bad They both grow alike 5 The Time and Term of the flourishing estate of the wicked It is but until the Harvest And this until is both a Note of Determination and Termination Till then It doth not end before Till then it doth not continue after 6. The true and proper reason of the being growth and continuance of the Wicked And that is Christ's sufferance and toleration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suffer both to grow together until the harvest I shall take them up as they lay in order And first of the first 1. The first Proposition The different nature of good and bad resembled by Wheat and Tares The purblind world judgeth all things amisse and observes no inequality or disparity among the sons of men Homo homini quid praestat stulto intelligens quid interest say they with him in the comedie What difference in point of excellency betwixt one man and another But if we consult with the Oracle of God that resolves us to the contrary The righteous is more Excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12.26 And iâ— there be any creature of greater transcendency then the rest it seems to illustrate their dignity by way of similitude and comparison As being the Lillie among Flower The Dove among Fowls Gold among Meâ—tals And wheat among grain both for the worth and weight of it A fit Emblem of the Faithful who are the chief and choice of men even as Wheat beareth the greatest price and value among grain And the worth of the faithful appears in their weight in in regard of their stedfastness and stability their constancy and continuance which are no way moved much less removed with the gusts and blasts of temptation Even as Wheat which is a ponderous and a heavy substance is not carried away with the force and violence of the wind (d) Cyprian de unit Eccles Sect. 8. Nemo putet bonos de Ecclesia posse discedere Triticum non rap t ventus saith St. Cyprian But as for the ungodly they are as Tares or blasted Ears Tares for their emptiness whose heart is utterly destitute of grace and goodness even as blasted Eares have no inward pith nor substance no food nor foison in them and Tares be for their lightness (e) Avoleâ—t quantum volent Paleae levis fidei quocunque afflatu tentationum eo purior massa frumenti in horrea domini reponetur Tertul. de Praeser adver Haeret. Inanes Paleae Cypr. ibid. Paleae levis fidei as Tertullian stileth them and so subject to fly away being hurried to and fro with every puff of wind The Southern wind of favour and preferment which blowes upon them with a gentle and pleasing blast and though in it self it be but an evil wind yet in their opinion it blows them to good The blustering and boisterous North winds of trial and persecution Each of these winds whether it blows from the North or South doth easily carry away these light and empty Tares out of the Church And those our Saviour he sets forth under the similitude of Tares or blasted Eares in the Parable of the Text. And that in opposition to the Wheat thereby importing their unprofitable and worthless nature Such is the difference betwixt good and bad as betwixt Wheat and Tares 2. The impurity and imperfection of the visible Church The second Proposition consisting of good and bad even as the same field contains both Wheat and Tares The name of the Church is no univocal word wherein there is an agreement both of Name and Nature but an aequivocal voice where things of a most different nature communicate in the same name I speak not this of the Jesuites who in respect of their execrable doctrine of their mental reservations and aequivocations are fitly stiled aequivocal Christians But of the external members of the visible Church the greater part whereof are only commended by the titular profession of Christianity as an empty sign and shadow and yet want the thing signified and are utterly destitute of the substance And as the name of the Church is no univocal but aequivocal voice so the Church it self is no Homogeneal but an Heterogeneal body not like unto the similar parts of men Blood Spirits or the like each portion whereof is suitable and agreeable to the whole But resembling the organical parts as a Leg or Arm which consists of Skin Flesh Bones and Marrow And these far different from each other There are three several places in the world Heaven Hell and Earth In Heaven above there are none but perfectly good the blessed society of Saints and Angels In Hell beneath none but irrecoverably wicked the cursed crue of damned spirits But the visible Church upon Earth is a middle place and state betwixt both a confused mixture and medley both of good and bad like unto Noahs Ark wherein were cooped up both clean and unclean beasts A wide drag-net that closes not only profitable fish but worthless weeds and beggery A common Inne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a receptacle for all commers A great House which affords vessels of gold and silver and some other of wood and earth 2 Tim. 2.20 A Barn or threshing Floor where corn and chaff lie covered in the same heap Mot. 3.12 And here in the Text A vast and open Field that brings forth Wheat and Tares And as it was said of Hantbals Army Colluvies omnium gentium So is the visible Church a promiscuous Company and Congregation a rabble and a rapsody of all sorts corrupt Hereticks who deprave the verity of the faith supercilious and factious Schismaticks that deprive and destrâ—y the unity of the Church disguised and masked Hypocrits meer Scepticks in their opinion Hybrides in their profession Amphibia in their conversation like unto those flying fishes in America that live sometimes in the water and sometimes in the air and are ill accepted in both places the ravenous fishes being ready to devour them below and the Sea fowls continually beating them above And last of all men openly profane and vicious (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat Epist ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat ibid. Ignatius reduces the several sorts of men in the visible Church to two Heads and observes the same difference among men that is to be found in coyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof some is true and sound such as can endure the Touch the other is false and counterfeit Holy men are God's coyn that bear his image and superscrip ion But as for proâ—â—ne and wicked men they are adulterate deceitful and corrupt â—oyn that are minted and stamped by the Divel It is St. Chrysoâ—â—omes observation upon the 23. of Saint Matthâ—w that there is somewhat bred and born in every creature that wasts and consumes the substance The soundest Timber engenders worms the finest Garments give life to Moths The most wholesome Herbs bring forth small flies that fret them in pieces Neither fares it otherwise
Church is one though every way inferiour to the former The first Temple of God is his glorious Majesty altogether infinite and incomprehensihle who as he is void of all bounds and limits in his nature so he is not included within any lists and terms of place His glorious Majesty Thus God dwelt in himself from all eternity In se apud se habitabat It was the answer of an Antient to those smattering Questionists Et apud se est Dens Pet. Lomb. dist 17. ere August and curious Inquisitors who would needs pry into the place of Gods abode ere this visible world was created The second Temple of God is the humane nature of Christ The humane nature of Christ which being hypostatically united to the Godhead it was the seat of the Deity in a most peculiar manner Being replenished with Divine Grace from his first conception as Solomons Temple was filled with a cloud at the dedication and that far above the capacity of the creature Full of Grace and Truth saith Saint John 1 Joh. 14. Of Truth which is the perfection of the understanding Of Grace which is the excellency and beauty of the Will Nor was he only full of habitual grace but of the Divinity it self For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 There is not a word in the Text but is dogmatically full and very significant and emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very fulness of the God-head in the utmost latitude dwelt in Christ as in a sacred Temple And that personally and essentially not only in regard of the inward gifts and endowments which are imparted and dealt out unto us in measure and proportion This was not only Templum Domini but Templum Dominus as (l) August in Evang. John Augustine distinguished of old betwixt Panem Domini Panem Dominum Christ was both the Temple of the Lord and the Lord of the Temple The third Temple of God is the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living and a walking Temple The Church and from hence it takes its name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of Gods habitation for though God be every where per divinitatis praesentiam and the whole world be his great presence chamber yet is the Church his privy chamber his withdrawing room where he most frequently converseth Walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks as Christ describes himself Revelations 2.1 abiding onely in the faithful per inhabitationis gratiam as in the place of his habitation And albeit every good creature be in God as in the conserving cause In whom we live and move and have our being which is nothing else then a (m) Id ipsum quod sumus nihil aliud est quam in uno Deo subsistentia Calvin Iust l. 1. subsistence in God and our preservation is but one continued (n) Quamdiu creatura est tamdiu creatur Durand in Senten Creation yet nevertheless God is not in every creature though every creature be in God as in the proper seat and mansion This Christ appropriates to his Disciples by special promise Iohn 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of singular force and denotes (o) Mirâ—â—r in scriptura singularem babet significationem notat enim constantiam penitissimam adhaesionem ejus rei quae dicitur mancre Camer Myr. Evang. in Joh. 14.16 constancy and continuance In which respect the Jews of old called the spirit of God by the name Shechina that is a Mansion or an habitation This is an inseparable priviledge of the Temple as Saint Paul quotes the Text 2 Cor. 6.11 For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell among them walk there and if we stick not to credit the testimony of Antiquity God dwels no less virtually in the Church then in the Throne of the highest Heaven a devout soul is another heaven upon earth even that heaven which is mentioned in the Preface of the Lords Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven that is in the Saints And herein consists the difference betwixt Physical places (p) Anima beata est eaelum Bernard Pater Noster qui est in coelis id est in Sanctis August and this which is Metaphorical those contain and preserve the body but here the inhabitant includes and upholds the dwelling And as other Temples prove Sanctuaries to such as repair for refuge so is God an Asylum to his Church and a Sanctuary to his Temple And so have we compleatly dispatched and finished the several branches of the Allegory and the doctrinal part of the Proposition Which being thus premised we may from hence infer a threefold Corollary and Conclusion A threefold Corollary 1. The Dignity Of the Church 2. The Duty Of the Church 3. The Danger Of the Church All arising from the consideration of a Temple First we may take notice of the Churches Dignity and that in a double consideration The Churches Dignity in a double consideration 1. Simply and absolutely in it self as being the Temple the mystical Temple of God 2. Comparatively and relatively in reference to the material First then observe the absolute Excellency of the Church Simply and absolutely in it self as being Gods Temple For if as the Heathen Philosopher Menedemus some time spake Those stones were happier then the rest which served for their Altars Surely these Stones in this goe farre beyond them who are deputed to a higher employment to be the receptacle and habitation of the Spirit The entertainment of some Worthy and Noble Guest doth as it were enhaunce the honour of the dwelling Yea the presence of a dead Corps whose Ashes and Memory are for ever sacred and precious doth after a sort honour the Urne and dignifies the Grave that contains it O te beatum cespitem tanto Hospite Calvini Epitaphium Beza O cui invidere cuncta possint marmora As Beza warbled it most sweetly in a funeral Elegie and Epitaph of renowned Calvin What is it then for a poor Christian to harbour the living God not as a stranger or sojourner but a perpetual Residentiary Not to receive Angels into his house with righteous Lot But the holy spirit into his heart There to enjoy the constant presence in the powerful motions and excitations the soveraign and happy effects 1. As an Instructer This is the way walk ye in it Isa 30.21 2. As a Guide As many as are led by the spirit Rom. 8.14 3. As a Coadjâ—tor and Fellow-helper Likewise the spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom 8.26 4. As a Comforter But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost he will teach you all things John 14.26 The Comforter by way of Excellency above all other The Comforter by way of Propriety in opposition to all other And to have the
drink with weeping after the manner of David Ye that now sow in tears shall reap in joy ye that now go forth weeping and it matters not though the seed time be somewhat moist so the Harvest prove dry and carry precious seed shall return with joy and bring your sheaves with you Psal 126.5.6 What though the light of God shines bright and cleer upon the forehead and about the Tabernacle of the wicked while ye in the mean time are hanged up like Bottles in the smoak and cast into by-corners like the shreds of a a broken pot They sing to the Lute and see their children dance before them whereas your hearts are heavy in your bodies as lead your sighs beat as thick as a swift pulse and water your couch with your tears They wash their paths in butter and their Tables are full furnished day by day But earth and ashes are your bread yet comfort your selves ye seed of the righteous with the setled expectation of a Harvest wherein ye shall rejoyce according to the joy of Harvest as the Prophet Isaiah speaks yea comfort ye comfort ye your hearts against the Fret of the ungodly the present prosperity of the wicked Learn to laugh them to scorn after the example of the most high for that you see that their day is coming Psal 37.13 when it shall be verified of them which the Prophet affirms of Babylon Jer. 51.33 The daughter of Babel is like a threshing floor The time of her threshing is come yet a little while and the time of her Harvest shall come It is Gregories speech in his morals upon Job occasioned by an elegant and exact description of the happiness of the ungodly Job 21. from the 6. to the 13. verse (t) Greg. in Job O Job bene enumer asti vitam impiorum dic finem quaeso Thou hast set forth to the life the life of the wicked Tell us I pray thee what is their end And he supplies and furnisheth himself with an answer out of the next words They spend their days in wealth and suddenly they go down into the Grave v. 13. If any propound and move the like question that have hitherto heard of the growth of these Tares and are pensive and disconsolate at the hearing of it dic finem quaeso what is the end of these Tares and what abides them in time of Harvest let such take their answer from the mouth of Christ in the words after the Text. And in time of Harvest I wil say to the reapers Gather ye fâ—râ— the Tares and bind them in sheaves to burn them This is their end An end without end and so I am fallen upon the Sixt and last point 6. The Sixth Proposition The true and proper reason of the being growth and continuance of the wicked and that is Christ's rance and toleration Suffer both to grow together This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or suffer hath a double reference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or suffer hath a double reference First to Christ the Housholder or owner of the field who utters the words Suffer and therein presents himself as a precedent and pattern for their imitation Secondly the servants of the Housholder who complained of the springing up of the Tares Master sowed â— thou not good seed in thy field from whence then hath it Tares ver 23. And so it serves as a rule of instruction to suffer them after his example First this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or suffer hath reference to Christ the Housholder First to Christ the Housholder or owner of the field The will of God is as single and simple as his nature yet is it expressed and signified by general signs as both Lombard and Aquinas teach 1. His precept councel and operation in respect of good 2. His prohibition and permission of Evil So that sufferance is an act of God's will concerning sin which he neither commands nor counsels nor brings to passe But prohibits and yet gives way to both at once Of all the mysteries of Religion Praecipit ac prohibet permittit consulit implet there is none more intricate and involved There is not a more vexed question and disquisition than that which respects Gods concourse in sinful actions wherein there is equal danger of running into each extreme either by laying an attainder upon divine justice who is purity and holiness it self and is not a God that loveth wickedness as David speaks Psal 5.4 as if he were any way guilty or accessory to our sins or by charging and challenging of Gods providence as if he were a bare spectator and over-seer who by his All-seeing Eye did only foresee things to come but by any active power did no way interpose and intermeddle in our affairs And the reconciling of both these together the clearing Gods Justice and Providence in this particular is a point of no less difficulty than importance And this one word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or suffer doth compromise the difference and as an indifferent Vmpire or Moderator equally determines and states the question for both attributes For first Christ suffers these Tares not involuntarily or against his will which would argue either ignorance or impotency and want of power but in a voluntary and willing manner concurring as an universal cause to the sustentation of the creature to the natural being of their sinful actions though not to the moral defect and sinfulness And yet ordering their sins to his own ends the manifestation of his glory both of his Justice and Mercy by his over-ruling and all-disposing providence Secondly though Christ suffers yet he only suffers the children of the wicked he doth not inwardly excite and move them unto sin not outwardly prescribe and command it in his word not operatively effect or work nor approve and allow it being once committed All which are so many arguments of the holiness of his nature and the exquisiteness of his Justice Christ suffers the Tares willingly and therein gives testimony to his Providence but he only suffers he is not the Author that shews his Justice If then we desire and seek resolution in the point touching the proper and direct cause of evil we shall not find it like unto the River Nilus the head whereof could not be discovered Nor need we rack and torture our thoughts with Saint Austin in a busie and too too curious inquisition which moved him to turn Manichee But we may resolve it into the liberty of mans will as the only impulsive and effcient cause of his own sin void indeed of any inward principle of corcuption and endowed with sufficiency of gifts and abilities to resist temptation and yet mutable in his state and condition into the wily subtilty and spiteful malice of the Devil as the procatartical and moving cause outwardly inviting and inveagling him with his suggestions And into the free pormission of the will of God leaving man in the hand
stands at the door and knocks and leaves the will to its inbred liberty to elicite its ownact to let Christ in or to barre and boult him out at pleasure The total and final Apostacy of the Saints In all which they shew themselves profissed enemies to the riches of Gods grace and mercy God I thank thee I am not as other men are It was a kind of humble confession of the proud Pharisee Luke 18.11 Gratias agit Deo quod non sit sicut caeteri homines as Hierom speaks of him And yet herein the Arminian outstrips the Pharisee who will not acknowledge himself beholding to the grace of God nor let fall by way of complement God I thank thee I am not as other men And if we put them 〈◊〉 on Saint Pauls question Who maketh thee differ from another 1 Cor. 4.7 That bubble of froth and bladder of air and wind (x) Quod potai id Dei miserentis est quod tantum volui cum possim nolle id meaepotcstatis Grevin adv Ames pag. 253. Periculum est ne hic vermicuus stantopere insletur ut crepet Molin Anat. Armin. pag. 233. Grevinthonius will return that peremptory and presumptuous answer Ego memet ipsum discerno It is I even I that make my self to differ from another in direct opposition to the Apostle and in open desiance of the grace of God The fourth and last kind of false Paophets are the Antinomian The Antinomian or Lawless Christian A Sect which was first sprung in the Egge and the Bird hatcht in Germany in the year 1538. Sleydan Li. 12. Sleydan reports in his Commentarie a Sect that cried down the preaching of repentance of the Decalogue and did stiflly and strenuously maintain that though a Christians life was never so impure and filthy yet was he justified and approved in the sight of God so long as he believed the promises of the Gospel These were Antinomians of the first Edition but besides these there are other of a later Impression yet little corrected or amended who take away the directive and regulating power of the Law under the Gospel as if the free grace of God in Christ were a Supersedeas or a Writ of Ease to the moral Law so far forth as it respects a true convert and a sound Christian And strange it is that such a thought should ever fasten or settle in a Christian That the moral Law which was ingraven in the heart of man at the first and given unto Adam as a rule in the state of Innocencie That Law which Christ came not to destroy but fulfil That Law which is indispensable in its own nature That Law which is an express copy of the original purity and perfection that is in God and as some conceive shall be inviolably observed in the highest Heaven That that Law should receive the consummation with the consummatum est and breath out the last spirit with Christ upon the Cross And as there are Antinomians in Religion This Sermon was preached before any alteration hapned in Church or State so are there lawless Christians in Church or State who either deny obedience to things legally established or withdraw their obedience before they be orderly reversed and repealed And no marvel that they which make light of the Decalogue should make little or no account of a Statute and that they who dispense with the Commandments of God should break the Commandments of men and that without a Dispâ—nsation True it is that as all created truth is subject unto error so is all created goodness liable to several defects and imperfections The Laws of men are not like to those of the Medes and Persians that changed not but a they are provisionally made and in reference to the time so are they alterable upon good grounds There is not any Order Rite Ceremony but may be displaced annulled and pulled down by the self same hand that first founded and set it up And yet methinks a Law as long as it is in being should be in force and have an obligatory power though not over the inward yet over the outward man to exteriour conformity and obedience And for private men to become Reformers and attempt an innovation in Church or State is a strange prolepsis of disobedience an anticipation and a high disparagement to the Authority of the Highest and brings men within the compass of Antinomians or lawless Christians 3. The third and last circumstance of the Text Thei active diligence They are gone out into the World concerns the active diligence and restless endeavours of these false Prophets They are gone out into the world The Devil is a professed Peripatetick a constant walker From whence comest thou from going to and fro in the earth and from walking in it That is the Devils answer to Gods demand Job 2.2 The Pharisees of old learned this trick of the Devils trade and compassed sea and land to make a proselyte Mat. 23.15 And our upstart and late born Pharisees of Rome the Priests and Jesuites are compassers likewise of sea and land that so they may compass their own ends and may justly say with him in the Poet Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris There is not any Land or Nation under Heaven that may not testifie their unwearied pains and travel to make men proselytes to Rome convert them not to Christ but to the Pope and when they are made they are tenfold more the Children of Hell than they were at the first 2. Or else secondly Their manifestation Apair in 〈◊〉 this going out into the world imports the manifestation and discovery of false Prophets Exierunt qui prius latebant manifesti sunt as Aquinas glosses upon the place They that before shrouded themselves and walked in a disguise are now uncased and bare faced and laid open to every eye It was a sad complaint of reverend Calvin in his time (y) Calv. 〈◊〉 Loc. I loc nostrum saeculum horrenda quaedam sectarum portenta protulit They are his own Commentary upon the Text. And may not this complaint of his be renewed and as pertinently applied to our Church and Age Hoc nostrum saeculum horrenda quaedam sectarum portenta protulit How do those spirits of Devils those three unclean spirits like Frogs cover our land as the Frogs did the land of Egypt How do these Frogs Papists Priests and Jesuites creep and crawl and croake in every corner from one end unto the other And which is most to be lamented How do these presumptuous Frogs come up into the Kings house and into his bed-chamber As they did into the house of Pharaoh Exod. 8.2 How do the Socinians Arminians Antinomians cover the face of our Kingdom as the Locusts covered the face of the earth in Egypt so that the land is darkned the light of the Gospel is grown both dim and dark in many places How do these Locusts eat
Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the earth is my footstool Isa 65.1 And therefore it was advisedly and religiously answered by a profound Christian to an inquisitive and busy-headed Philosopher who overcuriously demanded touching the place of the Godhead Dic tu prius O Philosophe ubi non sit Tell us first O Philosopher where God is not Such was his resolution This the purblind Heathen discerned by the glimmering and dim light of nature And Heraclitus one of that rank thus invited his friends that came to visit him in his Stove with this assurance perswasion (a) Arist de Histor Arimal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Historian reports of the Antient Germans that they consecrated to their false and fained Gods (b) Tacit. Hist Lucos nemora Groves and shady places As supposing they could not be comprehended and included within the precincts and compass of any Habitation And yet God who is all center without circumference and knows no limitation of his nature power or presence makes choice nevertheless by way of appropriation to himself My House of a peculiar place and dwelling God challenges a house 1. Such was the Tabernacle for a time which was ambulatory in the Wildernesse unsetled in the land of Canaan The Tabernacle 2. So was the Temple afterward which was sixed at Hierusalem There kept he his fire and chimney as Ezekiel phraseth it The Temple at Hierusalem And dwelt as a Honsholder in his Mansion or proper Tenement And hereunto was annexed that solemn promise Psal 132.14 This is my rest for ever That is for many successions and generations There being Aeternitas Absoluta and Periodica And Aevum oftimes passes in Scripture language for Eternity which determined and expired with the coming of Christ who laid the foundation of another world by the publishing of the Gospel And thus was the Temple God's rest for ever Here did he dwell for he had a delight therein 3. And God dwels in our Temples and Churches where his name is publickly called upon and Religious Rites and Ceremonies duly celebrated and administred Our Temples and Churches yet with a difference and distinction The Temple at Hierusalem was not Locus ut locus The difference between them A bare and naked place But Locus ut sic A place in such a respect as the Schoolmen speak As being Medium divini cultus Scotus in Senten The place that God had chosen above all other to put his name there particularly allotted and appointed for divine Worship and honoured with many choice priviledges and special promises of audience and benediction whereunto they were to direct and turn their faces though far distant and removed from it in a forrain and strange Country even in their private devotions and supplications This was a lively Type and representation of the Body of Christ as himself is pleased to stile it Destroy this Temple John 2.19 In all which respects the Jewish Temple was God's House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called by way of Excellency But as for our Christian Temples and Churches they are consecrated to God's sacred worship and service and so made holy though not with an inherent holiness as Bellarmine presses it too far For how should timber and stones be capable not only of a spiritual quality but of saving grace which like unto the Leprosie must needs cleave unto the Walls yet do they partake of an adherent and relative holiness in regard of their use and end so long as they continue dedicate and must not at any time be perverted to profane and common Offices no not when the Assembly is dissolved which nevertheless can no way match and parallel either in outward glory or inward dignity and preheminence but must of necessity give place to that same special place Locus ut sic The Temple at Hierusalem For whereas the Temple sanctified the Congregation and meeting to the Jews our Temples are sanctified by vertue of the Assembly and Congregation Neither is the promise simply entailed to the place but to the persons and performances The joint participation of the Word and Sacraments the united devotion of the People the force of whose prayers prove like a great thunder-clap as Saint Hierom resembles it Or as the roaring of the enraged Sea so Saint Basil phraseth it To these I say doth the promise appertain Matth. 18.20 Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Which occasioned that common by word among the Jews (c) Dâ—usius Apotheg p. 20. Vbi duo sunt qui de Lege colloquuntur ibi Divinitas est inter eos as the Learned Drusius relates it So then both the Jewish Temple and the Christian Churches are but material Temples And God dwels not in Temples made with hands Acts 7.48 Both which I must passe over as Samuel did the seven Sons of Ishai These are not they which the Lord hath chosen It is the mystical and living Temple which God prefers as he did sometimes little David and wherein he principally resides The mysticall and living Temple And it is well observed by judicious Cameron that the word (d) Ecclesia hic non locum in quo convenitur sed caetum significat Cam. in 1. ad Carincap 11.18 et 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never taken Topically nor doth the Church signifie throughout the New Testament any certain place but either an Ecclesiastical assembly and meeting or the spiritual society of the faithful The Church of the living God And to them alone St. Paul applies the words in the text For the Temple of God is Holy which ye are And he speaks not to stones but men These These are Gods Temples not only in their spiritual and better part their soul that same Divinae particula aurae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sprig and branch of the Divinity it self pluckt of as it were from the tree of Life But even in the outward frame and constitution of their Bodies St. Paul affirms no lesse 1 Cor. 6.19 Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you Which bodies of ours though far different from the material Temples as being of a more excellent and Divine nature yet do they represent and resemble them by way of Analogy and proportion For as Salomons Temple was severed parted in Atrium populi the tabernacle of the Congregation the Sanctuary and the Sanctum sanctorum the Holy of Holies whereunto the Prophet Jeremiah alludes as some conceive in a threesold rehearsal and repetition The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 In an apish imitation whereof the Heathenish Temples consisted of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Porch A Body and a Quire Even so the outward parts of the Bodies
they be they are wandring stars and planets now ascending then descending and forthwith retrograde whose perfection as they account it doth not onely consist in motion as that of the Heavens but in moving without their circles forgetting that sure rule of the heathen (o) Id unumquemque decet maxime quod unius cujusque est maxime that chiefly concerns every man that most properly belongs to him A Ministers charity must begin at home and to speak in the words of Luther he should be nailed to his own Pulpit 2. A second sort of wanderers there are The second sort have neither center nor circumference I cannot call them star or lights as Christ testifies of John the Baptist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he was a burning and a shining light placed in the Jewish Church as in a candlestick But as if they were light without a socket lights in the abstract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that of the world in general as Apostolical men whose commission is as large as the whole earth they have neither center nor circumference These are our vagrant curriers itinerant and erroncous Clergy men who never leave compassing the earth to and fro and yet not to make a Proselyte with the Pharisees travelling from place to place with a little pocket learning as with a lawfull passe and seldome out of their way though as seldome in it after the manner of common beggars Begging it may be on the Sabbath day for a gratuity and free benevolence in the pulpit and lashing out most licentiously the week following in an Alchouse St. Paul earnestly the requests the prayers of the Thessalonians in his own behalf and fellow-labourers That we may be delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from unreasonable evil men 2 Thess 3.2 this he specifies as the end of his desire And they if any other are not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that in the proper sense and signification men without mansion or dwelling place and we have great cause to second Saint Paul's desires and Pastor and people to join in prayer with the Thessalonians that we may be delivered from them 3. The busie Intruder The third species of this disordered and outlawed company is the busie encroacher and intruder and that either by 1. Speculative curiosity 2. Or Actual usurpation 1. By speculative curiosity There is a stickling and a stingling generation of quicksilver spirits and pragmatical dispositions (p) Curiosi ad inquirendam vitam alienam incuriosi ad corrigendam suam August Not more curious in another mans matters then incurious in their own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Peter rightly characters them 1 Pet. 4.15 most diligent and uncessant Visitours in a strange diocess thrusting their sharp sickles into the hearvest of each mans affairs and stirring their restless Oar in every Boat that passes as if they were Inquisitors General and had the priviledge and faculty of that house to examine and make search at pleasure or were retained as private confessours that might plumb and sound the bottom of mens hearts and dive into the secrets of all estates by their prying curiosity these of all other are the most lazy Droans and the greatest enemies to all honest labour as appears by St. Pauls opposition 2 Thess 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They worke not at all but are busie bodies so that busie bodies work not all and their business causes them to omit and neglect their business (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agatho◠apud Athicaum li. 5. their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their affected and idle medlings prove their most painful exercise and while with Martha they are troubled about many things they attend not that one thing which is necessary 2. By actual usurpation But besides the busie intruder there is an actual and unjust usurper of anothers place and sunction far more dangerous then the former who cast off their ordinary trade of life as familiarly as a wast garment shift themselves out of one calling into another as a Mariner shifts his sayls as the flickering wind turnes and chops out of one quarter into another the wind of necessity advantage and advancement ubicunque flat ventus exin velum vortitur By what right and warranty Civilians now turn Divines and own their livings whose livery they scorn to wear I list not to dispute And yet me thinks they seem to intrench upon the Apostles Canon 1 Cor. 7.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him therein abide with God this above all other seems to me a strange wonder in this our Israel Is Saul also among the Prophets and lay men in holy orders as if every blew Apron might turn professor of Divinity and each unlearned tradseman accustomed only to his yardward toss Theological questions in the Pulpit which he understands not as if they were to be measured by the Ell O confidence shall I call it or insolent presumption not onely to touch the tottering Ark with unhallowed hands as Vzzah did who was stricken with sudden death but to make the living Ark the Church of God to reel and stagger by laying hands upon it The heathen Philosopher shall confute them who hath laid down this for a grounded Maxime in the school of natural Religion (r) Aristot 7. Polit. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no Husbandman or handicraft person be a Priest for it greatly importeth the good of all men that God be reverenced with whose honour it standeth not that they who live of base and manuary trades should be publickly imployed in his service Nor doth it suit with the decent order or benefit of Gods Church and people 4. The licentions Libertine The fourth and last sort of disordered persons is the licentious libertine these are the parties I cannot call them men that St. Paul fought with at Ephesus Here only lies the difference they were Beasts after the manner of men these men after the manner of beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he speaks whose life is a continual pampering and fatting for the day of slaughter And as Saint Peter describes them to the life 2 Pet. 2.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brute beasts led with sensuality made to be taken destroied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall perish through their own corruption Such are the common swearer and sacrilegious Sa bath-breaker men utterly void of all inward sense of God and reverent observation of his religious worship I speak this to your shame Such are the lascivious and unclean livers in what kind soever the sottish and more then swinish drunkards who thus revive and cheer up their drenched and drowned spirits sauced as it were in their liquor in the Epicures song or sonnet Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die As if (ſ) Ebrii ructantes intrarent in Paradisum Hieronym reeling and
rendered in the Passive Act. 2.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye saved And the Apostle Saint Paul puts the matter out of question Eph. 2.8 By Grace ye are saved through Faith (e) Hoc est opus Dei ut credatis in eum quem misit ille Joh 6.29 Non dixit hoc est opus vestrum sed hoc est opus Dei ut credatis in illum quem misit ille ut qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur Aug. in Joh. Tract 25. not of your selves it is the gift of God This was the common opinion of the Heathen that there was a principle of vertue implanted in mans nature without going out of himself and borrowing ability from another (f) Deorum munus est quod vivimus nostrum quod faelicem Senec. That we live is the gift of God fancte vivimus Turpe est fatigare Deos Quid votis opus est Fac te Epist 31. that we live well is of our selves And to what end should we trouble and tire God with the importunity of our prayers Fac te saelicem Thou mayst be happy if thou wilt * Eum ut faceret homines liberos jecisse sacrilegos August de Cicer De civit Dei Lib. 5. Thus while they made men free they made them sacrilegious And there is much of the sume rank blood that runs in the veins of professing Christians the Pelagian and the Papist and if we compare the words of the Text with those that follow they will soon stop the mouth of both The Pelagian challenging Saint Pauls precept even at the first syllable Work out as a pregnant proof of the liberty of the Will And the Papist concluding the merit of Works from the working out of our salvation And yet both cunningly suppress what Saint Paul subjoins and immediately inferrs For it is God that works to will He doth not give power alone and leaves the will to elicite its own Act but works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where then is the Free will of the Pelagian And to do how then can the Papist evince their Works to be meritorious Let no man then put asunder these two parcels of Scripture whom St. Paul yea God himself hath thus joined together And as our Saviour speaks in another case Joh. 5.17 My Father works hitherto and I work so Gods working and mans working his efficiency and our concurrence and co-operation must both go hand in hand for though it be God that works the Will yet are not we stocks and stones that have no Will at all and albeit it be he that works the deed (g) Totum ex Deo non tamen dormientis non quasi ut non conemur non quasi ut non velimus Aug. de verb. Apost serm 15. Non quasi ut dormientes non quasi ut non conemur yet not that we should snort after the manner of sleepers (h) Qui fecit te sine te non justiâ—â—cat te sine te Ibid. and no way second it with our endeavours That God who made us without us will not save us without us but we likewise must work out Secondly Necessity in the work the Act of working imports the necessity of the duty for the attaining of salvation as the end It is the speech of Eliphaz in Job 5.7 Man is born to trouble as sparks flie upward that is naturally and of their own accord And many men by nature are of an unquiet and restless disposition like unto Quick-silver that hath a principle of motion but not of rest Or as a Mill if no grist be cast into it it then grinds it self There is no earthly commodity that can be procured or purchased without the price of labour No penny can be expected at night unless men take pains in the vineyard and bear the burden and heat of the day Nor will the penny of eternal life be afforded upon other terms and conditions no salvation without working It is not enough to desire it and to let fall Balaams wish Num. 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous and my last end be like his Yea it is altogether unreasonable and preposterous to bestow an hankering and faint velleity upon the end without the lawful use of the means Nor must we say of the water of Life as David sometime spake of the water of the well of Bethlem 2 Sam. 23.15.16 O that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlem which is by the gate But as the three mighty men brake through the Host of the Philistines and drew water and took it and brought it to David Even so we must not long and linger after Davids example O that some would give me to drink of the water of Life but we must break through all opposition and intervening difficulties that obstruct and block up the way and hinder us in the undertaking For as in nature the concupiscible and irascible faculties are both joyned and twisted together like to several threds of the same cord and cable in the inferiour and sensitive part of the soul So must the desire of the ultimate end be enforced and seconded with the use of the most propoitionate and proper means in the working out of our salvation God hath three several places in the World saith Saint Basil 1. Heaven that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Store-house or Treasure the place of reward and recompence 2. Hell that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Gaole or Prison where men are fast bound in chains of darkness 3. Earth a middle place betwixt both and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Work-house for the working out of our salvation The necessity whereof is commended unto us under a threefold consideration First To evidence the truth of our profession to evidence and exemplifie the truth of our profession by the effects and fruits of it for as Faith justifies the person in the sight of God so do Works justifie our Faith in the eyes of men And hence it is that as Saint Pauls former Epistles contain confirm at large our entire justification by faith alone against the legal and Jewish Justitiary so the later Epistles of Saint James Peter and John precisely press and earnestly urge the exercise of Works and new obedience against the carnal Gospeller and loose Libertine as is well observed by Chemnitius It was a scornful Sarcasme that was cast upon the professors and profession of Christianity by him who was a second Elymas full of all subtilty and mischief that enemy of all righteousness Julian the Apostate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nazianzen reports it You Christians have nothing else at your tongues end nothing in your mouths and hearts but Faith Faith Believe and then all is well And the selfe same charge and challenge that stale frump and jeer is renewed by our Adversaries of the Church of Rome the Papists who stick not to proclame us to the world with
her losses her greatest gains Charity is kind 1 Cor. 13.4 not to those only that are nearly related and allied but even unto strangers and professed enemies like unto a sparkling fire which heats and warms the by-standers and the flames likewise reach unto those of remote distance And being a common good it is so much the more excellent There is the same difference betwixt Faith and Charity that is betwixt the Root and Branches Faith is as the root of the tree that attracts and sucks in the juyce of the earth to conserve and preserve the life of it But charity is as the boughs and branches down laden with plenty of ripe fruit which stretch out and as it were spread forth their arms to as many as are willing to take the pains to pluck and gather them Secondly Charity is greatest in the longitude and length of it Secondly in the longitude and length of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13.8 charity never faileth neither in this life nor in that which is to come It is but a Popish gloss of Caietan upon the place Take heed when you read these words that you fall not into that error (d) Charitatem semel habitam nunquam amitti Charitas quantum est exparte temporis nescit casum Caiet in locum That charity once bad cannot be lost And yet that which he adds is sound and Orthodox wherewith he strangles and cuts the throat of what he had formerly laid down for a sure conclusion charity knows no loss nor end in respect of time For whereas Faith and Hope shall determine and expire in another world Faith being turned into a Vision the beatifical vision of God and Hope into Fruition yet both Faith and Hope shall be swallowed up of Love which then shall be consummate and made perfect (e) Appetitus inhiantis erit amor fruentis August The thirsting desire of the soul after happiness shall be then exchanged with the full fruition and perfect enjoyment of Love through all eternity And hence it was that Henry Nicolas the Founder of the Family of Love was wont in a most prodigious and blasphemous manner to boast among his seduced Sectaries (f) Se nimirum Mosi Christo praepenendum eo quod Moses spem docuisset Christus fidem ipse vero cbaritatem utraque majorem Jo. Laetus Camp Hist universal pag. 583. Calvin in Locum That he was every way to be preferred before Moses and Christ upon this ground and reason That Moses taught the people of Israel the grace of Hope Christ the grace of Faith but he the grace of Love which is greater then both And so pronounced by the definitive sentence of the Apostle Now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Nor doth this any way allow or priviledge the corrupt gloss of the Papists that if charity be the greater grace it must needs have the greater hand and stroke and proves more availsome then faith it self in point of justification A strained and forced inference an inconsequential and unconcluding argument and it is all one as Calvin well observed as if they should reason in this manner Therefore the King must till the ground more knowingly then the Husbandman and make a neater shooe then the Shoemaker as being far above both therefore a man must ran swifter then a Horse or Dromedary and bear an heavier weight and burden then an Elephant because he surpasses them in worth and dignity therefore the glorious Angels must afford a better and brighter light unto the earth then either Sun or Moon as being creatures of greater excellency For the force and efficacy of justifying Faith is not to be measured by any intrinsick and inherent quality in the nature but by the proper place and office of Faith whereunto it is designed wherein it hath no coparcener nor corrival In this respect Faith hath the preheminence even as Charity is the greater in the forementioned partiâ—ulars the Bredth the Length the Extent and Continuance This is the reason why the spirit of God every where inculcates and inforces the duty with a reiterated and a zealous vehemency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfection Colossians 3. verse 14. Therein resembling it to an outward garment that is put over and covers the other apparrel that is larger and wider that is more comely and costly then the rest and serves to distinguish the several Orders and Ranks of men according to their different capacities and conditions Such a spiritual garment is charity to the soul a proper badge and cognizance of a Christian the livery of Christs Disciples By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another Ioh. 13.35 And it is not without cause that the Apostle stiles it the bond of perfectnesse it being of the same use unto other vertues that the bond is unto the faggot that holdeth the sticks together and keeps them from severing and falling from each other and to the Church of God in common which is the mystical body of Christ it is in the place of the nerves and sinnewes in the body natural which connect and joyn the several members and make them mutually helpful and serviceable to each other this is St. Pauls commendation Above all things put on Charity And that leads me to the second speciality that was promised the extent of the duty in reference to the object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let all your things be done with Charity Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt Mar. 9.49 such a salt is Christian charity which must season every sacrifice and so make it well pleasing and acceptable unto God The second speciality The extent of the Duty all your things and beneficial and profitable unto men charity is a spiritual leaven which affords tast and savour to the whole mass of dough that it may prove toothsome to the palat and wholesome and nourishable to the body Charity is the soul of religion and like to the soul in the body it is Tota in toto tota in quelibet parte and is well translated by the Apostle in the words of the Text Let all your things be done with charity And would you know the comprehension of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and now far the All things extend and reach you may have them explicated and inlarged in a foursold consideration 1. In our diligent enquiries and researches after truth These all things inlarged in a fourfold consideration 2. In passing judgment and censures upon others 3. In the exercise or forbearance of our Christian liberty 4. In all our affaires and business the whole series and course of our conversation First Charity must take place in our diligent inquiries and researches after truth First In our diligent inquiries and researches after truth and moderate in all our disputations