THE People's Impartiall And Compassionate Monitor About hearing of Sermons OR The Worlds Preachers and Proselites lively painted out for a person of Quality upon occasion of hearing two famous Divines whose transcendent Wit Oratorie and Elegancie made many at their wits end with admiration Being a rare discovery to Vndeceive the Deceiued By R. YOUNGE of Roxwell in Essex Wee preach not our selvs but Christ Jesus the Lord c. 2 Cor. 4.5 My speech and my preaching was not with entising words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God c. 1 Cor. 2.4 5 to 9. I am come in my Fathers name and yee receive me not if another shall come in his own name him yee will receive Joh. 5.43 See 1 Joh. 4.1 London printed by J. B. for James Crumpe in Little Bartholomews Well-yard In the year 1657. TO THE TRULY NOBLE AND DESERVEDLY HONORED Sr NATHANAEL BASILE A WORTHY PATRON AND PATTERN OF WISDOM JUSTICE FORTITUDE PIETY AND SINCERITY R. Y. Dedicates this mean piece of his Labours and wisheth long life many followers with increase of all grace and happinesse The Peoples impartial and compassionate Monitor about hearing of Sermons Or the Worlds Preachers and Proselites lively painted out for a Person of Quality Upon occasion of hearing two famous Divines whose transcendent Wit Oratory and Elegancy made many at their wits end with admiration Section 1. Much honoured Sir ACcording to your Order I have heard another of your famous Preachers and will thereof give you an account as I promised And so that hundreds I hope shall be the better for it The truth is I extreamly admire them both though I honour them not at all The one made as rare a something of nothing as ever I heard The other for his skill in Sophistry is I confess a Non-such Both may be rare Preachers for ought I know but as he said of one little learned and lesse modest who usurped all discourse at the Table I never heard learning make such a noise So I never heard a solid Preacher deliver so many words for so little matter so much Oratory for so little Divinity Well may these plashes of water be held by some deep Divines but I presume you may gage their Divinity with one of your fingers As for their Sermons for so men call them though no otherwise then the Heathen Images are called gods Nor are they more like Sermons than Michaels image of goats hair was like David I may fitly liken them to a plume of feathers for which some will give any thing others just nothing Or if I compare them to a Nightingale tongue pye as being far more elaborate and costly than profitable or nourishing it is a great Hyperbole Indeed as a Reverend Divine speaks if I had no other Mistresse then Nature I would wish no other Master then such a Seneca Cicero or Demosthenes but being a Christian I go not to hear the rarities of human Eloquence but the eternal Word of God and more to profit my soul than to please my senses A wise man should yea a good Christian will propound to himself some end some good end of his going to hear for he that in his actions proposeth no mark or main end to himself is like a Ship that aimeth at no Harbour and no wind makes for him that hath no intended Port to sail unto neither can he expect any Voyage of advantage And to what end should any of Christs sheep go to the Assemblies but to hear his voice which is spirit and life to quicken those that are dead in sin and to raise up those that are therewith cast down Yea the Gospel is the strong arm of the Lord and the mighty power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth Rom. 1.16 And therefore they never go to hear it but in hope to be the better for it Namely that they may have their faith strengthned by it or their patience increased or their judgement rectified or their wills reformed or their life and practise bettered or their love and zeal inflamed But certainly if any shall go to hear such Preachers as these bear with my boldness I beseech you to any or either of these ends he shall no less sail of his expectation then did those guests which Caligula invited to his golden banquet which being set before them did indeed delight the eye but neither pleased the pallate nor satisfied the stomach Nor do such Sermons more please the ear then they starve the soul Their simple hearers being like that Calf in the Epigram which went with no small appetite to suck the teats of a painted Cow Or rather like one that whets his knife upon a chalk stone which doth not sharpen but make it more dull and blunt Yea it were well if it were no worse for this is to be understood of the best of their Sermons whereas the other may be resembled to a poisoned fountain in the way which the innocent and thirsty passenger seeing is glad to drink of but in drinking is sure to dye for it Yea how many of these rare Preachers could I name that serve their hearers had they the wit to perceive it as Busirus whom Herculus slew served the poor who killed such as came to him for hospitality Or Theodosius the Prince who fraudulently called together seven thousand innocent persons as it were to see playes and then sent in souldiers to slay them For under a colour of feeding and curing their souls they impoison and kill them Or in case they be less cruel and do answer the hunger and thirst of an empty soul it shall be no otherwise then the Jews did our Saviour who gave him gaul for his meat and in his thirst vinegar to drink Psa 69.21 But this being a truth that transcends both the understanding and beleef of all that are unacquainted with Satans wiles Nor can it be beaten into the brains of unbeleevers who want the light of Gods Spirit and the eye of faith I have taken some pains in painting out these Preachers and their Proselites affirming no more then I know by grounded experience and shall fully confirm from the Word of truth Which commands us to try the spirits and their doctrine whether they be of God or no. Nor will you I hope think the time ill spent in your serious perusal thereof If it make you a gainer give God the glory Sect. 2. All sorts of Preachers may be comprised under four heads for either they are Preaching Or Non-Preaching Or Un-Preaching Ministers Or Preachers that are no Ministers Whereof I have to deal with Non-Preaching and Un-Preaching Ministers Non-Preaching Ministers I might martial into many Bands but the cheef are witty and Rhetorical Preachers and to these will I apply my self in the first place Witty and Rhetorical Preachers are such as Preach now and
Titus 2.7 8. And the like in his Epistle to Timothy Be thou saith he an example to them in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity 1 Tim. 4.12 his very conversation must preach If thou wilt turn unto me thou shalt convert saith God to Jeremy Jer. 15.19 implying that if he did not the one he should not the other or if he did some as it is possible a wicked Minister may yet nothing so many And this is given as a reason of John the Baptists so great success in converting of souls Luke 1.16 He shall convert many of the children of Israel to their Lord God saith the Angel why so for he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias ver 17. who was a zealous and holy man I deny not but a lewd and wicked Minister may be a good Preacher as no doubt but Judas was and so prove the means of saving others and bringing them to Heaven while in the mean time himself goes the other way Our Saviour tells us Matth. 7.22 that many Reprobates will say unto him at the Resurrection Lord Lord have we not by thy name prophecyed and by thy name cast out deviis c whose answer shall be I never knew you depart from me c. We see in nature that a deformed man may beget a comely childe a fool a wise man an iron stamp may coin gold the whetstone is blunt yet it sharpens other things the wind is cold yet it makes the fire burn the skilful Rider will reap some service of a resty and wind-broken Jade and shall not God serve himself by the worst of men when he pleaseth But ordinarily for we speak not of what God can do where the Spirit speaks twice by illumination and sanctification he is more heard then where he speaketh but once And that this is so appears most plainly by the palpable difference that is between those Parishes which God hath blest with a zealous holy and conscientious Ministery and those other places that have had good-fellow-Pastors or Corinthian-reachers for even in this very case the wholesomenesse of the place is best known by the complexion of the inhabitants And we know what the holy Ghost tell us Hosea 4.9 and Isa 24.2 Like Priest like People It is both an happy and pleasing harmony when saying and doing goe both together and he perswades to virtue most who liveth best For a Christian conversation is of the Scriptures the best truest and plainest Comment or Exposition Good works are unanswerable Syllogisms invincible demonstrations and it is natural for men to follow the law of fact before the law of faith a visible pattern rather then a meer audible doctrine Religion hath a truth and a power in it people will never beleeve the truth of a doctrine in our mouths where they see not the power thereof in our lives Pastors are the glasse the school the book Where peoples eyes do learn do read do look The learned Pastours words though plain To plain men truth may preach But Pastours pious practice doth A holy life them teach That doctrine is divine indeed That by good works proves words More harm do ill examples breed Than good words good affords Briefly we read that more Insidels were won to the Christian faith by the virtuous and holy lives of the Primitive Preachers then by the doctrine which they taught They made the world to read in their lives that they did beleeve in their hearts and caused the Heathen to say This is a good God! whose servants are so good Nor is this all for with what zeal or devotion can an unhallowed and unsanctified Minister press his people to holiness exhort them to repent and beleeve or with what affections can he pray for and before them As for instance he whose hunger hath tempted him to steal a Lamb says but a cold grace to his supper As for oppressors and defrauders how they give thanks to God for their wealth I refer to your thoughts and their own consciences For sin is worse than a theef in the candle or an obstruction in the liver Two or three reigning sins clapt on the heels of a present devotion is like a sudden cold after a violent heat So with what affection can a laud Minister exhort his people to holiness when his life yea God and his conscience are continually casting his doctrine in the teeth with that reproach Rom. 2.21 Besides as by shining here in their life and doctrine they turn many to righteousnesse so hereafter they shall shine as stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 Again happy are the people that have such a Minister whose words answer his thoughts and his actions his words who are Augustines in their studies Chrysostomes in their Pulpits and Timothies in their houses that adorn the soundness of Learning with holiness of life Sect. 5. But to proceed for this I salute only by the way To go about to comfort an afflicted soul by a flourishing style is as much as to present a nose-gay of Violets to one that is starving for want of meat When the thirsty traveller after much labour and grief spies a fountain he rejoyceth but coming to it and finding it dry his joy is turned into sorrow and he is ready to curse it for such a mockery as our Saviour did the fruitlesse Fig-tree when he was hungry Suppose we are thirsty and would drink foul and would wash hot and would be cooled our houses are on fire and we would have them quenched if we come to the well with our buckets and finde it empty we know not whether our grief or indignation be greater To conclude an holy soul will never frequent the Church that hath such a Preacher but if he light upon such a Preacher in the Church that he frequents he appears to him like an importunate Fidler that without invitation impudently thrusts himself into his chamber draws and playes and will not be denyed he may give it the hearing and that 's an high favour but he dares neither reward nor commend it I know there is nothing more pleasing to the carnal ear then variety be it but hogs-flesh a little varied with sawce as Flaminius was served by his Host. And that stomachs which within one moneth are weary of Manna set more by sallets and sawces and Kick-shaws sloshes of wit then substantial food the Word of God And let such a Corinthian Preacher speak the abortive figments of his own brain yet their superstitious applause shall be vox Dei the voice of God and not of man Acts 12.22 Yea it is strange to see how such an Orpheus by his melodious harping will draw these stones birds and beasts after him and what applause he shall have it being their manner to arrogate to the instrument and derogate from the agent Yea admit they understand not the Minister as many of them preach for few because few understand them as Jerome speaks
then but it is to very little or rather to no purpose For as they neither aim at GODS glory nor the edification and conversion of their hearers but their own credit profit and preferment So their people are neither instructed in the mysteries of salvation nor any whit reformed in their lives Now these as preferring Abana and Pharpar before the River of Jordan chuse rather to feed their people with the Onions and Melons of humane speculations than with the spiritual Manna of GODS Word Which is the cause their hearers have such lean and hunger-starved souls There be a world of unhallowed Divines that being sent to sue for GOD wooe for themselves For all their aim and end is To set out their Learning and Reading and to breed admiration of their wit and worth With Gnatho they are desirous to please every mans humour and therefore lest their Sermons or rather Orations should not be thought Learned enough you shall have them so richly compounded of Divinity Morality and Policy with so great aspersion of all other Arts and Dapled so full of Authorities from Poets Orators and Philosophers and so stuft with rich magnificent pompous and painted words well-couched phrases Oratory Figures and pathetical Metaphors For they run all upon Metaphors and by their good wills speak not without a Figure Together with Hebrew Greek and Latine Sentences That no Room can be afforded for Scripture Yea they scorn the grave Eloquence the stately Plainness the Rich Poverty that Humble Majesty that shines in the Simplicity of the Scripture The contemptible Coursnesse of Scripture-phrase grates their Delicate Ears and offends their Queasie stomachs For they are not able to Peise and so not to Praise how in Fewness of words there is Fulness of Matter That they are Thick and Short Pithy and Pathetical Breef and yet Full Concise and yet Clear Careless and yet Accurate Which men if they cannot instruct GOD how to deliver his mind better yet they are not so Well pleased with the SPIRITS way of Expression as with their Own when delivering their Words by Weight and Drawing their Notions into Knots and Borders placing them like Checquer or Fret-work driving their Clauses to so Even a Cadency that they fall in a Just measure and sound And to give them their Due Their Discourses are so Curiously Couched so Neatly Starched and set Their Words so Ranked and meetly marshall'd as if they were a Kin to Him whose Name is Six-Hundred Sixty-Six And yet excel they never so much in wit learning order elegancy and phrase Admit they deliver their words in Wax with a Soaring-sublimity of high Strains and Choice Composures Though it move Great Delectation of affection Suppose they transport their hearers with the wind of words and flouds of eloquence wherein is more wit than art and more art than use yet they are but windy frothy and vain Preachers yea they preach no more in reality then Harpocrates the Egyptian who was always painted with his finger in his mouth For as every sound is not Musick so every Sermon is not Preaching A main end of Preaching is Converting as the end of Fishing is Catching But their Sermons tend to no such end Well may these Cobwebs of wit and learning be curious and admirable for their fineness of thread and work but they are of no substance or profit to the soul For admit them dainty Moral Discourses sufficient to satisfie the most curious car or refined Auditory yet they are as improper to the end before mentioned as were a bone for a child for wherein is the soul benefitted or comforted by a witty and Rhetorical Discourse Or in case some do dote thereon do they not resemble Ixion who embraced a cloud instead of Juno Their Sermons being meer breath which vanishes so soon as seen For as he said of the Delphick Oracle Quoties legitur negligitur It is not sooner gotten then forgotten so may I of their Learned Orations For as one nail drives out another so one sentence and one Sermon drives out another As for their Converting of a sinner or building up of a Christian they know not what it means Yea He appeal to their own consciences whether in all their lives they have so much as civilized or philosophized one drunken deboist and vicious liver by this their manner of Preaching or can any one of their applauders say such a man hath made me an hater of vice and a lover of virtue hand credo Yet this hath been familiarly effected by meer Philosophers upon their Disciples Now if they are insufficient to effect the lesser work what probability is there they should accomplish the greater of true and effectuall conversion which is no other then a miracle For no less true nor miraculous though spiritual is our raising up from an estate of inward corruption to the life of grace then was our Saviours restoring of sight to the blinde hearing to the deaf speech to the dumb health to the sick yea life to the dead and whatever in this kinde he did by himself while he lived the same he doth still by his Ministers through the mighty and powerful working of his holy Spirit with his written Word Sect. 3. Nothing proved him to be God more then his casting out of Devils For there is no casting out of devils but by the finger of God Luke 11.20 Neither is that strong armed man overcome and ejected but by a stronger than he verse 21 22. And is any stronger than he but God alone no verily As for man he is no way able to deal with him witness Adam in his state of perfection 〈◊〉 And yet as then himself cast out devils by speaking the words of eternal life so now his Ministers cast them out by applying the same Word for every reigning sin we have is a devil as Basil Austin and Saint Gregory affirm 2 Cor. 4.4 John 14.30 Ephes 2.2 2 Tim. 2.26 and of him that by the power of the Word hath pride covetousness drunkenness whoredome swearing envy or ignorance cast out of him or mortified in him we may say as properly as it was of Mary Magdalen he hath so many devils cast out Now it were a strange folly to think that these Preachers should cast them out and overcome them with the carnal weapons of their warfare which they borrow from men and not from God What cares the devil so long as they bring wit instead of weapons he fears them no more hearing the words of their Commission and espying them to have no courage no power no zeal for the glory of God no aim at the edification of their hearers than an Eagle fears a Swallow or a Laon a Lamb but makes answer as he once did to the sons of Sevah Jesus I acknowledge and â—aul I know but who are ye It is a silly Hare that will be caught with a Tabor and their Preaching is as prevalent to the casting out of devils as is the hunting
is able to inspire a man with transcendent abilities but he will not do all that he can do he can give an Harvest without sowing as he did the Israelites in the year of Jubilee but he will not He could give light without the Sun as in the Creation but he will not So he could give us wisdome and learning without study as to Solomon he once did but he will not Indeed the Apostles in the Primitive Church were rare Preachers and yet but raw scholars but withal we may take notice that they had a supply for this defect they were immediately inspired by the holy Ghost yea they were first Christs scholars before they became the worlds teachers Mark 9.31 Luke 11.2 And therefore we ought to have the more preparation by how much we have the lesse revelation Nor would I have all men tyed to one form of Preaching but rather that every man would apply himself that way wherein he is likeliest to excel in edifying the Church of God as commonly each Minister excels another some way One excelleth for force of speech another for sound and solid arguments a third for shaming of vice a fourth for perswasions a fifth is excellent for expounding the words a sixth surpasseth in delivering the matter a seventh is happy for eases of conscience an eighth exquisite in determining of school-doubts In a word some are judicious to inform the understanding others powerful to work upon the will and affections and speak home to the conscience We admire profound Austin for questions learned Jerome for expositions pathetical Chrysostome for amplifications holy Bernard for meditations pithy Cyprian for perswasions sweet Ambrose for allusions eloquent Nazianzen for moving the affections c. But what is all this to these Athenian Preachers It is one thing to salute Athens in our way to Jerusalem as Saint Paul did and another to stay there and go no farther one thing to use secular learning in Sermons sparingly I mean to sprinkle here and there a sentence example or history for ornament and illustration and another thing to crowd them so full of these that no room can be afforded for Scripture One thing to use flowers as men do only for sight and sent and another as Bees for honey and wax not to gild their wings as butter-flies but to fill their combs and feed their young Borrow these Jewels of the Heathen you may but make not a Calf thereof to worship and adore the which you do in rejecting to preach the words of eternal life that you may vent these together with your own frothy conceits and fantastical flashes of wit And may it not be said of your Sermons as one spake of a poor Apothecaries shop that he could finde no drugs therein for pots and boxes Are not your hearers served like Jacob who when he looked for Joseph found nothing but his party-coloured coat Are ye not like the Papists who neglect the Bible which is the Tree of Life the Word of Life the Bread and Water of Life to feed the peoples eyes with pictures and bawbles and their ears with legends and fables Are not your Sermons rather taken out of Platoes Academy than out of Christs school Do you not cursedly prefer the Ethicks of Aristotle the Odes of Pindar the Morals of Plutarch and other books of humane Learning before divine testimonies As the Psalms of David the Gospel of Christ and the Epistles of Saint Paul Much like the Council of Trent who preferred unwritten Traditions of men before the written Word of God which is all one in effect as if a man should cast away his fleshy arm or leg and set on another of wood For what is all humane learning compared with Gods Word but like a carcasse without the soul or a meer image which seems fair but being lookt into is found earth Yea is not this as great a sleighting of the Scripture as for the â—ope in the first session of the last council of Lateran to lay them at his fâ—â—t It were honour sufficient to admit humane learning and all lawful Arts as so many maâ—â—s of honour to attend this Queen of Heaven-Divinity it is abominable to make her subservient to them he is an ill host not worthy the name Christian who so suffers his Inne to be taken up by strangers that there is not place enough for Christ and his Apostles Neither is it more profane than it is ridiculous in preaching to use a flourishing and meretricious eloquence puft up with unprofitable querks fictions and flashes of wit God affects not Aulicismes and Courtly terms Wit I love well but I loath and abhor to hear light garish gawdy and meretricious painting in Sermons Flashes of wit and playing upon a Text which was wont to be the guise and manner of our Court or Trencher-Chaplains And wherein the Rean of their honour and pride lay Because this would more become or befit a Tavern than the Majesty of a Temple Nor do I think it any grace for Ministers in their Preaching to come with the enticing words of mans wisdome and the rarities of humane eloquence but in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2.1 to 14. 1.17 18. Christ taught the people with authority gravity becomes the Pulpet Sect. 7. Obj. But thy Sermons are only stuft with Authorities from the Ancient Fathers Philosophers c. and what more commendable than sweet and sententious sayings Answ Suppose it be so yet proverbs are for ornament not for the whole stuff pearls grace a garment but it were a strange garment made of nothing but pearls much like a body made all of bones without nerves sinews ligaments flesh and skin most ugly to behold We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver Cant. 1.11 studs and borders the vesture it self is made of another peece The words of the wise are as nails Eccles 12.11 and nails finish the building other materials went before Indeed when proverbs are used as ornaments Summes and corollaries brief and happy conclusions they both leave a deeper impression in the heart and take a stronger hold on the head And this is to turn the water of humane knowledge into wine whereas they turn all our wine into water and are so wedded to the Muses that they are enemies to the Graces For they so deprive us of the food of life the Scripture without which never any soul was converted 1 Pet. 1.23 Psalm 19.7 that the sense may glut it self on their curious-pencill'd peeces while the spectatour shall be even chap-fallen for want of victuals Nor can they pretend the least reason for their so doing save Satans gain and their own glory For First as it is more painful to cast forth ones empty hand than if it be poised with some stone or other matter of weight so it is more troublesome to them and they take greater pains in contriving these fruitlesse and uselesse Sermons that have in
Among the Jews Baal had four hundred and fifty false prophets maintained sumptuously God but one true Prophet and he was forced to hide his head 1 Kings 18.22 Our Saviour was entertained by some few but his opposers the Priests and Pharisees were adored of all Matth. 27.22 though indeed their refusal of him more strongly approved him neigold of Cornucopia that it hath all things necessary for food in it of 〈…〉 ther could he be proved the Messias if they had not rejected him Paul at Ephesus could have no audience the truth must not be heard but all of all sorts cry out for Diana Acts. 19.34 Yea aul complains that all they which were in Asia turned from him 2 Tim. 1.15 and the chief Jews at Rome tell him that his Sest is every where spoken against Acts 28.22 Yea Simon Magus had so bewitched the people that they all took him for the great power of God even a Sorcerer shall have more disciples and applauders than an Apostle Acts 8.10 How then should not these silver-tongued Preachers that only study to please the ear and speak well not be more applauded than those that deliver the plain truth which makes men become their enemies Gal. 4.16 Especially when their hearers rellish no Preaching except it be full fraught with secular learning and flashes of wit For such as the pastor is such are the people Like Shepherd like sheep as the Prophet speaks Hosea 4.9 Neither go they to Church to any other end but as some Heirs goe to the Universities and Innes of Court not to get learning law or money but to learn fashion and complement being like Saint Austin before his conversion who took great delight in hearing Saint Ambrose but it was more for the eloquence of the words than for the substance of the matter Yea as himself confess'd after repentance being a young man he so affected eloquence that in vain things he heard Jupiter thundering and therewithal committed adultery Confession 2. As ignorant Lapidaries chuse stones that delight the eye and measure the value not by the hidden virtue of them but by the outward glistering so these prefer such Sermons as please the sense before others which work upon the affections and change the heart they are like little children who if they see a Corn-field over-grown with poppies a fit resemblance of such a Sermon think it very glorious and prefer it exceedingly before other Corn that is cleer from weeds Sect. 9. But to let pass the invalidity of their judgements I would fain know what they are the better for these rare Rhetorical Sermons Doth it not fare with them as it did with Ezekiels Auditors who took such delight in his Preaching that he was unto them as the pleasant voice of a Musitian and they commended him highly but yet their hearts ran after their covetousness as did Herods after his incest for all he delighted so much in Johns Preaching Ezek. 33.31 32. You shall hear them highly commend these Sermons Oh it was a rare Sermon He is an excellent man It was the best Sermon that ever I heard He is an admirable Preacher c. But ask them what they remember of such a Sermon and you shall finde admit the Sermon be Indifferently mix'd with pleasant and profitable things that such an one like a crack'd vessel poureth out of his thoughts all the good liquor and keepeth only the dregs His memory is not like the Sieve or Cullender which casteth out the chaff and water retaining the good corn and herbs but like a Searce of Lawn which keeps in the grosse things and lets the purer passe Or Secondly ask them what rare effects did it work within What wonders wrought it in thee What excellency or what goodness hast thou received or gained by it For that is to be accounted an excellent a rare a good Sermon which produceth rare effects in thee makes thee better than thou wast before and then maist thou wonder when the Preacher worketh wonders in thy soul A faithful Preacher cares not so much for thy verbal commendations as thy real Thy good conversation is his best commendation his commending stands in thine amending and thy godly practice is his best praise The sheep that saith nothing commends her Shepherd when her skin is whole her fleece fair and her self in well-liking Likewise he hears well that doth well he learns well that lives well and he only doth prove himself a good hearer which hears the truth in humility beleeves it in simplicity and obeys it with alacrity A good institution changeth both judgement and manners as it fared with Polemon a dissolute young Grecian who going one day to hear a Lecture of Xenocrates not only marked the eloquence and sufficiency of the Reader but brought home so apparent and solid fruit thereof that it caused a sudden change and amendment of his former life Whereas these hearers mark what I say and see whether I am mistaken like Pharaohs lean kine feed much but are never the fatter Perhaps they have somewhat enriched their tongues but their lives are not a whit changed For what is their religion to say the Creed is all their saith to pay what they needs must all their equity to give fair words all their bounty to take their own all their mercy to carry a formal profession all their piety to cry God mercy all their penitence and to come to Church all their conscience Yea hear they never so many of these Sermons they can go as merrily away with all kinde of prophaneness at their heels as horses with an empty Coach And when the truth of obedience and power of godliness is wanting I pray tell me what difference between an Israelite and an Ishmaelite a circumcised Hebrew and an uncircumcised Philistine a baptized English man and an unwashen Turk Yea they are so far from being Christians that they have not made one step towards Christianity The first step to Religion is to love Religion in another whereas these men generally hate scoff at and persecute the power of Religion whereever they perceive it Yea they hate that Preaching whereby alone men become Christians For let them hear a Minister that preaches profitably if they can find no fault with his Sermon at least their verdit shall be Oh he is no Scholar whereas if their opinion be askt touching any other suppose him a dumb dog that perhaps hath been tongue-tyed from his birth like Crasus his son they will tell you he is a great scholar a man of deep learning and great knowledge though he want utterance and cannot express himself nor vent his knowledge when the plain truth is he hath no knowledge to vent only these men love to justifie what God in his Word condemns and to condemn what he justifies Luc. 16.15 for if men Preach fruitlesly they are great scholars though they shew it not or if they do though these understand it not as one spake of Quintilians
these fruitlesse Preachers or indeed any others that preach not point-blank against sin and ignorance that discover not Satans wiles and the hearts deceitfulness that preach not faith and free grace that presse not to Repentance Regeneration and the like that make not the glory of God and the good of souls the main end of their preaching As why do or why should men go to hear if not for profit and comfort to their souls Good stomachs make better account of wholsome fare then of dainty cates Why but to hear the good Word of GOD that they may grow thereby and to be nourished Now nourishment is the making of food received like to the bodie nourished Therefore a wise Christian affects to hear powerful preaching searching Sermons rather then run after Rhetoricians because the rarities of humane eloquence works no such effect nor tends to any such end For Philosophie and such like may civilize but not sanctifie hide some sins but not heal them cover not cure them harb and curb them not abate and abolish them Yea we may say of their problemes as the Philosopher did of the Athenian-shops How many things are here that we have no need of Wherefore I shall conclude with an Exhortation or Advertisement to these men to use this means and to affect that food which is wholsom and would nourish O! that I might prevail with them to hear either Scripture or reason though my betters cannot for then would they finde it the happiest counsel that ever they met with Nor am I altogether out of hope for though all the water in the sea will not wash a Blackmore white yet others with Naaman may wash and be clean Nor can it be denied but an Emperick now and then hath had the hap to cure a patient which a learned Artist could not do Section 21. An Advertisement to all uncircumcised hearts and ears exhorting them to hear the Word of GOD purely and powerfully preached and not to listen after such as seek onely to please the ear with rarities of humane eloquence and the inticing words of man's wisdom IF there be any if but one even thy self that shall by what I have said be induced to judg of things according to clear truth not blinded opinion and be willing to depart from this discourse better then they came to it let him in the first place know that the onely ordinary means of grace and conversion is by hearing the word of God impartially and powerfully preached and by entertaining it with a good and honest heart for this Word and this onely is able to make a man wise to salvation As thus we may argue Without knowledge the heart cannot be good Prov. 19.2 A man may know the will of God and yet not do it but he can never do it except first he know it Whence as in the Creation of the World the first thing that God made was light Gen. 1.3 So when he makes us new creatures he first creates light in the understanding whereby the poor soul may see his spiritual misery and wretchednesse which before by reason of that vail or curtain which is drawn over every natural mans heart 2 Cor. 3.14 15 16. he is so far from discerning that with Laodicea he thinks himself rich and to want nothing when yet he is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked of all spiritual indowments Revel 3.17 1 Tim. 6. ver 4. Therefore let your principall care and ambition bee to know those things the knowledge whereof is eternall life John 17.3 And the neglect whereof is of all most the damnable John 3.19 Therefore it is said of Christ whose first coming was to save the world that hee will come the second time in flaming fire to render vengeance unto all those that know not God 2 Thes 1.6 7 8 9. A terrible text to all that are ignorant in the midst of so much means as wee injoy Which being so bee diligent above all to hear Christs faithfull messengers And not these who if they preach not wickedly in flattering or furthering of sin yet they preach unprofitably as if they were resolved to connive at sin as feeding their flocks rather with words then matter as caring onely to please not to inform forming their voice to the liking of their hearers not their hearers judgment to the voice of Christ in the Gospell and striving more to make them in love with the teacher then with the lesson Because they stand more upon their own credit then their peoples benefit 3. Or if they labour to fill the head with knowledge they leave the heart empty of grace spending their time either in curious Questions and vain speculations which kinde of preaching tends rather to mirth then godly edification as it is observable that that age of the Church which was most fertile in Nice Questions was most barren in Religion The reason is it makes people think Religion to bee onely a matter of wit as tying of knots and untying them Wherein the brains of men given this way are usually hotter then their hearts 4. Or if their preaching be more solid they rove altogether in generalities which are no more aiding to practise then an Ortelius Universall Map is to direct the way between London and York 5. Or if they descend to particulars they pass over the grounds of Religion the most usefull part of all Divinity For this laies the Foundation the other raiseth the Walls and Roof This informes the Judgment that stirs up the Affections And what good use is there of those Affections which run before the Judgment 6. Or lastly If they give you the grounds of Religion and preach wholesome truths yet they bring forth their Doctrines as some women do their children still-born for want of application without which the former seems to be no better then a fair Image or Statue which is beautifull to Contemplate but is without life and motion It being the soul of preaching when the Word is brought home to mens consciences and applied close For whereas those other Divine discourses inrich the brain and tongue This settles the heart changes the will and works upon the affections The onely way to become such indeed as men dream themselvs to bee is to trust Satan and their deceitfull hearts less and Gods Word and Mininisters more This is to become fools that they may bee wise as the Apostle adviseth 1 Cor. 3.18 Wherefore receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your soul as Saint James adviseth James 1. verse 21. And that you may not want incouragement mind but what our Saviour Christ says Joh. 13. Verily verily hee confirms it with a double asseveration I say unto you If I send any hee that receiveth him receiveth mee and hee that receiveth mee receiveth him that sent mee ver 20. Loe in entertaining the Word with an honest and good heart wee entertain both God and Christ with it Another famous