First the supposal of a duty though for the most part and by most men very slackly regarded and that is the delivering of the oppressed In the two former verses If thou faint in the day of adversity If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Secondly the removal of the common pretensions which men usually plead by way of excuse or extenuation at least when they have failed in the former duty in the last verse If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondreth the heart consider it c. So that if we will speak any thing to the purpose of the Text we must of necessity speak to those two points that do there-from so readily offer themselves to our consideration to wit the necessity of the duty first and then the vanity of the excuses 3. The Duty is contained and the necessity of it gathered in and from the tenth and eleventh verses in these words If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain Wherein the particulars considerable are First the Persons to whom the duty is to be performed as the proper object of our justice and charity Them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain They especially but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also all others that are in their condition in any kinde or degree those that are injured or oppressed or in danger to be injured or oppressed by any manner way or means Secondly an act of Charity and justice to be performed towards those that are in such a condition by such as by reason of the power and opportunities and other advantages that God hath put into their hands are in a capacity to do it which is the very duty it self viz. to look upon them in the day of their adversity and to deliver them out of the hand of their oppressours Thirdly a possibility of the neglect or non-performance of this so just and charitable a duty by those that might and therefore ought to do it expressed here by the name of forbearance If thou forbear to deliver Fourthly the true immediate cause of that neglect wheresoever it is found viz. the want of spirit and courage in the heart faint-heartedness from whatsoever former ot remoter cause that faintness may proceed whether a pusillanimous fear of the displeasure or a desire to winde himself into the favour of some great person or the expectation of a reward or a loathness to interpose in other mens affairs or meer sloth and a kinde of unwillingness of putting himself to so much trouble or what ever other reason or inducement can be supposed If thou faint in the day of adversity Lastly the censure of that neglect it is an evident demonstration à posteriori and as all other visible effects are of their more inward and secret causes a certain token and argument of a sinful weakness of minde If thou faintest c. thy strength is small 4. The result of these particulars amount in the whole to this Every man according to his place and power but especially those that being in place of magistracy and judicature are armed with publick authority for it are both in Charity and justice obliged to use the utmost of their power and to lay hold on all fit opportunities by all lawful means to help those to right that suffer wrong to stand by their poorer brethren and neighbours in the day of their calamity and distress and to set in for them throughly and stoutly in their righteous causes to protect them from injuries and to deliver them out of the hands of such as are too mighty or too crafty for them and as seek either by violence or cunning to deprive them either of their lives or livelyhoods Briefly thus and according to the language of the Text It is our duty every one of us to use our best strength to deliver the oppressed but our sin if we faint and forbear so to do And the making good and the pressing of this duty is like to be all our business at this time 5. A point of such clear and certain truth that the very Heathen Philosophers and Lawgivers have owned it as a beam of the light of Nature insomuch as even in their account he that abstaineth from doing injuries hath done but the one half of that which is required to compleat Iustice if he do not withal defend others from injuries when it is in his power so to do But of all other men our Solomon could least be ignorant of this truth Not onely for that reason because God had filled his heart with a large measure of wisdom beyond other men but even for this reason also that being born of wise and godly parents and born to a kingdom too in which high calling he should be sure to meet with occasions enough whereon to exercise all the strength he had he had this truth considering the great usefulness of it to him in the whole time of his future government early distilled into him by both his parents was seasoned thereinto from his childhood in his education His father David in Psal. 72. which he penned of purpose as a prophetical benediction and instruction for his son as appeareth by the inscription it beareth in the title of it a Psalm for Solomon beginneth the Psalm with a prayer to God both for himself and him Give the King thy judgements O God and thy righteousness unto the Kings son And then after sheweth for what end he made that prayer and what should be the effect in order to the Publick if God should be pleased to grant it Then shall he judge the people according unto right and defend the poore ver 2. He shall keep the simple folke by their right defend the children of the poor and punish the wrong doer or as it is in the last translation break in pieces the oppressour ver 4. and after at the 12. 13. and 14. verses although perhaps the passages there might principally look at Christ the true Solomon and Prince of peace a greater then Solomon and of whom Solomon was but a figure yet I beleeve they were also literally intended for Solomon himself He shall deliver the poor when he cryeth the needy also and him that hath no helper He shall be favourable to the simple and needy and shall preserve the soules of the poor He shall deliver their soules from falshood and wrong and dear shall their blood be in his sight And the like instructions to those of his father he received also from his mother Bathsheba in the prophesie which she taught him with much holy wisdom for the matter and with much tenderness of motherly affection for the manner What my Son and what the Son of my wombe and what the Sons of my vowes
some few respects Take them super totam materiam and they are starke fools for all that Very Naturals if they have no Grace The Limitation here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terminus diminuens and must be understood accordingly The Children of this world are said to be wiser then the Children of light But how wiser Not in genere simply and absolutely and in every respect wiser but in genere suo wiser in some respect wiser in their kinde of wisdome such as it is in worldly things and for worldly ends a very mean kinde of wisdom in comparison For such kinde of limiting and diminuent terms are for the most part destructive of that whereunto they are annexed and contain in them as we use to say oppositum in apposito He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less then if he had said but a man or a lion only without those additions it is all one upon the point as if he said no man no lion For a dead man is not a man neither is a painted lion a lion So that our Saviour here pronouncing of the Children of this world that they are wiser but thus limited wiser in their generation implieth that otherwise and save in that respect only they are not wiser 33. The truth is simply and absolutely considered the child of light if he be truly and really such and not titular and by a naked profession only whatsoever he is taken for is clearly the wiser man And he that is no more then worldly or carnally wise is in very deed and in Gods estimation no better then a very fool Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this World hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world saith the Apostle That interrogative form of speech is more emphatical then the bare Categoricall had been it signifieth as if it were so clear a truth that no man could reasonably deny it What Solomon saith in one place of the covetous rich man and in another place of the sluggard that he is wise in his own conceit is true also of every vitious person in every other kinde Their wisdom is a wisdom but in conceit not in truth and that but in their own conceit neither and of some few others perhaps that have their judgments corrupted with the same lusts wherewith theirs also are Chrysippus non dicet idem Solomon sure had not that conceipt of their wisdom and Solomon knew what belonged to wisdom as well as another man who putteth the fool upon the sinner I need not tell you indeed I cannot tell you how oft in his writings 34. His judgment then is clear in the point though it be a Paradox to the most and therefore would have a little farther proof for it is not enough barely to affirm paradoxes but we must prove them too First then true saving wisdom is not to be learned but from the word of God A lege tuâ intellexi By thy commandements have I gotten understanding Psal. 119. it is that word and that alone that is able to make us wise unto salvation How then can they be truly wise who regard not that word but cast it behinde their backs and despise it They have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them saith Ieremy Again The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and a good understanding have they that do thereafter Psal. 111. How then can we allow them to passe for wise men and good understanding men that have no fear of God before their eyes that have no minde nor heart to do thereafter that will not be learned nor understand but are resolvedly bent to walk on still in darkness and wilfully shut their eyes that they may not see the light 35. Since every man is desirous to have some reputation of wisdom and accounteth it the greatest scorn and reproach in the world to be called or made a fool it would be very well worth the labour but that it would require as it well deserveth a great deal more labour and time then we dare now take to illustrate and enlarge this point which though it seem a very paradoxe as was now said to the most is yet a most certain and demonstrable truth That godliness is the best wisdom and that there is no fool to the sinner I shall but barely give you some of the heads of proof and referr the enlargement to each mans private meditation He that first is all for the present and never considereth what mischiefs or inconveniences will follow thereupon afterwards that secondly when both are permitted to his choise hath not the wit to prefer that which is eminently better but chuseth that which is extremely worse that thirdly proposeth to himself base and unworthy ends that fourthly for the attaining even of those poor ends maketh choise of such means as are neither proper not probable thereunto that fifthly goeth on in bold enterprises with great confidence of success upon very slender grounds of assurance and that lastly where his own wit will not serve him refuseth to be advised by those that are wiser then himself what he wanteth in wit making it upon in will no wise man I think can take a person of this character for any other then a fool And every worldly or ungodly man is all this and more and every godly man the contrary Let not the worldly-wise man therefore glory in his wisdom that it turn not to his greater shame when his folly shall be discovered to all the world Let no man deceive himself saith S. Paul but if any man among you seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise That is let him lay aside all vain conceit of his own wisdom and learn to account that seeming wisdom of the world to be as indeed it is no better then folly that so he may finde that true wisdom which is of God The God of light and of wisdom so enlighten our understandings with the saving knowledge of his truth and so enflame our hearts with a holy love and fear of his Name that we may be wise unto salvation and so assist us with the grace of his holy spirit that the light of our good works and holy conversation may so shine forth both before God and men in the mean time that in the end by his mercy who is the Father of lights we may be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in the light of everlasting life and glory and that for the merits sake of Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. To whom c. AD AULAM. Sermon XVI Newport in the Isle of Wight Decemb. Heb. 12.3 Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself that ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes 1. THere is scarce
do but look upon some general considerations only we shall see reasons enough why the Apostle notwithstanding his approving of their former carriage might yet be jealous over them with a godly jealousie in this matter 25. First he knew not persecutions ever attending the Church as her lot but they might and Christ having foretold great tribulations shortly to come upon that nation it was very like they should meet with more and stronger trials then they had ever yet done It was indeed and by the Apostles confession a great trial of afflictions they had undergone already and they had received the charge bravely and were come off with honour and victory so that that brunt was happily over But who could tell what trials were yet behinde These might be for ought they knew or he either but the beginnings of greater evils to ensue You have not resisted unto blood saith he in the very next words after the Text as if he had said You have fought one good fight already and quit your selves like men I commend you for it and I bless God for it Yet be not high-minded but fear you have not yet done all your work your warfare is not yet at an end What if God should call you to suffer the shedding of your blood for Christ as Christ shed his blood for you you have not been put to that yet but you know not what you may be If you be not in some measure prepared even for that also and resolved by Gods assistance to strive against sin and to withstand all sinful temptations even to the shedding of the last drop of blood in your bodies if God call you to it you have done nothing He that hateth not his life as well as his house and lands for Christ and his kingdom is not worthy of either Sharp or long assaults may tire out him that hath endured shorter and easier But he that setteth forth for the goal if he will obtain must resolve to devour all difficulties and to run it out and not to faint or slug till he have finished his course to the end though he should meet with never so many Lions in the way 26. Secondly so great is the natural frailty of man so utterly averse from conforming it self entirely to the good will and pleasure of Almighty God either in doing or suffering that if he be not the better principled within strengthened with grace in the inner man he will not be able to hold out in either but every sorry temptation from without will foil him and beat him off Be not weary of well-doing saith the Apostle Gal. 6. for in due time we shall reap if we faint not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word again Weariness and faintness of minde we are subject to you see in the point of well doing But how much more then in the point of suffering which is of the two much the sorer trial 27. Marvel not if ordinary Christians such as these Hebrews were might be in danger of fainting under the Cross when the most holy and eminent of Gods servants whose faith and patience and piety are recorded in the Scriptures as exemplary to all posterity have by their failings in this kinde bewrayed themselves to be but men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to passions of fear and distrust even as others Abraham the father of the faithful of so strong faith and obedience that he neither staggered at the promise of having a son though it were a very unlikely one at that age through unbelief nor stumbled at the command of sacrificing that son though it were a very hard one having no more through disobedience yet coming among strangers upon some apprehensions that his life might be endangered if he should own Sarah to be his wife his heart so far mis-gave him through humane frailty that he shewed some distrustfulness of God by his doubting and dissimulation with Pharaoh first and after with Abimelech Gen. 13. and 20. 28. And David also so full of courage sometimes that he would not fear though ten thousands of people whole armies of men should rise up against him and encompass him round about though the opposers were so strong and numerous that the earth should be moved and the mountains shake at the noise thereof yet at some other times when he saw no end of his troubles but that he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains day after day and chased from place to place perpetually that he could rest no where his heart began to melt and to faint within him And although he had a promise from God of succeeding in the kingdom and an anointing also as an earnest to confirm the promise yet it ran strongly in his thoughts nevertheless that he should perish one day by the hands of Saul Insomuch that in a kinde of distrust of Gods truth and protection he ventured so far upon his own head never so much as asking counsel at the mouth of God as to expose himself to great inconveniences hazards and temptations in the midst of an hostile and idolatrous people The good man was sensible of the imperfection acknowledgeth it an infirmity and striveth against it Psal. 77. 29. But of all the rest S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome often stileth him a man of great boldness and fervency of spirit betrayed the greatest weakness Who after so fair warning so lately given him and his own so confident profession of laying down his life in his masters quarrel yet within not many hours after when he began to be questioned about his Master and saw by the malicious and partial proceedings against the Master how it was like to goe with him if he were known to have such a near dependance upon him became so faint-hearted that contrary to his former resolutions and engagement he not only dis-owned him but with oaths and imprecations forswore him Such weakness is there in the flesh where there is yet left some willingness in the spirit that without a continual supply of grace and actual influence of strength from above there is no absolute stedfastness to be found in the best of the sons of men 30. Yet is not our natural inability to resist temptations though very great the cause of our actual faintings so much because of the ready assistance of Gods grace to relieve us if we would but be as ready to make use of it as a third thing is To wit our supine negligence that we do not stand upon our guard as it concerneth us to do nor provide for the encounter in time but have our armes to seek when the enemy is upon us As Ioseph in the years of plenty laid in provision against the years of dearth so should we whilest it is calm provide for a storm and whilest we are at ease against the evil day It is such an ordinary point of wisdom in the common affairs
holy and wise God the first cause of all things that happen suffereth it so to be as to particulars that is counsel to us and we may not search into those secrets only we are assured in the general that he doth it for just and gracious ends best known to himself But as to second causes we see evidently reason enough to satisfie us why it should be likely to fall out thus rather then otherwise if but in this that wicked men what worldly ends they propose to themselves they pursue to the utmost not boggling at any thing that they think may conduce to the obtaining of the same be it right or wrong whereas godly and vertuous men make conscience both of End and Means and will neither pitch upon any unworthy end nor adventure upon any unlawful means Hath it not been always seen and still is and ever will be more or less to the worlds end That extorting Vsurers oppressing Landlords unconscionable Traders corrupt Magistrates and griping Officers have gotten together the greatest wealth and most abounded in riches That obsequious Flatterers temporising Sycophants perfidious Traytors bold and insolent intruders bribing and simoniacal chafferers have climbed up the highest rounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical preferments That men of base and unmanly condition rather to be called beasts then men if not Monsters rather then either of both such as some of the old Assyrian and Persian Monarchy and after them some of the Romane Emperours were have surfeited of pleasures to the full and wallowed in all manner of luxury and sensuality Worthless and wicked men may swim up to the chin in rivers of oyle and have their heads and beards ey and the very skirts of their garments too bedrencht in great abundance with the choysest of these outward Oyntments 14. But a Good Name is Peculium bonorum Gracious and vertuous men have a more special interest a kinde of peculiarity in it as being in the ordinary course of Gods providence the proper effect and by his good blessing for the most part the most certain temporal reward of Vertue and Piety Si quae virtus si qua laus saith the Apostle Phil. 2. If there be any vertue if there be any praise As if there could be no praise where there is no vertue no more then there can be a shadow where there is no body to cast it It was by faith and the fruits of faith that the Elders obtained a good report The projectors of the Tower of Babel aymed by that building to get themselves a name and they did but the name was Babel a name of Confusion little comfort or honour to them Many men are ambitious of a great name and sometimes they get it too as he that set Diana's Temple on fire only to be talked of But a great name is one thing and a good name another Greatness may get a man a great name but goodness only a good name You that are great men if you be not good withall do what you can for the preservation of your name and memory use all your best wit and art spend the most costly perfumes and precious ointments you have about it when you have done your utmost endeavours we may justly put that rebuke upon you which the Disciples did unjustly upon the good woman in the Gospel Quorsum perditio haec whereto serveth this wast Oleum operam you shall not be able after all this expence of oyle and toyle to preserve your names from stench and putrifaction It is nothing but godliness and righteousness that can do that The memorial of the just when Envy and Calumny have done their worst to blast it shall yet be blessed but the name of the wicked when Hypocrisie and Flattery have done their best to prevent it shall not notwithstanding A good name then is therefore first more excellent then any precious oyntment either in the letter or metaphor because less Common 15. Compare secondly the delights and comforts and contents of both and see the issue Oyles and Oyntments do give exceeding great delight to the senses so as scarce any one kinde of thing more which perhaps might be some cause why Solomon should here make choice of them rather then any other things whereby to express outward and sensual pleasures And this they do by three distinct qualities whereby they â—ffect three distinct senses The Qualities are Laevor Nitor Odor The Senses affected therewith Feeling Seeing Smelling The first Quality is Laevor a kinde of gentle softness and smoothness and supple glibbiness wherewith the touch is much delighted Upon which quality David the father and Solomon the son do both reflect in those proverbial speeches of theirs where speaking the one of flattering dissemblers saith Molliti super oleum Their words are softer then Oyle Psal. 55. the other of the whorish woman saith Her lips drop like a hony-combe and her mouth is smoother then Oyle Prov. 5. The second Quality of Oyls and Oyntments is Nitor a kinde of brightness and varnish which they cast upon other bodies making them loook fresh and glister which quality taketh the eye and affecteth the sightâ— As colours laid in Oyle have a gracefull verdure and lustre beyond those that are not so laid Of which quality the Psalmist maketh special mention Psal. 104. where describing the manifold works of God among other things he saith that God bringeth food out of the earth as namely wine to make glad the heart of man and Oyle to make him a cheerful countenance or as our last translation hath it somewhat neerer the letter but to the same sense to make his face to shine Their third Quality is Odor the sweet fragrancy which they send forth round about them to a good distance which maketh them wondrous pleasant to the Smell The Poets therefore sometimes call Oyntments and Perfumes Odoers in the abstract as if they were nothing else but smell To this quality do referr those reciprocal speeches in the Canticles Of the Spouse to her well-beloved in the first Chapter Because of the savour of thy good Oyntments therefore doe the virgins love thee And of him again to her in the fourth Chapter How faire is thy love my sister my spouse how much better is thy love then wine and the smell of thine Oyntments then all spices When Mary powred out her costly spikenard on Christs feet the story telleth us that all the house was filled with the odour of the Oyntment Joh. 12. 16. Oyntments then are good and pleasant But as Aristotle sometimes pronounced of the Rhodian and Lesbian wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter so it may as reasonably be pronounced in the present contest that though the precious Oyntment be good and pleasant in his kinde yet the good Name for goodness and pleasantness is far beyond
sakes any unlawful thing or leaving undone any necessary duty by accompanying them in their sins or advancing their designes in any thing that may offend God then are we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men-pleasers in an evil sense and our wayes will not please the Lord. S. Paul who in one place professeth men-pleasing Even as I please all men in all things taking it in the better sence protesteth against it as much in another place If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ. taking it in the worse sense 6. To draw to a head then we may please our selves and we should seek to please our brethren where these may be done and the Lord pleased withal But when the same wayes will not please all we ought not to be carefull to satisfie others in their unreasonable expectancies much less our selves in our own inordinate appetites but disregarding both our selves and them bend all our studies and endeavours to this one point how we may approve our hearts and our wayes unto the Lord that is to God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ. God and Christ must be in the final resolution the sole object of our pleasing which is the substance of the whole words of the Antecedent laid together which we have hitherto considered apart and commeth now to be handled The handling whereof we shall despatch in three enquiries whereof two concern the Endeavour and one the event For it may be demanded first what necessity of pleasing God and if it be needfull then secondly how and by what means it may be done and both these belong to the endeavour and then it may be demanded thirdly concerning the event upon what ground it is that any of our endeavours should please God Of which in their order 7. First that we should endeavour so to walk as to please God The Apostle needed not to have prayed so earnestly as he doth Col. 1. and that without ceasing neither to have adjured us so deeply as he doth 1 Thes. 4. even by the Lord Iesus if it did not both well become us in point of Duty and also much concern us in point of wisdome so to do First it is a Duty whereunto we stand bound by many obligations He is our Master our Captain our Father our King every of which respects layeth a several necessity upon us of doing our endeavour to please him if at least there be in us any care to discharge with faithfulness and as we ought the parts of Servants of Souldiers of Sons of Subjects 8. First he is our Master Ye call me Lord and Master and ye say well for so I am and we are his Servants O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid And he is no honest servant that will not strive to please his Master exhort servants to obey their own Masters and to please them well in all things Tit. 2. Next he is our Captain It became him to make the Captain of their salvation perfect and we are his Souldiers thou therefore endure hardness as a good souldier of Iesus Christ saith St. Paul to Timothy We received our prest-mony and book'd our names to serve in his wars when we bound our selves by solemn vow and took the Sacrament upon it in our baptism manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the Devill and to continue his faithful souldiers unto our lives end And he is no generous Souldier that will not strive to please his General No man that warreth entangleth himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a Saviour 2 Tim. 2. Thirdly He is our Father and we his Children I will be a father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty and when we have any thing of him we readily speak him by the name of Father and that by his own direction saying Our Father which art in heaven And that Son hath neither grace nor good nature in him that will not strive to please his Father It is noted as one of Esau's impieties whom the Scripture hath branded as a profane person that grieved and displeased his parents in the choice of his wives If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. Lastly He is our King The Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods and we are his subjects his people and the sheep of his pasture and he is no loyal Subject that will not strive to please his lawful Soveraign That form of speech if it please the King so frequent in the mouth of Nehemiah was no affected strain of Courtship but a just expression of duty otherwise that religious man would never have used it 9. And yet there may be a time wherein all those obligations may cease of pleasing our earthly Masters or Captains or Parents or Princes If it be their pleasure we should do something that lawfully we may not we must disobey though we displease Onely be we sure that to colour an evil disobedience we do not pretend an unlawfulness where there is none But we can have no colour of plea for refusing to do the pleasure of our heavenly Lord and Master in any thing whatsoever in as much as we are sure nothing will please him but what is just and right With what forehead then can any of us challenge from him either wages as Servants or stipends as Soldiers or provision as Sons or protection as Subjects if we be not careful in every respect to frame our selves in such sort as to please him you see it is our duty so to do 10. Yea and our Wisdom too in respect of the great benefits we shall reap thereby There is one great benefit expressed in the Text If we please the Lord he will make our enemies to be at peace with us of which more anon The Scriptures mention many other out of which number I propose but these three First if we please him he will preserve us from sinful temptations Solomon Eccles. 7. speaking of the strange woman whose heart is as nets and snares and her hands as bands saith that whoso pleaseth the Lord shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her He that displeaseth God by walking in the by-paths of sin God shall with-hold his grace from him and he shall be tempted and foyled but whoso pleaseth God by walking in his holy wayes God shall so assist him with his grace that when he is tempted he shall escape And that is a very great benefit Secondly if we please him he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions in whatsoever we ask if what we ask be agreeable to his will and expedient for our good whatsoever we ask we know we receive of him because we keep his
Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight And that is another very great benefit Thirdly if we please him in the mean time he will in the end translate us into his heavenly kingdome whereof he hath given us assurance in the person of Enoch whom God translated that he should not see death because before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God And this is the greatest benefit that can be imagined 11. Go then wretched man that hast not cared to displease the immortal God for the pleasing of thy self or of some other mortal man cast up thy bills examine thy accounts and see what thou hast gained 1. By displeasing God thou hast strengthened the hands of those enemies against thee with whom thou mightest have been at peace 2. Thou hast exposed thy self for a prey to those temptations from which thou mightest have escaped 3. Thou hast blocked up the passage against thine own prayers that they cannot have access before the throne of grace 4. Thou hast utterly debarred thy self from ever entring into the kingdom of glory All this thou hast lost not now to be regained save onely by bewailing the time past that thou hast not sought to please him better heretofore by redeeming the time to come in seeking to pleas him better hereafter 12. Which how and by what means it may best be done is our next Enquiry Wherein to give you a general and easie direction without descending into particulars these two things will do it Likeness and Obedience For the first Similis Simili is a common saying and common experience proveth it true Likeness ever breedeth liking and men we see are best pleased every one with such notions and expressions as sort best with their own fancies and with such companions as are of their own temper So good Souldiers are best pleased with those that are valiant like themselves and good wits with those that are facetious like themselves and good scholars with those that are judicious like themselves and accordingly it is with all other sorts of men in their kindes Yea of so great moment is likeness unto complacency as that two men if they be of different dispositions as it may be the one of a quick stirring and active the other of a slow remiss and suffering spirit or it may be the one of an open free and pleasant conversation the other of a sad close and reserved temper although they may be both honest and holy men yet I say two such men will take little pleasure either in the company of the other as experience also sheweth Oderunt hilarem tristes c. 13. Now a wicked man is altogether unlike God both in his inward affections and in his outward conversation He loveth the wayes of sin which God hateth and hateth to be reformed which God requireth He speaketh well of evil men as the covetous and others whom God abhorreth and casteth out their names as evil in whom God delighteth Is it possible that God who is light should take pleasure in him that is nothing but darkness and God who is a spirit in him who is nothing but flesh and God who is love in him who is nothing but rancour and malice and uncharitableness and God who is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works a just a mercifull a bountifull God in him who is altogether unclean or unjust or cruel or covetous It cannot be 14. But then as for the godly no maruel if both their persons and wayes be well pleasing unto God being that both their persons are inwardly renewed after his image and their wayes also outwardly framed after his example They love what he loveth hate what he hateth in the affections of their hearts and they are followers of God as dear children in the conversations of their lives They desire and endeavour to be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect and mercifull as he their heavenly father is mercifull And as earthly parents though they love all their children well yet commonly love those best that are likest themselves so our heavenly father is well pleased with all his children because they are indeed all like him but best pleased with those that neerliest resemble him The more we grow in likenesse to him the more shall we grow also in liking with him 15. The other thing wherewith to please God is our Obedience when he beholdeth in our wayes a proof of our willing and cheerful subjection to his most righteous commands All Superiors are best pleased with those that owe them service when they finde them most pliable to their wills and most careful to observe what is given them in charge neither are ever so much or so justly displeased with them as when they see them to slack their own obedience and slight their commands Do you think the Centurion could have bin pleased with those he had under him if when he said to one Come he should have gone the other way and to another goe he should have stood still and to another do this he should have left that undone and done the quite contrary Obedience is a thing wherein God more delighteth then in sacrifice and the keeping of the commandement will please him better then a Bullock that hath horns and hoofs The Apostle giveth this very reason in Rom. 8. why they that are in the flesh carnal and worldly men cannot please God even because the carnall minde is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so long as it continueth carnall Intimating that if it could be subject it could not chose but please 16. Great therefore is the vanity of those men who think to gain and to hold the favour of God by the outward performances of Fasting Prayer Alm's deeds hearing Gods word receiving the holy Sacrament and the like just as the hypocritical Jews of old did by sacrifices oblations when as all the while their hearts are rotten and their conversation base But let not any of us deceive our selves with vain confidences For as the Lord of old often cried down sacrifices by his Prophets though they were in those times a necessary and principal part of that holy worship which himself had prescrib'd so no doubt he will now reject these outside services though otherwise and in themselves excellent duties in their kinds if there be no more in them but meer outside And they are no better where there is not withall a conscience made of Obedience The Lord who weigheth the spirits as it is a little before in this ch and searcheth the hearts and reins seeth the falseness of our spirits observeth every prevaricating step both of our hearts and lives There is no dallying therefore with him either let us set our hearts and our faces aright and make straight steps to our
to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie would not only work in us a due consideration of our wayes that so we might amend them if there be cause but would be also of right use to prevent two notable pieces of sophistry two egregious fallacies wherewith thousands of us deceive our selves The former fallacy is that we use many times especially when our enemies do us manifest wrong to impute our sufferings wholy to their iniquity whereof we should do wiselier to take some of the blame upon our selves Not at all to excuse them whose proceedings are unjust and for which they shall bear their own burthens But to acquit the Lords proceedings who still is just even in those things wherein men are unjust Their hearts and tongues and hands are against us only out of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that superfluity of maliciousness wherewith their naughty hearts abound and for to serve their own cursed ends which is most unjust in them But the Lord sundry times hardneth their hearts and whetteth their tongues and strengtheneth their hands against us in such sort to chasten us for some sinfull error neglect or lust in part still remaining in us unsubdued which is most just in him 32. For as I touched in the beginning a mans heart may be right in the main and his wayes well-pleasing unto God in regard of the general bent and intention of them and yet by wrying aside in some one or a few particulars he may so offend the Lord as that he may in his just displeasure for it either raise him up new enemies or else continue the old ones As a loving father that hath entertained a good opinion of his son and is well pleased with his behaviour in the generality of his carriage because he seeth him in most things dutifull and towardly may yet be so far displeased with him for some particular neglects as not only to frown upon him but to give him sharp correction also Sic parvis componere magna Not much otherwise is it in the dealing of our heavenly Father with his children We have an experiment of it in David with whom doubtless God was well pleased for the main course of his life otherwise he had never received that singular testimony from his own mouth that he was secundum cor a man after his own heart yet because he stepped aside and that very foulely in the matter of Vriah The Text saith 2 Sam. 11. that the thing that David had done displeased the Lord and that which followed upon it in the ensuing chapters was the Lord raised up enemies against him for it out of his own house 33. The other fallacy is when we cherish in our selves some sinful errors either in judgement or practice as if they were the good wayes of God the rather for this that we have enemies and meet with opposition as if the enmity of men were an infallible mark of a right way The words of the Text ye see seem rather to incline quite the other way Indeed the very truth is neither the favour or disfavour of men neither their approving nor opposing is any certain mark at all either of a good or of a bad way Our Solomon hath delivered it positively and we ought to believe him Eccl. 9. that no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them It is an error therefore of dangerous consequence to think that the enmity of the wicked is an undoubted mark either of truth or goodness Not only for that it wanteth the warrant of truth to support it which is common to it with all other errors but for two other especial reasons besides The one is because through blinde selfe-love we are apt to dote upon our own opinions more then we ought How confidently do some men boast out their own private fansies and unwarranted singularities as if they were the God! The other reason is because through wretched uncharitableness we are apt to stretch the title of the wicked further then we ought How freely do some men condemne all that think or do otherwise then themselves but especially that any way oppose their courses as if they were the wicked of the world and Persecutors of the godly 34. For the avoiding of both which mischiefs it is needful we should rightly both understand and apply all those places of Scripture which speak of that Opposition which is sometimes made against truth and goodness which opposition the holy Ghost in such like places intended not to deliver as a mark of godliness but rather to propose as an Antidote against worldly fears and discouragements That if in a way which we know upon other and impregnable evidences to be certainly right we meet with opposition we should not be dismaid at it as if some strange thing had befallen us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beloved think it not strange saith S. Peter concerning all such trials as these are as if some strange thing had hapned because it is a thing that at any time may and sometimes doth happen But now to make such opposition a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark whereby infallibly to judge of our wayes whether they be right or no as some out of the strength of their heat and ignorance have done is to abuse the holy Scriptures to pervert the meaning of the Holy Ghost and to lead men into a maze of uncertainty and error We had all of us need therefore to beware that we doe not like our own wayes so much the better because we have enemies it is much safer for us to suspect lest there may be something in us otherwise then should be for which the Lord suffereth us to have enemies 35. And now the God of grace and peace give us all grace to order our wayes so as may be pleasing in his sight and grant to every one of us First perfect peace with him and in our own consciences and then such a measure of outward peace both publick and private with all our enemies round about us as shall seem good in his sight And let the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep our hearts and mindes in the knowledge and love of him and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord And let the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost be upon us and upon all them that hear his word and keep it at this present time and for evermore Amen Amen AD AULAM. Sermon III. NEWARKE 1633. 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour all men Love the Brotherhood 1. WHen the Apostles preached the Doctrine of Christian liberty a fit opportunity was ministred for Satans instruments to work their feats upon the new-converted Christians false Teachers on the one side and false Accusers on the other For taking advantage from the very name of Liberty the Enemies of their Souls were ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach them under that pretence
then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend and thus far we must goe if God call us to it So far went Christ for our redemption and so far the Scriptures press his example for our imitation Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 29. To recollect the premises and to give you the full meaning of the precept at once To Love the Brotherhood is as much as to bear a special affection to all Christians more then to Heathens and to manifest the same proportionably by performing all loving offices to them upon every fit occasion to the utmost of our powers A duty of such importance that our Apostle though here in the Text he do but only name it in the bunch among other duties yet afterwards in this Epistle seemeth to require it in a more speciall manner and after a sort above other duties Above all things have fervent charity among your selves Chap. 4. And S. Iohn upon the performance hereof hangeth one of the strongest assurances we can have of our being in Christ. We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 30. Now of the Obligation of this duty for that is the next thing we are to consider there are two main grounds Goodness and Neerness First we must love the Brotherhood for their goodness All goodness is lovely There groweth a Love due to every creature of God from this that every creature of God is good Some goodness God hath communicated to every thing to which he gave a beeing as a beame of that incomprehensible light and a drop of that infinite Ocean of goodness which he himself is But a greater measure of Love is due to man then to other Creatures by how much God hath made him better then them And to every particular man that hath any special goodness in him there is a special Love due proportionable to the kinde and measâ—re thereof So that whatsoever goodness we can discern in any man we ought to love it in him and to love him for it whatsoever faults or defects are apparently enough to be found in him otherways He that hath good natural parts if he have little in him that is good besides yet is to be loved even for those parts because they are good He that hath but good moralities only leading a civil life though without any probable evidences of grace appearing in him is yet to be loved of us if but for those moralities because they also are good But he that goeth higher and by the goodness of his conversation sheweth forth so far as we can judge the graciousness of his heart deserveth by so much an higher room in our affections then either of the former by how much Grace exceedeth in goodness both Nature and Morality Sith then there is a special goodness in the Brethren quatenùs such in regard of that most holy faith which they profess and that blessed name of Christ which is called upon them we are therefore bound to love them with a special affection and that eo nomine under that consideration as they are brethren over and above that general love with which we are bound to love them as men or that which belongeth to them as men of parts or as Civil men 31. The other ground of Loving the Brotherhood is their Neerness The neerer the dearer we say and there are few relations neerer then that of brotherhood But no brotherhood in the world so closely and surely knit together and with so many and strong tyes as the fraternity of Christians in the communion of Saints which is the Brotherhood in the Text. In which one brotherhood it is not easy to reckon how many brotherhoods are conteined Behold some of many First we are Brethren by propagation and that ab utroque parente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the one Eternal God the common father of us all and of the one Catholick Church the common mother of us all And we have all the same Elder brother Jesus Christ the first born among many brethren the lively image of his fathers person and indeed the foundation of the whole Brotherhood for we are all as many of us as have been baptised into Christ the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Therefore as Ioseph loved Benjamin his brother of the whole bloud more affectionately then the other ten that were his brethren but by the fathers side only so we ought with a more special affection to love those that are also the sons of our mother the Church as Christians then those that are but the sons of God only as Creatures 32. Secondly we are Brethren by education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foster-brethren as Herod and Manahon were We are all nursed with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere milk of the word in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which are ubera matris Ecclesiae the two brests whence we sucked all that wholsome nourishment by which we are grown up to what we are to that measure of stature of strength whatsoever it is that we have in Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle and common experience sheweth it so to be They that have been nursed or brought up together in their childehood for the most part have their affections so seasoned and setled then that they love one another the better while they live 33. Thirdly we are Brethren by Covenant sworn brothers at our holy Baptism when we dedicated our selves to Gods service as his Souldiers by sacred and solemn vow Do we not see men that take the same oath pressed to serve in the same Wars and under the same Captains Contuâ—ernales and Comrades how they do not only call Brothers but hold together as Brothers and shew themselves marvelous zealous in one anothers behalf taking their parts and pawning their credits for them and sharing their fortunes with them If one of them have but a little silver in his purse his brother shall not want whiles that lasteth Shame we with it that the children of this world should be kinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards those of their own generation then we are in ours 34. Fourthly we are Brethren by Cohabitation We are all of one house and family not strangers and forrainers but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God What a disquietness and discredit both is it to a house where the children are ever jarring and snarling and fighting one with another but a goodly sight Ecce quam bonum when they dwell together in love and unity Even so a sad thing it is and very grievous to the soule of every good man when in the Church which is the house of God Christians
that call themselves brethren fall soule upon one another not only girding at and clashing against but biting and nipping and devouring one another as if they were bent to consume and destroy one another But a most blessed thing on the other side pleasant as the holy oyle distilling from Aarons head upon his beard and garments and rejoycing the heart as the dew upon the mountains refresheth the grass when there is nothing done in the house through strife or vain glory but such an accord amongst them that all the Brethren are of one minde and judgment or if not alwayes so yet at leastwise of one heart and affection bearing the burdens and bearing with the infirmities one of another and ready upon all occasions to do good as to all men generally and without exception so especially to their Brethren that are of the same houshold of faith with them 35. Lastly we are Brethren by partnership in our Fathers estate Coparceners in the state of Grace all of us enjoying the same promises liberties and priviledges whereof we are already possessed in common and Coheirs in the state of Glory all of us having the same joy and everlasting blisse in expectancy and reversion For being the sonnes of God we are all heirs and being brethren all joynt-heirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same glorious inheritance reserved for us in the heavens which St. Iude therefore calleth the common salvation It argueth a base wrangling spirit in us having such goodly things in reversion enough for us all so as heart can wish no more to squabble and fall out for such poore trifles as the things of this world are We that have by Gods goodness competent sustenance for our journey and full sacks to open at our coming home as Iosephs brethren had when they came out of Egypt to return to their own land shall we fall out among our selves and be ready to mischief one another by the way 36. Having all these Obligations upon us and being tied together in one Brotherhood by so many bands of unity and affection I presume we cannot doubt de Iure but that it is our bounden duty thus to love the Brotherhood There remaineth now no more to be done but to look to our performances that they be right wherein the main thing we are to take heed of besides what hath been already applyed is Partiality I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by Partiality It was S. Pauls charge to Timothy in another businesse but may suit very well with this also 27. Not but that we may and in most cases must make a difference between one brother and another in the measure and degree of our Love according to the different measures and degrees either of their goodness considered in themselves or of their neerness in relation to us those two considerations being as you heard the grounds of our Love So David loved Ionathan as his own soule his heart was knit to him both because he was a good man and had withall approved himself his trusty friend Yea our blessed Saviour himself shewed a more affectionate Love to Iohn then to any other of his disciples the disciple whom Iesus loved for no other known reason so much as for this that he was neer of kin to him his own mothers sisters son as is generally supposed No reasonable man among us then need make any question but that we may and ought to bear a greater love unto and consequently to be readier to do good unto caeteris paribus our Countrymen our neighbours our kindred our friends then to those that are strangers to us and stand in no such relation And so no doubt we may and ought in like manner upon that other ground of Goodness more to love and to shew kindness sooner to a sober discreet judicious peaceable humble and otherwise orderly and regular man caeteris paribus then to one that is light-headed or lazy or turbulent or proud or debauched or heretical or schismatical 38. But still that proviso or limitation which I now twice mentioned caeteris paribus must he remembred for there may such a disparity arise by emergent occasions as may render a meer stranger a heathen a notoriously vitious person a fitter object of our compassion help or relief pro hîc nunc then the most pious Christian or our dearest friend or ally In cases of great extremity where the necessities of the party importune a present succour and will admit no delay Cedat necessitudo necessitati the former considerations whether of Neerness or Goodness must be waved for the present and give way to those Necessities He is most our neighbour and brother in a case of that nature that standeth in most need of our help as our Saviour himself hath clearly resolved it in the case of the wounded traveller in the parable Luke 10. Nor doth this at all contradict what hath been already delivered concerning the preferring of the brethren before others either in the affection of love or in the offices which flow therefrom For the affection first it is clear that although some acts of compassion and charity be exercised towards a stranger yea even an enemy that hath great need of it rather then towards a friend or brother that hath either no need at all or very little in comparison of the other it doth not hinder but that the Habit or affection of love in the heart may notwithstanding at the very same time be more strongly carried towards the brother or friend then towards the enemy or stranger as every mans own reason and experience in himself can tell him And as for the outward acts and offices of love it is with them as with the offices of all other vertues and gracious habits or affections which not binding ad semper as the graces and habits themselves do are therefore variable and mutable as the circumstances by which they must be regulated vary pro hic nunc And therefore the rules given concerning them must not be punctually mathematically interpreted but prudentially and rationally and hold as we use to say in the Schools communiter but not universaliter that is to say ordinarily and in most cases where circumstances do not require it should be otherwise but not absolutely and universally so as to admit of no exception 39. This rub then thus removed out of the way it may yet be demanded where is this partiality to be found whereof we spake or what is it to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons if this putting of a difference in our love between brother and brother which we have now allowed of be not it I answer It is no partiality to make such a difference as we have hitherto allowed so long as the said difference
quotations with him But as there Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avoid Satan non-plust the Tempter beyond all the Reasons and Authorities that could be produced so the safest way for us to come off clear from him is to give him a flat deniall without further reason and let him take that for an answer if he will any Thus to be Wilful is a blessed Wilfulness a resolution well becoming the servant and childe of God and a strong preservative against wilfull Presumption The fort is as good as half lost having to treat with such a cunning enemy if you do but once admit of a Treaty therefore stand off 46. But when we have done all we must begin again When we have resolved and endeavoured what we can unless the Lord be pleased to set his Fiat unto it and to confirm it with his royall assent all our labour is but lost As he is the Alpha so is he to be the Omega too and therefore we must set him at both ends And as we were to begin with him so are we to conclude with him pray first pray last Pray before all that we may have grace to do our Endeavours Pray after all that he would give a blessing to our endeavours That so when Satan the World and our own Flesh shall all conspire against us to drive us forward to the works of sin we may by his grace and blessing be kept back therefrom and enabled to persevere in true faith and holiness all the dayes of our lives Which God our heavenly Father grant us for his mercies sake and for the merits of Iesus Christ his only son our Lord to both whom with the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. Sermon V. GREENWICH JULY 1637. Philip. 4.11 Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. SAint Paul found much kinndesse from these Philippians and took much comfort in it And because it was more then ordinary and beyond the kindness of other Churches he doth therefore sometimes remember it with much thankfulness both to God and them Even in the beginning of the Gospel that is presently after his first preaching it among them the story whereof is laid down Acts 16. when having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia he came and preached at Thessalonica which was another principal City of Macedonia these Philippians hearing belike that the Apostle had little other means for his maintenance there then what he got by his hand-labour wherein both for examples sake and because he would not be chargable to the Thessalonians he employed himself diligently both day and night they sent over and so did no other Church but they and that once and again to supply his necessities there 2. And as they began it seemeth they continued to shew forth the truth of their Faith and to adorn their Christian profession by their cheerfulness and liberality in contributing to the necessities of their brethren upon every good occasion For at Corinth also the year following where for the space of a year and half together he did for good considerations forbear as he had before done at Thessalonica to challenge that maintenance from the people which by Gods ordinance he had a right unto the supplies he had he acknowledgeth to have come from these brethren of Macedonia As if he had even robbed the Philippians it is his own word in taking wages of them for the service done to other Churches 3. Not to speak of their great bounty some three or foure years after that towards the relief of the poore brethren that dwelt in Iudea wherein they were willing of themselves without any great solicitation and liberall not only to the utmost of but even somewhat beyond their power Now also again after some three or foure years more S. Paul being in durance at Rome their former charitable care over him which had not of a good while shewen it self forth for lack of opportunity began to re-flourish and to put forth with a fresh verdure as a tree doth at the approach of Summer For they sent him a large benevolence to Rome by Epaphroditus of the receipt whereof he now certifieth them by the same Epaphroditus at his return expressing the great joy and comfort he took in those gracious evidences of their pious affections to the Gospel first and then to him He highly commendeth their Charity in it and he earnestly beseecheth God to reward them for it 4. Yet lest this just commendation of their beneficence should through any mans uncharitableness whereunto corrupt nature is too prone raise an unjust opinion of him as if he sought theirs more then them or being crafty had caught them with guile to make a prey or a gain of them so sinisterly interpreting his extolling of their charity for the time past as if it were but an artificiall kinde of begging for the time to come He thought it needfull for him by way of Prolepsis to prevent whatsoever might be surmised in that kinde which he beginneth to do in the words of the Text to this effect 5. True it is nor will I dissemble it when I received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you it was no small rejoycing to my heart to see your care of me after some years intermission to flourish again And I cannot but give an Euge to your charity for truly you have done well to communicate with my afflictions Yea I should derogate from the grace of God which he hath bestowed upon you and worketh in you if I should not both acknowledge your free benevolence towards me and approve it as an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Which I speake not out of a greedy minde to make a gain of you nor for a cloak of covetousness God is my witness nor any other way so much in reference to my own private interest as for the glory of God and to the comfort of your consciences In as much as this fruit of your Faith thus working by Love doth redound to the honour of the â—ospel in the mean time and shall in the end abound to your account â—n the day of the Lord Iesus Otherwise as to my own particular altâ—ough my wants were supplyed and my bowels refreshed through your liberality which in the condition I was in was some comfort to me yet if that had been all I had looked after the want of the things you sent me could not have much afflicted me The Lord whom I serve is God All-sufficient and his grace had been sufficient for me though your supplies had never come He that enableth me howsoever of my self vnable to do any thing yet to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me hath framed my heart by his holy spirit and trained me up hereunto in the school of Experience and Afflictions to rest
tedious and bootless work Non si te ruperis We may tug hard at it sweat till our hearts ake but it will not be Why do we not rather begin at the other end do that rather which is not only possible but the grace of God assisting easie also in striving to fit our mindes to the things Non augendae res sed minuendae cupiditates that is the way To work our own Contentment we should not labour so much to encrease our substance that is a preposterous course as to moderate our desires which is the right way and the more feizible Iacob did not propose to himself any great matters fat revenues and large possessions but only bread to eat and rayment to put on Gen. 28. No matter of what course grain so it were but bread to give nourishment and maintain life No matter for the stuff or fashion so it were but raiment to cover nakedness and to keep off heat and cold Neither doth St Paul speak of any choicer or costlier matter Having food and raiment saith he let us be therewith content 1 Tim. 6. He saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicates but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 food nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornaments but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raiment coverings Any filling for the belly any hilling for the back would serve his turn 47. Thirdly since it is a point of the same skill to do both to want and to abound we should do well whilest the Lord lendeth us peace and plenty to exercise our selves duly in the Art of abounding that we be the better able to manage the Art of wanting if ever it shall please him to put us to it For therefore especially are we so much to seek and so puzzled that we know not which way to turn us when want or afflictions come upon us because we will not keep within any reasonable compass nor frame our selves to industrious thrifty and charitable courses when we enjoy abundance It is our extreme insolency and unthankfulness when we are full that maketh our impatience and discontentedness break forth with the greater extremity when the Lord beginneth to empty us Quem res plus nimio delectavêre secundae Mutatae quatient As in a fever he that burneth most in his hot sit shaketh most in his cold so no man beareth want with less patience then he that beareth plenty with least moderation If we would once perfectly learn to abound and not ryot we should the sooner learn to want and not repine 48. But how am I on the sodain whilest I am discoursing of the Nature fallen upon some of the Rules of the Art of contentment And yet not besides the Text neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containeth that too Yet because to lay down the grounds and method of that Art and to do it to purpose another hours work would be but little enough I shall therefore forbear to proceed any further at this time Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. Sermon VI. OTELANDS JULY 1637. Philip. 4.11 for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. TO omit what was observed from the Apostles Protestation in those first words of the verse Not that I speak in respect of want from these words in the later part of the verse we have proposed formerly to speak of two things concerning Christian Contentment first of the Nature of it and wherein it consisteth and then of the Art of it and how it may be attained The Nature of it hath been not long since somewhat opened according to the intimations given in the Text in three particulars Wherein was shewen that that man only liveth truly contented that can suffice himself first with his own estate secondly with the present estate thirdly being his own and the present with any estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I am now by the laws of good order and the tye of a former promise to proceed to the like discovery of the Art of Contentment by occasion of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I heve learned in whatsoever estate I am to be therewith content 2. Saint Paul was not framed unto it by the common instinct of nature neither had he hammered it out by his own industry or by any wise improvement of nature from the precepts of Philosophy and Morality nor did it spring from the abundance of outward things as either an effect or an appurtenance thereof It was the Lord alone that had wrought it in his heart by his saving and sanctifying Spirit and trained him up thereunto in the school of experience and of afflictions The Sum is that True contentedness of minde is a point of high and holy learning whereunto no man can attain unless it be taught him from above What the Apostle saith of Faith is true also generally of every other Grace and of this in particular as an especial and infallible effect of Faith Not of your selves it is the gift of God And of this in particular the Preacher so affirmeth in Eccles. 5. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoyce in his labour this is the gift of God 3. Neither is it a common gift like that of the rain and Sun the comfort whereof are indifferently afforded to good and bad to the thankless as well as the thankful but it is a special favour which God vouchsafeth to none but to those that are his special favourites his beloved ones he giveth his beloved sleep Psal. 127. whiles others rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of sorrows restlesly wearing out their bodies with toyle and their minds with care they lay them down in peace and their minds are at rest They sleep But it is the Lord only that maketh their rest so soft and safe he giveth them sleep And the bestowing of such a gift is an argument of his special love towards them that partake it He giveth his beloved sleep It is indeed Gods good blessing if he give to any man bare riches but if he be pleased to second that common blessing with a farther blessing and to give contentment withall then it is to be acknowledged a singular and most excellent blessing as Solomon saith The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it In Eccles. 2. the same Solomon telleth us that contentment cometh from none but God and is given to none but the godly For saith he God giveth to a man that is good in his sight and that is the godly only wisdom and knowledge and joy But as for the sinner none of all this is given to him What is his portion then even as it there followeth But to the
reward Esay 45.13 but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing toward this great purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St Paul 1 Cor 6. and he saith it over again Chap 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome that is as much as to say a price of redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us and we by our sale could convey unto him no more right then we had our selves which was just none at all Our Redeemer therefore would not enter into any capitulation with him or offer to him any Termes of composition But thought good rather in pursuance of his own right to use his power And so he vindicated us from him by main strength With his own right hand and with his holy arm he got himself the victory and us liberty without any price or ransome paid him 34. But then unto Almighty God his father and our Lord under whose heavy Curse we lay and whose just vengeance would not be appeased towards us for our grievous presumption without a condign satisfaction to him I say there was a price paid by our Redeemer and that the greatest that ever was paid for any purchase since the world began Not silver and gold saith S. Peter which being corruptible things are not valuable against our immortall and incorruptible souls But even himself in whom are absconditi thesauri amassed and hidden all the treasures of the wisdom of God and even the whole riches of his grace treasure enough to redeem a whole world of sinners Take it collectively or distributively singula generum or genera singulorum this way or that way or which way you will in Christ there is copiosa redemptio redemption plenty and enough for all if they will but accept it Take all mankinde singly one by one He gave himself for me saith S. Paul in one place Take them altogether in the lump He gave himself a ransom for all in another 35. Now for a man to give himself what is it else but to give his soule for that is himself as we heard before and his life for vita in animâ the life is in the soule and these he gave He gave up his soule when thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin◠Esay 53.10 and he laid down his life the son of man came to give his life a ransom for many Mat. 10. More then this in love he could not give for what greater love then to lay down ones life And less then this in justice he might not give for Death by the Law being the wages of sin there could be no Redemption from death so as to satisfie the Law without the death of the Redeemer 36. Yea and it must be a bloody death too for anima in sanguine the life is in the blood and without shedding of blood there can be no remission no redemption All those bloody sacrifices of buls and goats and lambs in the old Testament all those frequent sprinklings of blood upon the door posts upon the book upon the people upon the tabernacle and upon all the vessels of ministry and all those legal purifications in which blood was used as almost all things are by the Law purged with blood Heb. 9. they were all but so many types and shaddows prefiguring this blood of sprinkling which speaketh so many good things for us pacifieth the fierce anger of God towards us purgeth us from all sins and redeemeth us from hell and damnation I mean the meritorious blood of the Cross the most precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish 1 Pet. 1.18 37. But can there be worth enough may some say in the blood of a Lamb of one single Lamb to be a valuable compensation for the sins of the whole world First this was agnus singularis a lamb of special note not such another in the whole flock All we like sheep have gone astray but so did this lamb never All of us like the encrease of Laban's flock speckled or ring-streaked but this lamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Momus himself were set to search he could not yet finde the least spot or blemish A cunninger searcher then he hath pried narrowly into every corner of his life who if there had been any thing amiss would have been sure to have spied it and proclaimed it but could finde nothing The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me That is something his Innocency But if that be not enough for the Angels also are innocent behold then more He is secondly Agnus Dei the Lamb of God that is the Lamb which God had appointed and set apart for this service by special designation so as either this party must do it or none There is no other name given under heaven no nor in heaven neither nor above by which we can be redeemed Him and him alone hath God the Father sealed and by vertue of that seal authoris'd and enabled to undertake this great work Or if you have not yet enough for it may be said what if it had been the pleasure of God to have sealed one of the Angels Behold then thirdly that which is beyond all exception and leaveth no place for cavil or scruple He is Agnus Deus This lamb is God the son of God very God of very God and so the blood of this Lamb is the very blood of God Act. 20. And it is this dignity of his nature especially and not his innocency only no nor yet his deputation too without this that setteth such a huge value upon his blood that it is an infinite price of infinite merit able to satisfie an infinite justice and to appease an infinite wrath 38. You will now confess I doubt not that this Redemption was not gratis came not for nothing in respect of him it cost him full dear even his dearest lives-blood But then in respect of us it was a most free and gracious redemption It was no charge at all to us we disburs'd not a mite not a doyt towards it Which is the very true reason why it is said in the Text Ye shall be redeemed without mony This work then is meerly an act of grace not a fruit of merit grace abundant grace on his part no merit not the least merit at all
time first estrange by little and little and at length quite alienate our affections one from another It is one thing to dissent from another to be at discord with our brethren Itâ— dissensi ab illo saith Tully concerning himself and Cato ut in disjunctione sententiae conjuncti tamen amiciâ—iâ maneremus It is probable the whole multitude of them that believed were but we are not sure they were and it is possible they might not be all of one opinion in every point even in those first and primitive times but St Luke telleth us for certain that they were all of one heart 26. Like-minded thirdly in a fair and peaceable outward conversation For albeit through humane frailty and amid so many scandals as are and must be in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there be not evermore that hearty entire affection that ought to be between Christian men especially when they stand divided one from another in opinion yet should they all bear this minde and so be at least thus far like-minded as to resolve to forbear all scornful and insolent speeches and behaviour of and towards one another without jeering without censuring without provoking without causless vexing one another or disturbing the publick peace of the Church For the servant of God must not strive but be gentle unto all men and patient So gentle and patient that he must study to win them that oppose themselves not by reviling but instructing them and that not in a loud and lofty strain unless when there is left no other remedy but first and if that will serve the turn only in love and with meeknesse Our conversation where it cannot be all out so free and familiar should yet be fair and amiable Gods holy truth we must stand for I grant if it be opposed to the utmost of our strength neither may we betray any part thereof by our silence or softness for any mans pleasure or displeasure where we may help it and where the defence of it appeareth to be prudentially necessary Yet even in that case ought we so to maintain the truth of God as not to despise the persons of men We are to follow the truth in love which is then best done when holding us close to the truth we are ready yet in love to our brethren to do them all the rights and to perform unto them all those respects which without confirming them in their errours may any way fall due unto them 27. It is a perfect and a blessed Unity when all the three meet together unity of true Doctrine unity of loving affection and unity of peaceable conversation and this perfection ought to be both in our aims and in our endeavours But if through our own weakness or the waywardness of others we cannot attain to the full perfection of the whole having faithfully endeavoured it pulchrum est in secundis tertiâ—sve it will be some commendation and comfort to us to have attained so much as we could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. Nevertheless whereunto we have attained let us mind the same thing 28. To quicken us hereunto the duty being so needful and we withall so dull these few things following would be taken into consideration Consider first that by our Christian calling we are all made up into one mystical body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that by such a reall though mysterious concorporation as that we become thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all of us members of Christ so every one of us one anothers members Now the sympathy and supply that is between the members of the natural body for their mutual comfort and the good of the whole the Apostle elegantly setteth forth and applieth it very fully to the mystical body of the Church in 1 Cor. 12. at large It were a thing prodigiously unnatural and to every mans apprehension the effect of a phrensie at the least to see one member of the body fall a bearing or tearing another No! if any one member be it never so mean and despicable be in anguish the rest are sensible of it No termes of betterness are then stood upon I am better then thou or I then thou no termes of defiance heard I have no need of thee nor I of thee But they are all ready to contribute their several supplies according to their severall abilities and measures to give ease and relief to the grieved part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the reason is given at verse 25. there that so there might be no rent no schisme no division or dis-union of parts in the body 29. Consider secondly That by our condition we are all fellow-brethren and fellow-servants in the same family of the houshold of faith all and these are obliging relations We ought therefore so to behave our selves in the house of God which is the Church of the living God as becometh fellow-brethren that are descended from the same Father and fellow-servants that live under the same Master We all wear one livery having all put on Christ by solemn profession at our holy Baptisme We are fed at one table eating the same spiritual meat and drinking the same spiritual drink in the holy Communion Every thing that belongeth to this house breatheth union One body one spirit one calling one hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all as the Apostle urgeth it Ephes. 4. concluding thence that therefore we ought to be at one among our selves endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Any of us would think it a very disorderly house and ill-governed if coming in by chance we should find the children and servants all together by the ears though but once How much more then if we should observe them to be ever and anon snarling and quarrelling one with another and beating and kicking one another Ioseph thought he need say no more to his brethren to prevent their falling out by the way in their return home-ward then to remind them of this that they were all one mans children And Abraham to procure an everlasting amnesty and utter cessation thenceforth of all debate between himself and his nephew Lot and their servants made use of this one argument as the most prevalent of all other for that end that they were Brethren Ecce quà m bonum I cannot but repeat it once more Behold how good and joyful a thing it is brethren to dwell together in unity 30. Consider thirdly how peace and unity forwardeth the work of God for the building up of his Church which faction and division on the other side obstructeth so as nothing more When all the workmen intend the main business each in his place and office performing his appointed task with chearfulness and good agreement the work goeth on and the building gets up apace But where one man draweth one way and
for their strayings to bring them to repentance for their sins to make them more observant and careful of their duty thence-forward to exercise their faith and patience and other graces and the like Such as were those distresses that befell the whole people of Israel sundry times under Moses and in the dayes of their Iudges and Kings and those particular trials and afflictions wherewith Abraham and Ioseph and Iob and David and Paul and other the holy Saints and servants of God were exercised in their times 5. Both the one sort and the other are called Iudgments but as I said in different respects and for different reasons Those former plagues are called Gods Iudgments because they come from God not as a loving and merciful father but as a just and severe Iudge who proceeding according to course of Law giveth sentence against a malefactor to cut him off And therefore this kind of judgment David earnestly deprecateth Psalm 143. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for then neither can I nor any flesh living be justified in thy sight These later corrections also or chastenings of our heavenly father are called Iudgments too When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord but in a quite different notion Because God proceedeth therein not with violence and fury as men that are in passion use to do but coolely and advisedly and with judgment And therefore whereas David deprecated Gods judgment as we heard in that former notion and as Iudgment is opposed to Favour Ieremy on the other side desireth Gods Iudgment in this later notion and as it is opposed to Fury Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Jer. 10. 6. Now we see the severall sorts of Gods Iudgments which of all these may we think is here meant If we should take them all in the Conclusion would hold them and hold true too Iudicia oris and judicia operis publick and private judgments those plagues wherewith in fury he punisheth his enemies and those rods wherewith in mercy he correcteth his children most certain it is they are all right But yet I conceive those judicia oris not to be so properly meant in this place for the Exegesis in the later part of the verse wherein what are here called judgments are there expounded by troubles seemeth to exclude them and to confine the Text in the proper intent thereof to these judicia operis only but yet to all them of what sort soever publick or private plagues or corrections Of all which he pronounceth that they are Right which is the predicate of the Conclusion and cometh next to be considered I know O Lord that thy judgments are right 7. And we may know it too if we will but care to know either God or Our selves First for God though we be not able to comprehend the reasons of his dispensations the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the judgments are right it may satisfie us if we do but know that they are his Tua will infer recta strongly enough for the Lord who is righteous in all his wayes must needs be so in the way of his judgments too 1. Mens judgments are sometimes not right through mis-informations and sundry other mistakings and defects for which the Laws therefore allow writs of Errour appeals and other remedies But as for God he not only spieth out the goings but also searcheth into the hearts of all men he pondereth their spirits and by him all their actions are weighed 2. Mens judgments are sometimes not right because themselves are partial and unjust awed with fear blinded with gifts transported with passion carried away with favour or disaffection or wearied with importunity But as for God with him is no respect of persons nor possibility of being corrupted Abraham took that for granted that the judg of all the world must needs do right Gen. 18. And the Apostle rejecteth all suspicion to the contrary with an Absit what shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 9. 3. Mens judgments are sometimes not right meerly for want of zeal to justice They lay not the causes of poor men to heart nor are willing to put themselves to the pains or trouble of sifting a cause to the bottome nor care much which way it go so as they may but be at rest and enjoy their ease But as for God he is zealous of doing justice he loveth it himself he requireth it in others punishing the neglect of it and rewarding the administration of it in them to whom it belongeth The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal. 11. 8. And then secondly in our selves we may find if we will but look enough to satisfie us even for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too so far as is meet for us to expect satisfaction The judgments of God indeed are abyssus multa his wayes are in the sea and his paths in the deep waters and his footstops are not known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soon may we lose our selves in the search but never find them out Yet even there where the judgments of God are like a great deep unfathomable by any finite understanding his righteousness yet standeth like the high mountains as it is in Psalm 36. visible to every eye If any of us shall search well into his own heart and weigh his own carriage and deservings if he shall not then find enough in himself to justifie God in all his proceedings I forbid him not to say which yet I tremble but to rehearse that God is unrighteous 9. The holy Saints of God therefore have ever acquitted him by condemning themselves The Prophet Ieremy in the behalf of himself and the whole Church of God The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandement Lam. 1. So did Daniel in that his solemn confession when he set his face to seek the Lord God by prayer and supplications with fasting and sack-cloth and ashes Dan. 9. O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as it is this day to our Kings to our Princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee verse 7. and again after at verse 14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth for we obeyed not his voice Yea so illustrious many times is the righteousness of God in his judicial proceedings that it hath extorted an acknowledgment from men obstinately wicked Pharaoh who sometimes in the pride of his heart had said Who is the Lord was afterwards by the evidence of the fact it self forced to this confession I have sinned the Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked Exod. 9. 10. They are then at least in that respect worse then wicked Pharaoh that
to justifie themselves will not stick to repine even at God himself and his judgments as if he were cruel and they unrighteous like the slothful servant in the parable that did his master no service at all and yet as lazy as he was could blame his master for being an hard man Cain when he had slain his righteous brother and God had laid a judgment upon him for it complained of the burden of it as if the Lord had dealt hardly with him in laying more upon him then he was able to bear never considering the weight of the sin which God in justice could not bear Solomon noteth it as a fault common among men when by their own sinful folly they have pulled misery upon themselves then to murmur against God and complain of his providence The folly of a man perverteth his wayes and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19. As the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness were ever and anon murmuring and complaining at somewhat or other either against God or which cometh much to one against Moses and Aaron and that upon every occasion and for every trifle so do we Every small disgrace injury affront or losse that happeneth to us from the frowardness of our betters the unkindness of our neighbours the undutifulness of our children the unfaithfulness of our servants the unsuccesfulness of our attempts or by any other means whatsoever any sorry thing will serve to put us quite out of patience as Ionas took pet at the withering of the gourd And as he was ready to justifie his impatience even to God himself Doest thou well to be angry Ionas Ey marry do I I do well to be angry even to the death so are we ready in all our murmurings against the Lords corrections to flatter our selves as if we did not complain without cause especially where we are able to charge those men that trouble us with unrighteous dealing 11. This is I confess a strong temptation to flesh and bloud and many of Gods holy servants have had much ado to overcome it whilest they looked a little too much outward But yet we have by the help of God a very present remedy there-against if blinde self-love will but suffer us to be so wise as to make use of it and that is no more but this to turn our eye inward and to examine our selves not how well we have dealt with other men who now requite us so ill but how we our selves have requited God who hath dealt so graciously and bountifully with us If we thus look back into our selves and sins we shall soon perceive that God is just even in those things wherein men are unjust and that we have most righteously deserved at his hands to suffer all those things which yet we have no ways deserved at their hands by whom we suffer It will well become us therefore whatsoever judgments God shall please at any time to lay upon us or to threaten us withall either publick or private either by his own immediate hand or by such instruments as he shall employ without all murmurings or disputings to submit to his good will and pleasure and to accept the punishment of our iniquitie as the phrase is Levit. 26. by humbling our selves and confessing that the Lord is righteous as Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah did 2 Chron. 12. The sence of our own wickednesse in rebelling and the acknowledgment of Gods justice in punishing which are the very first acts of true humiliation and the first steps unto true repentance we shall find by the mercy of God to be of great efficacy not only for the averting of Gods judgments after they are come but also if used timely enough and throughly enough for the preventing thereof before they be come For if we would judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. But because we neglect it and yet it is a thing that must be done or we are undone God in great love and mercy towards us setteth in for our good and doth it himself rather then it should be left undone and we perish even as it there followeth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world And this is that faithfulnesse of God which David acknowledgeth in the later Conclusion whereunto I now pass 12. And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled In which words we have these three points First David was troubled next God caused him to be so troubled last and God did so out of very faithfulness No great newes when we hear of David to hear of troubles withall Lord remember David and all his troubles Psal. 132. Consider him which way you will in his condition natural spiritual or civil that is either as a man or as a godly man or as a King and he had his portion of troubles in every of those conditions First troubles he must have as a man Haec est conditio nascendi Every mothers childe that cometh into the world falleth a childs-part of those troubles the world affordeth Man that is born of a woman those few dayes that he hath to live he shall be sure to have them full of trouble howsoever In mundo pressuram saith our Saviour In the world ye shall have tribulation Never think it can be otherwise so long as you live here below in the vale of misery where at every turn you shall meet with nothing but very vanity and vexation of spirit 13. Then he was a Godly man and his troubles were somewhat the more for that too For all that will live godly must suffer persecution and however it is with other men certainly many are the troubles of the righteous It is the common lot of the true children of God because they have many outflyings wherewith their holy Father is not well-pleased to come under the scourge oftner then the bastards do If they do amisse and amisse they do they must smart for it either here or hereafter Now God meaneth them no condemnation hereafter and therefore he giveth them the more chastening here 14. But was not David a King and would not that exempt him from troubles He was so indeed but I ween his troubles were neither the fewer nor the lesser for that There are sundry passages in this Psalm that induce me to believe with great probability that David made it while he lived a yong man in the Court of Saul long before his coming to the Crown But yet he was even then unctus in Regem anointed and designed for the Kingdom and he met even then with many troubles the more for that very respect And after he came to enjoy the Crown if God had not been the joy and crown of his heart he should have had little joy of it so full of trouble and
love and fear him whereby he ordereth and disposeth all things so as may make most for their good 19. And it is not unfitly so called whether we respect the gracious promises that God hath made unto them or those sundry mutual relations that are between him and them First faithfulnesse relateth to a promise He is faithful that hath promised Heb. 10. Truly God is a debter to no man that he doth for us any thing at all it is ex mero motu of his own grace and goodness meerly we can challenge nothing at his hands But yet so desirous is he to manifest his gracious love to us that he hath freely bound himself and so made himself a voluntary debter by his promises for promise is due debt insomuch as he giveth us the leave and alloweth us the boldness to remind him of his promises to urge him with them and as it were to adjure him by all his truth and faithfulness to make them good But what a kind of promise is this may some say to promise a man to trouble him It seemeth a threatning this not a promise If these be his promises God may keep his promises to himself we shall not be very forward to challenge him or his faithfulness about them Yet so it is the afflictions and troubles wherewith God in his love chasteneth his children for their good are indeed part of his promise and that a gracious part too In Mark 10. you shall find persecutions and persecutions are troubles expresly named there among other things as a part of the promise or reward No man that hath left house or brethren c. for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren c. with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life There it is exprest but where it is not so it must ever be understood in all the promises that concern this life It is a received rule among Divines that all temporal promises are to be understood cum exceptione crucis that is to say not absolutely but with this reservation unless the Lord in his holy wisdom shall see it good for us to have it otherwise So that if at any time he see it good for us to be troubled as many times he doth David confesseth it but four verses higher Bonum mihi quòd humiliasti It is good for me that I have been in trouble he doth then in great love to us cause us to be troubled and that out of very faithfulness and in regard of his Promise 20. There are also sundry mutual relations wherein God and his people stand tied either to other all which require faithfulness He is their Creator and they are the work of his hands and St Peter stileth him a faithful Creator He is their shepherd and they the sheep of his pasture and a faithful shepheard he is a good shepheard Iohn 10. To omit these and sundry other as of Father Master Husband and the rest take but this one relation only of friendship whereto as every man knoweth faithfulness is so necessary as nothing can be more Now as for those that believe God and keep his Commandements God entreth into a league and covenant of friendship with them for Faith and Obedience are those very things that qualifie us for his friendship Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God James 2. There is Faith Ye are my friends if ye keep my commandements saith our Saviour Iohn 15. There is Obedience Such a league of friendship there was betwixt God and David in his particular and as strongly tied and confirmed as any other we read of the parties swearing fidelity either to other God to him The Lord hath made a faithful Oath unto David and he shall not shrink from it And he to God I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous judgments The misery is we hold not touch perfectly with God but break with him oftentimes through humane frailty and subreption and sometimes also in a more desperate and provoking manner when we sin presumptuously and with a high hand David himself notwithstanding his Oath and the stedfastness of his purpose to perform it yet held not out but failed sundry times through infirmity but he shrank most shamefully and foully in the matter of Vriah But here is our comfort then on the other side that though we are wavering and loose off and on and no hold to be taken of us yet he is still the same he remaineth a fast and constant friend to us Though we sometimes so far forget our selves and our faithful promise as to deny him yet he continueth faithful and will not deny himself no nor us neither if we will but seek to him in any time by true repentance confessing our unfaithfulness and asking pardon thereof and not wholly and finally renounce the covenant we made with him It maketh well for us that he is not forward to take no not all just exceptions he might if he should be any whit extream to mark what we do amiss not a man of us all should long abide in his friendship It is not our faithfulness then to him but his faithfulness to us that holdeth us in 21. But you will say This is scarce a friendly part will any friend cause his friend to be troubled especially having the power in himself to prevent it As Absolon said to Hushai Is this thy kindness to thy friend Call you this faithfulness Yes indeed and very faithfulness too For a true friend aimeth at his friends good in every thing he doth and in comparison of that regardeth not at any time the satisfying of any his inordinate or unreasonable desires And therefore he will freely reprove him when he seeth him to do otherwise then well and sometimes anger him by doing some things quite contrary to his minde but yet for his good Yea and if the inequality and condition of the persons be such as will bear it he will give him also such punishment or other correction as shall be needful according to the merit of his fault And all this he may do salvâ amicitiâ and without breach of friendship nay he is so far tied by the rules of true friendship to do all this and out of very faithfulness that he should transgress those rules and prove unfaithful if he should neglect so to do where the cause requireth it Doth not a father scourge the son in whom he delighteth and sometimes give him sharp correction when the fault deserveth it And no friend can love his friend more dearly and faithfully then a father doth his childe Nay this chastening is so far from being any argument of the fathers dis-affection that it is rather one of the strongest evidences of his faithful love towards him
the glory of the great God of heaven and earth which is the most sacred thing in the world as to engage it in our quarrels and to make it serve to our humours or ends when and how we list Were it not a lamentable case if it should ever come to that that Religion should lye at the top where avarice ambition or sacriledge lye at the bottome and perhaps malice partiality oppression murther some wicked lust or other in the midst Yet is not any of this impossible to be yea rather scarce possible to be avoided so long as we dare take upon us out of the furiousness of our spirits and the rashness of a distempered zeal to be wiser and holier then God would have us I mean in the determining of his glory according to our fancies where we have no clear texts of Scripture to assure us that the glory of God is so much concerned in these or those particulars that we so eagerly contend for Nay when there seem to be clear Texts of Scripture to assure us rather of the contrary and that the glory of God doth not consist therein but in things of a higher nature For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink saith the Apostle in the next former chapter It consisteth not in this whether such or such meats may be eaten or not for neither if we eate nor if we eate not are we much either the better or the worse for that But the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost It consisteth in the exercise of holy graces and the conscionable performance of unquestioned duties Sincere confession of sin proceeding from an humble and contrite heart constancy in professing the true faith of Christ patience in suffering adversity exemplary obedience to the holy laws of God fruitfulness in good works these these are things wherein God expecteth to be glorified by us But as for meats and drinks and all other indifferent things in as much as they have no intrinsecal moral either good or evil in them but are good or evil only according as they are used well or ill the glory of God is not at all concerned in the using or not using of them otherwise then as our Faith or Temperance or Obedience or Charity or other like Christian grace or vertue is exercised or evidenced thereby 23. I have now done with the first thing and of the most important consideration proposed from the Text to wit the End it self the Glory of God The amplifications follow the former whereof containeth a description of the party to be glorified That ye may glorifie God If it be demanded which God For there be Gods many and Lords many It is answered in the Text God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Of which title there may be sundry reasons given some more general why it is used at all some more special why it should be used here First this is Stylo novo never found in the Old Testament but very often in the New For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Ehpes 3. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. As the old Covenant ceased upon the bringing in of a new and better Covenant so there was a cessation of the old style upon the bringing in of this new and better style The old ran thus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob proclaimed by God himself when he was about to deliver the posterity of those three godly Patriarchs from the bondage of Egypt But having now vouchsafed unto his people a far more glorious deliverance then that from a far more grievous bondage then that from under Sin Satan Death Hell and the Law whereof that of Egypt was but a shadow and type he hath quitted that style and now expecteth to be glorified by this most sweet and blessed Name The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Exchanging the Name of God a name of greater distance and terrour into the Name of Father a name of more neerness and indulgence And taking the additional title or denomination not from the parties delivered as before who were his faithful servants indeed yet but servants but from the person delivering his only begotten and only beloved Son It is first the Evangelical style 24. Secondly this style putteth a difference between the true God of Heaven and Earth whom only we are to glorifie and all other false and imaginary titular gods to whom we owâ— nothing but scorn and detestation The Pagans had scores hundreds some have reckoned thousands of gods all of their own making Every Nation every City yea almost every House had their several gods or godlings Deos topicos gods many and lords many But to us saith our Apostle to us Christians there is but one God the Father and one Lord Iesus Christ his Son This is Deus Christianorum If either you hope as Christians to receive grace from that God that alone can give it or mean as Christians to give glory to that God that alone ought to have it this this is he and none other God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. It is a style of distinction 25. These two Reasons are general There are two other more special for the use of it here in respect of some congruity it hath with the matter or method of the Apostles present discourse For first it might be done with reference to that Argument which he had so lately pressed and whereof also he had given a touch immediately before in the next former Verse and which he also resumed again in the next following Verse drawn from the example of Christ. That since Christ in receiving us and condescending to our weaknesses did aim at his Fathers glory so we also should aim at the same end by treading in the same steps We cannot better glorifie God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ then by receiving one another into our charity care and mutual support as Iesus Christ also received us to the glory of his heavenly Father 26. Secondly since we cannot rightly glorifie God unless we so conceive him as our Father If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. That they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. it may be the Apostle would have us take knowledge how we came to have a right to our son-ship and for that end might use the title here given to intimate to us upon what ground it is that we have leave to make so bold with our great Lord and Master as to call him our Father even no other but this because he is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the onely Son of God by nature and generation and
as hard to drive her Westward 35. Nor is it otherwise in the Church and Common-wealth when Superiours rule with moderation Inferiours obey with chearfulness all men keeping themselves within their own ranks and stations bend themselves with their utmost diligence to advance the publick welfare the worke commonly riseth apace and prospereth in their hands But if they that worke above shall strive only how to extend their Power and they that worke below shall strive as much how to enlarge their Liberty the one to impose the other to refuse what they list If those shall hold them stiffly at this point We may do it and therefore we will do it and these as stiffly at this We may chuse and therefore we will not do it when shall they meet where is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yielding and condescension the Apostle so often requireth It were a blessed thing and till it be so in some measure the building will never rise to purpose if men would look not so much at their power what they may do or at their liberty what they may not do so to serve their own turns humours or ends as how to use both power and liberty with all due sobriety and charity to the glory of God in the good of others If we could once grow to that not to look every one on his own things but every man also on the things of others as S. Paul elsewhere exhorteth then should we also agree with one minde and heart to follow the work close till we had got it up That for dispatch 36. But hasle maketh waste we say It doth so and in building as much as in any thing It were good wisdom therefore to bring on the work so as to make it strong withal lest if we make false work for quicker dispatch we repent our over-hasty building by leisure To rid us of that fear know secondly that unity and concord serveth for strength too as well as dispatch Evermore virtus unita fortior but division weakneth A house divided against it self cannot stand and the wall must needs be hollow and loose where the stones stand off one from another and couch not close Now brotherly love and unity is it that bindeth all fast so making of loose heaps one entire piece I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement 1 Cor. 1. Like-mindedness you see is the thing that joyneth all together and in the well joyning consisteth the strength of any structure In Ephes. 4. therefore he speaketh of the bond of peace and in Colos. 3. he calleth love the bond of perfectness 37. In Phil. 1. he hath another expression which also notably confirmeth the same truth That I may hear saith he of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one minde They never stand so fast as when they are of one minde There is a Greek word sometimes used in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which is commonly translated confusion and sometimes tumult Not unfitly for the sense either but in the literal notation it importeth a kinde of unstableness rather or unsetledness when a thing doth not stand fast but shaketh and tottereth and is in danger of falling And this S. Paul opposeth to peace 1 Cor. 14. God is not the author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of confusion or unstableness but of peace By that very opposition intimating that it is mostly for want of peace that things do not stand fast but are ready to fall into disorder and confusion S. Iames speaketh out what S. Paul but intimateth and telleth us plainly that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of discord and that contention is the Mother of confusion For where envying and strife is saith he there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inconstancy unsetledness confusion and every evil work The builders make very ill work where the building is not like to stand but threatneth ruine and is ready to drop down again by that it be well up And yet such ill work doth envying and strife ever make it is concord only and unity that maketh good work and buildeth strong Let Ierusalem be built as a city at unity in it self and Ierusalem will be like to stand the faster and to stand up the longer 38. For a conclusion of all I cannot but once again admonish and earnestly entreat all those that in contending with much earnestness for matters of no great consequence have the glory of God ever and anon in their mouthes that they would take heed of embarquing God and his glory so deep in every trifling business and such as wherein there is not dignus vindice nodus But since it clearly appeareth from this and sundry other Texts of holy Scripture that peace and love are of those things whereby our gracious Lord God taketh himself to be chiefly glorified that they would rather faithfully endeavour by their peaceable charitable and amiable carriage towards others especially in such things as they cannot but know to be in the judgement of sundry men both learned and godly accounted but of inferiour and indifferent nature to approve to God the World and their own consciences that they do sincerely desire to glorifie God by pleasing their brethren for their good unto edification Which that we all unfeinedly may do I commend us and what we have heard to the grace and blessing of Almighty God dismissing you once again as I did heretofore with the Apostles benediction in the Text for I know not where to fit my self better Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according unto Christ Iesus That ye may with one minde and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. To which God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and the blessed spirit of them both three persons c. AD AULAM. Sermon XIV WOBVRNE 1647. August Psalm 27.10 When my Father and my Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up 1. THings that have a natural weakness in them to bear up themselves do by a natural instinct lean towards and if they can finde it clasp about something that may sufficiently support them but in default of such will catch and twine about whatsoever is next them that may be any little stay to them for any little time So a Hop for want of a strong pole will winde it self about a Thistle or Nettle or any sorry weed The heart of man whilest it seeketh abroad for somewhat without it self to rest it self upon doth even thereby sufficiently bewray a secret consciousness in it self of its own insufficiency to stand without something to support it If it finde not that which is the onely true support indeed it will stay it self as long
as it can upon a weak staff rather then none Chariots and Horses and Riches and Friends c. any thing will serve to trust in whilest no better appeareth 2. But that our hearts deceitful as they are delude us not with vain confidences we may learn from the Text where it is and where alone that we may repose our selves with full assurance of hope not to fail David affirmeth positively what he had found true by much experience that when all others from whom we expect helpe either will not or cannot God both can and will help us so far as he seeth it good for us if we put our trust in him When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord will take me up The words import First a possibility of failing in all inferiour helps It is supposed Fathers and Mothers and proportionably all other friends and helps may forsake us and leave us succourless when my Father and my Mother forsake me Secondly a never-failing sufficiency of help and relief from God though all other helps should fail us Then the Lord will take me up The two points we are to speak to 3. Father and Mother First who are they Properly and chiefly our natural Parents of whom we were begotten and born to whom under God we owe our being and breeding Yet here not they only but by Synecdoche all other kinsfolks neighbours friends acquaintance or indeed more generally yet all worldly comforts stayes and helps whatsoever 2. But then why these named the rathest and the rest to be included in these Because we promise to our selves more helpe from them then from any of the other We have a nearer relation to and a greater interest in them then any other and they of all other are the unlikeliest to forsake us The very bruit Creatures forsake not their yong ones A Hen will not desert her chickins nor a Bear endure to be robbed of her whelps 3. But then Thirdly why both named Father and Mother too Partly because it can hardly be imagined that both of them should forsake their childe though one should hap to be unkinde Partly because the Fathers love being commonly with more providence the Mothers with more tenderness both together do better express then either alone would do the abundant love of God towards us who is infinitely dear over us beyond the care of the most provident Father beyond the affection of the tenderest Mother 4. But then Fourthly when may they be said to forsake us When at any time they leave us destitute of such helpe as we stand in need of Whether it be out of Choise when they list not help us though they might if they would or out of necessity when they cannot help us though they would if they could 4. The meaning of the words in the former part of the verse thus opened the result thereof is that There is a possibility of failing in all inferiour helps Fathers and Mothers our nearest and dearest friends all earthly visible helps and comforts alwayes may faile us sometimes will fail us and at last must fail us leaving us destitute and succourless The truth whereof will the better appear if instancing especially in our natural Parents as the Text leadeth us we take a view of sundry particular causes of their so failing us under the two general heads but now mentioned to wit Choise and Necessity Under either kinde three Sometimes they forsake us voluntarily and of their own accord and through their own default when it is in their power to help us if they were so pleased which kinde of forsaking may arise from three several Causes 5. First Natural Parents may prove unnatural meerly out of the naughtiness of their own hard and incompassionate hearts For although God hath imprinted this natural affection towards their own of-spring in the hearts of men in as deep and indeleble characters as almost any other branch of the Law of Nature O nimiùm potens Quanto parentes sanguinis vinculo tenes Natura yet so desperately wicked is the heart of man that if it should be left to the wildeness of its own corruption without any other bridle then the light of natural principles only it would eft-soons shake off that also and quite raze out all impressions of the Law of Nature at least so blur and confound the characters that the Conscience should be able to spell very little or nothing at all of Duty out of them Els what needed the Apostle among other sins to have listed this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this want of natural affection in two several Catalogues Rom. 1. and 2 Tim. 3 Or to have charged Titus that yong women should be taught among other things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love their Children if he had not observed some to have neglected their duty in that particular hereof Histories and experience afford us many examples Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion of the son of her wombe saith the Lord by the Prophet He speaketh of it as of a monstrous thing and scarce credible of any Can she forget she in the singular number But withall in the same words implyedly confessing it possible in more then one Yea they may forget They in the plural number Esay 49.15 6. Secondly Parents not altogether void of natural affection may yet have their affections so alienated from their children upon some personal dislike as to forsake them Of which dislike I not deny but there may be just cause As among the Hebrews in the case of Blasphemy the fathers hand was to be first in the execution of his son Deut. 13. And both Civilians and Casuists allow the Father jus abdicationis a right of Abdication in some cases But such cases are not much pertinent here or considerable as to our purpose For they that give their earthly Parents just cause to forsake them can have little confidence that God as their heavenly Father should take them up But when Parents shall withdraw their love and help from their children upon some small oversights or venial miscariages or take distaste at them either without cause or more then there is cause upon some wrong either surmise of their own or suggestion of others as Saul reviled Ionathan and threw a Iavelin at him to smite him interpreting his friendship with David as it had been a plotted conspiracy between his son and his servant to take his crown and his life from him Or when they shall disinherit their children for some deformity of body or defect of parts or the like As reason sheweth it to be a great sin and not to be excused by any pretence so it is an observation grounded upon manifold experience that where the right heirs have been dis-inherited upon almost whatsoever pretence the blessing of God hath not usually followed upon the persons and seldom hath the estate prospered in the hands of those