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earth_n	body_n	heaven_n	soul_n	16,244	5	5.2792	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17412	Sermons upon the ten first verses of the third chapter of the first Epistle of S. Peter Being the last that were preached by the late faithfull and painfull minister of Gods word, Nicolas Byfield. Wherein method, sense, doctrine, and vse, is, with great varietie of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of divinitie largely discussed. Published since the authors death by William Gouge.	Byfield, Nicholas, 1579-1622.; Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1626 (1626)	STC 4235; ESTC S107153	186,240	252

rather to women than to men especially in the new Testament as 1. Tim. 2.9 1. Pet. 3.3 The use may be first to give vs occasion to magnifie the power and mercy of God His mercy that dispiseth not his weake creatures but bestoweth the grace of life upon them His power in that he keepes them in life and preserveth his owne worke of grace vnto the possession of eternall life Secondly it should stirre up women so much the more to use all the Ordinances of God and all helps to make themselves strong in the power of the gifts of grace especially they should get a strong faith in God that they may trust in the power of God that giveth strength to the weake Esay 40. 29 31. 1. Pet. 3.5 It will bee their greater glory if they can overcome their naturall weaknesses especially if they can excell men in the things of the kingdome of God as many times it comes to passe Thirdly all Christians should have those women in great estimation that have overcomne their frailties and doe excell in knowledge and piety and mercy and trust in God Fourthly all women should bee therefore the more humble and apt to feare and judge themselves and more willing to be taught or admonished and more frequent in praier to God to helpe them and keepe them and in particular they should be the more willing to bee ruled by their husbands as knowing it is a mercy of God considering their weaknesse to give them husbands to support them and provide for them and finally they should bee the more faithfull and diligent to doe all the good they can in domesticall affaires seeing by nature they are not fit to manage the greater and more publike services of God The third doctrine concernes Husbands and so they are taught from hence to give the more honour to their wives because of their naturall weaknesse For as it is in the naturall body those members of the body which we thinke lesse honourable upon them wee bestow the more abundant honour 1. Cor. 12.23 24. so it should bee in the Economical body for the wife is unto the husband bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and this honour he should give her and shew it both by taking the more care to provide for her and by cherishing incouraging her the more by hiding covering her frailties as much as he may by not exacting more from her than she is able to performe by helping her all he can by instruction or otherwise Only we must note that he is not bound to honor her the more for sinful infirmities but for naturall defects How he must carrie himselfe towards her in respect of sinfull infirmities or personall faults hath beene shewed before in the manner of his carriage towards her as a man of knowledge And thus of the first reason As being heyres together of the grace of life In these words is contained the second reason taken from the generall dignity of Christians which also extends to Christian wives And concerning the dignitie of Christians five things may be noted out of these words 1 The title of their dignitie They are Heyres 2 What they inherite Life 3 What the cause of this dignitie is viz. Grace 4 In what maner they possesse it viz. Together 5 The persons capable of it Women as well as men From the coherence we may note That if women will have their husbands to honour them they must be religious women and true Christians that have grace as well as worldly portion God requires religion and grace in all wives And the rather should they bee carefull to get grace and become truely religious because it was long of their sexe that sinne came into the world and as by one womans bearing of a childe salvation was brought againe into the world so should they everie one in particular strive to recover their honour by expressing the sound power of a religious life in all faith and charitie and holinesse and sobrietie 1. Tim. 2.14 15. And besides what shall it profite wives to get them jointures on earth and husbands to provide for them while they live here if their soules and bodies perish when they dye and lose the inheritance in heaven and perish they will if they get not true grace And further if they be gracious women if their husbands be so profane as not to make much of them yet they shall be greatly set by of God as was shewed vers 4. But on the other side if they be ignorant and irreligious women it is just with God to deprive them of the comfort of this life and to let their husbands neglect them or abuse them For though their husbands sinne in so doing yet God is just in permitting such a thing for their punishment Secondly another doctrine may be noted from the coherence and that is That in heaven there shall bee no difference betweene husbands and wives but they shall bee all one in Christ alike heires of eternall life Which is to be noted the more to perswade them to submit themselves and endure to be under the rule and authority of their husbands in this world for that estate of inferiority shall not last ever for in heaven God shall be all in all they shall be ruled by God and the Lambe Thus from the Coherence The first thing to be observed about the dignity of Christians in generall is That they are heires Heires The doctrine is That all true Christians are heires Now for the opening of this doctrine two things must be considered 1. How they come to be heires 2. What their glory is in being so For the first Christians are not borne Heires I meane not heires to God as is intended in this place but have it by the grace of adoption God hath but one Heire by generation and that is Christ all his other heires are by adoption such as hee chooseth of his meere Grace and makes them his heires Now the mystery of our adoption must be considered of in this manner A Christian by the Gospell is made a Believer Now faith after an unspeakable manner engrafts him into the body of Iesus Christ Now being engrafted into Iesus Christ who is Gods Sonne hee thereby comes to the power to be the sonne of God and to be an heire with Christ. Christ is Gods Heire and so is all that is grafted upon Christ Ioh. 1.12 Now there is a double Adoption the one imperfect in this life the other perfect which wee shall have after the Resurrection of the dead By the one we have the promise of inheritance and by the other wee shall have full possession Of the first is mention made Rom. 8.15 of the other Rom. 8.23 the first adoption is meant here For the second Adoption is called a glory by an excellence because there is no glory like to it even the adoption to bee heires as it is in this life is the greatest

it was sinne brought in raiment If Adam had never sinned he had never needed raiment 2 Because curiosity and cost is against the first institution of apparell God himself made the first garments were made and left a patterne to follow Now he clothed our parents with the skinnes of beasts shunning of purpose eyther cost or superfluous ornaments and I suppose yee will grant they were as great and as good as any of us God attired them in a habit became sorrow and the estate of banished men 3 Because God hath forbidden this curiosity of dressing in women at all times and in all places of his worship for when the Apostle 1. Tim. 2. had commanded to men to pray in all places and given them in charge divers things they must looke to at the time of Gods worship hee then turnes to women and chargeth them to looke to the cloathes they weare when they worship God expressely prohibiting rich and vaine apparell ver 9.10 And good reason for such as eyther publickly or privately come to worship God should come to him in the habit of suppliants and petitioners seeing they come or should come to beseech God to forgive them their sinnes which they should aske with teares and groanes as such as know no happinesse if God be not reconciled to them Would any man regard a Beggar if he came to aske almes in rich cloathes and can any man be so over-growne with dotage as to thinke God doth not care in what colours or fashions we worship or entreat him Besides wee come not into the house of God to shew our selves to men but unto God amongst men Yea in private how dare fantasticall women stand before God to pray when they carry upon their backe● such Ensignes of pride and vanity And hereby wee may discerne the horrible wickednesse of these times which are just Apostle to Pauls direction for wee see men and women cloath themselves with the greatest cost and vanity when they are disappeare before God in his house what saith a Father to such creatures as these What 〈…〉 into this place this is the house of God 〈…〉 come onely to shew your selves to men this is no dancing schoole nor wedding house nor yet any play-house that you should come hither in these histrionicall and strumpet-like attire Crhisostome upon this second chapter of the first of Timothie 4 Because our bodies we are so curious about are but houses of clay and were made of the dust or myre of the earth and will bee shortly dissolved and therefore wee should not so sinne against our pretious soules as to mispend our cares cost and affections upon that which in it selfe is so vile and the apparell we put on the body will last but awhile whereas the dressing of the soule will last for ever 5 Because of the absence of the Bridgrome our Lord Iesus Christ. Is the Husband so farre from home and can a chaste Spouse bee taken up with such affectation of curious and vaine dressing What more evident signe of a strumpet than for to dresse her selfe curiously and for the shew to men when her husband is farre from home Shall we so sinne against the Lord Iesus now absent from us in the body and to minde earthly things and set our affections upon the vanities of the world as if wee had no sense of his absence and did not care for him now he is gone 6 Because these vanities in apparell are so grievously threatned by the Lord. Hee will visit them that weare strange apparell Zepha 1.8 and what woman can reade the third of Esay and not tremble at the wrath of the Lord if she be guilty of any such vanities and the Prophet was but a Novice in discribing vaine fashions if that discription were to bee applied to our times for those vanities are now become the dressing of such as are more sober Oh what a world of wicked devises are there now beyond that Catalogue Those were wicked women but now they exceede the wickednesse of the wicked Let these creatures take heed of vaine interpretations of that place They may deceive themselves but they shall finde that God will not bee mocked they dawbe with untempered morter that tell them that those things condemned were not sinfull or that God was not displeased with them 7 Because the excesse and vanity in apparell hath been condemned by the greatest lights in the Christian world and that with great bitternesse of censure I will give instance in some of their censures Cyprian said They that put on vaine and gorgeous apparell cannot put on Christ. Gregorie said Let no man thinke that in the study of pretious apparell sinne can be wanting Ambrose saith That proud attire obtaines nothing of God and causeth that men never thinke well of the partie using it for saith hee what wise man doth not abhorre a woman proudly drest and therefore much more God their Creator cannot abide to see that bodie which hee made free to be chained to mettals He meanes gold and pearles and such like and adds The more they are liked of some men the more they are hated of God Tertullian and Cyprian have written whole Treatises against the apparell of women Yea Cyprian and Augustine say That superfluous apparell is worse than whoredome and they give this reason because whoredome onely corrupts chastity but this corrupts nature What Ierome thinkes of it you shall heare afterwards What should I reckon more testimonies seeing in all ages of the Christian Church these things in the apparell of women have been bitterly condemned yea the very Popish Writers doe bitterly inveigh against vain and superfluous apparell yea the very Heathen men did so also 8 It should the more disswade women from following foolish vanities in adorning themselves because usually where these things are noted by way of description in Scripture the parties of whom it is written were notorious wicked persons and usually Whores as it is noted of Thamar and Iezabell and the Whore in the Revelation Rev. 17.3 and for notable wickednesse as the woman Esay the third and Dives Luke 16. 9 This care about the adorning of the body doth not agree to the simplicity that is in Christ Iesus Godly Christians have their beauty within they are not such as will contend wi●● the men of the world about finenesse or greatnesse or worldly praises or any outward ornaments Nor doe they walke with a right foot to the Gospel that are conformable to the men of this world there is great dissimulation to professe so strict a life as the Gospel doth require and yet take such libertie in the things of this world 10 About the abuse of apparell many sinnes meet together as vanity pride evill concupiscence contempt of others immodesty and the like 11 There are many evill effects of vanity and excesse in apparell both in respect of God and themselves and others in respect of God and his service vaine and proud apparell

they must presently lay necessity of silence upon themselves till they be able to speak quietly and without frowardnesse This one rule constantly for awhile observed would breed a great alteration in their dispositions quickly and in time weare out the force of the disease Vnquietnesse is much enlarged by the words are uttered after the offence is taken And thus of a meek and quiet spirit only we may note from the indefinite requiring of meeknesse That Christians and in particular Christian wives must exercise meeknesse and quietnesse towards all persons and at all times and in all places In all places I say and so both at home and abroad towards all persons and so they must carry themselves quietly not onely towards their husbands but towards their servants and their neighbours whether they be poore or rich And at all times They must not be yongue Saints and old deville as the proverb is that is of a soft and gen●le behaviour at first and then grow froward afterwards Age and infirmitie● are not sufficient excuses for vicious anger and unquietnesse Besides in that the Apostle resembles meeknesse to apparell it imports That by nature wee are borne without it our soules being as naked in respect of meeknesse as our bodies be in respect of cloathes and withall that it should be our every-daies care to put on meeknesse and fit our selves for quietnesse as wee would put on our cloathes And further as it is not enough to put on our cloathes but we must tye them and fit them handsomely so must we use discretion in the putting on of meeknesse and quietnesse sitting the vertue to the reasons and occasions of the day Thus of the second part of this verse The third and last is the reason why women should be so carefull of this kinde of dressing and apparell and that is Because it is a thing of great price in the sight of God Which in the sight of God is of great price Divers things may be hence observed 1 That God doth highly esteeme of the vertues and true grace and good behaviour of his servants and therefore in this place their vertues are said to be very rich in Gods sight and in the Scriptures hee gives the terme of riches to their gifts 1. Cor. 1.5 and grace is called glory Esay 4.5 and God is described as if he were in love with his people when they carry themselves graciously Iohn 14.21 And this serves greatly to exalt the praise of Gods good nature and tender affection to man and the more because all good things in us are his owne gift Iames 1.17 and because our best gifts have many imperfections in them and our best workes are defiled with sinne Esay 64. and besides because he greatly esteemes them even the least beginnings of goodnesse in his servants as their desires to bee good and their very preparations of their hearts to goodnesse Esay 55.1.2 Psal. 10.17 2 Christians are bound in all their behauiour to carry themselves so as that God may accept of them and esteem what they doe and this is required of them in every state of life They are tyed to this not onely in what they doe in Gods house but in what they doe in their owne house This all are charged Heb. 12.28 and so wives here and so seruants Eph. 6.5 6. 7. The praise and acceptation of God should bee ever before their eyes the reasons are Because the formes and rules of all behaviour are given by God his Word is the light to our feet and the lanthorn to our paths Psal. 119. and is onely able to make the man of God perfect in every good word and worke 2. Tim. 3. ult and besides if we doe well we are sure never to faile of the praise of God whereas if we seeke the praise of men we may be deceived For either they may praise us for that which is abominable in the sight of God Luke 16.15 or they may dispraise us when we doe well or at best their praise is mutable And further it is God that must reward our good conversation Ep● ● ● and therefore reason● that hee bee looked after in what we doe Lastly this i● a signe of difference betweene the godly and the wicked in doing good dueties a godly man is knowne by this signe that his praise is of God and not of men Rom. 2.29 Mat. 6. The use should be to teach us therefore in all our waies to labour to please God and above all things to seeke his acceptation Now if wee would have God pleased with what we doe we must looke to divers rules 1 Wee must bee sure that wee are not in the flesh for they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Wee must be sure we are new creatures Gal. 6.15 2 Wee must set God alwaies before us and remember his holy presence Gen. 17.2 Psal. 16.8 God cannot abide to be forgotten 3 We must come to the light that it may bee manifest that our workes are wrought in God Iohn 3.22 Wee must walke by rule Gal. 6.16 and doe all in faith Heb. 11.6 4 Wee must serve God in our spirits aswell as in our outward man not as men-pleasers or with eye-service or with outward worship but from the heart and with the spirit Rom. 2.28.29 Eph 6.5.6.7 5 Wee must make conscience of the least sinnes to avoide them and of the least commandements to obey them if we would be great in Heaven Matth. 5.19 Divers of these are exprest in one sentence Mich. 6.8 Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee surely to doe justly and to love mercy and to humble thy selfe to walke with thy God 6 We must avoid those sins that God especially hates such as are Swearing Commandement 3. Deut. 28.58 lukewarmnesse in religion Rev. 3.15.16 persecuting such as feare God 1. Thes. 2.15 16. wilfull fashioning our selves after this world Rom. 12.1.2 to blesse our selves in our hearts against Gods curses Deut. 29.19 through impatience or unbeliefe to withdraw our selves in adversity Heb. 10. 38. and in generall all grosse sinnes Rev. 22.15 Doct. 3. The best riches a Christian hath are his vertues and gifts of his minde and therefore he saith here they are rich in Gods sight Now they are his best riches in divers respects 1 Because they are riches in Gods sight whereas all worldly treasures commend not any man to God Gal. 3. 28. He gives us naked into the world and takes us himselfe naked againe 2 Because they furnish the best part of man viz. his minde whereas worldly riches doe onely furnish mens houses or bodies 3 Because no violence can take these treasures away A man may be vertuous spight of the hearts of all the devills in hell or devillish men on earth whereas worldly treasures may be many waies lost 4 Because those things doe make a man rich to immortality whereas worldly riches can serve at best