of Diotrephes 3 John 9. who loved to have the preheminence and would not own no not the Apostle John himself Now those that walk by such Principles of pride and ambition they must needs be like a materia prima ready to receive any form They flatter they dissemble they commend they dispraise and thus debased they are that afterwards they may be exalted Now nothing is more odious and abominable to a sincere man than such mutability and uncertainty Hence Christians of old were called the just and holdfast men It was not thus with John Baptist of whom saith our Saviour What went ye out to see a read shaken with the winde No he did faithfully and constantly discharge his duty without any fear of men But how many may we go out to see as reeds shaken with every winde And as the reed must grow in some mire so must such mutable persons have some carnal respect to encourage them Those that climbe up to high places are apt to have their heads grow giddy and to be unsteadfast so that when men lay this as a foundation I will have Preferment I will have Honor and greatness though it damn me this man walketh upon slippery ice and no wonder if he often fall 3. Another carnal Principle which maketh Inconstancy in all our wayes is Pleasing of men When a man maketh this his Rule he must change often and be as a shadow which moveth whoily according to the motion of the body stoopeth when that stoopeth and is upright when that is upright The Apostle doth notably disclaim such a sinfull distemper saying Galat. 1. 10. If I should please men I could not be the servant of Christ Man is a mutable creature subject to different apprehensions to different affections loving one thing one day and hating it at another Then must they also who would please men be prepared for all formes and postures insomuch that a man cannot live in greater bondage and slavery tan to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peoples ape or to study the humouring of those we have to deal with If thou art guilty of this man-pleasing thou art never able to do thy duty thou canst not reprove and punish sin thou canst not be just and righteous in thy place Our Saviour said to his Disciples How can you belive which receive glory of one another John 5. 44. and do not seek the glory of God only Certainly till we study to please God alone in our lives and aim at his glory who is alwayes the same we must be unstable as water and be a lyar to every man We read of some who did believe in Christ yet dared not to make Profession thereof for fear of the Jews Here was a desire to please men rather than God But can the good word and favour of men deliver thee from the wrath of God in thy conscience and eternal torments hereafter When Judas pleased the Chief Priests in betraying of Christ could they comfort him in the Agonies of his conscience yea when he bewailed his sin They say What is that to us look thou to that Mat. 17. 4. Such miserable tormentors instead of comforters will all those men be whom thou hast pleased to displease God 5. Time-serving is a Principle which whosoever walketh by must be as a weather-Cock that is turned with every winde The people of Israel are remarkeable for this Inconstancy under wicked and Idolatrous Kings then they erected Altars they adorned Images and then immediately under Religious and Reforming Kings they would destroy the Idolls and deface the Images they had set up It is true all change and alteration in Religion is not to be blamed yea sometimes it is to be encouraged When Luther and Melancton gave over their former corrupt Doctrines and superstitious Practices the Papists condemned them for Turn-coats and Apostate persons when yet this change was necessary So that as they say in Philosophy there is alteratio corruptiva and perfectiva a destructive change and a perfective change thus it is also in Divinity and the Latter is absolutely commanded by God when Errors or Prophaneness have like a gangrene spread over the whole Church but of that in its time We are now speaking of that sinfull change whereby people accommodate themselves to the times they live in and therefore judg of truth judg of the holy things of God as Jeroboam did with subordination to State-Interests This is the great carnal Policy that the Wise-men of the world admire as if the true Doctrines of Christ were not alwayes the same as if a thing might be the worship of God one time and Idolatry at another as if the same thing might be the Doctrine of Christ at one time and Heresie at another as if that of Cusanus were true though otherwise not a very bad man That the Scripture is to be understood according to the present state and Affairs of the Church and therefore saith he We are not to wonder if at one time some Customes and Usages be exacted in a Church which at another time are to be decryed and refused But certainly the Scripture is a Rule of Faith and Manners in all Ages in all Changes and Revolutions Though Kingdomes and States may alter yet the Scriptures are the same still and what was once the Doctrine Worship and Order of Christ is still the same Lastly That all Particulars may be comprehended in one To live according to the Principles of the Flesh is To set up our selves as the Alpha and Omega to enjoy our selves and to use all things yea God himself in subordination thereunto Thus this love of a mans self even to the hatred of God is that which maketh us put on multiform shapes it is that which maketh us bend and bow and comply in all things For if we did love the Honour and glory of God more than our own selves as we ought to do then we should not attend to self-advantages but Gods glory and honor So that we may say This Self-love is the Beelzebub sin it
with his name as well as his own putting it also before Timotheus He with Barsabas were chosen by the Synodat Jerusalem to distribute the Apostolical letters having this character They were chief among the brethren they were in great eminency and esteem We read also when there was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sharp contention between Barnabas and Paul we see the frailties of the best in this for I cannot approve of those that take the word in a good sense because it is so used Heb. 10. 24. that Paul chose Sylas to be his companion and no wonder he nameth him here in this text for he was a special coadjutor to Paul in the planting of the Gospel at Corinth for you may read Act. 18. 5. how that when Sylas and Timotheus were come to him thither being afore sent for by him it is said Paul was pressed in spirit and testified unto the Jews that Jesus was Christ Paul then took more courage having these Companions and was the more animated to discharge his office so that it was not for modesty as Chrysostome hinteth that Paul doth assume him to this Colleagueship but also because there was need of his help the harvest being great at Corinth there needed many labourers and withall he conjoyneth these himself to shew the harmony and consent that was between him and the other Ministers in preaching of Christ So that from the conjoyning of these with Paul there are three Observations deduceable which shall be briefly dispatched at this time The first is That whereas the Ministerial labour and work is great there needeth the more assistance and help from others Paul himself alone is not able to do all the work that this Church of Corinth doth require and therefore he calleth in other Labourers to assist him therein Hence our Saviour directs us to pray unto God that where there is work for a Ministry suitable Ministers may be sent thither Matth. 9. 37 38. The harvest truly is plenteous and the labourers are few He compareth a people prepared by grace for the Ministry to the harvest now as it is a high degree of lazinesse to be idle in harvest thus it would be inexcusable in the Ministers of God if they should be loitering and sluggish when the souls of people are ready to receivd the good message of the Lord. Two things the Scripture taketh notice of in harvest the joy of harvest and the labour in harvest and both these are to be seen in a people fitted for Ministerial work for Instruction for Reformation There is infinite matter of joy to the people and to the Minister whereas to meet with a people that are like a field of bryars and thorns as Ezekiel did this is wholly discouraging The people may rejoyce because God gave them such a willing mind How many Congregations are there that cannot be called an harvest-field but a wildernesse an heath a dunghill Now it is the meer goodnesse of God that maketh such a difference between Congregations some are a stiff-necked obdurate and prophane people others a willing attentive and a ready people But God makes Congregations as well as persons to differ one from another Then there is joy to a Minister it is comfortable to be plowing and sowing upon fruitfull ground What joy is there to plow and sow upon a rock The same it is to preach to a senslesse and stupid people As there is joy so there is labour none must be a sluggard at that time and truly the people must labour and the Minister must labour and so both joyn together for the bringing of men to Heaven Now because it is such pitty to see a field of corn perish because there cannot any workmen be had to cut it down how much more is it to have a people damned for want of a faithfull and diligent Minister Therefore saith our Saviour Pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send labourers into his harvest It 's Gods harvest it 's his corn and therefore we may the more effectually prevail with him in prayer for this matter And you see here what the title of the Ministers is they are Labourers and labourers in harvest which is the sorest He saith The labourers are few there were many Priests and Scribes but few Labourers Hence though the people lived under their Ministry who read and expounded the Law every day yet because it was done so corruptly our Saviour had compassion on them as sheep without a shepherd So that such as enter upon this work must not dream of ease and idlenesse All the Names the Scripture giveth them denote hard work and labour It is matter of sollicitude and care more than honour and dignity And truly What Minister is there who reading the labours zeal and diligence of Paul in his Ministry may not cry out Oh me adwarf to such a Gyant If no Minister should be saved unlesse he be a Paul what would become of most of us Again they are called Labourers therefore this confuteth the fancies of common people that think the Ministers doth not labour at all that he hath his Maintenance for his ease and idlenesse As if there were no labour but what is bodily the labour of the mind of the heart is greater than that The Labour of a godly Magistrate and of a godly Minister is transcendent to all other Labours Indeed Who is sufficient for these things saith Paul 2 Cor. 2. 16. Men are sufficient for earthly imployments we cannot say Who is able to be a Tradesman to be an Husbandman but we must Who is able to be a Minister So that is a monstrous inconsideratenesse though coming from pride and covetousnesse that the Pope would have all the Churches in the world to be his charge and Bishops but his Curates yea some Bishops Metropolitans and Diocesans they plead to have all the Diocesses to be their charge only not assuming other Pastors in partem sollicitudinis as Cyprian did Even as Ignatius also in his Epistle ad Trallianos calleth Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Bishops But alas if a man be not able to be a Pastor to one Congregation how can he be to many If Paul would have Sylvanus and Timotheus to help in this Church of Corinth how much more doth the Pope and such Metropolitans need assistance As for their distinction of inspection per se vel per alium that will not be made good by the Scripture which commandeth Pastors to have a personal residency and government over their own flock Hence God hath appointed several Officers in the Church and given various gifts that all may be imployed for the good of the Church whereas though Paul was supposed only faulty about his breach of promise yet they charge Sylvanus and Timotheus with the same inconstancy thinking all were alike In the second place we observe That where there is any one real or supposed fault in one Minister people are apt
did all was new their service new their Doctrine new but the iniquity and the corruption of the times made it appear to be so And indeed Popery is properly the great Novellisme for the Popish Doctrines the Popish Worship began to creep in when the Churches of Christ began to degenerate from their Primitive Institution The change then that is many times in the face of Religion which doth so offend many is not indeed so but in appearance Those truths of God were formerly professed in the Church only an Eclipse did arise which obscured the light of the Sun As then the Sun is not changed after an Eclipse we do not see a new Sun thus it is also with the truths of Christ the Reformers do not bring new truths only the darkness is dispelled and we see them which were long before It is with us as with men whose heads are distempered we think such and such things run round whereas indeed it is a distemper upon us and it is a signe that we have been corrupted when old truths seem new to us 4. We may therefore truly conclude that antiquity and consent are inseparable properties of a true Church That Church which retaineth Doctrines of the greatest Antiquity and which doth agree with the Primitive Apostolical Churches that must needs be a true Church for truth is alwayes alike That cannot be true Doctrine in one age which is not in another though men are apt to be changed by the times they live in yet Gods truth cannot be When therefore the Papists bring antiquity and consent as notes of a true Church we deny they can or are to be called notes because it is not Antiquity barely but antiqvity in the true Doctrine nor Consent meerly so but consent with the Primitive Churches Doctrine So that True Doctrine is properly the note of the Church only we add that Antiquity and Consent with the Primitive times do inseparably follow the true Doctrine Now the ground of this certainty and equality of the truths of Christ is because they are Gods truths Christs truths if they were the truths of mens making then they might alter and change as they please then it might be formed reformed and transformed into all the shapes that mens Interests could put them upon then truth might alter according to the climates customes and advantages of men then truth might be one thing at Rome and another thing at Constantinople then we might say such things were truth in one age and ye the contrary truth in another Popery was truth in Queen Maries dayes and Protestantisme in Queen Elizabeths And truly some men are so Atheistical or self-seeking that they account truth as the Apostle said some did godliness even outward gain and therefore when such an opinion is gainfull then it is truth but when not so then it is Heresie Use of Instruction How odious Instability and Inconstancy is in matter of Religion whether it be in private Christians or publick Officers It plainly discovereth that not the truth of Christ but some other uncertain motive prevaileth with thee either thy profit or thy applause or the times or customes or the Lawes of the Land or some other mutable respect doth work upon thee and if so then thou canst not but be a reed shaken with every winde of Doctrine Thou art then but as an Instrument of musick making no other sound nor no longer then thou art breathed into Profit will make thee a Papist profit will make thee a protestant profit will make thee an Heretick How contrary is such a fickle temper to the nature of Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Use 2d of Instruction How false that position is of some Papists That the Church may make Articles of Faith and that the Authority of the Church maketh the Authority of the Scripture at least towards us So that the Scriptures would have no more authority then Titus Livius or Aesops fables in respect of our duty to believe were it not for the Churches Authority No less blasphemous is that other comparison of another Papist resembling the Scripture to a nose of wax If so then no wonder if they make what truths and what religions they please then we may call it the Popes truth the Churches truth and not the truth of God It is a ridiculous passage of a Papist Ford against Taylor saying that it is probable the Church will make that Opinion about the immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary to be an Article of Faith As if the Church could make that necessary to be believed if we would be saved that was not alwayes so Why may she not as well make a new Bible set up a new Christ as they establish a new Article of Faith SERM. CXXIV Of Gods Promises to man 2 COR. 1. 20. For all the Promises of God in him are yea and in him amen unto the glory of God by us THis Verse is a further confirmation of the constancy and immutability of the Lord Christ and so by consequence of Pauls doctrine For that Christ is unchangeable he proveth in that all the promises which God hath made they receive their fullnesse and complement in him and so are therefore true because fullfilled both in him and by him This is the Apostles sence in this assertion which Calvin doth well call memorabilis sententia c. a memorable sentence and one of the chiefest Articles of our Religion for herein is all our faith and confidence seated that in Christ God maketh his gracious promises to us by whose efficacy and impetration they be accomplished so that a promise is fullfilled not because of any worth or dignity in us but because of of the fulnesse and worth that is in Christ 1. The words may be taken as an entire Proposition wherein we have the subject and predicate with the amplification of it from the finall cause The subject is described from the nature of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promises 2. From the universality and extent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all promises as many as are made 3. From the efficient cause the promises of God 4. The predicate are yea and are amen in him Of which in their order Let us begin with the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promises many times in the plurall number at other times in the singular for indeed the covenant of grace is but one large promise or an ocean emptying it self into many streams yet sometimes called promises because of the many things both spirituall and temporall that are particularly promised by God the summe whereof is contained in that great promise or Magna Charta of the Church I will be their God and they shall be my people or else it may be promises in the plurall number because of the frequent repetition and reiteration of the grand promise of Christ to the Church Now the word promise is sometimes used for the
instances what weaknesse is upon the best if the Lord forsake them but for a while Peter was so confident of his immoyeablenesse that he thought though all others should deny Christ yet he would stand it out but how sadly did he fall to the great bit ernesse of his soul Thus the godly appear sometimes like Trees in the winter which though having some life in the root yet outwardly have no apparent difference from those that are stark dead and all is because they have not that establishing grace they use to have Let not then the strong man in grace glory in his strength nor the swift man in the wayes of Heaven glory in his swiftnesse and fervency for he is alone supported by the power of God Yea which is the more observable you may see them falling and staggering in those particular graces wherein they seem to be most corroborated Abraham is the Father of the faithfull and yet he discovered much carnal fear in Abimelech's countrey Moses was the meekest man upon the earth yet in what a froward passion when he struck the Rock which so provoked God that thereby he had onely a sight of Canaan and was not permitted to enter thereinto Peter is noted to have the greatest fervency and zeale of all the Apostles and yet how surprized with cowardize and sinnefull feare In these graces of all other you would not have thought they should stumble and and fall But behold how it is the arme of the Lord that doth beare us up Secondly This truth is demonstrated from those wonderfull dispensations towards his best servants Many are the temptations that they are assaulted with and all this is to shew their impotency to them to discover their infirmities to them that so they may be humble alwayes in their own eyes Thus Abraham and Jacob they were in constant exercises no sooner were they delivered from the Lion but a Bear met them one wave followed another And what was the end of all this but to keep them in continual dependance and waiting upon God David also was constantly in a wildernesse where no water was and Gods end herein was to make him see his salvation was in God alone Yea Paul himself though by the grace of God he was so preserved that after his conversion we read of no other extraordinary fall he had yet lest hereby as also from many other glorious priviledges he enjoyed he should be puffed up above measure 2 Cor. 12. he had the buffetings of Satan and a thorn in the flesh to make him go out of himself and to rest on Christ only So that Gods end in putting them upon these trials is to instruct them wherein or in whom their strength doth consist Thirdly That it is God alone who doth stablish the most holy will appear If you consider how great the power subtilty and malice of the Devil is who is set against them more than any others As Christ told his Apostles Satan had a desire to sift them as wheat Luk. 22. 31. Thus the Devil doth with the greatest violence oppose those that are more esteemed for gifts and graces than others These like Uriah stand in the fore-front of the battle for if they â—alâ— if they become a stumbling block and a reproach God is more dishonoured wicked men are more hardened then if many weak Christians should fall and therefore those that are remarkably godly they are to be so farre from high-mindednesse and self-confidence that indeed they are to be in the greatest fear and watchfulnesse for it is such as thou art the Devil aimeth at The trees full of fruit have the greatest violence made upon their boughs Now alas what is a godly mans strength to the Devils violent assaults and subtil insinuations if God did not strengthen him What defence hath a sheep against a roaring Lion Observe that reason expressed 1 John 4. 4. You have overcome Antichrist saith that Apostle but why Because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world In you that is emphatical It 's Christ dwelling in us that keepeth off Satans victorious power and all his instruments Thus also 1 John 5. 5. It is faith that overcometh the world which alwayes relieth on a power without us for faith as it is a grace doth not but as it receiveth strength from Christ As the Vine and Ivy are not supported of themselves but by those trees they lean unto Fourthly It is plain that God alone doth establish the most able believers from that providence of God whereby he many times leaveth such to themselves that in their own experience and acknowledgement of others they may see all help is from God alone This truth the godly are not alwayes so practically convinced of as they should be Hence they are apt to be puffed up sometimes with secret delight and complacency in themselves for which God doth leave them to themselves that they thereby falling may know what they are of themselves and what they are by the grace of God Thus it is noted of Hezekiah a man full of integrity in Gods wayes 2 Chron. 32. 31. God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart Even this good man did not know how base false and deceitfull his heart was and therefore God left him and we see the blessed effect of this mercifull desertion vers 26. Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart Is not here then a plain instance that God many times in much mercy leaveth the godly to themselves that so they may have full sentiments of this truth upon their hearts This also was the case of Peter who did not answer his name of a Rock in this case and had the Church been built on him as the Papists boast it had fallen all into pieces for it was Christs looking upon him that recovered him not any strength of his own But how cometh Peter thus to stumble and fall It was because of his self-confidence and presumption in his own power yea some have said that Christ left him meerly to himself not for any preceding sinne in Peter but only by way of meer dispensation that hereby an example of humility and holy fear might be left upon record to all ages But that Peter's sinne of gross confidence did deserve this graduall dereliction is more than probable only we grant that as God doth sometimes tempt so also forsake sometimes for sinnes antecedent sometimes from his meer soveraignty and holy wisdome thereby to teach man that which otherwise would not be acknowledged It is indeed a Rule that Deus neminem descrit nisi prius deseratur God forsaketh none that doth not forsake him which may be granted as true if we speak of a desertion by way of anger and punishment but of a desertion by way of mercy and triall or thereby to make way for greater dispensations of his glory so it is not alwayes true
God may forsake gradually that thereby he may not forsake totally and finally Such desertions that are for a season are sometimes mercies and very usefull being a substraction of grace in order to fill us with more grace And the end of such providential administrations is to convince us fully of this truth that we do not settle our selves but it is God that doth it for us Lastly This truth may be demonstrated from the nature of that grace which is habitual and permanent in us For though that there be in us as a principle qualifying of us to work holy things with delight joy and content yet it cannot put us upon working without a further actual efficacious work of grace upon our souls which you heard the Apostle calleth Working in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. So that although there be never so much grace planted in us yet that lieth asleep as it were and worketh not till this efficacious grace actuate it and put it into motion neither ought this to be any wonder to us For we see in natural causes it is not enough to have a principle of life unless God also enable us to move For in him we live and move and have our being much more then must this be in supernatural things where the Actus primus and secundus is of God Not but that in the progresse of grace we act and move but Acti agimus moti movemus It is the grace of God that doth efficaciously incline the sanctified will to spiritual operation then the North-wind and the South doe as it were blow upon the spiccs that they may send forth their fragrant smell It is true at the first work of grace there we are meerly passive but God doth not then force our will he only changeth it as water which naturally descends when made air doth naturally ascend upwards Thus the will of a man which was depressed to earthly things by sinne when sanctified and made heavenly ascendeth up towards God and heavenly objects By these discoveries it is manifest that the best Saint in this world is setled by the grace of God alone Those corruptions within him are treacherous and would betray him into the hands of Satan did not Christ corroborate him And is this any wonder of man fallen seeing Adam fell for want of this confirming grace and the elect Angels do therefore not leave their habitation as the Apostate have because the grace of God doth confirm them So that the good use we are to make of this Doctrine is to be exceeding watchfull and tender about all sinne lest thereby we provoke God to leave us How terrible do such desertions many times prove To whom are woes to whom are wounds and gripes of conscience but many times to those who being left of God have thereby ingaged in sinfull wayes and so having lost an holy frame of heart have thereby deprived themselves likewise of an Evangelical comfortable one Take heed through thy lazinesse negligence pride or some other sinne God forsake thee and thou become worse than Nebuchadnezzar of a godly man made like a beast This will be bitternesse in the latter end As for the second Doctrine I shall not say much to that because it hath been in part already spoken unto it is That in Christ alone we are established That as in the building other stones are strengthened because of the corner stone or the foundation stone or as the branch in the Vine doth therefore live and flourish because in the Vine so it is with us because in Christ we are setled with Christ in Christ we are confirmed with Christ which made Austin say In Christo sumtis Christus extra Christum nihil In Christ we are even like Christ out of Christ we are nothing at all To consider this we are to know First That all the godly through the efficacy of Gods Spirit are united to Christ and so become his mystical and spiritual body By reason of this it is that Christ dwelleth in them and they in Christ Christ actively communicating of his goodnesse and virtue to them and they passively receiving influences of grace from his fulnesse This union is represented in Scripture by many similitudes of a building of a vine and branches of an husband and wife but none so expresly as that in the Sacrament of bread and wine denoting us those elements are naturally turned into our nourishment and made one with us so we are in a spiritual and mystical manner made one with Christ This being laid as a foundation then Secondly From this our establishment and settlement followeth whereby we are sure to persevere and nothing shall be able to dissolve this union whence once made a true member of Christ there cannot be any separation made so as ever such a person should at last be damned in hell for that would redound to the highest dishonour of Christ the Head as could be imagined The reason why Adam fell though without any inherent corruption in him was partly because he was not united to Christ in that manner as the weakest believer is now under the Covenant of Grace And although these things are derided by the Arminian yet this Doctrine of spiritual union with Christ may compell every one to believe the truth thereof so that if we now fall Christ must fall with us we are not to be considered as single persons standing upon our own bottome but as united to Christ Therefore Thirdly Being thus in Christ our stablishment ariseth two wayes from Christ 1. By meritorious impetration Christ as our Mediatour hath deserved this through his propitiatory death that we should alwayes be kept his and therefore when we have a thousand times over deserved that God should leave us yet because Christ hath deserved that God should alwayes love us therefore it is that we stand faster than Mount Zion which yet is said not to be moved The second way is by efficient application for he doth communicate of his power and strength to us whereby when we are ready of our selves to fall yet he doth prevent it So that our being in Christ is the foundation of all strength and all comfort and therefore this discovereth the wretched estate of such who can claim no interest in Christ these are tossed up and down from one lust to another they roll from one iniquity to another the Devil doth what he pleaseth with them he throweth them sometimes in the fire and sometimes in the water and all this is because not in Christ If at any time through the common graces of Gods Spirit they are got up to the pinacle of the Temple they are eminent for gifts and place in the Church of God all the godly have admired them for a while yet at last you find them blasted and cursed in this way you find them like swine wallowing in the mire that were judged to be the sheep of
the Lord liveth therefore not by any creature 1. In truth that is be sure that the thing thou swearest be true not onely in it self but to thy conscience that thou knowest the truth of it or if thou hast not the certainty of it that thou beleevest it to be so upon good grounds and against this offend all those who swear falsly and will bring as much as lieth in them God to witnesse a lye 2. In judgement that is with prudence deliberation and caution Be well advised before thou swearest and against this offend all common swearers that swear rashly and for ordinary things as also those who swear in passions and when moved by anger 3. In righteousnesse that is be sure the matter thou swearest especially in promissory oaths be lawfull and just such which is agreeable to Gods Word To these we may adde two more 1. That we swear in faith beleeving not only that there is a God but also that he is an observer of all that we speak or do and an avenger of such who shall pollute his Name And then 2. that we do it with holy awe and reverence of God upon our spirits We are to fear an oath Oh what trembling and confusion may this work upon rash and passionate common swearers How often hath the name of God been taken into thy mouth rashly and prophanely Thou who when thou art to do with a great man in place and honour dost with all reverence approach to him how cometh the Majesty of the great God to be thus contemned by thee In the last place When may we swear and that is in the generall when necessity doth compell when the truth cannot be found out any other waies for an oath is to be used when other means are deficient and more particularly we are then only to swear when the honour of God is concerned or Religion and Christianity is falsly accused and these are publique grounds To which we may adde the good of the Common-wealth or we are to swear upon a particular occasion to clear our selves from false accusations and crimes charged upon us if otherwise our innocency cannot appear or in the behalf of others when they shall suffer either in name life or estate and we are required 〈◊〉 unto by the Magistrate that so justice may proceed SERM. CXLIII Ordinary Swearing reproved and put to Silence 2 COR. 1. 23. Moreover I call God to record upon my soul c. I Shall now conclude the Subject which the former part of this verse hath afforded unto us From what hath been delivered concerning an Oath I proceed to an Use of severe Reproof against that common Epidemicall sinne of ordinary swearing It is a Nationall sinne it is the City-sinne it is the Village-sinne it is the Family-sinne it is the rich mans sinne the poor mans sinne the old mans sin the young mans yea the childs sin who learneth to speak and swear together But if an oath be a religious calling upon God as a witnesse if it be a sacred worship of his holy Name where will such prophane contemners of the honour and glory of God appear What mountains shall cover them from the wrath of God What shall be done unto thee thou cursing swearing tongue Not coals of juniper but of hell fire shall be powred upon thee We may be amazed and wonder why such a sinne should be thus universall for other sins have either pleasure or profit but this hath none at all Certainly the custome of such a sinne cometh from the meer wickednesse and prophanenesse of a mans heart having no fear of God in our souls for there is no earthly advantage that tempteth to this common ordinary swearing yet it hath been a generall sinne in the former ages of the Church as well as now How zealous and frequent is Chrysostome against that ungodly custom of swearing Adhuc timeo quia nullus timet saith he With no lesse godly affection doth Austin also set himself against it yea it seemeth there were such prophane wretches in his daies as are in ouâ—s who did account juramentum in ore magnum suave aliquid And have not we many who judge an oath to be a grace to their language and deride at such who are so precise as to be offended at such passages Oh therefore that God would so blesse this Discourse at this time to you that the prophane swearing tongue may be converted into a praying tongue a repenting and confessing tongue that he who hath sworn may never do so more but fear an oath as much as hell-fire and for this purpose consider these motives thereunto First That there is an expresse precept and command against such ordinary rash swearing and therefore you cannot with any forehead pleade for the lawfulnesse of it neither can you say we did not know that it was a sin to do thus for Christ hath set a command like a Beacon upon an hill none can but see it And it spâ—aks almost as loud as the Trumpet at the day of judgement none can but hear it It is Mat. 5. 34. But I say unto you Swear not at all and ver 37. Let your communication be yea yea nay nay he saith Swear not at all so that if it be but once an unlawfull swearing in all thy life thou hast transgressed this command and as one tile of the house neglected may in time make the whole covering consume and one rent in the garment let alone may at last destroy the whole so even one sinfull oath not repented of or humbled for may bring on the damnation of the whole man You see this command is laid down so strictly both in the negative and affirmative part that some have judged it wholly unlawful to swear in any case but that you heard was an error on the right hand yet so farre the command extendeth as to forbid all customary idle rash and unnecessary swearing So that the common swearer may as much fear to come near this command as the Israelite did to the mount when the Law was given Shall not this command of Christ be more to thee than all custome and example But I say unto you saith Christ Swear not at all who dareth then thus contradict Christ Why dost thou not all the day-long minde thy self of this Why doth not thy conscience put thee in remembrance of this command Say when thou risest when thou walkest when thou goest to bed this commandment to thy self Swear not The Apostle James also because of the great necessity and utility of this precept doth repeat it to beleevers For as Luthers saying is principum literae sunt bis vel ter legendae Princes letters and commands are to be read twice or thrice And thus we are daily to meditate on this duty by this gemination it should appear that the heart of man is very ready to break out into this filthy prophanenesse though there be no alluring motive Therefore he
be applyed to you how can ye have comfort if ye live in the waies of sinne doe not any thing that may chase away this comfort if we preach never such comfortable truths if thou by thy negligence and unmortified walking dost deprive thy self of consolation then know the blame lieth in thy self and not in the Ministery Thou criest give me a word of comfort how can we comfort him whom God would not have comforted SERM. CXLVII God only the Lord of our Christian Faith 2 COR. 1. 24. For by faith ye stand THis last clause saith Calvin other Interpreters either take no notice of or else do not clearly instruct about it for whereas it is plain by the causall particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is brought in as an argument of something preceding it is very difficult to finde out the reason Those Interpreters that take notice of it are divided Some do make it a reason of the words immediatly foregoing Paul was a helper of their joy because they stood firmly in the faith for although there were some who denied the resurrection yet that was not the doctrine of the Chuch in general nor was it puhlikely professed by them It is true many abuses there were in practice both civill and religious yet because they did firmly retain the true faith therefore it was that he would not wholly cast them off as no Church Their true doctrine which they professed made him the more hopeful of them and certainly the pure sound faith professed by a Church though otherwise greatly corrupted maketh it to have the essence and life of a Church and withall suggesteth hope that God in time will make them an holy practical Church as well as a sound Orthodox one Hence Paul in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians c. 3. v. 5 6 7. doth much rejoyce in their faith that they stood stedfast therein When I could no longer forbear I sent to know your faith As also Timotheus brought him glad tidings of their faith And again we were comforted in our affliction by your faith and this interpretation is very probable and not to be wholly rejected But then a second is more probable and that maketh it a reason of the former part of the verse We have not dominion over your faith for by faith ye stand stedfast Insomuch that if I Paul or an Angel from heaven should preach unto you another doctrine yet you beleeve in the truth as Gods truth and not mans truth So that God alone hath the dominion over your hearts in beleeving Thus it is a very fit and proper reason Hence Heinsius thinketh there is a transposition of the words which is usuall with Paul and that they should be inserted before the later clause thus Not that we have dominion over your faith for by faith you stand Whether we reade it objectively you stand in the faith or instrumentally by faith you stand it is not much materiall Neither are we to render it in the past signification you have stood because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek as if the Apostle did imply they formerly had indeed stood in the faith though lately they grew wavering for it is usuall to use the preterperfect for the present especially when a continuance or perseverance is intended as Matth. 20 Why stand ye here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle all the day long Both these interpretations may be conjoyned but because the latter is the most considerable Therefore I shall insist on that and observe That the Christian faith is of that nature that it doth respect and relate unto God only We believe not in men but in God Whether we speak of dogmatical or fiducial faith they cannot have any other bottome to stand upon but the authority of God himself Thus saith the Lord Thus it is written is the ground of all true Christian faith which truth deserveâ—h explication in some particular Propositions As First There is an humane and there is a divine faith which onely deserveth the name of Christian faith and to which onely the promises of God doe belong An humane faith I call that when men doe beleeve principles of Religion meerly upon humane motives that is the ultimate reason and motive into which their faith is resolved These humane motives are manifold as the Authority of the Church the Authority of Ministers and Pastors our education by parents custome and universality as also the Laws and Edicts of a Magistrate commanding such a Religion to be received and no other Now whosoever maketh this the chief reason of the profession of his faith is upon no better ground than the Turkes is for their Mahumetan the Papists for their Popish faith Insomuch that many Protestants Turkes and Papists though they exceedingly differ in the materials of Religion yet agree in the formali motivo they believe so and so because brought up in it because commanded by their Civil Magistrates It is that which the Papists upbraid us with that our Religion is but a Parliament-Religion or a Queen Elizabeths-Religion because when they established it the Land generally received it Now to this we say That no doubt the generality of people except such as are enlightned by Gods Spirit doe receive even the Christian or true Religion but upon civil and humane respects and therefore when Emperours have been Arrians the people have been Arrians when the Kings of Israel were Idolaters the inhabitants became Idolaters And thus when the Kings of the Earth have been Papists the people have been Papists also So that they cannot object any thing more against the Protestant Religion than we may against the Papist Onely we adde a further position which introduceth a divirâ—e faith which they overthrow and so by consequence teach no more than an Lumane faith For we hold That every private believer is bound to have an explicite faith of the things necessary to salvation and this faith we say is knowledge the ground whereof is the Authority and Testimony of God in the Scripture So that we doe not believe in Magistrates nor in Ministers nor in the Church trusting our faith and salvation upon them but the word of God onely whereas the Papists do expresly affirm That a private Christians faith is enough to salvation if he content himself with this That he believeth as the Church believeth never troubling himself in reading of books or searching of the Scripture As Valentia's known instance of a Merchant brought in by him disputing What Religion he should be of doth evidently declare So then a Papist as a Papist cannot reach any higher than to an humane faith For though they will not yeeld the Authority of the Church to be an humane Authority yet both reason and experience doth fully convince that But let us come to our own people and sadly bewail the ignorance and stupidity of Protestants in general who are not moved by any divine motives or Scripture-respects to imbrace
Because perhaps by our sins we have deserved it 3. God often denies comforts for the that they may be the more welcome when they come 4. And often to try whether my obedience be pure 5. To teach us how we are beholding to Christ 6. Whensoever it is necessary we are sure to have it The afflictions we suffer for Christ are not only for our own but for the Churches good The sufferings of Christ of two sorts 1. In his Person 2. In his members Propositions clearing the truth 1. The sufferings of Saints for the good of the Church are still to be distinguished from Christs sufferings How Christian Martyrs sufferings differ 1. His death was not only a Martyrdom but a propitiation 2. In the efficacy 2. Our sufferings for the Churches good are not meritorious either for our selves or others 3. That our sufferings turn to others good is not from themselves but from the power and grace of God 4. Hence we may admire the wisdom power and goodness of God turning our enemies wicked intentions unto our good What is the general good promoted by the Churches sufferings 1. The glory of God Christ and believers 2. The propagation and enlargement of the Gospel Sufferings for Christ help much our comfort and salvation 1. The sufferings of others work good only occasionally not efficiently or meritoriously 2. Hence we may bewail the superstiâ—ion of the Church about the Martyrs 3. The sufferers for Christ may encourage us but we are to be sure they are indeed the sufferers for Christ How the afflictions of others for Christ work our comfort and salvation 1. Hereby we shall have greater assurance of these divine truths for which they suffer 2. Hence we may be encouraged to trust in God and depend upon him to enable us also if he should call us thereunto 3. Hereby we may take occasion to rejoyce in God as enabling them and as having promised to do so to us 4. Hence we may inform our selves they were in earnest and real for Christ 5. Hence we may learn to mortifie our hearts to the world The salvation of believers is promoted by their sufferings for Christ How sufferings advance our salvation 1. They help to make us mourn for sin and turn to God 2. They inform us more of God and Christ of his grace and power then we knew before 3. These afflictsons quicken us to more grace 4. Because of the glorious promises which are made to such Sufferings not barely in themselves but as improved by patience conduce to our salvation Humane Philosophers agreed in the commending of patience What goeth to the producing of patience 1. The efficient cause is God 2. The word of God is the instrumental cause 3. Afflictions they also work patience 4. God and Christ are the exemplary cause Motives to patience 1. We should consider and be affected with what we have deserved 2. Consider Gods great goodness in changing the nature of thy afflictions 3. Consider that God will be with thee 4. Consider what good will redound to thee by thy afflictions 1. What spiritual good 2. Eternal 5. Consider by patience thou maist promote the good of others A two-sold salvation temporal and spiritual Spiritual salvation is either inchoate or consummate God doth by all his dispensations carry on and further the salvation of his people What this salvation doth imply 1. It is Negative 2. Positive Two sorts of dispensations from God which further the salvation of a believer 1. The direct means appointed by God for this end 2. The occasional means as 1. Their sins 2. Their afflictions What is that hope and perswasion which Paul had of other men A two-fold hope Divine and Moral What is the Divine hope What Moral hope is 'T is a great encouragement to the Ministers of God to have good grounds for the hope of grace and stedfastnesse in their people What things they were which made Paul hope so well of the Corinthians 1. Their amendment and repentance by his former Epistle 2. Their setting up that good and holy order which was thrown down 3. Because they did communicate with Paul in a patient suffering for Christ A double communion 1. In what is evil 2. In what is good The communion with those who suffer for Christ is a fair way to their joy and glory 1. A two-fold communion with the afflicted 1. When a man living in peace and quietness himself yet is affected with their sufferings 2. When a man is cast into the same outward condition 2. It is as glorious and acceptable to be a companion to sufferers as to suffer Reasons why partaking with the Saints afflictions doth interest us in their glory 1. This demonstrates our faith in Christ to be upon spiritual grounds 2. Because this is suffering for Christ Of the compellation which Paul useth brethren Of the expression I would not have you ignorant 'T is of great use to know the afflictions of those who suffer for Christs sake Reasons 1. Hereby we shall be more provoked to pray for them 2. Hereby they will be more encouraged to bless God when they are delivered 3. Hereby we may learn patience zeal and heavenly mindedness and other graces Qu. What use is to be made of preaching about such afflictions which Paul and other Christians suffered from Heathens Answ 1. Answ 2. Answ 3. Answ 4. Answ 5. The faithfull Ministers of the Gospel are sure to meet with opposition from the world Two sorts which oppose the truth and wayes of Christ 1. Such as take the true Religion to be blasphemy and idolatry or superstition the true service of God 2. Such who professe religion meerly because it suits with their carnal interests Hence the Ministers of the Gospel are not only opposed to those who are without but by some within the Church Who are they which profess Religion meerly for carnal ends 1. Such as live in their lusts 2. Such as intend to advance themselves by it More characters of such who professe Religion only upon worldly respects 1. Such who in time of temptations prove adversaries to the Gospel and Ministry of it 2. Such as maintain doctrines which overthrow the foundation of Religion 3. Such as make parties and factions in the Church 4. Such who make use of the Doctrine of the Gospel only to shew their parts and learning 5. Such as do not own Religion upon divine principles and holy motives How the afflictions of the godly may be called heavy and yet light Godly men judge otherwise of their afflictions from sense and flesh then from grace and reason Propositions clearing the truth There are two selves in every regenerate man 2. These two selfs oppose one another 3. Hence 't is good to observe from which of those principles our actions proceed How we may know when faith and when flesh speaketh in our afflictions 1. Flesh argues from afflictions that God hath forsaken us 2. Flesh saith afflictions will undo us