was wont to say tyrannically what Antidotum contra Caesarem and that is a reall crime in them only which was a ridiculous accusation of Trebonius Quod telum toto pectore non exceperit Again let this be our meditation when we returne from thence with benefit Blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsell and blessed be the Lord that sent thee out to meet me this day Surely this is a man of God a man of Heaven tell me O you that are cunning linguists did he not speak with the tongue of Angels was not I in heaven while I heard him is it but an imaginary fancie or did I heare the more then Pythagorean harmony of the sphears His words like Soveraigne balme dropt into my wounded soule like the sweet influence of the Pleiades upon this lower world me thought I felt my heart while he spake shoot up into my eares as it were to meet and kisse the blessed lips which distilled such gracious dew such golden showres and drinke them as the parched and thirsty earth the dew of Heaven and yet in the sweet remembrance thereof My soule magnifieth the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Blessed be the Lord that hath sent his Angels as he did to Peter to draw me out of the dungeon of sinne and misery that hath sent his Ambassadors as David did to Hanun to comfort me Signa Deum agnosco per sua Christus adest only Christ the munificent God as Nazianzen cals him could go to the cost of these precious and cordiall words he hath put them into the mouths of his Ambassadors The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the comfortable fellowship of the blessed Spirit be with all those blessed soules that by the grace of God and power of his Spirit love the Lord Iesus Deo soli gloria SIXE SERMONS ON I COR. II. II. Preached at Cambridge BY JOHN STOUGHTON Doctor in Divinitie sometimes Fellow of Immanuel Colledge in Cambridge late of Aldermanbury LONDON Perfected by the Author in his life time COLOS. 3. 11. But Christ is all and in all LONDON Printed by R. B. for Iohn Bellamie Henry Overton Iohn Rothwell and Ralph Smith 1640. A methodicall Analysis of the chiefe heads treated on in these Sermons upon the 1 CORINTH 2. 2. 1. Context 1 Occasion of the Epistle ministred by 1. Information of those of the house of Cloe. 2 Inquiry of those of the Church of Corinth 2. Argument of the Epistle 1. Complaint of corruptions to Chap. 7. 2. Resolution of questions Complaint of corruptions 1. Persons guiltie 1. Magistrates 2. Preachers 3. Whole Presbyterie 2. Severall maladies 1. Permitted 1. Schisme 1. Broken out with arrogancy 2. Not bound up with charity 2. Incest 1. Committed by vilanie 2. Not controlled by authority 3. Law suits 1. Prosecuted at heathen Courts 2. Not taken up by Christian care 3. Cure 1. Of Schisme from 10. vers of 1. Chap to 5. 1. Intimated 1. Premises his Letter sent by Timothie 4. 17. 2. Promises to come himselfe 19. 2. Expressed 1. Summe of the Letter an exhortation to unitie 1. Proposition supposed 10. 2. Assumption whetted with interrogations v. 13 3. Conclusion 1. Proposed 1. Sweet intreatie 2. Sound authoritie vers 10. 2. Iterated 14. vers of 4. Chapter 2. An objection 1. Insinuated vers 12. 2. Removed where 1. Causes of their disorder 1. Bewitching tongues of teachers 2. Itching eares of hearers 2. Cure where is expressed 1. Dutie of people they must not esteeme too highly of their Ministers for 1. They are but the Lords Servants 2. The Corinthians servants in the Lord. 2. Duty of Ministers in Pauls example in which 1. Efficient 1. God peremptorily commanding 2. Paul voluntarily obeying 2. End 1. God intends his glory Chap. 1. 2. Paul attends the Peoples good Chap. 2. 1. God commands Paul so to doe v. 17. of 1. Chap. to the end 2. Paul determines to do so 3. He did so 2. Text with the context containes 1. A generall precept 1. What they must preach in the Text. 1. For matter Christ Iesus only 2. For manner with all humilitie 2. Why they must preach in the text and context 1. God commands it 2. It is the Ministers duty from the ends he seekes 1. Gods glory not his owne applause 2. The peoples salvation not his approbation 3. How they must preach 1. Not in humane wisdome 2. Plainly and humbly 2. An illustrious example of Paul 3. Text alone where 1. The Ministers duty which is more naturall to the scope 1. Expressed in Pauls example 2. Enforced as it containes 1. A precept concerning the argument of preaching 2. An argument to provoke us to that precept 1. Paul did thus therefore none exempted 2. He did this not out of rashnesse but deliberated what to do 3. He determined not so much as to know 4. Not any thing 5. No not amongst the Corinthians save Christ crucified Observe That if Paul upon these termes would not then no Minister upon any termes must preach any thing but Iesus Christ and him crucified 2. The duty of every man which is more generall in the order of nature Doct. That the knowledge of Iesus Christ crucified is sufficient to Salvation 2 Explication two things to be considered 1 Appretiation 2. Appropriation 1. Gift 2. Conveyance 1. Gift Christ is a sufficient Saviour 1. What is meant by salvation where is considered 1. The utmost end and chief happinesse of man 2. His present state by nature 2. How Christ hath sufficiently wrought salvation for us 1. Explained 1. He hath redeemed us from all misery 1. Of sin 1. Original impuritie 2. Actualimpiety 2. Of punishment 2. He hath filled us with all good things 1. Holines 2 Happines 2. Proved 1. By 3. things in the text 1. He is Christ 2 He was crucified forus 3. He is Iesus 2. Scripture 2. Conveyance Faith is sufficient to make him our Saviour 1. Explication 1. What faith is 2. How it comes to be sufficient 2. Prooved 1. Faith in Christ is the summe of Divinity 1. Doctrine of Divinity Christ being 1. The foundation of faith 2. The fountaine of obedience 2. The rule of Divinity considered in a double difference 1. Before Christ 1. Before the Law 2. Vnder the Law 2. After Christ 1. Before the Law this was the Religion of 1. Adam 2. Abraham 2. Vnder the Law they were lead to Christ by 1. Their Sacraments 1. Ordinary 2. Extraordinary 2. Ceremonies 1. Sacrifices 1. Propitiatory 2. Gratulatorie 2. Holy persons 3. Holy places 3. In the times of the Gospell 2. Christ is the scope of all the Scripture in Generall 1. As the immutable substance of the Rule is considered 2 As it may bee accommodated to the mutable circumstances of the rule according to the difference of time He is the summe 1. Of the old Testament in 1. Propheticall 2. Historicall Scriptures 2. New Testament Application 1. Confutation of
If you aske me whence this comes I answer as Christ in another case Ab initio non fuit sic for as I told you before and now tell you againe Man was created the most glorious piece of this goodly frame a Citizen of Heaven Inhabitant of Paradise Brother of the Angels Lord of the Creatures Sonne of the Almightie even the glorious image of the Lord of glory the lively picture of the living God his body being graced with many ornaments and his soule adorned with many graces so that Heaven and Earth might seeme to have beene maried in his making Now then man was no sooner made but he rebelled against his maker he that was right was fat and kicked against his Lord and we in him we were sonnes of prevarication and the sonnes of perdition Ex illo fluere from that fountaine springs all our miserie we have all sinned against the Lord and therefore this great evil is upon us hence it is that our minds are blind the Crowes of the valley have picked out our eyes our wil 's lame to any thing that is good our nature catcht a fall like Mephibosheth in the cradle of her infancie and we could never outgrow it hence it is that our bodies are subject to deformities infirmities death our soules and bodies to the wrath of God which lies heavie upon us here prosecuting us with armies of plagues and will never leave us till it hath brought us unlesse his mercy prevent us to eternall torments and sunck us into the bottome of Hell No marvaile then if Plato complaine that the soule hath broke her wings if Poets tell us of an iron age if whole volumes be filled with declamations of the brevitie of mans life and the miseries of mankind No I marvaile not if they who had but one eye saw these things even through the cloudes of obscuritie I marvaile rather that among Christians who have both their eyes the eye of reason and the eye of faith and besides live in the Sunneshine of the Gospell so few see this as they did or at least the reason of this which they could not I marvaile I heare no more cry out with S. Paul O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death for if Paul so pathetically cryed out who could so triumphantly give thanks how much more justly may we if we cannot adde that which follows reiterate the same againe and say O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Ye see now the misery of a naturall man consisting in the conscience of sinne and the consequence of sinne the fault and the guilt malum culpae malum poenae this is the miserie of man which estranges him farre from the state of happines and out of this ye may gather what salvation is For every Salve supposes a Sore and the sore is sinne and paine and therefore the salve is that which will free us from this horrible condition and restore and re-estate us into the favour of the Lord and so into our former felicitie This is that which I meane by Salvation And thus am I falne into the second point That Christ is a sufficient Saviour The Sunne shines not so cleare in his strength as this truth I hope shall shine though through my weaknesse for to let passe all that might bee alleadged for it and to make use of those grounds onely which have beene laid already Yet it will be more then evident for as you heard Salvation is the redeeming us from that miserable condition in which by nature we lie plunged most deservedly and restoring us to that happy state which we should have enjoyed had we continued in our integrity But Christ Iesus hath performed both these for us therefore he is a sufficient Saviour The proofe of the Proposition was provided for before the Assumption I will make good in the parts For first Christ hath redeemed us from all our misery whether sinne the roote or punishment the fruit be considered 1. He hath taken away all sinne both our originall impuritie by the originall purity of his manhood which was therefore sanctified in his conception by the worke of the Holy Ghost that it might be exempted from the common condition of corruption and our actuall impietie by the actuall observance of the whole Law of God The Pharisees could not take him tripping in a word though they laid many traines to intrap him The High Priests could lay nothing to his charge though they hired false witnesses against him Pilate himselfe was constrained through the innocencie of his cause ceremonially to justifie him by washing his hands though he were constrained through the importunitie of his enemies judicially to proceed against him and so spill blood guiltlesse Thus was Christ Iesus the Lambe without spot the Israelite without guile fairer then the children of men that so he might take away the pollution of our nature with which we were wholly defiled And this was his active obedience wherein hee did that which we should have done but could not exactly fulfilling even the rigorous exaction of all Gods Commandements 2. The Punishment of sinne he tooke away likewise by suffering and overcomming that which we must have suffered but could not overcome even the full viols of Gods wrath and the weight of his hand the heavie weight of his heavie wrath which was due to us for our offences for he tooke not on him our nature only but the infirmities of our nature hee that was rich became poore for our sakes that we which were poore might be made rich hee that was cloathed with majestie as with a garment became naked that we might be decked with the robes of his righteousnesse he that was annointed with the oile of gladnesse above his fellowes wept that all teares might be wiped from our eyes he whose throne was in the Heavens wandred and had not whereon to rest his head that he might lead us who had lost our selves in the Labyrinth of sinne to eternall rest and fix us like starres in the Firmament Doe you believe in him for these things as he once said to Nathaniel follow me a little with your attention and you shall see greater things then these For he tooke upon him the chastisements of our sinnes and bare the burden of our iniquities he was accused that wee might be acquitted he was condemned that wee might be condoned he was accursed that wee might be acquitted he was hanged upon the Crosse and accounted a sinner that our sinnes might be crossed out of the booke of accounts and we might be accounted holy and righteous and wholly righteous Who now shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Take a view of all the enemies they were three like the three sonnes all terrible Gyants terrible to all the sonnes of Adam Sinne Death and Hell If the Lord had not beene on our side may we now say if
of the number and meaning and so it extends it selfe 1. To all the Apostles 2. To all Ministers of the Word both of them are Ambassadors for they agree in the substance of their commission though there be some difference in the circumstance of the execution the Apostolike office indeed carried a more lively resemblance of an Ambassage then the ordinary Ministery in two regards 1. They were authorized by Christ himselfe and so received their instructions immediately from his mouth who is the King of the Church and accordingly were furnished with all sufficiencies by the inspiration of his Spirit they bestowed not much time and travaile to speake forreine languages a thing necessary for Ambassadors but as Esaie's tongue was touched by a Seraphim with a cole from the Altar so they had cloven and fiery tongues bestowed on them by the Spirit beside that they had the gift of miracles as it were the broad seale of Heaven annexed to their letters of credit But with our Ministers it is not so but they are brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and trained up in the Schooles of the Prophets and purchase their abilities as he in the Acts did his freedome with a great summe of labour and time and cost and then the Church the Spouse of Christ since her Lords departure as a Matron weares the keyes of authority at her girdle opens to them a doore of utterance and admits them to the service of the Altar As they had a more authenticall mission so they had a motion more observable which addes as it were life and spirit to the image and picture of Ambassadors They were dispatched into all coasts and corners of the world but ours are fastned to some one place like pillars of residence but notwithstanding these petty differences seeing they have the same sphear of activity in which they moove to reconcile men to God and the same Sun of authority by which they moove the power of the Church being the power of Christ derived to her as we call them the Kings officers who are created not immediately by his Majestie but in vertue of his power and in subordination to his Royall prerogative And lastly seeing the similitude may be preserved entire in both though this variety be confessed there being a difference in the type Ambassadors much like that in the antitype of Ministers so that either may answer the patterne And our ordinary Ministers sute with agents or leiger Ambassadors as the Apostles came neerer to extraordinary In all these respects they also being included the whole extent of this word We hath three degrees 1. Himselfe 2. All his fellow Apostles 3. All his fellow-labourers in the Lords harvest I have made some haste but the time I feare hath over runne me much and therefore for that which is behind of the explication I will lay downe but the rude lineaments and proportion and leave the perfect colours and complexion to another time The second word Ambassadors is a speech borrowed from Princes Courts and applyed to Christ his Church by a decent analogy Ambassadors are messengers from one Prince or State to another about such affaires as concerne both You may observe three moments of being in this rude description and accordingly draw out three paralell lines in which the termes of comparison do runne along one by another in a sweet proportion 1. They are both Messengers 2. They are both from Princes 3. They are both about matters of mutuall behoofe But because you know a similitude is a tender thing and must be gently handled you must not squeize it too much and stretch it too farre lest you breake the harmony and analogy the Musicke and Logicke of the parts I shall pray you to carry along with you three maine discords in which they jarre least promising your selves an harmony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every note and point you be offended too much with every harshnesse and inequality 1. Ambassadors are therefore sent from Princes because them selves cannot be present every where but the Lord of these Ambassadors as he is in no predicament of time because he inhabiteth eternity so he is in no vbi but ubiquity 2. Ambassadors are directed to Princes only or free Estates and that from some Peere who can neither claime subjection of them nor superioritie over them to whom he sends But these are sent to subjects to vassalls to rebels from him to whom all owe an oath of allegiance to whose supremacy the highest must subscribe to whose soveraigntie all the sonnes of the mighty are obnoxious in a politicall naturall essentiall order of dependance 3. Ambassadors are set forth with some beseeming port and pompe that they may sustaine the person of majestie and support the majestie of the person whom they represent But with these it is nothing so the Chariots of their glory are the shame of their Lords house who to speak with reverence is like some rich Gentleman in the Countrey who in a bravery scornes to bee brave The third word of the Text remaines for Christ which may beare a threefold construction wherein Christ may be conceived either as the author or the end the Alpha and Omega of this Ambassage or thirdly the object of these Ambassadors the center and circumference of their imployment But I promised but a delineation of these things only give me leave to close up all with one observation out of the words I noted before that this sentence We are Ambassadors is closer trussed up in the Originall into one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of a precious emphasis which is much abated and very dilute almost lost in the translation for that word of action signifying the office may tell us so much in our eares that those officers must be men of action they must be of a nimble and active constitution The men of the earth may be of a more dull and sad temper they may fold their armes they may stretch themselves upon their beds of Ivory and turne themselves upon them as the doore turnes upon the hinges But these Messengers of Heaven must be like Heaven in perpetuall motion They may well fall to a motus trepidationis if they but once forget their daily progresse They that preach Christ the Sonne of righteousnesse must be like the Sunne who commeth forth of his chamber like a bridegroome and rejoyceth to runne his race as a mighty man and yet when they have done all there will be many sonnes of darknesse that will live in a night of security and sleepe and snort in sinne there will be many cold professors that are frozen to their lusts and will not be thawed by that Divine Lamp and melted into the teares of true repentance And therefore this translation We are Ambassadors nimis lentum est We ergo Ambassadors hoc quoque est nimis lentum These Ministers must fly like the Cherubims that give attendance in the presence of God they must have
should be their interpreter But why doe I confirme the truth of this the point is plaine That the Ministers of Gods Word are servants of Iesus Christ Men of God Gods Ambassadors Yet suffer me now according to promise for the further clearing of this to adde a few probable demonstrations if I may so speake without a Soloecisme and because the Doctrine is the best and truest touchstone of the Doctor I shall draw them all from the nature and qualitie of the Doctrine they teach And here I might enlarge my selfe for all those arguments that are alleadged by Divines to prove that the Scriptures are of Divine authority might easily be perswaded to speake the same for the Ministers and prove that they have a Divine Author but I shall single out two or three most pithy and pertinent for my purpose And first I might place Antiquity an Argument much used much urged by the ancient Fathers against the ancient Philosophers a good argument if I had not little time enough for better for though I have not such an overweening opinion of every Moth-eaten Manuscript as your young and busie Criticks seeme to have though I do not superstitiously admire and adore every relique and ragg of every Father perhaps of their own getting as the Papists do though I know there be sins of the forefathers mentioned in Scripture there be an old Serpent an old man not commended I wist there is vetustas erroris as a Father speakes there are veteratores as well as veteres and not farre distant to conclude the Gibeonites musty bread and moldie shooes are but a slovenlie argument of a long and teadious journey yet I confesse in a good sense the Prophet Ieremy bids the Israelites inquire for the old way which was the good way as if antiquum bonum were convertible one with another and both of them with unum verum In a good sense I approve the Axiome of Tertullian Quod antiquissimum etiam verissimum I admit that of the Poet Veritas temporis filia though some allow Platoes elogy of the ancient Antiquitie is neere a Deitie to conclude I thinke that true antiquitie in any Doctrine argues the author of it to be time that is the ancient of daies I am sure it is so here for though I find it not recorded in Polydore Virgil De Inventoribus rerum yet I can warrant it out of better Authors that Paradise was the first Parish that had a Sermon in it and Adam was the first auditor that heard a Sermon in Paradise and the fall of man was the first Text of the Sermon that Adam heard and God was the first Preacher of a Sermon upon that Text and these were the briefe notes written by Moses in characters of Gods Sermon The Seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents head So that God is not only as the Athenian Commander said he was being asked what he was neither Bow-man said he nor Pike-man nor Hors-man nor Footman but one that knowes istis omnibus imperare But God as he gave some to be Priests some to be Levites some to be Prophets in the old Law and some to be Apostles some to be Evangelists and some to be Pastors and some to be Preachers in the new Law and is the Lord of all these qui solus novit illis omnibus imperare So he was himselfe as I shewed the first Preacher and all the rest ever since perform their office by an authority derived from him they are the Lords Vicars This is the true antiquitie of the Doctrine that Gods Ambassadors teach of the function they have not as they who were wont to weare Moones in their shooes to cleare theirs that they were older than the Moon they were rather Lunatick as the Gospell speakes though the Church of God may even in this sense bee said to have the Moone under her feete as the Woman in the Revelation a Type of the Church is said to have the Moone under her feet But that which Cyprian alledges and allowes Non quod ante nos ille vel ille dixerit sed quod ante omnes Christus and therefore wee may justly say to all other Doctors as the Egyptians in Plato to the Graecians You Graecians are alwayes children and to another Doctor thou art but of yesterday but the Word of God endureth for ever as God the Word is yesterday and to day and for ever the same from eternitie to eternitie But I passe from this to the second which shall be the excellencie of their Ambassage For if the people in the Acts for a little flashie eloquence in Herods Oration could say The voyce of God and not of man If Plato could discern some beams of Divinitie in all Arts for some obscure tidings of God that they told him Grata de Deo fama in artibus sparsa est If Pompey were received by the Princes non tanquam ex vrbe missus sed tanquam è caelo delapsus as the Orator speakes because they found a beneficiall though thin influence of his Justice and temperance upon them If Catoes nobility though he were but Novus homo must be derived from heaven and that by the best Heraulds the minds of men admiring his vertues tertius è coelo cecidit Cato Then I pray tell me in what account should the Ministers be to whom all these may be as truly applyed as they were friendly supposed in the other It is not with them as it was with the Persian Lord in Apelles Shop whom the apprentises admired for his bravery so long as he stood silent but when he began to speake of things he had no skill in derided him for his simplicitie but cleane contrary like Vlisses in Homer who stood like some silly Countrey fellow leaning upon his staffe saith the Poet but when he spake he spake admirably Let me intreat you to take notice but of the subject and the project of their doctrine and you shall see it for he that teacheth plainly of the incomparable perfection of the Deitie the incomprehensible distinction of the Trinitie the depth of predestination the power of creation the skill of gubernation that there is a nature infinitely surpassing all nature that it is one yet three three and yet one that all things were moulded in nothing made of nothing and yet kept from nothing is not this man from God Surely none but they that have learned of his Spouse plowed with this Heifer can areed these riddles Againe he that teaches truly of mans blessed integrity his cursed apostacie the Divell the Serpent the Garden the Apple the Woman the funerail which Adam made for himselfe the fall how man was once full of sanctitie in his soule beautie in his body majestie in both the son of God a vessell of honour the tenant of Paradise the heire of Heaven the lord of the creatures whom the very sacred Angels served and the very salvage
vanitie of men that are so greedy of vanities whereas the whole World appeares to him as the territory of Athens to Alcibiades in Lucian but a spot of earth he scornes the best Orators to perswade him as Nazianzene saith of Cyprian that he did in his Letters exhortatory to Martyrdome to think that swords have not met all in them to do him hurt that fire is cold that wild beasts are gentle that famine is dainties that the hottest flames that ever Martyrs were burned in for Chrict's sake were but like Eliahs fiery Chariot wherein he rode in triumph into Heaven and which is more that these are are not Paradoxes in Christianity I can remember but one that gave such testimony of the power of any humane writing and that was Cleombrotus I thinke of Platoes booke of the immortality of the Soule which when he had read he was so afflicted that hee killed himselfe to learne that without booke in the Elysian fields that he had read there and injoy that good that he imagined out of it But how many thousand Martyrs have set a feale of blood to Gods booke and tooke it upon their death that it was the most powerfull of all other But to bound my selfe I purposed only to treat of the first worke which I have already done Yet I will adde one thing more and but one thing The untamed horses of distempered passions as Plato cals them which many times so hurry and wheele about the crazie chariot of reason that they set the wheeles of judgement upon which it should runne steadily cleane besides the socket even these are charmed and tempered by this heavenly musick as the evill spirit in Saul was by the Harpe and hand of David Excellently Lactantius Da mihi iracundum da libidinosum da avarum c. and I will so inchant him with a few syllables he sayes no more but paucis syllabis out of Gods word that I will make him meeke chaste liberall and concludes this confident assertion with this Epiphonema Tanta divine sapientiae vis est ut in hominis pestus infusa matrem delictorum stultitiam uno semel impetu expellat It is more then time to shut up this point briefly therefore it is absurd to say of naturall generation Sol homo generant hominem and yet to thinke of spirituall regeneration that the sonne of man can doe it without the sonne of righteousnesse And if the principles be true that the masters of that art have delivered in conveyance of water Aqua tantum ascendit quantum descendit then this water of life which makes a man ascend to God must needs have descended from God first and the Conduit-pipes the Ministers of God must needs be Organicall not Authenticall agents in the cures they worke with it they must be the instruments of God Gods Ambassadors The third degree followes which is the heart of man conferres nothing to this worke to this great worke not so much as a naturall receptivitie if there were apprehension in nature the difficultie would not be such as to prove a Divinitie but to make Adamants receive impressions like waxe to teach a stone to fly like a bird to swimme against the streame to croud against the multitude to saile against the windes to make a man against the corruption of his nature against the nature of his corruption a man of the World to savour and relish the things of God I know not what strength in nature can make it good what authority can warrant it The best wisdome of the flesh is saith the Apostle enmitie with God most significantly the most refined wisdome is not only an enemy but even enmity to God Non vitiosus homo es Zoile sed vitium said the Poet with some affinity to this phrase I will illustrate this but with a word or two out of Nazianzen and so leave it because I perceive the time passes and the thing hath beene touched in part already Such is the corruption of man that propound any divine good to it saith he it is entertained as fire by water or wet wood with hissing So grace is almost hissed off the stage with scoffs and taunts I cannot tell but me thinks I could bid the secure and carnall men if there were any such among us beware least it prove that they have learned that hissing facultie from the hissing serpent but to goe on propound any evill like fire to straw as he shewes elegantly like the foolish Satyre that made haste to kisse the fire like that unctuous matter which the naturalists say that it sucks and snatches the fire to it with which it is consumed Nay this is the great difficultie of a Pastorall cure saith the same Father that whereas in other medicinall the diseased party is termed a patient and may be so because hee is willing to subscribe to that which his Physitian shall prescribe him In this theologicall it is cleane contrary a mans selfe is his greatest sicknesse like a franticke person that fals foule with his best friends we are valiant against our selves and we defend what we affect like corrupt Lawyers to plead an ill cause and they which are more generous without all colouring or cloaking the matter runne bare-headed as we say runne on shamelesse to all wickednesse who shall helpe poore man in this miserable condition nam quid miserius est misero non miserante seipsum saith Austin in his Confessions even thou O God who art Pater miserationum which workest mightily with thine owne word in the mouth of thy Ministers thy Ambassadors The fourth and last degree will make this proofe square and sure a good proofe like Aristotles good man quadrangular and therfore we must not omit it This worke of the Ministers upon the heart which is so effectuall and yet so much against the haire against the bent of the heart besides all these it is done with silly instruments The Philosophers and Rhetoricians make a Goddesse of their eloquence and by the power of her divinity thinke to bewitch and inchant their auditors as they please and to scrue themselves into the most retired parts to take the heart the chiefe City or Metropolis of mans affections they admire her they studie her they pray her charme this man yea and to say the truth who is such an infant that hath not heard of the power of eloquence And yet it is not this that doth this great worke it is another perswasive goddesse that breeds this setled confidence this grounded perswasion of a Christian it is humilitie and simplicitie and plainnesse of speech that doth it as the Apostle declares to the Corinthians such is the Scripture language such the Ministers And as Plutarch observed out of the naturalists that the seed of those that are lascivious and incontinent is not fruitfull and applies it to the great talkers so I make no question but
wanton and lascivious Rhetorick makes the immortall seed of Gods Word more unfruitfull like a sword wrapped in wooll that cannot cut like an Oke embraced with the flattering Ivie that will not thrive and prosper I doe not condemne Rhetorick the genuine tropes and figures in a solid speech are like arrowes in the hand of a mighty man as the Psalmist saith in another case blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them And as the Philosopher said of Oyle observing the use to be good but the abuse to be great Male sit illis cinaedis said he qui rem optimam pessime infamârunt so may I say the use is good but the abuse is great of eloquence and therefore away with these effeminate and unmanly Orators that have cast a shrewd aspersion upon a noble profession As for the modest and sober use that is true of Divinitie which Seneca said of Philosophy that is true of eloquence which he said of wit Philosophia non renunciat ingenio Theologianon renunciat eloquentiae for there is an eloquence in the Scripture which is more then eloquence the Rhetoricians may call theirs an Allurement of the soule but this is a transmigration as I told you theirs may perfundere animum but this doth perfringere they may delight but this doth ravish with a divine Enthysiasme theirs is properly oratory but this is to speake more properly Imperatory which is then most full of Affection when it is most free from affectation theirs is more Scholasticall but this is more majesticall as best becomes the mouth of Princes as the noble Lord of Plesis hath well noted of the stile of the Scripture But the best of their nervi and tâ—ri the best sinewes and strength is but as Longinus observs of some childish Orators their schoole wit through curiosity ends in folly or frigidity and chilnesse in comparison of this To end this I can beare well that they brag of their Arculae Myrothesia and Lecythi like some deformed woemen of their boxes out of which they draw a painted and greasie beautie But I cannot brook that they should speake of thunder and lightning in their Orators ignorant and silly men as though these fiery Meteors were bred or did appeare in this lower Region so far from Heaven No no as they said once of Christian Souldiers that they were Fulminatrix Legio so I may say of the celestial Hierarchie of the Angels of the Churches the Lords Ministers that is Fulminatrix Regio and if I be not deceived he should not be much amisse that should call the Pulpit the shop of thunder all other Pericles have but brutum fulmem in comparison of that as you may conceive out of that which hath beene spoken and that which is the wonder in this all this is without any pomp or shew not with great pompe but with great weaknesse and infirmity rather which argues the evidence of the Spirit and the power of God the more strongly I conclude therefore As one said of Demetrius Pompeii libertus who spake much but had nothing to doe when Pompey himselfe who did all but said but little I regard not said he what thou sayest but what he doth silently so may we say it skils not so much what the Minister said outwardly as what the Spirit workes inwardly since the efficacie of their words depend not so much upon themselves because they are good orators as upon the Spirit of God because they are Gods Orators Gods Ambassadors I have finished now the explication of the intensive efficacie I must adde a word of their extensive for so I was constrained to call them for distinction sake I meane it thus If you take a view of the whole world you shall scarce find a region of which the Ministers of the Gospell may not say as he in the Poet Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris The Sects of Philosophers were distinguished by the names of Italick and Ionick as Laertius tels us but Religion is characterized and known by the name of Catholike Now wee know there is nothing commonly received but either by the law of nature in morall or by the law of nations in politicall affaires Now the faith of Christ preached by the Ministers being dispersed over all and not imprinted in all by either of those it cannot be but probable that it proceeds from the grace of God who is the God of nature Againe as the great Mathematician said once to the King let me have a place to stand on and I will move the earth implying that the moving of this earth could not be supposed without a firme standing on some other earth granted so the moving of the whole earth by the Ministers to the embracing of the faith must needs evince a fixing of them in Heaven from whence they are sent and the rather because of that great opposition which they find every where which will compell us to grant the former supposition You have seene the Embleme of an earth beseiged round with many windes the Devill on the one side blowing and the Pope the Divels instrument on the opposite side blowing and the Cardinals the Popes agents on each side betweene them blowing and the Turke at another corner blowing and all to shake this earth and yet notwithstanding all these the word is written in it immobilis the word is written in indeleble characters and it is unmoovable and it may well be said of all these blowers as the Orator said of the Athenians comparing them to men running up an Hill they blow hard but runne slow The Earth is the Ministers of the Gospell and that Word which they preach all those and many other lay their heads together to blow it away but all in vaine for the finger of God hath written immobilis upon them and his decree is like the Medes and Persians that cannot be changed but what he hath written he hath written Nulla litura in Decretis sapientum t is true of God and good reason the Spirit as the wind bloweth where it listeth as Christ saith and it is folly at least if not madnesse as Pythagoras speaks to blow against the winds The Word is like the Lampe that is unquenchable in the storie which laughs at the winds ridebis ventos saith he that swell and puffe and blow against it but it cannot blow it out and they that carry it are like the Persian Souldiers which they call immortall of whom the world may say as they did once of the Grecians in that Epigramme whom they thought invulnerable we shoot at them but they fall not downe we wound them and not kill them In a word as Gamaliel said of the Apostles preaching if it be of God it will prevaile we may invert it and say most truly if it prevaile thus against all opposition surely it is of God they are men of his right hand
like a star in perpetuall motion upon earth that he might shine like a star in heaven hereafter in perpetual rest and glory but to leave this as not so proper Luther said wittily of a servant Minùs nocet ignavus fur quà m segnis minister which is most true here the little Foxes that the Canticles speaks of that steals the Grapes do not so much hurt as the idle Ministers lazie labourers in the Lords Vineyard 4. Courage and resolution against all feare or flattery Feare not their faces saith the Lord to Ieremy lest I destroy thee Popilius a Romane Ambassador to Antiochus the great having delivered his message and the King deferring his answer and demurring on it drew a circle round about him with his wand and conjured him to determine and resolve whether he would have peace or warre before he went a foot out of the circle which wondrous resolution and confidence caused him presently to define peace And doe not we see how bold every petty Constable will beare himselfe upon the higher power I charge you in the Kings name c. and why should only Gods Ambassadors like children be afraid of shadowes and bug-beares The world hath many reproachfull nicknames for Gods Ambassadors Priest Parson Vicar c. what should we doe as he in the Poet Populus me sibilat at mihi plaudo ipse domi Vaine men as though the crowne of honour which God himselfe hath put upon the head of all these whom he hath made his Ambassadors were made of such fading flowers as would be blasted with every stinking breath of every prophane scoffer away with such ignoble and base pusillanimity to be scared with these we are too too nice and daintie Christi nimis delicati martyres as one speakes if wee thinke the worse of our selves or of our profession for this or if not the better It is a small thing yet many times more praise worthy to digest these without any rising of stomack quà m centum plagas Spartanâ nobilitate concoxisse like curs they barke because they are afraid of you they would not have you come neere them They speak evill of you because you do well or as he said plainly being asked why they did so quia malefacere nequeunt In the wildernesse these wilde beasts goe loose and prey upon Gods children but in this prosperity of Sion the Law chaines them and chaines them so that they cannot hurt and therefore they grin the more afarre off Let them know every contumelious word against a Christian who is the sonne of God is at least scandalum magnatum against his Ambassadors petty treason and when they belch forth this among their Tobacco-smoke to collow them they utter voces per jugulum redituras as the Phrase is What if Ahab frowne and fret and charge the Prophet of sharpnesse and unkindnesse Thou never propheciest good unto me like the King in Homer Thou never propheciest good unto me What if that be true loquor certa crux as Francis the first of France when he looked for an Ambassage from Charles the fifth the Emperour which he liked not set up a Gallows at the Court gate and promising to hang him on it that should bring the message We must say as Michaiah did as the Lord liveth what the Lord saith unto mee that will I speake unto thee We must conclude with Nazianzene we feare only that which is of the fullnesse of God We must resolve with noble Luther If all the tiles in Wormes were Divels yet I would not be afraid to goe and speake in behalfe of the Gospell of Iesus Christ Or as Hector in Homer I will combate with him although his hands were as fire and his strength as Iron Tell me who was that being about to speake for the nation of the Iewes in great danger armed her selfe with this If I perish I perish was it not Hester was it not a woman and yet it was a more then a manlike speech and yet it smells strong of some womanly weakenesse If I perish I perish no Hester was deceived that had beene truer Periisses nisi periisses And this may be a riddle which a Christian only can areed and a Christian will areed it easily if I perish I flourish Admirably Themistocles when being about to speake to Eurybiades the chiefe Commander of the Greekes forces against Xerxes he held up his staffe as if he had beene about to strike him strike said he but yet heare so let every Minister say scoffe if you will but heare raile if you will but I pray heare strike if you will but I beseech you heare that Word of God which I bring unto you But incomparably Pompey who being chosen Curator annonae in a great dearth at Rome and having made great provision for the reliefe of his Citizens and ready now to put to Sea for the conveyance of it when the Pylot of his Ship told him that the wind was boistrous the Sea tempestuous and the passage like to be very dangerous it skilleth not said Pompey hoist up saile t is necessary for us to saile t is not necessary for us to live So should every man of God resolve whose lips and Libraries are the very Granaries of Gods people it is not necessarie that I should live but it is necessary and woe is unto me if I do not preach the Gospell of which I am an Ambassador To shut up this as the Philosopher hath observed every Coward is a Murderer And as Mauritius the Emperour said of Phocas who conspired against him having enquired of his disposition and hearing that he was fearefull Si timidus est homicida est said he So I say in this case the cowardise of the Ministers is crueltie if he feare the faces of men he is a murtherer of the soules of men A word of flattery It is a rule in Plutarch that a Queene gives a Courtier those that speake to Princes must speake silken words their tender eares will not abide the scratch of biting truths but as a worthy Divine hath wittily observed I thinke saith he that must be understood of silken men but as for Elias or Iohn Baptist a Minister a smooth tongue will as ill become their rough garments as Iacobs smooth voice became his rough hands betweene which there was a reall and palpable contradiction as it did become the Asse in the Fable to fawne and leape upon his master which he did because he saw the Dog that did it was much made of for it Of all things in the world a Parasite and a Pulpit are most incompetible It is most base for Gods Ambassadors which represent his person to pick feathers off from great Mens coates an ancient character of a Parasite to stuffe pillowes withall to sowe underneath their elbowes how much do they cast themselves beneath themselves and trample upon the royaltie of their office that can finde in their hearts to stoope to this servility
A Lacedaemonian slave standing to be sold in the market and asked of a chapman what Art he knew I am a free man said he and shall Gods Ambassadors bee the greatest slaves whose very speech being but attired and attended as they ought to be with that majesty and authority which Divine truths carry in their very countenance should command as much reverence as the Pontificall garments in which Iuddus the high Priest met with Alexander the Great who was so affected with that auguste state and bravery of them that he fell downe at his feet and worshipped him as Iosephus records I have done with the instructions a word or two of incouragement I will not be so bold my selfe but I would commend any thing to some that were worthy to put our great Rabbins in mind wherein their honour lies it is not Silks nor Velvets nor Scarlet nor a goodly traine what doe I speake of these it is not Throns nor Dominations nor Powers nor any dignities that can make a man so truly honourable as the preaching of the Gospell to poore soules to be Gods Ambassadors surely they are mistaken they need not feare the frequency in this duty should prove a disparagement or imminution to greatnesse Excellently saith our Saviour All power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth I will now prefer all my servants and make you Lords and Rulers but wot yee how it followes Go preach to all Nations but this by the way I conclude this with a word to some with whom I may be bold Let no man here that is in a way to the Ministery believe the false spies that raise an ill report upon that good land that flowes with milk and honey I will say no more now but is it thinke you a base thing and sordid to be Ambassadors to the King of Heaven I will repeat it once more because I can scarce heare without some indignation that that should be a maxime in the worlds Heraldrie for earthly Kings once Ambassador ever honourable And it is a base thing to be Ambassadors for the King of Heaven And now I come to the third deduction concerning the people which I must run over I shall not need to tell you that you must not offer any discourtesie to these Ambassadors Ambassadors are inviolable by the law of Nations and the Lord hath set a better mark then Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm And if any should rise up against them I would tell them boldly what one whispered in the Captains eare when he was somthing too busie with Paul Take heed what thou doest this man is a Romane Take heed what thou doest this man is an Ambassador The Romans sacked the famous Corinth and razedit to the ground for a little discourtesie they offer'd to their Ambassadors And what shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe to those husbandmen that beat and ston'd and killd his servants that he sends unto them It is a symptome of a disordered and desperate estate When these Ambassadors are violated we pull all Gods judgements upon our heads with the chaines of our sinnes but this is the linke of the chaine that immediately drawes them It is a remarkable place in the last of the Chronicles Moreover all the chiefe of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord that he hallowed at Ierusalem here be many links but observe that followes And the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets this is the last linke and ye see judgement fastned chained and linked to it untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedie Therefore he brought upon them the Chaldees c. I passe from this When Ehud told the King of Moab I have a Message to thee from God O King he rose from his thron and bowed himself I think it was Francis that said if he should meet a Preacher and an Angell together he would first salute the Preacher and the Angell after I am sure Paul saith of the Galathians that they received him as an Angell of God yea as Iesus Christ and that they would have plucked out their eyes for him how beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring the glad tydings of Peace saith the Church in the Prophet the Spouse of Christ is so humble or modest or both that shee dares looke no higher then the feet and yet she spies beautifull written in the very dust of their feet as you have seene a contrary word other where and that in such legible characters that she reads it afar off before they come neare her upon the mountaines as though it had beene written with a Sun beame upon some Easterne hill in a goodly morning and those letters printed such affection in her that being not able to expresse it by art shee throwes down her pensill as you have heard of the Painter and expresses it with a passion or rather she shadowes that she could not set forth in a patheticall exclamation How beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring glad tydings of peace and what she did in speeches Mary in the Gospell spake in deed she fell downe at the feet of Christ she broke her box of precious ointment and powred it upon them she let fall a shower of more precious tears penitent teares are something like to pearls but that they are more precious with which she washed them she wiped them with a most precious towell the haires of her head me thinks these golden haires were like to threads of gold with which Mary tyed her self as it were in a true lovers knot to her best beloved Saviour Would you know plainly what entertainment you must give these Ambassadors I will tell you in a word Give attention credit obedience to their words if they thunder and lighten out of Mount Sinai if the Lion roare let the proudest beast in the forrest quake and tremble if Mount Sion let fall her silver drops if the silver trumpet of the Gospell sound peace and comfort let the poorest worm forget that he creeps upon the earth and think he hath a title to Heaven I know you long till I make an end and so do I too To conclude therefore I wish you could forget all that hath beene spoken and blot it out of your memory to fasten this one thing which I am now to say Let this be our remembrance when we go to the Lords house I go now to heare what Gods Ambassadors shall say unto me they that dresse themselves to go with any colder or baser conceits may well bee checked as Caligula
by Christ did overflow and superabound and the riches of grace the exceeding great love of Christ and the bredth and the length and the height and the depth of love A man would thinke that Paul had spent all his Arts all his Rhetorick in Pleonasmes and Hyperbolies his Geometry in taking the height of his desert and could not attaine it And indeed they are words of wonder wondrous words or rather as he sayes wonders not words to expresse his absolute perfection to omit all these I say I will content my selfe with two or three witnesses to ratifie it which shall be past exception Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinne of the world saith Iohn Baptist of Christ Will you believe the Lords Messenger Behold the Lamb what shall we behold in a Lamb Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Iohn 19. 30. It is finished saith Christ Iesus himselfe It what the Redemption of mankind what of the Redemption It is finished will you believe the Lord and Master Let no man think to thrust his Sickle into another mans harvest for it is finished Matth. 3. last This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased saith God the Father This which even Christ Iesus what of Christ This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased will you believe the Lord and Maker Let no man feare any after reckoning the Lord will looke for no more he will take no more for he is already pleased for in his welbeloved sonne he is well pleased I thinke there 's no man can slight the credit of these witnesses for Iohn hee said no more then he saw and Christ he affirmed no more then he performed and God spoke that which be received his acquittance could be no larger then his acceptance and therefore needs must all these make it irrefragable Neither was their witnesse a perfunctory testimoniall but a peremptory proofe of his fufficiencie for Iohn was nothing but a voice and the voice of a cryer and yet this is all that he said with such earnest contention and God said it not in a silent manner whispering not in a secret place but it was a voice from Heaven and Christ said it not in his ordinary speech but when he was upon the Crosse then he said a great voice as S. Matthew and S. Marke note then he said it with his last breath and seald it with his dearest blood And therefore I hope that this will suffice to have spoken of his sufficiencie I come now to the second point That Faith is sufficient to make him our Saviour which I will handle according to my former order but exceeding briefly 1. What faith is viz. out of the true sence of our own misery by nature and sweet apprehension of Gods mercy offered an humble denyall of our selves and all creatures and confident relying on the mercy of the Lord in Christ Iesus This may serve for a weake delineation of that worthy grace framed according to the proportion of my former principles And that this is sufficient needs no more proof but to point at that which ye have heard already for seeing our Salvation must be wrought by another and he that wrought it is Christ what can be further requisite then that Christ and his merits be made ours which can be done by faith only beside which there can be no other affection betweene God and man for the Spirit of God is the bond that unites and knits us to Christ by faith and faith is the hand that receives the treasure of Christs merits that inrich us and Christ is all our riches for being once transplanted out of the old Adam and ingrafted into the new which is Christ and made one with him the Lord cannot chuse but repute us righteous through the imputation of his righteousnesse Hence it is that all our sinnes are remitted and blotted out of the booke of remembrance and our selves re-admitted into his favour and into his family hence it is that we are adopted to be his sonnes and adorned with his sonnes holinesse hence it is that the curse of our sinnes is take away and we have peace with God and all his creatures the Angels pitch their Tents about us and the stones of the field are in league with us for it is written He hath given his Angels charge over us to preserve us in all our wayes least at any time we should hurt our foot against a stone hence it is that the old man with the lusts of the same dye in us and decay and the new man is renewed daily As soone as we begin to believe in the Lord Iesus the scales fall from our eyes that we can not only read in the book of the Scripture the will of God which before was a booke closed a booke sealed up to us but also lift up our eyes to Heaven and looke into the volumes of eternitie and read our names written in the booke of life The shackels also fall from our feet and we being inlarged are enabled not only to walk in the Lords Statutes but also to run the way of his Commandements And though we groane under the burden of our sinnes so long as we live here cloathed with this body of death yet we are freed from the bondage of them and still grow on to perfection which then wee shall attaine when we shall bee translated into the Heavens where we shall receive the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls through his mercy who hath so dearely bought us and brought us thither where we shall enjoy the blessed presence of God in whose presence there is fulnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Blessed are the people that are in such a case in such a place yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. But all this is made ours by faith only which entitles us to the merits of Christ who purchased it for us therefore faith is sufficient I should now justifie this by Scripture but to say truth this truth and this Text is the only scope of the Scripture the theme of Theologie the pith of all piety and therefore because it deserves some better observation I will deferre it to some better opportunitie Μόνῳ τῷ Θεῷ δόξα 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him Crucified WHen I first tooke this place in hand I thought to have finished it out of hand the same time I began but it fared with me as it did with Simonides who the more time they gave him to assoyle the question what God was the more he craved And what marvaile since Christ is the argument we have in hand They talk of a fabulous purse of Fortunatus I thinke few are so credulous to believe it but this we may and must believe for the Spirit of truth avouches
that by God himselfe he that promised him prophecyed of him for Christ was that Seede of the woman which brake the head of the Serpent and therefore was borne of a woman onely a Virgin that had not knowne a man the Virgin Mary and therefore at the very time when hee fulfilled this promise when hee hung upon the Crosse he said to his Mother woman behold thy sonne meaning Iohn to whose care he committed her woman not mother intimating that he was that seed of the woman of whom God foretold so long ago that seed of the woman that brake the head of the Serpent the counsell of the Divell Goe now to Abraham what was the Religion of Abraham and his familie the Lord himselfe hath left it recorded Abraham saw my day and rejoyced this then was Abrahams joy and Abrahams Religion even the expectation of the promised seed which was the soule of the covenant that God made with him the seale whereof was Circumcision an image of his bloodshed and therefore Isaac the sonne of promise if he had not beene called Isaac the sonne of laughter because Sarah laughed in the Tent doore when she heard the newes of a sonne saying Shall I that am barren beare a sonne in mine old age he might have beene called Isaac the sonne of laughter because Abraham saw his day who was indeed the sonne of promise and rejoyced For Isaac was not that promised seed of which God said in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed for by the same reason should many more be that seed even all that proceeded out of the loines of Ahraham in the line of Isaac which were like the starrs of the Heaven in number but God said not in thy seeds as of many saith S. Paul but of thy seed as of one which was Christ in thy seed in this thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed For Isaac was but a type of that seed and represented him in many resemblances Isaac was borne of Sarah a barren woman and past beareing Iesus was borne of Mary an unspotted virgin springing like a branch out of a drie land as Esay speakes like a stone hewen out of a rocke without hands as Daniel sayes Isaac bare the wood which should have consumed him Iesus bare the wood of the Crosse on which he was crucified Isaac was bound Iesus was bound Isaac should have beene offered for a sacrifice Iesus was offered a sacrifice for the sinns of the world Isaac on Mount Moriah Iesus as some thinke on Mount Moriah from Isaac arose the proverbe in the Mount will the Lord be seene in Iesus it is much more true for no man hath seene the father at any time but the sonne and no man can see the Father but he to whom the sonne hath revealed him and in him we see all the love of God for behold what love the Father hath given us that he hath sent his only begotten sonne into the world that who so believeth in him might not perish but have life everlasting Many such like types had those times like prospective Glasses to conveigh their glimmering sight to the only object of happinesse Christ Iesus as Iacob who got the blessing in his elder brothers garment and Ioseph who was stripped of his coate sold by Iudahs motion stood before Pharaoh at thirty yeares old whose coate dipped in blood turn'd the wrath of his Father from his brethren even as Christ was stripped by the Souldiers sold by Iudas treason stood before God in his office about thirty yeares old and in whose blood we being dipped are delivered from the wrath of God the Father From hence then we passe to the time under the Law where we shall finde nothing but Christ neither Indeed all things then were more obscurely delivered untill the day came and the shadowes fled away as Salomon speakes even untill Christ came who was the substance of those ceremonies and untill the ceremonies fled away which were the shadowes of that substance yet were they not destitute of all light Take an Emblem of their condition The children of Israel in their journey into the Land of Canaan where guided by the conduct of a Pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night their day was something overcast with a cloud and yet their darknesse was something overcome with a light they had a day but not without some eclipse of a cloud they lived in a night of darknes yet not without some glimpse of light for the Lord led them to the heavenly Canaan with a pillar of cloud by day and by night with a pillar of fire And perhaps the Psalmist may insinuate so much where he sayes Thy word is a Lanthorne to my feet for a Lanthorne argues much darknesse and is used in the night only as for the day madnesse it were splendente sole lucernam accendere but againe it argues some light for otherwise why was it kindled Neither is Peter farre from this allusion when he compares the Word of the Prophets which the Israelites enjoyed to a light shining in a darke place Agreeable to the first adumbration ther was a day but with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire but by night and here wee have a light but of a Lanthorne a light shining but in a darke place this was then the state of Religion Now all the light they had was borrowed from Christ as the starres do theirs from the Sun and all lead us to Christ againe as little Rivers to the Ocean See this 1. In their Sacraments their ordinary Sacraments were Circumcision and the Passeover answerable to those we have Baptisme and the Lords Supper which both had reference to the same inward grace though there were a difference in the outward elements for what meant the blood shed in Circumcision and sprinkled on their doore-posts in the Passeover but the blood of Christ shed for the remission of sinnes and sprinkled in our hearts to purge and cleanse all our iniquities for Christ was the true Paschall Lambe in whom therefore the law of it was fulfilled Not a bone of him shall be broken and of whom Iohn sayes Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world Christ is the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the World for that purpose and the very name of Passeover notes as much for in Christ it pleased God when he judges all the World in mercy to passe over us and when he passed over all the World in justice to take his elect in mercy and make them his children Yea Christ himself therefore when hee had celebrated the Passover with his Disciples instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood to shew that he was that truth of which the Lambe was but a representation And in that Passeover we may discerne a modell of our Supper they must eat it with sowre hearbs to wit repentance and
reasons to warrant the wisdome and equitie of Pauls determination to know nothing among the Corinthians but Christ Iesus and him Crucified Now out of these shall be deduced First for Confutation out of the first two things 1. That Saints are not Saviours and therefore not to be invocated as Saviours 2. That Sinners cannot be their owne Saviours and therefore that our works on earth are not merits of Heaven Out of the second two things 1. That the Scripture is most perfect and therefore needeth not to be patched up with Tradition 2. That the Scriptures are perspicuous and therefore neede not to be locked up from the Laitie From the third two things 1. How a man may know the true Religion by Christ the corner-stone the Lydius lapis the Touchstone of Religion 2. How a man may unmaske Antichrist and his counterfeit Religion by Christ and his 2. For Exhortation out of all jointly 1. For Ministers what is the true Rule of Preaching the Art and that I may so speak with reverence the very tricke of Preaching viz. to Preach Christ and him crucified 2. For all what should be all our chiefe study the aime and scope of all our studies viz. only to know believe and love Christ Crucified If any of you think any of these too farre fet rather haled then drawn out of this Text when I come to the particulars I hope to give him a reasonable satisfaction And thus I have drawne a Map of the holy Land or rather as God brought Moses to the top of Mount Nebo where he shewed him a sight a Synopsis of the Land of Canaan so have I you but as it was then so it is now and so it will ever be we must travaile some dayes journies before we can enter into that good Land we must winn it and weare it we must fight with the enemies of God before we can fill our selves of the milke and honey of that Land which flowed with milke and honey Thus much I think I may be bold to say in generall that he that is indifferent if he thinke advisedly on the matter will say that I have taken an indifferent course I have taken these to try my selfe but I have refused more which I might have taken because I would not tire my auditors I have selected these to exercise my meditations out of many other which I neglected that I might not exceed the proportion of this exercise for who sees not that Antichristianisme is nothing else but an opposition in a mysterie to the mysterie of godlinesse revealed in Christ either by open oppugning or secret undermining or if there be any that cannot see he may well heare the Proverb Who is so blind as he that will not see so that if I had a minde to favour my selfe I have a faire occasion to make choise of mine enemie among all the troopes of the Romish Antichrist and single out the weakest but I rather follow the direction of the lot that is falne into my lap and set upon him that stands nearest though he strout wide and speake boistrous and looke big with horrour and disdainfulnesse I remember how David with a little stone which he found by the brook branded that proud Goliah in the forehead and foundred the uncircumcised Philistim that defied the Hoast of Israel and the Lord of Hoasts And Daniel makes mention of a stone that was cut out of the mountaine without hands which brake the glorious image of Nebuchadnezzar whose head was of gold the armes and breasts of silver the thighs and legs of brasse the feet of iron a man would think all metall and yet that little stone battered it all to peeces Behold I stand by the brooke of water by the book of God for the Scripture is the river that makes glad the City of God behold in these christall streames the stone the Lord Christ for Christ is the stone which the proud builders of Babel refused but is become the head of the corner which the Master-builder hath put in Sion and elect and precious stone me thinks I want nothing but Davids hand or Davids sling to check the scornefull Whore with a blow and spoile the mysterie that is written in her forehead and yet againe me thinks I need not Davids hand since I have his stone for his stone is the same that Daniels stone and Daniels stone like the Phoenician ships in Homer is guided by an higher Intelligence and can doe the feat without hands and as the stone without hands intimates according to our interpreters the Virginitie of Mary out of whom Christ was hewen without the help of man so Christ in my Text may be taken out without hands without any great paines of man to breake the clay feet the brittle pillars of that brasen-faced Whore to breake them like a Potters vessell And though I know the Fathers and Councels like Sauls Armour are not needfull for David in his combate yet perhaps it were no hard matter for the happy champion when he hath foyled his enemy with a stone out of the Scripture and laid him grovelling in the dust to set his victorious foot upon his necke and strike off his head with the edge of the Fathers as it were with his owne sword in which he gloried Perhaps you wonder wher 's the point all this while is that lost is that forgotten t is true but I choose rather to leade you into my further discourse though with an unseasonable preface then trouble you with an unseemely repetition of the former though I might plead the prescription of time enough to secure me from exception or obloquie and yet I presume that with your favourable construction I have erred indeed but so as not praeter casam no nor praeter causam neither I come now to it The first point of the Explication was that Christ is a sufficient Saviour out of it I deduced 1. That Saints are no Saviours nor therefore to be invocated as Saviours here is no such magneticall and invisible Sympathie that any man should wonder what necessity tyes these two together neither is their any such forced deduction that a man should need to pumpe or cherne to make it come the dependance is easie as it is in the links of a chain draw one and the rest will follow as it is in water spilt upon an even table it is very docible to go which way soever the finger will lead it so willingly doth this consequent offer it self to your consideration out of the precedent position Well then this is our Theme for this time that Saints are not Saviours nor therefore to be invocated as Saviours wherein I purpose first to represent unto your view a light adumbration a rude draught of it instead of an exposition of the state of the question which shall containe as it were a Sciagraphy of the truth and a Sciamachy against the falshood I shall measure but three paces in this porch before I
owne brewing and they are like to drinke as they brew faint beere faint prayers thin beere thin prayers What if they be strong of the Hop of Saints yet when there is no graine of faith in Christ not so much as a graine of Mustard-seed in them I hope I may well terme them thin beere thin prayers faint beere faint prayers Let me then say to them Behold these are thy Saviours ô thou sonne of the rebellious woman ô thou daughter of Rome thy Saviours in whom thou trustest and let mee say to you Sonne of man seest thou these abominations then learne to say with me O the patience and long sufferance and gentlenes of God toward vile sinners Follow me but a little further with your attention and I will shew you greater abominations then these for now I come to the third step concerning their Idolatry with the Virgin Mary in particular Revelation 9. There is mention made of a bread of Locusts out of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit which are at large described there among other this is one particular that they have womens haire according to the judgement of learned Interpreters these Locusts typifie the flocks of Easterne Saracens ' and the Westerne swarmes of Monkes but how can shaven crownes for so Monkes are and it went before that they had like crownes upon their heads which notes that round shaving in forme of a crowne which was indeed as precious as a crowne to them to keepe them sacred and inviolable how can those bald-pates be said to have womens haire yes not litterally but mystically because they gloried in womens haire the thing is plaine in storie The Saracens descended indeed of Hagar the bond-woman as it were of purpose to verifie this type will needs be called Saracens of Sarah the free woman and so they boast of their womens haire And who knowes not how the Monks brag of the Virgin Mary and so their bare skuls have borrowed a periwig as it were of womens haire But what doe they with it As the Carthaginian Matrons once suffered themselvs willingly to be shorne that the men might make Engines of their haire for the defence of their Citie so the Carthusian Monkes and other of the same rabblement have made an engine an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Virgins haire to take heaven withall and let me tell those bold climbers in what danger they are of an irrecoverable fall as the Proverb is the sword hangs over their head in a slight haire as it did for Dionysius his Parasites let them looke backe to their originall the rocke out of which they were hewen the pit from whence they came If the clew of the Virgins haire hath led them to a posterne doore of Heaven the key of him that is the Angell of the bottomlesse pit must open it but let me tell them that pit is bottomlesse there is no hope of getting out and therefore that key is bootlesse there is no hope of getting in The Helvidians of old cal'd the perpetuall virginitie of the Virgin Mary into question but shee might have beene a perpetuall Virgin as well as she was borne of God if she had not falne into the Priests hands they have shrived her but ill favouredly for though her spotlesse virgin-soule injoy an innocent sleep I do not meane an everlasting soule-sleep in the bosome of Abraham yet these artificiall leachors have made shift to find a trick by a vertuall I cannot say because it is most vicious by a spirituall I cannot say because it is most carnall but by that which the sonnes of the Philosophers call a vtrtuall or spirituall contact to contaminate her memorie which should be blessed and to commit folly with hervery name For what I pray you are those flattering titles which they give her in their prayers Queene of Heaven Mother of grace Port of Paradise c. but such uncleane and unchast names for a Virgin that if she should heare them with patience I would not be afraid to say she were the most impure harlot that ever was but her blessed spirit abhorres their cursed breath and they while they thinke to sowe these ungracious seeds of spirituall whoredome in her most gracious eares doe but imbrace a cloud instead of a Queene a Ione instead of a Iuno as he did and so beget mishapen Centaures I may say centuries of misbegotten Orizons Or what are their strange devices that God hath given her his Kingdome and reserved only that other halfe to himself the half of mercy to her and the halfe of justice to himselfe that he contents himselfe with his Bench of Iustice and hath placed her in the Mercy seat and that this was prefigured in Ahasuerosh who promised Hester the halfe of his Kingdome a goodly stratagem to drive men from God to Mary Againe that there are two Ladders up to Heaven a red Ladder by Christs blood and a white Ladder by Maries beautie which is farre the easier me thinks these men mistake Iacobs Ladder but yet something like it was for they are in a dreame as Iacob was But I will not rake this dunghill of stinking blasphemies Yet if a man would take the paines to turne over their stinking Rosaries but as often as they do their beads in a day he should soone perceive that the name of Christ is out of fashion out of date and the name of the Virgin in the freshest honour the withered Lawrels of Christ are faine to vaile the Bonnet and give place to the flourishing prime and greene Garlands of the Virgin as Lucullus did once to Pompeys and some merrie Courtier might aske no more whether Mary were gracious with Christ but whether Christ were with Mary as they did scoffingly whether Alexander were gracious with Hephaestion Mary hath all the sutors Mary hath all the presents Mary doth all in the Court of Heaven It is not here as it was once said of Themistocles his sonne that he ruled all Greece because his father ruled all and his mother ruled his father and he ruled his mother For the Popes Sophisti call Logick in a Sorites and ambitious Rhetorick in a Climax is cleane contrary God rules the World his Sonne rules him and Mary rules his Sonne therefore Mary rules the World She is become against the Lex Salica I am sure against the Lex Coelica the new Queene of Heaven at least as though her sonne were in his minority the Queene Regent She complaines her self in Erasmus that she hath so many Clyents so much custome tantum non enecant shee hath much adoe to take respite enough to take breath enough to keepe life and soule together belike they meane to kill her with kindnesse to presse her to death with loads of honour as the perfidious Virgin was served that betrayed the Capitoll they come something neare alreadie tantum non enecant But if there be any that make shew to kisse the Sonne as the Psalmist speakes
Tygers feared but is become by his owne fault a slave of the creatures an heire of Hell a vessell of dishonour a child of the Divell in soule and body and both the very sinke of sinne and shame and misery Heu quantum Niobe Niobe distabat ab illâ Is not this the man from God Surely if the Heathen did not understand their owne meaning I cannot tell but their words are very good and I dare avouch with them out of better Oracles than Apollo's de Coelo descendit Know thy selfe I proceed he that teaches clearely of a strange marriage the Divine nature with the Humane and yet a stranger a marriage of justice and mercy a sweet marriage of a Virgin that was Mother of a God and an Infant that was God and Man of a God that was man beginning growing hungring thirsting ' wearie weeping bleeding and that which was the wonder of wonders dying of a man that was God rising from the grave powerfully ascending into Heaven triumphantly sitting at the right hand of God royally trampling under his feet sinne Hell and death and Sathan victoriously and returning to judge the quick and the dead gloriously is not this man from God To conclude he that teaches sweetly of humiliation by the law of vocation by the Gospell justification by Christ reconciliation with God sanctification from sinne resurrection from the dead the terrible day of judgement the glory of the Saints the torments of the wicked and the like I will not aske you any more but I tell you plainly that man is from God For behold in these truths not a beame of Divinitie such as Plato spied in all arts but a body or rather not a shadow for his beame was no more the word may be ambiguous but a perfect body of Divinity Neither is it possible that any man should invent or conceive these sublime mysteries by naturall reason since we see evidently that no man can so much as accept or receive them being taught without a supernaturall faith And therefore as Telemachus said when he saw a great light which guided his father and him in a darke roome surely there is some god in it So let every one confesse when he heares these things from the mouth of Gods Ambassadors Non vox hominem sonat Never any man spake as he spake as they said of Christ I might adde something of that divine precept of moralitie farre beyond the straine of Philosophy for though the Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks and Epicures travailed much in these Observations and went farre yet how short do they come For here we have Rules more naturall than the Epicures which made pleasure their Empresse and themselves her Parasites more humane then the Peripateticks which made Reason their Mistresse and themselves her Schollars more Heroicall then the Stoicks which made Vertue their Goddesse and themselves her Votaries more divine then the Academicks which made God there Idoll I understand their Idea which they did not understand and themselves his idolaters and so excelling every one of these great professors in their severall projects The end remaines which I will dispatch in a word It is the salvation of man the most noble and necessary worke in all the world and most beseeming the greatnesse and goodnesse and wisdome of God to take into his speciall consideration and providence man being his husbandry as the earth is mans And therefore it is absurd as Plutarch hath well observed to take the best things out of the compasse of Gods foreknowledg To shut up this it is absurd to thinke that Solon Lycurgus Numa published their lawes as the Heathen did from the gods and that Ministers doe not preach the Gospell from God since they brought many things against the rule of reason and nothing above the reach of nature but these teach nothing against the rule of nature but many things above the reach of reason It is absurd that every petty beuefactor of mankind should be deified and these founders I may terme them vilified that they should be esteemed gods even to the vilest vermine among the Egyptians and these should not be esteemed so much as Gods Ambassadors The blind Heathen could not choose but see some splendor of Divinitie in these things The Critick Longinus observed out of the description of the creation of the World in the 1. of Genesis that Moses was no ordinary man and besides that Imperatoria brevitas which Tacitus speakes of he saw so much majestie in the relation In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and God said let there be Light and there was Light let there be Earth and there was Earth that he confesses that narration had a seemely character and cognizance of the Divine power set upon it The Platonick Ammonius also so admired the storie of the Divine generation of Christ in the first of S. Iohns Gospell In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that he judged those words worthy to be written in golden Letters and prefixed on the gates of all Temples The men of Lystri likewise in the Acts hearing the Apostles Paul and Barnabas were so convinced in their consciences that their Doctrine was divine that they were something transported in their judgements to thinke their persons were divine and therefore would needs have worshipped them as gods with Priests and Buls and Garlands and Sacrifice And if I would give you a short draught of some truths as they have degenerated into fables among the Heathen I might make them seeme with oce labour more perspicuous and more precious for as their unlikenesse to themselves crossing and thwarting one another confute themselves so their likenesse to the truth intimating and as it were acting it must needs confirme the truth The tales of the golden Apples and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Hesperidum horti and Adonis Garden of the fiery Dragons that kept them answering either to the flaming sword of the Cherubim or the Serpent to the true Paradise the Garden of Eden to the Apples of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evel are sufficient for a taste But it were a shame for me once to name these fabulous legends since I did but name the Heavenly truth which they have adulterated To conclude I thinke none but Davids foole that hath said in his heart there is no God can find in his heart to say the messengers of these things are not Gods Ambassadors For as for the rule of happinesse it selfe which I touched in the last step of my former gradation I wonder not if men of the earth did errare toto coelo they were ignorant of the three forenamed grounds and it could not be therefore otherwise they could not take the height of Gods excellencie in his nature and workes and therefore could not sound the depth of mans misery in his fall they were ignorant of the