passion Thus of the 1. generall head Things indifferent Next of the morall Law 2. For the morall law of the ten Commandements whose injunctions and prohibitions directly determine the question what things are necessary viz. must be done or must not be done and consequentially what it leaves out it resolves us to be indifferent the licentious of this age lay aside thereby to attain a vaster liberty to make more things indifferent then ever God made and so to doe even what they please And their pretended reason is because they conclude it to be of the Covenant of works And I wish they have not learnt it from Pulpits unskilfully handling it and putting it wrongfully under that notion For the morall law of the to Commandements is cleerly an appendix or part of the Covenant of Grace For as Love answers to faith in the New Testament so did the ten Commandements answer to the Ceremoniall law in the Old Testament Will any man that is in his wits according to Scripture deny that either love in the New Testament or the Ceremoniall Law in the Old Testament were of the Covenant of Grace The text is plain Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing that is then or at any time in the outside nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And the Lord Christ and the Apostles have this often up The law is fulfilled in this one word LOVE And saith Christ of the Ceremoniall law John 5.48 Had ye believed Moses yee would have believed me for he wrote of mee I need say no more to mind men that love in the N. T. and the Ceremoniall Law in the O. T. were of the Covenant of Grace and that love in the N. T. answers to the ten Commandements in the O. T. And is there any thing in the ten Commandements to bespeake them a place in the Covenant of workes Doth commanding Why then doth Christ so often say to believers John 14 c. If you love me keepe my Commandements It 's farre more suitable to a Gospel way and a gracious Covenanting Spirit rather to be commanded by the authority of his Saviour then to pinne all obedience upon the power of his own uncertain love Luther hints notably to this Lord saith hee thou commandest me to pray I cannot pray as I would but I will obey Though my prayer be not acceptable yet thine owne Commandement is acceptable to thee And if ever any man Luther was of a most pure high Gospel-spirit deny it who can that hath read his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians now common in English On the other side what meanes the preface to the ten Commandements viz. I am the Lord Hebr. JEHOVAH Thy God which have brought thee out of the LAND of AEGYPT out of the house of bondage Doe not these words usher in the Commandements and set them down amidst the Covenant of Grace For here God as our God upon new tearms of redemption freely offering himselfe to us not upon the old namely doe this and thou shalt live We are brought out of Aegypt in Christ Mat. 2.15 That is we are brought out of sprituall Aegypt the wicked world as John expounds it Revel 11.8 An hint of these things is enough to them that will understand And doe not severall promises annexed to severall Commandements as to the 2d 4th 5th sound of Gospel-grace to the same tune with the preface I am importuned to be short for the accommodation of the Printer therefore I can but touch things It were strange if God many hundred yeares after his Govenant of Grace which he promised and plighted with man Gen. 3. Expounded and further confirmed Gen. 17. Compare Rom. 4. Should at Sinai make a Covenant of workes Learned and pious Polanus renowned for both is bold to speak higher It were very unreasonable saith hee to imagine that God should make a Covenant of workes with man after Adams fall and so unable to doe any spirituall thing having made THAT only ONCE viz. in Paradise when man was in a CAPACITIE to enter into SUCH a Covenant Object The Apostle Paul often in his Epistles opposeth the Law to faith and seemes to understand both the Ceremoniall and morall Answ The Apostle doth not oppose the Law to faith as the Law is considered in it selfe but as it is misconceived and misemployed by the Justiciary Selfe-justifier Cleer enough the morall law is not opposite to faith Jam. 2.21 to the end of the Chapter study the place For the least thou canst make of it will be thus much that a working faith is the only living justifying faith Working must justifie faith to be true faith as faith justifies us to be true Saints But the justiciary that would justifie himselfe by working he lookes upon all law both morall and Ceremoniall yea and upon the law of FAITH too as the Apostle cals it as on works Those of the Jewes that were such justiciaries obeyed the morall law not out of faith working by love Gal. 5. but out of selfe-love to justifie themselves by selfe-wrought righteousnesse Mark 10.20 Luk. 10.29 And they sacrificed and used other things of the Ceremoniall law not as an expiation and attonement including Christ as the kernel but as on workes by them performed to their cost and labour and so rested in the deede done Jer. 7.4 And so the Prophet cals Ceremonies there then lying vanities And forbids them Isa 1. Upon this consideration the Apostle speaks acuratly and precisely to the false notion of these Jewish justiciaries Rom. 9.31 32. They attained not to righteousnesse because they sought it not by faith but AS IT WERE by the workes of the Law meaning that the law morall or Ceremoniall was not in themselves of the Covenant of works but by the false notion of justiciaries they were to them tanquam WORKES they were as so to them to this Luther speaks notably to this effect Men saith he looke on the law asquint they looke on the law given by Moses as MOSES MOSISSIMUS that is MEER MOSAIGALL MOSES i. e. upon the Outward things and performances abstracted by themselves and so the Law saith he kills And not on the Law as given by Moses AARONICUS that is AARONICALL MOSES i. e. as Aaron the High Priest joyned with Moses typifying Christs Priestly office as Moses did his Propheticall and Kingly whereby attonement is signified for our persons and for the sins of our imperfect obeying the commands of either law and so our soules are saved alive So that as faith and love cannot be separated nor may they be confoūded in the New Testament Not confounded to make the law of faith a worke as the Papists and others doe whiles they adore it as a quality in us without its object Christ grasped in the hand thereof and so looke upon it as love viz. as a working thing in us or to make love as faith as if love were the forme of faith perfecting
it nor separated not Faith from love for so faith is dead Jam. â— Nor love from faith for then it is sinfull if not a bâ—â—â—ard love For faith must make attonement for the failings of love So nor may Moses and Aaron the morall and Ceremoniall law be confounded or separated in the Old Testament They both were delivered at the same time and in the same place As the morall law Exod. 20. So the Ceremonial Acts 7.44 Heb. 8.5 compare Exod. 25.40 Even as Moses and Aaron lived at the same time and were in joynt Commission in the same businesse instrumentally to save the people Not to be confounded by looking on the performance of the ceremoniall as wee doe on the morall viz. a matter of meer obedience as many now transforme many Gospel duties prayer hearing c. into a legall notion resting in the deed done without taking up Christ in them Nor to be separated not the ceremoniall law from the morall For then there is a dreame of faith without obedience faith without love Nor the morall from the ceremoniall for then there is obedience without faith and so not sincere but altogether sinfull Obj. The Apostle Gal. 4.24 makes the Covenant at Sinai a Covenant of bondage and puts it in opposition to Hierusalem above that is the Covenant now in the N. T. with the universall Church And so seemes to make two Covenants Answ The Apostle speaks all this in relation to the ceremoniall law which formerly was the manner of that religious worship commanded in substance in the 2d Commandement to all ages and so was then the forme and ceremonie of much of their obedience which ceremoniall law indeed was a bondage and kept men in servitude Gal. 4.1 But can not speak it of the morall law in that the Apostle himselfe doth so press it upon all believers at the end of every one of his Epistles annexing it as the doctrine of love to the doctrine of faith which he profoundly handles in the former part of his Epistles So that the Apostle doth there signifie only two severall dispensations and formes of promulgation of the same Covenant of grace of faith and love The former Ceremonious in types shadows the other plain and spirituall Theâ— called the old Covenant the other the New Covenant though but two formes of the same Covenant as the Apostle evidently explains Heb. â— 5 to the end of the chapter The 1. in regard of the shadowes was Moses vailed the 2d was Moses unvailed and spirituall God shining in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 3.13 to the end 2 Cor. 4.6 By all it appeares that we that are believers may no more divide the ten commandements from our faith then wee may divide our love from faith The 3d and last thing to which I will speak only a word is Expediency The Apostle to explain the doctrine and to direct in the practise of expediency useth four words 1. CONVENIENT to signifie that even in indifferent things we must see that all be agreeable to our persons according to all the circuÌ„stances aforenamed 2. EXPEDIENT Intimating that we should look that those our actions be such as do further and dispatch some good or else they be not good 3. PROFIT As the Apostle saith what profit is there of circumcision Hinting that we should see that such our actions be beneficiall to us or others wee either doe good or receive good 4. EDIFIE Teaching us that we should rather endeavour edification then giving offence in the use of things indifferent or circumstantiall And in that the Apostle useth so many words to direct us in the right use and acting about things indifferent that one of the four said ingredients must be in them or else all is not well For a close observe two rules which we oppose to two false principles by which meu usually goe and so oft miscarry 1. Touching matter of opinion they usually say it is a truth as they conceive therefore to be contended for at any time without distinction of expedience To which we oppose this rule All truth though indeed the very truth of God is not to be uttered at all times Mat. 7.6 chap â— 13 14 15 16 17. Job 16.3 4. Heb. 5.11 12. neigh these texts for they are strong 2. Touching practise they commonly contend that it is their Christian liberty and therefore they will use it and not be debarred from it by circumstances To which we oppose this Rule Phil. 4.8 Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest or comely whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think of these things From my Study at Mary Stainings London July 10 1648. Nathanael Homes Teacher of the Church there The Contents of the ensuing SERMONS SERMON I. The scope of the words Page 1 The parts of the Text Page 3 The meaning of the words Page 4 Doct. 1. The Saints in the New Testament not so strictly bound in point of lawfulnesse as the Saints were in the Old Page 3 This latitude is not in the Morall Law But it is Page 13 1. In freedome from ceremonies Page 14 2. In the externalls of Gods Worship Page 15 Reason 1. The Saints under the New Testament are Sonnes Page 17 Reason 2. The Saints now are men of ripe yeares Page 18 Reason 3. The Saints now have more of the Spirit Page 19 Reason 4. Gods designe in the New Testament to set up a spirituall Kingdome Page 20 Reason 5. The Gospel being to be preached to different Nations Christ ties them chiefly to the substance Page 23 SERMON II. Use 1. Encouragement for sinners to come to Christ Page 26 The wayes of Christ easie Page 29 1. Because the maine work is done already Ibid 2. Those things that are yet to be done are few and easie being compared 1. With the Jewish service of God in the Old Testament Page 32 2. With the service of Papists Page 33 3. With the service of naturall men Ibid 4. With the service of the Devill Ibid Object The service of the Devill seemes sweet Page 34 Answ 1. It will one day be soure Ibid 2. That sweetnesse is from distemper Ibid 3. It is because men tast not the sweetnesse of Christs service Ibid Object Some of Christs servants have turned back to serve the Devill Page 35 Answ 1. They are but few Ibid 2. They were not true members Ibid 3. The wayes of Christ easie because he will give his Spirit to doe what he requires Ibid Believing in Christ three things in it Page 30 1. To give credit to what he teacheth Ibid 2. To accept of life and salvation from him Page 37 3. To submit to his lawes Page 38 SERMON III. Use 2. Reproofe of two sorts of people Page 39 1. Those that erre on the left hand of three sorts 1. Those that
that are godly of the Presbytery must reprove those men that are full of fire and fagot and nothing else rather reprove them then connive at them 5. The common multitude Fiftly and lastly and so to end for this time the last sort of people are the common superstitious multitude They exceedingly blow up the fire how They cry out of divisions there are so many Religions amongst us there is this religion and that and they are all for conformity and O that the Synod would settle some government they care not what if it be Rome it self and it is dishonourable that we should have divisions and stirres among us Thus the blinde multitude cry whereas it is better to have division than an evil uniformitie It is true the time will come that all shall be of one heart and one way but it hath never yet been There were abundance of differences in the Apostles times in the first Churches between the Jewes and Gentiles and they were alway wrangling about blood and about the Law and Geneallogies yet they were the Churches of God deare to the Lord. So I say every little difference and discent makes not a new religion No opinions are profitable in a sort in the Churches that some should discent from others sometimes Therefore for the multitude to conclude this use labour to appease the multitude the multitude are ignorant labour to instruct and teach them Presbytery and Independency are not two religions but one religion to a godly honest heart it is only a little rufling of the fringe therefore make not the breach wider and blow not the fire more The Lord give you and me every one of us wherein by any of these sorts of people we finde our selves guilty to endeavour to reforme and to follow the things that concerne our peace that however our enemies will not receive termes of peace yet we may be at peace among our selves which the Lord grant The vvay to peace in a mans selfe 1 CORINTHIANS 10.23 All things are lawfull for me but all things are not exdient THe last lesson from these words was this That a Christian under the New-Testament ought not only to eye what is lawfull what is absolutely commanded or forbidden but to eye also what is expedient and what is inexpedient what is convenient and what is inconvenient what edifies and what edifies not We opened this to you and came to a Use where we are at this time to exhort you that this may sinke into your hearts to wit that you would not make lawes to your selves in the New-Testament where Christ hath not bound you and where Christ hath left you free and hath not determined things Secondly I exhorted you that you would be carefull and vigilant and wise to take notice in all things what is expedient and to doe the same and to presse it on you we proposed one Motive to you which was the maine drift of all the discourse we intend upon this Scripture to wit that this is the ready way of peace and to end strife and contention among the Saints Now how that is I have opened to you as I was able and so finished it this morning Now to set it on a little more upon your souls not to repeate any thing there are two or three words more that might stir you up Consider it for I know it is a harsh truth to many of your eares I feare you have many prejudices against it but I beseech you consider it well it is of great consequence it is one of the master stones in your foundation I mean in your walking and conversation towards men at least I say therefore I will add certaine motives more and as the first was the way to peace among the Saints to end controversies that are among them Motive 2. The way to peace in a mans self So secondly it is a way to peace a way to end the controversies of a Christian with himself For Beloved I dare say and I am able to make it good and have known it by experience in other Saints that the most of your guilt and the most of your trouble that is within you most of the guilt on Christians it ariseth not from doing of things simply sinfull or neglecting things simply commanded but from some disorderly doing of lawful things and that is two wayes 1. Doing lawfull things with commō hearts Either that you doe lawfull things as eating and drinking and sleeping and divers other things with common hearts and eye not God in the doing of them you doe them in a carnall fashion without holines for we must be holy in all manner of conversation You are not holy when you are eating you have not a holy frame of soule when you are sleeping therefore your sleep and your meat and such like things they produce a world of guilt and trouble you doe them with common hearts as the Pharisees said the Disciples eat with common hands 2. Doing lawfull things inexpediently Or else secondly it is from doing lawfull things inexpediently you eye not what is expedient Meat and drink and sleep and talking and walking and cloathes and recreations they are lawfull but in all these you look not what is expedient And I mean not only Beloved those civill things that I named to you but also in religious things wherein God hath not determined you make laws to your selves and then you faile in keeping of those lawes as usually when God sees men make lawes to themselves let them keep them themselves if they will it is just with God not to give power to keep lawes that are not of his own making God will not give strength to keep lawes that hee hath not made God will not help you you make lawes I say and you have no strength to keep them and then there ariseth a world of guilt and trouble As thus God commands us to pray alway to be earnest in prayer to read the word to teach our children to help our neighbours to doe good to their souls and bodies Now you have made a law that you will pray in your family so oft and pray privately so oft and read so many Chapters a day and keep so many dayes of humiliation once a week or so here is a law of your own making I say not but it is expedient to do so sometimes and many times but you make it an absolute law that when God comes and calls you to another thing contrary to your law Trouble of conscience in Christians whence then there is nothing but guilt and horrour on your soules As for instance you make a law that you will pray twice before you goe forth every morning privately and in your familyes and it is a good course if things be according because you are bound to pray alwayes but you make an absolute law and there comes another busines of greater weight you have prayed once and
know not what to doe for salvation and they say come be of our Church and you shall be saved take such a Religion on you confesse your sins to the Preist and doe this and that and then you shail be saved It is the same principle you place salvation and heaven in externall things and most of your owne making and then poore soules that would goe to heaven and goe the nearest way they could finde they come and they will observe those externall things and then what is the end of it After all this adoe there will be a carnall prophane heart that was never changed that Christ was never in I have seen more than one that have been asked what evidence have you that Christ is in you I have walked in such a way this twenty or two and twenty yeares or so long and I am come out from Antichrist A man may doe so and be a damned creature when all is done I have seen some though I think there be scarse any Christians in the world besides that have done it that have invented a world of tricks and quâ—rks out of the Scripture and have made them absolute lawes and none must be held but they and besides I have seen such boasting and such blindnesse in spirituall things that with charity a man may say there is not grace in such souls Therefore poore carnall souls are gulled when such tricks are put on them carnall hearts run there and think to be safe and crow over others in the end they prove carnal This is not the way to win others or do good to others So you have three motives The fourth Motive that should move you to hearken to this truth Mot. 4. Without looking to expediency a man cannot be an excellent Christian to labour to understand it and receive it and to walk by it for otherwise you will never be excellent Christians remember that word spirituall excellent Christians never make such tricks you shall alway observe that the Eagle lookes not after flies I have never seen and I have considered with my self I have scarsly ever if ever seen a spirituall Christian goe that way you shall observe in your selves if I be not deceived that when your soules are in a spirituall temper full of the love of God and communion with Christ and in a holy spirituall frame you shall not finde such a disposition in you to make such a glorious business of little externall things neither that God hath commanded though wee must not neglect that much lesse those that God never commanded So the excellency in Christianity or the beauty of holiness I would set it out as a godly man in another case by the naturall beauty of a man or a woman VVhat makes a man or a woman beautifull It is not onely the having of so many limbes another man may have as many leggs and fingers and toes as a beautifull man hath and yet not be beautifull but what is the beauty of a man a sumety or harmony and proportion between the humours of the bodie with in and the members without as a man is not beautiful that hath a great head and a little hand that is no proportion So a Christian that walks by the rule of lawfulnesse and unlawfulnesse only by what is lawfull and commanded and what is forbidden hee will not be a beautiful Christian that is but a limbe of Christianity but excellent Christianity ariseth from proportion between our actions when an action is not only good but it is done expediently it is done decently and orderly As a Lute or a paire of Virginals that have as many strings as they need yet there may be no musicke So there is no beautie in a Christian that saith what is truth and what is falshood and what is lawful and what unlawful But the beauty is when a man ordereth his wayes as that he doth things for the honour of God and for the good of others and of his own soule this makes an excellent Christian the other cannot be excellent Christians The reasons and grounds of it that I may touch them breifly Reason 1 An excellent Christian hath the minde of Christ The first is this I spake a little before of it because an excellent Saint or a happy Saint hee hath the minde of Christ Jesus we have the minde of Christ saith the Apostle VVhat is that Thus he hath the law and will of God in the New-Testament written in his heart there is just the same finger as was in penning this blessed book with the same letters and characters and the same order thence it comes to passe as wee see among lambes and sheep put a lambe among a thousand he will goe to his own dam You are not able to give a reason much lesse the poore creature so the will of God is written in the heart of a Christian one comes and tells him of a nick of outward sanctity though hee be not able to give an answer against it yet there is a kind of sagacity in him the law of God is written in his heart and therefore he will not obey that he knowes not why but he cannot touch it So though a Christian have reason in most of his wayes yet the maine principle that leads him is somewhat above that Those Saints that have not their hearts touched with this landstone will be carried about to any nick till they be undone 2. Hee is busied about high things Another ground is because an excellent Saint is busie and imployed about higher things and therefore he cannot finde time to take up all his thoughts to studie externalls As some people all their preaching and praying and discourse is about such things in externalls A Saint may look upon it and talk respectively but he is so taken up about knowing of Christ and his love and bringing his sovl into communion with him and conformity to him that he hath not while to doe it That a man may say and say truly that there are divers people that trade in externall things as Pharaoh the people are idle So it is a hundred to one but thou hast an idle soule within that is left at randome thou knowest not what termes God and thy soule are in And therefore you shall finde in severall places in Timothy there was a stir about Genealogies they might have said it is Scripture and truth Take heed of them saith Paul How shall Timothy take heed of them see the rule 1 Tim. 4.8 he calls him to other busines he takes him and puts him upon another work Bodily exercise profiteth little What shall he doe then exercise thy self to godlines Why this is godlinesse might they say No it is a hundred to one saith Paul but they are people that are remisse in godlinesse that are taken up with fables So in v. 12. Let no man despise thy youth but be an example to the believers in word in conversation in
life as those under the Law for the Law is a voyce of words it bids me doe this or that or I shal be damned and if I went a little awrie I should lose all my labour no I see my salvation is safe hell and damnation are shut out of doores God is my Father and I am his childe I am in an everlasting Covenant there is nothing in Heaven or Hell shall be able to separate me from the love of God Now I am redeemed from my enemies and without feare as the Scripture saith why should I not serve him and studie to doe what he commands me Besides admit the Gospel bids thee doe many things the Gospel also gives thee power to doe them 2. The Gospel gives power to do what it requireth It is not a voice of words as that on Mount Sinai Heb. 12. that is words that had a voice but no power thou shalt doe this and not that but it gave no strength and the people were not able to beare the word for they were bid not to commit adultery not to sweare not to steale and there was no strength but a voyce But the voyce of the Gospel is a voyce of power it is called The day of Gods power the power of God to salvation The Arme of God the strength of God Therefore whatsoever the Gospel commands it gives a sweet power to the heart to doe the same and then it is no bad newes If a man bid me pay a thousand pounds for my neighbour and give me a thousand pounds in my hand it is easie to doe it The Gospel bids me deny myselfe and subdue my lusts if it did give no power it were a terrible thing but if withall the Gospel carry the Spirit of Christ into the heart and kill sin and make me able to deny my selfe then it is good newes 3. Gospel duties few and easie Besides the duties that the Gospel bids me doe they are few for number and easie for nature and for the end of them it is not for life and salvation that is safe there is no danger of that and there is a Spirit to them And also there is a sweetnesse in Gospel obedience that there is nothing on this side glory so Pleasing to the soule that hath believed as obeying of Jesus Christ Ro. 6. You have your reward in holines Godly men say that this is the meaning of it that holiness is a reward to it selfe the doing of good things is a reward to it selfe To say nothing of the reward hereafter that there is a Crowne of glory 1. Cor. 15. your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. You that work for him but the very doing of Gospel dutie with a Gospel spirit it is no other than meate and drink Our Lord Christ Job 4. when he was hungrie and thirstie when hee was wearie one would have thought he might have done many things more pleasing than to be teaching a sillie woman when they came with meate hee would not leave that that he was doing I have meate saith he that you know not off who gave it thee said they Saith he It is my meate and drink to doe the will of him that sent me So when wee have the heart and the nature and the spirit of Christ it will be sweeter than meate and drink out of love to do any thing that Jesus Christ commands us Againe Object The Gospel requires Faith it may be some man will say the Gospel for the most part brings good newes but there is one thing in the Gospel that me thinks is no good newes to poore sinners saith a poore soule the Ministers use to preach and to tell me that the Law saith doe this and live and the Minister tells me that the Gospel saith believe and live he saith that there shall be all happinesse and good to me if I believe and saith the poor soule for my part it is as possible for me to keep the ten Commandments as to believe and the Ministers say that there is no good thing in the Gospel that I can partake of except I believe I would like it well but for that one thing I would but I cannot believe To answer this if the Gospel held forth Christ Answ The Gospel breeds faith and salvation upon believing as many oft preach it were little better tidings than the Law for it is as easie for a man of himselfe to keep the ten Comandments by obeying as to believe of himself to have faith to receive Christ Therefore that is a misunderstanding of the Gospel the Gospel saith not bring faith with thee and then here is all grace salvation No for whence should I have faith Whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and what is of me is flesh and abominable to God therefore the Gospel expects not that any sinner should bring faith for he hath it not nay it is a sin to endeavour to have it of himselfe But the Gospel as it brings salvation so it breeds faith in the heart of a sinner The same word that makes known salvation the same word breeds and begets faith in the heart to receive it That God that gives his almes to us gives a purse to carry it that God that gives Physick to a poore soule will give a hand to receive it It were strange if God should expect faith from a poore sinner whereas for ought I know and learned men hold that Adam in innocencie had not the faith that we are justified by and for ought I know the Angels in heaven have it not and whence should a poore sinner have it It is God that gives repentance to Israel and God is the author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. And in Philip. 1. It is given to you to believe Therefore when I heare of grace and glory and salvation by Jesus Christ I must not consider where I shall have a vessell to carry iâ— home where I shall have faith to receive it but it carries the vessel with it and I goe and take the promise and by the holy Spirit that same Gospel that brought the grace will work faith or else it were as harsh as the Law Therefore never stand off about faith for he that gives grace and salvation will work faith Againe Object Discipline and government in the Gospel it may be objected by some wee confesse that the Gospel is good newes and blessed be God it is performed also But it seemes that there is in the Gospel or annexed to it a discipline or a government whereby wee shall be ruled thus saith one thus saith another and if we receive the Gospel of Christ we must receive the Government of Christ say the Ministers and wee feare that will be no good newes to our poor soules Ans Two wrong governments since Christ As for that in few words as I am able I confesse Beloved that in or with the Gospel of
and that must be upon extraordinary occasion yet both are sweet and profitable and precious for the good of the soule Therefore the truth of the Doctrine holds cleare to you that there is nothing in the Gospel look which way you will but good newes and glad tidings to the worst of sinners Object No peace to the wicked There is one objection more and so I proceeed to the Uses Some body may say out of the Prophet Isaiah There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57. ult And Isa 48.12 The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose watters cast out mire and dirt The Prophet seemes to comfort the godly but wicked men have no peace then a man may say how doth this stand with your Doctrine you say that the Gospel holds forth peace and glad tidings and good newes to wicked men even to the worst of sinners Ans three Wayes 1. It is rather Law than Gospel The are three wayes to answer it in few words The first is that however Isaiah was in a sort an Evangelicall Prophet and spake many things of Gospel by way of Prophesie he saw things for us and not for himselfe as Peter saith yet these kinde of expressions are more properly Law than Gospel for it is certaine there is no other language in the Law but that there is no peace to the wicked Transgresse once and be damned for ever but the language of the Gospel is contrary it comes and gives peace to the wicked and justifieth the ungodly he preacheth peace to them that are neere and to them that are affar off And who were they The Gentiles that were emphatically sinners are we not Jewes saith the Apostle and not sinners of the Gentiles Therefore this was rather Law than Gospel 2. God will not make peace with sin though hee doth with sinners Secondly there is no peace to the wicked or to sinners saith my God You may understand it also in this sense that the Lord will not make any peace with sin though he send messages of peace and reconciliation to sinners though God be reconciled to a sinner hee will never be reconciled to sin 3. No peace to men that continue in sin under the Gospel But the third and last and most proper as I take it is this There is no peace to the wicked saith my God that is there is no peace to men that continue in sin after Jesus Christ hath been offered them and they have refused him then there is no peace to them Observe for it is a thing of great concernment it becomes not a Minister of the Gospel by any meanes to pronounce wrath and curse or damnation to a sinner qua a sinner as a sinner he is not a Minister of the Gospel if he doe he is a Minister of the old Testament that saith here comes a drunkard eo nomnie because he is a drunkard God will plague him and damne him this is the language of the old Testament But you will say will you speak peace to drunkards Object and sinners Answer How judgments are pronounced against sinners Wee speak judgment and curses and damnation to them when once wee have first offered Christ and they refuse him And for this reason and no other according to the Ministery of the Gospel I am to pronounce damnation and curse to wicked men because they refuse Jesus Christ because they doe not believe in Jesus Christ You will say Quest is it absolutely evil for a Minister to speak against drunkards and Swearers and whoremongers and to say the curse of God will fall on them c. Ans Continuance in sin a signe of unbeliefe No Why because I speak against a drunkard not properly because he is a drunkard but his drunkeness is a signe that he continues in unbeliefe and so hath not received Jesus Christ So we are to understand the Scriptures There is a drunkard a Sot a jearer of godliness I say the curse of God will come upon him and the damnation of hell is ready to overtake him why not because he is properly such a one but because those are signes that he is an unbeliever When God shall come to judge the world There are people that he will judge eo nomine because they are drunkards he will throw them to hel as those in the Mountaines of Wales c. Because they have but a little light and they did not follow that they shall be condemned and the heathens shall be condemned for their ignorance c. But under the Gospel all are wrapped up in unbeliefe So that this is the pin of Heaven or Hell the very wards that opens or shuts that you be believers or unbelievers But I will not stand longer on that Now I proceed to shew what profit we may have by this Doctrine by way of Application Use 1 To learne that in the Gospel salvation 〈◊〉 offered 〈◊〉 sinner 〈◊〉 sinners There be divers speciall Lessons that I would have you learne hence The first is this that this truth that I have now taught you it is the doore of the Gospel the very entrance into Christian Religion the first stone as it were in the Christian building in the Profession of Religion in Gospel Profession There is a kinde of devotion and Profession but it is not built according to the Gospel but if you would walk according to the Gospel learne this lesson first that is that God gives life and salvation through Christ to sinners as sinners though they be hard hearted backsliding and the cheife of sinners yet as long as they be sinners and but sinners they may alway looke upon Jesus Christ and salvation in his hand to bestowed on them This is a truth that thou must learne and be taught it of God or else thou canst not goe one step into the Profession of the Gospel for beloved till you know and learne this you will be like men in the dark you will be groping for Christ Jesus but you will never be graffed into him you will never be knit to Christ I say this is the first step to Religion to understand this truth aright that the Gospel brings glad tidings of salvation to be given to the worst of sinners therefor though I see no good in me at all whereby I might receive good newes from the Law and though I doe not see that I am a humbled sinner as such a Preacher teacheth or a believing sinner or a broken hearted sinner as another Preacher saith yet I say I am a sinner and a sinner quasi Unsetlednesse in religion whence a sinner is the proper object of the Gospel You will be off and on and never be knit to Christ but will be as a bone in and out till you come to that for if you goe and lay hold on Christ any other way in any other consideration that you are humbled sinners or broken
of the Gospel compare one Chapter and one Scripture with another search the Scriptures and goe to God to open the meaning of it Sixtly â— Use 6. To spread these glad tidings to others spread these glad tidings as much as you can to others You know when people receive good newes they run and tell it to others The poore shepheards Luke 2. when they heard the newes of the Messiah they left their sheep and ran to the Townes to tell it So when Christ was risen Mary runs to tell the newes to the Disciples Beloved when we understand this good newes we should endeavour to spread it People buy Diurnalls for their friends and fold them in their Letters and send them about the Kingdome let us doe so with these spirituall tidings that we may send them forth O I would to God that wee did see how the poore Countries in the North and West of England in many places in Townes they have not so much as a Service-booke not so much as reading if God settle and compose these times the Lord give you hearts to joyne together to finde out a course to send the Ministers of the Gospel to bring the glad tidings to poore people that lie in the Mountaines of darknesse and in the shadow of death Gospel-preaching not to be hindred And let us not be so curious or scrupulous as to hinder people that they should not preach the Gospel Suppose people have no degrees in the University or it may be have not the knowledge of the tongues though that were to be wished let us not pick quarrels with them to stop their mouthes and to hinder the preaching of the Gospel And let us not think so hardly in these dayes of those men that God hath raised to preach the Gospel It is strange you shall have your Pulpits ring calling them Tub-preachers and Tinkers and Coblers We should think better of them Why they are filled with good newes and they goe and tell it to others We doe so usually in other things when we have good newes we run to our friends and neighbours and comrades and make it known New light discovered in these dayes This is an age wherein God comes and fills his people with the glorious light of the Gospel and poore wretches they cannot chuse but speak what they have seen and heard therefore be not so captious and furious The Lord hath spoken who can but prophesie Amos 3.8 When God fills peoples souls with the knowledge of Christ who can keep it in It is as the new wine spoken of in Job it cannot be kept in And surely the time is comming that young men shall see visions and old men shall dreame dreames and God will poure out his Spirit upon all flesh and they shall prophesie It is prophesied in Joel and this is to be made good in the new Testament And therefore if wee see that the Lord fills young men or tradesmen c. and gives them hearts to goe and tell the good newes to others why should you be so extreamely troubled and spend your spirits in rage at it I use not to tell stories but let me tell you this one thing since I have been from you of late I have observed and seen in the Mountaines of Wales the most glorious work that ever I saw in England unlesse it were in London the Gospel is run over the Mountaines between Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire as the fire in the thatch and who should doe this They have no Ministers but some of the wisest say there are about 800 godly people and they goe from one to another They have no Ministers it is true if they had rhey would honour them and blesse God for them and shall we raile at such and say they are Tub-Preachers and they were never at the University Let us fall downe and honour God what if God will honour himself that way They are filled with good newes and they tell it to others and therefore vex not at them and say O what times are these and what will become of us Why what is the businesse O such a man he was never Master of Arts hee was never at the University and he takes upon him to preach when it may be he hath more of God in him than I and a hundred that have all this Only take two Cautions Cautions Learning not to be disparaged First I speak not to disparage learning or learned men it were to be wished that there were more godly and learned men also in England and Wales Men not run before they be sent Secondly take this Caution that because God fills many with the Gospel and they doe a great deale of good take heed least any of you run before you be sent that is that a man goe not rashly and believe his owne judgement rather than the judgement of the Saints as divers in this City they think they are fit to preach and other people of God that are better able to judge of their gifts think not so and yet they will run presently Take heed of pride and rashnesse but if God fill a man with the tidings of the Gospel and others of the people of God see it sparkle out as a vessel full of new wine who am I that I should resist if with humility hee make known this tidings to others If the Gospel be such a thing as I desire you to spend some thoughts in considering of this truth then this should comfort us Vse 7 Comfort against present troubles and help our patience a little in these trouble some times that though all be out of order and we suffer such losses yet blessed be God we have the voyce of the turtle still in the Land thou maiest say though I have hard newes at home trading is low and my stock is small yet blessed be God I have the Gospel that is I have abundance of glad tidings made known to my eares and to my soule every day This is some comfort you have lesse of outward things but more of inward I suppose then ever Another thing is this Vse 8 if this be so then it is a caution that is necessary to be observed by us that are Ministers 1 Not to corrupt the Gospel they must take heed of two things First take heed of currupting and adulterating this blessed Gospel and glad tidings with their owne wisdome it is glorious enough of it selfe every addition of humane wisdome makes it worse take heed of sophisticating the word of God of playing the hucksters as the Apostle saith 2. Cor. 3. wee are not those that play the hucksters hucksters mingle apples and peares they mingle their commodities take heed of that And then take heed of mingling the Law 2. Not to mingle Law and Gospel and the Gospel together It is true the Law is necessary and is added to the Gospel but God intends not in the new testament that