may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. Inspir'd purposely by this Spirit to be a way to guide us into all truth and goodness But this may all pretend to and every one turns it how he lists We must adde a second And the second is the Church for we must know this says St. Peter know it first too 2 Pet. i. 20. That no Scripture is of any private interpretation There are some things so hard to be understood both in St. Pauls Epistles and also other Scriptures says he that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction 2 Tim. iii. 16. and therefore presently his advice follows to beware least we be led away with that error the error as he calls it of the wicked and so fall from our own stedfastness ver 17. When men unlearned or ungrounded presume to be interpreters or even learned men to prefer their private senses before the received ones of the Church 't is never like to produce better The pillar and ground upon which truth stands and stays is the Church if St. Paul may be allowed the judge 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pillar and ground of truth In matters of discipline when a brother has done disorderly tell it to the Church says Christ St. Mat. 18. 17. and if he neglect to hear that let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican He is no Christian. In matters 2. of doubt and controversie send to the Church to Hierusalem to the Apostles and Elders there conven'd in Counsel and let them determine it so we find it done Acts xv 2 28. In a lawful and full assembly of the learned Fathers of the Church such shall be determined that 's the was to settle truth In matters 3. of Rites and Ceremonies the Spirit guides us also by the Church If any man seem to be contentious about them St. Pauls appeal is presently to the Churches Customs We have no such custom neither the Churches of God that 's answer enough full and sufficient thinks the Apostle 1 Cor. xi 16. If the Churches custom be for us then 't is good and true we think or speak or do If against us 't is all naught and wrong whatever purity or piety be pretended in it Nay so careful was the Apostle to preserve the publick Authority of the Church and beat down all private ways and fancies by which ways only Schism and Heresie creep in that he tells Timothy though a Bishop and one well read and exercised in the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. iii. 14. of a form of sound words he would have even him hold fast to 2 Tim. i. 13. and the Romans he tells of a form of Doctrine to be obeyed Rom. 6. 17. so far was that great and eloquent Apostle from being against forms any forms of the Church though he could have prayed and preached ex tempore with the best had tongues and eloquence and the gift of interpretation to do it too so far from leaving truth to any private interpretation or sudden motion whatsoever Nor is this appeal to the Fathers any whit strange or in Christian Religion only first to be heard of it was Gods direction from the first For ask now says Moses of the days that are past that were before thee Deut. iv 32. Stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way says God Ier. vi 16. As if he had said Look about and see and examine all the ways you can yet the old way that 's the good one For enquire I pray thee of the former Age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Iob viii 8. See how slightly things of yesterday new interpretations new devices new guides are accounted of And indeed in it self 't is most ridiculous to think the custom and practice and order and interpretation of all times and Churches should be false and those of yesterday only true unless we can think the Spirit of truth has been fifteen or sixteen hundred years asleep and never wak'd till now of late or can imagine that Christ should found a Church and promise to be with it to the end of the World and then leave it presently to Antichrist to be guided by him for above fifteen hundred years together Nor can I see why the Spirit of truth should now of late only begin to move and stir except I should think he were awak'd or delighted with noise and fury Nor is it reasonable to conceive a few private Spirits neither holier nor wiser than others for ought appears nor arm'd with Miracles to confirm their Doctrines should be more guided by the Spirit of truth than the whole Church and succession of Christians and Christian Fathers especially wherein at any time they agree Yet 3. not always to go so high Thou leadest thy people like sheep says the Psalmist by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal. lxxvii 20. Moses and Aaron were the Governours of the Church the one a Priest the other a Prophet by such God leads his People by their lawful Pastours and Teachers The one the Civil Governour is the cloud to cover them from the heat The other the Spiritual is the light to lead them in the way The first protects the other guides us and we are bid to obey them those especially that watch for our souls Heb. xiii 17. Such as labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. v. 17. By such as God sets over us in the Church to teach and guide us into truth we must be guided if we will come into it In things unlawful nor one nor other is to be obeyed In things indifferent they always are In things doubtful 't is our safest course to have recourse to them provided that they be not of Corahs company that they exalt not themselves against Moses and Aaron nor draw us to it If they do we may say to them as Moses did to those Ye take too much upon you you Sons of Levi. God leads his People like a flock in peace and unity and by the hands of Moses and Aaron Thus 3. the Spirit guides into all truth because the Spirit is God and God so guides You have heard the way and means the first part of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Spirits guiding The Second follows his act and motion 1. He leads or guides us only he does not drive us that 's not the way to plant truth by force and violence fire and fagots not the Spirits sure which is the Spirit of love 2. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is we told you in it Some Act of the Spirit He moves and stirs up to it enlightens our understandings actuates our wills disposes ways and times occasions and opportunities to it that 's the reason we hear the truth more willingly at some time than other Paul
encouraged and confirmed him in it 4. His profession at it Behold said he I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God In those words he professed his faith and proclaimed his vision of it By this manner of considering it we shall do St. Stephen right and Christmas no wrong remember St. Stephens Martyrdom and yet not forget Christs being at it celebrate St. Stephens memory and yet no way omit Christs He being here to be lookt on as encourager of St. Stephens Martyrdom as much as St. Stephen for his Professor and Martyr By all together we shall fully understand the requisites of a Martyr what is required to make one such to be full of the Holy Ghost to look up stedfastly into heaven to look upon Christ as there and as boldly to profess it to be full of Grace and Spirit full of Piety and Devotion full of Faith and Hope full of Courage and Resolution all proportionably requisite to the spiritual Martyrdom of dying to the world and leaving all for Christ requisite too all of them in some measure to dye well at any time the very sum of the Text to be learn'd hence and practis'd by us If I add all requisite to keep Christmas too as it should be kept with Grace and Devotion with Faith and courage also against all that shall oppose it that our Christmas business be to be filled with the Spirit and not with meats and drinks to look up to Heaven to look up to Iesus and never to be afraid or ashamed to profess it there is nothing then in the Text to make it the least unseasonable I go on therefore to handle it part by part The first is St. Stephens accommodation to his Martyrdom how he stands fitted for it And surely he could not be better Full of the Holy Ghost Ghost is Spirit and what more necessary to a Martyr then a spirit The dreaming sluggish temper is not fit to make a Martyr he must have Spirit that dares look Death soberly in the face Yet every Spirit neither will not make a Martyr there are mad spirits in the world they call them brave ones though I know not why that rush headily upon the points of Swords and Rapiers yet bring these gallant fellows to a Scaffold or a Gibbet the common reward of their foolish rashness which they mis-reckon'd valour and you shall see how sheepishly they die how distractedly they look how without spirit The spirit that will bear out a shameful or painful death without change of countenance or inward horrour must be holy Where the Spirit is holy the Conscience pure the Soul clean the man dies with life and spirit in his looks as if he were either going to his bed or to a better place 'T is a holy life that fits men to be Martyrs But spirit and a holy Spirit is not enough to make a Martyr neither though the Martyrs spirit must be a holy one yet to dispose for martyrdom the holy Spirit must come himself with a peculiar power send an impulse and motion into the soul and spirit that shall even drive it to the stake And every degree of power will not do it it must be a full gale of holy wind that can cool the fiery Furnace into a pleasing walk that can make death and torments seem soft and easie Full of the Holy Ghost it is that Stephen is said to be e're we hear him promoted to the glory of a Martyr The Spirit of holiness will make a man die holily and the holy Spirit make him die comfortably but the fulness of him is required to make him die couragiously without fear of death or torment cruelty or rage By this you may now guess at Martys who they are not they that die for their folly and their humour not they 2. that die without holiness not every one 3. that dies as we say with valour and spirit not they that die upon the motion of any spirit but the holy one that one holy Spirit not they that die in Schism and Faction against the unity of this Holy Spirit the peace of his Holy Church none of these die Martyrs die Souldiers or valiant Heathen or men of spirit they may but men of the holy Spirit Martyrs they die not They only die such that have lived holily die in holy Cause in a holy Faith and in the peace of holy Church as in the Faith of one Holy Spirit ruling and directing it into unity upon good ground and warrant and a strong impulsion so to do without seeking for or voluntarily and unnecessarily thrusting themselves into the mouth of death And yet there are strange impulses I must tell you of the spirit of Martyrdom which ordinary souls or common pieties cannot understand Only we must know that the spirit of Martyrdom is the spirit of Love the very height of love to God which how that can consist with the spirit of Schism whereby we break the unity of Brethren or how a man can so highly love God as to dye for him and hate his Spouse the Church or his Brethren is inimaginable Some other engines there may be as vain-glory an obstinate humour of seeming constant to a false principle an ignorant and self-willed zeal which may sometimes draw a man to die but if the fulness of peace and charity does not appear there is no fulness of the Holy Ghost and they make themselves and their deaths but Martyrs that is witnesses of their own folly He that pretends to be a Martyr must have more then a pretence to the Spirit of charity II. And not to charity only but to devotion too He must 2. prepare himself for it stedfastly look up to Heaven nay into Heaven too fill his Spirit with divine and heavenly provision for it with St. Stephen here Who 1. looks up to Heaven as to his Country whither he was a going He longs earnestly to be there His soul with holy David's has a desire and longing to enter thither He that looks but seriously up to Heaven and beholds that glorious Building those starry Spangles those azure Curtains those lustrous bodies of the Sun and Moon that vast and splendid circumference of these glistering dwellings cannot but thirst vehemently to be there soul and flesh thirst for it O how brave a place is Heaven how brave even but to look on But if he can look as here it seems St. Stephen did into heaven too and contemplate the happy Choirs of blessed Saints and Angels the ineffable beauty of those inward Courts the ravishing Melody and Musick they make the quiet peace and happiness that pleasure joy and fulness of satisfaction and contentment there the majestick presence and blessed sight of God himself with all the store-houses of blessedness and glory full about him his very soul will be even ready to start with violence out of his body to fly up thither He that looks thus stedfastly looks
and hope believe what here they saw that such a thing there was a Star lighted up on purpose to lead the Gentiles to Christ hope what here they felt within them some spiritual ray and guidance to him both believe and hope that as an outward visible Star there was to them so an inward and invisible Star still there will be to us by the light of which we may all come to the knowledge of Christ. We are next to see it what it is what it is to them what it is to us how this star looks to them how it looks to us To them this Star was a material Star to us 't is a spiritual and both bring their joy with them The Psalmist seems to be ravish'd with joy upon the sight of the Stars of Heaven when he considered the Heavens the works of Gods fingers the Moon and the Stars that he had ordained Psal. viii 3. Then in a kind of Extasie he cries out Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him That thou thus spanglest the Heavens with Stars for him That thou thus visitest him by the Stars Methinks the very beholding of that golden Canopy now our covering hereafter to be our footstool the casting up of our eyes to heaven in a bright starry night and considering that all those glorious Lamps are for the use of us poor men here and for our glory too hereafter cannot but raise a sweet delight and pleasure in the devout and pious soul and force out an ejaculation of thankfulness and joy to God that made them for us Sure I am that when neither Sun nor Stars appeared Acts xxvii 20. it follows presently that all hope of being saved was then taken away O the joy of a Star then the appearing of a Star would have made them then have leapt for joy We see them commonly that makes us so little to regard them If we behold them seriously we would sing together with them as Iob says they do together Job xxxviii 7. and praise him together as the Psalmist speaks with those stars of light But yet if we should have a Star made on purpose for us we would be gladder that God should descend to so immediate and special a care of us as to light up one of those bright Candles for some particular intent and service to us and such an one this is great reason therefore sure to rejoyce in it So much the more in that commonly the new raised Stars portend mischiefs and misfortunes to us but this was as all the Astrologers and Wise men then observed a healthsom gladsom star that brought health and happiness and saving in its wings never any such or like it before or since When God thus vouchsafes to make heaven dance attendance on us make all the Stars and Lights speak good to us some of them more than others those heavenly Creatures thus wait upon earth dust who is now so dull and earthy as not to rejoyce and glory in it Yet if the star not only portend happiness but eternal happiness besides if it foretell not only earthly but heavenly blessings too if it be a Star that leaves us not till it have brought us to the Child Iesus till it hath brought us to God himself there is matter indeed of great exceeding joy So a fourfold ground of joy you have in this very Star First Gods general providence over man to make even the heavenly Creatures serve him Secondly God's special Providence in it now and then sending a Star some special token to forewarn or guide him Thirdly God's comfortable Providence in so doing sometimes to bless and comfort us to uphold and chear us Fourthly Gods saving Providence thus to make all things though never so distant from us signally instrumental to our eternal happiness and salvation making the Stars and Heavens thus minister unto us For these four we may well take up St. Paul's resolution Phil. i. 18. We therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce And yet I must give you a fifth ray of this Star God's particular Providence over the Gentiles strangers from the Covenant of Promise aliens from the Comman-wealth of Israel men without promise without hope that had neither promise nor hope of mercy Eph. ii 12. that to them this Star should appear for them be made and sent is such a ground of joy to us that are of the same stock and lineage that without it we had had no joy at all who ever had 'T is upon this title we have our share in this happy Star upon this particular dispensation of thus gathering the Gentiles to him by it as by a Standard or Ensign for them to flow in unto him as the Prophet Phrases it This is the fifth ray of the material Star and it may go for a sixth That the Gentiles not then only but even to this day still enjoy the benefit of that Star have oftentimes material and sensible convoys unto Christ are often by the things of sense by sensible blessings drawn and perswaded to his service Thus you have the six Rays of the Star six comfortable Rays to ground our joys upon in the material Star We come now to the mystical or spiritual those Stars and Lights which yet remain even to this day to guide us to the same Iesus For more than one there is of this sort and all sufficient grounds of Ioy. 1. The first sort of Stars are devout and holy men shining as Daniel represents them like the Stars Dan. xii 3. Stars they are in this world whilst they live burning and shining Lights the very light and life and glory of the earth while they are upon it and Stars they shall be in the heavens when they come thither Here they go before us with the light of good examples to lead us to Christ and his righteousness to all holy and heavenly conversation And for it they shall one day shine as Stars for ever and ever A ground of joy it is to us that this Star we have that such guides we have by whose examples to conform our selves to the obedience of Christ in whose light to walk to him 2. A second sort of Stars are the Bishops and Pastors of the Church For however men now reckon them or however now much darkned in their heaven in this our Church in our Hemisphere Stars they are in the hand of Christ Rev. i. 16. in his right hand too the vision so interpreted v. 20. the seven Stars the seven Angels of the Churches the Church it self crown'd with twelve such Stars Rev. xii 1. the twelve Apostles All crowned Churches all that are compleat and perfect are crowned with such Stars with Bishops Pastors and Teachers And a solid ground of joy it is that we have such Stars to guide and direct us into the knowledge of Christ into the ways and means of salvation Let Hereticks and Schismaticks think their pleasure an exceeding joy it is to all that
to nothing For certainly did they either seriously think him true God or true man we should see it by their bodies especially seeing we cannot see any thing by their spirits to the contrary Even men us'd to be thus worshipped 1 Kings i. 31. and Prophets 2 Kings ii 15. So that did they confess him any thing they would certainly fall down and worship him not deny it to be sure whether do it or no. For all falling down is not adoration It is the mind that makes that the intention of the soul that turns this outward expression of the body into adoration that makes it either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either a religious or a civil worship as it pleases This is the reason together with the Authority of the Fathers St. Augustin St. Leo St. Bernard and others that I make adorârunt here this word worship to relate to the soul as procidentes falling down to the body Though I am not ignorant that both in the School and Grammar sense it is seldom or never found without the interest and posture of the body yet must it of necessity most refer to the soul that being able only to specifie the worship and give it both its nature and its name by either intending it religiously as to God or civilly only as to a creature where it gives it the outward posture being oft the same indifferently to God and man That these Wise men intended it as an act of Devotion and Religion as to an incarnate God not a meer carnal man is the general opinion of the Church and not without good ground For first Wise men who ever propound some end to all their motions would not have undertaken so long and tedious and troublesom a journey to have seen a child in a Cradle or in the mothers lap no not a Royal babe they were Kings themselves so the Antients delivered them to us and the 72 Psalm foretells them by that name and they had often seen such sights in as much pomp and glory as they could expect it in Iudea At least cui bono what good should they get by it that 's a thing Wise men consider by any King of Iudea what was such an one or his child to them who had nor dependance nor commerce with him or if they had needed not make such a needless journey themselves to no more purpose than in a complement to visit him But 2. They tell us they had seen his Star now we and they knew well enough that the Kings of the earth though they have the Spangles of the Earth have not the Spangles of the Heaven at their command though they have Courts and Courtiers beset with sparks of Diamonds and Rubies they have not yet one spark of Heaven in their attendance No King of Stars but the King of Heaven none under whose command or dominion they move or shine none that can call them his but God that made them to worship one then who not only can alone call all the Stars by their names but by his own too is certainly in any Wise mans language to worship God Our very Star-gazers who confess no King and for ought we can see worship no God will yet confess that in the Latin they have regit Astra Deus that the Stars are only Gods and though a Wise man may by his wisdom divert their influence he can in no wise either command or direct their motion 3. They tell us too they came to worship their whole business was nothing else and we would think they had little indeed if they came so far only to give a complement to a child that could neither answer them nor understand them We must certainly take them not for Wise men but very fools to do so And if worship be the end of their coming we may quickly understand by the phrase of Scripture that it is divine worship that is meant Of worship indeed and adoration we may read in other senses there but it is never made a business said to be any ones aim or purpose but when it is referr'd to God and his House The Eunuch is said to come to Ierusalem and worship Acts viii 27. David invites us to fall down and worship Psal. xcv 6. St. Paul comes to Ierusalem to worship Acts xxiv 11. and certain Greeks are said to come up to worship St. Iohn xii 20. but all this while it is to worship God never made a work to worship man To fall down before or bow or reverence to any man how great soever is but an occasional piece of business on set purpose never When we come before Kings and Princes we do it but never come before them to this end only for to do it 4. Had they conceived no other of him than as man or a Child of man that poor contemptible condition and unworshipful pickle they found him in the rags of poverty the place they saw him in would have made them have forborn their worship quite they would have been so far from procidentes adorârunt that it would have been dedignantes abiêrunt instead of falling down and worshipping they would have gone their ways disdaining at him But so powerful was his Star and so had the day-Star risen in their hearts so had the eternal light shined to them that they could see what others could not in carne Deum God in the Child He that led them without taught them within both whom they worshipped and how to worship And indeed he that knows and considers whom he worships will worship both in Spirit and in truth with his soul and with his body in truth else he does not worship Adorare adoration consists of both nay cannot be well conceived if you take away either the one or the other The word it self in its primitive signification is manum ad os admovere concerns the body and is no more than to kiss the hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is just the same So was the fashion of the Greeks to worship and it seems ancient through the East for it is an expression of holy Iob chap. xxxi 21. If I have beheld the Sun when it shined c. or my mouth hath kissed my hand that is if he had worshipped any other God But it falls out with this as with other words they enlarge their signification by time and custom and so adoration is come to be applied to all worship of the body bowing the head bending the knee falling on the face kneeling at the feet according as each particular Country perform their reverence Time yet hath enlarged it further and our Saviour that eternal word and therefore the best Expositor of any word hath applied it also to the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Iohn iv 23. nay more calls them the truest worshippers that worship in Spirit And indeed the Spirits the Souls part is the chiefest the worship
the Saints arising and coming out of their Graves 2. In their coming into the holy City and there appearing unto many telling and declaring it The Evidence of the power of his Resurrection to be seen 1. in opening the Graves 2. In raising the Saints bodies that slept there 3. In sending them into the holy City 4. sending them thither to appear to many The Pledge of our Resurrection it is 1. that they that rise are of those that slept Saints and members of the same body with us that 2. 't is no phantasm no phantastick or meer imagined business for they appeared to many The whole business of their Resurrection is a Symbol and signification of ours both of that to grace and that to glory 1. Of that to grace the grave and sleep the Symbols of sin and sleeping in it the bodies rising thence of the souls rising out of sin their going into the holy City of the souls passing from sin to righteousness and holiness their appearing to many of this righteousness manifested and appearing unto all A Symbol 2. it is of the Resurrection unto glory where the Grave first opens then the body rises then into the holy City into new Hierusalem it goes and there appears and shines for ever Thus you have the Text opened as well as the Graves we must now go on to raise such bodies of doctrine and comfort out of it as may bring us all into the holy City serve to make us holy here and happy hereafter partakers here of the First Resurrection and hereafter in the Second He that here opened the Graves and raised the dead bodies out of their sleep open your ears and hearts and raise your understandings and affections that we may all of us have our share in both rise first to righteousness then to glory Christs Resurrection is the pattern and ground of both we therefore begin with that with those words first that bear witness to the truth of it that Christ is risen A double Testimony we gather of it in the words from the rising of the dead Saints and from their appearing It was a sign indeed that the Resurrection was well towards when the Graves began to open we could not but see somewhat of it even in those dark Caverns when they once began to let in the light some hope of rising even when a body begins to yawn some hope the body might come ere long to recover its long lost liberty when the prison doors were wide set open and the shackles of death knockt off the legs some sign and hope I say it would be so that there would be a resurrection of some of some one or other by and by But the Graves being opened at Christs Passion they could be but hopeful prognosticks at most of his Resurrection a Testimony it could not be but when out of these opened Graves the Saints arose out of their sleep they could tell us more certain news of it than so And being but members of that body of which Christ Iesus was the head we must needs know the head is risen when the body is got up the head first ere any member could be it never so holy never so much Saint He is the head of the Church says the Apostle Eph. v. 23. and the Church the body and if any part of the body be raised to life the head you may be sure is first too For if Christ be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. xv â—0 and the first begotten from the dead as he is stiled Rev. â— 5. If we see others risen other dead bodies walking and alive there is no witness more true than that he is The first fruits ever before the crop Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs says St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 23. out of order else and the first begotten ever before all the rest second and third and fourth and all witness the first begotten was before them the first begotten from the dead risen before the other dead And it seems 't is not a single witness they were many dead bodies here that rose and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established Deut. xvii 6. much more in the mouths of many Witnesses And if these be from the dead surely then the most incredulous will believe Nay Father Abraham says Dives but if one come from the deaâ— they will believe yea and repent too Luke xvi 30. Here 's more than one here 's many that not so much as any of Dives his brethren the most voluptuous secure customary and obstinate sinner can be incredulous after this or have reason to doubt the truth or have the power to contradict it To satisfie either particular curiosity or infidelity God does not use to send us messengers from the dead he sends us to Moses and the Prophets there ver 29. for our instruction does not press men from hell or heaven or raise them out of their beds of rest to send them on an errand to us though perhaps little can be universally though ordinarily it perhaps may be defin'd in this particular for the ignorance we are under of the condition of the bounds and limits of the dead If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets says Father Abraham neither will they believe if one rise from the dead If they will not believe the living word the word of the living God no likelihood that they should believe the word of a dead man especially when they cannot be certain but it may be the devil the father of lies and falshood But not of one only rising from the dead that to be sure no man so simple to venture his faith upon a single Testimony and such a one as that Or if he would God does not use to do extraordinary miracles where the ordinary means of probation or information are sufficient But in this great business that concerns all mankind he is pleased to step out of his ordinary course to give us for once some extraordinary satisfaction that all Ages afterward might be sufficiently convinced of the truth of Christs Resurrection from heaven and earth by the Testimony of the dead and living that there might be no occasion hereafter to doubt for ever He raises therefore a great company to attend the triumph of his Sons Resurrection and to bear witness to it 2. And as it is not a single witness so it is not secondly a single testimony 't is not from their rising only but from their going into the City and there appearing unto many For sure neither their journey nor appearance was to tell stories of the dead what is done either in the grave or heaven or hell to satisfie the curious soul with a discovery of those Chambers of silence or the Land where all things are forgotten and therefore all forgotten that we may know they remember when they come thence to tell us nothing that is there their business was
rest of the Apostles Euseb. l. 5. c. 26. The great difference about the time of keeping Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches was grounded upon the different keeping of it by the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Iohn St. Iohn keeping it after one reckoning St Peter after another St. Iohn keeping it after the Jewish reckoning upon the fourteenth of the month Abib St. Peter much after the accompt as now it stands upon the Sunday following but all the controversie was about the time not about the keeping it none denied or questioned that but Aerius none left it at liberty but the Cathari both registred for Hereticks about it So confident were they 't was from the Lord. And that from him at least by the Apostles Constantine in Eusebius is direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which day says he ever since the first day of his Passion we have kept untill this present We have received it of our Saviour says he a little after And again which our Saviour deliver'd to us Thus Dominus fecit then indeed And that so it was either from his own command or from his Apostles the whole practise of the Church is ground enough in all Ages still observing it even in the hottest times of persecution some in Caves and some in Woods and some on Shipboard and some in Barns and Stables and some in Goales keeping it as they could says Eusebius so scrupulous were they of omitting that day upon any hand that the Lord had made them and the great contentions about the time of keeping it shews as plain they thought it more than an humane institution they might else have easily ended all the Controversie and laid down the day But they had not then so learned Christ had not learned the trick of lightly esteeming days and places and things and persons and offices dedicated to Gods service which God had made or were made to him 5. Especially made upon such an occasion as this day was This day What day is this The day wherein the Stone that was disallowed by Men was approved of God and exalted to the head of the corner Wherein the chief corner stone of Sion was laid and Sion begun to be built upon it when we had ground given to build upon and stones to build with by Christs Resurrection that 's the ground and occasion of the day And a good one too For had he not risen we had had no ground to build upon we had perish'd in our sins been swept all away like so many houses builded upon the sand We had had neither place for faith nor ground for hope nor room for preaching our preaching vain your faith also vain all vaine all come to nothing His being delivered for our offences had been nothing if he had not been raised again for our Iustification as it is Rom. iv 25. 'T is to this day we owe our Justification 't is from this day we are made just and holy from this Stones being made the head stone of the corner we made lively stones built up into a spiritual house or building as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. ii 5. From his becoming this day the chief corner stone it is in that we now have confidence as St. Iohn speaks and creep not into corners to hide our faces that we dare boldly look up to heaven and come unto him and that we call not to the Hills to hide us or to the Mountains to cover us from the presence of God or the face of man or devil Our faith and hope our souls and spirits are all raised by this days raising we are all made by this days being made we had else better never have been made for we had been marr'd and undon for ever 6. But by this day it seems we are not for this rejoycing and gladness that now follows close upon it shews what a kind of day it is for what 't is made even to be glad and to rejoyce in a Feast or Festival God is no enemy to the Churches Feasts whoever be calls to us to blow up the Trumper for Feasts as well as bid us to proclaim a Fast. Indeed he more properly makes the Feast and we the Fast for he only gives the occasion of the one and we of the other he benefits and we sins Deus nobis haec otia fecit So no wonder that the day that he has made be a good day a day of good things such as we may well rejoyce in a Festival Yea and a set one too His making you heard was an appointing or instituting it Though God would sometimes have free-will Offerings he will not always trust to them If he leave all to the wills of men the fires will oft go out upon his Altars his house stand thin enough of people and his Priests grow lean for all the fall of his Sacrifices if he come once to the mercy or courtesie of men They would quickly starve him and his Religion out of doors But set Feasts he always had set Services and offerings would not leave himself or his Worship to mans devotion for he knew what was in man He made this day made it a Feast a day of joy and gladness Let us now therefore to our Office to rejoyce and be glad in it that 's the second General thither now are we come Three Points we told you we would consider in it Exultemus laetemur and in eâ Three parts in our Office rejoycing gladness and the right ordering both Outward expression inward gladness and right placing them Both words I confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint eâ—ultemus laetemur in the Latine have something outward in them yet exultemus is more for the outward laetemur somewhat more within a joy of the heart with some dilatation only of it Laetitia quasi latitia a stretching out the heart and sending forth the Spirits exultatio of saltatio a kind of skipping or leaping for joy the Spirits got into all the parts and powers ready to leap out of them for joy Being thus both involv'd one in the other I shall not trouble my self to distinguish them but only tell you hence that first The joy that God requires in the things that he has made or any time makes for us is not only inward it must out into outward acts Out into the mouth to sing forth his praise in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Eph. v. 19. Out into the hands to send portions to the poor for whom nothing is prepared Nehem. viii 10. Out into the feet to go up to the House of God with the Posture as well as the voice of joy and gladness to go up with haste to worship with reverence to stand up chearfully at the Hymns and Songs of Praise Our very bones as David speaks to rejoyce too the very clatter'd bones to clatter together and rejoyce all the parts and powers of
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
under another title it comes from him as the gift of Tongues or Interpretation or Prophesie or the Word of Wisdom or the Word of Knowledg are reckoned by the Apostle to come from the same Spirit 1 Cor. xii 8. it may be most properly from him as he is the Spirit of Truth By the second way of knowledg it comes to pass that men of less capacities and lower understandings applying their affections as well as understandings to embrace the Truth do know and understand it more effectually are more resolute in the defence of it express it better in their lives and know more sometimes of the particular ways of God in his particular Providence and Direction of the affairs of his Saints for of this kind of wisdom the fear of the Lord always is the beginning and it often happens of the passages of the World too as they relate to Gods disposing order Yet by reason of the inabilities of understanding or want of the course or means of knowledg it falls out that they oftener err in the conceits and apprehensions of things than the other And more than so it as often comes to pass whether to humble them when they begin to be proud of their holiness and piety and think themselves so much above other men wiser better more holy more righteous than they or to punish them for some particular sin as disobdience curiosity of enquiring into depths above them singularity discontentedness self seeking or the like or to stir up their endeavours now beginning to languish or to make them yet more circumspect and wary in their ways for these or some such causes I say it comes to pass that God suffers them to run into grand and enormous errors foul and foolish extravagancies of opinion which if once they trench on practise and are deliberate in or might with easie industry have been avoided even grieve and quench that Holy Spirit that was in them and expel him too but if their errors be unvoluntary not easie for them at that time to be avoided or of lesser moment stand they may with the Spirit of Grace and they good men still How therefore now shall we know what is from the Spirit of Truth when he comes so to us is but a necessary enquiry yet the resolution is hard and difficult I know no better way to resolve you than by searching the nature of this Spirit of Truth as Christ has pleased to express him in his last most holy and comfortable Discourse of which the Text is but a part the several expressions of whose nature and office set together will I am confident assure us of a way to discern the Spirit of truth when it is that He speaketh in us You may turn your leaves and go along with me Chap. xiv 17. The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive so then 1. if the Article or Opinion which we receive be such an one as the world cannot if it be contrary to worldly interests carnal respects sensual pleasures 't is a good sign at first If it cannot enter into a carnal or natural mans heart if mans wisdom teach it not as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. ii 13. if it grow not in the garden of nature that 's a good sign 't is the Spirit of truth is come that thus enables us to receive a Doctrine so disadvantagious and displeasing Look into the next verse ver 18. I will not leave you comfortless If then 2. it be such an assertion that has good ground in it to rest upon that will not fail us in distress that will stick by us in our deepest agonies comfort us in our greatest discomforts not leave us when all earthly comforts do then 't is from above then 't is a true comfort a truth from this He this Spirit of truth that is the Comforter too See next v. 26. He shall teach you all things bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you If then 3. it be an assertion that carries the analogy of faith along with it that agrees with all the other principles of Christian faith that is according to the rule of Christs holy word that soberly and truly brings to our remembrance what he has said at any time or done for us that remembers both the words that he spake and the deeds that he has done his actions and example if it be according to his example of humility obedience patience and love if it bring us heartily to remember this Christs pattern in our lives and opinions too then it comes from him that should come and is worth your receiving and remembring it In the same verse again in the words just before he is called the Comforter and Holy Ghost who is also there promised to teach us too And if the Doctrine be such that not only comforts us in the receiving and remembrance but such also as becomes Comforters too that teaches us to comfort others the poor and needy the afflicted and distressed and to do it holily too as by the Holy Ghost that is with good and pure intentions and do it even to their Ghosts and Spirits as well as to their bodies if it teach true holy Ghostly spiritual counsel and all other convenient comfort to them our Christian brethren Then 't is 4. a doctrine from this Spirit of truth he comes in it Turn ye now to Chap. xv 23. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father c. When the Doctrine 5. is no other than what either establishes the Doctrine of the holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost or contradicts it not and in all benefits received refers thanks and acknowledgment to the one as well as the other as from the one through the other by a third In this particular it is no other than the Spirit of truth for no other Spirit can reveal it Go on now through the vers He shall testifie of me The Doctrine 6. that bears witness of Christ that he is God that he is Man that he is Christ the Saviour of the World that he came to save sinners all whosoever would come to him not a few particular ones only that he is a complete and Universal Saviour such as he profest himself by entertaining all comers sending his Spirit and Apostles into all Nations commanding them to preach to every creature which are no other than his own words this is also from the Spirit of truth a Doctrine worthy Him that is the Comforter that brings so general a comfort with it Step now into the next Chapter Chap. xvi to which we owe the Text. When he is come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment ver 8. When the Doctrine is 7. such as it reproves the world of sin that it can do no good of it self that it is full of evil and corruption convinces
sinister end or ground that therefore it may not only be the truth of the Spirit but have the very Spirit of truth with it that it may be evident it not only comes from him but that he also is come with it it must be sincerely and intimately embraced with our very hearts and spirits out of love to truth not any interest or by-respect and well habituated and actuated in us before we can say directly that the Spirit of truth is come Some truth or other may be come some ray and beam of his light be sent before him but himself not yet fully come for all truth comes along with him though not actually altogether yet a hearty resolute affection to all of it all truth altogether as God shall let it come I have been somwhat long in this particular about the Spirits coming because I see the World so much mistaken in it so often crying Lo here he is lo there he is lo here he comes lo there he comes when indeed he is nor here nor there with neither of them nor coming to them A word now of the manner of his coming 4. And that is 1. Invisibly for so comes a Spirit This is the coming we hold by and had he not come when he came as well invisibly into the hearts as visibly upon the heads of the Disciples their Tongues though all the tongues of men and Angels would have profited them nothing the fire then had it not enflamed their hearts and affections with a holy flame as well as encompassed their heads would have only lighted them with more glory into eternal fires Had not this wind blown as well within as that did without them it would have blow'd them little good Tongues and Prophesie Interpretations Miracles and the rest are but dona gratis data gifts more for others good than for our own they do not make us better in his sight 't is the invisible grace that makes us accepted Nay yet those very gifts and administrations however the appearance was without were wrought within by his invisible operation So that to the Apostles as much as to our selves his invisible coming is the only truly comfortable coming That 2. is Effectual too To come truly is to come effectually and in that he is called the Spirit of truth 't is plain he must effect what it is he comes for or 't is not true and real It was a mighty rushing wind he this day came in so mighty so effectual that it at once converted three thousand souls the Spirit of power is one of his names and the pulling down of strong holds casting down every thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ is one of his works 2 Cor. x. 4 5. 3. He comes gently that 's the common pace of one that is only said to come Gently step by step grace after grace gift after gift truth after truth leads by steps comes by degrees not all grace at a clap all gifts in a trice Nay as hastily as it seem'd to come this day St. Peter the chief of them was a while after at a loss for a truth had not it seems all truths together Of a truth now I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Acts x. 34. before it seems he perceived it not no more did the other Apostles neither who were all in the same error and convented him about this new truth and contended with him about it Acts xi 2. 4. Nay softly too as dew into a fleece of Wooll without noise without clamour no way like the Spirits now adays I will put my Spirit upon him and he shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets Isa. xlii 1 2. He is the Spirit of meekness who is the Spirit of truth and truth is never taught so soon so effectually as by softness and meekness the meek the best to teach the best to be taught 5. Yet as gently and softly as he comes he is often upon us on a sudden ere we are aware God uses to prevent us with the blessings of goodness as the Psalmist speaks Psal. xxi 3. He is come sometimes before we think of it Our hearts are in his hand and he suddenly turns them whither he will Saul does but turn him about from Samuel and God gives him presently another heart 1 Sam. x. 9. Samuel no sooner anoints David but from thence-forward the Spirit came upon him 1 Sam. xvi 13. And this note is made not that you should always look for miraculous changes and expect the Spirit without so much as setting your selves to seek him but to make you watch continually and wait for him that though he come suddenly he may not find you unprepared the doors shut upon him that he may not go as he comes for want of entertainment Yet the Phrase will bear another expression of the manner of his coming When he is come that is when he is grounded and well setled in us the Tense is the Aorist a Preterperfect signification signifies not coming but perfectly come This is not actually always to every one he comes to yet his intent it is in all his coming to stay and abide with us and so he does till we drive him thence But if we do not if we let him stay and dwell and remove him not then will he guide us into all truth that 's the End and Intention of his coming the next Point But I am beyond my intent and time already I shall only sum up this last particular of the manner of his coming and let you go You will peradventure understand it best by considering how the Spirit mov'd in the Creation the order the same in creating the new man in the soul that he there observed in creating of the World Now in the first Creation of the World He first moved upon the waters then created light and divided it from darkness he next divides the Waters and places a Firmament between them then 3. gathers the Waters together and makes dry land appear and bring forth grass and herbs and trees bearing seed then 4. makes two glorious Lights to rule the day and night and times and years then 5. creates fowl and fish and beasts and lastly makes man after his own Image Thus does he in this new Creation or Regeneration He first moves and stirs us up to good then darts in some glimmerings of light to shew us our own darkness sins and wretchedness Then next 2. divides the passions and powers of the soul and sets them their bounds employs some in things above whilst some other are left beneath Then 3. presently makes the dry and barren soul sprout out bring herbs and leaves and seeds into green flourishing desires holy resolutions and endeavours which carry with them seed much hope of encrease 4. To cherish these green and tender sprouts to direct
too yet in measure and order too no other then the Spirit gives them utterance 4. And lastly though first it be in the Text yet because it is but the circumstance and time of the story and not the main business or second of it and fittest to close up all in good time and order The Time when all this was done when these things came to pass when the Apostles were so dispos'd when the Holy Ghost thus descended when this strange issue fell out When the day of Pentecost was fully come in very good time the promis'd time Christs time Gods own time such as he had prefigur'd them in in the Law too at the fifty days Feast after the Passover a solemn day and somewhat more as you shall hear anon Thus we best join the History and the Moral the Doctrine and Use of Pentecost or Whitsunday nay the very Holy Spirit of the day and our souls to day together that we may not be like men that only come to hear news a story and away but such as hear the Word and profit by it Which that we may Come O mighty wind and blow upon us Descend O holy Fire and warm our hearts give me a tongue O blessed Spirit out of this days number and utterance give thy servants capacious spirits and remembrance that thy Word may rush in upon them as a sound from Heaven and fill the houses of all our souls with joy and gladness with holy fire of Piety and Devotion that we may with one accord one heart and mind speak forth thy praise and glory The first Point in the order I have set you is the disposition of them that the Holy Spirit will come and light upon 1. They are of one accord 2. in one place 3. sitting quietly and expecting there and that 4. also upon the solemn day when the day of Pentecost any solemn day or occasion is presented them They are first of one accord whom this Spirit vouchsafes to descend into This unity draws the Spirit to them that keeps it with them the house of unity is the only Temple of the Spirit of Unity That soul which breaks the bond of unity and divides it self from the Church of Christ from the company of the Apostles and their Successors the still Fathers of it cannot hold this holy wind cannot enclose this holy fire they are broken and crackt crack only of the Spirit but are really broken from that body in which only the Spirit moves Take and divide a member from the body be it the principal that in which most spirit was the heart or the head and once divided the Spirit vanishes from it will not sit nor dwell in it just so is it it in Christs Body the Church If one of the chiefest members of it one erst while of the devoutest and most religious in it once grow so proud of his own wisdom or gifts so singular in his conceits as to separate himself from his fellows from that body whereof Christ is the head he goes away like a member from the natural body and leaves the Spirit behind him that retires from him for it is one Spirit and cannot be divided from the body though it work diversly in it If this being of one accord of one mind be the temper for the receipt of the Holy Spirit as here you see it is and in reason it can be no otherwise it being the Spirit of love and unity What spirit are they of Whose Religion is Faction whose chief pretended Piety is Schism whose business is to differ from all the World Nothing can be more evident than that men are now adays much at a loss for the Spirit however every one claim to it seeing there is no accord but discord not diversities only but contrarieties but contradictions amongst them that most pretend the Spirit Indeed were this they any less a They than the Apostles themselves and the whole number of the then Disciples or had there been but the least division among them either about the manner of staying or expecting Christs Promise or which is less about the place to stay in It may be these men might have had a shadow for their separations but Apostles they were and in one place they were too altogether agreed in all were all in unity were all in uniformity not their minds only but their bodies too together Men thought it nothing a while since to withdraw themselves from the Houses of God as if no matter at all for the place they could for all that be of the same faith but too woful experience has prov'd it now that with the one place the one faith is vanisht with the ceremony the substance gone too with the uniformity of Worship the unanimity of our minds and the uniformity of our faith too blown into the air How shall we do O blessed Spirit in so many crackt vessels to retain thee Needs must the Spirit expire out of that body which has so many breaches and divisions in it so many divided houses so many broken Churches so many rotten Congregations I know if it be only necessity divides us and drives us into several dens and caves as it did the Primitive Christians in the days of those fiery persecutions that the Holy Spirit will ransack all the cranies and search out all the privatest corners be they above ground or under it but it is because the mind of all those several places is but one and in that respect they are no more than so many several cells of the one Catholick Church but where choice and not necessity wilfulness and not force singularity and not purity of Truth or Conscience makes the division and draws Disciples into Chambers Parlors Barns or Mills Woods or Desarts go not says Christ out after them say they what they will of Christ or Spirit there believe it not St. Matth. xxix 26. Two in a field and yet one taken and the other left two at the mill and one taken and the other left ver 40. So at the most I fear great hazard that any if they be no better no more orderly gather'd when the Master comes Or were they yet perhaps in several places sitting as they are here that is quietly and in true peace and faith expecting the promise of their Lord something might be said to excuse their separations but not only actually to break the unity of the Spirit and the bond of Peace but to breath out nothing but war contention and dispute to be so far from sitting down and either suffering for Christ or humbly expecting his time of assistance and deliverance out of their perplexities and discomforts as to take the matter into their own hands and prevent the coming of the Spirit of Peace by rising and raising spirits of war and confusion they must give me leave to tell them they know not what spirit they are of a heady guiddy furious spirit zeal I bear them witness with St. Paul
commission to call us to it or command it for his service or his Churches and we not to undertake it till we find our selves truly enabled rightly called and uprightly intending in it To joyn now the two Points of the Text together to know our right grounds and settle our obedience right upon them that we may know what we undertake when we undertake to follow Christ and do accordingly not pretend above our strength but keep Advent and St. Andrew both We are 1. to provide by St. Andrews obedience for Christs Advent that he when he at any times comes to us either in his Spirit or in his Word in humility or glory in our lives or at our deaths may find us ready straight to follow him No so acceptable entertainment for him no so fit preparation for him as a ready entire well guided obedience none so fit to receive him as St. Andrew the Soul so fitted and resolved to all obedience Thus we are to make our way for Advent by St. Andrew And to keep St. Andrews Feast to give our selves up to this obedience we must remember Christs Advent to us that we cannot follow till he first come to us acknowledge all our motion is from his Look he first upon us and speak to us and we straightway run but if he come not there is no following to be expected much less hast to do it All is from him to him therefore be all the praise if at any time or wherein at any time we follow him 't is his grace that does it that comes first before we follow And then thirdly to keep time to joyn both Feasts together in our hearts all the days of our life as well as in this day of the year Magnifie we him in his Saints follow we St. Andrew as he did Christ follow him to Christ chearfully without delay to day whilst it is day begin our course let us not think much to part with any thing for him Lay our honours riches souls and bodies at his feet and with pure and unmixt intentions study we wholly his service not our own Let not any be discouraged that perhaps he has nothing worth the leaving nothing but a few old broken nets Be it never so little we have left if we have left our selves nothing but given our selves and all to Christ we have given much he that with these Saints here leaves nothing but a few knotty threds if he has no more to leave has left as much as he that leaves most for he has left all and he that leaves most can do no more It is the mind not the much that God values Remember the poor Widows mites accepted by Christ above far greater gifts for they were all she had and who could give more The poor mans all is as much to him and as much all to God as the rich mans all his tatter'd Nets as much all his living as the others Lands and Seas are his and the poor man can as hardly part with his rags and clouts his leather bottle his mouldy bread and clouted shoes as the rich man with his silks and state and dainties so much perhaps the hardlier in that they are more necessary Yet that I may not seem to leave you upon too hard a task to scare you from following Christ I shall now tell you you may keep all and yet leave your nets You may keep your honours you may preserve your estates you may enjoy your worldly blessings only so keep a hand upon them or upon your selves that they be not nets and snares unto you let them not take your hearts or ensnare your affections or entangle your souls in vanities and sins let them not hold you from following Christ and keep them while you will Cast but off the Networks the catching desires of the flesh and world and so you also may be said to have left your nets And having so weaned your souls from inordinate affections to things below Let Christ be your Business his Life your Pattern his Commands your Law Be ye followers of Christ and let St. Andrew this day lead you after him into all universal obedience ready pure and sincere think not much to leave your Nets for him that left heaven for you you will gain more by following him than all the nets and draughts of the world are worth You may well throw away your Nets having caught him in whom you have caught glory and immortality and eternal life and by following him shall undoubtedly come at last out of this Sea of toil and misery where there is nothing but broken nets and fruitless labours or but wearisom and slippery fruits of them into the Port and Haven of everlasting rest and joys and happiness And that it may be so let us pray with the holy Church in the two Collects for Advent and St. Andrew Almighty God which didst give such grace to thy holy Apostle St. Andrew that he readily obey'd the calling of thy Son Iesus Christ and followed him without delay grant unto us all that we being called by thy holy Word may forthwith give â—ver our selves obediently to fulfil thy holy Commandments that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light now in the time of this mortal life in the which thy Son Iesus Christ came to visit us with great humility that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost now and ever A SERMON Preached At St. Pauls COL iii. 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful HOw little or much soever the Colossians needed this advice I am sure we do more than a little and much need there is to press it close For I know not but methinks as much as we talk of peace and write it in the front of our Petitions and Projects I am afraid our hearts are not right to it it rules not there And as much as we pretend our thankfulness to God for bringing us again into one body we see but slender expressions of it And yet we have the same Arguments both for thankfulness and peace to be thankful for our late recovered peace and to be at peace if we would be thought to be thankful as the Colossians had or could be imagined to have here our being called again into one body who were not long since in several ones united now under one head who were of late under many Gods Call and our own Callings Gods present mercies and our late miseries calling to us to perswade both There wants indeed some St. Paul to mind us of it to preach it home that we would be what we pretend that men would be honest once and either say no more
well as our Obedience The consent of wise grave learned Fathers till you know where to find better with any man not too high in his own conceit is certainly of a value somewhat above his private imagination For who tells you they are deceived Your private Minister And are you sure he is not and are they deceived And is it not as likely that you and he should be Were they not as wise as you As just as you As devout as you Have you reason and had not they Do you use Scripture and did not they Had they interests and have not you That all should be deceived till you and your new Ministers came into the World is morally impossible That they should purposely deceive you you have nor ground nor charity to imagine To think then that you may not as easily be deceived does it not look like pride And is not Pride enough to blind you from seeing truth 'T is true your Governours are not infallible no more are you Yet certainly there is more certainty in their united judgments than your simple fancies And I am sure many might with less hazard have erred with them suppose they erred than sometimes gone right That they might at any time in simplicity of heart This seldom without Faction Schism or Pride You mistake me all this while if you suppose I require a blind Obedience No I know God would not be served with a blind sacrifice His service is a reasonable service Clear sighted as you will but no curious inquisitive observance Know you must if possibly you can that it is not ill you go about and the Power just that commands it But to enquire into every circumstance as it is beyond the power of most so it is more than the duty of any 'T is this creates you so many difficulties suspicions controversies till you have lost your reward your Church and Country the profit of your virtue Were the judgment thus once submitted our affections would the sooner follow though they indeed are the cause commonly that we submit not our judgments Our affections set so strongly upon honours profits liberty pleasure make us take up opinions to keep them Yet Nature will tell you thus much Partem Patria partem Parentes Your King and Country and Church too claim a portion in your affections persons and estates I leave now de Iure for de Facto the Justice for the Practise of it to shew you all this done by the Rechabites How easily else might they have vied reason with their Father What drink no Wine All Creatures are good nothing to be refused with thanksgiving No Houses neither Must we thus be made the talk of the world Turn heirs to Cain's malediction Vagabonds upon the face of the earth Must our Wives and Children too suffer all the hardships of a kind of perpetual banishment No mercy to be had of our selves none of them What no Lands neither No earing nor harvest Must we leave our Children beggars our Wives unprovided for purchase nothing for them Thus and more they might have argued but all these notwithstanding how harsh soever they conceived it they rather trusted their Fathers judgment than their own But is their Reason only submitted are not their Affections too They neither contend for honour nor stickle for riches nor grudge at any inconvenience but submit their desires to their Fathers tread under their own natural propensions to obey him Would he have them drink no Wine They will not drink though the Prophet bid them ver 5. Would he have them poor They have no Lands Would he forbid them houses They will have no abiding place be everlasting Pilgrims What would he have them do that they will not do They submit judgments affections estates persons their own and their Posterities as much as in them lies that they may satisfie their Fathers This if any thing is Obedientis summa humilitas the exceeding Humility of their Obedience with so much approbation so oft reiterated through the Chapter They go one step higher Not only submit to his Authority but resolve into it Make no further Queres upon it nor murmur at it but as the Hebrew root sometimes signifies Acquievistis rest fully contented with it You may call this Obedientiae hilaritas Their chearful delight in their Obedience Thus far the Rechabites now again to our selves And first have we heard the King our Father Have we not rather with the deaf Adder stopped our ears One with the earth that 's our profit the other with our tail that 's our pleasures That we might not hear him charm'd he never so wisely The Fathers of the Church have had less at our hands Next how have you hearkned Much that way given Hearkened to find fault to cavil at to plot against to undermine This hath been the peoples course of late so to destroy those by whom God would save them The Civil Magistrate hath not been in much better case Your Judgments they have been submitted too But to whom To the factious and discontented decisions shall I call them or ravenings rather of ignorant and malicious Teachers who have exercised more tyranny upon your consciences than the most clamorous can prove ever Bishop did durst ever accuse him to do while they thus both belie God and abuse you by exacting an infallible assent to their unreasonable seditious unchristian frenzies under the name of the Word of God Thus while you refuse to submit your judgments where you are bound you captivate your reason to them who have lost their own and are therefore angry that others should have any How in the interim you have believed the sincere Declarations of your Sovereign how submitted to what he thought best or fittest for you How to the intire intentions of your right Spiritual Fathers let the general slighting and undervaluing their judgment we hear in every Shop as we pass along testifie for both In a word how you delight in the Laws and Statutes of State and Church and rest contented with them I would the general practice and countenance of Disobedience and Prophaneness did not even tell it in Gath and publish it in the streets of Askalon Thus we serve again to exalt the Rechabites while our sins condemn our selves For while our untractableness Impatience Pride and Murmurs banish Obedience they have heard their Father readily hearkened to him carefully submitted humbly and rested contentedly in his sole Authority without the least reluctancy or contradiction And by the way I may point out the reason They lived temperate mean and humble lives had no thoughts of raising houses but in heaven Now the riots riches pride and a desire of raising Families have made many of you forget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep under Yet let these men take heed lest while with Corah and his company they cry out to Moses and Aaron You take too much upon you keep us under keep us
Common Service Every Magistrate that is every Governour of a Country every Maior of a City every Master of a Company every Father of a Family Some of these have their Statutes to be kept all of them their commands to be obeyed These are Secular Powers you have besides Spiritual such as take order for your Souls as the other for your Bodies and Estates your Bishops and Clergy Bishops are Fathers by their Title the Fathers of the Church so the first Christians so all since till this new unchristian Christianity started up Fathers in God 't is their stile however some of late Sons of Belial would make them Fathers in the Devil Antichrists perhaps that they might make them like themselves Strange Antichrists to whom Christ hath left the Governing of his Church these 1500 years 1. If you value them by their Antiquity they are Fathers for that their enemies being judges who would fain distinguish between their Offices and their Names that they might have some pretence to disobey them though more commonly they fill their mouth with scoffs and calumnies the language of the Devil than their books with the language of Antiquity truly understood 2. Fathers secondly for their Authority Time was when their Commands their Councils and Canons were Laws to Christians none of the least neither when their breach inferred the greatest punishment spiritual malediction 3. Fathers lastly for their tenderest Care over the tenderest part your Consciences Such who would quickly set all in order would you not listen too engagedly to by-respects Such whose commands you cannot complain of when you have examined them A hat a knee a reverent posture of the body are no such tyrannies as some please to fancy them You would do more in a great mans presence more for a small temporal encouragement A habit a Hood a Cap a Surplice a Name are wonderful things to trouble a devout Conscience You have more Ceremonies in your Companies and Corporations and you observe them strictly You will find it if you compare them If thus Fathers now their Precepts then certainly are to be obeyed Yet with this Rule ever both for them and all other inferiour Magistrates beside So far as they contradict not the Supreme Authority 'T is a rule in natural reason In two contrary commands the Superiours is to be obeyed Now to the King as Supreme we told you out of St. Peter to Rulers as sent by him that is as far as they are sent by him no further no further than their Commission from him Else Obedience can find no bounds nor Consciences no rest if the Supreme be not enough to terminate and guide all obedience into Your Father There is an argument in that word may make you obey him above all the world besides The tenderness of a Father Never could any challenge this name with greater justice never any so far condescended to his children to part with his own priviledges maintenance conveniences provision attendance He hath done as much for his Sons as the Rechabites for their Father left all even his houses for them lest by the insolence of some tumultuous spirits he should be forced to punish them What natural Father like this Father But whether he hath been used like a Father indeed you used him lately in your entertainment like a Conqueror and are justly honoured for it but whether by others like a Father let the affronts at his own Palace gate the sawcy Language in every rascal mouth the rebellious Sermons the seditious Libels cast abroad his own words where he is fain to proclaim to the world He is driven from you let these speak I say nothing Your Inferiour Magistrates have almost every where found disrespect And whether your Bishops and Clergy have been used like Fathers if the usage they have had of late the tumults about their houses the riots upon their Persons the daily insolencies the whole Clergy have met with in your streets never seen till now in a Civil Common-wealth in any ordered City upon the most contemptible men if the injuries done their Persons in the Churches at the very Altars once Sanctuaries against violence now thought the fittest places for it in the very administration of the Sacraments in their Pulpits both among you and abroad the Kingdom in a word so many slanderous malicious accusations without ground entertain'd with pleasure besides the blasphemies upon the whole Order if these cannot tell you after-ages will determine and in the interim let the world judge Our Fathers imperfections are not to be divulg'd though true much less false ones to be imposed upon them This is a reverence but due to Fathers 'T was cursedly done of Cham and he paid for it he and his with an everlasting curse to uncover his Fathers nakedness 'T was wretchedly done of Absalom to tell the people there was no man deputed of the King to hear them no justice in the Land and he thrived accordingly And let all the enemies of my Lord the King be as that young man is says Cushi Yet say we 't were well it were no worse How is all this made Religion too Oaths and Protestations intended certainly to better purposes abused to maintain rebellion and prophaneness Construed so in Pulpits and professed by their Scholars in the face of God and man pray God it go no higher and dare you after all this look for a blessing Alas you must lay by those thoughts till you have learned the Rechabites Lesson They used their Ionadab like a Father so reverenced his memory so preserved his name so obeyed him in all his several authorities so punctually so constantly so couragiously so sweetly so universally so sincerely so really so carefully with that contentedness without grumbling that humility without disputing that patience that readiness that full content of every Age Sex and Condition no weakness tenderness or priviledges pretended against it that God himself presently upon it promiseth a full reward Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel c. I am now at the Reward and 't is a full one full of 1. honour full of 2. proportions full of 3. blessings Full of 1. honour at the first Therefore thus as if their Obedience deserved it or God at least would seem so far to honour it He had promised length of life in the Commandment for it and God is not unjust It deserves therefore by the Covenant of his Promise yet by the interpretation of his mercy And 2. full of proportions it is Proportionable to the three Acts and Objects of Obedience You have obeyed your Father therefore you shall want no Sons there 's one You have kept his commandments therefore shall your Sons stand in them and by standing in them stand before God there 's a second You have kept all and done according to all that hath been commanded you fail'd in nothing therefore shall you have a reward all of you not a man of you fail for