of Marble to the Emperor upon his Coronation day that he might then chuse which he would have for his Tombe c. But let me presse the sense of your falling condition to humble you I doe not meane by humilitie a morall familiarity or courtesie toward those of lower ranke which yet is a gracefull condescency of Greatnesse But I meane a stooping to the reproofes of the Word of God brought unto you by the Ministers thereof who are but earthen vessels like your selves Submit your cheek to reproofs for your owne sins and of your Families Let not your iniquities take sanctuary in your greatnesse Frowne not your Chaplaines into a meal-mouth'd basenesse so that they dare no more make a darke or oblique reflection upon your darling sins then take a Beare by the tooth If you will bleed out your ill bloud you must pull off your Velvet sleeve and let the arme be bare to the point of the knife Keep no State against God though he speake thunder and lightning by the mouth of dust like your selves A man never makes worse use of his greatnesse then by it to cast a muzzle over the mouth of sound and searching reproofes And it is a just judgment of God upon such men that they should have Prophets that will say to Ahab Goe up and prosper Secondly Quicken you to activity in your places while you live that you may serve your generation according to the will of God before you dye and see corruption otherwise you are but blind lights in golden Candlesticks You are in great debt both to the Church and Common-wealth they have trusted you with all they have and your bond is good but yet be not offended if they call hard upon you to pay your debts for you are mortall men and we know not what Heires or Executors you may leave behind you The Creditor is oftentimes broken in the Debtors death Get death into your minds and it will put life into your actions what you found made of poore Bricke leave in stately Marble and be not like many who while they are rising appeare very active and stirring men but when they are up doe freeze into a benummed slownesse like Bels that strike thicke when they are rising and afterwards when they are at full pitch are set put your selves on with this spurre I must shortly dye How should I live fruitfully The night will come how should I labour while it is day I wish well to things that are good but Bene cogitare est bene somniare a good thinker is but a good dreamer nothing more sads and duls the heart when one comes to dye than his neglect of such opportunities which Gods providence or his owne place have put into his hand of receiving doing good Nor is there a sharper corrosive than the reflection upon those dayes and times that have passed over him Male aliud nihil agentem The highest hils are the barrennest ground and I would that saying did not so truly square to great Ones that is that the goodliest Trees as Cedars c. doe either beare none or the worst Fruit. Great parts and abilities without exercise and putting forth are but secret and unknowne Mines of Silver and Gold which lye hid in an unfruitfull and unprofitable soyle And therfore you the great and Noble Worthies in whose hands are the Publike Faith the Publike Mercy the Publike Justice and the Publike Peace be good and let your goodnes make you quicke dispensers of what you have in Stewardship because the time is short and the word redde rationem may be given suddenly look upon us as mortall men who shall not live long to receive and upon your selves who shall not live long to give the fruits of your hands And because the Occasion invites me let me propound an object to your charitable justice that is the relief of those great sufferers who have bin great doers I meane the first adventurers with this great Commander when he first cut through the Alps. As for the great and doubtfull matters that are under your hand I would not be thought so rash as to wish you to precipitate A Pilot among shelves and rocks may be too quick A Cunctator sometime saved the Common-wealth only thus I may pray that when the Haven lyes faire before you and is without barre you may fortiter occupare set in stifly lest new waves raised by crosse winds carry you backe into the Main againe 3. Arme you against your fall that the day therof may be to you as the Passion-day of the Martyrs was called the birth-day of Eternity Nequaquam morte mortemini was the inlet of our sin and misery keeps the doore open to sin still The Epicure hath his Armour against death a senselesse consideration of it as of a nothing or a not being The great Spirit hath his Armour too A contempt of death out of principles of Valour and Honour but neither of these Armours can keep the arrow from the quicke There is a terrible clause in the Statute of dying And after that the judgement Nor yet will I goe about to arme you with this meditation that we shall have a shorter journey from death to life again than we had from not being unto life or that which is cited by Gerard out of Luther that all the time that hath run or shall run out from the beginning to the end shall seeme to Adam when he riseth againe but tanquam somnus unius horae as the sleep of the body for one houre But if you will breake the fall which else will breake you then you Gods must become Saints for all Gods are not Saints the death of Saints is more precious then the death of Gods Grace is speciall baile against death there is no gall and vinegar in it to be drunk by them for whom Christ hath already drunke it Death saith the Apostle is yours because contributory and subservient to your happines That life which is hid with Christ in God is out of the reach of death our Saviour proves Abraham to be living because God had long after his death said I am the God of Abraham Those that are confederate with God in Covenant must always live that the Covenant may not be dissolved by the death of the one party There is a way then to break the teeth of death and to be immortall Have God for your God labour to have something in you that is immortall besides your very souls lay up for your selves a treasure beyond the sea of death that when this membrana dignitatis as Seneca cals it a thin skin of honour breaks you may not be quite bankrupts enrich your souls with the power of godlines which is profitable to all things The place of Princes the magnificence and great works of great men The faith and godlines of poore men doe make a rare composition Do not in stead of disarming death arme it rather against you by
except Caleb and Joshuah of much above sixty years of age came into Canaan Now if these things be our examples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10. 6. then it is but laying the scene among our selves and the result of it will be this That is after all our other Nationall provocations of God for which wee have long deserved that the hand should write upon the wal that God hath numbred our Kingdom and sinisht it Wee should be brought to the borders of that long prayed for rest from our yoakes and burdens in Church and State and then prove as I may so say run-awayes from Edge Hill and stumble at the threshold despising the offer cancelling our former prayers scandalizing our selves saying The time is not come the time the Lords house Hag. 1. 2. should be built and so wish for Captains that we may return into Egypt as this people Verse 4. Might wee not feare such another oath of God against us and such another pilgrimage of our selves in the Wildernesse of our own misery untill our carcasses were all falne as theirs The occasion of this mutiny was Twelve Princes or heads of the Tribes were sent out to discover the Land they went returned and reported but these Twelve were not all agreed of their verdict they were ten to two The ten spoke their carnall feares nothing but walled Towns warlike people sons of Anak the Land indeed is good but like the garden of the Hesperides Dragons keep it not a word or syllable of Gods Covenant Promise or Presence to counter-ballance or make rebatement The people are drawn after them and imbittered they cry out that God hath betrayd their Lives Wives Children to manifest ruine and to Egypt they will back again The two Cateb and Ioshua controverted the ten and Numb 30. 30 31. protested We are not able to say the ten wee are well able saith Caleb they are stronger then wee say the ten Cum Cap. 30. 31 32 33. Cum Cap. 14. 8 9. they are bread for us say the two we are Pismires and Grashoppors to them say the ten the Lord is with us fear them not say the two they are fenced in with wals and Giants say the ten their shadow is departed from them say the two This was the contestation but the Noes carried it and though Caleb and his fellow plyed the people with Gods presence power and promise and with the experience they had had of him yet they got no heat into them but the heat of insolency rage All the Congregation bad stone them with stones Vers 10 Spirituall arguments to a carnall heart are but warm clothes to a dead man when men have once a prejudice against God as if he would be false to them and think their faith in his promises will be but a snare to engage them into ways destructive of themselves then it 's no oiling of a wheele so skotcht for it is a sure rule hee that hath no faith to make use of God would by no means have need of him When this people saw the great worke which God had done upon Egypt then they believe Exod. 4. 31. the faith of a carnall heart is laid up in present sence or evidence of Gods hand but while the Anakims are alive God is no body to them a hard heart will not bring up former experiments of God to charge new dangers in the face for though saith Moses you have seen so much of God already yet in this thing yee did not believe the Deut. 1. 31 32. Lord your God On the contrary Caleb values God alone against all that can be said and makes the Giants but Pismires to his faith by setting God by them of suchdown-right is God to a spirit of faith in that very thing wherein toan unbeliever he doth not so much as stirre much lesse turn the beam So much for the survey of the Suburbs of the Text whereby you already do perceive that here is somthing that is proper to the Meridian of our own case And now I am at the words which are an exception of Caleb out of the number of them whom God by oath peremptorily excluded the Land of promise for their Rebellion and therein we have 1 Gods testimony of him 2 Gods promise to him 1 Gods testimony of him 1 He hath fulfilled after me 2 He had another spirit with him 2 Gods promise to him Him will I bring c. and therein 1 The assignement of Calebs plot the Land he searched or that part of it into which he went 2 The ground of that promise because hee had another spirit and hath c. 3 The entaile of the promise or the inheritance upon his seed His seed shall possesse it I begin with Gods testimony of this servant of his He hath fulfilled after me which after this time you may observe to be set as a mark of honour upon this man insomuch as when his name is named this character sirnames him He that followed me fully in like manner as Deut. 1. 36. Ios 14. 6. alibi that brand sticks upon the name of Ieroboam Hee that made Israel to sin I list not to vex the words The Hebrew being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee hath fulfilled after mee answered with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 10. 6. when your obedience is fulfilled but I will not stand to rub that eare which will yield me no more corn then the Translation hath beaten out He hath followed me fully as if the Lord had said he hath stuck close to me and improved the businesse under his hand howsoever succeslesly as to the people yet dangerously as to himself for my sake managed it to the best advantage of my honour by valuing me my promise presence power against all Objections made by humane wisdom or Objections laid by humane power Let us now see what the Text holds forth unto us and that Honey is best which runs freely from the combe we must not commit rape or extortion upon the Word of God a sin too frequent in our times by such as are most zealous for their party for how many doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comparari verbum Dei as the Apostle speaks dashing and mixing as Hucksters doe their wares adulterating the pure word with their own crude fancies and so uttering and venting it abroad into the world to the great scandall of Scripture it self godlinesse learning and ingenuity The Observations that offer themselves willingly are these 1 That God makes great reckoning of and gives speciall testimony unto such his servants who fulfill after him My servant Caleb hath fulfilled after me 2 To fulfill after the Lord proceeds from another spirit than the unbelieving Israelites are acted with all Hee had another spirit with him 3 Such shall not lose by the hand who out of a right spirit do follow the Lord fully
parts come to a center of resolution that let God do what he will with your particular persons yet you will serve the Lord as in Ioshua 24. 19. When Joshua had told the people he is a jealous God and a holy he will not forgive your Transgressions and your sins they answered Nay but we will serve the Lord and thereupon he set up a great stone for a witness lest they should afterwards deny God Let us set up such a stone of witness this day that we may not turn away from the Lord our God but ingage our selves to be his people for ever It is not my purpose to weaken the faith of the people of God but to confirm their resolutions nor to give the enemy any occasion to say Now they stagger they mistrust their cause the wilderness hath shut them in No no for whatsoever may become of our carcasses in this wilderness though they may fall therein for our rebellions against and temptations of God yet for certain Israel shall come into the Land of rest for howsoever it be that Gods ways towards us be in the dark yet his promises to the Church are in the cleer light Our dry bones are not too dry to live again by his breath Though he cary Joseph into a prison it is but to advance him Though he thrust Jonas into the Whales belly it is but to save him When the Ship is wrackt and broken and the foundations as the Psalmist saith are destroyed yet edificabâ—o ecclesiam meam will stand good against the very gates of Hell And we may build upon it as a truth that however his works of providence may seem to us not to answer his Word of promise yet all his dispensations towards his Churches are in order to the fulfilling of his Promises and the pangs of his Church are unto life and not unto death I say the pangs or throws of his Church because I conceive that these motions that are in Christendome this renting of States and Kingdomes is in order to some revolutions in the Churches all these conspirations of stormy winds ingruent upon them are not for nothing Doth the plowman plow all the day to sow doth he open and break the clods of his ground when he hath made plain the â—ace thereof doth he not cast in the principal wheat c. Isa 28. 4 God will sow his Churches after his tearing them up by the plow and therefore whatsoever Statsemen and Politicians may aime at it is the Churches interest which the eye of God is upon though they neither know nor intend it As the Scripture taking notice of Augustus his Decree of taxing or enrolling the Empire or Provinces thereof seems to give us the reason and occasion of bringing Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem who were far off the place that Christ might be born according to the Scriptures which was a thing the Emperor never once dreamed of God hath other ends and purposes in these shakings of Kingdomes and Provinces then Politicians and Stasemen have therefore let us not discredit God by unbelief for my Covenant is to me saith he as the waters of Noah that is my purpose to my people to do them good is irreveâ—sible and absolute Isa 54. 10. But then for our particulars Though the waters of Noah return no more to cover the earth yet such a House City Country may be overflowed and swallowed up with water so may our Ark fall into Philistims hands and therefore gather your selves together search your selves Oh Nation even Ye our worthy Senators call your selves to account and examine your selves strictly impartially humbly lest the Babylonish garment and wedge of Gold which causes Israel to fly before the men of Ai be not in any of your Tents search out carnal policy luke warmness towards God Neutrality private ends It s not impossible but that there may be an Absolom a Shemei in your own bowels who if you were brought low would drive you and the Ark of God too into the Wilderness to seek a place Oh let the representative body of the Kingdome keep themselves pure that so if God should please to estimate or measure out unto the Nation according to the representative body of it there may be mercy to it for your sakes To this end have an eye I beseech you upon obstructours and designers which cannot do so much hurt in the enemies Army as in your Counsels Malignity thrust forth into the outward parts of the body is nothing so dangerous as that which lies close and neer to the heart or vitals Speed the hearing of Causes which come before you that men may be dismist to their commands and employments abroad to prevent a vacuum Pity and relieve those that are broken and shipwrackt for the Kingdomes sake have an eye upon your under-Instruments and Officers that they spend you not more honour and reputation by their miscarriages partialities private gain than they bring you in supplies he that flies a sharp Hawk rides hard after her or else the Partridge will be half eaten before he come in And fear not the losing of any party by doing Gods wil and work for God himself should neither give rain nor fair weather if he should please all sorts of men I shall less stick on these things because you were this day before put in mind of them only let me press one thing more namely That you would countenance honest and godly men with places of command and trust With command for they will be firm and valiant a mans valour lies in his conscience and not in his spirit With trust for such a man is like a door with two locks He hath an obligation upon him both to God and you Finally do all that may be to suppress open and crying sins for authority makes it self guilty of those other mens sins which it endeavours not to cut down we in the Ministry must cry them down and you must cut them down or else they become in guilt both ours and yours And let none of us say within our selves we have strength for war for Eccles 11. 9. The battel is not to the strong We have received many marks and tokens of favour from God for Iosh 24. 19. He will consume you after he hath done you good We are the Israel of God to whom pertain the Promises for Josh 7. 8. Israel flies before the Aians We have the Ark of God in the Camp with us for 1 Sam. 4 10 11. The Philistims may take it We fast before the Lord and have a good cause for Iudg. 20. 21. Israel falls in two battels under Benjamin We are not so bad as the enemy that comes against us For it s no trusting to the sins of an enemy The worst bryars or thorns may serve for a rod in the land of God to scourge his own people We are Gods witnesses for Rev. 11. 7. The beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall makâ— war
Proficients in the school of liberty in a few years as to commence Teachers and Preachers of the Word or have grown to be such illuminates as they pretend will no more re joyce in or accept of a Government which may degrade them 〈◊〉 resolve them into the first matter oâ— elements of their composition then Souldiers of fortune as they are called can rejoyce in a Peace concluded and setled There might be 〈…〉 such like end and 〈◊〉 which carry 〈◊〉 with men and are the causes of our division which would in great 〈…〉 quenched if the game was plaid on all 〈…〉 of heart let 〈…〉 self-respects which die close 〈◊〉 that wee may find the head of that Nilus which thus overflows the banks That double mindednes which keeps us at distance from God doth also keep us at distance from one another and therefore that we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 2. of one accord I do for my own part conceive it much â—â—â—â—â—cing that whatsoever touching 〈…〉 of the Church shall passe your hands â—â— may but 〈…〉 thereof go forth into the world 〈…〉 ded with the reasons and grounds of it for doubtles the reason which induced you to set the stamp of authority upon it will a â—â—le much 〈…〉 it passe currently with others You know the Gorgons head which strock all men dumb in former times The Church the Church is not likely to have the same operation now in this seeing and searching age though men will willingly be subjects to your authority yet also as they are men they will be slaves to reason There is in your hands already Renowned and Honourable something which was printed by your appointment for your satisfaction in one main proposition which if it might see the publike light might give light to many who are yet in a cloud or mist So much for this point There is yet a second arising from these words Purifie your hearts ye double minded And that is Doct. 2 A double-minded man through the uncleanness of his heart keeps at distance from God and God keepes at distance from him He that is byassed with some predominant lust cannot close with God sincerely universally neither will God impart himselfe to such a man For let not that man thinke that he shall receive any thing of the Lord James 1. 7. would any of you settle an acquaintance or friendship with a known Vertumnus that will bee a parasite at one time and a Judas at another God it choice of his friends he owns not such as serve their lusts and are in heart divided from him I have no time left me for this point as neither for the consideration of both parts of this Text in connexion together clean hands and pure hearts nor lastly for the consideration of them both with reference to our drawing nigh to God and his drawing nigh to us wherein I might have shown you how communion with God and the power of godlinesse are linked together Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded FINIS THE HEARSE OF THE Renowned THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT EARLE OF ESSEX and Ewe Viscount Hereford Lord Ferrers of Chartley Bourchier and Lovaine sometime Captaine Lord Generall of the Armies raised for the defence of King and Parliament As it was represented in a Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster at the Magnificent Solemnity of his Funerall Octob. 22. 1646. By RICHARD VINES Eccles 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners goe about the streets Published by Order of the House of Peeres LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Abel Roper at the Sign of the Sun against Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1646. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE The House of PEERES Assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honorable I Have performed what service I am able to the memory of the renowned Lord deceased And to the Commands of that Right Honorable and Noble Triumvirate which gave being to this Sermon And to your Lordships by whose Order I have adventured upon this Publication All men except such whose either morosity or malignity doth account vetera in laude praesentià in fastidio must acknowledge the worth the valour the faithfulnesse which lie under the Robes you weare and that it is not a meere borrowed Opinion which makes you Honorable but the reflection or rebounding back of that upon you which went first out from you But this Sermon will teach you that Titles of Honour are written in dust and that Princes and great men must fall their very Monuments are mortall and will in time be found as Archemedes his Tomb by Cicero in vepretis over-growne with Thorns and Bryers and that light of memory which shines after your Sun-set is but like the Moon which wanes also by degrees No glory that 's woven in the finest Tapestry of this world but will lose colour decay and perish but saving grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a possession for eternity your zealous agency for the Church and State will carry you as far towards Immortality as any other Chariot in this world It s as much as nothing when one can say no more of a man then is said of some great ones that they reigned and died The Gen. 36. 33. Lord give you hearts actuated with zeal for God together with a right temperament of counsels knowing that you are over a people who as Tacitus saith nec totaÌ„ servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem and if your fall do come before you see or reap the fruit of your labours The Lord make you such as may take comfort with you and leave Honour behinde you so prayeth Your Lordships most humble and unworthy servant in and for Jesus Christ RICHARD VINES Die Veneris 23. Octob. 1646. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That this House gives thanks to Master Vines for the great pains by him taken yesterday in the Sermon hee preached at the solemnization of the Funerall of the Earle of Essex deceased And hee is hereby desired to Print and Publish the same which is not to be Printed by any but by Authority under his own hand Jo. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum I appoint Abel Roper to print this Sermon Richard Vines A SERMON PREACHED At the Solemnization of the Funerall of the Right Honorable ROBERT Earle of ESSEX c. Right Honorable c. AS that Lot sent forth to attach a particular man Josh 7. 16. did move gradatim and by steps taking first the Tribe then the Family then the House and at last the Man atter which manner of progression though at fewer steps Jonathan was also taken 1 Sam 14. 42. So doe the trackes or vestigia appearing to your eye lead you at two or three removes to the most sad occasion of this extraordinary and magnificent solemnity The Escocheons which are the Index of the
Family do speak first and tell the name of that honourable Family which this Lot hath taken And this sable field of men charged with a stately Herse honoured with so great a confluence of names and titles of honour granted either by the Sword or Gowne whether Honourable Worshipfull or Reverend and that in this place where the Dij majorum gentium have their Shrines where the Lions of England have usually put off their exuvias and where Majestie and highnesse have laid up what of Mortality they had doth proclaime him to bee some Prince or great name of that Family whom the Lot hath taken But then the Military Equipage the mourning Drumme the broken Launce the insignia Instruments of Warre reversed and in a mournful posture The Truncheon in a dead hand doe speake the very man It is Jonathan that is taken And shall Jonathan dye that hath wrought so great salvation in Israel It is alas too late to say shall Jonathan dye This Jonathan cannot be rescued by the love of Israel therefore I must sadly lay the Scene in one that is already 1 Sam. 14. 45. fallen for do not yee know that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel 2 SAM 3. 38. Know yee not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel THIS Text presents you with the Herse of Abner a Prince and a great man fallen in Israel This day presents you with a paralell Herse of a Prince and a great man fallen in England both of them magnificently attended with the drooping statelines of publike and universall lamentation That I may set up some lights about the Herse of Abner you may please to call to minde 1. His Office 2. His Project 3. His Fall 4. His Funerall 1. His Office was Captaine of the Host or stylo novo Lord Generall of the Forces of Israel it was not so much because he toucht King Saul in bloud being Cousin-Germane as in respect of this high command that he is called A Prince and a great man 2. His Project which he had upon the Anvile now at his death was the reducement of all Israel unto the Scepter of David herein his Project concurr'd with Gods but took rise in him from an ill or suspicious ground Ishbosheth doth but question him for familiar usage of a Concubine of Sauls which if true was in those times accounted a kinde of Crimen Majestatis and this heats his bloud for great Instruments will not be are a checke and thereupon his Stomack brings him off to David God useth the sins and great Spirits or animosities of great men though they be not carried by Conscience to bring to birth his owne purposes and promises made to his Davids 3. His Fall which was by the hand of pretended revenge but reall emulation the spirit of Caesar and Pompey was in Joab before it was in them He could not abide a corrivall or equall Let great Commanders looke to this Ambition is a Planet that must have a whole Orbe to it selfe and is impatient of Consort 4. His Funerall and that was solemne and honorable in Hebron now the royall City and formerly the Sepulchrall of Abraham Isaac c. At which David was chiefe mourner for he followed the Bed or Herse verse 31. and he was the Oratour that made the speech of Lamentation as he had before done for Saul and Jonathan 2 Sam. 1. 19. Now for the Hersebefore you let us see how farre it paralells with this in the Text. 1. The Prince or great man fallen this day in England was Captaine Lord Generall of the Host of England There is agreement in the Office and Title the Text could not be proper to any fallen under our Meridian unto this day but unto this new starre created by the Parliament and arising in this Horizon about July 1642. and now eclipsed or fallen 2. His project is written in a copy fairer then the originall and goes farre beyond that of Abner The reducement of divided Israel into one hive is somewhat alike in both But here is no effeminate spark that raiseth the spirit of this great man into a flame no such cause of his engagement but the defence of those pupill twinnes the two bleeding sisters ready to dye in each the others bosome the liberty and property of the Subjects of England 3. His fall is cleere of the disaster in Abners story he falls not by the hand of some unworthy and villanous desertor of him made bold by his vanquishment or flight as Pompey did nor by the just fury of an oppressed Senate as Caesar did nor by the arts and stratagems of a treacherous death as Abner did The hand of Joab is not in all this but by an Euthanasy which Augustus wisht for a faire death Hee dyed in peace 4. His Funerall for the state of it certainly over-matches the patterne Here are the two Houses of Parliament the map of all England in two globes powring out their sorrowes and paying their kisses of Honourable farewell to his tutelar sword The Princes of the Land that quarter with him in in honour and in bloud doe quarter with his herse this day in blacke and mourning The flowre of the renowned City of London far surpassing the meanness of Abners Hebron doe traile their teares after his Herse and are come to put upon him their civicam coronam their civicall crown of Honour propter servatos cives for their saved Citizens The reverend Judges and the Worthies of that gowne doe present the mourning teares of the lawes that pay this tribute for their freedome from all Antinomian prerogative The honourable souldiery those great names which while they wore his Orenge in the field could have daunted death it selfe doe now in change of colour weepe over him and what marble weepes not in such change of weather David that could take a lion by the beard yet weepes at the Herse of Abner The gowne also hath its ranke with the sword in this great Army of mourners The Assembly of Divines whose prayers hee somtimes valued and requested neede not be distreined for their contributions of teares grief they must wrap up in a cloth and lay up behind the Ephod this Goliah'-conquering sword in memory of a very cordiall and noble Patron Lastly what should I say of those starres that come not into any constellation I meane persons of quality not within the rankes yet within the line of this Lamentation together with that infinite multitude of all sorts from Cedars to the hysop that doe not onely come to fill their eyes but to empty them I must conclude to say as the cryer of the Ludi saeculares at Rome which were but once in a hundred yeares Come and see that which ye never saw before Plin. l. 7. c. 28. nor shall ever see againe If yet it be replyed that Abners Funerall hath one point or two of State above us
putting a sword into the hand of it The more service that you may doe by the advantage of ground you stand upon the heavyer will your accounts be if your greatnes be made a Stage and Theater for to act the parts of luxury lasciviousnes oppression upon What difference is there between such gods and those in Homer of whose drunkennesse and adulteries there is frequent mention let me speake one word to you young Noblemen and Gentlemen Learne you the way of godlinesse that may free you from the loosenesse and vanitie incident to greatnesse for when you have given florem Diabolo the floure of your time to lusts of youth your fall may come before you can so much as give faecem Deo the dregs thereof to God I conclude this point with that which one observes upon Gods seeing all the works that he had made that they were very good for then immediately saith he followed the Sabbath or rest of God which though our salvation be not of workes may signifie thus much to you that when you shall come to a retrospect upon your wayes and works and find them so empty of and contrary unto God there can be no expectation of a Sabbath or rest unto your soules and therefore wash ye make ye cleane c. Isa 1. 16 17. The second Know ye not is spoken to you the lower shrubs You are to know that your great men may fall in the very time of their usefulnesse and service for your good In their losse bewaile your sins for though you feele not the stroke while the wound is fresh and green yet afterwards you will find the want of such as are worthy instruments when wee expect they should doe great things God by taking them away interrupts the cast Put not therefore your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation for his breath goeth forth and in that very day his thoughts perish Ps 146. 3 4. even his projects and intentions for your good dye in the wombe and are abortive If we leane hard upon the reed it breaks the sooner and wee are laid flat on the ground God will not let his people enjoy that long which they prize too much some worme shall smite that gourd and it shall wither and though many great men are not likely to be blasted by the confidence of the people yet our sad experience teacheth us that we smell too much to our sweetest flowers and so wither them I Shall now come to the paralell Herse of that Prince and great man fallen this day in England of whom though modestie it selfe may without blushing speak in a magnificent stile yet have my thoughts waved me too and fro it not being easie to be moderatour of the Arguments that are for speech or silence Not because the matter will surpasse the work-manship and the copiousnesse of the subject shame the penury of my expression but because on the one hand it is argued that Funerall Encomiastickes of the dead are very often confections of poyson to the living for many whose lives speake nothing for them will draw the example into consequence and be thereby led into hope that they may presse a hackny Funerall Sermon to carry them to Heaven when they dye especially if such for whom no file could be rough enough while they lived be smooth-filed when they are dead on the other hand it may be said That though comon graves have no inscription yet Marble Tombes are nor without some Epitaph Heroicall examples should not go with a common passe but with a Trompet David afforded this Honorary to Saul and Abner and which is to be observed he drew not any line in their pictures with a black coale which yet he might have done for both of them had too much shadow if he would have used it but he dealt with them as the Painter did with Antigonus who had but one eye he drew his Picture imagine lusca halfe-faced and so buried the deformitie out of the beholders sight Neither is this all which makes me stand in a slippery place but the various senses and censures too which are very likely to be found in this great multitude Some that hated the sound of his Drums and Trumpets will not patiently endure the Eccho resounding to their dis-affected eares And some againe are indifferently content to heare some good words of his Epitaph because it begins with Hîc jacet here he lyes as Caracalla said to them that desired that some honours might be spent upon his Brother Geta now dead out of his way Sit divus saith he modo non sit vivus honour him as you will so as he doth not live The most voyces will doubtlesse vote that it is needlesse to set up a Candle to the Sunne for his story is yet alive in all mens memories and the stage whereon he acted it is yet warme The truth is I had rather leave him to the history which I hope the honourable Houses have bespoken and to that Homer that shall be the praco of this Achilles But because his name would sometime have passed me clear through all Guards and probably hath not as yet lost that vertue and that this State and presence speakes him with more eloquence then I so that I can but run the hazard of being an imperfect interpreter by word of that honour which your selves doe speak by signes And since death hath put him beyond pride all beyond envy and my selfe beyond flattery what if wee make a short Index of his Story and audit his dâ—bentur in the mean time not drawing him in full proportion but as Ezekiel pourtrayed the Citie of Ierusalem upon a Tile which wil indeed be more suitable to the posture we are in for deepe sorrowes make no long orations Leves loquuntur curae ingentes stupent Since then it must be so jacta est alea I shall impose upon my self this law not to build his Monument of common stones nor trouble my self and you to gather such flowers to cast upon his grave as grow in common fields nor descend or stoope to any thing which is beneath Heroicall His Nobilitie and his Noblenesse though they might each of them adorne his Monument yet the third which is his Excellency is the transcendent For his Nobilitie He was sprung of an exceeding faire an ancient Stem which doth branch forth into the great and Noble Families of the Princes and great men of England and he was the third of this Title which was inoculate into that Stem by Q. Elizabeth of famous memory But Titles of Honour must dye as well as men and because this renowned streame carries it's name no further I shall omit all matter of Heraldry as not becomming me at this time and place His Noblenesse was of a high and honourable elevation He was a man of fixed principles and of a masculine resolution of an inviting familiarity in a stately presence too generous to be
the errour is correspondent to the degree of importance of the truth that 's destroyed by it or denied 2. The vulgar and indeed abusive acceptation of the word is an infamy or reproach which usually men flinge in the face of others at random that are not of their opinion and it s too true as a learned man saith that haeresie and schisme are two theologicall scare-crowes many times set up to scare people and affright them The strongest party of the two commonly cries out of haeresie the weakest party cry out of persecution so the Papist puts a marke or brand of haereticall pravity upon and calls all Haeretickes who are opposite to their c Spalato lib. 1. câ—p 10. false doctrines or filthy lusts Haeresie was taken in a large sense when the d L. Cooke his Institutes Lollards were indicted for haeresie because they held it not meritorious to goe in pilgrimage to Saint Thomas or Mary of Walsingham or when Virgilius Bishop of Saltzburg was condemned for the haeresie of holding that there were Antipodes e Apology cap. 7. Bellarmine tells K. Iames that for all his beleeving the Scriptures the three Creeds the foure great and generall Councells yet he might be an Haereticke and his meaning was because the Popes infallibility or supremacy was not in any of the Kings Creeds As the intollerable abuse of excommunication formerly made no man to value it above the price at which he could buy it off so the abuse of this name and throwing it about at randome makes it not regarded which yet is a fearfull thing in it selfe and bringing swift destruction It hath been stretcht too farre to be a brand stigmatizing true beleevers and to scare men from prying into the trueth by making it odious and it is shriveled and shrunke up too much even almost to nothing by such as are affraid to hit themselves by defining it but is there not such a thing is there not such a damnable sin why then doe such horrible sins as the sin against the holy Ghost and the sin of haeresie lye like a terra incognita undiscovered unpreacht against Seeing there is to be found in Scripture especially in the Apostolicall Epistles so much said in description of and for caution against damnable haeresies and doctrines and the false teachers which privily bring them in and bring upon themselves and many that follow their pernicious wayes such fearfull destruction That which now remains is to draw up that which hath been said into matter of use and application Vse 1 And first let me speak to you all who professe the trueth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that you would be Protestants once again by declaring your selves against the heterodoxies dangerous errors of the present times for the infection spreads by reason of many that goe abroad with running sores upon them and if the Apostle when hee gave all diligence to write to beleevers of the common salvation thought it needfull for him to write to them and exhort them that they should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints upon this ground and reason that there were certain men crept in unawares c. Jude 3. 4. You cannot thinke it impertinent and unseasonable at this time to be exhorted to the same earnest contending for the faith for you are beset with danger on all sides the contagion is epidemicall many are distracted with here is Christ and there is Christ and are mis-led into pernicious wayes yea even some that seemed to be good eares of come are mil-dewd and almost blasted I doe therefore exhort you to consider the danger as you may easily summe it up from that which hath been said for you have heard that there shall be false Teachers amongst you we need not say there shall be but more suitable to our owne condition wee may say There are as it s said 1 Iohn 4. 4. many false Prophets are gone out into the world you see they are gone out I would we might see that they were come in againe 2. That these are they who bring in damnable haeresies they goe out to bring these in they are ring-leaders or as Tertullian said of Philosophers the patriarchs of haeresies 3. That they bring in these damnable haeresies privily they spawn first in quaeries or plausible beginnings the greatest Crocodile did at first lye in an egge a Franzius historia animalium Paulo majus anserino little bigger then a goose-egge b 2 Cor. 11. 15. themselves are transformed as Ministers of righteousnesse c 2 Pet. 2. 3. Rom. 16. 18. their words are composed and good their speeches are faire their artifice is d Eph. 4. 14. full of sleight and cunning craftinesse and therefore they creepe at unawares not onely into houses but into mens bosomes also 4. That haeresies are damnable and destructive poison though given in honey they arise and are made up coede Scripturarum as Tertullian saith by felling downe the goodly timber of the holy Scriptures e 2 Pet. 3. 16. wrested to the destruction of them that wrest them they turne grace into lasciviousnesse deny the Lord Jesus Christ overthrow the faith subvert the soule carry men down the stream of lust and liberty and so bring swift destruction 5. That many shall follow these pernicious wayes f Rom. 16. 18. the simple are deceived the learned are given up to g 2 Thes 2. 12. strong delusions the unstable are carried about like children with every h Eph. 4. 14. wind of doctrine Those that by profession of the truth had escaped the pollutions of the world are againe i 2 Pet. 2. 20. entangled and overcome and so the latter end of many that are carried away either by speciousnesse of errour or liberty of lust is worse then the beginning 6. That the last times shall be most of all infested with these pernicious errours k 1 Tim. 4. 1. Jude 17. 18. The spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shal depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits the Apostles have foretold that there shall bee mockers in the last time and by this saith m â— John 2. 18. the Apostle we know that it is the last time because there are many Antichrists and wee may very well understand by the last times not onely the times of the Gospell in generall but the time of Antichrists declining as well as of his arising and growth The last of the last times For as the last times of the Jewish Church after it had shaken off the captivity and idolatry were pester'd and infested most of all with haeresies untill Christ came with a new doctrine of the Gospell and untill the desolation of the frame of that Church so the last dayes of Gospell Churches having shaken off the second Babylonish captivity and idolatry shall be infested with these dangerous errours and haeresies and haply untill the very
ought not to have been arraigned coram non Judice as neither the cleer points of faith The time puls me by the eare and therefore for close as deceivers have the Serpents subtilty so get you the Serpents wisdom and if I were to prescribe prophylacticks or preservatives I would exhort you 1 To hold the head and so to fortifie the vitals from this epidemick infection Col. 2. 19. 2 To pursue practicall doctrine solid meat and let alone these sweet meats the tree of knowledge is fair to look on the tree of life better to feed on 3 Affect not things above the Word a holiness a zeal a knowledge above what is written Eve went some what further then Gods Word gave warrant when she replied neither shall ye touch it so there are many will say This is the holier way this is the better not having any Word for it 4. Avoid the house of infection the Fowlers net From such turn away faith the Scripture if the woman will confer with the Serpent you see what comes on it it 's the itch and pride after novelties that exposes us to temptations FINIS Vines on the Sacrament A TREATISE OF THE Right Institution Administration and Receiving of the SACRAMENT OF THE Lords-Supper Delivered in XX SERMONS at St Laurence-Jury London By the late Reverend and Learned Minister of the Gospel Mr Richard Vines sometime Master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge LONDON Printed by A. M. for Thomas Underhill at the Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1657. TO THE READER THe Posthumous Works of Learned Writers like fatherless Children are exposed to many wrongs and injuries Yea such hath been the fraud of some Impostors in the Church that they have taken away the live children of famous men and put their dead ones in the room Hence are those spurious and supposititious Books which have wandered up and down with their counterfeit Passes That therefore no suspicious thoughts may possess thee concerning this Treatise which is here published under the Name of that Learned and Eminent man Mr Vines I do upon sure and unquestionable Evidences give my publick Testimony that it is his proper and genuine Work printed by the Copy that was written with his own hand Thy Well-wisher ANTHONY BURGESSE Sutton-Coldfield Sep. 20. 1656. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Passeover or Paschal Lamb It 's signification and the Analogy or Resemblance between it and Christ our Passeover CHAP. II. Of Errours and Corruptions in the Church How soon they spring up When they are a ground of Separation and when not That this Ordinance must be sutable to Gods Institutions And the Communicants must be sutable to this Ordinance CHAP. III. That the Lord Jesus is the Author of this Sacrament CHAP. IV. Of the time of this Sacraments Institution and of Judas betraying Christ CHAP. V. Why Christ deferred the instituting of the Supper untill the night in which he was betrayed CHAP. VI. Of the Outwards or Elements of this Ordinance of the Supper CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence CHAP. IX Of the inward things signified or represented in this Supper CHAP. X. A fonr-fold Exhortation from the premises CHAP. XI Of Christs Mandate or Charge for the celebration of this Ordinance in Remembrance of him CHAP. XII Of doing this in remembrance of Christ The Properties of this Memorial CHAP. XIII A Lamentation for the neglect of this Ordinance CHAP. XIII How much it concerneth Ministers to Teach and all to Learn the true meaning of this Ordinance CHAP. XIV The great Business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup he shews the Lords Death CHAP. XV. The Lords-Supper is an itterable Ordinance CHAP. XVI Of the Continuance of this and other Gospel-Ordinances in the Church CHAP. XVII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving of the Lords-Supper CHAP. XVIII The Uses which are to be made of the two last Theses CHAP. XIX What must be done where Discipline cannot be executed for want of Administrators CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and use of Divine Ordinances Or Whether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to separate from such Communion CHAP. XXI Whether the Lords Supper be a Converting Ordinance CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving with some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy Receiving c. CHAP. XXIV That a Godly man may receive the Sacrament unworthily CHAP. XXV Of the Graces which are to be exercised and set on work in the Use of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVI Motives to quicken Endeavors to a fit or worthy Participation of this Ordinance CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVIII The Fruit and Benefit of worthy Receiving CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking unworthily CHAP. XXX The Cause of this Sin Viz. Not discerning the Lords Body CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sin of unworthy Receiving CHAP. XXXII The Danger of this Sinne. CHAP. XXXIII Of Examination in order to this Sacrament The Bookseller to the READER THis Treatise was very fairly writ by the Reverend Authour Mr Richard Vines now with God and perfected for the Press with his own Hand after which a great part of it was lost and carried by a stranger that took it up thirty miles off which yet by a good Providence of God was brought to his own hands again to his great rejoycing and I hope the Churches great benefit which seems to be the design of that unexpected Providence now that it is made publick He omitted to divide it into Chapters and Sections for the pleasure of the Reader which notwithstanding is now done together with the Contents of every Chapter and of most of the Sections which I thought good to certifie lest any expressions therein should seem unsuitable to the Authours own Genius and derogatory to his worth A TREATISE OF THE Right Institution Administration and Receiving of the SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER CHAPTER I. Of the Passeover or Paschall-Lamb Its signification and the Analogy or Resemblance between it and Christ our Passeover 1 COR. 5. 7 8. For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leven c. §. 1. IT is usuall in handling the nature and use of Sacraments to begin with the notion of a Sacrament in generall and then to descend to particular Sacraments which we call Baptism and the Lords Supper in their order But the Field is large and the compasse great and therefore I begin where the Lords Supper
ancient and later both corrupter and purer not that I or that I wish any else to be absolutely swayed by this Authority for there may be errour in the practice of the Church yea errour universally received as in that of giving this Sacrament to infants upon that ground Jeh 6. â—3 Except ye eat the flesh c. ye have no life in you and yet it was the practice of the Church so to do both in Cyprians and Austin's time but I prove the evidence of Fact by this Argument otherwise not to be proved at all and I do not expect that any should condemn so ancient a practice nor think they do but rather do conceive that the bottom of the business is the disrellish of that Authority by which it is to be done Bucephalus will be ridden by none but Alexander and it was the saying of Cardinall Matheo Langi concerning Luther That the Church of Rome the Mass the Court the lives of Priests and Friers stood in need to be Reformed but that a poor rascall Monk meaning Luther Heilin Geog. in Bavaria should begin all that he deemed intollerable and not to be endured §. 6 §. 6. The evidence of Scripture The second evidence is that of Scripture which is first in dignity but I put it second because it justifies the Fact for the substance thereof and here it is confest that no Turk Jew Infidell is debarred by reason of his Nation for Scythian and Barbarian bond and free are all one We are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles bond or free 1 Cor. 12. 13. and have been made to drink into one Spirit and therefore the word of the Gospel lies open to all Nations and people without partition wall such as between the Jews and others of old time but the barre lies in point of Religion for if they lie in their Idolatry and Infidelity though they may come to the Word yet not to the Table of the Lord. Who are to be kept from the Sacrament 1. The Jews that serve the Tabernacle and stick to the old Service under the Legall shadows are excepted We have an Altar or rather a Sacrifice Jesus Christ our sin-offering whereof they have no right to eat Heb. 13. 10. that is no right of Communion with us or Christ The place is difficult but easily cleared by Levit. 6. 30. for as the Priests that served at the Altar had no right to eat of the flesh of the sin-offering whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary but burnt it must be without the Camp so the Jews that hold to the Legall service have no right of eating the flesh of Christ whose blood was brought into the Holy place of heaven virtually and his body suffered without the gates of earthly Jerusalem thereby signifying that they were discommended that hold to the Legall service 2. Heathens and Infidels are excluded from this Table because they are extraneous and without so they are called 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge or censure them that are without they are without the gates of the Church not obnoxious to the Government nor allowed the priviledges of it and they that are without the gate cannot be admitted to the Table untill they come in and be members of the family 3. All unbaptized persons are excepted by the order of our Sacraments whereof Baptism is first for insition and implantation into the Body of Christ and the Lords Table for further coalition and growth this order is confirmed by the use or business of the Sacraments the one being of Regeneration and so first the other of Communion and so the second See 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit are we baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one spirit first baptized and then made to drink which order the Church of Christ hath held from the beginning as it 's said by Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. After the new Convert is thus washed we bring him to our meetings where the Eucharist is 4. Those that are under a present incapacity of performing such antecedaneous acts of preparation or which are to be exercised in the act of communicating provided that this incapacity be visible as I may say or manifest unto us as in infants ideots stupid ignorants bruits in the shape of men who though baptized yet are not capable of discerning the Lords Body or of examining themselves who seem to be excepted ver 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink And so I know a mad man may have lucid intervals and a poor ignorant soul may be brought to know the letters and spell the first syllables of Christianity against either of which I would not shut the door but if the ignorant cannot be gotten beyond sottishness and stupidity nor got out of his obstinacy in blindness I should be very unwilling to let him runne blinofold down the precipice or leave the door open for him to fall into condemnation not that I envy him a benefit but pity his downfall which I ought to hinder or at least not to help forward and I may say of such an one as the Apostle of the Law Rom. 7. 13. Shall that which is good be made death unto him God forbid Especially considering that the Apostle having said Let a man examine himself and so let him eat doth in the next words come on again ver 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body As for infants though the Churches of ancient time admitted them after Baptism to partake of the P Martyr in Musculus de caena Lords Supper for some hundreds of years and one or two of our Reforming Divines speak somewhat favourably of it yet the ground they went upon Joh. 6. 53. that otherwise they had not salvation is disclaimed by all both because that Chapter speaks nothing of Sacramentall or Symbolicall eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood and also was delivered by Christ a year or two before this Sacrament was born into the world and because there is so much activity and exercise required in a Communicant as viz. to remember the Lords death to shew it forth to discern the Lords body to examine ones self to judge ones self therefore is that ancient practise obsolete and as by tacite consent deserted and in room thereof we admit now not by their years for a man of threescore may be a childe in understanding and a childe in years may be a man but by their discretion and knowledge in the mystery of Christ and if the Parents or Pastors care the blossoming of grace and pregnancy in the childe were answerable to my desires I should as I am for great reasons be foreâ—â—ly admissions of them as namely that the benefit and refreshing of this Ordinance might curb the over-growth of the sins and lusts of youth
by his name But then as to the grace of education of his children up unto maturity and ripenesse by confirming them and strengthning and causing them to grow c. He hath ordained another Sacrament which is called the second because it presupposes the first as Passeover did Circumcision and that is the Lords Supper of which learned Hooker saith The grace Eccles pol. l. 5. pag. 536. which we have by it doth not begin but continue grace or life no man therefore receives this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live And to this purpose all our learned Divines have given their suffrage And the Papists though Concil Trid. Sess 13. c. 2. 7. Can. 5. 11. Bellarm. de Euch. c. 17. l. 4. Catech-sub fin Confes cap. de Sac. c. 29. they differ from us in denying remission of sinnes in this Sacrament in favour to their Sacrament of pennance yet they hold it to be an Ordinance of nutrition and so do all their Schoolmen and so doth the Church of England The strengthning and refreshing of our souls c. I need not number Authours or Churches It is so plain a case that I wonder they that have stood up in defence of it as a converting Ordinance have not taken notice of it There is an Army to a man against them and the ancient Christian Churches are so clear in it that they admitted no convert from the Heathen to either Baptism or Supper till they had testified their faith and repentance nor were they called fideles till they were baptized and admitted to the Supper whatsoever knowledge faith or repentance so ever they showed before Let me first clear the state of the Question and then give you the Reasons For the first First I do not deny that a man having some knowledge of the Gospel and visibly professing it for I do not think that any doth imagine that the very popping of the elements into a meer Heathens mouth may convert him may be truly and really converted at the Sacrament for who shall lock up the hands of the Spirit so as the Laver of Regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. The work of the Lord and a mans eating and drinking may not be together Or do we think that this time and conversion are incompossible No I think not so Nor do I question or doubt that the Word of God adjoyned to the Sacrament it being accompanied with the Gospel-promises and the lively painting forth of Christ may not work coversion for why the word out of a Pulpit and the word at a Table or in any other place should not have this same effect I see not You will say This is the cloathed use of the Sacrament the administration being accompanied with the Word and so still it is the Word that converts But what will you say to the naked use and application of the signes that is the act of distribution Taking Eating Drinking Do these convert or confer the first grace I answer I am not curious in delivering the very nick of time of mans conversion I affirm not that so it is nor deny that so it may be The winde blows when and where it listeth This yet is not the Question But whether there be found any declared intention any institution and appointment of God that this Ordinance shall convert souls or hath made it apt for that purpose so as we may look for such efficacy from it by vertue of Gods institution thereof to this end For it is a meerly positive Ordinance and the effect or efficiency must be expected in vertue of the appointment and institution and I cannot assent that the institution of the Supper promiseth this effect Greg. de Valentia and others of the Schoolmen De effiâ—acia Euch punct distinguish between the primary and per se effects of the Lords Supper and these that are per accidens not of institution among which he instances the conferring of the first grace and so Vasquez saith that he doth not hold That this Sacrament conveys Vasquez Tom. 3. Disp 205. the first grace by vertue of institution or appointment to that end and yet cites Bonaventure that the first grace may be given here secundum misericordiam of Gods meer mercy not secundum institutionem according to the institution of the Ordinance And this I say in answer to the Question But doth it follow hence that therefore all may come be invited or admitted because we say that which God can do not what he hath promised or declared that he will Prater intentional or accidental effects give no ground to seek them at such a cause as is not ordained to work them though haply some have been converted at that time Must a man that seeks a Kingdom be sent to seek his fathers Asses because Saul heard such news at such a time Must we run a man thorow with a sword to save his life because one did so once and let out a secret impostume Because some Minister hath been converted at his Ordination Is therefore the laying on of hands instituted for that purpose Because a man hath been converted at his marriage where the Sermon and benediction have wrought on him Is therefore marriage a converting Ordinance I might adde a great deal more for illustration of this point if I questioned your apprehension Secondly There is difference to be made between the qualifications of a man to his admittance to this Sacrament and the qualifications of him unto the inward grace benefit or effect of it If one be a baptized person a knowing professour of the Gospel against whom there lies no barre of notorious ignorance or scandal though it appear not that he is truly regenerate and sincere in grace yet he hath admittance he claims upon such a right as the Church cannot justly disallow no more than an Israelite circumcised and clean could be debarred the Passeover but as to the effect and benefit of the Supper to his soul there is required more than so even true faith in Christ and regeneration that he may exercise such graces as the benefits are promised unto and come to the Seals of the Covenant with the condition of the Covenant The wise Virgins cannot forbid the foolish from waiting with them for they have lamps as well as they but the Lord shuts the door against them from entring in with him for their oyl was out Glory not in this that the Church admits you to the Table but labour for the grace to feed upon the dainties set upon it many have the liberty to use it that have not the benefit or effect of that use many have a hundred times tasted bread and wine that never once tasted the body and bloud of Christ §. 4 §. 4 Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion The Reasons proving the Lords Supper not
forth those seven fruits 2 Cor. 7. 11. which change the frame of the heart a happy mother of so many good children These are the pangs of a godly soul and it is one of the first steps unto or parts of the Resurrection of a Christian from his fals and is caused not meerly by wrath but as Peters weeping was by the looks of Christ The reproofs the frowns the offence of a gracious God thaws the heart into melting tears and would do so though there were no hell As a meek childe needs no other house of correction than his fathers looks I am loath to be of that opinion which banishes godly sorrow out of Religion For if I were so happy as to want new matter and occasion for it yet sometimes to review old forgiven sins and the rather because forgiven with fresh bleeding heart doth excellently keep down swelling of pride and gives a fresh and new relish to Christ Jesus so the overflowing stoods do enrich the adjacent grounds and make them fresh and greene And so much concerning these affections V. The fifth Consideration is of purposes of amendment which we named before among the preparatives to this Sacrament which there are few but have at one time or other and men do exceedingly befool and flatter themselves in them For we have known that upon conviction of conscience and shame for many years together by fits and moods and for the skinning over some gallings of conscience men flie to purposes of repentance and put them on and binde themselves by vows or other bonds to doe no more and yet experience tels us that Sampson did not easilier break the cords that bound him than these men do break their purposes and cancell all bonds and resolutions and so a sick mans purposes are very often no other than the vows of a Mariner in a storm at sea who for the time will be or do any thing but when the danger is blown over they are as they were You ask What such are to do And the answer is ready Resolution without mortification is to little purpose the lust must be mortified that carries the sway and dominion For as the purposes of a man in his lucid intervals or of one that hath the Falling sicknesse to fall no more is to little purpose without some application to the disease that still lies within and will return and break all dams that are made by the streame of it so are resolutions upon conviction of conscience without effectual exercise of mortification by setting upon that root and lust which between whiles doth but sleep and will awaken again Let the patient see and search his sinne and apply the corzy of the Law and use those sharp medicines which eat out a rotten core and follow that sharp work of mortification or else all is to little purpose VI. The last thing I mention'd was thankfulnesse a grace proper to the Eucharist which signifies thankfulnesse and is the denomination of this Sacrament wherein thanksgiving is so eminently required and exercised and it â—ises either from the general ground or from the special The general is Gods Philanthropy which shews it self in a sic dilexit by giving Christ a Saviour to us and not to the Angels that sinn'd and is worthy to fill our hearts and mouths with admiration to all eternity But the special ground is Gods incorporation of us particularly into Christ by giving that differencing grace which distinguishes not from Devils but from reprobates and hypocrites and all that are called but not chosen which is a mark of special favour Thanksgiving for this shall be the work of heaven where we shall better understand and look upon our former misery as a fyle to set off and illustrate our glorious redemption and to this tune ought our hearts to be set here For in this rejoyce not that the devils fall before you but that your names are written in heaven and we have cause while we are in this lower orb to be thankfull for the least mustar-seed of faith and grace whose work is to set a byas upon the will to chuse God and set up his interest above all interests of self or world and he keeps this spark alive in worst times by no lesse a miracle than a spark of fire in the sea and that he inables this little grace to fight and combate and that is in Scripture to conquer against the powerfull fears and oppressions of the world and the powerfull allurements of lust and ease and pleasures of sinne which is a Sunshine that usually puts out our fire more easily than cold and nipping frosts which rather make it hotter and this is the meaning of that phrase He will not quench c. till he send forth judgement unto victory The smoak ends in victory Motive IV. After this digression the fourth Motive or Consideration follows exciting endeavour to come to this Sacrament in a sacramental disposition and that is taken from the benefit or fruit of it to a worthy receiver for the exercise of grace is well rewarded and the labour and pains bestowed in preparation or trimming of our Lamps is paid to us in the fruit and benefit of this Ordinance And therefore since as Bellarmine acknowledges the Question about the effect is of so near a kin to the preparation unto this Sacrament I shall briefly touch the point of the fruit and benefit thereof and that in these two points 1. That there is a great benefit and fruit of this Ordinance 2. What that fruit and benefit is CHAP. XXVIII The fruit and benefit of Worthy Receiving §. 1. 1. THere is a great benefit of this Sacrament to them that communicate therein preparedly though all be not agreed what the benefit is as may be seen by the Doctrine of the Papists the Socinians the Orthodox yet that there is a benefit few will deny and if it be denied the sensible experience of many godly Christians doth attest it to which experience the Apostle sometimes appeals saying Gal. 3. â— This onely would I learn of you and for others that will not own their experiences or have them not reason may convince them That as God made no uselesse creature so he ordains no fruitlesse institutions that this Ordinance being instituted for the use of his select people and confederates and that at such a time as our Lord Christ had the very powers of darknesse to encounter with therefore it is an Ordinance of some moment which began at the death and stands in force until the second coming of Christ and if nothing elâ—e could be said this is enough That the guilt and danger of receiving unworthily being so dreadfull there must in reason be some proportion of benefit and fruit to the receiving worthily which reason may convince any rational man that there is not only a good but that good is of very great proportion and degree and that ye shall not come for fruit to a barren